2 months shots

Poor girl was finally feeling good and we weren't having to go to the doctor everyday but we had to get her 2 month shots done. We had to wait until 10 weeks since she was on antibiotics at 8 weeks. I gave her Tylenol before we went and I prepared for it to be a long day. Surprisingly, she handled it really well! She was sleepy but otherwise she seemed to handle it fine.

 

What, I have to get shots!?

Chunky thighs with band-aids.

Abby felt really bad for her baby sis!

2 Months Old!

I can't believe how the time has flown! You are getting so big already.

*You now almost exclusively nurse which is something that you couldn't figure out for the longest time.

*You love to lay under your play gym and look at your toys.

*You really like when people sing and talk to you.

*You fit into all your 3 month clothes.

*You weigh 11lbs

*You take a morning nap, afternoon nap a cat naps in the evening.

*You usually wake up at 12, 3 and 6am to eat.

*Caleb calls you sweets, Bryce likes to read to you and Abby is pretty sure you are the best dolly in the world.

Sick Again (part 2)

We followed up with Dr. David and he seemed to think that we had just encountered a streak of bad luck and that she had another virus. Thankfully, we didn't have to go through another spinal tap! I think it may have killed me to have to watch her go through that again. He sent us home with strict instructions to take her temp every 6 hours and call him with the results. He even gave us his personal cell phone. I guess you know that the doctor is pretty worried when he tells you to call his personal phone if you are worried at all. Poor baby! We gave her lots of extra snuggles.
On March 30, the day before she was suppose to get her 2 month shots she started running temps in the 100's again. Again, we notified Dr. David and he wanted to see her in his office right away. She had been pretty crabby the previous 24 hours and he just wanted to take a look at her again. Her cold symptoms seemed to be done but when he looked at her Right ear he said it looked terrible. Our poor children have all  gotten my genetics as far as ear infections go. Dr. David likes to be very thorough so when there was a tiny piece of wax in the way he held her down and dug it out. Poor baby was crying harder than I had ever heard her cry. It truly was a "I'm in pain" cry. He gave her Tylenol in the office and told me to stay until she calmed down. At least that is what I could hear him say over all the crying. I tried to get her to nurse, I held her, I walked around with her but nothing seemed to ease her pain. I felt helpless. Finally, she stopped crying so we headed home quick. On my way home I get a call from Dr. David asking why I left because he maybe still wanted to do blood work on her. I hadn't heard that over all the crying. He decided he could postpone it for now but wanted to see how the next 24 hours went.
We got a call from Dr. David daily for 4 days asking how she was doing and he wanted hospital like updates everyday. We started writing everything down because he wanted such detailed accounts of how each day went. The Amoxicillin started to take affect after about the first 24 hours and we had our happy baby back!
Whew, this little girl is giving us a run for our money!

Sick Again (March 24)

The day of the funeral Emerson was VERY sleepy! A couple people commented on how laid back of a baby she was and in the back of my mind I was thinking she was a little too laid back that day. We stayed at the Lutz's house the night after the funeral and when Emerson woke up in the middle of the night to eat she was HOT. I took her temperature because she had still been battling a little bit of a cold and I was paranoid about her being sick after the RSV hospitalization just a few weeks earlier. Sure enough she had a temperature of 101.6 which under 3 months any temperature over 100.4 they have to been seen in the Emergency Room for a sepsis work up. I called the NICU to see what they thought and they thought she probably should be seen so then I placed a call to the nurse on call line and she called our pediatrician who was on call. Dr David also recommended that she been seen in the ER. Now I had to make the decision to take her to the Norfolk ER or drive back to Lincoln in the middle of the night. I don't think Norfolk necessarily has a bad ER or hospital it was just the fact of if someone was going to have to do another spinal tap on her it was going to be a Dr that I knew and our pediatrician was going to be the one that was ordering it. I also was pretty sure that she was going to have to be admitted to the pediatrics unit until they had blood cultures that were negative for 48 hours and I didn't want to be in a different town than Robb if that happened.

I called Robb and talked to Bob and Susie and after some debating I made the call to pack up the girls at 1:30am and just drive back to Lincoln. Poor Abby was really upset about being woke up and put in a cold car. I think by the time we made it out of Norfolk I had promised her a stuffed animal, a pop and candy bar the next day just to keep her from throwing a complete fit and waking up Emerson. It was a long drive back to Lincoln by myself in the middle of the night especially since I was really nervous about Emerson and stopped multiple times to make sure she was still breathing. We made it back to Lincoln safe, dropped off Abby and headed to St. Elizabeth's ER.  

When we got there she still had a temp over 101 so we went through the same steps of having to have lab drawn, a urine culture taken and a respiratory panel done again. The poor girl was so wore out and tired of being poked! Luckily the lab work looked good, the respiratory panel was all negative and the urine was fine so we ended up getting to go home with instructions to follow up with Dr David in the morning. What a long night!

 

Funeral

Sylvia Wilson

May 21, 1921 - March 19, 2014

Mass of Christian Burial for Sylvia Wilson, age 92 of Neligh, Nebraska, will be 2:00 p.m. Monday, March 24, 2014, at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Verdigre, Nebraska. Reverend Kizito Okhuoya will be Celebrant, with burial to follow in the St. Peter Catholic Cemetery in Ewing, Nebraska.

Brockhaus Funeral Home of Creighton is in charge of arrangements.

Sylvia died Wednesday, March 19, 2014, at Alpine Village of Verdigre.

Sylvia Helen (Caulfield) (Cunningham) Wilson, daughter of Andrew and Hulda (Scofield) Caulfield, was born May 21, 1921, at Walnut, Nebraska. Sylvia grew up in the Pleasant Valley Community, between Walnut and Verdigre, where she attended rural school near the family home. In 1936, Sylvia was married to Joseph Cunningham at Neligh, Nebraska. The couple was blessed with three children: Barbara, Pat, and Joe. Sylvia and Joseph began their married lives on a farm north of O’Neill, Nebraska, where they raised many horses, and later moved to a farm east of O’Neill. After losing their farm home to a fire, Sylvia and Joseph moved to O’Neill, where they later built a new home of their own. While living in O’Neill, she worked at the Tri-State Poultry Plant, at the M&M Bakery and Café, and for several other restuarants. While Sylvia would have several different career roles during her lifetime, one particular profession would be a major part of her: food service. For many years, Sylvia operated the Slats Supper Club in O’Neill, just to the west of the junction of Highways 281 and 20 on the west end of town. After Joseph’s untimely passing, Sylvia moved to Norfolk, Nebraska, where she attended St. Joseph’s College of Beauty school, took nursing courses, and also earned her GED; a major accomplishment for a middle age mother in the 1960’s. In 1964, while living in Norfolk, Sylvia was married to Dale Wilson, a former resident of Clearwater, Nebraska. After their marriage, Sylvia and Dale moved to Neligh, Nebraska, where she was not only a homemaker, but also cared for her husband who battled the effects of post-polio syndrome the rest of his life. Sylvia and Dale had over 25 years of life together, until his passing in 1990. After Dale’s death, she remained in Neligh where she did volunteer work at the Neligh Nursing Center, and became a devoted full-time grandma. In her later years, due to changing health, Sylvia would go “full circle”, returning to her beloved homeland of west-central Knox County, taking up residence at Alpine Village of Verdigre, only a few miles northeast of where she grew up. At Alpine, Sylvia had many stories to tell of her childhood in the Verdigre/Walnut area, breaking and training horses, going on house calls with her father who was a “practical doctor” of the era, working in the outdoors, and her love for bowling. These stories gave her children insight into how colorful and life-loving their mother was, even in her younger years, and the residents of Alpine took much delight in making countless trips down “memory lane”, visiting with Sylvia. She also won the Alpine Spelling Bee, loved to visit with fellow residents and their families, and enjoyed the many live music events and dances at Alpine.

 

My great grandma Wilson passed away this week. I hadn't been to the nursing home to see her in quite a while and I feel guilty about this. She was always a funny and quirky person and the entire time I knew her she had a touch of dementia. She loved to tell you story after story that involved no one you knew. Once you started talking to her you didn't dare leave to go do anything else for the entire time you were there. Although we joke about some of the funny things she would say and do we all really loved her and more than anything I wish I would have known her in her younger days. I think she was probably a pretty determined woman with a lot of spunk. We will miss you grandma.

Abby, Emerson and I went up to Norfolk the night of March 23 and then rode with Steph to Verdigre for the funeral on Monday.

This was the first time that Grandma and Grandpa Walnofer got to meet Emerson.

Grandpa was a little nervous to hold her but he looks pretty good holding a baby.

 

 

Zoofari and Kindergarten sign up

Bryce and Caleb's class had been working on their Zoofari project for about a month now. I went into help in the classroom a couple times before Emerson was born and got the pleasure of helping them. They each picked an animal and they had to research this animal. They had multiple areas that they had to collect facts about ie. habitat, looks like, enemies, babies, and fun facts. They used library books and the Internet to collect their data. They then had to compile all these facts into a report. In art they then made a clay figurine of their animal and a habitat. It seemed like a really intense project for 1st graders to undertake but they all seemed to really enjoy it.

 

Caleb's animal was a hammerhead shark. He has been really into sharks lately and he said he picked a shark because he thought he could make that out of clay.

 

Bryce picked a lion. They both did a wonderful job on their projects. It was so fun to see all the hard work that all the kids had put into the projects.

After the projects were completed they invited all the parents in and we all walked around and they gave a little speech about their animal and its habitat. First grade is pretty advanced these days. I'm pretty sure I never had to give my first speech until junior high.

On the same day as zoofari was kindergarten registration. I feel bad because with the boys I was very on top of things. With Abby I had to fill out the forms there and I had completely forgotten to bring her birth certificate, immunization record and dental check up card. Oh well, she will get registered one way or another I just now have a list of stuff I have to get to the school over the summer. She didn't seem too excited about it. I think she is nervous and is going to miss hanging out with me everyday.

 

Our Future Kindergartner

Starting to Smile

Emerson in growing and changing everyday. We started to see the first smiles at about 6-7 weeks. She likes when the boys read to her and when people talk to her. She is a little hard to impress and most the time looks pretty serious but when you catch her in a good mood her smiles melt your heart.

Swimming Lessons

Bryce, Caleb and Abby all started swimming lessons this year at Larson Lifestyle Center again. They all learned so much last year that we decided to stick with the same place this year. I love that they get to do swimming lessons but the 2 days a week of lessons is really hard to keep up with. They have them Tues and Thurs at 5:30. We all went the first week but after attempting to keep Emerson happy in the observation room we decided that we probably should just take turns taking the kids. This year it was so refreshing to have all 3 kids go to their class without crying.
They all did great in swimming lessons! Abby seems much more comfortable in the water this year. She started learning to do sit dives and went off the board without any help. She also got much better at doing "arm pulls" or the arm movement part of swimming. Bryce and Caleb remembered most of the skills that they learned last year. They did great on their arm pulls and by the time the 6 weeks were over they were able to swim across the Olympic sized pool with only one rest in the middle. Both boys passed their class and if we would have decided to do the next set of classes they would have been in the class that does lap swimming the entire time. Neither Bryce nor Caleb were thrilled with the prospect of that but we had already decided that we weren't up for doing another 5 weeks anyway. Life got a little crazy and I never did get a picture of the kids swimming.

St. Patricks Day

Those sneaky Leprechauns visited our house again this year. The kids really look forward to this every year. Well, Bryce and Caleb look forward to it and Abby fears it a little bit but looks forward to the candy. All the kids were slightly worried after the tooth fairy fiasco that the Leprechauns would avoid our house too since Emerson is up in the middle of the night. Abby was slightly worried that the Leprechauns would walk off with her baby sister. Thankfully that didn't happen. They did leave messy footprints all over and candy for the kids. Oh and the kids favorite...they left a mess in the toilet.

Graduation

We officially graduated from Milkworks! We have been going to the lactation consultant there since we brought her home and truthfully after having to bottle feed and pump for the first 5 weeks I didn't think the breastfeeding thing was going to happen for us. But....Emmy had other plans and come 6 1/2 weeks it finally clicked. I was really hoping that we could get the nursing thing figured out because that had made my life so much easier with Abby and I enjoyed the time I got to spend with her. I am so  glad that we got it figured out. Robb was also pretty happy since he now gets to sleep through the night, since I just get up to feed you. The 6 weeks to get to this point were long and hard but I hope that it will be worth it for the next year. Good Job Emerson for finally figuring it out!

Teacher Conferences

Teacher conferences were during the week that Emerson was in the hospital. I was so bummed that I didn't get to go but I also didn't want to have to reschedule,so Robb and I talked about what questions we had and Robb went to conferences. Mrs. Williams had so many good things to say about Bryce and Caleb. We were so proud of them!
She said that Bryce is doing great in math and really seems to be "getting" it. He is also on target for reading at a first grade level and will be finishing the year at a 20 which is what he needs to be at for the start of 2nd grade. He also got a good report as far as being a good listener, having good work habits, being a good friend and being respectful.
Caleb got a great report also. Mrs. Williams said that she has enjoyed watching Caleb grow up so much this year. He is relying less and less on Bryce and really seems to be gaining confidence to be his own person. He graduated from the reading recovery program and his reading skills have improved tremendously. He tested out of reading level 16 so will either finish on target to start 2nd grade or will be really close. He also is doing well in math with a little extra explaining. We were very proud to hear that he too is respectful in the classroom and has great work ethic. The art teacher gave Caleb and A+ and said that he really seems to enjoy art. So, we might have a budding artist in our future.
When we asked Mrs. Williams what she thought of putting the boys together in the same classroom again next year she gave the answer that teachers are "suppose to give", since the district really recommends splitting siblings. After saying that, she also said that it was our decision and that they didn't cause any problem being in the same classroom. She has noticed that they really have become their own people this year and don't just stick together. So now Robb and I will have to decide what to do for next year.
Abby also had conferences but we did cancel hers and her teacher just typed up a letter with what she wanted to say. Abby got a great report also and her teacher feels like she is very ready for kindergarten next year. She is fun and outgoing and has made a lot of friends this year. She looks out for her friends and is respectful in the classroom. She can recognize most of her letters and can count to 20. She is wonderful at writing her name, in fact Robb and I joke that Abby "tags" things around the house by putting her name on everything.
I guess all the hard work of discipline and follow through is worth it when you have teachers tell you what a joy it is to have your kids in their classroom.

Spring Break (March 10-14)

Bryce and Caleb had spring break the week after Emerson got out of the hospital. The original plan (before Emerson's hospital stay) was that the kids were going to stay with the Lutz's for most of the week. However, after being at the hospital for 5 days and not seeing the big kids I didn't want to send them to Norfolk for the week. I really wanted Bryce, Caleb and Abby to have a fun Spring Break but I knew that it would be a challenge to do much with a baby. I did my best and I approached the days with the attitude of "I can do this and its now or never". Getting out of the house was our biggest challenge. Once we left the house we were okay. It was trying to get everyone, including myself ready, making sure Emerson had just eaten and that I had just pumped so we would have milk to take along. On Monday we attempted the park because it was beautiful out. I managed to cram all the bikes, a jogging stroller, 4 kids and myself into the van and we headed to the park. I called Robb to make sure that he could pick us up if things didn't pack up the way they went in.

The boys found this giant dirt mound and thought it was the perfect off road biking spot. They spent a lot of time there ramping clumps of dirt.

 

This is how Emerson spent the afternoon. She slept the entire 3 hours that we spent at the park.

Abby didn't try out the dirt mound but she had fun biking downhill on the bike path. However, when it came to biking uphill I got more of a workout than I have had in months! I was trying to push a jogging stroller and pull her on a bike. I'm sure we were a sight.

 

Tired, sleepy baby.

4 kids! Wow that's a lot of little people to be responsible for!

Tuesday: Abby had a play date all morning with her friend Norah and I chanced it and took the boys to the movie Peabody and Sherman. When we sat down with an infant the entire row of people behind us got up and moved. Emerson showed them! She slept the entire movie and didn't even make a peep.

Wednesday: We went to the library and got a lot of books.

Thursday: We did something but since I am writing the blog a month late I can't remember exactly what it is that we did.

Friday: We stayed home. I was exhausted but I think that they had a fun spring break.

Our Stay in the Hospital (March 4-7)

 

 

 

Poor little girl ended up needing oxygen the first night we were in the pediatric unit. Her oxygen saturation needed to be above 90% and she was consistently at 88% or lower. She had so many secretions that the nurses had to suction out her nose almost every time before she ate otherwise she would cough, choke and spit up. She continued to have a fever for the next 24 hours and her lab work still looked suspicious for another infection. This was all very worrisome for Robb and I but we have a great and overly cautious pediatrician, Dr David, so we knew she was in good hands.

 

Thankfully Susie was able to drop everything and come run our household for the week. We can't thank her enough for this! She took the boys to school, packed lunches, helped with homework and even managed to get them to clean their room. I think Abby got a bit spoiled by Grandma. She got to go to lunch, shopping and helped Grandma cook and bake. She had a great time. Robb and I really missed the kids though. The second night we were in the hospital we ate supper with the big kids while Grandma held Emerson in pediatrics. It was fun to see them but it made me feel even more guilty for being away from them.

 

 

The kids were really worried about their baby sister so we let them put masks on and go visit her for a couple minutes.

As the days ticked by the hours in the hospital got really long! I feel for parents that have a critically ill child and spend weeks and months in the hospital. I was going stir crazy after just a couple days. It didn't help that both Robb and I were very sleep deprived. We had great nurses, for the most part, but the hospital is not a place that you get much rest. It seemed like we would just get her fed and back to sleep in the middle of the night and they would need to do something with her. We also attempted to hold her upright in the chair for the most part so her oxygen saturations were better. She was also on an O2 monitor that would beep if her oxygen was low but it also beeped if you moved her wrong, she was upset or the probe wasn't perfectly on her toe. Needless to say, by day 2 we were ready to throw that thing out the window.

Steph came on Thursday and helped break up the monotony of my day. She brought with her lots of chocolate for me. Not that I needed more chocolate but she does know how to cheer me up. She took the big kids out to eat that evening after visiting with me in the hospital for the day.

Thankfully Thursday night Emerson was able to stay off her oxygen all night and we got the good news that we were cleared to go home.

A big thanks to everyone that helped us get through this rough week and thanks for all the thoughts, prayers and phone calls that we received!