Bennett’s 1st (and 2nd) ER / Hospital Visits

Over the last 4 months, Bennett has had about 5 times where he seemed to be wheezing / short of breath. Most of the time, they didn’t last very long, and they were always on the weekend so they didn’t get to the point where we felt like we needed to take him to the ER. On Thanksgiving, he seemed to be struggling all afternoon – probably from noon until we left Nate’s parents’ house at 8, so after debating all day, we decided we’d better take him to the ER on our way home. We were there about 2.5 hours and they gave him a breathing treatment with the nebulizer, gave us an unofficial asthma diagnosis, and send us home with an inhaler. He seemed much better after the treatment, and was ok on Friday – we did give him the inhaler a couple times but it seemed to help and he didn’t get too bad. Saturday was a different story though – he needed the inhaler when he first woke up, and it didn’t seem to help for very long – he was still wheezing and struggling to breathe. We decided to take him down to the instacare that afternoon, and they sent us over to the ER as soon as we got there. We spent about 3 hours in the ER before they decided he needed to be admitted overnight so they could watch him and make sure he was recovering. The one night turned into two and it was a pretty crazy weekend, but we survived. Nate unfortunately stayed with him the first night so I could take care of Ryan and he got little sleep – between the hourly breathing treatments, hourly vitals checks, Bennett throwing up all over Nate when they tried to give him some medicine, and them finally inserting an IV at 3am, it was a rough night. I stayed up there Sunday night so Nate could get some sleep before going to school on Monday and although I didn’t get a ton of sleep, it was way better.

Overall though, we felt like Bennett was well taken care of and they gave us some good information on how to hopefully keep it under control. Bennett was pretty brave through the whole thing – he wanted us to hold his hand when they were giving him the treatments or checking him, but after the first day & night, he seemed to be a pretty happy kid (he was lethargic all day Saturday) and had fun with the play-doh and Mr. Potato Heads the nurses brought him. When they first brought the play-doh he wanted me to make a ball and a basketball hoop and he spent hours shooting balls in the hoop. I thought he understood being sick and being at the hospital, but at one point I was filling out a survey and it said “does your child know why they are in the hospital” – so I asked Bennett, and he said “to shoot balls in the hoop”. Maybe he didn’t quite get it…

We were grateful for our visitors too – my sister & bro-in-law came to visit Saturday night, then brought us lunch and dinner on Sunday and Bryce helped Nate give Bennett a blessing. Nate’s mom drove all the way down on Sunday and helped entertain Bennett all afternoon. It was pretty sad to see little Bennett so sick and with tubes and monitors all over, but we’re grateful that he is doing better now and hopefully we can keep it under control! Here are a couple pics from the hospital (sorry – this turned into a long post!)

 

playing with grandma, and showing off his IV hand (he HATED the oxygen in his nose, but did surprisingly well with the IV).

Thanksgiving

I know I’m a ways behind, but life has been pretty crazy the last couple of weeks so I’m just getting around to posting this. We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving with Nate’s family. The food was delicious of course – I think stuffing is usually my favorite part of the meal – maybe because I don’t have it at any other time of year? We brought two different kinds of rolls and a fun turkey-shaped vegetable tray (which I originally saw the idea for on pinterest). The kids had fun with the turkey-shaped pinata, various iPhone games, and the trains and train tracks. It was a nice relaxing day, and fun to spend time together!

After a stop in the ER on the way home (more on that later…) I went out shopping from midnight until 5. I was tempted to quit and come home early because I was by myself and I didn’t feel very well, but I had to stick it out because I needed to get a bunch of poinsettias at Lowe’s at 5am for the ward Christmas party we were in charge of. Even though I was tired and not feeling well, it was still fun to get some good deals and get some of my Christmas shopping done.

Time Out for Morris Women

Last weekend, I got together with my mom, sisters, and sister-in-law (we missed you Liz!) for a “Time Out for Morris Women.” Three years ago, we went to Deseret Book’s TOFW and decided the next year to do our own version, so this was the third time we’ve gotten together. My mom and Stacey drove from Oregon Tuesday night so I got to spend a couple days with my mom while Stacey visited her family. We mostly did some shopping (some for Christmas gifts and some just for us :) and just hung out. Bennett loved having his grandma around and wanted to go with her wherever she went, and he wanted her to get him in and out of the car, etc. I was glad my mom at least took a few pictures because I didn’t think to. Stacey brought Kallie and Ethan down to my house for a little while on Friday, so the 2nd picture is Ethan and Ryan together.

Friday afternoon, we picked Camille up after she finished teaching for the day, then picked Jessica up at the airport and drove up to my Grandma’s house in Idaho Falls. I brought Ryan with me, but Bennett got to stay and have a fun weekend with Nate going to a BYU basketball game, getting his hair cut, going to lots of church meetings on Sunday, and just hanging out.

We had a great time together at Grandma’s.  We were worried about snow on the drive up there, and while it was a pain because it was snowing and we couldn’t see super well, it only stuck to the roads in one small section so we survived the drive. It was coooold up there! But we were inside most of the time so it wasn’t too bad. For our spiritual enlightenment this year, we each read a section of the new Relief Society book and shared what we had read.  There were some really good insights and it was fun to share them with each other. We also did quite a bit of crafting this year, which took up a lot of our day.  We made some fun toddler bags with activities for our little kids, which included lacing cards, pipe cleaner beading, a felt board, shape matching puzzles, popsicle stick puzzles, key matching, and number wheels. Bennett has already played with each of them and seems to really like them. We had each chosen one or two to bring the materials and do the prep work for, and we assembled and finished the projects there. We also made a Mayflower boat for a centerpiece for our Thanksgiving tables.  It was a bit of a project, but it seemed to pass quickly with all of us working together. My aunt and cousins stopped by for a while during the Mayflower-making process and kept commenting that they were just going to put a turkey on their Thanksgiving table. Good point :) They turned out pretty well though.  The kids (Kallie and Ethan, and Ryan) were all really good while we worked and enjoyed just hanging out and playing with all the fun toys in Grandma’s playroom. Grandma showed us all how to piece together a quilt, and showed us some good tips for making it easier and more efficient. It’s amazing to look through her quilt book and see all the quilts she and Grandpa, and for a long time, her sister and brother-in-law, made together!

    

Working on our kid kits, and Jess reading a story to Kallie

   

For some reason my pictures of the quilting lesson won’t upload…but here we are working on our Mayflowers, and one of Kallie and Ethan keeping themselves occupied reading books on the stairs.

and group shots after church on Sunday

Thanks for such a fun weekend! It was great to spend time all together, and my grandma was a great hostess and took good care of us. I love being able to have fun together and to learn from each other!

Halloween Festivities

A few days before Halloween, we went up to Gardner Village to see the witches. Bennett fell asleep on the drive, so he wasn’t as excited about them as I thought he would be, but he still had fun.

  

The Saturday before Halloween, Nate was out of town, so I decorated our trunk and took the kids to our ward’s trunk or treat. After going around and getting candy in his bag, Bennett raided the leftovers in our give-away-candy bucket – apparently he didn’t think he had enough. It was also funny to watch him pick out candy – any time there was a bowl of little candy bars, if they let him pick which one he wanted, he always picked out the Reese’s because they are orange (he doesn’t like chocolate and is “peanut intolerant”, so Nate and I have lots of Reese’s to eat).

    

And the final celebration – trick or treating on Halloween. We decided to go up to our old neighborhood because we figured it would be more fun for Nate and I since we know most of the people, and Bennett would get candy either way. It was fun to see people – between the houses we went to and seeing other people trick-or-treating, we were able to see a lot of our friends and neighbors. After spending hours making the boys’ costumes, I was glad you could at least tell what they were (although the mitt was a little questionable – that one was hard!). There were things I would do differently if I were to make them again, but I’m guessing I won’t have to make them again :)

 

Lee Farms in Portland – Pumpkin Patch Part IV

One of the days we were in Portland, we went to the Lee Farms pumpkin patch and used a groupon my mom had bought. The boys had fun looking at the animals, playing in the bounce house, driving the tractor, and going down the fun slides.

       

Landon; Bennett; Nate, Ryan & Bennett; and Jess & James going down the big slide. And the kids looking at the animals. Bennett was looking at the baby chicks and turned around and this huge dog was walking straight towards him – he was so scared! I would have been too – that dog was gigantic.

 

James petting the baby chicks, the boys on the hay bales and pumpkins, and driving the tractor.

The boys spent a long time in the bounce house and didn’t want to get out. By the time we finally convinced them to try something else, Bennett was sweaty because he had been running / jumping around so much. There was hardly anyone there when we went, so it was fun to have the place mostly to ourselves.

Fall in Portland

Right after Nate got back from his trip to LA, we left for Portland (he got back about 1am and we left the next morning). He had a week off of school to do internship recruiting, so we took advantage and spent a few days in Portland with my sister and her family, and Nate talked to a couple different companies there. We had a great trip – it was so fun to spend time with them and to see the kids play together. She has 3 boys and Bennett loved following them around. Landon even got him to eat peas because Bennett wanted to do everything Landon did.

Some of the highlights of the trip were going to the pumpkin patch (separate post to come), going shopping (Jess and the kids and I), walking along the river downtown, finding frogs in the yard, and going to the beautiful Rose Gardens so I could take some family photos for them. A few pictures from our trip:

reading books with Jess before naps, and James and Ryan playing together

 

walking along the river downtown – it was beautiful!

 

Davis watching Ryan – the cousins were all really cute to play with Ryan and just loved watching him. And here’s Bennett lining up all the Cars cars on the table

  

and our family (Ryan was there too, just in the stroller) downtown.

Thanks for a fun trip! After we got back, Bennett kept asking where Landon, Davis and James were – he must have had fun with them.