It's the last day of November!

And of course I haven't updated again in forever! One of my favorite cloth diaper companies is doing a diaper giveaway, so it encouraged me to get on here!
After 9 months of cloth diapering, I have actually found my favorites finally... so far! I really never expected to prefer fitted diapers, but surprisingly enough I do! I am completely in love with Thirsties Duo covers - they are semi one size. Basically, size 1 works from about birth through 18lbs and size 2 is 18lbs and up. I was torn when I bought it, since Connor was right on the brink of both sizes at the time, but I ended up going with the size 2. I picked up 4, and both boys can wear the same cover, which is great! For daytime, around the house diapers, I have found myself reaching for my prefolds for Connor, and using Goodmama fitted diapers for naps. For reasonably short trips, I prefer the BagshotRowBamboo dipes - they are pretty absorbant, as well as super trim. I have only been using my pocket diapers when I am getting behind on my laundry. In reality, I need to sell them (and maybe use the money for new fitteds!), but I am such a packrat! Also, I found the best detergent ever for cloth! It's called Rockin Green Soap, and it seriously wipes out any trace of smell whatsoever. I have really hard water, and thought I would just have to deal with the lingering detergent smells I was getting from everything else. This new stuff has water softener in it, so it really does wash away completely. Check out the Goodmama site by clicking on this link:

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Connor update: He's finally packing on a little weight! He is so active that he seems to burn off calories before they can even think of sticking, so he stayed at 17lbs 2oz from 7 months until 12 months! Of course, we have to bring him in every 4 weeks for weight checks now, and he just had blood drawn to test for food allergies, but he did gain 9oz in the last month. Finally! I really really can't wait until he hits 20lbs though so I can turn him around in his car seat! He hates facing the back of the car with a passion - I've tried mirrors, tons of toys, dvd player, etc, but he still screams bloody murder the moment I am out of sight. Plus, my car is not ideal for a rear facing seat, especially when I am trying to wedge a squirmy little guy with a big coat through that space between the seat and the top of the door. It is definately an experience! Connor's hair is starting to get really long and curly, but only around the back and above his ears. He looks pretty funny when his hair dries sticking out :) He is now 13 months (as of Saturday), and walking, running, climbing, throwing the dreaded tantrums, saying a handful of words (mama, dada, broba(brother), kitty kat, thank you, gramma, sarah and papa) and altogether keeping me on my toes 24/7. A big change here - he is finally sleeping through the night!!! It took a couple nights of modified cry it out, but I was at the end of my rope. It was taking me at least an hour every night of rocking for him to fall asleep, and then he woke up every 1-2 hours all night long and had to be rocked back to sleep. Basically, on the first night, he yelled. He didn't really cry, but he was pissed that I dared to leave him alone in his crib. This went on for about 25 minutes - I went in and laid him back down after 7 minutes, then just watched him on the video monitor since that made him even madder! He slept all the way through until 3am, when I went into his room and slept on the floor with him. Night 2 he took about 45 minutes to fall asleep (I laid him back down twice) and he slept until 4:30am before I went in to get him. Night 3, he yelled at me until the door shut... then laid down and slept for 13 hours straight! Holy Cow!!! He asks for bed now, bringing me his blankie and pacifier around 7pm, we go to his room, nurse (yes, he is still nursing at 13 months!) and he goes right to sleep on his own :) It took about 2 weeks of still rocking him at naptime before he eventually started reaching for the stairs when he got tired. I got the hint, and now he goes down for 2 naps a day on his own when he asks for them :) I don't think he was ready for it before 10 months (which is when we did it), but he is such a happier baby with a full nights sleep!

Aiden update: My little boys is growing up! He started preschool in September, and he loves it! We are still struggling with potty training though. He will stay dry for most of a day, and then start hiding and wetting his pull ups again. We're getting there though, slowly but surely. Aiden has finally given up his pacifier, aka Boppy. It now resides inside of a stuffed elephant named elephanty (he's a creative one) that we made at a build a bear type place. It's been 3 weeks, and he hasn't asked for it once :) He's doing great in therapy - he has PT at school on Tuesday mornings, OT at a rehabilitation center on Tuesday afternoons, and then again on Thursday mornings at school. We may be looking into doing a different type of therapy coming up where his left arm (the "working one") would be put in a cast and he would be forced to use his right hand for everything. I am holding off a bit, mainly because I know how insanely mad it will make him! It's kind of a now or never thing though, he's young enough that all of this therapy will really pay off as he gets older.
He has a crush at school! Every day he tells me all about his girlfriend, and how he can't wait to be all grown up so he can marry her. Luckily we have a really long time before we have to worry about that!

2 months later...

Oops! It is so rare that I get any time to myself to actually write my thoughts down, so this blog is definately suffering! In fact, I should really be doing homework right now, but shoot, I am 28 years old and still procrastinate just as bad (if not worse) than I did in high school! If I manage to actually pass this term though (and right now, that's a HUGE if!), I will finally have my associates degree in December! It may be the slowest degree ever, but a class here and there over the last 10 years is finally coming together :)

We have had a neuro appointment for Aiden since my last post :) The doc does not think it is that schizencephaly deal. Instead, he is pretty much positive that Aiden did in fact have a stroke. He did say that Aiden is his "unique" patient though! He showed us a model of a brain, labeled with what each portion controls. Aiden's damage, going strictly by the MRI and not knowing him at all, should result in complete paralysis on his right side, no vision in his right eye, impaired mental function, impaired speech and no bowel or bladder control. That is so not my son! In fact, the neuro said he thinks he's about at a 5 year old level in regards to his mental function! So, yes, Aiden does have cerebral palsy. No, he will most likely not be the best jumper in school, nor the best at pushups or pullups. But you know what? None of that matters. I have had so many moments where it really hits me how lucky we got. When we go to his therapy appointments, and I see the kids in the wheelchairs that have to be completely strapped in just to sit up, I have to hug Aiden a little tighter. There is no rhyme or reason as to how Aiden escaped that fate, but he has. He does get some funny looks from the other parents, trying to figure out what he's doing there, in a waiting room where he is the only child without braces, crutches or a wheelchair. One mother actually asked me, because apparently Tuesdays are generally reserved for CP patients. When I told her he had CP, she looked at me like I was crazy! He is going to need braces though. Getting him to where them will be a trick, but as his feet grow, it is more apparent that his ankles need some help. He is now walking on the insides of his feet. Brandon is not going to like this. He doesn't want anyone to know that Aiden is not the same as every other child out there, and braces will ruin that. It does bother me that he is so secretive about it. It makes me feel like he is ashamed of our son, even though that is not it at all! He was just raised to never talk about anything medical with anyone outside of his immediate family. If he found out I had this blog, he'd probably stop talking to me for a long time :( I will break him of it though!

Tuesday began the possibly long journey to figure out what caused Aiden's stroke. He had his first appointment with a hematologist, who then sent him for a blood draw. 13 VIALS LATER... yup, I said 13. They only took 6 from me when I was pregnant, and I felt a little woozy. He ate more than a grown man every meal for the next 48 hours. I think it was his body trying to make new blood cells! Now we have to go back every 4 weeks, and if nothing came out of the labs, he gets more blood taken. I have to think of a really special treat for his next appointment! And this time, I will be bringing a cup of orange juice to make him drink right after so he's not so out of it!

Connor is on the verge of walking already! He's 9 months, and a little pistol! He cruises along furniture like a speeding bullet, and now he likes to stand on his own so he has an excuse to clap for himself :) We just have to work on him moving his foot forward while he's doing it, since right now he just stretches out his arms and dives towards me! I'm glad I finally got all the parts to my gate so I could install it. This sucker goes from one side of my living room to the other, and has two swinging doors. That way, Connor (and Aiden most of the time) can be restricted to the living room. He can climb our stairs before you blink your eye if he gets past the gate, so I have to be hyper vigilant about that. I always say that he's going to be my first child in a cast because he has no fear, and is constantly doing crazy and dangerous stuff. He really likes to hang from the window ledge and try to climb up the wall. He has also decided it's tons of fun to crawl on their mini couch, get on his knees on the back of it, and throw his arms in the air while the thing flips over on top of him. He laughs the whole time! It's not heavy or hard, so it doesn't hurt him, it's the falling face first (and sometimes back first depending on his mood) that freaks me out! I did have to take him to the ER on Thursday when he stuck his hand in the door (the side that has hinges) and his brother slammed it all the way shut. Although he screamed bloody murder the whole way there, and his right ring finger was about the size of 2 of his other fingers combined, nothing was broken! Their little bones are still super tiny and soft, and baby fingers are mostly cartilidge. I had to keep pumping ibupfrofin in him for 48 hours, because the doc said splinting him as active as he is would result in much more severe inuries! He was crawling around the room, and everytime he put weight on his right hand he screamed, but would not stop! He did get weighed at that visit, and is now a whopping 17 pounds! His 9 month (even though he'll be 10 months) checkup is September 9th, so hopefully he'll gain more before then so the doc doesn't get upset again that my super active, big meal eating child can't seem to gain more than a pound a month!

I guess I should end this for now. I have much more to say, but I need to give myself and excuse to get back on here soon!

MRI results

Today Aiden had to get a school physical because he starts preschool in the fall! He is going to be in a special needs class that will allow him to recieve OT and PT every week :) Anyways, right as the visit with the doctor started, he received a fax... it was the MRI results! It was very unexpected to get them so soon, and now I wish I hadn't! Basically, the scan found an abnormal band of scar tissue and cysts along the left lobe of his brain. The paper said that it looks like there is evidence of an old infarct (which I did expect) and something called schizencephaly. That's the part I didn't expect, and I am stressing about. It looks pretty rare, the pediatrician didn't really know what it was, so googled it. Yeah, I know that is never a good idea, but there really isn't much info out there on it, other than it appears to be a genetic deformity of the brain. It does look like we got extremely lucky with Aiden. In about 17% of kids with it, there is not a lot of obvious effects. In most cases though, the children have full paralysis and mental retardation. Since Aiden scored at the 4-5 year old level in the verbal and cognetive areas of his development exam last month, we know that there is no mental impairment at all. What scares me is his risk for seizures. Apparently, a large number of kids with the disease develop epilepsy by 4-5 years old. I really won't know much else about it until his neuro appointment, so it looks like I have 3.5 weeks to sit around worrying and watching for any sign of a seizure in Aiden! I do have to wonder about the time I brought him to his doctor when he was sick and he had a seizure in the waiting room and was told it was a febrile seizure, even though his temp wasn't that high (I think he had been around 102 the wholeday). He then had 2 more that night, and I didn't take him to get checked because I was warned it would likely happen. I guess just more stuff to ask the doctor!

Friday

I am going to post what I meant to last week, then I will add another with the results, otherwise this will be way too long!
Friday morning was Aiden's scheduled MRI to get a clear picture of his brain. The neurologist said we may see some sort of evidence of a stroke that he thinks occurred in utero to cause his cerebral palsy. The main reason to even get the MRI done is to look for possible clotting issues, because that would mean he may be prone to more strokes as he gets older. I got a phone call from one of the nurses Thursday morning with intructions for Aiden, such as no food past 8pm, and nothing but clear liquids after that. Then she told me only 2 adults are allowed at his bedside, and no other children! That would have been nice to know about before both my mom and husband already arranged to be there. Oh yeah, and did I mention that Connor absolutely refuses to take a bottle, so I couldn't just leave him at home with someone?
We got there at 7:30am, and Brandon and I went back to the pediatric outpatient area to get checked in. He was weighed and measured, then shown to a cubicle area with a recliner and a TV. We waited there for about 30 minutes, then just after Brandon and my mom switched places, they decided it was IV time. I really hate, more than anything else in the entire world, seeing my child in pain. Luckily, they got the IV on the first try. Also lucky was the fact that they did it to his left hand. He tried for the next 2 hours to remove that thing, but without much strength and no fine motor skills in his right hand, he was out of luck! I have no idea why they chose to put it in that far ahead of schedule, but I am glad that it went so smooth. He's had IVs two other times, and it always took multiple tries.
There was some sort of emergency, so our appointment got bumped back, but finally at 10am we wheeled Aiden to the MRI suite on his "race car bed". It has all the monitors hooked up, so he was convinced it was his special computer that made him super fast. The imagination of a 2 year old! I have to add, the longer we were there, the more nurses he caused to gravitate towards him. By the time we were walking to the MRI room, he had a mini entourage as an escort :) He ended up with 2 extra nurses during sedation, simply because he flirted with them!
As bad as it sounds, watching the sedative take effect was pretty funny. I was told to expect some crying and screaming, because toddlers tend to violently fight sedation, but not Aiden! He was sooo giggly, and was joking and trying to play tricks on the nurses. He really loved trying to convince the doctor that there was a bird on his shoulder! It ended up taking double the usual dose to knock him out, but he fell asleep happy and woke up the same way :) It didn't hurt that he woke up to a popsicle in his face. His recovery took about 30 minutes, then I got to take him home. That part was not so much fun. I basically had 2 babies for awhile, because he couldn't walk (he tried once, and collapsed face first on the floor!), he had to be supervised while eating, and could only have soft foods. Baths were not allowed, just in case he passed out and I wasn't holding him at that moment, so it was really fun cleaning all the pudding and jello off of him! Brandon came home just before bed time (he works in Rockford this summer, so it's a long commute), and ended up sleeping with him because I was told to monitor his breathing all night. Saturday he woke up full of energy, ate a TON, and was back to his old self :) We were told that the results would be sent to his neurologist in 3-5 business days, and figured we'd find out about them at his appointment on the 29th.
We spent the weekend as a family. Because Brandon is working in Rockford, he is spending most of the week at my parent's house in Grand Rapids, which is only 15 minutes from his job. On Saturday, we went to the Impression 5 Science Museum, which turned out to be free! They accept the Grand Rapids Children's Museum memberships there, so I think we'll be there more often! Sunday was a lazy day for me, and Brandon worked on some of the projects around the house that are falling behind in his absence. He left again early Monday morning, so we are now on week 3 of just me and the kids. It gets crazy, but I think we are settling in to a nice routine.
Oh, and by the way, Connor is out of control! The kid is quite the crawler, and he's figured out how to climb, walk along the couch, and is now working on climbing stairs! I am so not ready for this!!!

Okay, I am horrible at this, I admit it!

So, 3 weeks or so later... Let's see. Aiden is over his ear infection finally! He took almost a week to really be back to himself. I hate when he is super cranky, especially to other people, because he is not normally like that! I am so glad that his physical therapist already knows him, because she had to do a full eval on him, and he didn't cooperate at all! He just repeatedly told her to go away! He's back to being my cuddle bug though, with a few of the wonderful 2.5 year old tantrums thrown in of course :) He rarely naps anymore, which is no fun for any of us. It makes Aiden cranky and me stressed, because I really need naps these days! I've been trying to get over a cold for a few days now, and I really feel like I just need a little extra sleep to get me over the hump. It's not too bad though, because I found out that Aiden will be starting preschool for sure this fall, but it will be in a PM class, so no naps at that point anyways!
We finally saw a neurologist this morning. He said Aiden does appear to have cerebral palsy, albeit a mild case. I am waiting on the call to schedule his MRI now so we can get a clearer picture of what happened. I am beating myself up right now though, and I know that I shouldn't. The doctor thinks what happened is that Aiden actually had a stroke while I was still pregnant. That would be the reason that his birth was so hard, because he didn't have the strength to push himself into the right position. I have spent all day trying to figure out what could have gone wrong. It would have occurred after 33 weeks, since that was my last ultrasound, and everything was fine. That's only a 5 weeks window! The doctor asked me repeatedly if I was sure I didn't get some sort of infection during that time. I don't remember it, but I don't think so! I may have had a sinus infection, and I know I had a filling performed, but other than that, I was so careful! I really just have to wait for the MRI, it should help us pinpoint a time that it happened, and then maybe I can find something in my medical record that corelates. We have a follow up on June 29th, so the MRI will at least be before then. I am not nervous about the actual procedure for him, but I am worried about the sedation part. He is so stubborn, I think he's going to fight it pretty hard, especially when he starts to wake up. It is an oral sedation though, not an IV, so I feel a lot better about that! I was also told they try to schedule 2 year olds for first thing in the morning since there is no eating or drinking before the MRI, so I won't have to deal with a super hungry cranky pants!
Connor is growing up so fast! He just turned 6 months old, and suddenly this child is sitting completely independantly.... and crawling!!! Not using the hands and knees method, but pretty close. He's into everything that he shouldn't be :) You should see Aiden's reaction when he realizes that his brother is chewing on one of his toys! He is also starting solids...sort of! So far, he loves bananas, doesn't mind squash, tolerates carrots and detests peas! He won't even swallow peas, he just spits them out and blows rasberries with them, and actually said "no" clear as can be when I put more near his mouth! He also dislikes cereals, I think it is a texture thing. If I completely thin it out, he doesn't mind, but at that point it is 90% milk and 10% cereal! He has his 6 month checkup at the end of the month (1 month behind, oops), and I am hoping he at least is up to 15 lbs by now. He is so skinny, but he nurses every 2-3 hours around the clock, so he is certainly getting plenty of nutrition! He's just not at all a chunky baby. I did notice he almost has a roll on his thighs though now, so he may hit that 15 lb mark after all :)
Brandon is home for the next 2 weeks before starting his internship at Wolverine World Wide. He will be staying at my parents house Monday thru Thursday, and we will be driving up there on Wednesdays and staying for a day or two every week. Aiden is starting a tap class on Wednesday nights with another boy his age, so it works out well :) It's going to be nice having an income for a few months! I miss paychecks!!!

Sick little man :(

I guess I was pushing my luck with Aiden going so long without an ear infection! He hasn't had one since December, which was a wonderful break for him since he had 6 in 7 months before that! I do think it's funny how smart he is, he has always told me that he had problems long before a doctor can detect it! This time, he told me that he was hearing water in his ear. Previously, he had imitated the popping sounds that his eardrums were making!
Yesterday, Aiden was acting funny. He refused lunch, didn't want a snack, and then skipped his nap, which is pretty much the norm lately. For dinner, I made him rice/soy sauce and spam... one of his all time favorite meals! He didn't eat a bite, instead, he fell asleep in his highchair. I woke him up and asked him if he wanted to go to bed early since he had skipped naptime, and he said that he did. I pulled him out of his highchair and laid him down to get him changed. Brandon got him undressed, and realized he was burning up! He took his temp, and it was 103.5 :( That one came out of nowhere! Brandon slept in his room because I get nervous with high fevers, he has had febrile seizures in the past, and it is scary! After a long night of motrin and popsicles, he got down to 99 in the morning, so I figured I would wait and see if he got better on his own. Around 12, he got very lethargic and I checked his temp, back up to 103.6, so he got more motrin and I called the doctor. I finally spoke to a nurse and she had me bring him in to see if they could squeeze him in. When we finally saw the doc, she said his ear didn't look bad enough to call an ear infection yet, so no antibiotics even though she said she suspected it would become one pretty quick! I think she wasn't too worried because his temp was 98.6 using the armpit method, which has never worked for Aiden! I get him home after grabbing fast food... he hadn't eaten in 36 hours, so even fries would have made me happy! I walk in the door, lay him on the couch, and he curls up into a ball and starts violently shivering! I checked, and he was 104.8!!! We went straight to the urgent care center, where they of course got an armpit reading of 98.7. At least I think I finally realize why that never works... they always check under his right arm, and with his hemiparesis he has such high tone in his arm that it doesn't actually touch his body! He was loopy and hallucinating, so it was pretty obvious to the doc that he definately had a fever. She looked in his ear and saw right away that he has an ear infection! We now have him on antibiotics, which he would have gotten from her anyways, because she said once you pass 104, it generally means you have some sort of bacterial infection. Now I just have to figure out how to get liquids in him, he only had 2 barely wet diapers today, but won't take liquids! He has eaten 2 popsicles (more like 3/4 of each), but other than that, wants nothing anywhere near his mouth. I even got him orange sherbert, which is normally a rare special treat, but after 2 tiny bites, he said he was all done! I hope I have a good update tomorrow after those antibiotics have kicked in a little!

Rainy Tuesday

We had a fun and eventful Easter this year. It is so nice to be able to spend holidays with family! I could really get used to this :) Of course, it may not last, it all depends on Brandon's job offers next year. At this point he is leaning towards a consulting job that would have him traveling Monday - Thursday and home on weekends. We have put so much time and effort into this house that it would really suck to have to move out of it already! We will be renting it out if we do move, but it's scary to think how much damage someone may do to it! We'll see, there is plenty of time to figure out what we're going to when the time comes :)
Connor tried his first baby food on Saturday afternoon. He got a few bites of bananas, and loved it so much that he didn't even make a mess, he wanted every last drop! I am going to go slowly with him, I really wanted to wait until 6 months before solids, but he'll be getting a little bit each night. I plan on waiting at least a week before adding a new food. Aiden was on solids at 4 months (against my wishes, his daycare provider was doing it) and his poor belly was so upset at that age! Now I need to find a new highchair! Aiden refuses to give his up and feeding a squirmy little guy in a bumbo chair isn't working for me!
Aiden has an appointment for a consult set up with a neurologist for May 12th. Hopefully an MRI will be right behind so we can get our diagnosis finally! He had OT this morning and did a little better this time. He only fought Paula for the first half :) It turns out that when she ignores him, he sneaks around her and starts playing with her toys. So from now on it looks like when she comes, she is going to let him lead the way.
Somehow the little man has figured out what is supposed to happen on certain days of the week! He woke up Wednesday morning, looked right at Brandon and told him to hurry up and get him ready for playgroup! I have avoided talking about it because we have 2 weeks off while the leaders take their spring break vacations, but he apparently knows what day we normally go!
Thursday should be interesting. Brandon has invited most of his class over for a barbeque. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get the right cut of spareribs around here! He had to walk the butcher at meijers through it, but yumm... we are going to have korean spare ribs :) We had to order the sauce we used to use from Hawaii, and the shipping was a joke! I was hoping Sam's club could get it for us, since we always bought it from the one in Pearl City, but it is made by a private vendor and we had to order it ourselves. It will be worth it though! Kalbi ribs, Teri Chicken, burgers and brats... anyone in the mood to drive to Lansing on Thursday is more than welcome! There is one person I am hoping does not show up, but if she does, oh well. I'll try my best not to "accidently" spill something on her :) I've only seen her in person once, and that time she was about to say hi to Brandon, realized I was with him, glared at me and stormed away. I know I'm not the only one who would get bad vibes from that! Apparently there is not a single female in the class that likes her though, so the chances of her showing up are pretty slim.
I am going to try to get some before and after pics of our house posted on here in the next few days. Since we will be going on a crazy cleaning spree for this BBQ, it should be a good time to take some pics :)

Baby checkup :)

Today was the first time I have taken the kids to their new pediatrician. It was definately an experience! They are currently covered by the Healthy Kids program, so they have to go to a county health department well child center. It's horrible, but some of the families in that waiting room seriously made me wonder why some people even have children! You should have seen the odd stares I got from everyone in there when I pulled a blanket over my little guy and nursed him. There was absolutely nothing showing except the bottoms of his little feet (he hates being covered, so he was kicking away at that blanket!). I was shocked at how many women just shook their heads at me as they whipped out their bottles for their tiny newborns! When we finally saw the doctor, he asked me if he could shake my hand and thank me for breastfeeding my child! He said it is so rare to see in this country (he's Indian), and especially around Lansing. I just find that so sad that so many women don't even try. I knew one mom who already had formula ready before she gave birth because according to her, she had already sacrificed 9 months of her partying, there was no way she was going to wait to drink after her baby was born when formula is out there! I know there are circumstances that would keep a person from nursing, but honestly, nobody can convince me that they can't because it would be too hard. I managed 11 months with Aiden, and for that to happen I had to lug my pump to work every day. I was given a whole 15 minutes to run to the bathroom, set up a folding chair in the handicapped stall, remove my gun belt and second chance vest, pump all I could while hoping that nobody tripped over my power cord stretched across the bathroom and pack it all back up for later. Again, I was given 15 minutes TOTAL, and 90% of the time I had a dispatcher ask if I was available more than once while doing this. I did it though because breastmilk really was the best thing for Aiden. He had such a severe dairy, egg and corn allergy that the only formula he could have used was prescription only, insanely expensive, and missing a ton of the nutrients in most formulas. That meant of course that I was also dairy, egg and corn free, which was insanely hard, but I would give it all up again in a second for him! Luckily, Connor seems to only have a problem with MSG. I love, love, love chinese food, but not enough to cause him pain!

Anyways, back to the checkup now that I have gotten that off my chest! Connor is truly my little peanut! He was 25.5 inches long, and only weighs 13lbs 7oz! I think he's actually a little taller than that, because he kept bunching up on the nurse, and when she finally got a measurement, his neck wasn't straight because he was looking off to the side. He's only in the 10th percentile for weight, but he's been like that since he was 2 weeks old, so I'm not worried :)

Aiden finally has a referral to a neurologist! Now we have to wait for a call to schedule an appointment, but both his doctor and the chief resident came in and examined his arm and leg, and agreed that he needs to have an MRI so we can get him an official diagnosis and increase his therapy, which he's not going to be too happy about! Oh, and he's up to 31 pounds now, which is funny because he was "stuck" at 29 pounds for 8 months!

Oops!

I guess it's a good thing that nothing depends on whether or not I am keeping up with my blog! Between the 2 boys, I have very rare moments where I can actually type with both hands, and when I do, I have been trying to earn some money! It's on a site called ChaCha, and it's pretty slow going in the beginning. I basically answer questions that were sent via text message to the ChaCha site, and earn between .10 and .18 each answer. Not much, but on busy nights, when both the kids are actually sleeping, I can usually make around $5/hour. I figure it's better than nothing! Some of the questions I get are pretty... interesting though! Let's just say that a LOT of naughty 12 year olds ask question that seem to be aimed at getting a rise out of you. It makes it difficult to answer in a nice, informative way when what I want to do is tell them that if I were their mom, I would be washing their mouths out with soap! The questions are not all like that, in fact most of the time, I just look up phone numbers and addresses. I am slowly earning my way towards a new cloth diaper stash :)
Speaking of cloth, I have settled on my favorites. During the day, I really like the good old fashioned prefold diapers. I have some amazing covers that let you skip pins, and I have yet to have a single leak from these! I didn't realize how much I loved them until I put a disposable diaper on Connor so I could wash all his diapers at once. 10 minutes into it, he had a typical breastfed baby blowout that was nowhere near contained by the Pampers Swaddler that I used to love! I thought maybe it was a fluke, after all, he did eat a lot that morning. So a couple days later, we went to BW3, and I put another Pampers on him so I didn't have to worry about carrying dirty cloth around when I changed him there. Not 2 minutes after we got home, I had to change his entire outfit b/c the diaper couldn't hold up, and he had only been wearing it for 20 minutes at most! Now when we go out, I use a brand called Fuzzibunz. They are a pocket diaper, meaning that they have a leakproof outside and inside is a pocket made of a material that pulls wetness away. You can put whatever you want in the pocket to soak everything up. The ones I have are pretty thin, so they don't give him a bubble butt look :) We are still working on the perfect night combo. Connor still nurses 2-3 times a night, so he pees a LOT! What seems to really work is a fitted diaper (a thicker version of a prefold that has velcro fasteners and elastic at the legs) which is made of bamboo. I have a hemp diaper doubler around that, and top it off with a wool cover. Wool turns out to be virtually leak proof! It's a pain that it has to be handwashed, but unless he poos, that only has to be done once a week.
Aiden is slowly working on potty training. If he is naked, he uses his potty 100% of the time. He even poops on the thing! Any clothes whatsover though, and he has accidents. He is too independent to ask for help, and b/c he has so little strength in his right hand, he can't undress himself :( I have a project that I want to do that involves sewing rings on his pants so he can pull them down, but I am completely sewing illiterate!
We have hit a huge wall in Aiden's therapy! He has decided he is done with it! His poor therapist struggles so hard with him, but he won't even look at her without throwing a tantrum :( I hope it's just a phase, because he was doing so well. Paula said it's because he isn't "therapised", meaning he is new to OT, and the novelty has worn off. He finally realized that OT is hard! We have a new pediatrician that we will see tomorrow about a referral to a neurologist, and hopefully OT through the hospitals here since EI stops for the summer. Maybe after OT in a clinical setting, he will appreciate having someone come to our house for it! I just hate to see his progress come to a crashing halt because of his stubborness! Aiden will be starting preschool in the fall through headstart at MSU lab preschool. This will be perfect because he will be in a class that is run by OT students! I am so glad that he will qualify under headstart because that preschool is one of the most expensive around, and there is no way that my unemployed butt could afford it, no matter how much he needs it! The EI program was originally working on getting him qualified as special needs so that he could attend that way, but he's too smart! There has to be more than 1 reason for a child to qualify, and his only issue is one sided motor skill delay. The child landed in the above average/gifted category for vocabulary and understanding! Once you can get past his pronunciation of certain letters, you really can carry on whole conversations with him :)
Sick of reading yet? Ha, I guess I have traded regular blogs for entire months crammed in one summary :) I really will try to do better!

It's been a long and crazy couple of weeks!

I'm pretty behind on blogging (and cleaning my house, and getting my schoolwork done, etc)! The last 2 weeks have been beyond insane, and I can't wait until everything settles down!

Almost 2 weeks ago, I had one of those rare opportunities to do a little shopping at Babies R Us. It's about 30 minutes away from my house, but one of the only places that sell a certain baby soap I need to use on my super sensative skinned baby! I of course couldn't help myself, and ended up also finally buying a baby sling/wrap that I have wanted for awhile :) Hey, it's for me AND Connor, so that is how I justified it to myself. We stopped in the mommy room so Connor could eat, then I bundled him in his car seat and we headed home, with my little man sound asleep in the back. Out of nowhere a minivan in the lane to the right of me decided to make a left turn, and I got the pleasure of T-boning him. Connor slept through the whole thing! He was absolutely fine. I ended up with a wrist fracture, but it's healing nicely. My car will be in the shop next week to get prettied up, and the boys are now the proud new owners of Recaro carseats (their old ones are required by the manufacturers to be replaced after an accident). Those seats are so incredibly safe! They are huge though, and take up the entire backseat of my RAV4 :) I do miss the convienence of the removable carseat for Connor, but he is getting so tall so fast that I couldn't bring myself to spend so much money on something he will only use for another couple of months tops.

So Saturday night, Connor started coughing. He had a little cold, but I didn't think it was a big deal, Aiden had it too, but it only lasted a couple of days. Monday morning, it was so much worse, and when I was changing him, I noticed his chest was retracting between his ribs! As I was calling his pediatrician, his lips and chin started turning purple, so I grabbed him and Aiden and we headed to an urgent care center which was much closer than the ER. They monitored him for a couple of hours, and released us with a DX of RSV and Bronchiolitis :( We went for a checkup the next day, and his respirations were higher, he had a fever and his pulse ox was 93%, but they decided not to admit him to the hospital as long as he stayed above 92%. Wednesday, he seemed like he was getting a little better (I finally got almost 2 whole hours of sleep at a time the night before). Of course, today, he started getting worse just as I got my hopes up that we were done, so we headed in to the ER, where they watched him for a few hours. He maintained about 95% oxygen with some scary dips, but because he was able to regulate himself without any help, we managed to get sent home. The doctor said that this seasons RSV is the worst strain he's seen so far, and that it is taking about 2 weeks for babies to get over this one :( I just can't wait to 1) have my happy and healthy little man back and 2) stop staring at his chest and second guessing the color of his fingers and toes!

On a very positive note, Aiden decided yesterday that he wants to go peepee on the potty from now on!!! We have made it 2 days now without ANY accidents (and by typing this I am jinxing myself!). He is going to be in diapers for naptime and bedtime for quite awhile b/c he is always very wet when he wakes up! I bought him a few cloth diapers last week since he was jealous of his little brothers new diapers, and those work GREAT for night diapers! After we run out of the disposables we have right now, I am done buying those diapers for Aiden! He can rotate through his cloth once I pick up 2 or 3 more for him :)

I think I may be addicted to cloth diapers :) I am having so much fun trying new ones for my little guy! I am only buying them off the clearance websites while I find the one that I like the most, but it's really hard to pic and choose :) I really never saw myself as a mom who did the whole natural parenting thing, but somehow it seems to have started happening on its own :) I am all for breastfeeding until my guys are 1 (Aiden only made it 11 months though), I love cosleeping (but am so relieved we got Aiden into his own bed before the new little guy came along), I love wearing my kids, and I am getting into cloth diapers! What happened to me?! I guess parenthood really does change a person :)

Connor

Connor is the newest addition to our family, and he definately fits right in :) He is my stubborn attention hog, and I love it! He decided to wait until the afternoon of his due date to make his appearance. There was only about 7 hours from my first hint of labor until my little guy showed up. He is so incredibly identical to Aiden it is crazy! The only real obvious difference is Aiden has green eyes and Connor's are blue, and Connor's nose is a little more upturned. I think Aiden turned out pretty darn cute, so I have no problem having another one who looks the same :)

Connor is such a happy baby! He is always smiling, except when I get the camera out... he doesn't like my face hiding behind that thing. He's very much a momma's boy, but his favorite person is his big brother. No matter how upset he may get, as soon as Aiden smiles at him and talks to him, he is all smiles :)

Aiden

Hmm, where do I start with him? Aiden is my whole world. He is my miracle baby in so many ways, and I don't know what I did to deserve such an amazing child! He's my Navy brat, he lived in 3 different states in just over 2 years, and has adjusted so well! He loves his grandma and papa so much, and it is awesome that he now has the chance to see them so often, rather than every few months!

Aiden is in the process of being officially diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He has always favored his left side... we knew he was left handed by the time he was 3 months old, which I am now finding out is the first sign that there was a problem. He still learned how to walk at 10 months old, despite the fact that he has partial paralysis! We started working with an occupational therapist, Paula, on January 5th, and the improvement in his hand is incredible! She comes to our house every other week for one on one time, and he attends a playgroup with a whole group of therapists every Wednesday. One his initial evaluation, his right arm use was at about 10% of what it could be. Our goal is to be at 80% by the time he is 3, and he is well on his way to that goal. It's the little things that excite me right now, today at playgroup, he picked up a glue stick and attempted to use both hands to take the top off! That was unheard of just a few months ago! I am so proud of my little man! He gets his first home visit with a physical therapist on Tuesday to start working on his leg. He uses it pretty well, he walks, runs and climbs, but when he overuses it, his ankle twists in and his foot clubs up. The PT will be working on stretching out his hamstring which is freezing up as he gets older. I just wish one of his many pediatricians had caught all of this at some point in the last 2.5 years, because he would be doing so much better by this point! The next step is to get in to see a neurologist, who will perform an MRI so we can see if there is any permanent brain injury. He had a traumatic birth, but none of his docs ever followed up on that. We should have answers soon, but in the meantime, I am so grateful for the Early On program here!

Aiden working on putting poker chips through a little slot with his OT.



We took our first trip to the John Ball Zoo 2 weeks ago, and Aiden loved it! He is absolutely obsessed with animals, and incredibly compassionate. I don't think he would have minded if we had left him there, especially if it meant he was able to stay with the penguins forever!


Here's Aiden checking out a puma... he loves watching them on Diego, so it was amazing for him to see one in real life!

Here we go!

Let me start by saying that I am pretty new to this whole blogging thing. I started doing it on Myspace, but I am not on there enough to keep up with it! I guess I am just going to start this one like it's my first, so excuse me if anything you read sounds familiar, because in the beginning at least, it's going to sound a lot like my Myspace ones!
I joined thfe Navy almost exactly 6 years ago now, wow does time fly! When I left for bootcamp, I was leaving behind a pretty crazy time in my life. My goal was to start over, with people who didn't know me or my past. I wanted to spend some time single and drama free for awhile. My first duty station ended up being Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Not bad huh? I arrived there on April 29th, 2004, and went to my first barracks kegger that weekend. Yeah, not really off to a good start in the "changing my old ways" department, but at least I was still determined to stay single. Fast forward to 4 weeks later... yup, I met Brandon, and we have been together since :) Hey, I tried! We were married 9/22/05 and were pregnant 3 months later. Aiden made his appearance 8/29/06, and we left Hawaii 5/07 for Virginia... what a sad change! I found out Connor was on his way just a few weeks after my doc told me I had too much damage from Aiden's birth and couldn't get preggers again! We bought a house in East Lansing after Brandon was accepted to MSU in March '08... we knew it was going to need work, but wow, when we finally made it up to Michigan to look at it, it was beyond bad! Brandon moved up in August and stayed with my parents, making the hour commute every day until our house was at least somewhat liveable. I went on leave on October 1st and moved up to Michigan to have Connor, who arrived on 10/28/08. The timing worked out perfectly, I had 42 days of maternity leave with the Navy (thru 12/9/08), and my last day in the Navy was 12/8/08. I am free!!! I currently stay home with the kids and I am taking classes online at night after they are in bed. It's pretty tricky, but eventually I will have a degree!