Jadens Journey

About Jaden's Journey, Everything else, Pictures circus, Mimi, Pictures, pop-pop

I forgot to upload the pictures from my iPhone – so I added them to the slide show and updated it in the the post below. I didn’t have a camera at the hospital but the trusty phone came in handy.

p.s. this was updated at 5:45 p.m. so if you saw the slide show earlier, there are now new pictures.

About Jaden's Journey iPhone, Pictures

About Jaden's Journey, Pictures allergies, asthma, infection, operating room, Pictures, sinus, surgery, teeth

Today was Jaden’s 24 month check-up with the pediatrician. The visit was a disaster, but the good news is that Jaden is growing up just as expected. He weighs 31 lbs and is 36 inches tall, which is pretty near the top of the Korean boys growth chart (around 95th percentile for height and 90th percentile for weight). They say his chronic congestion could be allergies (environmental this time – last time they thought it was food but it wasn’t). So we have to get an air purifier and shampoo the carpets and wash all the sheets etc., etc., etc. in hot water– even his giraffe  (so we might have to go searching for more pretty soon since my guess is this one is going to fall apart once immersed in hot water).

The disaster occurred because the visit scheduled for 10:45 a.m. — shortly before Jaden’s normal 11:00 a.m. lunchtime (and noon nap time)–did not go as scheduled. I don’t know if I realized how close we were to lunch when I made the appointment, or if it was the only appointment I could get with our preferred pediatrician. It probably would have worked out fine if it were our normal visit to the ped – walk in, get called into the examining area before we even take a seat in the waiting room, wait 5 minutes for the doc, spend 15-20 minutes and leave — home within the hour.

No such luck today. We arrived and waited in the waiting room, which by the way has no books or toys for kids other than a couple of those wire thingys with beads on them. After waiting about 30 minutes I asked the receptionist what was taking so long -they said the doc was running 30-45 minutes late. Now, had they told me this when I arrived I would have rescheduled, because at 45 minutes late, the timing is getting dangerously close to nap time, without lunch, and anyone with a 2 year old knows that a tired toddler is challenging, but a tired and hungry toddler is nearly impossible. However, they had not given me that information, and therefore I now had to decide whether to wait another 15 minutes, or cut my losses and go home.

Since it was already 11:15 I thought I’d be better off waiting. I should have known not to trust my instincts today (although how I should have known this, I don’t know). Or maybe I should have actually done the math to realize I’d be getting home very, very late.

There was one bout of waiting after another – waiting to get into the examining room, waiting for the doctor, and then waiting (seemingly forever) until the nurse with the vaccination showed up. By the time the doctor came in we were already nearly an hour past Jaden’s lunch time, and coming in for a crash landing on his nap time. He was one CRANKY baby. He hates doctors to begin with (who doesn’t? No offense, Neville) so he spent the next 20 minutes screaming, thrashing, kicking, squirming and at one point I thought he threw a punch at me, while the doctor tried to talk over his yells and perform the examination. He was so exhausted (and probably starving) that he fell asleep within seconds of putting his head on my shoulder after the doctor finished prodding him. Then the doc gives me the good news – he needs a vaccination (I was told he wouldn’t need any at this visit) – oh, yay. The docs are too smart to freak the kids out by giving them needles themselves, so they make the nurses administer the sharp stuff.

So to add to the already crappy visit, by the time the nurse showed up Jaden had been asleep on my shoulder for nearly 20 minutes and the nurse stabbed him while he was still sleeping. She thought it would be better that way. I thought he’d possibly be afraid to fall asleep in my arms ever again, since now he’ll never know when mommy’s going to hand him over to the evil nurse with the needle. Okay, maybe I’m paranoid.

Now Jaden was really screaming at the top of his lungs, naked as a Jaybird (LOL– pun intended), and I had to try to dress him (another one of his favorite activities — sarcasm intended) then carry him out into the bitter cold, snap him into his car seat and drive him home. Screaming all the way. That sounds like a Christmas song to me…

“Dashing through the snow

in a barentz blue Volvo

All the world can hear

Jaden screaming as we go

ah ah ah….

There’s no way we’re taking a nap

so it’s early to bed tonight

These docs make Jaden cry and scream

and give him an awful fright…”

Okay… now I’ve really lost it. No, antina, I’m not drinking (at the moment).

Back to my story – by the time we got home it was 12:45 — two full hours after our original appointment time. Starving, over-tired, with a 20 minute nap on my shoulder, this boy was not going to give me a break and take his usual 12:00 to 2:00 nap. I tried, I really did. I tried hard. He just didn’t want to sleep. At one point I even just told him Mommy needs a fifteen minute nap after that doctor’s appointment – so he waited in his crib and let me sleep. What a good boy. He must love me. He must also have a very good internal clock, since he woke me up nearly 15 minutes on the nose, saying and signing “train”. Ahhhh – he wants to play with his new train we got him for his birthday. So we did.

Here’s some pictures from Christmas:

About Jaden's Journey, Everything else, Pictures check-up, Christmas, doctor's visit

Once again days go by without me realizing it. It is no wonder I feel like I can’t get anything accomplished. Even something as simple as a quick blog is an infrequent indulgence. No wonder my ‘quick blogs’ end up being small novels.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa’s for Easter. We had a nice weekend and it was great for Jaden to spend some time with his aunts and uncles he hadn’t seen in a while. He also got to meet his cousins (my cousin’s kids) which was really great. 

Jaden has been doing better with sleeping, except now he has trouble when we’re not at home. My theory is that he’s so used to his own bed right now that any change is disconcerting to him. So this time we only spent one night at Grandma and Grandpa’s, and not being overtired two days in a row helped a lot. For the time being we’ll probably do the one night only when we go  - at least until Jaden is a little older.  

On Sunday evening Aunt Tina came home with us to spend a few days. She was here until Wednesday morning. Jaden had an amazing time with her. You can tell Aunt Tina is an excellent teacher. She was able to encourage Jaden to communicate using sign language, which Neville and I have been trying to teach him since he came home in October- but we never had much luck. I know I”ve mentioned before that we thought he was using signs every once in a while, but he was never really consistent about it. Aunt Tina somehow had him signing in the two days she spent here. She somehow made a very complicated task look so simple! Jaden now signs ‘more’, ‘cracker’, and  ”all done.” I’m hoping that if we’re consistent about picking up on what he is signing that he’ll be encouraged to learn more signs. I noticed he pays rapt attention to his Baby Signing Time DVD now, so that is a good sign (no pun intended). Part of the difficulty with baby signing is that you have to be able to pick up on the gestures that to you look nothing like the sign that is intended, while the baby is wondering why you just don’t get what he’s trying to communicate. The more this happens, the less likely he’ll try to sign. Unfortunately Jaden doesn’t yet realize that eye contact is necessary for me to understand him, so he’ll do things while I’m walking away. Aunt Tina was able to pick up on this and now I”m being more cognizant of what he’s doing at all times (although walking backwards is getting tiring – LOL). 

We had Jaden’s 15 month pediatrician visit on Tuesday. It was — difficult. Ever since we had the bad experience with the three RN’s at the outpatient center trying to take blood from Jaden’s arms about 6 times, he is petrified of anyone in a lab coat. Even Neville has to take his lab coat off when Jaden and I visit him at work, or Jaden starts to get wiggy. It makes doctor’s appointments really horrific. Thankfully Aunt Tina was with us and was able to help calm Jaden down periodically, but it was really heart-wrenching to have to watch him get so upset, even though nothing ‘bad’ was happening. It seemed to drag on — just when we thought the doctor would be finished, she’d say “Okay just one more thing…”

When the pediatrician was finally done with her examination and questioning, she started to talk about shots he needed, and I was thinking ‘Are you nuts? Haven’t we traumatized him enough today?’ He cried for nearly an hour in the examination room – in my opinion, that was plenty for one morning. Besides, I don’t know if Aunt Tina and I could have taken any more gut wrenching. So we made another appointment to get the 4 vaccines he is due for. I booked it for a morning Neville can go with us. My plan: Let Neville be the ‘bad’ parent (and hold Jaden down for his shots) for once. LOL

The original point of the major tangent I just jumped out of is that Jaden has grown like mad these past few months. He’s now 33 inches and 26 lbs 10 oz. So his weight has stabilized but he’s growing taller – and fast!! It has been interesting to watch the changes in his face and his body as he grows. He goes through periods where he eats and eats and eats, seemingly never getting enough – he’ll fill out – his cheeks get pudgier, his belly gets bigger – and then all of a sudden he’ll thin out, almost overnight — now I know what is meant by “growth spurts.” 

An update on the teething -last I saw (yesterday?) one of Jaden’s eye teeth was right at the surface – it looked like it would pop through at any moment. We had a couple of good nights and last night was okay except for a few wakings…. so for now I guess the major pain is over with. The other three canines are swollen, so they’re getting ready to make a break for it as well. Soon we’ll have a break from teething pain (right Grandma? ) 

Our music class ended a week or so ago – so right now we’re in the middle of things – waiting for his museum class and his swimming lessons to start. It’s probably a good thing there’s not much going on for Jaden – I’ve had a lot to do for work these past couple of weeks. I spent more time on paperwork for work than anything else. There’s nothing like being on an unpaid leave of absence!

About Jaden's Journey, Everything else doctor, Easter, height, weight

On Tuesday evening we had a visit from Neville’s Mom, Dad, Aunt and Uncle to see our house and visit with us and Jaden. It got a little more hectic than usual at one point, and next thing I hear *clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp, bang.* I immediately thought “what was that?!” and in the same thought “where’s Jaden?” 

Somehow our trusty gate was not closed and our little adventurer decided to try to take the front hallway stairs by himself. Those are the stairs that are hardwood – very hard hardwood. When I ran in to see if he was okay, he was face down on the floor. He started crying almost immediately after the fall (I guess it first startled him enough that he didn’t know what happened), and when I picked him up it looked like he had a dent in his forehead. A little ice (which necessitated a fight with Jaden since he HATES having the ice pack on him…. like mother, like son with that one) and the dent went away, the bump went down, eventually the crying stopped, and he acted fine the rest of the night.

Jaden does fine going UP the stairs on his own. The problem is that he doesn’t realize yet his legs aren’t long enough to reach the next step when he tries to go DOWN the stairs. Neville had left the kitchen area where everyone was congregated to show his uncle around the house, so I’m guessing since the gate wasn’t up Jaden decided to follow his Dad. I suppose he went up a few steps, realized he wasn’t going to find his Daddy, and decided to turn around and go back into the kitchen with everyone else. 

Now, I did say everything was fine that night, but the next day I had the scare of my life. Jaden was acting fine when he woke up but then around 9:00 a.m. he started getting lethargic, which is unusual for my very active son. He kept wanting to sit in my lap and do *nothing* which is another sign that something is wrong. Then around 10:30 he fell asleep and I couldn’t wake him up easily, and when I did manage to rouse him he wanted to go right back to sleep. I called the pediatrician and they said “get him to the Children’s Hospital emergency room right away -we’ll call and let them know you are coming.”

“thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump” that’s the sound of my heart beating 10 times quicker than normal… I drove as calmly as I could to the hospital, and even managed to keep the swear words to myself when an 18-wheeler semi decided to change lanes ON TOP OF ME and I barely got out of the way by swerving into the breakdown lane. 

Now I’m really frantic…

A half hour to the hospital and insanity finding parking (there’s no ER parking in the “city”!) and then another 3 hours getting our blood pressure, weight, etc. done, then waiting, then filling out paperwork, then waiting, then seeing a nurse, then waiting, then finally seeing a doctor, and waiting again for them to discharge us. The whole time they asked us not to feed Jaden or give him anything to drink in case the doctor wanted to run certain tests. So the poor baby didn’t eat from 9:00 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. He was a *little* cranky by then. Neville took the afternoon off from work and met us at the hospital around 12:30 – thank goodness for that because I was a basket case by then.

After all of the waiting we find out Jaden is okay. He started acting “normal” again after the first half hour at the hospital and the doctor said if there’s anything to worry about he would have gotten progressively worse, and not shown any signs of being ‘normal’ or ‘better.’ This was good to know. Thankfully I had the wherewithal to throw some food into the diaper bag so while we waited form them to discharge us we were able to feed Jaden. They finally discharged us, and we raced home to eat.    

We learned a very good lesson. Hopefully Neville will not disappear again without letting me know. I won’t ever let my eyes off of Jaden again no matter what distractions are tugging at my attention, and anyone who leaves the gate open again is —- well I can’t think of anything that’s not too evil to print, but I’m sure I will if it happens again (yes, Neville, that includes you!)… tee hee.

About Jaden's Journey, Everything else ER, falling, hospital, stairs

About Jaden's Journey, Everything else baby signs, Mystic

Of all the necessary experiences of being a toddler, I’m guessing teething has to be the most painful. Of all the necessary experiences of being a parent to a toddler, I’m starting to think teething takes the cake.

I think that Jaden knows when his Daddy is away for the weekend. He somehow manages to go through all types of issues on the nights that Daddy is not here. Last night (we think) it was a combination of teething and stomach problems. He would sleep anywhere from two minutes at a time, to maybe, in a lucky spurt, 20 minutes. I also believe that he has a harder time sleeping anyway when his Daddy is not home.

It takes me a while to get back to sleep once he wakes me up and I help coax him back to sleep, so the 20 minute wake-ups were the worst. I would just about get to the point where I was dozing off when I would hear the plea for assistance coming from his crib. He has a difficult time falling asleep by himself when he does not feel well, whether it be the hives, or congestion, a cold, a rash, or one-year molars breaking through. So the night began… and ended, the same way.

Grandma Di and Grandpa stayed with me over the weekend to help with Jaden, thank God, otherwise by now I’d probably be writing this from inside an asylum. Around 2:30 a.m. I asked Grandma Di to come sleep in the room with us, so I’d be able to put Jaden in bed between us and not have to worry about him falling out if I dozed too heavily. Usually putting him in bed with us helps him sleep a little better when he isn’t feeling well. It worked to some extent — his sleep periods stretched to an hour. Small blessings can be wonderful.

It was such a rough night that I was tempted to bring him downstairs and stay up with him all night… but from the endless number of books on “how to get your toddler to sleep through the night”, I know it is counter-productive to make him overtired. I just kept wishing the night would be over. Whether I slept or not, I didn’t care. I just wanted it to be over. I felt awful that I couldn’t soothe him enough so that he could sleep for longer periods of time, and also awful for Grandma and me for our tireless efforts that all seemed for naught.

Finally, morning came. He managed to sleep until 7:00 a.m., which was a blessing in itself since he was up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.

I feel like all I write about it sleep issues. I guess it is just about what I write about all the time, since it is the majority of the problems we have here. Jaden is such a happy baby. He smiles easily. He loves to play. He is so darn smart it can be scary at times. He giggles at Mr. Noodle and the Wiggles. He knows what he wants, and he figures out ways to communicate it to us (although sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between one ‘iiiiaaah’ and another). So, ultimately it is really sad to watch him when he’s in pain or uncomfortable. I guess that’s part of why I write about the sleep problems so often.

As far as the stomach problems, we gave him some prunes today with his lunch and dinner, and let’s just say that I’ve had to change at least four full diapers since 3:00 this afternoon. My guess is that the stomach problems are resolved.

On another note… we saw the allergist on Friday. They tested Jaden for a dozen or so allergens, and believe it or not — no allergies!! So why all the hives? Evidently you can have chronic hives in which there is no one irritant – just about anything can flare them up – the cold, the heat, getting upset — you name it. Knowing this fact doesn’t help us much with eliminating the hives altogether (by eliminating the ‘allergens’) but it makes a lot of sense now why he would get the hives at times. For example, one breakout occurred in Arizona when we went hiking. We had Jaden in the Kelty backpack, and the day turned out warmer than we expected. The heat and being packed into the backpack probably caused the outbreak.

On the brighter side of things, we started to re-introduce foods that we had stopped giving him (wheat, bread, corn, etc.). We will still introduce them one by one, but at least we have a greater variety of foods to feed him now, and we won’t have to worry about accidentally giving him the hives again.

If only there were a simple fix for the teething.

About Jaden's Journey, Everything else sleep deprivation, teething

Today was Jaden’s first adventure at the Mystic Aquarium. Since he watches so much Elmo’s World, we figured it might be nice if he saw some fish in person rather than just on television. He wasn’t impressed. He was more concerned with what all the kids in the place were doing. We even tried to tell him one of the gold fish was “Dorothy” (Elmo’s pet fish). No luck.

We then took him outside to see the sea lions, penguins, and beluga whales, but we had the same luck. He didn’t even seem to see the sea lions – possibly because of their gray bodies against the gray background. When we were near the penguin tank he was more interested in the yellow “do not cross” tape around another exhibit that was closed. The beluga whales were swimming right in front of him, but he kept swiveling his head around to see the screaming kids. It was a little frustrating, and a lot of humorous. We will try again when he’s a little older. Maybe for now he’ll have greater recognition of what he’s seeing on the television when Elmo does his little skit about fish.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures. I even had the camera and camcorder with us, but I didn’t think of it until we were back at the car. Bad Mommy…. but there’s always next time.

About Jaden's Journey Aquarium, fish, Mystic, penguin, whale

Jaden actually slept through the night last night — hives and all. I’m not sure what happened. I was shocked when he woke us up at 6:30 a.m.. I immediately started running through my mind everything that I did yesterday with him – maybe I can repeat it?

What’s different? Well- I’ve been trying to get him down to only one nap a day since he was fighting the second nap for the past few weeks. He was taking his usual morning nap and then fighting me tooth and nail in the afternoon – until I’d finally give up. I figured if he only takes one nap then it should be an afternoon nap (according to Dr. Ferber), but he wasn’t making it through to the afternoon without difficulty. Yesterday I just went with the flow. He fell asleep on my lap around 10:00 a.m. for about 40 minutes. I watched Elmo by myself because I was afraid to change the channel. LOL. It worked, though. He made it through to his afternoon nap, and slept about an hour in the afternoon. So maybe that’s the trick… I’ll try it again today.

Who am I kidding? There’s no way to know what the heck helped him sleep through the night. It’s like trying to figure out what is giving him hives. The problem is — now my hopes are high that he’ll sleep through the night again tonight; but I know darn well the chances of that are slim to none. Ahhhh… motherhood.

About Jaden's Journey, Everything else sleep