Croup, Baby Boy, & Music Clinic

There is much to report since last I wrote but I'm going to start with the time since we returned from up north which was Tuesday evening.  In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the household was fast asleep as it should be.  Suddenly, I heard some noises, which sounded like coughing coming out of Brady's monitor and for whatever reason, Duncan awoke with a start and jumped out of bed.  I say this as if it's an odd occurrence with Duncan because it is.  Usually when Brady makes noises during the night (this is rare since he got over his little waking up problem after we got back home after Christmas), I'm the one who wakes up and tends to him if he needs tending and Duncan doesn't stir.  (For the record, this doesn't bother me because I know Duncan has to go to work in the morning so I'm happy to be the one getting up).  Anyway, clearly a father's intuition was at work here because he ran dashing up the stairs yelling over his shoulder that something sounded different.  Sure enough, we get up there and Brady is basically gasping for breath.  He's trying to cough but it sounds horrible as if he can't get enough air in or out of us lungs.  I immediately got the nebulizer out and got him some albuteral which I had to run back downstairs to get out of our bathroom.  I literally felt like every second counted in this operation and I seriously contemplated whether we should be calling 911.  I finally got it all together and we got him hooked up and he didn't fight it all, fortunately, like he usually does.  It did seem to help but my pulse was still racing for a good little bit after that.  It is such a horrible feeling!  Later, we would find out that the albuteral had expired last August but apparently it helped enough.  After we had given him about three doses of it, I still thought we should take him to the ER just to get checked out.  There was no way I would be able to go back to sleep after that anyway.

The only problem with getting to the ER is that I couldn't find the my plug apparatus to go into the cigarette lighter so we could bring the nebulizer with us.  I was too scared to go the 12-minute drive without it.  Finally we figured that the manual nebulizer pump (like what people use for asthma) would be sufficient.  Duncan got the girls loaded into the van (with Aubree immediately starting to talk as if it was the middle of the day and she hadn't just awoken from a deep sleep) and off we went with me driving and Duncan holding Brady.  On the way to Florida Hospital Apopka, I called Elaine to see if she would meet us there to take the girls back home.  I felt really bad about waking her up because who wants to get a call in the middle of the night (by this time it was getting close to 5:00 but clearly it would still seem like the middle of the night to be getting a phone call)?  I just wasn't sure how long we would be there though, and of course, I didn't want to sit out in the car with the girls the whole time (they didn't even have shoes on so I wasn't about to bring them in).  

The ER was pretty empty.  Rejoice!  Within a few minutes they saw him and Duncan sent me a text that his temperature was 101 and his oxygenation level was 98.5 which was good.  A little bit later a respiratory therapist saw him and said his lungs sounded good.  The doctor then came in and pretty easily diagnosed him as having croup.  Croup is a virus that causes inflammation of the upper airways and honestly, up until maybe a few years ago, I thought of it as some old fashioned illness that nobody got any more like polio or something.  I think I got this from watching "Anne of Green Gables" and seeing a kid having it on there.  For the life of me, I don't ever remember anyone having croup in my family when we were little or hearing about it.  But as soon as he said croup, I did remember that Kaleb Z. had it and it was a pretty big ordeal for them.  Ahh, the beauties of having things written down in a blog.  I was able to bring Amy's blog up while we were waiting there in the room and read all about it.  And yup, it sounded very familiar except Kaleb had it much worse.  Just to be sure Brady didn't have any other issues going on, they did a swab for the flu (to which the doctor said it was much better he didn't have this with my being pregnant) and also a chest x-ray both which were negative.  The doctor said it was quite possible that he picked something up on the airplane even though it had only been like 12 hours.  It apparently it can affect someone that fast.  The doctor prescribed him prednisolone (steroid) to take over the next four days and then we were on our way.  All said, we were there about an hour and a half.  If I may brag about our hospital a little, it was a really great experience.  The doctor and the rest of the staff were really, really nice.  I don't know if this is because Duncan mentioned that he could take down their whole computer system or what but either way, we were very impressed!

Elaine had taken the girls back home and they had gone back to bed.  When we got home, we sent Elaine on our way with a hearty thanks and then Duncan, Brady, and I crawled into our bed to see if we could get in a few more winks.  But, it was pretty futile and we had to get up anyway because we had yet another doctor's appointment that morning...albeit for a much happier reason.  It was finally the day to discover whether baby # 4 was a boy or girl.  Since someone explained to me a certain theory about how you try and get a girl vs. a boy, I had decided firmly in my mind that it must be a girl and have been dying to find out if the theory was correct (please note, we were certainly not trying for a girl, since we weren't trying at all, but looking back, things occurred that this theory says would produce a girl).  Most importantly, though, we were looking forward to seeing the baby and making sure he/she was healthy.  Not a given since Shannon had a scare with her 20-week ultrasound although things worked out okay in the end.  

I dropped the kids off at Ron and Elaine's and met Duncan at the doctor.  We only waited about five minutes and I was called in.  This time I was prepared because with Brady, I was thinking they would tell me the sex at the end of the ultrasound and she totally surprised me by showing us right away.  This time, though, the baby was in a terrible position, sitting straight up so she couldn't see anything.  I turned on my side and she pushed and prodded me to no avail.  She went on to other things and said she would come back to it and I thought to myself, "There is no way I'm leaving here until we know."  About halfway through she announced she could tell the sex and I looked over and sure enough, there was a little appendage sticking out.  I was so thrilled!  To be clear, I absolutely love girls and would have been happy to have another one but it just works out so perfectly to have another boy...Brady will have a little friend and I don't have to try and figure out how to get all the girl clothes back from Maine.  The best news of it all was that everything looked great on the ultrasound.  Everything measured correctly and there were no apparent signs of Down's.  Yay!  Oh, and the kind of funny thing about all this is that Duncan is the youngest of five and his family goes girl-girl-boy-boy-boy.  We have mimicked the order of the first four of his family.  I had joked that if the fourth turned out to be a boy then we would just be missing Duncan from our family...but I don't think missing him enough that we want to go to five!

Meanwhile, when I got back to Ron and Elaine's, the girls were all excited to find out.  When I told them, they both chorused "We told you!"  And it's true.  They have insisted all along that it was a boy.  Their reasoning...Per Aubree, "Your belly is so big and boys are bigger than girls."  Per Calleigh: "We already have two girls so we needed a boy so that it would be two boys too."  Very sound reasoning!  Brady, meanwhile, is pretty oblivious and when you talk about a baby being in my belly, he starts pointing to his belly too as if he has one in there himself.

Thursday we went to Brady's doctor for a follow-up (although, in retrospect, I guess I should have done this three to five days after the ER visit per the discharge instructions but I had failed to read that until after I scheduled the appointment).  Everything checked out fine other than obviously still having croup.  This doc actually was doubtful he got it off the plane because it was that fast but of course, we were around lots of people up in Maine so it could have been from anywhere.  The interesting thing is that he said it's not that he was necessarily around someone else with croup.  The virus could act differently in each person.  So one person could get a cold from it, another something else, and another the croup. I didn't realize that.  I also had the doc look at Brady's eczema because sometimes he gets really bad outbreaks especially on the back of his knees where it gets especially red.  He prescribed him some steroid cream to put on it and said that as long as the eczema doesn't bother him (which it doesn't) then it's really not a big deal.

Yesterday we did our yard sales back over in the Winter Park/Casselberry area which made it three days in a row that I've been back in our old part of town.  Next week I'll be back there again.  Lots of driving!  Yard sales are still pitiful over here.  I found a bunch of easy read books for Calleigh that I was excited to find and then on our last stop, they had this big ride-on-horse, that Brady immediately was taken with as soon as he saw it out of the car window.  It was in excellent condition and I figured it would be quite expensive but the lady said it was $20.  I had my doubts on it because it was big and thought Duncan might not be a fan of how much room it would take up.  The lady saw my hesitation and said she would give it to me for $18.  When I counted how much money I had left, it was exactly $18 so I figured it was a sign!.  Sure enough, Duncan isn't thrilled but it can always go in Brady's new room (he will most likely be moving to the room adjacent to the girls and the baby will go in his old room).  

Okay, so that's pretty much it on things here at home since we've been back.  Now, let's backtrack.  The kids and I left on Wednesday (4/3) for Boston.  Yes, I was crazy enough to fly with just me and the kids.  I've had a number of people tell me that they can't believe I did that but honestly, it really wasn't that bad.  I don't think I would have done it if Brady was a year or less because he would be nursing and that presents a whole set of challenges but at 22 months, he can be entertained fairly well.  The girls are so easy because they have crafts and such that they work on and then we can always pull out a movie if need be.  They think it's so exciting to fly somewhere because we buy them something at the airport that they get to do on the plane.  And then there are the snacks too.

Leading up to departure was a real pain.  I got out our portable DVD player to take only to discover that I couldn't find the plug or car charger for it anywhere.  I pretty much tore apart the whole house and couldn't find it anywhere.  Very odd since we have about a thousand cords, plugs, charging devices, etc.  But none of them would work.  You would think it wouldn't be that hard to find a replacement but all the stores I went to, Target, Best Buy, and Radio Shack only had chargers for 9V and this is a 9.5V.  It looks like I could have ordered something on-line but this was Monday that I discovered it and we were leaving Wednesday morning.  Darn it!  I had my computer already that I planning to take but I figured that with three kids, I would need two devices.  As I was about to give up, Duncan, the voice of reason, suggested I just ask the Isidros if I they had a DVD player I could borrow.  They did and they said I could so problem solved.  Thank goodness! 

Everything went smoothly with the trip up.  We got to the airport a little more than two hours early but apparently flying on a Wednesday morning equates to a pretty vacant airport as we only waited about two minutes to get through security.  Actually, the interesting thing was that there were like 30 people in the line to do curbside for Southwest when we were checking in.  I was trying to figure out how I was logistically going to wait in line with six pieces of luggage (three extra bags of clothes I was taking up for Acadia) and three kids.  Duncan had to get to a meeting for work.  I asked one of the curbside guys if I could just leave the bags at the check-in while I waited in line and he said "I'll just help you know."  So I basically cut in line in front of all those people.  Works for me!  And yes, I gave him a generous tip.

Up at 6:00 am but all smiles.

As we rode over on the tram, we noticed a black case sitting next to the window.  I opened it up (although, in retrospect, should I have been worried there was a bomb in it or something since it was unattended luggage??) to discover a Nintendo DS, about 20 games and an iPod.  I felt so bad because I remember leaving all of our DVD's on the plane a few years ago and never getting them back.  There was no identification in it unfortunately.  When we got over to the terminal, naturally there is no Lost and Found over there so I had to just look for a random airport worker to give it too.  Is it bad that I feel skeptical that it would actually make it to the Lost and Found?  I hope I was wrong.

The flight was fine and Brady stayed pretty entertained with coloring and then about the last 45 minutes I put on a DVD.  My mom met us at the airport in Providence and we were all very happy to see her.  We spent the rest of the day at their house and then Thursday mid-morning we headed up in two cars (because my dad had to come back the next day) for Freeport, Maine.  The occasion was the Music Clinic which is a "clinic" put on by the academy age kids in the New England area at Pine Tree Academy (also the home to Northern New England Camp Meeting).  It's not like I flew up because I wanted to go to that so badly but rather, because all of my relatives come to it and it was a chance to see everyone in one place.  My aunt Sherrie and Jen are both teachers so they bring kids to it and then Aunt Toni and Rad were sponsors for some of the kids.  So everyone gathers there.  My mom had rented the same house we rented two years ago when we were there and it's just gorgeous, right on in inlet of the ocean.  There are four bedrooms and it was Shawn and his crew, my parents who had the girls sleep with them in one of the sitting rooms, Kelly, Steve and baby Caleb in another room, Brady and me, and then Aunt Lori and Uncle Charlie.   

Okay, could it get much prettier than that while you eat breakfast?

We had seen Caleb at Christmas since he was at our house for the day but Brady seemed to notice him for the first time and he was smitten with him.  So much for the theory that girls are primarily the ones that like babies.  He kept wanting to touch him and kept saying "Baby Ca-love" over and over again.  He would also say he wanted to "pet" him which is funny because that's what Aubree would call touching Brady.  Anyway, I take all this as positive signs about Brady's future brother.  

Caleb, 4 months old

The weekend was a really great time.  The highlight for the kids, of course, was getting to play with Camden and Acadia and seeing Mia who was part of the music clinic.  The weather was pretty good other than Sabbath when it was seriously like in the mid 30's and even colder with the wind chill.  That didn't stop the kids from playing outside and we had several good walks.  Aubree discovered peeling a birch tree for the first time and I could barely separate her from that task.   

Aubree loves her some Uncle Charlie

Of course, we had to make a trip to LL Bean to get a picture in front of the "big boot."

The four sisters and Ron Pelton.  This is the man who nearly died from carbon monoxide poisoning back in November.  An absolute living miracle!

Jen's three students that came for music clinic were really great with the kids on Sabbath afternoon after lunch.

A nice walk.  Not much traffic!

Brady playing with Aunt Sherrie.  He was quite taken with her and would constantly call out "SHERRIE!  SHERRIE!" to get her attention.

The "twins" Westin and Caleb born six days apart.  

The cousins minus Zasha, Luccia, and Westin (who was sleeping).  

Circa two years ago and a few less cousins.

Shawn took this and I love it except that he happens to be holding the marker in his right hand.  He is NOT right handed!

I didn't actually attend any of the music clinic events which were each evening except for regular Sabbath service.  That did prove to be a little bit of a problem.  It was in the gym and after about 20 minutes, Brady got rambunctious so I had to take him out.  I only grabbed my cell phone because I didn't want to lug my bag with me.  Not a wise idea, it turned out.  After about 10 minutes of sitting out in the hall, I smelled something and yup, sure enough, Brady decided to do a #2.  As I said, I had nothing with me so I had to text my mother to please bring me a diaper and wipes.  She sent Rad out with it and I headed to the bathroom only to discover it was a major doozy and had leaked all down the inside of his pants.  I'm pretty sure there are about four teenage girls who have decided not to have kids after witnessing all of this.  So...not only did I not have my diaper bag with me but I didn't even have a second set of pants in my bag. I had to send yet another text to my mother to please come and get me and take me back to the house because obviously Brady wasn't going to stay there without any pants.  Rad came again and we rushed outside with Brady's lower half bundled up in my sweater as the girls and I raced to the car.  Whew!  That was fun.

Sunday morning the whole crew went out to breakfast and then we went back to the house to pack up and head out.  I dropped my mom off at a restaurant because the church was having a fundraiser banquet so the kids and I were on our own for a few hours.  We stopped at the South Shore Plaza for them to play in the playground there and I swear, you would have thought it was Christmas.  The place was packed.  The kids had a fun time although we did witness another mother yelling in another mother's face telling her that nobody talks to her son but her.  The other mother had told the boy to stop running which he really did need to stop because there were bigger kids running all over the place and I knew it was only a matter of time before some smaller kid got hurt.  And yes, the hurt kid ended up being mine.  Poor Aubree got run over and she ran to me bawling.  Unfortunately I didn't see it happen so I couldn't address it with any kid or mother.  Thankfully Aubree was okay but we decided that was our cue to leave.  

Saying good-bye to Westin

Monday we spent the morning with my dad going to a playground and to Bass Pro Shop.  Monday evening we had been hoping to go to the Bruins game but with tickets at least $65 each, we decided not to spend the money.  Back in the day (when they stunk) we could go for like $20 but apparently those days are over. Instead, when my mom got home from work we went over to the Rondinellis so Calleigh could play with her pal Bruno.  We played kickball, rode scooters, did the teeter totter, etc.  Calleigh loves times with Bruno, that is for sure.  Later, when we were at the airport she told me she would marry Bruno so that they could ride scooters forever.  Meanwhile, the Bruins won the game 6-2 in an exciting high goal scoring game (a rarity for them) so it was nice to know that we would have had a good time had we gone!

Playing basketball with Papa.  She later proclaimed this to be her favorite thing she did on the trip.

Brady was obsessed with the airplane swing.

Tuesday our flight on Delta left Boston at 2:18 (not 2:15, mind you).  Delta has an awesome playground in their terminal so we spent a good 45 minutes in there before boarding the plane and Brady was running all over the place like a wild man.  It most definitely paid off because he ended up sleeping for about two thirds of the flight which was SO nice.  I was sitting in the aisle seat and his bare feet were poking out a little into the aisle and the drink/snack cart probably brushed them a half dozen times but he didn't even stir.  One funny thing about flying to Orlando is that about every employee and a bunch of other people will see the kids and say to them "Have fun at Disney!"  And I restrain myself from saying "Stick a needle in my eyeball" and just smile and say politely, "We are actually just going home."  It was sure nice to get home and especially, see Daddy.  

Riding the tram back to the main terminal in Orlando.

Duncan had some surprises for us upon our return.  I knew that he was going to be working on some house projects while we were gone but I didn't know exactly what.  He first took me into our bedroom where he had gotten two chairs and a table to put in front of our set of windows.  He had also gotten a piece of art to hang over our bed and also two pieces for the wall.  I told him I felt like my room was in a model home...it just had that feeling to it.  I don't think I'm used to having chairs in my bedroom!  Then, the big thing is that in our upstairs living room he installed a projector and put a screen up on the wall which is 106 inches.  So basically we feel like we are in a movie theater.  Should make for good football viewing when the season starts.  The kids are also very excited about it (although, I don't think for football viewing).  Okay, unfortunately I don't have any pictures of these items at the moment.

I know there is a bunch of stuff, I'm sure, that went on the week before we left for Boston but only two things stand out.  The first thing is that we had my cousin Jamie visit us on Sabbath, 3/30.  He's my dad's brother Ken's son and he lives in New Brunswick, Canada.  He lost most of the use of his legs in a bad truck accident back in 2006 and has had to use a wheelchair since then.  A few years ago he got into racing with his wheelchair and now travels across Canada, and soon other parts of the world, competing.  His next goal is to be in the Para Olympics in Rio in 2016.  His team spent a week down here practicing at Disney's Wide World of Sports and on his off day I drove down and picked him up so we could spend some time with him.  

The kids only stared a little bit and whispered a few questions about him in my ear.  We really enjoyed his visit and it was neat to get a perspective on things from a non able-bodied person (those of us without a handicap are called able-bodied).  One thing I thought was fascinating is that there are blind people that actually compete in running.  They just have to have someone who can see next to them telling them what to do.  Never knew that.

Brady loved playing catch with Jamie.

Aunt Wanda popped over to visit too.

The other big thing is that it was Easter and we had a full day.  Our first activity was brunch and an egg hunt at the Gregory's as has been our tradition for about the last five years.  The Isidros, Bergherms, and Aunt Wanda joined us and we seriously stuffed our bellies and then some on all the good food.  The egg hunt went swell with Brady, of course, being old enough this year to participate.  He's a little slower than his counterparts but it doesn't seem to bother him.

An egg shaped like a sippy cup.  Wow!

After a trip home for a quick nap for Brady and get the next round of food and eggs ready, we were back out again to the Hilliards to attend their big Easter shindig.  This time Jennifer was co-hosting which meant we got to take advantage of eating all her goodies...some of which we gladly took home.  As we were getting ready to go through the line to eat, a lady I didn't know approached me and said she had a huge favor...if there was any way my husband would dress up as the Easter Bunny.  She had just asked someone else who said 'no' and she was getting desperate.  I just knew Duncan would want to be a good sport so I said 'yes' on his behalf.  Well, needless to say, he was not happy AT ALL with my saying yes to her request but he did go along with it.  For whatever reason, bigger kids do not treat the Easter Bunny well and Duncan almost suffered significant injury by a few of them "attacking" him but then Bruce stepped in and basically was his body guard for the rest of the time.  Brady naturally was freaked out so we took him aside and Duncan took off the head for a second so he could see it was Daddy.  He still panicked later on even though we kept assuring him it was just Daddy.  We had to say this very quietly, mind you, because a bunch of the kids there believed the Easter Bunny was real and we didn't want to ruin it for them.  At one point, Brady was crying and Bruce picked him and held him.  For about the next week, Brady would keep talking about the Easter Bunny repeatedly and he would always say "Jennifer hold me."  Apparently in his fear he thought Jennifer was holding him instead of Bruce.  

They got their faces painted...with a shark...which is why I think Calleigh is trying to have a mean face.

Another chance to get some eggs.

Not happy.

Not everyone was scared of the bunny.

In fact, some were euphoric.

Okay, I will end here.  I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend.  Here are a few closing random pictures...

Should I be worried?

What about now?

Thursday afternoon we brought out the kiddie pool for the first time.  Happy to be back in warm temps!

Thursday evening they went in the community pool for the first time.  Duncan thought it was a bit chilly but they didn't seem to mind!