decisions | The Angel Forever

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Almost two years

Posted on April 28, 2009 7:55 am by TheAngelForever

It is hard to believe that I have been a stay at home mother (SAHM) for almost two years now. Time sure does fly by when you are busy with two little boys.

I was lucky enough to stay home with NHL for his first year. After that, I went back to teaching for three years before JSL came along. JSL will be two years old in just over two weeks. He and I have been at home the entire time. Recently, I started to look for some things for us to do. Not only do I need to get out, more importantly the little guy needs to socialize with little people his own age. He certainly knows how to play with NHL, but kindergarten kids are not his true peers.

This morning, JSL and I are heading to look at a toddler program for two year olds. He would be able to start it in the fall. It is for 2, 3 or 5 days a week. I would be able to drop him off for 3 hours on those days and he would play and do other developmentally appropriate activities. They also offer the opportunity to entend the day IF you need this. Since the job market stinks, and schools locally are letting teachers go that will not likely be needed. So in a short while the two of us will head off on an adventure.

It will be hard for me to imagine leaving my little guy, but I know it will be good for him down the road.

So, we will see how this goes and if it is not for us, we have plenty of time to find something else. Then we have the entire summer to play and spend time with big brother before September is here. All I can say is they grow up WAY too quickly.

Categories:
brothers decisions jsl looking back nhl photos

I do not want to go

Posted on April 27, 2009 8:27 am by TheAngelForever

A little less than a year ago I made a decision to make a switch, a switch of medical practices that is. For years I had been unhappy with several of the doctors in my OB/GYN group (I have written about this before – especially after JSL’s birth). Still I stayed. Why? Well, when I was pregnant with NHL a new doctor came into the practice. This doctor was young, fresh, a woman and also pregnant herself. She actually sat, listened to me and did not rush from the room. In addition to her, I loved the staff at the office. I stayed out of pure laziness and knowing what I was in for at this practice.

What finally put me over the edge was what happened when I was pregnant with JSL. Numerous times the other doctors were uncaring, got nasty and turned their ear the other way which landed me in surgery. When I went to make an appointment with the doctor I loved for my follow up exam last year, I was told she would only be in the far away office. Very odd.

Lucky for me, when we were at a craft event for kids one weekend, I heard a familiar voice. I looked up and there was the doctor that I really liked. She asked if I had heard the news. After five years, she was moving to a new practice because she could not tolerate what the other three doctors were doing to the practice. I was stunned. I got the information about the new practice and waited a few weeks to call. The new practice had a policy that I had to be seen even if it was not time for my annual visit. So in the early fall I went in and chatted with my doctor in her new office. When I switched my files over I was able to read through them and had some questions for her. She agreed that there were several instances that indicated nobody listened after JSL’s birth. Signs were there on the placenta that it may not be intact. Yet, for weeks they allowed me to bleed and never once looked at the report right in my chart. It sealed the deal that I had made the right decision. Clearly the other doctors had become too busy with things to take a patient who knew something was wrong seriously.

About a month ago, I finally had my annual GYN visit scheduled at the new office. To say that I am not a fan of the nurse the takes you back would be an understatement. I truly do miss the ladies from my old office that did these things. After that I went back to the waiting room. 45 minutes later I was called to the desk. I was told that my doctor was off at a delivery, even though she was not on call. I was offered to see one of the other doctors, but I declined. That’s the beauty of not being pregnant, I can wait and see the person I want to and nobody can say boo.

Last week, I had to cancel the make up appointment on Tuesday. Thank goodness I did since JSL’s temeprature spiked to 104 Monday evening. Today I am supposed to go again. My grandmother is watching JSL, so he will not have to endure waiting with me at the office during his typical nap time. The problem, I just do not want to go. I want to call and cancel. I do not want to deal with the witchy nurse or any of the rest of this.

These are the days that men should be happy they are not a woman and do not have to think about this "fun" event.

Categories:
decisions doctor looking back me moments vent

We love you Grandma

Posted on April 19, 2009 8:21 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday afternoon just before 1:30 the phone was ringing. I was on my cell phone and told Aunt M that I had to get off because I thought it was the doctor calling back about JSL. Then my heart sank. I saw the phone number and it was my in-laws. My in-laws NEVER call during shabbos.

I answered the phone and my FIL asked me to guess why he was calling. I immediately asked what was wrong with Grandma since I knew she had been sick and to Urgent Care the othe day.

A little history: JL’s grandmother, my FIL’s mother, has been living with my in-laws for several months now. She had not been doing well at her new complex and went to stay with them temporarily. That changed when they realized she needed assisted living. Rather than put her into a nursing home she moved in permanently with them.

My father-in-law floored me. He quickly told me that Grandma had passed away. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. I put JL onto the phone to talk to his father briefly. The details were sketchy. Apparently my father-in-law had gotten home from shul and had my mother-in-law make sure Grandma was up for lunch. She went to the table to eat some lunch. Suddenly she told them she didn’t feel good. Those were the last words from her mouth as she passed away at the table with them holding my mother-in-law’s hand.

Grandma was 94 years old in October, the last time the boys and I saw her. We went to celebrate her birthday with the entire extended family. JL saw Grandma when he made a trip alone to see her at the start of February. He wrote about seeing her on his blog.

Grandma’s funeral will be tomorrow early afternoon. We are still trying to figure out the details of JL getting there. Right now we are battling a very high fever with JSL. We went to Urgent Care yesterday afternoon and he has a raging ear infection. With Motrin and Tylenol in him last night we were struggling to keep his temperature below 102. Scarry range since it was exactly three weeks ago that he had two febrile seizures in a 30 hour span of time.

JL will be at his Grandma’s funeral one way or another. I also know that NHL and JSL will have all of our beautiful photos to remind them of the times that they saw and spent time with their very special Great-Grandma M.

Hamming it up with Great Grandma

Grandma . . . we love you.

Categories:
bad news decisions family jl looking back photos sick kid

Ready or not, here comes Passover

Posted on April 2, 2009 8:41 am by TheAngelForever

No matter how much I am in denial, the reality is there. Next Wednesday night is the first Passover Seder.

Over the last month or so we have been slowly gathering more healthy recipes to use for Passover. Of course also with that we have been ~~going into debt~~ buying Passover items before the stores run out. This year JL and I promised each other that we would not buy as much of the prepackaged Passover foods, mixes and things. We have our own baking pans for Passover and bought ingredients that can be used to bake the boys some goodies. Of course we did buy some Rainbow and Bon Bon cookies because those are quite difficult to replicate.

Here is the cabinet in our kitchen completely filled with all of our non-perishable Passover food/baking/spice items.

My biggest dilemma with Passover is breakfast. Most morning I eat instant oatmeal. It is filling, low points and keeps me energized for the morning. Sadly there is no really good option with this for Passover. The boys will likely be eating a LOT of matzah and cream cheese. Yummy indeed, but it is not really an option while being good. I seriously do not want to undo the weight loss that I have done, especially given the commitment to work outs that I have been doing. Since Sunday, I have already done 16.5 miles of work out with Leslie Sansone (not including today).

One option is trying this:

According to JL, it can be used as a hot breakfast cereal of sorts. Has anyone tried this and have any suggestions? Trying to come up with some more options for Passover. We have yogurt, although not one that I really like since it is Kosher for Passover. There will also be egg whites, which are great if I have time to cook them. And of couse I could also do cottage cheese and fruit.

If you have any other suggestions for healthy Passover meals, especially breakfast and even lunch, I would love to hear them.

There are a lot of past postings where I talk about Passover. Just do a keyword search for Passover. Here are my posts from the Seders last year: Happy Passover 2008 – Seder 1 and Seder Part Deux – 2008.

Categories:
decisions holidays jl photos

Four years of physical therapy

Posted on March 30, 2009 8:10 am by TheAngelForever

About four years ago I made a very difficult phone call. JL and I decided it was time to have NHL evaluated with Early Intervention. Our little guy had been talking sentences for quite some time, but he could not walk on his own. He had no real ability to balance if a finger was not held by an adult. After a while, daycare convinced me that it could not hurt to see what happened.

For weeks we worried. Was there something more wrong with NHL’s legs. We went to pediatric neurologists to rule out many different items. They all agreed that it did not present itself like CP or MD. Instead, they believed that he was hyperflexible and had low muscle tone. Their thought was that with some major physical therapy he would not only be able to walk, but eventually catch up to his peers.

NHL has been receiving physical therapy for almost four years. He walked on his own just a few weeks after starting (fluke) right before his second birthday. Soon he was running, jumping came quite a while later and just this weekend we added bike riding to the list.

If you saw NHL with a group of his peers, you would never know he had low muscle tone. These days the only thing that lets us know is gets tired more quickly than other children. This is because his body works extra hard just to stay upright and balance – without adding walking/running/jumping into the mix. We often forget about this and do not understand why he gets tired and a little grumpy after a long day at school or when we go running around on errands.

Here is NHL getting ready to test out his new bike at home for the first time. Helmets are a must before getting on.

Even JSL was happy to be outside in the gorgous weather to watch his big brother. He loved following everyone in his "car car" after being cooped up in the house for the week.

Next thing I knew, NHL was off . . . riding his bike down the block.

The smile on his face made us feel so great. We think that secretly he had always wanted to ride a bike, but was too frustrated to ask. Finally his dreams were coming true thanks to all of his hard work in physcial therapy. NHL was so proud and wanted to show everyone his new bike.

At first he asked for a few pushes to give him some momentum. Then he teased JL, asking for help and then riding off just as he arrived at the bike. Yes, he really was riding a bike and kept it up until the sun was going down.

Now NHL hopes that the rain will stop and it warms up so he can enjoy the so-called spring with his new bike and little brother following along in his car.