Tidbits

11:00 A.M.

Since Alex's new found confidence, each day at 11:00 in the morning, I sit around and stare at the clock while keeping my phone in near reach. This is Alex's lunch time. From the time of 11:00 until noon, I sit around and bounce my knee nervously and count down the incredibly slow minutes of that nerve wracking hour. Kids eating lunch isn't a big deal for most parents. They don't even give it a second thought. But I have to and boy howdy! It sure slows time down when you worry for 60 straight minutes. I know I've said it a hundred times, but Alex is a good kid and smart as well. Even his teacher commented about how good he is with his food allergy stuff. But I tell you what. Sitting around for that hour is hard. I'm letting him grow his wings, but this mama bird is having a hard time letting him fly.

Glucose Fail - Fail - PASS!

At 28 weeks preggo, the big glucose screening test takes place at your doc. It's not a horrible test unless you dread getting your blood drawn. But it's a bit annoying as you can't eat a lick (literally) of sugar for at least 14 hours prior to the test and then you have to down some pretty potent sugary liquid, wait an hour, then get your blood taken. They are testing for gestational diabetes and I have zero risk factors and zero history of this problem. With Alex and Abby, I passed with no problems. With this wee one, I had an accident. I drank some of Abby's juice box one hour before the test. Oops! I'm a creature of habit and my test was later in the day. Plus I'm pregnant. Hello? I get hungry and eat what I see fit. So needless to say, I failed my test. When you fail, you have to take a three hour test where they take your blood four times over the course of the three hours. I told them about the juice accident and they had me retake the one hour test. I failed...barely. I was 143 and you have to be 140 to pass. Go figure. So one looooong fasting period later (more than eight hours w/o food while pregnant is horrible), four blood draws from the same tiny vein, and one nicked nerve later (ouch!), I was done with the test. 24 annoying long  hours later I got a notice that I passed! Woo-hoo! I know I'm just selfish here, but giving up my mint chocolate chip ice cream craving was not something I looked forward to. I could do it. I just didn't want to. Our palette of food options are already limited in this house. I didn't feel like altering it more. I'm clear though. No diabetes for me!

Polar Opposite

Here's the deal with Abby being in preschool. It's completely different! Abby being food allergy free is a blessing. But it's a strange and unfamiliar world to walk through for me. Each day I dropped Alex off at preschool, I had to go downstairs, talk to the teacher about snack time and plan ahead nearly every food related situation there was. It wasn't exhausting or anything as it's just part of my normal life. But this time around with miss Abby is completely different. It's so strange dropping off a kid with no medicine bag or no strict food rules. She's still not exposed to tree nuts yet so I've requested that it be avoided, but other than that, she's just a normal kid at school like most others. On her first day, I asked her what she had for snack time and she said, "I had a big, big giant cookie with frosting and sprinkles!" They were Loft House cookies from Wal-Mart. I know these well and they are not milk-free. So it was strange to just smile and say "Yummy! That sounds good Abby!" She also downed some Hershey Kisses from the teacher on the way home. It's strange, but I'm getting used to her food freedom.

Abby's First Day of School

Abby's first day of school.

My youngest (currently anyhow) is an official school kid. Though I was a bit worried about her taking to preschool, she ended up shocking us all and doing fabulous! After all her rants about not wanting to go to school and threats to walk home if I drop her off, I was sure I was going to have a little girl clinging to my leg and crying like mad. I've been prepping her through the summer by doing things with her that sparks that tiny bit of independence that she needs to be left somewhere without me. I started with swim lessons and moved on to library hour. Both of which didn't really involve me standing right next to her. I think library hour helped most because it's a drop your kid off kind of thing. She did fantastic with that so it gave me hope. We also picked out special clothes for the first day and she got to pick her backpack and school supplies which also helped. This past weekend, wanted to get her haircut short like mine and so I whipped out my scissors and lopped off three or four inches of her hair. She loves, loves, loves her new do! It's short, but it fits her well. She loves that we match hair now. She was excited to show everyone at school her new hair.

So on her first day, I tried my very best to not show my apprehension about the situation and hoped and prayed that her first day would be just wonderful. And blessed we were! Abby was a tad scared at first. She hovered by my leg for the first few minutes because there wasn't a single little girl there. The class has eight boys and three girls (or something like that). Once a little girl came and talked to her, she started to step further away from me. She gave me a big hug and kiss and whispered in my ear about how the little girl wasn't the one she remembered from the "first night". By 'first night', she means open house. But once her new little buddy, Lilly, walked in, she started to smile just a little. One more big hug and kiss and one reassuring moment of how long it would be before I was back to pick her up, and she went her own way. No tears!! Yay for Abby!! Turns out that she did wonderful. Her teacher said that she did amazing on the project for the day and commented how detailed she was in her work. She also said that she already made fast friends with the other girls in the class and did just great. I couldn't have been more proud of my little girl. She surprised everyone and is really excited about going back again. As for me, I shed a little tear while leaving up those stairs and smiled. My baby girl is growing up. Good job, miss Abby! I'm so proud of you!

Confidence

When Alex started school, I fulled expected to be eating lunch with him everyday for a few months. He was very nervous about the whole ordeal. As was I. I started off sitting with him at the table for the first few days. Then it came to my observation that the three meager tables they sit all of those kindergartners at were filling up so fast that I shouldn't be taking up a whole space and a half with my ever growing body. (Thank you pregnancy weight.) With Abby with me as well, it was better for the whole situation if I just stood or kneeled next to the table. And believe me when I say that kneeling on the cold cafeteria floor for 20 minutes while preggo is a no go. Uncomfortable at best. So slowly over the past three weeks, I've been just standing further and further away from the table so that now all I really do is just lean up against the wall and stare mindlessly off into the distance while Alex and Abby dine away. Alex kept asking me to come because he wasn't comfortable eating without me. When ever I was late, he wouldn't eat until I got there and you could visibly see his knees bouncing up and down in a nervous way until I appeared. I promised him I'm come until he told me he didn't want me there anymore.

Yesterday I had to go to the preggo doctor for a retake of my glucose tolerance test (that's for a whole other post unfortunately). I told him all weekend that I might not make it to lunch and he was fairly nervous about it but he was doing well by the time I dropped him off in the morning. I booked it from the doc and made it home in due time to eat lunch with him. Turns out that my desperate attempt to rush around like a crazy lady was all for naught. As I got there, the kid was sitting in his end table spot eating away with a grin from ear to ear with the rest of the cold lunch kids. When I saw him sitting there confident and happy, I quickly debated whether or not to go all ninja and disappear before he saw me, but alas! My ninja skills were not well honed. (Probably has something to do with my oversized body. Have you ever seen a giant pregnant lady sprint? Not cool.) He spotted me and started waving and yelling, "There's my mom! HI MOM!!" I walked over to him and he proceeded to tell me that he didn't think I would come. What I mistook as relief was actually a sense of comfort. He looked up at me and said, "Mom, I don't think you need to eat lunch with me anymore. I can do this by myself now." As a matter of fact, halfway through eating he looked at me and said, "Mom, you can go ahead and leave now. I'll see you after school."

*sniff, sniff*

Yep. Three weeks into school and ol' mom is no longer a necessity at lunch. So I asked him if he was sure and he explained to me that he'd rather sit with his friends now and that he knows he can do this without me and be safe. He said he knows the rules about food then quickly spouted them all to me. I asked him to tell me all the food rules this morning again just to be sure and he spouted them again, but this time with a subtle eye roll at the end and said, "Yeah, yeah. I got it mom."

*sniff, sniff*

Yep. So only three weeks in and Alex has his confidence. Don't get me wrong. This was my original goal. But when he told me all along that he would maybe be okay eating after he turns six years old, I was all set on my daily schedule of meeting him for lunch. I'm proud of the little dude. He's had to carry this burden of allergies with him for all his life and has done so well dealing with the added stress of it. Some days are worse than others for him if he gets left out of special things. But he does great and I'm blessed to have such a strong little boy. Of course when lunch time hits I'll be biting my nails until they bleed today, but I'll keep trucking. I have other things to be concerned about today. It's Abby's first day of pre-school. *gulp* To be continued I suppose...

Live & Laugh...& Get Muddy

A little mud can go along way when you're a kid. Heck. I played in it. You played in it. We all played in it at one time or another. It's sloppy. It's messy. It's dirty. It's downright fun. My two little bored kids were already a mess so I suggested that they go play in the mud. It took them about 1.2 seconds to comply and about 6 seconds after that to get covered. I don't think I've smiled this much in awhile.Gotta love that mud!

 

A Peanutty Follow-up

I'm excited to say that the peanut challenge went well! Well, perhaps the actual challenge itself was not good, but I'll explain. Abby started the appointment off with a brave face and slapped some good ol' fashioned peanut-butter on her skin with zero reaction. Then it was off to Alex's skin/contact challenge. As I've said before, you can't teach a kid for almost 6 years to never touch or eat something and then expect him to just slap some on his skin willy-nilly. It didn't go so well for the little guy. He was terrified beyond measure and hid in the back corner of the office with tears free flowing. I couldn't blame him. It broke my heart to see him like that (as always). So we switched gears and gave Abby her oral challenge. Two doses and half an hour later, she didn't have any reactions. So Abby was given the all clear for allergy to peanuts (which I was warned could always change no matter how old you get. Nice, huh?).

Back to Alex. In order to determine his safety at school, we really needed to find out if he has a contact allergy on top of his ingested allergy. With all those peanut-buttery covered hands and faces at lunch, it's possible that one kid might touch him and then BOOM! Allergic reaction follows. I've gone 6 years without using the Epi-pen. I'd like to keep a flawless record. So alas! It came down once again to another round of mama trickery. During an exceptionally hard crying spell, I told him to just give mama a big hug and proceeded to tell him that if he didn't calm down, he was going to give himself an asthma attack. Trust me, it's happened before so it wasn't all just part of the deception. I lifted the back of his shirt up and told him the nurse wanted to watch his breathing for a few minutes and he gratefully put his head on my shoulder and calmed down. The nurse told him that she needed to wipe down his back because it had some 'dirt' on it and then used a wet-wipe with peanut-butter on it to wipe a good-sized area with the potential toxin. Alex is no dummy and instantly went rigid to see what she was 'putting on him'. We told him nothing (mom guilt, mom guilt, mom guilt) and then I got him laughing with lots of mom kisses on the cheek and ear.

Well, I'm blessed to say that nothing happened. No hives. No itching. No swelling. No asthma. Seven minutes with it on his skin and the nurse wiped it off and gave him the all clear for a contact allergy. Turns out that she said food contact allergies are fairly rare and she's only ever heard of two in all her years. So we fessed up. We told Alex the truth about what we did and his eyes were about the size of dessert plates! He smiled and said, "I did it? I'm ok? I'm all done?" I told him that he was safe if someone accidentally touches him and that all he has to do is make sure to get an adult to wash it off for him then go about his day safe and sound. He still has to be extremely careful because if it gets on his hands and he puts his hands on his face or in his mouth, it's very dangerous. But he understands the best a kid his age can and he's doing well.

I am relieved to have some good news for once from one of these blasted life-burdening allergy tests. Usually I walk out of these appointments with a heavy heart and a sad little boy. I still had to deal with the tears and fears, but at least we know a little more about his reactivity to his food allergens. It was a crazy day and I'm glad it's behind us. I'm ever thankful to God these days for Abby's lack of allergies and for the relief from some good news for Alex. We did discover one small thing. Alex was claiming to be 'itchy' before the peanut-butter was even opened from the sheer fear itself. So the doc has said it's about time we did a double-blind milk challenge. There is a chance that Alex is causing a false positive allergic reaction to milk (as his numbers indicate he should be outgrowing it someday). I guess you can give yourself hives and the whole gig with mind-numbing fear. I believe it, but I've seen him start drooling, itching and wheezing after milk. I've also seen the swelling in his throat. So I told the doc we'd deal with that next summer as opposed to dropping more stress on the kiddo's shoulders during school. The doc agrees full-heartedly. What a crazy day! But as always, God is good! Amen!

Peanuts Round 2

Tomorrow is yet another big day in our little world of food allergies. Towards the end of summer I planned on taking Abby to the doctor to get her peanut challenge done with the doctor. But sadly the doc had to cancel and so we are just now doing it. She had peanut butter way back around the time of Alex having peanut butter...I think. Honestly though, I can't remember if I ever actually gave her some too. The whole thing blurs together in my mind a bit. Pretty much when Alex was diagnosed with the official allergy to peanuts, our home went peanut free and we haven't looked back. So soynut butter is the substitute we use and we are all so used to it now that there is no point in having peanutbutter in the house for any purpose. Alas, Abby must also begin her trek into the world of school and to be safe, she has to have a peanut challenge to see if she's cleared to be considered allergy free for school. We'd do the test at home, but with big brother having such bad luck with reactions, it's highly recommended to be in a doctor's office to be safe. We know she's a-ok with milk because her and I have special Mommy and Abby doughnut day when we go grocery shopping while Alex is at school. She also sneaks the occasional bits of cheese and such when I have it. I'm praying for her tonight that all goes well and that she passes the test with flying colors. Any prayer for her testing tomorrow is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Now, because Alex is officially in the full swing of all day school, lunch-time is a bit scary as I've mentioned before. One of the things the school asked me to do was to see if he has a purely ingested allergy to peanuts or if it is also a skin (touch) reaction as well. I know inhaled reaction is safe as he's been around many peanutbutter sandwiches and such with no problem. So he gets the joy of going to the doc tomorrow and getting peanutbutter rubbed on his skin to see if there is a zero reaction. I've told him what to expect and tried to prepare him without causing severe fear, but he's pretty scared regardless. It's hard on the little guy to expect so much like this. I'm not sure how it will go, but we are also praying for him as well tonight that all goes smooth and that he passes the touch test without a hive or reaction in sight. Once again, any added prayer for him would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

So wish us luck tomorrow and lift us up in prayer all you can. I'm a bit nervous as well, but God's got this under control like everything else. Peanut challenge round two: Fight!

Abby Entertained

All this talk and worry about Alex has been exhausting mentally. So let's talk about Abby. We are one and a half weeks into school with brother and all the day miss Abby spends hanging out at home. Is she lonely and just lost without brother to keep her company? Nope. Not even in the slightest. Oh sure, she mentions missing Alex from time to time, but I don't think it gets her down at all. I tell you what. This little girl is the most self-entertaining child I know. She can literally sit for an hour at a time and just color and draw at the table. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. Today, as we whittle away the hours, she has pretty much just went off and played by herself the entire time. I keep "interrupting" her play time by asking what she wants to do or if she wants me to play games or something with her. She keeps saying no and goes about her business. We do things together though like make cookies and clean Strawberry's (her hamster) cage. She's been getting more one on one time with her little pet so she's thrilled about that. Alex has a tendency to try and hog the Strawberry time so Abby just sits on her bed and lets the little thing just crawl all over her legs and whatnot.

Abby and Strawberry.

Today, she spent 2 hours just playing with her stuffed animals. Every time I tried to intervene and join in, she (and the plethora of stuffed animals) would get angry at me. No. that's not a typo. I really did mean that the stuffed animals would get angry as well. Cheesy, her ultimate favorite stuffed animal (a mouse beanie baby from a garage sale), actually yelled at me in her squeaky voice and told me to stop bothering her. I think maybe I'm feeling a little left out. Abby loves her quiet time as well. She just lines up all her 'friends' and eats her snack while watching something girly (I seriously hate those Barbie movies...blech).

Quiet time with friends.

I've gotta give Abby credit for one thing. She really does play great on her own. Much like her brother, she's got a wild imagination and can slip into her own little world without batting an eye. It's nice when I have to get something done, but it also pulls at my heartstrings when she doesn't want me to join in her playtime with her. I guess my little girl is just growing up and sprouting wings. I'm using afternoon quiet time to reintroduce myself to editing my ol' book. We'll see where that takes me in the next three months. In two weeks I'll be alone three hours a day with Abby in school so who knows. Maybe I'll actually get it up for the e-reader by the time I'm mommy to three.