Asthma, Hospital stays and Dry Pull Ups.

Isaac has had 4 asthma attacks that have needed medical attention this year, as well as 2 bouts with pneumonia. Its become a regular occurrence, that when Isaac starts this nasty constant cough, that we may end up in the hospital over night. He had gotten home from school, and he was coughing quite harshly. He told me he needed his ventolin in gym class today and couldn't catch his breath. He was really playful, I figured it was just a cold. By 8pm, I had him in bed and ready for the night, he couldn't lay down because he couldn't catch his breath, he was screaming and panicking. I told the husband, if he vomits, we are going in... Sure enough, he did about 5 mins after I mentioned it. About 4 days before that, my husband had gotten into a car accident and we no longer had a vehicle. I had to call my father in law to come get us. Luckily, they only live about 10 blocks away.
Isaac kept fainting, and I had to put him in a wheel chair. They checked his oxygen levels, and instantly he was wheeled into a room, his O2 level was 72. I have never seen it that low, ever. The ER kept him on oxygen all night, he slept really well after he could breath. I didn't, my big butt and little chairs don't mix well. By the morning, they decided to admit him for his asthma, after they had tried to wean him off the oxygen twice and his O2 kept dropping. It was a lovely stay in a tiny private room in isolation, with a kindergartener who had a good sleep and is on steroids. I was a mess of stress, he was a ball of energy, bouncing from corner to corner... I was pretty difficult. We were in the hospital from Weds night until Sunday morning. He was amazing and fine and I am happy we made it through that.
Meanwhile, my poor husband is at home with an injured back, watching and taking care of Kayla. Apparently they didn't leave the livingroom the entire time.

Asthma is kind of a bitch. I really hate it and what it does to my children. It is absolutely debilitating to Isaac, and he cannot function daily without his matinence meds. The matinence meds make him a little crazy hyper active, stressing me out.... Its been hard.

So far, the last 3 months
Kayla was in the hospital for an upper respiratry infection, I was in the hospital for esophagitis and h.pylori, Isaac had an anaphylactic reaction and ended up in the hospital, Isaac had dental surgery and had to be put under, so we had to go to the hospital for that, Chris got into a bad accident and fractured his L2 vertabrae, then Isaac ends up in the hosp for his asthma. 6 times since the end of August.... Thats more then most in a life time, thank GOD I live in Canada.

So, potty training. Isaac will be 5 in Novemember, and we have struggled with potty training since he was 2. He has been fully day time trained since April, and we were still struggling with night time training. The doctor gave us some tips to stay dry at night, and so far, so good. 3 day in a row now. I hope it lasts so I don't have to buy pull-ups again until Kayla trains.

Food Allergies, Kindergarten and Kayla is almost 17 months old.

In mid June I decided I was going to register Isaac into Kindergarten. It was a spur of the moment decision that was actually poorly though out at the time, but Isaac was starting to really get under my skin. He is a rambunctious little boy who needs to explore, and our house is not big enough for that. With Kayla, it was difficult to have them play outside over the summer, 1) its not safe to let either play alone in this city, 2) The neighbours decided they were going to let their wasp nest be and let them take over the back yards. Our houses are really close together so we basically shared the wasp problem all summer long. We played outside when we could, mostly later in the day before the sun went down or in the rain. Anyhow, Isaac needed an outlet, and since all of our friends have dogs and Isaac is severely allergic to dogs, I though school was the next best thing. He started on September 3rd and he is doing very well. He loves his teacher, he loves learning new things and he loves making new friends. We have a fun adventure every morning walking to the bus stop where we meet up with 2 other little boys, and they all play tag and scream for 10 mins until the bus gets there. The bus stop was an experience. They gave us a map at the beginning of the school week, and I don't know our neighbourhood very well, we don't explore much behind us and explore more in front of us, that community is where my In Laws live and some close friends. The first day of school it took us 15 mins to walk to the bus stop. It was so far from the house, about 4 blocks of zigzags. Then I learned I had to pick him up at a different stop, closer to the house, but how annoying? What are we going to do when its -30°C with Kayla in a tiny umbrella stroller in 3 feet of snow. I don't drive, so we'd have to walk. After the 3rd day and a nasty sun burn, right after the bus left, Kayla and I took a walk to find the other bus stop. On the map it looked like the same distance in the opposite direction as the other one. We walked blocks down the main road and I found it, basically right behind my house. I have to walk through the alley way, then on to a bike path, but it is only 5 mins away instead of 15, this one he can be dropped off at and picked up at. Thank Goodness.

With Isaac starting school in September, I decided we needed to get him into the allergist asap to get an Epi-Pen for his peanut allergy, the family doctor said we had to wait until he was 5 to have him tested (bullshit) but I said no, he needs in now. We got a fit in appointment in Mid July. We discovered that not only is he severely allergic to peanuts, but also to tree nuts and has a little reaction to wheat. He is also severely allergic to Dogs and Cats, dander and pelt. While I am happy that my son is now diagnosed and carries the Allerject (Auvi-q but Canadian) I am sad for him to have to have so many restrictions. He goes back at 7 yrs old for retesting. He actually had an anaphylactic reaction a week before school started. He shared a sandwich from Subway with his dad and instantly started coughing, getting hives, barking when he coughed, so we spend the night in the ER under close observation. He was fine but sore an puffy by morning. Its scary stuff, food allergies, and a lot of people just snub it off for some reason. They don't seem to understand that it can be life threatening. I am constantly close to a phone, with fear in the back of my mind, fearing that phone call from school that will tell me Isaac is having an allergic reaction. I am scared they are going to say it took to long to administer the epi and his throat closed and he died. That scares the living poop out of me. Such is life, the world is not going to stop spinning long enough for me to rationalize everything to the tiniest detail, as much as I want it to. He is really awesome at working the trainer on his own, so I can only hope he'd know what to do incase he needs to use the real one.

Kayla will be 17 months old on the 26th of September. She is such a character. She has the best sense of humor. She can say about 15-20 words now, although she would rather just say "Hi, see and more" all day. She is right on par with her peers but has some issues, she has some emotional issues and sensory issues. She melts down easily. But she seems pretty normal for her age. She still drinks a bottle, but we are down to 2 a day of formula , 2 sippy cups of milk and 2 sippy cups of water a day. She is attached to her soother 24/7, I have tried to start the weaning process, but it isn't going very well. Shes a good kid, very independent and likes to play alone. Likes to fall asleep on someone then be put to bed, just started sleeping though the night this past week finally. Its getting easier.

On a personal note, my husband and I lost a very good friend in August. His name was Scott and he was the Best Man at our wedding. He passed away at the age of 37 from a heart attack. He left behind his amazing and beautiful wife Patsy. They had just gotten married this past October. I have known Scott since I was a kid, I was 13 when I met him and we used to be close, my husband knew him separately through other friends and was just as close to him. When he started dating his wife, we backed off and let them be together, as friends do, and I hadn't hung out with him since I was just pregnant with Isaac. Not for lack of trying, we just could never find a baby sitter. Now he is with the angels being the best darn uncle he can be to my little angelic baseball team up there. Rest in Peace buddy.

That's all for our little family update for now. Until next time.

The End of an Era, and Kayla is 13 months old now!

At the end of the day on May 26th, I made the realization that Kayla is now 13 months old. The last month went by so quickly, I seriously feel like I blinked and it was gone. She is reaching and passing milestones like nuts. We have attempted to start her on a cup, she won't take a sippy cup but she understands the concept of a regular cup, just not that its full of liquid that will get all over her. She has started walking around the house with her bottles upside down, so something needs to change, before my house smells like rotten milk all the time. She is sleeping full time in her crib now, until about 7 am, which is great. No more baby in our bedroom! She had grown, is eating solids like a champ and gained a ton of weight.
We as a family decided we are done having more children. We have been ultimatly blessed with what we have, and don't feel like taking our chances again. Hubby had his vasectomy in December and have been cleared from here on out. The closing of this chapter has been difficult, but we know in our hearts that my body would probably not be able to do it again, and we have our boy and girl, so we have what we wanted. My mind keeps going there though. I know it will take time. Its like quitting a job you have had for years and just stopping it... Time heals, and now its time to focus on what we have.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!! /10 months 2 weeks adjusted

Kayla is now 1 year old.
I am having a hard time calculating where all the time went, how my baby went from bump on a long and barely mobile, to up and runny in such a short amount of time. I feel like we skipped all the hard parts? I mean, there we a lot of hard parts but they were over quickly, where as with Isaac it seemed to drag on forever. I wonder if its because of my own outlook of time, that it goes by faster then it did the first time.
Kayla had her first birthday. We celebrated as a family on her actual birthday. We had her favorite meal, chicken anything, for supper and she opened her presents, no cake though. Then on the following Sunday, we had a big birthday party for her, with cake. She is noramally very quiet and reserved and plays shy, but at her party, she was all over the place, chatting it up with other babies, playing. She didn't even melt down when I slipped into the kitchen to get things ready.
Her one year stats were 17 lbs, 28 inches. She has grown an inch in one month and gained 1.5lbs. She is fitting into some 9 month clothes and even some 12 month clothes.

11 months old/9 months 2 weeks adjusted.

Kayla is walking up a storm now! She is even running from one end of the house to the other. She had 5 teeth break though all at the same time. She has grown and is quickly growing out of all of her clothes. I am hoping she will finally fit into 9 month clothes by the end of the month, but she has just grown out of 3-6 months, so I am sure its going to take another month. Not much else going on around here to tell. Its been a boring month.

10 months/ 8 months 2 weeks adjusted.

Children are so interesting. Honestly the awe moment highlight of my month was changing batteries in the kids toys and them being absolutely mystified. I think it is adorable that mom and dad are magical beings that have the ability to fix and save anything. We are the superhero. If mom can't fix it, no one can.

So we have hit a little snag on the development scale. I am not concerned, but the doctor seems to be, a little. Kayla has not grown in height since she was 4 months old. She is still only 26.5 inches tall. She is still the size of an average 4 month old. She is 15 lbs and 12 oz. It is very bizarre to watch such a tiny baby cruising furniture. She is so ready to walk, and she wants to, but her top half is still so much bigger then her lower half. Her feet just grew to a size 2, she still fits in her size 1 shoes, just barely. She is still just barely in size 3-6, she is mostly wearing 6 month now. Anyhow, she has to go in for monthly size checks, so I am not concerned. She is definatley mid growth spurt, she is eating solids every meal time, eating off everyone's plate, and drinking bottles every 2-4 hours. She is constantly hungry. She now has 3 teeth on the bottom, they all came in crooked, the first tw started off in a t shape instead of side by side, but they have since moved, the doctor said it was because her jaw wasn't fully developed, but they should all align eventually.

This is what we can do now.
>Crawl like a champ
>Cruise furniture like a champ
>Balance on our own for atleast 10 seconds
>Independently play
>Plays peek a boo
>Has a sense of humor
>Blows kisses and raspberries
>Can stack nesting cups
>Can put a toy in a box and repeat.
>Open and close cupboards
>Attempting to climb stairs.
>She plays strange but is getting more used to people.
>She understands the word no
>She can say, mama, dada, Ida (Isaac), baba, tootoo (soother), Nigh nigh, more, and this morning she said Auntie.

She had dark brown eyes and beautiful red hair.

Go Baby Go!! 9 months/7m1w adjusted

Wow, my little monkey has sprouted like crazy over the last month!

On New Years Eve, we had some friends spend the night, their two children also spent the night, their youngest is 19 months old and can walk... Well, this made Kayla quite angry that she was the only one here who couldn't do that, so guess what she tried to do!

Our month has been a fun month of placing things above 2 feet, childproofing anything and everything, finding new places to place the baby gate. She is ever cruising the furniture now! She keeps coming to visit me on the couch. She crawls up to me and like a pro, stands up and walks among the furniture.

We have also reached a few milestone and got so excellent news. First thing first. She has teeth now. i don't have a good picture of it or I would post it. She is now getting her second as well, both bottom front teeth. So cute. She is crawling on all fours now instead of the army crawl she was doing before. She can also say some words! Momma, which she says and know what it means as she never stops saying it. She says Dada, sawsaw, which is Isaac, hi, hello, yeah, ok.. And she waves like a champ.



As for the excellent news. We went for her 6 month check (8 months since it was the only time she could see the pediatrician) for her liver. And, the sonagrapher MD came in and spoke to us and showed us that all that is left is a teeny tiny 1x1cm scar left over from her horrible liver mass she had 9 months ago. I am so happy or her and for me of course, but for her not having to live with limitations. She is so smart and so beautiful and deserves only good in her life.

All is well, we are finally setting into a routine and getting our lives back in order. Her is a beautiful picture to end my update with. Kayla playing with her comb.