Entry for March 9, 2010
Well, it’s been a busy and interesting few weeks around here…things are a lot different here than the last time I blogged. I’ll start with the updates on Patrick, as he’s had a lot of change.
Patrick moved to the 3-year-old room at his previous pre-school at the beginning of February, and did really well with the transition. His teacher was one of his teachers from the previous class, and a lot of the kids were his previous classmates, so it was pretty easy for him…the big change was the size of the classroom was a lot smaller. His classmates all made him cute cards for his last day there, and his teacher was really sad to see him go, as she told me that Patrick was one of her favorites…we had to leave quickly, so nobody would cry! It made me feel good that Patrick is special to other people who aren’t related to him! His surgery was the next day, so it was a good natural break for him to recuperate before he started at his new, more traditional and Christian-based pre-school (as opposed to the day-care setting at his previous school). He has done well there in his first week, and seems to fit right in. He has only 8 other classmates and two teachers, so he gets a lot more one-on-one attention! Every day, he asks me, “Am I going to school today?” I guess that means he likes it!
Patrick did really well with his surgery…he loved the play area before hand, so he was very relaxed. The doctor said his tonsils and adenoids were “very substantial,” so we were hopeful that removing them would help him to sleep more quietly and peacefully. His biggest complaint about everything was the IVs and monitors attached to him…he wanted to be able to move about more freely, and was very upset when he couldn’t move across the hall in the recovery area to go see Alex (who went first). He also didn’t like to take the pain medication, but when we put it in a cup (versus the syringe), he seemed to do better with it. His snoring was really, really loud for about the first 10 days after surgery, and ever since, he’s been completely silent. He has resisted naps more lately, probably because he is getting more and better sleep at night! He moved to his toddler bed (his request - he wanted his mattress on the floor one afternoon for his nap, so that day, we converted his crib), and now is very proud to put himself down for his naps (after I make sure the toilet lid is unlocked and his toothbrush has tooth paste on it!). Some days, he still calls for me (”Mommy, where are you?”) to come and get him up and out, but other days, he comes charging out of his room. Patrick’s eating has gotten a lot better as his throat has healed, and he’s put back on the weight he had lost right before the surgery (when he had tonsillitis, and it probably hurt to swallow). He says his throat hurts “just a little bit it one tiny spot in the back,” which is an improvement to “it’s still pretty sore” that he was saying up until last week. I think we can declare Patrick’s surgery a success already!
Alex had a bit of a different experience, as would be expected due to his general health and age being a lot different than Patrick’s. Alex was first to go into surgery, and he didn’t cry as we expected when we had to hand him off to the operating room nurse (he had been very clingy prior to that). It seemed like forever that we were waiting (as Patrick played around and got progressively sleepy as the drugs they gave him to “take the edge off/reduce anxiety” started to kick in!), but the doctor finally came in to tell us that Alex was o.k. - his adenoid was “HUGE!” and his tonsils were also “very substantial,” so the ENT was confident that having those out of the way would make a huge improvement in his sleeping once he healed. I was so relieved to know that there was definitely something physical that was affecting his breathing, and thus his sleep. He also needed to have one of his ear tubes replaced, as it had entirely crusted over with wax. Alex had a really hard time recovering from the anesthesia and keeping anything down, and I was not smart enough to have brought several changes of clothes with me. The first time, in the recovery room, I got totally soaked with orange Gatorade, and the nurses were nice enough to get me some surgical scrubs to wear…the next time, we were already up in our (separate!) hospital room, and they were able to get me another pair of scrubs with a lot of scrounging and begging. The third time, I just had to wipe it off since I knew there would be no way I was getting anything new after the trouble with the second time! They gave Alex a lot of anti-nausea medication, and finally by the evening, he wasn’t vomiting any more. He slept most of the day (whereas Patrick was watching movies in his room (next door to us). Later in the evening, they moved us to a joint room so we could all sleep together. Alex did pretty well through the night, and started to eat enthusiastically the next day. We had a lot of help from my mom making sure everyone was drinking and getting their medications on schedule!
Alex was a lot slower to heal, it seemed, than Patrick. He got a terrible, terrible diaper rash from the preventative antibiotic that they had them on (even with me giving him the “Florastor” to restore the good bacteria in his digestive system)…he was going so often and hated to have his bottom touched (it was all blistered), and he could hardly walk. So, the doctor took him off of that since it was more important for him to get to feeling better (and he was so obviously feeling worse with all of the crying and whining) than to be on an antibiotic that was just given as a precaution. His breath would smell so badly from the scab in his mouth that we often thought he had dirtied his diaper! Finally, his breath is better and he is eating and drinking anything and everything with ease. His sleeping has not improved, but he no longer seems to have congestion or trouble breathing, so at least that “noise” is gone from his system. While he was in the operating room, we had his ferritin levels drawn on the orders of his sleep doctor, and we finally got those results last week…they revealed that Alex’s iron levels (even though he eats very, very well - including all kinds of foods which are high in iron) are very low, and that could be causing his restlessness at night (iron is necessary for the synthesis of dopamine, which helps sleep) - so a diagnosis of “Restless Leg Syndrome” (in children, it’s not always just the legs that are restless). We are hoping that once his iron levels get better, that will stop bothering him, as it was something that seemed to pop up in January, which led us to go back to the sleep doctor. His iron in August when he had all of his blood work done was just fine, so it is something that declined over time. We have him on a vitamin with iron as well as Cheerios for breakfast and other iron-rich foods. He loves red meat, so that hasn’t been a struggle to get him to eat…in fact, he seems to be eating non-stop!! As much as he eats, he should be catching up to Patrick (who is now over 32 pounds), but he for some reason, can’t break the 24 pound “barrier.” They are both getting taller, as we notice clothes they wear a lot don’t fit any more.
I have started trying to reduce the amount of “crutches” Alex gets to go to sleep at night by making him fall asleep in his crib. The first night I tried it last week, he stood up 7 times and did a lot of crying, but he eventually (after 45 minutes) did it. The next night, he did a lot of whining and crying, but only got up once, and the time to go to sleep was down to 30 minutes. The next night, he did it in 5 minutes with just a little whining and no getting up, and last night, he did it in 5 with no whining or getting up, and very little physical contact with me (I have been trying to reduce the amount of touching I do (rubbing or holding his hand)). Mark is away again this week, so hopefully I can keep up the good progress while here on my own (unfortunately, I have to use the TV as a “babysitter” for Patrick while I put Alex to sleep when Mark is gone, which I hate, but luckily, Patrick stays out of trouble!). He slept for almost 2 hours at his first stretch last night while settling himself down a few times, and that beat his previous long first stretch lately by about an hour! After that, though, things were very strange…he was very, very restless and crying a lot, and took a long time to settle down, even with all of his crutches! His 12th tooth FINALLY popped through (his last tooth had come in over 8 weeks prior, and he had been getting them every couple of weeks), so hopefully that will make him more comfortable. He was walking around yesterday telling me, “hurt, hurt,” but was unable to tell me what hurt him. When Mark is going to be around for a while, we are going to try more aggressive sleep training, and should know within a few days if it is working or whether or not the Restless Legs issue will continue to bother him.
Alex’s talking has just exploded, and he is now talking like a 2-year-old at 16 months. He puts together several multiple-word sentences, the sweetest of which is “I wuv you.” He has an amazing ability to connect things he’s heard with things he’s known or learned in the past, which tells us he REALLY understands and isn’t just uttering or repeating. He is already using manners (”a, pease” for “yes, please” just like Patrick used to do), and can tell us what he wants (which seems to be mostly related to food!). One of the moms of one of Patrick’s friends is just amazed at his talking, as he talks just as well as her almost 3-year-old little girl!! Alex is a very sweet little guy, who now looks even bigger after his first hair cut!!
Well, he is awake from his nap, which he is taking today (he hasn’t been napping consistently in the morning), so I better go get him. Until next time…whenever that is…free time is not very abundant these days!
