Getting Ready for Jake's Birthday Party

The girls had a lot of fun getting ready for Jake's party.

They decorated plain bags to use as gift bags,

then they made big posters.

The party theme was robots because Sam was absolutely sure that Jake loved robots.

Pizza Crust

On Jake's birthday we had pizza for dinner. 

He was so happy because he got to eat a whole piece of crust!

Big Sister Moment

Loved this moment!

Alison was sitting on Sam's lap.  Sam was reading her a story.

Just look at those facial expressions!

Conference Sunday

On Conference Sunday, the kids stayed in their jammies and did lots of crafts and games between the two sessions. 

They used a bath loofah to paint the clouds and

Q-tips for the raindrops.

Jason drew some tree trunks on construction paper, then the girls painted some Fall trees.

Funny (and creepy) smile from Sam.

They always like when I pull out their chalk boards.

Then we played BINGO!

And don't forget about horsey rides!

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!