Sink bath

I decided on Saturday night that I would give Azrielle a quick bath in the sink before bed. Usually I give both kids a bath together, but I needed to cut Avery's hair before his bath. I put her in the sink and Avery thought that was so cool. He came out with his bottom half naked because he wanted to have a bath in the sink too. He ran back and forth to keep bringing out bath toys for Azrielle to play with.

First Stitches

Last Wednesday, we went to a dinner hosted by the Young Women in our ward who are trying to raise money for a white water adventure this summer. At the end of the evening, as I was going to get the family to leave, Avery jumped off the stage and landed on Jeremy's foot. That catapulted him head first into the wall right onto a strip of molding. 

There was blood everywhere! One of the ladies, who is a nurse who works on the PEDS floor of the hospital, came to the rescue. I was running back and forth trying to get things to stop the flow of blood. They pulled out a table and laid him on top. The crowd of boys that had been jumping off the stage crowded around to see what was going on. The flow of blood got stopped and Jeremy took Avery into the ER. Avery came home with four stitches.

 Yesterday I took Avery into our Dr and got the stitches removed. They were replaced by glue and tacky strips. Avery did great holding still and letting Dr. Rutherford cut the stitches out.

I think he was jealous of the bands that Azrielle and Mommy got to wear. Now we all have had hospital bands on in the same week.

Hospital Stay

I waited all day on Monday, April 2nd, for the Dr. to call with the results from the scope. Every time the phone would ring, I would get a stomach ache, it was never him. On Tuesday morning, he did call and say that there was nothing that looked wrong with the results, so he would like to go ahead and admit Azrielle to the hospital and run some more tests.

I was so glad that Shannon had called to see if Avery could spend the night out with them on Monday. I did not have to worry about what to do with him, that day. I called a friend and had her go with me to take Azrielle in, Jeremy was working and I thought it would be nice to have some moral support. I am so grateful for all who helped watch Avery during the week!

 When they checked her in she had lost 6 more ounces over the weekend, she was down to 11 lbs 1 oz. They did not put an IV in her, I told Dr. Ellison, Pediatric GI, that she had tried to kick the one out that she had had in on Friday. It was rather frustrating in the hospital, at first they did not do much other than keep tabs on everything that went in and then everything that came out. All the diapers and burp rags had to be weighed after they had been used.

On Tuesday evening as I was getting her ready for bed, I noticed that her little chin and cheeks were bright red. She was having a reaction to their laundry soap/cleaner. I brought a pile of burp rags home and washed them with my wash. Which I came home that night and did after I laid her down for bed that night. Washing the burp rags helped. We had access to anything that we needed for her stay; high chair, exersaucer, toys. 

She had her 8 month birthday while in the hospital. Not a great way to spend a birthday, but what do you do? She did gain a little bit every day, by the time we got out on Sunday morning, she was back up to 11lbs 7oz.

On Thursday, after I got through with an appointment, I went and picked Avery up. He then spent the afternoon and evening with Azrielle and me at the hospital. They have a playroom on the PEDS floor for the patients and their families. Avery and I spent some time in here while Azrielle was sleeping and then came back for a little bit later on also. It was nice to get to see him as I had not since Monday when Shannon picked him up.

He was able to stay with Shannon again Thursday night. I took him out after I  laid Azrielle down to bed, Jeremy was going to come and take him, but did not get off work in time. It was heart wrenching for me when I dropped him off. He had fallen asleep on the way out and cried and wanted to 'come home with you, Mommy'. 

 They have wagons on the PEDS floor that can be used, I would put her in one and wander the hall ways. I felt the need to get out of the cell like room. There was a fish tank right around the corner from our room, Azrielle loved to watch the fish.

Her medicine got changed to see if it would help her to get the food moving through the stomach and into the intestine. She is on a meal schedule to give her as many calories as possible each day. We will see if she can gain some more weight.

Box full of fun

A few weeks ago on an early Saturday morning, as in I had just opened the kids curtains, Avery looks out and says, "There's Jeremy!!" It was indeed, Dave and Sue, our across the street neighbors, had purchased a dishwasher from Lowe's and they were having it delivered. Jeremy just got to be the one that got to deliver it. We got to have the box! 

The first thing Avery did that morning was pull it into his room and proceed to put every thing from his shelves and bed into the box. When I asked him what he was doing his response was, "I've got lots of work to do." 

 It has been hours and hours of fun for Avery.

Not only Avery, but all of the family has had a chance to have some fun in our box. Daddy put in a door and window that both swing closed.

 One morning he asked me to help him to decorate his house, I helped by putting on the blankets, he did all the rest. He was very proud of himself.

I was holding a flashlight so that I could take this video, that is why it is so dark.

Sunday afternoon

After watching the afternoon session of General Conference, and after the kids both woke up. We decided to head down and check out the new kayak play park that the city had just finished.

 Avery had a ball throwing rocks in the water. Jeremy talked with the guys in the water.

 Azrielle and I  watched them both, and tried to stay warm in the brisk wind.

 We then went for a little walk/run down the green belt.

More

This morning at breakfast Azrielle used the sign for "more", it was really awesome! I love that babies can start communicating so early, even if they can not do so with their voices.

We will go in tomorrow and check to see if she has put any weight on this last week. It has been an eventful few of weeks with Azrielle! On the 30th of March I took her in to the hospital to get an endoscopy done. It started out to be a harrowing experience. I took her in by myself as Jeremy had to work. We checked in and then sat in the waiting area to be taken down to the surgery waiting area. As we were waiting she flirted with a man who appeared to be in lots of pain, I think I heard appendicitis.  Then another mother came and sat down across from us after she had checked her baby in, the girls talked to each other.

Transport came and got the other mother and baby just before they came to get us. We rode the same elevator down together, we stood in line behind them as they checked in at the surgery waiting desk. After checking in I went and sat down beside her and we started to chat, as it turned out both of our girls were here for failure to thrive. They had the appointment slot right in front of ours. After waiting 20 minutes someone came to ask if we would like to go and wait in the pre-op rooms, but they were running about an hour behind. Both of us chose to stay out in the waiting area. It definitely help me to get rid of my headache to have someone to talk to, and I think that helped the girls stay happier also.

Because the stomach has to be empty when they do the scope, they give times that you have to cut off food and then fluids. As Azrielle had woken up at 6:15 am, she had not had anything to eat since then, the last Pedialyte that she had had was at 10:30 am, and even with that she had sent quite a bit of that back up. We had to drop Avery off and be at the hospital by 11:30 for check in. Both the girls were doing pretty good. They came back and got Makenzie and Mom about one pm, that was the time that Azrielle was supposed to be getting her scope done. Fifteen minutes later they came for Azrielle and me. We went back to the little room and she got on a cute little koala bear gown.

 After they got everything entered and we were again waiting, I heard Shantelle ask if they would ask if she and Makenzie could come and visit in our room, the nurse came and asked me and I readily agreed. And we waited some more. I finally called Jeremy at 2:15 to let him know that we were still waiting. He left work and came down to the hospital, he did make it before they took Azrielle back. They took Makenzie  at 2:30,  two hours after her scheduled time. I was glad that I didn't have to wait very long for Jeremy to get there. At 2:58pm they came and took us to the surgery room were I was able to hold her hand and talk to her while they put her to sleep.

 Jeremy and I went back out to the surgery waiting room were we waited about 45 minutes until they came and got us. Azrielle was awake and giving the nurses an earful by the time we got back to her. She was very glad to get some thing to eat.

.Now we just had to wait for the results to come back on Monday.

Happy Birthday Avery!

What a fun day for Avery, he turned 3 yesterday. We went and picked him out a new cowboy hat of his choice, he got some new cowboy boots, then we went for a ride. He has had his new hat on almost nonstop  since he got it. I won't let him take it to bed with him though. It is a medium adult size.

We went down to the race track, where I used to ride, and put a pad on a pony horse and he and I rode around all through the shed rows. He did not like it so much when we would trot, "Slow down please Mom." I think he was hitting RB's back through the hole in the pad.

I even let him ride a little bit by himself. I walked in front and RB, the horse, followed me, making Avery think that he was doing it all by himself.

He got to choose what we had for lunch and dinner, pb&j for lunch and quesadilla's  for dinner. We had our family home evening friends over and had cake and ice cream after our lesson.