Three Years Old!

Somehow the crazies are three! 

 Emily is a crazy little girlie! And she's a girly girl in the fact that she loves pink, purple, princesses, dress, tights, and pretties in her hair. She's also very athletic and can make baskets, throw and catch balls, and has lots of coordination and agility. She's very caring and normally wants to make sure her brothers are okay and is normally looking out for them. She's a whole lot less shy than she used to be, but is still hesitant towards strangers most of the time.

Kyle is crazy, loud, and sometimes obnoxious. Kyle likes brown, blue, green, cars, firetrucks, and being loud! Kyle is very good at doing puzzles and problem solving; if it didn't require him to sit semi still, he would most likely sit and do puzzles all day long. Kyle's favorite phrase is "maybe Saturday" when he doesn't want to do something (or doesn't want to do it right now). Kyle loves having a little brother to wrestle with, but sometimes forgets that sisters don't always like to wrestle as much as brother do!

It's amazing how much Kyle and Emily's vocabularies have expanded in the past few months. They are always learning new words and phrases. Sometimes we just have to stop and laugh at the crazy things they say. They both tend to talk non-stop and sometimes I'm pretty sure they are the only ones that understand what they are saying. (They apparently can understand everything Colby says too!)

Emily and Kyle love going to church. The past year they have been in the two year old class and have enjoyed having a little bit of structure, doing lessons and crafts, and having a teacher. They also love playing at church with grandparents and a few of our teens' parents on Sunday nights during youth group. Tomorrow they will move up to the three and four year old class during regular church!

Kyle and Emily love to watch and help in the kitchen. They love to dump ingredients into the bowl and watch the Kitchen Aid mix stuff up. For whatever reason, they also enjoy watching stuff bake in the oven if we turn the light on for them to see.

Kyle and Emily probably have more screen time than they should, but they love Disney Junior shows and the PBS that we let them watch. Their favorites are George, Chuggington, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, Handy Manny, and Henry Hugglemonster. They also love to play their games and puzzles on the iPad. They are also a fan of movies and love Cars and all three Toy Story movies.

Emily and Kyle recognize all of the upper case letter and are starting to understand that each letter has a lower case one too. They sometimes can say the ABC's by themselves, but most the time, if they aren't singing along with someone or something, they tend to skip a few letters.

They both can consistently count to ten by themselves, but sometimes can get as high as twenty. They are also starting to understand that numbers are for counting things and not just a sequence to rattle off. We've started to talk a little bit about addition and subtraction. Kyle seems like he sometimes understands.

Our schedule is pretty much the same. Their clock turns on in the morning at 8am, and they normally are awake waiting for it to turn on. Shortly after they wake up, we eat breakfast and then play or do adventures or whatever until lunch time. We normally eat lunch between 11:30 and 12:30, depending on the day. After lunch is rest time for Kyle and Emily. Some days they take naps and some days they just lay in bed and rest with a book. Normally between 3:00 and 3:30 they are done with rest time. Dinner is around 5:30. After dinner, we normally play for a little bit, pick up toys, do baths, read the Bible, and they are normally in bed around 7:00.

Potty training wise, we rarely have accidents any more! Emily and Kyle are both really good about going to the bathroom when they need to. They sometimes go by them selves and sometimes ask for help. We have recently transitioned to underwear at nap time and training pants (instead of diapers) at night time and have been waking up dry for the more part!

I'm going to do the questions again like I did at two and a half. Hopefully I'll get a chance to ask the kiddos them tomorrow!

Thirteen Months Old!

So...I'm a week late with this update... But I think I have a few good reasons! It's bee a rough week and a half. I took the pictures on Tuesday, so they are only four days late! :)

Colby is a little stinker that LOVES to be the center of attention. He likes to have people watching him and talking to him. He loves to play with people and LOVES to be chased. He loves to wave at people and give hive fives!

Colby still only has two teeth! But boy, they are sharp!!

Colby has been consistently sleeping through the night. He normally nurses around 7:00pm for about an hour, and then wakes up between 4am and 6am. I nurse him for normally a half an hour and then most of the time he goes back to sleep until 8:00 am or so.

Colby's size 12 month clothes are finally actually starting to fit him. He has been wearing then for a month or so, but most of them were pretty big on him.

Colby has started to like wearing his shoes. When we get ready to go and I get shoes out, he always finds his and tries to put them on. Then he will also try to help everyone else put their shoes on. He also likes to put his hat on when we are getting ready to leave.

Colby loves to read books. Normally books will keep him busy for a while. He will sit in a lap and be read to, but he mostly enjoys "reading" them by himself.

Colby is still our little monkey boy. If I leave him in a room for a minute while I run to the bathroom or something, it always amazed me where I find him when I come back. He can now get on the couch and mommy and daddy's bed by himself.

Colby knows that food comes from the kitchen. Most of the time when he's hungry, he will wander to the kitchen and start looking for food to eat. It's kind of cute.. and kind of not at the same time! And kind of scary considering all his food allergies. Currently his allergy list is dairy, any by product of dairy, oats, peanuts, tree nuts, tomatoes, carrots, peas, and citrus.We are also avoiding soy, bananas, applesauce, rice, and large amounts of bread. (This post explains some of that.)

Eating wise... Colby loves to eat. His favorite foods are grapes and sweet potatoes (we had a scare when he reacted to sweet potatoes once, but we fine when we tried then again a few weeks later!). He always wants silverware at meals, and has actually started using his fork to eat with!

Overall, Colby is a happy, crazy toddler that loves life and loves to get into everything! He bring us so much joy and we are thankful God has given him to us!

Colby's Follow Up Appointment

We went back to the doctor today for Colby's follow up appointment. We were told to follow up in two days, but I wanted to push it back a little bit to give him a little longer to get back to "normal" before we follow up.

The first concern was that Colby has lost an ounce shy of a pound since he was discharged on Monday.

The second concern is that he's only had one poopy diaper since Monday.

The third concern is that he has had lots of hives in the past week.

The fourth concern is is wheezing.


Most likely the hives and wheezing are a result of not keeping down/taking his antihistamine and singular while he was sick and in the hospital. While he wasn't eating a whole lot, he (or I) didn't eat anything that we know he's allergic too. This leads to the thought that he still has more food allergies that we aren't aware of. Because of this, the doctor recommended that I start keeping a food journal again of everything we both eat and keep track of when he has hives and when his eczema and wheezing seem to get worse.

Because of the whole poop thing, we are still trying to get him to take his stool softener. This has been a struggle the past few days as Colby doesn't like to drink anything unless it's breastmilk... and that he really only likes from the source... or water. We are doing our best to make sure he drinks all whatever we mix the stool softener with. We are also feeding him things like prunes and grapes to try to help things out naturally and avoiding things like bananas, applesauce, rice, and breads (thinks that naturally can cause constipation).

The doctor is also thinking that Colby might have celiac disease. He said that there are a couple options to go about figuring this out and we have to decide what we would like to do. To do blood work or biopsies to test for celiac disease, he must still be eating things with gluten in them. So, I think our plan is to do the blood work in the beginning of next week and then cut gluten from Colby's (and my) diet.

Colby is being referred to a GI specialist. Even if he doesn't have celiac disease, there is still concern that something is going on GI related because of his hard stools (which has been since he started having solids). He is also going to be referred to a dietitian to help us figure out what we can safely feed him and to make sure that he is getting all the nutrients that he needs.

I was also encouraged to keep on breastfeeding him. Breastmilk is the easiest thing for him to digest and as long as I am not eating anything he has issues with, then it is the best thing for him.

And we follow up with our pediatrician in a month for a weight check and to check in with how everything else is going.

Colby's Hospital Visits

Last Wednesday morning Colby started throwing up while he was nursing first thing in the morning. I didn't think much of it because sometimes he just throws up. We went about our morning and took an adventure to the library and Meijer. After lunch, while nursing, Colby threw up again. And he kept throwing up... and throwing up... and throwing up... and he wasn't having any wet diapers. After dinner, I called and talked to the on-call doctor and he told me to try pedialyte and if he couldn't keep that down to take him to the ER.

After more throwing up, Colby and I headed to the ER once Brent got home from church. After a long wait, we finally saw the doctor. They gave Colby zofran and more pedialyte. He managed to keep down the pedialyte with the help of the zofran, but had an allergic reaction to something and was covered in hives, so he was also given benadryl. After his hives started to go away, they were ready to discharge him since he hadn't thrown up any more. I asked if he should have IV fluids because he still hadn't had a wet diaper, and they told me no, that he was fine, and sent us home.

We had more throwing up shortly after we got home.

Thursday he finally had a damp diaper, but still hasn't keeping anything down besides little bits of breastmilk. I talked to a nurse at our peds office in the afternoon, and she said to just keep trying to breastfeed him as he could tolerate it. After more throwing up and no more wet diapers, I called in the evening and talked to the on call doctor again. He told me to give his belly a little while to rest, and then to try to get him to sip pedialyte slowly and if he could keep that down, to try to nurse him again. If he was still throwing up, we needed to take him back to the ER. After a few hours, he seemed to has a settled belly and went to sleep after nursing a bit.

Friday morning about 2am, Emily woke up screaming. She needed to throw up. And a little bit later, she needed to throw up some more. And then Colby was wake and wanted to eat... and then he threw up. Once the doctor's office opened, I called and made appointments for both kiddos for that afternoon. We had a long morning with lots of puke! Luckily, Emily is good about throwing up in the bucket, so I only had to worry about cleaning up after Colby.

By the time we got to the doctor, both of their belly's seemed to have settled down. They gave us Gerber Replenish (a kid version of Gatorade) for Emily and thought she was on the mend. They were a little more worried about Colby because he hadn't kept a whole lot down for three days and had only had three kind of wet diapers and one diaper of diarrhea. They wanted me to take him to have blood word done and bring him back to the office for another check in the morning. The doctor told me that Colby most likely would be admitted to the hospital when we came back on Saturday unless there was a huge improvement.

We went to the hospital after the doctor's office to have blood work done. They had such a hard time getting his vein. The tech told me that he was extremely dehydrated based on how hard his blood drawl was. The poor kid just sat there as the tech poked around his arm for a bit to get blood. :(



Friday night there was more puke.

Saturday morning Colby and I headed to the doctor's office. They examined him and the doctor (a different one than he saw on Friday) thought that he didn't look dehydrated, but his blood work showed that he was, so she wanted to try to get a urine sample before deciding to admit him or send us home. The nurse cathed Colby and tried for a LONG time to get a urine sample, but had no luck. The doctor same in and said "You boy looks a whole lot healthier than he is" and sent us to the hospital to be admitted.

So off to the hospital we went. We got Colby all check in and Grandma Franks came to hang out with us. He had his own room and was put in isolation. This meant that he wasn't allowed to leave his room and all of the doctors and nurses that came in had to wear a gown, gloves, and a mask. He finally got his IV a little after noon, but they couldn't get blood when they put it in, so he had to get poked again. The first try also didn't work, so the poor kiddo got poked a third time! After lots of fluids, he finally seemed to be feeling a little better and peed!

Around dinner time, Ian (my sister's boyfriend) was handing out with Colby and I. I handed Colby to Ian to cuddle while I ate my dinner, and Colby decided to throw up. All over himself and a little on the floor. Luckily, Ian didn't get any on him. Unluckily, Colby got it all over himself and his with his IV in it. Because it was covered in puke, they had to change the board on his arm. While cutting the tape to clean it all up, the nurse cut his IV line. So it was a HUGE deal to change it and took a long time. Colby was not a happy camper. A while while later, Grandma came back to get all the stuff Colby threw up on to wash it... and Colby thanked Grandma by throwing up on her!

A little while later, Grandma and Ian left. We hung out for a bit and then Kara showed up after she was done with work. Kara helped get Colby to sleep for a little bit. Shortly after Kara left, Colby woke up and screamed... and screamed... and screamed...We had a rough night.

Sunday was another long day. In the morning, Colby seemed to be doing better, so his IV fluids were stopped and I was told to feed him some solids. Grandma Franks, Kara, and Ian hung out with us most of the morning and Colby was doing okay. Until everyone left, and he felt the need to throw up again! He also wasn't having wet diapers again. The doctor's decided to do an ultrasounds to make sure his bowels weren't telescoping, but that came back normal.

Sunday evening, Grandma and Grandpa Franks and Kara came back to visit. Daddy, Kyle, and Emily also came for a short visit after youth group. The kiddos all seemed very happy to see each other.

They wanted to give him a few more hours to nurse and have a wet diaper, but early Monday morning his IV fluids were started again because he wasn't peeing.

Monday morning, I started not feel good and throwing up. It only last a few hours, but I was pretty miserable during those few hours. I'm not sure what my problem was. The thoughts were I may had gotten some dairy by accident or maybe it was just eating all the processed hospital foods. But either by, after a few hours, I was back to normal.

During morning rounds, the doctors decided that he might be constipated, so they decided to do an x-ray to check that out. While we were waiting to go to x-ray, Grandpa Eubank came to visit.

Colby enjoyed leaving his room to go get his x-ray. While we were waiting in the holding already, he was walking around in circles pushing his IV pole. It was pretty cute! He was not very happy when we had to go back to his room after his x-rays were done.

The x-rays showed that Colby was extremely constipated. The doctor's ordered an enema and while we were waiting for the nurse, Colby decided he was going to poop on his own. He pushed, and pushed, and pushed and finally got a little bit out. Poor little dude still had to get his enema. He did not lot it, but seemed to feel better after some of the poop was cleared out. They also took his IV out. We also go to go for a walk... as long as I had him in my wrap. So I wrapped him up and we did about six laps. He was very relaxed and loved being out of his room for a while. Grandma Franks came back and we went back to his room and tried to get him to eat and drink. He ate lots of crackers and drank almost a whole sippy cup of water. He kept every down and peed and was acting like himself again! So we were discharged to go home!! Daddy, Kyle, and Emily came to get us.

When we left and took Colby to the van, he was very excited. It was kind of funny. We had a good night. Once we got home, Colby nursed and went to sleep and slept all night!

Tuesday was a rough day. All three kiddos wanted 100% of my attention all day long. Colby wasn't interested in much food, but wanted to nurse most of the day. At lunch, he ate a little too much and threw up, but other than that seemed okay. He had lots of wet diapers.

Today, everything seemed to be getting back to our normal routine. Colby nursed when when he woke up, after lunch, and at bedtime. He has been eating normal and keeping everything down. He hasn't been pooping though and his belly seems to be bothering him. He was sent home with a stool softener, but they normally take a few days to work, so hopefully tomorrow we'll have a poopy diaper or two.

This afternoon a nurse from our peds office called to check on Colby. She has been assigned to be his case manager and wanted to touch base with me before starting some referrals. Colby's doctor thinks there might be a connection between Colby's constipation/throwing up and his allergies. We have a follow up appointment on Friday and sounds like Colby is going to be referred to see a GI specialist and a dietitian. She also gave us some food to try to help Colby poop and foods to avoid. If he doesn't poop by tomorrow afternoon, I'm supposed to call her back and she'll get us in tomorrow instead of Friday.

Please continue to pray for Colby as we continue to get everything all figured out. The poor kid's list of foods that cause reactions keep growing and his little body seems to be having all sorts of issues. And please pray for wisdom as we feed him (and as I eat) and take care of him. Hopefully we can get everything all sorted out soon!