William’s Swim Lessons

William did two weeks of swimming lessons at the beginning of June.  We took him to the same teacher that Evelyn went to because she is AWESOME!  William was pretty confident in the water before the lessons, but afterwards he’s rockin’ it.  He’s gotten really good at swimming on his back, and even tries to do a little freestyle:).  I took a lot of pics, cause, well, I could, and he’s cute.

Emma looking all crazy, and James looking worried cause the crazy lady is holding him!

William doing such a great job!

James’ piggies while we wait:)

Emma is such a doof.  Love her.

William with Julie, she rocks.

I needed to get this down so we could remember.  On June 9th, this little boy gave us quite a scare. We went to Concord Mills, a huge mall with lots of outlet and regular stores, about 20 miles from home. We were in the Children’s Place when Preston told me that he thought William had a fever. I had the baby in a carrier, so when I felt his forehead, he didn’t feel hot to me. About 15 minutes later, he said it again, so I checked him, and he did feel a little hot and he looked a little pale. We left the store and started to head back to the car, but I wanted to stop by another store first, so we took the long way (the mall is about a mile around). I kept trying to convince William to sit in the stroller and he kept insisting it was for babies. While we were in the second store I finally led him into the stroller, and he went without a word, which I thought was really weird. We left this store to head out to the parking lot (still quite a ways away). About a minute later, I looked down and William had his head turned towards me and it looked like he was staring at the ceiling. I asked him what he was looking at, and he didn’t answer me. I thought he was just in a daze from not feeling well. About a minute after that, Preston said, “Rebecca, he just puked.” I ran around to the front of the stroller and he still had his head turned like before with his eyes in a fixed position and vomit was pouring out of his mouth and nose. I wiped it away, and tried to get him to look at me, and he wouldn’t. It was really scary to see him like that. He just wouldn’t respond, so I told Preston to call 911.

Preston’s phone wouldn’t work (of course), but several people around us were kind enough to offer us a phone. After a couple of minutes, William finally came around a little bit. He was screaming and very agitated. A guy stopped, told us he was a nurse, and offered to check him out. I am so grateful to him for taking the time to try to reassure us and to make sure William was ok. He told us to quickly go to a store, get some tylenol, and then hurry to an urgent care. He didn’t think we’d need the ambulance. Then the paramedics showed up, checked him out for a bit, and all of a sudden, William passed out completely. The nurse said, that’s a new symptom, you need to get him in now. The other kids, the entire time this was happening, were really very good. They were all freaked out though, and sobbing pretty hard. Preston and I were very calm, and the only time I about lost it is when I looked at the other kids crying. The nurse went over to them, while the paramedics loaded up William, and offered to say a little prayer with them. What an awesome guy! I wish I had his number so I could thank him again!!

Big Preston took the rest of the kids to the van and from there to the hospital and I rode with William in the ambulance. William was pretty much out of it the whole way there until the ambulance pulled up to the hospital when he snapped out of it and put his hands behind his head and crossed his legs like he was in a lounge chair at the pool – of course!

William had some fantastic nurses help him out at the hospital. Preston stayed with him and I took the other kids home and thankfully a neighbor was able to stay with the kids while I went back to the hospital (thanks Jenn, you’re awesome!). William had to get hooked up to an IV and was very brave about it. We were finally able to check out around 12:30 or 1am and were instructed to alternate between Tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours. His temperature kept going up between doses all day Sunday so Preston asked our home teacher Nate Walbruch (thanks Nate!) to help him give William a blessing. He seemed to do a lot better after receiving a priesthood blessing. We recognize this as a blessing from our Heavenly Father and are thankful that he is mindful of each of us.

We now have to be more careful with William and if we notice he has the beginning of a fever we will just give him some Tylenol to get it under control right away.

William is a very special boy and we are so glad he is part of our family!

And to end on a cute note, here’s James getting into his books.