Tidbits

It has definitely been such a long time since I have sat down to write a blog post! Time to get with the program, I suppose.

We had a wonderful Christmas and jumped right into January sickness, starting on New Year's Eve. The rest of the month of January seems as if we just treaded water, waiting to see who would be the sick one next! My paycheck definitely reflected that...

Heifer calving was in full swing in January, and somebody must've told the coyotes that too! They are so thick this year. Toby bought himself some coyote-shooting supplies on Cabelas.com right after Christmas with a gift card he got for taking care of some cattle for an out-of-town'er. We had a pair of coyotes that kept our dog on high alert here at the house for quite some time. Toby finally got one of them right under our yard light...they have been coming up close! Nasty little critters...

So far, the calving season hasn't been too terrible. You win some, you lose some...
The final 1/3 of them is set to start in March. Let's keep hoping for staying on the winning side.

Right now, we have about 8 inches of snow on the ground, and today is the warmest it has been (22 degrees) in awhile! I can't wait for Spring.

Monday morning found us at Reed's 4 month checkup, and we left with some Azithromycin and a diagnosis of a respiratory illness with some underlying asthma (following in his brother's footsteps). Then about 4:00 that afternoon, I was trying to work late and get some preparation done before the snowstorm hit, when I suddenly discovered I was FREEZING and shivering...unable to stop. Long story short--I developed mastitis, only hours after visiting the OB doc/pediatrician. VERY, VERY thankful for a friend who is also an ARNP!! I was able to text her for help and get some antibiotics for myself within a couple hours!

After being awake ALL night long on Tuesday night with a sick baby who was getting worse, despite antibiotics...we decided to call his doctor back on Wednesday morning. Remember those 8 inches of snow that are on the ground now?? They fell on Monday night/all day Tuesday....and slowed travel way down around here! We were able to go to our small local hospital to get a chest x-ray, and then back again to get his oxygen saturation once his doctor received the x-ray and established that it showed pneumonia. Unfortunately, his O2 sat was only 89% when he was sleeping in my arms, so after a phone call to his doctor, we were told to head to Pratt to the hospital. Once again, I am thankful that all of our family lives within about 30 minutes of us...my Dad quickly came to our rescue to get Jackson and take him home to stay with "Papa & Kenny". We got to the hospital about 5:00 that evening. Let me just tell you...holding down a sick baby to get labs drawn...with no success...sometimes in the middle of the night...is absolutely miserable and makes you start to become a momma bear. I was just about to tell them no more pokes until this lovely lady emerged Thursday morning and told me I could hold him in my arms while she attempted to get the blood (everyone else had insisted that he be laying in his crib). She was so sweet, and was successful, AT LAST! His oxygen levels slowly began to rise over the course of the next day, and was able to maintain his own levels (without supplemental oxygen) all through the night on Thursday. Thankfully, we were then able to come home yesterday morning! Toby and I agreed....humans are not meant for cages! We are so glad our bubs is doing better now!!

When we got home yesterday, I laid him out on the floor to go get his pajamas, and he was trying so hard to roll over. Within a few minutes--he was successful!

We are hoping for a much better week and month ahead of us....