The longest year EVER!

Happy HOLY COW 2007! It’s been a super-duper long year already, and I’ve really wanted to write about some of the things that have been going on. But every time I go to start, I realize how much ground I need to cover!

We got called to pick up a sick baby on 1/3. Caleb had a pretty good fever, which gives him a direct ticket out of school. So I made arrangements to take Thursday off work so I could take him to the doc. At said doc, not only were his ears infected and he had pinkeye, but his pulse/ox levels were dangerously low, and his chest was all congested. So he was put on a nebulizer ~ and guess who got to be the bad guy?! ME!

He screamed, wailed, kicked, punched, and basically fought in any way a fifteen month old can to get that mask off of his face. It took thirty minutes for the steroid to be fully nebulized, and by the end of that time, both of us looked like we’d been in a sauna for about six days.

Do you know what they said to me? “Oh, his color is certainly getting better!”

Anyway, since the doc said we needed to come back the next morning for another nebulizer treatment, we knew he wasn’t going back to school. So Grandma Becky offered to come to stay with him so I didn’t miss any more work. However, the fourth big blizzard hit, and she was only able to make it about halfway before it became evident that she needed to just go home for safety’s sake.

At that appointment, not only did we do another nebulizer treatment, but they sent me home with one and told me to do it every three hours. Around the clock. And more importantly, they suggested that it was RSV that had caused the bronchitis/bronchialitis. So he wasn’t allowed to be around kids or crowds for ten days.

At this point, we had two antibiotics, eye drops, two oral steroids, and a nebulized steroid. We used that combination for three days, going to the doctor each day, until they were concerned that his oxygen levels were dropping off too quickly after the nebulization, so they put him on oxygen as well. Seriously – we have a tank the size of a giant missile just sitting in our living room.

Finally, his levels seemed to come into line, but after everything we went through, I had to bring up allergies again. So we were referred to a pediatric specialist, where they did the scratch tests on my little bug. He was such a CHAMP! I held him facing me while they did all the pokes, and he just played with my hair and never made a peep! Then they told me that he could run around the office while they waited for the results. So here’s my little angel running around shirtless with a grid and bumps on his back, talking to the people in the waiting room, the nurses, everyone. It was an absolute riot!

What was NOT a riot was the results of the tests. In addition to everything that had been wrong with him, the doctor diagnosed him with severe asthma and allergies to peanuts, cats and dogs.

For those of you who are gasping that a peanut allergy is a huge thing, please go back and read that sentence more clearly. Peanuts, cats and DOGS. The kid can live without a Snickers bar. But his mom’s heart broke to realize that our sweetest Auggie and Nonny were part of the problem, and had to be removed from the home.

Jonathan took the day off work to take the puppies away, because I had a little bit of a breakdown. Seriously. I left a message on my phone that I couldn’t talk to anyone, then holed up in my house for several days. I didn’t shower ~ ewww! ~ and basically didn’t do anything but snuggle Caleb and cry.

And he HATES it when I cry! He tries to comfort me, but then when I keep going, he starts to cry, too. He is such a precious. He really is my greatest gift.

Anyway, the puppies ended up being adopted by two people that we know will love and care for them well. (Nonny went with Alisa’s sweet Mr. Chris, so we’ll probably see her again. Which I don’t know how I feel about.) Anyway, I’m still grieving, but Jonathan is pretty much on cloud nine that Caleb will get to be a “reptile” kid!

Every day we find new ways that not having puppies is better for us. So I have a feeling that when my grief subsides, I’ll be able to completely acknowledge that our life is much better. Even though right now my heart is denying that fact.

At the allergist, they gave us more stuff to nebulize, nose spray, and more steroids. And the next day, we had to take him to get an x-ray of his sinuses, where it was revealed that he had an infection there as well! Criminy grits! The kid took in more medication than food for a week!

When it was all said and done, I missed a week and a half of work, countless hours of sleep, and my puppies. But life is FINALLY getting back to normal. Caleb is mostly healthy, the oxygen tank should be leaving shortly, and we’re getting used to having no little furry friends around.

And now Caleb’s molars are growing in. Guess how fun that is?!

Forgotten stuff!

Ohmigoodness, I can't believe all the milestones I left out! I guess when you don't write for almost a month when he's this age, I'm bound to have a lot of ground to cover!

First of all, he’s completely off the bottle, even for milk, even for dinner. Also, he’s doing a super job of drinking out of a REAL cup! No sippy lid or anything. I’m limiting it to water right now, because when he gets distracted, he’ll turn his head without turning the cup.

He got his first kids meal at a restaurant yesterday! Chik Fil A! And he drank his milk from a straw, but made a bit of a mess. He kept drinking in too much to swallow, then when he took the straw out, it would all come out.

He got amazing toys for Christmas, plus socks and shoes, books, clothes and moolah for college! (Mommy got dozens o’ books, a few movies and a butt-kicking electric toothbrush, Daddy got cologne, luggage and a video iPod. All were overjoyed.) But my favorite toy he got for Christmas is the one we gave him – the busy ball popper! Angela, you got one for Cooper last year, and I’ve been looking for an excuse ever since. We’ll all just sit around on the floor for ages and play with it. Then he’ll try to eat a ball, and when he can’t get it in his own mouth, he finds a mouth that fits.

That’s right. It’s mine. Shocker.

We’ve had so many Christmas celebrations this year that it’s hard to believe that it was only one year! This was the first year I really wasn’t ready for Christmas in my whole life. So this year I’ll have to start even EARLIER to be ready!

Like NEXT WEEK!

I was pretty proud of myself that I put a bunch of pictures in his album. But I've got a lot of commentary to write still, but at least they're not laying around the house anymore!

Happy New Year!

My post right before this one has caused me no short amount of guilt. I was overjoyed that my son was finally getting some sleep ~ only to realize that his sleep was coming from the fact that he became desperately ill. For seven days, his fever was between 101 and 104.4, keeping mom and dad out of work for a total of five days between them. Talk about pressure! And I dragged him to the doc twice before finally getting some antibiotics. I figured that with a fever that high and his breathing so bad, something more drastic than “an upper respiratory” infection – AGAIN – had to be wrong.

To be fair, though, the antibiotics didn’t seem to do much. He was sick for five days after he got them. So maybe my mom freak out wasn’t necessary.

Anyway, he was pukey, poopy and snotty for considerably longer than his mom and dad wanted him to be, trust me. But he’s such a little angel! Even in the worst of sickies, he is pleasant to be around. Most of the time.

Grandma Fashbaugh came for the week prior to Christmas. Grandpa didn’t make it until almost ten on Christmas Eve Eve, but at least he made it in! His first flight got cancelled because of the crazy blizzard. (The FIRST crazy blizzard!) Caleb had SUCH a great time with Grandma and Auntie Alisa! He’s always the center of Mom’s attention, but now he had three girls hanging on his every babble! He was a little hoot!

When he went to Auntie Alisa’s, he spent some quality time with Lucy, the kitty. And would you believe that the cat was better with Caleb than our dogs? What the heck?! He pushed her down to the ground so he could really pet her, and she just took it, and never even tried to leave or anything. I stood at the ready to make sure he didn’t really hurt her, but she just lounged around so he could love on her. It was adorable!

Then about halfway through the week, I got the same crap that Caleb had! I was able to push through it until Saturday, when I was nearly felled by the sick. I missed church on Christmas Eve, it STUNK! Then while everybody was watching the football game, I took another three hour nap. DayQuil and NightQuil where my best buddies. Christmas Day was pretty rough on me. I was just so weak. The first day back to work (after a ten day absence) was horrible. But I kept going to bed at 6:30 and 7:00 that week and made it through!)

It was incredible to watch Caleb and how he interacted with both sets of grandparents at once! If he was a bigger kid and I had tried to explain to him that he needed to spend time equally with each grandparent he couldn’t have done a better job! He would run from Grandparent to Grandparent, arms up, looking for hugs. Plus, the kid was an equal opportunity moocher – no one was left out from his begging. Especially for Chex mix.

The Fashbaugh grandparents left the day after Christmas, and Auntie Alisa and Mister Chris played babysitter to the bug. They got some AWESOME pictures of him in a santa hat. I can’t wait to get them online!

But that may have to wait awhile, because then JONNY got the sicko stuff! He’s STILL trying to recover. But it will happen eventually.

We took Caleb to his Garmane grandparents on Saturday so that they could take care of him for a couple days while Jonathan and I celebrated our six year anniversary! It was wonderful to have time not to worry about Caleb all the time! With our place as small as it is, even if Caleb is napping, we can’t be too loud without him waking up.

So we stayed out late, played loud music, and had a wonderful time! New Year’s Eve was better this year than last because we didn’t have to have a Caleb wrangler! So MANY THANKS to said grandparents, who allowed us to get out to the movies and have almost two whole days as a couple!

He’s getting cuter every day. He got new shoes yesterday, so I’m hoping that he won’t be able to get them off at whim. They light up, too, so I hope he stays interested. Today he’s wearing the new shoes – boots, really – with tractors on the sides, plus his Construction outfit from the Smiths, so he is just the cutest thing in the universe! You wouldn’t believe the total strangers that stop us just to tell us how precious he is. (I really do try to be gracious about it, but it’s tough not to get caught up in bragging on him! He IS totally adorable!)

He’s got another couple of teeth coming through, so the attitude is always just under the surface. It’s interesting to see how we react as parents. He’s a kid who will always push the envelope, I think. Yesterday, I caught him pushing his fire truck next to his high chair, and climbing on top of the fire truck using the high chair for balance! This is a fourteen month old BABY! I didn’t think I’d have to deal with that until he was a little older, anyway. Guess I’d better do even MORE child proofing!

Oh, and a final note – I smacked his hand yesterday for the first time! He of course crumpled onto the floor and did his brand new big fat fake cry. (He purses his lips and lowers his eyebrows and does a perfect imitation of crying – except it’s too perfect and is easily stopped by tickling.) Anyway, lest anyone think that I smacked him just to see the super cute fake cry, it was really for a reason! He was getting into Nonny’s food bowl during dinner, and she doesn’t have the tolerance that Auggie has. She’s never growled or snapped or anything, but I don’t want her to ever feel the need.

The dogs get fed twice a day, and if Caleb is anywhere near, he likes to get involved. His idea of involvement is trying to eat their food. We generally just tell him no, pick him up, and move him somewhere else for the duration. But since that hasn’t been working, and he definitely knows the difference between right and wrong in this circumstance, I finally decided that a more drastic approach was necessary. Hence, the smackdown. This morning he was in his highchair when I fed them, but we’ll see how he does tonight!