HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving y'all !!! I have been cooking and baking since yesterday............papa is frying the turkey as we speak, the rest of our menu is;

arroz tapado ( rice with raisins, olives, ground beef, tomato paste and anis)
green beans with bacon ( special request from Sofie !)
sweet potato with marshmellows
applesauce

pumpkin pie
flan
tiramisu

Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much as usual, oh well, I won't be doing much cooking until Monday !!!

Tomorrow Black Friday, for the foreigners.........these are the mega sales the day after Thanksgiving, they start at 5 am and you better be in line way before that.


the only thing that caught my eye is a really good deal for Guitar Hero for the Wii and something for the boys. So I guess I'll be at Walmart bright and early, before papa goes to work.


Yesterday was Papa's 49th birthday !!! Happy birthday !!! He did not want to celebrate, but we love him anyway !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did it !!

Well, at least I managed to add one thing to my blog..........it's kind of like decorating LOL

The baby had a good visit, parents say they are going to do all they need to do, so it definitely does not sound like she will be going to a family member 4 hrs away just yet........................more time for us to love on her !

It's a hang out night here, Oscar is to a concert with a friend (friend's mom is driving and he will sleep over at their house) Papa is working overnight,so we had pizza and they're all watching movies. I am keeping an eye on Sebastian, he has been retching steadily for the past hour, don't know if he ate too much or what.........
As his tube feeds have been scaled down to just nights, he is eating more, but also retching more (dry heaving)
It doesn't scare him like it used to, but he's just miserable, laying on the floor, drooling, poor baby.

I need to go to blog school !!

Okay, so when I check other blogs and compare them to mine...this blog is seriously lacking !!!!!! It just seems so........naked. No fun gadgets and thingies..........I'll have to figure out how to do all that !!

No time now, have to get the baby ready for her visit !! Last day of school for the kids and then they're off for 5 days !!!!!!!!!!! God help me !! LOL

all in bed........finally

I didn't even have time to finish the last blog and ofcourse as I start writing this, little missy starts fussing...........She really is a good baby, so I can't complain.I'll be right back !

Okay, she must be going throug a growth spurt, little miss Piggy !! She had 3 oz not even 3 hrs ago..........oh well. Let's see how she sleeps tonight. last night she slept for 6 hrs straight !!

Tomorrow she has a visit with her bio's, I met them last week, seem ok, maybe even nice.............unfortunately mom has a LONG history. God only knows what's in store for this baby. In the mean time I am very blessed to be able to love her up !

The kids are just tickled with her, they love having a baby in the house. You would think that it takes "mommy time" away from them, but after the twins left, I think it was only 2 days before Max asked when we were going to have a baby again.......!!

I think it teaches them more than it takes anything away from them and I have come to the realization that this is my calling, this is what I am supposed to do. It is so full filling to be able to give a child a good start. Yes, the letting go is very hard, but in the whole big picture of things.............it's not about me....................it's about these kids...and trying to make a difference............one child at the time.

some news.........

The days have just been flying by.............all is well, everyone is doing good. Max seems to be over his MRSA episode. Sebastian was wheezing pretty bad last week and needed 4 days of steroids, but then perked up. It is great how he is getting stronger and does not need to be in the hospital as much anymore !!

For the biggest news...............we took in a placement last week.........a precious baby girl, she is not a medical placement, just a regular wonderful baby, no wires, tubes, monitors, etc

Sofia is such a trooper !!!

This morning we had a dentist appointment for Sofia. I could see she had a cavity and kinda knew that there was more going on, because she had been having some really bad breath, yuk !
After a gazillion phone calls, looking for a dentist that would accept Medicaid, we finally found one and he was great !! The old dentist in Tampa stopped taking kids over the age of 6 so that's why we had to switch.
When I made the appointment, I was explained that parents can not come with the child, they do the X rays and after that you come in a seperate room and they explain what all is needed. Then they do all the work right away, great !!!!!!!

Poor Sofia had 4 cavities, needed one rootcanal, a crown and one extraction !! OMG
Poor pre natal (or no pre natal) care, poor nutrition and life style and my child has to pay the price, unfortunately.

They use laughing gas and at NO time they utter the word S H O T , they just talk about taking the pain away. I wasn't too sure before hand if Soof could do it all, but she did !!! I spoiled her with a Hannah Montana singing Barbie, but she deserved it I think !!!!!!!!!!

Next week is Lili's turn !!

Home from the hospital

We ended going back to the ER on Sunday,because after Max slept a long nap, he woke up crying that his neck, head and ear were hurting. His neck was swollen twice the normal size and the redness was all over...............not good !

He had a CAT scan and was put on IV antibiotics in the ER, while waiting to be admitted, but the swelling would not stop. Another antibiotic was started, but it still didn't make a difference. Around 9 pm we were finally transported to SMH, because LWR does not have a pediatric ward. Max got to ride in an ambulance !!
He was terrified though and kept screaming not to be taken away.........we had to reassure him that Mom would get to ride with him !!

Monday morning it looked like the 5th antibiotic was finally having some effect, a blood test was done and it turned out Max had MRSA ! I couldn't believe it !

Today we were released, he will be on 8 more days of antibiotics (clendomycin) and hopefully we have slayed this dragon !!!!!!

Cellulitis........

Max woke me up this morning, he was crying, complaining his neck "hurted"
When I took a close look, his neck was swollen, bright red and hot to the touch..............I am not a dr, but this screamed cellulitis to me, so off to the ER we went. (after waking up Oscar, papa went to work very early this morning)
It is nice to have a responsible (most of the time)teenager in the house, who is very capable of looking after the other kids, when there are emergencies like this one !!!!!!!!!!

We got to the ER around 7.45 am, nobody there (can you believe it !!!!!) so we were taken straight back. The redness and swelling was spreading superfast, so the first thing they did was mark the borders. The pen didn't work that good, so the doc kept scribbling on the sheet to get it to work again, Max looked at that and said to the doc; ooooooohhhhhhhhh, you're going to get in trouble, your mommy is going to be upset !!!!
The doc thought that was so funny, the nurses are all in a stitch. Mr Max at work, I swear the kid has personality for 2 !!
He had to have 2 big shots in his hiney, one each side. Thank God they mixed it with lidocaine, because those suckers HURT !!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had to stay 30 minutes, making sure there were no adverse reactions. We are to keep a close eye on the red area, if it gets any worse, we'll have to go right back in. Dr is hoping there is no pocket of pus, but if it gets worse, they'll have to make incisions............

So let's all hope and pray the shots and antibiotics will do the trick !!!!!!

The cause seems to be a bugbite he got yesterday when papa took him to the Baybuddies event( so mama could have her garage sale in peace !) they were cleaning up a preserve and apparently there were some mosquitos.

We have an appointment with Doc Fleener tomorrow for physicals, so she'll have a look at it too. No bath tonight, can't wash of the marker !

Sebastian part 2

Still getting pneumonia's, still admitted to the hospital a lot................he was a mess !! We were inpatient for most of the summer of '06, first an NJ tube was placed, bypassing the stomach. Even though he was not taking anything by mouth, with the G tube feeds he was still refluxing severely and aspirating the reflux, so bypassing the stomach eliminated that problem. He had a Nissen Fundo done in early August and after 24 hrs of rest, tube feeds were very slowly started.
That was a mess !! Within hours he developed "loose air under the skin" going from a small goose egg on his ribcage to his whole upper body, front and back. Picking him up, he would crackle under your hands like a bag of chips.......................

He ended up on TPN ( IV nutrition)for weeks, he was not tolerating any G tube feeds. Papa took a whole month off to stay home and take care of the other kids, while I was in the hospital with Sebastian, who was a mess. He had a broviac (central line) placed for his TPN (yet another surgery) and I was trained on mixing the TPN, taking care of IV's, etc.
After over a month in the hospital, the dr's were ready to let him go home. I would have to come every week for weight checks, but everyone felt he would do better at home. One big hurdle............legally this child was not mine................
The Coalition had a PowWow and decided that the liability would be too big and he needed to go to a nursing home....................................
That's when I lost it...................I had been strong, upbeat, we'll get through this, etc...............but instead of talking about a child, these A$$hats were talking about liability and nursing homes...........they never called while we were going through all this, and now this ??!!!
The dr's agreed it was ridiculous and he was kept inpatient. We all worked so hard to get him to a minimum rate on the tube feeds, where he could sustain himself, without IV's. Sustain, not enough to gain, just enough liquids. We were finally released early September'06............................
He has had a bumpy road, some more diagnoses are tacked on the list every once in a while ( partial complex seizures, mild CP, expressive language disorder, etc) but they don't faze me anymore. I know that Sebastian is a strong little boy who has overcome a lot already, amazes me and lots of others every single day. He has come a long way and the sky is the limit !!!!!!!!!

Sebastian's story

Sebastian came to us at a time when we were still getting over losing Max. I got a call from one of the directors if we could possibly take in a 3 week old baby boy, who more than likely would be "adoptable" in the future...............

My mom happened to be with us, we all talked it over and agreed to say yes.....

It was the hardest thing, I felt like I was betraying Max, but felt strongly I needed to move forward and not keep hoping that one day Max would come back to us.

Sebastian was born to a mom with pretty severe mental health issues, who had already lost 3 kids previously. After he was born he did go home with her, but after about 10 days he was removed from her care. He was taken in by his grandmother, who after a week called CPS and told them he needed to go to a foster/adoptive home. I never met her, but it must have been such a difficult decision......she was in her 70's and her husband was terminally ill, she just could not care for him.

It was obvious when he arrived that he was loved, he came with bags and bags of clothes, a bassinet, a swing, a carseat, you name it, it was there.
The caseworker who brought him siad he had been screaming for the past 2 hours, and when she handed him to me........................there it was.......the magical moment........he stopped crying and just looked at me.............the caseworker was amazed as I just told Sebastian that everything was going to be okay and I would be his mommy and take care of him. Everyone was so excited !

He looked like a little old man, failure to thrive (underweight) and I suspected right away he had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome just from his facial features.

Sebastian was the best baby, just a joy, very laid back and content, but it was obvious he was very delayed and had a lot of feeding issues. Not only did he have severe reflux, but he would have formula come out of his nose while he was drinking his bottle. Tons of respiratory infections, poor weight gain, we muddled on, I was feeding him 2 oz every 2 hrs for months..................

Right before his 1st birthday he had a massive pneumonia again and while inpatient the dr's had a first hand look at how he would throw up and choke, aspirate a lot of times, turn blue on occasion, etc and the decision was made to transfer him to All Childrens in St Pete where a G tube was placed. We came home with a feeding pump, an IV pole, tons of meds, but I had received a lot of training in the hospital, so we felt we could handle this. We actually had to fight to prevent him from being placed in a medical foster home. Legally, his mom had already signed surrenders and we had been asked if we wanted to adopt, no way they were going to take my baby away !!! Give me the training and I'll become a medical foster parent !

Little did we know, but that was only the beginning of our medical journey. Even on G tube feeds, Sebastian kept getting pneumonia's and his O2 levels would bottom out in seconds.........................................

Time flies !!!!!!!

Time really has flown by these past weeks. Halloween was great, the kids had a good time. They got TONS of candy, that is all hidden by this mean mom !!!!!!! They so don't need candy !!

We also had the twins for the week as a respite. The same babies that I had the privilege of picking up at the NICU when they were 3 weeks old............we had them for almost a month before they moved to C. I had managed to get some weight on them and they were doing awesome. It was fun having them back for a little while, they have gained weight and are getting off their monitors soon, so they will move out of medical fostercare to a regular fosterhome. What the future will hold for them..........God only knows, let's pray that they will be home soon, either with their mom or with an adoptive home !

This Saturday our neighborhood has a big community garage sale, so I have been cleaning out !!!!!!!!! Seriously cleaning out !! I'm hoping to make some extra Christmas money........................

But I have been spending too, found some awesome deals at Goodwill ( my favorite bargain place !) This week was a very, very good week ! A double Babyplanet stroller that retails for close to $300, paid $30. I might use this as I am getting rid of my double joggin stroller and my trusted Duoglider..it's time.......
And an awesome bassinet (the first years 5-1) perfect condition...........I saw it and did the little inner dialogue thing;

"you have a bassinet and you don't even have regular placements, just respite"

"yeah, I know but this is really awesome and you cvan take the bassinet part and take it off and put it anywhere and look, the handle has a light and all the little sounds and stuff babies like............oh and it can be tilted a little, which is awesome for the reflux babies..............I'll sell my other bassinet at the garage sale...........yadayadayada"

You get it, I bought it, it's beautiful !!!!!!! All it needs is a baby..........

Next week I am doing respite for G a 3 week old baby girl, regular placement, but I have been thinking about taking in a regular placement, since there is such a need. I would get a waiver for regular fostercare in a heartbeat, but for medical (where my heart really is) waivers are hard to get !

Anybody wants to talk me out of this......(or try ???) LOL