Illness

The first half of the summer, I was having contractions, but hadn't been put on "couch rest" yet, so I ignored them (apparently not the best choice) so that we could have a fun summer with our kids.

Wanna know how many times they got sick the first half of the summer?

ZERO

Wanna know how many times they have been sick in this second part of the summer?

CONSTANTLY

No, seriously. And the sad/pathetic part is that we've been stuck inside the whole time! (Except for nursery on Sundays...so I am totally blaming nursery for this.) I can't even take them on walks during the day (which is why they are foaming at the mouth to get out of the house by the time Shane gets home).

It all started three weeks ago, when Kaden got pink eye. Two days after he got pink eye, Lexi had her whole black-bloody diaper fiasco. After we got that all taken care of, the kids were healthy for about 2 days (just in time to go to nursery again). Then, Lexi came down with a very itchy rash. When I took her into the doctor for the rash, they found a DOUBLE ear infection that was just starting out. Neither of my kids have ever had an ear infection...EVER. That was last Friday that we found that out. This week, Lexi has had a cough, runny nose, and woke up with a fever of 102.1 today. Kaden got a weird hive-like rash on his inner thigh last night right before bed. I gave him some benedryl and (thankfully!) it went away sometime during the night. OH! AND....Kaden went in to the doctor at Primary Children's on Tuesday and he gets to have his tonsils and adenoids out on August 23rd.

This just must be the summer of doctor's offices.

At least they are getting sick now, before Ariana comes, right?

YEE-HAW!

I have been SO excited to take the kids to their very first rodeo! I thought Kaden and Lexi were too young to care last year (they were), so we didn't even bother. But last night, we went to the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo! Woo!

*side note: I had my two doctor's appointments yesterday and they went great. I'll update about those later today or tomorrow)

I think the rodeo was a bit deceiving for Kaden at first. One of their many sponsors was Dodge, so they had two big Dodge Ram trucks in the arena when we got there. Kaden thought it was another demolition derby (which he LOVED when we went). He kept talking about trucks and cars crashing, so we tried to explain to him that he gets to see horses, not cars crashing. He was disappointed until he saw the horses running. :) By the way, the first hour and a half that we were there, it was SO HOT! Everyone (except the VIP's who pay an arm and a leg to sit in the shade) was sweating and knew the second the sun finally went behind the trees. It was SO nice and cooled it off at least 10 degrees.

You get to enjoy the crappy camera phone pictures again. (Blame Shane...but don't worry, I'm working on him.) ;)

Kaden watching the horses during the pre-show. Lexi eating her hand. I swear we really do feed this girl.

Cheese! Kaden wasn't a fan of the really loud announcer, and Lexi preferred the demo derby we went to. Really. She was seriously bored most of the time we were there.

Steer roping (I think? We were not anywhere near as redneck as we should have been at a rodeo.)

Lexi wiping dirt off of her hands (or maybe eating it....whatever.)

Kaden was SUPER concerned for the "baby cows" during the calf wrestling part. (Where the cowboys jump on top of them and get them to the ground by pulling on their horns.)

I think this was the team roping.

Shane was trying to keep Lexi entertained. I think he was feeding her Smarties here. :)

They had bareback riding and saddled riding....not sure which one this is, but Kaden liked the "kicking horses."

Lexi was finally happy when she got to sit next to a random guy in front of us.

Eating her granola bar. :)

Not sure what this one is called. It's the one where they rope the calf, then tie it's legs. So, maybe...calf roping??

Watching the bulls buck some cowboys off.

Kaden's favorite part was the "FAST horses!" Meaning the barrel racing. I think it's because we were sitting in a hard place to see the bucking action, and he got a first hand view of the barrel racing. Or maybe because the "monster trucks" brought the barrels in. :)

A married woman

Shane's sister, Valerie, got married this past Saturday. :) She is 6 months older than I am, so she is already 25. It's about time, Val! ;)

Lexi was asked to be the flower girl. I warned Val that Lexi might not throw the flowers and might just end up eating them. Val was fine with whatever, as long as Lexi looked adorable. And, let me tell you, she looked A-DOR-A-BLE!! Val picked out the dress, then I added some cute shoes, earrings, and a bow to match it all. Our camera is STILL broken (AHHH! I hate not having one) so until we get the pictures from the photographer (who also thought Lexi was the cutest thing ever), here is the only shot I got from the wedding:

The wedding and reception were outside and I am pretty sure it was around 400 degrees. The kids stayed well hydrated, though! :)

We got there early and they did a couple of rehearsals so everyone (especially Lexi and the little ring bearer) could practice. Lexi understood that she should throw the flowers. However, she couldn't do it while walking at the same time. Also, when she threw a handful, she would have to pick them up immediately. :) That's my girl! She was saying, "ean uh, ean uh" (the clean up song) while doing it. It was hilarious. For the actual ceremony, I was at one end (by the seats) and Shane's mom walked Lexi to the end of the aisle, then she would just run to me. Shane's mom picked up a handful of petals (showing Lexi to throw them), but then Lexi just wanted to clean them up and got mad at Shane's mom for trying to make her leave them there. I finally got Lexi's attention and she left the petals there and came to me. :) While sitting on my lap, she threw the rest of the petals out, so there was still one spot with petals for the bride. :D To keep Lexi quiet, she (of course) kept busy cleaning them up during the ceremony. haha I felt so bad that Lexi had completely stopped the whole procession by trying to pause to clean the petals up, but when I was apologizing to the bride (who didn't even see it) and groom (who watched the whole thing), the groom, Bryan, thought it was absolutely adorable that she had to clean them up and thought the whole thing was "perfect." :) I'm glad those two were twitterpated. Val thought everything about Lexi looked perfect and was so happy. So, the whole day turned out okay. :)

They did a ton of pictures (of course) and got some of Lexi and the ring bearer (who is about a week or two younger than Kaden). They were SO STINKIN' CUTE together! They would tell him (Cameron) to put his arm around Lexi. He would, then she would lean into his shoulder and look up at him with googly eyes. Everyone was watching and laughing so hard. Then, she kept trying to go in for a kiss, but Cameron isn't the biggest fan of girls, so she never got one. :( Poor girl. ;) I can't wait to see those pictures, though! The cameraman even got some of Kaden hugging Lexi from behind and Kaden was smiling BIG. Yay! Love my kiddos. :D

I have two doctors appointments tomorrow, so I'm hoping those go well. The first one is with the 3-D ultrasound lady. I guess they can get the most accurate measurement of amniotic fluid with the 3-D machine, so I have to go there before I see my normal midwife. They are in the same office, so it's not a big deal. I also have my glucose screening test thingy tomorrow. Yay for a big, nasty, orange drink! :)

Fun facts from the ER

In case you missed my previous post about Lexi's ER visits, check it out here. (Or just scroll down to the next post.) It's the same thing as what I posted on Facebook, so if you read it there, you don't have to again. But there are more pictures at the bottom than I put on Facebook. :)

I have been thinking about our hospital visits and thought of a few funny facts/stories that I should share.

-Every time the nurse or doctors came in, Lexi would suddenly grab my face in both of her tiny hands and start giving me kisses over and over right on my lips. It was hilarious. As soon as they left, she stopped and went back to playing. I think she was totally working them. She got a stuffed animal and a new sippy cup, so it must have worked. (And every time she started doing it they were laughing and saying just how adorable she is....yeah, totally working them.)

-Lexi has a thing for black guys. She likes all nationalities, but for some reason will flirt with every black guy she sees. My little sister only dates black guys, so Lexi sees the older black guys pretty often. The x-ray guy was black. The reason why Lexi held so still for x-rays is because she was making eyes at him and flirting. He kept talking to her and telling her what a good girl she is and how cute she is. Praise + cute black guy = happy Lexi. :)

-Whenever they took Lexi's blood pressure, they had to use a bp cuff for babies. They tried the toddler one and had it cinched as tight as it would go, but it slid right off. The one for babies fit perfectly. They told me she has tiny arms. haha Yep. :) She's little.

-One of the times when Dr. Adam came in to talk to me about what was happening, Lexi was playing on the chair next to me. While we were talking, Lexi halfway fell off the chair and bumped her head on the arm rest (it was a hard one....the arm rest, not the fall). I grabbed her, but Dr. Adam said, "Well, she's in a good place for that to happen." And started examining her head. :) It was funny, but also really nice to have a doctor RIGHT. THERE. to make sure she's okay when she falls. I told Shane about that and suggested he go to medical school. He, instead, suggested we make friends with a doctor. :)

-It was really weird to see Lexi's organs on the ultrasound. Pretty cool, but weird. The only time I've ever seen an ultrasound, there was a baby on the monitor. This time there were kidneys and intestines. It looked like too much stuff to fit inside her little tummy.

-Shane suggested we take a picture of her black poop. When I asked him whatever the heck for, he said that since it turned out to be a minor problem (thankfully!), no one will believe us that it happened and was really so bad. He said that he didn't want people thinking he overreacted. I told him no one will think that and that there is no need to have pictures of black poop. Yuck.

-Random fact I learned: your child can actually have black poop (without there being blood in it) if they have eaten blueberries (which Lexi LOVES and eats all the time, so I knew what that kind of poop looks like for Lexi), or has a cupcake or something with black dye in it, or eaten anything really black like that. The problem was that a) the darkest thing Lexi had eaten in the previous 24 hours was a chocolate cookie, and that will not do that to your poop....and b) there was blood. We didn't know that until they tested it, but they figured there would be since she hadn't eaten anything black. SO, the moral of the story: don't freak out if your kid has black poop, it could just be something they ate. :)

I think there were more funny things that happened, but with my pregnancy brain, I can't remember right now. :)

Getting what you ask for

I have been complaining really badly lately to anyone and everyone who will listen about just how BORED I am being stuck at home ALL the time. The past 24 hours I would have given anything to have been bored at home.

*warning: LONG, detailed post with lots of info about poo that may be TMI for some of you...*

So, it all started last night, although it feels like it was a week ago. Shane got home from work and went to change Lexi's diaper. I heard her screaming bloody murder and went to see what was going on. Her poo was black and sticky, like tar (and meconium). I didn't think anything of it, and told Shane we'll just let it run it's course and see how she's doing the next day. He started looking it up online and didn't see anything good that could cause it, and really pushed for me to take her to the doctor. I was shocked because normally he is SO anti-doctors. I called the after hours insta-care and asked the nurse what she thought. She told me that is bad and to bring Lexi and the diaper in a.s.a.p.

I took Lexi in and they tested the poop. It was positive for containing a whole lotta blood. They said that the darker the blood is, the higher up in you it comes from (as in, from her esophagus, stomach, or intestinal tract). They showed the poop to the pediatric specialist at Davis Hospital and she said we needed to take Lexi to Primary Children's ER immediately.

Great.

So, off I went to Salt Lake. It was about 8:30 by this time. We got there around 9:00 PM and can I just tell you how impressed I was with the admitting nurse? He was fantastic!! He went beyond just being nice and sweet with the kids, he was genuinely GOOD with kids. Lexi giggled and laughed the whole time he was taking all of her vitals.

They got us back to a room, and that's where the waiting started. We ended up spending a little more than five hours there. She ended up with 2 doctors and a specialist of some sort all looking after her. One doctor, Adam, was doing his residency and probably in his late 20's. Lexi ADORED him. She would blow him kisses anytime she saw him and share her toys whenever he came in the room. He kept saying how stinkin' CUTE she is and told her that she's lucky I love her so much or else he would take her home. :)

Throughout the course of the night, she had her vitals taken all the time, she got x-rays of her belly, and got lots of blood drawn. After the guy and nurse came to take her blood, they brought back a stuffed animal puppy for her for being so good. And, P.S., she held PERFECTLY still for her x-rays! The tech guy was shocked. I was so impressed with her.

Hours and hours later, after the blood test results came back, everything looked normal. Which is good, but, WEIRD. They checked her liver and platelet levels and a million other things that I can't remember. Dr. Adam was coming in all throughout the night keeping me updated on what was happening and what could be causing this. I appreciated not being left in the dark. Around 1:30 AM, the specialist came in and checked Lexi out. He looked in her nose (which neither of the other doctors had done) and asked when she had a bloody nose. I told him that she'd never had a bloody nose in her life. Just the normal runny noses. He told me that is odd because her left nostril looks like the after-effects of a burst blood vessel (a bloody nose). I told him I am with her ALL the time and I've never, ever seen blood on her.

He thought about it and said that what could have happened is if she had a bloody nose at night while she was sleeping (and if she was sleeping on her back at the time), she would have just swallowed all the blood and that could be causing the bloody, black diapers. It would to have been quite the bloody nose, though, since she ended up having another black diaper while we were there. They checked to make sure she wasn't anemic (she wasn't). Another good thing.

They sent us home around 2:30 AM. They said that the problem should just fix itself by Thursday, but, if not, we would need to take her to see the GI (gastroenterology) specialist either Thursday night or Friday morning.

A waiting game.

Fun.

Lexi and I got home a little after 3:00 AM this morning. Shane got up and I updated him (I had been calling him the whole time, too). I finally got to bed around 3:45ish. Luckily, Shane was able to get the morning off of work so that I could sleep in.
And I did.
Until 11:00. :)
It was nice.
(Although is it REALLY sleeping in if you didn't go to bed until almost 4 AM??)

Lexi slept until almost 11:30. Anyway, Shane went to shower to get ready for work and I looked at our cell. We had messages so I decided to check them, even though I thought they were just me from last night. One of them was Dr. Adam. I guess he called twice this morning around 7 AM and Shane didn't hear the phone ring. Dr. Adam said that the head radiologist came in this morning and he (Dr. Adam) showed him the x-rays. The radiologist said that the x-rays concerned him because it looked like her intestines might be turned inside out, which would cause the bloody diapers. SO, we needed to bring her back in to the ER at Primary Children's to do an ultrasound as soon as humanly possible. I called them back and they repeated what Dr. Adam's message had said. I quickly hopped in the shower while Shane made arrangements for Kaden and called his work.

We dropped Kaden off and then headed, yet again, to Salt Lake. They got us all checked in and Lexi was such a pro with the whole process. :)

We only ended up spending three hours there today.
Ugh. I am so sick of hospitals.
Anyway, they did the ultrasound on Lexi (and, P.S., she once again was AWESOME and held completely still for it....it helped that they had a cool toy with flashing lights on it for her) and everything looked totally normal. There was another test they could do, but it's a little painful. BUT it sometimes gives a different answer than the ultrasound. So, the doctor had to decide what to do.

Lexi was poked and prodded some more by two more doctors. They decided not to do the other test since she wasn't in any pain at all. They were still betting on the bloody nose theory. I was fine with that. However, they told us to watch her for more black diapers. They said if it happens one more time, just call the GI docs right away.

We gave her TONS of apple juice...trying to make her poop. Her entire hospitalized future depended on that next diaper.

We got home around 8:30 this evening and, shortly after, Shane was holding Lexi and let me know he smelled something. I have never been so excited/impatient/nervous to see poop before.

Anyway, we just barely (as I was typing this) changed her diaper and, while there was still some residual black blood (which they said was to be expected), it was mostly BROWN!! YAY!

NO GI SPECIALIST!! WOO!!

I didn't have our cell phone last night (left it home with Shane), but here are some pictures from our visit today. It's pretty much the same as last night, except our room was twice as big last night. Again, sorry for the blurry, bad quality photos.

Lexi loved jumping on the bed.

Lexi was constantly playing with her I.D. bracelet. :)

I figured if she was going to learn to stop trying to put her fingers in every outlet she sees, what better place for her to learn than a hospital?!
(haha-totally kidding. We were yelling at her to stop as I was taking the picture.)

Lexi's favorite toy? A Styrofoam cup and plastic spoon. It's the little things, people.

Lexi's favorite pastime? Rolling on the floor with her teddy bear.

Lexi got a brand new sippy cup FULL of apple juice. It was a nice one, too. :) Totally worth the LONG drive and even LONGER wait.

I know some of you were aware of what was going on, and we're thankful for your support and prayers. THANKFULLY, it was nothing too serious and we can get back to our wonderfully boring life. :)

Germ-infested weekend

We had a really great weekend. I mean, it's no fun until someone gets a bacterial infection, right? :)

When Kaden woke up this morning, he was perfectly fine. We went to church, came home, and he went down for a nap while I went visiting teaching. I got home and Shane immediately said something was wrong with Kaden's eye. I looked and saw lots of nastiness coming out of it and it was red and swollen.

So much for my nap.

I took him in to the doctor's office and she confirmed that it's pink eye. She said that he probably got it at nursery this morning or at the Treehouse Museum yesterday afternoon. I was surprised that he could have gotten it this morning and would already be showing signs, but Doc said that's not uncommon at all.

Doc also said that the chances of Lexi getting it are extremely high. Awesome.

Kaden is showing off his prize for standing on the scary scale. He's 31 lbs, by the way. :)

I've never had pink eye and neither have the kids (until now). I don't know exactly how OCD I need to be about sanitizing, but I will be carrying Clorox Wipes around for the next few days. If any of you have any tips, let me know! :)

Trying to rest...

So, because of low amniotic fluid and dehydration, I have been having contractions (not braxton hicks, like full on, PAINFUL contractions) since about 10 weeks along. It has gotten worse and worse, so my midwife, Kathy, put me on "unofficial" bed rest. "Unofficial" because she knows me and knows that she can say I'm on bed rest, but that won't change the fact that I have two toddlers to take care of 24/7. So, it's just kind of a sit-on-the-couch-and-don't-get-up-unless-you-absolutely-have-to bed rest. She has threatened to make it a full-on bed rest if I am not good about this. So I really am trying to be. But there's so much housework to do!

Anyway, Shane has been awesome and really stepped up through all of this. He is adorable when he gets all stressed out because I did a load of dishes while he was at work or school. :) I have learned a lot about how Shane thinks this past few weeks. Most of it bugs me.
Examples:
-He thinks children only need baths once a week. Tops.
-He thinks kids only need one or maybe two toys to play with all day. He came home from work one day and said, "Why are all these toys out?! I JUST put them away yesterday!"
Welcome to my world, hon. ;)
-He doesn't want me to cook (just because I would be on my feet-not because of my cooking skills) and thinks we can survive off of hot dogs for the next two months (since that's all he can cook....and even then he struggles. Seriously.).
-He thinks the kids get along perfectly all day.

He has been learning a lot about what exactly I do while he's at work (or used to do), and it's been good for him. :) He has been such a sweetheart, though. There was one day last week when my contractions were horrible and I was exhausted and the kids were being total butts (or maybe they just seemed worse because I was in so much pain). I called him at work, sobbing, and not only was he home ten minutes later making me take a nap, but he had taken half the day off of work the next day as well. :) I love my honey.

I've decided to make quiet books for the kiddos for church or long car rides or whatever. It will take a while (hopefully), so Shane is hoping that will keep me busy and stop calling him every 15 minutes to see what he's doing cause I'm so bored. We have to go buy the stuff for it (which will happen sometime in the next week...hopefully Saturday or Monday), then I can get started. I will be sure to post the finished projects when I'm done. :)

Until I get started on the books, though, I'm still super bored. So, just a request, would you guys mind updating your blogs about 30 times a day?? Or emailing me random stories. Whichever you prefer. I'm not picky. :D


P.S. If anyone wants to bring me cheesecake, I will love you forever and ever.

Independence Day

We had a great 4th 3rd of July! For those of you not familiar with Utah, when a holiday comes around on a Sunday, we celebrate it the day before so that we don't have to worry about breaking the Sabbath. Usually this is only an issue with the 4th of July (because of the fairs and parades) and Halloween (some people don't want their kids trick-or-treating on a Sunday....my dad was totally one of them, although I don't have a problem with it...). Anyway, as is tradition for Shane and I, we went to the West Point parade in the morning. Our camera broke (yes, the one that we just got at the beginning of December.....I think I repel technology) the day before, so all you get is a couple of lame, bad quality camera phone pictures.

Waiting for the parade to start. My phone is old school and takes 10 years to take the picture, so it was really hard to get a good, smiling shot. Kaden kept busy playing with the stroller.

Lexi, as usual, eating dirt. :) You can't tell, but I did a star on top of her head with the rubberbands. We tried to get a picture of it, but if she moved a fraction of an inch, the picture would be blurry. And a 1 1/2 year old holding still? Not gonna happen.

Kaden and Lexi liked the parade after the fire engines passed. I think the firemen saw Kaden hiding from them in my lap and thought it was funny, cause it just so happened that every time one of them would pass us, they HAD to honk/do the annoying siren thing RIGHT IN FRONT of me and Kaden. I swear I saw them laughing.

We spent the rest of the day with my family and got home for nap times (all around). :) Saturday evening we went outside and did some of the snap firework things. Kaden wasn't a big fan at first, then loved them and kept asking for more. I was just glad Lexi didn't try to eat them. :) We got a couple of the flower blossom things (that spin for maybe 2 seconds), but the kiddos HATED them. Lexi just cried and cried and Kaden kept saying and signing, "All done, ALL DONE!"

Sunday was the perfect day. After church, we came home and had nap time, went to a park, then came home and ate dinner while watching "The Princess and the Frog." It was just so relaxing and the weather has been amazingly beautiful. I love this 75-80 degree weather thing. :)

Monday, Shane's family came over. His dad helped him install insulation in the basement and then they fixed our sprinklers. While the men took care of business, the rest of us went to the mall and let the kids run around at the indoor playground area for a couple of hours. They had a blast. :) And Kaden refused to ride in our car once he saw Grandma's red convertible BMW M3. He's his father's son alright. So, yeah. Another relaxing day.
It was a great weekend!

P.S. Thank you to everyone for your nice comments about Ariana's name! I'm glad I'm not a total weirdo and the only one who likes it. :D