Caribbean Cruisin ...

After a couple of weeks off from work and money out the door for Payton's hospital expenses, it only makes sense to go on a cruise through the Caribbean. Recession? What recession?

Actually, we had this cruise planned for nearly a year with Jeremy's family. Don't worry, we consulted with the doctors to make sure Payton was healthy enough for us to jet-set across the US and then cruise out into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. They felt she would be fine. And she was; she only barfed on me twice and got an ear infection the last couple of days. Piece of cake.

We had a wonderful time and enjoyed spending time with family. Rather than words (since my last post was so long), I'll tell this story through pictures. Enjoy!

We made it! We took a red eye to Miami to meet up with the rest of the Bordner clan who arrived the night prior.


Payton Frances and Julie Frances on the deck off our rooms (we had five rooms next to each other with an open deck looking out onto the ocean).

Payton and me, enjoying the sun.

Ryder got lots of love from Grandpa Tucker & Grandma Susie.

Every night when we would pick Ryder up from "Kids Club" he would come back with his face fully painted. Most kids had smiley faces and balloons painted on their cheeks. Not Ryder. He wanted to be an alien.

Our sleepy little alien.

The guys enjoyed a couple of Coronas and some cigars on the deck off our rooms, while the ladies enjoyed being pampered in the Spa.

Spa time. (Thanks Susie!)

The cruise had "party pics" - remember those from college? As you can tell, Jeremy loved the party pics.

A little bubbly, anyone?

All the "kids" went on a catamaran cruise to a private "pink" (and nude, mind you) beach.

Here we are in, you guessed it, St. Maarten.

While in St. Maarten, Katka, Julie and I decided to get matching shirts. They were too cute.

Family pic in Puerto Rico. We spent the afternoon exploring Puerto Rico.

Labadee, Haiti.

While in Haiti, Jeremy, David, Peter, Katka and I went on the world's longest zip line across an open body of water. It was terrifying, but exhilarating.

Jeremy and Ryder playing in the ocean in Haiti.

Hospital Visits

Most of you probably know by now that our sweet little Payton was in the hospital for a bit. It was a scary couple of weeks, but she's doing much better now. Thanks to all our friends, family and co-workers for thinking of us and sending Payton get-well wishes, bringing us dinners and lunches, and for just being there for us and helping out with Ryder. I wanted to especially thank my mom for all her help during this ordeal. She took time off from work to be with us. She sat with us at the hospital, she did our laundry, cleaned our house, played/fed/helped out with Ryder ... the list goes on and on. I don't think we could have sanely gotten through all of this without her!

Now about what happened ... as you may have seen from one of our previous posts, we took Payton into the doctor's office mid-January as she had a fever, raspy chest and a mild rash on her body. They checked her out and determined that she had bronchiolitis and sent us home with a nebulizer and some albuterol to give to her a couple times a day to help clear up the secretions in her chest. We followed instructions and felt we were on the mend.

The following Tuesday after Ryder's birthday party, we didn't feel like she was getting better. She got another fever, her cough was terrible and she was working really hard to breath. So we called the on-call nurse and they recommended we take her into the hospital. We took her to the ER that Tuesday morning and they admitted us for the night to monitor her breathing as her oxygen levels were hovering around 86 percent. They should be in the high 90's.

Payton and I stayed the night in the hospital and they discharged us the following day (on Ryder's actual birthday) after sucking some the secretions out of her lungs, giving her several rounds of various nebulizer treatments and watching her oxygen levels. We decided to keep her home from daycare the rest of the week to make sure she was getting healthy.

She was still coughing and sounded rattly in her chest the following Monday, but we felt that she was improving so we took her back into school. When we got home from work that night and picked the kids up from school, we noticed that Payton was very sleepy, had another fever and she really was working hard again to breath. We went back to the ER that night ... and were admitted to the hospital's pediatric ward at midnight. Poor Payton was poked, prodded and just generally irritated for the four days we were in the hospital. They did several x-rays of her chest, took her blood, gave her nebulizer treatments again and again. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. Imagine that feeling not knowing what is wrong with your baby. Why was she so sick? Why was she working so hard to breath? It was terrifying.

After spending the four days in the hospital they sent us to another local hospital because they specialized in pediatrics. We spent two nights there. While in the Pediatric ICU at the second hospital, they took Payton down to the operating room where the ENT and GI doctors inserted a bronchoscope to take a look in her lungs and GI tract (stomach, small & large intestines, etc).

The prognosis?

Payton has been aspirating into her lungs - either from her reflux or from nursing (apparently I am/was like a fire hose). They also found when performing the bronchoscope that she has a cleft larynx, which could have been an attributing factor to her aspirating. She also has an irregular suck/swallow. So by combining all of this together, the food/milk in her lungs was like a magnet to the series of respiratory colds she had, which was making it hard for her to breath and keep her oxygen levels up.

It was a frightening couple of weeks, but she's doing much better. Here are some pictures from our time in the hospital.

Still a happy girl with tubes going in and out of her.

Her bed, which she didn't end up sleeping in. I pretty much held her all night, every night.

After the bronchoscope.

Payton was not a fan of the canula in her nose.

Nothing like family time in the Pediatric ICU.

So happy. She's going home.

Getting ready to leave the PICU. I look so tired.

Ryder's 4th Birthday

It's been more than a month now since we celebrated Ryder's 4th birthday, I realize that, but like I said, we've been a little busy. You'll learn why in the subsequent posts.

Now onto Ryder's birthday ...

For Ryder's 4th birthday celebration we had a whole gaggle of 3 & 4 year olds over to our house for a little party time (bbq'd up some burgers and hot dogs). What constitutes a gaggle? Well, I think we ended up with 12 kids and their parents at our house. A lot of work, which is why we are so thankful that Grandpa Chris and Grandma Jan were able to make the trek over to Boise to help out! We definitely needed it.

Before the party made it over to our house, we called the local fire station and the kind firemen hosted the rowdy bunch for an hour or so. The firemen showed the kids around the fire station and talked with them about fire safety. You know, the whole "stop, drop and roll" shtick. Ryder and Jeremy even got to go for a ride in the big red engine.

Here are some pics from the celebration at our house.

Ryder and the ladies. He has lots of girl-friends. Oy. What are we in for?

Who's ready for some cupcakes?

Payton even got to invite some of her friends (Isla & Delaney) over to celebrate. Such sweet little girls.

The Twilight Series

After months of making fun of my co-workers for reading the wildly popular - among teenage girls, mind you - Twilight book series, I have (reluctantly at first) found myself a huge fan. I've only recently finished the first book and am swiftly reading the second. Actually let me clarify what I mean by "swiftly" real quick. The only spare time I can find to read is just before bed, and without fail every night I fall asleep after three pages. So, it's taking me awhile. For those of you that have already finished the series or are ahead of me ... please don't spoil it.

Anyway, I would love to hear what others have to say about the books. Please, chime-in with your comments, but be careful not to spoil it for me.

Been A While

We apologize that it's been so long since our last post, but we have had quite a crazy and busy month. Please tune back in this weekend for an update on Ryder's 4th birtday party, Payton's not one, but two hospital stays and of course, our beautiful cruise through the Caribbean.

Until then ...

Our sick little girl

Our sweet little girl has had a pretty deep cough for about the past week and there were a few days with a high fever. The cough wasn't letting her get much sleep and it seemed to be hurting her, so we decided to take her into the doc.

It turns out she has bronchiolitis, which is an infection in the airways. I really hope this doesn't develop into asthma for her later in life. (No worries, she's no longer contagious. Just wanted to get that out there for those that are coming over this weekend for Ryder's birthday party.)

Since it's a virus there aren't any antibiotics to help with the cough (and we all know the recent findings about cough medicine for our little ones), but they did put her on a nebulizer that we have to adminster 2-3 times a day. It's to help open up her airways and unclog the mucus in her lungs.

Here are some pics of her with the nebulizer. Poor girl.

Funny pics & video

I told you about our trip to Seattle, well David sent us some additional photos and video from the trip that I wanted to share.

The Tucker Bordner family. The funny thing is, even though Payton is upside down - she still looks like she's having a good time!

(Left to Right - Tucker, Susie, Jeremy, Payton, Ryder, Kirstin, Jeret, Julie, Peter, Katka & David)

Oh, and this video is pretty entertaining of the boys down on the field before the Seahawks game while the players were warming up. Watch out Jeremy!