What's Up, Apollo?

You know you have a large family when...

...your children feel sorry for families with only six or seven children.
...people ask if you're competing with the Duggars.
...even your friends aren't sure how many children you have.
...your family no longer fits in a 15 passenger van.
..complete strangers feel welcome to comment on your fertility and contraceptive methods.
...two of your daughters go for a walk...and get asked by a neighbor if they're foster kids.
...you have to carry three health insurance cards in your wallet- because that's how many it takes to fit everyone's name.
...you take the wrong child to the dentist...simply because your handwriting on the calendar was messy and both started with a "j".
...grocery shopping for 30 children and 12 adults for a two day camp constitutes a "small" shopping trip for you.
You find yourself relating some small incident to your husband and starting with the words, "Well, I only boiled twenty-six eggs for breakfast..."
...you buy a 40 pound box of bananas intending to make banana bread and freeze a bunch for smoothies...but your children eat them all first.
...you find an afternoon root canal relaxing.
...it takes you twenty-three minutes on the phone to schedule your children's dental appointments.
...you've given up on using your toaster entirely and make all of your toast under the broiler in you oven.
...you are seriously tempted by the stacking cribs you see at Goodwill for $19.99.
...you find yourself thinking, "Wow, the house is so quiet and peaceful with only nine children".
...you have enough children to constitute not one, but TWO large families.
...you have a laundry basket devoted entirely to lonely socks seeking their mate.
...when you got to buy your children those cool "spin toothbrushes" because you think they get their teeth so much cleaner...but the store doesn't carry enough styles/colors for your children to each have a different toothbrush.
...when you can't take all of your children to the doctor's office at the same time because the waiting room has only 10 seats.
...when you still have seven children that are required by law to sit in a carseat or booster seat.
...you call the doctor to get your children tetnus shots, and they tell you they don't have enough in the office and need to order more from the health department.
...you take up more than one entire pew in church.
...you take only half of your children to the library, and STILL get asked if they're all yours.
...you go to fill your children's flouride prescription at the phamacy and you clean them out of every pill they have...and it's still not enough.
...you spend sixty dollars on socks...and not everyone gets new socks.
...you go shopping at Costco and the cashier asks if you're having a soccer barbecue.

April 21, 2011

Sweet, sweet Apollo is now nine months old. And what a nine months it's been! First his prolapsed cord that ended in an ambulance ride and emergency c-section...then his frenulectomy at two and a half weeks old...his utter lack of sleeping as a newborn (he'd be awake for four, five, six or more hours, only to nap for five minutes). He's never been satisfied after nursing- despite an abundance of milk. Nursing is still difficult. He pops on and off the breast constantly...Feeding him solids is no easier...every meal ends (and often begins) in tears. He stopped gaining weight- no change from four to seven months old. Finally he's gaining again, but oh so slowly.

I just took him in for a well-baby check to talk the doctor about his breathing. We haven't taken one of our birth children in for a well-baby visit since Judah (13) was four months old! We have very specific reasons for that, but it would be a blog post in and of itself (we did take Mordecai and Avi because of their special needs).

For those of you who haven't met Apollo, he breathes very, very loudly. He fluctuates between sounding like Darth Vader, like he has a horrible wet cold, or like he has croup. He sound like this every day, even when none of the three happen to be the case. The doctor said on Monday he is convinced that his breathing is directly related to his weight gain and feeding issues. He believes he has some type of obstruction in his throat/neck and if we can solve that he will begin nursing/feeding/sleeping better. What that "obstruction" is, is anyone's guess...but it's a start.

And so I took him in for an x-ray of the soft tissue in his neck yesterday...and now we wait...

06:13 AM in Baby 2010 | Permalink