Baby Can Come: Illness Revealed . . . and Josh is 8!

Since I have to no choice but to lay down for the moment, I will attempt to update our lives. I woke up at 6 this morning with a horrendous headache, and though Tylenol helped, I have felt very lousy all day. I went to Walgreens where the pharmacist took my blood pressure - too high, though not insanely high, so I'm just resting it up. Nurse Cindy would be kind to me if I went in, but I don't know about IMC . . .

The drama of this week was, of course, figuring out what was wrong with Andrew. After being told on Saturday how irresponsible it would be to take a chest x-ray by instacare woman, I was left with an insanely sick child on Sunday. He fell into a feverish sleep on Sunday afternoon right before we went on a family walk, so Gary wrapped him in blankets and put him in the stroller. He was too sick to be in the stroller, though, so we brought him back in. I held him in my lap for a very long time as he moaned and breathed unevenly. He had a pattern of being kind of okay in the mornings, just a lowgrade fever, but then burning up and too miserable to even get up to go to the bathroom by 2. I called and left a message for the p.a. we were working with Monday afternoon, expecting to need to run in and get tests done immediately, but got told he'd swing by our house and bring a lab order that night. Very kind of him! So, I got the labs done first thing Tuesday, and Andrew had a more miserable afternoon than ever . . . but I never got a call back about results.. Meanwhile, each night when I'd have contractions, I'd stare at the clock thinking, "If I have this baby, what are we going to do with Andrew? How will we get him the right help? Who can take care of him?" 

A borrowed pulse ox Tuesday night said his oxygen was a bit low, but not crazy low. Wednesday morning I called the pediatrician and said I needed an appointment with the doctor himself - we were on day 11 of fever. They worked us in, but I called Gary and mom bawling right after, afraid I'd be put off again. Then - HALLELUJAH - the doctor took us super seriously! Previously I'd felt like I needed to try really hard to explain just how sick he was, but this time the doctor was asking me the questions. It probably helped that by this point his oxygen was only at 91 and he'd lost 5% of his body weight in a week, but still. We got sent right away for a chest x-ray, and I got a call a few hours later to come back in for a Rochephin (antibiotic) shot. He definitely had pneumonia, and getting pretty nasty by the time it was caught. Andrew was still way sick that night (that's when the puking began), but I felt awesome - we finally knew what was going on and were getting it taken care of! He got another shot and another med, in addition to the nebulizing we're doing (which crazily enough he loves), and day by day he's getting better! He's almost there now.

K, so that was fun. Sorry about all that, but really, it was taking up a lot of my thinking space. Now, the fun - it was Josh's birthday on Friday! He was sooo excited, I was afraid to disappoint, but Josh is so happy, I love it! I made his requested sticky buns for breakfast (easy), let him open his present from us before school (an NFL football uniform costume, with a helmet and iron-on numbers. The numbers are a big deal, he has been wanting this since October), and gave him the Oreos he had picked out to give his class. As he was putting the Oreos in his backpack, he hugged me and said, "This is the best birthday ever." What a kid! I may have spent the day chasing kiddos and cleaning up two inches of poo water that was all over the bathroom and soaked into my new carpet, but he had a grand day at school, just having a birthday. 

After school the big fun arrived - Cindy, Kristen, and their chillins. The kids played constantly, and had an "epic" rugby game even Braden couldn't quit talking about. Although Cindy and Kristen were both surprised at Andrew's weight loss (his underwear sags, people, this is something never before possible), Beckett was able to get more playing out of him than he'd done in two weeks. True, Andrew took a lot of breaks, and Beckett was waaay confused when Andrew climbed in bed at one point, but the draw of Beckett always got him going again. Josh was elated at the festivities, as was I. Cindy and Kristen saved me from my clean laundry that was getting soaked just as I lost the ability to walk, and helped Gary put my bed back together. Lissy was in heaven with the babies. Later on she was telling me about them, and then said, "Yeah, and another good one is Sophie." She loves Sophie and all her Gumby tricks. So, happy birthday to a really adorable 8 year old, it was really perfect. Noah also got some birthday love from cousins, and wore his sweat bands to his soccer game the next day. It was awesome.

So, yes, then Saturday Gary worked his butt off and I worked while scooting my butt all around the floor, and here we are, Sunday, that one day, hoping we have more news for you soon than a silly headache. Oh, yes, and Josh is wearing his uniform for the third day in a row, Noah is wearing his BYU jersey, and there has been a lot of "versing." They also made themselves a locker room. Meanwhile, Andrew is making a "construction site" in the back, and says the ground is getting even, and every now and then Lissy puts on a helmet and yells, "BYU, hike, hike, hike!"

Just One or Two Quick Things Before the Baby Comes . . .

Apparently I have not updated since February. Part of that was not having a keyboard, but most of it is la vida loca. I turn into an unproductive zombie after whirling around for most of the day. Last Sunday I was all done with stuff and ready to roll at 9 p.m., got out Gary's iPad, and zonk. Sleep was awesome, though! You're dying to know what happened to my hidden months (juicy!), but I'll stick with this week as to not overwhelm.

Awesome last Sunday: I got an assistant secretary and an assistant compassionate service person called. Been wanting those for months and months, and there have been so many needs in our ward the sisters I work with (and maybe me) were feeling, um, like we need help. Hooray, hooray! Less awesome last Sunday: Andrew woke up with a high fever, and Lissy woke up with one after her nap. Kids get fevers, though, so, no biggie yet.

Awesome stuff this week: We got a shed and new carpet! Both are fantastic, the carpet being the fantastic-est. It feels so nice under your feet, and our house looks clean. And huge. Well, our stuff isn't really totally in it right now, so . . . Yeah, that was the hard part. We had to move all of our stuff into our garage, which you may not believe, is a very huge project. Especially when Gary was trying his darndest to get the painting done before the carpet. He got almost done, and it looks so clean. So clean I had to wash all the walls and doors yesterday so they could (temporarily) match. The progress of organizing and getting things ready for carpet was slowed by taking care of sick kiddos, 6 doctor appointments, and the fact nobody could really help because of not wanting to get the crazy virus from hades.

6 appointments you ask? Yes, 3 for Andrew's fevers. First time determined he didn't have strep, second time told he did have an ear infection, start a med, third time to a doctor that does not listen when I say, "My daddy said you need to . . ." Bleh. He did seem better for a day and a half, but today makes the 8th day since he got sick, and still a fever. Poor kid has been so miserable, fevers have been pretty high. He still smiles even with purple lips and chills and a high temp, though. I give him his meds and he says, "Looks like a potion!" Or, (pointing to the number to where the med is filled), "Is that how sick I am?" He also said, "So if the rain falls on my head, my hair will look perfect, right?" He's cute, and hopefully all better in the morning.

An extremely sick fevery Andrew

Lissy got away with only 24 hours of fever, and is such a funny thing. She talks about "the boys" a lot lately. "I can help the boys." "Boys, stop!" and "I like my boys." She is trying to potty train, but her mom isn't a lot of help. She woke up Noah at 5 a.m. to help her go potty, though. Since her cute glasses that I ran all around 3 counties to get were going to get ruined by her yanking them off, I bought her the indestructible less-cute goggle things. Except they were destructed in 3 days. Will try again. She runs around singing "Let it Go" and twirling around. 

The other 3 appointments - the o.b., because I guess our baby is due in a week and a half, and Noah and Andrew both at the ENT. Noah's ear isn't perfect, but getting there, and Andrew is getting his tonsils out June 16. I think the ENT sees dollar signs when I'm sitting there pregnant.

Josh's baseball season is in full swing. He LOVES it, and does a good job. He plays first base a lot, and has gotten in some nice hits. I like that his team is full of people either in our ward or formerly in our ward, and his coaches are nice and chill. Makes game time fun.  Josh got to start scouts this month, and is EXCITED. So excited, in fact, that when his baseball game got rained out on Wednesday, he didn't care because it meant he got to go to scouts for the first time. He was doing the happy dance all evening. The night before the carpet his best friend's dad (Spencer Powelson) came over to help Gary move stuff, and Josh couldn't resist staying up, too. What a help he was! Josh ran this way and that doing everything we said. We couldn't have done it without him, and now I think I'll offer staying up late to do chores as an occasional option. :)

Poor Noah is sick now, too. Has been since Thursday night. Hopefully he gets the short version. This week we were going to school and I saw a kid riding his bike from his class. 

Me: Did you know Ruben can speak Spanish?

Noah: No, how do you know?

Me: He told me during centers that his parents are from Mexico, so he can speak Spanish.

Noah: Well, our dad is from Los Angeles, so maybe . . .

As for me and Gary, all we have to do is put our entire house back together, get rid of all the diseases, and then have a baby. No biggie.