Well, Daryn is in Jamaica again...this time for 15 days. I am trying my hardest to be a patient, fun mom-even though it's hard to have two 3 year old boys and a 5 year old by myself! Actually, this time has been going MUCH better than a few months ago when Daryn was gone for 12 days. As difficult as it gets sometimes for me when Daryn has to leave, it is still so worth it for him to have a job like he does. It's so great, really. Most days he is home for at least 2/3 of our meals...We eat breakfast and dinner as a family every night and sometimes even lunch if Daryn doesn't have a lunch meeting. His job is so flexible that he is able to take an afternoon off every once in a while to take Grace on a date or something and make it up by getting some work done on a Saturday. The funny thing is, I can't even imagine him having to work a 9-5 job. Not that he works less than that, (sometimes he works more) it's just that for the last 7 years of our marriage he has been in ministry with a job with irregular hours-that's just what we are used to as a family. The coolest part about his job is that it exists to help people. It's so great to talk to him when he calls from Jamaica each night and tells me what has been going on that day. Right now, T.R.E.K. has 4 interns living in Jamaica this summer doing some awesome things! There is a children's home with teenaged girls living there who have suffered various types of abuse and were taken from their homes. Many of the girls haven't been in school for months or even years. Our 3 girl interns are meeting with those girls in a mentoring type relationship, doing bibie studies with them, crafts, and just hanging out...basically, they are doing Young Life! Yesterday when I talked to Daryn at the end of the day, he told me how the team built a set of soccer goals for the orphanage kids. They are very sturdy and cemented into the ground. All week long they've been putting on a soccer camp for the kids there. And the day before they worked with another mission team that was in the area to take a group of kids from one of the homes to the beach and out on glass bottomed boats!
Well, back to life here on the homestead:) Right now one of our main obstacles is that Anteneh wets the bed regularly. I'm talking we cut off his liquids an hour and a half before bedtime (they go to bed at 8pm...no liquids after 6:30pm)...and at about 10:30pm get the boys out of bed and have them pee one last time before we go to bed. I did this last night and Anteneh peed the bed, STILL!!! He doesn't get in trouble b/c he obviously doesn't do it on purpose but we aren't sure how to stop it. You would think cutting off his liquids and taking him to pee again so late at night would eliminate the nighttime peeing but literally 2-4 times a week I have to strip his bed, wash the pee out, launder the sheets, and break my back trying to put the sheets back on a mattress that fits very tightly into a top bunk spot. It gets rather irritating to have to do this multiple times a week! Most of the time he pees in the middle of the night and never wakes up. (How can I tell this, you ask? B/C it's all over the sheets but has obviously been drying a little for the last few hours by the time I discover it in the morning...but no-it's not a little leaking...you can tell by the extent of the 'damage' that it was a full bladder...Where does the pee come from??????????????? When we take him to pee at 10:30pm, he doesn't have a full bladder! It's usually a light, short pee! Grace and Luke have not had this problem-they pottytrained early and easily. Anteneh is older than Luke (as far as we can tell is almost 4 years old) and is having problems...I know tons of kids wet the bed and have problems with this but this is new to me. Anyone reading have experience with bed wetters? I feel like we are doing everything right to avoid it (number one is that we are NOT making him feel guilty) but what's the next step? A little more info: for a long time after we brought him home he didn't do this...It's been 4 months and this problem just developed in the last 2 months...my theory is that he is sleeping more soundly b/c he is more at home and comfortable here and it's just an issue of being in such a deep sleep he doesn't realize what he's doing...b/c he is very well adjusted when he's awake...he used to wake up in the middle of the night for the first 2 months and now is sleeping all night long w/ no problems (except the bedwetting)...any advice is welcomed!
Well, the last bit of news: Luke is now on Greseofulvin (antifungal oral meds) for ringworm in his scalp. Kind of gross, huh? Well, when Anteneh came home 4 months ago he had that but the doctor said, "Don't worry-white people don't catch it..." Well, Luke did-and he's my fair skinned biological son. He's had it since 3 weeks after Anteneh got here and I've gotton rid of it with creams only to have it come back a few weeks later. So, finally, the pediatrician put him on the same meds Anteneh took for it and now says, "well, ALMOST never!" Haha...I love our pediatrician...it cracks me up, though...b/c 3 months ago when I called and said, "I think my biological son has the fungal scalp thing that Anteneh had," the doctor said he consulted another pediatrician and they both agreed he couldn't catch it from Anteneh...but looks like Mommy may have been RIGHT!!!! Haha... My poor little guy has a few little bald spots in his hair so I buzzed him with a #1 on the clippers just like I do with Anteneh-little almost bald best friends...wish I could post a picture but Daryn has the camera in Jamaica for the next week and half...Luke is not as cute as Anteneh with a buzzed head! Haha...Poor Luke-he looks pretty rough right now...he has sensitive skin and a slight milk allergy....sometimes I let him drink regular milk (just a little) when no soy milk is available...b/c he only gets a rash-it's not a life threatening allergy...well, I left a chocolate milk mustache on his face from lunch until his bath that night (ok, moms-don't lie-you've done the same at some point) and the next morning wher the milk had sat on this face was a horrible rash in the same shape as the milk mustache...and the day after that, all his cheeks and around his mouth were a blistering rash! The doctor said it started as an allergic reaction to the milk on his face and the naturally occuring bacteria got into it and now he has to use an antibacterial lotion on his face...he looks so bad-haha...buzzed patchy hair and a red crusty face...hahaha...so wish i had the camera....well, gotta go keep up the homestead.
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7 comments:
I had one who wet the bed in "spurts" (fine for 2 weeks, wet every night the next 2 weeks) till he was 4 1/2. We let him choose pull-ups or not, and he always wore them, and one day he just stopped wearing them and was done with just a few accidents afterward. My take on it was to have him wear pullups to save my sanity.
My 3 1/2 yr old has accidents too, although usually when he's growing, and sleeping sounder, but hates pullups so we just deal with it when he does, it's getting better.
Of my 5 Ethiopian kids, 4 wet the bed!! They ar ebetween the ages of 3 and almost 7. The almost 3 year old rarely wets the bed, but the other 3 do regularly. We have done the withholding fluids, getting them up anywhere from 2-4 times a night and even tried medication. Still have wet beds. I have just decided to invest in Goodnights as it is a hassle to change those sheets all the time. The 3 worst offenders are VERY heavy sleepers!
white people can totally get ringworm...I guess your doc has never been to the ghetto. :) Black people can get lice to eventhough it is not often heard of...it does happen. About the bed wetting...I am still waiting on my turn with my future kids, but I do think the wearing a pull-up is a good idea...it will atleast save you washings and a back breaking. I peed my pants until I was 5, but my sister was potty trained at a little over a year. Goes to show every kid is different.
I think I have said this before, but I love reading your blog! Your family is so cute! I wish I had some advice on the potty training thing, but I don't....not yet anyway. Silas is only 6 months.:)
hey, I have a sister who is above the age of 10 and still is a bed wetter because she is such a deep sleeper, my parents got online and found a "mat" that goes under the sheet and a little alarm goes off that wakes the child so that they can go to the bathroom. It has worked really well for her and her confidence has also skyrocketed because she does not have to wear any type of proctective undergarments. Also, medically speaking, if he is wetting the bed there could be a physiological reason behind it, so don't hesitate to talk to you doctor!
My son, Lucas, will be turning 6 next month and has done exactly like ur son. He wet the bed consistantly until +/- month ago. U can buy vinyl bed covers at walmart that slip over the mattress and Good-nights have cool slip on underpants.
Hi, I love your blog. I have a friend who is in the process of adopting from Ethopia and she told me about your blog. It's great! I am an inner-city school teacher and I get ringworm all the time so let your pediatrician know that it is a highly contagious fungal thing and it has no racial bias! And it is VERY hard to get rid of!
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