Conferences/Report Cards

This week we had parent teacher conferences and got Carissa's and Gabe's report cards. They are both doing well and have improved from the beg. of the year. Carissa had almost all 4's and Gabe had mostly 3's and 4's, but he did have one 1. Gabe also had a couple of NI's (needs improvement).

Carissa's teacher said that she is doing really well and doesn't have any concerns. Carissa is above level on her reading and hand writing, and on level for her spelling and math. She does very high quality work, but she doesn't finish all of her work. So, a goal for Carissa is to work harder on finishing more of her work without losing the quality.

Gabe's teacher loves his enthusiasm for everything, and he "keeps her in stitches." Gabe is picking up on everything academically really quickly and she isn't worried about that at all. But, Gabe needs to work on using his words more when gets angry. He also gets distracted and kind of does things on his own terms. We told Gabe's teacher that we are thinking to call about getting Gabe evaluated again, and that when had it done we were told that he most likely had ADHD. She said that she wouldn't be surprised by it if he does, and she is willing to work with whatever we decide to do to help Gabe.

Pumpkins

Smiles


Silly faces

Red Ribbon Week

This week was red ribbon week at Carissa and Gabe's school so they had a wear red day, wear pajamas day, a crazy hair day, and a costume day. It was interesting listening to Gabe explain to me how his class doesn't do drugs at school, and talk to me about what they had been talking about at school. But, they also had fun getting dress differently this week. We have also as a family decided that we don't like colored hair spray, after sore throats and headaches for Ben and myself and the kids having it up their noses and in their ears. We were as well ventilated as we could be inside the house, but it wasn't good enough. Here are some pictures of the kids from this week.

2 months old

Kira is 2 months old today, and we had her 2 month check up today as well. She is doing very well with her growth and development, and we talked about her exposure to chicken pox. So far no chicken pox spots, but I will keep watching her for a while. If she gets chicken pox I can let our doctor's office know about it and we can give her some medicine to make to a little easier on her. Hopefully, Kira won't get chicken pox though. It was just bad timing for Ben to get Shingles, but that isn't something that you can control. Also now that Kira is 2 months old we don't have to worry about taking her in for a fever anymore. We can just use our own judgement. Anyway, Kira's weight was 11 lbs. 2 oz and her height was 23 1/4 inches. That puts her at the 59th% for weight and 83rd% for height. Also, Kira got her vaccinations and she did really well. She was sleeping so peacefully by the time the nurse came back with the shots, so she was woke up with a needle poking her leg. Not the nicest way to wake up. She got 3 shots in her legs and then an oral vaccine, which must taste pretty good. After Kira calmed down a little from the shots, drinking the oral vaccine got her to calm down the rest of the way. Overall, she cried very little. And, she was happy and smiling during her exam. She is such a bright and cheerful little girl, and we love her so much.

Eye Exam

Gabe had his annual eye exam on Monday. He did well with his appointment which was great considering how long we were there and that I had Kira with us. Good news is that the range of movement in Gabe's eye is still staying consistent. So, 3 years and about 5 eye exams later we are still in the best case scenario. If things continue this way when Gabe is about 8 or 9 we could start doing eye exams less often than once a year. But, for now they still want to catch it quick if something does change. This is the first time that Gabe got upset about having his eyes dilated though. He started crying on the way home, because one of his eyes was "foggy."

Dentist

Carissa and Gabe had the dentist appointment yesterday. I was so nervous about it, because over the past few months I have been completely slacking. I haven't been flossing their teeth regularly or helping Gabe brush his either. And, since they have both had cavities in the past I was really worried that my being tired/busy the last of my pregnancy and since Kira was born was going to show up at this appointment. Great news is that they have no cavities or problems to treat right now at all. Yay! And Carissa is doing an excellent job taking care of her teeth by herself. Gabe isn't quite ready to take over brushing his teeth though. So, now I just need to get back in the habit of helping with flossing and helping Gabe brush better.

Kira's hospital stay

This is probably going to be kind of long. Last Monday evening I got really sick. I was achy and had a fever of 102 and 103, and my right breast was sore and red. Tuesday I was diagnosed with mastitis and started antibiotics. Wednesday Kira started getting fussier and spitting up more often, normally she doesn't spit up at all. Thursday, she threw up and continued to get fussier. Friday was about like Thursday including throwing up once. Then Saturday she was still even fussier. I was thinking that the antibiotics I'm taking has been upsetting her stomach and tried talking to my doctor's office Saturday morning to see if there was something different that I could do. But, they didn't get back to me and closed. Then Saturday night she got a stuffy nose. We were up most of the night together, and Sunday morning when I checked her she had a temp of 99.5. I was told anything over 99.4 for an underarm temp was reason to take her to the doctor. So I took all 3 kids to the instacare because Ben was already at work. There she got her nose cleaned out, her eyes checked for scratches, a catheter for urine, and generally checked out. They couldn't find anything wrong but she had a rectal temp of 100.7, so they sent us to Primary Childrens. My mom took Carissa and Gabe for me, and I called to let Ben know what was going on. Carissa and Gabe did well at the instacare, but it was better for them to not come to the hospital. They were both actually having a hard time watching Kira scream during tests at the instacare. And, of course they would have more fun with Grandma than sitting at the hospital.

Ben met us at the ER room right as I was getting told all the tests that needed to be done. I was so happy to not be by myself. Between the Instacare and the ER Kira has had 3 catheter attempts/2 of them successful, 5 IV/blood draw attempts/1 successful, 2 spinal tap attempts/1 successful, and a tube that sucked the junk out of her mouth/nose (I couldn't see for sure how they did that one). She was then given a dose of antibiotics as a precaution. Then, we are checked in for a 24 hour observation while getting test results back. All results so far have been good, and the junk that was sucked out came back saying that she has the parainfluenza virus.

Pictures from after Kira was checked in to stay:




Then this morning we found out that Kira most likely has a UTI in addition to the virus. So, she had an ultrasound to check out her "plumbing" and that looks good. Now, it looks like we will be here for 36 hours instead of 24 hours and Kira will get more antibiotics today. Hopefully, everything continues to look good and we can go home in the morning tomorrow.

I know that things can go really bad really fast with such a young infant, and that all of the tests were needed to make sure that she was okay. But, it is so hard to watch your 4 1/2 week old get poked over and over and listen to her screaming and not be able to make it all better for her. At least she will have no memory of all the awful tests that she has had and hopefully she won't have any more problems in the future either.

Pictures while waiting to be discharged: