Thursday, October 21, 2010
What We've Been Up to Lately
It's been a long time since I updated the blog. There hasn't been too much going on but there sure hasn't been a whole lot of nothing going on. We've been busy. I've been busy with Noel, trying to keep things as clean as possible since we are at my parents house, preparing primary lessons each week, and running errands. And Morgan has been busy with work, school, homework, preparing lessons for his church callings and helping with my parents outdoor projects.
He loves working outside! He's quite the handyman. Here's a picture of Morgan and my dad working on the house a couple weekends ago.
Noel has been working on her grin.
I say, "Smile Noel" and this is what I get. I love it. This picture was taken lastnight. She and my dad just got finished dancing. She absolutely loved dancing. I may add a video or two to the blog after this post.
Hanging out with dad.
Helping mom do the dishes.
Things Noel is doing right now
Noel says:
-Shasta - "Shasta"/"Sha-sha" (the name of my parents dog)
-More = "Mo" (She also signs it a lot as well and associates it with wanting more of a certain food. Usually cheese.)
-All done = "Aww-dun" (She used to sign this more but says it more than signs it now).
-Please = "Pwee" (She usually says it in a whisper and sometimes will sign it but doesn't understand what it means. She just knows it is associated with the word "more" which gets her more food:)
-Pretty = "Pritty" (She'll sometimes say this and it's usually as we are giving her a dress up necklace to play with.)
-Dance = "Dah-dah-dance" (she'll say this while dancing when there is music playing)
-Sock/s = "Saw" (When she see's socks on feet or off of feet and even her own, she'll say this)
-Light ="Yigh" (All time time, Noel will point to lights and now has learned to say it.)
Noel is crawling a lot to get around from place to place or she'll walk holding on to furniture or the wall. Recently, she has attempted to stand up on her own without pulling herself up a couple of times. She is growing so fast. She is really learning so much and loves to dance and be outside and look at animals. She is going to be 1 in a couple of weeks folks! I don't want her to grow up even though it's so fun watching her learn and grow. That's one of my favorite parts of being a mom but my ultimate favorite thing about being a mom is when Noel is happy. My philosophy (from my short experience of motherhood) is that there is no greater joy than knowing that your children are happy.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Going Private
Thursday, September 16, 2010
A few cute stories
A few days ago, Noel was crawling around on the kitchen floor. I picked her up at one point and saw that she was chewing on something and I said, “What do you have in your mouth?!” Noel instantly put both of her hands over her mouth so I couldn’t get it. My mom and I just laughed! She is getting quite the personality.
Story #2
A couple mornings ago, I was sitting with Noel in the family room and my mom and Morgan were about ready to go to work and Noel let out a really big toot. It was loud and long. We laughed and my mom asked Noel, “Do you feel better?” And, no joke, Noel said, “Yeh.”
Story #3
Yesterday Noel was getting into things that she shouldn’t be getting into so I tried to distract her by asking her, “Noel, where is your doggie?” Noel looks around, crawls into the other room and is out of sight for a minute or so. She rounds the corner dragging her little stuffed doggie. She is so smart! I love it!
Story #4
Lastnight after family prayer Morgan turned to Noel and said, "Noel, is it bedtime?" And Noel gave him a blow kiss.
She's 10 1/2 months old and we are just amazed how fast she is learning and growing. We just love our little Noel.
"Honey[s] we're home!"
Here are some pictures from the last week or so.
This is one of our furry friends that came to say goodbye before we moved. There was another buck that would visit often and he only had one side with antlers, we don't know what happened to the other side. We named him "Elliot" for all of those familiar with the 1st movie "Open Season". In my family growing up, on family vacations, we'd get a buck if we saw a buck. Where's my money dad?;)
Last friday night, we took a load to my parents. The car was absolutely stuffed with stuff... Noel and all.
This is our storage unit. There still is a section of space which is better than not having enough (which we thought was going to be the case because we have so much stuff! Even after only 2.5 years of being married!) Morgan was so tired and his back was so sore by the end of the day.
Noel playing with Grandpa's puppet.
Noel has this little grin now that she'll give you the majority of the time you look at her. I took some more with my parents camera and may post some more later. She is just too funny.
Friday, August 27, 2010
A sweet video
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Noel's Visit to the Emergency Room
Last Friday the 20th Noel started running a mild fever. We were thinking with her mild fever and runny nose that she was probably teething. Starting that night she would wake up frequently which we thought was because she had a lot of gas and abdominal pain and would arch her back a lot. She lost her appetite for solids completely over the weekend and would gag sometimes when I would try to nurse her and wouldn't take very many fluids if any. Sunday came along and I only had about 2 hours of sleep from the night before so I asked if Morgan would stay home from church and help me with her because through the night her temperature peaked at 102 and I needed some sleep. Sunday she just kept getting worse and we kept debating on whether or not to take her to the emergency room and finally around 3:30pm we decided to do so. We arrived around 4pm and waited 2 hrs for Triage and it's all pretty much a blur from that point on.
The Triage nurse took her rectal temperature and it was 104.2 and asked a bunch of questions and the doctor that came in shortly thereafter admitted her into one of the rooms in the emergency area. They were going to need to take a chest x-ray, blood test, urine sample and give her an IV. I couldn't be there for any of those things because I was already having a hard time and thankfully my parents were there as well as my in laws in the waiting area to be with Morgan and I and to support us. Thanks Mom and Dad and Mary and Gary for everything!!!
Morgan told me that they got blood from her arm but they said that the vein was going to "explode" (whatever that means, sounds real scary) and so they were trying to find a vein to put the IV in. They tried her wrist/hand area and that didn't work and then they found a vein in her poor little foot. They started her at 175 ml/hr of IV fluid. That's about 6 oz per hour. It took a few hours to get a urine sample out of her since she was so dehydrated. Even then it was too little of a sample and the nurses had to try to re-catheter her (previously they couldn't get it in there right) which didn't work again so they taped another urine bag to her in that area to catch some more urine. Morgan later told me she was bleeding a little bit from them trying to put the catheter in. I'm so glad I wasn't in there because I don't think I would've said very nice things to those nurses even though they were trying to help.
Through all this time I tried to hold her as much as I could. It was so hard to see Noel is the shape she was in. She was completely lethargic when she was awake and was asleep a lot. Towards the end of our stay at the emergency room I began to get really sick. I got the aches, the chills, and a fever and nausea which made it hard for me to hold my baby. The results eventually came back and they thought she had possibly pneumonia, a urinary tract infection, and a possible bacterial infection. Around 2am in the morning, they transferred us to a more quiet, private room and soon after said that they would be transferring us to the Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento via ambulance where there they have more specialized nurses and pediatricians for children under 2 and where they could monitor her through the night, etc.
Around 3:00am the ambulance took Noel and I to the hospital and Morgan met us there. Once we got to the hospital my nausea hit it's max and I'll just leave it at that. The nurse made a chair in Noel's room into a bed for me because I was feeling so sick. They monitored Noel through the night and Morgan took care of everything through the night and morning up until he had to leave at 4pm monday because he started school that day. Morgan was a trooper. He either slept sitting up with a pillow between him and the wall or leaned forward in his chair with his head against the back of another chair with a pillow in between...but that is when he got sleep, which was rare. He took care of his two sick girls and I'm so grateful for him and all that he did and does for our little family.
In the hospital they would take her vitals every 4 hrs and monday, they took another chest x-ray and it turned out that she had a very bad viral infection instead of pneumonia and a urinary tract infection and a bacterial infection. They stopped the antibiotics and monitored her monday night again and up through tuesday. She was discharged tuesday at 12:30pm or so. My mom came and picked Noel and I up and brought us home and stayed with Noel while I took a shower. Thanks mom again for that!
Noel is doing better. We just have to make sure she is hydrated, which is hard to do because she has diarrhea but seems to be doing better each day. She is happy to be out of the confines of the hospital and loves her freedom and independence. It was all a very scary experience but we are grateful that we are home and everyone is on the mend. I failed to mention Morgan also got sick for a couple of days starting monday but is feeling much better.
Thank you to those who have helped us in any way shape or form at this time. We love you all and appreciate everything!
Here is Morgan putting Noel to sleep on Sunday before going to the emergency room. The only way to console her was to put her on her back on our laps and push her knees up to her chest and massage her belly. She had a lot of abdominal pain and gas and that seemed to help at the time.
These are pictures from Sutter Memorial Hospital monday night. My parents were brilliant and brought their camera. Here is her little crib area she stayed in from 4am monday morning through Tuesday at 12:30pm. You can tell in these pictures she was on the mend.
Her IV in her poor little foot.
This was Tuesday morning. My dad brought me some breakfast and shot a few pictures. She looked even better this day, just sleepy looking because she just woke up.
Here is a picture I took just after she got home. She is such a wonderful blessing in our lives.
