Randall Children's Hospital

Here’s a switch; I am writing this blog instead of Aliisa. It makes sense, though, when you consider the context. I had an adventure with Baelor, one that I’ll never forget. When Rowen was born on August 30 Baelor had been sick for 4 days. It started out as vomiting and then turned to diarrhea, finally settling on a general malaise and cruddy feeling. He was not eating or playing and he was spending way more time in bed than normal. He would often complain about his tummy hurting. We assumed it was a bug going around that gave you an upset stomach and that his body would fight it off in time. Well, we were wrong. By the Friday after Rowen was born Baelor was still no better and we were getting worried. So I came home from work and took Baelor to the Peacehealth Emergency Department. We were there for 6 hours and the final consensus (after blood draws, stool samples and an ultrasound) was that Baelor had a stomach bug that would resolve in the near future, and it was probably viral so antibiotics would do no good. In fact, at the hospital that night they give Baelor some Ibuprofen and he was back to his normal self. Well, on Sunday when I came home from church at noon, Baelor was still asleep in bed.

Baelor had already had a priesthood blessing for this but a good brother, James Jenson, came over and helped me give Baleor another one. Then it was off to the ER again. This time the doctor on staff feared a potential life threatening condition, a ruptured appendix. The ultrasound didn’t show anything, but the symptoms were similar to a ruptured appendix. So Baelor and I got to take an Ambulance to Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland. By now it was midnight and Baelor was exhausted, I was a wreck and Aliisa was stressed at home with a new baby and the worry over Baelor. I met with the pediatric surgeons who told me that it was likely a ruptured appendix but that the Ultrasounds were inconclusive. They would keep Baelor there and put him on antibiotics, ibuprofen and fluids all done intravenously. In all honesty I think that was Baelor’s least favorite part. The fluids meant he was not dehydrated, but the doctors did not want him eating or drinking in case he needed to be rushed to surgery. My least favorite part, though, was trying to get an IV into such a tiny vein. The first time it was on the back of his hand and they had to splint him right up to his fingertips so that he wouldn’t accidently (or purposefully) pull the tube out. The second time was far worse. They had to go deep into his forearm after blowing through the other usable veins that are closer to the surface. As he lay there being pinned by a nurse and me, another nurse used ultrasound to find the usable vein, another woman sang and stroked Baelor’s hair, Baelor screamed about the “pokeys” in a way that sounded like he just couldn’t believe what was going on, and I broke down and cried on Baelor’s legs as I held them down.

That was the hardest time for me in the hospital. I am tearing up right now remembering this. We ended up staying in the hospital for five days, Sunday afternoon through Friday afternoon. Randall Children’s was great, checking up on Baelor and me, doing Bingo with Baelor getting 4 awesome prizes, and as much ice cream as he could eat , once the food ban was lifted on Wednesday. Some of the pictures show Baelor with a very puffy face due to the intravenous fluids, but, other than that, by Tuesday night he was pretty much back to normal. After all was said and done Baelor had no surgeries. The Antibiotics did the trick. It turns out it was probably a very bad intestinal infection, not a ruptured appendix. We were advised to be vigilant and watchful for any signs of a return of the symptoms. A month and a half later and Baelor is still his normal, happy, active self with no infection in sight. I am so grateful for all the help, prayers and blessings that helped get us all through this trying time for Baelor and all of our family.

Meet Rowen Vaino Guinn

Sunday

8 - 30 - 15

9:25 am

9 pounds / 21.5 inches

Here is the story:

The induction date was set: August 29th. They told us to be there at 6:30 am so we rolled in at 7:15 am- hey it's our third! We figured this would be an in and out thing...since our first two happened so quickly. Nope. Serves us right for being over-confident. Paul went to work for a few hours and figured he'd be back before I'd be in a lot of pain. That part was true because I never dilated past 2 cm- what I came into the hospital at. After nearly nine hours of being hooked up to petocin to help induce the labor, they quit and said to try a different technique. Apparently my OB/GYN was not as accurate as she thought because my cervix was not as soft as she thought. She said I was 80% soft before even going in so it should go well. Obviously I wasn't since it didn't progress. Ugh. I hate waiting. They gave me a prostaglandin to help soften my cervix.

 After 2 doses during the night, they rechecked at 6 am. I was soft and dilated to 4 cm which apparently is okay to break my water. At 7:15, the visiting doctor from Boise broke my water and things progressed quite rapidly from there. I thought it would be at least 4 hours before delivery, so I delayed having an epidural because I did not want things to stall (I've heard of things not progressing after getting epidurals and I was NOT about to stall things again) so I waited. Well, apparently I waited too long because by the time they administered the epidural, I was already pushing before the epidural could work. The only part of the epidural that was taking effect was on my legs. I felt every contraction on every part of me except my legs. Only two hours and ten minutes from my water breaking to delivery! It was definitely the most intense labor I've had since it was as if I didn't have an epidural at all.

Rowen at one week:

 We are trying to get to know him and his little personality. Of course we don't see much of one yet, but we love to see all of his little grimaces and quivers and yawns and even cries.

Last Minute Beach Blast

Just a week before baby was due we decided to join my brother and his family on their what seems to be annual trip to the Oregon Coast at Pacific City. The past couple of years we've been extremely lucky to have the best Oregon Coast weather possible! Usually it is cool and windy, but the past couple of years have been surprisingly warm with no wind. This time we didn't luck out as well. It was quite windy...in fact, I didn't even want to get the kite out because we'd be fighting it more than enjoying it. So we resorted to building sand castles and rolling down the sand dunes. Reina and some of the other cousins decided the frigid ocean was fun enough to play in...until their lips turned blue and then decided the sand hills were much more pleasant!

Baelor chose the warmer pond to float his boat on. He easily spent half of the time we were at the beach in this one little pond. Have I ever mentioned he LOVES boats? And motorcycles. And cars. We were not planning on coming so luckily my brother already had their RV they were traveling in for us to stay overnight in. It was actually quite comfy. Since the next day was Sunday and there was not enough room in our one van for everyone, we all piled in the RV to go to church! I slept in the bed while the kids rode above.

It was a quick and fun trip, even with a horribly hurt sacrum that didn't allow me to run along the beach or climb the big sand dune. Baby boy was going to be here in just a few days!

Kindergarten Wrap-Up

I totally forgot to recap the end of the school year events for Reina's first year of school! Here is her first/last day of school pictures...still a cutie.

We went to the first grade music program (since she is in a split Kinder/1st grade class). She was one of the lucky ones to dress up as a penguin for one of the songs...very fitting for her last name.

  

They had a carnival at school with all sorts of fun activities that included lots of sweets. This has been the hottest summer here since I can ever remember! We've had more than enough 100 degree days or close to it and practically no rain. In fact, June had zero rain fall. This worked out for the school carnival  at least! Cousin Karter even joined us.

Sesame Street Live: for Baelor

Reina not only improved on her report card since the beginning of the school year but has excelled in every subject! This summer we haven't done too much as far as school work, but she is reading chapter books! It's a bit of a struggle for both her and I as there are a lot more words she has to really work through sounding out, and for my patience to not tell her the word and get through a long chapter. She does feel pretty cool about reading chapter books like the big kids though. She likes to show us how thick of the book she has read. We are pleased with her achievements as she does excel and just about everything.

I don't have time to take my kids to swimming lessons since I work, but Reina is getting very confident with swimming. She used to be fearful of jumping into the lake or pool because of the water going over her head.

Hard worker picked over 5 pounds of blueberries!

She no longer fears this as all of our lake trips have involved her doing
somersaults or jumping off of anything. She'll gladly go down water slides at the pool, and she even jumped into the 10 feet deep side of the pool at a pool party for Activity Days I took her to. Her ideal day would be creating a gymnastics routine with a bunch of friends- such a social butterfly.

Substituting the kindergarten class next to Reina's class

Ice skating with Cousin Heleena and mommy (6 mos. preg.)

Baelor usually avoids deep water but rather would play with boats or cars in the sand. He is actually quite obsessed with anything "boy"- loves boats, cars, bikes, motorcycles, four-wheelers, balls...the list goes on. We can't leave the gym without him examining each and every motorcycle parked at the entrance. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with his love for fast things when he is actually old enough to ride them!

Wearing daddy's sweat jacket when he was a little boy

So recently he got his first real bicycle. Originally, I bought him a $3 bike at a garage sale. When I brought it home, it was too big for him to reach the pedals. He was VERY sad about this so we splurged and got him a cool motorcycle bike. He loved it right away and would ride it daily for a couple of weeks until he tried out the bigger $3 bike again (somehow he grew) and realized it went faster (bigger wheels). He quit riding the smaller/cooler/expensive bike and opted for the bigger boy bike since he could go faster! Luckily, Walmart took back the expensive bike.

The first week of 1st grade for Reina has been quite eventful for me! I wanted to be part of her first day of school so I walked her and the other kids to and from school, towing three-day-old Rowen and all.