Past Two Weeks

The past two weeks have been absolutely crazy in the Kirklin household.

About two weeks ago, this little guy turned 9 months. He is such a joy in our lives and I adore this precious little gift. As most mom's know, babies go in at 9 months for a well baby visit. The appointment was scheduled for Thursday, but the day before I noticed Nathan not being himself. He was super fussy, bad cough, bad runny nose, not interested in eating. He would only eat fruit and nurse that day. On Wednesday, I remember thinking that the timing of his cold was perfect since we were going in the next day, so if it was an ear infection or sinus infection, we could get something for it.
Thursday came and he felt really warm the morning of. We went to the appointment and when the doctor came to evaluate him, he checked his vitals (which is always a routine for a well baby visit). He asked me, "have you noticed him breathing really fast?" I hadn't. So Dr. D monitored him for a while and was counting his breaths. He then asked the nurse to come in and check his oxygen levels. The first time they were at 91 (100 is normal. I asked my mom, whose a nurse, and asked how bad 91 was and she said that they gave mom's oxygen at levels of 92). Since his levels were low, he said he wanted to do a breathing treatment in the office. So we had that done. That was exciting. N was screaming! Joseph was crying and telling me to take the mask off because Nathan didn't like it. The machine was SUPER loud, and C was in the corner dancing and singing. After the treatment, his levels were checked again and they had gone up to 95. We were then administered Albuterol, told to watch his breathing and if I didn't feel like his breathing was slowing down, I needed to call. Nathan was given his shot (which he didn't even squeak...I guess because, to him, it was nothing to having that mask on) and we went home. Nathan woke up from his first nap with a fever, still breathing rapidly and really fussy. He then took his second nap and woke up breathing really fast. I decided to call the Dr. office just to see how much longer they wanted me to monitor his breathing and they thought that he had been breathing to long at that pace, so they told us to make our way to the Texas Children's. After about 7 hours of being there, monitoring his breathing and given some treatments, we were okay to leave. (When we got there, his breaths were at 70/minute and they should be at 40/minute. ). The next couple of days were pretty tense and making sure he didn't start with the rapid breathing again.

Friday, we celebrated Poppy's birthday with some burgers on the grill.
Saturday morning I learned that I have to get glasses. Then that evening after picking up Christian from date night, he had a fever and super bad runny nose.
Sunday, we decided to keep everyone home to rest from the crazy couple of days and then Jeff started feeling bad. He ended up going to RediClinic and was told he had an upper respiratory virus.
Monday on the way home from work, Jeff was in a fender bender. His car was dented and scratched, but not much more than that. Joseph starts to get a bad cough and runny nose.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we pretty much stayed home trying to get well. I cloroxed, lysoled and cleaned like nobody's business.

Tuesday, we did managed to make a quick trip to the library so the boys could pick up their medals!
They each "read" 60 books this summer! Joseph was especially proud of his medal.

One of the reasons I was working so hard on getting the boys healthy was because Jeff and I had an over night trip planned to Galveston for a least 9 months. (Can you see the excitement in our faces?) We had an awesome time! We stayed at the San Luis in Galveston. We walked the strand Thursday evening and ate seafood. Then that evening we walked the beach and hung out at the hotel pool. Friday, we went to Schlitterbahn, which was a blast! My mama came down and kept all three boys.

This week has slowed down quite a bit....Thank the Lord!

This morning started off interesting with Joseph and Christian secretly eating and ENTIRE pint of Cookies and Cream Ice cream! I asked Jeff, hoping he had already eaten some and he said he hadn't touched it.

Today we went to Jeff's work to have lunch with him and so that the boys could ride the escalators as reward for C for his potty training. How's that going, you ask? Well, he is a one step forward, two step backwards trainee. One day he will be accident free. The next day, he will just poo in his pants. Then the next day, he will have four peeing accidents in a span of 45 minutes and poop in his pants. I can't figure him out!
And we have "using the potty"on our minds a lot lately, so much in fact, this conversation occurred between me and my 2 year old (the one we are trying to get to use the potty)

C: "jibberish, I die"

Me: "Christian, where do you go when you die?"

C: "The potty!"

(I ask him all day long, "where do you go poop?" and his response is, "THE POTTY!" He knows the answer, now it's just getting him to do it.)