Little man is breathing a lot better today. He did his morning breathing treatment like a champ. I let him watch a video during it. He chose STOMP of course. He sat through the entire treatment and didn't fuss or cry at all. Pedro and I were so surprised. We made sure to give him plenty of high fives, hugs and kisses afterward. His wasn't breathing so well this morning. I think he has started to realize that the nebulizer makes him feel better.
The afternoon treatment was another story. It was a battle through most of it, but I gave him plenty of praise and high fives and rewarded him with a popsicle when it was all done. Usually, if we were going to buy popsicles I would go with the Edy's Pure Fruit bars or make my own, but I decided he deserved a little spoiling so he got to pick his own this time around and selected these Scribblers. Hey, breathing treatments with a 21 month old are NOT high on my list of enjoyable things to do. I am not above a little bribery now and then.
Alright, popsicle time is over. Its back to snuggling on the couch. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Today I was 'that' mom

You know, the one with the cranky, sick kid in a grocery store who lets her kid eat right out of the package BEFORE paying for it. Oh boy. Let me tell you about my morning.
Actually, lets back up to Sunday Night/Monday. Sam started getting a runny nose and watery eyes. He coughed almost the entire night and didn't get much sleep. Neither did we. I figured it was probably just teething or a cold.
We left him with Heather, Tyler, Paige and Wyatt on Tuesday night because we didn't want to drag him out in the cold to test drive the minivan. When we got back, Heather suggested rubbing Vicks on his feet at bedtime to help his nighttime cough. It was amazing. It worked! He only woke up once during the night. She also said she thought he felt hot so we took his temp when we got home and sure enough it was 101.
Wednesday symptoms continued to get worse. I won't gross anyone out with a description of his mucus. We went to get our van last night at 6:00pm and decided to head straight over to the DMV to get the registration, title, and plates taken care of. I am so thankful that we did that. It made today SO much easier.
This morning I could tell Sam's fever had gone down, but he refused to eat breakfast. Very unusual. This kid usually asks for bread as soon as I go get him. He asked for some goldfish and I gave them to him because I just wanted him to eat. He ate three of them. Wow.
Since his fever had gone down, I debated on whether I should take him to the doctor. I am so glad I did.
We saw the doctor around 8:30 this morning. He commented right away on his rapid, labored breathing. His nose and ears looked ok, but when he listened to his lungs, he said he was wheezing and he wanted to do a breathing treatment on him and then come back and listen again. Let me tell you about the joys of using a nebulizer with a 2o month old. He was interested in the machine and actually did a good job keeping it in his mouth, but he did not like the mist coming out and cried, screamed, and flailed through the entire 15 minute process. I felt like a cowboy wrangling a bucking bronco.
The doctor came back and said that his breathing sounded better and his airways were clearer. He then diagnosed him with an upper respiratory infection with bronchospasms and told me he would write me a prescription for a nebulizer and medication and he needed to see us again on Monday. He also said that if his fever went up again he needed to come back to the Dr. right away or go to the ER because that would indicate pneumonia.

Sam was practically shoving my coat on me and begging to put his on at this point. So we left the doctors office and cruised right on over to Airway Oxygen. (Sam loves riding in the van. He gets excited when he sees it and mad when he has to get out. I think he likes that he can see me from his little captains chair in the back.) I cannot say enough nice things about the people at Airway Oxygen. They could see I had a mad, sick kid and made it so quick and easy for me to get everything for Sam. They even gave him a coloring book and crayons that show a little turtle taking breathing treatments. His machine and mouthpieces have little turtles also. They went over exactly how to put everything together, use it and clean it. Then they carried everything out to the car for me.

Now for the BEST part of the trip, Meijer!! I dropped off Sam's prescription at the pharmacy and headed to the grocery area. At this point it was 10:00, but I was hoping and praying that the deli was open so I could get Sam some chicken and potato wedges because he was hungry and throwing a fit. I had the joy of getting dirty looks from everyone I passed by and loved it when I overhead someone make a comment under their breath about how "people shouldn't bring sick kids to the store." I had to bite my tongue and keep walking. I am so thankful for the wonderful woman at the deli who gave Sam a boneless chicken wing and potato wedge FOR FREE even after I had pulled out my wallet. Of course he wouldn't eat them because they were too hot. We quickly picked up a few other things and when we got to the bread aisle he started asking for bread. I opened the package and gave him two pieces. More dirty looks. Really? Because I'm pretty sure I'm going to pay for it and at least my kid is no longer screaming.
We could not pick up our prescription, pay for our items and get out of that store fast enough. Yikes! I was so happy to finally be home at 11:15.
Sam had some chicken nuggets and a popsicle. We snuggled on the couch and watched a little 101 Dalmations and then he fell asleep in my arms and I rocked him and cried out of sheer exhaustion for a couple minutes before I put him to bed. Mom, I am SO glad you are coming to visit this weekend.

My New Wheels!

Yeehaw minivan! I never thought I would own one of these suckers BEFORE I owned a Mustang, but I couldn't be more excited about it. I remember that when I graduated from college my dream was to own a 2004 Mustang Convertible. I sold out and went for the Mitsubishi Galant. Sorry Grandpa Croci. I know how you LOOOOOOOVE those foreign cars. Now you can be happy knowing that we are in possession of a Plymouth Grand Voyager. 7 seats and plenty of trunk space. Now Samson (and eventually Levi) can make the trip to Grandma's in comfort and not be crammed into the backseat like little sardines with bags piled around them. Even more exciting, I can now do my grocery shopping during the day, and Pedro won't have to use his flex time at work everytime I have a doctors appointment. This is key since starting in March I have to go twice a week for non-stress testing. Thank you to all of our friends and family who have loaned us cars and given us rides over the last year while we lived with one car. We couldn't have done it without your help! We love you!

Monday, Monday

Samson loves to eat whole wheat crackers. He thinks they are cookies. (I know. I'm a cruel mom.) After he eats crackers there are usually crumbs ALL over the floor and I usually vacuum them up right away. Today I decided I would wait until later, but Sam went right to the closet and insisted I get out the vacuum and clean up. Then, while I vacuumed the dining room, living room, kitchen and his high chair, he swept with the broom. We put everything away in the closet, but he insisted on getting out the swiffer. After a couple of minutes swiffering, I heard him go to the closet again. I then watched him come back to the living room with the container of wet wipes for the swiffer. He got one out and started putting it on. I had to help him, of course. And then..........HE SWIFFERED every inch of tile and wood laminate in our house!! My mouth hung open. What 20 month old can operate a swiffer? Or wants to? I guess my compulsive cleaning habits are rubbing off on him. Oh dear. I wish I would have gotten it on video tape, but I am pretty sure he will do it again.
We had such a fun morning together. Then, this afternoon, Sam screamed the entire time our sweet babysitter Bethani was here. I'm going to blame it on a combination of teething and not taking a long enough afternoon nap. He is still working on one pesky 2 year molar that hasn't broken through yet. Ugh, teething!
It's snowy here today, but not too cold so Pedro is outside shoveling and grilling some chicken terriyaki. Yum! I'm starving.
I found this cute t-shirt and onesie at Meijer last week and I couldn't resist buying them. They will be perfect for the first time Sam meets Levi.

What. A. Day.

Pedro had President's Day off this year. It was odd. He has never had it off before, but we were thankful to spend an entire day together as a family which is something we never get to do. I had to have a follow up ultrasound for "irregular fetal heartbeat" so I scheduled it for this morning so that Pedro could go. My doctor told us that it was probably nothing and rolled his eyes when he saw that on the report from the 20 week ultrasound. We were happy to see a healthy little baby kicking around in there. The ultrasound tech told us she could see hair on his head already and that everything looked healthy. He weighs 4lbs. 3 oz. already and his feet and nose look exactly like Sam's.
Speaking of Sam, we had a fun afternoon with him. He was sitting watching Veggie Tales with Daddy at about 4:00 when he threw himself forward and slammed his face into one of his drums. He bit right through the space between his bottom lip and his chin.
I called our family doctor and he suggested we take him to the ER in case he needed stitches or a plastic surgeon. No way! It was a clean little cut and I was pretty sure it didn't even need a stitch. We got it to stop bleeding and decided that we would take him to the Medicenter by our house to be on the safe side. No stitches and we were able to get a nurse to look at it while we were still in the lobby. We were out of there in five minutes. Praise God.
Then we took him out for some popsicles and bought him a new Veggie Tale DVD.

Oh Migraine

Migraines must be the payback I get for never having experienced morning sickness. With both pregnancies I have gotten one migraine during each trimester. I started getting one yesterday afternoon. Usually I can sleep them off, but this morning I awoke with what I like to call a migraine hangover. Yuck! I may have to hide Mr. Sam's drums. No complaints from him though since he will be getting to watch a little extra tv so I can rest. I try so hard to limit his viewing time to only 30 minutes a day. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Starting something new........

Dear Blogland,

Sorry for neglecting you. I have been a little busy. District Solo and Ensemble is coming up and I have 8 students going so the past couple of weeks have been a little hectic and crammed full of evening lessons. I have 18 students this year and I think that has been a little too many. I am planning to pare that down to piano students and students going on to State S&E ONLY starting next week. With 10 weeks left of this pregnancy and a busy little toddler, I am exhausted.

However, I have found time to start an additional blog somehow. I got frustrated with the lack of good blogs and online resources for gestational diabetic women so I created my own cooking blog. We'll see how this goes. The recipes I have made so far have all been delicious and Pedro doesn't feel the least bit deprived. Neither do I. You can check out the new blog www.theaccidentaldiabetic.blogspot.com.

Everything is going well so far. My blood sugar levels have been great and my doctor says I can now test once a week, twice a day. The baby is measuring exactly where he should be and is head down. V for VICTORY! We have an ultrasound coming up in about a week and a half. I am looking forward to seeing some 3-D pictures of this little guy. Samson looked exactly like his ultrasounds. And speaking of Samson, I better go see what he is up to. It's a little too quiet suddenly.