Mecham update

It has been a busy couple of weeks here in the Mecham house. Last week someone broke into the house. ( while the kids were napping and I was in the shower). Luckily they only came in and took my new cute little pink laptop and some jewelry and left before any of us realized what was going on. Then the vacuum caught on fire. Yes, they catch on fire if you suck up too much baby powder that your two year old decorates his room with. Things got better from for the rest of the week. Keith came home yesterday and is not set to deploy again until next year. Finally the big news, we had our ultrasound today. We are having a very active and healthy baby boy!!! According to dates I am due December 25th, but by size I am due December 31st. so we are just trying to hit all the holidays in December. When you get stressed out just take a breath and realize that everything works out in the end if you just breath threw it. Life is good.

From the mouths of babes

Today I noticed that Lily was calling Sam “Alice”. When I asked her why she was calling her brother by a girl name she answered. “Because maybe if he was a girl and didn’t have that odd extra finger down there, he wouldn’t be so mean to me.” How can you argue with that?

RN

It is finally official, I am an RN!!! I took my nursing boards on Sunday, ( yes I know it is odd they held NCLEX on Sunday) I spent the next two days crying knowing without a shadow of a doubt that I failed it miserably. Then Monday night, just before midnight my buddy Danielle from nursing school called me and told me that my nursing license posted on DOPL. (The department of professional licensing.) which means I PASSED. I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack. I am so happy. I just wish Keith were home to celebrate with me. I will stay working in women services float pool on the maternity and labor and delivery units for IHC. It all still feels like a dream.

The cat is out of the bag

The cat is out of the bag and throwing up violently all over the carpet. We are pregnant! Baby Mecham #3 is due Christmas day. Yes it is a shock and surprise but we are happy for Lily and Sam to get a new baby brother or sister.

MY Little Peanut and the peanut

In January Sam got pneumonia in the upper lobe of his right lung. They treated it and all was well, except he still had a lingering cough and was wheezing more and more when he would play. When I would listen to his lung sounds there was little to no breath sounds in the entire right lung. We took him back to the Dr., they said it was probably asthma and we started doing nebulizer treatments three times a day. After months of treatment I was still not hearing and increase in breath sounds and took him back again and again and again. After being blown off as a crazy over protective mother with a stethoscope they finally took me seriously and ordered a chest fluoroscopy (like a chest x ray video so they can watch the lung expand) We scheduled it at the Primary Children’s at Riverton. It was shocking. When the image came up my heart sank. Even with him screaming his guts out with three people holding him down, his right lung did nothing. There was no air going in at all, but there was air in there that could not get out. They told me to wait in the waiting room while they called our pediatrician. Before I know it a surgeon was calling me telling me to bring him straight to Primary Children’s same day surgery to be prepped. Before I even made it home to call Keith, an anesthesiologist, same day surgery, our pediatrician, and another surgeon were calling me. It was a crazy and over whelming time. We got him up there, all checked in, dressed in his itty bitty hospital gown, and played in pre op waiting for an open OR. Note to self Versed and Sam don’t mix. They gave it to him about 20 minutes before they took him back to calm him and decrease the anxiety of a stranger taking him away from his parents. Yah, not what happened, it made him angry and freak out. We walked down to the OR with the anesthesiologist, gave Sam one last hug and handed him over. We had to bolt out of there as fast as we could. I could not handle hearing him screaming for us in the OR and there was nothing we could do.

About an hour and a half later they called us in the waiting room. The PACU nurse said “I have an angry little boy here that wants him mommy.” This was hard to hear over his very horse screaming in the back ground. We ran down the hall to the PACU, to find a half naked screaming and confused little boy on a big adult stretcher, pulling at IV’s and monitors. Keith picked him up just in time for them to say that only one parent could be back there. I didn’t even think about it and told Keith I was not leaving. Poor Keith, he didn’t argue and handed Sam over and went back out to the recovery area, I know that it was one of the hardest things he has ever had to do. After a quick breathing treatment we were able to take him to recovery to see daddy. What a wonderful and sweet husband I have, he loves his kids so much. They came out and told us what they had found, a peanut, yes a freaking peanut. They said he probably coughed while eating it and sucked it down into his right bronchial around Christmas time. Some scar tissue and inflammation formed around it and completely blocked off his right lung. They were able to remove it and clean out the scar tissue without any problems, they even gave us the peanut in a specimen cup. After a few more hours in recovery they agreed that we did not need to stay overnight as planned and sent us home around 1100 pm. Now Sam is doing great. I can’t believe how fast he recovered and was back to running around like a crazy man. I am so grateful to the amazing and wonderful nurses and staff at Primary Children’s. I am so grateful to have a healthy little man again. It is defiantly something that I never want to go through again. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and concern, and a huge thank you to Dallin and Jennifer for helping us with Lily. We could not have gone through this with out you.

Birthdays and Easter

It’s that time again, Just as we recover from Christmas and winter we have Easter and birthdays. Sam’s birthday was March 23rd, but Keith was still deployed. So we took advantage of the fact that he is young and would not know any different if we just moved it back a little bit. We celebrated it the day after Keith got home, ( the day before Easter ) at Grandma and Grandpa Mecham’s house. I went the fast and easy route this year with cakes, so nothing fabulous this year. Little mister Samuel turned 2 this year and Lily turned 5. I can’t believe how fast it has all gone by. My babies are not babies anymore.

Easter!!!! I had to work Easter Sunday, and the weather was not really ideal for Easter egg hunting so we moved Easter to the Friday after. We took the kids to my parents for a egg hunt in the back yard and pictures. They were so cute. Sam got his first little man suit, I loved it!! but it almost looked like he needed a Louisianan accent while wearing it.

Lily’s birthday we actually managed to do on her birthday. I had my first day of nursing precept up at Labor and Delivery in Ogden, so poor Keith had to take care of everything on his own. She loved her party, and she make a killing in gifts. I am so grateful for so much right now, my hubby is finally in the same country as me, my kids are growing up, I am almost done with school. Life is good.

The kids and Keith's uncle Ron trying out Sam's big boy bed.

cars, teeth, and kids

I guess I am way past due for a post. Fair warning to all of those that might read this, it may seem to be more like a venting section then an actual update. If this is going to bug you just stop reading now. There is nothing like laying it all out there to remind yourself that it could be worse and I have so much to be grateful for.

Keith is still deployed, so married single parenthood is in full swing. I have to say, not really a big fan. Hopefully he will be coming home the day before Easter, which really means that on Easter I will be saying that he will be home in a few days. I never count on the first date that the military gives us. I don’t think he has ever been able to come home on time before. There are always last minute changes.

School is, well school. I have officially reached burn out. I am so close to being done, but am having a really hard time giving a damn. To study has become like Japanese water torture. I love critical care, I find in fascinating that you can take a human body that is so mangled and with the help of a few machines and some IV drips, you can put them all back together again. It’s amazing and yet I am yet again dinking around on the internet instead of doing homework. Even now I am thinking of all the things I should be doing and just can’t find the will to care. I think that once I find out where my precept will be things will be different. Hopefully I will catch my second wind, because then I get to put all my knowledge into action and will find my confidence that I can be a great nurse or fail miserable on my face and become a hermit crab. We have a new dean of nursing and I think it will make all the difference for the program. She is great and it gives me hope for the fallowing nursing classes. I actually found myself not mumbling under my breath when someone asked me where I was going to school. Maybe my second wind is starting up slowly. It is so scary to think how close I am to being done. It’s exciting to think that soon I can walk in to a patient’s room and say, “hi, my name is Sadie and I will be your nurse today.” It is sad at the same time. I have grown so close to the other nursing students in my class. We have been through so much together and will miss them terribly. I actually considered picking up a second job just one day a week up at McKay Dee hospital just so I can see some of them every now and then. They really are a great group of people, and would gladly let anyone of them be my nurse if I were dying in a gutter, well with a few exceptions.

Cars. Oh the joy and pain that is cars. Keith and I have been throwing around the idea of getting a minivan. And well I decided I had had enough of cars breaking down on me while Keith was gone and went and bought me a new minivan, well new to me. It is a 2009 Toyota sienna. I love it, it’s so clean, and has all kinds of fun gadget, and the best of all the kids cannot reach each other anymore. It is perfect and it gives me giggles inside, well until the second day. I noticed that the brakes were making a weird noise so I took it back to the dealership to be checked. They took a quick glance and said that it was fine and that it was just the tire shine spray that had gotten on the brakes while it was getting detailed. They promised it was safe and sent me on my marry way. The sound got worse and worse, so it took it back. Later that day they said it was ready to be picked up and that they replaced the brakes and machined out the rotors. Tire shine spray my ass! I was grateful that they fixed the problem but was annoyed none the less. Then this morning while driving to school the check engine light comes on, the light for vehicle stability, and traction control all come on. So back to the dealership tomorrow we will go, high ho high ho. Some heads will be bitten off, high ho high ho. To own a van for two weeks and have to take it in three times to be fixed is not going over well with me.

Next lovely bit of fun. Anyone that knows me knows that not much in the ways of body functions bugs me. Vomit I am fine with, blood and guts it’s all good, but teeth and feet not so good. So this last week has been extra traumatizing to me because my upper left wisdom tooth broke off leaving a lovely exposed nerve. Oh the joy and the PAIN!!!!! It took about a week but I was able to get in to get my wisdom teeth taken out by a lovely man named Dr. Brain. No joke, Dr. Brain. He was awesome and let me go nightly night while he did the dirty work and ripped those puppies out. My dad was nice enough to watch the kids and pick me up when it was all over. Although I think he enjoyed watching me come out of anesthia, I get a bit goofy. Apparently I told the guy helping me into the wheelchair that my dad was coming to get me because my husband was a jerk and was on vacation without me. Once I could stand up on my own and feel my face again things were not so pleasant. They had to chunk out part of my lower left jaw and I felt like I had been kicked in the face by an angry garden gnome. Each day has gotten a bit better and better with the occasional set backs when I am stupid and overdo it. That is until yesterday. My lower left jaw has really been bugging me and I keep getting this gross taste in my mouth. So after some poking around, literally, I found a huge pocket of puss where my wisdom tooth used to be. Awesome. So today I have been packing it with gauzed soaked in everything I can think of to draw out the infection. Now remember I don’t do teeth!!! So to be pulling out puss soaked gauze is making me pray for death. Hopefully it will get better without having to do anything drastic. I have another dentist appointment later this week to see what the next step will be. Oh joy joy fun, everyday is like Christmas.

We are still staying with my parents for the majority of the week. It is easier on the kids so that I don’t have to wake them up in the middle of the night to go home to bed by the time I make it home from work and school. I sleep on the couch, Lily is on the air mattress next to me, and Sam is in the crib around the corner. It is so much fun… like camping every night.. I am losing my mind!!! But on the bright side, it is free babysitting, I am saving a ton on not having to heat my house, and I am reminded everyday why I moved out so young.

Birthdays. Sam will be two at 3:58 AM tomorrow. He is such a big boy, it makes me sad how fast he has grown up. Because he is young and won’t remember we have moved his birthday this year until after Keith gets home. So pictures will be coming soon.

Well that is about it for us here, sorry it was so long but I feel better getting it out of my head.