More news on Sean

Sean came home from the hospital Monday evening after having had tons of grueling tests and lots of fluids pumped into him from an IV. Poor kid. He got this blanket and bear from the hospital and he loves them with all of his heart. (It is part of project Linus.) He's feeling a little better, but does not have much of an appetite. And he is sooo tired. all. the. time. He had a follow-up appointment on Tuesday, and they put him back on his medicine that he was on before while we wait to see a specialist at Children's.

I had an appointment set up for him on December 1st. That was the very soonest they had available. After I made the appointment, the P.A. from Sean's regular doctor "returned our phone call" about "not being able to control Sean's vomiting." I was like, um, he's in the E.R. right now. I told her about the appointment we already had set up with Children's and that they wouldn't move it up unless our provider called the doctor there and had a consultation. She told me she would get right on it. Well she is the one Jeremy had the follow-up appointment with the next day. We brought some additional symptoms to her attention, combined with some results from work done at the E.R., and she said she had never done a doctor to doctor consult with Children's before, but that she would call them and call us back that afternoon to let us know. Well she did. She also ordered additional lab work for Sean which we got done today.

We got a call today from Seattle Children's and they have scheduled us an appointment for November 3rd at 8:30am. Next week! Yay! So hopefully we will have some more answers then.

Here is something cute and sad all at the same time: Sean was showing me his owie on his arm (where the IV got put in), and he informed me that he "got it from the owie store." Took me a minute. OH, you mean the hospital! We do pay them quite a bit to give us owies.

Update on Seany

I'll spare you the gruesome details, but I'll just say that Sean has gotten much worse over the weekend. Basically his little body is eating itself to stay alive. He is currently in the E.R. being fed through an IV. He had some X-rays done on his stomach. Our doctor has referred us to Seattle Children's instead of Spokane in hopes of getting in much sooner. Currently the GI department is scheduling 4 to 5 WEEKS out. Without a direct doctor to doctor consultation, they won't move him up. So that's where we're at right now. Just waiting.

Please keep Sean in your prayers.

3 1/2 years ago. Is it just me or does this little guy spend more time here than he should?!

Worried.

Best buds

My little Sean drives me crazy. He makes me want to pull my hair out. Scream. Bang my head against the wall. Whatever. But I love him with all of my heart. And right now I'm so worried about him. And I'm in California, where I can't be with him.

This post is going to be full of TMI, so don't read it if you have a weak stomach. Just sayin'. Consider yourself forewarned.

Sean was born 3 weeks early. He was in NICU for a week and had to be on a ventilator because he couldn't breathe on his own. That doesn't have anything to do with anything I'm about to talk about except that I have always wondered if there weren't other things that weren't fully developed. For the first 4+ months of his life, I never changed any diapers on that child that weren't poopy. And I was changing him 8-10 times a day at least. During this time, he also would always throw up everything that he ate. And I mean projectile, out the nose, everything. I got used to carrying around spare blankets/outfits in my diaper bag for when he would lose it. Clean it up with a blanket, change his clothes and move on. Every. single. time. I was worried. When I took him into the doctor, he told me that he wasn't worried at all, that he would grow out of it, and he was still gaining weight, so he wasn't worried.

Well when he was about 18 months old, he was still going way more times a day than he should and he started having a puking problem again. About every other night at dinner, he would eat, and then just get this nauseated look on his face and lose it. After a month of this, I brought it up to the doctor, and he said “Oh, yeah. It looks like he has what’s going around.” I said, “does what’s going around last a month??” He said, a month? Uh, no. So he put him on an anti-nausea medicine that should also help things digest better. He was on this for a year. It seemed to help and he only had occasional episodes. Well after a year, he went off of it, and seemed to be doing just fine. That was a year ago.

So Sean had an appointment a month or so ago where they weighed him and he was 31 lbs. Which is not very much for a 3 ½ year old. He still is pooping 5+ times a day. Who does that?! I’ve been having the time of my life trying to potty train this child that will poop 5 times on the toilet, and still poop his pants in the same day. So a little over a week ago, he got on the scale, and was so excited to show me his weight. He was 29 lbs. This kid eats like crazy, is growing like a weed, and is losing weight?!? That worried me. Well a week ago, he threw up. So what, right? That’s going around right now. Then the next day he seemed fine. Then he threw up again. And the next day he was fine. And the next day he wasn’t. Very reminiscent of his problem before. And when I say ‘threw up’ I mean with all his heart and soul out both ends. He seemed on the mend, so I decided to go through with my trip to California. Well the night after I left, he got sick again. And he’s not getting any better. After the 4th or so episode of this, I finally agreed with Jeremy that he needed to take him into the doctor (I didn’t want to be one of those parents).

Well the doctor doesn’t think he has the flu or any other bug that is going around. Given his history, he said “I really don’t know what it is… and that’s what bothers me.” So he has referred us to a pediatric gastroenterologist in Spokane, who will run a bunch of tests and hopefully pinpoint what is wrong with my little boy and if he can fix it.

So that is what is going on. All you never wanted to know and more. But I am very worried about my son. Please don’t treat Sean like he is diseased. He is not contagious, he is just very sick.

Please pray for my son.

Randomness

1. Last night I sewed my own very cute bag. I have made/taught/planned to make so many of these cute bags that I have the pattern memorized. Seriously. It was just a travesty that I did not have one of my own. Well now I do, and I am in love! I think it is soooo cute. If I do say so myself. And I do.

up close

Isn't it so cute?! Well I think so. I was so excited to take it to church with me today! So anyway, it was about 1:30ish am and I was just putting the very finishing touch on my very cute bag when....

2. ...I heard Liah come out, go into the bathroom and totally lose it. And lose it. And lose it. Dang it! With Jeremy out of town, that meant no church for me. Sorry, cute bag, you will have to wait another day to go out. Super lame too, because my awesome neighbors invited us over for pancakes this morning, which I was super excited over, and I had to cancel on them too. :( Lame. Oh well, princess Liah enjoyed having her meals, however bland, served to her in bed on a cute little serving tray. Today's menu: Pedialyte, oatmeal and saltines. mmm... don't try to hide it, I know you're jealous.

3. I thought this was noisy cute! 1 piano, 6 hands. Such a cacophonous lovely trio! They were having loads of fun, anyway.

p.s. I did not style Emily's hair that way, she is jumping around psychoticly like the goofball that she is. Love that kid.

4. As I was looking through my pictures to find the ones for this post, I came across these and a couple more. I'm just guessing, but I'm pretty sure I know who got ahold of my camera at some point.

Emily was here

Have a great week!

Happy Blogiversary to me

Doesn't Liah look so cute in her new skirt suit?! I am so proud of it!


Yesterday was my one year anniversary of having my blog! (That's why the giveaway ended yesterday.) It has been so fun for me to get comments on my posts. It is the only thing that makes having a blog not impersonal. I appreciate every single comment that you take the time to leave. It really makes my day. I was so excited to get 45 comments on my giveaway post!!! Definitely a record for me.

Well I hate giveaways with 5 cazillion comments and one winner, so I decided to pick one winner for every 10 followers I have on my blog. With all of you that have followed or now follow my blog, that makes 3 winners.

I put the all the names (the appropriate amount of times) in Sean's hat, and Sean selected the three winners...

1. Christina! You were definitely destined to win my giveaway. Sean pulled both of your entries out!

2. Kate! I will be happy to make you a bag, but if you want to learn how, you could help me with it if you want!

3. Vanessa! Aren't you glad you figured out how to follow blogs?? That's the entry Sean pulled out! And so appropriate that you should win since you were the first one to leave me a comment on my blog a year ago when I started it!

Congratulations to the winners! And thank you to everyone who participated and for all the compliments on my projects! Winners email me and tell me what you want! jmeredith6830 at charter dot net. (or you can click on the contact me button at the top of my blog!)

100th post giveaway!!!

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

what's that?! You haven't even thought about it at all??... okay fine. Well here it goes anyway...

I'm so excited!!!

What I have up for grabs as a thank you to one of my wonderful readers is one thing sewn by me. Anything of your choice.

Maybe you want a dress for your little girl:

Or an outfit for your little boy:

Or a shirt for your daughter:

Or a skirt suit for your daughter: (shhh! Don't tell Liah, but I made her this for her birthday this Thursday. It has a matching purse!)

Or yourself: (It's hard to tell what it looks like, but I made the skirt and jacket I am wearing. plus bonus fun fact: here's Amy 25-30lbs heavier...)

Or some cute little shorts for your daughter (there is also a pants variation):

Or a Halloween costume for your child:

Or a bag for you: (hard to tell what it looks like, but other varieties are here and here... I didn't actually make those two, but I was the teacher!)

Or a cute apron:

Or a skirt for yourself, or a shirt, or a nursing cover, or..... whatever! The list goes on and on! These are just a few examples of things I have made. I have a huge pattern collection and of course fabrics and sizes are negotiable.

So how do you enter this fabulous giveaway??

There are 3 ways: (just to clarify, for certain people like my favorite sister, you don't have to do all three, these are just ways to get additional entries)

1. Leave me a comment here telling me which thing you are hoping to win! (this does not commit you if you change your mind)

2. Follow my blog, and leave a separate comment saying that you are a follower.

3. Blog about my giveaway and leave me a separate comment.

The giveaway will close at 11:59pm on Sunday, September 27th!

Now comment!!!

p.s. Facebook friends, I'm going to be selfish and ask that you come leave me a comment here on my blog. Here's the link: http://amymommyof4.blogspot.com/

Half-Marathon

My half-marathon was today, and I made it across the finish line in 2:29:38! Considering that I became a runner a mere 3 months ago, that's not too bad. It turns out that 13.1 miles is a really long way to run.

I've been so excited about my race, but Thursday night, I started freaking out a little bit. I was irrationally certain that something would happen to prevent me from running my race and all my work and training this summer would have been for nothing. i.e. I was worried I would break my leg an hour before the race, etc. I told you, irrational. I am happy to report though that I did not, and I can now claim "running a half-marathon" on my list of things I've done in life.

It was awesome to see my family waiting for me at the finish line and hear them screaming and freaking out/cheering me on when they saw me coming.

How did I celebrate this accomplishment? I went home and took a well-deserved 3 hour nap. :)

p.s. I know I look terrible in this picture, but give me a break, I did just run 13.1 miles.

p.p.s. Oh here is something funny: the second I crossed the finish line, my girls came up to me and said, and I quote "Mommy, I'm sooo thirsty! Can you get me a drink?!?" Um... YOU'RE thirsty?!? And a few minutes later, Emily told me that I needed to work out. LOL (I was stretching, and I think that is what she meant, but it was still hilarious)

p.p.p.s. This is my 99th post! Stay tuned for my 100th post giveaway!!!