Emergency Room visits are never fun

What a day, er, night I guess.

Looking back, everything turned out just fine, but we had a few hurdles to get to this point...and it all started with a little cough.

As a mother, I've found that I can deal pretty well with stomach flu, daily cuts and abrasions that come with boys playing, and other similar things.  But, I've also found that I experience my greatest stresses with respiratory illnesses.  When these little guys struggle breathing is when I really get nervous.  I will never forget the three nights in a row that I sat up with D as he struggled with Croup.  So many prayers offered from my mother's heart in his behalf.  I've truly learned the power of prayer--especially when given in behalf of someone you love.  Well, Monday was not like those nights.  But there was that little cough.  And in addition to the cough, our littlest had been incredibly irritable all day!  The Big Guy Lowe and I had fun things planned for our family, because we were getting ready to leave for Maui the next day, and Grammy HB would be watching the boys while we were away.  After finishing all our fun activities, we arrived back home.  The Big Guy Lowe asked if J felt warm to me.  I didn't think he did, but with how grumpy he had been we decided to give him some Ibuprofin.  It was about that time that we took off our little guy's shirt and grew concerned.  Something just looked wrong.

At closer observation, we recognized that as he was breathing, his tummy would balloon out and his sternum area would plunge pretty deep into his chest.  It was when I saw this that I asked for the phone.  I immediately called our pediatrician's office and to my great relief they were still open--it was about 6:55PM.  After explaining to the nurse what I was observing in our son, she calmly asked a few more questions and then instructed us to take our son to the Emergency Room as he was showing the beginning signs of respiratory distress and he needed to be evaluated and treated.  Tears immediately came to my eyes as I realized that what I was trying to push away as "mother fears" were indeed worthy of concern.  I hate it when that happens.  Calls were quickly made to Grammy HB and I headed to the hospital with J as The Big Guy Lowe waited for Grammy to arrive before joining us in the ER.

It's amazing how fast you can be seen in the ER when you have a 2 year old that is having problems with his breathing--that's how it should be.  It is also a good thing that our hospital has a Pediatric ER completely seperate from the general ER.  Before we knew it we were back in our room and The Big Guy Lowe was with us.  Now came all the doctors, x-rays, treatments and waiting.

We were all pretty scared at first.

It seems that our little guy did have a fever of 101 degrees, not out of control, but still a fever.  We had many doctors, nurses, and other therapists come in a listen to his lungs.  He actually grew somewhat accustomed to having people use a stethoscope on him--he learned to sit quietly when they were listening to his breathing.  Our doctor said that their main concern was pneumonia, but x-rays would let us know.  Getting the x-rays taken wasn't fun at all, but we did accomplish it in a reasonable amount of time for a two year old.  Then we waited...

and waited...

yep, and waited some more.  Gratefully I happened to have two Hotwheels in my purse.  As the mother of three boys I never leave home without a car or two...for this very reason!  You just never know when they will be needed.  A Respiratory therapist came in and gave J his first Nebulizer treatment.  He responded very well and his breathing seemed to come a bit easier.  We all experienced a measure of relief at that point.

(Have you ever seen anthing cuter in a hospital gown??  Not that I want to repeat this situation ever again!)

As we were waiting, The Big Guy Lowe and I had a pretty casual conversation about our trip to Hawaii.  We both agreed that neither of us had any problem cancelling our trip--we just wanted to make sure our little guy was okay.

After waiting a while longer, our doctor returned with the diagnosis that our son had complications from a household virus--NOT pneumonia.  We were so relieved!  Another breathing treatment was given and we were instructed in how to give him additional treatments at home.  Our J looked like he was feeling much better and even smiled and said "thank you" to his doctors.

It was with great relief and gratitude that we left the hospital that night.

After much discussion and soul-searching, The Big Guy Lowe and I decided that all would be well and we would continue with our plans to leave for Hawaii in the morning.  Grammy HB, my mom, is an amazing person, someone that I have no doubt loves our boys and would do whatever was required to take care of them.  I am so grateful for her love of the boys...and her love of The Big Guy Lowe and I.  She reassured us over and over that all would be well and there was no reason for us not to leave on our scheduled vacation.  As I finally went to sleep late that night, I felt a peace that all would be fine.

I'll just add a little follow-up to this post.  Grammy HB was able to take J into the pediatrician's office for a follow-up appointment on Wednesday morning.  They determined that he did indeed have pneumonia and needed to be put on a strong antibiotic.  My mom assured us that he was doing well in spite of being sick and was taking his medicine, eating, sleeping and playing without a problem.  She reassured us that all was well and we should continue to enjoy our vacation.  Both The Big Guy Lowe and I looked at each other while we were sitting in our room in Maui, because while sitting in the ER, we had agreed that we wouldn't go on our trip if J had Pneumonia.  Hmmm.  We're extremely grateful that all ended well and he is doing fine.  I cannot share enough of my gratitude for my Mom and how lovingly she took care of our boys in our absence...even a two-year-old with pneumonia.  We love our family greatly--both immediate and extended, and consider ourselves extremely blessed. 

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Two Years Old!  I almost can't believe it!  He's two years old!

To celebrate our youngest son's 2nd birthday we planned a train-themed party.  Well, to be fair, we planned a train, truck, car themed birthday.  It was really anything that had wheels!  But the cake was going to be a train.  I was excited to make it.  This is how it started...

The birthday boy obviously felt that he needed to be a part of the creative process too and kept bringing over different cars.  It was pretty funny.

This is how it ended!

I showed him his cake before the party began and was so happy with his response.

 

 

He kept finding new things that he was excited about!  My little mother's heart was so happy!!

Yay for success!!

Because this birthday fell the day after Easter, our meal consisted of casual hamburgers/hotdogs on the grill.  We had all our local family present with the addition of Aunt Christina and our friends Sue & Gary.  

We decided to open presents before attacking the cake.  2 year old J was a bit hesitant in the beginning.

Then he caught on that the presents were for him!  There was no stopping him from then on!

Thank you everyone for your well thought out gifts!!  All the kids had fun playing with them that day!

Now that presents were finished, it was time to EAT CAKE!

First we sang.

Then we blew out the candle.

Big J tried to defend his cake from would-be eaters.

Then it was just fun, fun and more fun!

I did make a tasty pound cake with whipped cream and strawberries for the adults in case they weren't interested in the pure-sugar train cake.  That took place in the kitchen.

Overall it was a wonderful birthday!  We love our youngest son dearly and are grateful for the blessings he brings to our home every day!  Happy 2nd birthday sweetheart!

Birthday Memories...

As our youngest son's birthday was quickly approaching, I found myself doing something that I imagine might be common among other mothers...I began thinking back over the events that lead up to his actual birthday.  My heart has again been filled with gratitude for all that happened, both challenging and enjoyable that brought our little guy to us.

For the majority of the pregnancy all went smoothly...even though we were completely caught off-gaurd by it!  Remember, I'm the woman that can't seem to get pregnant...hmmmm.  As we were approaching about 34 weeks I was measuring small at my appointment.  Dr. Hutchinson, who is AMAZING, nonchalantly sent me over for an ultrasound to see if we might find some answers.  It seems that I was low in the amount of amniotic fluid that was surrounding the baby.  She sent me home with instructions to rest, drink lots of water and a follow-up ultrasound two days later.

Two days later, our ultrasound only showed even less amniotic fluid.  Non-Stress tests were now ordered regularly to make sure the baby wasn't under stress.  A few days of this passed, when after an evening of watching a movie with my greatest love, I noticed that the baby hadn't been moving much.  After a bit of moving around there was some movement, so I went to bed without too much worry.  Early the next morning, I woke up.  Nothing out of the ordinary as I was up and down throughout the every night!  This time though, I just felt concern.  As I was lying in bed, I concentrated to feel our baby's movement.  There wasn't any.  I didn't get too concerned, but went downstairs and ate a bit of food and drank something to get some sugar into my blood--hoping the baby would respond.  I then went back upstairs and layed down in bed to again wait for movement.  Nothing.  Even as I type this, tears come to my eyes.  I was scared.  The Big Guy Lowe was awake from all my ups and downs and through tears, I explained to him what was going on.  He immediately said that we needed to call our doctor.  Because it was now about 4 AM, the on call service took my message and our doctor called us just a few minutes later.  After explaining what I was experiencing, she camly said that she was heading over to the hospital for another patient and that I should head over too.

Phone calls were made, Grammy and Grandpa HB arrived at our home, and The Big Guy Lowe and I headed to the hospital.  I was immediately hooked up to many different things, an ultra sound was performed and again I was told that I was very low in amniotic fluid.  Dr. Hutchinson looked at The Big Guy Lowe and I and with a big smile said "How do you feel about having a baby today?"  I was moved into a labor/delivery room, paper/computer work completed, and an induction began.  Dr. Hutchinson said that she didn't want to jump to a C-section unless the baby was in danger, but that it was something we needed to be aware of.  Gratefully, our baby seemed to be doing well now that we were at the hospital.  That started a LONG day of waiting!   Grammy brought the boys over to visit...

And they got to watch a Power Rangers movie--just like when our middle son was born!  Hmmm, it must have been pretty intense!

By the end of that day, I had not progressed much at all.  Dr. Hutchinson let me rest through the night and we started everything again early the next morning.  I was determined to have the baby that Saturday!  After a few hours I noticed that my contractions basically stopped if I sat or layed down.  From that moment on I did lunges--hours of lunges to keep my contractions moving!  I wouldn't regret that...until the next day when my legs were extremely sore!!  Yikes!

Gratefully, The Big Guy Lowe and I were able to watch General Conference, but by the end of the afternoon session I was beginning to feel real contractions.  Oh, interesting little fact, when Dr. Hutchinson broke my water, we found that there was copious amounts of fluid!  She was amazed as were the nurses.  No one knew how they couldn't have found those large pockets of fluid in any of the ultrasounds that were performed for that very reason!  Oh well!  I was planning on having an epidural, so we had the anesthesiologist come in and get things started.  While I am a huge fan of epidurals, I haven't ever had them go very smoothly.  This time was no different.  Unfortunately, I have now experienced an epidural that only works on one half of the uterus.  Yep, I felt everything on one half of my body and nothing on the other.  Let me tell you, only half doesn't really help.  By that point though, I was just interested in having our baby.

Joyfully, our little guy was born that evening.  It had been a long two days! 

 

I did notice though, after delivery, Dr. Hutchinson sent the placenta to pathology.  That was something I would learn about later...

Dr. Hutchinson--we love her!

Our newest sweetheart.

Grammy HB

Grandpa HB

Grammie Lowe

Then time for bed...for all of us!

This picture leaves us feeling that all was well.  And it indeed would be, after a few more challenges! 

We were released from the hospital.

We all commented on what a good baby this little guy was.  He slept so much the day we were released. 

We were all so excited to have him home!

Our oldest son wanted to make sure he introduced the important things in life early on...

never too early to introduce a brother to Star Wars!

Our "new" middle son was pretty curious about this new baby too.

 I kind of cringe when I see these pictures.  We didn't know that our new baby's body was already beginning to struggle.  We didn't know at this point, but the lab results from the placenta would show that a Staph infection had been present.  I was later told that if we had waited a day or two longer before delivering our baby we wouldn't have had such a joyful birth-day.  I know all the events that lead to our early delivery were for a purpose.  As Dr. Hutchinson said a few weeks later when we were talking about the delivery experience and those of the following days, "Sometimes you are in the right place, doing the right thing, with the right people.  I'm so glad we were that day."

I am too.

I know our Heavenly Father is aware of us...each of us.  I know He loves us and cares for us.  I know we can each be inspired, prompted or motivated to do certain things that will bless our lives or the lives of others.  I believe those are tender mercies from our Eternal Father; mercies that any loving father would want to share with his children...if we would just listen.  I am so grateful for His love.

The day after we were released from the hospital, we were re-admitted as our little baby was struggling.  Gratefully, Grandpa HB and The Big Guy Lowe were able to give him a special Priesthood blessing before we headed back to the hospital.  Our precious baby had lost a large percentage of his body weight and had an alarmingly low core temperature.  I remember watching the nurses as they started his I.V.  When they inserted the needle and he didn't even flinch they looked at eachother with an attempt to mask their concern.

After a very stress-filled 24 hours, we were able to finally go home.  We had a very strict protocol that we were to follow for the next month and many doctor visits, but no more hospital stays.

Wow, two years later.  We continue to face different challenges as they come and we continue to revel in the joys as they come too!  How grateful we are for our sweetheart J.

   

Happy Birthday little J.  Oh how we love you!

Big Steps!

The past month has brought a lot of progress for our youngest son.  It makes me so happy to see development in areas where struggle has been.  In fact, the last time I was at PT with our little guy, I asked our Therapist some direct questions about our son's future.  She responded with confidence that she felt the challenges our son has been working with were things that he would outgrow with age.  She said she was very happy with his progress.  I couldn't stop smiling.  Big J was pretty happy too!

One of my favorite things recently observed was this:

 

This big boy now walks up and down the stairs without the help of my hand.  The Big Guy Lowe was the first to see him do this.  I remember him coming into the kitchen and whispering as loud as he could that I had to come with him to see something.  I wasn't sure what to expect as I walked into the foyer.  A boy that was all smiles!

Who knows what he'll accomplish next, but we are excited to be there when it happens!  Way to work hard J!  Love you!

New Haircut

For months we have been trying to help our youngest son get over his aversion to having his hair cut.  Alas, it has not worked.  In fact, the past three haircuts he has cried, screamed, and yelled enough to basically intimidate the poor women that have attempted to trim his curly lockes.  Our last attempt was so greatly foiled by his tirade that he barely had any hair trimmed at all.  It was then that I decided we didn't need to pay money to have our little guy scream in public just so The Big Guy Lowe and I could be humiliated!  Nope!  I decided we would just head over to Grammy's house and plead for her help until Big J was okay with having his hair cut.

Ahhhh, freedom!

Until this week. 

I decided his hair, albiet cute, was just too long...a haircut was needed.

After tears, snot, screams, overall distress and skilled persistence by Grammy HB, our little guy now had a real haircut.

Don't let this cute, adorable, smiling little boy fool you.  This picture was taken hours later, after the red eyes had dried and the pain of the haircut was in the far-distant past.

Thanks Mom for your help.

What a darling boy.

Love him.

Duet

I wish I could have taken this picture as I saw it before the boys realized I was there.

These two little guys were sitting side-by-side playing nicely on the piano.  Every now and then one would look over to see what the other was doing and then go back to their own playing.  Cute brothers.

A good day at Physical Therapy

Every other week we have a PT appointment for our youngest son as we strive to improve his gross motor skills and strengthen his legs, feet and associated joints.  Honestly, these have been pretty hard for me on more of an emotional level than I would like to admit.  We are SO happy with our little guy's progress!  He is walking, squating down and getting up without assistance, taking steps on uneven ground, running--and so much more!  For a while though, it has seemed that our appts weren't acknowledgements of his progress, but just pointing out areas he was lacking in.  While I believe our physical therapist was doing her best at focusing on areas that we could improve in, I would often leave those appts discouraged and full of concern.

The past two sessions have been different though.  I have brought our middle son, and he has been a big helper!  It seems our youngest likes playing with his brothers!  Imagine that!! :)  Previously, I had been told not to bring siblings, but two weeks ago I didn't have a babysitter, so like it or not we were going to have a visitor.  It ended up being wonderful!!  Our PT agreed and has been very happy with the progress that has been made.

I took pictures yesterday of some of the fun things the boys were doing.  I couldn't take too many though, because I am a part of this therapy.  The PT has our son do the activities, and then teaches me how to do the activities at home.  These are the pictures I did get...lots of squatting down, picking up objects of varying weights and sizes, traveling over uneven ground and steps, and then throwing the objects in different containers.  He is also showing the ability to begin balancing on one foot as he steps up/down, stomps on a stomp rocket, and kicks a ball while walking.  It was such a good day!

This is my favorite picture as it shows how happy our little guy was.  I was almost in tears when I saw how much he was doing and how much fun he was having doing it.  *Sigh* (of gratitude)

It always helps to see progress.  Good Job little man!  We love you so much!!

Grandpa's lil' helper

My dad can fix anything! I grew up knowing that and I still know it. That has to be pretty intimidating marrying into that and feeling the need to continue the tradition of being handy. The Big Guy Lowe has done just fine in that area--something that I have been grateful for time and time again!

This past weekend our table needed some fixing! Grandpa HB was able to come over and apply his expertise so that we once again can sit down to dinner as a family around a proper table. Thanks Dad for your help! We love you so much!!

Grandpa didn't fix it all by himself though. Our youngest stayed right by him.

A few encouraging pats on the knee...

then on the shoulder.

It made my heart happy to see then, and it still does now. I love you Dad.