Jeff’s 39th Birthday

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:14:54 -0700

Saturday night, Anne bought tickets for us to go to The Troubadour to go see the band, Tortoise (along with an overnight babysitter!). Tortoise is a Chicago band and Anne and I used to know Jeff Parker (the main guitar player) from various bands when we lived there. He still is one of my favorite musicians and the show did not disappoint at all! This was our first overnight without kids since either was born! We stayed at a hotel around the corner from The Troubadour called Hotel Le Petit- not someplace we would typically stay- a very hipster vibe in the middle of West Hollywood, complete with rooftop pool and a view of the (West) Hollywood Hills. We checked in about 3PM- we didn’t know what to do with ourselves, so we walked out and found the first gay bar (it IS west Hollywood) and had a couple of cocktails and an early dinner. 2nd order of business- back to the room for NAPS! We woke up and it was time for the show. We missed the opening act, but were just in time for what we came for- TORTOISE! The show was FANTASTIC! We were in bed by midnight (which is a late night out for us anymore- what happened to closing the bar at 4AM?)

Despite the fantastic weekend as a COUPLE, my actual birthday on Monday was just about the worst EVER. Sunday night Nola didn’t sleep AT ALL- coughing and throwing up all night. We thought she had the flu, so we called the pediatrician at 8am and brought her in. At this point she was having trouble breathing and it was getting worse. He took a look at her and said “Get her to the E.R. immediately! I’ll call ahead!!!” We were thoroughly freaked out and the breathing team met us in the E.R. and did breathing treatments with a nebulizer and gave her shots of antibiotics. Between nebulizer treatments, they had her on oxygen. Unfortunately, this was all happening in the same E.R. and hospital that Ben died in almost exactly 2 years prior. Anne and I couldn’t have been MORE aware of this fact and it just heightened the emotion of everything going on- so much so that I told Anne to go home. Nola was in good hands and had finally fallen asleep in the E.R. Nola and I sat in the E.R. for probably 4 hours. Her oxygen saturation level wasn’t going up (about 87). 100 is normal, and below 95 they wanted to admit her. So finally they found her a bed. She was extremely dehydrated from all the vomiting, so they put her on an I.V. Anne came back to the hospital so I could go home and shower. Nola was awake again although extremely lethargic. Not for lon though- the I.V. took 2 HOURS to put in because 1-She’s a baby, 2-She was dehydrated, which constricts the veins and 3- She was FREAKED OUT that they kept poking her with needles! I came back and stayed overnight with her. She was so dehydrated that even with the I.V. that they put in about 3PM, she didn’t have a wet diaper until about 2AM! She slept better than she ever does at home (I DIDN’T!!!) and got better and better overnight. They monitored her all the next day and her breathing continued to improve. They discharged her about 5:00PM Tues night and sent us home with a home nebulizer to continue the breathing treatments for a week.

Finally, we were all home and got to have some birthday cake together! Josie helped make a homemade carrot cake.

Thanks mom and dad for this great painting from my childhood!!!

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 12:21:26 -0700

We left the hotel and drove up about 10 minutes to San Juan Capistrano and found another little diner to eat which was excellent (Mollie’s). We stopped at the Mission there and stayed as long as Nola could handle it. She lasted over an hour, so I did get a few pictures. I love that place!

ROSS FAMIBLOG

Jeff’s 39th Birthday

Mission San Juan Capistrano