sarah's preschool thanksgiving party...11.17

[if you are bored, here's a link to last years' party...look how tiny baby jacob was!!!]

lauren's birthday party...11.14

its so nice to get the chance to just take sarah somewhere...thanks to nana watching the boys one saturday afternoon, sarah and i were able to enjoy some girls only time! we went to sarah's friend lauren's 5th birthday party [doesn't hurt that lauren's mom, lisa, is one of my good friends!] for a princess tea party! i LOVE how sarah and anna leigh ended up climbing a tree in their princess attire :)

poor sick little baby...11.12

sooooo...we had an interesting evening a few weeks ago! baby jacob had acted a little "off" during the evening hours and then was completely lethargic and didn't want to really wake up from his last nap that day.

then, about 9:30pm, he started screaming from his crib. when jake wakes up, he typically just starts babbling and singing...never crying. and definitely not like this. he was wailing. when i went to check on him he was screaming out in pain and cringing his whole body in pain. i stripped his clothes off to make sure he wasn't getting bitten by something...that's what his reaction seemed like. anyways...so, he kept doing this and was completely inconsolable...so i called the nurses line at our pediatrician's office. first time we have ever called the after hours line. i didn't realize we had to wait for a nurse to call us back...

so, we decided to head on to the ER ourselves...when we were driving there, he started vomiting. that even freaked me out more. my mind was racing with all the tidbits of information i learned in college and working in the hospitals. i was a basket case...

we got to the ER and they got us back immediately. everything was pretty routine...initial check looked pretty normal. tim slipped out to use the restroom, and that's when things got wild...baby jake had a febrile seizure. oh. my. goodness...the WORST moment of my life as a mommy.

that really freaked out the MD and nursing staff as well, since we weren't at a pediatric hospital. so, they started 2 IV's, put him on oxygen, and ordered a stat CT scan of his head and a stat chest x-ray...AND they called an ambulance to transfer us to lebonheur downtown...

[this was the most surreal moment of my life. i really felt like i was in a medical drama on tv. i just kept thinking, i can't be the mom standing here while the hospital staff is working on my baby...]

so, all the tests came back negative for anything serious, but they still felt we should be seen by a pediatric emergency physician...tim and baby jake rode in the ambulance and i followed in our car. when we got downtown, we waited for a while for the doctor to see us. baby jake was DONE at this point. he had been sleeping most of the time since his seizure. this whole wild ride began after he's normally been asleep for 3 or 4 hours to begin with!

so, the doctor comes in our room and does a quick exam and says everything looks normal. and then goes into the longest spiel i have ever heard about febrile seizures vs. a seizure disorder and ALL of the possible causes/treatments/prognoses. ugh! of course i was worried about the seizure, but what i was REALLY worried about was what caused his pain and screaming that led us to the ER to begin with! and all anyone could talk about after the febrile seizure was the febrile seizure!!!

so, we were sent home from the ER at 4:30am with a ton of educational information about febrile seizures and a prescription for a drug to give if jake were ever to have another febrile seizure that lasted longer than 5 minutes...we all fell into bed as soon as we got home. sweet baby had been sleeping since before he got in his car seat...

[i realize this is the world's longest story, but i rely on this blog to be my scrapbook of my kiddo's lives, so bare with me...this is mostly for me before i forget everything that happened!]

anyway...we tried to sleep most of the day to recover, and then headed to our regular pediatrician at 4pm for a follow up appointment...dr. bob checked jake out again and did repeat blood work which indicated we were probably dealing with a virus that was causing jake stomach pains and caused the spike in temperature resulting in the febrile seizure...

dr. bob pretty much summed up the whole thing [obviously he's a little more succinct that me :)] by saying, "jacob was normal before the seizure, and he's normal now. you and tim will NEVER be the same".

the pictures below are of jake's first ever sucker. poor guy was SO SO angry every time someone restrained him after all the junk he had to deal with in the preceding 24 hours. so, we decided he deserved a little treat/distraction during his blood draw. even though he still looks pitiful with his sweaty hair and sad, watery eyes, you can tell he enjoyed the sucker :)



p.s. baby jacob has been back to normal since about 2 days after all this mess. sweet little man gave us quite a scare!!!

rub a dub dub...11.11

an afternoon at the park...11.7

[baby jake was there as well...he was just hangin' in his stroller the whole time!]

sarah's preschool fall program...11.6

sweet church friends...11.4

L to R: drew, ava, cole, aiden, eva claire (triplets!), alli, and selah

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one wednesday after mops, all of the kiddos were running around crazy so one [brilliant] mom suggested they all pile onto this bench! these sweet little friends are all in the three year old class together and spend sunday and wednesday mornings together along with sunday and wednesday nights! [well, except for selah's little sister alli who is hiding behind her in the picture!] how special to think of these kids growing up together at church!

jake's hiding spot...11.4

guess you have to find a private spot where you can around our house...

official pictures from the pumpkin party...10.31

happy halloween!...10.31

my little knight in shining armor, frog, and princess...

the kids were so excited to run into the yorks in the parking lot on our way into the pumpkin party at church...

enjoying the inflatables...

chelsea and baby jake...

g.g and sarah concentrating hard on fishing...

drew takes his turn...

aunt josette helps drew play a game...

jacob and his friend jonah discussing life...

we met up with the littles to leave and go trick or treating in their neighborhood. mr. jason had BIG plans for us!

our first stop was at "the candy man's house"...this guy in their neighborhood sets up a table with tons of full size candy bars! a treat-or-treaters dream come true!!!

then we hit a few more houses...we had gone over all the etiquette with the kids. you know, say please and thank you, etc...DIDN'T realize we needed to specify that you do not enter any one's house NOR go chasing their dog into the living room! all of our kids were first time trick or treaters!!!

THIS huge thing is how we travelled the neighborhood. mr. jason strung up lights around the top of it and all 10 of us piled in! we were definitely a sight to behold!!!

a very hopped up on sugar little boy!!!
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[side note: last year i didn't get to attend any halloween festivities as i was in the hospital having jacob at about 5pm!!! i was so happy to see my big kids enjoy halloween this year!!!]