5 years and still going strong

It is our 5 year anniversary today!!! I can't believe how quickly time flys. Marriage so far has been great and Sean and I are very happy. We are going to Connecticut next week to go find a place to live. It is amazing the steps and leaps we are taking in our lives and it only gets more exciting each and every year of are marriage.

similac recall

Tonight, I just found out that the similac product we have been feeding Adam is a part of a huge recall and to make things worse he has been drinking this formula for over a week, or two. Apparently, their was beetle and possibly beetle larvea in the containers that had the formula in it. This is so gross!!!! Not only is this gross but it causes the babies that were drinking it gastrointestinal discomfort and among other symptoms. I've notice over the past week, or two that Adam has been extremely fussy and he has not been sleeping well and has been moaning/groaning nearly all night long. What would we do to comfort him, give him a bottle and change his diaper. I feel awful that I did not resolve this problem sooner. Adam has not had a huge appetite either and is just all around irratable. I know he is not teething, no teeth surfacing right now. I have officially taken him off of the formula and hope he will take to real milk better, since he is old enough now. I spoke with a representative from the similac hotline on the phone tonight about the container I had that is apparently infested/contaminated with beetles. She said that I should return it immediately and that the company will reimburse me once it has been received. I asked her about symptoms, or if it could cause a greater health risk. She said that it usually only causes gastrointestinal discomfort, fussiness, no sleep, loss of appetite and that it should clear up as soon as I take my baby boy off of it. Which I have already done. The thing that bothers me is what if his symptoms persist and what if it possibly causes a greater health risk to my boy. I may be overreacting, but I feel like them wanting me to return the product is to protect there hyneas from any lawsuits, because then they will have the evidence of the contaminated product. Especially if someone's child were to get some other illness, or disease from the beetle that was found in the formula. Why not, just tell us to throw it away. I guess it would defeat the purpose of the recall and reimbursement.... I called the doctor's office and the medical assistant told me that it should not be a problem, unless symptoms persist. As if they haven't been going on for the past two weeks I had told her!! Just wait it out, for a couple days she tells me. At this time I was fuming and still am a little disappointed with how the whole situation with the recall is being handled. Because the lady at the doctor office said it is probably some other virus. I read another story about a lady who had an infant on similac that had been throwing it up, and that the doctor's office said the baby was probably sick with something else. We concerned parents are just being pushed aside since this is such a big recall! 5 million cases of formula are being called back and similac is expected to lose 100 million dollars from the outcome. Why doesn't the company tell us what kind of beetle that was found in the formula and also, if it may carry some kind of disease us parents should know about. I am just a worried mother right now and for all you mothers out there you know that is what we do best when it comes to taking care of our children. I don't worry all the time, just not pleased with this recall at all. Anyways, if you read through this whole blog about the recall, bless your heart for listening to me rant and rave about it. I am sure other people feel just as frustrated though. ....

Funny stuff about the kids

Okay I decided my last blog was a bit dramatic, so I wanted to lighten the mood on this one.
Funny thing that Adam did about a week ago, he is playing with the phone and I noticed that someone was talking on the other side. I just hung it up. I noticed the number he had dialed was 9111111. After I hang up immediately someone calls back on caller I.D. it said it was the Layton Police. I answer the phone and they said that someone had dialed 911. She asked if we needed any help and if everything was okay, before I had a chance to speak. I told her that my son had been playing with the phone and that we were all just fine. She asked me my name. But she could at least chuckle with me about it when I said my baby had done it, but still how embarrassing. Now it is just a funny story and a reminder for me not to let him play with the phone. =)
Audrey in the past couple of weeks has been asking me where her tooth has gone and has actually gotten upset about it on occasion. I kept telling her that she had all her teeth and that she was not missing a tooth. The other day she was sitting in the sink in the bathroom looking at her teeth and I realized why she thought she was missing. She got all upset about it again and said the Dr. took my teeth I need it back. Come to find out she was upset about her gap in her front teeth and thought she was suppose to have a tooth there. Funny girl I just laughed at her and told her she just had a gap in her teeth and that she was fine. We are going to see the Toy Story 3 movie tonight, Yay for movie nights. Anyways, that is all of the funny stuff I can think of for now.

Overwhelmed

Okay, I am just venting to myself and typing is a nice way for me to release my stress and frustration with my own self. I have been selfish and unfair to my family for the past couple of months. I have been putting myself in a position where I work so many hours during the week, where Sean is coming home early three times a week to watch the kids, so I can go into work... Really I have been self involved! The kids, my poor kids have been dealing with my nonsense and complete chaotic schedule for the past couple of months. I have been tense, stressed and am finally giving up my crazy schedule to spend more quality time with my family. I am going to get myself a more manageable schedule and only work a few hours a week. Instead of working nearly a part time schedule that is scattered all over the place. Also, I am going to stop doing so many favors for people because people never seem to return the favors to me and kind of take me for granted. I am one of those people that has a hard time saying "No" but when it comes time for me to ask a person for a favor they don't seem willing, or eager to help me. So I have decided to say "No" more often because in the end it will be more healthy for my family and I. I guess what started all this craziness was me wanting to feel more self-reliant on myself and to have a life besides being a stay at home mom. I mean for all you mom's out there I am sure you know what it feels like to stay at home all the time and want to lead some other kind of life. Well I kind of tried to be in two places at once to often and it burdened me and my family. I love my kids and husband and I want to be a wife and mom who is there for them and someone they can rely on. Over the weekend I was able to go stay with my sister in Idaho for a night and two days and when I came home my husband told me that he could not be a mom. Really woman are meant to be the nurturers and not the provider, because men obviously don't have what it takes all the time to stay at home with kids and be a mom. Don't get me wrong I know in today's society that both husband and wife have to work in some families just to make ends meet. Plus there are some Men out there that are great and can stay at home and take care of kids, but if I had to trade it around I feel like I could be the provider and my husband could be the nurturer of the family, because it is not easy to be a mom. We moms put up with a lot constantly and for all you mothers out there try and stay strong for your kids and husband. I could just be a stay at home mom, but I choose not to because I feel I need to have a balance in my life and if working just a couple of hours a weeks helps me do that, then that is what I am going to do. I am so thrilled to cut my hours back, it will be nice to lift that burden from my life. Anyways, if you read this far into my overwhelming nonsense I appreciate your putting up with my venting. My goal for this next week is to cut my hours back to two nights a week and one morning a week. Instead of three evenings a week, sometimes four and two mornings..... Plus I am going to make my husband dinner to come home to all of next week. He will be thrilled. Oh did I mention I think I might have a stress fracture in my ankle from jogging the other day. I am going into the doctor this week to find out, because my ankle keeps on bothering me and I am praying that it is not a stress fracture. If it is there is always a possibility that someone with a stress fracture has to have surgery to resolve it. I hope none of that is the case. .......

Moving

We are moving!! Well not right away, but in January 2011 we will be moving to the east coast to Connecticut in just about seven months . Sean got into a Nurse Anesthetist program their that he had applied to last summer and was just made an Alternate candidate for 2010, but the school reviewed him for the 2011 year and wanted him to come there. The school called him up a couple of weeks ago. After about a week, or two thinking it over he accepted there offer to go to school there and is anxious and excited to start. It is crazy how life can change and turn a different direction one day and the next we know we are moving across the country and altering our lives drastically. Seriously, the day before we received that phone call for schooling we were talking about possibly building a house here in Utah and Sean was thinking about doing a MBA combined with a Masters in health administration. I'm so proud of my husband for all of his hard work in getting this far in school and his career it has been such a long road for him and by the time he is done with school it will be eight long years behind him. The exciting thing about moving out there is it will be right on the coast and about an hour away from New York City and there is so much history out there and will be fun to visit some sites. The downside is there is no family, friends and it is not a familiar place to us at all. I know it will be good for our little family to experience this next step in our lives and will help us grow even closer together and rely more on one another, but I am still nervous.

Las Vegas Trip

We went on a family trip to Las Vegas this past weekend! Now why would we go on a family trip there, because there is a lot to do for free really. I have never been to Las Vegas and we wanted to go on a short inexpensive trip and we were able to do just that. The first day we just drove and got into our hotel and drove down the strip and it was so awesome to see all the creative hotels and different buildings, quite a characteristic town. We stayed in the renaissance marriot hotel and got a great deal through priceline!! The next day was Friday so we went to the secret gardens and dolphin habitat and it was mine and Audrey's first time seeing some dolphins, so it was really neat for us. The trainers had the dolphins do a short show for us and it was so awesome to see these amazing creatures in action. We also got to go see some white tigers and lions that were there, along with some Llamas. The tigers were very intriguing and active for the day time, especially two white tiger cubs which were play fighting. I will post a video of that. After this we decided to go for a drive through the city, because both of our kids fell asleep. We ended up going to the Las Vegas Temple and walking around and taking pictures it is nice to know there is a place to go to feel more peace away from the mayhem of that city. The next day was Saturday and we decided to go to the outlets and go shopping which was a lot of fun!! That following night we went to walk around the strip at night and go see a few free things. We went to the M&M factory and that was a blast! It was so fun to see all the different things the M&M factory had to offer and we even saw the Red and Yellow M&M guys that you see in commercials. Audrey thought they were a hoot! Right next to that was the Coca-Cola factory and they had some really neat stuff there as well. Sean bought himself a shirt with a coca-cola bottle and in the middle of it said: Its all about the package. Yeah he thinks he is pretty humourous!! After that we walked over to the Fountains at the Bellagio and let me tell you how gorgeous it was to see those, I must say it is a must see when you go to Vegas!!
The next day was Sunday, so we decided to get away from the city and go to Hoover Dam. We thought since our GPS said it would only take about 45 minutes to get there that we would be there and back in about two to three hours. Well when we got there we sat in traffic for about an hour in a half just to go six miles to see Hoover Dam. Sean told me that Hoover Dam is considered one of the ten biggest engineering projects in the world and is really popular because of how big it is and how much electricity it generates out to the surrrounding areas. It was really neat to see and to think that before it was built all that was there was just a river.... We stayed and walked around for about an hour and then it took us about another hour to drive home, so it literally took us all day to do that and we were spent by the end of the night and ready to sleep. We went home the next day, but had planned on doing so much more. We wanted to go and see the pirate ship show and circus circus which is a free circus and go to museums and the light show that they have in the old downtown street of Las Vegas, but maybe another time. We enjoyed our trip and were happy to spend some time together as a family. I will say that it was amazing the difference between night and day in Las Vegas, literally night and day. During the day it is much more family friendly and a different atmosphere. At night there is a lot more commotion, crowds, ignorant people, but for the most part people were really good watching out for us with our kids strolling around with us. I saw one guy there that was dressed up as Jack Sparrow off of Pirates of the Carribean and that was pretty funny. The one thing I hated about Vegas is that at night there are guys that make a clapping noise and hand out prostitution cards to people with woman on them. Fortunately for us the men did not try to pass out the cards to us and at least had enough common sense that we were there on a family trip. I later learned though that it is illegal for them to pass it out to people that could be minors, so they have to be very careful and seeing that we have young children probably scared them away. I really really wanted to go see the Phantom of the Opera and a Magic Show that they had there, but it would have been to difficult to do those things with our kids. We hope to go back to see the Phantom of the Opera, I have been dying to see it for years. Anyways, thats how our trip went and we enjoyed it. Now to burn off all those calories I got from the road trip down and back. =) Hope you enjoy the pics!!! My computer will not be download anymore pics for some reason to this blog. Maybe it is to long. More pics to come. =)

My silly kids

We are all finally healthy!!! Hooray! Sicknesses please stay away and never come back!! If only, that is how it could be...... My sweet kids are so cute together I had to post a little about it. Audrey is always reaching out to hold Adam' s hand where ever we go in the car, stroller and sitting on the couch. Adam is always smiling at his big sister and his eyes light up when she acknowledges him. On the other hand they still have there corks. Adam will pull Audrey's hair if she gets to close and try and eat it, while she says let go of my hair. Audrey tends to think that she is doing him a favor when she takes away his toy and gives it back to him, which makes him a little mad. In the big picture my kids are the best of friends right now and it is so cute to see them play together. As I type right now, Audrey is hugging and talking to Adam while he giggles at her. I hope they can continue to be such good friends as time passes through out the years.
Adam is now 6 months old and weighs in at 16lbs 7oz. He has only gained about a pound in the last two months, but I am not to worried because he is still a lion compared to what Audrey was as a baby. He is 30% of his height, 40% of his weight and 70% head. Adam's growth rate has slowed down, but he was sick on and off the past two months. He is developing quite well and is at where he should be at six months. He can sit up, eating solids, starting to say vowels like aaaaaa, blows bubbles, rolls from his tummy to his back, reaches and grabs for things really well, bares weight on his legs and is a smiley little guy. He really is such a happy baby it is so nice.
Audrey is still my spunky little girl who is growing up so fast. She loves playing pretend and likes playing puppies, horses, dolls and all sorts of cute stuff like that. She enjoys going to preschool and has developed quite a bit from that and she just started a tumbling class about a month ago and loves jumping on the tramps and into the pit and just running around period. She has so much energy, but is learning to channel it into her play instead of just running around in circles like when she was smaller.

On the road to recovery

I hope it is safe to say that my kids are on the road to recovery health wise at this point. Last week Audrey woke up in the night and literally was screaming all night long, so we took her into the dr. and she had a double ear infection and still had her croupy cough and fever at that time, last Wednesday. The Dr. put her on antibiotics and she is done with those now and seems to be doing a ton better. Well in the meantime, Adam started developing the same symptoms she had with a cough and a fever and seemed very irritable. On Saturday of last week we took him to the dr. office to get checked out because his cough had worsened and was a very wet cough and he seemed like he was having difficulty breathing at sometimes. We just wanted to make sure he did not have RSV. We discovered that he had Brochiolitis. Bronchiolitis is swelling and mucus buildup in the smallest air passages in the lungs (bronchioles), usually due to a viral infection. The Dr. started Adam on Nebulizer treatments and we put a little mask on the little guy about every 4-6 hours and give him albuterol to help the inflammation in his chest. The poor little guy is miserable! At this point we do not want to go anywhere else for the rest of the winter. He will be on these treatments at least for the next week and until his cough clears up and when he does not wheeze while breathing. All the things that have happened in the last week could have been worse, so we are grateful that we have been able to keep Adam home and not have him be hospitalized. We have been to the Dr. office so much lately and want to stay away for as long as possible, but Adam does have his six month appointment coming up at the beginning of March and his follow-up appointment with the Ears, Nose and Throat Dr. Anyways, we are on the road to recovery and hope nothing else comes our way, but when it rains, it pours right.

One thing after the other..

This past week Audrey developed a croup virus and had a fever for about 5 days, which is typical with croup. She seemed just fine, but her fever got up to 104.3 Saturday morning and made me a nervous wreck. My husband stayed calm the whole time and told me she would be fine, because when I gave her a luke warm bath to bring her fever down, she was playing with her toys and acting okay at four in the morning. I considered rushing her to the Dr. office to see what they could do for me to calm my nerve, but most likely they would have sent me along my way with a lollipop telling me that my daughter would survive. What they would have done for my daughter is what they did for us yesterday. We took Audrey in to see if she had something else besides croup, since the fever had not broke yet and was still about 103. The Dr. we saw was not her regular pediatrician, but he seemed to impress us with his explanatory medical knowledge. He wanted to make sure Audrey did not have pneumonia, so we got a chest x-ray and did an oxygen test just to make sure. The chest x-ray showed just a little bit of fluid and inflammation around her lymph nodes in the lung region, but the pediatrician said that was common with croup and it did not look like she had pneumonia. She did get a steroid shot in her leg and during the shot she kicked her leg up and bent the needle. Yeah Audrey she is like superwoman, but child size. Seriously, right before her chest X-ray the radiology tech had me sit her on a table right in front of the X-ray machine and Audrey literally used her strength and pushed me into the wall behind me. I finally got a good hold on her during the X-ray, but she somehow still weaseled her way out of my grip a couple of times. I told Sean she will be a good gymnast someday, since she has a lot of strength. The reason Audrey had to have a steroid shot was to help bring down the inflammation in her throat, so she could breathe easier and not have a chance of her airway from being blocked. Last night we gave Audrey some motrin and her fever finally broke and this morning she is catching up on some much needed sleep. She still has the croupy cough, but I am glad her fever finally broke. Anyways, Adam is getting a cough now. ..... Hopefully, it results in nothing and he is just fine.

Pictures of Adam's hive.

This is a picture of Adam a couple of days before hives.

Still my happy little boy, even though he has been miserable most of the day....
If you click on the picture it shows you it a bit closer.

We took Adam to the doctor today and he confirmed to us that he did have an antibiotic allergic reaction and said he has it bad as it gets basically. I took pictures of it, but still he looks much worse in person. Adam was put on antibiotic about a week ago, because the doctor thought it might help clear up some of the congestion that he thought he had and gave it to him as a precaution. But after going to the Ears, nose and throat doctor we discovered that the noisy breathing he was having was from his laryngomalacia, moderate sized adnoids and some acid reflux. If you are wondering what laryngomalacia is, it explains it in the post two previous ones before this one. We kept Adam on his Antibiotic because once you start one you should finish it, but in his case we discontinued use of it. I am glad that his medical problems have only been minor, but the poor little guy has still had to deal with a lot in the past couple of weeks..... The pediatrician said that his hives will clear up in about a week, so we will probably be staying home. I'm sure if we go out in public people would be thinking he is contagious, or something of the sort. I am happy to say that Adam is breathing much better at night now that we turn him on his side and now that he is taking prevacid for the acid reflux.

Hives

I woke up this morning and Adam was completely covered in hives. It was inside his ears, on his eyelids and even on his toes and among the rest of his body. It is a good thing he can not scratch himself yet, because I sure would be. I am assuming he is allergic to his antibiotic that he got put on a couple of days ago and is allergic to it like his mother and sister. Although, it has already started to disappear slightly since I took off his pajamas I am waiting to hear back from the dr. on how to help it disappear altogether.

5 months old and our cute little three year old.

Adam is now 5 months old! He now weighs in at a whopping 16lbs and is still thriving. He is such a ball of joy all the time and is starting to eat baby foods and and has become more vocal lately. He now gets mad if Audrey takes one of his toys and cry's until she gives it back, which is within a matter of seconds usually. Adam likes to hold onto toys and will even take his finger and scratch at little details. He likes to hold onto his feet and try's to eat his toes as well and has learned that by holding onto his feet it helps him turn over onto his side better. I am so glad that he is growing and learning. WE have had a few sleepless nights for the last couple of weeks with him though, because during the night he has not been breathing very well. What I mean about him not breathing well is when he sleeps during the night he tends to have little episodes where he will not breathe in and out as often as he should be doing and tends to hold his breath. He will sometimes hold it up to 20 to 30 seconds every other breath and sometimes every three to four breaths while his chest still rises up and down because he is trying to breathe in and out of his nose, but has difficulty and this will last for a few minutes sometimes, or longer and it has been happening quite frequently during the night. He has always been a very noisy breather and sounds like he is congested all the time and his breathing at night has always been a little abnormal. But just in the last week it seemed like it had worsened quite a bit, so we decided to take him to the dr. to see if he had sleep apnea. The pediatrician decided he would put Adam on an antibiotic and get him a BBG machine to see if that would help clear up his congestion and he also referred us to a ENT(ears nose and throat dr.) to see if he may be having more problems like sleep apnea and to see what is going on with his breathing. The BBG machine is a device that helps suck mucus out through the nose, but when we used this device on Adam nothing really came out. We took Adam to the ENT yesterday and found out a couple of different things about him, which is a combination that results in his problems during the night. He has a minor case of Laryngomalacia, Moderate sized adnoids, and said that Adam had some scar tissue on throat and thinks that he may have acid reflux. Also, we showed the ENT a video of Adam sleeping during the night and he said that Adam has mild sleep apnea. The ENT was able to discover all this by sticking a scoping tube down Adam's nose. It may all sound a lot worse then it really is, but the ENT gave us reassurance that he should be fine, but if his breathing at night does not resolve on its own we will probably need to remove his adnoids in the near future. He said that he would not want to remove his adnoids right now, since he is at such a young age. The ENT put Adam on prevacid to see if that will help him breathe better at night if he really does have acid reflux. He said that if the medicine does not help in a couple of weeks then he might not have it, but he said by the scar tissue on his adnoids it is very likely.

Laryngomalacia is best described as floppy tissue (epiglottis and arytenoid cartilages) above the vocal cords that falls into the airway when a child breaths in, so we think this is one of the causes of him not breathing very well at night. He does have a very minor case and the Dr. said he should grow out of it by the time he is 12 to 18 months of age. The ENT told us if we lay him on his side at night he should be able to breathe easier, because it opens Adam's airway more. He said that the worse position for him to be in at night is when he sleeps on his back, because the larynx will not open as much.

Well with the combination of the laryngomalcia, moderate sized adnoids, sleep apnea and most likely acid reflux he actually slept really well on his side last night and hardly made a peep. It is just unbelievable that is all it took! He is usually snoring, or gasping for air during his little episodes, or making some kind of noise. I still was up with him quite frequently last night, just to make sure he was still breathing because he was so quiet....... With Sleep apnea and Laryngomalacia he is at an increased risk for getting cyanosis at night(turning blue from not getting enough oxygen) but the dr. reassured us that he should be just fine. We feel like Adam should be just fine after all that has been going on.

Audrey just started preschool this last month and loves it!! We decided to put her into preschool because she was getting so bored at home. I can already tell that she has learned new skills and developed a ton from it. She has learned how to use scissors, but has not mastered cutting yet. Also, she is starting to trace letters and numbers a little bit and is still working on mastering that as well. Every time I usually pick her up she is so excited and tells me the things they have done at preschool and seems so happy about it all. Thanks, to her preschool teacher who is awesome and makes it so much fun for the kids! Thanks, Lori for referring us to the preschool we love it! Anyways, Audrey just started primary in at the beginning of January and loves to go in there and sing songs and is also the naughtiest one most of the time..... She just likes to run around, or jump up and down and not stay quiet. She is starting to be a little bit better, but I think she just has so much energy all of the time she can not contain herself. We love her though and she has made some progress in primary in the last month and just needs time to adjust to it.

4 month old update

Adam is now about 4 in a half months old. He is such a calm and happy baby, which is the opposite of what Audrey was. She was always more fussy and more demanding, but sweet at the same time. I have always just considered her my high maintenance girl. Adam has started to hit some of those baby mile stones and it is so exciting. He can roll onto his sides now and from his tummy to his back and is working hard to go from back to tummy. He can sit up for a little while now and I think that is because he just sits on his own chub, but he is really strong as well. He can also stand for about thirty seconds to two minutes when leaning on something like the bath tub, or a table. I took him to his four month appointment the other day and he weighs 15lbs 5oz and is 60% of his weight. I can't remember exactly how tall he was , but he is about 75% for his height and for his head. I told the dr. that he still sleeps a lot, but the dr. said he was not surprised at the rate he is growing and that he is starting to do things a six month old is doing. That made me excited to know he is already reaching some of those mile stones early, because maybe he will walk and crawl sooner. I will post a video of him standing later.=) It is nice having a solid baby this time around, because Audrey was so scrawny compared to Adam and only weighed about 161bs 5oz when she was one, such a difference compared to her brother.