Graydon's hospitalization

So I had a darkly humorous post about our first few weeks as a family of four. We had a rough go of it...mom with an episiotomy (aka "the devil's laceration") which literally hobbled me for a week, a sick toddler, a sick dad, and a brand new baby with a broken clavicle and a circumcision. That was tough but still kind of funny...it was the kind of stress where you can laugh or cry and we mostly chose to laugh.

Now of course things are serious. And we are not laughing very much. I'm sitting here in the pediatric ICU watching my son 's chest heave with each breath he takes. He is working hard just to keep up his oxygen levels. And it is heartbreaking.

The good news is that Graydon's life is not in danger. I want to say that first of all. Yes, he is very sick. But this is not a life threatening thing, at least for Graydon. It is just a life crappening thing. And yes I just invented that phrase.

G started to show symptoms on Saturday. Tim was in New Orleans at a course and I called my friend Jen (a PICU nurse) to come check little Gradycakes out. She and her husband (Tim's fellow ortho resident) checked him out and thought he was ill but not in dire shape. Terri, my stepmother-in-law and a family practice doc, very kindly drove down from the Cities to spend the night and help me assess Graydon. She agreed that he had some congestion but felt he was basically OK. G seemed tired but fairly normal on Sunday until that evening.

Tim had flown home that day and we decided together that I would take Graydon into the E.R. I took him in at 11 pm and they admitted him almost immediately. Truly, I was shocked...I thought we would get a nebulizer treatment and they'd send us home. Not so much.

Graydon has bronchiolitis, probably caused by RSV. This requires him to have help breathing properly, which is why he is in the Peds ICU. The upper right lobe of his right lung collapsed and he is also spiking some high fevers. Right now, Graydon is on high flow oxygen and he is occasionally on CPAP treatment...which is basically a medieval torturel looking device that jhelps keep his airways open. G is also on a nasal feeding tube. He is basically a mass of wires and tubes. It is really sad to see.

The good news is that Graydon is doing well, all things considered. This illness usually peaks around day 5 or 6, and that is where we are right now . His doctors are pleased with his progress though they continue to prepare us for some rough days before the little guy really turns the corner. We will likely be here for another week.

I will try to continue updating, though some of that depends on how tired I am and how things progress. Thanks so much for all the kind words of support and all the offers of help and especially thanks for the prayers and positive thoughts so many people are sending our way. We are all hanging in there.

A Great Big Catch Up Post

The big photo catch-up from the past few weeks, aka "The Grandparents' Section"

Mmmm...powdered sugar doughnuts for Sunday breakfast. Her expression is so "Why are you taking my picture this early, lady?"

Helping me make cookies. This was interesting. She kept throwing in random spoonfuls of flour. (They actually did turn out nicely though!)


A family walk at Quarry Hills. Well, Tim and I walked. Addie ran.
At least she's running away from the light at the end of the tunnel!
Getting in the pack with Dad. She wasn't too happy about this, she wanted to keep running.
Free at last, and hanging out with "the boys"

My favorite series from the day

This one is so Addie, it makes me laugh out loud. What joy!


My sweet little girl
In other Ewald family news, I have to laugh at my little "journey to domestic goddess-hood" tag up on the top there. That was always firmly "tongue in cheek", but it seems even funnier now...given that I just got a job, that is.

The job itself is nothing too spectacular or demanding. I'm now an "internet evaluator", which is basically exactly what it sounds like. I work from home, make my own schedule, and I basically conduct searches for this company and rate tasks for them. They have a huge book of guidelines and I'm still learning their coding process. All of my free time in the past week or so was spent 1)applying to this job, 2) taking the 8 hour exam for this job, and 3) setting up my computer and accounts for this job after I got it. So that partially explains my delay in blogging.

If you're wondering "Why?", I think this is God's way of telling me not to even attempt to go for domestic goddess territory. I'm going to have to be content with domestic mortal, I'm afraid. :-) No, in all seriousness, this was something I wanted to do to supplement our family's income and to close my resume gap, just a little bit. And it's a nice compromise between a "real" job and my commitment to being with our little ones while they're so young.

And I do still plan to pursue my self designed curriculum for becoming a better cook, a greener cleaner, and a craftier mama but it's going to have to be at a slower pace. So I'll redesign that and I'll share it with you all. Or at least that's my plan.

The other delay in blogging has been that we all got our first nasty cold of the season. Poor Addie looks like she's wearing a mask these days. A nice balaclava composed of...well, you can guess. Girlfriend hates getting her nose wiped, but also hates having a runny nose. The kinda sorta funny thing is that she's learned how to blow her nose, which is great! "What could be bad about that?", you wonder. Well, she likes to seize any random piece of material that's handy...kitchen towels, washcloths, my pants, the couch cushions...and really go for it. She blows her nose with gusto, I'll say that for her. I have to laugh even when I'm really freakin' frustrated with the smears o snot everywhere. We're working on that.

As for as Baby E2 goes, he or she is kicking right along. I myself feel totally exhausted from being sick, but it doesn't seem to have gotten Little Nugget down a bit. This pumpkin is still doing its calisthenics on the regular, which I love. Poor Tim is probably tired of me insisting that he have his hand on my stomach for many long minutes at a time to marvel at yet another kick/stretch/roll. It just doesn't get old to me.

Even though we have three more months to go before E2 makes an appearance, I've already washed and hung up all the baby neutrals and dragged the baby girl stuff into a handy place...just in case. We've got a lot of moving to do to get things settled. The office is coming out into our new office space, the guest room is moving to the old office, and Adelaide is moving to the old guest room. The baby is going into Addie's nursery. I've got my "concept" for Addie's new room down, which I'll share at a later date. I just need OTS to end so that I can get my husband back and we can actually do some of our projects!