Oh Sleep, Where Have You Gone...

So, I know this is an odd topic for a blog, but it seriously felt like I was in a sitcom last night while "sleeping." For some reason, I just couldn't fall asleep last nite. I tossed and turned until sometime around midnight. Around 1:30 a.m., I hear Mr. Drew through the monitor. I went in his room and popped in his Dodo (what Mr. Tater Tot named pacifier's a few years back) and rubbed his head a bit. As soon as I'd walk away, he'd start to cry again. We tried this about 5 times, until I finally decided to pick up and put him in bed with me.

Then Drew decided it was party time... He starts squirming around and laughing, singing, and climbing all over Grant (who wants to know why I'M kicking him, lol)! This didn't keep Grant awake long though (nothing really does). Around 3 am., I hear a door open and close, and then my bedroom door open and close. Now, I should tell you all that Parker has a new addiction to this online penguin game. He wakes up when he hears Grant getting up for work so that he can play it (we're talking like 5:30 am people)! He came in to check to see if G was up and getting ready for work. He wasn't, so Parker went and got back in bed, but this commotion made Drewbie Do pop back up like a rocket.

Shortly after this, G starts snoring. Then Franklin (who is sleeping on his bed in the corner of our room) chimes in on the snoring. Drew thinks that G is playing a game they play often (where the repeat each other's noises) so he starts to mimic the noises! Yes, all 3 were making God awful noises! The snoring finally stopped, and Drewbie started to settle down. As he was drifting off to sleep, he discovered that the non-skid on the bottom of his footie pj's makes an AWESOME noise when rubbed against my comforter, so he made a rhythm of noises that he hummed along to until about 4:30 am when he finally fell back asleep.

At that point I finally was able to move him back in his crib. I got back in bed and my eye's were wide open! I got online and checked my email (the KILLER red shoes I ordered on ebay for my 30th bday have been shipped), tweeted about being awake, then turned on the tv. Let me tell ya, the news casters that are on at that time in the morning are INTERESTING, to say the least.

At 5 am G's alarm went off and he rolled over, looked at me and said, "you're still awake!? so, u wanna..." I'm not going to finish that sentence, don't think I have to, but I'm sure you all know what my response would be.

Not sure what time I FINALLY drifted back to sleep, but I do know Parker was awake and playing the penguin game and G was dressed for work. Tater Tot came in at some point and woke me up, and I asked for 5 more mins, which turned into a bit more, b/c when Parker finally came in, it was time for him to leave for school, and he was in his pj's and not fed.

To sum things up, Parker was late for school today....

Surgery

OK, so, I have a history of endometriosis. It took me 18 months to get pregnant with Parker, and just when we thought, "I wonder if somethings wrong?" I was pregnant! After Parker was born, I started having terrible pains all the time. I was popping Motrin like tic tac's and my Dr. said this wasn't right. He refereed me to another Dr. who suspected endo, so I set a laperoscopy (exploratory surgery). Once they got in there, they said that the endo had spread over every internal organ. What was supposed to be 45 min outpatient surgery turned into 4 hours and an overnight stay.

After that we weren't sure if we'd be able to have more kids. It took a long 11 month of fertility treatments to finally get pregnant w/ Tater Tot.

When Tater Tot was about 16 months, the pains started coming back and it was decided that I would need another surgery. It was scheduled for the following Friday. That Monday morning, I woke up and for some reason took a pregnancy test and low and behold, I was pregnant with Drew!!!!

Well, here we are and Drew is 12 months and the pain is back and worse than ever. I wonderful primary ordered an u/s because I had a period that lasted 30 days. It showed that I had a cysts on my left ovary and my lining was measuring on the thick side. She then refereed me to a specialist. I went in last Wed for another u/s and it shows that the cysts is now 6 cm and the ovary is enlarged, and my lining is now measuring 3-4 times the size it should. Now they are talking about possibly removing the ovary as well. Best case scenario, I have another really bad endo flair up that has spread onto my ovary, worse case, cancer in the uterine lining and ovary. I go back to the dr today and should have a surgery date set.

Fall and our trip to Hannibal

I am totally a summer person. I love sun, sun bathing, bbqing, all of it, but I do love the change of season into Fall. Some of my favorite things in fall are pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin beer, spicy scented candles, sleeping with the window's open, sitting outside with my ipod, and a glass of wine in a sweater, and day trips around MO. We decided to take a day trip out to Hannibal yesterday with the kids.

It is about an hour drive for us, but we decided to take the longer more scenic drive because it was such a pretty day. We planned it so that Drew would sleep the whole way, little did we know....

Drew slept for about 45 mins, then suddenly woke up screaming! I tried to give him back his dodo (what Tater has named the pacifier) but he kept spitting it back out. I then gave him a sippy cup of milk, which he drank, the threw, then continued screaming. I then hopped into the backseat with him and tried giving him a cookie, which he threw at me. I tried toys, I tried singing, nothing would work. Finally, we decided he was just going to have to cry it out. Tater Tot was on one side of me with his fingers in his ears, and Parker was behind me rolling his eyes and huffing.

After about an hour of this, Parker went into, "how much longer? I never wanna do this again. Someone get this screaming baby to be quite!" When Grant told him to cut it out, Parker decided to unbuckle his seat belt because he wanted to go to jail and never see us again. I told him to get it back on, and he yelled no, so Grant told him to get it back on or he was grounded. At this point of our trip, Parker is crying, Grant is yelling, Drew is screaming, Tater Tot is singing "the wheels on the car go round and round" and I just had to laugh.

We finally arrived in Hannibal and decided it was not a good idea to take the ferry boat because Drew could be screaming the entire time, so we went straight to Mark Twain's boyhood home. Online it said it was about an 1 1/2 tour, but with the boys, it took maybe 45 mins. Drew was fussing, so Grant and I had to take turns holding him and pushing the empty stroller. We wanted to check out the caves, but when Tater Tot became hysterical at the pretend cave at the museum, we decided it wouldn't be a good idea.

We would finally get Drew to fall asleep in his stroller, then as soon as we'd go back outside, he'd wake up, so we decided to sit down and get a drink and a snack. The first spot we saw was a wine bar so we went in. Fortunately, it was empty and she said it was fine to bring the boys in. That was the best hour or so of the trip. Grant and I enjoyed a cold beer, while the boys drank kiddy cocktails and ate some snack mix. Drew even gnawed on some bread sticks and smiled. Parker and Tater had mock sword fights with the drink swords. It was wonderful.

People had started to fill in, so we decided we should leave soon. We asked to owner if she could suggest a kid friendly restaurant. She named off a bunch, and then at the very end, she mentioned one that made their own root beer. Tater Tot loves root beer, so we thought that would be perfect, plus it was walking distance. As we left, the owner and a few patrons commented first on how we have our hands full. Parker responded with, "Everyone always says that." LOL! I said that's because everyone was right. Then they said to us how well behaved the boys were. We were so glad that THIS was the place they decided to be well behaved!

When we got there, it was not what we were expecting, but we went in with an open mind. Fortunately, it was almost empty, because Drew began to scream again. Our waitress was in her late teens and smiled when she smiled at us we discovered she had no teeth. I walked around bopping Drew trying to get him to stop crying. When our food arrived, Grant put Drew on his knee, and eventually, he feels asleep. We ate as fast as we could (except Tater who wouldn't eat), and then left. The food had no taste, even with a bunch of salt and pepper on it.

We got to the car and decided to take the direct root home. All we wanted was to get out of there, well, then we got lost. How do you get lost in a small town?!

Finally, we figured out where we were going and we were on our way home. In the car Parker said, "That was a fun day." I'm so glad even with all of the craziness, he still had fun. Tater Tot said he wants to go back again. We all talked about our favorite part of the day, and then the boys feels asleep. Grant and I listened to the Cards/Cubs game.

So, you are all probably wondering, "Will you go back?" Yes, but we will take the direct root, research exactly what to do and where to go, and probably leave the kids with Nana and Papa!

More on Franklin

Well, we went to the Opthamologist today and it was confirmed that Franklin does indeed have Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome, otherwise known as SARDS. This is something that results in complete vision loss over a few days to a few weeks. It is more common in small breed female dogs, but can happen in any breed, even mixed breeds. It is more common to happen to a middle aged to older dog, and more often in a dog who is overweight. There are about 4000 cases found in the US each year and is more often in dogs who have been prone to food and skin allergies.

More than 90% of the time, it is completely irreversible and untreatable, but there are a few cases that it can be caused by an auto immune that attacks to retina. With steroid and antibiotic treatment it is SOMETIMES fixed, so we have decided to give it a try. I feel that I have to at least try to do something to help my sweet boy out.

From what the doctor has said, SARDS is not at all painful, and it really the best case scenario for Franklin. In time, we will all learn to adjust to this.

As for Franklin, he seems to be doing well with all of it. He is really moving well around the house. We're working on teaching the boys they can not leave toys laying around or Franklin will trip over them. Franklin has even tripped on the boys a few times if they are laying around the house! He's following the cat bell and light snapping very well. The other mourning, I woke up before all the kids, and I heard Parker coming down the steps with Franklin saying, "Step, Step" assisting him on his way down.

We've been leaving music on for him if we are going to be gone and that has really helped him to not panic with the dark silence. We also got him a special scarf he wears to let people know he's blind so they do not scare him when they approach him and some "Doggles" to protect his eyes from twigs and branches if we are out on walks. The boys are so sweet with him and make sure to ask him before they pet, hug, or kiss him.

Everyday, I seem to notice a little more positive change in my sweet Franklin, and I know that we will learn to live with this for a LONG time!

Franklin

OK, so I was never a dog person growing up, I always just had cats. When I reached my early 20's I suddenly decided that I HAD to have a dog. The day after Grant and I closed on our first house, we got Franklin! I knew I wanted a male pug and was naming him Franklin. I was SO excited!!! He was so cute and tiny. The first thing I did when I got home was try to take him on a walk. This didn't work too well considering he was so small, I got him half a block :) Franklin was spoiled rotten! I took him everywhere w/ me! I got him happy meals! He had a stocking at Christmas and birthday cakes. When Parker was born, I swore that things wouldn't change, and for the most part they didn't. Then we had Tater Tot, and as much as I loved Franklin, he totally had to take the back seat. Now that we have 3 children, Franklin is still as loved as ever, but doesn't always get the same attention. There's not enough room on our fireplace mantle for his stocking anymore, I tend to forget his birthday, and I don't normally remember to get him a happy meal when I'm ordering.

Recently, while walking him at the lake, I noticed he was having some trouble going down the steps at our condo. I mentioned this to Grant, but he didn't think much, just that maybe he was tired from the all the swimming he'd been doing. When we got home, I continued to notice him moving very slow on steps and was concerned something was wrong with his hips, but kept saying he's only 7, so he seems too young. I then noticed him having trouble find treats I would throw to him. Then one day, I saw him run into the boys toy box and decided something was wrong with his vision. I went to google and searched cataracts, and was heartbroken when it seemed as though he had all the symptoms, so first thing next morning I called the vet and got us in that day.

When we got to the vet Franklin was frozen and afraid to move. He ran into the side of the building! The vet came in and explained what was going on and told her that I was hoping maybe he just had an infection from swimming in the lake. She looked in his eyes and said, "He's completely blind." My heart sunk! I started sobbing instantly. She said it's not cataracts and that the retna is still intact, so she thinks it's a good idea to see a specialist.

This all happened within 1 1/2 weeks.

I came home from the vet just numb. I cried and cried and cried. I held Franklin and rocked him. I cried to the point where I thought I couldn't cry anymore, and then cried again. Then that night I went to a friends and had a glass of wine and cried again. While I was talking to her I said that I was going to be the best seeing eye human there is and do all the reasearch I can to give him a wonderful life.

The next morning I got online and googled "caring for a blind dog". I spent hours and hours reading about ways to help my sweet Franklin. I am now walking around the house with a cat bell on my ankle, and it's helping him to find me. I've been working on teaching him commands like, "step up" "step down" "stop", and he's picking up very quickly.

I then had an epiphany; God truely has a plan in life, and he wouldn't give me anything I can't handle. Franklin and I can do this! I love being a Mommy so much and would love to have more children, but Grant has said he doesn't want anymore and this is my way of always having a baby to take care of. This is going to be a whole new realationship for Franklin and I, and I am really looking forward to it. Franklin and I are going to be just fine :)