New Family Photos

Some of you may know that I have been working for a photographer for 2 years now.  Her name is Andrea Stanley and is a very talented lady.  I am soooo thankful that I got the opportunity to work with her.  I've learned so much!!  Like everything else, when the economy tanked so did her photography business.  She just didn't have the business to keep her studio open.  She's been working out of her home and on location ever since.  It's hard to raise a family doing that so she went to nursing school and will be finished in May.  Long story short...I wanted to finally get good, professional family pictures before she up and moved to the big city to be a nurse.  Here is what she took and I edited.  I'm so happy with them, I especially love the ones of the boys.  Enjoy...

Halloween 2011

UGH! I can not believe that it's been 2 months since I last posted. Let's fix that right now!

Halloween 2011

Yep...that's right! My kids wear gloves to clean out that yucky pumpkin.

Here is Carson during his class party. So cute!!

Adam-UofA Wildcat fan, Carson-karate kid, Brady-race car/stunt driver

Aunt Amy hosted an awesome party. We had so much fun with the cousins and then we Trick or Treated the neighborhood. Can you believe that my kids have NEVER been trick or treating?!!? We always end up at the church or a party. It was really fun, the kids got lots of exercise and relatively small amounts of candy.

Happy Holidays From The Wrights



For those of you who did not get a Christmas card from our family...we still wanted you to know that we love you and value your friendship and support.

 

Love,

Dana

Tonsillectomy Follow Up

It's been more than two months since my boys got their tonsils taken out. They've healed up well in spite of Adam getting strep a few weeks after surgery. Crossing fingers and toes that it will take care of all of the sickness we endured this past year and I've already seen a huge change in Adam "condition".

I've been thinking about writing this post for some time now but I've got to admit I was a little nervous to do so. I'm hoping that by me sharing our experiences someone will be helped. I'm talking about bed wetting people! More correctly known as nocturnal enuresis. We've lived with and battled with it for 8 years now. Let me start from the beginning...

Adam is our first child so naturally we experimented on him. When it came time to potty train I read all of the books, bought the "fun" potty and cute under ware. I was prepared!! Day time potty training went fairly well, but night time was a different story. After a week of wet sheets I gave up and bought the night time under ware/pull ups. We still worked with him but it didn't matter what approach we took he was always wet in the morning. When our second son was ready to potty train I was amazed at how quickly he was able to stay dry over night. I knew then that it wasn't something we'd done wrong but that something was different with Adam.

Over the years we consulted doctors, read books, asked friends and studied online forums. We've tried everything that was suggested...limiting fluids, waking him every few hours, bribery, reward charts, moisture alarm, chiropractic treatments, homeopathic treatments, prescribed medications...you name it...we did it. Nothing helped. It made me feel like a failure as a mother and him feel like there was something wrong with him. We'd go periods of time where we just ignored the problem and he wore Goodnites (overnight under ware) every night. Every time I talked to the doctors about it I got the same response, "We don't know why. He'll out grow it eventually." It was so frustrating!! It made me mad to think of all the advances in medicine why hadn't someone come up with something to treat this?!?

It wasn't until this past spring that I was given a glimmer of hope. My sister took her son to the dentist for a cleaning. While there he mentioned to her how large her son's tonsils were and that was most likely the reason that he would grind his teeth at night. She was given an article about 'Sleep Apena & Airway Management in Children'. She passed it on to me. I can remember reading the article and tears running down my cheeks as I read about children that had the same symptoms as Adam and that after a tonsillectomy the symptoms vanished and they were dry all night. I knew we were on to something! I scheduled a well child visit for Adam and discussed it with his doctor. He didn't have any experience with the things the article mentioned but he said he had no problem referring us to an ENT. We saw the ENT and he agreed that Adam did have abnormally large tonsils and they probably should be removed but he just shrugged his shoulders when I asked him if he thought it would help with the bed wetting. I felt we should go through with it anyways.

On July 26 both Adam and Carson had their tonsils and adenoids removed (Carson for a different reason). A few weeks later Adam ran out of Goodnites so we left him in underwear and hoped for the best. To our delight he was dry in the morning, and the next day we got the same results. In fact he's been dry every night with the exception of a few nights where he wasn't careful about the amount of liquid he drank. It has been a great confidence booster for him and a great blessing in our life.

Adam is sleeping much better, we don't have the usual night terrors and sleep walking/talking, that he used to have. I've always thought that his bed wetting was directly related to his sleep cycles. I now know that his enlarged tonsils and adenoids were inhibiting the amount of oxygen he was getting at night and therefore not allowing him to have good sleep cycles. When his sleep cycles improved so did the bed wetting.

My goal is to let people know that there is hope and they don't have to settle with the old "they'll out grow it". I'm not going to say that this would work for every child but if everything else has failed isn't it worth looking in to? I am happy to talk to or email anyone who wants to know more as well as share the article that put me on this path. Good luck to every family that is dealing with this, it will get better.

First Day of School 2011

The first day of school kind of suprised us this year. Both Adam and I came down with strep throat (yep...Adam, the same one recovering from a tonsilectomy) the week before school started so all of those "things" we were going to do before school started didn't happen. Thanks to my sweet husband & Mom for helping out.

Adam began 5th grade this year. I was shocked to see how much the girls in his grade grew up over the summer. Things are going to be very different from here on out.

Carson started 2nd grade. He's got a great teacher and some of his best buds in his class. He's going through this weird phase right now...he thinks he needs to wear pants all of the time. I had to force him to wear shorts to school. For crying out load it's 110+ degrees!! Brady began preschool this year. I wasn't planning on sending him but he really is ready. By sheer luck I got him in to the preschool at the same school that the boys go to. He loves it!!

Tonsillectomy X2!!

On Tuesday Adam and Carson got their tonsils taken out. We're hoping that it will take care of a whole host of illness that we've experienced this year. They were both so brave. Adam went first but the surgical staff came so quickly to get him I didn't get any pictures of him before. Then about 15 minutes later they came for Carson. Dr. Soderberg came in and told Carson lots of jokes and he was laughing hysterically before he went to the OR. They even let Carson's bunny, Super Snuffles" go with him.

As soon as Carson left they took us to recovery where Adam was trying to wake up. He had a really hard time with the medication they had given him, but after a while he came around and even sat up and ate a Popsicle.

Carson was too pitiful. Trying to be a good sport but feeling awful!


Adam had the best nurse. She took great care of all of us!

Here are the boys after surgery on their way out to the car.
The nurse said they had to open their mouths so I could get a picture of their missing tonsils. Silly boys.
They have been pretty good patients. They've had lots of pudding and jello and other soft stuff. Brady is in heaven with all of the ice cream and yogurt. I'm thankful that Dave has been off and able to help me. I couldn't have done it without him. Looking forward to good health the rest of the year and beyond!!

Brady's Birthday

Brady recently celebrated his 3rd birthday, unfortunitley his party had to be canceled due to Adam's "condition" (see following post) but we had a great little family party nontheless. I made some cupcakes and we threw him a little party before Dad had to go to work. Cheesy...yes, but he didn't seem to notice, he loved all of the attention. I love this little boy so much!! He has truly completed our family. Love you BaBear!!
I thought I'd post pictures from his past birthdays as well...

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday