Thursday, May 24, 2012

Wow, that's bright!

Here is what the chair news is all about:

My talented husband painted Sterling's wheelchair yesterday at his auto body shop.  Did I mention that he is almost an Journeyman Autobody refinisher?  Which means, he is great with a paint spray gun and I got a lot of stuff I need painted....(hint hint, Trevor.....).  

Sterling picked out the colour and wouldn't even consider another colour.  He loves green these days.  Guess my son has more vision than me because this chair now has spunk and fits his personality in such a great way that I am sure my boring choices would have done for him.  I am sure that he is going to absolutely love the attention that this chair is going to bring his way (as if he doesn't do that enough with his personality and non-stop talking).

What do you think? So much fun now, eh?
 

All Sorts of Things

Here is my jumbled post as of late. Been super busy trying to finish some ongoing projects before the little man makes his debut. I am starting to seriously slow down though. It took me all day yesterday to sweep, vacuum, mop, make asiago cheese bagels and do the dishes and a couple loads of laundry. I usually have a couple hours extra to get on my project and DIY on.

Bought the kids a crabby sandbox on kijiji. Gotta love that site, $20 for the sandbox with sand in it. Kids of course love it. I'm on the fence about it. Not so stoked on the sand living in my house these days and the filthy kids it seems to produce.  It makes me laugh because Sterling keeps asking on a daily basis if he can 'go into his crappy sandbox'.  Lol, mispronunciation makes me laugh.

Took the kids to the playground and a 7/11 run. Emery was more concerned with her slurpee than going to play. That girl is addicted I tell you (don't know where she got that from....).  I must tell you...I never knew walking 5 blocks to 7/11 and 5 blocks back could be so painful...Ouch, you get one more week to bake and then you need to start planning your exit strategy.  I posted and told Emery to start coming on my birthday and she did, so I am hoping that it works with this little guy too.  Probably not so much...

We also took Sterling to the circus as a treat before the baby comes. He LOVED it. Absolutely loved it. His favourite act was the motorbike and quad tricks of course. What little boy doesn't love that? He had a silly smile plastered on his face the whole time, made me so happy to see him like that.  He still talks about it 2 weeks later.

We have been trying to clean up the yard these last few weeks so we can enjoy it this summer. Our first whole summer with our own yard to enjoy, not some rentals! Will post photos of befores and afters. So far we have taken out the chain link dog run fence. Converted said dog run into a patio with some free pea gravel we scored to put our sand box, BBQ and hammock! The photo of the sandbox was taken before the pea gravel was laid.

Took out gate on dog run stairs, took out and replaced dog run stairs (apparently non pressure treated wood, dogs and the weather do not mix). Converted planters in deck into seating benches. Put up our cinder fire pit and half-way done to finishing the gravel parking in the back into a lounge fire patio. Yay! Loving me some summer and getting my tan on.

On not so loving my life news, sometimes being a mother to a disabled child is just so heartbreaking. The last couple of weeks Sterling has been really sad about his ability to not walk when all his friends are running around. He tells me things like "Mama, I'm sad that I can't walk like you, Papa, Emy and all my friends. It isn't fair! I can't play hockey, go skateboarding or run around". I had to spend the morning showing him videos of various athletes playing sledge hockey and sit-skiing. He finally got a goofy smile on his face and said "I'm going to get a sit-ski and go do big tricks because I have big guns!" love this kid! All it takes is a video of an extreme sports athlete in a wheelchair to make him realize that he has so many possibilities. I think it just really gets to him that all his friends are running around and it is just really hard for him to keep up when not in his chair.


He got his legs casted today for a new set of AFO's.  Hallelujah!  I mean, these last pair which we got less than a year ago have been nothing but trouble.  He got them casted and then went back and they didn't even remotely fit.  We sat there for 3 hours while they fixed them.  Get home and only a couple weeks later are back because they gave him pressure sores.  Went back 5 more times and they still are giving him pressure sores and do not even remotely fit right.  Seriously, 7 appointments and 20 hours of waiting at Children's and they never fit right.  I refused to go back anymore until they casted him new ones.  Which took him getting a huge pressure sore and an infection.  Wow, just happy to get new ones (and they are fishy ones, yay!).

Just found out that my last doctor neglected to do the proper blood work for pregnancy. Which equaled me just recently finding out that I am now beyond anemic and have no iron stores at all in my body. Wow, no wonder my energy has been zero this pregnancy. I thought I imagined that I had more energy the last two pregnancies. She is just worried since I'm a less than a week away from when I gave birth to Emy or  3 weeks away from my scheduled c-section that I might have problems during surgery since you loose so much blood. Yay, for me!  Fingers crossed I don't get a transfusion because I DO NOT want to be in the hospital longer than I need to be.  I seriously loathe the hospital with a new baby.

Got my kids baby books that designed myself and had printed in the mail today! IN. LOVE. WITH. THEM. Glad I spent more for the hardcover image wrap and premium paper because they look so professional. Love them! Seriously!




In general loving that I am done with the last pregnancy I have to experience and just being able to enjoy being a mother to the best children ever!  Seriously, how could you not feel lucky to wake up to this smiling face every morning!  Such a happy little girl.

And to not get inspiration and feel like you need to suck it up a bit more when complaining about hip and leg pain because this little guy wakes up daily since he was born with back pain and headaches from the fluid pooling in his brain over night from his shunt.  Sometimes, I don't even know that he is in so much pain because he just doesn't complain about it and is all smiles just to see me. 
Yup, one lucky Mama here!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The State of the Chair

This is the state of Sterls wheelchair. Trevor is taking it to work tomorrow. If you know what Trevor does at work you will understand what is going to be happening tomorrow. If not, guess you'll get to wait and see in a couple of days. Sterls is sooooooooo excited! Yay!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Baby Book Post 2 of 2

Here is my favourite little girls book:




I got a promo code in the mail for 30% off and am super stoked about the deal.  $23 a book that is hard covered, image wrapped and even added the premium paper that is thicker and has a better coating on it.  YAY!  Can't wait until June 1 for these babies to make their way home to me.
 

Baby Book Post 1 of 2

I have been busy doing some graphic design lately for several things and it inspired me to make baby books and print them onto photo books for myself and my children.  Loving how they turned out and love how they will have this keepsake forever to take with them with some of my favourite photos in their first year of life!

Here is Sterling's book all ready to preview:




 

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Sterling Days

Went to Alberta Children's Hospital yesterday for Sterling's now yearly clinic!  Yay, for only having to go to clinic once a year now.  I know I still have other appointments but super stoked to have cut down on these.

Saw the orthopaedic surgeon and he was super pleased by Sterling's hip, knee and ankle joints (We have to stretch these twice daily and is that a task or what?!? It involves lots of screaming.  Especially, his tight hip joints.  They are so tight that he can feel the pulling in his stomach so it isn't so pleasant for anyone involved in the stretching of them.  He was happy with the progress enough that I didn't have to get a x-ray this time.  Yay, for not having to stay and extra hour at the hospital with more screaming.  I do need to get a new pair of AFO's made though. :(

Also, saw the urologist.  Good news and kinda not so good news but also still good news.  He is happy with Sterling from a medical standpoint because he hasn't had any urinary tract infections which is just so common when you don't have complete bowel control.  Last clinic we were unsure if Sterling was able to potty train or have any feeling but after having Emery, I have come to the realization that Sterling won't be able to potty train as is...She is just so aware and only 17 months old and it is just different.  So after Sterling's next clinic we are going to be taking him to children's to get an 8 hour bladder surgery that should help to make him continent.  This will probably happen around July 2013.  Yay, for not having to constantly change his diapers so he doesn't get an infection because of the constant leak.  Boo, for him having to undergo an 8 hour surgery :(  Although, I have come to terms with these surgeries and know that this is just the 4th surgery in his life of the many surgeries to come.

After Sterling's first surgery nothing will come as close to making me feel so sick in the surgery department anymore.  I still shudder when I think about that one because the memories are just so raw and emotional.  At just 24 hours old my little boy had have a 9 hour surgery to repair his spine.  At that point I had not been able to hold him yet and I had only seen him for about 20 minutes total in that whole 24 hour period.  I had to have a c-section because he was breech and have them let me out on a day pass so I could drive over to Children's to see Sterling before he went into his surgery.  Then drive back to Foothills hospital and get another day pass once he was out of surgery to see him.   I have never felt that helpless and worried in my life and I wasn't even able to be with him in the same hospital while he was having major surgery!  STRESSFUL is the closest word that I can think of and that is the world's largest understatement of the century.

So, now I only have four follow-ups to the clinic to get his yearly kidney ultrasound and get a new pair of AFO's made.  It takes 3 hour long appointments to get his custom AFO's made.  Or in the case of his last pair 7 appointments and still having them not fit properly and give him horrible pressure sores.  Which now equals having to have a new pair made before he has even outgrown his old ones.  All I can say is 'Hallelujah' for the Canadian healthcare system because I am pretty sure (actually I KNOW that) I would be broke by now if we had decided to stay in the U.S.

Sterling of course made friends with every single person in the waiting room.  He is just so inquisitive and outgoing that he just keeps talking and talking until they have to talk to him because they just can't help it!  We are not quite so sure where he got that from being that Trevor and I are so introverted and don't really like social situations.  He met a couple other kids that were his age with Spina Bifida as well.  I must say that I am super happy with how crazy and wonderful my son continues to be.  Neither of the other kids had wheelchairs yet (Sterling has been in his for over 2-years) and they weren't really active or independent.  It made me just so happy with his progress and our decision as parents to not allow Sterling to get any special treatment or help with things such as getting onto the couch even though these type of things are so much more difficult for him.

Just loving my little man these days and taking him to the circus this weekend before his little brother comes into this world.  FUN!!!  Hating my contractions these days.  They were so bad the other night that I was vomiting after each contraction ended.  Having about 10 million a day for the last 2 weeks.  I have them if I stand up, if I sit down, if I wash the dishes...doesn't he know that Mama is having a planned c-section so he doesn't need to practice coming out that way?!?  The others cooperated and didn't make me suffer so much before coming.  Well, I guess I can't count Emery as cooperating because I didn't want a repeat c-section and she decided that she didn't want to come after she broke my water.  This one is already a handful, I can tell!


 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

How they grow.

I can't believe how big my little boy is getting. I haven't put him in his stander for a couple months because his AFO's (ankle foot orthodics) gave him a horrible pressure sore blister which turned into a nasty leg infection. He doesn't heal very well when he gets injured below his hips because he has such poor circulation. Anyways, a blister that should have taken a few days to heal took 2 months.

Point of story: I put him in his stander today and he is so tall! He came all the way to my hips. Wow! He is growing up. It is always so easy to forget how big he is when is sitting on the floor.

Love him! He was sooooo excited to be standing again.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Favourites

These are my favourite moments from this month:

Emery-

I had been feeling really sick with the flu for several days and had made peanut butter and nutella sandwiches for lunch everyday for a week straight.

Me: Meme, it's time for lunch
Emery: Yay!!! Num num num num num......yay!

(followed by lots of clapping and jumping around - the girl really likes her eats).

She spots yet again another sandwich on the table.

Emery: NO! No no no!

Hangs her head in defeat while running away from her food angrily shouting 'NO' repeatedly while giving me the stink eye.

Sterling-

Me: Sterling, time for a diaper change!

Sterling: Optimus Prime (referring to himself) doesn't wear diapers.

Me: Time to get your pj's on.

Sterling: Optimus Prime doesn't wear pjs or go to bed.

Me: Goodnight Optimus Prime (kiss him goodnight)

Sterling: Mama, Optimus Prime doesn't need kisses or snuggles! He thinks that they are gross.

Me: Oh ok, Sorry Optimus Prime. Goodnight!

Sterling: Mama, my name is Sterling silly Mama, not Optimus Prime. Goodnight Mama....can I have some snuggles?

Love my kids!