High Hopes

Brandt and I had a lot of years to anticipate and plan being parents. Now that we're the proud parents of two almost 4 year olds and a 1 year old going on 4, too, it's funny to look back and imagine how we thought it would go. I always said that there is no way I'm going to have "sticky kids." You know the ones I'm talking about. The kid that has a white Tshirt on with fruit punch all the way down the front of it. A matching fruit punch mustache and probably no shoes on. Oh, I so have those kids. I also said that my kids will be too afraid to make a peep in sacrament meeting. We would all sit there quietly, they could quietly color or whatever, and there would be peace all around. Not even close. I have major anxiety for that whole hour ten each week. I also knew that my kids would mind. If I said to jump, they would. Fast forward to swimming lessons today. Torture to sit there and let your kids goof off. I had to walk over and give not one but TWO "stern talking-to's" to the twins.  Did it do any good?  Not really.  And I absolutly knew my kids would NEVER be the "why kid".  Me: Dylan, grab me that.  Dylan: Cause why?  Me:  Charlie, time for naps.  Charlie:  Why?  Me:  Stay close to me.  We don't run in parking lots.  Twins:  Why? (if I even get a response before they dart)  So help me.  I don't know if I'm going to survive this parenting gig.  No one told me how hard it would be.  Thanks everyone.

WARNING: not for the squeemish

I've been needing to write this all down so the memory is fresh, but scared to do so because I know I will just weep throughout it.  We experienced our first ER visit last Friday.  I was home with the boys and doing our normal routine.  I had made the boys Mac 'n Cheese for lunch and D & C had eaten and were off somewhere playing.  Oliver was having a hard time eating so he brought his bowl into me (I was sitting in the living room) and wanted me to help feed him bites.  I gave him one bite and he turned and walked over toward the fireplace where his toy was sitting.  He tripped over his feet and fell foward, right into the edge of the fireplace.  He started to cry, I ran over to pick him up to find blood pouring out of his mouth.  I ran him into the bathroom and sat him on the counter/sink to see if I could find out what was the problem.  I couldn't see his front teeth and blood was oozing out of his lip and all up in his mouth so I didn't know if the teeth were bleeding or somewhere deeper in his mouth.  I started panicing and screaming at the twins to find me a phone.  Charlie just stood there in the doorway of the bathroom while I was yelling at him to get the phone and said, Dylan will.  I think he wasn't sure if I was mad at him or if he was in shock from the blood and crying from O or what.  I realized that they weren't moving so I had to pick O up and go into the kitchen to grab the phone and look up our neighbor's number.  I called Debbie franticly and said "Oliver's fallen and he's bleeding, and I don't have a dentist here, and I don't know what to do."  She said, "I'm on my way," and was at my door within a minute.  She took Oliver and told me to call our doctor even though she is out on Fridays just to see what they'd say.  They told me I'd have to take them to a dentist.  I've never taken my kids to a pediatric dentist yet and my own dentist is well into Salt Lake so I just picked a pediatric dentist in Bountiful.  They told me to come right in so I loaded up Oliver in his blood soaked shirt and left the twins at home with Debbie.  As I drove away I didn't know if I should call Brandt or not but I knew I needed him as I didn't know how severe this was going to be.  He met me at the dentist's office and before we went in he gave Oliver a blessing.  I am so grateful that I have such an amazing husband who honors and uses his priesthood.  It gave me such comfort to know that the power of God was with us as we started into the office.  The dentist took one look at Oliver and said, "He needs an oral surgeon."  He explained that the teeth would either have to be removed or they possibly could come back down.  They called the oral surgeon across the street and they didn't answer.  This was odd because they said just before us a 3 year old boy came in with the same exact thing and they'd sent him down there.  The doctor told me that we should go down to the ER (literally a stone throw away from his office) at Lakeview (kill me now...HATE that place) and they should have an oral surgeon on-call and they'd need to stitch up his lip anyway.  So off to Lakeview.  We told them we needed an oral surgeon and when a doctor came to look at O he told us that if we needed an oral surgeon we should have gone to Primary's.  Thanks for the info...AFTER we were admitted.  So, we were stuck there.  Oliver was such a trooper.  He had all this trauma and it was right at his nap time so he was wiped out.  Brandt just held him in his arms while the nurses and techs kept coming in to check his vitals and give him some medicine.  When they came in to do the IV they were worried but Oliver didn't make a peep.  Brandt just cuddled him and whispered to him and he was so good.  Such a champion.  Then they took us to another room and Brandt and Oliver layed on the bed.  Eventually they finally came in to do the stitches.  They gave Oliver a bag of fluids and they gave him a medicine that doesn't completly knock him out but puts him in la-la land.  Hilarious to see it work.  They said like 5 minutes but it was more like 5 seconds and he was gone.  They had to give him 2 doses as he started coming out of it while he was still stitching and for the last 2 stitches the respritory therapist was holding O's head, Brandt had his one hand, the RN had the other hand and I had the legs held down so they wouldn't have to administer another dose.  8 stitches in the lower lip.  They gave him 2 pints of apple juice (sucked down with no breath) and a popcicle.  Finally we were released to go home.  During this whole ordeal the Nurse Practicioner (who did the stitching) had called a couple oral surgeons to see if we could be seen that day.  They told him that we were ok to wait until Monday as the teeth would either just need to be pulled or we'd just wait and observe so it wasn't an emergency at this point to go in.  They had set us up to see them at 8am on Monday so we were going to have to deal with the unknown all weekend.  Awesome.  Also, my parents had come up in the afternoon to relieve Debbie from the twins.  Brandt took O home and I ran to Costco to get prescriptions and all the fruit/soft foods I could find.  By the time I got home I had a raging headache and felt like garbage.  I hadn't eaten or drank all day and I figured I had a lack-of-water headache.  As the night wore on I couldn't breath and was catching Oliver's cold.  Bless him.  I'm sure I wore my immune system right down.  Once home Oliver was running and playing just like always and had no idea he was hurt.  Kids are so resilient.  He has been so amazing.  Here are some pictures of the episode.

 Yesterday Brandt used a sick day so that we could get the twins to their lessons while I took O to see the surgeon.  He couldn't eat or drink anything in case they were to do surgery on him.  They pulled us back and there was no cooperation from Oliver. 

He had enough poking and proding the other day and wasn't gonna have any of it.  They got a blood pressure and that was it.  The nurse had to bring in the doctor to help get a xray.  The doctor came in and it happened to be a guy that I worked at the orthodontist office a hundred years ago (ok, maybe just like 12 years ago).  I was glad that it was someone I knew and could trust.  The xray showed that the roots of the baby teeth were up by the permanant buds forming.  He thought that there might be some more growth in the root of the baby teeth which should push them down again possibly.  Because of that he recommended watching them.  We go back for a check-up next week (I assume to check healing) and then we'll check in 3-4 months to see if they're moving.  If they aren't we'll have to take them out but that'll be a long 8-9 years without any front teeth so we're hoping and praying they'll move down on their own.  Oliver looks silly but he is doing awesome.  His mouth looks so much better now that it's been 4 days or so.  His lip was HUGE for a few days but it's not that noticable anymore and you only see his crazy vampire teeth if he smiles. 

I love this little boy.  He is so special and sweet and I'm so lucky that his is mine.  As a mom you hate to see your kids hurt but it is wonderful that he is ok and bouncing back like he is.  Truly a miracle.  (and yes, there have been Goonie references...you only can make them yourself if you do so with love.  Otherwise I'm gonna come find you and beat you)