Snow Day!

We have a snow day tomorrow, but today felt like a snow day to me!

Since it was so slick out, I decided to keep the kids home and not go anywhere.

Tomorrow is day 2 of not going anywhere.

Will they call school off on Wednesday too? I will definitely need to get out of here by then!

This is our third snow day.of the school year..how many can we have before we have to go to school in June like last year??

Army Crawling!

Just for the record...Christian started army crawling tonight.

I think we have a little bit before he is full force, but it's coming!

49 Degrees Today

Really, it was 49 degrees out today and I didn't go anywhere. :) It's kind of disappointing, we probably won't have weather like this again for awhile.

I wanted to go to the zoo, but I couldn't convince Courtney. I didn't really have any errands to run. I wanted to go have lunch with Megan at school, but Christian took a two hour morning nap and he wasn't awake in time to go (And I am not going to wake this boy!). I wanted to take the kids outside after Megan got home, but was in the middle of making cookies. Soon after that, I thought about going outside again, but the girls had already put their dress-up clothes on and wasn't worth making them change. Soon Matt was home and it was dinner time.

Right before dinner though, the girls came downstairs with their school clothes back on and declared that they were going to go outside. I looked outside and it was already getting dark. I told Megan I would go for a walk with her around the block and she didn't want to, she wanted to play in the snow. Unfortunately, she didn't go out because she was not going to play outside in the dark and neither Matt or I wanted to sit outside with her! She was not too happy about that. :(

Let the cold weather join us again tomorrow, maybe we'll take advantage of the nice weather the next time it comes around!

A Night at Home with the Kids

Last night, Matt had a meeting in the evening, so I had the kids until bedtime.

Matt has these meetings once a month, so I know they are coming and sometimes it can be a very long day with kids that don't want to behave. But last night, we had a great time! The kids were well-behaved, Christian was in a GREAT mood, and everybody got along great!

Here are some highlights of our evening.

1. I asked Courtney what she wanted for supper. I thought, maybe something out of the freezer like chicken patties/ fish sticks. Nope, she said, "Mom, I want sloppy joes." Really Courtney? Can't I make something easy? But she insisted, so sloppy joes it was!

2. Before supper, Megan and Courtney were playing dress-up and Megan pulled out this green cowbody hat she got from grandma Lu for St. Patricks' Day last year. I chuckled when she came down in this outfit.

Do you call this a "Cowboy Princess?"

And of course, she thought it was hilarious when she put it on Christian's head!

3. After supper, I decided to sit down and play a game with them. They had Mouse Trap out the night before and put it together, but we haven't actually played the game in a long time. They are both old enough, so I suggested we play it.

In the past, we've had trouble playing games. Megan, my typical first born, has to win. If she's not winning, she usually gets mad, quits, and sometimes messes up the game (pushing the board, clearing the pieces off the board, etc.).

So last night, I sat down some rules. 1. Don't quit, even if you are losing. 2. Don't ruin the game 3. Have fun!

And we did! The girls played great. They took turns, didn't argue, and it was fun! We had a couple times when somebody was whining because they were losing, but we turned it around and said, "I bet you can beat them!" and then they would get ahead of the other person and giggle!

In the end, we got the entire mouse trap built, Courtney had landed on the cheese wheel, and I landed on "Turn Crank" With this combination, I turned the crank and got Courtney trapped under the cage!! Game over!

By how this game went, it makes me want to play with them every night! I am so glad that Megan is finally coming around and playing games nicely! I think school has helped her with this. Courtney has always liked to play games, so she's never had trouble with it.

4. After game time, it was time to clean up bedrooms. We start at 8 pm and they have until 8:30 to clean their rooms. At 8:30, I went in there and the room was spotless! They are getting so good at cleaning up their room- a little consistency goes a long way! Soon we settled down into our pajamas and I started our evening activity (we don't always read books anymore). Soon enough, Matt walked in the door and finished bedtime up!

It was a great night together!

Free Pass

Ok, Christian, you were up at 1:45 this morning, but you get a free pass for it.

Yesterday you wouldn't sleep and you whined all day. My hips hurt from holding you and I just wanted to clean the living room! I had piano lessons last night and Matt was stepping on and breaking toys, so it had to be done! I did get you down for an hour nap, so that helped! But you were still incredibly tired and whiny the rest of the night.

About 7:15 last night, it was time to nurse again so we did. And you fell asleep. Cloth diaper on. Clothes on. I thought you would just take an hour or so nap and then be up for another three hours.

Nope. You decided to sleep until 1:45 this morning!

This why you get a free pass for getting up in the middle of the night.

I really didn't think you would sleep that long, but once you were still sleeping at 10, I let you be and went to bed myself! I was just hoping your diaper wouldn't leak and then I would have to change sheets in the middle of the night. I also had to feed you one more time, so I was pretty sure you would be up sometime.

At 1:45, I heard you cry, so I got up and changed you (your diaper did leak, but only onto your clothes) and fed you again and put you back to bed. You were back down by 2:15 and awake again at 7:15 this morning with A BIG SMILE on your face!!! I LOVE happy Christian!!



How can I keep this huge smile on your face all day long??

What to do??

What do you do with a baby who won't sleep at night AND won't sleep during the day?

Really Christian, we were on a roll! You slept about 3 weeks through the night and you were taking great naps! It was wonderful!

For the last 3 nights, you have been up. Unfortunately for you, I have let you cry yourself back to sleep because I am now used to not getting up with you anymore. And when I do come in, all you want is me to pick you up and hold you.

As for during the day, I know you are tired. Just go to sleep already. I cannot hold you all day.

I feel like we are back to square one again. Ugh.

Weight Gain!

I forgot to add yesterday that Christian weighed 18.1 lbs! We're finally gaining weight again!

Here's where he has been:
Birth weight 9.0
2 months- 14.1
4 months 16.12
6 months 17.3 (Yikes! He only gained 7 oz. in two months! Very bad :(
7 months 17.9 (only 6 oz. in a month)
7 months, 1 1/2 weeks 18.1!!!! (8 oz in about a week and a half- yay!!)

So do you think sleeping better and gaining weight go together? It sure seems to!
Or is it the solid foods? Or the thyroid replacement medicine?

It doesn't matter what it is, we're back on the right track!

Back to the Doctor Today

I called our pediatrician this morning because the ER doctor said we should follow up with her. And of course, she wanted us to come in!

So after MOPS and errands this afternoon, Christian and I headed out to see our doctor. She looked him over and seemed to agree with the ER doctor. I asked her if she had ever seen this before and she said she has treated a couple kids with HS Purpua. She said that Christian was her youngest though.

She also said that she would like to continue to check his urine on a weekly basis. Apparently, he had protein in his urine at the ER and she wanted to watch it until that was gone. (Nobody told me anything about this on Tuesday night and our doctor today didn't expand on it, so I'm not quite sure what this is all about.) The nurse came in afterwards and showed me how to collect a little boy's urine and then I need to bring it in. Fun, fun! She wants me to bring urine in weekly for about a month, and then monthly, and then we'll see from there. She said sometimes it can still affect them 2-3 years after the fact. Wow! (So by that time, are we still checking for protein or are we checking for blood in the urine?? I'm not quite sure. )

She also rechecked his platelets today. They were at 375,000! Wow! There is no trouble there!

We also talked about the stomach pains that can come from this. She said if he is screaming in pain and is unconsolable one minute and then fine the next, we should be alarmed and bring him in. He has not been like this, so I think we're ok in this department.

Christian was very happy during this appointment. The doctors say the kids are perfectly healthy except for the bruises on his legs. His are going away, but his feet had purple polka dots on them today. I think she checked the platelets because low platelets causes little purple dots, but that is not the case, I'm pretty sure they are new bruises.

She said the bruises should go away in 2-3 days, but new ones could appear. The main one that we took him in for the other night is almost gone. Now it's just gray and yellow. His ankle is still bruised and you can see where the other ones are going away too.

Hopefully we're almost done with this!

Courtney's Quote of the Night!

For Christmas, both girls got a set of flannel sheets. They didn't have them on their beds yet, but we were going to soon.

About a week ago, Courtney peed in her bed at 11 pm (she still won't admit it), and when we changed her sheets, we put a set of flannel sheets on her bed.

Tonight Megan asked us when we could put the flannel sheets on her bed and from across the room, I hear, "You have to pee in your bed first!!"

Oh Courtney, you make me laugh!!

New Pictures Today

Christian's bruise on the back of his leg this morning. It doesn't look as bad anymore!



The bruise that is on his other leg, on the inside of his knee.


His swollen ankle!


In spite of this all, he is still a very happy baby!

Ankle now swollen. :(

Tonight when I got Christian ready for bed, I noticed his right ankle is swollen now.

In the paperwork we got last night, it says that it will almost always affect their ankles.

I would've taken a picture, but we were at church and I put him to bed right away when we got home. His bruise on his left leg is now getting bigger.

They said his legs could be covered in bruises by the time this runs its course.

We gave him some tylenol tonight, he has been clung to me all day, except when he was napping. He wouldn't even stay in the nursery tonight at church, so I know he doesn't feel good.

I feel terrible for him. Please pray for him if you have a chance...and pray that this will not affect his kidneys or bowels. That would be terrible.

A Visit to Children's Hospital

About 9, we arrived at Children's Hospital. Courtney and Christian were sleeping in the back and Megan was still awake.

Matt dropped Megan, Christian and I off at the doors so we could get all that lovely paperwork started. Matt joined us later with Courtney after he parked the car.

We got all checked in and waited in the waiting room. Soon we got called back to triage where they weighed Christian again and looked at his bruise. The nurse there mentioned she didn't want to take his blood pressue in case he would bruise again. (We're going on the low platelet theory at this moment). She did his vitals and talked to us a little bit about his spot.

Soon, we got moved back into an ER room. Here, we got the girls settled down to "Pocohontas" and two doctors came in to talk to us. They looked Christian over from head to toe, looked at his bruise, poked it, felt it, thought a little bit, and then said, "First things first, let's get a CBC done and check his platelets." Great! Let's do it!

One doctor left and the other one stayed and talked some more. He said that Christian looked completely healthy, no fever, no purple spots that would signify low platelets or anything.


Then he ordered some tests. CBC, kidney check, and a stomach x-ray. He said he probably has this thing called Henoch-Schoenlein Purpura or Anaphylactoid Purpura. He said it is where the blood vessels in the legs and buttocks bleed, he said it is usually caused by a cold a few weeks earlier. The kids are completely healthy, but their legs look like they got beat up. Christian does have two other spots starting to bruise on the other leg.


He said there is nothing you can do, but wanted to order these tests because there is a slim chance that this can cause kidney failure and a twist in the bowels.


This now about 10 pm and Matt and I are realizing that this could take awhile yet and we need to get the girls home and into bed. Matt called his brother Andrew and they worked out a plan to get the girls home, into bed, and bring me the van back to get Christian home.


Before they even left though, two nurses came in and put a catheter in Christian and drained out some urine. They wanted to make sure there was no blood in it. Then then took some blood out of his arm. Honestly, I thought Christian would scream through these two procedures. He didn't say a peep! Not a flinch, nothing! Great Kid! Even the nurses were impressed!


Next we went down the hall for a stomach x-ray- again, he did excellent!


About 10:30, all the tests were done and we were waiting for results. Christian is getting VERY sleepy, so I put his clothes back in and I settle down in the rocking chair and watch an episode of "The Office." (The hospital had cable!). About 10:45, the dr. sticks his head in and says that Christian's platelets are over 300,000 (minimum is 150,000), so that is great news, his hemoglobin is perfect too. We were waiting on the urine check and the x-ray.

In the meantime, our nurse came back and brought Christian a teddy bear for doing so good at his tests, he just gave her a great big smile. Now Megan AND Christian have teddy bears from Children's Hospital.

A few minutes later, the doctor comes back and says the urine check and x-ray were completely normal too, so that led him to believe that it was a Henoch-Schoenlein Purpura. He said he sees this about 10-12 times a year, he says it is not rare, but the complications from it are. He just said it's the wierdest thing.

About this time, Matt came back to bring me the van keys. I told him we were just waiting on paperwork and we were free to go. Soon the nurse came back in and we signed our discharge papers and we left. She said to watch for abdomen pain or blood in his urine because those are the complications from this, but since they checked them all while we were there, I think we were good to go!

We pulled out of Children's at 11:22 pm. We got home about 11:30 and Andrew headed home himself. Matt went to bed right away and I stayed up and fed Christian and put him to bed. I got to bed about 12:30 am.

Here is another picture of what it looked like this morning.

You can tell it hurts, so I am trying to avoid touching his leg. It doesn't quite say how long it will last, but they said to follow up with our pediatrician in a couple of days. They say to keep to his normal routine and don't do anything different.

Matt and I's thoughts on the whole thing:

1. Next time something happens, we are just going to go to Children's Hospital to start!
2. Why couldn't he have done this 3 weeks ago when it would've been covered 100%??
3. We might as well try to hit our deductible this year because we're probably half way there after last night!
4. It was a good thing we went in, but if we didn't go in, nothing would've changed. The bruise is still there and there is nothing we can do about it.
5. We are so thankful we have family in town who are willing to help us out, even at 10 pm!
6. We are so thankful that it is not life-threatening and Christian is a very healthy young boy!!

A Visit to Physician's Clinic

Last night was no ordinary night around here. No putting Christian to bed at 8, the girls to bed at 8:30, sit around and watch TV til Matt and I go to bed. No, we were off trying to figure our a spot on Christian's leg.

Around 7:30, Christian was getting really tired and rubbing his eyes, so I decided to put him to bed. He was up at 7 am and he's been sleeping all night, so why not? I went upstairs to change his diaper and put his pajamas on and saw this on the back of his right thigh.

It looked like a huge bruise, but his leg was a little swollen and I know it was not there at 5 pm when I changed his diaper earlier. I called for Matt to come upstairs to see what he thought. He touched it and it was really hard.

I looked at him and said, "Do you think we should take him somewhere?" He thought we should, so we looked up an Urgent Care. In the past, we have always gone to Physican Clinic's Urgent Care because we had one by our old house. They are family doctors, but they treat kids, right? Children's Hospital Urgent Care was $50 more than Physician's Clinic (7 years ago with Megan), so we found an Urgent Care close and headed there. We also go to Physician's Clinic for our pediatrician, so I thought all our information would be on file there.

I sat down, fed Christian quick, got coats together and loaded everybody up in the van and headed out. We thought about calling somebody to watch the girls, but we didn't think it would take that long and who do you call at 8 pm? So they came along for the ride.

We got to Physician's Clinic Urgent Care and they asked us "Did you call your dr. first?" I said, "No, we just got in the car and came over." She mentioned that they always tell patients of kids to go to Children's Urgent Care. We said that we didn't want to load the kids back up and drive again, so we were ok with seeing a d0ctor there.

We got called back and the nurse weighed Christian (18 pounds) and she thought it was a skin infection. Matt and I didn't think that was so bad. But then the doctor came in and said, no, it's not a skin infection. She said if it was an adult, she would think it was a blood clot, but Christian is only 7 months old. We then started thinking he was low on platelets again. I mentioned that I have ITP and he was low at birth. We thought that maybe he hit something/ somebody hit him and caused him to bruise because of low platelets. She didn't really have an answer for us. She told us that our best step would be to go to Children's Hospital and get labs drawn. Check his platelets and anything else that the doctor thought. She said she was sorry that she didn't have any more information for us.

So, back into the car we go and off to the hospital. Now it's about 8:45.

I think we're on a roll..

Ok, I got thinking, why all of the sudden is Christian sleeping so much better?

Here are my thoughts:

1. I went on thyroid replacement medicine, so therefore, I have more milk, more milk equals fuller baby, fuller baby equals happier baby who will sleep through the night.

2. I put him on his stomach to sleep overnight.

3. I started giving him solid food to eat. Yes, I really don't think he was ready until 6 1/2 months, so I waited. Now he loves it!

4. He FINALLY cut his top two teeth! No more stuffy nose (especially at night), no more drooling all over, it has all stopped. He got his bottom two teeth at 3 1/2 months and it took over 3 months to get the top ones.

So between all these factors, we have a much better baby!! I love it!

11 1/2 hours!

Even better Christian, he slept 11 1/2 hours last night!

Wow, is this going to last?

By the way, he was the BEST baby yesterday. Didn't cry at all. Didn't whine either. Just the best little boy! Even took two- one hour naps!

Really, what happened???

10 Hours!!!

Wow, Christian is getting much better at this "sleeping through the night" thing!

He slept 10 hours straight last night...yes, 10 hours!!! Woo-hoo!!

(1o pm- 8 am)

It's funny when I wake up and think "Wait, I haven't heard from Christian yet, is he alive?" But he always is!

Doesn't it feel good to sleep all night??

Need to get out...

I hope Matt comes home soon with my van keys.

It's one thing to not be able to get out because of the weather/ sick kids, etc. but today, I know I can get out, I just don't have keys and now, the walls are beginning to spin.

I have been at home a lot this week and I'm ready to get out!

Not Going Anywhere this Morning

I had plans to go help in childcare at MOPS this morning.

I was up early, had all kids up and ready to get out the door.

Then Matt calls and said, "I have your car keys. I hope you weren't planning on going anywhere this morning." Ugh!

Unfortunately, I had to call and cancel and they were already short helpers.

Oh well, what do you do!

(Luckily he is coming home around lunch time and maybe I can get started on that mile-long list of errands I have to do!)

We really need to find our spare set of van keys!

More Sleep Needed

Little Miss Megan needs to go to bed AT her bedtime tonight.

Not 10 pm.

Not 9:30.

She needs to be in bed by 9. Mama says.

Today was not so pleasant as she was trying to get ready for school.

She just needs more sleep.

Back to School

I was waiting for them to call school off for a 3rd day in a row last night.

The prediction for 8 am was -2 degrees and -17 degrees windchill.

I waited again this morning for a phone call, but nothing. So off to school Megan went!

Except Matt and I couldn't bear to let her stand out in the cold and wait for the bus, so I took her to school. My car said 0 degrees on the way home and luckily, it wasn't that windy.

I told her to bring the bus home if she doesn't hear frome me. It's supposed to be 9 degrees this afternoon!

I told her we might go do some errands (I have a list since I've been home for 3 days!), but I doubt we will do them today. Too cold. It's supposed to be 20 degrees tomorrow- we can wait until then!

We have AWANA tonight anyway, so we will get out today.

And heck if I stay home this afternoon, maybe Christian will take a nap.

My theory of the day with him:

Whenever he whines= feed him
No nap unless he falls asleep on me and can't keep his eyes open anymore.
I'm tired of rocking him for sleep for 20 minutes only to have him sleep in his bed for 5.
I'm going to try to keep him awake as long as I can.
Monday he didn't take a nap until 3 pm and yesterday it was 2 pm. No morning nap.
He's had a 20 minute nap already today, probably because he was up from 4:45-5:45 this morning! (He gets a free pass though because it was 55 degrees in our house.)

He's trying to curl up on my lap now and go to sleep, I'm not going to help at all.
If he falls asleep, I will lay him down, but if not, wake up!!

It might be time to eat again anyway. :)

45 minutes

that is all that Christian has slept today...45 minutes! And that was at 3:00 this afternoon!!

He's not crabby this evening either. I just don't get it.

Snow Day!

No school today!

I am home with 3 kids- let's make the best of it!

My hope for today:

1. No fighting between the girls
2. Christian will take nice, long naps and not wake up in the middle to be rocked back to sleep.
3. Christian will not cry at all today!
4. I can get something done, but yet spend time with my girls doing something fun. Maybe we'll make some cookies or something.
5. Enjoy looking at this snow- I think it's beautiful!

Let it snow and bad behavior :(

I love waking up and the ground is covered in snow!

(I also enjoy waking up at 7 am and realize I hadn't been up with the Christian the ENTIRE night!)

They are predicting 6-8 inches by Tuesday morning. I wonder if Megan will have a snow day tomorrow!

I look forward to her being home (if school gets called off), but on the other hand, it might be a challenge.

We have already started talking back, saying "No!", and deliberately disobeying. Like this morning at the breakfast table, I had given her some juice, but she thought it wasn't enough and was complaining about it, so Matt poured it into his own glass! Well, she didn't like that and gave us some trouble. Off to her naughty spot she went! And she wasn't even up for 15 minutes!

Yesterday I had trouble with her and had to put her in her naughty spot. Do you know how hard it is to haul a 50 pound girl to her naughty spot because she won't go herself and she just goes limp when you tell her to go?

Hopefully we can solve this behavior by being consistent with her because when she's in her naughty spot just once, she usually shapes up and we get out old Megan back!

Is this a pre-cursor to the teenage years already??

I cut my hair off. :)

I cut my hair off tonight, I was tired of Christian pulling it and drooling in it.

I had my mom cut off 10 inches tonight. It's short now!

Now I am going to donate it to Locks of Love so somebody else can have my hair who really needs it. :)

Very quiet this morning...

What a difference a kid makes, my house is so quiet this morning!

There is no fighting, screaming, tattling, or slamming doors. But there is also no laughter and giggling between them either.

Christian has been sleeping for over an hour and a half, that hasn't happened for over 2 weeks!

I'm getting laundry done and other things caught up! Amazing!


Though it may be noisier, I thoroughly enjoy having Megan home- when is her next day off??

Ten on Tuesday

1. Why can't all little girls jeans be made the same? Why can't size 7 in one store match a size 7 in another store? Really, this would make life easier for me!

2. Today is Megan's last day of winter vacation. I have LOVED having her home. It's given somebody for Courtney to play with and I don't have this guilt hanging over my head all day that I should be playing with her. Back to school tomorrow.

3. AWANA starts up again tomorrow- need to start learning those Bible verses again!

4. Christian is into everything! Megan showed him out to open the cupboard doors/ drawers in the kitchen and yesterday, he found the window shades!




5. It's been one week since we got Megan's ears pierced. She's doing really well at keeping them clean! I think she's pretty proud of them!



6. My neighbors just got back from a week-long vacation to Cancun. Maybe I'll get there someday. :)

7. I found an old friend on Facebook today, I hope she accepts my "friend request" and we get together again! I lost track of her a couple of years ago!

8. This picture of Courtney brings a smile to my face every time I see it!



9.Christian is sleeping much better at night!! We'll sleep about 12 hours and only get up once. And that one time, I just need to pick him up, put his pacifier back in and rock him for about 2 minutes. I lay him back down and he's out again! Finally, I feel like we're getting somewhere with him! (Now to get him to sleep solid and not get up at night. :)

10. I want to finish my tangent from yesterday, but I don't want to offend anybody. Maybe I'll leave that for another blog post...

Christmas is over...

Christmas is over here at the Ruwe house.

We had our last Christmas party on Saturday. We had three the weekend before.

The presents are still downstairs, waiting to be taken upstairs and put away.

The decorations are off the tree, the tree still needs to come down though.

The garland is off the banister, the stockings are down, and the little decorations are put away.

I also have put away two nativity scenes that we put up.

I never get really excited about Christmas, so I really don't get into it much. But I do it for the kids. If it was up to me, we wouldn't put a tree up...or really anything. I'd be happy with a nativity scene because that IS the reason for the season.

But I have to admit, it is great watching the kids open presents. I love the smiles on their faces! Even watching Christian tear his paper off is presents is precious! It's fun being with family and seeing each other. I love taking pictures over the holidays. I love having Megan home for two weeks. :)

I just wish that there would be more of an emphasis on the birth of Jesus. We go to Christmas parties, but not once do we mention why we get together. It is odd that I know many, many families who aren't Christians and don't believe in Jesus, but yet they still celebrate Christmas. Why? If you don't believe that he came to earth to save us from our sins, why are you celebrating his birth? Or are you just doing what everybody else does? Our culture has really gotten away from where it should be.

Anyway, off on a tangent there, back to taking care of three kids. :)