YUCKY UPDATE

Notice: If you have not read the January 12 post, read it first.

So the yuckiness (yes I am making up all these yucky words) continued through the night and no one slept in our house.

This morning Grayson was still acting like he felt queasy and refused to eat or drink. I can't say I blame him after the night he had. My biggest concern was getting his antibiotics in him that were prescribed yesterday for his pneumonia. I don't want that to get any worse. Oh and yes, he still had a fever this morning.

The pediatrician recommended a fluid trial. 1 tsp. of Pedialyte every 15 mins for one hour. If that stays down increase to 1 tblsp of Pedialyte every 15 mins for 1 hour. If that stays down then begin the BRAT foods with Pedialyte as much as he will tolerate. If that stays down then he can have meds.

It wouldn't be this week in our lives if I hadn't used the last of the Pedialyte a couple of weeks ago when he had fever and the poops. So, we have to venture out to Target to get some and I am thinking the whole time, please don't puke in the store.

He didn't and we made it home fine with our Pedialyte, Gatorade, and Ginger Ale (just in case I pick this sickness up too) in tow. We made it through 30 minutes of the fluid trial and Grayson started SCREAMING for something to "eat". So we skipped the middle steps and he is currently eating plain cherrios and drinking a cup of pedialyte. I hope I don't regret this in another half hour or so.

STILL YUCKY AND EVEN YUCKIER

So yeah we are still here and still locked up in the house for the most part. I am sick, Grayson is still sick, and although his is going to work every day, Justin isn't feeling well either. We are a mess!

Grayson seemed to be doing better on Monday and then Monday night his fever jumped back up to 102-103. He woke up this morning (Tuesday) with no fever and acting like he felt well. I figured I would try taking him to preschool. I was too sick to go into work but figured having him at preschool for half the day would at least allow me to get some work done from home.

On the way to preschool I decided I better check with the doctor to let her know his fever was still going up at night. She called me back as we were pulling into the preschool parking lot saying she needed to see him. No preschool today. Off to the doctor we go. She recommends a chest x-ray. Off to Wake Radiology we go. The Radiologist finds something. Back to the pediatrician we go. End result, Grayson has pneumonia. Not a severe case, just a little infection in the left side of his lungs.

The doctor also determined he had a little bit of an ear infection and sent us home with a prescription for an antibiotic. Home we go after a stop off at the drug store.

My dad and Sue decided to come up today (thank the LORD!) so I could go out if I needed to and so they could spend some time at the house with Grayson. By the time we got home from all of the running around I felt like I had been hit by a train. I used the time they were here entertaining Grayson to get some much needed rest.

Once I got up I was craving steak. Interesting because I only eat red meat when I am pregnant. That is a whole other story. Anyway, Grayson seemed to be feeling well, wasn't running a fever, and we didn't have anything for dinner in the house. Since we had only left the house 3 times in seven days (all to go to the doctor) I was feeling a little cabin fever coming on. I talked my dad and Sue into going to Outback on their way out of town with us.

We get to Outback. Dad and Sue were in a bit of a rush because they wanted to make it back in time for to stop by the funeral home to pay their respects to a very nice man that passed away in their community. My order came out wrong. That always happens when you are in a hurry. Anyway, Grayson pretty much refused to eat. He started to get fussy and since Sue was finished eating he was allowed to get out of his highchair to go sit with her while I finished my delayed food and my dad paid the bill (Thanks again for dinner :-) ).

TMI ALERT--This next section is not for those with weak stomachs. . .

I finished my food and we are all putting on our coats. We were just on time for dad and Sue to get to the funeral home. Then Grayson starts to fuss and point at his mouth. A long string of drool comes out of his mouth. I am thinking, what is he doing he doesn't drool??? Out of nowhere he pukes. Not a little bit, a ton and it goes EVERYWHERE! We are all shuffling around trying to figure out what to do next and as he is trying to get out of the booth to me, he pukes again all over. I get him out of the booth he is still crying and as I am wiping his mouth he projectile vomits all over the floor and walkway. THAT REALLY GOES EVERYWHERE! It is all over the floor, all in the walkway, all around the tables near us, and I am even sure it probably splattered up on the legs of some of the people around us. You know how Outback has those hardwood floors that provide for the most splatter possible. Everyone around us is looking disgusted. I am just waiting for someone around us to start vomiting. All I could think about was in the movie Four Christmases when the baby pukes and Vince Vaughn says, "Oh I am going to do it too" as he is gagging. I am obviously worried about poor Grayson who is looking around like, "what the heck is this about", then poor Sue has puke all over her pants (remember they were on their way to the funeral home), then there is all the people around us, and to top it all off there is not a server in sight so I have to walk to the hostess stand and say in front of huge group of people that have just come in, "My son just puked all over that entire section of the restaurant and it is all in the walkway where people can't get by". I was awful!

I mean seriously?!?!?!? The poor kid has been sick for over a week. He has had a fever for 7 straight days. He was diagnosed with pneumonia today and NOW he is throwing up all over. Is this really happening?!?!?!? To top it all of both Justin and I are sick!!!

Someone tell me that we will all be well soon and that in a few months the memory of this dreadful, sickness filled, cabin fever inducing week will be but a distant memory. Not only that but that all of my work at the office, laundry, and house work will somehow get done so that we can get rid of all of these germs and I won't lose my mind. Yes, I am accepting volunteers.

TIME TO UPDATE

It has been too long but we have been kept busy with a very sick little fella. So here are the updates. . .WARNING: This will be long since it has been a while.

Grayson: Came down with another fever on Monday the 4th. He has been sick ever since and currently has a fever of 100.7 with Motrin. We went to the doctor on Wednesday not really for this specific illness but because Grayson has only been fever free for two 1/2 weeks (around Christmas) since October. I took my calendar in and all the fever days had a big red X on them. I think she was kind of surprised by all the X marks. She decided right away to draw blood and check out his immune system. The results came in on Thursday. Grayson's immune system is fine (PRAISE GOD!). I guess his little body just picks up every yucky bug it comes in contact with. GREAAAT. We did not talk very specifically that day about his current sickness as it was overshadowed by all the previous fevers. By Thursday afternoon when the doctor called with the test results he seemed to be getting worse. The nurse said he probably had the flu as his blood work indicated some sort of virus. They checked in again on Friday and seemed concerned that he was maintaining a fever of around 103 without medication for a 4th day straight. The biggest concern is that all the congestion (has has been insanely snotty with watery eyes and a cough) will move into his chest resulting in pneumonia. After some chatting she felt confident he didn't have pneumonia "yet", but if he still had a fever on Monday they want to see him first thing. So now on Saturday with Motrin his fever is 100.7 (not so good) and at 5 am it was almost 103 (last meds had been given at 8:30 pm when the 5 am temp was taken). Basically, he is still really sick. He does seem less snotty today, but that has come with a worse cough. We have basically been on the couch since Tuesday only getting out to go to his doctor and mine. Until today he wouldn't even get down to play with his toys. He would occasionally color on the couch, but nothing else. That is very out of character for our 20-month old bundle of "all boy" energy. He isn't sleeping well at all, which means Justin and I don't get much sleep either. Yes that is 4 days of missed work for me. I AM SOOO BEHIND, but wouldn't want to be anywhere else than taking care of my little fella. We are praying he gets healthy by tomorrow (NO PNEUMONIA PLEASE) and that I can go back to work Monday as well (NO SICKNESS FOR ME PLEASE).

Baby Firecracker: Everything is going well with the pregnancy. The doctor is sticking with the July 3rd due date so far, thus I have been using the name Baby Firecracker (Justin, not so much). I went for my 15 week check-up on Thursday. From this point on I will be going every 2 weeks. You typically don't go every two weeks until MUCH later in the pregnancy, but since they never determined why my water broke early with the twins they will be checking the length of my cervix every two weeks. This week it measured at a 5. I don't know the unit of measurement they are using so we will just go with "5". Anything over 3 is considered "low risk". The doctor said something about how we were feeling about things and my response was "nervous". He said, "Me too". WAIT A MINUTE! I need him to be the confident one. Well, at least he is honest. I honestly feel like I will not be able to get excited about this pregnancy until I am like 34 weeks. That seems to be an eternity away. I shared that with the doctor and he seemed to share my feeling and understood why I felt that way. At this point with Grayson we already had a crib and were starting to pick out the items we wanted to add to our registry. Same with the twins. Well, we hadn't bought anything yet because the idea of figuring out what we needed for two babies was overwhelming, but we were looking at twin items on craigslist and what not. I must confess that we do have a crib already (more on that in a bit), but every time I try to look at nursery decor and other things we will need for our next baby I get really nervous. I am terrified to buy anything because if we don't bring this baby home I don't want to have things here to remind me of that loss. UGH. I hate that feeling.

Fostering: Although we haven't done much during the holidays we do need to get back on track with the rest of this process. The next steps will take 6-7 months, if we stay on track and get things done in a timely manner. About the crib thing. . .my wonderful friend Cindy gave us a crib and toddler bed. That means we have two cribs and a toddler bed. We will need to set the nursery up with two cribs in preparation of our home inspection for fostering. You must have beds for all of your children and an appropriate bed for whatever age child you desire to foster. We plan to foster babies and since we have a baby on the way we will need two cribs. Yes, it will be odd to set up a nursery with two cribs. It will be a bit of a painful reminder of the nursery we didn't get to have for Faith and Avery. However, we are fully committed to this calling and have to have faith that God will give us all the strength we need to set up a nursery for two babies. That doesn't mean that my stomach will not sink a bit the first few times I walk in that room once it is all set up as a nursery for two. Maybe that is another reason I have not really been putting a lot of thought into getting that process started. Then again it could be that it is just exhausting at this point in my pregnancy to think about reorganizing and rearranging our entire upstairs. Maybe once my second trimester energy burst comes I will get a move on and get really excited thinking about what this next year could bring for our family.

This Blog: I received an e-mail notification last week that babycenter.com is going out of business. I am so sad. I chose to use babycenter instead of just doing a regular blog for many reasons. 1. I started a regular blog and could never make it pretty. Technology is not my friend. 2. Unlike on a regular blog made by someone who is not gifted in the tech department, babycenter organizes everything for you and easily allows you to posts pictures and video. 3. Babycenter will give you a printed book of all of your posts. Yes, you have to pay for this but they do give you one. So your online journal can become a printed one. I like that idea. 4. Babycenter notifies your family and friends when you add something new. A regular blog at blogspot does not do that.
So, what will we do. Well, what can we do? We will be moving back to blogspot. I will work on our blog for a while before I give everyone the address. I am hoping to make it pretty and figure everything out before this site shuts down in JUNE. For a while I will maintain both while everyone transitions with us.

Here comes my plea. . .I have all of you friends out there that have your own blogs. I NEED HELP. When I said I was not technology gifted that may have been putting it lightly. Even hearing the words code or html boggle my mind. I would be willing to come to your house or do whatever it takes to get some help getting our blog all set up and user friendly. Any volunteers??? Again, this is a desperate plea.

Okay so that is pretty much it for the updates. Justin and I are happy to begin the new year. 2009 was a rough one for us that included job loss, the loss of many loved ones, the loss of our beautiful daughters, some financial stress, and lots of medical bills. Looking back God used every bit of what, at the time, seemed like total devastation and turned them all into blessings. Justin has been blessed with two new jobs (first at O'Brien Atkins and now at Clark Nexsen) following the job loss, both better for his career development. We can celebrate that all of those loved ones are together in Heaven. The loss of Faith and Avery brought Justin and I closer, changed our lives forever, taught us how to rely completely on the strength of God when our own strength wasn't even close to enough, and led to the revealing of God's plan for us to foster. And well, the financial stress and medical bills forced us to reevaluate our priorities and really take a close look as what God desires for his followers and how they manage His gifts to them. We are still working on it but we are really trying to get to a place where that area looks the way God desires it to.

Happy 2010 to you all!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We had a more than fantastic Christmas. As usual it was filled with lots of family time, presents, and sharing in the real meaning of it all, the celebration of the birth of Christ. Grayson enjoyed every minute of it all.

The holiday wasn't without a little sadness. Many of our family and friends were dealing with a first Christmas without important loved ones. We were in that same boat celebrating our first Christmas since the birth and loss of Faith and Avery. It was hard. Lots of family members helped us remember them this Christmas through gifts or oranaments on their own tree in memory of our daughters. It was nice to feel like we weren't alone in missing them at Christmas. The most helpful thing for us was to remember that they were having a much more amazing Christmas celebration in heaven with Jesus. I like to believe that Christmas is a really party up there. That didn't change the fact that all through our celebrations it felt like something or some one, in this case two someones, were missing. I guess it may feel that way forever.

Grayson was able to spend a little time with all of his grandparents (yes, all 8 of them) during Christmas and this weekend. As expected he was spoiled. It was also extra special because this year we chose to be home Christmas Eve night which meant we got to stay at our own house, cozy up in our Christmas PJs, read the Nativity Story before bed, put out cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer, and have Santa visit us at home. Christmas morning was so much fun. I think once it all was said and done Grayson finally got the whole concept of Santa. Now the work begins to teach him how all the gift giving relates to celebrating the birth of our Savior. It is very important for that to be the focus of Christmas and for our children to understand that it is about SO much more than presents and Santa.

We had two additional reasons to celbrate this year. One, Jack was home from Iraq and much earlier than expected. Until the second week in December we had no idea he would be with his family for Christmas. Two, my Granny had been in the hospital and made it home Christmas Day in time to open gifts and spend time with all of her family.

Yes, I will say we had a wonderful Christmas. It was another opportunity to count all of the blessings in our lives and an opportunity to praise God for all that he has done and continues to do for us. I hope your's was equally blessed.

MEN IN UNIFORM

I, as most mothers do, think my son is very smart. For the last almost year Grayson's Papa Jack had been deployed to Iraq. With the exception of a visit home for leave over the summer, the only time Grayson has seen Papa Jack has been via webcam or in pictures. Both in the pictures he has seen and on webcam Papa Jack is in his Army uniform.

Last night during dinner the news happened to be on the TV. WRAL was doing a story about one of the NC bases. There was, on the screen, a soldier speaking to a large group. Grayson points to the TV and yells PAPA!!!!. He was so excited. It was not Papa, but the man did resemble Papa Jack a little and I am sure in Grayson's mind he was wearing Papa Jack's clothes.

I wonder if Grayson will recognize Papa when he arrives home tonight. That's right! He is on his way now and will be arriving home TONIGHT! We are all so excited to have him home safely. Thanks for all the prayers to help get him here for Christmas. AND. . .I was totally kidding in the first line. Grayson will definitely recognize him. He is a very smart boy after all.

NOT SUCH A BIG BOY

Besides the anniversary post it has been a while since I have updated. Yes, we have been busy. Thanksgiving was wonderful. We were so blessed to have my entire side of the family over at our home. It was great! My aunt Ret came over the evening before to help me with my first turkey and it turned out great.

Just one short week later we had my office Christmas party at our home and then Grayson's big preschool auction fundraiser which I was a volunteer for. It was a huge success.

We have also had Christmas shopping and decorating to do plus the regular goings on of life. In addition our little guy has kept us busy. Since October 25th Grayson has had a regular periodic fever. The fever comes, lasts about 2 days and then returns in five to seven days after leaving. Grayson has had a few other symptoms along the way (congestion, upset tummy, decreased appetite), but no matter the symptoms the pattern remains the same. Last Friday after running a fever the Friday and Saturday before (yep, that was 6 days) Grayson started with another fever. This fever came with spots on his feet. We go to the doctor and he is diagnosed with Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Okay, we can totally handle that. I ask the doctor is that is what has been causing his frequent fevers. She says no, this virus wouldn't last that long.

Now, let me go back a bit. Each time Grayson runs a fever it is typically around 102-103 the first day and then between 100.5 and 101.5 the second day. Tylenol will keep it down for the most part and if not alternating between Tylenol and Motrin will. EACH time I call the nurse hotline at Grayson's pediatrician. Each time I explain the repetitive nature of his fevers and each time I am told that it is probably just a virus, but if he is running a fever in 3 days to bring him in (FLU). Well, Grayson is never running a fever by that third day so we keep going. Let me say again this has been going on since October!

Am I frustrated? Yes. Am I worried? Yes. Do I trust our pediatrician? Yes. Did I talk to another professional? ABSOLUTELY!

Last week I spoke with another pediatrician I know who has a lot of respect and admiration for our doctor. She listened to my explanation, asked a LOT of questions, and then completely validated my concern. She said although it is common for kids Grayson's age to catch lots of viruses it is not common for it to happen in such a patterned manner. She also mentioned that most pediatricians are swamped right now and the nurses are really trying to weed out the kids that must be seen from the viruses. At quick glance it does sound like Grayson may just have another virus, but when you look at the calendar and patterns it looks VERY strange.

So, what are we doing? We are giving it a chance to make one more cycle. When we went in with hand, foot, and mouth the doc also gave a prescription for some antibiotics because Grayson had been dealing with some congestion since fever one in October. At that point I was thinking Pneumonia. He finished his antibiotic on a Tuesday. Monday evening he had a fever. Fever left on Wednesday. I am expecting that if the pattern is significant then he will run a fever on Tuesday or Wednesday of this upcoming week. We are praying not!

In other news Grayson has a big boy bed in his room. When he returned from his Nana's today it was there and all made up for him, but his crib was still in the room. Our plan was just to move it in there for a month or so and if he wants to sleep in it, great, if not, oh well. In another month or so the crib is going out. Well, he acted like he loved it. He got ready for bed and pointed to the new bed like that was where he wanted to sleep. We moved it over in front of his crib because the initial location wasn't ideal being right under the light switch where he could stand up and turn the light on and off. We put him in and read a story. He was all cozy and excited. We start saying his prayers and he stands up and starts tossing his bears into his crib. We try to get him to lay down and tuck him in. He started crying and trying to climb into the crib. Okay so he isn't ready. FINE with me. I wasn't ready either. So he gets to be a baby boy for a little longer.

However he doesn't get to be the baby for too much longer. For those who don't know yet, we are expecting our 4th baby in July. No, not a foster baby. We are pregnant and super excited. Grayson is going to be a big brother again and he will need to get into that big boy bed soon enough.

We will continue to work towards our foster license and leave that in God's hands. He has it all worked out anyway. No need for us to try to figure it out on our own.

FRUIT AND FLOWERS

Four years ago, today I married my best friend and the love of my life. I can't tell you how blessed I am to have him in my life. Each year when our anniversary rolls around I have lots of thoughts about how long we have known each other, what our wedding day was like, what our life has been like since the wedding, and most specifically what the last year has been like. This has been a tough one for us. I don't want to focus on that. Let's just say that I wouldn't have wanted to go through 2009 with any other man and I thank God every day for using this last year to make our marriage stronger.

For each anniversary I get him a traditional gift. For year one, paper, I gave him the label from the wine we had at our wedding in a frame. Year two, cotton, I got him a decorative box with a note in it written on 100% cotton paper. Year three, leather, I got him a leather dopp kit. This year proved to be a challenge. Year four is flowers and fruit. Easy for all the men out there, but not so easy for us wives. I ended up getting Justin some boots he has been wanting and attaching some flowers to the gift wrapping. Not ideal, but I was at a loss.

I got the flowers. A dozen red roses, which I love because that is what I carried in our wedding. Justin also got me tickets to A Christmas Carol (the play) and a massage. I was spoiled.

Unfortunately our anniversary didn't turn out just as we had planned. Obviously it didn't because it is 10 pm on the evening of our anniversary and I am posting on here. Justin has not been feeling well for a few days. Today we took Grayson to his Nana's to stay so we could have a romantic weekend. By the time we made it back to Raleigh Justin was feeling really bad and had a really high fever. Off we went to Urgent Care. He has the flu, possibly H1N1. We won't know for sure which type for a couple of days. He is REALLY sick.

So here we sit on our Anniversary. Our nice dinner, cookout milkshakes. Our date out, a trip to CVS for $50.00 Tamiflu. Our entertainment, whatever is on the TV in the background. Our agenda, monitor this fever (currently at 103.8) and hope it breaks soon.

You know, some people would insert here that they wouldn't have it any other way because that is just what you are "supposed" to say next. I would. There are lots of ways I would rather spend our anniversary, but at least we are together. So many people can't be with the love of their life on their anniversary whether it be due to deployment, death, sickness, unfortunate circumstances, work, or other reasons. Lots of people don't get to be together. We are!

So tonight may not be perfect and wonderful, but we have a great life together every day. We have a wonderful son. We both are blessed with the ability to work and have jobs, which during this time is a HUGE blessing. We have a loving and supportive family as well as a wonderful group of loving and supportive friends. All of those people encourage our love for each other and cheer us on when we need it most. Last but not least, we serve an amazing GOD. WE ARE BLESSED. As for our fruit and flowers. Well I am admiring those lovely flowers on my counter, I had cherries in my milkshake, and Justin is sipping on OJ. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US. . . .(keep reading)

In addition to our Anniversary it is a VERY important man's birthday today. Today is Papa Jack's, my father-in-law's, birthday. If you have been following our posts for any length of time you will know that Papa Jack has been deployed to Iraq for almost a whole year. Fortunately we can't call him today to wish him a happy birthday. Fortunately???? Yep that is right. Fortunately because this amazing hero to our country and our family is on his way home. PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE. We don't know where he is, but he is out of Iraq. It is also looking like maybe (but you should keep praying) he might (yep, might so keep praying) be home for Christmas. It depends on how long it takes him to get to the US and for them to do whatever it is the military does here before they let the soldiers go home to their families. What an amazing Christmas gift that would be for all of us. So, although we would love to talk to him and wish him a happy birthday we are just fine with having to put that off and do it in person. Happy Birthday Papa Jack (wherever you are). We love you and can't wait to see you!