Down for the Count

This is what happens when an energetic first grader who has been running at full speed for the past two weeks attempts to go color at 7:45 in the evening.



One minute he is jabbering at light speed and skipping to the art supply shelves and then next he is sprawled out across the dining room floor. I guess when you're exhausted you can fall asleep anywhere in a few seconds! Carson didn't wake up when we carried him upstairs, changed him into pjs, or tucked him in. This morning he said that his head hurt so he just laid down when he got to the art bins. I better go clean the drool out of our carpet now.

Thank You

Happy Veteran's Day! Thank you to every brave and honorable man and woman who has served this country and continues to serve this country. God bless America!

Snake Feet

Elias finally received his blue snakeskin AFOs this week. They fit so much better and we are already able to see a difference in the tightness of his legs. He says that they are "snake feet". Chasing Carson around the house while wearing them has become one of his favorite pasttimes. I can only imagine what design Eli will pick out when he outgrows this pair of AFOs.

Spooktacular

One scary "bottle bones" aka skeleton and one fiercesome ninja. Happy Halloween!!

Craziness of Life

I realize that it has been five whole weeks since my last update. My goodness, where has the time gone? Well...let me tell you.

1.) Carson and Elias
These two are growing and changing in so many ways. Carson has a new found love of reading and thinks heading off to the local library is a treat. His reading vocabulary has taken off exponentially and we are almost to the point of easy chapter books. Wow is all I can say. Elias is also expanding his presence by shooting up to incredible heights. I can't believe my itty bit is this tall at 4 years old. He writes his name and is starting to do simple word recognition for reading. His new braces still have not arrived due to United Health Care loosing the request for payment and Al and I not having an extra $2400 laying around to pay cash. I will post pics when the famous blue snake skin AFOs arrive.



2.) Cooking
I have become slightly obsessed with fall cooking over the past month. Pumpkin pancakes, Buckeye brownies, beef roast soup, pork loin with roasted vegetables, and more. The downside of my cooking is that I'm gaining a bit of weight but at least I'm happy!

3.) School
I have yet to officially talk about my new adventure on this blog aside from alluding to it in my last post so here goes. Last spring I began the process of applying to Graduate school at The Ohio State University to get my Masters degree with specialty in Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. My work awards a scholarship to NNPs and I applied on the recommendation of several NNPs on my unit. The process was long and included papers, nine interviews, and a lot of anxiety over the span of 4 months. At the end of July I was awarded this amazing opportunity. My employer is paying for all of my tuition and books for the two years of grad school. I also have an educational stipend to ensure that I can continue providing for our family and succeed in school. This entails me working 16 hours a week and receiving 36 hours a week of pay. I have to work my usual 36 hours when school is not in session (winter break and spring break). After completing my program and becoming a licensed, certified, and credentialed NNP (and getting my certificate to prescribe), I will have a two year commitment as an NNP on my unit. It is an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm so blessed to have it.

School is exciting, stimulating, and exhausting. I am taking five grad courses this quarter and reading so much material my eyes feel like they are bleeding! Next quarter I only have two classes with one being the first in a series of three neonatal pathophysiology courses. I am learning so much and enjoying being back in school. The papers and reading are intense but so far I am balancing well. It's great to be a Buckeye. O-H-!

4.) The Hubs
Al's new job is working out wonderfully with our family life. His hours are flexible but stable. Seeing him walk out the door every morning dressed in a suit isn't so bad either. He is a marketing, sales, education, nursing machine and I couldn't be more proud of him.


So, as you can see, there are plenty of mentioned and unmentioned reasons for the poor blog not being updated in over a month. I promise we are all alive (barely) and living life. I have many posts up in my head to get on here but they will have to wait until the course work I have left this week is finished. Until then, happy fall!

Extreme Prematurity - A Realistic View

As a NICU nurse and Neonatal Nurse Practitioner student (more on that next week), I feel that the public needs a wake-up call on extreme prematurity. My professional experiences have shaped my personal views in addition to being the mother of both our premature boys. Seeing Carson and Elias born at 30 and 25 weeks gestation was shocking to say the least. Watching the hardships and hurdles they have gone through in the past six and four years has been impossible at times. Our boys are fairly unscathed from their prematurity based on their gestational ages even though both will deal with long term impacts of early birth for their lifetimes. To hear about a campaign to change the law in the UK based on the birth and death of a 21 week fetus and the misconceptions surrounding extreme prematurity is disheartening.

Stop over to Reality Rounds for a realistic view of extreme prematurity and response to the Justice for Jayden movement entitled Is letting a 21 week premature baby die considered health care rationing?. She has it right and hopefully the public perception will shift towards the actual impact of extreme prematurity instead of becoming wrapped up in the hype of "miracle" stories that the press promotes.

Miracle Grow and Casting

My mother always told people she sprinkled Miracle Grow on my cereal in the morning because I grew like a weed as a child. Either Al is poisoning our children or they grow just like the two of us. Elias had a physical medicine appointment on Tuesday to check up on his cerebral palsy and make sure his braces were appropriate. I knew the little man had grown but the numbers were shocking. He is now 37lbs (with clothes on) and a whopping 45 inches tall. No wonder he needs size 5 jeans this fall! Those numbers place him at the 55th% for weight and way off the chart for height at the height of an average 6 year old! Too bad his BMI is only 5.6 and he's below the 3rd percentile in weight-for-length. We grow them tall and skinny though because Carson is built the exact same way.

This amazing growth spurt seems to have created a small problem with his AFO braces however. He needs new AFOs casted and made for a taller version of Eli. His phys med doctor said that he looks pretty good and the AFOs are definitely making a difference in his gait and heel tightness. He is hyper extending his knees a bit though so his new AFOs will be made to create less free movement in his knee joint. Today at the orthodic office Eli picked out blue snake skin patterned AFOs with navy blue straps. He patiently let his leg molds dry and walked up and down the hallway for them to assess his gait. A Scooby-Doo sticker and watermelon sucker were his rewards for the day and he was glowing as we left.



After his appointment we headed up to the dam to test out Gigi and Bobpop's new boat. It was a surprise for Eli and he was ecstatic. Elias threw on the life jacket and jumped into the boat. We had a little picnic out on the lake and Bobpop even let Eli steer the boat for a few minutes. When we picked up Carson from school Eli couldn't wait to brag about driving the big boat. Carson can't wait to have his turn at the wheel. Now we wait for our main insurance to deny coverage on Elias' AFOs so BCMH can cover them. Policies and procedure, blah, blah, blah. I just want to see him running in some super cool snake skin braces that actually fit!