Not Me! Monday

I know, I've been slacking! But for your reading pleasure...

The other day I was squatting down to get something out of my kiddo's suit case. I felt a sneeze coming on and every mother knows that if you sneeze in that position...um...bad things happen. I immediately stood up, therefore avoiding any embarrassing moment. I certainly did not wet my pants! That would never happen to a person over the age of five, especially not to me!



In an effort to save money I have been finding/organizing/clipping coupons. I love a good deal, but I always eat healthy and just because you get something free does not mean you have to get/eat it. I saw a coupon for a free root beer float at A & W. I did not print it out and go just before my FPU class tonight to get that and the free chicken they were giving away at K.FC today. I thought ahead and ate a healthy and nutritious meal at home, of course!



I believe that you have to be assertive with your children starting at a small age. That being said, my child never pitches a fit and gets her way. That was not me that you saw walking home with my child in my arms from the church parking lot. When she started thrashing wildly about firmly voicing her opinion that she didn't want to be put in her car seat, I simply buckled her into her car seat anyway and we drove the short distance home. (I am still a little gun shy....I'm choosing my battles!)



I did not buy a squirt bottle with the intent of using it on my child's face. There is something cruel about shooting a child in the face with water when they are crying. I would never do such a thing. Nope, not me!

What kinds of things did you do throughout the last week, that you found yourself thinking, "What?! Noooo, I didn't just do that!" Do share.

Tuckered Out

This little girl played hard at the brunch today. This was after just two minutes in the car.

And don't worry, the car was stopped when I took these pictures of her because I had gotten out to take these.

Isn't it B-E-A-U-tiful?! It will be hard to get me away from this place.

Montana Horses

This is really cool! I think it's the first year I've actually been in town to see it. They run the horses from one spot in the state to another and mom and dad's town in on their route. It's a pretty big deal in this small town. A family we know always has a big brunch out at their house every year and the horses run right in front. They actually take the horses to be "hired out" for the summer. They are very large and powerful animals, so I got a little nervous with so many of them running in front of me. A pretty cool sight, though. Thought I'd share...

Squirt Bottles

Our follow-up appointment with the pediatrician was this morning. It went very very well. I was quite pleased with the whole experience. I could go on to write a long post about socialized heath care right now, but that's not why I'm posting and definitely not the purpose of this blog....I digress... Today was very informative. We now know that a seizure is a possibility. Is there also a possibility that my precious child will never seize again? Yes. Fortunately, the doctor took the time to explain to me how to try to avoid the breath-holding in turn, avoiding another seizure. There could always be the chance of something happening (i.e. bumping of noggin, stubbing of toe, etc....) that breath-holding is a very real possibility. However, there are times when her attitude simply gets the best of her. Our options at that point are: getting a cold cloth and placing that on her neck, forcefully puffing air into her face at close proximity, anything that may startle her would very likely make her take a breath. It has been suggested to me to "fling" water into her face by a couple of different people. My question to the doctor: Is this helpful, harmful, or just cruel? Her response was: Don't feel bad about a little water in her face when you know the alternative.

My reaction? I give to you exhibit A:

This will be filled with plain filtered water, kept in close proximity at all times, and (yes) shot in the face of my screaming toddler poor defenseless child. I will be fashioning a holster of sorts to keep this "on me" at all times. There will be another placed in her diaper bag for times when she's left with others and the importance of using it will be stressed until she is to the point that the breath-holding is far FAR behind her. An encouraging note, often kids that induce a seizure with breath-holding will be scared out of ever doing it again. The unfortunate thing about that statement, we have an extremely strong willed child who began her breath-holding plight at a mere 6 months of age; very early for a condition such as this. With that being said, she's more than likely not old enough to have any clue about what has taken place. If you have been a witness to one of her episodes you can be certain she's not doing any of this purposefully. There you have it, how to prevent breath-holding in a child. As I mentioned earlier, these episodes are not 100% preventable. What then??

If she does in fact stop breathing, we have been instructed to lay her gently onto the floor for two reasons. The first: making a behavioral statement, when you act like this you are not going to be coddled (keep in mind, 85% of the time she's ticked). The second: it is what is medically best for her. In the supine (face up flat on your back) position the heart has the advantage to pump plenty of blood and oxygen to the deprived brain resulting in decreased odds of any seizure activity. And further on from that...what if that doesn't prevent the seizure? Then we are to place her onto her right side, preventing aspiration if vomiting does occur. Normally they tell people that after someone has been seizing for 5 minutes call 9-1-1. With our being 35 miles from the nearest hospital and having a volunteer ambulance, the moment and seizing begins we've been instructed to call immediately. She also said that if it goes over 5 minutes again and she stops on her own, still take the ambulance to the ER. They have the oxygen that she might need, they'd be able to evaluate her and be in close contact with a doctor at the hospital.

If all of this sounds a bit scary that's because....it is! And in scary situations, you need to know just what to do. I feel confident in what the doctor has told me and less terrified of one of these episodes coming on again. I will still continue to pray that she will grow out of this quickly. And will always be cautious when she starts to cry for any reason. As for the EEG the results came back perfectly, well as far as the pediatrician and neurologist are concerned...a psycologist may have a differing opinion! Keep in mind, my husband and I are her biological parents.

By the way...I need a baby sitter next weekend. Anyone interested?

I am...

...copying someone else's idea for a post.


...thinking you should all click here, check out her blog and pray diligently for her child (having surgery Tuesday).


...so thankful that my child is 100% again.


...nervous now every time she cries.


...writing down every question that comes to mind to ask the doctor at the appointment this week.


...greatly missing my husband.


...wondering what the Lord has in store for us in the next year.


...thankful that our finances and my husband's hard work permit me to stay home to care for our child.


...nervous to leave my child with just any babysitter.


...beyond grateful that my child's situation permitted us to leave the hospital after only one night.


...hoping that everyone with healthy well children will count that blessing more than twice.


...trying my hardest to praise the Lord when the storm clouds pass over me.


...really random in my thinking tonight.


...thinking I should help my mother pick up the house with a forecast of 200% chance of 2 year old tomorrow!

Easter Egg Hunt

Parents of other 0-2 years olds=crazy! You would think it would be the children most anxious to get the eggs. The parents had scoped out the eggs and some had already found the golden egg and were headed straight that direction once the whistle had blown. Ridiculous! Little bit started off strong and new just what to do. She only got about six eggs because when I looked up all of the parents had picked up all of the eggs for their children and put them into their baskets! Oh well...she enjoyed the few eggs that she ended up getting.

Patiently waiting for the "hunt" to begin.

I've got my basket, I'm ready to go!

Look what I got, Botz!

Big Attitudes, Breath-Holding, and Seizing

I could definitely classify the last 24 hours as the worst hours of my life! As some of you know or may not know, our little girl has episodes of breath-holding. When she gets very upset she will cry hard enough, forget how to breath in and pass out. Normally once she passes out, her little body kicks in and she starts breathing again. Well, the other day her brain had gone just too long without oxygen and blood and she began to seize. When she passed out this time, I immediately picked up the phone and called 9-1-1. Being in a town this small, we only have a volunteer ambulance. It felt like FOREVER for them to get here. In actuality it only took six minutes from the time of my call until their arrival; it felt like at the least 25 minutes! All the while my precious child is still seizing. She seized for a total of 7 minutes at our house and continued to seize on the ambulance on the way into town. We did not have a paramedic on the ambulance to administer the right type of drug to get her body to relax. The ambulance started to drive toward the nearest emergency room (30-35 miles away) while another ambulance with two paramedics heading our direction. Before we were able to meat up with them, her tired tired body just couldn't muster enough strength to simply breath in and out. They ended up having to breath for her for around four minutes. We stopped on the side of the interstate and the paramedics jumped on board and were able to administer a drug to finally help my child's tired body to relax. All they while I was just riding and whispering my love and my husband's love for her into her ear. Praying for a mighty God to help her body to relax and breath.

When we arrived to the hospital and I knew the doctors would be able to help her, I saw my sister waiting there for us and collapsed into her arms. That was the hardest few moments in my life. From there they were able to get x-rays of her lungs to check for fluid, aspirations, etc. She was sent for a CAT scan shortly thereafter. The doctors saw lots of air in her small belly and had to put a small tube into her belly to remove all the air. I was concerned to learn that the paramedic that administered the drug to her, actually gave her twice the amount of the sedative that should have been given for her weight. (That will come into play later in the story.) The doctor said that she would be fine, they would keep and eye on her breathing and she should just sleep an extra amount that night. She ended up waking just a couple of short hours later. Looking toward my sister when her camera phone said, "say, "Cheese!"" She also gave her "Botz" a half smile when she heard his voice. I carried her up to ICU where we spent the night and they were able to keep a sharp eye on her all night. She was hooked up to so many things. She had monitors for her heart, breathing, oxygen levels and she also had a board under her hand to keep her arm stable with the IV in it. They had to poke my poor child several times because her IV was just to small to take any blood from and they needed that line in to be able to administer more drugs if she began to seize again. She did very well all night. She has slept better nights, but with so many things hooked up to her and nurses coming in and out she slept well. I slept not a wink, however. Wanting to know every second if she was doing well, I found myself getting dizzy watching the monitor all night.

She awoke yesterday morning extremely hungry. She had one whole juice bottle and two cups of j.ello before we got word that she could have solid food. My mom ended up feeding her two pieces of french toast, two pieces of bacon, eggs and anything else she could get into her mouth! We expected to get a quick test done and head home. She had to be sedated for a brain wave test called an EEG. The gave her a total of 10 mg of Valium. For her weight 6 mg should be sufficient. (In reference to earlier the night before, she was given a total of 12 mg on the ambulance. I firmly believe that God directed the paramedics hands; had she only gotten 6mg she would have continued to seize even longer and they would have had to administer more once they realized that wouldn't work.) Once my mother finally got her to sleep (I couldn't bare to hold her long enough to get her to sleep) they began to stick the electrodes on her small little head. After about 45 minutes of sleeping she awoke. We ended up having to give her Kettamine. Horrible! I could not be in the room with her. She was tossing and turning, moaning and crying. Her big blue eyes would not focus on anything. Thankfully my parents had just returned from lunch and were able to sit with her as I gathered myself in the waiting room and talked with my aunt and cousin. After finally getting the test out of the way she started to come out of the funk that the drugs caused. When they saw that she was tolerating the drugs well, they told us that she could do the rest of her recovery at home.

We returned here and I was beginning to feel that maybe we should have stayed at the hospital. She was just unhappy. I fed her, bathed her, and tried to comfort her with lotion. I ended up skipping the lotion and giving her a bottle and putting her into bed. She fussed for only a couple of minutes and drifted right off to sleep. She just wanted to be left alone! The poor girl likes her time to herself and had been poked, prodded, strapped down, held up and stimulated way too much for the last 24 hours.

She woke this morning quite tired still. She would wake up for about and hour at a time to raid the pantry and refrigerator, smile for a while and go right back to sleep. She is a little weak still today, but that is understandable after all of the seizing and all she went through after that point. I was able to sleep most of the night last night only waking to my husband's phone call. I even was able to sneak in a nap while she slept today. She went to bed pretty early tonight and I expect that she'll sleep well into the morning hours.

The doctors are confident that it was the breath-holding that kicked her little body into the seizure. We are still waiting on the results of the EEG, but are certain that will come out normally. They have told us that when she does pass out from the breath-holding that we need to lay her down. If we do that we give her body the best chance of getting plenty of blood and oxygen to her deprived little brain. That will greatly decrease her risk of another seizure. Not to say that she will never have another, but the odds will be greatly decreased. Right now we just need to work on the attitude problem that leads to the breath-holding. Unfortunately she got the worst of both parents! We'll see how that goes!

For now, prayers for a perfect EEG and a renewed mind for our little girl and a lesser attitude! (Hey, never hurts to ask for miracles!) As for me, pray for not living a life of fear, but of confidence in my God and also for the tape of this horrible event to stop playing in my mind. And don't forget prayers of praise and thanksgiving that our little girl is now fine and resting peacefully!

Shortly after arriving to the hospital. Lovin' on her dolly.

Hanging out in the waiting room before the therapist came for the EEG.

Unfortunately, my hair didn't look any better than her hair!

Easter 2009

"....and the tomb was found empty!"

gorgeous baby blues

"Cheese!"

This beautiful dress was actually given to us from a friend in Tennessee. She wore it well! She did have little sandles but they were a little big...her feet looked pretty cute bare, if I do say so myself.

Boys, boys

My sister's twins are all boy! They just turned two. I thought I could con them into wearing a cute pink hat of my little girl's; they weren't falling for it! This little one realized asking mommy to put this band in his hair was a bad idea, but only a little too late. We were able to get this rare photo. There will be no walking around in heels for these little boys, they are men already! I know it looks like we were holding him down....OK we were, but it was just for a second.

St Patrick's Day Take Two

My hubby's mom sent this outfit for A to wear on St. Patty's day. She did wear it that day and a couple of days ago, as well. On St. Patty's day she was teething and NOT wanting to be photographed! A couple of days ago I decided to put it back on her and snap a couple of pics.