Fever

Dance Fever, that is!

Labor Day Weekend At Nan & Grandpa Chet's

This is a montage of the kids riding on a train for the first time. We go by this little train every time we go up to see Nan and Grandpa, but this was the first time that Kai was willing and able to ride it. Zeze and Kai were SO excited to ride this train! The rest of us were kind of along for the ride. :)

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This is Kai and Chet walking down to see the green tractor. Big excitement as Kai was willing to first sit on the tractor by himself and then take a ride with Grandpa. In May (not gluten/dairy free) he wouldn't even go near it b/c it was too scary. This time he rode around for about 20 mins!!!! Yay, Kai!!!!

Look at the smile on his face! I'm so proud of him!

CatFishing

Potty Talk

More Catch-Up Pictures

Kai's first day of Pre-School 2009! It was a much easier transition for everyone this year. Click HERE to see last year's experience!

Wolves around the kill (ie bowl of blueberries). They were shoving fistfulls of blueberries into their mouths. At the end they all had blueberry juice and seeds running down their chins and bellies. It was a feeding frenzy! :)

Zeze will climb on almost anything. He's got great balance and can stand straight up on this toy!

My silly little Zeez. He is totally into this orange hat or any hat for that matter. He wants to wear hats all the time! He is also extremely happy here b/c he has scored 3 off-limits items: Kai's toothbrush, baby Tylenol and Kai's Nuk. Zeze is in heaven!

Kai and Zeze being monkeys.

Noah doing his Peek-a-boo routine...he's such a funny little kid! Oh, he also signed "music", "water", "Stop", "No" (along with the head shake) and "yes" all for the first time this weekend! Such a smart boy, too! Even pneumonia can't slow this kid down!

pNOAHmonia

Case Study:

20 month old male presents

Father pushed to have son seen today. Parents say that the only thing identifiably wrong with him is that he slept until 10am this morning and went back to sleep right after eating breakfast. Mother said, "He seemed fine yesterday, but seems "off" today."

Parents report No fever

No vomiting/diarrhea

Eating/drinking well

Bright Alert Responsive

Coughed 2 or 3 times last week.

Sounds a little bit stuffy, but no nasal discharge and no cough presently.

Child has Trisomy 21 and a repaired AV Canal.

Physical Exam:

Axillary Temp=97.9

ENT all look normal.

Lungs sound clear.

Heart sounds normal

Slight petechia (red spots) on abdomen.

Pulse/O2 Sat = 148bpm and 99% (normal)

Doctor says child could just have a bug which would cause the discomfort and upper respiratory noise and the rash. Parents seem very concerned and anxious though nothing significant is presenting except that child seems "off" to them. Doctor suggests bloodwork and if that looks abnormal to proceed to an xray. Parents agree to bloodwork and mother requests an immediate xray. Doctor asks mother what she hopes to see/find with an xray. She doesn't know as it doesn't appear to be pneumonia, but she still requests an immediate xray.

Bloodwork: Normal

Platelets normal (Petechia can be caused by low platelets and other scary things).

WBC normal indicating no infection.

Radiographs/Xray:

Right sided Perihilar Infiltration (ie crappy fluffy looking lungs on xray...ie pneumonia).

Results:

Doctor says it's possibly viral pneumonia (as opposed to bacterial) but will start on antibiotics regardless. He says that a mother's instincts really do count for something and looks amazed that we caught pneumonia before any concrete signs presented (cough, fever, crackly lungs, etc.)

All I have to say is, "Thank you, God!!" We had NOTHING to go by except a feeling that Noah wasn't doing well and that he slept late. Kind of hard to go to the doctors with nothing to show and to basically ask for bloodwork and radiographs. When we got in the car Chad and I got the breathless shaky feeling when you realize you almost got hit by a car, but didn't. Then you get that nervous hysterical kind of laughter when there is really nothing funny going on. As some of you know, we were in the hospital 2x this past winter for pretty bad pneumonia that cropped up after merely 1 or 2 days of Noah having a simple cold or slight fever. We are so thankful to God for making Chad so in tune to Noah's behavior this morning and that he didn't pass it off as Noah just being overly tired or just coming down with something (which is what I was thinking). Chad urged me to get a doctor's appointment. Also, once I was on board I insisted on a radiograph when all my medical training, Chad and the doctor all said this was an unnecessary diagnostic due to lack of signs. If we hadn't gotten the chest radiograph we wouldn't have found the pneumonia for a couple more days. God let Chad and I be aware that something was wrong when, in any other child, nothing appeared to be wrong. If we had waited 2 days for the fever and bad cough to crop up, I am convinced that we would be facing a week-long hospital stay for pnuemonia....during a week when Chad will be starting work for 12+hrs a day. God also gave us a doctor that was sensitive and responsive to our intuitions and didn't berate us for being hypochondriachs or whatever, and God gave us an actual Radiologist to read the films a few minutes after they were developed...that has never happened for us. We always have to wait days to hear the official report while the Pede waffles with uncertainty.

So, again, we say, "Thank you, God!" instead of "God, why does Noah get so sick? Why do our lives suck so much?" That's a big change for us!

As I've said before, I've been realizing that our lives are probably not going to get easier as far as the health of our children and the ease of raising them. However, Chad and I are learning to see and understand that, instead of removing troubles from our path, God might choose to help us through them. I used to be pretty pissed at this concept, but now I am starting to take comfort in it. I'm not fully sure yet why that comforts me, b/c I still think that if God would remove our struggles things would be so much better. But I have an inkling that He's doing His crazy 'God thing' and trying to draw us closer to Him. Even that opens a whole new can of worms about suffering and God's plan, but I won't let myself go there. Right now, I am comforted and it's been a long time since I've felt that way.

Noah has pneumonia.

We caught it before anyone would ever detect it as pneumonia.

We are not (and hopefully won't be) in the hospital.

We have affected the things we could change and are not mourning the loss of the thing (pneumonia) we can't change.

That's huge for us! We are very thankful!!

First Fish

Kai and I went fishing with our neighbors 2 weeks ago at the little river behind our houses. It's a perfect spot for little kids to learn to fish b/c there are tons of small very eager fish that bite at the worms as soon as they hit the water. Kai caught 2 fish!!!! It was very rewarding fishing for the 5 little boys that were there. Kai was so excited and really loved fishing. He was so cute too; If he reeled in his line and there was still the worm on the hook, he'd shout, "Look! I caught a worm!!" Never a sad moment with that outlook, unless the fish eat the worm off the hook and there's only a hook left! It was really fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again. Here is a cell phone picture of Kai's first fish. I tried to circle it since it's pretty small and hard to pick out from the background.

Catch Up!

Early August: Zeze and I went blueberry picking. That 22lb boy probably ate 10lbs of blueberries!


Our first trip to the amusement park! It went great! The kids loved the rides and had a great time. I am sure it would have been a disaster if Kai were still on gluten/dairy. Kai wouldn't go on the rides until he saw Noah and Zeze go on one first. Then he did it and was hooked!

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Kai's first time ever on any sort of amusement ride!!! This is the twins' second ride!!

Hit play to watch the video.

Did you sell your kids and get a new car?

This is what our neighbors jokingly asked us when they saw us get out of our little Mini Cooper this weekend with no minvan and no children in sight! Freedom!!! (I think this car could fit inside our mini van!) Anyway, it was awesome! We brought the kids down to my sister's and brother-in-law's house for the weekend, left the van with them and rented this fun little car (another generous gift from family)!!! We came home and were without children for 2 nights and 2 days!!!!! This is the first time we've left all of the children to do something fun. We've left them for various hospital stays throughout the past 19m, but none of those were too fun or restorative. On Saturday we went to this awesome gluten free bakery and grabbed lunch and sandwiches for the road and headed up to Popham Beach, Maine. We have vacationed at Popham Beach with my family for the past 3 years and totally love it up there. We went to the State Park Beach and read, napped and walked without having to deal with kids crying about the wind, the sand, the waves, the cold water, they can't walk any more, "can we go back to the car", "the sand it too hot", etc. etc. It was awesome! Chad and I talked a lot about how to change our situation/life so that we don't stay in such a crappy place (emotionally) and don't ever get so low again. We have inserted mini get aways each quarter, a separate day off for Chad and I once each month, a date night together at least once a month and random other little things to take back our life from this constant pummeling we've been taking. We started having family meals today too and the kids responded really well to it! Hopefully it will get even better and meals won't be the crying/whining/fighting/food throwing/time out-ing event it usually is.

We are not in a better place yet, but we have found the trail marker to it and have started on the path, hopefully. Please keep praying for our bedraggled little family. The path to a better place starts out on a knife edge and feels very precarious...so easy to fall off the path. I think as we force good rests into our lives amidst the hard things that keep coming, that the path to a better place will feel less precarious and will be a little easier to follow. If I stay on the mountain path analogy, I think Chad and I have been trying to sprint up this mountain of hardship and just get to the top where everything will be better. However, we keep coming to another steep stretch of the trail and there is no end in sight, or so it seems. So now we have to re-strategize because sprinters can's sprint through a marathon. They have to become long distance runners and pace themselves and in our case, rest alongside the trail, eat some yummies and maybe even set up camp for the night. So that is our new strategy. We are starting to accept that we are on this mountain and that we may have to climb for a long long time...we've got to start looking around at the path we are on, see if there is anything worthwhile to see, sing some good Deerfoot songs when moral gets low and occasionally ask passersby (ie our families/friends) to carry our packs for a little way. It's kind of embarrassing to have somebody carry your pack when they've got their own pack, but we have gotten to the point where we are freezing cold, soaked, tired, hungry, disoriented and need the help. It was kind of nice to have family give us provisions, carry our packs and let us rest this weekend. Thank you!

Now for some fun pictures! Here we are in driving our fun little car up to Maine

Here we are at the gluten free bakery.

We forgot to take any pictures at the beach, but that really was the best part of the day.

Here are the 5 boys (our 3 plus 2 of our nephews) eating breakfast and getting car racing quizzes and related physics lessons from uncle Tom. The kids were really loving this!

Another milestone!

Noah has reached another milestone!!! He can now pull himself up to a stand unassisted at the train table (I looked over and there he was just standing there playing at the train table!), in his crib and I caught him going up the stairs by himself. He got up 2 whole stairs by himself!! He's pulling himself up to open drawers and throwing out all the contents. He's really loving standing!! Here are a couple of pictures!

Kai has been screaming in pain periodically throughout the day. We just got back from the doctors with them saying it was probably gas. Now he is shrieking and peeing blood clots. We are headed right back to the doctors for tons of fun.

UPDATE: 10pm. Kai has a urinary tract infection. He's on antibiotics now. We have to take him next week to see a urologist and also to get an ultrasound of kidneys/bladder etc. They think he has a structural abnormality that is causing the UTI since it is so uncommon for boys to get UTIs.

The Ants Go Marching 1 by 1...

The kids made a huge mess with some tortilla chips this evening. Chip dust and crumbs were all on the floor and couch. We decided to get the twins in bed and then come back down and clean up afterwards. When I came back down I had already forgotten about the mess and when I saw it I exclaimed, "Oh, LOOK at all those crumbs!" Kai ran over to the mess and yelled, "Mamma, 3 ants are helping! Come see!" Sure enough, 3 ants were working together to haul off a piece of tortilla chip. Is it sad that instead of stomping on them, I thought, "Oh good, if only they moved faster"? :) At this point if the ants clean up the floor, I'm tempted to let them stay!! HAHAHA! My good little helper knew though that I hate crumbs on the floor and he ran to get the red broom. "Mamma, I sweep up crumbs and ants." Oh, my dreams are coming true! Kai is going to sweep up this mess...hoooray! Suddenly he starts shoving all the crumbs and ants under the couch. "What are you doing?", I yell, and he says, "I'm putting them all back under the couch."
Hmmmm...I guess I'm not as good a housekeeper as I'd like to think I am if my son thinks all the crumbs belong under the couch. *Sigh*

Passing the Torch

Noah did not blow out this morning!!! There actually wasn't anything in his diaper....woo hoo! However, Zeze now has diarrhea and did blow out...so another bed change and another screaming bath. Then both Zeze and Noah blew out at nap time. Fortunately, all our sheets were already dirty and we had only put a towel on Zeze's mattress (which he threw out of the crib), so I only had to change Noah's bed and just wipe down Zeze's mattress. Man, I'm tired! I am really hopeful though that Noah's guts are turning a corner! I think all your prayers are helping b/c I don't feel nearly as defeated and angry about all this as I did a few days ago....so THANKS! KEEP IT UP, PLEASE!! :) :)

Reprieve

Ahhhhh! This morning nobody had to get a bath due to poop explosions! I put one normal diaper on Noah and then a second diaper just around the back of him just above the regular diaper. Poop was to the very edge of the 2nd diaper, but there was no serious blow out! We still had to wash his sheets and jammies, but it was contained enough where we didn't have to hose him down, like every other morning (and sometimes after nap) for the past 3-4 weeks! Thank you for the prayers! Kai and Zeze also didn't have blow outs! So it was a slight reprieve from the morning misery! Yay!

The Poop Gods Are Laughing At Us

Noah pooped out twice AND Kai woke up at 1:30a in a pool of diarrhea. Does anyone out there want to come poop on our beds or in our tub? 3/5 of our family is doing it....join the party! Chad just added, "If you're feeling shy about it, you can just crap on our doorstep."

The Noah Challenge Take 2

Tonight I put one diaper on him the regular way. Then I attached two diapers together end-to-end and wrapped those around his belly just above the waist of the normal diaper. I think Noah needs diaper suspenders or something. The problem is (besides the continuous diarrhea) is that he has a huge low-tone belly and teeny tiny bum, so the diapers just slide down off his bum when he curls up to sleep. I think this same problem is why fat old guys wear suspenders, to keep their pants on their butts. Anyway, we think that duct tape would be bad for Noah's skin and the whole tourniquet potential scares me too. So, we will try the around-the-belly diaper tonight and see what happens. After this, I think we just won't put a diaper on him at bedtime anymore. At least we won't be surprised or disappointed in the morning. We'll KNOW there is a mess and no chance for no mess.

Oh yeah, Kai has a 104.3 fever today. Heather, I hope your boys don't get this or that they didn't catch e.coli or something at the beach with all the geese. No diarrhea yet for Kai, just the fever. We were supposed to go to our neighbor's little girl's 2nd birthday today. We had to keep Kai home and he was SO SAD to see our neighbors loading up the car with cake, presents and balloons to go to Gymboree. However, he fell asleep 10 minutes later and slept for 3 hours. I kept thinking about how hard it was to make him miss the fun and sleep and how he couldn't possibly know that Chad and I really had his best interests at heart. It broke my heart to have to tell him he couldn't go! Chad and I were also supposed to go out on a date tonight, but since a temp of 104.3 is a little scary, we cancelled that too. I can't help but wonder if God is doing something similar for Chad and I that we did for Kai. Maybe he's keeping us from something that seems really good and fun, for our own good. "He makes me lie down..." Ps.23 We MADE Kai lay down with his choking sobs and feverish body. I'm really not sure how wanting my husband to get a job (preferably that he likes), wanting my children to stay healthy for at least 3 days in a row, not wanting to go back to work as a vet (or as a Rite Aid employee), not having to sell/rent our condo, not wanting to have to make my own daily bread and not wanting to add Autism to my plate, are bad things. But for some reason all these things are present with us. I don't feel like I'm "laying down in green pastures"...more like "thrown into a hospital tent after an amputation during the Civil War." BUT...I KNOW that God cares for me more than I care for Kai and that He can hear me begging him for a change just like I can't ignore Kai's voice begging to go to the party. He CAN hear me. I do believe that He wants to give me good things, but for some reason, not now. So, tonight, I will enjoy that my new FREE shampoo smells like a tropical breeze, that my bread came out AWESOME tonight and I will hope that my Gerry-rigged diapers will keep Noah's poop in.

We Lost

Noah's poop won the challenge. :( 2 good things are that Noah is more used to this routine and didn't scream while in the tub. And, while I hosed off his stink I noticed that my new deoderant smelled really nice!

the noah challenge

Ok. Tonight we're trying 2 diapers. Plus I eliminated soy and dairy from his diet, so now my bread is gluten/dairy/soy free. Plus I only fed him rice, chicken and applesauce today. No beans, fruit or veggies (all things that I was trying wash down my tub drain this morning after hosing Noah off). The kid gets my sick dog diet from back when I was a vet. Well, I added the applesauce for him and not the dogs! :) It was a pretty crummy day yesterday. The kids were being punks. They were defecating all over my house (oh yeah, Kai tried to shake his poop out of his diaper and into the toilet, but he missed and it hit the floor...at least when i was a vet I got to wear coveralls when I dealt with poop!), Chad and I were crabby about money and jobs and it wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't stop raining!! Horrible day!

Today, however, was magnitudes better. The kids were delightful and didn't whine, or cry or pester each other nearly as much. The sun shone. Chad got another lead on a job and we all went outside this evening to play in the setting sun. Kai shared his bike with Zeze and said, "Zeze you can have a turn first!" Is this the same kid that was kicking Zeze yesterday and yanking toys out of his hands? Then Kai spontaneously said he loved me and gave me a big hug! Then a unicorn danced by and gave me a pot of gold! Ok, I made that last part up, but today was so drastically different than yesterday that the entire description sounds made up to me! I'll take it though! We sure needed it!

I'll let you know how the Noah challenge goes tomorrow. We'll see if he ends up screaming in the tub and covered in poop like every other morning. Night Night!

Is there a bright side?

We're potty training Kai. He just pee'd on the floor which isn't a problem and is to be expected. But then he sat there and drove his fire truck back and forth through it. Then Noah blew out of his diaper and had diarrhea all over his bed (this happens at least once a day) and as I came in the room, I actually saw him take a handful and eat it. His face was smeared with it and now his breath smells like s**t. Is there a bright side to this? Any of you silent readers have any ideas on what I'm doing wrong or how to change this ongoing situation?

Thanks!

Look on the Bright Side

It's been raining here for days and days. On Friday morning it was, yet again, completely overcast and not a speck of blue sky was visible. Kai came into our room, looked out the window and happily shouted, "It's a sunny day!" We asked if he saw the sun or saw clouds. He said he saw clouds. We explained that clouds in the sky meant it was a cloudy day, not a sunny day. He said, "No, it's a sunny day. The sun is just behind the clouds." How profound! I need to take lessons from my sweet, happy boy and remember that it's always a sunny day even if the clouds are blocking the sun for awhile.