Twice in 12 Hours

........is how many times we've been to the ER with Meyers since yesterday evening.

I wish I had the energy to document it better, but neither one of us slept much last night. We just took a nap. I'm awake now, so I'm trying to blog while she's still asleep:)

Meyers has asthma and has been on preventative medicine and an as-needed albuterol inhaler since October 2010 - our last ER visit and 3 night hospital stay. In May, her allergist took her off of her medicine because he wanted to see how she did off of medicine. I was so excited for her to not have to do her inhaler and medicine everyday. She did have a tiny little cold in June and did fine off of her meds. But she woke up Friday snotty and with a low grade fever. She had a little bit of a cough so I was giving her albuterol. Ever since our ER visits, we just err on the side of caution and give her that because coughing with a little wheeze is normally how it comes on. Every time she has ever had an attack, it comes on so fast. It was the same this time. I went from calling the doctor on a Saturday night to refill the albuterol because it was low and required an authorization to telling the nurse I spoke with that her breathing was getting faster and she was retracting. So scary.

So we went downtown to Lebonheur. She was wheezing bad by then and her oxygen levels were low when we got there. Long story short, we were there for 3.5 hours, they gave her a steroid, and more albuterol with an inhaler like we have at home, as well as they entertained her with some bubbles:)
They monitored her and then said we could go home. I was SO excited to not be spending the night like last time, but we probably should have stayed.

When they discharged us, they said she sounded clear, but I could still hear her breathing fast in the way home. She was so hopped up on medicine, but I finally got her to calm down and go to sleep around 2:30 am. She slept with me and I've never heard her wheeze like she did. It was the worst sound ever and she was breathing so fast! They said she could have another steroid in the morning so I was hoping that would help.

It didn't. She was now just as bad as she was when we went to the ER the night before. Part of me feet silly for taking her back to the ER, but she was having so much trouble breathing, so that thought quickly went out of my brain. Especially when we got to the ER and her levels were 90.

So today in the ER, they gave her 2 breathing treatments, a steroid, and a chest x ray - that was about as fun as when she had one at 18 months. And by fun, I mean horrible. After her breathing treatments, her oxygen levels stayed low until they finally tested her with a pediatric O2 level tester - whatever that is called. It was then up to 95. To be honest, as much as I didn't want to stay there any longer, I didn't want to leave. I was scared we might just be coming back in a few hours.

She has been asleep for almost 3 hours and I'm listening to her now and she sounds so much better. We follow up tomorrow with Dr. Catherine and her allergist. I'm pretty sure she will be back on all of her preventative meds now.

I am so proud of my sweet girl. I've never experienced what it feels like to struggle to breathe. I CAN'T even imagine how scary that must feel. I know it's scary on my end as her mom, but to actually feel it has to be terrifying. But through the last 24 hours, she has been so brave, sweet, and polite to every nurse and doctor she saw. They all wanted to eat her up.

I am beyond thankful for modern medicine and am praying we are on the down side of this!

Flashback Friday

July 2010 - before we moved out of our first house.

We had to get a section of our sidewalk redone after we moved in our house. It got damaged in Hurricane Elvis, which was a few months before we moved in our house. I guess we got it repaired in 2004 - which would maybe explain why John put our anniversary date with the wrong year.......not sure. I remember being upset with him because he put the wrong year on there!! Like that matters now:) What does matter is that we will be able to show our girls and our way in the future grandbabies our first house with "J loves B" out in front of it:)

Six Months

Emery - You are 6 months old today!

I'm not sure how much you weigh; you go for your 6 month check up next week, but I think you have to be close to 20 pounds!! Maybe not, maybe it just feels like that in my arms:)

You are in anywhere from 6 month to 12 month clothing.

You are in a size 3 diaper.

You are still on the same schedule of eating as last month - 4, 8 oz bottles a day. You eat around 8:00 am, 12:00 pm, 4:00 pm and then your last bottle at 8:00 pm.

 I have been the worst mama ever when it comes to baby food. I made all of your sister's baby food because I had a tiny bit more time on my hands than I do now:) We started cereal later than we should and you did okay with that, but I haven't been consistent. When we tried to start baby food with you, you don't just make a face and push it out, you gag. Like majorly gag on it. I'm going to talk to Dr. Catherine about it next week, but I'm thinking about skipping baby food and going straight to extremely mushy table food. I've read some on it, and I think that may be best for you. I took a stab at giving you some puffs the other day and you can totally get them in your mouth, so I think you have the fine motor skills and coordination to start on mushy table food. I'll have to see what Dr. Catherine says about it.

You are still doing great rear facing in the car watching the kindle. That has made such a world of difference. I don't totally stress out about getting you in the car now.

You are still sleeping great at night time usually from 8:15 pm - 7:00/7:30 am.

You haven't been napping quite as well for the last few days, but I'm hoping you will get back on track with that. You take two naps a day - usually at 10:00 and then at 2:00.

You can't sit for long periods of time, but you can sit up when we help you.

You are scooting and kind of army crawling. You get up on all fours and rock.

You got your first tooth about a week ago.

You are about the same when it comes to being high maintenance. You will shock me and sit in the exersaucer for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, but then other times, you can be fed, changed, and just up from a nap and lose your mind for me to hold you.

You go to both extremes - when you are happy, you are sooooo happy. But when you are mad, you go kind of crazy screaming. It's the worst when you want to be held and I need to fix Meyers's lunch or help her with something. You go bananas!! I hate to hear you scream, but I have to help your sister, too. You'll see what I'm talking about one day when you have some little ones:)

You are still so vocal! You "talk", scream, and growl! 

 

Your favorite toys are your links, your rubber blocks, and your baby enstein music toy. You like your doll lovey and one of my fabric dolls from when I was a baby.

 

Meyers at 6 months.

Wordless Wednesday

Dress Up Fun

Meyers has not really ever been interested in playing dress up. She really liked Elizabeth's princess shoes when we visited the Kelly's in May, but other than that didn't really care for it. I'm sure Emery will be interested early because she'll be watching her sister. Meyers got a dress up set for Christmas, and I put it away until today.

I told her we would do something fun while Emery was taking her morning nap, so I got out the dress up set. That was at about 9:45 this morning. And she still has it on. She LOVES it!

Not that boys don't dress up (my friend Steph and I just had this conversation this morning about her little boy loving to dress up too), but it's fun having girls:)

Not Ready For This

Emery is not properly crawling, but she's up on her knees, doing the downward dog (yoga) position, and scooting/army crawling around on the floor and has been for a couple of weeks now. Meyers was late in all things moving, so it is so shocking for us to see Emery doing this now. Just another example of how different our girls are:)

Saturday

We woke up this morning and went swimming. Meyers hasn't really gotten a chance to practice her swimming skills lately:) She did great jumping in, kicking, and blowing bubbles while in her puddle jumper. Emery loves being in the water; she loved splashed around and kicked her legs in her little float. And I finally got a picture of these cuties in their matching suits!

We got the girls down after lunch, and I got John to hang some prints that I've had for like two months and have not gotten around to getting up. I had to paint the frames first and I finally did that this week. I love how they look in our kitchen!

And tonight, John and I went on a date to Grove Grill and Target:) We love Grove Grill and haven't been since we moved out of East Memphis. It was yummy as always. After dinner, we went to Target because we needed a few things. It felt a little strange to be walking around Target BY OURSELVES - kid free:)

Flashback Friday

Meyers - July 2010

 in one of the first outfits that I ever made for her. I was so stinkin' proud of that outfit - shocked that I could actually sew pieces of material together:) And it was then that I decided that I LOVE purple and green on her. Those colors are so sweet together, and you don't often find them together, so I have a tendency to make her a lot of things that are purple and green.

First Tooth

Emery's first tooth popped through today (at 5 months and 22 days - for document's sake) or at least today was the first day that I noticed it. Poor second child:)

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday

Since we were gone last week, we have zero groceries right now. We probably should have gone to the grocery store today, but instead we took naps while the girls were down. I love a Sunday afternoon nap. Sunday mornings can be so stressful getting all of us out the door and to church on time. I still haven't put Emery in the nursery yet, so I spend the first part of the worship bouncing her in the sling to get her to sleep. And then I spend the rest of the service being extremely still so she stays asleep. So I think I deserve a nap on Sundays:)

After Emery woke up and we got Meyers up from her "rest", we went to Outdoors to look for some shoes. Meyers tried on a Northface and looked like she was going to kindergarten! I think we will stick with Widgeon coats for a while:) Then we went to dinner since we have no food at home. Emery sitting in the high chair is a new thing around here. It was so cute to see them both sitting in a high chair on the same side of the table. We've never brought the Kindle in a restaurant for them to watch, but that turned out to be a great idea, and I didn't even care who was judging me for letting my 3 year old and 5 month old watch a video:) Emery was so good, but she was very loud! I ate quickly and then took her outside so we could stop disturbing the entire restaurant.

Beach Vacation 2012

We had soooooo much fun on vacation! So many funny things happened and many memories were made. Our sweet friend, Brooke, planned this trip for us (while in the middle of a cancer diagnosis, going through chemo and then radiation!) and it was just what we all needed. A perfect time for all of us to relax and spend time with great friends!

Our plans were to come home on Thursday because my parents could only watch the girls through then. Well.....something came up with work, and John needed to leave Wednesday. We worked it out where I could stay through Saturday with the rest of our group. I loved getting to spend more time at the beach and with our friends (especially Steph and Jon who flew in from DC), but I definitely missed John and was a little jealous that he got to get home and see the girls before me:)

Some things I want to remember:
- a fun night in Montgomery on the way to the beach.
- going to Wal Mart to get groceries the first night we were there and every line being at least 15 deep with people. It was like Black Friday or Christmas Eve - bananas! Needless to say, we did not get groceries there.
-getting rear ended on Front Beach Drive and spending three hours waiting for the police, insurance, and a tow truck.
-the rental car that they gave Brian - a minivan. All of us were parents and NONE of us own a minivan, but that is what we sported for two days while they fixed Brian's Cherokee.
-playing beach volleyball and the interesting characters that we met.
-seeing an 8 foot hammerhead shark that was caught the last night we were there just past the sand bar - the sand bar we had been swimming to all week long!

 

-singing karoke and hearing Jon Cleck sing the ENTIRE song "Rapper's Delight"
- eating STEAK sushi and loving it. I don't eat sushi, but this was so good!
-shopping and eating in Rosemary Beach and Seaside - such a fun night!
-eating outside at The Boatyard while listening to some guy that made it pretty far on The Voice sing. I didn't watch that show, but he was awesome!
- our mini drink coolers that Brooke made us.
- my dinner at J. Michael's - it was so yummy for this girl that doesn't eat seafood.
- Jamie getting so sick with a migraine that she had to go to the doctor at the beach:(
- playing Apples to Apples ( and winning!)
- pulling over on the side of the road to take a picture on a giant, red adirondack chair. For the record, I said not to pull over, but I'm so glad we did because it was hilarious! I need to get the final picture from Jamie.

Such an awesome trip!

Flashback Friday

 

Meyers - July 2010, 15 months old

"Reading"/pointing out Noah in her FAVORITE book!

Wordless Wednesday

PreVacation

John and I left today for our vacation. We decided to leave early and stay somewhere by ourselves before we meet everybody else in Panama City tomorrow. My sweet parents are staying at our house and watching the girls for us so that we can get some time away.

We are staying in downtown Montgomery, Alabama and it is adorable. Our hotel looks out over the river and is across from "The Alley" which is this cute little alley with restaurants and outdoor music. We ate at a place called Central, and it was so yummy that I wanted to lick my plate!

We already miss the girls so, but are enjoying this time to ourselves. It's taken us 3+ years to get away without children! I know it's important for us and our marriage and I'm so thankful for this opportunity to get away by ourselves and spend time with our friends!

Flashback Friday

Cruise with the Tillmans - July 2008

Oh my, we had so much fun! This was our first cruise and we decided that we are "cruise people". When we all went to dinner a couple of weeks ago, we started planning our next cruise with them for next summer! It's neat to see how much things have changed. They had Avery and Charlie was on the way (you can't even tell Jennifer is pregnant!) and we were in the beginning stages of talking about our future family. Apparently Jennifer wasn't the only one pregnant on our cruise:) I was shocked a month after we got home to find out I was pregnant, too!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

We went to the McGills for a 4th of July party. All of our time was spent in the pool and outside - that means I got no pictures:(

I took this one on the way home of Meyers in her patriotic dress (from last year - love that!) Emery is rear-facing behind me so I couldn't get one of her!

This was the first time Emery has been a pool (not including a baby one) and she did great! She was lounged back in her float taking it all in. Meyers did great in her puddle jumper and attempted to practice some of her new skills she learned at swimming lessons.

We had a great time with our friends. It's so neat to be friends with people for years and years and then watch how your lives evolve and grow with the addition of children. I love seeing all of our kids together while we get to spend time with each other! So sweet!

High Chair

Tonight was Emery's first time in a high chair at a restaurant - at 5 months and a week. We first put Meyers in a high chair when she was 7.5 months old! Emery definitely wants to be upright more than Meyers ever did. And Meyers would sit in her carseat at restaurants. So I guess that's the difference.

Since Emery is not in an infant carseat anymore, going out to eat has been pretty difficult. We either have to hold her the whole time or put her in the Mcclaren stroller, which she isn't always a fan of. It's a major ordeal! But tonight she sat in the high chair most of dinner and was pretty content. She was actually really good. She is very vocal so she got kind of loud towards the end of dinner, but she wasn't crying, just talking. So John held her after he was done eating so we didn't drive everyone around us crazy:)

I'm sure there will be days where she won't want to sit in there, but tonight was a (much-needed) reminder that things are going to get easier and that maybe Emery is settling down a little and that maybe we are finally finding our groove with two children:)

Oh, let's hope so:)!