3 weeks 2 days - Ian is home!

We brought Ian home from the hospital this evening!  Today he reached 36 weeks gestation and it is one month from the day he was due. If you remember, 36 weeks and 2/17 was my long-term goal to make it to while on bedrest. It turned out to be a milestone of a different kind: homecoming!

On Monday, he was circumcised and Tuesday he passed his car seat challenge so the only thing holding him back was continuing to succeed at bottle feeding and going spell-free for 5-7 days or so. Since Thursday, he has been taking all of his feedings by bottle and doing better each day with them. His last spell was around 10 pm last Friday. I got a call from the neonatalogist yesterday afternoon at about 4 o'clock and he said that we could take Ian home today assuming that he tolerated his feedings through this morning and did not have any more spells. He would get his Synagis shot (to help fight against RSV) yesterday afternoon or this morning. I called this morning and Ian was still doing well so we could take him home!

Ryan and I dropped Keira off at a friend's house about 3 pm and we got to the hospital around 3:45 pm.  We spent about 30-40 minutes talking with the nurse regarding his discharge instructions, gathering up his things, and putting him in his carseat (a longer process than I remembered since he is so tiny!).  We picked up Keira a little after 5 pm and got home by 5:30 pm.

Keira was very excited to see Ian in the car and kept talking to him and calling out "Baby Ian." When we got home, she immediately wanted him out of the car seat so she could hold him. She has been talking about holding him and helping me change his diaper all week.  "Me hold Ian. Me help Mommy change Ian's diaper." So I got Ian out of his car seat and brought him and Keira into the family room so that she could hold him. She sat down on the sofa and I put him in her arms and Ryan helped her to hold him. She had the biggest smile on her face! All night she was very interested in what "Baby Ian" was doing (mostly laying in the Pack 'n Play).  When I fed him at 6 pm, she was right next to us the entire time and watching him try to nurse then drink milk from the bottle.  While he was drinking his bottle, she kept trying to hug him (read: crush him!) and give him LOTS of love. I don't think things could have gone better, she seemed so excited to have "Baby Ian" home.

Tomorrow I will take Ian to see the pediatrician while Ryan stays home with Keira during her nap.

A new adventure has officially begun...life as parents of two and big sister to baby Ian. We couldn't be happier to have Ian home!

(Okay, time to go to bed as he will be eating again shortly...I'm tired just thinking about it.)

This little piggy...

Tonight after going potty, a truly terrible event occurred. Keira was grabbing for her sippy cup full of water off the bathroom counter and it slipped out of her hand. I could see it falling, but was unable to catch it before it fell...with full vertical force on the big toe of my right foot. It was quite painful and I was in severe pain for several hours. I even called Ryan on the phone to ask him how I would know if my toe was broken and broke down crying while talking to him as it hurt that badly. A bruise showed up pretty quickly.

After putting Keira to bed for the night with some difficulty, I spent the rest of the evening icing the toe and keeping it elevated. The pain lessened some before I headed to bed, but I tossed and turned quite a bit trying to get comfortable without hurting the toe. This morning I awoke to find that the toe felt much better and I was able to get around today without much hobbling. Tomorrow the real test will come when I try to put on sneakers and go to my speed walking class.

At one point last night, I equated the pain I was feeling to the pain I felt while in labor before birth to Keira. Yes, it hurt A LOT!

I now have some bright blue bruising on my toe. So beautiful! The photo really doesn't do it justice.
Who knew a 14 oz. sippy cup could pack such a punch?!?

Lions and tigers and PIGTAILS...oh my!

This Friday afternoon I decided that Keira's hair was long enough to try pigtails after seeing several of her little friends having them. So cute! Check out her smiling at the camera, strutting her stuff as the "bag lady", eating snack, and playing games with Daddy.

A high fever, a febrile seizure, and an ambulance ride...

Keira awoke at 3:30 am early Wednesday morning with a fever. I gave her Motrin and it was about an hour until she went back to sleep for about an hour. She woke up again at 6:30, but pretty quickly went back to sleep. I canceled our activities for the day, and we spent the day at home with my friend Gabrielle coming over for lunch. Throughout the day on Wednesday, Keira was in pretty good spirits despite the fever. At 4:30, I gave her the next dose of Tylenol and her fever was high at 103 degrees. I had a game night planned with some girlfriends so I went to that and got back at about 10 pm. I typed up the Chuck E. Cheese blog entry, then went upstairs to get Ryan so we could check on Keira.

Ryan and I woke Keira up at around 10:30 that night to give her the next dose of Tylenol. She was very warm and sort of disoriented. She did not want to take the medicine and it took us a while to get some in her. She was fighting us. Seconds after taking the first half of the Tylenol dosage, Keira had a seizure at 10:40 for about 2 minutes. She never stopped breathing or anything, her entire body just seized up and sort of convulsed (not violently) with her limbs stiff and her feet pointed down, her eyes open, and gurgling, ragged breath coming out of her mouth. Ryan immediately called 911 (while she was still seizing) and a firetruck and ambulance arrived at our house within five minutes. When she came out of the seizure she immediately began crying and was very upset. While waiting for the EMTs to arrive, we stripped her down to her diaper to help cool her down. The EMTs checked her out and got the details of what had happened. I think her temperature was at 104 or so when they checked it at that time. They said we needed to take to the hospital to get her fever down and have her checked out. I dressed her in a bodysuit and gave her to Ryan so that I could change out of my pajamas. We wrapped her in a blanket, grapped her diaper bag, my wallet (for her insurance card) and some extra diapers, then ran out to the ambulance. The temperature outside had already dropped into the mid-teens so it was very cold out.

I held Keira in my lap on the stretcher while we were taken to the nearest hospital in the ambulance. Ryan was to meet us at the ER in our car. He was already there when Keira and I were rolled out of the ambulance on the stretcher. When we got to the ER, her fever was up to 104.9 and the nurses administered Motrin to bring the fever down. Keira was very upset and crying a lot and wanted me and only me to hold her. By 12:30 when the fever had dropped substantially, Keira was in much better spirits and no longer crying all the time, playing with Daddy and his cell phone. Her fever was down to 99.3 by about 1:00 am. Since the tests for flu and RSV came back negative and the two X rays taken of her chest did not show anything wrong, the seizure was diagnosed as a febrile seizure and we were sent home with instructions to give her Motrin and Tylenol alternately every four hours and to follow-up with the pediatrician the next day. I figured the fever might be due to the vaccinations that she had received on Monday afternoon, so the diagnosis made sense. When we got her in the car to go home, she was smiling and making happy noises and was very happy to be in her car seat and familiar surroundings. After stopping at a 24-hour pharmacy for more Motrin, we got home at about 1:30 and she went to sleep almost immediately.

Needless to say, Ryan and I didn't sleep much that night. The Tylenol and Motrin kept her fever down. When she woke up at 9:30 that morning, her fever was back up to 102.5 so we gave her the next dose of Motrin. We got to the pediatrician at about 10:15 that morning and were there for over two hours. At about 11 that morning, here fever was down to 101. The doctor did not think that the vaccinations would cause such a high fever, so some tests were run on Keira to try to determine the cause. A throat culture determined it was not Strep, and a blood count came back with Keira's white blood cell count elevated with anti-viral and anti-bacterial about equal. So it was thought that it was a viral infection. We were told that if she still has a fever on Saturday, that we should bring her into the office again.

Thursday afternoon when she woke up from her nap, her temperature was not elevated, but we gave her Motrin anyway. When we put her to bed at 8:00 pm, her temp was back up to 100.6 so we put her to bed knowing that we would need to wake her up at 9:30 to give her another dose of Motrin. At 9:15 she was very restless in her crib, so we woke her up, gave her the next dose of Motrin, and her temperature was up to 101.9. At 3:15 am Friday, we again woke her up to give her another dose of Motrin. When she woke up the next morning at 8:30, her temperature was down to 99.0 deg. I thought the fever had broken. However, at a little after 10 am, she was feeling a little warmer so I checked her temperature and it was back up to 101.0 so I gave her more Motrin. At 4:10, it was time for another dose, but her temp was 98.6 so I checked her again at 5:00, now it was only 99.6. So we waited until bedtime at 7:45 to check her temperature again. This time it was 101.3 so we gave her more Motrin and put her to bed for the night. We'll wake her again at 1:45 to give her another dose. It's looking pretty likely that we'll be making that trip to the pediatrician's office in the morning.

Throughout Thursday and Friday, Keira has been in good spirits, eating fairly well, and sleeping well albeit fitful. I am just so thankful that the seizure was not as bad as it could have been.

It turns out that febrile seizures are not uncommon and generally do not cause any long-term effects. However, there is now a higher chance that she may experience one again so we will have to be more aggressive in our treatment of fevers. Whereas previously the doctor didn't see a need for Motrin until the fever was 102 deg or higher, now it is recommended that we give her Motrin for fevers above 100.4 deg. Whereas previously, we could have given her Motrin once at bedtime, then only give another dosage if she woke up again during the night needing one, now it is recommended that we wake her up after six hours for the next dose.

I am just thankful that my beautiful baby girl is okay. I hope that she never experiences another seizure (for her sake and ours) like the one she had on Wednesday night, but I realize that there is a chance that she will. Hopefully tomorrow we will have more news as to why this fever has not yet broken. I will post an update tomorrow night.

Snow hysterics!

Last Tuesday it snowed here! Keira and I had plans with our friends Arria and Ellie to walk at the mall at 8:30 that morning, so we still went to do that despite the fact that it was snowing and, more importantly, the snow was definitely sticking to the ground.

After our walk, we went over to a friend D's house to play until lunchtime. We three moms decided it would be a great idea to take our three girls outside to let them "play" in the snow. Um, great idea? Not quite. We bundled them up in their snow gear (coats and hats, double layers, etc.) and took them out in the front yard. F and E can both walk and Keira cannot. So we thought the two walkers would do great and I would just let Keira cling to my legs. We just want to snap a few pictures and videotape before heading back inside.

The first few minutes go really well. A snaps a few pictures, while D shoots some video. Then, E toddles across the driveway and falls into the snow. She begins crying... F stands there bundled in her snowsuit and jacket and joins E in the crying jag. Keira somehow lets go of my legs, falls to her knees, and saves her fall with her left hand. As soon as she feels the snow covering her hand, she begins crying too! So now all three of them are crying hysterically. We three moms can't stop ourselves from laughing because it is just too funny that all three girls are crying at once and are inconsolable.

We hurry up and take them back inside thinking this will make them happy. Finally after about 5 or 10 minutes, we finally have them in happier spirits so we go upstairs for some hot cocoa (for the moms) and snack (for the girls). Disaster over!

My diaper bag, my love

I spent almost 13 months carting Keira's diaper bag around, almost like an appendage, everywhere we went. Only recently have I begun to leave it in the car. It has been very liberating...until today.

Since Keira was weaned from nursing about a month ago and doesn't need a diaper change too often anymore, there really isn't much in the diaper bag that we need during an outing into a store. We are not likely to need it while walking down the aisles of the grocery store, or like today, when Keira and I went to Target to pick up some cookie decorating supplies to use at our playgroup's holiday party this Friday. I also wanted to check out the toys to see if they had one item I knew that Keira might like for Christmas.

After a brief search through the $1 bins for stocking stuffers, our next stop was the toy section. We had been there maybe ten minutes when I looked over at Keira sitting in the shopping cart. She was strangely bent over the right side of the cart and it looked like she might be trying to grab a toy off a lower shelf. "Keira, what are you doing?" I ask her. She turns her head to me and I immediately recognize the look of her red-rimmed eyes. "Oh, no! You didn't....not a poopy..." I plead. A few seconds pass while I hope that I am wrong for once. Suddenly a pungent smell wafts my way. Nope. My first instinct was unfortunately correct. A mom knows these things.

A poopy diaper has been born...in Target...without the diaper bag...today we are those people. You know the ones, you've smelled them before... In her 13 months of life, I can remember maybe half a dozen poopy diapers that she has had while out and about. This has to be, by far, the stinkiest! Of all the days to leave the diaper bag in the car!

What to do? Leave our half full shopping cart and go out to the car? I, always practical and efficient, make the decision to quickly finish my shopping so that we can pay for our purchases before going out to the car to grab the diaper bag, dropping off our purchases, and coming back in to change the diaper. Of course, this would have to be the one time in my life that I can't quickly find what I want to purchase. Every time I head down a new aisle, I am so aware of the stench eminating from Keira's bum and afraid that every single person I walk past can also smell it. Why me? So we stroll up and down the aisles of the toy section trying to find an item that, it soon becomes obvious, is not available in this store. At one point, Keira starts to turn around in her seat, lifting her smelly bum off the seat, and turning it in my direction. "Whoa, girl! You need to sit down right now!!" And, for the first time, I wasn't saying this for her safety!

I quickly get her situated again, and decide to give up the fight. This diaper needs changing now! As we head swiftly down the corridor toward the checkout lanes, some toys catch my eye that might fit the bill. I take a minute to look over the options and pluck the best one off the shelf. Off we go to check out. It being lunchtime for working people, the checkout lanes are pretty busy. So we get in a line and fortunately it moves pretty quickly. I try not to get too close to the person in front of me. No need to subject them to Keira's odor.

I pay for our purchases while I make a joke to the cashier about what has occurred. On my way out to the car, I realize I never bought the cookie decorating supplies, our main reason for coming to Target!

All that rushing through the toy section for naught. All that smelliness for naught. Sighing, I put the shopping bags in the trunk and grab the diaper bag from the back seat. Keira and I head back inside to change her diaper...and actually finish our shopping!

Take two...except this time we have the diaper bag, my appreciation for it renewed.