Good Health

This past week we have had a great reminder that good health should not be taken for granted, because it can literally be gone within a day.

On Wednesday morning Clayton woke up with a stiff neck, but we figured he had just slept wrong and didn't think much of it. Well, on Wednesday night I came home to a husband lying on the couch fighting to get warm enough to stop his teeth from chattering. By that time we figured out the culprit was an infection on his outer ear, because his left ear was very painful and starting to swell. By 4 AM his fever hit 103 and he had been piling on and pulling off blankets all night. Did I mention I got to stay up with him? I never thought nighttime feedings for the baby could ever seem so far apart. They usually come too fast!

By the next morning his ear was twice its normal size, so we got some antibiotics. Well, Friday came and the fevers and chills were still there and the ear began to blister, so we switched to a more powerful antibiotic that evening. Bad move. Apparently, Clayton's body does not tolerate augmentin anymore, because at 4AM (after only one pill) he was vomiting and was the worse he had been yet. The infection was also beginning to spread to his neck, so on Saturday we headed to the hospital. Needless to say, they drew blood and put him on IV antibiotics for a few days. They worked like magic! The redness that was spreading down his neck disappeared and the swelling is slowly starting to go down. Finally! Progress!

As of this morning I had a more coherent husband...or maybe it just seemed that way since I got more sleep, too... :) He is still not 100%, but at least he can carry on a conversation now...and remember it. It is nice, because I no longer feel like a single mother with three kids.

Don't worry, I took pictures and am sharing them with you... it's the med student in me. Sorry if you think they are gross. Viewer discretion advised :)

Healthy Right Ear

Swollen Ear on Day #1 (Thursday)

Day #2

Day #3 - After visit to hospital

Day #5 - Today

Looking more like an ear than a balloon

Christmas Day

This year was the first time that our little family did not have to travel for Christmas. Instead we had the pleasure of hosting BOTH families in our apartment. It was a very exciting experience and it worked out well in many ways. In the first place, we were able to bless Celeste with both sets of grandparents here. Secondly, it helped ease the pain of not having Shelby or Kendahl (our younger sisters) around since they are both serving missions. As Clayton would say, "It was a happenin' time," especially since we had to take shifts at our little square table eating Christmas dinner :)

Christmas Eve

Stockings...we were short a few, so we improvised with bowls and pitchers :)

Christmas Day

Juliet was very excited to wake up Christmas morning and find out that Santa brought her a kitchen! Here she is making a cup of hot chocolate.

...After Church

Our sweet little family.

The Tans came and joined the fun, too.

Our big, happy family...minus a few sisters.

Opening Christmas gifts.

Celeste

Christmas Fun

Juliet has been having a lot of fun with Christmas decorating and other Christmas festivities. When we pulled out the decorations she was very helpful in untangling the lights and unwrapping all the ornaments and putting them on the tree. Every day since our initial tree decorating she has rearranged or simply removed the ornaments on the lower part of the tree. Luckily, they are mostly pine cones we found on the playground and put glitter on last Christmas. She also had fun wearing the tree skirt as a cape. She twirled and ran around the living room with it before we put it under the tree.

Twirling

We tried making gingerbread houses with peaked roofs, but our frosting was not working with us, so we ended up making pueblos instead :)

Once Juliet discovered we could eat the graham crackers and the frosting, she went to town with the red frosting.

We also made some sugar cookies. Juliet loved using the cookie cutters. She has been practicing for months with her playdoh.

Juliet met Santa! She was very excited to see Santa.

Before Aunt Kendahl went into the MTC we took her to Temple Square to see the lights.

Celeste

Celeste will be 1 month old tomorrow. It is hard to believe a month has already passed! Celeste is growing tons, and Juliet is still as happy as can be being a big sister. Juliet does a great job with Celeste, and she is always quick to help. She likes to get a diaper and wipes whenever I mention Celeste needs a diaper change, and she also likes to choose outfits for Celeste. My favorite is when Juliet asks if she can give Celeste a kiss on her head, because then I get to watch my cute little 2 year old tenderly kiss her little sister. How blessed we are to have two wonderful girls!

Celeste - 4 wks old!

Celeste - 2 days old

Playing Doctor

Juliet's imagination is going like crazy these days, and I love it! It is always fun to see what she comes up with. Here are a few tidbits:

When I came home from clinic the other day, I casually set my stethoscope down on my backpack by the front door and forgot about it. A few minutes later Juliet found it and was very excited. Before I knew it, she had it in her hands and was saying "Mommy, hurt? Ow-ie?" Next thing I knew I was lying on the couch by her command and she was my doctor. She pointed to my elbow to indicate that that was where my "owie" was. So I played along and told her yes, that was where it hurt. So she proceeded to put on the stethoscope. It took her about 3 minutes to figure out how to get the stethoscope into her ears without catching her hair, and then she listened to my heart. It was amazing because when she heard it she stopped and had a look of surprise. When I told her it was my heart she then pointed to my belly, said "baby. heart," and made the sound of the baby's heart that she hears in clinic. After these connections were made, she pulled off the stethoscope, kissed my elbow, and asked if my owie was better now. I told her it was and thanked her for making it all better. She was quite pleased with her work :)

The other night as I was putting Juliet to bed she stood up in the crib next to me and started very tenderly swaying her arms like she was rocking a baby. She then told me that she was holding "Baby" and that it was now my turn to hold her. So she carefully passed off the baby to me and had me rock her in my arms. Then I gave "Baby" back to Juliet who rocked her a few times before putting her back in my belly...yes, back in my belly. You can imagine the good laugh I got from it. It completely caught me off guard.

Moments like these make me think of how grateful I am to be a mother and how my family truly brings a fullness of joy and a feeling of completeness to my life. I would not trade it for anything!

October Fun

This is Juliet's "Kitty Pump-kin." She is so excited about it if you can't tell!

"Let's Go Fly a Kite"

Clayton and Juliet found this kite at DI for only $4!

We took it out for a test run for FHE last night. Too bad there was not enough wind to make it go "up, up, up" very high. But we still had lots of fun anyway :)

Then Juliet and Clayton decided to roll down the hill.

Pretty soon Juliet was saying, "I dizzy, Daddy."

Optimism

One of the fun parts of being 8 months pregnant and on rotations is seeing the reactions you get from patients, nurses, visitors, housekeeping, doctors, etc. This morning as we were making our rounds with the attending physician we stopped in the room of a patient I had just met last night in the Emergency Department. While I was standing there the patient's wife looked at me and said, "Are you the one we met last night? I remember the belly, but turn and let me see your face." So I did and she said, "Okay, now I remember you. I just wanted to make sure." She then asked me how I was doing in reference to being pregnant and working, especially since it had only been about 12 hours since she last saw me.

As soon as she asked this question my mind started racing. In the split second before I answered it I found myself thinking about how I had already been in the hospital for over two hours and it was only about 9AM. Then I was thinking about having to fight a stiff and sore body in the middle of the night just to make my way to the restroom. And then how painful it is at times to roll over in bed at night because my body is cramping on one side so I have to change positions. Then I was thinking about the 65 hours/12-13 hour days I put into clinic last week with only 1.5 days off for General Conference weekend when family was in town, and the 3-5 hours straight I spend in the mornings on my feet as we round through the hospital with the attending physician. Not to mention the day I was literally running through the hospital after my team from the 3rd floor, south side, and down the stairs to the 1st floor, north side, because someone had collapsed in the main lobby and my team was on code call and all the while the veteran men in the hallway saying "Oh, careful there miss!" And on top of that my swollen feet at the end of the day. So you can imagine how surprised I was to find myself answering quite happily that I was "doing great!" and "moving right along!"

After this sentence left my mouth, I realized it was true. I am doing great! How could I not be when I am so blessed at this time with good health so that I can still be on my feet and very mobile to the point that climbing several flights of stairs multiple times a day with my team members is still an option instead of having to be confined to bed rest? I also thought of all the amazing experiences I was having with people I met each day, and the priceless learning opportunities I was a part of. All of these by far outweigh the small discomforts. In essence, the only difficult part of being in clinical rotations is being away from my family so much, but even in that aspect the Lord is blessing us and sustaining us so much that I cannot help but be happy, optimistic, and full of gratitude!