Today was a good day

What made it a good day?

Bella was finally in a good mood.  She was smiling and happy all day long.

It makes such a huge difference and I really do mean huge difference when she is in a good mood.  It was just a plain ole day, Bella went to school in the morning, Oliver was at home with me, we played and did the typical day to day stuff around here.  It felt like a day that should happen all the time, but unfortunately it seems a rarity around here. 

If only I could have more days like this!

Bella’s Spine

This is Bella’s spine.

It basically looks like a humpback.  She has no muscle tone in her trunk, and will immediately slump forwards, to the side, where ever gravity takes her.

The problem is, as time goes by and she can’t sit up straight, her bones can permanently become curved. 

So we have to keep on eye on everything, go in for yearly x-rays to see how everything looks and most importantly make sure she is securely supported when she is sitting, so that she can’t slump.  This is actually a bigger pain than realized.  It will mean putting her in more braces, and strapping her into more seats.  Bella is going to hate it, I mean HATE IT.

And what do we get to look forward to in 5 years?  If things continue down this path, and I don’t see anyway they wouldn’t.  If her spine does permanently become curved then it could require a surgery to fix it.  A major surgery that is dangerous, includes a lot of blood loss, and a week’s stay in the hospital.

The question will be.  Is the curve in Bella’s spine ruining her quality of life enough that we would want to put her through this?

It’s not something I am looking forward to answering.

Spontaneously Boring

Bella is at school….yeah!

Oliver is at the sitters….yeah!

I finally get a few hours to myself.  Of course I am going to be working, but it’s still peace and quiet for myself.

We finally got over the hump of the flu and then Bella’s tooth problems have come back.  Last night was horrible, but we have all heard it a million times before, so I will stop there.

On a better subject.  I spontaneously got a sitter for Saturday night and Jesse and I went out for a bite to eat and some drinks.  There are some high schoolers that work in the church nursery so they have been around Bella and Oliver before.  We wanted to see if they would work out as baby sitters for us.  One of them was able to come over after we went to evening church, which worked out great because the kids had just been around her.

We left the house a little after 7pm, ordered a few beers had dinner, looked at the clock and saw it was only 8:30pm, and said “now what?”.  We had told the sitter we would be out till 10pm, but we actually went home at 9pm, because us boring old folks couldn’t come up with anything to do.

And then low and behold the kids actually slept through the night (this was Saturday night).  So for the year of 2013 we are up to 2 nights of continuous sleep.

The other good news for me, bad news for parenting in general.  Oliver finally likes watching about 20 minutes of animal movies.  This means for short periods of time he is content to sit still and I can get in my morning coffee…well some mornings.

Bella still doesn’t pay attention, but she can attempt to sit and watch with her brother.

I think we have a cheeseball on our hands.

Shoulda Woulda Coulda

I should have taken the kids to the sitters today.  I had so very many things to do.

I just couldn’t do it.

Bella had a rough week.  Her main problem besides the obvious flu/throwing up for a day is that she was dehydrated.  I think if you let Bella continuously drink water all day long, she still wouldn’t be able to drink 8 ounces of water.  She takes water in one drop at a time.  ONE DROP.  And each drop takes her anywhere from a couple of seconds to a minute to swallow.

So for the last couple of days I have been busy giving her lots of time so she can get a little bit of water.

I knew she was doing better last night.  As I mentioned I should have taken her to the sitters.  But I knew she wouldn’t get her drinks.  It’s so very hard to send her somewhere knowing she basically lays on the floor the whole time by herself.  It’s even worse to pay for it.

Now I don’t blame the sitter.  She is watching 4 kids.  Bella gets feed, and I’m sure if she is crying she gets attention.  But most of the time she is going to be laying on the floor while the other kids play around her or nearby.

So that was my dilemma today.  To be able to get things done and actually get work in, which meant send Bella (& Oliver) to the sitters where she probably wouldn’t get what she needed to get back to 100%.

Of course in the end I decided to give Bella another day of more attention and I kept the kids home.  I hope in her own way Bella appreciated it because my list of things to do is getting depressingly long.

On a separate note I did manage to make a short errand to Target after Jesse got home tonight.

And I just can’t get this lampshade out of my head.

Although I don’t really think it goes into any of my rooms.

We also need a side table.  I saw this one and thought I might be able to recreate it.

It’s a sort of ottoman/side table.  Although in our house, that fabric would have millions of black dog hair on it in no time.  So I’m thinking a painted wood top and a printed or a least darker fabric choice.  We can add that to my million long list of projects I want to complete.

On the Mend

Today was a better day.

I just need to realize that whatever a normal timeframe is for a sickness, Bella will take about 3 times longer to get over something.

This evening she was laughing and able to play, so we should be back to our way of normal soon.

WWJD

What Would Jesse Do? - probably find something to complain about... with perhaps a little humor.  Let's give it a shot.

So in response to Kristen's survey, I've heard there are a couple people out there that would like to hear from me.  I tried going out on my own with a blog but couldn't find the time and didn't have any followers... so  I guess I will try to make an effort to post once a week... maybe shoot for hump day each week with content  being whatever is on my mind... maybe do a recap of the previous week's events and add to those Kristen has already commented on with a Jesse spin on it.

Friday - The Kids slept through the night... BUT
   Kristen had to go and jinx it by posting about it.  I told her that she needed to just have a counter on the sidebar that she reset whenever the kids slept through the night.  That way when people saw that the counter was on day 137, they might realize that we go no frickin sleep around here :)  We do... just interrupted sleep... so we don't get the much needed REM sleep.  So YEAH for the kids on Friday... BOO for Kristen's post on Saturday because we have been paying for it since.

Saturday - Oliver's pukey day
   Poor kid had a couple episodes on Saturday night out of nowhere... he wasn't acting sick in the least all day, or during his episodes, but apparently it wasn't the "something he ate" that we originally thought it was.  Hint - see post Monday

Sunday - Tiling
   I don't think I could have complained anymore on this minor project... from mixing the 50lb bag of mortar unsuccessfully in a 5 gallon bucket to setting the tile in a "levelish" manner on the highly sloped un-level re-mortared brick hearth.  Originally thought tiling in the winter is not a bad idea, until you realize how easy it is to clean things off when you are outside with the hose when the temps are nice outside... instead I made a mess of the basement cutting tile, then mixing the mortar.  For mixing the mortar, I originally started by using a shovel, which the mortar powder adhered to and I had clean off later outside with the frigidly cold faucet water.  I then proceeded  to use my drill/mixer which made me think I was going to be buying a new drill once I burned the motor up cause I could smell it.  Once that was mixed, I proceeded to spread a significantly thick bed of mortar down to attempt to "level" up the surface... halfway FAIL... ohh well.  I set the tile and we will grout in the near future and it will look better than previously, but will still bother me that I know its not as level as it should be.

Monday - There's the good news & the bad news
   Bella had a dentist appt.  This was her first actual checkup because the local childrens hospital we took her to a couple years ago for a checkup was a complete joke.  The dentist and hygienist we go to yearly had previously communicated to us to go ahead and bring her in not knowing her full condition, but knowing she was disabled.  They were very gentle with her and I think it went better than expected.  I expected them to tell us that Bella would need to be put under for a routine cleaning, but they said to come back a couple more times for Bella to get acclimated to the environment and they would be happy to try.  The best news we received was that Bella has gotten all of her teeth, and is now getting in her 6 yr molars... so that has been her problem for the past half a year or more.  We were worried that her teeth might not be coming in, or that she was missing some, or who knows since she was born with a cleft palate, but all is well.  She will need braces and a little more care, but that is definitely doable.
  And the not so fun news.. so while we were at the dentist office, as Kristen's previous post alluded to... both her and I were feeling a little queasy.  Once we were back home, the "fun" began and proceeded through the night till about midnight... then we had a break until Bella started up at 130am.  During Oliver's bath that night, I was paying particular attention to his two rubber duckies.  For those who do not wish to know the specifics of our sickness, you can stop reading this post now.  I thought it was rather humorous that one of these rubber duckies had a whole in the bottom, which if filled with water, the ducky shoots it out his bottom side.  The other ducky has a hole in its beak... fill it with water and the ducky shoots it out his beak.  Out the bottom and out the top... perhaps at the same time and in a very similar "watery/spray" manner.  Too graphic for you?... May I humor you some more?  Don't mind if I do... I know some of you have been there before, so I'm just going to come out and say it.  So let's say I hypothetically wake up at 1030pm with the shakes and a sudden feeling of puking... I figured I didn't need to use the bedside trash can so I ran to the bathroom and crashed at the "used" toilet. That's never a pleasant thing to look at while you're bent over trying to puke, but let's move on.  As I kneel there next to the porcelain throne, I begin to question if it was the Deuce that was calling my number instead.  What if both happened at the same time and which position would I prefer to be in? I think a deuce in my pants is out of the question so I quickly swapped positions.  However, I did have to yell for Kristen to bring me the trashcan so I was ready for either.   Good times I tell ya... good times.  Then over the next 24 hrs we got to clean up our kids' (yes that plural) puke and diarrhea diapers... BOOM... The 24 hr Fluenza Extravagenza... Kuhlen style.  Glad its over with now and what a relief that we all got flu shots this year!

That pretty much wraps up the week.  Hope you have a fluenza free week and weekend.

Is Whining Annoying?

Last night we got little sleep.  Nothing new there.

This morning Bella was up and fussing at 5:30am.  Not even sure if she slept much last night at all.  Jesse was debating how well he felt and if he should stay home to recoup another day before going back to work.

After listening to Bella for 10 minutes this morning, he decided to go into work.

I would have left too if I could have.

Bella fussed all morning, no matter what was happening.  What she really wanted was drinks, but even if you were giving her drinks, she would fuss.  Boy would it have been nice if the child could give herself a drink. 

When Oliver went down for a nap, I sat with her, 2 hours straight, giving her drinks, feeding her, etc.  30 minutes in she finally stopped fussing and just enjoyed getting drinks.  The second Oliver was up and I couldn’t give her my undivided attention, she was back to fussing again.

By 1:30 today I was sitting in my closet alone, screaming because I was so frustrated.  At 2pm I put her in her bed, I told her I wasn’t going to check on her for an hour, because I needed a break and the best thing for her would be to fall asleep.

Luckily she did, and some 2 hours later she is still sleeping.

Tomorrow needs to be better than today, or I will seriously be checking myself into an insane asylum…you can sleep there right?

And looks like I’m not alone…

Science Confirms It: Whining Is The Most Annoying Sound Ever
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/06/22/science-confirms-it-whining-is-the-most-annoying-sound-ever/#ixzz2HWXtFKLZ