Caden

When I took Caden to his last RSV clinic his doctor asked me to keep notes on his progress. I never thought I could dust off the ol blog and keep my notes here until someone told me my blog is lame. So, there you have it. This blog will be more focused on Caden's progress and less about well, everything else.

We started Caden on the homeopathic drugs on the 24th of Jan. On the 14th of Feb there was a comment made about his progress.

On about the 24th of Feb I noticed that Caden was hitting another mental block. We gave him the second dose of the baryta carbonica. We haven't seen his aggressive state come out yet from that dose, BUT about a week after giving Caden a dose we notice he comes down with a cold. That may be his reaction to the medication.

Now what we are seeing. He continues to push forward not hitting his mental block. Before he would have 2-3 weeks of steady progress, and then a 1-2 month mental block. Now it seems that the mental blocks are very short lived, and his steady progress is lasting longer.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

A year in pictures

This is before Caden could walk, proving that he could stand. :) 2-10
Not sure what they were looking at. 3-10
Caden's first real Easter, he was very excited to open the eggs to find Candy. 4-10
The first birthday party that Caden ever attended, this is also the first time we allowed him contact with other kids. 4-10
Caden's first surgery. 5-10
OUCH! Thank God this burn healed very nice. 5-10
Kennedy did it! He promoted to high school! 6-10
Rylee was very proud of her tattoo! 6-10
The start of Caden's vertical exploration. It hasn't ended! 7-10
First day of school! 8-10
Park time! 9-10
Halloween! I am sure next year Caden will be more into it! 10-10
The kids Christmas pictures! 11-10
A second birthday, which is a HUGE milestone, Caden's age is no longer adjusted!! 11-19-10
A very typical response from Ken when it comes to photos. Hide! 12-10
While you may not be able to see it in this photo, Jade SMILED! And she was having fun with the little kids! 12-24-10.
Rylee was very excited for her new camera! 12-25-10
And for the last photo of the year, Caden enjoying his candy apple, the thing is almost as big as him! 12-31-10.

Happy New years!

2 years

Two years ago today my journey of being a mom to a preemie would start. Two years ago today I was 24 weeks 2 days pregnant and my water would break. The person I was then gushing out of me like the water around my son.

I used to put up with a lot. Little things would not bother me, and now I find I get angry! Angry over the hand we were dealt. Yes things turned out okay, but I still look at my perfect son and think how things would be so different had my water not broke.

Have I changed for the better? I can't answer that.

I used to be so outgoing and everything that was handed to me I would deal with. Now I and reserved, and hold on to everything. I am an emotional hoarder!

It's been a long hard journey, and maybe this has been a good change for me. But I do not like the person I have become, I do not like how angry I am.

But in this journey I have found some of my best friends. I have seen who is there for me in the good times and the bad. I have have grown. I guess that is all you can ask for.

20 months...

I would have liked to do 20 months in photos, but that is just too many!! It has been almost 20 months since C man came into this world at 2 lbs 7 oz. He is now 24 lbs and going strong. What a blessing he has been in my life. So.. Here is just some random pics!




11-23-08
12-20-08

1-21-09

2-14-09

3-20-09

4-20-09

5-25-09

6-15-09

7-08-09
5-24-10

It still amazes me to look at these photos and see how much little man has grown!

Chickens and Mice

I know I have spoke before about my thing with mice. If I think there is a mouse in whatever I will not go in said place.

Part of this is from when I grew up. We lived next to a corn field and a cow field like this..

Growing up next to said corn field every harvest we had mice-lots of mice. You would open a drawer and find nests of mice. You would do laundry and find dead mice in the clean clothes. It was awful!

So... I grow up, and left this house and the mice behind me. Or so I thought. After my divorce I moved in with my mom (actually I moved in with her so I could get divorced) I have my horse, and they have their chickens, geese, and ducks. We also had raccoons (not by choice). To keep the raccoons from eating the birds, my step-dad built a chicken coop. Well guess what came with the coop? Mice and rats. Needless to say I never messed with the chickens. My step-dad would go out every night to feed the birds and to lock them up. Summer time he would flood the mouse holes. And every night the chickens would be waiting for him to do it. When he flooded the holes we had swarms of mice everywhere (never saw a rat but was told they were there). The chickens would hunt the mice. It was a cool sight to see the chickens kill the mice, but it was yucky enough I didn't get closer then I had to.

LOL so there is my chicken story!

Tubes..

As most of you know C had his tubes done today. While I tried to put on a brave face for everyone saying I was not nervous, I lied. I slept maybe and this is a huge stretch 2 hours last night. I tossed, I turned and I freaked myself out. Even with a sleeping pill my mind would not shut off.

So we get up at 4 am, C man was up and ready to go. You would think the kid was also just as nervous (or excited?). We get to the surgery center just before 6 and hung out in the halls until they opened. We had the entire waiting room to ourselves until 6:30.

At 7 am they called us back, did all C's stats (which were not many) they tried to get a pulse ox, which failed. She asked if C sucked his thumb, oh no he don't. As soon as she let go of his hand he had his finger in his mouth pulling the probe off. The thermometer was sitting on the bed, when the phone rang he picked the thermometer up and said hello. She gave him some syringes (no needles) he had those torn apart and was bored with them within 10 minutes. So we let him wander (no one else was back there). He went and stood behind the counters trying to answer phones. And in general just being cute. They gave him a little ghost in a cup he had the lid off within minutes.

By this time it was time to go back. I picked him up gave him kisses handed him to the nurse who set him down and he walked back to the OR like he owned the place. I heard a small cry from him as we were headed to the waiting room. I sat down sent one text and read 2 pages in my book and we could hear him screaming his head off. We figured they just started, nope, he was DONE. Not even 15 minutes later.

We got back to recovery and boy was he pissed. He screamed for the next 15-20 minutes, like holding his breath screaming pissed. As he started to wake up he would not cry as hard or as long. The nurse came in took his stats and told us we could go. C has slept most the day today. I really hope it doesn't mean he isn't up all night..

In all it was not as horrible as my mind had made it. It was quick and easy. Now to wait on the results and see if this is what he needed.

Adjusted age

I forgot to mention when I was on my mini freak out about C about adjusted ages.

Six more months and they stop adjusting Cs age. Six more months and they feel that he is caught up. Six more months and my little guy is not a preemie anymore.

Granted I will have to mark that he was a preemie for who knows how long (I just filled out some papers on K (14) and it asked if he was a preemie. It is part of Cs medical history, but six more months! It has been a LONG 18 months, I am ready.

Other news... C is now pointing. I noticed it yesterday. I had some cookies in the oven.. I was pointing at them showing them to R, C peeked in saw the cookies looked at me and pointed at them. Later last night he wanted the phone, and pointed at it. One of his fails on the Autism screen, and he is now doing it. YAY!

More on the autism

The more I have watched C the more I think it is wrong.

I know he has a delay, they know he has a delay. Almost every one of his delays has to do with speech.

C had an appointment with his pulmy (just a standard check up nothing serious). We talked about the screening. She looked at me like I was insane. She said that while she is not an expert she doesn't think he has autism. He was able to hold eye contact with her, he interacted with her.

She then went on to tell me about a friend who had a preemie. She didn't go into details, but told me that it took until he was THREE before he said his first word. Once he said his first word you could not shut the kid up. He had his full vocab, but refused to use it.

We got talking about his cold he had two or three weeks ago. She asked how many times we had to give breathing treatments. She then looked back in his chart saw that he has had two episodes of wheezing. It only takes three for them to say asthma. She did mention that she is sure it is something we are going to see come out at a later date. Okay I can deal with that! I know we are going to see something come up. I know C is not in the clear. I know most major things (autism pending) he has cleared.

His next appointment, he will be meeting with the BIG boss. The one that is like a pulmy god in this area. Only the sickest of the sick see her. So you may be asking why is he seeing this doctor. He has to now see every doctor in the practice at least once. That way if we have an emergency (not that we are thinking we will) we will have at least met with all the doctors.

And here I thought this might be the last time he went to this clinic. I think he will be seeing them for years still. Not that it is a bad thing, this is the clinic that has found everything.

My head is spinning..

Speech therapy went well. She watched him, saw that he does not mimic. Saw that he has some skills, but they are really behind.

Pretty much she said the best thing for him is to repeat, repeat, repeat. Even if he isn't showing signs that he is enjoying it keep it up. For instance, I was poking him in the face with his foot (it is part of keeping his hips flexible he has always been a stiff baby) I kept saying get your foot. C wasn't showing a lot of signs that he was having fun, but he was showing enough to keep it up. She said that is exactly what we need to do with him. Okay, I already do!

A lot of singing, reading, pointing etc.. All of them help.

Then we got to the Autism screen. They test all children at 18 month since there is a rise in Autism. C tested a high probability of having Autism. S asked me why I didn't seem shocked. I mentioned that I had already thought it several months ago. I didn't really think much about it, like I told them I knew something wasn't right, but I wasn't sure WHAT.

So the steps will be we watch him for the next several months. See if anymore signs emerge. L the ST is in the Autism team. She said there are some things that are saying no, such as C climbed in her lap and let her cuddle him, he didn't freak out when S and L walked in.. So we are thinking it is a developmental delay (part of the delay he has had his whole life). But my head is still spinning. The what if's are running in my head. I have been on the verge of tears since they left. Seriously Autism?

Then sippy cups. They saw that C was using a soft nipple sippy. They asked how he was doing off the bottle, I said he didn't care. He would take his juice and water in a hard spout but his milk he wanted in a soft spout. S then said, we don't care if it is soft or hard, as long as he is off. They saw a 3 year old that was still on the bottle. If I would have known that, C would have been off the bottle months ago. He LOVES the NUK sippy!

So yeah that is that..