Hi!

We just wanted to stop in and say Hi since we’ve been MIA all week!  Ryder had the stomach bug on Monday and Tuesday, then I got it on Wednesday and Thursday!  That was no fun for either of us, so we’re just hoping that Alan & Maisy will stay healthy and we can all move into Birthday mode for the weekend!

Yaya brought Ryder’s birthday present over early, since those are the things Grandma’s do when their Grandbaby is sick!  I’d say it definitely made him feel better for that moment…she got him his very own kitchen!  I just realized I didn’t get one picture of Ryder with the kitchen, but I took about 20 of the kids playing house in the box it came in, go figure. 

And I got some of Maisy standing and playing at the kitchen.  She let go completely right after I snapped this picture (came crashing down 2 seconds later!)

Like I said, we just wanted to say Hi!

Valentine Cuties…and then they got sick!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Bright-Eyed, playful Valentine’s quickly turned into runny-nosed, fussy little sickly children!  Maisy has just had a runny nose for the past few days, but I knew Ryder had caught something bad when I found him sleeping in the middle of his bedroom floor surrounded by all of his toys at about 6:00 tuesday night.  The poor thing was burning up with a fever.  He stayed home and hung out with Uncle G on Wednesday, but when he still had a fever on Thursday I decided to take him to the doctor.  He has a double ear infection and she said his throat looked pretty raw, plus his fever was 103.1!  So he’s on antibiotics now and things are looking up :)  Maisy’s runny nose went away today but now she has a little cough, so hopefully that doesn’t turn into anything bad.  It figures when the kids are getting better, Momma would get sick. 

You all know my favorite thing about having sick babies…they turn into huge cuddle bugs!  I felt so bad for my little guy feeling so bad, but me & daddy definitely took advantage of it by laying around with him, getting all the snuggles we could.  Because as soon as he’s feeling better, he just doesn’t have time for days like this! 

Doctor Appts & A Present

I took both kids to the Doctor on Monday since their congestion has been getting worse and not better.  She listened to their lungs and both were okay, they just have horrible chest colds.  When she checked Maisy’s ears she has two really bad ear infections again.  Ryder has one starting in one ear.  So we left there with 2 amoxicillin prescriptions…welcome to the world of siblings!  I don’t guess I’ll be making many sick doctor visits for just one of them, they literally caught this cold one day after another.  I’m glad they have medicine now and are hopefully on the mend!

Daddy didn’t like seeing our tree empty underneath so he took matters into his own hands today and came home with presents.  One for Mommy, one for Maisy, and of course a few for his main man Ryder!  I didn’t think that putting presents under the tree 26 days before Christmas was going to go over well when you have an overly excited 2 year old and two very weak parents that are just as excited!

Yaya Makes Everything Better

Every time I get sick, the first thing I think to do is call my Mom.  I don’t know what it is…I guess just hearing the compassion in her voice and knowing that she cares, or maybe it brings me back to the time when Mommy could make everything all better.  But I’ve passed the gene on to Ryder, because all day yesterday and all day today he will be sitting in my lap and ask me to “call Yaya Lolly”.  So I do, and of course she talks to him and tells him how sorry she is that he’s sick and how much she hopes he feels better.  He looks so pitiful, like he’s soaking up all the sympathy and the only things he will say back are “not peelin’ good Lolly” and “can’t talk”. 

He was definitely tugging at her heartstrings, so as only a Yaya would do…she showed up with a care package.  Chinese food for Mommy & Daddy, soup for Ryder…which he didn’t want, so she hand picked the peas and carrots out of the fried rice because it was the only thing he wanted to eat!

And, she brought Ryder a pillow pet!!!  He loves it so much and I seriously think it made him feel better!

So, as you can see, we’re still trying to get Ryder better.  He doesn’t have any cold symptoms, it’s just a really high fever that has him feeling so bad.  After his bath today, it came down to the 99 range, so that was good.  Hopefully it’s going to stay down throughout the night and tomorrow he’ll be on the up and up!  We’ll keep you posted!

So Sick :(

Just when I thought that we had made it without Ryder catching any of the germs he has been around…he woke up crying at 3am.  I can tell from the sound of his very first middle of the night cry when he is sick.  I went in to check on him, and sure enough he was burning up with a fever.  I gave him medicine and had to go back in to console him a few more times throughout the night.  I took him to the Doctor first thing this morning because I knew he had been exposed to so many different sicknesses over the Christmas break.  I figured he had something but I was definitely shocked when they told me that he tested positive for both Strep Throat AND the Flu! 

They gave him a shot of Penicillin, and we left with prescriptions for Amantadine and Tamiflu.  I’ve been trying to keep fluids in him all day and we’ve been getting plenty of rest.  He’s so funny because he will get a little burst of energy and then come over to me and say “not peelin’ good…need-a take-a nap in Mommy’s bed” and off we go to lay down.  He’s never been much of a cuddler, so me & Daddy definitely take advantage of the sick days when his favorite medicine is our lovin’.

Allergic to Cats!!

Poor baby just can’t catch a break sometimes!  It might be hard to see in the picture because I took these on my cell phone, but Ryder woke up this morning with a horrible rash on his face & neck, and his left eye swollen shut!  I immediately knew that he was allergic to cats because Me & Alan both are and we were at a house yesterday where there was a cat.  One time we were at Nick & Lindsay’s who have a cat (sorry Shelby!) and Ryder had an allergic reaction the next day…but I wasn’t convinced that it was from the cat since the symptoms were delayed.  Now that it has happened again, I am positive that he’s allergic to cats and his Doctor agreed.  We’ve been giving him Benadryl all day which has helped with the swelling but not so much the rash which is all over his face, neck, and chest.  Hopefully it will clear up soon!

Refreshed

I’m feeling really refreshed this evening. 

After Ryder’s first day on the medicine his fever went away, his energy came back, and he finally got a full nights sleep last night, so I’m sure he’s feeling refreshed too! 

This morning, we went to Madalynn’s Church for her dedication.  It was such a sweet event to witness, and their Pastor preached a sermon that was so…refreshing! 

When we got home, Yaya came over, and Ryder was crawling to the door telling me “bye-bye” before she even stepped inside.  He must have felt long overdue for a little retreat to his Grandma’s house, so off he went with the biggest grin on his face.  And a huge one on Yaya’s too…he refreshes her, they are good for eachother!

Want to know what I did faster than the car could get out of our driveway??  Climbed into bed!  And took a nice Sunday afternoon nap…probably the first one I’ve taken in 17 months.  And let me tell you, after caring for a sick baby all week while juggling work & life, that was soooooooooooooooooo REFRESHING!

Last Therapy & A Doctor Visit

Ryder had his very last Occupational Therapy visit at Children’s Hospital today :(  I can’t believe it has been 90 days already!  Ryder has had a pretty high fever all week so I didn’t have him participate in therapy today, we just went to say bye to his OT and tell her thank you for everything she has done for us.  She bought Ryder a balloon ball, which he was pretty excited about, and she gave him one last lollipop to remember her by.  The first time she gave him a lollipop I cringed, but once I saw how it made him sit still so she could get a good stretch of his arm, hand, and fingers, I joined Team Lollipop each week.  And today he got his last one, it was sad, I was choked up.  Mainly because we all know that Ryder is not ready to be leaving therapy.  ESPECIALLY not Occupational therapy, where they focus mainly on his left arm and hand.  I asked her to print me his evaluations and notes from each session so that I could have them for his records (secretly I wanted to read through them and see how much progress he has made, AND give them to the Pediatrician to see if she could come up with a new diagnoses to get him more OT).  Reading through the notes tonight had me a little upset again because it is extremely apparent that he needs therapy on his arm, he’s not showing major improvement in that area, hardly any at all to be truthful.  I can’t believe that the insurance company is okay with the fact that there is a 1 yr old who cannot use one of his hands but is not being allowed any further therapy.  My mind just cannot wrap around that concept.  I would say that we are still hopeful that Medicaid is going to pull through for us…but that’s not looking too good either.  Children’s is holding our appointment for 6 weeks though, so if Medicaid does come through we’ll get our same appt and same therapist back without having to start the process all over.  The people from Early Intervention did call last week though and ask if we would be interested in having his old OT come back out since our insurance benefit was ending.  As badly as I wanted to scream not-so-nice words through the phone and tell them I didn’t NEED them after they dropped Ryder’s treatment and upset me, I bit my tongue and humbly accepted.  The fact is that Ryder needs therapy, and I need people to have his best interest in mind, including ME…no pride allowed.  So hopefully starting sometime soon he will have OT once a week in our home again.  It’s better than nothing!  We still have a few weeks of PT at Children’s and Jelena is working her magic on getting us more and more and more of that!  (Please pray that it goes through…I just found out that the Podiatrist is out of our network so they are denying our claim for going to see him…of course…I just hope they will accept his script for more therapy and not give me a hard time about it.)  Sorry for rambling, I feel like when I post about Ryder’s medical stuff I go on an information overload, but I guess that’s because this is what it’s like.  Some new battle every day, we win some and lose a lot, but we’ll keep fighting, whatever it takes.

Ryder with Miss Karen on his last day of OT at Children’s

Our next stop was to the Pediatrician to get Ryder checked out.  He woke up Tuesday morning with a fever, but I wanted to wait it out because he had no other symptoms.  Each day he kept waking up with a fever and not eating a lot, so finally today I made him an appointment.  Thank God I did because by the time we got there, his fever had gone up to 104.5!!!  I tried not to panic and told the nurse to get him some tylenol ASAP.  He tested positive for Strep Throat, again!!  If you’re counting, this is the 3rd time he has had it, in fact every time he has been sick it has been strep!  I guess having that IgA deficiency in his blood is showing its true colors now, this is what it’s going to be like.  He’s going to have a hard time fighting off any germs that he comes in contact with.  Luckily he responds great to treatment, so once we get him on medicine he’s back to his old self in no time!  So, Ryder ended his week on a rough note…but it was nothing that a visit from Uncle G:

A slurpee:

And some Penicillin won’t fix!

Double Ear Infections

That’s what we’re dealing with today :(

Poor pitiful baby!  Should be better by tomorrow once the antibiotic kicks in.  For now, I’ll just be enjoying all the snuggles I can!

Blood Work Results

My nerves can finally be put to rest (over this anyway), the Doctor called yesterday evening and said that everything that we tested for came back normal.  His platelets were finally back down in the normal range (HUGE answered prayer!) and his Growth Hormone level was fine too!  She said that we’ll just keep an eye on his growth and hopefully it will get back to a normal pattern.  If it continues to be irregular there are more tests that will need to be done…but we’ll cross that bridge when IF we get there.

Why does there always have to be a BUT?!  Wouldn’t you all just be jumping for joy if this post ended right there.  I know I would!  Okay, ready, here it comes…BUTTTT…she did find out from the blood work that he has an IgA (Immunoglobulin A) Deficiency.  I guess this means that he’s missing one of the antibodies that helps fight off infections.  The way she explained it is that it weakens his immune system so if he’s around someone that has a cold, he’s going to get the cold.  I was surprised to hear this because I thought we’ve been pretty lucky with him not getting sick too much.  I guess it’s a good thing we don’t have him in daycare!  This definitely worries me for the future when he goes to school and is around a lot of other kids, but, again, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there!

Other than that, his white blood cell count was elevated which she didn’t seem too concerned about, so neither am I.

For Mommy, no more waiting on results.  For Ryder, waiting is his new favorite thing to do!

(Waiting for Daddy, of course!)

Rough Weekend

Ryder has had a pretty rough weekend, poor guy!  After screaming his head off from the shots Thursday and the blood work Friday, he pretty much lost his voice and has been saying all his words in a raspy tone.  He has been running a low grade fever from the shots and I’m sure he’s sore from all the needles, plus sore from his teeth coming in, plus he has a little case of thrush on the inside of his cheek.  He was so sad to wake up Saturday and find out that Daddy wasn’t home.  So that started his day off bad and it didn’t make mine great either.  Alan had a side job to do and we had a wedding to go to.  Wow…let me just say this…I have so much respect for you single Mom’s out there!  I’m so used to being able to hand him off with that “YOUR TURN” look on my face, so it was pretty tiring being on double duty, and that was only for one day!  I managed to stab him with my fork as I balanced him and his plate of food while trying to squeeze through to find a place to sit.  Luckily Nana took him outside for me so that I could eat, and breathe, and remind myself to always be thankful for Daddy’s help.  When we got home, it was bed time, but that was rough because he was overly tired and couldn’t calm down.  Also because me & him took a nap together in Mommy’s bed earlier that day, so he was fighting going to sleep in his crib.  This is also the reason that he cried for 30 minutes before finally giving in and taking a nap in his crib today.  Who knew I’d have to pay such a price for a little cuddle time with my boy!  Today there have been multiple accidents.  He did a face plant off of a piece of exercise equipment, right after he looked at me and said “Danger!”  He knows when he’s being dangerous but tests his limits anyway.  Later, he was so proud of him self when he pulled up to the bed, then let go with both hands, he had the biggest grin until he lost balance and fell, hitting his eye on the box spring on the way down.  Oh, and how can I forget, someone left the toilet seat up and just as I saw Ryder crawl into the bathroom and asked “the toilet seat is down, right?” I heard it come crashing down…of course.  First hitting him in the face, then smashing his fingers. 

So we end the weekend with two bruises on the leg from shots, a bruise on the arm from blood work, swollen gums with 2 teeth cutting through, a sore inside his cheek, a fork mark going up his arm, and a black eye.  It has been a rough one!

Much Better!

It didn’t take the antibiotic long to kick in and get this boy back to his normal self!  He had his first dose Wednesday night, and by Thursday afternoon he had no more fever, and was completely re-energized.  He made up for lost time by not taking an afternoon nap and terrorizing the house…yup…back to normal!  Today you can’t tell he was ever even sick.  It’s amazing how quickly children can bounce back from things.  It seems like all of the resting he did while he was sick has actually made him stronger.  I’m happy to say that all evening yesterday and all day today Ryder has been crawling up on his hands & knees almost ALL of the time! 

This is so amazing!  I was worried that he would never gain the strength to push up and crawl like this and it’s so important for the development of their bones and joints for them to crawl.  Plus, It is so good for his arm to bear weight like this. So, my baby is all better AND he’s crawling…I’m one happy Mommy :-)

Strep Throat

Wow this crept up out of completely nowhere!  Ryder was fine all day yesterday but woke up at 2am burning up!  I gave him Motrin and spent the next 2 hours trying to get him comfortable so that he could go back to sleep.  His temperature was right around 102, it has never been that high so I made an appointment first thing in the morning to take him to the doctor.  Sure enough, he tested positive for strep throat.  He has been so lethargic and has slept most of the day away.  Of course Mommy has been spoon feeding him chicken noodle soup, rocking him to sleep, and catering to his every need.  He’s soaking up all the babying and attention, but hopefully the antibiotic will kick in and he’ll start feeling better soon!

Some cell phone pics of my sleeping baby boy all cuddled up in my arms:

Back to the Doctor

We went back to the Doctor today to get Ryder’s blood work done (can you believe it has been a month already?!).  Lucky for him…well…I guess it depends how you look at it, but he has an ear infection so we couldn’t do the blood work!  I asked the Dr. to check his ears before we took his blood because he has been tugging at his right ear a lot the past few days.  Sure enough, he has an ear infection, so it would be pointless to do the blood work because that would throw all of his levels off anyway.  That pushes us back to waiting 3 more weeks to get the blood work done to check his platelet levels.  On that note, I’ve really been stressing about these platelet levels, worrying that with them being high he could be at risk for another stroke.  So, I contacted the Neurologist yesterday and feel a little better after talking to them.  They said they won’t be concerned unless his levels are persistently in the 700’s and Ryder’s were right around 600 both times, and 450 is normal.  SO…even though they are elevated, lets just pray that they don’t reach the 700’s and there will be no real reason for concern!

I love going to Ryder’s Pediatrician’s office, they are all so sweet and they love Ryder, so of course I love them :)  I mostly love how they notice the little progressions that Ryder makes, it makes me feel so good to see that his Dr. actually notices and is proud to see him moving forward or doing something new.  For example, when she walked in the room Ryder was crawling on the ground and she immediately noticed that he was putting one arm in front of the other, instead of the pull & scoot move he always did before.  Even though he’s still crawling on his belly, it’s great to see the coordinated movements between arms & legs.  And when she walked in the room I said to Ryder “say Hi Doctor…” and he said “doctor” (in Ryder language but totally understandable) and she couldn’t believe it!  After visiting with us for a while, she said he’s saying really unique words that most 13 month olds wouldn’t be saying yet.  His therapist made the same comment today, so it made me feel good to hear something positive from both people in one day!

Sick Day

I took the day off and stayed home with Ryder today.  I’m glad I did because he’s really not feeling good and probably needed to be babied by his Mommy.  He woke up in the middle of the night with a runny nose and has been coughing all day today, but luckily he seems to have gotten rid of the fever.  They’re calling for a huge snow storm this weekend, so it looks like we’ll have lots of time indoors to nurse our sick little baby back to health.

  

I love how he takes his medicine all by himself now, like such a big boy! 

Strep Throat!

Yes, Ryder has strep throat, I can’t believe it!  Vicki called Monday afternoon and said that Ryder wasn’t acting himself and felt really warm.  So I went right over to get him and see what was going on, and sure enough, he wasn’t talking, laughing, playing, nothing…and his temperature was 101.7!  That’s the highest his temp has ever been so it scared me a little.  Daddy took him to the Doctor first thing Tuesday morning only to find out that he has strep throat.  Poor guy :(  His Dr. said it was great that we caught it early and can get him on medicine now because strep throat left untreated can effect your kidneys…yikes…so this will be his second day on the antibiotic and he already seems to be feeling better.  Back to playing,Pointing,

 

and mostly wanting to be picked up!

Feeling Much Better

Alan took Ryder to the doctor on Friday since he had been sick with a cold for a full week.  Although there was nothing they could do for his cold, he had developed an ear infection, so they gave him an antibiotic for that.  My reaction when Alan called to tell me was “Awww, he got his first ear infection?  How cute!!”  I guess every “first” is cute to me, good or bad! 

He’s still congested, but seems to be feeling much better.  He is back to his normal sleeping routine (yayyy!) and is happy as can be during the day.  And he suddenly has developed a huge appetite!  Here he is eating Mac-N-Cheese tonight:

Sick…but Happy!

Ryder is still not feeling so good.  As I mentioned before, he woke up with a stuffy nose Thursday night, and it has been pretty much the same ever since.  He has had a runny nose, and just started coughing today, but his temperature hasn’t gone any higher than 100…so I haven’t taken him to the doctor or anything.  I’m sure they would say it’s just a virus that has to run it’s course.  So, that’s what I’m trying to let it do, but if it sticks around too much longer I’m sure we’ll be making an appointment! 

So he might be sick…

But he’s still happy…

 

So happy, in fact, that he started clapping his hands today!! (turn your volume down…I was a little excited!)

Sick Boy on Sunday

Better late than never, right?!  Ryder came down with a little cold on Thursday night that pretty much carried through the weekend.  By Sunday he had finally gotten a good nights sleep and seemed to be feeling much better.  He hung out in his jammie’s for most of the day, but that afternoon we got dressed (in matching outfits, lol) and went over to check on Daddy & Uncle Gregg who were at Poppy’s house working on the Expo for Uncle Dwayne.  So, the weekend we were supposed to be spending away from each other, ended up being completely opposite…he clung to me all weekend.  Babies need their Momma’s when they’re not feeling well! 

Of course nothing can stop this child from playing!

I thought this was the cutest outfit ever!  Diana got him this :)

 

Daddy & Uncle Gregg decided to take a break and work on Ryder’s car for a minute.  He got decals and a license plate!