Introducing Emily and Tracie...

Our family adopted Little E and Baby T this morning...let me introduce you to our 4-year-old daughter, Emily, and our 3-year-old daughter, Tracie. :-)

Just ordered Melina's exersaucer...

I just ordered Melina's exersaucer. I got a really good price on it too. I have been waiting for Babies R Us or Toys R Us to get it back in stock. I decided to check on Amazon and got it new for $30 cheaper than BRU/TRU had it in stock. So, I went ahead and ordered it. Ever sicne I saw this one, I knew it was the one that I wanted for her.

Deidra does NOT have dyslexia...

We had a meeting at Deidra's school today...Deidra DOES NOT have dyslexia. She has some characteristics that they will continue to monitor, but doesn't show enough of them to qualify as having dyslexia. We got some ideas on working on her reading fluency and memory. The testing lady told us she thought Deidra was very sweet and very smart and she really enjoyed getting to know her, but while Deidra is struggling with some things that they see in dyslexics...the testing showed that she tested a lot better in areas that dyslexics normally do very poorly on. So, they have us some ideas on how to improve her memory and to work on reading fluency with her.

Josiah's food allergy test results...

We went back to the ENT today to get Josiah's food allergy test results....WOW! The doctor says he needs to live in a bubble. He's allergic to peanuts, wheat, soybeans, corn, scallops, and sesame seeds. I'm looking into food diets to see if this will help him and hopefully it will decrease some behaviors as well. Interestingly enough when we first got him as a foster placement, I was told to put him on soymilk as he was allergic to dairy and that he was also allergic to eggs. Regardless, I'm going to see about looking into a gluten-free diet and he won't be able to eat his peanut butter sandwiches that he loves so much anymore.

Pregnancy Induced High Blood Pressure and Gestational Diabetes

I went into the hospital Friday evening because I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for 2-3 hours and wanted to make sure nothing was happening. I had called the nurse and she said that if drinking fluids and laying down wasn't helping, that I probably should go in and get put on the monitors and see what was happening. I put out a call to my Mom and to Andy to see if someone could meet me up at the hospital with the kids. Couldn't get ahold of anyone, but thankfully Deidra was a huge help and she got them all in their shoes and in the car and sat with them while I got all hooked up to the monitors. I was SO proud of her. She really stepped up to the plate and was such a big help. Andy got stuck in a huge traffic jam on the way to the hospital, but was able to inform me that my Mom was on the way.

The nurses informed me that they didn't think I would be going anywhere as my blood pressure was really elevated and my urine was full of sugar. I told them I had just done my gluclose test in the office but that I hadn't gotten my results back yet and that was the first urine check that I had done since I found out that I was pregnant. Sure enough, she put a call out to the doctor and he wanted me admitted. They did an ultrasound that night to check on the baby...they measured her and she's right where she should be. They said she's about 3 lbs and 7 oz and that she even has hair. I was so surprised that they could tell that she's got hair already. I didn't know that you could tell that from an ultrasound.

I met with the doctor the next morning (not my own, but another doctor in the practice) and he said it was hard to tell what was going to happen, but that we needed to get a 24-hour urine specimen and that they may need to send me to Dallas to be monitored up until I had the baby. He ordered some tests and said we'd go from there. I instantly started worrying about the girls upcoming adoption and Andy told me to quit worrying and that we'd get it all figured out even if he had to do court with them himself.

Deidra spent Saturday night at the hospital with me. It was SO nice to have her up there and she was trying so hard to look out for me. The nurses all got a kick out of her. I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of her and she sat up on the bed with me and told me that she loved me and that she loved Melina too. I knew she was worried,but I kept trying to reassure her. So, I think it did us both some good to spend some time together up there.

Every day it seemed I'd be told, well maybe we can get you home in the morning after we see what your 24-hour urine says, but there was a reason to keep me just one more night. I started insulin in the hospital and my sugar levels were still really high. My blood pressure is still up as well. My regular doctor came back from Haiti and came in to see me on Sunday and told me he really wanted to see if they could get my sugar levels down to a certain level before they sent me home. However, he understood that I had a lot of family responsibility at home as well. I went ahead and found a sitter for the little ones until we found out what was going to happen and asked her if she could keep them from Sunday night to Wednesday until Andy got home from work. Thankfully, she had no problem with that and she was a huge help. She even brought the kids up during the day on Monday to say hi after they played in the park.

Monday, I was hoping to be able to go home that morning, but the nurses told me that he wouldn't let me go home with a sugar level over 170. He wound up ok'ing another dose of insulin as the cafeteria messed up and sent me a breakfast tray that wasn't on the diabetic plan and then it came down somewhat. He told me he'd start the paperwork to get me out of there after dinner if I compromised with him and came into the office 1-2 times a week until the baby was ready to be born. So, I got to leave on Monday night around 6:30. I came home on blood pressure meds and the insulin. To say I'm a bit overwhelmed with everything else going on is a bit of an understatement, but I'll get it all figured out after a couple of days. Just going to have to be a bit more of a rigorous schedule with eating at scheduled times and checking my sugars first thing in the morning and 2 hours after I eat meals.

Josiah and his behavioral issues...

We met with the behavioral therapy people this week and set up testing for Josiah for April. This is the 2nd stimulant medication that he's been on and it seems to be making it worse instead of better. I know from our previous psych that he had told us that if a child behaves worse on stimulants, it's not ADHD. I brought that up and the psychologist had said that she's not buying that it's ADHD, yet she's unsure as to what it is. He has the panel that we work with puzzled at his behavior and why he isn't picking up good behavior with the things that we've done with him. She keeps telling me we're good parents and that he's just not a typical 3-year old. We've been at this long enough that he should be learning the appropriate responses and behaviors. I teared up when she said that, I told her she doesn't understand all the times I've cried out for help with him and gotten told that he's 3 and he's a boy. She said that they will go ahead and complete testing on him and see if they can figure out the missing link of the puzzle, she's wondering if there's not some family history or something that has happened in his past that we are just not aware of that is at play. She said what it may come down to is that we do day treatment up at the children's hospital for him so that they are able to see what works with him and what triggers him. She said that they would have him an average of 3-4 weeks and he would go for 8 hours a day Monday-Friday. She was going to see about writing a letter for us to give to his psychiatrist so that he could get in to that program. She said that they would be able to see what meds would work better for him up there and the kids are given a point system during the day and we would fill out his point system for the evening times here at home and usually at the end of 3-4 weeks, they are able to pinpoint what works for him and what doesn't. She just didn't feel that we would be able to get behavior modification working for him until we found the right combination of meds. I was just relieved when we started talking about it all to know that someone finally got what we were feeling and what my worries are with him. I meet with his psychiatrist or call her on the phone and she just changes his meds or ups the dosage...granted I realize it's trial and error with each child, but it would be nice to finally get some answers to what he is truly dealing with.

Deidra and her dyslexia testing

I will know more when we meet with the school panel the week after spring break, but they said she's a very smart little girl and she does not have dyslexia. They're not sure why she's struggling with some of the things that she is, but her grades are all As and Bs and we're happy with that. She said the teacher is reporting that she is having some trouble focusing and paying attention. She said if a child is ADD they can have issues with some of the things that she is struggling with in school, but it was up to us whether we wanted to test her or not. She also said that some parents that she works with have reported that Brain Age has helped their kids a whole lot. She said she'd talk to us more when we all sat down with the school panel. That's fine, I'm just relieved that she let me know that she does not have dyslexia now so that I wasn't having to wait to find out. Thank you, Lord, for that answer to prayer.

Josiah's allergy testing...

We took Josiah in for allergy testing yesterday. They tested him for various things and we found out that he's got a little allergy to ragweed (grade 1), little allergy to elm, sycamore (grade 2 on those), and house dust (grade 1). He had a huge allergy to dust mites (grade 5). Then, they did all of his mold allergies and he's REALLY allergic to most of those..pencillium notatum and candida albicans he was just grade 2 and grade 3 allergies and then with alternia and helmin. haiddes he was very allergic too with a grade 5+. And he's a little allergic to cats (grade 3). We tried to take him for his blood test to find out what his food allergies were, but even though we got there at 3:45 and they closed at 4, they were already closed. So, I got to take him back for that this morning. Guess he does need to go back on his daily dose of Zyrtec. The doctor has him on Nasonex right now as well and he wanted us to see if he got relief from that before we decided to do allergy shots.

So proud of my children...

I am so proud of my kiddos. Deidra got 2 awards from Awana tonight for finishing her start zone and being gamer of the month. Baby T earned her Puggle. Little E earned her book for reciting her verse. And Little E and Josiah earned a tropy for the month with the rest of their fellow Cubbies.

Andy's review...

is on Friday. Abba, please be with him in his review. We pray that it will go well. There has been talks of not being able to do salary increases this year. I pray that's not the case, but am grateful that he has a job no matter what. Please always give him job security there. He really enjoys it there and they have been very good to him. I lift up my husband in prayer as he prepares for his review this week. Amen.

Please let us get some answers for Josiah today...

We went to behavioral therapy yesterday and I let them know that Josiah is throwing 2-3 hour rages over the smallest things, he'll quit for 10 minutes and then he'll start up over something else. He refuses to take "no" for an answer and is very oppositional, he's super hyper, having issues sleeping, and we're back to the safety concerns. I sent him downstairs for maybe 3 minutes to watch tv with Little E while I dressed Baby T. Little E started telling me that Josiah was into stuff. I come downstairs and Josiah has a bunch of stuff in his hand that I had had on top of the refrigerator. He had used Baby T's high chair to push over to the refrigerator, climbed up in it and stood up and climbed up on top of the refrigerator to get what he wanted.

Last weekend, I had gone in his room to put his laundry away and noticed that his bedroom screen was loose, the screens are flimsy so I just thought the wind knocked it loose. I fixed it without thinking anything of it. We came home from therapy last night and Andy wanted to know why we had a bunch of plug covers in the driveway in front of the garage. I didn't know where they came from and figured they must have been in the garage and blew out when Deidra had the garage door open before and we just didn't catch it. This morning, Andy went in to get Josiah to bring him downstairs and he noticed that Josiah had taken all of his plug covers out of his outlets and when he asked Josiah about it,Josiah admitted to throwing them all out of his window and his screen was dislodged again. We're going to have to get some sort of window locks to install today.

Monday, he dumped glue and lotion all over in Deidra's room because he was mad at me because I sent him to his room because I didn't want to have to listen to his 2 hour screaming tantrums. We wound up having to put a lock on Deidra's door so that he can no longer get in there. It just seems like he has to be in my constant line of sight or he's causing destruction.

Last night at behavioral therapy, the panel that we meet with made mention that they think there's a missing link of the puzzle going on with Josiah. We've had the behavior strategies in place for quite awhile now and I keep logs going as well and they say we're doing all the right things, he's just either not making the connection of right and wrong or he's being willfully disobedient. I think it's a matter of both. He's really becoming hard-to-handle and I told them that I'm at a loss to find out what's going on as everytime I bring up his behaviors to different professionals all I get told is "he's 3 and he's a boy." They told me that if I feel something isn't right and they feel that with their panel they can't narrow it down to what they feel is wrong, that he needs further testing. She feels that there's something in his background that we're not aware of that they need to test him on and see if we can find the missing link.

I told them I had made him an appt with the ENT (he goes this afternoon) to see about getting him allergy tested and to see about his tonsils and I also want to say that he sleeps very poorly and restlessly and they said they could do a sleep study on him. Andy had read an article and I also had a respite provider that had told us about it that when kids have their adenoids and tonsils removed that they can sleep better and the hyperactivity level goes way down. The lack of sleep makes them hyper and impulsive instead of tired. He had his adenoids removed a little over a year ago, so I just want to make sure that the tonsils aren't causing any problems. The occupational therapist said that she's wondering if he doesn't have any food allergies that are the cause of his behaviors being so far over the top, yet when I told his regular pediatrician she blew that off, she said they're finding with more research that ADHD is neurological instead of food related. I called the ENT about Baby T and getting a referral to the neurologist and found out that they did allergy testing and would be willing to test Josiah, so he's going in for a follow-up today and then I'm hoping we can schedule him for allergy testing and some of the other things that I'd like done on him.

I worry about him as I don't know what's wrong, the ADHD meds are not helping, he's agressive, impulsive, and into everything, and something needs to be done before he hurts himself with this lack of fear that he has. The behavioral therapists said that if I run into a brick wall, they can get him scheduled for some of the testing that they do. So, I'm really hoping that we can start getting the ball rolling to find out what is truly going on.

Abba, please guide us and help us today so that we can get some real help for Josiah.