The summer flew by and here we are in fall. Avery started her second year at preschool and could not have been more excited to be back. She is back with a lot of her friends from last year, familiar teachers and a familiar setting. This was a blessing for this year specifically due to Covid and the restrictions that most schools have in place to protect staff and students. She walks into school with her teacher without batting an eye and has a great time. They have begun teaching the kids how to form capital letters and each week is a new letter that, in a specific order, build upon one another. This most recent week she brought in her Darth Vader action figure for the letter D show and share. She was so excited to show her friends her cool doll. Darth Vader is also what Avery plans to be for Halloween this year. Oliver will be Jack Jack from The Incredibles.
We were able to take Avery to another drive-in concert at the end of the summer. We took her to see Guster and she had a blast. It was a great way to watch a show with social distancing. Guster does a summer show every year which of course was cancelled this year but they were able to put on a show like this and thankfully it was local to us! At least with all of the negativity and things we missed out on due to Covid, Avery will still have some fun memories from this time.
We had a bit of a scare with Oliver in September. He had been displaying bouts of diarrhea for a week and half, on and off, but otherwise seemed normal and unfazed by it. We thought perhaps it was teething related, as it had no real rhyme or reason to it. Then things went downhill quick. He had begun to wake up in the middle of the night multiple, multiple times. He seemed very uncomfortable and unable to settle. This went on for a day or two and then he stopped drinking and stopped eating, which is very unlike him. When we took him to the doctor they could not find anything wrong with him. It was a mystery. The night before we ended up at the ER with him, we took shifts holding him all night. He would wake up crying in pain, unable to be put down. My mom stayed with us that night and we all just took turns holding him. He spent those days leading up to this point exhausted, miserable and unhappy. Nothing like our normal, silly Oliver. After 5 nights of no sleep, Chris brought him back to the doctors yet again because Oliver was pushing on his lower abdomen in pain and seemed to be in pain when he peed. We thought maybe he had a UTI. Unfortunately because he was so dehydrated from not drinking anything, he couldn't pee at the doctor's office. Chris waited at the doctors with a miserable 1 year old until they finally made the call to send him to the ER. He was really out of sorts and something was wrong. I am so thankful they sent him. I got the call at work to meet them at the ER and when I got there I took him out of the car and he was barely coherent.
The ER doctor and nurses were trying to figure out what was wrong with him and had many concerns, including his constant pain, not urinating, his tonsils were covered in ulcers and when they checked his temp he was over 102 degrees. Sometimes I wonder if my medical background is a curse or a blessing. That night I think it was both because the medical side of me kicked in when it needed to in order to be brave during some of the testing and procedures that they needed to do in order for answers, when all I wanted to do as his mom was cry. It was also a curse because even though these people were dressed in full PPE I could read their body language, hear their tone of voice and understand some of the ways they worded things that made me say "that's not good" when they left the room. After a couple of hours and a million scenarios played in my head we finally had some answers. He had major dehydration, some sort of viral infection that they weren't sure of and small bowel intussusception, which is basically when part of the intestine telescopes into itself and is extremely painful. While they did an ultrasound of his abdomen they were able to see it happening. Thankfully his intestines telescoped in but then was able to release. Surgery is typically required but after speaking with a surgeon it appeared that it would likely resolve on its own without surgical intervention (which ended up being the case). This is what woke him up all night long in pain and knowing this just made my mama heart ache that he was in so much pain. As far as his viral infection went, they were going back and forth between what exactly they thought it was. At first they thought it was enterovirus (aka hand foot and mouth) but then decided it was adenovirus, which effects the intestines and causes a sore throat and diarrhea. Also, as a side note, they of course tested him for Covid which came back negative.
This earned Oliver a 2 night stay at the hospital. I cannot say enough positive things about Elliot Hospital. The pediatric ER doctor and nurses, the pediatric hospitalist and the pediatric unit nurses were fantastic. The first full 24 hours was rough, but he was the bravest little guy. I felt like they really listened to my concerns and were in no rush to discharge him when he was not ready. My biggest fear was going home too soon, before he was really drinking and eating on his own, and having him get dehydrated again. It was really scary how dehydrated he got and how quickly it happened. The whole team agreed and felt better monitoring him another night. Somehow, because of just the utter lack of sleep we had gotten prior to the ER, during the hospital stay both Oliver and I got some decent sleep. He was recovering and was actually able to rest, thank the Lord. Even being hooked up to an IV constantly, which at first was not a problem because he was so sick. But as he started feeling better I found myself chasing him around his room with his IV pole. By our last day he was wreaking havoc again; running around laughing, beginning to eat and drink on his own, and taking rides in a wagon up and down the hallways. A music therapist also came to visit on our last day once he was feeling better and played instruments and sang to him and he absolutely loved it. I delivered both kids at Elliot Hospital and had amazing experiences both times and though this stay was scary and unexpected, it was also amazing in its own way. Once we got home it took some time for Oliver to be fully back to himself. He continued to have some intestinal pain at first, which they told us would happen but should resolve, which it did. Now he is back to his fun, happy, energetic self and we are so relieved.
When we got home from the hospital, Avery wanted to buy Oliver a present. She picked out a ball pit she found in a toy magazine. Which we totally don't need. But we told her she could work for it and she agreed so we went with it. She earned by doing special chores outside of her normal chores. Avery decided all on her own that she wanted to get her brother something special and she worked hard for it. She was very proud of herself and excited to give it to him! Oliver LOVES the ball pit. Do I love 200 plastic balls all over my house? Not really, but totally worth it.
We are doing fall things, of course, like apple picking and pumpkin picking. Decorating the house with pumpkins. Jumping in leaves. Closing up the pool (Boohoo!) Leaf peeping. Watching The Nightmare Before Christmas (Avery is obsessed). Participating in some Halloween festivities. And, not yet but closer to Halloween, we will carve a pumpkin with the kids. This will be Ollie's first time participating so I look forward to his reaction when we scoop out the goop! Avery really enjoys this part of Halloween. I never really cared about Halloween until Avery started to really get into it last year. She says this is her favorite holiday, even more than Christmas! We will see how long that lasts.
