The cats are doing great. Even Zedd is adjusting better to having Morgan around. He actually comes down and hangs out while Morgan is awake. I also threw in a few photos of our neighbors dog, Sammy, who we watch from time to time. Sammy loves the kids and the kids love him.
October was a busy month for us. Not only did we have Morgan’s birthday, but there was other friends’ birthdays and of course, Halloween. The boys made out this year. Darrell’s work does a Trick-or-Treat at work where they decorate 3 floors and let the kids of employees come and wander and get candy. They got a bunch of candy and Edward was excited. Morgan just loved all the balloons and attention though he was a really cute little monkey. Edward went as Iron man again. Just before Halloween, we finally pulled out the pumpkins and got them carved. Edward was able to draw his own face and we helped him carve it. Morgan just loved gnawing on the chunks of pumpkin.
Our November was slammed with ups and downs. We did a lot of family stuff this month. We had a zoo trip and the first weekend brought snow. It was the earliest we had ever had snow. The boys loved it and Morgan was so mad when we had to bring him in because he was getting so cold.
Just before Thanksgiving, we got hit with more news. Morgan had fallen down and then bruises just started spreading all over his legs. We went in and found out that they felt he had low platelets, so we had to go over to Seattle Children’s Hospital to get some blood drawn. On our way to the hospital, we were rear ended at a stoplight. It was a bad day in general and things seemed fishy. I went ahead and filed with our insurance so they could figure it out. Unfortunately, they determined that it was going to cost more than the car was worth, so they totaled it. It became stressful to deal with, but after almost 6 weeks of back and forth, we finally got it all taken care of on our end. We have a salvage now, but at least the car is now paid off and all ours.
Morgan’s platelets ended up being really low. They want them to be around 150k, and Morgan’s were at 35k. So we had to do blood draws weekly until we saw what they were doing. After 4 weeks, his platelets came back up and we were back to good.
With Edward now in Preschool, he gets to do all sorts of different arts and crafts for the different holidays. These are the things he got to do for Thanksgiving. He also helped Mommy make the rolls for Thanksgiving.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we took off for Great Wolf Lodge for our first family vacation that was actually a vacation instead of a visit to family. We were excited to go and Edward was excited to practice his swimming. The first night was great and we spent some time at the waterpark and then we went down to the lodge area and watched the little clocktower show and while Morgan wasn’t interested, Edward loved it especially the “snow” that came down.
The next day, we did a little bit in the morning, but Morgan was a little out of it. I took him back to the room and let him take a long nap. Towards the end of his nap, his spiked a high fever and seized. It was scary being away from our house and having him sick. We called our pediatrician and they said to go ahead and just try to keep him cool, but we would be ok unless he had a second one in less than 24 hours. We called down to the front desk to see if they had a thermometer so we could take his temperature. They sent up the first aid guy and they were on top of things. It was nice to see that they were on top of things. So, I spent the whole second day in the room with Morgan trying to keep his fever down. I let Edward and Darrell wander around and see everything and play. Unfortunately, around dinner time, Morgan had another seizure, so we ended up at the local ER and they kept Morgan overnight giving him fluids and testing him to see if we can see why he had a fever and a seizure. While at the hospital, he started to get some spots and they were a little worried that maybe he had chicken pox. It was a very long night for all of us. We were finally released early with nothing except a noncommittal rash and possible UTI.
The next day, we got ourselves packed up and let Edward finish a couple things at the resort before we headed home. Edward had a blast even though we didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do. We promised him we would go back someday.
We had a followup appointment with our pediatrician the next day and got the information that he didn’t have a UTI, and it wasn’t just a random rash, but the beginnings of a full blown case of Hand Foot Mouth. It kicked off a couple weeks of back and forth illness in our house. The pediatrician also gave us a referral for a neurologist but the earliest appointment is the beginning of March, so we are waiting.
For Morgan’s first birthday, I planned on doing a little Lumberjack Theme. It just seemed fitting for a fall baby. I actually had started planning it the summer before he was even born. Darrell gave me a hard time about it. I made up some fun little mementos of his growing pictures from each month.
The biggest downside of the party was that because of his seizure the day before his birthday, we had to push the date of the party back a week. We still went out to celebrate on his birthday. Grandma had come up for his birthday, so we went out to Romano’s Macaroni Grill and then got him a little carrot spice cupcake with cream cheese frosting from a little stand in the mall. He loved the little cake.
Since we had to push the party back, a lot of people who were going to come didn’t end up making it. But overall, we had a great time and Morgan had a good time. The party turned out just like we wanted. I made a tree stump cake (with a plaid interior), a stack of pancakes cake, and a bear smash cake. For food, we did a big lumberjack breakfast. We had mini quiches, biscuits and gravy, sausages, and pancakes.
August:
September:
October:
Just before Morgan’s birthday, he started coming down with a light fever, so we gave him something cold to chew on and chalked it up to teething (he had a few teeth getting ready to come in). Unfortunately, he just got warmer, so Darrell gave him to me while he went upstairs to grab the thermometer and the tylenol. Morgan was somewhat non-responsive for a minute and just looked like he was zoning out and his breathing was really erratic. So we called the Nurse’s line and they told us to call 911. I have never had to call 911 before, so yay for new experiences??? Either way, the ambulances show up, and of course, he is acting fine and they can’t see anything wrong with him, but they still think we should go to the ER. No need for an ambulance, so we just put him in the car and go to the closest ER. After about 2 hours there, they did a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia and it came back clear, so they sent us home.
We got home, got the boys fed and in bed and then we hit the sack. Around midnight, Morgan woke up fussing, so we brought him into bed with us. He wasn’t warm, so we just cuddled and went back to sleep. Sometime around 2:30 or so, we woke up and Morgan was roasting. He was super hot to the touch and Darrell jumped up to get some tylenol and the thermometer. He tossed me a cool rag while he dosed up the tylenol and I put it on Morgan’s head. As soon as I touched his head, he started seizing and was just shaking and non responsive. I yelled to Darrell to call 911 again and after an agonizingly long 2 minutes, Morgan came out of the seizure and was starting to slowly respond to me. One of the ambulances that showed up that time was the same as the first time, so it was at least some familiar faces. They recommended another ER trip and since Edward was sleeping and we only have the one car, we got a quiet Ambulance ride to the ER. They did some more testing, but everything came back as just a febrile seizure, so they discussed how we needed to keep his temperature down and watch for spikes. After another 4-5 hours, we were on our way back home and had to stop and get some Motrin to go with the tylenol we had at home. Scary, scary, but at least we had an idea on what to do so we don’t freak out anymore. I didn’t freak out too much as I had a roommate in college who had seizures, so I had an idea on what to do, but having already lost a child, my brain immediately went to worse case scenario. So I just have to tell myself – breathe..
