Year End Wrap Up

As 2011 comes to a close I am sitting here reflecting back on the year.

In January Nathan started going to preschool 5 days a week. He learned to love preschool and now that he takes a bus to and from school he loves it even more.

In February we started having trouble with Nathan and he was admitted to the hospital a few times with severe, chronic diarrhea. We never did find out a cause.

In March we had more of the same, more hospital stays and more diarrhea. At one point Nathan was diagnosed with a lactose intolerance even though he wasn't eating any lactose (thank you very much Albany Med Peds GI, you are simply awful).

In April we went on Vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a great vacation but we had to leave early to take Nathan to the ER. Up until that point it was a pretty good vacation and we can't wait to go again.

In May, nothing noteworthy again. Forgive me, it's late and I'm having a mental block to May.

In June preschool took a break before summer session began. Program preschool (where the therapies are included) doesn't break like regular school, they go year round with breaks like regular school.

In July Daddy impressed us with his fireworks display at the lake. Trevor loved all the pretty colors and didn't mind the noise, Nathan liked the colors but HATED the noise.

In August, this was a big month for us. We went to Cape Cod and it was supposed to be a fun beach vacation. In a surprising turn Trevor got sick and ended up in the ER and Nathan had a great week going to the beach with everyone else while I stayed home and nursed Trevvie back to health. Not to be outdone Nathan's feeding tube came out and we needed to call an ambulance to put it back in. Later in the month we had a party for Nathan at the track so he could see all his friends before surgery. Then at the end of the month we went to Boston to get his trach removed. It was a long surgery for all of us but Nathan came through it great. Trevor got to spend some time with all his grandparents who took turns taking care of him. Also, Trevor started really walking all over the place. Once he got mobile there was no looking back!

In September Nathan was sent home for the very first time in his life without a trach. Nathan had never before been home without one. It was quite a day for all of us, hard to believe we were able to take him home only 2 weeks after surgery but we were (since I'm a nurse I was trusted to wean him off pain meds at home).

In October we went to B'ville to see the Hipolito family and visit the zoo. Trevor loved the zoo but was always a little jealous that all the animals were eating and he wasn't. Nathan also decided there was a nearby hospital he'd never visited and knew Aunt Trisha always wanted to see the inside of it so he got pneumonia while we were out there and got himself admitted to the hospital. He was sent home a couple days later, just in time to require Aunt Trisha and Geege to do the "herkimer shuffle" with Nathan and I since Eeeeaaaa and Trevor had to go home the day before.

November brought holiday festivities. We had thanksgiving to celebrate with the family and Nathan went to his first Turkey Trot. Trevor woke up quite early and was exhausted for the rest of the day. It was also the first Thanksgiving where Trevor was able to actually eat and he loved it. Thanksgiving is his holiday, he rocks at Thanksgiving. He ate himself into a food coma and when we got to grandma and grandpa's house he was ready for bed even though all the other kids were still up playing. Also, the boys were both asked to be ring bearers in their very first wedding! Nathan is already practicing walking slowly and smiling (at the same time, hard to do for a 4 year old).

December was full of family, fun and Santa anticipation. Once it got closer Nathan was a little nervous that Santa was going to come into him room and scare him but that didn't happen. Trevor doesn't understand the joy of Christmas so he had to be woken up at 8am to open gifts. Nathan opened all the gifts for both of them while Trevor walked around eating cheerios.

Other things that happened
-Trevor started talking and waving his hands to signal he wants something, usually food

-My parents believe Trevor signs, I'm still deciding

-Nathan started talking and needs to be reminded to breathe, he just doesn't stop. I asked him if he wanted to have a silent contest and he got sad and said "I just can't stop talking mommy, I love it"

-Nathan tricked everyone into believing he can read by memorizing his books and then repeating them to you as you looked at the book

-Trevor realized he HATES broccoli, and makes a cute face when he does accidentally eat it

-Trevor realized that he can walk his little self into the kitchen, open the pantry and get some food. He has a preference for the honey. That was before I bought a gate to keep him out of the kitchen

-Nathan started taking a bus to school and loves it

-Matt got a new job with Amtrak, we are all very excited

-Nathan turned 4 with a Thomas the train party.



Overall, 2011 was a good year for us. With nothing else, Nathan got his trach removed and that is all Matt and I ever wanted. We had a lot of great times and a few bad times. We were lucky enough to spend lots of time with our friends and family.

Here are my resolutions for 2012:
-I want to live in the moment more, spend less time worrying about what the future holds and more time enjoying the moment.
-I want to teach both boys how to swim, might need some help with that one.
-I want to take the whole family to California and have no one on our plane complain about the annoying kids in reference to mine.

Happy New Year's everyone. I hope you all celebrated with the one's you love most!

Thank God for Family

Yesterday Nathan wasn't having his best day, he has had pretty bad diarrhea for a few days now. Yesterday it got ahead of us and he was dehydrated. He couldn't keep anything in, not ever water so we brought him to the hospital to get rehydrated.

I realized, yesterday, how lucky we are for our families. They are always willing to drop what they are doing and run to our rescue to take care of Trevor while we are in the hospital with Nathan. I called Matt's mom and she came right over and watched Trevor during the day and then my mom took over and watched him overnight for us. The two of them also have a great relationship so i didn't have to make all the arrangements, I called each mom and then they figured out how it would work between the two of them. They always do that, figure it out and then let me know. They know how very stressful it is for us to be in the hospital so often with Nathan and they do everything they can to make it easier on us. I never worry about who is going to watch Trevor, I know they are always willing to help out. It just makes a stressful situation that much easier.

So not only am I grateful that our parents are so willing to help, I'm glad they are so close and willing to figure things out and not worry me!

Nathan is fine, rehaydrated and home. Now we just have to wait and see how long it lasts.

Ugh...

So I'm sure msot of you know this but Nathan has been on near constant antibiotics since October, yeah you read that right... OCTOBER. We are all sick of the antibiotics, especially Nathan's intestines since we ran out of probiotics and gave him a different kind for 3 days and he had severe diarrhea that is just now going away (I went to the store and bought the old kind).

There is really no reason for the constant antibiotics other than he has increased mucous in his lungs. The pulmonologist has said that this is beacuse his cough simply isn't strong enough to get the mucous up and out of the bottom of his lungs. He has NEVER had to cough hard enough to get stuff out of the base of his lungs, when he had his trach we would suction it out. So he needs to develop a stronger cough, it's going to take time. In the meantime we are working on getting him a chest percussor that will help to move the mucous around the in the base of his lungs to make it easier to cough up. I am hoping he lets is do it so he can finally come off his antibiotics and stay off them.

Trevor has been doing great. He is a complete monster that is into everything and eats whatever isn't nailed down. He even tasted cat hair the other day, don't worry, he didn't eat it! He has been very happy with the Christmas tree and loves to play with the ornaments, he's still learning that they aren't toys and he can't play with them. Telling him to leave the tree alone is like telling the cats to leave the tree alone.

To add to it all Matt has gotten a new job with Amtrak (yayyyy!) but that means we are going to have to get Cobra insurance for January while he is in insurance limbo, no longer with CP but Amtrak doesn't start until February 1st. To make it all worse Matt is going to be at school in Delaware for about 8 weeks starting in January (boooooo). So things are going to get a little hectic around here for a while but we'll get through it. It's going to be a good change for all of us so that's what I remind myself of everytime I think of the 8 weeks at school.

I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful season. We are having a great time with the boys doing christmas crafts and baking together. Tomorrow one of Nathan's friends is going to come over and we are going to teach him how to sprinkle cookies using an entire jar of sprinkles but getting NO sprinkles on the actual cookies - it's a good time!

All good

I haven't updated in a few days, everything here has been pretty good. Nathan's teacher sends us home a daily report with how he did at school using a star system. He usually gets 3 stars and that is the best you can do so clearly he loves preschool and does wonderful while he is there. Trevor has learned to love going to the gym daycare and each morning he walks over to the shoes and sits down and tries to put his shoes on so we can go. Sometimes he ever does this before he eats. He has even started walking right into the daycare area while I am still checking into the gym, he's come a long way since he first started going there.

Funny story: I went into Nathan's room a few days ago to wake him up for school. I asked him if he had poop in his diaper (he eats all night and usually poops) he said "No I do not" so I started to take his diaper off him and as soon as I opened it he yelled "SUPRISE" and thought he was hysterical. I didn't think it was as great a suprise as he did but it was cute to see how happy he was with himself.

It's cute to see how great the boys are together. They are still learning to share toys and not grab things from one another but I know we'll be working on that for a while. Usually they are great together and play without tears from either one. Nathan loves his little brother and Trevor just wants to do whatever Nathan is doing.

Nathan's pneumonia is mostly gone, to us it still sounds like he has some junk in his lungs but he is acting pretty good. I think we are going to go back to the Dr this week to make sure all is well with his lungs before Christmas comes. We're trying our best to turn 'hospital season' back into just plain old winter.