4 Months Old

I missed making Zane's 3 month post.  And it's already almost time for his 5 month post.  So, while Zane is taking a rare nap in his crib, I decided to whip out a quick update.  

We love this cute, sweet, boy SO much.  He is such a little piece of sunshine!  He is so happy.  He laughs all the time and smiles at everybody.  Zoe is his VERY favorite person.  The best part of his day is when Zoe gets home from school (that's the best part of Zoe's day too).  She plays with him all the time.  It's so sweet to watch!  

At his 4 month check up, Zane weighed 12.4 pounds (5th%) and was 24.75 inches tall (45%).  He has rolled over quite a few times from his stomach to back.  He loves to be held and LOVES to eat.  So I pretty much spend my entire day holding and feeding him.  When Zoe is home (or other kids are here) then he likes to be on the floor playing, but not when it's just the two of us.  He's rather be in my arms.  But seriously, I'd rather him be in my arms also!  

Here are some of the things we were up to in February:

Valentine's Day party at school.

Who is this strange person?!

Bedtime cuddles

He loves his Bumbo chair!

After school snack time

These two are so in love with each other.

Zoe is a blue belt!

Reading time!

Zoe and Grandpa at McDonald's

I'm 4 months old!

Update on Zoe

I have had quite a few people asking me how Zoe is doing.  First of all, I would like everybody to know how much Mike and I appreciate all of the concern, prayers, and offers to help.  We really really appreciate all of the support!

Zoe is doing much better now.  Thank goodness!

Sometime during the night between Wednesday and Thursday, Zoe's fever spiked up to 104.6 (this was higher than it had been at the school or in the ER).  I didn't know if I should take her back to the ER or not.  She was shivering quite a bit, but nothing like the episode at school.  I gave her Tylenol and rubbed a cool, wet cloth over her, and made her drink a lot of water.  This helped the fever and shivering go down.  Mike slept in her room with her that night and gave her a lot of much needed cuddles.

All throughout Thursday, her fever would get up into the high 103's and would only go down to the low 101's with medicine.  But other than being tired, she still didn't have symptoms of anything being wrong.

Early Friday morning the fever finally broke.  I took her to her pediatrician that day.  The doctor was concerned that even though she was on antibiotics, Zoe's fever was still so high on Thursday.  But she hasn't had a fever in just over 24 hours so I think we're in the clear now.  Her doctor strongly suggested that because Zoe's fevers can spike so high and so fast, from now on, even when she has a mild fever, I should go ahead and give her some Tylenol.  Just to help it not get up so high.  She suggested that I carry the medicine with me where ever I go.    

This is the third time since July that Zoe has had a UTI.  We will try to get it under control by helping Zoe to change some of her behaviors (she will hold her pee in as long as possible, argh).  If she continues to get UTI's often then we will have to go see a Urologist.

Mike had to go out of town on business Thursday morning and comes back tonight.  I am SO ready for him to be here so that I can finally get a moment detox, stop worrying so much, and to sleep! I can talk about it all by text or on the computer, but I'm still completely freaked out and just about cry whenever I talk about it in person. :)  I can't get the image of Zoe shaking on the school nurse's bed out of my mind.

There were a few tender mercies that happened on Wednesday that I'd like to point out.  First of all, Zane had gotten his 2 month immunization shots that morning and they made him tired.  So he fell asleep in the car while I was driving to the school to get in the carpool lane and stayed asleep all the way until after we had been in the ER for a while.  Hallelujah!  Also, Mike happened to be in between appointments and was already in the car driving nearby when he got the phone call.  He had been over in Ft. Worth just a couple of hours before that so it actually happened at a perfect time (he did have to cancel three appointments that afternoon and evening though!).  There was something else that I wanted to mention but I can't think of it any more.  Ha!  It will come to me in a bit.  :)

And finally, nothing to do with fevers or UTI's or ER's or ambulances:  USA!  USA!  USA!  (who else is watching the Olympics?!)

"I need you to come right now. We've called an ambulance."

I was at the school, sitting in the carpool line to pick up Zoe when I got the dreaded phone call.  I think it was the school secretary that called me.  When I answered the phone she started with, "I need you to come over right now.  We've called an ambulance."  What?!  

She quickly and briefly explained that Zoe had been in her class when she all of a sudden started to shake really bad (think really really bad shivers, almost convulsions) and she went stark white.  Her wonderful teacher saw it happen, grabbed her and rushed her to the nurse.  The nurse started taking Zoe's vitals and they were all off.  Specifically, her oxygen was really low (normal is around 99 and hers was at 82).  That's when they called the ambulance.  

I am so glad that I was already at the school.  I zipped over to a parking spot, grabbed Zane in the car seat, and ran into the school.  Some time during the parking and running, Mike called.  All he said was, "I'm on my way".  They had called him too.  As I was rushing into the school, I saw the secretary going from car to car telling them that they needed to move because an ambulance was coming.  An ambulance!  For MY DAUGHTER!  By the time I got into the school and saw Zoe, she was shaking SO bad, was so pale, her body was stiff (probably from the shaking), had a fever (103), and her vitals were still really off.

When I got to Zoe I wanted to lay down next to her so that she could feel my whole body protecting her.  I needed to do it.  But there wasn't any room on the bed.  So I got as close to her as I could so that she could sense me.  She was alert.  But she was kind of in freak out mode.  I kissed her and rubbed her back and held her hand.  A few minutes later, the shivering and shaking stopped and the vitals all returned to normal all of a sudden.  Just like that.  He fever was still almost 103 though.    

Then the paramedics got there.  Where was Mike?  I needed him so bad.  I knew he was close by though and would be there soon.  The paramedics were so nice and wonderful with Zoe.  They got her moved to the stretcher, out of the school, and into the back of the ambulance.  I will love these guys forever because they let me ride in the back of the ambulance with her.  Sometime during all of the getting onto the stretcher stuff Mike arrived.  He took Zane, and they followed the ambulance.

During the ambulance ride, Zoe was extremely tired and SO scared that she'd have to get a shot.  (she did have to get a shot once we got to the hospital and she did great!)   

By the time we arrived at the hospital, her vitals were normal still, except she still had a fever.  The doctor took blood ("lots and lots of sweet, sweet blood" (Zoe's words)), took a urine sample, did a chest x-ray, swabbed for the flu, poked and prodded to check for anything that could have caused such an episode.  

Well, it turned out to be a UTI (and it looks like she is a little bit anemic).    

It's so crazy how fast it all happened and that all of that happened for just a UTI!  She was just  fine when I sent her to school yesterday morning and she was not having any symptoms.  The doctor thinks that it was just kind of a perfect storm and that the infection got into her blood so fast, making her fever go up really fast and that's what caused all of the shaking and crazy vitals.  

Mike had called Phil and Viki at some point and they came rushing over and took care of Zane at the hospital for us.  And then they brought us dinner after we got home.  We are so blessed to have them living so close to us!

We were at the hospital for about 5 or 6 hours.  Zoe is still running a fever and sleepy but she is on medicine so hopefully she'll get better really quick!  

Thank goodness her teacher recognized that something was wrong and rushed her to the nurse.  And I'm so glad they called the ambulance.  It was so scary for me and Mike but Zoe thinks it was all pretty cool.  I'm sure she'll be excited to tell everybody about it all from her point of view (ambulance ride!  hospital visit!  got to eat a Popsicle in the hospital!  had her own TV in her hospital room!  got to see her skeleton on the computer!).  :)

I, on the other hand, hope that we never, ever, ever have to do this again!  

Viki snapped this picture sometime last night

Zane's Blessing

Zane was blessed on Sunday, February 2nd.  It was a beautiful blessing!  We had some family come in to town for it which made for a super fun weekend!  It was freezing and sleeting outside on Sunday so we all left the church at various times after the blessing to safely get to destinations.  So we never got a family picture taken.  Oh well!  I have a picture in my heart!

We got to spend Saturday morning with Nana Lynn.  Here are Zane and Mike chillin' at breakfast. 

 Nana Lynn and Zane.

 BFFs

 Zane did great during the blessing and only cried a bit towards the end.

 Me and my buddy.

 Grandma, Sophie, and Zoe

 Grandma, Zane, and Zoe

 Mom, Eddy, and Zane

 Mom and Zane

 Julia (6 months) and Zane playing together.  It was SO CUTE.

"Daddy loves me more than football"  

After everybody left, we had a nice quiet evening watching the super bowl.  

January Pictures

Here are some pictures we've taken this month.  This gets me all up-to-date now.  I'll try to be a lot better at posting.  I've had Zane in my lap nursing and sleeping all day while making these last few posts (except for the half hour that I put him down so that I could make some "Zoe is sick and needs cookies" cookies (he screamed the whole time)).  And Zoe is home sick today with a fever (she has been on the couch reading quietly for an hour and a half straight!).  It's a nice, quiet day for blogging!

 "Hey, who's this guy?!"

 "Oh!  It's Grandpa!"

 Night time play time with Daddy!  (not everybody was having fun though)

The first thing Zoe wants to do every day when she gets home from school is hold Zane.