HAPPY BIRTHDAY.....

TO MIMI AND UNCLE CLAY!! We love you both :)

On another note, it seems it's always something these days in the Buchanan house! Clint and his dad were able to get the kitchen sink fixed (Thanks Poppie!!). I've never been so happy to do dishes as I was last night!

Since we got home from Arkansas last week, Collin hasn't been wanting to eat. Clint and I didn't think too much about it, as when his hips are really hurting him he usually doesn't have much of an appetite. But it has been getting worse and worse each day. Last night I noticed that Collin wouldn't even drink any water. I got on the floor with him and was trying to look at his teeth to see if we had more dental issues. Everytime I tried to look, it was as if Collin physically couldn't open his mouth. HIs tongue was hanging out, and looked dried and shrivelly, and it looked as if his jaw was locked and he was biting his tongue. It terrified me.

This morning Collin wouldn't even hardly life his head to look at me, so I made an appointment for Clint to take him to the vet this morning. It turns out he has a rare auto immune disease (don't ask me to remember the name of it!!) It's causing his body to form antibodies that attack the muscle tissue in his brain and jaw. The vet said that they can give him a steroid that he takes 4 times a day that will help prevent future damage and help repair the damage that's been done. We're paying that the medicine helps!! We love our Coggy, as Madleyn calls him!

I'll post some Halloween pics by the end of the week!!

Another weekend gone...

The weekends just seem far too short these days!!

Friday night I picked up some chinese food on the way home from work and we stayed in until Clint left for work. It was kind of nice not to start the weekend by rushing to dinner, but we missed seeing the usual crew!

Saturday morning Madelyn and I woke up, ate breakfast then met my friend Marta at the Merry Marketplace. I love going to all the festivals this time of year!! We went home, ate lunch and woke Daddy up. Clint put Madelyn down for a nap while I went thopping - by myself!! That rarely, if ever, happens so I really enjoyed the alone time. But I was at Super Target, and started cramoing and my lower back was hurting so bad that I had to come home pretty quickly. When I got hime, Clint made me lie down for a while and I felt better. The afternoon we went to Erin and Billy's house for a playdate with their son Will, and our friends Peter and Laura's little boy Pierce. Erin took some cute pics of the kids. Will is 9 months and Pierce is 8 months old. The kids had a lot of fun!!

When we got up Saturday mornbing and I noticed that the sink in the kicthed was clogged. Clint didn't get to it that day, so he and his Dad worked on it ALL day Sunday and could never get it fixed. it's such a mess!! I washed dishes in my bathroom tonight because I made a big pot of chili today and had Mom over, so we had nasty dishes that HAD tio be washed. I have a dishwasher full of dishes, but I can't run it. Clint's going to call the plumber tomorrow, so we're praying it's not too major of an expense!! It always seems to be something in the Buchanan house!!

Last week we started finally putting Madelyn to bed while she's wide awake. I realized that when Baby #2 comes, I won't be able to hold them both until they're asleep, so Madelyn is being a big girl and going Night night on her own now. It's getting easier every night. Tonight she only cried about 3-4 minutes. But it's so sad because when I tell her it's time to go Night night, she starts crying while she walks down the hall to her room. Then she sits in her bed and just cries, "mama, mama". Man, she knows how to break my heart! I feel like she's becoming such a big girl it makes me sad!!

Well, this wee should be fun with Mimi and Uncle Clay's birthdays, and Halloween. I'll be sure to post halloween pics later this week!!

Stats

Madelyn had her 15 month check-up yesterday. She's 30 inches tall, which is the 27th percentile and weighs in at 20 pounds, 14 pounces which is the 48th percentile. She's still a little girl :)

She also got 3 shots, including a flu shot, which was no fun! But she did really well.

Not much else is going on.

Have a good week.....

What a Weekend!

Wow, I haven't written in a while!

Madelyn hasn't run any fever since last Tuesday, so we're hopeful that whatever she had is now gone! She seems to be getting back to her normal, happy self!

Last week nothing too exciting happened. Friday night we went to Molino to see everyone, which was fun. Friday morning we woke up to go to Benton, AR for the weekend. My cousin and his wife had their 2nd son on July 6th. His name is Gabriel Matthew and he's adorable! They asked me to be his godmother, which was a huge honor. We got to my Uncle's house on Saturday around noon. he owns about 95 acres of land, with a big lake, 4 wheelers and horses, etc. We learned that Madelyn is TERRIFIED of horses! Anytime they got close to her, she was shaking like a leaf. On the other hand, she LOVED riding on the golf cart with my Uncle's wife, Brenda. I think Nana got some pictures that I'll have to post.

That night we all went to dinner, which was a fiasco. There were 16 of us, and 6 were children, 5 of which are under the age of 2. Needless to say, it was a fun dinner!

Sunday morning we got up and went to Gabe's baptism. After wards we went to Brenda's aunt's house, which is across the street from my Uncle's place. They had a beautiful log cabin, with all the modern conviences of course! The back yard had a huge deck with a massive lake that had a dock, water slide and rope swing for it. There were a ton of trees and the whole place was just beautiful. We had a huge brabecue, with turkey, bbq, roast beef, every kind of side and dessert you can imagine. Madelyn had a ball walking around and looking at the lake.

We got home last night a couple of hours before bedtime, which was nice! Madelyn slept all night without a sound, which I expected. It was a fun weekend, and we loved the family time!

Clint is off work until Thursday night this week, so I'm looking forward to that! I'll try to post some pics of the weekend soon.

Have a good week....

AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Well, we had fever of 102 again last night. I'm officially ready to scream!

Boo Monday

Well, we had a pretty good weekend around our house. Friday night I got home and from work and Mimi and Poppie were over. We all went to huey's for dinner, then Madelyn and I went home and went to bed. She ran some fever that night, but it wasn't over 101.

Saturday morning Madelyn and I went to Nana's house to play with Isabel and Colton. We got there about 8:00 in the morning. The girls had a fun time playing, and Madelyn was worn out!! We left there about 11:30 and she fell asleep in the car. But by the time we got home, she decided she no longer wanted to nap and was wide awake until 3:00. She did run fever of about 101, but we took a nap together, and when I woke up I was super sweaty from her because she finally broke her fever. Since then she's been running normal temps :) YAY!!

We didn't leave the house at all Saturday evening or all day Sunday, which was really nice. I did some much needed cleaning. I'm getting "the crud" from Clint, so I haven't felt like doing much. Madelyn decided that since she's getting over the fever, she would not sleep again. So we were up about 3 hours Saturday night. But she did make up for it by taking a 3 hour nap yesterday, and Mommy slept too. Last night I went to bed about 11:00, then she woke up screaming at 2:00. I didn't go in there until after 3:30, but we were up until about 5:00. She was NOT happy when 5:00 came and I got her up. Oh well! I've decided that tonight she can just cry.

Well, hope everyone has a good week! Here's a pic Nana took.

Prayers

Ok, well Clint and I are officially FRUSTRATED!!! We've been fighting some sort of cold or sinus infection with Madelyn for over a month now. It started with a bad cough at night, so after we got back from the wedding we took her to the doctor and they told us she had a sinus infection and gave us an antibiotic. After about 10 days, Madelyn didn't seem much better, so I called the doctor and asked for another medicine. We've been on the new one for over a week now.
Monday night I came home from work and found a happy girl, playing with Daddy and hanging out while I cooked dinner. All of a sudden, like we flipped a switch, she started crying and was inconsolable. She wouldn't eat anything, and when I let her out of her high chair, she walked into the den, found her blankie, and laid down on the floor and cried. I finally took the hint and gave her a bath. She was asleep that night by 6:40.
I thought for sure she would be up early Tuesday morning, but I had to wake her up at 7:00. I guess that should have been my first clue that something wasn't right. That night I stayed at work late, and when I got home Clint casually mentioned that Madelyn was running about 103.5 fever. Of course, I freaked out and took her temperature, which was still 101.7 2 hours after Tylenol. I called and made her ANOTHER doctor appointment for Wednesday.
Madelyn seemed fine Wednesday morning, so I decided to take her to the sitter. I concluded that after being on antibiotics for 3 weeks, she couldn't be contagious. By 1:00 the sitter called and said I needed to pick her up because she's running high fever and crying.
We went to the doctor and basically still don't know anything. It's so frustrating to have people tell me that there's basically nothing wrong with Madelyn when we know she's not acting normal. The doctor said she still had a sinus infection (which seems nuts after all the medicine!!) and her throat was sore, but both of thoose looked minor. Her ears and evertyhign else looked good. But he said the only reason you usually have someone so young run such high fever is because of a virus. Luckily he did some blood work, because that revealed there is no virus. She has some sort of bacterial infection, but no one seems concerned to find out WHAT it is. Instead he gave us ANOTHER antibiotic. By the time we got home yesterday, Madleyn was again running almost 104 fever. When i put her down she would fall every time she walked, and she was shaking uncontrollably for a while. We gave her motrin, but had all ready decided if the fever got much higher we were going to the ER. Both Clint and I were worried about her having a seizure from the fever. Luckily the fever went down, and we were able to keep it under 103 for the rest of the night.
I stayed home today to be with her, but I'm so busy at work right now that I have to go back tomorrow. She didn't run much fever today, I think the high was only about 101. So we're praying that this antibiotic will work!
Please just pray that whatever it is will go away, and that the doctors will help us figure it out otherwise. Like the doctor told me, it will either get better or worse, so we're praying for better!
Clint has been feeling kind of rotten, saying his chest hurts. Anyone who knows Clint knows that he NEVER takes any medicine, but he's been taking medicine constantly this week. Being true to his character though, he never complained about feeling bad, so I didn't realize how bad it was until today he coughed up blood. I"m trying to convince him to go to the doctor, but he's a stubborn man! He's agreed to go Monday if he's not feeling better. I'm worried he's got bronchitis or something.
Anyway, it should be a pretty laid back weekend, so hopefully our house can heal.
Keep us in your prayers.....

Too cute.....

Ok, i got some pictures of my niece from her birthday, and they are far too cute not to share with the whole world. I just lover her to pieces!!!

These are her new dress up shoes, which she adores.

And her birthday cake....

Oh, and on another happy, Madelyn has been sleeping fine since we started playing the cd on repeat. In fact, last night was fell asleep at 6:40 and I had to wake her up at 7:00 this morning!!

Until next time.....

TGIF!!!

I'm so glad it's the weekend (or at least it will be in about 3 minutes). Last night Madelyn slept pretty well again. She whined a bit, but since we're still battling the sinus infection, that didn't surprise me. But her doctor called in a different antibiotic, so hopefully that will knock it out.

We have Isabel's birthday party tomorrow, which I'm really looking forward to. Besides that, it should be a pretty low key weekend. I'm hoping to clean and sleep :)

Mimi sent us more cute pics of Madelyn from this week, so i have to share them

Have a good weekend......

Fingers crossed......

Well, while researching night terrors and and nightmares, I read that a few people suggested playing a cd on repeat for your child. Since I all ready play a cd for Madelyn while she's going to sleep, I thought I would give it a try. And, yes, we got 11 hours of silent sleep last night :) Keep your fingers crossed that it wasn't a fluke!!

Oh, and here's a picture that Mimi took on Tuesday. It makes me sad because she looks like such a big girl.........

I......NEED......SLEEP

Well, let's see what's happened since I last wrote. I can tell you what HASN'T happened much at our house, and that's sleep!!! Last Thursday night Madelyn woke up about midnight screaming hysterically. It was an awful sound! I jumped out of bed and immediately went in her room expecting to find her arm or leg stuck in the crib. She was fine, just laying in bed with her eyes closed screaming. I picked her up and held her, but she cried until about 6:00 am. It was AWFUL!!!

I took Madelyn to the doctor and they couldn't find antyhing wrong with her except for the sinus infection she's all ready on medication for. it's so frustrating when they tell you there's nothing wrong with your child, but you know they aren't being themselves. The doctor told me she must just be hurting (well, DUH!!! But why???) and I should giver her some Tylenol.

Since then we've only had one night of normal sleep. Clint and I have tried everything, from just letting her cry all night to putting her in bed with us, all with no solutions. Some friends have said it could be nightmares or night terrors, but I just don't understand what a 14 month old could be so scared of. if anyone has any suggestions, please offer them up!! She seems to be her normal, happy self when she wakes up, but at night she can't seem to be comforted.

In other news, I went to the doctor last Thursday. We heard the new baby's heartbeat, and everything sounded good. I talked to the doctor about my chances of preterm labor since Madelyn was born early. He suggested that I try progesterone theapy, which basically involves getting a shot of progesterone every week starting at 20 weeks. It has shown to reduce the risk of perterm labor, but this baby could still come early. Of course, I'm just as likely to carry this baby full term too. Clint and I decided that I should go ahead and do the shots. I know me, and if I don't and the baby comes early, all I'll think about it how I should have done it.

Clint has inservice this week so it's our one week a year to pretend we're a "normal" married couple. I LOVE having him home in the evenings! What a difference it is to have someone there to help out with the baby. It's nice to be able to do dishes and not have to turn around every second to see what's she's doing. He's trying really hard to get a day shift, but since he's only been on the force 5 years, it's not likely. I am dreading Saturday when all goes back to normal and I'm alone at night again!!

Oh yeah, and here's my latest favorite pic of M. I can't believe how much she looks like Daddy!!

Until next time.......