Update

Wow.  I've realized that I've been less than stellar at updating the blog on actual family happenings.  Sorry 'bout that!

Here goes:

Kellen completed the first grade a little over a week ago.  That in and of itself is monumental (at least in this momma's book!)  Unfortunately, he spent the Thursday prior to getting out of school in the doctors office, as we were trying to determine if he has broken his finger (he is Matt's child, you know...).  On Wednesday night, he shut his pinky finger in the door after we got home from the swimming pool.  Needless to say, he was in quite a bit of pain and couldn't bend his finger very well.  After icing his finger down for about 45 minutes, I decided to forgo a trip to the ER and just check on things in the morning.  When we did, he was able to bend his finger a little better, but considering how swollen and purple it was, we decided to be safe.  So I dropped him off at school and told him I would call the doctor and get an appointment, but would make sure it was after 1 PM when he was back from his end-of-school picnic.

Yup.  Never should have uttered those words.

I put a call in to the doctors office and they only have an appointment in the morning.  His doctor and the back up we normally see weren't available in the afternoon.  Ug.  So I called the school, made arrangements with the principal to pick him up before the bus left for the park, and to deliver him when we were through to his teacher at the park so he could ride back on the bus and spend the rest of the day at school.

We go in to the doctor (me and both kids, including Tatum - her story to come) and are seen by the doctor, who decides we needed to get x-rays to rule out a break (just like Matt and I thought).  So, I got the orders for the x-ray, took Tatum back to her day care, and Kellen and I headed to the hospital.  Now, considering everything we had to do, we didn't have to wait all that long.  But to poor Kellen, who wanted nothing more than to get to the park for his class picnic, the waiting was brutal.  We got the x-rays and headed back over to the doctors office to get the results.  Once we got back there, we were ushered right in and told that no, it wasn't broken.

Thank God for small miracles!

We then hightailed it to the park, and made it there right at noon, giving my dear sweet Kellen a whole HOUR to spend at the park with his friends and classmates.

*Sigh*  It was the best I could do, which didn't sit all that well with him.

The end of the school year came the next day, and with a gift for his teacher in tow, he was off.  He got a wonderful report card (surprise, surprise) and had a great last week behavior wise.

Last week he lolly gagged with Maw Maw and Paw Paw at their house, and for the next two weeks, will be attending the YMCA day camp in Conroe.  He's going to have just oh-so-much fun this summer!

Oh, and apparently Matt informs me that between Mother's Day and some day last week, Kellen has grown a quarter of an inch.

Yowzers! 

Matt was packing his clothes for this week yesterday, and asked about a pair of shorts and whether they were 'play' shorts or good shorts.  With him growing like that, just about everything should be play shorts, because he's gonna be out of them by the end of the summer!

On to Tatum....
So the same Wednesday night that I took them both to the pool, I noticed that the top of her foot was red.  Really red.  Upon closer inspection, I see some bite marks on the side of her foot.  After the pool (and icing Kellen's finger) I gave her some Benadryl, thinking she was having a reaction to the bites (she is MY daughter, after all, and mosquitoes love us both).  Thursday morning we take a look at her foot to notice that the redness has spread, it's VERY hot to the touch (or even if you held your hand over it) and it's swollen.  So I took her to day care and told her I was going to call the doctor.

I was able to get an appointment for both kids at the same time relatively early in the morning, so yay!  The doctor walked into the room, started to ask what was going on with Tatum, saw her foot and stopped mid-sentence.

It was THAT obvious.

Diagnosis - cellulitis.  We drew an outline of the current redness, then he marked a spot further up on her calf and indicated that if the redness crept up to or past that line that we needed to bring her back in immediately.  Armed with a prescription to fight both strep-A and staph, we were ready to go with her.

So I did take her back to day care, let them know what was going on, dropped off her prescriptions at the pharmacy, then headed back to the hospital to finish up with Kellen.  After getting him squared away and dropped off at the park, I went back to the pharmacy, picked up the meds and went to day care.  And Tatum was asleep for her nap.  Ug.  So I couldn't give her the first dose of antibiotics.  I left day care with instructions that they call me if she seemed really uncomfortable and headed off to work.

A short time later, I got the call.  They indicated that her foot felt like it was on fire (and it did).  So I picked her up, headed home, gave her the first dose of her meds, put ice on her foot, and let her pick the movie of her choosing.

Whew!  She wanted lots of snuggles, didn't want me too far from her, but all-in-all, she was in a relatively good mood, considering.

Fast forward to now, and she's good.  We've just finished with the 10-day sequence of both of the medications, she didn't have some of the side effects we were concerned about (BIG yay on that one), and now we're just needing to be sure to keep her slathered with sunscreen and cooled down (the combination of antibiotics made her more susceptible to the sun and overheating, and those effects will linger for another handful of days).

She has the first of her swim lessons tonight and Wednesday night, and she's very much looking forward to going back to the pool!

Me and Jacey....
So the Texas heat and humidity are really getting to me.  I went in to my thyroid doctor today and he even commented on my 'edema'.  Isn't that such a nice word for saying you're bloated, swollen and/or retaining water?  Anyway, I go in for a check-up on Wednesday, and we'll schedule out our monitoring, which will include once a week ultrasounds, twice weekly non-stress tests, and the steroid shot sequence to try and mature Jacey's lungs.  I'm not exactly sure what that schedule will look like, but I'll know more on Wednesday. 

In case you're wondering, the extra monitoring is, at this point, a precaution.  Kellen had the cord wrapped around his neck (twice, if memory serves me) AND he had a knot in his cord.  Knowing either of those things would have made his delivery an automatic c-section, but we didn't know.  So with Tatum, we decided to monitor things a little closer there toward the end, just to be on the safe side, beginning at 32 weeks.  It was a good thing we did, because at 38 weeks I was told that the doctor didn't like the levels of her amniotic fluid and that I was going into the hospital to have her.  That night.  Non-elective. 

Just so you know, the phrase 'non-elective' is a VERY scary one.

Considering the history, we decided to begin the monitoring process at 32 weeks.  I am now 32 weeks and 2 days, and my appointment will be at 32 weeks and 4 days.  I'll be thrilled if all of the extra precautions are just that, but am thinking that realistically, I'll make it to 37-38 weeks.

She seems to be doing fine, is VERY active, and doesn't like to be squished.  At all.  By anything.  I can't wait to meet her, but am just trusting that it will happen when it's supposed to.

Kellen and Matt put up the crib this weekend, we went and got another crib mattress for it, and the bedding has been washed and is now in place.  So Jacey officially has a place to sleep now, which was something that apparently was bothering the kids quite a bit.

As for things at work, I'm trying to finish up projects and have the end of June or middle of July in most folk's mind with regard to when I should be slowing down.  I'll work right up until Jacey comes, so long as I'm able, but everyone around here needs a date or time frame to shoot for in order to wrap up projects that will be due while I'm out.  So that's what we're doing!

Last but not least, Matt.  He's still Matt, and doing the same ole, same ole.  And putting up with me and my end-of-pregnancy craziness.