Back to normal . . . almost

After a completely yucky week for everyone in our house, I am glad to say that we are well on the way to being healthy again. Kadin had been running a fever since Monday and we have both been fighting a cough and sniffles. As a result, we have been couch/bed potatoes for the whole week because neither of us felt up to doing much of anything. I think I have seen enough "Curious George" to last me a lifetime! Thankfully, Kadin woke up this morning (after sleeping in until 9, yeah for me!!!) much more his happy little self and when I took his temperature it was back to normal! We're not totally together yet, both of us are still sniffing and hacking a bit, but we are back to functional!!!!



I know he's sick when he just lays down on the floor and falls asleep on his own. I was making dinner and he got really quiet. I went to go look for him and found him asleep on the floor in front of the couch.

This is how Kadin was for most of this week, laying down miserable on the couch. My poor monkey!

Disgusting all the way around

Yuck! That is all I can say about the past few days. After the screaming hot weather, it went back to being a normal Oregon spring, i.e. gray, wet and cold. As always, my body didn't adjust quite as well to the sudden changes and I caught a cold. No big deal right? Normally yes, but this is me we're talking about! Jeremy caught the same cold, we think, and he just has some sniffles and a little cough. I, on the other hand, am completely stuffed up and dripping at the same time (can someone just tell me how that is possible?) and coughing so much that I am practically living on cough drops (cherry menthol gets pretty disgusting after the 50th one). Poor Jeremy has slept on the couch the last few nights because I am so nasty and he wouldn't have gotten any sleep with my sniffing and coughing. Yuck, yuck and more yuck!!!



As I sit here with my plastic bag brimming over with used tissue (toilet paper really, I ran out of Kleenex sometime in the middle of the night), I wonder how in the world I lived like this for so long. I have no idea how I went to school, student taught and all of that feeling this raunchy for years! I guess it's all a testament to rising to the occasion . . . I wish I could remember some of my old survival techniques because I need them now!!!!

Our own Ensign article

We have been waiting and waiting and waiting for someone . . . anyone . . . to take a look at our house. It's been a few weeks and we have had no calls. Jeremy was getting really frustrated and been debating about whether to drop the price of the house just so we can get it sold and get out of here before more new development comes in. So he had the great thought that he would get up super early this morning (4:30!) and go do a temple session in hopes that it would help him with the decision. He also was fasting (he had to today for his life insurance medical checkup this afternoon, he just decided to do it with purpose as well) for the same reason. Lo and behold, at 12:30 this afternoon, the phone rings and we got our first showing tonight! Who knows if anything will come of it, but I told Jeremy that we need to be careful what we wish for because someone is obviously listening!

That call was a mixed blessing. It was great to finally have some interest in our house so we aren't just sitting around twiddling our thumbs wondering if putting it on the market was a good idea. But it was stressful at the same time because as a result of the lack of calls, I had slacked off on the keeping the home "show ready" thing. I had to work like crazy to get the house back to beautiful (there are a lot of mismatched socks "hiding" in my top drawer for lack of anywhere else to put them!). Luckily, the lacrosse banquet was tonight so we didn't have to worry about where to be when the people came through.

same old answer

I went back to the doctor today to get the results of my sleep study and I got the same answer I usually get, "We can't find anything; you're broken and we don't know why". They phrase it a little nicer than that with a lot more medical jargon, but that's what it boils down to. There is another option we could look into, which is a neurologist consult and a sleep latency study. My GP wasn't too sure what that entailed so he said he would look into it for me and let me know if he thought it would be benefical. So, at least I don't have to sleep with the super sexy machine on my face every night!

On an up note, Kadin has begun to love to swim! On tuesday I put on his swim shirt and he lost his marbles, like laying down on the floor, kicking and screaming and trying to pull it off. I figured if the shirt got a reaction like that, the pool was going to send him into coniptions (which I don't really know what they are, but every time I hear about someone being sent into them, it's a bad thing!). So we skipped class on Tuesday. Wednesday was Jeremy's first night of freedom from lacrosse, the season has ended and I am no longer a lacrosse widow! He was as stumped as I was with Kadin's freakouts in the water, so we went to open swim to see if anything would be different. And boy was it ever different! I don't know what kind of Daddy magic Jeremy worked, but Kadin was laughing, splashing, blowing bubbles . . . a complete 180 from the kid I had holding my neck in a death grip last week. Our class was this morning and I was praying that I could keep the positive vibes going. We got in, he wanted to walk down the steps by himself, and he found a ball to play with and that was that. He was giggling and throwing the ball around and loving it. I had a hard time convincing him that it was time to go!!!!! YEAH FOR DADDY MAGIC!!!!!

And yeah for AC and ice! The weather here has become bi-polar! It was raining and 60 on Monday and today it was sunny and 86!!!! And it's supposed to get hotter tomorrow and Saturday. Weird stuff!

fun day that ended in a not fun way

Yesterday my mom took me shopping for a Mother's Day dress (a tradition her mom started and she is continuing with me). We had a great time and I found a really cute skirt and jacket for Sunday. After shopping we headed over to Stanford's for their happy hour. You can sit in the bar area and get appetizers for $3 and $4 as long as you get something to drink. DELICIOUS! We were having a great time, but I was getting worried because I had been having chest pains on my left side since we left the store and as we were almost done eating they still hadn't gone away. I had some chest pains a couple weeks ago and after I told my doctor about it, she said the next time it happened to go to the ER. So, reluctantly, I told my mom about it and she got really worried (of course!). We called Jeremy and he said to go to either the urgent care right down the road or the ER. I chose urgent care, hoping they could check me out there, tell me I was fine and send me home. Unfortunately, when I got there and told them what was going on, they said I could either drive myself to the ER or they would send me in an ambulance. In the interest of saving money, I chose to drive myself (even though it would have made the story even better to have ridden in an ambulance!). Jeremy met us there and we got checked in and waited (luckily, chest pain gets you in pretty fast!). Long story short, I got sent home after three hours with a diagnosis of "atypical chest pain", a nice way of saying "We have no idea what is wrong with you!" The chest pain stopped, my EKG was fine, chest x-ray was fine, and the ER doctor was pretty stumped by my colorful and unique medical history.

I'm glad that everything turned out fine and nothing is wrong with me, but it is frustrating to have these pains without an explanation. I kind of feel like the girl who cried wolf; saying that there are things wrong with me, but they can never find evidence. As a result, I have become reticient to voice these problems, and this in turn gets me in trouble because I end up letting things get out of hand and it takes more time and effort to fix them than it should. There is a fine line between being a hypochondriac and being, as the ER doctor put it, vigilant about my health. I wish the line was more deliniated and I knew better which things to just ride it out and which to get the doctors involved. I'm learning, but too slowly!

my night as a lab rat

Sleeping in a lab . . . not as painful as I thought it was going to be. I checked in at 8 and was taken back to my assigned room. I was a little intimadated by the seemingly endless wires hanging over a table, the thirty-two pieces of tape lined up along the edge of the table and the big blank walls around me. The tech came in and put on an informational video about sleep apnea and what was going to happen in the sleep lab. While watching that, I had to fill out yet another info sheet (beyond the 6 pages I had to bring with me) about my sleeping habits and what brought me in. Then the tech came back and starting hooking me up to all the sensors; and there were ALOT! There were two bands, one around my chest and one around my stomach to measure my respirations, two sensors on each of my legs to measure movement. Then came the innumerable face and head sensors; on my forehead, chin, temples, behind the ears and all over the scalp. The sensors for the scalp had to be literally glued on, a big glop of sticky glue in my hair! The final addition was a strap across my face under my nose with a breathing sensor to see if I mouth or nose breathe at night. I was tempted to take a picture of the final result, but after seeing it for myself in the mirror, I decided that as much as I believe in preserving all memories, good and bad, this was one I could skip.

After I got all settled into bed, the tech came back in and plugged in all my wires to the big console. Then she left to adjust the camera (I have to say the thought of someone watching me while I sleep is a little bit creepy) and then test all the sensors by doing eye movements and breathing exercises. Then I got to just read until I was ready to go to sleep, at which point I just yelled out "I'm ready" and the powers that be turned out my lights.

Surprisingly, the night went like usual. I fell asleep quickly and stayed asleep. I thought I would sleep through to the 6 am wakeup call, but I woke up early because the finger they had put the pulse/ox meter on was burning. I think that the little LED light burnt my finger (thanks prednisone for the tissue-thin skin). So then when the wakeup call came, I had to go through the same calibration exercises that I did last night and then I got to go home! Now I just get to wait for my doctor to get the results from the sleep lab doctor.

I was surprised at how many people were there. I asked the technician and she said that their 10 rooms are full seven days a week, 365 days a year (minus major holidays). She said there are amazing numbers of people that have sleep problems and even more that should be getting tested but just don't know it. So I totally suggest talking to your doctor about it if you think you are abnormally tired and snore . . . it might be you!

As for our other big event of yesterday, Kadin was none too thrilled with the experience at first, but in the last five minutes I think he warmed up to it a little bit. We had to ease into it, talking him through the pre-pool shower, sitting on the side for a few minutes talking to him about what was going to happen. He spent the majority of the class in a death grip around my neck, but he really liked the Humpty Dumpty part. We put the kids on the side of the pool and did the Humpty Dumpty rhyme and when we got to the "great fall" part, we'd pop them back into the pool. He liked the in and out of it. The instructor suggested that I get a rash guard shirt for him, he was shivering by the end of the class, and maybe being warmer would help him be happier about the whole thing. So we go back tomorrow and try it again.

things to look forward to . . .

Before I get to the things to come, let me just say how amazing a day it was today! The temperature shot up to the mid-70's and it was clear and sunny and AWESOME! After nap time Kadin and I headed out to the park (actually several parks) and spent the rest of the afternoon running, playing and just enjoying the sunshine! Of course, the forecast is for clouds and rain the rest of the week, but as long as we are headed towards sunshine, I'm okay!

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day and I am a little apprehensive about what we've got. The first thing is Kadin and I start swimming lessons tomorrow. Jeremy had the idea a while ago to get Kadin acclimated to the water because Jeremy loves to swim and that would be something really fun we could all go in the summer time. So I looked up THPRD and found a Baby and Me swimming class. So every Tues. and Thurs. Kadin and I will be splashing around in the pool! When we went today to get signed up, he saw the pool through the window and got really excited about it (actually got really mad that he couldn't get in right that second!), so I hope it will go well.

The other reason I am really apprehensive about the whole swimming thing is the typical female insecurity about getting in a swimsuit. I haven't been in one since we went to Hawaii last year and I probably set a record there for the least amount of time in a swimsuit. I'm hoping that because our class is in the morning there are as few people around as possible! And that everyone is more focused on the cute babies in the water than the people holding them!

The second thing is I have to go in tomorrow night for a sleep study. For a while I have been abnormally sleepy during the day. I sleep about 9-10 hours a night, plus I usually take a nap during the day and it is still all I can do to keep my eyes open sometimes. So I went to see my doctor and he suggested that I might have sleep apnea. I check in tomorrow night for a "good night's sleep" in a lab hooked up to a bunch of monitors. I am crossing my fingers that they figure something out, because dozing off at a red light really isn't the safest thing!

I'll let you know how it all turns out! Wish me luck!

Triumph and trial

Triumph:
Kadin was due for a haircut and I was not looking forward to it. His past haircuts have all been a struggle; basically me holding him tight while Jeremy buzzes him as fast as he can. There is lots of screaming, lots of hair flying, and usually some pretty crazy spots on Kadin's head. So today as we were looking forward to the "big moment" I was trying to think of ways that we could eliminate or at least lessen the trauma. So, I decided to tap into the hypnotic power of the TV and hope that would distract him enough. So we put on "Monsters Inc." sat him down and let him get into it. Then Jeremy started up the clippers, which initally started a meltdown, but he just let them run close by Kadin's ear so he could get used to the sound. After he got okay with that, Jeremy started to cut. Initially, Kadin jumped and started to get upset, but after I started talking to him and got him back focused on the movie, he did great! He sat quietly and let Jeremy buzz him and we actually got to get around his ears and the back of his neck, which we usually end up getting with scissors over the next couple days in bits and pieces. After we were done, he got really excited and said "I did it!" and "All done!" I was so proud of him!

Trial:
The most frustrating thing for me lately has been Kadin's eating, or lack of it. He is the pickiest eater! The list of acceptable foods are as follows:
1. peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
2. bananas
3. Cheerios
4. fruit snacks
5. Gogurt yogurt
6. string cheese
7. chocolate
8. mac and cheese
That list used to be longer and include some vegetables! I cannot even get him to put new things in his mouth to try them! I cannot count the number of times I have tried to sneak chicken into his mac and cheese, but he always finds it and then he won't touch any of the rest of the food. I have tried funny shapes, colored foods, bite size pieces . . . I am out of ideas! I really don't know what to do. I am worried about whether he is getting all the nutrition he needs and making sure he is healthy. Any suggestions?