Tales from my life as a mom of 2 sons and 2 daughters

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Cheli On Friday, November 28, 2008
No I haven't dropped off the face of the planet.. I've just either been so busy or so exaughsted lately that I haven't had the time or energy to write.

I haven't lost any more weight but I also haven't gained any either so that's good. I started school on November 10th.. so approximately 3 weeks ago. My first semester contains English, Algebra, Anatomy and Physiology 1 and Microbiology. I like all the classes except for Microbiology.. I don't know if it's that the teacher sucks or that the subject taught be anyone sucks but the class is SO difficult for me to pay attention to. This semester runs through Mid February. So only about 7 or 8 weeks to go. It's been an adjustment for me from being able to "sleep in" and stay up late to having to be up by 6am and out the door by 6:30 in order to make it across town in time for class. I am enjoying the school atmosphere again.. I love learning.

Doug is still enjoying work. He is getting alot more clients now that they are giving him Deep Tissue clients and normally does 3 to 5 massages a day. It's nice money but tiring for him. The bills are being paid thought so what more could we ask for. He was supposed to go for another class for "Lava Shells" this past weekend but got his days mixed up and missed the class. He will catch the next class and that will add to his list of what he is able to do. He is starting to get repeat clients now which is great and people that are specifically asking for him which is also great. Wednesday was his 45th birthday. It's hard to believe that he's 45 already. It reminds me of the age gap between us but then most days I hardly notice. We went out the previous Sunday for his birthday. We went to the movies and saw the movie "Twilight" (I'm now reading the first book) and then we went out for Sushi. This seems to be our pattern date when ever we get the chance.. dinner and sushi. LOL

River is growing by leaps and bounds. Every day he amazes me with some new word or phrase or behavior that he didn't know the day before. I can't believe how quickly time is passing now. He's closing in on 3 years old and it seems like just yesterday he was Journey's age. We bought him a potty chair this week and will be starting to potty train here in the next few months. I don't want to force him to do it if he's just not ready but I don't want him to be in diapers forever. He has always been one of those kids that doesn't do something at all until he can do it just right.. I just don't think potty training works that way.. or does it??

Journey is 9 months old now.. closing in rapidly on 10 months. He goes on Wednesday for an MRI of his brain to make sure there is no damage or abnormalities. He goes a week after that for a surgery to clip his tongue. We found out through his speech therapist that he's been seeing for a few months now that he is tongue tied (explains the nursing issues and makes me proud that I made it to 7 months even with that) and they recommend that we get it clipped now rather than later as he's having issues eating etc. Then in January he will be seeing a geneticist for testing. They think there is a possibility that he has something called Noonan's Syndrome. It doesn't mean much other than he may have delays and he has some characteristics of people who have this syndrome so they want to find out. They want to send him to physical therapist for evaluation now as well because he appears to be falling a little too far behind developmentally. *sigh* He is at about a 7 month old level and he's 9 1/2 months. Oh well. One interesting thing, the doctor thinks that his eyes will remain blue. So I have a blue eyed boy and a brown eyed boy.. how interesting. He still doesn't sleep through the night most nights and ends up in my bed by about midnight where he sleeps comfortably for the rest of the night. He and River could not be more different if they tried sometimes I think. LOL It definitely is going to make things interesting as they grow.
Cheli On Monday, November 17, 2008
I'm too tired.. or is it lazy? to post a real update.. but I did want to come on here and update Journey's stats just so I have them when I want them later.. .

Journey went for his 9 month WBV today.

He is 19 lbs 7 oz and 27.5 inches long. 2 lbs and 1 inch smaller than his brother at this age :) LOL

He goes back February 18th, 2009 for his 1 year appointment.
Cheli On Friday, October 31, 2008
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!
HAPPY SAMHEIN!!!!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy evening and night. Stay safe!








Cheli On Thursday, October 30, 2008
WOW so I'm slow and just realized that a shared a few pictures of the boys that I had previously shared the week before. LOL oops. Not that it matters , am beginning to wonder if anyone reads my blog at all LOL.
So let's see.. I have decided not to focus so much on the number on the scale but more on other things like how my clothes fit etc. Otherwise i'm going to drive myself insane. I did so my measurements and since I started measuring them back in June I've lost 5 1/2 inches off my waist, 2 off my hips, and 4 off my each thigh. I'd say that's pretty good :) So I am going to keep doing what I'm doing and stop stressing so much about the stupid scale. I went today and got on the depo shot again. We don't want to get pregnant right now since I'm starting nursing school and it worked well for me in the past so we'll try it out again. Orientation for school (which means getting my books and scrubs) is in exact 1 week. School starts in 11 days. I'm SO excited. And nervous. And anxious. And I can't wait!!!!!
Doug seems to be getting more hours at work now. Not sure if that's just because we changed his schedule to 5 hours instead of 7 in a day so he's getting all the clients at once or what. I don't think so but it seems that way. He will start getting deep tissue clients very soon. Everyone he has done deep tissue practicums with has raved about his pressure. So that should keep him busy and booked at work which is good because more bookings equals more money. His birthday is next month (26th) and our anniversary is the 10th (3 years). I'm hoping we'll be able to do something nice for it this year.
River's behavior seems a little better than it has been. He's listening better and not having as many fits but maybe it's just me not seeing them as much. Not sure. He continues to amaze me with how smart he is. I can't wait until next August when he is old enough for the preschool program (as long as he's potty trained by then) because I want to keep him growing mentally. Keep him challanged.
Journey is doing okay. He went Tuesday for his speech appointment. She agreed that he is tongue tied and that it needs to be clipped which means yet another referral to yet another specialist for evaluation. I'm so sick of appointments and doctors and evaluations. I know he has to be sick of them too. On Tuesday he wanted nothing to do with the therapy or the therapist. I can't say I blame him. I'm not sure I like her either. LOL He is 8 1/2 months old now. Time is flying by. In some ways he seems to have grown so much but in other ways., he still seems so little. He still trying to master crawling. He'll get up on his hands and knees and rock but can't seem to figure out how to go forward on hands and knees. However he's gettin faster at the army crawl and is starting to use his knees more to help him go forward so it shouldn't be too long. He's still not sitting up and he still has no teeth. The pediatrician said if he wasn't crawling and sitting up unassisted by 9 months she would refer him to a physical therapist for evaluation.. yeehaw.
I'm so afraid he won't live a normal life. He just seems to have so much going on :( I'm going to try not worry about it. Because it's not like I can do anything about it anyway.. Right? He has a speech appointment on Monday next week and a GI appointment on Friday next week. I'm eager for Friday's appointment as we should get the results of his bood work and allergy testing. I've been waiting for them. In some ways I hope they come back showing nothing and in some ways I hope they come back showing something as then we'll have an idea of why his tummy is having such a hard time handling foods. Still no word on the genetics people. I guess I'll call them tomorrow and see what's going on as it's now been almost 2 weeks since Journey got released from the hospital
Cheli On Friday, October 24, 2008
It's been like 2 weeks since I updated but it feels like it's been about 2 years with all that has happened in the last 2 weeks.. so here we go...

I weighed in this week at 174.6.. so another lb down. I don't understand why I seem to be stuck at this weight. It's frustrating. But at least it's not going up anymore. I went on Tuesday and met with financial aid and got it squared away. Found out tha t I got more in credit then I thought I did so the program will cost less than I thought it would. YAY! Then today I got my acceptance letter in the mail. WOOO HOOOO. Orientation is in 13 days. School starts in 17 days. WOW. I can't wait!!!!My acceptance letter.
6 months of weight loss... First one is me back in April and 2nd one is me just a few days ago.
Doug got a new schedule at work that I think will work a lot better for us. He works 5 to 10pm Tuesday through Friday and 1pm to 6pm on Saturday then he's off on Sunday and Monday. My schooling for the first semester will have me at school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8 am to 2pm. So this way we won't have to put the boys in daycare especially Journey because it's just not an option at this point.

Which brings me to Journey.. Last Friday Journey went in for a GI appointment.. the ended up doing some blood work to try and see if he has any allergies or even celiac disease. We'll get the results on November 7th when he goes back. So we came home from that and Journey felt hot to me so I checked his temp and it was 103.1 so I gave him motrin. Shortly after, he had a seizure. I called Doug and told him he need to come home but he was in the middle of a massage so I couldn't get ahold of him. 30 minutes later he had another seizure. This time I got a hold of Doug and he came home and we took Journey up to the children's hospital ER to be evaluated. We ended up waiting in the waiting room for almost 4 hours.. While we were waiting he had a 3rd seizure. We got back in the ER and they ran some tests to rule out all the obvious problems and then decided that because he had 3 seizures and has all these other issues they wanted to admit him to just make sure everything was okay. So from Friday to Monday he was in the hospital for observation. On Saturday they decided to do a lumbar puncture to rule out meningitis and started him on some IV antibiotics while we waited.. 48 hours.. to see if the cultures grew anything. On Sunday the attending noticed a bulge between his eyes when he gets upset.. he thinks there is a possibility to might be an encephlocele. A pocket of brain matter coming through a spot in his skull that didn't close properly. So he has been referred for an MRI as soon as we can get one set up.. they weren't comfortable doing one while we were there because it means he has to be sedated. He also brought to our attention that Journey has a lot of markers for a genetic disorder called Noonan's syndrome so he has now also been referred to a geneticist for further testing. Monday he came home and has seemed fine ever since.

Today he went to the speech pathologist evaluation and they determined that basically when he's eating he is losing his coordination to suck/swallow/breathe. So we need to teach him how to do so. They gave us some techniques to try to help him handle foods but said we can't really work on that until we know what his tummy issues are all about. So she gave us some very basic exercises to try. He goes back every week for now for therapy. She also said that his tongue is tied. How it's possible that no one else has noticed this is beyond me.. so now she wants him to see an ENT (I know yet another specialist) to see about getting his tongue clipped (either now or in the future). *sigh*
One positive.. Journey is army crawling now!!! YAY!!!

River is doing okay. His behavior isn't improving any but everyone says it starts to get better around 3 or shortly after... so hopefully. Until then we'll continue to love him and try and guide him to make better choices with his behavior.
Cheli On Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Journey is 8 months old today.. so of course I had to get pictures








Cheli On Monday, October 13, 2008
So I have started making Journey large batches of formula and keeping them in the fridge. I'll make 32 oz at a time and keep it because it's easier than trying to make individual bottles as needed with the thickening that needs to happen. So this morning I made up a batch to specifications.. Let me break it down for you.. for 32 oz of formula (approximately 1 1/2 days worth of food) Journey needs:
16 scoops of Nutrimagen
32 oz of water and one of these:


Yes that's right... 8 oz of rice cereal for 32 oz of formula.. Which means we go through approximately 8 cans of formula a month and 20-21 of the above rice cereal containers. For those that don't know.. Nutrimagen formula is 27.00 a can. Rice cereal is 2.50 a container.
Breastmilk was free.
This sucks