Who has the sniffles??

After three weeks, some of us around my house are still feeling the final effects of the cold/ flu or whatever we had!  There was a certain young man at my house that did this all day...

sniffle...sniffle...sniffle....sniffle....sniffle...sniffle..  ."Christian, go blow your nose." (mom or one of the girls)......."Christian, go blow your nose."........"Christian, go blow your nose." (Christian does not go blow his nose.)  sniffle... sniffle...  sniffle...  sniffle... 

Next came, "Christian, if you are don't go blow your nose, you are going to have to go sit in the corner!"

"Fine! I will blow my nose!"

Seriously, why is it so much trouble to blow your nose?? Just do it!!

I cannot tell you how many times this scene played out in my house today...may the sniffles be gone tomorrow!!

New Dishwasher!

What happens when your dishwasher stops getting dishes clean and mom has to hand wash dishes every day?? She asks her husband to fix the dishwasher!! (Because really, who has time to hand wash all the dishes??)

After cleaning it out multiple times and finally pulling the dishwasher away from the wall, Matt found that there were some very important pieces missing from the motor.  A new motor cost $125!! This would be for a seven year old dishwasher.

Next plan?? Buy a new dishwasher!!

This is exactly what happened this last weekend and now I have a dishwasher that actually cleans my dishes!!!! (Even though it is quite a bit smaller and we have to do more loads. grrr!)

It has the buttons on the front, unlike my old one. Yesterday I ran it and it had an hour left. I forgot to press the button to "child lock" everything on the front. Micah went over to it and started pushing buttons! It went from 59 minutes left to 1 minute! I said, "Micah!" and he responded with, "uh-oh!" Very funny, child!!  I learned my lesson!

A visit to the dentist?

Today I had a dentist appointment at 1 pm. I have been dreading this appointment for awhile and have actually rescheduled it 4-5 times because of the weather and flu.  Even though it was snowing out today, I just made it work! Matt was home and it was in the middle of he snowstorm, but we headed over there anyway! He took me because I didn't want to drive in the snow, and he had to go to Menard's anyway.

Back in December at my usual checkup, my dentist found a cavity on one of my front teeth. A few years ago, I had a cavity on the same spot, but on the other side. I remembered how sensitive those front teeth were and cringed when he told me I had to have it done again.

I went in today and before the dentist numbed me up, he looked in my mouth and was trying to figure out exactly where my filling was.  He seemed kind of confused! They ended up taking a few more x-rays and found out that I not only had one cavity on my front teeth, but three!! AHHHH!!!

As we sat there talking, I mentioned to him that I was thinking about getting braces to straighten my teeth. Once I said this, his tone kind of changed. He explained to me that if I was going to get braces soon, he would wait to fill my cavities. I was not expecting this! He said that as my teeth sit now (not aligned in the front), he would have to drill through the front of my teeth to get to all three cavities. This would lead to fillings on the front of my teeth that might stain, look bad, etc. in the future. He told me that if I waited and straightened my teeth, then he could go in through the back of my teeth to get to the fillings. He said this would be so much better!

In the end, I walked out without getting my cavities filled. I told him I just need to pull the trigger and get braces! I have been talking about this for long enough! He said the cavities can wait, but do need to be filled eventually. He didn't charge me for the extra x-rays or consultation. What a nice guy!! (BTW, this is not the same dentist that we have seen for the last 12 years, but a newer guy in the office. I may just see him again!! I don't think our dentist would have told me the same thing!)

No School tomorrow?

We have been working on school this week. It has been going well and we are moving ahead again!! But I did forget how little housework I get done while I am working on school all day! Lately, I have the girls folding laundry right away in the morning while I work with Christian. :)

Tonight we were at Christian's basketball practice and a mom asked me if we went to a Millard school. I just kind of looked at her, I didn't quite know what to say. I then responded with, "Technically we do go to a Millard school, but we homeschool." She just wanted to let me know that school was cancelled for tomorrow. I just nodded and smiled. She asked me if I let my kids out of school for snow days. I said no! I told her that they get plenty of breaks the way it is! For instance, we had school Wednesday morning because we had classes at the learning center on Wednesday afternoon. Today, we had school in the morning and then we met up with our PE coop this afternoon for a tour of the police station. Tomorrow, we will have school in the morning and then I have a dentist appointment at 1 pm. Again, they won't have school in the afternoon.  I think they are fine without a snow day! And don't forget we just had a two week "sick break."

I think we are going full force until the end of May! I may need to hire a housekeeper though!!

Back to School!!!!

We did it! We were finally able to have everyone well enough that we went back to school! Last week, I did math with Megan, but nothing else with the other kids. I couldn't talk very well and we were still running fevers on and off.

Today, we were just coughing and blowing our noses, but nobody was sick on the couch! My voice is still a little sore yet, so I had some trouble reading, but we made it through.

We went almost two weeks without school. We had to really think back to where we left off, such as in our history readings and English. I think tomorrow will go smoother. 

Micah is getting sooo much better at entertaining himself too, so that is awesome! I didn't even have to block off the kitchen; he just stayed where he was supposed to while I taught the bigger kids! Yay Micah!!

What? Nobody is on the couch sick?

It happened today. Nobody was on the couch sick!!! I could hardly believe it!!

I spoke too soon!

I woke up at 3:30 this morning to somebody shutting the bathroom door in the hallway. Usually if any kid is up in the middle of the night, it is usually Megan. I kept listening and listening, but didn't hear anybody come out for awhile. I decided to get up and see what was going on. I also thought it could be Christian. He fell asleep in front of the TV with his clothes on last night. He was pretty warm again. Matt just put him in bed, clothes and all! I didn't know if he had to get up to go potty.

I went to do some investigating and found that Courtney was the one that was missing from her bed! I slightly knocked on the bathroom door and she peeked her head out. I asked her what was going on and she replied, "I feel like throwing up!" Oh no!!! She had her bucket in her hand.

I asked her if she felt like going back to bed and she decided that she would be ok, as long as she had her bucket. I went back to bed and let it be. I figured she would wake me up if she threw up.

Fast forward to 6 am. Matt woke me up to tell me he was leaving and said, "By the way, Courtney is in her bed crying. She feels like throwing up." I told him I already knew. Back to sleep I went.

Around 7:15 am, I heard Micah wake up and start to cry. I pulled myself out of bed and went and got him. Courtney was downstairs watching a movie and did not look good! As I was sitting there nursing Micah, I heard Courtney say, "Here it comes!" and she started to puke into her bucket! She got into the bathroom and finished there.  I couldn't help her because I was feeding Micah! Everybody else was still asleep.

She cleaned up the mess and came back to the chair in the living room. She has been hanging out there every since. She says she fills miserable!! She also has diarrhea and a very sore throat! This virus got her good!!!

As for my other kid who went to sleep early last night, he is up and acting 100% normal today. This is how Courtney acted yesterday, so he definitely may not be done yet!

Megan is very well and I am well too. Our fevers are both gone, but now we are coughing and losing our voice. Maybe someday we will feel 100%!

Flu coming to an end??

We had another sick day today for my two "C" children. (Megan got a math lesson in. :) Christian had another 103.1 fever this morning and Courtney's was around 101. This was Courtney's third day of a fever and Christian's second. I gave them both Advil and within a couple of hours, they were back to their normal self.

By about 4 or 5 pm, I was expecting the Advil to wear off and the kids to collapse on the couch again like they did last night.  Courtney did not collapse with a fever though! Unfortunately, Christian did.

Does this mean that Courtney is healing?? One less kid sick?? Could it be we are getting close to the end??

I took Micah to his 15 month checkup today and had our doctor check everybody out. She said everybody's lungs were clear, and it just looked like the flu. She said we could test it to just to make sure, but I didn't do it because it didn't matter in the end. Our doctor said strep and pneumonia have been going around too, so if things got worse with my kids, I was supposed to get them back in.  She also thought Micah only had a slight case of the flu, thanks to my good antibodies!! Yay for breastfeeding!!

Micah did not gain much weight from last time, but our doctor said he is fine. I looked in his baby book and it said he was 20 lbs. 9 oz at 9 months and today he was 21 lbs. 13 oz. (15 months.) He has only gained a little over a pound in six months. She said babies tend to level off at this age because they are so active. He was 31 1/2 inches long. This means he has grown 10 inches since birth! Other than that, everything checked out great! We also didn't do any shots today because he is already fighting the flu. We will do some at 18 months.

Why are we awake at 4 am??

What do you do at 4:44 am when you are up with the baby? You blog about WHY you are up with the baby, of course!

This little guy has been changing things up lately. And it's right in the middle of a flu outbreak at my house. I am pretty sure he is starting to wean, which is ok, we just need to figure things out.

For awhile now, we have been nursing five times a day. It has been different for me because he is now 15 months and we are still nursing this much. All my other kids were completely weaned by 13 months! I like to let the kids wean themselves, so when we hit 13 months and he wasn't weaned, I let him continue on. I thought it would be good for him since he has food issues and is allergic to cow's milk.  I also wanted to keep nursing him through cold and flu season, but I had NO idea we would be hit so hard this year with sickness!!

Anyway, Saturday around 5 pm, I went to nurse him as usual and he pushed me away, which was very odd. I tried to put him on again and he wanted nothing to do with me. I thought Ok, this is kind of a fluke. We will just try again later. I don't mind skipping one feeding.

We got ready for bed and we settled down to nurse to sleep and again, he pushed me away. Now this was really weird! I couldn't force him to nurse, so I got him a cup of water and I rocked him to sleep. This is the first night EVER that we did not nurse to sleep!

So after this, I was convinced that he was weaning cold turkey. I knew I could not skip two feedings and then not feed Micah all night, so I dug my pump out of the attic and pumped off 6 ounces!

I was not expecting Micah to nurse in the morning. I told myself we were done, but when we got up, he wanted to nurse! Ok then! And he didn't only want to nurse in the morning, but he nursed his usual times all throughout the day along with taking a two hour nap! But when we hit bedtime again, he wanted nothing to do with me. He struggled for over an hour to get to sleep on his own and finally, he gave me the "milk" signal and he nursed to sleep. This was at 11 pm!  He is usually sound asleep and in bed by 9:30.

The next morning, again, I was just going with the flow. He was up around 7:30 and we nursed throughout the day. He actually ate three times before lunch, probably due to the fact that he wasn't feeling too well and it was comforting. He never took a nap all day and last night, Megan, Micah, and I went out and got groceries. He fell asleep in the car on the way home at 7:30 pm. I could not get him to wake up when we got home, so I just put him right into bed. Because we missed this bedtime feeding, I went and pumped off another six ounces.

Hence why we are up at 4 am this morning! Since he went to sleep around 7:30 pm, he sleep 8 1/2 hours. Now, are we going to nap today??

As for weaning, I am pretty sure we are on our way. It takes awhile to go from five feedings a day to nothing and if it is done right, it shouldn't be a problem. I just want to do it slowly, so I don't get mastitis. Matt told me last night that he thinks I should wean him and I said, "Right in the middle of a flu outbreak at our house?? Breastmilk is the best thing for him!" Matt agreed! I told him that I do want him weaned by summertime. That just gives me a good goal and this will still give him the antibodies he needs through the next couple of months.

How much school will we get done this week??

This past month has been relentless when it comes to being sick!! As I type this morning, I still have two girls sleeping (one was sick all day yesterday), one crabby toddler, and one six year old lying on the couch who says he doesn't feel good. All of us have this crackly cough!!

I had six days of low-grade fevers and finally this morning, I woke up and felt halfway normal!! I even have some energy this morning!! Unfortunately, every time I cough, it hurts pretty bad and I am coughing up phlegm. I am not going to overdo it today and end up back where I was last week.

I am going to call our chiropractor today and try to get in. Maybe she can listen to our lungs and give some insight into what is going on. Hopefully she has some tips on our to eradicate viruses from our house!

As for school, we will see how the kids are today. I am thinking it might just be another sick day! (Courtney just came downstairs and says she is dizzy, has a headache, and her throat hurts.)

Cancel appointment!

What do you do when you wake up with a 99.5 degree temp? You call the dentist and cancel your appointment.  I also think Micah has a low grade temp. Once we are done nursing in the morning, he is usually scampering to get off my lap and is full of energy. Not today! He fell back asleep for another hour! Obviously he isn't feeling the best either.

Courtney and Christian are up and are feeling fine. Megan is still sleeping. This might be a sign that she is still fighting the same virus as yesterday.

I think it's going to be another sick day around here today. :(

Sick day #3

We are not doing so well at our house this week. We took another sick day today. What are you supposed to do when the teacher (me!) has a sore throat, coughing all the time, and can't talk for very long?? You cancel school.  If I was a real teacher, I would have to call in for a substitute each day, but I can't do that here at home. The kids just get out of school.

Courtney woke up this morning with a really bad sore throat. I gave her some Advil and sent her off to take a nice hot shower. She came back downstairs with a smile on her face and that seemed to do the trick!

While Courtney was in the shower, Megan came downstairs for the day. She looked as pale as a ghost, and I could see dark circles under her eyes! I knew she wasn't up all night and asked her how she felt. Her answer was awful! She said that her throat hurt and she didn't have any energy.  She settled into the recliner and waited for breakfast to be done.

Once the corn muffins were done (what she has been begging me to make for about a week), she came into the kitchen, but just picked at her food. Pretty soon, she and Christian got into a little tiff, and she was crying. Obviously she didn't feel good. At this point, she told me she just wanted to go back to bed. I told her to go!! Please!! If you don't feel good, go back to bed!!!

After about an hour, she got back up and looked a little better. She was still not 100% throughout the day and ended up missing her Valentine's Day party. (Thanks grandma for coming in to stay with her while I took the other three!)  None of us are completely 100%, but some are better than others.

She was supposed to go out and serve tomorrow with a homeschooling group here in town, but we cancelled. They do a lot of serving with elderly people, and we didn't want to get them sick.

I also have a dentist appointment tomorrow to get a cavity filled. I didn't change it today, but maybe I should have. I have changed it about four times now either due to the weather or sickness. I just don't want to have to cough while they are drilling in my teeth. I guess I will see how everybody is in the morning. They have to cancel my appointment if somebody is sick, right??

I also saw that the weather is supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow and sunny. I think we are going to open all the windows and air this place out!!!

Can I just call this week a wash and start over next Monday???

Another sick day!

I am about tired of "sick days" around here. We had a couple last week and another one today.

Micah woke up at 4:30 am, and I had a 100.3 temp and had zero energy, so Matt went and got him. He played with him for about an hour before he had to start getting ready for work. Before he got in the shower, he asked me if he needed to call into work and stay home. I think he could tell I wasn't feeling well! I took Micah at this point and nursed him. Matt took a shower and decided that instead of staying home from work, he would wake the girls up at 6 am and have them take care of Micah! I didn't have any energy to argue, so he woke them up early. (I guess he bribed them with money to get up too.)

I heard them get up and entertain Micah while Matt finished getting ready for work.  After he was gone awhile, Megan came upstairs and asked me about making waffles. I determined at this point that I was feeling a little better and that I should probably go downstairs and supervise, at least a little bit. This was about 8:30 am. They had been on their own for about three hours and they had Micah dressed, fed, and everything was running smoothly!

About the same time that I got up, Courtney informed me that her stomach hurt. Oh no! Not again!! Both of us were down now! We camped out in the living for awhile and watched a movie.  I took some Advil, so I was feeling better.

We continued to lay low during the afternoon. Courtney spent some time up in her bed watching a movie and Megan and I made some apple turnovers. She was bored, so she wanted to cook something new. :) I was feeling a lot better too, so I helped!

By about 4-5 pm, my Advil was wearing off and I could feel my fever coming back. I took some more Advil and put myself back in the recliner for the next couple of hours. Again, Courtney was back on the couch.

Matt came home around 5.  Since I wasn't doing well, he and Megan decided they were going to make chili for supper. They ended up making a trip to Baker's to get supplies for chili. We are VERY low on groceries around here! We finally ate dinner around 7:15 pm! That is exactly what I needed because after I ate dinner, I felt a ton better! I ended up giving Micah a bath and got him in bed. Matt got the older kids to bed too. Hopefully we will all get a good night's sleep tonight and we will all be well tomorrow!!!

Braces and a Lock-In

This week did not go how I had planned. Monday and Tuesday went well, but once Wednesday hit, we were all sick again! Courtney started it this time by throwing up Wednesday morning around 7:30.  She had been awake since 2 am with an upset stomach. After this, Megan and I got sick. Micah had a virus too. He threw up about three times that day. I am still debating whether he was really "sick" or just gagging on his mucus from his runny nose! Needless to say, Christian was the only one who got to begin his class at the homeschool learning center on Wednesday afternoon

We all woke up Thursday and were still not quite 100%. We were supposed to have PE at 2 pm and I was hoping to make it. I debated all morning and by noon, we were all doing well enough I thought we could try. Wrong again! I fed everybody a late lunch and right as we were ready to load into the car, Megan told me her stomach hurt again. I had no choice but to stay home. I had a little 10 year old in tears because she wasn't going to be seeing her friends. It was pitiful! I wanted to see my friends too, but what do you do???

We HAD to be better by Friday. At 10:30 this morning, we had an appointment to get Megan's braces on. She did wonderful and looks great with them! She was sooo excited to get them. We ended up getting ceramic with nickel titanium wires. She said, "Wow, are my teeth really that crooked?" YES! They are!!!

I also had a consultation with the same orthodontist today and he recommended a full set of braces for myself.  Like the other orthodontist that I have seen, he said I was a "surgical case." I said I know, but did not want to pursue surgery. (Would you??) He went through my many problems with my jaw and teeth and said he could fix things about 75-80% with braces. All the other orthodontist I have seen have all recommended invisalign. He said that he is not a big fan of invisalign and has found he can do everything with braces just as well as with invisalign.  Everybody there said we have great insurance and nobody gets braces for as cheap as we are getting them! That made me feel good. The estimates for mine (and Megan's) are the cheapest that I have seen them! What am I waiting for?

On top of getting her braces today, Megan also had a lock in at church tonight with her youth group. If I was smart and on top of things, I would have scheduled her braces for another day. She said her mouth was pretty sore before she left tonight and she was having a hard time eating dinner. I sent some soft crackers with her, and there will be food there, so hopefully she will be fine. They were also taking the kids to a trampoline place and bowling from 11:30-2 am.   We have to be at the church at 7 am tomorrow morning to pick her up. I hope she can get a little bit of sleep tonight because we have a busy day tomorrow of basketball games for Courtney and Christian. I can't wait to hear how it goes!! She took one of her good friends with her, so she should have a great time!

Update on Braces

I took Megan to the orthodontist yesterday and had a nice chat with him about Megan and her metal allergy. We both thought it would be best if we didn't introduce everything at once, such as a full set of metal braces PLUS the completely metal palette expander. His first suggestion though was to go get her allergy tested for the specific metals. I really don't want to do that! I suggested that we just stay clear of metal braces and do the ceramic ones.  I told him that she tested negative for nickel and the allergy doctor said titanium was ok, so I asked if we could just go ahead with the ceramic brackets and nickel titanium for wires. He said he could do that!

In the end, we are going to go very slow with her braces. On Friday, we are going to put on the top row of ceramic brackets. He said there is just a little bit of metal on the back molars, so we are going to let those be for 1-2 months and see if she reacts. After that, we will put on the bottom. It sounds like most orthodontists don't usually put ceramic brackets on the bottom teeth, but he would see what we could do.

We also talked about the palette expander. He thought that he MIGHT be able to fix her cross bite with just the wires and brackets. I said that would be great! He said there is really no option beside the metal palette expander. :(  He also said he could put it in and if she starts reacting, we could pull it out. (But then do I have to pay for it??) Yesterday the hygienist had put separators in Megan's teeth to start moving them apart for the palette expander, but the orthodontist had her take them back out. We are going to do as much as we can with the braces first before we go to the pallete expander.

Last time she had her palette expander, she got it in April, and by June, she was broke out with eczema. I figure that it had taken about two months to build up in her system before she reacted. This is why we are going to wait 1-2 months for each step. This process may take a lot longer, but I think it will be better for her health in the end!

I am so glad he understood what I was talking about and was willing to work with me. Kudos to our new orthodontist!!