Updates...

Well, it's been busy the past few weeks.

For starters, Riley was bench pressing and dropped a barbell on his nose and broke it. Got a call from the school trainer, so we rush him down to Dell Children's to find out there's not much they can do, but for us to wait for the swelling to go down and go to an ENT. So we've done that, and they tried to straighten his nose back out but it didn't work so now he will need surgery. His nose is still pretty crooked, but he can't breathe as well right now, and there's still a lot of pain, so as soon as school is out, he will have to have surgery to try and fix it. Boys, they sure keep you on your toes!

David had a class to take in Houston, so I went with him and we left the kids in the very capable hands of Uncle Matt!! It was fun to get away for a few days and not have to worry about feeding dogs or feeding kids. I dropped David off at his class at Rice University and went to the Holocaust Museum, to the movies, the bookstore, a cafe, just had some fun alone in my home town. Then at night we would take advantage of the hotel hot tub, and got to eat at some great restaurants. We stayed over and extra day too, and found and awesome chocolate shop in the Galleria where David bought my mother's day gift! He knows me so well!

Now it's the end of school rush, with awards and parties and tests every time we turn around. I am more than ready for school to be over. Riley had his AP Human Geography test, and they've both had STAAR tests and end of course exams, and Riley still has finals coming up. I'm DONE! I am ready for summer, and I know they are too!

Riley's Wrestling Career Starts, Then Ends.

Now that football season is over, Riley decided to try wrestling. Practice has been in the evenings until the last varsity football game (this Friday, since Hendrickson made it to the playoffs, go Hawks!) so last night David was waiting to pick Riley up and he came out on crutches. Not good.

Riley was wrestling with another kid, and his leg got twisted around and he fell on it wrong and when he went to stand up, he heard a pop.  So this morning we brought him to the school for the trainer to look at his knee, and she said it looked like his MCL and meniscus. I made him an appointment with the Pediatric Ortho that Regan saw for her broken arms, and we got right in. They did some x-rays but didn't see anything.

So they think he has a sprained ankle, and a badly sprained MCL. They don't think anything is torn, but they want him to wear this brace for 2 weeks and see if he gains any movement. If it still hurts, they will do an MRI then. Until then, rest it, no sports, and take it easy. Which means no football or drills or PT. Down time is never easy for him, so this will be interesting!

The Dangers of Trampolines

I had a Groupon for a Trampoline Park, so we took the kids for some Friday night, pre-long weekend fun. Well, that backfired. We weren't there one hour before Riley decided to brush up on his gymnastics spinning back flip skills and Regan got a shin to the forehead. She came over crying with her hand on her head, and David says, "It can't be that bad, there's no blood." Then she removed her hand and David said, "Oh my God!" there was a knot the size of a grapefruit on her forehead, that thing was huge! She was crying and I know it hurt, so I got her an ice pack and we went to sit in the car for a bit, then decided to have David bring us home, the lights and sounds were bothering her. I was afraid of a concussion but she wasn't nauseous or dizzy so we just laid around for a while and I gave her ibuprofen. She was very concerned about the swelling not going down by Tuesday for school, but I told her I would get her a Klingon costume for Halloween and she would be fine! (She doesn't know what that is, or she probably would have hit me). This was her before the bump, looking cute in her kitty ears (that she tells people are really wolf ears).

Updates

I realized I'm kind of behind on updating but there hasn't been too much going on, so don't worry, you didn't miss much :)

First, we had Elise's follow up appointment on the MRI on the 6th, it went surprisingly well! Trista and her friend Nancy drove Elise down and we met David for lunch at Freebird's so he could spend some time with his favorite baby. Then we headed down to the appointment, and it was kind of odd. We had to wait forever, the doctor came in finally and just goes, "Uh, yeah, it's gone." We just kind of stared at him a minute before we realized what he meant. He said the cyst has "mysteriously disappeared." Then said, good thing we didn't do surgery! So, that was that. Great news, and what we had been praying for! (We do we always seemed surprised when God answers our prayers?)

Then they went home after the appointment (and after we did a drive by of some of Austin's best goodie places)

And then Riley started football practice from 8-12 every day, and I've just been the taxi. Regan has spent the night with friends, and we've just been plugging along, trying to avoid the heat, and getting ready for vacation.

Speaking of...we leave tomorrow! We told the kids we are spending the week at Galveston, and we are going down tomorrow night to spend the night with their cousins, Joy and Jeremiah. We haven't had a chance to do cousin camp this summer, and Regan was so disappointed, until I told her that we would be able to spend ONLY one night with them. She jumped up and down and said, "Mom, one night with Joy is ALL I NEED!!"  She's very excited!

Then on Saturday morning, we will head to Galveston, not to stay there for the week, but to surprise the kids with a cruise! We are going to Progreso and Cozumel, and will swim with the dolphins in Cozumel. I know Regan is going to FREAK. I can't wait. I am excited to have time with the kids (and David) before school starts back up and we are all running ourselves ragged.

So stay tuned for a ton of pictures when I get home! We are going to be radio silent for the whole trip (another thing I'm excited about) no phones, no i-things, just family time. Good old fashioned family time!

See you next week!

Trip to the ER

Well, since Elise doesn't have Medicaid still, until we go to court next time (hopefully she will be able to get it then) CPS told us anything that she needs medically, needs to be done at Dell Children's and they can back date her Medicaid. So, when she had a rash that got out of control, that meant a trip to the ER. When I was there with Regan just a few weeks ago, they told me their waits can get up to 8 hours long! So I was not looking forward to spending an entire day in the ER. So, after Elise's nap, I packed her bag with PJ's, extra toys and bottles, and headed on down. I prayed on the way, "God, I would LOVE to be in and out of here in under 3 hours. Well, under 2 hours. Under 1 would be great but probably unrealistic, so 2 hours maybe?" And, God heard my prayer, we were in and out in less than an hour and a half! (I should have stuck with 1 hour!)

Anyway, Elise has got to be the happiest baby to ever be in the emergency room, she was all smile's and just adorable in her little hospital gown. They knew right away what it was. We thought she was getting bug bites or something, and she ran a fever the other day, but only for a day, so I wasn't sure what was going on. But she has Hand, Foot and Mouth disease, and her diaper rash turned into Impetigo, basically a skin infection. So, we got prescriptions for oral and topical antibiotics, and we were out of there!

She's doing better, but still not eating, she has sores all inside her mouth, poor thing. She doesn't like the taste of her medicine, so I am having to figure out creative ways to get it down the hatch. But, I'm glad she's going to be feeling better, and that we know what this is. The doctor had told me it was a yeast infection previously, so we've been trying everything diet-wise to figure it out, and just nothing seemed to work. Glad we know now and it's on the way out!

The Casts are GONE!

Regan was very excited to finally get her last cast off. We had a Girl Scout campout coming up and she did NOT want to go camping with a cast on. On the off chance she could find her way to a pool or lake or something!

They took her cast off (nasty), she tried to keep it (gross) and took more x-rays of both arms. The left arm looks almost like new, and the right arm is getting there. She is now in a splint on the right arm only, for 3 weeks and only when she's out of the house. So she's very excited. Her arm was really gross when they took the cast off though, lots of brown, dead skin. The doc told her to wait and let it all come off on it's own or it would be sensitive, but before they could come in with the splint, she had all that dead skin rubbed off.

After 2 months, she's cast free!!

New Easter Cast

Regan was very excited to finally get some changes. Her pink, short arm case was cut off and replaced by a splint for the next 3 weeks. The purple, long arm cast was removed and replaced by a cool, Easter pink and blue striped short arm cast for the next 4 weeks! X-rays looked good, new bone growth around the breaks, and she got to wash her arms in the sink with soap and water and everything! She stood there while I washed and rubbed the dead skin off. Yuck, it's amazing how nasty it gets under those casts. She's much happier now that she can move her right elbow again!

David came with us since we all had the day off for Good Friday and so we took Regan to her new favorite place for lunch, Arpeggio, a Mediterranean deli, she loved it!

Two Casts!

Regan went back to school on Tuesday and came home wiped out! She was so excited to go back though, she loves school (yay!)

And I didn't realize how much of an ordeal insurance companies and referrals could be, but now I know! SO frustrating. I spent most of the week on the phone with some interesting conversations. "I need a referral" "Oh, I sent that for you last week!" "Uh, I need ANOTHER referral!" The ortho office insisted they needed two separate referrals, the pediatrician's office insisted one would do, we finally had to get the insurance company involved to say yes, one referral would be fine. It took 4 days of non stop phone calls to get that to happen. So, we finally went in for the follow up on Thursday.

They took more x-rays, everything looks good, her ulna bone is still wonky, there's a big curve in it that they say will straighten up eventually. The took her ace bandage off and she decided the purple looked best with the hot pink cast on the other arm, so now she's got a little cast-fashion going on.

There was a high school boy there in a wheelchair who had fallen asleep in the car with his feet on the dashboard and they hit a deer and the airbags went off, and he now has two broken ankles! Riley sits like that all the time so I told him he can't do that anymore!

Regan Update

Regan is doing much better. She had to wear her foam lego until last night, and it was a good thing because she was getting really tired of it. She slept a lot the last two days, and she is going to go back to school today. She had picked out a loose skirt and shirt to wear, but a cold front blew in last night so it's time to re-evaluate that. She does NOT want to have to go to the nurse to get help going to the bathroom, so we are trying to make it as easy as possible for her. It did hit me last night, she will need help with her lunch tray! Maybe I need to pack a bunch of finger foods for a while for her. I emailed her teacher and she is going to give Regan a writing buddy, so that made Regan feel better. This week is writing camp and she was really looking forward to that.

She got her very first flower delivery yesterday, from our Pastors at church, and she was so thrilled! And her friends across the street brought her a cute little stuffed horse. She's loving the extra attention, the only perk of having two broken arms!

Another Big Break

It's been a long night. We went to Mimi and Papa's for dinner and game night and we brought Hunter to play in their massive backyard while Riley was riding his bike on the nearby bike track. Regan was out back with Hunter, they were running around the yard, playing chase. At one point, Regan went to run down the stairs and tripped and fell down the rock garden steps. I was right behind her so I saw her go down, and ran to help her up but before I could get there she stood up screaming bloody murder. She held her good arm up, and it was very obviously broken. It was hanging down, and not in a place where it should be hanging down from.

She was screaming and saying she was sorry and David just grabbed her and we ran to the truck and took her to the nearest hospital which was North Austin Medical Center. We got right back and then had to sit. Forever. They came in and took x-rays but wouldn't give her any pain medicine until they knew if she would need surgery or anything, it had to be done on an empty stomach. So we waited and waited only to find out they wanted to transfer us to Dell Children's.

Then we waited some more for them to clean up her knees that got all banged up again, and for them to splint her for transport, and for our discharge papers. A guy comes in that looks like one of her Kids Church pastors, Mr. Edwin, and she liked that. They finally did give her a pill for the pain, and one for nausea, and he put a splint on her arm and she was happy finally. We were there for over 3 hours before we left for Dell.

Got to Dell, and it was super crowded, but thankfully they got us back right away. Then it was another hurry up and wait. They got the x-rays and wanted to make sure they got all the angles they needed, they wanted her other orthopedic doctor to check them and see if she needed surgery or if they could just set it or what. So finally someone named Saturday came from the ortho's office and we talked about what she would do, and they brought in this huge x-ray machine that takes a continuous x-ray while they work so they can see what they are doing while they are doing it. Super cool (cha-ching). There were about 7 people in there during the procedure (cha-ching!) and I had to sit in the waiting room after they gave her a dose of ketamine. She thought it was pretty funny that we told her that was a horse tranquilizer. We said when she's a vet and she has to give that to a horse, she will be able to tell them she knows how it feels!

Finally, they got her arm set, they had to break the radius bone all the way through, it was broken about halfway but she broke it so it would set back together right. The ulna bone is still bent at an odd angle but she said that should straighten up while in the cast. So they put a huge plaster cast on, then had to saw it right in half since her arm was swollen, then she wrapped it in an ace bandage for now. We will go in later this week to get the hot pink cast cover on it once the swelling has gone down. And she also has this giant lego looking pillow that she has to keep her arm in to keep it up for 48 hours.

So we left Dell and went to Walgreen's to get her meds and to Taco Cabana for a late dinner and finally home at 4am. She's been resting every since. Everyone told me how sweet and polite she was, she kept telling everyone thank you for everything they did for her. She was very sweet. We had a nice long conversation, she asked how God could let this happen, and I explained to her that the devil is bad, and he wants people to blame God for everything. She told me as we were leaving the hospital, "Mom, I don't care if I break every bone in my body 1000 times, I'm still gonna serve Jesus!" That's my girl!

Buckle Fracture

Well, what a long day! We got a call last night from the radiologist and they said that Regan's arm is definitely fractured, and to take her to a pediatric orthopedist at Dell Children's ASAP. So I kept her home from school so we could go first thing in the morning. Well, that didn't work out like I planned! I recently changed their primary care physician, because we have new insurance. I was all the way through all the million questions to get the appointment when they say, "Oh wait, you need a referral from your primary doc!"

So, called the NEW PCP, and had to explain, well, we just switched insurance, had to pick a doctor off the list, we have never seen you, but we need a referral. Guess what? Not taking new patients, nothing they can do. So I call the old doctor, hey, I need a referral, quick! Well, they weren't listed as the PCP so they couldn't do the referral. A HUGE MESS!

I was on the phone for over 3 hours trying to get something set up, and they could find us a place to take us but we would have to pay cash, or we found a place that would take us but not until Monday, and I was getting more and more worked up, so I called David and passed the buck to him. He called back within about 30 minutes and had it all taken care of! He talked to a supervisor at the insurance company and they sent a letter promising that we have coverage and they will get their referral ASAP, so they got us in this afternoon finally.

Once I knew we were going to get in, we made our way downtown. We stopped for lunch at one of David's favorite places, Arpeggio Grill, it's a Mediterranean buffet and Regan LOVES that kind of food. She was in heaven. She had never been there before, but I think she would go there for every meal now!

Then on to the ortho, and more x-rays, and sure enough, a buckle fracture of the radius bone. She said it was like when a coke can crumples, and the bone is soft still since she's young and it didn't break all the way through but just kind of crumpled. So, nice hot pink cast, no getting it wet, no scooters, bikes or PE for the next 4-6 weeks! We go back in 4 weeks to see if it's healed up enough to take the cast off. Pretty crazy day! But, she's doing a lot better now. Last night she was in a lot of pain, I think from using it too much, so I think this will help a lot.

Regan's Big Break

After having Riley x-rayed so many times, I was worried he would become some radioactive super-hero (Injury-Man anyone?) it was Regan's turn I guess. She came in from playing last night, right about the time we were supposed to leave for church, bloody and upset. She's very stoic when she's hurt, so I never know how bad things really are. She once had a well check with a double ear infection and we had no idea! She's not one to milk things either, like her big brother. She had fallen off her scooter and landed on her arm and knees pretty bad. Her forearm was swollen, and her knees looked like she slid down a cheese grater.

So, I wasn't sure if we should watch and wait for swelling to go down or go to urgent care right away. But after about an hour, the swelling had gone down some, but you could still feel a lump in her arm, above the wrist area, and her knees and legs were pretty nasty looking. Bad case of road rash. So, I took her in. There's an urgent care place right down the road and they got us in and out in about an hour, so that was nice. She cried when they did the x-ray because of how she had to hold her arm. The results were somewhat inconclusive. The doctor thinks it is something called a "greenstick" fracture, but they were sending the x-rays to a pediatric radiologist today and I haven't heard back yet.

In the meanwhile, they splinted her arm and cleaned and wrapped the legs.  She can't really put any pressure on her arm, or push or pull with it, so changing clothes has been a challenge (which might mean less laundry for a while, that girl likes to change her clothes!) Anyway, she's doing much better now, took some ibuprofen and got some rest, and she's ready to go!

Letters...

Well, the new year is off to a bang. I made chicken and dumplings for dinner, a new recipe, and then David and Regan spent the night throwing up. They were convinced I had poisoned them. I was fine until morning and by then I figured it was a stomach virus. I have had a bad cough for a few days, and then the stomach thing hit, then fever, chills, it's been fun around here. I don't think any of us ate anything for the last 24 hours. Regan ate a bite of banana and couldn't even keep that down.

And to top it off, David managed to practically crawl down to the mailbox to see if we had a letter from Riley yet, and we did, there were 2 of them, from day 2 and 3 of training. If possible, I felt worse after reading them! He said he hated it, he had been throwing up too cause the food was so bad, he cried on the plane, he sprained his wrist (the medic said so, he wasn't making it up), the bed was uncomfortable, he wanted us to call them and let him leave early, he would pay us back for all the money we spent on Sea Cadets, he didn't want to even be in Sea Cadets anymore! It was 4 pages front and back of pure misery. I almost cried. I felt so bad, and there's nothing we can do at this point! They told us to expect the first letter or two to be that way but they will get better. I wasn't sure. He sounded terrible and unhappy and I was thinking I'm the worst mom in the world for letting him go, I should know better, my poor baby bird!

But then today, David checked the mail again (we're feeling marginally better, able to eat again at least and no more fever, so thankfully it must have just been a 24 hour thing, although I still have a nasty cough). We got another letter, this time it was MUCH better! He wrote it at 4:30am California time, from class, so he's getting up bright and early! He said the food was getting better "You know you've been here too long when the eggs taste good"! and his company won the ribbon for most improvement! He said he misses his bed and his heated blanket, but he is still wanting to do SEAL and JSOC training, so he hasn't given up! I feel much better. And he will be home tomorrow, before we know it. I can't wait, I've really missed him!

Sittin' On the Dock of The Bay

Today Jingle went fishing! Guess he was getting hungry from all his travels.

Got a call from Regan's school yesterday that she was running a 101 fever. I'm across town running errands, but start heading back and not 5 minutes later got a call from Riley that he's throwing up! So, after dropping them off at home, making a run to the store for medicine and sick-kid-food, had a lazy rest of the day at home. Riley is better and at school today, Regan was fine by last night, but kept her home today because of the 24 hour rule. So, tomorrow we should be back in the swing of things.

Broken Toe

On Saturday, Riley and David were at the park for a father/son small group, and Riley decided to play football with the boys, barefoot. Not one of his smarter ideas and now he knows why. He ran into a pipe and hurt his big toe. We debated about whether we should go to the emergency room or wait until Monday morning and go to the doctor. We decided to wait, thinking they wouldn't cast a big toe anyway, and he has crutches from one of his (many) earlier incidents.

So, we took him in first thing Monday morning, they did x-rays (only our 10th set of x-rays in the past 3 years) and sure enough, it was broken. They had to call the podiatrist and set us up with them, so today we went there, they wanted another set of x-rays, and she said there are two clean breaks on that toe. If the bone had shifted even 1 millimeter, she would want to do surgery right away and put a pin in the toe. Riley was VERY relieved that he didn't have to have surgery! So now he's sporting a nice clunky boot, AND crutches, and we have to go back in 3 weeks for even more x-rays and hope he is healing by then. It's gonna be a fun spring break.

Regan's Surgery

Regan finally had her surgery, tonsils and adenoids out, and tubes in. We had to be at the hospital by 7:30, so I took her while dad got Riley to school, and I was surprised that we were in and out pretty quick. We did sit in the room for a bit, but they took her back around 9:30, and she was out by 10:15, and we waited in recovery for a while and then were home around 1. She had a fair amount of pain, but even the night after surgery she ate 2 bowls of rice with coconut milk, and on day 3 she ate a couple of bean and cheese burritos from Taco Cabana. She was never too content with just the ice cream. So, we were able to find her some soft foods that she was okay with.

Here are a few pictures of the patient while she recovered. She got bored after a couple of days, I had gotten her a cute book from Costco that we colored in, and she wanted to make a cake, a rainbow cake, and I let her mix the colors herself, and we ended up with a Mardi Gras cake! She wants to go to Louisiana so bad, so she was so happy to have that cake!

A Month Later...

Can't believe it's been a month since I posted. I think it's because there's not much going on, but then when I look back at it, I have had a lot going on. I'll try to do better!!

So, the past month or so...I started a Bible Study at church, Lisa Bevere's Lioness Arising, and so far, I highly recommend it. It's been a little difficult to read at times (for me personally) but as usual with her studies, exactly what I need, when I need it. David and I joined 24 Hour Fitness. I go most mornings with a friend of mine. Monday and Friday is Zumba, Tuesday and Saturday is Aqua Zumba or Water Aerobics and Wednesday is the worst, Kickboxing. One day they had a substitute teacher and that was Nightclub Cardio and it made me realize just how long it's been since I've been in a nightclub. It was fun though, but I'm glad no one was video taping. Or maybe they should...I KNOW I could win that grand prize on America's Funniest Home Videos!!

I've been having a lot of hormone imbalance issues lately, and I went to my doctor, and she wanted me to go to an endocrinologist but there was a 6 month wait, and I finally told David one night, you know who I would *love* to go see, but he probably has an even longer wait list, is Dr. Glenn from church. He says, oh, yeah, I have coffee with him every Sunday. Uh, WHAT?! He sees him at Starbucks before church every Sunday and they talk. So he asked Dr. Glenn about me and he said sure, for me to come on in, he would see me before hours in 2 weeks. Talk about favor!!

So, I went to see Dr. Glenn and that was the most interesting, eye opening appointment I've had in my life! This guy is a medical genius. But, he put me on some supplements, and told me to try a low glycemic diet and started some preventative things since I have a pretty high cancer risk in my family. He even wants me to start Regan on it, to get her hormones off on the right foot.

In the midst of all of this, Regan has had strep again, and a stomach virus that she passed to Riley who passed it to David. I'm not going near anyone till it's gone, I absolutely hate to be sick.

I also had a consultation with Regan's teacher and principal and we decided it would be best for Regan to move her back to 3rd grade. She was pretty upset about it at first, but I can already see a big difference in her. She had pretty much shut down before and was getting so confused and upset that she couldn't keep up. But now, she's learning, she's involved, she's writing chapter books! She has made friends, another girl in her class also came from 4th grade, so they don't feel so alone now. She was a very young 4th grader, so age wise she fits right in, and her teacher is really nice. I like her a lot and she seems very loving, which Regan responds well to.

And then this morning, I took Regan in for a consultation to see about having her tonsils removed. With this last bout of strep, I had them check her records and she's had it 5 times in the past 12 months, so we got the referral and went in this morning. Before the doctor would even look at her throat though, he had some serious issues with her ears and sent us to audiology to do a hearing test. We had one done last year, so it was nice to have a baseline, and they could see that she's having some hearing loss. Her ear drums are retracting, from a negative pressure that is building up behind her ears. He said the ear drums are supposed to be taut, and hers are caving in and causing her bones to be misshapen. So, he wants her tonsils and adenoids out and tubes put in ASAP. The next available surgery, no waiting until a school holiday which is what I was hoping for.

So, on Friday November 4th, we will be having that done. He's hoping by removing the adenoids, that will reduce the pressure and she won't need tubes for long, the tubes he's putting in will last about 8-12 months and hopefully that will be all. But, I'm glad that I pushed for an ENT consult, and I'm glad we're getting this done now! We did all the pre-addmissions and they gave her a blanket from the Linus Project, a charity that makes blankets for kids who have surgery and it's adorable and she loves it!



And Riley, he's loving school, but he didn't get a great first report card. He's still having some issues with everything being on the tablet and so he's forgotten to log in and do some work, so we're working on that. He broke the screen on his tablet and the screen on his phone, and I can't believe he'll be 13 in just a few weeks. A bonafide teenager. God help us! Not really, he's a good kid, but man, I always thought it was an expression, beat the girls off with a stick, but not so in his case. He has girls lining up already. I'm scared!! He's too cute for his own good!!

Well, I guess that's about it. Next time I won't wait a month and then the update won't be as long. Hopefully!

Charles Elijah

Charles Elijah

What a roller coaster the last few days have been! On Sunday, after church, I took the kids to the outlet mall to get some new shoes, and it was sweltering hot. We hurried, rushed home and met Kenzie and Joe at the pool, and wouldn't you know it, a cold front came in just as we got to the pool, it dropped 20 degrees! The kids still jumped in, but after swimming about an hour, we were all freezing and turning blue, so we left.

When we got home, Kenzie told me she thought she had been leaking amniotic fluid for a few days. I was concerned about that and told her to call the doctor immediately and see what they say about it. Well, they told her to go ahead and pack her bags just in case, and come on in, but no rush. So, she went home and packed her bags and came back here and I drove her to the hospital. Well, they got her checked out and sure enough, it was amniotic fluid so they decided to hook her up to a pitocin drip right away to get contractions started.

I went home and changed clothes (it was freezing in there and I will still in my "hot" clothes) so took Regan back up there with me where we sat and waited. And waited. And waited! She was around 1cm for hours. They got the pitocin up as high as they would go and left it there most of the night, and while she was having regular contractions, they just weren't productive.

So, on Monday afternoon, I went home, cleaned up, took a nap, and then headed back up there Monday evening. The doctor finally said they could increase the pitocin by double the amount, and so that started climbing, the contractions got worse, and much more painful, and finally, about 27 hours in, Kenzie asked for an epidural. It was horrible, I know she was so hungry, and tired and worn out, and in so much pain at that point, that even I, a staunch epidural-opponent, was like, get that needle in here STAT!!

Well, that made contractions stop completely, so they upped the pitocin again, but that made Eli's heart rate drop off the charts, so they would stop pitocin, then the contractions would stop, so they would start pitocin again, and then his heart would drop again, it was a long back and forth, back and forth. Finally, they realized, she was still just barely at 5cm, and this was not going anywhere, so they decided to do an emergency c-section. They said she could bring one person with her, she pointed at me, they gave me some lovely paper scrubs, and away we went. I was nervous, I don't handle blood well AT ALL. Mine is fine, anyone else's and I get light headed.

So, within minutes, I find myself at her head, desperately trying not to see anything, and just freaking out over the whole c-section process. They were very aggressive at that point, and it was just all so surreal. But in a matter of minutes, we see little Eli, and come to find out, the cord was wrapped tightly around his little neck, and it took him a while to breathe and start making noises. But finally he started making some little sounds, and they wrapped him up, showed him to Kenzie, then me and Eli left for the nursery while they put her back together.

He was perfect, so cute and a head full of black hair!! He was born at 12:58am on May 3rd. He weighed in at 7lbs 12 oz, and that's a pretty good size for being 3 weeks early! He was 20.5 inches long, head was 14.5 inches. He was in the nursery for a couple of hours for observation, but then they brought us back to Kenzie's room where she finally got to hold him. We stayed there for a couple of hours, getting our stuff together to move to a different room, and finally got moved over around 6am. It was a long, hard night!

So, here are some pictures of Charles Elijah, and some of his visitors. He's been really good, sleeping for 3 hours at a time, waking up to nurse, he's taken to breastfeeding almost immediately, and he's just so darn cute! Kenzie is finally up and around, and should be able to leave the hospital tomorrow.

Never A Dull Moment!

The kids are at Camp Doublecreek this week, having the time of their lives! They love going to camp there, and I love them being there! They come home so tired and happy. Well, last night I sent Riley up for his bath around 9, and he tried to open the blinds a little bit, and the whole thing fell and landed on his toe. I heard him scream immediately, "CALL 911!" and Regan and I ran upstairs, and I saw blood all over the bathroom floor, his toe was cut open, and he's standing there screaming. So I grabbed a towel, wrapped his foot, helped him back into his shorts, and nearly had to slap Regan to get her to stop screaming (she thought his whole toe had been cut off) and we rushed out the door to the ER. Called David who was on his way home from church so he just met us there.

It was a crazy night for the ER they said, normally a Wednesday evening is pretty tame but they were pretty busy, so we did have a bit of a wait (even with our insurance VIP card). But they finally got Riley back, and asked if he wanted a shot to numb his toe so they could clean it out. He wasn't sure, but David and I talked him into it, thinking a little shot like he got at his last doctor appointment, but turned out to be much more traumatic. They had a male nurse hold him down while he screamed bloody murder, "Mom, make it stop!" I felt horrible, but as soon as it was done, his toe was numb and they got it cleaned up pretty quick.

They took X-rays to make sure the toe bone wasn't shattered (it wasn't) and then the doctor said it was too close to the nail to stitch, but he wanted to make a hole in his toenail to relieve the pressure. So he used a hot cautering tool, and it was pretty gross, but as soon as he finished, a lot of blood oozed out, so I know that had to feel better. Then they wrapped his toe in gauze like a giant mushroom cap and sent us home. He is now on crutches, has to keep his foot dry for a few days and he will more than likely lose his nail, but for now it's all good.

Today was the big paintball tournament at camp and I know he's bummed about missing that, but knowing him he is going to push it to the limits and will be back up and running in no time.

Look Ma! No Cavities!

Sent from my G1 phone