Croupy Princess, Curious Superhero, and Soapy Kids

Ok, this has been one crazy week and it is only Wednesday!

The Princess started doing a weird breathing thing on Friday of last week. We waited through the weekend and took her to the doctor on Monday. Turns out she has croup. She was put on steroids to help with her swollen throat so she could breathe better.She has been on the steroids since Monday afternoon and has 2 ½ more day to go. She is a little more fidgety and has a hard time sleeping. I am pretty sure she is a little dizzy from the meds since she wants me to hold her non-stop and keeps putting her head down on me, this is not normal for my busy and active baby.

We went for a follow up today and she appears to be getting better, but due to her eczema (also told about this on Monday at her appointment), she may need to have regular breathing treatments. Her oxygen level on both Monday and today was 96, not too far from normal, but they are keeping an eye on her. We go back on August 3rd for her 9 month well-check and they will determine then if she needs breathing treatments (she will be off the steroids then).

The Superhero. Oh, The Superhero. My curious little boy. He continues to “look” for trouble.

A little back story: The Superhero does not always come to find The Daddy and I when he wakes up in the morning. We installed a gate in the hallway of our old house and he was forced to come to our room first. In the new house the kids are on the opposite side of the house from us, so the gate does not do us a lot of good. We do not usually latch it at night because The Princess’ room is right next to it and he would wake her up should he come out of his room before morning.

Fast forward to this week on Monday…

On Monday morning I woke up and had a feeling The Superhero was out of bed. I looked on the monitor (yes, we have a video monitor), and sure enough he was up. The Daddy got up and found The Superhero in the kitchen. He was sitting there with his blankie and binkie, and the following: Parmesan cheese, mustard, chocolate syrup, and cotton rounds (used when we check his blood sugar). He sat there and smile for the camera as The Daddy took his picture.

The Daddy and I swore we would remember to lock the child lock on the fridge regularly. We had gotten out of the habit of doing this.

Last night was a ROUGH night in our house. The Princess had a hard time sleeping. I finally got her to “stay” asleep at about 10pm. She woke up at 1:30am to nurse. At 2:30 I woke up to The Superhero coming into my room. No biggie, The Daddy puts him back to bed. (I suspect he was up from the time The Princess was up at 1:30 until 2:30 when he came in our room)

3:30 am The Princess wakes up, again. I go in and rock her back to sleep. I go back to bed.

4:30 am I hear something in the living room. I tell The Daddy that I think The Superhero is up. He looks on the monitor, says no, it looks like he is in bed. I tell him that I am pretty sure The Superhero is up and he should check..

Sure enough, The Superhero was up. The Daddy found him and went back to bed.

I get up this morning and take my shower, come out and see that The Superhero is up with The Daddy (now 6:45am or so). I ask The Daddy about The Superhero being up at 4:30am. The Daddy had stayed in The Superhero’s room from that time on to when I woke him up so I could take a shower, he needed to watch The Princess.

He said I needed to see the kitchen. Oh great! I was not prepared to see the kitchen. I walk in and find a HUGE mess! He had the parmesan cheese ALL over in front of the sink on the rug, mixed with lotion (we did not know it was lotion for a few more minutes). There was also chocolate syrup out, though he did not open it.

We also found a toy bowl with parmesan cheese, parmesan cheese on the floor, and lotion on the toys and floor in the toy room/ office.

What a way to wake up.

Always looking for trouble…

This evening The Superhero climbed into the Pack N’ Play with The Princess despite me telling him that he was too big. He continues to do this on a regular basis. Tonight he did it again and I ignored him because I just needed a few minute break and The Princess loves having him in there with her.

I was doing a little work on the computer and noticed it was getting a little quiet in the other room.

Quiet is NEVER good in this house.

I go in to find The Superhero and The Princess COVERED in Dial foam soap that The Superhero found on the kitchen counter. He covered his sister and himself! I did not think fast enough to take pictures. I ran them both in to my bathroom and rinsed them off in the shower.

This boy is constantly looking for trouble! What will it be next?

One Crazy Day

Today was my first day back at work from “vacation”. Of course, I knew it would take some time to get back into the routine with the kids. We went about our morning as usual. Had breakfast, got the kids dressed, checked email, nursed The Princess and put her down for her nap.

After her nap I gave her the medicine for reflux as I normally would, though I was doing everything with one hand since she would not let me put her down. I had not put the cap back on the medicine bottle yet; I figured I would get to it in a minute. After I gave her the medicine, I had to clean her nose and then change her clothes from her spitting up on her outfit.

While I was gone to change her, I told The Superhero to be a “good boy” as I always do. He said “good boy, promise”. So off I went to change The Princess. I come back out of her room and notice him standing at the kitchen counter with her medicine bottle on its side! (of course, I am thinking “why in the world did I not put the cap back on that bottle)

I tell him not to touch it again and I was walking around the counter to get to him and the medicine and he looked right at me as I was telling him “NO!” and he proceeded to dump the ENTIRE bottle of medicine on the floor (that I just cleaned yesterday!).

So I put him in time-out while I clean everything up, then clean his hands and mine from the sticky mess. I call the pharmacy to have the prescription refilled. It was an almost full bottle and will cost me $35 to replace. We move on with our day…

Feed the kids lunch, put them down for naps, eat my lunch, get some work done.

The Superhero got up from his nap, blood sugar was PERFECT! (yeah the basal changes seem to be working) He has a snack. We wait for The Princess to get up from her nap. Both kids napped 3 ½ hours today, AWESOME! I feed The Princess and we get ready to head out. I had to meet a co-worker to pick up marketing materials before tomorrow’s movie event.

We get loaded in the car and head out. We are on the 101 freeway when I hear the lovely “music” from The Superhero’s pump letting me know the battery was low. I think “Thanks God I put a battery in his bag the other day when I saw 2 bars left on the pump battery” and then start thinking why did I not change this when I did his site change before I left, I knew we were getting close to needing a new battery, but did not know it would be today, I thought we could get away until the next change on Thursday.

We get to our meeting place, I get out and change the battery. Get back in the car to wait until my co-worker arrived. I hear the “music” from the pump, again. What?!? I look at the remote, “pump not primed, no delivery”. Oh, you have got to be kidding me! How could I forget to rewind, load and prime the pump? I cannot believe I forgot to do this. I get out and rewind, load, and prime the pump. Co-worker arrives, get materials, get back in the car and head home.

On the 101 going home, the gas light comes on! You have got to be kidding me! I decided to wait until I get off the freeway to get gas, luckily we made it fine. We stop for gas and head home.

I REALLY hope the rest of our evening is a little less uneventful than the day has been.

Celebrating One Year

The day started as any normal weekday. I took my shower, checked my email/facebook/etc, waited for my kids to wake up. The Superhero came out of his room as he normally does, ran over to me for me to hold him, and then laid there on me for a quick snuggle before running off to watch cartoons. Only today I think I just wanted to hold on to him a little longer. Snuggling with him reminded me of where we were just one year earlier. July 10, 2008 was the day my baby was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to handle this first anniversary. After much thinking and encouragement from other parents of children with diabetes we decided to celebrate his life by doing something special. We spent the morning as we normally do, well sort of. I cut his hair, he needed the trim. :) He had a shower, he thought that was pretty cool since he usually had baths. We ate the normal lunch, PB&J, mandarin oranges, and milk. He took his nap.

Then after his nap, I had his daddy take the afternoon off of work. We had decided to take him to see his first BIG movie in the theater. We wanted to see the movie “Up”. We got all ready.

The Princess' bottle…check,

The Princess' baby food for dinner…check,

The Princess' diapers, etc for the bag…check,

The Superhero's snacks…check, Superhero diapers…check,

The Superhero's juice, just in case…check,

The Superhero's diabetes supplies…check.

Ok, off we go.

We dropped The Princess off with my parents. I did not figure she would do well with the movie. Then we headed off to see “Up”. We got our tickets (and we excited that The Superhero was still free :) ). We bought The Superhero the kids pack with popcorn, fruit snacks, and a diet coke, all a treat for him. We found our seats. Checked his finger. Let him enjoy his popcorn and diet coke. Then the movie began. He sat still for a while, well, until his diet coke ran out. Then he wanted to sit in my lap, then in his seat, then in my lap, then in his seat, then in my lap, then he just wanted to stand. Luckily we had the first row at the theater so no one was in front of us. He ended up standing/squirming for the rest of the movie and made it all the way to the end before getting noisy.

After the movie we took him out to dinner at Red Robin. I let him pick what he wanted to eat off of the picture menu. He chose a corn dog and mandarin oranges. (What is it with this kid and his oranges?). He was checked again, and had a higher BG than we expected. Bolus. Milk arrives and cheese sticks. We let him try them, which of course he has to dip in sauce like Daddy. He proceeds to eat very little of his food by the time it came since he had snacked so much at the movies.

When we came home we fought mildly low blood sugar (at least too low to go to bed with insulin on board). We finally got him up to 137 around 9pm, after he was asleep.

All in all, it was a great day. He was actually well behaved and did not go in time out at all. He enjoyed getting to see a BIG movie. He enjoyed his dinner, at least what he ate of it. The thing I enjoyed most was getting to spend time with just The Superhero (and Rod) on the anniversary of the day his life was saved. I am not sure if we will include The Princess next year or not, we will have to play it by ear, but I enjoyed having just one kid for a short time.

And The Princess REALLY enjoyed her time with her NaNa and Pompa. I was told that Pompa could not get any work done with all the giggles and cuteness going on down stairs. I am glad she enjoyed her time too.

It has been one crazy and long year. Now hoping for many more, happy, healthy years with my little boy!

Getting BG checked at movies, 89, eat popcorn "free" and recheck soon.

Enjoying his popcorn and diet coke before the movie started.

Introduction

Well, after reading and following several blogs, I have finally decided to begin my own.




I am Tracy. My husband Rod and I have been married for almost 4 years and have 2 beautiful children. "The Superhero" is 2 1/2 years old and "The Princess" is 8 1/2 months old. They are both very active and very happy kids.




I am fortunate enough to be at home with them while I work full time for Arizona Virtual Academy. Arizona Virtual Academy (AZVA) is a public charter school for students in grades K-12. I have been working for this school for 2 1/2 years now and still love my job.




The Superhero was diagnosed with type one diabetes last summer, 7/10/08. This makes me even more thankful that I get to be at home with the kids. We have had a long and trying year and are very thankful we have our little boy here with us as we came so close to losing him last year.




I look forward to sharing the ups and downs as we deal with life, kids, and diabetes.








Tracy