Sunday 31 May 2009

My best friends and I

Yay my best friends (see here for further info about my friends) and I are getting on really well. I have been out for a run 4 times since I posted and it hasn't even rained once. I must take an action shot to post some time. I must say that the pod cast I run too is just so helpful. I did the Couch to 5km plan last year and really surprised myself. So this time I have picked up the plan some way through. The free pod cast is just the best thing for me. I just keeps me motivated. Long may that last.

Now to actually jump on the scales. I am not obsessed by scales but I think that in balance then I can see the positive difference . That is until I fit back into my winter pants feeling less like the button is going to pop off. Hmmm I wonder why I do these things to myself. Up and down the weight yoyo.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Meet my New Best Friends

Here are my new best friends. I promise I will make good use of them by exercising, maybe even running, 3- 4 times a week rain, hail or shine.



Okay I am not new to exercise and its benefits but I have got a little lost this year.

Here is a page I have made just to set my goal in rock, so to speak.



the credits can be found here.

There I have got that off my chest now I can get out and do it.

PS to myself. I should get on the scales too because I know this really gets my A... into gear.

Monday 25 May 2009

P365 week 19 and 20

I am still up to date. So here are my last two weeks of Project 365.

week 19



credits can be found here

week 20



credits can be found here.

Sunday 24 May 2009

First Hockey Experience

DS2 started playing hockey this year. he has been hanging out to play especially as his big sister playing and he has had her old stick of some time.

First practice came with eager anticipation. Hockey stick, shin pads, mouth guard and lots of energy. DS could not wait to get there.

Here he is showing off the mouth guard.



He stepped out the house really looking the part.



Endeavouring to achieve skills he has not yet even seen let alone tried was a treat. Keep the ball on your stick was asked for. I think DS2 spent his time following his ball around the hall instead of the other way around. Puffed after that he was off to try another new skill, pushing the ball to a partner. This really should have been renamed as Partner ball finding task. Finally a game. I sit here and smile. The game is in practice of the real thing that will happen on a Thursday night. At practice it looks like a group of 10 five and six years chasing a ball looking like a a swarm of bumble bees.

A very grainy photo. The action shot at the first game.



The game later in the week was just a perfect beginners game. more of chasing the ball, behaving like bumble bees and having fun. Now DS2 just has to remember which end he needs to run towards to help his team score a goal.

DS2 thinks it is so much fun. I love that he thinks like this. Long may his enthusiasm last.

Friday 22 May 2009

Just some days....

Just some days seem to run like clock work and I can sit there and wonder what I have done all day and how lucky I am in life. So why is it that some days just fall apart from the moment you get out of bed in the morning to the moment the last child goes to bed and is asleep?

Yesterday was just one of those days. From the moment I got everyone out of bed I was greeted by the moans and groans of resistance to rising in the cold and I am tired. I understand. It is cold and I of all people detest the cold and as to the moans about tired I suggest going to sleep earlier would help. DS2 took 30 minutes to arrive at the breakfast table and then was upset because his breakfast was not ready. Hmmmm who does he think I am, a mind reader or something.

Anyway breakfast is over and DD and DS2 decide to have a verbal moment at the top of their lungs, yep all the neighbours heard.

Next we are in the car for school and DS2 had no cleaned his teeth despite reminding him so home we went and everyone was late to school. I was not happy at all by now.

So the day goes as days do when one is at home doing the SAHM thing. Chores chores and more chores. Time to take a breath and prepare for after school.

After school started as the morning did. One disaster after another. Tetchy children and by now tetchy me. Why is it that this always happens on the night that DS2 plays his hockey game and we are really pushed for time.

Get to hockey for 5pm, not a great time and DS1 has no calm him down drugs in his system and packs a massive tantrum, including every piece of bad behaviour and language he could think of. I was so embarrassed. Next time we have to all go to hockey I think we will sit in the car.

More moments when we get home from all children and by then I am tired and running short of patience.

The last straw was DD who was still awake at 8.45pm asking me how she can get to sleep.

I promised myself when the new day woke I would be extra ordinarily positive, take ownership of the things I could prevent from happening again and move on.

Thankfully today was so much better it is hard to believe that yesterday happened as it did.

Thursday 21 May 2009

Success

Finally success. Hayden has a Mickey button that works easily. 20mls later and paper work for 20 different tests and we were out of Day Stay at Starship Children Hospital.

Yay.

Sometimes the smallest of achievements can seem like a miracle. This day certainly was one of those days for us.

Monday 18 May 2009

Surgery

I have been really slack in the last week blogging. In fact I have spent the last week trying hard to catch up with my life. This has been leaving me exhausted.

Last Wednesday, Hayden, had to go into hospital for a small piece of surgery. His port a cath had failed and he needs this for monthly blood tests and when he gets sick and dehydrated (or worse) it is useful for IV fluids. I blogged about this here.

Anyway this is what a day in hospital with Hayden looks like.

I have to get up for the usual 0130 hours medication run and turn off his night feed as well as a second night time nappy change. This night I need to also hook Hayden to some additional water. All this fluid goes through his mickey button.

At 0530 hours Hayden becomes nil by mouth so I have to get up again and turn the water off and give him his anti seizure medication. I go back to bed only to rise at 0630 hours to dress and get Hayden up and out the door 15 minutes later.

At 0730 hours we are at Starship with Hayden now beginning to look very thirsty, in fact dehydrating before my eyes. He has no Rubifen (calm me down drug) in his system so he is overly active and wanting to be here there and everywhere. I feel after being at the hospital for 30 minutes we have been there hours.

Fortunately there is a very small cart that Hayden loves to sit him which did keep him somewhat contained but I was still walking about, around the ward and up and down the corridors.

Here he is looking thirsty.



Hayden is the first up on the list which is great because he has still has had no liquids and it is 0815 hours and thirst is really taking over. Now I am trying to think ahead and not go near fish tanks and toilet doors in fact anywhere that water can be found. Hayden needs IV fluid but the port a cath is not work so IV line needs to go in and that is not easily done with a wiggling and protesting child. They, the power that are, decided to wait before putting the IV line so he is sedated and still. More waiting and a very thirsty Hayden.


The surgery is only about 30 minutes and the device is replaced.

Here is where I wait out in the central space at Starship.



Hayden wakes and is still very groggy. Got the intoxicated walk going on. He is very grumpy and has a rude mouth to put up with as well. He tell me he is thirsty but wont drink. He has been given anti nausea drugs to help as he gets bad nausea after a sedative so there is no reason for him not to drink. Luckily Hayden was given 250mls bolus fluids and is not too far behind as far as the liquids go. I put up with this behaviour for about 1.5 hours. Finally he is able to walk in a straight line and is less volatile in behaviour.

Here is Hayden just after surgery.



His surgery site



Talking to Dad on the phone after surgery.





I have to say that I am past the phase of being embarrassed by his behaviour. There is nothing I can do about it and all I can see are nurses feeling sorry for me and trying to help and parents of other patients looking sideways at me. If only other parents knew that for 5 days back in 2006 Hayden's life was hanging delicately in the balance and it is a miracle that he is very with us today.

By 1300 hours we are back home and he is feeling sore and sorry for himself and still behaving badly. At least his port a cath is working and this Wednesday we get to test it to see just how well. Yes that blood test still needs doing. It requires two nurses and me to hold him down and get the blood out.

Fingers crossed all is not too hard.

Saturday 9 May 2009

Project 365 week 17 and 18

My the weeks are really flying by. I cant believe how much I really fit into each week and the fact that there is truly something unique to write about each day. I wonder how I will go when winter arrives and there is not enough sunlight after school to take photo's at the beginning and end of each day.

week 17


credits are here at Nuts4Digi

week 18



credits can be found here at Nuts4Digi

Friday 8 May 2009

Homework out in the car.

I know this is not idea to do homework in the car but this winter we have hockey spread over three nights after school and when DH is away I can not see any other way of getting the homework done except in the car. Bad luck if the homework requires internet access though.

Anyway just sometimes it can be fun as this great photo of DD shows.



credits can be found here.

Thursday 7 May 2009

Port a Caths Failed

Can you believe it. Hayden's port a cath has failed and it has not been in his body 12 months. Failed means that it is blocked in some way and blood, heprin and other such fluid cant move in and out of his body as required. This means surgery.

Port a cath....I forget that in our house everyone knows what this medical device is but most people would not have even heard of one. It is a device that is inserted into Hayden's vein near his heart and enables easy access for his monthly blood tests. It also is handy when he need hospitalisation for IV fluids to be administered.

Here is a picture of Hayden showing off his medical devices. Thank you to the tax payers of New Zealand for all the medical intervention Hayden gets. DD took the photo for a school project about modern technology in our house. I guess this was a unique photo amongst the class.



Anyway back to the surgery bit. I found out yesterday that surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday. A very quick notification for surgery which is surprising as the health system, in my experience, is not known for it speed.

I am really grateful for the surgery happening now even though I hate the thought of trying to entertain Hayden with an IV lure in, nurse him through the nausea he get from anesthetic so he can be discharged much later in the day.

I really am grateful
that the surgery is happening now and not in the middle of winter
that there will be a play specialist there to help, fingers crossed
I will have time to give Hayden his Rubifen before we go
the staff at Starship Day Stay know Hayden
I will get to sleep in my own bed and not on a mattress in a ward
That DH is home for my other children

Monday 4 May 2009

My hairdresser

I am not a vain person by nature but I love my hairdresser.

In the space of 2 hours she can take away my natural highlights (yes about 3/4 of my hair is that colour and been going that way since I was about 16years old), and replace them with artificial highlights. Let's not forget the haircut wanted - short and sharp looking. My curls have all been cut out, yay. I know many people go to the hairdressers to have them put in but mine really have the 80's look about them and take ages to look after.

Phew.

I love my hairdresser. Now to take a photo......I hate having my photo taken.



Okay DS2 and I had a little fun taking the photo and took the top of my head and you can see DS just in the corner.

Sunday 3 May 2009

I have a bloggers block

Is there such a thing...A bloggers block? If there is then I have it.

I wonder if it is because life has been so busy I haven't had time sit and reflect on what is going on.

This weekend, for example started with a very busy friday night.

DD had 4pm hockey practice and DS1 needed to be dropped at Wilson Home, the place where is in residential respite care ideally before 4.30pm. Right I had to be in two separate parts of Auckland all at the same time. Thanks to my Dad hockey was taken care of and I was off on the trip from the southern tip of Auckland across the harbour bridge in peak hour traffic. To cut a long story short at 7.30pm I finally get home and put my two little cherubs to bed. I am exhausted.

Saturday we are up and leave home at 7.40am to get to hockey by 8.00. The game is at 8.30 and it is 10 degrees F and raining. We have no heating as last years version broke and after shopping for a gas heater. Its lunchtime by now and all the household chores need doing. 8.30pm I collapse into bed.

Sunday up and out to swimming for 8.30am then off to church and a practice for DD after. Another 12.00 arrival back at home. Get tonight diner done and the children have play date. Finally off to collect DS1 by 4pm with all children in bed lights out and asleep by 7.15. I am left to tidy the house and do ironing before I go to bed.


At least the sun was shining today.


I am amazed I can even think as I sit here to blog.

Phew After all of this I leave you with a page I made of DD for the Font Challenge I host over at Nuts4Digi.

Oh my how you Sparkle



credits can be found here at Nuts4Digi