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!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
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 :)
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