Firsts for Nadia

I filled out a form and ordered a 5x7 team photo for Nadia; that was a first! It seemed so strange given she's only 2 years old. We also could have ordered individual photos, but I wasn't interested in that. It's not like she has a team uniform or anything like that. There are 7 kids in her class (4 girls and 3 boys); six of those were present today. I felt badly for the photographers who were trying to get a picture of six 2 year olds, especially as two of them (one boy and one girl) were crying and wanted no part of being separated from their moms. Nadia didn't have an amazing smile (Allie took the prize for that) but compared to the 2 kids who were screaming, she was an angel. She also came home with her first "homework" assignment from gymnastics class. I will definitely have to help her since she can't read yet, lol. It's a matching assignment where she's supposed to match pictures teddy bears in various gymanstics position with the name of 8 positions (ex. pike, straddle, squat, etc.). I'm planing on holding on to the sheet so we can practice using these terms while getting into the various positions.

Today I brought out a new game that I had purchased several months ago - Cootie. It was her first time to play a game other than Memory. Her was her first time to hold dice. She had fun although she had a harder time putting the pieces together whereas Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head are much easier for her to assemble. I don't know if I ever played this game as a child, but when Paul saw it sitting out when he came home, he remembered it. Ian enjoyed playing with some of the bigger pieces while Nadia and I played the game. I'm excited about introducing her to many more games in the years to come. Many of the games say for age 3 and up so I figure in the next few months I can introduce games like Bingo, Chutes & Ladders, Candyland, etc. I love board games (ones focused on words are my favorite). I hope she loves them also!!

Today I also introduced the concept of a sticker reward chart. They had given her one on Tuesday at church which was supposed to be for chores (and even supplied me with stickers - how nice!). I decided today to use it for eating her veggies and dinner. Last night she didn't eat any dinner. At 9:30 this morning she finally ate last night's enchilada and then a bowl of Raisin Bran after that. I showed her the stickers and the chart and told her that if she ate her green beans and half of a chicken quesadilla hot pocket, I'd give her a sticker. I told her when she has earned 5 stickers, we'll go to Friendly's for ice cream. In the future I'll expect a greater number of stickers before she earns a prize, but I figured I needed to make the first reward come pretty quickly so that she'll fully grasp the concept of the sticker chart. She got her first sticker tonight! I am so glad that she doesn't need to eat chicken or green beans for breakfast tomorrow.

Here are four more videos (I'm doing a much better job at remembering to take these lately!):

1. Nadia "reading" part of Have I Grown (this book was given to Ian in the NICU by the March of Dimes)

2. Ian walking some more today

3. The kids laughing together yesterday. This had been going on for a long time before I thought to record it. The spontaneous part (that I didn't record) was much funnier/cuter, but still you get an idea of what it was like. When you see Ian coughing, that was actually him swallowing some "up-chuck." The poor guy throws up (although sometimes he swallows it which means no mess for me to clean up) every time he laughs. I have to say that the moments they are laughing and enjoying each other are usually the highlight of my day. It almost moves me to (happy) tears. They know how to melt my heart!

4. Another video of Ian walking (even farther than the one above). He's walked more than 20 steps in a row several times today. Way to go, Ian!

Forward and Backward

So many times in life it seems we take several steps forward and then a few backward. In terms of eating by spoon Ian definitely took a few steps backward the past few days. He would start screaming if he even saw me holding a bib or attempting to put him in the high chair. I tried feeding him in my lap. I tried not using any bib. The only way I got any food in him on Saturday or Sunday was by holding his hands down and holding his face still. Both days I fed him one container of vanilla pudding. His total consumption by spoon was 3.5 ounces a day those 2 days. He had been eating about 15 ounces a day prior to Friday. Since he was throwing up so much yesterday I didn't even attempt to feed him anything. The good news is that I tried at dinner for the first time tonight, and although at first he resisted, I then got him to eat almost 6 ounces in one sitting (first some vanilla yogurt and then some orange/banana baby food). I was very, very relieved that he ate so much tonight. I had been scared that we'd be starting back at square one. Whew...

He still threw up a fair amount today, but it wasn't as bad as on Monday. Unfortunately two of the times he chucked today were when he was in the church nursery (on their carpet both times). Sorry! I'm hoping that soon it will be back to what had been normal lately - which wasn't much chucking at all (thankfully!).

Nadia on the other hand didn't eat anything for dinner tonight. I made chicken enchiladas, which previously she had wolfed down (she called it pizza). She didn't take even one bite. She just decided she didn't like it. So she just sat at the table for about 90 minutes and drank water. I can't wait until she gets past this stage of being so quick to assume she doesn't like something, even if she hasn't taken one bite of it.

Ian is definitely making more progress with walking. There were times when he took more than 20 consecutive steps! Way to go, Ian! He also has added a third word to his vocabulary. I realize his expressive vocabulary is smaller than the norm for his age, but I'm grateful he's added a third word - nana (which means Nadia). His first three words were Mama, Dada, and Nana. Awww.....

Ian has been getting up very early ever since he went on his food strike. Previously he had been waking up at 5:45 almost every morning. Saturday through Monday he woke up prior to 5am (as early as 4:15). Each of those days I let him cry for about an hour and then went and got him around 5:45ish each morning. This morning he woke up even earlier (prior to 4am) but thankfully he just fussed a few minutes and then slept until 5:30. I got him at 5:30. That was technically earlier than I had gotten him lately but actually it meant he slept more last night than he had lately. Hopefully if he gets back to eating then he'll get back to sleeping because even though I am in bed until 5:45, I am awake when he's crying. This means my day has been starting prior to 5am every day. To compensate I went to bed at 8pm the last 2 nights. It's 8:45 right now so I think I'd better scoot to bed.

Nadia's art class ended last week. Yesterday she made four cards using markers, stamps and stamp pads, do-a-dot markers, stickers, pom poms, and glue. She had a lot of fun! She made 3 thank you cards, and we delivered those to our neighbors yesterday. She also made Grandma an Ea40ster card. Today was the last day of ladies Bible study. I'm going to miss it, and I think Nadia will miss it also. We'll be going back in the fall. Starting next week I'll be joining a 6 week Bible study on Tuesday nights through my church.

Ian wants to walk!

Ian has taken a few steps at a time the past few weeks, but it has almost always only happened when we've encouraged him to do so. Over the last couple of days he started standing up without holding on to anything for the first time, and today for the first time he started walking more than 10 steps at a time. He was sooo proud of himself; he was bursting with excitement! He practiced his skill a LOT today - of his own initiative. I was honestly beginning to wonder when he'd start walking. Well I think before he turns 16 months old (in 2 weeks), I'll be able to say he's walking! I keep reminding myself that every child is on their own time table. Ian and Nadia seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. I think around 12 months is the average. Nadia started walking at 9 months and had it mastered by 10 months. Ian on the other hand waited until 15 months. You just never know what to expect! Here are two short video clips of him walking today.

It was nice to have this happy event brighten our day because it was a rough day for Ian. His congestion (runny nose and cough) are worse which means that in addition to wiping his nose 5 million times today, I was cleaning up his projectile vomit All Day Long. That isn't fun for Mommy or Ian. That's also why his outfit (in these photos) doesn't really match. I can't remember how many shirts he wore today. He wore quite a few. Thankfully he only sabotaged one of my outfits today. I didn't even attempt to feed him by spoon. He's been on strike the past 3 days, and I knew it wasn't worth trying today given how much he was throwing up.

Miscellaneous Musings

1. Ian still often wakes up at least once during the night (typically sometime between 4:15-4:45am), but he goes to sleep after crying a very short while. He usually wakes up sometime between 5:45-5:55am. This morning he surprised me by sleeping until 6:10am. This meant he slept almost 10.5 hours last night.

2. Naps are an utter disaster in terms of how much time he sleeps in his bed even though I only put him down once a day (almost always at 1pm). Today I let him cry for 50 minutes. Usually he doesn't cry more than 30 minutes (and he never sleeps more than 30 minutes after that). I went and got him and discovered he had thrown up all over the place (while standing in his crib). What. A. Mess. It involved an entire load of laundry and a lot of time scrubbing the carpet. I guess until he outgrows his reflux I'm just going to have to hold him during his entire nap every day. I'm praying he can learn to take a nap in his crib by early July since I'll be going back to work then. I'm dubious given that's only 3 months away.

3. I went through Ian's baby food and of course all the stage 3 (that I had at times put in his milk) had egg in them because they had pasta (chicken noodle, lasagna, etc.). One custard that he had eaten (stage 2) also had egg in it. Most of the baby food was egg free. Also there isn't any egg product in graham crackers, cheese curls, or pudding (the three table foods he's been eating or at least licking lately). I'm hoping he outgrows this allergy as for example tonight Nadia and I made peanut butter cookies (which contain eggs).

4. Ian had been doing really well with eating until today. This morning he utterly refused to eat anything by spoon. I tried several times. He did eat some for lunch (3.5 oz) but then totally refused to eat dinner, even when I offered him vanilla pudding (which he likes). I called Karen, and she said not to force him to eat but to keep offering food to him 3 times a day. He threw up a lot yesterday and today so she thinks that (plus the runny nose he developed yesterday) are the cause of his refusal to eat. I am praying this is just a temporary break and not a huge regression.

5. I learned today that macadamia nuts are really expensive. Yikes! Paul's favorite kind of cookie is white chocolate macademia nut. I had wanted to make those for him for a long time, but every time I tried to find the nuts I couldn't find them at our grocery store or Walmart. It turns out I was looking in the wrong place. They aren't with the other nuts in the baking section. I found them at a larger grocery store today (after asking where they were). I was stunned. I walked out of the store empty handed, but the next time I'm in a store that sells them I'll buy some. I don't plan to make the cookies very often that is for sure! When I do make them I think I'll set ALL of them aside for Paul. Usually Nadia and I also eat cookies, but considering how expensive they will be to make, I think we'll save all of them for Daddy.

6. I learned that when Mary Beth Chapman married Steven Curtis Chapman her name didn't change because her maiden name was also Chapman! I wonder how often that happens? I distinguish between Nadia's two Grandmas by using their last names. That wouldn't work in their case! I learned this while reading the book Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman. I checked it out of the church library on Tuesday morning and finished it last night. I cried many times as I read the book. Almost 3 years ago their youngest daughter died (at the age of 5). This is a really good book, which focuses on the theme of trusting God when life doesn't go the way you would have planned for it to go.

7. I emailed my department chair on Wednesday because I hadn't heard back from him for a full week regarding my schedule for this summer/ next fall. He wrote back on Thursday that he submitted the paperwork for my schedule to be changed, and that he had spoken with the Dean. So it appears I will be working 50% in the fall. I emailed the secretary last night to find out exactly what my schedule will be, but she didn't write me back today. I guess I'll have to wait until next week to find out. I am pretty sure I'll be teaching one online course in the fall (a social studies methods course), but I'm not sure what my other class will be and whether it will be online or on campus. This means I need to get serious about shopping for a laptop and start working on preparing that course because developing an online course takes a LOT of time. I will admit given how exhausted I am at the moment I feel like I made the wrong decision. In terms of the actual experience I vastly prefer teaching F2F, but teaching online involves less driving time and also is a lot more flexible as to when I accomplish my work. However the money I'll make by being a WAHM will be a blessing. I wish we hadn't signed up for life insurance in January. If I had known I was going to go back to work, I wouldn't have done that because I have life insurance through my job. Hindsight is 20/20! Since I still do plan to become a SAHM at some point, I'm not going to cancel our life insurance policies.

8. Nadia is famous! Just kidding, but she was in the newspaper (I have yet to see it but hopefully someone from church will give me a copy). It's a photo of her at the Dr. Seuss birthday party at the library. Today when we were at the library I picked up the April newsletter, and it contained several photos - one of which was of my little girl wearing her cat in the hat costume. Awww....

Egg Allergy

This morning we left the house at 7:50. Paul was planning to go to PSU, but he ended up spending the day at home because he discovered a very large crack across his windshield this morning, and the soonest he could get an appointment to repair it was 8:00 tomorrow. I arrived at Paul's parent's house at 8:55am. I changed Ian's diaper and let him play for a few minutes. Ian and I got back in the car at 9:10am to finish the drive to the allergist for his 11:20am appointment. Both children had watched VeggieTales on the way to Paul's parent's home. Ian watched a little more after we got back in the car, but by 9:30 he was asleep. He slept for one hour. After we arrived in Pottstown I got some gas and we had an early lunch. We were at the allergist's office from 11:15-12:55pm. During that time he was seen by the doctor and also had the skin testing done. They tested him for 9 different types of mold, 4 types of animal dander, 8 types of foods, and four random things (two types of dust mites, cockroaches, and feathers). He tested negative for everything except eggs.

I had brought the label from a container of baby food that had recently caused a lot of side effects for Ian (vomiting, sneezing, etc.) and sure enough egg whites were one of the ingredients in that baby food. I also asked him if egg products were in immunizations, and he said yes in the flu shot. That would explain all the rashes Ian had after his flu shot. I have to start reading lables and avoid foods that have eggs, mayonnaise, albumin, pasta, marshmallows, etc (I was given a long list). When I'm cooking I was given a list of things I can use instead of an egg if the recipe calls for an egg (such as 1 tablespoon of apricot puree). I also am to have some Benadryl on hand for him at all times, and I have to fill an Rx for an EpiPen Jr. 2 Pak. I am going to look online before heading to CVS as yesterday I placed an order for his refill of Prevacid and found a place online that sold it for 1/3 the cost of CVS. It was tricky since I couldn't fax them an Rx. It will be easier if I order it online the first time while I still have the Rx on hand.

He also said that he wants a lateral neck x-ray of Ian to checked the size of his adenoids and assess his airway caliber because of his mouth breathing and the fact that Ian's tonsils are enlarged. Finally, he asked that a swallowing study be added to the upper-GI x-ray that is already scheduled for April 19. He said that just means a speech pathologist will also be present during the procedure in addition to the radiologist. Well when I called the radiology department later this afternoon they said they don't combine those two procedures. I went ahead and scheduled his swallowing study for April 26, but I'm going to do some checking tomorrow to see if they can be combined, and if they can't if the Allergist still thinks he should have the swallowing study. He said sometimes the reason children gag is because food is going back up when it should be going down their throat.

Hopefully Ian will outgrow this egg allergy. The doctor said that might happen. He said for at least 2 months we should make sure Ian doesn't eat anything that has any egg products in it, and hopefully we'll see some improvements. He said we should come back in 2 months, but I'm hoping we can just discuss the test results by phone because of the 5 hours of driving involved in going to see him in person. I'm glad Nadia doesn't have an egg allergy because egg salad is one of her favorite foods!

Ian slept the whole way from the doctor's office until we got back to Paul's parent's house (90 minutes). He played at their house for 2 hours while Nadia was napping, and then once she woke up we three headed back home to Paul. The kids watched VeggieTales during that ride. Ian cried the last 15 minutes. We were away from home for almost exactly 10 hours. It was a long day for Ian and I, but it was a fun day for Nadia. I wish Ian could nap as well in his crib as he does in the car. He slept 2.5 hours of the 5 hours he was in the car.

2.75 Years Old

1. She really enjoys being read to, and she's now also enjoying "reading" (reciting) books to us. Some of her favorites right now include: Llama llama misses mama, Fancy Nancy books, Olivia books, Clifford books, How do Dinosaurs eat their food, and Curious George books.

2. She doesn't enjoy having her hands and face washed because her shirt often gets a little wet in the process, and this really bothers her. She's also rather particular about the temperature of the water; she doesn't like it to be too cold or too warm.

3. She's gotten much better about not crying when I brush her teeth or clip her nails. We're still working on not crying when I brush her hair. She's making progress with that as well.

4. She's drinking a lot more water these days. YAHOO! Milk is still her favorite, but water isn't nearly as repulsive as it used to be.

5. She has been eating a few tiny bites of veggies every night. She usually cries (ex. tonight she cried over the five kernels of corn I required her to eat prior to eating her egg salad sandwich), but it takes less than five minutes to get her to eat them. Actually she fought me more over the corn than she did over the green beans she had been eating every night earlier this week. She loved corn on the cob last summer. She's just in a really picky stage right now. Last night she fought me over eating 3 tiny morsels of chicken breast, and yet if I were to give her a chicken enchilada, she'd eat it right away. Her default assumption right now (towards everything except desserts) is that she doesn't like it. Lovely.

6. Her appetite has been more consistent lately. Last month she went through this phase where she would hardly eat anything one day (maybe 100 calories the whole day) no matter what I offered her (even her favorites) and then a few days later she'd be eating house and home. I think she might be in a growth spurt now because she's been eating house and home at almost every meal. Yesterday for breakfast she ate THREE entire (adult size) bowls of Raisin Bran. She asked for a 4th bowl, but I said that was enough! Wow! On Monday we had lunch at McD's and she ate her entire cheeseburger (happy meal) and asked for another one. I gave her a banana instead. She usually doesn't eat the whole thing, and she's never asked for a second one before.

7. We've been working on correcting her pronunciation of a few words. For many months she's called a banana a "mana". Now she says "ba mana." Daddy has worked with her on saying spaghetti instead of "psghetti." I'm also trying to get her to call a donut a donut instead of a "chocolate bagel." LOL! The other word I've been working on is yogurt. For many months she's pronounced it "wergert." Now (if I remind her) she'll say "yo yo yogurt."

8. Her prayers are still very repetitive. For several weeks she has been thanking God several times a day for Abbey and Kohen (two four year olds at church).

9. She has started including Ian (of her own initiative) as one of the recipients of her nightly hugs and kisses before bed. Ahhh so sweet..

10. Lately she's been saying "I'm so excited (about xyz)" rather frequently. It's so cute!

11. She LOVES chapstick. She was introduced to it on the cruise in January by Grandma, and then a couple of weeks ago Grandma gave Nadia an assortment of lip glosses and chapsticks. She calls them her lipstick and loves to use them.

12. She likes having somewhere to go. We are in agreement than staying home all day long is not our preference. Today her grandparents took her to Climb-a-Lot Clubhouse for the first time. She loved it!

13. She's come along way over the past two months with learning Bible verses. This week I decided to start having her memorize the reference along with the verse. The last few days she learned Psalm 23:1-2. I want to teach her the whole Psalm.

Splish Splash

Although our weather forecast includes snow (is there a song that says "snow, snow go away come again another year"?), I was thinking about spring and summer today. One of the gifts that Gabby and Alexis brought over yesterday was an egg decorating kit. That is ALL Nadia could think about today. When are we going to make the Easter eggs? (repeat over and over and over) I wasn't planning on doing them a month before Easter, but I decided that was too long to ask a 2 year old to wait after she had already seen the kit. So we colored 9 eggs today, and Nadia put some stickers on them. Tomorrow I'm planning on playing hide and seek with the eggs. This should help her prepare for the library's egg hunt.

I did give the kids a bath this evening, and I often sing part of the "Splish Splash" song. I alter the lyrics so that they include their names as well as whatever day of the week it is. Nadia actually sings along with me, and Ian loves it when we sing. The reason I am thinking about splishing and splashing is because I filled out an application today to join a private pool. I am looking forward to taking the kids swimming a lot this summer!

I had planned to join the community pool, but then I found out that #1 they only allow swim diapers in the kiddie pool which would mean Nadia would also be limited to that pool since they both need to stay with me at all times, #2 there are many day camp kids that go to the pool (which can make it seem a bit overcrowded), and #3 the pool doesn't open until noon (which means going prior to 3pm isn't an option because the kids nap until at least 3pm). This private pool limits the membership to 150 families; this means overcrowding is never a problem. Also, this pool opens at 10am so we could go in the morning or in the late afternoon. On days when the weather is nice, I imagine we'll make a trip to the park (by stroller) and a trip to the pool (by car) over the course of the day. I'm planning on signing Nadia up for swim lessons. This pool membership is more expensive than the community pool, but I am going to have Nadia take a break from gymanstics and such this summer, which will compensate for some of the cost. In the fall I'll have her start back up with gymanstics, and I'm also going to have her try ballet once to see if she likes that or not. We should have a lot of fun this summer!

Preschool Picassos

Nadia had her third art class today. Her fourth class will be held this Friday as we missed a class due to snow a couple of weeks ago. Her teacher used to be an elementary teacher until she became a SAHM seven years ago. Her kids and 5 and 7 years old. They did various art and craft projects. I'm not sorry that I signed her up for this session, but I'm also not planning to sign her up for future sessions - in part because Nadia wasn't always fully interested in the particular activity (example: today doing rubbings with a crayon - she just wanted to color with the crayon), in part because it was hard to help her plus keep Ian out of trouble, and also because I felt that the activities they did I could do very easily myself with her at home. I do imagine some day that I'll sign her up for another art class, because art is not my strength, but I expect that won't be for a few years. The most useful thing I got out of the class was that I am going to purchase a set of Do-A-Dot markers. I had never seen those before, and they are very nice! The first lesson focused on rolling, the second on stamping, and the third on textures. The fourth class will involve various types of collages.

Today I was really second guessing my decision to teach 2 online courses in the fall. I feel like my life is already VERY busy. I get up when Ian gets up and then am in charge of the kids for 12+ hours until Paul gets home. Tomorrow he's not coming home so I'll be on my own for 14 hours. This morning Ian got up at 5:50am, and Paul got home at 6:45pm. Some days I get a 30 minute break when they are both napping. That didn't happen today. Some of the things we did today included going to the recycling center, shopping at Walmart, Nadia's art class, taking my car for its annual inspection, and spending an hour at the mall while my car was being inspected. Plus I did some housework including one load of laundry, vacuuming the main floor, sweeping the kitchen and foyer, cleaning the microwave, etc. The kids just went to bed a few minutes ago, and I won't be staying up much longer. It's hard to envision adding more to my plate again. I keep reminding myself that I love my husband, and he wants to be a student so I must earn some money. I can't say I'll be disappointed if the President turns down my request for childrearing leave.

Gabby and Alexis came over and surprised the kids with some Easter gifts this evening. That was so sweet of them!!! Ian adores Gabby, and he took steps toward her several times (upon our initiative). I am quite certain though that he's never taken so many steps before because he did it many times! I've posted many videos of Nadia lately so here are two of Ian - one with the vacuum (I wish you could see the look of glee on his face as he charges toward the vacuum) and a 3 second video of him taking a couple of steps.

49 Hours

Nadia's hunger strike lasted 49 hours. I. Could. Not. Believe. that she would rather go hungry than eat a few peas. During that 49 hours the only thing she consumed was water and two vitamins. Normally it's a struggle to get her to take her vitamin, but she was begging me for more vitamins on Friday and Saturday. The last regular meal she had was lunch on Thursday. Over a span of 55 hours the only thing she ate was a banana. My least favorite vegetable are brussel sprouts. Yuck! I remember up-chucking on those several times as a child. However, as much as I dislike brussel sprouts, I would never let those stand in my way of eating for even 24 hours let alone 49. She can be stubborn! At 6:30 last night I decided to make her sit in her chair at the kitchen table until her bedtime because I really, really didn't want to send her to bed hungry again. Thankfully after some screaming she said she was ready and finally ate her peas. After a few bites, I let her eat some spaghetti. She then ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a packet of fruit snacks. She was HUNGRY! This morning she devoured her Raisin Bran, and she ate a very large lunch at church at noon. I was nervous about whether she'd eat two green beans tonight before eating her dinner, but thankfully she did so after objecting for only a minute or two. Whew... I plan to keep serving her vegetables every night, and I hope and pray there aren't any more hunger strikes. It was horrible. Previously she had never gone anywhere near that long before she'd cave in and agree to eat a bite or two of the vegetables. I guess in the future I'll just have to require her to sit in the chair until she eats them because crying for awhile at the table (which I was trying to avoid) would be better than 2 days of not eating.

Ian on the other hand has been eating like a CHAMP! He ate 15.5 ounces by spoon today!!! At church I didn't even need to give him any toys to play with while he ate his lunch! He needed them at dinner tonight, but I didn't have to hold his face at all today when feeding him. Usually I had to put at least a finger on his cheek to keep him from turning his mouth away from me. Karen is going to be SOOOO pleased! He's been eating fruit and yellow vegetables at every meal. Next I want to work on green vegetables. He still throws up on something hard like a Froot Loop or thicker baby food, but at least he is eating some foods by spoon!

He's also had a breakthrough in terms of sleeping. Last night was the first time I put him in his crib at night and he didn't cry or fuss At All! I have been putting him down awake for the past month or so (previously I put him down once he was already asleep). The same thing happened tonight that he didn't voice any objections when I put him down. I can't say the same is true when I put him down for his nap, but hopefully eventually that will also happen. I kept him up until 8pm last night in the hopes that maybe he'd sleep until 6am. He has been waking up a little earlier and earlier each day. My plan seemed to backfire as he woke up even earlier this morning (5:15), but he only cried a little and went back to sleep. He woke up again at 6:05, and I promptly went and got him. He can't seem to sleep more than 10 hours at night. I'd be content if he slept from 8pm to 6am. Nadia is in bed from 8pm to 7am.

Tonight I recorded four more videos of Nadia "reading" two books. Here's the beginning of Llama Llama Misses Mama (67 seconds) and here's the very end of that book (37 seconds). She can recite almost the whole book word for word, but it would take forever to upload if I recorded the whole thing. I also did two more videos of Blue Hat, Green Hat. Here's the first half (60 seconds), and here's the second half (1:52). I haven't forgotten about making one of Ian chasing the vacuum. I will definitely do that this week!

The Seventies!

The weather was even prettier today! We went to the library this morning, to the playground after their afternoon naps, and played in the backyard after dinner. It was BEAUTIFUL! Another wonderful thing was that Ian set a new record regarding volume consumed by spoon in a day - 2 ounces of vegetables plus 7 ounces of fruit and 3.5 ounces of custard (all stage 1 or 2 baby food). WOOHOO that's 12.5 ounces total! Karen should be really pleased when she comes on Tuesday! The paperwork from the feeding team arrived in the mail yesterday. I promptly filled it out and took it to the Post Office this morning. To give you an idea of how many pages I had to fill out, it cost me $1.22 to mail it to Hershey.

The day wasn't as splendid as yesterday because Nadia went on a self-imposed hunger strike. She had refused to eat any of the casserole I made last night (because it had peas in it). Last night she had a banana and water for dinner. Today she only drank water. She did eat one bite of it around 6:30pm, but that's all she consumed over the past 24 hours. Because she was hungry, she was a very, very fussy little girl All Day Long. In fact she didn't even enjoy her time at the playground. She sat in the stroller much of the time while Ian was swinging, going down slides, etc. I imagine she'll cave in and eat a few bites tomorrow morning as she'll have to be really hungry. By 7:00am tomorrow she will only have eaten a banana over the course of 43 hours. The ironic thing is that a couple of months ago she really liked peas and actually asked for MORE of them when I served them at dinner. This is the longest she's ever held out in terms of refusing to eat something. The only vegetable she seems to be willing to eat these days is a tomato - and that's only if it is served in the form of salsa or ketchup.

A Splendid Day

We had a really nice day today. Jenn and her 19 month old daughter, Holly, came over for a playdate this morning. The three kids did play the whole time, but they didn't interact with each other that much. Ian tried to play with Holly, but she was just as interested in playing with him as Nadia is. I really enjoyed some adult conversation as aside from conversations on the phone with my mom and mother-in-law, the only adult I generally talk to over the course of a week is Paul (and not very much with him as I often don't stay up very long after Nadia goes to bed). Thanks for coming over, Jenn! After they left we had lunch and played some more and then I put the kids down for a nap. Ian didn't take a long nap, BUT it was the first time since I can't remember when that he didn't cry very long after I put him down. As usual he then continued his nap in my arms. I can't type while he's napping in my arms so I've been using that time to edit my blog (deleting sections of posts and entire posts in preparation for printing it at some point this year).

After Nadia woke up we headed to the playground because it was just plain gorgeous outside. I put matching Steeler windbreakers on the kids (gifts from our neighbor who bought them at a yardsale), but honestly we didn't need coats. It was so lovely outside. I can't wait for winter to be completely over. Have I mentioned that winter is by far my least favorite season of the year? Well it is! We spent an hour at the park. All three of us had a blast. Ian now LOVES to swing. I can't wait until trips to the playground become a regular part of our schedule again. All three of us wore our green for St. Patrick's Day. Here's to hoping it's not raining tomorrow afternoon so we can go back and enjoy another day with temps in the 60s!

Dinner didn't go well. Feeding a toddler is not such a fun experience. In the end I just let her eat a banana because I figured eating fruit wasn't a horrible option although I plan on serving her dinner to her until she eats it tomorrow. The crazy thing is that it's a casserole which has macaroni and cheese in it, and she likes macaroni and cheese. Ian however ate 10.5 ounces of baby food today! WOOOHOO! That's a new record!!! It was all fruit (three different kinds), but still he ate all of it by spoon!

I also got some cleaning done today, and believe it or not that's part of the reason I thought today was such a great day. One of the tasks on the planner today was to clean the tops of the kitchen cabinets. Oh. My. Word. I am wondering if anyone had EVER dusted up there before. It was really, really disgusting. However, I like cleaning tasks where it feels like I really accomplished something, and that definitely happened today. Another task on the planner today was to clean out the cars. That was an easy task for my car, but that would be a major project if I truly cleaned out Paul's car. I did take out some garbage from his car this morning. A little cleaning is better than none, right? Looking through the sheets I am starting to figure out the frequency for various tasks - the refrigerator gets totally cleaned out once a month although that's broken into many smaller tasks (ex. just clean out the drawers one day), the downstairs gets vacuumed once a week, the upstairs gets vacuumed every two weeks, etc. I am not sure how often she says to sweep out the garage, but I added that to today's list because I figured if I cleaned that it would decrease how much dirt we track into the kitchen. I didn't finish dusting Paul's office yesterday, but as I looked at next week's list I saw "dust the office" is on the list for next week. I guess when it says "dust children's bedrooms" I only need to dust Ian and Nadia's bedrooms. Live and learn!

I haven't been very good about taking pictures lately. I'll make up for that by posting a few extra ones in this post. Enjoy!

IVF Statistics

The 2009 data for the fertility clinic I went to from July 2004-June 2009 (I went to one in Allentown from September 2003- June 2004) is now available online. In 2007, I did my first cycle of ivf. They did 14 cycles with women ages 35-37 (I was 35 then), and 6 of those resulted in a pregnancy (two sets of twins and four singletons). I was one of four women ages 35-37 whose transfer didn't result in a pregnancy. During that year they also did six frozen embryo transfers for women in that same age bracket. The other five women didn't give birth. Nadia was the only baby born from a FET that year (to a mom between the ages of 35-37). They did 19 FETs that year (all ages combined), and 4 of those resulted in a baby being born. When I first read those statistics two years ago, it blew me away.

Yesterday was the first time that I saw the 2009 data. I had checked a few times this year, but the last time I checked the most recent data was still from 2008. In 2009 I did another fresh cycle with them. They did 13 cycles with women ages 35-37 (I was 37), and 6 of those cycles resulted in a pregnancy (three sets of twins and three singletons). Six of the cycles were cancelled so really their stats are rather impressive in that 6/7 who made it to retrieval did end up with a baby in their arms, and half of them ended up with twins. I was one of the three women who had one baby (Ian). We didn't have any embryos left to freeze this time, but I still noted that they did 13 FETs that year (all ages lumped together), and 3 of those resulted in a baby being born. This again reminds me of what a miracle Nadia is (and Ian also but the FET statistics are much worse than the fresh transfer ones).

It's not good for me to spend too much time looking over the statistics because it makes me want to do ivf again. I remember after my FET saying I never wanted to do ivf again. I think that was because I had done so many fertility treatments and aside from one miscarriage, they never resulted in a pregnancy - even my first ivf transfer. I think the reason why I feel so totally different about it now is because I've had 3 embryo transfers - and two of those resulted in giving birth. I realize it might not work if we did it again, but it's hard to let go of my desire to try once more. I am extremely grateful to the Lord for these two miracles He's blessed me with, and I'm very thankful for the wisdom He gave those who created and developed the procedures involved in ivf.

15 Month Appointment

This morning my day started at 5:45am.  I guess the DST effect was temporary for Ian. I gave the kids baths and did a little housework before we left for Ian's 9:35 doctor appointment and Nadia's 10:45 gymnastics class. One of the tasks on today's list was to clean the utility room - ours is just a closet in the kitchen so it didn't take very long to clean and organize in there. I also was to dust three of the bedrooms. Dusting the master bedroom was on last week's list. Dusting the kids' rooms didn't take too long, but Paul's office was another story. That room hadn't been dusted in forever.

Ian weighed in at 22.5 lbs (22nd percentile compared to 23rd at 12 months) and measured 30 inches long (18th percentile compared to 33rd at 12 months) with a head circumference of 47cm (45th percentile compared to 81st at 12 months). The doctor was pleased. He questioned having the skin test done. He said we could have a blood test done at their office and that a skin test isn't accurate at his age. I meant to talk about Ian's struggles to nap (the OT thinks he has restless leg syndrome), but I forgot. It's hard to remember everything when you're watching 2 toddlers in an exam room. The doctor showed Nadia some VeggieTale silly songs on his phone, which she loved! Ian got 2 shots, and Nadia got a sticker. That didn't seem very fair, but he's not into lollipops yet. He did eat a whole container of fruit for me at lunch today. Yesterday evening he threw up on a Puff, but he noshed on a cheese curl and graham cracker today (albeit very little went down his throat). They weren't concerned that he's not walking, and they didn't even ask me about his vocabulary (which seems delayed to me).

Yesterday morning on our small group's prayer list, I asked for courage to follow through with resigning. I felt the Lord was leading me that way, but I was having a hard time following through. After a discussion with Paul last night, I decided to ask Charles if I could teach 2 online courses. He wrote back this morning and said yes!! This seems like the perfect compromise. I won't be spending as much time on the road and when I do my work will be more flexible than if I was teaching on campus. I can still eat dinner with my kids, and it will be easier to find a babysitter because it could be a teenager (whereas before I was leaving at 2:50 - before the school bus dropped them off). It won't be hard to find someone (like Paul's parents) to come one Friday afternoon a month for faculty meeting.

I do know from experience that I'll want a little bit of babysitting help (while I'm at home) so that I can keep up with the grading. Another perk is the class size for online courses is MUCH less than face-to-face ones. A lot of the work for teaching online is put into setting it up. I've taught this course before (although not in several years), but I've never taught it online before. I saw that they are searching for an adjunct to teach this same online course this summer, so I asked my chair if I could also teach it this summer. If I'm going to invest the time in setting up a new online course, I'd like to teach it more than once. I didn't get his response yet to that request or exactly what my schedule will be this fall, but I did submit my request today to the Dean and Provost for a 50% reduction of my workload for the fall (childrearing leave) in light of Ian's medical issues. Hopefully I've made the right decision. I definitely want to be a SAHM at some point, but for financial reasons I'm going to work part-time at least one more semester. I am grateful that I'll be working from home most of the time. I'm going to have to give up some of the hobbies that I've had time for again lately (such as reading), but I'm planning to continue singing in the choir and attending ladies Bible study on Tuesday mornings. I am going to buy a laptop or netbook in the near future because I really need a computer with a built-in webcam for teaching an online course. Also, the amount of time I need to spend on the computer is going to increase (starting in the near future as I'd rather work a little bit at a time rather than trying to get it all together in a short amount of time). I'm going to have to go back to being on the computer some when I'm with the kids, and that's not possible if I'm using Paul's desktop.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Ian has gotten up between 6:30-6:45 the last three mornings!! YAHOO! I have loved DST the past 2 years - well the spring forward part anyhow. Falling back has never gone smoothly for them thus far. Nadia has adjusted smoothly to the time change, and she's still waking up around 7:00am.

2. Nadia is feeling better! On Saturday morning she said, "My fever hurts." I honestly didn't know she knew what a fever was, but she was correct. Her temperature was about 101 degrees. That is one plus for an older child. You have to play the guessing game a lot with younger children when they aren't as able to communicate what ails them. She still had a fever on Sunday, but thankfully she never developed any symptoms and seems back to normal.

3. On Friday I checked out "Chickens to the Rescue" from the library (along with some other books). I got the book with Nadia in mind, but Paul laughs his head off every time he reads it. He loves it! LOL!

4. Ian ate today! He ate 3.5 ounces of baby food (apples/blueberries) for me at lunch and then also fed himself 2 cheese curls. It was the first time he ever ATE a cheesecurl. In the past he only licked them. YAHOO! I gave him some Gerber puffs at dinner. He threw up. I'm going to try graham crackers next.

5. I am really, really excited about the weather forecast. It's supposed to be in the SIXTIES on Thursday and Friday. Playground, here we come!!!!

6. I'm really grateful that Jo told me about the Motivated Moms Planner. I am not following it 100% (I don't see the need to change the handtowels in all 3 bathrooms every other day for example), but in general I love it. She breaks big tasks (like cleaning out your refrigerator) into several small assignments. Our house is going to be cleaner than it was even when we were paying someone to come clean it every other week!

7. I'm thankful our kids get to see their grandparents way more often than I saw mine when I was a child. Paul's parents were up on Saturday, which was something Nadia was really looking forward to. They also brought the kids a few small toys which they've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this week. I'm grateful!

One Tiny Bean

Last Wednesday I made chicken quesadillas and green beans for dinner. Nadia enjoyed the quesadilla (which pleased me because she rarely eats meat), but she wouldn't touch the green bean. I thought I'd use milk as the incentive. On a typical day she only drinks milk. She loves her milk! Evidently her dislike of green beans is greater than her love of milk. I thought for sure the next day she'd agree to eat one small bite (all I was asking), but she kept saying that she'd drink water. So from Thursday through Sunday she only drank water. I didn't view this as altogether bad because it's the most water she's consumed in her entire life. Today I decided though that she WAS going to eat that little tiny bean. I told her this morning she wasn't going to eat or drink anything (aside from her daily vitamin) until she ate that one miniature bite of a green bean. She chose to skip breakfast and lunch. This meant she couldn't fall asleep during her nap because she was hungry and thirsty. She usually sleeps 2-3 hours. Yesterday she took a record breaking 4 hour nap, but I think that was from losing an hour of sleep the previous night due to DST. Today she didn't sleep At All. At 2:30 she finally agreed to eat the bean so that she could drink some milk. She guzzled a glass of milk and then went back up to bed, but after awhile I gave up on her taking a nap and gave her a yogurt to eat. I do not enjoy these food battles At All. I am glad though that she drank a lot of water the last five days. I've decided that from now on she must drink some water every day. I do want her to have some milk every day, but I also want her to have some water every day.

I kept telling myself I was going to do things differently with Ian so that hopefully things would go more smoothly, but in light of his total aversion to eating, that's not going to happen! Two days ago I got him to eat a whole container of baby food (3.5 ounces) in one feeding. That put a BIG smile on my face. Then yesterday and today he went back to totally refusing to eat. Beth called today and said that his stool sample was normal (no blood in it). Karen the OT will be seeing him tomorrow, he has his 15 month check-up at the Pediatrician's on Wednesday, next week he'll be seeing the allergist, and in about 1 month he'll be seeing the urologist and having his upper GI x-ray. The Hershey feeding team has been very slow in scheduling his appointment. I am waiting to receive a form from them in the mail. After they get it back from me then they'll call me to schedule his appointment.

15 Months Old!

Here are some ways Ian has changed over the past month:



3/12/10



1. A typical day doesn't involve any chucking! Yes, he still has some REALLY bad days now and then where he can't seem to keep anything down, but there are many days where he keeps everything down. YAHOO!

2. He gained and then lost and then gained weight over the course of the last 4 weeks. Thankfully he ended up with a net gain of 12 ounces.

3. Ian really, really wants to play with Nadia All The Time. Unfortunately she's not cooperative.



3/12/11



4. He can cruise REALLY fast; he's practically running! He can also crawl VERY, VERY fast.

5. He usually sleeps through the night albeit he often gets up very early. Last night for the first time in a LONG time he slept 10 hours straight. May that become the norm!

6. He really developed an interest in cars and trucks over the last month and loves to make them move back and forth on the floor or coffee table.

7. His attention span in terms of how long he'll play by himself GREATLY increased over the past month!

8. How much he's being fed by spoon each day greatly increased over the past month. His record was 7 ounces in one day. I did get him to eat one entire container (3.5 ounces) this morning and am hoping to get another one in him today. There are still days though that he turns down everything -even ice cream! Fruits are his favorite, he'll tolerate orange veggies some days, and he always throws up on green veggies. He still can't handle thicker stage two baby food.

9. He transitioned from 2 naps to 1 nap a day. The last few days he didn't even fall asleep in the car so he really seems to have made the switch to one nap a day.

10. He transitioned from a bottle to a sippy cup.

11. His fine motor skills have improved such as by his ability to put a shape in a shape sorter, push buttons on toys, put "coins" in the piggy bank toy, etc.

12. I now put him to bed awake after rocking him while singing to him for a few minutes. For the first 14 months we used milk to put him to sleep (nursing or bottle). Most nights it doesn't take him too long to fall asleep, but there are still nights now and then where he cries for 30 minutes (max).

13. He weaned himself.



12-15 Months Old: A comparison

Ian - 12 months old

1. We found out when Nadia was that age what an outdoor girl she is, but this was in the summer. We don't know what Ian will think yet. He doesn't enjoy being in the snow; that is for sure!

2. By 13 months Nadia loved putting things in little containers. Ian hasn't shown an interest in that yet.

3. They both enjoyed clapping their hands!

4. Nadia handled her nails being trimmed a LOT better than Ian does, but Ian only cries during the painful parts of doctor appointments (shots, bloodwork, etc.) whereas Nadia cried when they took her temperature or measured the circumference of her head.

5. They both loved to be tickled, cuddled, and hugged. Nadia at this age would often say "awww" when we'd hug. Ian at this age loves to hold hands. He will hold my hand when he's in my lap, and he'll reach out to hold Paul's hand when we're at the dinner table (when he's in his high chair). So sweet!



Nadia - 12 months old

 6. Nadia slept a lot more than Ian - both at night and during naps. Nadia usually got 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 hours between her two naps. Her total average sleep was 14 hours a day. Ian usually gets 9-10 hours at night (11 upon rare occasion), and 1 hour a day between his 2 naps. He switched to one (30 minute) nap a day at 14 months. He will sleep MUCH longer for his naps if he takes them in my arms.

7. At 15 months Nadia weighed 24 lbs (69th percentile), and Ian weighs 22 lbs (16th percentile).

8. At 15 months Nadia had 11 teeth; Ian has only 2 teeth.

9. Nadia's expressive vocabulary greatly surpassed Ian's at this age. She was even saying words like "hot" and "wet" whereas Ian still is at the babbling stage. He only says two words - mama and dada. Her receptive vocabulary was also much greater than hers although he certainly understands the words: no, stand, sit, splash, monkey, Nadia, Mommy, Daddy, and dance.

Ian - 3/12/11

10. Nadia was running long before she turned 12 months old. Ian is cruising and crawling. He hasn't taken any steps yet, but he does stand without holding on to anything.

11. Nadia fed stuffed animals with a spoon and engaged in other types of imaginary play during this age span. Ian hasn't begun participating in dramatic play yet.

12. The only thing Nadia was interested in watching on tv during this age span were VeggieTales silly songs. Ian will watch just about anything on tv although of course his attention span isn't anywhere near as long as what his sister's is currently.

13. Ian wasn't weaned until he was 14 months old. Nadia weaned herself at 7 months. Nadia moved from a bottle to sippy cup at 12 months old, and Ian made the transition at 14 months. Nadia was eating all table food from 12-15 months. Ian ate a tiny bit of baby food on rare occasion during this time period. He mostly drank milk mixed with baby cereal.



Nadia -9/24/09


14. It has always been harder to change Ian's diaper than it was to change Nadia's diaper because he wiggles, squirms, and tries to roll over. He often cries duing the whole thing. During this age span it became even harder as he constantly tries (and sometimes succeeds) to put his hands in his diaper area. I usually have to wipe his hand when changing his diaper out of fear that he got poop on his hand. It would be really helpful if I had 3-4 hands when I was changing Ian's diaper! Ian still poops far more than Nadia ever did. His diaper rash wasn't as frequent from 12-15 months as it was from 9-12 months, but he's still far more prone to diaper rash than Nadia ever was.

15. Ian learned to climb up the stairs during this age span. Nadia had already been crawling up the stairs long before she turned one year old; she learned how to go down the stairs at 12 months. Ian hasn't learned to go down the stairs yet. Going up the stairs is a big thrill for him right now!

16.Both of them learned to wave "hi" during this age span. Ian almost never initiated waving whereas Nadia loved to wave to people (such as at the grocery store) and was always thrilled when someone would wave back or acknowledge her greeting in some fashion.

17. Nadia had moved to size 5 shoes by the time she was 14 months old. Ian is still a size 4, but he mostly wears Robeez whereas since she was walking she was wearing real shoes.

18. Ian showed more interest in books, cars, and legos than Nadia did at this age. He also plays more vigorously than she did. He can be a one boy wrecking crew! :-)

19. Ian loves to carry around a sock - or another article of clothing will suffice if there aren't any socks around. It cracks me up! Nadia never did this. He almost always is carrying SOMETHING (such as a small toy) in one of his hands, and he is not a happy camper if you need to pry it out of his hands for some reason (such as to put his arm through a sleeve when getting him dressed).

20. During this age span Nadia was afraid of the blow dryer and vacuum. Ian doesn't pay much attention to the hairdryer, but running a vacuum around Ian is like waving as red cape in front of a bull - CHARGE!

21. He pants a lot. Nadia never went through a panting stage. Many times he pants when he's upset. The panting turns into crying.

22. Both of them enjoyed chasing their grandparents' pets (cat and dog).

DST to the Rescue?

Usually I am not a big fan of "springing forward." Well actually I'm usually not a fan of messing with the clocks at all, but losing an hour was always worse than gaining an extra one in the fall. Last year though I discovered that the spring one CAN be the "good" one when you have an early bird toddler. It was last spring when DST kicked in that Nadia finally started waking up at a more reasonable time, and that has remained true ever since then. Although Nadia has had a few rough nights over the last few weeks (ex. on Tuesday morning she asked to go to the bathroom at 4:30am and this morning she was crying because her pillow fell off her bed at 4:00am), normally she sleeps from about 8pm to about 7am. Ian goes to sleep sometime between 7:30-8:00pm. I usually put him down at 7:30, but sometimes (like 2 nights ago) he cries for 30 minutes before falling asleep, and other times (like last night) he falls asleep within 5 minutes of being put in his crib.

He usually starts fussing and crying sometime between 4:15-5:00am. Last night he cried a bit at 3:00am but thankfully went back to sleep until 5:45. Normally once he starts fussing, he never goes back to sleep. He usually doesn't work himself up to crying until about 5:45. I usually get him sometime between 5:45-6:00. This means he's getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night, which is not enough. After I get him I make him a sippy cup and he falls asleep in my arms in Paul's office (while I'm reading email, Facebook, blogs, etc.) and sleeps until about 7:00am at which point I get Nadia and we three head downstairs. If he woke up at 6:00, I could handle that as it's been working out nicely for me to have some computer time with Ian while Nadia and Paul are sleeping. The problem is that I rarely fall back asleep once I've been awakened anytime after 4:00am. Nadia has the same problem as me I might add. She will play in her bed with her stuffed animals for up to 3 hours without saying a peep, but she won't fall back asleep if she has to pee at 4am. This makes for a VERY fussy child since she is used to getting 11 hours not 8 hours at night. Since I usually go to bed between 9-10pm, this means I'm getting only about 6 hours of sleep on average, which is much less than I prefer. The amazing thing is that I have never rescued Ian from his crib earlier than 5:45am over the past 4 weeks, and yet he still hasn't figured it out. Sleep training doesn't usually take that long!!! So right now I'm hoping against hope that DST will help Ian sleep until 6am. That would mean 10 hours at night, which still is less than what all the books say a 15 month old should get, but at this point I'll be thrilled if he sleeps 10 hours at night. Some days he is sleeping about one more hour in my arms so I guess he is getting 10 total on those days (which wasn't today in part because our ISP was down at 6am).

The nap situation isn't going well either. Monday he slept for 40 minutes in his crib. That was the longest in weeks (maybe months?). Typically he sleeps 20-30 minutes in his crib and then finishes the nap in my arms (sleeping for at least one more hour). Yesterday he screamed for 60 minutes in his crib (never fell asleep). Usually 30 minutes is the maximum that he cries. I only put him down for one nap a day, but sometimes he gets another short nap in the car earlier in the day. Yesterday he didn't sleep in the car on the way home from gymnastics so it surprised me that he refused to nap in his crib At All.

For some unknown reason I've been taking a lot of videos of Nadia lately. Paul should be happy as it's one of those things he reminds me rather frequently that I should be doing more often, but for some reason I usually don't get around to actually doing it. Here's one of her saying her first 4 Bible verses plus the first 5 names of the books of the OT and NT. Since I've posted videos before of everything but the first 5 books of the OT, here's a shorter video just of that. I love how she says Deuteronomy. We're still working on consistently remembering to include Leviticus. That is the one most likely to be skipped. I think she'll have it nailed by Sunday. Here's one more video. This is of her "reading" the book Blue Hat, Green Hat. I figure at the very least her Grandmas will enjoy the videos.

More Doctor Appointments

Yesterday I called a Pediatric Allergist and made an appointment for Ian in light of the bloodwork the GI office did that showed he has allergies. He'll be seeing a doctor plus having the skin test done on March 24th. Their office is about 90 miles away, and they said his appointment will take 60-90 minutes so I'm going to drop Nadia off at my in-law's house en route to the doctor appointment. I'm hoping that maybe his congestion is due to allergies, and if that's the case then hopefully he won't get a runny nose quite so often, and that will help with his feeding and weight issues because his reflux gets out of control when he has a runny nose.  Frankly, we should have Nadia tested at some point also because she also seems to sneeze and have a runny nose All The Time. We go through a crazy amount of boxes of Kleenex in this house! Hers doesn't seem so pressing though because she doesn't have reflux. I have a lot of allergies and was on allergy shots for many years as a child. I'm guessing I passed those on to my munchkins.

Ian fell asleep at dinner while holding his sippy cup and a cheese curl!

Ian's OT has been pushing for him to go to the feeding team in Hershey. She thinks it's much better than the one we took him to in January. I had hesitated in the past because #1 I didn't find the first feeding team appointment to be very helpful, #2 our current insurance doesn't work with the Hershey hospital, #3 I really don't want to start making regular trips to Hershey as it's not very close by, and #4 I thought having an OT come once a week to our house for an hour would be enough. Yesterday she offered to see if another family who is participating in the Hershey program would let us come and watch the program in action at their house with one of their twins (who has a feeding tube because the reflux is so bad). I feel like I comprehend what you're supposed to do; so I don't think watching another child follow the program will help me.

Basically you are to set a timer and gradually increase the time of each feeding session. She suggested 7 minutes for Ian. You are to do at least 5 feeding sessions a day. The purpose of these is not primarily to meet their nutritional needs but rather teach them how to eat food by spoon. You never force a bite in. You hold the spoon near the child's mouth and ask him to take a bite. Once he takes a bite, you give a reward for 3-5 seconds (some toy or a DVD that is reserved only for feeding sessions). Then you just keep repeating that process until the timer goes off. The problem is (and she saw this first hand with Ian yesterday), he won't take the first bite unless he's distracted (which isn't what they want) or forced. So yesterday while she asked him to take a bite and showed him the See 'n Say (which was to be his reward), he screamed for more than 10 minutes until she gave up. She said in the initial 90 minute feeding team appointment at Hershey she's only had one child who never took that first bite.

I've called them 3 times over the past 2 days, and thus far we've just played phone tag. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to schedule an appointment. They did call me back once today and left a message saying they charge $75 per 15 minutes. That sounds like a lot, but the local hospital charged over $700 for a 45 minute appointment, so Hershey's fees are a lot lower. They said a typical first appointment lasts 90 minutes, which would be $450. We'd owe 20% plus whatever the difference might be between their charges and what our insurance deems "usual and customary." I'm hoping it won't be much more than $90, but at this point I'd pay just about anything to help Ian learn to eat. He did eat a little peaches and apples for me by spoon today, but that was by distracting him which is unacceptable according to this program. Right now it's the only way I can get him to eat. Paul questioned the cost, but in my mind getting him to eat is extremely important so I'll pay whatever we have to pay to get the help he needs. I'm hoping (in light of the cost plus how long the drive will be) that we don't have to go many times. Karen said sometimes it only takes one visit. She'll be going with us so that she can then provide support in implementing the program. I'm very discouraged considering I started trying to get him to eat solid foods almost 10 months ago. Hopefully we'll start seeing some progress in the near future.

P.S. I was just reading the health insurance booklet again, and they specifically say that Hershey Medical is in the network. AGH!! I guess we could have gone there for his GI appt after all and had his upper GI x-ray done there. Why did they give me the wrong information when I called the number on the back of the insurance card???? Well the good news is that I think this means it won't cost us a penny to see the feeding team. Whew....

I took some videos of Nadia singing a few songs this morning including: "The BIBLE," " Zacchaeus was a wee little man," and the "Alphabet song."

A Weekend in Maryland

My sister, Wendy, and two of her kids flew from Chicago to Baltimore on Wednesday morning. We had planned to drive down Friday night, but on Wednesday Paul learned that his advisor was headed to Florida. We decided to drive down Thursday night because Paul could get just as much work done on my mom's laptop than he could on his desktop computer. We left around 6:45pm and arrived at my parents around 10:20pm. Ian slept almost the whole way. I changed his diaper and put his pjs on and then he screamed for 30 minutes in my mom's pack and play before he fell asleep. Nadia watched dvd's in the car for the first 90 minutes of our trip and then slept the next two hours. We didn't take her down to bed until Ian had stopped crying and unfortunately it took her until almost midnight to fall asleep. Ian had a horrible night, but I didn't get him until 6:00am. On Friday night he did much better - he slept from 8pm to 5:45am.

During our previous trips Nadia has only engaged in parallel play with her cousins. During this weekend they were truly playing together. Adam wasn't that interested in playing with Nadia, but she and Rachel played together quite a bit. It was so sweet to watch! Rachel won't turn 2 for two more months, but she is very, very advanced verbally. Ian really enjoyed the cars and trucks that used to be Maurice's when he was little. We don't have any cars that size (ours are smaller or much bigger). I will be buying Ian some new vehicles in the near future as he had a blast with these! All four kids enjoyed our trip to a playground on Saturday morning.

Unfortunately both Paul and my mom fell on their backs and hit the back of their heads on the floor on Saturday. My mom slipped on Ian's vomit (she came in to help clean and didn't realize that he had vomited in more than one place). She landed on her back. Her head hit the handle of a cabinet drawer before hitting the floor. OUCH! On top of that she had lots of his "up-chuck" in her hair and the back of her top. Yuck!

After dinner while my sister and mom were en route to the Bach Sinfonia concert (my sister is concertmaster), Paul and my dad went bowling while I gave Rachel, Nadia, and Ian a 45 minute bath (while Maurice played with Adam). While bowling Paul slipped and was at one point horizontal in the air and then landed on the floor of the bowling lane on his back. Both Paul and my mom had headaches that night. Not Fun.

We left my parent's house at 6:20pm and expected to arrive at home around 9:45. It had been raining all day, so we didn't think to check the weather. Big Mistake! The next time we travel to MD in the winter, we will check the weather in PA even if we're experiencing nice weather in MD. If we had left at 1:30pm (during Nadia's nap), the trip would have been much shorter and less stressful. The last 2 hours of the trip we were averaging about 25 MPH (speed limit 55). We passed many, many, many accidents. On the radio this morning they described the weather last night as "blizzard like conditions." I drove the first 3.5 hours of the trip, and Paul drove the last hour. We arrived home a little before 11pm. We were grateful that we got home safely. Ian watched the DVD for the first 50 minutes and then slept almost the whole rest of the way home. He woke up once or twice and cried for a few minutes, but otherwise he slept. I didn't realize he had a poopy diaper so the poor guy got a bad case of diaper rash from our trip home last night.

Nadia watched dvds the first 2+ hours of the trip, and then we tried to get her to go to sleep. That took forever! She didn't fall asleep until sometime past 9:30pm, and she's usually in bed by 8pm. She also got up earlier than usual this morning - I think because we were letting Ian cry (as we do every morning) until 6am. She was a very cranky girl today as she got less than 8 hours of sleep last night, and she usually gets 11 hours. Her art class was cancelled this morning due to the snow. She got to play in the snow with Daddy though!

Ian gained back 4 ounces while we were in MD. His weight has been up and down so much the past 3+ months. He didn't throw up at all yesterday or today, for which I am very grateful. Squirting juice in his mouth is working perfectly as the means for getting him to keep down the tablet of Prevacid. He has accepted every kind of juice I've given him (cranberry, grape, etc.). My mom did a fabulous job of getting him to eat. Saturday was a new record - he ate TWO full containers (7 ounces total) of baby food in one day. Unfortunately I only got 1 ounce of baby food in him today, and that was with a lot of crying. I tried a different sippy cup with him today, and he accepted it without any problems. That was encouraging.