Jackson's Talking Again!

After a month and a half of illnesses going around our house, we are finally all healthy!!! When he first got sick at the beginning of March, Jackson had stopped talking and was also being extremely stubborn about doing ANYTHING for himself, which was getting really old, fast. He's now back to his normal self- with the exception that he is now talking up a storm. He must have saved up all of his words that he hasn't been using the past 6 weeks so that they could just explode out of his mouth. It's a refreshing change. He's really getting into opposites right now ("Car go up, car go down") and is still obsessed with the alphabet. He's going to be an early reader. I just know it. Whenever I practice Jefferson's sight words with him, Jackson insists on taking a turn. He also already has Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? memorized word for word, and will "read" it to himself over and over again.

A Quick Update on Jackson

Jackson has been doing much better. He hasn't had a fever since I put him to bed Tuesday night. I took him in today for a follow-up visit with his Pediatrician. Turns out he has an ear infection, and due to recent history, his doctor felt it best to get him on antibiotics rather than wait to see if the ear infection clears up on it's own. But now, he gets Tylenol or Motrin at the first sign of a fever, to reduce the chance of having another seizure. Gratefully, febrile seizures are more scary to witness than they are serious. According to the literature the hospital gave us, one in seven children have a seizure before age 6.

A Scary April Fool's Day

In the spirit of April Fools, Jackson decided to play a prank on us- except it wasn't actually a prank, it wasn't funny at all, and Jackson had no control over what happened.

This morning Jackson woke up with a fever- sick again! After getting Jefferson out the door to catch the bus, I sat Jackson and Mason down for breakfast and took Jackson's temperature under his arm (I really need to get one of those ear thermometers!). It read 100.5 degrees F. Yep, he definitely had a fever. So while the kids ate, I figured I might as well catch up on those dishes that I had chosen to not clean up last night in favor of going to bed early (and I hate it when I do that because I hate coming downstairs to a dirty kitchen).

While I had my back turned away from the kids, loading the dishwasher, I suddenly heard a thud, only to turn and find Jackson on the floor having a seizure. Although it took me a few seconds to figure out that that was what was happening. I quickly dialed 911, having never experienced a seizure first-hand, and watched as Jackson squirmed on the floor. The lady on the phone helped keep me calm as I explained what Jackson was doing and she explained what to expect when the seizure ended. The seizure lasted less than two minutes, although it felt like an eternity. When the seizure ended, it took about 30 seconds to get Jackson to look at me and then he just closed his eyes to rest (seizures tend to be tiring). He didn't really breathe during the seizure, so his face had turned a bit blue and his oxygen level had decreased.

The paramedics arrived within a few minutes of my call and checked his vitals and put him on oxygen. They weren't concerned about his fall from the stool since he showed no signs of other injury and it was assumed that he fell because he had already started the seizure. They loaded him on the stretcher, which caused him to start crying ("a good sign," one paramedic said) and took him out to the ambulance. Mason started freaking out at that point. I called Nate and told him what happened and then called my parents so that they could take care of Mason while I went to the hospital. My neighbor across the street was alerted by her daughter of the "big trucks" outside (the ambulance, fire truck, and at least one police car), and kindly called to offer assistance with Mason so I could go to the hospital. I took her up on the offer so that I could get out the door faster, instead of having to wait several more minutes for my mom to arrive (Thanks Christine!!!).

I got to the emergency room and was taken to Jackson. The ER people were really nice and they kept telling me how cute and quiet Jackson was. They explained to me what a febrile seizure is and how it is caused. I knew that fevers can sometimes cause a seizure, but, like most people, I thought it was directly related to how high the temperature gets. It's actually more about how fast the temperature rises. The doctor then ordered some tests, to help rule out any serious illnesses that could have contributed to the seizure. First came the RSV test (saline drops squirted into the nose and then suctioned back out), then the chest x-rays (poor Jackson was miserable having those done), and after those came back negative, blood was taken (twice- the first sample ended up getting a clot in it). His white blood cell count came back good and other initial results were good. We'll find out in a couple days if anything else shows up.

Since Nate was working at a client site only a few miles away, he came to visit us at the hospital for a couple hours. Jackson was sad when he left, but I didn't really see the point of Nate staying the whole time since he had a lot of work to do and Jackson was doing okay.

So after 4 hours of tests, watching cartoons, sipping apple juice, munching on graham crackers and cookies, Jackson was released. The ER doc did call our Pediatrician to let him know what happened and we have a follow-up visit scheduled for Thursday.

As for home care, we have to closely monitor Jackson's temperature, so that we can give him Tylenol and Motrin, as needed, to keep his temperature closer to normal. I hope I can wake up during the night to check on him (I'm a deep sleeper), since his temperature was back up to 99.7 degrees F under the arm and I had to give him a dose of Motrin.

Now that the scary story part has been told, I'll tell you the weird part:

Jackson normally goes to a class at KOTM on Tuesdays, which means I'm gone with him at KOTM when Jefferson gets home, so my mom comes over to watch Mason and pick Jefferson up from the bus stop. Today, when Jefferson got home, he asked my mom where I was. She told him that I was with Jackson. Jefferson's immediate reply was, "because Jackson is at the hospital." Taken aback, my mom asked, "why would you think that?" "Because Jackson is sick," Jefferson replied, "and he can't go to class when he's sick." My mom went on to ask why Jefferson said the hospital, not the doctor, and Jefferson just said "because Jackson needed to go to the hospital."

Wow.

"Spring is here, Spring is here...

It's the best time of the year." - Little Bill

After the month we've had, I am really glad that warm weather is on it's way (albeit slowly).

So far March has brought us:

• 0 days with everyone healthy
• 1 sinus infection (Mason)
• 2 trips to the doctor (Jackson and Mason)
• 3 prescriptions
• 4 infected ears (Mason got a double whammy)
• 5 runny noses (All of us)
• 6 missed days of school/KOTM (2 days for Jefferson, 2 classes and 2 visits for Jackson)
• 7 colds (Jefferson and Jackson each had 2)
• 8 different OTC medicines (allergy, tylenol, sudafed, cough, etc)
• 9 hours of missed church
• 10 dollar prescription co-pays

Please let Spring bring us warm weather and good health!

Once Again We Are the House of Sick

After several days of an on-and-off cold, Jefferson started the month off with his first ear infection ever. Being a Saturday, I figured that he could tough it out with some Tylenol until Monday, and if he still felt really bad, then I would take him to the doctor (and these days, that's what they recommend anyway). All went well and he was back at school that Monday feeling all better.

Then halfway through the week, Jackson woke up during the night crying on several occasions. When we finally realized that he was pulling on his ear (also his first ear infection ever), I gave him some Tylenol and got him back to sleep for a few hours. I didn't have the heart to make him tough it out, so I took him to the doctor the following morning and got a confirmation that he did indeed have an ear infection and left with prescriptions for some ear numbing drops and antibiotics. His ear is now all better, but his cold that Jefferson passed on to him is sticking around. He has sad looking red puffy eyes that just won't go away.

The cold has also continued on to me and Mason, and Mason might also have an ear infection (far from his first) since he has woken up the past two nights crying, although since I am also sick, I haven't been able to check on him and Nate only managed to check on him last night. Poor kid.

I am starting to feel better. My fever is gone and I have most of my energy back. I mainly just have a cough and some excess mucas- although the latter, I think, is due to my coughing fits that often bring me to tears.

Here are two pics of Jackson with his puffy eyes:


And here's a picture of Mason and Jackson being silly together:
They may be sick, but that doesn't stop them from getting into stuff they are not supposed to!

The Season of Sick

Sorry for the long absence. We've been continually hit with illnesses and I've just gotten so backlogged in everything- housework, bills, e-mails, etc- that I haven't had time to just sit and type. I'm now working on sorting through the pictures we've taken in the past month to figure out which ones to share. I'll post some within the next day or two, as long as the kids let me!

A California Thanksgiving

WARNING: Extremely Long Post!

This year was Nate's family's year to get together for Thanksgiving and so we made the trip down to California. This was Mason's first time to make the trip in a car in one day. His past two trips to California we done by airplane and a drive with an overnight stop in St. George. We left bright and early (5am) on Wednesday with the idea that we would get a few hours of peace on the drive because the kids would be sleeping. It mostly worked out. Jefferson didn't really go back to sleep but Jackson and Mason did. As much as I hated getting up so early, it was nice to arrive at Nate's parents' house in the afternoon instead of the evening. A couple hours after we arrived, Nate's sister, Janna, and her family arrived. Jefferson was sooo excited to see some of his cousins again. Janna brought up a bunch of bikes and scooters so that all the cousins could ride around outside on something and not fight (as much) over the bikes at Nana's. Here's some pics of the kids playing (Even Aunt Lacey and I got in on the action):


While the turkey was cooking, we went to Millard Canyon to hike up to the waterfall, but due to unforseen circumstances, we weren't able to do the hike so we just picnicked and played on and around the rocks in the campground area. The kids discovered that one of the big rocks was perfect for sliding down and so they all tooks multiple turns sliding down it, as you can see in these video clips:


Jackson and Mason had fun walking around and we even got a group shot of the cousins (minus Seth & Shayla's two - Ian and Katie - who didn't make it out to California, and Conner, who just didn't make it in the picture):


That evening we all sat down for the holiday meal. It was a full house with Nana & Pops (Nate's parents), Jason & Jeanette, Janna & Justin, Lacey & Ken, and me & Nate. Maryn (Janna & Justin's) also got to sit at the table with the adults. The rest of the kids hung out in the kitchen- Blake, Brayden, Davin, & Connor (Janna & Justin's), Samantha (Jason & Jeanette's), and our three- Jefferson, Jackson, and Mason. Of course, we would have still made room for Seth & Shayla if they had been able to come (along with Ian & Katie). Thanksgiving dinner was great, although I was disappointed that my appetite still hadn't fully recovered from my bout with Strep throat.

That night, Nate and I ended up staying up all night with Mason because he had become so congested that he couldn't sleep laying down. We all got small doses of sleep and by morning Mason had finally fallen asleep for about an hour and a half leaning against my shoulder. We considered taking him to the emergency room, but, sadly, due to our enormous co-pay ($200) we just said a prayer and waited 'til morning when we could take him to a doctor. Friday morning Nate's dad called a family friend, who is also a doctor, and got Mason an appointment at his home. So while I went out to do some shopping with Nate's mom, Nate took Mason to the doctor and got him another prescription for antibiotics (he had just taken his last dose of antibiotics from having strep that morning) and a recommended over-the-counter medicine to help his congestion and allow him to breathe easier. The medicine helped tremendously and Mason had a much easier time sleeping is is now healthy.

So, I did some shopping with Nate's mom at Costco and Burlington Coat Factory. Two places that didn't have the crowds. We went to Costco so I could get my new printer for $50 off with the THanksgiving weekend only coupon and Nate's mom took advantage of another coupon to get a really nice Christmas present for Lacey. We hit Burlington to get some clothes for all the kids, but their selection just wasn't as good as it has been in the past. After that we returned home for lunch. Later in the day we took a trip to a nearby dog park that also has a big and little kids playground. All the kids had lots of fun playing on the playground and watching the dogs. Jackson especially had fun on the slides. At first he stayed on the little kid playground (for kids ages 2-5) but after I showed him the big slide on the big playground, he didn't look back at the little kid playground. Here's some video of him on the big slide and also a video of Mason and Connor on the little slide:


Saturday, while Nate was off taking a section of the CPA exam, the rest of us went to the California Science Museum in LA. Jefferson wasn't excited about going to a museum, but when we got there he found out that it was full of things that he loved. We started out in an exhibit about cars and transportation. They also had a fear exhibit that was interesting. They had a hissing cockroach that you could touch and hold (I did it-no biggie) and a snake to touch. I was shocked to see Jefferson go up and pet the snake, although he steered clear of the roach. Here's some pics outside of the museum:

Once again, we left bright and early at 5am on Sunday to head home. I had hoped to stop at our friends, The Boyle's, house in Vegas as a breather, but since we left so early, we drove by their house around 8:30 and I figured that that was just too early to stop. Our trip home was pretty uneventful and the kids didn't complain too much- they even got a good amount of sleep in.

We are grateful that we were able to make the trip down to California to spend time with Nate's family, glad the trip went well and Mason was able to recover from his illness, and glad to be home safe.

The House of Strep

Sorry I've been MIA for awhile now. I have a miserable case of strep throat and all of the kids also came down with it. Somehow Nate has avoided it thus far. I'll post more when we are all better