Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Mary Sato Yamashita, my grandmother

On June 26th, I received the news that my grandma Yamashita had been diagnosed with liver cancer and had no more than three weeks to live. Because I had just had to quit my job, this gave me plenty of free time to be able to travel down to see my grandma before she passed away. It was hard to say goodbye to my husband for a couple of weeks, but it was good to have that time with my grandma.

I traveled down with my brother and his family, who were moving to Las Vegas. I was able to spend the weekend with my sister and all of the family that came in to see my grandma. I just have to say that my family is amazing. My grandparents had four children, sixteen grandchildren, and 32 great-grandchildren with two more on the way. Every single grandchild made it to see my grandma before she passed away. From Utah all the way to Florida. It was amazing to see this legacy come to life. When we first got to the hospital, my grandma was tired, but doing okay. She had accepted that she was going to pass away and was ready. That Sunday, we squeezed all of the family that was there at the time and helped my grandma to receive the sacrament one more time. We sang some hymns, took the sacrament, and listened to my grandma's testimony. What an amazing woman and what a spiritual time. I will always cherish that time with my grandma. She gave great advice. Here is my favorite.

My brother, sister-in-law, nephew, sister and I were in with my grandma. She started to tell us about an article that she found...on Facebook. It said to never yell at your children; always whisper. Then she got really quiet and kind of leaned forward and said, "It scares them more." It was great!

I said my final goodbye to my grandma on that Monday and traveled down to Las Vegas to stay with my mom. My grandma passed away peacefully on Saturday, July 6th at the home of my aunt and uncle, surrounded by family. The following weekend was supposed to be our K. Yamashita reunion. It became not only the reunion, but also the weekend to put my grandma to rest. My dad rented our family a condo in St. George and we were able to stay all together. It was a hard weekend, but it was great to be with family. The legacy will continue forward with this family because we are a Christ-centered family. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of eternal families and that I will be with my grandparents again. I am grateful that my grandma is able to be reunited with my grandpa and my other grandma, who was her best friend. She was definitely ready. I love you so much, Grandma, and love that you are able to take care of my baby before I am able.


Catch-Up: Weeks 17-33!

So it's official. I am horrible with a blog. It has been about 16 weeks since I last posted on here. Sorry! Anyways, a lot has happened during this time. A lot of life changes that were hard to come too, but we know we made the best decisions for us. Let me start at the beginning.

I had another ultrasound with the perinatologist around 20 weeks to measure the fibroid and to see how it was doing. Right before this appointment, I had some pain start up. It would kind of come and go about everything third day, but at the ultrasound, everything seemed good. The fibroid hadn't grown too much and the baby was still growing well. So I wasn't too worried. But then the pain started getting worse.

About two and a half weeks later, I had some really bad pain while at work. I came home and went to lie down. Usually if I lay down, it would help the pain decrease, but it didn't help this time. I was soon in tears and Emmett was on the phone with my doctor. Within 30 minutes, I was in the hospital in Labor and Delivery to get monitored. After being there for about seven hours, it was discovered that the pain was coming from the fibroid. At the 20-week ultrasound, the fibroid was about 10 cms big. Now, two and a half weeks later, it was up to 16 cms. It had almost doubled in the two weeks. The doctors weren't sure what caused it to grow so much, but it was definitely causing the pain, but to make it less, the doctors were suggesting that I quit work. So I was sent home for bed rest for the weekend and the scary thought that I might have to quit working.

I went back to work on Monday and suffered through the pain until Wednesday. Then on Wednesday, thhe pain got to be too much and I had to leave work early, but it caused a little more attention than I wanted. Anyways, during all of this, the nursing staff took my vitals to make sure I was doing okay. My blood pressure ended up being very high. So I had to go into my doctor to get that checked out, but it wouldn't go down. So, I found myself back in the hospital, a week from when I had gone in before. Emmett was at work, so luckily, my sister-in-law took me in. I was there for about five hours this time. It was discovered that my blood pressure was going skyhigh because of the pain. So, it was decided that I needed bed rest for at least a week and my doctor would discuss with the specialist, whether or not I should quit work. It was soon decided that in order to keep my blood pressure down and keep the kid safe, I needed to quit my job.

So, I found myself in the world of the unemployed. Emmett and I were a little unsure of how we were going to survive, but with the help and support of loving family and friends, we have figured things out and are getting along, but this summer has definitely not been stress-free as much as I was supposed to be staying away from stress.

The week after I had to quit my job, I received the news that my last surviving grandparent, my grandma Mary, had been diagnosed with liver cancer and had three weeks at the most to live. Because I no longer had a job, this gave me the opportunity to travel down to the Las Vegas area and say goodbye to my grandma and then be with my family until the funeral. I will write more on this adventure in another post.

After Las Vegas, Emmett and I came back up and moved into our new apartment. It's much spacier than our old apartment, has two bedrooms and is cheaper. All in all, much better. So now life is just lying around, trying to stay out of pain, trying to relieve pain and trying to not die of boredom. I have taken up knitting and am about 2/3 of the way done with my first baby blanket! I love it so far. I've been living off of Netflix, Hulu, Redbox, knitting, satellite, e-books, and Internet. I am slowly running out of things to watch. If anyone has any great suggestions, please let me know!

Anyways, I had a doctor's appointment today and one thing discussed was inducing me a little early because of the pain. So, my doctor is going to talk with the specialists and another associate, but it has been thrown out on the table to induce me around 38 weeks. So that means, I could have my kid in about five weeks! Wow! There is so much I need to do before then. Better get crackin'! Love you all!

How far along? 33 weeks on Thursday

How big is baby? One app says he is about 19 inches and 4.5 lbs

Total weight gain/loss: I lost about 20 lbs, but have finally started gaining some weight. So now my weight loss is at about 16 lbs.

Maternity clothes? Of course. Wouldn't be able to survive without them.

Sleep: Ugh, the third trimester insomnia is hitting! Sleep has been very hard to come by lately. It's killing me.

Best moment this week: Hearing that we might be able to meet our baby in about five weeks!

Movement: Like crazy! I sat and watched as my stomach moved from one side to the other a few days ago.

Food cravings: Weirdly, Gushers and actually carrots and ranch sounds really good lately.

Food Aversions: Eh not too much. Greasy food still doesn't sound too great, but nothing huge.

Gender: Boy!

Labor Signs: Been feeling some Braxton Hicks contractions. Other than that, not so much.

Pregnancy Symptoms:  Same as last time, extremely tired, heartburn, lots of bathroom breaks, leg cramps.
 
Belly Button in or out? I'm actually still an innie. Woohoo!

What I miss: Being able to sleep on my stomach, eating Jimmy Johns and not having heartburn when just drinking water
 
What I am looking forward to: Getting and buying all of the baby stuff!

Milestones: Setting up the crib and finally looking pregnant