April Recap

Forgive me in advance for this seriously long post. I just really want to get caught up with the blog. Recording these events is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends far away (ahem...grandparents!), but it's just as much a way for me to remember these fun times!

April was an extremely busy time for us. The weather was gorgeous...I wish it could be like that more than just a few weeks out of the year!

We had an Easter egg hunt at church with our life group. It was so much fun! Here are the boys getting ready to go hunt! Aren't they sweet from behind?

Luke really got into it and found tons of eggs!

...even in the most obscure, hard to reach places!

Jack seemed content just opening and closing the eggs. He loves things that open and close.

Our life group kids...minus Tanner, Hudson, Noah, Grace, Sean and Will. They really cooperated so well...we were impressed!
Top row: Kyleigh, Eeliyah, Caleb, Lukas, Jake
Middle row: Macey, Jack, Luke, Lynzee, Andie, Savannah, Gage
Bottom row babies: Judson, Austin, Inara

Sweet kiddos!

We spent Easter Sunday with Greg's parents in Tyler. Here are the boys on Easter morning.

Handsome Luke all ready for church!

We tried to take a few family pictures after church. The boys were extremely tired and hungry. Here's the best we could do!

Jack has always had the saddest, most pathetic-looking face when he cries. It's been this way since he was a newborn. I know these pictures are heart-breaking and cute all at the same time.

But, don't worry...Daddy to the rescue to make him laugh!

This boy has some serious love for his Daddy! (And vice versa!)

Love this one because of Greg's face and Jack's curls!

We gave it one last try for a happy brothers picture...no such luck!

I wanted to throw in a picture of my cute niece and nephew, Maddie and Mack.

Mack had too much fun with the confetti eggs on his daddy's head!

Jack wore Crocs for the first time.

We played outside...a lot.

We hung out at the Harbor...one of our family's favorite places to be in Rockwall.

Side note - we tried to put this outfit on Jack yesterday, and it wouldn't even snap!

For his birthday, we converted the playroom to Luke's bedroom. He got a big boy twin-sized bed. Putting it together is half of the fun!

This was the first night he slept in his bed. Can you tell how proud he is? What a big boy!

Greg's parents came in town one weekend, and we went to the Children's Science and Nature Museum at Fair Park. We had a blast!

Fireman Jack!

Driving the fire truck!

Collecting veggies from the farm:

Yes, Mommy and Daddy played, too.

They loved the water station:

Luke's favorite: the hot air balloon that went up with the push of a button.

Luke is really into jumping right now...especially jumping off of things. He did the with Daddy all night long and couldn't stop laughing. I love this kid.

I set up Jack's 15-month and Luke's 3-year well checks/immunizations at the same time. Greg took off of work early that day to help out. Since the doctor is in Dallas and the boys did so well with their shots (Luke didn't even cry!), we ended up getting ice cream at our favorite spot, Wild About Harry's, shopping, riding the trolley through Uptown and eating at Luke's favorite restaurant, Humperdinks! (I think he just likes the name!) It was a fun day, but we didn't know what was to come...stay tuned...

The trolley -

Later that evening, Luke barely slept at all because he was coughing so much. It was just a dry cough, so we didn't think much of it and just kept giving him water. By the next morning, he was still coughing pretty much nonstop. Then, I realized that he was wheezing quite a bit and even struggling to get a full sentence out without stopping to breathe. So, I gave him a breathing treatment (he had a wheezing episode about a year ago, so our pediatrician had given us a nebulizer with some meds), called his allergist, and the only appointment they had available was 45 minutes from the time I called. I live 35 minutes from the doctor, and we were still in our jammies. I called my neighbor, left Jack with her changed our clothes and headed to the doctor.

Once there, the physician's assistant listened to his breathing, said he sounded very "tight", gave him another breathing treatment, then gave me tons of info about asthma and how to treat it at home. This was his first official asthma diagnosis. Dr. Sugerman listened to him after his treatment, said he sounded much better, told us that he probably acquired some sort of virus at the doctor the day before at our pediatrician's office during their well visits that triggered the asthma so suddenly and sent us on our way to treat at home. So we thought.

I stopped at the hospital ATM to get money for parking, went to the parking garage and strapped Luke in his car seat to head home, then suddenly, Luke could barely breathe. He was literally grunting just to get any breath. It was awful. He was trying to talk to me but literally had to breathe after every word. I knew that before I could give him another breathing treatment, I had to drive over half of an hour to get to the pharmacy, get the meds, then get home. I wasn't about to risk it. It was 12:30 pm, I knew the office closed at 12:00 on Fridays, but I called anyway and told them that I could either bring him back up or bring him to the ER. (The office is at Medical City Hospital.) They told me to bring him back up. By this point, Luke just seemed lethargic and was still barely breathing. The nurses met me at the door, took Luke from me and immediately began assessing his breathing. Once they took him from my arms, I lost it. I just cried and cried...I had never seen Luke like that. They said he had very rapid breathing, his oxygen level was in the low 90's (borderline), and he had diminished breathing in his lungs, meaning little to no movement. You could see his skin being pulled under the bottom of his ribs when he breathed. It was just awful. They immediately gave him steroids and another rescue breathing treatment, and Dr. Sugerman gave him continuous treatments for a couple of hours. We were starving, feeling gross and so ready to go..mind you, I hadn't even showered that day. But, I had a bad feeling. Even after a couple of hours of continuous treatments, he was a tad bit better, but still wheezing a lot, couldn't complete a sentence without stopping to breathe, and just not normal. So, Dr. Sugerman made the call to admit him overnight. Once we got to the room, he had to have a FOUR HOUR breathing treatment. Greg made it to the hospital, but then had to get home to let his parents (who had driven into Rockwall to get Jack from my neighbor's house) into our house and get a few things. This four hour treatment was the hardest part. He pretty much cried himself to sleep. Bless his heart.

Long story short, we were at Medical City for a few days, 2 nights. My heart breaks for families that have their children in the hospital. It his so difficult. But, Luke was a trooper and was much better by the next day. He had a swab done in his nose, which determined that Dr. Sugerman was right...he had some sort of common cold virus that just brought on these symptoms suddenly. This wasn't good news, but at least it's just not environmental allergies which he is continually exposed to that caused it. Seeing how bad it was, Dr. Sugerman ordered us to give him a preventative steroid treatment every night. It's now a part of our bedtime routine, and Luke actually loves it because he gets to watch a video during the treatment.

I didn't get many pictures at the hospital. We were busy trying to keep our tired, sick boy happy and occupied. This was the 2nd day...one of the many breathing treatments -

This was right before we walked out the door Sunday afternoon. He was exhausted. He was fighting the treatments, and he eventually gave in. Sweet boy. We are now so grateful for his health!