Sunday, August 24, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
A question for the moms of babies with VP shunts
Perhaps Elijah is just a super soaker, but I have to ask... does your little one seem to pee more than the normal amount? Elijah just seems to pee a ton. LOL! I notice it especially at night. I have found nothing that can stand up to a night with him. I do use cloth diapers, but I also tried 4 different brands of disposable diapers. None of them could hold the flood. Everything would be drenched the next morning - the diaper, his clothes, the sheets. At least with the cloth the diapers are just really, really wet, but not dripping. Of course, I had to try several things with the cloth as well before I found something that could at least hold it all in. I have even tried changing him in the middle of the night, but he is still soaking(and leaking in some cases) in the morning.
Is it just Elijah, or does the fact that the CSF drains as well make them have that much more output? Or maybe it's a combination of both. He pees more than the regular baby plus the extra fluid makes it even more.
Is it just Elijah, or does the fact that the CSF drains as well make them have that much more output? Or maybe it's a combination of both. He pees more than the regular baby plus the extra fluid makes it even more.
It's Friday night, another week survived!
I keep putting off posting to the blog until I have time to fully update, but the longer I wait, the more there is to say, the more time I would need to update... you get the idea. :c) So, let's see how much I can remember and get out there before it all flies out of my head.
The girls started school on Wednesday. They all have great teachers. They are all enjoying school. Next week starts dance for Grace. Katelee's soccer practice starts sometime in September. I need to get going on Sheri's piano lessons.
Spencer misses his sisters during the day, so he spends his days driving mommy crazy. ;c) He talks my ear off and needs my full attention most of the day. It's pretty exhausting, but I know it will eventually get better. He's just used to so much going on around here all day long. He's such a good boy. He will be trying dance class this year to see how he likes it. I bet he's going to be so cute!
Elijah is just, well, he's awesome, that's what he is! He sat up for the first, extended period of time about 2.5 weeks ago at his PT appointment. We were shocked. He sat there for about 5-7 minutes before falling over. He has done really well with it since then. I don't think he has sat there for as long as he did that day, but he definitely does extremely well. I think he just gets too excited or distracted and falls over. About a week ago, he started trying to figure out crawling. !!! He gets up on his hands and toes into a little baby yoga pose(downward dog hahaha!). He also can get up on his hands and knees. He's trying so very hard to crawl and he is so so close. He can lunge forward sometimes when he's on all fours. He'll throw himself forward and flop onto his belly. He'll be crawling soon, I'm sure. He also is rolling around the floor a lot more. He;s definitely on the cusp of being truly mobile. This is unexpected. He turned 8 months old on Wednesday. We were prepared for him to hold off on crawling for another month or two. The rest of the kids were all crawling at 6-7 months and walking during their 9th month. We had expected that Elijah wouldn't be walking before he turned a year, but it looks like he may have other plans. He's such a miracle. The hydrocephalus and encephalocele both had the potential to really delay his gross motor skills, but he seems to be catching right up to the other kids. Oh, and he slept for 9 hours straight last night!! Hooray! Let's hope this will be repeated. Often.
I do have pictures, but I need to get them from the camera to the computer and then edited and uploaded. I'm so behind! I thought when the girls were back in school then I would have so much time to get things done around here. It's been almost the opposite. I hope it all settles out soon. Spencer tried to spend the night at Mom and John's house tonight, but around 9 o'clock he was ready to come home and sleep in his own bed. He went to bed pretty easily once he got home. The girls and Kirk are at the yearly Daddy-Daughter camp-out. I hope they're having fun! I'm sure they aren't asleep yet. ;c)
I'm going to go read a book for a bit(Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, anyone read it? It looks interesting.) and try to get some sleep myself. I have been so very tired all this week.
The girls started school on Wednesday. They all have great teachers. They are all enjoying school. Next week starts dance for Grace. Katelee's soccer practice starts sometime in September. I need to get going on Sheri's piano lessons.
Spencer misses his sisters during the day, so he spends his days driving mommy crazy. ;c) He talks my ear off and needs my full attention most of the day. It's pretty exhausting, but I know it will eventually get better. He's just used to so much going on around here all day long. He's such a good boy. He will be trying dance class this year to see how he likes it. I bet he's going to be so cute!
Elijah is just, well, he's awesome, that's what he is! He sat up for the first, extended period of time about 2.5 weeks ago at his PT appointment. We were shocked. He sat there for about 5-7 minutes before falling over. He has done really well with it since then. I don't think he has sat there for as long as he did that day, but he definitely does extremely well. I think he just gets too excited or distracted and falls over. About a week ago, he started trying to figure out crawling. !!! He gets up on his hands and toes into a little baby yoga pose(downward dog hahaha!). He also can get up on his hands and knees. He's trying so very hard to crawl and he is so so close. He can lunge forward sometimes when he's on all fours. He'll throw himself forward and flop onto his belly. He'll be crawling soon, I'm sure. He also is rolling around the floor a lot more. He;s definitely on the cusp of being truly mobile. This is unexpected. He turned 8 months old on Wednesday. We were prepared for him to hold off on crawling for another month or two. The rest of the kids were all crawling at 6-7 months and walking during their 9th month. We had expected that Elijah wouldn't be walking before he turned a year, but it looks like he may have other plans. He's such a miracle. The hydrocephalus and encephalocele both had the potential to really delay his gross motor skills, but he seems to be catching right up to the other kids. Oh, and he slept for 9 hours straight last night!! Hooray! Let's hope this will be repeated. Often.
I do have pictures, but I need to get them from the camera to the computer and then edited and uploaded. I'm so behind! I thought when the girls were back in school then I would have so much time to get things done around here. It's been almost the opposite. I hope it all settles out soon. Spencer tried to spend the night at Mom and John's house tonight, but around 9 o'clock he was ready to come home and sleep in his own bed. He went to bed pretty easily once he got home. The girls and Kirk are at the yearly Daddy-Daughter camp-out. I hope they're having fun! I'm sure they aren't asleep yet. ;c)
I'm going to go read a book for a bit(Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, anyone read it? It looks interesting.) and try to get some sleep myself. I have been so very tired all this week.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
One more week!
The kids will be back in school next Wednesday. There are a couple more things to buy, but mostly we are set. I don't think their backpacks will be here in time, but they can use their old ones(and hope they hold together) for a little bit longer.
Elijah's new trick is SITTING UP! :cD He will be 8 months old in a week and I think by the time next week rolls around, he might not even be falling over anymore. He's doing really well and can sit unassisted for several minutes. Yes, I said minutes! He's awesome. He's very proud of himself. I still have to be careful, because when he gets tired he likes to either fling himself backwards or nose-dive into the floor. He's also pushing up really high on his arms when he's laying on his tummy. I bet he will be crawling in the next month or two. Right now he's rolling over more and more to get toward what he wants. He still hasn't quite perfected it, so he ends up frustrated most of the time, but he's working on it. He also has a big appetite and just loves to eat. I was just giving him dinner, but in the last week I have had to start giving him lunch as well. I'm sure I will be adding breakfast in there before too long. He gets excited and starts flapping his arms like crazy when he thinks you're making some food for him. This love of food has coincided with better sleeping habits as well. He will still have frequent nights where he is up to eat every 3 hours or so, but very often he will sleep for 5-6 hours in one stretch. One night recently he slept from 7pm to 2am, woke to eat, then slept until 6am. That was a pretty awesome night, except that he thought it was time to play at 6am, and I'm just not quite ready for the day that early. ;c) We're getting there, though!
The other kids are growing like weeds. Spencer is quite the cut-up and has us rolling all the time. He says the craziest things. I need to try better to record them here so you all can laugh with us. :c) We've gotten Grace and Spencer signed up for dance classes, Katelee signed up for soccer and Sheri has chosen to focus on playing the piano. It gets a little hectic here in the fall with all the activities, even when we limit each child to just one.
I've been doing a little bit of work from home. A friend of mine started her own business a couple years ago making cloth diapers. Her biz is booming and she needed some help to handle the repairs, so she asked me if I was interested. For the last couple weeks, I've been working an hour or two a day(some days more, some days less). It's been nice. I can set my own schedule and the amount of work isn't overwhelming. It's nice to have a little something "grown up" to do. I usually do it while the kids are napping or after bedtime.
Kirk is a busy man with church and work. His work keeps giving him promotions. What a problem to have, right? :cD He is now the Director of Product. He really seems to be enjoying his work and we're very proud of him. Sundays still keep him busy with bishop duties. I've had "meetings" with the bishop during 2nd hour a few times in the last month or so and just got to hang out with him and talk for a little bit. For a while it was our one good chance to talk without kids or interruptions all week. Luckily things are a bit more calm now, so I can give my 2nd hour interview time to someone else. I'm still planning to go with him on his next trip to San Antonio, which should happen sometime in September or October. It should be fun!
Elijah's new trick is SITTING UP! :cD He will be 8 months old in a week and I think by the time next week rolls around, he might not even be falling over anymore. He's doing really well and can sit unassisted for several minutes. Yes, I said minutes! He's awesome. He's very proud of himself. I still have to be careful, because when he gets tired he likes to either fling himself backwards or nose-dive into the floor. He's also pushing up really high on his arms when he's laying on his tummy. I bet he will be crawling in the next month or two. Right now he's rolling over more and more to get toward what he wants. He still hasn't quite perfected it, so he ends up frustrated most of the time, but he's working on it. He also has a big appetite and just loves to eat. I was just giving him dinner, but in the last week I have had to start giving him lunch as well. I'm sure I will be adding breakfast in there before too long. He gets excited and starts flapping his arms like crazy when he thinks you're making some food for him. This love of food has coincided with better sleeping habits as well. He will still have frequent nights where he is up to eat every 3 hours or so, but very often he will sleep for 5-6 hours in one stretch. One night recently he slept from 7pm to 2am, woke to eat, then slept until 6am. That was a pretty awesome night, except that he thought it was time to play at 6am, and I'm just not quite ready for the day that early. ;c) We're getting there, though!
The other kids are growing like weeds. Spencer is quite the cut-up and has us rolling all the time. He says the craziest things. I need to try better to record them here so you all can laugh with us. :c) We've gotten Grace and Spencer signed up for dance classes, Katelee signed up for soccer and Sheri has chosen to focus on playing the piano. It gets a little hectic here in the fall with all the activities, even when we limit each child to just one.
I've been doing a little bit of work from home. A friend of mine started her own business a couple years ago making cloth diapers. Her biz is booming and she needed some help to handle the repairs, so she asked me if I was interested. For the last couple weeks, I've been working an hour or two a day(some days more, some days less). It's been nice. I can set my own schedule and the amount of work isn't overwhelming. It's nice to have a little something "grown up" to do. I usually do it while the kids are napping or after bedtime.
Kirk is a busy man with church and work. His work keeps giving him promotions. What a problem to have, right? :cD He is now the Director of Product. He really seems to be enjoying his work and we're very proud of him. Sundays still keep him busy with bishop duties. I've had "meetings" with the bishop during 2nd hour a few times in the last month or so and just got to hang out with him and talk for a little bit. For a while it was our one good chance to talk without kids or interruptions all week. Luckily things are a bit more calm now, so I can give my 2nd hour interview time to someone else. I'm still planning to go with him on his next trip to San Antonio, which should happen sometime in September or October. It should be fun!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I promise, we have not fallen off the face of the earth. ;c) It's been busy around here. Kirk has been traveling quite a bit over the last month for work, which leaves me to go it alone. At the end of the day, I mostly just want to relax in bed with the quiet and a good book. The kids start school in just under two weeks. There's a lot to be done between now and then to get them ready. I'll be back to update, including pictures, if not before then, definitely as soon as they are back in school.
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