Oh boy

This has some disgusting information...so if you can't handle puke and diahrea I suggest you skip reading.

I am pretty sure every family has one of these children that something is always wrong with them and you always hope it is nothing serious. Well our middle child Braxton is that child in this family. Something is always happening with him. Braxton was born with hypospadias, Braxton was diagnosed with Lactose Intolerance at 1 year, Braxton had tubes put in his ears at 1 year after having 7 ear infections in 4 months, Braxton has had Bronchitis a ton of times, Braxton had Pneumonia to start the year off. Braxton oh Braxton...we thought maybe we were done...well we aren't.

Last Tuesday, B woke up and was doing well and then he sat down with me and everything broke loose. Braxton threw up all over himself and me. I figured flu and treated him as such. He got sick a total of 3 times (815, 900, 1000). Then he slept for 1 hour and woke up begging for food and drink. By 330 he was eating everything he could find...little stinker and bouncing off the walls. Well I was prepared for somebody else to get it and stayed away from everybody...nobody else got it. I thought perfect we escaped the flu. Well Tuesday night Braxton woke up at 815pm screaming. I went up to find him puking all over his bed. I instantly was baffled. I cleaned him up and moved him to the couch. I called my mom and dad to warn them since we had just left their house. My mom couldn't believe he was sick again and instantly thought something else was going on. Braxton proceeded to get sick at 9 and 10 pm. He then was bouncing off the walls and fine the rest of the night.

I talked to my mom (an RN) the next day and she feels he has a food allergy or an infection called Giardia. Giardia is an infection that humans and dogs can carry. 1 out of 5 children have this. It causes abdominal cramps, diahrea, nausea/vomiting. Braxton has never had a formed bowel movements...the kid is almost 3. Well my mom suggested the Giardia because my dad's English Setters have contracted this infection (from pond or stream water, human or another animal). Well Braxton is the only grandchild that is always out there with them. He even sneaks out to see them in the summer when he is outside playing. He is always feeding them dog biscuits and helping my dad with their dishes. That is how the infection is transferred. It is an easy fix...just a strong dose of antibiotics. It may take 2 rounds but no long lasting affects. My parents are in the process of treating the dogs so now we have to find if Braxton has it because if he does and it doesn't get treated he can pass it back the dogs. I NEVER thought I would be talking about my son catching something from the dogs or vice versus. Its crazy.
The other thing would be food allergies. If he doesn't have the Giardia then we will have to do allergy testing. That doesn't sound like much fun either but so worth it figure out all of his problems.

This year is starting off rough with Braxton but I am just so thankful it is minor stuff...yes it sucks but it could be so much worse. I give parents a hand that have a child with things going on that are much harder. All the doctor appointments, the tests, the what ifs. I know if we had/are dealt with those things we would just do it and love our child no matter what but I would be a worried wreck. I love my son to death but I worry about him more than Makenzi and Arianna. I am always asking him if he is okay. Makenzi keeps asking why I ask him that all the time. I am trying to stop because I don't want him to think something is wrong all the time...but man being a parent can be so scary.

I know I have posted about Scott driving semi and hoping for a local run well that decision will not be made until after February. They are wanting surge to be over before they start changing everything. Please keep praying that Scott's brother gets on a steady account where he can be home every weekend. He is on a temporary run right now but we are hoping for a permanent run.

Makenzi is doing much better this week. Hopefully that will continue. We told her that she needs to continue this so she can spend some time with grandma. Hopefully that has sunk in. We are supposed to get report cards home this week and I am excited to see how she is doing.

Braxton is Braxton. He is our dreamer of the family. He is always talking about playing soccer (one more year) and owning his own farm. On his farm he plans to have piggies, horseys, cows, chocolate trees (I am most excited about this), backhoes, tractors with buckets, trucks, wagons and on and on. It is so funny to listen to him. Oh he is also going to hunt deer with his papa and daddy. He needs a gun on the farm as well. We tell him to keep on dreaming...I have no doubts that Braxton will be a farmer when he grows up. If it is his only job great but if he works somewhere else I know he will still have a small farm to call his own.

Arianna is mobile! She rolls all over the house. She also does the army crawl to really get into stuff. Arianna loves to get anything she isn't supposed to have. My others never seemed to bother to much when they were little like her. She longs to get into stuff. My scrapbooks/photo albums are her favorite. If Kenzi or Braxton drop something that she shouldn't have she can move really fast to get it. We can really she what she is thinking...she displays her thoughts very well.

I am doing well. I am going back to school in the fall (at the latest date). I am debating between two programs and it will all depend on where I can go the cheapest and the easiest. With Scott being gone all week I can't be gone a ton with the kids at home. I have a babysitter lined up already for days I have classes and I plan to take online classes as much as possible. I am very excited about going back to school. It is such a perfect time to go back to since I am currently at home.

Family Update

Yesterday was an interesting day. Braxton woke up at 6 and came to my bed where I made him lay because I was not ready to get up. He didn't wake up again until 8. He ate breakfast and cuddled up next to me because he was "cold". I didn't think anything of it until a little later when he puked all over himself, my sweatshirt and the chair. My kids always manage to get the flu when Scott is on the road it never fails. Thankful it was over with fast. Now we are on to hoping nobody else gets it. I hate the flu.

Things are going crazy with Makenzi. We are not sure what we are going to do. Makenzi has anxiety issues. It wasn't bad but man something is making it flare up. The last week she refuses to go to bed at night. The kids have always gone to bed at 7:30. I was thinking maybe it is to early for her and would let her stay up until 830-900. Well it only made things worse. I have tried spending time alone with her during the day..nothing helps. She screams, slams doors, wakes her brother and sister up, tells us certain people are telling her that mom and dad don't love her yet she won't give us details. She will say grandma or aunt or uncle etc but won't tell us what one so we know it is all tricks and games. Other nights she complains that her eyes, her neck, her head, her ears, her mouth, her chest, her stomach, her arms, her legs, her toes etc hurt. It changes every 5 minutes. I understand growing pains but this is beyond that. I am about ready to scream. We have tried letting her sleep with the light on because she says she is afraid..well maybe she is yet lastnight she came down during the night and slept in the dark living room just fine after 3 hours of screaming, crying, slamming doors. I am at a loss with her. The doctor had told us if her anxiety got to the point where it was interfering with things to bring her in again but I don't know..maybe it is just a phase. I don't know...I am just ready for bedtime to be easy again.

Arianna is doing great. She is sleeping like a pro now which is wonderful..especially since we are having above issues with Kenzi. Arianna is learning to do the army crawl. She loves to have brother and sister play with her. They walk in the room and she lights right up. She really likes when they leave stuff she shouldn't have in arms reach...she can really move then.

Trucking is going well for Scott. No decision has been made on the local run. It won't be decided until after surge which is end of February. He is done training his brother Joe now. Joe is actually at the terminal this week. Hopefully he will get a good run. It doesn't look like he will get on Staples but we are hopeful and still praying for it. I hope something good comes along for him.

I just set up an appointment with Michigan Works for the No Worker Left Behind program. I am going to go back to school! I am interested in a couple different programs. I am debating between Radiolgist Tech and Ultrasound Tech. I really want to do the ultrasound tech but at one point you had to go Up North for weeks on end for clinicals...well that isn't possible with 3 young children at home and a husband that is on the road all week. We will see if things have changed. I am hopeful.

Our little sleeper

Arianna Mary sleeps through the night finally. If you aren't aware of whats going on read the post below.

The night of the doctor appointment we started Arianna on 3 meals a day and a bedtime snack. She is also nursing at least 4 times a day. We have started a bedtime routine as well. She has a bedtime snack, then I cuddle her, nurse her and tuck her in. Ever since she has been sleeping 11-12 hours a night plus napping like a pro during the day. She is a completely different baby! It has been heaven.

Not much else has been happening around here lately. Just living and having fun!

Dr. appointment updates

Alright the kids had to go back to the doctor today for follow up appointments. Braxton is 100% back to normal as far as the bronchitis and pneumonia. About darn time..2 weeks of treatment was getting old. Arianna has been being treated for a week and had improvement. We are to continue the antibiotic (duh), and then continue breathing treatments as needed. I decided to take the time to ask the doctor a couple more questions regarding each child while there.

Braxton will be three in one month and has never had a formed bowel movement. I never thought much of it until lately. He is lactose intolerant which causes major issues so we have cut out all milk except for cheese and yogurt which he has always been able to tolerate. The doctor said to cut out juice (even though he was only getting 1 cup a day) and to cut his soy milk to 12oz a day. Which won't be hard either because he could care less. If things don't improve by his 3 year appointment they will consider testing him for allergies. So we will see. Although we are very thankful it is just minor health issues and nothing major.

Now onto little Miss Arianna. After a long week of no sleep I had had enough. I asked the doctor about her sleep issues. I never had problems with my older two sleeping. She confirmed it was all behavior issues with her...aka spoiled rotten baby. Arianna was still waking every 2 hours to nurse and would scream if we laid her down in her room. She would not take naps either. So the doctor gave me some ideas (3 meals, 1 snack a day, setting up a routine for bedtime ex: snack, cuddling, nursing, bedtime..if she cries or fusses to let her go for 10/15 minutes go in and tell her momma loves you and it is night night time). I didn't have much hope in it working. So today we came home and she ate lunch and played for awhile. Then it was nap time. I cuddled her, nursed her and laid her down awake...not even 5 minutes of nursing and she was out...and slept for 2 whole hours. I have never seen her take a two hour nap that didn't involve a car ride. I am so excited for bedtime tonight to see if the trend continues! It is great. We also discovered that Arianna has a bigger appetite than I thought. I felt like a horrible mom. She can eat over 2 jars fo baby food at a sitting. So she is now on table food (baby food is way to expensive). I am shocked at how much she eats. For breakfast she ate a cereal bowl of oatmeal and applesauce, for lunch she had a saucer and 1/2 of leftovers, then for dinner she ate 2 saucers of food (spaghetti, aspargus, melon, mushed up meat, and bread). She is a happy baby now. Plus she is still nursing on demand. Almost time for bedtime snack and routine. She needs to be in bed in an hour or so.

She did it

Well Arianna Mary is 8 months old today and she finally slept through the night last night. It is about darn time. We had such a horrible sleeper I didn't think I would ever get another full night of sleep. The last 3 nights were interesting. Monday night Arianna was up at 4 am for the day. The older kids were up at 6 that day. I was exhausted. Then Tuesday night Arianna was up from 2am to 6am. The older kids were up at 545am. I am not sure what was going on but I was too tired to think about it. Yesterday Arianna took 2 long naps which is really unusal for her so I thought another long night was ahead. Well at 1020 I laid her down in her bed (another achievement) and she fussed for a couple seconds and went to bed. I set the monitor up again in my room and headed to bed not long after. At 330 Braxton climbed into bed with me (Darn kids) and went right back to sleep. I listened for Arianna but not a peep. She woke up at 6am and nursed and went right back to sleep. I was so happy.

What did I do different? I filled her little belly with protein and lots of it. She ate chicken and veggie bake leftovers and also roast beef leftovers. She loved it and ate way more than we were normally feeding her. I was giving her a jar of baby food 3 times a day...well lastnight she ate 1 1/2 saucers of food and at least 5 pieces of muskmelon. She was a completely different baby.

I have a couple pictures of Arianna getting her breathing treatments. It has been quite the week. I just want to say Steriods suck. Arianna does not do well with them at all. They make her a crazy baby who sleeps even worse then she normally does...I didn't think that was possible. Braxton is doing better I think. He doesn't seem to be coughing like he was so that is good. We go back on Thursday for another check up.




Makenzi was very happy to return to school this week. She wasn't very happy that she had to have 3 days off for the weekend though. At least she likes school. Makenzi has been attending speech classes since the beginning of December for the K,G,L sounds. She has the K and G sounds down already. I am very thankful it has been so easy for her to learn.

Braxton is officially pee trained again. He was pee trained for 6 weeks during the summer but never learned to poop on the potty. Well we are at the same spot again...although it has only been 3 weeks. I have about had it though. I will be talkign to the doctor in February to see what they suggest. I can't handle this much longer.

Arianna is doing well. She is super close to crawling. She goes backwards very well...she can make it all the way across our living room. She rolls everywhere. She actually gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth but no movement yet. Soon. She says da da da.