Cruddy Week with a Bright Spot

The kids have been sick most of the week with colds, which has led to a pretty cruddy week.  Will seemed to feel pretty bad on Tuesday.  He was feverish off and on.  We had a babysitter in the morning because Drew and I both needed to be out and she was reading books to the kids and they both fell asleep on her!  Will definitely didn’t feel good and Lindy was probably starting to come down with it.  Wednesday night was a a really rough night for Lou Lou (and us).  She was up and down all night long.  I had her in the recliner for a long time and she could never get comfortable for more than a few minutes.  Thursday Lindy really didn’t feel good.  She had a fever on and off all day long.   Drew gave her a steam bath to open her up and we think it worked.  She took a decent nap and then her nose started running, something it usually doesn’t do.  It normally drains down her throat.  Although it’s gross, we’d much rather it come out of her.  She did fall asleep on me a couple times that afternoon so I know she didn’t feel well.  Lindy doesn’t usually sit still long enough to fall asleep on someone.  She slept through the night Thursday night and you could tell she felt a lot better Friday.  Except for coughs they now have, they are getting back to normal.  We’re ready for this cold to move on – except I have it and Drew thinks he is getting it.  

I had a busy day on Tuesday playing ambassador mom for the March of Dimes.  I had to give two speeches that day.  One to all the principals in Forsyth County and then to my OBGYN office.  It sure did snow again on Tuesday.  We got about 2 inches but it was gone by the next day. 

Lindy did have hearing therapy on Tuesday morning before Drew left.  I think there were a few interruptions here and there so I hope they got to do some work!  Chris did say Lindy was able to pick two objects out of a group a couple times.  Something we’ve been working on and Lindy was struggling with.

The only other appointment – and the bright spot of the week (heck, of the year so far) – was the kids had swallow studies on Thursday morning.  We really considered cancelling because the kids were sick but we decided to go.  Lindy was up first and wow, Miss Thang  wanted NOTHING to do with the swallow study.  I first tried having her eat a bite of a sandwich.  Nope.  She pushed it away.  Then I tried oranges.  Nope.  She was having none of it.  Okay, fine, we moved on to liquids.  The kids are presently at a thin nectar consistency.  Have a drink of milk, Lindy.  NOPE.  The girl wouldn’t take one sip.  I ended up pretty much force feeding the child with a syringe.  She fought me the entire time.  One person was holding her arms down and I had to somehow get the milk in and hold her head straight.  It was challenging.  She did great on the thin nectar consistency though.  No penetrations and no aspirations.  So we moved on to just plain old water with no thickener in it.  Again, I had to force feed the child but the outcome was amazing.  She did GREAT on thin liquids!  NO penetrations and NO aspirations.  We were shocked!  I hadn’t even really dreamed Lindy would come off thickener this time. 

So then Willy Will was up.  Sweet boy that he is, he did eat a bite of sandwich.  Looked great.  Then the sweet boy ate a few bites of oranges.  Again, looked great!  Okay Will, have a drink of your thin nectar milk.  He took one sip and then he was done.  He was on to us.  He knew it was different.  The barium they use has a different taste and texture to it.  So again, I ended up force feeding the child with a syringe.  He did great with the thin nectar so we moved on to plain old water with no thickener.  He still wouldn’t take a sip so I gave it to him with a syringe again and guess what?  He looked great too!!!!  He did have two small penetrations (where a small amount of water goes into your airway.  It has to go down past your vocal cords for it to be considered aspirating).  He penetrated twice but then he pulled it back out of his airway and down the right path which is good.  He had two penetrations out of two syringe fulls of water so that is considered okay. 

We were shocked.  I honestly felt like they would be on thickener until they were 21.  I swore their first beers would have to be thickened!  We are not going to just stop using thickener cold turkey though.  In fact we aren’t going to do anything until they are over these colds.  Once they are over the colds and feeling all better then we will cut the amount of thickener I have been using in half.  We’ll let them get used to this consistency for a few weeks and then try thin liquids.  We have tried switching quickly between two consistencies before and it didn’t go well.  They really have to be weaned down.  My children have never drunk just plain liquid.  Well they did for a little while in the NICU, before it was realized they were aspirating it.  I have NO clue what it is like to pour milk straight into a cup for them.  Or turn on the faucet and get them some water.  We can’t leave water cups sitting out for them because the thickener has to stay cool or it goes bad.  What an amazing treat this will all be!  In good time we will get there! 

We will definitely be watching them closely.  We all really wish they would have drank from their straw sippy cups.  I almost feel like it wasn’t  a true test because we used the syringe instead of their cup.  I think I’m just really nervous.  The last thing I want them to get is aspiration pneumonia, which is what happens if they aspirate.  We’re really excited though!

We’ve seen GrandBob a couple times this week.  He came by to visit on Wednesday because he was in town.  Then we saw him on Friday but for a different reason. Drew’s grandmother had a hemorrhagic stroke on Thursday night so he was up at the hospital.  GrandBob and Suzette came by Friday afternoon because you can’t be in the ICU from 2-4pm.  Ever since they left Will has been saying, “Bye-bye GrandBob, Bye-Bye Suzette.”  Today we got to see Mimo and Aunt Anna as well.  They came to town to see Nanny and then came to visit us.  Well I think they really came to see the kids, not us.  We’ve heard ‘Bye-Bye Mo” this evening.  No love for Aunt Anna though.  Sorry! 

Thanks to the Beasleys and Pressons for being our first March of Dimes donators!  We’ve reach 1% of our goal.  Yahoo!!  See the post right before this one for more info on our March for Babies walk in April.

Before getting sick. One morning while Janice was babysitting, she showed Will his shadow.  Now he loves to play with it on sunny mornings. “What’s that?” “I don’t feel well” Lindy was still feeling okay at this point. “Now I don’t feel well” But she still managed to eek out a smile for me. One evening I walked in the bathroom and found this.  I thought it was so funny! I got a picture of Will pre-swallow study.  Lindy started freaking just getting into the chair so there was no time for pictures of her.  This is the contraption they sit in.  They have to sit looking straight forward so the x-ray on the right side can watch the fluid going down.  It should be easy – they eat, drink, and sit still.  Doesn’t work that way when 2 year olds are involved. The kids were playing with the curtain today and both ended up inside it.  I thought this looked weird.  It’s kind of how I imagined them being in the womb.  Fun with Mimo and Aunt Anna.  Mimo always does ‘Ride a Little Horsey’ with the kids.  Today she was doing it with Will and ‘they all fell down’.  Right at the time they all down, Lindy decided she would get in on the action and sat down – on Will. So then two little horseys had to ride together. Hug Mimo.  Lindy was playing big sister and putting her arm around Will.  She’d turn and look at me and smile big.  It was too funny. The kids have been tickling us this week.  Will says ‘tickle tickle’ and it’s pretty cute.  Tickle tickle Aunt Anna! Sweet kisses