When You Have No Idea

What’s going to happen next. does the thought scare you or excite you? I am an “excite me” type of person. Life is one big grand adventure, right? So, what’s the point in knowing what’s around the next riverbend? Just go with the flow man!

I do love when exciting opportunities loom on the horizon. i like to dream and analyze and make lists about what i will do if option a.) or b.) comes up first. And of course I like to pre-spend all the money I will make. (I know ben just loves this about me!)

I am very anxious to find a routine/schedule that works for us. My sister and I are contemplating opening a photography business. Now I know they are a dime a dozen, but I think we really could have a lot of fun trying to make ours work. Here in our area there are a BUNCH of hoity toity photogs who charge an arm and three legs for the privilege of having your picture taken by them…but obviously, most of their target audience is not going to be able to afford them. So I am hoping we can find a good niche. No idea how or if it will all work out, but it should be fun to brainstorm at least!

Kaylen’s reflux seems to be under MUCH better control. We ended up in the ER last Thursday nite for a few hours.I had noticed all that day that she seemed to be getting pretty congested. I chalked it up to allergies (since all the rest of us nerdy Atkinsons suffer from horrible allergies, why should she be exempt?). By that nite it was getting harder for her to breathe, and forget trying to nurse. she just couldn’t make it work between eating, sucking, breathing – oy. but I am trying one last time to get her to eat so she can go to bed. Well very rapidly her eyes start puffing up, are bright red, and her nose is all red and swollen also. She sounds very raspy and is obviously having a hard time breathing well. It wasn’t like she WASn’T breathing, you could just tell it was a lot of effort for her. So i called the ped to see if I could put her on my nebulizer or give her a little benadryl or something to help out the what I assumed were allergies. Dr. On-Call says – “no, babies don’t have allergies till they’re a year. Better take her in and have her looked at”. So i trek down to the closes ER where, by the way, they have THE PARKING GARAGE SHUT DOWN. Where the FORK is one supposed to park??? I make my own spot and run in cause by now of course I have worked myself up thinking she isn’t breathing for some god-awful reason. GEt to the ER desk and the nurse is like, ok your baby looks fine. I am like – FEEL HER – you can feel her chest rattling! And you know, since nobody wants a lawsuit for killing a  2 month old, they take her right back. (Excellently fast service when you walk in a with a baby in respiratory distress by the way! Broken ankle in a middle age man? Back of the line please!!!)

anyways – the young punk doctor fresh out of residency checks her over and decides to “recreate” the situation that got her bad. Of course by now the swelling has all gone down and her breathing is much better. So they hook her up to a few monitors and have me feed her again. Same thing starts happening, I feel her start to reflux and monitors start going crazy. But we got our answer. She was basically refluxing (throwing up), and since her mouth was occupied, and her nose was so congested, it had nowhere to come out but her eyes. Yes dear readers, my child was throwing up out her eyeballs, causing an obvious irritating reaction. Gross.

Best part of this is Doogie Howser MD’s advice:

Doogie: Well mom, when she is eating and you start to feel her choke, you have to get her off the breast right away.

Me: Did you have to go to medical school to learn that awesome advice or is it just sheer God-given talent?

Doogie: (not quite sure if i am kidding or not) – laughs nervously

Me: So that’s seriously all you can tell me to help her?

 

UGH!!! And for this I am going to end up paying some RECOCKULOUS amount of money. I wanted to scream – No Poop Pollock! I have successfully nursed two other children – I think I know a little something about how to take a choking baby off the breast! Unlike him, who, for obvious physical reasons, has not ever nursed an infant a day in his life. Where do they find these people I ask you?

 

So anyways – after that excitement she slept pretty good and has spent most of the weekend trying to get back on a good schedule, but overall is doing very well. I am a little more mindful of feeling her start to reflux which is helping some, but…the rest I just gotta leave in God’s hands I guess. I know He has a reason for all this craziness we are going through. Birth control for one…learning patience and what love REALLY means would be another…

Have i mentioned how much I love our church? We found a great small group this past week that even Ben likes. Which is a HUGE deal. I hope we are able to grow closer to some of the people in it through this time. this church is really and truly such a place where God is evident and is working. I know He has great things in store for this church, and I want to know how to be more of a part of it.

Well the great non-sleeping one is up from her 20 minute catnap and i have housework up to my eyeballs to get done.

Hopefully when my thoughts are a little more organized I can come back and post more. right now everything is scattered in about a hundred different directions!

 

Peace out. yo gabba gabba.