Precious Memories

I fell in love all over again with my boys today. I pulled down a box of pictures, that need to be scrabooked, with the job of pulling out C's. (I have to start on his baby book...he's already 4 and we have nothing to show him on his birthday...and he ALWAYS asks!) Well, I started flying through pictures and found some of a vacation, some of another vacation, and some of family. Then I found the envelope that contained the boys. I put all of B's back and pulled out C's, knowing they would contain several shots of B as well.

I saw some of him as a baby. I saw some of him crawling. Then I found the pack that I had taken (as I did with B) at 6 months...in Black and White. I practically cried! They were so precious and there is so much more visibility with Black and White photo's. Then I moved on to the pack that had the delivery and hospital photos. I cried all over again remembering the emotions that were swirling through me that morning.

The boys walked in at that point and asked what I was looking at. So I invited them over by me and showed the all the photos and explained what was what and who was where in each one. It was so precious to hear their squeals of delight when they saw themselves as babies, or laughing when they saw themselves doing something silly (like eating birthday cake and having it ALL OVER!).

My boys are so precious to me. I may get mad at them and they may drive me crazy, but I love them dearly. Flipping through these pictures simply reminded me how much. I'm so thankful for the chance to put these memories in a permanant form and be able to look at them from time to time.

All is well

We got C's blood work results and all levels are well within normal. We (of course) were particularly interested in the iron levels and he is on the high side of normal with that. So Praise GOD! :)

We just need to work on more sleep and a daily vitamin (which I confess, I haven't been diligent in giving them. I'm sure there are minerals and things they're not getting that they need....so now they will get them!)

Thanks for the thoughts!

Use your own band-aids!

Oh my goodness.... :( What a bad and emotional day yesterday was. About 430, C comes to me asking me to take his band-aids off...they were annoying him. But I looked at them and could tell they were practically glued to the skin, so I told him we'd wait till after dinner to do them. Well, I hadn't counted on what happened during the evening and us not getting to eat until 8 PM. But that is what happened. We did some schoolroom rearranging and that took a couple hours...so eating dinner came late.

So after dinner, I go back to work on the schoolroom and Terry works on C's band aids. All I hear was screaming and crying from that room. :( Terry was using a wet rag to moisten the area and try to ease them off. But they were literally pulling his skin. After 45 minutes he finally got the first one off. Then he had to start the other arm, which seemed to be stuck worse. There was actually a welt on his skin from where the band aid had been. We used aloe vera gel to help get it all smushy, but that didn't work. I don't have any baby oil, and Terry didn't want to mess with butter or canola oil. So, we just kept working on C's arms. After about an hour and a half, we were able to just get them off. C was so exhausted from crying and exhausted from the day yesterday that he conked out soon after.

SO! Lesson learned: WE NEED TO TAKE OUR OWN BAND-AIDS FROM NOW ON! The ones I have just fall off in a couple hours. I just don't understand why they don't use a 'nicer' band-aid on kids. Plus, with C (who hates any type of picking-contact like trimming nails, hair cuts, etc) this just made his whole day that much worse. For most of us that would be a 1 or a 2, for C it is a 9 or 10. He is just ultra sensitive to that sort of thing.

But he hadn't been down long (maybe a couple hours) and he woke up last night in a night terror. It didn't last long, (we've learned how to help him through them) and I was able to get them back to bed.

We still haven't heard from the lab about the results. I hope we hear soon. I'm so impatient! LOL

Blood work

Over the past few weeks, we've been noticing that C has been really tired all the time. He's been falling asleep in the early evening and just gets tired really easy. We have tried getting him more sleep and rest, but it still seems to be an issue. We thought maybe we'd have him tested again for anemia. I knew it would be an issue with him so we didn't tell him until this morning. What a tense morning! He fretted all morning about it, especially cuz I kept telling him to go drink water (to help hydrate his veins and make it easier). Well, we got there (terry was with us) and B and I waited in the waiting room. C and Terry went in to the lab area. As soon as they started, I could hear C screaming and crying. I was so upset. I tried to get in the door and they had it locked!!! So I waited by the door until he calmed down a bit and then knocked on the door. The tech that let me in told me the flow stopped and they'd have to go again on the other arm to get it all.

Well, before we had gotten there this morning, C told me he didn't want to lay down on their bed so I told him we'd see if he could sit up. Well, for the first part they did it sitting up. But for the second stick they were gonna have to have him lay down. His little face was so pitiful....he just cried the entire time we pushed him to a laying-down position on the bed. He screamed bloody-murder the moment they put the rubber tourniquet on his arm. And then screamed more when they actually stuck him. They were able to get the blood they needed, but by then I was crying too. C was practically hysterical and actually told the lady he didn't like her! LOL (I know, not nice, but can you blame him??)

After that, we went and ate lunch and C got to pick the place (Chinese, of course!). While there, I asked Terry if it bothered him as much as it did me? and he said, yes. He's just able to hide it better than me. I can handle the blood, the needle, and all that. I just can't handle the helpless feeling I get when I can't help my baby. I have to make him stay there and practically be tortured by those needles. I know it is for his own health and good, but it still breaks me every time we have to do this. :( I told Terry that if the results of these tests require more tests, I will ask them to give us a sedative or relaxer or something to help calm C's nerves before hand. There is no reason to have to put a child through that. (He's even a hard enough stick that the girls at Children's hospital in St. Louis had a hard time getting blood from him 2 years ago.)

Hopefully we'll get the results in a day or so. One of the tests had to be sent off, so it could take a couple days. I hate the waiting! :)