One week down.....one more to go....

That's my current goal for not having to go to the hospital. 

Yep, after my last post I was feeling good, fancy free, thinking things were looking up.  My cute niece got married, my nephew got home from his mission and we went to all the festivities in between.  But on mother's day after the homecoming I just felt terrible.  That night I was in such severe pain I couldn't sleep.  Then, yep, fever and chills the next day.  I thought, "There is no way this can be happening again!"  I called the doctor and they sent me to the ER.  I thought, "No big deal, they'll give me some medicine and send me home."  After hours in the ER, blood work and a CT scan they decided that my first infection in fact wasn't entirely gone, but had moved and had caused an abscess which is much more difficult to treat.  So they checked me into the hospital right then, and started me on IV antibiotics again, hoping to avoid surgery.  We totally weren't prepared for that but luckily we got it worked out with the kids and my mom and Trav and my sister even came from Idaho to help because we were in a state of chaos at this point.

It took 3 days to get me fever down, then 2 more of antibiotics after that.  So after initially going to the hospital and thinking we'd go home that night, I didn't leave until 5 nights later.  At one point the vein that they were pumping the "juice" into went bad and I got a Popeye arm, so they put an ice pack on the entire left arm.  Then the nurse tripped over my IV tube and ripped out the IV in the new spot on my other arm so I had to put a heating pack on that spot along with one more botched attempt at sticking a vein and an new IV in my right  arm.  At this point I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry when Will started fussing he was hungry and I literally couldn't pick him up with all that was poking out of my arms.  We chose to laugh.

I can say that I have never seen so much generosity toward my family as I have in the past month.  I'm sure people are thinking, "Seriously?  She's in the hospital again?  Is this her sad attempt at getting more free meals and babysitters from everyone?"  So many people have stepped up and have been so amazing to us.  Even though I've been home for a week now I still haven't had to cook a meal or drive my kids to school yet.  I am in awe of how generous people are. I can only hope I can repay then all by serving them in some way in the future.

Okay, on to happier things.....Josh started t-ball!  I will actually get to go to his games this week so I'm excited about that.  He is seriously the cutest baseball player I've ever seen.

 Here's my mother's day shot.  This was right before all the chaos started.  I still can't believe I have 4 kids.....

 Here's #4, getting bigger, bright eyed and cuter every day which honestly doesn't seem possible.

 My boys in plaid shorts....

 Then Mr. Josh turned 6!  Unfortunately his birthday was the day after I came home from the hospital but we did try to make it a very special day.  He seemed to love it.  Here he is with the coveted Ninjago Legos...

 They're looking at the book Rach gave him....

 Daddy made an awesome Lego birthday cake...

 The birthday was nice because it was the first time our little family had been together for a whole week.  It was nice it fell on a Sunday and we were just able to hang out together.

 Somebody really likes her little brother.

 And our newest addition to our home......

 

This is what I'm going to have to deal with the rest of the summer.....

 

And he does love a good book....

 So now I've got one week and 2 days under my belt of feeling good and not going to the hospital.  Let's hope this is over and done with and we can all get on with our lives.  I've discovered I'm not a very good sick person.  I'm way to impatient and think I should heal faster than I do.  So annoying....

3 weeks

Has it really only been three weeks since this little man made an appearance in our lives? It's hard to imagine life without him now.  Funny how that happens with having new kids.....

 

  

Well, to say the least it's been an eventful 3 weeks.  A little over a week after I had him I was getting some serious pains in my abdomen.  I just chalked it up to "overdoing it" the day before, which I had done.  Then as the days went by and the pain was getting worse I wondered if it was something more.  When the fever and chills set in and I almost passed out twice while getting the kids breakfast I knew something just wasn't right.  So I called the doctor and went in for a check up.  After checking me out she said..."Go home, pack your bags and come check yourself into the hospital."  What?!?  I thought I was going to go down in history of having the best recovery ever.  Because up until that point I had.  Turns out I had a uterine infection.  Let me just say that those are not fun.  Imagine yourself in labor....the painful contraction part of labor.....and never having those contractions end.....for 4 days.  That's kind of the best way to describe it.  Ouch!

So I had to spend 2 nights in the hospital with IV antibiotics being pumped into my system.  I was also on Oxycontin which made me have some really funky dreams.  I don't understand why people actually WANT to feel like that.  So weird....  Luckily Will was able to stay in the hospital with me because my mom was able to stay in there with us.  Trav worked from home and took care of everything at the home front.  A lot of schedules needed to be juggled but we somehow made it work and now I'm home trying to figure out what to do with 4 kids!  But I'm feeling SOOOO much better...not perfect because yes, I did just have a baby and a really bad infection but when I think of where I was 8 days ago, it's like 110% improvement.  Really, all I had to go was up....

Oh, but to be with this little man!  He just melts my heart!  He's got the cutest, biggest dimples and I caught one in a picture.....

 Going in for the sneeze.....

 We also had our very first outing for Sunday dinner and grandma and grandpa's house.  Nothing better than ice cream on the swings....

 And a little monkeying around....

I not only feel so grateful for all the amazing people that have helped us out the past 3 weeks because we have needed a lot of extra help!  But I am so in love with this new baby boy!  I know all mom's are totally biased that they have the best kids, but I am completely serious when I say he is the best baby ever!  He sleeps and eats so well, and when he's awake he just looks  around and soaks it all up.  He hardly ever cries and when he does it's only because we're changing him, bathing him, or he needs to poop and it's this quiet little cry.  So so sweet. 

I am such a lucky mom!