Chloe Pictures from Hospital

 Chloe playing with the stethoscope.

 Poor sick baby girl.

 All better!

Chloe taking her baby for a walk.  She is starting to walk behind movable objects now. I have to be in front of her, otherwise the object would go too fast.

This morning I had to wait for the washer repair man to show up and fix our washer.  We bought it in 2009 and got the 4 year warrenty as well.  Good thing, huh?  Well, let me share a story with everyone.

I went outside to shovel snow as the repair man was going to show up soon (he called and said he was).  I don't know why I shoveled as the snow was falling pretty good at the time. Right now it doesn't look like I did a thing, oh well. Good exercise.  The guy showed up and I took him to the washer in the basement. I tell him the error the machine was saying (it's a front loader).  He starts to put a call into the service center to find out what to do, but they were busy and had him waiting. He turns on the machine to start a load and hears a click and says "I think something clogging the drain pipe." He asked if I had googled the error message. Nope didn't even think about it.  So he has his netbook and googles it and it says "clog of some sort."  Well the dandy of the story is there are clothes in the washer, with a lot of water so the door is locked.  He opens the access panel to get the door unlocked, and then opens the door.  Some water comes spilling out on the floor. I grab some old towels that were close buy to soak the water up.

I believe by now he hung up on the service center because he knows the problem.  He tells me that a clog is not covered under warrenty and I'll have to do it myself or pay $147.  He said I just needed the shop vac, so I went and got it, got down to the access panel and slowing started vaccuming water from the drain. This took a bit of time as I couldn't open the drain access completely or water would be everywhere. He did help me dump the water from the shop vac once as it had filled up.  When I finally got the water out, I opened the access to the drain.  It's kind of like a cap that screws off, not sure how to describe it.  Low and behold, there was the culprit - one of Chloe's socks.  It had twisted itself enough to get sucked into the drain.  Man, all those clothes smelled bad.  I washing them now and probably again and again to see if I can get the smell out.  Don't worry it was mostly Joel's sleep pants : ) Nothing that important.  The repair man says "since you did the work yourself, I won't charge you."  Gee thanks.

Maybe I can become a certified repair woman.   This worked out way better than I thought and way better than someone suggesting we just buy a new washer.  No thanks.  Good think Joel's mom had given us her old one so I could use that.  I think the washer broke on Saturday - that's why the clothes in it are super stinky. Although, I'm not sure which is worse.  The smelly clothes or the stupid skunk that's been outside our house at night for the past couple of nights except last night because of the snow.  At least the clothes I can attempt at getting clean and smelling good, otherwise they will be thrown away.  Can't get rid of the skunk so quick.  I did read that if we soak old clothes in ammonia and put those outside, that will repel skunks.  I might even be able to use some of the clothes from the washer.

Time to get some more work done.

Hope you like the pictures. I wanted to post some of Kylie's birthday but the formatting won't work. Maybe later.

Happy Birthday Kylie!

Kylie's birthday was yesterday. She turned 4.  That was a great day and such an easy pregnancy, I really enjoyed it. Kylie received some great presents this year, I think her favorite is the cash register. She also got a couple of Strawberry Shortcake DVD's, a Crayola Trace N Draw, a tea set, and some other smaller things. She might get a Barbie if I can find where I put it. I have no clue what happen to it, it was on the dinning room table and then was moved so Kylie wouldn't see it.  Oh well, might become a Christmas present.

Chloe went for a follow up today and got the clean bill of health.  We could tell she was doing lots better on Sunday, she just crawls everywhere and gets into everything.  Yesterday she loved crawling over one of the birthday boxes, back and forth, back and forth. She keeps us busy.

I haven't been feeling the best lately so not up to writing too much, or posting pictures. A relaxing weekend will help (I hope).

Chloe is Home!

Chloe came home today. It took a long time to get her discharged as the pharmacy was backed up, then the one med wouldn't be covered under Medicaid but a different dosage of it would be?? I can't figure that one out. Then they forgot to put the one med that needs to be refrigerated in the bag, so I had to go back and get it. Good thing we don't live that far away. Chloe's doing well. It nice to see her not hooked up to everything. It gets hard to hold her when they have to monitor heart, oxygen, and respiratory, plus the IV. Today she was trying to move all over her crib, pulling at the wires. So happy to be home. I can sleep in my own bed tonight! So can Chloe.

Thank you for all your prayers!

Hospital

Yesterday, Chloe was not doing well. She actually hasn't been doing well all week.  But yesterday she sounded bad and she wouldn't play, just wanted to be held. I was at work in the morning and then I leave at noon so Joel can go to work. He called and said he didn't like how Chloe was doing.  I thought I better get her in to see someone. The doctor's office closes at noon on Wednesday, so that wasn't an option. I had taken Chloe home and she seemed okay, but I did not like her cough.  We went to the DeVos Children's Hospital's ER.  She tested positive for Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).  It is a very common virus that leads to mild, cold-like symptoms in adults and older healthy children. It can be more serious in young babies, especially to those in certain high-risk groups. They kept her overnight for observation.

This morning, the doctor said they need to get things under control, she needs to maintain oxygen levels on her.  So now she is in the hospital for who knows how long, maybe a couple of days, maybe longer.  Doesn't help I have a cold right now. Most likely she picked this up from the new day care she's at. She was there 4 and a half days.  Because of her prematurity and her chronic heart (the pulmonary valve) the treatment is a bit different.  Sounds like we'll have to give her breathing treatments for at least a month or longer.

I'm staying at the hospital (writing this at home because I can't seem to get to blog from my phone, but they have computer there).  Last night I slept in a not so comfy chair. Tonight there is a couch that converts to a full size bed - yipee.
I've got to get back to Chloe.  My poor little girl.

Another Birthday Photo

Is it Time for Medication?

I am going crazy.  I'm not so crazy at home when I'm with Chloe but when I'm not with her, I can't help but worry, worry, worry.  We know she has an ear infection and she's taking stuff for that.  Last Friday she had her 1 year well child appointment. She needed 5 immunizations. I feel like I should have split those up now. She went home early from day care because she was running a temperature there. I think it was because of those shots as a few of the information sheets said fever can be a side effect.

I was gone this weekend at a scrapbook B&B.  It was great, I had a wonderful time.  My group was actually the first one this couple hosted.  If I didn't know that, I wouldn't have guessed it, they did a wonderful job. We all loved the valet service provided. They would get out the quad with a small wagon and put all our stuff in and go around the house to unload as everything is in the basement. The food was good, it's already a plus when I don't have to cook. Saturday night we had these to die for desserts, gooey brownie a la mode right from the oven - yum.

I didn't want to be depressed while scrapping (if I worked on baby books) so I decided to work on a book from our recent Arizona trip. I thought I would be able to get the whole thing done, but I'm not that fast. I had to decided which pictures to put in the book and how the pages will look. I learned how to use a Cricut, which comes in handy as I received one for Christmas, the same exact one at this B&B. If I had gotten the trip done I still had some Kylie pages to do from 2 years ago.

But while I was scrapping, I was worried about Chloe. She worries me more because I don't know if she's normal. With preemies, you have to be on higher alert it seems.  Maybe that's when they've had breathing issues or other problems. I don't know. I hope she's a normal child like Kylie. I wouldn't worry about Kylie so much if she was the one sick.  Kylie has had high fevers that would just go away in a couple of days, very strange. I hope that will be Chloe.  I remember a Caring Bridge post awhile ago that I mentioned a Bible verse about Jesus saying "Don't worry about tomorrow." It's in our nature to worry.  I pray to God and say "God, I hope I'm doing the right thing for Chloe, please protect her and keep her safe." I know what's going on when I'm with her. My minds thinks bad things when I'm not with her - even if Joel is watching her. I offered to stay home all day today to monitor her myself even though Joel is working late this week and has taken care of her in the morning and then brings her to work and we do a switch a roo and I take her home.

That's why I feel like I need some medication to calm my anxiety.  I don't want to take medication and I actually haven't (it's hard to believe I know). I can really understand why some people need to, you'd go crazy.   I feel so out of it sometimes, like I don't know what I'm suppose to be doing. (Don't tell my work that.)

I also have to share my Valentine's present from Joel. Chocolate covered strawberries he made himself and he added a pink coating to them as well.  This is very sweet and funny because last night we both discovered that we would be doing the same thing for each other because he saw the strawberries I bought (his were in the downstairs refrigerator so I didn't see them). I did the same for him but I did only chocolate and add cinnamon and cayenne pepper to it to a a little bit. It's like Mayan chocolate and it's so good.

Chloe's First Birthday

The Rest of Vacation

To continue with what we did on vacation, I'll try to finish this time.
Wednesday Joel and I got some alone time so we went to a ghost town north of Yuma. It was an interesting place and only became a ghost town in 1979 when it was more expensive to separate the lead and silver from the galena silver that was mined there. Then just the two of us had dinner. Kylie got to go swimming with Grandpa while we were out.
Thursday was a laid back day, doing a bit of shopping and swimming. We went out for dinner at Burgers and Beer. It was good food. On Friday is was time to return home, so we drove the 3 hours to Mesa to get on our plane that left at 1:45.  Something crazy that happened was we were standing in line to check in for our flight to Grand Rapids and I look over and see a woman from my home town. Her and her husband were spending the winter in Mesa and her daughter lives in Grand Rapids and needed someone to watch her children while her babysitter went on vacation. So this woman was flying to GR. What a small world! She was telling me all these other people from town that are also in this RV park.  I don't know who's left in my hometown (my parents : )!  )

I think I forgot to mention the fun thing we did on Sunday (and if I already did, sorry).  Joel, Kylie and I went to a camel farm!  There were about 10-15 camels, some chickens, a zebra/donkey mix, sheep, donkeys, ostrich, emu, wallaroo, baby camel, and lots of goats. It was more a goat farm but that's okay. We got a cup of feed and got to feed most of the animals. Kylie loved feeding the goats.

I'm sure I forgot some things.  I just might scrapbook the trip this weekend as I'm going on a scrapbook weekend. It's close to home unlike the one I go to in July which is on the other side of the state.

The girls are liking their new school so far too. Kylie asks "after bed, what is it?" I tell her school and she says "yea!"

New School

We dropped Kylie and Chloe off at their new day care yesterday.  It's bigger than their old one, more kids. Everything went well though. When we got there, we took the quick tour as it was our first time in the building.  The infants have two ones plus the separate crib room. Chloe is in the Wobbler room as she's the age that she's going to wobble around.  She had a good day yesterday and today. I had called at noon yesterday to see how everything was going and they said Chloe only cried when she pooped, like we told them she would, as she sometimes has problems pooping.
Kylie also had a good day yesterday and today. I was concerned as she can be shy and she was at first - glued to my hip.  When we got done getting Chloe settled it was time for Kylie to have breakfast and she was hungry so she was happy to sit down. It does help that one of her old teachers is the lead teacher in her room, the Purple room. She can't remember any of her new friends names yet but that should come soon.

The one big problem with the place is the traffic on the main road, it's hard to make a left hand turn during the busiest parts of the day, which is when we drop off and pick up.

I try and write more later. I've got to get Kylie showered and to bed.

Arizona Continued

I should have changed the title on the other post as it was mainly about child care, but oh well. Since it's nap time I thought I'd talk about Arizona.
We flew into Phoenix last Friday night, the plane was delayed so we didn't get there until 11:30 local time. We went to the hotel we booked for the night and hit the sack. The next morning we had breakfast and then Joel's dad and step mom, Pete and Barb, picked us up to take us to Yuma. It was nice we didn't have to spend the money to rent a car. Yuma is about a 3 hour drive from Phoenix.
Once we got to Yuma, we went to the RV Park that Pete and Barb stay in. It's a nice park. Yuma has hundreds of parks like theirs that snow birds stay in. They said a lot of Canadians go to Yuma, which we did see the licenses plates. We just relaxed for the rest of the day and then went to our hotel room that night. The room was interesting as we booked a suite. The door opens to the living space with a kitchenette to the left and the bedroom straight. There is a sink in the bedroom but I didn't see the toilet or shower. Those items are found just off the kitchenette. So when you use the toilet you have to then walk all the way around to the sink in the bedroom to wash hands. I started to put a towel by the kitchen sink so we could wash there as that's only 2 steps out of the bathroom.  It was okay because we didn't spend too much time in our room anyway.

Sunday we went to church. I was not expecting, even though I should have, the Prayer Quilts.  People from the congregation make the quilts that include pieces of yarn knotted to the quilt, the knots representing someone has prayed for the person. Chloe and Faith received Prayer Quilts last year. I was holding Chloe putting her to sleep when three quilts were brought to the front. I lost it. I started to cry. Luckily my hair was down and I could kind of hide my face. It took me some time to recover from the moment but by the end of church I was fine again.  After church we headed to the 99 cent store which is a hoax because everything is .9999 cents so it rings up as $1.00. It must be they can't be called dollar stores or sell things for a dollar, something like that. We also went to the grocery store. Joel and I picked up some Mexican pop which we had with lunch. We went swimming at the park's heated pool that afternoon. Kylie loved it. She loves being in the water. We need to get her swimming lessons so she can swim without assistance. Chloe seemed to love the water too.  She had big smiles on her face when she was held, she didn't like the baby swim thing we put her in. It was nice the pool is heated as in the morning and evening the temperature is in the 50's and I guess they had winds from the Santa Ana's blowing. The days were in the 70's, cooler in the shade, warmer in the sun. Better than anything Michigan was having. (Although today here it's mid 40's and sunny - for February!)

Monday Pete and Barb watched the girls and Joel and I went into Mexico. Yuma is on the California border and when you enter California and go a mile or so, there's a town in Mexico just over the border called Los Algondonas (not sure on spelling). We went there in the late morning and left mid-afternoon. Joel wanted some stained glass for our house, which I didn't want. I settled on letting him have one piece for a window in our downstairs. I told him "I like to look out the windows" He says the glass would go on the top half. I said "where do you think I look out the window from?"  I look out of the top half because I'm not short and I don't always want to bend down to see out. He couldn't find anything that would fit his price (yes!). I would have been okay with it but I need to get a little more use to the idea. I had to laugh at him when he was in one store and trying to tell the guy he didn't want a bunch of colors and no animals or plants. The guy kept showing him animals, plants, lots of colors. : ) We ended up buying some nice looking liquor bottles and two small purses, for the girls.

Tuesday we went to the Yuma prison. That was interesting, I wish I could have heard more of what the tour guide was saying but I think I got the gist of it. I was watching Kylie as I wasn't sure how interested she would be. She did well.  Chloe did well too. They are good kids.

I'll continue this later, Chloe woke up from nap. I just weighed her and she is 23 pounds 5 oz. I thought she'd be heavier but she is a little mover, always on the go.  She is pulling herself up to stand and she has also figured out how to sit back down. Big girl!

Arizona

Not sure I'll post all this in one blog as it's 10:50PM. But in Arizona it 8:50PM.  This past week we went on vacation to visit Joel's dad and stepmom in Yuma, Arizona where they spend the winter months. So my last post about nothing going on was not correct but I don't want to tell the world "Hey we're not home." Although I don't know if it would have mattered since we did have someone looking after our cats.  I didn't post through this past week because there really wasn't too much time to and the hotel's wifi was horrible. Joel tried to connect and he would get on for 2 seconds then get kicked off. I did a lot through my phone Facebook and email. I say this because we had a little crisis.  I say little because it's nothing compared to what we were going through last year.
On Sunday, our daycare notified all the parents that they had to close their doors effective immediately.  I'm not sure why it was done on Sunday and not on Friday just to give parents a little time to find another place. They owed some back taxes and I guess they couldn't take on any more debt.  Friends that also had their kids at the same place called to tell us the news and offered to pick up anything left of the girls. We did have Chloe's food and diapers there so we will get those back.  This left us worrying on Sunday what to do and where to go. I kept checking Facebook to see what others were doing or saying. On Monday morning Joel started making calls to see what options we had.  It's one thing if we were choosing to switch daycare but it's a whole different story when there are how many other families looking for daycare as well.  So we choose one based on location, recommendations, and price. It wasn't fun doing on vacation but we did it and hopefully we've got everything taken care of  and the girls are ready to go on Monday.
We sat down with Kylie to let her know that she won't be going back to her old school. We try and tell her every day but I don't know if it will sink in until we show up on Monday. I told her today that she isn't a Clifford anymore, she will be in the Purple Room. She was excited and ask to go see it. I told her on Monday we would. I hope she has some friends there so it's not completely strange and new. It sounds like one of her old teachers will be her new teacher as the staff from our old daycare also need jobs.
We know Chloe should adjust with no problems.
It's just sad that the girls won't have their same teachers anymore and that we won't see them or some of the other friends. I know it would happened eventually when they went off to kindergarten but that's over a year away for Kylie.
More about AZ later.