We got some really great gifts for Christmas this year. However, that's not what I'm referring to. Some of the things were great, some not so great. Here they are...
On Christmas Eve we got antibiotics. All the kids seemed to be feeling better when Reese developed a double ear infection. I took him in on Christmas Eve and one ear was really bad. So, we got some antibiotics and went on our way. He felt better quickly and all was well.
We got crabby kids. For the most part they were really fantastic. They were well behaved and did well without much of a nap a couple of days. Then it was over and the crabiness hit like a tidal wave. Holidays are so much fun and I love them so very much. The days after are some cruel form of torture.
Now for the great things...
There was no work for Nate last week. That meant he was home all week. It was nothing short of fabulous. I could leave the house without waiting for someone to come help me or watch the kids. We took the kids places. We went to the "farm", which was actually a butcher, to buy some fresh meat. Thankfully they don't really understand what kind of "farm" it was. It was really nice to spend the week all together.
We got a baby who has slept through the night for 3 nights in a row now. Praise the Lord!!!! I started feeding her oatmeal on Saturday and every since then she is full enough to sleep through the night. I would have done it much sooner, but I want desparately to avoid another child with food allergies. It's recommended to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months. I did. It wasn't always easy (I can't eat dairy, she was hungry at night, etc..), but I feel like it was worth it. It's hard to read all the things that people think are causing food allergies, because it often blames the "lifestyle". I have questioned many choices and wondered if they have caused Noah's food allergies. The truth is there is no clear answer on what causes it. I refuse to believe what people are writing. They don't know. I do what I can and if Devyn ends up with a food allergy I'll know I did what I could to prevent it. I carry enough guilt (what mom doesn't).
I will work on getting some pictures up of our Christmas very soon. Right now I'm just enjoying the fact that I am well rested from a FULL nights sleep!!
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Sick babies
Having sick babies stinks. Okay. I know the boys are 2 and not really babies anymore, but they will always be my babies.
Devyn started coughing last week so I took her in Friday. Her lungs sounded clear, so there wasn't much to do but give her lots of love. She had a fever Friday night. Then it was a low-grade fever on and off until Tuesday. I called the dr again and she said that if she didn't get better in a couple of days we needed to come back. Well, she passed this illness on to the boys. That means lots of coughing, fevers, medicine and Noah coughing so hard he throws up (which always happens in bed) because of his asthma. Devyn is fever free, but still coughing.
That being said I'm choosing to see this in a positive light. Having sick kids means many things. It means I have kids. I have little people that love me and need me. People who want me to hold them in the middle of the night when they have a fever. People who want me to tuck them back in. People who want to snuggle me on the cough. I am constantly trying to make them snuggle with me. They usually say, "No, Mom! Stop! I go play.". When they are sick suddenly everyone wants to snuggle.
I'm also incredibly thankful that we have Tylenol to help keep fevers down, a nebulizer to help with breathing and a warm house to keep them comfortable. Not everyone has what they need to help their kids get better. We do.
I'm not sick. Okay, this is going to sound strange. I would rather have sick kids than be sick myself. Of course when it is something major, like Reese having surgery or Noah's peanut allergy I would trade with them in a heartbeat. When they have a cold or fever it's way easier to have them be the ones that are sick. When I'm sick it's awfully hard to take care of everyone, let alone myself.
I stay home and don't have to take days off. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it is to be a working mom and have to decide whether to take days off or have leave you kids with someone else when they are sick. I give a lot of credit to those moms. Such tough decisions can't be easy.
All in all, we'll survive. The fevers and coughs will pass. I'm really hoping the fevers are gone quickly. We start celebrating Christmas on Sunday with my family. I really don't want to miss it. I'm hopeful that since the fevers started yesterday they'll be done by tomorrow. Say a prayer for us. A prayer that everyone gets better and a prayer of thanks that we're so richly blessed.
Devyn started coughing last week so I took her in Friday. Her lungs sounded clear, so there wasn't much to do but give her lots of love. She had a fever Friday night. Then it was a low-grade fever on and off until Tuesday. I called the dr again and she said that if she didn't get better in a couple of days we needed to come back. Well, she passed this illness on to the boys. That means lots of coughing, fevers, medicine and Noah coughing so hard he throws up (which always happens in bed) because of his asthma. Devyn is fever free, but still coughing.
That being said I'm choosing to see this in a positive light. Having sick kids means many things. It means I have kids. I have little people that love me and need me. People who want me to hold them in the middle of the night when they have a fever. People who want me to tuck them back in. People who want to snuggle me on the cough. I am constantly trying to make them snuggle with me. They usually say, "No, Mom! Stop! I go play.". When they are sick suddenly everyone wants to snuggle.
I'm also incredibly thankful that we have Tylenol to help keep fevers down, a nebulizer to help with breathing and a warm house to keep them comfortable. Not everyone has what they need to help their kids get better. We do.
I'm not sick. Okay, this is going to sound strange. I would rather have sick kids than be sick myself. Of course when it is something major, like Reese having surgery or Noah's peanut allergy I would trade with them in a heartbeat. When they have a cold or fever it's way easier to have them be the ones that are sick. When I'm sick it's awfully hard to take care of everyone, let alone myself.
I stay home and don't have to take days off. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it is to be a working mom and have to decide whether to take days off or have leave you kids with someone else when they are sick. I give a lot of credit to those moms. Such tough decisions can't be easy.
All in all, we'll survive. The fevers and coughs will pass. I'm really hoping the fevers are gone quickly. We start celebrating Christmas on Sunday with my family. I really don't want to miss it. I'm hopeful that since the fevers started yesterday they'll be done by tomorrow. Say a prayer for us. A prayer that everyone gets better and a prayer of thanks that we're so richly blessed.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Dear winter...
We are not friends. Sure, you're pretty when there is snow on the ground and you have some great holidays, but that's it.
It's only December 11 and I couldn't be more sick of being stuck inside. As I type this the boys have been in bed since they finished eating lunch lunch and no one has napped longer than 15 minutes (Aiden was the only one to fall asleep at any point). I haven't let them get up yet because Devyn finally fell asleep...on the floor. She wouldn't nap this morning, so now she's passed out on the floor. I won't move her unless the house is on fire. Sorry, boys. You're stuck in bed. I also won't get them up because they were horrible this morning and these couple of hours are necessary separation so that I don't run away from home.
They need so badly to run around and get their energy out. It's just too cold to take them out though. I got them bundled up on Monday to go outside and shovel. Nate came home halfway through dressing them and helped me. By the time everyone was in snowpants, coats, boots, hats and gloves I was sweating and they were falling over because of all the heavy clothing. Honestly. I'm not even sure it was worth it. We were outside for maybe 20 minutes or half an hour. Then it was too cold to be out any longer and we took them inside. Once inside we spent 10 minutes getting the wet clothing off and into the basement, Noah fell down the stairs trying to walk down in all of his clothing and they were crying because they didn't want to come in. Not to mention Noah has asthma so that small amount of time outside caused him to cough like crazy. Fantastic.
Last winter we dealt with a million illnesses. This year we'll deal with cabin fever. I have it. Bad.
This could prove to be a challenging winter. Hopefully all the time stuck indoors will help get everyone potty trained. Aiden only wears a pull-up at naptime and a diaper at night. Noah will pee on the potty if left naked all day. He hasn't mastered wearing undies yet. Reese isn't really interested yet.
So, winter. I'll be glad to see you go. In 3 months or what will feel like 10 years.
Friday, November 22, 2013
The things they say....
We have laughed an awful lot lately about the things the boys say. Emerging language is a beautiful thing and leads to some rather hilarious mispronunciations and sayings. I have been writing some down and thought I would share some of my favorites with you.
Reese is most famous for mispronunciations. He works really hard to say words the right way, it just doesn't always work out. For example if you ask Reese what he is when he's yelling, "roar!", he'll tell you that he is a 'daddysaur'. He will play in the play kitchen for hours and when I ask him what he's doing he'll tell me, "I cut nice.". The first few times he said it I thought he was telling me that he was playing nice. I later realized that nice is actually knife. He's also a real big fan of the 'quackuum'. That, my friends, would be the vacuum. :) He will also hand me his cup when I'm cleaning up from a meal and ask me to put it in the 'washdisher'. His sentence strucuture also makes him sounds a bit like a caveman. If I'm sitting on the couch he'll tell me, "Mom, I climb up. I sit by Mom." My favorite was one day when he told Noah or Aiden to stop doing something. They didn't stop. He sternly said, "3, 4, 5..time out". I normally tell them to do something or stop doing something and when they don't comply I count to 3 and then they go to time out. I guess 3, 4, 5 does the same thing.
Noah has probably the best language skills. Probably because he talks all. day. long. He's most famous for telling us it's his hungry turn or his hungry time. That means it's his turn to eat. I don't have any idea how he came up with that. One morning he was in the bathroom with me (more like every morning) and I took out my hair dryer. He asked me if I was going to "drive hair". :) Noah likes to be the big brother and will help me with Devyn often. He'll talk to her and call her "Dev". It cracks me up.
Aiden is probably the easiest to understand. He he less words that he mispronounces, but among my favorites is bayband (bandaid). He also refers to the microwave as the beep beep. Actually they all do. Aiden repeats everything. We have to be especially careful what we say around him because he will repeat it. He always likes to remind the other 2, "not boss". They are constantly telling each other what to do. Never mind they are also being naughty as they boss someone else around. I tell them that they are not the boss, which Aiden just loves to remind them.
We've decided that this is our favorite age thus far. We would love to just press pause and keep them at this age forever. It certainly comes with challenges, but they are learning so much all the time and are so much fun. We were having a "dance party" the other night after supper. A slow song came on (we had Pandora on) and they were slow dancing with me and Nate was holding up Devyn so they could slow dance with her. My eyes filled with tears because I know that a minute will pass and I'll be seeing this same scene, except at their weddings. It nearly shattered my heart. Can't they just stay little forever?
Reese is most famous for mispronunciations. He works really hard to say words the right way, it just doesn't always work out. For example if you ask Reese what he is when he's yelling, "roar!", he'll tell you that he is a 'daddysaur'. He will play in the play kitchen for hours and when I ask him what he's doing he'll tell me, "I cut nice.". The first few times he said it I thought he was telling me that he was playing nice. I later realized that nice is actually knife. He's also a real big fan of the 'quackuum'. That, my friends, would be the vacuum. :) He will also hand me his cup when I'm cleaning up from a meal and ask me to put it in the 'washdisher'. His sentence strucuture also makes him sounds a bit like a caveman. If I'm sitting on the couch he'll tell me, "Mom, I climb up. I sit by Mom." My favorite was one day when he told Noah or Aiden to stop doing something. They didn't stop. He sternly said, "3, 4, 5..time out". I normally tell them to do something or stop doing something and when they don't comply I count to 3 and then they go to time out. I guess 3, 4, 5 does the same thing.
Noah has probably the best language skills. Probably because he talks all. day. long. He's most famous for telling us it's his hungry turn or his hungry time. That means it's his turn to eat. I don't have any idea how he came up with that. One morning he was in the bathroom with me (more like every morning) and I took out my hair dryer. He asked me if I was going to "drive hair". :) Noah likes to be the big brother and will help me with Devyn often. He'll talk to her and call her "Dev". It cracks me up.
Aiden is probably the easiest to understand. He he less words that he mispronounces, but among my favorites is bayband (bandaid). He also refers to the microwave as the beep beep. Actually they all do. Aiden repeats everything. We have to be especially careful what we say around him because he will repeat it. He always likes to remind the other 2, "not boss". They are constantly telling each other what to do. Never mind they are also being naughty as they boss someone else around. I tell them that they are not the boss, which Aiden just loves to remind them.
We've decided that this is our favorite age thus far. We would love to just press pause and keep them at this age forever. It certainly comes with challenges, but they are learning so much all the time and are so much fun. We were having a "dance party" the other night after supper. A slow song came on (we had Pandora on) and they were slow dancing with me and Nate was holding up Devyn so they could slow dance with her. My eyes filled with tears because I know that a minute will pass and I'll be seeing this same scene, except at their weddings. It nearly shattered my heart. Can't they just stay little forever?
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Tough decisions
I think one of the hardest parts of being a parent is making decisions. It starts before your kids are even born. There are the big decisions, the small decisions and everything in between. I remember wishing the boys would just come out with a name so that we woulnd't have to decide. After all they have to live with their name for the rest of their life. Then there were the decisions like car seats, cribs, what van to buy and so many other decisions.
The thing that makes the decisions the hardest is that every person you meet has an opinion about what you decide. You chose that car seat? That's not the safest. You let them cry at night? They'll develop psychological issues. It goes on and on. From what you feed them to vaccines and even how you discipline. Don't get me wrong. I often ask for people's opinions and I'm glad to hear them. I just don't really want to be bombarded with opinions every time I log on to facebook or venture out to a store. The truth is that being a parent is hard and we need to support each other, not put each other down. I see far too much of that and quite frankly I'm tired of it. I find myself judging people's decisions about parenting too and I'm trying to control that. Unless someone asks for my opinion on their parenting decision I try keep my mouth shut.
That being said I feel like we've been making some tough decisions lately that are sure to cause people to give me their opinion. We've decided that Devyn won't get any solids until 6 months. Our dr always gives us information on what current research suggests and then leaves it up to us. Nate pretty much left this decision in my hands because I'm the one who has to feed her and get up with her at night. I feel strongly that if I can do anything to avoid or lessen her chance of food allergies I'll do it. Having one child with food allergies is hard enough.
On that same note we are constantly making decisions on what we can and can't do with Noah. People sometimes think we are overreacting when we don't go places, but his safety is more important than going out. We went out to eat Saturday night and he has some hives on his face. We knew that we ordered him something "safe", but the risk for cross-contamination always exists. Our allergist always stresses that any time we go out we take a risk. I was in a panic and asked Nate to watch him (he's much more calm and won't overreact about it). He was fine, but it was a good reminder that we have to be incredibly careful with him. No matter where we go the risk of him touching something that has been contaminated with peanuts or tree nuts exists.
Parenting is hard. I don't care if you have 1 child, 4 children or 10 children. It's hard. You are constantly making decisions that will affect your little people. Some of those decisions, like discipline, will shape them into the individuals they will grow up to be. Some of those decisions, like whether or not to give them a piece of candy, will have less of an impact. Whether big or small the decisions are hard. So, please support each other. Use your words to encourage another parent on the difficult journey that they are on.
The thing that makes the decisions the hardest is that every person you meet has an opinion about what you decide. You chose that car seat? That's not the safest. You let them cry at night? They'll develop psychological issues. It goes on and on. From what you feed them to vaccines and even how you discipline. Don't get me wrong. I often ask for people's opinions and I'm glad to hear them. I just don't really want to be bombarded with opinions every time I log on to facebook or venture out to a store. The truth is that being a parent is hard and we need to support each other, not put each other down. I see far too much of that and quite frankly I'm tired of it. I find myself judging people's decisions about parenting too and I'm trying to control that. Unless someone asks for my opinion on their parenting decision I try keep my mouth shut.
That being said I feel like we've been making some tough decisions lately that are sure to cause people to give me their opinion. We've decided that Devyn won't get any solids until 6 months. Our dr always gives us information on what current research suggests and then leaves it up to us. Nate pretty much left this decision in my hands because I'm the one who has to feed her and get up with her at night. I feel strongly that if I can do anything to avoid or lessen her chance of food allergies I'll do it. Having one child with food allergies is hard enough.
On that same note we are constantly making decisions on what we can and can't do with Noah. People sometimes think we are overreacting when we don't go places, but his safety is more important than going out. We went out to eat Saturday night and he has some hives on his face. We knew that we ordered him something "safe", but the risk for cross-contamination always exists. Our allergist always stresses that any time we go out we take a risk. I was in a panic and asked Nate to watch him (he's much more calm and won't overreact about it). He was fine, but it was a good reminder that we have to be incredibly careful with him. No matter where we go the risk of him touching something that has been contaminated with peanuts or tree nuts exists.
Parenting is hard. I don't care if you have 1 child, 4 children or 10 children. It's hard. You are constantly making decisions that will affect your little people. Some of those decisions, like discipline, will shape them into the individuals they will grow up to be. Some of those decisions, like whether or not to give them a piece of candy, will have less of an impact. Whether big or small the decisions are hard. So, please support each other. Use your words to encourage another parent on the difficult journey that they are on.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
A new age
We seemed to have moved into a "new age" yet again. The boys suddenly seem to be growing up.
For one we have reached that dreaded age where often when we tell Reese to do something or ask him something his response is, "Why?". The first time he said it we just looked at each other in shock. How did our sweet little babies turn into boys who ask, "why", all the time. It's not so bad having just Reese ask why sometimes, but I know that when they all start asking all the time it's going to get old really fast. I'm thankful that they want to grow and learn, but I'm bracing myself for the constant questioning that is coming our way.
We've also reached the age where they want to know about colors and shapes. Just before naptime today we were looking at a book with colors, shapes and categories (kitchen items, a page with clothing, etc) that we were given before they were born (Thanks, Nancy!!). Reese was able to point out red, blue, green and black. It's all because Aiden always has a blue cup, plate and silverware; Noah has green and Reese had red. He knows black because our van is black and my mom and dad both drive black cars. It made me want to cry. Nothing makes a teacher/mom happier than hearing their child learning letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. They were able to identify so many things in the book it amazed me. The only shape they know at this point is a triangle. I'm trying to work on circle and square. No luck yet.
They are also taking shorter naps both days. Boo!!! I love naptime. It saves my sanity on the crazy days. Ok. I guess that would be pretty much every day. Yesterday they took a long nap, but today I hear them up already after just over an hour. I guess I have to accept the fact that some day they won't nap. I'm really planning on having them nap or rest until they go to school. It does me good and them good to get away from each other for a while. That's also when I eat lunch!
It's so fun to see them getting older. They can bring their dishes to the kitchen, clean up their spot at the table, put their clothes in the laundry and do so much more. I'm often asked if I miss the baby phase. In short, no. I sometimes wish I could go back and see them when they were little. That's all though. I enjoy the fact that they can do so much more now. Playing with kids who can pretend is so much more fun than a baby who just kind of rolls around and screeches (sorry, Devyn). Every age has it's hard parts and every age is fun.
For one we have reached that dreaded age where often when we tell Reese to do something or ask him something his response is, "Why?". The first time he said it we just looked at each other in shock. How did our sweet little babies turn into boys who ask, "why", all the time. It's not so bad having just Reese ask why sometimes, but I know that when they all start asking all the time it's going to get old really fast. I'm thankful that they want to grow and learn, but I'm bracing myself for the constant questioning that is coming our way.
We've also reached the age where they want to know about colors and shapes. Just before naptime today we were looking at a book with colors, shapes and categories (kitchen items, a page with clothing, etc) that we were given before they were born (Thanks, Nancy!!). Reese was able to point out red, blue, green and black. It's all because Aiden always has a blue cup, plate and silverware; Noah has green and Reese had red. He knows black because our van is black and my mom and dad both drive black cars. It made me want to cry. Nothing makes a teacher/mom happier than hearing their child learning letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. They were able to identify so many things in the book it amazed me. The only shape they know at this point is a triangle. I'm trying to work on circle and square. No luck yet.
They are also taking shorter naps both days. Boo!!! I love naptime. It saves my sanity on the crazy days. Ok. I guess that would be pretty much every day. Yesterday they took a long nap, but today I hear them up already after just over an hour. I guess I have to accept the fact that some day they won't nap. I'm really planning on having them nap or rest until they go to school. It does me good and them good to get away from each other for a while. That's also when I eat lunch!
It's so fun to see them getting older. They can bring their dishes to the kitchen, clean up their spot at the table, put their clothes in the laundry and do so much more. I'm often asked if I miss the baby phase. In short, no. I sometimes wish I could go back and see them when they were little. That's all though. I enjoy the fact that they can do so much more now. Playing with kids who can pretend is so much more fun than a baby who just kind of rolls around and screeches (sorry, Devyn). Every age has it's hard parts and every age is fun.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
4 month check-up
Yesterday Devyn had her 4 month check-up. The past 4 months have flown by and felt really long all at the same time. We go through a pattern of good nights, then bad nights. It's usually about 3 or 4 decent nights followed by 2 or 3 not so good nights. She had some rough nights last weekend. She was up about every 2 hours on Sunday night. Then she was only up twice in 12 hours Monday night and last night. She still has some tummy issues that wake her up and then keep her awake. I have to be very careful what I eat if I want to sleep.
She weighed in at 13 lbs. She has only gained 1 lb. since her 2 month check-up. That puts her at the 36th percentile. Her weight gain has slowed significantly. The dr isn't really concerned, but said it is something to keep an eye on to make sure her weight gain stays steady. She has chubby cheeks and rolls on her legs, so I think she's fine. :) She's 25 in. now though, which puts her somewhere near the 80th percentile. So she's tall and thin. I guess she'll be like her dad! The dr also said we can give her some oatmeal now that she's 4 months old and give her apple juice to help her poop. Poor thing has such a hard time going sometimes. I'm not sure I want to give her anything yet. They keep changing the recommendation on when to feed to avoid food allergies. It was exclusively nursing until 6 months and now she said they changed it to nursing plus cereal at 4 months. I will do anything to avoid having another child with food allergies. I also don't think she's ready for cereal. She still thrusts her tongue out when we offer her a spoon. It's so hard to be a mom and make decisions like this. I just want to do the right thing!
Developmentally she is ahead of where she needs to be. The boys were always just where they needed to be, so it's different having a baby ahead of where she needs to be. She is so much fun to watch. She learns so much all the time. She started sucking her thumb again. It is so stinking cute! Her hands are getting a little chapped because of it, so I was told I should put mittens on her when we go out so they don't dry out too bad.
The boys are also changing and growing a lot. Aiden is potty trained!!! He still wears diapers to bed, but during the day he goes on the potty. It's wonderful! Now I'll move on to Noah. I really depise potty training. All day long I follow them around asking, "Do you need to go potty? Do you need to go potty?". They are having hilarious conversations and learning things faster than I can keep up. We were eating pancakes one day and Reese help up a piece and said, "Look! A trinagle!". It was a triangle. I wish I could take credit. He learned it from Sesame Street. That kid is something else. 2 is such a fun age. Naughty, but fun. Someday I'll sit down and write all the things that are awesome and difficult about the age of 2, but right now I have 3 hungry little boys who want lunch.
She weighed in at 13 lbs. She has only gained 1 lb. since her 2 month check-up. That puts her at the 36th percentile. Her weight gain has slowed significantly. The dr isn't really concerned, but said it is something to keep an eye on to make sure her weight gain stays steady. She has chubby cheeks and rolls on her legs, so I think she's fine. :) She's 25 in. now though, which puts her somewhere near the 80th percentile. So she's tall and thin. I guess she'll be like her dad! The dr also said we can give her some oatmeal now that she's 4 months old and give her apple juice to help her poop. Poor thing has such a hard time going sometimes. I'm not sure I want to give her anything yet. They keep changing the recommendation on when to feed to avoid food allergies. It was exclusively nursing until 6 months and now she said they changed it to nursing plus cereal at 4 months. I will do anything to avoid having another child with food allergies. I also don't think she's ready for cereal. She still thrusts her tongue out when we offer her a spoon. It's so hard to be a mom and make decisions like this. I just want to do the right thing!
Developmentally she is ahead of where she needs to be. The boys were always just where they needed to be, so it's different having a baby ahead of where she needs to be. She is so much fun to watch. She learns so much all the time. She started sucking her thumb again. It is so stinking cute! Her hands are getting a little chapped because of it, so I was told I should put mittens on her when we go out so they don't dry out too bad.
The boys are also changing and growing a lot. Aiden is potty trained!!! He still wears diapers to bed, but during the day he goes on the potty. It's wonderful! Now I'll move on to Noah. I really depise potty training. All day long I follow them around asking, "Do you need to go potty? Do you need to go potty?". They are having hilarious conversations and learning things faster than I can keep up. We were eating pancakes one day and Reese help up a piece and said, "Look! A trinagle!". It was a triangle. I wish I could take credit. He learned it from Sesame Street. That kid is something else. 2 is such a fun age. Naughty, but fun. Someday I'll sit down and write all the things that are awesome and difficult about the age of 2, but right now I have 3 hungry little boys who want lunch.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Noah Q & A
My last post was all about questions we get asked about the fact that we have triplets (and things not to say). The other thing we get a lot of questions about is Noah's food allergies. Despite the fact that food allergies are on the rise many people are still in the dark about them. I can honestly say I didn't understand much about food allergies until I had a child with one. We have learned an awful lot over the past 9 months and I'm sure we have much more to learn.
1. How did you know? Noah's first reaction was to his first exposure to peanut butter. He had an asthma attack, then started swelling and itching and eventually had hives.
2. Will he outgrow it? Most likely not. His allergy is considered severe. Peanut allergies are the allergy that people are least likely to outgrow. He had an anaphylactic reaction so our allergerist would never put him in a desensitization study (where they expose a person to an allergen a little bit at a time). He wouldn't even do a skin prick test for nuts on Noah because of the severity of his first reaction. He only tested his blood. Typically the first reaction is the most mild.
3. What happens if he gets exposed? That is really anyone's guess. Our allergist told us that next time we will only have minutes to respond. Frankly, it's terrifying every time he starts coughing, itching his eyes or breaking out in hives. I contantly recite my plan of action. First we give the epipen, then we call 9-1-1. Then we watch him like a hawk and give the 2nd epipen if the first one isn't working.
4. Can't you just give him some Benadryl for a reaction? No. It only controls the itching and symptoms of a reaction. The Epipen is basically adrenaline and that is what interferes with the reaction. Even after using the Epipen he would need emergency attention because the reaction can continue and further medications could be needed.
5. So, does he just need to avoid peanuts? He actually has a mild tree nut (think almonds, cashews, etc.) as well. We need to avoid all nuts and sesame seeds (they have some sort of cross-reaction and the body responds to them like peanuts sometimes..I'm not sure I get it, we were just avoid them). This also means that we have to read every single food item we purchase. If it says contains, may contain, processed on the same equipment, processed in the same facility as or anything else similar to that we can't buy it. I have made mistakes and not realized until I got home that I was so used to buying something that I forgot to check. I bought Nestle chocolate chips last week and realized as I was opening them that I didn't check them. I looked and sure enough they are processed right along with a product with peanuts. They will be leaving our house immediately.
6. Why do so many kids have allergies now? I have no idea. If anyone claims they know, they're wrong. There is no clear answer. There are many theories..from vaccines (our allergist said that's "rubbish"-he's British) to the hygiene theory (we're too clean and take too many antibiotics) and the way our food is modified and processed. No one knows, but they are clearly on the rise. I read that 1 in 13 kids has a food allergy. That's about 2 kids per classroom. Scary stuff!
We don't put Noah in the church nursery, we skip events because it's just too risky and we constantly worry about when we'll need to respond. I watched a video that was posted on facebook about a person who had a reaction to a wasp sting and continued to react for hours and nearly died. Noah was standing near me and I looked at him and cried. How is it that something as innocent as peanuts could kill him so quickly? It's not fair. It's makes me angry. But I know it's just something that we have to get over and deal with. It's not the end of the world, just a roadblock. We have to find ways around it and move on.
1. How did you know? Noah's first reaction was to his first exposure to peanut butter. He had an asthma attack, then started swelling and itching and eventually had hives.
2. Will he outgrow it? Most likely not. His allergy is considered severe. Peanut allergies are the allergy that people are least likely to outgrow. He had an anaphylactic reaction so our allergerist would never put him in a desensitization study (where they expose a person to an allergen a little bit at a time). He wouldn't even do a skin prick test for nuts on Noah because of the severity of his first reaction. He only tested his blood. Typically the first reaction is the most mild.
3. What happens if he gets exposed? That is really anyone's guess. Our allergist told us that next time we will only have minutes to respond. Frankly, it's terrifying every time he starts coughing, itching his eyes or breaking out in hives. I contantly recite my plan of action. First we give the epipen, then we call 9-1-1. Then we watch him like a hawk and give the 2nd epipen if the first one isn't working.
4. Can't you just give him some Benadryl for a reaction? No. It only controls the itching and symptoms of a reaction. The Epipen is basically adrenaline and that is what interferes with the reaction. Even after using the Epipen he would need emergency attention because the reaction can continue and further medications could be needed.
5. So, does he just need to avoid peanuts? He actually has a mild tree nut (think almonds, cashews, etc.) as well. We need to avoid all nuts and sesame seeds (they have some sort of cross-reaction and the body responds to them like peanuts sometimes..I'm not sure I get it, we were just avoid them). This also means that we have to read every single food item we purchase. If it says contains, may contain, processed on the same equipment, processed in the same facility as or anything else similar to that we can't buy it. I have made mistakes and not realized until I got home that I was so used to buying something that I forgot to check. I bought Nestle chocolate chips last week and realized as I was opening them that I didn't check them. I looked and sure enough they are processed right along with a product with peanuts. They will be leaving our house immediately.
6. Why do so many kids have allergies now? I have no idea. If anyone claims they know, they're wrong. There is no clear answer. There are many theories..from vaccines (our allergist said that's "rubbish"-he's British) to the hygiene theory (we're too clean and take too many antibiotics) and the way our food is modified and processed. No one knows, but they are clearly on the rise. I read that 1 in 13 kids has a food allergy. That's about 2 kids per classroom. Scary stuff!
We don't put Noah in the church nursery, we skip events because it's just too risky and we constantly worry about when we'll need to respond. I watched a video that was posted on facebook about a person who had a reaction to a wasp sting and continued to react for hours and nearly died. Noah was standing near me and I looked at him and cried. How is it that something as innocent as peanuts could kill him so quickly? It's not fair. It's makes me angry. But I know it's just something that we have to get over and deal with. It's not the end of the world, just a roadblock. We have to find ways around it and move on.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Q & A and what not to say..
I've decided to answer some questions that we get asked all the time and give some suggestions of things that are probably better left unsaid when you meet parents of multiples. I've been thinking about writing this for quite a while, but haven't been able to quite put in to words in a way that is both honest and appropriate. If you have said or asked any of these things please don't feel bad. I have said/asked things before that I now realize would probably have been better to keep to myself. Hopefully this will give you some guidance next time you come across someone with multiples...
1. "I'm sorry". Yes. People really do say that. How do you expect me to respond? Should I break down weeping and tell you that I'm so dissapointed that I have 3 (now 4) healthy children? I'm never quite sure what to say other than, "It's a blessing". Even if you're joking it implies that there is something horrible about having more than one child at a time when in fact it is an incredible blessing. Don't be sorry! Be joyful that all went well.
2. "I hope you're done". Nothing irritates me more than when a perfect stranger assumes that if you have multiples you should just quit having children immediately. When you say that you assume that I can't handle the 3 boys and should do society a favor and not have more. I may not be mom of the year and I may have bad days as a mom, but I think that our boys are turning out just fine and having one more child was not going to throw things completely off kilter causing my children to go off the deep end.
3. "Are they natural?" It's hard not to respond sarcastically and say something to the effect of "No! Completely fake! We had them manufactured!". What people want to know is how they were conceived. We did not do IVF. We were on a very low dose of a medication given to "jump start" things when we were having a difficult time conceiving on our own. We had a less than 1% chance of conceiving higher order multiples. It was clearly God's plan for our life to have triplets.
4. "Did you know you were having triplets?" Again, hard not to be sarcastic. Yes, we knew. We found out when I was 6 weeks pregnant and were in complete shock. At 7 1/2 weeks we went for a follow-up ultrasound and saw 3 beautiful, strong heartbeats.
Some of the most frequent questions we get asked are:
1. Are they identical? The answer is that we don't think so. 2 of the boys have the same blood type so it is possible, but I really don't want to pay the money it would take to find out. It does not bother us at all when people stop us to ask if they are triplets, if they are identical or any other "general" questions that don't probe into our personal life too far.
2. Do they have the same personality? Well, they are still 3 different people. So, no. Instead you can ask us how fun it is to watch 3 boys born at the same time grow..as individuals. I love that they are triplets and want to show them how unique and special it is. At the same time I want them to feel like individuals who are not constantly "lumped" together because they were born together.
3. How do you do it? Honestly? I don't know. It's all I've ever known as a mom. It's not like I could pick 1 or 2 to take care of. You choose what's important and leave the rest to get done when there's time. I'm organized and my life is like an assembly line. I think that's the best way to describe it.
I'm sure there are more things that I am forgetting. If there is something that you're wondering, just ask. I will answer almost any question. If you are out and see someone with multiples don't just stare, say something kind. Compliment them if they are well behaved, tell them they are very blessed or give them a polite smile. When you stare we feel like a freak show. Nothing pleases us more than when someone stops us to say what an inredible blessing triplets are. Yes! I can still see the faces of some of the kindest people who stopped us and told us how blessed we are and how happy it makes them to see triplets. It makes us happy too. :) This is a time in my life when I feel like I am doing exactly what I was designed to do. It's not always easy, but it's what I was made for.
1. "I'm sorry". Yes. People really do say that. How do you expect me to respond? Should I break down weeping and tell you that I'm so dissapointed that I have 3 (now 4) healthy children? I'm never quite sure what to say other than, "It's a blessing". Even if you're joking it implies that there is something horrible about having more than one child at a time when in fact it is an incredible blessing. Don't be sorry! Be joyful that all went well.
2. "I hope you're done". Nothing irritates me more than when a perfect stranger assumes that if you have multiples you should just quit having children immediately. When you say that you assume that I can't handle the 3 boys and should do society a favor and not have more. I may not be mom of the year and I may have bad days as a mom, but I think that our boys are turning out just fine and having one more child was not going to throw things completely off kilter causing my children to go off the deep end.
3. "Are they natural?" It's hard not to respond sarcastically and say something to the effect of "No! Completely fake! We had them manufactured!". What people want to know is how they were conceived. We did not do IVF. We were on a very low dose of a medication given to "jump start" things when we were having a difficult time conceiving on our own. We had a less than 1% chance of conceiving higher order multiples. It was clearly God's plan for our life to have triplets.
4. "Did you know you were having triplets?" Again, hard not to be sarcastic. Yes, we knew. We found out when I was 6 weeks pregnant and were in complete shock. At 7 1/2 weeks we went for a follow-up ultrasound and saw 3 beautiful, strong heartbeats.
Some of the most frequent questions we get asked are:
1. Are they identical? The answer is that we don't think so. 2 of the boys have the same blood type so it is possible, but I really don't want to pay the money it would take to find out. It does not bother us at all when people stop us to ask if they are triplets, if they are identical or any other "general" questions that don't probe into our personal life too far.
2. Do they have the same personality? Well, they are still 3 different people. So, no. Instead you can ask us how fun it is to watch 3 boys born at the same time grow..as individuals. I love that they are triplets and want to show them how unique and special it is. At the same time I want them to feel like individuals who are not constantly "lumped" together because they were born together.
3. How do you do it? Honestly? I don't know. It's all I've ever known as a mom. It's not like I could pick 1 or 2 to take care of. You choose what's important and leave the rest to get done when there's time. I'm organized and my life is like an assembly line. I think that's the best way to describe it.
I'm sure there are more things that I am forgetting. If there is something that you're wondering, just ask. I will answer almost any question. If you are out and see someone with multiples don't just stare, say something kind. Compliment them if they are well behaved, tell them they are very blessed or give them a polite smile. When you stare we feel like a freak show. Nothing pleases us more than when someone stops us to say what an inredible blessing triplets are. Yes! I can still see the faces of some of the kindest people who stopped us and told us how blessed we are and how happy it makes them to see triplets. It makes us happy too. :) This is a time in my life when I feel like I am doing exactly what I was designed to do. It's not always easy, but it's what I was made for.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
A beautiful day
This past Sunday Devyn was baptized. It was a beautiful day. It was beautiful because of spending the day celebrating and because the weather was equally as beautiful. We celebrated with our families as Devyn was welcommed into our church. All 4 kids cooperated wonderfully and we stood up front as a family. It was wonderful. It was a busy weekend though and I was glad to have it finally here and just enjoy it.
We also had family pictures. We did pictures with Nate's whole family. Quite a production! It was a little chilly and the kids weren't exactly thrilled to be taking pictures. All in all it went well and we got some great shots.
Today Nate had an unexpected day off. It is far to perfect to be in the house. So, we packed up the kids and went to the park. It is so awesome to finally be able to do things like this! The boys are finally at an age where we can go to a park. So fantastic. My heart felt so full watching Nate help the boys up onto the equipment so they could fly down the slide and squeal with delight. I was thinking how blessed we are to have kids who can play on the equipment and enjoy the day outside. I was feeling blessed because while I sat on a bench feeding Devyn Nate was playing with the boys. It was such a great day. I decided that I need to refocus on what is really important in life. The laundry will always be there, the toys don't need to be cleaned up and other household chores just aren't that important. They will be little for such a short time and I just don't want to be so busy with life that I miss the fun. It's pretty much been the perfect day to enjoy the craziness that is our life. I even took a short nap and took Devyn for a walk while the boys slept (she's not much of a napper). I hear them waking up now and I can't wait to get back outside and enjoy this great day. See you tomorrow chores, today I'm off the clock!!
Here's a pic from our photo shoot this weekend! The photographer also photographed us when we got engaged (7 years ago!!) and our wedding 6 years ago.
We also had family pictures. We did pictures with Nate's whole family. Quite a production! It was a little chilly and the kids weren't exactly thrilled to be taking pictures. All in all it went well and we got some great shots.
Today Nate had an unexpected day off. It is far to perfect to be in the house. So, we packed up the kids and went to the park. It is so awesome to finally be able to do things like this! The boys are finally at an age where we can go to a park. So fantastic. My heart felt so full watching Nate help the boys up onto the equipment so they could fly down the slide and squeal with delight. I was thinking how blessed we are to have kids who can play on the equipment and enjoy the day outside. I was feeling blessed because while I sat on a bench feeding Devyn Nate was playing with the boys. It was such a great day. I decided that I need to refocus on what is really important in life. The laundry will always be there, the toys don't need to be cleaned up and other household chores just aren't that important. They will be little for such a short time and I just don't want to be so busy with life that I miss the fun. It's pretty much been the perfect day to enjoy the craziness that is our life. I even took a short nap and took Devyn for a walk while the boys slept (she's not much of a napper). I hear them waking up now and I can't wait to get back outside and enjoy this great day. See you tomorrow chores, today I'm off the clock!!
Here's a pic from our photo shoot this weekend! The photographer also photographed us when we got engaged (7 years ago!!) and our wedding 6 years ago.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Random
I gave this post the title I did because it's going to be just that..random. So, here it goes.....
First of all we had an absolute blast in Indianapolis Labor Day weekend with my parents and my brother, his wife and their kids. We did so many fun things. We went to the zoo, took a horse and carraige ride (which Noah is still talking about!), rode these crazy bikes where 4 people can petal (2 in the front, 2 in the back and the kids in a basket on the front) and so much more. The boys had a great time. Aiden has some pretty spectacular meltdowns which were probably a combination of teeth coming in and being tired. Aiden is just like me, not good tired or hungry. Reese got his hand sucked into the elevator door and Noah picked up an almond in the elevator. AN ALMOND!!! Of all of the things that could be on the elevator floor it had to be an almond. Of all the kids to pick it up it had to be Noah. My brother noticed and quickly took it from his hand. I held his hand in the air until we got to the bathroom and scrubbed it until it was practically raw. You know that saying, "A vacation with kids isn't really a vacation"? Well, that certainly has some truth to it. By the time it was over I was exhausted. So much fun though!
Second, Devyn is doing much better. The biggest difference came from taking dairy out of my diet. She is happier, sleeping better and not screaming (at least not from her tummy hurting). The probiotic drops seems to be helping as well. She is finally sleeping longer at night. Last night she fell asleep around 9:45 and didn't get up until 4:10 to eat. It was heaven. Sunday I ate broccoli with cheese without thinking. That night she was up every 2 hours crying. Yep. It's dairy my friends. She's still not the happiest baby on earth, but she is WAY better. I think she'll be like Reese and be happier when she is on the move.
I also am thinking I need to do some advocating for new laws about food allergies and restaurants. While we were on our way to Indy we stopped at McDonald's to feed the boys. Big chain restaurants tend to be the safest places to eat. It was a nightmare. It was disgusting for starters, but even worse no one could give me any idea about where to find a list of allergens in the food and they were completely rude and visibly annoyed that I even asked. I was furious. They obviously don't know me and don't know that I can't let things go. I looked at the health department's website to file a complaint (yes, I'm serious). You can only file complaints about the cleanliness of the restaurant or getting sick from the food. I find that unbelievable. If the way they prepare their food and their lack of knowledge about food allergies isn't a responsibility of the health department how am I supposed to know where it is safe to eat and not? There are currently no laws regulating it. Only 2 states have laws about food safety when it comes to regulating that maganers be trained to deal with the issues and allergens be clearly listed and available for consumers. (I actually learned that from a documentary I watched on Sunday). It made me realize that I'll have to do something or nothing will get done. So, I contacted FARE (food allergy research and education). They advocate for people with food allergies, work on finding cures for food allergies, etc. They even have a section for how to work on laws in your state. I think I've found a new mission. I refuse to let people dismiss the seriousness of Noah's allergy and the allergies of many other people. He can't speak for himself, so I will speak for him.
First of all we had an absolute blast in Indianapolis Labor Day weekend with my parents and my brother, his wife and their kids. We did so many fun things. We went to the zoo, took a horse and carraige ride (which Noah is still talking about!), rode these crazy bikes where 4 people can petal (2 in the front, 2 in the back and the kids in a basket on the front) and so much more. The boys had a great time. Aiden has some pretty spectacular meltdowns which were probably a combination of teeth coming in and being tired. Aiden is just like me, not good tired or hungry. Reese got his hand sucked into the elevator door and Noah picked up an almond in the elevator. AN ALMOND!!! Of all of the things that could be on the elevator floor it had to be an almond. Of all the kids to pick it up it had to be Noah. My brother noticed and quickly took it from his hand. I held his hand in the air until we got to the bathroom and scrubbed it until it was practically raw. You know that saying, "A vacation with kids isn't really a vacation"? Well, that certainly has some truth to it. By the time it was over I was exhausted. So much fun though!
Second, Devyn is doing much better. The biggest difference came from taking dairy out of my diet. She is happier, sleeping better and not screaming (at least not from her tummy hurting). The probiotic drops seems to be helping as well. She is finally sleeping longer at night. Last night she fell asleep around 9:45 and didn't get up until 4:10 to eat. It was heaven. Sunday I ate broccoli with cheese without thinking. That night she was up every 2 hours crying. Yep. It's dairy my friends. She's still not the happiest baby on earth, but she is WAY better. I think she'll be like Reese and be happier when she is on the move.
I also am thinking I need to do some advocating for new laws about food allergies and restaurants. While we were on our way to Indy we stopped at McDonald's to feed the boys. Big chain restaurants tend to be the safest places to eat. It was a nightmare. It was disgusting for starters, but even worse no one could give me any idea about where to find a list of allergens in the food and they were completely rude and visibly annoyed that I even asked. I was furious. They obviously don't know me and don't know that I can't let things go. I looked at the health department's website to file a complaint (yes, I'm serious). You can only file complaints about the cleanliness of the restaurant or getting sick from the food. I find that unbelievable. If the way they prepare their food and their lack of knowledge about food allergies isn't a responsibility of the health department how am I supposed to know where it is safe to eat and not? There are currently no laws regulating it. Only 2 states have laws about food safety when it comes to regulating that maganers be trained to deal with the issues and allergens be clearly listed and available for consumers. (I actually learned that from a documentary I watched on Sunday). It made me realize that I'll have to do something or nothing will get done. So, I contacted FARE (food allergy research and education). They advocate for people with food allergies, work on finding cures for food allergies, etc. They even have a section for how to work on laws in your state. I think I've found a new mission. I refuse to let people dismiss the seriousness of Noah's allergy and the allergies of many other people. He can't speak for himself, so I will speak for him.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Colic and a new allergy
Devyn had her 2 month check-up on Tuesday. She has grown like crazy! She is in the 80th percentile. The dr is very happy with her growth and her development. She asked a lot about her rash that we had been in about (when we saw the other pediatrician). I told her what the allergist said and she agreed. I felt justified that she agreed cutting out milk would help. She said that we should also try giving her probiotic drops and that I shouldn't eat butter either (in addition to milk and cheese..for some reason eggs don't bother her tummy). So after finding the expensive little drops we're hoping for some progress. I did read a study where 50% of babies improved from their mother not drinking milk. 95% (95!) of babies improved when their mother cut out milk and gave probiotic drops. Essentially they think these drops are the cure for colic and that's what pediatricians are recommending for colic now. We've been that rare case all too often and are hoping to be in that 95% this time.
As for Noah we discovered what seems to be a new allergy. Boo. We fed him a packet of instant oatmeal with his zyrtec mixed in on Sunday. This face all around his mouth broke out in hives. We thought maybe he was allergic to something in the zyrtec. Tuesday I fed him a packet of the same oatmeal without the zyrtec mixed in. The same thing happened. I guess he's allergic to something in the instant oatmeal. I'm guessing it's the dehydrated apples. Grr. The pediatrician agreed that it's probably the deydrated apples, but could be an additive in the oatmeal or just an irritation of the skin. The apples seeem to be the most likely candidate. She said that if I really want to try to feed him any the oatmeals like that to give them carefully and watch him. So, back to regular old oats it is. I would rather spend a couple of extra minutes making the old fashioned oats and not risk it. Too many times I read stories of kids having accidental exposure to an allergen or not getting help soon enough. It's also frustrating to hear there are still people who don't really think of it as a life or death situation. It absolutely is. I am not at all sorry that your kid can't have peanut butter and jelly at school. I am in no way sorry. When it means my kids life I will be his tireless advocate every time. Avoiding peanuts/nuts is hard enough. I don't need people dismissing the seriousness of it. So next time you hear someone complain how ridiculous it is that peanut butter isn't allowed please remind them that my child's life is much more important than the your child's desire to eat peanut butter. Get soy butter, people. Your child will survive. Mine may not if you sneak in peanut butter (I've heard of this happening). This may sound harsh, but it's reality. This is not a lifestyle choice. This is a real, true medical condition. Ok, enough about that.
Other than that the boys are hilarious these days. They got Curious George stuffed animals for their birthday. They LOVE them. They kiss them, put them in Devyn's swing, sleep with them, put them in a chair next to them at breakfast and offer them Cheerios...too funny. I'll post pictures sometime. For now I must go pick up the screaming Ms. Devyn.
As for Noah we discovered what seems to be a new allergy. Boo. We fed him a packet of instant oatmeal with his zyrtec mixed in on Sunday. This face all around his mouth broke out in hives. We thought maybe he was allergic to something in the zyrtec. Tuesday I fed him a packet of the same oatmeal without the zyrtec mixed in. The same thing happened. I guess he's allergic to something in the instant oatmeal. I'm guessing it's the dehydrated apples. Grr. The pediatrician agreed that it's probably the deydrated apples, but could be an additive in the oatmeal or just an irritation of the skin. The apples seeem to be the most likely candidate. She said that if I really want to try to feed him any the oatmeals like that to give them carefully and watch him. So, back to regular old oats it is. I would rather spend a couple of extra minutes making the old fashioned oats and not risk it. Too many times I read stories of kids having accidental exposure to an allergen or not getting help soon enough. It's also frustrating to hear there are still people who don't really think of it as a life or death situation. It absolutely is. I am not at all sorry that your kid can't have peanut butter and jelly at school. I am in no way sorry. When it means my kids life I will be his tireless advocate every time. Avoiding peanuts/nuts is hard enough. I don't need people dismissing the seriousness of it. So next time you hear someone complain how ridiculous it is that peanut butter isn't allowed please remind them that my child's life is much more important than the your child's desire to eat peanut butter. Get soy butter, people. Your child will survive. Mine may not if you sneak in peanut butter (I've heard of this happening). This may sound harsh, but it's reality. This is not a lifestyle choice. This is a real, true medical condition. Ok, enough about that.
Other than that the boys are hilarious these days. They got Curious George stuffed animals for their birthday. They LOVE them. They kiss them, put them in Devyn's swing, sleep with them, put them in a chair next to them at breakfast and offer them Cheerios...too funny. I'll post pictures sometime. For now I must go pick up the screaming Ms. Devyn.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
The allergist and 2 year check-up
We had 2 appointments this week. The first was the pediatrician. That was a great appointment. The boys were very cooperative! They were a little nervous, which actually helps. She said they all look great. Noah has grown like a weed and is now around 35" tall and 27 pounds. Aiden is in the middle at 34" and 24 pounds. Reese is still the peanut at 33" and 24 pounds. Noah is average for 2 years old (55th percentile) and Reese is tiny 15th percentile). It still amazes me that they were born so small and early. You would never know they were early. They are doing great developmentally as well. They don't have to go back until they turn 3. Yes! Although, we'll probably be back before then..illness tends to brings us back before our scheduled appointments. They are kids and they pick up germs like nobody's business. On a random note, whenever they ask how early they were I say they were born at 32 weeks, 5 days. They normally put them down as 32 week triplets, but I always remind them of the 5 days. Every day was a struggle, so I want credit for every day. They always look at me like I'm a little crazy, but anyone with multiples will definitely understand that!
The second appointment was the allergist. We talked about Noah most of the time. Thankfully we have had no incidents that required the epipen or any other intervention..yet. I'm sure at some point we'll be faced with a situation. I have a lot of nightmares about that and do a lot of praying that I'll respond quickly when it does happen. We also talked about his asthma and the fact that the nebulizer seems to really be helping keep it controlled. I asked his opinion about the increase in food allergies. He asked what I had read. I told him I read one about vaccines being the cause. He asked if I believed it and I said that I don't. He agreed and said it was complete nonsense. I also said I had read that the way our food is grown (gmo's) and processed were a factor and that I did believe that. He agreed that there could be some truth to that one. Scary, isn't it? I also have read the we don't give kids nuts early enough. He said there is a study about that and that you could read it either way. You can read it that we don't give them early enough or read the same study and gather that we should wait. The roasted vs. boiled nuts theory is probably not true either. Basically there is no good answer. He talked about the fact that the immune system is the most complex system in the body and trying to figure it out is extremely difficult. He said that all the blood tests that show allergies often show false positives and really don't give a true picture of the severity of allergies either. So knowing whether or not someone will react to a food is a guess. Scary!!! He said the fact that Noah's reaction was so severe the first time and the fact that he has asthma makes his an allergy that he'll live with forever. It's often difficult to know where it is safe to take Noah and where we should avoid. Dr. Wolf said it's always going to be a gamble no matter how careful we are. I think we should just become hermits. :)
I also asked him about Devyn. He didn't really want to look at her too much because she's so little and not his patient. He talked to me quite a bit about her, but wanted to make sure I talk more to our regular pediatrician. He said that at her age it's early to talk about an allergy. That being said he completely disagrees with the pediatrician we saw who said it was just excema and not related to food. He said the excema would have been on her face. It would have been somewhere that she could scratch which at this point would only be her face. He asked about our detergent and what we wash her with. I make my own detergent, so I know that's not it. We switched what we wash her with and it helped a little. I still notice a difference when I have milk. It absolutely gives her tummy aches and some sort of rash. He said to do some experimenting to figure it out. I told him I did and that I cut milk out of my diet. His words were, "Then I think you have your answer". He said that he disagrees with the pediatrician (not our regular one, the other dr. we saw) that it would be unlikely that it would be food. He said it's very likely and what I eat certainly does pass to her and can certainly cause all of this. That being said he wants me to mention all of it to the pediatrician and talk to her more about the rash. It's hard to say what the real cause is. She is looking better, but the rash is still there a little bit. She goes for her 2 month check-up on Tuesday and we'll talk more to our pediatrician at that appointment. Hopefully she can help with some suggestions or an idea of where to go next!
The second appointment was the allergist. We talked about Noah most of the time. Thankfully we have had no incidents that required the epipen or any other intervention..yet. I'm sure at some point we'll be faced with a situation. I have a lot of nightmares about that and do a lot of praying that I'll respond quickly when it does happen. We also talked about his asthma and the fact that the nebulizer seems to really be helping keep it controlled. I asked his opinion about the increase in food allergies. He asked what I had read. I told him I read one about vaccines being the cause. He asked if I believed it and I said that I don't. He agreed and said it was complete nonsense. I also said I had read that the way our food is grown (gmo's) and processed were a factor and that I did believe that. He agreed that there could be some truth to that one. Scary, isn't it? I also have read the we don't give kids nuts early enough. He said there is a study about that and that you could read it either way. You can read it that we don't give them early enough or read the same study and gather that we should wait. The roasted vs. boiled nuts theory is probably not true either. Basically there is no good answer. He talked about the fact that the immune system is the most complex system in the body and trying to figure it out is extremely difficult. He said that all the blood tests that show allergies often show false positives and really don't give a true picture of the severity of allergies either. So knowing whether or not someone will react to a food is a guess. Scary!!! He said the fact that Noah's reaction was so severe the first time and the fact that he has asthma makes his an allergy that he'll live with forever. It's often difficult to know where it is safe to take Noah and where we should avoid. Dr. Wolf said it's always going to be a gamble no matter how careful we are. I think we should just become hermits. :)
I also asked him about Devyn. He didn't really want to look at her too much because she's so little and not his patient. He talked to me quite a bit about her, but wanted to make sure I talk more to our regular pediatrician. He said that at her age it's early to talk about an allergy. That being said he completely disagrees with the pediatrician we saw who said it was just excema and not related to food. He said the excema would have been on her face. It would have been somewhere that she could scratch which at this point would only be her face. He asked about our detergent and what we wash her with. I make my own detergent, so I know that's not it. We switched what we wash her with and it helped a little. I still notice a difference when I have milk. It absolutely gives her tummy aches and some sort of rash. He said to do some experimenting to figure it out. I told him I did and that I cut milk out of my diet. His words were, "Then I think you have your answer". He said that he disagrees with the pediatrician (not our regular one, the other dr. we saw) that it would be unlikely that it would be food. He said it's very likely and what I eat certainly does pass to her and can certainly cause all of this. That being said he wants me to mention all of it to the pediatrician and talk to her more about the rash. It's hard to say what the real cause is. She is looking better, but the rash is still there a little bit. She goes for her 2 month check-up on Tuesday and we'll talk more to our pediatrician at that appointment. Hopefully she can help with some suggestions or an idea of where to go next!
Friday, August 16, 2013
Get real
I'm tired. That's just reality. Devyn is not a great baby. She has terrible gas and is crabby quite often. I'm trying to cut dairy out of my diet and that seems to be helping a bit. I feel bad for her because she's uncomfortable so often. Oddly enough nights tend to be better than days. She might go 3-4 hours between feedings the first time around at night..although it depends on the night..and then it's back to every 2 hours. It's still way better than being up with 3 little baby boys at night! :) I took her to the dr. on Monday because she has a rash all over her body that started on her face. We had to see the partner dr. because ours is on vacation. He said it's just really bad excema and that she has extremely sensitive skin. He said to be sure I don't keep her to warm and to bathe her every day. Yuck. I hate giving baths. But I don't want her to be miserable, so I do it. I asked about the constant discomfort and he says it's normal. We're not buying it. I'll talk to the pediatrician more Monday when I take the boys for their 2 year check-up and the allergist Tuesday when I take Noah for his check-up there. Maybe they'll have some ideas of what could be going on.
The boys has an AWESOME 2nd birthday! The weekend of their birthday we took them to a restaurant with trains for breakfast (I can't remember if I posted about that..again, tired). Last weekend we had their party, which was great, and then took them to a splash pad by our house on Sunday after church. They loved it! It was a lot of fun! I really wanted to write a post entitled, "Your kid is a jerk.". There was a really mean older kid who was being mean to the boys and rude to me. I think being tired made it worse. I decided against writing an entire post about it. Parent your kids people or they'll turn out to be jerks as adults. Sorry, rant over. I'm learning how to protect my boys and how to let them deal with mean people. It's a hard balance. I want to knock over every kid that's mean to them, but I know it's not helpful. Ok, I'm really done now.
I've been thinking about lots of different posts, which I still hope to get to, such as: hidden blessings (remembering that when my boys are naughty and plotting together that this is normal development and I should be grateful for that), why I won't be mother of the year (because some days I just stink at my job of being a mom-that's real life!), and things not to say to parents of multiples (I hope you're done!-yes we've heard that MANY times!). Hopefully I get around to writing all these at some point.
The boys has an AWESOME 2nd birthday! The weekend of their birthday we took them to a restaurant with trains for breakfast (I can't remember if I posted about that..again, tired). Last weekend we had their party, which was great, and then took them to a splash pad by our house on Sunday after church. They loved it! It was a lot of fun! I really wanted to write a post entitled, "Your kid is a jerk.". There was a really mean older kid who was being mean to the boys and rude to me. I think being tired made it worse. I decided against writing an entire post about it. Parent your kids people or they'll turn out to be jerks as adults. Sorry, rant over. I'm learning how to protect my boys and how to let them deal with mean people. It's a hard balance. I want to knock over every kid that's mean to them, but I know it's not helpful. Ok, I'm really done now.
I've been thinking about lots of different posts, which I still hope to get to, such as: hidden blessings (remembering that when my boys are naughty and plotting together that this is normal development and I should be grateful for that), why I won't be mother of the year (because some days I just stink at my job of being a mom-that's real life!), and things not to say to parents of multiples (I hope you're done!-yes we've heard that MANY times!). Hopefully I get around to writing all these at some point.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Golden
Today the boys turn 2!! That means today is their golden birthday. I almost can't believe it. I can still see the day they were born so clearly in my head. There were at least 30 people crammed into the operating room and people looking in the window on the door to see them being born. I can also remember being surprised when the dr. said, "Here comes baby A!" and not knowing that they had even started. Suddenly Aiden was filling the room with a loud cry. No surprise there..he's still really loud. :) Then came little Noah, which is ironic because he's by far the biggest now. Finally Reese came and his cry was so quiet we couldn't really hear it. I was so worried about him. He's still the one that makes me worry all the time.
2 years later they're busy playing with trains and having conversations with each other. I can't believe it. My babies aren't really babies any more. Honestly, I'm relieved. I'm not worried that they'll just forget to keep breathing, wondering if they're eating enough and thinking about how terribly long the night is (although..more on that later). It never gets easier to have 3 at once, it just gets different (if that makes sense). Now the hard part is so different..tantrums, potty training and general stubborn behavior. I love every age and right now I love how verbal they are and how much they learn every day.
As for nights. Ms. Devyn is not the easiest baby. I think that's putting it nicely. She has reflux and has a crampy tummy. It makes for fussy days and often uncomfortable nights. Not to mention she wants to eat constantly because it feels good on her reflux. So I have to try to keep her happy without letting her eat all the time. She has some serious rolls starting on her legs! :) It's pretty darn cute to have rolly legs when you're a baby. She is one month old as of last Saturday and smiled at me for the first time. I suppose I shouldn't be so flattered though. I caught her smiling at the ceiling fan last night.
Now I'm off to spend a day with my 3 crazy 2 year old boys. It's raining like crazy and they are all yelling, "It's raining!" out the window. I suppose we'll just have to have fun inside today. Happy Birthday to my 3 favorite little boys. We often wonder what life was like before them and decide it must have been really boring. They bring so much joy and craziness to our life.
2 years later they're busy playing with trains and having conversations with each other. I can't believe it. My babies aren't really babies any more. Honestly, I'm relieved. I'm not worried that they'll just forget to keep breathing, wondering if they're eating enough and thinking about how terribly long the night is (although..more on that later). It never gets easier to have 3 at once, it just gets different (if that makes sense). Now the hard part is so different..tantrums, potty training and general stubborn behavior. I love every age and right now I love how verbal they are and how much they learn every day.
As for nights. Ms. Devyn is not the easiest baby. I think that's putting it nicely. She has reflux and has a crampy tummy. It makes for fussy days and often uncomfortable nights. Not to mention she wants to eat constantly because it feels good on her reflux. So I have to try to keep her happy without letting her eat all the time. She has some serious rolls starting on her legs! :) It's pretty darn cute to have rolly legs when you're a baby. She is one month old as of last Saturday and smiled at me for the first time. I suppose I shouldn't be so flattered though. I caught her smiling at the ceiling fan last night.
Now I'm off to spend a day with my 3 crazy 2 year old boys. It's raining like crazy and they are all yelling, "It's raining!" out the window. I suppose we'll just have to have fun inside today. Happy Birthday to my 3 favorite little boys. We often wonder what life was like before them and decide it must have been really boring. They bring so much joy and craziness to our life.
Monday, July 22, 2013
It's love
After 3 weeks of craziness I'm finally sitting down to update what has been going on around our house. Nothing too exciting, just lots of adjusting to normal life, Dr. appts., etc.
3 little boys are in love with their little sister. Good luck to any boy who ever tries to get near our little girl. :) We won't have to worry because they are all over her. In the morning they go into our room and peek into her bassinet and say, "Hi Devyn! Morning." Then they all kiss her. They just think she's great (breathing a sigh of relief). They like to help with things like getting her dressed, giving her a pacifier when she cries, etc. They still go about their business most of the day and leave her alone. It's great!
We have also had a lot of Dr. appts. Devyn had 3 blood tests and 2 Dr. appts for her billirubin levels. Thankfully the jaundice cleared up, she's gaining weight and we got her started on reflux medicine. The one we have her one doesn't seem to be helping. It actually seems like she's a little worse..we'll have to see.
We took all 3 boys to the eye Dr. 2 weeks ago. They all got an eye exam to try to qualify them for a study for kids who are far-sighted. Noah's eyes were fine. Aiden was on the border of qualifying and Reese did qualify. There was a 50/50 chance of him getting glasses. Of course he got picked for glasses. Poor guy. We tried bribing him with cookies to wear them, but in the end the threat of time-out was the only way to keep them on his face. He's the cutest thing on earth with them on.
So now things have slowed down for a couple weeks before the madness of August begins (birthday, lots of check-ups, etc). I'm going to enjoy some time getting life somewhat back to normal now that we are a family of 6(!)
*I tried adding pictures to this post, but it wasn't working. I'll try again later!
3 little boys are in love with their little sister. Good luck to any boy who ever tries to get near our little girl. :) We won't have to worry because they are all over her. In the morning they go into our room and peek into her bassinet and say, "Hi Devyn! Morning." Then they all kiss her. They just think she's great (breathing a sigh of relief). They like to help with things like getting her dressed, giving her a pacifier when she cries, etc. They still go about their business most of the day and leave her alone. It's great!
We have also had a lot of Dr. appts. Devyn had 3 blood tests and 2 Dr. appts for her billirubin levels. Thankfully the jaundice cleared up, she's gaining weight and we got her started on reflux medicine. The one we have her one doesn't seem to be helping. It actually seems like she's a little worse..we'll have to see.
We took all 3 boys to the eye Dr. 2 weeks ago. They all got an eye exam to try to qualify them for a study for kids who are far-sighted. Noah's eyes were fine. Aiden was on the border of qualifying and Reese did qualify. There was a 50/50 chance of him getting glasses. Of course he got picked for glasses. Poor guy. We tried bribing him with cookies to wear them, but in the end the threat of time-out was the only way to keep them on his face. He's the cutest thing on earth with them on.
So now things have slowed down for a couple weeks before the madness of August begins (birthday, lots of check-ups, etc). I'm going to enjoy some time getting life somewhat back to normal now that we are a family of 6(!)
*I tried adding pictures to this post, but it wasn't working. I'll try again later!
Monday, July 1, 2013
Isn't She Lovely
Last Thursday, June 27, we welcomed our beautiful little girl into our family. Devyn Marie was born at 10:37 am. She weighed 8lbs. 11oz. and was 21 1/4 in long. She is beautiful and healthy and we are so happy to finally have her here. Here's how she decided to make her grand entrance (don't worry, no gory details included).
Wednesday I went to my weekly Dr. appointment. Nate happened to be home early, so he came with me. I had made a tiny bit of progress. The Dr. was still optimistic that she could come before a c-section was necessary. He gave us 3 options. The first was to schedule a c-section just in case she decided not to come on time. The 2nd was to come back Monday (today) if she hadn't been born and make a decision on what day to have a c-section if it still didn't look like she was coming. The 3rd was to go to labor and delivery Thusrday morning and he would break my water in hopes of encouraging my contractions to speed up. I had been having contractions for a couple weeks that would be 10 minutes apart and then stop. We chose the last option and planned to be at the hospital at 5:00 the next morning. We left the boys with my parents that night so we could just get up and go in the morning.
In true Devyn fashion she decided that she didn't want to be told what to do. At 1:30 I woke up feeling uncomfortable and my water started to break. We quickly finished getting our stuff together and rushed to the hospital. The dr. had wanted me to come when they were 5 minutes apart, but they were immediately 4 minutes apart. After 9 hours and one heavenly epidural (which I desperately tried to avoid) Devyn was born. It was amazing. It was so incredibly different than the boys birth. I just posted about having trouble bonding with them. I bonded with her immediately. I was able to hold her for an hour and a half after she was born. It was everything I had hoped for.
Now we're home and recovering. Devyn is having some bloodwork done because she is jaundice. Tomorrow we'll see the pediatrician as well. I am so thankful to have brought home a baby with me. That was so important to me after leaving the boys. I have prayed many prayers of thanks for that and many prayers in awe of the human body's ability to carry, deliver and nourish a baby.
Before she was born I joked with Nate that when Devyn was born I wanted the song, "Isn't She Lovely" to be playing in the background. :) She is lovely. See for yourself...
Wednesday I went to my weekly Dr. appointment. Nate happened to be home early, so he came with me. I had made a tiny bit of progress. The Dr. was still optimistic that she could come before a c-section was necessary. He gave us 3 options. The first was to schedule a c-section just in case she decided not to come on time. The 2nd was to come back Monday (today) if she hadn't been born and make a decision on what day to have a c-section if it still didn't look like she was coming. The 3rd was to go to labor and delivery Thusrday morning and he would break my water in hopes of encouraging my contractions to speed up. I had been having contractions for a couple weeks that would be 10 minutes apart and then stop. We chose the last option and planned to be at the hospital at 5:00 the next morning. We left the boys with my parents that night so we could just get up and go in the morning.
In true Devyn fashion she decided that she didn't want to be told what to do. At 1:30 I woke up feeling uncomfortable and my water started to break. We quickly finished getting our stuff together and rushed to the hospital. The dr. had wanted me to come when they were 5 minutes apart, but they were immediately 4 minutes apart. After 9 hours and one heavenly epidural (which I desperately tried to avoid) Devyn was born. It was amazing. It was so incredibly different than the boys birth. I just posted about having trouble bonding with them. I bonded with her immediately. I was able to hold her for an hour and a half after she was born. It was everything I had hoped for.
Now we're home and recovering. Devyn is having some bloodwork done because she is jaundice. Tomorrow we'll see the pediatrician as well. I am so thankful to have brought home a baby with me. That was so important to me after leaving the boys. I have prayed many prayers of thanks for that and many prayers in awe of the human body's ability to carry, deliver and nourish a baby.
Before she was born I joked with Nate that when Devyn was born I wanted the song, "Isn't She Lovely" to be playing in the background. :) She is lovely. See for yourself...
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Things no one tells you before you have kids..
There are a number of things I have learned over the past 2 years that I'm sure no one ever told me before I had kids. Here are a few..
*Your children WILL annoy you. I felt like the worst mom on the planet the first time I felt annoyed by the boys. I mean what kind of mother feels annoyed by her children? Let me tell you. Every mother! When your child has screamed, "All done!" for the 478th time in 2 minutes you can't help but be annoyed. You are human and the little humans you love so much will annoy you to no end some days.
*You may not bond with your baby (or babies in our case) right away. I can still remember holding Aiden for the first time and feeling absolutely nothing. For all I knew I was holding someone else's baby. At the time I didn't give credit to the fact that it was a long, exhausting day and that sometimes it just takes time to bond with a baby. Of course now I would go mama bear on anyone who tried to hurt my babies, it just took time to feel that bond. It's not some instant magical feeling the way I expected.
*You will never go to the bathroom alone. Ever. There will be pounding at the door and if they get in they will tear the bathroom apart and cheer for you when you pee in the potty. After all we cheer when they pee in the potty.
*You will be stalked like prey. They will find you wherever you are. It sounds endearing and I know I should feel flattered that they care enough to want to know where I am, but sometimes I just wish I could sneak around without them finding me. I want to put away a basket of laundry in peace. Nope. Not happening. Again..banging on the door, tearing apart of the room...you get the picture.
*You will sing roughly 50% of your day. (50% being conservative)
*You will love these little people like you've never loved anyone in your life. They will gross you out, bug you, make you angrier than you knew possible. At the end of the day you would do anything for them.
They are the most amazing gift in the world. I find myself not so patiently waiting for this little girl to make her arrival. I have to constantly remind myself that at the end of this is a gift like none other. Until then I'll spend my days enjoying my 3 little gifts who follow me around and repeat my every word.
*Your children WILL annoy you. I felt like the worst mom on the planet the first time I felt annoyed by the boys. I mean what kind of mother feels annoyed by her children? Let me tell you. Every mother! When your child has screamed, "All done!" for the 478th time in 2 minutes you can't help but be annoyed. You are human and the little humans you love so much will annoy you to no end some days.
*You may not bond with your baby (or babies in our case) right away. I can still remember holding Aiden for the first time and feeling absolutely nothing. For all I knew I was holding someone else's baby. At the time I didn't give credit to the fact that it was a long, exhausting day and that sometimes it just takes time to bond with a baby. Of course now I would go mama bear on anyone who tried to hurt my babies, it just took time to feel that bond. It's not some instant magical feeling the way I expected.
*You will never go to the bathroom alone. Ever. There will be pounding at the door and if they get in they will tear the bathroom apart and cheer for you when you pee in the potty. After all we cheer when they pee in the potty.
*You will be stalked like prey. They will find you wherever you are. It sounds endearing and I know I should feel flattered that they care enough to want to know where I am, but sometimes I just wish I could sneak around without them finding me. I want to put away a basket of laundry in peace. Nope. Not happening. Again..banging on the door, tearing apart of the room...you get the picture.
*You will sing roughly 50% of your day. (50% being conservative)
*You will love these little people like you've never loved anyone in your life. They will gross you out, bug you, make you angrier than you knew possible. At the end of the day you would do anything for them.
They are the most amazing gift in the world. I find myself not so patiently waiting for this little girl to make her arrival. I have to constantly remind myself that at the end of this is a gift like none other. Until then I'll spend my days enjoying my 3 little gifts who follow me around and repeat my every word.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Why our kids are weird
Nate and I often joke about how strange our kids are. Seriously, they are total oddballs. Here are a few things that make our kids weird...
1. They LOVE getting their teeth brushed. They excitedly line up and wait for their turn. Noah just finished crying about the fact that I took his toothbrush and told him to go play.
2. They line up to get their nails clipped and ears cleaned and will even ask for me to do either of those things.
3. They love bedtime. We tell them it's time for bed and to go find their Elmo (they all have a stuffed Elmo in bed) and up the stairs they go. They jump in bed for a few minutes and then lay down and go to sleep. It's rare that someone cries at bedtime. It's usually because they're really tired.
4. They love sitting on the potty. We have little potty's that are a big hit. Everyone wants to try to go on the potty.
5. They really don't watch t.v. I wish sometimes that they did. I turned on Thomas this morning for them so I could take a shower. When I came back down they have ripped apart my filing cabinet. Awesome. I really wanted to reorganize all my files this morning (note: read that with heavy sarcasm).
6. They would rather eat sauteed peppers and onions than macaroni and cheese. Reese asks for sausage of some sort at every meal, Aiden loves plain lettuce, Noah loves cucumbers and avacado. Don't get me wrong I'm very glad that they like healthy foods, it's just not what I expected. We always expose them to a wide variety of food in hopes that they find a lot of healthy food they like. I guess starting to feed them these foods early helped. Peer pressure helps too. If they see their brother eating it they can't be outdone.
7. They "help" with laundry. Yesterday I put a basket in the living room and they collected the laundry from the hamper and the laundry they had scattered around the room. I know that will end, but it's nice that they like to help!
I'm sure there are other things I left out, but those are a few of the most notable. I love my little weirdos. My favorite things are the things that make them so unique.
1. They LOVE getting their teeth brushed. They excitedly line up and wait for their turn. Noah just finished crying about the fact that I took his toothbrush and told him to go play.
2. They line up to get their nails clipped and ears cleaned and will even ask for me to do either of those things.
3. They love bedtime. We tell them it's time for bed and to go find their Elmo (they all have a stuffed Elmo in bed) and up the stairs they go. They jump in bed for a few minutes and then lay down and go to sleep. It's rare that someone cries at bedtime. It's usually because they're really tired.
4. They love sitting on the potty. We have little potty's that are a big hit. Everyone wants to try to go on the potty.
5. They really don't watch t.v. I wish sometimes that they did. I turned on Thomas this morning for them so I could take a shower. When I came back down they have ripped apart my filing cabinet. Awesome. I really wanted to reorganize all my files this morning (note: read that with heavy sarcasm).
6. They would rather eat sauteed peppers and onions than macaroni and cheese. Reese asks for sausage of some sort at every meal, Aiden loves plain lettuce, Noah loves cucumbers and avacado. Don't get me wrong I'm very glad that they like healthy foods, it's just not what I expected. We always expose them to a wide variety of food in hopes that they find a lot of healthy food they like. I guess starting to feed them these foods early helped. Peer pressure helps too. If they see their brother eating it they can't be outdone.
7. They "help" with laundry. Yesterday I put a basket in the living room and they collected the laundry from the hamper and the laundry they had scattered around the room. I know that will end, but it's nice that they like to help!
I'm sure there are other things I left out, but those are a few of the most notable. I love my little weirdos. My favorite things are the things that make them so unique.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Now we wait
Life has been quiet, but busy, at our house lately. We're attempting to get things done and ready for this baby. I finally packed a hospital bag, got the car seat out and started packing a bag for the boys. We're slowly emptying out the baby's room. No, there is no room set up for the baby yet. Whatever. She'll sleep by me for now. It's fine. We'll put her in our room until she's a little bigger whether her room is done or not. No, she doesn't have a name yet. We still haven't made it through the name book. We have 1 or 2 possibilities. I'm not really worried. It's not really like me to not be concerned that we aren't totally prepared. I think I'm too tired to care. :) I haven't been sleeping well so getting things done takes a back seat to a nap many days.
Nate also was working some nights the past week so that really threw a wrench in our plans. I had to take the boys outside or to my parents' house just so Nate could sleep during the day. Keeping them quiet so he could sleep is merely impossible. So I didn't get much done and he didn't get much done because his sleep schedule was so messed up. Oh well. He's back to days now and hopefully we'll get back on track and get ready for the baby.
It seems as though we have some time though. I was shocked at my dr. appointment yesterday when he said I have made no progress towards labor. With the way things went with the boys I thought for sure this baby would be early. That baby is positioned with the head down, which is good, but there is no progress yet. I was a little disappointed, but I'm very excited that as of Sunday (37 weeks) the baby will be full term. I talk about this with my dr. and his staff a lot. When you've had preemies having a full term baby is an amazing feeling. I'm getting very anxious to meet this little one! Hopefully next week I'll have made some progress towards meeting this baby. I guess I'll have to find the energy to go for a lot of walks to get things going. I'm sure the boys will be more than happy to go for a lot of walks.
Nate also was working some nights the past week so that really threw a wrench in our plans. I had to take the boys outside or to my parents' house just so Nate could sleep during the day. Keeping them quiet so he could sleep is merely impossible. So I didn't get much done and he didn't get much done because his sleep schedule was so messed up. Oh well. He's back to days now and hopefully we'll get back on track and get ready for the baby.
It seems as though we have some time though. I was shocked at my dr. appointment yesterday when he said I have made no progress towards labor. With the way things went with the boys I thought for sure this baby would be early. That baby is positioned with the head down, which is good, but there is no progress yet. I was a little disappointed, but I'm very excited that as of Sunday (37 weeks) the baby will be full term. I talk about this with my dr. and his staff a lot. When you've had preemies having a full term baby is an amazing feeling. I'm getting very anxious to meet this little one! Hopefully next week I'll have made some progress towards meeting this baby. I guess I'll have to find the energy to go for a lot of walks to get things going. I'm sure the boys will be more than happy to go for a lot of walks.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
40 years
We spent this past weekend at a hotel with Nate's family for his parents' 40th wedding anniversary. 40 years! It is so amazing to me that both his parents and mine are still happily married. It's a great blessing to have good examples of what marriage should look like. We've only been married 6 years, but the past 2 have shown us some incredible challenges. That's a whole post of it's own! With such great examples to follow we haven't fallen apart, but come closer together.
Back to the weekend...
We left Friday afternoon after the boys had a nap and a bath (something Nate is taking over now that my belly get in the way of the tub!) They did great in the car, slept great in their pack and plays and were just really well behaved all weekend. I was so nervous that they wouldn't cooperate, but they were terrific. We had a blast! It was so much fun being together all weekend and seeing family. We came home Sunday late afternoon after having lunch with friends who live near where we stayed. It was FAR less work to go away this time. When we went to Indianapolis last year we had to do a lot more prep work. Thankfully as they get older it gets easier. We, of course, still get stopped constantly to ask if they are triplets and a host of other questions follow. The one that takes the cake for this weekend was, "So, who's getting fixed after this baby comes?". I'm not kidding. A perfect stranger asked this. I almost choked on my food. It turns out her son is a urologist so she was going to refer us to him. I politely told her we don't live in the area while secretly thinking, "Are you serious?!?". Something tells me her urologist son would be mortified to find out his mother is drumming up business in the local TGI Fridays. I think it's time for me to write the "what not to say to parents of multiples" blog. That's coming soon, I just need to find the right words.
All in all it was a great weekend. I did a lot of checking and double checking about what we were eating in order to avoid an allergic reaction for Noah. There were few moments of toddler attitude, which are many at right now in our house-including Noah saying, "Mommy, come!" when he wants something and Reese gently laying down flat on his face on the driveway when he's told "No". Oh boys...
Back to the weekend...
We left Friday afternoon after the boys had a nap and a bath (something Nate is taking over now that my belly get in the way of the tub!) They did great in the car, slept great in their pack and plays and were just really well behaved all weekend. I was so nervous that they wouldn't cooperate, but they were terrific. We had a blast! It was so much fun being together all weekend and seeing family. We came home Sunday late afternoon after having lunch with friends who live near where we stayed. It was FAR less work to go away this time. When we went to Indianapolis last year we had to do a lot more prep work. Thankfully as they get older it gets easier. We, of course, still get stopped constantly to ask if they are triplets and a host of other questions follow. The one that takes the cake for this weekend was, "So, who's getting fixed after this baby comes?". I'm not kidding. A perfect stranger asked this. I almost choked on my food. It turns out her son is a urologist so she was going to refer us to him. I politely told her we don't live in the area while secretly thinking, "Are you serious?!?". Something tells me her urologist son would be mortified to find out his mother is drumming up business in the local TGI Fridays. I think it's time for me to write the "what not to say to parents of multiples" blog. That's coming soon, I just need to find the right words.
All in all it was a great weekend. I did a lot of checking and double checking about what we were eating in order to avoid an allergic reaction for Noah. There were few moments of toddler attitude, which are many at right now in our house-including Noah saying, "Mommy, come!" when he wants something and Reese gently laying down flat on his face on the driveway when he's told "No". Oh boys...
Friday, May 10, 2013
The age of the owie
It has been simply amazing watching these 3 little boys grow and develop right before my eyes. They've gone from babies to toddlers in the blink of an eye. Lately they've been doing a lot of "growing up" and I love seeing how happy they are to learn new things.
We've reached the age where they are obsessed with owies. Aiden especially loves to pull up his pant legs and point out every scratch, scab and scrape and says, "owie", with each point of the finger. Yesterday I burned my hand and had an ice pack on it. That led to lots of kisses for my owie. So sweet. :) Aiden is also our no fear child. He decided he should be old enough to just walk off of a step instead of turning around to go down on his belly or holding our hand. He made it at first, but then fell pretty hard. He will break a bone at a young age. Mark my words.
They are also really into singing and counting. Reese can easily count to 10 and sings his abc's. The letters get a little jumbled at l,m,n,o. He's very much our child who studies everything and learns from observation. He studies me when I sing so that he can learn a song. He sings "Row, row, row" and "Jesus Loves Me" a lot too. Some words are not even close, but it's the best sound to hear his little voice singing. He loves to do puzzles, read and do anything academic. It makes a teacher's heart happy!
Their vocabulary is really beginning to increase now as well. They pretend to drink coffee and can say it, although sometimes it comes out with p's instead of f's. Noah is definitely our most verbal at this point. He repeats everything. One day I got into the van and from the back heard, "Hi, mama" in his sweetest voice. That same day I said, "Hi, honey" and he repeated it back. Melt. my. heart. Most recently he's started saying, "Please, Mama!" which Reese then picked up. All day long that's what I hear. I love it! They also ask me to "rock baby" which means to rock them in the rocking chair and sing to them.
Yesterday morning I went to get them out of bed and Noah and Reese were laying at the ends of the their beds holding hands through the bars. When I got them up all 3 of them were hugging and kissing each other like they hadn't seen each other in weeks. It was a nice change from the "Mine!" and the hitting that tend to go on more often.
All of this has reminded me to never take for granted how special it is to have triplets. I sometimes forget how incredible it is, because to me it's normal life. I also have to constantly remind myself how fortunate we are that none of them have any delays. As a matter of fact they are ahead in many ways. Today I am 32 weeks and 5 days pregnant. That is when the boys were born. That thought is not lost on me. I am amazed to think that they were so early and did so well. Praise the Lord for 3 little miracles! I was often told how much of a miracle it was that someone my size and my age (that I was very young) got pregnant with and carried triplets as far as I did. A miracle they are.
We've reached the age where they are obsessed with owies. Aiden especially loves to pull up his pant legs and point out every scratch, scab and scrape and says, "owie", with each point of the finger. Yesterday I burned my hand and had an ice pack on it. That led to lots of kisses for my owie. So sweet. :) Aiden is also our no fear child. He decided he should be old enough to just walk off of a step instead of turning around to go down on his belly or holding our hand. He made it at first, but then fell pretty hard. He will break a bone at a young age. Mark my words.
They are also really into singing and counting. Reese can easily count to 10 and sings his abc's. The letters get a little jumbled at l,m,n,o. He's very much our child who studies everything and learns from observation. He studies me when I sing so that he can learn a song. He sings "Row, row, row" and "Jesus Loves Me" a lot too. Some words are not even close, but it's the best sound to hear his little voice singing. He loves to do puzzles, read and do anything academic. It makes a teacher's heart happy!
Their vocabulary is really beginning to increase now as well. They pretend to drink coffee and can say it, although sometimes it comes out with p's instead of f's. Noah is definitely our most verbal at this point. He repeats everything. One day I got into the van and from the back heard, "Hi, mama" in his sweetest voice. That same day I said, "Hi, honey" and he repeated it back. Melt. my. heart. Most recently he's started saying, "Please, Mama!" which Reese then picked up. All day long that's what I hear. I love it! They also ask me to "rock baby" which means to rock them in the rocking chair and sing to them.
Yesterday morning I went to get them out of bed and Noah and Reese were laying at the ends of the their beds holding hands through the bars. When I got them up all 3 of them were hugging and kissing each other like they hadn't seen each other in weeks. It was a nice change from the "Mine!" and the hitting that tend to go on more often.
All of this has reminded me to never take for granted how special it is to have triplets. I sometimes forget how incredible it is, because to me it's normal life. I also have to constantly remind myself how fortunate we are that none of them have any delays. As a matter of fact they are ahead in many ways. Today I am 32 weeks and 5 days pregnant. That is when the boys were born. That thought is not lost on me. I am amazed to think that they were so early and did so well. Praise the Lord for 3 little miracles! I was often told how much of a miracle it was that someone my size and my age (that I was very young) got pregnant with and carried triplets as far as I did. A miracle they are.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Reese's post-op appt.
Today Reese had his post-op appointment. It was pretty much what we expected. The right tube did come out, but the duct seems to be draining well. The left tube is still in and the eye is still tearing quite a bit. Dr. Khammar said that it does sometimes continue to tear until the tube is removed. After the tube is removed the opening is bigger and the duct can drain more effectively. We'll take a wait and see approach as long as the eye doesn't seem to get worse. It has been a tiny bit "goopy" looking, so I have to watch it carefully to make sure it doesn't get infected. Other than that we discussed the study that they want to enroll him in for far-sighted kids. They are still waiting on approval, which they know they will get. They asked if we would enroll all 3 boys in the study. I happily accepted the offer! We will get paid for the visits and if they get glasses they will be paid for as well. Why not?! To me the best part is that they get followed the next 3 years to see how their eyes are doing. We scheduled a 1 1/2 hour block of time to get Reese's tubes out and do the initial evaluation of all of their eyes for the study. We know Reese qualifies and Noah was at very least on the borderline, so the only question is Aiden. We'll see. I scheduled the appointment while we were there. They gave us July 8. Being that my due date is June 30 it's a tentative appointment based on when this little one decides to make an appearnce.
After I posted about Aiden having a fever last week Noah came down with a fever. The spent the day falling asleep on the couch and me. Aiden had the fever Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday. It went away Wednesday afternoon and came back Thursday. Noah only had it Wednesday. Neither of them really had other symptoms though. Strange. Aiden has still been tired and crabby. He has been messing with his ears too, so we'll see if that turns into anything. I don't want to take him in unless I know he needs to go in and I don't want him on an antibiotic for his ears unless it's absolutely necessary. We're just trying to wait it out and see how it goes.
I have a dr. appointment on Wednesday. The time is flying by! We have 11 weeks, at most, before this baby comes. We are so unprepared! :) So what if she comes and has no name...right?
After I posted about Aiden having a fever last week Noah came down with a fever. The spent the day falling asleep on the couch and me. Aiden had the fever Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday. It went away Wednesday afternoon and came back Thursday. Noah only had it Wednesday. Neither of them really had other symptoms though. Strange. Aiden has still been tired and crabby. He has been messing with his ears too, so we'll see if that turns into anything. I don't want to take him in unless I know he needs to go in and I don't want him on an antibiotic for his ears unless it's absolutely necessary. We're just trying to wait it out and see how it goes.
I have a dr. appointment on Wednesday. The time is flying by! We have 11 weeks, at most, before this baby comes. We are so unprepared! :) So what if she comes and has no name...right?
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
A bit of relief and a fever
I heard back from Dr. Khammar (Reese's eye Dr) this afternoon. After feeling guilty all last night and today that somehow it was my fault that the tube came out Dr. Khammar reassured me that it just happens. He said that it is really not uncommon and that they sometimes come out while a child is in recovery. All day I felt like I was waiting to get called in the principal's office and get in trouble! He just laughed and said that since the tube was in the duct was open and that hopefully it just stays open. He said he would look at make sure it was the right tube that came out and then we'll just keep a closer eye (no pun intended!) on that eye. What a relief! I was so nervous that we were going to have to go through the whole thing again. At 28 weeks pregnant I was not looking forward to trying to figure out how to make that work. We have a follow-up on Monday morning and we'll get to talk about it more at that appointment.
Today brought a tired and lethargic Aiden. He felt a little warm after lunch, but the thermometer that I used said he was fine. It's the temporal one that scans across the forehead and I normally don't really trust it. I put them down for their nap and when he got up he felt warmer. I used the temporal thermometer again and it just didn't seem right. I used the regular thermometer under his arm and sure enough. 100.8 He didn't seem too bad and was still playing, just kind of crabby and tired. So I gave him Tylenol. He ate okay at supper, but then seemed to just get more mopey. We took his temperature at 7:15 before he was ready to go to bed. Now he was at 102.6. Poor kid. We gave him Tylenol, most of which he let run out of his mouth. We tried getting him to drink some juice but he only drank a little. Maybe he has a sore throat. Who knows. That's the hard part about them talking, but not able to say enough to tell us what's wrong. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I know one thing..I'll be checking on him before I can go to bed tonight.
While things have felt a bit stressful we've had some moments that made us say, "These are the days we'll look back at and miss". Last night we listened to Reese sing himself to sleep. He was singing "Jesus Loves Me", the alphabet and "Wheels on the Bus". What a great way to end a not so great day. It reminded me to be thankful and enjoy them being little. They are so darn cute at this age! I won't lie, some days are really hard. Most days we have moments where we could scream. So, I guess it's a good thing they do many cute things to balance out the moments of insanity. :)
Today brought a tired and lethargic Aiden. He felt a little warm after lunch, but the thermometer that I used said he was fine. It's the temporal one that scans across the forehead and I normally don't really trust it. I put them down for their nap and when he got up he felt warmer. I used the temporal thermometer again and it just didn't seem right. I used the regular thermometer under his arm and sure enough. 100.8 He didn't seem too bad and was still playing, just kind of crabby and tired. So I gave him Tylenol. He ate okay at supper, but then seemed to just get more mopey. We took his temperature at 7:15 before he was ready to go to bed. Now he was at 102.6. Poor kid. We gave him Tylenol, most of which he let run out of his mouth. We tried getting him to drink some juice but he only drank a little. Maybe he has a sore throat. Who knows. That's the hard part about them talking, but not able to say enough to tell us what's wrong. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I know one thing..I'll be checking on him before I can go to bed tonight.
While things have felt a bit stressful we've had some moments that made us say, "These are the days we'll look back at and miss". Last night we listened to Reese sing himself to sleep. He was singing "Jesus Loves Me", the alphabet and "Wheels on the Bus". What a great way to end a not so great day. It reminded me to be thankful and enjoy them being little. They are so darn cute at this age! I won't lie, some days are really hard. Most days we have moments where we could scream. So, I guess it's a good thing they do many cute things to balance out the moments of insanity. :)
Monday, April 8, 2013
What a day...
This morning was Reese's tear duct surgery. I had to get him to the hospital at 6:30 this morning. He was not a happy camper. They took us back and got him ready and then we had to wait because the Dr. was running a little late. No big deal. I talked to lots of nurses, the anesthesia team and finally Dr. Khammar (Reese's eye Dr.). A lot of nurses peeked in because they heard he was so cute and had to see him. :) A little before 8 they wheeled him back. I choked back tears and watched them wheel him down the hall. He just laid in the bed and didn't cry which helped me. Less than an hour later Dr. Khammar came out to tell me things went great. The left duct was extremely blocked and the right was blocked a little less than the left. The funny thing is once he was out of sight and in surgery I wasn't nervous any more. I suppose that's because a lot of people were praying for us this morning. If that was you, thank you. It reminded me of the peace I felt when he had surgery last time. It's a weird feeling to suddenly feel totally at peace with the situation.
A few minutes later they came to get me because he was waking up. That was the understatement of the century. A nurse was holding him and 2 others were trying to get his vitals. He was very agitated! Once I held him he just cried. He was asking about shoes for some reason. He didn't wear shoes to the hospital so I really couldn't help him out. About an hour later we were discharged. The rest of the day he just didn't know what he wanted. He stumbled around a lot so I couldn't really put him down. I held him pretty much all day. At one point he got off my lap and started picking up and throwing toys and trying to knock over the rocking chair. Less than five minutes later he was laughing and trying to eat a banana. Wow. Mood swings!
He finally fell asleep on the couch at about 3:00 (we had been home since 10:30 or so-Ugh!). He slept a little over an hour. I thought he would pretty much have slept all day. He woke up and we went to my mom and dad's house. They kept Aiden and Noah overnight for us last night. While we were there one of Reese's tubes came out of his eye. I wish I was joking. I felt sick. I called and left a message for the dr. We'll see what comes next. We have a follow-up next Monday. I don't know if we'll have to go in sooner. I really hope not. I'm really bummed! Hopefully we don't have to do this all over again.
To add to the day it was my birthday. Yep. Some birthday. Not that I really care about birthdays anymore, but really? Let's hope the rest of 28 is much easier than the first day was! :)
A few minutes later they came to get me because he was waking up. That was the understatement of the century. A nurse was holding him and 2 others were trying to get his vitals. He was very agitated! Once I held him he just cried. He was asking about shoes for some reason. He didn't wear shoes to the hospital so I really couldn't help him out. About an hour later we were discharged. The rest of the day he just didn't know what he wanted. He stumbled around a lot so I couldn't really put him down. I held him pretty much all day. At one point he got off my lap and started picking up and throwing toys and trying to knock over the rocking chair. Less than five minutes later he was laughing and trying to eat a banana. Wow. Mood swings!
He finally fell asleep on the couch at about 3:00 (we had been home since 10:30 or so-Ugh!). He slept a little over an hour. I thought he would pretty much have slept all day. He woke up and we went to my mom and dad's house. They kept Aiden and Noah overnight for us last night. While we were there one of Reese's tubes came out of his eye. I wish I was joking. I felt sick. I called and left a message for the dr. We'll see what comes next. We have a follow-up next Monday. I don't know if we'll have to go in sooner. I really hope not. I'm really bummed! Hopefully we don't have to do this all over again.
To add to the day it was my birthday. Yep. Some birthday. Not that I really care about birthdays anymore, but really? Let's hope the rest of 28 is much easier than the first day was! :)
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Good news
Yesterday I took Noah to see Dr. Wolf, his allergist. It was really a follow-up for his asthma. He put him on a new medication twice a day. It seems like it's helping, which is great. We went over the results of his blood test he had done last time we were there. Tree nuts showed up mildly allergic, but he had already told us to avoid them anyways. So, no change there. He said that somehow sesame seeds didn't show up on the results, but that he shouldn't have them because the body sometimes mistakes them for peanuts (some sort of cross-reaction that happens). My response was, "Oops. He had them in a meal last week". He was glad there was no reaction and said to just avoid them from now on. He told me to be thankful this wasn't a soy allergy. I am. I am also thankful it's not wheat, milk or any of those other ingredients that seem to be in everything. We reviewed when to use the epipen (pretty much if I have any suspicions that he's having a reaction). He also did some skin testing for environmental allergies that could be triggering his asthma. They all came back negatvie. Hooray!! No need to do daily allergy meds at this point. He also looked at his tummy and back, which was a bit "bumpy". He said it was his excema. We need to stop using baby wash because the additives irritate his skin. Sorry buddy, you got your mom's skin. We have to wash him using unscented dove bar soap. Yes, that was his specific recommendation. All in all it was a great appointment.
On an allergy related note we decided to try to go out to eat somewhere other than a fast food place Friday night as a family. This would be a first...going out to eat just the 5 of us. After 20 minutes of researching where we could eat with Noah we came down to Chili's. So, we loaded the boys into the van and got to Chili's. It was a 20 minutes wait. Nope. Not happening. There was no chance on earth we were waiting 20 minutes with 3 toddlers. So, we went across the parking lot to McDonald's. Sigh. It was a good try. This was the first time the boys at McDonald's. They clearly thought this was the greatest thing ever. I remembered why we eat healthy and felt like junk for a day or so. Noah 's stomach didn't agree with it either. Ugh. Lesson learned.
We had a great Easter. We spent time with Nate's family after church and just relaxed. We couldn't go to a good Friday service because they started too late. I'll have to post a picture of the boys in their Easter outfits. Hilarious. That's all I can say.
Finally, I am looking forward to and dreading this coming Monday. It's Reese's eye surgery to unclog his tear ducts. It's not the surgery that bothers me, it's the anethesia. He had a hard time waking up last time. Granted he was 5 weeks old and 6 pounds, but still. I have been doing a lot of praying for peace and would appreciate all the prayers I can get for this. He has a pre-surgery physical Friday afternoon and then Monday we have to be at the hospital at 7:15. I'm not a morning person, but I'm glad we're getting it done right away. I'll be sure to post about the surgery as soon as I can.
On an allergy related note we decided to try to go out to eat somewhere other than a fast food place Friday night as a family. This would be a first...going out to eat just the 5 of us. After 20 minutes of researching where we could eat with Noah we came down to Chili's. So, we loaded the boys into the van and got to Chili's. It was a 20 minutes wait. Nope. Not happening. There was no chance on earth we were waiting 20 minutes with 3 toddlers. So, we went across the parking lot to McDonald's. Sigh. It was a good try. This was the first time the boys at McDonald's. They clearly thought this was the greatest thing ever. I remembered why we eat healthy and felt like junk for a day or so. Noah 's stomach didn't agree with it either. Ugh. Lesson learned.
We had a great Easter. We spent time with Nate's family after church and just relaxed. We couldn't go to a good Friday service because they started too late. I'll have to post a picture of the boys in their Easter outfits. Hilarious. That's all I can say.
Finally, I am looking forward to and dreading this coming Monday. It's Reese's eye surgery to unclog his tear ducts. It's not the surgery that bothers me, it's the anethesia. He had a hard time waking up last time. Granted he was 5 weeks old and 6 pounds, but still. I have been doing a lot of praying for peace and would appreciate all the prayers I can get for this. He has a pre-surgery physical Friday afternoon and then Monday we have to be at the hospital at 7:15. I'm not a morning person, but I'm glad we're getting it done right away. I'll be sure to post about the surgery as soon as I can.
Monday, March 18, 2013
These 3 little boys never cease to amaze me. Lately they have been talking up a storm. Unfortunately that means they have gotten quite bossy as well. There is a lot of "Hey! No, no!" and "Stop it!" going around, to each other and to Lue. Poor dog used to have such a peaceful life. On the up side they are communicating their needs more and more. Noah recently learned to say, "thirsties". For some reason he makes everything plural...perhaps because he's a multiple. :) A favorite of mine is "Peek-boo!" and "See you!" Most things are still just one word: cup, mama (usually yelled), daddy, Lue, doggy, and so many other words. They are starting to say each other's names more too. Aiden is still the name they struggle with. It's so much fun to watch them learning so much, so fast. I remember preparing myself for the fact that they would probably be behind in certain things. They most certainly are not. They actually talk a lot for their age. Our pediatrician has always been so amazed by them. I only wish learning things didn't also include them poking my eyes and saying "eye" or jabbing my belly and saying "baby". They haven't quite mastered the art of being gentle. They also seem to think that belly buttons are babies. :) We've been working on abc's and counting lately and they are really starting pick that up as well. They sing a little bit of their abc's and say 2 and 3 and occasionally another number.
This week is the last quiet week around here for a while. In the next 3 or 4 weeks I have my glucose tolerance test (a test to determine whether or not you have gestational diabetes), at least 1 dr. appt. for myself, Noah's allergist, Reese's pre-sugery physical, Reese's surgery and his follow-up appt. It will be busy for sure. I had to schedule an appointment with Noah's allergist because his asthma has been bad the last couple of weeks. They put him on a lose dose of medicine that we have to use in his nebulizer twice a day. He didn't mind the first couple of days, but hasn't been so thrilled to do it the past couple of days. I'm sure he'll get used to it being a part of his life.
Other than that we've just been not so patiently waiting for warmer weather. 3 little boys (and 1 mom) have bad cabin fever! They pull their little chairs up to the window and just look out. Hopefully soon we can actually be outside and not freeze or get wet and muddy. Hopefully...
This week is the last quiet week around here for a while. In the next 3 or 4 weeks I have my glucose tolerance test (a test to determine whether or not you have gestational diabetes), at least 1 dr. appt. for myself, Noah's allergist, Reese's pre-sugery physical, Reese's surgery and his follow-up appt. It will be busy for sure. I had to schedule an appointment with Noah's allergist because his asthma has been bad the last couple of weeks. They put him on a lose dose of medicine that we have to use in his nebulizer twice a day. He didn't mind the first couple of days, but hasn't been so thrilled to do it the past couple of days. I'm sure he'll get used to it being a part of his life.
Other than that we've just been not so patiently waiting for warmer weather. 3 little boys (and 1 mom) have bad cabin fever! They pull their little chairs up to the window and just look out. Hopefully soon we can actually be outside and not freeze or get wet and muddy. Hopefully...
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Reese's eyes and more sick boys
It's been a couple of weeks since I took Reese to the eye dr. I haven't had a chance to update what happened because 3 little boys have been so crazy and have been sick as well. Anyways....at the appointment the dr. said that based on what I told him he probably does have clogged tear ducts and they will need to be surgically opened. (sigh) We scheduled his surgery for April 8. It will be a fairly short procedure, but he'll need to be put completely under because of his age. Please say a lot of prayers for me as watching him go into surgery will be hard. It sure brings back a lot of memories. I know things turned out great the last time, but it's still hard. During the appointment they also did a routine eye check. They found out that he is quite far-sighted. Awesome. They said that there is discussion around the country going on about whether or not to give glasses at this age. They asked if we would enroll him in a study for other kids who are far-sighted. I of course said we would. They should be calling to enroll him soon. There is a 50/50 chance he will get glasses for the study. They will compare the results of the kids who get glasses and the kids who don't over 3 years. The best part is they will pay us for each visit and if he needs glasses they pay for it.
Also in the past couple of weeks the boys have had a nasty cough. Aiden ended up with a fever so the dr. had me bring him in. The fever ended up being a result of a bad ear infection. He really wasn't messing with his ear, so I was surprised. She usually doesn't do anything for ear infections, but she gave him Amoxicillin for it. He's finally better after about a week and a half. Noah and Reese just today are starting to feel better after almost 2 weeks. Poor Noah gets the worst of the coughs because of his asthma. I will probably call his allergist who mentioned trying to put him on "maintenance medication" for asthma instead of waiting for him to need albuterol as a breathing treatment when the asthma happens.
Finally, if you can all stop and say a prayer for my brother (Andy) I would very much appreciate it. He had an accident at work this week and seriously injured his eye. He had emergency surgery on it. At this point he was only able to see some light in that eye. We are still praying for a miracle and that more sight will be restored. We have seen some amazing things happen before and believe it's possible. He has a long road of recovery ahead and could use a lot of prayers for patience and understanding. I know many people pray for us all of the time, but this one could use top priority right now.
Also in the past couple of weeks the boys have had a nasty cough. Aiden ended up with a fever so the dr. had me bring him in. The fever ended up being a result of a bad ear infection. He really wasn't messing with his ear, so I was surprised. She usually doesn't do anything for ear infections, but she gave him Amoxicillin for it. He's finally better after about a week and a half. Noah and Reese just today are starting to feel better after almost 2 weeks. Poor Noah gets the worst of the coughs because of his asthma. I will probably call his allergist who mentioned trying to put him on "maintenance medication" for asthma instead of waiting for him to need albuterol as a breathing treatment when the asthma happens.
Finally, if you can all stop and say a prayer for my brother (Andy) I would very much appreciate it. He had an accident at work this week and seriously injured his eye. He had emergency surgery on it. At this point he was only able to see some light in that eye. We are still praying for a miracle and that more sight will be restored. We have seen some amazing things happen before and believe it's possible. He has a long road of recovery ahead and could use a lot of prayers for patience and understanding. I know many people pray for us all of the time, but this one could use top priority right now.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
The allergist, the eye Dr. (x2) and and ultrasound
The past week has been totally crazy around here (to say the very least). I'm writing at the speed of light because the boys are temporarily distracted by tv. Some days I wish they liked tv so that I could leave them for 10 minutes without them getting into something. They learned how to open the baby gates and get in the kitchen. That means they get into lots of drawers and this morning, while I was upstairs getting their clothes, they ate out of the garbage. (sigh) The things that happen in our house are sometimes unbelievable.
I'll start with the appointment to the allergist. It was long. The Dr. stressed how severe Noah's allergy is. He said that he should never be around anything peanut related. He had his blood tested to see if he is allergic to tree nuts as well, but advised us to just stay away from them. Peanuts and tree nuts are usually around each other at some point in their "life" and it's just not worth the risk. He also gave us a prescription for a new type of epipen that just came out. It's an epipen that talks to you through what to do should you have to use it. He promised me that if I ever have to use it I will panic. :) I'm sure he's right! It also makes it easier for someone else who is babysitting him to use. He told us that Noah cannot go into the church nursery. It's too much of a risk. So, sorry to everyone at our church. Ha! He is so loud! The past 2 weeks we walked about with him and just walked around. He also said that Noah would qualify as a kid who has asthma and we may need to treat the asthma regularly and not just when he has an episode. He has some excema on his cheeks as well. Poor kid. At the end he sent us upstairs for blood work. It stunk. They took blood from both arms and still didn't get enough. They decided they could work with what they did get. I left feeling thankful though, and here's why. The allergy and immunology department is on the same floor as oncology ( which is behind closed doors). I could have sat and wept thinking about the parents on the other side of the door. I sat and prayed for them and thanked God that it's not us. Our problems are so manageable.
I also had to take Noah to the eye Dr. on Monday. That was a LONG appointment. We were there for 2 1/2 hours. This Dr. is awesome, but you wait a long time. He only sees kids and kids don't always cooperate. He said Noah's eyes still look good and we can come in a year for a re-check. I mentioned that we were making an appointment for Reese because our pediatrician thinks he has clogged tear ducts. When I explained what was going on he agreed that they probably are clogged. He said he will most likely need a little surgery to fix that. We got an appointment for next month. This morning they called and asked if we could come tomorrow. They had a cancellation and Dr. Khammar wants to see him sooner than a month so we can take care of this. Thankfully my sister-in-law can watch Noah and Aiden so I can take Reese.
Now for some exciting news. We had an ultrasound last Friday. The baby looks great. The tech. said she was 95% sure of the gender, but couldn't get good picture because a foot was in the way. She said she knows what she saw though. So, it's time for some more changes in the Brouwer house. It's a GIRL!! :) Change has certainly become the new normal for us! We are excited to welcome a little girl into this crazy house.
I'll start with the appointment to the allergist. It was long. The Dr. stressed how severe Noah's allergy is. He said that he should never be around anything peanut related. He had his blood tested to see if he is allergic to tree nuts as well, but advised us to just stay away from them. Peanuts and tree nuts are usually around each other at some point in their "life" and it's just not worth the risk. He also gave us a prescription for a new type of epipen that just came out. It's an epipen that talks to you through what to do should you have to use it. He promised me that if I ever have to use it I will panic. :) I'm sure he's right! It also makes it easier for someone else who is babysitting him to use. He told us that Noah cannot go into the church nursery. It's too much of a risk. So, sorry to everyone at our church. Ha! He is so loud! The past 2 weeks we walked about with him and just walked around. He also said that Noah would qualify as a kid who has asthma and we may need to treat the asthma regularly and not just when he has an episode. He has some excema on his cheeks as well. Poor kid. At the end he sent us upstairs for blood work. It stunk. They took blood from both arms and still didn't get enough. They decided they could work with what they did get. I left feeling thankful though, and here's why. The allergy and immunology department is on the same floor as oncology ( which is behind closed doors). I could have sat and wept thinking about the parents on the other side of the door. I sat and prayed for them and thanked God that it's not us. Our problems are so manageable.
I also had to take Noah to the eye Dr. on Monday. That was a LONG appointment. We were there for 2 1/2 hours. This Dr. is awesome, but you wait a long time. He only sees kids and kids don't always cooperate. He said Noah's eyes still look good and we can come in a year for a re-check. I mentioned that we were making an appointment for Reese because our pediatrician thinks he has clogged tear ducts. When I explained what was going on he agreed that they probably are clogged. He said he will most likely need a little surgery to fix that. We got an appointment for next month. This morning they called and asked if we could come tomorrow. They had a cancellation and Dr. Khammar wants to see him sooner than a month so we can take care of this. Thankfully my sister-in-law can watch Noah and Aiden so I can take Reese.
Now for some exciting news. We had an ultrasound last Friday. The baby looks great. The tech. said she was 95% sure of the gender, but couldn't get good picture because a foot was in the way. She said she knows what she saw though. So, it's time for some more changes in the Brouwer house. It's a GIRL!! :) Change has certainly become the new normal for us! We are excited to welcome a little girl into this crazy house.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Home sweet home
We were finally able to bring Noah home last night. Monday night was extremely long. By 9:00 Monday morning I just wanted to cry! Nate and I slept about 2 hours total, so we were exhausted. He just happens to be working on a building at the University of Chicago, so he went to work in the morning. They gave Noah his Benadryl and off he went. He ran up and down the halls and they let him play with the toys in the lobby area on his floor. He drank a lot, but didn't really eat so I didn't even have a few minutes of him sitting in order to eat.
The team of doctors came around to do rounds and the attending smiled at me and said, "I remember you!" She was the pediatrician who saw Reese at 5 weeks old when he was in the hospital. That is why we go to Comer. The staff is incredible. She used Noah as a teaching moment because sometimes anaphylaxis looks like an asthma attack. That's exactly what I thought was happening. She also used him as a teaching moment because Benadryl makes him hyper instead of tired. Somehow our boys always ended up being used as a teaching moment for medical students and residents. Glad we can be helpful! They advised us to get rid of anything nut-related in our house and none of us can even have peanut butter again. I was pretty bummed. They said that this would be a lifelong allergy that we will have to learn how to manage. The attending doctor, Dr. Park, came by later to talk to me alone. She said with this severe of an allergy we can't be too careful. Next time it could be much worse. We have to educate everyone he comes into contact with about the severity and the steps that need to be taken in case it does happen. So for now he can't even be in the church nursery. We need to make everyone aware first. She gave us the okay to take him downstairs to their giant play room. He played like crazy for about an hour. He had such a great time. I took him back up and forced him to sit down long enough to sleep after that. We had to wait to hear back from the allergist about what to do next. Finally he called back and said take blood and send him home. We got the blood drawn and at 5:00 we were discharged. We had to go to the pharmacy right away to get his epipen so that we have it in case of emergency. We finally got home a little before 7:00. It took until about 9:00 to get them settled and to sleep. I don't even remember laying down to go to sleep. I just fell into bed with Nate already having fallen asleep. Noah slept great all night. It was really hard to not go in and check on him constantly.
Today my mom came and helped me go through every bit of food in the house. We didn't have to get rid of quite as much as I thought, but there were some surprises. We can no longer buy bread or buns at Aldi because they're manufactured along with snacks that contain nuts. There is a lot of learning to do and a lot of questions to ask. We see an allergist on the 19th to discuss the plan of action and do some allergy testing. The Dr. is from Comer, but we have to see him at La Rabida hospital in Chicago. They also partner with Children's Memorial (now Lurie). It's a specialty hospital, so I'm sure we'll be in the best hands possible. Dr. Wolf is the allergist we are seeing. He is the chief of allergy and immunology at U of C as well. I am so incredibly thankful that we live close to such amazing hospitals. What an unbelievable blessing!
The team of doctors came around to do rounds and the attending smiled at me and said, "I remember you!" She was the pediatrician who saw Reese at 5 weeks old when he was in the hospital. That is why we go to Comer. The staff is incredible. She used Noah as a teaching moment because sometimes anaphylaxis looks like an asthma attack. That's exactly what I thought was happening. She also used him as a teaching moment because Benadryl makes him hyper instead of tired. Somehow our boys always ended up being used as a teaching moment for medical students and residents. Glad we can be helpful! They advised us to get rid of anything nut-related in our house and none of us can even have peanut butter again. I was pretty bummed. They said that this would be a lifelong allergy that we will have to learn how to manage. The attending doctor, Dr. Park, came by later to talk to me alone. She said with this severe of an allergy we can't be too careful. Next time it could be much worse. We have to educate everyone he comes into contact with about the severity and the steps that need to be taken in case it does happen. So for now he can't even be in the church nursery. We need to make everyone aware first. She gave us the okay to take him downstairs to their giant play room. He played like crazy for about an hour. He had such a great time. I took him back up and forced him to sit down long enough to sleep after that. We had to wait to hear back from the allergist about what to do next. Finally he called back and said take blood and send him home. We got the blood drawn and at 5:00 we were discharged. We had to go to the pharmacy right away to get his epipen so that we have it in case of emergency. We finally got home a little before 7:00. It took until about 9:00 to get them settled and to sleep. I don't even remember laying down to go to sleep. I just fell into bed with Nate already having fallen asleep. Noah slept great all night. It was really hard to not go in and check on him constantly.
Today my mom came and helped me go through every bit of food in the house. We didn't have to get rid of quite as much as I thought, but there were some surprises. We can no longer buy bread or buns at Aldi because they're manufactured along with snacks that contain nuts. There is a lot of learning to do and a lot of questions to ask. We see an allergist on the 19th to discuss the plan of action and do some allergy testing. The Dr. is from Comer, but we have to see him at La Rabida hospital in Chicago. They also partner with Children's Memorial (now Lurie). It's a specialty hospital, so I'm sure we'll be in the best hands possible. Dr. Wolf is the allergist we are seeing. He is the chief of allergy and immunology at U of C as well. I am so incredibly thankful that we live close to such amazing hospitals. What an unbelievable blessing!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
A severe allegy = a hospital stay
Yesterday for lunch I decided to try something new with the boys. I gave them peanut butter and jelly. Our pediatician advised us to wait until 18 months because of allergies, so we did. They all seemed to really enjoy it.
About an hour later Noah was coughing almost non-stop. He had been running around a lot so I figured it was just asthma and got out his nebulizer. While giving him his nebulizer he was itching his eyes a lot. A friend from church was over and noticed that they were swelling. We realized it was from the peanut butter. I called the Dr. right away to see if we should go in or give him Benadryl. He said Bendryl, unless he's having trouble breathing. I told him he was coughing and it sounded like asthma. He said to get him the Benadryl right away. So I gave him Benadryl. Unfortunately it didn't make him tired, it made him hyper. It seemed to help. After about 3 hours he started coughing again and his face was puffing up. I called the Dr. again and he said the same thing as before. I always feel like as a parent it is so hard to know what to do. I hate to overreact. So we gave him one more round of Benadryl to see how he would do. He was no better.
We headed straight to the University of Chicago. They took us right in and soon he was getting hives all over. They agreed that it was a tough call, but we made the right decision. They gave him more Benadryl and a shot of epinepherine. It made him crazy! He was like a mad man running around the room. :) It helped though. We got the last room in the hospital so they could observe him. Hopefully after a long, mostly sleepless night he does well all morning and we can go home. He still needs constant Benadryl. He will also go home with an epipen because the allergy is considered severe. We also have to follow up with an allergist.
We've learned a lot already. I didn't realize an allergy could be delayed and continue to get worse. I didn't realize coughing could be a sign of a serious reaction. I feel very uninformed. We have a lot to learn! For now we're just very thankful he is okay.
About an hour later Noah was coughing almost non-stop. He had been running around a lot so I figured it was just asthma and got out his nebulizer. While giving him his nebulizer he was itching his eyes a lot. A friend from church was over and noticed that they were swelling. We realized it was from the peanut butter. I called the Dr. right away to see if we should go in or give him Benadryl. He said Bendryl, unless he's having trouble breathing. I told him he was coughing and it sounded like asthma. He said to get him the Benadryl right away. So I gave him Benadryl. Unfortunately it didn't make him tired, it made him hyper. It seemed to help. After about 3 hours he started coughing again and his face was puffing up. I called the Dr. again and he said the same thing as before. I always feel like as a parent it is so hard to know what to do. I hate to overreact. So we gave him one more round of Benadryl to see how he would do. He was no better.
We headed straight to the University of Chicago. They took us right in and soon he was getting hives all over. They agreed that it was a tough call, but we made the right decision. They gave him more Benadryl and a shot of epinepherine. It made him crazy! He was like a mad man running around the room. :) It helped though. We got the last room in the hospital so they could observe him. Hopefully after a long, mostly sleepless night he does well all morning and we can go home. He still needs constant Benadryl. He will also go home with an epipen because the allergy is considered severe. We also have to follow up with an allergist.
We've learned a lot already. I didn't realize an allergy could be delayed and continue to get worse. I didn't realize coughing could be a sign of a serious reaction. I feel very uninformed. We have a lot to learn! For now we're just very thankful he is okay.
Friday, January 25, 2013
A virus and a busy baby
This week started with Reese waking up Monday morning with a runny nose and a little cough. We really didn't think anything of it. He was a little crabby and tired so we figured he had a cold. Tuesday morning he woke up and his eyes were red and he was breathing loud and heavy. By the afternoon his eyes were even more red and his breathing sounded worse and faster. I called the Dr. to ask what we should do, if anything, about the breathing. I was going to leave a message for the nurse but she got the Dr. (our Dr. was off that day, so it the other Dr. in the office). He asked what was going on and said we needed to come in right away. So I woke Reese up from his nap and bundled him up. Of course it had to be ridiculously cold that day! Thankfully Nate was home so I could go with just Reese. After looking him over and listening to him breathe for a while he said it could be bronchiolitis or asthma caused by a virus. Of course we talked about the fact that Noah is on the nebulizer for the same thing and that asthma runs in the family. So, he suggested using the nebulizer with Reese. His guess was that Reese has RSV or something similar. This was what we had them vaccinated against last winter that cost $2,000 a shot before insurance. It would have been much worse for him to have it last year. The Dr said that while there is a test to determine that it is RSV it doesn't change the course of treatment. The fact that he was a preemie means we have to watch him more closely though. So after the nebulizer he was breathing a little bit better. Wednesday he was looking a little worse and by yesterday he was looking a little better. He looks even better today. I am so thankful that they are bigger and can handle things like this now! On a funny note...Reese did not enjoy laying on the table for the Dr. to listen to his lungs. The minute the Dr. pulled the stethoscope away he looked at him and said, "All done?" :)
The other excitement is that baby #4 is busy kicking and moving now. I felt the boys extremely early, so it felt like forever waiting for this one to kick. Finally about a week and a half ago I did. Now this baby is kicking and moving like a maniac. Nate is anxious to be able to feel the baby move once it gets a little bigger. It's funny how different things are this time. With the boys at almost 19 weeks (which is what I am now) we had all the nursery furniture picked out, the bedding picked out, they were named. This time we have nothing done. We haven't even looked at furniture or bedding, we haven't talked names at all (we will once we know what we're having) and we haven't started to take stuff out of the room to work on it yet. I think it's partly because we, hopefully, have much more time to prepare this time. It's just funny to think how different it is to be pregnant with one baby instead of three!
The other excitement is that baby #4 is busy kicking and moving now. I felt the boys extremely early, so it felt like forever waiting for this one to kick. Finally about a week and a half ago I did. Now this baby is kicking and moving like a maniac. Nate is anxious to be able to feel the baby move once it gets a little bigger. It's funny how different things are this time. With the boys at almost 19 weeks (which is what I am now) we had all the nursery furniture picked out, the bedding picked out, they were named. This time we have nothing done. We haven't even looked at furniture or bedding, we haven't talked names at all (we will once we know what we're having) and we haven't started to take stuff out of the room to work on it yet. I think it's partly because we, hopefully, have much more time to prepare this time. It's just funny to think how different it is to be pregnant with one baby instead of three!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
This is our life...
This is a little look into what a "normal" day is like in our house....
Last week (I don't remember what day, it was a long week!) I ran upstairs to grab a few bills that needed to be paid. By the time I got back downstairs 3 boys had climbed onto chairs and even onto the table to get to a plate of cookies brought by my good friend Donna. They all had a mouth FULL of cookies. Aiden even had a mouth full of nuts (I guess now we know he's not allergic). I did what any mom would do. I took a picture.
Last week (I don't remember what day, it was a long week!) I ran upstairs to grab a few bills that needed to be paid. By the time I got back downstairs 3 boys had climbed onto chairs and even onto the table to get to a plate of cookies brought by my good friend Donna. They all had a mouth FULL of cookies. Aiden even had a mouth full of nuts (I guess now we know he's not allergic). I did what any mom would do. I took a picture.
(Note how they smiled, clearly thinking they had done nothing wrong)
Another day they knocked over the rocking chair and played on it (they did it this morning too). I don't put the chair back into place until they take a nap. They climb on everything in sight! This includes their kitchen, toys they use to climb onto other things, furniture, and the list goes on. We had to start stacking our chairs in a corner so that they would stop pushing them to the counter to get things. Monday Noah pushed a chair to the counter and grabbed cookies that our neighbor brought them. When I ran over to stop them to all ran in different directions and chowed down on their cookies. They are too stinking smart. I couldn't believe they knew to scatter. They run away from me ALL THE TIME. If they see me grab a kleenex, diapers, clothes or anything else they don't want to see they run.
Last night was the kicker. We were getting ready to go to bed and I was turning the heat down. We have a thermostat for each "level" of our house. I was turning down the one for the living room/kitchen level and noticed why we had been so warm all night. Noah turned it up to over 86!! How do I know it was Noah? I have caught him MANY times climbing onto the couch and then onto the back of the couch to get things off of the dresser behind it. He must have turned it up while climbing on the back of the couch. Thankfully we laugh about these things. Sure, I get pretty frustrated when these things are happening. It's hard to get anything done, even make lunch when you know at least one is up to no good. Believe me they usually work as a team to accomplish things. I try to see that as a good thing, that at least they're working together. Most of the time I just want to pull my hair out. It takes a while before it's funny.
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