February 2018

February was full of excitement...and packed with miracles and blessings. However, I hope to never have another 4 weeks like it. I can honestly say that I have intentions to enjoy and live in the moment. I never like to say things like, I'll be happy when...
But I'm going to say it; in Writing on this blog that nobody ever sees. I will be happy when spring comes and the winter germs are away!!!

So, with Thomas, Ezra and Lincoln coughing, I figured, we still needed to get some play time in. I remember spending so much time making fun activities for Lincoln to do in the cold months of toddlerhood. Now we resort to blocks.

 I decided to hit up a trip to This is the Place. We had Ryker come along and watched the boys find their own way to play during the winter hours at the park. The mild winter has been great for activities like this in early February.

 Well, that adventure was probably too much for this kid. He was pretty miserable by that night.

 And for a kid who rarely naps, this was a great break for me!

 Ezra's cough was no better. He did a lot of coughing and finally got something up! Poor kiddo.

 Sunday was Stake Conference. Thomas hates feeling left out! He was so sick, but heard that his brothers got to go to Stake Conference. He just couldn't miss it, so he got himself all ready in his church clothes. He was so bummed when I put my foot down and made him stay home with Dean and Ezra.

 Lincoln only got a cough, no fever or other symptoms, then this weird rash showed up while we were at Parent Teacher Conferences. It itched him like crazy, and it moved all over his body. It would grow, then disappear and start growing somewhere else. A little Benedryl took care of it, but it came back several times in the week. One morning he woke up around 4:30 and told me there was an eyelash in his eye. I couldn't see anything in there, but it went away about an hour later. Hindsight, I wonder if that silly rash moved to the inside of his eyelid. 

 On Monday the 5th, I sent the older two boys to school and packed up my two little sick kiddos to go to my post-pardum appointment with my midwife Gretchen. Everything was normal. I knew I was taking two sick kids with some random virus into her office, but I didn't want to postpone the appointment. She asked how everything was going, and I just mentioned that my boys were sick. Ezra slept through the appointment in his carseat, and she took a quick peek at him to admire my growing boy. She noted that his respiratory rate was high, and I kinda just said, yeah, he's been really sick. She suggested I just call his pediatrition to see what he said. He could have RSV, she suggested. I acknowledged that, but remembered we had all had that two years ago. We all went to the Dr, and there was no cure, just a virus that we had to wait out, so hearing that, didn't really make me think twice. When we left the clinic, I decided to call the doctor's office, just to feel like I was doing my due dilligence. When I told the symptoms to the receptionist, she immediately put me on with a nurse. (I had called the same office two other times that week for a nurse's suggestions and got calls back hours later.) The nurse said I could bring him into the clinic, but because he was so young, they would probably just send me to the hospital.
Well, I picked up Oliver from school, and was trying really hard to keep my cool with Oliver and Thomas. I needed to get them fed, and feed Ezra, and Oliver had a lot to tell me about his school day. I called Dean, and we decided I should take him in. I fed Ezra, (even though I knew he probably wouldn't keep it down) while Dean commuted home. Dean got home to be with the boys and I got Ezra strapped into his carseat. On my way out my sister called, just like she does periodically during the week. She told me how busy she was at work, and I told her I was on the way up to the ER at Primary Children's Hospital. She went into sister mode, and told me she was going to wrap up a few things at work and meet me up there. I knew she didn't have time to do that, but she insisted saying how nice it was to have my dad go with her when her daughter had to go to the ER a few years earlier. I commented to her, that I would just have Dad meet me up there this time too. We both held back a few tears and I desperately wanted to be able to call my dad so he could be with me. It was these situations that he was always really good at.
I hung up with my sister and pulled into the hospital and took the last available parking space close the ER doors. I took a deep breath, grabbed the car seat and headed inside. This was my first experience taking one my by boys into the ER, and with my limitted experience, I knew I would probably get to go wait in a waiting room for a few hours. I walked through the doors to assess my wait time. There were a few families waiting, and two families ahead of me at the registration table. A very young looking man in white scrubs walked through a door that read "Staff only". I wouldn't have noticed him, but he came right to me and asked to see my baby. I turned the car seat around so he could take a look, and he nearly jumped over the registration table. He said as he started tearing Ezra out of the car seat, "this child not breathing well! We need to get him back immediately." I helped him get Ezra out of the car seat and noticed his face was extremely pail. I followed him back as he took Ezra like a runningback takes a football and ran with him. All the way he was yelling orders at people. The next 20 minutes is a big blurr to me. I do remember him saying, "we need a trauma room right now!" By the time a got to the room, Ezra was on the table and I counted 12 people around the table working on him. There was one Doctor who came to me and found a chair for me. He was very reassuring and briefly told me what was going on. However, a month later and I can't recall even one thing he said. They took a number of tests, actually every possible test you can do with urine and blood. They also gave him an IV and started getting him fluids and oxygen. They put him under a heating lamp while they monitored him, so I couldn't hold him for a few hours. All of his tests came back as normal except for testing positive for RSV. I was told that he would need to fight through the virus and they would just be there to give him the support he needed while he did that. They ultimately put him on a "bi-pap" machine which supported his breathing. This seemed a little overwhelming, but also reassuring that he was getting the support he needed.

 It was an extremely busy day at the hospital. We waited in the ER for about four hours until they could make room for us upstairs in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). 

 Whenever Ezra was sleeping, I was happy, because I knew that mask wasn't bothering him. They gave him fluids and electrolytes for the 1st 24 hours via IV because they were afraid he wouldn't be able to keep food down.

 The first night I was with him was a long and tiring night. The sliver lining for me was this familiar face. My cousin Steven is a nurse who was works in that department. He was on the first three night shifts we were there and was just a few doors down. When I saw Oliver the next morning, he asked for a happy picture from the hospital. This was by far the happiest thing I could see, and I knew it wouldn't upset my boys.

 I spent some time with Ezra's "roommates" mom's in the Ronald McDonald room. This was the view we had. We ate most of our meals together and became pretty good friends. 

 Each of Ezra's eyes took a turn with an infection. They treated them with drops and they cleared up quickly. He got a feeding tube on Tuesday and this was what he looked like for six days. We went into the hospital on Monday afternoon and he finally got the mask off on Saturday morning. 

He got short breaks from the mask when they would suction him. He hated being suctioned but it kept him breathing. This picture was taken on Friday, and it was by far the best he had looked in over 10 days!

 On Saturday they moved him down to low flow oxygen and I was able to feed him for the first time that evening!

 On Saturday night we were moved to the infant floor and by the time we got there, he was breathing 100% on his own.

 On Saturday night, they kept the feeding tube in, just in case he couldn't keep his food down.

 Turns out, he did great. The bottle fed him through the night and on Sunday morning, I was able to hold my baby without being attached to all sorts of equipment! We made it home Sunday evening around 5:00! It was so good to be home! The boys were excited to see Ezra, and I was excited to see the boys! A neighbor brought in dinner for us that night!

 That was only a very quick synopsis of our week at the hospital. It turns out there were thousands of miracles that happened during the week. To name a few: My mom was in England during the week, but Dean's mom made herself available and spent almost every day with the boys so Dean could go to work and I could be at the hospital. My sister in law Katie provided meals for the week and did laundry. Dean and Troy happened to be at the hospital at the same time and gave Ezra a blessing. The hospital was so busy the day we were admitted, that they were stacking kids into the rooms. Ezra was in room "27B". Because it was so busy, there were no curtains or partitions separating patients. The beds were stacked like I have seen on movies when there is a natural disaster and everyone was working so hard to help so many injured or sick people. Because of this, I was able to make good friends. One of the babies in the room was a little boy one day younger than Ezra. His mom is Shanda and they live in West Jordan. The other patient was a 6 month old girl Kyla from Colorado and her mom's name is Kristen. Both were at other hospitals originally and were transferred to Primary Children's Hospital. The baby from Colorado had a lot more than just a virus going on. Her mom, Kristen is a very social, agreeable person who was fun to talk to. On the Sunday morning that we were discharged, us three moms went to sacrament meeting together. After the meeting, Shanda and I gave Kristen a Book of Mormon and I sat down with her and did my best to teach her a brief 1st lesson explaining how we have the Book of Mormon. It was so fun to testify of the Book of Mormon again to somebody who had never heard of it, and who I knew would benefit from it. She was so interested and it was fun to listen to her try to explain the "spirit" that she was feeling. She has since returned to Colorado and the missionaries have been great with her. She attended church today and even said the closing prayer in Relief Society. She has a baptism date set for the end of March. No matter what comes of that, it was such a good experience for me to be able to teach and testify to somebody who had no idea what the Book of Mormon was and who had never heard of "Mormons".

Moving forward! Ezra was so happy to be home! He had only ever given me quick, half smiles before he got sick, but he was really good at showing me how happy he was to be home, and to be free of the mask!

Oliver has had some disgusting toenail fungus. We have been putting topical ointment on for months, and have finally switched to an oral medication. There are potential terrible side effects, and I'm really hoping we don't have to deal with those. The good news is, that it seems to be working. (I realize this is totally discusting to some, but I feel like I need to include this picture to add to the February 2018 ailment list)

 We finally got a real snow storm! We went for a walk the next day. Thomas refused to wear mittens so he had his hands in his pockets. Well, it turns out it's hard to eat snow with hands in your pockets.

 We also made it out to a Utah Basketball game! Little events like this were really refreshing!

There were about 3 days where we were coughing significantlly less in our house, so we had some of Thomas's friends come over for play group. Unfortunately, our furnace was out on this day, so the repair man was there as I tried to entertain 4 two year olds.

 Well, coughs soon came back and for the first time, Oliver was affected with a full on cold complete with coughing, congestion and a little pink eye added to the mix.

 

 Thomas had pink eye also, and it was much harder for him to keep his hands away from his eye, it quickly spread to his other eye and after 24 hours, his eye was completely closed. It took a full 24 hours to get prescription eye drops going and for the first 4 days, he hated getting them. But by the 7th day, he was reminding me...Eye drops today mom?

 We had a surprise visit from Aunt SheraLee. She came down from Idaho to visit. Sheralee is Judy's younger sister. It's always fun to see her!

 Oh, and let's end February with some croopy coughing from Thomas along with that crazy rash that itches and moves all over. Ezra also started coughing again, and I got to return to "suctioning" him every night for about 4 days.

Is It Spring Yet???