F is for Family

Family, home, travel, life

Verdict: Tubes

Add us to the long list of parents with littles suffering from ear infections. Sofia has had chronic, bilateral ear infections starting in September. Just weeks before her 3rd birthday. Oddly, this should be the age where any ear infections start decreasing instead of starting up. After months of failed attempts, we were revered to an ENT.

We had the appointment with the ENT today to test her hearing and middle ear. She’s flat lined on the left ear and has a negative reading in the right which means she has a vacuum created by all the fluid. Our recommendation is tubes in both ears. 
I understand this is a very routine procedure, in and out. However, they will put her under and I don’t think there’s anything more nerve racking than having your baby under anesthetic and away from you. I had a great vibe with the doctor, I’m great flu for that. 
Apparently, her micro preemie beginning is rearing it’s ugly head. 

Verdict: Tubes

Add us to the long list of parents with littles suffering from ear infections. Sofia has had chronic, bilateral ear infections starting in September. Just weeks before her 3rd birthday. Oddly, this should be the age where any ear infections start decreasing instead of starting up. After months of failed attempts, we were revered to an ENT.

We had the appointment with the ENT today to test her hearing and middle ear. She’s flat lined on the left ear and has a negative reading in the right which means she has a vacuum created by all the fluid. Our recommendation is tubes in both ears. 
I understand this is a very routine procedure, in and out. However, they will put her under and I don’t think there’s anything more nerve racking than having your baby under anesthetic and away from you. I had a great vibe with the doctor, I’m great flu for that. 
Apparently, her micro preemie beginning is rearing it’s ugly head. 

The Sleepless and The Sassy

There are always challenges with adding a new baby to the household. Even more so if there is already another youngin’ at home. My two are 2 years and 4 months apart. A newborn and a two year old…didn’t quite think the logistics of that time frame through! But the start wasn’t quite the tumultuous  child run nightmare you’d suspect. Our challenges took a bit to surface. 

What’s more challenging than a two year old? A three year old! The sassy hit an all time high a few months ago. Adding to her sassy is that this kid is smart. And no, I’m not bragging for brownie point on this next piece, promise. Before her third birthday she was given her final evaluation to test out of Early Steps, a program that has been following her progress since she was released from the NICU. She tested in the 5-6 year old range. She’s also been noted to have “high energy” in past evaluations. Put those all on a blender and what do you get? A child who’s favorite game is what we like to call, “seek and destroy”, when she becomes bored. So, we have to keep this little toddler as occupied as possible. She’s started preschool but because of her birthday cut off she’s in a class with much younger kids. Socially it’s great but I try to keep an eye on whether she’s challenged to avoid becoming a “behavior issue” if she gets bored. 
We try to add some other fun games and learning techniques outside of school days. We have found a few games that she loves. We’ve found a few daily routines that make transitions throughout the day easier. I’ll be highlighting these in a series coming up so stay tuned.
On to Sleepless. Oh my little Sleepless monster. At 11 months old, I can count the days this little man has slept through the night on one hand! This is his biggest challenge. He’s my sweet, happy, little man during the day and a royal nighttime terror when the sun sets. I’m talking, walking and rocking at crazy hours of the night just to get him back to sleep. Still over night nursing on average 3-4 times a night at almost a year. This has been the biggest challenge of our year.
We aren’t into cry it out. Not for lack of trying. We’ve tried, my kids have stamina and I have a soft spot that can’t get past the scream fest. I don’t have a solution but your welcome on my journey to follow my attempts…the good, bad and the ugly. 
More to come…welcome to our crazy life!

The Sleepless and The Sassy

There are always challenges with adding a new baby to the household. Even more so if there is already another youngin’ at home. My two are 2 years and 4 months apart. A newborn and a two year old…didn’t quite think the logistics of that time frame through! But the start wasn’t quite the tumultuous  child run nightmare you’d suspect. Our challenges took a bit to surface. 

What’s more challenging than a two year old? A three year old! The sassy hit an all time high a few months ago. Adding to her sassy is that this kid is smart. And no, I’m not bragging for brownie point on this next piece, promise. Before her third birthday she was given her final evaluation to test out of Early Steps, a program that has been following her progress since she was released from the NICU. She tested in the 5-6 year old range. She’s also been noted to have “high energy” in past evaluations. Put those all on a blender and what do you get? A child who’s favorite game is what we like to call, “seek and destroy”, when she becomes bored. So, we have to keep this little toddler as occupied as possible. She’s started preschool but because of her birthday cut off she’s in a class with much younger kids. Socially it’s great but I try to keep an eye on whether she’s challenged to avoid becoming a “behavior issue” if she gets bored. 
We try to add some other fun games and learning techniques outside of school days. We have found a few games that she loves. We’ve found a few daily routines that make transitions throughout the day easier. I’ll be highlighting these in a series coming up so stay tuned.
On to Sleepless. Oh my little Sleepless monster. At 11 months old, I can count the days this little man has slept through the night on one hand! This is his biggest challenge. He’s my sweet, happy, little man during the day and a royal nighttime terror when the sun sets. I’m talking, walking and rocking at crazy hours of the night just to get him back to sleep. Still over night nursing on average 3-4 times a night at almost a year. This has been the biggest challenge of our year.
We aren’t into cry it out. Not for lack of trying. We’ve tried, my kids have stamina and I have a soft spot that can’t get past the scream fest. I don’t have a solution but your welcome on my journey to follow my attempts…the good, bad and the ugly. 
More to come…welcome to our crazy life!

The Sleepless and The Sassy

There are always challenges with adding a new baby to the household. Even more so if there is already another youngin’ at home. My two are 2 years and 4 months apart. A newborn and a two year old…didn’t quite think the logistics of that time frame through! But the start wasn’t quite the tumultuous  child run nightmare you’d suspect. Our challenges took a bit to surface. 

What’s more challenging than a two year old? A three year old! The sassy hit an all time high a few months ago. Adding to her sassy is that this kid is smart. And no, I’m not bragging for brownie point on this next piece, promise. Before her third birthday she was given her final evaluation to test out of Early Steps, a program that has been following her progress since she was released from the NICU. She tested in the 5-6 year old range. She’s also been noted to have “high energy” in past evaluations. Put those all on a blender and what do you get? A child who’s favorite game is what we like to call, “seek and destroy”, when she becomes bored. So, we have to keep this little toddler as occupied as possible. She’s started preschool but because of her birthday cut off she’s in a class with much younger kids. Socially it’s great but I try to keep an eye on whether she’s challenged to avoid becoming a “behavior issue” if she gets bored. 
We try to add some other fun games and learning techniques outside of school days. We have found a few games that she loves. We’ve found a few daily routines that make transitions throughout the day easier. I’ll be highlighting these in a series coming up so stay tuned.
On to Sleepless. Oh my little Sleepless monster. At 11 months old, I can count the days this little man has slept through the night on one hand! This is his biggest challenge. He’s my sweet, happy, little man during the day and a royal nighttime terror when the sun sets. I’m talking, walking and rocking at crazy hours of the night just to get him back to sleep. Still over night nursing on average 3-4 times a night at almost a year. This has been the biggest challenge of our year.
We aren’t into cry it out. Not for lack of trying. We’ve tried, my kids have stamina and I have a soft spot that can’t get past the scream fest. I don’t have a solution but your welcome on my journey to follow my attempts…the good, bad and the ugly. 
More to come…welcome to our crazy life!

The Great Balancing Act: 2 kids, 2 locations

I started this post yesterday morning even before I knew where the day would lead. Anticipation of juggling an energetic toddler at home while making sure to spend time at the bedside of a brand new baby in intensive care weighed heavily on me from the moment I woke up. 

We started our Saturday with breakfast as a family as usual. Jonathan and I set a game plan for the day. He’d take the ball full of energy to burn off steam at the local play place and bring her back for lunch and nap while went to the NICU with our little boy. We’d meet up at the hospital in the afternoon and be home for an early evening after visiting baby Jackson as a family.
I should know by now that the best laid plans are really just ticking time bombs. My Mom drove me to the hospital and while in route I felt a little off. My thought was I may not have taken my pain medication and vitamins with enough food. I don’t typically do well with iron multivitamins unless I’ve had plenty to eat. I figured it would pass. 
I arrived at Jackson’s bedside and still felt a little strange. We had our first attempt at breast feeding with the lactation consultant and he did great! It was such a fantastic milestone. I held him for the next little bit and we finished his full feed by bottle.
This is when the day took a turn for the worst. I began feeling flush and nauseous. Next thing I know, I end up in triage because I’ve somehow picked up a stomach bug. By the time we get home, I’m running 101.6 temp, I’m in bed and now Jonathan is trying to take care of me and Sofia.
She, at this point, just wants to play with Mommy since she hasn’t seen me all day and doesn’t understand why she has to stay away. This has already been a bit of a confusing transition for her and this added to her stress. What is normally a few minutes for bedtime turned into an hour and 45 minutes of screaming at the top of her lungs despite attempts to soothe her and put her back in bed or letting her scream. 
There’s no other time when I wish I could be in two different places at the same time, or honestly three different places. One sick in bed, one playing with my toddler and bedside with my newborn son. It will be at least 24 hours until I’m allowed back to the NICU, it breaks my heart to be away that long but it would kill me to pass something on to him. 
This adds a new dimension to the great NICU/home balancing act. 

The Great Balancing Act: 2 kids, 2 locations

I started this post yesterday morning even before I knew where the day would lead. Anticipation of juggling an energetic toddler at home while making sure to spend time at the bedside of a brand new baby in intensive care weighed heavily on me from the moment I woke up. 

We started our Saturday with breakfast as a family as usual. Jonathan and I set a game plan for the day. He’d take the ball full of energy to burn off steam at the local play place and bring her back for lunch and nap while went to the NICU with our little boy. We’d meet up at the hospital in the afternoon and be home for an early evening after visiting baby Jackson as a family.
I should know by now that the best laid plans are really just ticking time bombs. My Mom drove me to the hospital and while in route I felt a little off. My thought was I may not have taken my pain medication and vitamins with enough food. I don’t typically do well with iron multivitamins unless I’ve had plenty to eat. I figured it would pass. 
I arrived at Jackson’s bedside and still felt a little strange. We had our first attempt at breast feeding with the lactation consultant and he did great! It was such a fantastic milestone. I held him for the next little bit and we finished his full feed by bottle.
This is when the day took a turn for the worst. I began feeling flush and nauseous. Next thing I know, I end up in triage because I’ve somehow picked up a stomach bug. By the time we get home, I’m running 101.6 temp, I’m in bed and now Jonathan is trying to take care of me and Sofia.
She, at this point, just wants to play with Mommy since she hasn’t seen me all day and doesn’t understand why she has to stay away. This has already been a bit of a confusing transition for her and this added to her stress. What is normally a few minutes for bedtime turned into an hour and 45 minutes of screaming at the top of her lungs despite attempts to soothe her and put her back in bed or letting her scream. 
There’s no other time when I wish I could be in two different places at the same time, or honestly three different places. One sick in bed, one playing with my toddler and bedside with my newborn son. It will be at least 24 hours until I’m allowed back to the NICU, it breaks my heart to be away that long but it would kill me to pass something on to him. 
This adds a new dimension to the great NICU/home balancing act. 

The Great Balancing Act: 2 kids, 2 locations

I started this post yesterday morning even before I knew where the day would lead. Anticipation of juggling an energetic toddler at home while making sure to spend time at the bedside of a brand new baby in intensive care weighed heavily on me from the moment I woke up. 

We started our Saturday with breakfast as a family as usual. Jonathan and I set a game plan for the day. He’d take the ball full of energy to burn off steam at the local play place and bring her back for lunch and nap while went to the NICU with our little boy. We’d meet up at the hospital in the afternoon and be home for an early evening after visiting baby Jackson as a family.
I should know by now that the best laid plans are really just ticking time bombs. My Mom drove me to the hospital and while in route I felt a little off. My thought was I may not have taken my pain medication and vitamins with enough food. I don’t typically do well with iron multivitamins unless I’ve had plenty to eat. I figured it would pass. 
I arrived at Jackson’s bedside and still felt a little strange. We had our first attempt at breast feeding with the lactation consultant and he did great! It was such a fantastic milestone. I held him for the next little bit and we finished his full feed by bottle.
This is when the day took a turn for the worst. I began feeling flush and nauseous. Next thing I know, I end up in triage because I’ve somehow picked up a stomach bug. By the time we get home, I’m running 101.6 temp, I’m in bed and now Jonathan is trying to take care of me and Sofia.
She, at this point, just wants to play with Mommy since she hasn’t seen me all day and doesn’t understand why she has to stay away. This has already been a bit of a confusing transition for her and this added to her stress. What is normally a few minutes for bedtime turned into an hour and 45 minutes of screaming at the top of her lungs despite attempts to soothe her and put her back in bed or letting her scream. 
There’s no other time when I wish I could be in two different places at the same time, or honestly three different places. One sick in bed, one playing with my toddler and bedside with my newborn son. It will be at least 24 hours until I’m allowed back to the NICU, it breaks my heart to be away that long but it would kill me to pass something on to him. 
This adds a new dimension to the great NICU/home balancing act. 

Throwback Thursday: Getting Past the Past

Sofia is now 20 months old, almost 20.5 months and sometimes it feels like an eternity since we walked out of that NICU. I’ve been thinking a lot about our experience in its entirety over the past few weeks, from finding out we were pregnant, through the crazy pregnancy and Sofia’s emotional birth. We are pretty close to the 2 year mark so the questions start coming a little more regularly…when are you going to try for #2? Thinking about trying soon? Just by nature the more you are asked the more you ask yourself, the more I ask my husband. We’ve even turned the question to Sofia. Sofie, what do you think about a brother? Her response, “Bruder”? It almost always comes back as a question. Ironic, really.
So, we talk and discuss. Is it the right time, can we afford it, are we ready? Pretty typical. Sofia’s almost two, logically, if we start trying now, by the time we have a baby she’ll be almost three or just past her third birthday…right? I mean theoretically, babies take 10 months to grow but what happens when the last one barely took over 6 months?! How do you not think about that? How do you choose a new Doctor and not consider the level NICU they are associated with? Will this NICU be as good? Sure, I had my surgery. This was my safe guard. Remove the fibroid tumors, they were most likely the issue. But what if they weren’t? I asked this to the OB who performed the surgery. He said, “We’ll find out next pregnancy”. It was a statement of fact, no sugar coating, no hemming and hawing, just a statement.
I’ve come to realize that even though the first pregnancy was riddled in the unknown and “what ifs” of being a first time pregnancy, another pregnancy may be tainted with past experience, compounded with how it will effect baby #1. I feel our NICU experience made me stronger as a mother, my bond with her is surreal. My patience, on most days, because let’s face it, she’s a toddler and they are crazy, runs deeper than I could imagine. As far as NICU stays, I feel it was a positive journey. But how to you leave it behind? How do you keep your past experience from defining your future? How do you stop being a NICU Mom when you are ready to become a Mom again?
I had no clue the path we would be on when that first pregnancy test flashed with a confirmation of a new adventure. I didn’t know the lessons Sofia would teach me in her very first moments of life, lessons in perseverance, strength and faith. All I can do is follow her lead. Be in awe of each new experience and draw strength from faith. I have to learn to give up my analyzing and have faith that the next adventure will present itself as it is intended. I hope I can live in the moment of that new confirmation and just think of it as a NEW adventure, a NEW journey…

Throwback Thursday: Getting Past the Past

Sofia is now 20 months old, almost 20.5 months and sometimes it feels like an eternity since we walked out of that NICU. I’ve been thinking a lot about our experience in its entirety over the past few weeks, from finding out we were pregnant, through the crazy pregnancy and Sofia’s emotional birth. We are pretty close to the 2 year mark so the questions start coming a little more regularly…when are you going to try for #2? Thinking about trying soon? Just by nature the more you are asked the more you ask yourself, the more I ask my husband. We’ve even turned the question to Sofia. Sofie, what do you think about a brother? Her response, “Bruder”? It almost always comes back as a question. Ironic, really.
So, we talk and discuss. Is it the right time, can we afford it, are we ready? Pretty typical. Sofia’s almost two, logically, if we start trying now, by the time we have a baby she’ll be almost three or just past her third birthday…right? I mean theoretically, babies take 10 months to grow but what happens when the last one barely took over 6 months?! How do you not think about that? How do you choose a new Doctor and not consider the level NICU they are associated with? Will this NICU be as good? Sure, I had my surgery. This was my safe guard. Remove the fibroid tumors, they were most likely the issue. But what if they weren’t? I asked this to the OB who performed the surgery. He said, “We’ll find out next pregnancy”. It was a statement of fact, no sugar coating, no hemming and hawing, just a statement.
I’ve come to realize that even though the first pregnancy was riddled in the unknown and “what ifs” of being a first time pregnancy, another pregnancy may be tainted with past experience, compounded with how it will effect baby #1. I feel our NICU experience made me stronger as a mother, my bond with her is surreal. My patience, on most days, because let’s face it, she’s a toddler and they are crazy, runs deeper than I could imagine. As far as NICU stays, I feel it was a positive journey. But how to you leave it behind? How do you keep your past experience from defining your future? How do you stop being a NICU Mom when you are ready to become a Mom again?
I had no clue the path we would be on when that first pregnancy test flashed with a confirmation of a new adventure. I didn’t know the lessons Sofia would teach me in her very first moments of life, lessons in perseverance, strength and faith. All I can do is follow her lead. Be in awe of each new experience and draw strength from faith. I have to learn to give up my analyzing and have faith that the next adventure will present itself as it is intended. I hope I can live in the moment of that new confirmation and just think of it as a NEW adventure, a NEW journey…

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