How Landon's Hospital Stunt Brought The True Meaning of Christmas With It

On Wednesday, it was Mac's birthday. Landon had soccer that night, and she had a previous commitment, so we weren't able to see each other for her birthday.

On Friday, I went and bought out "ticket" to cut our Christmas tree down. We had our spot all mapped out, and were eager to give it another try. Last year, well, that was a joke. BUT the kids loved it and it was a good memory for us to have as a family.


We had made plans to go out to dinner for her birthday for Friday, with Kevin and Kendra as well, in Pocatello. Red Lobster. We arranged for Bailey, a very competent 13 year old to watch all four kids.


That is the build up. Here's the run down:

Friday. Ran some errands. Everyone was fine and happy.

At 4 o'clock Landon complained that his tummy was hurting.

Bailey arrived to babysit at 4:52. By 5, he had thrown up.


My gut told me to skip the birthday dinner, but thought perhaps the worst of it was over, and checked with Bailey to see if she was comfortable watching him, if he continued to be sick.


She was.


We left.


He continued to throw up on the hour, every hour. He would then fall asleep or lie on the bathroom floor. Bailey is a pretty optimist girl, as she kept saying he wasn't so bad, and things were fine. Bless her.

But I knew in my gut, I should have stayed home. He wasn't getting better, he was definitely getting worse.

When Landon was a little over 1, he spent 5 days in the hospital for the same thing. It was very severe, and he was throwing up, without stopping, and passing out, and it was bad.


So when Landon gets slightly sick, I get very nervous. It's also in part to the simple fact that he weighs 31 pounds. So he really doesn't have a single ounce to lose.

Kids can get dehydrated pretty quickly, causing organs in their little bodies to shut down. Not good. So, as soon as I got home, I took him to the hospital. My mom came with me, and held him the whole way, in case he threw up again.

We were very fortunate that Dr. Groberg, our favorite doc through the Ped Center was on call. He was already at the hospital, so he met us on the peds floor and checked Landon out. His bowel system had shut down. So we decided to start him on an IV to get fluids to his other organs.

This was a nightmare. Poor Landon was freaking out. He is only 4 you know, so Doctors and Hospitals and Nurses, who poke him 4 times to get it right, well that is scary. She was trying hard, and he was holding very still because Jeff (his first nurse) and I were holding him tight. I wold have been squeamish too. After that was over, the fun began. He just wasn't happy or comfortable. His heart rate was a little high, keep us on our toes, waiting for it to subside. His fever was steady.

We were up most of the night. We slept pretty good from 5-7 though.

I guess that even when you aren't starving (you know when you tummy growls the loudest!) or eating your stomach/bowels are constantly at work and with a stethoscope you can hear movement. Landon's was silent for at least 18 hours. Who knows how long prior to his first throw up it had been out. It was determined that he probably got some sort of virus in his belly, causing it to shut down. If your belly stops like that, any food intake is then rejected. Once we heard movement again, he was allowed to eat.

For breakfast, Landon ate Jello. And had some juice. After that, he seemed to worsen, as he became lethargic, lifeless, and emotionless. He refused food and drink at lunch, and any other time we offered it.

This told us his body knew it wasn't ready for anything more.

He slept for almost 4 hours starting at 12noon. He woke around 4 and was finally starving.
We started him on dry cereal, but by 5 he was wanting chicken nuggets, soup, break, and pop. We took off for our ward party at 4:45, so Lynn let him have it after checking with us and the nurse. We let him eat.

Grandpa Lynn hung out with Landon while we did this, watching to see if he would be able to keep it down. They told us that if he didn't throw up by 7, he probably wouldn't and could take him home.

{Lining up cars, even when sick.
Love this kid.}

So we did. Got home around 7:30.

So much for getting a Tree. Oh well. It happened that this was a Saturday that Kyle didn't have any funerals, and wasn't on call. Pretty much our only chance to go, and it had come and gone while we did the hospital thing.

Oh well.






After getting all 4 kids dressed for bed, and just by mere seconds of us kneeling for family prayer, came a ring of the door bell.


Here were Brian and Kara, and kids, with a tree. A real, live Christmas tree. I fought back tears as they tried to bring it in. I probably sounded like I was complaining, but I really meant "I'm not ready! I don't have a spot for it!" when I said that to them in reply to their offering us a tree. We insisted they came in, that the tree wait outside, and for the kids to play {which Landon did to the full extent. You would never believe he had been so sick earlier that day} and then I quickly raced down stairs to make a spot ready for the tree. Something I would have done Friday night or first thing Saturday morning before going to cut a tree down, had I not been at the hospital.

The truest meaning of Christmas was something we experienced last night. Gratitude for our family helping us in a stressful time, gratitude for doctors, and our now healthy son, and a gift from the heart from the Kearsleys.

I had merely called Kara to check in on her and tease her a bit about us being at the hospital in stead of her {Due with a baby any day now} and told her I was disappointed {among other information about Landon} that our day just hadn't turned out like we had hoped. I was sad that we had missed our window to get a tree.



And it's not about the tree. It's about the memory of going with the kids and trying to cut one down, and Kara and Brian knew that. She knew I had a tree in the front room and that we weren't going without one this Christmas.

That's what makes this whole thing so incredible.



They just went out and got us a tree like it was no big deal, and to come home from being at the hospital for almost 24 hours and receive a gift like that, well it's just flat out what Christmas is about.



I hope to be able to do the same for them or for someone else someday. To hear a friend complain that something just didn't turn out quite right, and make an effort to amend the situation.

Regardless of how big or little it is.

Stuff like this matters.

We will always remember this Christmas season because of this weekend.