Roan's Christmas 2.0

Our Christmas was nothing short of wonderful this year! We went to Sean's mom's on Christmas Eve Eve. Sean's mom got him a Shake and Go Thomas. The boy loooves his trains!

We had Sean's dad and everyone over for Christmas Eve breakfast. I made peaches & cream stuffed French toast that I think will be tradition now. We Skyped with Nana and Papa in New Mexico, another tradition. We then went to the 3:30 Christmas Eve service at Riv, which was interesting with no RivKids, haha! We took turns with Roan in the lobby (but I'm glad Riv does no RivKids, don't get me wrong!) Ethan and Coley Heikkinen played with him, encouraging high-fives and fist bumps left and right :) We had he car packed and left for Fort Wayne immediately after church.

Christmas day was again wonderful! It was fun watching Roan be actually more interested in opening presents than last year. As soon as he'd unwrap one, he'd say "Open! Open!" So far, I think his favorite is the little James toy train he got...though a lot of his presents are in a box upstairs, so he hasn't gotten to play with all of them. We'll take them out when we get home. 

He got a train table that I cannot wait to get set up in the basement! When I opened it, he was on the other side of the room with my dad (it was crazy so I was just trying to get through the presents...and it was too heavy and big for me to take over to him)...so when he saw it, he made a bee line right for it, climbing over boxes and presents! Nothing else mattered to him in that moment! I was heartbroken we couldn't open it for him right there, but for the sake of traveling with it, we couldn't. I would make a list of all the things he got, but it would be a long list! This is why Sean and I are thinking we're gonna give him 3 gifts from us each year (3 wise men...) cause my parents will always have Christmas more than covered! 

Jaa, Jody, and the kids came over as well as grandma Berta and Tom. We ate and opened more presents. I just can't get enough of Isaiah and Daniella! Roan pronounces Isaiah's name as "Eye-sah!" They're both learning to share, so we have to remind Roan to let Isaiah play with his toys...I was referencing Daniel Tiger a lot ("You can take a turn, and then I'll get it back!"). Daniella gave me about 5 kisses and I could have had 5 more! 

Tonight, Sean and I are going to see Les Mis! We decided we'd make the most of free babysitters while we're here (not that Sean's family won't watch him, it's just harder sometimes due to schedules). Going to see the movie is part of my Christmas present; I was shocked when Sean said he was ok with going to see it! He doesn't like musicals...and honestly, Les Mis is the only one I can stand, haha. I'm pretty excited!

Our Morning in the ER

Roan woke up a little early this morning. Usually I have to wake him up at 8am (at least on mornings when I have class), but if I don't he sometimes sleeps until 8:30/8:45. This morning, he woke up at 7:30am. Not a huge deal, but right away I suspected something was "off"...but thought maybe it was something along the lines of a poopy diaper.

The morning went on like normal. Waffles and a banana for breakfast, with milk of course. Sean woke up a little before 9am and came downstairs. Roan started getting whiny. I checked him for poop several times (though he can say "poop" and "diaper", he has yet to use the words to communicate); his diaper was clean every time. I thought Maybe he has another tooth coming in... Those are usually the two reasons why he whines other than wanting to sit on my lap when I'm busy or frustration with one of his toys. 

I was on the computer in the dining room, he was standing next to my chair and was whining. I assumed he wanted me to hold him or he wanted to play with the computer since I introduced him to the Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood website a few days ago. 

Then it happened...he puked all over the floor and his clothes. I changed him and wiped him down in the tub while Sean cleaned up the mess (he was the champion of cleaning up vomit this morning...thanks hun). I put him in clean clothes and about 20 minutes later, he puked again all over his clothes. We decided to keep him in his diaper.

He didn't have a fever. Other than right before and during his pukes as well as the 15 seconds or so after he puked, he was acting normal. 

After I took his second outfit off, he said kept repeating "Sleep! Nap!" So I wrapped him in a blanket and rocked with him in his room. He wasn't really going to sleep, so I asked Sean to bring the chair downstairs so I could at least rock him down there...also, I could sit on the hardwood and clean up vomit easier than if he'd puked all over his rug in his room.

We rocked and he was asleep within 5 minutes. He slept on me for something like 15-20 minutes, I think. I got up to move to the couch because my hip was cramping up and he woke up. He tried to go back to sleep, but then he started whining again...I knew what was coming. I got up and stood over the hardwood and he threw up again. I told Sean: "We're taking him to the ER or Urgent Care or something." Off we went to the ER. 

I was standing by the car with Roan while Sean went in to grab "impostor Owl" (he'd puked on his actual owl security blanket earlier and it was in the dryer) and Roan puked for a fourth time while standing outside. Thankfully, I had the forethought to grab a container in case he puked in the car, though it did get on his coat and mine. He didn't puke in the car, which was good, I guess. He was still talking about things; not his usual chipper self, but not completely lethargic either.

They have this whole system now in the ER...metal detectors and 2 check in desks. They've really beefed up security. While we were at check-in desk #1, he puked again. By the way, holding a puking toddler while simultaneously trying to hold the bowl for him to puke in isn't easy...not standing up anyway. 

They got us to a room and checked his vitals...all normal according to the doctor. While we waited for the doctor, I tried to keep him distracted...thankfully I brought the Kindle which has apps that he loves. The doctor came in, asked us more questions. No, no one at daycare was sick. He asked what Roan had eaten in the last few hours and we told him. Nothing odd there. He asked if Roan likes popsickles or juice, we told him he really only drinks water or milk and we don't really given him super sweet stuff that often. So he suggested trying sips of water every ten minutes.

We gave him a sip, waited ten minutes, gave him another sip, waited ten minutes...all was fine. Really, by the time the doctor came in, he was acting completely normal (he called the doctor "papa"...I think he thinks that's what every older man's name is haha...but he definitely knows Sean's dad is his Papa). So we were discharged. I gave Roan a saltine and that stayed down. I gave him another one a bit later and another one in the car. No more puking.

I gave him toast when we got back...he ate almost two full pieces! And a few crackers, too. I gave him Pedialyte to drink (the nurse said that was ok to do). I waited 15 minutes before putting him down for a nap (again, he kept saying "sleep!" so I knew he was tired) to make sure his food stayed down.

Now he's napping and I'm hoping he doesn't puke again. He's such a healthy kid, this was hard for me. I know God is in control, but in the car I couldn't help but worry about all the worst-case scenarios. I prayed the whole way to the hospital.

It's seriously so hard when your baby is sick. That feeling of helplessness...there was nothing I could do to stop his puking. I wanted to so badly. I wanted to make it better. But I couldn't. I didn't like that one bit.

So, here's hoping (and praying) it was just a random, odd, fluke thing.

Late Thanksgiving Update

Sean, Roan and I left the day before Thanksgiving to visit my family in Indiana. We left at Roan's bed time because in the past, he's just slept the whole way.

This trip?

Awake until we were about 15-20 minutes away from my parent's house.

It all worked out, though. He wasn't too thrown-off the next day. I think all the excitement helped to wear him out, too.

Sean and I took him to the park Thursday morning where we ran into a woman from Okemos! I was wearing my State hoodie, so she asked if we were from East Lansing. Then, come to find out, her husband's dad taught at the school I went to my freshman year, they were also married by Noel and were former Rivites (now they go to Trinity) and they're friends with our friends from Riv, the Klans! Small, small world.

Thanksgiving was full of fun and family and is best shared through a few photos...unfortunately, for some reason I've "reached my maximum storage space" or something, even though I went through and deleted basically all photos except the ones from this blog. So, um, if anyone knows how I can free up space, let me know cause I read up on the troubleshooting page and it's vague. Thinking about switching blog hosts cause this is kinda ridiculous.

Moving on.

We finally got to meet Isaiah and Daniella while we were there! At the time, they'd only been home a few weeks, but I was sad that we couldn't be at the airport to meet them there (though I heard they were asleep for most of it). Isaiah wanted Roan to give him a kiss at one point and Daniella seemed to be trying to explain to Roan not to be scared of the baby gate that fell over and made a loud noise :) She was either speaking Lingala or baby language, but that's what her tone suggested. They are so precious and let's just say I'm really excited to see them again at the Detmers Christmas!

Sean, Micah, Drea, and I took Roan downtown to look at Christmas lights. There weren't that many, given that Thanksgiving technically wasn't even over, but the big Santa was lit as well as the big green wreath. Native Fort Waynians know what I'm talking about. When we got out of the car to look at the wreath, he was quiet for a few seconds, but then said "Wooow!" Worth it.

Sean had to leave Friday night because he had a house to paint and he had to play guitar at church (he has to play the weekend of the Detmers Christmas, too, so he can't come to that).

So the rest of the weekend was spent just hanging out at my parent's house.

My mom and grandma took Roan and I back to Lansing Sunday. We stopped at the outlets along the way and there was a model train store. Again, if I could upload pictures and video, this is where it would go (bitter, much? Why yes, yes I am). He loved it. They had a few train tables lower to the floor for kids to play with. We were sad they didn't sell toy trains, otherwise I'm sure Roan would have gone home with one. There was one train table that kids/people could turn on themselves. Roan's face lit up the first time he pushed the button and saw Thomas and Percy going around the track!

What's funny to me about this is at one point, before Roan started showing an interest in trains, Sean told me that he doesn't understand why boys are so "in" to trains and he kind of hoped that Roan would not join in on this trend. Haha, sorry, hun, but we have a train enthusiast on our hands. As long as he's not still living with us at 35 playing with his toy trains in the basement, I'm ok with it.

So that was our Thanksgiving weekend!