Recovery

It has been just about a week since Sage's surgery and it has been exhausting! We knew the recovery would be difficult, but I don't think we were prepared for as difficult as it has been. Sage has taken medicine on a regular basis for acid reflux and has never really put up a fight, however, this past week of having to give her Lortab/ibprofin/amoxicillan has been one of the most challenging and heartbreaking parts of her recovery. As soon as she sees us open the cabinet with her medicine in it or if she even hears the word medicine she immediately starts crying and screaming, "no" and "way"(away-as in put it away). We physically have to hold her arms and legs down and hold her head and force her mouth open and hold her down until she swallows. She always gets so sad afterwards and just wants her blanket and to cuddle. To make it even worse, we are having to give her some medicine every 3 hours, even through the night. We have alarms set for midnight, 3 am and 6 am. It is so sad to wake her, but it is even more sad if we skip a dose of pain meds and she wakes up in pain. We know when she is hurting because she whimpers and holds her mouth closed tight and has drool running out of her mouth like a waterfall because she doesn't want to swallow. All the medicine upsets her stomach so she doesn't want to eat. Obviously if she didn't take her medicine on an empty stomach it would not upset her tummy as badly, but how do you explain that to an almost 2 year old? We have had to stretch our imaginations and creativity to try and come up with ways to get her to drink and eat. We got her a new Elmo/Abby Cadabby cup and at any given time you will find that cup along with a bottle of milk, bottle of water, bottle of juice, bottle of chocolate milk, her strawberry straw cup, her regular sippy cup, mommy's cup with the turquoise straw out for her to drink... We have been stocked up on pudding, applesauce, yogurt, ice-cream, sorbet, popsicles, mac and cheese, soup... we have got Sonic ice and icees for her. It is exhausting! Her schedule is so thrown off and she is just as exhausted. The timing of this has not been ideal, but we have loved and are soaking up all the extra hugs and snuggles.

Recent Happenings

I haven't been very good at blogging lately. My never ending to do list and last days of only having one child that I am trying to soak up are numbered and keeping me from sitting in front of the computer to blog. However, I do want to have some record of this time. I am growing more uncomfortable, which of course is to be expected. I have started going to the doctor every week. At my last appointment I was dilated to about a 2 and 60% effaced. Dr. Froerer scheduled me to be induced on February 8th if I don't go into labor before then. 16 days. If it wasn't for Taylor being sick with a bad cold and Sage's unexpected surgery, which is scheduled for next week, I would be walking the mall and trying every trick in the book like I did with Sage in hopes of going into labor today! Sage is scheduled to get her tonsils out on the 30th. I'm hoping for at least a few days with her before Harper makes her big debut. At Sage's 18 month check up her physician mentioned her tonsils were really large and asked if she snored, which she didn't. We didn't think too much of it until the last couple months her breathing at night and even during the day is really heavy. We chalked it up to her large tonsils and again didn't think twice about it. A couple week ago I noticed she had a lump on her neck so we took her in to the dr to get it checked out. It luckily was just a swollen lymph node, but the on call doctor we saw also mentioned her large tonsils. He asked if she has had frequent ear infections/colds which she really hasn't. We mentioned her heavy breathing and asked if there was anything to be concerned about with large tonsils and he said not unless she has frequent infections or sleep apnea. The last month or so we were thinking she was having night terrors because she wakes up so often throughout the night and is an extremely restless sleeper. We went home and researched sleep apnea and it sounded like we had found the answer we didn't know we were looking for. We contacted her primary physician who sent us to the ENT, who we visited this past week, who was not surprised that she would have sleep apnea with the size of her tonsils/adenoids which when her body is relaxed when sleeping block her airway. We have heard her heavy breathing, but never heard an apnea episode until a few nights ago when we paid closer attention knowing what we were listening for. Several times she went 15-20 seconds without breathing and then would take a big gasp of air. It really is scary. Although, it is not the best timing and there probably would never be a good time for this, we are grateful to know what is going on with her and are grateful we are able to get her the help she needs. We went to a pre-surgery prep class at the hospital tonight and Sage loved it. They gave her a little stuffed doll wearing a hospital gown and she got to play with some of the doctors equipment and walk around Primary Children's. I also got the chance to ask any questions and learn more about what to expect. It was really helpful. We find out the evening before what time she is scheduled for, but most likely will be first thing in the morning and she will be released the following morning. Our Harper will come when she is ready and it will work out whenever that'll be and we are thrilled to meet her. Hopefully we can all be healthy for her arrival though.

Twenty-Five

We celebrated Taylor's birthday this past weekend. Sage and I got him up with balloons and a couple presents. Michael & Mary watched Sage for us while went to see Hunger Games in the morning. Afterwards we came home and relaxed while Sage girl napped and then we went back to City Creek to look around and have some dinner. We wanted Sage to sing and have a cup cake with us so we were going to do it on Sunday, but Taylor woke up with the flu. Luckily it didn't hit him too hard and he was filling a lot better by the afternoon. We ended up singing and eating cupcakes Monday night. We love that man and are so glad he was born! He is perfect for us! We hope twenty-five is good to him! 

Daddy Daughter Day

I went to bed with a headache and a little stomach ache and then woke up sick with the flu in the middle of the night. When Sage heard my voice this morning as she had breakfast and played with Taylor, she went crazy for me. She banged on our bedroom door and kept yelling for me. I gave her kisses through the door and she made kissy sounds right back to me. When she got up from her nap Taylor got her dressed and even did her hair and the two of them ran to Target to get me some Sprite. Now they're off running an errand and picking themselves up some lunch. Taylor says they're having a daddy daughter day. I love it! I love watching them together. There is something special about a daddy daughter relationship and I know Taylor looks forward to many daddy daughter days to come! Sage sure loves her daddy and I love him too. He's so good to us!

Stubborn

We have had a crazy last week in our home. Towards the end of last week Taylor had some back pain from getting hit while playing basketball. Saturday morning he woke up in a lot of pain and realized he had a kidney stone. He has had several of them and knows what the symptoms are and the horrific pain. He went to the doctor and got checked out and some pain meds. He was feeling better without having to take them and even played in his basketball game Saturday evening. However, in the middle of the night he woke up in great pain and took some medicine. The medicine made him so sick and he was so dehydrated and couldn't keep anything down. Tony came over and gave him a blessing and took him to the ER. Thank goodness for good neighbors/friends that watched Sage for me so I could go be with him at the hospital. They got him hydrated, took some xrays and a scan and sent him home with some more pain meds, medicine for the nausea and a referral for a urologist.The xrays showed he has 4mm stone, which is not good. They also compared the scan with a scan they took in 2008 and there has not been any changes to his PKD. Monday he went to the urologist and they said he had a 50% chance of passing it on his own. He set an appointment up to have it blasted Tuesday, which he ended up canceling because he is not feeling any more pain. He is still not feeling great, but the pain is gone. We're hoping he passed it on his own and there is no more pain waiting ahead. Taylor has such a good attitude and sense of humor- even when he is in pain. He said he should start naming his kidney stones and that if he did this one would be named "Stubborn". He has lots of stones up there, so it is just a matter of time. I'm grateful this is his first one since we have been married and hope we don't have to experience them often. It is awful watching someone you love in pain.

This is Taylor pretending he is dead. Someone asked how he was doing and he said he just finished writing his obituary. Poor boy felt like he was really going to die. 

Sick Bug

Our little bug has been sick for the second time in her 10 month life. She got sick right after Halloween with a little stomach bug that only lasted a day, but this time she has been hit harder with a runny nose, cough, and a little fever on top of a little stomach bug. We took her to the doctor yesterday evening and we just have to let it run its course. She has also been tugging at her ear, which the doc said looked a little red, but not quite an ear infection yet. Hopefully it doesn't turn into one. In a couple days if it is still bothering her we can call the doctor and she said she would just call in an antibiotic. So, Sage and I have been hanging out at home. Neither of us even got dressed yesterday. It was a jammies day. This morning we at least changed into sweats.