Thursday, February 24, 2011

parenthood rite of passage: first late night hospital trip

Last night I experienced my first late night children's hospital visit with Kieran in tow. He had a runny nose all day Wednesday but no other signs of illness - happy, content and his usual self. He went down for bed just fine and then as I was getting ready for bed at midnight I heard him cough - I hadn't heard him cough all day so that was weird and that I'd keep listening. When I laid down I heard him cough again and this time called Josh and we agreed I'd take him to the hospital. I KNEW it was croup right away. That seal-like bark is unlike anything you ever hear in the normal cough/cold spectrum, and I knew that croup could come on suddenly, typically at night. So I asked Josh to help me get him ready to go to the hospital while I got myself ready, and while he was putting on his sweatshirt Kieran was crying, coughing and he started turning purple! Let me tell you, I had a flashback to when he was going through his apnea spells in the NICU and it was NOT fun.

Josh stayed home with sleeping Maia, so I took Kieran in the car alone and I was so scared. I turned off the heat so he could have cold air, which is supposed to help with croup, but it also served as helpful so that I could hear his heavy breathing. I hated that I had to drive alone in the dark after he had turned purple, and I hated even more when I had to get on the highway and couldn't hear his breathing anymore because the car got louder. But we arrived to the hospital and he had fallen asleep. I woke the little guy up and we sat in the ER for about 45 minutes before we were seen. Already I noticed he sounded better, so I think the cool air in the car helped him, but he still had a very barky cough. The intake nurse said "I knew he was croupy the minute he walked in" - he definitely gave it away! We were put into a room in the short stay unit and a doctor came in very quickly after that. Kieran was to get a nebulizer breathing treatment and then an oral steroid. If he responded well to the medicine we would be able to go home after an hour or so. If he got worse, we'd have to stay. I snapped a picture of him with my phone in his purple backless hospital gown after he had the meds (and a late night nursing session.) When Josh saw this picture he thought it was one of baby Maia - maybe the purple threw him off? ;)


After about an hour and a half they sent us home. Kieran's cough sounded better, he was breathing easier and was sleeping peacefully. His lungs were clear and he had no fever so I felt we were fine to go home. They didn't send any meds home, as the oral steroid is supposed to be long-lasting, so at 4AM we got tucked into bed. Sleep didn't last long for either of us, though, as Maia woke up at 7, yeesh!

Today's Kieran been doing really well, which sort of surprises me (but of course thrills me!) He had his monthly RSV shot this morning and the nurse who came to our house thought Kieran's lungs sounded great and he really hasn't had much of a cough today, though when he has it's been slightly mucousy and not croupy. And despite his sickness of the past few days, he's learned to wave goodbye and I think he may have signed "all done" earlier today. He is such a little trooper and I am totally counting my blessings because this is the first time K's ever been sick, and I'm thankful for how mild it's been thus far. Special thanks go out to my grandma today, who took Maia out to the bookstore and to her house for dinner so Kieran and I could get a nap - you are an angel, Grandma!!!

Monday, February 21, 2011

family update

Wow, it's been awhile! Time passes by SO very quickly in my world, as it usually does with parents of two little ones, but still I am so amazed at how fast time really is flying by. I got busy with schoolwork (I'm taking one college class this trimester) and all the sudden I haven't posted since January 6th! Oh well. It's my blog, I do what I want ;) I have many things I want to post about, but since January so many things have happened in our family so I thought I would blog about those first.

Brittany: Besides my class (and may I say, taking one class versus two a trimester REALLY helps with my personal/family balance!) I also took an embroidery class at Crafty Planet last month and it was so much fun. I'm now almost done with my first project, a tea towel with a really awesome design - you'll see soon when I post pictures. I've kept up on my sewing, too. My goal was 2 projects a month and in January I sewed Kieran a pair of pants and sewed a burp cloth & bib for my friend's new baby boy. So far for February I have made an adorable skirt for Maia with Hello Kitty fabric that she picked out, and next up are some curtains for our side door. I love having crafts to turn to when I need a break, and being able to embroider things now is great because it's portable, plus I can do it with the kids around.

Kieran modeling his fleece mama-made pants
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Speaking of my friend's new baby boy, I was blessed to be able to attend that little fella's birth - a beautiful, gentle home waterbirth. It's such a blessing to be able to witness birth as it's truly supposed to be. Lastly, I joined BeautiControl (again, as I used to be a consultant) because I am absolutely in love with their mineral makeup and brand new skin care (it's paraben-free, gluten-free and without artificial fragrances & dyes!) and I'm hoping to do 2-3 in-home spa parties a month for extra cash. If you see this and you're interested in having a party or checking out the spa goodies (seriously, their skin care & makeup is to die for!) let me know!

Josh: Josh has been busy playing guitar in a new band called Mainland. He's also going to be having another surgery in April on his injured foot (this makes #5 since I've known him, I think?) Speaking of his foot (which, if you didn't know, he injured in a work accident in 11/2005, breaking I-don't-know-how-many-bones in a fall) my friend suggested that Josh look into using an amber bracelet around his ankle to help with swelling and inflammation, and guess what? It's totally working! Yep, amber rocks. He's been wearing it about 3-4 weeks now and has noticed that while there is still foot pain, his swelling has decreased to barely anything, which means less pain. Yay! Now that everyone in my family has one, I want one, too....hmm.

Maia: Maia has grown a TON lately. She's super tall and in 4T clothes now. She started a tumbling class at the rec center down the street and she likes that a lot, especially the "animal crawls" she learned and somersaults - she's so good at them! We recently signed her up for preschool - yes, my baby girl is going to PRESCHOOL this September! We hope to visit the school soon as a family. I've been there before, as my 2 youngest brothers attended there, but Josh has never been. Maia's been going through some developmental growth as well. Recently she started to do many new things herself, things that we previously did for her like getting toothpaste out and on her brush, helping her get dressed, etc. She can now fully get dressed and undressed except for buttons and she needs help getting her shirts off. She does her full night-time routine on her own in the bathroom alone (her preference) with us just guiding and reminding her what to do. I am so proud of her!

She loves finger painting.
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She has also been engaging in pretend play and using her imagination for some time now but it's really expanded lately and it's fun to see what she comes up with! She's been playing doctor since this summer but recently has expanded her repertoire to include ambulance rides, shopping at Target for band-aids for the office, and even a hospital bed set-up in her room. There's also been pretend beach party picnics, car rides to her cousin's homes & pretend talent shows (she always dances.) Her baby/mom role-playing is also expanding and she takes her baby in her doll carrier and/or carseat on car rides, grocery shopping, to the doctor, etc. It is so much fun to see what she comes up with! Her language has also furthered a ton, too. She is constantly making us laugh with her hilarious stories and funny sayings. And one of the cutest things she is into lately is back rubs and back scratches. She now wants them before she goes to bed, so she gets one of each :)

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Kieran: This little dude has gone through a TON since the last time I posted about him! A few weeks ago he weighed in at 23 lbs & 29 inches. Yes, 23 lbs!!!!! That means that he is bigger than Maia was at this age, because Maia was 22lbs from 6 months to about 2 years. That's just insane to me. He is now 11 months old and just about 9 months adjusted - we're so close to 1 year old, what the heck!? In January he got his first teeth - the front two bottom, and in February he got his top front two teeth with nary a side effect. Seriously, the amber teething necklace rocks!!! He looks so stinking cute with the two front teeth, and looking more grown up. He's mostly wearing 24 month now, save for 18 month bottoms. He is a hefty boy but oh well, it's worth it :) We worked hard for those rolls!

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Also - he is CRAWLING! He started officially crawling on Valentine's Day - he crawled from one room to me in the next room. Then the next day I found him standing next to his toy box - he learned to pull up in the same week! He thinks it's really funny to pull things off our coffee table and just learned how to pull up in his crib last night. What a silly boy. The funny thing is, Kieran's started crawling the exact same"age" as Maia! Maia crawled at 8.5 months and Kieran crawled at 8.5 months adjusted. Pretty cool, huh? I think my kids just crawl a tad it later because they are so dang chubby, ha! Kieran's also vocalizing more - I hear "mama" occasionally, as well as "dada," and we hear gee, kee, yeah, etc. He seems to be spot on with his adjusted age for that. And he's signing "more" now! We use "more" a lot when it comes to his food - he is a very voracious eater, especially when it comes to meat & cheese, so we're constantly giving him more and more and more! Favorite foods right now are: any kind of meat, steamed broccoli and blueberries (but I am NOT giving him those again for awhile, the diapers are HORRID!) He is such a fantastic eater and we've loved letting him lead the way using the baby-led weaning method.

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Whew, did you stick around for all that? It was a lot of writing (at least there were photos!) But now you know what the Collins crew has been up to. I am trying to make blogging a priority but it's a work in progress. :)