Car Accident

DS2 was in his first car accident today. It was DS1's third in his 6.5 years. Nothing serious, and we've discovered that having a spare tire on the back of a vehicle kind of works as an extra bumper. We were stopped at a red light, in the left turn lane, in the rain, when someone 2 cars behind us didn't stop. They hit a car which bumped into us. At least we weren't the sandwich car in the middle. The other noteworthy aspect was that the boys were using only the regular shoulder/lap belts instead of their carseats. DH forgot to take the carseats out of his car before going to work this morning. We were on our way to get the them (before running 4 other errands) when the accident occurred. We were about 2 blocks from DH's work, so he got there with the carseats before the police arrived. On the accident report I honestly marked the shoulder/lap belt box instead of the carseat box, but I doubt that it will get noticed.

5 years old

DS2 turned 5 years old last week. It's amazing how much he has grown up and matured in the past few months. Most of his adventures and accomplishments are blogged about in one of my other blogs, but I thought his birthday post ought to be here.

Last night he had trouble falling asleep. He misses our old house. (We moved in February.) He also wishes that just our family lived together. (Grandpa lives with us now, in our new house.) I figured out last night that he probably just associates our old house with Grandpa not being here, so that's how it comes out. I have to help care for my dad, so sometimes I don't spend as much direct interaction with the boys as I used to. I'm sure that's what is causing his stress. I hope we can find a new normal that works for everyone soon.

Night Terrors?

I am researching night terrors tonight because for the second time in a week, DS2 has cried and been scared after having been asleep for 90-120 minutes. I found Night Terrors Resource Center and suspect that we might be dealing with night terrors.

DS2 appears to wake up crying, but he doesn't really respond to me. He has said "I don't want to watch TV." both nights. Last time he wanted to be held, this time not particularly. He cries, "Mommy" also. It's hard to tell if his eyes are open because I keep the bedroom lights off and just have a hall light on. The crying lasts about 5 minutes, maybe less, then he calms down and falls back asleep. He has nasal congestion and drainage that causes coughing right now, so I wonder if that is a contributing factor. He has also felt slightly feverish the past few days and wasn't well Saturday evening and Sunday. According to the website, not getting enough sleep and make a person more susceptible to NTs.

Today I have been considering calling the doctor about DS2's congestion because I think he might have a sinus infection again. He was rubbing his ear this evening, too. I noticed yesterday that his throat is quite red. His tonsils were removed 2.5 yrs ago, but it kind of looks like they might be growing back. I'm not sure that's possible, but I've read that it can happen. (Oh, DS1 has huge tonsils right now, too. He has had allergy-like nasal drainage for a couple of months. I suppose I should take them both in for a check-up.)

Underwear

DS2 turned 4 yesterday!

And we're finally getting serious about toilet training. He has been sitting on the little potty a lot for the past month but has never put anything in it.

DH and I decided that we are not buying any more diapers. We have about 1/2 a mega package left and will use those at night until they're gone. We have a package of pull-ups that we'll use after that or when we know we'll be out of the house for a long time (until DS2 is ready).

So now he's wearing underwear! He voluntarily put them on this morning, for the first time. He wore some yesterday afternoon, but I slid them inside his pants first so I don't know if he realized what I was doing at the time. While we were outside yesterday, he had an accident. He looked down and said simply, "oops." I took him inside, took off the wet pants, and helped him onto the little potty (which is on the mini-tramp in the living room).

New Template

I changed Blog To Another Baby's template today. The other one was acting strangely over on the sidebar. Blogger has added so many features since I started blogging that my "custom" templates don't work too well with all of the scripting. The main thing that I miss is being able to easily have a left sidebar and a right sidebar. I also like my way of listing archives better, but that can be adjusted (with some work).

Telephone

DS2 is now quite a conversationalist on the telephone. Less than a week ago he talked to DH for the first time and just said "yeah", "yeah", "yeah." The next time he said a short sentence. Now he holds regular conversations and wants to talk to everyone that I call or that calls us.

Happy Birthday!

DS2 is 3 today!

Last night was our last time to nurse. I prepared him for several weeks that when he turned 3 he wouldn't nurse anymore. Last night I let him nurse until he said, "I'm all done." (Sometimes I have asked him to stop when I'm ready to stop.) He came into my room during the night and did ask to nurse, but he settle for cuddling fairly readily.

This morning he woke up with a big puffy right eye. I think it's from a bug bite, since he ended up sleeping on the floor by my bed. He also has a hot red bite on his leg, but both are getting better as the morning goes alone.

New Potty Chair

DS2 got really excited when he saw the top of the potty chair in the closet yesterday. We had been using the overturned bottom for a step in the bathroom, but not it is reassembled and it is "my new potty chair". He likes to sit on it with the lid down. One step at a time, I guess. :-)

Weaning?

We suspect that DS2 is about to go through some big developmental change, and I suspect that it might be weaning. Friday, after an apparently normal, pleasant day, he was quite upset at home in the evening. Usually he likes to nurse when upset. This time he said, "All done nursing." and "I too big!" He has been saying "too big" quite a bit when upset lately, so that one didn't surprise me. "All done nursing" was very clear, however. He refused the breast (at first) but pulled up my shirt, nuzzled, and cried. I told him he could nurse if he wanted to, but he repeate "all done nursing" and cried even harder. It was very sad. I was very frustrated at not being able to comfort him, or even have any idea why he was upset in the first place. After a while he did approach me again and nurse, so he hasn't convinced himself completely that he is "too big." This happened several times over the course of the weekend. It is very puzzling and somewhat disturbing. I do want to let him decided when to wean, but I was hoping that it would not be so tramatic for him.

Patterns

In our church's nursery, two small coat racks with colored baskets were recently mounted on opposite walls. The baskets are red, blue, yellow and green. Yesterday, I was watching the kids because our regular caregiver was absent. From across the room, I saw DS1 standing by one rack. He looked across the room at the other rack, then back at the close one, then at the far one again. Then he rearranged the baskets so the colors matched from north to south. They had been the same from left to right but he intentionally made them match from one end of the room to the other. I was very intrigued and impressed.

Not long after that, DS2, who had counted them several times (1, 2, 3, 4, walk across the room to the other rack, 5, 6, 7, 8) put them back in the left to right sequence as the rack on the opposite wall. I'm not sure which impressed me more.

Sick Kiddo

DS2 was vomiting last night. Sweet little guy toddled out the the living room, climbed up onto my lap in the recliner, snuggled a bit, barfed on me, then conked back out. Fortunately it stayed on my sweatshirt and didn't get on the couch. DS1 woke up and came out, too. We changed his jammies and my shirt, snuggled for a bit, then took the boys back to bed. Less than 30 minutes later, he came out again, laid on the floor next to my feet by the computer and barfed again, except there wasn't much there that time. We slept in the living room, both on the floor and in the recliner. He got sick a couple more times, including once a few minutes after drinking some water and nursing. You know it's bad when breast milk doesn't even stay down.

Now, about 4 hours since the last one, he's playing happily, talking to me and the TV, keeping water and toast down, and appears "well".

Puzzles

I know it's been a really long time since I blogged here, so I'm not going to try to "catch up". I just wanted to note that DS2 likes doing puzzles as much as his big brother. He can do 25 piece puzzles that are labeled "3-7 years" by himself. (He turned 2 in September!)

Still problems

DS2 is still having diarrhea problems. It's been 6 weeks. Fortunately (for him), it's on and off. He'll have a few bad days, then his BM's will thicken up and have a few good days, then diarrhea again. We (he and I) have cut out drinking milk. He gets very little juice and it is very watered down. We've had his stool tested (negative for nasty bacteria). He has an appointment with a pediatric allergist on 9/7 (moved up from 9/21), but that's still 3 weeks away and after our vacation (during which we will be flying). Most of the time he doesn't act like anything is bothering him. Other than being slightly more clingy, and not eating much on some days, and diaper rash on the bad days, he's "fine". Our PCP is sure that it is neither dangerous, serious, nor contagious. Just an annoyance. BIG TIME! Especially regarding daycare. Arg.

Toddler Bed

Saturday, DS2 got a new bed! DH and I had each caught him climbing out (with leg & hip completely over), so we asked my brother to come get it. Saturday morning took the boys to my sister's house to play, and we went shopping for a bed & mattress. During the boys' afternoon nap, we assembled the bed. In the evening my brother came and disassembled the crib. We moved the toddler bed (aka 'big boy bed') to the room. Now there are 2 identical beds. DS2's bed is in the same location where his crib was. He still isn't used to going to sleep in his bed, but he can do it.

Saturday night we also tried to wean again. We nursed before bath, so the going-to-bed time wasn't too bad. It did take a LONG time for him to go to sleep in his new bed, becaue I didn't want to hold & rock him like usual, because I thought that would make him want to nurse even more. He woke around 2am. That was really tough. DH tried to comfort & rock him at first, but he cried & called for Mommy. By the time DH called for me, he was practically crying, too. I took DS2 out to the living room and held & rocked/bounced him while standing. He finally stopped crying, then eventually fell asleep in my arms. The 6:00 am wake up would be even harder. DH & I discussed it, and decided that now wasn't the right time, so I let DS2 nurse Sunday morning.

Library adventure

The boys and I went to the public library (without Daddy) this evening. DS2 had a good time with the puzzles, playing on the "play computer" (an old IBM terminal that is not hooked up to anything), and charming the librarians. One of the puzzles is shapes, and he tried to say the name of about half of the shapes without my prompting, and mimicked me on the other half. His favorite puzzle is the farm one, for each animal, he said the sound that the animal makes as he put the piece in place. I tried to get him to say the animal name, which he would do for a few.
"Qua, Qua."
"Yes, that's a duck."
"Du"

Post surgery update

After 4 days in PICU and 4 more days recuperating at home on pain meds, it was like a switch flipped for DS2 last Wednesday night. Thursday I gave him Motrin just twice, and Friday we went back to daycare and work.

He is sleeping more soundly (without making sounds), when he does wake up, he is more rested and wide awake faster. This is good after naps, but it is not good at 4:30 in the morning. That's what time he woke up today. We are having quite a difficult time adjusting to the sleep changes.

He is also rubbing his ears a lot. Our Dr. said that it is probably from the eardrum healing, and not to worry as long as he doesn't have a fever and there is not drainage. DS2 does have his first post-surgery cold. That's kind of new, too. I'm sure his ears and throat feel different, and I know his cough sounds different. Since his hearing has improved, I think the ear rubbing may partly be due to everything sounding louder than it used to, too.

Home after surgery

We got to come home Saturday afternoon. DS2 was off his IV Friday evening. It got clogged and they decided not to put in a new one, thankfully. His last IV med was also available orally, and since he was drinking and even eating some he didn't need the IV for fluids.

During afternoon nap we watched his O2 sats but did not give oxygen. I learned not to care about the drops from the sensor unless the visual waveform was consistent. Considering that, his O2 level dropped down only to 85. It always recovered on it's own. Overnight Friday DH stayed at the hospital, and I went home with DS1. I didn't sleep much better overall, but at least I was stretched out in my own bed. :-) The same "watch but don't supplement" procedure was don't for DS2's oxygen overnight. He always recovered quickly.

We didn't get out of there until about 1:30pm. We were ready about 9! And we were told that the pulmonologist called and said "ok" but that we had to wait for the hospitalist to come for a final check. She thought we were already gone, so after her rounds she went to lunch. (Since DS2 was the ONLY patient in PICU, she had no other reason to come check.) She apologized when she arrived and realized that we had been waiting on her. That's one of the reasons I don't like the doctors using a "hospitalist" to do their rounds. We were seen by a total of 5 doctors post-op in 5 days. We only saw our surgeon in the in pre-op, in the recovery room (Tuesday) and one other time (Thursday).

Another night in PICU

We will be spending another night in PICU. DS2 is drinking better and is unhooked from the heart and respiratory monitors, but he is still on the O2 monitor. That's our big hold-up now. When he sleeps his oxygen level still drops too much. He also still has some fluid on his lungs. He was given lasix (sp?) to help with the fluid and possibly with the O2 (if the O2 problems are due to the fluid on the lungs). The ENT surgeon actually stopped by this morning. He has requested that the pulmonologist (the sleep study doc) come see DS2 to help determine what to do about the desat's. (That's their term for oxygen saturation in the blood dropping.)

We have decided to switch to regular tylenol if it seems to be enough pain relief, and we are letting DS2 sleep instead of waking him for the pain med. He's asleep now and has been for over 3 hours. They say that is the best for him (plus drinking lots when he's awake.)

Adenoid & Tonsil Surgery

The surgery went well. His tonsils were "the size of ping pong balls" and his adenoids were huge too. He is not being allowed to nurse because the sucking might cause bleeding. (They don't let kids have straws until dismissal, either.)

He is still snoring, but now the cause is swelling from the surgery instead of a small airway with lots of tissue. He is snoring less now than Tuesday afternoon, which I take to be a good sign. During sleep his oxygen level still drops more than it should, so we have the O2 mask nearby. I move it to within a couple of inches of his face and the O2 level goes back up above 90% quickly (usually). He has a little fluid on his lungs, which is apparently common for someone whose obstruction was so large. The pressure in the lungs is much different now that the anatomy has changed so much.

Yesterday shortly after surgery he drank some water, so we thought he would be drinking & eating well quickly. After a dose of liquid tylenol with codine (which tastes awful) he refused to drink for most of the rest of the day and stayed on IV fluids. Today he drank some juice and some milk I pumped this morning, so the IV was unhooked. He napped very well this afternoon and drank 60 more cc of milk and 120 of juice (4 oz) and asked for more. This evening he drank about another 2 oz of juice before not wanting anymore. Tomorrow he gets to have ice cream and applesauce and similar soft foods.

I hadn't expected to need to pump, because I wasn't told that he would not be allowed to nurse. That was annoying because I told the doctor that we still nurse and specifically asked his nurse last week if I would be able to nurse DS2 in the recovery room. She said she would ask and let me know. I guess I should have called back the next day to get the answer. DH brought me my pump this morning (the PICU nurse did offer to get me a hospital one yesterday, which was nice). It had been 32 hours since DS2 had his "last meal" before going NPO before surgery. I was ready to pump! It had been about 6 months since the last time I pumped, I'm guessing. I bet I could go back in this blog and find out. :-)

I should have gone to sleep 2 hours ago, when DS2 finally went to sleep, but I wanted to check email. Now I might as well stay up a bit more because he is due for more pain medicine in about 15 minutes.

Surgery Prep

Mom is prepping for DS2's surgery... I got a tour of the pediatric unit at the hospital last Thursday, and I asked the surgeon's nurse a lot of questions, so I feel a little more at ease now.

Two things that would postpone surgery are DS's lungs not being clear, or him coughing. He started coughing (from his cold, presumably) on Friday, so we went to visit my doctor-brother Saturday to a little reassurance. His lungs were clear, and his ears didn't look infected either. We are hoping that the cough from the cold/drainage will go away in the next two days. It has been a less frequent today than yesterday, pretty much only right after DS2 wakes up.

We will have several visitors the first day or two. Our pastor is going to come see us before surgery. I didn't expect that, since it is so early in the morning, but today before church she said that she'd see us around 6:00 am Tuesday. My oldest brother works at the hospital and said he would come in to work early (he works 2nd shift) to see us before he goes in Tuesday. My other brother (the doc) said he would stop by on Wednesday. And my friend who works at the hospital said to call if I needed a break for a snack or something. My sister also mentioned coming to see us. I suspect that if we're in more than just one night that my dad will come visit, too. It's so great to have a supportive family (who live close) and friends!

Adenotonsillectomy scheduled

DS2 has surgery scheduled for Tuesday, May 10 to have his tonsils and adenoids removed, and to have tubes put in his ears. The ear tubes surprised me, but after some quick ear & hearing tests, and me remembering that he does pull and swat at his right ear a lot (especially when not feeling well), I agree that it will be helpful.

I'm just about out of paid leave at work again, so since this qualifies for FMLA, I am going to ask for "Shared Leave" which, if granted, would cover any FMLA time off and I wouldn't have to go without pay.

CEMM Your Tonsil and Adenoid Surgery

Diagnosis: Obstructive Sleep Apnea

We got a phone call from the Pediatric Pulmonologist's nurse a few days after the sleep study saying that it was "extremely abnormal" and that we should go ahead and get an appointment up with the doctor who requested the sleep study. Today we had the follow up for the study itself and found out the details from the doctor. DS2 had 99 sleep disturbances in 9 hours. That's 11 an hour, 0-1 is normal! His oxygen saturation "baseline" was about 97% which is normal and good, and means his lungs are fine. During the night, durin REM sleep, he had 3 big episodes of oxygen dropping, with the lowest being down to 79%.

A quick internet search found these two links, which tell more about OSA in children. DS2's tonsils look like the 3+ picture on the "standardized tonsillar hypertrophy grading scale" figure.

It looks like surgery and at least one night in the hospital is in our future. I suspect it will be before the middle of May. More info to come as I know it.

18 month check

We finally got DS2 in for his 18 month "well baby" check. It was postponed once because he was sick. He was a bit congested, as what seems to be the usual these days. Our doctor was concerned about what he heard in DS2's chest, so he got a chest x-ray (which was not enjoyable), and we discovered pneumonia. That explains his cough and on-and-off fever that we attributed to colds, viruses, and teething. He's on a stronger antibiotic now, and got to postpone his shots for 2 weeks.

Sleep Study -- finally

DS2 had his sleep study done last night, after rescheduling twice. I'm pretty wiped out today because I slept very lightly and woke up every time he wiggled. We had a crib available, but the techs and I decided that it would be easier and he would probably sleep better next to me on the bed.

He didn't mind getting the electrodes stuck in his hair, but the ones on his face bothered him. He fell asleep pretty easily as first, because we nursed laying on the bed, and because he was pretty tired. When he tried to roll around during the night he got caught on the wires & woke up. One time I nursed him quickly and that settled him back down. Another time he sat up and wiggled so much that the techs had to come in to untangle him and restick several of the nodes. I think after that time he figured out to not roll over, plus I kept my arm on him to keep his calm and settled.

In the morning the only bad part was having the face electrodes removed because they had been secured with tape. Ouch! His hair was bunched up and quite gunky, so we stopped by home to have a quick bath before going to daycare (at about our usual time). Daddy and DS1 were home alone overnight, and I haven't hear how things went for them yet.

We have a follow-up appointment with the pediatric pulmonologist in 2 1/2 weeks to discuss the results.

MSNBC - Childhood snoring could be dangerous -- We have an appointment with an Ear / Nose / Throat specialist in two days for DS2. He has very large tonsils and adnoids, and he snores. Our family doctor says that "they" often wait until a child is 2 or 3 because of tolerating the anesthesia better, but it is decided on a case by case basis. Part of me hopes that the specialist wants to do a tonsilectomy soon, so I can still nurse DS2 afterward. I don't think our nursing is going to continue until he is 2!