Super Ben

It's a baby!

No, it's a toddler!

No, it's Super Ben!!!!

more ear issues and a friend in need

After a night of breathing treatments for terrible coughing and some minor wheezing we noticed Ben had some dry blood on the outside of both of his ear canals. (Which had nothing to do with the coughing or wheezing.) I called the ENT on-call doctor and he said that can be normal since Ben still has some infection in his ears. He said to just keep up what we are doing. However, after Ben's bath I was standing in the sunny window with him and realized that there was quite a bit of very new and wet blood pooling in his right ear and some puss in his left ear. I called the ENT again and said explained what I was seeing and I wanted Ben to be seen. I was afraid that his ear drum had burst. He told us to head to the ER and he felt Ben needed to be seen also. I tried to just go to urgent care but they really didn't want to see him because he is post-op and said he needed to see the ENT. Then they took an hour and a half to call us back! I had already arrived at the ER by the time they called us back.
I will be making a formal complaint about that, by the way. It should not take a doctor and hour and a half to call back a post-op patient that has blood coming out of his ear!!!
Back to the main point...
At the ER we were very fortunate to be seen fairly quickly and were only there for a little over an hour. Not bad at all for an ER! And the doctor was awesome! At this hospital they have a separate pediatric ER which is so much better then just going to an "everyone ER".
Luckily his ear drum had not burst and the infection seems to be in the canal in both ears. The doctor cleaned them both out some, which was very painful for Ben. We are going to keep on with the drops and follow up with the ENT on Monday.
I just don't get it, why is the poor guy still getting infections??? Is there something wrong with him? I know they checked his blood for the immune levels and they came back good but I am really getting worried that there is something wrong that we are not seeing. They are ear infections, why can't we clear them up with anything???
I am worried...
On another note, I need to ask everyone to send up some prayers for my good friend Christine. She is almost 28 weeks pregnant and is having some pretty serious problems. Please pray that she will remain safe and that little Timmy will stay in her womb for at least 7 more weeks! Thank you!

Ben's ENT and year check-up

Ben had his one year well baby visit today as well as his post-op visit. I must admit that neither appointment went as well as I would have liked.

At his well baby visit his stats are....
Weight-22.08lbs 35th percentile
Height-29.75inches 45th percentile
Head Cir.-18.5inches 65th percentile

All of these have dropped but the weight is the most drastic drop from his 6 month well baby check back in September and his 9 month well baby check back in December. He actually lost weight since the 9 month check!
The doctor is starting to feel more and more concerned about the lack of growing and lack of eating. Maybe soon I will do a whole post on that but tonight I just don't have the energy.
On a very positive note, she was amazed at how well he is doing with his motor skills and cognitive skills!!!! And, boy did he show off for her, LOL!
She wasn't too thrilled with how his ears looked and was glad he was going to see the ENT this afternoon for his post-op visit.
That visit was a real bummer for me. His ears aren't looking as good as we would hope. One tube is completely blocked and one has some discharge coming out. The ENT talked about putting him back on oral antibiotics but when I told him how many Ben has been on the past few months he decided to try just the ear drops for a while. He just finished his latest round of oral antibiotics on Wednesday. WHY AREN'T THEY WORKING????? Why can't this poor kid just get a break??? We go back in two weeks to see if they are better.
He has been coughing a lot the past couple of days and wheezing some too. He has needed a few breathing treatments after over two weeks of none.
I know people are sick of hearing about my kids being sick but that seems to be our life the past few months...

Our snow day trip...

The kids had a snow day today, even though it didn't even start snowing until this afternoon. So this morning, before the snow began, I took them somewhere...
When we were there Ben toddled around in the outfit that Maggie picked out for him this morning. (I personally would not have picked out this combination of clothing and shoes to wear together but Maggie thought it was great.)

Maggie ate lollipops and fluttered all over the place with stuffed animals....

Connor played video games the whole time in his coat...
All while Katelyn got her hair cut....

And, spray painted orange...

Ben's 1!

Today was Ben's birthday!! I can't believe he is already a whole year old!
Yesterday we celebrated, Monkey style....

With family, Godparents, and great friends...

Ben was eager with anticipation. Well, maybe it was more me, since he is only a year old and all.

He enjoyed having everyone over and seemed to really have a great time decked out in his monkey shirt!

We had yummy pizza, fruit and chips for lunch....

He was in awe when everyone sang Happy Birthday to him...

And wasn't quite sure what to do with the cake we put in front of him.

But, it didn't take him long at all to figure it out...

I would have to say that he seemed to enjoy the feel of it in his hands more then he enjoyed eating it...

Then, as everyone watched...

He opened some wonderful gifts. Well, actually, he didn't open them really. His brother and sister were very helpful for that task.

It was such a wonderful celebration of Ben's first year!

Thank you to everyone who made it so special!

And today, on his actual birthday, he had the breakfast of champions... Cold pizza, grapes, and cheerios, yummy!!!

Happy Birthday big boy, Mommy loves you!

The cost...

A beautiful new haircut - $17.00

An adorable striped Hannah Anderson outfit from Mother and Child - $12.00


An amazing Maggie Smile - Priceless...

Tubes, finally!

We, Ben and I, started our morning at 4:04am. If I could have nursed Ben I am sure we both could have got at least 1 1/2 hours more sleep but Ben was under strict orders to not eat after 4am. I know, it was only 4 minutes but I was not risking him not having the surgery so no nursing. Instead we went down stairs, did a breathing treatment and watched Yo Gabba Gabba. Ben fell back to sleep for a little while and I got ready for our day.
The day we have been waiting for was finally here and Ben was healthy enough for the surgery!

So off we went, Chris, Ben and I... We got to watch the sunrise as we drove to the hospital.

When we arrived we got checked in and my jammied Ben played in the waiting room...

Then we were brought back and Ben put on his tiger gown. Quite fitting since I often call him "my little tiger" because he bites everything and everyone just like a little tiger would.

Daddy held him up on the window sill to see everything going on outside....
Then the nurse put on his name "anklet", which Ben tried with everything to get off...

Until finally I put on his hospital socks so he could no longer see it. Out of sight out of mind.

Then Ben ventured off. Walking up and down the hallway, enjoying all the attention from the many nurses and doctors. And, I will tell you, he got a lot of attention from everyone that saw him! But, seriously, who wouldn't pay attention to this adorable little baby walking around in a tiger hospital gown, bright yellow hospital socks, all the while exposing his diaper butt for all to see?

After a long wait it was Ben's turn. He was hungry and getting pretty cranky by now so it was a good thing it was finally time!

Daddy got all ready to go into the OR with Ben and off they went. Chris was able to stay with him until he fell asleep. (The first time we did this with Connor I went back and it was just way to hard for me so Chris does this part.)

And I watched my husband carry my baby boy through these doors... This is when my heart rate picked up and my stomach was a jumbled mess!

Dr. Lee came out into the waiting room to let us know how everything went. It all went smooth. The only thing that didn't go as planned was that he did not get his adenoids taken out. He was going to but they couldn't safely intubate Ben. The tube would slip too low and go into his right lung or too high and not do what it should have been doing. They tried but the risk just wasn't worth it so they decided not to take the adenoids out. That's ok with me, the tubes were the most important thing at this point anyway.

As for his ears, Dr Lee said they didn't look good at all. After many weeks of antibiotics they were still infected and the left one especially was filled with puss and infection. The tubes were very necessary to say the least.

We will keep him on the oral antibiotics and do 5 days of antibiotic drops to help them clear up. I hope and pray that when we go in for his post-op visit we will hear that they look so much better!

After a long wait my baby was back in his Mommy's arms. It really wasn't that long considering, only about 40 minutes, some parents have to wait many, many hours. But, 40 minutes, to me, was so long!

It was hard for Ben to wake up, normal really, but hard. He cried, nursed, cried, nursed, cried, and fell asleep on my chest.


So, my little guys adorable ears don't look so adorable at the moment but we are thrilled that we were able to finally get some tubes put in!!!

Lolly-lolly-pop-pop!!!

Ben had his first real lollipop experience. He did have a few licks on Katelyn's quite a while ago but this was his first real lollipop.
Boy, did he love it! And, boy did it make quite the mess!

So much so that I stripped him down and put him in the tub where he continued to enjoy it. It turned everything it touched red! Including the water. (Which I had a picture of on here until I realized it showed "a little too much" of my baby, lol.)

Connor...

Our second born monkey has been the only one in the house that has stayed healthy, for the most part. He did have a slight cough and gooey eye but it wasn't bad and only lasted a short time.

I have been feeling rather guilty because he just isn't getting the attention that I would like to give him.

I hope that he stays healthy and that we can give him lots of great attention really soon!

In the meantime he has been keeping himself pretty busy.

In hopes of trying to keep healthy and get rid of germs he took some time to do some cleaning and disinfecting of door handles and light switches.

He has watched entirely too much Sponge Bob. He has taken an obsessive amount of pictures of JJ and the previously mentioned Sponge Bob. Yes, with my camera because I was just too tired to say no.

Yesterday he put on an animal show, with his assistant Maggie, just for me. It was very informative and interesting.

Thanks Connor for being such a great kid and a trooper while we try to get our house healthy again!

blood work results...

The last time Ben went to see his pulmonologist, about two weeks ago, he had some blood work done. The doctor explained that she wanted to see if his body has an immune deficiency that is causing him to get a lot of respiratory infections.

They took three BIG vials of blood from my little guy but he didn't even make a peep about it! He was so good and just shocked the two women that were taking the blood.

Yesterday I got a call from the doctor about the results. There was some good news and some not so great news.

The good news.... Ben does not appear to have a immune deficiency problem. Yay!!!

The not so great news... He has high marker indicators of allergies. This indicates that he definitely has some allergies but we don't know what they are yet. We may not know for a couple more years! She does believe they are air born and not food allergies at this point because they are causing respiratory issues.

When we go see her in less then two weeks she will hopefully do some testing with a few of the bigger allergies. The big thing is that he has to be healthy for those! Well, let's be honest, he is rarely healthy! I will just hope and pray that he is on that day so we can try and get some answers.

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with some of the things we may have to do in order to have a healthy environment for Ben but we will come to that when we know more. We are willing to do ANYTHING that needs to be done to help him, that's for sure!

Man, I am thankful for the fact that he does not have an immune deficiency problem! As for the allergies, we can figure that out!

lovin'

OOOOHHHHHH, doin' some lovin'.....

So sweet!

(Ben does this a lot because we give him so much attention when he does it! I think it is just adorable!)

Who's winning???

Who's winning???

I think it's a tie...

bullet points on the whole family

I have hit a brick wall, mentally and physically. After weeks and weeks with sick children the nasty germs caught me and knocked me down. Yet again it has been a tough week.... I need to get Ben so I will do bullet style, person by person updates...



Katelyn* On Monday night Katelyn got a pretty high fever and felt pretty yucky through the night. Tuesday morning I called and made a doctor appointment and brought her in. She was diagnosed with a sinus infection and bronchitis. We stared antibiotics but the primary care doctor wanted to hold off on the steroids. She went to school on Wednesday. Then on Wednesday night she had some major coughing fits. Although fairly new to the asthma road I would have to say they were asthma attacks. Not fun for sure! Chris took her into the pulmonologist yesterday morning and she was put on oral steroids for four days in addition to her inhalers. She slept much better last night, Thank God for oral steroids, and woke up ready and excited for school, which is good because she missed another two days this week.



Maggie* Miss Maggie came down with another fever on Wednesday and spent the whole day on the couch not feeling well at all, and taking two naps. She also had a bad night on Wednesday night so I brought her back to the doctor yesterday. She has now acquired quite an ear infection and is back on another round of antibiotics. The first part of last night was rough but went so much better after I put numbing drops in her ear. She too seems to be feeling better today!



Ben* Is doing well! I think. He seems a little congested but hopefully it will stop there. He has had two visits to the chiropractor this week and we are hopeful, yet guarded, that this will help him with his ear infections, reflux, and asthma. He is still scheduled for surgery next week on Friday. Oh, and he hasn't needed a breathing treatment in a week!!!!



Connor* This kid is a trooper! I am feeling so guilty that he has been getting minimal stimulation and attention lately. Because he hasn't been sick he's been getting the "shaft". He is a little stuffy today but hopefully that will be the extent of it. Hopefully!



Chris* Has been great. He has had to take some time off work the past couple of days to help me out and bring kids to appointments. Last night I was seeing that the germs may be catching up with him too but he insists that he is too busy to get sick. I hope they don't knock him down!



Me* I started feeling TERRIBLE on Wednesday! I went to the doctor both Wednesday and Thursday because I thought for sure I had bronchitis, nope just a virus. I started TamiFlu in hopes to keep the virus to a minimum. During the night my throat was soooo painful that I was then sure it was strep so I went back in with Maggie yesterday. Nope, not strep. Apparently one of the viruses that is going around right now comes with an extremely painful sore throat. The doctor put me on some oral steroids also to help with the inflammation in my throat. It seems to be working. I coughed all night last night and got very little sleep but yet feel better then the last two days. Maybe I am on the up swing!

And, apparently the ground hog predicted that we still have a while to go before winter is over! Man I hope not. We need spring! We need to de-germ our house!

To whom this may concern

To whom this may concern,



If you are going to play with my camera, which you know it is completely against the rules, you should be sure to erase the evidence.

And you really should not take a picture of yourself because then you get caught for sure!

Love,

Mommy

Look who's toddling!

Just the other day, on January 27th, to be exact, Ben decided he wanted to walk! He had been taking a couple of steps once in a while with a lot of encouragement, but the other day he decided he wanted to start really walking.

He still gets so excited that he can't stay standing up, lol!

I love watching my toddling baby!!! It is so cute!

A side note: See the striped outfit he is wearing in the bottom picture??? My friend Christina gave that to me when she came to visit me at the hospital after Ben was born. Although I knew from experience that it wouldn't be long until he wore it I couldn't imagine my tiny baby ever being big enough for it. I remember holding it up and it seeming so big! Now, here he is, big enough to wear it! It is so cute, and, well, stripes! You know how I am about stripes!

four generations

I am proud to say that I take after my mom in many ways. When I was younger I am sure I thought, "I will never do that when I have kids." Like, my poor kids would be able to have more then two cookies, there is nothing wrong with that!
Well, then I grew up and had kids. Man, I am a lot like my mom after all. I guess she knew more then I thought.
I must admit that I was a much better mom before I had kids! I had all the right answers. My kids would never go into a store with a dirty face. My kids would never have a binky, and they surely would NEVER have a binky until they were 2 1/2 years old! Like I said, I was a much better mom before I had kids.
So, back to my main point...
Something my Mom does that I have taken from her is putting pictures in books that you will keep and eventually look at again. I put them in my Chicken Soup For The Soul books that I love. Apparently I also put some into one of Chris' Harry Potter books also.
Last week when he took it off the shelf in the basement he came across an envelope that had these pictures in it....

Here is Chris and Connor when Connor was just two years old.

This is a picture of my nephew Isaac and Maggie that my sister-in-law took and edited. I wanna guess that Maggie was just over 1 and Isaac was about 7 months old.

And this is my favorite one that was found. It has four generations of us women in it! My grandmother, mom, me and my girls! Wow! I just love it.

So, I recommend that you do this. Tuck away a favorite picture in a keeper of a book so that when you take that book out to look at you will be struck with amazing memories. It is sure to warm your heart and put a smile on your face!