Lex's 9th Birthday!!

Today was Lex's 9th Birthday!  He asked for meme cupcakes, and he was pleased with what we came up with.

He started the day with a cupcake party at breakfast with some friends at First Watch, and then a trip to the park with Daddy.

Later in the afternoon, we headed to Nitro Zone to have some fun with another friend.

The first important thing to do was to drive the race cars.

Then, we sang the birthday song and had cupcakes.

Then, we played a round of Bazooka Ball, which is like paintball, but with little hard foam balls instead of paint.

After Bazooka Ball, we headed to the Action Zone, which is where the American Ninja Warrior courses and trampolines are located.

And that's when the party took a turn.  Daddy got hurt on the trampoline and we had to go to the emergency room.

Fortunately, another mom took the boys back to Nitro Zone so they could finish having fun, instead of waiting around in the emergency room.

So, Kevin's leg was pronounced broken, and we met the boys back at home, where Lex finished opening his birthday gifts.

So, what was in the giant blue box?

A new gaming chair.

Lex and I carried it all upstairs and put it together, even though it was way past bedtime.

What are birthdays for, if not for staying up late?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEX!!

Stitches Statistics

Lex got his stitches on July 15.  I guessed that he got between 5 and 10.  I still think that's pretty accurate.

I can still clearly see where about 5 of the stitches were placed, and the spacing leads me to believe that he probably got 8.

It's been about 5 and 1/2 weeks since then, and they aren't as noticeable.  Especially from a distance, and without the band aids that he wore for about a month.  You can still see where they were if you look closely, though.

We've been putting Mederma for Kids on them three times a day for the past week and a half. 31 applications, to be exact.  The medicine says to apply it for 6 weeks.  We'll see how they look at the end of that.

In which Lex gets stitches

...and no, I don't even know how many. 

It happened on Sunday afternoon, right at lunchtime.  Connor and Lex and I were upstairs in the loft, playing with Legos on the train table.  Lex said he was hungry, so I walked downstairs to make lunch.  I had only made it as far as opening the pantry door when I heard the thud, and then the scream.  I knew right away that someone had been hurt pretty bad.  It was that kind of scream.

I ran upstairs in time to see Lex standing up, and when he looked up at me I saw that he was bleeding (a lot) from his head.  So, I yelled for Kevin, got Lex a paper towel and an ice pack, and put him in the car to go to the urgent care.  As soon as I saw the gash in Lex's browline, I knew it was beyond my skill to deal with.

Have I ever mentioned to you how much I love the new children's urgent care that opened recently by our house?  We have been there before, and we were in and out so quickly that we were done before they had even completed our admittance paperwork.

We were taken care of right away, and even though we had to wait 30 minutes for some medicine to numb Lex's head before it could be stitched back up, we were done in about 45 minutes.  The worst part for Lex was when the doctor had to take off the bandaid that Daddy had put on at home.  After that, he kept asking to go home, and was really nervous when they put the numbing medicine on.  But, after that, he fell asleep in my arms during the 30 minute wait.  He woke up when I laid him back down on the hospital table to get his stitches put in, but he never opened his eyes.  He was very cooperative physically, but he screamed and cried the entire time.  It was heartbreaking, which is why no one was counting how many stitches he got.  If I had to guess, I would say that he got more than 5, but less than 10.  As soon as it was over, he was back to his regular good mood.

Since then, we have been making a big deal over letting him pick which bandaid he gets to wear.  He's been picking out different Angry Birds bandaids every day, and I think that's been enough motivation for him to let me check and clean his stitches.

I have also ascertained that Lex didn't bump his head on the top edge of the train table, as I had assumed, but he instead hit the table leg.  There are some discrepancies in the stories of my two kids as to *exactly* how it happened, but Lex was apparently standing on the chair, and then he either jumped or was pushed, and fell into the table.  Lex clearly blamed Connor, and was very angry with him the first day.  (He was also angry at me for making him get the stitches, but he seems to have gotten over that, too.)

In which Connor gets bitten by a tick

...and everything seems to come together.

First, Connor developed a really croup-y cough on Wednesday night.

Then, Connor started losing his voice on Thursday.

Thursday night, while giving Connor a bath, we noticed an unusual rash across the bottom of his back.

While giving Connor a bath tonight, we discovered a tick tucked away in his hair at the nape of his neck, happily feasting away on our child.

(Note to tick: I did not carry and birth this child for you to feast upon. He's mine!)

Anyways, Connor has been having all of these weird symptoms lately, and he's been more tired than usual, but I never would have connected them all together if Kevin hadn't noticed the tick.

That's right. Kevin gets the credit here. I'm so glad that he saw the black spot in Connor's hair. I was totally shocked to discover the tick there once he pointed it out, as we had just washed Connor's hair. I'm so glad that the tick was discovered in tact, and that I didn't crush it or anything while combing his hair.

Kevin also gets all the credit for the proper removal of the tick. I held Connor and smoothed his hair out of the way, but it was Kevin who used the tweezers to gently remove the *entire* tick from Connor's head.

And it was Kevin who took Connor to the Urgent Care tonight.

The doctors identified the tick as a dog tick. All of his symptoms, from the croup-y cough to the wheezing to the rash to the tiredness and the fever that I didn't even know that he had, can be attributed to the toxins transmitted from the tick bite to keep it's presence unknown to the host. As soon as the tick was removed, his body should have started correcting all of those problems.

And, as dog ticks aren't known to be carriers of any major diseases (like Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever), Connor should be just fine. Of course, we'll keep an eye on him and take him back to the doctor if his symptoms don't improve.

Our Weekend in Pictures

Early Morning at the Crew 5k

Lex wants to walk so badly

The Finish Line

38 minutes 13 seconds

This is a ruptured eardrum. We spent a few hours in the ER at Children's Hospital to make sure everything was okay and to get some ear drops. Connor can't go swimming or wash his hair until it heals - we'll see his doctor again in a week to check it out.

Playing soccer at Crew Stadium - a dream come true!

A buggy visitor to our front porch

Lex's impersonation of the leaf bug

I bought myself flowers because I couldn't resist them. Then I realized why - they are very similar to the pink roses I carried down the aisle.

Tailgating at Lex's 1st Crew Game

The Crew beat Colorado 3 to 1!

40 Weeks 5 Days Pregnant

Yesterday, after my doctor's appointment, I never stopped having contractions every 4-6 minutes, but I did stop being "too comfortable."

We finally headed to the hospital early this morning (around 4:00 AM), but since I still wasn't dilating, they sent us away again (around 8:30 AM) because they didn't have a room for us and my doctor was going to be in surgery for the whole morning. They asked us to return to the hospital at 3:00 PM.

I was a little panicked about leaving in so much pain, but the nurse told me that I could go home and take one Tylenol PM in order to sleep before coming back. I did, and I ended up sleeping the morning away, which was wonderful.

Now, I am off to get ready to return to the hospital. Hopefully we will meet Lex soon!

2nd Trip to Labor & Delivery Triage

Yesterday, I had fairly regular contractions starting at around dinner time, but I was purposefully ignoring them. I didn't time them or count them, but they were increasing in intensity and seemed to be coming about every 10 minutes or so.

Last night, around 10:00 PM, they got more intense and closer together. I was still determined to ignore them for as long as possible, because I didn't want to go to the hospital too early and be sent home.

Around midnight, Kevin suggested that we go to bed. He figured that I would either wake him up when I could no longer stand it, and then we would go to the hospital, or I would fall asleep and that would be the end of it.

I never really fell asleep, and at 1:45 am, I had to get out of bed because I was nauseous. I realized once I got up that the contractions had changed in frequency and duration. They were basically lasting forever, with little rest between them.

I decided to time some. Here is what I wrote down last night:

Contraction: 1:59 am - ? (I was sure that I was missing something, so I decided to wait for my belly to get soft and try again.)

Contraction: 2:07 am - 2:15 am - ? (I still wasn't sure that a contraction could last that long.)

Contraction: 2:21 am - 2:44 am (Now I was starting be sure. This contraction lasted for 23 minutes!)

Contraction: 2:45 am - 2:57 am (Only one minute of rest!)

Contraction: 2:59 am - 3:09 am (Ten minutes of rock hard belly and difficulty breathing.)

Contraction: 3:09 am - 3:17 am (Less than a minute of rest before this one started...)

I stopped keeping track at this point, because I was pretty sure that my mom was going to be arriving soon to keep an eye on Connor while we went to the hospital. Although the contractions weren't too terribly painful (I'd rate them a 5 on a scale from 1 to 10), I was concerned about them lasting for so long.

The last two times I was in the hospital during this pregnancy, the discharge instructions told me to come in right away if I experienced an "Abdomen that feels continually 'rock hard.'" I was pretty sure that this fit the bill, and I hadn't felt Lex move at all since I had gotten out of bed, and he is a *very* active baby.

We had the nicest nurse ever in triage at the hospital, and the staff doctor was a really great guy, too. I think they could see how disappointed I was that I wasn't actually in labor or going to have Lex last night, because they kept reassuring me that I did the right thing in coming to the hospital to have Lex monitored during these really long contractions. Lex did great during the non stress test, and my contractions eventually got back into a more normal pattern, just one that wasn't going to be progressing my labor right then. Around 5:30 am, they sent us home.

I was so tired since I hadn't slept in 24 hours, and was so disappointed, and just emotional from being pregnant, that I bawled in the elevator on the way to the car (and in the car, too). I felt so bad that Kevin didn't get hardly any sleep, that we dragged my mom out of bed and across town in the middle of the night (at least that way Connor got an uninterrupted night's sleep), and that we were going to have to pay for another triage hospital visit (I don't remember for sure, but I think that each time I went to the hospital and got sent home when I was pregnant with Connor, we got billed for about $100 of the triage stay).

But, as the doctor said when we were leaving, it is important that Lex is still doing well in there, and that we will still be able to have him at the right time when he is ready. As disappointed as I was early this morning, now that I've gotten some rest, I'm really glad that I didn't end up with an emergency c-section last night, or something like that.

Today I am 38 Weeks Pregnant

Last night, while driving home from the hospital around midnight (more on that in a second), Connor asked us where the sun had gone. We told him that the sun went down at night. He thought about that for a second, and then he said, "Sun under bridge." Only it *really* sounded like he said "Son of a b*tch." He said it a few times and Kevin and I just looked at each other before I figured out what he was really saying.

Um, so why were we driving home from the hospital at midnight last night? Well, because we weren't having a baby, that's why.

I spent a few hours in a triage room in labor and delivery last night, after having bone crushing contractions all day, starting around noon. I was in some serious discomfort ranging to actual pain, and it hurt in my tailbone, back, pelvis, and ribcage. I didn't want to go to the hospital too soon, so we waited until after 9:00 PM to head out, and I was planning to let everyone know when we got admitted. But we never did. The nurse said that I wasn't contracting. She used some word that sounded like "pandora" or "primordial" and I really think she made it up.

I saw my doctor this morning, and she couldn't tell me what had happened either. I told her that I was having painful contractions that the nurse said weren't actually contractions at all, and she told me that didn't sound right. I asked her if she could tell me what word the nurse had used, and she couldn't. But, after a thorough examination, she told me she would get the hospital records and review them and let me know if anything looked out of place.

So, last night remains a mystery to me.

And, the doctor says we should have a baby by Tuesday. (Of course, last week she said that we would have a baby by today.)

Good news: My doctor is the doctor on call at the hospital this weekend, so if it does happen this weekend, she will be the one there!

How Much Does it Cost to NOT Have a Baby?

I got the itemized statement from the hospital for my recent stay in the mail today. I always think that these things are so interesting. Hopefully you do, too. Or else you are about to be bored.

OB Room for 1 night: $679.00

Laboratory chemistry: $661.00

Laboratory hematology: $85.75

Laboratory urology: $45.50

Ultrasound: $671.75

Drugs: $352.30

Triage room: $257.75

TOTAL: $2,753.05

I expect that our portion of this bill, after insurance, will be approximately $275, due to our 10% coinsurance.

I also expect that we may receive a bill from the on-call doctor that saw me before the doctor from my practice arrived in the morning. And perhaps a bill from the ultrasound technician.

I also got seven (!) separate letters from the maternity nurse assigned to my "case" as part of the maternity care program that our insurance company sponsors. One of them was information about preterm labor. It indicated that there is no clear cause found for half of all preterm labors. But, one factor that increased a woman's risk of preterm labor was exposure to radiation. Which got me wondering about whether or not the x-rays that I had done on April 1st after my car accident could have been a contributing factor here. I called her to ask her to check on this, but I had to leave a voice mail. I hope that she does call me back with more information!

Another contributing factor for preterm labor is heavy lifting of 26.5 lbs or more on a frequent basis. Guess how much Connor weighs? About 27-28 lbs! I haven't been allowed to pick him up since I was in the hospital, but before that, I was picking him up and carrying him all over the place. Oh well.

Waiting for a steroid shot,

Waiting for a steroid shot, then I get to go home! Still on bedrest at home.

I just realized i was

I just realized i was in hospital at end of july 2 years ago. next july - and the one after - i hope 2 vacation instead!

No painful contractions now, but

No painful contractions now, but no other news. going to be monitored.

Just saw the doctor. having

Just saw the doctor. having an ultrasound soon.

I've been admitted to grant.

I've been admitted to grant. 50 percent chance baby will come during next 2 weeks. on bedrest & steroids til sat at least

Fever!

We were invited to a family birthday party on Sunday, which I really wanted to attend. The problem was that I didn't want to drive there and back. (It's 2.5 hours each way.) I haven't been having much pain from the ovarian cysts lately, except when riding in the car for long periods. In fact, they started hurting Saturday during the 20-25 minute drive to the hospital to see Sara and her new babies.

So, we decided not to travel to Northeast Ohio for the birthday party on Sunday. Instead, we took Connor to the Columbus Auto Show for a few hours. He loved it!! He is such a car guy. I have pictures to post, but I'll do that in a little bit.

Connor had been running a fever that day, but we didn't think much of it. It was 101, give or take a bit, so we gave him some Infant's Motrin, which usually does the trick for him. He seemed to be just fine, really enjoying the cars.

We left the car show just a little bit late for his nap, and he fell asleep in the car on the way home. I moved him to his crib, and since he got a late start, he woke a little later than usual. He called for me once or twice, and he just sounded wrong, so I went to go get him right away.

He was on fire! He was bright red, and I have never felt a person be so hot before. I yelled for Kevin to bring me the thermometer and the Motrin, and I stuck Connor in a warm bath, clothes and all. He didn't like it all, because of course it felt cold to him. When I took his temperature, he was 104.7!!!

We tried to get his temperature down for a little while, with the warm bath water and cool rags on his forehead, and we gave him some more Motrin. But, finally, Kevin asked me, "Who should we call?" All I could think of was 911. So, even though it may have been an over reaction, we had a squad sent to the house.

The guys who arrived told us that we needed to get Connor to the ER, but that the main Children's was really busy today. (I had actually heard before this that they had been breaking records there lately with some strain of strep going around.) So, he suggested that we take him to the Children's over by Mount Carmel East ourselves. We signed some forms refusing their transport and took him over to the other hospital, where they took care of us right away.

Connor has a respiratory infection, and it was spreading to his lungs. His body was trying *very* hard to fight it, thus the super high fever. Even though we were rotating Tylenol and Motrin, he was running at about 102 for the past few days. He has been on antibiotics, and they seem to be doing some good, because today his fever is running lower.

I sure hope he gets better soon!

Connor has Bronchiolitis

I took Connor to the emergency room at Children's Hospital this morning because he was having difficulty breathing and his heart was pounding. They diagnosed him as having bronchiolitis, which could have been caused by a number of viruses, including RSV and some type of influenza. (He got the first half of his flu shot about a month ago, and is due to receive the second half on Friday, although I don't know if that will happen now or not.) Since it is viral, there is nothing to do but treat the symptoms and wait for him to get better, which could take as long as 28 days!! He is going to be contagious until he stops coughing and his nose stops running, which usually takes two weeks.

He got two breathing treatments in the ER. When we initially put the mask on his face for the breathing treatment, he screamed and wiggled and really didn't like it. About halfway through, though, he suddenly settled down and fell asleep! He hasn't been sleeping well for the past few nights, and now I know it is because he was working so hard to breathe. After the second breathing treatment, he seemed pretty much normal, and his oxygen level and pulse were good enough for us to go home. He even asked for a snack and some juice while we were waiting to be discharged.

He got an inhaler for us to use here at home to help with his breathing. We also were instructed to get a humidifier, nasal aspirator and saline. We've got all that, and we've been using it for the past two days now, so we are right on track.

I just checked our daycare handbook, and as long as Connor doesn't have a fever and his breathing seems normal, he's allowed to go back. Which makes me think that some other parent probably sent their contagious child to infect mine. I guess that's the nature of daycare. I'm probably not going to stay home from work for the next 2 to 4 weeks. I'm not quite sure what to do yet.

Hospital Blogging: A missed opportunity

I got a bill in the mail for a doctor who apparently treated Connor at Children's Hospital on May 2nd. I didn't recognize the doctor's name, and frankly, I don't remember why Connor was in the ER at Children's on May 2nd, although it isn't out the realm of possiblity.

We have been to the ER so many times since he was born...it's hard to remember when and why we were there. What I should have done was to blog about each visit, so that now I could look back and remember.

The truth is, though, that most of the time I was too tired or too emotional about it to blog. Mostly, I just wanted to forget it ever happened. Which I have apparently been pretty successful in doing.

So, I have two remaining things for this blog:

1. After checking my insurance records, I did have Connor at the ER on 5/2/08, because he had some type of stomach flu that Kevin caught later and I was worried about him being dehydrated since he couldn't keep liquids down and hadn't had a wet diaper in (approximately) 12 hours, so I paid the doctor's bill.

2. Connor went to the Children's Hospital Lab today for a blood test so that we could see whether or not his iron level is increasing after his doctor prescribed a multivitamin that includes iron.

Connor's Leg is NOT Broken

Well, why would it be, you may ask.

Well, on Thursday of last week, he took a little spill, and after that, he wouldn't walk or crawl or let us set him down on his right leg. So, we headed off to the ER at Children's, and they took a bunch of x-rays. They couldn't tell whether it was broken or not (sometimes breaks in baby bones will not appear until after they have begun to heal, according to the doctor in the ER that night), so Connor got a full-leg half-cast and we got instructions to have our doctor check him out and have more x-rays done today.

Well, we went to the doctor this morning and she took his cast off. After her exam, she decided that she didn't think that it was broken. We had more x-rays done this afternoon, and everything looks fine!

I'm so glad that Connor's leg isn't broken. And I'm also glad that we live close to a good hospital and have good health insurance so that when something like this happens, we can take care of it. Even if it is nothing too serious.

Connor is starting to walk a little bit again. I think that he is just a little off his game after having his leg in a cast for 5 days, and that he'll be running around again very soon.

I bumped my elbow on the wall

Thursday afternoon, I bumped my elbow on the corner of a wall, and the only reason I remember doing it is because I was carrying Connor at the time, and I thought to myself, "Gosh, I'm glad I hit my elbow and not Connor's head against the wall."

The rest of that afternoon and evening were fine. Then, when I got into bed, the minute that my elbow hit the mattress, I was in some S.E.R.I.O.U.S. P.A.I.N.

I didn't get much sleep that night because of the pain, and I kept wondering how I had broken my arm without even realizing it. I didn't think that it was possible that the small bump from hours earlier could have done it.

Well, in the morning, Kevin took one look at my elbow, and he sent me off to the ER. So, he took Connor and went to work, and I showered and headed to the ER, where I had some x-rays done. My arm wasn't broken, but I couldn't move it, and it was swollen and very red and pulsing.

It turns out that I had bursitis. The little fluid "sack" known as the bursa that sits on the elbow joint to make elbow movements possible had swollen when I hit it against the wall, and then after it had swollen, it had gotten infected. I guess it's actually pretty common, and there is no reason why I got it.

All I know is that it really, really hurt, and that my arm was in a sling until today. I also got myself an antibiotic shot in the hosptial and a course of oral antibiotics and pain pills for home. Today it finally felt mostly better, although the doctor warned me not to use it or bump it for about a month, or else it could get worse again.

The first doctor that I saw in the ER was amazing, and he wrote me a prescription to give to Kevin, excusing me from all housework for one year. So far, I'm having just a little bit of trouble getting that filled. But, Kevin has been stepping up to help me out so that I can rest my arm more than usual.

Have You Missed Me?

On Tuesday, one week ago today, I had a belly ache around lunchtime. I got some food, and it sort of felt better. It came back again around dinner time, and I just thought that I was hungry. But, it kept getting worse and worse, and by Wednesday morning, I was in the emergency room.

The doctors kept telling me different things, but it turns out that it was a postpartum complication, an infection of something in my abdomen where an organ hadn't gotten enough blood as it had gotten blocked off as everything in my tummy was moving back into it's original places. I spent 6 days in the hospital last week, and they finally let me come home yesterday. I'm feeling a bit better now, but I still have a ton more drugs to take, and I going back to the doctor's on Thursday.

My husband and parents have been great about helping me take care of the baby. They brought him to the hospital to visit me whenever I wanted them to.

One of the downsides about all the medication is that I can't breastfeed the baby, and I was just starting to get the hang of it! But I am still determined, so I am pumping and dumping for now, so that when I am off the drugs, I can go back to feeding the baby. Right now, though, he is doing pretty well with the formula and bottles, and I think everyone else has really enjoyed feeding and taking care of him.

My mom is still staying with us for a bit, because the medicines make me pretty tired and loopy and I can't drive while I'm on them. Those types of meds that say "Do not drive or operate heavy machinery" should also have to carry a warning that says "Do not attempt to care for a newborn by yourself" as well. :)

We did manage to take a short trip today and we took the baby to the portrait studio. I was determined to get him in before he was a month old. He'll be 4 weeks old tomorrow. I can't believe how much bigger he has gotten already!