What is Hypoxia?

I will tell you what hypoxia is: It is a lack of oxygen, as in the lungs not using the oxygen breathed in efficiently enough. This is what Alice had last weekend, and thus spent 3 days in the hospital. A little scary. Here is the whole tale:

On Monday the 1st, I took Alice in for her 6 month check up. They said she looked good and she had her immunizations. On Tuesday, she had a low grade fever. I thought it was probably from the shots. She also was developing a little cold, stuffy/runny nose and cough. Simon had something similar, so I thought it was just a cold. She continued having a low fever til Friday. I thought that seemed like a long time, so I called just to check with the doctor. They said that was normal and it sounded like she had the same cold that lots of kids were having. Friday afternoon her fever went up to 102. That night I put Alice to bed, but she kept waking up, she seemed uncomfortable and at about 10pm she sounded like she was wheezing and it looked to me that she was retracting (the skin sucking in around her collar bones when she breathed). So I put a call in to the nurses line, got a call back, they said I should take her to the ER. So we went to the ER at 11:30pm. The doctor listened to her, she had chest x-rays done, they swabbed her nose to test for RSV and flu. They gave her an albuterol breathing treatment. Around 1:30am they decided we could go home with the plan to get a nebulizer to help her breath. The doctor thought she might be developing a little pneumonia, but she could probably fight it off. Just before they were about to discharge us, they took Alice's vital signs again and her pulse-ox (measure of the oxygen in her blood) was only at 82%. They didn't like that. So they decided she should stay so they could put her on oxygen and watch her and give her breathing treatments. The hospital was apparently so busy that night that had no available rooms. (We do live in a small town, so of course the hospital is small too.) We got a room in the ICU, which I think turned out to be a good thing. We didn't have to share and the nurses were always right there. We had to stay until Monday around lunch time before Alice was able to keep her oxygen at 95% by herself.
I am grateful it was the weekend and Joe was able to be home with the kids. He did take Monday off, and that was a teacher work-day, so it worked out alright. I didn't get much sleep of course (I think Friday night I had a total of 2 1/2 hours). And Alice's was constantly interrupted by breathing treatments (every 4 hours) and adjusting her oxygen tube and listening to her, and her least favorite part of having all the snot sucked out of her nose! Yuck! but that was very necessary to helping her breathe better. Now she is home and doing very well. Wednesday we went to the doctor for a follow-up visit and found that she had double ear infections. Poor girl. But she seems to be mending well. She hasn't needed breathing treatments today and she is back to her happy self. She never really was that unhappy even in the hospital. Bored of being trapped in the same room, but not really all that cranky. All the nurses loved her and thought she was so cute and of course she is!
We are glad we are past all that. Her official diagnosis was bronchiolitis and hypoxia. They said it was not pneumonia and the test came back negative for RSV, but her pediatrician is pretty sure that is probably what she had anyway. It is a bad year for it and going around a lot. I am glad she kept eating and didn't have to have an IV! Now I've got her cold but am on the mend too. I sure hope we don't have to spend any more nights in the hospital. The nurses were all very nice, but it sure isn't very comfortable, and of course I want my kids to be healthy!

Random ramblings

Who hates tax time? Lots of people I am sure. But not me. It always means money coming back to us, at least it has so far that we've been married. This year is no exception. Yeah for tax returns! Now Joe can go to the dentist, and we are planning to go to D.C. to see my parents in the spring. Maybe we can do some more home improvements as well. Of course, I would really like a new bed too. Hmmm....how far can we make it stretch??? Sure we should probably put it all in savings, or invest it or something, but someone has to stimulate the economy, so why not us?

Simon told me my shirt is "pretty pink" today. What a sweetheart!

I love ticklish children. They are more fun than non-ticklish ones. Eli and Simon are very ticklish, and love being tickled. Alice is ticklish, but she is not sure if she likes it yet. It is amusing to me though.

Alice is eating food. She has likes rice cereal and has tried sweet potatoes. She definitely thinks she should eat dinner when we do. Now she can sit in her high chair by the table, and we have dinner all together. Of course, that means there is one more child for me to help during dinner, so my food is never hot when it finally makes it to my mouth. Such is the life of a mother.

I love it when Eli and Simon play together. Usually it involves chasing or throwing things (soft things like stuffed animals or shirts) at each other, and is pretty noisy, but it warms my heart to see them having fun with each other. The other day Simon told me Eli is his best friend. So cute. I love how Simon is exploring language and learning how to express himself. He knows his favorite color is green, he loves the letters H and K (I don't know why), and the word Kangaroo. This is a fun age (I try to remember that during the moments when its not).

I love dessert. I know I shouldn't eat it everyday, but it is so hard not to. When I don't have ice cream or something, I make dessert. I often tell myself I will be sorry later, you know "a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips" and all that, but I am not deterred. Maybe I will get a grip on myself after I stop nursing. For now, I feel like I deserve extra sweetness at the end of the day. And that is just the way it is.

We love LA

We went to Southern California last weekend to visit relatives: grandmas, grandpa, aunt, uncles, and cousin. It was a lot of fun, and we were spoiled. We even got sunny blue skies, and no rain while we were there. It wasn't warm enough for a swim in the ocean, but we did visit the beach. Here are some pictures of our fun time.

My Gramps, Nana, and Uncle Kevin took us to Universal Studios. We had lots of fun seeing cool shows, including one about animal actors that the kids thought was great. We met lots of characters, and Simon was so excited to see them. And they thought he was hoot. And they all wanted to say hi to Alice too. Eli was kind of shy around the characters, but he did ride the virtual roller coaster with Gramps, Joe and I. And I think he kind of liked it. I know I did!

Then we went to Pacific Park at the pier in Santa Monica with my Aunt Kara, Grammy, and cousin Kelly. We walked to the end of the pier, rode the ferris wheel, played games in the midway and won animals (Eli won his all by himself!), rode the carousel, went through the little aquarium, and picked up shells on the beach. We put our feet in the water too, which was very cold! And then Eli fell down in the water and got half of himself wet. It was rather amusing.

We also went with Gramps and Nana to Travel Town, a place in Griffith park that has trains the kids could climb on. And a little train we all rode on.

We had a nice family dinner with everyone that night. Everyone was so nice to the kids. Simon found a buddy in Uncle Kevin, and Kelly. Alice was such a good girl and let everyone hold her and shared lots of smiles. We had a fabulous time. Thanks to all my family for hosting us and showing us such a fun time!

And Alice learned how to rollover last week. So here she is on her stomach, she got there all by hereself. It took her several tries to get her arms out from under herself, but now she seems to have the hang of it. She also rolled from her stomach to her back again once, but hasn't done it since. She will be mobile in no time though!

Newest Happenings

My hair is red now. Santa put some Cinaberry hair dye in my stocking, so I used it. It is temporary, although will last longer than the 28 washes the box says, because it is darker than my natural color. Although, my hair is a lot darker naturally than it once was. Just something new for a change.

Alice is teething. She has been for a few weeks. Lots of drool, loves to chew on things, especially blankets, and is sometimes cranky just cuz. But that is being a baby for you. She has managed to keep sleeping through the night most nights though, Woohoo!

Simon is making real progress in potty training. Yippee! We shall vanquish the pullups yet. He is at a stage where he looks for a lot of approval. He is always saying "Like this?" when I tell him to do anything. It is kind of funny. He still loves to says prayers, always wants to say it at dinner and our family prayer. The other night I was helping him say family prayer. I said, "Please bless Nana" (my grandma), and he repeated, "bless banana." Not all he says is always intelligible, but we all heard banana, and boy did that take a lot of discipline to get through the rest of the prayer without laughing. Eli and Joe were no help, trying to muffle their own snickering. But we did it and Simon didn't even know he had said something amusing!

Here is a new word I learned at church today. "Voluntold." As in, you were volunteered to do something. Compulsory volunteerism. You were "voluntold." I think it is very appropriate in certain situations, and parents do it a lot to their kids, and teachers to students. I am adding it to my vocabulary.

Christmas Fashion Show

Alice is so much fun to dress up. Here are pictures of all the Christmas outfits she got to wear. Some are hand-me-downs, and some were new to her, because she is the spoiled princess and everyone loves to buy her clothes! She had an outfit for everyday of the week!Her Granmama couldn't resist this pretty dress, so Alice got dressed up for church.
And her Auntie (my sister) found this one while she was back east visiting my parents. (It says "All I want for Christmas is my Auntie")This one says "Baby's First Christmas."This last one wasn't a Christmas outfit, but she did get the bow in her stocking. And I just thought she was so cute dressed up in gold for church, I couldn't help taking her picture.

Also, I want to say thank you to all of you for the support and faith you have in me for my new calling. It sure makes me feel good and helps buoy me up!

And, as promised, a video of Simon's horse, whose name is Brownie.

Happy Holidays

We had a very Merry Christmas and hope you all did too. Our holidays were fairly low key, but that is fine with me. We got lots of snow the couple of days before Christmas, so it was white. Then the wind blew for several days and it was cold! So we kept to the indoors and close to home. It was fun watching the kids open their presents. We let them all go first, then set them up to play with all the new treasures, then the adults got to find out what awaited them under all the wrappings. We sure appreciate all the love and generosity of our family. I think the kids got just about everything that was on their lists! Here are a few pictures from our event. The kids "attacking" presents.

Alice mostly didn't know what was going on. But we had fun decorating her.

Eli got his own digital camera. He has been having lots of fun with it.

Simon got a pony! He was pretty excited. And it neighs, whinnies, makes gallopping noises, and its nose wiggles and its tail moves. Pretty fun. They all got a kick out of it. I will try to post a video of it soon. And some more pictures too.

Our New Year consisted of ham dinner, adults playing Scrabble while kids watched Alvin and the Chipmunks (the were completely enthralled), then a movie for the grown-ups after we put the kids to bed. And I actually stayed awake til midnight, no we didn't let the kids stay up. Don't think they really cared anyway.

I don't really have any resolutions for the new year, but there are some new things for me. I was released from my Young Womens calling a couple of weeks ago. I was in that organization for 4 years! So it will be different, and guess what my new calling is? Primary Chorister! I know, I was sure they had the wrong person. I am sure most of you know how I am not really a musical person, so this will certainly be new and different for me. Our bishop thinks callings should "stretch" us. This most definitely qualifies. We shall see how it goes. This Sunday I have to start teaching a new song. A song I don't know myself. I have been trying to learn it. Please pray for me!

So here's wishing all you the best for a new, productive, prosperous, pleasant year!

...And a partridge in a pear tree...

Happy beginning of the 12 days of Christmas! That's right, there are only 12 days left til Christmas. It seemed like it was so far away, and now it is right around the corner. A week from tomorrow, our holiday guests will start arriving. Good thing the shopping is 98% done, I am sure there are few things left to get.


In the meantime, in the last couple of weeks, I got a new camera! Yeah I finally have a good one for myself. I ordered it with money I earned taking surveys online. It is a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS Digital Elph. So here are some pictures from it.
Our nephew Jayson got baptized last weekend, here he is with his family. Yeah Jayson!

Here is our Christmas tree. I bought it after Christmas last year on clearance, so I didn't know what it would look like. It is kind of small, but fuller and better looking than the old hand-me-down one we had. The kids helped decorate it. And have been helping "undecorate" it ever since.

Yesterday it finally warmed up around here. Wednesday morning it was -13 when I woke up and the highs didn't get above freezing til yesterday. We had snow and it packed on the ground, but today lots of it melted. Here is our Alice all bundled up for the cold! What a cute snow bunny!