Ear

That 3 letter word holds a lot of emotions and baggage in this house. How can such a small word, a small strange looking body part be such a problem? I will say very first off that i am grateful that we have the challange we have with ears. I would very much NEVER want to deal with hearing loss. I think that would be sooo difficult, but for what me and ears have been through, i am still going to compain for a brief moment.

Rewind about 29 years.....I was born. Awwww I was cute. Look i will even add a cute picture of me... :)

Now this darling little beauty, me, was blessed with a Petersen trait that could have ended before me, and that would have been ok. Its one that unfairly is passed on too easily. That blessed trait is a messed up eustachian tube in the ear. I cannot remember everything about it, but apparently its too small/lets fluid that shouldn't be in there, in. Or something along those lines. This process caused me to get ear infections very easily. The slightest bit of a runny/stuffy nose did me in and i would have an infection. I remember so many ear infections. In fact i had them so often i stopped complaining and would just deal with it, until my ear drum would burst.
I hated it. I resented it. I hated it worse when i was still getting them in college. Maybe its cause im such a kid at heart, or maybe i should say ear. :)

When I had Kyler i wont lie i prayed he wouldn't have the nasty ears i had...... 'Tis not so.

 When I had Brooklyn i prayed harder she would have better ears than Ky...

that prayer did come true, but they are still worse than most kids. I hate it. I HATE IT! I feel so bad. Especially cause I am the one that did it to them. Why couldn't it come from daddy?? That would make me feel so much better...less guilt on my shoulders.

This baby i pray the hardest that please pretty please with a cherry on top, skip one of my kids and let them have their daddy's healthy happy ears!!!

Nevertheless, these two blessings continually get ear infections. Kyler is on his 3rd set of tubes, Brooklyn is on her first. The tubes should help slow the infections down, but for us, they are more like a pain reliever, because they still get infected OFTEN, so they are just my tell tale of an infection and that its time to get meds. One nice dr we used to go to was even kind enough to give me an alternating prescription i could fill when Kyler would get infections so i wouldn't have to keep coming in. Bless that man, he saved me big bucks for about a year while the Rx's lasted.

Why am i complaining. Cause they both have them again. Kylers are so goopy and nasty. More than usual. I took him in Wed and the dr we saw just told me to use drops, i had my doubts that would work, even told him that, but bless him he is a newer dr and he doesn't know me or my kids past. So that's what we did. As i was packing up and grabbing all 5 kids i had to haul to the office (daycare kids) I thought i should have him look in Brooklyn's just cause. He was willing. I am thankful. She had an infection, and clogged tube, just like Kyler had had. Sadly my response was, "oh, so i guess she isn't just stinker throwing fits for no reason....her ears hurt." Yup, my chances at mom of the year were yet again thrown out the window. (and might I add while i am talking about my -not-mom-of-the-year-status and Brooklyn, last night while brushing her teeth she was being funny and we ended up laying down to brush....She has cut 3 of her 2 year old molars!! Poor baby!! Those are owie to cut, and most likely contributed to her bad attitude lately as well. I'm feeling quite small as a mom right now.)

So today, Friday, both kids, all 4 ears, are STILL draining. Thats 4 days of nastiness coming from their ears. Thats a record. My fear that the stupid drops weren't going to be enough have been fulfilled. So here we go to pay yet another huge co-pay for 2 little monkeys to get what i should have demanded in the first place. Good part is that we get to visit our normal dr, who knows these mean ears and how mean they can be. That helps.

So next time your irritated with those weird shaped, strange floppy skin covered cartilage on either side of your head. Know that it can always be worse. . . . I tell myself that each time they get infected and i get angry and sad for my babies. It could always be worse.

The end.

Sorry for the complaining. I have to complain somewhere. :)

What A Day!

Today was the day. The day i have not patiently waiting for. The day that my babies would go in happy come out sad, but in the end be better off. Here is the run down in numbers....
2 kids pulled from their warm beds at 7:00AM
2 mini hospital gowns
2 beds in one room
2 syringes full of 'cheap drugs' as the nurse called it. Nice.
2 goofy hilarious kids me and Brandon could stop laughing at after those said 'cheap drugs'
1 set of tubes for my princess girl, her first, hopefully her only....i have my doubts.
1 set of tubes for my buddy (making it his THIRD set)
2 adenoids taken out for the buddy
2 Tonsils taken out for the buddy
100 tears from my beauty
200 tears from my handsome
50 tears from mom who held onto it till her little man came into the room and was so sad, heart wrenching sad.
5 'not cheap' drugs from the drug store
9 Popsicle consumed (Kyler ate all but 2)
4 sippys of juice consumed (Ky 3, Brookie 1)
3 sippys of milk consumed  (Ky 2, Brookie 1)
5 jello jigglers consumed
2 hour nap from the sleeping beauty

0 hour nap, yes people ZERO naps from prince charming. I dont think he too charming right now.       WHY!! They told me you would sleep!! (I blame Lortab) 

3 sips of pureed chicken noodle soup, thats the total for both kids, BLAH

2 movies watched

11 episodes of a mixture of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Octonauts, Jake the Never land Pirate, Dora, Deigo, Barnyard Animals, and My Little Pony 

25 (rough estimate) screams from that said princess, she has a set of lungs. And isnt happy. Not a good combo

12 hours of cuddles. kisses. snuggles. rocking. singing. perfect mom and kid time.

At the end of the day i am sure there is more to add to those numbers but you get the idea. Its been long. Hard. But worth it. I love these kids. Love them with all my whole entire being.

The remote. So fascinating.

So drugged before surgery. So funny. She couldnt keep that finger out of her little nose.

Kyler told me his 'sides' hurt. I say "huh?" He says, " the sides in my mouth!" "Oh i understand. Thats cause they took your tonsils out there. Look (show him his tonsils they sent home in a jar) these are what they took out." "mom, tell him to put them back so my sides dont hurt." "oh sorry bud, thats not how is works, they will feel better soon i promise." 

Ky has been a strong boy through it all. His moaning and sobs when he came back in the room were the hardest thing i have heard as a mom. It literally tore my heart in half.  I lost it. He seems to react adversely to Lortab. They told me he would sleep all day, no. That kid is wired. He cant sit still. He is hyper. He cannot calm down to sleep. He is exhausted. He is all pale and has dark circles under his eyes. He woke up early, went to bed late (he fought us for 2 hours last night), and had big surgery. He should be tired. But no, stupid drugs.

Brooklyns ears were FULL of 'rubber cement' like goop. Nice mental picture doc. He said she probably couldn't hear very well at all. Back when we saw his 2 weeks ago, he told me he was worried about her ears. They just looked so bad. Poor baby. Her ears both burst. She has had an ear infection every 2 weeks for the last 3 or 4 months. She should feel like a new woman now. Im looking forward to her learning to talk now. She has mainly been a screamer/pointer to this point. But, now i learn she could hear well, i feel like less of a failure as a mom and her speech.

Bagoon!

Well the last 2 weeks have been awesome and exhausting!
We went to Lagoon (or Bagoon as Kyler calls it) on Saturday with all of Brandon's family. It was so fun. I have seriously lost my guts since having kids. Just looking at the Rocket made my legs shake. Riding the rides all made me sick, I'm pathetic in my old age! Kyler and Brooklyn LOVED it. Yup, Brooklyn the Fearless is her new Indian name. She could ride a good majority of the kid rides and loved them. I took her and Kyler on the Sky Coaster thinking it was a simple ride, no biggy to take my kiddos solo while Brandon rode the rides i was too wimpy to. So on we got. Kyler was sooo tired at that point and just cuddled in and was wonderful. Brooklyn, nope she about gave me a heart attack and i mean that literally. She had my ol ticker pumping like you cannot imagine the entire ride. I got off and was shaking she had me so worked up. Blast that little Miss, she kept trying to pull herself up and over to see. I had to wrap my arms around her tight as i could, both arms to keep her in the stupid cart. Then, 3/4 of the way there Kyler told me he had to pee so bad he was just going to pee right here! So needless to say, me with shaking hands and legs, Brookie fighting to get back on and Kyler running up in front of me to find a bathroom we got off and I vowed to never take that Miss Muffet on a Sky Ride again.  We stayed till 10:45 Kyler was running around like a mad man and couldn't get enough of his favorites. We packed them up, Brooklyn was out in 10 seconds flat, and Kyler he fought it until Provo and then was out the rest of the ride home.
Then Tuesday (the 24th) Brandon wanted to Bounce Back just us and take them to Lagoon-A-Beach. So we packed them all back up and headed back. They loved the water. We got them out rode all the rides again, grabbed and Icee for Ky, Carmel Apple for mom and dad, and left at 6, so much better. We stopped, ate dinner, and they were both out cold. Kyler is still talking about Bagoon and that he wants to go back to the BIG SHIP (aka the Tidal Wave).
Now, the fun has stopped. I took them to the Dr. tonight cause Brooklyn was sooooo miserable, and figured he would see Kyler and want to help him out too. :) Sneaky me. They both have had snotty noes since we got back. But now, Kyler has an ear infection, his tube is not in anymore. Brooklyn has double ear infections. They both have an eye infection and a nasty raspy cough.
I forgot my camera the first trip, but you better believe i didnt the second time. Here are the keepers from this trip.

When It Rains It Pours

Have you noticed an influx of posts....ya sorry, i have taken a personal challenge to journal more often and thus i am blogging more, cause this is my journal...so bear with me you most likely wont want to read them all, that's ok. :)
BUT the title of this blog has nothing to do with the influx of posts, in fact it has something to do with something much LESS cool than that.
It has to do with these two pictures:

The kids came to visit

I thought she was enjoying Elmo, but she was actually enjoying the back of her eyelids.

This week has been an interesting one. Saturday night i had a hard time sleeping because my lower back was killing me, but one i got up and moving most of the pain went away. I went about my Sunday as usual. Sunday night was horrible. I didn't sleep much more than a couple hours and they were just plum bad sleep at that, the most relief and slept i found was sitting in the rocking chair. My back was killing me, i couldn't hardly breath deep because it hurt so bad. It was miserable. I only had one little girl coming for me to tend, so I set up an appointment with the chiropractor thinking my back must be WAY out and pinching everything in my back and making it so bad that i couldn't breath. I got my mother in law to tend for me so i could run.
I got there, wanted to cry when he popped everything back into place. He told me to stay laying down, or standing, so sitting for the rest of the day.( I would later find out that laying down is the worst for pancreatitis) Blah. It was killing me still, i still couldn't breath well, Ibuprofen did NOTHING to help. My visiting teaching partner called and wanted to go visiting, i figured today was as good of a day as ever the rest of the month is pretty well booked out, so we went. Oh my i tried with every fiber of my being to not fidget while sitting for 3 hours. It went well. I lived and no one even noticed, not even my partner! Well done me, well done!
The kids were exhausted when i got home(7:30), so we got them in bed, got dinner around 8:30 for me and Brandon and i went to bed at 9:30 after taking a bath thinking I am going to do everything to make "my back" feel better. I even layed on a heat pack for an hour. I was out, mind you i had not slept good for 2 nights and this girl requires lots of sleep to function.
I woke up in HORRIBLE pain, just 2 hours later. I couldn't move, literally. I did start to cry, it was too much for me to handle. I told Brandon i had to go sit in the rocking chair i couldn't handle it anymore. Laying down was too much. He had to pull me out of bed, which then made me ball even more cause it hurt so bad. I couldn't move, i was crying, even though i was trying to be tough. I think I freaked Brandon out (I have a really high tolerance for pain and rarely, and i mean rarely let pain get to me), he insisted we go to the ER. At that point i couldn't take deep breaths to calm myself down, i was panting for air, so i gave up. We called his dad, he came to sit in the house with the snoozing kids.
Off to the ER, we waited and waited. With all the luck in the world, my Dr just happened to be the Dr on call. Miracle. He is great. They took blood, took a chest x-ray and found that i had pancreatitis, but also thought i had issues with my gall bladder and that was causing the pancreatitis. So he admitted me, Might i had for the first time in my life (besides tonsils and adenoids when i was 4 or something). I had to spend my first night, without a newborn baby in my arms, in a hospital. Thats no fun folks, no fun at all! They gave me serious pain killers, another new for me, i don't take anything but Ibuprofen. They worked like a miracle. I could finally take a decent breath, i could lay down without wanting to scream and cry. I sent Brandon home at 3 to let his dad go home and for him to get some sleep.
To make a long long story short. I got to have my first un-fun ultrasound, they are much better when you get to see a growing baby, not a boring ol gall bladder and spleen! After lots of blood tests, that ultra sound and a CT scan they concluded that they had no idea why i had pancreititis. He told me i would stay another night, but about 6 that night he said i was on the down hill of it all and wanted to save the pocket book (thank you!) and sent me home. Last night was a little better, and now tonight i just have a side ache and tummy ache and that is soooo do-able.
The raining and pouring part comes into play this morning when i call my mom-in-law to check on the kids(she kept them over night, bless her) and she said Brooklyn had thrown up 3 times and had a fever of 101. Blasted all the bad luck, i didnt even get to run my sick course before my beautiful baby got sick. So today we have tried to get her feeling better, but to no avail we have had fevers of 103.3, AHH! She is now snoozing. I just ate delicious Jello (working back into foods slowly, i didn't eat or drink for about 48 hours) and now i thought i would tell you all a ridiculously long winded story. There you have it, my first hospitalization. Its no fun. And my sick baby girl with her first high fevers. Also, no fun, none at all.
**Just in(the next day this post was made) Brooklyn got a fever totaling 104.7...when fevers happen that big a moms heart seems to freeze in panic mode. Today i am thankful for my Heavenly Father, and that he helps us with everything...I had taken my pain meds so i could sleep, lets just say they are big ones that can seriously goof a girl. I went in and touched Brooklyns forehead to make sure she was fine(this was about 10:30 last night) and she felt fine. So i went into my bedroom and proceeded to get pjs on, and i had a bad nagging feeling that i was being lazy. So i walked back down our deadly stairs and grabbed the thermometer, climbed back up Mt Everest(if you saw my stairs you would understand) and went in, only half effortlessly stuck the thermometer in my snoozing baby's ear, and pulled it back expecting a low fever and was knocked off my feet when i saw 104.7!!! Ahh, i yelled to Brandon to get 2 cold rags and Tylonal up to me stat! I ripped all her clothes off her, she was a limp noodle. Not moving. Scared mommy. I rocked her let her cuddle in, something that never happens, and typically love moments when she will, but i wont lie i was scared. She couldn't stay awake for nothing. Even putting cold rags on her tummy and head didn't faze her. Long story short it took almost 2 hours for her temp to drop to 100.9, i layed my naked baby in her bed and then woke her up every 3 hours to get more meds, and because i am a panicky mom i woke up in the middle time just to check her temp. This morning she is back to a normal temp. so far. Thankful today that Heavenly Father prompted me to re-check her, and that he helped me stay coherent to take care of my baby. Those same drugs the night before gave me a run for my money. I was hearing voices and the room spun round and round. Last night, i was fine. Thankful. Testimony grew once again.