I have been slacking on the blogging front. I apologize. There has been so much going on. Jayden is already two months old and just as cute as can be! He is such an incredible little baby. He generally only cries when he needs something, most of the time he's just happy! He loves to look at lights and our ceiling fans. He just stares off at the ceiling all the time. He loves the rocker/glider my mom gave us for Christmas. It is in the bay window in our bedroom and we just rock and he stares out the window. I'm amazed at how alert and observant he is. He smiles all the time now, his facial expressions just crack me up! I should post pictures, and I will, just not right now! (I'm only up and typing this because I am once again covered in hives and I am getting allergy tests on Friday so I can't take anything to get rid of the hives... my entire body is on fire and I can do nothing about it! So I'm blogging to take my mind off the pain! haha)

BJ and I had been bad and were letting Jayden sleep in bed with us... I have to say though, I thought it was fabulous. Anyway, we have finally got him to a point where he will sleep on his own in his pack and play which is at the foot of our bed. We just have to swaddle him up tight and he sleeps for hours in there. He's pretty much sleeping through the night. We are starting to work on a schedule for him so that he has consistent nap times. We'll see how that goes! He gets his shots on Thursday, so I will probably cave and just hold him through his naps and through the night until next week! I'm kind of a pushover! All in all though, Jayden is a fabulous baby and I still totally love motherhood!

About two weeks ago I had a pretty scary experience. I got bronchitis and at my 6-week postpartum checkup I got an antibiotic for it. The next day, Jan 14, I had a coughing fit - which is normal for bronchitis, but it wouldn't stop. All that coughing caused a broncospasm and my airways started to constrict. I couldn't breathe at all. At 9:40p.m. BJ, Jayden, and myself jumped in the car and BJ rushed me to the nearest IHC Instacare. The entire car ride I thought I was going to die, I could not get oxygen, it was so scary. When we got to the clinic, he stopped at the door, I jumped out and made my way inside. It was so hard to walk and get inside... I got to the desk and I managed to say "help." The women yelled for a nurse to get out there right away, they said I was cyanotic or blue, the nurse started to help me into the back when I started to pass out from lack of oxygen. The nurse and receptionists caught me and put me on the bed. Luckily the oxygen mask started to help a little so they didn't have to intubate (put a tube down my throat to breathe for me). So immediately the nurse called the ambulance for me, as I had to be taken to the hospital. BJ was there, Jayden was being an angel and sleeping peacefully in his car seat. BJ called his parents to meet us at the IMC hospital. The ambulance showed up and rushed me to the hospital, flashing lights and all! We passed BJ on the way, he said it was the first time in his life he'd been passed by an ambulance and known who was in it.

When we got there, the E.R. doctor admitted me. So after only 6-weeks, I had to spend the night away from my son... it was torture. I spent the night in the hospital. On the 15th, they told me I could go home (around 6pm). We tried to find out why this was happening, asked if they thought I should get some oxygen to go home with just in case, they said no... the doctor said he was "confident" that we had it under control and I'd be fine, I just needed to followup with a pulmonologist and my primary care physician.

So home we went, scared to death that I would once again stop breathing. I did pretty good that night. I had my breathing treatments at home, I was on prednisone (steroid), I was just hoping I'd be fine and that I could meet with doctors and they would figure out what triggered this level of attack so we could prevent it from happening again. I mean, I went from breathing fine with a bit of a wheeze to an oxygen sat level of 65 (normal is 98-99) within 30 minutes! I went from normal to BLUE in 30 minutes! Anyway, the 16th gets here, my mom is down here to help me around the house and help with Jayden - my mother-in-law is also here helping, BJ was working from home just in case something happened. The moms were helping me take down my Christmas tree and decor when once again it started happening again! I tried to control it from home, I did 2 breathing treatments and I just couldn't breathe. My mom rushed BJ and myself to that same instacare. Cassy stayed at my house with Jayden. I got to the instacare and one of the women who was there from Wednesday night took one look at me, said "Oh no, again??" rushed me to the back and put me on oxygen. This time my O2 levels were only down to 85, we didn't wait as long the second time around. I was so memorable though that the receptionist didn't even have to ask my first name, just what my last name was again! I must have made quite the impression! The doctor gave me some IV steroids and more prednisone, (for you medical saavy folks, I was given 250mg of Solumedrol and 100mg of Prednisone!) I was pumped full of steriods to help with the inflammation. They had me on oxygen and did more breathing treatments, I was at the instacare for 3 hours when the doctor decided that I needed to go to the ER at IMC. So once again the ambulance was called and away I went. No lights this time, I was stable enough to just be transported normally. We got to the ER, they ran a whole bunch of tests, but they were extremely busy and I was pretty stable! We sat there for 8 hours and then got sent home with the same instructions and reassurances we received the day before.

My mom stayed over the weekend to help, Sunday rolls around, I started to have another episode only this time it had a new and interesting component. My tongue swelled up in my mouth! I was wheezing and doing the breathing treatments at home, and while I was using my nebulizer, I noticed that my tongue was huge! I managed to choke down some Benadryl and we just waited to see what happened. This time we were able to stick it out at home, the Benadryl finally worked, my tongue returned to normal size after a few hours, my breathing returned to somewhat normal... It was an interesting night.

Where do we go from here? I'm going to the CF (cystic fibrosis) clinic at the University of Utah today. They are going to run tests and keep an eye on me. I have what is considered CF-TR related conditions, its somewhat complicated, I'll save that explanation for another post. I have an appointment with an allergy doctor on Friday, and my primary care doc is overseeing it all. My primary care doctor is awesome and I am going to do whatever it takes to make sure we get everything under control. Suffocating is one of the scariest things I have ever experienced and I want to do everything I can to ensure that it doesn't happen again. I have a beautiful little man that I need to be healthy for! As usual, I'll keep you posted. :)