Happy 50th Ma!

OH MY LORD. What a day. Yesterday.

It was my mom's 50th birthday- one she wasn't too excited about celebrating. She's really not the kind of woman that enjoys getting riper with age! She'd love to be 20 again. The day started out great- Maeve had ballet at 10- my mom was feeling good and I was happy Maeve's ballet class fell on mom's birthday- since ballet and Maeve are my mom's two loves :) Next was lunch at Anna's. Again, everything seemed fine- we ate, I lost my mind for a little bit as Maeve decided to run through the store barely dodging very fragile items. (ahhh). Dinner was planned for 5 because Ryan, Maeve, Henry and I were going to go to the U of M/State meet up in Ann Arbor. It was a last minute thing that I saw advertised on facebook yesterday and I decided it would be fun for us to go. Admission was a buck and it was Hawaiian night. Plus I had been wanting to see how Maeve would do at a meet. After dinner (again, mom was acting totally normal) we headed up to Ann Arbor and my mom went back to work at the studio. The meet went great- Maeve loved it. She called the girls "monkeys" as they were swinging on the bars ;) But we decided to leave about 30 minutes early because Henry was starting to fuss and Maeve was beginning to wander through the rows of seats. About a half hour into our car ride home, my phone rang- it was my dad. He told me my mom had been taken to the ER for one of her heart episodes. Coincidentally, we were about 10 miles from the Elm street exit so I told him I'd be there in 15 minutes or so.

Ryan raced me to the hospital and I ran into the ER- completely forgetting about the kids (oops!) Thankfully Ryan is a good dadda who takes lots of notes on how to defrost milk (by not putting it the microwave!!) and making bottles! :) When I got there, it was a bit hectic. Her heart rate was soaring between 260-270. She was having a hard time breathing so she was on oxygen. The doctors had just finished giving her a medicine called adentin which stopped her heart long enough for it to get back into a normal rhythm. VERY quickly, her heart rate started dropping back down to a normal range. Within about a half hour it was in the 90s. After things settled down a bit, we sat and waited, and waited, and waited. Her labs came back a little abnormal- her potassium was low. So they gave her some... then we waited longer. When all was said and done, they couldn't tell her why her heart had done that- but they did say she was lucky to get into the ER so they could capture it on the EKG so that maybe a cardiologist could figure it out.

That's where my mom is today- at the cardiologist, trying to get this under control. It was really scary and I am so thankful she's alright.

There is a part two to this story: Today just happened to be Henry's two month appointment. My mom was planning on watching Maeve this morning, but of course, with everything that happened last night, she was in no condition to watch her. That meant me bringing both kids to the doc. (one of whom is petrified of the doctors). I was nervous; My friend Jessy and I joke that they keep those office rooms at 100 degrees because as soon as you get in there with all your kids we start to sweat. No different today. I got in there, Maeve immediately started jumping on the scale (that is clearly marked "KEEP CHILDREN OFF SCALE") I am trying to get Henry down to a dry diaper while yanking Maeve off the scale. THANK GOD for the "Tarzan" book that happened to be in the room- it kept Maeve busy enough for me to get H undressed and weighed. After the nurse left, I was then informed by the billing lady that my dear, dear husband had not submitted a form for Henry yet and therefore, this visit (including the 4 vaccines he got) would not be covered. Talk about starting to sweat. After the billing lady left I got on the phone with Ryan and started hissing in that low, really ticked off sounding voice, about how he should be here dealing with the billing and with his out of control 2 year old daughter.

I'm not sure if the doctor was busy operating on a patient, performing open heart surgery or something, but we were left in that small, HOT room for about 20 minutes. I was about to melt onto the floor. Maeve was already ON the floor- with her MOUTH OPEN SCREAMING at the top of her lungs. She wanted to go out to the chalk board and color. I will call it a true miracle if Maeve doesn't get sick here within the next few weeks- literally, her mouth was open on the floor. Eventually it got so loud (of course Henry had to join in on the screaming fun) that the nurse came in and TOOK MAEVE OUT for me. Are you kidding me??????????? Granted, the nurse, Brooke is *kind of* a friend (meaning, we would say hi and chat for a minute if we saw each other at the store) but yeah, pretty embarrassing. I totally could just hear them saying "that poor mom- she can't handle her kids." UGHHHH.

Now onto Mr. Henry... Dr. Williams finally made her way into the room and by this time I am fairly sure my mascara was running from the sweat, my shirt was crooked exposing my bra (due to Maeve pulling on it) and I had that overall look of "shoot me now" on my face. She did his exam in about two minutes flat. His skin isn't looking too hot- he has to be on some hydrocortizone cream... his blocked tear duct isn't looking great either. We're going to wait until he's at least 6 months until we talk about doing anything to it. She's also pretty sure he's got a milk allergy. FABULOUS! My choices are soy based formulas or cutting out my dairy. We'll see what happens within the next few weeks. As of now, I'm planning on nursing but she went on and on about how "great of a start" I've given him and to not feel badly about quitting. She's seen a lot of moms go insane over trying to figure out what's making their baby so gassy and uncomfortable. Sometimes it isn't worth eliminating half of your diet. (keep in mind dairy isn't just found in milk and cheeses). As far as Henry's weight/height- he's 12 lbs 15 oz (lost an ounce since last visit) and I've already forgotten his height (its written on a sticker somewhere around here...) I DO know that both his height and weight are in the 75th percentile and his head is in the 50th. He got his 4 pokes (poor guy). After we picked up Maeve from the nurses station we high tailed it out of there, but not before apologizing profusely to the nurses, doctor and anyone else that was subjected to the screaming coming from room 8. On our way home I called my sister in pure desperation- I BEGGED her to watch Maeve for just an hour so I could come home, nurse Henry, give him a bath (he LOVES his baths) and just cuddle him for a minute or two. I have a good sister (actually I have 2 good sisters :) she played hide & go seek w/ Maeve for 45 minutes or so while I got some time with Henry.

Maeve is now eating a lunch of peanut butter banana sandwiches and cheese. Henry is sleeping. I am sitting for the first time today without a screaming child in my arms. Counting down to 1:00... nap time nap time nap time. :)

***oooh one more note: Stay tuned to the blog... the McKenney family has a very big announcement to make (soon-ish). And no, I can say with 100% confidence I am NOT preggo!! :)