Ear Infections all Around

Well my plan for blogging once a week is already falling behind! So here is update #2 for 2014, just 2 days late.

I need to update the design and maybe even the title of this blog, as Tucker is not the only story anymore.  There is still so much going on with him, of course, and so many emotions that come along with parenting him each and every day. But to say that Easton demands at least equal attention is an understatement. Easton is completely adorable, and that is his saving grace. J Because he is quite a boss! Since he was about six months old and was able to sit up and watch Tucker, he has thought that he should be able to do everything Tucker does. I say often that Easton thinks he’s 7. He screams when Tucker goes outside without him, when Tucker goes into the therapy room without him, gets on the schoolbus without him…the list goes on and on.

I think this is why Easton fights the carseat and the highchair booster so much. Because Tucker has a carseat booster and sits in a chair to eat, and Easton is not ok that he has to do something different.  Thankfully he has no problem sleeping in his crib, but of course Tucker has to be in his big bed in the same room where Easton can see him.

His favorite word is “nine” meaning mine. He claims everything as his, and Tucker rarely fights back. I am waiting for the day when Tucker fights back and pops Easton in the face, lol. 

This morning right at midnight Chris got called into work. This is not at all a normal occurrence, and I thought he’d be back a few hours later My alarm went off at 510am, and in true Leigh spirit, I hit the snooze button and woke up exactly 2 hours later.  Chris gets me out of bed every morning, the boys and I are not morning people on weekdays.  I quickly realized that Chris was still at work, and that I’d have to tackle the morning-hating boys on my own. Easton’s first order of business was to claim Tucker’s feeding chair and milk cup as his own, and there was no fighting with him and hoping to get out of the door in time. So Easton sat in the therapy chair and drank 8oz of Tucker’s glucose control boost, along with eating Tucker’s banana…

Now if you know Tucker at all, he has no problem with this. He’d eat only Cheetos if it was up to him, and Easton could have everything else. So then I had to get more bananas and a new cup for Tucker.

On Dec 29 we went with Easton to the pediatrician for his checkup, This doctor has been Tucker’s pediatrician since he left the NICU. She told me that Easton’s ears were infected, which wasn’t a huge surprise since Easton had been acting so mean. That is Easton’s only symptom when he’s sick-a grumpy attitude. So this was Easton’s 3^rd ear infection since October, 4^th since August (I think-I really have lost count). His eczema looked terrible also, I told her that is how it always looks. She suggested that he go off of milk completely, so we did starting that day. We all got used to almond milk quickly.

Easton is a 100% junk food junkie. He would drink milk from his cup and eat junk all day long. He will refuse any food and you think he’s starving, and he will somehow survive on an Oreo crumb he digs out from under the couch and then refuse dinner also.  Tucker eats a very healthy diet. He eats bananas, yogurt and low sugar applesauce daily, has hummus, sweet potatoes, avocado, squash, potato soup, chicken pot pie (all pureed) as staples in his diet, along with his Boost glucose control. For several months Easton would just eat whatever was in Tucker’s bowl, but then he realized there is junk in the pantry.  He’d cry and point to the pantry during the entire meal.  So the next weekend Chris took Tucker to the camp, and the pantry was off limits for Easton the whole weekend. By Saturday, he was eating grapes, scrambled eggs, and squash. I also made homemade oatmeal cookies with no added sugar. I put a banana and applesauce to sweeten them naturally, but they definitely don’t taste very cookie-like…after a few days Easton was asking for them instead of junk.  (and yes we will always keep some junk food in the house, because Tucker will do amazing academic and social tasks if a Cheeto or pink frosted animal cracker is offered!!). we also switched from Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap to the Dr. Bronner’s baby soap. Within a few days, Easton’s eczema was gone, and Easton was in a MUCH better mood.

Now I’m not just forcing Easton to eat healthy and then shoveling down the pizza myself. ;) I started making green smoothies, with 2 cups of spinach in them each morning. They are delicious! And replace my coffee addiction, although I do occasionally get a CCs fix in the afternoon at work.

On Monday afternoon Easton came home from daycare with a runny nose and an awful temperament. So I brought E & T to the doctor the next morning, going to see Dr B is one of Tucker’s favorite activities. He is weird, yes!  It turned out that both boys have ear infections, and Easton’s is pretty bad, even though he’s just been off of antibiotics for 4 days! Tucker of course had no symptoms and wasn’t acting “sick” at all, totally unphased.

We have an appointment with the ENT next Tuesday for Easton.  I am quite nervous that antibiotics aren’t helping to get rid of the infections, or that his immune system isn’t able to fight them off. I don’t like that. I am all for getting tubes, as he can’t seem to get the fluid off of his ears, and I know that having fluid on his ears can cause delayed speech. He also hasn’t walked yet, even though we all believe he has had the physical ability to walk for months now. He stands, goes to take a step, then gets scared and sits down. He has been cruising around furniture and holding our hands to walk for months. Chris thinks that he is just not confident of his balance because of the fluid on his ears. He will be 17 months old in a few days, not walking at this point is not cool.

The fourth annual Fishing for Tucker BASS fishing Tournament is on February 8 in Cabela’s in Gonzales, We are excited! 

Happy New Year!

2013 has ended, and I am embarrassed that I only posted twice last year! L

One of my goals is to post weekly in 2014, as life is busy and fun around here, and worth capturing in words.

2013 was a huge year for us, and I think Chris and I both agree it was a great year. There are several times lately when Chris and I just look at one another and smile, just happy that we get to raise these two boys together with all of the mess and noise it involves.

We sold our first home this year. It was a long, ugly process, as it turned out that our purchase 7 years ago wasn’t completely legal. !!! How does that happen? We still don’t’ understand. So we had an offer on our house in June, but we didn’t actually get the final purchase done until September 30. In the meantime, the buyers wanted to rent our house, then didn’t want to rent it, then did….so we rushed to move our stuff into storage and spend 6 weeks in my parents’ house (Dylan’s room to be exact!) and the people didn’t even move in to rent it. 

The whole point of selling the house and moving was to get Tucker (and eventually Easton) into a better school. And yes, Better is subjective, but we know that Tucker needed a change. I was so upset when I thought that Tucker wouldn’t be able to start the new school year at the new school, as transitioning him into a new classroom, then transitioning him to the new school in September would have been horrible. Luckily the new school agreed and Tucker started at Oak Grove in August. We kept Easton at the in home sitter that we love near our old house and my parent’s house, so that made for long morning drop offs for us.

Living with my parents and 3-4 siblings (Jessica is there from her mom’s house every other weekend) was truly insane. It was great in many ways, too, except that the boys really lost it when they realized they weren’t on a 6 week vacation J My parents opened their homes to the 4 of us, our stuff, our noise, our demands, and Tucker’s therapists. Poor Dylan slept on the couch for 6 weeks and had to knock before going into his own room to get his clothes.  But now that it’s all over, we miss each other.

We took part in two great weddings this fall-one of my best friends, Rachel got married in Illinois. Chris and I had a blast traveling with Lacy and her hubby, and spending four nights kid-free, hanging out with new and old friends. Their wedding was very beautiful, we were blessed to be part of it. Once we got back, the kids acted like we had been gone for years. This was the beginning of Easton’s severe mama-it is, he hasn’t left my hip since Sept 2, except for when he’s at daycare.

My sister Sarah married Bradley right before Christmas, so we had many wedding activities in 2013-the engagement party, shower, bachelor and bachelorette parties, and the wedding weekend in New Orleans. They asked Tucker to be the ring bearer, and I’m so glad they did. He was so excited to wear fancy shoes and to wear a suit that matched his daddy and Bradley.  He pretty much skipped up the aisle, he was so excited. Their wedding really was a fairy tale, complete with Sarah and Bradley riding off in the horse and carriage to a fireworks display. The food was SOOO good, Easton was grabbing food off the trays as fast as they’d serve it to him. ;)

Christmas was nice, it was our first one in the new house. Tucker really seemed to understand that Santa was the one brining the presents, although really the boys got more from their grandparents than from Santa J  Our Elf on the Shelf Barnaby arrived on December 1^st, and he was as unpopular with both boys as ever.  I posted the photos of Barnaby on  facebook, he is quite the good citizen…doesn’t get into all of the shenanigans that other Elves do. I actually miss him, lol!

We have a lot of goals and changes that we plan to make for 2014. I’ll post about them soon, as we are excited to work towards better health this year. I’ll also post more medical and behavioral updates about Tucker and the latest Easton antics.

Happy New Year!

When Three Became Four (or Five, if you Count Buck the dog)

Easton recently turned 9 months old. This post is long and very outdated, as there is about 9 months of events to re-cap. I have really got to find time to keep up this blog!

Easton has certainly changed things around our house, in a way that is hard to explain. There is less time, less money, certainly less sleep ;) But there is so much more love, happiness, and blessings since his arrival. Tucker is much more mature, and even though the first few weeks with Easton at home were a struggle, they were a struggle in ways that were perfectly expected….more work, little sleep, Tucker learning how to share his mama and daddy with a little person, Chris and me having less time for ourselves and one another.

We didn’t prepare Tucker for Easton’s birth the way that I would have suggested to any other mom with a young child. I didn’t get him a baby doll to play with, or tell him that he’d be a big helper. But we did talk about babies a lot, and I’m pretty sure he was expecting another baby like Kinley….as in, an 18 month old that he could play with J  I was in the hospital for 6 days on bedrest, and Tucker only visited me once. Having too many visitors could have raised my BP, but my heart hurt to see him. So one night he came up with Chris, and he walked in and said “change the diaper.” I said, “there’s no baby yet!” At home, he told his teddy bears “mama’s comin’ home” over and over. Poor baby missed me!

During the first few days and weeks after Easton’s birth and homecoming, I asked God for strength constantly….the strength to get through the next few hours, or the whole day….the strength to not go into my sleeping husband’s room and demand that he not get any sleep either ;) (The poor man was probably only getting 4 hours of sleep and then going into work in industry where he needed his wits about him….but hey, that was 4 more hours than I was getting!)

I just knew that whatever we were doing, we were doing it wrong…because Tucker stopped progressing in therapy.  He had a few pee pee accidents, and one poop accident so I had to pick him up at school. I was exhausted and I was so worried that the other KG kids had made fun of him (he started KG the day that I was admitted to the hospital).  I worried about what impact Easton would have on Tucker’s therapy and his abilities to move forward. I had devoted so much energy and thought to Tucker for the last 6 years, surely things would slip now that there was a new little person to tend to?  Time and time again, his therapists, his pediatrician, and even his mito doctor reassured me that it was perfectly fine for Tucker to regress a little. It was actually a blessing because it meant that he noticed “wow, something is very different here! This little bundle of blankets has a person inside it!” It was also great that Tucker was upset to not spend as much time with Chris and me. It meant that he really valued his time with us, and we couldn’t be replaced by other caregivers.  This was actually news to me, as I thought he preferred his Mickey Mouse videos to my singing and rocking any day ;)

There were several times that we felt downright awful because Tucker noticed that Easton didn’t have to follow the same rules. Easton got to stay up late with mama and daddy, but Tucker had to go to bed early to be ready for school the next day. Of course, we had to keep Easton up until at least 10 pm to hope that he would sleep until maybe 4am…but Tucker didn’t understand that, he thought Easton was up playing with us.  One time we put both boys in the tub, and Easton immediately pee peed. We laughed at him, so then Tucker stood up and peed in the tub, too! He got a spanking and we had to of course empty the tub and clean it. 

Having Tucker’s therapy sessions was such a blessing because he was out of school for over a week when Easton came home due to Hurricane Isaac. I couldn’t drive us anywhere or play outside with Easton, not that I would have wanted to. So Tucker spent a lot of time inside with Easton and me except for therapy. Then he got his routine and his rewards, including going to the mall and playing outside.  I was so nervous to be home with both boys alone, but really Tucker was very good. He was very patient while I fed Easton his bottle, and during pumping sessions. A lot of the time, he’d get a book or a music toy and sit next to me on the couch while I was busy. I would sing to both boys and Easton would stare up at Tucker, it was very special quiet times with both of them.  The problem would be on the weekends when the therapists were making up the sessions from all of the hurricane time. Chris was home, and at first Tucker was even more attached to Chris. So one time Tucker asked Chris to rock in the rocking chair, and Chris said no, he could rock after therapy. So Tucker listened and went to do his therapy. Then when he came out to potty, he glanced at Chris and saw him rocking Easton……well if looks could kill, Chris would have been dead in the rocking chair!

Tucker wanted to do anything that Easton did, and whenever we gave Easton attention for something, Tucker did it too. So when we’d try to get Easton to burp, we’d pat his back and say “come on, Easton, burp” etc. and Tucker would burp.  Easton wore the all in one pajamas that zipped, so Tucker tried to put on the newborn sized PJs! I found him a few size 5 all in one PJs with the footies (they even sell them in grown up sizes!) at Wal Mart, and he was thrilled.  The problem was that he couldn’t get them off quickly enough to get to the potty. One night, Chris and I were up late watching Duck Dynasty (well, we would have been awake with Easton anyways!) cracking up laughing at Uncle Si. Tucker shuffled out of his room rubbing his eyes, saying “potty, potty, potty,” so Chris and I ran to help him unzip his PJs. Well, we were too late, he peed all over the floor. I put Easton down in the playpen to help Chris calm Tucker down and clean the floor. When we were done, we got Tucker back to bed and checked on Easton.  He was screaming and completely covered in puke…..so the baby was changed and cleaned, and the play pen sheets were changed. And Uncle Si kept us laughing the entire time. It was such a “normal” night for parents of two kids, and we laughed hysterically….maybe we were delirious or maybe because it really was pretty funny.

Tucker is a baby expert; in fact, I can’t imagine raising a baby without a Tucker to tell me what I am doing wrong. He knows when the baby needs changed well before I do. The Huggies cover up the smell of poop pretty well, so sometimes Easton has a diaper full and I don’t smell it! But Tucker does!  Anytime we get ready to leave the house, he reminds me to “get the baby! Put him in the carseat” as if I have ever forgotten the baby! And as if I’d ever put him somewhere other than his seat ;) He helps me pick out his clothes (almost always the clothes with firetrucks on them). When Tucker is tired of sharing his toys or parents with the baby, he even puts him to bed.  He says “put the baby in the bed” “put the baby to sleep.” He turns on the music box, turns off the light, and waits for one of us to put Easton in the crib.  Tucker believes in the Cry It Out Method. You put Easton in the crib. If he cries, you shut the door on him. If he cries louder, you turn the TV on to cover up the noise….seriously! Most of the time he wants Easton with him, but when he has had enough, he will let you know!  During the first few weeks, Chris and I struggled to figure out what Easton’s cries meant. One night we couldn’t get him to stop crying and Tucker just stared and stared at him.  Chris asked “what is wrong with him?” Tucker replied “he won’t stop crying.” LOL

We have had many more adventures over the last 9 months, including medical ones. I hope to find more time to update everyone on all of it soon!