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Let me start this post by saying I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and had fun ringing in the new year.
We spent Christmas morning and lunch with Adam and Nicole, spent the afternoon driving towards my parents, saw a truck flipped over due to awful weather, slowed down making the last 20 miles of the trip last 35 minutes. But we got there safely despite the icy roads and snow and precipitation and high winds. Christmas evening and the next two days were spent with my parents, siblings and their significant others. Much fun was had by all. Yes we took pictures and yes we will share but now is it is time to share the big deal that has slowed down getting the pictures to you.
On Saturday December 26th, Anna started to show a sign of getting sick. The following Monday she was slightly fevery and just wanted to be held. At some point during the afternoon she started to have retracted breathing (stomach & throat sucked in to breathe). Since she seems to have breathing problems whenever she is sick we just kept watching her. At 11 pm when she woke again her breathing wasn't right and I took her downstairs and said to Damion and Dawn that we were taking her to the ER. No call to the doctor, straight to the ER. In the ER the second person we saw within 5 minutes of getting to the room was Jill, a respiratory specialist whom we liked and was our advocate that night. Fast forward to 2:30 am. We are told Anna would be admitted for observation and were taken to her room, which happened to be the same room Jack was in a couple of years ago with RSV.
At 7:30 am on Tuesday, Anna's doctor did his rounds and I decided that he is much too chipper that early in the morning. He said tests were negative for RSV and 60-80% of influenza strains, a radiologist would review the x-rays again to rule out pneumonia, and specimens were being sent to the state for H1N1 testing, and that we'd be in again overnight because she needed to not be dependent on oxygen through the night.
Wednesday morning the doctor confirmed it wasn't pneumonia and he thought it might be viral and due to her age could not diagnosis her with asthma but that word was sure used a lot and that based on the fact she was still dependent on oxygen she'd be in the hospital another night. After an afternoon of running around attached to her oxygen sensor but not her oxygen tubes we were optimistic about going home the next day. However the night did not start at all as planned (had to be put back on oxygen for several hours) but got better thanks to Nurse Amanda answering our bagillion questions and helping wean Anna off the oxygen.
Thursday morning when we met with the doctor we were a little unsure if Anna would be going home or not due to her numbers throughout the night. Fortunately after a bagillion questions and answers between us and the doctor we brought her home by lunch time! She is still on a couple of medicines and receiving nubulizer treatments. We have a follow up appointment on Tuesday and will learn then if she is an H1N1 statistic and also have even more questions for our favorite pediatrician.
And what about Jack? Well as you read, Dawn was visiting and being the super duper best friend that she is, she took care of Jack for us most of those three days. Damion & I took turns staying with Anna but we still tried to spend as much time as we could with Jack. I don't know if we spent enough time with him but I am soooooo grateful that Dawn was here to play trains, watch Einsteins, be told “no” several times, feed and nap Jack for us. Not having to find a new “home” for a day or hour blocks was a blessing.
Once again I’d like to share with all of those DamionAndJess.com fans more cuteness from our kids.
This weekend it was raining. Anna asked Damion where the rain came from. Damion responded by explaining the rain cycle to her. She humored him by listening and then rolled her eyes up and put her finger to her mouth, a thinking type of look, and said, “Actually, God made the rain.” Damion was speechless. Fast forward to today I was driving with Anna, Jack, Connor and Erin in the van during a torrential downpour. Anna asked where the rain came from. I said “I thought you and Daddy talked about that.” She said, “Oh, right. God did it.” Erin chimed in saying that rain actually came from the rain clouds but after she thought about it she said, “I guess God must put the rain in the clouds.” For a moment I thought Anna (2 ½ yrs old) & Erin (6 yrs old) were going to get in a theological debate about the source of rain/water.
I truly think Jack is on his way to being a drum playing football player (speaking of football, what the heck is up with Favre unretiring AGAIN?!?!). On August 9th, Damion set Jack up on the floor with two drums and a xylophone. Jack happily played and did his beat count outs before starting but one of the best things caught on video was Jack said his first sentence!
First off, please note that this is the second of two updates for the night.....guess who's feeling talkative tonight.
The kids have been busy little kids.
During the week you can find us out in the backyard where Anna may perform a concert for you while Jack plays with his lawn mower. Or you may find them both in the dirt pit. Or Anna may be bringing me a container of dirt (aka green seed or hot chocolate or dirt seed) while Jack is playing with a bike. Or both kids could be pulling the hose out and working on turning it on.
Jack has been perfecting his grins over the last week. He makes this big grin that results in his eyes being closed and depending on the day he may even dance around in a circle. Jack is also a lover of dirt. Have I mentioned that yet at D&J.com? There is an area under the deck of the playset that has a dirt pit that he could spend hours playing in....and he has. After playing in the dirt his pants are brown, his shirt is brown and his face has a dirt smile on it....literally a dirt smile. He puts dirt in a cup and acts as though he is going to drink it but he doesn't but still gets a ring around his mouth.
Anna has been perfecting her language skills. The other day she has Damion's belt on around her waist with a stopper from Starbucks poked through one of the holes. She was holding the stopper/belt out in front of her and looked like she had a small sword in hand. She said “I Captain Anna”. I asked “Are you sure you're not Pirate Anna.” Anna paused, looked at me confused and said, “I don't understand those words.” I was really caught off guard by this statement and all I could do was simply praise her for that well phrased statement of fact.
Before I get started, Congratulations to TJ and Keri on the birth of their second child, Lily, who was born yesterday. After watching Connor for a week I’m sure he’ll be a great older brother.
I’m sure you’ve heard people say they are having a bad week, well let me just say that if Jack could speak full thoughts he would be saying that he is having the worst week of his life.
