Catching up!

Sorry guys to leave you all behind things have just been busy. I can't imagine that I'm ever going to catch up on all my blog reading and I've missed it!


First thing James is doing great! He is eating, drinking, and sleeping and acting like a 2 year old which isn't always a good thing! We didn't have to take him to the ER although Friday, and Saturday were just as rough. Sunday he woke up in a great mood and drank and ate a little and then proceeded to do great the rest of the day. He wouldn't eat anything but candy so we finally realized he was fine just playing us a little and put a stop to that Monday morning. We saw the ENT Tuesday and all is well most of his scab is off and he looks great despite the 3 lb weight loss. We go back in 6 months just to check the tubes.

On Saturday my sister in law and neices arrived from Colorado and they just left this morning so we have been busy visiting with them. The kids loved their Aunt Pam however I realized after they left I got no pictures of them together what is wrong with me?

Easter was fun well most of it anyway. The kids were excited about their baskets when they woke up and loved looking for all the eggs especially Abigail. We went to Grandmas for dinner with the family and Katie and James did have a major melt down that required I take them to the car and threaten to take them home. After a few minutes they stoppped and the rest of the day went great.

Here are some pics for you from Easter I must now try to catch up on the lives of my blogging friends!!! Thank you all SO much for your prayers and support during James's recovery I will only say that it was horrible and in many ways it was much worse than the 6 week NICU stay!

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No good news

I have no good news to report just the same crap that I've now been writting for a week.
James is still not drinking or eating or doing much of anything for more than short periods of time. He lays on me and cries "owie mommy" about 80% of the day, even in his sleep I can hear him whimpering.

His lips are very dry and we are only peeing once or twice a day so unless we have a great improvement soon we will be in the urgent care tomorrow for IV fluids.

I called the dr today and was told to go back to pain meds every 4-6 hours round the clock to try to get on top of the pain and give him a dose of motrin to see if that helps. Otherwise I have to force fluids the same way I force pain meds.

Praying the poor baby wakes up tomorrow refreshed and drinks! The dr said 1 week of hell so tomorrow at 9AM he should be better right?

Thanks everyone for your kind words and encouragement I'll let you know what tomorrow brings!

Up Down Up Down

That's my emotions I'm talking about! I somehow think if I can make it through this week I deserve an award and a vacation!!!

James is doing a little better slowly increasing his fluid intake although still not where it should be. He is still crying tears (mostly at medicine time) and he is still peeing (although it's getting darker) so far no dehydration, he must be getting enough. He is so much happier while taking the pain meds but getting the child to take them is pure torture for me and him. I have to hold him down with my full body and blow in his face and pray that he at least gets half of it down! Did I say how much fun this was? Better yet did I express how wonderful of a mother this makes me feel?

When I'm not holding onto the poor boy I'm holding a girl, they are really getting jealous more so Abigail than Katie. This was obvious by the lack of toys strewn across my house today regardless of the fact that it poured rain all day long so we never left the house. They really didn't want to do much except be on me, sitting, climbing, reading, whatever.

Yesterday I thought I was going to lose my mind, I guess the stress of the surgery and loss of sleep caught up with me, that and the 2 girls that came home rotten! I know I was way harder on the girls than they deserved I just couldn't seem to control my emotions and actually cried several times (again mostly medicine time). I ate so much crap I'm sure the scale will suck this weekend.

One of the hardest things with the girls is explaining why they can't have whatever brother is getting. He will only drink flavored bubble water so I let him of course, well the girls don't understand that brother is sick and that's why he gets it they get plain water. This also comes up when James decides he is hungry because he hasn't eaten much of anything I'm constantly offering him something and every time Abigail and Katie hear this the want whatever it was. I really hope all my children make it through this experience without hating me.

5 days down............

Surgery and recovery

So after a long night and fighting a 2 year old for over 24 hours no to drink I have a free second.

The girls have been with my aunts since Thursday night and I'm missing them like crazy! We got James up just in time to leave yesterday morning and left without even changing his diaper so we didn't have to fight not having his milk. To my surprise he never asked for anything to drink or eat yay!

We checked and were put in a room where he quickly became fascinated with the buttons on the bed. The tv button was a huge hit! We waited for a short time and then they gave him a sedative to drink and I carried him to pre surgery holding area. This was the funniest part of the whole day the child acted drunk almost immediately trying to touch things and not being able to and laughing. It really was funny. The dr and antistesioligist came in and talked to us and then they took him away. I haven't been that scared since the day they were born and wheeled away from me.

The surgery was over in about 45 minutes and the dr came out and said all was well. He said that the left tonsil was really bad that as soon as he touched it with the probe it started oozing yucky yellow crap. He said he had never seen one that bad on a child his size usually not until they are teenagers. I have to tell you this was the biggest relief to me it means I made the right decision and this hell is all worth it. For sure we would have been back there at some point.

It took about 10 minutes before they let me back but it felt more like weeks I swear I had awful thoughts about him coming out of recovery. When they let us back I could hear him crying as soon as they opened the door and I'm pretty sure I ran to him and cried. He was very upset but they gave him to me and after a few minutes he settled down. They let me carry him and they wheeled us back to his room, this was very strange since I was never wheeled out of this same hospital holding a child!

We were finally able to leave about 130 after he kept down a few drinks of milk. Then the real fun started. I fought him every 30 minutes trying to get him to drink anything or eat a Popsicle. He wouldn't do either until 530 when he ate 3 mini Popsicles. That was the last thing the child drank until after 9 this morning even though I woke him up every 4 hours and tried everything he would let it run out of his mouth or gag.

I called grandma at 9 and told her she must come try and she did. Can you believe with every option given to the child the only thing we could get him to drink was grandmas coffee!! Ya I know coffee for a 2 year old your thinking? Well I have never been so happy for my children to drink coffee as I was this morning. I thought for sure we were going to the ER today!

I've continued to fight him all day but he is taking sips and is still having tears and wet diapers so I guess it is enough for now. He is also up playing in short bursts so hopefully tomorrow will be closer to normal.

Here are a couple of pics for you of yesterday.
Before Surgery with Grandma







After surgery attempting to eat the Popsicle







With Daddy






With Grandma holding his graham cracker ya he ate some if it!






Crashed at home!

James Update

I only have a second but I know many of you have been thinking of us today and I wondering how James was. He is very uncomfortable and we are having hell getting fluids down and he is fighting a temperature but he is ok.
I'll post all the details tomorrow but thank you all so much for your prayers I definitely felt them today.
Good night.

Our Day at the Park

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Hallucinations and tricycles

Let me start by first thanking each of you that commented on my last post, your kind words were really appreciated. I am still very torn but as of right now the surgery is still on for Friday with the tonsil removal. I'll continue to pray for guidance in the meantime.

Ok now to the more fun stuff!! Friday morning Katie woke up with a 102 degree temperature. I didn't give her anything because other than being a little clingy she was acting fine. By 1115 her temp was up to 104.3 and she was very clingy, so I gave her Motrin. She went down for a nap at 130 and seemed to be doing better the temp was down to 102. At 315 she woke up and I immediately knew something was wrong she was on fire. I took her temp and the thermometer said 104.7 and I knew this couldn't be right because it had only been 4 hours since she got her 6 hour medicine so of course I took it again with another thermometer which read 105!

To say that I freaked out a little would be a little of an understatement I was shaking. I tried took her shirt off and tried putting a wash cloth on her while I fumbled for the phone to call the dr but she screamed like I was hurting her. Abigail came to me and said " no mommy don't hurt my sister". The dr's office called me back and said to bring her straight in since it was so close to 5 and the weekend.

I threw shoes on all 3 kids and ran out the door shaking and almost crying for my baby as she cried " I ok mommy, I ok", clearly she was not! When we go to the dr the real fun started she started having hallucinations I swear! She was freaking out about butterflies and wouldn't get out of the car. By the time I got her in the office she was fine and then another couple of minutes later she screamed bloody murder, several of the staff ran out to see what was the matter that's how awful this scream was. Finally she told me their were bugs and she held onto me like nothing else. Around this same time she toots and has a blow out diarrhea diaper.

We go back and the nurse takes her temperature and its down to 99.9, now how in the hell did this happen? The child wouldn't let me go and continued to freak out while we were in the dr office but as soon as we got home she was fine! The dr said she had some fluid in her ears but they didn't look infected so he figured it was probably just a virus, he did give us an antibiotic just in case. The child ran a little fever at 2am that night but other than that she is fine, nothing wring with her. How can a child go from 105 to normal so quickly? That child is going to push me over the top I think!

We had more excitement this weekend as the kids got tricycles! They loved them and had so much fun riding them in the driveway and then playing in the back of daddy's truck. They all tried so hard to actually peddle both girls crashed more than once but no one ever cried!

James ENT

Just an update on my little man. He saw the ENT on Tuesday for a follow up and he is scheduled for surgery next Friday March 14 to have tubes placed, his adenoids and tonsils removed. I'm very scared and not entirely sure that I'm making the right decision regarding the tonsils. Heck who am I kidding I'm not sure I'm making the right decision period!

He has fluid in both ears and the the tympanogram showed no movement in either ear he had a complete flat line in both. This means that his ear drum isn't moving and the way the Dr explained it basically James hears everything like he is underwater which may explain his speech. As for the adenoids it is a quick easy removal and to the best of my understanding he doesn't really need them anymore also if they are enlarged it can affect his speech.

As for the tonsils I'm not sure that we have a valid reason to remove them. James is a VERY light sleeper and a mouth breather and his tonsils are enlarged. The tonsils can stay enlarged or they could shrink to normal. Some people with enlarge tonsils have no problems at all others have recurrent tonsillitis and strep throat, there is also a possibility that his tonsils could affect his speech. There is some discus ion in the medical community regarding tonsil removal and the effect on immunity.

The Dr explained that he doesn't usually like to remove tonsils before the age of 3 because of the possibility of blood loss and blood volume but James is 28 lbs so he said that wasn't a big concern. My question was if we don't remove them now what are the chances they will need to be removed later and he said there was a good possibility, but as I previously stated there is the possibility they won't. As a mommy I'm thinking if we remove them now he won't have to risk going under anesthesia again. There is also a potential link between removal of tonsils and less asthma problems and since James has asthma I'm all for helping him with that! Also the older he gets the harder the recovery can be.

So I went ahead and said to remove the tonsils but every since then I've seriously wondered if I'm doing the right thing. Jim is not much help he doesn't have any real opinion other than if we don't remove them now and he has to go back it will cost us more in co pays! I've asked everyone their opinion and no one wants to come right out and say ya that's what I would do or no I would wait. I get the same ole well you are his mom and you know best.

Maybe my mom license should be taken away and given to a much more competent person? So if you have any experience on this subject or not you can just tell me what you think and what you would do!

Thanks.

I cook for what?

Why do I bother?
Tonight I cooked Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, and broccoli slaw. My children ate strawberries and the dog had Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes. Gee glad I spent that hour in the kitchen cooking a nice healthy meal for my kids.

Night on the Town

Jim and I decided it was time to split these kids up and go out, so tonight the girls and I went out with Grandma and James went with daddy. We decided even before the kids were born that we thought it would be important to spend time with the kids one on one. We haven't been great about doing it though, I will occasionally take Abigail out with me to run errands on the weekend simply because she doesn't nap as long as the others and Jim has taken James for a couple of daddy son trips.

So Grandma and I took the girls out for a nice steak dinner and then ice cream, James went to McDonalds and to see some of daddy's friends. I think I got the best end of the deal because Grandma paid for dinner! The girls had a good time and were so dang excited about having their own ice cream cup.

Grandma offered to help mix up Abigail's ice cream to make it easier to get out and Abigail quickly pulled it toward her and said "no". Guess she thought Grandma wouldn't give it back! The bast part was when Katie said "brother get ice cream too?", how sweet! Then we took a little walk down to the grocery store the girls were running ahead just shrieking and jumping having a great time. They are so easily entertained when we aren't at home.

Ahhh life is good tonight steak, ice cream and a good night out with my favorite girls!!!!