Spring Break and CPAP

The past few days have actually been pretty quiet. The twins just started Spring Break this week and they are happy to have a few days where they get to sleep in and stay up later. Noah is still having several tantrums a day but he is slowly learning that we are not going to give in and most of the time he is able to get himself calmed down.

I am going to have to speak with his doctor as I am starting to wonder if his Abilify is making him crave carbs like his Risperdal did. He seems to be hungry all the time. We have had to resort to locking the pantry again so he is not grazing all day long. We have stopped buying any junk food except for one box of snacks a week. We have a fridge filled with fruit and veggies and they are allowed free access to healthy snacks. He is not gaining any weight, his weight is steady right now which is good. He gained 29lbs in one year on the risperdal which is a side effect of those types of meds. Technically he is overweight right now, but we are not making a huge deal about it. Since his weight has stabilized and he is neither gaining or losing we are hopeful he will grow into his current weight.

We don't make a huge deal about weight as I have enough weight issues for all of us. :) We talk about eating better and getting healthy. So we offer healthy snacks such as apples and oranges and carrots and low fat cheese for them to snack on. I am lucky that I got kids who love fruits and veggies.

As far as behavior we are having some minor issues with Noah but I think they will pass. Abby is maturing a bit faster than he is and she finally hit that time period where she wants to play by herself sometimes and have some privacy. Noah does not understand this, and thus they get into fights because he expects her to entertain him. He does not have proper social skills to let us know he is frustrated and does not really know how to play alone yet. So they are arguing alot these days. Basically the "he's touching me" phase that all kids hit. She is pulling away from him a bit and wants to be independent and he is not sure what to do now as she has always been his playmate. This is a normal kid thing, but given Noah's issues he does not know how to deal with it. So we are getting a lot of crying and begging Abby to play with him.

We are working hard to support Abby in her independence, and I never require a child to play with somebody when they don't want to. So we are working with Noah to find him some things that he can do alone and excel at. Larry and I are also making an effort to do things with Noah that he enjoys such as 30 minutes of EQII and make sure to give him loads of praise when he deals with Abby in a positive manner. Don't get me wrong, we are still dealing with probably at least 3-4 tantrums a day, but he is no longer throwing things as much. We have already told them if they are good this week, we will go see a movie this weekend. They actually do quite well at the movies given it's something that interests them. We are probably gonna see How to Train your Dragon.

On to Me. I got my CPAP machine yesterday and last night was the first night using it. It was heavenly. I slept so well I didn't want to get up this morning. But it's almost 11 and I don't feel that constant tiredness as much today. My doctor said it will take about a month for me to get caught up on all my sleep debt. Larry was amazed. He said he woke up and had to make sure I was still breathing LOL. I was laying so still he could not believe it. Usually I toss and turn all night long. It said it was nice to not sleep with a "fish flopping around on his bed" lol. My machine has a built in humidifier and for the first time in about forever I woke up with out a stuffy nose. I was amazed. I thought CPAP would be hard for me to get used to, but I am taking to it quite well. Most people have trouble getting used to it, but I think I was so sleep deprived I was willing to try anything. I was nervous before I first tried it at the sleep lab but once I realized I was not gonna feel like I as trapped in the mask I was fine. I am not even nervous any more, Just happy.

I have to give a shout out to my works insurance. They are awesome in providing us with good insurance for a reasonable cost. The insurance company covered all my sleep studies and my CPAP machine 100% with no copay or deductible. Thanks to them I am able to get a good nights sleep so I feel better. I realize how much trouble some people have with their insurance and I feel I have to give credit to my work for providing good insurance for their employees and their families at a reasonable cost.

Sleep Apnea

Well, after two more sleep studies it is confirmed that I have Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Basically, when I am sleeping I smother myself by accident when I am all relaxed and sleeping. I then wake up to start breathing again, and then fall back asleep. What a lovely vicious cycle. So after a trial of CPAP last night I have to say that this guy:
is my new best friend. Meet Mr. CPAP facemask. I was hooked up to CPAP all night last night so they could titrate my correct air pressure level for when I begin using CPAP at home. If you are not sure what CPAP is you can find that information here. When the nurse woke me up this morning she asked how I slept and I was very happy to announce that I only woke up once. :) That is amazing for me, usually I am up at least 3-4 times a night. She said she thought I slept well as the computer showed me "dreaming and dreaming" all night long. This is also wonderful as my sleep apnea occurs during my REM cycle of sleep(IE: the time during your sleep that you are dreaming), so I usually don't get enough REM sleep because I keep waking up to start breathing again. \o/

I was terrified of the CPAP but it turns out this thing may just change my life. Is it gonna be fun to drag it to Mexico and on other vacations, of course not, but getting good sleep is very important and I can't wait to get rid of my sleep debt.

The twins are doing well and are both getting over some sort of bad stomach bug they picked up at school. I am getting a cold so hopefully they will spare me from their stomach plague.

My Allergist called me finally with the results of my C/T scan. I have inflammation of my sinus's so they want to run further blood work to find out if I have a really bad sinus infection or if the inflammation is caused by something else.

Friday, Finally!

I am happy today is Friday. I have been off one of my meds for two weeks in preparation for my sleep study. It's my migraine preventative medication but it also mess with your REM sleep so I have to be off of it before sleep tests. This med not only helps my headaches, but it helps me sleep. So with it I wake up 1-2 times a night, and with out it, I am up 4-3 times a night. Which means my sleep is horrible and I am cranky and tired. :(

My sleep study is Sunday night at 9:30pm. Then I get to stay until 5pm the next day doing more tests to find out how sleepy I am during the day. They are not convinced I can take a nap anytime, anywhere LOL.

Everybody loves to tease me when I say we have a very set routine we follow and that life is still chaotic even with a solid routine. Here is a small peek into my life and my days.

For the month of March, we had the following appointments:

3rd: Sleep Doctor, Me
8th: Allergist, Me
9th: Psych Doctor, Twins
11th: Sinus C/T, Me
13th: Cocker Rescue, Transport Pick up
14th: Drive Transport Cocker to Milwaukee
17th: Abby's IEP Meeting at School
21th: Sleep Study, Me
22nd: All day at the Sleep Clinic, Me
26th: Noah's IEP Meeting

School days:

10th: Half Day for Twins
26th: No School
29th-April 7th: Spring Break Twins

April Appointments:

April 1st-5th: Beki coming with her kiddos.
10th and 11th: Dog behavior Seminar, Me, 9-5pm each day
14th: Half Day Twins
28th: Leave for Mexico Trip, Me
May2nd: Come back from Mexico, Me.

These are fairly normal months for us. Now our daily routine:

5:55am: I wake up and let doggies out to potty, while they are outside, I log into work and get everything going and start downloading emails. Also on my way downstairs, I go ahead and turn the kids bedroom lights on to start the waking up process.

6:00am-6:20: Starting checking work emails, get started working.

6:20: Larry goes up and wakes the kids up and gets them coming downstairs.
6:25: Larry leaves for work.
6:25: Twins, drag themselves downstairs and take meds. I help Noah get dressed really fast, and he usually goes and dozes on the couch until it's time to get shoes and socks on.

7:00am: I make sure Noah is now looking for his shoes and getting his backpack ready to go. I tell Abby for the 10-11th time to get dressed. Once she is dressed I start her on last nights homework.

7:20: Noah's bus usually gets here between 720-730ish. I make sure he gets on the bus, and Abby goes out to start my van to warm it up.

7:30-7:45: Abby finishes homework or plays computer. She is usually totally dressed complete with shoes by this time.

7:45-7:55am: I leave to drop Abby off at school.

7:55-2:30pm: I am back at home working until it's time to pick Abby up from school. Some days I get calls to talk with Noah and help him have a good day, sometimes I have to head over to his school but these are rare now.

2:30-2:50pm: Leave work, usually am done for day by this time, and go pick up Abby from school.

2:50-3:30ish: Just me and Abby at home. She usually has a snack and blows off some steam from school by watching a little TV or playing PC.

3:30ish: Noah gets home. He never has homework. Him and Abby usually spend a bit of time playing as long as their chores are done.

600-700: Sometime during this time period Larry finally gets home from work. We eat dinner, feed dogs, do some basic tidying up of the house.

7:30: Twins head to bed.

7:45-10ish: Me and Larry either play some Computer or catch a little TV.

I try to be in bed by 9pm, but most nights it's later.

Our days are long and crazy, but I love it and I love the twins.

Hope you enjoyed the peek into our world. :)

Thursday

That is how I feel this morning. I have told Abby no less than 30 times to get dressed. She is pretending to be deaf. This has been an interesting week. Overall the kids have been pretty well behaved aside from trying to give the dogs a haircut twice.

The weather has been in the low 60s this week so they have been spending a lot of time outside playing in the dirt or with chalk. I can't wait for full on spring as we will starting spending more time outdoors. I miss my swing and my firepit lol.

I had to attend Abby's IEP yesterday and it was actually quite productive this time. They zero'ed in on exactly the same things I had concerns about and we have a good plan so far. She will be getting a sensory box filled with fidgets which will help keep down the dumping of glue into her desk and the excessive sharpening of all her pencils. We are going to start a communication folder so we can talk easier back and forth and we are going to work on her becoming more independent at school. It was a long 2.5 hour meeting but I felt good leaving it.

Noah's IEP meeting is Friday, the 26th so hopefully it will be as good as Abby's was. I get to spend Sunday night and all day Monday at the sleep lab which leaves Larry in charge of getting the kids off to school. Hopefully they won't give him much trouble.

Why is it that Noah is so cranky in the mornings. He goes to bed pretty early and I let him sleep as long as possible, yet each morning is a fight to get him dressed, a fight to get his shoes on, a fight to wait for the bus. He is 8, he should be able to get himself dressed and put his own shoes on. Heck, when I was his age, I totally was on my own to get up for school and walk to school and I was a latchkey kid who came home to an empty house. In some ways he acts very much like a toddler and in other ways he acts his age. It's frustrating for me. Like right now, He is whining on the floor because he can't walk into the living room and look out the front door for his bus with out me sitting right there also. I mean I am in the next room!! Some days I feel as though he is smothering me.

I swear when they come home from school all I hear for the rest of the day is "mom, mom, Mom, Mom, MOM, MOM!!!! all day long. I am just tired these days. I know the sleep doctor is working hard to find out why I don't feel rested after sleeping, but being chronically tired sucks. I just want to crawl into bed for a whole weekend and sleep uninterrupted. Right now I am averaging 2-4 times a night that I wake up. It's not even just barely waking up. It's wide awake have to get up and get a drink awake. Then I have that whole process of getting back to sleep.

This kind of stuff is one of the reasons it sucks to live so far away from family. You have nobody to call and say I really need some help can you come watch the heathens for a couple of hours so I can take a much needed nap. :( I know one of these days I will be able to take a nap while the twins are here, but at this rate that is a few more years coming. Heck, this year is the first year that I can trust them to take a shower alone LOL. It was liberating to realize I could leave them upstairs for 15 minutes alone while I grabbed a shower. We celebrate the little things here. :)
Noah did have a first this week though. We went to Taco Bell for dinner and he took the money, went up to the counter alone, ordered a cheese roll up, got his change, and waited for his food alone. That is a big big deal for him and we were so proud.

It is still breath taking to watch them interact together. There are times where they are horrid to each other but there are times like right now, that Abby is sitting with him by the door to keep him company because she knows he is afraid to wait alone. She is telling him little stories and it's cool to watch how close they really are for being fraternal twins. It's nice.

This is them at about 3 years old. Their shirts say: I love my wombmate :)

TGIF

It is nice to wake up to one of these in the morning snuggling up against you. She decided she needed some snuggles this morning at 5:30am.

This week has been pretty busy. Monday I had an allergist appointment. I was then referred for a sinus C/T scan as he thinks I might have nasal polyps He was the first allergist to actually give me the impression that he wants to help me. Having a stopped up, bleeding nose every day is not much fun.

Tuesday, the kids and I made the journey up to Milwaukee for their psych appointment. We agreed on some med changes which seem to be working so far. Noah is actually having good days at school.

Wednesday was a half day for the kids and Abby got to go to the high school with her class to watch a play. She had an awesome time and was tickled to get to ride the bus.

Thursday, was my C/T scan. It took longer to drive there than the scan took to finish, lol. Hopefully I will hear about the results either later today or Monday.

This weekend I have a transport to pick up. It's a 13 week old cocker spaniel puppy. Sunday we will drive the puppy up to the gals in Milwaukee, but we get to keep the puppy overnight. I am sure the twins will love that.

Taking away Abby's PC has sure turned her attitude problem around. She is still lippy some times but it's alot better. Noah is still a work in progress but he is doing much better.

Abby fell last night and whacked her chest hard on the edge of the coffee table. She is really sore so we think she pulled a muscle. There is no bruising, and we don't think her rib is broken. Poor thing always gets herself hurt because she is my little daredevil. She is 8 but has already had a tooth knocked out on the swingset, stitches and staples in her head from bonking her head into a door knob, and then a door frame LOL. I just hope she makes it to be an adult.

Noah is a klutz. He can trip over the only item in the entire room and manage to hurt himself. He gets that from me LOL. He has managed to stab himself in the foot with a pencil requiring cutting his foot open to retrieve the pieces, and he got nursemaids elbow. Sigh, what am I going to do with these two.

So far nobody has painted anything. Abby did go through two bottles of shampoo this week, but over all it's been a nice and quiet week.

Well except the twins want to "play" on the treadmill all day long....

I still remember the days when they were small and quiet LOl

Longest Doctors Appt Ever!!!

Day was actually pretty good. I took Val's suggestion and had the kids lay out their clothes the night before. This morning Noah got dressed fast and dozed on the couch until it was almost Bus time. Abby took a shower and dumped out four bottles of soap. She normally does this so we have resorted to purchasing the really cheapy Sauve 1.00 a bottle shampoo. lol.

I dropped her off at school and made the journey to the allergists office to hopefully find out why my nose has been stopped up for two months now. I failed to read that the normal first visit appt is 4+ hours long. I got there at 8:30 am and got back home at 1:30PM. Although it was a long appointment this is the first allergist whom I have felt was actually willing to help me find out why I can't breathe. I had two types of skin allergy testing and the results were as expected. I am allergic to two types of dustmites and tree pollen. He thought he might have seen a nasal polyp so he is sending me to have a C/T scan of my sinus's on Wed. He wants to make sure there is no internal reason for my problems.

He really wants me to get some relief and help me figure out why I seem to get sick so easily and so often. He is also probably going to send off for some blood work for some genetic things which can cause my symptoms also if the C/T looks normal and he will probably send off some bloodwork to Mayo Clinic to check for food allergies via bloodwork. He also did that lovely lung function test and my lung function is good. He did switch my rescue inhaler to a breathe activated one instead of the aerosol one cause I have a hard time doing it the correct way. So this one is a powder you inhale so much easier to do.

I ended up working way late for me but the twins were actually so good I was shocked. They picked out a new movie to watch and were mesmerized in front of the TV so I could get some work done. It is rare for them to actually watch TV so I didn't mind. They actually get very little "screen time" They prefer to play outside or color or play make believe.

I finally got my birthday present for myself. I want to get healthy, it will improve my asthma and my back pain to get healthy and lose some weight. Since it is so cold up here I have a hard time going outdoors given my intolerance to cold and my asthma making it hard to breathe when it's really cold outside. So I bought myself a treadmill. When I was doing PT last year, my therapist had me warming up on the treadmill for 20 minutes at a time several times a week and I was doing great. I thought having my own would be a great way to work out and be able to watch the kids, and maybe even catch up a little on my TV watching as the treadmill is in the living room facing the TV LOL. Gotta love women, we can find strange ways to multitask. One unexpected thing from getting the treadmill is the twins want to walk on it so bad. I figure as long as I am right there watching them sure they can walk, it's a great way to get healthy and work off some energy LOL.

Abby made a comment yesterday which made me giggle. She was in the bathroom with me while I was showering. She often sits in there with me chatting about girl stuff. She said "Mom, if you get skinny you will look funny. But, I will still love you even if you look weird" Gotta love kids and their non censoring of their mouths. They come up with the funniest stuff sometimes.

This week is a crazy week for us. Today I had the allergist appointment, tomorrow we take the long trek up to the kids' Psych doctor. It's an hour and 45 minute drive each way but they are worth it as they specialize in kids with behavior disorders. We have been going to this clinic since the kids were 3 years old. We are now up to going 3 months between visits so it's not that bad. Plus we have the DVD player in the car so they watch a movie and I listen to my Ipod on the trip. Our family is weird and we actually enjoy hanging out in the car going places. The kids who can be crazy at home are usually quite calm in the car. My van is worth it's weight in gold and has worked out great for us. It's a 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT and it has dual DVD players, one for each row of seats, wireless headphones and each TV screen can be set to it's own movie. So no fighting. We also have the AVI cable hookups for things like an xbox and it even has two normal household outlets for game systems using it's built in power inverter. The seats also have stow and go which means we can fold them flat into the floor when we are not using them or need to put space between kids. Also the back seat lays back just like the middle seats so everything is all fair LOL. It is the first new car I have ever owned and I still get giddy driving it each day. I know I am a total Mom, but with all the gadgets it has I feel pretty cool driving it. It also has a built in touch screen to control the radio and satellite radio and if you are in park you can also watch a movie on the touch screen. It has a built in hard drive to store music or pictures and it has tri zone A/C and heat. Each adult gets their own controls for the heat and a/c and then the back seats also control their own a/c and heat. It's freaking awesome. Oh and it has airplane type lights for all the seats so you can read while some body drives and it does not bother them. Plus is has green low glow lights for the back seats which can be left on all the time and it's dim enough to be like a night light in the back but not enough to bother the driver. It also has a back up camera and power seats \o/.

I uploaded a few pics of my "baby"

Nice Day Today

We had a pretty decent day today. Noah only broke one chair and damaged my sewing machine. It's sad when you count good days when only something slightly gets broken, or damaged. LOL.
He broke the wheel off his computer chair so now he has to sit on one of those nice metal chairs that fold up that you use with a card table. He knocked down my sewing machine and bent the bobin maker thingy. This was actually ok because the rest of the machine was already broken.

Our morning was great. Abby let me sleep until 8am and me and her checked out her facebook games. I had to do it for her as she is grounded from her PC for a month due to the paint incident. Noah even woke up pretty cheerful today. They played outside for a bit and then we snuggled on the couch and watched some Project Runway and Kitchen Nightmares.

We tackled the huge mound of laundry that needed to be put away, it was only like well about 10 laundry basket loads of clothes LOL. But we succeeded in getting it all put away. I was very thankful I had put off putting the clothes away as Abby would have none left if I had. We still have two garbage bags of her clothes that are covered in paint that we are going to attempt to get some of the paint off of.

Larry ended up getting off work at a normal hour for once (3:30pm) so we loaded up and went grocery shopping and out to eat. The twins were actually in a good mood for this also. I got me a new suitcase for my Mexico trip. I had to get a big one so I could bring along my pillows. I am weird and must sleep with only my own pillows. Plus I have to drug myself to sleep in order to endure the airplane flight so I usually pack one and carry one on the plane. I love to travel, but I hate to fly. I get so very airsick that the flight is not fun. But I got two different nausea meds for this trip :)

I just want to sit on the beach with a tall cold drink and a big fat book and just veg. Abby is already asking if we can "talk" to her on the computer from Mexico. Guess I am gonna have to install skype on my laptop. They are both excited to get some Daddy time as he is usually gone to work before they wake up and not home until almost bed time for them. So having daddy home for like 5 days in a row is heaven to them. They are thinking that they are gonna watch some movies together and catch up on their EQII time.

I have learned that men do not understand that sometimes girls just need to vent. We don't want you to suggest ways to fix it, or tell us why it happened, we just sometimes want to vent. Larry says he needs to work on this cause he always wants to fix it for me, when I just need to hear I understand or it will get better. He did surprise me though and apologized when he got upset with me when I was trying to explain this to him. I just love him so much and I know he is working way harder than normal to get all the overtime he can so that we can afford my dental work. Today was nice just having him home to do normal things. It was nice talking to another adult LOL.

I am getting geared up for my sister, Beki, to come visit with her brood. I can't wait to see my nieces and nephews and Abby has already claimed the girls are going to sleep in her room. LOL. They only live over in MI so it's about a 5 hour drive to get over to my house. I am so proud of Beki, she is working, going to college and raising a family. She gets her degree in May, and I am very proud of her. Actually I am pretty proud of all my brothers and sisters. They are all great people and I just love them so much. We are all a bit nutty but any of us would help the other if somebody needed it.

I found a new favorite show. It's call the "The Guild" It's a web show. You can find it at: www.watchtheguild.com. It's about a bunch of gamer nerds, and I relate to this show very much LOL.

Tomorrow, Larry and I, are planning on watching some TV. We will have a "Legend of the Seeker" episode to watch and we are gonna try to play EQII a little bit. So this weekend is shaping up to be a nice and quiet one.

And since tomorrow is Sunday, It's my day to sleep in until whenever I get up. Larry is usually up by about 7-8am, which for him is sleeping in so he lets me sleep in late, or take a midmorning nap if needed. He is so good to me, he even washes the dishes \o/.