Friday, March 12, 2010

Terrible Twos

Once Mr. C turned two it was like something came over him. It’s one thing to deal with a temper tantrum during a short period of time during the day (when caring for other children) in a controlled setting where it’s easy to walk away and ignore it. It’s another completely different situation when you have to constantly battle them in public places.

I wanted to take him to the park and other fun places, but the tantrums he would throw every time we had to leave almost made it not even worth the trip. I finally learned some tricks of the trade and developed a plan every time we went somewhere.

I would bring a favorable snack and when it was time to go I would give 10 and then 5 minute warnings. However, when it was actually time to go I would say let’s go get a snack in the car. Sometimes he would immediately say “No!” and then one second later he would say, “Okay!”

That’s another one of the most adorable things about Mr. C. For a long time he would never say yes it was always, “Okay!”

“Do you want to play with cars?” “Okay!” Do you want to eat lunch?” “Okay!” “Do you have to go potty?” “Okay!” Especially the way he says it, but anyways…

We still have some attempted tantrums when leaving a desirable place, but I always make sure to leave when we say we are going to regardless of the tantrum. Lately, I have been reminding him prior to going in or to a place that he needs to remain calm and not get upset when it is time to go or we won’t come back for awhile. Somehow he seems to understand this.

I have also found the some of the methods in the book 1-2-3 Magic to be very useful as well. It’s nice to only have to say a few words and end a tantrum in its tracks.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Heading into the Toddler Years

As the toddler years arrived, life has been anything but dull. Mr. C was one of the most active one and two year olds you would probably ever meet. The energizer bunny has nothing on him. We had to let him play in the garage on his tractor to help get his energy out or he was bouncing on the walls!

For awhile he continued taking pretty good naps, but after a move to a new home in April of 2009 (a few short months after he turned two), naps became a thing of the past. Of course we tried to hold onto these for dear life as they were my only hope for a break during the day, but he resisted with every bone in his body.

It ended up delaying his nap so much that he wouldn’t go to bed at night during his usual bedtime. Then he would be up for so long lying awake in bed that he would be overtired the next day.

Finally, we gave up and just moved his bedtime to a ridiculously early time to ensure he was getting adequate sleep. He usually gets the 11-12 hours each night that he needs, but the 12 hour stretch during the day is exhausting.

We still have him in his crib because every time we try to transition him to a big boy bed he starts waking up in the middle of the night to play with his toys or try to get us to play with him. We tried it a few times, but then decided since technically he still fits in the crib and for some reason does not climb out of it so why bother.

My only real issue is the whole potty part of it, but he tells us when he has to go and we just get him down and take him to the potty. However, the first week of potty training he ended up pooping in his bedtime pull up, removing it and then making the most beautiful finger painting all over the crib.

I was especially thrilled by the streaks that were on his blanket that he was chewing on when I arrived. I suppose I should just get used to life as the mother of a boy and expect to see snakes, bugs and other slimy unidentifiable objects throughout his upbringing.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Asthma and allergies not fun at all!

Mr C actually just turned 3 in December (I know I know I really need to go and get some updated family pictures!), but when Mr. C was about 15 months he became diagnosed with asthma and multiple food allergies including nuts and eggs.

The food allergies have not been as bad as I originally thought, but it’s really his asthma that bothers me the most. He is taking multiple medications that I am not particularly fond of to control it, which started after a serious incident that landed him in the hospital.

Talk about a traumatic experience for a child. He acted like he had post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) every time we went to a doctor after this experience. It all started with a trip to the emergency room when he was having difficult time breathing.

They immediately brought him into the nurses’ station where they put some type of monitor on his finger to check his oxygen levels. Although, he wasn’t thrilled to have the monitor on his finger, he appeared to still be calm at that point (Not for long).

Then we were placed into a small patient room where there were suddenly about 4-5 nurses and staff in the room doing multiple things. I was overwhelmed and I could only imagine what he was thinking. First they tried to give him an oral steroid that apparently is the worst tasting thing you can think of giving a child. This resulted in him throwing up all over me, which was just lovely.

Then they wanted to take his temperature, but for some reason under the arm just wouldn’t be accurate enough, so they flipped him onto his belly and stuck the thermometer up his you know what. Now really in this situation is that necessary? He had never even had his temperature taken rectally at that point and the speed in which they did it alone was enough to make it seem questionable.

So, then they gave him a shot in his leg to replace the steroid he “threw up” all over me, started shoving a nebulizer in his face to give him a breathing treatment and put an IV in his arm. The IV was covered by an arm cast, so that he couldn’t bend his arm or move it. Then they attempted to give him some type of thick pink liquid medicine that was an antibiotic and I’m not even kidding that this all took place within the first 20 minutes of our arrival.

He was screaming, crying, grabbing onto me for dear life as I am just covered with puke. I guess his oxygen levels were low, but the method that they were using was making him more upset and making it even more difficult for him to breathe. Finally, he exhausted himself and fell asleep on me (now in a hospital gown to rid myself of my puke stained clothing). This at least allowed us to successfully give him his breathing treatment, but to no avail he did not improve and ended up needing to be admitted.

However, they did not have a pediatrician on staff over night at this particular hospital and wanted to transport him to another via ambulance. So, we had to strap him into a car seat on a stretcher and transport him in an ambulance to another hospital about 20 minutes away.

There they wanted him to lie in a bed for about three days while he recuperated. I was about to go insane by the end of this fiasco because if you know anything about asthma medications, they make you extremely hyperactive and wired, so lying in a bed was not what he wanted to do.
Despite all this, I am so thankful that he was okay and has been doing much better with his asthma since.

Recently, I have been reading about the benefits of taking raw honey to help relieve the symptoms of asthma, which we are currently trying. I'll let you know the results after a few months!

In the Beginning

The day after my son was born, my dad came to visit us at the hospital. My dad can be very serious at times, but he usually has a pretty goofy personality. Either he couldn’t remember what name we had chosen or he was showing off his goofy personality, but that was the day that the nickname Mr. C became official.

Although, I’m thinking maybe he couldn’t remember as this is not entirely unusual for him either. Growing up my sisters and I have frequently been referred to by all sorts of names including each others! This was also a problem at times with boyfriends coming over. I remember one time when I had been dating someone for over a year and he referred to him by my ex-boyfriend's name. Ahh! But, I still love him just the same :)

Mr. C wasn’t always an easy child and it was obvious right from the start that eating was his priority and sleeping was not. The first night home I suddenly realized, “Wow, babies are a lot of work!” Mr. C continued to have frequent night waking until he was about 8 months old. We knew that part of his problem was reflux, but that didn’t explain why he just never seemed to nap longer than 20-30 minutes. At that time a friend recommended a book that saved our lives. Healthy Habits Happy Child by Marc Weisbluth M.D.

I know a lot of parents are reluctant to do the cry it out method and I completely understand, but we did find the check and soothe method to work out well and achieved the same effect. He learned how to fall asleep on his own and slept through the night. The first night was a dream. I think my body was in shock from all the REM.

Well, the following blog is the story and daily adventures of my son Mr. C also known as Mr. Stinker pants, Mr. Smarty pants and Funny guy.