1st Grade

First I'd like to apologize for not updating the blog before today. I've been rather busy the last few months. I got married and the planning was taking up a lot of my time. So now that I'm back... I have a post packed full of new updates.

Pica sucks. I'll be the first to say that. Emma is still battling it. Although she's not really trying to eat non food items as much... she still doesn't eat everything she should. Dinner time is still a fight if we add something new to the table. She's not up for trying new foods at all. I'd love to eat a steak with her one day. I pray that one day soon we will be there.

Next... the wedding.. Emma was our flower girl. She looked adorable. Take a look for yourself. Our theme was punk. Colors were black and hot pink.

She loved it. I think she felt like a princess.

Next... Emma had her first dentist appointment a while back. She was scared but found out there was nothing to be scared of. Her teeth are amazingly healthy for as little as she eats.

As Christians, my husband and I try to teach Emma the best we can about Jesus. It makes me so proud when she draws us pictures or writes us letters. One night not to long ago... she was fighting me to go to sleep because she felt she needed to write this....

It's from the bible: Proverbs
Knowledge begins with respect for the Lord

 But foolish people hate wisdom and self-control.

My child, listen to your father's teaching and do not forget your mother's advice. Their teaching will beautify your life. It will be like flowers in your hair or a chain around your neck.

My child, sinners will try to lead you to sin. But do not follow them. My child do not go along with them. Do not do what they do.

Simply amazing. I love it.

And it continues.....

Since my last update, this post ties into it. We took Emma to an ENT Doctor a week or so ago. He took a look at her throat and got an xray to see the size of her adenoids. After studying the xray, he said that he'd be happy to perform surgery although it's not a guarantee it will fix the problem. I told him to do the surgery if it was medically necessary.

He decided to put her on a nasal spray for the next thirty days to see if this helps. It seemed like the nasal spray, steroids, and antibiotic were helping. Well, up until yesterday. On Wednesday morning, Emma woke with a slight fever. Her school sends kids home with a fever over 100.0 F. We decided to keep her home and get her into her physician to see if the fever was the result of another infection or her adenoids.

The physician said her ears were red but it wasn't anything to be concerned about. They sent her home with no antibiotics. Today she wakes with an even higher fever than yesterdays. It climbed from 100.1 F to 101.3 F. Daddy decided to keep her home so I could keep an eye on the fever.

As the day progressed, the fever climbed to 100.6 F . Still this didn't alarm me. She took a rather long nap and when she woke up she complained about being dizzy and her throat was hurting. I got her something cold to drink thinking this would help. Let her sit up and gave her body time to adjust it's temperature before checking it.

This time, it hit record high for this entire situation. 103.4. I immediately began to worry. I grabbed more Motrin and had her take some. Then, called her dad. He was at work. I asked him to call the ENT Doctor while on break while I took care of her to see if the adenoids could be the result of the fever.

He told him a fever that high for a child her age was too high, to take her to the hospital. Her physician likes when we keep them in the loop about their patients, so Daddy called them directly after to let them in on what was going on. They told him not to panic, to alternate between Tylenol and Motrin, which would bring down the fever. Now, we are confused. Is a temperature of 103.4 dangerous or not?

I told him I didn't want to chance it and come home so we could take her to the emergency room. By the time he talked to his boss and made it home, I managed to get the fever to go down. (I decided to bath her and put fresh clothes on her seeing how she was covered in sweat.) So, when he got here, it was back down to 100.2F, once again in the non-panic zone for me.

We decided to hold off and wait to see what would happen. She began playing and moving around again. We decided not to take her. Right before bed, we decided to take her temperature again, guess what it was.... back up to the blasted 103.4. I'm so confused as to what is going on. I want to help my daughter in the best way that I can. Seeing how it's so late, I gave her Motrin again, thus bringing the temp back down.

We are at our wits ends on this one. We are calling the ENT doctor and demanding he take them out. She has missed so much school this year over her ears and throat. I hate making her go through this but I don't want the school to hold her back due to attendance. Her grades are well near perfect, all high A's. She made highest honors last nine weeks and this nine weeks looks to be the same.

I write this to ask, you, the person reading this to add my daughter to your prayers.

Thank you.

Ohhh, I don't feel good....

Well, Friday started like any other day. We woke up Emma for school, got her ready, and listened to the million excuses on why she couldn't go to school. Or so we thought.

She cried that her head hurt, her legs hurt, she was tired, and all the other excuses one hears during their morning routines. Once she was ready and it was time, off to the bus stop she went.

Right after her lunch period, I get a call from her school. They told me she was found sleeping in the lunch room. Therefore, she was taken to the nurses office and the nurse began asking her questions. Emma told the nurse that she was tired because Daddy wakes her too early for school. (The nurse got a giggle out of that one) Shortly after they took her temperature and it was over 100.0 degrees (F).

This is where I got my phone call for me to go pick her up. About an hour later, she was picked up and back at home. And the fun of guessing began. I took her temperature again which read 101.2. I gave her something for the fever and she said her throat hurt. Daddy tried a cough drop but it burned. So, I made hot tea with honey instead.

She laid down and slept for the remainder of the day. Once into the night, I rechecked her and gave her medicine once again for fever. She began complaining about her throat hurting really bad and said she had a headache. (At this time, I became concerned.)

The next morning, we woke up and there wasn't a change. The fever was holding at 101 + and the pain was still there. She slept some more and her breathing began to sound rough. I kept trying to give her fluids throughout most part of the day and kept up with the fever meds. Towards the late afternoon, her fever spiked to 102.7 and she did nothing but cry. Daddy was at work at this time so I racked my brain on ways to help.

We tried a luke warm bath which didn't help. While I was putting on her clothes, her body broke out with a rash. I decided it was time to head to the emergency room. Now everything going on was beginning to scare me. I texted Daddy telling him she needed to go. Shortly after he came home and we left.

She cried on the way. She complained while waiting. All the while she laid on Daddy. The Nurses did what they needed to ... to get her checked in. Within an hour, we were put into a room. She laid on the bed complaining about wanting to go home and how bad her throat was hurting. The more she complained, the more I wanted to cry.

The doctor finally came in and asked her questions. She answered with the most simple answers she could. Dr finally decided to take a throat swab to see if she had Strep. Then, she ordered Motrin for her fever. The wait looked to be about 35 mins for the first set of results. The nurse came in and gave her the Motrin during our wait. Shortly after she took it, the fever began to come down and Emma returned more and more to her normal self.

She began joking around with Daddy by pulling his whiskers when he wasn't looking and being her funny little self. The Doctor came back in to tell us the results and asked Emma how she was feeling. Her reply, "See Mommy, I told you we shouldn't have come. All they do is ask questions and I haatteee questions." The Doctor took this as she was feeling a bit better while laughing.

We found out she has tonsillitis with a possible case of Strep. She was sent to an Ears, Nose, and Throat Doctor later in the week and given a steroid for her tonsils which are really big. They feel they need to come out.

So, after we get her meds in her for a day or so, we'll be calling the ENT for the next step. Hopefully, this will take care of her breathing problems while sleeping and she can finally rest.

Well, there's our update. Please add Emma to your prayers for a fast recovery with whatever she faces in the near future. Thanks for reading.

Who-Ville Hair Day

This week is Read Across America Week. Today is a rather fun day. Lil Miss's school sent home and event calendar where they asked the students to do different things each day. Well, today's event is Who-ville Hair day where all students are asked to wear their hair like a Who-ville citizen. I just loved the outcome of Lil Misses look and just had to share it with you. Take a look:

I loved this. It's so much fun but she wasn't impressed or excited.

I couldn't get her to wear a different pair of shoes.... but other then those... How do you think we did?

Behavioral Therapy- Appointment

For the past several months, we decided that we'd hold off to see if Lil Miss continued eating well. She began trying new foods and not fighting us when it came to eating. It seems like she's slid back into her old ways. It took her about an hour of screaming and fighting to take ten bites of her Lucky Charms cereal. I didn't think there was a child out there who'd fight to eat Lucky Charms.

So, on Monday, we will be getting her back into the doctor for her Pica. This journey is so hard. I hate seeing her fight like she does. It makes me fall to pieces inside. I wish I could take the Pica away from her and she wouldn't have to deal with it.

I hate yelling at her in any way shape or form. It seems like I need to bribe her just to eat. I hate it.

Thanks for listening to my vent.

Praying for a better future with the help from West Virginia University Behavioral Medicine. This is where I plan on taking her. I just hope they can really help and change our lives for the better.

Report Card Time!!!!

Lil Miss is now into her third nine weeks. I must say, as more time passes, Lil Miss does even better. She's been actively participating in school and following the rules. (Which gives me a little relief because she doesn't always follow the rules at home. This past Wednesday, she brought her report card home in the Wednesday folder.

I have to say I am extremely proud of her. She brought home straight A's!!!!!  Her first report card showed that she was having a hard time in her classes which caused concern. I started her on an amazing learning tool that I must recommend to those who are trying to teach their children how to read.

It's called: The Reading Game

The Reading Game contains six stacks of cards and six books. Each marked with a level beginning at one. Each level is then split into six more. Lil Miss and I started level one right around Christmas when her reading grade was a 73%. We began playing as the instructions directed and started making our way up. Each level has words written on the opposite side of the card. After matching them several times, Lil Miss learned how to read that word. As she made her way through each level, she learned all the words needed for book one. Now she's excited that she can actually read a book.

In a nine week period of playing The Reading Game mixed with her school learning, Lil Miss brought home a reading grade of 95%. How awesome is that????

If you'd like to know more about The Reading Game, you can click on any of the links to be directed to their website.

So stressing...

Here we are on another update with Lil Miss. Her behavior hasn't gotten better. Although, it's been months I'm sad to say she has yet to go to therapy. Life happened and I feel so bad. I know my daughter's needs are very important. Like right now, I know she needs to go but I have no way of getting her there. My car has been broke down for weeks.

We try to get her to eat more of a variety of foods. But she refuses. I'm not sure if this is linked to the Pica or not. I know Pica will have her crave non food items but no place I have found on the internet says anything about it messing with eating the healthy stuff. At this point, I can make a list of the things she will eat. Which is very upsetting. Every day at dinner time is a hassle. She screams and cries because we give her something new. I've tried everything I could think of. I'm beginning to feel like a failure. I know the Lord blessed me with my wonderful daughter for a reason. I just feel that sometimes it's a bit much.

Her behavior is over-whelming at times. This I think is a mixture of things. It seems that the only way I can keep her from throwing fits (screaming, crying, hitting) is to allow her to watch Netflix when she's home. But I really don't want her on the computer all the time. I want her up moving around and playing. I tried to limit how long she was/is on the computer but she has a huge melt down when it's time for change. Like sudden things happening seem to stress her out so much. She cries that we hate her and that we don't like her. (No idea why this just started)

I think it's a mixture of her getting her way so much over the past five years with others and no limits being put into place. I'm going through a lot myself right now so I'm overly stressed. I just don't think I have the fight in me to enforce a time limit on the computer or TV. I don't think I can deal with the screaming and crying without it blowing up into a fight between myself and her.

I so badly want to find out what's going on and where to even begin fixing this situation. So, I'm writing this today... to ask... for suggestions. How can I get her to eat without it being a fight? How can I get her to actually want to get up and play with the room full of toys? Everything with her is a fight. I don't want anymore fighting. I want to say something and her listen. But how do I get her to listen?