5 months

In the last week, Lily has learned…

to roll front belly to back

to grab food off my plate

to put anything and everything she touches straight to her mouth

to do a high-pitched squeal when she’s excited, or angry, or hyper or… well, whenever she wants…

and…

to play with her toes!

   

She had her first taste of “real food” (as the kids call it) this morning!

Banana!

I’m thinking that she isn’t quite ready yet- but we’ll see.

She had quite the audience none-the-less!

On a completely different topic- Elijah, is doing much better! Turns out that we were feeding him something that had milk ingredients in it without realizing. As soon as we cut that out, his breathing slowly returned to normal. The respirologist lowered his doses again, and he is now down to ONE puff a day!!! From 8+ puffs… to one! I am so thankful that we were able to get the advice of a naturopath and figure out the root cause at such an early stage. God is so good!

 

And I’ll finish up with an outtake from Lily’s 5 month photos- cause it made me laugh…

1 step forward 2 steps back

Pulmonary function tests, respirologists, paediatricians, allergists, cortisol levels, steroids, side effects, prednisone…

These are the things consuming my brain lately. My life. Our life…

We found out today, that Elijah’s medications are doing a really good job at suppressing the symptoms.

Without a big, long, detailed explanation- his PFT’s showed that his lungs are not functioning as they should be. Basically, he is living a very short step away from another serious asthma attack.

The respirologist, who sees hundreds of kids with asthma, says that what’s going on with Elijah “isn’t normal.”

Atleast he is sending us for some tests. Finally, someone willing to run some tests and actually try to figure out what’s going on… Or atleast rule some more serious things out hopefully.

In the meantime, we have a naturopath telling us that it’s probably dairy- which seems to fit, and seems to be helping. We have a paediatrician telling us that there is no scientific basis for a food allergy to cause asthma. And we have a respirologist admitting that he doesn’t have an answer yet- but it could possibly be a viral infection. So basically, we’ve gotten nowhere.

I am trying really hard to be thankful; thankful for the doctors and medications, that we don’t have to worry about selling our house to pay for treatments, that my son is sleeping peacefully in his bed tonight…

But if I’m being honest, I’m tired. I’m overwhelmed and confused by all of the what-if’s, and feeling pretty helpless as a mother… and I’m tired.

 

“Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.”

- I Peter 5:7

Blessin’ Baby

I’m sitting here at midnight. Hair, still curly from a late night shower. Kitchen is cleaned. Laundry is going. I now, finally, have a tea in hand. “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” comes to mind. I remind myself of my mom.

I have slowly but surely been adding decor to our new house. A picture here, a candle there… It’s beginning to feel like home now. I even finished a sign that I saw on Pinterest and adored-

   

This one I made for the girls.

Now I just have to figure out where to hang them…

This weekend, I’m working on a project for the kids’ bathroom! :)

Elijah’s paediatrician appointment on Monday was… less than I had hoped for. No answers- a perplexed doctor. More tests… He went for a blood test to check his steroid levels on Wednesday morning. He is scheduled for pulmonary function tests, and to see an allergy specialist, and a paediatric respirologist. He is breathing perfectly fine at the moment and I am trying my very best not to worry about him. Tomorrow (today, I guess) is his appointment with the Naturopath. I am very much looking forward to it.

I went to a long overdue dentist appointment today. The dentist came into the waiting room and said, “Are you Jaclyn? Come on in, kiddo!”

Kiddo?

I would expect that from someone my grandpa’s age- but this guy was easily under 40… kiddo?

Better kiddo than ma’am, I guess… :P

I love how Jeddy calls Lily his “blessin’ baby”. As in, God gave her to him as a blessing. When he prays, he always says, “And thank you God for my Blessin’ baby.”

It’s adorable.

Charity, was telling Adam about a hockey game that was on last night and who won, and who scored etc. When I asked her how she knew all this, she told me, “Oh, I was listening to the sports on my alarm clock this morning. Then, Ella came in and asked me to turn on Treehouse!” lol…

Charity and I, made Lily a mobile this week. It’s a bunch of swinging jellyfish. Scott thought the idea was creepy. “Jellyfish? You may as well make some bats to go on there as well!” I think he may have changed his mind when he saw the finished product… I’ll have to share a pic soon. Another idea I pinned on pinterest and actually followed through with making!

Keona, crocheted her first hat this week. It fits Lily. It’s a little wonky… but it’s much better than my first hat!

I made Lily a Valentine’s Day hat and Ella asked for one too.

Neither of them wanted to cooperate for a picture. I shall try again some other time…

Eve and Prayer are practicing a violin/recorder duet for the senior’s home this weekend. I played the recorder for years in school and never knew that it was capable of playing more than one octave. Prayer read the book I bought for them, and she has become quite the recorder player! They’re playing one of my favourite songs- “He Leadeth Me”…

We learned a ton of information on Christopher Columbus and the “New World” this week in school- Elijah was so into! As I was reading he said, “Wow! I wish they’d make a movie about all this!” Ha…

Two nights ago, Lily slept in her crib from 9pm until 4:30am! I could barely believe it when I saw the clock. She ate quickly, and went back to sleep until about 8:30am. I was super excited that this was going to be her new routine- unfortunately, it only lasted one night! Last night, we were back to her waking up to eat at 2am and then for the first time since she was born, she decided that she wanted to smile and coo, and then fuss and hit, for the next hour. I eventually put her in her crib and just left her to fall asleep. She did. :)

Well, I’m thinking that now would be a good time for me to sleep. Especially since she will probably be up in about an hour or so…

Lord, thanks for my ‘blessin’ baby!

Week 2

 

So it was NOT a hospital-free weekend. Scott took Elijah into the ER on Friday morning at 5am with the start of another asthma attack. Thankfully, we caught it early this time and he didn’t have to be admitted. Just a few hours of masks and steroids. Ugh…  He is back on all of his meds. Then, I spent Saturday afternoon at the hospital with him waiting for a follow up appointment. Two hours in a kids’ waiting room. Treehouse playing on the TV, for two hours… The paediatrician looked a little confused as to why the medications aren’t working. We have an appointment with the doctor who will be looking after him, tomorrow morning. I also booked him an appointment with a naturopath doctor on Friday. I’m looking forward to seeing what they have to say. I’m looking forward to it even more now that I know Scott’s benefits cover it! We were not expecting that. So right now, we’re waiting. Praying, and waiting for some answers.

 

Now for my P52!

(Click to enlarge)

Lily doesn’t cry all the time- I promise. ;) In fact, this was the first week that we’ve had real smiles from her! I’ve got to get some more pictures of my big girls next week- they are hilarious. We just had a very loud drive home from church. When Eve was explaining to Jed and Ella WHY skunks (or “DUNKS”- as Ella would say) smell- she says, “To spray the animals that would eat them. Like tigers.”

“Really, Eve? Tigers? Here? In the woods?”

Eve- “No. Not here… The skunks in the jungle!”

Oh! Right… Of course!

I think whatever Prayer has- may be contagious. :P

Happy New Year?

Oh yes, right… Happy New Year!

Here’s how we spent the first day of 2012…

     

Being woken up at 7am, by the wheezing sound of your child trying to tell you he can’t breathe properly-

is terrifying.

Not being able to do anything to help him- is frustrating.

 

Seeing him on all sorts of antibiotics- makes me feel helpless.

Knowing that God loves him more than I do, and is in control of this whole situation- gives me peace.

Or atleast I know that I should have peace about it.

I’m trying.

Everyone’s prayers have been greatly appreciated. To be honest, I always thought that asthma was just like a cough or cold. I never gave much thought to my friends who had to take puffers. I never realized how serious it could be. Seeing my son unable to stand up or complete a sentence; has woken me up, and given me nightmares. Seriously, last night I dreamt about having to call 911 and ambulances coming to our house. I have been checking on him constantly. Every little cough puts a lump in my throat that he’s going to have another attack. He must be sick of me asking, “Are you OK? Does your breathing still feel normal?”

As much as I loathe medications, hospitals etc… I am incredibly thankful for them right now. Just to update people who have been praying- we have an appointment with a great paediatrician two weeks from now, and he is giving us a referral to one of the top allergy specialists so that hopefully we can find out what is triggering this. I’m still hoping that it’s all from the nasty cold the kids had when I was in the hospital with Lily… Possibly his body never recovered fully. That is my prayer right now…

Scott brought him in to the ER on New Year’s morning and once he was admitted, Lily and I went to spend the night and next day there with him. I would tell you more about our hospital stay but he wrote a little story about it, which I’ll share later this week. Let’s just say that the nurses adored him, and he got spoiled to the max…

If anyone reading this has an encouraging story about dealing with asthma, please feel free to email me – I’d love to hear it.

Again, thank you for praying for my baby!