Just for the record

Colin woke up sick this morning. Super stuffy green nose. He got up at 7:30 and went back to bed at 8:30. Poor boy. :-(

Day 10

Today is the end of day 10 of Colin being happy and healthy. I'm worried that today is the end since we sent one kid home sick today from daycare and another had a super gross nose. It has been a wonderful 10 days of him being happy, enjoying life and wanting to play instead of being held all day. I keep wishing I could freeze time, because I know that he is going to get sick again.
  I really hate thinking so negatively about it, but I think in some ways I'm just being realistic. The poor boy hasn't had more than a week of being healthy since April of 2011. He always has a runny nose, a cough or some other bug that is going around. So by enjoying the now but knowing what is to come I think is the best for me.
  The best part is if it never comes I won't be disappointed. I will just cherish what we had for the past 10 days!

Playing with the kids

Chris and I have always been big on having a family dinner and then playing with the kid/kids after dinner. Even before we had kids we would sit at the table and have dinner together the two of us when our schedules allowed. Then once Alyssa came we made sure that if we were all home we would eat as a family at the table with the TV off.
  Now it is the norm. I can only think of a handful of times in the last three years that the TV has been on or everyone has been home but dinner not eaten as a family.
   After dinner has always been the same as well. We could clean up dinner and then play with the kids.(Now before kids we would go watch TV.
   Right now playing with them is so much fun though because they can both respond and interact. Tonight we set up big puzzle pieces in the front room and were playing hopscotch, troll and bridge and any other wacky thing we could think of. The kids were laughing, running, jumping and having a great time. Chris and I were also getting a small workout in by jumping with them in our arms, flying them on our legs and chasing them.
   Colin was probably the cutest trying to jump. He would bounce up and down without his feet leaving the ground going "h H H H h". He was trying to say "hop" like the rest of us were. When I was holding him and jumping if I stopped he would bounce up and down on me until I started jumping again. As soon as I started jumping he would start laughing.
   Alyssa is getting creative and using more and more of her imagination. It is fun to hear and see what she comes up with.
  I so enjoy our nights of play.

Swim

Today was the first day back at swim for the kids after a five week Christmas break. This also meant big changes to our swim. Today Alyssa started in the big girl class. That means no more mommy and daddy in the pool with her.
So she sat on the edge and watched Colin swim with Chris and I. This made her a little upset and she was mad at us for part of the time. But it was nice to be able to devote all of our time to Colin for once. He has always had to share our time with Alyssa. He did really well and was swimming under the water to Chris and I and enjoying chasing after a ball in the water. He even is getting closer to jumping off the side by himself.
Then it was time for Alyssa to swim. She went and sat really good for listening to the rules and then the instructor(Ms. Cathy) said if I call your name go over to the diving board. Chris and I looked at each other and figured Alyssa wouldn't start out in the class since this was her first time ever without us.
Well Ms. Cathy didn't call her name until all the kids starting walking to the other end of the pool, then she grabbed Alyssa and sent her to the diving board.
   Alyssa did a fantastic job, she didn't cry, whine or fuss. She listened to Ms. Cathy and Tyler really well and even when they put her on her back and made her swim across the pool she did it without crying. (Any time we put her on her back she fought us and would cry).
   I was amazed she went straight to the advanced class but also a little proud. She was so proud of herself and had a smile on her face the whole time. I think this is what she really needed for swim.
Now Mommy and Daddy just have to figure out how to be okay with her growing up so fast!

Colin

Since Colin woke up Saturday morning he has been one happy, loving little boy. That means he has had four good days in a row. I can't even remember the last time he has had four good days in a row. Usually after one or two he is sick again. This medicine has really seemed to kick out the eye infection and whatever bug was bothering him.
It is SO nice to see my son happy and enjoying life, instead of sitting in my lap just watching the other play. I almost miss him a little in my arms, but I will GLADLY take his happy and running around any day over the clingy grouchy baby I have had.

Alyssa has also been 98% healthy for the last 4 days. It has made for some awesome family time over the weekend and a nice start to the week. It is nice to see both my kids happy and healthy at the same time for once. I can't remember the last time they were both healthy together at the same time either.

Admission #2

(Thursday Morning)

The last post on Wednesday night I was hoping his eye would get better. He woke up Thursday morning with his eye worse than it was on Wen. So we went to the doctor and she gave him two more shots. She also told me that if he got a fever of 101 or higher or his eye got worse I was to take him straight to children's hospital.

Colin got up from nap about 2:45 on Thursday and his eye was worse but no fever. I called the doctors office and of course she had left for the day so the nurse repeated what the doctor had said. In fact her words were "She said if it got worse or he ran a fever to go to the hospital. My advice would be to pack your bags and drive over there because I don't think you are coming home tonight."
 
By the time all this had happened it was 3:30 and it had been snowing off and on all day so the roads were icy and I knew that it would take me probably close to 2 hours to get to the hospital because I would hit all the people leaving work early. So I decided that we would stay home, eat dinner, give Colin a bath and then head to the hospital.

We left for the hospital at 6pm. Chris drove his car and stopped at his parents and dropped Alyssa off for a sleepover. I started off for the hospital. I checked in at 7:15. On the way to the hospital I called the after hours nurse line and asked that they paged Dr. Lindsay to let her know we were going to the hospital. They did and she called me back and told me that she called and personally talked to one of the doctors on the ER staff.

By 9pm they decided to admit him. And at about 10:30 we were taken up to our room. We were on the same floor that we were on the first time Colin was sick just a few rooms down. We were once again on isolation because his RSV swab hadn't come back and he had an unidentified infection in his eye.

That night I was not even able to start to put Colin to sleep until a little after midnight. He finally fell asleep about 12:30, I crawled on to the couch soon after that, but the couch is right under the window and it was SOO cold I couldn't sleep. I kept waking up cold and trying to warm up.
At 4 the came in to do Colin's vitals and he was so cold that his temp didn't register on the thermometer thing they use. So she brought me some blankets to wrap him in. He refused to go back in his crib after the vitals and since he and I were so cold I sat up in a rocking chair holding him from 4 to 6:30. Finally at 6:30 I could not handle the pain in my legs and butt from holding and sitting funny in the rocking chair. It was also the time his IV medicine ended and the machine was beeping so when he started to wake up I let him.

(Friday Morning)

We saw 3 doctors Friday morning and to each I explained that he had a doctor's appointment with a dermatologist at 1:30 in that hospital. One told me to cancel it but the other two said they thought they would be able to release us in time to go to it. They told me they would discuss it at rounds.

The rounds got to our room about 8:30 (rounds means a group of about 15 people some doctors, some pharmacist, some specialist and some interns. An inter presents the case to the whole group, says what they think and then the senior doctor says what they think, anyone else can chime in and then the plan is given. They decided that since Colin's eye had made a HUGE improvement and his RSV swab had come back negative that they wanted to do one more dose of IV medicine and he could be released. The medicine were to be given at 1:15 and took an hour. I once again explained his doctors appointment. So they pushed his medicine to noon.

We got released from the hospital at 1:15 and were able to make it to his dermatology appointment at 1:45 (who said he is just having a reaction to his inhaled steroid).

Today he is SOOO much better he is back to being a normal happy baby that he was a week ago. He is on the medicine for 7 days and we have to give it every 8 hours around the clock which means a 2am wake up to give meds, but I will take it to be home from the hospital.




On a side note we would have paid off his medical bills this month from his admission in April and his ER visit in Dec. but now we will start all over again.

Sick Again

Colin doesn't like to just get a cold. He has to make sure that he has something extreme and crazy! This morning he woke up crabby and whiny. This is the way he has been for 3 days so I decided to call the doctor and see if they could get him an appointment.
We went in at 10:50, I figured they were going to say it was just a cold and to ride it out, but went anyways. So after she listens to him she orders a breathing treatment. After the treatment she listens to him again and orders a chest x-ray. The chest x-ray came back fine so she determined he had RSV again and that I was to take him home, watch for fast breathing and all the other things that can make RSV dangerous.
I finally leave the doctor's office at 12:25. I bring Colin home, he falls asleep in the car and so as soon as he comes inside he goes straight to bed.
  At 2:30 I go upstairs to check on him, and he is awake and just laying in his crib not crying or talking or anything. I get him up and the left side of his face is all droopy and his eyelid is swollen half closed and purple. I bring him downstairs, show Jenni and call the doctor again.
   They call me back at tell me to bring him back to the doctor ASAP. So at 3:45 I leave again to go to the doctor. She takes one look at him tells me he has an eye infection (the name is too long and complicated to even try to spell it). So we go get blood work and then go back to her office for two shots of a super strong medicine.
He gets the shots and his blood work comes back. His white blood count is at 16.9 (normal is between 4-10). She tells me I did the right thing by calling and bringing him back in that he is a very sick boy.
So we got to come home, but have an appointment early tomorrow morning. If he isn't better in the morning he has to get two more shots. If his eye looks better then we get to go onto oral antibiotic.
My stomach has been in knots since 2:30 today. I have been asking for and praying for him non stop and watching/checking on him every 10 minutes.

I really hope he feels better tomorrow.

Scars

Yesterday Chris was working on putting up lighting in our front room and I was working on getting the kitchen clean. The kids were playing upstairs together and were having fun.
For some reason Colin decided to come downstairs. This is something he has been doing on his own for about a month now. He got to 4 stairs from the bottom and slipped. He put his two bottom teeth(the only two teeth he has in his head) through his bottom lip and gave himself rug burn on his chin.
  I wanted to take him to the hospital but Chris thought it would be okay and since the bleeding stopped pretty quick we didn't go. It wasn't until this morning when the swelling went down that I realized that he put this teeth ALL the way though his lip. The poor boy is going to have a scar on his face from his own teeth.
I have a call into the doctor now to see if he has to be on any meds since I know the mouth can get infected easily.
Luckily he is a true trooper. He has eaten just fine since it happened and is playing okay. So though I know it hurts, he seems to be pulling through ok.

Alyssa and Colin

Watching my kids this past weekend has been amazing. I have written many times about how the kids are good friends and love each other dearly. Well this weekend they have interacted more than ever. Alyssa calls Colin over to do things and he will come. They push each other around on toys and actually play together. It is the best thing to watch.

Now with that also comes fights. Colin is really good at watching Alyssa figure out what she is playing with the most and then run over take it and run away. While he is running away he is laughing and Alyssa is screaming.

Colin is also starting to talk more, he says Hi, bye, ball, daddy, thank you, and tries really hard to say "Alyssa" sometimes you can understand it, other times you can't.

Colin got his hair cut this weekend for the second time he looks so grown up now. You can also tell he is growing up. On Saturday he let me cut his nails without throwing a fit. Then he sat without crying for his haircut.  Also on Sunday he let people touch him at church without pulling away. These are some very big milestones for him.  Now he just needs to lay still while we get him dressed and let me leave him in the nursery at church without crying.

Alyssa is growing up way to fast for me. She is a talking machine now and will talk non stop all day. She has stopped taking naps about 90% of  the time so she goes down easily for bed, but makes for long days. She loves anything Princess and will talk about Princesses all day.

 She is also very smart and listens to what people are saying around her.  Today Chris and I were talking about where to go to eat for lunch and we decided on "The Pasta House" she kept telling us that she didn't want to eat at "Our House" we would explain we weren't eating at our house but she didn't fully understand.

She is also trying to figure out the meaning of church. Every night we read bible stories and talk about God and Jesus on a daily basis. On Sunday we were sitting in church before the service began and Alyssa asked where Jesus was.  I told her I didn't know (she likes to ask questions she knows the answer to) where is Jesus? She said she didn't know. About a minute later she said "There's Jesus." Chris said "No Alyssa that is Pastor Don" she said "NO THAT'S JESUS" Chris said, "No that is Pastor Don, Jesus is up in the sky." She sighed really loudly then said "NO THAT'S JESUS RIGHT THERE" at this point the 3 couples that were sitting around us are laughing and Chris and I just said "Okay". She continued to call him Jesus all through the service and afterwards. We will see what happens next week.

I love my kids more than I ever imagined I could love someone or something. Watching them explore the world and see their excitement, feel their hugs and hear "I love you" is more than I could ever ask for. I know for a fact that I was meant to be a mom.

Science Center

Today Chris and I took the kids to the Science Center in St. Louis. He had the day off and since there were only going to be two kids at the daycare we figured that Jenni could handle it by herself.

We got there about 20 minutes after it opened and I have never seen so few people there before. It was nice to be able to walk around and do whatever we wanted without having 100 kids running around. We were only there for a little over an hour because with a 2 year old and a 1 year old they don't care to read or listen to anything. They just wanted to hit the buttons watch what it did and move on.

Colin has really started walking now and walked for a small part of the Science Center today. He sees that his sister is not holding anyone's hand so he doesn't want to hold a hand either, however this either makes him way to slow or way off course. So we are going to have to work on the hand holding department.

Over all it was a great day and I really enjoy the family time we are creating with our family.