Bugs in My Legs

Last night while eating dinner, Cayden broke into tears, and appeared to be scared and in pain at the same time.  We tried to calm him down enough to understand him, and all we could make out was "bugs in my legs."  After holding him and trying to figure out what was wrong, he just kept saying that his foot hurt and that he had bugs in his legs.  He even said they were purple and yellow bugs.  We finally figured out that his foot had fallen asleep because of the way he was sitting in his chair.  We had quite a laugh, and got rid of the bugs by running up and down the hallway to shake the bugs out.     

We're Home!

I must first mention how FABULOUS our pediatrician was through all of this!  He met us at the ER, stayed the entire night with us (through all the tests, paperwork, etc.), attended the surgery, explained everything very well, helped us get to our new room (which he pulled some strings to get - we were with the newborns even though she is almost 1 because he thought she would receive better care!), and checked back often.  He left briefly between 3 and 6 am on Sunday morning, but only because he had to be at a delivery.  With all of our surgery/hospital experience, I have to say, this was the best.  He was great!

When Dr. David came in to check on Allison this morning, she was standing in the crib, rattling the metal railing, babbling, and trying to pull off all of her wires, and of course setting off the alarms in the process.  He said, "When a kid is pulling off their own wires, and demanding food, I think it is time to go home!"  Yippeee!!  I was a little nervous, since they said 3 days in the hospital was standard for this procedure, but also a little relieved since she wanted to get up, out, and crawl around - which was not really possibly in a room full of newborns.  I was not very optimistic about leaving immediately when he said this, as I have checked out of hospitals many times now, and know the amount of paperwork, sign-offs, discharge instructions, etc. that go along with leaving.  It has taken us 8 hours before to get everything ready to actually walk out the door.  I am not sure how it happened (probably the awesome pediatrician) but we left the hospital about 9am, stocked with formula, diapers, wipes, lotion, new thermometer, etc. This is one of the few perks to a hospital stay - they always load us up with so much free stuff when we leave!

Allison's bowels are definitely working - she blew out of her diaper on the way home.  I cannot complain, I guess it means everything is working properly.  :)  She is now napping, so happy to be in her own bed.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and help with Conner & Cayden!

I took this just after she succeeded in ripping off all of her wires/monitors.  She was so proud of herself, and definitely back to the Allison we know!

About to rip some equipment off the wall....do not worry, I stopped her.

Allison's Trip to the ER

After my last post about Allison not wanting to sit still, it was very strange to see her the very next morning SITTING STILL!  In fact, at one point on Thursday, she fell asleep standing at the couch with her head resting on the cushions.  I knew something was wrong.  However, I thought she just had the flu.  Thursday and Friday went by and I thought she was getting better.  She hadn't thrown up since Friday morning, and slept fairly good Friday night.  Saturday morning, however, things began to go down hill.  She couldn't keep anything down, and  by 3:30 was throwing up bile.  I called our pediatrician, and he said he would meet us at the ER.  Unfortunately, just as we arrived at the ER, three ambulances also arrived, and her symptoms were obviously not as serious as those who arrived in them.  So, we waited in the ER for two hours.  During these two hours, she began to have bloody diapers, and appeared to be in more pain than I felt normal for the flu.  We finally got a room, the pediatrician came in, and the rest was a blur.  She had ultrasounds, an IV (it took 1 and a half hours to get one in her!?!?), x-rays, a barium enema with video x-ray (2 hours long with mom holding her to the table!), and many blood tests.  At 11:30 pm the doctors decided we needed to do surgery, and we needed to do it fast.  Allison was diagnosed with intussusception.  

Intussusception occurs when one portion of the bowel slides into the next, much like the pieces of a telescope. When this occurs, it creates an obstruction in the bowel, with the walls of the intestines pressing against one another. This, in turn, leads to swelling, inflammation, and decreased blood flow to the intestines involved.  The longer it continues, the higher the risks become, and the possibility of losing some of the intestines increases. 

Within 30 minutes, I had signed all the papers, the anesthesiologist had been paged and arrived, and Allison was in surgery.   I called Keir (who had left at 8ish to put the boys in bed), and he came back (leaving Conner & Cayden with Brenda - Thanks, Brenda!!!!), and waited with me in the surgery waiting room.  This was the first moment we had to sit and actually think about all that had happened in the last 10 hours.  I cried.  Every time one of our children has to go through something like this, I wish I could do it for them.  And, as circumstance would have it, we have three children, and have had major surgery/general anesthesia experiences with them SIX times!  My poor kids!  Anyway . . . .

They told us the surgery would be about 30 minutes, so of course, at 31 minutes, Keir and I began to get nervous.  Luckily, it was just a couple more minutes when they came to get us, and told us everything went well, and they even took out her appendix - which given our track record, was great, since chances are we would have had to come back for that surgery at some point.  The surgeon was able to pull/massage/push her intestines apart, and back where they belong, AND they were healthy (although swollen, and irritated), meaning they did not have to cut out a section of her intestines.  Great News!!

In the recovery room about 1am.  They let me climb in bed with her.

When she woke up from the general anesthesia, and was put on morphine, she was definitely not herself.  It was hard to watch her.  She would scream, thrash around, kick, and then crash and fall sleep (pictured above in one of her sleep moments), only to start screaming and thrashing again in a couple minutes.  This lasted until about noon on Sunday - almost 12 hours of this.  She eventually damaged her IV line with all the kicking and thrashing, which was horrible given how long it took to get in the first time.  Luckily, her doctor agreed to try oral meds and fluids before trying to stick her again.  I am not sure if it was the IV being taken out, the new meds, or her first bottle (pedialite) in quite a while - but she took a 2 hour nap Sunday afternoon, and is beginning to act a little more like herself.  She drank pedialite all day, and did so well, we were able to try formula this evening.  She has kept it all down, which is actually surprising - they kind of expected her to vomit a little.  She is doing great.  She is currently sound asleep, and I am now going to get some rest as well.  Maybe if she continues to do so well, we can go home soon?

Not Enough Time in The Day

Apparently, there are not enough hours in the day for Allison to relax and drink her bottle.  She will NOT just lay down and drink it.  She MUST be doing something else at the same time. She is taking after her mom and learning to multi-task early.  Today, she was especially daring and was jumping on the trampoline while drinking her milk.

Here, she even propped the bottle on the handle, so she could hold on and jump (and drink) at the same time.  I think she knew she was doing something funny by the little smile behind the bottle.

This is especially clever since she has been drinking bottles for less than a month.  (Now you see one of my reasons for no longer nursing her! She wouldn't sit still!!)

Happy Valentines Day

Allison woke up very happy, clutching her new little horse from Grammie Foulk.  

Thanks Grammie!

Keir made a special Valentines breakfast.

Allie Grace ate her first pancake, and loved it!

Conner and Cayden were so excited about their heart shaped pancakes, with chocolate chips, that they did not want to cut them or put syrup on them.  They also are carrying around their new little animals from the Valentine package Grammie sent.

Getting sleepy. . . 

Notice her hair, she always has the perfect mohawk!

I opened a card from Keir this morning, read it to the boys, and told them that daddy got flowers and a card for mom.  Conner paused, looked at me and said, "mom, what do you say?"  He was teaching me some manners, and made sure I said "thank you" for my card.  Kids are too funny!  We could all learn so much from them.  (. . . not that I wasn't going to say thank you!)

I love you Keir!  Thanks for a fabulous morning!

Remodel Complete

I've received several requests for pictures of the completed work we've done to our home, and the delay was due to the fact that we weren't actually finished until this past weekend.  (. . . and, in all honesty, there are still a few things that need to be finished, but you cannot tell in the pictures.)  Here we go... I am going to post a few "before" pictures so you can really understand the difference. 

Guest bath (No, this is not our cute fish shower curtain - these are pics from before we bought the house.)

Master Bath

Master Shower/Vanity

Kitchen

Okay, now for the "after" pictures...

Master Shower - done with travertine, added a bench, and made larger than the original shower. 

Master vanity - refinished cabinet, and new marble countertop

Master Bath - travertine, larger tub deck, and taller backsplash (very important with splashy kids!)

Master bath up close

Niches in master shower - one of my favorite things, no more plastic shelf, or shampoo bottles on the ground!!  

Master Bath floor

Stairs - new hardwood

Kitchen - New upper cabinets, and refinished existing cabinets.  All this new storage sort of makes up for the walk in pantry we could not figure out how to fit in our kitchen.

Living Room - new crown moulding, hardwood floor, baseboard, and of course curtains, rug, and furniture.

Landing at the top of the stairs - new hardwood

Guest Bath - new bench and shampoo niche in shower, new floor, all in travertine and pebbles (your feet get a massage!)

Guest Bath Vanity - refinished cabinet, new granite countertop

Other things we did (I will spare you more pictures!) include refinishing the playroom bookshelves, refinishing the linen cabinet, refinishing the boys bathroom cabinets, refinishing the back hall cabinets.  We still need to replace the carpet upstairs, and do some touch up painting.  Whew, if you are still with me on this long post, then I bet you've gone through a remodel before...nothing like it, but I am so happy with everything!!

Young Photographers

Conner and Cayden learned how to use dad's camera on our trip to Denver.  Here are some of their pictures.  There were hundreds, and it was wonderful to just let them have fun and learn without worrying about wasting film!  I love digital!

I am not really sure if this picture was taken by mistake while Cayden was holding the camera on his lap - but it is one of my favorites.  I like to think he was taking an artsy picture of his new favorite shoes. Cayden calls them his "Uncle Jerm Shoes" because Jeremy has a pair just like it.

Cayden's favorite thing in the whole world - MILK!  He would live on milk alone if I let him.

I think Keir was helping on this picture - you need to be fast to catch Allison.  (Yes, she is eating Cayden's sock from inside the night stand.  Yuck!)

Our kids think hotels are so exciting, and fight over who gets to sleep with dad.  Lucky Dad!  (Or, LUCKY ME, since we only had double beds this time, and Dad agreed they could both sleep with him!)

Allison thought her bed was fun for about two seconds.

Chuck E. Cheese

Conner's only request after his audiology appointment was to go to Chuck E. Cheese.  How could we say no?  They had a great time!

Allison hung out in the booth eating pizza crust most of the evening.

Super Ears Check-Up

We left for Denver Friday morning to go to a check up on Conner's "Super Ears" at Children's Hospital and had a great weekend.  Conner was such a trooper, and had a great appointment. Since he is still growing - as a 5 year old should, he needs new ear molds every three - four months.  (When he grows, the molds do not fit as tight, and if they are not a good fit they will ring with feedback in his ears.) This appointment was the year mark for our first hearing test, and we were given some great news. Some children have progressive hearing loss, and can be completely deaf by the time they are teenagers.  One way to know if this is the case is to compare hearing tests over a long period of time.  So far, Conner's hearing is testing about the same as this time last year - which means he most likely does not have progressive hearing loss - we were so excited to hear this!  He picked out new ear molds - blue and white swirls.  When they arrive we will be sure to take some pictures.

More Sledding & Skiing

Keir put skis on Cayden last week for the first time, and although he spent more time laying in the snow, he had a great time.

We also put Allison in the sled for the first time, and the boys loved pulling her around

Allison Cruising

Allison is very busy these days cruising around the house.  She is very good at standing up and walking along the furniture, but is not quite ready to let go.  I will try to get some video. . . 

We think she is the cutest ever!