With our move rapidly approaching (3 weekends away!), school starting for two of the kids, Sam's birthday project, and work ramping up for a couple big meetings, I don't expect to have a lot of time to post here for awhile.
The word for this week is "unpredictable." The two youngest have been on a mission to drive Scott and I to the brink of insanity, or further if they can manage it. They have mastered the art of irritating each other, so the screaming and fighting is near constant now. I'm sure the rain and clouds that have kept us inside is contributing to this. If I could send them outside to run around and use up that energy in more constructive ways, it would help a lot.
But getting them outside been impossible. We've had a lot of much-needed rain, but even when the rain stopped and we could have gone out, I had stuff I needed to do. I did take them to the indoor pool on Wednesday, which helped somewhat. Elli was sick Tuesday, so I was really busy caring for her that day, then Thursday we all traipsed down to Children's for a neuro follow-up, and today I go back for an EEG and sedated MRI. All these appointments this week are attempts to assess whether Elli is safe to wean off her seizure meds.
Today's appointments will take at least 4 hours because she has to have anesthesia for the MRI -- many kids aren't able to hold totally still for an hour-long scan, and she is no exception. I'm not thrilled about the anesthesia at all, which brings back unpleasant memories from previous scans -- I haven't changed much in this area! When she was an infant, I pretty much flipped out the day they asked me to sign the authorization forms for a general anesthesia for an MRI. She'd already had two open-heart surgeries and I was really unhappy about her having yet another general anesthesia for something as minor as a scan! They called in some of her doctors to explain it all to me again, and I did eventually agree to it. But I still hate it every time. Today should just be IV anesthesia -- I hope. But she has to fast for 8 hours prior, so I set my alarm and got up at 3:45am to give her a can of milk through her feeding tube. I'll probably have to give her water that way too -- she doesn't drink water for me.
Anna has become such a handful lately that Scott and I are finally in agreement -- at least this week -- that we are done having children. She has been getting into stuff really bad. Yesterday she opened up and dumped out on the kitchen floor a bottle of bath wash she dug out of our swimming bag. She's also enjoyed digging things out of my night stand -- things that are personal and should not see the light of day. Fortunately no-one has been around to see any of this stuff. In the few moments I've been typing here, she's gotten into all the power cords under the desk, pulled out handfuls of CD cases, and pounded on Scott's laptop.
Her latest thing is going on a sleep-strike. Two nights in a row she woke up early (5:15am and 2:30am respectively) and never went back to sleep -- she just cried and screamed in her bed. Needless to say, we were ALL cranky yesterday from lack of sleep. Scott and I decided that clearly she wasn't sick, and even if she was waking up hungry, we weren't about to start a midnight-snack precedent. It's just plain old-fashioned stubbornness on her part. So last night when she woke up crying at 5:15am again, I went in and gave her a hug (I do think she has nightmares, so I'm not totally heartless.). Then I told her that she needed to be quiet and go back to sleep and if she didn't, she would get a spanking. She went right back to sleep and didn't get up until 7:15.
Miraculously, despite all of this, I've gotten some packing done. I have most of the living room packed, and the linen closet is packed except for a handful of spare sheets and towels for us. Next I guess I'll tackle the bathrooms and utility area.
