Sunday, January 29, 2012

Life..Love & Logic.

Well I missed last week but I am still determined to blog more often than I did. Life over the last couple weeks has settled a bit but not as much as I would like. I am not sure life with four children would ever calm down to my liking ;p.
Well Bubbo and Baby girl have been sick and they decided to be loving and share with me. Baby girl has been improving from the Serum sickness. I sure wish I had taken pictures it was pretty awful. They gave her a steroid which reduced the swelling almost immediately. The hives have taken a little longer to go away. However the Steroids have their own fun side affects... Like a two year old with Roid Rage! That was super fun. Her nap schedule was blown to smithereens and you would think she was Bi Polar. She wood swing from laughing to screaming to crying all in a mater of seconds. I am happy to say we survived and she is returning to a normal (As normal as two year olds can be) child. Now if we can just get past this cold that is kicking our cans to the curb.
I worry about Bubbo..every time he gets a cold he wins himself and ear infection. I am just holding my breath but I really think one is already started. The Mr. and I talked about it and decided if he got another one within a month he would need to have tubes and it looks like the writing is on the wall :( . It makes me super nervous. My concern is the amount of anti biotics we are pumping into his system in such a short time frame it is ridiculous. I also don't feel it is fair for him to be so miserable all the time. It is a tough decision and one that I have not come to lightly.
Well that has been Life...Now to the Love & the Logic. Two of my favorite words right now. I had the opportunity to attend a Seminar by Jim fay for Love and Logic. It has already had a huge impact on our family. I was so eager to find something that would work for our family. We have toddlers, middle aged child and a pre teen and the mix was not going well. My pre teen, Chica, has already been giving me grey hairs with a power struggle like no other. My three year old Bubba well, lets just say who ever coined the phrase Terrible Twos...had not yet discovered the Tyrannical Threes! Baby girl is rather mellow still but I have noticed her starting to pick up on the others and a need to hold her own. So I immediately put Love & Logic to work. It has only been a week and the Progress has been amazing. It has not been an easy week and I know I have messed up some but It will take some adjusting and a bit of a learning curve. The yelling in our household has almost come to a stop...For me and the Mr. It has stopped. The children are still working things out and testing the perimeters but are getting better. I think it will still take a lot of work and a lot of consistency but our children and our family will be better for it. I WISH I had taken this class years ago. I can't change the past but I can affect our future! I will have to share more of the Love and Logic stories and ideas as our family experiences them. All I can say is start looking into it now..It is truly wonderful.
As for my goals..I am forming more as I go and doing okay. I have been eating healthier, praying more often, reading my scriptures and working out more often. It seems to me life is easier to handle even the hard things seem a little easier. Now the trick is to keep it up. What do I do now???.... I heard a quote and I love it..."Stay calm and carry on"

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Resolutions! 2012 came in a bit rocky.

Well now... I have really bombed at this blogging thing thus far. I know that my resolutions are a few days late for the new year but at least I am making them right? One of my number one resolutions this year is to be better at blogging...since this will probably be my form of a journal.. Did I ever mention I don't write in my journal often.? My hope ... MY GOAL...is to write once a week. I am hoping even more. But with four kiddos...well.....we'll see.

There is so much in the past to try and catch up on so for now I am going to start on This month and stay current. This month has enough happening already to take up a couple of blogs and that may be what it takes. The crazy thing is we are only half way in to the month.

It started something like this... Church starts at 9am (Wahoo..I know its going to be crazy fun with four kids) Chica and Boy had just gotten past the stomach flu , which was oh so fun. So with the kiddos being sick I got dressed and made it to 1 hour of church by myself. Which was actually pretty good considering I had been feeling dizzy. Low and behold Monday morning I wake up with what else??? The stinkin' rotten stomach bug. I was sicker than a dog and bowing to the porcelain throne the entire day. Which left the poor Mr. Trying to take care of the kiddos and me by himself. Unfortunately this was not one of the flu's that goes away after 12 hours..The next couple days I barely ate a thing. So finally starting to feel a little better by Tuesday evening I was trying to wrap my dizzy brain around the fact that The Mr. was going to be having surgery for his carpal Tunnel... On both wrists (Eyes bugging out of head at that point) So I was feeling icky and had the two youngest with colds but I said to myself " what the hey, I can do this" (yes I was crazy and should have been committed at this point.

So the next day (Wednesday) I drove the Mr. to his surgery and left the kids with their Uncle. This...well this is an entirely other story so I will save this for another detailed post. It was loads of fun..pretty much like having another "Big" baby (not that he was crying or anything, just needed me to dress him, make him food, pull out chairs, you know the hole nine yards since he didn't have the ability to use either hand)

Thursday baby girl started pulling her ears and saying they hurt. Bubbo was SUPER CRANK, which he usually becomes when he has an ear infection. So I decided it was time to take them to the Dr.s... hahaha...........Fun. Dressed my two small children and then my big boy (The Mr.) and got ready to go to the Dr. Sure enough It was ear infections for the both of them...(matching ears as well, must have been a collaboration) So it was anti-biotic for them and fun for me.

So over the next week we were slowly getting back to some sort of normal. The Mr. still has a lot of healing to do but was being able to function a little more on his own. So he decided to head back to work...it's bound to happen. In some ways it was nice because I didn't have to worry about taking care of him and the younger little ones. Then the latest round of crazy started....

We had gone over to Grandma and Grandpas house on Friday to help them pack and get off to their trip to California....Wanting to see them before they left..not sure it is much help to have four kiddos running around you house while you are trying to pack. Feeling a bit sad wishing we could go to already feeling emotional..which I sometimes can be (shocker right?) we packed up and headed home. Met the Mr. at home from work and started bathing babies (babies is a relative term since my youngest turns 2 this next week) to get them ready for bed. I noticed some red blotchy on baby girls skin...just the smallest little bit. I didn't think much of it and put them in the bath to play. (Chica and I made them bath paints and soap crayons for Christmas) By the time I pulled her out the rash had spread and turned into hives. So I called the Dr. on call (these things always happen on a weekend at night you know!) She said give her benydryl see if it helps and keep an eye on her. We were trying to put together what she might have gotten in to but couldn't figure anything out. I worried a little since we were over helping grandma and Grandpa pack that we weren't as vigilant with her as normal and worried she might have found some medication or something..but she was never really in a room by her self so didn't think it was likely. We finally put together that she has been on penicillin.
So we watched and then after an hour + on the antihistamine things were getting worse...I snatched her up and took her to the Insta-care. That wasn't very helpful. They said "Looks like an allergic reaction , but not likely the penicillin"..... Whew glad I paid a boat load of $$$ for you to tell me she was having a reaction to something and to go home and give her benydryl.. That was totally worth it. So I took her home still feeling that " Something is wrong feeling" the one you get in the pit of your stomach...most mothers know this feeling. Something just wasn't right. So I was changing her diaper and getting her set for bed while I was filling the Mr. in on all the glorious earth breaking information they had given me...when I noticed her knees were swollen, red and hot to the touch. The feeling in the pit of my stomach jumped a few notches. I told the Mr...this is something more. He tried to calm my fears and tell me things were fine, but I know my baby girl and I know she was hurting and something wasn't fine. So I told him how I felt...he told me if I wanted I could take her to the ER. Not wanting to over react I decided to watch and wait. Needless to say she slept...or not so much slept, more tossed and turned in our bed with us that night.
The next morning. it was worse...now her ankle , wrists and hands were swollen and there were more hives. The bad thing was the Mr. Had left for work and I had four kiddos to my self. So I tried to keep it together and called to get her into the Dr. 's office... There was a Dr. on call ..the one I had talked to the night before, that was seeing patients till noon on Saturday morning. So I packed the kiddos up and got them all to the Dr.s office while trying to hold myself together as the fear formed with that pit in my stomach.
So the Dr. looked at her and said she thought she had "Serum Sickness" caused by an elevated allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin, it is pretty unusual and they don't hardly ever see it so she had to "Read up on it" Well not knowing this Dr. very well and knowing she hadn't dealt with this before...didn't help me feel good about the diagnosis. So she said it would take a few days but to keep up on the benydryl and IB-profin to help with pain and hives and she should get better. She said they sometimes treat it with steroids but she wanted to wait it out and see what happened. So I took her home. Feeling a tad bit better but still not feeling right about the entire thing.
When we got home I took her shoes off and set her in her chair to eat. I heard her saying owie so I turned around to see what she why and she was pointing at her feet. I took her socks off and her feet were swollen..the top of her foot looked like it had a half of a golf ball sticking out and her tootsies were twice the normal size. Her hands and wrists had gotten worse as well. ...Then the neurotic mom syndrome kicked in. I was starting to really feel worried. I called the Dr.'s office back to tell her the swelling was getting worse. Then in talking to my mom she suggested calling our allergist...which made complete sense. So I called the Dr. on call for them and waited. In the mean time baby girl was getting worse she couldn't barely walk any more because her feet hurt so bad..she couldn't play with toys because her hands were swollen so she laid on the couch and watched TV..not a normal thing for her.
When the Allergist called me he confirmed he thought it was the Serum sickness but said that I should call the Dr. back and tell her she was getting worse...because he said "If she was compassionate she would start her on steroids" He also informed me that serum sickness can damage the liver but if she turns yellow then it's too late. Now the panic set in. He actually called in a steroid for her to take but I didn't feel good starting her on a steroid unless someone who knew what they were talking about saw her and said she needed to take the meds and that was for sure what was wrong. Not to mention I really wanted to make sure her liver and kidneys were okay. So after talking to my brother...okay sobbing to my brother..who is fantastic for being there for me since hubby was at work and parents were out of town. I called the hubby and told him what was going on and that I thought we should take her Primary Children's ...thankfully he agreed. Honestly I would have taken her any way but it helps to have some one level headed thinking the same thing.
Our incredible home teacher saw me post something on Facebook and contacted my hubby to offer baby girl a blessing.. Which was exactly what we needed but were to frantic to seek out just then. It was perfect. He rushed over just before we were ready to head out the door and blessed Baby girl which also relieved some of my fear and brought me peace. So now that Chica is getting older she has been watching the kiddos for brief periods of time. So we left her with Boy and Bubbo until Grandma could arrive and we whisked baby girl off to Primary's.
Primary Children's was great with her..she cried a lot...she doesn't like being touched, prodded poked, listened too even looked at but she was a champ. They did say the swelling was significant and that they did agree with the Serum sickness even though it is more rare. They also agreed that she should be on steroids. They checked her kidney and Liver functions along with a few other things and said she looked good. So there it was.
We got home and my Mother in Law and my beautiful daughter had surprised us by making dinner and straightening the house. I felt horrible since I had cried and I think scared them but was so grateful that baby girl was going to be okay.
So today (The ER happened yesterday) The swelling is almost gone, The hives are hugely improved and she has perked up a TON. Okay so the steroids might be making her a tad bit Hyper LOL. But she is doing much better and I am so glad they started her on the meds to help her feel better. YES I should win the medal for Neurotic mom of the week...but my baby is on her way to doing better so it is all worth it. :)