October

My 5am wake up crew

Dress up!  Jaxon didn't mind being dressed in Sierra's dolly clothes:)

Sierra's new "I'm mad at you face."  Try not to laugh when you are supposed to be serious!

Ready for a walk in the backpack!

Absolutely terrifying for every mama.  But such a proud moment too!

Beautiful fall weather!  Time for some kite flying.

And bubble blowing......

And corn dancing!

Our last harrah before daddy went back to work was a trip to the Harrison covered bridge.

We are in a princess dress up phase!

Daddy's home from work!  Pile on!

Apple cider making

So delicious!

"My beautiful mud is back!"  Her exact words.

I wish I could share her sentiments about the return of the rain.

    

Come and get me mommy!

A trip to the Muddy Creek Corn Maze

 

My sweet white pumpkin in a patch of orange ones.

Peoria Road Fruit Stand

 

A couple days before Halloween Jesse found himself back in the hospital.

Pumpkin carving

Jaxon was NOT afraid to get his hands dirty!

Poodle

And a lion

Daddy made it out just in time to take the kiddos trick or treating!

 This was quite a month of milestones for my big 8 month old boy!  He got two more upper teeth, started crawling on his knees more than army style (about two days after he turned 8 months old), starts really mimicing sounds, says hi and more, starting to learn and understand some sign language, pulls himself to stand, plays peek a boo, drinks out of a straw, claps his hands, is learning what no means, and is also learning to not put everything in his mouth.  Whew! 

Jess went back tow work on the 8th.  I managed to not cry, but the kiddos and I had some rough days.  Sierra was so sad to have lost the playmate that daddy had become and I missed someone there especially at nap and meal times.  But we made the adjustment.

The pathology came back on Jesse's appendix showing that it was not actually infected, and that surgery had not been necessary.  The surgeon said something is going on, because his appendix did appear inflamed.  But he basically told us we have to wait until Jesse gets worse, or possibly the dose of antibiotics that Jesse received in the hospital will "take care of whatever was infected."  Wow.  We made an appt with his regular Dr, and he basically said the same thing.  There is something called Mesentric Adenitis that mimics appendicits.  It is inflammation of some glands that are right in the same area.  Drs don't know a lot about it but think it is caused by a virus.  It usually clears up within a week.  I actually had the same thing before I got pregnant with Jaxon.  But they did an ultrasound first, and saw the inflammed glands, so I didn't get my appendix taken out.  They never did a scan on Jesse.  His white blood count was elevated, his pain was high and in the right area, and he had rebound pain in his abdomen, and so they removed his appendix hoping to do so before it ruptured.  

So we waited.  And he went back to work.  Then at the end of the month we were grocery shopping and he started hurting again all of a sudden.  This time the pain was more centralized instead of on the right side.  He hurt all through the night but went ahead and went to work the next day.  By 9 am he was hurting bad enough to go to immediate care who sent him to the ER.  I met him there and they decided to do a CT scan this time.  Genius.  The discovered some free air in his abdomen, a mass of inflammation around where his small and large bowel meet, and some possible diverticultis.  They were sure it wasn't diverticulits because he is "just too young".  Even though it runs rampant on his mom's side of the family.  The Drs met in the hall and whispered and looked on their computers and whispered some more.  Finally a surgeon came in and said that he believed Jesse probably had Crohn's disease and that they were going to admit him tot the hospital, give him some antibiotics, and see where to go from there.

He was admitted on the 29th and released on the 30th.  The antibiotics seemed to help right away but he was also sent home with a two week supply.  His blood count went back down again and the pain pretty much went away.  He had to stay home from work again and they said if the pain came back to go to the ER again and that he needed to make a follow up appointment with a Gastroenterologist.  So we left the hosptial thinking he had Crohn's and wondering if his possible "peforated colon" (they were worried about this because of the free air in his abdomen) would heal itself or get worse.  We were feeling pretty confused.  We didn't get much info from the Drs, they couldn't really answer our questions, and we were just sent back out into the real world with no instructions on how to manage what was going on.  So we've got an appointment with a Gastro next month, and here's to hoping that my husband who has been healthy for the last 30 years does not have Crohn's.  

On a positive note, Jesse got released in time to take the kids trick or treating!  Sierra had a blast and Jaxon was mesmerized by all of the people.  We mostly just took them to the downtown Corvallis stores after their nap.  Then we took Sierra to a few houses in my Grandmas neighborhood.  She had a wonderful time, and now I have a stash of candy that will probably last till Christmas:)  

Sierra seems to have got over her tiny aggressive spell with her brother.  She mostly gets disgusted if he drools on her toys, but she is great at sharing, or if he has one of her special toys (ie a beloved baby or blanky) she will trade with him - meaning she finds him a suitable toy and takes hers back.  If he fusses while I'm trying to get a meal ready or in the car, she sings or makes funny faces at him and is very successful at getting him to calm down.  She's really has done so well in the transition to sisterhood that I can't believe that I was worried about a few minor spells that Jaxon was absolutely oblivious to.  

I love to watch Sierra's imagination grow.  We can get into some serious make believe conversations.  She loves to lay on her bed while Jaxon is napping and we both pretend to "read" stories.  She takes a book and makes up a story, and then it's my turn, and repeat.  She also comes up with some great songs.  She is missing her dance class and I think we will sign her up again next season.  She has such a lovely sense of humor and makes us laugh so hard on many occasions.  She's turning into such a little girl.  My baby is disappearing right before my eyes.  You hear time and time again when your children are tiny that it goes by so fast.  I cannot imagine how it will feel when she heads off to school, on her first date, to college, or walks down the aisle.  Just typing this sentence and thinking about it makes me weep.  How in the world do parents survive it.  For now, I hold her close, try not to think too hard about those things, and I rock her back and forth, back and forth, every night and tell her that as long as I'm living, my baby she'll be.

September

Asian pear harvest!  Our tiny tree actually had some beautiful fruit this year!

Happy bubble boy

Two boys happy to be reunited after daddy's appendectomy

Sierra sure loves to sing and we are trying to allow her to explore her gifts....

A little drumming is fun too!

I was transported back to my childhood many times this summer!  We spent hours playing "cook."  Petunia seeds make great pepper, succulent leaves are lettuce, spent petunia blossoms add some color to the salad too:)

Still mostly scootching, but we get some real crawling in too.  He sure gets places quick!

Let's go Beavers!

Stylin!

Helping prep apples for.....

Applesauce and

Dried apples

When daddy started feeling better we made a trip to Mary's peak!

It was the most beautiful day!

We could not have asked for a better day!

Love my babies!  I got to nurse Jaxon on this very rock:)  Beautiful day, beautiful view, happy children, I felt like mother nature herself!

Sierra took a few moments to praise God for his creation:)

We also took the tripod up the road for a family photo shoot.

We were striving for perfect pictures

But most of them turned out like this, so we just went with it!

This one turned out pretty great though!

This child gets into EVERYTHING already!

September was an interesting month!  It started out similar to the past several months but took a crazy turn when Jesse started feeling sick the day after my birthday (Sept 12).  He thought he had ate something bad or was getting the flu.  He went to work the next day anyway (against his wife's advice) and called me mid morning and asked "what side is your appendix on?"  He was having a hard time walking and in a lot of pain and so he scheduled an appointment for 3:30 in the afternoon with his primary care physician.  When he called me and said his appointment was at 3:30 I told him he should not wait that long and go to immediate care.  He took my advice.  After several hours of waiting in immediate care they concluded after taking a blood test and seeing that his white blood cell level was elevated that he had appendicitis and needed emergency surgery.  They did not take a CAT scan saying that waiting any longer could result in it rupturing and that his elevated blood count and severe pain in the exact area of his appendix was proof enough for them.  GULP.  I left the kiddos with my mom and headed to go with him to prepare for surgery.

By 1:30 he was on the operating table.  I was told it would take an hour to an hour and a half for the surgery to be finished.  I waited in the waiting room and after 45 minutes was told by the volunteer at the hopstial that I needed to come with her because the surgeon needed to talk to me.  I stood up and almost passed out.  It was half of the time they told me it was going to take so I was terrified that something had gone horribly wrong.  I started sweating and as I weaved over to the phone my hands were shaking so bad that I could hardly put the phone to my ear.  Then the Dr. said everything went great, his appendix was out already and there were no other signs of infection.  I was so relieved!  It never crossed my mind that he would get out of surgery early.  Ye of little faith.  After an hour or so he was out of recovery and I was able to go see him.  That evening he had lots of family visitors and I stayed with him until about 8 and then headed to his parents house to pick up Jaxon for the night.  They kept Sierra for me which was very helpful. 

Jaxon and I headed back to the hospital first thing in the morning and Jesse was finally able to order some food around 10am and was discharged around 11.  We then had some rough days.  I tried to take care of my kids and my husband.  My in pain/grumpy/feverish husband.  I did not do it very gracefully.  The next evening Jesse's parents kept both kids overnight and we ended up in the emergency room because Jesse continued to have a fever of 102 pretty much all Friday even on pain meds.  They concluded that there was no sign up infection but that the anesthesia from the surgery created some fluid in his lungs and that was what was giving him the fever.  The next few days are a blur and all I know is that somehow we all survived.

6 days post surgery Jaxon woke up crying at 4 am and I nursed him as usual and he spit up all over my bed while he was nursing.  He has reflux pretty bad but it was a huge amount of puke.  I changed his jammies and picked him up to put him back in his crib and he started to vomit again.  Not spit up, but projectile vomit, heaving out his whole entire feeding.  It hit the wall, it hit the floor, and we were both soaked.  I had a small heart attack.  Sierra is over 3 years old and has never had the pukes.  So as he continued to heave until there was nothing left to vomit, I tried not to have a panic attack.  He's just so little!  He finally vomited up some tummy bile and then passed out in my arms.  I called our Dr's answering service and was told to let him sleep as much as possible, nurse him only 5 minutes at a time every 30 minutes while he was awake and then move that up to 10 minutes every 30 to 60 minutes after 4 hours vomit free.  I was also told to call them if his fever went over 101.  And of course, our Dr. isn't in on Wednesdays.  Awesome.  Jesse's mom came over on cleanup duty, and on operation calm a FREAKING out Megan.  She did both.  Jaxon managed to keep everything down from there on out but started getting a fever.  He had a fever for the next 3 or 4 days.  We took him to the Dr on the 2nd day and they checked him for a bladder infection, strep, but concluded that it was most likely a virus or possibly roseola but usually vomiting doesn't happen with roseola.  We waited it out and after 4 days he did get a roseola rash.  When it rains it pours right?

After the first 10 days post surgery, things improved.  Jesse started feeling way better, Jaxy got over his sickness, and we started to enjoy each others company again:) The Dr had given Jesse a 20lb weight limit restriction for a month after his surgery.  Jesse was expecting to go back to work on light duty, but his boss would not let him come back to work until he was 100 percent.  So we had two more weeks of him being home and we took advantage of it!  We spent some lovely days at home enjoying the sunshine, took a trip to Mary's Peak, the coast, bounce house.  If we needed to run to Costco, we did!  If we wanted to have lunch in town as a family, we did!  There was TWO of us to put TWO children down for their naps, and TWO of us to feed BOTH children at lunch.  Jesse was not able to hold Sierra or Jaxon in his car seat, but I always had backup and it was so good for my soul!  I was able to take more than a two minute shower.  I may have even shaved my legs.  That's a big deal!  It was pretty awesome. I'm going to go through some serious withdrawals when he goes back next month. 

Our normal schedules kind of went out the window this month.  Sleep training Jaxon was put on hold when Jesse had his surgery.  I was putting both of the kids down by myself at first and I just did what was easiest.  And even after Jesse started feeling better, we still were just off kilter and Jaxon usually ended up getting nursed or rocked to sleep.  He started doing terribly at night too.  He did get two upper teeth this month and that always throws us for a loop.  He's been waking up 2 sometimes 3 times a night and where he was at one point sleeping until 7 am after his 4 or 5AM feeding, he has now decided that 4 or 5 is a good time to wake up and stay up.  Now we have two early risers.  Even with Jesse home, I feel like I am sinking into a black sleepless hole.  It's rough enough to get only a few hours of sleep at night, but when you add starting your day that early with two busy little ones to that and you've got the recipe for a crazy mama.  Just when you start to make progress, everything changes.  A cold, teething, a new milestone is reached (rolling over and into the bars of the crib repeatedly, crawling into the bars repeatedly), and you move back what feels like 10 steps.  And then, you start again.  And again.  And again.  Maybe that's partly where the crazy comes from.

Jaxon hasn't mastered a whole lot of new skills this month.  He's still working on crawling.  He gets around really fast army crawling, and gets some real crawling in once in a great while, but usually drops right back down to his belly because he can scootch so much faster.  He sits up unsupported but just wants to go, so as soon as I set him on his bottom be flops over and heads off to explore.  He has started feeding himself.  Cheerios and other snacks make it into his mouth instead of just getting sprinkled on the floor.  He continues to enjoy new foods and it's fun to let him try new things.  

Sierra has loved having her daddy home.  They have become best buds and she is enjoying being able to have some undivided attention.  With two of us home, both of the kids are able to get one on one time WAY more than normal.  It's going to be such an adjustment for them when he goes back to work.  I'm trying so hard not to dread it!  I'm really working on trying to be a more positive person and instead of dwelling on the fact that Jesse has to use up all his sick leave and vacation, and that we are going to have at least a couple thousand dollars in medical bills that will probably be due right at Christmas, we have been able to spend some quality time as a family.  I think I can, I think I can......