Thursday, March 17, 2011

Amateur Photo Session!

Today was a beautiful sunny day, my 'work' day ended a little early, so Charlotte and I decided to head to the park!  Her biggest joy lately has been the slide  - "slide, fast, slide!"  She looked super cute today with her little pony tail and khaki capris so I decided to take our nice camera along.  That then turned into, let's take a different outfit and shoes and hair thing and voila!  Amateur Photo Session Commence!

We took "casual" ;0) photos with her capris and tshirt and pony tail while she was climbing all over the play gym and swinging. (and go figure, she never actually went down the slide today!)



Then we got more "serious" and went to the car to change into a cute little dress, sandals, and brushed the hair all curly like.  We took a walk in the grass and along the path and by Charlotte's request, across the bridge and the little creek.  She loved "run fast," and picking up leaves, and peeking through the rails of the bridge at the babbling brooke.


In the end I took like 182 photos... maybe a handful of those are even good!  I thought when I was out there clicking away with my little finger I was the greatest photographer and was taking perfect picture after perfect picture. :(  But hey, I got a few good ones and we had fun in the sun!!!  More photos are on Facebook or Mobile Me.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

2 year well check up

...and concussion follow up!  What a day...

We had Charlotte's 2 year well child check up scheduled for today, so it turned into a follow up for her concussion as well.  Charlotte loved being in the lobby and seeing all the fish.  As soon as the nurse opened the door to walk us back... the tears started :(  I'm thinking once the nurse in the scrubs showed up and we started walking down these muted colored hallways, she was flashing back to our 3+ hours in the hospital and undergoing a tortuous time in the CT room.

She ended up crying the entire time the nurse was in the room with us, making it really hard to brag on Charlotte and all her milestones!  We cried through the taking of weight and height too, here are her new stats:  26 pounds in the 45th percentile (up from the 25%)  and 2 feet 9 inches in the 75 % (down from 85%)

Once the nurse left us alone, Charlotte calmed down and we played some games and read some books.  However, when the doctor came back in... tears again!  More here than ever, I saw how Charlotte was just like her momma - the more I cry, the more my face gets all red and white and splotchy, C's did the exact same thing!!   More crying through the talking, but we were able to go over all the important things.  Charlotte is doing wonderful with her vocabulary, motor skills, eating, growing and thriving!!   He did advise us to start her on some vitamins, so that's a new thing, but that's about it, just keep on keeping on.

As far as the concussion goes, he reiterated all the same things that the ER doc said - over the next 2 weeks we may still see signs of the concussion.  If any of them last longer than or happen often past a 10 minute period, we'll need to contact the doctor.  He assured me that it is very rare that anything else will happen, but you want to keep watch cause there is always a story about someone who thought they were fine and a week or two later something happens.

The next update on this topic won't be until her 3 YEAR appointment! Can you believe...

I'll leave you with a picture of my 2 year old from a couple days ago eating one of her first PBJ sandwiches!  Doesn't she look so very very grown up!

C is for Concussion

Well, we have had an eventful couple days!  A very special thank you to all those who have prayed and sent "get well soon" wishes to Charlotte.  The world of Twitter and Facebook is amazing at keeping friends, family, and our support system that spreads across the world updated at the push of a button.  As much info as I have been able to send out in 140 character bits, I know some people want to know what actually happened!  So here's Charlotte's story:

Yesterday, Tuesday March 1st, Charlotte and two of her little friends that I watch during the day were eating lunch at the table.  I was feeding the baby over on the couch with my back turned to the big kids.  Charlotte sits in a booster seat that is strapped to our wooden kitchen chair, she has tried before to scoot her chair back from the table by pushing off on the table top with her feet.  She has been told "no" multiple times and usually doesn't get very far.  This time was a different story!  She pushed hard enough that she tipped the entire chair backwards so it landed on it's back on the tile kitchen floor.  Thankfully Charlotte's head hit the wooden chair back and not the actual tile, but it was still a very hard fall.  (she was strapped in the booster seat so she did not actually fall out of the chair)

She was shocked at first, then started crying and didn't really want to be comforted.  Jeff was on his way home from a meeting at that point, but even with Daddy arriving she cried more on than off for the next hour.  Then the throw up began.  All her lunch came out in 3 successive throw up events - ugh!  She handles throw up like a champ but man oh man.  At this point we are worried about a possible concussion but I also had to send home 2 of the kids I watch for a stomach bug at the same time all this was happening so there was a possiblity the head bonk and the throw up was unrelated.  I went ahead and called her doctor and we talked over the signs to watch for: continuous throw up, irregular pupil size, and changes in balance, personality, or mental awareness.  They did say that she was allowed to sleep for up to 2 hours, since it was already past nap time at this point we went ahead and laid her down.

She slept for just over 2 hours and woke up throwing up again :(  At this point, she was crying, pretty docile, and while she could answer questions like she normally would - what color is this, who am I, what is this, etc - she seemed to be a little out of it.  We decided it would be best to head to the ER and get her checked out.  A huge thank you to Shelley Stedman who was over here in less than 5 minutes after my phone call to watch the 2 remaining kids for their last 45 minutes of care until they were picked up.

Once we got to the ER we did all the needed paperwork, registration, and triage care and were placed in the "Fast Track" with 2 people ahead of us.  All in all we waited about and hour and 15 or so to get back into the actual ER.  At this point Charlotte was still throwing up - in the car, in the waiting room, and then in our little hospital room.  We spoke with a physicians assistant and he seemed amazed by how many times she had thrown up, so that combined with her lethargy and docile behavior, he ordered a CT scan for our little bug.  This was to check for any brain bleeds, which could be either serious or something that would heal on its own.

This was the worst part of all this, in my opinion.  Once we were in the CT room, it took forever to actually get started, we had this one tech that was super loud and overly excitable which was making Charlotte more uncomfortable than making her feel ok with laying down on this bed thing.  They did bring Charlotte a little bear to take home so that helped calmed the waters for a minute.  The crying and kicking started when we had to lay her down, wrap her in a lead blanket, and hold her head still.  Ugh. Jeff and I were both holding her and singing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Rock-A-Bye-Baby" over and over while the machine moved her back and forth.  Prayers were answered when the 10 most important seconds of the scan, she held perfectly still and seemed mesmerized by our singing - thank you Jesus!

The next bit draaaaaged on for 30-45 minutes (Jeff wouldn't let me keep track of the time cause he knew I'd drive myself crazy)  So we all just sat in the little room and watched House Hunters and waited on the doctor.   We finally got the good news that the CT Scan came back totally normal!   Her diagnosis was officially a concussion, so we went over what the next 24 hours would hold, what to watch for, and were even told that she could show effects of the concussion for the next 2 weeks!  Amazing.  Charlotte was giving some anti-nausea meds which she threw up at first (at this point we were 3 hours into our ER stay and would have loved to have these meds a little earlier!) But we tried again with another piece of "candy" aka the anti nausea meds and a purple popsicle!  She scarfed that thing down and actually held it down!  We were given the all clear at this point to head home, boy were we all beat! (here is the only photo I took of the entire ordeal)



Charlotte watched tv and cuddled for about 25 minutes when we got home at 8, then she was ready for bed.  She crawled right into bed and we didn't hear a peep from her til 7:45 this morning!  She woke up crying, but hadn't thrown up.  She was hungry and thirsty so we started her out with an anti-nausea pill and juice.  Too much!  The juice all came right back up :(  I won't give you every detail of our day today, but we did have a little more throw up, but then were able to move into 3 hours of non-throw up time, so she had some snacks and some more juice, held it all down, and went for a nap. Unfortunately she only napped for about 45 minutes and woke up crying :(  I think she was too hot and sweaty to nap, she hadn't thrown up, maybe her head was hurting?  She has some ibuprofen in her, some crackers and apple juice, and while she is tired, she is playing some and watching tv, so that's good!

We already had her 2 year check up scheduled for today, so we are keeping that appointment and doing a concussion follow up as well.  So thankful that our CoverKids FREE insurance for Charlotte went into effect yesterday, March 1st!  Again, we have amazing friends and family and are so grateful to have you all praying for a quick recovery for Charlotte and for Jeff and I as we take the best care of her as possible.  Be watching twitter and facebook for updates!