Who does he look like?

We can't decide who Zane looks like. Does he look more like Riley or Bailey???

Bailey - 2 days old

Riley - 1 week old

Zane - 2 days old

Zane - an hour old

Zane is here!

Zane Cory Bluth is here! He was born Thursday, April 28th at 7:07 a.m. He was 7 lbs 1 oz., and was 19 3/4" long. Zane was having a hard time breathing right after he was born, so he was taken almost immediately to the NICU where he spent the first day and a half being monitored (that is why some of the pictures of him show an IV in is head...poor kid...it looked terrible!). I had a c-section, and didn't even really get to see him until late in the afternoon Thursday. I spent about 10 minutes in the NICU visiting Zane before having to head back to my room. Zane spent the night in the NICU Thursday before getting to come to my room by the afternoon on Friday. It was kind of weird being in the hospital for having a baby, but not getting to hold or see the baby. Riley and Bailey were not able to see or hold Zane on Thursday, either, which was a huge bummer for them. The NICU nurse was really nice, though, and wheeled Zane's bed to the window of the NICU unit when the girls came to visit me so at least they got to see him.

We spent Thursday - Monday in the hospital, and came home late Monday afternoon. We have been adjusting to have a baby in the house again (some are adjusting better than others...Bailey is kind of having a hard time having the little man dominate mom's attention). So far Zane has been a good baby. He just wants to eat and sleep. We keep holding our breath that this continues. Both Riley and Bailey were nightmare babies (I say this affectionately!). They were colicky and we are keeping our fingers crossed that Zane won't follow in their footsteps! I know he is only a few days old, but if we can just get him to sleep through the night...I can dream, right??

Easter

I know I am a little late getting these posted...but better late than never, right?

Easter was a hit with the kids this year. Riley hyped up the Easter bunny to Bailey, who became terrified of the guy. She did NOT want the bunny to come into the house while she was sleeping...that is why we ended up with everyone sleeping in our room on the night before Easter! The bunny went from being scary to being the best thing ever when Sunday morning rolled around, though. It didn't take the kids long to find all of their eggs and their baskets.

After the egg hunt was over, we got ready for church. Riley was kind of ticked that her mean old mom made her be twins with her sister. I told her that kids all over the place were being forced into matching clothes on Easter...it is just what moms do on Easter morning. That made her feel a little better! Don't they look cute, though?

A Long Week

This post probably has way too much detail for most people, but it is more for us to remember what happened this past week than anything...

We have spent the majority of the past week at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake with Riley. Last Thursday (the 7th of April) Riley came home from school complaining of a stomach ache. That night I let her sleep on the floor in our room, mainly because I didn't want to clean up puke off of her top bunk should she get sick in the middle of the night. At 2:30 a.m. I woke up to choking nosies on the floor...I jumped up and grabbed the bowl because I thought she was throwing up. She wasn't throwing up...she was choking on her saliva and we couldn't wake her up. I yelled at Cory to turn on the light and when neither one of us could get her to wake up we ended up calling 911. The EMTs came, but by the time they showed up she was responsive and just wanted to go back to sleep. They left with the recommendation that we take her to her pediatrician the next day if she wasn't acting like herself. Cory and I were awake the rest of the night just listening to make sure whatever it was that happened didn't happen again without us knowing it.

I did take her to her Dr. the next day, and he said that without seeing exactly what had happened the night before he couldn't tell us if she had had a seizure or not. There was no way we were going to put her in her own bed on Friday night, so she was on the floor again in our room. That night before Cory and I went to bed we decided that if the same thing happened again we were not going to wait for the ambulance to get to the house...it would be much faster for Cory to throw her in the car and take her to the emergency room of the hospital just down the street. At 4:30 a.m. I woke up to the same choking noise I had heard the night before. This time there was no doubt that Riley was having a seizure. She was shaking and her eyes were rolled up her her head...it was awful to see. We waited until she quit convulsing and then Cory took her to the ER in his car while I called for my parents to come over and sit with Bailey so I could get to the hospital, too.

Once at the hospital Riley had another smaller seizure, and they decided to transport her by ambulance to Primary Children's in Salt Lake. I rode in the ambulance with her and Cory followed in the car. We were admitted and that is when all of the testing started. Riley was hooked up to an EEG and then later in the day went in for an MRI. Right before the MRI she had another bad seizure...I was trying to put a small catheter in her earring holes to keep them from closing up while in the MRI (she had to take her earrings out) when she fell over in her bed and started convulsing. It was terrible! Cory scooped her up and he and nurses took her to a different room and got her on oxygen. They were able to stabilize her long enough to get her MRI done, which thankfully came out clean.

The doctors ended up putting Riley on some anti-seizure medication, and we were released from the hospital Sunday afternoon. We were all so glad to get home! Riley was tired but was doing okay Sunday afternoon until about 5:00 p.m. when she had another seizure while we were at Mimi and Papa's house for dinner. She was playing air hockey with her cousin when she just totally checked out...no convulsing this time, but her eyes went blank and she was unresponsive. It lasted about 3 minutes and then she went to sleep for about 15 minutes. After she woke up from her nap she seemed okay...just kind of tired.

The next day (Monday) Cory stayed home from work...it was a good thing he did, too. Riley started having more of the "blank-out" seizures as soon as she got up from bed. She would seize, fall asleep for about 40 minutes, wake up for about 10 minutes (she was really confused and had no idea what was going on) before she would have another seizure. After two of these cycles we called her pediatrician and they said bring her right in. We did, and he contacted her neurologist at Primary Children's. The neurologist wanted her back up at the hospital so we ran home really quick, grabbed a bag of stuff we though we would need, and headed back up to the hospital. They admitted Riley again, and got her hooked up to another EEG. Throughout the day she had between 10-15 seizures. The poor kid was completely wiped out from them and slept the majority of the day. We ended up being in the hospital again until Wednesday afternoon, when we went home. The doctors still had not found a concrete reason why her seizures were happening, which according to them is not super uncommon. They upped the dosage of her anti-seizure medication, added a second medication, and we went home.

Riley continued to have her "blank-out" seizures periodically Wednesday night and had more on Thursday. So many, in fact, that I called up to Primary's and spoke to the on-call neurologist. He had us give her a "rescue medication" we were sent home with, which totally knocks the poor kid out, but stopped her seizures. Cory and I were very frustrated...apparently with most kids, they are given medication and the seizures are controlled almost immediately. The doctors were kind of stumped as to why Riley wasn't responding to the medications like they had hoped she would.

Friday we had a follow-up appointment with her neurologist in SLC...Riley was still having her blank-0ut seizures and was really confused about just about everything when she wasn't seizing. She couldn't remember anything, which was pretty scary for her mom and dad. At the follow-up appointment her doctor recommended doing a spinal tap on her to see if her seizures were being caused by some kind infection. Cory and I weren't too excited about this, but went ahead and scheduled one to be done as an outpatient procedure up at the hospital. The doctor again upped her anti-seizure medication with the hopes that we just hadn't found the dosage that would work for Ry yet. Cory and I were really struggling to remain optimistic on Friday night. One second we felt like things would work themselves out, and the next we were thinking about what we would do if they could never get her seizures under control.

Saturday Riley had her spinal tap, which she endured like a champ! Thankfully they put her to sleep for the procedure, and she really has no idea what they did to her (because we didn't tell her!). We just told her her that they were going to do a quick test on her back while she took a nap. We haven't gotten the spinal results back yet, but hope to by tomorrow (Monday).

The last two days, since upping her medication again, Riley has been doing a little better. She hasn't had any seizures (that we know of for sure) since Friday evening. She is remembering more and though her thought process is still a little slow, she is doing better. We still have a ways to go before we feel like she is back to normal, but the fact that she hasn't had any seizures in nearly two days is encouraging.

Thanks to everyone who has been thinking of us, called, brought meals, brought little gifts for Riley, etc. We appreciate it!

Here are a few pictures from our first stay in the hospital...this is the only time I had my camera with me...

Riley Got Her Ears Pierced!

Riley has been talking about getting her ears pierced for months. I always have told her that after she turned five she could go whenever she wanted to. Her friend down the street called last Saturday and asked if Ry wanted to go with her to get her ears pierced. This was kind of sudden for my kid who needs to really think things through, but we agreed to go and check out what it was like. After watching Braelyn (Ry's friend) get hers pierced, Riley decided not to do it after all. She was really bummed the rest of the day Saturday...she really wanted her ears pierced but was kind of scared to actually do it. This is all she could think about the rest of the weekend. By Monday Riley was raring to go, and right after school I took her back to the store we were at on Saturday. This time Ry jumped right up in the chair and we went from picking out the earrings to ears pierced in about five minutes. She said her ears were shaking just a little bit before actually getting the earrings put in, but she did great!

I know it is kind of hard to see, but look close and you can see her cute silver flower earrings she picked out.

The Jimmer Show

For several years Cory and I have talked about going to Las Vegas to watch BYU play in the Mountain West Conference basketball tourney. With Jimmer to on our team we decided this was the year! We went with three other couples from our neighborhood, and had a rare kid-less weekend. We watched a TON of basketball, went shopping, the boys went golfing, the girls all got pedicures (we were kind of a freak show in the shop we went into...three of the four of us are pregnant and we got a lot of looks and comments...obviously we weren't in Utah anymore!) and we got to see Jimmer's 52-point special! The only downer was the San Diego/BYU game...didn't end exactly the way we were hoping! It was fun, though. Totally worth going!

Cyclopes....AGAIN!

Look at what happened to Bailey tonight....she was playing in the hallway and tripped over something and landed forehead-first into the heater grate on the wall. Within seconds she was sporting a HUGE bump and bruise. Unfortunately for her, this isn't the first time her forehead has taken the brunt of her falls...if you look closely at the picture of her in her red sweater, you can see the permanent dent she already had in her head BEFORE this current accident. Maybe we should get the kid a helmet...

Poor kid...look at that bruise!

It seemed to grow bigger right before my eyes!

Do you see the dent that was already on her forehead? Hope this latest incident doesn't leave permanent damage!