ER visit and some new chicks

We received a call from Reagan's daycare saying she woke up from her nap and half of her face was really swollen. They thought she possibly had an allergic reaction to something. We ended up taking her to the ER just to make sure everything was ok. She was given prednisone and benedryl and that seemed to help. I thought about if she ate anything new or if we changed detergents/soaps, etc. I did use a different detergent but that was like two weeks prior and I assume that she would have had a reaction sooner. I did end up re-washing everything including sheets, towels and clothes with the detergent we used to use, just in case. The next day she woke up and her face and eyes were so swollen. She looked horrible. She was acting fine though so we gave her the prednisone and benedryl and it seemed to help. That Saturday, she woke up and she looked great. She then went swimming and had hives develop all over her legs. Sunday she was back to normal. It was very weird. We will probably never know what caused it. She didn't have a fever or anything so I don't think it was a virus.

During my last post I mentioned we found a baby chick on the ground in the coop. I am happy to say Eddie, the chick, is doing great. A few days later we went out to the coop and another chick was following its momma around. We ended up putting Eddie underneath Momma and the three have been inseparable ever since. It is so cute to watch the mother hen teach her chicks how to eat and how she protects them from the other chickens. Just yesterday Tim went into the coop and found a brand new chick laying on the ground. We did the same thing we did with Eddie. We put the chick in the incubator, will put it under the heat lamp for a day or two and then try to move it outside and put it under a hen.

Avery's last day of kindergarten was May 30. I can't believe she will be in 1st grade in the fall. I really appreciate all of the help she received from her teachers, specialists and therapists. I know the beginning of next year is going to be a little rough for her with new teachers, new kids in her class and new routines to learn but she will get the hang of it eventually, just like she always does.

Last year around this time we were getting ready to go on a vacation to Union Pier, Michigan with the family. We aren’t going to be going on vacation this year. We are going to be remodeling our kitchen. We are knocking down two walls and making it an open concept. I am not looking forward to living through the renovations but it will be awesome when it’s done. I am just scared of what problems we are going to run into along the way.

Our chicks born around Easter are getting so big! We put them out in their new temporary coop. They can see the other chickens but there is a fence between them for protection. Chickens pick on other chickens that are smaller than them so we cant move these 4 into the other coop until they are the same size.

Cutest pic ever. Snuggling with Momma

We are able to have baby chicks in the coop with the bigger ones because their mom protects them and attacks anything that tries to come near them. 

Happy Memorial Day! Don't I look awesome?

Reagan was not having it

Reagan's trip to the ER

 

I tried to keep Reagan occupied

 

This is how she woke up the next day

 

The next day Reagan was fine until we went swimming and then her legs looked like this

Momma finished her Scarlett and Chewie paint by numbers. They turned out pretty good. It will be one year on June 15 that we said goodbye to Chewie :(

 

Momma says she is sorry to crush my dreams but this isn't happening

I made a cute book in Kindergarten. I even smiled for every picture!

 

 

I am not a morning person!

Thanks to my teachers, specialists and therapists. Also thank you for everyone who donated to March of Dimes

Happy Mother's Day

We FINALLY had nice weather for the March for Babies March of Dimes walk this year, probably because it was held two weeks later than normal. Tim, myself and the girls drove down there but Tim wasn’t feeling well and Reagan fell asleep in the car so he and Reagan slept in the car while Avery and I walked around. (Hence the reason there are only pics of Avery and I at the walk).  I was happy (and proud) to have her there. She has come such a long way and I give credit to March of Dimes and Hillcrest. Hillcrest and the doctors, nurses, RT’s, etc are the reason they are both here today. Also, we knew Reagan was going to be born early so I was able to get surfactant injections before she was born. Surfactant injections help the baby’s lung development which keeps air sacs in lungs from collapsing. The surfactant therapy was developed by March of Dimes J When she was born and in the nicu for 41 days, she never needed oxygen, due to the injections. Had we known Avery was going to be so early, I would have had the injections for her as well. Instead Avery had respiratory distress syndrome, chronic pulmonary disease and was on every breathing apparatus available in the nicu (Intubated/ventilator, Oscillator, Bipap, cpap, canula, etc.) She had many breathing problems when she was younger and was seeing a pulmonoligst, but she has since “graduated” and no longer sees him. She only needs albuterol/breathing treatments as needed when she is really sick.

Thank you to everyone who donated!
Mrs K
Grandma B
Terri
 Lauren
and thank you to Laura for fundraising! (I have your shirt for you!)

Since our chicks have hatched, we have had some new excitement at our house. One of our older chickens started sitting on eggs. I peaked under her one day and there are at least 13 eggs she is sitting on. Not saying those are all fertilized and will hatch but she has been doing a great job sitting on them. Every time I go to the coop, she is in her spot in the nesting box. I read that once chickens start going broody(sitting on eggs) they no longer produce eggs during the time they are on the nest. They sometimes pluck out some of their feathers to cushion the nest and also to help regulate the heat and humidity. (We had to regulate the heat and humidity manually when incubating the eggs, its actually quite amazing that the hens know what to do). They stay on the nest at all times except getting up once a day to eat, drink and poop. The chicken does a lot of work in the 21 days, including turning the eggs (again, something our incubator had to do with the 4 we hatched). We aren’t exactly sure of the date she started sitting but its been at least 2-2.5 weeks so possibly next weekend we will have some chicks! If you or anyone you know wants some chicks, please let us know. I am worried we are going to become the chicken hoarders. Hey, maybe we could get our own tv show.Our 4 new chicks are getting so big. They are now 5 weeks old. I am still crossing my fingers that they aren’t all roosters.

I mentioned in my last post that our dogs somehow got loose the one day. I was literally almost in tears because we couldn’t find them and were searching all over. We live on a pretty busy road so my biggest fear is them getting hit by a car. They are idiots and will walk right in front of Avery or Reagan swinging on the swing and get hit so I can only imagine how they would act when cars are coming at them.  We then received a call from the North Royalton Animal Warden saying he had our dogs. Someone found them a few houses down and called him and he came and picked them up. Luckily Joe had his name tag and license on his collar. Buddy’s had fallen off prior. (I have since ordered him a new one and he now has the tag on his collar). Thank you to the warden for calling us and not having us pay an impound fee because they were only there 20 minutes. We ended up sending him a thank you card. I appreciated him picking up our dogs and keeping them safe. The thank you card was probably a good idea since the dogs have gotten loose two other times now in the past week. One time, Buddy got out somehow and Tim drove down the street and he was at the same house that found him last time. Another time  Avery left the door open and the dogs ran out…I called for them and luckily Joe came back but Buddy went running. Tim got in the car and I told him to drive to the random house that Buddy is always found at…Sure enough, a few minutes later, he came running by and we caught him. He must really like those people to keep wanting to visit them! On a good note, he does run back by the houses instead of by the street.

Also, Avery only has 1 more week of kindergarten left. Where has my baby gone?! She is going to be in first grade. Mentally she is all there but she needs help when it comes to everything academically like math, the alphabet, writing, reading, etc.

She is pretty self-sufficient though. I was in the chicken coop with the baby chicks and Reagan one day and Tim was working in the yard. Avery made us all lunch. She brought 4 plates outside and each had an ice cream cone, blackberries and a piece of cheese. My kind of food groups!

Hoping you all had a great Mother's Day. Avery continued the tradition of not looking when taking pics with the grandmas/cousins. Reagan painted me a cute little heart picture holder and Avery made me all sorts of things. She decorated a bag, made me some flowers and gave me a pot holder with her handprint :)
Tim helped the girls make me a card. I love homemade gifts from them.

Hoping my next update we will have some new chicks!!
***Right before I posted this we went out to the coop and there was a baby chick laying on the ground. It also looked dead and trampled. Tim went to pick it up and it moved so we took it inside and put it in the incubator to warm up. It started to perk up and started peeping and moving around. (I don't have a new pic of it yet, just the pic from when we brought it inside and I didn't think it was going to make it). I asked Avery what she wanted to name it and she said Eddie, after her cousin :)

I joined Momma at the March of Dimes walk this year! Here are some pics from it. I actually stood and smiled for some pics! I was supposed to do the hero run for preemies but I was too scared. Reagan and I got capes anyways!

Our annual mother's day pic with Grandma B and the cousins..notice I am not looking

Annual Mother's Day pic with Grandma S. Of course i was not looking

 

Mother's day pic with Momma

Reagan made this picture holder at daycare

This is the card that me, Reagan and Daddy made

Here is the bag I made for Momma

Here is the potholder I made

This is Cheeseburger, look at her/his fluffy feet. This is the one that Momma thinks is going to be a rooster

This is Grey (AKA chicken). This one is Reagan's favorite

This is Tater

Here are the 4 chicks, Bacon is on the left

Playing on the swingset

Reagan playing with snapchat

Here is the lunch I made for everyone

Here is the chicken that is laying on a whole bunch of eggs

Here are my new ears!

Eddie, our newest chick. Hope he/she pulls through. He is up and walking around now. (This pic is when we first found him) It was like 40 degrees the day he hatched and he was laying on the ground all alone. I think the heat in the incubator really helped him.