Feeling Very "deja vu" right now

First things first. I don't think I've written since starting school! Things are going really well. My weeks are SO hectic though between school, the boys' schools, housework, Andrew, etc etc. I don't think I really sit down at all during the week sometimes! Right now I have straight A's, although I know I just bombed my Micro biology exam and that will probably drop me to a B in that class. I'm trying not to dwell on it and keep telling myself I'll bring it back to an A with the next exam.

I'm thinking of adding another online class next semester. Yes I'm crazy I know ;)

I took Andrew back to the doctor today because he STILL isn't any better from this cold he's had. It's going on 3 weeks now and he's still crying constantly and pulling his ears and is SO snotty. Low and behold the ear infection STILL hasn't gone away. After 2 rounds of antibiotics she said "it's the worst ear I've seen in a while" greeeeaat. She's doubling up his antiobiotics this time (he'll be taking 2 different ones) for the next week. If it's not any better after that (or if he gets another one soon) we'll be talking tubes. He's had 6 ear infections and he's almost 11 months old. Deja Vu... We went through this with Aidan AND Austin. They both ended up with tubes. So I'm totally expecting to have him seen for tubes soon.

Then I was talking to the doctor today about Andrew not using his legs when he crawls. He just kinda drags them behind him. And he doesn't pull to a stand or even stand while I'm holding him at all. Being that all 3 of my other boys were walking by 11 months I was/am curious if it was ok. She tried to get him to stand and then she kinda got this look on her face and said "hmm maybe we should have him looked at by early intervention" I said "really? Do you think that's necessary?" and she said "better to catch it early if it is anything, and it's free and they'll come to your house."

Yeah.....I know all about early intervention. A little to well if you ask me. So of course now I'm all flipped out because AGAIN I feel like this is Deja Vu. I just have the gut feeling they're going to come to my house, run their evaluations on him and then they'll say something about his speech (all he does at this point is "eh") and they'll say something about his gross motor (OMG I just totally typo'd "gross mother") because of his lack of leg use.

Deja Vu.

My first response to the doctor was "great, just what I need...another kid needing therapy" I know it probably wasn't the "politically correct" thing to say. But it's how I feel/felt. I haven't even gotten him evaluated and all I can think about is "I can't go through this again."
I just can't.....

On IEP's and Therapy

Avery's preschool teacher has been basically "hinting" to me for the past week that the IEP meeting I have scheduled for Avery this Thursday is going to be tough for me.  She has told me on more than one occasion "I can't find a single thing to put on Avery's IEP as a goal" and "I don't know if he's going to qualify on Thursday, since speech is his only issue."  and also "He's a smart cookie! He knows everything! There's nothing on the 4 year curriculum that he needs to work on next year on his IEP"

What?!?!  Are they serious???  That's awful funny, because both his private therapists and I disagree with that!

He has social issues!  He wouldn't be in a social skills therapy group if he didn't have a problem socially with other children!  Even the preschool teacher has said that Avery will choose where I wants to play and with who he wants to play with.  He doesn't play WITH other children, but will play NEXT TO the other children.  But because he'll go over to the same play area with them there's no social issues?? 

Avery's private therapist has said she would write up a paper to say what goals they need to include on his IEP for social issues, but we all know the school doesn't HAVE to accept her evaluation.

Avery has a diagnosis of Apraxia.  But according to the school they don't accept any "diagnosis" until the kindergarten year.  So are they saying that because they won't accept the diagnosis they don't have to give Avery the therapy he needs on his IEP??  I don't think so!  "Speech isn't enough to qualify him"  No "Speech" isn't, but APRAXIA is!  His speech therapist at the school claims Avery is hitting sounds with "80-85% accuracy."  Which would means he's met his "IEP goal" because they're "goal" is 80%.  Except the fact that that is completely UNTRUE!  The way they have worded it makes it seem that he's met his goals.  In reality yes he does make certain sounds with 80-85% accuracy in a face to face therapy setting.  In spontaneous speech and in more than 2-3 word sentances that drops DRAMATICALLY!


And I don't know how to argue anything they say because I don't know what they are going to say!!  They sent home a "draft" of Avery's IEP for me to review before the meeting.  But what they sent me is the same exact IEP I have from last years IEP meeting!  I can't bring "proof" or any evidence to back what I'm saying if I don't know what proof or evidence I'm going to need!

Grr I'm so frustrated and feeling totally unprepared for his IEP meeting thursday.

Not enough hours in the day!

There just never seems to be enough hours in the day!  The boys are supposed to be in bed.  I say that in italics because I can hear them talking and their bed creaking so I know they aren't sleeping and it's 11pm on a school night! UGH!

My niece has been in the PICU for just over 2 weeks now.  It's to long of a story to get into, but my sister asked me to start a blog to keep everyone informed so if you haven't been keeping up with that blog you can read about the situation (from the begining) here...

Hailey's Healing Blog

Because of this I've spent a couple hours every other day at the hospital with my sister and my brother in law and niece.  Add in the hours upon hours I spend at therapy with my 4 year old every week and the typical daily household chores and my other 3 boys and I'm getting burnt out quick.  The house is suffering the boys are complaining because they want to go to the park or do something else and I just don't have the time to take them.  I need more hours in the day!

Avery has started a social skills class now also on Monday nights.  Because of the time of the social skills class I hit traffic both ways and I end up gone for almost 4 hours for a 1 hour class for him.

I think I'm totally due for a vacation!

Andrew flipped himself out of his swing tonight.  He's now at the point where he needs to be strapped into everything because he just flips and rolls and wiggles.  I can't believe I'm about to have to start baby proofing again!  He's getting so big so fast!

Austin is acting out and I'm sure it's an attention thing with him.  Not sure how to handle that either.

I think I'm just gonna end this blog entry before it gets into a pity party!  It's just been one of those nights I guess.

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

Well Hello There!!

Welcome to my "hiding spot"!  Please close the door behind you and make sure not to let any kids in here!  This is MY area!  I sit in here and whisper so no one can find me.

My name is Heather and I'm a 30 year old mom to 4 boys.  Aidan is 9, Austin is 7, Avery is 4 and Andrew is 4 months.  All boys. All A names.

My 4 year old has speech apraxia, sensory integration, and social anxiety.  His therapists go back and forth on whether he has an aspergers diagnosis or not.  It will probably be a while before we truly know or not.  Right now I spend a lot of my life at his therapies.  He also attends a special needs preschool 4 days a week in the mornings.

Andrew was born in November and spent almost 2 weeks in the NICU.  Although he was born "on time" according to my dates, the NICU team thought he was closer to 35-36 weeks and his lungs were not ready.  He was on a ventilator for a while, then moved to a CPAP, then finally to nothing.  It was a scary time for me.  And it was absolute torture leaving him at the hospital when I was discharged.  We made it though and now he's growing like a weed and doing so well.  Just today he rolled from back to belly!

I participated last year in the UBP and couldn't wait to participate again this year!  I LOVE meeting new people and especially new mom bloggers!

Grab a cup of coffee and stick around!  I've been a slacker at posting lately, but I promise that will change!

The Austin Entry

Austin had an appt today with an Oral Surgeon. At his dental appt a couple weeks ago the dentist noticed an "extra" adult tooth in the top front of his mouth. This tooth is facing the wrong direction (up towards his brain as opposed to pointing down into his mouth) so this tooth will never come in. Had they not taken an xray of that area (he was having pain up there) they would have never known it was there. So they referred us to an oral surgeon to see when/if it needed to be removed.




We went today and the oral surgeon actually believes looking at the xray that there are TWO extra teeth. What needs to happen though is he'll need to be put completely to sleep for them to take it out as they are in the bone requiring them to cut his upper palate open to get to them and remove them and then stitch his palate back shut. The oral surgeon thinks we should do the procedure sooner rather than later because he's afraid the extra teeth are preventing the adult teeth from coming in. He's also afraid the extra teeth COULD be fused to the adult teeth. If that is the case Austin would have to lose both adult front top teeth.



Not sure what would happen if that is the case. Hoping for best case scenerio right now and just that they go in, take out the extra tooth/teeth, and no issues come up.



We'll go in on March 17th and they will give Austin some nitrous. Then insert an IV to put him to sleep and do the procedure and then he'll be in the recovery room for 30-45 min and then come home. He'll have to miss 2 days of school. I scheduled the appt on a Thursday so that he would be home thursday and friday from school but it would still give him an additional 2 days to recoup. I also got a prescription for pain meds and an antibiotic for him to use after the procedure.



I think I'm more nervous then anything. He's completely and totally excited about it. The oral surgeon told him he will need to miss 2 days of school, eat ice cream and pudding and jello that first day and play video games or watch movies all day. That sold him! LOL



I'm gonna leave him being excited about it, because hopefully that will help the start of the procedure anyway. But I know what kind of pain he's going to be in afterwards (I had all 4 wisdom teeth out and had to be put completely to sleep because they were completely in the bone and not going to come in). So I am NOT looking forward to his recovery. I'm going to ask my MIL to come down and stay that weekend (thurs-sun) because Roy has already said he'd rather not take off work and I NEED someone to get the other boys off to school and stuff when I take him.



Never a dull moment huh?!

You know it's bad when...

You know it's bad when you have to read your last entry just to figure out what you have or have not told yet!




So after that last entry two days later Andrew started having another breathing episode. Another one where it scared me that he couldn't breathe. I called the new pediatrician and she told me to bring him right in. I called Roy and told him I needed him on standby incase I couldn't be at the boys' school in time to pick them up and off I went to the doc with Andrew and Avery.



She listened to his lungs again and said he was definitely noisy and having trouble. She said his breathing rate was up again and with the way he was crying she felt it was time to take the next step. She set him up with a breathing treatment right there in the office. She warned me that he would probably hate it and would most likely scream the entire time. We put the mask on him and turned the machine on and he suddenly went calm and still. So calm in fact that he fell asleep! After the treatment was over she told me "that's how you know that he needed the treatment. It helped so much he fell asleep!" She listened to his lungs again and said it was nice and smooth now. She sent me home with a nebulizer, a prescription for Albuterol (enough for 4 months!) and a prescription for prednisone (steriod). Told me to give him a treatment every 4 hours for a couple days, and give him the steriod too.



She called me this morning to check on him and told me that RSV can last up to 6 weeks and even longer in a baby with lung issues to begin with. She said to stop the breathing treatments and now only use them when I felt he needed them.



He seems to be breathing better that's for sure. He's still really congested in his nose though.



Spring's right around the corner right?!



The boys all had their Valentine Parties at school today. I felt bad because I emailed Avery's teacher to see if Parents could come to the party and got a response saying



"well we're going to do valentine's at circle time and IF Willow's mom shows and IF she brings the cookies we'll decorate cookies at 11am."



Well to me it didn't sound like parents were going, so I didn't go up to the school. When I went to pick Avery up I was sitting outside the school saying to myself "wow I can't believe no parents are here yet!" And when the door opened and they started coming out I thought "I'm the only parent here so far still." Until I realized the kids were coming out WITH their parents!!! UGH! I felt HORRIBLE! I couldn't believe I didn't go to Avery's party because I didn't think parents were going and then parents DID go! I'm sure Avery didn't care. I mean he didn't say anything to me, but I knew it ya know?! UGH!



Went this afternoon to the other Elementary School to attend Aidan and Austin's Valentine's Parties. Their parties were from 3-3:45pm. I had Roy come home and watch Avery and Andrew since siblings aren't allowed in their school. Again I felt bad because I had to split the time between both boys. So of course when I went to Aidan's class from Austin's class I got the "where WERE you?!" and vice versa. Only nice thing was I was able to bring the boys home at 3:40 when I left instead of having to wait till 3:55 when they get out, so I beat all the after school traffic.



My boys have 1/2 days wednesday and thursday and no school Friday or Monday so I made plans for us to go to my mother in laws on Thursday after school. I'll drive us up there (since Roy has to work Thursday and Friday) and I'll stay there till Friday afternoon at some point. The 3 older boys will come home Monday at some point. I figure this way she'll get to see Andrew for a little bit since it's been a while since she's seen him. And the 3 older boys will get some time away from having to share the spotlight with Andrew.



We're thinking about moving Aidan into the toy room in the basement. Of course we'd take the toys out of there and everything, but with him turning 9 tomorrow (OMG is he seriously turning 9 tomorrow?!?) we feel like he deserves his own space. Him and Austin have really been fighting like cats and dogs lately and maybe not having to share a room together will help that situation some. It just makes me nervous him being on a different floor than us at night.



Alright it's almost midnight...I'm off to bed.

Letters of Intent Friday!

It's time for a few "letters of intent" today!  It's been a while since I've done an entry like this! I'm linking up with Foursons for my letters today!


Dear Old Pediatrician,

 After hearing you tell me "let it run it's course" for over 3 weeks I had my 2 month old seen by a different pediatrician.  It was then that he was diagnosed with RSV and Bronchialitis.  That was your last straw.  We will now be seeing the new pediatrician.

Goodbye!
The lady who is sick of feeling like she's going crazy when she calls you and is told nothing is wrong.


Dear Preschool Teacher:

It's been 2 weeks and I'm still upset About Avery having his snack taken away for "not saying Hi to his friends".  When a child has a communication disorder like Apraxia the last thing you should do is take away his snack for not talking.  Don't let me hear that it happened again, or there will be hell to pay.

Signed,
A mother you don't wanna mess with


Dear Refridgerator repairman:

Seriously where do you get off telling a mom of 4 boys that I don't know true love until a daughter climbs up in your lap and says "I love you."  I guarantee you that it's pretty much the same as when one of my boys do it, just in a higher pitch voice.

Jerk!

Signed the woman who has to pay your invoice so I'd watch your mouth.


To read more "letters of intent" Click the picture at the top of this entry!!

New Pediatrician and a Cardiologist update

So I switched the kids to a new pediatrician. I researched and researched and looked for a pediatrician who is a small office. I'm sick of the offices that have 9 doctors and 4 nurses plus a whole office staff. I feel like we don't get any kind of personalized care. They kept telling me to "let it run it's course" with Andrew and then look what happened. They told me they only vaccinate their way, and there was no way around that.




So I found this pediatrician nearby (closer than the other office!) and set up a consultation with her. I saw her and she looked at Andrew the very same day. Gave me meds for him and talked to me. I set up his 2 month well check (although 2 weeks late!) with her. I took him yesterday for his 2 month well visit.



12lbs 12oz and 21 1/3 inches long. His head was 17cm and she asked me about any concerns I had about him. I told her about the congestion that he STILL has and she agreed with me that it's still all in his nose and at least for now his lungs and everything sound much better and are clear. She said that RSV can last up to 6 weeks so she wants to give him 2 more weeks to try to clear up. If he's not better then, then we'll talk more. She mentioned how she looked in his nose to see if the boys might have put a bead or something in there. I can promise you they did NOT. First of all we don't have any beads or anything small enough to put in his nose. Second of all I pay way to close of attention to them when they are with Andrew for that to happen. She didn't see anything in his nose (told ya!) and said maybe because he has such a small nasal passageway it's causing him to remain congested.



She asked me what we were doing about vaccinations and I told her we wanted to follow the delayed vaccination schedule and without even blinking an eye she said "no problem." and went to the front desk and grabbed the delayed schedule and showed me it to see if it was the one I wanted to follow. It was, and she stapled it to his chart. She said "Today he'll get the DTAP then!" and I said "and the rotavirus right?" She then told me that she doesn't give the rotavirus vaccine. She said she has found that the risks outweigh the benefits in that vaccine. She went on to say that everyone gets rotavirus and even with the vaccine you still get the virus. She said that they feel that we have great access to medical care with her and the hospital and urgent care that the risk of the children getting dehydrated with the virus are very minimal. She said that most children get a gastrointestinal effect from the vaccine and they just don't feel it's worth it.



Fine by me! So Andrew got his DTAP and will go back next month for 2 more vaccines. He'll be seen monthly basically with every other month just being a vaccine appt. He'll only get 1-2 vaccines at a time. Which is exactly what I wanted.



And now he's crying so I gotta go!



**



Ok back....I also went back to the cardiologist last week. They ran another EKG and told me my ECHO that I had done a few weeks before didn't show anything. Everything looked normal on it. The only thing they say was some "gurgling" or something or other in some part of my heart. I asked what that meant and she said "it's basically heartburn" But because I was only a week out of having Andrew she wasn't concerned because I had HORRIBLE heartburn at the end of the pregnancy. She will re-do the ECHO in 6 months to see if it's gone away completely. I was told I'd get a call the next day with the results from the EKG they ran. I never did get that phone call. It took them a full week to call me back. When they called back she said "Everything looks normal" I said "so the extended QT is gone?" And she said "Everything is normal". Why don't I trust them?! Roy says that they have to be telling the truth or it could be a lawsuit. But I still don't trust them. Nothing I can do though. So as of right now it looks like everything was caused by the pregnancy and the fluid retention afterwards.

Wordless Wednesday!

My 4 year old with Andrew (6 weeks in this picture!) watching Tom and Jerry!