Monday, December 31, 2012

Multitudes on Monday

1499. 5 bouts of the flu OVER with

1500. Tamiflu to lessen flu symptoms

1501. Ibuprofen and Tylenol for aches and fevers

1502. Feeling well enough to enjoy Christmas

1503. Having a baby in the house on Christmas morning

1504. Porter's silly faces for the camera

1505. Ella Beth and Landon "helping" Porter open his gifts

1506. Girl Legos!!! (where were these when I was little?)

1507. Landon "hunting" from his top bunk (his deer stand;))

1508. Quiet evenings with Scott, simply enjoying each other's company

1509. A new journal to start off a new year

1510. Celebrating the close of 2012 as a Family of Five

Psalm 109:30 "But I will give repeated thanks to the LORD, praising him to everyone."

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Porter - 9 months

Oh my! 9 months sure have flown by.

Porter weighs 12 pounds!!! Woo hoo!!! He is 12 pounds of ooey-gooey sweetness. :)

He is still a fantastic eater - will eat anything we put in front of him except beans. Which is weird to us since he will literally eat anything else. He fusses for whatever we are eating and is great about trying everything.

Porter is sitting up like a CHAMP! Once he got just a little bigger, his body figured it out.

Porter is great playing by himself. Rarely does he get the chance with big sister and big brother around, but he is very content being surrounded by toys and playing.

He is a T-A-L-K-E-R. He babbles and carries on unless he is asleep. :) He is starting to put syllables together (e.g. la-la, ga-ga, ma-ma, and da-da). He is so close to actually saying Mama and Dada!!!!

He knows what milk, bite-bite, puffs, diaper, and toys means.

And he turned 9 months on Christmas Eve. It is such a joy to have a baby in the house at Christmas!!!


Monday, December 17, 2012

Multitudes on Monday

1488. Pepto Bismol

1489. a stomach virus that doesn't hang around too long

1490. Ibuprofen and Tylenol for fevers and aches

1491. lots of cuddle time with Landon - who is usually a Daddy's boy

1492. Ella Beth, Porter, and Scott staying healthy.......praying that continues

1493. quiet evenings at home

1494. going to bed early

1495. whispering Truths in my children's ears as we cuddle and anticipate Christmas

1496. lighting advent candles together

1497. Scott playing the guitar and singing Christmas songs as a family in front of the Christmas tree

1498. the reminder that Christmas brought Hope to our world

Psalm 136:26, "Give thanks to the God of heaven. His faithful love endures forever."

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

12/12/12

What a day this is! Today is Scott's 40th birthday.
12/12/12
What a fabulous date to celebrate such a big day!

40 years ago my husband was born. He doesn't look a day over 33, and most people's mouths gape open when they learn how "old" he is. 



40 years ago the husband to my children came into this world. It fascinates me to know that God knew that we would marry and have TWO more children than we would plan on having. God knew how wonderful of a daddy Scott would make.



 



40 years ago my soul mate was put on this earth. There were twists and turns in our lives that seemingly led in differing directions, but in the end they brought us to one another.


And I am so very blessed!!


Monday, December 10, 2012

Multitudes on Monday

1474. a house that is {slowly} coming back together after laying hardwood floors in the kiddos' new room

1475. antibiotics that quickly take the pain from an ear infection away

1476. the baby boy sleeping through the night again once the antibiotics start working

1478. having the two bigger kiddos share a room and personal space to grow closer and learn to get along and work things out together - at least that's the plan :)

1479. friends who rescue orphans and welcome them into their homes, their lives, their families

1480. celebrating Scott, a little early, for his big 40th birthday

1481. laughing so hard at dinner that all of us who came out to celebrate had belly aches

1482. hearing from friends who have the same frustrations with certain stages in life

1483. playing games one-on-one with our kiddos

1484. Landon wrestling with his cousin Bentley and wearing himself out having such fun

1485. counting down the days until Christmas

1486. breaking out our Christmas books and reading them again and again as a family

1487. Ella Beth and Landon coming home from church excited about all they learned about Jesus, God, and Christmas

Psalm 50:23, "But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me [God]. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God."

Saturday, December 8, 2012

When the baby's sick...

the Mama doesn't sleep.

After two nights of Porter being up at three different times and his fever going up to 101.3 yesterday, I took Porter to the doctor at 5:30 yesterday evening. He has an ear infection in his left ear, croup, and "probably has RSV" (though the doctor said there's no specific test to diagnosis it.) Thankfully, his blood oxygen level was stable so we didn't have to trek it down to Scottish Rite. Thankful.

We finally got out of the doctor's office close to 7 and then had to wait for the pharmacy to fill his prescriptions. It was almost 9 before we got home.

Porter nursed and went straight to sleep. And then the other two kiddos went down close to 10. It took them all of 28 seconds to fall asleep.

Scott and I went straight to sleep as well.

Until 11:39 when Porter woke up. I went ahead and nursed him again because he hasn't been eating well the last couple of days...and goodness knows he doesn't need to lose any weight! He nursed and fell asleep. Then I tried laying him down. OhMyWord. You would have thought I was putting him in an ice bath the way he screamed. So I picked him up, tried nursing him again but he wasn't interested. Nope, he was just wide awake.

Until 2:49.

That's three full hours of being up with the baby boy. I finally fought with him a little by patting his back and tucking a blanket around him so that he couldn't wiggle all over his crib.

He slept until 5:49. (He's nothing if not consistent with the "9s.") He nursed and went back down.

Until 7:59. Up for the day. Coughing, sneezing, runny nose, still has a fever, eyes are weak. I feel bad for him because this is first battle with being sick, but I am so exhausted.

Scott had my coffee ready and waiting for me this morning. Love him dearly.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Porter Update - part 2

I took Porter to the GI Specialist last Friday afternoon. I was happy that the appointment was in the afternoon because I thought that might help him tip the scales a bit. No such luck.

Porter was weighed (11.11 lbs) and measured (25 3/4"), and then we were in our room waiting for the doctor. It wasn't too long of a wait, but we did look out the window and watch cars and people go by. Then the doctor came in, sat down on his rolling stool, looked at Porter's chart and said, "Well, this sure doesn't look good at all." Now, I like this doctor, but those words are not the First Words you want to hear from any doctor.

So far it seems that everything is related to his severe reflux - a "mechanical problem" as the doctor called it. (Meaning, his little valve that is supposed to close after eating...to keep burps from coming up...just isn't working correctly.) The doctor still feels that the results we got from Porter's Upper GI are indicating that surgery isn't necessary at this point. Sigh of relief.

The doctor decided to try Porter on a hypo-allergenic formula to see if there could be anything else in my diet (after omitting dairy and soy for the last 8 months) that is triggering such severe reflux. Yeah, that hypo-allergenic formula is $104/SMALL can. Thank goodness we left with 5 cans of samples!

Well, Porter is beginning to show his true colors because the sweet little fella who used to take 1-2 bottles of pumped breast milk a week while I took Ella Beth to our co-op will now not even put a bottle to his mouth. After trying the new formula and Pitching.A.Fit. about it, we tried giving him breast milk. Nope, he won't take anything "artificial." He is now even refusing his paci. Oh My Word!!!!! I know I should be grateful that the paci is gone, but seriously? He used to take his paci and be asleep in seconds. Now??? Not so much. It's awful. And all over trying some stinkin' formula.

I can literally feel gray hairs sprouting on my head.

So, now, we are back where we were before the GI appointment: with a baby who is "extremely underweight," "hollow" in his upper body, and "failing to thrive." According to the doctors.

But the tiny fella eats. He eats so well! We have yet to find a food that he won't eat - which is amazing. Now if we could just get him to keep things down.

I'm just trying my best to feed him a LOT. Which means I feel like an open buffet most of the day. Which means that Porter is off his amazing nap schedule. Which means the more he eats the more he spits up. Which means the more outfits we are going through each day. Which means...

MAMA is going CRAZY.

But it's a season. Right? Say it is; lie if you have to!