Small Update

 

Here is a picture of Kylie I just found that David had taken with his phone.  She was in a hospital gown for a little while during her stay in the hospital because in our panic to get there we had forgotten to pack sufficient clothes.  Also they put the kids in these cage cribs, which I think is barbaric, but I guess the 2 & 3 year-olds try to climb out.  Anyway, we hung her beads from the top and that kept her happy. 

 

  

Also, some other big news in the life of Dallin: He has been pacifier free for almost two weeks now, which is huge news for him.  For those of you who don’t know he has always been very addicted to the thing, so much so that he needed not one, but two to go to bed.  We had many a late night trauma turning the house upside down looking for missing pacifiers.  I am glad that is over.  We were sitting at the dinner table the day after Christmas and I just started talking to him and telling him that he was a big boy and it was time to give up the “paci” and to learn to wear “big boy underwear.”   As luck would have it the next day was the day that we went to the Living Farm and to see the Christmas lights.  Somewhere during that trip he lost the one and only pacifier we had packed.  He screamed and fussed and we told him sorry it was gone.  Well, he fell asleep without it and when we transferred him to bed that night we didn’t give him one.  The poor kid had no idea what was coming when we realized the next morning that he had gone an entire night without a pacifier.  We simply told him the next morning that his pacifiers were all gone.  After that he only had a couple of nights of fussing and then they were forgotten.

 

This leads me to the other most wonderful announcement that we are once again, a one-kid-only diaper changing family.  David helped start the process while he was off of work for the Holidays.  Dallin has been successfully potty trained for a week!  Yea!  Gone are the days of quiet trips to Target.  We normally get about halfway through my list when he loudly proclaims his dire circumstances and thus begins the race to the front of the store and procession of getting us all into the bathroom.  I swear we do make a scene.  But it is all for the best and he is now trained both day and night.  So, yea for Dallin in having a very big couple of weeks!

Christmas Eve is coming and the goose is getting sick

 

Sometimes we relax and think you know life is going pretty good…don’t do that! J  Well, sometime in the last couple of entries I put that the dramas with Kylie had slowed down enough for us to relax and enjoy the holidays.  Apparently, she is constantly in need of attention and a visit with old friends.

 

On to our news:

It all started the 13^th of December.  Kylie went to the surgeon to get a new g-button.  She had outgrown the first one.  By the time I got home she had gotten pretty fussy.  The other two seemed to be having a mild cold, but anyone who knows us knows that some mild fussiness and drippy noses won’t stop the fun.  So off we headed to Westchase Winter Wonderland (it was called something like that).  Our kids rode trains and listened to stories with Mrs. Claus and played in the “snow”.  We met some friends there and had a good time.  That was Thursday.  We know now taking them out in the cold was probably not the best idea—hindsight is 20/20.




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                                                                                                                                                                         This is from the MIssouri City Winterfest

Monday morning bright and early I was at the doctor’s office with all three.  Diagnosis: Emily walking pneumonia, Dallin walking pneumonia and an ear infection & Kylie a mild cold.  She was supposed to be the least concerning.  So began the every-3-hour nebulizer treatments around the clock and so began a very tired mommy.

 

Tuesday afternoon arrived and Kylie, by the way, who was supposedly fine didn’t sleep more than a couple of hours that night on top of walking up to let the other two breathe with face masks on.  So Tuesday afternoon, Kylie had finally taken a good 3 hour morning nap and when I went to get her up, she was burning up.  I took her temp. 102.2—oh geez!  Doctor called, David home from work, and I headed to a local clinic to get a chest x-ray for Kylie.  Then back to the doctor’s office where blood and urine are taken, the fever is not dropping and I am now told that on top of two kids with walking pneumonia I have a daughter with another urinary tract infection and I need to get her down to the Medical Center immediately.  Ahhh, home sweet home.  By the way, crying in the doctors office from lack of sleep and the fears of a sick baby do gain some points, but not enough to keep us out of the hospital.

 

So, a few panicked phone calls later, my parents show up, Kylie is given a blessing, I give a handful of medicine and instructions for the other two kids to my bewildered parents (“we have to get up in the middle of the night and do what?!) and we head for the lovely Memorial Hermann ER. 

 

Now, with experience comes knowledge and with knowledge comes power and when you heap that on top of complete exhaustion (it’s now about 8:30pm) I didn’t handle the “you have about 6 people in front of you” business in the ER.  The sweet resident who spoke to my pediatrician on the phone was sitting right there and I saw his name tag and again I was tired and so regretfully he felt a little bit of my pain as I “nicely” explained to him in “hushed tones” that Kylie needed to get out of the waiting room.  As I said before I have experience in this area and approximately 3 minutes later we were in a room.  Thank goodness.

 

So begins the hospital journey.  The older two got better, I went home occasionally and showered, Kylie was diagnosed with RSV on top of it which quarantined us to our room, oh brother!  She had the mildest case of RSV I have ever heard of, no breathing treatments, no nothing.  When Santa came by Thursday night he waved from the doorway.  We couldn’t take her out to the big party, but hey it’s not like she was begging to go anyway. 

 

During this time Emily had her really cute Christmas party Wednesday morning at Preschool.  David stayed at the hospital and I rushed home after another sleepless night and showered and then rushed to Target to buy a present for her teacher and then to the party where they put on the cutest production of the 12 days of Christmas.  Most of the time Emily just stood there with her hands over her ears singing because the other kids were screaming so loud.  It was a good distraction for me to be able to think about something else.  As I drove back to the hospital a couple of hours later I kept nodding off and feared I would die from sleep deprivation, (the dark circles by the this point were so bad that my mom actually asked me if I had makeup under my eyes I needed to wash off) but instead I said a prayer and called David and he talked to me until I got back.  Once there I did get to take a couple hour nap and that felt good.

 
 

Friday afternoon finally dragged around and with it came discharge papers.  Kylie was feeling great by this point and the other kids were too.  We are truly grateful for that.  David had gone back to work Thursday and Friday and now he was done.  Even though I didn’t think I could take anymore, somewhere in the midst of getting lost on the way to the bus stop to pick David up, (the hospital had messed up the car situation) I realized that David had the next 11 days off and I would get a break too.  I rejoiced!  So somehow having the week before Christmas taken away from us we still got everything done, the food was prepped, presents wrapped and put together, and we slept.

 

We spent Christmas Eve at David’s parents’ house and the kids put on a cute Nativity scene with great costumes thanks to Aunt Michelle.  Christmas morning was full of excitement back here at home because Santa had fulfilled a little girl’s wish and there was a huge trampoline in our backyard.  Of course, our camera broke Christmas morning about halfway into the presents, but hey we’re starting to get used to things like this.  J

 
     
Dallin wouldn't participate
 

Christmas Presents
 
New toy from great grandpa Hufstedler, I am helping her head a little

The Thursday after Christmas everyone was feeling well enough (mentally and physically) to head to Washington on the Brazos Living Farm.  We went with David’s sister’s family and his other sister Jennifer.  The kids washed clothes on a washboard and tried on old 1850’s hats and learned how to build a fire etc.  It was a ton of fun and they really enjoyed the pigs.  I couldn’t believe the slave quarters just how small they really were.  This country sure has come a long way, I am grateful to be born in the time I was. 

 
     

After that we headed to College Station to the Drive through Christmas light display and go to Santa’s Wonderland.  It was a fun filled day.

 

Well, we hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year’s celebration; we were in bed at 12:15am and barely had our eyes open until then.  Isn’t great getting old?!  We are all doing well and now I am going to go knock on some wood.