The School Bell Rings!

School is once again in session!

We did not intend to take a summer break, as we rarely do...but this year we had a lot of catching up to do and really couldn't afford to take a break over the summer.  In life, things don't always go as planned, right?  Well, of course not...so, we didn't school over the summer.  With the move, we just couldn't and nothing happened in the time frame we expected it to, so one week turned into one month and one month turned into....you get the picture.  

So, we moved and since we took majority of the summer off, we decided to take the time to set things up right.  We FINALLY, for the first time since December of 2007, have a dedicated classroom.  Not a we gave the dining room up for some school desks kind of classroom.  I mean we have a full fledged classroom.  The kind we used to lock ourselves into during school hours, the kind that we THRIVE in!!  We just finished up our first week of school and let me tell you, while there were a few bumps in the road (aka issues with Dove) but we had an amazing week!  Eagle thrives on routine and schedule.  He functions so much better when things are neat, organized, routine and when he knows what is expected from him.  The past few years have really been a struggle for him.  I made him start third grade over near the end of his third grade year and he has struggled to catch up ever since.  That is a decision I still stand behind as I have seen him grow through all of this, yes he has struggled but he has benefited from it so much it was definitely the best schooling decision I have ever made and I think he "knows" it.  I feel that he knows he has grown and is better because of it.  He started back to school a few weeks ago.  We eased into a schedule, not working everyday and more so worked on routine rather than schedule because he doesn't take too well to sudden changes and it worked well for him.  By our first "official" full day of school he knew what was expected of him and he has done fabulous.  He has worked so very hard these past three weeks and while he is not as far as we had hoped he would be at this point, he as come very far and at the pace he is going..he will finish only a month later than we originally planned.  

I wake up at 5-5:30 and start my day.  This gives me a few hours to do a bit of cleaning, laundry and making sure things are ready for our day.  Our school day starts promptly at 8:00am.  Some days, Eagle starts at 7:00am.  Each night, I prepare the work for the day ahead.  Next week, I'm going to pull work for the week to try and make preparing at night a little less time consuming.  It's important to have the days work out and ready for them before they start their day because otherwise, they will run off and play and then it's too hard to get them to refocus.  They eat breakfast and may have a few minutes to play before school starts, but they know that they are expected to start school by 8 and they don't challenge that because they know that is what is expected of them.  Macaw, Emu and Duckling stay busy with free time activities (activity bags, puzzles, etc) or busy work, or anything they can work independently on while I do instructional lessons with Eagle.  Macaw and Emu are still waiting on their curriculum to arrive (it will be here Wednesday), but I have had a few things to start them with.  Once I'm done with instructional lessons with Eagle, he works on independent lessons and projects while I do instructional lessons with Macaw.  All this week, we have been finished with our school day by 12:30-1:00.  We have completed all the lessons and optional work and have also done some supplemental activities as well.  It's such a great feeling to have the time and dediation to do these extra things again.  I really like to make sure they are truly "getting" the material and at times it felt like we just flew by the seat of our pants doing the minimum to get by because I didn't get to do the extra hands on supplemental activities the way we used to.

New Beginnings

Wow!  I honestly can not believe how fast the time goes.  We have had a lot of changes going on in our lives.  It is a time for new beginnings and it feels great!  We have such a bright future ahead of us and we are settled and reorganized.  It has been such a long time since our life has had any sort of organization and it feels good to be getting back to some of our old ways.  

We relocated in July.  It took a while for us to come to the decision to move because we moved quite a way from where we were.  Not across country or anything, but to me it felt like it and I did leave my friends and my family to start a new life.  It was hard to leave everything I knew and trusted after we spent the last few years building it.  We are in a much safer place, though I will never feel safe from "Jailbird's" family...but overall, we are in a much better place...free from gunshots, gangs, thugs and the "ghetto" we came accustomed to.  Our old area wasn't horrible, but those who were not used to it saw it as the worst.  Some of my friends wouldn't go there, some wouldn't go after dark.  If they would have stopped to realize I wouldn't truly raise my kids in a neighborhood where they weren't "safe" maybe they wouldn't have been so fearful, it's not like we were on the west side of town ;) Anyways, we have a much bigger house in an amazing neighborhood within such an exciting community.  Our lives once again have order and purpose and we are much happier.  

Dove has turned a YEAR old already!!!  The kids have started  back to school.  Ahh....my life is still as chaotic as ever, but we are settling into a new schedule and I am excited to finally have time to blog and to know that I can give myself this time, the way I used to.  I have so many posts in the works (our new classroom, our school weeks, our new organizational systems, cloth diapering, breastfeeding, allergies....) yes, I will be a very busy blogger.  One thing I will strive so much harder to blog about is our school weeks.  I still have a love of Calvert and will soon have four students using it! 

 

  

I'm Back....

""I used Grammarly (www.gammarly.com) to grammar check this post, because aint nobody got time for grammar!!

WOW!!!!

I do not really know what to say, but WOW!  I can not believe what a difference one small child can make!  I have been blown away. I thought I had experienced having high need children before...but Dove has taught me that I have not had a clue what it is like to have a high needs child.  

Summer is here! 

We have so many exciting things to see and do.  The biggest thing is that we are moving!  It's been such a stressful search and process but we hope to be moving in a few weeks...Bank of America has had other plans and we keep hitting repeated delays and they obviously don't care when/if we EVER close on this house. (Do yourself a favor and NEVER use Bank of America for your mortgage needs (just sayin').  I'm honestly at the point where I am ready to cut our losses and stay here for another year...but that's another post ;)

We have taken a much needed break from schooling but we are getting ready to pick back up again, even in the midst of the craziness we are currently live in.  Eagle is the only one who will really be working before we move so we hope to get a lot done.  We had hoped to have more planned educational activities this summer but our move has taken up all of our time.  I've been packing since early May and most of our house has been packed up as we expected to move in June, this adds to the frustration to the fact that we still have NO idea when we will move. 

It's hard to say what the past 6 months have entailed for us...let's just say...life has been CRAZY!!!!  Most days I sit and wonder if I have been blessed or cursed with Dove and his demands.  He has been a high need baby from day 1.  He was always a fussy baby babywearing made him tolerable!  He literally always wanted to be held...until about 9 months when he would finally sit and entertain himself for a while, but still at 10 1/2 months old, he pretty much wants to be held all the time.  Sometimes I sit and feel so blessed that I have this time to just sit and hold him as I know these days are numbered before he will be off and paying me no attention, but at the same time it is very stressful sitting with him for hours at a time. 

I'm hoping to be back full force into the blogging world.  I have quite a few posts in the works!

3 month recap!

WOW!!  

I can't believe it has been so long since I've updated.  It's amazing how busy I am.  I never have enough time in my day.  Between doctor/specialist appointments, homeschooling, having a new baby, etc.  I honestly never have a moment to spare.  

Finally, I am getting back on track.  We are back on schedule and have found our way in our new routine, so hopefully I will be back blogging on a more regular basis.  I am going to make more of an effort this year to post more about our school happenings & projects.We are back in our groove and ready to share what we are learning each day.  

You may be wondering what has been happening for the past 3 months.  Well, our little Dove just turned 5 months old.  I can't believe it!!  Time has gone so fast.  He is a much happier baby nowadays.  He has taught me that I only thought I knew what patience was before he was born!  I have also learned that he really did not need half of the things we bought for him.  He rarely used his bouncy seat, he got too big for his bumbo seat before he could even use it and he hated his swing.  I have gotten lots of use out of my Ring Sling, Moby and my Babyhawk carriers.  He has taken babywearing to a whole new level and having a variety of carriers to choose from has been a true blessing.  He is just now starting to enjoy any sort of playtime. He does enjoy his playmat, exersaucer and his walker but the past few days I have found myself wearing him much more than I've had to the past few months.  I don't mind...I know these days are limited and I honestly do try and savor each moment with him.  He has recently discovered his feet and he LOVES his toes!  He is sitting unassisted and can even sit up on his own.  He's such a BIG boy!!! This is all so new to us...my kids don't grow and the last two have been developmentally delayed so having a baby who does things on time or ahead of schedule and having one that grows is so different for me.  By the time he was 4 months old, he was wearing 12 month clothes.  Now, at just 5 months I am buying 18 month clothes for him.  He is weighing in at 17 lbs and is 26 1/2 in long.  He recognizes his name and the sign for "milk".  I could not be more in love with him! 

Cardinal and Hawk are doing amazing in their private schools this year.  This comes as no surprise ;) I prepared them well.  It's funny to hear people's reactions to how they are doing in school. It's almost like people expected them to do poorly because they were home schooled or there are those that think they are doing so well because they are not home schooled this year, like they suddenly became geniuses who were not educated before attending a brick and mortar school...I mean at least a little credit that I taught them for the past 8 & 9 years would be nice, after all...I did prepare them well.

The biggest happening over the last few months has been the discovery of multiple blood disorders in 5 of our 7 children.  Upon a further understanding of our family history our pediatrician decided to do some genetic testing on all of my and my sister's children.  They underwent extensive blood work and EKG's.  It's all so confusing because some of them have multiple blood disorders one of them being so rare that only 1.6 in a million people have the disorder, only 1200 (yes, 1200) people in the world have been diagnosed with the disorder and 5 of my children have it!  CRAZY!!!  It's a very scary thing, but we have found a wonderful network of people who are teaching us so very much along the way.  We are so blessed because as of yet, none of them are showing symptoms of this particular disorder (Plasminogen Deficiency).  Dove tested positive for having this and another disorder, but he is not being given an official diagnosis as of yet because of his age.  This is very concerning because he is the ONLY one of them who is showing any signs of this disorder.  It's very frustrating!  Eagle and Emu are both being very closely monitored because their levels were dangerously low and it is likely that they will have other problems caused by their deficiency.  Hawk & Eagle both only have this one disorder, PD.  Emu & Duckling have PD and another blood disorder (the hematologist is a bit confused because their disorders may somehow contradict each other and their will be a bigger concern for Duckling when she hits childbearing age).  Dove tested positive for having PD and a completely different disorder than all his siblings.  He will be retested after he turns a year old and then will be given his official diagnosis if he still is found to have the disorders.  The only signs that any of them show of having any disorder is that they bruise easy and it takes them a while to heal.  They are all due to have further testing and we are in the very early stages of trying to figure this all out.

We've just gotten over bouts of sickness around here.  It started a few days after Thanksgiving.  Coughs, colds, sore throats.  Duckling was first and had a diagnosis of Bronchitis.  Next was Hawk with strep throat.  The following week Duckling, Macaw and Eagle were tested for both the flu and strep throat but all tests were negative.  All this time from Thanksgiving till Christmas Dove had what seemed like a little cold.  He was just a bit congested off and on and he had a bit of a cough.  Nothing that warranted a Dr. visit.  As we were getting ready to head to my parents the day before Christmas Eve, Dove started wheezing.  The ER diagnosed him with RSV based on symptoms (they didn't test him).  They gave him an inhaler and sent him home.  He got better, then worse and even worse..by later that week we were in the Pediatrician's office.  He was tested and diagnosed with both RSV and Rhinovirus and he was diagnosed with Bronciolitis, Pink Eye and a Double Ear Infection.  All in all...he was a complete MESS...a miserable mess!  No one can imagine the grief of having a baby with RSV unless you've lived it.  You do NOT know a sick baby unless you've had one like this!  We were very fortunate to be able to keep him out of the hospital but it was not easy.  Constant suctioning, nebulizer treatments every 4 hours, steam rooms, elevation....let me tell you it was exhausting!!  8 weeks, he was sick for 8 long miserable weeks.  7 kids and I've never had one so sick in my life.  I hope that we never go through anything like that again.  They tell us that he is likely to have asthma and follow in Eagle's footsteps, that makes me sad to think I will have another kid who has to live with a lung condition like that, but at least I have all of the experience and can better care for Dove and Eagle is such a great big brother and can easily recognize when Dove is having trouble breathing. 

We were so very blessed to have yet another unexpected Christmas with my mother.  It's quite so bittersweet as she truly nears the end of her earthside journey.  Nothing can prepare my children or me for what we have in store for us when we lose my mother.  Nothing has been more difficult for me than this journey with her. 

So, yes...It's been a very long 3 months and we have stayed very busy!  It's nice to have things calming down a bit!

Time flys!

It's so hard to believe that Dove is more than 6 weeks old already.  It's even more amazing how different each child is and that after having 6 children one can come along and offer you so many new challenges that you've never faced before. I haven't had time to blog at all.  In fact, in the last 6 weeks I haven't had time to do much at all.  I honestly don't know how we survived around here.  Dove was just so miserable all the time and the only thing that could comfort him was the breast so I spent most of my time sitting on the couch with our precious little man.  In just under 7 weeks he has gained 4lbs. His reflux and projectile vomiting were getting worse and he had developed such a severe arch.  His doctor diagnosed him with Sandifer's Syndrome.

It was almost awkward to hold him because he fought you and pushed his head back so far.  It seemed that he had something wrong with his neck, but it was explained to me that he was doing this due to the pain.  This was a coping mechanism for the pain that he was in and by arching his back in this way it simply made him feel better.  When the Pediatrician saw his severe arch, she changed his reflux meds to something stronger.

He sure has kept me busy but like a fine wine, he gets better with time.  Since we weren't seeing much improvement with only cutting dairy, I personally made the decision to go ahead and cut Gluten, Soy and Egg out of my diet as well.  In addition to this, Dove is on Prevacid and is going to the Chiropractor for treatment of his reflux.  With all these new changes came a new man!  He is finally making a turn around.  All of the sacrifices have been well worth it.  He will be going to the Chiropractor 2x a week now. It's so awesome to see him beginning to feel better!

Dairy-Free For Me

It's amazing how busy one little dove can make you!  Wow, there just isn't enough time in my day!  We have been blessed with the most FUSSY baby in the universe...but we couldn't love our little fuss-bug any more!

It was discovered that Dove was allergic to dairy when he was two weeks old.  So, since I breastfeed, I immediately went on a dairy free diet.  Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I LOVE my dairy!  I went dairy free without a second thought.  It really wasn't too bad for the first two weeks, but it is starting to be a challenge because finding things to eat for breakfast and lunch have been difficult.  It will get easier once I familiarize myself with a wider variety of things I can eat and I learn how to do it frugally! 

Dove also suffers from reflux.  We have known this but at his 2 week check up, we opted to play the waiting game.  Wait...and see if it gets better with a few changes.  Keeping him upright as much as possible, not allowing the flock to stimulate him at least 20 minutes after he eats, etc.  His projectile vomiting has improved with the dairy free diet, but his spitting up has not.  He also suffers from apnea and this is getting more frequent.  Granted, his breathing alarm has only gone off a handful of times...it has gone off 4 times in the past week, so...I decided enough was enough and we are medicating him for his reflux.  I'm hoping this is a short term necessity, as he will be going to a chiropractor and I will be eliminating soy and egg from my diet. 

Despite his challenges, he is gaining weight like crazy!  Within 2 weeks of being home, he gained more than 2lbs!  This is amazing, considering our last two kids have problems with growth!  Nice to know that one of the kids can grow at an above average rate!  I'm glad we caught his food allergy early and hoping we can get a grip on his reflux before it makes things worse.  I get so nervous because he has periodic breathing patterns and with his apnea episodes, I keep thinking about Duckling and her ALTE's, I hope he never suffers from an ALTE!!

We are on the hunt for a new baby carrier. I have always been a devoted Moby user, but it's not working for him.  Dove keeps his head tilted back and doesn't like anything covering his head at all.  Hopefully, we can find a different carrier that he can adapt to because I'm not able to get much done if I can't wear him!

A little White Dove....

We are thrilled to announce the newest little bird to our flock.  A little White Dove has arrived.  On August 21, 2012 our own little love Dove made his way earth side after 33 hours and 37 minutes of labor!

He's just as perfect and stubborn as can be!  Our little love is already 2 weeks old.  His birth story will be posted soon.

I have always been so blessed to bounce back immediately after delivery.  This time proved no different.  After a 4 day hospital stay, we were finally released.  We left the hospital at about 4:30.  I came home, fixed dinner, cleaned the kitchen, took Cardinal shopping, came home and did a few loads of laundry and got my kids ready for the next day.  The next morning I took Cardinal to school and ran a few errands and I haven't stopped since!!

Dove is by far the most sensitive little bird I've ever had yet!  This poor little man likes nothing other than gentle snuggles and momma's milk!  He is very easily over stimulated so he is proving quite a challenge to satisfy in our house.  He has lots of brothers and sisters who love him so much already, but he isn't quite ready for all the hustle and bustle that comes with a big family.  He doesn't like noise :/ eekk!!! Anyone who has spent 5 minutes in our house knows it's a very noisy place.  Oddly enough, even while he was in the womb, he didn't like noise.  He was always being startled by loud noises and he still proves to be no different.  He doesn't like being passed around too much, he doesn't like anyone in his face...he doesn't like being swaddled and he hates my moby wrap.  He hates the heat, his bouncy seat, his stroller and bumpy car rides and he hates being put down.  It sure doesn't take much to overstimulate him and just the slightest bit of over stimulation makes him puke. 

At his 1 week check up, he was having some issues.  Thanks to an over active let down, he had some struggles with nursing.  He coughed, gagged and choked down his milk and then he'd throw some back up and he'd cough, gag and choke on that too.  His eyes were very gunky and we were a bit concerned that his first night home, his breathing monitor went off.   With some tips to help him with my over abundance of milk we scheduled an appointment for a check up the following week.

Despite his chronic fussiness and an infected umbilicus, he is doing quite well. He is nursing like a champ, he has adjusted very well to his bountiful milk supply and he is gaining weight like it's nobody's business putting on 1/2 oz to 1 oz a day!

It still seems so surreal!  Already, I can't imagine our lives without him.  He has brought a new closeness between Falcon and I, he is such a symbol of our love and he's perfect in every way!  He has made our journey together so much more exciting....and so many times already, he has taken my breath away!