Happy New Year!

Wish I was sharing better news tonight, unfortunately my Dad is still not doing well.

We couldn't get a hold of him this morning, so my Grandparents called the nurse station and found out that his blood sugar was 21 and he was unresponsive when they found him this morning (80-120 is normal blood sugar level), not good, he clearly should not have been left on the renal floor, he needed to be in ICU where he can get the care he needs. One of us should have stayed with him last night.

Soon after we got there they were still trying to get him stabilized with his sugars in the 30's, but he was responsive. When I walked in I could tell things were rough, the floor had medical garbage all over, his blanket's had been thrown in the corner. Luckily Grandma brought some apple juice with her, we got him to drink the little cup of orange juice the nurse had and then the apple juice.
The nurse came back after the second blood check and let us know they were moving him to ICU, thank God!

They checked him right before they transferred him and blood sugar was up to 107 which is good.

Once they got him settled in ICU we went in, and that's where I spent most of the day.

He has pneumonia now is his left lung, he is on antibiotics for that. His kidney functioning is a little worse, today, not my much though. He is getting blood sugar checks frequently and they keep giving him sugar through the IV. Being dehydrated from the diarrhea and the lack of eating and insulin is making it hard to control the sugar level.

Urine output is good, so we are hoping that damage this is doing to his kidney will resolve once the dust settles on everything else. When we know the number tomorrow if it is better than great, go on treating hte infection. If the number goes up more (normal for keratin is 2, he is closing in on 5) then they will start dialysis and go from there. Whether we are talking about short-term dialysis vs. long term and on the transplant list is yet to be seen.

Once he is out of ICU, and on a regular medical floor he will then be discharged to a rehab facility, one that does Dialysis just in case. He will be there for 7-14 days. This has been going on for a week now and he is very weak and will need some help getting back up to functioning.

So yea, not the best New Years Eve, almost 12 years to the date of the last time he was this seriously ill, I remember it very clearly because we didn't think he was going to make it (and I had just started dating Matt) but as always he pulled through. I know he can do it again.

Prayers are much appreciated and needed

Happy New Year.

Blah.

Dad is getting worse, he is very uncomfortable and breathing is difficult. I haven't been able to talk to him all day, my grandparents have been with him, but I really feel like he needs to be in the ICU. I have a feeling if things don't turn around tomorrow that is where he is headed. Matt and I are both fighting another cold, mine is not so bad, but I decided not to go up to the hospital when Matt got home as I don't want to make things worse by giving him some cold on top of all this. Matt is off tomorrow so I will be going up there in the morning.

Thoughts & prayers are much appreciated.

Updates & Pictures

Dad is still in the hospital, his doctor ordered them to pump him full with as much fluid as he could take, which happened and now he is short of breath. Now they are pulling back on the fluids and giving him breathing treatments to help with the shortness of breath. His keratin level went down a little, but still is above what it normally runs, hopefully it will continue to go down. I could tell something was wrong when I started talking to him tonight, the shortness of breath is pretty bad.

I will be heading out there tomorrow once Matt gets home, my grandparents weren't up to going there, they are still recovering as well, and I need to make sure everything is going ok. While I was on the phone with him, the whole time his IV machine was beeping, so obviously his bags are empty or near empty and no one came in to change them. I don't want to be the annoying patient daughter, but I may have to do so tomorrow.

His doctor is saying another 24-48 hours in there, he didn't bring anything with him when he went in, so I am going to bring in his book reader and some books for him if it's going to be more like 48 hours, which the way he sounded tonight I am guessing will be more accurate.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures from the last couple days of the kids and their new loot.

Logan loves his new Leapster Explorer and his Pillow Pet


Ava is having a blast with her doll care center and all her new dolls, all of the shown here LOL!


Everyone likes the Fancy Nancy crown!



Oh and I finished my first book on my Nook, and I am totally hooked LOL!

Arrgg!

Dad is still was not doing good today, he saw his doctor this afternoon and he said he should go to the hospital, he said he could go home, but he would more than likely be in the hospital in a day or two anyway and it would be better to be proactive, which I agree with since I know how quickly things can take a turn with a diabetic with the flu.

So Grandpa took Dad to the hospital this afternoon, so far he has had a chest xray that showed he does not have pneumonia, which is good news, they are starting antibiotic's, his cough is heading towards pneumonia and we don't want that to happen. His keratin level is up to 4 which is not good, due to having diarrhea for so many days and causing dehydration, so hopefully some IV fluids will get that number on track and he won't be in for too many days this time.

Always something going on over here, the kids miss grandpa that's for sure.

I am ready to set off a disinfecting bomb in the house, or at least open the windows and let the cold air kill the nasty stuff in this house. I have disinfected so many times in the last two weeks and been washing my hands so much they are cracked and bleeding. Stressed out doesn't even begin to describe. The one sliver lining it all this, at least it happened before school started.

Thoughts and prayers for my Dad much appreciated.

Toys & The Plague of 2010

I am currently living in a toy store, every time I start to get cleaned up one of the kids want something out of a package and more mess in sues, oh well they are having a blast playing with everything.

Unfortunately we gave the gift that keeps on giving on Christmas Eve, the stomach flu.

My Dad came down with it Christmas morning, buy Christmas night my brother was sick and two of my aunts kids. I thought maybe since my dad only had lower GI, he had caught the tale end of what we had going through the house, and what my brother and cousins had was something else, but that idea was blown to pieces when I heard that my Grandma and Grandpa had also been hit hard with the stomach flu as well. Yikes, I feel so bad that so many got sick from us, whatever virus we have it's a nasty one. My Dad also has the cold/cough that Logan had one top of it so things are not good. I hope everyone is feeling better, my brother had to miss his 20th birthday today as he was still not well and had to cancel his party. I can't wait for this to be over, and I can't believe I had such a mild form of this given it is making so many sick, I really do have a freaky ability to fight gastro stuff, and Ava had it pretty mild as well which is making the difficult year of breast feeding we did, totally worth it, yea for magic milk!

So everyone get better ASAP!! So sorry we infected everyone :<(

Zoo Lights!

We headed to the zoo tonight with my cousins and their kids for Holiday Magic. I have been going every year since I was little, and Matt and I have been every year expect the year Logan was born since we have been together. We had a lot of fun, the kids loved running around and playing in all the snow, we adults enjoyed Hottie Totties (Hot Chocolate and Peppermint Schnapps) and the light displays.

Some of the fun!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a blessed Christmas!

Christmas Eve!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve lunch with my Grandparents and Dad and then a yummy Christmas Eve dinner at Mom's tonight, with all the family. Kids are tucked away in bed and Santa's elves were busy as work!

He was here!

Can't wait for the kids reactions tomorrow morning! Happy Christmas Eve!

Better, For The Most Part...

Feeling better cold wise, still having some bad stomach pains, usually after I eat. I think me and Ava have more of a lower GI thing going on, and it's just nagging, totally stinks. The boys are much better however, so that is good.

Tried cleaning as much as I could today between stomach cramp episodes, Matt is out now running some errands for me and then he us going to help clean since I am about out of energy (I just can't stand the house being dirty for Christmas, so much clutter about to come in, it stresses me out!)

Logan painted pictures for all his Grandma's and his Godmommy today and Ava did some coloring, she is much better about eating the crayons now, she only took one bite this time...

Tomorrow morning we are going over to my Grandma's so exchange gifts and have lunch, we usually spend Christmas Eve at her house with my Dad's family, but my Mom's family is having their get together on Christmas Eve this year (usually we do the week before, but good thing they didn't this year since we were all sick) so are normal Christmas Eve routine is off this year, and we will miss the candle light carol service at Church, which is a bummer, but excited to see everyone tomorrow night!

Just What I Needed...

This came in our church newsletter today, and it really hit the spot:

MEMO

Date: Today
TO: You
From: God
Subject: Yourself
Reference: Life

This is God. I realize that you are quite overwhelmed trying to cope with everything in your life. I love you. If life happens to deliver a situation that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it yourself! Kindly put it in the SFGTD (Something for God To Do) Box. I will get to it in My time which undoubtedly will not be the same as YOUR time. All situations WILL BE resolved in my time. Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now. Admittedly this may not be easy to do at first, do don't give up. Remember, you are my beloved child and I deeply care for you!

So much has been running through my head lately, school, new house, baby #3, etc. There are some things that are totally pointless to worry about right now and when I read this it was like permission to let it go.

I am so ready for a new house, but we are still two or three years out from that happening. Rolled into the house issue is the next baby issue. Yea we could make it work in this house, but it wouldn't be ideal. So I think that is going in the SFGTD Box. I know these things will happen, but right now school and getting my career going need to be in the forefront.

One of the reasons baby #3 is on my mind even though I am so not ready for that yet, is Matt and I did come to a birthing decision for future baby #3. We are 100% sure we are going to VBA2C!! I started researching this after having Ava and even found an area hospital and doctor that would support the somewhat controversial VBA2C, and had kinda just given up and said I'll just take the repeat. As time went on I felt this was not right for me, and then the ACOG changed their VBAC guidelines to favor VBA2C and then I found even more info on this doctor and started reading about the midwives that work out of this hospital as well. God works in mysterious ways. I feel like He is opening these doors for me and this is what I am suppose to do.

I feel like in order to finally get my VBAC, I need to really change the way we approach the birth, so with that thought we started research, which we still have much more to do, but here is where we are so far.
*Switching to VBA2C friendly hospital down town.
*Switching to new provider, hoping to be able to see a midwife knowing I may have to switch over to an OB in the final weeks.
*Looking into Hypno-birthing (have heard many good things about it) and trying to go the natural route. (This still scares me, a lot, as I have been in labor, albeit pitocin induced labor, so I need help in getting over my mental blocks).
*Dolua will be hired.
*Possible chiropractic care to help with body alignment and hopefully better positioned baby.
*NO NEGATIVE anything, if you don't have something good to say about our choice hit the bricks! (that goes for family, friends, and medical personal)
*laboring at home with dolua as long as possible
*Looking into diets, etc to help keep my blood pressure under control
*Getting back into shape!

So now we need to get to the two year mark (18 months recommended for VBAC, 24 months recommended for VBA2C before getting pregnant again, to allow for optimal healing) and re-visit if we are going to wait until we are in a bigger house or if we are going to go for it.

So that goes off to the BOX for now! Very excited to have made some solid decisions and now there are places out there that will support them! NEVER AGAIN!

New Stove!

Well today started out much nicer than yesterday. My old stove was hauled off, new stove in stalled and working all before 8:30am. Thank you Home Depot! My stomach was hurting pretty bad today, but by late afternoon I was just really hungry, really haven't eaten much in the past two days with everything going on. So Matt went out and got us some yummy soup from Panera. I hope that was the worst of the bug for me, fingers crossed. I managed to get out tonight and get something to wear for Christmas Eve, and it felt good to get out of the house. Logan seems to be fine, he requested pizza for dinner so we broke in the new stove. Ava had her dinner and then through a fit because she wanted what Logan had, so Ava had her first pizza slice all to her self tonight. I'm telling you this girl loves to eat. Logan wouldn't eat pizza until he was around two, maybe even later, so funny how they are so different. New Stove! That just leaves our ugly beige fridge to replace.

Ava Loving her 1st Pizza Experience!


Logan On The Mend

And Here We Go...

I have been up since 5am when my wonderful husband starting puking, shortly after that my wonderful son started puking. I still feel like total crap and Ava is still not feeling good and wouldn't let me put her down all day, which made caring for my boys interesting. I am in my own personal Hell today. I hate puke. Hopefully Ava won't get another round of it and hopefully I won't get it (I have a weird ability to avoid GI stuff, I actually got sick 3 years ago, and before that it had been 10 years since I had puked) and if I do it's quick because Christmas is almost here and that would really, really suck. Things seem to be settling down now, Matt hasn't been sick since 7am this morning, although he has other ahem GI problems going on, and Logan hasn't been sick since around 3:30. Thankfully this hellish day is over. Good night, I hope.
My Poor Boys

Lodge Christmas Party

We went to the lodge Christmas party today and the kids had fun and Logan was very excited about Santa bringing him an early present. They had a magician again this year, although this one wasn't as good as last years and didn't really hold Logan's interest to much. After the magician was done the kids all got hyped up for Santa's visit, to my surprise Logan didn't freak out, he did come over by us and I told him to go sit with the other kids to get his present and he did. Santa read the kids a story first and Logan sat there in awe. Ava cried of course when she went up with Daddy to get her gift, but Logan was a big boy this year and went up by himself and took a picture with Santa. There were some tears shed when Logan realized it wasn't the huge Thomas the Train set he had asked Santa for, but we told him that Santa didn't bring his sleigh today and that was to big a gift to bring today, that seemed to satisfied him and then he as excited about his new Handy Mandy and tools. Ava got another talking purse, Santa must not have talked with the Easter Bunny, as he brought Ava the same purse last Easter. Oh well, she wanted it opened so we opened it up for her and hey a girl can never have to many purses anyway. After Santa we had some food downstairs and Ava started to get crabby since she missed a nap, so we headed home. Glad we were able to make it despite the sickies going on, I felt like crud but the kids are doing fine and Matt doesn't seem to be feeling to bad, hopefully we are on the mend now!

Daddy explaining Lodge stuff to Logan (only 13 more years until he can go ya know)


Listening to Santa's story

Ava listening to Santa

She got bored quick

Ava getting her gift from Santa

She knew just what to do with that gift

Logan's turn with Santa

And he knows what to do as well

Having some eats!

The Report

*Ava only got sick the once or twice yesterday afternoon in her crib, she seems to be on the mend, not sure if she had the stomach bug or what, usually they say more than once in 24 hours, but usually when I get it I only get sick once and then I'm done, so maybe she just takes after me.
*Logan perked up after his first round of antibiotics and went to gymnastics this morning, he missed last week when he started with the cough so he was happy to go. Still doing breathing treatments, cough sounds bad but isn't happening as often.
*My throat huts and I have that annoying I am getting sick feeling.
*Matt also is feeling the same as I

Crossing my fingers and toes and saying a prayer this passes through the house and we are well for Christmas. Logan is so excited for Christmas I don't want him or us to be miserable through it.

What A Day...

And not in a good way. Logan was up all night coughing and running a higher fever this time. So I make an appointment to take him to the doctor. I have to take my Dad somewhere before that so I bring Grandma over to watch Logan, Ava was sleeping upstairs. Get home throw the diaper bag together, run up stairs to get and Ava and get her in the car and before I even make it up the stairs all the way, I smell it.

Yep Ava did her first big girl puke all over her crib and was just sitting in it with a what the hell expression on her face. YUCK!

Thank God Grandma was here, I got Ava cleaned up and she stripped the crib. I called Matt to come home and relieve Grandma and I ran out the door with Logan to make his appointment.

Logan pedi upped his breathing treatments and put him on antibiotics so hopefully he will be feeling much better in the next 24 hours.

Ava didn't get sick again and kept down some Gatorade and Goldfish crackers.

Now we wait and see if Logan gets hit with the stomach bug too, if that's what it was and of course the rest of this. Pray that we are done with his crud by Christmas, no one wants to be sick on Christmas.

Much Better Performance!

Logan had his other Christmas program tonight, and he did much better, still no singing, but he didn't cry, stood up there like a big boy and rang the heck out of his jingle bell LOL! He also took his bow and melted during the snowman song. He was so cute up there. I couldn't get many good pictures, the lighting was funny in there and I got a little video but from pretty far back. I did end up buying the DVD so at least I will have a better video of my first baby's first school performance. They had a little party after the program and Santa was there, but Logan wanted to just see him from afar this time. Logan had fun showing all his grandparents his school and his classroom and cubby.






Logan and most of his grandparents