Sunday, February 21, 2010

Gavin - "Star Student" and 2nd Trimester Conferences

On Monday we had the second trimester conferences at Gavin's school. Right now he has a long term substitute while his teacher is on maternity leave. First, the good news - Gavin scored 3's on all the math components - 3 means "at grade level" BUT they actually don't expect them to reach 3 on the math components until the END of the school year - way to go Gavin! Spreadsheets are in your future!

More good news is that he scored a 4 in science! They are only starting to work on science concepts (5 senses, a unit on paper) but 4 is ahead of expectations, and only a couple kids got a 4.

Reading - this continues to be a struggle. I think he understands individual concepts (sounding out a word) but is having trouble applying the concepts (write the word). I've noticed he's also pretty inconsistent. He scored 2's in almost all the new reading components, which means "progressing towards grade level". Unlike math, they are assessed at each trimester, and he should be at a 3 now. He's been included in a special small group reading support that meets daily. Which I thought he started months ago, as they sent home a note to sign, and I guess it never got going. I asked if how far behind was he and was it bad enough to consider being held back, and much to my relief it's no where near that point. Nevertheless, I think it will be smart to get him a tutor over the summer, just to at least keep up with what he has learned or get him up to speed if need be. I'm not disappointed he needs the help. I'm quite proud of all he's accomplished given he shouldn't even really be in school this year (if we went by his due date).

And finally, Gavin was the Star Student last week! Each kid is the Star of the Week one week of the year and there were many fun special activities including me going to lunch with him. Friday all the students made a page for a special book for him. Let me tell you, NOTHING made me prouder than reading that book. Of course I will always be proud of his school or sports accomplishments, but I read what these kids wrote and can tell what a good person he is becoming. They all said how nice he is or how fun he is to play with or how "he never yells" (huh??). And this kid is already winning over the ladies. One little girl wrote "I (heart) him" and another girl wrote "I love him". I can't believe it's starting already, my little Cassanova!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Sam's on the mend

He didn't wake up coughing at all last night! He actually made it to 3 am before waking up, so that was great. He's napping more than usual during the day and I can't decide if it's because he needs more sleep to heal or if he is finally comfortable enough to nap longer. I have him totally off of breast milk and he's doing better than ever, so I wonder if there was just enough dairy in there to flare up his reflux. The milk bank will be getting a giant donation this weekend. I'm a little sad to close that chapter, but am looking forward to getting my freezer space back!

He is starting to really take off walking - no longer does he need coaxing from us, he just takes off from the furniture. Of course that means a lot more crashes, he got his head good on the wood part of the ottoman today.

The antibiotic is doing a number on his system. We have him on probiotics, not sure how much good it's doing. He's still not eating much and is not in love with the formula I bought. We go back on the 25th for his 12 mo vaccines (thank goodness we delayed them!) and a naked weigh in so hopefully by then he's at least gained back the weight he lost over the last couple weeks.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

"That Little 1 yr old"

So cute - the night of Sam's birthday, Gavin looked at him and said "That little one year old!" It was too cute.

Gavin has been asking some interesting questions lately. It's amazing all the thoughts swirling around his brain.

"Why are there mosquitos in the summer?" (I can't say we had a good answer)
The next day in the car
"Why is there an outside?" "well honey, there wouldn't be an outside unless we built buildings to be inside. It would all be outside" "But why is it there? And what if there wasn't any sky or grass?" My brain hurts at this point and then...
"Female mosquitos don't bite. Only male mosquitos bite" (Impressed by the use of female/male vs girl/boy as well as mosquito instead of bug. And no idea if this factoid is true) "Sure honey, uh huh" "I'm really serious Mom. The bug guy that came to our class told us that."

The bug guy that came in, like, October! It's so fun to see all the things that he is learning. Last week he picked out a library book on lightning. I don't think I knew a single thing I read in that book, so it was all new to me as well - and I couldn't believe a 5 yr old would sit through a book about electrons and positive and negative energy. That brain of his is just churning all the time.

Sam update: He slept most of the afternoon with some brief awake periods - during which he just wanted to snuggle or sit on my lap and play. But this evening he seemed to turn a corner and was the cheesiest, happiest Sam I've seen in a while. He even ate some noodles and bread. We bought some probiotics to hopefully counteract the effects of the antibiotic and some hypoallergenic formula to give him some nutrition in case it takes awhile to get his appetite back. And the coughing fits are fewer too! So glad that he is on the mend already.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Dodging Bullets

Took Sam back in to the Dr today as he was running a temp of 102 all weekend and coughing a lot. He had us pretty worried yesterday to the point where I was trying to decide whether or not to take him to the ER last night. But then at 12:30 am I gave him both Tylenol and Motrin and his fever has not spiked since.

There was much excitement at the Dr's office with me hauling him across the medical plaza to get a chest x-ray. De ja vue started to seriously set in of the day about 4 yrs and 1 mo ago that I did this with Gavin. But then I remembered Sam was 1) still drinking and 2) still alert so I tried not to panic. He sat like a rock star for the x-ray.

Back at the Dr's office (where we did another naked weight and he lost another 4 1/2 oz from when we were in 6 days ago) he did not think his lungs looked quite bad enough to be pneumonia, but they didn't look good either. His words "they look crunchy and sound crackly". I don't exactly know how to translate that. They nose swabbed for RSV and flu and Sam protested a LOT. Then they did a neb treatment as the Dr wanted to hear what improvement, if any, it made to his lungs. After warning the nurse that he hated neb treatments, he sat still for 30 seconds before thrashing and flailing like a wild man. Of course the nurse left after 10 seconds thinking he was going to behave. Fortunately a child life specialist came in a blew bubbles to help calm him down.

The treatment didn't help a whole lot, but he also probably inhaled less than half of it. He's on an antibiotic that caused diarrhea within 10 minutes of taking it - so that should make for a fun 10 days! We're on house arrest for a couple days to let him rest and ensure that it does not in fact turn into full blown pneumonia.

All in all, it could be worse. I have a laptop so I can work from home, and a boss and team at work that is understanding. I did start to panic until I heard that it wasn't that bad (my cell's almost out of battery power, I didn't bring his special milk, etc, etc) so I am very glad that my worst case scenario was not realized.

I just can't wait to get through this winter! Since Gavin's bad winter 4 years ago I think he's had about 2 ear infections and 1 case of strep and rarely a sniffly nose. So I am looking forward to some healthiness to come!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Rolling with the Punches....

The hits just keep on coming as far as Sam is concerned. At his 1 yr check up he weighed in at 24 lb even, 30 1/2 inches long. That's 68% for weight and 69% for height and head.

But he was 25lb 3 oz the week before - he was clothed but his clothes don't weigh that much. His left ear was now infected so we held off on vaccines til we can get him well. Dr was a little concerned about weight loss, but he's obviously still a good size and he wasn't eating much when he was so congested (and throwing up from coughing didn't help).

His blood test - which he sat through and didn't even flinch - revealed he was slightly anemic, so he is now on an iron supplement.

And I tried the TINIEST bit of peanut butter on bread last night and he has broken out with a rash on his upper arms, upper legs and stomach. And his cough is way worse today, but I think that's in part due to the allergic reaction to the peanut butter.

I really didn't think I would have more problems with my 33 weeker than my 27 weeker. Gavin had his share of illness that first year but it was plain old cough/cold/ear infection/rotavirus with a case of RSV thrown in. Sam's are legitimate conditions. Shame on me for making assumptions I guess.

It's getting a little old finding "one more thing" all the time. But then I remind myself how much worse a lot of people have it. I think I could have a little better attitude if I could just get some sleep! But judging by how fast this year has flown by, in a blink of an eye these boys will be out of the house and I will have a lifetime of uninterrupted sleep. So I will remember to appreciate the middle of the night snuggle opportunities and try to be an adequate employee/mom/friend on 4 hours of sleep!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Bday post

So somehow the birthday post that I scheduled did not post. Scroll down below the pictures to read it!