Friday, January 29, 2010

Call back

The doc just called back and she agrees that it's a breath holding issue. She told us to keep a close eye on him and if it happens again, we need to get some more testing done. She also said to keep a close eye on him to see if he turns blue at all or becomes lethargic for more than about 4 minutes when it's not sleepiness related.

Ok, I can breathe again for a bit! Pray it doesn't happen again!

Waiting

I called the pediatrician and they said that it's rare for a 1 year old to cry so hard they pass out and they want to run tests probably. The on-call nurse was going to talk to the doctor and call me back. Now I'm just waiting....

Please say prayers for my baby. I'm so scared right now!

Another Scary Morning...

So it happened again. Dominick passed out. But the morning has been rough for a lot of reasons. Let me start from the beginning...

Our daycare lady, Ms. Stella, is going through a hard personal time right now. Her father-in-law has Alzheimer's and is struggling right now. He was admitted to the hospital Tuesday night and on Wednesday he slipped in to a coma. That was the last I had heard. Nick picked up Dom yesterday from daycare. I'm not sure if Ms. Stella told Nick anything about not being available today or if she thought that she called us and didn't, but either way, I went to drop Dominick off at daycare at 7:45 and no one was there. I knocked a lot. I called twice (and left two messages) but no answer. So now I had to find someone to watch Dom for the day.

Luckily Nick's mom, Sue, was available and said she could watch him. Thank goodness. So I leave Ms. Stella's and run back home to get a diaper bag for him for the day. After I get that together, I head over to Sue's. My car had been almost out of gas the day before but Nick promised he would fill my tank for me...that didn't happen. Luckily I noticed in time. Well barely in time. I headed straight to the gas station from Ms. Stella's and my car started shaking and rumbling like it was about to quit on me, but it made it. So I filled my tank.

I dropped Dommie off at Sue's and headed to work. I had a 9:30 meeting this morning and was eager to get in to work. I'm almost to work when my phone rings and it's Sue. She asked if he had breakfast yet. I told her that he had milk but no solid food yet. We hung up and I continue on my way. Not 5 minutes later, she called again. She told me that I needed to come straight back. She said that Dominick didn't fall that she knew of, but he started screaming and his eyes rolled back and he essentially passed out on her. He was still breathing but he wasn't responding to her or looking at her. This sounded like exactly what happened when he fell a week ago so I got off the highway and turned around.

I was calling work, and my mom, and trying to get a hold of Nick, and trying to keep myself from freaking out. Sue called back and said she calmed down a little and could tell me the whole story. He was standing by the end of the couch playing when he started screaming. Sue was in the room but wasn't looking right at him at that particular moment so she didn't know exactly what happened. He didn't fall, she knew that. But he started screaming. Then his face turned red and he was crying so hard that he stopped breathing. Sue picked him up and he calmed down, but just long enough to take a deep breath and then his eyes rolled back and he passed out onto her shoulder. Well this sounded like exactly what happened when he was with me.

At this point, I'm freaking out thinking that now my baby has some major brain damage and it's all my fault. But I tried to stay calm and I continued on my way to Sue's.

When I got there, Dominick was in his high chair and eating breakfast. When he saw me, he smiled and told me "Hi". Sue told me that she thought the episode had passed but she wanted me to come anyway. At this point, she thought she knew what happened.

She thinks that he was playing with these 2 coasters (which he loves and they are pretty heavy) and he threw them and one hit him in the head. She saw him do this again, after the episode but it didn't hit him hard and he just whined for a second. She thinks that he got so upset that he cried and couldn't breathe. By not breathing, we think he caused himself to pass out, basically.

I think this is a good theory. When he fell and hit his head, he cried at first and then got so upset that his face turned red and he stopped breathing. I distinctly remember saying to him, while soothing him, "breathe baby, breathe".

I'm still going to call the doctor just to see if they want me to bring him in or they think this is not a good theory. But I'm hoping this is the case.

Whew...what a morning...

And in case you were wondering, I got to work at 9:18, just in time to get ready for my 9:30 meeting. ;-)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

One Year Stats

Dominick had his one year check up on Monday. I can't believe we've had to do this already! But it went well.

He had to get three more shots and we had to get paperwork to take him to Quest to get a blood draw for his Lead test. We haven't done this yet but we will.

His stats are the following:

Height - 32" or 2'8" (he's getting tall!) which is the 95% tile.
Weight - 25 lbs. 4 oz. (he's slimming down) which is the 75% tile.

The doctor said since he's eating good for us, we don't need to worry about how his weight has dropped. He's much more mobile now. Walking everywhere and all, so slimming down is normal.

We got the green light to completely switch to Whole Milk. We started the transition a few weeks ago and we're getting along good. She also told us to start phasing out bottles. We've been working really hard on getting Dom to switch to sippy cups but he's struggling a little. He will take a sippy for most of the day but first thing in the morning and last thing at night, he wants a ba-ba. So we're working on it. We're hoping to put all the bottles away by this time February.

Everything else is good, and we've made our appointment to go back in April for his 15 month check up!

Dominick's Birthday Parties!

Yes, you read that right. PartIES. Dominick had two for his first birthday. We wanted to have friends over as well as family but realized that even with the new kitchen, we couldn't hold that many people. So we broke it up over 2 days.

Saturday, January 23, 2010 - Dominick's actual birthday

We had the families over for this party. Unfortunately my Mom and Dad were both sick so they couldn't make it. Since I had been sick, my 83 year old Grandma decided not to risk getting sick (and I really don't blame her). So we had Nick's family over and my sister, along with my work "family" and Dominick's day care lady, Ms. Stella. It was a good turnout. We had some yummy food. I made broccoli/cauliflower salad and had a spread of meats and cheeses to make sandwiches. I got help from my mom (salad), my sister (fruit salad) and my work mother, Diane (potato salad) and we ordered a cake for Dommie.

I think everything turned out great! We had plenty of room to hang out. The kiddos all played together and I think everyone had a great time. Dominick got some GREAT presents, including some new clothes, a new wagon, a drum with some toys, books, trucks, and I can't even tell you what else!

He also LOVED his cake. He literally dug right in. I gave him a piece and then ran the other side of the table to take his picture and he was already eating the icing! He got pretty messy but loved it.

All in all it was a great birthday. Here's a few pictures:







So Saturday was a success. Sunday was another party and also a success. We made enough food (or bought enough) to have the same thing on Sunday. So that's what we did!

We had a shorter party on Sunday. I had told friends, no gifts, so that eliminated a big chunk of the party. I didn't want to open the few gifts we did get, because I didn't want anyone to feel awkward if they didn't give Dom one. But we got some good ones and had a good time.

All in all, I can't believe my baby is ONE and his first party was perfect!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Finished Kitchen!

Here are a few pictures of our basically finished kitchen. I realized today when looking at these pictures, that I haven't taken any since we changed the light fixtures. So I'll have to do a few new ones, but this is basically what it looks like! Yay!







Pictures from Dommie's first birthday to follow!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Happy Birthday Dom!!!!

My baby is ONE YEAR OLD!!?!?!?!

Seriously, where does the time go?? I can't believe it's been a year. I'll have more time to reflect on all of this Monday or Tuesday. I just had to write a quick post to say Happy Birthday to my baby. My one year old baby.

He did great at his first birthday party. LOVED that cake and knew exactly what to do. He dug right in and looked up at us and said, "Mmmmm". Such a sweet angel.

I took about two hundred pictures today so I'll post some of the best ones on Monday.

His second party is tomorrow. (We just had family over today and friends are coming over tomorrow).

Wish us luck that he is just as good a boy tomorrow as he was today!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Dominick is lookin' good

Sorry I didn't update until today. I was waiting to see how the night went.

Dominick did much better after being at my parent's house for a bit. The morning was rough but then he calmed down and ended up having a lot of fun.

My mom dropped him off at my house around 5 and he was great. Happy and playing. Not even a bump on the back of his head.

We went out to dinner with a friend of ours, Pete, for his birthday (in between letting coats of paint dry - still working hard on that kitchen!) and Dommie was great at dinner too. He started getting restless at the end, but he's only 1...and technically not even 1 yet! We have 2 more days!

Last night was a little rough, but still, he's fine.

I put him down at 9. He cried himself to sleep (like 5 minutes of that whining cry - which is normal for him) and I went to bed about 11:45. I woke him up then, per the doctor's instructions) and he woke up and rolled over. So yay! That was good.

I went to bed, set an alarm for 3:30 am and fell asleep.

Woke up at 3:30 and went into his room. As I was reaching down to wake him up, he took a deep sigh and rolled over. So I crept back out of his room and went back to sleep. That lasted until 4 am. He woke up screaming. Nick went in and gave him his binky. Nothing. Finally I asked Nick to make a bottle. I went in, picked Dommie up (after all, he had a hard day) and rocked him back to a calm. We gave him a bottle and put him back down.

Then he slept until I woke him up at 8:00!! He's supposed to be my fail safe alarm waking me up by 7am. Well he didn't do a good job this morning and I overslept slightly. Oops. But the important thing is my baby is fine. Happy and Healthy!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Scary morning and it's not over yet.

I don't know the last time I've ever been so scared in my life. This morning started off normal. Dominick slept in for the first time since we started construction until about 6:30 (yay! Keep it up buddy!). I got up, made him a bottle, went into his room and changed his diaper and put him back in bed with his bottle. This is our normal routine. He wakes up wet or dirty and cries. I change him, give him some food and lay him back down. He usually goes back to sleep long enough for me to lay back down for a few minutes or for me to at least get ready. Or was until construction started.

This morning was no different than how it used to be. It was great. I laid back down for a few minutes and then got up to get ready for work. He was fussy so I brought him into my bathroom to play while I got ready. He LOVES climbing the step to get into our tub. Every time he does this, I pull him down and set him back on the floor. But he's a quick guy.

Again, this morning was no different. He climbed the step while I was putting my contacts in and he fell down. Just on his butt and onto the scale which was pretty tall. So instead of falling 10", he probably only fell 6". He looked up at me and started his little pouty cry. I told him that's what happens when you climb stairs and I moved him far away from the step.

Well, silly me. Like a 1 year old will listen to that and stay away. I had given him some toys and he was playing when I started brushing my teeth. I told you he was quick. I don't even know when he did it but the next thing I see is he is falling from the step backwards onto the hardwood floor. It was like slow motion. I could see it. But I couldn't stop it. This is not the first time I've felt this slow motion feeling with Dominick and it terrifies me every time.

He fell onto his head from a 10" step...and Dominick is about 33" tall. So his head fell about 3 1/2 feet before hitting the hardwood.

As soon as he hit the ground he started screaming. This part I could handle. I literally threw my toothbrush into the sink and didn't wipe my face off as I scooped him up and started soothing him. He screamed that loud scary cry for a minute. You know the one. Where he doesn't seem to be breathing and he's trying to suck in all the air. Then he just stopped crying. This is where it got scary.

He laid his head down on my shoulder and his eyes got kind of droopy. His eyes kind of rolled back like he was about to fall asleep. I pulled him back and looked at him. He kind of woke up a bit and looked at me. But I would say his name and try to talk to him and got no response.

I did the most logical thing to me at the time. I called my mom. She didn't answer. I tried again. Still no answer. I knew she was going to get Cecilia today (since it's Wednesday - and she was actually getting Dominick today too) so I figured she was already on the road and I called my sister. She answered. I told her what happened. When she heard "not responding" and "eyes drooping" she didn't even hesitate.

Call the doctor.

So I did. I got the answering service and explained to the nurse what was going on. At this point I'm in tears. Dominick is awake. I see his eyes are open but he's not acknowledging me. I'm beyond terrified. I don't think you realize how much you love your children until something big happens. It was early, but I think I was already playing the "I'll never do __ again if he's ok" game with God.

Halfway through the talk with the lady who answered and was taking my information to pass on to the on call nurse, Dominick sat up straight and just stared at me. I didn't know what to make of it. I kept talking to the lady and she assured me that I would get a call back within 10 minutes.

After I hung up, Dominick started talking. Like normal. Like nothing happened. I finished getting ready. Called my mom and told her we'd be late meeting her to drop Dominick off. And we went downstairs to finish getting Dom ready. Before I even got my coat on the nurse was calling me back. She asked me a bunch of questions.

Can he move his limbs?
Does he have any bumps on his head? Anywhere else on his body?
Is the inside of his mouth ok? Like did he bite his tongue?
Does he have any flu like symptoms?
Is he babbling?

While I was talking to her, he looked at me and said very clearly "HI!". The nurse heard him. We both kind of laughed, which felt great after crying for a bunch of the morning.

She told me that right now it's a wait and watch game. She thinks he's fine (thank GOD!) but we need to watch him very carefully still.

He needs to be woken up every 45 minutes while napping. Really woken up and see his reaction.
He needs to be fed bland food and not very much (cheerios and crackers basically) so if he throws up we can know it's probably because of the head injury and not overeating or anything.
We need to monitor his diapers and if his stools aren't normal or he hasn't urinated in 8-10 hours we need to note that.
We need to check his color constantly. If he's very pale or ashen, we need to call the doctor back.
We need to check his sheets when he's sleeping to make sure he hasn't vomited.
Absolutely no tylenol or ibuprofen today.

Hopefully, it's nothing. But I'd rather be way, over the top, crazy, obsessive, safe than sorry.

I'm going to be calling my mom a lot today and probably leaving early to go get him. When I called her before I could hear him just screaming and it nearly broke my heart. I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Demo Part 2

Well I was shocked when I got home yesterday. They did SO much and it looks fantastic! The room is a lot more open than I was envisioning which is always a good thing! Here are a few pictures I took last night:


This is a view into the new part of the kitchen from our stove. It's huge now!



This is a view from the new part into the old part.



Another view.



This is where the door to the bedroom used to be. Now it's a wall and that is where our fridge will go.



This is the other side of that wall. I think I'm going to hang some family pictures on that wall.


Well that's it so far, although more is already done by now. Roger is taping all the holes and fixing where it meets the ceiling today and finishing the entertainment center (adding doors for the bottom section).

This weekend will be a busy busy weekend of painting and cleaning. I almost can't wait...almost. ;-)

Warning

I was all ready to come online today and do these great posts about how wonderful everything is and blah blah blah...but I fell on the ice this morning. And now I'm in pain and crabby. So these may not be the most enjoyable of my posts but I hope they serve their purpose!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Juara Turtle Project

My cousin, Tom, spends a lot of his time traveling. He is very much into nature and being environmentally friendly. Recently he's moved to Malaysia. I didn't know what he did there, until today. I found this You Tube presentation of him and it's so neat. I am a big sea turtle lover and it was very cool to see what he's working on and how much he's trying to improve our planet. I hope you enjoy!

Demolition has begun...

We started the construction on our house on Friday...

For those of you who don't know, Nick and I have wanted a bigger, newer kitchen for awhile. We live in a South City home and love it but it's old and very dated. The kitchen has ZERO counter space. So we decided to take a drastic step to improving our kitchen. We knocked down the wall between the existing kitchen and a guest bedroom to make a big eat in kitchen.

I'm very excited about this, but nervous at the same time. I'm nervous because we are hosting Dominick's birthday at our house...Not this weekend, but the next weekend. Not a lot of time to get this done!

On Friday, we had our family friend and AMAZING carpenter, Roger, come to build our entertainment center and help with wall construction. We got a lot done on Friday and over the weekend. Here are some pictures of the work:















Today, while I've been at work, Nick and Roger tore the studs out of the wall and re-enforced the wall with a wood beam to make sure our house doesn't fall down! I can't wait to get home and see how it looks! Although I'm not so excited about getting home and having to CLEAN all the mess!

I'll post more pictures tomorrow if I can!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Just a note

to tell you that I'm still here. Just too busy to blog right now.

Nick starting working 2nd shift. He's working 3:30 to 11:30 which basically means I don't see him right now. He's getting up with me at 7 and helping get Dom ready which is great but then I drop Dommie off and don't see Nick again until he climbs in to bed at midnight.

Hopefully this is only for a week or two. We'll see.

Also, we are starting some pretty serious renovations to get the house in top shape for Dommie's birthday coming up! So I'll post some before/after pictures soon.