Vesicoureteral Reflux

Jaely was diagnosed with Vesicoureteral Reflux (Grade II) yesterday at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Basically this means that some of the urine that travels from her kidneys down the ureters to her bladder back-flows (has a reflux) and travels back up the ureters and possibly her kidneys. This makes her more prone to urinary tract infections and any infected urine could enter her kidneys and cause them to become infected. If her kidneys become infected they could cause damage and scaring effecting its ability to function in the future.  Jaelyn will begin to see a specialist, a Pediatric Urologist starting Aug. 12th, to determine her plan of action. She will go on prophylactic antibiotics for a period of time depending on what the urologist decides for  her. It varies depending on the child from 3 months to a year and then we head back to PCH to repeat the procedures she had yesterday (VCUG and ultrasounds) to see if she has outgrown it or if things have remained unchanged. If unchanged she will continue daily antibiotics until she is tested again and the cycle continues until she outgrows it or surgery is deemed necessary. 

The tests yesterday were awful and I never wanted to have to go through that again. Unfortunately we know that we will have to go through it at least once more. Until the problem is corrected.  There is nothing worse in the world than holding your child while they are in pain and knowing there is nothing you can do to take it away from them. 

I found this website that explains her reflux very well and has great pictures to go with it. 

http://www.pedisurg.com/PtEduc/Vesicoureteral_Reflux.htm 

We love bath time!

Being a Mom is the Absolute Best

Being a mom is the absolute best. It is the very moments that I want to pull all of my hair out, that when I think back to I tear up because of how fast they grow, then smile and laugh hysterically, that I will remember the most.

Choking

My house has at least 100 choking hazards in it for Jaelyn to get to and choke on. This is a new experience for me because when the boys were putting everything in their mouths, I didn't have the small toys (Lego Stars Wars toys, Bionicles, etc.) that I have in my house now. I am constantly having the boys pick up their toys and keep them out of harms way. But of all the things to become lodged in her throat, this little piece of tape was the culprit. Yesterday morning I slightly panicked when she started drooling non-stop and was hacking like she wanted to make herself throw up. I could tell her airway was not blocked and she could breathe but there was clearly something back there that was not supposed to be. What did I miss? I had made sure nothing was on the floor in my room that was too small for her! Finally after a few sips here and there of her bottle she was able to make herself throw up. Inside her mouth I saw a white ball that I quickly grabbed out and there was this little, clear piece of tape.

Jealyn Update #3 (I think)

Steph's comment today made me realize that I have done a Jaely update in a while. She is doing really well. She was pretty fussy yesterday, but doing great this morning. I think yesterday was a possible result of two more teeth coming in on the top... I say two more, but the fact is that she only has two. I looked at the boys' baby books and Jacob and James had 14 teeth at 13 months of age. Jaelyn will be lucky to have 4 at 12 months - she is proving to be as different as she possibly can from them.

I have not schedule her appointment yet at children's. I was waiting to hear from her peds office (the scheduler) but haven't heard from her so I will probably give them a call today. I will let you know of her appointment date when I hear of it, but I am sure there will not be any results for a few days after that.

Her poor system is overwhelmed with the antibiotics she is having frequent and runny bowl movements. So we are trying to keep up with the probiotics to help that out some. She has developed quite the rash from it though so we are changing her more often then normal. The cloth diapers do help tremendously though - I cannot imagine what her rash would look like with disposables. In fact, when I know I am going to be out for a long day, sometimes I will throw some disposables into the diaper bag so I don't have to haul a bunch of dirty cloth diapers home with me. By the end of the day she is so red. I am not sure why I ever used the disposable diapers with the boys!

Jaelyn and I have become very attached to each other. When I leave the room, even if Josh and both of the boys are in there with her, she will let out a whimper to let me know she is unhappy about it. Sometimes she will even full on cry. I have to say that when Josh takes care of her for a day on the weekend to give me a break, when she is put to bed and I feel like I have not held her enough during the day, I really miss her... even when she was right in front of me the entire day. As we speak she is standing up holding onto my legs as I sit in the computer chair.

I actually had a dream last night that I watched her stand up from the middle of the floor all by herself without using anything to pull herself up and then she took a couple steps until she grabbed onto the tv stand... I was soooo sad!!! I want her to stay a baby forever! Thank goodness it was only a dream.

Jaelyn Update... again

Just when I thought we were in the clear and the nurse was calling to let me know her fevers were in fact caused by something viral, the results of her specimen came back with ecoli in them and she does have a Urinary Tract Infection. No problem... antibiotics (with some probiotics to help her little system on those harsh drugs) will do the trick. Not so fast. Babies that have UTI's (under age 2) they treat very aggressively because they are at high risk for having vesicoureteral reflux (VUR). In two weeks, Jaely will need to visit Phoenix Children's Hospital to have an ultrasound of her kidney's and bladder. They will also (this is where I started to cry) catheterize her again and insert a die to make sure there are no kinks in her intestines. It is a procedure called, Voiding Cystourethrogram or VCUG. What can happen in babies is instead of everything flowing out the way it is supposed to from the kidneys to the bladder, the urine flows backwards, from the bladder to the kidneys. This puts an infant at risk for kidney infection and kidney damage. If test come back positive, which I feel good that they won't, she will take an antibiotic every night for about 6 months and will have the tests again. Eventually, they say, most babies outgrow it after several years and no surgery is necessary.

I feel like this is all my fault. I should have been more careful with diapering her, changing her, wiping her, etc. but the dr. reassured me that if it was that easy, babies would be prone to this infection and get it all of the time. She said that I did the right thing by bringing her in when I did - which really did not make me feel much better because as her mom that is my job. Yes, she had Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, but after all symptoms were gone, it was not normal for her to continue her high fever. Even if it is not my fault, I feel horrible that my sweet baby girl has to go through all of this again. Putting the catheter in the first time was traumatizing enough. I asked about being able to numb her, our Pediatrician said it will be up to Children's hospital to decide. I certainly hope they can - I hate to see her in that much pain.

Jaely update...

She is doing great! Her temp was gone the very next morning, of course after all of those awful tests! We are still waiting results for some things, but I think it is safe to say she is in the clear. Some blood work did come back and showed that she is anemic. She will start vitamins with iron to help - I am trying to give her more oatmeal too which has 40% of her daily value. Hopefully this will help - next Dr.'s visit - 9 month appointment in just a few weeks!

(Don't stop reading here - read about my adorable boys below... !)

Playing "House: The Tooth Fairly" Together

I think with this screen generation of children, many have forgotten how to entertain themselves and play together without some sort of stimulant. James and Jacob, the past few days, have been awesome using their imagination to play and getting along wonderfully... just when I thought they were extremely sick of each other, they have started getting along better than I think they ever have!

Today they played "House" together, which I have mentioned is Jacob's favorite game. I walked into James' room and they stopped playing. I did not know what they were up to and usually silence means they were caught doing something they were not supposed to, but not this time.

I asked them, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," James said.

"Playing house," Jacob replied. "James is the tooth fairy."

"Yea," James said. "I am the tooth fairy and the daddy."

hmmm.... I thought to myself.... coincidence?

"Get out," they told me. They were embarrassed to play in front of me.

I slowly closed the door just enough so that I could still peak in and watch. Then Jacob pulled up his pillow and underneath was one of their trains. Jacob acted very excited, "Wow!" and James said, "Whoa! The tooth fairy brought you GeoTrax!"

They make me smile :)

Rough Day for Jaely Girl

It was a rough day for Jaely. We revisited the Dr. after waking up to day #8 with a fever. She has no symptoms of anything else and her exam checked out well. The blisters in her mouth are gone but still the fever remains. That's when the decision was made to start searching for the cause. First was the dreadful catheter that we were completely traumatized by. It took about 5 long minutes for them to put it in and she screamed the whole time. It may of only been 3 minutes but it felt like forever. They were about to let someone else try when the nurse finally got it, but out it came as she started to pee and they quickly captured it with the cup. Thank goodness because I'm not sure I would of let them do it again. Sorry if that is too much information but it is so hard to see your kids intentionally in pain. Then chest x rays and blood work. Of course they could not find a vein, but I discovered Jae will be the Dr. in the family as she sat and watched them poke around under the skin with the needle and barely whimper. She could not of done a better job... her mom really needed that. The chest x-rays came back cloudy, no pneumonia. We will have partial blood work results tomorrow. She is going to bed with a fever tonight. I pray she will wake up tomorrow with no fever and today was all for nothing!!!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Yesterday we enjoyed our first baseball game with the kids. We arrived a little over an hour early so they could try to catch a home run ball. Poor Jaelyn is still sick with temperatures and sores in her mouth, but when you are a baby and the third child you just get dragged along where ever you siblings go. Josh was given free tickets from work and they were great seats for the kids' first professional baseball game! Josh had to take them up to the bleachers which made him reminisce in his childhood days as a Seahawk season ticket holder in the good old King Dome.

We did it!

Last night we drove to Yuma to look at a van to replace the '99 Town and Country that is quickly breaking down on us. It has been spewing antifreeze and leaking every other type of fluid it holds including gasoline if you fill the tank too full. Josh has never been a mechanic, but he has been learning how to fix things on this car since the day that we bought it one year ago. I have constantly been impressed that he was able to fix the problems. We paid very little for it which is why we refuse to put any money into to fix it up. The service engine light has been on for months and every time we brake, the oil light blinks and makes the same dinging sound some cars make when you don't have your seat belt on. With all the stop lights in Arizona I would say that I have to listen to this sound most of the time that I drive. I was VERY spoiled with Honda Odyssey and LOVED that van. The fact of the matter is we paid way too much for it and when times got tough we could no longer afford it. We have changed our ways so much in the last two years with the fall of the economy. We have learned a lot about ourselves and what we "need" VS what we "want". We have been shopping for a new van to replace the town and country since we bought it and still hope to be able to sell it for something while disclosing all of its problems. We hate to have a family pick it up and be in the same situation that we have been - always wondering when... I believe I have broken down at least three times with all three kids in the car with me, but fortunately we were close enough to home that it turned out to be a simple issue. Driving long distances was out of the question without Josh on call and ready to "save us". Our expectations for our next replacement were very low. I really wanted power doors and a reliable engine. Josh has literally been searching the entire U.S. for weeks on a good deal on a something within our price range. Yesterday, he found one and it was a mere three hours away. It had been sitting on the lot for 90 days so per their policy they reduced the price dramatically to get rid of it. Little did I know... it was EXACTLY like the Odyssey I used to have and love so much. In 2006 we bought a brand new 2006. This one is a year older than the one I used to have - a 2005, but the details in the differences are minor. The interior is not in the "brand new" condition that mine was in, but I cannot complain - this is a used car. It felt like yesterday we bought our Odyssey - it was hard to believe this van we were looking at is almost 6 years old - what a price difference! So we did it!!! We bought the 2005 Odyssey that is exactly like the one I used to have, but our payment will be about $500 less each month - WOW! and we would still be paying on it.

It was a comfortable 3 hour drive home from Yuma last night... we are so lucky to have found such a good deal, not too far away! Thank you Josh!!! I love you.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth... Disease

Jaely girl has it. I took her too the doctor today because she had a temp of 102. It has been a few days and with Josh getting over strep throat, I didn't want to take any chances. She was again not eating very much as she had not been when she had her ear infection. Within the last week, I noticed she had some blisters on her hands. I made note of it to Josh asking if she could of possibly burnt the tips of her fingers on plastic of her car seat in our 112 degree weather. Then without waiting for his reply, I moved on to say that the blisters looked a lot like the ones Jacob had when he had Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. However, I had no idea when I was taking her to the Dr. today (that was 3 or 4 days ago and now they are gone) that she had little sores in her mouth too (which would explain why she doesn't want to eat for long). There is no treatment for it and it is not serious. It is viral and is going around and you just have to wait it out.I took this pictures this morning of Jaelyn in her first pair of shorts! She has worn lots of dresses, onesies, capris, leggings, and even jeans, but never shorts!! They just looked too cute I had to pull out the camera but as you can tell from the picture, she is not feeling well.

Her superhero brother is here to rescue her from her canker sores!

Candy

James woke me up this morning tattling on Jacob - "Mom, Jacob ate your chocolate Reese's." Mind you that it is 6:30AM. Half asleep I say, "you can have the other one, just please don't wake up your sister." It was a long night, Jaelyn is sick again with a temp. I am not sure if it is her ears. She is eating less again, but still eating and doesn't complain when she eats, but has a fever at night and during the day with no other symptoms just like the boys had a few weeks ago. She never got this so maybe it is her turn.

Back to the candy... I ask Jacob, why did you eat candy this morning? You know it is not OK without asking, right?" He said, "I only had five skittles."

The skittles I did not know about - thanks for telling me Jacob. I tell him it does not matter what he ate, it is not OK to help himself to candy, especially first thing in the morning.

A few minutes later, after our conversation he comes in my room and mumbles something to me. I ask him, "Jacob, what is in your mouth?" He says, "Am I going to get in trouble?" "Yes," I said. "Am I going to go to my room?" he asks me. "Yes," I said. "For how long?" he asks...

"Four minutes, go to your room." Apparently the risk is worth the reward... I must think of something else.
Here he is with a ring pop in his mouth.

Happy 4th of July

We celebrated our fourth of July early this year on July 3rd in Anthem, AZ with our good friends, the Thompson Family and the Neve Family. The kids had a blast running around together for three hours before the show started while we claimed prime real estate.
Jaelyn has a friend! Gianna, Tonja's youngest daughter was born just three weeks after Jaelyn. Jae is fascinated by Gianna's pierced ears and headband.

Jaely was memorized by the fireworks! And so were the boys, as you can see them with their glow sticks behind her.

It was a beautiful display.

James is Gifted!

James passed Gifted testing and is eligible for an ILP (Individual Learning Plan)! He scored in the 98th Percentile for Quantitative (this means he scored better than 98% of students who take the test in this section), 93rd Percentile for Non-Verbal (this means he scored better than 93% of students who take the test), and 48th Percentile for Verbal (which is average, he scored better than half of the students that take the test).

We are so proud of him!!!

She is too stinking cute and growing up too fast!

8 months already can you believe it? She is on the move!

If you click on the picture below on the left and take a close look you will see two pearly white teeth!

The black eye below came from a very remorseful brother. For a while I did not think the 6 year old had a conscience, but now I know that he does! While seated in the seat behind her of the car, he took the head rest off the seat in front of him. The seat where Jaelyn is rear facing. It toppled down and the metal part punched her in the eye, scraping her eye lid and leaving a bruise. Please don't say anything to him about it, he is VERY embarrassed and sorry he hurt his baby sister!