RAISING JOEY

Hello strangers!

Once again I’ve been a slacker when it comes to blogging, I’m sorry to whatever readers I have left on here! I do have a good reason for my lack of posts though… we moved to a new house and for over the past month I’ve been very busy unpacking and setting up our new house!

And let me say, I don’t want to move again anytime soon! It’s insane that amount of stuff 5 people can accumulate!

Anyways, I just wanted to let you all know that we’re still here, I promise I’m going to do better posting!!

Our latest “adventure”

Sorry (once again) for the lack of posts the past month. I had all intentions of writing at least once a week but almost 4 weeks ago, I could tell Joey was coming down with something so I called the pediatrican and took Joey to be checked out. Of course, the pedi could find nothing wrong with Joey so we were sent home.

A few hours later, Joey started spiking a fever and I knew then that I was in for a long day. The next thing I knew, Joey had a 103 fever and he just wasn’t acting like himself, so off to Children’s ER we went.

After waiting for FOUR HOURS to be seen in the ER, we were called back. By that point, Joey was dehydrated and completely out of it, so he got admitted to the hospital.

After more tests than I could even count, they couldn’t find anything wrong with the poor kid except that his white blood cell out was elevated which meant an infection, but they could never find where the infection was.

After 1 day inpatient, Joey started vomiting blood and passing blood through his BMs so GI was called in as well. After EVEN MORE tests, they still couldn’t figure out what was going on with him. There was no internal bleeding, no nothing to cause the bleeding, the GI doc came to the conclusion that he made a little rip in his esphogus one time when he vomited.

Later that night, poor Joey started coughing and you could hear the rattling in his chest, pneuomnia had set in. He had aspitated some of his vomit and it went into his lungs. Which thanks to the pneumonia, his oxygen count started falling so he had to get oxygen and with his sensory issues, this was a HUGE challenge getting him to accept the oxygen.

Actually, he never did end up letting the hospital put an O2 mask or cannula on him, we had to wait till he was asleep and then set it next to his face while he slept. And he still had a fever most of the time above 102.

They also started him on some heavy duty antibodics which made him start to feel better later that day and his fever finally went away.

This whole time, the poor kid never ate or drank anything. And the hospital was not going to discharge him until he did so. By the 4th morning, I decided that Joey was going eat or drink something wether he liked it or not. Thankfully once I got (forced) the first drop of juice in Joey, he started drinking, then by late morning I got him to eat, so bless the doctors’ hearts, they went ahead and sent us home!!

Those 4 days, I made several trips home to feed Aiden, deliever the pumped milk and to visit/ play with Leah.

Unfortunatly, the day after I got home with Joey, Aiden and Leah came down with the high fever which between the two of them, lasted almost a week, so needless to say, those few weeks were insane and it’s taken me an additional week just to catch up on sleep and to get things back in order around here.

There’s never a dull moment around here, hahahaha!

Long overdue post!

I want to applogize to all of my readers, I’m way overdue for an update. My mother keeps reminding me to post something on here but I’ve been so busy! Let’s see, since I last posted a lot has happened.

Right before Thanksgiving, Joey came down with H1N1 and spent 3 1/2 days in the hospital. Very, very scary. It’s weird, you hear on TV about children ending up in the hospital thanks to that yucky illness but I never thought one of my kids would end up with it!

The ironic thing is that THE DAY that Joey came down with it and ended up in the hospital is the day he and his sister were suppose to get the vaccines!!!

Leah also came down with it the next day but was able to fight it off mostly on her own with only a few doses of TamiFlu.

A few weeks later, Joey came down with the croup and that resulted in another trip to the ER but thankfully we were sent home a few hours later after a breathing treatment and a shot of steriods.

We’ve also had several colds in the middle of all of this (all of which Joey has caught) so we’ve been a healthy bunch, let me tell ya, hahahaha!

Leah and Aiden are doing good. We can’t get over how big Aiden is getting. Last week out of nowhere he no longer fit into his 0-3 month clothes so we had to make a trip to Kohls to get him some new clothes!

And poor Leah has been averaging 3 ear infections a month for the past few months so she has an appointment to see an ENT for tubes.

Again, I’m so sorry for the lack for posts lately, but between Joey’s illnesses, being a mom to three, and being addicted to Facebook, I put my beloved blog on hold and kept putting off posting on here!

We’re leaving tomorrow for Ohio for Christmas, so I will be back after Christmas!!! I will leave you today with a couple new pictures of the kids and one of our first snow fall from the other day

What an evening!

Poor Joey just wasn’t himself at all again yesterday. Refusing to eat or drink, spitting his medicine out, very lethargic. About 7pm, I got fed up and paged his ENT’s office. I told them the scoop and they suggested taking him to the ER.

I decided to also call his pediatrician’s office to see what they thought too. The doctor on call said the same thing.

After calling the doctors, the poor little guy was just laying in the middle of the floor not doing much of anything so off to CCMC we went.

While waiting in the waiting room to be called back, Joey drank almost 5 oz of milk to my surprise which helped to perk him up a little. We finally got called back and while waiting for someone to come in our room, wouldn’t you know it but Joey decided he was thirsty again! So he drank 6 oz of juice!

So thankfully he wasn’t dehydrated by the time the doctor came in so they didn’t want to do an IV for fluids, but the doctor said he has a really bad sinus infection so they gave him a shot of antibodics and sent us home.

We got home about 10:00pm and I was so exhausted, I went straight to bed! Leah was kind enough to sleep until almost 8:00 so at least I got to sleep more than usual since Joey slept in this morning until 11:15 when he typically wakes up at 6-7:00!

Poor kiddo woke up with an eye swollen shut and still not himself, but he’s eating oatmeal as I type, so hopefully he’s on the road to recovery and will be a little better this afternoon!

Poor Joe-Joe

He’s sick again… actually he’s been sick for almost the past week. I took him to the pediatrician Wednesday or Thursday (can’t remember which) and Dr. B said he had a very red throat. He did a strep culture but it came up negative (thank goodness). Joey kept spiking fevers of at least 102, he did great Friday afternoon and most of the day yesterday but is awful today.

His ears were clear at the pedi and I hope and pray they stay that way. Hopefully his new tubes will help!

This whole time, he’s pretty much refused most food and liquids but I’ve gotten enough in him to keep him from getting dehydrated. Everytime we go to give him his antibodics, tylenol or cold medicine, so flips out and spits it out everywhere. Thankfully I was able to get tylenol supositories from the pharmacy so at least I’m able to keep his temp down (most of the time).

Now he has nasty colored snot coming from his nose but thankfully his lungs still sound good. No rattling…

He’s been going into fits where he’s halfway fine one minute then screaming and slamming his head onto the floor the next. This is so mentally exhausting…

Halfway done!

I can’t believe I’m already 21 weeks pregnant. At this rate Aiden will be here in no time! So far, this has been the most uneventful pregnancy I’ve had, of course that doesn’t mean things have been all peachy.

I never posted about it, but I was put on light duty by my OB a couple weeks back due to my own stupidity. I lifted something I shouldn’t have and strained myself. Thankfully it’s healing and I’m back to doing almost everything I was before (minus picking up things that are too heavy).

My nausea was bad, but not nearly as bad as with Joey and Leah (thank goodness!).

I’ve been feeling Aiden move now for a few weeks. I love this time period before the kicks and other movements get harder and end up hurting, like those oh so lovely kicks in the ribs!

I’ve not had to rush to the bathroom nearly as much to pee this time around either which has been a HUGE blessing!

I have been getting tired a lot more than before, I guess chasing TWO toddlers around the house can be enough to wear out anyone, especially someone who’s pregnant!

I moved into my maternity clothes a lot quicker this time around too! It was like after 7 weeks, I was already in my maternity pants and I’ve been in my maternity shirts for several weeks too!

My allergies are unbelievable this year. I typically have bad allergies but thanks to being pregnant they’ve been even worse. It’s effecting my breathing, everything! I go see an ENT next week and an allergy specialist the following week.

Well, I can’t think of anything else to update about pregnancy wise so that’s it for now!

This week…

It’s so weird not having a calendar full of birth to three therapy appointments for Joey. I have FOUR LESS appointments a week now that Joey is in school. It’s odd not having therapists here at the house. The house kinda feels empty now, LOL!

But now my mornings are full of getting Joey fed, dressed and out the door in time for the bus. Along with getting Joey dressed, I have to get Leah and myself ready too since we have to walk up to the bus stop and wait.

Anyways, this week I have an OB checkup to see how Baby Bean is doing and then on Thursday Joey has his yearly visit with Dr. Bob, his genetist, who we love dearly! It’s going to be a bittersweet appointment knowing that Dr. Bob is retiring in July so this will be our last appointment with him. At least I will still have contact with him since he’s on the CDSC’s board and helps me with The Holland Committee.

I forgot to update about Joey’s eye doctor appointment on Friday. Thankfully he still doesn’t need glasses but is getting close. He still has the astigmatism but we can still get away with him not having glasses. He was SO BAD during the appointment, he screamed and wouldn’t hold still. I have no clue how the doctor even got a good look in his eyes.

Well, I guess I better pack Leah up in the van and head out to run a couple errands while Joey is at school!

Busy, busy, busy!

Holy cow! With Joey’s 3rd birthday coming up along with starting school, it seems like almost all of his annual specialist doctors appointments are within the next month!

2/9- ENT
2/11- dentist
2/14- 2/22- OHIO
2/23- GI
2/25- autism evaluation
3/3- eye doctor
3/9- PPT
3/11- pediatrician
3/26- genetist

And don’t forget those 4 weekly therapy visits from his PT, OT, SLP and teacher!

AND, I can’t forget my OB appointments, CDSC board meetings and parents night out events!

Can I clone myself??

Operation Buddy Blanket

I just realized how long it’s been since I’ve posted an update! Sorry about that folks! I’ve seen so occupied with being pregnant, working on things for the CDSC, and cleaning the house, I haven’t thought of much else!

My newest project with the CDSC and The Holland Committee, is called Operation Buddy Blanket. I’m recruiting volunteers here in CT who know how to knit, crochet or quilt to make baby blankets for new babies here in CT who have Down syndrome. We have an average of 40 babies with DS born every year in CT so hopefully I can find enough volunteers to keep up with all the beauitful babies! If you live here in CT and want to help, email me raisingjoey[at]gmail.com.

Joey’s buddy Dillon is back home and doing very well. He has already gained 2 pounds since he had the NG tube placed last week and will be going in a couple weeks for a G tube. Keep him and his mommy in your thoughts and prayers!

An omen?

Or just crazy pregnancy dreams?

I dreamt last night that Patrick and I went for my 1st ultrasound (just like we’re scheduled to do in 2 weeks) and we found out I was having twins! Hmmmmmmm….

In other news, my father in law is having his gall bladder removed today so say an extra prayer for a quick and speedy recovery!

Peace & quiet

I’m in heaven right now… Joey is at his toddler gym class with Patrick and Leah is downstairs napping and what am I doing?! Sitting at the computer, reading blogs, eating a salami sandwich, watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 and still in my PJ’s!!

How often does this happen!?!?

Happy Monday!

I’m soooooo excited, we got a little extra cash and my wonderful husband agreed to me buying Toby Keith tickets for me and Melissa to go see him on January 23 at Mohegan Sun Casino! I’m completely and totally psyched at the moment!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I love Toby Keith so much! See, now I sound like a giddy high school girl, LOL!

In other news, if you’re up here in the North East, be sure to go to ShopRite this week! They’re having their famous CanCan Sale! Canned veggies for 4 for $2!! And lots of other good buys too! I got laundry detergent on Saturday for $.99! And I just discovered that when you view their weekly circular online, you can click on the items you want and you can make your own shopping list! How cool is that?!

Both the kiddos are feeling MUCH better! I didn’t want to chance jinxing us so that’s why I haven’t posted an update lately. Joey and Leah are back to normal chasing eachother around the house. Leah has been clingy and cranky the past 24 hours, I think she’s getting another toofer…

And if you get an extra second, be sure to say a prayer for Parker. He needs to have another surgery done on his tummy.

My turn!

Well at 4am I woke up feeling like I was going to vomit and like I’d been hit by a truck. So now, I’m sick and my wonderful hubby is taking care of the kiddos. It does appear that my father in law has the same thing…

Did I mention…

Did I mention that Leah also has Joey’s croupy cruddy cold?! She woke up this morning sounding so awful and now she looks so sick. She currently has a 102 fever. We finally got her to drink some pedialite.

Joey is still feeling yucky but thankfully hasn’t vomited since about 1:00. He still won’t eat or drink.

I need a vacation….

2008, Year in Review

January started out our year with Joey taking his first steps! What an awesome way to start 2008!

February was a fun filled month, I cut my hair off! We also took a trip to Washington DC to visit my inlaws, Stephanie & Christopher, and also visited one of my dearest friends, Alicia and her family. Also, we celebrated my husband’s 30th birthday!

March was another fun filled month, we celebrated Joey’s 2nd birthday, St. Patrick’s Day at the Irish Club, Easter, and my 27th birthday! I also helped my friend Cecily at Cans For Corey to raise money for the CDSC!

April was a very memorable month for me! Patrick and I joined together with thousands of other Catholics at Yankee Stadium in New York City and saw Pope Benedict XVI. It was truely a life changing experience for me! I also started up my Usborne Books at Home business! And we moved into a much larger house! And Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin and her family welcomed Trig into their lives!

May was a fairly boring yet fun month, we spent a lot of it, unpacking and getting settled into our new house and planting my garden! Patrick and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Aniversary!

June was another interesting month. I got reunited with my half brother, Greg via the telephone for the 1st time in 20 years! He lives out in California so we’re still trying to figure out when we’ll see eachother in person. Pat and I took the kiddos to the North Haven Irish Festival, which was a blast!

July started out by Joey getting his tonsils and adnoids removed. OUCH! I also discovered Melissa’s blog, little did I know it would be the start of a beautiful friendship! We had a 4th of July BBQ with our family and friends! I spent the weekend of July 10th at the NDSC’s National Convention in Boston. I got to meet so many of my online T21 friends that weekend! Also, in July our family suffered the loss of my sister in law’s mother, Carol. I still think about her on a daily basis.

August was another busy month. Leah took her first steps, my parents visited from Ohio, and I started my Etsy Shop. With Tropic Thunder debuting in theaters, my friend Cecily and I got interviewed by one of the local TV Newstations and the CDSC also got national attention for our boycotting of one of the local movie theaters!

September was busy and crazy like most other months. I made the news again, this time about Sarah Palin being chosen as John McCain’s running mate. We celebrated Leah’s 1st birthday, and went to the CDSC’s Buddy Walk.

October was Down Syndrome Awareness month and I managed to post on here EVERYDAY for 31 for 21! I went to the CDSC’s Annual Convention, which was a blast!

November we spent one week in the hospital after Joey had to have surgery to repair an intestinal malrotation.

December was spent preparing for Christmas, and I attended Grand Rounds at CCMC and Hartford Hospital with Dr. Brian Skotko. And then finally, last week was Christmas and a visit from my parents!

I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year and see you all in 2009!!

Why me?!

Ok, what the h@ll else can happen?! I just peed flushed the toliet and a couple minutes later I heard water splashing in the bathroom… the toliet was pouring water out of the tank. Not the toliet bowl but somewhere from the tank. I managed to get the water shut off and now I’m cleaning up the floor.

My wonderful brother in law is on his way to pick up Joey’s ear drops from the pharmacy in his 4×4 truck since we’re having another SNOWSTORM and I’ll have him look at it when he gets here.

Can I have a nervous breakdown yet????

Soooo tired…

We got home close to 1am with not any answers… the doctors said since they would treat it the same if it was either a ruptured ear drum or just a scratched ear canal, they were’t going to chance hurting him anymore. Not to mention the one ER doc who actually did try to look, couldn’t see a thing due to all the blood in his ear…

They could have sedated him, suctioned out his ear and then looked but we weren’t going to put him through that last night. I’m going to call his ENT today and schedule an appointment with him.

They did give us a script for antibodic ear drops to help prevent an infection wherever his ear is hurt.

Unfortunatly, Joey has lost 1/2 pound. They weighed him on the same scale as a few weeks ago, boo….

Busy, busy, busy!

I’ve been so busy the past couple of days! Finishing up Christmas Cards, baking cookies, fudge, and other goodies for my hubby to take to work, wrapping the last of our x-mas gifts, doing laundry, rearranging our bedroom, cleaning the house & preparing for my parents to arrive on Saturday for the week of Christmas!

So much to do, so little time!

I do have to admit, I am rather excited for Friday, you see, it’s my dear friend Melissa’s birthday and Mel & her son Dillon are coming over for her birthday dinner and a sleep over! YAY!!!!!

Geez, on a sour note, I smell poopy (again), I’m off to see who the culprit is!!

We’re back

It was a dislocated elbow! So his pedi popped it back into place and Joey is back to his normal self running around and playing.

What else can happen this week! Thank God there’s a parents night out tonight and I can go out and have a drink!

Phew!

Don’t forget to change your clocks!

Like I did! I just started panicing because we were going to be late for church, lol! We would have been a hour early!

I can’t believe it…

More baby squirrels today! Except this time, they didn’t get loose in the house. They were still stuck up about the stove in the vent. Unfortunatly, one was dead which was blocking the other one from getting out. Thankfully our neighbor came over and helped my husband get the live one out and set loose behind our house in the woods.

I just googled “Baby squirrels” and it appears as if, there’s usually 4 in a litter. Hopefully this momma only had 3 and we won’t have any more stories to add to our baby squirrel saga!

In other news, Joey is feeling better. His tummy problem seemed to be a 24 hour bug. But we are still waiting to go see the GI doc… the soonest we could get in to see one isn’t until October 13. He hasn’t had a “normal” BM in over 2 months now.

Tommorow, Joey has an appointment with his audiologist for a hearing test. He hasn’t had one in over a year and since he does have a mild loss in his left ear, I figured it was time to go again.

Yesterday’s excitment…

(Besides the Palin speech) Leah had just woke up from her nap, Joey was still asleep. I put Leah in her booster set and out of the corner of my eye, saw something run across the kitchen floor. For a second I thought it was another mouse, but then realized it was too big to be a mouse. I saw the thing run into the corner next to our fridge.

I grabbed the broom and an empty pan from the kitchen counter to see this little critter I had no clue what it was except that it wasn’t a mouse, chipmunk or rat. I finally got a good look at it’s face and thought it was a baby opossum. It had buggy eyes, a pointy nose, and a long tale.

I called animal control in a panic since I didn’t want to get bit trying to catch the thing and didn’t want to chance it getting loose in the house and biting one of the kids. No one was answering there so I called the non-emergency police number number to ask who else could help.

Guess who showed up at our house, THE FIRE DEPARTMENT! I was so embarassed but apparently I’m not the first person who’s called for something like that, lol!

The little critter ended up being a baby squirrel! Its mother had a nest up in our attic and the little thing crawled down the exhaust fan shaft to our kitchen stove, CHEWED through the metal mesh screen and into our kitchen!

Pee, poo, OH MY!

So, this is kind of a gross yet funny child story. Those of you who have more than one child I’m sure an sympathize.

Joey did a #2 the other day and I was changing him on the family room floor. Well, up comes Leah from behind me so check out what was going on. Little did I know as soon as I moved to poopy diaper off to the side to clean up Joey a little more, she grabs the poopy one, POOP AND ALL! So, I have on hand on Joey’s leg trying to keep his poopy butt from rolling away, one hand holding onto Leah’s poo-covered hand trying to keep her from putting her hand in her mouth. Joey started laughing which makes him start to PEE EVERYWHERE including on Leah! Thankfully it was only on her leg!

I swear, the things that happed to a stay at home mom, lol!!

SCORE!

I totally forgot to give y’all a mouse update! I finally got one! The trap that finally worked… this one! The snap traps didn’t work, I even went as far as getting the sticky traps but somehow the little booger got off the sticky trap! It left a lot of hair on it but it somehow got off. So I caught my half bald mouse with one of those house traps where it crawled in and couldn’t get out!

I’m hoping it was the only little pest but just in case, I’m going to keep a couple more houses set. Wish me luck!

Outsmarted by a mouse…

So, needless to say, this morning when I got up, I went straight to the kitchen and checked all FOUR mouse traps and would you believe it?! The little booger ate the peanut butter off the traps! I am making a trip to Home Depot this afternoon for different traps!

Did I mention that it left me more little poopy presents?! Grrr….