Not going home

My mom said that Ian was doing much better yesterday morning, but when I talked to Paul this morning, it was a very different story. Paul's dad is coming up to take Ian to the Pediatrician. I assume he also has RSV, but hopefully Ian won't need to be hospitalized for it. My dad isn't doing well either. He's seeing a doctor today. Hopefully Oliver, Ian, and my dad will be on the mend in the near future. At CHOP they only provided food for the patient (Oliver). If a parent wanted a tray of food, it cost $5. There was no way I was paying $5 for a hospital meal. I know from too much experience the hospital food isn't very tasty. Thankfully at this hospital they have been providing a "guest" tray for me since I'm in the room 24 hours a day and unable to get any other food. Yesterday I was able to fill out Oliver's menus for today, but I am not able to have any input in what I'm given. Every bit of my plate was covered in gravy at lunch yesterday (the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and the turkey had gravy on them). I do not like gravy; so I didn't touch any of the food on the plate, but I did eat the container of mandarin oranges and some soup from Oliver's tray. Dinner also had gravy on it, but I was so hungry I scraped off the gravy and ate it anyhow. I went to bed with a growling stomach. It won't hurt me to lose a couple of pounds that's for sure. Oliver has lost a pound over this illness. Yesterday he did want to drink apple juice, but he wouldn't drink milk or eat. This morning he is back to drinking milk and eating. They keep cutting back on how much they are giving him by iv.

On Monday the doctor said there was a chance he would be discharged on Tuesday. Yesterday he said he thought he could be discharged today, but this morning I was told that's not going to happen. Around 2:30am last night I felt like unplugging Oliver from all the wires and taking him home. Two children were admitted to the ward last night so the nurse wasn't able to come and deal with the beeping machines for quite awhile (pulse ox monitor and iv). Picture trying to sleep while a car alarm is going off 2 feet from your head. I tried sleeping on the floor and three different chairs in the room and as of 2:45am hadn't slept a wink although I started trying to go to sleep at 8pm. At 2:45 I asked the nurse to switch the sensor to his other foot as it hadn't been moved in 11 hours. That did the trick and the alarm was silent for a few hours, and I was able to get 3 hours of interrupted sleep (they still came in to check his temp and such). I have a very hard time sharing a hospital bed with a toddler, and the room is never dark and rarely quiet. I thought I was going to throw up from exhaustion, hunger, and a splitting headache. Oliver is doing much better today. He finally started smiling last night for the first time since Sunday. His fever is gone, but they can't get him off the oxygen. I'm praying that which ever nurse is on duty tonight won't object to Oliver sleeping in the crib. I had him asleep in the crib last night, but the nurse objected. I want to get home for so many reasons. I want Oliver to be feeling better. I want us both to be able to sleep in our own beds and get more sleep than we're getting here. I miss Nadia and Ian. I am feeling very cooped up in this hospital bed. Even going to the bathroom is tricky because I am afraid of Oliver climbing or falling out of the bed. We had special things on our calendar that are in danger of being cancelled - tickets to see the Barnum & Bailey Circus on Friday, Easter dinner with our extended family on Sunday, a dinner and dancing date with Paul on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday, Maundy Thursday service at church, etc. Hoping everyone is feeling better asap!

In the hospital

 I left Oliver at home with Paul on Sunday morning, but during the church service I realized I should also have left Ian at home because he felt VERY hot. I took his temperature when we got home, and sure enough he had a 101 degree fever. After some Tylenol he perked up enough to enjoy being outside a bit. The temperature got up to 84 degrees outside on Sunday! That is unseasonably warm for April in Pennsylvania. Ian didn't get much sleep on Sunday night. Oliver slept 12 hours straight. Both boys woke up with 103 degree fevers on Monday morning. Ian was still eating, drinking, and playing after he had some ibuprofen. This wasn't true for Oliver. He had hardly anything to eat or drink and was extremely lethargic. He also was breathing very rapidly all day. When his temperature reached 103.9, I decided it was time to call the doctor. I was able to bring him right in, and after a brief exam
(including readings of 86-89 on the pulse ox), the pediatrician called the hospital so Oliver could be admitted without us having to go to the ER first.

He's never been at this hospital before, except for when he was in my womb. He's now spent at least one night at four different hospitals, and he's only 20 months old. He is the only patient on the pediatrics ward at this hospital, so we have not only a private room but a private hall and a private nurse. The first thing they did yesterday was get him on oxygen. He was on a cannula for the first several hours, but then his nose kept bleeding so they had to switch to a mask (which he perpetually pulls off of his face). They also hooked him up to an iv for antibiotics and fluids since he was a bit dehydrated. They started him on breathing treatments every four hours. He had chest x-rays, bloodwork, and they took some samples from his nose. During the night they told me he tested negative for the flu and positive for RSV. So he's technically on isolation. They nurse was pretty lax about it, but the respiratory therapist kept donning a mask, gown, and gloves every 4 hours before entering the room. Pastor Jamie came to visit last night, and he wore a gown.

As soon as I knew he was being admitted, I called my mom to see if she could come up. I figured I needed to ask right away in case she could come so that she could arrive before the sun went down (she doesn't like driving at dark up here). I knew we couldn't ask Paul's parents to come up because Paul's mom would likely end up in the hospital if she was exposed to Ian's germs. He probably also has RSV, but his lungs are better able to handle it than Oliver's are. At 4pm my mom called and said she was on her way, and she arrived at our house shortly after Paul and the kids got home from Nadia's 6-7pm soccer practice. The weather was nice yesterday (70's). I had expected to spend the afternoon at the playground, not at the hospital. Paul came up around 9pm last night to bring me some warmer clothes (it's much cooler out today), toothbrush, laptop, etc. I'm hoping that Ian and Oliver will both be feeling better asap and that no one else will catch the virus. I'm also hoping that Oliver will be discharged today or tomorrow. I'm glad he's getting the care that he needs! He wouldn't sleep in the crib so he slept in bed with me last night, which means I got VERY little sleep last night. I'm hoping for more sleep tonight. 

Egg Hunt #1

We didn't go to our church's egg hunt last Saturday, but I am planning to take the kids to three egg hunts in our town between 4/12 and 4/19. The weather was perfect for this afternoon's hunt! This was the first year Ian enjoyed it and understood what to do. Some of the three and four year olds collected FAR more eggs than he did, but he did get six eggs! At this hunt they use hardboiled eggs. The kids prefer the plastic eggs with candy inside that they'll use at next Saturday's hunt. They were both hoping to find a prize egg. Ian didn't, but one of Nadia's seven eggs was a prize egg. The kids enjoyed eating her chocolate prize. Since Oliver still has a high fever, he stayed home with Daddy during the egg hunt, and I stayed home with the boys during Nadia's soccer game this morning. I'm hoping the poor little guy will be feeling better tomorrow and that none of the rest of us catch this bug. He has a very runny nose, a little bit of a cough, and he had the runs for a few hours this morning.

Fever Friday

Because the forecast today included highs in the 50's and rain, I planned to take the kids to a new indoor bounce place in Bloomsburg, but we never left the house because poor Oliver had a 102 degree fever all day long. Paul was gone for 11 hours for his interviews at Bucknell. These photos are from yesterday when we were enjoying the spring weather. We have been visiting Queenie (dog at the bottom) faithfully for years now on our walks to and from the playground.

Thankful Thursday

1. The weather is GORGEOUS today! We had a picnic lunch in the backyard. It's supposed to get up to 67 today, and it's supposed to get up to 76 on Sunday!! The weather should be great on Saturday for Nadia's soccer game and the kids first Easter egg hunt for this year. The grass is starting to turn green, and the flowers are starting to come up from the ground. Yahoo!

2. Paul had a phone interview yesterday morning for a tenure track position in West Virginia, and in the afternoon he received an invitation to interview on campus on the 21st! The position isn't nearly as nice as the one in NC that he declined last week, but I am very glad that Paul is now willing to keep his options open. Tomorrow he is interviewing at Bucknell for a one year position. We are SO grateful he was given a second invitation to interview for that position. We are hoping he will be offered that job, but it feels nice knowing all the eggs aren't in one basket. Marywood (about 90 minutes from our house) posted a one year FT temp position this week, and that would be another possibility if he isn't offered the position at Bucknell. Please pray that he would do a terrific job tomorrow! I feel a million times better today than I did last Thursday. I now know that Paul might not be a professor for very long, but I am grateful he's willing to give it a whirl for one more year, if he is offered another job. It won't be such a shock if he tells me at some point in the future that he doesn't want to teach any more. I have now adjusted to that idea, although I'm hoping he enjoys it a lot more the second year.

3. Napping has been a problem lately. Several times Oliver has slept only 15-20 minutes, which is ridiculous when he's only taking one nap a day! It was such a relief yesterday when he slept one hour, and he did the same today. Ian also took a nap yesterday, and Nadia stayed in her room for quiet time. I love my kids to pieces, but I was very grateful for the 60 minutes to myself yesterday. The previous few days I had tried to take a nap during their nap/quiet time, but it hadn't worked out. Since the weather was nice today, I let Nadia and Ian play int he back yard during Oliver's nap.

4. Nadia and Ian have such a great time at AWANA on Wednesday nights. I've been reading them a biography on Hudson Taylor so that Nadia can complete her next sections in her extra credit book. Last night was "Mismatched Night," and Nadia was chosen as being the most mismatched kid there. She was wearing two different shoes, two different socks, pants, skirt, shirt, and sweater.

Two songs by Ian

So many times the kids are doing something and I think, oh I wish I had a picture of that or a video of that. Even though I don't see Paul and I actually upgrading to smartphones any time in the near future (although I do think we need to include texting because it seems that's becoming almost mandatory these days), I can see that having a smartphone does make it easier to capture those unplanned moments because one's phone is usually handier than one's camcorder or DSLR camera. Several times lately as Ian was singing at various points in the day I thought to myself, I wish I had a video of him singing. On Monday night I decided to sit him down and record him singing two songs. The performances when he doesn't realize people are listening are better than the ones when he sees the camcorder, but this is better than nothing! The first one (Give me that old time religion) turned out better than the second one (His banner over me is love). I think he had really had enough by the time I got the second video because I had to delete a few other attempts because of things like Oliver screaming in the background. Some day in the future I know I am going to cherish being able to hear what he sounded like at 4 years and 3 months old.

Yesterday afternoon we didn't go to the playground because it was about 57 degrees with a very strong wind (and dark clouds). Several weeks ago I would have thought 49 was warm enough to warrant a trip to the playground, but after experiencing several days in the sixties, it felt too chilly. It's about the same temperature today (but sunnier and not quite as windy) so we're heading out, but we're REALLY looking forward to being outside tomorrow when it's supposed to be close to 70 degrees out. YAHOO! Since the kids were bummed about not going to the playground, I made a last minute decision to take them to the Well (indoor play land). They have one area that is for young children, but Oliver wanted no part of that. He was climbing up the BIG structure (has to be at least 12 feet high) and going down the slides just like his older siblings. Ian wasn't that brave when he was 3 1/2 let alone 1 1/2. It never ceases to amaze me that two brothers who have the same parents and the same environment can be SO very different. :)

20 Months Old

1. His afternoon nap has gotten shorter. He's averaging 40-60 minutes these days, but he's sleeping in a bit later in the morning. He usually gets up between 6:45-7:00 although he still gets up at 6:30 some days. Every once in a while he sleeps in past 7:00.

2. He got his 12th tooth (on the top) shortly after he turned 19 months old.

3. The rash on his face hasn't been showing up nearly as often the past month as it did the previous two months.

4. He LOVES basketball. If he sees other kids or adults playing basketball, he grabs a basketball and tries to run out onto the court. The fact that he's more than 3 feet shorter than everyone else on the court doesn't phase him in the least. We shall see what he thinks of soccer once we start going to Nadia's games on Saturday mornings.

5. He's saying more and more words. I have stopped keeping track. Some new ones include fish, diaper, too (for example he said "I love you too" after I said "I love you"), and car.

6. He's discovered it's a lot of fun to run around at the playground.

7. He weighs exactly 25 pounds (gained 13 ounces over the past month), which puts him at the 28th percentile for weight. He's a growing boy!

8. He's crazy about the dryer. He goes in it multiple times a day almost every day.

9. When I ask Nadia and Ian to go get their shoes on, Oliver is usually the first child to go and get his sneakers from the shoe rack and bring them to me so I can put them on his feet.

10. "If you're happy and you know it" and "Row, row, row your boat" are two of his favorite songs.

Party Crashers

I've never been one to "crash" weddings or parties, but Nadia and Ian did so yesterday afternoon. Several of the neighbors have children, and there are two families that our kids often play with. One of the families is our next door neighbor - they have two boys and a girl. Their middle son is the same age as Nadia. The other family has three boys. I saw a bunch of kids in the second family's backyard, and I told Nadia and Ian that the neighbors were playing outside. They put on their shoes and coats (it was rather cold yesterday) and headed over. I didn't realize it was a birthday party for their eldest who is turning eight. Oops! Ian just played outside with them for awhile and then came home with a bag containing some candy from the pinata. That's when I found out they had crashed an Avengers birthday party. Ian told me Nadia went inside to have cake and chocolate ice cream. She stayed quite a bit longer than Ian did, and when she returned I went through my gift stash and wrapped a new copy of "The League of Incredible Vegetables" dvd in Cars wrapping paper and told Nadia to take it back over to the birthday boy. I certainly wasn't trying to have them crash a birthday party! Hopefully the neighbors realized it was an innocent mistake on our part. Nadia had a great time!

Bumps in the road

Over the past 18 months I have submitted 158 applications. I have checked websites like HigherEdJobs.com umpteen times a day. I did #123 for Paul and #35 for myself on Tuesday night. I went to bed very excited that night knowing Paul was scheduled to interview at Bucknell on Friday and at Mars Hall either March 7 or 16. The biggest positives for Bucknell included that we wouldn't have to move, it would hopefully help him get a permanent job the following year, and he would be able to do more research with the professor who was his advisor when he earned his master's degree. The tenure track position at Mars Hill was what Paul had considered to be his dream job for the past nine years - teaching physical chemistry at a small college in a state we both thought would be nice to live in. We had lost hope that he would ever interview on a campus for such a position as over the past 18 months he had never made it past the phone interview stage for his "dream job" until this week. Lately he hadn't sounded very upbeat after his phone interviews, but  after his phone interview with Mars Hill on Monday morning, he sounded very excited about the possibility of teaching physical chemistry and physics because he would have small classes and only be teaching chemistry majors.

Wednesday morning Paul changed his mind and decided to decline both interviews. He told me he doesn't enjoy talking in front of a group of people and never wanted to teach again. This was a huge shock to me. I knew he didn't enjoy the mass lectures, but I didn't realize that he also didn't enjoy talking in front of 18 students in his labs. He told me he had no idea what type of job he would like to do. In the past he has been unable to find any jobs in his field of chemistry outside of higher education. He said his plan was to go back to work for his dad until I got a job. I had viewed my going back to work FT as "Plan B" if Paul was unable to get another job in higher education. I had prayed that if He wanted me to go back to work FT that He would close the doors for Paul and open one for me. Having Paul be the one to close the door on "Plan A" makes it a trickier decision for me. He did talk on the phone on Wednesday night with my friend Cheri's husband about a potential local job doing thermodynamic calculations.

Wednesday through Friday were challenging days for me, as it seemed that all we had invested from January 2006 -2013 while he was a full-time student was going down the drain. Of course I want Paul to be in a job that he enjoys, but it seemed premature to me to assume that he'd never enjoy it, especially when he had no idea what job he might enjoy doing for the next 20 years aside from being a stay-at-home dad. He enjoys helping students during his office hours, and he enjoys the majority of the lab time (when he's going around and helping one or two students at a time). The part he doesn't enjoy accounts for 3.25 hours a week - the time spent talking in front of either 18 or 130 students at one time. His peer evaluations this semester were very positive, so it seems he's doing a fine job even if it's stressful for him. Paul's advisor at Bucknell asked if they could get together yesterday, and they did. Over the past past eight years, Dave has been a BIG encouragement to Paul. After talking with Dave, Paul agreed to reschedule his interview for April 11. He will be the last (of three) candidates that they will interview for the position. We are so thankful that Paul has been given not one but two chances to interview at Bucknell for this one year position. I'm still in utter shock that Paul turned down the interview in North Carolina, but I'm thankful there is still one chance that he might be teaching next fall. At this point he's not willing to interview for any permanent positions or any positions that involve moving. It makes it seem like far more is riding on this interview than any other interview he's had over the past year because it seems unlikely that any other schools within a reasonable drive of our house will be interviewing for a FT chemistry adjunct for next year. The good news is that we won't be in suspense for long. We would appreciate prayers that Paul would do his very best at this interview, and that we would have peace while we wait to find out what the end result will be.

Paul gave two reasons last night when I asked him why he changed his mind and agreed to interview. First, he mentioned what my dad had said in an email that most first year seminary professors would feel like quitting, but the second year would go better, and they would be glad they hadn't quit after the first year. Second, Dave said that Paul could do some bio-physical computational chemistry research, and this research could help him get a job in the private sector in 2015 if his opinion of teaching didn't change (ex. with a pharmaceutical company for example). I had my first interview on Wednesday morning. I thought it went well. It felt funny to be on that side of the table for the first time in 10 years, as I chaired many searches at Bloomsburg. I have a feeling I wouldn't accept if they ended up offering me a job because the position is a lecturer position (rather than assistant or associate professor). Until we find out the result of Paul's interview at Bucknell, I am taking a break from submitting applications or checking job posting sites. For now, I am thankful that there is still a chance Paul will be using his PhD in chemistry in the fall.

Thankful Tuesday

1. We finally are experiencing spring weather! I can't wait until the grass turns green, the leaves are on the trees, flowers are blooming, etc. It feels heavenly to get some exercise and spend time in the fresh air. Hopefully tomorrow will be our third day in a row to spend a couple of hours outside!

2. Nadia's new favorite game is Sorry! I am very thankful for this because I greatly prefer games that have at least a little strategy involved (which is not the case for games like Chutes and Ladders or Candyland). Ian also likes to play Sorry although I have to help him a bit whereas Nadia mostly has the rules figured out now.

3. I found a dessert all five of us love - peanut butter pie! Often the kids and I like something (ex. oatmeal raisin cookies), but Paul doesn't, or he likes something (ex. plain cheesecake) and the rest of us don't care for it. The downside of all of us liking it is that it didn't last very long. Paul called it "Turkish Delight" since we've been reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe this week when Paul is around and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic when he's not around.

4. Nadia finished her fourth chapter book yesterday (Dolphins at Daybreak) and read quite a bit of her fifth one today (Absolutely Lucy). She loves reading chapter books on my Kindle.

5. The neighborhood kids have been coming over and knocking on our sliding glass door to invite Nadia and Ian to play with them the last few weeks. I am glad that there are other young children in our neighborhood!

6. Paul's phone interview with Mars Hill University went well yesterday because today they called and invited him to interview there in person! I have a phone interview tomorrow morning, and I continue to submit applications for both of us. Today I did #34 for him (FL) and #15 for me (VA).