Celebrate!

Since Carrie was in the hospital in May, she has been gaining weight painfully slow-like an ounce in 2 weeks.  When we left she had barely hit 12 pounds, we started solid foods and got some good tricks to battle the reflux to keep all the good stuff down and she is gaining weight again by golly!  In the last 3 weeks or so she has really started gaining. Tonight, she weighed 14 lbs 3 oz!  I think we will celebrate!

Breakfast at our House!

This is what breakfast usually looks like at our house!  And this morning, I thought, in about 10 years....maybe 20 I will be glad I took these pictures.  

Picture dump!

Job 1001 of a mom- helping answer prayers:)

One day last week James was in time out in his room for riding his bicycle away when I was trying to get him home-like he was riding turbo speed and I had to chase him on foot while yelling for him to stop-a little embarrassing for me. I was sitting on the couch feeding Carrie listening to his crying which would go loud to quiet and back when all the sudden I hear him say in a very loud desperate longing voice, Heavenly Father, please help me to get out of here!  Sure enough his prayer was answered very quickly when I walked to his room gave him a big hug (after I laughed a good bit) and let him out.

Family pictures.

We got family pictures done and I like them! It's fun to have new pictures to hang on the wall soon. I am certain that I have the most handsome husband & adorable children!

What I learned this week...

We were in the hospital for a few days this past week with Carrie who had/has pneumonia. It's hard having a baby in the hospital and babies at home. She got back on oxygen this past month and she started getting a cough, eating wasn't going so well because she would start coughing and coughing. I think in all of that coughing she aspirated some and then came the pneumonia. Can I mention that every one of us has been to the doctor in the last month... some of us twice. Katelynn had a double ear infection and strep-2 different visits! Anyway Sunday morning I had been up with Carrie, Trevor had been too. Overnight her cough and demeanor had changed. She was struggling a lot more with the coughing and crying and crying which is unusual for her. I took her to a neighbor who worked as a nurse more years than I have been alive. She listened to her and said that she could hear it a lot lower & to take her to a doctor that day, not to wait until Monday.

James and Katelynn still remember December when she was in for so long, James especially. He was having a bit of a hard time that he couldn't go with me to the doctor. We had a family prayer before I left and Trevor took them downstairs and I went out the door with my sick baby. At Redicare, they did an RSV test and chest X-rays. No RSV, but yes on the pneumonia. The doctor sent me out the door to the ER. They hooked her up to a pulse oximeter at the hospital and when she didn't have the oxygen, like if the cannula slipped out, her oxygen level was dropping into the 60's sometimes. Poor girl, I won't even talk about when they put the IV in. It was very sad. So Trevor & a friend came and gave her a priesthood blessing in the E.R. in which she was told she would recover. I was also given a blessing in which I was told that I would have the strength and energy to take care of my family and the peace to know that all would be well. 

She got admitted, we were told it would be a couple of days probably. They started her on antibiotics and fluids and she would eat some, sleep more. She was really feeling good by Tuesday. Monday they did an echo on her heart to see if the pulmonary hypertension had come back. No it hadn't but her PDA on her heart that had closed in December had reopened some so around her birthday they'll go in and fix it if it hasn't closed. It should be a simple 2 hour procedure. And it will either be in Boise or Salt Lake.

She came home Wednesday feeling much better! When the wind hit her face as we left the hospital, she just smiled and seemed to get to so excited!

So what did I learn this week?
I learned that the feelings I felt in December, the worried, stressed,a little scared, hopeful, grateful, watched over, loved feelings were/are still very raw and come back quickly.

I also learned my other children really still need their momma.

Even during hard times, Heavenly Father is still very aware of us and sends his tender mercies to comfort us.  And that He gives us strength to do things we could not do without His help.

We're all learning our family can do hard things.

Sometimes the hospital is the easy part-the getting back to life at home is harder.

Carrie gains weight faster at the hospital-like 6 or 7 ounces in 4 days, BUT it is just from the extra fluids and it doesn't all last.

I think I need a getaway because I semi-enjoyed being at the hospital with just Carrie.

We have a lot of really great people we live around, we had a lot of food brought in and a lot of people helped watch James and Katelynn.

Already knew this but Trevor is SO good for me.  Life is a bazillion times better with him by my side. 



The wrapped up tight pacifier sucking Carrie was our first day there-she felt pretty bad.  The other is close to the end of our stay...she feels much better.

Catch up...sort of..

Here are a few pictures of our Easter this year.  We went to Lava Hot Springs for their Easter celebration.  Grandma Charlotte puts a lot of time and effort into planning it and we have  a great time enjoying all the hard work.  The children always get to decorate hats(okay, James picks out creatures to put on his, we hot glue them and he’s done and I pick out flowers to hot glue on Katelynn and Carrie’s and theirs are done too) and hunt for eggs and eat breakfast and lunch and get prizes.  This year , a lot of family came down so it was a good time.  We spent the Saturday with Grunigs and Sunday with Browns.  It was the first time we sort of split a holiday between our families.  Kind of different.  My mom was in town on Easter Sunday because my sister had a baby!  And so did my sister in law two days later.  It was a crazy time.  So now I have a nephew’s birthday April 2, a niece’s birthday April 4, and mine April 6.  Pretty cool I think.

In other news, we have Carrie on oxygen at night.  At her 4 month checkup, I mentioned that I hear her every once in a while stop breathing and then take a big deep breath at night.  The doctor was already going to send us to an ENT, so I mentioned it at the ENT appointment too and by that night we had a pulse oximeter  to chart her oxygen levels.  The ENT called me back the next day and said that the results were troubling.  Her oxygen levels were dropping often during the night.  Within 10 minutes, I got a call from the ENT, a call from the man who brought the testing stuff over, and her pediatrician.  We had a respiratory therapist over that night showing us our new equipment.  We did another test that night with the oxygen on and it made a HUGE difference.   We have an oxygen pump and oxygen tanks in case the electricity goes out.  She has pretty big tonsils, so they will be taking those out in the next year or so and I hope that helps with the oxygen levels at night.   We’ll be going to a cardiologist next month instead of in August or September just to be make sure nothing else is going on.  And we’re going back to the ENT in about a week.  I am glad for the time we had where we didn’t have extra equipment or worries besides weight gain(which is still a bit of a concern to me).  It was a good time to get used to everything that comes with a new baby.

Katelynn loves Rapunzel(as you know if you watched that video from her birthday).  She likes to brush hair and she is not picky as to what hair she brushes, I mean, her blanket was Rapunzel hair one morning, a kitchen rag got brushed and carried around, anything long and flowy is Rapunzel hair.  In fact, when Carrie’s OT was over the other day, she got her hair brushed and combed. She also loves How to Train Your Dragon and is crazy about it.  She likes being outside a ton too.  I have to watch her a little closer in the front because she still doesn’t believe me that the road can be dangerous.  I will have to write some of her cute stories later when my brain is not shutting down. 

I am LOVING being a mom & wife right now, this time right now is so precious that I wish I could record our days and go back and watch them later.  Sure there are hard days, and I get pretty grumpy some days, but I am loving this time in my life and my family’s lives.

Easter clothes! 

 That is new baby Jonathan and Grandma Brown and Carrie in the chair back there.  What a crazy & great year to get to see my mom twice in less than 4 months!

Did I mention Katelynn LOVES swinging, I think she was on this swing for 10 or 15 minutes.

 And when we were in SLC this past weekend, we got to see my favorite room mate from college and her husband and one of their boys!  It was SO fun to reminisce and catch up, I just wish Georgia wasn’t so far so we could get together more often!

I love it when she lets me fix her hair!

going swimming!

Our "new" van!