Wednesday, November 28, 2007

It's been over a week!

What two year old doesn't push their stroller in the snow on Thanksgiving day????


Yikes! It's been over a week since I last posted. Jack is doing much better and hasn't had a fever since Thanksgiving (I think it broke Wednesday night). Praise the Lord!!! We spent Thanksgiving at home, so it was a quiet day together. Well, as quiet as a day can be when you have a 2 year old who's feeling better! I have something totally selfish to admit - I miss Jack being sick. No, I don't miss the actual illness, but I miss how snuggly he was when he was sick! I miss rocking him to sleep and holding him all day. I miss putting my face near his and hearing him breathe. I miss smelling his hair and watching his eyes close as he drifted off to sleep. My baby. Now that he's feeling better, he wants nothing to do with snuggling or rocking! So I guess I learned to savor the times when he wants to be held...even if it is only when he's not feeling well. :)

Here's a picture of Jack (with daddy) when he was sick.


The only other time that has happened was when Jack was a newborn. Awwwwwwww.....

Jack's vocabulary has grown leaps and bounds. He talks alllllll day long...except when the phone comes out. Once someone is on the phone and wants to talk to him, he gets very quiet. I think he is more interested in playing with the actual phone than talking to whoever is on the other end of it. Typical boy. One of our new favorite sayings from Jack is "oh my gosh." Really, I don't know where he got that one from. :) He also says "I'm sorry," but he has no idea how it's supposed to be used. So he says it at the most random times and it makes us laugh.


I've been rearranging furniture all day and I'm wiped out. I can't seem to figure out where things should go in this house. For some reason it's been a huge issue lately. Nothing seems to "fit" anywhere.

It is getting very cold here. It was 7 degrees Tuesday morning. SEVEN. S-E-V-E-N. And it's only November. We're supposed to get a "good" snow on Saturday. I am a little nervous about that. I think that's when reality will hit and I'll have to come to terms with winter. A real winter. I am getting cold just thinking about it.

Monday, November 19, 2007

It gets a little overwhelming

Having a sick child, that is.

Let me preface this by saying - yes, I know I am blessed that I have a pretty healthy child. What we are going through is extremely minor in comparison to some of the illnesses that other children have. I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed us with a healthy boy.

I can't tell you how many times we've been to the doctor in the past 1.5 months. More than 5, less than 10? This bug will not go away. And now it's turned into a bad fever for my poor baby. He woke up with a 103* fever on Saturday night and it's been going strong since then. The urgent care doctor gave him a diagnosis of bronchitis and prescribed a new antibiotic (#4!). His fever/lethargy got worse last night and this morning, so I took him into his pediatrician. He thinks it's just viral and will have to run its course. So, no new antibiotic...just stick to the one they gave him for his (2nd) ear infection. Which is good, since he threw up the new antibiotic last night anyway. :(

He wants to be held ALL the time. I can't set him down without him crying. Which wouldn't be that difficult if he didn't weigh 35 pounds. It was much easier when he was a baby! I know he really doesn't feel well because he's so snuggly. He's my non-snuggler most of the time. And now all he wants is for me to hold him, lay with him, or rock him.

All I want to do is make the pain go away for him. He's so exhausted and run down. His eyes are droopy and he's hot all day long. I keep praying for this fever to break and praying that my active boy comes back soon. We're all tired of this virus. It's definitely overstayed its welcome! If you think of us, could you pray for us too? Thanks! :)

Oh, and in the meantime, we've decided to hold off on the eye patching. The poor kid has enough to deal with right now. We've also made an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist...just to get a 2nd opinion and see someone who's geared more toward children.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Painful

Oh, it's so painful. :( These are the things that no one can explain to you before you become a mom and experience it yourself. The pain that you feel when your child feels pain. I know our experience is very minor compared to other's...but it is still very real for me.

Jack has to wear an eye patch (or as we like to call it, eye STICKER!) on his right eye. Thankfully, it is only for 2 weeks. But it is a major struggle to get this patch on his face. It takes both of us to hold him down and then to apply it. Meanwhile, he is screaming his little head off. Once the patch is on, he cries "take off, mommy. Take off!" And then I start crying. And then he cries because I cry. Which makes me cry harder. Notice a pattern? I want to tell him, "I want to take it off! This is not my choice!" I want to be able to explain to him that it's only for 2 weeks and that it will help his eyes be better. But, that can't be explained to a two year-old. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it is to have to wear a patch over one of your eyes. And not understand why it's being done. A bonus - it hurts him when we take it off too. So we get a wrestling match when we put it on and when we take it off. Oh, Lord, help me.

To top things off, he also has an ear infection. AGAIN. We made it two years before having an ear infection...and now we've had two in one month. Some things just aren't fair.

I just want to take his troubles away and make them my own. But, I can't. Never will be able to. In the meantime, I am snuggling him lots (even when he doesn't want to be snuggled) and spending some good quality time with him. I just can't help but cry in the midst of this trial.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Overkill?

Jack and I are sick....again. :( I am exhausted. There was maybe a week or so where we weren't sick. And, then we caught it again. Now I am paranoid of THE GERMS. They are my sworn enemy. Today I spent a good portion of my day killing THE GERMS. Lonnie and I sprayed every.single.one of Jack's toys with Lysol. And then wiped them all down (I am not sure if this is an absolutely necessary step, but it's what the directions say to do). I cleaned the bathroom top to bottom. And I mean cleaned. Lysol was my friend today. The whole house smells like Lysol. Which tends to get overpowering after awhile. Tomorrow I plan on attacking Jack's room with the anti-GERM stuff. And the kitchen too.

Unfortunately, we have a bunch of moms and kids coming over for a potluck on Wednesday...so all of my hard work will be un-done. I will just have to start all over. Because THE GERMS need to learn that they will never survive here. I will triumph. We will be healthy.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Eye Update

With all the craziness of Halloween (OK...that's just a lame excuse) I forgot to post an update on Jack's ophthalmology appointment. Yes, his left eye is turning in more. No, it's not because the vision in his left eye has gotten worse. Get this - the vision in his RIGHT eye has gotten worse. His GOOD eye. It was a +1.50 when he was first examined by this doctor (4 months ago), and now it has degraded to a +2.50. That is quite the jump. The way the doctor explained it was that he is trying to compensate for the poor vision in his right eye by turning his left eye in to focus. Because that's the one he's used to straining with. Poor guy. So...the doctor wants to see him one week after the new lenses come in. If he doesn't see significant improvement after that week, we're going to have to go to patches. He will patch the good eye to strengthen the weak (left) eye. I really don't want to have to do patches, but the doctor made it sound like it was almost a for-sure thing. Unavoidable. It should be interesting (to say the least) to see how Jack tolerates having a patch over his eye. But...I am getting ahead of myself. Nothing is for certain yet. If the patching doesn't work, then it's on to surgery. But I'm not even thinking that far ahead. One day at a time. :)

On another note, I don't think I am going to survive winter. It is getting cold and windy and I don't think I will survive. I want to be a bear and hibernate all winter long. That would be a great diet plan. Don't eat...just sleep. And the cubs sleep too. Best part!