Week in Review: Breathing Treatments, Ultrasounds, and St. Louis!

Well, we had a full, exciting week! It started out with a trip to the doctor for both children :( Sadly, they were both sick, so that kept us home a lot of the week. Then I had my ultrasound on Wednesday, so that was a very exciting day! Then we had a BIG weekend! I hadn't mentioned it on the blog, because it was supposed to be a surprise, but Sarah Denley and I had decided to go to St. Louis to be at the airport when Ashley got home with Liam! We decided to take our husbands and children too, and just make a fun little mini-vacation out of it. We ended up having a really fun time, but it was exhausting for the kids (especially Jude who went to bed about 3 hours after his normal bedtime every night, got up at the regular time, and skipped his naps) and we're happy to be home now.

Sunday: The kids were under the weather with colds again :( so we stayed home from church that morning. David still went, but the kids and I just hung out at home and had a very uneventful morning. I ended up putting Jude down for a morning nap, which I haven't done in forever, but he seemed so tired and he did go to sleep. I also took a shower, bathed both children, and got us all dressed, because we were going to my parents' house for lunch. My grandmother's birthday was the next day, so we were having a little celebration for her :) My parents knew the kids were sick, but they insisted we still come. Surprise, surprise! ;) It wouldn't be a party without Aubrey and Jude! We had a fun lunch, and we stayed for a good while. It was nice to get out of the house. When we got back home, we put the kids down for naps. Aubrey slept, but Jude didn't. I was afraid of that since he took the morning nap. I took a short nap before getting ready to go to church that night. David stayed home with the kids this time, and I went to evening worship. After church, I stopped at Newks and got dinner, and then I came home. The kids were fussy and Jude was ready for bed, but David was searching for a paci. After turning the house upside down, we finally found one, and I put him to bed while David put Aubrey to bed. She ended up coughing all. night. long. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that she never stopped. We gave her medicine, water, and rocked her, and nothing helped. I felt bad for her because she just wanted to sleep so bad! Finally, at 3:30 AM, David went upstairs and slept in the guest bedroom and turned off the monitor in our room so that I could get some sleep.

Monday: We decided when the kids got up that I would take them to the doctor just to see if they needed breathing treatments. I called and got an appointment for 10:20, and then I got us all ready. The kids were fussy, but they didn't seem THAT sick, but I still wanted to have them looked at. I'm glad I did! It turns out that they BOTH had an ear infection. Also, they were both wheezing and needed breathing treatments. AND Aubrey was wheezing so badly that she needed an oral steroid too! Good grief! My poor sick babies! When we left the doctor, we went to Target to get all that medicine. When we finally got home, I fed the kids lunch and then did breathing treatments for both of them. I then put them down for their naps, and Aubrey went right to sleep. Bless her heart, she was exhausted after not getting a lot of sleep the night before. Jude, on the other hand, would NOT go to sleep. I was frustrated because I knew he was tired and needed to sleep, and also, selfishly, I was SO tired and wanted to take a nap. It ended up taking him TWO HOURS to fall asleep. He wasn't upset at all -- he was just talking. I think it was the breathing treatment medicine.I've heard that albuterol can make a child wired, but it's never had that effect on Aubrey. Just as I was about to give up, he finally got quiet and went to sleep. I laid on the couch and dozed for a while. Aubrey ended up sleeping for 4 hours! Crazy! I didn't wake her up because I knew she needed the sleep. When both kids got up, we hung out at home, and then we drove through Penn's to get some dinner. I was craving some shrimp. We ate at home, and then we played and watched Dancing with the Stars. I did more breathing treatments and then put Jude to bed. I was just about to put Aubrey to bed when David texted me to let me know he was on his way home from a meeting, so I let her stay up until he got home. They played for a few minutes, and then he put her to bed. David and I talked for a little while, and then I got ready for bed early.

Tuesday: The kids were up early. I wish they'd start sleeping a little later! We were skipping Bible Study since the kids weren't well enough for the nursery. We hate to miss! David and I decided to take Aubrey and Jude to the chiropractor for their ears, so I got ready for our appointment and got the kids dressed. We met David there. I stayed in the waiting room with the child who wasn't getting adjusted, and then we traded. They were both pretty unhappy :( Hopefully it will help, though! When we left, we had to go to Target again to get another medicine. I thought we had plenty of the steroid at home, but we didn't have as much as I thought, so we had to get some more. After that, we grabbed some lunch at Chick Fil A, and then headed home. I did breathing treatments before naptime, and thankfully, Jude went right to sleep that day. Aubrey slept again, too! While they were both napping, I fixed some chili for dinner and put it in the crockpot. Then I blogged, folded and put away some laundry, vacuumed, and cleaned up our wreck of a house. I felt pretty productive. Jude woke up about about an hour and a half into his nap, but I could tell he was still really tired, so I rocked him until he went back to sleep. He ended up sleeping for a couple more hours, so that was a success. When Aubrey woke up, I gave her a breathing treatment, and then David got home and Jude woke up. David did Jude's breathing treatment, and then he and Aubrey went outside so that he could mow the grass. Jude and I stayed inside and played. When they came back inside, we ate the chili for dinner, which worked out perfectly because it had gotten COLD outside :) After dinner, David bathed the kids, and then I played with Jude before giving him a breathing treatment and putting him to bed. David did Aubrey's nightime routine, and I watched the Dancing with the Stars result show and got on the internet before going to bed.

Wednesday: This was the big ultrasound day, and I woke up nervous and excited! The kids and I had a normal morning at home, and I fed them breakfast and got them dressed. Then I got myself ready. I took the kids over to my parents' house to play while I had my doctor's appointment. David met me there, and it was a MADHOUSE. We both drove around for 10 minutes just looking for somewhere to park. That didn't help my blood pressure, I'm sure! Haha. We finally both found a parking spot. My blood pressure was surprisingly ok! We waited a while and then got called back for the sonogram. We loved seeing our sweet baby and finding out that it's a girl! :) After our sonogram, we had to sit in the waiting room waiting to see the doctor. We finally got put in a room and waited some more. It took forever. I ended up seeing a nurse practitioner, and she said everything looked perfect. We were happy to be out of there at 12:45. I hadn't had anything to eat all day and was famished. I drove through Wendy's and ate in the car on the way to get the kids. It was way past Jude's naptime by the time I picked them up, and he was so tired. Of course, he fell asleep in the car on the way home, and then he never would go back to sleep after that. UGHHH. Aubrey took a good nap, though. Unfortunately, she woke up in a funk. David got home, and he went to get her out of her room, and she was just a grump. She perked up eventually, and we told her the news about her baby sister! We hadn't told anyone up to this point, so she was the first to know! We then went to church. David called a few people in the car on the way to church to tell them the news. When we got to church, my family was waiting by the door to hear the news. Haha! Aubrey told them she was having a sister, and everyone was so excited! :) We ate dinner at church, and then I had to teach. David kept the kids out of the nursery, because their noses were still a little runny. After my class, we came home and did breathing treatments for the kids, and put them to bed. David watched some TV, and I blogged, and then we went to bed.

Thursday: Thankfully, the kids were feeling better! I needed to run a few errands that morning, so we got dressed and ready and left the house. It had gotten cold outside, and since I literally only had two long-sleeved maternity shirts, I figured I should go try to find a few more. I was also looking for some turtlenecks for Jude to wear under overalls and longalls. We went to Old Navy and JC Penney's. I found a few t-shirt type shirts at Old Navy for me, but no turtlenecks. By this point, it was lunchtime, so we we ate at Corner Bakery. After lunch, we went to Kohl's and Ross, but we struck out again. It was pushing naptime, so we called it a day and headed home. The kids took naps, and I did some laundry and got some clothes out for our trip. I also did some straightening up around the house and painted my nails :) That afternoon when the kids got up, we hung out at home playing and waiting for David to get home. He brought pizza home for dinner. We ate and got the kids cleaned up after dinner. Then I ran to a few more stores and found turtlenecks for Jude while the kids were home with David. I dropped our book club book off at Rebekkah's house on the way home. When I got home, David was getting Jude ready for bed, and I got all of the clothes I wanted to take for him for the weekend out of his room and then put him to bed. I then gathered up Aubrey's clothes while David got her ready for bed. He put her to bed, and I started packing. David helped me with the packing, and then we went to bed.

Friday: When we got up, we started getting last minute stuff together, and we fed the kids breakfast and bathed them. We loaded the car and finally got on the road around 10. We had a nice trip, but Jude didn't sleep much. We stopped at a McAlister's for lunch, and the kids both ended up falling asleep after lunch. It was nice and quiet, and David and I were able to talk, and I read names out loud from our baby name book :) No decisions were reached though! After a while, I had to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at a gas station, and I tried to be SO quiet getting out of the car, but the kids woke up :( I was kicking myself for that sweet tea I had for lunch! Ha! At least they got a nap, though. We made fairly good time, considering we had to make several bathroom stops for me and Aubrey -- the joys of traveling with a pregnant woman and a potty trained toddler. Ha! Toward the end of the trip, Jude got fussy, and I said I would rather drive than squeeze myself and the belly in the back between the two carseats. So, David got in the back, and I drove the rest of the way. We finally made it to St. Louis around 6. We got checked into our hotel and brought our stuff in, and I freshened up and changed clothes. The Herringtons got there around 6:45, and SD and I went over the directions to the airport and left. The guys stayed at the hotel with the kids, so that meant I had to drive us to the airport. We didn't have any problems finding the airport, but we DID run into some trouble once we got there. Let's just say we ended up parking three times, chasing down a shuttle because we were in the wrong terminal, missing said shuttle, going back to our car and driving around some more, having our car inspected, and then missing Ashley actually walking in because of all of that. We did finally get in the right place, and we were able to surprise Ashley and see Liam. He's so precious!

We hung out at the airport for a short time, and then we headed back to the hotel. I called David and he had taken the kids to get dinner already ON FOOT. Since I had the car with the carseats, he borrowed a stroller from the Herringtons and pushed Aubrey and carried Jude down a huge hill in the dark to the nearest restaurant to get them dinner. All I can say is wow! He's a brave man! Ha! The Herringtons had had a late lunch, so Peyton opted to stay at the hotel ;) SD and I drove through a Steak N Shake to get dinner for the rest of us. We had a bit of trouble getting back to our hotel. We ended up accidentally getting back on the interstate and taking a huge detour. We when did finally arrive back, we were quite happy to quit driving around an unfamiliar city and leave the navigating to the guys for the rest of the weekend! :) We all ate in our hotel room, and then we just hung out talking and letting the kids play until pretty late. We had a lot of fun, but we called it a night when the kids (mostly Jude) started to get REALLY fussy. The Herringtons went to their room, and we got ready for bed. The night actually went better than I had feared it would. We had gotten a room with two double beds, and I slept with Aubrey, and David slept with Jude. Jude was so exhausted that he went to sleep pretty easily and slept ok all night. Aubrey is a little kicker! She tossed and turned all night, but she seemed to sleep fine. I guess that's just how she sleeps!

Saturday: Jude woke up crying at about 7:30, and that of course woke Aubrey up too. I was hoping they would sleep a little later after such a late night. We went ahead and all got up and got ready to go to breakfast. We ate breakfast at the hotel, and then we went back to our room to finish getting ready. We met up with the Herringtons in the lobby, and we all headed to the zoo! We had heard great things about the St. Louis zoo, so we were all excited!

We really enjoyed it, and the weather was beautiful. Aubrey LOVED the zoo. She hasn't stopped talking about it. Jude was exhausted, and he finally went to sleep toward the end of our zoo experience.

We ate lunch at the zoo, and spent a good long time there. I have tons of pictures that I will post in a separate post. We were all getting tired and hot that afternoon, so we headed back to the hotel to regroup for a little while. Neither of our kids would nap, but I did take a short nap. The kids were running around the room being loud and David was watching the Auburn game on TV, so I don't know how I was able to sleep at all! Guess I was tired! We changed the kids' clothes and met up with the Herringtons again to go see the St. Louis Arch. This was the one thing David had said he really wanted to see, so I was glad it worked out for us to go. It was in this beautiful park, and we really enjoyed just walking around the park and letting the kids run around. The arch was so neat to see! I'll post pictures from that in a separate post, too! After it got dark, we were ready to find some food! We wanted something kid friendly and fast, so we decided to leave the city. We had a little trouble getting where we were going, but we finally found a place to eat. We ate at Qdoba, and it was really good! I love those kinds of places, and it makes me wish we still had a Moe's! It was really late by the time we finished dinner, so we headed back to the hotel. The Herringtons came in our room, and we talked about our plan for the next day. David and I were going to go to a church in St. Louis, but SD and Peyton decided to go ahead and head out early so that they could get home for their own church that night. We said our goodbyes and got ready for bed. Jude had more trouble going to sleep that night, but we finally put him in a pack n play, and he went to sleep and slept in there all night. What a relief! I'll finish the vacation recap in next week's post!