Bye Bye Epilepsy

Saturday, October 3rd 2009, we had a family movie night - Davon (10), Jerell (8), Rob and I. Of course, it was an action movie the boys had picked so I fell asleep before the end. Rob woke me when the movie was over, we said goodnight to the boys and all went to bed. Within an hour or so I hear Davon trying to get my attention. My first thought was "why isn't he in bed?!" - but I finally realized what he was saying... "Something's wrong with Jerell!"     My heart almost stopped.

We raced downstairs and to Jerell's bedside. He was seemingly asleep but making weird noises. I tried to wake him, thinking he was having a nightmare. Then I saw him shake. And bubbles were forming in the corners of his lips. I quickly realized he wasn't just having a bad dream, something was definitely not right. I called 911 - almost unable to even press those three numbers on the phone as I was in complete panic-mode. I remember feeling out of breath and the words wouldn't even form when the 911 operator was asking me to explain what was going on. I didn't want to "slow down" and tell him "what exactly is going on" - just send an ambulance!

The EMT's, police officers and even a firetruck arrived within minutes. When they put him in a neck brace and loaded him on to the ambulance I was absolutely terrified. I figured, if the emt's aren't bothering to talk to me anymore, ask if I want him taken to the hopital but are just taking him away as if I'm not there, this wasn't good.

Jerell being loaded into the ambulance

 

They told me to sit up front but then said I could ride in the back with him. He still hadn't woken up, even after a shot (can't remember what it was) during the ride. No reaction whatsoever. I didn't know if I was on my way to where I'd leave my son, never to see him awake, or possibly alive, ever again.

 



We were finally told, in the ER, that he appeared to have had a seizure, cause unknown. And to not worry, kids can have seizures when they have a high fever and there are no long term affects most of the time. But Jerell wasn't sick, didn't have a fever.


Getting a CT scan

After a few hours they told us he would be admitted. I still didn't know what was going on. I just prayed that he would be alright. And after sleeping for quite awhile he woke up and seemed "normal". That morning they did an EEG.

 



 

Jerell actually enjoyed being in the hospital - being delivered food throughout the day, lots of video games and movies at his request and pretty much being the center of attention! And of course, missing school :)

 



 

Baby brother Dathan came to visit

He stayed two nights and I was given the diagnosis - Epilepsy. I couldn't believe this was really happening. Questions flooded my mind...  How does my 8 year old go from being perfectly healthy to now having something like this?? How am I suppose to sleep at night knowing this could happen again, and maybe next time no one will realize he's seizing and he'll choke? Will my 3 other kids develop Epilepsy? Or something even worse?

 

 

I realized I had to trust God to take care of Jerell (and the other boys) - it was all in His hands. And I was grateful that, as of now, he was okay.

 

 

Over the next year he only had a couple seizures, usually only when he forgot to take his medicine, none of which were as severe as the first.

 

 

But last week we hit the 2 year mark - the required 2 years of being seizure-free to start the process of weaning off the medicine. While I am a bit nervous, I am, again, trusting God. Jerell is very excited to not have to take his medicine anymore or have to tell people he has Epilepsy, that he'll be "normal" again. 

*Update 2/13/13 -  Within a week of stopping the medicine Jerell came home from a friends' house having symptoms of having had a seizure the night before. I talked to his neurologist on the phone and was told to restart the medication. We have an appointment in March to see him but I'm assuming he'll have to start the 2 year period over again. Jerell wasn't as upset as I was about the whole incident, saying, "I'd rather take medicine than feel like this".

Party Day for Jaden

Saturday we celebrated Jaden's 6th birthday (his actual birthday is the 16th). He kept changing his mind about what he wanted to do for a party - bowling, Playstation, etc. But one thing that didn't change is that he wanted a pinata! Ever since we had a pinata a couple years ago he seems to think you can't have a birthday without one. So I decided to just have a party at our house... surely it can't be too hard (after the first 2 birthdays we always go somewhere for parties). Then for the last 2 weeks I stressed about what exactly to do with the 2 hours of "birthday party" that I now had to fill. I even thought about scratching the idea a couple times but I had been too excited to fill out invitations and some of them were already handed out. I finally planned 5 or 6 carnival-type games (tons of fun rounding up the required items for that!) and of course a pinata. And some decorating (again, tons of fun putting up this morning!).

We ended up with 10 kids (plus my own 2 that participated and 3 that didn't). It was a madhouse at times with little people running throughout the house, screaming and laughing! They had a blast. In fact, they were having so much fun running around playing toys that I was worried they wouldn't even want to stop to play my games. But they did stop and, again, had a blast. Sometimes they would ask to do that game over and over (especially musical chairs!) - the prizes helped too :)

My friend helping while I fed the baby

Cotton ball race (Vaseline on the nose, no hands)

Lining up for pop toss

 

 Of course, the big hit of the day was the pinata! (yes, pun intended!) Everyone got to hit twice and Jaden finished it off.

I had taken Jaden to the store to pick out his cake - Spiderman was his choice. I should've gotten a bigger one, just didn't realize almost all of the invitees would actually come!

Happy, happy birthday to my sweet Jaden!

My Last Birth Story (March 2012)

This final pregnancy was the most difficult and I kept saying "this must be God's way of telling me 'this is it!' "... maybe that's not true but I thought it was funny. The last few weeks were the worst as I developed a condition where the muscles "down there" were being pulled and even the bone was almost dislocated. My doctor told me there was even a chance that after delivery I would still have problems with it. I could barely walk and any movement gave me tremendous pain, especially rolling out of bed. A couple days before I delivered I went to the grocery store and literally got stuck in the produce section - I couldn't move my legs. Thankfully my sister had come with me so I got her attention to come back and help me walk! It was awful.

Saturday afternoon (after the grocery store fiasco)

On Thursday, the 8th, I had my last doctor appointment. I knew that would be my last since I had asked for an induction at 32 weeks (when I asked at that time my doctor gave me a funny look and said, "you mean now??" - ha, no I mean at 39 weeks and not a day later!). Anyway, my blood pressure was high so I got quite excited thinking they'd just send me over to the hospital that day! However, that was not needed apparently. He did ask if I wanted him to "strip my membranes" which I had never had done with any of the other kids. Of course, I said yes as I was willing to do anything to get the show on the road. A few minutes later my doctor left the room to grab something and I had a contraction that brought me to tears - he actually came back in the room while I was bending over, on the verge of bawling, and asked if I was okay. The pain eased up and I was fine so I left. I had to pick up Jaden from daycare but when I got there I couldn't even get out of my van... another contraction. I then went to pick up a prescription, which wasn't ready of course, so I sat in the drive-up breathing through more contractions. At one point I buzzed the guy and told him to hurry up because I was in labor. I was excited and terrified at the same time. I had never gone into labor on my own and since I was already dilated to 4 and this was my 5th baby I was sure I would never make it home, get a sitter over and make it back to the hospital before this kid starting finding his way out! When I did finally get home the contractions weren't as strong so I decided to lay down and see what happened. If I would've been able to walk I would've done that to try keep it going, but due to the lovely "condition" I had that wasn't an option. Sure enough (just my luck) everything slowed down and instead of being in labor I was stuck with random, painful contractions for the next few days.

Saturday night I was talked into going to the hospital by my mom and my very excited sister. They said I was dilated to 5 - YES, all this hasn't been for nothing! I walked... and walked... and walked some more. I still wasn't in a steady labor pattern but after being rechecked I was now close to 6. Then, nothing. I was given the option to go home or take a sleeping pill and spend the night. I didn't want to go home being 6cm and have a baby in my bathroom so I opted for a good, medicine-induced sleep. The next morning I was checked again by another nurse who said I was more like 5 - 5.5cm  Now I had to go home. I had never heard of such a thing - who gets sent home at 39 weeks pregnant when you're 1/2 way to delivering?!? I thought for sure I'd be back that afternoon. Again, I wrong :/

At that last appointment we set the date for induction - Monday, March 12th. I don't think either of us thought I'd actually make it until then, but alas, I did. We showed up 15 minutes late that morning :)

Getting ready to go change into the lovely hospital gown

 I asked to just have my water broken and hold off on Pitocin since I didn't need any with my last baby. After 2 hours of nothing happening (post the water breaking, slowly) they suggested I go ahead and take the Pitocin. I am very sensitive to that crap so within about 10 minutes I was in so much pain I begged the nurse to turn it off. She was surprised at my body's reaction and did turn it down. I had wanted to see how long I could go without an epidural (I didn't have one with the last baby) but that 5 minutes of torture was enough. "CALL THE ANESTHESIOLOGIST!"  It seemed to take forever for him to get there - of course, there were 4 other women in "front" of me and I had to wait my turn.

Contractions hit HARD

                                  My savior did come though... ah, sweet relief.

Last belly pic while I'm completely numb!

By 2:00 there was still no change... my nurse even said she thought I was now closer to 5 instead of 6. Um, since when do you go backwards in the dilation process?? I told her I was ready for a c-section. She asked why on earth I would say that! Well, because I've been laying here for hours with nothing happening and I really thought it would go fast since I started out 1/2 way there. I was mad at myself for getting an epidural - this one worked like none that I'd ever had. I was so numb that it took the nurse AND my husband just to turn me from side to side. I was sure that if I hadn't gotten it I would've had the baby and be showered and eating by now! I shed a few tears, completely discouraged. (My nurse did encourage me to just wait, that we weren't even close to making the decision to stop natural labor)
When my doctor came to check on me around 3:00 my nurse informed him of my c-section idea. He just smiled and told me that wasn't gonna happen and to keep going. I really didn't see the point but conceded. Shortly after that my nurse suggested I move switch sides one more time. I sent a text to Davon (he would just be getting off the bus after school) at 3:18 telling him that the baby still wasn't here and to just hang out at home. All of a sudden I started feeling something, little by little... pain. YES! It's finally starting... I can start dilating again and hopefully by supper-time he'll be here! Apparently, he was most likely face-up instead of down and that last turn helped move him into position.

Within only a few minutes I asked to be checked - I was already in tears again from the pain which was surprising considering how numb I was from the epidural. Reason being - I was nearly complete! I was told I could start trying to push, still quite numb but it didn't take long for them to realize there wasn't time to waste.

Pushing!

I did not need to be told what to do, how to do it or when to do it. In fact, as my doctor was turning back towards me after putting his "gear" on he made a comment about me doing it on my own even when they weren't looking! During this I heard him ask the nurse if I wanted the baby placed on me right away or cleaned up first so I figured I'd answer, in the middle of a push, which made them giggle :) I'm a pro, I can participate in this conversation even while I'm getting a little human out of my body. Finally, I knew this would be it. I could feel where he was and I knew this huge push would be my last - I would meet my baby!

3:47pm - He's here!

My sister cut the cord (hubs doesn't care to do that)

So happy he's in my arms!

 After a rough few weeks, a strange weekend of wondering "is this it" many times and 7 hours of mostly boring labor with a quick and exciting turn around at the end... my last baby came into the world. I was just as excited and in love with #5 as with all the others. And even though many people probably wondered why on earth we'd have another baby, maybe some even judged us, none of that matters when I look at this precious little boy who I know is a gift from God.

Loving my sweet Isaiah

*However, I'm still glad that this is my last pregnancy, last delivery and last baby ;)

2012 ~ My Year in Review

I'm obviously not cut out to be a real "blogger"... hence the couple of posts for the entire past year. I will, however, write a summary of this past year. Probably more so for my own way to remember, to look back and get a glimpse of 2012 in the future.

January always brings us two birthday celebrations: Jerell turned 11 on 1/4

                                             
                                                Then, on the 16th, Jaden turned 5!

Soon after, Rob and I were off on a wonderful vacation to Barbados! We were there for 8 days along with my parents and sister, aunts, uncles, cousins and my grandparents.
                                                      We enjoyed touring the island

                                        Swimming in the Caribbean and laying out on the beach.

                            And just hanging out with family (this was at a little karaoke place)

However, I don't recommend that kind of trip while 32 weeks pregnant. I wasn't able to do a whole lot while we were there (I even asked my doctor beforehand if I could jet ski, to which he replied "um, no.") And by the time we made it to the Dallas airport my feet were so swollen I couldn't even walk and had to be wheel chaired through the airport - which did have an upside as we went to the front of the very long customs line!

In February my firstborn turned 13! Davon didn't really do too much for his birthday but we did have a cake here with just our family. Hard to believe I am the mother of a teenager!

I also was given a baby shower (I hadn't had one since baby #1) which I was very thankful for!

The first part of March was spent preparing for our baby to arrive... and with me hobbling around, not sleeping and pretty much being miserable. *Summed up here in this lovely pic 2 days before the big day...

But it was worth the pain and hugeness (I suppose!) when we welcomed a healthy baby boy on the 12th!                                                           Isaiah Michael :)

 

Then Rob turned 34...

 And we also celebrated our 5th anniversary on the 28th (well, we didn't actually 'celebrate' since we were now the parents of FIVE, but it was noted. haha)!

 

In April my beautiful Grandma came to visit! I was able to get out of the house baby-free to have lunch and shop with her :) We then had Isaiah dedicated at our church on Easter Sunday!

Later that month I officially closed the "baby factory" (yes, this is important to remember!)

 

In May Jaden graduated from preschool at Josiah's Playground. We are happy that Jaden is growing up but were sad to say goodbye to all his wonderful teachers there. That place was truly a blessing!

That day I left with my mom, sister, 2 oldest boys, nephew and the baby on a 15 hour journey to North Dakota to see my Great Grandma. She's not been doing well and we wanted to see her "one last time". However, it's now December and she's still the same... who knew. Anyway, it was sure nice to spend time with my aunts and cousins that we don't see very often. The drive was less than fun with a 2 month old - I did take him out of his carseat to feed, change and get him to sleep (and to get him to stop crying periodically)... please don't shoot me!

 

The spring was also filled with lots of baseball. Davon played on a new team (Heat) and I enjoyed going to the games whenever possible. Grandpa and Grandma didn't miss even one, of course!

 I figured Jaden (5) and Dathan (3) were ready to start playing sports as well. So I signed Jaden up for soccer and Dathan for t-ball.

 

 Um ya, that didn't work out too well. They each made it through about 2.5 practices - the .5 is for the time during practice that I spent trying to get them back to where they were suppose to be!

June was spent hanging out at home, a few days at the pool, the annual family picnic at my mother-in law's home and Davon went to the state baseball tournament in Des Moines. Jerell got to experience flying in a small plane through the Junior Eagles in Iowa City. He thought that was awesome!

 

In July it was more of the same, except for Davon (again) who was able to go on a week-long camping trip in Minnesota with his friend. He had a blast and we're thankful for the friends who took him along!

Unfortunately we couldn't spend as much time at the pool as I would've liked since we had one of the hottest summers on record :/  Too dangerous (and unbearable) for small kids, especially a baby. This also kept us from taking the kids to a theme park (or anywhere really) where we'd be stuck outside for the whole day. But we still enjoyed our summer with eachother.

In August Rob took the older boys and my dad to "Fish O Rama" which they've done the last few years. Jaden even got to go out for a few hours. They always enjoy that time together, even if they come home bummed that they didn't win any prizes. Later on, my mom and I took Jerell, Jaden and Isaiah to the Sweet Corn Festival (small, local fair/carnival) - I went on one crazy ride with Jaden and then remembered I can't handle that anymore! But we had fun.

Time flew by and before we knew it school was starting back up! Yes, that's an exclamation point because mama is very ready for that day by the middle of August :) And this was a big year as Jaden was starting Kindergarten and Jerell was starting middle school!

About a week into school is a time we'll never forget - Davon was in a "fight", not a fair fight, but that's what we'll call it. That left his nose and wrist broken which led to a long night at the ER, surgery on the arm a week later and far too many doctor appointments. Hopefully this was a big lesson learned!

 

 

September is another big birthday month - it's my dad's birthday on the 10th (I usually bake him a cake or some other treat). My stepdad's and my birthday is on the same day! I did have a cake but that's as much of a celebration as you get at this age with this many kids :) And then 5 days later it's Dathan's birthday and he turned 4 this year!

 

Nothing too exciting happened in October. But in November we decided to start Dathan in preschool.

                 He's ornery, so this was the picture I got - I take what I can get from that boy :)

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' and then again at my mother in law's a few days later. We finally got to take a little trip at the end of the month - an overnighter at a hotel with an indoor waterpark. The kids all enjoyed it and I'm glad we were able to do that, even if it was only one night.

 

And.... December. This month has been filled with the normal busy-ness - school break, shopping, baking, playing in the snow, a power outage, multiple illnesses and Christmas celebrations.

 

 We have had a wonderful few weeks (minus the sickness) but it's nice to be unwinding from all of that and getting back to a normal schedule. And yes, I look forward to school starting back up in a few days!

 

It's been a crazy year, mostly due to the addition of my sweet boy Isaiah, but I'm thankful for yet another year here on Earth, happy and healthy. God has truly blessed my family and I'm so amazed by his love and provision. We may not understand why certain things happen, why other things don't happen or what tomorrow might bring. But I do know that He has a plan for my life and looking back on this year was a great way to see how far He's brought me. I may not have a big, fancy house, a high-paying career or a ton of fascinating, exciting things I've done to write about - but I DO have a wonderful, beautiful family who shared a great year together and a God who loves me no matter how underserving I am! I am more excited for 2013 than before I started writing this (4 days ago, btw! lol) to see what God has in store for us! I hope you all have a wonderful year as well :)

Mom! ~ Happy Mother's Day :)

I've heard many people say they have the best mom in the world... and I am blessed to be one of those people. Is she perfect? No... but has she always done everything she could to make my life the best it could be? Absolutely!

I'll always remember crawling in bed with my mom when I was little and snuggling up with her (she let us take turns sleeping with our head rested on her arm, and I didn't realize until I was a mom just how uncomfortable that can be after awhile!).

My mom probably struggled as a single parent, providing for two little girls with no outside help, but I had no idea because our home was filled with love. I never felt like I was missing out on anything, though I'm sure there were times she wished she could "do more". There's nothing else I could have wanted.

She took us to church and taught us about Jesus. When we got hurt, she'd pray. The only music I remember hearing in our home was worship music. We SAW her reading her Bible. These things are probably the most important - and I'm thankful to have had that foundation.

As I got older, I gave my mom more trouble and heartache than I'm sure she ever imagined. I was defiant, I lied, I gave up on school, I was terribly disrespectful and downright mean to her at times. But no matter what, she never gave up on me. She always showed me love, even when I was unlovable. I never doubted her love for me. Still to this day I have guilt and regret for all those years of rebellion, but mostly for the way I treated my mom. I'm so glad she kept praying for me and always welcomed me back with open arms.

I made her a grandma at an early age, but she fell into that role as naturally as anyone could. She didn't look down on me, the 17 year old mom, or judge me as so many others did. She didn't make me think I was a "less than" mother, she helped and encouraged me to become the mom that I did. I wasn't the best, but she was always there for my kids and I know she's a big reason they have turned into the great young men they are now. As I've given her more and more grandkids :) - she's loved each one like it was the first. Always as excited as I was when they were born (sometimes maybe even moreso!)

She has done more for my family and I than we deserve. It would take me a year to write down all the things she's done, given, sacrificed. I'd love to say I'll pay her back someday, somehow... but I just don't think it's even possible!

I thank the Lord for choosing her to be MY mom. She's my best friend - the first person I want to call when something good happens, and the first person I call when things aren't so good and I need a shoulder. I can't imagine living life without her.

Mom,
I love you so very, very much. I don't tell you or show you as much as I should, but don't ever think it's because I don't feel it! You are my rock. You are more than I could ask for in a grandma - my kids are also very blessed that they get to have you in their lives. If I am doing a good job with my own kids it's because I had a wonderful example. I hope you know just how much you mean to me. I wish I had more eloquent words to describe my love and appreciation for you. THANK YOU for being my mom!