Bad Mom Wrestles With Asthma and More

Asthma has reared its ugly head again. Alexander has had a little asthma flare up for the past week. It has been pretty manageable. He has been coughing and wheezing here and there, and he has really thick snot running out of his nose constantly. I think it’s an allergy to something, but I have been having trouble getting Alexander to take the prescribed allergy medication, because it has to be mixed in with food. It’s probably as much my fault as it is his.

Yesterday Alexander had a lot of wheezing and coughing. He seemed okay when we put him to bed, but he woke up a few hours later coughing and wheezing. We gave him some medicine. It partially worked, but we neglected to put him back in his own bed. He spent the night in our bed. None of us really slept well. He spent most of the night kicking Andrew and then kicking me, then groping my chest as though he were still breastfeeding. He always wants to snuggle up to me as close as he can get, but he doesn’t want any blankets, because he gets too hot with mom heat. Then of course, he was still coughing and wheezing and that kept waking us all up. It was quite a long and annoying night.

I should have just went downstairs to his breathing machine, given him a treatment, then slept on the sofa (the two of us) and woke up three hours later (or whenever he needed it) and given him another one. We probably all would have slept better. But, I was a lazy mommy (Andrew too). And the next time I complain about staying up all night with Alexander’s asthma, it better be because I stayed up giving him a lot of treatments, and not because I avoided giving him treatments and let him kick me all night.

In good news, I finally bought a nice clean cushion and cleaned up the glider rocker I salvaged from a friend--for free. This is good news for this tired, pregnant mommy. Yesterday, Alexander woke up from his nap, too early, coughing and wheezing, and he was grumpy. Andrew suggested I rock in the chair with him and he went back to sleep and we all had another hour and a half of peace and quiet. I would have been happy to rock Alexander back to sleep and put him back to bed last night in the middle of the night, but somehow I convinced my half asleep self that one, I needed to put my feet up on the rocking stool that I haven’t cleaned yet, therefore, is not in the room, and two, he would only wake up again, because he was still breathing hard. That should have been my sign to get my lazy bum out of bed and go give him a proper treatment as opposed the oral, syrup, quick fix we gave him that doesn’t quite work as well. (It was a bad mommy moment.)

For all those who have been asking, we have an ultrasound scheduled July 11th. Only two weeks away. If and when we find out the gender of our second little baby, we will properly inform everyone we know. No news yet, but thanks for asking.

Alexander's Summer Haircut - Updated

Saturday night, 6 p.m., Andrew decided it was time to go get haircuts for himself and Alexander. We drove to the hair salon only to find that it had closed at 6 p.m. I have been telling Andrew for probably a year now that we should do home haircuts. That night he was pretty eager to have Alexander's haircut. We went home and Andrew pulled out his beard trimmer, which is very much like hair clippers. But, we quickly discovered they did not quite work the same on hair as they do on beards. Alexander ended up with an extremely short, patchy, buzz cut. He looked a little like a neo-nazi, cancer patient. It had gone too far. There was no hope of fixing it. Our only hope was that it would grow out quickly, so that we could have it fixed at a later time.

Today in the middle of the afternoon I received a call from the daycare. I was immediately concerned Alexander was sick and would have to come home. But, it was Maggie his caretaker, she said Hope's mom was a hairdresser and she was getting off work early today and wanted to come and fix Alexander's hair. She said she would have it fixed in a jiffy. They wanted my permission to do it. I laughed hysterically, gave my permission, and asked them to thank Hope's mom. I told them that I didn't think it could be fixed without doing more damage. But, she managed to even it out and it should grow out nicely. So here are some pictures of our little baldy.

Fortunately, Alexander loves it. It's nice and cool for summer. This has not deterred me from home haircuts. I know we need to get a haircutting kit with clippers and hair cutting shears. I will probably cut his hair with scissors like I have done in the past.

P.S. I JUST ADDED A BEFORE SHOT, WHICH WAS TAKEN ABOUT A MONTH AGO.

Pray to Saint Adam

For the past two years since my brother's death, my dad has been collecting stories from people who said that they asked Adam to watch over them, or prayed to him, or said that he came to them in a dream and told them that he had helped them in a difficult or trying situation. At the time of Adam's death there was a strong belief amongst friends and family that Adam's work in heaven would be greater than it would have been here on earth.

Shortly after Adam's death a very holy man, a monk, told my parents that he was sure Adam was a Saint and they should start handing out to people relics, and tell people to ask for miracles through Adam. My parents have taken this very seriously. Sure enough, little by little people have come to my parents telling them stories of how they believe Adam has helped them. This is without my parents telling people to pray to Adam, or to report stories. The stories are a little more than coincidence.

If you are in need of spiritual guidance, a miracle, heavenly intervention, I encourage you to ask for help through Adam. If you receive the help you need, please contact me, so that it can be recorded. No prayer goes unanswered, no prayer is wasted. The grace is always there.

Enjoying The Coveted Stroller

If you look closely you can detect a little protruding baby bump. Click on the picture and you can see a little better.

Alexander’s Four Days Alone with Mommy

Andrew left town last Thursday to go to a “conference” in Mecosta, Michigan. Thus, Alexander and I were without the man in our lives for four days. I don’t know how single parents do it, especially with more than one child. We faired fine, but it’s all those little things I missed. It’s that one extra thing Andrew does when I call for help. “Oh my gosh! This diaper is so bad can you come get!” and “I’ve had enough with this child’s whining can you take him with you for a bit.”—Those little things.

I kept Alexander moving and hopping this weekend. Here are just a couple of our adventures.

Alexander discovered the joys of the spray park on Friday evening. For those who do not live in Texas where its hot 75% of the year—a spray park is a big glorified sprinkler. He wasn’t too sure about it at first. I held his hand and walked him up to one of the fountains to put his hands in it. The wind was blowing, so the water felt a little colder than usual. He thought that was interesting, but he was a little scared. So being a good parent, I picked him up by his hands and swung him through the water. Now he was all wet and bawling. I left him there cold, wet and scared to go sit on the park bench. He came stomping over to me, arms out stretched and a little shrill scream. I wrapped him up in his towel and he was content to people watch.

A little later he burst out of his towel and started yelling, hello to the baseball players in the field behind us. They were too far away to hear him. Then Alex proceeded to run up and down a little grassy hill. That was pretty fun for him. Another little boy, who looked about 2 years old saw Alexander doing this and joined him. Alexander thought this was great fun having someone following him. They began a game of chase and follow the leader. The other little boy wasn’t afraid of the water and led Alexander right into it. I think by this time Alex was feeling hot from all his running around. He enjoyed running through the water with the other little boy. From then on, Alexander was hooked. That night I had to dragged him away kicking and screaming--literally. We went to the spray park two other time during the weekend and he knew not to be afraid of it.

Finally, Sunday we woke up and Alexander was calling to me to come get him. We keep our bedroom pretty dark so I could not see very much. I went to the crib to pick him up and said, “Oh, you smell gross. Did you have a pooh-pooh?” Then I saw the back of his head and immediately turned on the light. He had dried vomit from the top of his head all the way down his back, and there was vomit all over the crib bedding. He had vomited sometime in the night and never made a noise about it. He probably just rolled over and went back to sleep. I was quite alarmed. I rushed him to the bath, because he smelled pretty bad and I have been extremely sensitive to odors lately. I washed his hair three times and after the bath it still smelled like vomit. I got him dressed. He wasn’t acting sick. We went to Wal-mart to get some pedialyte and applesauce. I kept him on the “Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast” diet all day. I made him banana bread for dinner. He thought that was nice. He seemed a little extra tired all day, but he didn’t vomit again—there was a little stinky diarrhea. We skipped church, because I didn’t want him spreading whatever it was to the other kids and he needed to take it easy.

I was pleased to enjoy Alexander's many hugs and kisses all weekend long. It was definitely a more strenuous weekend without my handsome, loving husband around.