Individual minds

Yesterday Isaiah and I went to the church to drop off a peach cobbler. He insisted on wearing his big brother's sunglasses the whole time. He even held his head tilted slightly back to add to the coolness factor. He's one cool boy but Im guessing he will be my hardest to handle as time goes by because of how independent he already is!

At the park on Friday evening Carmen fell down and scraped up her knee. When it first happened she came over to me and told me calmly that she fell down but that she's okay. That is, until she looked down and saw blood and she hunched over and cried all the way home. When we got home I showered her, dressed her (because she was afraid if she dressed herself she would accidentally rub the clothes over her scrape and hurt it), and I bandaged it. When I told her to start walking to bed she was still walking hunched over so as to not hurt her scratch in any way. I told her that if she couldn't walk standing up like normal she wouldn't be able to go to the birthday party for her friend the next morning. So she said okay, stood up and took one step, then hunched back over and did her "im-in-pain" walk but said, "I can still go to the party I can walk normal but I am just showing you how old ladies walk, they walk like this and sometimes they need help and the doctors can hold their arms but they still walk like this because they are old." Silly girl knows how to get around the rules already at such a young age.

Yesterday at dinner time we were sitting around the table talking about marriage and Carmen said that she isn't sure she wants to get married because she doesn't want to kiss on the lips. After the kids stopped giggling they were discussing marriage prospects. Ciara Olivas and Morgan Eaton made it to Julians list and Carmen couldn't think of any boy to add to her list (well, she's not in school yet and there arent a whole lot of boys her age at church). Then Carmen said, "Mom, I used to really like Julian and I wanted to marry him but then you told me we cant marry our brother so I dont want to marry him anymore. I'll find someone else"

Last night I left Elias on the couch while I got the other kids to bed. I kept spooking myself every time I walked in the room because Isaiah had left a baby doll hanging halfway off the couch and from the corner of my eye I couldnt tell a real baby from a fake one. Even though I knew where Elias was and that a baby doll was on the couch hanging off, I somehow managed to forget EVERY time and get spooked. Dont worry, Elias is fine, he cant roll yet!

swim!

Today the kids and I went to visit some friends. They have a pool! It was a nice day. Hot enough to swim but overcast so no sunburns and great lighting for pictures. I only took three though because Isaiah made me play basketball with him in the pool bball hoop from the side of the pool. He didnt want to get in the water. Elias slept most the time in his car seat in the air conditioned house.

Father's Day!

When Isaiah got sick he had a fever then threw up on his grandma. I threw him in the shower and when I got him out I put a diaper on him and wrapped him in a blanket and sat him on the chair in my room while I looked for his pijamas and got the other kids showered. He fell asleep not even three minutes after I sat him down.

For Father's Day we made Nick a gift basket with Dove chocolates, Harry and David truffles, beef jerky, and movies Yes Man, Click and The Italian Job. Instead of filler grass/paper I got him shop towels and rolled them up. Isaiah wanted to open it. His eyes and mouth were wide opened at the sight of the Dove chocolates. Nick decided he wanted to open his presents a day early. He didnt want to wait for Father's Day.

One of his other Father's Day presents was a stool to sit on while he plays guitar. I guess our Ikea chairs arent comfortable enough for him, but they are for Isaiah!

Happy Father's Day Nick! Thank you for tolerating us so well :D

Elias is HOME!

When the nurses in the hospital needed to warm up Elias' hands and feet to help them find a vein I was surprised that instead of using warming pads they put warm water in diapers and wrapped them around his hands and feet. He didnt care for them.

Poor Elias did not want to be in the hospital at all. He was SO uncomfortable.
This is where he had the spinal tap. Poor baby.

His poor feet had tubes and wires. It made it so hard for me to nurse him especially when some of the cords werent long enough for me to sit down and feed him so many times I fed him standing next to his crib.
This is one of the many smiley pictures I took of him moments after I took him out of his carseat at home and laid him on my pillow on my bed where he frequently sleeps and Im sure he recognized the scent of home. He smiled until he fell back to sleep a half our later. We are glad to be home and we are both recovering from whatever this virus is that attacked us and we are hoping the other kids get passed by unscathed.

sick days=vacation days?

What a weekend! Im so tired I have to strain to remember what happened. Friday night when I went to bed I was freezing cold. The thermostat was set to 78 and I was covered in a big puffy comforter and still cold. I woke up two hours later drenched in sweat. I got up to use the restroom and almost fell over. I was very weak and my whole body ached. My joints hurt, my bones hurt, my stomach hurt, my neck and lymphnodes under my arms hurt, my head was throbbing, my face hurt (yes I know, it hurts everyone else too :P ). I laid back down and I was freezing again and because I was so achy I was worried I was coming down with something and the worry kept me awake. I finally fell back to sleep, woke up drenched again, fell back to sleep and woke up a couple more times to feed Elias. When I finally woke up I felt okay so then we got ready and left to a birthday party we were to appear at. I stopped by JC Penney and got a super awesome shirt (found it in the juniors dept because for some reason the shirts in the womens department are so short!) and then we came home and babysat three wonderful children (yes to their mother, they are wonderful- they played well and werent messy, they just had a fun time being kids!) and then Nick and I watched a movie and we went to bed. I was so tired I went to bed two hours earlier than I usually do, which is still probably later than most people. I woke up still feeling drained and slightly off, you know... that feeling of I cant tell if Im dizzy or if my head is tilted to the side. I called into church sick. (just a side note, none of my other kids or Nick are sick at all, just me and Elias- probably because I dont get much sleep and him because hes a newborn) I got the kids dressed for church and fed and had Nick take the kids to church, minus Elias of course, he had a fever. I had noticed it when I woke up in the morning to feed him but as tired as I was I couldnt pull myself out of bed to grab a thermometer. After everyone left to church and I took another nap I took Elias' temperature under the arm, like the newborn baby hospital papers say to do, and it was 100.3. I took his temperature by ear and it was 100.4 the magic number for calling the nurse. Elias and I had taken a shower and I had no makeup, was in just a pony tail and weekend clothes. I called and she instructed me to take a rectal temperature. So I grudgingly did (EEW!) and it was 101.3 and was to take him to the ER asap. So I loaded him into the corvette. yes. we own a corvette. And drove to the Phoenix Childrens Hospital. FYI the emergency room parking lot was built for about 12 vehicles so they assume youre not coming alone, so if you do come, dont come alone. I had to find a parking spot in the garage around the corner and find my way to the ER. Once I got there and started checkin in Elias decided to poop, and the poop decided to make its way out of the diaper and onto the floor, and my shirt and my shoe, so off to the restroom I went to clean us both up. That left him in just a diaper. We got in and his temp was around 102 so they took us to an ER room and we spent our whole Sunday evening there. This is how it went

• catheter for urine test
• attempt to find vein for blood work
• couldnt find vein, so they wrapped diapers soaked in warm water on his hands and feet to warm and expand the veins
• they call the IV expert in, she finds a vein
• vein elusive
• another vein
• elusive
• another vein
• near miss, just close enough to get blood for a draw but not placed well enough for an IV
• spinal tap. I left the room, this I DIDNT want to see
• they try to find a vein again and miss so they call in this Todd, hes good at blind IVs or something like that
• Todd hits a vein after about 15 minutes and IV success- its in his left foot.

Okay now through all of this I didnt have my cell phone. I had called Nick on the way to the hospital and when I hung up sat the phone in my lap. When I got out of the car I left it on the seat on accident so I had called Nick from the ER after being there an hour or two and then again a couple hours later. Luckily the second time I called he was at the corvette picking up my phone for me and I told him where to find us so him and the kids could home in. Because I hadnt had my phone he was a nervous wreck not knowing what was going on. They checked us in because they want to rule everything out to narrow down what is causing the fever/infection. His spinal fluid was clear (I know, they showed it to me) and his urine was normal so now they are giving him antibiotics in case it is a bacterial infection. Cultures take 48 hours to fully cultivate so after 48 hours, if its positive we stay for 5 more days until his 7 day antibiotic course is complete. If its negative it must be a virus and they cant do anything for that but send us home and we give him tylenol. Nick and Randy came last night and gave Elias a blessing and today his fever has gone down some to a much safer temperature but he is still a little warm. He is and has been eating well so now it is just a waiting game. Nicks mom flew in today to help him with the kids at home. He took today off and tomorrow he has to go in so him mom will be at the house to care for the kids while I stay with Elias. I know Im not the one checked in but I may as well be. Sure I could leave any time I want to but I am his food source and because I probably am the one who got him sick, his food is probably and most likely a better medicine than what they are giving him in the IV. Okay I take back the work thing. Nick is so dedicated to his integrity that he called just now and said hes going in to help out because he was told some people didnt show up. So anyways, oh yeah I get hospital meals because Im nursing. Yay. Hospital food. Yipee. Oh yeah and the biggest pet peeve of being here is obviously being here but the second... I cant use Elias' bathroom. Its a RULE. you know, in case I contaminate his bathroom that he will be using to pee and shower in?

And the two funniest things nurses have said to me:

• "Think of this as a vacation from your other kids"
• "So this is your 6th child?"

Its so hard to be away from my other kids and to see my baby connected to tubes and wires and to see him whimpering from the fever. It hurt so much to see him be poked over and over and to see him cry in pain. I finally know what its like to want to take the pain on myself if it means my son wont have to go through it. I will post pictures when Im back home.

Okay I have to go now so I can walk across the wing, while I leave the baby in his bed, to the nearest public use bathroom to pee and think about how I miss my kids, my own bed, and the 5 second walk to my toilet. Sarchasm aside I am thankful Im here for fever observation and not a chronic or deadly illness, and that my mother in law could come help out, and that we have good hospitals so close to home, and that we have good insurance, and that the hospital has been very accomodating. I was able to shower today, eat healthy food, be by my babies side and Im thankful for prayer. And Im thankful for my dad. Happy Birthday Dad!

Birthday Boy!!

My little man is 2 today! I would say it doesnt seem that long ago I was in the hospital giving birth to him, but since I just gave birth a few weeks ago, I realize that there was a 2 year span between then and now. Isaiah is very special. When Carmen was little and we lived in an apartment in Mesa. Nick said that we could have another baby when we got into a house. When we moved into this house we still werent sure yet when the time would be right so that summer we prayed and we both recieved the answer that we should wait til September. We did and got pregnant right away.

Isaiah Nicholas was born June 5, 2007. He weighed 7lb 10oz. He was covered in hair. His shoulders, back, arms, head, and even his face. Thank goodness hes grown into the hair! He's a beautiful boy.
He loves basketball and anything to do with balls. He watches basketball games, he watches SportsCenter, he makes us watch golf and womens softball sometimes. For his birthday I made him a basketball cake. Ill post pictures some after Ive taken some.

Happy Birthday Isaiah!