Power Outage and Eli's First Stitches

Ohhhhh what a week! I don't even know where to begin. I guess it all started with a huge storm that passed through on Tuesday evening. We had hurricane-strength winds blow through here (70 mph winds) as well as tornado sirens and thunderstorm watches... it was quite the experience. When Ben and I heard the tornado sirens go off at 9 p.m., we stood frozen at the top of the stairs, trying to decide if it was really necessary to wake up our kids and run to the basement. About two minutes later, the power went off and Charlie woke right up since the sound machine turned off abruptly. Eli somehow slept through his sound machine turning off (I know, it's silly that they both have them, but Ben leaves so early in the morning that this is how we keep them sleeping later... it's my sanity saver!).


We pulled Charlie out of bed since he was awake and stood in the dark at the window watching the huge trees around our house sway and bend in the crazy wind. I ran downstairs to get some flashlights and Charlie had the best time running around in the low-lit family room. (We decided it wasn't likely there would be a tornado here based on what the weather.com info was saying about the path of the storm). Thirty minutes later, we managed to get him into bed and went to bed ourselves in our very dark house.

On Wednesday morning, we woke up to the power still being out. I was feeling semi-hopeful at that point that it would come on any minute... but as the morning went on, I got more anxious as I read a news article that said 400,000 people lose power during the storm, and more than 220,000 were still without power in the Chicago area. The electric company (ComEd) was estimating that power would be fully restored by Friday. There were tons of trees and branches down around our area and the towns north of us and it was slow going to restore power.

I loaded up the more expensive frozen foods (mainly meat) into a cooler and brought them over to a friend's house, and tried not to be too stressed that I had so much photography work to get done and no power to help me do it. Not to mention that I was supposed to teach the lesson in Relief Society on Sunday and needed my internet/computer to work on it.

By Thursday morning, I was SO frazzled about not having electricity for a second day. Our laundry was piling up, the dishwasher was full, and it was a pain to go in and out of the garage since I had to open and close it manually each time. I went over to friends' houses to charge my phone and computer, but I was so frustrated with the situation that I had a hard time focusing. Eli could sense that I was out of sorts and asked me on multiple occasions if I was doing okay. He is such a sweet, sensitive little guy.

When the power finally came back on Thursday at 2:15 p.m., Charlie was napping and Eli and I were hanging out in the family room building block towers. All of the sudden the lights flipped on and we got SO excited!! I am so appreciative of everything we can do when our electricity works.

Moving on to the drama from today... I was scrambling to finish my RS lesson this morning and Ben took the boys with him to visit an older couple in our ward before church. Ben called me at 12:25 and said they got to church early and Eli was running in the foyer, excited to be first in the chapel when he tripped (he only wears these shoes on Sunday, so I feel like he's a little more clumsy in them) and hit his head either on a table or corner of the door, and got this lovely gash on his forehead.

I think Ben handled it all really well and also had help from some nice people who saw what happened and rushed to get him paper towels to help stop the bleeding and a first aid kit. He managed to get both boys into the van and I met them over at the emergency room with Eli's favorite froggy and blankie for a little comfort. Here's his sad gash (the nurse covered him up with this "cape" to keep him dry when she rinsed and cleaned the wound):



After the cleaning, the boys hung out on the hospital bed while the cotton ball taped to Eli's head numbed the area to prepare it for the stitches. You can see Ben's iPhone on Eli's knee - the boys were entertained by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Backyardigan's episodes. It was such a great distraction.

Eli did such a great job holding still during the stitches. A nurse stood behind and held his head and I held his hands. I couldn't handle watching them put the stitches in.

Oh Eli. Your first stitches!! You are such a trooper.

We got home at 2:30 and then I pulled my things together and ran over to the church to teach the RS lesson at 3:10. I am so tired from this crazy week and am looking forward to a quieter, more predictable week coming up! You can see some pictures of one of my recent photography sessions here. I have lots more to post on my photography blog that I'll hopefully have time to put together this week.

*These pictures were taken with Ben's iPhone (first two images) and my Blackberry (the last one). The iPhone definitely won with better picture quality :)

Quick Trip to the ER

Charlie had his first trip to the emergency room today. I don't think it was a highlight for him (it certainly wasn't for me)...

Charlie has had a bad cold for a week now, but was getting more and more congested and raspy in the last two days. Last night was especially bad (why is it always worse in the night??) and there were a few moments that were scary because Charlie would choke while he was coughing.

This morning I took him to the doctor's office to get him checked out, and while his lungs sounded fine, she was concerned with how fast he was breathing. She recommended that I take him over to the ER for a chest x-ray to make sure everything was okay since it's a little scary in a baby this young. The good news was that he didn't have a fever - if he did, they would have wanted to do a spinal tap (hearing that freaked me out a little bit).

So off we went, over to the hospital. These pictures are of Charlie in the tiniest little hospital gown I have ever seen! The x-ray was a miserable process - the tech strapped him down, which involved having his arms held high next to his ears so they could get a good look at his chest. Charlie wasn't pleased, but it didn't take too long. In the meantime, his breathing normalized and seemed to be going at a better rate.

Everything looked fine with the x-ray, so six hours from the start of Charlie's doctor's appointment, I was able to bring him home and he's sleeping peacefully. Hopefully his cold will clear up soon - it's so sad when a little guy is sick like this. The good thing is that he is still gaining weight fine - he is up to 9 lbs 5 oz!

Fun Christmas Day, Icy Christmas Night

Favorite Eli phrases from Christmas:

"I'll play with it"

"Let's open it"

"I shut it!"

He said those those things over and over... it was really cute.

A few more pictures from Christmas Eve:

Davey gave Eli a manatee stuffed animal - Eli of course loves it and had to sleep with it last night and tonight. It's cute hearing Eli try to say manatee.

My parents, Davey and Gram all spent the night at our house last night, and woke up around 8 a.m.


Below - here we are on Christmas morning opening stockings. We started around 10:15 a.m. and it was nice to have already showered and be ready for the day. I'm sure this is the last year we'll have this luxury - as Eli gets older, we will be back to opening gifts in our pjs :) We spent the next 2 1/2 hours opening presents in a relaxing way.

Eli had fun opening gifts and was very deliberate about enjoying each one.

I gave Gram a cake carrier (wrapped in the package she has on her head). My parents gave her that purple/yellow scarf from Emerson College.

Aunt Babz sent this stuffed Thomas train pillow - Eli loved carrying it around and talking to it.

This was the year of the trains - we gave Eli some Thomas trains, some Ikea trains and track, and my parents gave him a few trains too. He LOVES "choo choos" and we had fun playing with them later in the day.

Eli and my dad right before dinner

Davey and Gram

About to start dinner - we had roasted chicken, stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, asparagus, and salad. We made a yummy drink to go with it (Squirt, Cran-rasberry juice, and rasberry sherbet mixed together) and it was delish! I felt like I was going to pop when it was over.

This is part of our mess of holiday cards on the radiator - Eli loves looking through them and especially enjoys pointing at the cards with photos.

Davey gave Eli this Elmo piano book - this was also the year of Elmo-related toys. We gave him a stuffed Elmo (not a talking one) and Elmo sticker book, and my parents gave him an Elmo board book. Eli loves Elmo so much! ("Ha ha!" is his name)

Later - Eli and Bumpa (my dad) reading books together

All in all, it was a great Christmas. The biggest part of Ben's present to me is he is going to paint the third bedroom this weekend (it's currently a VERY bright yellow, which I really dislike). I'm still trying to figure out what the new color is going to be.

Unfortunately, the day ended on a sour note...my family was getting ready to head home, so my dad went outside to get their van and pull it up to the door. All of the sudden we heard a yell, and Ben ran to look outside and saw that my dad had fallen. He had walked down the alley, which was basically a big sheet of ice, slipped, and hit his hip and shoulder pretty hard.

So...the night ended with a trip to the ER. My dad fractured his scapula, or shoulderblade. Luckily, his hip is fine and he didn't break his arm. He'll wear a sling and probably be in a lot of pain, but it could have been much worse.

Here's a video with some highlights from yesterday - you'll hear lots of "I'll play with it"


Eli's Christmas 2008 from Sarah on Vimeo.

Eli's First Visit to the Emergency Room

We went from this: and this:
to this in two days (Eli never usually bums out on the couch!!):
I started feeling crummy on Sunday night, but Eli didn't show any signs of being sick until Monday... he was coughing and fussy and not really himself. By Monday night, his cough was getting worse and he was up a few times when the coughing was so bad that it woke him up.

On Tuesday, I was starting to worry about the severity of the cough, so we went in for a sick visit at the pediatrician's office so the doctor could check his lungs (his breathing was very raspy from the congestion). Everything seemed fine that afternoon and the doctor said to call back if Eli's breathing seemed worse. But basically, it seemed like he just had a virus, maybe the flu. At the same time, I was battling a cough, runny nose, sore throat, headache, fatigue, etc.

By Tuesday night, things took a turn for the worse. We put Eli to bed at 7 p.m., but he was waking up every 2 hours, miserable from a deep, unproductive and painful-sounding cough. He had a lot of congestion and had trouble coughing in the right way to clear it. The night before, he woke up choking on his phlegm (sorry, I know that's gross), so I was nervous about that happening again. Each time that he woke up, I would feed him, calm him back down, and he'd go back to sleep.

However, by 3 a.m., he woke up very feverish and couldn't stop coughing the painful cough, which was upsetting and he was crying too. Each time that he coughed and then tried to breathe in, it sounded like a struggle and was very labored. I of course did not get a video of this, but I can't think of how to describe what this sounded like. It was just horrible. I woke up Ben and called the doctor's office so I could talk with the doctor that was on call that night. After hearing Eli's coughing/breathing over the phone, she recommended we take him to the emergency room.

At this point, we were still thinking Ben would go to work the next day, so I said I was fine to just take Eli so Ben could get some rest. I bundled my poor little guy up and we drove over to the hospital. They took his temperature - it was 102.1 - scary for a baby, so they gave him Tylenol to bring the fever down. He was also given a steroid shot to help open up his airway and then a nebulizer treatment (where liquid medicine is administered with compressed air via a tool that you hold in front of the mouth/nose, it looks like steam from a humidifier). Eli's breathing definitely sounded better and he fell asleep, but after about 45 minutes, his breathing started to get raspy and congested again. We did another nebulizer treatment and they decided to admit him to the pediatrics department so they could monitor him.

Throughout the day, Eli was poked, prodded, checked, connected to a machine that monitored his heart and oxygen rate, and none of this made him very happy! He tested positive for RSV and has croup. These are both viruses, so there really isn't an antibiotic or medicine that will make these go away. But his breathing seemed better by the end of the day, so we were finally able to go home. Ben stayed home from work, so he was able to be at the hospital throughout the day and helped a lot. We finally left the hospital around 5 p.m. and were SO happy to be home where Eli would be more comfortable (he barely napped at the hospital).

Last night, Eli had a much better night and woke up about every 3 hours to nurse, but I didn't care since he probably needed the extra fluids (during the day he ate every HOUR!! Crazy). Today he is still coughing a ton and under the weather (as am I), but there is definitely improvement. We'll go in to the pediatrician tomorrow to check his ears in case they become infected from the nasal drainage and to follow up on everything since the hospital.

Last night my parents brought us a delicious meal of pot roast, fruit salad, and homemade rolls. And they cleaned my kitchen! The Chamberlain girls from church stopped by to see if there was anything they could to do, which was so sweet and thoughtful of them - I was worried about spreading our germs though. A friend today just dropped off a yummy lunch and juice (thank you Katie!) We feel so blessed to have wonderful friends who have called and emailed - thanks for all of your love and care! I'm off to take a nap while Eli is sleeping...

Below is the awful crib in the room on the pediatrics floor - Eli hated it!!