I had my semiannual visit with my nephrologist today (kidney doctor). I had a good check-up. My creatinine level is stable (shows how much protein waste is in the blood, higher number means that the kidneys aren't filtering out that waste as well)- it was 1 right after giving birth, and is still 1. My uric acid (can cause gout and kidney stones) is kind of high, but that's to be expected since I'm just using diet to keep it low and no medication while I'm still nursing Alex. It was 9 (it's usually 4.5 when I'm medicated). So, it's low enough that I get to continue nursing Alex until he's a year, at which point I'll go back on medication and will be able to eat meat again-Yay!! (sorry Lisa!)

Nights are still tough with Alex. He just can't seem to go to sleep in the middle of the night unless I feed him. Any other time, it's not a problem. I'm completely exhausted because since we've started this sleep training thing, he's up a whole hour in the middle of the night. Two nights ago, once he finally fell asleep, it took me a while to go back to sleep. That just made things worse. He's got to get it soon, or else I won't be able to keep this up.

Bob's nursing his Wii shoulder. But he'll work through the pain. He thinks he'll be more fit on his right side than the left.

Glenn went to school wearing underwear today. I hope he's doing well. He did so well over this long weekend. I think he only had 2 accidents (not counting the night). He's even been staying dry through his nap. So, hopefully he did well enough. I'm not expecting him to be perfect, and neither is his teacher. She suggested once he made it to the toilet 50% of the time to send him in underwear. But I would have felt to guilty. I'm excited to hear how he did.

We got a Wii this weekend. Bob had been trying to find one for a couple of weeks now, and finally found one yesterday. It's a lot of fun. I say this because I can actually beat him at some of the sports. I beat him twice in bowling and once in boxing (he hasn't won in those two sports at all). The boxing is really a good workout. I guess I should mention that Bob does win in tennis. He also got Guitar Hero, but we can't play the drum set when the boys are sleeping- TOO LOUD!

Since there's no school tomorrow, a bunch of moms (and kids) are meeting at the park by our house tomorrow morning. So, we're looking forward to that. Hopefully it'll be in the 50's by then since it's supposed to be really windy. I am sorry to hear it's so cold up north. We had a couple from Ohio visiting at church today, and they said they had come here for the warmth, but was a bit disappointed since we had a few cold days here (40s and low 50s). Reminds me of when Bob and I went to Disney in December one year and it was the longest cold snap they'd had in many years. I think it was actually warmer in CT than it was in Orlando while we were there.

Now I'm rambling, so I'll just go back to reading my book...

Making Progress

Alex tried a new food today. He loves nectarines, or at least doesn't spit it out or try to vomit. But he is getting very smart- he'd still rather not eat solid food, so it's a pain to convince him to open his mouth. Anytime the spoon comes near, he clamps his mouth shut. Previously, we had tried rice cereal and sweet potatoes. You'd think I was trying to poison him. He hated them. We'll try them again in a couple of weeks. I'm just happy he'll eat something. He ate a half an ounce at dinner, which is quite a bit for his little tummy.

He also did well sleeping last night. He went to bed around 7:00, woke at midnight, 4:30, and 6:00. I did feed him for 2 minutes after giving him a chance to try to go back to sleep. I was happy he slept for 4 and a half hours after his first waking. Usually it's every 2 or 3 hours after he first wakes up. So, that's progress. And tonight, I'll only feed him for one minute when he won't go back to sleep. Tomorrow night will really be the test as I won't feed him at all.

Not much to tell about Glenn. I don't have as many stories about him when he's in school for half the day and sleeping for usually 2 hours in the afternoon. We are still trying to potty train him. He's pantsless when he's home (and not sleeping). We find he's much less likely to have accidents if he's not wearing anything. Today, he must have gone to the potty 50 times because every time he's actually productive on the potty, he gets a little snack. He would be so frustrated when he couldn't produce anything even though he'd just gone 5 minutes before. We're really frustrated with the whole potty training thing, but hopefully this tactic will help him. When he's wearing a diaper or underwear, he doesn't care if he goes, and is too busy to be bothered with going to the potty.

Alex did fairly well sleeping last night. He fell right to sleep at bedtime. I did feed him when he woke at 11:30. At 2:00, I kept going in to check on him while he cried for 45 minutes, until I gave in and fed him for a few minutes. Then he didn't wake until 5:30 (fed him again). I'm going to try to wean him from the night feedings, but would feed him at 5:30. He woke a few times before I went to bed last night, and cried for 20 seconds and went right back to sleep. So, that's a good sign. Hopefully it'll get better each night.

Here's a picture of him laying on the floor. I would think that he'd lose blood in his feet keeping them in the air so long.

Sleep Training is on!

We had a tough night last night. Alex woke up 5 times. Ugg! So, we're back to sleep training again. He's definitely old enough. But it's so hard to hear him cry (especially when I'm trying to sleep). I've taken the paci away, because that's what worked for Glenn. He's in his crib right now screaming because he can't fall asleep without it. It's going to be a long day (and night). I had to go out shopping this morning just so I could buy some coffee because I was all out. Part of the problem is that he'll roll to his tummy some times and can't get back over because he's all worked up. He will roll back to his back when he's playing, but he's more focused then. Please pray for us that we make it through these next few days with our sanity intact, and hopefully Alex will start sucking his thumb or find some other way to sooth himself.

Glenn had a neurology appt yesterday. It's been almost 2 years since his last seizure. He's been on the same dose of meds since March of 2 years ago. So, we're going to have an EEG next week to see if he has any seizure activity going on in his brain. An EEG is where they put a bunch of electrodes on his scalp and look at the brain waves when he's awake and asleep. If there isn't any seizure activity, then we're going to try to wean him off the meds and see how he does. This makes me a little nervous since he's at school 5 days a week, and when he has a seizure, he just sits there and stares. So, it'll be hard for the teachers to notice. We might decide to wait until summer to wean him off and not have him go to summer school. But first we need to see the results of the EEG before we have to make that decision.