MIA

I have been missing in action. Too busy with too many things. My daughter's therapy swung into high gear weekly speech and occupational therapy and bi-weekly physical therapy. We also had a string of illnesses run through the house. My son was the first to come down with a stomach bug and within three weeks we all had it. I was the last. Both kids ended up needing IV fluids in the ER. Not fun. My daughter is once again recovering from pneumonia. Again. Third time this winter.

It's also been three months so I made the rounds to all the doctors with the kids and yesterday we had our WIC appt. I will once again sing the praises for WIC. Thanks to WIC my daughter gets 14 cans of EleCare a month paid for by magic and it's an incredible blessing. $629.30 worth of formula we don't have to cover. Also being in IL her insurance is required to pay for any formula she eats over the 14 cans. One thing I hear often from people who choose not to get WIC or make too much is that we don't know how much money we're saving or how much we're getting for free. We do. We are VERY grateful.

I don't know any parent who plans to need twenty thousand dollars to feed their kid for their first 2 years. Well for my DD nearly 22 thousand dollars. Yet without it she'd be a very sick little girl dependent on IV nutrition which I'm sure wouldn't be any cheaper.

In other news I am learning more ASL signs to teach my DD. Her speech has not improved although she is beginning to make more chatter, speech like sounds\noises even if they aren't words most of the time. I looked up BOY I tried to teach BROTHER but it's a complicated multi-part sign and she's 2.5 with a short attention span.

Left over pasta

I had some left over spaghetti noodles. Not enough for a meal but I was hungry. I melted some butter. Added some finely minced onion, a can of mushrooms, pepper and salt, garlic along with some olive oil. Cooked it down for 4-5 minutes. While it cooked I got some broccoli - too limp for the kids to eat raw but good enough for me. Added the cold noodles and tossed them in the butter etc. Added the broccoli tossed and popped on the kid. Five minutes later. Lunch! Yummy.

It could easily be made vegan with all olive oil and no butter. It was really satisfying and filling and quick. Some times I don't have time to or I forget to eat. Even more so with another illness going through the house [first DS, then DD, then DH...so far it hasn't gotten me] and I am hungry but by then I have low blood sugar. I get the shakes, sweat, my head hurts, I feel weak and think I might barf. So quick meals really help.

Almost gone

I cannot believe January is very nearly over! It doesn't even feel like January because we haven't had a good snow fall yet let alone much in the way of cold temperatures. A few cold days here and there but I think we have spent way more days above freezing this winter than below it. Very strange. All the geese were back this week. We saw hundreds of them sitting at one pond alone and bunch more flying overhead.

We've been busy. I am one tired Momma these days going from early in the morning until late at night. The possibility of some BIG changes. Very excited yet scary times! DD is over two weeks into her new epilepsy medication and doing wonderfully. She's been awesome. No bad reaction [ the one we tried in December led to hives] or even a mild one. We are so pleased and hope this will bring her back to having controlled seizures.

My son who was off the charts and Failure to Thrive or borderline Failure to Thrive for 4 years is now not only on the weight charts but with percentiles to spare. Mister came in at 37 pounds and 11 ounces. He's also grown 2 inches which is amazing because for so long [like 18 months] he never got any taller. We aren't doing much better on the feeding front but thankfully the formula is filling in the gaps and he's growing. PTL.

Cloth diapering

I knew of cloth diapering. My mother had cloth diapered twin she was a Nanny for when I was 9-10 or around there. I remember her shaking the insert in the toilet.

With my son I didn't cloth diaper because we didn't have a washing machine. I didn't want to run out of quarters and not be able to wash my son's diapers. Then we moved into a home and I got my washer and dryer. Shortly after that my husband broke his ankle and was out of work. I had to figure out how to live as cheap as I could.

Several nice mothers online mailed me their extra diapers and some covers.

I hated cloth diapering. My son hated being cloth diapered. No matter how often I changed him he was soaked within an hour in a prefold. No matter what I did and eventually so much padding and he still was always wet.

So once my husband began working again I went back to buying a box of Up and Up diapers every 2 weeks along with a big pack of disposable wipes. Basically spending $45 a month to throw away because I didn't want my son to be wet.

Then I got pregnant with my DD and wanted to give cloth another try. I decided prefolds were not for me but I'd use them through the newborn period and then buy something better pockets [where you put the absorbent material in between the layer that touches the baby's skin and the water proof layer] or AIOs [all in ones] something better.

My daughter was born with a host of health problems. She was first re-admitted to the hospital at 18 days old. I didn't CD as often as I liked. This was when she began having really awful poop. So awful they feared she had cystic fibrosis. Her poop was so vile [it smelled like the rhino exhibit at the zoo] and it left her skin in blisters. Then I noticed it actually began dissolving the cloth diapers. Seriously. Her poop would burn if you got it on your hand while changing her.

So I ended up not replacing the diapers with fancy ones when she outgrew them. I didn't see the point. Then the diaper rash began. Months of blisters, her skin raw...it was AWFUL. We tried every over the counter cream and several from the doctor. FInally I decided to pull out my son's old prefolds and I switched to cloth full time. Four days later - completely cloth - she was almost better. The worst blister took weeks to fully heal and to this day she has a scar.

When my husband and I saw how much better her skin was - we bought our first 8 pocket diapers. Eventually we retired those and replaced them with better pockets. We now have a rotation of about 30 pockets. We also gave up disposable wipes and thanks to 3 packs of Gerber wash clothes I wet them as needed and throw them in with the diapers. We also got some wet bags which make life a lot easier. She's very nearly out growing her OS [one size] pockets at nearly 30lbs and 35 inches. In the spring my husband and I plan on buying pocket training pants or large sized pocket style diapers - since DD is not near potty training and being special needs I don't know when she will train.

Cloth and the hospital is easy enough. I explain it to the nurses when we get admitted. I show them how to change her although they never had to because Dad or I are always with her. I simply hang the wet bag on the post at the corner of the hospital bed crib. The wipes, spray bottle of water and scale on the end table and the basket of clean stuffed diapers on the floor. Weigh dry diaper and tar out the weight and put on baby. When she needed changed. Take off diaper, put on scale, wipe, put wipes in wet bag, write down weight of dipe and then put in wetbag. The reason you weight hospital diapers is they measure output. I weighed each diaper before use because different inserts weigh different amounts even more so for daytime and night time stuffing.

Every 2-3 days take em home and wash I normally bring them back unstuffed since I try not to be gone long. My trips home are usually to wash diapers, shower, pack new clothes etc. Besides stuffing diapers helps pass the time at the hospital either way.

Most nurses are very supportive of CDing and some even ask for information to give to other moms of kids who are so rashy. The doctors ask me about squares and rubber pants and I'm like nope modern cloth you don't have to use pins.

I cannot imagine not CDing. DH and I have both said several times we'd CD for any future mythical children. CDing is awesome enough we would do it even if she didn't get a rash from the disposables.

Another week gone

Another week. A busy week.


We went to the city this week for some testing for my daughter and her on going feeding issues. We got the all clear to go back to solid foods which she's thrilled about. She loves pears, peaches and pancakes! We also had another follow up with Neurology. We tried a secondary medication back before Christmas which she got hives from. Even after recovering from pneumonia she continued to have several seizures a week. This means that her seizures are not controlled. We're hoping this new second medication - will give her good coverage and keep her from having seizures.

In one way trying yet another medication [her 4th since developing seizures April 2011] feels like failure. In another maybe this will be it. Like trying yet another formula maybe this will be what we need to go seizure free for a length of time. Hopefully. I pray for healing. I keep thinking it's not fair a 27 month old has epilepsy. Nobody should but babies. Then I think of how blessed we are. Back in April when we got her MRI we were worried they were going to fine a tumor and the C word was mentioned. So we never forget to think of how blessed we are and how much worse things could be.

Of course we get snow - the first major snow of the entire unseasonably warm winter the day we have to drive for these very important appts. To add insult to injury my son was whiny and disagreeable ALL DAY LONG. Wouldn't even play and we planned a fun side trip between appts. Came home and he was running a fever of 102-103 for the rest of the day and all the next day too. No other symptoms except a very bad headache. Poor guy. We can't win.

I am slowly continuing to clean my house. I am hoping to have the bulk of the 'spring cleaning' done before spring arrives. I am also doing my best to keep up with Bible in one year reading. It feeds my soul. I need that.

Busy Busy

I've been super busy trying to get my house into the sort of shape I'd like it to be in. It's slow but I'm working at it every day on top of my other work and it's coming along. I notice a difference. I have already donated 2 bags of clothes to a second hand store and thrown out oodles of trash. I am also selling some of my books and those I don't want that I can't sell will also be donated.

We're hoping to move in the spring and I want to take as little of the clutter that's holding us back with us when we leave. Leave room open and newer and better things like more book shelves and more books. Haha.

My pain level is not much fun today. I haven't done much today. I have a load of laundry to put in the dryer and I have to get dinner together. Thankfully since I am having good days and getting stuff done on them my house doesn't seem as trashed as it usually would.

My daughter has been having seizures again. Several a week. We were hoping it was because she was sick but she's been better for over a week and still she's had 1 possibly two since. So we see the neurologist at the end of the week and we'll see what the heck we are going to do.

Other wise my baby is a happy and bright 27 month old. She's awesome. She counts up to 18-19 now regularly and recognizes all her letters. She mixed up lower case l and upper case I and E and F but for the most part she does amazing even with some of the more wonky fonts. She loves screaming out the letters from signs in the store.

My son's latest obsession is becoming a sheep farmer. Yep. How odd is that. I love it.

Meal planning

I decided to start shopping differently. I realized when I had a bunch of food but 1-2 items missing from each meal I typically make I need to shop differently. So I wrote out what I typically make and what I make 1-2 times a month. Wrote a list based on what I need for those items and the extras [snacks, drinks] and the usual stuff - flour, baking powder, salt.

I did amazing! My husband was amazed at how much money we had left over.

I also found a recipe to replace hamburger helper. It was good. I didn't have sour cream so I didn't use it. Turned out very yummy! It made a lot we all ate and DH had seconds and we still had another portion big enough for DH for left overs.

http://family.go. com/food/recipe-ew-504953-hamburger-buddy-t/ - unbreak the link.

Hamburger cooked with veggies and then boiled in beef broth with noodles. I plan on grating more veggies to add into it next time. Carrot and mushrooms are a good start. I also have to chop the mushrooms finer to get past Mr. Picky.