Backfill

It's been a weird Winter, no weirder for the fact that it's May and it's finally starting to feel like Spring.  It started last October when I got shingles. 

As shingles go, it was an incredibly mild case, just a quarter-sized patch next to my right knee, but my skin felt like I had a particularly obnoxious sunburn for a week or two.  The one time James kicked my rash I curled up and cried for ~5 minutes.  Figuring that this is something that might actually need a doctor's attention I went and looked one up.  It's been a while, so I was a New Patient and I had to wait two weeks.  By then, everything had pretty much cleared up but they did a full check-up.  Including mental health.  By the end of the day I'd already seen a psychologist and had appointments with both a therapist and a psychiatrist. 

I'm usually just fine with being mildly bipolar, but with then-current events compounding things they wanted to let me talk to someone.  I went to therapy every week for months.  I met with the psychiatrist.  I got a prescription that I found out 2 days later I'm not supposed to take.   Well, I can, but Lucy can't, so I can't either.  I talked about what was going on in my life and we discussed somethings that might make things better.  And when my therapist left in March I just never went back.  It felt like all the talking did was either frustrate me because it was only talking and not actually doing anything, or make me feel sad and helpless, which is counter-productive.  It also made me fold up in on myself.  I didn't really talk to anyone else.  I certainly didn't blog.

So why now?  It's Spring.  New starts.  Also, my cat.  And that just cannot be properly covered on Facebook.

Inch by Inch

Lucy is 4 months old, today.  She went in for her check-up, this morning, and got weighed and measured.  She's 13 lbs 12 ozs and almost 25", putting her in the 50th percentile.  Apparently, she was in the 75th, last time, so she's been told to get going on that cereal to build herself back up.  Weird.  I mean, I knew she was adorably chubby, but 50th-75th percentile?  The other kids were all, consistently, 5th-10th percentile.  25th at the highest.  I don't know what genes she working with, but I guess they're working well for her.

I other Lucy news, while we were at the doctor, she made her first real attempt at rolling over.  She almost had it but an elbow was poking out.  She does scootch around in circles, though, changing which way she's facing. 

Toys are starting to be a viable distraction, too.  It never works for very long, but you can hand her a rattle toy and she'll chew on it for several minutes.  It's enough to give Mom hope for a future without a baby permanently adhered to my side.

Bluebeard ...and Blackbeard

I'm not sure how we managed to avoid it for so long.  Sure Joseph had been there, but that's Joseph and it wasn't in the "right" place anyway.  I guess it was just time and we'd avoided it long enough.

Two split chins, on two children, with two sets of stitches, in one month.

James slipped while climbing the couch, at the end of July.

Elena bounced off a bigger kid and into a pole at the splashpad, last week.

I KNEW it!

I've been worried about James for a while, now. He's 3 years old, but doesn't have much of a vocabulary. He doesn't ask for things, he doesn't comment on what he sees, and he doesn't ask questions. Ever. Only this last summer did he learn animal names and sounds, and parts of his body. I don't think he understands colors, yet. Today I discovered that he will put things in the trash when you ask him to. If he were 1 this would be normal, but he's not.

On the other hand, he's very observant and watches everything around him. He loves to play and whoops and hollers with the best of them. He loves to be tickled, can climb anything, and has joined his siblings' games on (almost) their level. He loves music, too, always has, and sings beautifully. In fact, he can pick up the tune of anything he hears and will hum along. It's humming, though. No words.

I talked to his pediatrician at his well-check, in September. He definitely has a speech delay --he should be using pronouns in 4-word sentences but I can't get him to use nouns in 1-word statements--and we got a referral to speech therapy. Part of the evaluation for that turned out to include a hearing test and I could not have been happier. I knew he could hear, but if he had just enough of a loss that things were muffled, then he wouldn't be picking up much and every word out of his mouth would be slightly garbled. Right? After all, what do you do with the hum of conversation in a crowded room? You tune it out because it doesn't quite make sense. And then when someone tries to talk to you? It's hard to make out what they're saying.

So today was his visit to the ear, nose, throat doctor, with a special trip inside the audiologist's booth. I had been wondering how they would be able to do a hearing screen on him, since he can't communicate well enough to understand that he's supposed to say something when he hears a beep, but they've got it all covered. In opposite corners of the booth are speakers, and on top of the speakers are a Pooh or Tigger figurine that lights up, dances and has flashing lights as a reward for looking that direction. James thought it was a funny game, listening for the squawks, buzzes and beeps so that he could find the dancing toys. He got his ear drums measured, too (how, I don't know, beyond them putting a rubber thing in each of his ears) and they're slightly "depressed", meaning they don't move quite the way they should. It's small enough that it could be from an ear infection (they've been checked twice in the last month and a half and no infection in sight) or congestion (slight allergies, but that's it), but the end diognosis is that he's hearing the world as though through ears full of cotton balls.

Oh, Vindication, you are bitter-sweet indeed.

Still, the ENT says James should definitely do speech therapy, but also that he should be talking just fine when he comes back for a checkup in 6 months. We have hope. And just in case, I've got 3 years of ASL under my belt.

My, How You Lose Track of Things...

James pushed a button on the keyboard, and now the computer refuses to acknowledge that Linux exists. Because of that, I didn't want to put my pictures on the computer. I hate Windows but put up with it because it lets Jonathan get paid (what idiot designs a website that only works with IE? Payroll, apparently...). And now I can't share all my pictures because, well, I don't have the camera, anymore. That one's a rather involved story that I will not get into, here. We'll just leave it at "we don't have the camera, anymore." Sooooo, here's what I've gleaned off my cell phone.

First off, we moved in March. It was kind of sudden and what was in our price range and fit our requirements landed us in the next ward over. It's an odd adjustment, after nearly 7 years, but we're coming around. Mind you, they're making a new ward in just 2 days, so we might be adjusting again, soon.
Moving meant driving the kids to school every day, too. Not fun, but at least they got to finish out the school year before they had to change that, too. Joseph's birthday was the first day of Summer Break, and it was a good one. We had chocolate cupcakes, presents, and lots of fun inventing a new game called "Warf!" I'm still not sure what the rules are, but they kids still ask for it.



Determined to make the summer both fun and something Jonathan can participate in, too, we have our Calendar O' Summer Fun! We've been to the library's special reading club activities, including meeting some police dogs. We've played at the park. We've even gotten to go on some trips. This is the wheel from the Mormon grist mill in the Marktplatz in Fredricksburg.


We also got to see the new Orion space capsule as it passed through on the way to New Mexico for testing. Joseph got to look at the model of the emergency launch abort system that the tests are for.



Much less fun was Joseph's MRI. Our pediatrician noticed that our boy's got a serious noggin on him--like, nearly adult-sized, and he's just barely 5--and wanted to see if there's anything odd going on in there. This was a real... adventure. It took a half-dozen tries and an extra three hours to get it done because the first two sedatives didn't take and he woke up part-way through the first scan. Why the sedatives? Have you ever tried to get a 5-year-old to lie perfectly still inside a buzzing metal tube for 30 minutes?

That's about it. Here's a bonus picture, to tide you over until the next post, of a roadside dive on the way to Fredricksburg. If I'd had a drink in my mouth, at the time, I'd have snorted it right out my nose.

Happily

Once upon a time, I had five pairs of glasses. "Five?" you say. Yes, five. I'm not counting the sunglasses, even though they're prescription, too. You see, I knew I had children and that personal belongings would suddenly get up and walk off, settling down in a whole new part of the house, usually in odd nooks and corners that are only visible to persons under 3' tall. I needed to be able to find some sort of glasses, even if they weren't the ones I'd just taken off. I also knew that accidents happen. For example, one of those five pairs of glasses vanished at the side of a rural highway as I stared at my flat tire mere hours before Joseph chipped his tooth. (Yeah, not one of my better days.) That's why I had five pairs, though.

Then came Sweet Little James, the Destroyer of Frames. He's utterly annihilated all but one pair in the last three months, and that one pair is five years old. I'd known I ought to get my prescription updated sometime soon, but now I needed new glasses.

I just got back, and I'm pretty darn happy. Everything looks healthy, my prescription is essentially the same (as the most most recent pair, not what I've been forced to wear for the last month), and I found some cool frames. I got a pale green pair at the optomitrist--they'll be done in a week or so--then wandered off to one of the Done In An Hour places for a 2-for-$ deal. The only pair of pairs I really liked--a simple black wire frame, and a black plastic with bright lime inside and earpiece sparklies--were a little pricier than I would have liked, but I'd budgeted high, anyway, so it was all good. And they're cute.

I won't be leaving them lying around, either.

In Stitches

The third Thursday of every month is my book group. I hadn't been able to go in a while because Jonathan had usually been working Thursday evenings. This month, though, was the happy coinciding of a free evening and one of my favorite authors--Bill Bryson. I hadn't read this particular book (A Walk in the Woods) but I still loved his work and was thrilled to join my friends for an evening of discussion. Just as I was about to walk out the door I watched Elena and Joseph chase each other around the living room. Elena pushed Joseph, Joseph fell, and his cheek hit the corner of the futon frame. We pick him up, and the poor guy is screaming as blood pours down his face. After cleaning him up a bit I get a good look at the cut. Not very wide, but it's pretty deep. He needs stitches. Seeing as I'm the one that's dressed in something other than PJs I offer to take him in.

It's 8pm, so his doctor is long gone for the day. Where to go? Most of you would say "a minor emergency clinic" because it is a minor emergency. The problem is that my children are on CHIP because we can't afford insurance. Doctors don't take new patients if they're on CHIP. We had the same problem with Elena's pink eye, three years ago, and I had to pay $250 to get a prescription for eye cream. The only option left was the ER at the hospital. I hate that I have to take up their valuable time with something so small, but it's the only thing I can afford. Off to the ER we went.

After three hours of waiting (thank goodness Joseph fell asleep after only one) the doctor took a look at him. Apparently the cut went in the correct direction for good healing, if you're going to cut your face, and with a couple of stitches he'd only have a tiny scar. I warned them that I'm not good with needles, so they brought in an extra nurse to help hold him still. Then they did the most ingenious thing I've ever seen--they pulled his arms behind his back and stuck them in a pillowcase, then wrapped him three or four times with a bedsheet. There's no way he could wiggle, now. I held his chest, the nurses held his head, and the doctor gave him a shot and put three neat little stiches in his cheek. They're actually kind of cute, in an I-want-to-puke sort of way. I don't like the thought of things poking me, and there's some sort of transitive (?) property going on with human flesh (needle+skin=pain+creeping nausea; his skin=my skin ==> needle+his skin=my pain+creeping nausea). We just need to get through one week and then the stitches come out. Anyway, I need to go hunt down my Neosporin.

The Never-Ending Ear Infection

Joseph's been to the doctor about every two weeks for the last three months, trying to get rid of an ear infection. The funny thing is, we took him in, in the first place, because Elena poked him in the other ear with something long and skinny (the end of a glow in the dark bracelet, I believe) and it scraped up the ear canal enough to bleed a little bit. The injured ear turned out fine, and the non-injured one had a massive infection. He never complains about pain, which just goes to show you what a trooper he is, and loves taking all the medicine he's been prescribed. This morning's check-up was good enough that he doesn't have a new prescription, but he still has another check-up in two weeks. This boy's going to bleed us dry with co-pays.

Simon LeGimp

See? Now that I can make bad jokes about it, I feel better.

Simon's back home, and behaving much more like a normal cat should. I have to say that the naked foot with only three toes is a bit creepy, but it's way less disturbing than what it looked like before, so I'll take it. He's still got the cone on his head, to keep him from messing with the stitches, but he can eat and drink just fine, so he'll be OK. He'll have to stay in the bathroom for a few more days, and he gets the stitches out in two weeks.

Blessed

It sounds so scary, when you hear about a baby going to the hospital and you see pictures of an IV port in a tiny hand and an oxygen line in a tiny nose. We have been so blessed, though. We were blessed to catch the illness and see a doctor before family gatherings where other babies could be put at risk. We were blessed with a pediatrician who was available and able to see us only two days before Christmas. We were blessed with a nearby hospital with gentle and caring nurses. We were blessed that James could receive the care he needed that he couldn't get at home or in the doctor's office. We were blessed with the power of priesthood blessings and the comfort of faith. Throughout it all, I was never afraid. I knew James would be alright, he just needed a little help. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. They have all been appreciated.

'Christmas On the Closed Ward'

James' temperature was at 100.2 yesterday evening and topped out at 100.9 at 2am, but after a blessing from Daddy it was back down to a "normal" low-grade fever in the next hour. He was fussy and coughing worse than ever this morning, though, and it being Christmas morning the only thing open was the emergency room at the hospital across the street. Elena wanted to come with me and I let her, with the strict instructions that she obey my every request. She actually did a very good job sitting still and the nurses gave her a picture to color and some crayons. She also let me know when James threw up all over himself and the car seat, just as we were pulling into the hospital parking lot, and fetched me anything I needed from the diaper bag. I'm really glad she was there with me just so that I couldn't be obsessing over James' squeaky cries and raspy coughs. James was having trouble keeping his oxygen levels up, so we got a hose of humidified oxygen blowing on his face and a transfer to Dell Children's Hospital. Jonathan and one of the guys from the ward came just before the transfer to give James a blessing and take Elena home.

The children's hospital is really nice. I'm amused that the mirrors in the bathroom are tilted so the patients can still see themselves. We also have Tarzan stickers on the window of our door and pictures of ladybugs and butterflies on our wall. I honestly can't tell you what any of his nurses look like, though, because they're all wearing respiratory masks. Elena, Joseph and Jonathan brought a paper Christmas tree for our wall and presents for us to open so that we could have at least some Christmas stuff today. Jonathan brought his computer, too, so I can entertain myself. Now, we wait. They're going to start checking his lungs and trying him out with out the oxygen line tonight. He needs at least four hours of keeping his numbers up before we can go home.

Not-So-Silent Night

Jonathan and Elena are just fine. My cold is almost gone, and Joseph's is starting to clear. James has RSV. I got worried when James started throwing up, yesterday. We took him to the doctor and she asked for a follow-up, today. He was coughing worse, today, and quieter than usual. He took his morning naps by himself instead of insisting on being held. I'm not sure if I should be worried about that or not. Anyway, he got a thorough looking-over at the follow-up and that's when we got the unhappy news. No fever, but he squeaks a bit when he cries. I took him to get x-rays to make sure it hasn't progressed to pneumonia. We'll hear back about the results sometime this evening. The doctor said we were not allowed to be anywhere near the kids' cousin, Grant, though, because Grant is the same age as James and would be just as vulnerable. There went our plans for the evening. Ah, well. We're going to settle in with Rudolph, Frosty and Scrooge, instead, while baking gingersnaps and "stickernoodles." We have to make sure Santa has cookies. That is very, very important.

It Gets Harder?!

We've been busy-but-not-busy for the last little bit, here. Joseph got sick, last week, and the effects lingered much longer than expected, especially for the amount of energy he was still displaying. It's possible that James caught it from him because he's suddenly super spitty. To top it off, James is going through a growth spurt and wants to do little beyond eat, sleep and scream. Joseph also has some kind of viral thing that's giving him sores at the corners of his mouth. We went to the doctor, today, and he came up neg. for strep, but she gave him a prescription to help him feel better while we wait for whatever it is to blow over. Plus, Elena is earning back her Big Girl Panties. She went from forgetting to go, to "forgetting" to go, to not caring, last month, and had to spend a few days in diapers and a week in training pants. She started back with the plain BGPs, today, and has to keep them dry to earn movies, helping with dinner, taking links off our advent paper chain, and her daily peice of Halloween candy. As if this was not enough insanity, I'm working on gifts for family, there's been an outbreak of sobbing at every tiny thing, and I have a talk to give in church on Sunday. Sigh...

I'll put up a ton of pictures soon.

Meetings

It's been a busy day. It started with James' two month checkup. He weighed in at 10 lb 15 oz and is 22 1/2 in tall. He's been snuffly for a few days, but nothing that would prevent him from getting his first round of shots. Baby boy does not like the shots and screamed the whole time.

After the doctor, we dropped Daddy at work (he has a lead on a second job and could start on Monday, if he wanted!!!) then headed on to Andrea's for a play date. Andrea's house is apparently the play to go, though, because two other friends were there, as well. The kids had a blast, which is good because they've been asking all week "when do we go to Mackay and Beckett's house?" We set up the play date not just so the kids could play, but so we could trade pants. We each bought the same style of awesome coral colored bermuda shorts on clearance from Old Navy but in each other's size because that's all they had. We discovered the funny coincidence last week and decided on a swap.

Joseph actually took his nap, today (he refuses about 20-30% of the time, now) and when we went to pick up Daddy of course the kids wanted to go in and get "bites" from the food court. While we were there, they waved to Santa. Elena now asks when Christmas is about every hour. We also saw a friend that recently moved back from Houston, there with her sister-in-law, whom we see at the library story time.

While discussing dinner, Elena offered up hot dogs, hamburgers and pancakes as options. Joseph voted for pancakes, and Elena flipped most of them all by herself.

So, there's my day. Talking to friends was wonderful. I'm amazed I don't do it more often.

Teeth Time

The kids went to the dentist for the first time, on Wednesday. We practiced on Monday so they'd know what was going on, and it went pretty well. Joseph climbed right up into the exam chair, and opened his mouth when the dentist came in. Elena wasn't so sure about everything. I had to carry her to the exam room and then to the cleaning room, but once in the chair she was a champ.

Growing Boy

Since my pediatrician tends to freak out about weights, she asked us to come back in, today, after James's two week checkup, last week, and his newborn checkup, the week before. For those keeping score at home, here's the weigh-ins:

• birth: 7lb 10oz
• one week: 7lb 4 oz
• two weeks: 7lb 10oz
• two & half weeks: 8lb 0oz
• three weeks: 8lb 2oz

So, there we are. He's been cleared to live his own life and the next check-up is at two months. Until then, I'll be getting out the pump because he's hungry ALL THE TIME and it's driving me nuts. I think he's gotten in the habit of falling asleep with a mouthful of milk, too, because he keeps dozing off when he should be eating but won't take a pacifier to go to sleep.

Out And About

Normally, I wouldn't really want to take a baby out quite this early, but Daddy's cold makes a big difference. James and I went to the doctor, this morning, to follow up with all the monitoring from the hospital. The jaundice was mild to begin with and it seems to be clearing up on schedule, or something like that. They didn't stick him to check sugars, but did ask about how often he eats (Cluster-feed--once an hour--all morning long, then every 4 hours the rest of the time) and she thought that was good enough. He's already grown a quarter inch and weighed in at 7 lbs 4.5 ozs. I think that puts him in the 25th and 50th percentiles, respectively. We'll have to see how long that lasts. After getting some breakfast for everyone and getting Elena and Joseph dressed, we went to playgroup. The weather is beautiful, and the wonderful cool breezes reminded me that Elena only has one pair of pants in her current size. James snoozed away in the sling the entire two hours we were at the park, and at HEB, afterward, when we stopped in to get cold medicine for Jonathan. It was a really nice outing, but I think we're done for the day. Maybe tomorrow night...

Entering Betting Pool Time Frames

For all those who entered the poll/pool for bragging rights and cookies: Let the Games Begin!

We had an OB visit, yesterday, and for all that the new partner was only available in the evening we had a wonderful low-key visit and could take all the time we wanted. "After hours" visits are awesome. No one was waiting in front of us, we had the nurses and doctor all to ourselves. Everyone was relaxed, instead of trying to rush through a long list of procedures and patients. We could sit and chat with the doctor about anything and not feel like we were wasting her time. It was wonderful. No *ahem* exam because she says that (especially with 2nd, 3rd, etc. pregnancies) they don't tell you much. You go into labor when you go into labor and nothing but contractions is going to dilate you. We got the on-call rotation schedule, though, and for the next two weeks the midwives are only not on call for a total of 4 days. I can't tell you how happy I am about that. I expressed my views on c-sections quite clearly (1: someone had better be dying; 2: you don't want me awake for that) and she said not to worry as I was a perfect candidate for a midwife, having fairly quick, uncomplicated births. I'm actually shooting for the weekend of the 20th, since Lisa will be on call and she's the only one I've known longer than 6 months, but you never can quite tell with babies. They tend to do their own thing. We went ahead and scheduled one more visit, since that'll get us to 38 wks, 5 days and I only got to 39 wks, 4 days with either of the other two.

We'll keep you posted. You'll notice that I've acquired a Twitter feed (to the left) so people can keep up with us. You can call to check in, if you want, but if you can't/don't want to you're not out of the loop.

Progression

I feel like I've slacked off, not writing anything for a week. So, what have I been up to?

First off, the physical therapy update. My hip bone has rotated (most of the way) back. It's been hard to abandon some of the habits that got me that way, but for the sake of reduced pain I can deal with it. Now I get to do balancing exercises and some stretches to build up my core. My therapist's explanation was that since my ligaments obviously aren't doing their job to hold things in place, I need to strengthen the muscles to pick up the slack. I'm liking this program much better because it doesn't hurt. Muscle burn is way better than joints screaming in pain.

Jonathan and I have been pulled into helping crew for the Youth's play Savior of the World. He's off painting sets, right now, and I'm on the makeup crew. I'm pretty sure I get to do Zacharias and Elizabeth's aging. It was both fun and frustrating teaching ~150 teenagers the right way to put on makeup for stage. The girls were generally OK, but the boys (of course) were painting each other like clowns. We had to stop at each table and emphasize that if you don't do it right you don't go on stage.

Monday was a final get-together with Cynthia's family before they head off to Chicago, today, to start Stephen's grad schooling. We all went to Jonathan's parents' house to swim, eat and socialize. Elena discovered that if she folds her arms her arm floaties will hold her head up above the water and she had a great time swimming the length of the pool then climbing out, running back to the other end, then climbing back in and doing it again. She did at least four lengths of the pool, this way. She's been telling me all week that she can swim all by herself, now. After the kids hopped out to dry off and watch a movie, I borrowed Sarah's mattress float and just drifted around the pool without a care in the world. I ran out of direct sunlight (the shadows made the water too cold) right about the time dinner was ready, and we had a great time eating and chatting well into late evening.

Elena and I got to go out with my Mom, Thursday night. Jonathan got the night off from painting because it was pouring down rain every half an hour, so he stayed home with Joseph, who was super cranky because he had a molar half-way through. Since we were in San Marcos because of dad's meetings, we dropped by the outlet malls after we'd run a few errands. It was so good to hang out together and just be girls. Elena was really pretty well behaved so everything went smoothly and everyone enjoyed themselves.

We got invited to the Kyle Stake Pioneer Day party, last night. We had a lot of fun! There was lots of smoked meat (wild pig & buffalo!) plus ice cream, snow cones, watermelon and cotton candy (the only treat we didn't try). We got to ride the mule-drawn wagon--Elena went twice--and jump in the bouncy house--all but me, since Joseph insisted someone go in with him and the pregnant thing doesn't work well with bouncing. We had a great time dancing, the best I've had in ages, and the fireworks were awesome.

That's about it. I know that each of these could have easily been separate posts but I like to do them with pictures and I keep forgetting the camera. Ah well.

Mommy Gets a Pool Doctor, Too

I talked to my OB, last week, about the killer back pain I've had for the last two months and she got me a referral to physical therapy. Today was my evaluation, and there's good news and bad news. First of all, it's not my back or my right hip that's messed up. It's the left hip. The ligaments are loose (yay, pregnancy hormones!) and the left ilium has shifted and rotated backward, putting stress on the rest on my pelvic alignment. The way I sit in my chair when I'm at the computer or the dinner table just makes it worse, too. It may have even caused the shift, but anyway... I now get physical therapy twice a week, one in the office and one in the pool, for the next month. I also have some leg exercises I get to do, plus I need to reorganize my computer desk and find a new sleeping position. If it makes the next ten weeks easier, though, then it's all worth it.