Soooooon

We are spending all weekend finally getting our house remodeling stuff D.O.N.E.

I'm taking before and after pictures, so as long as everything gets finished, I will post those next week!  Woo!

Have a good weekend!

Doctor, doctor, give me the news....

(can you finish that song??)

So are you sick of hearing about RSV, yet?

I know I am.

Ari has had two (or three?) more doctor's visits since I last posted.  I'm sure Ari thinks Vicki (the doc) is one of her aunts....or another grandma.

This past weekend, Shane and I noticed that Ari was doing slightly better.  She wasn't coughing so much at night that she would wake herself up and there was less...um...crap coming out of her nose.  So I was pretty hopeful for her appointment this morning.  Doc said that her lungs are sounding MUCH better!!!  YAY!  

It's about freakin' time, kid.

We (Vicki and I) aren't sure if the antibiotics they put her on are what are helping her or not, but she's going to stay on them for another five days just in case.  The downside to the antibiotics are that because of them, now Ari has thrush.  Awesome. So now we will be treating her thrush for the next five days to keep it from getting any worse, then when she is done with the antibiotics, we keep treating the thrush and it should go away about four or five days after that.

Poor little drugged up girl.

I realized I forgot to post about her last visit.  She got her very first lung x-ray.  :(  I think the hardest part of being a parent is watching your children suffer and not being able to do a dang thing about it.

Help me!

I put the binky in so she would stop crying.  I felt SO bad.  It didn't hurt her, even though it's not the most comfortable position.

Her x-rays looked like the lungs of a baby with RSV, which of course was expected, but she had no signs of pneumonia-which is awesome!

We still have to continue the breathing treatments, although we are starting to taper them off (only 2 a day now!).   I can't WAIT to be done with this!

In other news, I saw the dentist today.  I {heart} my dentist.  His name is Dr. Hadley and he works/owns Antelope Dental in Syracuse.  I will drive as far as I have to for him to work on my teeth.  :)  I was having pain in one of my teeth, but he told me there wasn't a cavity. The problem was that I am brushing too hard and my gum line has receded!  I didn't even know that was possible!  He also made me feel super guilty for not flossing ever as often as I should, so I really am going to start that now. 
(Aren't you so proud, Kelly?) ;)

I can't wait to go a full week without going to see a doctor!  :D

Watch out

I've learned more about RSV in the last week than I ever thought I would need to know.  I think the most important thing has been what signs to watch for, even when your baby is still her happy, normal self.  I thought I'd share my pearls of wisdom with y'all.  ;)

Here's what happened:

Kaden and Lexi each had the flu.  A couple of days after they were both feeling better, Ari had a fever of 101.  I was worried until it only lasted for one day, then went away and she was happy, so I thought it was the flu and she has an immune system even Superman would envy.

Wrong!

RSV=fever for only one day.

The day after her fever, she sounded congested.  We started using a humidifier at night because I was sure she just had a cold.  Again, I wasn't worried because she was still eating just fine and was as happy as a fat kid in a cake shop.

It was five days after her fever (which they count as day one) that we went in for her 4 month well check appointment.  At that appointment, the doctor pointed out some key symptoms to me that I didn't even realize were symptoms.  Here ya go:

What do you see?

I saw a happy, beautiful, chubby baby.

What did the doctor see?

Look at Ari's ribs.  See how her skin is sucking in tight around her ribs?  That's BAD and a for sure sign of RSV.  It means she is having a really hard time breathing and her lungs are using every muscle possible to get more oxygen.  SAD.  :(  I told the doc that I just thought she was chubby.  The doc laughed and said most parents do think that when they see it.

What else did Doc see?

DROOL.  Yep. 

I saw it, too, but thought, "Babies drool." 

Extra drool=another sign of RSV.

And of course her stuffy nose, which I thought was a cold.

Poor girl.  :(

I think the biggest sign was the ribs and I had NO idea.

Want to know what a bad mom I am?

I've been thinking a lot lately about this and I realized that if I had just breastfed her like I did with Kaden and Lexi, then Ari would have either never gotten RSV or only had it for a day or two.  I feel so horrible every time I hear her straining to breathe and know that it's my fault she isn't better by now.  When she had thrush at a month old, I was thanking my lucky stars I wasn't nursing her, but now I just feel guilty.  I would take any amount of pain if it meant she didn't have to go through this.

Anyway, she's been on Prednisolone (a steroid) since Friday to help decrease inflammation around her airways and lungs and we've been doing Nebulizer treatments on her every 4 hours-night and day.  She doesn't sound any better to me, but I really hope she is improving.  She has another doctor's appointment tonight, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Smooches!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

My favorite part of V-day when I was younger wasn't all the treats you get at school....it was waking up to what my momma had put together for her FIVE kids.  :)  Every V-day I can remember, we would wake up to the table set with pink plates, napkins, cups with PINK milk, a yummy breakfast and there were always treats surrounding our plates.

I never doubted my momma's love for me.  :)

I knew when I had kids I wanted to do the exact same thing for them.

I got up super early and made these:

P.S. They did not turn out looking anything like this, but they were still yummy.

If my kids would have eaten strawberries and whipped cream with them I totally would have gotten it, but syrup is what works for now.  ;)

I also made sure I was up early enough to make them for Shane before he left at the crack 'o dawn for work.  

Random: So I was telling him this morning as we ate our pink pancakes that because of Ari's RSV, we can't get a babysitter so we can't go out for V-day.  I said, "RSV has ruined Valentine's Day."

Shane said,"Nothing can ruin Valentine's Day."  

Oh my heck you guys. 

This is why I love this man.

(I can only post this because I know he won't see it.  He would DIE if he knew I posted that...so don't tell him if you see him, um-kay?)

Anyway, Shane left for work (LAME) and I got the kiddo's breakfast all set up for them:

Suckers, chocolates, and sweettarts!!

Can't forget the pink milk!!  :D

Enjoying breakfast!  Kaden was being camera shy.  Oh come on kid-who doesn't love a camera shoved in their face first thing in the morning?  haha

 Shane gave me a card (because in 6 years he has learned that, YES, he needs to get me 3 cards a year: V-Day, anniversary, and B-day), a rose, and a little stuffed dog.  

(He knows I think stuffed animals for adults are CHEESY, so he just laughed when I called and told him that Lexi took off with it.  Plus it's pink so there was never a chance that Lexi wouldn't take it.) hahaha

See ya!

Lexi was hitting Kaden on the head with the rose and I caught her:

Look at her face.  HA  She totally knows she's been caught!  :)

Lil' stinker

 I love my amazing hubby and I love my wonderful kids!

(Quick update on Ari: She's still about the same.  We've been doing breathing treatments on her every 4 hours (night and day) and she's on a steroid medicine...nothing seems to be helping, though.  We go back to the doctor tomorrow so let's just hope her oxygen level is good and we'll slowly beat this thing!)  :)

Ari's 4 month visit

Ari had her 4 month baby well check last night.  Here are her stats:

Height: 24 inches (50%)

Weight: 10 lbs 4 oz (50%)

Head: 16 inches (45%)

She's a perfectly proportioned little girl!  :D

While we were there, the doc was asking me how Kaden and Lexi are doing (this is why I love her-she remembers my millions of kids and little qualities about them....like how short Lexi is...hahaha).  I told her about how Lexi and Kaden had the flu a couple of weeks ago, and that I thought Ari had gotten a more mild version of it.  She asked what symptoms Ari had that made me believe that.  I told her that Ari had gotten a fever, but only for a day and now she was just crazy congested.

Doc looked over Ari and listened to her lungs two different times before she basically said that with how young Ari is, there is no such thing as a "mild" version of the flu.  If Ari gets the flu-we will know it.

She then told me that she thought Ari has RSV.

Yeah.  The worst three letters a parent can hear in a row.

I had apparently described RSV perfectly (fever for only a day, etc.), but not known it.  I felt horrible for not bringing Ari in sooner, but I really thought it was just a cold.  Ari was still happy and eating and that was all that mattered to me.

We determined that Ari is on her 5th day of it, which is normally the worst day and when babies are hospitalized.  Doc (and the nurses) were astounded that Ari was SO happy.  They said that she is hands down the happiest baby with RSV that they have ever seen.

That's my girl!  :D

We did a breathing treatment on her in the office and it made her cough which was what they wanted, so Doc said we have to do breathing treatments on her every 4 hours for the next 48 hours, then go back in so they can see if she is improving or not.

Doc said the only reason they weren't hospitalizing her right now was A) the fact that Ari was SO HAPPY (it means that the RSV isn't bothering her like it should) and B) Ari's oxygen levels were 99-which was crazy good for how bad her lungs were.  Doc actually handed me her stethoscope and said, "I want you to hear this."  She put the thing on her chest and took some deep breaths so I could hear what healthy lungs sound like, then put it on Ari's.

It was the saddest thing I have ever heard.

I'm not medically trained at all, but even I could hear just how bad it was.

Anyway, a guy came over a couple hours later and gave us the nebulizer machine.  Ari has been a little angel and is so, so patient.  She doesn't mind the breathing treatments at all and LOVES them when Kaden and Lexi make her laugh through it.  

(It lasts about 20 minutes and is just this mask I hold in front of her face so she can breathe in the mist.)

Her appointment is tomorrow evening (Thursday) and I'm really hoping and praying that she's improved!

I will keep everyone updated.

My happy, sick baby girl.

Oh, and P.S., Doc said she has no idea how Ari DIDN'T get the flu from Kaden and Lexi, but it's a miracle.  :)  Counting my blessings....

Revenge is a....um...well...it sucks

When Shane and I were dating, he had decided (without letting me know) that he was fairly sure he wanted to spend the rest of eternity with me.  

(Why?  I have no clue.  I don't think I would want to spend the rest of eternity with me...)  

Before he would pop the question, though, he wanted to put me through a series of "tests" to really get to know me in every situation.  And, of course, he didn't let me in on the fact that he was testing me.

The only little "test" I remember is one he was doing to test my temper.

It pissed. me. off.

We were sitting on his parent's couch watching TV with his little brother and sisters.  Suddenly, he starts flicking my arm.  And not too gently.  

I tried really hard to be patient.  

Really, really hard.  

After all, I was trying to impress this hottie and brainwash him into proposing-I needed to behave.

After what felt like foreva of him flicking my arm and watching my face, I had my freak-out-on-him moment that he wanted.  I guess I passed.

SO, I have never forgotten my little test of patience.

He didn't know what a great memory I have before we got married.  ;)

We all know what a computer freak genius Shane is, blah, blah, blah.

You know what's really fun to do with him?

(That I can talk about on a family friendly blog)

Play dumb.

Yup.  I really don't know much about computers, but sometimes I will just throw things out there so that I get that shocked/exasperated look from him like, "OH MY HECK!  How can you NOT know that?!  What are you 90 years old or something?!"

I don't know why, but it gives me great pleasure to see him so flustered.  muahahahahahaha

*evil laughter*

Diet

A couple of Sunday's ago, Shane was holding Ari in Sunday School.  He was bouncing her around and she was giggling (totally not disrupting anyone, of course....*cough*).  Shane leaned over to me and whispered, "I think we are feeding Ari too much.  Her cheeks are jiggling!"

I reminded him that all of our kids have had adorably chubby baby cheeks:

Kaden at 3 1/2 months old

Lexi at 3 1/2 months old (I LOVE her expression in this one...HAHAHA)

Ari at 3 1/2 months old (the ghost fingers on the left is Lexi trying to be in every shot possible)  ;)

By the way, did you notice that Ari is the baldest baby I've ever had?

Lexi wins for most hair (both when born and at 3 1/2 months old)

Kaden comes in a close second, though, with Ari not even in the race.

Poor girl.  

I keep promising her every day that she will have hair someday.

If not, she sure is cute as a baldy!

I love my baby girl  :D