Painted Toenails and ER Visit

When Andrew was born, my dad and Karen came to visit to help with the boys. Anyway, my dad generously did some work around the house and painted some wainscotting in our dining room and stair-case. Ever since Jack watched Grandpa paint, he has been fascinated with painting. Last week I was painting my toenails and Jack insisted on wanting his painted as well. I only had red polish, so we ran to Walmart and got some clear to paint Jack's toes. He loved it and wants to paint Andrew's toes, and Dad's toes, and all of his stuffed animal's toes.

On Friday, Jack began to run a fever that reached around 102 on Saturday afternoon. Ordinarily, we wouldn't be too concerned, but we haven't had his counts checked in 6 weeks and had no idea if he had enough neutrophils to fight the infection. So, the doctor encouraged us to run him to the ER just to get him checked out. While the nurses are trying to get the IV in his arm (Jack is being a great sport about this, I on the other hand, have to step into the hall because I hate watching them poke my baby), but they start to comment on how pretty his toenails are. Dave smirks and tells them that they are painted, and Jack is nodding his head proudly. I am outside the room laughing.

Anyway, the good news is that Jackson's neutrophil count came back in normal range, but his overall white cell count is elevated outside of the normal range. At first I was very alarmed, but the doctor seemed to think it was just b/c of his infection that he was fighting. I also remember that one other time during all of Jack's testing, he had a high WBC and then it just went away on its own. I'll wait to see what the hematologist thinks on Monday.

As of this morning, he seems to be doing great. I believe his fever is just about gone. We know he is feeling better, because he keeps asking for pickles. This is Jack's new favorite food which he could eat morning, noon, and night.

James Andrew Scelsi

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. I hope to get better at keeping everyone updated! Andrew was born Friday June 20th at 1:30 a.m. and is now 2.5 weeks old. He is such a doll. So far he has been a pretty easy baby which only helps to make the transition much smoother with Jackson. Jack had a rough week the first week, but is doing better and when asked if he loves the baby, he no longer shakes his head no.

Thank goodness the delivery went so much quicker this time than last time. My water broke around 7:30 Thursday evening and we took our time getting to the hospital thinking that it would be awhile before I delivered. We arrived at the hospital around 9ish and by the time they checked me in, gave me some antibiotics, and I walked a few laps around the hospital floor, I was having strong contractions and needed the epidural. After about 45 more minutes, just as soon as the epidural started working full strength, I felt like I needed to push. Sure enough, Andrew had decided he was ready to make his appearance. He weighed 6 lbs 8 oz, just an ounce less than Jack.