Four Months

I know Noah is almost 5 months now, but I am busy and never have time to blog. We took him to the doctor for his 4 month stats. He weighs 16 lbs 13 oz (Claire was 18 lbs 5 oz at 4 months) and is 26.75 inches long. He is the best baby...he could maybe do a little bit better with sleeping but other than that he is perfect. We love this little boy. Claire is the best big sister to him. It is so funny to watch the natural "nurturer" come out in her. She is always making sure he is ok. I love my kids. They are so fun!

Headaches

I know I have given little snippets here and there, but here is the whole story. Shortly after I had Noah, I started having weird headaches. They would start in my temples. It felt like something exploded in the side of my head. The first few times I thought I had had an aneurism and that the end was going to be in a couple of seconds (morbid I know). I went to the doctor for my six week check up and she said that it was because I had fluid in my ears and there was nothing we could do since I am breastfeeding Noah. We moved to Colorado at the end of July and they got worse. Im talking INTENSE headaches that would last hours at a time. However, we didnt have health insurance since we moved from Utah and my insurance there wouldnt cover Colorado and Brice's insurance from his new job didnt kick in until October 1. So I dealt with the headaches. Finally in the middle of September I couldnt handle it anymore. The headaches were starting to wake me up in the middle of the night. I would wake up with a headache and have it until I finally fell asleep. I quit Diet Coke which was HUGE for me. It seemed to help a little bit once I came down off of the withdrawal. I went to a PA here in Colorado and he determined that they were epidural headaches from a tear in my dura which was causing my spinal/brain fluid to leak out. So he treated me. The second I took the pill he prescribed, I thought I was going to die. I googled the medicine and found out it was loaded with caffeine. I just dealt with the pain drug free for the next couple of weeks and had an appointment for the first day in October. This doctor had no idea what could be causing them so he decided I needed a CT scan. Terrifying. This is how they find brain tumors (which was already my biggest fear) I went in for the CT scan last week...it came back clear. I am relieved that there is nothign wrong with my brain but at the same time, I am disappointed that they cant find out what is wrong. At this point, they said they cant do any more testing until I am done breastfeeding Noah, which I am not ready to do yet...so until then, Ill be caffeine free and pain filled and hopefully they will be able to make this pain go away!

Today

Today I am sick. I have the worst cold I think I have ever had in my life. Add that to this crazy headache Ive had for 4 months!!

I LOVE my kids, but today just makes me want to crawl into my bed and pass out ALL day. Unfortunately if I did that, my house would be in about 5 million pieces and Claire might 'accidentally' hurt Noah. Lesson of the day:
Mom being sick does NOT equal taking a day off of life.

Last Night

Last night this sweet little boy gave us quite the scare. I went to change his diaper at about 715 (truthfully I was counting the minute until bedtime since Brice was out of town all weekend). When I opened the diaper up, to my surprise, it was full of blood - not something you want to see in a four month old. So, just to be sure, I loaded up the kids and went to the instacare (might as well get to know them now right?) I thought they would tell me he was fine. Boy was I wrong. She tested his diaper for blood and once she saw it was positive, she said I needed to go over to the ER immediately and that she would call and let them know I was coming (what?!?!)

At this point I kind of freaked out. I was alone. Brice was three hours away and I hadnt been able to get a hold of him. I called his parents. Thank goodness for them - no ding. They live about 20 miles from me and it was 830 on a Saturday night, but they jumped in their car to help me and be with Noah. I am seriously sooo grateful. Marcy came and got Claire and took her home with Payton so she could go to bed, and so I had one less thing to worry about. Our bishop and my father-in-law gave him a blessing before anything else happened.

The ER took their sweet time figuring things out. They said they needed to draw blood because in babies, blood in the stool can be caused by internal bleeding. Has anyone ever seen them try to draw blood on a giant chunky 4 month old? It was the absolute worst thing I have ever been through. When my kids get shots, I am usually pretty strong because it is over so fast. Well, these nurses COULD NOT find his veins. They would stab him with that little needle and dig around in his left hand, right hand, right foot and left foot. The needle was in his skin each time for at least 3-5 minutes. There is nothing like holding down your screaming child not being able to do one thing to help him. I had a really hard time. The worst part was, after all that, they didnt get enough blood. Guess what? They decided to TRY AGAIN. Ugh. Awful. They still didnt get enough even with that. Finally they did a heel stick and "milked" the blood out of his poor foot. I never want him to have to experience anything like that ever again. There were a lot of tears on both parts - Im not sure which of us cried more :(

In the end, the blood work came back normal and the doctor said that something I ate must have irritated his little tummy...what the?

At 1 am, Brice got home from his hunting trip early - sorry Brice - I got home from the hospital and we all went to bed. I am so glad that everything is ok with our sweet baby boy. I love him to pieces.