Surgury

One of the most nerve racking experience as a parent (and I only said ONE, as there are many) is walking your child down the hall, pass them off to some stranger and watch them walk the rest of the hall alone. Knowing that they will be placed a cold metal gurney, injected with an anaesthetic, and then have some part of their body cut open with a scalpel. And you just wait, wait and then wait some more in a waiting room. Well we are now going down that path AGAIN, for the THIRD time in a year a half. I hate it.

Joe was the first one to have surgery in March 2008 due to an eye condition called Strabismus. You can click on the link to read about, or scroll down for pictures.

So he went for double eye surgery. One mistake and he loses his sight. But it all worked out. We went for appointments with the specialist every 8-10 weeks for 6 months in Mississauga. Then every 6 months until he is 5. Then once a year until he is 9 b/c he is at a risk for it to come undone. So we make the 2 and half drive frequently.

Joe's eyes, one year after surgery. They are still a little off, but WAY better.

Then 2 months (June 2008)after Joe's surgery it was Chance's turn. He had 6 ear infections in 6 months, one requiring hospitalization b/c they could get his temp down (105-108). We got to the point where they were only giving him 45 more minutes before they were transferring him to sick kids. They were actually in the process of arranging the ambulance when his temp broke.

So he went and had tubes put in his ears. We didn't really realize it until the end, but his hearing was being affected. The first thing he said to me when he woke up was "Mommy, I can hear again!". That was one of the happiest and also one of the saddest moments. He's been suffering with little hearing for who knows how long, but he could hear again!! A week later we were cuddling on the couch, and he gives me a big hug and says "thank you mommy for letting them put tubes in my ears. I love you so much".

Well, we are now going back for Chance to have tubes AGAIN. He came down with an ear infection while camping. When you have an ear infection and you have tubes in, they do not hurt, and the fluid will leak out of the ear through the tube. You go to the specialist who cleans you ears and you go on ear drops. On Monday, we went to the specialist (it was his scheduled visit anyways). And surprising after a year one tube is still in, and the other one had fallen out. They usually fall out on their own within 6 months.

So why are we going for surgery again? Because the ear that the tube is NOT in when he looked in he could see a bunch of fluid still behind his ear drum (just not infected yet) and when they did the hearing test on that ear (they couldn't do the test on the infected ear) he has already lost 60% of his hearing. (which he will get back once we do the surgery, if we don't it could be permanent hearing loss). They will look at the the other ear, and they will probably take that tube out and put a new one back in. So now we are going to be doctors with him every 3-6 months. This time he is SCARED! He's crying that he doesn't want the tubes, it's OK if he's deaf, and that he's not going to go in for the surgery! I wish I didn't have to do that to him again, but I know I have too, and hopefully, he will thank me again.

If you want, you can watch a one minute video of tubes being inserted. And if you are the squirmy type you can watch, there is no blood. :)

Ok folks, I'm crashing. My body feels like C-R-A-P. I'm tired and irritable. Remember where I said I need lots of sleep? Always have, always will. Well for the last 9 months I've been getting a minimum of 10hours a day. Some days more, and occasional less. But average was 10. Want to know what this week will be? I'm going from Sunday at 10:30pm until Friday 10:30pm. 5 (FIVE) days
Monday 1:30p-5p *3.5 hours* Chance had a doctors appointment in the morning, and then I went to his last soccer game. Could not go back to sleep afterwards for a few hours before my shift

Tuesday 12:30p-2:30p *3 hours* I had a doctors appointment, then Andrew started his first day at work. Could not go back to sleep afterwards for a few hours before my shift

Wednesday 12:30p-4:30 *4 hours* had to teach kids club at church in the morning, then Joe and Manny last soccer game. Could not go back to sleep afterwards for a few hours before my shift

Thursday 12:30 - 3:30p *3 hours* Andrew had dentist appointment, then he had to work again. And I will probably not be able to go back to sleep, as I have to back for our weekend away.

Friday - No sleep until 10:30, leaving for weekend trip at 10am when I get home from work!! Up from 3:30p on Thursday until Friday at 10:30 *31 hours* Are you counting? 14.5 hours a sleep in 5 days.

There were quite a few days before where I would come home from work at 9:30a, take a pill and get up at 10:30p for work.Now granted, not every week is going to be this bad. Soccer is over now, it just happened that we had 3 doctor's appointments in one week, and a week that Andrew went back to work.

But like I said - I'm starting to crash!

Start of a new day

I've been dreading this day for the last few weeks. I knew it was coming, yet hoping it wouldn't come so soon. But today, Andrew returned to work from his 9 month parental leave. He has loved being home with the kids, I loved him being home with the kids, I love being able to sleep. I love being woken up at 10:30pm to get up for work and come down to have dinner all warmed up for me at the table. I loved having our weekends together. I loved having our Friday night family night with the kids. I loved my the fact that my kids love their dad.

And want to know something? July 16th was the first time I was home alone with all 4 kids while Andrew took his brother out before his wedding. So today, was the second time in 9 months that I've been home alone with the kids... It's going to take some getting used too. lol

So, in case you were wondering how we work this since we do not have day care for our children. (Our choice) We do what the professional people call "split parenting" meaning the parents work opposite shift so that one person is always home with the kids. I work nights (M-F), and Andrew works evenings and weekends. It is not ideal, everyone always wondering how Andrew and I have time for each other. And you'll be surprised. All of our kids are in bed by 7:30 at the latest (and the includes stories and tuck ins). He doesn't work Monday and Wednesday (so we have time together those days). Tuesday he works 2-7, so we have again after the kids go to bed (if I don't go back to bed myself). Then he works Thursday 4-9:30. So we have 2 hours there. Fridays he is come by 5pm for dinner and all evening together. He is gone every other weekend (he works an hour from home, but he does 12 hour shifts Sat and Sun and will usually just spend the night at his parents in town). The opposite Saturday he does a full day as well (11-9:30pm) and has every other Sunday off.

So often I will sleep when I come home (around 9:30-10a), Andrew puts the kids down for nap and come into my room and takes my ear plugs out and I sleep until the kids get up from their nap. Do the evening stuff, put them to bed, and then I will try and get some sleep before I go to work, but often times it hard. That is the worst part about this schedule is the lack of sleep. I am a person that needs 12-14 hours a DAY, and now I am back to maybe 5 and then maybe 2 more before I leave for work.

So how have been this week so far? Not good, and it's only Tuesday and Andrew's first day back!
Monday - Chance had a doctor's appointment got home with him at 12:00. Went to bed and fell asleep around 1:30p until 5:00p when I had to get up for Chance's last soccer game. Then up for the night and went to work Monday night.
Tuesday - I had a doctors appointment, got home at 11:30p, asleep by 12:30. Andrew wakes me up at 1:30 to take my earplugs out, kids get up from nap at 2:30 and so do I. Probably be up for night and go into work.
Wednesday - I have kids club (teaching crafts - will get home at 11), then I have to get up at 5 for Joe and Manny's last soccer game.
Thursday - come home and get to go bed right at 9:30 and will be able to sleep until 3:30 until Andrew leaves for work. (woo hoo a straight 6 hours!!!) Remember, I NEED 12-14?!?!?!?

I'M TIRED ALREADY!

worst part of camping - part 2

I would have to say that the absolute worst part of camping - was camping in the rain. We spent 8 nights at Algonquin and it rained about 6 of those, and probably 4 out of 7 at KillBear. Now, it's not the rain part that bothers me. We still go to the beach in the rain (providing there is no lightning - you are getting wet anyways!!) We still play outside in the rain (what kids doesn't like playing in the mud?). The part about camping in the rain is having a tent that LEAKS!!!!!!!! Oh my, I was ready to pack in when we had puddles an inch deep in out tent. Our beds, blankets, CLOTHES everything was WET! Terra's playpen was soaked, we ended up using towels for her to sleep. It was horrible!

Now if I was being honest, I would say it was probably our fault. I just bought this 12 person, 4 room tent last year so this was our first time using it. We set it up, but when we attached the fly we did it wrong.(the tarp that goes over the top of the tent - if you don't put the fly on then you just have one big large screen and you will get soaked for sure). The fly had ropes over the 3 doors and we didn't attach them to the ground. Out site was pretty small and we didn't want ropes all over the place. Well big mistake. Because those ropes are actually there to prevent the fly from touching the screen top. So when it rained, the fly collected water and dropped, which then leaked through the screen into our tent. It took us about 3 days of heavy rain fall before realized this. We staked the ropes down, and it was then a LOT better. It didn't fix the problem b/c the fly had collected a lot of rain and caused the tarp to sag, so the water just leaked a LITTLE bit, and we then knew were the leaks were and were able to rearrange our sleeping situations to people were not sleeping under leaky parts.

The following pictures are of us sitting in our van at 4:00 in the morning, b/c the lightning and thunder was really close. And we were afried of 1. getting hit by lightening, and 2. a tree getting hit by lightening and falling on our tent. Sleeping on the ground is NOT the place to be during a lightning storm. So we had to wake all the kids up (how they slept through it I don't know), and moved everyone to the van.

and yes, that is Andrew in the middle of a big yawn. and Terra's eyes probably look off that is because of a bad eye infection she had.
The one night when the tent was soaked there wasn't a place for everyone to sleep. So I slept in the van so that Chance would be able to sleep in my bed as his place was soaked. However, I got really uncomfortable in the van so at some point I made my way out to the picnic table in our dinner tent were I could strech out and be dry and all my kids had a dry place to sleep. This is how Andrew found me in the morning. He looked in the van and couldn't find me. lol

worst part camping

There are two things I would consider to be the worst part of camping. And no, it wasn't the bears walking past out tent in the middle of night. The first is MOSQUITO'S So many of them, and you feel so guilty when you see your children completly eaten alive! One day I counted 62 on Terra's HEAD. Poor baby! We tried out best to keep them off the kids, but sometimes it was just too much.



There are two things I would consider to be the worst part of camping. And no, it wasn't the bears walking past out tent in the middle of night. The first is MOSQUITO'S So many of them, and you feel so guilty when you see your children completly eaten alive! One day I counted 62 on Terra's HEAD. Poor baby! We tried out best to keep them off the kids, but sometimes it was just too much.

Terra - no soother

So we are now on 4th night (and 3 naps) without a soother. And..... she's doing AMAZING! The first 2 nights she probably cried an extra two minutes, and now - nothing. No extra fussing, no patting her chest looking for her clip and soother. She lays down and goes to bed.

We are truly surpised on how well she gave up her soother. As I said before, as soon as the soother went in her mouth, she would close her eyes, you feel her body instantly relax in your arms and she starts her self soothing techniques (rubbing her hair). But I knew the longer we waited the harder it would be to get her off the soother. And I always hate seeing older children sucking on a soother ALL DAY. Pet peeve of mine. And I know she only had hers at bed/nap. I didn't want her to still be two stuck on a soother to get herself to sleep. So I am happy.

Good Girl Tinkerbell!

wildlife part 1

Well here is the postS that I've been putting together for quite some time. It's a bunch of the wildlife that we saw. The first was an owl that I saw when we driving. I got all excited and I made Andrew turn around and go back. And he's like "are you sure it was a real one?". Well I THOUGHT it was real, it looked real in the split second we drove past. And sure enough, it was real. We watched it for awhile and then we realized that in a next tree over there were about 3 baby owls. but they flew away and we were not able to get a picture of it. But you could hear them communicating back and forth with each and the sound was amazing to listen too.

And what is the beach without seagulls? Joe and Manny for some reason just loved the "eagles" all they call it.
Next on one of our hikes we came across this tiny little toad.

And if you know me, then you will be surpised to know that I posted a picutres of a snake on my blog. I hate them and petifried of them. And this is the first time I looked at this picture as I walked away while Andrew and the boys were checking the sname out. This is the second time that they saw a snake. The one time Andrew and Chance went to a kids program and they found a fox snake. but the pictures did not turn out. I was more scared of this snake then any of the other animals I saw! The other problem, was at killbear they have a lot of rattle snakes. And those can kill you. So that was why I was apprehensive about going.

Here is a loon. you could always hear the loons calling out from both our camp grounds. And for some reason, Manny is scared of loons. Not to look at them, but to hear them. :)

On a hike when Andrew took the camera out to take some pictures a little grasshopper decided to come and say hello!

This is a little chipmunk. Cute little guys. Chance tried making a "trap" for him but putting treats inside his baseball glove, but he didn't fall for it. I guess he is more of a Simon chipmunck then theadore!

Here we have a bunch of canada geese.

And an amazing sound we heard one morning was at 5:30am we woke up to the sound of a pack of wolves. You could here quite a few in the pack and they only did 3 howls. But it was awsome!