Keira is doing a lot better. She hasn't had any of her pain meds since Thursday and I just gave her Tylenol before she went to bed for the first time today. I feel so bad for her! She can't do anything that she used to.
It makes me wonder if everything Keira went through (Iv's, blood pressure cuff, nose oxygen, heart monitors (she does have a heart murmur), ambulance transport, Children's Hospital) in the 2 hospitals that she was at from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m is what everyone with a broken arm goes through. I talked to my little brother because my niece had a broken arm a couple months back and he said they went to the hospital, put on a cast and was sent on their way, maybe a minimum of 2 hours.
We take so much for granted in our daily lives. Some of us can walk fine, talk fine, and can have a normal life. But then there are others who can't and have to make accommodations to their everyday lives. Keira's accident has really made me think that we really can't take anything for granted ever again! She used to be able to get herself dressed, now she needs my help or dad's help to get her dressed. She is afraid of picking her cup up with one hand because she doesn't want to drop it. She cannot go to the bathroom by herself anymore without help getting onto the toilet, wiping, and pulling her pants up. She can't sleep in her own bed anymore because she can't use her other hand to grab onto the rails. She has to sleep in Aden's bed with him (Aden has a full size bed. Aden is at the head and Keira is at the foot of the bed). She has fallen so many times since she has gotten her cast just because she is off balance and when she does start to fall she cannot catch her self. Today (Monday) she was dancing around and tripped over the step stool and hit her head on my bed rail, luckily she is okay! She cannot get on or off of the couch by herself, I walked into the living room the other day and found Keira upside down on the couch because she was trying to get up by herself. She can't get up or down from her chair at the dinner table. She CAN unbuckle her self in her car seat and that makes her so proud!
People have tragedies in their lives, kids that can't walk or talk due to an accident or kids who have mental illnesses, or kids with cancer. This is our tragedy, we are just going to take it one day at a time!
Keira has her first weekly appointment at Children's in Omaha on Wednesday, May 4th. I will keep the updates coming.
We went on family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. We went up there Easter Sunday after Church and stayed Sunday night and Monday night. All day Monday we went swimming, made teddy bears (like teddy bear factory), got tattoos, used magic wands on the magic quest, and went swimming again. Dan and the kids came back in the room about 9:30 p.m. Monday evening after swimming. We were getting all the kids ready for bed, Keira was climbing up the bunk bed ladder to go to bed and fell off.
When I got to her I thought she hit her head. Before Dan took her downstairs to the lobby she was falling asleep on the bed, I had tell her that she couldn't go to sleep. They actually checked her head at the E.R. and everything was fine! When she fell she was no less than an inch from the foot board of the bed across the bunk bead on the floor. She wouldn't stop crying and said her arm hurt. She wouldn't move her arm and her arm started swelling, then I knew it was broken.
In this picture: On the right is the ladder of the bunk bed. On the bottom left is where she landed. Her head was less than an inch from hitting that board (lower left, lighter brown vertical board.)
Dan then took her down stairs to the lobby to see where a near by hospital was. I stayed in the room with the other two kids to get them calmed down and to put them to bed. While he was down there he talked to a paramedic and they also thought it was broken. They took down information for an incident report and sent Dan and Keira on their way to a nearby hospital.
Dan got to the hospital about 11 p.m or so. Dan did not like this hospital at all, they were not child friendly at all. Dan said they were not very nice to Keira at all while taking X-rays, they were moving her arm all around and making it hurt worse instead of helping her. They wound up saying that she had see a specialist and be transferred to Children's Hospital in Kansas City because the X-rays revealed a break in the growth bone, which means if it doesn't heal correctly the arm will not grow with the other arm. After about 2 hours at the E.R. they transferred her by ambulance to Children's Hospital.
Picture of Keira at the E.R. You can tell she is not happy and is in pain!
When they got there Dan finally got answers and just loved the way him and Keira were treated. Dan found out that she had broke her arm in 2 different places and dislocated her elbow. They had her on IVs and a nose oxygen. They had to put her under to put her elbow back into place. Then they put the cast on and she was ready to go. They had to make sure she could wake up and stay awake for a while before Dan could leave with her. They were finally back in the hotel room about 5:30. We had to get a separate room so she had somewhere to sleep. She was not getting back on that bed!! She has a full arm cast now and has to go back to Children's Hospital in Omaha weekly!
I am very upset about this fall! Not upset at Keira, of course, but at the hotel! Keira has a bunk bed at home and climbs it about 3 times a day and has never fallen off! There are a couple things about this bunk bed (that you can see in the upper picture of the bunk bed) that I think should be changed....1. The ladder is straight up and down and Keira and Aden's is slanted and is actually easier to climb up. 2. There is no where to grab on to when you climb up it. 3. The top is closed off and can't grab on anywhere.
I was a nervous wreck all night. I did not sleep at all that night. Neither did Dan obviously..since he was at the hospital for 6 hours. They got back into the room at 5:30 a.m., Keira and I slept in the separate room, I still was not able to sleep even when she was back because she kept waking up moaning and in pain.
We came back home Tuesday after noon. She was not doing good at all. She was still in pain and very sleepy and just laid around all day at home. She didn't want to eat and her stomach hurt all day.
She gets to go to school tomorrow (Thursday) I am very nervous about this. Just because I don't know how the other kids are going to react and I just hope she is okay! She has swimming on Thursdays at school she can't even go swimming with her friends. She cannot go swimming at all, she can't do dance, which was Tuesday night, and she can't go to her dance recital, which is Saturday afternoon.
She is doing a little better today. She has been up walking around. She knows that when she is walking around she has to have her sling on. But when she is laying down or sitting down then she can take it off. She is still in pain and is still complaining about her stomach hurting. I think she is just getting nervous about the pain and it is upsetting her stomach. She takes her medication and is okay for a couple hours.
I will just start by saying March is not the kids' month! It started off with Aden's WC check on March 11th. We found out he had walking pneumonia so they gave him amoxicilan. He was supposed to take it for 10 days...the 8th day of taking it he broke out in hives. We took him to the Dr. Saturday, March 19th, we couldn't see our regular pediatrician because it was a Saturday so we had to go to a different office location, the Dr. we saw told us that he was having an allergic reaction to his meds. Finally, today after 5 days of having bright red spots all over his body, they are going away.
Taygen also had her WC check the same day as Aden. She had to have shots. This was on Friday, March 11th, that night about midnight or so she woke up crying in her bed with a fever (the same way Aden's pneumonia started). Not knowing that our Dr. office was open on Saturdays we waited until Monday to take her in. So we made an appointment for Monday, March 14th. They checked her lungs, ears and throat and everything sounded good. The Dr. told me that it was probably just her shots. Well, today Wednesday, March 23 I noticed that she had the same rash that Aden had making me think that his rash was contagious, meaning that he isn't actually allergic to his meds. Anyway, so I got her an appointment for Wednesday, March 23rd...for her cough (still) and her rash. The Dr. says her lungs, ears, throat and nose look and sound good and that it is just a virus or a reaction to her MMR shots....of course it is!!! She said the cough lasting as long as it has been could be more than one cold on top of another one. The first cold never went away and she got a second cold.
So, to make a long story short. Aden and Taygen have been to the Dr. 4 times within a week and a half (11 days).
Taygen turned one on March 5. She had her 1 year well-child checkup on March 11th. She is 19 lbs and is in the 50th percentile. She is 28 inches long and is in the 10th percentile. Her height hasn't changed since her 9 month check. She had to have 3 shots and a prick on the finger for anemia. They did the prick on the finger and sent it to the lab, the nurse came back and said the level was 10, which means Anemic. She redid the test because she didn't think that was right, so Tayg got another prick on the finger and had to draw more blood, the nurse came back and said the level was 11, which now means no Anemia.
Taygen turned one on March 5th. It is hard to believe she is 1 already! She is not walking yet. She is pulling herself up onto things and walking around holding on, but she just won't let go yet. She can stand by herself for about 10 seconds and then she plops back down on the floor. She has a little walk and ride train that she holds on to and walks with.
We decided to do her Baptism a week before her birthday, February 27th, and do her birthday party when everyone would be in town. She did great with her Baptism, she didn't cry one time. We went to Lost In Fun for her birthday party. It was a great turn out. She was so exhausted by 1:00, she was sleeping through all the play :(.
I love being a stay at home mom! It has it's ups and downs but, I would do anything to be with my kids during the day. I am a stay at home mom, but I also have 2 jobs. I am an independent consultant with The Pampered Chef and I work from home doing internet stuff. I kind of stopped doing Pampered Chef...I am still doing it but I do not push it like I used to. I get some orders in from time to time, which is good. With the internet stuff, I make more than I did when I was working part time, taking the kids to daycare! I can stay at home with them and not worry about how they are doing in someone else's care.
Some people think being a stay at home mom is just sitting around watching T.V. all day. Ummm no! I am lucky if I get an hour of T.V. in a day. The day starts with getting the kids' breakfast, brushing their teeth, get baths (1 at a time), get dressed. Tues. and Thurs. Kiki has school, so we have to eat lunch by 11:30 so we can leave by 12:10 to get her to school by 12:30, put the kids in the truck, unpack them to take Kiki inside, pack them back up in the truck, unpack them at home (Aden and Tayg usually nap from 12:45-2:20), leave the house at 2:25 to be at school by 3, put them back in the truck, take them out of the truck to pick up Kiki, put them back in the truck to go home, then take them out of the truck to go inside the house..phew..I think I got it all :)
Mon. and Wed. are our relaxing days! It is the same routing in the morning (eat, brush teeth, baths, dressed), but around 10 a.m we usually go to the Y and go swimming. Then we come home, eat lunch, and Aden and Tayg usually take naps for a couple hours. Keira usually colors or does "homework" around this time. This is when I clean or do my internet stuff.
It can be boring at times, but that's the good thing about being at home, you don't have to worry about a time line. If we get bored, we jump in the truck and go swimming, shopping, or go to the park. The kids get a lot of "social" time. When we go to the Y, I take Aden and Tayg to the child watch and they play with their friends while Keira and I go swimming for 30 minutes then Keira goes in and plays with her friends while Aden and I go swimming. Keira has social interactions with her friends at school, swimming (at school and lessons), and dance. Aden has social interactions at swimming lessons, and child watch (3 times a week for an hour).
Taygen had her 9 month well child check up. She is 17 pounds ( My guess was a little off) 25-50 percentile. Her height is 27 3/4, 50th percentile. She only had to have one shot. I was a little concerned that Taygen is not crawling or pulling her self up yet, but the Doctor told me that if she is "mastering" other skills (such as language) then she probably will not crawl because she is working on one thing at a time. Her Dr. said she may not even crawl, she may just go right to walking.
She is a little turd butt! I had a cold last week and was coughing a lot, every time I coughed she would too, then she would get a really big smile on her face and start laughing. When daddy gets home, she smiles really big and says "dadda." Daddy opened the door of the truck the other day to get her out of her car seat and it sounded like she said "hi dadda." We both looked at each other and said "did you hear that?" Of course, daddy got a big kick out of that!
Keira turned 4 at the end of November. She got her ears pierced and loves her new earrings. She was such a big girl when she got her ears pierced, she did not cry. She jerked and her eyes got big because I think the noise scared her more than anything. We told her it was going to hurt and it was just going to feel like a shot, so she knew what to expect.
She recently had her 4 year well child check. She weighs 32 pounds and is in the 25th percentile, her height is 38 1/4 and is in the 10-25th percentile. Her blood pressure and pulse were good. She had to have 5 shots, which made both mom and Keira sad! She was such a big girl, she did not cry at all. She jerked a little when they stabbed the first needle in but she knew what to expect the next 4 times. They wanted to give her a flu shot, but I am highly against the flu shot!! When the kids have gotten flu shots in the past they get so sick. Taygen got her flu shot (because the Pedi. pressured me) in September and she was sick for 6 days after. She had a fever of 104. that lasted for 3 days, she was so weak, she didn't want to eat, and she just wanted to sleep all day (which is not good for anybody who is sick!)
I got some weird news from Keira's pediatrician. Everybody wants to think their child is smart, bright, and knows everything. But when a licensed physician tells you, it makes a big difference. The Dr. asked me if I thought Keira was getting "challenged" at school and I said, "I don't think so because everything she does at school she already knows and did at home before she started school." Her Dr. informed me that I needed to talk to Keira's teachers and get some more challenging work for her because she (Dr.) is afraid that Keira will get bored in school and that will cause problems in the future as far as liking or disliking school as she gets older. Keira is a very bright girl for her age group, but I am not going to make her childhood go any faster by making her learn stuff that she should be learning later.
Aden is growing up so fast. Aden is learning so fast and he is becoming such a bright kid! It seems like in the last few months he has went from 2 to 5. He is talking almost as much as Keira is. I love listening to their conversations because it sounds like two 5 year olds are talking. Aden has his 30 month check up in March.
Taygen is doing good! She is getting bigger and bigger everyday! She has her 9 month check up next week. I am guessing her weight would be about 14-15 pounds. She was about 12 pounds at her 6 month check up. She is so funny and so happy all the time, when she cries (which is not very often) then there is really something wrong. I have a little cough this week and every time I cough when I am around her, she will look at me, cough, and start laughing...like she is making fun of me. She's a little turd butt! The kids just love her. They get along with her so great. She looks for them all the time. If she is the first one up, she will go crazy looking for them. Then when she finally sees them, she gets really happy and starts laughing.
I can go on and on about the kids but I think I will stop for now. I will post updates on Taygen's Dr. appt.
