When it comes to school, I would say Brenson has definitely reaped the benefits of being a second child. It seems like people rarely have anything good to say about being a second child, but in my estimation there are many positive things about it. With Brianna, we were completely clueless about a lot of things, but had a much better idea about what was going on when Brenson came along. We were also much more relaxed with Bren (and the twins) because we had been through much of it before.
Anyway, school is an area in which Bren certainly benefits from not having rookie parents. When Brianna was in Kindergarten, we had no idea about the school's running program until our first parent/teacher conferences (which were in October). We obviously couldn't encourage Brianna to participate in something we didn't know existed, so she got a late start on her running that year. She still earned her 25 mile medal, but not until May. However, with Brenson, he's had two years of hearing us encourage Brianna to run laps during recess to earn a medal. He's seen Brianna earn a running medal twice, and witnessed all the hype that surrounded that accomplishment. Because of all this, he had set his mind before school even started that he was going to earn a running medal, and he has worked diligently toward that goal since the first day of school!
Brianna earned her 25 mile medal a couple weeks ago, and up until this last month, Brenson was on track to earn his 25 mile medal the same day she did. This is an accomplishment because Brenson only has the opportunity to run and earn laps during recess, while Brianna has recess as well as running club times. However (and I think I've mentioned this in several posts), Brenson has been battling sickness since before Halloween. He's had a severe cough that has caused him to miss school here and there, for a total of five days. I'll talk more about that below.
In order to earn a 25 mile running medal, a student has to run a total of 250 laps around their school's track. They actually earn a little foot charm to put on a necklace for every 50 laps they complete, then they get their medal after five foot charms. I really like the way it's set up because earning those foot charms keeps the kids motivated to continue working toward the medal. Like I said, Brenson has accomplished this during his recesses, and I feel like that's a pretty big thing for a Kindergartener. The dedication and perseverance he has shown (especially since he's been sick so much) makes us proud! We love that he set a goal and worked until he reached it!
Brenson being called to the front to receive his medal
He's tall for his age, but he looked small standing in front of everyone!
He was thrilled to have that medal!
Taking a victory lap!
I love this photo . . . he was beaming!
The students have the opportunity to earn three medals for running: The bronze medal is for running 25 miles, the silver medal is for running 50 miles, and the gold medal is for running 100 miles throughout the year. Initially, Bren's goal was the earn the bronze medal this year, but we are now encouraging him to go for the silver. He has shown us that he certainly has the interest, ability, and dedication to do it, so I hope he will!
As I said above and have mentioned several times before, Bren has really had a hard time with sickness for the last several months. He tends to get a lingering cough every winter, but this year has just been exceptionally worse than other years. He has had a cough since before Halloween! It will be severe for a while, then get better for a while, but it has never gone away. He will wake up coughing in the night and might cough for two to three hours. That's hard on a little guy! More recently, he will get in a coughing fit and cough until he throws up. At first, he might just throw up a bit of mucus, but that will lead to actual vomit. He has vomited about ten days out of the last two weeks! This has led to lack of energy, a sore throat, and an extremely sore chest.
We've taken him to our pediatrician multiple times about this issue. We've also called our pediatric office's on-call nurse and discussed this with her. He's been examined and had chest x-rays, but the answer that we keep getting is that "it's viral and the cough hangs on". I understand that there's pretty much nothing our doctor can do for Bren if the cough is viral, but I just don't feel like having a cough this severe for almost TEN weeks is normal. Nor do I feel that vomiting nearly every single day for weeks is normal! When we spoke with our pediatrician about the vomiting, he just said, "Kids do that sometimes."
Aside from seeing our pediatrician, we have also taken Bren to our family chiropractor. Bren has complained multiple times of a headache and of his neck hurting. I'm sure the constant coughing is causing issues with his neck alignment, so our chiropractor has treated him for that multiple times. We've also tried every remedy we know of to control the cough . . . this includes hot tea with lemon, honey, a vaporizer, steams showers, steams showers with menthol bath bombs, vicks on his feet, cough drops, natural cough syrups (approved for his age), orange juice, elderberry juice, taking him outside to breathe cold air, an inhaler breathing treatment, etc, etc. Pretty much anything anyone has mentioned to us to try, we've tried it (and not just once, but for an extended period of time). It has been the most frustrating thing! People will approach me in public and ask me how long he's had "that horrible cough" and if we've taken him to the doctor. Random strangers will tell me what we "need to do" for him to help "that cough". YET NOTHING HAS WORKED.
Which, leads me to yesterday. Keep in mind that the twins have also been battling sickness off and on for a few months (and, I've been cleaning up puke almost daily for weeks). They haven't been nearly as bad as Brenson, but I can tell you that I AM TIRED of the sickness in this house! I told my mom that I feel like I'm not doing life right or something.
So, this past Wednesday afternoon, Brenson started complaining to me that his ear hurt. Chris took him to our pediatrician and sure enough, he had double ear infections. He doesn't get ear infections often, and when he does we typically treat them naturally (using ear oil and chiropractic care). The kids all had their monthly chiropractic appointments already scheduled on Thursday morning, so it worked out perfectly for Bren to be able to get his ears adjusted at that appointment.
Brenson was definitely feeling bad Thursday morning, but I was hoping an adjustment would help him out a little. Bren, Brooke, and I had all slept very little the night before, so fatigue was playing a large role, as well. As soon as we got to the chiropractic office, Brooke got into a coughing fit. We were in an adjustment room waiting for the doc, and she was just coughing and coughing and coughing. Then, she gagged. I grabbed her and tried to get her to the trashcan, but I wasn't fast enough. She puked all over the (carpeted) adjustment room floor, my hands, her clothes, and my clothes. She continued to cough and gag and choke and puke. I'm down on my hands and knees, simultaneously trying to comfort her, catch puke, clean up puke, and keep all the other children calm when the doc opens the door to come in. I look up at him and say, "You don't want to come in here . . . she puked!" He was so gracious and kind about the situation, asking how he could help and even squatting down to be more eye-level with us. I don't often get overly worked up, but I was beyond flustered in that moment. The doc was trying to talk to me and Brooke was just choking and coughing and I was trying to tell him that we've been dealing with this for weeks and weeks with no answers and THEN I started crying. Right there. In the adjustment room. In front of the doc. In front of my children. With puke on my clothes and hands. I just totally lost my cool and broke down.
Again, the doc was so understanding and kind about everything, but I was horrified. It's bad enough that my kid pukes on his floor, but then I start crying? It was a very humbling experience.
He went ahead and adjusted all the children and sent us on our way. Chris called as I was driving us home to ask how everyone was doing, and I just started bawling on the phone to him. I told him I feel like I can never show my face there again :-(.
Our pediatrician did prescribe Bren an antibiotic for his ear infections. We typically don't give our kids an antibiotic for ear infections even if they're prescribed, but we decided to do it this time. Bren took his first dose on Wednesday evening, so he's been on it for two and a half days now. And guess what? Today, his cough was all but gone. We'll see how long this lasts, but it's already better than it has been in months. Either that's a very strong coincidence or it wasn't viral after all *sigh*.
*edited to add* - It's now been six days on the antibiotic, and Bren's cough is GONE. We are so very thankful!!!
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