First Taste of Christmas This Week.

I think this is going to be the winter where we are always sick.  We got over the stomach bug and now have colds.  The kids started out with some barking coughs and then the noses started running.  The coughs have thankfully gotten better.   Between the cough and Lindy’s raspy voice, she sounds like she has been smoking for 67 years.  Of course, when Lindy gets a cough, she usually ends up throwing up.  Her nose doesn’t run so she gets drainage in her throat.  She would lay down to go to sleep and start coughing so bad that she threw up a couple times.  Good times around here!  The conversation at bedtime tonight went like this:

Me:  Lindy, are you going to cry tonight going to bed?
Lindy:  Yes
Me:  Are you going to throw up?
Lindy:  Yes
Me:  Don’t you want to go to bed like a big girl?
Lindy:  No!

Then I asked her the same three questions again and she answered the same way.  But thankfully she went to bed fine tonight!

The week was a busy one.  On Monday I had another parent session with Lindy’s teacher and she actually did really well!  She did awesome at picking out the correct card in some sequence stories.  She also did great at telling us a bunch of action words.  I’m so happy she finally did well at her parent session. 

Tuesday was my fun day of the week.  I got to go to Charlotte to the Southern Christmas Show with Drew’s Mom (Lynn), sister (Anna) and sister-in-law (Jamie).  It is the biggest craft show ever.  It’s fun to look at everything and get into the Christmas spirit.

Wednesday the kids had music class and then we had a Thanksgiving dinner at church that evening.  Will ate dinner pretty darn well and Lindy ate a roll.  Oh well, what can you do?

Thursday was the big day for Will this week.  The 3 and 4 year olds at his school had their holiday program .  I’ve been asking Will for weeks what they were singing and he would only say, “Twinkle Twinkle and Itsy Bitsy Spider.”  I really wasn’t sure but it didn’t sound like holiday program music but every time I asked that is what he said.  The big day arrived and GrandBob, Uncle Ed and Aunt Jamie all came to watch Will sing.  The curtains opened and Will was in the direct center of the stage, sitting on the ground.  Everyone starts singing all these songs – everyone EXCEPT Will!!  None of which were ‘Twinkle Twinkle and Itsy Bitsy Spider.’  I think he was a bit shell shocked by all the people in the audience.  He didn’t sing a single word in the entire 20 minute program!  He did sit still like a good boy, but he sure didn’t sing.  In the middle they brought out some bells for each kid and he did ring the bells very well.  How funny.    I was totally not shocked that Will had stage fright.  He is really quite shy around big crowds and new people.   If you ask him if he sang, he says yes.  If you ask him what he sang he still says ‘Twinkle Twinkle and Itsy Bitsy Spider.’  We all went out to lunch to celebrate the singing performance that wasn’t!

Friday was picture make-up day at Lindy’s school.  Her eyes were closed in the first set they sent me.  Which is irritating since it’s all digital and they can see the pictures on the screen.  Her teacher asked if I wanted to walk her over to the gym to get her retakes taken so Will and I walked her over.  We did her pictures and got her smiling and eyes open.  The photographer asked if Will needed retakes and I told him Will didn’t go to school there.  He asked where he went and I told him a church preschool.  Then he said to put him up there that he’d take his picture and not charge me anything!  Score!  Free pictures!  If only I had dressed him in something other than the ‘Monkey’n Around’ shirt I had put on him that morning.  Oh well, can’t pass up free pictures!

Saturday was our last Wake Forest football game of the season.  Lindy slept the entire first half of the game, practically killing my back from holding her!  Will sat with GrandBob most of the game.  This just wasn’t a good year for WF football so I’m glad it was our last game.  Maybe next year will be better!

Today we had church and then we went to the Festival of Trees.  It’s a fundraiser for Brenner’s Children’s Hospital, where the kids spent the first 3 months of their lives.  They had at least 50 big trees decorated by various groups or people in the community and then a bunch of little trees as well.  They had a singing group from Wake there, a children’s play area, a few vendors selling their wares, and SANTA!  I can’t believe my kids got their picture with Santa in November but it was hard to pass up a free picture with Santa.  Lindy sat on his lap but Will didn’t want to get near him.  Drew had to be in the picture with them.  I think it might take Will a few times with Santa for him to warm up.  We talked on the way home about what you tell Santa so maybe next time will go better!  It was an enjoyable hour spent supporting Brenner’s.

Still have the old camera – miss my real camera so badly!

Church outfits last Sunday.Trying to blow feathers.  Are my kids the only ones out there that can’t blow?  Apparently my parenting skills are seriously lacking in the blowing department.  Will thought it was great fun though!Before school on Tuesday.Happy!Will’s holiday program.Picture day outfits.  Being silly!Heading out to the last Wake football game.  Our little cheerleader and football player.Catching footballs is great fun.Hey what’s up Aunt Jamie and Uncle Ed?Today’s church outfits.  My beautiful children!First picture of the season with Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the Festival of Trees.This was the tree decorated by the Brenner’s NICU nurses.  Getting into the Christmas spirit!

On the Upswing

The beginning of the week started off kind of rough, but things have been looking up since.  The stomach virus was the virus that just wouldn’t go away!

We ventured out to church last Sunday after being sick all week.  It was great to get out of the house.  Sunday afternoon however, Lindy went down for her nap okay but then woke up after an hour and threw up everywhere in her bed.  Sunday evening she threw up all over our bathroom and then again in her room. 

I decided to keep her home from school on Monday and take her to the doctor.   The doctor checked her out and everything seemed okay.  She reassured me it was not her shunt and that her ears were okay.  Because her appetite wasn’t back to normal and because she’d started having diarrhea, the doctor felt that her stomach must still be upset. Whenever she got in her bed and got upset she would throw up.  It’s the best guess as to why she was still throwing up almost a week after the stomach bug.  She ended up prescribing Zofran, an anti nausea medicine, for her and we had our first vomit free day on Monday.  She still cried some at nap time and bedtime but she didn’t throw up.

I gave her the medicine on Tuesday morning before school and sent both kids to school.  The doctor said they were fine to go.  Both were so happy to get back to school to see their friends.  Drew’s great aunt passed away and her funeral was on Tuesday morning.  We went to that and then I went to pick up the kids.  After I picked them up we went out to lunch with GrandBob, Aunt Joan, and Uncle Ed.  They didn’t get down for their nap until almost 2pm.  Drew and I had to leave quickly for Lindy’s IEP meeting at school and Janice came to watch the kids.  Lindy woke up with a dirty diaper, which Janice changed, and then she threw up.  ugggg.   I am thinking the medicine had worn off. 

She didn’t throw up Wednesday (yay!) but she did throw up Thursday (boo).  Our doctor said to try her off of the medicine Thursday.  She did good at naptime but we went out to eat that night and she choked on some water and then threw up.  I really think it was just that she was choking and coughing that made her throw up.  If she hadn’t choked she might have not thrown up all day. 

But thankfully, that was the last time she has thrown up.   She has been good the last two days.  Maybe she is finally kicking this virus to the curb??  Hopefully!

Lindy’s IEP meeting went pretty well at school on Tuesday.  We had to do a new one in the new county.  There were 13 people at this meeting!  It was a packed house!  I think it went well because all these teachers/therapists had been working with her for 2 months and could write goals now that they know her.  The first IEP was written after they had seen her for an hour and it was written back in May.  They wrote a TON of goals for her, but the IEP is for one year.  She basically didn’t qualify for physical therapy anymore.  She is doing everything she needs to be doing in the setting she is in.  The PT will monitor her 3 times a quarter but she did not write any goals for her.  I guess that is a good thing, but I hate to lose that weekly service.  They wrote language and audition goals, speech goals, vision goals, and occupational therapy goals.  Lots of goals!

Will had speech therapy this week for the first time in awhile.  His teacher started testing him to see if he still qualifies.  We know he doesn’t but he has to be tested.  He would not allow her to do a hearing test.  He would not let her put the head phones on.  We have been playing with some around our house this week so hopefully he’ll let her do it next week.  He did great with his testing.  She made the comment that she probably doesn’t need to score his test because his ceiling was in the 10-13 year old range.  WHAT????  She still has more to do but I think he’ll be kicked out pretty soon!

Lindy and Will didn’t have school on Thursday because of Veteran’s Day.  We took advantage of the day off to celebrate Will’s special day – the day he came home from the NICU.  It was last Sat. (the 6th) but because we were all sick, we didn’t do anything.  Will’s special activity was a trip to the Children’s Museum.  A place  they had never been to.  Both kids LOVED it!  Just a ton of fun things to do.  They hardly stopped moving for 2 hours.  Will picked pizza for lunch and then we came home for naps.  After naps we went outside to play in the leaves and enjoy the nice weather.  We went out to dinner and home for baths.  A full but very fun day.  Will was so excited that it was his ‘special day.’ 

The only other news of the last two days is that Lindy seems to be sleeping better.  Every nap time or bedtime she cries and says she wants to sleep in ‘mommy daddy bed.’  She slept there 2 nights while she was sick.  I had big problems with her in the beginning of the week taking her pants and diaper off while in her bed.  One night after putting her diaper and pants back on two times, she slept half naked after she took it off the third time.  Thankfully she didn’t go to the bathroom while she was half naked.   I finally had to put some pajamas on her backwards for a few nights.  The last two nights she has slept in footed pj’s, which is a feat as well.  I had tried them once before but she went crazy.  Last night I put them on her early and we watched a movie so she got used to them.  She also ate dinner for the first time tonight since she got sick last Tuesday.  She has been eating her breakfast and lunch pretty well this week but would not touch her dinner.  It’s driven me crazy all week but I can’t force her to eat.  She’ll eat when she is hungry I guess.

Crazy times around our house.  I took lots of pictures this week, but they aren’t great.  Getting them to stay still long enough for my old camera to catch them is nearly impossible!  Here is what I got. 

My friend Lauren sent Lindy this adorable dress that her daughter Isabelle wore.  Although Wake is doing horrible this year, we still wear our black and gold with pride!I love this picture!  When they are not fighting they have so much fun together!Will was doing his best Tom Cruise, Risky Business, impression!One of Will’s crazy towers!We hear “Can you hide me under the pillows” about a hundred times a day! Lindy and her backwards pajamas!Spidey and the owl.Will’s special day – in pictures.Will and his oreo covered teeth – yuck!The sweet monkeys in their monkey pj’s before bed tonight.  They are from last year and a little snug but they are too cute!

Stomach Bug - 3 Down, 1 to Go

We started our week off nice and dandy.  Just like any other lovely week in our household. 

Lindy had a parent session on Monday that she didn’t behave in.  She was acting quite badly, totally uncooperative and pushing things away from her.  That session didn’t last too long. 

She had physical therapy at 2pm that afternoon.  She got another good workout from Jill.  Jill thinks she is doing really well.  They worked on steps and Lindy was doing awesome walking up two steps and back down the two steps with no help.  Not holding onto anything or anyone!  She really feels she has all her major gross motor skills down and needs to slowly move into higher skills like standing on one foot. 

Will had a bit of a change at school on Tuesday.  Up until now he has been in Ms. Bobbye’s class and Ms. Brandi was the assistant.  They had kids that are in there 5 days a week and then the kids that just come on Tues/Thurs.  The class started with 13 on T/TH and had grown to 17 over time.  They decided to split the class so that the kids that went 5 days a week stayed with Ms. Bobbye and the kids that just come T/Th went to a different room with Ms. Brandi.  We talked about it all weekend and he seemed fine with it on Tuesday.  He knows Ms. Brandi and he knew the kids in his class.  We found his new cubby in his new room and he was good to go.  Now it seems like there are hardly any kids in there!  Some of the kids he did talk about were all 5 day kids so he doesn’t get to be with them anymore.  I think they might go out to recess together but he isn’t in class with them anymore.  I don’t think he has really skipped a beat which is good. 

Tuesday night is when things went downhill – fast.  We put everyone to bed and Drew and I went to bed like normal.  At about 11:15pm we heard Lindy crying and Drew went to check on her.  She had thrown up a couple times in her bed.  Which really isn’t all that unusual for Lindy.  Whenever she gets herself worked up and in a tizzy she will throw up.  But Tuesday night she hadn’t gotten all worked up so we knew something was different.  While I was changing her clothes she got sick again.  And I started to change her sheets and she got sick again.  I quickly realized that we were experiencing something we had never dealt with before with the kids.

We moved downstairs to the living room so we wouldn’t wake up Will.  We set up in the recliner so she could still be sitting straighter up.  Drew worked on getting all the sheets and clothes rinsed out.  That poor girl threw up from 11:15pm until 8:30am.  About every half hour.  It was the most horrible thing in the world.  It took two of us to deal with her.  She could barely hold her head up by the end and she hated having a bowl in front of her. 

Although we assumed it was a stomach bug we had to take the possibility that it was a shunt malfunction pretty seriously.  If someone else in our house had gotten it first we would just know it was a stomach bug.  If someone in Lindy’s class had it, we would know it was a stomach bug.  But Lindy got it first and we didn’t know a single other person with it so we were a little worried.

I talked to the neurosurgeon PA around 9am Wednesday morning.  She had slowed down getting sick that morning so we decided to take a wait and see approach.  She ate a good amount of ice chips and some cheerios and they stayed down in the morning. We checked back in with the PA at lunch time and she was encouraged that she was keeping things down.   She felt comfortable watching her the rest of the day.  She did get sick that night when we put her in bed – but It was the work yourself up into a tizzy kind of throw up and she did get sick the next morning after drinking some water.  But she had a low grade fever Wed. evening and that was enough to rule out a shunt malfunction. 

We finally  knew for sure, 100% it was a stomach bug when I ended up getting sick on Thursday night around 6pm.  And then we knew it was definitely 1000% a stomach bug when Will got sick around 8pm that night.  Oh it was a bad night.   Drew had to clean up Will’s bed and the carpet so I had to watch Will for a little while.  I felt like I was barely going to make it and I had to take care of him for a bit.  Drew would come empty our bowls whenever we needed him to.  Drew was the best nurse ever.  As soon as he got everything cleaned he took Will downstairs to take care of him all night.  I was actually only sick for about 3 hours.  Will was sick until about 1am. 

Yesterday Will rebounded a whole lot better than I did.  He wanted water and cheerios and was playing like normal.   I on the other hand was laying on the couch.  We all got a good night sleep last night, although Will did wake up and throw up one more time this morning. 

And I can’t forget our precious Lindy daughter who also worked herself up into a tizzy and threw up last night at bedtime.  We are so SICK of puke.  Drew has cleaned out so many blankets and pajamas and sheets it’s ridiculous.  And our dryer broke this week.  Thankfully we’ve been able to wash everything but we’ve been having to hang dry everything.   I couldn’t have made it through this week without my wonderful husband!!

We made it through the first tummy bug and it was horrible.  We’re waiting to see if/when Drew gets it.  If he doesn’t get it then it will be a miracle.

Today is kind of a special day in our lives.  Three years ago today, Will came home from the NICU!  Three years ago we were sitting and staring at our little baby who we had waited 100 days to bring home.  We couldn’t believe he was there with us.  We were terrified!  Oh it was a great feeling to have him home though.  Every year on November 6th we have done something special.  Because they have to always share a birthday, this is a day that is just about them.  We had planned to do something special yesterday and to go to the Wake Forest football game today.  None of that actually happened because we’ve been so sick.  We are going to celebrate his homecoming day this week.   I kept telling Will it was  his special day and he kept saying it was his birthday and that he was 3.  He doesn’t get it yet – but it’s a day Drew and I will never forget!

Other, non-tummy bug related items of the week:  Lindy’s new favorite word is ‘no.’  Which was kind of cute yesterday morning but it is no longer cute.  Will never went through the ‘no’ phase.  Lindy has also started telling me she needs to go potty.  So we trek to the potty, get her situated – and NOTHING.  I lost count how many times we did this today.  Today at naptime she was going crazy in her bed so I went to check on her and she had her pants AND diaper off.  Thankfully there was no mess or I might have lost it.  We had to convince – practically beg – Will to wear a pull-up to bed the last two nights.  I was afraid he might have some diarrhea and we didn’t want to be cleaning up that mess too.  He did not want to wear them and he did not enjoy it.  The only way I got one on him last night was by letting him put big boy pants over the pull-up!  I guess they don’t feel too great when you’ve been in big boy pants for months now. 

The pictures are slim this week.  Too much nasty stuff going on to take pictures.  And I’m getting ready to send my camera back in AGAIN to get fixed.  I’m so sad but hopefully it will get fixed and be back soon.   I’ll have to use my old trusty backup while it’s gone.

Looking cute on Monday.  Sick central station.  This is Wednesday morning after that horrible first night. The kids spent basically the rest of the week in their pajamas and they watched more t.v. this week than they ever have.  Will built lots of cool towers – before he got sick!Still recovering.Thursday afternoon – before he got sick.Feeling good enough to mess with the remote.  Check out that tongue.  She was really concentrating!I had told him he could have a donut on his special day.  He tried eating it, but about half way through he said his belly hurt.  We are so lucky to have had him home for 3 full years.  Wow – time flies!