Quick Update

Wrinkles has improved.  We did not have to be admitted to the hospital today…. thankfully!   We had another shot of antibiotics and started the oral antibiotics tonight as well.  Today he had regained 4 oz. so that was good news.  Tomorrow we go through the same routine… re-check with the pediatrician and hopefully no shots tomorrow.  They also started him on some Albuterol liquid today to help loosen everything in his lungs.  I think he is starting to feel a little better as today wasn’t quite so much whining and he actually got down and played for 5-10 min. intervals in between naps. 

Moo Moo had fun at the farm today even though it was rainy all day.  He got to see the bottle calves and some of the lambs.  He has been talking non-stop about it all afternoon and night.  He wanted to stay there but I decided to make him come home instead of staying the night.  Maybe sometime soon he can have a sleepover with his cousins.

Grandpa watched Wrinkles tonight so I could get out of the house for a short time with Moo Moo. It was good for us to have a little one on one time and Grandpa enjoyed spending some time with Wrinkles, even though he is sick. 

That’s all from here for today.

 

Long days, long nights

We’ve all had the end of winter/beginning of spring cold around here for the last couple of weeks.  Everyone except Wrinkles who had come trough relatively well with only a slightly runny nose and a severe eye infection.  The eye infection was caught early and treatment began luckily without the use of IV antibiotics. 

Until Monday.  Everything changed quickly and dramatically.  He began laying around, wanting to be held nonstop, and running a temp.  No big deal- the temp. is his body’s way of fighting off the infection.  At midnight his temp. skyrocketed to 104.2.  Now what?  Do I go to the ER wait for hours and find absolutely nothing out?  After two hours of sponging, sitting in the tub, giving tylenol it finally went down to where I was comfortable enough to wait until morning. 

After 4 short hours of sleep we were up and headed to the pediatricans office.  I wasn’t going to mess around with this one.  We went in on walk-in basis and surprisingly waited less than 15 minutes to see the nurse practioner. Fever, throat red, ears clear.  She ordered a blood count, strep test, and influenza test.  Strep and influenza both came back negative.  Blood counts were elevated though.  She recommended that we do x-rays to check for pneumonia.  I thought “yeah right, whatever!”  Good thing she did this or who knows what we would have been facing.  The x-rays came back and she showed me the pneumonia he is facing.  Scary!! They gave him a shot of antibiotics and re-check today (Wed.).  If everything looks good continue with oral antibiotics.

Last night his fever continued to raise.  At 2 a.m. it was 105.0.  It scares me to think what it would have been minus tylenol, ibuprofen, and the antibiotic shot.  Again it lowered within in a couple of hours to a more comfortable level.  We headed back in to the ped’s office this morning.  No improvement on blood count, lost 1/2 pound in 24 hours, and still running a temp.  Frustration!  Another antibiotic shot, an IV mostly saline with some additional antibiotic, and re-check yet again tomorrow (Thurs.). 

Hopefully things will be better tomorrow and we can continue with the oral antibiotics.  So far tonight his temp. has not spiked AND he’s slept for 2 1/2 straight hours!

This is not what I expected to do with my whole week but we will do whatever is necessary to make him well again.  It is such a helpless feeling when your little one is sick and there’s nothing to do that will make him better.  Add a tired mommy to the mix and you end up spending lots of time relaxing on the couch just holding and comforting the sick. 

Moo Moo has been awesome through it all.  He has been keeping it pretty low key around here which is nice to have quiet, relaxing time.  Granted he’s been glued to the TV for the last 2 days but he hasn’t seemed to mind.  We had a chance to snuggle and talk tonight before he went to bed.  It was great to be able to hold him and explain (again, but in more detail) everything that has been going on.  He is going to go to the farm tomorrow to spend time with his aunt.  Just in case they would do something crazy with Wrinkles like admit him to the hospital.  I’m sure he will have a blast even though the weather sounds like it will be icky. 

To top it all off, in my sleep deprived state I have lost my cell phone with a dead battery.  At least I have insurance.  I filed the claim tonight because I need my phone and after looking extensively have been unable to find it.  I’m too tired and lack the care right now to look any longer.  I pay for the insurance so now it’s their turn to rescue me.

Things will get better once again.  It’s just been a yucky week.  I will update tomorrow after we return from the doctor.  No news is bad news in this case latest update will be midnight Thursday night/Fri. morning.  

Ooops… gotta go.  Wrinkles is up so I’m in for another long night most likely.

 

“I don’t like it”

A post on another blog that I frequent quite often got me thinking about the differences in the boys’ eating habits and our current struggles with meal time. 

“I don’t like it,” has become the common response to any inquiry about whether Moo Moo is hungry or not.  Half of the time he doesn’t even know what we are having before I hear these four evil words uttered from his mouth.  Over the last few weeks we have had to remove the words breakfast, lunch, and supper from our vocabulary because when he hears any one of them we get to hear: “I don’t like it!”  Don’t even think about putting something green on his plate because it invokes instant gagging.  Fruit-no, veggies-no, meat- sometimes, breads/pasta- usually.  You may be wondering what exactly do you feed this child and the short answer is: anything I can convince him to eat at that particular moment.  The only things that he will happily eat are butter/margarine, ketchup, and ranch (all of these things plain).  YUCK!

Some days he loves a food and the next time we offer it he absolutely refuses to eat it.  This is very frustrating because I never know if he will eat what I fix or not.  Even when he tells me he wants XX by the time it’s ready to eat he very well may have changed his mind.  Moo Moo has a very strong and prominent gag reflex so we must be careful about how much we push, plead, bargain, and make him sit at the table until everyone else is finished because any one of these things can push him over the edge to where he is vomiting at the table (it comes on fast too).  I struggle with making him something “special” or an alternative to what the rest of us are eating because he may or may not eat the alternative.  Yet at the same time I honestly do not know how the kid is able to survive on the amount of food he eats sometimes.  We have recently went to an instant breakfast mix to make chocolate milk to help ensure that he is getting adequate vitamins and such.  I don’t know what to do about this situation.

On the other end of the spectrum is Wrinkles.  He will eat anything and everything.  His recent newest favorite food is lettuce salad but it has to have a dressing, he won’t eat plain lettuce.  He loves onions, meat, noodles, bread, all fruits, most veggies.  I honestly can not think of anything that he refuses to eat.  Maybe his tastes will change as he grows but I certainly hope not!  Wrinkles is always hungry.  It is normal for him to eat as much if not more than Moo Moo who is two and a half years older than him.  I don’t want him to get (unhealthy) fat but I don’t want to keep him from eating when he needs it. 

As I struggle with this eating issue, I am now trying to sort out all the information on trying to implement a “diet” for Dearest Husband to try to combat his high cholesterol and pre-diabetic conditions.  I also need to start a diet as I have put on more than a few pounds since quitting smoking.  I am torn between going on a high (healthy) fat diet and trying to better monitor portion sizes or going to a low fat diet along with portion control.  I just want something to help with his issues and get him off of his medications (like yesterday) and getting me to quit eating so much. 

Who knew feeding kids could be so difficult?  I certainly didn’t- maybe I missed that memo!?!! LOL!  So in case you haven’t guessed it by now- meal time around here is a struggle in more than one way and a source of stress for me.  I am open to any comments/suggestions you may have on any of the issues.   Oh and also open to any yummy healthy recipes you have to share as I am feeling like we eat the same things over and over and over again.

The baby is no longer a babe.

Wrinkles officially entered toddler-hood today.  One year ago today I was holding my happy, healthy newborn babe in my arms.  I can’t believe that he is one year old already.  Where has the time gone?  A lot of things have changed around here in that short year, a lot of progress has been made to get where we want to go with our future and our family. 

Wrinkles was a challenging babe for us at the beginning.  While he latched right on when DH brought him to me in the recovery room, feeding him hasn’t always been so easy.  Lactose sensitivity and GERD have proven to be challenges over the last year but we have overcome them together.  The lactose sensitivity has gotten less severe which allows me to eat more dairy now and the GERD is slowly resolving itself.  The first few months were definetly a challenge as we figured these things out and as we adjusted from a family of three to a family of four.  We were on the edge of drowning in our own tears when we found a pediatrician that saved our sanity.  After we figured out what was going on, we were able to focus more on integrating our newest family member into the family dynamics.  Now Moo Moo and Wrinkles are pretty much inseparable.  It has been everything I wanted and more for my family.  Wrinkles is a walking, talking, little man who is already his own independent person.

Today we had cake for desert after lunch so that DH could join in and see Wrinkles destroy his piece.  Moo Moo was very understanding of it being Wrinkles’ birthday and not his (a big accomplishment since a month ago, Daddy’s birthday).  Wrinkles wasn’t too sure about the cake at first but then he got into it and starting enjoying.  It was lots of fun.  We will celebrate his birthday in a couple of weeks with family and a few friends for his first birthday party.   

I was asked today if my baby years are over or if there are plans for more.  I don’t know this answer for sure as I am still waiting for an answer from God on this one.  When I was younger I always dreamed of having three children.  This is a difficult one for me because of our family situation and ages.  I almost feel like our family is complete right now.  I don’t know.  Time will tell.  God will lead us in the right direction on this if we trust in His ways. 

Ramblings…

Today is Day 3 of being smoke free.  I am especially proud of this accomplishment for a couple different reasons.  First the last time I went three days without smoking was a year ago and that wasn’t really a choice, I was in the hospital.  Secondly I had more dental work done today (one of my biggest stressors) and didn’t smoke.  YEAH FOR ME! 

 Classes start on Monday.  Today I went and bought my textbooks which must have gold hidden inside because two of them cost me over $300.  Craziness I tell you. 

I don’t even know if the classes I am taking are the right choices for me this semester but good luck getting in touch with an academic counselor right now.  I left a message yesterday and today but here I am still waiting for a return call.  I have to get my GPA raised or I will lose my financial aid.  I think this stinks because there are special circumstances…. such as mine.  When I plummeted my GPA years ago I was not receiving financial aid.  It was all coming straight out of my parent’s pockets.  Now, since I’ve burnt that bridge, I am receiving financial aid.  My GPA since getting on aid is a 3.64 (or something real close to that I can’t remember exactly and am too lazy to go look right now).  However my cumulative is much, MUCH lower and if I don’t get it brought up this semester I will no longer be eligible for my financial aid.  Anyway… both classes that I am signed up for this semester are re-takes for me so my GPA should come up considerably.  However sometime since I left college and now… they have changed their numbering system for some of the classes and I am not sure if my re-take will be considered a re-take with the new numbers.  I hope so or at least that someone would call me back to fill me in on this issue so that I can get this problem solved.

Did I mention I went to the dentist today?  It was horrible.  Okay maybe not horrible but it was not something I would mark down as fun.  I survived and my mouth is sore but I know it is worth it.  I had the same thing done today that I had done the end of last year to help with gum issues and I can see a lot of improvement where it had already been done.  So…. I lived through that.

 The kids and I ventured out tonight to the Iowa Caucuses. I love the political process- thanks in no small part to my high school government teacher who encouraged us to get involved by offering extra credit for attending this type of thing.  So I was a bit unsure about taking the boys with me but since I didn’t have a babysitter and DH is working his crazy hours I decided to try it.  What’s the worse that could happen?  I could get there and they could’ve turned me away… but they didn’t and I got to participate.  It was a learning adventure for Moo Moo although I’m sure most (probably all) will soon be forgotten but hey… I guess it got us out of the house.  Wrinkles thought it was funny to see all the people who showed up and was totally into all the commotion going on around us.  I am glad that I went.  I do think that Iowa is in danger of losing our “first in the nation” status so I may have just done something that will never be done here again. 

 Enough rambling for one night.  I must go to bed.

The Sick House

Well…. this is the first time I’ve had a minute to post for a few days.  We have become the sick house around here.  It started Friday when Wrinkles was running a temperature and was acting really funny.  I gave him some Tylenol, his temp. dropped, and he went back to his normal self.  Saturday night we had planned “date night” for the first time since our anniversary in April.  Wrinkles hadn’t required any Tylenol and seemed okay so we preceeded with our plans.  He was fussy for my sister-in-law who watched him but not so fussy that she felt the need to call me and let me know, instead they spent most of the time we were gone riding around in the car to keep him happy.  Ugh!  Why didn’t she just call me?  Oh well we weren’t gone very long anyway.  We had a good time and some great food.  Fast forward to Sunday night when I woke up to a burning hot Wrinkles.  Did he know mommy and daddy wanted and needed to go out with out the children so he miraclously wasn’t sick on Sat.?  I think to myself that he can’t really be sick, he must be working on his first tooth.  Monday was fuss-ville around here.  Wrinkles had to be held all day and every 4 hours needed Tylenol to bring his fever down a bit.  No sleep Monday night!  He was up every hour, the Tylenol wasn’t breaking his fever any longer, it was a long night.  Yesterday I decide to bring him in the ped. as he is no longer eating or nursing.  I don’t think my supply will do well with a nursing strike.  He really is sick.  He has croup and strep throat.  Ohhh… now I feel like the bad mommy who made her child suffer because I didn’t think he was really “sick”.  We started him on some antibiotics for the strep and just traditional steam showers and cold air at night and humidifiers in the house for the croup. 

Then last night as I was heading off to bed I heard Moo Moo crying in his room.  I go to check what the problem is and he is vomiting.  You’ve got to be kidding me!!  Moo Moo vomits often so I don’t know at this point if he is actually sick or just having one of his classic moments.  I decide to camp out in the living room with both the boys as sleeping in our queen bed with all four of us just doesn’t work for me anymore.  I spread out blankets and we all get comfy.  Next thing I know Moo Moo is getting sick again, luckily in his bucket this time.  He must have the flu.  Yuck!!

Wrinkles is still very grumpy but he is no longer running a temp.  He isn’t eating his solids yet but he is nursing again!  Thank goodness!  Moo Moo is still acting sluggish but hasn’t gotten sick for a couple of hours now. 

I have class tonight and I am really torn about whether to go or not.  I think the kids will be fine with my mom but they’re sick and I really feel like, as their mother, I should be with them but we are doing peer review tonight and I think I need to do this.  What to do?!?! 

Wrinkles is up again now and I must work on my paper for class tonight at his next nap. 

Wrinkles is Crawling!

For the last month or so Wrinkles has been mobile simply by scooting everywhere he wanted to go.  Only upon the rare occasion would you catch him actually crawling and the minute he seen you watching him, he would go down on his tummy and scoot.  Yesterday he did the real crawl and today he has been doing it more and more, even when someone watches him.  I didn’t think the poor boy would ever really crawl.  He still scoots when he is in a hurry but crawling is becoming the norm around here! 

The small things make a mother happy!