Xyler has once again kept us on our toes.  Thank goodness though, everything is ok.  About a month ago I had stopped giving him his zantac to see how he did.  I didn't want to be giving it to him if he no longer needed it.  After about a week, we started noticing that he would cough a lot every time he would eat.  He would cough so bad that he would gag to the point you would think he was going to throw up.  I put him back on his zantac to see if that was the problem. 

He still continued to cough so I called his pediatrician.  They decided that he needed to have a swallow study done, to make sure he wasn't aspirating.  Let me just tell you that it was not fun at all!  Poor Xyler has been through so much, and is at the age where he is more aware and hates having anything done.  They had to strap him into a chair and place him by the x-ray machine.  They then had me try to feed him different kinds of food with bariliun in it, so that they could see it on the x-ray as he swallowed the food.  Xyler was screaming and would just spit out the food.

As a heart mom I have had to pin my child down more times than I can count for him to have blood drawn, iv's placed, x-rays done and many other things.  It is so hard to do this while your child is screaming.  I have to tell myself over and over that he needs these things done and that they are to help him.  I also have to kind of blank out my mind, so that I don't scream at the people to leave my baby alone, and so that I don't break down and cry myself.  It sucks!!! It really does and is so hard to watch him go through things over and over and over again.

Well, this was one of those times that I had to do that.  Poor Xyler screamed through the whole thing and didn't stop until he was held tightly in my arms.  They  only got a couple of shots of him swallowing, but at least they got some.  The good news is that he is not aspirating.  They think he just has really bad reflex that is causing him to cough.  His chest x-ray showed something with his lungs.  I cannot for the life of me remember the word but it had something to do with what happens with asthma.  Hopefully he does not have asthma.  His pediatrician was telling us that there have been some bad viruses going around this summer where they have caused issues like reflex.  He thinks Xyler got one and that is also why his lungs are looking the way that they are.  This made sense to me since he has had some messy diapers lately.  I have upped his zantac dose and he seems to be doing a lot better.  I am so glad that it was an easy fix!  I do feel guilty for taking him off of zantac for that short time.  I feel like it's all my fault that he had so many issues and was put through more torture.  He is such a tough kid.

Later that day Xavian had his 3 year check up and it was so nice.  No shots!!!  He checked out great!  Xander also had an eye appointment that day.  He now has contacts and a new pair of glasses.  He has worn glasses for the last two years so we decided to have him try out contacts.  He loves them and is doing great with them.  It was a busy day for us but glad to have the appointments done.

Yesterday my shih tzu, Maddy, had puppies!  This is her second litter of puppies.  She had 4 boys and 1 girl.  She had them a week early but everything went well and the pups are doing great.  I love when she has the pups.  I think it is so amazing to watch as they are born and to see the miracle of life.  I can fully understand why the doctors and nurses who deliver babies do what they do.  Truly amazing!  The first few days you have to practically drag Maddy out to eat and go outside to do her business.  After those few days is when she will start to leave them for a bit in between feedings.  You can tell she is needing a break.  Who can blame her!  It seems like the pups are eating 24/7. 

They are super cute and little.  The smallest one weighed 5oz and the biggest one 8oz.  My kids love it when she has pups.  Maddy is a great mom and takes great care of her pups.  The first few weeks are super easy for me.  It's not until they are weaned when I get super busy taking care of them.  Its a good thing they are cute, and that we only keep them until they are about 8 weeks old.  :)

The cute pups!