The week's not over yet.....

Well...from the previous post you can see that we thought Anna had the stomach flu- key word being "thought". However, last night she spiked a fever of 104 and we couldn't get it to break. She was shaking so violently and just looked miserable. Since she'd been sick for over 48 hours and seemed to be getting worse, not better, and also because no one else had yet to catch this "flu" we thought we should bring her in. So, we spent the night in the Children's ER. Turns out she has pyelonephritis (essentially a nasty kidney/bladder infection). She was also pretty dehydrated so she ended up getting some fluids and IV antibiotics and some oral antibiotics to take at home. Poor little thing, she's had a rough couple of weeks! She was really brave with the IV and the blood cultures though so I have to get to Target today for her Ken doll I promised her. On the one hand, I'm so glad they found a cause (and it's not contagious, thank GOD) but on the other hand, she just looks so darn miserable I just feel awful for her. Of course, when you ask her if she feels ok she just says, "yeah, I'm fine". She's not a complainer and never has been so it's tough when she gets sick because she just tries so hard to act her normal self. We're hoping she'll turn the corner today and start getting better. The good thing is with all of our repeated MD visits, ER visits, hospitals stays, etc I'm sure we MUST have reached our out of pocket maximum on our insurance by now :) Here's hoping for a very uneventful, quiet weekend.

Our week in a nutshell...err...is it a nuthouse?

Just a random update on how our week went.

The Good
My sister got married on Monday. It was a very quiet ceremony in Hudson. I'm thankful that I'm still on maternity leave and was able to be there. I'm very happy for them and hopefully sometime next year they will be able to have it blessed in the church and we can have a party for them.

Sarah is very consistently sleeping through the night now- every night from 8pm until 4:30 am. I think this timing will be perfect actually if she keeps it because I have to get up at 5am for work anyways so if I just get up with her at 4:30 I'll be able to spend an extra half an hour a day with her. She is super smiley lately and has the absolute cutest little dimples- they make her whole face just light up when she smiles.



We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this week. By celebrated I mean, did the laundry, dishes, etc. It was quite uneventful. I am thankful for 8 happy years though and am really blessed with a great husband who is also an awesome dad to our kids.

The Bad or Sad
My maternity leave is coming to an end. Only one more week and I have to return to work. I am very sad about having to leave not only Sarah but also Anna. I have really enjoyed my time spent with Anna (and Alex although he's been at school so much lately that I sort of feel like I've already left him again). We really do have great kids, even though they have been known, on occasion, to drive me insane :)

The Ugly
Anna has the stomach flu. She has been running a high fever and throwing up for 2 days now. We are trying to keep her away from Sarah and hoping she doesn't catch it. I'm also hoping Chris and I don't catch it because based on the way Anna looks, we'd be useless.

Alex received a Bus Conduct letter in the mail this week. It said he had been spitting on the bus. So, Chris went to the bus stop in the afternoon to pick him up and talk to the bus driver. Thankfully it turns out it was a different Alex (there are 3 on his bus). I categorize this as ugly only because Chris yelled at Alex and we had taken certain privileges away from him (his video games, etc) before we found out it wasn't him. Since then everytime he feels he's been unjustly punished or if he just wants some sympathy, he brings up the fact that "Daddy yelled at me and it wasn't even my fault".....talk about guilt trips! It was a lesson learned for us that we shouldn't assume they have the right Alex. Man, kindergarten has taught us a lot- already!


I think that's about it for the highlights of our week. For my last week of maternity leave, I'm hoping for healthy kids and days that don't go too quickly.

Happy Water

Sarah was baptized today. She was super happy all day, hardly any crying. Not sure if it's the Zantac finally kicking in, or if she knew the day was all about her and was just enjoying it. Either way, it was a really good day. Here are some nice pictures of her in her sweet little dress. Enjoy!

An Apple A Day...

Well, since we spent 3 out of 5 days in the Pediatrician's office this week, we thought we'd get out of the house and do something fun today so we took the girls to the apple orchard. Alex gets to go next week with school so I knew he wouldn't be too upset.

Here is Anna feeding the goats. Ordinarily I'm not a big fan of these types of things as I do think they can make the kids sick but with the array of antibiotics this girl is on, nothing's getting into her system! (we did lather her up with antibacterial hand sanitizer right after this though just in case :)





In this picture, I thought I'd get a cute shot of Anna holding Sarah under the apple tree....that is until we got closer and noticed the hundreds of bees....this was a quick click and run shot :)



Here are the girls.

Update....

Anna is much improved this afternoon. The redness has significantly decreased and it seems the antibiotics are doing their job. The pediatrician was very pleased with how it looked and he thinks we caught it early enough, phew! She has to take the antibiotics for about 5 days past when it is completely healed, so hopefully that will be soon as the poor thing is running to the bathroom very often because of the nasty drugs. We are very thankful it took a turn for the better and are hoping for no more excitement anytime soon!

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

The following photos are a bit gross, for those that are squeamish (although to be honest, the photos look much better than it actually looks). Anna has developed a nasty case of cellulitis in her ankle. The black marks are so we can watch to see if it is spreading. I'm not really sure how she got this, although I think it started from a bug bite. On Monday afternoon she was complaining that a bug bite really itched. When I looked at it it looked just like a mosquito bite, nothing more. Yesterday afternoon when I picked her up from preschool she said that her sock felt really tight today. Strange since I just bought her new socks! So, I took her sock off to discover her ankle was twice the normal size, bright red, shiny, hot and draining a clear fluid- yuck, I know! I cannot believe how fast it happened. I had put on her socks at 8 in the morning and this was only at 1 in the afternoon- scary! I immediately called the pediatrician and said that I was bringing her in right away and who could we see. It was either that or I was going to take her to the ER, but I knew this couldn't wait for the "next available appointment". Anyways, it was as I suspected and the pediatrician is quite concerned. Since she didn't have a fever though, or swollen glands, he wanted to try oral antibiotics first. So, she is on 2 different really strong antibiotics which have made her a bit sick (but the little trooper is still taking them). We have to go back in today and the doctor thought there was still a 30% chance she'd end up in the hospital with IV antibiotics even though we caught it early. We were up most of the night with her since the antbiotics need to be given around the clock and the times do not coincide. It seems to be a bit better today, although her cheeks are bright red now (no fever though when I checked). As we are discovering, there really are no dull days when you have 3 kids, there is always something going on! We are keeping our fingers crossed that we caught this in time, I will keep you posted.

Soooo Big

2 month checkup time was this week. Sarah weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs, 13 ounces (90th percentile for weight!). Can't believe how fast she is growing. We are starting her on some Zantac in the hopes that her inconsolable evening scream fest is due to reflux. The doctor thought we'd notice a difference in 4 days if that is the problem- we are keeping our fingers crossed :) She has become somewhat of a better sleeper however (once she actually falls asleep that is). On Sunday night she slept from 10pm to 6am- yeah!! I'm not delusional enough to think that this is the new norm though so when she woke up last night with a scream at 2:30 I wasn't surprised. She got her first set of shots yesterday though so I think that contributed to an especially difficult night. She has started to smile at everybody and make the sweet little happy noises- no full laughs yet but it's coming. My bets are on Alex getting the first one- he always makes her smile the easiest. School is going well for Alex and Anna, no recent drama that I know of :) I return to work 3 weeks from today :( Not looking forward to that, but I have enjoyed my time off.