Getting There

I think the kids are just about there!  Scarlett's cough is just about gone.  She hasn't had to take anymore meds for 2 days now.  Lane's got worse and now is getting better.  He went from a dry cough and allergy symtpoms to the same thing Scarlett had.  Luckily we didn't have to take him in for an appointment.  We called the pedi and he suggested a smaller dose of Scarlett's med for Lane.  I gave him 1 dose last night and 1 dose tonight.  That's all it's taken and he's doing great! 

Scarlett has been on her iron for 2 1/2 days now.  So far she's doing great and hasn't experienced any side effects.  Today we went ahead and introduced Benefiber for Children into her diet.  I know how iron can be and I wanted to take precautions since she is on such a high dose .  I've also been pushing the fluids. I lowered her milk intake to about 6 oz a day for now.  I've noticed an increase in Scarlett's appetite too.  She's been eating more at mealtimes and telling me "I need something eat" in between. Her pedi said this would probably happen.

Lane is getting closer to crawling.  I've actually seen some forward movement today.  He can't seem to get his hands and knees moving together though.  It's so cute to watch him.  He either moves his hands forwards and not his legs or moves his knees all the way up to his hands and lays down then reaches forward.  Lane has also learned to sit himself up by himself.  I knew this day would come.  He loves to sit up and play but we've been laying him on the floor instead to help him learn to crawl.  But since he's discovered he can sit himself up thats the position we keep finding him in!  He's such a stinker.

Scarlett's making progress on potty training!  She's been doing great during the day for a while now. But now she's doing great during the night as well.  For about 2 weeks she has woken up dry every morning.  And during the night if she needs to go she calls out for me to take her and then goes back to bed.  So we made a very big move yesterday and she wore her first pull up to bed!  I figured the pull ups are alot easier then trying to reuse diapers and the tape wearing out.  Scarlett was very excited about her pull ups and since they all run about the same price we let her pick out the ones she wanted.  She went with Huggies & their Disney Princess ones.

I am slowly making progress on my yard.  I got it mowed this week.  Started on the dog run but I ran out of gas.  So I started weed eating, ran out of gas!  I started clearing clover and weeds out of my flower beds and ran out of momentum when the mosquitoes got out of hand!

Trying to make progress on the house too.  Today I dropped off several bags of clothing at the Ronald McDonald drop. Tomorrow I have to cut a hole in the wall :-/  Somewhere between the laundry room and the garage closet there is a water leak when I run the washer and it flood the closet floor.  I discovered this when I went to clean the garage closet and found a mildew box spring that now has to be thrown out.  And I have to get on the ball because I can't do laundry until I fix the leak.

I am hoping that Saturday I can take the day off and we will just relax all day at home as a family.  Maybe grill hot dogs and hamburgers, play outside and end the day with a movie! If the kids weren't getting over being sick I would get a sitter but I just can't do that to my babies this week.  Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Friday!  God Bless

IRON

Scarlett took her first does of ICAR tonight.  She threw a fit about taking it.  She's been on a medication for her cough and it's got a bad after taste.  She was afraid thats what I was giving her.  But the ICAR is grape flavored. It actually smells really good and I tasted a drop, it's not bad.  Hopefully tomorrow she'll do better. If not I might mix it with a swallow of juice and drink it from a little dixie cup.  I think that will intrigue her.

 I am really hoping this iron isn't too harsh on her system. But any of us who needed extra iron while prengnat know what it can do to you. Nausea, hard stools, the works!  We're going out to get her Benefiber for kids in the morning. Oddly I couldn't find it at Walgreens or CVS but a friend said they buy it at Target so looks like we'll be making a pit stop there.  I'm also trying to up her water intake and fiber into her diet period. 

We also have to get on a good breakfast/lunch/supper schedule.   Since she has to take it twice a day and I have to work it out so that she doesn't get her milk allowance within 2 hours of taking it I have to be careful.  I have been working on phasing morning milk out so I think we're good there.  But she likes a cup of milk before she brushes her teeth and goes to bed so she would have to take it and eat by 6!

After all the fuss over the ICAR it is an over the counter rx but even the doctor thought it was supposed to be scrip only.  The higher doses are prescribed but our insurance doesn't cover it period.  CVS made us mad and we switched to Walgreens.  They quoted us $25 a bottle vs. $30. I thought that was great.  Went to pick it up and it was $36 a bottle and because the doctor had actually written a script they tried to sell us all 5 bottles needed at once for a total of about $169.  They refused to break it up for us, I couldn't pay that much today and so I walked out.  We ended up at the Scott & White hospital pharmacy and it was only $27 and they had it in stock!!! They didn't have to order woo hoo!  Even better, the pharmacy tech who checked me out thought I was an S&W employee.  I even told her I didn't work at the hospital but she insisted on giving me the employee discount anyways.  I ended up only having to pay $17 and she said to come back to her next month and she would help out with the discount again.   I thought that was super nice of her. 

I could go on somemore but my little man just woke up crying. He's still not feeling well. Poor little man.  So I'm off to get him from daddy and see if I can't get him back to sleep.  G'night. Dream Sweet.

Exhausted!

I am so exhausted. I haven't have a full nights sleep in I don't know how long!  Lane goes through phases of sleeping through the night or waking up once for a bottle.  And Scarlett goes through phases of sleeping through the night and waking up for random reasons.  But lately Scarlett's been sick, Lane's been teething and I just can't get any rest!  Tomorrow will be one week since Scarlett started on meds for her cough.  It has gotten better but she still has it.  I'm expecting a phone call from the pedi tomorrow so I'm going to ask what he thinks.  I am just thankful that it is getting better and she's actually sleeping at night  for the most part now because those first few nights were just awful.  Speaking of the pedi calling, we're are actually waiting to hear back on if he can prescribe a different iron supplement for Scarlett.  He prescribed ICAR which is a name brand and supposed to be really good but its also $30 a bottle and we need 5 bottles.  BUT, if he really feels she needs this specific one then we will dish out the money because I would rather my Sweet Pea build her iron up where it needs to be than end up in the hospital with a blood transfusion.  We have gone around and around with the pharmacy and insurance this weekend over this ICAR.  Because of the high dosage you can only get it by prescription but the insurance will not cover it because they say it is over the counter.  Come to find out CVS did not send the dosage through.  So we got that all taken care of only to find out the insurance only covers the pill or chewable forms of ICAR and Scarlett has been prescribed the liquid form. Go figure.  The pedi was out sick today so we couldn't ask our questions about trying a chewable or possibly a generic brand.  We decided we would go ahead and start Scarlett on the first bottle of ICAR to get the iron in her system and get started only to find out that no pharmacy in town keeps it stocked on their shelves and it has to be ordered.  We also called Walgreens and had them get with CVS to transfer her RX over because I was so tired of their rude customer service.  Walgreens should have it by noon tomorrow for us.

Last night, Lane was restless most of the night.  I ended up having to put him in bed with me.  And then I can't sleep because Rassie moves way too much so I can't get to sleep good knowing that I have to keep an eye on Lane and Rassie and make sure they don't cross paths.  Lane had a little bit of a dry cough last night and some today but he also sneezed all day and had red, watery eyes.  I do not think he has the same thing as Scarlett. I really feel that he has allergies.  But on top of that he's teething.  2 teeth are coming in for sure because the tips have broke through the gums.  But I really think there are a total of 4 coming in.  I can feel the hard rounded spots where the teeth are and when I touch there he seems to be sensitive to it.  So tonight after I put him to bed and he started to get restless I gave him a 1/2 dose of tylenol to see how that works for a while. 

With the kids being  under the weather we missed having their pictures taken on Friday.  My aunt works at a daycare and invited us up to have their pictures done but with no sleep Thrusday night and waking up to Scarlett coughing her little head off by 6 am we decided not to go.  We also missed my nephews opening day baseball game Saturday.  He made a homerun and their team won! I am so proud of him. We stayed in Sunday as well.  Today we finally got outside, played, got some fresh air and I mowed the lawn and did a little other yard work.  Rassie took the kids out to swing and play while I did the front yard and then we put them both down for a nap while I mowed the back yard.  We went back out tonight to sit on the swing while Scarlett played on the slide but the mosquitos were just awful so we ended up back inside. Note to self: Buy citronella for the yard! I hate the smell, but whatever works right?  The house is still a mess but improving slowly.  I know one day this weekend all I did was lay around onthe couch and bed with Scarlett while she coughed and slept, was puny and slept, coughed some more, slept.  It was just a continuous cycle.  That day Rassie spent with Lane.  We traded off every now and then but Scarlett wanted her mommy most of the day.

I am so ready for both of my babies to be back up to parr.  Hoping Tuesday will be this weeks Monday and we'll get off to a fresh start and a great day.   Enjoy the rest of your week!  God Bless & Good Night

My Milk-O-Holic

I learned that my sweet little girl Scarlett is a milk-o-holic. Wednesday she was complaining of her stomach hurting again. This time she balled up on the couch and cried. I felt just awful so I called and got yet another appointment.  On top of that she had a horrible cough and congestion thing going on.  Once again her pedi ruled out any problems with the herniated umblical.  He also did a urine analysis that came back normal.  He had a CBC drawn on her.  I was so proud of her. I was really worried about how she would react to giving blood but she didn't even flinch when they did the stick.  We had 2 wonderful ladies.  Scarlett is anemic. And much to my surprise it was due to too much milk.  Scarlett drinks milk like its going out of style.  I can rarely get her to drink anything else.  Now I am only allowed to give her 12 oz or less a day.  As babies/children get older they are no longer able to digest milk as well and too much milk can cause adverse affects such as stomach cramping and anemia.   They tend to see this alot in little ones who love their milk.  I feel so awful like I should have known better.  But now I do and we can fix the problems.  I am really hoping the milk was the cause of her stomach hurting so much lately.  As for the anemia, she is now on 3ml of liquid iron 2 x a day for the next 3 months.  They are going to recheck her labs in 3 weeks to see how things are progressing.

As for the cough and congestion, her pedi prescribed a decongestant. He said because of her anemia it is easier for her to get infections and it always seems like she has a respiratory virus going on.  The past few nights have been pretty sleepless.  The meds seem to be working but at the same time Scarlett has coughing spells where she coughs until she throws up all the phlegm.  Along with getting everything messy and having to clean up it really upsets her.  She cries and cries because she doesn't understand what happen and just keeps asking "why I spit up?"   Yesterday I held her most of the day while she just laid there and rested or slept.  Today she felt alot better but still had a couple coughing spells.  No more fever though. Thank God.  So far tonight, she's in bed and I've heard no coughing.  I also didn't give her milk before bedtime because it's thick and can irritate all the phlegm.  I just want her to get over it and feel better. I wish I could take all her misery away and I would take her place in a heartbeat if I could.

Lane has been pretty fussy latelyt too. Cutting 2 teeth! One of the two nights Scarlett has been up Lane was too.  Thankfully today he wasn't fussy and didn't even need tylenol.  He was a slobber king though!

Say a prayer that my two babies feel better soon. Scarlett to get over being sick and Lane to cut his teeth quickly with less fuss.   G'night and Sweet dreams!

EASTER

We had a wonderful Easter.  We were invited to two Easter parties.  The first one was on Saturday. We were invited by family but it was thrown by an aunt on the other side of her family so yeah.  But it was fun.  It was at Gatti's.  Daddy and Scarlett loaded up on pizza and goodies.   Both Lane and Scarlett got lots of marshmallow treats and stuffed animals and Scarlett had a blast egg hunting.  She was so silly.  After the hunt was over she started throwing her eggs back in the yard so she could hunt again.  I guess I shouldn't have practiced with her like that ..lol but we used empty eggs when we practiced at home and the eggs the Easter Bunny hid has treats in them. That excited her.  Lane loved just playing with the Easter eggs in the grass.

Saturday night we made the Easter Bunny out of cupcakes and made confetti eggs. Which we forgot to take the eggs to Easter on Sunday so they're still on my kitchen counter all sad and lonely. 

Sunday we went to my mom and dad's.  The kids both enjoyed what turned out to be a beautiful day.  Worried after misty weather all morning, the wind blew and things dried up pretty good.  We had hot dogs and hamburgers with all the trimmings. Then the kids hunted eggs.  Scarlett again had a blast.  Lane enjoyed the day too after getting some tylenol in him.  He started cutting his 5th tooth (and today his 6th!) I think his favorite part was playing on a quilt in the yard.  Both of my kids LOVE being outdoors and I love that they love it.. :)  We tried to take pictures in the Bluebonnets but could only find a small bunch at my mom's.  I managed to get a few good pics of Scarlett before my camera died.  And a couple of Scarlett and Lane together with my camera phone. No good shots there though.  Scarlett didn't want Lane to sit by her and pushed him face first into the flowers.  After that I couldn't get either of them to look my way.  Oh well, we might try again sometime this weekend.

Overall, we had a wonderful Easter weekend!  And Rassie walked all day Easter Sunday using the walker. I think that was the best Easter gift of all!  Hope you enjoy the photos below.

Things are going pretty good. Keeping busy but at the same time things seem to be slowing down.  This is just a general post but I'll post about our Easter soon!

Rassie had his last physical therapy session Friday.  We're waiting for an approval to extend it but we all know how how worker's comp likes to play games.  Really hoping it doesn't take too long.  Rassie's doing really well in therapy and is even using the walker here at home.  We're waiting on a brace for him so he can do even more walking!

The kids are doing great.  Lane has passed the 2 month mark of rocking on his hands and knees.  Now he gets on his hands and toes and does perfect little push ups :)  He makes me smile.  I think I'm finally ready for him to just start crawling! The anticipation of the rocking for 2 months is about to kill me LOL.  At the same time I am not ready to have 2 mobile babies. 

Scarlett's doing well.  Boy is she miss attitude some days.  We're working on discipline and what works.  She seems to be listening a little better each day so I think we're finally on the right path.  I love how we talk to Scarlett now and have actual conversations with her.  Most of the time its just silly talk but I love it!   She has also invented a new word : WHOBODY.  It's a combination of who and somebody.  For some reason in her cute little head she has combined them and its "Whobody did this" and "Whobody did that".   I wouldn't change it for the world though.. Her other funny word: NAKIM (napkin) .  She says it so much that I caught myself saying nakim the other day and just couldn't get napkin out! HAHA  Life with toddlers. They rub off on you!

I did not weigh in on Friday.  On Thurday I was down 3 lbs since I first started so 1 lb this week.  But Friday I woke up with a visitor and decided there was no way I was stepping on the scale.  I weighed Monday and it wasn't pretty thanks to Easter.  I gained a lb back. GRRR!! That's ok.  I'm cracking back down now that Easter is over.  Yesterday I worked in the yard all afternoon and did the Wii Fit along with drinking TONS of water.  So it was a good start to a new week.

Enjoy your week as well!