Sleep Study Results

Adalyn had her follow-up sleep study appointment yesterday. The results seem to be two fold: a potential medical issue, along with some behavioral components.

The study showed that she did have "significantly fragmented and disrupted" sleep that night. It appears that she has a high amount of spontaneous leg movements. Which could be waking her up.

On the flip side of that, when she wakes up she wants to have milk/bottle to go back to sleep with. This is the behavioral part of it. The habit side of things. Though she only gets milk/a bottle before bed she has gotten that engrained in part of the going to sleep process it appears.

The plan:
--This week we are only giving her milk/a bottle before the nap time/bed time routine. Meaning that the bottle doesn't go into the bedroom, so that we can separate that portion out of the sleeping routine. 
--Next week the bottle will be going bye-bye! I've tried to get rid of the bottle, but she refuses to drink milk out of any other kind of cup. And as stated above drinking milk/a bottle was a big part of her going to sleep routine. With such rough nights from her I just didn't want to deal with one more issue. But maybe that is part of the issue anyways. We'll be pulling the plug on the bottle next week. I expect there to be a rough couple of days of sleeping, but fingers crossed she'll give in and just drink the darn milk out of a sippy cup. This also will help most likely with her eating as well. All she wants to do is drink milk. I hope with the bottle gone her milk consumption will drop helping her food intake to increase.
--Today we are getting her blood checked for her ferritin level. A low ferritin (part of iron) could be causing her restless legs. If her ferritin level is low then we'll add an iron supplement with the hopes that will keep her leg movements down. Which in turn I hope keeps her from waking up so frequently and needing support to go back to sleep.

She did not show any major sleep apnea issues during the study. At this point in time we have ruled out any adenoid or tonsil issues.

We will have a follow up appointment in 3-6 months if the above plan doesn't improve her sleep. If we feel at that point there are still major sleep issues going on then we will do another sleep study. 

I actually feel slightly hopeful that we may be able to kick this crappy sleep thing in the butt. The plan isn't anything amazing or mind blowing, but it makes sense. She is in a vicious cycle of waking up because her leg movements and bad bottle/milk habit isn't helping the situation. Fingers crossed we can break the cycle quickly and with out a lot of pain for any of us.

Weekend Away

Kenny gifted me with a weekend away for Mother's Day. Thanks to my Mom for helping make that all happen. Mema came over to watch Shane and Adalyn while Kenny and I had a little 2 night get-away.

We left Saturday morning and headed up to the Mulkiteo Ferry to take over to Whidbey Island. I am pretty sure it was my first time riding that particular ferry.

Our first stop was at Double Bluff beach. A perfect Washington beach, full of logs, sand, seaweed and log forts made by previous visitors. The kids would have loved it. The sky was gray, but the sun was peeking out every now and then and the air felt warm.

Next up was lunch at Oak Harbor. I have driven through Oak Harbor a million times, but this was my first time checking out the downtown area. We ate at a local cafe and peeked into a few shops before heading out to Deception Pass. Once at Deception Pass we booked ourselves on a boat tour. One of the highlights of the trip for sure! Funny thing I didn't get a picture of the boat we took.

A little house boat in the marine we took off from and one of the many little islands we saw behind it.

Deception Pass Bridge

 There is a cave up in the top left side of this picture with bars on it. They used it to hold prisoners. Scary!!

The rip tide under the pass was crazy. Like white water rapids. 

We saw a seal porpoise out eating all the little salmon fries.

Bald eagle hanging out in the trees.  I'd very much recommend this tour.

We spent our first night in La Conner, where we had dinner and got to see a few local shops before everything was closed. Sunday morning we slept in and enjoyed the late noon check out time before heading to the Tulalip Resort Casino. We spent quite a few hours shopping Sunday afternoon at the outlet mall right next to the casino. So fun to shop until we dropped literally.

After shopping we headed over to our room (which was beautiful!) to regroup, eat dinner at the buffet (a highlight for Kenny), swim in the pool, check out the concert (a Motley Crue tribute band) and we finished the night off with a drink at the Impulse Lounge (I think it would be a great dance club on a Friday or Saturday).

Once again we slept in Monday morning, had breakfast at the buffet, made one more quick trip to the GAP and headed home to relieve Mema from kid duty. We had a perfect weekend away. It felt so nice to be just Jessica and Kenny. I love my kiddos, but sometimes yourself just gets swept away with all their needs. Taking a couple days and just doing what you want to do, reading when you want to read, sleeping when you want to sleep, etc is a wonderful feeling of freedom that you just don't have with two small children in the house.

Thanks Kenny for my awesome Mother's Day gift and to Mema for enduring the children for two plus days and to Papa for being tolerate of Mema's time away from him. 

Wordless Wednesday -- The A Team

Toddler Group Teacher

When Shane was a toddler I stumbled upon Lake Washington Toddler Group (LWTG). I was visiting a business next to the toddler group and could see into the windows and it looked like so much fun. I went home and found it online and enrolled us up for the following school year. We spent two wonderful years there where we attended class once a week with Teacher Kris. Shane was able to explore all kinds of different centers, do arts and crafts, sit in circle time, sing songs, eat a snack and play with other kids his age. I got to chat with other Moms and learn from our bi-weekly parent education and various evening speakers and events. I loved every moment of our time at LWTG and have been counting down the time until Adalyn could join this coming September.

We have 3 awesome toddler groups in our community (Kirkland, Redmond and Woodinville). All are run through Lake Washington Technical College. I've had my eye set on getting my foot in the door at one of the toddler groups in our area as a teacher. I love the program so much and knew that it would fit perfectly with my skill set and background.

A couple months ago I interviewed at Redmond Toddler Group for their new Saturday class they have added to their schedule for the 2012-2013 school year. I got the job!!! Whohoo! I am super excited to be joining their team and getting my feet wet in the world of toddler group.

If you live in the area and have a toddler please check out these awesome programs. Registration is currently open for all 3 toddler groups. Heck...if you live in Redmond (or near there) think about joining my Saturday family class! They all offer scholarships as well, so if you think you are interested but are concerned about funds, contact them about scholarship availability.

I'm looking forward to my new adventures as a toddler group teacher come September.

5th Birthday Interview

For the past three years on (or around) Shane's birthday I've asked him the following questions. This year I read him the other two interviews from years before. He really liked hearing his answers.

Shane’s 5^th Birthday Interview

What is your favorite color?            

All of the colors

What is your favorite food?             

Cinnamon toast

Who is your best friend?              

Mommy

What is your favorite show to watch on T.V.?

Chuggington

What is your favorite book?            

This is a hard one….the blueberry one (Blueberries for Sal)

What does Mommy do the best?       

Cook stuff

What does Daddy do the best?       

He works

What is your favorite kind of animal?                

Turtle

What do you like to do with Mommy and Daddy?         

Play games

What do you want to be when you grow up?                  

Fireman, Ambulance guy and a Doctor

Where is your favorite place to go?  

To Hawaii

How old are you?              

Five

(taken on June 12, 2012)

You can see his other interviews here.

Family Pictures

A couple weeks ago we had the pleasure of having our family pictures taken my Christine Moody of Trimood Photography. I had purchased a photography session during an online auction that was raising funds for a local little boy with Leukemia. I knew we needed to have a family photo shoot soon, since our last one didn't include Adalyn and was 2+ years ago. I figured it was a win-win situation. I fought until the last minute to win that auction!

Anyways...I finally got a day scheduled. We all got our hair cut and I sorta had in my head what we would wear. That part stresses me out so bad. I did wait probably a little to last minute on the clothes part, but it worked out okay. The day ended up being beautiful out and we even pushed our scheduled time back a bit to let the sun set in the sky some. We picked a park (O.O. Denny located on Lake Washington) just around the corner from our house so that we could limit the travel time on the kiddos. I also really wanted something that reflected where we live...green and water. We didn't end up with any pictures of the lake really visibe...maybe next time. They are gorgeous and green though.

I knew in my head that Shane would be our tough cookie. Not wanting to smile or cooperate. It turned out that Adalyn was the stinker. We got about 15 minutes top of good picture taking time out of her and the next 45 minutes was sheer torture. She wanted nothing to do with the camera, sitting still, listening, etc. All she wanted was that Darn Bunny!! I really, really, really didn't want Bunny in our family pictures.

I felt terrible for Christine. We seriously put her through the ringer. She managed to get a handful of presentable shots of us through all the craziness. The next family photo shoot can only get better from here.

This is my FAVORITE picture of all of them!

Wordless Wednesday -- Picnic in the Tent

Shane is Five

Shane celebrated his 5th birthday recently. He settled on a train theme party. The weather cooperated nicely and the party guests had a blast playing outside, eating, playing a few "train" party games, and watching the big guy open up his presents. He had asked me the day before why at birthday parties do you always have to open presents at the end. He wanted to open his presents at the beginning. I actually considered it, since it was his birthday and all, but decided for etiquette purposes we'd save it for later into the party.

He finally got to open up his presents. I had the kids be the audience and they did great sitting back and watching Shane. 

 Some of the kids playing "Conductor Says". I taken take into consideration that Shane really had no idea how to play Simon says, so it wasn't all that smooth of a game. I loved that some of the kiddos stuck it out. 

 

 Here were are playing a riveting game of "Car, Car, Engine". Shane requested that we play this. I also had the game pin the "smoke stack on the train", but forgot to have the kids play it.

 

The food was some what train themed. We had pasta salad with wheel shaped noodles, popcorn and lots of round/wheel shaped pretzels. I even had the kiddos make their own train shaped cheese and cracker snack.

Train shaped watermelon.

 Shane requested lemon cupcakes with vanilla frosting. They really turned out super yummy.

The highlight for the party personally for me was the happy birthday song. Shane has NEVER liked that song being sung to him (it is VERY much related to his Sensory Processing Disorder). Every year he ends up in tears or close to it. This year I asked him if he wanted us to not sing the happy birthday song to him or if he wanted us to whisper it to him. His face lit up and he said he wanted it whispered. This was the first time ever he sat there with a huge smile on his face, loving every minute of the happy birthday song. I wish so much that we had it on video, but in the midst of the moment it just didn't happen.

And of course we had all the train toys in the house and they were played with quite a bit.

Oh, you might wonder why he isn't wearing a train conductor outfit of some sort? Well...Mema and Papa got him this really cool superhero costume that he opened the morning of his birthday and the day of the party. It quickly became the best thing ever to wear even if it was a train themed party. Though he did have overalls under his cape. He wouldn't be Shane if he wasn't wearing overalls.

Menu Monday

Monday -- Halibut and bread from the bread machine or cream cheese biscuits

Tuesday -- homemade Chili in the crock pot and cornbread

Wednesday -- leftovers

Thursday --Baked Chicken Parmesan

Friday -- leftovers

Saturday and Sunday -- Kenny and I will be having a little weekend away with out the kiddos. It was my Mother's Day gift from Kenny. Mema will be pitching in and watching the little buggers sweet darlings. I'll leave them some food so they won't all starve to death.

Father's Day 2012

I interviewed Shane a while back for his gift to Kenny for Father's Day this year. 

Shane's answers were pretty darn cute. 

This little token will be treasured for many years to come.

ALL ABOUT MY DADDY

By Shane Booth    Age 5

My daddy’s name is KENNY

he is 81 feet and 81 inches tall

he is 62 years old

he weighs 99 pounds

he has BLONDE hair and BLACK eyes

his favorite tv show is BASEBALL

he likes to go RUNNING

for fun he PLAYS WITH ME AND TICKLES ME

his likes to eat APPLES

his favorite thing to drink is MILK AND ORANGE JUICE

at work he EATS STUFF

i’ve known my daddy for 100 YEARS

my daddy is happy when I PLAY WITH HIM

i’m just like my daddy because WE ARE BOTH BOYS

my favorite thing about my daddy IS THAT HE TICKLES ME

AND I LIKE IT AND HE HELPS ME TO DO STUFF

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DADDY!

June 17^th, 2012