Zane's saga in pictures...

 Decided to try to go ahead and get caught up on all the moments I have left undocumented. While my desire to account for every detail is there, the time is not and luckily there are pictures to fill in the gap, so here goes.....

Sunday morning November 4th, Conner woke up with a fever after being hoarse and snotty for a few days. I thought, "Well, here we go again" since Alaina had been at the doctor for croup the past Monday. So we stayed home from church, got him comfortable and it was mid morning that we noticed that Zane was warm. I guess as the third he tends to be an after thought, especially when there is another kid who is sick! I then noticed a few red dots on his feet. Again just thought it was a weird reaction, maybe to teething? (HA, how wrong was I?) Zane's first tooth had just broken through and he had also just gotten four immunizations the week before. Well, at bathtime that night we noticed this:

 

So, I then sent this email to family and all the nurse friends I knew:

"So last week Zane had what looked like a bug bite on one side of his face, large red dot (like below) and later that day another on the other cheek, one on his head and one on his hand. The one on his face and hand were pretty bad, in fact you can still see a scar like mark where it was. Well, yesterday I noticed a few and today we noticed his right ear was swollen and left foot was swollen and red as well as a few other dots. What the heck? Oh, and he has had a low grade fever for 24 hours. If we touch or move his ear or foot he cries, ear seems more sensitive than the foot. I think I am going to take him in in the morning to see what the heck is going on. I have checked his mattress and changed his sheets every other night.. I keep thinking they are bites, but last night he had on a footed sleeper an woke up with new red dots on the foot and leg(see below). What in the world????? (Pics don't' do it justice, foot is redder in person than the pics and the ear looks redder in the pics than it does in person. Side note, he is teething like crazy, soaking everything in drool and his first tooth broke through this past weekend. Oh, and he slept a LOT today, three naps 2+ hours.)"

So Sunday night we had a ROUGH night. Zane was up constantly, not eating good and fever was up to almost 101. I could tell he was hurting when I moved his legs too. So off we went, sick Conner, Zane and I to the pediatrician and saw Dr. Vining at sick clinic. Love, love, love our pediatrician. She was perplexed to say the least and sent us to the ER for blood cultures and antibiotics. The ER physician immediately said he needed to be kept for observation because although it could be a virus, it could also be bacterial. This was definitely the worst of the whole ordeal. I had to be with Zane while they held him down to be catheterized and an IV placed. All while he had a fever of 102.7. : ( Needless to say I lost it and my tears matched his. By noon, things were looking worse, like this....

  His left foot was hot and was developing cellulitis. You could tell that it hurt so bad. The spots were moving up his legs and getting more "angry" looking. They started IV antibiotics around 1pm.

 Once antibiotics were started and they gave him some tylenol, we were moved up to a room on the Children's ward. Cutest patient ever.

 Zane was pretty wiped out as were all of us and although holding him was what we all wanted, between the board on his arm for the IV and the five wires, it was a tangled mess. Breastfeeding him was a like a circus act! It was a blessing to see that he was responding to the antibiotics within 12 hours. He was getting lots of rest, although it seemed the minute he would fall asleep, another doctor would come in to examine him! We had the best nurse practitioner, Emily and the doctors, Dr. Honeycutt (introduced himself as Travis, love that), Dr. Adams and infectious disease legend, Dr. Ingram. You know your baby is sick when the elderly ID doctor says with bright eyes, "He was really infected!". That was a reaction to Zane's WBC count being 25,000 when the high range of normal is 15,000.

 By the next afternoon, Zane was MUCH better with fever down to 99.5, which really isn't a fever and even a little "bored". He got a visit from Nana, Papa, Ashley, Aunt Jen, Kim, Indy and Lauren. All who were sweet enough to bring snacks and treats for Mommy. : ) Even Alaina came to see Zane. Conner was all the while home from school for two days with croup. When it rains it pours, no?

 I sat in a rocker at bedside those two days and was at eye level whenever Zane would wake up. I love, love, love this picture. Not sure why, but it was a moment where he could look up, see me there and be comforted enough to not be worried about the strange environment or all the things attached to him. The look of "Mom, are we STILL here?"

 This was our set up for those two days. Amazing nurses and doctors at WakeMed. Really amazing.

By Wednesday morning, this was Zane's infected foot. 

What in the world would we do without antibiotics? 

You know, my kids have been sick with many a viruses and illnesses but never one that could have taken their life. This could have taken Zane's. So thankful that the bacteria never reached the bloodstream, which would have then infected his organs. So thankful that the pediatrician sent us over to the ER. So thankful for moments like this that make you treasure life all the more.

In the blink of an eye...

Time flies when you are having fun, but it also flies when you are a Mom of three fun or no fun! This month there have been some very fun moments, like Conner turning 9 on October 18th...

and some not so fun moments....like the 8 doctor visits we had within 14 days. Yep, all five of us were at some type of doctor in this two week span. More on that later....

I have felt so overwhelmed with "happenings" that I almost feel like I cannot catch up, however, seeing that is  really my only record of reality (lets face it, my memory of these times will not be accurate if I only use my brain), I figure something is better than nothing.

So....

Just to squeeze in a few moments from this month is better than nothing, right? RIGHT? 

Conner's last soccer game. I don't think the team won a game, but I also don't think Conner noticed. This is his fourth year playing and so far he loves every minute, well except practice, oh and sitting on the bench....so basically he just loves playing the game, just like at recess. : )

Table for five....Zane has graduated to sitting with us. Literally. We eat and he sucks on his fingers. I know you distracted by the incredibly healthy meal and fancy place settings. 

Yep, we caved. I hate that phrase "we caved", like we were beaten down and had no will power but to purchase a Wii. No, we did not cave, we DECIDED to get a Wii. More on that later. Not sure why it was such a big deal, but it was. Can you tell he likes it?

Please, someone tell me, how does a five year old learn to kick her hips out like that? Lord, help us. No, really, Lord help us for real. I cannot tell you how many outfits, hairdos and hip thrusts we see in a day. It must be innate since we completely restrict her TV viewing, right? More on this later....for now, I am off to pray for her future and mine.

The trifecta effect of birthdays....three of my most favorite people in the world. My sister in law, my son and my Mom. All October birthdays and as a family, we just combine them all into one party. Yep, that's how we roll.

Somebody is growing up and if you don't watch it and strap him in, he will arch himself right down to the floor.

Lastly...I continue on my endeavor to get ONE, just one picture of the kids where they each look halfway normal and are looking at the camera, but this, inevitably is what I end up with:

Seriously? What have they been smoking!? There was four of these pictures and this was the best. I'm not trying to be picky here, I would just like a memory where my kids do not look like they are high on something. Just sayin. I guess I will just keep trying. 

More on all this later since there are birthdays to report on, halloween pics to post and a certain unexpected hospital stay to document. For now, off to bed to soak up every ounce of rest I can get so we can wake up and do it all again tomorrow.