Another trip to the ER....One month later

Well, exactly a month to the day from our last trip to the ER we had another eventful day filled with medical challenges. Jack went down for his nap as usual but then had some difficulty breathing. I went in to check on him and he was limp and unresponsive. We couldn't wake him up. We called 911 and did our best to suction and had to so some rescue breathing. He was going from rigid to limp quite frequently during the whole ordeal but was ok when he finally woke up in the ambulance. Once we got to the ER he had a full seizure that required some serious medication to sedate him. They had to give him a double dose because the first one didn't bring him out of the seizure. They told us he'd be out for about 8 hours. Well, 3 hours later he was awake and wanting to eat my fruit. They did a CT scan that looked normal so they transported us to Strong for a neurology consult. They did an EEG yesterday before we left the hospital. I wish I had my camera because I know that tomorrow I won't believe that he slept through having his head marked, the probes attached and then being taped up. They came to give us the results and told us that there were some patterns that would be abnormal on an adult but were normal for some children. They want to follow up with an MRI in the next month.

On Tuesday we were supposed to go to the grocery store after Jack woke up from the nap. Well, the seizure kind of messed up that plan. The problem was that all grocery stores closed at 6 pm on Christmas eve and I was missing at least 1 ingredient in every single recipe for our Christmas dinner. The doctors were really dragging their feet getting together the discharge papers so we finally went out and told them that we wanted to get to the store before it closed. They finally got everything together and we signed the discharge papers at 5:05 pm. We ran out of the hospital and drove to the Wegmans in Rochester. We had never been there so we had to manage the chaos and still find everything we needed. The funniest thing though was that the markings from the EEG, which were 20 bright blue crosses, were still on Jack's head! It did not come off with a warm washcloth like they promised. We had to wait until we got home to scrub his head with shampoo. I can't imagine what people were thinking at the store!

We then had an uneventful 2 hour drive home. Jack, surprisingly, stayed awake the whole trip playing with his toys and reading every single book we had in the car. We were all so thankful to be home before Christmas morning.

It is amazing how quickly Jack recovers from his various episodes. He usually falls really hard and then bounces back very quickly. I mean, back in June, he was life-flighted and was moments away from being on life support and 4 days later he was discharged straight from the PICU. He is truly an incredible miracle. We are so lucky to have him for our son. Jellybean will have a wonderful brother to look up to!

Another trip to the ER

We had quite a scare on Tuesday night. Jack woke up at 11:30 with his teeth hurting so we watched a blues clues and I went to put him to bed at midnight. He got upset when I got to the crib and pointed to our bed. I knew that he just needed to snuggle. I put down pillows and blankets in case he rolled out of bed. Well, about an hour later he did fall out of bed. He didn't hit anything and landed on the pillows as expected. He let out a cry and then all of a sudden it stopped. I was holding him when it happened and he just went completely limp. I tried to wake him up but he just layed there in my arms. We ran out to the living room where I called 911. I started yealling at him, shaking him and pushing on his chest. I was about to start CPR when he let our a huge cough and started to breathe again. It took him a while to come out of it but as soon as he did he wanted blues clues. By the time the EMT's got here he was sitting up watching TV. We still went to the ER to make sure that he was ok. They observed him for about 2 hours and we were cleared to go home. It seems what happened is that his teething is causing an increase of secretions and when he fell out of bed it scared him to a point that the mucous plugged his airway and he needed some agitation to get it loose. It was a very scary situation and it was even harder that Philip was at work and I was alone. I am so thankful everything turned out the way it did. We are so lucky.

fish

Jack has recently discovered how fun fish can be. After 2 years of showing him our fish in a bowl he has finally realized what he is looking at. He now will make an "f" sound and point to the fish. Last night Jack saw for the first time the swimming fish on the screensaver. He was so excited about it! He actually climbed off Philip's lap and on to the computer desk to get a closer look. The entire time he was squealing and making the "f" sound. It was really cute!

Just one Jellybean!

We had our appointment with our high-risk OB today and got some very wonderful news! Jack is only going to have one baby brother or sister! Some of you know that we have been worried about it being twins because of my size and feeling the baby move so early. Thankfully Jellybean is just making me fat and is incredibly active. We saw proof of that on the ultrasound! It lasted about 15 minutes and Jellybean was kicking, rolling, and literally jumping all over my uterus! We were able to record the ultrasound on DVD so we can watch it over and over. It is so amazing to see this tiny little baby moving so much. At one point Jellybean made up a game called "Kick the Cord". He/she got the cord wrapped around the arm and then tried to kick it off. At least our little one is creative because with 27 weeks to go Jellybean could get pretty bored in there. We hope to scan and post the pictures tonight but we may not get them until tomorrow. Check back again!

Home from Texas

We are finally home from our wonderful trip to Texas! We had a great time visiting Grandma and Grandpa! Jack wasn't feeling his best while we were there but we were still able to do some fun things. He started to cut his first 2 year molar the day we left for the trip so he felt pretty uncomfortable most of the time. Jack's favorite thing to do on the trip was "GO!". He would walk over to the door, point at the car, and yell "GO!". If we didn't scoop him up and take him somewhere he would get very upset with us! We made a lot of trips to Sonic and Chelsea's which made me very happy! We were also able to go to the Houston Zoo and see the monkeys. Jack's eyes really lit up while looking at all the animals! We didn't get to see all the people we wanted to because of Jack not feeling well so I'm sorry if we didn't get to see you. We had so much fun visiting with everyone, including Great-Grandma Guernsey!

Jack is so glad to finally be home and spend some time with daddy. We've got a big week coming up with lots of appointments for Jack and the baby, who we now call Jellybean. We'll be in Syracuse most of the day tomorrow and Wednesday for Jack and then in Elmira for a 3 hour appointment on Tuesday and in Ithaca for a 3 hour appointment on Thursday for Jellybean. We are very excited for the appointment on Thursday because we will have an hour long ultrasound! It is going to be wonderful to finally see our baby!

We've also got a lot of Thanksiving shopping to do. I'm doing my usual traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 12 to feed Philip and I. We are hoping to have guests this year but we're still not sure. If not we'll have our usual leftovers for a week!

All in all, we had a wonderful week last week and we have a busy week this week! I hope we are all able to survive!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!! My sweet little dinosaur did such a great job! We went this afternoon and visited our good friend, Teagan, in the hospital and then went to trick-or-treat at the NICU. There were so many wonderful nurses that came out to see Jack in his costume. Then we stopped by a few friend's houses to visit and Jack did great for the most part. At our last stop he fell asleep in daddy's lap. The most peaceful dinosaur I've ever seen!

Long Overdue

We have such a busy life the past 6 weeks. There has been so much going on. First of all Jack has been relatively healthy. We went through a period where Jack had horrible diahhrea caused by antibiotics. It went on for weeks and Jack ended up losing 3 pounds. We found out that the antibiotic destroyed his intestines. It caused a permanant lactose intolerance which has put a bump in the Blenderized diet. He's now back to a full BD using Lactaid instead of milk and we have found some creative calorie boosters. He has gained 1 pound back and is still gaining.

We have had many doctors appointments and have been traveling to and from Rochester and Syracuse a lot. Sometimes I feel like I live in my car. I guess it's good that I love driving it!

Jack has done so many new things in the last few months. He began and continues to walk which is a HUGE accomplishment! He is now really interested in food. He literally will attack anyone that has food. He also sees Philip and I sitting at the table and he wants to be right there with us tasting the meal. He gets frustrated because he wants to use the same forks that Philip and I do. We just can't believe how far he has come with his eating. He still hasn't learned to swallow food but he's getting really brave in the types and textures of food he's trying. He is also addicted to Blue's Clues. He wakes up every morning and all he wants to do is watch an episode while eating his breakfast. I've bought him a Blue's Clues book on Amazon and I can't wait for it to get here!

We have some big news in our family. Jack is going to become a big brother in May. Things are going well in the pregnancy. We've got the normal pregnancy stuff and I'm already showing. We are very excited to have a new baby on the way!

Here are some pictures from this summer and fall.

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