June Activities

Okay, truth be told, we have had one insanely long and stressful month so far... and since June is nearly over, I guess I might as well just say it's been a long month. Our littlest wheezed for an entire month and was on constant breathing treatments, a round of steroids, and a severe lack of sleep. The wheezing probably sounds familiar if you've read our last couple posts. But on the 1st after we got back from our Memorial Weekend in Idaho, I called Liam's doctor and explained what was going on and asked to bring him in. A nurse returned the call saying we needed to bring him in right away if he'd been wheezing for 1.5 weeks. 

It was exhausting, because on top of Liam being sick, Eva and Connor also came down with something. We started Liam on a prescription steroid and breathing treatments every 4 hours. At this point, the doc figured we were dealing with explainable wheezing and possible asthma. There wasn't much going on with him besides a runny nose (he'd been on antibiotics for a few weeks before for it), and the wheezing. 

On Friday (the 3rd) I really wanted to get out of the house, and I really wanted a snowcone. I got some suggestions on Facebook of where to go, and my loving husband took us for a delicious treat! 

 As can probably be expected, our little outing wore this little guy out! He was so tired he took a nap in his bouncer later. 

On Sunday (the 5th) I left Liam and Evelynn home sick from church but took Connor. Unfortunately half way through sacrament meeting he started sticking his finger in his ear and his cheeks were all flushed like he wasn't feeling well. I ended up taking him home and then going back for Relief Society. All my little ones were feeling unwell, I guess! :-( Connor didn't want a picture though. 

On Monday they kids seemed to be feeling a bit better, so I decided to take them up to the church Orchard and do some peach thinning. My Relief Society President was so nice and let me follow her to the orchard so I could find it, and she let Mr Liam stay at her house so I didn't have to worry about him. It was pretty toasty outside, but the kids and I got about and hour and a half work done. 

 Unfortunately that night Connor developed a nasty fever. I felt so, so bad! He was so exhausted he fell asleep without even getting his jammies on after his bath. He was burning up and I knew he really must not be feeling well, because he's my tough guy who doesn't do this unless he's feeling super lousy. 

 Tuesday I had a follow up appointment for Liam. I had the took check Connor's ears as well, but they were clear, so he figured both Connor and Eva must have caught a little virus. Liam however, we decided to run a full panel respiratory virus test on. The doc explained that the steroid should have knocked out any asthmatic reaction and since it didn't, he wanted to know what we're dealing that is inducing such severe wheezing. It would take several days for an answer though, so we added another med to the nebulizer breathing treatments and hoped it would help ease his breathing between now and when an answer would come. 

Unfortunately the next few days were BAD. 

Thursday I had 3 feverish kids, but these two little ones cried/screamed hysterically unless I held them. So... i found myself pinned under both of them for hours. I literally lost feeling in my arm and since I'd only had 3 hours of sleep on average the previous 2 nights, I let them sleep and had Caleb get dinner on his way home from work. 

That night Evelynn spiked a 103.8* fever. I was in a panic over it being that high, and then she started wheezing and coughing so much she wasn't sleeping. I was stressed out of my mind, but when she woke up the next morning she seemed totally fine. Liam was still wheezing, but since I still wasn't sure what was the cause, I didn't worry to much.

I decided that if fevers were gone and nothing bad was happening, I would have us all join Caleb to get an oil change in the car. The kids played with filthy, filthy toys that made me cringe, but they seemed relatively fine. 

 We had plans to meet up with my dad's cousin's family (Holly, who we spend a lot of time with when we were down in AZ) so since the fevers had appear to be a fluke or blew over real quick, we kept our plans and met up at the aquatic center. It wasn't too cold out, but the kids were shivering and thought the water was way too cold. It was a short swim for us all, but we were there for at least an hour. I didn't take very many pictures, unfortunately, but we did all go let the kids play at Chick-fil-a after. While we were there, the kids were acting just a bit off, and Eva felt a tad warm, but I figured it was just the combination of cold skin from swimming and stickiness of sunscreen plus the heat from running around. 

 Unfortunately, I was wrong. Again. And I felt soooooo bad about taking my sick kids out to meet up with family!!! After we got home and got the kids cleaned up and I checked temperatures, and to my dismay, Evelynn's was 104.4. Connor was at 102. They started coughing again, and Eva's wheezing began. I was so upset and worried, but I did remember to txt Holly and apologize and let her know. 

My sweet oldest child also gave me some snuggles to help distract my stress. 

The next night took a bad turn when Evelynn was coughing so hard and tossing and turning in her bed that she started puking after her uncontrollable coughing. Daddy and I had to tag team it to get her, me, and the floors all cleaned up. She was wheezing again as well, and I was so stressed. Thankfully the boys were both asleep, although still feeling unwell. Connor had gone to bed 30 mins early because he had been screaming and crying like he was exhausted, all because he had a cough. It was a nasty cough, but I did everything I could to help, and couldn't handle the screaming. 

Sunday I of course accepted that my kids were sick and would NOT being going to church. Caleb had made plans to go see a movie with his friends though, so I ended up having to stay home with the kids since Daddy couldn't be there with them. I decided to spend some time making headbands for the new baby girl my cousin had. Eva and I had a ton of fun with it! 

The next morning I called the doctor and asked to take Evelynn in to be seen. I was really worried with her coughing and fevers that spiked every night around 103, and hovered around 101 during the day. 

At the doc, they looked Evelynn over and then filled me in on the results of Liam's test. It turns out he had not only a cold, but also a very nasty influenza virus -- Parainfluenza 3. It is closely connected to bronchitis, pneumonia, and bronchiolitis, so he said it wasn't surprising Liam was so, so sick and we just need to monitor him closely to make sure he doesn't need hospitalization. For now, he figured maybe Evelynn had it to. With this virus, you're contagious BEFORE symptoms, so I was able to keep with our plans for the rest of the week. 

Tuesday was Evelynn's first day of dance camp!! She'd been so excited and anxious for this dance camp. The first day was Princess Day. 

 I had the boys with us, and at first it wasn't a big deal. But the longer we were there, the harder it was for Connor to handle the loudness and echoes of the music. He had colossal meltdown, which was hard to handle with the sleep deprivation I'd been dealing with, the sick baby who didn't want put down, and the little girl who was having stranger anxiety so bad she hardly wanted to participate at some points. 

I did grab some cute pictures in the few moments she was having fun though! 

After we got home that afternoon, the doc called to check on Eva and tell us that if she gets worse to bring her in for a nurse checkup so we don't have to pay ANOTHER copay. (cuz seriously, it has been one heck of a month with copays). 

That night after I got the kids in bed I had the opportunity to go help clean the temple. I didn't get home until about 1 am, but it was such a great experience! 

Wednesday was Pajama Day! 

When I had been at the temple the night before, I had mentioned the meltdown stress Connor had experienced and my wonderful Relief Society president had offered to let Connor come play at her house with her son instead of going. When I suggested to Connor he could go somewhere else instead of dance, he jumped at the chance. He told me "I go somewhere else... I don't like dance. It's too loud."

This day, Evelynn didn't cry as much and tried to participate in most of the activities. I did try to bribe her though, which resulted in a visit to the snow shack after dance was over and brother was picked up. 

Thursday, our last day of dance camp, was Swimsuit Day! Connor went to his friend's house again, which was great for me. 

I had hoped that day 3 would be a total breeze for Evelynn, but she was feeling really shy again and it was a bit rough. Smiles didn't come until the end when she got some fun toys!

Friday morning (the 17th) I woke up and decided to take Evelynn in to the doc (well, the nurse). She actually seemed to be doing better in some ways, but I still felt I should take her in and just have her seen before the weekend. I honestly thought they were going to roll their eyes at me and say she was doing much better, but that didn't happen. 

They checked her oxygen levels and listened to her and said they would talk to the doc, then came back in and said we needed to do a breathing treatment and check again. After the breathing treatment a new PA listened to Eva and said he would go tell the doc what was going on. The doc came in with him, listened, and then explained that they were hearing rattling on her right side, and they felt like they needed to do an x-ray and make sure she hadn't developed pneumonia. After the x-ray, the doc came in and said that it WAS pneumonia and that they wanted to be proactive and start her on antibiotics in case it is bacterial, but the also wanted to do the same respiratory virus panel that we had done on Liam to find out if she also has the parainfluenza, which is one of the more common causes of pneumonia and there wasn't anything to do to help a virus. She was put on breathing treatments and the antibiotic, and I felt relieved I had brought her in, but so so sad and stressed another of my babies was quite badly ill. 

As soon as I got back, we had to head to Salt Lake because Caleb's sister Shandrie was at Temple Square on a youth trip and we wanted to go down and see her. 

We met up with her at the city creek park and then did some walking around Temple Square for pictures. 

We even went into the FamilySearch center and got a fun picture taken! 

Shandrie had to go to baptisms about 2:30, so I made sure to grab pictures before we headed home. The kids were hot and emotional by the end of it, but all that walking in the heat and carrying kids (because we'd forgotten the stroller) was a good workout! 

 The next day I had Evelynn doing breathing treatments, but she wasn't too thrilled over it. 

Sunday was Father's Day!!! I figured since the kids weren't contagious, they were going to come to church with me. I got them dressed up and demanded pictures with Daddy, which he sweetly obliged. We only made it thru Sacrament Meeting before I started feeling unwell (dizzy, nauseous, and nearly blacked out). The kids weren't feeling 100% either, so we went home. 

We sure love this daddy! This picture just makes my heart sing. My cute little family! 

And incase you were wondering, for his Father's Day gift, the kids and I had planned all week to make him this gamer dad gift basket I had found on the DatingDivas blog. It was a big hit! Caleb loved it! :-) and the kids loved picking out the treats for daddy! 

 There were a bunch of others I didn't take closeups of, and I didn't pair them with the right stuff they were intended for every time. I think it was designed for x-box games, because you were supposed to give batteries and stuff, but we just got him a steam gift card and a bunch of treats and energy drinks and mt dews. He seemed to love it though! 

Monday was the start of SWIMMING LESSONS! I had wanted to keep up swimming lessons after how great it was last year for them. Connor was so excited and didn't hesitate at all to jump in with his class. We were a bit late arriving because a wreck had closed the road and I had to backtrack and go around another way which added 5+ minutes to our drive time. Unfortunately, Eva freaked after going in and wouldn't stay with her class. She ended up joining Liam and I in ducky dippers (an unstructured class for play in the kiddie area so they can get used to the water). 

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My cute kiddos! 

DAY 2: 

 We had made cookies the night before as encouragement for Evelynn to go to her right class, and I was so excited because she DID! And loved it! 

Although I kind of failed at getting good pictures, it was an overall success since they all went to their classes. 

Later we went to the gym, and when we got home I got a huge kick out of my little girl's dancing! These videos are must watches. Seriously. Her twirling is to die for! 

Watch another HERE. 

 DAY 3: 

Another great day, although Liam didn't appreciate me putting the diving ring on his head. He wanted to play with it, not find it!

To be honest, this was a crazy busy day for us. I had really wanted to hit the gym, so we got there as soon as the daycare opened and headed straight to swim from there. Wednesdays are also my volunteer day in the daycare, so later that afternoon we were back for more play. 

Watch this cute video HERE.

DAY 4:

We do swim mon-thurs for 2 weeks, so day 4 was our last day for this week. It was a blast though! The kids got to go in the lazy river with life vests to practice their floating and paddling. While they were doing that, Liam was finding himself a girlfriend. Well, more like she was finding him. A cute 16 month old in his class wanted to kiss him. He didn't seem to mind, but then she wouldn't stop. It was hilarious, and her mom and I were laughing so hard. He patiently endured each after the first couple with this look that said "what the heck, mom.... she's not stopping! are you seeing this?! ARE YOU GOING TO STOP THIS?!?! ...please?!... Girl... you gotta back down. I like ya... but I'm only 11 months and my mamma should be stopping this." I wish I'd had a video or a picture. It was so flipping funny. Great swim lesson day, though! 

We are excited for the final week of swim lessons next week, and hopefully after the 4th I'll have lots more fun things to post about, because we've got some fun plans coming up!! :-)