Well, today is the big day. My little brother is getting married in approximately four hours. Congrats Brian and Amy! They weren't engaged very long (about two months), but you know what they say, "longer courtship, short engagement; shorter courtship, longer engagement". And I'm pretty sure they've been dating a while. Now Ben and me. We're the other story. We'd technically only been on one date before we decided to get married, but we did agree to wait an additional two months to get officially engaged since no one actually knew we even liked each other, then another five months of engagement. Regardless, I'm so happy for Brian and Amy. She is a great girl, and Brian is very lucky. I'm just sorry that the weather doesn't seem to be very cooperative today. Luckily, it's an indoor reception..........but how am I going to do my hair that rain won't ruin?
In baby news, we've made a few changes. My son will no longer be named Henry. :( It's very upsetting to me. I can't imagine calling him anything else because this has been it from the very beginning. However, I understand that at this point it just doesn't work. Here's what happened. About a week ago, Ben and I were lying in bed, and he said to me in a very serious voice, "Stephanie, I need to talk to you about something that is going to make you pretty mad." Oh, no. What did you do? Well, turns out he wanted to revisit our name decision. Apparently, there's this guy, named Henry of course. He's a spitter and a throat clearer. not only that, but he chews tobacco and rarely hits the garbage. Just typing that made me dry heave. As much as I love the name Henry, I do not want my husband to think of nasty spent chew every time he hears the name.
As far as a new name goes, we've thought of several, but remain undecided at this point. In fact, I think we will continue to be undecided right up until very close to his birth. i don't want to get attached to another name and have something happen again. Plus, now it can be a fun surprise for all of you. Most of the names we are leaning toward are somewhat older Irish names, for no reason other than we like them. Of course, Benjamin is also on the list, but like I said, no decisions any time soon. For now, I'm highlight ling every name that Ii would consider in the baby name book. Then Ben can go through and veto what he would like. that will leave us a pretty good list of options to choose from. Luckily (or maybe not--may just make narrowing more difficult) Ben and I have very similar taste in names.......other than I really love super traditional Hebrew names, but Ben doesn't think that we can get away with them since we're not Jewish. He's probably right. Ira, Asa, and Asher just don't sound as good followed by Jackson as they may a more relatable last name.
Finally, I'm pretty sure that we've nailed down a delivery date. That is assuming that little baby ? doesn't come too early. Based on Miles birth, I don't think that that will be an issue. I talked to my doctor on Tuesday about the possibility of being induced a few days early since everyone seems to be leaving town the following week. Not knowing what the situation will be like with Miles, I would like to have the option of pawning him off on family for a day or two if necessary. Also, E Trade doesn't offer the same awesome paternity leave that Fidelity did, so having the baby prior to the 4th of July holiday would maximize Ben's paid time off, which is always good. So, here's the hilarious thing that nobody noticed until my sister pointed it out. We've scheduled the induction for July 1st. Does that date sound familiar? Yes, it's Miles' birthday. I had a feeling they would be sharing a birthday. I just didn't realize it would be my fault. Oh well. It will probably be fun for them for the first few years. After that, Ii will be sure that they each get their own day. I don't think that it would've made much difference if they were a couple of days apart. I think that the same thing would happen anyway.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
A Little Early on the Terrible Twos
Ben and I had been pretty excited for Monday. We'd gotten tickets to Muse several months ago, so we'd had quite a while to look forward to the concert. We were going with Ben's brother and dad, and I was particularly excited because Ben doesn't really do much music, so it was great to find something that he loved. It was a bonus that I really like them too.
The plan was that I would just ride into Sandy with Ben and hang out at my parent's house until he was off work. My parents would watch Miles, and Ben and I would go to the concert at the E Center. It's always a little bit of a rush when Miles and I ride in with Ben because he leaves at about 7:45am. I got up to grab some clothes out of the dryer, and Miles followed me downstairs. We came up with the laundry. I got Miles dressed and started folding the rest of the clothes. Little did I know, Miles had gone back downstairs. He came waddling back into my room a few minutes later when I called him to get shoes on. That's when the nightmare began.
I looked at Miles in his new sweater and dress pants that he needed to wear for uncle Brian's wedding, and he was a mess. There was something grayish all over him. I thought maybe he'd gotten into something dusty or chalky. Then he got closer, and I saw what it actually was. His hands were covered. His sweater was covered (probably from trying to wipe his hands off). The cuffs of his pants were covered, and it looked like he'd wiped his hands in his hair as well. It was paint. Oh crap! Ben had been painting the big bedroom downstairs over the weekend, and Miles must have gotten into it. I grabbed him to try to assess the situation and saw that all the paint was dry. Hopefully, it was that way prior to him coming out of the drop cloth covered room. I ran downstairs half expecting to see little hand and foot prints all the way up my newly carpeted stairs. Luckily, I didn't see anything. I went down to the room and still couldn't really see paint. The problem was that the paint color kind of blended with the carpet. Plus, it was still too early for natural light to be shining in the basement, and we have terrible lighting down there. I hoped for the best.
Ben was going to be late, so I had to hurry and change Miles, and we got going. I told Ben about the paint and probably ruined his day. Boy was Miles going to be in for it if we found any paint when we got home. For the rest of the day, we'd just try not to think about it.
The concert was incredible! I wasn't a big fan of the opening band. It was kind of impossible to decipher a single word they sang, and I'm just not that in to that kind of music. Muse was wonderful though. They played everything, and it sounded great. I was a little concerned about what the crowd would be like. my thought was that we'd have a lot of "Twilight" kids there, but it really wasn't too bad. I was surprised at the number of really little kids (like 7 to 10) that were there with their parents. I can't imagine my parents or myself for that matter ever doing anything like that with little kids. Anyway, it was fantastic. The only downfall was my big fat pregnant self running out of steam. I only had to sit down a couple of times and never for longer than a song, but I would have preferred to have stood and been festive the whole time. Still, I think I did pretty decent for 6 months pregnant (and no dinner prior to the concert).
We stepped out of the E Center into a blizzard. When will this winter end?! Originally, we had planned to pick Miles up and go home, but the roads were bad, so I called and asked if it would be okay if he stayed the night. Ben and I were nearly halfway home already, and it would have been an extra hour of driving to pick him up in good weather. My mom said that would be fine, so we went home minus one baby. It turns out that was most likely a good thing.
As soon as we got home, Ben went straight downstairs to inspect the carpet. Very unfortunately, his eyes were much better than mine. Not only did he find three big paint spots, but he also found the painty roller still sitting on the new carpet. We went through all of our cleaners and found that Goo Gone did have an application for getting paint out of carpet. Ben scrubbed for quite a while before going angrily to bed. It was hard to tell if it had worked while it was still wet, so we just had to wait until morning.
Thank Heaven for Goo Gone! It did a really great job, but we can still see the spots. Luckily, Miles got into the paint that somewhat matched the carpet rather than the green for the other room. Right now, it still kind of looks like there are a couple of dirty spots on my carpet, but honestly, I don't think that anyone would notice it without knowing where it was. Still, it's going to bother me, so I'll probably end up covering it with a rug. Grrr.....my baby is such a stinker.
The only comfort that I have found is this. Eventually, something was bound to happen to the carpet. If it weren't Miles, it would have been Ben or myself. I'd much rather have it be my one year old son's fault than mine. Isn't that terrible.
The plan was that I would just ride into Sandy with Ben and hang out at my parent's house until he was off work. My parents would watch Miles, and Ben and I would go to the concert at the E Center. It's always a little bit of a rush when Miles and I ride in with Ben because he leaves at about 7:45am. I got up to grab some clothes out of the dryer, and Miles followed me downstairs. We came up with the laundry. I got Miles dressed and started folding the rest of the clothes. Little did I know, Miles had gone back downstairs. He came waddling back into my room a few minutes later when I called him to get shoes on. That's when the nightmare began.
I looked at Miles in his new sweater and dress pants that he needed to wear for uncle Brian's wedding, and he was a mess. There was something grayish all over him. I thought maybe he'd gotten into something dusty or chalky. Then he got closer, and I saw what it actually was. His hands were covered. His sweater was covered (probably from trying to wipe his hands off). The cuffs of his pants were covered, and it looked like he'd wiped his hands in his hair as well. It was paint. Oh crap! Ben had been painting the big bedroom downstairs over the weekend, and Miles must have gotten into it. I grabbed him to try to assess the situation and saw that all the paint was dry. Hopefully, it was that way prior to him coming out of the drop cloth covered room. I ran downstairs half expecting to see little hand and foot prints all the way up my newly carpeted stairs. Luckily, I didn't see anything. I went down to the room and still couldn't really see paint. The problem was that the paint color kind of blended with the carpet. Plus, it was still too early for natural light to be shining in the basement, and we have terrible lighting down there. I hoped for the best.
Ben was going to be late, so I had to hurry and change Miles, and we got going. I told Ben about the paint and probably ruined his day. Boy was Miles going to be in for it if we found any paint when we got home. For the rest of the day, we'd just try not to think about it.
The concert was incredible! I wasn't a big fan of the opening band. It was kind of impossible to decipher a single word they sang, and I'm just not that in to that kind of music. Muse was wonderful though. They played everything, and it sounded great. I was a little concerned about what the crowd would be like. my thought was that we'd have a lot of "Twilight" kids there, but it really wasn't too bad. I was surprised at the number of really little kids (like 7 to 10) that were there with their parents. I can't imagine my parents or myself for that matter ever doing anything like that with little kids. Anyway, it was fantastic. The only downfall was my big fat pregnant self running out of steam. I only had to sit down a couple of times and never for longer than a song, but I would have preferred to have stood and been festive the whole time. Still, I think I did pretty decent for 6 months pregnant (and no dinner prior to the concert).
We stepped out of the E Center into a blizzard. When will this winter end?! Originally, we had planned to pick Miles up and go home, but the roads were bad, so I called and asked if it would be okay if he stayed the night. Ben and I were nearly halfway home already, and it would have been an extra hour of driving to pick him up in good weather. My mom said that would be fine, so we went home minus one baby. It turns out that was most likely a good thing.
As soon as we got home, Ben went straight downstairs to inspect the carpet. Very unfortunately, his eyes were much better than mine. Not only did he find three big paint spots, but he also found the painty roller still sitting on the new carpet. We went through all of our cleaners and found that Goo Gone did have an application for getting paint out of carpet. Ben scrubbed for quite a while before going angrily to bed. It was hard to tell if it had worked while it was still wet, so we just had to wait until morning.
Thank Heaven for Goo Gone! It did a really great job, but we can still see the spots. Luckily, Miles got into the paint that somewhat matched the carpet rather than the green for the other room. Right now, it still kind of looks like there are a couple of dirty spots on my carpet, but honestly, I don't think that anyone would notice it without knowing where it was. Still, it's going to bother me, so I'll probably end up covering it with a rug. Grrr.....my baby is such a stinker.
The only comfort that I have found is this. Eventually, something was bound to happen to the carpet. If it weren't Miles, it would have been Ben or myself. I'd much rather have it be my one year old son's fault than mine. Isn't that terrible.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Another Cancelled Holiday
Seriously, my child has the worst timing with his sicknesses. We missed my dad's 60th birthday party, Halloween got somewhat cancelled, we couldn't go to my niece's baptism, and now no Easter. Stupid hospital stays. Actually, we aren't in the hospital right now. This time we didn't even end up staying quite 24 hours (hopefully, that means we just get charged for an er visit instead of an inpatient stay).
Miles has had a little bit of a runny nose for about a week now. I'm sorry to anyone that he has been around. I really didn't think that it was anything other than allergies because he's been happy and active. On Monday, he started acting like he might have a sore throat, but he still didn't have a fever and really wasn't acting bad, so we decided to just watch him. He seemed fine until Tuesday afternoon, and the wheezing started. It was just like it always is. I gave him a few treatments, but it didn't seem to help. After Ben got home, we doubled up on treatments, but still nothing. He sounded really awful, but he still wasn't upset at all, so it was a little confusing. He wouldn't sleep though. By this time, it was far too late to take him to PM Pediatrics, so it was the er or nothing, and I really didn't want to go to the hospital. However, I decided that if he wasn't asleep by a little after 2am, that's what we'd do. Unfortunately, with all of our medical issues and with tax season in full swing, Ben really did not have the option of missing more work, so I'd be on my own. Of course, 2am came and went, and Miles was still up and still couldn't breathe, so we were off. I would have liked to take him directly to Primary's, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that on my own, so we just went to Mtn. West.
It turns out that Miles actually has RSV. Doctors have thought that he's had it before, but he always tests negative. Not this time. He really had it. Apparently, the only real treatment for RSV is oxygen, so in addition to a couple more zopanex treatments, that's what he got. I suppose that it was good that they didn't transfer us to Primary because I'm sure if they had we would still be there. I don't know. Maybe that would be good. All I know is that despite the larger room, free guest meals, and nice staff, I would have much rather been there. I know how things work there, and I feel comfortable with it. Ii felt very uncomfortable at Mtn. West. I was so happy to be released Wednesday night. Miles had been taken off of oxygen that afternoon, and we were instructed to just keep giving him the nebulizer every six hours. They wouldn't do anything more at the hospital, so it would be kind of pointless to stay. Fine with me.
We went in this morning for his follow up. He's still pretty congested, but he's acting normal to me. Dr. Haroutunian said that he still sounds pretty bad though and to continue the zopanex for about another week. If there's still any wheezing at that point, I'll have to take him back in. With the upcoming holiday and all of the family events that go with it, I asked if he was contagious. I got a pretty stupid look. "Yes. RSV is extremely contagious. He doesn't need to touch anyone or sneeze on anyone. He can touch a chair, and if someone else touches that chair they could get it." So, no Easter? "Not if there are going to be any kids there. Miles ended up in the hospital. You wouldn't want someone else to too." Point taken. Not only are we banned from social gatherings for the holiday weekend, but apparently, he'll be contagious for a couple more weeks. Perfect. Just what we need, to be confined to our house. I was really excited about Easter too. We were going to dye eggs and go to dinner with Ben's family on Saturday. And we were going to do dinner with my family on Sunday, including an Easter egg hunt that I had planned and have all of the eggs for (coincidentally, I also had all the decor that never made it to my dad's b-day party).
Oh well. What are you going to do? Ben suggested that we go do some fun stuff out here. When I asked what, he said, "Let's go to a movie, and infect all of Tooele." Of course, he was joking, but I think he may be a little bitter because Miles always gets sick from kids out here. Keep your sick kids home from church! On a happy note, we got our tax return today. That's nice. And the bed that we want is on sale, so I think we'll get a new bed. Ours is just getting a little small for all three of us. The logical thing to do would be to make Miles sleep in either his crib or his big boy bed, but we are very lazy people, and that's hard. My goal is to get him in there by the time Henry comes. Yeah, right.
Anyhow, happy Easter to all, and I'm sorry that we won't make it out. :(
Miles has had a little bit of a runny nose for about a week now. I'm sorry to anyone that he has been around. I really didn't think that it was anything other than allergies because he's been happy and active. On Monday, he started acting like he might have a sore throat, but he still didn't have a fever and really wasn't acting bad, so we decided to just watch him. He seemed fine until Tuesday afternoon, and the wheezing started. It was just like it always is. I gave him a few treatments, but it didn't seem to help. After Ben got home, we doubled up on treatments, but still nothing. He sounded really awful, but he still wasn't upset at all, so it was a little confusing. He wouldn't sleep though. By this time, it was far too late to take him to PM Pediatrics, so it was the er or nothing, and I really didn't want to go to the hospital. However, I decided that if he wasn't asleep by a little after 2am, that's what we'd do. Unfortunately, with all of our medical issues and with tax season in full swing, Ben really did not have the option of missing more work, so I'd be on my own. Of course, 2am came and went, and Miles was still up and still couldn't breathe, so we were off. I would have liked to take him directly to Primary's, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that on my own, so we just went to Mtn. West.
It turns out that Miles actually has RSV. Doctors have thought that he's had it before, but he always tests negative. Not this time. He really had it. Apparently, the only real treatment for RSV is oxygen, so in addition to a couple more zopanex treatments, that's what he got. I suppose that it was good that they didn't transfer us to Primary because I'm sure if they had we would still be there. I don't know. Maybe that would be good. All I know is that despite the larger room, free guest meals, and nice staff, I would have much rather been there. I know how things work there, and I feel comfortable with it. Ii felt very uncomfortable at Mtn. West. I was so happy to be released Wednesday night. Miles had been taken off of oxygen that afternoon, and we were instructed to just keep giving him the nebulizer every six hours. They wouldn't do anything more at the hospital, so it would be kind of pointless to stay. Fine with me.
We went in this morning for his follow up. He's still pretty congested, but he's acting normal to me. Dr. Haroutunian said that he still sounds pretty bad though and to continue the zopanex for about another week. If there's still any wheezing at that point, I'll have to take him back in. With the upcoming holiday and all of the family events that go with it, I asked if he was contagious. I got a pretty stupid look. "Yes. RSV is extremely contagious. He doesn't need to touch anyone or sneeze on anyone. He can touch a chair, and if someone else touches that chair they could get it." So, no Easter? "Not if there are going to be any kids there. Miles ended up in the hospital. You wouldn't want someone else to too." Point taken. Not only are we banned from social gatherings for the holiday weekend, but apparently, he'll be contagious for a couple more weeks. Perfect. Just what we need, to be confined to our house. I was really excited about Easter too. We were going to dye eggs and go to dinner with Ben's family on Saturday. And we were going to do dinner with my family on Sunday, including an Easter egg hunt that I had planned and have all of the eggs for (coincidentally, I also had all the decor that never made it to my dad's b-day party).
Oh well. What are you going to do? Ben suggested that we go do some fun stuff out here. When I asked what, he said, "Let's go to a movie, and infect all of Tooele." Of course, he was joking, but I think he may be a little bitter because Miles always gets sick from kids out here. Keep your sick kids home from church! On a happy note, we got our tax return today. That's nice. And the bed that we want is on sale, so I think we'll get a new bed. Ours is just getting a little small for all three of us. The logical thing to do would be to make Miles sleep in either his crib or his big boy bed, but we are very lazy people, and that's hard. My goal is to get him in there by the time Henry comes. Yeah, right.
Anyhow, happy Easter to all, and I'm sorry that we won't make it out. :(
Monday, March 29, 2010
New Carpet!!!! (but at some expense)
The day is finally here! As I type Ben, not my husband but an installer from Liddiards (and a guy that I used to know from the bank but doesn't remember me) is downstairs installing my new floor. I've been waiting so long for this. We've really been saving up for new carpet since we moved in. Unfortunately, as soon as we get to that point, something disastrous happens requiring the carpet money. The first year, my car died literally the day before measuring. Then, we had a baby. That can get expensive. A little further down the road, Ben got laid off, and replacing carpet probably isn't the best idea when you really have no income. And, of course, we had that whole heart surgery thing last year.....among every other problem you could think of. This time we were determined, and it worked. No turning back now. It's already paid for, although at some expense.
We actually got a really great deal on the carpet and install, so that wasn't really the problem. It was all the preparation required before it could be put in and the bad things (although some hilarious) that resulted from it. The biggest issue was simply finding someplace to put all of our "stuff" that we had been storing in the unfinished rooms downstairs since we moved here 3 1/2 years ago. Where did we get all this crap?! And why did we keep it all? I tried to get rid of as much as possible, but I only had so much time to sort everything. I kind of figured that if something was still in a box from when we first moved in, I probably didn't need it. In all (so far) d.i., m.s., and/or the cabin will be receiving two sofas, a grill, a chair, four huge boxes of clothes plus a trash bag full, a box of vhs movies, a box of cds, several pictures, two computers, a printer, a total gym, and a couple of old cameras. That doesn't include the toilet, media shelf, broken lawn mower, and four boxes of stuff that no one would want that are waiting for bulk pickup (not to mention all the old carpet and pad). I suppose that everyone has to deal with that type of thing when getting new flooring though, so I can't complain too much about that. I just needed about an extra week. It was actually really great to be forced to go through that stuff. It was also pretty convenient that the "scouting for food" drive fell on the weekend before the install because that's a whole bunch of unused food storage that I won't have to re-store.
Here is one of the real problems we had, and definitely the most hilarious. On Friday, I frantically trying to get the basement cleaned out. I'd pretty much finished the food storage room, and most of the family room was done, so I decided before taking laundry upstairs, I would actually iron what needed to be. I was busy ironing and watching Judge Alex when I heard some weird noises coming from the basically empty food storage room where Miles was playing. I found a small mess when I went in. I had left one of those plastic storage drawers in the window sill that had some craft supplies in it. Apparently, at some point, I bought metal grommets for something. Well, Miles thought that they looked perfect to put up his nose. I discovered this when he sneezed, and metal came out. I checked his nose and could see two more in the left nostril that I quickly removed. There was one in the right as well, but it was so far up that there was no way I could get it on my own. I ran to grab some tweezers, but by the time I got back, I couldn't see it anymore. I didn't know if it was up too high or if he'd somehow gotten it out, so I called the doctor to be safe. Plus, who knows if there were more up there that I couldn't see?
We went in to Dr. Ditty's office a little later. He shined his light up Miles' nose, and sure enough, he could see the reflection of the metal. He couldn't get it with his tweezers either though, so he went to find something to open his nostril more. Same problem. By the time he got back, he couldn't see the grommet anymore. He didn't know if it had gone into his throat and been swallowed or if it was just up to high to be seen, so we got sent to x-ray. The x-ray was a little vague too. You could see swelling where it had been, but it didn't look like it was still there. We got sent home with instructions to watch for infection or fever, but the thought was that the grommet was no longer in the nose.
Here's the problem. Last night and today, Miles has had what appears to be a terrible cold and sore throat. No fever, but who knows if this could have anything to do with the nose incident? I called Dr. Ditty, but he's gone for the week. Dr. Haroutunian is supposed to call me back, but he wasn't there for the original problem, so it's a little confusing. I'm sure that it's just a cold or tonsillitis, but I'd hate to ignore something that needed attention.
That was number one. number two happened last night. We were just doing some last minute demo. We shouldn't have agreed to remove the carpet on our own, but we were saving quite a bit, so that's what we did. We were just cutting the old carpet up, so we could get it out when Ben yanked on the razor a little too hard. It went through the carpet okay but continued into his knee. It was actually a very small cut, less than a half inch probably, but it was deep, and the tip of the blade was missing when he pulled the razor out. Grug! Ben typically doesn't even pay mind to things like this, but it bled and bled and bled, and it must have really hurt because he decided that we needed to go to Urgent Care. Good idea because that carpet was pretty nasty, so I'm sure the blade was less than sanitary. An x-ray didn't show any razor tips in Ben's knee, so it must have broken on the carpet, which is good. They got him cleaned up and bandaged and gave him a tetanus shot, so hopefully, he's all good. I know that he was still super sore all night and this morning, but at least no metal had to be dug out.
Last, but not least, we ran into a little snag when pulling up the carpet. We just may have jumped into the sale of this house a little quickly. That's not to say that we wouldn't have bought it if we didn't investigate more. We probably just would have asked a little more of the sellers. The previous owners did a lot of the basement finishing on their own....and not in a good way. To give you an idea, we had to texture all the walls in the family room because the drywall seaming was so terrible. Well, apparently, additional shortcuts were taken. At the end of the hall, they put up a wall, so a closet could be included in the little room on the end. Super, only they built the wall on top of the carpet. What!? How do you even do that? Can there be actual framing if the carpet is still there? Or is my closet wall just drywall? Regardless, we were pretty pissed off about it. Ben was literally ready to call the previous owner to tell him to come and fix it. I'll be honest though, I do not want him doing anything in my house. The really sad thing, he's in construction. That's his job, and he couldn't drywall his own house. Pretty pathetic.
Oh well. Despite all of our chaos, this is still pretty much the best day ever. I can't even express my joy in the idea of having decent carpet and being able to finish the playroom and bedroom downstairs.
We actually got a really great deal on the carpet and install, so that wasn't really the problem. It was all the preparation required before it could be put in and the bad things (although some hilarious) that resulted from it. The biggest issue was simply finding someplace to put all of our "stuff" that we had been storing in the unfinished rooms downstairs since we moved here 3 1/2 years ago. Where did we get all this crap?! And why did we keep it all? I tried to get rid of as much as possible, but I only had so much time to sort everything. I kind of figured that if something was still in a box from when we first moved in, I probably didn't need it. In all (so far) d.i., m.s., and/or the cabin will be receiving two sofas, a grill, a chair, four huge boxes of clothes plus a trash bag full, a box of vhs movies, a box of cds, several pictures, two computers, a printer, a total gym, and a couple of old cameras. That doesn't include the toilet, media shelf, broken lawn mower, and four boxes of stuff that no one would want that are waiting for bulk pickup (not to mention all the old carpet and pad). I suppose that everyone has to deal with that type of thing when getting new flooring though, so I can't complain too much about that. I just needed about an extra week. It was actually really great to be forced to go through that stuff. It was also pretty convenient that the "scouting for food" drive fell on the weekend before the install because that's a whole bunch of unused food storage that I won't have to re-store.
Here is one of the real problems we had, and definitely the most hilarious. On Friday, I frantically trying to get the basement cleaned out. I'd pretty much finished the food storage room, and most of the family room was done, so I decided before taking laundry upstairs, I would actually iron what needed to be. I was busy ironing and watching Judge Alex when I heard some weird noises coming from the basically empty food storage room where Miles was playing. I found a small mess when I went in. I had left one of those plastic storage drawers in the window sill that had some craft supplies in it. Apparently, at some point, I bought metal grommets for something. Well, Miles thought that they looked perfect to put up his nose. I discovered this when he sneezed, and metal came out. I checked his nose and could see two more in the left nostril that I quickly removed. There was one in the right as well, but it was so far up that there was no way I could get it on my own. I ran to grab some tweezers, but by the time I got back, I couldn't see it anymore. I didn't know if it was up too high or if he'd somehow gotten it out, so I called the doctor to be safe. Plus, who knows if there were more up there that I couldn't see?
We went in to Dr. Ditty's office a little later. He shined his light up Miles' nose, and sure enough, he could see the reflection of the metal. He couldn't get it with his tweezers either though, so he went to find something to open his nostril more. Same problem. By the time he got back, he couldn't see the grommet anymore. He didn't know if it had gone into his throat and been swallowed or if it was just up to high to be seen, so we got sent to x-ray. The x-ray was a little vague too. You could see swelling where it had been, but it didn't look like it was still there. We got sent home with instructions to watch for infection or fever, but the thought was that the grommet was no longer in the nose.
Here's the problem. Last night and today, Miles has had what appears to be a terrible cold and sore throat. No fever, but who knows if this could have anything to do with the nose incident? I called Dr. Ditty, but he's gone for the week. Dr. Haroutunian is supposed to call me back, but he wasn't there for the original problem, so it's a little confusing. I'm sure that it's just a cold or tonsillitis, but I'd hate to ignore something that needed attention.
That was number one. number two happened last night. We were just doing some last minute demo. We shouldn't have agreed to remove the carpet on our own, but we were saving quite a bit, so that's what we did. We were just cutting the old carpet up, so we could get it out when Ben yanked on the razor a little too hard. It went through the carpet okay but continued into his knee. It was actually a very small cut, less than a half inch probably, but it was deep, and the tip of the blade was missing when he pulled the razor out. Grug! Ben typically doesn't even pay mind to things like this, but it bled and bled and bled, and it must have really hurt because he decided that we needed to go to Urgent Care. Good idea because that carpet was pretty nasty, so I'm sure the blade was less than sanitary. An x-ray didn't show any razor tips in Ben's knee, so it must have broken on the carpet, which is good. They got him cleaned up and bandaged and gave him a tetanus shot, so hopefully, he's all good. I know that he was still super sore all night and this morning, but at least no metal had to be dug out.
Last, but not least, we ran into a little snag when pulling up the carpet. We just may have jumped into the sale of this house a little quickly. That's not to say that we wouldn't have bought it if we didn't investigate more. We probably just would have asked a little more of the sellers. The previous owners did a lot of the basement finishing on their own....and not in a good way. To give you an idea, we had to texture all the walls in the family room because the drywall seaming was so terrible. Well, apparently, additional shortcuts were taken. At the end of the hall, they put up a wall, so a closet could be included in the little room on the end. Super, only they built the wall on top of the carpet. What!? How do you even do that? Can there be actual framing if the carpet is still there? Or is my closet wall just drywall? Regardless, we were pretty pissed off about it. Ben was literally ready to call the previous owner to tell him to come and fix it. I'll be honest though, I do not want him doing anything in my house. The really sad thing, he's in construction. That's his job, and he couldn't drywall his own house. Pretty pathetic.
Oh well. Despite all of our chaos, this is still pretty much the best day ever. I can't even express my joy in the idea of having decent carpet and being able to finish the playroom and bedroom downstairs.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Back to the Doctor's
Well, thinking that we'd met our doctor's visit quota for the month last week was certainly a nice thought. Alas, it was not so.
Miles didn't have a very good sleep Wednesday night, but that wasn't really anything new. He was pretty grouchy Thursday morning, so I was quite pleased when he took a nap a little before 11 am. Sadly, it lasted less than an hour. When he woke up, I whipped up a little lunch, and we took it downstairs, so I could get some laundry done while Miles ate. Miles was too ornery to eat his lunch, and he didn't even want to play with his toys. Instead, he just sat on my lap and sulked while my attempt to fold laundry failed.
He seemed to get more tired and more clingy. He was really hot, which isn't very uncommon for him, but he was REALLY hot. I took his temperature, and he did have a little fever, but not even 101. Not a big deal, but Miles really doesn't get fevers very often. We came back upstairs, laid on the couch in the living room, and looked out the window (one of Miles' favorite activities).
After quite a while of this, we got a knock at the door. It was the next door neighbor, Andrea. She has a little girl, Avery, that is a few months younger than Miles. It was such a nice day outside. They wanted us to come out and play. I was ready to say that Miles wasn't feeling well, but as soon as the door opened, he tried to escape, and you would have never known there was ever anything wrong. We got bundled up, and went over to their yard. Miles particularly loved riding Avery's little motorized toddler four wheeler. He wasn't so great at steering, but he ran it pretty well. I may have to rethink Miles' birthday present.
After we came back in, he went right back to how he was prior to going outside.....and it just got worse. He didn't want to do anything but lay in my lap. He kept zoning out, and it really kind of worried me. I kept checking his temperature. It was ranging from 101 to 103, but it was his total lack of energy that really worried me. Obviously, with his history, I probably tend to get a little too worried about normal things, so I told myself that I wouldn't do anything other than give him Tylenol until Ben got home.
Miles was pretty much a lump by that time, but Ben assured me that he was just sick. Kids get sick. It's not always something, and we didn't need to go to the doctor's. I think that Ben was convinced that he could get him to play anyway. He tried tickling and teasing, and Miles just wasn't having it. He even tried to take him to Home Depot with him. Miles loves going places, especially with daddy, but Miles just said, "no". He only wanted to lay down and cuddle.
After another bad night and a temperature of 103.5, I decided to make an appointment. I took him in to Dr. Ditty late this morning. His listlessness had continued, and even though he was breathing well, I wanted to make sure that nothing got worse. Of course, as soon as we got to the doctor's office, and Miles saw the train set, he acted totally normal. Once we were in the exam room, he was back to the clinginess though. His temperature had gone down a little bit and he was much happier than he'd been this morning. After a good checkup, Dr. Ditty, was worried that he had strep. Not again! He said that his throat was really swollen, and his tonsils were infected. Luckily, the test came back negative. Rather the diagnosis was tonsillitis and a slight upper respiratory infection (actually more of a concern than the infected tonsils that are causing the fever).
We don't really need to do anything at this point other than watch him and give him Tylenol and Motrin. He's already a little more active than he has been, and he's actually eaten a little bit. His fever's gone way down, and he's happy and talking. He's still too tired to play toys and run around, but I think we're on our way back. My only concern at this point is the respiratory infection. It's basically just a little bit of a runny nose right now, but that's how the big problems always start. We'll just keep our fingers crossed.
Miles didn't have a very good sleep Wednesday night, but that wasn't really anything new. He was pretty grouchy Thursday morning, so I was quite pleased when he took a nap a little before 11 am. Sadly, it lasted less than an hour. When he woke up, I whipped up a little lunch, and we took it downstairs, so I could get some laundry done while Miles ate. Miles was too ornery to eat his lunch, and he didn't even want to play with his toys. Instead, he just sat on my lap and sulked while my attempt to fold laundry failed.
He seemed to get more tired and more clingy. He was really hot, which isn't very uncommon for him, but he was REALLY hot. I took his temperature, and he did have a little fever, but not even 101. Not a big deal, but Miles really doesn't get fevers very often. We came back upstairs, laid on the couch in the living room, and looked out the window (one of Miles' favorite activities).
After quite a while of this, we got a knock at the door. It was the next door neighbor, Andrea. She has a little girl, Avery, that is a few months younger than Miles. It was such a nice day outside. They wanted us to come out and play. I was ready to say that Miles wasn't feeling well, but as soon as the door opened, he tried to escape, and you would have never known there was ever anything wrong. We got bundled up, and went over to their yard. Miles particularly loved riding Avery's little motorized toddler four wheeler. He wasn't so great at steering, but he ran it pretty well. I may have to rethink Miles' birthday present.
After we came back in, he went right back to how he was prior to going outside.....and it just got worse. He didn't want to do anything but lay in my lap. He kept zoning out, and it really kind of worried me. I kept checking his temperature. It was ranging from 101 to 103, but it was his total lack of energy that really worried me. Obviously, with his history, I probably tend to get a little too worried about normal things, so I told myself that I wouldn't do anything other than give him Tylenol until Ben got home.
Miles was pretty much a lump by that time, but Ben assured me that he was just sick. Kids get sick. It's not always something, and we didn't need to go to the doctor's. I think that Ben was convinced that he could get him to play anyway. He tried tickling and teasing, and Miles just wasn't having it. He even tried to take him to Home Depot with him. Miles loves going places, especially with daddy, but Miles just said, "no". He only wanted to lay down and cuddle.
After another bad night and a temperature of 103.5, I decided to make an appointment. I took him in to Dr. Ditty late this morning. His listlessness had continued, and even though he was breathing well, I wanted to make sure that nothing got worse. Of course, as soon as we got to the doctor's office, and Miles saw the train set, he acted totally normal. Once we were in the exam room, he was back to the clinginess though. His temperature had gone down a little bit and he was much happier than he'd been this morning. After a good checkup, Dr. Ditty, was worried that he had strep. Not again! He said that his throat was really swollen, and his tonsils were infected. Luckily, the test came back negative. Rather the diagnosis was tonsillitis and a slight upper respiratory infection (actually more of a concern than the infected tonsils that are causing the fever).
We don't really need to do anything at this point other than watch him and give him Tylenol and Motrin. He's already a little more active than he has been, and he's actually eaten a little bit. His fever's gone way down, and he's happy and talking. He's still too tired to play toys and run around, but I think we're on our way back. My only concern at this point is the respiratory infection. It's basically just a little bit of a runny nose right now, but that's how the big problems always start. We'll just keep our fingers crossed.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
A Blessing in Disguise?
Here I am again. Two days in a row, and this one doesn't even have anything to do with Miles. Just a story that I thought some might find interesting, probably not my dad though.
I've always had a little bit of a snoring problem. It mainly only manifested itself when I was sick or had allergies, but it's seemed to have gotten much worse since I got married. You may ask, "If you were sleeping alone before, how do you know that it wasn't just as bad before?" And that would be a logical question. My answer: I wake myself up. I'm pretty aware of when I am snoring. Plus, I noticed it getting progressively worse after I got married. Maybe it's Tooele because it really didn't seem to be this bad when we still lived in Sandy. Additionally, it seems to get worse when I'm pregnant, so double whammy. Anyway, that was just a little bit of history for you.
Last night, I was having a hard time sleeping because Ben wasn't feeling well, and he actually gets ornery in his sleep. He would never admit this, but sometimes, especially if he's taking medicine, he'll start poking and pushing me telling me to stop snoring while I'm still awake watching television. I was kind of half asleep when this started last night, so I'm not sure if I was or not, but I wanted to actually get some sleep, so I took a blanket to the couch in the living room. I'd usually go to the bed in Miles' bedroom (it was actually put there for this very purpose--and so Miles would have big boy bed), but I've been sorting all of his newborn clothes, and I've got a bunch of bins on it now. A normal person may go a family room couch instead of the living room, but my family room is dark and scary, and I'm still pretty afraid of being alone at night, so I decided to stay upstairs near other people.
Anyway, I kept hearing weird noises all night (which was actually only about an hour and a half that I wasn't in my bedroom), but I was determined on staying on the couch. Not so much to keep Ben happy, but more to prove to myself that I could do it. Pathetic, I know. I had just started to fall back asleep after one such noise when I heard a loud shrill beep. I'd never heard it before, but it kind of sounded like the beginning of a smoke detector going off. It didn't keep going though. I thought I may have dreamed it, but it was really loud and jarring, so I had to get up. Even the living room was too scary, so Ben was going to have to deal with the snoring. As I was walking through the dark back to the bedroom, I saw a bright red glow in the kitchen. What! One of the stove burners was on! I went in, and you could actually see the heat in the air above it. I couldn't believe it. I hadn't even used the stove that day, but there it was on high.
Obviously, I turned it off, and after I was sure that it had cooled down, I went in to bed. I still have no idea how or when the stove got turned on. Maybe the knob got bumped while we were using the microwave or something. Regardless, I guess my snoring is a blessing in disguise.
I've always had a little bit of a snoring problem. It mainly only manifested itself when I was sick or had allergies, but it's seemed to have gotten much worse since I got married. You may ask, "If you were sleeping alone before, how do you know that it wasn't just as bad before?" And that would be a logical question. My answer: I wake myself up. I'm pretty aware of when I am snoring. Plus, I noticed it getting progressively worse after I got married. Maybe it's Tooele because it really didn't seem to be this bad when we still lived in Sandy. Additionally, it seems to get worse when I'm pregnant, so double whammy. Anyway, that was just a little bit of history for you.
Last night, I was having a hard time sleeping because Ben wasn't feeling well, and he actually gets ornery in his sleep. He would never admit this, but sometimes, especially if he's taking medicine, he'll start poking and pushing me telling me to stop snoring while I'm still awake watching television. I was kind of half asleep when this started last night, so I'm not sure if I was or not, but I wanted to actually get some sleep, so I took a blanket to the couch in the living room. I'd usually go to the bed in Miles' bedroom (it was actually put there for this very purpose--and so Miles would have big boy bed), but I've been sorting all of his newborn clothes, and I've got a bunch of bins on it now. A normal person may go a family room couch instead of the living room, but my family room is dark and scary, and I'm still pretty afraid of being alone at night, so I decided to stay upstairs near other people.
Anyway, I kept hearing weird noises all night (which was actually only about an hour and a half that I wasn't in my bedroom), but I was determined on staying on the couch. Not so much to keep Ben happy, but more to prove to myself that I could do it. Pathetic, I know. I had just started to fall back asleep after one such noise when I heard a loud shrill beep. I'd never heard it before, but it kind of sounded like the beginning of a smoke detector going off. It didn't keep going though. I thought I may have dreamed it, but it was really loud and jarring, so I had to get up. Even the living room was too scary, so Ben was going to have to deal with the snoring. As I was walking through the dark back to the bedroom, I saw a bright red glow in the kitchen. What! One of the stove burners was on! I went in, and you could actually see the heat in the air above it. I couldn't believe it. I hadn't even used the stove that day, but there it was on high.
Obviously, I turned it off, and after I was sure that it had cooled down, I went in to bed. I still have no idea how or when the stove got turned on. Maybe the knob got bumped while we were using the microwave or something. Regardless, I guess my snoring is a blessing in disguise.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Unfinished Business
You may have noticed a pretty bare post from the end of February. Why is that post made up of only a title and a few letters? Well, in all of my anti-technology glory, I am literally incapable of blogging on my laptop without accidentally deleting it right before posting. I do not love laptop mousepads. Way too much room for error for someone like me. My hands may be small, but they are not agile, quite clumsy actually. And they love to brush over whatever makes my text disappear. I do certainly appreciate the waiting until the entire blog is one sentence away from being finished. Anyhow, this is the reason for my unfinished business if you will. Actually, due to pure laziness, most of my blogs are written while I am lying in bed (or at the hospital-not so lazy). It's pretty hard to get my desktop up on my lap, so the laptop is the computer of choice for blogging. Unfortunately, I really do accidentally delete at least half of them. Sometimes they are important, and I try again. Most of the time, however, I just get really frustrated and vow to never attempt to write anything of any importance on the laptop again.......then I remember about the lazy part, and I do it all again. This time, I thought I'd be safe and write from my office, on my stationary computer, where it takes some serious talent to accidentally delete my entire text.
That particular post was about something a little bit important, even though we didn't get a lot of answers. On the 18th, I believe, Miles had his appointment with an ENT at Primary. It was basically another attempt to label whatever respiratory issues keep sending him to the emergency room. If you'll remember back before Christmas, we first met with Dr. Kang, a pulmonologist. After review of several of Miles' x-rays (amongst other things), he determined that something was allowing fluid into his lungs. They would get inflamed, and he would end up with breathing problems. A lot of the time, the er would mistake the cloudiness for mild pneumonia. Anyway, after Miles' barium swallow study came back normal, he directed us to the ENT to see if they could see anything. Hence, our visit.
The test was a lot like the swallow study. They had him drink fluids of different consistencies, and watched it all go down. The difference is that with the swallow study, it was basically done in front of a large x-ray machine. With this study, they actually ran a camera up his nostril and down his throat, and we got to watch it all on tv. Very interesting. As you can imagine, Miles had a little problem with the tube up his nose. He has been suctioned a few too many times, and I'm sure that this brought back some pretty awful memories. A nurse who was thinking on her feet brought in some noisy toys to distract him with though, and that really remedied the situation. I'm sure that the whole experience was much more involved, but honestly, that was almost a month ago, and I can barely remember this morning. Anything else that happened during the actual exam must not have been that important.
Again the study didn't show much. The doctor did confirm that his vocal chords seem to all be intact, no apparent nicks, and no paralysis. The scope did, in fact, show the liquid pooling, which later can result in it "going down the wrong tube". The reason that I got for this wasn't very impressive though. He has an underdeveloped swallow reflex. There's not really anything to do to fix it either. Great! We just have to keep doing what we've been doing. Thicken all of his beverages with rice cereal (including even soup) and make sure he's upright when he drinks. That's much easier said that done when he's freaking out for a bottle half asleep at 3am.
That particular post was about something a little bit important, even though we didn't get a lot of answers. On the 18th, I believe, Miles had his appointment with an ENT at Primary. It was basically another attempt to label whatever respiratory issues keep sending him to the emergency room. If you'll remember back before Christmas, we first met with Dr. Kang, a pulmonologist. After review of several of Miles' x-rays (amongst other things), he determined that something was allowing fluid into his lungs. They would get inflamed, and he would end up with breathing problems. A lot of the time, the er would mistake the cloudiness for mild pneumonia. Anyway, after Miles' barium swallow study came back normal, he directed us to the ENT to see if they could see anything. Hence, our visit.
The test was a lot like the swallow study. They had him drink fluids of different consistencies, and watched it all go down. The difference is that with the swallow study, it was basically done in front of a large x-ray machine. With this study, they actually ran a camera up his nostril and down his throat, and we got to watch it all on tv. Very interesting. As you can imagine, Miles had a little problem with the tube up his nose. He has been suctioned a few too many times, and I'm sure that this brought back some pretty awful memories. A nurse who was thinking on her feet brought in some noisy toys to distract him with though, and that really remedied the situation. I'm sure that the whole experience was much more involved, but honestly, that was almost a month ago, and I can barely remember this morning. Anything else that happened during the actual exam must not have been that important.
Again the study didn't show much. The doctor did confirm that his vocal chords seem to all be intact, no apparent nicks, and no paralysis. The scope did, in fact, show the liquid pooling, which later can result in it "going down the wrong tube". The reason that I got for this wasn't very impressive though. He has an underdeveloped swallow reflex. There's not really anything to do to fix it either. Great! We just have to keep doing what we've been doing. Thicken all of his beverages with rice cereal (including even soup) and make sure he's upright when he drinks. That's much easier said that done when he's freaking out for a bottle half asleep at 3am.
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