Lambing has begun!

The first of our 2011 spring lambs was born this afternoon. Bo delivered a set of twins, unfortunetly only one of them made it. She had a ram and ewe lamb again, both black this time but the ewe lamb didn't survive. We're not exactly sure what happened b/c somehow she managed to lamb in between Frank and I checking on her. The ewe lamb was still mostly in her sack with only the head out when we found her so we're not sure if she was born alive and got too cold or if something happened during the birth and she wasn't born alive. I guess it doesn't really matter at this point- I don't know that there was anything that we could have done unless we had been there at the birth. So far #6 (the ram lambs designation- can you believe he's our 6th lamb already!!!) has been doing well. You forget how tiny they are when they are born- tiny and gangly. Lambs are just all legs! We've moved Mary into her lambing jug b/c we suspect she will be the next to deliver. When she was outside she didn't look that big but in the jug she looks simply enormous! She definitely has multiples in there- maybe even triplets again. Mary has historically been a more attentive mother than Bo so its not a bad things for her to be having multiples. Bo is just kinda flighty when it comes to her babies! We're not sure if any of the yearling ewe lambs are bred or not. You'd think it would be easy to tell if a sheep was pregnant but with all their winter wool on they are so fluffy that especially if they just have a single baby it is really hard to tell sometimes until just before they deliver! I guess we'll find out soon enough! Pictures to come...

Ear Infection #10

Ear Infection #10- if you say it in a sexy voice it could almost be the name of a fancy fragrance, if only... So I feel vindicated that I know my child better that the dr b/c Alexander does in fact have an ear infection! A pretty, big, whopping, ear drum rupturing infection in his left ear. This morning he had a fever and was crying, almost inconsolable with pain in his left ear and then for better or worse his ear drum ruptured. It was almost like he was blowing his nose out his ear- yes I know your welcome for the mental picture! At least he felt better after it ruptured though- he wasn't too happy with me trying to wipe some of the goo out of his ear but he wasn't inconsolable either and after it blew his fever went down too! The really sad part is that now he has a rash on his face b/c he has had so much drainage out of his ear it's making his face break out! We are going to try ear drops for a couple days and see if that works and if not we go back to the dr on Thursday- I'm so sick of the dr office!

James is 17 months old!

And what did we do to celebrate- go to the doctor! I worked last night so the boys went to daycare and then I went and picked them up early to take them. Funnily enough I scheduled their follow ups at the same time as Frank had his annual appointment wihtout even realizing it! So Frank had his annual with Dr W and we saw the NP in the office. James' weight is down to 20 lbs even on this scale and Xander is at 26.6 lbs. James has only vomited once since Tuesday and although he is continued to have loose stools they are getting more formed. Neither of them has a fever today and Xander's diarrhea finally stopped after about 5 days so I am sure James is on the same road. I actually took James in for a follow up after the gastroenteritis and I wanted Xander checked out b/c I am pretty sure he is brewing another ear infection. James looks good even though his weight is down even more. He has a well child visit scheduled in about 3 weeks so we are assuming his weight is down b/c of different scales and also he was quite sick and that over the next few weeks he will start gaining again. He is just so tiny that when he gets sick he doesn't have much in the way of reserves. I really don't want to have to start supplementing him with pediasure so we'll hope that he starts to regain the weight on his own over the next month. According to the NP Xander does not have an ear infection but she was unable to visualize either of his tubes- as of his last check they left one was still there but extruded and the right was was supposedly still there and working although I really don't know how well it's been working recently. We can make it 2 more weeks- right?!?!?!? He is scheduled to have the tubes replaced on 3/8 we just have to make it till then. I was almost positive that he had an ear infection today so if that isn't the case maybe I am over reacting- but he keeps rubbing at his left ear especially so I am suspicious....

Xander's developmental evaluation

This morning we had Xander's yearly evaluation by RISE to determine his eligibility for continued speech therapy. It actually went really well. Because James is still so ill he spent the whole time laying in my arms like a limp noodle which meant that Xander actually got to have an eval without interference from his brother! Good for Xander, not so good for poor James. But at least James has only vomited once today and while he still has diarrhea it seems to be under control for now and thankfully we have managed to keep his bum looking pretty clear. I think if he could kick this low grade fever and drink a little more he'd be feeling a lot better, but by not drinking a ton he isn't vomiting so... time will tell. We go back to the MD on Friday for a check up. But back to Xander- Emily, his speech therapist- and one of her colleagues came this morning to do Xander's eval and he was very cooperative so that was helpful as well. Basically they play with him for a little more than an hour and give him certain tasks to complete to see where he is at in 6 different developmental areas- language, cognition, gross motor, fine motor, social-emotional, and self-help. A year ago he was significantly delayed in language, mildly delayed in cognition- mostly in areas that related to language and age appropriate in all other areas. Today he continues to be age appropriate where he was before, he is now age appropriate in cognition and mostly age appropriate in language. He has really made incredible progress with his language acquisition in the six months since he has had his tubes placed- while we have encountered other obstacles with the tube, namely recurrent ear infections- it was definitely a turning point in terms of his language acquisition. So he has most of the skills that he need to be age appropriate in language some of those skills he is exhibiting in an atypical way or they are just emerging when they should be more fully formed by now. So while this is excellent news it does raise the question of whether the school will find him delayed enough to provide speech therapy once he turns 3. He will continue to receive speech therapy from RISE until then and we have a meeting schedule with the school in the beginning of April where they will determine his eligibility for preschool. He is already on the waiting list for preschool and I believe that he is high enough on that list he should be able to attend but the benefit of his requiring speech therapy would meant they would have to take him and we wouldn't have to pay tuition- if he is enrolled in preschool as a "typical" child we have to pay tuition and and he isn't guaranteed a spot in the fall. So while I thrilled that he has made such improvement I would like him to be able to attend preschool in the fall! Now we wait until April to see what the school has to say.

James' 1st trip to the ER

Well I had hoped to spend my Valentine's Day in a more romantic fashion than in the ER but welcome to the joys of parenthood! Xander started throwing up Friday and managed to only throw up the one time. He has continued to have diarrhea and a bit of a fever but no more vominting. James started vomiting yesterday and has literally puked up every single thing that has touched his lips! I feel so bad for the little guy b/c he is obviously thirsty but he is just vomiting everything that goes into his mouth so I am really hesitant to give him any liquids. It also probably doesn't help that he had a fever too. He also started with the diarrhea last night so I stayed home from work to be with him. He vomited even in his sleep during the night- blech... This morning he was still vomiting everything he tried to drink and he had only had 1 wet diaper since Saturday so I called the Dr office when they opened and they said to go to the ER so I packed everyone up and off we went. By then I think he had realized that drinking wasn't really doing good things for him so he wasn't really wanted to eat or drink very much. His weight is at 20 lbs 12 oz which his what he weighed at his 15 mo appointment so I was not encouraged by that. Of course as soon as the PA went to examine him he had a wet diaper and b/c by then he was refusing to eat or drink he only vomited once while we were there. And that of course happened to be while he was holding a chicken nugget- mind you he hadn't actually eaten the chicken nugget- he was just holding it but then the nurse told the MD that he only vomited after eating. I have to say I wasn't particularly impressed with the ER this time around. I guess mostly I didn't feel like they were really listening to me. I wouldn't have dragged all of us to the ER if I didn't think James was pretty sick and in need of some help after all! So they started an IV and drew some labs but then after they got his labs back decided that he wasn't "dehydrated enough" to need IV fluids. At that point I should have requested a pediatric consult but I was so tired of being there really I just wanted to go home! They did at least give him some zofran, which he did not vomit back up and it did help but I don't undersatnd why since they had an IV in him they couldn't have at least given him a bolus of fluids. You know tank him up and then send us home... but I think this is one of those issues where when you know your child and what they are normally like you can say he is really sick but to an outside observer he might not look that ill. He was just makingme nervous b/c he was SO lethargic. The entire time we were in the ER he just lay in my lap or on the stretcher- he refused to even sit up. He was a total limp noodle and James is NEVER a limp noodle. He always wiggling and always on the move so to see him so still was just out of character! So he has only vomited a couple more times since we've been home and he can have another dose of zofran in a bit and we'll see where we go from here.

PS: I really didn't expect my 200th post to be about a visit to the ER. Int he future let's try to keep milestones posts about much mroe mundane things!

one by one...

Well the sleepy morning at home turned out to be a harbinger of bad tidings... By Friday afternoon Xander was vomiting and had diarrhea! Luckily they were already home with my mom b/c the babysitter was still sick- well maybe not so lucky for my mom but at least Franka nd I didn't have to miss any more work. So far Xander has only thrown up the 1 time and since he is potty trained for the most part the diarrhea seems to be less of an issue than it has been in the past. So far his skin is intact and other than the trips to the bathroom every 15 minutes he seems to be managing it pretty well. After he threw up he was so pathetic- he just looked at me and said "mommy, what happened?" He had thrown up all over the couch and I think it just totally surprised him and neat freak that he is he was quite upset that the couch was now dirty! My mom had to head home today but at least it is the weekend and the boys are at home with daddy. We decided to skip swim class today though!

Sleepy morning at home....

We've been quite busy recently. It seems like almost every morning we have somewhere we need to be, swim class or a dr appointment or daycare, etc. Today our babysitter is sick (hope you are feeling better soon BJ) so daddy stayed home from work to watch the boys. I didn't work last night so my routine on days like today is get up, spend some time with the boys, take them to daycare and then come home and take a nap, go visit the boys at daycare and then go to work. But since daddy was home today I didn't have to take them to daycare and I got to sleep a bit later b/c I didn't have to go and visit them at daycare either. So everyone stayed in their PJs and we had a nice lazy morning at home. The boys actually cuddled on the couch for a bit together- until James decided he'd really rather play than sit quietly and Xander didn't really want to be climbed all over. We made banana bread and I put some lamb ragout in the crock pot so they'd have something to eat after I went to work. The boys just played really nicely together this morning- there wasn't too much fighting over toys or too much wanton destruction. They even went upstairs and played with their trains for a while of their own accord. We let daddy sleep late which is a real treat in our house but much deserved. I even had time to get about 1/3 of the kitchen actually clean! About 11am we had some lunch and I put James down for his nap, Frank put Xander down and then I went to go take my nap. Then I woke up and went to work which was the less fun part of the day but all in all this morning was really nice!