Golf?

Our family Prayer by Brody-with help from Daddy-

....

Bobby: Please bless us with health and strength...
Brody: Please bless us with health and strength for golf.

Himself, again!

Our Brody boy is back!!

I noticed a big difference on Thursday morning- those meds sure helped! He started to eat and play again throughout the day and has only been getting better since! He still has a light cough, but it usually only comes when he's running around playing his sports (asthma). We still have to do breathing treatments 2 or 3 times a day, but last night he stayed at 90% oxygen level without any oxygen! I keep the monitor on him when he sleeps and an alarm sounds if it gets below 87%. I can then put on his oxygen if he needs it.

We're so glad he's feeling better! I talked to his Dr on Friday and asked him when I could take Brody out again. The Dr told me that I could take him out and let him be around other kids as soon as his fever was gone (he only had a fever of 99.7 for one night on Tuesday), his coughing was improved (check!), and he was active and feeling well (check, check!).

Park, stores, friends - here we come!!

And I considered canceling this appointment??

Brody got a cough on Sunday morning but I thought it was from the ice cream he ate the night before (He gets a cough anytime he has any dairy). By Tuesday evening he was much worse than usual, I scheduled an appointment on Wednesday morning and took him in at 11:50. I was planning on getting a prescription of Prednisone (sp?) a steroid to help his lungs. He was on this steroid when he had RSV at ten months because of his asthma.

The Dr. came in and listened to him, said he was wheezing and that he wanted us to do a breathing treatment of albuterol. I did the treatment and when the Dr. came in to listen again he said "now he has crackling". I didn't know what the "crackling" meant, but by the look on the Dr's face I could tell it wasn't good. I asked him if that meant it wasn't asthma and what it could mean. He told me "possible pneumonia" and sent us to get x-rays of Brody's lungs.

Brody did great while getting the x-rays done! I was able to be in there and help him which made a huge difference (his last x-ray -on his hip- was done while I was pregnant with little Gavin so I wasn't able to be in there with him. It broke my heart). He got 2 x-rays done and we had to re-do one so a total of 3! He was so brave! He got 2 stickers for being so good!

When we went back to the room the Dr had us start another breathing treatment while we waited for the x-ray results. He came back and told me that it wasn't a bacterial pneumonia (which is the worse kind) but it was a viral pneumonia. From the x-rays, the Dr could see that the pneumonia was spread out all through his lungs... scattered. Brody fell asleep during his 2ND breathing treatment so the Dr had me stop it and let him sleep for about 20 minutes.

Dr came back in and listened to Brody again. He checked his oxygen levels while he was asleep and they were at 86 (not good). He had me start the breathing treatment again and then wake him up to see if his levels would go up again. They went to 90 once he woke up. The Dr said " I hope you didn't have someplace to be!" I told him I was going to meet up with Bobby for lunch, but we'll do whatever we need to for Brody. He then said "I'm just trying to do everything I can to not have to send you to the hospital". I was shocked!

We ended up getting a prescription for an antibiotic and the steroid. We also had oxygen and a monitor (to check his oxygen levels) delivered to our house that evening. We have a nebulizer and have had to give him breathing treatments every 3 hours, although after the first day on his meds he has been doing much better and only gets a breathing treatment when needed- usually morning, afternoon, and before bed.

The first night with the oxygen was pretty hard. I was up most of the night and slept very lightly. His levels wouldn't go about 86 and the Dr wanted them at 90. I wasn't sure what to do, so I prayed. A lot. I felt so much better and was able to go to bed. Bobby and his dad gave him a priesthood blessing on Wednesday night and I had comfort in that. I am so thankful for this amazing gift in our lives.

The next morning I went upstairs to turn off the oxygen and found that it wasn't even on. I could have screamed!!! I was actually a little relieved once a few hours passed :) I began to think that even though his levels were low, they weren't too low WITH oxygen. They could have actually gone up! It made me realize that he wasn't as bad as I started to think the night before! (The reason it was off is that the oxygen was still in the chamber and showed a green=full level on the bottle... meaning "on". Turns out it can still show a little oxygen in there even if it's off. My bad! and, a good lesson!)

Last night was his REAL first night with oxygen and he stayed at 91! It was awesome! He's been doing great with all of this medicine and tubing stuff- a lot better than I expected! He had no problem putting his monitor on either- he just wants to make sure it won't hurt so he has to touch it first. He hated the "stickers" the first night- the things that stick on his cheeks to hold the tubes in place. He didn't like me taking them off and they left a nice red mark all day. I resorted to using band-aids which work quite well! While I'm putting everything on him he'll say "I sick?" (in a sad, concerned voice) After I put everything on him last night I turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and went out of the room. He tried to get out of bed about 3 minutes later but was stopped by everything attached to him. I heard him start to cry and ran in there. He was standing by the side of the bed and I felt so bad. I put him back in bed and he held up a wire while crying "monitor, monitor" Poor little guy. I don't' leave him unless he is ASLEEP now!

I should be talking to the Dr sometime today to give a report, but Brody has been doing much better (to me, anyway!). He still looks a little sick and has his cough, but the meds are helping a ton! He is eating like normal and playing sports as always! You can't stop a sick kid. We have to keep telling him to be calm and to not play too rough. Thank goodness I didn't cancel this appointment and just wait it out. Turns out he was more sick than I even imagined. We're glad he's feeling better and hopes he's completely better soon!! We love him!

RaNDoM

Not sure why I just thought about this, but one day while I was pregnant *huge pregnant* with Gavin, I was trying on some maternity clothes that were too big and Bobby said:

"Even when you're huge you're still little"

Thanks baby!

(I don't get offended if he says stuff like that - especially when I'm pregnant! so, in case you think this is rude, I'm going to clarify and say that I thought it was hilarious and it MADE MY DAY!) I hope it made you laugh too!

Church Lately:

While we were in St. George 2 weeks ago we went to Sacrament meeting at the church by the condo. Right before the opening prayer Brody started ordering Cafe Rio from a Hymn book. He kept saying "rice, beans, tortilla... rice and beans" Bobby told him to be quiet but he kept ordering so Bobby picked him up to take him out. Apparently, Brody wasn't finished ordering so as Bobby was carrying him out he YELLED, "TORTILLAAAAA!!!!". I couldn't help but hide my face and laugh.

Yesterday in Nursery during singing time Brody decided to make up his own song. While singing "popcorn popping" he danced around singing "BYU... BYU". Where do kids come up with this stuff??

Also yesterday: we had a long day on Saturday (3 parties), didn't get to bed until midnight and didn't want to wake the boys up too early so we slept in and went to the 1:00 sacrament meeting. We sat in the very back (it's a HUGE ward) and Brody started to dribble and shoot a fake basketball into the hoop up above him. He then spotted a Lightning McQueen book about 5 rows ahead of us. He made his way over to the lady with the cool book and sat by her to look at it. I went to get him and she said we could take it back with us. After the sacrament I told Brody to take the book back. I watched him as he stood by her still holding the book. I went up to him, took the book, which he then knocked out of my hands, I bent over to pick it up, handed it to the nice lady right as he SMACKED my BUTT! It was so loud and everyone around saw it. I tried not to laugh as I walked back towards Bobby but I noticed he was laughing, too. I asked him if he saw what happened and he told me "no, but i saw that everyone else was laughing!" How nice!

THREE!!

Bubbas,

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY! (yesterday!!) We love you very much and are so thankful to have you as our son. We are truly blessed. :)

You bring light to everyone around you. You have a great personality and don't mind letting it show! You are extremely active and keep your mommy running! You love to play sports with your daddy and tackle your little brother. You are always keeping us laughing with the things you do and say. You're HILARIOUS! You are such a BOY! You think it's funny to fart, you love EVERY sport! (Soccer and Golf are on the top of your list.) You tell mommy that you don't want a pink or purple cup and that things aren't "cute" they're "cool". You have become a "backseat" driver lately by telling mommy to "go faster like a race car" or "go man!!" you also like to tell us that "red means stop" and "green means go". We love listening to all of the new things you come up with. You surprise us everyday! We love to cuddle with you. You give the best hugs and kisses! You are such a sweet boy!

We hope you had a wonderful 3rd birthday!! We love you baby!!