Taking the Scenic Route

 Tonight Zane asked for something, but I couldn’t understand what he wanted.  After the “20 questions” he showed me the bag of cherries he wanted.  So, I confirm he wants cherries (which he used to love, but wouldn’t eat earlier in the week when I presented him with a bowl) and start cleaning and pitting a bowl for him.  While I am doing that he gets out the chocolate milk.  I explain that I will get him a glass as soon as I am done with the cherries.  Before I can finish though, he pours the chocolate milk over the cherries and starts chanting “Chocolate Cherries!” and dancing around the room.  lol.  I have no idea where he got this idea, but I thought it was pretty clever.

Here he is with his creation, carefully carrying it, making sure his spoon doesn’t fall out.

amazing, powerful blog

Shape of a Mother

 Zora’s 6 month appointment has been moved back.  My regular ped, who is fairly mainstream, but I still like her, is on maternity leave.  When the kids were sick I called her to ask if I could give Zora some antihistamine because she had so much spit/snot/slobber that I had to suction out her mouth for her to latch on and she was having problems maintaining a latch.  I knew that if she didn’t eat, she was going to go downhill fast, so I was trying to get the obstacle to nursing out of the way so she didn’t get more sick.  Instead of answering my question she immediately told me that I could just pump while she was sick and give her pedialite instead.    I told her that she is exclusively breastfed and there is no way her first food is going to be pedialite.  She went on about how important it is to make sure she isn’t dehydrated and that I should give her pedialite so I know how much she is eating.   Uh…can we all say NO FLIPPIN’ WAY YOU TOTAL MORON!  I finally got a dosage out of her for some antihistamine.  Oy vey.  I know that a lot of moms who read me probably wouldn’t agree with the antihistamine either, but I felt like a little bit of meds would prevent much more serious problems, so I took that route.  

After I hung up, I really got more pissed as I thought about the ‘advice’.  She wanted me to stop nursing, which provides not only nutrition and fluids, but immune boosters that would help fight the illness and put her on a cow’s milk based product that has no immune factors, and is dairy so it makes congestion worse.  That sounds like advice that would have easily resulted in a very sick kiddo and a hospital stay.   Jimmeny Cricket, that sounds like the height of stupidity.  The next day I called and moved my appointment back to after my doctor gets back from maternity leave.  She is already quite familiar with my stance on breastfeeding and infant nutrition.  (delaying solids due to family history of allergies)

I am so thankful she didn’t get more sick because I have a feeling I would have been in a major battle with the replacement doctor.  There would have been fireworks in the emergency room.  lol.

eta:  it was my ped’s sub that this took place with and her sub i was supposed to see for the check up.  i moved the appt. back to go to my regular ped.  zora is healthy now now.  this happened last weeek but it was still bugging me so i wrote about it last night.  i would have syringe fed if it would have lasted any longer (I had to do that those first days and I still have the stuff to do it).  I hate my pump and it doesn’t do a very good job so it was really a last resort before taking her in. Thankfully, a dose of antihistamine every once in a while when she was having problems was enough to fix the obstacles. 

Happy Birthday Senoir Zach!  lol

grandma spends the day

new toys from grandma

zora’s toy has butterfly & ladybug beads inside, both holding special meanings to my mom.  very appropriate gift.  It is also a good sitting toy.  she started sitting unsupported on Monday.  She still needs to be “spotted”, but she actually maintained her balance through a small sneeze one time.  (although she usually topples over)

zane’s toy is called spell time.  it is a great learning toy that zane is loving.  ideal for visual-spatial learners to learn reading/spelling. (also good for pattern matching and fine motor) his OT liked it so much she wants to go get one for some of her other students.  got it at target.

Key To Early Diagnosis Of Autism May Be In The Placenta

“But My Kid is Low-Functioning… You’re Not… What You Wrote Does Not Apply!

excerpt:

The point I am trying to make here is that gaining skills, learning to talk, learning to take care of onself, is not a sign that the autism is being beaten back, that the war against the autism is being won, that  the shell of autism is being stripped away.  It is a sign of development– just as it is in normal kids (or else it is rote-learned acts that spring from conditioning rather than development).  Normal kids are born nonverbal, unable to walk, unable to control their bodily functions, unable to take care of themselves… but if they are given appropriate help from their caretakers, they develop and learn, and they become more able to do these things over time.  Is that a sign that something is being beaten back in battle, that some shell that makes the infant unable to talk is being stripped away?  No, of course, it does not mean anything like that.  It means that the child has learned, that his brain has made sense of sensory input and developed.  Development is what happens when the brain can make sense of its surroundings, and is stimulated in such a way that the newly-formed neurons are placed in a meaningful way.

The guys Zach works with took pity on him and got him a flight home for the holiday.  They were trying to get the group VIP tickets to the launch, but it was too expensive for the budget.  Everybody else could afford to go home except Zach.  It was such a blessing to have him home.

I wish we would have felt better.  Almost all of our plans for his entire visit were thwarted by the illness, but at the same token, it was such a relief to have him here when the kids were sick.  Zane was grinning ear to ear despite a fever and feeling rotten that first day.  He was so happy to have daddy home.

He was supposed to go back yesterday.  We dropped him off at the airport and came home.  About an hour later I got a call from him.  His flight out of Wichita was delayed and he would miss his connection out of Atlanta that evening.  He could spend the night here or in Atlanta and still get to Huntsville at the same time, so we got him for another day.  It was such a great surprise!

As of right now, he is in Atlanta.  He is probably boarding his flight to Huntsville as I write this since it leaves in about 10 minutes.  I gotta tell you, I love flight tracker.  It is reassuring to be able to watch where his flights are.  Once it is in the air I am calling his prof down there and giving him the time to pick him up since it will arrive a bit late.

  Zora

eta:  that is a very baby fitted made by my friend using denim outer and flannel inner recycled from one of her dd’s jeans and some bedding.

 Daddy & Kiddos

Zane

Celebrating the Space Shuttle Launch

Reality struck.  Zora is just not doing well enough to take her an hour away to spend several hours outside.  I am getting sick.  We had to cancel our plans for today.  I do have some cute pictures from earlier today and maybe I will have more energy to post them later.  I am so dissapointed.  My folks were really looking forward to the day too.

I just wish Zora could feel better and stop crying.  It is draining for me and I hate it that she feels so yucky and I can’t just take it all away for her.  The crying makes her cough and just magnifies how crummy she feels.  My head hurts from hearing her cry.  Just not one of our better days I guess.

Well, it is getting better around here.  Both the kids’ fever has broken, but they still have awful sounding coughs.  I have a lot of sinus drainage and it is causing a sore throat, and I feel a little off, but not horrible either.  Zach is fine and dandy.

Although we have truncated the fourth of july plans to just an evening thing instead of an all day thing, we are still planning on going out on to the farm.  I just don’t think it is a good idea to have Zane wear himself out running through sprinklers and such all day in the heat when he is still recovering.

Getting ready to watch the space shuttle launch.  Maybe it will finaly be a ‘go’ today.  Waiting for the built in hold to be elapsed so they can resume the countdown at 9 minutes.  Lots of prayers going out for the astronauts and personel right now.