Chiropractic help with the tummy!

As many of you know my little one has trouble with reflux. When I talk about her reflux people just assume she spits up. I wish it were that easy for her. She actually has terrible back arching screaming fits that can last anywhere from a couple of minutes to 30+ minutes and there is no relief we can give her. We have tried acid blockers, reducers and objected to other medications that were prescribed. We hold her upright after meals and have tried every formula on the market with no relief. So in an effort to find help I started asking other mothers and Google for help.
I had several moms come back to tell me about chiropractic. I am familiar with it since I work in a specialty P.T. office that deals with spines. So after some more research I thought why not give it a try. At this point we had nothing to loose. Back to Google I went and was able to find a local chiropractor in town that specialized in children. After reading her site, blog and patient reviews I started to get excited. I emailed her and was shocked to get a response back from her. We shared several emails back and forth before her first appointment.
So the day has come and we head to the office. It turns out that Kennedy needed an adjustment in her neck. The appointment was easy and Kennedy just smiled and stared at Dr. Nancy the entire time. The Dr held her in various positions and gently stretched and adjusted her and told us to head back in a week. Later that night she started spitting up brown chunks of what looked like very old formula. This was slightly alarming because we had never seen that before and she had nothing but formula that day. But I tried not to worry because she was not in pain. My excitement grew with each day that she did not have a back arching fit. We made it to the next appointment a week later without one and she received another adjustment. This time there was a little fussy from the activator but I believe the noise startled her. She did not appear to be in pain and within a couple of seconds Dr. Nancy had her in her arms and was dancing around the office with her. Kennedy just loves Dr. Nancy and you can see the love that Dr. Nancy has for her work and her patients.
Which had me thinking and scratching my head on the way home. How many times have you taken your child to the Dr. and been in and out in 5 minutes and left wondering what the point of the visit was? I can tell you that's how I feel with our current pediatrician. I feel like a number and he has no memory of my child from appointment to appointment. It seems he just wants to give vaccinations and write prescriptions or nod off any questions or concerns we have. But he gets paid a couple hundred dollars for each visit by our insurance and spends no more then 5 minutes with our daughter. .....hmmmmm. Yet we go to Dr. Nancy and spend 15-30 minutes with her and she makes less then 1/2 what the pediatrician does. She talks to us about vitamins and the immune system and ways to naturally boost it. She gives us information that we can actually use to improve our health all while holding my daughter. When is the last time your pediatrician picked up your child and held her in her arms just talking to her and making her giggle? In our case never.
We have seen Dr. Nancy  3 times in 3 weeks and Kennedy has had only 2 screaming fits. We went from 2-3 a day to 2 in 3 weeks. Kennedy seems to be such a happier baby. It seems the entire house is feeling a little more at ease and Billy keeps asking when he can go for an adjustment. We even received a letter from the Dr. written to our child. The letter welcomed her to the practice. I love the line that says "Do you know how incredibly special you are? You are a gift to us and we feel very honored to help you to be the best you can be."
Is that how your Dr. makes you feel?
Then the bottom of the letter reads: "P.S. Please use the enclosed gift certificates to get your parents, teachers, or brothers and sisters a Free Consultation, Exam, Xrays and Adjustment"
I have to say this office is pretty special to us now and I am so thankful to have found it.

Tummy Time is such a ToughTime!!

My little girl is perfect in every way....except her spitting up! Her nick name is Puke-O-Potumus :)

Her tummy troubles started right around the 2 week mark and initially it was just a little spit up here and there. Now she will continually spit up her bottle and she will even spit up baby food. We are not just talking right after she eats....she will spit up for hours and hours. I can tell you the longer it stays in there the grosser it gets.
We have tried just about everything to help her with it. We have used every single formula out there with the exception of soy. We have done as suggested by various doctors and thickened her formula with rice. We have tried to feed small amounts more frequently and we have tried acid reducers. But the spit up continues. Worse then the spit up is the pain that she has. She will arch her back, growl and scream several times a day. Often there is nothing we can do for her. Just comfort her and try to get her to sleep. We have had a more frightening side affect of apnea. Believe it or not this can be caused by the reflux. When babies feel it burn up the back of there throat it causes them to focus on that and forget to breathe. Its quite scary to deal with. Lucky for us we have monitors that alert us to the issue and she "self corrects" when she hears the alarm. So it has us trying to figure out what else we can do for her. The spit up does not bother me. Sure its inconvenient to be a walking burp cloth and its not fun when it happens in public but we can deal with it. We have become quite used to it. I joke and call it my mommy perfume. Its quite lovely at the end of the day especially once some blueberries or bananas join in the mix. Our concern is helping to ease her pain.
We waited months to get into a pediatric GI specialist at Riley's and left no better off. Since the acid blocker Zantac gave no relief they wanted to put her on medicine called Reglan to help her stomach empty out faster. The Dr told us that if accidental overdose occurred it could cause a seizure and that there are reports of long term use in adults causing "neurological issues" she told us this as she wrote out the script and sent us on our way with a follow up appointment in December.
All I could think about on the way home was "neurological issues" it had me wondering. So thank you to the wonderful world of GOOGLE I found out some frightening things. These issues were a syndrome that caused involuntary muscle movements of the arms, leg and face. Things like blinking, lip smacking, clicking noises in the mouth and arm and leg jerking. Symptoms are so common that the FDA required a black label to worn users of this side effect. The articles also stated infants were more at risk. Funny she never mentioned that. Worse yet is that the symptoms are irreversible regardless of when they are found! Wow...let me squirt that liquid right into her mouth.  I was horrified and had several other people who were just as shocked by the side affects listed. Pretty scary stuff out there.
Needless to say we did not fill this prescription and we are going to try a more natural route. In the meantime we have learned that receiving blankets make amazing burp cloths.

The Devil wore Louis Vuitton

So I saw the trailer for the latest movie to hit theaters called Horrible Bosses and it got me to thinking. I am sure we all have a Horrible Boss story in our past somewhere.  So I thought I would share mine.
I was hired at a local physical therapy company by a woman named Leticia......not Latisha....Leticia! Ha! I would hear this line multiple times each day as she corrected callers who mispronounced her name. She would even take the time to correct sales people before she would then immediately tell them that she was not interested and hang up the phone. She started off nice enough. I would show up to work and she would already be there tooling away in her office rarely did she leave it. I had my own office that was such a mess she told me that once I organized it she would give me a $200.oo bonus check. Needless to say I had that check in matter of days. So it seemed like an OK gig to me. She promised lots of big bonuses and was nice and talked so highly of her favorite employee that you would think you had just landed a dream job.
Things would change over the next couple of weeks and months. I don't think she changed I just think that her spots started to show through! Eventually patients and staff would watch a shiny black Porsche pull up to the clinic only to see this 4 foot 10 inch woman step out. She would walk through the clinic in her Ally McBeal style dress wearing 4 inch Louis Vuitton heels and designer sunglasses and the biggest smile you ever saw and would say Hi to each and every patient as she walked through.  You knew immediately that she was the owner and a person of importance....that is the way she liked it. I too at first was enamored by her entrance but eventually I would watch this woman walk by and I swear I could hear the lost and screaming souls of former employees she had eaten screaming to be saved!!! Okay not really but still trying to paint this picture for you.
She was famous for putting people in their place, including me. I can remember working away only to have her stand right over my shoulder and ask me to show her how I had come up with a figure on an account. She would stand so close that her body would touch mine and I could feel her breath on the back of my neck. She would later tell me this was a position of power that she had learned. Just like when you walk someone into your office you give them permission to sit down and remain standing for 10 more seconds prior to sitting so they have to look up at you. I remember her talking about going to the theater the previous night and watching The Devil Wears Prada and proudly comparing herself to the character of Meryl Streep.
She was really good at the mind games and the digs she would take. Like the fact that she thought I was a little too chunky and banned employees from eating at their desks during the day. I was pretty sure that new rule was aimed directly at me. She pretty much guaranteed that the following day when she walked in and put a Myoplex Lite diet shake on my desk and told me that should be my new favorite lunch. She would later watch me drink it in the office we shared. She would begin the lecture of how I should start dieting and even went as far as to tell me I should do the Body for Life program that she had done. At that point I remember thinking how much dignity that I had just allowed her to steal from me. She would make more digs like at my birthday when she gave me the gift of used audio tapes copyrighted in 1986 (It is now 2005) on how to be a better parent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!No joke. I will give you a moment to pick your jaw up and off the floor from that one.
Later on as she started to get divorced from her husband it would only get worse. She rarely showed up and when she did we would hear of the drama. The company went from 3 locations and 6 employees down to one location with 2 employees. This is when the therapist and star employee Melissa and I would become such close friends. We shared a bond in this clinic. Melissa and I would later be called as witnesses in hearings between Leticia and her husband. Talk about the hot seat. We were like children testifying against our parents and did not know what was okay to say and which parent would end up with custody of the business and remain our boss. Eventually the judge ordered them to sell the business since they could not agree. Melissa stepped up to the plate and made an offer. This gave me a goal to work for. Hang in there as long as you can and it will all be better! But it came to a head as the lies started to poor in. She was bouncing paychecks to me as she was getting breast implant surgery she talked of moving into an apartment while she was really purchasing a million dollar plus home. I spent most of my work hours taking angry calls from bill collectors and waiting for the repo men to show up at the door. Needless to say the deal to purchase the clinic would fall through and that same day a lock smith showed up to change the locks while we were eating lunch. Clearly it was me that was going to get the ax at that point. The therapist generated income....I only collected it. So out she walks with an envelope that she handed to me. In it contained my last paycheck and a letter stating she could "no longer afford me". She never said a word to me! I remember laughing a nervous laugh inside my body. I then went and packed up my belongings in the office I shared with her, while she sat there putting on lipstick in a pocket mirror and adjusting her hair. That triggered something in me and I stood in her doorway with my box held high and told her what a miserable person I thought she was. I told her that "someday you will sit in this empty office with no employees and no business left and it will be your fault" I spit venom at her and walked out the door. I cannot remember a time that I was more angry and I cannot remember ever hating someone as much as I did her.
I will admit I found great satisfaction in the fact that her business came to a screeching halt within months of that speech. She lost everything. Her star employee had left and that repo man finally showed up along with the landlord to change her locks for good.
Fast forward several years and I can honestly say I am over my anger and hurt and I was able to find my dignity.  Melissa now owns her own clinic which I am proud to work at. She is the exact opposite of my former boss. Willing to take no pay over doing the right thing for a patient in need. She has never once treated me like I owed her something and I am sure she would give me the shirt off her back if I really needed it. I know if I had not dealt with that terrible boss that I would not be where I am today. But to make it clear I do not owe any of this to Leticia. I earned where I am today by being a good employee, a good person and a good friend. The only thing I will give Leticia credit for is teaching me that you can never let someone walk on you because once you let them take that first step they know they can walk for miles.

Kennedy my "crunchy" baby

Kennedy is proof that my years and years of baby fever finally paid off!

I could not come up with enough words to describe the pure joy we felt as parents the day she was delivered. I think that is why I love the picture above. You can see the joy written all over Mike's face. He was such a proud Dad. Now the look on Kennedy's face is one of "put me back" while the look on my face is one of joy, epidural, and disbelief that she just came out of me. Pretty sure just about every mom feels that way after birth. She was the product of a 31 hour induced labor but worth every minute of it. 

Sitting there watching Mike stare at her every move, all I could think was "So here I go again". It was a long gap between the kids. Billy now 10 and I felt like I was starting over. I will say having kids in your thirties is soooo different then in your twenties. In my twenties I took so much more for granted. I gave up after just 2 weeks of breastfeeding because it was to challenging, I did not worry about chemicals or toxins that my son could get through food and cleaning products. Didn't give it a second thought about putting him in daycare. I just went along doing what I thought was the normal. When Billy was diagnosed with Autism my first question was what causes it? I wanted to know so I could prevent it from happening to the next one. As most of you know there is no answer to that question. Some people believe its caused by environmental toxins or vaccinations. Some believe it is genetic. But the bottom line is nobody knows. I have no idea what the future holds for Kennedy in regards to this. But as a parent my job is to love and protect her. So I will love her regardless. But I will do whatever I can to protect her from as much as I can. 

I suppose the first realization I had that I was different as a mom this time around was when it came to breastfeeding her. I had read all the books and had bought all of the supplies I thought I would need. Had the pump just in case and the nursing cover and the gel pads, etc. I knew it would be hard given my experience with Billy but I never imagined it would not be possible. We had difficulty right from the start and I had at least 6 different lactation consultants working with us for over a week and we tried everything including medications only to find out I didn't have enough milk ducts to produce more then 1 oz of milk every 3 hours. I was so crushed I cried for days over this. But just 10 years earlier didn't care about it. Funny how things change. 

So now we are on a different path. Breastfeeding was out. But cloth diapering, organic homemade baby food, and toxin free cleaning supplies, dishes, soaps...you name it are in! We are learning a lot as we go. But it has been entertaining to say the least. Can you picture two adults standing around a cloth diaper in complete amazement and laughter at what a child can do to a cloth diaper? Thank you to Darcie for flipping the light switch on in my mind about cloth diapers. I hope I can do the same for another mother someday. My next post will have more about this for sure.

My son is to Legos what Rain Man is to card counting!

So as you may have assumed from the title of my blog my son Billy has Asbergers. Maybe when I heard that word I should have been more bothered or a little freaked out. But to me it was just another word used to label him. The word doesn't change who he is as a person or how I view him as a mother. He has always been my funny boy who has a heart as big as the ocean.
I suppose I saw signs of this back to his diaper days. He was always a happy baby and toddler. He was just a little different. He hated loud noises and would sit in front of the TV with his hands over his ears, he would do this in the car with the radio or if a fire truck passed by. He pretty much refused movie theaters because they were too noisy. Whenever I picked him up from daycare he would be in a corner by himself happily playing with his latest obsession like his Thomas the Train pieces. The rest of the kids would be playing with each other pretty much unaware that he was even there. I used to stand in the door way and watch him before he noticed me. I would feel pains of sadness that he was alone but while I stood there I could see that he was perfectly content by himself. So it became my normal and I really didn't question it. He would make me laugh throughout the years with his toys. He was never one that wanted to play with all different toys. He would become obsessive about one toy like trains or pokemon cards or legos and thats all he would want for months at a time. The Legos have lasted and each time he gets a new set he will spend hours working on it until it is built. He will not get up to go to the bathroom or to eat or drink...he is focused on the task at hand. Much like a new video game. He wants to play until he wins it. He will even cry and get angry while he works at it. I try to tell him it is just a game and if its not fun he should stop playing it. But he just looks at me and tells me I don't get it.
I get it. I get that he has never been like most children. Billy being wrapped up in his own world was never really an issue until he started school. It became painfully obvious that he was different. I remember fighting with the school as they urged and pretty much forced my hand at having him evaluated. He didn't fit into their box and they wanted him medicated and labeled. I fought it long and hard and eventually took a step into the mental health system. The first Dr. spent less then 5 minutes with my 6 year old boy and labeled him ADHD and wrote 3 prescriptions that changed Billy. He was a zombie and I remember crying and wondering where my little boy had gone. But the school was all to happy to have him this way. So for the next several years we have changed and reduced medication and been through our fair share of Drs. Luckily we now have a great group of Drs, counselors and teachers to work with. Earlier this year he was labeled as Autistic, then we were told that he was high functioning on the spectrum and most recently we have been told he has Asbergers. So what does this mean? It means he is smart but has an incredibly hard time socially. He is not now nor will he ever be like the other kids in his class.
What I want people to know is that he is a loving little boy. Yes he gets angry and yes he has moody days. But if you take the time to get to know him you will see how bright he his and how full of life he his. He just wants to be excepted. He wants to be liked and have friends. So in the end he wants to be just like you and me and everyone else.
I am lucky enough to be his friend and his mother and I have counted that as a blessing every single day since May 10th 2001 when I watched him take his first breath.

A little about me....hmmm....where to begin?

I titled my blog Asbergers, Tummy Time and Corn. I thought it was a perfect title since my life circles around those three items. I have two children. My 10 year old son has Asbergers and my little 4 month old daughter hates tummy time with a passion. You put her on her tummy and she now will roll right off it and give you a grin. Pretty sure she has my since of smarty pants humor and stubborn streak. Actually pretty sure both of my kids have those qualities. The corn part of the title is because I live in the land of corn. I have never seen so much corn in my entire life. I was unaware of just how much they grow and all of the things it can be made into. My kids even have dishes made out of corn!! No joke. Its part of my living  a green and crunchy lifestyle.
So now a little about me and where I am at. I thought about just how far back I should go to give you a better understanding. The good news for you is I only went back a year. I suppose I could have dug deep and gone back to my childhood. But I will spare you some of those details. But for the record I was an adorable stubborn little princess who loved dresses and horses. Okay Okay Okay moving on.
This time last year I was a newly wed mother with a 9 year old son living in Phoenix and loving my career as a practice manager of a specialty physical therapy office. I went to work everyday with my best friend and loved it. I saw my mother quite often and lived the hectic city life. Running around picking up Billy and dropping Billy off at daycare before and after school on my way back and forth from work. Always having places to go and people to see. We had just shared the news with friends and family that I was pregnant. That was the good news that seemed to make everyone happy. However it was bittersweet to some because we had just announced we were moving to Indiana. The goal behind the move to Indiana was to be closer to the larger part of the family which was all new to me since they were my new in laws. I also wanted to raise my kids out of the city. I wanted them to be closer to nature and closer to each other. I wanted them to have a childhood closer to mine.  Moving to Indiana would allow me to take my job with me and work from home. Which would allow me more time to spend with the baby when she came.
I guess in my head I pictured this happy little mid west family thriving and growing. What it soon became was a mid west family surviving and struggling to find its way. The first part of the move was not to difficult. It was exciting to see everything that was new and we got caught up in looking forward to the baby's birth. Got Billy started in his new school and looked forward to our first winter and holiday moments with the family in Michigan. We prepared the baby's room and shopped a lot! We welcomed her with tears and joyfully smiled when watching Billy snuggle with her on the couch. But after that excitement wore off I found myself struggling with who I had become and just how to fit in the world around me. I was no longer the career woman who spent 5 hours a day with her child rushing to get dinner on the table and school work done in time for baths and bedtime. I now try to get work done with a baby on my hip and a son going through some challenges. My goal is to get my teeth brushed and out of pajamas each day. But some days that just does not happen. We have been here almost a full year now and I feel as though I live in a bubble. I suppose my best friend has become the guilt that I feel for leaving. Not for leaving Arizona but for leaving my mother and my best friend. Guilt is such a powerful feeling and seems like such a hard obstacle to overcome. I recognize that its there. I realize that in order to make a better life for my family and myself that I have to let go of it......I am just not sure how to say goodbye to it. Like I said it has become my friend. It has filled up the spaces left empty by leaving.

Head and Neck of this family

So if you know me you know I am a bit of a reality TV lover. Last week while watching New Jersey Housewives one of the women made me laugh. She said that her husband was the head of her family and she was okay with being the neck. Because without the neck the head would have no idea in what direction to go! Ha~This is us!