Marlee's Surgery

Wow, it has been 5 days since Marlee-girl had her tonsils and adenoids removed! She is finally doing a little better! Yay! Even though I was really nervous about the surgery, Im very thankful we had it done... we found out the day after her surgery that a test they did confirmed that she had terrible sleep apnea! Also, right after the surgery her doctor told us that she not only had the lymphoid tissue on her tonsils but also her adenoids! He was able to make her airway much more open! Two reasons that Im thankful we had this surgery done! Also, the worry of the tissue turning into lymphoma is now gone! This was basically the first "trial" on our journey with Marlee's neurofibromatosis. We are going to go ahead and treat her as though she defintely has it, because it is much safer that way, and it takes a blood test from a geneticist to confirm it and the fastest they can get her in is JULY!!!
Here are some cute things from her surgery journey. The first thing she did when she woke up from recovery was take a piece of paper and write " popsecle" lol. We had to wait for the throat numbing medicine to wear off then she could have her "popsecle" LOL!! I probably wouldnt have been able to spell it either if i was just out of surgery! The second thing she wrote was " I have the free credit report.com song stuck in my head" she was VERY unhappy about this!!! It was the last commercial she saw on tv as they were wheeling her into surgery! I laughed so loud when I read that and the nurses were laughing and she just got a grumpy look and shook her head no. Then she wrote " NOT FUNNY" :)
The first night was horrible... neither of us got a wink of sleep, but that is very understandable. The second night was also horrible as she developed a nasty cough, ouch!!! We ended up back at the dr on friday, he was afraid she had aspirated on blood during the surgery, but thank goodness no pneumonia! Everyones prayers worked so well! God is good! She did have a ton of swelling and irritation and she was trying so hard not to swallow she would end up gurgling and coughing. So we were able to add delsym to the lortab and she has done so much better sleeping at night. We are already seeing improvements in her sleep and she is still recovering! AMAZING!! I just can't get over how amazing our Heavenly Father is! He loves my baby girl so much! She is finally starting to eat a bit of solid food, and is still drinking well and eating her "popsecles" lol. For the most part she is doing great, but you can tell when her meds start to wear off poor baby! I just tucked her into her own bed, and she is wearing her little bed buddy ice pack, and is ready for hopefully another good night sleep! Im just thankful to be able to say we made it through this trial and now we pray and wait for Dylan to go to St Louis on the 23rd.
Thank you so much for your prayers for my beautiful daughter. I appreciate it! If anyone wants to... please pray for my handsome son for the 23rd!!!!!
Love, JL

A Post On Weight....

My friend sent me a text the other day... it was of a sign she saw at hobby lobby, and she thought of us when she saw it.. it read:
"There is a skinny girl inside of me screaming to get out... I can usually shut her up with cookies"
How awesome is that???? A little background on me. I was always really petite, and when I turned 13, an innocent comment from a boy down the street made me realize, maybe im not as petite as i thought!! With other huge trials going on in my life, a sick mom a sick grandma, and having to care for them, I needed some control in my life. I could control what I ate. At this time I also was getting into animal rights and activism. What better way to begin to control my weight by becoming vegetarian! It was a win-win situation! Well, as I went along in my life, at age 13 and on, my weight got lower and lower, I ate less and less, and felt pretty dang good about myself! I started getting compliments like " you are sooo skinny!" to me that was an amazing compliment! It became more and more a part of my life, this "weight" journey and by the time I was 17 I weighed about 80 lbs. I thought I looked amazing. Well, I kind of looked like a skinny lollipop, with a big head. i was in the throes of a very serious eating disorder. An eating disorder that didn't end until I got married and my dear husband said to me, you are so beautiful, no matter what weight. Then I couldn't get pregnant. The doctor said, gain about 20 lbs. I was up to about 100 lbs by then already, and I couldn't FATHOM going over the 100 mark. But I wanted a baby!! So I ate. and ate. and ate. I gained exactly 20 lbs and boom! I was pregnant! Then I got to really eat whatever I wanted because I was pregnant! Then after I had Dylan, I got pregnant again! And I ate whatever I wanted AGAIN!!! Then after Marlee was born, i lost some weight, just from chasing two babies under the age of 2 around. Then I got pregnant again. With twins. I lost one of the babies, and for awhile we didnt think that the other baby was going to make it either. So I ate. and was depressed. Then 9 months later I had a beautiful baby girl. And I ate. Then I got sick. I was diagnosed with early onset parkinsons disease, fibromyalgia and depression. The medicines helped me to walk, but also helped me to gain even more weight!!! At the last count, I am pushing over 200 lbs!!!! YOWZA!!!! So.... I decided that I was going to get moving more, eat clean and better, and be a good example to my kids. But I have to tell you, I have lived my life in fear almost, that someone was going to "see" me in this condition, ya know. FAT.
When my friend sent me that text and I saw that sign I laughed. Hard. I then realized that I wasnt the only person in this entire world who was overweight. So I then decided that I was going to let people see me. I was going to stop living like a little hermit and get out and be ME!!!! Me is a fun person you see. I am loud and giggly and energetic and fun!!!! Of course, I havent been that person lately. I have been living my life worried about what others would think of me. So.. I am going to exercise, eat awesome, and be healthy. If I lose weight awesome! But Im not going to let it become who I am . Im going to be me. But hopefully a healthier me. I wanted to write this post, so that everyone knew, yup, im fat. But im also super fun!!! So to all the girls out there who are feeling down about your weight, dont. Remember you are not the only one and Heavenly Father loves you no matter what! Be healthy with me!!! Im going to start keeping a blog about what I eat, how i move my body each day and most importantly, how i FEEL!!!! If you wanna come along for the ride, let me know!!! :) With Love, Jaelle

Marlee's honking tonsils...

Marlee is having her tonsils removed on wednesday... they are full of lymphoid tissue that has built up and since he cant promise that it wont turn into lymphoma and because of her difficulty in eating and sleeping, we are gonna yank those suckers out!!! Please continue to pray for her... sounds like we will be having a long road ahead of us for Marlee... this is just the beginning, but we have lots of people praying and she is soooo worth it!!!!! we love her so much and we are thankful that she has lots of doctors who are being cautious and taking good care of her!!!!! Love, JL

Emergency Fast for Marlee...

Asking for prayers.... EMERGENCY FAST... if you can get ahold of anyone in your ward... please pass this around... We are holding an emergency fast for Marlee.. she goes tonight to the ent and its quite scary... please either pray or pass around the news and fast until tonight... i will update everyone tonight as soon ...as i know more... it will be late though. Thanks sooo much!! Please pass this around!!!

My blog is www.momtothreebabies.blogspot.com and it has more info.....

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Update: They thought marlee had mono.... but her blood results have come back negative and there are some other things going on... the ent is seeing her in an emergency status... we have no idea what is going on.. with the possibility of her having neurofibromatosis, we are terrified because tumors are such a big part of NF. Please pass this around and pray for my baby. I love her so much.

Will the tonsils come out???

Here is the big update for today.... Marlee is headed to her favorite Dr-- Dr Knorr, she LOVES him, and we will see if today is the day for those big ole honkin tonsils to come out!!!!! She has struggled for almost 6 months now, four rounds of antibiotics, shots and more, and they are still SOOO big and swollen she cant hardly eat ( we are talking applesauce, sherbert, and yogurt. yum.) and now when she tries to lay down to sleep, she gags all night and cant sleep. Oh yeah The joys of being a momma to a gaggy child. Poor baby. Another little update... the doctor is struggling to get her into a geneticist.. so she is working hard and calling all around and faxing letters right and left, working hard for my marlee girl! A big shoutout to Dr susan meidl and Dr David Knorr! We love you both!! The nurses have been awesome about calling us and updating, and so we wait. We know that it is all going to be in HEavenly Fathers time, and that He will take care of it. So for now, we get those big ole tonsils out and let the girl eat and sleep!!!!!! Im thinking lots of ice cream, a bubble bath, movies... oh yeah, and maybe i will share with marlee :) hehe

Guess What I Found!!

So, the way our house is set up, is our laundry room is right off the playroom. The Playroom is connected to the living room and the thigh bone is connected to the knee bone, etc....
We put our christmas tree in the playroom this year so Roxie the big hippo dog wouldnt attack it. We loved it in the playroom! It was so cute and magical and fit into the little corner by the laundry room just right!
Well, the door to the laundry room usually stays open. I like the way laundry detergent smells and if you leave the door open, the smell floats through the house.. ahhhh....
Anywho, if you leave the door to the laundry room open, it blocks the corner where the christmas tree is.... you can kind of see where Im going with this cant you???
I closed the laundry room door last night and guess what I found! Yup. The christmas tree!!!! Oooppps!!!! So it must go down today. Tears falling on my cheeks. It is January 25th I guess it is time. Oh, and if you are wondering, i confess... i absolutely plugged the tree in last night. i had to one more time!!!!!
HAHAHAHAHA :)

The Joy of Childhood....

Conversation between Dylan and his nana...
Dylan--"nana, i have a secret."
Nana--"ok, spill it"
Dylan--" I hide under my blankets with a flashlight and read harry potter when Im supposed to be sleeping."
Nana--"Thats ok , your momma used to do the same thing."
Dylan--"its ok though, I still get the full recommended 8 hours of sleep."
Nana- (trying not to laugh) " very good dylan."

ps-- His aunt cait later confessed that at age 24, she had done the same thing ( hid under the blankets with a flashlight and read harry potter.)

Ahh, the joys of childhood. Thank you God for these memories.