There's a First Time for Everything

Our first trip to the ER occurred Monday night.  Let me reassure you that it wasn't a terrible emergency, like a broken arm or something, but more of a need-to-get-treatment-but-it's-nighttime kinda thing.  Keagan has been dealing with Croup since Friday.  Croup.  Something I truly thought was an old fashioned way of saying a kid has a bad cough.  Like when people say "He has the Sugars" for someone who has diabetes.  So when I was first told Keagan had "The Croup" (yes, there has to be a "the" in front of it to be true croup) I was kind of surprised that our young, modern, smart pediatrician used the term!  But then she did some explaining that croup is generally a viral condition that causes swelling in the upper respiratory system.  It manifests itself differently in different children, but true croup sounds like a seal barking.  Our child had that and poor appetite along with vomiting due to severe coughing, and then top it off with difficulty breathing and panic.

Monday night Josh was working and Keagan was progressively worsening.  When I bathed him I could see his little tummy muscles working overtime to help him breathe.  I could even see his little ribs when he tried breathing.  Even worse, Keagan sounded like he was whistling or snoring when he was trying to breathe.  So a late night call to our pediatrician at home took place (good thing is we have a little bit of background with her from college so she knows us).  She listened to Keagan over the phone, talked to me a little bit, then suggested that I take him to the ER because she was concerned he was not getting enough oxygen.  She was concerned they would need to admit him.  This was enough to make me go.

So I went, and Josh met me there.  Thankfully, Keagan's blood-O2 levels were 99% and so he was oxygenating well.  Thank God!  So, really all that was needed was some oral steroid and a breathing treatment.  We were on our merry way within an hour with a much calmer child and reassured parents.  Have you ever had an ER visit take less than an hour??  I am amazed, and oh-so-thankful.  Keagan was particularly good at the hospital and had all the nurses and respiratory therapists around his finger. 

We saw his pediatrician the next day and she gave him a 5-day oral steroid to help his breathing because he was still having trouble.  We are finally on the mend with only mild coughing and moderate clingyness.  Keagan also finally ate a full meal tonight at dinner.  I am hoping that we all get a full, restful night of sleep tonight.  I have spent the last four nights looking at the monitor everytime he coughed!

Last Day of Summer

Ah, the beach.  It saddens me that a week has passed since we returned and we have been nose-to-the-grindstone ever since.  I am ready to go back already!  Sigh. 

While we were down in Destin I wanted to try out my photography skills on the beach.  I am relatively happy with my first attempt, but there are lots of things I would have done differently.  The main thing is to take a happy baby out to the beach for pics!  We took pictures right before dinner and after a full day at the beach.  He was hungry and tired, and just plain not thrilled.  Needless to say I still took well over 300 pictures.  And here are the best...

  

OK, so I would love your comments, constructive criticism, etc.  I got out to the beach with all my camera gear and then kinda blanked on my camera settings!  I shot most of these in Aperture mode with a 50mm lens and f/1.8 to f/3.5.  If I could do-over I would have shot with a different f/stop to make the background show up a little better.  I don't know all the camera jargon, but I am trying. :)

A HUGE Milestone.

I hate to do too many blog postings back-to-back.  I especially don't like to post two in one day; I would much rather let the one post sink in and then blog about something else a few days later.  But today, I put together a post this afternoon and then something miraculous occurred.  And this miracle requires a blog post because I AM THAT EXCITED about it!!

KEAGAN TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS! 

Keagan actually took about 5 steps this morning all by himself, thinking I was holding onto his overalls.  But I wasn't.  And when he fell on his face (yes, really), he didn't seem to mind because he realized he took those steps all by himself.  I assumed that there would be no more steps taken today.  But, BOY, was I wrong!  Keagan has been practicing taking steps all evening and I managed to get a little video of it.  Of course, practice means me standing him up and steadying him then letting go.  And Josh has been working all day so there is no one to video this milestone from a good position.  So bear with the videos, they are pretty poor quality, shaky, and my voice is exceptionally annoying (excitement apparently does that) but I got his "first" steps documented!  And I mainly did this so Keagan's daddy could participate in this huge milestone.  (But I couldn't help myself and had to share it with everyone)






If you can't tell, I am overjoyed, so excited, and so so proud.  We have been asking Keagan for a couple of months now when he is going to walk.  At nearly 15 months old, he is a late bloomer.  But he is blooming!!  And he is very proud of himself, too. 

Go, Keagan, Go!!

Space Bear has Hog's Breath

But Hog's Breath is Better than No Breath At All.  Space Bear knows this, and he was pretty excited to get to go to Hog's Breath Saloon when we went to Destin last week.  Even if he did have to stand next to the giant sippy cup of milk instead of the margarita.  He was just happy to get to go.  Can't you tell on his face?

Take Me to the Beach, Destin Edition

Oh, the beach!  Who doesn't love the beach?  This year the Owens family has travelled all over.  We have done so much sight-seeing and go-go-going all summer long, but very little of it has been mind-numbing relaxation.  I wasn't sure just how relaxing our trip to the beach would be because, don't forget, we have toddler.  But I have to say that Keagan was a pretty good boy!  And we got three full beach days in.  No, it isn't the same type of relaxing as without Keagan, but it was actually more fun.  We played in the sand and walked the beach and floated in the ocean all day, every day (except one, which was a shopping day).  Keagan would nap on the beach under an umbrella, and Josh and I took this opportunity to do our "before-kids relaxing."  It was the perfect amount of time before we'd be right back to chasing a little guy around! 

One of our biggest fears of this trip was the drive to Florida.  It took us just about 9 hours to get down to our condo; Keagan watched DVDs and played and slept and ate the whole way down.  It was great.  He has a new favorite movie:  Rio.  If you haven't seen it, watch it!  It's cute.  (the whole way home yesterday was Kung Fu Panda and Rio, on repeat)  Yes, he got a little restless with minor melt-downs and we did some funny entertaining, but having Keagan in the car with us made the trip seem faster!!

PICTURES!

Our condo:  This is a view from the balcony (at 5:15 in the morning--I could not get back to sleep so decided to have some "me-time" on the balcony).  We rented a one bedroom condo and wondered where we would put Keagan at night.  Well, his pack-n-play fit perfectly in the half-bathroom.  So, as much as we felt guilty sticking him in a bathroom, this is where he slept.  And he slept good (so we weren't so guilt-ridden after the first night!).  Keagan still can't walk, but he pushed his toy, which daddy lovingly calls his walker, all around the condo as if he owned the place.

The first day at the beach, Keagan scared us.  He didn't like the sand (he screamed) and he didn't like the water (he screamed).  We were afraid we wouldn't get to enjoy the beach at all and would spend all our time at the pool.  Keagan warmed up to both rather quickly and by our last day was trying to crawl towards the water. We had to stop him because there were actually big ol' jellyfish washing ashore.  (A little boy named Nash kept catching them with his net to get them out of the water...they were everywhere by the last day!  Nash also caught a big crab just toodling around in the sand under the water....not exactly what I wanted to see considering I hate to even see the fish swimming around me in the ocean!)  Keagan would bob around in his float with us when we went into the ocean, and "swim" as if he were swimming in a pool.  He liked to watch Nash build sand castles, and then he liked to tear them down.  He had a grand time and we never had to swim in the pool.  

Not happy about the sand or the water...

It didn't take long and the beach wasn't so scary anymore. 

  

A very random wedding two or three umbrellas down from us! 

Josh riding the waves on his boogie board 

Beach-wear: madras pants and crocs.  I didn't realize they were twins until I started taking these pics!!  Like father, like son.

 Shopping trips are exhausting. 

Does anyone else's child switch personalities this quickly?  I mean, literally, in the flash of a camera?

That's all for now.  I did take some beach-y pics of our family but haven't had a chance to go through them all yet.  So, that will wait for another post.  I am sad to say this is the last of our travels this year (that I know of!) but we are already thinking about where to go next year!!!