It's been a while....a personal update on life and what's been going on

Hey everyone...Wow it's been a long time since I've posted!  A lot of stuff has been happened on a personal level.

The last week in September, just a couple days after my last post I had the first of a few anxiety attacks.  It came out of the blue and for no reason at all that I can imagine.  It was a Saturday afternoon, my husband and son were at the park and I was home cleaning house.  All of a sudden I got real shaky and I swear my heart was going to pound right out of my chest.  I seriously thought I was having a heart attack.  I called my husband to come home then called 911.  The wonderful dispatcher stayed on the phone with me keeping me as calm as possible until the paramedics arrived.  When they got here, they put me inside and hooked me up to a bunch of machines.  My blood pressure was out of control - 212/180 - they told me later it was a wonder that I didn't stroke out.  They put an oxygen mask on and kept monitoring me until my husband and son arrived home.  It felt like hours, but it was only about 5 minutes or so.  The ambulance ended up taking me to the ER so  I could be put on IV meds to bring down my BP.  By this time the anxiety attack had passed and I was so weak and tired.  Once my BP was down they sent me on my way with instructions to follow up with my doctor.

I happened to be in between doctors at this time.  I never really cared for my previous doctor and didn't have the trust you need to have with someone who could quite possibly hold your life in his/her hands.  Then Sunday evening I had another anxiety attack.   Again, for no apparent reason.  I was home relaxing with my husband and son watching tv.  This time I knew what it was so I didn't freak out as badly.  The wonderful ER nurses had taught me some breathing techniques and that helped me through.  This one didn't last quite as long but left me  wondering what the heck was going on. And quite honestly, I was pissed off.  There was absolutely no reason for this to be happening.  I'm screaming at myself in my head to just knock it off, but my body just wouldn't follow through.

The next morning I began talking to the other moms at school and some friends to get a recommendation on a new doctor.  The doctor I finally chose was mentioned to me by a few people so I called and made an appointment.  No surprise when I got in to see him later that week I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and too much stress.  He put me on some meds and ordered a ton of blood tests.

This was a wake up call for me, obviously.  I was stretched far to thin, putting too much responsibility on myself.  I needed to make more time for me and less doing everything for everyone else.  I shut down my Etsy store for a while (still not open yet) put all my crafting on the back burner.  I reduced the hours I work to a normal 8 hr day (working from home, you would not believe how easy it is to slip into a pattern of 10+ hr days) I napped when I wanted to, I read books again.  It's amazing, when I was a child you couldn't pry my head away from a good book and yet it had been 6 years - the last time I read a book was on maternity leave with my son!

I ended up having one more anxiety attack after that, went back to the doctor.  He prescribed me a daily anxiety medication but it made me so sick.  I  just took it that one time and thankfully I haven't had another attack since then and I hope never again.  I do still go to the Dr. once a month for a BP check and thankfully it is under control with the meds and diet changes I have made.

So the last few months I've just spent enjoying life and my family.  I did some crafting and a lot of baking for the holidays.  If you like my FB page you can see the school treats and some of the gifts I made for my family.  I also continued the gifts from my kitchen segment over there with a few recipes.

Then, just before Christmas, my husband and I received the greatest gift of all!  We discovered we were expecting a baby!!  This was a huge surprise to us because we had been trying/waiting for 5 years and now we are blessed again.  We told our families over Christmas, but couldn't actually get in to the OB until Dec. 26th.  Unfortunately, the Dr. was out sick but the nurse tested and confirmed.  We set an appt. for Jan 3rd for our first ultrasound.  I forget how amazing that is!  To see the little peanut move and hear it's heartbeat.  Such a gift from God.  It was determined that I was already 14 wks along and our due date is June 30th.

So now, I am feeling better, I am feeling stronger and am ready to get back to some crafting!  Especially since there are baby projects to be made!  There won't be a ton of baby stuff until I hit the  20 wk mark for my next ultra sound and hopefully find out if it's a boy or girl.  And I'll be changing direction on here a bit.  Some days I may have a paper craft, maybe a sewing project, kids craft or a recipe thrown in.  And I realized I put too much pressure on myself by trying to post daily so for now I promise a weekly post.  May be more often than that, but at least once a week as I get into the swing of things again.

Thank you for being here with me and I look forward to sharing what is to come with you all!

Hugs & Kisses!!
Dawn