Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Not Exactly What I Had in Mind.....
When I said the other day that our weekends could use a little more adventure, this isn't exactly what I had in mind:
Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. We spent Saturday night in the ER so Merrick could get his first (and hopefully last) stitches. Long story short, he is okay and I think Craig and I are much more traumatized from the incident. Long story long, here goes.....
Saturday night we decided to give him a bath in the tub in our bathroom. I scooped him out and wrapped him in a towel. He started to walk away from me and tripped, and of course since his arms were in the towel he couldn't catch himself. I tried so hard to get to him in time before he fell, but I couldn't. His eye smashed right into the marble trim at the bottom of our shower.
At first Craig and I were in denial. I mean, the cut was so small lengthwise. But it was very deep, much deeper than the scar on his OTHER eye (grrrrrr), so off to the ER we went. He wasn't really in pain at all after the initial fall, and it wasn't bleeding too badly, so he was in great spirits in the ER. Good thing, because we were in the waiting room for about 3 hours before anyone saw us! One of the nurses would come out periodically to announce the next patient to come back....ie "Amanda Poole", and Merrick right away would shout out "Amanda Poole!!!!"....we were just cracking up. Well then almost the entire waiting room started laughing when he was doing this, so of course that just encouraged him more. It was so funny!
So finally it's our opportunity to go back to see the doctor, and Craig and I were very naive because we thought for sure they would use some of that stitch glue and we could call it a night. Unfortunately that was not the case - the doctor said the cut was way too deep and our only option was stitches. We were beside ourselves. I know so many kids have gone through so much more, and so many parents may think that compared to what they've gone through, this would be a walk in the park. But to me and Craig, this was probably the worst thing we could hear!!
Because of the location of his cut - right by his eye - they would have to completely restrain him (ie wrap him up with his arms in a sheet and a nurse to restrain his head), then give him the shots and then do the stitches. For the faint at heart or the type for no drama, now would be the time to stop reading.
I had to step out beforehand and CRY MY EYES OUT before the procedure. There was no way I wanted Merrick to see me lose it. I came back in and forced myself to get it together. They had to restrain him, a nurse held his head, I held his upper body and Craig held his legs. I'm tearing up even as I write this, but believe it or not I want to have these memories for when we look back. Obviously Merrick screamed when they did the shots...no question that hurt. But I think far worse for him was the fact that he was being restrained. And what tore me and Craig apart, besides the fact that the shots hurt, was that WE, his own parents, were the ones restraining him. What did I want to do? Grab him off the table, kick the doctor in the teeth (sorry doc, but it's true!) and run out of there!!
We got through it, Merrick was just sweating like crazy because he was so worked up and still crying, so I told Craig to get all the instructions from the doctor because I was taking him out of there STAT (heh heh). We're in the waiting room, I'm crying and trying hard not to let him see me. Then when Craig walked out to the waiting room, I saw that his face was streaked with tears too.
For all you parents out there that have had to go through MUCH worse - KUDOS. I don't know how you do it. I guess you just have to do it.
I was thinking, Merrick is sort of at the WORST possible age for this thing. When they're infants, of course it's going to hurt and they don't understand and I wouldn't wish it on any infant. But they don't necessarily feel the restraint factor, so once the shots are over it's no longer painful. For older kids, you can explain..."okay honey, the shot was the worst part and now you won't feel a thing!"...but for him, he doesn't get what that means necessarily. All he knows is he's got 3 adults holding him down, 2 of which are the people he's supposed to trust the most!
Well, what's done is done and I'm sure he'll look at his scar later and think it's just the coolest thing ever. He's probably half forgotten about the event already. Craig and I? We'll NEVER forget it!! I just keep telling myself it could have been much worse...we're lucky it was only a few stitches.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Great Food Fast of 2009
It's official. Merrick has decided that he will now be fasting. I'm not sure yet whether there's something he's protesting, or if it's part of his spiritual journey.
Case in point, we are at Teri and David's for dinner over the weekend. The kids were all playing in the back yard, and when it's time for dinner, his cousin Wren starts yelling - "yay, yay, dinner!". Merrick's response?....."wah, no dinner mama, no dinner!". We all sit at the table, he takes a sip of water, and says "all done mama!"....urrrgghhhhhhhh.
It's so bad that when I do catch him taking a bite of something, while I attempt to show no reaction to him about it, inside I have fireworks going off in my head, I want to do cartwheels, etc. It's so bad that we've gotten off track with our feeding philosophy, and have caught ourselves trying to sneak bites in his mouth as he zips through the kitchen. It's so bad that he's the only kid I know who really couldn't care less about cookies and other sweets. He will take 2 little nibbles of a cookie and then he's done with it.
This weekend, I pulled out my 'Child of Mine' book once again to refresh our memory on what we are supposed to do. We have to go back to square one....be completely nonchalant about food and act as though we don't care either way what or if he eats. He should eat what we are eating, and we just need to make sure there is at least one thing on the menu we know he'll love and eat. We can only control what we put in front of him, HE is the only one that can control what he eats. Ahhhh, deep breaths!
A quick background for those not up to date on the pedi appointment - when he had his last well baby check in Oct of last year, while he was in 75th percentile for height, he was under 5% for weight. That in and of itself wouldn't be too big of a deal (chalk it up to genetics...certainly not from ME....he has Craig to thank for that). What concerned the pediatrician is that his height was continuing to increase, but his weight in proportion was dropping. He ended up doing bloodwork just in case (another story in and of itself, let's just say I'd rather have my arm chopped off then have to put him through bloodwork). The pediatrician wanted to check liver and kidney function, and see if he had an issue with overactive thyroid. Turns out, all his tests came back okay except the thyroid, which was actually UNDERactive (hypothyroidism), which would actually cause the opposite problem if not treated - ie weight GAIN. So, didn't solve the mystery of the weight issue, yet we did find the issue with the thyroid. It's a miracle we found this because we weren't looking for it, and in the early stages of development this can be a big problem if undetected. So we are VERY lucky that we caught this and he is seeing an endocrinologist/taking medications to regulate his thyroid.
So we have to weigh him every other week at the pediatrician. The good news is, he is gaining weight slowly but surely. Although I have NO idea how he's gaining weight...I noticed the other day he has a bunch of bite marks on his crib....could that be sustaining him?!
Case in point, we are at Teri and David's for dinner over the weekend. The kids were all playing in the back yard, and when it's time for dinner, his cousin Wren starts yelling - "yay, yay, dinner!". Merrick's response?....."wah, no dinner mama, no dinner!". We all sit at the table, he takes a sip of water, and says "all done mama!"....urrrgghhhhhhhh.
It's so bad that when I do catch him taking a bite of something, while I attempt to show no reaction to him about it, inside I have fireworks going off in my head, I want to do cartwheels, etc. It's so bad that we've gotten off track with our feeding philosophy, and have caught ourselves trying to sneak bites in his mouth as he zips through the kitchen. It's so bad that he's the only kid I know who really couldn't care less about cookies and other sweets. He will take 2 little nibbles of a cookie and then he's done with it.
This weekend, I pulled out my 'Child of Mine' book once again to refresh our memory on what we are supposed to do. We have to go back to square one....be completely nonchalant about food and act as though we don't care either way what or if he eats. He should eat what we are eating, and we just need to make sure there is at least one thing on the menu we know he'll love and eat. We can only control what we put in front of him, HE is the only one that can control what he eats. Ahhhh, deep breaths!
A quick background for those not up to date on the pedi appointment - when he had his last well baby check in Oct of last year, while he was in 75th percentile for height, he was under 5% for weight. That in and of itself wouldn't be too big of a deal (chalk it up to genetics...certainly not from ME....he has Craig to thank for that). What concerned the pediatrician is that his height was continuing to increase, but his weight in proportion was dropping. He ended up doing bloodwork just in case (another story in and of itself, let's just say I'd rather have my arm chopped off then have to put him through bloodwork). The pediatrician wanted to check liver and kidney function, and see if he had an issue with overactive thyroid. Turns out, all his tests came back okay except the thyroid, which was actually UNDERactive (hypothyroidism), which would actually cause the opposite problem if not treated - ie weight GAIN. So, didn't solve the mystery of the weight issue, yet we did find the issue with the thyroid. It's a miracle we found this because we weren't looking for it, and in the early stages of development this can be a big problem if undetected. So we are VERY lucky that we caught this and he is seeing an endocrinologist/taking medications to regulate his thyroid.
So we have to weigh him every other week at the pediatrician. The good news is, he is gaining weight slowly but surely. Although I have NO idea how he's gaining weight...I noticed the other day he has a bunch of bite marks on his crib....could that be sustaining him?!
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