Blogger Widgets Rock!

I read today that there is a new widget that you can use to post to the blog!

Here's a link to download the widget (you need OS X 10.4 or higher): Blogger Widget

Enjoy!

3 Weeks....

and counting!

I went to the Dr. today. My first of the weekly visits. I'm always glad to get to this point, because that means I'm almost done! I was actually contracting over the weekend, not that it did anything except make us realize we're not ready for her to come yet. I do want her out, but we have things that we need to get done first (and it's still a little early @ not quite 36 wks for my comfort level.)

I have now gained 9 pounds total for this pregnancy. I'm loving that number, my dr. is not. The rest of my measurments are normal though, so it all looks ok.

We have about 20 million things going on (mostly Mike does) right now, and will continue to until I don't know when. He pulled an all-nighter last night, and plans to work for a while after he gets home tonight. He has had to be on campus all-day (until about 9pm) everyday for the last week or so. That doesn't leave him much time to work on his other stuff... namely a book that has 4 chapters due in a couple of days.

Last week all of the kids were sick at one point or another. Aaron was home for 2 days, and Aimee stayed home the next. And I was stuck in the house with them cuz this is when Mike was gone until after 9pm. I was so excited for a chance to go grocery shopping on Friday. It's the simple things!

Since everyone else already knows...

I recently found out that there is a position for a Graphic Design Faculty member at SUU in Cedar City, UT, and I am applying for it.

Before anyone asks if things aren't good here... things here are great. We're in the process of interviewing for a fourth faculty member to help eliviate the load, we should get our new BFA degree approved any meeting now, the students are improving greatly and we just had a very successful student show opening and I just got a raise.

We love Texas and everything here. We're doing this just to test the waters.

But it is closer to family and friends... on the other hand Cedar City is colder than a witch's --- nevermind.

We'll keep you updated.

5 weeks...

I had a dr's appt. yesterday and my doctor actually said that he was happy about my weight gain since I gained 5 pounds in the last 2 weeks. No wonder I feel huge! I am now up to 8lbs total, I'm just hoping that I don't gain 5 lbs every two weeks from now on.

Next appt in 2 weeks then I'm going in weekly. Can you believe it's getting this close? I can't wait!

Six weeks from Monday...

and counting! My c-section is scheduled for March 6th @ 7am. We have to be at the hospital @ 5:30am... that's REALLY early!!!

I can't believe that Andee is almost here. Everything is going well. Everything is measuring normal... except my weight. I'm not complaining... but my doctor is. I'm 32 weeks and have gained a total of 3 pounds. My doctor just gives my the evil eye and tries not to worry too much.

I'm not sure why I haven't really gained any weight. I don't feel like I have changed my eating habits. I really thought all those dozens of Krispy Kremes in the last few weeks would help put more weight on... but that didn't even really work (although I hadn't gained any weight until then... hmmm.)

I'm just hoping that this means that I might actually lose the baby weight this time, and maybe some of the weight that is left over from Alex (and Aimee and Aaron.)

Alex's sleeping woes...

Let's just say, Alex hasn't been getting as much sleep as he used to now that he is in his toddler bed. He has a harder time settling down to take a nap and going to bed at night. We hear Aaron's clock radio going on and off. We took everything else out so Alex wouldn't play with it, I think that is going out next.

His other problem has been staying in his bed while he is asleep. I'm just glad that his bed isn't very far off the floor. We will be watching TV and hear a "thump" and Alex is asleep on the floor next to his bed, or standing up looking a little disoriented. Mike has gone up to get Aaron up for school and found Alex asleep on the floor (next to Aaron's bed and under his own bed.) Mike even found Alex standing next to his bed with his head on his bed, like he fell asleep saying his prayers.

Last night we were amazed that he didn't fall out of bed. He was still in his bed this morning. Maybe he is finally getting the hang of it. Sometimes he will even go right to sleep... but we're still working on that one. It doesn't happen very often!

Alex's new bed...

So, we got the toddler bed out today. We even got new sheets for him, since the other ones are at least 5-7 years old.

Alex isn't so sure that he likes it. We are trying to get him to take a nap right now, and there is a lot of crying by the door (which is tied shut due to the fact that he is now tall enough to open doors.) This is what I was NOT looking forward to. Hopefully this won't last too long and he'll finally figure out that he has to go to sleep.

Our little escape artist

Alex climbed out of his crib for the first time today. We put him down for a nap, but I guess he didn't think it was time for a nap. I was in my bathroom (right under his room) when I heard a thud and little footsteps. I went out and he was standing at the top of the stairs.

Later when we put him down again, he tried to climb out a few times (I heard him and put him back in before he climbed all the way out) before finally falling asleep.

I guess it's time to break out the toddler bed. I'm not ready for this!

Some photos for the masses

I'll have Min write the day to day stuff, here are a few pictures:

Greg and Alex at the Alamo... and yes, it's okay to wear shorts in January in Texas.



Mindy and Greg in front of the San Antonio Temple.



Simply titled: "Oh no you just didn't!"

A trip to the hospital, take 2...

Sorry, this is a novel... I didn't intend it to be.

2 1/2 weeks after our fabulous stay at North Central Baptist Hospital, we took a trip to their Pediatric ER. It seems that there were quite a few sick kids in San Antonio yesterday. There was a waiting list at the ask a nurse line, the after hours clinic was busy, and the waiting room at the ER was full. Of course, Alex had to get sick again.

He started with a runny nose Sunday with a little bit of a cough. Monday he added a fever and started breathing fast. Monday night when we counted respirations he was taking more than 90 breaths in one minute. For those of you that don't know, that is REALLY FAST!!! We have been told before that if they are breathing at 60 breaths/minute the doctor needs to see him. Because of the fever he was pretty mellow, but other than that looked and sounded fine. No wheezing; no retraction (when their chest sucks in, right below their rib cage, with each breath; and his coloring was all normal.

My dilema: First: I know the fast breathing is bad, but without the other signs I wasn't sure if he really needed to be seen. Second: We have a stash of medicines for breathing treatments at home, thanks to our last episode and hospital stay. They will just do one of those at the hospital, should I do one at home and see what happens? Third: Our insurance is changing Jan. 1st and will be 100% coverage for in hospital... why did all this happen (both times) weeks and days before the better coverage starts.

I called the doctors office which now has later hours, but they must have been closed yesterday. I called the nurses line, and was put on the waiting list. I called the after hours clinic, but the doctors and nurses are too busy to talk to me on the phone... they are jam packed! We called our friend Mark (who is a family practice doctor at Luke AFB in Phoenix) at home, on his cell phone, and on his wife's cell phone... with no answer on any of them. I'm thinking about who else I might call... my brother-in-law Ken, not quite a doctor (3rd yr med student); my brother Kerry, not yet a PA (1st yr student); Kerry's wife Michelle, not yet a pharmacist (1 semester in)... Oh, well they will all be helpful when I have questions in a little while.

The nurse calls back and tells me that we have to take Alex to the ER. They will want to check his oxygen level to make sure he is getting enough, and will want to do a chest x-ray and see if anything is going on there. Great, here goes again! I call my VT and good friend and see if Aaron and Aimee can come over (it's about 6:30 pm) and talk to her husband. He says bring them over and they can spend the night. It's so nice to have great friends! Dinner was just about ready, so we set the crockpot to "keep warm" and stopped at Mickey D's for a couple of Happy Meals on the way.

Once at the hospital we had a wait to see the triage nurse, but thanks to the rate of Alex's breathing we got to go straight back to a room. His oxygen level, which the nurse said was a worry, was 99%. No problem there. Lungs mostly clear, a tiny bit of crackling on one side, not much to indicate anything. Chest x-rays, exactly the same as 2 1/2 weeks ago with a little bit of pneumonia on the right side (the 2nd dr. said that it take 4-6 weeks to clear up, so that is normal...). Nothing to really indicate why he is breathing so fast. They did a breathing treatment, not much immediate change in his breathing rate. They ordered blood tests... the nurse came in to do an IV, in case of later IV meds, fluids, etc. She was able to get the blood she needed, but the IV wasn't able to stay in thanks to Alex's fighting. There is a reason his nickname is "Squirmy."

The blood tests came back indicating that he was dehydrated. After many, many attempts to get him to drink anything, and even eat a popsicle failed, the nurse came in to try another IV. It took 4 adults holding him down and 3 more trys to finally get an IV in. The nurse felt SO bad, and so did all the other nurses and techs that had try to help hold him. He did score a stuffed dog though!

After hours of sitting in the room and getting his fluids, Alex's 2nd dr came in (shift change.) Alex was still breathing too fast, but everything else looked ok, so he gave us the choice. Did we want to have him admitted, or did we feel comfortable enough to take him home and continue with the breathing treatments there. Having just done this (and doing it before with Alex and Aimee) we wanted to go home. So, at 2 am we were finally discharged. After getting home we had a treatment to do before going to bed. Finally at 3 am we got to go to bed.

Alex was doing well all day. He was CRANKY this morning due to lack of sleep, but after a couple of much needed naps was full of energy and happy. His breathing is still a little fast, but we will be following up with his dr. later this week. Now, we are back to breathing treatments every 4 hours, which means interupted sleep and planning our days around treatments. Hopefully we won't have to keep doing this.

Luckily for us, Alex does the treatments very well. We will hook it all up, turn on the TV, hand it to him and he will sit there until we turn it off. I'm so glad we don't have to fight him!

I'm hoping for some of this drama to go away. Boring would be good right now.

Hope everyone else is healthy and stays that way!!!