Another Week

This week has been a little quite, we still have a ton going on, but it has been nice to have a little down time too. The kids had there awards program on Tuesday, I remember when I was in school it was a huge deal, the program would be during a PTA meeting and most if not all the school would be there. Now it is done in their class rooms and they say their names out over the intercom. I am disappointed at that, they should make a bigger deal of A and AB honor roll, I feel that if a child has tried that hard to make all A’s then they want to be recognized for that effort, then if they aren’t they might not try as hard, both of my kids made AB honor roll. Collin has been making A honor roll, but slipped with his English grade this time. I know he tries though, Madalyn’s B’s are in English and Reading too.

April got a job at the daycare when Aden goes to school, she just started on Tuesday, and she said she likes it fine, but I know it’s not what she wants to be doing, but will work for now. I don’t blame her for that I mean I love my kids, but I wouldn’t want to take them to work with me where I was also taking care of other peoples kids as well as mine and then come home and take care of my kids with no help from their father. She is in the baby room, so she has Chloe and 2 other babies everyday, and then on Mondays she has Landon too wile I am in Bible study for about 2 hours.

Katlyn went to the doctor yesterday; she has been having some joint/bone problems. Back about 6 months ago, she kept falling down and saying her leg hurt, so April took her to the ER one Saturday and the doctors said her hip was swollen and had fluid build up on it and it was infected. So they gave her some antibiotics an appointment with an orthopedic, who said it was growing pains. Well mom had read and Google some and was not happy with growing pains, so my grandmother talked with her doctor who suggested they take Katlyn to an arthritis doctor, and that is where April took her yesterday. The doctor took 2 vials of blood and is 98% sure she has JRA, they gave April a pain medicine for Katlyn to take everyday, and she goes back in 6 weeks. They would not have given her meds if they didn’t believe she has this. The other things the doctor said were signs that we all over looked are, her red cheeks, we always thought she was over heated, because she has done that all her life, she wines a lot, but she is two and almost all two year olds wine a bunch, waking up in the middle of the night crying and asking for water, well Katlyn has been through a lot and we figured once she got settled somewhere all that would stop, those are all signs of JRA. I put her on the prayer list at church and after the service a lady came up to me and said she has a 19 year old son who has JRA and she gave me some numbers including her own incase April wanted to call and talk to her. CRS will give her all her treatments free, she and April will get a bunch of help from them, they are the ones that do the feeding clinic Landon went to, and so after they get Katlyn’s blood work back and they say for sure she has JRA, we will make sure she gets set up with them. In the mean time we are just praying.

Landon had begun to be a picky eater. I am not sure where that is coming from, I a hoping he doesn’t loose any weight, I need to make him an appointment for his 18 months check up, he never had a 15 month check up because of all the ear infections he was having and he was so sick that wile they checked his weight they didn’t do his height of head measurements. The GI doctor did them and said they were fine, but even that was a couple months ago. I am hoping he is well next week. The doctor’s office is closed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for Mardi Gras, and I know they will be full on Thursday and Friday because of them closing, so I guess it will be the 2nd week in February before I will be able to get him in. He is also behind on his shots, He got the 12 month shots, but is due for his 15 and his 18 months shots, they can’t get them all at one time so I am guessing he’ll be getting some at 2years old, and maybe even after that, I am not sure what all he’s missing at this point, ah well just another reason we really need to go in. Jason thinks we need a new Pediatrician because she didn’t send us to the ENT. I have tried to tell him that most Pediatricians think that ear tubes have no place in medicine for kids, but he is still up set with her, even more now that we have seen what a difference they have made with Landon’s hearing. With all that I have looked up on the Development of Language now is the most important time for hearing in a person’s life, and in the past week and a half he has went from a 12 month speech development to having mastered the 15 month skills and some has some of the18 month skills too. I am so happy he has no long lasting hearing damage, we were worried about that one, but as far as we can tell he has none.

Like Day in Night

Landon has done amazing in the past week with his tubes, we had to do ear drops for the 1st 5 days, and he really hated that, so we decided to do them wile he was asleep. He doesn’t mind wearing his hat wile he’s out side, the doctor didn’t say he has to wear a hat outside, but it has been real windy the past few days that I want to be sure he’s not hurting at all. His speech has picked up some, enough that I don’t think he is behind at all any more, He can say and use the following words, Mommy, Daddy, See, Look, Uh-Oh, Me, Eat, and Up although Up is more Uhh— raises his hands at the same time. I think that’s great for 18/16 months. He still doesn’t speak a lot, but if needed he can. I left him at day-care today he cried when I left, but was all smiles when I picked him up, that is until he saw me then he started crying again.

I was in Bible study wile he was in the day-care, so he was only there for 2 hours. I have a great time in my Women’s bible study; the women in there are wonderful and full of faith in God. I have learned so much and made some great friends, we just started a new one this week, I am glad to be back in I missed it. It is at the church where the day-care is at; we don’t go there it’s a 20 minute drive on a good day. We have been going to Air-port blvd Church, We really like it there and it’s only about 5 minutes from the house. The kids have a ton of friends that go there and they get along with everyone. We have thought about joining the church there, we go most Wed nights and I am hoping to start going on Sundays when RSV season is over.

Ear Tube Day

Landon got his ear tubes this morning and as I type he is running around the house. He fells better than he has in months. We had to be at the Hospital at 6am and surgery was at 7am. We had been told 5am, but after speeking with admit yeasterday they said for a child as young as he his 6 would be just fine. So we got all the paper work done, and they took us right back, to the Pre-OP area, as soon as we got through the doors Landon started crying, I felt bad for him because he knew being there it must not be good for him (it never is). The nurse listened to him really good becasue he has had a cough for a few days, but his chest sounded clear and that ment we could go ahead with the surgery, Then the "sleepy doctor" as the nurse called him, came in and talked to us, he thought Landon's reflux might be a problem so he called in another doctor who only deals with children and he was great, explained every thing that they were going to do, before, during, and after for Landon, and what would happened if he refluxed on the table, then for resons I am unsure of a 3rd came in and asked a few more reflux question and said I was a great mom for remembering his whole reflux background. All 3 of the doctors were with him in surgery. Then Dr. Elliot (the ENT) came in and looked him over very quickly and said I could walk him to the double doors of the OR but then they would just take him, it broke my heart to have to hand him over to them wile he was still awake, but we both did as good as any one would expect. We went to the waiting room and in about 20 minutes the doctor came out, she said Landon was being takin t recovery and doing just fine. He did have fluied behind his ear drumb, so she drainned it and we have to give him ear drops 2 times a day for 5 days. She said it would be about 20 more minutes before we could see him, but about 5 minutes later a nurse came in and said Landon was crying and they could not calm him down and needed me, Yes I was glad was needed, then by the time I got around to where he was he was asleep, But they let me stay and watch him sleep, He had an IV , something the dr had said he wouldn't need, I asked whay he had one and the nurse got the sleepy doctor LOL for me. He said Landon needed to be tubed wile on the table, they are not sure if it was from the reflux or not, but with the breathing tubes comes an IV. Other than that though he did really good. He woke up good and we were out the door at 9am. On our way home Jason was saying how he wanted to eat and I said I was not sure about taking Landon to eat I thought we should just go home, Landon said "I EAT" I guess he made up his own mind!! He is walking better and seemes to understand more of what we are saying I think he just hears us better now. I am going to hold off on the eval for his speeck for a month, If he begins to speek more and I see inprovement I will not call them but I still want to get his hearing tested, it sure won't hurt any thing to do that. He is still on a 12 month speech level and he just turned 18 months, 15 if you adjust his age, and Early intervintion wiill for a speech eval and that is right at the 25% needed for services, I am hoping now that he can hear he won;t need any of that. He slept when we got home from 11am till 2pm, and looks like he needs another nap, I think he will sleep good tonight and be a happy baby in the morning.

An Amazing Story

If you look at my links to the left there is one called CF, it is an amazing story of a Woman who has CF and her 25 weeker, born last week. It is written by her husband. It is well worth the time spent reading, they are full of faith and need all of our prayers.

ENT Here We Come

We went in to the ENT today, I love this doctor. She is very down to earth and young too, so she gets it. She was very concened about Landon's ear infection he is on his 4th is 5 months, but she thinks the fluied in his ears has ben there for the whole 5 months. That makes me fill awful, for him, both of his ears are still infected and looked untreated, so I shouldn't hold out much hope for them to clear on up. It was up to me to do the tubes or not, but she suggested we go ahead with them, If we decided not to do them she would have to drain his ears any way and that takes 2 minutes for each ear tubes take 5 minutes each ear and can drain and do tubes at the same time so we are going to do them. She wanted to do them tomarrow, but our insurance will not pay for us to do it at the surgery center up stairs from the office, they want us to go to the hospital, The hospital didn't have any slots for tomarrow so we are going in next week. It works out better for us because I have an appointment with the march of dimes tomarrow, of course I would have done his tubes if they would have had a slot.

Go an Appointment

Someone cancled an appointment with the ENT we want to see, and they slid us in. We go tomarrow at 10am!!

What a Weekend

We had a wild weekend; First Friday was Jason’s 32nd birthday. April watched all our kids so we could go have a nice dinner with out ordering something off the kids menu, and having no choice but to leave a huge tip because of the mess the kids have made. We had a really good time; we were going to then see a movie and by showing our age, neither of us wanted to sit though a 3 hour movie at 9:55pm, I mean we would have gotten in after mid-night!! How old do we sound? So we came home. April had all the kids asleep, so we fell asleep watching some movie in the bed. What a Birthday bash that was. Then on Saturday Jason got called into work an hour before Madalyn’s basketball game, I don’t like to take all four of the kids anywhere by myself, I do a lot, but I try not to. Then I forgot that Ball pictures were Saturday too, that made us get home a little later, by the time we did get home, April, her two girls, ex, and ex’s parents were at our house. They were only here for a few minutes, and that’s a good thing because as soon as they left Jason’s parents and there whole crew got here. We had Jason a cake and ice cream, with his family and had to get ready to go to our ball rehearsal. My sister Heather came over to watch the kids, so we could go to the rehearsal, and that went very well.

Landon is sick again. I am not sure what we are going to do with him. We wound up taking him back to the doctor and getting him another shot and I am giving him the antibiotic by mouth. He has started throwing up and I can’t tell what it’s from, he either A) is still sick B) the antibiotic is giving him problems, or C) his reflux is getting worse, or the previacid is not working as well as it had been. What ever it is made him puke a bunch today and last night!
One of the other moms at basketball yesterday, told me a lot about ears and tubes and speech, after hearing all she has to say, I am going to take Landon to the ENT, even if Dr. McNair doesn’t think he needs to go. With the ear infections and lack of speech combined I really a starting to worry not only that, but with all the High dose of medicine they give him with ever ear infection he gets, what is going to happen when he gets some other type of infection? Will the antibiotics work? Or will he have gotten them so much they will be less affective? I can’t take the risk he will get something bad and the doctors will have nothing to treat it with, because they used it for ear infections. I got the name and number from the other mom I talked with and they take our insurance. I take Landon back to the doctor on the 22nd and I will be asking for a referral. If she doesn’t think he needs to go, I will get him medical records about the infection and the meds he has had to have to get rid of them, make the appointment myself, and take Landon and the medical records when we go. I hope she sends him though, cause I really think he needs to go.

Starting the year off running

A week into the New Year and we have already taken Landon to the doctor. His right ear is infected, his left one didn’t look far from being infected, and his sinuses are stopped up so they were on their way to being infected to!! Dr.McNair (our ped) gave Landon a shot of Rocephin in the office to give us a jump start on the Antibiotics, and an Rx for omniecef that he started today. We are being very aggressive with this ear infection, because the last one he had lasted for 6 weeks and it took all 3 Rocephin shots to get rid of it. I am hoping this takes care of it. If not we will have to go see the ENT, and possibly get tubes in his ears, and wile I understand tubes are not so bad, I have dealt with enough in the past 17 months and this is not something I want to deal with. I will of course deal with it, I just don’t want to!!

The other 3 kids went back to school on Monday and they have been nothing but cranky!! They didn’t want to get up and go on Monday, then today they asked how many more days they had to go. I said 2, Thursday and Friday. Collin said Oh good then I will be in 2nd grade. Hahaha No! Collin then you are out for the weekend and you go back to school. The looks on their faces were priceless. Aden is having a hard time staying awake after I get him from school, but if I left him sleep then he won’t go to bed at night, so I am not sure what I am going to do about that one! I am not sending him to school tomorrow; I rarely do on Thursday just because he is so tired.

On my AOL Preemie message board there was a post about the Washington School of Medicine doing a study on Preemies, I followed the link and filled out a short page of questions, then I got an e-mail today asking me to be apart of the research project, I gladly accepted and they are sending me a package in the mail, I am thinking I will be filling out a book for them as the email said to take my time filling it out. They also want us to take DNA test. The doctor I was emailing said that is because he thinks preterm labor and delivery could run in families, There are other people with preemies in my family, (1st cousin) so I think that might make since. He also said that if they can find a strain of DNA that causes preterm labor, then they would know who was at risk and who was “safe” and that could lead to ending Preterm Labor, or at least stopping or postponing delivery to give the baby a better chance. He said we are perfect for the study because we don’t know why I had the boys early and that all my preemies are boys!!

Happy New Year

It's 2008!! and still feels the same. Not much has changed just more scraches on the paper from writing 2007!

We are all doing good, I am so ready for school to start back, I can't believe it has only been 2 weeks, how will i ever get through 3 months in the summer. The kids have had a blast of course and are not ready to go back. They will start 3rd quarter when they go back, and the second half of the year is always harder, they are done reviewing everything they did last year and are doing totaly new stuff. Aden has asked everyday for a week when he goes back to school. He loves it there.

Landon used his first word yeasterday. My mom was over for a bit and when she was leaving and had already told everyone including Landon bye, and was walking out the door, Landon looks up from the high chair and said Bye wile waving. That all is a first. He has waved and he has said bye, but he has never done doth at the same time and he has never said bye wile someone was actually leaving. I am hoping this will lead to him taking more and using those words. He has also been saying momma more but not really calling me mamma. He has started to point and grunt at things too, that is a big YAY. At least he is trying and I am doing less of the guessing game about what he wants/needs.

I am getting excited about the upcoming Mardi Gras season. The 1st Parade is Saturday, after the city is having a block party and then downtown is always there. I even have a sitter, thanks to mom. I am going to take the kids to the parade tho. as long as it is not as cold as it was today. WOW did you know that it was only 18* this morning and with the wind chill it felt like it was 5*, that is C-O-O-L, I hate my kids have been stuck in the house for the past few days. I just can't let them out and get sick.

Landon still has a runny nose, but no fever, he has been feeling better too. I hope his nose clears up soon!