I will very rarely use my blog to post my soapbox views on things, I promise. But I just had to write about an article I read this morning on foxnews.com. If you'd rather not follow the link, basically it says that kids enrolled in daycare or playgroups are less likely to develop leukemia. What?! First of all, why was such a study done (most likely using my tax dollars)? Second of all, are we now supposed to put our kids in daycare to minimize their risk of leukemia? Sheesh.
The article says that when a kid's immune system isn't challenged early on in life, it increases the risk of the immune system responding inappropriately to infection. Totally on board with that theory. I'm all for not keeping kids in a bubble and having them out and about, around other family members, and not being a germaphobe mom. But there's the other side of the coin that some kids in daycare end up with compromised immune systems because their little bodies are constantly bombarded with this virus or that infection.
I promise that I am neither for or against daycare, or belittling anyone who uses some form of childcare for their kids. I just hate studies like this that present such a skewed point of view, and make moms wonder if there's "one more thing" they need to feel guilty about.
The Science Daily article itself (a link from the Fox News blurb) does go on to talk about the importance of breastfeeding and vaccinations, but the bulleted version on foxnews.com (and what most people would read) pretty much focuses on daycare and how it helps reduce the risk of leukemia by 30%. Sheesh. That's all I have to say.
I'm stepping off the box now. :)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I should have knocked on wood
I've read recent posts about my friends and their kids being sick--flu, stomach viruses, etc. And I kept thinking (and even mentioned to A), "We've really had a pretty good winter. A few sniffles and coughs, but nothing bad." Well, I definitely should have knocked on wood when I said that--or just kept my mouth shut--because of course, we got sick.
T randomly had a fever last Thursday. Not a bad one. He was just really sleepy all day and took it easy. Friday he was better, but he'd periodically lie down or want me to hug him. And I discovered that a mildly sick T is not such a bad person to be around. He was really mellow and didn't yell and complain about much of anything all day. And because I told H to leave his brother alone, there weren't any wrestling matches that ended in sobbing. Not so bad.
Late Saturday night, S came into my room and told me she had thrown up. What?! Then she immediately said, "But I don't feel sick. I feel fine." Interesting. She even told me she had a dream that she had thrown up and then woke up and realized she had really done it. So weird. She was completely fine afterward, but I kept her up for a while to make sure. She watched ESPN with her dad and got excited at a big homerun on Baseball Tonight. No more symptoms whatsoever, so we wonder if she ate something that disagreed with her.
Sunday night, I started feeling extra tired (more than my normal preggo tiredness.) An hour later, I thought I might have a fever. It was low, but going up. Sunday night was awful as my fever went up and the Tylenol did little more than bring it down a little for a few hours. Monday was pretty dang horrendous. A thankfully took the boys to work for most of the day and I laid on the couch and only moved when the fever was down for a bit. When it got above 101, I called the doc office and they told me to come in. Doc concluded it was just a flu and listened to the babies' heartbeats. They're doing just fine, so that was a relief. Fever kept going up last night, but it seems to finally have broken for good. I'm tired, oh so tired, but I think I'm on the mend. I'm glad it was relatively short-lived, because flu on top of being pregnant is never a good thing.
So, this has taught me that even though we've had a relatively healthy winter, things can always go south. :)
T randomly had a fever last Thursday. Not a bad one. He was just really sleepy all day and took it easy. Friday he was better, but he'd periodically lie down or want me to hug him. And I discovered that a mildly sick T is not such a bad person to be around. He was really mellow and didn't yell and complain about much of anything all day. And because I told H to leave his brother alone, there weren't any wrestling matches that ended in sobbing. Not so bad.
Late Saturday night, S came into my room and told me she had thrown up. What?! Then she immediately said, "But I don't feel sick. I feel fine." Interesting. She even told me she had a dream that she had thrown up and then woke up and realized she had really done it. So weird. She was completely fine afterward, but I kept her up for a while to make sure. She watched ESPN with her dad and got excited at a big homerun on Baseball Tonight. No more symptoms whatsoever, so we wonder if she ate something that disagreed with her.
Sunday night, I started feeling extra tired (more than my normal preggo tiredness.) An hour later, I thought I might have a fever. It was low, but going up. Sunday night was awful as my fever went up and the Tylenol did little more than bring it down a little for a few hours. Monday was pretty dang horrendous. A thankfully took the boys to work for most of the day and I laid on the couch and only moved when the fever was down for a bit. When it got above 101, I called the doc office and they told me to come in. Doc concluded it was just a flu and listened to the babies' heartbeats. They're doing just fine, so that was a relief. Fever kept going up last night, but it seems to finally have broken for good. I'm tired, oh so tired, but I think I'm on the mend. I'm glad it was relatively short-lived, because flu on top of being pregnant is never a good thing.
So, this has taught me that even though we've had a relatively healthy winter, things can always go south. :)
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
One Year Ago This Week
Once there was a boy named T. He was a pretty adventurous baby and toddler, way more so than his older brother and sister. Much of his exploring involved putting things in his mouth. Now, most babies like to put things in their mouth to check them out, but this kid put everything in his mouth--bits of things he found on the floor (including a small button I later found in his diaper), toilet paper (I had to take rolls off the dispenser and put them on top of the toilet so he couldn't reach them), regular paper, and even books. So many of our books have corners chewed off that it looks like we had a dog.
One day, T and his brother were eating an apple. Usually, I cut apples into slices for my kids, so I'm not sure why they were eating it whole. Maybe I was having a dumb mom day, maybe they got it out of the fridge without me knowing. Anyway, T kind of coughed up a few tiny apple leaves (because you should never waste any part of the apple), and I thought, "This kid's crazy. I'm glad we got it up, though."
Not so fast. After that happened, he sounded just a little bit wheezy when he breathed. Nothing bad, and it certainly didn't deter him from his usual running, jumping, and causing mayhem. We thought maybe he had just scratched his throat when he tried to swallow the apple leaves. So, we ignored any parental instinct that something more might be wrong, and just "kept an eye on him."
That was on Thursday. The wheezing continued over the weekend, and we started worrying about it more. Finally, we took the kid into the doctor on Monday. Doctor listened to him breathe and said he thought something might still be stuck in there. Awesome. We took him to the local hospital for x-rays (he did not enjoy that, of course) but they really couldn't see anything. Went home to wait. Doctor called us at home on Tuesday and said he wanted us to go up to the children's hospital an hour away. We dropped the other kids off at my in-laws and took off with T. The doc had supposedly called ahead for us so we thought we'd get in right away. Not really. We checked in at the ER and waited. And waited. Meanwhile, thinking they might have to do a procedure that night, we didn't let T eat or drink. We chased him around the waiting room for about two hours, and then we finally saw the triage nurse. She listened to his chest and said, "Yep, I think there's something still down there." Thank you for that expert assessment.
More waiting, and then we got into see the pediatrician. More listening and more x-rays. Then finally around 8 pm, a decision was made to do a bronchoscopy. The apple core was blocking his right lung and so the kid was pretty much only breathing from one side. For it, they'd have to put him under and send a scope down his throat to get the apple core out. There were a few kids in front of him so we waited. For having not eaten in several hours and being tired out of his mind, T was in surprisingly good spirits. We watched a cartoon or two and took him on walks.
Finally, around 10 or 10:30 pm, they prepped him for surgery, even putting the IV in his left arm, so he could still suck on his right fingers. The procedure itself only took about 20 minutes. When it was over, the surgeon told us they'd found the apple core piece (and even gave it to us in a handy container!) and quite a bit of infection (as a result of the stupid parents waiting around for days after the incident).
Since it was late at night, we had to stay there. When he came out of the anesthesia, he was all groggy and started yelling. And screaming. Nothing we did could calm him down. Nothing. He screamed for probably 1 1/2 hours (mind you--it's almost 1 am by now and there are very sick children on the same floor, trying to sleep--nice.) Finally, some genius nurse found a super-cool straw, put it in a juice box, and handed it to T. He immediately stopped crying and started drinking. A and I collapsed in a heap next to him.
We took him home the next morning and he's been completely fine ever since. No ill effects from the ill-fated apple eating, or his not-so-bright parents waiting to take action. What a crazy experience. What a crazy kid.
One day, T and his brother were eating an apple. Usually, I cut apples into slices for my kids, so I'm not sure why they were eating it whole. Maybe I was having a dumb mom day, maybe they got it out of the fridge without me knowing. Anyway, T kind of coughed up a few tiny apple leaves (because you should never waste any part of the apple), and I thought, "This kid's crazy. I'm glad we got it up, though."
Not so fast. After that happened, he sounded just a little bit wheezy when he breathed. Nothing bad, and it certainly didn't deter him from his usual running, jumping, and causing mayhem. We thought maybe he had just scratched his throat when he tried to swallow the apple leaves. So, we ignored any parental instinct that something more might be wrong, and just "kept an eye on him."
That was on Thursday. The wheezing continued over the weekend, and we started worrying about it more. Finally, we took the kid into the doctor on Monday. Doctor listened to him breathe and said he thought something might still be stuck in there. Awesome. We took him to the local hospital for x-rays (he did not enjoy that, of course) but they really couldn't see anything. Went home to wait. Doctor called us at home on Tuesday and said he wanted us to go up to the children's hospital an hour away. We dropped the other kids off at my in-laws and took off with T. The doc had supposedly called ahead for us so we thought we'd get in right away. Not really. We checked in at the ER and waited. And waited. Meanwhile, thinking they might have to do a procedure that night, we didn't let T eat or drink. We chased him around the waiting room for about two hours, and then we finally saw the triage nurse. She listened to his chest and said, "Yep, I think there's something still down there." Thank you for that expert assessment.
More waiting, and then we got into see the pediatrician. More listening and more x-rays. Then finally around 8 pm, a decision was made to do a bronchoscopy. The apple core was blocking his right lung and so the kid was pretty much only breathing from one side. For it, they'd have to put him under and send a scope down his throat to get the apple core out. There were a few kids in front of him so we waited. For having not eaten in several hours and being tired out of his mind, T was in surprisingly good spirits. We watched a cartoon or two and took him on walks.
Finally, around 10 or 10:30 pm, they prepped him for surgery, even putting the IV in his left arm, so he could still suck on his right fingers. The procedure itself only took about 20 minutes. When it was over, the surgeon told us they'd found the apple core piece (and even gave it to us in a handy container!) and quite a bit of infection (as a result of the stupid parents waiting around for days after the incident).
Since it was late at night, we had to stay there. When he came out of the anesthesia, he was all groggy and started yelling. And screaming. Nothing we did could calm him down. Nothing. He screamed for probably 1 1/2 hours (mind you--it's almost 1 am by now and there are very sick children on the same floor, trying to sleep--nice.) Finally, some genius nurse found a super-cool straw, put it in a juice box, and handed it to T. He immediately stopped crying and started drinking. A and I collapsed in a heap next to him.
We took him home the next morning and he's been completely fine ever since. No ill effects from the ill-fated apple eating, or his not-so-bright parents waiting to take action. What a crazy experience. What a crazy kid.
Monday, April 7, 2008
High Five
My little boy turned five on Saturday. He starts playing t-ball in a month. In August, he'll head off to kindergarten. And, he won't let me cover his face in kisses anymore. *Sniff* I'm not sure I like this growing up thing so much.
Five Things about H
1. He loves baseball with all his heart. When he was two, he went to a BYU baseball game and was riveted the whole time. My mother-in-law says he must have played it in the pre-existence.
2. He knows he's not really a superhero, but he's pretty darn close. He's great at doing Spiderman webs and flying off the couch like Superman (not allowed, but he does it anyway).
3. He's getting pretty awesome at reading. You never know how different kids will do with different skills, but he's already surprised me with his ability to read very well for his age. He'll do great next year!
4. He adores his younger brother. This adoration sometimes comes in the form of punching and wrestling, but it's usually all in good fun. And he always tries to comfort T when he's sad, even if T's sad because of something H did.
5. He's pretty shy and sometimes nervous in new situations. I know he'll outgrow it at some point, but I secretly love when he gets shy, because that means I get to hug and comfort him. :)
He got a new bike for his birthday--a real bike that he loves with all his heart. He even wears the helmet inside the house. After all, you never can be too safe.
For his birthday, we decided to visit the zoo as a family. We've never been before (sad, I know) so we decided it was about time. The weather was beautiful the day before his birthday. Day of? Not so much. We bundled up in coats and had a good time anyway. I was just grateful it didn't rain or snow like it was supposed to. The snow came this morning instead. :)
This picture is of the snow leopard. He started pacing in front of the glass, occasionally stopping to glare at my children and jump at them a little. They loved it. When we came back two hours later, he was still doing it. Perhaps he was agitated?
T loved the snakes best, or "snask" as he calls them. He doesn't say any "x" or ks" sounds correctly, so he says "sisk" for "six", "thansk" for "thanks" and so on. He even said "esg" for "eggs" when it was Easter. It may be my most favorite kid-ism yet.
The gorillas (the real ones, not this one) were sitting in opposite corners, looking depressed and/or annoyed. A and I had this whole conversation about how they must have had a fight and weren't speaking to each other. Ten minutes later, S asked me, "Do you think the gorillas really had a fight with each other?" Oops. No more make-believe scenarios about animals.
I didn't get a picture of it, but we passed a cage that was supposed to house an owl. No owl there, but there was a small dead mouse on the ground. The kids were oohing and ahhing over it--"Why is the mouse in there?" "Oh, he's so cute!" Hours later, S said she loved all the animals we saw, even the dead mouse. H said: "I know--he was so cute!" Weird kids.
I made blonde brownies and frosted them for H. I could have made a cake, but *I* like eating cookies/browines better and the kids think all of it is great. Hooray for a great birthday!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Breeders of Chaos
Lately, I've been cranky. I'm not trying to be, I promise. But the hip pain that started a few weeks ago appears to be here to stay, and will only get worse as time goes on. I have to sit and work for a large part of each weekday, so that can't be helped. I have added a pillow for my lower back and extra cushioning to sit on. But, the pain makes me cranky. Also adding to my crankiness is the general crankiness (and sometimes rudeness) of my children. Perhaps they're just feeding off my mood...
Anyway, this brings me to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. What, you say? Yes, this is the only time I will ever post about something scientific. This law (if I'm correctly translating it from science-speak--and please don't comment if I got it wrong) is all about entropy. Dictionary.com says that entropy is the inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.
What does that mean? Basically, sooner or later, everything descends into disorder and chaos. As a wife, mother, and housewife, this disturbs me. No matter how hard I work, the house will always become dirty again... all by itself.
My mother-in-law has said that she often felt her children were agents of entropy. Perfect way to describe kids--breeders of chaos in the universe. I can leave a perfectly clean room and walk by again two minutes later and find toys strewn about. How do they do it? How do they mess things up so quickly? Yesterday, the kids had a few friends over. The kids all love to play together and they have a ton of fun. They create a tornado in the process, however. Usually, it doesn't bug me and we just clean everything up at the end, but yesterday, it bugged. (See above paragraph about general crankiness.)
The boys started with the Star Wars toys and quickly moved on to matchbox cars. Pulled out H's huge mat and started running cars all over it. That lasted 2 minutes. Then they pulled off all the pillows off the couch and threw them on the floor (on top of all the cars) to make some sort of obstacle course. Another 5 minutes. Then, H wanted to color at the kitchen table. They left the chaos in the living room and pulled out all the coloring stuff upstairs. Maybe 3 minutes spent on that. When H asked to go outside and play, I took one look at the tornado in my living room and asked him to clean up one thing before he moved on to next thing. Cue whining and waterworks.
Sometimes I get so tired of feeling like I'm fighting to keep some semblance of order around here. The kids have their chores and for the most part, they do them ok. But I hate being the only one who really cares about the order/disorder in our home. (I know my husband cares, but not the borderline obsessive way I do.) Kids are kids and I want them to have fun and play and be kids, but could they not be breeders of chaos all the time? Could they maybe take a break every once in a while from their agents of entropy jobs? Could I purchase an automatic sweeper to go along after them and pick up what they destroy?
Anyway, this brings me to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. What, you say? Yes, this is the only time I will ever post about something scientific. This law (if I'm correctly translating it from science-speak--and please don't comment if I got it wrong) is all about entropy. Dictionary.com says that entropy is the inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.
What does that mean? Basically, sooner or later, everything descends into disorder and chaos. As a wife, mother, and housewife, this disturbs me. No matter how hard I work, the house will always become dirty again... all by itself.
My mother-in-law has said that she often felt her children were agents of entropy. Perfect way to describe kids--breeders of chaos in the universe. I can leave a perfectly clean room and walk by again two minutes later and find toys strewn about. How do they do it? How do they mess things up so quickly? Yesterday, the kids had a few friends over. The kids all love to play together and they have a ton of fun. They create a tornado in the process, however. Usually, it doesn't bug me and we just clean everything up at the end, but yesterday, it bugged. (See above paragraph about general crankiness.)
The boys started with the Star Wars toys and quickly moved on to matchbox cars. Pulled out H's huge mat and started running cars all over it. That lasted 2 minutes. Then they pulled off all the pillows off the couch and threw them on the floor (on top of all the cars) to make some sort of obstacle course. Another 5 minutes. Then, H wanted to color at the kitchen table. They left the chaos in the living room and pulled out all the coloring stuff upstairs. Maybe 3 minutes spent on that. When H asked to go outside and play, I took one look at the tornado in my living room and asked him to clean up one thing before he moved on to next thing. Cue whining and waterworks.
Sometimes I get so tired of feeling like I'm fighting to keep some semblance of order around here. The kids have their chores and for the most part, they do them ok. But I hate being the only one who really cares about the order/disorder in our home. (I know my husband cares, but not the borderline obsessive way I do.) Kids are kids and I want them to have fun and play and be kids, but could they not be breeders of chaos all the time? Could they maybe take a break every once in a while from their agents of entropy jobs? Could I purchase an automatic sweeper to go along after them and pick up what they destroy?
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