Old Lane Sign

Happy New Year! 2007 was a strange year to say the least and ended very hectically. We have many hopes for 2008 and are happy that it has started out to be a good one so far.

The Thursday before Christmas, Tater started running a fever and turned blue on me a couple of times. When he “turns blue,” it means he’s having an especially hard time breathing and his oxygen saturation levels are pretty low. His lips get very blue and he gets a blue tinge around his mouth. Although it doesn’t happen too often and I know to be on guard when it does, it’s just something that is to be expected with breathing problems like his. This time the blue episodes were different/worse and I got a little freaked* and took him to see his pulmonologist. When they checked his O2 saturation level it was in the mid 80’s, which is not good, so off to the hospital we went. He was in the hospital Thursday and Friday nights for a respiratory infection and so they could monitor his O2 levels. He really wasn’t that sick and wasn’t acting like it at all after we got to the hospital-he only had low O2 levels. They did give him steroids to make it easier for him to breathe and the kid became crazy. My sister, Wissa, stayed with him while I came home for a bit and she said he never stopped moving the 2 hours I was away. And then he moved and babbled for 3 hours straight when I came back. We would tell him to wave bye-bye and he would clap. We would tell him to clap and he would wave bye-bye. He babbled mamamamama constantly. It was pretty funny. Of course that was Friday night when I got to come home to sleep (I stayed Thursday night) and Ben had to stay up with him. I don’t think he finds it as funny as I do since he had to bring Tater down from that high.

Anyway, Tater came on Saturday morning, YB’s sister (Leeda) and her family (husband Uncle Cracker and sons Doodle-2.5 and Nick-4 mos.) arrived an hour after we got home and things didn’t slow down until last Thursday when YB’s other sister (Kajja) left. It was crazy and we loved it. Toser and Doodle did very well playing together and Nick is just as cute as Tater. My sister, Manny; her husband, Hunter; my brother, TyTy; and his wife JenJen were all in town that weekend as well (Wissa and her family live here). We had 25 people at our house on Christmas Eve and went to Coco and Papa’s house Christmas Day. The boys both got too many toys and loved every bit of the craziness as well. Tater’s doing tons better and has met a few more of his therapy goals-but that’s a post for another time.

I hope everyone is doing well and survived the holidays!

*I tend to deal with these type situations calmly while they’re happening and completely fall apart later when all is over. This drives YB crazy because it seems I’m not reacting (although I am, I just don’t show any emotion). On the other hand, he reacts immediately and is frantic. This drives ME crazy because it seems he’s just freaking out and not taking care of the situation. In all actuality, it doesn’t matter how it’s dealt with as long as it’s dealt with. The point being-when I get freaked about something, it’s weird and I don’t deal well. It probably didn’t help that I was sick too. And so was Toser and he was hungry and wanted M&Ms. So I gave him a snack bag of potato chips and told him if he ate the whole bag he could have the M&Ms. What? Potatoes are a vegetable and my standards were a little low then. Not that they’re always high when it comes to food (that’s YB’s area) but they’re usually a tad higher than a chip and M&M lunch. And Toser knows not to look a gift-horse/sick-stressed-mom in the mouth and was quite happy with the whole deal. Plus, he got to stay with Coco and Papa while Tater was in the hospital and that’s like a constant chip and M&M lunch.