I feel as though that is the theme around here. Tommy has had a cough/cold for over a month. Ryan had a fever and cough on Christmas (thank you Walgreens workers for being in on Christmas day), Ellie was at the ER at midnight last night with an ear infection, etc... We have all been pretty miserable this month.
But this is about sweet Tommy. Yesterday we decided it was high time the poor little guy got checked out. He had a fever and the cough was sounding worse. Steve took him in to the doc and he prescribed a steroid and antibiotic. Then he sent us down to a lab in Champaign to get some chest X-rays taken, just to be sure. Well, have you ever seen how they take X-rays of little ones? Because babies are obviously very squirmy. I just had to take a picture on my phone. And let me tell you, our little guy was such a trooper. We sat in the waiting room for 1 1/2 hours to get 5 minutes worth of x-rays. So we went back, and after removing his shirt, Tom was placed into this little tube thingy.
I cannot believe how mellow he was about this. That's some COLD plastic! And Tommy? Just sat there wiggling his fingers and swinging his feet. The tech couldn't believe it and had some of the other techs come take a look because he was so cute. I even got him to smile while sitting in there! He had an x-ray from the front and back. The results: pneumonia! Not good. So, I took him back to the doctor where they gave him two shots as boosters to get his body healing. He was back at the doc today for a follow-up and they put him on another antibiotic to make sure and kill it for good. But, being the sweet boy he is, you'd never know he didn't feel well. All smiles and sweetness. I sure love this little guy. I hope we can get rid of this so we both can start getting more sleep at night!
There have been so many blog posts running through my head lately that I thought I'd just put a few things down while I have a minute.
First of all, Ellie has finally ditched the training wheels! Hooray! And once she decided to do it, she learned in no time at all (apparently she did it first try). We actually got her a new bike (since 2 bikes for 3 girls was causing some serious complaining), but I took these the first day she rode without the training wheels.
Tommy likes to be sitting upright or playing in his exersaucer now. He doesn't like to be left on his back for long; although he still isn't rolling from back to front.
Okay, so this is a bit of a trip down memory lane for me. These outfits were mine when I was little. Can you tell what decade I danced in? Ha!
But there's an interesting lesson that I've learned from remembering that pink one in particular. Elder Bednar was here this weekend for Stake conference and he and Elder Ward from the Seventy talked a bit about what we're teaching our kids. Let me explain where I'm trying to go with this. When it was time to buy a leotard Mom took me shopping and I found this one. I just had to have it- it had the cute little belt just like Miss Janet, my dance teacher! I tried it on and convinced my mom that yes, it was perfect and I had to have it. I would guess that it was not cheap and we didn't have money to just buy "things" when I was growing up. Well, we got it home and the first day of class I noticed that those cute straps were digging into my shoulders. Apparently it didn't fit as well as I originally thought. But you know what? I never once mentioned this to my mom. I knew the sacrifice she had made to get me the one thing I really, really wanted. There was no way I was going to hurt her feelings by telling her that it didn't fit. So I wore a too-small dance outfit the whole year. I felt beautiful, but more importantly, I took responsibility for my actions. Now on to my lesson. I love to buy kid clothes. It is just fun for me to dress my kids up cute. But I've noticed that they are becoming less and less appreciative of the nice things I buy them. "It's itchy," "I can't find anything that matches," "the sleeves aren't long enough," etc... I hear these comments and while it sometimes bugs me and sometimes hurts my feelings, in the end it really is my own fault. Just because I can afford to buy my kids nice things doesn't mean I need to go overboard. It is time for me to assess what is important in life, and material things aren't it! And I want my kids to know that as well.
**quite a lesson just from 2 dance outfits, huh?**
And that leads me to another lesson I've been learning (or re-learning) lately. Priorities. I have gotten into the whole coupon craze that has hit around the country. It is just so much fun! But it takes a ton of time and that is time that really should be spent elsewhere. And so I have decided to step back and just worry about the necessary groceries and play the coupon game when life is a tad bit less hectic. So sad! Just because it's a good deal doesn't mean I need it!
I took Tommy in for his well-baby appointment this week and he's a big boy! (Yes, I'm over a month behind on his appointments.) So my 5-month old is off the charts for everything. A baby this age should not be 21 pounds and wearing 12-month clothes!
We tried baby food today for the first time.
He's not convinced...
Tommy just figured out how to roll from his tummy to his back. Mostly he's happy just watching what's going on, not really interested in moving. I call him my chubba-lump.
One of these days I will do an actual blog post. For now you just get more pictures. We didn't do any trick-or-treating this year because we got to go to my Dad's concert instead. My sister's kids dressed up with my kids and as we didn't get many good pics, we'll try again at Thanksgiving time.
Ryan is always so good with Tommy and always very loving. He has been very huggy with all his siblings actually which is very fun to watch. Steve doesn't think that they look too much alike, but here is proof positive!
I can't believe Tom is already 3 month old... time sure flies. Tiff had me take a few shots to memorialize it. And props to the girls who were the....well...props. (Katie is under the white blanket as a support bump and Ellie and Sarah were holding up the backdrop blanket :)
Ellie was having a rough day Sunday. She was making a lot of bad choices and therefore getting in quite a bit of trouble. Steve was being the disciplinarian and Ellie was not happy about his chastisements. That night she was saying prayers and part of it went something like this, "thankful for mommy, daddy, grandma ... (pause)... thankful for mommy, grandma, grandpa..."
I love newborn hands and feet. And little Tom's are no exception.
I haven't done a post about our newest little guy. There are lots of pictures that Steve sent out to friends and family. I'll find some and post them down below. He just gets cuter and cuter by the day. But for those that don't know, here are his stats: Born: May 25th at 8:19am by c-section weight: 10-3 length: 22.5"
So yeah, he was a big boy. No wonder my body was hurting those last couple weeks! He is a perfect little baby. He eats well, sleeps well, and is so incredibly content. I am one blessed momma (of 5 kids!)
I don't mind hospitals. I worked as a CNA for 4 months before Steve and I got married and I loved it. Of course, I was on Mother/Baby and it was so much fun. I've had 5 babies now and I've decided that I like hospitals when it's on Mother/baby. I was discharged from the hospital on Thursday and seriously, I can't say enough about how great my experience was this time around. The surgery went well, the nurses were awesome, the pain was manageable, and I had an adorable baby boy to love and snuggle.
But sometimes there are complications. Oh, miserable complications.
Sunday my parents came down to take the kids to church with Steve and even brought dinner. I have such awesome parents. I was good and only went downstairs twice. After dinner and a fun "welcome home" cake my parents decided it was time to head home. They were both exhausted after taking care of my kids all week. They were definitely looking forward to an early bedtime and sleeping in the next day! I was not feeling so great- feeling sore from what I assumed was incisional pain, so after getting the kids ready for bed (7:30-ish) I retired to my room and my spot on the bed. About 1/2 later I got the most intense pain in my abdomen. Holy moly, I don't think I've ever felt that kind of pain before. I couldn't move it was so bad. I called Steve upstairs to help me lay down, hoping it would make the pain lessen. I took my Hydrocodon and Ibuprofen and there was no relief coming. I kinda scared Steve as I was moaning in excruciating pain. Looking at my belly he thought he saw bruising, which would indicate internal bleeding, and that scared him a bit as well. He called the nurse help line and finally gave up and called an ambulance, as there was no way he could move me. And then my parents, who hadn't been home very long, got a call to come back and stay the night with the kids (including Thomas!) Our neighbor across the street, who likes to be in "the know" came over until my parents could get back down. The fire department EMTs showed up first from Mahomet and assessed my pain and vitals. I've never had a 150/90 blood pressure reading before! Because putting pressure on my right side seemed to give me relief, they assumed it was my appendix. And unfortunately they were not allowed to give me any pain meds so that the doctors at the hospital could accurately assess the location and level of pain. Lovely. Trust me, I could tell them that it HURT!!! A few minutes later we heard the sirens of the ambulance. They carried me down the stairs in a little chair, strapped me to a gurney, and took me out to the ambulance with the flashing lights. There was a graduation party going on across the street, so we received a sufficient audience on our way out :) And amazingly, Katie and Ellie were not upset at all about what was happening. They just gave me a kiss and said good-bye. Maybe the promise of Grandma and Grandpa's return helped? I still received no pain meds in the ambulance and apparently they didn't use the siren or lights and went the speed limit :( Lame! But Steve got to be an ambulance chaser, which is fun to be able to say. What a long, long night in the E.D. (it's not an ER, it's an ED here). Everything seemed like it was in slow motion. No hurrying for them, unfortunately. It took 3 good hits with the morphine before my pain finally found relief. Then I had a CAT scan and waited and waited for the results. Not the appendix this time, but rather a hematoma in my muscles. Just a fairly rare complication of my surgery earlier in the week. The on-call OB doc came in and told me she was going to keep me for observation overnight and see how I looked by morning. Of course, by this time it's 3:30 in the morning. I was exhausted, I was just told I couldn’t nurse my baby for 24 hours because of the dye they used for the scan, and I'm stuck in the hospital, in a shared room, with no Steve and no baby. Thomas is not even a week old yet and I was being separated from him! I was an emotional wreck. The poor nurse didn't know what to do with me. And to top it off, it just made my belly hurt more by crying. I wanted a quick solution that would send me home to recover. After a couple hours sleep I was feeling better this morning.
So here's the verdict: since there was no sign of infection, there was no good reason to go to the OR and clean it up. I was totally fine with that! I just have to wait for my body to absorb the blood that leaked out into my abdomen. It'll add a couple more weeks to my recovery, but otherwise I do not have any more limits than I did from the C-section. I am still in quite a bit of pain, but it's finally being managed with pain meds and it looks like I can be discharged tomorrow morning. After so many worst-case-scenarios running through my mind all night, it was a relief to know that it was nothing more serious.
Apparently Tom wasn't thrilled about Grandma taking care of him, so she didn't get much sleep last night. Thankfully he was okay with Steve, who relieved her when he got home around 3:30AM. My parents, who were like zombies this morning (did I mention how awesome they are?) took Katie, Sarah and Ryan home with them. I was told that I had to stick around here for another full day (boo!) and here I am. I had quite the roommate and am glad she was discharged this afternoon. A little too much swearing was coming from her side of the curtain! Apparently I’m about to get another roommate soon from a 10-car pile-up. Steve came by with Thomas and it was nice to be able to spend the afternoon with my baby. I couldn't nurse him, but he took the formula just fine (I had supplemented in the hospital, so he was a pro with the syringe). I'm anxious to get back home and finish healing.
Even though this has been a trial, everything fell into place and worked out just fine. The hospital had sent us home with extra formula, so Tom had food to eat. My parents are just 40 minutes away, so they could come rescue us no problem (and come help give me a blessing). I did not need any kind of surgery (I believe a result of that blessing) so I had just 2 nights in the hospital, nothing more.And tomorrow I go home.
So again, I don’ t mind hospitals when I’m delivering a baby and it’s all happiness and joy.I think I’ll stick with that from now on!This is just plain lame!
I have always read in my pregnancy magazines that when your own clothes get too tight, it's a great time to raid your husband's closet. I always said it would be a sad day if I ever got big enough to need to wear Steve's clothes. Come on, he's 6'5'' and usually weighs almost 100 lbs more than me. Well, it is a sad, sad day...
And just for the record, I don't wear these shirts out in public! I walked past a mirror last night and saw this profile and just had to get picture proof of how silly I look. Oh- and I'm wearing the necklace that Sarah made me during Nursery for Mother's Day. :)
The days are counting down to the arrival of our little guy. I have to admit- this has been by far the hardest pregnancy on my body. I just hurt all the time. Makes keeping up with kids, chores, cooking and all the other zillions of things about impossible. We've been eating a lot of macaroni and other simple meals around here (if they're lucky to even get that much!). 2 more weeks... just 2 more weeks. *This picture was taken about 3 weeks ago. I am much bigger and carrying MUCH lower now. Ouch!
At dinner Sarah said, "I was robbed." Steve, "you were robbed?" "Yeah" "Where?" "In the temple." ?
As Steve was reading scriptures tonight he asked the girls, "who is the evil one?" Sarah's response: "Pinky Pie!" (For those of you who are way out of the loop or don't have little girls, Pinky Pie is a 'My Little Pony')
Happy 3rd Birthday, Sarah! I will be posting fun pictures from our day soon. Sarah was a perfect angel and loved everything about her day today. Hard to believe she's already 3! So now our kids are 0,1,3,4 and 5.
The other morning Steve looked out our window at the lawn. He then asked, "why is there a family of bunnies on our lawn?" I looked down and what did I see? It was a family of stone rabbits perfectly lined up along the bushes. Rabbits that were supposed to be decorating our neighbor's trees! Yikes! We quickly sent the girls out to return them to where they belonged (maybe the neighbors didn't notice the hijacked bunnies?) My girls love families- whether it is my little ponies or decorative lawn ornaments.
