Christmas? When was Christmas?

I came back to work yesterday after being off for 6 days and one of my co-workers asked me how my Christmas was. My response to her: "Christmas? When was Christmas?"

Most of you probably know by now but I will explain in detail why I responded like that...

Mason began to get sick Thursday - the day before Christmas Eve. He was not acting his normal self...laying around on the couch, coughing, labored breathing, high fever. Kacey and I took him to the doctor (who was my saving grace thru all of this) and she began treating him for pneumonia. She didn't do a chest x-ray but heard a rattle in his lungs and with his high fever, this must be the case. She prescribed 2 strong antibiotics and sent us on our way with her cell number so that we could check in with her over the holiday weekend. Little did we know what we were in for over the next few days...

Thursday evening, Mason's temperature spiked to 104.7. He had never had a fever that high and it really sort of scared me. I called the doctor and she said to treat him with Tylenol and Motrin thru the night because he had just started the antibiotics. She said that the fever would most likely subside sometime on Friday after the meds had a chance to do their job. I agreed and did as she said. However, his little body had something else in mind.

By Friday, the fever was not going down. In fact, by 2pm on Christmas Eve, the fever was up to 105.9. He was lethargic and complaining that his head and eyes hurt and he was crying when he coughed. Insert panicked mother here... Again, I called the doctor and we treated him with a higher dosage of Tylenol and Motrin (simultaneously) and put him in a tepid bath. This helped and his fever came down and he even opened a few presents and played a bit. But as soon as the meds wore off, the evil fever rared its ugly head. Christmas Eve night was filled with medicine and temperature checks and not one wink of sleep for Mommy.

Christmas day started off with the fever lingering around 103.5ish. Mason got up and did the Santa thing (sort of) and then it was time to pile up on the couch with Mommy for movie time. (This is how we spent the majority of the 6 days that he was sick.) He continued to cough but it began to get much worse. The fever was still spiking every 4 hours and he was coughing until he gagged. At this point, his breathing is labored even when the fever is down. Around noon his doctor called to check in with us and decided it was time to head to the hospital. I packed a bag with clothes and stuff to occupy Mason while we waited and then headed to Texas Children's Hospital. Kacey was working so he headed in that direction as soon as he could. Mason's doctor called the hospital to let them know that we were coming.

Once we arrived, we were immediately sent to triage (which was not fun for Mason) and then were put into an ER room. Our nurse, Kenya, was truly an angel, as are the majority of the employees at TCH. She was so good with Mason and really made him (and me) feel comfortable. We saw the doctor after only waiting for about 15 minutes and she sent us for a chest xray. This was by far the saddest part of our visit. Being that I am 21 weeks pregnant, I could not be in the room with Mason for the xray. That and the fact that he had to take off his necklace and shirt and be strapped down to the xray table were the breaking points for him. I stood in the hallway and listened as my baby cried out for me...it was truly heartbreaking. I knew that he would be ok but I couldn't help but want to break down the door and hold him.

It took about 3o minutes for the x-ray to be read by the doctor. We headed back to our ER room, where Kacey was waiting for us. This put both Mason and I at ease. Dr. Cruz came back in and told us that there was definitely pneumonia present in Mason's right lung and that she was changing his meds. It was not a very major pneumonia, but any pneumonia is enough to make you feel horrible and run a high fever. She had also spoken to Mason's pediatrician who wanted us to follow up at the office with her on Monday. So after being at TCH for 4 hours on Christmas day, we were released with new meds and a follow up visit.

Side note: When Mason and I arrived at the ER, there were 2 trucks literally full to the brim that were there to drop of toys to donate to the patients. Mason fared well from the donations: a 6 pack of hot wheels, 1 large die cast Ferrari and a giant stuffed teddy bear. If that doesn't make your heart happy, I don't know what will. I am truthful when I say that the people at that hospital are angels.

Once we arrived home from the hospital, Mason napped for about an hour in his bed while Kacey and I sort of picked up for dinner. My family came over for our usual Christmas tradition of gumbo. Mason woke up with more fever (104.9) and snuggled up on the couch for Toy Story 3. Our evening was passed with family, stories, laughter, temperature checks and medicine. Not too much playing, although he did enjoy some time with his new work bench when his medicine kicked in.

Sunday was more of the same: coughing, high temperature (104ish), and lots of medicine. I was in contact with the pediatrician throughout the day and she was beginning to think that there was something else going on in that little body. If he only had the pneumonia, the medicines that he was on should have caught up in his body by now and he would not have the fever that high anymore. It was for this reason that she wanted me to call and get a follow up appointment at the office first thing in the morning. Our best friends came over for dinner and Mason enjoyed that but he was asleep by 8:30pm.

I got up on Monday around 9am and called the doctor's office and got a 2pm appointment. Kacey got up shortly after I did and we enjoyed some quiet time in the house with a movie. Around NOON (yes, noon) my poor sick little boy finally decided to roll out of bed. I had been checking on him throughout the morning and it seemed promising that that would be the day for a turn around. He was sleeping peacefully and had not had a fever since 6am. That was a big deal for us seeing as how the last few days had gone. We bathed him and got him dressed and optimistically loaded him in the car and headed to our appointment. He fell asleep in the way to the doctor after only being awake for 2 hours and then his little body decided that it was not done fighting the good fight...Fever was back when I got him to the office. We were a work in so we sat in the waiting room for about an hour while Mason passed the time by sleeping in my lap. We were called back to the room and told this entire story to the nurse and then waited to be seen by the doctor.

Dr. Gray came in and we talked and then she ordered a blood test and a flu test, neither of which were fun for anyone. Those took about 15 minutes to run. Mason continued to sleep on my chest the entire time, except for the toe stick and nose swab. Dr. Gray returned with the news: Mason's blood work looked superb. However, his flu test was positive. Really?! What else do you want to throw on us?! She prescribed Tamiflu and said that he should start to feel better after being on this medicine for 12 hours. She also gave me her cell number and said to call her in the night if he got any worse and to check in with her at the office every day this week. We picked up the meds and headed home. Mason's temperature was up and down thru the night but he slept well and long again.

Tuesday morning, Mason got up around 10am and his temperature was around 102 - at this point, any other parent might think that is high but not for us...that was a very good sign. I didn't give him the Tylenol or Motrin but instead let his little body do what it was made to do. He was fever free by noon.

Today is Thursday and I am happy to report that Mason has been fever free for 48 hours. It seems that the Tamiflu is just what he needed to get over the hurdle. He spent the day with my best friend yesterday and probably out did himself because I just talked to Mom and he had just gotten out of bed. That was another long night for him...14.5 hours of sleep. I think it was just his body letting him know that he played too hard yesterday and that it was just not quite back to normal.

Thank you all for your prayers for us over the last few days. We really needed them to get thru this and I know that God was listening and looking out for us along the way.

I have included a few pictures of Mr. Sick that I took on my phone over the last few days too.

Waiting for Toy Story 3 to start while at TCH on Christmas Day.

Little fever head sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's bed on Sunday.

Playing Tinker Toys with Mommy on Monday evening.

Baby News

I am pleased to announce that we found out on Monday that we will be welcoming a little GIRL to the family in May! Kacey and I could not be happier, although the gender really didn't matter to either of us. We are both just happy to have a healthy, growing baby.

We broke the news to Mason on Monday afternoon and he is very excited too. He now tells everyone that Mommy has a "baby thisthur" in her tummy. He has begun to notice that Mommy's tummy is growing and even felt on my belly last night. I showed him the ultrasound pictures and pointed out the head and nose and back, but he told me that was not a baby - it is water. Oh well...at least he is excited to be a big brother!

Now it is on to picking out bedding, room decor, and lots of cute little clothes! Oh, and the most important of things - a name!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a busy day for us as Kacey and I had just returned from Vermont that afternoon (that will be shared in a later post). Nana brought Mason home from Columbus on Sunday and we got to play and visit for a bit before it was time to get ready for Trick or Treating.

Mason said for a long while before Halloween that he wanted to dress up like Woody from Toy Story. Of course, I could not find a Woody costume to save my life so we improvised. He has boots that he got from Uncle Bubba and Aunt Kim earlier this year. They don't exactly fit the best but Mason never said that they hurt so I was ok with him wearing them. I purchased some spurs, a vest, bandana, sheriff's badge and belt with gun holster. His hat came from a friend whose Mom bought it from him to wear on his birthday - He's 27. We had the shirt and pants at home.

We got ready around 5:30pm and headed out to the streets. Mason had a great time trick or treating and did pretty well for walking so far in boots that are on the margin of being too small. Some of my favorite quotes from the night are as follows:

"Hey, you got candy?" - This was to some people sitting in their front yard, watching the kids and handing out candy. He had pretty much given up on the whole "Trick or Treat!" thing.

"What you got in there?" - One family had a lit up skeleton head on their entry table and yes, my did waltzed right in the front door and touched it.

"You boy watching Cars in there?" - He saw the TV on inside the house and assumed they must be watching Cars. What else do adults have to do but watch Cars?

There were also a couple of times when Mason tried to go inside the strangers houses to pet their dogs. Needless to say, he had a great time and so did we.

About to head out in the neighborhood.

Sacked out on the way home...with candy remnants on his face.

Pumpkin Patch

First let me just say that yes, we are all still alive. I have taken a break from blogging due to the ups and downs of pregnancy, upper respiratory junk, and then the dreaded stomach virus. But good news...We are all feeling better and have to get back to the real world now.

So...On Monday, Kacey and I took Mason to the Pumpkin Patch at Deer Park United Methodist Church. This patch is right around the corner from our house and is also where Mason goes to Mother's Day Out. The pumpkins have been out for about a week and Mason was very anxious to make our annual visit.

These visits serve multiple purposes for us. First, we love to be able to support the church and their patch so we have bought our pumpkins from them for the last 3 years. Second, the pumpkin patch always seems to put is in a good mood. It is like it is really fall when the pumpkins finally arrive. And lastly, of course we love to get pictures of Mason with the pumpkins! However, this last little perk of the pumpkin patch seems to get more difficult as times goes by... It has become increasingly difficult over the years to get an active toddler to understand how important it is to Mommy and Daddy to get some cute pictures with the pumpkins! Therefore, we resort to pictures of him running by the pumpkins, or one where he is not exactly looking at the camera but hey, it is a success if there is a kid and a pumpkin in the same photo!

Out of about 70 pictures taken, we got only 3 that I would consider "share" worthy...

Just so you can see where I am coming from in regard to the increasing difficulty of trying to get a cute picture, I will share some from previous years.

2009

2008

Now that I have posted these all together, it makes me realize two things:

1. It has apparently always been hard to get a good picture.
2. My baby is growing up too fast!!!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Happy Fall everyone!

We Have an Announcement...

Now that I have gone to the doctor and have a confirmation, we would like to announce that we will be adding a member to the family in May…Yes friends, I’m Pregnant!!!

After 3 months of trying (this seems long to us since it happened on the first time with Mason), I found out that I was pregnant on Saturday, September 4.

Kacey and I decided to keep the news a secret from our family until that following Friday, my birthday. We knew that we would all be getting together for dinner and thought that would be the opportune time to announce the pregnancy.

Once our visitors arrived (my mom, brother and sister-in-law and Kacey’s mom, brother and his girlfriend), Kacey had everyone gather in the living room so that I could open gifts. After all of the gifts had been opened, Kacey told Mason to come with him because they had one more present for Mommy. He took Mason into our bedroom and put him in a shirt that I had bought him earlier that day.

Mason came running out of the bedroom and everyone quickly caught on to what his shirt said. As suspected, all were very excited about the news and there were even a few tears. Oh, and despite the look on Mason's face, he does seem to be pretty excited about the baby. This is just his "my mom had that camera out again" face.

We had our first doctor’s appointment today and had an ultrasound to see the heartbeat. The baby is strong and healthy with a very good heartbeat.

In case you are not an ultrasound pro, the baby is the small peanut in the middle of the small black oval. The large black spot is my very full bladder…

It was so comforting to see that little heartbeat today since there has just been too much “bad” going on in our lives. I feel like we can now relax and enjoy what is to come. We are all very excited and can’t wait for this little one to join our family!

Jail?

A few weeks ago, Mason and I had a discussion about jail. This came about due to the fact that he sometimes finds it cute to run away from my Mom. I have tried to convince him that it was in fact not cute, but dangerous to do this. The only way I could get him to realize or think it was a bad thing was to tell him that the police would come get him and take him to jail if he did it again. In hindsight, this was probably not the best thing I have ever told him, but hey - it seems to be working. So don't judge... :)

However, this leads to a conversation that I just had with my Mom. She and Mason were playing in the backyard and she was pushing him on the swing. When she pushed him particularly high, he looked up towards the sky and said, "I'm swinging high, Papa!". This in turn lead to a discussion of how Papa and Uncle Big Bubba and Grandpa are all in Heaven and how they will always take care of and watch over Mason. And how does my kid respond?

"Yeah, Nannie...They watch over me and take care of me so I don't go to jail..."

Oh, great...What seed have I planted in that tiny little brain?!

Understanding Loss

For those of you who really know me know that I have lost two very important people in the last 3 months; my Daddy and my Uncle Big Bubba. Losing someone close to you is something that you know will eventually happen but are never truly prepared for.

With my Daddy, Elden Bruce, we watched him suffer for the past few years with an ever changing mind and physical awareness due to Alzheimer's Disease. That is not something that I would wish on even my worst enemy. Seeing someone become a person that they themselves do not recognize is very hard. His passing was and is very hard to deal with but knowing that he is with God and is now of sound mind and body makes coping with the loss a little easier. You can read his obituary here.

Elden Lee Bruce
10/13/1935 – 6/11/2010

My Uncle Big Bubba, Michael Witkovski, passed away very suddenly on 9/11/2010. He was my Mom’s only sibling and we were all very close. Anyone who ever met Uncle Big Bubba will never forget him, as he was so caring and full of life. He suffered a massive heart attack on the morning of 9/11 and passed away after doctors could no longer help him. This came to a shock to all of us. I had spoken to him not even 10 hours prior and he was his normal, joking self. He made reference to a shirt of Mason’s and thought it was the funniest thing he had ever said and then proceeded to explain the joke he made – this in a nutshell was my uncle. You can read his obituary and sign his guest book here.

Michael Leo Witkovski
2/5/1946 – 9/11/2010

The purpose of this post is to reaffirm that fact that life happens and no one can ever be prepared for what God is going to put in front of you. If we all had our way, we would live eternally here on Earth and no one would ever be sick and everyone would live together in peace. However, we know that is not the case.

After my uncle passed away on Saturday, I was crying and telling Kacey how I just don’t understand why these things have to happen. I was angry at God and just wanted so badly to yell and scream and to find out why He had to take away someone that just wasn’t ready to go. Kacey said to me “This is not for us to understand”.

Those words will ring true in my heart for as long as I live. It made me realize that in times like these, more than ever, we must turn to our faith and hear the word of God.

On the way to New Orleans on Saturday to be with my family after my Uncle’s passing, one of my friends posted the Bible verse below on Facebook. There has never been a passage that has spoken to me more clearly than this one.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

I miss you dearly Daddy and Uncle Big Bubba, but I know in my heart that the two of you are having the time of your lives in Heaven will be watching over all of us until we can meet again.

Mason's New Chair

Thanks to Uncle Bubba and Aunt Kim for Mason's new chair...

It is obvious that he loves it!

Really loves it...

Mommy's Side

For those of you that don't know, Kacey is a shift worker. His schedule is 3 days, 3 nights, 3 days off. Last night was his last night and today is his first day off. He will go back to work on Friday at 5am. Try keeping up with that...

So last night, Mason and I went to bed in our respective beds. Sometime around 2am, I had a visitor come crawl in bed with me. This is almost a nightly occurrence. He comes to my side of the bed and crawls over me and gets either on Kacey's side if he is not home, or smack dab in the middle of us if he is there. Since Kacey was working last night, Mason was laying horizontally on his side of the bed when I got up at 5am to shower.

After my shower, Kacey had just gotten home and was crawling in the bed - on my side. Mason, who was dead to the world asleep, immediately woke up and told his Daddy, "Hey - that's MOMMY'S side! Get up...that's MOMMY's side!" Needless to say, he has figured out who sleeps where and has a hard time deviating from the norm.

He never went back to bed after that.

Blogging...

I never thought that I would be one to keep a blog but it just seems like the most reasonable way to keep all of the people in our lives informed as to what is going on with us.

Plus, our kid is hilarious and this is easier than texting out every funny thing he might say at a given time.

So, please bookmark this page and keep checking in on us because you never know what may be coming soon...

Oh, and here is a picture of Mason since I know that is the only reason anyone will ever visit this site...