It's Also Time

10. For the fall semester to begin. I went "back to school" on Monday. Since I'm teaching online, this meant my office hours via Wimba started on Monday night. I'm having them on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings this semester. I'm also having them on campus one Friday a month. The grading won't resume until next week, but I've already resumed spending a lot of time with email for work.

11. For choir to resume! Last night was the first choir rehearsal for the new choir year. We had a picnic for an hour and then sang for 90 minutes. I was going to bring brownies, but the pastor's wife happened to post on Facebook that she made brownies for the choir picnic (can you believe she's 49 years old and it was the first time she ever made brownies?), so I made chocolate chip cookies with Nadia instead and took half of the batch to the picnic. I do love singing in choir. I'm glad I am able to attend the rehearsals this semester!

12. To stop giving Ian Pulmicort or Prevacid. The GI called me yesterday, which was a very pleasant surprise as he had said on Monday he wouldn't call until next week. CHOP took 8 days to call me with the pathology results, but I had noticed on the report that the results had been available one day after the procedure. So in that sense I'm not shocked that they called me 2 days after the procedure. The good news is that Ian's esophagus is now fine! From the view by camera and the pathology results, they don't see any evidence of reflux or esophagitis! I asked the GI if we should continue the Prevacid because if so I'll need him to issue a prescription as the CHOP GI had been giving the prescriptions. He asked if Ian was still throwing up. When I said no, he said then he doesn't think he needs to be on the Prevacid any more. He said that if the vomiting resumes that we can resume the Prevacid. I then called the Allergist, and he said to stop the Pulmicort immediately. Yesterday Ian only had ONE medication - Singulair! This is a big change as he had been receiving (at one point) 6 doses of medication a day.

13. To stop drinking EleCare. The Allergist also said that we could switch to a milk that doesn't come from soy or a cow (such as almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, etc.). Three of Ian's sippy cups today will be filled with Almond milk as he'll finish the last can of EleCare this morning. I purchased some vanilla almond milk yesterday. The allergist asked us to come in for an appointment. I made one for Sept 15, but I'm going to call back and ask if we truly have to go down there because it's a 5 hour drive (RT) and I think he's just going to give us instructions regarding attempts to add back in the foods that have been eliminated (milk, eggs, peanuts). Since the EleCare has been costing us a little more than $200 a month, I am grateful we don't need to buy any more of that!

14. To start some new techniques with Ian. The OT gave us an alligator that vibrates on Tuesday to use on Ian's face to try to desensitize him. I'm also to do the joint pushes (both legs and both arms) 6 times a day. My mom wisely suggested I do them in conjunction with feeding him since I feed him 6 times a day. I'm also supposed to be doing scalp massages throughout the day, the alligator, and also using the toothbrush on his tongue. It honestly feels very overwhelming at the moment, but I'm sure once I get into a routine it won't seem like such a big deal. Ian did nap on Sunday as he had been doing on vacation (slept 50 minutes in his crib without any crying). Monday we were at the hospital. Tuesday he napped only for 20 minutes and screamed the rest of the time. Yesterday he slept for only 10 minutes and screamed for an hour. I called the OT yesterday afternoon, and she's going to buy a timer for him that has worked with some other little ones she's worked with in the past. I'll set it for one hour and it will stay red until that hour is done. I was very frustrated yesterday because I had been so happy that he had finally learned to take a nap, but it only happened a grand total of 4 times and now it seems we're back to square one.

15. To buy size 5 diapers. In the beginning of this week there were 2 mornings when he woke up with a very leaky (and actually disintegrating) diaper. It made a huge mess. I ordered some size 5 diapers, which I thought I'd start using only as the overnight diapers as size 4 diapers fit him fine and we aren't having leaking problems during the day. Of course since I placed that order on Amazon his diapers haven't been leaking, but I'm sure at some point it will be time to make size 5 diapers the overnight ones. I'm sure those won't go to waste.

16. To pick some apples. I'm not sure why I'm not nearly as excited this fall, but I have been having trouble drumming up the energy to tackle picking the apples, peeling them, coring them, cooking them, etc. A lot came off of the tree during "Irene" last Saturday, but the trees are still full of apples. Paul didn't spray them this year, and that means that the apples (especially on the one tree) don't look very usable. He didn't spray because we didn't have gyspy moths this year. He said from now on he'll spray every year. Hopefully I'll get motivated to tackle the apples soon because I recently ran out of my homemade apple butter that I had been eating all year, and we ran out of homemade applesauce a LONG time ago. We have a picnic at church on Sunday afternoon. I could bring homemade apple crisp or something like that to that event. That should get me started.

17. To decide what committees to be on this year. I've received various emails this week from colleagues and my Dean asking me to serve on various college wide and university wide committees. The last couple of years I've only been chairing three department committees. I need to be careful not to say yes to too many of these opportunities. I am only getting 1/2 a paycheck for one thing. These decisions have made it necessary for Paul and I to decide what I'm going to do in the spring. I think we're going to make that decision tonight so I can then respond to these committee invitations accordingly.

18. To go to church. Nadia wasn't able to go to church on Sunday due to her pink eye still being contagious. She was sooooooooo upset. She kept begging me to take her with me to church. She said as I was walking out the door "But I love church!" This was music to my ears! I felt badly that she wasn't able to go, and I was thrilled that she wanted to go so badly. I am grateful to the Sunday School and Children's Church teachers who have helped make attending church so appealing to her. On Tuesday morning when she woke up without lots of goop coming out of her eyes, I told her that her eyes were all better. Her immediate response was "I can go to church!" That melted my heart! I am so glad her eyes are better, and I'm even more grateful that she loves to go to church. On Saturday morning when she woke up she screamed in terror "I can't see! I can't see!" because her eyelashes were stuck together. I'm glad that no one else in the family caught the bug from her.

19. To try a new feeding strategy. I spoke with Ian's psychologist today about the fact he's still screaming, but we now know it's not because he's in pain. He said we could either continue what we're doing and hope that at some point he'll stop screaming OR we can work more aggressively at extinguishing these behaviors (screaming, turning his head away, batting the spoon with his hands, etc.). I opted for the latter as I'm getting tired of the "same old, same old" that has been the norm now for almost 5 months since we started this feeding program. He said to cut down to 5 meals a day and that I am not to hold his face or his hands at all. He has to take the bites willingly. That might mean he sits there screaming for an hour before he takes one bite. He said there will initially be more screaming, but this should speed up the process of eliminating these behaviors. My only concern is that he's not going to be eating as many bites this way. I am going to weigh him tomorrow to make sure that this new plan doesn't wreak havoc on his weight because the almond milk has a lot less calories than the EleCare so if he also is eating less solid food at the same time, that could be a problem. Hopefully he'll get with the program and stop screaming and fighting me when I'm trying to feed him!