The Good, the Bad, and the Hacking Cough

Even though there hasn't been too terribly much going on this week, it's still seemed pretty busy. There's been some good, some bad, and a whole lot of asthma.

Let's start with the good, shall we? The week started on Sunday, so I'll start there too. Church was nice. I've got to be honest. I don't remember too much of it though. I do remember that we were about ten minutes late, and it was my fault this time. I remember that we made it almost the entire way through Sunday school before Ben had to take Coney home. 9:00 schedule is really difficult for us because Conan desperately needs a nap by about 10:30, and he cannot fall asleep unless he is in his crib in his bedroom by himself. So, Ben usually has to take him home early. I also remember that we sang one of my favorite songs in RS, "For All the Saints". Of course, that's not surprising because I oversee all the music in RS. It's actually one of the first times I think I've sung the song. It's just one of my favorites to play. I also lead the music and got a little thrown off singing it because the timing of the lyrics is a little strange with the music, and I hadn't really paid any attention to that before. I really had to concentrate on that since I was trying to conduct for a bunch of people who didn't really know the song either.

After church, we headed over to Ben's dad's house to celebrate Cathy's birthday. Unfortunately, Ben had to work, so it was just the boys and me....from our house anyway. The rest of the family was there, and Jenn even brought her mom along since she was visiting for a few days. We had a delicious sloppy joe dinner. Ben absolutely detests sloppy joes, so we never have them. I happen to really like them though. I also added onions to the baked potato casserole since Ben wasn't there, another food that I love that is not welcome in our home. We also had the most delicious chocolate mousse cake that Aubrey brought home from Costco. I'm not usually one for really rich creamy things, but this was divine! After dinner, we just sat around and visited for a couple hours. We also had some fun with Alex's silly photo app on his i-phone. We've got some really great blackmail pictures of just about everyone in the family.

We had another fabulous family dinner last night at Ben's mom's house. We had a little pre-Easter dinner. The kids all ran around and I'm sure destroyed Karri's basement. I purposely didn't go downstairs because I was too afraid to see what my son was doing. Karri kept saying that Miles could do whatever he wanted over there, so I just left him with his cousins. I'm sorry for any destruction, Karri. Miles adores his cousins though and I know was very happy to get to play with them twice this week. The grown ups stayed upstairs, ate and joked. It's so nice to have in-laws that I get along with so well. I know so many people that have in-law horror stories, and I think that I really lucked out because I love spending time with my in-laws. Anyhow, dinner was fantastic! Karri always makes the best food. Ben requested Thai soup, so we had that, along with some super good noodles and chicken wings, all of which I would like the recipes for. So good! And another delectable chocolate dessert. I don't think my waistline can take anymore family dinners.

Unfortunately, for my waist (not my tummy), we have another this coming Sunday. We'll go to my parents' house for Easter. Sadly, Ben's going to miss this one too. It's hard to believe that there are people who really think that they need to manage their investments on Easter Sunday...or Christmas....or New Years.. There are though. Hopefully, the crappy schedule will all change soon. School is over in a month, so Ben won't have to worry about trying to schedule work around that anymore. We'll see. I am excited for Easter though. I love getting together with my family too, and I think that Miles is old enough to get the whole egg hunt thing. Plus, Miles and Conan are getting the cutest outfits ever (and I got a really cute dress too--sorry, Ben, you just get a shirt because you wouldn't go shopping with me).

Now the bad. The worst non-asthma related (we'll get to that later) thing lately is Coney's poopsplosions. Is it normal for nearly every diaper I change to be poopy? Not to be to graphic, but it's not diarrhea either. It's just normal, but there's so much of it! If that weren't crappy (get it?) enough, Coney has learned to take his diaper off himself. Perfect! Without fail, I wake up to a diaperless Conan laying in a very messy bed. Yesterday, I had to change his bed linens twice, once in the morning and once after his nap. It wouldn't be such a problem, but both of my kids get very hot and uncomfortable and hate sleeping in clothes. Plus, Coney is just so fat, and his skin is so bad that onesies really chafe him. I've started just putting shorts on him to sleep in. Hopefully, that kind of takes care of things.

In addition to the poopiness, Conan has also been kind of sick the past couple of days. I think he's just had a cold. He's been really congested and ornery but hasn't been running a fever. It may even just be allergies. The one good thing that has come of this is that he's been sleeping a lot longer. Last night, he went to bed around 10:00 then didn't wake up until about 10:00 this morning. He also took a good 2 1/2 hour nap this afternoon. Good boy.

You probably all know what I mean by "the hacking". We are definitely a family of asthmatics, and that has never been truer than this week. Miles started on Sunday, and I got really bad last night, and neither of us can seem to kick it. Miles has gone through several treatments a day, and I've had 4 in the past 24 hours. Our regular inhalers are doing nothing, and the treatments are only giving positive results for about a half hour. Poor Miles has been doing this for a week and has got to be completely worn out. Not to mention that he's gotten a little staph infection from wiping his nose so much. Poor kid. It's really hard when things aren't going one way or the other. Nothing's improving, but it's not really getting any worse either. The last time this happened, I did end up taking Miles to the hospital but felt a little silly because his oxygen levels weren't too bad, and his breathing wasn't so terrible. That ended up being one of his longest hospital stays though. Everyone assured me (without me letting them know that I needed it) that bringing him in was the right thing to do. When he's not reacting positively to what we're doing at home, it's time for him to go in. Anyway, Ben and I talked, and we've decided to give it one more day. I'm usually a lot more anxious to take him in than Ben is, but Ben agrees that we've waited long enough, and if nothing is working, it's time to let someone else try. Really, we've had a good run. Last year we averaged almost once a month. We haven't been admitted since August though. I think that a lot of that is because Miles has become so grown up when it comes to his health problems. He knows when he needs medicine, and he let's us know. It's hard with little ones because often you don't know that something is really a problem until it's too late to treat it at home. Miles maturity has really helped. What a trooper!

We'll see what tomorrow brings. Last year, Miles was hospitalized with RSV, and was released the day before Easter, but we couldn't participate in any of the festivities because he was still contagious. I'm hoping that we don't have a repeat, but I kind of think that we will. We'll most likely be in the hospital for Easter though. Other than missing dinner (and of course my child being sick enough to be in the hospital) that won't bother me too much. I love Primary, and I've never been in the hospital for a holiday or Sunday before. I secretly kind of want to know what it's like. We've gone home the day before multiple holidays, and I know that they do some pretty fun things for patients on holidays. I'd also like to go to a church service there sometime. Let me repeat that I do not want my child to have to go to the hospital, but we all know that he will sometime, so I just think it might be interesting for it to be over a holiday or Sunday. If he ends up there this year, we'll just do what we did last year and postpone Easter a week. Last year we lucked out, and our next door neighbor (who is also Miles' girlfriend) also had to push the festivities back a week, so we had a hunt together. Who knows though?