Jupdate :)

Okay, here's the update on J in the hospital: The surgery to drain the abscess went great and the doctor is confident that they got it all, plus I think they removed the affected lymph node because it was d-e-a-d dead. While he was in there the surgeon took a culture and a biopsy and sent them off for testing - those results will be in tomorrow morning, so J and R will be staying at the hospital until then. Tomorrow they'll do blood work and get those results and the results of the culture and biopsy (that word always makes me think of My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and if everything is good they can come home.

J has been in good spirits all day, and is finally eating. He had 5 pancakes for breakfast and has been eating steadily all day, and drinking a lot on his own. They cut his IV liquids in half earlier today, then turned them off altogether. They'll be putting it back in this evening, for another round of antibiotics, but I think he's all done with it for the purpose of fluids.

Today they went to the big playroom twice, and J painted some wooden cars and played a bit. R finally got a shower and changed his clothes, and they're both feeling pretty chipper.

That has to be it because Z is fussy in his bouncy chair and I need to go get him.

YAY for tomorrow! I get to hug my boy finally - that's all I've wanted this whole time is to just hug him. He's feeling so much better he'll probably only let me hug him for about a second and then he'll say, "mommy can you let go now, please? I want to go play." Oh, well. It'll still make me happy :)

Happy Birthday J

I know everyone wants to hear about the baby but I have other news first. You probably know by now that the baby came on Saturday. The following Monday, R took J to the doctor and we discovered he had strep - he got a shot of penicillin, instead of a 10-day round of amoxicillan. That same night, he took F in and his test was positive for strep also, so he got the shot, too. J was severely sick with the strep but F only had a few sick days and was pretty chipper through it all. On Thursday, O woke up with swollen glands and a sore throat so that evening R took her and B to the doctor to get checked for strep and they both had it, and got the shot. B never even felt sick, which is nice. R got a culture done, too, but he was clean.

J was really sick for a few days and hardly ate anything for 2 of them. He has been starting to feel a bit better but has been complaining of neck pain, and by yesterday could hardly move his head at all and it was sort of stuck at an angle. So, R took him back in last night and then called me after a few hours to say they were headed over to Primary Children's Hospital.

The first thing they did (after waiting hours and hours) was to give J a CAT scan. It turns out that the strep moved into his deep neck tissue and formed an abscess behind his larynx and has grown pretty big. The doctor said the abscess goes from about the area of J's adam's apple up to the base of his skull. It's a really dangerous infection, but we caught it in time so that if they take care of it now J isn't in any danger from it. The dangers would be that it could cut off his air supply, or turn toxic and poison him. Neither of those things are happening yet, though.

So, he's got an IV with antibiotics and fluids, since he can't eat or drink, and they've been waiting to have a surgery to drain the abscess. They'll make an incision in the back of his throat and drain it that way, then he'll have to be in the hospital anywhere from one to three days, on observation and antibiotics. R is with him, and my mom is with me (or will be - she came last night but went back to her house this morning for more clothes, etc, so she can stay longer). This is two weekends in a row she's had to get a sub for her Sunday School class to rush and my house unexpectedly in the night! Good woman.

Uncle M went to the hospital to help daddy give J a blessing, and last I heard he's still there hanging out, which is a blessing for R probably (tho' he'd never admit it, lol), and fun for J.

Probably the worst part is that today is J's birthday. So instead of a party and presents and dinner at the restaurant of his choice he gets surgery. But he's excited to be five, and he's staying pretty cheerful despite it all. He's such a trooper. I'm dying to give him a hug, and I wish I could be there with him. So far, though, he's making out pretty well - he's gotten Play Dough, paints, Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, some fun warm gloves and lots of attention. He's also been promised a birthday surprise after he wakes up from surgery, and has the prospect of his choice of slushies and milkshakes to look forward to as well. The nurses there seem to know how to cheer up nervous kids :)

So, that's that. It's an emergency situation, but it's not life-threatening and he's in good hands. So, keep J (and all of us) in your prayers and I'll post again when things are a little further along.

After all that I don't feel like blogging at length about the birth so I'll wait till next time for that story. Plus, Z is actually asleep and I think I might be able to get a shower. And that takes precedence over almost everything else right now.

Twice in one week!

I was catching up on some friend and family blogs (LORI - please send me a link to yours, I've lost it!) and after reading Alice's, I was interested by a link on top that said, "next blog" so I clicked it and read a few random blog posts by other Blogger users. One of them had this Mother Theresa quote that I've read before and something about it just hit me this time so I wanted to post it:

"Some people are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway."

-Mother Teresa


Baby day is only ONE WEEK away! Yay!

Tonight R and I are going to the ward Valentine's Day party. The only draw for me is a chance to get out of the house with R and the fact that they said there will be games there. Like, board games, not like "guess-what-your-spouse-is-thinking" games, or other such insipid diversions that are, for some reason, highly popular with the LDS ward party crowd. There will also be dance "instruction," to include lessons on line dancing and the macarena, but a 9-month-pregnant person (and her fortunate spouse) has an easy out for that kind of crap. Observation highly outweighs participation in some events. And I highly outweigh everything right now.

I'm fat. Fat, fat, and fat some more. No, I"m not just pregnant, I'm FAT. Even my armpits are fat. My right foot is so swollen that my toes are half their regular height. My ankles are MIA. I know I had some at one point in my life, but now I have what appear to be baked hams connecting my leg stumps to my feet. The fingers on my right hand are constantly tingling and my arm falls asleep from the elbow down approximately 100 times a day. I'm too fat to continue. The kids will have to roll me around the house for the next week, like Oompa Loompas rolling Violet Beauregarde around after she turned into a blueberry.

J is waiting for me to come give him purple medicine. Then I need to go sew. I've made 3 sheets for the co-sleeper because I'm sick of not having any and I'm not about to spend money on them. Next I want to make a few shirts for nursing. It's probably a really bad idea to try to make shirts when I can't try them on as I go along, but how will I know unless I try it? I have fabric, patterns and time on my hands. I'm too fat to do anything useful, so I might as well sew a few shirts.

Plus, my vonderful sister is coming next week to clean - if I do the dishes, what will she do when she gets here? I mustn't take away her service opportunity.

lol, J just asked me for bologna for his birthday. Ah, the wishes of a kid growing up with no money - and no TV. He doesn't realize everything that he's missing, and his little heart just wishes for bologna. How can I say no? Happy birthday bologna, coming up.

I probably won't blog again before the baby comes, but you'll all get an email from R in a week's time announcing the new arrival and - with any luck - he'll even have a name.

Busy processing oxygen

Well, so, yeah. I changed my background again because Utah is doing its yearly fool-Heather-into-thinking-it's-Spring thing and I wanted something a little cheerier. I am resisting an out-and-out Spring background; my nod to realism. There's a really cute one on Bloggaroo but I will resist.

If there are weird typos and stuff it's not my fault. The baby is sitting in such a way that my arms and hands fall asleep all the time, and I have a few fingers that just never wake up. Plus I can't sit normally in the computer chair or my tailbone freaks out and my legs cease to function, so I have to sit backwards and type around the back of the chair.

There's not much to report, I'm still pregnant. Two more weeks, give or take (that's adding a week to my actual due date, fyi). I'd know more but my midwife had a birth and cancelled my check-up yesterday...wait.....okay well she just called to reschedule so I'll see her this afternoon. And we scheduled to have her come sweep my membranes on the morning of the 19th so everyone can expect to get an email with good news that weekend. YAY!

We still haven't chosen a name for this poor kid but R is determined to agree on one before he's born. At this point I'd almost rather just short list our favorites and name him after we meet him, but we'll see. I'd rather pick the right one than just name him something at the last minute. But R has attitude about people who don't name their babies till after they're born. *sigh* We'll see.

So, that's the news for now. Not much has changed, everyone is fine. I'm in better spirits now that I have a date to look forward to and next week my sister and a crew of gals from my ward are coming to clean in preparation for the baby. Free house cleaning and a light at the end of the tunnel! What more could I ask for (except to BE at the end of the tunnel, but seeing the light is good enough for right this minute)?