Huge Sigh of Relief

Today I took my daughter to get an ultrasound of her abdomen.  Yes, my 5YO daughter got a sonogram.  The last few months she's gotten multiple UTI's and her pediatrician decided that we needed to make sure that 1. she hadn't damaged anything or 2. that there wasn't some underlying problem that was causing them.

As we were sitting there waiting, I looked around at all the other people waiting for their particular procedure.  It's safe to say she was the youngest there by at least 20 - 30 years.  Then it hit me... my 5YO daughter could have a serious problem... something that could require surgery, or worse, could end with her having a shorter life that I would like for her to have. 

So what did I do?  I said a quick prayer that everything would be ok.  And guess what?  Not only did I feel peace immediately, but the radiologist and her pediatrician both said she has a clean bill of health.  Praise God!  Not that we know exactly why she's been getting the UTI's, but at this point I could care less about that.  I'm just glad that my baby girl doesn't have a serious malady.

Oh, and did I mention she had a great time getting "tickled" by the ultrasound wand and her big brother loved watching how it all worked.  All-in-all a good (yet I'm sure expensive) day.

SO Over It!

I think I've just about hit the end of my rope when it comes to living in the camper.  Last night, my kids had yet another whine fest over having to share a room with their sibling.  You see, my daughter likes to flip through books when she goes to bed (Where did that come from, I wonder?).  Unfortunately, my son has trouble sleeping when she's doing this.

Last night he asked to  go to bed before her so he could fall asleep before she even got in the room.  I gave him 30 minutes before bringing her to bed and he hadn't fallen asleep yet.  Then the whining commenced in earnest.  Tonight I'm going to try to put her to bed first and see what happens.

All I know is that I can't wait for them to have their own rooms again.  Then they won't be able to keep each other up at night or wake each other up (and me with their whining and screaming) early in the morning.  I'll even be able to better separate them when they start to bother each other (or me).

Night and Day

Yesterday, I took my son to the dentist for a cleaning.  The last time he had been was a little over a year ago.  I know you're supposed to go to the dentist every 6 months, but our living arrangements have been less than conducive to such things.  Not to mention, the last dentist appointment didn't go all that well so I was working up the courage (and praying they forgot how bad it went).

At that appointment they tried to get bite-wing x-rays, a panoramic x-ray, and the standard cleaning.  None of then went particularly well.  There was lots of crying, squirming, and gagging.  Yesterday, was different... only because they didn't try to get a panoramic x-ray.  Otherwise it was very similar to last time... crying, squirming, and gagging, but more of it than last time (at least that's how I'm remembering it).  I even tried bribing him with cash (it got him to handle the x-rays and the flossing better than last time, but didn't work with the cleaning one little bit). 

Today, I took my daughter (Note: I knew not to take them at the same time because I knew they would play off each other because they did last time).  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it went MUCH better than her appointment last year and worlds better than her brother's appointment yesterday.  In fact, I would say this was a wonderful appointment.

I've been trying to figure out why my older child seems to have a bigger issue with the dentist and I've come up with a few possibilities.  The first is that he has a gag reflex that his sister doesn't have.  The second, and maybe more important one is the hygienist.  I found out after my son was done, that they did not schedule him with the "child" hygienist.  My daughter however, did get her.  She explained everything to my daughter, she gave her time when she needed it and she didn't push the x-rays before the cleaning. 

Neither of my children were found to have any cavities.  In fact, the hygienist today said they wouldn't even consider taking x-rays unless there was concern after the cleaning.  Yesterday, my son was forced to try to do the x-rays before the cleaning and with his gag reflex, that really got things off to a bad start.

I think what I've learned from all of this is that for the next cleaning I'm going to make sure 1. My kids don't go at the same time, 2. I make sure they are scheduled with the "kid-preferred" hygienist, and 3. I'm going to make sure the order of procedures is such that there is the least stress in the beginning as possible. 

I'm just happy that one of my kids did well.  If she hadn't, I think I would have had to have a nice strong drink when I got home.