The Week in Review

 A lot has happened this week (at least it feels that way) and it seems to be happening all too fast.  While I am counting the days until spring break, I feel like am running like a gerbil on a wheel trying to keep up! 

So... this week in a nutshell...Tuesday night was Logan's worst in a long time.  As long as he was being held, he was okay, but as soon as his little head hit the crib sheet, the screams began!  At about one in the morning, we figured he could be hungry again, so Olin fed him another bottle. That didn't help.  By three in the morning, he was banished to the Jumperoo.  That at least distracted him from whatever was hurting or bothering him.  By four, I was about in tears watching the clock creep closer and closer to 4:45 when my first alarm goes off.  We finally decided he just had to cry it out...there was nothing left we could do.  It made no sense...the kid hadn't slept since 10AM at Sally's house...I have no idea what he was running on!  I hate to admit it, but Olin and I finally closed our door, turned off the monitor and let him cry.  We all must have fallen asleep at some point because when I woke up about an hour later, Logan was passed out. 

The horrible rainy weather on Wednesday was a perfect complement to the fog it felt like I was walking in all day.  We had a physical therapy appointment scheduled with Sherri for 3:30 that afternoon.  At about 2:30, I got a call from our Babies Can't Wait coordinator asking if she could sit in on our session and see how Logan was doing.  She is like a case manager and checks in with us every 3 months to record Logan's progress and review his IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan...like an IEP at school).  When we had our initial meeting with BCW on December 10, we set some six month goals for Logan...one of which was to sit unsupported and the other was to show protective reflexes (like sticking out his arms if he's falling).  Charlene (the coordinator) was blown away by all the things that Logan was doing...grasping objects, sitting unsupported, pulling up, etc.  He had met these six month goals in about three months.  She actually had tears in her eyes and said that he was "a ray of sunshine on this rainy day."  That made me feel so good.  It's kind of cool to see people's reactions who haven't seen Logan for awhile and let them observe his progress.  She was quite impressed : )  Our twelve month goal is to have him crawling.  I am confident right now that he will get there!  Sherri spoke about making Logan a "crawling track." I had never heard of this.  Basically it is a ramp with sides that you cover with foam and vinyl and you prop it at an angle on the couch or something similar.  Logan is supposed to begin moving down the track...gravity helping him out.   Practicing on the track is supposed to help him realize that he can move his body forward! He inches a little right now, but it's all backwards.  As he progresses on the crawling track, you start to lower the angle of it until it is eventually flat on the ground.  Sherri is going to show us how to make our own track with wood, L-brackets, foam, and vinyl...sounds like a fun craft project for Olin next weekend : )

  

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This is a crawling track.  The baby is not Logan : )

I figured Logan had to be exhausted Wednesday night...with virtually zero sleep the night before, only a one hour nap, and PT...he had to go to sleep!  Unfortunately this was not the case.  Olin and I were desperate to find something to comfort him.  His screams sounded like they were coming from a place of pain...not just fussiness.   We fed him a mini bottle, we rocked him in his rocker, we gave him an enema at 11PM in case it was his tummy that hurt.  Bedtime finally arrived around 2:30 or 3 that morning...hard to remember. 

Thursday was a little less eventful.  I had a work event until 7:30 that night so I was praying that Logan would be fast asleep when I got home.  He was in the crib, but not definitely not asleep.  Since I hadn't seen him all day,  I figured I might as well get him and hang out for awhile.  We played downstairs for awhile...Logan and I on the floor, Olin blasting rock/heavy metal On Demand.  I think we may have found a music genre Logan likes as much as reggae.  He would hold on to his cube thing and just "dance" bouncing up and down, up and down.  It was too funny.  Although bedtime got off to a rocky start, he finally went down at about 11PM.  6 hours of sleep...Thank you Lord!

Friday finally arrived and I couldn't have been more thrilled.  Since the painful cries were still in effect, I decided we should try to sneak into the Pediatrician's office to see if Logan's ear infection had cleared up from two weeks ago.  I called at 1:30 that afternoon, and amazingly, the doctor was able to take us at 3:15.  That's where the good news ends though...his previous ear infection had turned into a double!  You know it's bad when the doctor looks into your kid's ear and says "Oh yeah, it looks like that hurts.  So with the double ear infection diagnosis, I drove home feeling like the worst mom ever.  Why had I not considered this possiblity before?  How could I have been so frustrated with his "all nighters" when it wasn't even his fault?  Talk about some mommy guilt!  The doctor gave us another round of antibiotics and a list of ENTs in the area.  Tubes are probably in his future...hopefully sooner rather than later.  Maybe while they're removing his intestines, they can put some tubes in his ears.  That will be a piece of cake compared to everything else he's been through.  So, now he's on Suprax, and hopefully combined with a little Motrin, he'll be feeling better in no time!   

Olin and I are looking forward to a night off on Saturday.  Grumps and ZuZu are going to spend the night while we go to a gala (so fancy, I know!) down at the Ravinia/Perimeter.  It is a fundraising event for an organization called enAble which helps special needs' adults lead fufilling lives.  http://www.enablega.org/  We have been to this event in the past, but we're going with a totally different perspective this year!

 

       Logan practicing how to sit up from a laying down position