1 month til christmas...

ok, so the last real post we were 2 months out from Christmas, now we are a month away!! Not sure where the last month went, ok i do know... was busy dealing with sick kids and not feeling the greatest myself! So I'll back up and fill ya in a little with what has been going on in the Nikkel household

Saturday Oct 25th, we went to a Halloween party with our MOMZ group. Darcy watched Mallory and I took Mason to the party. The kids weren't 100% healthy, and it was kind of windy, so figured it would be better if Mallory didn't go. And Aunt DD was kind enough to come over and watch her so that Mason could go to the party. (Tony was helping out a farmer, so he wasn't around to watch Mallory) We had a great time at the party.










Sunday Mallory was very warm and was running a fever. Course Tony still wasn't around, so I was a little stressed all day. Tony did get back home around 7pm. Tony hadn't been home more then two hours, when Mallory started having a seizure. It was only about 5 seconds, then stopped. Then another one, for about 10 seconds and that stopped. Well the 3rd time it didn't stop.. it continued for about 5 minutes at which time we decided a drive to the ER was our best option. I loaded Mason in the car (he was already in bed with no socks on.. and that is how he went to the ER.. what a bad mom i am, i didn't even stop to put socks on him!! ) and Tony carried Mallory who was still seizing to the car and lets just say the 2 mile trip to the ER was the fastest I've ever driven thru town!!!
Tony took her in and Mason and I waited in the waiting room. 20 minutes later they still couldn't get the seizure stopped, or an IV in her.. they finally got an IV in her bone in the knee and after a few shots of some medicine, the seizure stopped. Her breathing was being compromised so they tubed her to help her breath and to keep her lungs open. The whole while, they are waiting on the Blank Children's Hospital helicopter to come and transport her to Des Moines. The ER didn't know if it was a Febrile seizure again or not, so that is why they decided to transport her to the Children's hospital. We had a friend come over and sit with Mason til my mom could come over and stay with him for the night.
Tony and I drove to Des Moines. When we got up to her room, they had informed us that she had pulled her breathing tube out in the helicopter (yep, thats our fiesty little girl!! ) and that she was breathing just fine. Two nurses then proceeded to try and find a vein for the IV since they don't really like to leave them in the bone very long. 30 minutes later, they still couldn't find a vein and just left the other IV in. All tests came back pointing to the seizure being caused from the fever. We spent the night in the hospital and were discharged the next AM.
Mallory fought that fever off and on for the next three to four days. Mason went back to the farm with Granny and stayed there for a few days. He was congested,coughing, had an ear infection and not feeling well either, so was very helpful that Granny took care of him while i watched Mallory.
It was a VERY long week, as I figured that another seizure would be happening and even though this was now the 3rd time we have been thru this, I've not gotten used to it at all and it just gives me anxiety right now thinking about it!!! This time they have given us a prescription for a suppository like cream to give her if she has another seizure and it lasts 5-10 minutes. I'm just PRAYING that now that we have the medicine, we never have to use it!! I think that week added about 10 years to my age. The kids were sick for about 3 weeks. Looks like we could be in for a REALLY REALLY long winter if this has already started and winter really isn't even here yet.

Here are the kids in their Halloween costumes on Halloween night

Isn't my pink poodle cute?? :)




Tony's birthday came and went, as did our 8 year anniversary. With the kids still not feeling 100%, we didn't do much for either event. I did get to get out for a night to go bowling with a few other moms and then out for dinner. Course the whole time I was gone, I was worried about Mallory and couldn't really let my guard down.

The kids and I went to Des Moines with a few other moms/kids to the Science center. I've never been there before, so I had just as much fun as Mason did. Mallory is a little too young to really enjoy it all, but she did do pretty good.

Looks like Mason and Mallory doesn't it??

Well, once 'he' turns around, maybe not!! :)

Gotta love that kid. Ryan is a great kid, and Mason loves doing things with him and Aiden (another little boy who looks just like Mason and Ryan... if we were to dress them the same and take their pictures, you would have to be fairly close to figure out who was who) Mason is wearing blue stripes.



The other little boy is Aiden



Tony and I got to get away a few weeks ago on Saturday to do a little shopping. Tony needed quite a few things and I needed to get started on the Christmas list. Its much harder shopping with two kiddos then it was with one. Didn't get a lot done shopping wise, but was really nice to get away and get to SLEEP IN the next day!! THANKS AUNT DD and GRANNY A for watching the kids. Mallory had been getting up between 5:45 and 6:30am for a little over a week. I've since moved her bedtime up to around 7 -7:30pm, and she has been sleeping in til 6:30-6:45am.. so I'm thankful for that!! 7am or after would be ideal, but we are getting closer to that!! I'm not functioning before 8am, so getting up 2+ hours before then, was really really rough!! Hence no blog posts and not staying up past 11pm, like i usually did!


Here is a photo from Mom's birthday back the beginning of October!! I've got a lot of photos that I just now downloaded that I'll post another night... and a few videos!!



Mallory goes in for her 1 year check up Tuesday. Will fill ya all in on her stats at that time. She has been walking now for a couple weeks, so will post a video of that another day also!!

Looking forward to seeing family over Thanksgiving and having Mallory's birthday party

Thats enough boredom for one day.. will wait a little while and bore ya'll again :)

Picking up where I left off...

Ok, so I'm getting farther and farther behind.. So let’s see if I can catch up to at least a couple weeks ago!!!

Mason's birthday party on Saturday July 12th went great. His actual birthday is July 14th, so of course we had to celebrate as a family that day too! So we went to Hickory Park so that Mason could be sung to. (For those of you that don't know the place, it’s a really good place to eat, and when it’s your birthday, they sing this really fun song and you get some free ice cream and a candle to blow out) Mason ordered a Cheeseburger. For some reason lately that is all he has ever wanted when we go out. But he wasn't feeling well and didn't eat a single bite of the cheeseburger or the french fries, SO unlike him. When it came time for them to sing to him, he perked up a little, but still wouldn't eat the ice cream either (Just left more for mom and dad :) ). We head back home and I take Mason's temperature and he is running a fever. I give him some Motrin and send him off to bed. He slept pretty well. Mallory on the other hand didn't. She didn't seem warm when I put her down for bed, but she woke up around 11:00pm screaming and crying like she was in pain. I went into her room and she was burning up. I took her temperature and it was at 101.4 I gave her some Tylenol hoping that would help calm her down. She proceeds to get even more hysterical. So I try a bottle. After about 30 minutes of me not being able to calm her down, and Tony sleeping thru it all, I decided to wake up Tony as I needed a break. Tony tries walking around with her to get her to settle down, to no avail. No sooner did Tony sit down in the chair with her, did she start to have a Febrile Seizure. (YES this is number 2 in 3 weeks) I thought she was turning blue; Tony seems to disagree with me. But I called 911 anyways. They sent out some paramedics, if you can really call them that (more on them later). By the time they got there, she had stopped seizing and had thrown up the formula from earlier. They checked her out, temp still at 101 and vitals seem fine. So Barney Fife and friend leave. Needles to say I was really shook up. Even though I'd been thru the first one and Tony hadn't, I was still a wreck!!! Tony went to bed after she fell asleep, but I couldn't. So we stayed in the chair all night long. She would sleep for 15-30 minutes, and then be up for 10-20 minutes crying.. This continued all night long. No sleep for me, so I woke Tony up at 6am and asked for a 'break' again! I went to the store to get some pedialite as she wasn't drinking her formula and we just couldn't get her fever to come down.


We already had a Dr appt for Mason at 10am for his 4 year check up, so we didn't have to schedule an appointment. Dr Jill looked at Mallory and knew she wasn't feeling well. She checked out Mason first, as he wasn't feeling well either but acting a lot better then Mallory. She checked his ears, sure enough, bad ear infection in the opposite ear as 3 weeks ago, AND she looked in his throat and saw red bumps. She took a swab and had it sent to lab to see if it was strep. Meanwhile, while Mason is done getting checked out, it’s now Mallory's turn. Checked her ears, looks great. Felt around, felt normal. Looked in her throat, found the same bumps!!! SO now we know what is causing her fever, which we were thankful there was a reason for her fever and it wasn't just a fever without a cause. Swab her and send that off. Both tests came back negative for strep, shucks, so they are diagnosed with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. You might be wondering why I said, SHUCKS.. Well you see, if it had been strep, they could have given them something to help with the pain and possibly help the fever go down. But since it wasn't and it was a virus, there was nothing they could do for them but let it run its course!!! UGH So off we go with two sick kids, a mommy who has about an hour of sleep, and a daddy who has to go back to work!!! Tuesday was a LONG day. By the time Tony got home from work, I was ready for a nap. I took a little nap, and then got the kids ready for bed. Mallory's fever finally broke that night. She slept well, only getting up a couple times. It took her a couple days to be feeling back to somewhat normal, but as long as that fever isn't there, I rest a little easier.

The rest of the week was uneventful thank goodness.

The following week we met up with some kids and moms in our Meetup group, and went to a Kindermusik class and then to the park.

Mason listened to one of the stories very well.

Then, this happened. Sorry he is such a back influence on you Ryan

Of to the park to play, ride the carousel, and get some popcorn

The last week of July was Vacation Bible school at the Ferguson church, the church my sister and brother in law attend. Since Darcy was in charge of Bible school this year, I thought it would be a good chance to get Mason involved. Having never really been away from me for anything like this, I thought it would be a great 'first'. I really didn't think he would have any problems, and he didn't. It was from 5:30-7:30 every night. Mason wanted to go all day every day. The first thing he would say when he got up in the am was 'Is it time for Bible school?

Aunt DD and Mason watching the ending video

Had to throw one of Mallory in here

Well, you all know how you go to programs and there is always that ONE kid that just stands out from the rest. WELL, I'm afraid that we might just have that kid!!!! He loves his music and isn't afraid to show it!! He was one of the youngest kids there, but you would never know it!!!

This one is a little grainy, but you get the idea! He loved this song.. and has been singing most of the songs almost on a daily basis since then!!!!

We are now up to August.

August 3rd we got to meet up with some friends that we used to live in Texas with. Tony and their dad, Steve, worked together at the Monsanto plant. Then Steve got transferred to St Louis and a year later Tony got transferred to Boone. We love these guys and they have the best boys!! I first met their youngest, when he was 4, the age Mason is now. And now to think that he is 10!!!! Here are some pics from that day... Man it makes me miss them even more....

Kyle, the oldest, feeding a squirrel.

Luke, the youngest, had a ball entertaining Mallory

Here are all of them (it only took me about 20 photos to get a decent one of all of them... hard to get four boys and an infant to look at the camera at the SAME TIME!!!! )... Mason (4), Kyle (14), Luke (10), Mallory (8mo) and Jed (12...and his birthday was the day after we met, so he wasn't quite 12, but close enough :) )

August 4th we had an appt with a specialist in Iowa City to look at Mallory's CT scan and MRI scan. With her head measuring off the charts AND these 2 seizures, we just wanted to make sure something wasn't being missed locally on the scans. The appt went well. Dr basically said he doesn't see a reason for concern. Will just watch her and have another MRI done in February 2009 to make sure nothing has changed and there isn't any more fluid up there then in the May 2008 MRI. He recommended that we have an EEG done just to make sure brain activity was ok. Of course we couldn't have that done the same day, but had to drive back on Wed to have that done. That was torture!! Try getting an 8 month old to sit still while they mark the spots on her head, then glue about 40 probes on her with this really stinky glue, then get her to fall asleep so they can test that activity, then after being asleep for 10 minutes, i get to wake her up so they can take the probes off the head with finger nail polish remover (and we all know how wonderful that smells). She wasn't a happy camper. Tony had to work so it was just Mallory and I. Mason got to spend some time at the Farm. I told Tony that he got to take her next time if for some reason the test wasn't readable. THANK GOD it was a good test and they found everything to be normal. So we didn't have to go thru that whole ordeal again.

Well, this brings us up to the Iowa State Fair time. And since that is a whole post in itself and its getting late, I'll close for now and hopefully we will be up to date later this week!!!! So check back in later this week to see and hear all about the awesome time we had at the fair!!!