Matthew's IEP, Sarah Sees the Dentist, Seizures and Pre-Eclampsia

Monday all the kids had a dentist appointment. Since Aaron had taken so much time off work when Josh was in the hospital, I didn't dare ask him to take off more time and help me so I braved all four kids alone. We pulled in to the very FULL parking lot and I was putting Sarah in the stroller when Matthew decided to open the car door as hard as he could into the car next to us leaving a mark. I went and looked at it there was no dent, but it left a mark you could buff out if you tried. There were no other spots to re-park and I was running late anyway so I just let things go hoping the person wouldn't get too upset. It really wasn't bad so I just let it go. We walked in and they called the boys back and told me I could stay with Sarah and finish filling out paper work in the waiting room. I just looked at them like you have got to be kidding and then said the boys were pretty crazy and I would like to come back to help keep them in line. It's a good thing I did they were all over the place. When it got to be Sarah's turn for X-rays--that was a definite NO GO. As soon as they touched her she started just screaming. They decided to hold off in the X-rays which was a good idea in my book. She only allowed them a quick brush and look into her mouth while sitting in my lap but everything looked ok as far as they could see. Lately I have been trying to get the boys more self sufficient in brushing their teeth, but it was to Josh's downfall. He got his first cavity. Matthew has also chipped his front tooth which they are going to fix. Other than that things are looking good.

Yesterday Matthew had his annual IEP meeting with his teacher, regular education teacher and principal. We set some good goals for him to work on this next year so hopefully he can get closer to achieving them.

In other happenings Josh had 7 seizures back to back this morning. We made a call to the on call neurologist and after explaining the situation, he said and I quote, "Well I don't know what to do next. Hmmm."--meaning, wow, what do we do next for this kid's seizures because all the usual stuff IS NOT WORKING. That is not very comforting since he is supposed to be the pediatric neurology expert! He ended up increasing his new medication to the maximum level according to his weight and we get to go back to the clinic next week to see what step comes next. At this point it is anyone's guess.

As for me this last week I have noticed my hands and face have been puffy. I have put off taking my blood pressure because innocence is bliss, but finally took it last night. Yup it was high. It was high again this morning (and seeing Josh have so many seizures back to back probably didn't help). I saw the doctor and my blood pressure was high in the office and I also had protein in my urine. They drew labs to see if my liver is involved, but we probably won't hear the results until tomorrow. I have another tentative appointment tomorrow to see what's going on, but for now I am supposed to be taking it easy and just waiting to see how bad things are. Just to add the baby has also turned from head down to sideways--AWESOME. That means he might have to get here by C-section if he doesn't change positions. Anyway, I have had pre-eclampsia/HELLP syndrome with 3 of my 4 children and I am just waiting to see if this one will be the same. If so I will be having him a lot sooner than later. That translates into a newborn intensive care stay. The sad thing is this is not new to us since Daniel and Matthew were preemies and ended up with NICU stays as well. Unfortunately, I have never had one this premature, though so we'll see what happens.

At what point can I scream UNCLE and make all these stress and problems STOP? As for now I am trying to concentrate on the positives which I do have many blessings. I keep reminding myself of them--good husband, well behaved children (except at the dentist's office :)), secure job with good health insurance, etc. Oh sigh, I must admit, though, I have almost hit my breaking point on what I can handle at once...if that happens I will then have really puffy eyes from crying--at least it will match my puffy face :).

Easter/Birthday Party

The end of March all within four days of each other there is my birthday, my sister's birthday and my Dad's birthday. They most always come within a week of Easter as well so we celebrated everything Saturday. The kids mostly look forward to the Easter Egg hunt. G&G T hide Easter eggs all over. There are three different levels, easy for the smaller kids, medium for the older kids, and hard for the adults. Sarah even figured things out and was picking eggs up. I was lucky because I got a third trimester pregnancy handicap during the adult egg hunt. I was allowed a 3 second head start so I wouldn't be trampled by the brother and brother-in-law. Being in my third trimester I don't move very fast so Aaron thinks I wasted my 3 second lead--but hey try moving fast down some stairs way off balance and bending over to pick up eggs while supporting a basketball around your midsection is not easy. Before the Egg hunt we had a yummy dinner of pork burritos and birthday cake which made me even more sluggish. We all had a good time, though. Grandpa T got into it so much he lost a lens in his glasses and didn't even know where or what time it had fallen out.

Out of the Mouth of Matthew

Matthew has said a few interesting things lately. I thought I would share. Today in primary they were having singing time when Matthew (who makes his voice be heard in primary) said, "Sister Stettler (who is the music person), can we just sing the closing song and be done today?" He also wanted to bear his testimony in church. I was very hesitant to let him because you just never know what he is going to say. He finally persuaded me and ran, yes I mean RAN, up to the pulpit and got as close to the microphone as possible and said his sweet testimony that went something like this, "I would like to bear my testimony. I know this church is true. My Grandparent's house is my favorite place. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." He said it loud enough that no one was asleep afterwards. When he was finished he RAN back to the bench and said in a loud enough voice everyone sitting around me could hear, "Hey Mom, did I do a good job?"

Today while picking/cleaning up the family room Matthew said to Aaron in his deadpan, monotone voice, "Do we need to vacuum all the crap off the floor?" Meaning he didn't want to pick up the clothes and shoes off the floor, he just wanted to get the vacuum out to get everything. I guess he does know what the word crap means--is that a good thing or bad?

Lastly, while I was in the hospital with Josh, Aaron stopped by Subway to pick me up some dinner since I hadn't had a chance to eat anything before our ambulance ride. Matthew absolutely loves talking in the drive thru microphone which isn't always a good thing. Aaron ordered my food and Matthew noticed it was a girl's voice in the speaker. When they got up to pay for it, the girl/Pat/it (she was one of those girls that really looked like a boy with the very short hair cut, tattoos and basically a lesbian) took Aaron's money. That's when Matthew asked "it" what happened to the girl that talked in the speaker? Luckily she didn't hear him right away so Aaron hurried and turned up the radio volume just to drowned him out. He's a funny kid and it's a good thing we love him ;).

The Saga Continues...But with a Bright Spot

We nervously brought Josh home from Primary's Thursday afternoon. I watched him like a hawk just in case. He did great the rest of the day and also when he went to bed. It eased my mind a little until Friday morning. At 4 am I was awakened to the sound of him having a seizure. Now the neurologist had warned me that he have an occasional seizure and to document each one to let them know how things are going for his follow up appointment in a month. He also told he if he had more than a few back to back to call the neurologist on call since we still may have to adjust his medication. Unfortunately, he had another not more than 15 minutes after the first one. I was starting to get a little more upset. It was after he had four more in the space of an hour and a half that I paged the on call neurologist for Primary Children's. I talked to the on call doctor, since he was on call he had not ever seen Josh, but he certainly knew about him. I told him the situation and he said to double his morning dose of Topamax and to increase the Keppra by 100 two times a day. Then he mumbled, "If I remember right his seizures were really hard to control..." After hearing this I started to fall apart. He then told me if the seizures didn't stop we would have to come back to the hospital before things got too out of control again. I held myself together long enough to get off the phone and medicate Josh. Then the long agony of watching and waiting for the next seizure started. Thankfully, this medication cocktail worked and he had a seizure free day and miraculously a seizure free night last night. I am keeping my fingers crossed we have finally found something that is working. Just to make sure I kept a vigil at his bedside last night. Nothing out of the ordinary and I was very thankful for that.

Because yesterday morning was rough Aaron thought he would try to get my mind off things. He had to go into work in the morning, but it was his scheduled day off so he was back home by 9am and tried to get me out of the house. By the afternoon all the exhaustion of the week hit me and I finally crashed. He let me sleep for a few hours. When I woke up he had prepared a picnic dinner including a birthday cake. In all the chaos of the week everyone, including me, had basically forgotten it was my birthday this weekend. I was all right with that since I am getting older than I want to think about. Anyway, Aaron hadn't forgotten and he got all the kids together and we went to the park for a picnic dinner with pizza. He even ordered me an olive pizza since I never get to choose since no one likes what I like. He even ordered Daniel some nuggets and brought along some Daniel friendly pupcakes (cupcakes) because he couldn't eat anything else from the picnic. As you can see from the picture he really loved the pupcakes! Unfortunately when we got there and got the picnic all set up the temperature dropped and it got really cold really fast. We ended up packing up dinner and bringing it back home, but I was still grateful--it was the thought that counts. By the time we got home it started snowing outside so it was a good thing we left when we did...I tried to take a picture of the snow, but it didn't turn out so well.

The Hospital Neuro/Trauma Unit and Post EEG Complications Part 2

Yesterday morning the neurology and pediatric team rounded on Josh and decided to take him off the medication they started (Depakote) because it didn't appear to be working. They also decided to keep him on his regular medication, Topamax, and increase his new medication, Keppra, to see what would happen. They also had mentioned about doing a MRI which I strongly encouraged just for my piece of mind to rule out tumors, malformations, etc. They first attempted the MRI without sedation, but Josh just couldn't hold still enough to get the pictures clear. They had to retry a few hours later with sedation. They got good pictures, but the sedation didn't quite agree with Josh. Josh is more prone to the seizures during sleep and with all the sedation he has received in the last few days--let's just say it hasn't been pretty. He had a few seizures yesterday afternoon so they decided to increase his new medication even more and to keep him through the night because he just wasn't waking up very well after the MRI sedation. They also had a little mix up with the increased medication dosage. Unfortunately, he didn't get as much medication as they wanted and he had a small seizure last night. However, he went all night long without another problem. In the meantime with all the sedation Josh has had, he has not been able to eat basically anything for two days. After he finally woke up...enough (he still was pretty sleepy) after the MRI sedation he ate a HUGE dinner of two bowls of mac and cheese and a pudding. He was still pretty out of it and spilled food everywhere, but he didn't care and ate EVERYTHING because he was so hungry. He started complaining again of being hungry this morning at 5 am so he had half a banana. For breakfast he ended up having two huge breakfast trays of food and he is still complaining of being hungry--I guess he is making up for lost time. Just to add we just placed another order for some cereal, pancakes, cake and ice cream--there's nothing like an all you can eat menu for kids...We now have our fun loving, very energetic Josh back who does not want to be in bed anymore and I can't blame him. I am very thankful especially after seeing some of the other patients on this neuro/trauma floor. If all goes well it looks like we might get to come home today. I must admit I am nervous to bring him home, but at least he is a lot better off now then he was a few days ago. I also got to know the emergency medication directions inside and out so if I need to (which I hope I NEVER do) I really know how to give it. I also included the pictures from his infamous EEG from the lead placement to the final wrap up. Yes he does have very dark circles under his bloodshot eyes and I also unfortunately have matching huge dark circles under my bloodshot eyes as well. Hopefully they will disappear soon, but I don't know about all the new gray hairs I now have after this whole experience...

Post EEG Complications Part 1

Josh has been having a huge increase in seizures lately. To see what was going on they scheduled a sleep deprived EEG. That meant Josh had to stay awake for basically almost 24 hours then have the test run. After the EEG was done we took Josh home (Aaron was with me since it took me to drive down to Primary Children's Hospital and Aaron to keep Josh awake during the drive). All the way back home Josh had about 4 seizures in the car. We got him home thinking they would stop once Josh was able to get some sleep. Unfortunately we were very wrong. He kept having them and they kept getting longer in length and more frequent. I called the neurologist and she told me to get Josh to the ER ASAP before they got life threateningly close together so they could give him a large loading dose of the seizure medication Depakote via IV thinking that would stop them. We had to bring along Josh's emergency medication just in case a seizure didn't stop after five minutes. Luckily we didn't have to use the emergency medication because his seizures are generally only about 1 minute in length, but just the fact we had to bring it along was scary. We ended up going to McKay Dee's ER thinking we would only be there long enough for the loading dose of Depakote then we could go home. We were wrong again. They got him back immediately (which was amazing considering how busy the ER was at the time) and started the IV after three attempts. All the while Josh kept having seizure after seizure. They gave the medication and it didn't do all it was promised. He kept having more seizures. They ended up giving him IV Ativan just to try and get him to stop seizing. That slowed them down, but they still kept happening. At this point they decided he needed to be transported to Primary Children's Medical via ambulance. Luckily we have some awesome neighbors, friends and family that offered to take the kids at the drop of a hat so we could be here with him. As for now Josh is on three different IV seizure medications. They have slowed down the seizures, but haven't stopped them. We had a pretty rough night last night, but he is doing a little better this morning. We are waiting for the neurology team to come and round on him this morning to see what all our options are. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, please. We definitely need any and all the help we can get right now!!

A Very Long Day that Includes an EEG

I have a very long day in store for me. Josh is continuing to have seizures that have not been controlled with increasing his medication. We have increased his medication twice so far and it does not appear to be working. He ended up having a seizure in the car on Friday and two more on Saturday--one being at Walmart. I called the Neurologist this morning to see what the next step would be. I am also concerned since he hasn't had daytime seizures since he was 18 months old until now. I am wondering if something else is going on and I mentioned this to her. She decided to do another EEG tomorrow to see if his seizure patterns have changed in his brain. That would give her a better understanding on what's going on and how to treat it. In the mean time we have increased his medication yet again and are hoping for the best. The EEG is scheduled for tomorrow morning which means Josh and I get to have an all nighter tonight--I am NOT looking forward to this at all! I guess we will be hanging out at IHOP and Walmart since they are open 24 hours. If you want to join the party we will be there sometime between 1-5 am. If you have any other suggestions for places that are open 24 hours they would be much appreciated since it's easier to stay awake if you are up and moving around. The point of the EEG is to bring the patient to the brink of a seizure and see what the electrical activity in the brain shows. To do this he needs to be sleep deprived which explains the all nighter. They also shine lights at him at different frequencies to see what his brain does. Last time we did this he did end up having a seizure, but after we had gotten home and he was trying to go to sleep. Anyway, I am trying to stay positive, but I am having a hard time. Hopefully we can get this under control sooner than later. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers! So for today we will try to keep ourselves busy since all the kids are out of school and also to keep my mind off things.

Daniel the Wild Card

You just never know what will come out of his mouth. He is a pretty funny kid. Today at church the ward choir did a number in sacrament meeting. After they were done singing Daniel gave a hearty applause. I grabbed his hands and told him we don't clap in church. He turned and asked me, "Why, will clapping wake everyone up?"

The other day we were driving in the car and he was telling me about his girlfriend Ellie. He was telling me he likes to give her kisses. Just to clarify I said, "You just kiss her on the cheek right?" He said, "I kiss her on the cheek and arm and lips." I told him he and Ellie were too little to kiss on the lips. He just looked at me and said, "UH, MOM, SHE'S 4!!" He said it with the attitude of well, duh mom, she's is old enough because she's 4. We had a little discussion on what's appropriate and what's not, hopefully it sunk in. I also told him he wasn't old enough to kiss girls on the lips until he was at least 25...we'll see if he listens.

Lastly, we were expecting visitors about 2 weeks ago. To get ready Aaron and I were cleaning the whole house. Aaron had just finished cleaning the boy's bathroom upstairs (I didn't think my gag reflex would allow me to do that room--YUCK!). Anyway he had not finished but 10 minutes before I saw Daniel making his way upstairs to use the bathroom holding his pants away from his skin. That is never a good sign so I asked where he was going. He told me to go upstairs to go stinky and get some new underwear. I put two and two together and figured he had just sharted (to put this delicately sharted is when someone toots, but something extra comes with it if you catch my drift). I told him he had to take care of business and before he put the new underwear on he had to shower. I thought that was the end of everything and didn't give it another thought until I went upstairs after all the kids were in bed and noticed the toilet seat wasn't white anymore. Poor Aaron had to really clean the toilet twice that night. Why that couldn't happen before the bathroom was cleaned in the first place who knows--I guess it's just Murphy's Law.

Daniel keeps things pretty interesting and provides some much needed comic relief. We are glad he's part of our family.

Good Samaritans

There are still good Samaritans around. Yesterday Aaron was making the last of three trips to the landfill from our massive basement clean out. He had just dropped off his load and was making his way back home in the truck with Josh and Daniel along with him. He pulled out into the busy road to come home when the truck stalled and absolutely refused to start again. Aaron jumped out and tried to push it to the side of the road. Let me just say that truck is very HEAVY and hard to push and steer at the same time. Luckily, some guys pulled over immediately to help Aaron push it to the side of the road. That was very nice!! When it was pulled over to the side of the road Aaron looked at the gas gauge and unfortunately it was on "E". Another good Samaritan stopped and offered to drive to the nearest gas station (which wasn't very close by) to pick up a gallon of gas. It was about this time Aaron called me to let me know what was going on and why he was taking so long. The good Samaritan "A" got to the gas station and another good Samaritan "B" asked what he was doing and offered to pay for the gas--very awesome to offer to buy gas for someone he has never even met before. Good Samaritan "A" brought back the gas and poured it into the truck, but it still refused to start. It seems there is a bigger problem other than being out of gas. In the mean time Good Samaritan "C" stopped by with jumper cables because with all the tries to start the engine the battery was now dead. Unfortunately, even after that the truck still refused to start. Aaron then called me to come and pick up the boys while he called around to find someone else to help tow the disabled truck home. After calling about 5 different people he finally found someone at home (our very nice neighbor who happens to be our home teacher) who was willing to help. I came and picked up the boys who were about frozen by this time because they were in short sleeved shirts, didn't have any jackets or socks on and it was about 40 degrees. We finally got the truck home and had some more help from the other neighbors to push it into the drive way to park it. Now we get to try and diagnose what is wrong with it and what to do about it. We are thankful for all the help Aaron got while being stranded with the two boys. I guess this is just another "fun" experience to add to our file. Luckily we have never had anything like this happen so far in our marriage and hopefully it won't happen again for another very LONG TIME!!

Someone Got Lonely

Yesterday we finally got all the boys' beds arranged so each one could have their own room at least until the baby comes. Daniel and Matthew are in the two rooms downstairs and Josh is in the room upstairs next to Sarah's. We wanted Josh closer to us upstairs so we could listen out for him because his seizures still aren't quite under control yet. Anyway, we were curious to see what would happen after we put them all to bed. We were especially curious about what would happen with Daniel since he has shared a bedroom with Josh ever since he can remember. I guess Daniel got lonely and did not like having his own room. When we checked on Matthew and Daniel before Aaron and I went to bed, we found Daniel had pulled out the kid couch in Matthew's room and decided to go to bed on that. He even went and got his pillow and blanket from his bed to make things a little more comfortable for himself. What a crazy kid! We did put him back in his bed, but we will see if he stays there the whole night.In taking apart the bunk beds and rearranging the beds Aaron had lots of help from Sarah. She was very interested in what he was doing and loved crawling all over him and the bed frames while he was trying to work. She also loved playing with his tools and carting them off to unknown places about the time Aaron needed them. Aaron just loved that (yea, not really).

Seeing Green

Last year for St. Patrick's Day we celebrated by making green eggs and ham for dinner, watched the movie Green Eggs and Ham and walked down to our local park to see the fountain with the dyed green water. To tell you the truth I had been so busy with the massive basement clean out this year I had simply forgotten about St. Patrick's Day this year. That was until Josh reminded me how much he loved eating a green dinner and seeing the green water last year. He then told me he was excited to celebrate St. Patrick's Day again this year. I felt rather guilty so I threw together a fast green dinner of green oatmeal and green soymilk. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to see the green fountain, but at least we got to celebrate a little. I took a picture of dinner and I must admit it does not look very appetizing, but the boys liked it. Sarah must have sided with me because even though she usually loves oatmeal, she refused to eat any of it.

Still Kickin'

Wow what a week. This week I have been really busy so this will be a post of random things we have been doing. Aaron's sister, Jill, has been staying with us this week and she can't have a visit with us without helping me out on some huge project. I have been in denial about the impending birth of this baby and have put off getting everything ready like getting the baby clothes out, the bedding, etc. She came and helped me get everything ready and set up so I am ready for when this kid comes--which by the way will be sooner than later with only 6 weeks left at the most. I had a doctor's appointment this morning and he is measuring about 4 pounds right now and I am only 31 weeks along. I hope this baby won't be gigantic like Josh was! Anyway, since we have had guests we moved all the boys together into one room. That wasn't working out as well as we had hoped. They would just tease and fight and not get to sleep until really late every night. We decided this was just a taste of what was to come after the baby would arrive and cause the room switch up. To help settle things we decided to clean out our storage room in the basement and make that Matthew's new room. He just does a lot better if he does not share a room with anyone because he can be quite a tease and that was causing a few fights. Clearing out that storage room and the other cold storage area was quite a task. I feel like I have kept Deseret Industries and the landfill in business single handedly. So far I have made 6 trips to DI with a suburban full of stuff (this is also with all the seats down so all the stuff was really packed inside). I still have at least one more maybe two more trips to DI with more stuff I really don't need. As for the landfill I have to wait until the weekend so Aaron can take all the stuff in the truck during their open hours. All in all we have packed up over 100 trash bags full of just stuff whether it's for DI or the landfill--can you say hoarder? At least now their are two bedrooms downstairs and three upstairs (with one of them being Aaron's and mine) so hopefully only one set of kids will have to share a room and we haven't decided who that will be yet. Jill helped me with all of it also including clearing out my bedroom closet which was a catch all room for everything else. We also cleared out my craft closet so now everything in my house is super organized and I love it. It was hard work and most nights we didn't get to bed until 2 or 3 am, but I feel like it was worth it. Jill was probably glad to finally go home yesterday, but she really helped me out while she was here--THANKS! I will post pictures when we have completed all the finishing touches. Now I can go back into denial about the new baby until he gets here...;)

Daniel and the Allergist

Today was Daniel's skin prick test at the allergist. This is where they place a particular allergen on his back and then scratch it into the skin to see how big of a reaction (or hive) they get. The bigger the hive, the bigger the allergic reaction to that particular allergen. We were hoping for some good news since at his last blood test his egg allergy looked like it was almost gone. That was six months ago, too. Unfortunately, our hopes were dashed when the egg reacted just as badly as everything else. For now he hasn't outgrown anything, but the allergist keeps telling us he should at any time because he is at the magic age where he should be outgrowing things. However, she has told us that the last few visits so I am getting a little discouraged. Some good news, though, is Daniel is in the 50th percentile for height and weight. That is something we thought we would never see with Daniel since he was completely off the growth chart in the wrong way only a few years ago. Some other good news is his asthma is very well controlled and his lung function test was better than perfect 106% which is amazing. I think he keeps his lungs clear with all the screaming he does--he is worse than Sarah. I was always under the impression girls screamed more than boys. What's up with that? Anyway we will take what we can get good news wise. We will just sit tight and wait another 6 months until we make the trek back to the allergist again. Until then no egg, milk, or nuts--basically anything yummy at our house--unless you count that delicious soy milk mmmm--yummy (and yes I was being very sarcastic!)....Here's the picture of Daniel's back before: and after the skin prick test in which you can DEFINITELY tell it is a 4+ positive result on everything they tested:

A Week with G&G M

This last week we have had a visit from G&G M. All of us especially the kids have enjoyed having them here to visit. We got lots of help from them this week from babysitting for when we took Josh to the neurologist to help with installing a toilet which we really appreciate! Our toilet downstairs would clog on anything and everything you ever flushed down it so we decided to change it out. Aaron and Grandpa made the initial trip to Lowes and got everything they thought they would need to switch it out. However, you know no home improvement project is complete without 5+ more trips to Lowes for more parts, etc. and unfortunately this project turned out to be the same thing. They installed the toilet and couldn't get it to stop leaking. They uninstalled it ran to Lowes for more supplies, reinstalled it to find it leaking AGAIN. They uninstalled made another trip to Lowes for more supplies and reinstalled it. This time they thought everything was ok until the next morning they found it leaking AGAIN. They finally uninstalled it and took it completely apart to find the tank had a huge crack in the tank from the factory. They had to return the whole toilet and exchanged it for a different one. Thankfully the second toilet worked perfectly and without leaks after the first installation--sigh of relief. That was a fun improvement project especially with all the extra help from the little gloved hands (Daniel and Josh). As soon as Josh and Daniel saw Grandpa and Dad don gloves they ran over to the glove box and got some to put on too just to help out. It was pretty funny. The kids made us save the huge toilet box so they could play in it. Josh and Daniel climbed inside and wanted to decorate it with markers. Sarah saw how much fun they were having and stood at the side of the box and screamed until we put her there with them. Unfortunately, she also got hold of the markers and colored as much on herself as she did on the box. I guess I will really put the washable markers to the test to see if they are washable off of clothes--grrrr.I think she had a little help from her brothers too because when I pulled her out of the box she had marker "lipstick" and marker "eyeliner" on as well as marker all over the rest of her hands and up her nose. Again the pictures don't even do the damage justice. The kids also got some treasure boxes in which they have filled them with all sorts of treasures--fun toys, rocks, money, etc. They have all found some good hiding spots for their treasures and have pulled them out to play with them again this morning. They just to make sure their treasures were still in place and they were.We also were able to check the Utah State Parks pass out from the library and spent the morning out at Antelope Island yesterday. We saw buffalo, antelope as well as walked around the Fielding Garr ranch which was interesting. We have lived here for almost 7 years and I am embarrassed to say this is the first time we have made it out to Antelope Island. It was a fun trip. We all had a good visit and were sad to see G&G M leave for home this morning.

Seizures

We had an appointment with the neurologist this morning. We were hoping to find out what was going on with Josh since he had a grand mal seizure Friday night and a partial complex seizure yesterday morning and this morning, too. I had never seen him have a partial complex seizure until yesterday and let me tell you it is pretty disturbing to see. Josh will be mid sentence or mid step and just freeze, his head will fall to one side, his hands will clench in fists and he will just stare blankly while smacking his lips for about 30 seconds. Then he snaps right out of it and not know anything had happened. That is the disturbing part--he will snap out of it and wonder why I am staring at him like that with a terrified look on my face. The worst is the postictal (post seizure) phase after a grand mal seizure--he is totally unresponsive and limp. You cannot get any kind of reaction AT ALL for almost an hour afterward--it's as if he is dead, but he is still breathing with a pulse, and that is really scary. The doctor decided to increase his medication since he had been on the same dose since he was 18 months old. We have also had a couple of other factors as well as him being sleep deprived and having a cold. The last few days all three boys have been staying in the same room together and it's not always conducive to good, restful sleep. The combination of the sleep deprivation, sickness and low dose of medication lowers your seizure threshold and makes them happen more easily. Which it looks like that is what happened. Also the only way to know he needs his medication upped is if he starts having break through seizures which is an awful way to base everything on, but the only way for now. We started the higher dosage this morning, but it will take about a week to become therapeutic. That meant I had to go and talk to his teachers and anyone else who may come in close contact with him and explain, "Oh, by the way he may have a seizure." That is always a fun conversation. The person gets the terrified look and I know how they feel because I am just as terrified. Hopefully, we can get things under control with the increase in medication strength. He has responded fantastically in the past with medication so I am hoping the same thing will happen. Keep your fingers crossed for us. In the mean time we have to take seizure precautions such as no swimming, bathing in bathtub, no heights and have non plush bedding as well as make his bed low to the ground. Oh my poor Joshy--it is hard to see him go through this.

A Weekend of Ups and Downs

This week we were visited by G&G M as well as Aunt Jill and Uncle Jeff (Aaron's sister and bro-in-law). Everyone was in town for my niece Kate's baptism down at Aunt Susan's house (Aaron's other sister) so we all migrated down to Aunt Susan's house for the weekend. We did drop Matthew off at G&G T's house for the weekend so he could thrive on some one-on-one attention rather than having to deal with a house full of people which gives him very high anxiety. Thanks G&G T! All of us had a good visit. Sarah absolutely thrived with all the attention from Susan's three older girls who loved taking care of Sarah. Sarah was in princess heaven for the weekend. She got to play dress ups with high heeled sandals and had limitless attention. She loved it. Kate was baptized Saturday morning and the kids loved being there and seeing the whole baptism and confirmation. I got to see the beginning part of the program and what I saw was nice. About half way through Sarah decided she had had enough and turned into a big stinker. I had to wander the halls with her where she has discovered the fine art of tantrum throwing. She has the throw herself to the ground while kicking and screaming part down very well, unfortunately. She is only 18 months old for crying out loud--it's the terrible teens as in eighteen months old, right?!? She finally threw so many tantrums she wore herself (and me) out and finally fell asleep on my shoulder which I was very grateful for. Anyway seeing the baptism is getting Josh really excited for his baptism next year--crazy to think he will be baptized next year!! Josh and Sarah also loved playing with their little Chihuahua dog until Josh broke out in hives all over his face. That was even after washing his hands after playing with it so I guess Josh is allergic to dogs. Good to know. Daniel never got close enough to really play with the dog because he is so afraid of them for some reason--who knows why? We had a fun weekend of visiting, watching movies and playing games when we could fit them in. We did have a scary moment about 4 am Friday night/Saturday morning. Aaron and I were woken up by Josh in the throws of a seizure. I must say even though I know he has epilepsy it never prepares you when you when you see/hear the seizure or when you see the aftermath. He finally recovered and was just fine the next day, but still I am on edge. We will be making an appointment with the neurologist to see what the problem is and hopefully we can get in soon. As for now Josh is sleeping upstairs where we will keep an ear out for anything out of the ordinary. Other than that we had a good weekend of seeing family. We appreciate the hospitality of everyone--we all had a good time.

Too Close For Comfort...

I just am realizing how close this baby is to making his entrance into this world. If he comes as early as Daniel did I only have a very short 6 weeks left.....AHHHHHHH! If he comes when scheduled I only have eight weeks left. So much for staying in denial. I need to get the boy clothes out, find the blue blankets and find the boy crib bedding. So much to do that I have put off because I still am in a little bit of denial about this next upcoming arrival. It got me thinking about how soon it really is after Grandma T made his baby quilt and got a few boy outfits. I need to get myself ready, but how do you do that--Sarah's birth is still a little too fresh in my memory for comfort...Any ideas of how to mentally prepare please share!

Eating My Words...

About a week and a half ago Daniel broke out with a fine rash all over his body. I hadn't seen anything like it so to make sure it wasn't some weird and funky disease I wanted to take him to the doctor. Only when I called for an appointment with his regular doctor they couldn't get me in for a few days. I didn't want to wait that long so I called a different office in which they could get me in that day, but only to see a nurse practitioner. Now with our kids and the various sorts of ailments they have had, my experience with physician's assistants and nurse practitioners have not been very positive. I have had a few doozy false diagnosis from them and I try to avoid them if at all possible, but in this instance I thought a rash is pretty harmless and I would take a chance. I took Daniel in to see the nurse practitioner, but with a very skeptical attitude. Looking at the rash she didn't quite know what it was until she got Daniel's allergen history then all of a sudden she just knew it was an allergic rash. I didn't quite believe it because Daniel has never reacted that way to anything ever. If he gets exposed to something he's allergic to he breaks out in hives along with an asthmatic reaction never a rash related to allergies. I had also been with him for the 3 previous days straight so I have seen everything he had eaten and come in contact with and there was nothing questionable, but you just never know. The nurse practitioner gave me a prescription for a steroid lotion to apply twice a day to help clear it up. She also told me to change all of my laundry detergent, his shampoo and his soap to the dye free scent free kind. She also wanted me to give him Clariten allergy medication in the morning and follow it up with a dose of Benadryl at night. Seeing as I was already skeptical of what the rash was (I thought it was some follow up to a virus he just got over and that it would clear up on its own within a few days) this seemed like a lot to do just to have it get better on its own within a few days. Well now I am eating my words. A few days have come and gone--I am ashamed to say it has been over a week and the rash is still persistent as ever so I am now really eating my words. I had to dig out the prescription and went to fill it a few days ago along with buying the special lotion and soap she recommended. This allergic rash HAS to clear up within a few days because Daniel has an appointment with the allergist in about 10 days to do the skin prick test for all his allergies. This allergic rash makes his skin super reactive to anything and everything so to get accurate skin prick test results the rash has to be gone. Also to get an appointment with his allergist she is booking about 6 weeks out (and that was before allergy season has started) so we have had this appointment for a while. The bad thing is with the skin prick test Daniel cannot receive any Benadryl, cold or allergy medicine (such as Zyrtec, Clariten, etc.) or steroid in any form 7 days before the test so she can get accurate results. Well I have approximately 3 more days to get this rash cleared up before the 7 days moratorium of steroids, allergy/cold medication or Benadryl starts. I don't want to cancel the appointment because if I reschedule in another 6 or more weeks I will have had a baby or will be so close to having a baby I don't want to take the chance. Oh--if I would have only followed the advice initially this would have all been better and I wouldn't have had to worry about it. Funny how hind site is always 20/20. I wish kids came with parenting manuals! In the mean time I am following the nurse practitioner's advice, but I am hoping it's not too little, too late. It's a good thing I love him!

Some Bruises, But Mostly Just Some Pride Damage

Lately Josh has been having a hard time listening AND obeying. He will hear us ask him to stop doing something, but choose to ignore what we have said until we have repeated ourselves a few times. It is getting aggravating, but what can you do? Yesterday was the same thing. Since it was such a nice day we all decided for Family Home Evening we would walk to the park. To make it funner for Josh and Matthew we let Matthew wear his Heelys (shoe with the skate in it) and Josh ride his scooter. We wanted everyone to stay together because to get to the park you have to cross a somewhat busy street and the kids don't always look. That is one big reason why we really wanted Josh to stay with us so we could all cross at the same time. Of course Josh pretended not to hear and did not stay with us at all. For a consequence we didn't let him ride his scooter back home. He was not very happy about that. I had the bright idea of instead of just carrying all the scooter home why not ride it. Yes a big fat 7 months along pregnant lady riding a scooter--it sounded like a good idea at the time. If that weren't spectacle enough I decided to race Matthew on his Heelys the rest of the way home. Let's just say Matthew can get going pretty fast between running and skating. To sum things up I lost the race by A LOT. In the middle of our race I ended up hitting a curb going pretty fast trying to keep up with Matthew. The scooter stopped immediately, but I didn't and went over the top of the scooter handle bars--yes a big fat 7 months along pregnant lady. I landed and skidded to a stop on my left side on the asphalt. OUCH!! I have some bruises and and road rash up and down my left side, but mostly it has just been some pride damage. Aaron was laughing too hard to show much sympathy and I don't blame him I am sure it was quite humorous to watch. He had warned me not to ride the scooter, but I didn't listen...hmmmmm, I wonder where Josh gets the not listening from? I guess when you turn 30 something you lose your invincibility shield. I think I will try again when I am NOT pregnant--that sounds like a better plan. As for now I will have to nurse my pride (and road rash) back to health.

Chairs Can Breath a Sigh of Relief

I finally got my dining benches last week. After Sarah has broken three of my dining chairs by climbing up and them and tipping them over breaking the spindles I wanted to save the remaining chairs so we ordered two benches. We finally got around to putting them together Saturday with lots of help from little hands. We had our first dinner on them last night and the kids seemed to love it. All three boys wanted to sit together on one side so we let them. Daniel liked being boy trapped or so he said. We thought we would try Sarah out on the other bench with me instead of the high chair and she loved it too. She stayed put during all of dinner which is amazing because we were sure with her new found freedom she would be wandering around all through dinner. Since she sat/stood next to me, she dubbed me her own personal napkin and I have the food stains on my shirt to prove it. Whenever her hands or face got dirty (which was a lot) she would just lean over and wipe herself off on my shirt before I knew what she was doing. I thought she was giving me loves, but no she was only wiping off her hands or face. The benches don't quite match my dining table, but at least my chairs will be safe from The Destroyer aka Sarah--or maybe not. I caught her climbing on the two remaining chairs this morning...I guess we will see how long those chairs will remain intact.