James, more pics

James Allen Tanner

Baby Shower, Easter Dress, and Ultrasound

Yesterday my really good friends Diana, Melissia, and Laura threw me a baby shower. It was a lot of fun! Diana and Melissia did all of the food and it was yummy. I should have taken pictures, but Melissia was being the photographer. Maybe I will get some pictures from her soon. My friend Laura did the invitations and put together some really cute and fun games for everybody to play. I will have to remember them for when I have to give a shower for somebody. Everybody really enjoyed the games and the prizes :) They all three did a fantastic job on the shower. I felt so honored!

It was a lot of fun to just have girls together to chat and eat. We also got some great gifts! Diana and Melissia, along with a few other people, went in together and got us a double stroller! I am so excited and think it will be much easier to get the kids out with this. Our carseat is the same brand, so it snaps right into the stroller, which will be convenient when James is asleep. Then I won't have to wake him up to move him to the stroller. We got lots of cute boy jammies, onesies, bibs, etc. It was a ton of fun to open all of that little boy stuff! Lots of blue :)

Avery was really excited about the double stroller. She wanted to get in it right away. Al put it together when I got home and Avery climbed in the front seat. Then, since there was a snack tray, she wanted to eat her lunch in it as well. She says she is excited to share the stroller with James.

Here are a few quick pictures of Avery in her Easter dress. She looked so pretty today! The back of the dress is really darling too. It dips down into a V and has a big bow in the back. The pictures aren't the best...we are always in such a hurry with 9:00 church! She insisted on making a fish face for the first several pics, and then we were out of time so we quickly snapped a few more and then headed out.

Tuesday I had my ultrasound where they really check everything out and do all of the measurements, etc. It took quite a while to get it all done. They gave us a CD with pictures on it afterwards. And yes, James is a big boy! They estimated that he is already 7 lbs.! But there is also a margin of error of 14 oz, so we'll see how accurate it all is when he's born. It is funny to me that he is already bigger than Avery when she was born though. If the ultrasound is accurate, then I'm guessing James will be born in the 8 1/2 pound range. If I went the full 40 weeks he'd probably be over 9 lbs!

The Easter Bunny Came

Avery was excited to wake up Easter morning and see if the Easter bunny had hidden any eggs for her to find. She was also anxious to see if she had any 'marshmallow birdies' and chocolate in her basket.

The Easter bunny got a fabulous deal on a Webkinz and so he brought that too. Avery loved Grandma Louona's so much. When we explained to her that her turtle played games like Grandma Louona's panda bear Avery got a huge smile on her face. We've spent much of the morning getting 'Pokey' the turtle all set up in a house, trying to earn money to buy more things. I think Al likes it as much as Avery does ;) Avery was really anxious for Pokey to use the 'potty' just like Grandma's panda does.

Before we became glued to the laptop with Webkinz, Avery found all of her Easter eggs that were hidden around the family room. It was too cold here to hide them outside. Al had to help lift her up to get the egg on top of the TV cabinet.

I think Avery had a pretty good Easter this year. Three weeks ago (because of General conference, and then Stake conference) they had the resurrection lesson in Nursery. I was surprised at how much Avery comprehended, and also how much detail they went into...yikes...it was a little heavy for 2 and 3 year olds! We asked Avery about her lesson and she said that, "Jesus got owies on his hands, then he died and they put him in a cave. Then they covered him up with a big rock." Al said, "And then what happened?" And Avery said, "Then he came back! He came out of the cave! And one day I'm going to die too." After that last part Al and I looked at each other with kind of a ?!? look on our faces. It was a little disconcerting to hear our barely 3 year old say something like that...but I guess it's part of everything. She even brought home a cut-out they had made of a cave, with an opening. Then there was a picture of Jesus that you could put in the cave, and a cut-out of a rock that you put on top of the opening to the cave. We got the demonstration several times.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

So...these pictures are just one week late :)

Last Friday night we dyed Easter eggs. We all had a lot of fun. At first we started off with the 5 original colors of dye they gave us, then towards the end we started mixing them to see what colors we could make. We came up with some pretty great, bright colors I think. Al decided that he and Avery needed to complete the activity by eating chocolate marshmallow eggs. Avery inherited the love for marshmallows from Al.

Three Weeks!!

I added a picture from today's ultrasound. I wish it would have come out more clear, but oh well. As you can tell, James was asleep during the ultrasound. It is just a close-up of his face. Can you see the big, chubby cheek? The other one is shadowed.




I guess I haven't updated in a while. But I think most people who read this know about the Cholestasis diagnosis. I had the same thing with Avery. Because of the diagnosis the baby is being delivered 3 weeks early. We got everything scheduled and James' new arrival day is Friday, May 1st!! That's only 3 weeks from today! We are super excited. I guess it's time to start getting everything ready...

The testing is going well. I go in every day to the hospital but Thursday, for check-ups and testing. My liver enzymes/bile acid levels were up as of last testing, but they should be much lower next time. I've been on the meds for almost 2 weeks and they really make a difference. The only thing they don't fix is the extreme fatigue :( But all of my other symptoms have been alleviated.

They've been doing ultrasounds with every Non-Stress-Test, so we are working up quite a collection of pictures. James has been passing the tests with flying colors, which is a lot less stressful than when it was with Avery. In fact last time he was moving around so much they had to keep me longer on the NST because they couldn't get a baseline heart rate. My heart rate is still slightly elevated, but they are just keeping a close eye on that as well.

Tuesday is the ultrasound where they do all of the measurements and kind of guesstimate about James' size. I think he is a big boy. He is already a chub, and I keep measuring big. Avery and Al are coming to that ultrasound, so that will be fun.

It is weird how this is all working out. I have mixed feelings about the cholestasis this time. As hard as it is at times, it's been a blessing in a big way. We found out that we have to move to Houston the first week of June, and I don't think I would have been able to do that just two weeks after surgery and having a baby. With this illness and the new delivery date it gives me a month to recover before hitting the road.