Cincinnati Trip

Has been cancelled for our follow up on Monday.  With B's double ear infection and the fact that I made the decision to put him back on steroids due to his rapid breathing and extra effort to breathe during the night they decided that he wasn't healthy enough for Monday's appt.  They also decided that it was too dangerous to give him a general for the Scope.

The dilemma for me is that this is our one month post operation appt to determine if everything is still looking good and there are no "tweaks" that need to be made.  So what is more important....the risk of giving him a general or waiting an extra month and there could be some changes that need to be made within his airway.   We have no indication that says there is anything wrong, it is just a comfort that I would have with having them go in there and say "yup, everything still looks good."

I guess time will tell!

We have a source

I took Birk back to the doctor today after a weekend of NO sleep, high fevers and lots of nightmares.  Turns out the sweet child has a double ear infection.  The one on his left ear was pretty severe (which explains the constant "owie's" we heard through the night).  They are thinking due to the pain and lack of sleep that is where the dreams are stemming from.  Let's hope.  This poor child just needs sleep and lots of it.

So, I'm home one more day and his first official day at day care has been delayed.  None the less he will get there.  :-)

He is currently sleeping and for what I hope to be A LONG NAP!!!!!

Thanks to all for the prayers you may have sent out way.  We sure hope we have found what is causing all these sleeping issues!

Sleeping

Is not happening a lot around our house for B-man these days.

It is becoming something I'm increasingly more and more worried about.  I am also feeling rather hopeless and uncertain of where to turn.

Anyone reading this who has any advice...I'm all ears.

It started after surgery in that he would wake up at least once a night and cry out.  However, he was easily calmed and would go back to sleep.  Naps were running a lot shorter than usual too, but it didn't seem to be something I had to be nervous about.

However, this past week...and specifically Saturday and Sunday nights it has escalated.  Saturday night he was crying out and talking in his sleep at least every hour and sometimes every 30 minutes.  He would say things like "owie, stop doing that to me."  "Addy fell, I need to help her" and "Yi scares me."  As a parent, this was very heartbreaking to hear.  We don't know what is causing this and we have no way to fix it.

Sunday night has been slightly better, but he is still upset.  The only difference is that I've been giving him tylenol each time he starts one of these episodes and it does seem to calm him.  I wake him 100% by pulling him out of bed and then giving him the medicine.  Then I put him back to bed and for a while he has been ok (so far).  He has ran a fever in the past several days which I read online can cause nightmares.  I've read some on night terrors too...and based on what I'm seeing from him...this isn't that.  I have no reasoning, which means I have no solutions.  I'm exhausted from getting up repeatedly and being worried,  Nick is tired, and more importantly Birk is beyond tired.

My immediate prayer is to God to take this away from my sweet son.


Please release him from whatever is restricting him from rest.  He is fighting a cold and due to the fact that he isn't resting he is struggling to even get over a slight cold that is present.  Please surround him with your grace as whatever is frightening him so much can be made better through you.  Please also provide wisdom to Nick and I as we try and determine what the best options are for Birk at this time.  We want to make the best decision when it comes to how to care for him.  

In Jesus name.  

Sometimes I am not cut out to be a single parent or a Mommy of a little boy...

BECAUSE whenever my husband is gone, my kids get sick, I am beyond tired and I just tend to get overwhelmed and stressed.

Then today Nick went over to a friends house and while he was gone I struggled to get the kids to nap well.  When I finally gave up and let them get up we came down and were playing and Birk slipped and fell face first into our coffee table (made of colorful stones and metal edges...safe I know).  He bit into his lip after the fall.  After I got the blood cleaned up and calmed both of us down (Addy included) I realized it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

So for those of you that have little boys (or had little boys) who have fallen, cut their head open, bite through their lips, or just plain play so hard they hurt themselves...HATS OFF TO YOU!

I am going to be having a drink or two tonight.  It has been a whirlwind of a couple weeks.  Whew!!!!!!!!

On a good note...Happy MLK Day....and Day off work.  :-)

Love like Crazy ~~

So this week has been crazy for me....see previous post.

As I was sitting here with the kids tonight watching some TV (and trying to just relax...we all need it).  I started thinking that there was one thing that I had really neglected this week.  Something I had let fall short cause I was "too busy."  For this I was ashamed.  I was sad that I hadn't spent the time talking to God like I have in weeks past.  Even when I was at my darkest moment these past few weeks I still let God help me.  I still asked him for strength, I praised him for allowing me to be in that moment.  And yet, this week I fell short.  It's not the first time, and I certainly know it won't be the last.

In that moment I decided that I needed to talk to God.  I needed to thank him for giving me the strength to get through this week with Nick gone.  I needed to thank him for a job.  Even though it has been stressful this week and filled w/ quite a bit of extra stuff on my plate... I needed to thank him for a husband whom I adore and who is out on the road enjoying his work as well.  A husband who will listen to me on the phone be VERY upset that our furnace is working, let me call him at 2am when I'm up with the boy cause I don't want to deal with it alone and a husband who is so excited to get home to see him family... How lucky can a girl be?!?! I needed to thank him and praise him for creating Birk and Addy whom I am just head over heels in love with.  I needed to thank him for placing one of the greatest responsibilities a person can have in my hands...to be a parent.  I needed to let my kids see me at my weak moment as well.  So, in that moment I asked B & A to pray with me.  See, my kids are used to praying at the dinner table, and at Church, but I can't really recall if they have seen us pray otherwise.  I got down on my knees and to my utter amazement they did the same and folded their hands.  Now, my prayer was a bit different w/ them involved, but the message was the same.

"Dear God,
Thanks for Daddy, Thanks for no Trache, Thanks for Dora/Diego (this one was from the twins), Thanks to Marcia, Thanks to Dr. Andersen, Thanks to airplanes (Daddy is on one right now), Thanks for everything!"  

What a sweet reminder of all the blessings we have in our lives.  I sure hope you've been better than I have remembering to Praise the one who has given us the moon, stars and the SON!

Here is a short song (not even a Christian song) that really describes my feelings tonight!

Don't let YOUR praying knees get lazy!!

Ugh!!!

This week has been quite the whirlwind for me!!!

Tuesday Nick left on a work trip for the rest of the week.  While normally this wouldn't be a huge issue I started a new class at work and knew my schedule would be CRAZY!  And I was right.  Tuesday evening I dropped the kids off at a friends house and ran to my church meeting.  WHen I went to pick them back up, I saw Addy was in a new outfit.  I thought maybe they were just playing dress up or something, but come to find out I had forgotten to pack diapers and Addy had an accident.  Thank goodness they had a little girl who had dolls, and doll diapers.  The diaper was so small on Addy...it was quite funny to see~

Wednesday was uneventful which was a blessing as the storm hit on Thursday.

Thursday we discovered Birk was running a slight fever.  It was a pretty mild low grade fever so we didn't really worry about it.  Around 4pm Marcia called and said "Jenny, I don't think your furnace is working."  In my initial state of panic I rushed home after work and went straight to work.  I messed w/ the thermostat, I checked to see if a fuse had gone out and then headed down to the basement.  I looked at the stupid thing.  I even asking the furnace why it wasn't working?!?  Finally I looked down and saw this little on/off switch.  As I got closer I noticed 2 things.  It was switched to off, and it was about 2 year old height!  Hum!!!  Turns out Addy decided to turn our furnace off when she was playing the basement.  Good grief.

The fever went away in the evening so I thought it was safe to run to the pharmacy and then to play volleyball.  I got to pharmacy and as they were running my insurance card for the prescriptions they told me it was declined.  As I stood there in a state of panic, I was sure what to do.  I told them I would just pay and deal with it later!  A $90 bill later for one medicine and I was on my way to volleyball.

Everything was still good until around 2:30AM.  Birk started to cry and I realized his fever had spiked again and this time it was no longer low grade.  I held him for quite a while, we had some juice, I used cool wash clothes on him and gave Tylenol.  When the Tylenol started to work we decided to go back to bed.  He was a bit upset that I wouldn't jump in his crib with him so I said I would sleep on the floor next to him!  Oh boy, how UNCOMFORTABLE!  After he got back to sleep, he slept ok until about 7am this morning.  I, however, DID NOT!

Due to the fact that his fever has come and gone and he was complaining that his throat hurt we made an appointment.  Turns out he doesn't have strep, but we do need to watch him closely!  Man.  When it rains it pours.

Side not:  the pharmacy called me today and it was actually their error that I had to pay for the prescription.  When we got back from Ohio I had turned in a new prescription for this medicine they had already filled our previous one.  I told them that since we increased the dosage I would need to refill sooner.  Long story short...insurance didn't know about the dose increase!!!

It's 3:09PM, I came home from work today around 12:00PM and am now at a point where I can lay my head on a pillow and get some sleep...hopefully.  Being up since 2:30AM with a sick little guy takes a toll on a person!

~~~ Thank goodness it is the weekend ~~~

Prayers for B-man

We have had nothing but great things happen for our sweet boy these past few weeks.  We do have one prayer request for him.  We have been battling some sleep issues since getting back to Iowa.  We are also dealing with what we are feeling are some nightmares for him when he sleeps.  Most nights he will wake up a few times throughout the night and will cry out.  Last night he was thrashing around and even talking in his sleep.  He also had some difficulties with his afternoon nap today.  What we pray for is rest for him.  Obviously, with these dreams and crying fights his sleep is not as good as is should/needs to be.  Please pray for peace for him.  Pray that these dreams cease.  I hate the thought of him having scary or bad dreams and there isn't much I can do to help him!

We have heard that sometimes bad dreams or "night terrors" follow a long sedation or when children have been under some of the drugs that he was on so we are semi-prepared for this.  It is just difficult to watch your sweet boy have to go through this.