Parent/Teacher Conferences

Today I had parent/teacher conferences with both Landon and Casen's teachers.  

First, Preston had a much better night last night and a MUCH better day.  He's still ver congested but not getting any sicker and really that's his only symptom, it's kinda weird.  He isn't struggling to breathe except when he's laying down and that's just because his nose is stuffy not because of his lungs.  It's mostly in his head, I don't hear it in his chest at all so that's great.  He's had a hard time at naps and bedtime today because he will only sleep in his crib, therefore laying down, and he can't breathe laying down.  But he's down for the night now, hopefully he sleeps well.

I got up this morning and took Hayden to school then headed over to Casen's conference.  His teacher said he's doing great.  He's in the 2nd highest reading group but way above level and she said she thinks when she retests them sometime before Thanksgiving he's probably going to bump up to the highest group.  She has no concerns at all with his reading, said he reads very well and comprehends what he's reading really well, too.  He is doing great in all subjects!  I got his report card for the first 9wks....

Language Arts 93

Science 95

Social Studies 98

Math 94

She told me he is very well behaved, responsible, kind and she just loves him.  She said she has noticed his hearing issues because she has to repeat to him a lot for him to fully hear her and just this morning he was reading outloud and she heard him say a word and thought she should talk to speech.  So instead of having his dr refer him to another speech therapist they are going to do it at school, just have to get the referral.  She said it isn't bad at all but it can do nothing but help....I know it's because of his hearing and once that is corrected I'm sure everything will go back to how it was before...him way above level.  So yayyy Casen, he's doing wonderful in 1st grade

I came home and hung out with Preston for awhile.  Tried to take a nap, he wasn't letting me though, had a hard time falling asleep and by the time I got him down I was wide awake.  We played for a bit then I tried some pears with him again.  He seems to like the flavor but still figuring out the swallowing instead of spitting out, so just gave him a few bites and when he kept pushing it out I stopped. 

 I gave him a slice of my apple which he LOVED.  He couldn't hold onto it himself, he doesn't have the motor skills since it was slippery and odd shaped but he wanted it bad so I held it for him and he gnawed on it, probably felt good on his gums.  

Mommy helping

Then we went to Landon's conference.  He's doing really well too.  He's just...Landon.  LOL  He likes to talk, he's very social, he spaces out into Landon World sometimes...but overall he's doing good lol.  I did ask about why he got signed for "using unkind words" because that's not like Landon at all, so she looked it up and then kinda laughed.  She said that a few weeks back he was playing with a little boy...he's black.  And let me say up front, my kids are not racist lol.  They know that certain people are other races...obviously, by the color of their skin BUT they have no idea that some people would think negatively about a certain race or anything like that, that is just not part of their world.  So Landon was playing with this kid and leans over and pretended to bite him then said "mmmm tastes like chocolate"!!!  I almost died, both me and his teacher were laughing.  It was so innocent and it's all his Aunt Dessa and Uncle Chris' fault!!!!!!  Dessa is obviously white, Chris is black.  They are constantly joking in a loving way and every time anyone holds Preston he is trying to eat them, he eats everything he can get to his mouth and Dessa always jokes that he must taste like chocolate...so it obviously came from there.  His teacher said she wasn't going to say anything because it was obvious he meant nothing negative by it but the kid was offended so she talked to him.  She said she could tell he had no idea why the kid would be offended of that it pointing out the fact he was black and therefore different was somehow negative.  Anyway, that's over now, it was no big deal...I thought it was funny.  I did talk to him tonight to try and explain a bit about why it's not ok to point things out or joke about someone's color...still don't think he really understands why it would be so offensive because had it been done in reverse he would have thought it was funny and totally thought he was just being funny.  Oh well.  

So here are his grades

Language Arts 78

Science 96

Social Studies 93

Math 77

She said it's really normal for the first part of 3rd grade for their grades to drop because it's SO different from 2nd grade.  In 2nd it's still a lot of group work but in 3rd grade almost everything is independent.  Also the way they do reading stuff changes too.  She said that he's doing really well and the mistakes he makes are just careless that he rushes through his work and needs to slow down and pay attention because she knows he knows it because his mistakes are just little things.  

So overall both of them are doing really well in school, yay!

Tonight at church it was the costume party for the kids, they had so much fun!!!!  Then we had small group which was really nice.  We haven't been able to make it in a few weeks so it was great to be back there again tonight, we both really enjoy the people there.  There was another couple there tonight we hadn't met yet with a 7mo old and her baby had on....AMBER!  Never met someone else in real life that used it...that I hadn't told about it lol.  Pretty cool

My 3 pirates

Landon and Preston

My 4 men

A cruel joke

So like I said at the end of that last blog I went to take a hot bath to relax.

I take super hot baths, so hot that when I take my foot out of the water there is steam pouring off of it.  

So tell me why when I got in the tub today I had almost no hot water?  I mean really, what kind of cruel joke is that?  Just wanted a hot bath to relax from the awful day I had and I get no hot water????  No one even had used the hot water recently so why in the world would there be none?  There is no reason, someone is just playing a mean joke on me I'm sure.  We have a huge corner garden tub, I wasn't able to have nearly the amount of water I normally have or it would have been cold..I had to settle for just a little water and a lukewarm bath.  

Thanks a lot.

There was one good thing that happened today...or I guess sweet, not exactly "good"

When Preston was in a decent mood he was standing on my lap and I was holding around his chest and he grabbed hold of my face, one hand on each of my cheeks and pulled me to him and planted an open mouth kiss right on my lips!  He did it with definite intent.  Knows how to give kisses already??  I guess so because he definitely meant to do just that.  Then a few minutes later he leaned in and started sucking on my nose...thanks kid <3  

Even when it's a really really bad day there are little things to show you that it's all worth it in the end.

Now I'm off to bed with my little man, who is awake again, and praying that we have a better day tomorrow and he feels better.  I have both Landon and Casen's parent/teacher conferences tomorrow

Worst day in a long time.

What a day today has been.  

It started by me waking up at 7:04am to realize my alarm hadn't gone off and the boys had missed the bus.  Had to hurry and get them ready so that Mark could take them to school.  While getting them ready for school Hayden woke up, I tried to get him to lay back down in my bed but he didn't go back to sleep.  Then I went to lay down with him after Mark and the boys left and Preston woke up.  Now, normally, when Preston wakes up he may fuss a bit, but often he just lays in there and makes some noise, not fussing, just waking up.  But not this morning.  He woke up screaming!  I got him to feed him, he ate then was laying next to me for a minute then started screeching.  I'm not talking about fussing, not crying, not screaming, screeching...this horrible screech, it was awful.  This continued almost 2hrs straight no matter what I did.  I tried cuddling him, tried getting up and walking him, tried putting him on either side, on my chest, on his belly, on his back, in his swing, playmat, bumbo...nothing would make him stop.  By this point he was exhausted and after him attacking me while I tried to lay next to him to get him to sleep.  He kept grabbing at me and scratching, pinching, pulling at my skin.  I finally gave up trying to lay with him and put him in his crib.  He normally sleeps best in his own bed, by himself.  He does cosleep at night sometimes for an hour or less at a time, but he can only fall asleep with me when he's already been asleep otherwise he just fights it, normally when he's put on his belly in the crib he goes right to sleep, no crying or anything...that's what he likes.  So I tried that and OH NO didn't like it this morning.  He screamed even worse when I fist laid him down but I figured he was already mad and just mad that I wasn't understanding what he wanted.  So I gave it a minute trying to shush him, patting his back, giving him his paci...nothing worked.  I had to walk away for a few minutes.  I just couldn't take it anymore.  He finally would settle down for a few minutes in his crib with me shushing (when I came back after a minute, couldn't take any longer than that).  When he'd calm down I'd walk away and he would be ok for a few minutes but then the screeching started again.  So repeat shushing, patting, picking up to calm (he was finally starting to respond to me trying).  He eventually fell asleep.  It was awful.

I've, of course, had days with the older boys when they were super fussy but never anything like this.  I've never had a baby be just completely inconsolable like that.  Casen was a super fussy baby, no one could even touch him but me until he was about 7mo.  But there was always a fix with him, if I held him he would calm down, if I nursed him he would calm down...something always worked right away.  But just NOTHING would work for Preston.  

So that set the tone for the entire day, he's been like that on and off all day long.  He has nursed 9x...usually does 6-7x a day, sometimes 8x.  I'm sure we'll get to at least 10x today...if not more.  He had a couple times today that he was in a decent mood, but still not himself.  His eyes have been glossed over all day, he's still congested, something is obviously wrong but he really doesn't seem that sick.  Like besides those two things he's ok.  Well and the crying of course.  But no fever, very little coughing, only seems to cough when he sucks in too much snot then starts coughing a bit.  He hasn't let me set him down all day but I had so much to do.  

Somehow between all of that, thanks to the 3 big boys help, I managed to get 4 loads of laundry washed and all of those plus 2 that I had in baskets clean folded and put away.  Cleaned the kitchen and straightened up both living rooms.  But this evening he was really fussy again, the big boys went and watched a movie and I laid back in my bed in the dark with him and he finally calmed down.  He fought me for awhile but did eventually fall asleep next to me in the bed.  I don't know how I managed to stay awake because I'm completely exhausted..but I did.  Mark didn't make it home until 8:30.  I hadn't had any time to make the boys dinner so he picked up Jack in the Box and they didn't get in bed until about 9pm...usually we put them down about 7:30, 8 at the latest.  

On top of all of that my computer decided to crap out on me today and won't load up anymore.  It was doing that this morning but it finally did turn on and worked for a little while.  I took some super cute pics of Preston today when he was laying on a blanket relaxing quietly for a VERY short period of time today, and I uploaded them to the computer.  Well since my computer started acting up every time I put pics on that computer I save them on my memory card instead of deleting them until I can put them on Mark's computer.  Well, today since I was so distracted I hit delete photos.  Well my computer froze up and I turned it off and since then it will NOT turn back on.  Took my hard drive out and plugged it into Mark's computer when he got home and I can access everything but my iphoto library...where the pics are...so yeah, those pics are probably now gone forever.  So sad because he's 21wks today so they were for that, but they were also just really sweet.  So now the pics are gone and my computer no longer works....just make my day a little better...thanks.  

I'm now going to go relax in a hot bath and pray Preston doesn't wake up for a couple more hours......

Preston's Urology Follow-Up

This morning we had Preston's urology appt, a follow up to the tests he had done last month.  I got up this morning and it took me a bit to get out of the house, Hayden wasn't exactly being helpful.  I'd ask him to hand me something that was right next to him and somehow he couldn't see it...he was just being a turd but made everything take longer.  Finally got out the door and hurried to make it the 50min drive all the way to Harris Methodist.  My GPS got me there, I have been there once before but we've been to so many appts over in that are lately that I couldn't remember exactly where this one was.  So the GPS tells me my destination was on the right and there were like 8 buildings all there on there right..a lot of help that was.  So I googled the office real quick and she told me exactly where I needed to be.  Had to go up the 5th level of the parking garage before I finally found a space to park.  Got everyone unloaded and hurried inside.  When I walked in the office it was like 10:27am...thought my appt was at 10:30.  There were about 5-6 people in a line waiting to check in!  So by the time I actually checked in it was 10:40.  Preston by this point was starving and screaming like crazy.  I was holding him trying to dig out his insurance card, fill out the paper work real quick, he is screaming SO badly and grabbing handfuls of my face about to rip it off and she looks at me and says "his appt was at 10:15, I'm going to have to see if they can see him".  I was like really???  Can you see the morning I've had..I drove almost an hour to get here, I"m here JUST for test results, it'll take 5min of the dr's time they better not turn me away.  And had there not been so many people checking in at once I would have only been 10min late and that's not a problem at all, it's when you are 15min or more.  Anyway, ended up being fine.  Waited for awhile in the waiting room, the for awhile back in the room.  Hayden was being a bit of a pain at times but then really sweet at others, had to take him potty 3x while we were there...think he was bored. 

Finally the dr came in and told us the VCUG showed NO reflux and the renal scan showed NO blockages!!!!  So yayyyyy!!!  BUT that means we don't know why his kidneys are swollen and abnormal. The dr said since he isn't having any symptoms, besides occasional pain that we think is that but don't know, we will just watch him.  He will have the ultrasound repeated at a year old and if it's the same or better they will just repeat the u/s again in another year.  If it's worse he will have to do more to try and figure out what's going on, but the 2 things they tested for should be the only reason they'd be swollen like that.  

We went down to check out and set up the appt for when he's a year old.  By this point it was almost noon, we'd been there an hour and a half...both Preston and Hayden were tired of being there.  Preston was exhausted, he doesn't sleep well when we are out, so he started fussing.  I picked him up to calm him down then the nurse was trying to hand me paperwork and so I had to set him down in the stroller to grab it so we could go and oh man...it started again.  SCREAMING at the top of his lungs and also I guess Hayden had set his sticker in the stroller so he was freaking out that the baby was sitting on it.  It was a mess.  The stroller hit against the frame of the door like 4x while I was trying to back it out of there, Hayden freaking out and Preston screaming...I'm sure we were a sight to see.  He calmed down as soon as we got moving but when we stopped in the elevator he did it again...thankfully we were the only ones in the elevator lol.  Made it back to the car and he freaked out again but once I got everything loaded up and turned on "his song" (a song from my Oaks Worship CD) he was immediately silent and took a nap.  

We then met up with a lady that I met online.  She does You Tube videos and a blog that I follow, we are really like minded and have kids the same age.  Well she was selling some clothes and I bought them from her so I met up with her to pick those up.  We went to see Dessa for lunch then finally headed home.  I was able to relax about 15min before the big boys got home and I had to run to the post office.  After that I decided to surprise them and take them to the park for awhile then we were going to go get sno cones before the stand closed for the year but apparently we are too late...closed :(

Handsome man

Big smiles, he loves being outside

My 3 big boys

He pretended he "died" 

Making me a nervous wreck

  So instead I took them to Braums for ice cream.  

I let them get small cones...the loaded it up...they couldn't finish it, thankfully haha it was a lot

Preston was worn out and fell asleep in his ergo

It's been a long day, I'm exhausted....maybe I'll be able to fall asleep at a decent time tonight....doubt it.  Oh and Preston still isn't feeling well, poor thing is so congested.  But SO thankful it hasn't gotten worse, it's not causing problems breathing...well through his nose it is...but not effecting his lungs.  Praying it doesn't get worse

You can just see it in his eyes, he feels bad :(

Great Weekend!

We had a really great weekend! 

Saturday we took the boys to lunch and then to the Apple Store...one of their favorites!  Mark and I were a bit snappy with each other all day, don't know what the deal was but he was just getting on my nerves and apparently I was doing the same haha.  But the boys were being really good so it was nice being with them.  I think it's just been the lack of sleep between Mark working SO many hours lately and Preston not sleeping well most of the week (though he's done MUCH better the past 2 nights).  We went to Costco and they had lots of great gifts for the boys for Christmas so I was trying to show him one and he didn't really like it and I REALLY liked it and he wouldn't listen to why I liked it and I just got really pissed and took the kids to the car lol.  He bought Preston 2 outfits and me a shirt, I guess to try and make up for it haha.  But before I got all mad we found the boys costumes up there!!  All 3 are going to be different pirates :)  They look so cute!  We ordered Preston's costume today....a parrot!!!!  They are all going to look so cute, I can't wait.  

Sweet Preston napping Saturday before we went out

This is Hayden, we told him to get dressed to go and he found these pants and put them on thinking they were his shorts...they are actually Preston's 0-3mo jeans lol

After we left Costco Mark and I weren't talking haha but I had told the boys earlier in the day that I would take them for ice cream.  So I drove over to Braums and we all went in and got ice cream and sat down to eat and suddenly Mark and I were completely fine.  I love that even when we are getting on each other's nerves and being kinda shitty to each other we both are mature enough and love each other enough to just let it go and realize it's not important.  We never get into big fights and the times we do argue it's over in a couple of minutes.  

The boys really enjoyed their ice cream, kept stealing ours after they ate all of theirs.  We gave them each a dollar because we got $3 back after paying, knew they'd really appreciate it.  By that time it was getting late so we headed home and they tried on their costumes, which they love, then they went to bed.  Then I watched the Rangers get killed by the Cardinals...what a terrible game!  

How we found Hayden last night

We had some really bad storms last night, it was nice, but it actually woke me up in the middle of the night which shows how bad it is.  I can only remember one other time in the past few years that a storm has woken me up and we get some bad storms here.  Power got knocked out to our church so when I got up this morning I had an email letting us know services were cancelled.  :(  But we decided to go to lunch again and then took the boys to Target where we found Preston's parrot costume but for more than double the online price!  They wouldn't match it even though it was target.com.  So I ordered it and even with shipping it was still more than $5 cheaper ($12 vs $17). While at Target the boys used their $1s to get some candy (which took forever, Preston fell asleep, he had the right idea) and we picked up a few more things then headed home.  

Preston napping on the way out of Target

I dropped the boys and Mark off and then headed out to Dessa's.  Her and Chris got married today!!!!!!  It was just a small ceremony but really great.  Made me all teary eyed to watch my baby sister getting married.  Love them both so much and hope they have many happy years!  Can't wait to meet my nephew, Isaiah, they are going to make wonderful parents!!!!  

The beautiful couple before the ceremony

Exchanging vows

The Kiss

Mr and Mrs Hill

Feeding each other cake

Pregnant lady loves cake

Preston with Nonnie

Mark text this to me when I was on the way home tonight and said he had put Casen in bed and him and Maggie were watching out the window for me <3

When I was looking through the wedding pics I saw one I took of Preston with my mom and remembered I had one just like it of her holding Hayden and Hayden and Preston were almost the exact same age in the pics.  Look at the difference :)

Preston on the left and Hayden on the right.  Hayden was soooooo fat lol.  The one of Preston up close you probably can't tell as much but he's long and lean, Hayden was a chunk, a good 2lbs heavier but I think Preston's face looks older.  They were within a week of each other here.

So I came home and put Preston to bed then watched the end of the Rangers game which was MUCH better, WTG Rangers!!!!  

Tomorrow I have Preston's follow up urology appt, finally.  We will get the full results of his tests he had done.  Praying for good news!  I do hope they tell us they saw something but it's very mild, that way it's not serious but explains why his kidneys keep showing abnormalities on ultrasounds....we'll have answers but he'll be ok.  

Audiologist Appt

First, Preston slept so much better last night!!!!!!  He did wake at about 11pm to nurse but then slept until 3am, woke up and I grabbed him and stuck him in bed with me to nurse.  Usually I doze back off and then wake up like 15-30min later and he's done and asleep and I just move him back to his bed because he doesn't sleep in our bed very well.  Well I woke up 1hr 12min later and he was asleep but STILL nursing!  WOW lol.  I'm sure he wasn't actually getting anything anymore but still haha.  So I moved him back to his bed and he woke up again at 6am, grabbed him again, woke up 35min later to him still nursing lol.  Stuck him back in his bed and got up to get Landon ready for school.

Casen woke up when I was getting him ready, I was hoping he'd sleep in a little.  But then Maggie got out...damn dog.  Thinking it should be a great day with a morning like that.  But I went back to sleep for maybe an hour and then got up and fed Casen and Hayden and got them ready to go.  Dropped Hayden at school and came back home for about 45min until we had to leave for Casen's audiology appt.  

At the appt they tried to do some air test that would tell her if his ear drum was intact and working properly but he had SO much wax that she couldn't even do that.  So she took him in the next room for the hearing test...which he failed, of course.  She said it showed he had mild hearing loss in the middle or outer ear.  She said it might be from the wax, might be from fluid (which they couldn't even see if he had because of all the wax, couldn't see his eardrums) or possibly from something else, but we'd check those 2 first.  She said that when we are talking in just normal voices he's hearing a whisper..so when it's a quiet room he can usually figure out what we said but if it's loud in the house (when is it not?) then he's probably barely hearing.  Probably why he's been doing fine in school too since it's quiet when the teacher gives instructions.  She suggested we go to our pediatrician and have them flush his ears then come back.  So I did a walk in visit over there  to have that done.  Took FOREVER to get in, but they wouldn't set up an appt for it.  Had to have my mom go pick up Hayden from school, thankfully she could.  

Finally, the dr got back there and flushed his ears, soooo gross, so much stuff in there.  YUCK.  They couldn't even get it all but enough to redo both tests and see his ear drums.  The dr said it looks like he has some fluid back there too, it's just not infected.  So if that's the case he'll get tubes because it's effecting his hearing.  While we were there I had to run outside to put Hayden's car seat in my mom's car so a nurse practitioner sat with Casen talking to him and when I came back she asked if he was in speech therapy :(  So he'll be starting that.  I had noticed that recently he isn't talking as well as he was and his speech isn't progressing like it should.  He used to be MILES above average but because of his hearing it's now effecting that.  They said that he probably won't need it long and it's not bad at all but since they know he has hearing loss it's good to get him in there and hopefully when they fix the hearing issue the speech is easily corrected and he'll go back to how he was no problems.  

I called the audiologist and he goes back to be tested again on Nov 2nd so we'll see how he does then.  Hopefully it was just the wax causing his issues

Not very much sleep happening in our house lately

*Yawn* I need about 2 days with nothing to do and someone to watch the kids while I just sleep!!!  So tired!  But so much to do.  Here it is 12:30am and I'm up while everyone else is asleep.  Why?  Because we finally got our washing machine back (yayyy it's been broken about 3wks!) and I'm having to catch up on laundry.  It's a good thing it got back today because everyone seriously wore the LAST thing they had to wear today.  So I'm on load number 4 since we got it back this evening.  I got 2 light loads done and a load of jeans, then Mark was ready for bed and I was finishing up folding a load and he asked if I had done a load of darks...oops!  All of his work shirts are in the darks so now I'm waiting up until the jeans dry so I can throw the dark load into the dryer and go to bed!  

Between not getting to sleep at a decent hour...ever...and how often the kidS have been waking up I'm getting very little sleep.  

Seems like every night lately, or almost, one of the biggest boys wakes up with a bad dream and comes to our room in the middle of the night. I then have to get them settled down and tucked back into bed.  And over this past week EVERY single night Hayden has come to get in bed with us.  He did this just about every night before Preston was born but when he was born it was like a switch flipped, he was the big boy now, the big brother and he never came to our room.  I can think of maybe 3x before this week, since Preston has been born, that he had come to our bed.  So I don't know what is going on with that but that's causing both Mark and I to lose sleep.  Last night he came in before we actually even fell asleep so Mark took him back to bed...he was VERY upset about that.  When he does sleep with us he sleeps glued to one of us, whoever he is glued to finally gets tired of it and sends him to the other person because we are sore from not being able to move and sweating to death because he's a little heater.  I need some ideas to get him staying in his bed again!  I don't want to upset him but I get up and down with the baby so much, we had planned to cosleep with him but he doesn't sleep well like that so he's in a crib in our room, that that disturbs Hayden's sleep.  Plus my sleep is already disrupted so many times in the night that having him up against me does even more and, again, I'm barely sleeping.  I need to be able to function during the day and so does Hayden...if he doesn't sleep well he's a little terror and naps almost never happen anymore. 

So....any ideas?  No cry, no being mean, gentle way of keeping him in his own bed all night?

And then there is Preston.  I will say, even though he's going through this rough patch he is still one of our best sleepers.  Landon was the best at this age, at least 12hrs a night straight through.  But Casen and Hayden...we won't even go there.  But Preston had been sleeping 6-9.5hrs his first stretch of the night, usually around 7-7.5hrs.  He would wake to nurse then go back to sleep for 3-4hrs and repeat.  However, now I'm lucky to get 4-5hrs out of his first stretch and 2hrs out of the others...if that!  And that's just the time between his nursing...he wakes at least a few times in between that each time just fussing, needing his paci or his blanket or not needing anything just waking and crying and by the time I walk to him he's asleep again.  His naps aren't that great during the day anymore either.  Just a vicious cycle, if he doesn't nap well he sleeps really bad at night too.  I keep hearing people talk about the "4mo sleep regression" maybe that's what's going on, I don't know, but I hope it doesn't last long...for both of our sakes.  I know he's miserable not getting enough sleep too.  

He sure is cute when he sleeps though, isn't he?