Monster Mask

Some kids might be scared of this mask. 

Not my Sammy--she thought it was awesome!

Jake's EEG

We're just waiting for Jake's EEG.

He was supposed to be tired for the test, so I woke him up at about 5:45 for his 8:00 appointment.

Dropped Sam off at a friend's house for a ride to school and Alison at another friend's house to be babysat.

I had the EEG tech take a picture as soon as the test was over.

He cried, screamed, and put up a big fight through about 25 minutes of it, then finally tired himself out and fell asleep. Then they continued scanning for about 30 minutes while he was sleeping.

All done!  So worn out.

He quickly fell asleep for the drive home.

Now we just wait for the results.

Day Four

Yesterday I got a call from the ER doctor who had treated Jake and he said that his urine had looked good at first glance, but now two days later, the urine culture had come back and was showing a really bad bladder infection.

They had me bring him in about an hour later to see his pediatrician, who was now back in town.  They catheterized him so that they could get a cleaner sample, but the poor guy was so dehydrated that they weren't able to get anything.  Not even a drop!

I love Jake's pediatrician.  Even without a clean catch, she just decided to put him on an antibiotic.  She could tell that he was in a lot of pain and discomfort.  I think it helps that she has young children of her own.

Here is a picture of Jake after being on the antibiotic for about 24 hours.  He had really perked up.

At this point in time, Jake is on an alternating, but not overlapping, schedule of Tylenol and Ibuprofen, his antibiotic, and the anti-seizure meds.

Day Two

By the next day we could tell Jake was still very sick, but at least with the anti-seizure medicine, he wasn't seizing anymore.  We were instructed when we left the hospital that he would need to be held or at least monitored at all times for the next few days. 

So we took turns holding him, pretty much nonstop, for the next 48 hours or so.  This was partly out of necessity and partly out of fear.  I just couldn't leave him in his bed all alone.
It was also difficult to set him down because the anti-seizure medicine was making him have tremors.  Poor guy was shaky even when he wasn't seizing.

In the afternoon I had to take him back to Kaiser for a follow-up with the pediatrician.  His regular was out of town, so we saw another doctor.  He mostly just talked with me to get the whole story and looked at Jake a little bit, but otherwise, I felt like it was a lame appointment.  He fell asleep on the drive back home.

Later in the day, Jason set him down on the floor to see if he would want to play.

He picked up a toy, then laid forward and fell asleep.

This picture was taken quite late at night as I was holding him while he slept.

Throughout yesterday and today, we've had to keep him on Tylenol and Ibuprofen, alternating them of course.  But only with both in his system did his fever stay under control. 

With both medicines we were able to keep his fever around 100 degrees, but it would shoot back up pretty high when even one of them wore off.

Scarriest Day Ever!

I've endured a lot of scary things in my life, but nothing quite like this day.

At about 2:00 a.m. I awoke to Jake screaming.  I was so tired and for just a moment I wanted to ask Jason to go check on Jake, but then as suddenly as a clap of thunder, I bolted out of bed.  I didn't feel or hear the prompting, but I know that I was prompted by the Holy Ghost in that very moment.  

The first thing I noticed was that Jake was screaming--not crying, screaming!

I picked him up and felt his head for a fever.  As I held him in my arms and walked to the hall closet to get the digital thermometer, his little body began shaking uncontrollably. 

 I ran in to wake up Jason.  (Poor guy jumped out of bed with such a jolt....almost gave him a heart attack.)

We took his temperature as soon as the seizure stopped and it was 102.9 degrees.

As soon as we had the temp, he started in to another seizure. 

When it was over we gave him some Ibuprofen to help reduce the fever.

Then another seizure started.  When that one ended, I called 911.

The ambulance showed up and took Jake (and me) to the emergency room.

They got his fever under control, did a chest x-ray, and took a urine sample, told me he was having febrile seizures, and discharged him.  I was shocked!  We had only been there for a few hours (2:30-6:30), and Jake was obviously still very sick, but they were sending us home.

I called Jason and told him to come get us.  Then I called a good friend and asked her to go over to my house to be with my girls so that Jason could leave.

As I waited in the ER lobby, he had another seizure--this one bigger than the others. 

They rushed him back into the ER. 

This time the ER doctor and the pediatrician came in and when she saw the seizure, she immediately knew this was more than a febrile seizure and called in the neurologist.

The neurologist said he was having benign myoclonic seizures.  Not overly dangerous, but still scary.

At this point, the ER team kicked into gear. 

No longer were they sending us home as though nothing big was going on.

Within about 10 minutes they were putting in an IV, which I must say was done with some mad skills.  It's tough to do an IV on a baby--even tougher when the baby is having seizures.

Once they had him on IV fluids, they were able to administer the anti-seizure medicine. This was around 7:00 a.m. and by this point he had endured approximately 40 seizures.

It was such a relief when the medicine took effect and his body finally began to relax.

Later in the day he was prepped for an MRI and a spinal tap.

This meant sedating him, which turned out to be so incredibly traumatic. 

Strapping him down, oxygen mask, a team of about 8 people, not enough sedating medicine.

They gave him the dose they had figured would be right and it hardly had any affect on him. 

Jason and I sat right outside the door and heard the doctor yell,

"Would somebody please run down to the pharmacy and get some more of this _____?!" 

I can't remember what the medicine was called.

And a moment later a guy went running out of the room.
(There's something very scary about seeing them run.)

This additional dose finally sedated him well enough to do the MRI.

When it was over I carried him back to his room and I've got to say, he was funny.  Jake is funny when he's coming out of sedation.  And yeah, the medicine was already wearing off.  They said he was metabolizing it too fast.  One dose should have gotten him through the MRI and the spinal tap, but as it turned out they had to give him a third dose.

When they were done with the spinal tap, he was able to sleep for quite a while.

They gave him these little stuffed animals. 

Normally, he would have probably played with them, but not this day.

Throughout the day, I was amazed and humbled by how many of our friends stepped in and helped.
Thank you to all of you who watched my girls, brought us food, water, and snacks in the hospital, gave blessings, came to the hospital, brought meals into our home, and visited us in the hospital and at home!!!
And thank you for all your love and support through phone calls, emails, texts, and facebook posts!
 Thank you, thank you, thank you to all my amazing friends!

Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

I made these yummy Lemon Cake Mix Cookies after church yesterday. 

Go to Let's Stout Cookin! for the super easy recipe!

He's Just So Handsome!

I think my kids are so stink'n cute.

But really, when I look at this little guy, I just can't belive how

in love with him I am! 

He is the most beautiful little guy I have ever seen!

I just can't get over it.

Craft A Day

When Samantha was about three years old, I did one craft with her everyday.  We called it "craft a day".  I didn't have any other kids, I had finally graduated from CSUS, and I got to stay home with her--so there was plenty of time to do a craft with her everyday.  Now that Alison is the same age, my life is a little bit busier with three kids.  I don't always have time to do a craft everyday, but we try.  Usually we end up doing several little crafts or preschool-like activities, every couple of days. 

Here are some of the things we did today:

She painted a little pot. 

We'll do more with this once the paint is dry.

She did a pattern activity, practicing patterns and gluing.

First-School has some great free preschool printables.

Then she worked on color sorting with dyed pasta.

Horsey Rides

My awesome friend gave us this bouncy horse.  Thanks Jen!

He loved it!  Oh yeah, and Jake did too.  Haha!

No really, Jake loved it!

I can't wait for the girls to see it tomorrow. 

Raise a Reader

I'm trying really hard to instill a love of reading in my children.

So far, I think I'm doing a good job.

Samantha LOVES Berenstain Bear books!

Stylin 6's

Samantha had the flu for several days.  The poor girl gets so sick, so often.  This time she missed school, her soccer game and three birthday parties.  She was so sad! 

So I bought her this little Barbie card game to play

when she was feeling better.

She loved it!  It's like crazy 8's, but with a Barbie theme and

it's called Stylin 6's. 

She also got a phone call from Aunt Jamie to check up on her and see how she was feeling.

Thank you Jamie! 

It really lifted her spirits and she's excited to spend the day with you next Saturday.

Labor Day at Big Break

Labor Day was lots of fun this year.  We spent the afternoon at

Big Break Regional Shoreline with my parents.

My Dad!

Look at those Cheeto fingers!

We made sandwiches and took a late lunch out to the park.

There's a really cool giant topographical map of the local cities and delta waterways on the ground.

There is a big sandpit with a digger toy.  Sam loved it!

There was a broken water fountain that wouldn't turn off, so the sandpit had a really high water table.

Alison washing her hands in the ever-flowing water fountain.

Look, Alison climbed Mount Diablo!

Sam is pointing to our house!

We found it on the map.

Close-up view!

My beautiful Mom!

Sam brought her fishing pole to try and catch crawdads.

Dad standing in front of Big Break.

I was holding the fishing pole here.

Sam and Grandpa

Me and Jason enjoying the beautiful day.

Sam loves hanging out with Grandpa. 

She told me, "He lets me do cool things like climb on the rocks."

Alison spent a lot of time dropping rocks off the pier.

Here she is running back to get more rocks.

Jake loved playing in the sand!

I found California State Univeristy, Sacramento. 

It's land-locked between the river, the 50 freeway,

and the train tracks.

Jake is sitting right where we live.

(And apparently not happy about it.)

My handsome boys.

I climbed Mount Diablo in one giant step!

Jason figured out that the level of the map is made so that the waterways flow accurately.

The kids thought it was so cool to watch the water flowing down the rivers and through all the many delta waterways.

It was a good day!