MIA

So I've been MIA for awhile. I want to blog...I really do, ideas pass in and out of my head and I think, "Oh, I'll put that on the blog..." but then reality sets in and the day gets away from me. It's just that these two boys, a dog, a husband, a job, a house to keep clean, a family to feed, prescriptions to pick up, claims to file, doctor/therapy appointments to keep kind of come first. You know...life.

Anyway, I'll try and make up for the lack of posting with a good one here. Quality verses quantity I say. We've had another good week. I took both boys to the doctor on Friday because I was sure that Reed had an ear infection and I wasn't 100% sure that Gaines' ears were better. I love it when I waste time and money taking kids to the doctor to find out there is nothing wrong with them. Reed had been pulling on his ear for several days. His teachers mentioned it to me. If you asked him if his ear hurt he'd tell you yes. Friday he told me on the way to the doctor that the "doctor fix my ear". Come to find out, it wasn't an ear infection...he had an ant bite on his ear. Not inside of his ear, just the outside part. So yeah, I took him to the doctor for an ant bite. I'm going to have to inspect him closer the next time I think he needs to go. Not only did I look crazy, but I paid $30 to do so.

Gaines had healthy ears as well. Both of his ears had cleared up and the doctor thought his lungs sounded great. Our regular doctor was off that day so we saw his partner. He was asking about his oxygen and when I told him he was on one liter he thought we might be getting off oxygen soon. I told him probably not and explained that his lungs were pretty bad and gave him the short version of his medical history. But when I mentioned that he was on one liter he said something like, "But you have to turn him up at night right?" We don't...but it kind of got me thinking that even though his sats are great when he's asleep, maybe they are even better during the day. We don't usually pay attention to his sats when he's awake because the monitor just doesn't pick up great. We kind of figure if they are ok when he's asleep and still...he's fine. We confirmed that its ok to do this with the pulmonologist by the way...we didn't just make this up on our own and run with it. BUT...since this doctor said this and the pulmonologist made reference to the same thing (sats being lower when they sleep), it makes me wonder if he's pretty much satting 100 all day when he's awake? Sorry, that was a lot of rambling for that one little thought but there you go.

Moving on...Gaines weighed 14 pounds at the doctor the other day but I think that was pretty off. He should have been about 13-8 or so but he had on clothes, a diaper and had just had a bottle so I think that skewed things up a bit. Plus it was a different scale than he is usually weighed on.

The physical therapist comes back Monday so I'm interested to see what she thinks. I haven't really noticed any major changes in the last two weeks but its easier for her to see progress. He is still doing really well with his head. I'm not ready to check it off the list as completely mastered just yet, but its getting there.

I've tried to put him in his exersaucer a couple of times and he really wants no part of that right now. He is adjusted age 4 months right now...isn't that about the right time? It might just be that it bothers his hernia but my new goals are for him to be able to sit in his exersaucer and function in it and for him to roll from his back to stomach. I'm pretty sure Reed did it at about 5 months so that gives Gaines a good month to do it before I start freaking out. He is already rolling from his back to side which I take as a good thing.

I hope that those of you out there who have no reason to be concerned about their children's abilities, really, really appreciate that. I didn't really appreciate it with Reed but with Gaines...you just come to realize what a blessing healthy kids are. Like, I've been stressing over this head control thing and now that it seems that he's making progress on it, I'm watching other things. I don't know how to explain it other than to say that you just realize every little mechanism your body makes. Like how many little things you have to "get" to be a normal person. I'm not getting into what is and is not normal...you know what I mean. Like maybe you can control your head but your hand has problems or your legs. Or maybe you are physically ok but you can't control your tongue so you can't talk.

Don't get me wrong, no doctor has given us any reason to believe that any of those things could be a problem for Gaines (other than the leg possibility) but its hard not to get that sort of thing in your head when you watch a therapist dissect your child and his abilities. Little things like watching to see if he turns his hand over palm up, or making sure he has good open hands or asking if I notice him leaning to one side more often. I do the best I can not to worry but its tough.

Rambling...sorry.

Reed is still working on the potty training. He has great days and then sometimes he has nights like tonight when there were multiple accidents before I could even get the first one cleaned up. I'm not going to go into all the details of it but I'll be so frustrated with him at times but then he'll see the mess and say, "Oh no, Reed-Reed". Which of course to me, is hilarious.

Also, I've mentioned before about how advanced Reed is (says his mama) but this afternoon he did the whole Ring Around The Rosy deal. He knew all the words and danced around and then through himself in the floor. I was impressed. We don't really Ring Around The Rosy here much so I guess he got it at school.

So, I guess to sum it all up, we are all good here just doing everything we can to keep our heads above water but from what I understand, that's just life with kids. I'm off to bed. All is well with the world, my boys are asleep, Beau just walked in the door (he's been at a friends house tonight), my house is clean (perfectly clean for this one moment in time) and most of the laundry is done. I can sleep peacefully...as long as Gaines keeps his prongs in his nose. It's my turn with him tonight.

Love to all,

Brittany