The best laid plans

Mom, Brett, Will, Jack, and I headed up to the new house on the day following the closing of our old house (18th). Mom was going to start painting the Living Room Brett was going to do some sanding on my cabinets, I was going to do some painting in the kitchen, and the kids were going to cooperate :).

We got to the new house around 10ish William needed a major nap and Brett volunteered to help with that. Mom started in the living room and I did odds and ends and finally was able to start in the kitchen. At some point the Atmos gas man came and turned on the gas and showed me how to do some stuff and turn on the fireplace. When he turned it on, Oh my! it smelled horrible. Strong chemical smell we opened up the windows and turned it off quickly. The gas man told me that it smelled that way because they were Styrofoam logs. And if we burned them on high for about an hour with the windows open the smell would go away.

Sometime after he left 30 minutes? Will woke up. He had slept for about an hour. When he woke up he came and asked me for some juice. Brett was in the garage and Will kept going in and out. He smelled like gas out there and he decided to finally stay inside and play with Jack when I told him to choose where he wanted to play. Mom was painting and I was talking with her. I noticed Jack needed his diaper changed and went to change him on the floor. I thought Will was playing by me on the floor while I changed the diaper, but I just can't remember. I got up to throw the diaper away and when I came back to the Living Room I was listening to what Mom was saying but looking at the kids. Will was just laying on the floor and I thought that he must not have slept long enough. I just kept staring at him and then finally noticed his color was not normal. He was staring blankly, and I started calling his name. I hurried over to him to pick him up. He wouldn't respond, and he was completely limp. His jaw was clenched tight, and he had been drooling and there was some blood that came out of his mouth. His breathing was very light. I was terrified. I kept calling his name and begging him to look at me and begging my Heavenly Father to let me keep him.

Mom called 911 while Brett attempted to find a neighbor at home with no luck. The lady on the other end was giving Mom instructions to give to me of things to try and do. I don't remember all the things but I do remember that she told me to rub his sternum HARD with my fists. When I did this he let out the most beautiful sound of protest I think I've ever heard; He cried out. A few seconds later I heard the sound of an ambulance siren. I was saying thank You! thank You! Hurry! Hurry! When they finally arrived with what seemed like forever then but only a short time after the fact, I just felt such a release. I backed away from Will who seemed to be sleeping on the grass, no longer lifeless just sleepy, and gladly let the paramedics do their job. They looked at him and from my description said they thought it was a seizure. He still wouldn't really wake up so they wanted to take him to the hospital.

In the ambulance he finally woke up but still didn't act like he knew who I was or cared if I was there or not. I'd say William look at Mommy. He would slowly look over at the sound of my voice look at me for a few seconds and then look somewhere else. THAT really scared me. It wasn't until after we had been admitted to the ER for about 5 minutes that he finally clicked back to reality. He started crying for me!

While we were there, I recapped the story to doctors, nurses, and police officers several times. They took x rays of chest to make sure he hadn't choked on anything, and a CT scan of his brain. Patrick arrived about that time and made one little terrified boy and momma soo happy! The CT scan and xray both showed nothing thankfully. But while we were waiting, Will gave us another scare so the doctors decided to send us to Vanderbilt's Children's Hospital. I rode with Will in the ambulance and he fell asleep pretty quickly, and thanks to Brett dropping off his favorite blanket stayed that way till we arrived at VC. We met with several neurologists who thought it best if we stayed the night so they could monitor Will and get a MRI and an EEG in the morning. Blake and Dad came to see Will and keep us company. Mom and Brett ran the phone lines and kept Jack, and mom finished the painting in the living room.

They transferred us up to a room for the night. Dad and Blake were fixing to leave when Will had another seizure. I was holding him and he just yelled and lunged away from my body and started to shake. The Nurses came quickly and we sat there and waited 3 minutes for the seizure to end. I felt so helpless just watching and waiting and praying for it to end. When it did, I held Will for a few minutes till he calmed down and wanted to sleep.

Dad and Blake left, and Patrick and I took turns watching William sleep. He had been sleeping for about an hour when he woke up. I asked if he was cold he said yes. I went to get him another blanket when he started having another seizure. After this, the doctors thought it might be good to go ahead and start him on medication to stop the seizures. They hadn't wanted to do this because of the EEG but thought it was in his best interest to go ahead with it. After the medicine he seemed to sleep great.

The ending of something that's been good. Really good.

We closed on the Gwyndaland house. The family that bought it seems really nice so that made it a lot easier. We have had so many good memories in that house. It was our first house as a married couple. It's were we brought our babies home to. We shared lots of laughs and some tears inside those walls. We did a lot of work to it and spent a lot of time debating on what we wanted/needed to do to it. We weren't able to do everything, we wanted, like finish the basement, or get rid of those hideous mauve counter tops! But we did get some things done-- master bath redone, it SO needed it! Sealed the basement, not sure why builder never did that. Painted all the trim white including cabinets. It was practically black, and no, it did not look good. Replaced all the interior doors, a job Patrick swears he will never do again. Replaced flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms. New light fixtures everywhere. New windows, new basement door, lots of painting (thank you Mama!) Redid the landscaping and love it, wish we had done it a lot sooner! I'm looking forward to the new house but I know it will take time to adjust. I'm so sad to have to leave "home," but I know it will be good for our little family.

I have thought a lot about how hard this move would be even though it would be a "good" move. I mean we are moving for good reasons. Patrick has a new job doing what he loves. He really likes the people he works with. He gets to use his degree that he has worked SO hard on. But we are still leaving "home." I can't imagine what some people must face when they have to move for other reasons...foreclosure, divorce...I mean if this is hard for me to move when it's "good," how hard it must feel to have to move when it's "bad."

Not looking forward to having to pack up everything and get out, but it has to be done. We have to be out by Friday.

Offer!

We had the house listed on Monday, April 12th. That Friday we got an offer. We counterd and they accepted! We are so very very grateful it only spent 2 days on the market. INCREDIBLE!On May 17th it will officilally no longer be ours. We have until the 21st to be moved out.

Officially

Our house was listed today. I noticed a sign in the yard around 9am, and I got really excited. Then I tried really hard not to cry. Really, really hard.

House Hunting

I have looked at lots and lots of houses. I have a very strict list of things that I want. It finally came down to 2. My favorite we were outbid on (so SAD!). Patrick's favorite we put in an offer and got it (so exciting!).

I'm happy that the hunt is over. We close on it on May 4th!

Now. We just need ours to sell...FAST.

Feet? Check!

Just Jack

The Best Way to Spend a Sunday Afternoon.

Tractors

Will loves watching tractor pulls on you tube. He asks to watch them no less than a hundred times a day. Sometimes he likes to watch slide shows of tractors to music too. Patrick had turned this one on for him, so I'm assuming that it's a slide show. The video is 44 sec long. It might get kinda boring, but pretty worth it in the end.

Play-doh

Lately I have been trying to find more activities to keep Will busy and happy. I had been wanting to make play-dough for him for awhile, but the time had never been right. Mainly because I abhor having to pick up all the little pieces that get stuck everywhere. Yesterday it finally worked, or maybe I was just desperate enough and I made time for it. It kept him entertained for at least 30 minutes! I have remitted my dislike of play-dough.

He totally gets the tongue sticking out expression from me. Attractive...I know.

Trying to Wait Out Winter

Nightmare

Will woke us up really late on Sunday night crying. For one of the few times since he has been born, he awakened Patrick, and I did not hear a thing. Patrick came back and told me that Will had had a nightmare about Jack. A few seconds past and Will started crying again. So Patrick went back in to check on him. This time Will insisted that they go into Jack's room to make sure "Jacks otay." So Patrick took him in, and Will made sure Jack was in his bed asleep. Once he was assured, he went right back to sleep and didn't wake up until his usual time.

I'm so happy, that at least for now, Will wants to look out for Jack and make sure he is "otay."

Whew

I think I'm finally safe to say, we did it! We made it through Potty Training. The first couple days were pretty rough, but by the 5th and 6th we had made lots of progress. Around day 14 I finally was able to convince him to poo in his potty. We bribed him with new Thomas the Train underwear, a Maglite flashlight, and a bowl of ice cream. After a couple weeks he finally started to tell me when he needed to go. And we have now been accident free for a week! I'm really hoping announcing it to the world does not jinx us in some way. So now I no longer have to clean up dirty 2 yr old diapers, I just occasionally step in urine that didn't quite make it into the toilet...nice.

2 Weeks

Patrick got the Bridgestone job! He is so excited, and I'm feeling overwhelmed a little bit, but extremely grateful.