Friday, August 26, 2011

We Are Home!

Let me first say that this was the longest week ever and we are so happy it is over!  Well I take that back, probably plays a close second to when we were waiting to have Lincoln, that was a 4 day wait as well!  I digress...

On Monday morning, Lincoln woke up saying his head hurt.  We asked if he fell or hit it and he said no, so we gave him an ice pack and headed to school.  When we got there I bent down to give him a kiss and he felt really hot.  Lesson #1, always kiss your child goodbye, you might discover they have a fever!  We checked him right there in the class room and discovered he had a fever of 100.2, high enough to go home for the day.  When we got home I gave him Tylenol and he seemed brand new an hour later. 

We went on with the rest of our day and he went down for a nap.  About an hour into his name he woke up crying.  I headed in there and he would not let me pick him up and said his head was hurting again and was holding it and had a temp of 102.2.  At that point I thought we should go to the doctor, that he might have an ear infection.  Before we got there I noticed he was not turning his head to either side as well, very strange.

At 4:30, his doctor came in to check him out.  I told her about the stiff neck and I guess that alarmed a few bells.  She ran a strep and mono test as well as a blood panel.  Both tests came back negative, but the blood test showed elevation in his bacteria fighting cells.  She said we should head to the ER and see if they could get a better look at him.  She thought he might have some abscess'.

We got to Cook Children's Medical Center a little before 6pm that night.  They put in an iv and ran an xray and ct scan with contrast on him.  All those tests took about 5 hours before they determined that he did have these abscess' and because of the locations of them they had to be treated right away or his air way could close off.  Scary stuff!

Here is Lincoln waiting to be admitted at 11pm on Monday.

We were admitted that night and finally got in a room on the Infectious Disease floor at 12am.  We did not have Kennedy with us, thank goodness, but I needed to go pick her up, feed her and get to bed so I could head back up in the morning.  Craig ended up staying with him that night and neither of them got much sleep.

They had to do 3 different antibiotics and 1 steroid around the clock to get the bacteria to go away.  We were in contact isolation which means that Lincoln could not leave the room.  Cook's is amazing and they have people come around to your room trying to find things to entertain you little child.  On Tuesday, Lincoln got to do art.  He painted, played with foam and made me a bracelet.  He really enjoyed the art teacher!

He also got a prayer bear, two stuff animals and two pillow cases all from Cook's volunteers. They also brought in other toys for him to play with.  My mom came up at lunch on Tuesday so that Craig and I could leave the room and have some lunch.  It was so nice to get out of the room but we also felt guilty because Lincoln could not come with us, that was really hard.  He didn't seem to notice, he just enjoyed having his Grandma there to play with for a while, she brings candy! See Lincoln was not contagious to other people, he just had to stay away from the people that were since he had a weakened immune system. Craig stayed with him again on Tuesday night and was getting very tired from not having much sleep. 

On Wednesday he started to look a lot better to us.  My mom came in again at lunch and we went out for a quick bite and at that time not seen the doctor yet.  She did not end up coming until around 3 and told us we might have to stay until Friday and see and ENT and see if they thought he needed surgery.  Ugh, we were bummed because he looked so good to us!

She wanted him to stay because she had taken him off the steroids on Wednesday and wanted to make sure he didn't swell back up. Craig planned to stay again on Wednesday night, so I headed home again to put Kennedy to bed.   

When I was walking in, I saw our neighbor, Bill and told him what was going on with Lincoln.  He said he would pray for him and that warmed my heart.  The next thing I know I hear the sound of someone mowing their lawn and it sounded really close to our house.  That is because Bill was mowing our lawn at 8pm at night!  I love random acts of kindness, that really warmed my heart! 

Later that night Lincoln was getting inconsolable and wanted me so I had my brother come over to watch Kennedy while Craig and I switched places. He got some fun gifts from his preschool, Kid's Place, which is actually the Cook Children's daycare, haha, so he was not far from school! 

I notified everyone that we would probably be in the hospital until Friday.  So surprise, surprise when the doctor came in on Thursday late morning saying we could go home today!  Yay!  We were so excited.  She did warn us to watch him and that it could come back so we need to be careful, but other than that he can resume normal activity!  We are going to try to keep him home all weekend and then resume outings on Monday. He was so excited to be leaving!!!  Cook's took great care of all of us.

We asked Lincoln what he wanted and he said he wanted to ride the train, haha.  My boy likes his trains!  So before we put him in home isolation, haha, we took him to the train really quick at the zoo.  And let me tell you it was quick because it was like a thousand degrees outside.  But Lincoln didn't notice and really enjoyed the train ride.  It put a smile on both our faces to see him so happy!






















We are so happy our little man is better.  We are so lucky to have family so close, i don't know what we would have done without them helping watch either Kennedy or Lincoln.  Our friends also kept up with us thru texting, calling and visiting me at home and that helped too! Both our works are also awesome, Craig's wrote him a card and got some bundt cakes and mine gave him a card to build a bear!  We want to thank everyone for all the kind thoughts and prayers for Lincoln and us.

He is definitely catching up on his sleep, which is great for everyone.  I don't think the scariness of it all hit me until I got home.  I was just in go go go mode until we left.  I know most abscess' are not harmful, but they kept telling us the location of his were dangerous to his breathing and that really scared me.  What if they didn't get it down, then what would happen.  I am just glad I don't have to worry about that now. 

I definitely hug my little Lincoln longer now, which in a three year old can be hard to do since they don't want to be still.  It is a horrible place to be in when your child is in the hospital.  I prayed and prayed that he would just get better and that no surgery or long stay would be required.  I continue to pray that he will get healthy and stay healthy.  I feel a calming when I ask for this and I feel now that everything is going to be ok.  I am glad we caught it early. I love you so much Lincoln and I thank God for choosing us to be your family! 

Blog Signature

Monday, August 22, 2011

Tyler Turns 2!

Also last Saturday we had Tyler's 2nd birthday to attend.  Leyton's ended around 11 in Trophy Club and Tyler's started at 1 in Mansfield so we decided to just eat lunch in between and not go home.  Tyler's party was at his house and was also a swimming party.  Right when we got there Lincoln wanted to swim, so back into our suits we went.  We really loved their pool because they had a sunning step and it was good for Kennedy to hand out on. 

Tyler is one of my sorority sisters son.  He also became a big brother about 3 months ago and we had her baby shower a while back ago with our ZTA playgroup.  Diana (Tyler's mom) has a wonderful family and they had the whole house full of food.  I was kinda sad I had already ate because it all smelled so good!  It is time for cake!


Very cute guitar cake!


Happy 2nd Birthday Tyler!

Here is Poppy and Kennedy going after some puffs, who will get it first!
















We had a great time and were very worn out afterwards.  I am glad that does not happen often (two birthdays in one day), I don't know if I could do that often!  I know it will only get worse with Lincoln being in preschool now, but what do you do, haha!
Blog Signature

Leyton Turns 2!

This past Saturday we had two birthday parties to attend!  The first one of the day was Leyton's 2nd birthday.  They had the party at the Trophy Club Splash Park.  Let me just say, this place was amazing!  It was the biggest splash park I had ever seen and was totally safe for both kids.  I wish we had one close to us like this.  Lincoln was so excited to get out and play, he was off playing the entire time!

There were so many cute water features, even Kennedy enjoyed playing!


Linc liked getting the water dumped in front of him.

Hey girl!

Time to get her feet wet!

This ship had slides and all kinds of fun tunnels to climb through.

They had a huge slide that even Daddy enjoyed going down!  Linc going down tummy first!


Go Kennedy and Daddy!


Playing in the water giser!


Linc had a blast!

Here is Mr. Leyton!  Happy 2nd Birthday buddy!  We really enjoyed coming to your party!

















Blog Signature

Friday, August 19, 2011

Calvin is 1!

4 new posts!
Calvin turned 1 on August 9th!  The Brawley's had a frog themed swimming party for the little dude.  I remember when Calvin was born and it seemed like it was yesterday.  I remember going up to the hospital to meet him and knowing he was going to be one cute little guy.  He has a great personality and is a super happy baby.  Kennedy and Calvin always have fun together and I hope they will stay friends through the years.  Here is Kennedy enjoying the swim party.

All the Western Hills girls and our babies.  Me and Kennedy, Staceyann and Boston, Niki and Calvin and Jenn and Ella Reese.

Calvin and Kennedy are 30 days apart from each other.  Lincoln and Avery are two months apart.  It is really great to have two kids that are the same age!  We always have a lot of fun together even if it is crazy sometimes!

It is cake time!  Calvin did not like the cake, he was scared of it, poor guy.  He did like the taste though!  Happy 1st Birthday Calvin!

The big kids got into the cake for Calvin!

Look at the cute little frogs!

All these pictures are courtesy of Niki, thank you!  Also, thank you for having us over to Calvin's first birthday party! 


















Blog Signature

Kennedy is 11 Months!

I can't believe it, but you turned 11 months old on August 8th.  Mommy was in New Orleans for a work event on your 11 month birthday, but I hear you had a great day. 

Sweet Girl, what is new this month:
-You weigh about 19.5 lbs, we think
-You are still tall
-You still wear a size 3 diaper
-You wear more 12-18 month clothes now
-You sleep got better again and you are only waking around 3 to 4 am for one feeding and then sleeping until 7 on the weekends. Naps, eh, I give!
-You are mostly off baby food and eating all of our food.  You are a pretty good eater, which is great.  You love to drink water out of a straw!
-You took 4 steps around your 11 month birthday and now you can walk tons of steps, you are so close to getting up and going without someone to catch you.
-You started saying the words you know a lot cleared and are trying out new words as well.
-You still stay with your harlmoni and love her so much, but you will have to start school in January when they leave for Korea for 3 months :(
-You have increased separation anxiety all the sudden, yes it is worse than it was before, haha
-You still want to nurse a lot, but we are nursing about 5 times a day now and are thinking of doing whole milk soon.
-We are teaching you the sippy cup, I know a bit late, but we will get it down I am sure.-
-Your personality continues to grow each day and we know you are going to be a strong woman someday!

We love you so much sweet girl!


Working hard on the sippy cup skills!















Mommy has been super busy planning your 1st birthday party which is coming up soon.  We can't wait but it is also sad that it has flown by so quickly.  We all love you so much little K Mae.

Blog Signature

Playdate with Jennifer and Caiden

On August 5th, we had a playdate with Jennifer and Caiden.  They came over to our house so we could hang out and let the babies play.  Caiden is growing up so quick.  He was almost crawling when he came to our house and just a week later he was all over the place!  We also made a stop at Sweet Sammies for an afternoon treat.  It is quickly becoming my favorite place!  That week I had gone there 3 times.  It is a little too convenient for me since it is Downtown and that is where I work.  Caiden is checking out Lincoln on the horse that we have now passed down to Kennedy.

He is quite a handsome young man!  He looks just like his daddy, cute boy!

Jennifer and Caiden.

Kennedy has recently started putting all types of things on her head, not sure why, but it is funny!

I like you new hat KK!

Look at that smile, just makes me melt!  Kennedy, you have some good looking boys to choose from!

We had a fun playdate, didn't we guys!  Can't wait to see Jen and Caiden again soon!
















Blog Signature