Category: Uncategorized (Page 63 of 201)

The name mix-up has officially begun.  I’m sure you’re familiar with this game:  It’s the one where your parents say all the wrong names first.  I can vividly recall being call “Ky-Erica” growing up.  🙂  With 4 kids names to remember it’s getting harder and harder to get the right name out!  There was even a time after we had Josiah that we would accidentally throw “Dende” in the mix too!

The days are becoming a bit of a blur to me–I blink and somehow we’re already into the next day.  I’ve been taking pictures, but not really finding any time to sit and write anything… so here are a few pictures that I’ve taken on my phone over the past couple of days.  Enjoy!

And I know this last one is blurry, but I was holding Levi and Maddie was insistent on sitting in my lap too… It made me chuckle.  My lap just isn’t big enough anymore!

That’s right!  My wedding ring fits again already!  I actually tried it on last Thursday have been wearing it ever since.  It’s a lovely feeling.   🙂

I’m starting to feel like I might actually feel like my normal self again someday.  No more hip pain.  Sleeping on my back again.  Able to bend down and pick up stuff again.   Ahhhhhhhh…  I am anxious to start losing the extra baby weight, but I need to give that some more time.  After all, he’s only 2 weeks old today!  Ha!  🙂

We’re starting to figure out what our new normal is.  It’s taking Maddie a while to get used to having a baby around.  She’s genuinely concerned when he starts crying (and she’s already picked up on saying “baby” although it sounds more like “ba-ba”).  She’s also getting better at being gentle to him, although that’s going to be a long process.

Chloe and Josiah are finally settling back into their old selves.  Having me gone for so many days really threw them off, so it’s taken a few days to readjust.  We’re just about there…

I’ve had on and off days of sleeping great at night.  It’s about 50/50 right now.  He’ll have a really excellent night and then a bad night.  Although I should say that overall he’s meshing into a routine quite well.  For the most part he’s on a 2.5 – 3 hour cycle, which is great.  And, other than being tired, I’m recovering splendidly well.  I haven’t had to take any medicine since Tuesday–except one day when I had to take Advil for a splitting headache because I fell asleep in the chair with my neck all weird…).  I still have a dull throb of pain, but nothing that’s not manageable.  And I decided on Tuesday that it would be smarter for me to stop taking medicine to keep that dull throb so I am aware that I need to take it easy.  I figured if I feel totally normal I might overdo it.  Oh, and as a side note, I’ll have you all know that Tim still moved the lawn today… 😉

These are a few things I will remember from our hospital stay….

Trying to change his diaper around all the cords hooked up to him.  It was difficult to say the least.  Also we had to leave him propped in his bassinet b/c I couldn’t lift him up to feed him or burp him.  It would set off the alarms and I was worried about messing with his I.V.

These machines.  There are three of them in the picture.  The one in the back had three different alarms that could sound and then the front two also had alarms.  It wasn’t uncommon to have more than one ringing at a time.  It made it impossible to sleep…

The first time he was actually awake after sleeping for days.  It was so wonderful to see his eyes again.

Hospital Food.  I actually enjoy the food there, so that was a highlight for me.  This was one of my favorite breakfasts to order–ham and mozzarella cheese omelet.  Yummmmm.

We are officially HOME!  And boy is it wonderful.

Levi was officially discharged yesterday morning and we arrived home just after lunch.  They had said 48 hours fever free, and it was slightly less than that, but he was doing so well otherwise that they let us go.  I do have a follow up appointment tomorrow (Friday) to make sure everything still looks good.

Last night was a bit of a struggle… since he slept so much when he was sick he’s having a hard time learning how to fall asleep on his own after being awake.  There were a few days in there where he literally didn’t wake up at all, so being awake is a new thing for him!  We’ll work on it though and I’m sure it will improve in just a few days.  I forgot to set up my air mattress in his room, but I’ll be more prepared tonight.  😉  All those little tricks I figured out when Maddie was a baby have started to come back to me.  Just little things that make the nights smoother… because, if you don’t know this already, I’m not a nice person if I don’t get enough sleep.  It’s not pretty.

It’s nice to be home though and figure out our new normal.  And Maddie, especially, is loving having both Mom and Dad home again.

Life has not gone as we expected.  One week ago this morning Levi joined our happy little family making it a complete family of 6.  I thought the hardest part was going to be recovering from the unexpected C-section and having to wrap my head around the fact that I was going to have to take it easy.  (No lawn mowing for me quite yet!)  But I was wrong… Levi was planning to make things more interesting.

We decided last week that it would be beneficial for me to stay the extra night (Thursday night) and come home on Friday. It gave me one more night of good sleep with just Levi and some extra time to let my incision heal.  So by the time Friday morning rolled around I was itching to get home and back to normal life.  Emily, Zeke and Griffin’s Mom, came over and watched Josiah and Maddie so Tim could bring us home from the hospital.  We then enjoyed a low key afternoon and Bakers came over for a visit that evening.  Saturday morning Ryan and his family stopped in for a visit and then after lunch we all took naps before Josiah and Tim headed out to go to Griffin’s Birthday party (it was a dump truck theme and Tim brought his dump truck and skid to let the kids play in them).  Chloe also had a birthday party to go to, so I drove her to that one and then swung in to say hi to Tim and everyone at Griffin’s party.   It sounds like a lot, but trust me I was taking it slow.  We came home, got the kids to bed and then sat down to finish our movie, Captain America: Civil War.  As it ended Levi woke up.  That’s when I noticed he was warm.  Very warm.  We took his temp and he was 101.  I remember the pediatrician saying anything over 100.4 we need to bring him in.  So we decided it would be best if I brought him in to the E.R.

At the E.R. they confirmed his temp was 101.7 so it was a good thing we came in.  They told me they were going to do the full gamut of tests to figure out the cause of the fever.  So over the next few hours they had to do a urine catheter, X-rays, draw blood, insert an I.V. and start him on antibiotics.  We came in around 9:30 and were finally admitted into a room and hooked up for the night at 2:30.  (Also, as a side note:  my phone was almost dead when I got to the hospital.  Of all the nights to not be able to use my phone!  I was able to conserve enough battery life to send Tim updates, but that was it.  Needless to say, that was a very long 5 hours with nothing to do to distract me and only my irrational thoughts swirling around in my tired head… but after we finally got settled I was able to get a couple hours of sleep and then I happened to mention to a nurse that my phone was dead and she found me a charger.  Yay!)

And that brings us to Sunday morning.  Tim was able to call Jennifer who came right over so he could get tot he hospital and get caught up on the situation–as well as bring me much needed items.  I didn’t foresee spending the night (let alone MANY nights) when I came to the E.R. so I needed things like a toothbrush!  Ironically I hadn’t unpacked my hospital bag yet so he pretty much just brought most of that back for me.

The past couple of days here at the hospital have been a bit of a blur to me.  I thought I would just rest most of the time I was here, but that has proved to be harder than it sounds.  There are so many monitors and “things” hooked up to Levi that all have alarms that ring if something is off.  And they are loud.  In fact certain buzzers actually get louder the longer they ring… I know it’s for safety, but it makes sleeping very difficult.  Plus the nurses were in and out every 30 min or so the first 2 days checking on I.V.’s and vitals.  I was able to go home yesterday afternoon to spend some time with the kids and I took a short nap while Maddie was sleeping–and it was divine to sleep in my own bed and my own quiet house.  🙂

Tim has done a great job of documenting the details of what’s been happening with Levi, so I’ve decided to postdate his updates on here.  I’m going to post them on the day that it would go with, so you’re going to see some posts from this past week popping up, but I’m sure you’ve read them all on Facebook already.  I’m putting them on here so I can have a record of this later…

Baby update 4: Last night was an up and down night. Levi’s fever came back briefly but was brought down very quickly with a small dose of Tylenol. Also, for some reason his oxygen level has been on the low end of where they want it to be. They decided to give him a little oxygen to help boost his levels. Because of this the Dr order a few more blood tests and x-rays. Both of these came back normal so they are not sure why his oxygen levels are on the low side. They are hypothesizing that because he is sleeping so much his body just isn’t taking in quite enough. Lastly, his blood cultures came back negative so he doesn’t have any additional bacteria infections. It is just a virus so now we just have to let it run it’s course. Before they will let him come home they want him to perk up. So now it’s just a waiting game…..

Baby update 4.5: Today ended up being a very good day. After the morning check-up he did not need any more oxygen. His levels had evened out and has been fever free. He also has perked up a bit and was awake for 3 hours which is about 2.5 hours longer than most awakes times these last few days. Hopefully, we are on the home stretch.

Baby update 3: Drs have identified the virus (don’t ask me what the name of it is) and are treating it according. Levi’s temp has been improving quite nicely. As of 11:00 he had a “normal” temperature without any Tylenol. He is still eating like a champ and gaining weight, but he is sleeping A LOT. Mom is doing good and will be coming home this afternoon for some much needed love from the other 3 kiddos. Still no indication of when Levi and mom will come home for good, but we are blessed to have so many friends and family who have helped these past couple days.

Baby update: Last night Levi spiked a fever so Erica brought him to the ER. The Drs have run tons of tests on him and everything has come back normal. They are keeping him for 48 hours to pump him full of antibiotics. Your prayers would be appreciated.