Starting the Summer Off Right

Yah, so today is the first day of Summer Vacation.

School’s been pretty good and crazy this year. Yah…..it’s been a crazy, hectic, stressful year; but it’s also been pretty good as far as teachers and school staff being helpful and caring and understanding…….so all in all it’s ben good.

Jeremy fell in love with his classroom pet over this past schol year and has been allowed multiple times to “babysit”….”pet-sit” the class pet guinea pig, named Elliot.

His teacher decided that she didn’t want to have a class pet next year and so she asked around for a parent to take him at the end of the school year and Jeremy desperately wanted to keep him and bring him home, and so we agreed….yah, we are just a little bit crazy.

I’m not much of a pet person, and I was not entirely certain that having a guinea pig was at the top of my “things I desire” list, but it made Jeremy happy, and that is somewhere on that list and so we’ve gone forward with it.

Last night when Jon and Chris went to the Dodo’s concert, I went for dinner at my parents house. We (me and the kids) got home around 10:30pm and after I get everyone settled, I sat down to check my e-mail and I could hear Elliot moving around and then I went to bed.

About half an hour ago – I went into the kitchen to get something and when I looked into Elliot’s cage….

THE RAT IS DEAD.

Laying over on his side in the cage half in and half out of his little tube thingy that he hides in all the time, and HE’S DEAD!

Unreal! What a way to start the summer holidays. Jeremy cried and is now asking what we are going to do to replace Elliot and that’s the LAST thing that I want…..another gunea pig. I mean, we already have all the gear an food and stuff, but I don’t want a stupid furry rat in my house….no matter how “cute and adorable” they are.

Is is bad that I was a teeny, tiny bit happy that the rat died….is that bad of me….well, I really don’t care. I feel bad that it’s dead. I feel bad that Jeremy is sad, but I am not sad that the stupid thing is no longer something that we have to take care of……

I’m really hoping that it’s all uphill from here. It should be, right?

The Wisdom of Children and another funny-ism…

As I’m about to cheat and bite into a piece of a chocolate brownie, Xandra turns to me and says,

“Are you a FOOL?”

Apparently, I am or I was or whatever…..

And then the other night we had a form come home because the Grade 5’s were going to have the “Puberty” talk.

We”ve talked with all out kids about things…we are pretty open in our house, but we’ve not gone through an actual “TALK” from the start of the life cycle all the way through….it was a bit of a shock to have only one days notice, but it was all good.

The next day, we were eating dinner and Jon asked if Xani had heard what we were talking about….about sex and stuff and she nodded her head. So he asked what she thought about it (meaning sex) and she answered,

“I think it’s good.”

Yah, try to not laugh at that one. She’s so sensitive that if we laugh, she gets hurt, but these were just too cute to not share.

Really, I got Nothing for Ya!

I’ve been knitting and crochetting like crazy, and as fun as that sounds, sometime it feels kind of pointless because seriously, what am I going to do with the stuff that I’ve made……who wants to buy little sweaters and stuff going into the summer.

I do have plans to maybe go and sell at aa craft fair in the fall/winter, but it does feel kind of pointless right now – this is aside from the fact, that I just like to do it.

I just posted an update from Momma about Chris over on the other blog, and please forgive the picture where it looks like he’s giving you “half a bird” – I wanted to put in a picture of him, and that was the most recent one that I have that looked even half decent….although that might e a bit of a stretch….just get lost in those blues.

J has an appt with Dr. Cathy today and the most exciting thing that I can tell you since the last time we went is that “sometimes” he sleeps better, and…….his teacher has mentioned that he’s not quite as fidgity as usual, but I had so hoped for a bigger or more drastic result of this last set of “stuff” that we’ve tried.

It looks like we are going to be giving the Ritalin a try, although I am just struggling so hard with it.

Although, I will admit that I’m just so tired of the randomness of everything and of HOW MUCH EFFORT we have to put in just to barely stay afloat, and honestly – it doesn’t really feel like we are even floating most days.

I’m not saying that we are giving up and just putting him on some drug to try and make things easier for us…..it’s one of the things that we are willing to try to see if it will help him. He got in a fight at school yesterday, and I question why we didn’t hear about it before today, but he was upset with kid B because he was picking on kid A, and inrrationally he chose to try and defend or right the wrong in a situation that had nothing to do with him and……he got in trouble….it’s that kind of randomness that gets him into trouble….good intentions, but bad choices….really, that wasa terrible, terrible example of some of the things that he does, but I’m not going to delete….only moving forward….

So, we’re going to talk to the Naturopath about where to go from here……and there’s a more than lilkely chance that we’ll be ordering up some Ritalin over the weekend……yikes!

I could cry….I’m okay, but it’s stressful…I won’t lie.

So, How’s your day going?

ps….I got a comment from Caroline last post, and I just wanted to say, that while I’m not blogging for the comments, it sure is nice to know that there is someone out there on the other side of my computer screen, and I appreciate hearing from you…so Thanks!

Remembering what it’s all about

I took the boys back to the Naturopath last Friday and then again yesterday.

We got them retested to see what things are still showing up as intolerances.  Josiah is doing really well.  He’s cleared most of the food intolerances except for the things that you wouldn’t expect to give to babies….like egg yolks and grapefruit and…..looking at the list…raspberries, chocolate…that sort of things, but the dairy is still showing a super bad reaction.

I know that through out all of my testing, the dairy has never budged at all…it’s been a highly intolerant thing for me too, and also for the other 3 kids, although they’ve shown some slight changes when it comes to cheese, but for now we are just sticking away from dairy all together.

 So, She has put both ‘Siah and I on a med. to desensitize us from dairy and we’ll see how it goes from there.  I’m supposed to try adding in some butter and some yogurt in two weeks and to see if he has any reactions. 

He (Josiah) has actually been doing AMAZING.  His skin looks so clear, and if you didn’t know that he’d had such bad exczema – you’d never be able to tell a thing.  There are some tiny rough patches in front of his ears almost on his cheeks, but they are mostly skin colored and pretty much only I notice them.

We’ve had no barfing  issues and no poop issues, and if we can get this dairy thing worked out, then…then….we’ll be good to go.  As it is, I’ve been able to add a bunch of stuff back into my diet now, things like soy – actually that’s a HUGE one…almost as big as dairy and in fact for us and the way we eat – it is bigger than dairy….so I was SOOOO glad to have that back on the menu and lots of other insignificant foods (lke bananas) that I won’ get into.

Now Jeremy on the other hand…….

Oh, where to even start. 

We had SUCH a good day on Saturday and Sunday morning.  He started to ramp up on Sunday Afternoon and then for absolutely no reason that we can come up with, Monday and Tuesday were absolutely hellish.  The mornings started off bad, and he couldn’t focus on ANYTHING, and we found out on Tuesday that he had peed on the changeroom floor on Monday afternoon.  It was to be a prank….water on the floor to slip on….but seriously, son…..peeing on the floor.

He was absolutely wired for our appt with Dr. Cathy and so she got to see the full on ADD/ADHD side of him – no holds barred.  It hasn’t been this bad in a while.

We talked about the fact that for all the treatments we’ve done, basically we had a drastic improvement when we altered his diet, then we did the Vaccine thingy on him and he went absolutely wild and then only came down a little….basically he was at a 7/8 before we started with the Naturopath, and then we changed his diet and he came down to a 5/4/3 totally livable, in my opinion, then we did the vaccine thing, and he went up to a 10+ and then even though it was supposed to help flush out of his system we’ve only come down to a8/9 since then….how frustrating is that…and then…….we’ve plateaued….and that has been the MOST frustrating thing.

She talked about how she just went to a training session done by a naturopathic pediatrician, and and how this pediatrician has tried most of the things that we’ve done on Jeremy with kids who were WAY worse and they’ve had AMAZING results.  So we’ve done all the right things, why aren’t we seeing the results….I can only hope that once we figure out the “thing” that’s keeping all this from falling into place that Jeremy will be the most healthy kid EVER.

We’ve attacked this from so many different angels, but one thing she hasn’t done is to deal with the brain, th nervous system, and so for the next three weeks, we are giving him some help in that area, and if we don’t see any drastic improvement over the next three weeks, then I think that we might just trysome good ol’ fashioned Ritalin for the remainder of the school year. 

In the summer, we are going to be dealing with some more of the vaccine stressors, she thinks and I agree that a lot of this started and goes back to him reacting to the vaccines…I tend to agree.  So, that is where we stand right now.

It’s hard.  It’s hard to know what the best thing is to do for your child, and I think that even if we go the “Ritalin Route” for a while, that it’s only buying us and him and his teachers some time….It’s a mask….it’s not a fix.  It just gives some breathing room to be able to relax for a minute, and when it all comes down to it the focus is……finding out what caused this to happen in the first place and helping Jeremy’s body to be perfecty healthy so he doens’t have to deal with this.

This is hard.  For him, for us, for teachers, for friends, for random strangers….it’s hard when people look at this normal healthy little boy and wonder why he is acting the waye does, and to not be able to explain because it takes too long or it’s too involved or just because they wouldn’t understand.

And to see his little heart get crushed when someone doens’t want him around because of his behaviour or because he’s too difficult….that hurts him…it hurts me….

I wish that we didn’t have to deal with this, but we do and I am  happy with the outcome of yesterday’s appt because I’m focused again.  We are working towards finding out how we can help to balance and heal Jeremy’s body.  It will happen.  I believe it, even if it’s tking longer than I’d like….it’s like every thing we are doing is bringing him one step closer to the time when he will be able to function differently, easier, better than he can now.

That, I am excited about.

Hearing Who???

Yesterday was an okay day. 

It was actually really nice to have Jon around.  We decided on going to the 1:30 matinee of Horton Hears A Who out here in Abbotsford, but when we showed up the theatre was closed and some nice soul informed us that during Spring Break the theatre wasn’t actually open until the 3pm showing…..Nice…like that info couldn’t have been on the website or something.

So then we didn’t know what to do.  So we went home to look online at the listings for the theatre right by my parents house.  They had a 2:30pm showing which was perfect time wise as far as us driving in and watching the movie and then still being able to go to my parents house for dinner>  So off we went.

The movie was cute, but not so fabulous that I was disappointed to have to leave in the middle to take a phone call from my mom.

Mom and Chris spent the day at the Langly Hospital ER, but I’ll talk about that on the other site.

So after the movie was finally finished and 3 bags of popcorn later, as we were leaving Xandra announces, “Man, I feel bloated.”  I didn’t even know she knew what that meant….maybe I say it….I dunno, but it was so cute to hear a 9 year old announce that they sure felt bloated.

We stopped at the local grocery store and they actually had some Brownies and some Carrot Raisin Muffins that I thought were delicious….and so I bought them.  It’s difficult to find things that don’t have wheat, dairy, egg yolk, sugar and yeast and these don’t have any of those……it’s acutally quite unelievable.

So we headed over to my parents house and hung out with Papa

We had a fabulous dinner

And then we played a little Speed Scrabble

‘Siah was crawing around on the floor and managed to stick his finger into the heating grate and cut his finger…he got his first “official” owie.

I know this photo is a little blurry, but the face he is making is so cute.

 And here he is “All Better”

Can I possibly slouch any more than that……not good.

And here is a cute video of Dad and Josiah playing on the floor.

So, all in all, it was a nice day and so nice to get to see Mom and Dad and Chris and especially to not have to cook dinner…..sweet.

Today we are just hanging around in our pyjamas….not sure what the deal was, but obth Jeremy and Angelica barfed this morning, but nothing since then, so hopefully it’s nothing……I really hope……  I hate dealing with vomit…..like seriously HATE it!  So, that’s all the news for today.

Hope you’re all having an awesome day.  It’s kinda boring over here….truth be told.

Seriously……….

So, I’m sitting here nursing Josiah, and attempting to type with one hand.  It takes twice, three times, a freak of a lot longer than I’d like it to’ cause I keep making mistakes and then have to go and refix it.

See, here is me typong withput editing.  I thought that if I juast put it allout threr that you’d be just a tiny bit understasndung about why I’;m not poisting asnything at all.

Sweeeeeeet, eh?

Not kidding that’s about half the normal speed that I can usually type at, but takes WAY longer ’cause I have to go back and edit EVERY SINGLE STINKIN’ WORD – just about.

I’m sick and tired of green poo…..not fun.

I’m officially cloth diapering, although I freak out every time I cram 6 cloth diapers into my diaper bag, ’cause my boy can plow through those puppies like there’s no tomorrow…..and I’ve always done disposables, and cloth seemed like a HUGE step.  Not sure why, but it did. 

Any way,  a friend (thank you very special friend, you know who you are)  bought me 12 of the diapers that I wanted, and I’ve been washing them EVERY DAY.  But it’s worth it, and they are amazing, and just as easy to put on as disposables, and there’s no chemicals sitting on Josiah’s skin, and I’m not filling up the land fills, and they’re just so darn cute…….I just bought 12 more today, so hopefully I’ll only have to do one load every other day as opposed to every day.

I still have next to no time ’cause the boy – he likes to be held.  ALL THE TIME, and I like to hold him, and I don’t like to hear him cry. So my house is a mess, but with the kids back at school, I am slowly winning the war on the mess.

Apparently, I have no choice, but to win the mess war, and I have to do it by Wed. at noon ’cause we’re having a meeting at our place…..sweet.

That brings me to my next topic…my MOBY WRAP.  Love it!  Get one!  It’s worth it!  Soooooooooo worth it.

My boy, he slept 6 hours the other night…..yep, at 5 weeks old, my breast fed little tiny (freaking huge 11 pound 6 ounce baby – yes that’s a pound a week) slept from 11pm until 5am, and I GOT 6 HOURS OF GLORIOUS UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP…..oh!  wait a sec….no, I didn’t.  Jeremy decided that’s the night he’d get the 24 flu, and woke me up at 2am to diarrhea and barf in my bathroom.  Wasn’t that sweet of him?  I was so thankful that he kept me on my regular schedule.  Wouldn’t want to get too rested…much better to stay in a perpetual state of WAY OVER TIRED…makes life fun…or is that funny………or not really very funny at all.

Well, I’m done nursing, and gotta figure out some way to get some folding done while holding Josiah, or at least keeping him from crying, and if he gives me a minute tomorrow, I might tell you all about how I’m freaking out about Jeremy and Grade Two and the teacher with the “mad voice” and a very not so good but enlightening meeting with his teacher, the behavioral guy, and the learning assistance teacher.  I’m upset and trying to figure out what to do about it.

31 Week Update

31 weeks

Here is a lovely photo of me at 31 weeks and a few days, but seriously…….who’s counting?

Well, obviously I AM!  I am actually 31 weeks and 4 days.  I guess that should make this a 32 week photo if I round it to the closest number, but I’ll probably take next weeks late too.  It seems to be a habit with me.  Almost all of my photo’s are later than the “actual” date.  I don’t care, I’m just thrilled that I even have pictures or even a baby (gut) to take pictures of.

We are getting closer and closer to the due date.  I really have no idea what to expect this time around.  I’ve had every single one of my babies early.  Very early as a matter of fact.

Geli was 2 weeks early, Xan was 4 weeks early and Jeremy was 3 weeks early.  Nathaniel was early too, but I’m not really including him in this comparison.

I just felt the need to mention him – I’ve been struggling lately because I’ve gotten quite a bit of – “Oh!  Is this your first?” questions, and I’m not sure how to answer.  To say that I only have 3 kids seems disrespectful to him and his memory, but then if I include him, what about the others that I lost.  But really, the people who ask are not looking to hear that I’ve had 4 losses in the past couple of years, they just want to hear the happy answer – That I have 3 kids at home.

Typically, that’s what I end up saying.  I have 3 children at home.  It still feels wrong, but….such is my life.

Back to the Due Date conversation – I’ve been early with my other kids, and I don’t know if I’ll keep up with that track record or if I’ll go all the way to the Due Date or if I’ll go beyond.  I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I’m in better shape physically, and I have no idea if or how that’ll affect my delivery and the timing of when this little one comes.

I could have approximately 6 weeks left, but based on having a still birth, I don’t believe that my OB will let me go past dute.  Although I am doing pretty good – emotionally, I don’t think I could handle going past my due date without freaking out.

On top of just “regular” emotional stress, this would be compounded by the fact that a couple at the church that we used to go to just had a still birth, and everything was fine, and she was about 7-10 days past her due date and the baby died.  I don’t want to have to deal with that.

I don’t want to have the baby right now, but I don’t want him to be inside of me for any longer than is absolutely necessary.

Crib SetWe are getting closer and closer to getting ready.  Well, I’m hoping that we’re getting closer and closer to getting ready.  We’re farther awawy from ready than I’d like, but I don’t want to be totally ready, and then bored out of my mind for the last couple of weeks. 

I finally picked out a crib set.  It is from the Bebe Star collection and is called Frogs and Bugs. 

We have the wall paint, and I’d love to do something cute and fancy, but seeing as we’re in a rental home, we’re just going to paint the room in the same tan color as the main part of the house.  We’ve washed and puttied all the walls, and let me tell you – Jeremy was not nice to that room in the 5+ years that he lived in there.  It’s not anything terrible.  there were just a ton of little dings in the walls that we had to fill in.  The next step is to paint the ceiling, and then the walls.  I don’t want to do the ceiling ’cause I’m already struggling with my back, and know that I need to get in to see the BEST CHIROPRACTER IN THE WORLD.  It’s just a matter of calling and booking the appointment, but when you feel like your time is already so tight….trying to fit another appointment especially when it’s 3 towns over is difficult.  Not impossible, but difficult. 

Wow!  Another bunny trail….okay, getting back on track………Jon needs to paint the ceiling and then I can get the walls done.  Our goal is to have that done by the end of June and to get the big furniture set up.  Then to spend July setting up the rest of the baby’s room, and making the lists of the stuff we still need, and to be picking that stuff over the month, and to be completely done by the end of July.  Then, If I haven’t had him by then – I have 11 days of complete and utter boredom until my due date!  AAAAAAAArrrrrrgggghh! 

I am still working on the list of stuff that we need.  We’ve been lent some stuff, and have bought a few of the other things, but there is still quite a bit that needs to be picked up.  I don’t know how we did it before (with our other 3 kids).  I think that we just shifted the lot of it from Geli to Xan, and then picked up or were given some boy stuff for Jeremy.  The problem was me getting rid of EVERYTHING after the 4 loss. 

I think I’ve said this before too, but I really didn’t have much hope that we’d ever have another baby.  I really wanted to, but didn’t think it would actually happen.  Thank God it has and is and most of the time – I believe that NOTHING will go wrong with this pregnancy.  I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have “rotten little thoughts that I hate” every so often.

Well, I’ve got a bunch more to say, but I’ll save it for the next post.  That’s it for now!  You may now continue on with your regular daily schedule.

Didn’t Happen………….

So, as the title suggests, it didn’t happen.  There was absoultely no way that I could have done the 44 hours or whatever it was going to be.  I mean, I probably could have, but when we got home from picking up the kids, I sat down in front of the computer, and that wsa my first big mistake.

As soon as I sat down, I started to nod off – mid sentence with Jon.  I just could not keep my eyes awake.  He told me to go and lay daown for a few hours.  I was going to get up around dinner time, as I had a practise in the evening that I had to go to.

I laid down just before 4pm, and…………………got up at 7am this morning.

Yup!  Take THAT tiredness.  I just slept 15 hours, and I could have probably done another hour more.

Here’s what 34 hours of tiredness did to my feet.

swollen feet

And here is what 14 hours of sleep did to them……

Not So Swollen

I’m not a huge foot person, and so I apologize for the grossness that is my feet, but “Can you see the difference?”

I can see the difference, and most importantly I can feel the difference.  I feel amazing this morning.

I’ll talk a bit more about my night with Chris on the other side of things.  Check in over there if you haven’t already done so.

I have SOOOOOO much to do today, so as soon as I can get my “remember-ies” down from the other night – I have to get busy!

Have an awesome day!