Walter is 2!

I can't believe it! My little boy is 2 years old! I have a 2 year old! It's so crazy.  Walter is such an amazing little boy! He makes me so unbelievably happy, and I love him more than I ever thought possible.  He is constantly teaching me to be more patient and loving, and to slow down a little bit.  He is very detailed oriented and loves to figure out how things work, so a lot of the time, he is slow to do something.  I always try to hurry him along and sometimes get frustrated with his slowness, but he constantly reminds me that it's ok to slow down and take your time with things, a lesson I desperately need.  He is also very emotional and is in tune to the emotions of others.  Small things make him cry, things that you wouldn't think he would even understand bring out the emotion in him.  I love that about him.  He is totally a mini Jesse.  He loves things like computers and guns, and loves to help Jesse build and take apart his computer.  He is obsessed with construction trucks right now.  Dump trucks are his favorite, and close behind them are excavators and front end loaders.  He is so so smart, and learns new things every day.  He knows most of his colors (blue, red, orange, green purple, pink, yellow), and several letters (P,D,M,O,H,C,G,J,W,F,B,T), and has just learned what the numbers 2 and 6 are.  He loves to watch movies.  His favorites are Toy Story (all 3), Despicable Me (both 1 and 2), The Santa Clause, Elf, Madagascar (1 and 2), and Cars.  He is a very picky eater, he only really eats noodles, mac and cheese, pizza, corn dogs, and waffles.  But he does love cucumbers and tomatoes and grapes, apples, strawberries, and oranges for snacks.  He loves to play outside and blow bubbles and push his little stroller around.  He loves to go to church, especially nursery.  He doesn't even think twice about going in there all alone and staying the whole 2 hours!  He is an amazing big brother who looks after Oliver and gives him kisses.  He is amazing at giving Mommy and Daddy hugs and kisses.  He loves to read books, his favorites are Love You Forever, Love You Through and Through, The Napping House, Chica Chica Boom Boom, his truck books, The Big Green Book of Beginner Dr Seuss Books, and any book with animals.  I could go on and on about how amazing this boy is.  He makes me so proud to be a mom.  I love him so much and am so grateful that I have had these 2 years with him! I love watching him grow! Happy Birthday Bud!!

He had a great birthday, full of presents and fun with Daddy! (who stayed home from work just for his birthday!) I'll let the pictures do the talking

PRESENTS

Playing outside

Cake

 First ride on the Frontrunner- he loved it!

New trike from the grandparents

 Cake time

Oliver 5 and 6 Months

As always, I am way behind on blogging. Oliver is now 6 months old! He has reached several milestones within the past couple months and is turning into quite the character.

At 6 months old, Oliver is:

-wearing size 5 diapers and 18 month clothes.  

-he weighs 23 lbs. he is off the charts for his age

- He is waking up about 2 times a night

-he takes usually 3 naps a day

-he rolls EVERYWHERE! And he is good at it! He is super fast and gets into everything

-He is sitting up on his own, for the most part

-He loves to squeal and scream! He has found his voice and thinks it's pretty cool

-He does not like to eat baby food, not even fruit. He gags on everything we give him

-Apparently he has cradle cap behind his ears, they get really red and sore looking, so we have a prescription lotion to use that will hopefully clear it up.

-He loves watching Walter. They are such good buddies

He is such a sweet and happy little guy. I always just call him my fat and happy child, because that's what he is.  We sure do love his great big smiles and little giggles. And his rolls are just icing on the cake :)

Oliver is 4 Months Old

He's actually been 4 months old for a couple weeks now, but blogging with a baby and a toddler is nearly impossible.  I don't even know where to start.. Oliver is such an amazing blessing to our family.  He is seriously the happiest, fattest 4 month old in he world and I love every bit of his chunkiness!  At 4 months old, he is:

-wearing size 4 diapers, the same size Walter is in!! This kid has thunder thighs like none other!

-he is wearing mostly size 12 month clothes! Again, so big and chunky!

-he is a terrible sleeper, just like Walter was at his age.  He wakes up at least 3 times a night

-he takes about 3 to 4 naps a day, sometimes they're good long naps, sometimes they're just a few minutes

-it's really hard to get him to laugh at things but he will smile for days! His smile lights up everything and everyone around him!you can't not be so happy when he smiles!

-he loves grabbing anything within reach now

-he has not had rice cereal yet, mostly because we just get too busy and forget

-he has rolled from his tummy to his back a couple times but has not rolled from back to tummy yet

-he already has stranger anxiety, which I'm pretty sure came from his stay in the hospital

-he does really well in the car and car seat for the most part, Walter was totally not this way so it's been nice

-he is a cuddler! And oh how I love it! 

I seriously cannot say how much joy Oliver brings into our family! Watching him and Walter interact is the most amazing thing in the world! Walter just adores him and is always kissing him and wanting to be next to him. Watching those two amazing boys together makes me grateful for the sleepless nights and showerless days I have because of them :) my life is pretty amazing.

Oliver Gets RSV -Part 2

So after our extremely long all nighter on Monday night, Jesse and I headed home for a bit and left poor Oliver in the PICU.  He was on the bipap machine and his settings were pretty high.  We were told that there was a good possibility that he would need to have a breathing tube placed.  He wasn't showing any signs of breathing easier later that Tuesday so they did a chest X-ray and found a couple things.  The first thing they found is that his right lung was partially collapsed.  The second thing they found was that he had a pocket of air trapped in his chest, right over his right lung.  They figured that this air had come from the high forced air being blown into his lungs.  They also thought that his lung was collapsed because of this air.  So the next step was to have a chest tube placed between his ribs to relieve that pressure and release the air.  It was a very quick procedure but having that chest tube in him was making him really uncomfortable.  His sedation meds needed to be increased.  That is pretty much all that happened on Tuesday.  Here he is right before we left him on Tuesday night with the teddy bear we bought him, such a sad sight :(

  On Wednesday, his lung was still collapsed even though the trapped air had been released.  It was determined that he had pneumonia on top of the RSV.  it's not wonder he wasn't getting any better.  He was started on antibiotics that day and we waited to see results.  On Thursday he had a pretty rough day.  The doctors and nurses were anxious get get him out of the PICU so they tried to lower his bipap, and then proceed to put him on cpap.  He didn't tolerate that well and he was put back onto bipap and his settings were increased again.  It was starting to get very frustrating because he really was not making any progress.  Friday went by with no improvement as well.  I was started to think that we were going to be at this hospital for a very long time.  He still had his chest tube in just to make sure no more air made its way into his chest.  This tube made it so we could not hold him, it easily could've come out if we did.

  Finally, on Saturday, we started seeing improvement!  He was taken from bipap to cpap to hi flow all in one day and he actually tolerated it!  His chest tube was also removed and his lung was looking much better.  It was such a good day.  I loved seeing him improve so much.  He was taken off of his sedation meds since he didn't have the chest tube anymore.

  On Sunday, Jesse and I were able to hold him for the first time since last the Monday! It was so awesome! He was awake and alert and was smiling like crazy!  It felt so good to see him smile again, he was starting to act like his old self again.  After we left the hospital that night, we got a call from his nurse saying that they had moved him out of the PICU!  That was another amazing thing that happened that day!  There were so many babies being moved out of the PICU at that same time that they had to start doubling up on rooms, so there really wasn't a place for me to stay with him, but he still did really well during the night.  I wasn't able to feed him yet anyway, he still had the feeding tube.

  That led us to Monday, exactly one week from when this all began.  Monday was another good day.  He was taken off hi flow and was just put on regular oxygen, he did so well with it.  He was also given a bottle by one of the nurses.  He was so hungry that he actually took it!

It was either Monday or Tuesday that Walter came to visit with my mom and Heather.  The hospital had an amazing play room that Walter was able to hang out in, it was so much fun and it was so nice to have him there

  Tuesday was the day we had been waiting for for what seemed like an eternity.  I spent the whole day at the hospital with him since I was finally able to feed him again.  He did pretty well with that so his feeding tube was removed and his oxygen was taken off!  He was breathing completely on his own and it was normal!  It was around 4:00 that afternoon that we were finally released from the hospital and I was able to bring Oliver home.  I practically ran out of that hospital and I could not stop smiling.

As scary and as awful as that whole experience was, I cannot express how grateful I am for places like Primary Children's Hospital.  The technology and the staff that they have there to take care of those kids is absolutely amazing.  He could not have been in a better place and we were so lucky that he was able to get there so quickly and get the help he needed.  It really did save him.  

Also, throughout this whole experience I learned that I can do hard things.  That has always been something that I say to myself on rough days to get myself through and it has always given me the strength to get through, but now I can say, without a doubt, that I can do hard things!  And it is because of the power of prayer that I can do hard things.  The peace and strength it provides, especially during hard times, is something I could not live without.  I know without a doubt my Father in Heaven is aware of me and my family.  He loves us and blesses us when we put our faith in Him and in His timing.  I am so blessed to have that knowledge.  I am so blessed to have my forever family :)

Oliver Gets RSV- Part 1

It's already been 2 weeks since our nightmare of a week began! I can't believe that it has already been 2 weeks! But I am so glad that it is already 2 weeks in the past.  What we went through just 2 weeks ago is something I never want to go through again.
About 3 weeks ago we all started getting sick with a nasty cold.  Fist Jesse got it, then Walter, then I did, and then poor Oliver did.  It was a nasty one, it knocked each of us out for a good 2 days but we all started slowly improving.. except Oliver.  He had gotten a cough on Friday, and by Sunday he was running a fever of 102, wouldn't sleep at all, and wouldn't really eat.  His eyes were glazed over and you could just tell he was miserable.  When Monday came around and he was still running a fever, we decided it would be best if I took him into the doctor to get checked.  I honestly thought he just had an ear infection or something.  So that morning I took him to the Instacare.  The nurse got his weight and height and then started checking his oxygen levels.  She hooked the little device up to him and within just a minute or so her face became really concerned and she quickly got up and left the room... that was enough to freak me out.  She came back with another nurse and that nurse took one look at the screen and walk out with a worried look on her face.  Neither of them had said anything to me yet, so I was freaking out.  Well the second nurse comes back and tells me that they are going to call us an ambulance and transfer him to the hospital because his oxygen levels are so low.  I was completely shocked to hear that and I just started to cry.  The nurse decided to try a breathing treatment with him before she called the ambulance, but that did nothing for him, so it was back to getting him transferred to the hospital.  I hurried and called Jesse and told him what was about to happen, he was shocked as well.  Within about a minute of them calling, the ambulance showed up and about 10 people came into the tiny exam room and started hooking Oliver up to monitors and oxygen.  It was intense and I was not handling it very well.  They strapped his car seat onto a gurney and quickly strapped him into the car seat and we were off.  This was all happening so fast and I had no time to process what was going on, I'm surprised I still remember any of it.  I was able to ride in the back with him and within just a couple minutes we were at Davis Hospital.  We were taken to the ER, I let Jesse know where we were and he was there within just a few minutes.  The nurses came in and suctioned him out and just had him on some oxygen.

They tested him for RSV, which came back positive, and then we were admitted and moved to a room upstairs.  We all thought that we would be there for just a night or two and then would go home.  We spent most of the day just hanging out in the hospital room, with Oliver hooked up to oxygen, and I was to make sure he ate enough to stay hydrated.

 The nurse that we had was so great and made sure to check on him often.  Later that evening, the nurse noticed that his breathing was getting heavier and he seemed to be getting worse.  He told us that he did not feel comfortable keeping Oliver at this hospital where they did not have more powerful oxygen settings to put him on.  He told us about how Primary Children's Hospital had much better equipment to help him breathe easier.  He told us that he would be calling for the life flight team at Primary Children's to come and transfer us.  I completely lost it.  From that point on, I was a total mess.  Life light came at about 11 or midnight and again got him strapped to a gurney and we were off for the second time that day.  I was able to fly with him and Jesse drove separately.  That was definitely not how I wanted my first helicopter experience to go.  The flight only took 10 minutes, but it seriously felt like hours.  Oliver looked so small and scared and in pain, it was just awful.  We landed and went to ER at Primary Children's.  They wanted to monitor him in the ER for a while to decide if he should be admitted to the regular pediatric wing or if he needed to go to the PICU.  Jesse arrived at about 1 in the morning.  Oliver was put on something called hiflow, which is just high powered oxygen.  It was decided that he would go to the regular wing, even though he wasn't doing so great.  We got up there at about 4am, but our stay there didn't last long.  He was clearly getting worse and they said that he would need to be put on an even more intense oxygen setting and would need to go to the PICU.  By 6am Tuesday morning, we had made it to the PICU and Oliver was getting settled into his new "room", which was just a bed that had curtains on either side and babies on the other sides on the curtains.  From 1am til 6am, I was a complete mess and could not stop bawling.  To see my baby so uncomfortable and so upset was the hardest thing to go through.  Once we were in the PICU I was actually feeling some relief because they were able to sedate him and he was finally able to sleep and look a little more comfortable.  He was put on oxygen called BIPAP, which is one step away from having to have a breathing tube put in, and he was on 60% oxygen (the air we breathe is 21% oxygen, so he was receiving 3 times that).  His RSV had escalated so quickly from just the day before and he was having a really hard time breathing, it was awful seeing him work so hard to do something as simple as breathing, but I was so glad that he was finally where he needed to be and that the nurses would be watching him closely 24/7.  Since we had all just pulled an all nighter, Jesse and I decided that it was best if we went home and showered and took a little nap and spent some time with Walter before we headed back up to the hospital.  Our one night stay in a hospital just minutes from our apartment had just turned into a hospital stay estimated at 5 to 10 days clear down in Salt Lake.