The worst week....EVER!

The week of March 8, 2010 was definetly the worst week of my life. I took Jeremiah to the doctor on Monday March 8 after being sick over the weekend with diahrea and vomiting and high fever, this wasn't the first time this year going to the doctor he has already been in and out of the ER and instacare with bronchiolits and colds and just hasn't been able to kick it. So monday morning in the doctors office he had a temperature of 105.1! So Dr. V admitted him to the Mercy Gilbert hospital to look after him with such a high temperature she said he's fighting something and we need to find out what it is. When I took him to the hospital he started to look and feel better and his temperature went down to normal after being given some medicine but kept getting high once the medicine wore off. They did a bunch of swabs, blood tests and xrays but everything was normal while in the meantime Jeremiah wouldn't eat or drink so he got very dehydrated. He was placed in isolation so we were in the room for two days and he couldn't leave the room. They gave him an IV to hydrate him which was soooo sad, I had to hold him down so they could do it, they had to poke him twice. At times he was very happy and jumping around and acting like normal, Ryan even said I don't know why they are keeping him here he seems fine. He still had the fever that kept coming back once the medicine wore off and he was very dehydrated. On tuesday night he pulled out the IV and they wanted to give him another but I really didn't want them too and asked the nurse's to see if the doctor really thought he needed it and he did. So once again I had to hold him down while he was screaming and I'm trying to hold back my tears, the nurse said I could wait outside if I wanted to but yea right like I was going to leave him by himself with strangers that were hurting him. After the first nurse tried twice another nurse tried two more times and still couldn't get a vein they called the doctor and said they should try in the morning. So because they couldn't get the IV in they had to give him an antibiotic that the medicine stung going in(the nurse said). My poor baby was so exhausted after the trial of IV's, he really didn't even have the energy to cry when they gave him the shot he kinda made a whimper then rolled over and fell asleep. That night was a long night, Jeremiah was really congested and started breathing really heavily so throughout the night they had to stick tubes down his nose to suck out the mucous and he was given breathing treatments every few hours which didn't really seem to help. After a looong night the next morning he wasn't any better, he just seemed to worsen and he was struggling to breath, it sounded so wierd and horrible the way he breathed and the Doctor was getting worried and said he needed fluids so once again they put him on the table in this small little room that both I and Jeremiah grew to hate (by this time anyone that got near Jeremiah he would hold on to me tight and scream) the nurse's tried again, two nurse's two poke's each, no vein so they brought in a doppler/radiology machine so they could see his vein and I was told that if anyone could get his vein it would be radiology they tried twice:( still no vein! I was crying by now and I felt so helpless to my little baby boy, the worst feeling ever. All I could think was I'm his mom and he's screaming and I can't help him, he's probally thinking mommy why are you letting them hurt me. My heart ached so much and i kept saying a prayer over and over. This is when all these doctors, nurses, radiology, hospital staff were rushing in and out of this tiny room and standing outside in the hallway. They were coming up to me for support and the hospital religious guy(not sure what he was called,it was a catholic hospital) came and talked to me and said he would say a prayer for Jeremiah, everyone was really nice and showed genuine concern. They were drawing more blood and taking another xray which when they sat him up for the xray he just kinda slumped over and he was so pale. They finally gave him an IV through some kind of shot to the bone in his leg, it was loud and horrible. The doctor said he was in really bad shape and that he needed to be transfered to Phoenix Childrens hospital ICU where she felt was the best place for him now. She still didn't know what was wrong with him because everygthing was coming back normal. She came over to tell me that they were going to place a ventilator on him to breath for him and my heart just dropped, he had to have a machine breathe for him, she said that they weren't saving him but she was really worried that he could crash at any minute and wanted to be ready for that since he was going to be transferred by helicopter. The doctor said Jeremiah was still fighting when they were doing blood tests so she said that was a good sign. She told me that I was handling this pretty well but I felt like my heart was going to explode. Ryan got to the hospital by this time, I called him and told him what was going on and he got there pretty fast which I was so grateful and I just went and hugged him and let it out, I was trying so hard to hold it in but now I had Ryan to be the strong one. Ryan went in and gave him a blessing which I'm so glad he could do that for him, it was such a beautiful blessing and the spirit was so strong that when I looked up the nurse's were crying. While we were waiting for them to get Jeremiah ready to be transferred I called my mom and Ryan's mom to let them know what was going on and told them to tell everyone to pray for Jeremiah. That is what came to my mind to have everyone pray for him, I just knew that the more people that prayed for him he would get better. I text my good friend Sarah from my ward and asked her to send an email to the ward to pray for him. I felt really comforted knowing that all the prayers would help him. So when it came time for Jeremiah to leave, they first told me I could fly with him but then the flight lady came up to me and said we didn't realize what shape he was in and were going to take more people on the helicopter just in case and that they didn't have room for me. Which was soooo horrible! I could only think of the worst that could happen on that helicopter and that I would never see him again, we said goodbye and I touched his little head and hand and gave him a kiss(he was sedated at this time so I couldn't see his blue eyes which made me cry more) My chest felt so heavy and it hurt so bad and I remember looking around at all the people standing around, so many of them, some of them crying and fighting back tears for my baby and I was so worried but a thought came to me and said that I have done all I can, people are praying for him, Ryan gave him a blessing and that he will be ok and I felt really comforted and I just knew he would be ok. The drive to phoenix childrens seemed like forever but Jeremiah made it fine and when we got there the doctor said that she thinks Dr. V made the right decision and that Jeremiah was going to be just fine. It was a little scary when they told me about the ventiliator and that Jeremiah was only breathing 10% on his own but it slowly went up to a 100% well it seemed slow to me but it was only a day and a half that he was on the ventilator. My dad and Ryan gave him another blessing and he had visitors come which was so nice to talk to people and I got to go take a shower in the hospital family area while they were there to stay with him. When he opened his little eyes and looked at me it was like heaven and his eyes were so blue and when they took out the ventilator his little voice was so soft you could barely hear it. Then I finally got to hold him and it was so sweet and I thank God that he was getting stronger and breathing on his own and that I got to take him home on friday. We were so happy to leave the hospital with our little angel. Gabriel and Bella were so happy to see him, I saw them once during the week and I tried not to cry when they asked me how Jeremiah was. Gabriel could tell that I had been crying and he was really worried about Jeremiah and he started to cry so then Bella started to cry too, they love their little brother so much. His pediatrician later told me at his follow up visit that after she left the hospital when he was being tranferred she got in her car and just started crying, she said "I was trying so hard to be strong for you because I'm the doctor but I'm a mother too and Jeremiah really scared me.", I am so grateful for her and her decisions that day. We did find out that he had adenol virus(?) pneumonia and asthma thus the struggling to breath so he has to have an inhaler twice a day and singulair once a day. He hasn't been sick since starting his meds like he was before, always getting sick since he was born, thank goodness! I still have to hold back my tears writing this all but I am so glad he's ok and he's happy and healthy and that I get to hear his sweet little voice everyday.

All the machine's he was hooked up to.

So sweet when I got to hold him, it was a long and sleepless week. So glad to take him home.

Happy 1st Birthday Jeremiah!

My little baby boy turned 1 on January 18th! We were planning to have his birthday party at my mom's house and rented a bounce house and had games and food planned but it had rained the whole week before his party and when it rains here in Arizona it rains all day and all night, so my moms backyard was flooded and I didn't think she would appreciate the kids running and playing in the mud puddles then going into her house so I called around a few places but the only place that had anything available was peter piper pizza and I couldn't reschedule cause my inlaws flew in for his party. I love peter piper pizza but on a saturday it was crazy busy! We had fun, Jeremiah's favorite food at the moment is pizza, just like his mom. I did curious george themed party because he is my little monkey. I will most likely do this theme again next year because I have stuff that I bought that I didn't get to use.

Jeremiah wasn't walking on his own yet on his birthday, he would walk holding on to things. He is a speed crawler and gets around pretty fast. His vocabulary consists of mama, Bella, no, thank you, here you go. He copy's everything you say if you ask him too, he's so smart.

This is Jeremiah's favorite spot, once he see's the dishwasher open he is right there climbing on the door or taking all the dishes out and handing them to me.

My poor little guy spent the month of january(his birthday month) trying to get over his bronchiolitis. We went to the dr's, instacare and ER, it took him awhile to get over it. He got this when he was 3months. I hate the winter season, my kids always get sick!

PF Changs Marathon January 17, 2010

Rosa, Leah & I ran the pf changs marathon in January. All those months of a strict diet and training so many hours came all down to this day. Rosa flew in on friday, we went to the expo on saturday to pick up our race gear and we parked close to the expo we thought, but we couldn't find it surprise surprise, so we are walking around trying to figure out how to get to the right building. We came to this dead end, then some gate's opened up and some worker walked through the gate's and Rosa said lets go through there so we started running to get through the gates before they closed. so we started walking around and realized we were in the loading dock area that was all gated off and the only way to get out was if you had a key. So while we were trying to figure out how to get out of this place (we were thinking of jumping over the brick wall) some employee showed up and let us through, thank goodness otherwise I could see myself trying to jump over the wall and falling on my face. After the expo we went to go load up on carbs at Olive Garden, my favorite! Went and hung out with the family and slept at my mom's house because my little Jeremiah wake's up still so I needed to get my sleep for the race. Even though it was hard to fall asleep and stay asleep, my mind was racing about what it would be like to run the marathon. I was so nervous for a lot of things: I hope we get there with plenty of time, I hope I ate the right foods, I hope I can do this, can i do this?, I hope I don't hurt myself, I hope my legs don't give out on me,I need to get good sleep but why can't I fall asleep, and I was so nervous of "hitting the brick wall". I even had dreams about the race. I woke up before my alarm went off, got all my gear on, went over and over to make sure I wasn't going to forget anything. Brushed my teeth, went to the bathroom said my prayers, ate some toast and we were out the door. My sister-in-law Leah, her dad was nice enough to drive us to the race. We had our maps of where the drop off was and we got a little lost, whether the map was wrong or we were it was still nerve wrecking cuz all of us girls were kinda flipping out at Joe(he says) we finally found the drop off, and Leah whose time was starting before Rosa and I took off running. Me and Rosa just tried to remain calm, we both needed to go to the bathroom so we found the outhouses with a huge line, thank goodness people let us in front of them because we were running the marathon not the half(the marathon started first) So while we are waiting in line we see Leah running past us from the other outhouses and the look on her face was panic, Me and Rosa started busting up laughing! It was so funny! So we made our way to the start line and there was music and people talking, I recognized some guy up on the stage talking and then realized it was John McCain wishing all the runners good luck, so much excitement! Rosa and I ran the first 9 miles together but she is a faster runner than I am so I didn't want to overwork myself because I know I would pay for it later so I told her to just go. It was such a fun race because there was a band at every mile and cheeleaders too. I felt really good up until mile 20, my legs started to cramp up really bad so I had to stop and rub them out. Stopping made them hurt worse but yet they were killing me when I was running and I was really tired. I started to doubt myself and was thinking why am I doing this, it is sooo hard, I just want to give up but I didn't I just prayed and thought about what Rosa told me when we were running in the beginning of the race "We are kings of our souls" and I also thought about what I put on my vision board for this years resolutions, my motto for the year"Be Victorious" So after thinking like this it didn't get any easier but I started feeling happier and goofy, I started singing and probally staggering back and forth but I made it to the finish line(4:48) and it was the most amazing feeling ever! Just a feeling of accomplishment, doing something that I thought I could never do was so empowering. I felt like I can conquer anything that come's my way. It was so nice to have family there at the finish line waiting for me. I definetly would recommend everyone running a marathon it's the most amazing feeling ever and you get to experience all these emotions in such a little amount of time. It also was so cool to think that 1year ago I was doing another kind of marathon, giving birth to my sweet Jeremiah 1-18-2009

THE SNOW.... So beautiful!

Our friends Terri & Shawn invited us up to their cabin in Pinetop the week of New Years Eve. The kids were sooooo excited to see the snow, it was their first time. Gabriel absolutely loved the snow! He didn't want to come inside, he would have stayed out and played all day but I was cold. It was fun, I haven't seen the snow for 4-5years so it was really nice. Bella played outside for about 20minutes then she was done, she said it was too cold. We went sledding twice and that was a blast! I loved watching Gabriel drag the sled up the hill and going down, he finally just started sliding down in his snowsuit,he thought it was the coolest thing and couldn't stop laughing. Bella played for a little bit then went in the car and watched Hannah Montana. It was a lot more scarier then I remember going down those hills, I guess when your a kid you have no fear. I did go to the top and went down, I was so scared of falling off but I never did. I just went on the tube's or the airmattress's, they are a lot smoother then the plastic sleds (those one's just throw you around, I saw kids wiping out big time and getting back up and going again.CRAZY!) The mountains were beautiful, it started snowing when we were up sledding and it was gorgeous. It was nice to go to the snow but even nicer to come home to warmer weather. I have alot more picture's which I'm going to post on my facebook so check it out.

Making a snowmen, they never finished the snow was too powdery.

Snow ANGEL

He was trying to touch the snow and got frustrated cause he couldn't because of his gloves.

Christmas Day.

On christmas eve we got home about 11pm so Bella and Jeremiah fell asleep on the way home & Gabriel put some cookies out for santa, he was so excited. Of course christmas morning Ryan & I were the first one's awake, we are just so excited for the kids so around 8am we finally woke up the kids (our kids have never woken up before us on christmas, it's crazy cause Ryan & I remember when we were kids how we couldn't sleep and then we used to wake up so early, maybe when they are a little older they will do that). They were so excited opening their presents. Poor little Jeremiah was sick so he wanted to go back to bed. Gabriel was so happy to get his Nintendo DS and Bella got her barbie townhouse(it's so fun!) I kept taking Gabriel's nintendo ds from him and he told me I need to get my own, it's pretty fun to play with. After opening presents and playing for awhile we went to my mom's house for my dad's breakfast, he make's the best waffles! We hung out there for awhile went home and took naps and played some more then back to my mom's house for our Christmas dinner. I can't believe another christmas has passed!

Can you find Jeremiah?

My poor little guy was sick on his first christmas.

He was so happy, can you tell?

Bella was still half asleep.

Christmas Eve

We spent christmas eve at my mom's house of course eating yummy food. We did a nativity scene with the kids but it was hard to get our kids to sit still. They were still so cute, they sang the nativity song and Bella memorized her little part and sang it so dang cute with no fear.We always have a little talent show too which is so fun to watch everyone. Abish played the piano, Marisol sang a song, Abuelo sang a song of course(he's so cute) Alessia played the violin, Gianni and Bella sang.
The picture above is me and my siblings. My little brother on the far right Gabriel is only 14 and I think he is going to pass us all up. He's already taller than me! No fair.

Bella was the angel and here she is singing her part.

Cousins

So cute!

Christmas Programs

Both Gabriel and Bella had Christmas programs and they were so fun to watch. Gabriel's class sang a song about a donkey (I never heard it before) it was really cute, he was a little nervous, he did sing some of the songs but he's not the singing type and he's more like me, he doesn't like to speak in front of people(it's so scary) Bella sang and danced to a couple of songs, she was shy at first but then she started to feel a little more comforable after the first song. She's the opposite of me, she love's to sing and dance for people. She love's to be the center of attention.