Yeow, baby!!

Jared, Jared, Jared....what are we going to do with you!?!

Yesterday, Labor Day, I began by sleeping as I could because I had worked the night before. But sleeping with my children at home usually presents a problem. But as the day went on (and it was raining) there started to be some cabin fever within our home.

Well.... just after 5PM, we started to discuss what we might do for dinner, but then we were interrupted by Jared screaming. We went to see what the problem might be and he was standing in front of the quad doors in front of our washer and dryer. Well, we thought that he has probably hurt his injured finger from 10 days ago. So mommy picked him up to go rock-a-bye and make it all better. A minute later, I realized that his pinkie finger was bleeding, and not just a trickle, we had a river of blood going down both of our arms. We ran into the bathroom to clean up. Then it became very apparent that he would need stitches. So I wrapped up his finger in a washcloth and quickly went up to the ER. Second time within 10 days. X-Rays (yes this time, this one is broken,) 5 stitches and an hour later, we walked out of the ER to see if we could find a open pharmacy on Labor Day. We needed to start antibiotics to make sure an infection wouldn't get down into his broken pinkie bone. No luck on an open pharmacy yesterday, but we have succeeded today.

No luck for breaking Jared's tough spell yet, but hopefully soon!!!

Introducing Royce

Royce, the newest member of our family, made his grand appearance yesterday, August 29, 2008. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 21" long. He has a little bit of hair and a very sore head. He is a cute sweet baby with super sad, soft cry. Its so weird to think of Brandon as a dad, but so far he seems to be a natural. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Jared...

(In front of the Provo Temple on our recent trip)



Dear Poor Jared. This poor kid cannot catch a break this week. Last Wednesday, he had a bloody ear that we had checked on. We did drops and took him back in on Monday. His ear is still occluded and not much sound is getting thru. We were told to do hydrogen peroxide (duh Melissa) that he just loathes! But hopefully we will know within the next couple of days whether his tube is still in or not.

Friday night, while I was at work, poor Jared got a left pointer finger injury. Taylor accidentally closed the car door on his finger. I came home Sat. morning and looked. I didn't really like what I saw. I thought it might be broke. So I got Jared dressed, and took him up to the ER. The doctor on (Dr. Rammell) also thought that it might be broke so we did some X-Rays. Thankfully, it is not broke (although hairline fractures can show up, up to ten days after the fact). There was a long open wound so we lathered it up in Neosporin and wrapped it in gauze and covered it in green coban. So he has been going around since Sat. with a big green finger with little dinosaurs on it. It has been oozing for a couple days but was bleeding again last night. His nail is turning purple and right now there is a 50/50 chance of keeping that fingernail.

No..wait, there's more-----

Monday night, we went for a walk around the block as a family. We have a little red wagon that Jared usually rides in. But Monday, he wanted to walk or pull the wagon. After awhile he was walking behind me as I was pulling the wagon. Before long we had a game going where I would run and he was running to catch me. I would slow down just long enough for him to touch the wagon before I would take off running again. In no time, he just quit running and started whining as though mom was not playing well enough. I turned to look at him and when I did, he took a few steps before his eyes rolled up in the back of head and he just went down. He didn't put his hands up to brace himself or nothing. He started to cry pretty quickly, but for as hard as he hurt his head, I would have expected him to cry more or harder. His pupils were constricted and the whites of his eyes were bluish. I'm not sure if he just passed out for a second or if it was a tiny seizure. Perhaps after running (I've seen him run harder) he became winded and couldn't catch his breath. I don't know.

He is falling over a little more now and was complaining of a headache this morning. But is the falling over due to his ears or his pigeon toes or is something else wrong. (If your still reading this...Thank You.) After being a mom to Dylan and his whole history, I will be the first that I am a much more paranoid mom. All this with Jared doesn't help any. I'm second-guessing myself and wondering if I am being too concerned or not concerned enough. 'Should I take him in or will this just resolve itself.' Jeff agrees that I'm too paranoid and that I just need to relax and let him be a kid. I heard that with Dylan and listening to that just put us behind. I'd love to hear from you and what you think. I need someone elses input other than my own. PLEASE!!!

My job description

I just finished a round of three nights in a row, Thurs. Fri. & Sat. Then when I tried to go to bed last night, I just stared at the ceiling for a LONG TIME!!! Insomnia after sleep deprivation. (I hate it when that happens!!!) But one night while I was at work, I read my job description. We are supposed to read it, sign it, and turn it back in about once a year. I don't ever remember reading it before, because there were somethings in there, I'm pretty sure I would have remembered.
There were the basic things of the knowledge you're suppose to demonstrate and your requirements, meeting the needs of patient/family and staff. But I guess I'm also supposed to "treat staff, physicians, patients, and families with consideration and respect." Crap....So much for my behavior at work. Under Mathematical Skills: it states, Ability to work with mathematical concepts such as probability and statistical inference and fundamentals of plane and solid geometry and trigonometry. Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations. My first response was "WHAT!?!" quickly followed by a "I don't think I ever took trigonometry...."
It talked about tasting and smelling. Granted I smell different things as a part of work but I draw the line at tasting as part of my job. AUGH.... I think what got me the most was the following paragraph after Work Environment: it states, While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be; exposed to infections and contagious diseases; exposed to hazardous anesthetic agents, body fluids and wastes; exposed to a variety of electrical or mechanical power equipment; exposed to odorous chemicals and specimens; subject to hazards of flammable, explosive gases; subject to burns and cuts; occasionally exposed to radiation ; in contact with patients under a wide variety of circumstances; handling emergency or crisis situations; subject to many interruptions; subject to irregular hours; required to make judgements/actions which could result in the death of a patient.
No Pressure, No Pressure, No pressure. No wonder why I can't sleep at night.

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.......

August 20, 2008 started out earlier than most of the days that we've seen during the summer but not of the last week. (I haven't been able to sleep very well...) We started off our morning by starting with pancakes. I'm sure my family was shocked, after a summer of cold cereal. Taylor got off to a better start than what we were thinking she would. She suffered a trying 30 minutes of anxiety last night. But after A LOT of reassurance from dad, she calmed down. They all went to bed really well. Dylan got up, as though there had been no summer. We had our pancakes then quickly moved on to the new clothes and backpacks before doing hair and of course taking a couple of pix.

These pictures turned out better than I had hoped. The wind was blowing (imagine that!!) and they were so excited. I love having pictures that demonstrate the anticipation of school to show that someday, it was something to revel in. I really like the second picture. I hope that these two can always hold hands as they head into new adventures together.

I dropped Jared off with my mom so that I could go to school with Taylor for her first day of school open house. It only lasts an hours and familiarizes the kids with the basics before the full fledged routine begins tomorrow.

After Taylor's open house, I ran to pick up Jared to take him to the doctor. He had awoken to a bloody ear that had streamed down his face and left remnants on his pillow. He had tubes put in back in Feb. and I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright. As it turns out, there was too much dried up blood to see in his ear very well. We were given some drops and made an appointment to return on Monday.

We came home and did an early quiet time because Jared and a physical therapy evaluation at 3 PM. He is very pigeon toed and I wanted to check into it. As it turns out, he is A LOT more flexible than the normal kid. He also has flat feet which didn't seem to be a big concern because kids don't gain their arch until they are 6 years old. Chances are that he will not qualify for physical therapy but hopefully we will learn some tricks to help him.

Dylan came home in the middle of this eval. and when we went to do some homework we quickly got this as a result:

Dylan has been very big on naps and now that he goes to school for a full day, this is no surprise to us. During the summer we had him to the point where we could just keep going and going. But today we had to stop to do homework. The poor kid....I'm not sure how this is going to work out over the next couple of weeks.