Lia and her dad, nineteen-seventy-something

Calle [5/26/05]

Bad hair day! AND...
sad teething day! BUT...
still cute as ever!

Christian [5/26/05]

Christian is too cool in his new Elmo sunglasses... or rather his "gwasses".

Calle & Christian on Cinco de Mayo

What a fiesta!

Bring out the sun!

Is it summer yet? I finally had to start getting my sprinkler system fired up after this very wet spring. We're excited to get summer underway and hopefully get outdoors a little more often. We can't believe how long the RSV season is lasting – Calle and Christian had Synagis shots in May! Isn't that unheard of?

Christian is all over the place these days. He can walk, but he usually needs some encouragement to do so. When he really wants to get something done, he drops and crawls. He's interested in everything that is happening, and he enjoys going to Home Depot (“the man store” according to Lia). Lia bought him some Elmo sunglasses, and he thinks he is so “suave” when he's wearing them. I'll get Lia to put up a picture.

Calle has the best hair! We can't believe how fast it grows. We'll get some pictures up soon. She is getting pretty big for her bouncy chair, and when she gets it bouncing now I think we can hear it starting to groan. She loves to stand and sit and plays with a variety of toys, but her favorite seems to be the remote control for the TV.

We're back in the saddle...

Calle and Christian have both successfully navigated their illness, and we're mostly back to full strength. Christian is starting to walk a bit now. He'll take short strolls between Lia and me, and occasionally he'll walk between objects, such as a chair and the couch. Most of the time he finds it is more efficient to just drop down and crawl!

Calle is talking a lot lately, and while the therapists are having limited success in getting her to taste foods, I catch her tasting the TV remote and other "delicacies" that I certainly wouldn't put in my mouth. I suppose any progress is good progress, right?

Lia finally settled on a sewing machine. Her $119 Singer sewing machine that she's had for years and years finally had a problem that was going to require more than its value to fix, so she's been researching a new machine. We've both learned a lot and she finally settled on a Bernina Activa 220. The machine comes with some training classes, so hopefully she'll be able to take full advantage of it's capabilities.

Oh no, not again!

Well, just as Calle is feeling better and needing less oxygen, Christian appears to have come down with the bug. He was really working to breathe yesterday and last night, and Lia took him to see the doctor this morning. He had a couple of Albuterol treatments at the doctor’s office, but his oxygen saturation was still borderline. He hasn’t been eating well, and if his situation deteriorates any more we may find ourselves as guests again at the PCMC hotel.

Home from the hospital

Well, after three days in the hospital, Calle came home on oxygen on Saturday night (April 9). It’s weird to have oxygen tanks in the house again, and the 50ft tube tangling around everything. But it is so good to have Calle and Lia home!

Calle seems to be on the rebound. We still have her hooked up to the pulse-oximeter at night (her saturation is always worse when she sleeps) and she’s on a lower flow of oxygen than she was when she left the hospital, so that is a definite sign of improvement.

We did notice that Christian is having a little runny nose today, and we’re hoping and praying that its nothing more that that…

Adventures with RSV

Sunday evening (April 3) we noticed that Calle didn't seem to be feeling well. She didn't sleep well that night, and Monday she was quite miserable. Monday night she didn't sleep well either, and Lia took her in to the doctor on Tuesday. She was diagnosed with bronchiolitis and we started her on Albuterol nebulizer treatments.

Wednesday was our regularly scheduled appointment to get Synagis, and so we had them both in to the doctors office. At that time Calle was still pretty ill, and we were advised to monitor her with a pulse-oximeter (which we already have from when the kids first came home from the NICU). We set her up that night, and as we were going to bed we went in to check on her and noticed that she was desaturating. We watched her for a while and then paged the doctor on call. After getting her symptoms, he recommended that we get her to a hospital where she could get some treatment. While Jordan Valley hospital is close, it was likely that she'd end up at PCMC eventually, so Lia had her loaded into the car and headed into the night. By 4:00 AM Thursday, after they had stabilized Calle with oxygen and admitted her, Lia was finally able to lie down and get some restless sleep.

Sometime during the ER process they tested Calle for RSV, and the results were positive.

Calle seemed to bounce right back on Thursday. She was smiling and seemed like she was on the rebound. There was talk of discharging her and having us keep her on oxygen at home (since we're the seasoned canula/oxygen/pulse-oximeter veterans), and I was anxious to get her home. Lia was anxious to get her home as well, but she wisely decided to stay one more night. Thursday night and early Friday morning were apparently miserable for Calle, and they had to "suction out" her nasal passages several times, and increase the oxygen flow as well. Obviously she's not yet ready to come home, and when she does, we'll have her on oxygen for a while.

It's Friday night and Lia and Calle are still at the hospital. I really dislike the loneliness of leaving loved ones at the hospital and driving home alone. It is nice to have Christian home -- he keeps our spirits up as we continue our adventures with medicine. He has somehow avoided this bug and seems to be in excellent health. He’s sleeping particularly well because he’s had a couple of intensely fun days with grandparents and extended family.

We’re anxious for life to get back to normal! (As if we know what normal is)

Easter

Christian on Easter 2005