So Much to Do, So Little Time!

What have we been up to?  A LOT!  It has been so long since I have blogged and I am going to try and make this as short and complete as possible!!! :) 
Lauren turned 3 years old!!!!  I took off work on her birthday to take her on her special day out.  We went to Rainforest Cafe and did a little shopping.  We had McDonald's for breakfast and it was just a super special day with my favorite middle child!! :) 



Her birthday party was at Pump It Up again this year which is a giant jump house place.  Last year she didn't love it but this year...SHE DID!!!  Her party was Mickey Mouse themed with some other characters thrown in.  She is a little obsessed with Mickey Mouse right now! :) 


Her current stats at the doctor's office are: 44 lbs, 41 inches!  She is 100th percentile for both!!!  My big beautiful girl!!  :)


Rachel is just...Rachel.  Does anyone else think that 5 years old is just the most annoying phase ever?!  She never stops talking!!!  No, in all seriousness, she is such a joy!  To see the delight and mystery on her face when she asks her 1,000 questions a day is priceless!!  She is very curious and inquisitive.  Her love and curiousity about God is so precious to watch and see.  She is really starting to "get it."  She adores her sisters and is definitely the "model" big sister!  She takes care of Lauren and talks to Hannah in this SUPER high pitched voice!  It is so annoying cute.  :)  I have been feeling so much guilt lately with regards to Rachel and how much time we spend with her.  It is so easy to push her aside because she is so much more independent by nature and with age.  She can do most anything by herself (within reason) and she does not need Mommy's assistance much anymore.  That is a good thing and a bad thing because I feel like because she does not need me as much anymore, I don't spend enough time with her.  She has been getting into trouble a lot lately and I really think that I need (and I want) to make a point to spend more time with her.  Brice and I have a trip planned at the end of next month where we will take her to do some special things.  I am looking forward to it.  I will say that Thursdays (my days off) we do go, just the two of us, to gymnastics and normally get a treat from Sonic afterwards but life has been so busy the past few weeks that we haven't even been able to do that.  I love her so much and I want her to always know that.  This parenting thing is tricky!



Hannah....oh, Hannah! 
My sweet smiley baby!  Hannah turned 5 months old on March 19th! 



She is currently weighing in at 17.3 pounds and is 26 inches long!  She has had quite an eventful month!  When Hannah was born she came out "barking."  I know that sounds strange but she has always sounded like she has the croup.  I get no less than 15 old ladies a month telling me to take her to the doctor because she sounds horrible and has croup!  She, most of the time, is not sick!  That is just how she sounds.  Well, we took a little trip to the pulmonologist's office this past month to confirm what our pediatrician has said that she has - tracheomalacia.  She had been sleeping VERY poorly and I tried EVERYTHING!  I had even paid an organization for 3 months of communication to help!  They are pediatric nurses with experience and proven skills to help mommies help babies sleep!  Their technique did not prove to be helpful in our circumstances either and really just stressed me out!  I seriously feel like a first time mom all over again.  So, on Thursday, March 29th, we went into the hospital for a bronchoscopy and a pH probe test. 


Hannah has been on Prevacid since she was about 4 weeks old and spits up buckets!!!!  Always has.  The bronchoscopy showed that she does indeed have tracheomalacia and laryngomalacia. Basically, this just means an immature (or floppy) windpipe and voice box.  Not major and she should grow out of it.  It also showed some irritation of her esophagus and inflammation which indicates acid reflux. 



We still have not received the results from the pH probe yet which will determine how severe her reflux is and whether or not it is coorelating to her respiratory issues.  He did indicate that he thinks she has reactive airway disease (infantile asthma) and wants us to do breathing treatments whenever she needs them.  The hospital stay was a little traumatic but the hospital was fantastic and I cannot say enough wonderful things about the pulmonologist we saw.  He was great!  Hannah is so different than my other two.  I love her to pieces but she keeps me on my toes!  She has been sleeping much better lately which is a blessing!  She is happy pretty much all of the time unless she is sleepy or hungry.  She is still breastfeeding.  I have started giving her small amounts of formula with added rice for no other reason but to make her milk thicker to help reduce the spit up.  She is a doll!  For those of you that tell me that you just want to "squeeze her"....she is pretty squeezable (is that a word)?? 



Life is chaotic!  Juggling a sick baby, 3 year old, 5 year old and a full time job along with a women's ministry at the church and being a wife, I am pretty much exhausted!  Staying at home with my kids seems way harder but I am just worn out.  I am not sure I could fit one more thing in.  And, I am pretty much a horrible friend to everyone right now because I just don't have the time or the energy.  I have started doing Weight Watchers again with hopes of losing my other 30 pounds of baby weight!  Yes, I said other...I have already lost 40! :)  I have been doing it for 4 weeks and lost 12 pounds!  WOO HOO!!  It is so hard though! I just want to eat everything in sight...most of the time! :)
One last thing before I close this up.  I would encourage everyone to go to see the movie October Baby.  It came out the same weekend as that other movie...oh yeah, Hunger Games.  :)  October Baby is a movie of redemption, hope, and healing.  Please take a couple of hours, go to the theater and see this incredible movie!!  You will be glad you did...but, take your tissues! :)
Thank you all for reading this far. I know that most of my life is boring to you but I document so that I don't forget these times in my life.  God is good to us and time is passing so quickly that I can hardly keep up.  The hard times....these too shall pass and the good times...I want to cherish forever!  I, as always, have so much reason to rejoice!!!

Comments

Sara said…
So good to see a post from you ! your girls are so cute.

I too, paid for that certain program and it did not help us one bit either. With all of the raves about it I got sucked into the "I have to try this since it works for everyone else" mode. Sigh...

Hope Hannah continues to get some sleep. :)
Lainey-Paney said…
Oh, you should have told me about 3/29!

I can't believe how fast your girls are growing up!

And of course you are exhausted: look at all that's on your plate.

Popular posts from this blog

For the Love of LIFE!

FRUSTRATED!!!!!