Brief Update and Rambling Thoughts

I realize that it has been two months since I have updated Max's blog. Life has been so normal, for the most part, that sometimes I have a hard time coming up with something to write. He is happy in school and has been doing some enrichment classes and loving them. I miss him when he is gone, but also have to admit I like my kid free time. He is growing and making new friends and it is so nice to see him get to do all the stuff the other kids around us are doing. He and Lauren are best buddies and worst enemies often within minutes of each other, but they are more buddies than enemies and she misses him something fierce when he is gone, often asking if we can go get him. They spent so much time together only having each other that I think it has formed a special bond, one that hopefully will last a lifetime. He is eagerly antipating the arrival of his baby brother in February, and loves to talk to the baby and feel the baby move. It is so neat to see him interact with my belly. Lauren likes to kiss my belly, but Max really gets it, and can't wait for him to arrive. We will see if he is as excited when this new life arrives at home and gets a lot of attention. He has been struggling with sharing things with Lauren (but not other children) and gets really distraught if she gets a present that he doesn't get, often talking her out of her new toy so that he can play with it, which I think bothers me more than Lauren, but hopefully he will outgrow that. Sometimes it is very tempting to just get two of everything to avoid the issue but he needs to learn that all gifts are not for him.

We had a small scare a few weeks ago with him. His docs wanted him to get the flu shot, but because of his egg allergy, we had to meet with the allergist, whom we hadn't seen since before Max got sick. We were supposed to take him for a food challenge right around the time that he was hospitalized for treatment, but it obviously got pushed off, and Max had told me he didn't care if he never ate eggs, that he didn't want to do the test, so I had pushed it off. I figured it wasn't worth making him miserable over at this time. But, the flu shot made it an issue, so off we went. First of all, much to my great disapointment, he had a definite reaction to the egg test. But, the doctor also heard some wheezing and his pulse ox was low. He had had a cold the week before and still had a lingering cough, so I figured the wheezing was just from that (actually, I hadn't heard any wheezing, to be honest, but when the doctor said he heard it, I figured no big deal). However, the doctor was very concerned that this was the beginning of asthma. We have a family history of asthma, which might be why he jumped to this immediately. I had a hard time dealing with this, for some reason, and was really upset that he put him on albuterol right away. After 7 months of steriodal treatment, the last thing in the world I wanted was to give him another sterioidal drug, partially because of what it does to his moods, and partially because the drugs just are not good for the body. After four days of roid rage tantrums (I couldn't believe how fast it affected him), we saw the pediatrician who said everything was normal and not to worry about it, that it was likely just an upper respiratory illness and no big deal. We do have to follow up with the allergist a couple of times, but hopefully this will have been a non issue. It did give me just one more thing to worry about.

While the worry I feel has greatly diminished, it is still in the back of my mind at all times. I try to ignore it but sometimes it comes out. I have gotten to the point where I can give him a bath without overanalyzing every single bruise on his body (I think he is really sick of me asking "where did that come from" or "did you bang yourself here?"), but if he decides he needs a rest on the playground and the rest of the kids are still running, fear strikes my heart, even if he has been going none stop for five days. A red mark on his body makes me call to Josh to come and inspect it, and every time we get close to the next doctor's visit, I get more and more anxious. I actually look forward to his next appointment because I just don't like not knowing. I also worry about health insurance. Josh changed jobs a few months ago and because of a communication glitch, we thought his insurance got dropped and I was in a real panic. As it turned out, he wasn't dropped (though they did drop the life insurance, which I think we are still trying to work out), but I worry that if Max is ever one day without health insurance, he will never be able to get it again.

One last note for those who are wondering. Yes, we are going to bank this baby's cord blood. There is apparently something available for families in our situation where a new baby's cord blood could be life saving for an older child that will reduce the expense of banking, and Dr. Ebb is suppose to have that information for us at the next appointment (though he is a very busy man and I realize he may have forgotten, but we have a few months to figure this out.)

That is it for my ramblings. I guess it wasn't that short an update. :)