I'm back!

I apologize, not that anyone reads my blog anymore these days -- LOL -- I think I lost a lot of my readers after my pregnancy, but that's okay. I have always stated that this is a place for me to record my events so I can refer back to them in one place since I'm not good at jotting stuff down at home.

Life got a little busy and crazy and I didn't have time to blog -- all good and exciting, but nothing I'm going to blog about today. :)

One of my last posts mentioned Andrew's surgery, or potential surgery. I just wanted to update that we had his appointments with the pediatric neurologist as well as the pre-op with the surgeon. They both feel this is the best thing for Andrew.

His behaviors (what would be described by most, conservatively, as "high energy", I have described it myself as "out of control"). Most kids should wake up, full of energy, but there are times that Andrew just lies down on the bathroom floor before/after I put him on the toilet. Sometimes, he will wake up after a nap and fall right back asleep.

His snoring has been going on since about 18 months, not that that in itself is a problem, as it's not continuous, but I have been reminded by Andrew's pediatrician that snoring is not normal under any circumstances (I suppose if one had a cold, that would be an acceptable time to snore). The other issue is the fact that my my mother, my husband, and I have all observed Andrew stopping breathing in his sleep. I watched him cough once and didn't see his chest move again for 22-24 seconds -- during which time he did not struggle or anything. The neuro believes that Andrew could have a mix of obstructive sleep apnea (his big tonsils) and central sleep apnea, which would put his diagnosis as a mixed apnea with possible OSA. The best route of action is to take the tonsils and the adenoids and see if he sleeps better. Should he continue to have problems, we would do a sleep lab study, but the neuro said that it would be crazy to attempt to do one on Andrew if we didn't have to -- they actually glue the sensors on the scalp and all that and Andrew (whose behaviors were observed by the neuro -- and I do think that he was the wildest child he had ever seen) would try and rip them off and it'd be too crazy.

In about 90% of kids, the surgery alone fixes the snoring. The best potential outcome is, Andrew will get better quality sleep and not be so probelmatic during the day.

He also talked to us about redirecting Andrew when he wakes -- take him back to his room and put him to bed in there. I have been caving and letting him come lay by me because I am already waking with the baby when she needs to eat -- combine that with the fact that I have to get up early and go to work = I have always just done what's easiest so that I can function during the day too.

So, we're set. The surgery is Wednesday morning -- 2 days from now. It will take approximately 30 minutes. They will gas him to sleep (this part makes me so nervous), and then put in his IV and tube. He will be in recovery for 1-4 hours during which time they will watch for bleeding (a risk of 4%, pretty rare) and make sure he gets enough fluids. I have off work Wednesday through Friday and then we will also have the weekend. Andrew will be on a popsicle/liquid/soft foods diet.

I pray I am making the right decision. Ultimately, it's an elective surgery with no guaranteed results. I described his sleep behaviors as best I could, but I hope that I painted the right picture so that the doctors could agree. The neurologist did say that this surgeon does a great job and that he doesn't "willy-nilly schedule surgeries". Apparently, this used to be a lot more common of a procedure than it is now, but Andrew appears to be a good candidate.

Oh yeah, and Andrew pretty much got kicked out of the room because he was that disruptive during the appointment. The neurologist was trying to talk to me to go over Andrew's history and Andrew was throwing toys, screaming, throwing tantrums, and trying to get out of the room. Thank goodness my husband was with and could take him out of there. Let's say that while this is a pediatric neurologist, it didn't appear he had many patients that were that out of control because I could tell his patience was being tried. He is a smart doctor, though, so I liked that he was able to give me a lot of information and make me feel comfortable about my decision.

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In other news, Miss Elise has been crawling all over the house for over 2 weeks now. She is pretty fast, and knows her favorite spots to seek out. She is very playful. I love to play peek-a-boo with her when she's in her crib. I hide down and she will peek over her crib bumpers and kick her legs and squeal when she sees me. She's very different from her brother at this age, who was just more needy of me and less playful. He never liked toys, whatsoever, until he was able to enjoy books.

She turned 7 months on September 27th -- we did start solids just the other day -- avocados first (we skipped the cereal -- I don't feel it has a lot of value and the iron tends to bind kids up).

Other than that, no new news. I am enjoying the change of seasons -- I love the brief time of year when it is cool but not too cold -- still beautiful outside and enough to enjoy the weather until it's time that we up here enter the dreaded winter.