Oakley’s Crazy March

As I was looking through our March photos, I decided this little episode needed its own post.

Calvin got sick first.  He had a fever and a cough.  He was sick for about two days, then he got better.  You know, like kids do when they get sick.  Except when they don’t!

Right after Calvin was feeling better, Oakley got it.  And I expected her to be sick for two days like Calvin.  On the 4th day, I took her into the InstaCare.  (I tried to get her into her doctor, but they were booked up for the day.) 

Her oxygen saturation at the InstaCare was in the mid 80s.  The doctor told us we needed to get over to the ER, but that he wasn’t comfortable releasing her to me with her oxygen that low, and he wanted to call an ambulance to take her in.  I said I’d prefer to drive her myself if at all possible.  So they did a breathing treatment and suctioned her.  Her numbers eeked up to 90-91, which was enough for the Doctor to tell me “okay now don’t speed, but . . . speed.”  I headed straight to the ER.  They got us in and by the time they checked her oxygen, it had fallen back down to 84.  They hooked her up to oxygen, suctioned her, and sent the secretions off for testing.

She had been pretty lethargic for several days, and that didn’t change much in the ER, other than protesting a little bit when they wanted to poke and prod her.  She sat and watched frozen under a donated fleece blanket while we waited for the testing.  It came back positive for RSV, and the ER doctor told us he wanted to admit her so they could keep an eye on her oxygen for a while.  At this point it was about 10:30 am.  I didn’t know if he meant we’d be here for the day, overnight, or what.

As it turned out, we were there for 6 days and 5 nights.  I still have no idea why it took her so long to kick it.  The first few days she was pretty lethargic.  One day she slept the entire day, only waking up to protest when they suctioned her.  The last few days she was awake more, and was more and more cranky.  She got to the point that she was screaming in protest whenever somebody walked in the door, no matter who it was.  At the worst of it, she wouldn’t let me put her down at all – day or night.   

My aunt told me these pictures made her look angelic, but I assure you that was not the case.  She was a bear. 

They told me that once she turned the corner, she would improve quickly but honestly I didn’t see that.  It seemed like she took forever.  Finally they started weaning her off the oxygen and we were able to get her drinking enough to lose the IV. 

(The nurses all laughed at how she sleeps on her hands.  She’s always done this – sleeping, watching TV, in her car seat.)

This is right before we were discharged.  She was so excited to be “cordless”.  She wanted to walk all over the room, but after spending 6 days in bed she was a little shaky on her legs.  We had to watch her pretty carefully those first few days at home because she was so shaky, and we have a lot of stairs.

It took a week  or so for Oakley to get back to herself after we got home.  She was so, so cranky.  I can’t blame her – she had been so sick and had so many people invading her personal space, making her do things she didn’t want to do.  I think it left some scars. 

(Side story:  in our family we have a rule about “personal bubbles”.  We don’t get in each other’s personal space, or bubble.  Oakley has been saying “Bubble!” to her siblings for a long time now when they get in her space.  She started saying it to the nurses on the second day we were there.  I thought it was a crack up, but they didn’t get it.) 

That first week back at home was almost as hard as the week in the hospital.  But fortunately she just needed some time to get back to normal.

I have a lot of take-aways from this experience. 

1.  Thank goodness for Bear.  She LOVES this bear, and frequently the only way I could get her to take her medicine/have her diaper changed/let the doctor listen to her lungs/ etc etc etc was to tell her that she could hold Bear.  She reaches for him in her sleep and if she doesn’t find him, she wakes right up.  She gets jealous if anybody else holds him.  She NEEDED Bear while we were there, and I was awfully glad she had him.

2.  Thank goodness for family.  They ran to our rescue.  In so many ways.

3.  Thank goodness for modern medicine.  As rotten as it was to be stuck in the hospital, it was comforting to remind myself that we were in the place she needed to be – where she was able to get the care she needed in order to get better.  They took great care of her, and, I was surprised to find, of me too. 

4.  Thank goodness for experiences that teach us.  I feel like this experience taught me greater love, faith, and empathy.  The entire time I kept thinking of several friends who have spent much longer stretches in the hospital with much scarier prognoses.  I can’t imagine what a trial that is.  I have a greater appreciation and empathy for those who suffer.

She got a little bug just this past weekend – cough and a fever – and I found myself getting concerned about repeating this whole scenario (which also started with a cough and fever).  It turned out to be nothing major, but I have a feeling I might just be a little more paranoid about her getting sick than I have been in the past!  I’m just glad she’s better and I have no desire to repeat that experience ever again!

February Photos

I managed to get some pictures before church one Sunday.  I’m not much about editing photos anymore, as you’ll soon see. 

Truth be told, I actually liked this one of Calvin better:

Oakley enjoying her FHE treat

“Hey Calvin – whatcha’ got in that box?”

Ah, the dreaded Valentine’s boxes.  I am such a grinch about these.  Mostly because my kids insist on overly-complicating them, and my husband enables them.  I washed my hands of these long ago.  Will is the one responsible for these happening.  He made one for Calvin too, by himself, just for fun. 

I really hate it when when I have to wake her up.  It just seems so wrong!  I have so many pictures like this on my phone.  She looks so sweet that I always end up taking a picture when I have to wake her up.  The “after” pictures aren’t nearly as sweet.

Will took this picture, and it is one of my new favorites.  They have a pretty special relationship.  I ask a lot of Jacey, as far as helping with Oakley.  But lately, I haven’t even had to ask.  Oakley frequently prefers Jacey to me.  She almost always insists that Jacey be the one to put her to bed.  And if I start to do it instead, usually Jacey comes in and asks if she can do it instead. 

January

I’m going to try really hard to not fall behind again on blogging my photos.  I was tempted to skip January, since 98% of the photos I took in January were at Disneyland, which I’ve already recorded.  But for the record, here’s the official (very short) post anyway.

My folks invited us to go to the BYU volleyball game with them.  It was a lot of fun!  The kids, of course, particularly enjoyed the party where Grandma brought Tootsie Pops in her purse. 

 

Oakley loves to be read to.  Luckily she doesn’t mind when I abridge the books she brings me to read to her. 

 

I was trying to get a shot of her expression as she ate her lemon.  This kid is such a finicky eater.  She’s not a bad eater, per se, she just changes her mind a lot.  One night she’ll love chicken, then next night she hates it.

And that’s it for January.  I always take very few pictures in January – I don’t know why that is.  But I have to say this was one of the most enjoyable Januaries I can ever remember.  A fun vacation, above-average temperatures, and far more sunshine than any Utah winter, ever = a very happy Cynthia!

Disneyland!

I was a little worried that with only 10 days of anticipation build up, the kids wouldn’t be as excited for this trip as they have been for past trips.  Wrong!  And another pleasant surprise – Calvin was the most eager.  I wasn’t even sure he remembered previous trips, but he must have remembered (or been told enough good stories) to be excited this time. 

We decided last-minute to head down on Saturday instead of Sunday and stay Saturday night in Vegas.  I’ve heard horror stories about the traffic on Sunday mornings between Vegas and LA (and we experienced it ourselves on our last trip).  With it being post-New Year’s weekend, I didn’t want to get stuck in that. 

As a result, we got into Anaheim nice and early on Sunday.  We got settled into our room and then had time to walk around Downtown Disney for a little while.

Monday morning we were at the front of the line and ready to go.  We decided to try day 1 without a stroller for Calvin.  That didn’t go so well . . . he had a rough day.  He didn’t want to try any rides (at all) and pretty much whimper-cried the whole day.  He finally fell asleep on a bench while we waited for the parade and did a lot better after that.  The next day we brought another stroller and he did much better.  That, and we spent most of the day at Cars Land.  Whatever the reason, he had a great week after that.  On Wednesday he VOLUNTEERED to go on Splash Mountain and he loved it!  I’m so glad he got adventurous and decided to try new things.  He ended up having a fantastic time. 

  

One of the reasons we decided to go when we did is to see all of the Christmas decorations up at Disneyland.  (Well, that and I really needed to break up this 5-week school break.)  They certainly didn’t disappoint!  Monday and Tuesday were still officially “Christmastime” at Disneyland, and when we got to the park on Wednesday we were amazed to see just how fast they take it all down!  Even the flower beds had been replanted!  Now that we’ve experienced Christmastime at Disneyland once, I don’t think we’ll do it again.  It’s cool, but it was still very crowded even though it was after Christmas.  And I think the Halloween decorations are my favorite.  The weather was GORGEOUS though – just as nice as when we’ve gone in October.  Couldn’t have asked for better. 

This little girl was so cute meeting Minnie.  She’s her favorite.  (Even though she still calls her Mickey.)  I worried that she would be scared of the characters (like Calvin was/is) but she walked right up to her and held her hands, then reached back and grabbed the autograph book and handed it to her.  After she signed it, Oakley gave her a big hug.  It was adorable. 

 

I think this may be the only picture we got of all 6 of us the whole trip.  We did a lot of splitting up.  That’s kind of how it works when you have a kid who can’t go on all the rides.  But it’s nice that they do the stroller passes so everybody gets to ride, and actually the older kids get to ride a lot more than they would otherwise.  The older kids got to ride Radiator Springs Racers 3 times each on Tuesday, thanks to (1) being there early, (2) getting a stroller pass, (3) getting a fast pass (which I did while they rode the first time) and then (4) using a stroller pass again with the fast pass. 

 

He LOVED this ride.  Of course he did. 

We generally do Disney hard.  We go-go-go.  We’re there when the park opens.  We stay until closing or very close.  We eat in line.  The kids were so tired on Tuesday, I’m not sure if any of them actually saw the fireworks.  We slept in on Wednesday – first time we’ve ever not been there when the park opened. 

We’ve never done 5 days in the park before – in the past we’ve done 3.  So it felt like we had some “extra” time to do some of the things we haven’t done before.  We decided to go see the Disney Junior show and it was a big hit with Calvin and Oakley.  We also saw the Aladdin show, Mickey and the Magical Map, and Great Moments with Abraham Lincoln. 

I thought with the extra time the kids would want to seek out more characters.  But we actually visited with the fewest number of characters of any trip.  I guess the kids just don’t really care that much.  They didn’t really even want to spend the time to meet Ana and Elsa.  (Granted, that would have been a pretty big time investment.)  Or maybe they’re just not interested because we already have autograph books full of character signatures.  Oh, and Calvin is scared to death of all characters.  So that might have something to do with it.

I’m not entirely sure why we love Disneyland so much.  It’s utterly exhausting.  And really expensive.  But man, it just really is a magical place where you forget you even have other cares and worries and responsibilities.  We love it.  And while this trip had some hiccups (our room was pretty crummy, plus then the maid stole $150 so that sucked) but overall it was still a really really fun vacation.  And once again, I’m already planning and plotting to get back as soon as we can. 

 

Saturday morning we loaded back into the car and headed to Phoenix.  We got to meet our newest niece/cousin, Sophie and be there for her blessing day.  (I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of her!!!) Another hiccup with this leg of the trip – Calvin got croup and couldn’t breathe, so he and Will got to go to the urgent care instead of to the blessing. :(  The good news is they got him his medicine and he did fine for the rest of the way home.  We really wanted to get all the way home on Sunday night, but we were so exhausted that we ended up stopping in St. George for the night around 11:00.  When we finally pulled into town on Monday afternoon, it felt so good to be home!  It felt like we had been gone a really long time!

I love having a vacation to look forward to.  The anticipation is a big part of the fun for me.  Our next vacation will be with the Davis family in June, and I’m already really excited for it!  Come on, summer!