Nathan, Emily, & 4 Little Boys

Friday, December 13, 2013

Rhabdo

This week sure has been interesting to say the least! I went and gave myself rhabdomyolysis. Something I never thought I would get! Something I educated myself about before starting Crossfit 2 months ago. I have worked out consistently for 10 years. Pushed myself and been so sore and pushed myself again. But apparently nothing like what I did to myself this week! Rhabdo is basically what happens when you obliterate your muscles. They are literally breaking down and your kidneys can't handle all that protein so they can shut down. Thankfully I did not have kidney failure!

On Monday our trainer had the stomach flu. We workout in her basement so she let us in and continued puking. Our workout of the day was a common Crossfit workout called Angie. Angie consisted of 100 back squats with the bar, 100 sit ups, 100 push-ups and 100 pull-ups. Not broken up into sets just straight. I initially thought "hmmm this would sure be better to break up!" But everyone else was doing it so I followed the crowd! I never once thought it was too much. Never thought I was pushing my limits! And we do pull-ups with a band so it takes weight off and I also had to bounce a foot off a box because I have not figured out the motion yet (I'm a slow learner!).

I was sore that day and the next but nothing over the top. Then we all went to a movie with book club and an hour into it we all started squirming in pain as our arms started to kill! It was so painful and weird since it was the end of the second day.

The next morning it was time to workout again! But I was in so much pain I couldn't pick up Max to nurse him. So I made the brilliant decision to take an 800 mg of ibuprofen before I left. It didn't even touch the pain but I was able to do the workout. I felt off though. It wasn't anything abnormal in terms of the workout but I was exhausted and pushing through it. At the very end we did something called SRTs that work your abs and you hold a ball or weight. I held a ten pound weight. And did 100 reps. After that my arms just died. I couldn't move them or straighten them.

That day I was almost crying as I ran my errands. I had no strength. At Nathan's work party that night I was squirming because my arms hurt so bad and I couldn't even hold my water cup. I have been sore before. Like really sore! But this was so much worse! That night I noticed my arms were swollen right around the elbow. I did a ton of internet searching on rhabdo and came to the conclusion that I had it. And a lot of the people that got it from Crossfit got it doing the Angie workout! Nathan didn't believe me and no one else did either. It's pretty rare but I had to go in the next morning to be sure. I didn't want to wait too long and kill my kidneys or myself!

Sure enough they did some blood work and my CK levels were at 11,000 when they are supposed to be 200. I spent 4 hours in the ER and thankfully did not need to be admitted!!!! I had my levels rechecked today so hopefully they have continued to go down. I get results tomorrow. I've been drinking water like crazy. And today I had more strength and wasn't in as much pain. Yay!

I'm praying that I will make a full recovery and be able to continue to do Crossfit. It has done wonders for my mental health as well as my physical health :) but now that it has happened to me I am going to be paranoid for the rest of my life and will always think about it. All of my reading says that it can happen to anyone doing any sort of workout. I definitely could have gotten it from a marathon! I really wish I would have skipped Wednesday instead of pushed through it. I probably would not have gotten rhabdo. Oh and I will never do a pull-up again. Or at least for many many months. Who knows what the state of my arms will be when I get back to it. I folded laundry today and it hurt my arms!!! Love that in my family Christmas letter I mentioned how I will know that I have made it when I can do a real pull-up. Ya never. Should I reprint them? Haha.

It's hard to tell really because I have skinny arms to begin with but this is my swollen elbow. Ouchers.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Mason mason mason

I just had to write a post about Mason today.

For starters, I LOVE him. He is so full of joy in every single thing he does. In every picture I have of him, unless he is throwing a fit, he is giving the greatest smile.

The unfortunate thing is that most of the time he is being naughty.

But today he scared me SO bad being naughty. He was putting a Lego guy in and out of his mouth over and over again and then he tipped his head back and promptly started choking on the dang thing. Like his eyes went wide and he couldn't make any noise choking. I was on the other side of the counter and I've never ran so fast in my life I don't think. I threw him upside down over my knee and whacked him on the back and it came out. I don't know how hard it was lodged in there or anything but it certainly got my adrenaline running! He was so scared for a minute after that. I was too!

An hour later he was back to his wonderful ways. I threw a load of laundry in the washer and came back downstairs to see my kitchen floor covered in water. He was happily dumping cups of water out. over and over again. He has wasted SO much filtered water from our fridge! I try to keep it locked but it is so hard to remember after every cup of water.

He constantly is taking toys from his brothers. All the time. He creates SO much contention. He takes toys away from Max even! And the other day he tipped him over in his little jumperoo. He is constantly hurting himself by "accident" but really its just because he is crazy. He gets into Nathan's deodorant, still gets into toothpaste, and we still have to keep locks on our cabinets in case he eats things like 800 mg of ibuprofen.

But then he does something sweet. He often sings "I am a Child of God" to Max when he is sad. It is so so sweet to see him do that in his cute little voice.

And tonight I got to watch him fall asleep as I lay in bed with him to calm him down. Its the cutest thing in the world and I know he won't always be like this. (hopefully?) But I try to find something I love about him every day. Love my sweet boy.

Monday, November 11, 2013

It's been awhile

LI had these grand plans to write myself emails to journal instead of blog but I like being able to easily see pictures and write about the pictures so when I go back and make our books it's easier. So here I go with a little Judd family update!

Max is 4 months and has 3 teeth and is getting his top teeth. He has been waking up twice a night because of it. So tired. Poor baby :(

Lincoln drew this picture. It's a dad with a big belly because he ate too many donuts. Haha. I love little kids drawings

Easton drew a turkey in disguise

My kids are so sweet with Max. Even Mason will sing "I am a child of God" to him when he is crying.

Easton has even going to therapy to help him with his scary thoughts that are overtaking our lives. It's not really working. We have to usually sit in his room and wait for him to fall asleep. Mason too. Pretty sure they both struggle with anxiety. Last night we had 3 kids end up in our room. And I saw the clock every hour from 1-5 when I had to wake up to go workout. Mason had a night terror and both Easton and Lincoln had nightmares.

Easton is enjoying first grade and loves to play soccer at recess. I'm hoping it will help him become more aggressive

My kids are driving me crazy so I am done for the day.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Blogging

Well I never thought I would stop blogging but its been over a month! Extra things that take too much time are falling by the wayside. I need to figure out a way to journal because this blog was the best for that, but here is a little update. I do Instagram, however and usually share it on facebook for my family members who don't have instagram! So I feel like I am at least doing something!

Here is a little of what we have been up to for the past month!

Nathan got to drive a Ferrari. He thought it was awesome. :)

My attempt at a system to earn screen time. It worked for about 2 weeks, but then we had company come and stuff and its on the bottom of the priority list. But we need to start again. The kids really loved it.

Maxwell was blessed. He wore Nathan's blessing outfit. Its hard to believe that Nathan was that small once :)

Max meeting Grandpa Judd for the first time.

Our first family of 6 picture. Whoa. Not sure why Lincoln had to have that stuffed animal. He doesn't even like it normally!

Mason is an absolute stinker. He bit Max just randomly out of the blue. Like for fun. I really never get a break from Mason. He is driving me crazy.

Fun at Gardner Village with Grandma. Mason was so scared of the ducks but couldn't get enough of them!

Lincoln's first day of preschool! I really need to get rid of the "No Soliciting" sign!

Lincoln and Sam had matching shirts. Megan and I went shopping at Target one night and could not resist. They were on sale. They were golf shirts, and they were in the right sizes. haha

We celebrated Brittani's birthday at Brugge's Waffles. You have never experienced a good waffle until you have tried one from Brugge's. SO amazing and delicious. And fun to get out with friends!

I spent 3 days separating legos into colors. It was the best decision I have ever made. Now it is so much easier to find pieces. Some day we are going to have a huge lego day and put together old sets. I cannot explain to you how many legos we have right now! Its incredible! The kids absolutely love them. And now that I have a system going, I am loving them more than i did.

Last weekend the Judd girls met up in ST. George for a girls weekend. It was so much fun and a little crazy because there were 4 babies. But it was a great break and we all got massages and facials. It was heavenly!

Lincoln loves to sweep the kitchen floor. Its interesting to see how different my kids are. Lincoln just picks up skills by watching and is careful and concise. Easton not so much. I'm still trying to find the courage to teach him how to tie his shoes. But, Easton is doing really well with piano. He loves it! I'm hoping it will be a good fit for him.

Two days ago Melissa helped me out and we took the kids to the zoo. Even with help it was crazy, but we survived. It was really hot and actually it was ok until we were ready to go. Getting everyone to the car when everyone was so tired from walking around for 2 1/2 hours was a struggle but we lived to tell the tale. Mason loved seeing all the animals. And Easton was particularly interested. He even impressed a zoo worker when he was talking about Orangutans. Its not pronounced "OrangutANGS" but "OrangutANS"...if that makes sense. Its not an "A" sound its an "ah" sound. Wild Kratts is really paying off ;)

I love being in Activity Days in church. The girls are really growing on me and are a lot of fun. One of them just loved holding Max. She was so incredibly good with him and even got him to stop crying and go to sleep. Oh man it would be SO much easier with a 9 year old little girl who loved babies. I need to steal her sometime to help me out at home! :)

And poor Max has a tooth. At 2 1/2 months. He is my earliest and it makes me so sad for him. But he still sleeps so great, just doesn't nap the best. I'll take it. He really is a sweet boy.

Friday, August 16, 2013

What a week

It has been quite the week here. I am so glad that it is over and everyone is home. While I think most everyone who reads this blog knows everything that went on I want to document it for my records!

It started on Monday morning at 4 AM. Mason woke up screaming which has happened before but this seemed like he was in pain. He said his bum hurt but I could not see any indication of a rash. I instantly thought it might be a urinary tract infection. I gave him tylenol and everyone got some more sleep. When he woke up the next morning he was still complaining and walking like he just got off a horse. He started to get really lethargic and didn't eat anything which isn't like him.

I rarely take my kids to the doctor, but thankfully because I thought it was a UTI, I called right when they opened and got him in ASAP. He progressively got more and more sick. Within hours!! At the doctor it was clear that it wasn't a UTI, but that it was his abdomen that was causing him excruciating pain. We went to go get an ultrasound. I had Max and Lincoln was at Sam's house but it was still kind of hard. At the end of the ultrasound Nathan left work and met us at the hospital. I was so grateful!

The whole day he loved having his arms tickled. It helped soothe him.

From there they decided we needed to do a CT scan because they couldn't really see the appendix and were concerned about rupture.

Waiting to get an IV for the CT scan. Soooo grateful that Nathan could be there. What if he had been out of town?!?

They decided that it was his appendix And he needed to go get surgery up at primary children's. I think this was at about 2 pm. So we went up there and waited in the ER. I hated seeing my baby in so much pain. I was mad it wasn't going faster! Although really I think the timing was fine. Just felt like an eternity.

Thankfully Max was an angel

The doctors we saw were all really surprised by the timeline of everything. Usually with appendicitis, they show symptoms for a long time but its not obvious what it is until it bursts. Mason was just hours! So after he came out of surgery everything made more sense. By the way, it was hard for me to watch Mason be wheeled away for surgery. I don't want to do that again.

The surgeon came out and drew us this picture.

Mason had an infected urachal cyst. It has something to do with when he was forming in utero and the urachus didn't close off all the way at the belly button leaving a hole so that things could get infected. Or something. :) It is rare! They pulled out the cyst through his belly button and squirted him out with an expensive squirt gun and took out his appendix for kicks because they were in there. (They asked us first!)

We got to go see him in recovery at about 8 pm and as he came to, the first thing he whined for was the iPad.

I was so glad that he was ok! Nathan stayed with him the whole time he was in the hospital which ended up being 3 long nights. Tuesday was the worst day. He was in so much pain and only wanted daddy. I came up for each day but went home so I could put the kids to bed and get them off to school or friends in the morning.

He was particularly attached to Max. And wanted him to lay in his bed with him a few times. It was so sweet.

Kisses

And smiles :)

Wednesday was hard because he kept blowing out (diarrhea) and wasn't interested in eating or drinking. But he was getting stir crazy and went on a few walks. It is an amazing hospital that had tons of toys and books and movies and even a play room. They know what they are doing. But I hated it there. Particularly because I knew every patient was a child and they were all sick or in a similar situation as us. I never want to have to go there again.

He watched Toy Story 2 over and over and over again. Poor Nathan :)

By the end of Wednesday he had caught on to food and also the fact that we always ordered him stuff from this menu. He wanted eggs, applesauce, and yogurt and kept referring back to this menu :)

Yesterday was such a great day! I loved being all together again under the same roof. And Mason is feeling much much better. And is back to his old ways. Yikes :)

Even though this was not fun, especially with a newborn to boot, I continuously counted my blessings! We don't have a critically ill or chronically ill child. And we have absolutely amazing friends that helped us out immensely (one even came to our house to put the others to bed and cleaned the house) and a wonderful family supporting us and praying for us.

Now--I want the rest of my summer to be normal!!!!!!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Max is one month old and an update for the kids

I can't believe that Max is already a month old! It's crazy how fast a month goes when I'm not pregnant :)

He is such a good baby. I have to remind myself that even though I am just dying with the newborn stage! He smiles at me often (by far my earliest smiler) although its not consistent. He has to be in the mood! He cries when he is hungry or tired for the most part and I'm scared to say it but he isn't colicky at all like my other babies! I really hope that i didnt just jinx myself! Nights are so great! He has done 3 8-hour stretches but really it's different every night. Last night it was 6. I thought that was perfect, especially since he was still sleeping when I got up to go on my "run".

He spits up a lot but I haven't figured out what to cut out to fix it. Because it seems like it doesn't matter! Oh well.

It's blurry, but it's a smile! :)

Mason is a holy terror. He is sooo cute but can be so terrible! Yesterday I caught him sitting on Max's head!! Seriously? He does that to Lincoln but really Lincoln asks for it. I hope Max can survive. He is also getting into everything and thinks its funny. He will tell us that what he did is a big, big no no with a twinkle in his eye. Today he put poop all over the couch, and took a bite of my deodorant. And when Lincoln opened the gate in the backyard they both escaped and he went over to my neighbors house to mess with her little village she has outside. I swear she is going to hate us!

Pretty sure Mason is about to hit Max on the head in this picture. He also gives very sweet kisses. His favorite song is head shoulders knees and toes, and when he gets a new shirt he tells me it's cute!! I put a new shirt on and he goes up to Lincoln all proud and says "look Lennon! It's cute!!!"

He went to the dentist for the first time and was not that cooperative despite their best efforts. He was soooo excited to go. He had no idea!

Lincoln is so much fun. He loves Max and is constantly wanting to hold him. He is obsessed with mine craft right now (what little boy isn't?) and is getting better at helping cleaning up. Yay!

My sister Erica came to visit and he is so in love with her. When she left he came up to me crying because she was gone and said "Erica really loves me" (as if she was the only one in the world). It was so sad and sweet.

Shopping at the outlets enjoying our Swig copycat sugar cookies. A delicious mess! I went to get some clothes for Lincoln. It was funny because he was very serious about picking out shirts he liked.

Easton is absolutely loving first grade. He is obsessed with hot wheels wall tracks although he has yet to own one. His friends have them so I looked up videos on YouTube. He is obsessed with watching them and knows exactly how each track works and will talk your ear off. He is constantly changing his mind on which ones he wants for Christmas and it drives me crazy! He even wants to make his own video like the YouTube guy and is starting to say things the guy says. Oh that kid. He is so sweet and really wants to do what is right. Last night we had a family home evening about respect. I challenged each of the kids to be more respectful this week and this morning he said "yes mom" to everything I asked him to do. "Am I being respectful mom?" Wow. I think we need to have that lesson every week :) just wish it would stick with Lincoln eventually!

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Silver Lake

One of the best things ever is the Blogger app. I can blog from my phone which seems WAY more convenient! Makes me do it more!

Anyway, today we decided to get the kids out of the house to check out Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was so pretty! And just the perfect little "hike". It was totally flat and had a boardwalk around most of the lake. I think the boys really enjoyed it!