Pulling a Cameron

I'm sure all of you women out there remember this Modern Family episode. I think the reason we all remember it so well is because it resonates truth in every home. Someone in my house has adopted "The Cameron" as I like to call it. 

In this particular episode, Mitch comes home to a disaster kitchen. Seriously, I think Cameron blew up the fridge and was trying to piece it back together somehow. There was food/dishes everywhere. Mitch then gets upset with Cameron telling him that het better clean it up, but knowing that he'll have to do it anyway. It is then that Cameron steps in to tell Mitch NOT to touch the kitchen and he'll clean it up when he gets back.

When Cameron returns home, Mitch triumphantly explains that he didn't touch the kitchen and Cameron is...disappointed that he still has to clean it up. Tactic? Leaving the house in Mitchell's hands would insure a tidy kitchen upon returning home. 

Brian has adopted "the Cameron". He has dishes duty on the weekend and I am not supposed to touch the kitchen. He gets to "clean it up at his pace"....which drives me almost bonkers. I don't like dishes stacking for more than...oh...2 meals. Sunday night inevitably comes and it's time for bed. Either I do them Sunday night or stare at them while trying to wrestle 2 kids on Monday. The Cameron has won yet again.

This weekend we were out of EVERY. SINGLE. cup. This is what we resorted to...

Yes, that's right. Claire was the only one in the house with a clean dish. As I was sitting on the couch I heard more than one sippee cup being used. In looking over, Brian had confiscated Claire's sippee. I still don't know why he drank with the lid on. My cup of choice was a 4 oz. cylinder bottle I got from the hospital (of course without the breast pump attached). Not ideal drinking situations. 

Needless to say, I did the dishes last night. We have cups. And we all had a good laugh.

I might be changing our dishes rule soon.

Hospital Fiasco...with pictures

The kids are asleep!!! I better write this before they wake up in 3 seconds. I think I just heard Jared say, "Yeah right, mom. You better come get me right now." This will be long and descriptive....so I understand if you don't last through the whole thing. First off, huge thank you to all the prayers and love. We were truly amazed at how sweet and helpful everyone was! 

Hopefully I can get my days right since they all kind of blur together. 

Last week was a nightmare. Seriously, a parental nightmare followed by no sleeping and nightmares. Then followed with some sleeping accompanied with nightmares. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my entire life. 

Claire starting running a fever on Monday night. We noticed it right around dinner time. She was acting normally, but she was so hot! I had Brian go get an ear thermometer because I HATE sitting there for a minute or more waiting for the crappy underarm or even rectal thermometer to get an accurate reading. Seriously, it was the best investment of our year. The underarm temp was around 101.3 where the ear was 103.5. Kind of a huge difference, I would say. We stuck her in the tub immediately to get her temperature down and started to wait out the night. At 2 am she was running a 104.5 temperature and we took her in to the ER. I couldn't sleep. I felt so bad that I couldn't go and I was worried of the outcome because I felt like something was really wrong. When Brian called at 2 saying that she was just fine and it was probably respiratory, there was a sigh of relief, but it was an uneasy one. The rest of the night Claire continued to sweat and cook every single ounce of fluid in her body.

Morning came and the poor girl was still cookin'. I had her on the couch watching Dora and trying to get her to eat/drink anything. She finally ate some cheerios, so I was relieved that she was getting a little food and a little cold milk. Well, after she finished her rather large bowl of Cheerios, she started to shiver and turn a little blue. She was freezing. I tried warming her up or just trying to hold her. Then I tried to give her a warm bottle hoping it would warm her up from the inside. I looked over to check on Jared and then back to Claire and in that second she went from my sweet, poor, shivering Claire to the scariest thing I've ever seen. I'm sorry to parents who have had their kids have seizures or seen worse because to me this was horrifying. Her eyes were rolling all over in the back of her head, her body was convulsing all over the place, foaming at the mouth, turning blue, trying to breathe but it came out as more of a grunt. Of course I screamed and did exactly what I should not have done....I picked her up and yelled at her. Then I grabbed the phone and called 911. They assured me that she would be ok as long as she was breathing, but she was still turning blue. I wonder if she was choking on the milk she was drinking, so I flung her over my shoulder and patted her back. Color returned...thank goodness...and she could breathe a little better although it was still the scary kind of sound. Still on the phone with 911 as they were giving me instructions of how to get her through the convulsing and then the jack-knifing followed by the extreme exhaustion. Two to three minutes never seemed longer. 

The EMT's got there and determined an ER visit was necessary with a 106.5 temperature after a seizure, so Brian took her in the ambulance (thank goodness he called after the 911 call and rushed home) while I frantically got Jared to the ER. I beat them there actually. All the doctors told me that it's super normal to have a febrile seizure and that she would be just fine. I guess that helped as much as a drip of water would a flower, but I guess it was something. They finally got there and all she would say was "Daddy". Not lying, I thought she didn't know who I was and I almost burst into (more) tears. After a CT scan, X-ray, and hours of sitting there, her fever went down and they told us we could go home after they gave her an antibiotic. We were trying to get a urine sample, but she wouldn't pee. *Remember how I said she cooked all remaining fluids from the night before? Yeah. Still the case. I kept telling them to give her fluids since she already had an IV site, but they assured me that the TINY antibiotic bag would do the trick. Alright....    Still no bathroom break. No urine culture either. Antibiotic administered and therefore killing all for sure signs that it was a UTI. Thanks ER doctors. 

Claire exhausted in the ER

She HAD to have Bo. She screamed his name before mine. Nice to know where I fit in. :) He even had to have a washing in between hospital visits because they got blood on him when taking out her IV.

We were then sent home. She was exhausted and slept for quite some time. We got her up for her next dose of Tylenol/Motrin and she was, once again, on fire. Brian called the after-hours clinic, told them what was going on and that we would like to avoid brain damaging temperatures, so they said we could go in. At 9 pm, at the doctor's, her temp was 104.5 again. The doctor said there was nothing we could do, just to have it run it's course. I asked how likely she was to have another seizure and he said, "Just the same as any other kid with a high fever" looking confident that it wouldn't happen. I knew it was just a matter of time before another one was coming and I was trying to avoid that. It was terrifying enough to see one and I certainly didn't want to see my little girl like that again. So we went home angry and went to sleep by my mother's orders.

We woke up to my mom yelling Brian's name at 11:45 telling us she was having another. 911 call again. EMT's again. Whole seizure description...again. She wasn't as tired after the second and seemed a little more responsive, but even the EMT's usually don't have repeat seizure offenders on the same day. By doctor's orders we were to stay home and just make sure she acted normally. I was uneasy...we all were. The waste of time doctor's visit turned out to be a miracle in disguise because he called back saying it "wasn't sitting quite right" and we should get to the ER. Thank goodness. We went and I almost demanded that she get an IV and some fluids right away. Through the whole screaming of getting an IV in she had ONE small tear. Just one. By the time the bag was empty she had finally broken a sweat. I asked for another IV and they said, "Oh, she'll be good with that for 24 hours." Okay... 

All while eavesdropping on the ER doctor on the phone with our pediatrician.... We were going to be sent home, but Dr. Adams said he would like us admitted so she could be monitored. Thank goodness for that "waste of time" doctor visit. We sat in the ER from 1-6 am that time. Finally admitted I had some piece of mind. Wednesday was spent taking her temperature ALL. THE. TIME. and putting cold packs on my poor little girl's shivering body. I have to say that she was a dream patient though. She would take her meds willingly and didn't even care too much about the cold compresses until we'd change them. She didn't like the initial cold, but did great while it was on her. We had to do these almost ever 3 hours since her temperature would rise and quickly get higher, so we had to get her down really quickly. 

I didn't want to leave her side, but we hadn't slept in two days. My mom came down and had us go home to rest. We went home and sobbed. Showered. Sobbed some more. I slept for about 45 minutes, but every time I closed my eyes I would see her little face, eyes rolled back and it scared me again. It was hard to sleep. When we went back to the hospital, Claire was bouncing off the walls. Her IV had come out by accident earlier that day, so we were hoping that all that energy and no IV was a good sign; however, without the IV her temperature started to go up again. We had to hold her down, screaming for her third IV. She started to do better after it was HEAVILY taped down again. 

I think, pretty sure it was Thursday we took her off of her Tylenol/Motrin 3 hour schedule to see if the fever would come back. Her IV was also cut in half to see if we were masking that fever so we could know if she could handle it on her own. At 5 pm she ran another fever, so we had another dose of Tylenol and one more dose of Motrin before attempting again. This time we did not do cold packs just to see if the medication alone would bring down her fever. I was a basket case the hole time. I'll be honest, there were a couple of times where I would just look at her and burst into tears...which would then make her cry, so I had to keep it together. She also had a kidney/bladder ultrasound. They found some gunk in her bladder, which is typical for a UTI, but of course they couldn't for sure say anything since she had antibiotics administered before her urine was cultured (thank you ER). She screamed through the entire ultrasound. Finally, after 11 pm we took her off of the meds again and her fever never came back. THANK GOODNESS!  We monitored her through the night. She was bouncing OFF THE WALLS....literally. Finally at 2 am, Brian woke me up saying he was too exhausted to watch her and it was my turn. The magic trick was lying in bed with mommy and a bottle of milk. Zonked. She was exhausted. We were discharged the next day. 

Still on edge at home, we took her temperature every hour...no fever thank goodness. She did throw up that night, but we think it might be because she ate too much after not having eaten for 3 days. Who knows. She's still pretty pale and we are all exhausted and are still trying to make a sleep recovery, but we are incredibly grateful that our little girl is okay and that it had the outcome that we were hoping for! 

Claire got to watch A LOT of Dora/Tangled/and Nemo 

Who knew Jared could sleep through the night. That ended the night we got home. Stinker. He was a champ!!!

In the playroom! A nice break from her crib.

Content to be paid attention to.

Mr. Potato head. So fun. We now own one.

If it weren't for my mom, I don't think we would have made it through the week. She is still catching up on sleep as well, but I was so grateful she was there! 

Sleep smile caught on camera!

Smiling at mommy.

Leaving the hospital in a wagon! So fun!

Her good girl reward. We're playing with Mr. Potatohead's accessories. They look better on him.

Lastly, Uncle Jason was also able to visit a much healthier Claire and see little Jared. It was good to have an great end to an awful week!

 Disclaimer: I'm not proofreading this, so sorry for any mistakes. :)

What a day . . .

Well, Id just like to start with the gratitude that we have for the people who have offered to help with dinners and everything else. Of those that don't know, our sweet daughter Claire is in the hospital and we are trying to figure out how to fight off whatever she has. Even though my wife will write a full account I summarize the past 48 hours. 2 days ago Claire was acting normal but had a fever (101.9) but we didn't like the accuracy of our thermometer so I went and got a legit ear thermometer (not the cheap ones only for children). Her temp read 103.5. I watched her and we gave her some tylenol but then I took the temp again at 1:30 am yesterday and she had a temp of 104.5. I then took her into the ER. By the time we got there her temp was back down to 102. They said it was viral and just put her on ibuprofen also. At 12:30 that morning she had a seizure and had a temp of 106. We took the ambulance to the ER, they kept her there did a handful of tests and topped off her medicine then gave a good antibiotic because they thought it wasn't viral but an ear infection. After about 5 hours her temp was back to 98 and she was seeming fine. We then took her home and she took a nap. At about 8:00 we took her temp and it was 105.5. This of course concerned us but the ER doctors said their was nothing we or they could do and if she had another seizure we could just stay at home and weather it out. This of course concerned us and we took her into after-hours. The pediatrician kind of told us the same thing that we just needed to watch her and let it run its course. The funny thing is that after this checkup we complained to each other that that was a waste of time and money. We then went home and were able to get the temp down to 101 again. Stac's mom then told us to both get some sleep and we three would take sleeping shifts. But just after couple hours we woke up to her having a second seizure. We called 911 and they came and checked her, this time she was much more responsive and they said it was up to us to go in or stay (temp was 106). So we stayed and called up the after hours place and the doc told us once again to stay home and watch her (her temp had started to drop to about 103, after seizure it was time to give her more tylenol). Just a half and hour later he called us back up and told us that it didn't feel right and that we should go in. So we went back to the ER and put her immediately on an iv which made all the difference. Claire was very dehydrated so once she got the iv in her she was ale to sweat and cool off a lot better. After a few more tests in the ER, the doctor wanted to release us but the after hours doctor had them admit us . . . we love him, see it was a waste of time and money to go see him. Now we are just monitoring her and trying to pinpoint what is wrong. She has now had two fever peaks throughout the day but the highest they got were to 104. The bad thing is that both happened while she had full effect of the medicine when they occurred. The great thing is that she has had an iv and we have been able to put damp towels on her to keep the peaks from getting too high. Well i think thats a good update for now. Sorry about the grammar and spelling mistakes if there are any.

My Kiddos

So, I'm in love with my adorable kids. I may have blog shrines on here from time to time just because I can't choose just ONE picture to put up. I have to do all of them because they're all cute. Right? Yes.

Claire and Kylie had SO MUCH FUN the other day. They were giggling and running around like crazies! So cute. I found them in Claire's bed giggling, drinking water, and feeding each other fake hamburgers.

So cute!

Tummy Time...he's not too fond of it.

Proof that he's getting a little chubbier. That is a double chin. He's sleeping and not scrunching on purpose, so I count it! :)

This happened this morning. This little boy will not sleep in his bed for very long. I've been really trying to put him back in so he doesn't get used to sleeping with me; however, when he stays up for 3 hours in the night and refuses to sleep in his own bed, I concede just to get a few hours of sleep in myself. He loves to sleep with his mommy! He's SUCH a cutie. See, he even likes to hug me while he's sleeping. :)

My technology junkies. They'd both be on something all day if I let them.

FINGERPAINTING! A new favorite.

Just like everyone else in the world, we have done glowsticks in the bathtub. Claire loves her bath time anyway, but this was fun. Afterwards I hid them around the house and we turned off all the lights and had her look for them.

Here's a video of Claire and Kylie taking turns jumping. They did this for quite some time. Apparently it's fun to jump and land on your bottom on our hard floor. Personally I would like to land on a pillow....but I guess that's what diapers are for.

A Minute to Spare

It's 11:00 and I have been playing single mother almost all day long. Brian was here for about an hour at dinner time, but that's about it. He is now back at work. Needless to say, it's been a long day. I should be in bed, but here I am...blogging.

There have been just a couple of things on my mind. First, I am wondering how you mom's of more than one kid entertain! I don't know if I'm having some slight baby blues, if I'm tired, or if I'm just learning to get the hang of REAL multitasking (I thought I knew the meaning of that word....I didn't.) Poor Claire gets left to watch Nemo more often than I would like. If I make it all day long without her watching anything I feel pretty accomplished, but the minute the tv comes on I feel like a total failure as a mother. Hey...at least I've gotten past crying over when I don't brush her teeth.

Do any of you remember Back to the Future...I think it's the second one? Well, I remember the part where the family is in the kitchen and all they have to do is press a button when their meal is served hot and immediately. Can I have that kitchen, please? We didn't eat dinner until 9 tonight. Wow. No wonder I sat in the kitchen almost in tears over food. I think my blood sugar was too low to even comprehend the fact that I had to make dinner in order to eat. I need a kitchen maid who cooks and cleans! Please send Minnie Jackson to my house to cook, clean, and make me chocolate pie!

Lastly, I've recently read a few friend's blogs and they love to write about their hubsters. I find myself almost falling in love with said husband just because they're so in love. Really, it's like reading a romantic book. So, I started thinking...could I even be serious enough to fill my bloggity blog with such words? Probably not. I'm not the kind of person who oozes romance publicly. However, I just have to say that I am married to possibly the most wonderful man alive. (See....I already feel like I've said too much....but I'll go on.) I'll explain:

• While in the hospital before Jared made his grand entrance, Brian held my hand the entire time I was trying to breathe and relax. I think there was more pain in his face than I've ever seen. He was so sweet.
• He works so hard. He really does. Grad school is a beast...for the student and the spouse. It's a lot of patience and waiting, but he really tries to keep me happy during the really long weeks.
• He knows how to relax. He makes me sit down and have a good time and I'm grateful for that. Sometimes I forget to savor the moments because I'm looking at the dust on my baseboards instead of the smiles on my kids' faces.
• He's VERY passionate about what I say about myself. He's my best advocate and I'm grateful. I guess it's not every husband who says, "Honey, please don't get too carried away with losing weight because then you'll lose your hips". Yes, that's the truth. If I do say something negative, he very seriously and immediately reprimands me.
• Brian is very opinionated. Sometimes this gets us both into trouble, but I actually love this about him. Before I married him I had probably 1 strong opinion....that chocolate was good...and that's it. He actually HATED that I wouldn't choose where to eat dinner on a date and was very verbal about me changing that habit. It's nice to be more decisive. I think it has made me a better person....as long as I don't get TOO opinionated.
• Brian is the cutest Daddy. I'll be honest, I'm a little jealous that I have to share Claire's love a little more these days. Before the baby she LOVED her mommy almost too much. Now things are a little more even around here and even though I get a little jealous, I'm so glad she loves him so much. He's a sucker for her. He's also just so cute with that little boy of ours. He will not move positions if I have him hold Jared just out of fear that he'll move wrong. A little adorable? I think so.
• He's just the best darn husband around. What husband wouldn't want to walk into their bedroom, late, wife in bed and....talk? Well, I don't know who that would be either, but he does this for me All. The. Time. After a long chat and usually a few tears shed from little old me I feel better and all is well in the world.

There. I did it. I think writing things down makes you recognize how good you have it. Lucky for you, I did this publicly.

Now it's time for bed!

Easter Weekend

For starters, here is our little bundle of joy. I put him in a 0-3 mo. outfit since all newborns had been soaked through. I couldn't really find him in all of that fabric. He kind of looked like just a head. Kind of weird to think that at 3 weeks old he's still smaller than Claire EVER was.

Look at those baby blues!

This is not an unfamiliar scene at our house these days. Claire surely loves her little brother and really likes to hold his hand or lay beside him. It still makes me nervous when she's around because her feet tend to kick anything in their path, but so far he's been safe.

Yes, he's just that tiny. The bear could eat him.

My family....with all of Claire's favorite bears: Bo, Mauw, and Sofie.

What is this? Brian holding a newborn? Unheard of! Love those boys!

Me with the kiddos.

Grandma Anderson came to visit and spent 5 days with us. We sure enjoyed having her here. I'm positive that Claire misses her playing all the time. We had a wonderful time with her here and it's always too short of a visit. I definitely enjoyed all the catch up sleep I was able to get since I didn't have to watch Claire all the time. Thank you, Diane!

One of my new favorite pictures for sure.

On to Easter! I teach these wonderful kids piano lessons and they have one amazing mother. She put on an Easter Egg hunt for people she knows because the city one is a bloodbath (or so I've heard). Claire had a blast! I wasn't sure if she would get the idea, but she caught right on. However, at first she thought her bucket was a hat. Many thanks to little Liam for giving her that idea.

My parents came down on Saturday for a BBQ. We had to have ANOTHER easter egg hunt of our very own. Once again, Claire had a blast and kept asking for more eggs.

Easter Basket

Dying easter eggs

Thanks again, Liam for the bucket hat idea. It keeps me laughing. We played in the sand this morning and she had this wonderful idea...

She even had to keep her "hat" on through watching Nemo.

I'll be honest, it was the funnest Easter I can remember. Hope yours was just as wonderful.

2 Weeks

Our little guy is two weeks old! What? Where did the time go? I think I got lost in between the 1-4 am feedings and trying to catch up on sleep. That's where the two weeks went. As usual, I feel like he's been here forever, yet I also feel like we were just barely in the hospital looking at his beautiful face for the first time.

Here are his 2 week stats:

Height: 19.2"- 5th percentile

Weight: 6 lbs. 11 oz.- 5th percentile

Head: 35 cm - 10-25th percentile

Uh....yeah, he's TINY. However, he's doing a good job at gaining weight, but I'm hoping to have rolls forming before our eyes! I love him so much as does the rest of the family.

• He's a big sweetheart and loves to snuggle. In fact, we have a hard time having him sleep in his cradle all night because he'd rather be cuddled up to mommy.
• He's still in newborn/premie outfits although the premie's are getting a tad too short.
• Boys are TRICKY to change! I get peed on several times a day and it's a miracle if I don't have to change my sheets for two days!
• Along with tricky to change, his legs are kinda little, so he pees right through the sides of the diapers. Although he wets his clothes a lot, it's better than the everyday blowouts I had to clean up with Claire.
• He's super congested so we had to get his nose suctioned out today. No fun. He also has a goopy eye that will need eye drops for a week.
• He has the most OUTY belly button I have ever seen. It's like an actual button and I laugh every time I see it.

We love having a little boy at our house! We're also so glad that Claire seems to love him a lot. Claire is getting lots of outside time with the weather warming up. Due to me feeling (unrealistically extreme sort of feelings) like a bad mother, we got her a couple of outside toys to wear her out so she's not watching so much TV. She now has a castle with a slide, those little tike puzzle wall things, and a water/sand table. I love KSL! Needless to say, I have felt much better with her playing more and she is a much happier girl.