back at the beach!

Casparis joined us for a beach adventure this morning!  We all loved being back by the lake.

And we had the whole place to our selves..ahhhhh

Check out kristis feet.... Neither of them are on the ground!

Then a picnic on a soggy playgrounds

Yup, that's H without pants. He got wet at the beach. I love summer. and now Gow and I are enjoying a wonderful quiet evening.

spring around here

i love spring. 

the weather is beautiful and different every day. 

our lives are packed full of really great things.

most of all- i praise God for our healthy kiddos tonight.

h gave us a little scare this afternoon, fever of 104.8.

our EMT neighbor and friend checked him out and then went with me to the doc... no seizure.  praise God.  we are rotating tylenol and ibuprofen.... God protect him and pray that we surrender and trust.

i wanted to share some of the happenings around the gowanito home....

 daisy's class had a field trip to learn about gardening and to plant some seeds...

 Daisy and her teacher, Mrs Julia

 she planted cosmos!

 this is daisy' 3k class and the gardener

 here is daisy... ELATED as she just told dad what was in the envelope.... her acceptance letter to go to Woods school with Sally and her cousins Emma and Timmy next year!  we are all STOKED.

 this is daisy and H hollering and running laps on the porch to celebrate.

 h and daisy settling in for  their afternoon movie before naps & quiet times.  often they sit on this lil couch together.  and my fave thing... Henry gets up, walks to the fridge and ask for "BELKY" (milk) in his low voice.  I pour him a sippy cup and one of apple juice for daisy and he carries hers over to her and then sits down next to her so they can relax, drink and watch the show together.

  Emma's track meet!  super fun!  and she did really well!

 we met up with the caspari cousins one of Em's bball games.... kristi even brought pom poms.

 ems warming up

 cyndie and i hosted a table together for the MOPs Mother's Day tea.  fancy and super fun!

 sally had "moms and muffins" and "dads and donuts" last week.  it was fun to see them go thru their morning routine of learning the calender...

 and seeing Sal with her classmates... Kendrick, Ela, Mareli, Esme and SJ

 Sal's class - teacher Mrs Aguilar (Mrs A)

 henry running around with dad's hat on

 h being silly and sooo snuggly (he's always snuggly & giggly when he is tired... i love it)

dad fried after work.  and stretching out his bod... while the girls are happy just to touch him!

and that is a peek into our world.

tomorrow is Daisy's LAST day of 3K at Calvary Church.

tomorrow is my LAST day as a MOPs Care Team Leader Coordinator.

and is currently working crazy hours.... when it rains - it pours.

we are thankful for each day that God gives us.

love to y'all and thanks for your prayers.

daisy kate's fancy tea

 we had a tea party at daisy's school today!  so fun to be greeted at the door by daisy kate, squeezed and then escorted to our table where she pulled out the chair for me.  
this morning when she woke up... she started bouncing cuz she knew this was the day for the fancy tea.   when we sat down, she leaned over and said "mom, we are going to have juice AND coffee!"   so very proud that we would both have our favorite beverages!

 i absolutely LOVE her. 

 a flower she made for me.

 so excited - so she was being silly.

 picking up toys with her classmates after the tea party

and a quick photo with Miss Julia, Daisy's 3K teacher.

Here is one of my favorite things she made for this special Mother's Day Tea...
(everything underlined is a fill in the blank where she gave her answer.)

All about my MOM

My mom is 33 years old.

My mom weighs 23 pounds

My mom's favorite color is purple.
My mom's favorite food is peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

My mom always says "I love you".

My mom cooks the best juicy hamburgers.

My mom's job is washing the dishes.

If my mom had time, she would love to play I spy.

My mom & I like to hug & kiss her.

My mom really loves raindrops

I LOVE my mom because I like her.

By DAisy
05/07/13



my personal fave is her thoughts on my weight!
and about the burgers... gow makes the burgers around here. :)
and about the raindrops... it's totally true.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the rain.  my fave is a summer rain storm when the kids will sit on my lap in the recliner and we look out the porch windows to see and hear the rain, lightening and thunder.

all in all- it was a sweet time with Daisy at the Mother's Day Tea.
and as i was tucking her into bed she said... "i had fun at the fancy tea with you momma."
she just melted my heart.

henry's seizure

I wrote the section below from Henry's hospital room last week.....

 

i don't really know how to began to process or share this past week.  it has been incredibly crazy, horrible at times, heart breaking, amazing and even packed with hope. 

currently, i am sitting on my "bed" in Henry's room.  8th floor, the Epilepsy floor of Childrens Hospital in Milwaukee.

Henry is having a sweet nap in his crib - wearing his light purple hospital pants that have a "Children's Hospital" Stamp on his hiney and little hospital gown.  i can see his foot with his ID bracelet on it.

gow is reclined in his "bed", a foot from Henry's bed... watching something on tv.

i can hear Flight for Life landing on the helipad that is 1/2 block from the hospital.

i can not begin to put into words how this week has impacted me.

tuesday night henry went to bed at 7pm.  he had had a cough for a few days and was tired.

he went to bed easily and at 9:30 we heard him making some noises... i went in to check on him and something was off.

he sounded like he was crying but couldn't open his mouth.  he was on his back (not normal for him)  and his arms and legs looked different.

i am not going to write out all the details here...   

we called 911 and then my brother- telling both that our 16 month baby was not responding.   eyes remaining closed, not waking up.    Henry's arms will straightened and his toes were pointing...

our neighbor is a 1st responder and was at our house as we carried H out into the living room....  then an ambulance ride to the ER at the hospital both H and Dk were born.

CT scan, blood test, and 2 muscle relaxers as his seizure behavior was not "normal" and was later diagnosed as a complex febrile seizure.

he finally "woke up"  as he was about to do his CT scan and was then following us with his eys and then we were headed to Children's ER via another ambulance - all this time on Oxygen.

and that's where I stopped writing last week.

so let me finish the story......

we arrived at Childrens about 2:30am and stayed a few hours in the ER before moving to the 8th floor into a room where we ended up staying for five more days.

Henry had an EEG - and was examined by a Neurology team.   All tests came back "normal" and the Neurologist gave Henry release to go home.

However, the virus that gave him the fever, that gave him the seizure in the first place began to really affect H's breathing.  

Oxygen thru a nose canula and an oxygen intake meter to his big toe... Henry adapted to a few days of tubes and eventually stopped pulling on them to actually play with them at times.

A chest x-ray to be sure that he hadn't developed pneumonia from ingesting fluid during his seizure came back with NO pneumonia, but showing the inflammation of his bronchial tubes which were making him work UBEr hard to breathe. 

Two times during those 5 days at Childrens Henry was put on isolation and then removed from isolation.   

The beginning of our time there he was worn out.  and mostly laid on us.  each time a team came in (it's a teaching hospital so there are teams of students, residents and then nurses and their students and then the actual doctors).   he would cry anytime there were medical people in there taking his heart beat or blood pressure or what not.... and then be worn out from the fear and crying when they left and mostly sleep or just watch a show while laying on us.

Near the end- he was starting to want to walk and play.  And we were SUPER SUPER thankful as we were seeing our lil man Henry being himself again.  But that posed the problem of him being on tubes and not having space to play. It was like being on an airplane with a toddler for 4 days.   

;)

All in all-  they ended up giving him 5 days of prednisone and continuous breathing treatment of arbuterol.   

He was released Sunday evening after being able to sleep a night on "room air" (without an oxygen tube) and with doing well on having the arbuterol ever 6 hours.

As for the Complex Febrile Seizure that started this whole thing.... statistics are that 10% of all children will have a Simple Febrile Seizure.  (Henry's was considered complex because he seized longer than normal and required 2 different muscle relaxing medications)   Now, because Henry has had one, he has 40% chance of having another one.  

So they sent us home with a plan.

Any time his temp rises at all- we medicate with Ibuprofen.   If/when he has another seizure, we are to time it.  If it doesn't stop by 5 minutes we have a medication to give him to stop the seizure and then call 911.    

That's it in a nutshell.

The emotions that we have felt in these past weeks are something.

I don't know if i will have time to process them here.... as we are feeling pretty overwhelmed with all that has now piled up.    

But the strongest thing going on in our hearts in mind- thanksgiving.

Thanking God for the amazing health that He has given the five of us.

I looked at Henry that Tuesday night with fear ... wondering if he would ever wake up again.  wondering if he did wake up... would he ever be himself again.

On Saturday in the hospital ( the day before we got to take him home)  I put his feet on the ground in the Healing Garden.   A small park like inclosure the patients are allowed to go for sunshine and fresh air.   As I set his feet down... i was crying.  He was wobbling from not walking and maybe from meds?   but he was eager to run.   i will never forget the humble thanksgiving that took over my heart and head as he wobbled away from me.

Here are some pix I took that Saturday and Sunday before coming home without tubes.... 

 h learned how to give "cheers" while we were there.

 auntie jane and auntie cyndie loved on and cared for the girls the whole time we were in the hospital.  they girls never missed a beat as their aunties scooped them up with love, time, encouragement and fun.   it was awesome for us to get photos of what the girls were doing... here is a pix of henry seeing the girls taking a bath at auntie janes.   he was happy to see them - so were we.

 

 and this is our all time favorite nurse... maggie!  i think it was saturday that i woke up and said to gow, "i really need some hope today".  and the next thing i know was that maggie was back on duty!  she was such a fantastic nurse in knowledge, wisdom, how she handled us, Henry and the others in the rooms around us.   plus.. she brought me scrubs to wear when Henry had peed on me for the 3rd time on the clothes i had worn the first three days there. ;)

she was cheering and pulling for Henry's recovery almost as much as we all were.  and you can see that Henry liked her as well.

 and this is while we were waiting for the paper work to be discharged!  happy, healthy and cleaning up before we head home.  

and that's the story.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

And praising God for the health He has given us!  Especially for our lil man H.

henry

Henry-  HAPPY TO BE HOME!

i hope to post more soon- but we are behind on about everything in life right now. ;)

but we are VERY VERY thankful to report that Henry is healthy and doing absolutely great!
(He did fall and chip his front tooth tonight.  That will show you how ACTIVE and unafraid he is!  He seems to have lost his "caution gauge".)

thanks for your love and support!