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Monday, December 28, 2009

And then there were FOUR!

Meet the newest addition to our family:


Logan Alden Gray
Born December 28th, 2009 at 7:07am
9 pounds 1 ounce and 20 inches long

Logan was another planned and scheduled C-section. Jen's original due date was January 6th, 2010 - so the 28th of December was 9 days early. The doctor could justify the pull in due to the size they estimated Logan to be (by ultrasound and belly measurements)....and after the delivery and hearing his stats - we are kind of glad that we went with the 28th of December.

Our day started by arriving at the hospital at 5:15am - our surgery time was for 6:30am. We were pleased to learn we had the same anaesthesiologist as we did with our delivery with Zach - a nice older gentleman by the name of Bob (turns out this is his last week of work before retiring!!). Everything about the prep prior to the surgery was the same as with Zach. The first incision started at 7:01am (so much for a 6:30am surgery time, eh?). Six minutes later Logan was born.

The doctors had a hard time getting Logan out of Jen's belly - he had some seriously broad shoulders and as we learned a bit later was NINE POUNDS. It also turns out the umbilical cord was wrapped around Logan's neck - so if Jen had decided to try VBAC, it would have ended up with an emergency C-section.


Dustin left the operating room with Logan - they take the new babies to the nursery to clean them up and check them out. The pediatrician and nurses kept saying Logan was "grunting" - meaning his lungs still had fluid in them and were trying to compress. So they ended up putting Logan on some type of breathing machine that had positive air pressure which was suppose to dry out his lungs and help prevent them from shrinking. They also took x-rays and had the respiratory specialist check things out to make sure there were no abnormalities with Logan's lungs.

So SIX hours after Logan's birth - he was brought into Jen's room and she was FINALLY able to hold the newest addition to our family!

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas from the Grays!
 
Zach loves Dinosarus.. as if you can't guess based on his snazzy pajamas.. Roar!

He also loves dump trucks.. especially ones that he can ride around in.. He loved this truck.

Grandpa Gray got Beef Jerky.. Zach requested to be his taste tester
 
Grandma and Grandpa Twogood also shared Christmas with us this year
 
Jen got a Dust Buster!!! She has been asking for one for a while :-)

Zach got a new work bench! Now he can work on project with Daddy!
 
Grandpa Gray showing Zach the proper way to use a table saw :-)

Zach helping Daddy open his gifts

Zach's Christmas snack

Yes, that is a twinky that Zach just enjoyed..
 
We don't mess around here.. Especially on Christmas!  ;-)

Saturday, December 19, 2009

If chocolate exists....he will find it.

When things start getting quiet in the house you know he is up to something....this morning it was this...


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Santa's little helper

Jen has been busy the past couple of nights doing some work for Santa. Santa is going to make an appearance at her work Christmas party this Friday and Jen volunteered to make 40 of these:


The sewing machine had the dust blown off and went to work! Now it is time for bed....

Monday, December 14, 2009

Two weeks


In two more weeks our baby #2 will be here!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

In-n-Out

Finally finally finally.......this has made its presence into our neck of the woods in Utah:


Jen - being born and raised in California knows all about this famous hamburger joint....her order.....a #2, no sauce, add ketchup, make the drink a strawberry shake. Dustin likes a #1, animal style.

Utahan's have been going CRAZY over having an In-n-Out here. The place is a MADHOUSE - we went on a Sunday evening (hoping all Mormons were at home) and still had to wait about 30 minutes from the time we pulled up to the drive through line (which was down the street, not even in the shopping center yet) to when we actually received our food. 30 minutes is actually a very short wait compared to what it has been around here for the past month.





Yummy.

Sesame Street LIVE

Today we took Zach to Sesame Street Live - Elmo grows up. Dustin had a co-worked that had purchased these tickets and was not able to attend. So we thought it would be something fun to do with Zach. Turns out Sunday afternoon is the PERFECT time to go do this kind of thing. The event center wasn't even 1/8 full. Our tickets were in the second row and there was nobody sitting in the front row. The characters would come off stage in between acts and during songs and give Zach high -5's. He really liked the event.....a couple songs too long for him....but he sat with a smile on his face almost the whole show!!





Saturday, December 12, 2009

Yup - winter is here!

Two good size snow storms in one week = lots of snow that probably won't melt away from our yard for a couple of months! The first snow storm dumped LOTS of powder, the second snow storm was a big slushy mess - the kind of mess that is hard to shovel and snow blow. Zach LOVES to be outside when it is snowing, he is always going to the closet to get his snow boots and handing them to us...his way of saying, "lets go play!!"

Yup - excited to get all bundled up to play in the snow.
Just chilling next to the front of the house - watching dad shovel.
Sled time - he LOVES it!
Dustin helping out the neighbor with the slushy mess....
Dustin getting rid of the slushy mess in our driveway.

Jen and Zach played outside for a bit over an hour. Dustin shoveled and snow blowed three driveways - it took TWO HOURS!!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Birthday boy GLEN

This weekend was Glen's birthday. The older you get the longer birthdays get celebrated ;) So of course we kept this celebration going all weekend long! On Saturday night we headed to Texas Roadhouse for the birthday occasion. Glen tried to order a salad and we told him NO. You don't go to a steakhouse on your birthday and order a SALAD! It didn't take much convincing for him to order some ribs. Of course the best part about going to Texas Roadhouse on your birthday is you get to sit on the saddle while being sang to:

Look at Glen trying to hold back a smile. He proudly told everyone he turned 21 today! On Sunday we had the birthday cake and opening of presents. Glen requested the Gray family "oatmeal chocolate chip cake" for his birthday....this was Jen's first time making the famous cake....boy was it sure GOOD! I am sure this cake will be used time and time again for birthdays!





Zach of course helped his grandpa blow out the candles and open the presents! We had a great time during your birthday weekend Glen - happy 21st BIRTHDAY!!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Oh Christmas Tree....

It is our family tradition to go cut down our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving....and get all the holiday decorations out and fill the home with Christmas spirit. This year things had to be delayed a bit with Zach's seizure and Jen's pneumonia. So TODAY - one week and one day later than normal we headed out to find our perfect Christmas tree.

The last few years we have driven up past Ogden to get our tree....we didn't want to drive that far this year. We actually found a place in Alpine (less than 10 miles from our house!) that had an assortment of Colorado Blue Spruce for cutting. Of course it was FREEZING cold outside and had been snowing a bit all morning....but we made the trek anyways and just found our tree FAST!

Dustin and Zach ready to go find the tree!
Glen holding our "tree stick" - the owners requirement was the tree had to be at least 8 feet tall.
Ta-DAH! This is a nice 10 foot SPRUCE!


Three generations of Grays
Check out the SNOWFLAKES falling!
The tree is at home - but now how do we get it through the door?
Zach LOVED helping decorate
The finished product (you can't see the ornaments with this shot).

Naked phase?

Zach may be starting the "naked phase" of growing up. This morning when he got up this was the first thing he did:


He unzipped his PJ's and pulled them down to his toes. He did that cheesy pose all by himself. This is how he looked for the next 30 minutes:


It was snowing today and our child wanted to run around the house in nothing but his diaper. I guess all is good as long as he keeps that diaper ON!

Monday, November 30, 2009

Just when you think things can't get any worse

After our Thanksgiving holiday events surrounding Zach....today got a bit more interesting.

Jen has been fighting a cold for about three weeks now. We think she actually had two separate colds, because there was a 2 day time period with no coughs and no congestion. Over the weekend her lungs began to hurt pretty bad when she coughed. So today she saw the doctor at work (yes our work has an on-site health clinic FREE to us!!). The doctor confirmed what we didn't want to hear....Jen has pneumonia. Her left lung does have fluid in it. She doesn't have a fever and isn't having problems breathing so we may have caught this early enough to where the antibiotics will stop the worst from happening. Right now she is just tired and it hurts to sit, cough, walk, etc. If she does develop a fever or has problems breathing that is not good news. She is 34 weeks pregnant - and would most likely be hospitalized and monitored closely to ensure the infection isn't passed to our unborn son. Fingers crossed she feels better by the end of the week.

Ironic that Jen did get pneumonia as that is the specific thing we were trying to avoid by getting flu shots (seasonal and H1N1). It is true that when life hands you a lemon....you gotta make lemonade!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Seizure follow up

We visited Zach's pediatrician today. All the remaining blood work we were waiting on did not reveal any type of major infection that would have cause the sudden spike in body temperature that induced Zach's seizure. The pediatrician did say that BOTH of Zach's ears were infected, not one EAR like the ER doctor told us. We are told to continue the antibiotics we have been taking....and that is about it.

Good news is that Zach's fever finally broke this morning. He ran a fever between 99.5 and 102 all Thanksgiving day while hopped up on Tylenol AND Motrin. So what ever Zach's body is fighting it is doing a good job!

Apparently we are one of the lucky 5% of all children to experience a febrile seizure. Zach also has a 25% of having it happen again before the age of 5-8. There is no risk of brain damage, etc with febrile seizures.....we just need to make sure the AIRWAY GETS OPENED!!!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Any parents worst nightmare come true

Think long and hard about it....what is a parents worst nightmare? For us - it is losing the life of our child. Today we almost lost Zach.

Dustin left work a bit early and picked up Zach from our sitter. They went to go get a haircut. Then they drove home. The whole way home Zach was pointing out all the tractors and trucks (like he always does). The last tractor we see is as we enter our neighborhood. When Dustin got out of the car and went to get Zach out of his car seat - he was slumped over, like he was sleeping...but he was blue in the face and unconscious. Dustin quickly pulled Zach out of his car seat and was pounding on his back thinking that part of the sucker the haircutting place had given Zach was lodged in his throat. Then the sucker in his hand fell to the floor and there was no missing pieces out of it. Our child was not choking - but was not breathing.

Dustin ran to our next door neighbors and began pounding on the door. Our neighbor answered quickly (who wouldn't with a mad man pounding at the door) - and Dustin frantically was telling our neighbor that Zach wasn't breathing - which was quite apparent from his limp body and blue face. Our neighbor is a sheriff - fully police/EMT trained. He took Zach and immediately starting assessing the situation while his wife called 911. He noticed Zach was actually having a seizure, but since he was slumped over in his car seat when the seizure started his air way was cut off completely and it took a while to get Zach's airway back open. Zach finally took the breath of air his body so desperately needed. Once Dustin saw his son was going to live - he called Jen (who was walking out of the grocery store) and frantically said, "You need to get home NOW - Zach had a seizure and stopped breathing, Scott saved his life". Jen's reply - "get him to a hospital NOW". Dustin - "just get home FAST". Jen's first excuse ever to drive like a bat out of hell (and she did).

Jen arrives at our neighbors, where the fire department and ambulance have already arrived. She walks in and sees Dustin holding Zach. The pupils of Zach's eyes are huge and he is just in a daze. The paramedic pricks Zach's heel to do a blood sugar test and Zach doesn't even flinch. Blood sugar is normal, but Zach is running a 101.5 fever. The paramedics conclude Zach has had a febrile seizure - a seizure induced in children under the age of 5 when they have a sudden spike in their body temperature. Zach did not have a fever when he was picked up from the sitter only a hour earlier.

Dustin and Zach head to the hospital by ambulance - while Jen packs a diaper bag and heads up to the hospital.


The hospital has a set of tests they run when any kid has a seizure at this age - white blood counts, different bacterial tests, chest x-ray, etc. All this was taken within 30 minutes of arriving at the hospital. The nurse gives Zach some Tylenol for his fever and headache (kids actually have migraines after a seizure!). Then we wait....and wait...and wait....we were told the blood tests should only take 30 minutes...after 90 minutes Jen goes out to find the doctor - who apparently was on his way to "talk" to us already. Of the blood tests they had back (white blood count) things looked normal. Zach did have an ear infection and a touch of bronchitis - so they decided to give Zach an IV antibiotic and a prescription for us to take for the next 7 days for his ear. We are to give him Tylenol/Motrin for the next two days straight to prevent Zach from getting a high fever and having another seizure. We are also told to see our pediatrician on Friday (since tomorrow was Thanksgiving holiday) - the rest of the blood work would be "done" and Zach could be checked out again.

Two freaked out parents - oh yeah.
One hero for a father - oh yeah.
One spoiled child for the rest of his life - oh yeah.
A neighbor that we are forever indebted to - oh yeah.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

The next accomplishment

Zach has been pushing the kitchen chairs around lately. Today he apparently was on a mission. He pushed a kitchen chair up to our pantry cupboard, and proceeded to open the one that contains his fruit snacks. He got his fruit snack and gave it to us to open. Afterwards he was VERY proud of himself......