Wordless Wednesday

A rare photo of my usually camera shy Mike with our youngest Danion  :)

Quote of the Moment

After a sleepless week.....

You would think that any normal person would be asleep at 3am!?! Well not me! I woke up an hour ago and now I can't get back to sleep as poor Braith seems to have a itchy throat or something as he won't stop coughing! Poor little guy!

These guys get it good, regularly tucked into bed for a sleep no matter the time of day!! Yawn!

Getting on track after a hospital stay....

This last week has been a blur! Poor Aliya ended up in hospital with a kidney infection :(  The weekend before we went to the ED at our local hospital as Aliya had developed an kidney infection from one of her many UTI's. Our GP's had been unsuccessful in the last year in treating and getting rid of the recurring UTI's and this time she had become feverish and sore due to it progressing to her kidneys.  So after 6hrs wait we finally saw the hospital GP and we given a script for antibiotics and sent on our way.

But it wasn't going to be as easy as that! They had given us the wrong antibiotics, this strain of UTI was resistant to the antibiotics but the info wasn't passed onto us or our GP for follow up.  So during the week, Aliya wasn't improving but she wasn't really getting any worse, so I thought it would just take a little time for the anitbiotics to work. How wrong was I!!

By Monday Aliya was so sick that I took her to the GP for check up. I couldn't bring down her temps, and she was 38.9 even with panadole! The GP gave us another antibiotic and advised me that if she started throwing up then it would mean an hospital admission!! And of course that evening she did :( Up again to the ED at the local hospital, which was so busy with emergency patients that there was only one doctor working the ED room. We waited til 4am to be seen then at 6am she was finally admitted to the children's ward. By the time I headed home I had been up for 37hrs straight. I was sooooooo tired I felt as though I had a hangover!

I have to tell you that Aliya is one BRAVE little kid!! As this was her 1st time in hospital, the thought of having needles and an IV was freaking her right out (even though she has seen me with IV's in the past and I assured her that they weren't that bad). The docs and I talked her through the process and she gripped Sprinkles, her favourite teddy, tightly to her face so that she didn't have to look at the needle. The docs were great, very kid friendly and after 2 attempts had the IV in place. One little tear rolled down her face. My heart was breaking but I knew that this was for the best. That was the easy bit (seeing the nurses flush it during her stay and having her cry in pain because it had stuck was so sad!)

It was suspected that she would need a 5 days of IV antibiotics, but she responded so well we were able to come home after 3 days on IV antibiotics.

So we are now home, with 7 days of antibiotics, and a course of a bladder relaxant medication to help retrain her bladder. Its suspected that she has had recurring UTI's for years as she has had issues with staying dry throughout the day, but trying to get GP's to take your concerns seriously is like pulling hens teeth!!!

Aliya will need a long term antibiotic plan to keep the UTI's at bay and also a DMSA scan, where a radioactive substance is injected to be able to scan the kidneys to look for permanent kidney damage.

But I'm so glad that she is getting better. And the best thing is that she hasn't wet herself since getting out of hospital, and for a social active 8 yr old girl, this is BIG news :)

Oh and Aliya experienced a touch of fame, the local school was giving out daffodils and the local newspaper was there to take photos :)

Just a little something to uplift my day...

Quote of the Moment

Quote of the Moment

Changing my life - step one :)

So as I mentioned the other day, I am on a mission!! A mission to make 2012 amazing! And to do that, I need to make some amazing changes. Changes inside, outside and around me :)


Step one - Hire an Inhome Daycare Worker.

Here in Australia we have a very generous government. Everyone is able to access affordable childcare,  if one parent is not in the workforce, volunteering or studying , for a maximum of 24hrs per week

With 4 of my children being 5 and under, I have to admit that my biggest struggle with homeschooling has been entertaining these little guys while I help the older kids with their school work. But what would the point be in sending them off to daycare? May as well have everyone in school!

So I decided to follow up on the concept of Inhome Daycare (to be able to access the service you need to have 3 or more children under school age at home). I had heard about it on the grapevine a few years ago, but had never needed to use it, heck why would I even admit to needing to use it when everyone else I know can cope with having their kids at home with them without any extra help!

And its not really that I can't manage all my beautiful children, they are really great kids! Its just in the last couple of months its dawned on me that I am only one person and that I was stretching myself thin, and that I wasn't able to give the best of myself to my children. We don't have family we can rely on for a helping hand, and I can only ask so much of my friends, so this is the next best thing :)

Today was our first day of our daycare lady starting, and she did not disappoint! She jumped straight on in with energy and enthusiasm, whipping out a bunch of craft and fun games for the kids to enjoy!! The kids had a blast! I didn't quiet know what to do with myself, I'm usually so busy checking on the little ones and cleaning up after their messes!

And she is able to also come along on our homeschool excursions! I've been so blessed to have some other homeschooling Mums help me wrangle my little ones when out and about, but sometimes I feel guilty that I take up their time, even though they assure me that its no problem. They really are giving people :)

So step one is one giant leap in making life easier! :) 

Quote of the Moment

Quote of the Moment

Wordless Wednesday

Such a  little bookworm already at 2 yrs old!!

“If you want to have a better future, create it.”

I'm not one to moan on about things. But sometimes I need to let things out and I guess there is no better place then here. I am keeping a blog as a reflection of my life and to look back on both the good and the bad, will be of value in the future. 

I am the 1st to admit that life hasn't felt that great this year. It was hard being pregnant (I almost felt depressed and really unwell) and starting our homeschooling jounery.  We were struggling with renovations and being in debt. Mike was working really long hours as well, so it was usually me managing all the kidlets.

Then Danion came 4 weeks before his due date, I wasn't organised, thinking that he would come on his scheduled c/s date (silly me!).  The recovery this time around was horrible, I experienced alot of pain, and the recovery seemed to take longer.  The lack of sleep from getting up to Danion, Braith and Kaydence has been, well, more then draining!! Still is!

I had doubts about my ability to homeschool and have a happy family, I even rang the local schools to get enrolments for the kids!! And I SWORE that I would at least give it a year before even contemplating possible failure!

But I was lucky enough to have some of my wits and remember that another homeschooling family I knew were with a small distance ed school, so I met up with them, and thankfully they had a place for us! So we are still homeschooling but with a better foundation, clearer focus and happier kids. We still have 'those' days but they are fewer, and we can access more excursion days, and teachers on call as well :) 
 
We then had tonsillitis and a virus go through the family, so for the last month at least one or more of us have been sick!! We're only just starting to get out and about again!

The year has flown by, and I've only just started to overcome the 'rut' that we are/were in! I'm starting to realise that if I don't actively grasp each day in my hands then it will slip on by in a blur of sleeplessness, chores, school work and chasing after babies. I really want to be able to look back on these years and have them be the GOLDEN YEARS, I don't want to be 60 and retired to start 'finally' enjoying my life.

And you know what? I feel ashamed to be complaining about things!!! I have a good life. We have food in our bellies, a roof over our heads, we have our health and we have each other.

But I don't feel like we're 'living life to its fullest'.

So I'm making some changes. To make life feel easier. To get the most out of the time that I have. To have some fun with my family. To really seize the day and make it count.

Mid-life crisis? Perhaps....

I'll let you know how it turns out as I start implementing things, wish me luck!! :)

Danion and his Umbilical Hernia

A few weeks after Danion was born he started to develop an Umbilical Hernia, actually it just seemed to appear overnight!

I had never seen nor heard of it before so to good old google I went to search for answers! It is quite a common thing and I didn't feel too concerned but of course went to the doc to get it checked out. He had an ultrasound and it was revealed that the gap was 6cm (generally they are 1-5cm) and that most of his intestine was poking through! In rare cases the intestine can strangulate causing an emergency situation.  He was referred to the hospital and booked for an outpatient appointment.

But luckily, we won't be needing that appointment. While away on holidays is closed up itself in a week, it just got smaller and smaller and now there there is just lax skin where the belly button is!! I can't believe how lucky we are, some kids usually don't have theirs close up til the age of 5!  

Wordless Wednesday

The beautiful kid free lunch I enjoyed while on holidays with my sister in law Taren, who happens to be my best friend!