Let's see.... The principal talked to Oren's teacher who agreed that a move would be a good idea. They are hashing out where he may move to, and hopefully we'll implement that next semester.
William had a checkup on his fillings, and cooperated. I will actually get suprised for Christmas, because Mark too William shopping afterwards and got me something. Awwww!
I made a cake for a good friend's daughter. Sort of a Christmas-y Winter Wonderland castle thing. The camera's in the car and it's cold, or I'd post a picture. Look for me to update my cake blog with it soon.
I also made what was the best turkey at the ward Christmas dinner, or so I was told. It's amazing what a day of brining can do to a bird. Plus, mine didn't show up slightly undercooked or give anyone food poisoning. Don't know who brought that one, but I hope they don't feel bad. It happens! I didn't get to bring any of my salad home either.... Wish I had taken a picture.
Daniel has started sleeping through the night. Which, for my kids, is defined as a 5-6 hour stretch. Of course, he clusters either right before or right after the stretch, which is fun. All my kids have slept that stretch right around 2 months, so he's just like his brothers. And just like his brothers, I am expecting my milk supply to drop and so will be watching his weight, taking him in for a weight check in a couple weeks unless I feel like I need to have him checked earlier. We'll see.
And I managed to get a cold/cough thing for the 3rd time this year, and have nearly lost my voice again. Usually I only get this once a year. The kids think it's hilarious when Mommy tries to sing or coo at the baby. Who just looks at me and then cries lustily when I sneeze during a feeding and startle him. Oops!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Say "Cheese!"
I don't know if any of you remember William's cavities.... or that he had to go to a pediatric dentist in Boise and all that.... but good news! We got them all fixed!
He went and saw the new dentist at the end of October, and sure enough, wouldn't cooperate. So they had to schedule him for an operating room at the hospital, put him all the way under, get x-rays and do his fillings while he was asleep. We had to be super careful to brush his teeth before he went to bed and watch what he ate so the cavities wouldn't get any bigger, which was fun. They couldn't get him in until December 4th, and you'd think that would be plenty of time for insurance to approve the hospital part.
Our dental doesn't cover hospital stuff, and our medical doesn't cover anything dental, so the dental approved the x-rays and fillings - a big general approval since we didn't know exactly what he'd end up needing. That only took a couple of weeks to come through.
But the medical was a different story. They submitted a request for authorization for the anesthesia and operating room stuff. Usually our insurance gets back within days. This time it took over a month. The week prior, I checked back with the dentist, it still hadn't come through. We had William's physical exam that's required before they put a small child under. Still hadn't come through that Wednesday - his surgery was on Friday. Wonder of wonders, as I'm getting really nervous, I checked back Thursday, late morning, and there it was. Approved!!!! Cutting it a little close, but at least it went through!
Mark left early Friday morning with William, and they got home early afternoon. Turns out that the molars with cavities had more soft spots or something, because he has 3 silverish caps. 2 on bottom and 1 on top now. With additional white fillings and some sealants. Ouch! But it's all done now, and I think we will continue to bring him to that dentist even though it's quite the drive, in the hopes that William becomes more comfortable with opening wide. Poor kiddo, I'll have to ask what the caps are made of, for when his teeth fall out. Not cheap I'm sure, so I don't know what we'll do with them then! :-)
He went and saw the new dentist at the end of October, and sure enough, wouldn't cooperate. So they had to schedule him for an operating room at the hospital, put him all the way under, get x-rays and do his fillings while he was asleep. We had to be super careful to brush his teeth before he went to bed and watch what he ate so the cavities wouldn't get any bigger, which was fun. They couldn't get him in until December 4th, and you'd think that would be plenty of time for insurance to approve the hospital part.
Our dental doesn't cover hospital stuff, and our medical doesn't cover anything dental, so the dental approved the x-rays and fillings - a big general approval since we didn't know exactly what he'd end up needing. That only took a couple of weeks to come through.
But the medical was a different story. They submitted a request for authorization for the anesthesia and operating room stuff. Usually our insurance gets back within days. This time it took over a month. The week prior, I checked back with the dentist, it still hadn't come through. We had William's physical exam that's required before they put a small child under. Still hadn't come through that Wednesday - his surgery was on Friday. Wonder of wonders, as I'm getting really nervous, I checked back Thursday, late morning, and there it was. Approved!!!! Cutting it a little close, but at least it went through!
Mark left early Friday morning with William, and they got home early afternoon. Turns out that the molars with cavities had more soft spots or something, because he has 3 silverish caps. 2 on bottom and 1 on top now. With additional white fillings and some sealants. Ouch! But it's all done now, and I think we will continue to bring him to that dentist even though it's quite the drive, in the hopes that William becomes more comfortable with opening wide. Poor kiddo, I'll have to ask what the caps are made of, for when his teeth fall out. Not cheap I'm sure, so I don't know what we'll do with them then! :-)
Monday, December 7, 2009
Photo Catchup!
So I'm finally getting a chunk of time to post pictures of the kiddos, because Daniel has been quite sleepy today. On the plus side, he's eaten every time he's woken up instead of just screaming at me, but then he falls right back to sleep. I'm in for it tonight!
We had Daniel blessed while in Rigby over the Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you Mom for making yet another cute outfit! It was the perfect size, and if we'd waited too much longer it wouldn't have fit him. :-) It would have been nice to have my family there, but we were able to have all of his uncles on Mark's side except one, his grandpa, some brethren that Mark has known his whole life, and my future brother-in-law stand with Mark, which was really awesome.
I just thought this was cute..... Deep in thought I guess!
Saturday we took the kids down to the base Kid's Christmas Party! 200 kids in 1 medium size hanger, with bouncy castles... games.... food.... and Santa Claus arriving in an F-15! It was loud to say the least, and we lost William at one point. That boy is fast! He really enjoyed the bouncy castles, of which there were 4 or 5.
Nathan and Oren braved one of the rides. This thing actually went pretty fast and the fish went up and down as they went around.
Then we ventured out and braved the mall, which was suprisingly not packed at 4pm on a Saturday before Christmas. At 6, Santa was scheduled to appear, so we passed the time until then after getting Mark a much needed new suit for 50% off. Oren and Nathan sat by Santa, but William didn't want to and Daniel was sleeping. I was supposed to stand in an akward corner to take my own if I didn't want to buy their outrageously priced packages, but I managed some good shots anyway.
And we kept the boys home today waiting to hear from the Pediatrics office if Oren had strep or not, and Nathan was coughing up a storm too. So we decorated the tree and enjoyed the first decent snow of the season. I may still tie on a bunch of red ribbons, but here she is!
We had Daniel blessed while in Rigby over the Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you Mom for making yet another cute outfit! It was the perfect size, and if we'd waited too much longer it wouldn't have fit him. :-) It would have been nice to have my family there, but we were able to have all of his uncles on Mark's side except one, his grandpa, some brethren that Mark has known his whole life, and my future brother-in-law stand with Mark, which was really awesome.
I just thought this was cute..... Deep in thought I guess!
Saturday we took the kids down to the base Kid's Christmas Party! 200 kids in 1 medium size hanger, with bouncy castles... games.... food.... and Santa Claus arriving in an F-15! It was loud to say the least, and we lost William at one point. That boy is fast! He really enjoyed the bouncy castles, of which there were 4 or 5.
Nathan and Oren braved one of the rides. This thing actually went pretty fast and the fish went up and down as they went around.
Then we ventured out and braved the mall, which was suprisingly not packed at 4pm on a Saturday before Christmas. At 6, Santa was scheduled to appear, so we passed the time until then after getting Mark a much needed new suit for 50% off. Oren and Nathan sat by Santa, but William didn't want to and Daniel was sleeping. I was supposed to stand in an akward corner to take my own if I didn't want to buy their outrageously priced packages, but I managed some good shots anyway.
And we kept the boys home today waiting to hear from the Pediatrics office if Oren had strep or not, and Nathan was coughing up a storm too. So we decorated the tree and enjoyed the first decent snow of the season. I may still tie on a bunch of red ribbons, but here she is!
We're cheating.... the tree isn't supposed to go up until after my birthday. But we wanted Mark to be home to help, so since we were all together this morning, we did it. We also did my birthday lunch and cake a day early so Mark could be here. Otherwise we'd be waiting until Saturday since he works evenings and I have a full evening lesson schedule with a recital coming up so I can't cancel lessons. Such a sweetie, he brought me flowers with my cake from the bakery! The boys helped me blow out all 28 candles, Mark is a stickler for having the right number of candles... no cheating. It was kind of fun having hoopla the day before, but hopefully the boys will behave really well as a gift for me tomorrow. :-)
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Ugh.
After lots of researching yesterday and today, I came to the conclusion that I may just end up being crazy until Daniel's done nursing. The bipolar meds may be okay to take, which will help. but ADHD is treated with stimulants. Which can cause irritability and poor sleep in infants through the breastmilk. I know he's sensitive to stimulants because when I have chocolate he is super cranky, gassy, and only catnaps because he cluster feeds. Chocolate has small amounts of caffeine, which is a stimulant. Ugh! I think the reason I was much calmer during pregnancy than I should have been is because of all the diet coke I drank. Stimulants work different for us because of the way our brains our wired, and it calms us instead of the other way around. Unless I imbibe a ton of it anyway.
So anyway, I'll just have to rely on my organisational skills that have been honed by lots of bouts of OCD over my lifetime. And plenty of calm classical music to help me relax. And a master to do list that I take stuff off of for my smaller lists so I don't get so overwhelmed.
On the plus side, I bought a new phone today. My screen shorted out last week on my cell phone. I can still dial on it and get calls, but I can't see anything on it. Not good! It only took me a week of serious research to decide which phone I wanted, and went for the unlocked version in case I want to change carriers when my contract is up in February. I got it on a great sale too, so it was over 50% off! YAY! I'm not sure how the whole touchscreen will work, but I'll just have to keep it away from the kids I guess. :-)
So anyway, I'll just have to rely on my organisational skills that have been honed by lots of bouts of OCD over my lifetime. And plenty of calm classical music to help me relax. And a master to do list that I take stuff off of for my smaller lists so I don't get so overwhelmed.
On the plus side, I bought a new phone today. My screen shorted out last week on my cell phone. I can still dial on it and get calls, but I can't see anything on it. Not good! It only took me a week of serious research to decide which phone I wanted, and went for the unlocked version in case I want to change carriers when my contract is up in February. I got it on a great sale too, so it was over 50% off! YAY! I'm not sure how the whole touchscreen will work, but I'll just have to keep it away from the kids I guess. :-)
Monday, November 30, 2009
And a Happy Fried Chicken Day to you!
Funny story... we had chicken on Thanksgiving. Really. My sister-in-law had her husband put the turkey in and she went to visit their son in the NICU. When she got home the house smelled awful! Turns out the turkey was bad, and with no time to thaw and cook another one, she sent my father-in-law to the store for some fried chicken, and a roast chicken. My mother-in-law had done some ham too, so we had that. But what matters is the company, and it was good! Not to mention the cheesecake that my future brother-in-law brought. Yumm!
We had a long and crazy weekend, with far too much to blog about. Mark and I braved the crowds at 12:30 am Friday morning to snag some things at ToysRUs. Will never do it again. We got several nasty looks walking to the end of the line in the parking lot with a baby carrier, but Daniel was well wrapped and warmer than Mark and I were for sure! After 20 mintues though, Mark took him back to the van to wait until I was almost at the door. I was freezing, but my kids are worth the awesome prices on stuff I wouldn't have considered for Christmas otherwise. This year anyway. 45 minutes just to get in the door. Then the walking around, and another 45 minutes or so to get to the register. We missed the blue 3-wheeled scooter for William by 5 seconds, some guy snagged it first. So he's getting a pink one that we'll spray paint blue. Hey, we don't care and he won't notice! :-)
We got to have a double date with Mark's little sister and her new hubby, which was fun. And we got to venture over to the NICU to see my newest little nephew. Almost 6 weeks early, he's 3 weeks old now and weighs a mere 5lbs 11oz. Such a cutie! He has cleft lip and palate like his mom and brother, and it was really neat to get to see what the palate actually looked like. It's amazing what modern medicine can do for these babies. He liked me, but threw up all over Mark. Hee Hee!
On a serious note though, we have a dilema about Oren. He's been having trouble at school even though we just upped his medication dosage and he's doing wonderful at home. His teacher is gone a lot, she's recovering from cancer and when she gets a cold she's out for a while, and she has lots of appointments. He needs somebody that's there all the time. He's also acting out in other classes, and we're not sure why when his behavior at home is much improved since adjusting his meds. The staff all know him, and sometimes I wonder if they expect bad behavior from him simply because of his history from Kindergarten or something. After being cornered in the hallway and told that his meds aren't working and he's worse than he was at the start of the year, in front of and in full hearing of Oren by the way, that she doesn't know what else to do with him.... Mark and I are now trying to decide if we want to switch teachers next semester first, or go straight for homeschooling. Anybody have any insight into homeschooling or how to help resolve the issue with the school? We would be most likely do a homeschooling program with books provided and a teacher that checks over the work and stuff. So it would be easier than figuring it all out myself, curriculum wise.
What would you do? We'll be praying about this pretty hard, but any advice would be welcome. We've also decided it would be wise for me to call my psychiatrist and get back on my bipolar meds and ADHD meds, if they are nursing friendly, or find some that are. I can tell I'm starting to go a little manic lately, and the ADHD has been hard to control. If I end up homeschooling, me being stable is absolutely vital. But I was able to stay med-free the whole pregnancy, which is a huge achievement, and I'm proud of that. Ahhh.... life. Does it ever get easier? Having kids is wonderful, but I never thought I'd have to make this many hard choices, big ones that will affect them for a long time to come. Wow.
We had a long and crazy weekend, with far too much to blog about. Mark and I braved the crowds at 12:30 am Friday morning to snag some things at ToysRUs. Will never do it again. We got several nasty looks walking to the end of the line in the parking lot with a baby carrier, but Daniel was well wrapped and warmer than Mark and I were for sure! After 20 mintues though, Mark took him back to the van to wait until I was almost at the door. I was freezing, but my kids are worth the awesome prices on stuff I wouldn't have considered for Christmas otherwise. This year anyway. 45 minutes just to get in the door. Then the walking around, and another 45 minutes or so to get to the register. We missed the blue 3-wheeled scooter for William by 5 seconds, some guy snagged it first. So he's getting a pink one that we'll spray paint blue. Hey, we don't care and he won't notice! :-)
We got to have a double date with Mark's little sister and her new hubby, which was fun. And we got to venture over to the NICU to see my newest little nephew. Almost 6 weeks early, he's 3 weeks old now and weighs a mere 5lbs 11oz. Such a cutie! He has cleft lip and palate like his mom and brother, and it was really neat to get to see what the palate actually looked like. It's amazing what modern medicine can do for these babies. He liked me, but threw up all over Mark. Hee Hee!
On a serious note though, we have a dilema about Oren. He's been having trouble at school even though we just upped his medication dosage and he's doing wonderful at home. His teacher is gone a lot, she's recovering from cancer and when she gets a cold she's out for a while, and she has lots of appointments. He needs somebody that's there all the time. He's also acting out in other classes, and we're not sure why when his behavior at home is much improved since adjusting his meds. The staff all know him, and sometimes I wonder if they expect bad behavior from him simply because of his history from Kindergarten or something. After being cornered in the hallway and told that his meds aren't working and he's worse than he was at the start of the year, in front of and in full hearing of Oren by the way, that she doesn't know what else to do with him.... Mark and I are now trying to decide if we want to switch teachers next semester first, or go straight for homeschooling. Anybody have any insight into homeschooling or how to help resolve the issue with the school? We would be most likely do a homeschooling program with books provided and a teacher that checks over the work and stuff. So it would be easier than figuring it all out myself, curriculum wise.
What would you do? We'll be praying about this pretty hard, but any advice would be welcome. We've also decided it would be wise for me to call my psychiatrist and get back on my bipolar meds and ADHD meds, if they are nursing friendly, or find some that are. I can tell I'm starting to go a little manic lately, and the ADHD has been hard to control. If I end up homeschooling, me being stable is absolutely vital. But I was able to stay med-free the whole pregnancy, which is a huge achievement, and I'm proud of that. Ahhh.... life. Does it ever get easier? Having kids is wonderful, but I never thought I'd have to make this many hard choices, big ones that will affect them for a long time to come. Wow.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Handsome Boys and Happy Holidays!
Whew! It's been a busy little while at our house! I will say, having 4 kids isn't "hard" per se, just busy. What people were telling me is true, in a way having just 3 was harder. But only because the other children are older and help more is it easier. The laundry increases, but not that I notice with so many to wash for already. Dishes haven't gotten more, but the boys help unload more oftern. There aren't any more toys, but I pick them up a lot less often, since I didn't make the mess.
Going out isn't that bad. Daniel nurses, so it's just an extra blanket and some more diapers in the diaper bag. William holds my hand, and the other boys know to walk close. Daniel goes in the cart in his seat, William "helps push", and the others hold on to the side same as always.
What really makes it easier is that our family has a routine now. There is a way that our day has to go with school and meals and lessons that just makes everything work. I've learned the value of a crock pot meal after 2 hours of piano lessons when I walk in the door. Or making the casserole in the morning and keeping it in the fridge all day until crazy hour hits and I need to make dinner. The boys know what time to expect what, what day has which activities, and I know how much time to allow per child to be ready. Plenty of downtime, and being selective about what we try to get done helps too. I think all this is why I can truthfully answer "yes!" when friends ask if I still feel sane with 4 boys. :-)
It amazes me how old they all look now too! We got William some proper Sunday Clothes, even though they barely fit and he'll need different ones by the end of the winter, and they just all looked so handsome sitting on the couch waiting for me to get ready for church! (The only reason they were sitting still is the Veggie Tales movie that was playing. Shhhh..... don't tell)
Going out isn't that bad. Daniel nurses, so it's just an extra blanket and some more diapers in the diaper bag. William holds my hand, and the other boys know to walk close. Daniel goes in the cart in his seat, William "helps push", and the others hold on to the side same as always.
What really makes it easier is that our family has a routine now. There is a way that our day has to go with school and meals and lessons that just makes everything work. I've learned the value of a crock pot meal after 2 hours of piano lessons when I walk in the door. Or making the casserole in the morning and keeping it in the fridge all day until crazy hour hits and I need to make dinner. The boys know what time to expect what, what day has which activities, and I know how much time to allow per child to be ready. Plenty of downtime, and being selective about what we try to get done helps too. I think all this is why I can truthfully answer "yes!" when friends ask if I still feel sane with 4 boys. :-)
It amazes me how old they all look now too! We got William some proper Sunday Clothes, even though they barely fit and he'll need different ones by the end of the winter, and they just all looked so handsome sitting on the couch waiting for me to get ready for church! (The only reason they were sitting still is the Veggie Tales movie that was playing. Shhhh..... don't tell)
And I'll be posting this recipe in a bit on my food blog! Oren's teacher asked if I would make the cupcakes I volunteered myself for earlier in the year to ensure Oren had a party option with no food coloring. And Nathan asked if I could make a treat for his party too, and how could I turn down those big blue eyes? Nathan's had to be pumpkin themed for his Harvest Party, so these are pumpkin cupcakes with a special cream cheese frosting! These were much more gratifying than Rachel's apple pie episode, the students ate them up, the teachers had some of the extras, and Oren passed some to a happy school office! I had one myself and was quite pleased. I loved Rachel's little apple pies, and my kids gobbled them fast, but what kid doesn't like cupcakes? (Will be making those pies again soon, got the crust in the fridge. Yumm!)
Happy Holidays everyone!
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