Crazy Few Weeks

Wow, I can't believe it's been this long since I last posted. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I have heard quite a few "complaints", wondering if everything is okay with the trio. The answer is yes and no. There have been some great days over the last few weeks and some not so great days, especially the last week. I was fortunate enough to slip out for my mom's side Christmas party, to go see Marley and Me with my friend Jen (this was much needed, not only the girl time but also because Chloe and Hershey have been testing me big time and the movie renewed my happy thoughts for them), and to do some scrapbooking.

So here's the scoop. Since we took Annabel in to the ER a couple of weeks ago she appeared to be back on track for a few days, eating and drinking fine, happy and smiling (had a great time Christmas Day opening gifts), and doing her therapies, however, early last week she started being really fussy with eating and drinking again. So last Tuesday I took her to the pediatricians because I started reading up on constipation and it says one factor can be inactivity which she is obviously less active than Johnathan and Madelyn but was eating the same foods so this made sense so I wanted to talk about her diet and plan to control it. So the doctor confirmed that yes, she is constipated and she prescribed a half capful of Miralax once a day until she cleaned herself out and then we could adjust it accordingly to her needs, hopefully get her off once she gets more active. The Miralax (along with only feeding fruits and veggies) appeared to be working, causing her to poop one good poop a day but it hasn't seemed to be enough as she has continued to have a hard tummy and has now been quite fussy with any solids and we have had to force feed any liquids to keep her hydrated. She is also very cranky and starting yesterday is a LOT more tired, probably due to not having her normal nutrition requirements met. So I called the on-call pediatrician last night and was told to increase her Miralax to a half capful twice a day and so far today she has had diarrhea but has not been as fussy with her bottle, we are now just working to get an ounce or two in in between her sleeping sessions. She did spit up both her applesauce last night and yogurt this morning so we're not suspending solids until we can get this figured out. So more than likely I will be taking her back to the pediatricians tomorrow. Needless to say it has been a very tiring week/few days and very worrisome. I have hated having to force her to drink but know that she needs to stay hydrated (also worried if this will cause any issues down the road with drinking/eating), we haven't been able to do much of any therapy with her for weeks now and are worried of negative effects this could cause (in the back of our minds we were already worried that she still isn't sitting up on her own willingly, which is SO frustrating because we know she can do it!), and finally eventhough her shunt was fully checked a few weeks ago in the ER it is still in the back of our minds, although I really don't think it is the issue since she is not running a temp, but I have to say that the recent vommitting/sleepiness has made me more worried.

On top of all of this all three have been teething, Mady now has 8 teeth, Annabel 7, and Johnathan 6 and they have all fought a touch of a cold, needing to be on Albuterol for a few days with Johnathan still on it. Christmas Eve Day was probably one of the worst since we've had all three home, they were all SO cranky!! As I said, we have had some good days/times in the last few weeks, it's just been outweighed by Annabel's recent problems. Mady continues to "talk" like crazy, saying some real words, strings of words such as "I did it and I want that", and just jabbering a bunch, it is so cute! She has also mastered "So Big!" with Johnathan getting close. Johnathan continues to take a few steps here and there and gets himself in trouble with climbing, the kid is SO strong! The two are quite cute, they can play together so well and then in an instant start fighting, it's funny to watch. We all had a very nice Christmas, receiving a lot of nice gifts from people, which we greatly appreciate! I will post a slideshow of pictures from the past few weeks soon, I just wanted to get an update posted. If everyone can please send out an extra prayer for Annabel that we can get her issues figured out soon so she can feel better and we can continue on with therapy, etc. with no negative effects from the past few weeks we would appreciate it! It is so hard to see her so unhappy and in pain, the toughest thing for a parent to watch with their child.