A week of milestones

This week started with me spending part of Sunday night in the ER. Probably not my favorite way to start a week. As you may remember, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in the fall. Up until this point, I haven't been on any medicine for it. My hope has been that it is just a postpartum issue, and will eventually go away. I don't have great insurance so I didn't want to spend money on something that could resolve itself eventually. And, for the most part, I have felt like I could live with it. And honestly? My favorite "symptom"? The weight loss! I have been able to eat like mad and still lose weight. It's been great! The best post-pregnancy weight loss program ever is definitely hyperthyroidism. Some of the other side effects haven't been fun though. So this weekend, I had some symptoms that led me to feel awful, so I googled "Can you die from hyperthryroidism?" Yep, I really did. And you know what? It turns out YOU CAN! I had some symptoms of a thryoid storm, which left untreated, kills you. I tried to weigh out if I should go to the ER, because I knew it would end up costing us a bundle of money. And since I wasn't sure what the problem was, I wasn't sure it was worth it. But I ultimately decided to go. It wasn't worth the risk. So arrived at the ER a little after 2:00AM. And of course, it was a busy night there. The guy being wheeled in behind me was cursing and moaning. And his leg? Dangling! Very broken!

I had a great nurse who had to do an IV on me. And I hate IV's. For some reason, it's hard to get IV's going on me- normally I end up have multiple veins blown during the process. I waited a couple of hours before the doctor checked in on me. During that time I attempted to sleep on the gurney in the cold, brightly lit hospital room. After doing blood work, it was deteremined that I was not having a thryoid storm but did need to get on thyroid medication soon. I will be seeing an endrocronolight next week.

So the first step to finding out of the hyperthyroidism is a postpartum issue is I need to stop nursing so that my hormones can start to get back to normal. With Silas and Eliana, I was done nursing by the time they were 6 months old. We started supplementing with bottles early on since I was going back to work full time. And as many of you may know, once you start supplementing with formula, it's a slippery slope. With Levi, he had a few bottles early on, but after the first month he was exclusively nursing. Fast forward 8 months, he absolutrly refused to take a bottle. We tried every night for a few weeks and he screamed his little heart out and eventaully I gave in. So this week, I decided we needed to try bottles in earnest. And on Tuesday? Levi bit me twice while nursing. Thankfully he only has one tooth, but when it comes to biting, that is one tooth too many. So Tuesday night, his only option before bed was a bottle. He drank 1 ounce. 3:00AM rolls around and the crying begins. I told Luke that it was really all him that night- because I knew Levi wouldn't take a bottle from me. So Luke tried. A half an hour later, there was no luck. Just one very unhappy baby. Luke put Levi back to bed and Luke fell promptly to sleep (he's not use to these middle of the night feedings). Well Levi IS use to these middle of the night snacks. So he proceeded to cry for what seemed like forever. Twenty minutes later, I got him up. And he drank the entire bottle. We had won! I was elated- but then realized that just because he did it once, that didn't mean the next time would be a piece of cake. But you know? It was! He has taken a bottle easily since then- both pumped milk and formula. It's a milestone for sure!

Silas had speech therapy today and I had to work. So Luke took all three kids to the appointment by himself- seriously, Dad of the Year. At the end of his appointment, his wonderful therapist told Luke that she would test Silas next week because she thinks he is where he needs to be for speech. So it's looking like next Thursday will be his last day of speech therapy. Another milestone!

So the next milestone still needs to happen. I want to potty train Eliana in the 6 days. I am sure some of you think I am crazy, and I am. I am just ready for her to not wear diapers though. And she is ready to on some level. She talks about it all the time- she just needs to actually do it.  This precious girl has a mind of her own, so this is not something I can force her to do. I have to convince her that it's her idea. We will see how it goes!

Goals for 2012

-To grow in my relationship with God. If I had to pick one word to describe it right now it would be shallow. I need to grow. I want to grow. I don't want it to take some tragic experience to grow my faith. I want to spend time with Jesus everyday. I want to pray continually. I want my relationship with God to be the most important thing in my life.

-Be more patient. To play with my children more rather them have them play by me while I do something.

-Cherish the time I spend with my children and Luke. To not take forgranted my great family; they are one of the greatest gifts that God has given me.

-Plan menus every week. I used to plan menus (when I worked full time nonetheless!). Menus make cooking dinner so much easier. I hate that feeling at 5:00PM of not knowing what I am going to make.

-To get to a doctor and get my hyperthyroidism treated. I am tired of feeling tired. It's been 6 months now and crappy insurance or not, it's time to get this figured out. I am still hoping that it's just a postpartum issue and it will go away once I am done nursing and my hormones start to balance out. But in the meantime, I need something to get me through.

-Spend less time on the computer. Enough said.