Happy New Year?

I am ready for 2008 to be over with. I am taking a brief break from end of year financials (try not to be jealous) to share with you the major events that 2009 will be bringing, hopefully, to our family

* My first born, Matthew, will be turning 5 in a couple of weeks! It seems like I was just pregnant with him.

* I am turning the big 3-0...tears to follow.

* Kevin will be looking for a new job

* My last baby will turn 1.

* Hopefully my sister and her husband will announce an upcoming addition to their family.

* More good times with our friends and families...either in person or sharing through these blogs!

Thank you to each of you who are a part of our lives. Even if we don't see you or talk to you much, please know that we are greatful for all of our friends. Now, as for Alex - quick update...Upper G.I. scheduled on Tuesday, January 6. More information to follow after that!

Hospital Pics

Here are some pictures of the stay at the hospital. We went for several walks in the skybridges and around the hospital. Matthew had a great time holding his little brother in the red wagons provided for us on our walks. Enjoy!










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Christmas Eve

Well, we got to go home from the hospital last Monday and everything was going well...then Tuesday night the diarreha and vomitting started again. I seriously thought I was going to come undone. We called the pediatrician and got in on Wednesday morning. Since it was Christmas Eve, our pediatrician wasn't in, but the ANRP was. She said that Alex was doing well as far as his hydration was concerned, and there was nothing that we could do. I asked for a referral to the Peds G.I. doctor and she said that they would start working on it. About 30 minutes later I got a phone call from their office saying that the Peds G.I. doctor would review his file in a couple of weeks and decide if he was going to see Alex. At this point the tears started flowing uncontrolled. How long was this going to go on? Alex was so pale on Tuesday night I was afraid to put him down.

To make a long story short, I called my mom hysterically crying. She made a phone call to the VP of the Children's Hospital, who made a phone call to the Peds G.I. doctor on our behalf. At 12:00 that afternoon Alex was being seen by Dr. Abou-Harb. THANK GOD! Alex is scheduled for an upper G.I. next week sometime to review his anatomy and find out what is causing all of this stomach upset.

Christmas Eve only continued to get better. That same morning, dad's garage heater went out, later in the day they were out shopping for a new oven because their existing oven quit and my parents were hosting people for Christmas Eve dinner, then the prime rib caught on fire on the grill. We had a great time at dinner and playing our annual family game. At about 12:20, I heard Matthew crying in the basement and he wasn't stopping. Just as I was going downstairs Kevin opened the door and said "Matthew is throwing up". And so it went. Matthew was up every 2 hours vomitting and crying. It quit after exactly 12 hours.

Did I mention all of the snow??

Alex Update - Sunday

We managed to make it through the night with just a little skiff of diarreha in the diaper. Alex was offered Nutramagin last night around 8pm...and promptly spit it back out at us. He is not too impressed with his new diet.

This morning we had more blood work drawn to see how his bi-carb level was...and it is still only at 18, so still considered to be low. We need to get him at 20 and sustain it there before they will consider allowing us to go home. It will help if we can get him to eat some more formula. The hospitalist was just in to see us and said that if he continues to refuse the Netramagin she will write for a formula that is a little more vanilla flavored...and is covered by our insurance! :)

Until tomorrow...

Alex Update

So I was wrong about it being a C-Diff. That came back negative, surprisingly. The only other thing that the doctor can figure out is that we are dealing with a milk protein allergy. They drew more blood this afternoon to try and determine if an allergy is possible. We are at Sacred Heart until the diarreha stops and he can tolerate solid foods (i.e. formula). They are going to back us off of a formula with soy and put us on a special formula (that insurance will cover, thankfully, with a prescription).

On Monday the Peds G.I. doctor will be in to talk to us about a possible scope of his digestive system if nothing has improved significantly. At this point, Kevin and I are hoping that we are discharged in time for Christmas.

More to come....

Elbows deep in...part 2

Well, I am typing this from my office at Sacred Heart while taking a break from our hospital room. Alex was hospitalized last night for the same stuff we have been dealing with now for almost 2 weeks. We are waiting for the lab results to come back on a C-Diff or Rotovirus, but at this point they are leaning towards a C-Diff. We are likely "in" for one more night. Alex is doing mostly well. He doesn't like the IV in his hand and is not too impressed with his current diet...pedialite.

More when I have some news.

An Annual Family Event

My mom has this thing about Christmas...she goes nuts. At her house there are 3 (yes, t-h-r-e-e) Christmas trees, an obnoxious looking train attached to her balcony and the lights on the front of the house as well. The only reason that there are lights on our house this year is that she convinced Matthew that Santa Claus won't be able to find our house unless the lights are up and on. It took me 15 minutes to calm him down the other night after they were turned off at 10:00pm.

Another family tradition is our trip to sit on Santa's lap. We usually end up downtown since the tree is so much prettier and the Santa doesn't look like the anorexic one at the Valley Mall (seriously, for those of you living in Spokane go check him out...he looks like Santa after a year of Weight Watchers). Of course we have to get the picture. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is the Couture-Buck-Wilson family Christmas picture.

Elbows deep in....

So, Alex had his first official illness...the stomach flu. Better known as Gastrointeritis. It started out all innocent with a few soft poopies, but quickly manifested into a full on diaper changing event. Just to give you an idea...Kevin changed 5 diapers between 2am and 8am, all nasty. Then the vomitting started. After 5 days of Poopie Madness 2008 and then 2 days of vomitting, we decided to call the pediatrician. No luck getting him in there. So, we considered urgent care...then I realized that we would most likely be sent to Sacred Heart anyway for rehydration. Kevin and I ended up just bringing him to the ED so that we weren't waiting for 2 hours at urgent care, and waiting again at the ED for an IV.

Alex took his IV like a champ. They were able to rehydrate him and he acted like a whole new baby...but it was sad to see the IV sticking out of his poor little baby hand. And what kind of parents would we be if we didn't take at least one picture? It is on Kevin's phone, so I will get it off and add to this post soon.

I think that the baby has had more than his fair share of trips to the doctor recently, so I am hoping that the poop and vomit fairy won't be visiting him again for a LONG TIME!

Alex at 4 months

Month 4 finds us introducing fresh fruits (yes, I am making my own) and Alex rolling over in his crib. We had a minor emergency on Thanksgiving when Matthew accidentally tripped over Alex and landed on him with his knee straight to the sternum. Matthew was so upset and we were all crying (me because Kevin scared the crap out of me when he started screaming my name). Thankfully, no one is seriously hurt, just bruised a little bit. Alex is currently 16 lbs 12 oz and 25 inches long. He is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight and was not too impressed with Dr. McManus' feeble attempts to make him smile or laugh. He just wanted to go home! For your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures and an attempt at a video of the little guy.