Recovering Noah

Just wanted to let everyone know that Naveen came home from the hospital late Saturday night.  He was diagnosed as having an ESBL strain of Klebsiella Pneumoniae.  It's a super bug and only responds to a few antibiotics. Fortunately, it's responding to the two that Naveen is currently taking. He'll be on IV antibiotics until Dec 5 and I'm administering them every 8 hours. Let's see... does anyone really think I'm competent and organized enough to handle that?? I flushed his IV with blood thinner the first go around and forgot to clamp his IV shut, but he made it through in one piece. I've got it down pat now, although I feel completely and utterly sleep deprived. I'm usually in bed by 9, but have to stay up until 11 for his night dose and then get up at 5.15 am for his morning dose. And I'm such a light sleeper that I wake up every time Eli goes to the bathroom at 3 on the dot and can never go back to sleep.  The kids will tell you that I'm jus...

I think whether you're pregnant or in the midst of an adoption, you can't help but mark each holiday in terms of what will happen "next year".   "Next Christmas, she'll  be here." or "Next Easter he'll be here."  A year ago, as we were gathered with our family at my aunt's house, I was telling anyone who would listen, "Next Thanksgving, Naveen will be here!" and I imagined him sitting in my lap, all dressed in orange and brown (my favorite colors on my Indian babies), tasting pumpkin pie for the first time, and holding hands while we said grace.  Never in a million years did I imagine that he'd be spending his first Thanksgiving in the hospital. He's doing fine. It's nothing too serious. He just caught some sort of a bacterial super bug that can only be treated with IV antibiotics. We should, hopefully, go home on Saturday or Sunday, with an IV in and a home nurse will stop by to give him his antibiotics for the ...

Update - Oh my word! Never underestimate the power of 3 hours of homework a night to completely upset your whole schedule.  Soooo many things not getting done this week. We are REALLY struggling with Eli's learning issues and his homework. Everything makes sense now that we know what's going on and we're desperately trying to find a way to help him learn. I am really praying about homeschooling right now. Those who know me fear for me.. and my kids! haha. Our family dynamics are not the best for homeschooling. Each child would do good on their own , but all together.. all day long?  But I am spending several hours a day reteaching what they're learning in school AND I spend ALL my time trying to figure out ways to teach them in the way that they learn mess. It's a jumbled mess right now. Ideally, I'd like them in school so I can devote some time to Noah and Naveen, who don't get much attention when the other two come home from school. But at this point, they...

It's time for another Gratitude post. What, you say? Another one? Did we just have one of those? Yes. Yes, we did. But things are crazy and I'm feeling overwhelmed and so I need a bit of perspective. Again. About ten years ago, I remember my mom was feeling pulled in all directions. My granny, my granddad, and my great aunt were sick and my mom was the primary caregiver for all of them. She lived thirty minutes from them, but would drive to see them everyday. Shop for them, take them to their doctor's appointments, do their laundry... and still make it home by 5.00 o'clock and have supper waiting for my dad when he got off work. Just two years earlier, she'd undergone chemo for breast cancer and was still living in fear that it would return.  Sim and I were in the final stages of Noah's adoption, and my brother and his wife lived 3 hours away. She felt stressed, pulled, and all alone. That's kind of how I'm feeling right now.  Just pulled in a...

6 months!! Can you believe it?? I'm not kidding when I say that I sat down at the table Saturday morning and spent a good 30 minutes staring into oblivion while mulling over the fact that November 4th was Naveen's 6 month Gotcha Day. 6 months!! Where'd the time go? So much has happened and things are just so crazy busy that I don't get a chance to blog much anymore. I have great intentions of being a super consistent blogger, but the fact that I have commitment issues, plus the fact that feeling pressured to write everyday stresses me out, means that I end up constructing a ton of blog posts in my head, but rarely type them out onto the computer. So, here's a quick bullet list of what's been going on, followed by pictures! Naveen had surgery on October 12 to repair his right kidney. Knock on wood, we think it worked! We go back next Tuesday to his see both his urologist and nephrologist for a follow-up. Naveen's completely regressed in almost all ...