Kyle Brandt Adams-The Saga Part 2

That first night in the hospital was not too terrible since I was still so numb.  Don got the honor of the first diaper change since I could still hardly move!  On Sunday after the kids left me, Ashley and DJ came to visit for a while.  Then Dena and the girls came by to see us too. We saw our pediatrician Sunday too.  He is a new doctor for us who Dr. Abberman recommended since we did not specify anyone in particular.  We told him about the trouble I was having getting Kyle to nurse and that I thought it was because he had such a tiny chin and jaw.  He was not overly concerned about it but did check him out to make sure there was nothing else going on-which there wasn't.  He said that it was not such a big deal to get him to nurse but just to eat.  We really like Dr. Zilberman and he is pretty thorough and explains things to us alot more than other doctors we have had.

I had been trying to nurse Kyle since they brought him to me after I was taken to my room but he would not cooperate very well.  He has a tiny chin and small jaw and it just seemed that he could not get his mouth open wide enough to nurse.  I got him to do it once on one side but not really enough.  After he was about 20 hours old and I had been trying to nurse every 2 hours they started checking his blood sugars.  They were pretty low and kept getting lower which made him more tired and less able and willing to nurse.  I asked for the lactation consultant but she was not there on the weekends and she was not going to be there on Monday either so I just had my nurses who tried to help us but we were having very little success.  It seemed like if he did start to suck it got less and less.  Finally Sunday night the nursery decided that he needed to eat so that he could get his blood sugar up so they gave him a bottle.  I did try to nurse for about 10 minutes to no avail and then we gave him the bottle. 

We kept up the nurse first/ then bottle routine all night.  Don went home around 8pm after a long day. I really should have had him stay that night too but I had no idea how hard it was going to be getting in and out of bed and trying to get to the bathroom and also trying to get the baby out of his bed and me back into my bed.  That second night I had to buzz my nurse to come and help me every time I needed to get Kyle because I just could not do it.   It was a very long and hard night.  At one point I got up to go to the bathroom and had to call my nurse in come and help me get back to bed because I started shaking so bad.  That happened a few times and I just figured it was from shock, pain and overexertion.  It took a good 5 minutes to stop shaking and my husband did not like that at all.  It was very much like the shakes after delivery but I had never had them keep happening before

During the night the nurse said that she needed to check Kyle's bilirubin levels.  She had this head scanner thing that she ran across his forehead. She said the levels were high on that machine so she needed to have the lab draw some blood to check the blood levels.  The lab came in around 3 and by 9am they said the levels were too high and he would need to go under the lights in the nursery.  That made me very sad.  They took him about 9:30 and I thought it would just be for a few hours because they would check his levels again after 6 hours and see if they were going down.  While he was in the nursery I took a shower finally and had my nurses clean up my room.  I also started using the dreaded pump.  After I showered I went to the nursery to see Kyle and it was so sad to see him in the little plastic box with the little bandages over his eyes to protect them.  I was still in a lot of pain so I hobbled back to my room to wait the 3 hours it would take for them to bring him to me so that I could feed him.  I got lots of deliveries that day of flowers and cookies and that helped me feel better.  Plus Ashely came to visit for a while until Don could get there. Ashley brought me some fries and a milkshake to helped too.   My children did not want to go to school at all and Cayden was the most adamant that he was not going.  Caleb and Cayden stayed home from school and Don came in to see us around 2.  Dena brought Cayden in around 4 because he just had to see his new brother and he missed his mom too.   Kyle was in and out of the nursery all day and all night until about 6am Tuesday morning.  Don stayed until about 8 again and then went home to take care of the kids.  Since Kyle was in the nursery it was a good chance to get a little sleep.  I tried to but I woke up alot.  There was a big storm that night and I could see alot of lightning and rain. 

Tuesday morning around 6 I called the nursery and told them that I wanted Kyle brought back to me as soon as his next feeding was and they told me that his bilirubin levels had come down and that he could come out from under the lights.  Don came in around 11 that day and we waited the day to see if we could go home.  I had to be released by my doctor and Kyle had to be released by his doctor.  We found out by 2 that we could leave that day.  My mom was flying down and her flight got in around 5.  I thought we could be ready to go by 4:30 and just leave to get her and go home but that did not happen.  It took all afternoon to get out of there.  Don left around 4:30 to go and get my mom, get my prescription filled and pick up some flowers that his guys from GP had sent.  I took a shower and started getting packed.  I got a flu shot and a whooping cough shot plus all the discharge instructions from my nurse.  Don and my mom got back around 6:30 and we finally got out of there around 7.  It took Don 2 trips to the car and all of us carrying stuff to get everything out of the hospital.  We did not head straight home though because we had to stop at a ladies house to rent a pump and grab a bite to eat at Wendy's.  We finally got home around 9 and the boys were thrilled we were home.  It was a very long first night because Kyle was eating every 2.5 hours and since he was not nursing, I had to pump and after we changed burped him, changed him, rinsed the bottle and got settled it seemed like he would wake up 15 minutes later.  Our bedroom and bathroom  looked like a baby bomb went off because we had baby stuff and all our stuff from the hospital scattered for 3 days.  It was a good thing my mom was here because it took all 3 of us to manage this household.  I have never had so much pain in my life and would not want a c-section EVER again even if we were going to have more kids WHICH WE AREN'T!!!

Kyle Brandt Adams-The Saga Part 1

After basically having random yet painful contractions for the past 10 weeks and being on Procardia to slow them down I quit taking it on Friday September 9 when I hit 36 weeks.  I obviously did not do this with out my doctor's knowledge or consent but 36 was the cutoff and I had had it!  I decided that I was ready to be done with this pregnancy and wanted this baby HERE!  I actually did a bunch of  housework to encourage the eviction of out son.  On Friday I did laundry, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned out the pantry, cleaned the sink, microwave and stovetop, vacuumed the carpet and vacuumed and mopped the tile.  I did have contractions starting to come steady on Friday night but they settled down.  On Saturday morning basically did the same thing.  Dishes, laundry, floors etc.  Saturday was a little different though because I sort of felt nauseated most of the day and did not want to eat anything.  In the back of my mind I had hope that he would be born that day mostly because that was the day I told my doctor I wanted to go to and he said that as long as I was in active labor he would let me have the baby.  It was sort of a catch 22 though because I wanted him to be born on 9-10-11 but not 9-11-11.  I had to sort of play it so that I did not go in too early but that I did not wait too long either. 

At about 2pm my contractions started coming about 10 minutes consistently then went to 5 minutes apart at about 3:15. I started writing them down at 3:15 and they steady for about 2 hours.  At 5:00 I told Don that I thought we needed to probably go to the hospital.  I gathered up the things I needed for the hospital that I had not pre-packed yet.  We left about 5:15 and got to the hospital at 6:15.  I kept timing my contractions and writing them down.  Some of them were 3 minutes apart and they just kept coming.  I kept praying that they would keep coming though since we had an hour drive to hospital and I really did not want to go home.  We left Caleb and Cayden home and Connor was at grandma's.  I was not overly thrilled about the hospital Labor and Delivery triage because first they make you sit in a little waiting room for a while before they even take you back to the triage room to be monitored.  We sat out in the waiting room for almost 30 minutes before they called us back.  About 20 minutes into our wait a nurse poked her head out and asked what I was there for because I did not specify on my check in sheet.  SERIOUSLY?  I told the receptionist what was going on and I thought that she wrote it down as I am standing there rocking back and forth in pain at the check in desk.  I was a little short with the nurse for asking but um really do I look like I just came to Labor and Delivery with a broken arm?  I think it irritated her so she made us wait longer.  Then they called me back but told Don to wait out there some more and they would call him back.  Not liking that part either.  I wanted him there the WHOLE time not when they got around to calling him back.  So went to bathroom and peed in a cup then went to the triage room and changed into the lovely gown and waited for them to come and hook me up to the monitors.  The same nurse that I irritated was the one "helping" me and I think she purposely made me wait but for pete's sake I had waited for 20 minutes with 3-5 minute contractions.  When she did come back on she hooked me up to the monitors.  It is always so good to hear the baby's heartbeat and hear him moving around.  The nurse then said that she would be back to check on me in a little while.  I waited for about 5 minutes to see if she was going to come back and start asking me questions and when she didn't I buzzed her and asked her to get my husband who was still in the waiting room.   He came in and we waited for about 20 minutes or so.  I guess in the nurses defense it was shift change so maybe that was why we waited so long.  Another nurse came in and said that she would be taking care of us and started asking me the basic questions about how long I had been having contractions etc etc.  Then she checked me and said that I was definitely between a 2-3. Then she said that she would go and call my doctor and let us know.  She came back in about 7:15 and said she had good news and that we were having a baby that night.  I said "for sure to night right?  Not tomorrow-I don't want his birthday on 9-11-11".  She said that with the c-section it would be really fast.  Then she brought in another nurse to start all the prep for the c-section.  This nurse was a cute tiny gal from somewhere in the orient or maybe the Philippines.  She had a pretty thick accent and kept calling me hon. 

The first thing they did was put these compression cuffs on my legs.  They would occasionally squeeze like a blood pressure cuff to keep the circulation going and prevent deep vein thrombosis or blood clots. Then I got my IV and they started saline and antibiotics because I am Group B Strep positive.  It was hard for the nurse to find a good vein because my veins are total crap but she found one in my hand which was actually more comfy than in my arm.  They brought in our lovely surgical garb and Don put his on.  We had a few minutes to wait for the doctors to get there so Don gave me a blessing. 

My anesthesiologist came in a little bit later.  We think he told us his name but he was from New Zealand and had a heavy accent and talked pretty fast so we are not sure.  My doctor was not on call that weekend-it was another one from his practice named Dr. Abberman.  We thought that the doctor who came in was Dr. Abberman and did not know otherwise until the nurse came back in and asked if we had seen Dr. Abberman and we told her we thought we had.  She told us that was the anesthesiologist not the doctor.  The anestesiologist's name was Dr. Wills I think and he was just as nice and personable as he could be.  He said the was going to talk me through the whole thing and to ask him anything I wanted.  He did say that I would be numb from t**** to toes which we thought was funny.  By 8:30 we were on our way to the operating room.

I did not see Dr.Abberman until we were actually in the operating room.  There was also a resident doctor from Nellis named Dr. Abbot who assisted.  They had Don wait in the hall while they moved me to the operating table and while the doctor gave me the spinal.  That was scary and painful.  I had to sit up and curl way over with my head down, just like and epidural.  I had to be really still but I was really scared so I was shaking.  He numbed the area with something like novocaine and then put in the spinal.  He had to back out the needle once as my left leg actually kicked on it's own.  Then he said I had about 2 minutes to get my legs up on the table and lay down before I was numb.  That is such a strange feeling to not feel anything from the chest down.  After the spinal and the catherter were done they pulled some wing like things out from the table for my arms to lay on and then put the partition up in front of my face.  Dr. Wills covered my arms and chest with a blanket.  At that point they let Don in and we were ready to go.  I asked if the NICU team was going to be there just in case and they said yes since we were 3.4 weeks early.  It was the easiest delievery ever.  Dr. Wills said during our chit chatting that I did not know it but that they had already started.  I responded by saying "they are cutting me open?' and he said yes.  Right about then I got a whiff of a terrible smell and I asked what it was.  Dr. Wills said it was me-they were cauterizing and they cut to reduce the bleeding.  That was a yucky smell and I told them so.  The doctors thought it was pretty funny. Don sat by my head the whole time and watched mostly the whole thing.  At one point he had his head down and I asked him if he was ok to which he said yes and come to find out later that was when a big tube over my head filled up with blood and he did not want me to see it so he was looking down.  Kyle was quite content to stay in his nice cozy home and they had a hard time pulling him out.  Don said he feet and bum came out first but it took a little doing to get his head out.  When Don said he was out I just wanted to hear him.  I asked if he was breathing and Don said yes and that he was crying but I could not hear him.  It seemed everyone got really quiet for me so I could hear him cry.  They called Don over to the warmer and the scale and Don took some pictures.  Then they cleaned him up and wrapped him up and they handed Kyle to Don so he could bring him over to me.  I asked what he weighed and they said 7lbs 3oz and he was 18 inches long. He was born at 9:21pm   Dr. Abbernan said it was sort of strange to have the NICU in delivery with a 7 lb baby.  Don brought him over to me and brought him down so I could kiss him.  I got to see his dark hair that I was so glad to see because I really wanted him to have dark hair like his dad.  Dr. Wills took a few pictures for us for which I was very grateful. 

Don stood by me with Kyle for a little bit while they started tying my tubes. It took a little longer than it should have because I kept bleeding.  So they would tie and cauterize and then tie and cauterize more.  Dr. Abberman said there was no way I would be getting pregnant ever again and that I was very vascular.  At one point I think I asked Dr. Abbott if he was a boy scout and knew his knots and they found that amusing.  Don stayed with me until the surgery was done and they started to stitch me up then he went to the nursery with Kyle.  The doctors and the nurses moved me from the operating table back to the rolling table and that felt really strange to not have any feeling but to be moving that much.  They took me to recovery for about an hour to monitor me and my nurse cleaned me up. 

After an  hour we went upstairs to my room.  When we got upstairs my room was right across from the nursery and Darbie, Ashley and Justine were waiting there watching Kyle get his bath.  They wheeled me into my room and a few minutes later they brought in my baby. 

Don stayed the night with me because Kyle could not stay in my room without someone in there with me since I was still numb.  Don "slept" on the pull out chair/bed and got up every time I needed something or Kyle needed something.  We were not planning on him staying the night because with the other boys he would stay a while after they were born and then go home to the other boys.  But because of the C-section he had too.  That first night was not too bad because I was still pretty numb and also a morphine in the spinal block, and a some meds through my IV every 6 hours.   Little did I know how bad it was going to get!

I was able to eat breakfast around 8 after only having ice and a little water most of the night. 

Grandma and Grandpa brought the boys into the hospital for a few minutes Sunday morning to see their new baby brother.  They also brought Don some clean clothes.

I was able to get up and walk around 12:00pm on Sunday.  They took the catheter out around then too and the IV out around 4.  I did not get a shower though until Monday morning.  I am glad I washed my hair Saturday before we went to the hospital. 

He's Here!!!

Kyle Brandt Adams was born on Saturday September 10, 2011 at 9:21pm at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas.

Breech Baby Breech Baby

Sing that to the tune of Beach Baby Beach Baby-by the beach boys and you will know what has been in my head for the last few days.  We found out on Thursday September 1 at my regular doctor appointment that this baby was feet down instead of head down like he should be.  So the question became "what to do?"  My doctor said that we could just wait and see and plan on a C-section or there is a procedure called a version where a perinatologist tries to turn the baby.  He made it sound relatively easy and only mildly painful.  We had our appointment on Tuesday, September 6 with Dr. Wold who incidentally did the amnio on Cayden the day he was born to see if he was ready.  I thought it was going to be the actual procedure but come to find out that they only do versions in the hospital.  Now the whole 5 days since we found out he was breech I was worried.  My friend had told me long before we knew all of this that her baby turned during labor and they tried to turn her which was excruciatingly painful and did not work.  I also looked up the procedure on the internet and watched a few You-tube videos of it paying particular attention to the faces of the women to see how painful it really was.  It really did not look too horrible and one worked and one didn't.  So after a mostly sleepless night, a blessing and a prayer we headed to Vegas.  We had to go clear to the other side of Vegas and so it took a little longer to get their which did not help my stress level much.  I found out as we were checking in that they would not be doing the procedure that day but it was just a consult to see.  Well that consult was only $1200 or so.  I had a pretty detailed ultrasound where we got to see lots of his little body parts.  It looks like he has pretty chubby cheeks and weighs in about 5lbs 14 oz.  We also found out that he was face down with his bum over by my left hip and both feet headed for the exit.  Then the doctor came in to look at the ultrasound, do a little bit more and tell us what we could do.  Well the baby is way way feet and bum down, my fluid level is not optimal and the placenta is on the front all of which make for a very difficult and very low success rate for the version.  The procedure is only 50/50 anyway and I had 3 strikes already.  The doctor said that it was painful and difficult bit we could do it if I wanted.  He gave me some other options though.  One was to just wait and see, go into labor on my own and hopefully get to the hospital on time and have a C-section.  The other option was to do an amnio early next week and if the baby's lungs were mature then plan on a scheduled c-section pretty soon afterward.  He told us to talk to my doctor and let him know.  After seeing him I went on the monitors for about 30 minutes to check his heartrate and monitor my contractions.  I beat my high score from the hospital the previous week with contraction numbers.  The hardest one I had at the hospital was 37 but at the doctor's office it was 54.  Don likes to talk about it like it's Pac-man or something but he does not have a vice grip on his insides either.  After that doctor we had and hour and a half before my appointment with my regular doctor so we went to Olive Garden and stuffed ourselves with pasta and breadsticks.  After meeting with my doctor who said "I'm glad it was him and not me telling you 'no'", he recommended the amnio option and even called to schedule the C-section for Tuesday at 12:30.  So for the next week we wait and wonder and hope that he is ready so all of this can come to a speedy close and this baby can get here!  If I go into labor on my own and it is progressing then we will just do the c-section unless by some miracle this baby flips on his own.  I am not thrilled with the idea of a c-section, it frankly scares me but giving birth is not a fun thing anyway so we will just wait and see and hope he is ready on Monday.

Week in Review 8-28/9-4 2011

Sunday-  I did not make it to church because I was exhausted from our super busy Saturday in St. George but Don took Caleb and Cayden.  Connor was in Pioche until that afternoon.  We had a delicious back to school feast of Carne Asada and Don gave the boys their traditional father's blessings for back to school.  We also had a short FHE on doing hard things and being tough.

Monday-The kids started school bright and early. Mom made cookies and snacks for after school. 


Tuesday-School and Caleb had football practice.

Wednesday-Got the kids to school and then went to the hospital for a few hours because of 5 minute apart contractions and baby not moving as much.  Stayed on the monitors for 2 hours and then sent home.   Caleb had football and mutual, Connor went to Mesquite with Grandpa.

Thursday-Got the kids to school and went to my doctor.  Found out baby boy is breech and really needs to turn or else I will have a C-section.  Not thrilled about that.  Not dilated past a 1 which is where I was the week before but because baby's head up by my ribs, he is not pushing on everything.  Don and I went to lunch at PF Changs and then went home.  The doctor called and said that he had me an appointment for Tuesday with a specialist who will try and turn the baby.  Don took Caleb  to football and Cayden and I went to Dena's to use the pool to see if we can get the baby to turn on his own. 

Friday-School as usual and I did not do much since Thursday was so exhausting.  Don took Caleb to the Varsity football game.  Connor helped grandpa clean out at the power plant-a one time deal.  Cayden and I stayed home.

Saturday-Slept in and Don and the boys did a few chores.  I felt like crap most of the day.  Don went and got BBQ from Ric's and then we watched BYU and other football games.  Connor roamed around and ended up "helping" Ric by holding and waving around a big sign about Ric's BBQ in the Wally's parking lot. 

Diabetes in School

Connor and Cayden both started school this past week and it has me a little rattled because of the diabetes.  Connor has been battling this for disease for 5 years now but even though he knows what to do it is still a worry.  The whole week Connor had lots of highs that we were having trouble combatting and Cayden was having lows.  We had multiple calls from both schools from the nurses office where these two spent a lot of time already.  Cayden is not recognizing when he is low and that is a big concern because his classroom is pretty far away from the office.  He was only checking at lunch but both Monday and Tuesday he was quite low so I asked for him to go up at 10:30 and then again around 2:15 just to be safe.  Since the school can't do his shot unless the nurse is there we had a crash course the week before so he could learn to check his blood sugar himself and give himself his own shot with them helping him carb count.  Connor has been waking up incredibly high each morning and it is taking until around 12 to get him back down.  Then he is fine most of the afternoon and evening, going to bed good and then waking up super high again the next day.  I tried to get a hold of his doctor last week to no avail.  So we are just doing what we can.  The nurse from Connor's school always apologizes when she calls but we tell her to please not apologize.  She told Don on Friday at the football game that usually when she had kids over 300 in her office that they would just go home.  But she says that Connor comes in happy and cheerful and always chatty and says that he does not feel bad so he goes back to class.  Last year at the middle school if he was over 300 they would not let him go to class and he would have to stay in the nurses office until he came down.  They must have a little more leeway there at the high school and let the kids make the choice themselves.  Connor is really liking school so far and so he wants to be there.  Hopefully we can get Cayden to start recognizing how he is feeling here soon.  I am glad to have good and competent people at the schools to help take care of my kids when I am not there.

First Day of School 2011

Monday August 29, 2011 was the first day of school. We never really "practiced" getting up early the week before but the boys were excited.  Don gave them all their Father's blessings Sunday night and we had a short FHE on doing hard things and being tough.  Connor and Caleb had to be up by 6:30 and out the door by 7am.  Connor's school starts at 7:15 and Caleb's at 7:30.  I have 3 kids at 3 different schools again this year.  Sort of makes for a pain.  Don took Connor and Caleb to school and not 5 minutes after he left Cayden woke right up all excited and raring to go.  He had over an hour and a half before he could go to school.  Don stopped and bought him some delicious pancakes from McDonald's.  Cayden was completely ready to go by 8am so unlike any other day I let him watch TV for a bit until it was time to go.  I showered and got ready because it is tradition for me to walk my kids up to their lines for the first day of school.  It was sooooo stinkin hot and very humid that morning that I felt like I needed a shower again.  I made cookie dough and got it into the fridge to chill and then took a nap.  After my nap I made the cookies-another first day of school tradition-mac and cheese cups and tortilla roll ups for the kids for after school.  They all had a good day and noone had homework yet other than the bajillion pieces of paperwork that I had to fill out.  Connor's at the high school and has Blue day and Gold day.  It is very surreal to have him in high school.  Connor has 2 math classes and 2 special ed classes.  Hopefully the rotating schedule will be beneficial for him.  He is out by 1pm which is almost too soon because he has the whole rest of the afternoon where we are afraid that he will get bored.  Caleb is in 8th grade and really likes all of his classes-except Health.  He is excited to be in Drama and do plays again and he gets to be part of morning announcements with his first class of the day.  Cayden is in Mr. Dorsey's class out in the portables while the school finishes their renovation.  He likes music and was excited to bring home some cursive handwriting papers.  It was a long exciting day and we were all in bed pretty early waiting for Day 2.  Happy School Year!!!

Week in Review 8/21-8/28

Sunday, August 21  We all made it to church I think but I only made it through Sacrament meeting. Cayden was  pretty low and we had to give him a juice before Primary.  Don took me home and then ended  up bringing Cayden home an hour later because he was still feeling low and we did not have another juice at church.  Sundays are usually pretty relaxing but that night Don, Connor and Caleb went to help Grandpa wax the floor at Wally's.  They could not get in there until after 9 when they close and they were there until about midnight.  Lucky for them it was all you could drink soda from the soda machine.

33.4 weeks. Right before church.

Monday, August 22  I can't remember much about Monday other than everyone slept in from the late night working and Caleb had football practice.

Tuesday, August 23  Don, Cayden and I went up to Mesquite to meet with Cayden's teacher for the new school year who just happens to be the husband of one of my very good friends.  We went to Sushi Masa where Don, Serena and Bryan ate tons of sushi and Cayden and I stuck to the teriyaki beef and chicken.  We talked about Cayden's diabetes and his IEP so that his teacher would be all ready for him when school started.  After lunch we went to Walmart for some shopping.  Caleb went to the Mesquite pool and Rec. Center with some friends. Connor had wanted to go the high school Freshman Orientation but we were running a little late and Connor was a little anxious about going anyway.  It ended up working out much better with him not going because most of the teachers were not there and his Special Ed teacher Travis was not there either.  We did not find out about them not being there until the next day so it was just as well we did not rush home to get him up there.  Tuesday evening Caleb had football practice.  About 45 minutes into it we got a call saying that he maybe had broken his hand during a play.  Don went up there and talked to the trainer-actually the highs school teams trainer who happened to be up there-and he had it wrapped and said that it probably needed an X-ray.  When he got home it was pretty swollen and he was in quite a bit of pain.  We decided that we did not need to rush to the ER so I tried to call our valley doc and leave a message that we needed to get in first thing on Wednesday but wouldn't you know it-he was out for the rest of the week.

The splint from the trainer.

Wednesday, August 23  I had my doctor appointment Wednesday morning at 10:20 so we loaded up Caleb and Cayden and just took them to Vegas with us so that after my doctor we could find an Urgent Care and get and X-ray for Caleb's hand.  My appointment went good and Caleb and Cayden were able to hear the baby's heartbeat.  I only gained 2 pounds and I was dialated to only a 1.  Not bad for not seeing my doctor for 3 weeks.  He had gone the week before to Hawaii to take his son to school.  After we left his office we found an Urgent Care down the street.  We were there for almost 2 hours.  It took just about 1 hour just to get back to see the doctor and then we had to wait, then do the X-ray , then wait for the results, then wait for them to wrap Caleb's hand.  The good news was that the hand was not broken only badly bruised and swollen-the bad news was that he was not going to be able to play football for atleast 5 days.  When the trainer told us he thought it might be broken he said that once there was a hard cast on it, he could wrap it in some foam and Caleb could play but since it was not broken they only put a splint underneath the hand to stabilize it and then wrapped it in an ace bandage.  There was not enough protection on the top of the hand where it was hurt to protect it so he could not play.  He was pretty bummed because Saturday night was Midnight Madness where all the teams in their league played 20 minutes scrimmages with each other as a precursor to the game schedule.  I took my camera with me to take pictures at the Urgent Care but the battery was dead.  I tried to charge it overnight but it never charged up.  After our doctor visits we went to Wendy's and headed home.  Don took Caleb to football practice and talked to the coaches about his hand.  He did the running and some of the drills that did not involve hitting.   Then Caleb had mutual where they worked on their Emergency Preparedness merit badge.  Also we came home to a clean house because my lovely cleaning girls came while we were in Vegas. 


Thursday, August 24  Caleb had football at 9:30 in the morning because of the Middle School Open House that night.  Don and I took Connor up to the high school to meet with the nurses and go through his schedule so he could see where his classes were and meet his teachers.  We were there for about an hour and half taking a tour and talking to the nurses about his diabetes.  I think this really helped Connor feel more comfortable about being  up at the high school.  Plus he had spent a few days a week during the month of July up there helping his S.E. teacher Travis with the summer school program.  After the high school we took Cayden to his school to meet with the nurses there and talk about his diabetes care for school.  I was pretty discouraged to hear that the only person who could do his shot up at the school during the day was the actual nurse and not the nurse assistant.  The nurse covers 3 schools and is only at Cayden's school on Monday and Tuesday so this definitely presented a problem.  Either Don, me or grandma would have to go up there every day the nurse was not there or Cayden would have to learn to do it himself.  So over the next 3 days we had a crash course in diabetes management for Cayden since we had been doing it all for him.  He did great and learned really quickly to check his blood sugar and give himself a shot in the belly.  We still add up the carbs and decide how much he needs but he draws it up and gives it to himself.  That is quite a relief because it would be increasingly difficult to go up to his school every day  at 12 especially when the baby comes.  It amazes me how we never know how our prayers are going to be answered but they do.  We have been praying for a long time for Cayden to start  being more independent and self-sufficient.  Diabetes is not in anyway what we had in mind but it sure has jumpstarted the independence part.  After we met with the nurses we went to see Cayden's classroom and teacher and then went to lunch at Inside Scoop.  Later that evening Don took Caleb to Mesquite to see Planet of the Apes and get sushi for them and pizza for me and Cayden.

Friday, August 25  Again nothing but football for Caleb although I did want to go to St. George but was too tired because of the busy day we had on Thursday.

Saturday, August26  Connor went to Pioche with Grandma and Grandpa forr Aunt Dawna's 60th birthday party.  Due to the closeness of this baby's arrival the rest of us did not go.  Instead we went to St. George for some last minute school stuff, a tasty lunch at Olive Garden, a hair cut for Cayden, a jaunt into Best Buy for a new camera battery to see if it would work versus buying a whole new camera, and a "last weekend of summer hurrah" at Jumpin' Jacks, a big warehouse place full of all kinds of bouncehouses.  Cayden was not very excited to actually do the jumping-he thought it was going to be a place with trampolines.  It was pretty hot inside the building but Don and Caleb had fun running around and jumping and sliding.  I sat on the couch and read my book and tried everything this side of death threats to get Cayden to go play but he would not do it.  After Jumpin' Jacks we went to Old Navy, Big 5, Target and then to Cold Stone for a treat.