Friday, April 30, 2010

Random shots from April

Colin got stuck playing in the baby's jumper. Funny kid.
We spent another gorgeous spring day at our favorite park.
The boys had a ball playing with the present Grammy and Papa gave them for Easter.
Maddie emptied every cabinet. Every day.
And wasn't at all remorseful.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Hospital and the Beach

Three weeks after Madelines's first breathing incident in New York, she woke up from her nap breathing really fast. I rushed her to her pediatrician. He sent me home with her after two nebulizer treatments with advice to head to the emergency room if she got worse. She did, so I did. I spent several hours in a room in the ER holding her while giving her treatment after treatment. She hated it and was so miserable. We couldn't move around much because she was attached to the oxygen monitoring machine, and she never fell asleep. We couldn't get her breathing to slow down or her oxygen saturation levels up, so they finally decided to admit her. I really didn't like the ER doc and the whole experience was frustrating. We didn't get up to a room until 5:30 am, and both fell asleep the minute the nurse left.

The next morning she was breathing fine again, so they released her. This time, the official diagnosis was bronchiolitis, but Jason and I had a feeling there was something more going on. We didn't actually get discharged until 5:30 pm. Luckily Jason had the day off (it was a Friday) so he had the boys, and my mom showed up mid-morning to play with Madeline so I could go home and shower and get something to eat. While she was there, my mom taught Madeline to say "uh oh"...her first words.

Jason was scheduled to speak at a conference in Wilmington early Saturday morning. The conference provided a hotel room at the oceanfront hotel and we had all planned to go down together. Jason and Ethan left an hour after Maddie and I got home from the hospital. I opted to stay home with the younger two so Madeline and I could get a good nights' sleep. We went down and joined them the next day. Ethan sat with one of Jason's co-workers (Beth) and was extremely good while Jason spoke. We were able to get in a little time at the beach, though Maddie was still a little sick and traumatized and needed some extra cuddling.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Right outside our front door

Spring arrived in North Carolina weeks ago, but this seems to make it official. The boys are beyond ecstastic. Now if we can just keep them away long enough for the birds to hatch...

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

We packed a lot of fun into our week in New York. We took the kids to the Bronx zoo. It was packed and a gorgeous day. Not sure why I didn't take pictures.

We also took Ethan to his first Broadway show. We went to see Mary Poppins with dinner at Carmine's on the upper west side first. We got SOAKED running from a parking garage to the restaurant.

Ethan loved the show. We went in to the city and spent some time in the Museum of Natural History, also known as little boy heaven. We grabbed some lunch from the cafe at the museum and met Ann and Randy and Todd, Ashley and their kids, who brought their Shake Shack lunch over to eat with us. All 5 boys are in the picture below. At this point, Madeline starts breathing really fast. She's never done this before. I completely freak out, though I'm trying to hold it together in front of Jason's family. Ashley suggests we call her old pediatrician, who's office is just a couple blocks away. She agrees to see Maddie at 3:00 on Good Friday...she was way too nice. We walked the boys over to Central Park and left them with Ann & Randy. Two nebulizer treatments later, we were on our way home with no diagnosis but a prescription for an inhaler. That night, Maddie choked at dinner (the kind of choking where her airway was completely blocked and she was changing color fast). Jason acted quickly and did the heimlich. I think we took a few years off Ann's life. That was the last of it, though, so we kept an eye on her and didn't think much of it.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter Fun

We had perfect weather in New York for easter. Warm and sunny with spring in full bloom. The kids dyed eggs with Grammy and Papa.

Then went on a major egg hunt all over their property.

Todd and Ashley were there with their boys.

Grammy and Papa got some bonding time in with Maddie, who seemed to be on the mend. We packed up and drove home on Sunday. We stopped at Bryce and Cathi's in Baltimore for an amazing "authentic" Italian lunch. Yum!! The kids actually all feel asleep at the same time for a few moments. Then Colin woke up screaming and crying (not unusual) and woke up everyone else. We actually had to pull over to the side of the rode and pull him out of the car to get him to calm down. Oh well. After that, the kids did great. We pulled in to the driveway exhausted but had a great time!