Catching up

New things:

#1: Isaac turned 3. As in three years ago he was a teeny tiny newborn.  Who looked like this:

Now? He's such a ham I can barely get a picture of him.  But, he looks like this for a professional photographer:

 

Cute, no?  Still has those deep, dark, chocolate brown eyes. He's 50% in weight and 15% in height (more on that in the next number.) 

#2. O will be having her MRI done this Sunday afternoon to check her pituitary gland.  From there, we'll come up with a treatment plan for her growth hormone deficiency.  We'll also start keeping an eye on Isaac's height.  Anything under 10% will start getting some attention.  (He's still young, so he can still catch up.)  We've talked with her about how she'll have to sit still for 30 minutes in the loud machine.  I'm hoping they have fancy goggles with a tv in them like they do at our children's hospital in HSV.

#3 We thought we were having a travel free Christmas.  Until we found out my grandpa, who lives in N.C.,  isn't doing so hot.  He's lost a lot of weight and just isn't real thrilled to be living.  The last time we saw him, I was 4 weeks pregnant with A.  So, 7 years ago.  My parents and my uncle and aunt and their two kids will be going as well.  We figured we should go when other people are going.  it isn't very fun there (he's in an assisted living home) and there isn't much to do.  Not time like the present, right?

#4 We're having some behavior problems with one of our kids. We're really struggling with how to discipline.  It feels like nothing is working.  *sigh*  I keep trying to tell E that I think its from a lot of the attention on O's health the last year, since this is when the unwanted behaviors started.  I don't know.  I'm this close [___] to taking the child to the therapist to see if they could get to the bottom of it all.  I don't know how to help and it's really a crappy feeling.

#5  I've had a cough for almost two weeks.  No other real symptoms.  just a stupid, dumb, keeps-me-up-at-night cough.  I hate to call the doctor for just a cough, but yet my cough syrup box says if you have a cough for more than 7 days to call your doctor. 

#6. Eliza- she's a handful.  This is not new news.  But, it pretty much sums her up.

my hotdog got run over by a reindeer grocery cart

Yesterday went like this:

Take Isaac to gymnastics.  While at gymnastics, he has a coughing fit.  I, then, realize that  I forgot to give him his nebulizer.  (crap!)  Every one is giving us the stink eye.  You know, because he's gagging from heavy coughing and sounds like he may vomit.

While we are at gymnastics, Eliza seems to be walking funny.  Like crooked.  She seems to be a tad congested, so I'm starting to wonder if she has fluid in her ears and is just thrown off.

I gather the children up and head to Costco.  I love, love, and adore Costco.  Love it.  However, the major downside is that its on the other side of town.  There's no "good" way to get there.  Oh, there's a straight shot road from my house to Costco, but there's about 11 hundred stop lights between here and there.  (They're almost always red.  Especially when you're in a hurry!)

Eventually, I get to Costco.  I have intentions of getting hot dogs for lunch (mine with out a bun to be dairy free!) and then cruise around for a few grocery items, a gift for a friend, and Isaac's cool chair for his birthday. 

When I pull into the parking lot, I realized I forgot to pack Isaac's drink.  It wasn't a huge deal, since they sell drinks with the hot dog meals.  But, I usually bring him a sippy cup and forgo the pop/lemon aid and get him water.  I check my email and find that I got another doula job! (woot!!)

I grab the kids, throw them into a cart, and head in to return something.  We make our way to the food, buy our goodies, and move onward towards the awesomeness that is Costco at Christmas.  I find Isaac's chair (I was so worried it would be sold out!) and am confounded as to how to get it into my cart with the kids.  I move Isaac into the front seat, which he says he DOES NOT LIKE!  While he's shouting, I'm finagling the very large box into our cart, and my phone starts ringing.  I glance at the number and realize it is the big-kids' school.  I set the box down, ever so gently (bawaawa!) and talk to the school nurse.  O is crying/screaming/freaking out because her ear hurts. 

While I'm on the phone, Isaac tries to "help" and put his drink next to mine, in the back of the cart.  Except, he only has the arms of a 3 year old, and not Stretch Armstrong arms.  The drink falls 2 feet short of the actual cart, busts open, and spills its, very full, contents all over the floor. I hang up the phone, after telling the nurse I'll be there in.... um.... its lunch time and I'm at Costco, so... 45 minutes to an hour?  I have to find some one to come clean this mess up because my measly 10 paper napkins just isn't cutting it.  I'm searching around, and even find a friendly lady who is willing to help me find a worker.  I finally find a guy with a name tag, ask him if he works here, and tell him of my shame.  Thankfully, he takes care of it.

Shortly after, I make O a dr. appointment for 45 minutes from now.  That's all they have left.  I'll never make it in time to pick her up AND head to the doctor.  I enlist E's help.  (which sucks since he had to be out all day on Monday for O's growth hormone testing.)  He plans to pick her up and agrees to meet me at the doctor. 

Meanwhile, Eliza takes my bun less hot dog that's wrapped like a burrito in a piece of foil and tugs on it.  It rolls out of its packaging, and right onto the floor.  As I'm moving forward to get it, another person's cart runs right over it.  Cutting my hot dog in half. 

I rush through the line, pay for my things (which, after upon returning home, realize I forgot over half of my things.)  I have no lunch, and no time to buy a new hot dog.  So, I eat dried fruit and nuts for lunch.  Along with my diet coke.  Lunch of champions mommies.

Eliza screams almost the entire time in the car.  I make decent time, and get to the doctor on time.  While in the waiting room, Eliza seems to be getting sicker.  O's pediatric endocrinologist calls.   I take the call outside, but I can hear Eliza screaming for me as I walk out the door.  The doctor is calling to tell us that O's tests confirm a growth hormone deficiency.  He wants to schedule a MRI as soon as possible and get moving on growth hormone injections. 

I walk back into the waiting room, sort of in a daze.  Our favorite nurse calls us back.  She takes a few notes about O, glances at Eliza and says "oh no!  she looks sick!"  She is looking pretty sick.  Running a fever, too.

Our pediatrician comes in, looks in O's ear, declares an infection.  she also glances Eliza's way and says "she looks rather puney."  I asked her if she could just glance in her ears because she was walking funny earlier.  There's nothing in her ears, except Eliza's pure hatred of being messed with.  at all.  Especially when she's sick.  the dr. listens to her chest and it sounds yucky. Eliza gets her finger pricked (which she also hates, in case you were wondering!) and we are left with a diagnosis of it being viral, but to call if her fever spikes or her walking deal doesn't resolve in the next day or two.

On the way home, I'm starting to reflect on the Endocrinologist's call. 

I feel....relieved. 

 

But, also nervous. 

 

Relieved that all of the things we knew in our hearts were right.  Like how my breast milk WAS fatty enough when she was a baby and didn't grow.  How we DO feed her enough calories and fat.  How she isn't just tiny. 

 

But, nervous for what lies ahead. 

 

 Possibly daily injections.  Until puberty. 

 

Rapid growth. 

 

Big changes for her.  How will this affect her self image?  She's always been the smallest.  Always.  I would think, after almost 8 years, it'd start to be part of your identity.  How will that change when she starts growing 5 inches?  How will she see herself?  How will others see her?  (obviously, we want her to be the height she should be.  I'm not saying these things will change our course of action.  It just has me thinking.)  I imagine it would be similar to some one losing a lot of weight, or even gaining a lot of weight, in a short period. 

 

But, again, relieved.  Relieved to not have to do any more testing (other than the MRI.)

We arrive home and lay the littles down for naps.  When Eliza wakes up, her fever is up to 104.  I call the doctor's office.  Unfortunately, they left for the day ten minutes prior. 


We medicate both girls, and bathe and nurse and cuddle.  Praying prayers of thanksgiving for a treatable diagnosis.Praying tomorrow is filled with a peace that passes all understanding.  Praying the best for my baby girl O, and all of my kids.

It ended like that.

"un"

me:

unhealthy (cold, then tummy bug)
unproductive (see above)
unmotivated (ditto)
unathletic (again, with the above. but, possibly not a word. lol)
uninspired
unclean (mainly because of all of vomit in our house right now)
under weight (okay, maybe not under weight.  but, being sick does have SOME advantages.)
unorganized
undereducated
unprepared


but also:

happy
content
blessed

Its amazing how 3 things can outweigh the lengthy "un" list.

Because she's cute

I haven't had time to blog lately, as I'm sure you can tell.  Between O's FTT repeat diagnosis, following blood tests, dietitian appointments, and anxiety therapy (which, as a total aside, can I send a bill to the parents of a child in my daughter's class for more therapy?  because we were about to get released, then she started picking on O during recess, which caused her anxiety to kick up into high gear again.  Y'all, I know the mom.  I'm this [ ] close to sending her the bill with an attached note to ask her daughter to please be kind, or at least not overly hurtful.) plus Eliza's doctor appointments, and now GI appointments, and probably allergist appointments, my dentist appointments, the kids dentist appointments.

Plus school.  Plus dance.  Plus swim.  Plus groceries and homework and housework and running and weight watchers and getting ready for my brother's wedding and and and and LIFE.

Surely this will slow down this summer.  Right?

Well, I have blog posts in mind.  That will likely never actually make it to my blog.  Because of life.  But, pictures.  Well, I'll keep posting those.  Because, let's face it, I'd be doing a disservice to the world by not posting this cuteness.

I feel like this has happened before

Deja Vu. 

That's what I feel like is going on at our house right now.  O had her 7 year check up on Wednesday.  I was assuming it would go wonderfully.  She hasn't been sick much, her asthma is generally under control, she's thriving at school. 

The first thing O had done was measurements of height and weight.  Her height seemed a bit low to me, but I couldn't really remember what she was at her 6 year check up.  Her weight is always low, so that really wasn't a surprise. 

Still under my assumption of having a perfect appointment, the pediatrician walks in and says "well, we have a problem."  Really?  Already?  Because we haven't done much, yet.  Only taken measurements.  Oh.  I see.  "O has only grown .25" and gained 1.5lbs the last year."

Cue flash back...Now! We're back in the years 2005 and 2006.  Getting O weighed creates so much anxiety.  Has she gained enough?  Are we going to have to have more testing done?  Am I going to have to meet with the dietitian again who treats me like I'm abusing my child by not feeding her? The dietitian who says my breast milk isn't fatty enough.  Is my breast milk not fatty enough?  Is she allergic to dairy?  Please, please, please have a gain on that scale!

I thought we were passed this stuff.  After 1.5 years of trying to figure out why O is little, we (the pediatrician, O's GI, and E and I) came to the conclusion that she's just tiny.  Its just her.  She was hanging out on her little growth curve, albeit below the charts, but, she had a purty little curve going.  Unfortunately, this latest ordeal has her dropping off in her own curve in height and weight. 

So, we're back to more testing.  Some of the testing of the blood work O had done when she was 1.5 really wasn't super reliable. Things like Celiac may not show trustworthy results with just blood work until after the age of 5.  (They gave us the option to have a small portion of her small intestine biopsied, but we declined.)    She'll likely have a repeat of those kinds of tests. 

As for right now, we're keeping a food log.  Monitoring everything that goes into her tummy.  (Which is sort of funny, in a weird way, since I'm doing the same for myself for WW.  Although the intent with mine is to LOSE weight.)  She's bringing home apple cores and corners of sandwiches from school.  (Its kind of gross since its been hot.  It gets all smelly in her lunch box.)  We should hear from a dietitian in the next few days.  They'll come out and take a peak at O's food log and determine if she's eating enough calories (which, I think she probably is.)  Then, we'll go from there. 

This is real life deja vu.  I have done this before.  At least this time the dietitian can't blame me for breastfeeding O. 

Dear O, my eldest child

Happy 7th birthday to my sweet petite princess.   How you've changed our lives. 

You were the first to make us parents.

You've helped us welcome your siblings into our family. 

Willingly, in fact.  You love being the big sister.

 Especially to a sister. ;)

I wish I wasn't so sick right now.  I wanted to finish your slide show.  I wanted to write you a beautiful birthday letter, and make you your birthday pancake breakfast and dinner choice of taco salad, and make you a chocolate cake with pink icing.  Hopefully you'll forgive me and that Daddy's rendition of birthday cake passes the test.  I promise to do some of those things when I feel better. 

Love, mommy

Vesicoureteral Reflux testing for E.C.

Miss Eliz Claire will be undergoing her VCUG today to test for Vesicoureteral Reflux, (aka Kidney Reflux).  She'll have to have a catheter placed into her bladder and we'll watch it on an x-ray to see if it goes into the kidneys or out like its supposed to.

I don't think she's going to like it.

This is really all O's fault.  Okay, not really.  Its likely my fault for passing on lousy genetics.  But, since O had such a severe grade of reflux, all of the kids have to get tested.  The boys were lucky, and got to start with just a simple renal u/s to check for kidney damage.  (A did have to have the VCUG done since one of his kidneys was larger than the other.  That's a common thing in a lot of people, but also a symptom in kidney reflux kids.) With boys, it often isn't as much of a serious problem as it is for little girls.  Even if a boy has grade II reflux, he may never have an actual infection.  Its anatomy (again, a win for the girls, right?!?)

The odds of Eliza having it are 1 in 3.  I know statistics don't work this way, but I feel like she's screwed since her brothers don't have it (they'd be the 2 in 3) and that leaves the remaining 1 in 3 to her to make up. I keep trying to tell myself that she's got a 66% chance that she DOESN'T have it.  That's pretty good odds. :) 

I don't know why I get so worked up over this testing.  Not that any one wants their baby to have a birth defect, but if you had to have one, this would be the one to have.  (Mild reflux is easily treatable and most kids out grow it. )  But, I'm still praying complete health over my sweet baby. 

I'll let you all know what they say today.  Our appointment is at 12 cst, then her actual vcug is at 12:30, with an appointment with the urologist at 2 p.m. (Thank goodness E could come stay home with Isaac, the I-am-two-hear-me-roar boy.)  We will have immediate results from her testing today. 

We're still alive

We're alive and, mostly, well.  We've actually been home a lot, (for me! I hate not leaving the house at least once a day.)  But, I've been busy playing doctor, nurse, seamstress, and now I'm also learning to crochet (I know.  I know.  I totally DON'T need another hobby.  But, I couldn't resist!)  A's back in school after his tonsillectomy last week, so I spent most of yesterday working on a quilt for O's birthday. (which, was a disaster.  after ripping the thread the entire width of the quilt OVER 5 times, I set it aside and quit for the day.)

Eliza is also sick, so I don't see us leaving our hidey hole any time soon.  She started with a runny nose yesterday, and was coughing quite a bit in the night.  I'm just praying its not that stinking RSV that seems to be going around here. 

Oh, in Eliza news, she's found her fingers!  The last 3 days, she has been sucking her first two fingers (just like Zeke!) non-stop.  Its a little annoying right now, when she knocks out her pacifier at nap time, since she's not proficient enough to use them to self-soothe.  But, I'm thinking that's around the corner for her.

Now she needs to work on not gagging herself with those and we'll be all set.

Operation "Tonsil Removal": Success!

I can't remember if I told you all that A had a sleep study done in December to test for sleep apnea.  Well, he stopped breathing 7 times in the 5.5 hours he was asleep. 

Treatment for sleep apnea in little guys is a tonsillectomy.  It cures something like 80% of kids. 

We've been talking it up a lot.  You get to eat popsicles, have ice cream, play games, watch cartoons, etc.  He and O actually got into an argument over it because she was jealous of all the "lucky stuff" he got to do and eat.

Monday was surgery day.  He was actually pretty excited. 

getting his gown on

 enjoying his heated blanket

A really fun "mask doctor" came by to explain to A how he was going to go to sleep.

He did so well!  He was in surgery for 30 minutes, then E got to go back into the recovery room with him.  By the time E got back there, A was already awake, eating a popsicle, and talking to the nurse about the DS games our neighbor brought over for him to use. 

Maybe 15 minutes after E went in, they transferred A up to the pediatric floor in the PACU hall.  That's where we hung out for the rest of the day.  He got several bags of fluid, lots of popsicles and juice, and was even feeling good enough to eat mashed potatoes for dinner. 

Playing the DS

The first day home, yesterday, was pretty easy, too.  He was in good spirits, except for around medicine time.  Today, well, today hasn't been so great.  He's feeling pretty icky. :(

We're really praying that this surgery helps cure a lot of his sleep apnea related issues and that's he's back to his "normal" self soon.

holiday version of a random list

• I'll start the list out right, on a very lovely note: Eliza slept through the night last night! Can I get a "Woot! Woot!" (I'd love to say I'm well rested, but, come on. I have 4 kids. One of them is bound to wake up while on vacation.)
• It seems like O almost always has an asthma attack while we are visiting my parents.  If I count back, she's been on steroids the last 6 visits with my family.  (most of those are when we were visiting Michigan, two of them were when we went to Florida.)
• Poor O has had 1.5 weeks of various steroids in her body.  First with her rescue inhaler for several days, then the nebulizer, then an oral steroid AND the nebulizer. 
• I have introduced E to the world of Swamp People.  That show just makes me laugh a little bit. (while at the same time hiding in a corner since I have a weird fear of Alligators.)
• E and I went to Greek Town in downtown Detroit last night with some friends from college (E's old roommates.)  We left the older 3 kids at home with my parents.  It was SO fun!  The place had a lot of dairy free options for me to eat (which was wonderful) and we had a wonderful time visiting. 
• Speaking of yesterday, I had two wonderful people come visit me during the day at my parents house.  The first was my beautiful cousin, that I've blogged about before, and her baby girl.  We surprisingly didn't get along very well as small kids, but we've grown to love each other as adults.  I SO wish she was closer so we could hang out more. The second person was one of my college roommates, and a childhood friend.  It was so great to catch up.  Facebook is good at keeping some of the major details up to date, but there are some things that are just better learned in person.
• I'm dreading Christmas a little.  I actually LOVE Christmas.  It is one of my favorite holidays.  But, it is on Sunday, and we leave on Tuesday morning.  It just makes me a little bit sad to think about leaving already.
• I haven't run a single time since we've been here.  I forgot my cold weather running clothes and I'm not about to brave 38 degrees in shorts and a t shirt. 
• My momma is making pancakes for me so I'm outie. :)

Back and Forth

Yesterday I had my 36 week appointment with my OBGYN.  Overall, it went well.  Everything looked good. Lost 1.5 pounds, and my uterus still measured 36 weeks (I measured the same 2 weeks ago.)

My OB, of course, is leaving on Sunday, the 2nd, and won't be back until the 10th.  To sort of make a long story short-(ish) I'll just say that we both REALLY want her to be at my birth for several reasons.

My dr. was really hoping that I'd be dilated some yesterday, so that I can come back in on Thursday or Friday and maybe do a little stretching and get things going and started, possibly having baby girl come this weekend.  It wasn't really unrealistic, since I was dilated with O and I at 36 weeks.  (I can't remember with A.  How bad is that?!?!?)

When my dr. walked into my room she says "I want you to either be closed, or like an eight or something."  She was kidding.  Sort of.  She then says "but I doubt you will be.  I'm guessing a 3." That was my guess, too. 

Turns out, I was closer to a closed than we thought I would be.  I was a finger tip to 1.  She couldn't tell super well because my cervix was very posterior and hard to reach.  Since my OB is going out of town, I didn't really want to "make her" reach or even try to stretch me.  There's no point, really. 

Here's where I go back and forth.  Part of me feels like I totally read my body wrong, and I feel stupid for thinking I was dilated more. (Stupid, I know, but true.)  That same part of me feels slightly disappointed that we likely won't have a baby this weekend.  That same part that is happy with my weight gain RIGHT.THIS.MINUTE. and doesn't really want to gain any more.

The other part?  The other part is glad.  The other part knows this is the last time I'll likely ever be pregnant.  The last time I'll ever feel a little person move inside of me.  That other part is glad, too, since our family is just getting over a tummy bug (everyone but me got sick.  amazing!) and we have a few home improvement projects we'd like to accomplish this weekend.

Then there's this middle part.  Or maybe it's back to the first part of me, I'm not sure.  But, I just have this feeling that this little girl is going to come when my OB is gone.  It may not be in the beginning of her trip, but it may be on the last day (or two.)  That's kind of a negative part, huh?  I know it's pessimistic.  I know.  But, I keep trying to figure out what I have to do in order to have the birth I want and have the level of medical intervention I need with out having those two things get confused by the on call dr.  The good thing is that my doula should be able to help me with some of that.

Did you follow me on all of that?  I wouldn't blame you if you didn't.  Heck, I can barely follow my own thoughts.

A Quilt, my Belly, and other things

I finally got around to piecing together that quilt I mentioned in this post. I wanted to use up my scraps, as well as make something that went with all of the fabric in the room.  If you know my sewing style, I'm not on much for actual "patterns" or quilt styles.  Its too, um, formal for me.  So I laid out all of my larger scraps on top of my backing piece and my batting and sort of just pieced it all together. 

There was a point where I was about to throw the entire quilt out the window.  That point was towards the end, too.  Isaac kept crawling in my lap while I was sewing and I screwed up an entire line.  That one long stitch took me almost 2 hours to take out.

But, it's finished now.  Whew. 

Part of the quilt.  Not sure if I'm going to regret the satin fabric...

 The binding is half brown and half the brown/white fabric.  This picture has the quilt folded in on the top right corner so you can see the backing, too.

Since I uploaded some pictures from my camera, I found a few belly pictures I thought I'd share. 

This one is 34 weeks, taken right before my baby "sprinkle" that my friend D threw me.

A took this one for us.  We realized later that E's shirt was unbuttoned.  Classy.

 

These are from Monday- 35 weeks.

As a complete and utter unrelated topic, have I mentioned how much I hate staying home all day?  Isaac woke up sick last night, so we've been quarantined today.  I hate it!  I get so restless and have cabin fever!  I made an attempt to leave the house this morning, to get Zeke some medicine for his fever, but he fell asleep in the car before we even left the subdivision.  So, I made a loop and came back home.

Speaking of crazy things.  I am slowly packing my bag for The Girl's birth.  E asked me yesterday if I had packed for him.  I told him no, and he said "oh, never mind.  I'm sure we won't be in a rush to get to the hospital with how long your labors are.  I can pack then."  Thanks for that reminder, babe.

One more update to add to my hodgepodge.  We finally chose a first name for The Girl!  I'm about to bust at the seams!  I want to tell someone in a bad way.  It's probably a super good thing that we choose names late in the game.  Otherwise, I may not be able to keep it a secret. ;)  O keeps asking what her name is.  We'd tell her, but the last time we told the kids a secret (that I was pregnant) they blurted it out to my parents on the phone.  So, we're staying tight lipped.  E keeps telling the big kids that we're going to name her "George".  They think that's nonsense, and laugh hysterically.  Isaac, however, keeps saying "Baby George!"  It may end up her nickname.

He said MOMMA Elmo?!?

Isaac has been feeling less than stellar lately.  Last Wednesday night, he started with a croupy sounding cough, and nothing more.  Then, the cough got worse, so I took him into the dr. on Saturday.  He needed steroids, again, for two days. Saturday night, the poor kid started running a fever, and got really sick. Sunday morning, I was ready to take him back in.  Monday, he was sounding croupy still, so we had to give him another day's worth of steroid (which, if you've never had the torture joy of having a child on steroids, you are really missing out on some wildness/crankiness/worst-sleeping-ever-ness.)

Every day since Monday, I keep thinking, "okay, if he gets worse, I'll take him in."  Because, let's face it, I don't really want to drag 3 kids to the doctor's office ever, but especially when 2 of them are healthy. He hasn't gotten any worse, really, just kind of the same.

So, in all of his sick-glory, the kid has been extra snugly and loving (minus the steroid days when he was just mean to me).  Today, he was sitting on my lap while I was, cough, checking facebook on my phone and watching the news.  He keeps saying, what I thought was, "momma" over and over.  Seeing as how he hasn't said this, yet, I was over joyed!  I threw down my phone, looked into his sweet face, and then was immediately disappointed.  He was pointing to the t.v. at Elmo.  Saying "memo, memo", then signing "please". 

thanks, kid.  Apparently it's more important to say a furry, red, annoying puppet's name before mine.  Burn.

Patchy Ethmoid Inflammatory Disease

In this post, I was telling y'all that E was super sick the day of the wedding in which he was the best man.  I told you that it was a post I wouldn't forget, remember? I'm going to share a little bit of what happened.


Saturday morning, around 4 am, E woke up, saying he was very sick to his stomach.  I immediately thought it might be food poisoning, since we ate at a Hibachi grill place the night before.  Who knows if things get cross contaminated, etc.  But, then, around 6 am, he started complaining of a headache. 

We had hit up some garage sales the previous day that my parents wanted to go back to.  E said he thought the fresh air might help him, so we  loaded up the van and headed out.  By the end of the hour, it was evident that E was too sick to stay any longer. 

At this point, I start to get a little nervous.  I mean, he's the BEST MAN.  Not just someone who is going to the wedding, or even an usher.  He kind of has an important job.  So we started pumping him full of any kind of anti-nauseous meds we could find.  Pepto-check.  Pepcid- check.  Tums-check. Then we found an anti-nausea med-check.  Nothing was helping.  He was still bed ridden.

Around 12, I start to get really nervous.  We had to leave about 1 or so to be at the wedding on time.  E was still in bed, and the kids and I had to get showered and dressed.  About 12:05, the power in my parent's house goes out. Nice.  The kids and I hop into the shower anyway.  When I get out, I start contemplating blow drying my hair with the leaf blower. (I know.  I was desperate.)

I get O's flower girl dress on, and most of A's tux, and go to find E to tell him we have to get ready to leave.  Thankfully, the power came back on, and I could blow dry hair in the appropriate manner.  E is too sick to drive, so I drive us to the wedding.  The entire time, E is sighing heavily, leaning back, and looking quite pale (well, paler than normal.)

We got to the wedding on time, and E made it through the ceremony (It was an outdoor wedding, but thankfully E was in the shade- unlike the other groomsmen.)  I then have to find something to do with all 3 kiddos for 2 hours.

Hmmm....  I lived in this area for years.  In fact, I nannied for 2 years around the same parts.   I know what to do with kids.  However, what I don't know what to do with is kids in wedding attire.  Can't go to the park.  Can't go eat. Can't go to the hands on museum. Etc, etc, etc.  I take them to the mall, just to walk around.  We, of course, forgot the stroller, so I end up carrying Isaac the entire time.

When we got the to reception, it was cocktail hour.  Still 1 hour before the wedding party arrives.  The kids, at this point, were W.I.L.D. They were tired from no naps, lots of wedding excitement, and extremely sugared up on the candy bar they had set up in the lobby.  You can imagine the torture that ensued for me.

The wedding party arrived, but E had to stay at the head table for a while.  I was having so many contractions at this point that I couldn't eat.  I was miserable.  However, after E ate, he was a new man.  He felt 100% better in a matter of 10 minutes.

We came to the conclusion that E had a migraine.  Not his first, actually.  He's had several over the course of the last year.  When he mentioned this to his dr. last week, they suggested he have an MRI done on his brain to rule out the scary stuff. 

They called him on Friday with the diagnosis.  Patchy Ethmoid Inflammatory Disease.  Basically, a sinus infection.  Since he has no symptoms, he could have had this particular infection for a while, even up to a year.  One of the main symptoms is headaches.  They called in an antibiotic to clear it up since the infection is so close to his brain. 

*an aside: When he called to tell me, I seriously thought he was kidding me.  He's that kind of person.  He would totally make something like that up to pull my chain. (The funny part is that E's mom thought he made it up, too.)

The hope is that the antibiotics will clear the infection and hopefully rid him of the migraines.  If not, he may need sinus surgery down the road.  I'm so glad for him.  At least he doesn't have to suffer, with out a general/untreatable answer like "hormones" for the rest of his life.

Lots of thoughts, nothing to say

Over the course of the summer, it seems like I am always coming up with good ideas for blog posts.  However, it seems that between the thought, and the actually sitting down, with time, to blog, it disappears.  I'm left with nothing.  Noth. Ang.

But, I always have pictures. At least I'm good for something.

Did I share these with you, yet?  I know I shared the wedding dancing video, but I don't think I shared the pictures I took immediately before the wedding.  There's a whole long story as to why I'm not in any of them.  Mainly, it has to do with a man with a migraine, (my husband) who happened to be the best man in the wedding as well, who could barely function.

That's a blog post topic that I can remember.  Trust me on that one. ;) 



A and O before the wedding.  They may have been fighting.

 Go, go, gadget eyes!

 E, giving his best even-though-I-feel-like-throwing-up-I'll-smile, smile.

 What did Zeke do during the wedding? Ate goldfish.  Lots and lots of them.



Being the 3rd child means...

...getting every illness known to man kind because your big siblings are notoriously bad at staying out of your face before they wash their hands.

...having built in play-mates.

...passing a googly eye with your BM.

...your mommy hardly raises an eyebrow upon seeing the eye in the BM (But does take a picture to show daddy later to have a good laugh.)

...getting things constantly ripped out of your mouth that are choking hazards.  Like said googly eye. And Legos.  And Polly Pockets. And the list goes on.

...getting to eat peanut butter waaaaay before your siblings did.  Mainly because they feed it to you.

...having a mommy who is way more relaxed than someone who is a 1st child. (i.e. walking, talking, climbing, picky eating, not drinking milk.)  You'll do whatever it is you're going to do when you are ready and when you want to do it.

...having a mommy who realizes how quickly you really do grow up.

...having siblings pull, prod, and dress you up like a girl.

...a mommy and daddy who will snuggle, rock, and smell your head when you are sick. (and love every minute of the snuggles!)

This will be funny some day

Every time we spend time with my parents, someone gets sick.  Last time, when we went to Michigan, O ended up in the ped's office with Reactive Airway Disease issues.  The time before that, O had an ear infection. Once, my mom had RSV.  Another, everyone got the stomach bug.

This visit- Isaac got croup on thursday night.  We avoided the ped's office friday, since they just called in his meds.  Friday night, he screamed a good portion of the night.  He and I ended up spending over 3 hours in the nearest Urgent Care for his ear infections on Christmas day. He screamed for hours on saturday night as well. Yesterday, he started running a fever. 

Christmas Eve, my mom threw up for a few hours.  Along with Isaac's fever yesterday, O woke up with croup, and I woke up with a cold as well.  My brother sounds like HE has croup, and my dad woke up today with a cold, too.

Its quite comical when I think back about how often we get sick when my parents are around.  I can almost see the humor in it all now.  Almost. 

I couldn't decide

Its been a while since I posted.  The reasons/excuses are too many to count.  So, I told myself that I HAD to blog today.  But, you see, I couldn't decide what to post.  Should I blog about the fun adventures of Halloween weekend, playing it up like life is full of unicorns and rainbows?  Or, should I blog about what really happened- life full of puke and poop and chaos?

I still can't decide.  So, I'll leave you with a day-by-day recap of just this weekend.

Friday:

A's school has an awesome Halloween party every year.  They do an indoor-style trick-or-treating, going to different offices/people, and playing Halloween themed games.  What I like best about it is that they try to give out things other than candy.  like books, water bottles, pretzels, etc. (of course, they totally serve chips and cookies at the end, though.)

A monkey on my back

A and his BFF (he's the man in the yellow hat, if you didn't know.)

I swear, E looks like this in the majority of our pictures.

He's really thrilled to be doing this, can't you tell?

The Zekester and his fingers.

E came to the festival, but had to leave early.  I hustle the kids back to the car, unload our goodies, and head for home.  We arrive home, and I start getting the boys ready for nap time.  A takes off his costume and is stark naked when the phone rings.  O has thrown up at school and I need to pick her up.

Rush around, get A dressed, get I dressed, and get back in the car. (Thankfully, the schools is right around the corner, so it doesn't take long to get there.)  Run into the school to pick up O, who starts bawling the minute she sees me.  I try to calm her down, reassure her its going to be okay.  I get her into her car seat, buckle her up.

Now, what I did next is just pure mommy instinct.  O didn't say her tummy hurt or anything, she just started coughing.  I undid her buckle and yanked her out of the van.  As I did that, she started throwing up everywhere.  Thankfully, since I had already started the process of getting her out of the car, only a tiny bit of yucky stuff got on the floor (but, man, does that stuff smell!)  It was all over her, and all over the walk way.  I went back in, got paper towels, and the nurses had to come out and help me clean her up.

I'll leave out what happened the rest of the day Friday.  I'm sure you can guess what I did, including canceling fun plans to go out with friends and canceling O's plans to spend the night with Grandma.

Saturday:

Besides the lack of sleep, we had a pretty decent Saturday.  We put all of the kids down for early naps, since O was up a lot in the night and A got up at 4:45 because he saw the bathroom light on and thought it was morning.  O slept for almost 5 hours.  When she woke up, she was like a new kid!  I took her and I to Publix while E and A built a fire (in our new fire pit) to cook hot dogs in for dinner.

Sunday: 

Sometime early Sunday morning, A got sick.  I stayed home with A and I, while E and O went to church.  We realized that the Halloween party we had planned, was NOT going to be happening at our house.  So, we found an alternative venue, which ended up being a lot more work than it sounds.  It was extremely stressful trying to get everything over there.  Then, I couldn't even enjoy it because I stayed home with the boys!


But, we did have a wonderful time trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.  Austin was feeling fine, so he came along.  Isaac was a peach, as always.  He even got a little vocal at the end, with lots of screeching and yelling.

O as the tooth fairy                                                   A watching O leave.

He perked right up when I started getting him dressed

for trick-or-treating, though.

My poor third child.  This is the only picture of

him in his costume on Halloween.  Sniff.

After the fun!

So, after all of the fun, we quickly put all of the kids to bed, and settled down to raid the treat bucket.  I heard I, over the monitor,  starting to cough.  I ran upstairs (for some reason, coughing seems to lead to puking when the tummy bug is going around) and found little guy covered in throw up.  He was so upset.  I felt so bad for him, just sitting there in his mess. 

E and I cleaned that all up and put him back down, only to come back upstairs to find the same scenario 15 minutes later.  I decided then, to just hold him for a while.  When I was ready to go to bed, I put him down.  I was expecting to have him wake up a lot, but he didn't.  So, at 5, I went ahead and nursed him.  Big. Mistake.  DURING the nursing session, he threw up again. 

So, he's recovering today.  I'm recovering today, from having a very icky weekend, full of lots of laundry.  But, I'm also feeling a tiny bit grateful for a few things. 

1. Mainly for a husband that is quick to help and has a strong stomach for icky smells.
2. For a husband who was home (since E travels pretty frequently.) 
3. That I's tummy only had milk in it when he vomited all over me. 
4. That I has been sleeping through the night, thus giving me a tiny bit more rest to deal with other night wakings from other children.
5.that we have no other children in our house right now to catch this tummy bug.  (we're the only one's left.)

So, there you have it.  A bit of the nitty-gritty, a bit of the unicorns.  My indecision at its best.

things I've learned recently

1. I lurve the Internet.  Ours has been on again, off again for the last few days, (and mostly off again yesterday and today.)and I've come to realize how much I rely on it.  For things like checking Olivia's lunch schedule (which they do not have a hard copy of!) finding a phone number, or a recipe.  I use it for everything.

2.  I can't hear Zeke at night if his door is closed.  I magically slept all the way through the night last night.  I have a feeling that he did not.  I feel bad.  I can actually hear him if he cries with his door shut most of the time.   However, I was extremely exhausted from the previous two nights of screaming/crying that I must have slept through it.

3.   I do not want to ever be a single parent.  Enough said, don't you think?

4.  Kids will always get sick at once, when your husband is out of town.  Again, I think this one is self-explanatory.

5.  There is a time and a place for lots of T.V.  Like right now, with two sick big kids (one has an ear infection and the other one came home from school with a tummy that hurts.) 

6. You never stop worrying if your child is progressing normally.  I've definitely chilled out some, but I still worry about Isaac.  Even though he's my third.  He doesn't really babble all that much, and it concerns me.  So much so, that texted a friend who is a speech pathologist (at O's school, actually) and asked her what she thinks.  I'll let you know what she says. I really think its because he has those two fingers in his mouth all.of.the.time.  (ETA, she said she thinks he's fine.  He's babbling with other sounds...)

7. I love candy corn.  Actually, this isn't something that I've learned.  Its something I already know.  that's why the bag of candy corn is still closed, in the closet, away from me.  I'm still thinking about it, though.  Luckily, its ear marked for A's school party.  I can't eat it.  I can't eat it.  I can't eat it.... 

8.  You can take a child to the zoo, but you can't make him walk.  I drove 2 hours to the zoo to have something fun/cheap to do with the kids while E was gone this weekend.  I ended up carrying the baby in the Moby, and pushing a, rather large and grumpy, boy in the umbrella stroller.  I tried and tried to get him to walk.  But, he knew, in the end, I wasn't turning around and driving home with out seeing the animals.  Stinker.

Well, there goes my blogging for the day.  My Internet may go down any second again, and I have things to do. 

In the mean time, does any one know of any gloves for finger suckers?  I found those kind that have the mitten/fingerless gloves for A.  I am having a hard time for I.  I may just cut the fingers off of a pair of smallish gloves.  What do you all think?

NDL day!

its national de-lurker day. :) come out and say "hi".

we are currently trying to figure out what is going on with baby I. I'm currently typing with one hand,(baby in the other) so I'll be brief.

Right now, I has been:
projectile vomiting
pulling off constantly while he nurses
coughing
choking

Last night, during one of his coughing/choking spells, he about took 5 years off of my life. E called the pediatrician today and we are trying to get a referral to the pediatric GI.

anyway, come out and say "hi" lurkers and non-lurkers alike!