Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter

Today was Easter, however I feel like we need to have a re-do. Chris is really sick, Colin and I just got home from the hospital last night and we are really tired, and Alyssa is still coughing.
So we stayed in Pj's and watched movies all day. There was no church service to attend, no dinner to cook( we ended up with take out from AppleBees).
The Easter Bunny did come visit and so we did get pictures of the kids with their Easter baskets, and Alyssa got to search for eggs. But this was all done in PJ's not a fancy new dress.
Ohh Well at least we got to be a family together in one place for Easter.

RSV

I knew what RSV was it was a bad cold that babies can get that put them in the hospital. I knew that RSV could be very dangerous but I also knew that it could just act like a cold and nothing more would come of it.
So when one of the babies at the day care was diagnosed with RSV I said a quick little prayer that no one else got it and moved on. A week later I got sick.
Last Saturday ( the 16th) I felt horrible and went to the walk in clinic at Wal greens. I thought I had bronchitics. Well while at the walk in clinic my heart rate was in the 130's. Even though my blood pressure was good, the insisted I go straight to the hospital. So I went and after an EKG, chest X-rays, breathing treatment and steriods they told me what I had already thought and sent me home with medicine for bronchitics.
Also on Saturday Alyssa and Colin started coughing. I started Alyssa on her breathing treatments and just watched Colin. By Saturday night I was calling the after hours line on Colin because he seemed to be having a harder time breathing. They told me to give him breathing treatments as well.
On Sunday I gave both kids treatments all day.
On Monday I took both kids to the doctors. He told me Alyssa sounded clear but Colin was wheezing a lot and we tried another breathing treatment in the doctors office. He said it helped and told me to do them every 3 hours around the clock and sent us home. Colin got worse.
I called and made another appointment for him on Tuesday. The doctor said he was worse, tried another treatment in the office and sent us home. I cried on the way home because I watch the nurse hook Colin up to a pulse/oxygen machine and it said that it was at 87%.
I came home and cried, I also started doing research. Finally about 2 that day(Tuesday the 19th) I couldn't take it anymore and called Chris and told him I was taking Colin to the ER at Children's Hospital.
We got to the hospital about 3. By 4 we were in a room and being seen by doctors by a little after 5 we had a chest x-ray and by 5:45 the decided he needed to stay over night and be observed for pneumonia and RSV. By the time we got to our room he was on an IV and meds were started.
We thought we were going to get to go home on Wednesday. Wednesday morning they came around for rounds and said that his breathing was still way to fast (over 60 breaths per minute) and that we would be staying another night.
Thursday they said his breathing was a little better but he wasn't eating so we were staying another night and a feeding tube would be place.
On Friday his lungs were a little better his breathing had slowed to the 50's but he still wasn't eating. Friday morning he threw up his morning feeding from the feeding tube and pulled the tube out. So they let us go all day without it.
Saturday morning they came by and said that since he had lost a half of pound that we had to stay another night. However his breathing was much better (in the 40's). By lunch time Colin had been eating and having enough wet diapers that the doctor decided that we could go home at 4 if he continued. He was able to keep his feedings up and we were able to come home on Saturday evening.
I will write a more detailed account of the days but for now I just wanted to write it all out.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Forgiveness

I have been reading a lot on Forgiveness lately. It says that the only way you can move forward is to forgive those who you have held grudges against. Forgiveness is easy when the act they committed isn't big. When someone forgets something they were supposed to do for you it is easy to be mad in the moment but forgive soon after. Now when the act is a lot bigger and life changing I think forgiveness is a lot harder.
Last year at this time I had just started a new job. I started that job because my old boss( lets call her J) had told me she wasn't going to renew my contract for teaching. Now you talk to most people in the teaching community and I was a great teacher and this non-renewal was not due to my teaching abilities but a grudge the boss had against the district. For two years J had made my life a living hell. She would turn parents against me, she would try to turn other teachers against me and she made sure that my class was packed with the kids that had the most behavioral and learning issues.
For two years I would show up each day and do my job to the best of my ability. I would sit in countless meetings. The day she told me that she was not going to renew my contract I thought my world was going to end. All I had ever wanted to do was be a teacher and when your contract is not renewed it makes it a thousand times harder to get a teaching job.
So I left the district with 9 weeks left to start a job at Head Start. It was an okay job but I was bored. I didn't have a classroom of kids and I found I really didn't care for the gossip at the center I was working at. Also the job they had promised me for August all of the sudden in June was not promised anymore.
Now in June I was searching for a job like no other but I was 13 + weeks pregnant and people weren't interested in hiring a pregnant person. That is how I ended up starting my own business and running my own daycare.
I sit here a year later happier than I have been in 3 years and enjoying my job more than ever before.
If J had renewed my contract I would be teaching this year. Talking to my friends that are still in that school and teaching I would have had another year that would have been hard. If J had renewed my contract I wouldn't see Colin doing all the things for the first time or Alyssa forming friendships.
I know that my life is so much better all because my contract wasn't renewed, something I thought was going to ruin my life has made better.
For all this I know I should forgive J. But still every time I think about her I get a pit in my stomach and get frustrated with all that she put me through.
So my goal is to work on forgiving her and looking at the wonderful blessing she has given me instead of looking at the negative side.
So if you have it in you say a prayer for me that God can help guide me in my journey to forgive this person.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

First Trip to the Zoo




On Sunday we decided to skip church and head to the zoo. We always get to the zoo early because for the first hour the zoo is open the children's zoo is free. So we got to the zoo and went to the children's zoo. Every time we go it gets more and more fun with Alyssa. Last time we went it she was about 18 months and every animal we saw was a puppy. This time she knew the animals and enjoyed looking at them. Though she was still more excited about the trees and water.
Colin could have cared less about the zoo. He loves to be outside so he enjoyed hanging out in the stroller and the front pack looking at everything.
By noon we had seen most of the zoo and the kids were getting tired and warm so we left. We drove down to the loop and had lunch at PI. we were able to sit outside in the shade and that was nice to enjoy a little more outside time and Alyssa was able to wander around.
We then came home and enjoyed the rest of our afternoon and evening.
It was a great trip to the zoo. I can't wait to hit up the Transportation Museum and Botanical Gardens during the next few months.