The Case of the Peanut Allergy

The Masked Peanut strikes again!


Wow. What a day. It started out well enough. Taking Cooper and Mason to school. But as soon as I turned on the street to drop Mason off, my pager went off. Cardiac/Respiratory Arrest about two blocks from the school. I pretty much kicked Mason out at the sidewalk and had him walk up to his classroom, and took off down the street. I found CPR already in progress. I took over the scene and began doing chest compressions. I continued to do so for about 35 minutes, while we got ready to load the patient in the ambulance. I made it back home and within a couple minutes got a call from Cooper's preschool that he was puking.

OK. So I went to pick him up. No indication as to why he was puking. I take him back home and he seems to be doing fine at first, until he pukes again, and again. Crystyne is cleaning up puke and I am changing a dirty diaper, while the diaper is off, Shiloh sprays every where with a geyser of pee. (I thought only boys did that. Wrong!) I notice at this time, Cooper is wheezing badly, so I have Crystyne get a treatment ready and give it to him. While he is taking the treatment, we notice he is scratching all over. He has a rash. Oh great! He got into something he wasn't supposed to. Benadryl time. I take him up to give him a cool bath and as soon as I strip his clothes, I realized how extensive his rash is. I wash him quickly and tell Crystyne I am going to take him to the hospital, that he is having a reaction to something. I throw him in the car, wheezing, itchy, red as a lobster, full blown anaphylactic reaction and rush to the hospital on the crappy wet snow covered streets.

We make it to the hospital and they immediately rush him back. His O2 sats were only 87% (Normal on room air really should be above 95%) and he was slightly cyanotic (blue) in the lips (lack of oxygen.) The nurses immediately start an IV and administers Epinephrine, Benadryl, Solu-medrol (steroid) and a Albuterol nebulizer treatment. Although he cried a little, Cooper was so brave during this whole ordeal. After a while the rash starts to clear and his O2 sats start to rise. He falls asleep and spends the next hour and a half or so laying on me just trying to recuperate (no pun intended).



He also had a chest x-ray. Finally three and a half hours later we are discharged from the hospital, with orders to give him a couple more doses of Benadryl at home. The nurses gave him an Ernie (from Sesame Street) stuffed toy. I could tell by the end that he was doing better, because he was talking to the nurse.

The doctor said it was the worst anaphylactic reaction he has ever seen, and the only thing I should have done, that I didn't do was that I should have given him the Epi-Pen before I came to the hospital.

Cooper is now doing well, and proud of his "battle wounds."


The culprit, you may ask. Apparently a peanut got mistakenly given to him at preschool. I have no ill will toward the preschool. Accidents happen. I am just glad I was home and not away at work in Colfax. I am very thankful for the medical knowledge that Heavenly Father has blessed me with and the competent caregivers at Holy Family Hospital.

Now with the snow, and couple rounds of snow blowing later. I am pooped. I just think that although it sucks only working part time, there is probably a reason that I haven't found full time employment yet. For events like this.

Snow fun

We just keep getting more and more snow. Every time I look outside it is snowing. It is snow right now as I type this. Even more of a reason for me to not go anywhere with a new baby. Mason and Cooper sure are enjoying it though. I don't think Jeff is enjoying is quite as much, having to clear the driveway and all, but having a snow blower does make it a bit more bearable. After snow blowing today, all three went in the back yard to try to build a snowman. The snow wasn't wet enough for that. But they made the best of it anyway.

Mason and Jeff buried Cooper in the snow.

Then they made snow angels.

The finished product of Jeff's snow angel.

Deck the Halls

As long as Jeff and I have been married, we have put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. This year was no different. The boys, and I am including Jeff in this, were VERY ready to decorate as soon as they got up, but Jeff used some self control and waited for me and Shiloh to wake up first.

Mason...ready to get this show on the road!

Cooper....ready to bust that bin open to see what was inside.

Shiloh....couldn't care less. She was just happy to have a full tummy and a warm blanket.

And the fun begins! Here Mason and Cooper are helping Jeff spread out the branches of the tree.

Now time for the ornaments.

Cooper kept putting the ornaments in the same spot. He also kept telling us that the ornaments needed to go up really high, so Shiloh can't reach them. Silly boy!

All done with the tree and ready to enjoy a candy cane. Cooper was throwing a "fit" because he couldn't have two candy canes.

Last year we found a 3 foot tree on clearance after Christmas, so we got it for the boys' room. Mason has such a great memory. He asked me today if I remember going to Target to get the tree and Dad and Cooper stayed in the car while he and I went in to get it. Yup. That is exactly what happened too.

Jeff won these nutcrackers a few years ago in my family's white elephant exchange. I love them! Mason and Cooper have loved playing with them today, making their mouths move and talk to each other.

This is where we have hung our stockings since moving into this house. Each year it makes me miss having a fire place mantel, like in our old house....maybe someday I will have one again to hang my stockings from.

Thanksgiving 2010

This year we had a quiet Thanksgiving at home. We had ham instead of turkey, because ham is just plain better than turkey! Our neighbors had plans to go to his parents house, two hours away on Thanksgiving, but their changed at the last minute, so we invited them to have dinner with us. I feel like a real grown up now that we did Thanksgiving all by our selves.

First week of life

We have had a really quiet week, lounging around the house enjoying our little Shiloh. Mason and Cooper are so in love with their little sister and I think she likes them too, as long as Cooper doesn't stick his finger in her eye. Gotta watch that one around her.

This is Mason's new favorite activity, holding his Shiloh while watching TV. I'm sure he would hold her all day long, if she didn't need to nurse. Darn that nursing thing and mom having to take her to do it.
Shiloh is a really content baby. She only cries when she is cold and really only fusses when hungry. The only time she really screamed was when I gave her a bath. Just getting in, not sure if she likes it or not.
Nope. She officially does not like the bath. (Going back to the whole being cold thing.) Hopefully she will learn to like baths.
Poor little girl, look at that pouty face.


Shiloh loves to sleep. I think she is our best sleeper over all. Shiloh sleeps for about 3 hours, wakes up to eat, and falls back to sleep for about 3 hours. This is her "routine" so far. She doesn't like to sleep in her bassinet, I think she doesn't like the wide open space. So for now, at night, she sleeps in our bed, between us. During the day she sleeps in her swing or in one of our arms. Some would say we are spoiling her and teaching her a bad habit of always needing to sleep with us. Whatever. We did this with our boys for the first 6-8 weeks of their lives too. Then we start to transition them into their bassinet or crib. Our boys rarely ever sleep in our bed and never have, so I doubt we will have an issue this time around either. We are not spoiling our baby. You really can't spoil a newborn anyway. There I said it.
She loves to have her hands up by her face. One day this week I caught her sleeping with her hands over her face. Maybe it was too bright for her liking.

It's been much quieter than I expected on the visitor front too. We've only had a few visitors. That is very surprising to me since Jeff and I both have large families who, for the most part, live in Spokane. I really love to have visitors. I love to have conversations with adults. I love that visitors break up the day to day tasks that come with taking care of a newborn. So I guess for me, the only thing that would have made this week even better, would have been to have more visitors.

Shiloh with her Great Grandpa Long

Shiloh with her Great Grandma Long

Shiloh with her Grandpa Meador
Shiloh with her Grandma Meador


Shiloh had a well baby check today. Everything with her is look good. She weighs 6 lbs 1oz, so we have to take her back in next week to have her weighed again to make sure she gains back her birth weight.

Snow!

Snow is not my favorite thing, but it sure is one of Mason and Cooper's favorite things! The odd thing about it though is that their way of playing in the snow is shoveling it. They, epically Mason, get REALLY mad at Jeff if he shovels without them. Mason and Cooper shoveled the driveway while Jeff snow-blowed it this morning. Well, Cooper did until he fell face first into the swell, poor kid. Shiloh and I were still all snugly warm in bed during all this. (Now that's the way to enjoy the snow, from inside the warm house). Once Jeff and Mason came in from doing the driveway, Mason wanted to shovel the back, we promised him that he could do it when he got home from school, so as soon as he was done with his lunch, out he went, shovel in hand.

Acts of Service

In Primary yesterday, Mason's lesson was on service. He brought home an envelope with hearts in it. I think he was suppose to do secret acts of service and leave a heart behind. As soon as he got home from church, he was on the hunt for service he could do. The only thing was that when he was done he would bring your attention to the service he did and say, "hum I wonder who did that".

My shoes were by the front door, usually all our shoes are kicked off by the door leading into the garage until they find their way to their home in the closet. Mason took my shoes to the garage door and left a heart. Then he had to show me that someone had moved them for me.

Then that very same someone made Cooper's bed and our bed and left behind a heart on both beds. Making our bed is not an easy task for a five year old. It's big and pretty high up, but he managed it pretty well.

Bad Boys

Introducing Shiloh Crystyne

Wednesday morning we got to the hospital for my 7:30 induction. After all the paperwork and medical questions, and IV start, my labor officially began at 9:30am. At that point I was dilated 1.5cm. Just before 1:00pm I was told that my Dr. was going to come in and break my water. At 1:07pm I thought my water had broke, so my nurse checked and sure enough it had, and I was dilated 4cm. At this point my contractions became more intense, so I asked for an epidural. By 1:45pm the epidural was in place and beginning to take the edge off. It takes A LOT of medication and time to dull the pain for me. By 3:00pm I was fully dilated and ready to push. So my Dr was called, who was either in the office (by Deaconess) or at Deaconess cleaning up from a C-Section. He literally ran over to Sacred Heart, because I guess he rode his bike to work like he does every day, got scrubbed up, and came in. He was out of breath upon arriving. At 3:20ish I began pushing and at 3:29pm Shiloh Crystyne was born weighing 6 lbs. 11 oz. 19 1/4 " long.Minutes old

First family photo

Two big brothers and a big cousin ready to protect her.

One very proud big brother who waited SO long for her to come.

The other big brother, who is also very proud.

Papa Borders

Grandma Borders

Papa Meador

Just after her bath at 12:30 AM! They must have been so busy, because every time we asked our nurse if she could, she said she would as soon as she finished a few things.

All dressed and ready to go home.

I'll write another post later on how she is doing, but I figured I better get a few pictures up. Now I'm off to snuggle my baby!

Baby check up

This may be "TMI" for some of you. Sorry. This morning after using the restroom, there was some extra "moistness" "down there" and I smelled a smell that I was pretty sure was amniotic fluid. There wasn't any "gushing of fluids" though, so I figured there was no big rush to go into the hospital since I had an ultrasound, a non-stress test, and a doctor appointment in an hour and a half.

First I went in for the ultrasound. Everything is looking good with Shiloh. She is estimated at weighing 6lbs. 6ozs. right now and my amniotic fluid levels are where they should be.

My Doctor decided to skip the non-stress test since everything from the ultrasound looked good.

During my appointment my Doctor did a test to check for signs of amniotic fluid. The test came back negative. But he said that doesn't mean I don't have a small leak far up. So the risk of infection is still there, just not as big of a risk as it would be if there were signs of amniotic fluid leaking. He said he wanted to have me induced next week anyway, just in case I am leaking fluid, so I don't get an infection.

My induction is scheduled for Wednesday November 17th at 7:30am.....unless I go into labor before then.

Stats from this visit:

Gained 1 pound for a total of 17 pounds total gained.

Shiloh's heartbeat was 132 bpm.

I am dilated 2 cm and 90% effaced.

So who won the bet on how progressed I'd me? ME! I said 3 cm and90% effaced and Jeff said 4 cm and 80% effaced.

I am 38 weeks 2 days pregnant.

38 Weeks

I am 38 weeks today. The morning I turned 38 weeks with Cooper is the morning my water broke. Knowing that I could go into labor at any time brings mixed feelings for me. I am such a planner. Living with everything up in the air all the time is hard for me. So what should I do? Not plan anything for the next 2-3 weeks? Sit and twiddle my thumbs just because I may go into labor at a time when I have something to do or somewhere to go? On one hand I really want Shiloh to come NOW! And the other, I have things I'd like to do and need to do over the next several days.
Tonight is Young Women in Excellence and I kinda sorta need to be there for that. So I've been saying that she can come any time after tonight. BUT then Saturday is a Leadership meeting where we will be trained on the new church handbook or instructions, if I don't attend, I don't get a new handbook until I receive the training. Maybe I'll be so bored out of my mind at the training that she'll decide to spice up my night by coming after the meeting. BUT then on Sunday there is an informational "fireside" for the new Pathways program the church is introducing through BYU-Idaho. I'd really really really like to go to that. I've always wanted to go back to school, but the thought of starting after not being in school for almost 10 years scares me. Plus, the scariness and anxiety that come when thinking of the school loans I'd be stuck paying back makes me want to run and hide. The Pathways program is designed for people just like me, who have never gone to college and have been out of school for a while. The program eases you back into school life, while keeping the costs very very low.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'd like her to stay put until after the fireside on Sunday night. I don't know if she will cooperate though. Saturday night I had contractions that were 5 minutes apart for a little over an hour. Last night I had contractions that were 3 minutes apart, those lasted for about 1 1/2 hours. I have an appointment on Thursday to check on my progression. Jeff and I have a bet with each other on how progressed I will be.
I'm sure if she doesn't come before Thursday's appointment, the next bet will be what day she will come. Anyone wanna bet when she'll come?

Baby check up

Lets see, where to start.

I had another ultrasound today to measure the fluid levels around Shiloh. All levels look good.

Then I had a non-stress test. I really don't see the point to having these. Just to monitor how much she moves? I could have told you that she moves a lot. She is constantly moving, kicking my ribs, jabbing my bladder, pushing out as far as she can, sometimes to the point where it hurts me a little. So yeah, they could just ask me, I'd tell 'em.

Then I had my appointment with the ARNP, because my Dr. is on vacation this week. Here are the stats from today's visit.

I didn't gain any weight, so I am still at 16 pounds gained total.

Shiloh's heart rate was 154 bpm.

I am measuring 35 cm.

I was "checked" again today and am still 70% effaced and 1.5 cm dilated.

I am 37 weeks 0 days pregnant.

Here is a picture of me taken today.
Next week I will have another ultrasound to check Shiloh's growth and another non-stress test.

Scrapin'

I have taken over a corner in the boys' play room and have set up my craft table. In the last week I have devoted A LOT of my time to scrapbooking, probably somewhere between 15 to 20 hours. Before I got going I had to about Cooper's 10 month pictures done. Now with 17 (single) pages or 8-2 page layouts and 1-1 page layout done, I am to about his 19 month pictures. I am still only to Mason's 3rd birthday. I hope to get a few more pages done before Shiloh comes.

Shiloh's dresser

Well here it is. This is the dresser we picked out for Shiloh. I love it! It has 8 deep drawers, so lots of storage space. Thank you to everyone who contributed money at the shower for the dresser!

Family "Birthday"

I've been promising Cooper for a while now that I would make him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I finally made good on that promise yesterday. All day long he was saying it was his birthday cake. When it came to actually eating the cake after dinner, Cooper decided it was each of our birthdays, so we sang Happy Birthday to our whole family. We are thinking we are going to start a new tradition of having a family birthday cake on our anniversary, since that is the day our family was formed.

Count down to Shiloh

My sister-in-law, Michelle made this cute sign for my baby shower. So about a week ago, Mason and Cooper helped me make a chain countdown to Shiloh's due date.

Trick-or-Treating

Every year we take the boys to their Grandparents houses to Trick-or-Treat first, then around a few blocks in our neighborhood. Jeff was working Halloween night, so I continued on the tradition without him.

Trick-or-Treating at Great Grandpa and Grandma Long's
Trick-or-Treating at Uncle David and Aunt Robins. OK, so they are not Grandparents, but they live next door to Mason and Cooper's Great Grandma Borders, so we always stop by there too. We did go to Great Grandma Borders' house, but I forgot to get a picture.

This year instead of stopping by Grandpa and Grandma Borders' house, they came over to our house and went Trick-or-Treating with us. Thanks guys for helping me out!