Growing

I was watching the kids playing in the backyard today and I couldn't help but notice how tall they seemed all of a sudden. Seriously, they had to have grown a foot overnight. How does that happen??? I know Matthew is definitely taller. He put his pajamas on tonight (pajamas that he just wore a few days ago) and the pants were halfway up to his knees! All this eating is definitely doing him some good! I went through his dresser and pulled out most of his 18 month clothes....yes, he is 3 years old (and 3 months) and still fits 18 month clothes. We are definitely getting our money's worth out of them!

I also went through Ellie's clothes....again. They go through the little sizes way too fast! She'll be 3 months next week...crazy! I think she's still got a few weeks left in her 0-3 month clothes, but I wanted to see what we have and what we need still. I love that Ellie can wear some of Emma's baby clothes...gives me a chance to reminisce a little over Emma's baby days.

This picture has nothing to do with this post...but it captures perfectly Emma and Matthew's relationship with Ellie. They always have to be touching her, hugging her, kissing her, seeing her eyes, sitting next to her....you get the idea.  :)

 And a random funny to finish off this post:

A while ago Jon said something about the sun being fixed in place and the moon revolving around it. That got lost in translation and now when the moon is full the kids say it is fixed, and when it's a crescent, they say it's broken. Makes me laugh every time. :)

Kindergarten

Emma started Kindergarten last week, but with all the craziness with Matthew and having our laptop out of commission, I never got around to posting about it.

Before her first day of school, Emma kept alternating between being excited and scared. She loved preschool the last 2 years and wanted to go to school again, but she didn't like getting shots, and was upset that she was going to have to get up early and get ready in the morning. Her school had 3 kinder-playdates so the kids could get to know each other. Then the day before school started, they had an open house so the kids could meet their teacher and see their classroom. She was SO excited after the open house. Her teacher, Mrs. Rothe, is awesome and we feel so lucky to have gotten her. She let the kids pick their cubby, pick their seat, and put their supplies in their pencil box (the school provides all the supplies).

The first day of school went great. We got ready and walked to school. They let the parents come in the classroom for the first 15 minutes, but Emma could have cared less!  :)  She ran in ahead of me, put her backpack in her cubby and sat at her seat. She was beaming. We left pretty quickly because Emma was doing great and Matthew was wanting to play with all of the toys...and no, I didn't cry. I think taking her to preschool for the first time was harder on me than this.

When I picked Emma up from school she said her favorite part of the day was snack time, but that she didn't get to play because she took too long eating. (They have 1/2 an hour to eat their snack and play outside). She definitely takes her time eating...but I've noticed this last week she is getting quicker. This is definitely a good thing. :)

A week into school, and she still loves it. Kindergarten goes from 8:15-12:20, which I think is perfect. She has told me a couple of times though, that she doesn't want to go to school because it takes too long....good thing she doesn't have full day! Every day she fills me in on some of the things they did. I think she really likes math...that's usually what she tells me about first. She also loves coloring and reading. They make a small book or do some other big project every day. Today was pirate day. It was totally cute. She brought home her hat, eye patch, sword, and a parrot with a clothespin on it, so it can sit on her shoulder.

We're excited for this year...to see her learn and grow and develop. Hoping it's a good one!

Mrs. Rothe made these First Day Kits for each of the kids...so cute! This is what the note said:

Starburst: You will be a shining star in school if you smile and always do your best.

Penny: To remind you that you are a valuable member of our class.

Sticker: We will always stick together and help one another. (She thinks this little play on words is hilarious!)

Eraser: Remember, it's okay to make mistakes. That is how we learn.

Hershey Hug: We all need hugs now and then. If you need one, let me know.

Lifesaver: I am here to help you. Don't be afraid to come to me if you need something.

This and That

Just some random thoughts that I want to write down somewhere...

-Emma starting school has opened up a whole new world for me. Since the kids haven't been involved in any classes or anything out in the community yet, their friends are all friends from church. And since we hang out with the kids' friends, our socializing is almost exclusively with our church friends. Being around people outside of our faith these last couple of weeks, I've realized a LOT how much our conversations turn to church topics, even if it's just using terms and expressions that aren't common outside our church. It's like a whole different language.  :)

Churchy stuff aside, I still don't feel like I fit in the school parent social scene. For one, I feel so much younger than all the other parents....it's safe to say I'm the youngest mom there. And I don't feel sophisticated (is that the right word?) enough to "hang out" with them. They all have careers, and if they're staying home now, they had careers for several years. And I'm "just" a mom...always have been. People here are always surprised to find out that I never worked after college...we chose to start a family instead. And then there are the number of kids. I feel like people are always doing double takes when I walk up with the double stroller and Emma walking next to me. And that is followed by "are they all yours??? Wow, you've got your hands full!" I've had people tell me they don't know why anyone would want more than 2 kids. I seriously think we have the biggest family in Emma's class! The other big thing I've noticed is that people are always talking about drinking. It's the suggestion, the cure all for every situation...even suggesting that alcohol is the only reason people have more than 1 kid. I feel like I never know how to respond to people. I am definitely not in Utah/Idaho anymore. :)

Having said that, I have met some very nice people. And I think this will all be a good experience. I'm excited to become friends with people outside my little comfortable circle. For now, it's still a bit of a culture shock of sorts. But it's good.

-I feel incredibly lucky with Matthew's situation. I felt out of place (sheesh...this seems to be the theme of my life right now!) being in the children's hospital. There we were, our son was bouncing off the walls (thank you steroids!), running around, playing. And we were surrounded by kids who were fighting for their lives, who had been there for weeks, who had much more serious issues than Matthew. We were there for 2 days and we were completely exhausted. We live close enough that I was able to go home every night. I can't imagine how all those other families feel...who are there for long periods of time and who have to travel much longer distances to be able to get the care their kids need. I hope we never have to deal with anything more serious than what we did. Though if we do, I feel blessed to live so close to one of the best children's hospitals in the country. It is comforting to know that Matthew was getting the best care possible and that we have that resource there if we ever need.

I also have to give a little shout out to Emma and Ellie...they were SO great through all of it. Emma was having a great time. After school, she got to have an all day play date with one of her best friends...and then she got to sleep over at his house....on a SCHOOL NIGHT. Then the next day she got to go to McDonalds with a classmate and then back to her friends house for another all day play date. She grumbled a lot about having to come home Friday. I think she secretly wishes Matthew would go to the hospital more. :) And Ellie was seriously amazing the whole time. She spent all day Thursday and Friday and half a day Saturday at the hospital with us. Through the ER and the travelling and talking to doctors and everything, she slept or hung out and waited until it was convenient for us before she got hungry or needed us. I know we were being watched over.

- I've got about a million pictures that I want to post, but they're all on our laptop which is still waiting for an anti-virus program to be installed before I can use it again. (The last program uninstalled itself and won't let us reinstall it again....so annoying!)

- It's SO good to be getting back into a routine again with school starting. I'm excited for Matthew to start preschool...2 more weeks!

- The doctors told us the steroids they gave Matthew would make him hyper...they weren't kidding! A positive side effect though, is that it stimulates his appetite. I think this boy has eaten more food the last 4 days than he has the last month.

- I am SO loving Ellie's sleep schedule. She goes to bed around 8:30 and has consistently been sleeping 10-11 hour stretches. Love love love it!

Update on Matthew

First off, we are home! Matthew was discharged at about 1 pm today. He was SO happy! Okay, we all were.  :)

Our laptop has been out of commission so my only internet access these last few days was at night when I came home...and really I just wanted to sleep then. So, for my sake and just in case anyone else is wondering, here is the rest of Matthew's story.

Thursday night (in the middle of  the night when he was FINALLY sleeping) the doctors started drawing blood for different tests. Matthew was doing much better at this point. I think he was just taking the Albuterol every 4 hours, which he HATES....I can't blame him- the medicine stinks. He has to put a spacer (a big mask) on which has the Albuterol inhaler attached to it. He has to do 2 puffs every 4 hours and keep the mask on for 10 seconds each puff. Anyway, Friday we met with several doctors. They had pulmonary and GI teams coming in, in addition to his original team of doctors. I really appreciated them coming as I wanted to make sure we had explored all possible options while we were in the hospital. After talking with each set of doctors, they ordered several new tests...which meant more poking. At some point in the afternoon someone from the lab came in and drew several vials of blood. Poor kid! Every time someone came to draw blood it took 2 or 3 tries to find his vein. His poor little arms are so bruised. They also had a dietician come in to help us figure out ways to help Matthew eat more, which was really helpful. She basically recommended helping him eat higher calorie and protein foods, including half and half instead of regular milk, Pediasure, and putting butter, peanut butter, etc on anything we can. She was happy to hear that for breakfast he ate a cube of butter...yep...a big cube of butter all by itself. And he loved it. Halfway through he looked up at me and in a very happy voice said, "Wow, this tastes amazing!"

In between talking to the doctors we just waited...a lot. Matthew was back to his normal, wild and crazy self. And after being cooped up in that little room for so long, he was bouncing off the walls. So Friday was kind of a long day. He was also hating every masked and gowned person that came into the room (since he was undiagnosed, all of the hospital personnel had to gown and mask to come in). Every time someone came in the room he hid behind me "so the doctors can't see me". Any time any doctor/nurse, etc tried to talk to him he would make sure they weren't going to put any pokies in him before he would talk to them. He was terrified. All day long he asked if I was going to take him home yet. The doctors were waiting for test results and thought we might be able to go home Friday night, but in the end we had to stay. To pass the time, we watched lots of movies (his favorite was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom), played games on the tv (the fave was a matching game), and pretended to sleep. This was Matthew's idea.  :)

This morning was mostly the same. Lots of waiting, a final talk with the doctors, more waiting, a TB test (more poking) and then the discharge....thank goodness! We did get to enjoy a little visit with Jon's dad and sisters which we really appreciated! All 3 kids fell asleep on the drive home...and Jon and I wished we could have. Hopefully we can recover from this exhaustion. It's crazy how sitting in a little room, not really doing anything can wear you out so much!

So, after that whole adventure we still have no answers. We are still waiting for results to come back and we have follow up appointments scheduled with the pediatrician, pulmonary, and GI over the next 2 weeks. The discharge report gives a pretty good rundown of where we're at with everything so here is the shortened, edited version:

Matthew was placed on Albuterol every 4 hours, inhaled steroids (Qvar) and oral steroids (Prednisolone). It is unclear whether he has asthma, but he likely has what is called reactive airway disease that may respond to similar treatments. The cause of this is under investigation. It is recommended that Matthew follow up with Pulmonology, given the severity of his respiratory distress and his need for steroids.

Given the history of poor weight gain and frequent (ear) infections, there was a concern for possible systemic illness that warranted further evaluation. Immunology and allergy testing was performed, performing, and are still pending. In addition, gastroenterology saw Matthew to evaluate his poor growth and recommended several screening labs which were also pending. It was recommended that he follow up with GI as an outpatient to continue his workup. Nutrition advised supplementing his diet with Pediasure for increased calories.

So, that's the latest. Hopefully we are able to find out more in the next couple of weeks. For now, we're grateful that he is okay and hope we don't have any more repeats!

Another Hospital Stay for Matthew

For those who haven't heard, Matthew has been hospitalized again for breathing trouble and a hurting tummy. He is doing good at this point, but we definitely appreciate your prayers and positive thoughts! Hopefully he can go home tomorrow. Here is a quick recap for those interested.

So, a little background...Matthew has complained off and on for about a year that his tummy hurts. There's no rhyme or reason as to when....it just comes and goes. I'd mentioned it to doctors a couple times but they just kind of shrugged it off. And it wasn't consistent enough for me to really push the issue...just figured it was because he wasn't eating enough or something.  About 3 weeks ago, he caught a stomach bug. Everyone else that got it only had it for a day or two, but Matthew's lasted longer. He's been fine recently, but has had diarrhea the entire time.

The last 3 nights, Matthew has woken up periodically throughout the night crying that his tummy hurt and coughing. He would usually go back to sleep pretty quickly. Last night he was up most of the night crying and moaning. This morning I was planning on taking him to urgent care, but his stomach pain got so bad I dropped Emma off at a neighbor's and took Matthew to the ER. (Jon was already at work at this point). Right before we left, his breathing got really labored. He was really struggling and I was freaked out! At the ER they gave him albuterol, which got his oxygen levels up a little. I think they were in the 80th% when we got there. They also drew some blood and did chest x-rays. His x-rays came back perfect, but the blood test showed high levels of liver enzymes. Because of his recent bout with pneumonia and the increased enzyme levels, they decided to have him taken to Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.An ambulance came and picked him up and I went and got Jon so we could both go to the hospital with him. I've decided that watching your screaming, terrified child be strapped to a gurney and put in an ambulance alone with complete strangers and not being able to go with them is one of the worst things ever.

At the hospital, they got him hooked up to all of his monitors and had been giving him Albuterol every 2 hours. Around 4:30, they decided to start doing it every 4 hours, since he was doing so well. As far as I can remember they really didn't do much else today (though it's all kind of a blur). There was just a lot of questioning and breathing treatments and promises of consulting with the rest of the team of doctors to figure out the next move. His oxygen levels remained good all day, so they mostly just want to monitor them overnight and figure out what triggered the reoccurence of breathing issues. We were initially told asthma, but later told that that was just a possibility. We saw several doctors throughout the day, and each one told us something different....though they all told us they are going to consult and see how the night goes. We asked about his tummy hurting and the ongoing diarrhea and were told by one doctor that they aren't looking at that right now, they're just focusing on the breathing issue but they can make recommendations for our pediatrician to look into further after he goes home- that was frustrating! The last doctor we saw seemed the most proactive out of all of them. She thinks all the issues may be connected (which I think too) and listed several tests that she would like to do- though I don't remember any off the top of my head. She also mentioned that he has several symptoms of cystic fibrosis and wants to test for that too. I don't really think that's the issue, but who knows?

At this point, me and Ellie have come for the night. Jon is staying with Matthew tonight. Emma has been with our neighbors/friends all day. They are keeping her tonight and between 3 of our neighbors she will get to/from school and be taken care of as long as we need. Jon has to go into work tomorrow so I will go back to the hospital first thing in the morning with Ellie and then we'll play it by ear from there. Hopefully we'll be going home at some point tomorrow!

I am tired (as is Jon) but doing good otherwise. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the way everything has come together and worked out the best that they could under the circumstances. I am so grateful for good friends and neighbors (one of which I only met for the second time today) who are so willing to do anything they can to help and who jumped in and helped without any notice. I am grateful to be surrounded by such good people, to know that all of my children, in all the places they are tonight, are being cared for. I am grateful for Jon, for being there with me and for staying with Matthew tonight. I am grateful for the thoughts, concerns, and prayers from all of you. And I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for watching over us. I have had many prayers answered today and have felt peace. I know that everything will be okay....just hoping for answers now.

10 Weeks

 At 10 weeks Ellie

- weighs 11 lb 3 oz and is 22 inches long.

- is a little bubble machine! She can blow some serious spit bubbles.

- still sleeps great. She is now sleeping 7-9 hours at a time, going to bed earlier, and sleeping in later. I'm loving it!

- has an adorable smile, a cute shriek/laugh, and babbles more and more.

- doesn't like tummy time or getting dressed and undressed.

- LOVES bath time. She kicks and splashes so much we usually end up about as wet as her.

- puts everything in her mouth and she has to have something in her mouth all the time.

- is having a hard time with daytime sleeping, though she usually gets a good nap in the morning and late afternoon, with several cat naps in between.

- is easily distracted but when something interesting enough catches her attention she can focus on it for long periods of time.

- is getting ticklish. Her favorite is when we tickle her chin with her toes.

- LOVES her binky. My dad calls it the magic piece of plastic.  :)

- is a sweet, beautiful baby!

I found a dress in Ellie's size (on clearance even!)that matched one of Emma's dresses and couldn't resist buying it. These two are adorable.  :)

Idaho in Pictures: Yellowstone

Jon had never been to Yellowstone, and since my parents live only 2 1/2 hours away, we decided to take a little mini-vacation while we were there to go see it. At this point in our trip we were all tired and Matthew had just gotten sick with a nasty stomach bug, but we decided to just do it anyway....and I'm glad we did.

We camped at Madison Campground in Yellowstone and got to bring our new tent out for it's maiden voyage. After setting up, we headed out for a little bit to see some of the sights. We stopped at a couple of little waterfalls and at the Artists Paint pots, which is actually boiling white mud. This, along with the geysers, was one of the highlights of the trip for the kids.

This was at the base of the artists paint pots...lots of boiling water!

Hard to tell, but this is the boiling mud

After our little excursion we headed back to camp for dinner, s'mores, and bed.

The kids were making stamps (handprints) in the sand and having a great time, but by the time they finished they were covered from head to toe in dirt. 

The next morning, after hot chocolate and muffins by the fire, we packed up camp and headed out for a FULL day of exploring and sight seeing.

We saw so many things that day, it's all kind of a blur now. However, we did see the Grand Prismatic Spring, which I thought was the coolest thing we saw there. The pictures don't do it justice.

These next few pictures are lots of hot springs and geysers....I honestly don't remember what anything is....but they looked cool!  :)

 

I believe this is the Grand Prismatic Spring

A trip to Yellowstone isn't complete without a trip to Old Faithful.

We decided to drive back to Idaho Falls through Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole. Yellowstone and Grand Teton border each other, but the difference in scenery is amazing! Grand Teton was absolutely gorgeous. I was actually more impressed by that park than by Yellowstone. We also saw our first, and only, wildlife in the Tetons (seriously we saw nothing in Yellowstone....it was a little disappointing!). Jon and Emma got to see a little black bear on the side of a mountain.

We stopped at Jenny Lake so I could feed Ellie. Jon took the kids on a little hike around the lake. Absolutely gorgeous!

The restaurant we ate at in Jackson Hole....if you're ever there, it's a must. Sooo good!

Our last stop on our trip was Swan Valley, ID. When I was growing up, we always stopped here on the way home from girls camp to get square ice cream cones. It was such a fun tradition....it's not often you can get a square scoop of ice cream!

A gorgeous Idaho sunset