Tuesday July 19th - Monday July 25th
- 7/19 I had a melt down today. I was just so frustrated with our house being a mess, the kids not listening to anything I said, and being so exhausted all the time, that I just sat down and started to cry. But that's not what this story is about. This story is about CJ. When CJ saw I was crying he asked me why I was so sad. I told him that I didn't feel well, and so he ran over and got my vitamins that I take every day and brought them to me. Awww. Then he said he wanted me to be happy and asked again why I was sad. I told him that I had too much to do and that I couldn't do it all, to which he replied that he had strong muscles and that he would do it. Isn't he such a sweetie?!
- I went to the doctor last week and Yea! I had only gained two pounds in three weeks!! That part was great! But what was not great was the fact that my belly grew SIX CM in three weeks! I went from being 29 cm (vertically, of course), to 35. I had to ask Dr. Pitts to repeat the number because I thought I had heard him wrong. I was shocked, but he wasn't too concerned. See why my clothes don't fit?! Anyway, Dr. Pitts thought it was due to fluids. I haven't felt like I've been retaining fluids - and my weight didn't seem to reflect that - but oh well. If the doctor is ok with it, then I guess I am too...except that I'm busting out of all my clothes.
- Two big things with Mattie this week: first, on Friday the 22nd she had her second VCUG. The first one was a year and a half ago when she was just 11 months old. After having a UTI, they did a VCUG to see if she had reflux (from her bladder back into her kidneys) causing the infection. Sure enough she did :(. It was a mild enough case that they reassured us she'd grow out of it, but they did put her on a prophylactic and said we'd need to do another VCUG a year and half later to see where she was at. So that brings us to this past Friday. It was interesting to see the difference between how the procedure was handled in the "big city" of Spokane compared to here in Wenatchee. First, they wanted to just send Mattie to the Radiology dept at the clinic, but I knew that Mattie could not be "talked through" a catheter. Last time they had given her a sedative to relax her and I was really hoping for that this time. So instead we opted to head over to Seattle because they do an injection instead of a catheter, which sounded much better to us. Then our pediatrician called us a few days before and said they could give Mattie a sedative here at the hospital and so we wouldn't have to go to Seattle. Ok, sounds good. However, when we arrived at the hospital Friday morning they seemed to be all prepped to put Mattie completely under. I wasn't comfortable with that. When the anesthesiologist came in to speak to me, I told her about what had been done in Spokane and she was shocked. Then I was surprised that she was so surprised that Mattie was sedated but never went under. Then she decided to follow my lead, I guess, which was awkward for me since she's the doctor and all. After speaking with the pediatric nurse who was assigned to Mattie, they decided to give her some concoction of medicine that had pain reliever in it and that had an amnesia effect. I asked if there was a sedative in it, and they told me there was, but I based on Mattie's behavior, I wasn't so sure I believed them. Mattie did calm down, but not to the point she had been in Spokane. I had been entertaining Mattie with some coins and when it was time to go to the x-ray room for the procedure, I tried to take the coins from her and she got really upset about it...that and the fact that we weren't watching Toy Story anymore. If she had been on a sedative I think she would have been a little more relaxed about it. Then, when we got to the x-ray room and it was time to insert the catheter, Mattie was definitely not relaxed, like a sedative would have made her. And it didn't help that her nurse had to try about 5 or 6 times to insert the catheter before calling another nurse in to do it. Mattie was in pain (of course! the catheters were coming out with blood on them!) and squirming everywhere, naturally, and I asked again if her medication had a sedative in it, and they told me it did, but I still don't know if I believe them. Anyway, after finally getting a catheter inserted, I had to walk behind the glass because I'm pregnant, so Mattie was left with 3 strangers holding her down and turning her from side to side while they x-rayed her bladder filling up. Mattie was so upset, it broke my heart. Then we had to wait for her to release before we could go because they had to take another set of x-rays after she went potty to see if there was any reflux. Mattie was holding it, but her bladder was beyond full, so she was in pain, and that part was difficult too. She finally released and they were able to quickly get the x-rays they needed and I was finally able to hold Mattie and tell her it was all over. The radiologist couldn't tell me definitively, but he did say that Mattie still has reflux, about grade 2 (which is what it was a year and a half ago), and that she'd most likely still need to stay on her prophylactic and get another VCUG in a year. Ugh. Not what we wanted to hear, especially after how intense this experience was for her. We'll see if Dr. Jantzen has anything different to say after he sees her test results.
- Moving on to the second thing with Mattie, on Sunday, July 24th, we put Mattie in her own big-girl bed...in the same room as CJ! Surprisingly, it went really well, better than expected. We only had to tell them to stay in bed a few times, and it only took putting Mattie back into bed a couple of times before she stayed in there and talked herself to sleep. CJ was a trooper too because he was able to still fall asleep within 15 or so minutes, despite Mattie's chatting for almost an hour. So I think they'll work well together. The only thing that's not too fun is that Mattie can sleep a good hour or two longer than CJ, but now that they're in the same room, she's up with him at 7 AM. Bummer! Otherwise, Bryce and I were expecting the worst and actually got pretty much the best, so a very, very pleasant (and much appreciated) surprise.
- We headed over to Redmond on Friday evening so that we could take CJ to Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday for his birthday. Saturday morning we got CJ's 4 year pictures taken. We tried to take a couple of CJ and Mattie together but of course, not one turned out where they were both smiling and looking at the camera, or even had their eyes open. I partially blame the completely inexperienced and not-so-great-with-kids photographer who seemed to miss all the great moments. It was very frustrating. Oh well. In the end, we got a pretty good pose of CJ and all his pics for only 12 bucks, so I guess it was worth it. Then we made CJ's dreams come true...or at least, that's what it seemed like by how excited he had been for weeks to go to Chuck E. Cheese. The place was super busy, but CJ didn't seem to mind that the place was PACKED with like 5 or 6 birthday parties on top of the people not there with a party, like us (though we had cupcakes and gifts and enough people to be counted as a party :). Mattie's favorite ride was the white horsey, for sure, and CJ loved doing the football toss and the basketball game with Daddy. It was lots of fun and may just turn into a birthday tradition!
Happy Monday!
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