Tales of Holiday Cheer, Volume 3 (and hopefully, last)

So, my aunt and uncle are in town, considering a move to Phoenix. I should point out that you have been acting out-of-sorts for at least a week now. We went to dinner and you hardly ate. You haven't been eating much with one freakish exception Monday night when you ate THREE bowls of spaghetti in a matter of minutes. Last evening, we were set to all go out to dinner together with the relatives. Grandma picked you up from daycare. I called on my way home to confirm the time and place of dinner when she notified me that you had a 102 fever and it was very possible our little family would not be joining in the dining festivities. I have a vicious cough myself or I might have gone to dinner and let Daddy watch you for a while. It's a darned good thing I didn't.

When I came home, I noticed you just looked sick, period. I settled in a bit and gave you some Motrin to fight the fever. We rested on the couch for a few minutes as I tried to get you comfy on me to sleep it off for a bit. You rested, but suddenly sat up and started scratching the right side of your chest below your arm. I've never seen you scratch. Curious, I peered through the armhole on your onesie... HIVES! I took you to your room and stripped you and found hives in various places all over your body. And your eyes were getting red. We called the nurse line and waited for a nurse to call us back. Of course, I jumped on the internet and checked webmd.com and askdrsears.com (latter much more helpful this time) for advice. All of it said Benadryl and wait it out.

By the time the on-call nurse called back and we'd already talked to Grandma Carol-Ann, your eyes were swelling, more and more all the time. We were told to call 911. Fortunately, we're closer to the hospital than an ambulance is to us, really, so we drove you there. You fell asleep in the car, sounding somewhat raspy (you always do when you sleep, though...), and by the time we got there your lips were swollen.

We waited for a nurse to see us in the PACKED standing-room ER, and when she did we were taken straight back to Triage. A thorough checking-out and confirmation that we'd done the right thing with both the Benadryl and the visit to ER, and we were shown to an observation room for a planned 4-6 hour observation wait. They gave you another Benadryl shot, and we got comfy and took turns holding you while you slept. But nothing really changed. About 3 hours later, we were told you were being admitted. You weren't responding and even though your breathing was fine, there was worry that could change.

That was last night. They finally got you in a room (with one chair - meaning only one parent could stay) around 11:30 p.m. I waited a while and we made our plans and I called Uncle Mason to come get me and bring me home.

Now I'm at work and thriving on no sleep and the occasional call from Daddy on your (lack of) progress. I'm racking my brain thinking of all the possibilities, but I just don't know. Nothing is changing and I worry.

So, in under two weeks, we've had crisis after crisis, ER after Urgent Care after ER. I've really frankly had enough. I'm ready for 2005.

We interrupt this dramatic tale for CHRISTMAS!

You LOVED it. What more can I say? You helped as the gift deliverer and present-opening assistant. You were spoiled miserably with the greatest toys I've seen a toddler get, and I was stunned by everyone's creativity and generosity. You are a very lucky little girl.

We managed to see all the grandparents in a 3-day spread, and everyone seemed happy with the time allotted them. It was tricky sorting it out where we still felt like we had some control and would be able to enjoy Christmas on our terms. Enough stressed-out Christmases taught us how critical good planning is. I had to compromise in a few places (i.e. going to a different church from my own for Christmas Eve services), and so did others. It worked out.

So, it truly was a joyous Christmas. I hope everyone else's was also.

Tales of Holiday Cheer, Volume 2

Our epic misfortune took another dramatic plunge last night, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

When we last left off, our heroine (a/k/a "Me") was lying prostrate on a bench and screaming. Well, I just couldn't sit up or stand. I would imagine this is what's called "throwing your back out." The muscles of my lower back were frozen in siezure and the pain was positively excrutiating. I couldn't see Joe or our car because there were several cars and trucks between us. One of the trucks was being worked on by a couple of guys, and I started yelling to them for help. Finally, one came over and I asked him to tell the man in the white station wagon that his wife is hurt and needs help. Wouldn't it figure? There were TWO white station wagons parked next to each other, BOTH with men sitting in them. So the guy starts yelling, "Hey someone's wife is hurt. She needs your help!" Joe quickly figured it was me, and came over. I don't think he grasped the enormity of the situation. Even now looking back I can completely understand his bewilderment. It's hard now to remember the pain. Honestly, I am pretty sure I was slipping into shock, so a lot of this is fuzzy.

Anyway, I asked him to pull the car around closer, and he took Ceili and put her in the car. I told him I couldn't sit up, definitely couldn't stand or walk, but somehow knew I HAD to get in the car. No way in hell does Wikieup have a hospital. Mostly I didn't understand what was happening and thought it might go away if I could just wait it out. Stupid me. He managed to get me sort of on my feet, with my arms around his neck and him supporting all of my weight. He put me in the car and I spent the next hour and a half moaning and shifting around trying not to be in agony. When we got to Kingman, a sizable town, I knew I'd had enough. We stopped at a convenience store and asked directions to the hospital.

Kingman Regional Medical Center was fairly slow when we got there, except for nine kids with RSV (great, and here we are with a toddler...). Because of the severity of my pain, they got me right in. I was shocky and nearly hyperventilating, which made me lose feeling in a few fingers, toes and limbs. In fact, my right hand seized uncontrollably when the blood pressure cuff tightened. The worst part was seeing Ceili see me in such pain. She didn't out-loud cry, but single little tears kept rolling down her cheek. How heartbreaking is that? I kept trying to tell her, "Mommy's okay. I just have an owie and the doctors are going to help me." I actually think that did help.

Anyway, to speed along, they gave me a Demerol shot (in my thigh, which incidentally STILL hurts almost 2 weeks later) and tried to discharge me, but my back was still seized tight. After a lovely bout of screaming and crying, they rolled me back in bed, gave me another Demerol shot and wheeled me in for x-rays. The x-rays allegedly appeared fine, the second shot took the sharpest edge off and the consensus was that we should head the 1.5 hour to Vegas instead of the 4 hours home (it was already after 7 p.m.). I should point out we were supposed to meet Scott and Jen at 3 p.m.

We got there, had to try two different pharmacies before being directed to "the 24 hour pharmacy" conveniently located... on the Strip. We navigated to the other end of the Strip and Joe went in to fill prescriptions for painkillers and muscle relaxers that weren't his. You can imagine the fun he had sorting all of that out with them. I'm sure the pharmacist was convinced he was a junkie or something. Anyway, we headed to Caesar's Palace which was to be our home for the next two nights, and Scott came up to help us all in. Miraculously, I was able to walk... slowly... through the casino to our rooms.

The next morning, I couldn't get out of bed. After a lot of stretching, I was able to stand and I was in the bathroom cleaning myself up a bit when I heard a "thud" and Joe saying, "Damn it, Ceili!" That's when the screaming began. (back to second person here - sorry for the verb switch) In hindsight we imagine you grabbed the clothes iron with two hands, one on the cord and your left on the iron plate. At the time, we couldn't figure out how you were hurt because we thought you'd pulled the iron down by just the cord. After a few minutes, your hand turned bright red and I was pretty sure you were burned. Security was called, first aid was applied and we were ushered off to Urgent Care just off the Strip.

Three hours later we left, your hand in a HUGE bandage, and headed to McDonald's for a happy meal. (Incidentally, I don't like McDonald's at ALL but you do. Whenever you have a traumatic experience, i.e. getting shots, etc., we treat you to McDonald's and it does wonders for your psyche. This time was no different).

It does no justice to Jen, Scott and Jackson to sum up the rest of the trip in a short summary, but I must (this has gotten long enough!). They were awesome, as always. Jackson is SOOOOOOOOO cute, and SO amazingly good, I was blown away. Jen and Scott were very patient with us. You have to remember, I am normally the driver not Joe. He gets lost and loses his patience quite easily. Even when he drives, I normally navigate. Not this time - remember I was stoned on painkillers?! So, we were late to everything, missed each other at meeting spots countless times and just generally were a pain in their asses the whole time. But it was still wonderful to see them, and we had a blast watching the Mirage volcano and our brief childless stint gambling across the street. We returned home on Wednesday worse for the wear, but partly cheered by the joy of seeing our friends, albeit briefly.

Tales of Holiday Cheer, Volume 1

So we last left off on Friday, 12/17. Ironically, that was the day that things started to become a bit challenging for us as a family. So we'll begin there...

Friday evening, Daddy became very sick. He started throwing up around midnight, and was off-and-on queasy and vomiting until morning, then just generaly malaise all day. I know how he felt that day because we were there for most of it. We weren't supposed to be, though. Since Daddy was too ill to go to Tucson for Uncle Chris's graduation, Grandma had the great idea that we should all (including you, me, Grandma and our friends Bruce and Brenda) go down in one car: Grandma's car. Just over halfway to Tucson, driving fast on a tight timeframe, you vomited. A lot. All over yourself and the car seat straps. I managed to stop the vomit tidal wave by holding a blanket to your chest, and we hightailed it to the nearest truck stop. A decision was made over my weak ojections that we should all just return home and not inflict further driving upon an obviously ill child. I held my breath for when I too would get this lovely affliction.

In fact, you never threw up again and I didn't become ill. By Sunday morning, everyone was feeling good enough to begin our journey to Vegas to see Jen, Scott and baby Jackson. Hurrah, we thought. Finally a break. Oh we were so wrong.

First, we got lost in town. How is this possible? We've both driven to Vegas a half-dozen times. Well, the west side is developing and changing more all the time. New freeways where there weren't even dirt roads before and no ability to see through the desert miles to the next major thoroughfare due to hundreds of new humongoid homes in the way. So, we got a bit lost. That was fairly easily remedied, and a half hour, two maps, directions from a nice lady in Walgreens and a few curse words later, we were on the right path. In the midst of course, we used up gasoline. That was a handy thing later as we were climbing a hill 30 miles outside of Wikieup, the next pisshole town on our way to Vegas and the happy gas meter had been glowing bright yellow for "EMPTY" for 10 miles already. Bless the Gas Gods, there was a "town" at the top of the hill called - I am not making this up - Nothing, AZ. Well Nothing has one single rickety gas pump. Thank God. We filled the tank about 1/2 full and headed on to Wikieup for our preplanned lunch and diaper-change pitstop.

So, on to Wikieup. Wikieup has a handful of houses, but the normal tourist will notice only the single grimy Texaco gas station with a built-in Subway counter. Many times have I stopped there for much-needed nourishment, and this time was no different. We filled the tank the rest of the way, and went in to fill our tummies. Nobody was starving after the previous day's vomiting fun, but we all ate a bit. Then we went out, put our drinks in the car and while daddy hung out to wait, I took you and the diaper bag back inside to find a changing table. Of course, the grimy Texaco-slash-Subway didn't have a changing table in the restroom. So we walked back to the car to grab your blanket and we headed to a nearby picnic table to change your diaper. I lifted you onto the table and suddenly something changed. I couldn't bend over to reach you. I sat down and managed to change you very quickly as within minutes the pain and spasms in my back increased to the point where I could no longer even sit. As I slid you down from the table and held on to your arm for dear life, I slid myself to lying on my back on the bench. And I screamed...

What an awesome community!

I'm truly awed by the awesome IVF/TTC/mothering/random others community. Tertia started the coordination to have a virtual baby shower for Julie's new baby Charlie. Well, she posted the links TODAY and I'd say the goodies are at least half bought. And we're talking a full page at Amazon.com and two pages at Target.com!

What an incredible thing, this whole Internet invention. The whole "bringing people together" cliche? Well, I guess it's true. Neat-o.

Oh, btw... probably no posts until at least late next week. We'll be in Vegas, baby. We'll be back on Wednesday, but I won't be back at work until Thursday, then out again until Monday. So if I forget to post before then - MERRY CHRISTMAS! May your days be filled with laughter and your tree be filled with "ornaments" (read: hair brush, stuffed doggies, hair ties, baby books, shoes) your silly toddler decides to place randomly amongst the branches. Enjoy!

Christmas pictures

We actually had three "official" Christmas pictures this year, but the most anyone got was two. So I figured I'd go ahead and post all three here for your enjoyment. Merry Christmas!

Fun stuff

So you're coming back to health after a surprise ear infection. Poor baby, you were just miserable for a couple of days. Fortunately we had that antibiotic bubble gum stuff from last month when your fever never spiked. So you've been getting that and we saved a trip to the Dr. It worked, too, thank God. You still have a cough, but hopefully that will subside soon. Last night you slept all night through in your own bed again, so that's huge progress. Sunday night I didn't even get 2 hours of sleep, and I doubt you got much more than that. You were pretty ill.

Before that, though, you've had some fun times. Let's see, what's happened since I last posted (12/1)? Hmmm... Well, on Saturday 12/4, we went to the APS Festival of Lights Parade down Central Avenue. It was a rainy miserable day, but we had SO much fun. Auntie Chelle went with us and we got pretty lucky with the weather for most of the parade. About 1/3 of it we had to have umbrellas, and the adults all got soaked by freezing umbrella drip-offs while we struggled to keep you covered. Come to think of it, this might have had something to do with your ear infection. But I digress...

Of course, we've done quite a bit of Christmas shopping in the last few weeks, too, and much of that weekend surrounded various shopping trips. I should say we've shopped a lot - but haven't bought a lot. You have quite a few presents under the tree already though. Speaking of the tree, we finally gave in to reality and put all the ornaments up high and out of your reach. You were starting to think it was really funny to pull an ornament off, run into a corner or behind the ottoman and hide until someone came to find and reprimand you. Yep, funny.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, I went on my first ever business trip, and first real trip without you on my own. I missed you terribly, but you got to spend some extra time with Daddy, Grandma and Uncle Chris. I think you actually liked that. You seemed very blase when I came home, like you hadn't even noticed I'd been gone. Little snot. :)

This past weekend, you got to see Santa Claus. Incidentally, you can say Santa Claus too which is pretty impressive IMHO. You didn't get to talk to him up close but you did yell over what you wanted when he was between kid visits. I'm hoping next week when we're in Vegas with Jen, Scott and Jackson maybe you and Jackson can visit Santa together.

Speaking of Vegas, I can't wait to go! This Saturday is Daddy's birthday, and we're also going to Tucson for Uncle Chris's graduation for his Master's degree. Then Sunday it's off to Vegas to see Auntie Jen, Uncle Scott and your someday fiance (no pressure!) Jackson. It's going to be SO much fun, I am beside myself with excitement. We haven't met Jackson yet, and now he's almost the age you were when you met Jen and Scott. It's been that long since we've seen them, too. Jackson's birthday is a few days after yours; you're almost exactly a year apart in age. That won't be much as you get older.

Anyway, that's the latest. I'm sure I'll have more soon. Honestly, you're changing so fast there's no way I can possibly keep up with it all. I'm stunned when I read or hear about what you should be doing at this age - it's almost always stuff you've been doing for ages. With your size and your advancement in so many areas, you really do seem much older than 2... and you're only 22 months. Such a big girl.

A face only a mother could love

I know I don't post many pictures, but I had to post this one. It's cropped to protect the innocent. By the way, this gaze - when directed at you - is known to inflict severe damage. It usually precedes an emphatic "NO!"