Pink Medicine

Pink Medicine is bad, but Orange Medicine is good!!

This is Ethan's thinking. Unfortunately, in his 4 1/2 years of life, he has had to endure a lot of different medicines. So, he has become really good at distinguishing between the "good" and the "bad". Orange medicine is the Motrin or Ibuprofin. We must buy the orange, because that is the one he will take without too much of an issue. But, you try to give him pink or red and you are in for a fight. Well, they only make his antibiotics in pink and cherry flavored. He hates it!! We have had to give him pink medicine several times in the last three months and each time has been a challenge. The first couple of times he was on Zithromax, which is only once a day for 5 days. It's a challenge, but not too bad. This time he's on Bactrin and it is twice a day for 10 days! Not so much fun.

He comes up with every excuse not to take it when he sees it coming. It is pretty funny, he'll turn his head away as if that will change the fact that he will have to take it :) 2 tsp is not that much, unless you are trying to give it to a kid that doesn't want it.

When we would give him cough syrup, he really hated that! He would literally shake after drinking it. Of course, I can't say that I don't do the same. I really hate cough syrup and it probably has to do with the fact that I had to take a lot of it as a kid. I try to avoid it at all costs, but when it is my only option, I literally have to rinse my mouth out immediately after or else it doesn't stay down. So, him having these aversions to medicine is not too surprising given what I do with medicine :) At least it helps him to feel better and I think he knows that, but he sometimes has to be reminded about it :)

So just remember, pink is bad, orange is good :)

Sick of Sickness!!

This winter has been awful for Ethan. Since he was born, this is by far his worst winter yet. When we were in the hospital with him, they kept telling us that the first winter would be the worst and to expect that he could get sick. We did what they said and we kept him in until Easter. It was his best winter and ours too! The next year, he did pretty well, but at the end of the winter ended up with asthma. The year after that we were dealing with ear tubes and reflux, which caused him to cough for 3 months. Last year, he had a pretty good winter and only picked up colds here and there from school.

This year, however, has been awful. The other years had their moments, but this has been non-stop. I've starting thinking that everyone is going to think we have been lying about his sickness to get out of going to stuff. I wish we were! Since he started school in Sept., he has been sick every 2-4 weeks. Some of it has to do with the fact that he is with other kids that also have low immune systems, so they easily pass things to each other. But, I also think his ears may have something to do with it also. He has had 3-4 ear infections since mid-Dec, which means antibiotics each time. For the last 3 or 4 times he has had a cold, he has also needed to go on prednosone, which is never fun. Thankfully, we have possibly avoided it this time though.

Unfortunately, we did not avoid the antibiotic. Matt took Ethan to the doctor today to find out why he was having so many fevers this weekend. The doctor confirmed what we were thinking, that it was another ear infection. He also told us that Ethan's lungs sounded good even though he has been coughing like crazy. The poor little guy just looks sick and has for much of the last several months. We are hoping that we will finally get him past all of this.

Both Matt and I have suffered at different points with colds that we have probably caught from Ethan, but luckily Micah has not really had too many problems. He has had a stuffy/runny nose off and on for a few weeks now, and he has coughed and sneezed. We are thinking some of it has to do with his teething, but he may also be getting little colds too. It is such an amazing thing to have a kid that actually makes it through a cold without much assistance! We just hope it stays that way :)

Matt and I both feel like we have been so busy lately and we could really use a break. Of course, that won't be coming anytime soon. It would be great to just get away, but we know it would mean more work when we come back. For me, school has been stressful. There is just a lot going on and it doesn't help that I have not been able to dig myself out of the piles of work I have. Everytime I seem to get a little ahead, there are about 5 emails/memos/students/parents, etc. giving me more work to do. I know it is part of the job and it really wouldn't be bad, if I didn't have all of this other stuff to do on top of it. Hopefully, someday I will be back on track with my daily routine.

With school giving me so much work, I barely have time to spend at home with the kids. I get home, we rush a dinner and I get right back to work. I don't have time to exercise, which I know would help me to feel less stressed. I have also had a lot of pain in my back and my feet, so I know the exercise would really help that too. Hopefully, if Matt and I can get Ethan on track and get ourselves feeling better, everything else will start to get better! I really hope that will be true :) We are all feeling so run down that we need some good, positive things happening at home and outside of home :) Please join us in praying that Ethan starts to feel better and gets back to normal (well, normal for him).

Busy Week!

We had quite a big week! On Saturday, my lease on my car was up, which meant we had to get a new car. For several weeks, we have been researching the best cars for our needs. Several weeks ago, we drove to several dealerships to just look at the cars we thought would be possible. We went when they were closed, so that we could just look without getting forced into something. We wrote down all of the possibilities and then we signed up for consumer reports. We looked everything up and then narrowed down our list to two cars that fit all of our needs. So, we test drove the Toyota Sienna and the Ford Taurus X. While at Ford, we also drove the Ford Flex. After driving the cars, we decided to eliminate the Taurus and add the Flex.

So, last week, we talked to both Toyota and Ford and ended up with a better deal on the Flex. It had all of the features we wanted, plus a few extras and the bonus was that it was in Red!! My favorite color! On Saturday, we packed up the boys and headed to Ford to buy my Flex! We love it and it has been fun getting used to all of the new little features. We are so excited about it and Ethan loves it!!

Then on Sunday, we celebrated Micah's baptism. Our friends Andy and Becky were his Godparents. We all headed to lunch afterwards, and it was fun to get a chance to catch up with friends and family. Micah did such a great job at his baptism, everyone was impressed. My pastor walks the babies down the aisle a little so that everyone can see the newest member of the church. Micah seemed to just take it all in. He sat there just looking at everyone, which was so cute. We were so happy to finally celebrate his birth and his being a child of God. It was a pretty busy weekend, but we had such a great time with everything.
I will post some pictures of the baptism and my new car as soon as I have them :)

On a sadder note, we lost a young boy in our church congregation on Sunday. He was 11 years old and passed away unexpectedly. I would like to ask you to pray for his family. His name was Larry and he was such a bright spot in our church. His family is obviously having a difficult time dealing with the loss of Larry. It has been a shock to all who knew him. Today was the funeral. Please pray for all who knew Larry, especially his parents and sister.

4 Months!!

Micah turned 4 months old last Friday. I took him to the doctor this past Monday for his well baby check. He weighed 15lbs 15oz and was 25 inches long!! He moved back to the 50th percentile. At his 3 month appointment he was in the 90th, but during the last month he must have evened out again and is now exactly where he should be :) He looks huge though and even feels huge. Micah is starting to learn more about his voice and is making sure we know it too. We hear more "yelling" now as he is trying to talk.

We still think he has some teeth that are trying to work their way in, but they haven't shown yet. We will start solids next month, so that will be a fun experience. I'm sure he will be such a happy baby to get something other than liquid. He practically drools over the food we eat. It is so funny the way he watches us eat, as if he is about grab the food right out of our hand.

Micah is now start to grab for what he wants, which has been interesting. The other day, I went to pick him up after a very long day at work and he grabbed my face and started licking and sucking on my cheek! Apparently, he thought I was his bottle. He is also starting to grab my hands and pulling them to his mouth to suck on them. It is weird to see him in this stage. Ethan didn't like to put anything in his mouth, but Micah seems to love it. I remember prying Ethan's mouth open, just to get him to suck on something for teething! We have no problem this time, I think, instead, we will have to take things out of his mouth.

Overall, he seems to be growing and developing very well. He had a couple of vaccines on Monday and he was such a trooper. I was always proud of the way Ethan handled shots. He would just cry for a few seconds, then look at my face and calm down. Micah does the same thing. He cried for just a few seconds, found my face and calmed down. I was so proud of him. He seems to have a pretty similar temperament as Ethan, which will mean good things if it stays that way. We have been really lucky with Ethan being such a good boy, and we hope that we have the same thing with Micah. So far he seems to be very similar to Ethan in that respect.

Ethan will be going to kindergarten next year, so Matt went to an introductory meeting for that last Friday. He will go to the same school that he is currently attending, which will be great for his transition. We have already started to prep him for the fact that he will have a different teacher and a lot more friends in his class. He seems to understand now, because he will tell us how it will be different. In March, we get to go to the open house for kindergarten. I've subbed in the kindergarten at his school, so I know a little bit about it already, but it has been something like 8 years since I subbed there. I talked with his teacher yesterday and we were able to discuss some of the plans for Ethan. We will finalize the plans for him sometime in May. At that time, it will be decided if he will stay on the IEP and then what kind of services he will need. It sounds like he will probably have the IEP, but as a team we'll have to discuss what will be the best situation for him. Our biggest concern is that he doesn't fall through the cracks and just slip by each year. Thankfully, his district has a good special eduction program, so we are really happy about that.

Here are some pictures of my big boys!!

The monthly picture with the bear!

Big Brother wanted to hop into the picture!

Proud of his trains that he was playing with.

Huh??? What do you want now?

This is what I get to see everyday! It makes me so happy!

Emotional times...

I wasn't sure if I would post about this or not, but it seems to keep coming up in different conversations I have had recently. 2 weeks ago, I finally began to pack up the maternity clothes I had left and the 0-3 month clothes that Micah had outgrown. It needed to be done for weeks, but something kept making me put it off. I finally decided that it had to be done in order for other things to get organized.

As I was packing things up I found myself getting more and more upset. I sat there holding the baby clothes and remembering Ethan wearing some of them. I also remembered how Ethan never got to wear a lot of them because of his oxygen and monitor wires and tubing. Micah grew so fast that he was also not able to wear some of the clothing more than one time. As I sat there remembering, I realized that none of my children would ever wear the clothing again. I also realized that I was not ready to give away or sell the clothes.

Matt came upstairs as I was finishing and saw that I was upset. In that moment, I finally broke down and cried. I didn't realize how hard it would be to deal with this. During the pregnancy, both Matt and I knew that we didn't want to go through another pregnancy because of the risk to any future child and to me. I never really had time to let it sink in, so it hit me that day when I was packing things up. It hit me that I would never be pregnant again and would never wear my maternity clothes again. It hit me that I would never have another baby to wear all of the cute little outfits that we have. It hit me that I HAD to make a decision that I didn't really want to make.

After having Ethan, I realized how much I loved being a mom and had said that if I had a good second pregnancy I would want to try for a 3rd. But, after Micah's pregnancy turned out to be difficult in a whole new way, I knew that I couldn't go through it again. I still wanted another child, but I knew I couldn't. So, on that day, I realized how much it hurt that I had to make that decision. I know that some people would say that no one made me get my tubes tied, but I made me. So, I am fighting against myself in this. I stand behind my decision to not put a future child at risk, but I am still saddened by the fact that I won't have any more children. I am so blessed to have the two children I have. I could have easily lost both and I know that the chances are too high that I would lose the next one.

I have talked about it with several people recently, because I have been asked if I will have any other children. It has made me realize that I am not crazy for feeling the way I do, or for making the decision I made. Everyone has said that they would have probably made the same decision, but would have also felt the same kind of sadness. I am so happy with my two children and I really do feel that my family is complete, but I still need to work my way through this decision.

Every day that goes by, I feel more and more comfortable with my decision. Every day that I deal with the pain from the bedrest, I remind myself how hard I had to work to bring life to my child Micah. Every day that I watch Ethan grow and learn, I remind myself of the 88 days I held his hands and willed him to live, I remind myself of all of the years of specialists and therapist appointments. It is in those moments I remind myself why I HAD to make the decision I did. I didn't want to risk the life of a child, my child. I couldn't go through the stress of having a high-risk pregnancy again and deal with being scared every single day of the pregnancy.

My brain tells me all of those things and helps me to see the intelligence behind this choice. My heart on the other hand is not as logical. My heart is the heart of a mommy and it will take it a little longer to become as logical, but we are almost there! Everyday, my heart fills even more with the love for my children. I now understand why, even though you have made a choice, you may still be sad. I thank all of the people that have been so supportive with our decision and helping us to feel like we made the right choice.

Sickness and more...

The last time I wrote, I mentioned that Ethan was getting sick. He ended up with an ear infection along with all of the asthma/cold stuff. In the end, we were giving him 4 different medications. Unfortunately, because he was on prednosone along with his albuterol, we ended up with many sleepless nights. One morning he woke up at 1:30 am and never went back to sleep until about 8pm that night!! Then that night he woke up at 3:30am and didn't go back to sleep until that evening. It was not a fun couple of nights, but somehow we made it through. He is still coming out of it all, but is doing a lot better overall. Micah seems to have avoided this mess, but he has had a runny nose off and on, which could be from the teething we think he is doing right now. Matt and I have not done as well as Micah though. Matt got sick toward the end of the week and I am now getting sick. Hopefully, we will all be healthier soon, because we are sick of being sick! I just wish things would be easier with Ethan and sickness, but I guess we'll just have to wait that out and hope we will someday be able to get through a cold without being worried about his asthma and lungs in general.

Other than that, we are surviving me being back at work. It has been difficult at times, but we are making it. I'm trying not to bring home a lot of work, but that doesn't seem to be working too well. I'd really like to get to a point where I don't have to bring home anything. I'm hoping to get myself a couple of weeks ahead if possible, so that I can spend more time with the kids in the evening. Its funny because I have brought home stuff each night and most nights I am so exhausted and end up hanging out with Ethan and Micah, then going to bed. Tonight is one of those nights. As soon as I finish this I'm headed to bed, because I am really beginning to feel quite sick. Plus, I have Micah cuddled up on me right now and he needs to cuddle up in his bed :)

Hopefully, in the next week or so I'll have some pictures of my new car! We are in the process of looking right now, since my car lease is about to be up. I think we are down to 2 or 3 cars and are just trying to decide which will give us the most features! It is hard with all of the high-tech stuff available now :)

Here are some recent pictures of Micah and Ethan...

A Crazy Week!

Well, I survived my first week back to work, but boy was it crazy! Getting into a new routine was a little difficult this week. It is certainly a switch to have to get all four of us ready in a two hour span of time. We seemed to hit a good groove that allowed all of us enough time, but we still need to work on making it a little smoother. I'm sure that will come with time. I'm not getting out as early as I would like, but I am still getting to work on time. It would be nice to start getting there about 15 minutes early, so that I don't have to stay after school very long.

Thankfully, we have a pretty good group of students this year, so that part wasn't so bad. The kids tried to push a few buttons, but soon realized that it wouldn't work! The part that was hard was getting back into my classroom, which has been run by someone else for the last 9 months. I didn't get to close my classroom at the end of last year, so the sub I had then is the one that did that. Then I didn't get to open the room this year, so a different sub did that and then stayed until I came back. So, after two different people were in my room, it has taken me some time to reorient myself to my classroom. It hasn't been too bad, but it has been weird at times :) It's my stuff, yet I don't know where all of it is at times. I'm slowly but surely finding my way back into my classroom and getting things organized the way I want them. Most things were pretty much done the way I would do them, since my sub and I did talk quite a bit about how to run lessons and such. It is just the little things that are taking more time for me to get used to. It doesn't help that there have been a lot of changes in the building itself this year. But, overall the week went well.

I had a snow day thrown into the middle of the week, which was helpful for me in terms of lesson planning and getting a little further ahead on that. My body seems to be holding up for the most part. I have had a lot of foot pain and some back pain, but I am finding some things that help a little. I bought a pair of black tennis shoes to wear with my dress pants and that helps a lot. I've also starting sleeping with my body pillow again to help my back. I am waking up in a little less pain each morning now. Some of the things I have read recently have said that it could take up to a year before I feel more like myself physically!! I really don't think I can deal with this pain for that long. I'm hoping that if I can lose some of my weight that will help, especially because I'll be exercising and stretching out all of those tight muscles. Matt got me a gift card for a massage, so I'm going to set one up one of these weekends, so that may help a bit too.

On top of me going to work, our kids have been sick. Micah started to get a runny nose and has been a little stuffy at times. Overall, he is handling it well and is really not that sick from it, just a little irritable at times. Ethan did well all week until Thursday night. I took my mom to dinner with the boys and when Ethan's food came, he looked at it, made a disgusted face and turned to me and said "I don't feel good Mama." They were the words I dreaded all week! It turns out that 3 of my nephews and one niece got sick early this week, right after all of them had been playing together at my other nephew's b-day party. Then after Micah got his little cold, I just prayed that Ethan wouldn't get it.

After we got home on Thursday, Ethan ended up with a fever. The next worry is that he would need his albuterol aerosol treatments. He made it all day on Friday until we got home that night before he needed one. Then that led into a night of more treatments and fevers. All day today has also been more fevers and treatments. It is just never good when he gets sick! It seems as though he can never just get a cold. So, we just do what we need to do in order to get him through it as best as possible. Matt is exhausted, because he was up most of the time on Friday night with Ethan. Hopefully, he doesn't also end up sick.

One interesting thing we noticed this week, is that Micah will probably be an early sitter! He has been practically pulling himself to sit up when he is in a semi-reclined position. We have also both tried sitting him up and he will sit for a few seconds without assistance! We have been amazed by him. He really is happiest when he is sitting up somewhere. Micah just loves looking around at what is happening around him. He also started to give a really good belly laugh this week. If you have him paying attention to you, it is possible to get him in a really good laugh, which has been such a blast. I tried to record it, but it was like he knew what I was doing and would stop laughing, then start again when I put the camera down! What a little stinker! I do have a few new pictures that I will try to post soon. Probably in the next couple of days. I just have to get them put onto the computer :)

I hope you all have a good week and I'll post those pics soon.