15 Weeks

I know, it's been awhile. I have not felt up to writing on the blog. I guess I'm still tired from being sick for 2 weeks, and I just don't want to rehash all that's been going on the last month, but I guess now is as a good a time as any. First off, here are some adorable new pics of my baby boy.





Callister was jabbering and blowing bubbles at me the whole time I was trying to get a good picture of him smiling and showing off his adorable dimples, but these ones turned out pretty cute! He's so sweet and gets so excited whenever we look at him. I often find him staring at me while I'm reading something or looking at something online. I'll look down at him, and he'll give me one of his gorgeous dimply smiles. It just melts me! Watch out girls!

I'm very thankful for this beautiful little boy that has been added to our family. JayC and I were talking about him last night and about how weird it is that even though he's only been with us for just over 3 months, it seems like he's always been with us. It's fun to see Connell so protective and (mostly) loving to Callister, and we just love our boys!

Most of you probably already know all the details about Callister's salmonella experience, but I'll post some about it. I would rather just forget the whole ordeal even happened, but I guess we learn from our experiences, both good and bad. On April 16th, we took Callister into the emergency room for a high fever and dark stools. I kept having a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that we should take him in, but I also felt like I was over-reacting. We called the base clinic, and they told us to take him in to the ER, since he was so young and his fever was so high. It was around 101.7 or something like that. It started in the afternoon out of nowhere, and then I noticed his stools were weird and so we finally took him in. We dropped Connell off with a good friend of mine who has a girl Connell's age and a son that's 2. Her husband and JayC gave Callister a blessing, and then we went in to the ER. When we got there and they took his temperature, it was 103. They wanted to take his blood and give him an IV for fluids, since his electrolytes were low. There is nothing worse then having your 2 month old infant on a hospital bed getting poked over and over with no success at finding a blood vein while he's screaming and there's nothing you can do to ease his pain. They finally gave him a break and I was able to nurse him and calm him down. Then they had to do some more poking, and they finally brought in a nurse who got the needle in. I was so frustrated and angry, but trying to stay calm for Callister. The poor baby! After that, I was able to hold him and nurse him. They decided they wanted to admit him to the hospital to observe him for the night. So I stayed with him in the hospital, and JayC went and got Connell and took him home for the night. Callister slept for maybe an hour, and then he couldn't sleep and was restless, partly from the annnoying nurses, but also from the fever. I didn't sleep at all either.

During the night, he started having bloody stools. The first diaper, I wasn't sure, but then I showed the nurse, cuz they were having me keep track of his diapers and they'd weight them, and she called the pediatracian, and then they all started freaking out because of the bloody stools, and they thought it was something to do with his intestines. So they ordered an ultrasound, but couldn't really see anything. Then they told me that they needed to transfer Callister to a different hospital in Sacramento so they could have the doctors and other things they needed to treat an infant. I lost it and started bawling and refused to let them touch him until they explained to me what was going on. They thought he had "intersusseption," which is a serious disorder where part of the intestine slides into another part of the intestine and blocks the bowels and causes all sorts of problems. If he had that, it could be life-threatening and could require surgery, and they had no way to know for sure. So they transferred us in an ambulance to Sutter Memorial in Sacramento. My first ride in an ambulance. I actually had to insist on them letting me ride with Callister and not let him out of my sight. I can't believe they would want to separate us! Anyway, I told them there was no way he would be out of my sight for a second, and they had to pull some strings to let me ride with him in the ambulance. He was fine and slept the whole drive, but it was stressful. When we got to Sutter Memorial, the doctor there instantly calmed us down (JayC and Connell followed us to the hospital) and assured us everything would be fine, but I wasn't allowed to nurse Callister until they knew what was going on for sure. They did another ultrasound and found out that everything was normal and that he didn't have anything going on with his intestines. Yay! But they still didn't know what was wrong with him. But they did allow me to nurse him again. 5 hours had passed, poor me and poor baby! Since he was eating fine and his vitals were all fine, they let us take Callister home that night. We kept giving him tylenol until the fever finally broke on Monday. At one point the night before, his fever had spiked at 104 and we had to strip him down and put wet rags all over his body to get it to lower. That was scary. He's a fighter, though, and he made it! The pediatrician called me that Tuesday and told me that Callister's blood cultures came back positive for salmonella. So we gave him 10 days of antibiotics, and his diarrhea went away after a week, and he seems just fine now. What a nightmare! I'm so thankful that he's okay and that he had the non-typhoidal type of salmonella, so it was less dangerous and easier to get over for him. I think I got it too, cuz I was sick with a fever and diarrhea and all that, but it sure wiped me out. I'm still tired, but I feel a lot better. I think the whole experience just kind of wiped me out emotionally! Anyway, I know it's not a big deal compared to a lot of people's experiences, but I'm thankful we got through this okay. I'm thankful for the priesthood! And for answered prayers.

We had Callister's baby blessing on May 1st, and Mom and Dad Lloyd were able to come spend a week with us, and JayC's dad and step-mom (Jay and Frannie) and grandparents (Harold and Jeniece Hebdon) were able to come for Saturday and Sunday for the blessing. It was nice to have family with us. Unfortunately, I wasn't very much fun cuz I was sick, but I hope everyone had a nice time. I wish they could have stayed longer, but life goes on! I'm sad that we forgot to get any pictures of my parents with the boys. :( And the pictures we took with the other grandparents didn't really work out. I'm trying to see if I can edit them, but they were just taken with phones so that makes it harder. I knew if I started it, this would be a super long post, but there ya go. I need to empty some memory cards, so I can take more pictures!