The Oakland Zoo

Last Saturday our whole family went to the Oakland Zoo together. It had been about a year since Lane went with us!  We all had a wonderful visit.  We got to see the four new tigers and check out Maggie, the baby giraffe.  Giraffes are 80 pounds at birth!  Wow.

 Easton had his first (and only) experience in a stroller. It was so weird that he wasn't attached to me. He seemed so far away!  

 I have always had a special place in my heart for blossoming trees which has multiplied about 4 gazillion times after having witnessed the cherry blossom festival in DC for 5 years.  sigh.

 Gabriela had the time of her life jumping into Daddy's arms...

 The white handed gibbons were really active and gave us quite a show with their "bars routine"

 But, hands down, the best part of that zoo trip was Gabriela's first time on the roller coaster at the zoo.

 She also went on the airplanes before we left for the afternoon.

But back to the roller coaster...that little daredevil has been asking to go on it for months. I couldn’t take her, being super pregnant and all.  But Daddy accompanied her on her very first roller coaster ride ever AND caught it on video for your viewing pleasure. I love how she begs to go again before the ride is even all the way over. 

At Nana and Papa's New House

We spent the night at Nana and Papa's new house in Los Banos over super bowl weekend. Gabriela had so much fun with Nana and Papa. Uncle Tim came over with his family, which meant even more fun in the cousins department.

Gabriela passed out in her own bed. She was very excited that her room had a ladybug nightlight!

 Papa and Easton shared some fun times together.

 The weather was so amazing that the kids played outside hopping like bunnies, somersaulting across the lawn and having races. In fact, Nana had to bust out the popsicles!

 The daddies even took their girls to the park before the big game.  After the halftime show, the girls asked what happened to the Princess (Madonna).  Unfortunately, Easton seemed to enjoy the super bowl as well.  Trying to be like the rest of the guys, I guess.

Gabriela's First Haircut

Okay, so technically Gabriela got a "half haircut" when she was about one year old. She had these little wisps of hair on each side of her head, but she pulled all the wisps out of one side of her head. Whoops.  Her hairdo was totally lopsided so we had to correct that.

But Gabriela hadn't had a haircut since.  Her hair was all the way down her back and getting really hard to manage.  I adored those sweet curls, but they were all tangled and the ends just weren't healthy anymore.  It was time. 

The before shot

 The damage

I was so stressed out and in disbelief that I was actually cutting her sweet curls off!

 

Obviously, Gabriela is happy with the results.  

 I swear, I didn't mean to cut it as short as I did.  Lane even asked me what happened.  Like, what happened to just a couple inches??!!  I am not going to lie, I shed a few tears.  There was something about her hair cut that made her look like such a big girl. 

 And this is the curl I saved for her. 

 

We still don't know if her baby curls are gone forever, or if they will come back. Gabriela's hair is kind of wavy right now.  She loved getting a haircut so I was sure to put the scissors out of reach and remind her that only grown ups are allowed to cut hair.

Grandma and Grandpa's Visit

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit the day before our infamous trip to the ER.  They spent extra time with the kids and then we all enjoyed a ham dinner together.

Three Months Old

Easton is three whole months old, weighing in at 12 lbs 7oz at the doctor last week.  This last month has been very busy for him - he made his first trip to Fairyland, the Oakland Zoo, went to his first theatrical performance (a children's performance of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)... okay, he just came along for the ride with his big sister on that one.  And, as you know, his first trip to the ER and hospital stay.  Wow, this kid stays busy.

Easton is quite strong. He has amazing head control and loves to sit up.  If I hold his hands while laying down and pull him up a little, he immediately goes to standing and hangs out there for quite a while.

Easton has found his hands! He is often found sucking on his hand, or even his thumb. Just like with his big sister, we are afraid he's going to poke himself in the eye.  He does it exactly the same as Gabriela - fingers sticking straight up, and many times, Easton uses one hand to keep his other hand in place.


He loves hearing songs and rhymes and watching his mama dance in front of him. Whenever he is awake at storytime, Easton giggles and smiles and coos at my reading. It's funny because I would never read him those book normally.  He's just a fan of expressive reading. Easton likes to hang out in the bouncer and sleep in the swing.  Sometimes he coos and talks to me while I'm working on  something with Gabriela, just to get my attention.

His big eyes are turning darker and darker. We thought they might be green or hazel, but they are dark, just like big sister's.  Easton's giggles are so cute and contagious, we just can't get enough.  He is a nursing champ, in fact we have nearly mastered side lying nursing in the dark.  Carseat rides aren't as tortuous as before. Sometimes our little guy just looks up at his big sister and smiles.
It is so sweet. Other times, Gabriela helps him settle down.

We love this little dude so much!!

Our Hospital Stay

Gabriela came back to the hospital with Lane, who brought things for Easton and me, as well as dinner for our whole family. Gabriela fell asleep in my arms snuggling after telling me about her fun day with Heather, Serkan, and Rowan.

Easton and I went to bed as soon as Lane and Gabriela left.  I was worried I might get some slack from the hospital staff for bringing Easton into the bed with me instead of having him sleep in the crib, but they didn't say a word.  They did want to put him on constant fluids through his IV, but I told them I wanted to nurse him instead. I said we could reevaluate if there appeared to be a problem, and they were happy to agree, thank goodness.

Easton didn't cry once during the whole night. And when he woke up, he was all smiles.  And he stayed that way throughout his entire stay at the hospital.

Thank goodness Lane was able to stay home. He took Gabriela to preschool, they went to the playground, had tea parties, and played tons of pretend games. Meanwhile, I was in the hospital having a vacation.  It really was a piece of cake! Easton wasn't connected to any tubes or anything. He's an easy baby, he was smiley. And I wasn't chasing after or entertaining Gabriela or dividing my attention. It was quiet, and worlds better than our day at the ER. We sang songs and while he rested, I worked on his valentines and read more than 100 pages in my book. 

Easton continued to get his antibiotics through his IV during our hospital stay. His cultures confirmed the UTI and they prescribed an oral antibiotic for him. 

The second night we had pizza delivered to our room and Gabriela and Lane and I played Uno and Zingo together. It was family game night at the hospital!  We certainly made the most of our stay, and were happy to go back home.

Easton's First ER Visit

On Sunday of last week, Lane's parents came up for dinner.  After they left, I note to myself that Easton just wasn't as smiley as usual.  That night, he woke up several times during the night crying - also very unusual, and he had a really low fever.  I felt like I was overreacting a little, but we rushed to the pediatrician drop in hour first thing Monday morning.  "Hi, my infant was crying during the night."

I didn't feel as silly when poor little Easton vomited bright green bile in the patient room at the dr. office. He was so irritable the entire time that the doctor advised we take him to the emergency room at Children's Hospital.  In fact, she called the attending doctor and told us they were waiting for Easton.

I made some phone calls from the dr. office, dropped Gabriela off with Heather (thank goodness fr friends in town), and headed to the ER in my baby vomit clothes. The doctor mentioned that Easton might have a urinary tract infection, so I thought the hospital would confirm, give us a prescription for meds, and we'd be on our way. No need for Lane to come, we'd probably be done before he'd get home.

After we got to a patient room the attending ER physician came in the room to have a talk with me. Based on Easton's symptoms. he could have a UTI, an abdominal obstruction, a blood infection, pneumonia, or ...  meningitis.  Yeah, you know that sickness that people die from? I know of two people who have died from meningitis, and of course this was what I immediately thought of.  The only way to know for sure, they explained, was to do a spinal tap on my sweet little boy.   They would hold off to see if his condition improved or if they identified a different problem with some other tests.  But they warned that it was possible that Easton could have, for example, a UTI and meningitis and this could not be ignored.

So off they sent Easton and his freaked out mama for an ultrasound. Since Easton was throwing up, they wanted to see if he had an intestinal blockage. If so, they would give an air enema to clear it up.  If that didn't do the trick, he would need surgery.  No reassurance here.  At least Easton loved his ultrasound. He smiled and cooed through it all.  I needed to see my happy baby back.

Of course, there was no cell phone coverage at all in the hospital and it was clear that Lane should have been there. The nurses kindly showed me to a phone ... that wouldn't dial to 408 area code. I called Lane's work and broke down when they told me he was on his way to me. Only moments later he walked through the doors, and that's when I really broke down in tears.

Next the really awful stuff happened.  Easton had a catheter inserted to test for a UTI.  His face turned bright red, his eyes bulged out and he screamed like I've never heard before in his life.  Easton was looking right into my eyes and I felt like I had betrayed him, by letting him suffer like this, unable to explain anything. Since they hadn't yet ruled out the abdominal problems, I wasn't even allowed to nurse him.  Because of this, there were only a few drops of urine to be collected, not even enough for the test.

As if this wasn't traumatic enough for our whole family, Easton needed to have blood drawn from his tiny veins for cultures.  The nurses turned the lights out completely, put a flashlight on Easton's hand and traced his veins.  Then they just poked where the drawings were. Easton thrashed around and screamed again.  I cried again.

He was about to get an IV, when they heard that not enough blood had been collected for the culture. So they drew more.  Easton reacted to his IV insertion like he did to his blood drawing.  Luckily, they were able to tape a urine collection bag to him to collect his next pee pee instead of redoing the catheter.  By now. they knew Easton did not have an abdominal obstruction so I finally got the okay to nurse him. Finally.

Easton peed a little later, and they tested his urine.  By now, he was calming down some, and it looked like a UTI was to blame.  Easton received some antibiotics through his IV and was starting to look better.  Because of this, the ER doctor in charge said we didn't have to do the spinal tap right away. If he was still as irritable as he was when we arrived, they would do one.  But they wanted to observe him for a few days in the hospital, where he would continue to receive the same antibiotics.  In the meantime, they would test the urine culture against other antibiotics so they would know which oral one to prescribe. 

So, Lane went home to pack some things for Easton and me.  And, lucky us, we got to ride in an ambulance to the other unit of the hospital where we would be staying. 

So the EMTs arrived to our room with the stretcher and hooked Easton up into their little carseat stretcher buckles and off we rode to the hospital.  No sirens, and Easton drifted off to sleep on the way.  Thank goodness for that.

We didn't get checked into our room until around 7pm. I have to say that the ER staff at Children's Hospital in Oakland were all very thorough, transparent with the info they had to share, and responsive. Even if it was totally traumatic.  Poor little guy would burst into tears if anyone dared touch his arms the rest of the day.