Thursday, January 15, 2009

"Rules"

I have had many friends ask who can be around Bree, and what our expectations are for those who do come to visit so I wanted to clarify them here for everyone:

Because her immune system is still not mature it is super important that we take extra precautions to make sure she doesn't get sick at all.

1. So if you have been sick at all, please wait at least a week before you come visit.

2. Also, no one under the age of 16 can handle her until after RSV season ends although they can visit as long as they are healthy.

3. And last, but not least, absolutely everyone has to wash and/or sanitize their hands often.

I hope that helps to answer any questions, and if there are any more please feel free to ask! I would rather have someone ask and receive an answer than to wonder in silence....

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

"Adult" movies

No, you sick minded person...not that kind of adult movie! I am talking about anything that has a bit of scariness or action in it. We watched Hancock this weekend, and prior to this Riley paid no attention to what we were watching. She would go about her business playing, jumping and running like a normal toddler.

Not this time.

She firmly planted her little booty on the floor and stared up at our TV while Will Smith was crashing through the hospital walls bleeding and fighting bad guys. The whole while she would turn aroung, look at me and go "Mama! mama!" She would turn back to the TV and say "Oh, WWWOOOWWW! Oh no....UH OH!" This repeated until that scene was over. Anytime there was crashing, yelling or any remotely exciting Riley would repeat that process.

I guess we have to start being a little bit more careful about when we watch our "adult" movies....I guess a lot of Disney movies are moving closer into our future.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Picture Post!













Update, update!

Our girls are doing well and thriving! As I speak, Bree is swinging in her swing very much asleep (mouth wide open), and Riley is suppose to be sleeping but is instead screeching and laughing in her crib. Bree has started this new 'thing'...she cries unless she is being held. Once she falls asleep, sometimes (SOMETIMES) you can lay her down and actually get some stuff done. Today I am getting a sling from my friend Lindsey so hopefully that will help me to have some extra hands. :) With a toddler at home, I can't very well be sitting all the time with Bree.

Poor Mr. Adam....he had his last wisdom tooth pulled on Thursday and has been miserable since. His swelling was suppose to go down in two days and it has not very much at all. He is still taking good old Percocet, so he has been Mr. Sleepy as of lately. He is going into the Dental Clinic in the morning to make sure everything is okay, he is suppose to go back to work, but if he can't go without "perkie" (ha ha we have code names for narcotics) he can't work.

We got a scale yesterday that weighs in ounces so that we can weigh Bree to keep track of her weight gain. It is a two person job. I step on the scale with Bree, get that weight, Adam holds Bree, I weigh myself, then we do some subtraction! As of this morning, Bree weighs 6 lbs, 5 oz.

Hope this finds you happy, healthy, and in love with life!

No one ever told me...

Before I had kids, I could watch scary movies about child abduction, or children being sick and dying with few problems. Yes, I would understand that it would be a hard place to be in if I was that person, but come on, it was a movie/show for goodness sake!

Now, my heart breaks and I end up sobbing over a hour long show. Adam and I were watching the latest episode of Private Practice and it hit home! Now, Adam and I do choose to vaccinate our girls and I do not want to say anything to offend those who choose not to. It is just that, it is a choice that one makes with their family's well being in mind. Well, on the show this mother had three boys and the oldest was autistic. She was convinced that it was the vaccinations that made her oldest autistic so she did not vaccinate her youngest two. Well, one of them got sick with the measles and ended up dying at the end of the show. It felt as though my heart had been ripped out as I thought of being put into the same position.

No one ever told me that you would never be able to watch TV the same again once you became a parent. Every child on TV magically will look like yours, and your heart will break every time something happens to them.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Picture Post








Beginnings and Ends

Today was the end of our every week visits to the eye doctor and the beginning of every two weeks visits. Her ROP has gotten better in her right eye...he mentioned that there was a significant difference between what he saw last week and what it was today. MUCH BETTER! Praise the Lord and thank you for all your prayers and well wishes! There is no sign of the disease at all in her left eye so we are over the halfway point...

It was also the END of the "5 pound, ___ ounces" era and the beginning of the 6 pound baby! Bree weighed exactly 6 pounds 0.5 ounces this morning when the nurse came to visit.

For Riley, it was the end of just giving her an 'unclicked' pen to play with and to trick her into pretend coloring. This morning when the state worker was here enrolling Bree into the Birth to Three program I had given Riley an unclicked pen to keep her entertained. Next thing I know I hear...click, click, click, click..and then she is writing on her shirt! AH! The age of discovery is a wonderous thing...

For me, it was the end of pumping and the beginning of safety for my family. To all of you that may sound a little funky, but whenever I begin to pump Riley knows it is a free for all. She jumps on the couch, (and has fallen off a few times, narrowly missing the coffee table), goes and brings me things from the garbage (ew!), and journeys into her room to pull everything out of her dresser drawers, and then tries to climb into them. Not to mention, Bree seems to know when I am pumping as well and starts to wail almost every time! It is very stressful and not a great environment to pump in. I have been trying it for about a month and it is not possible, (or mentally safe), for me to continue.

For Adam, it is the end of loathing our old couches...and the beginning of new couch heaven for him. We had to get rid of our kitties because Bree was definetly allergic. Cat allergies coupled with poor lungs and a need for oxygen does not equal a happy kid (or happy parents). Each of our cats found a new home, so Adam was able to get the new furniture he wanted. (Tipsy was a furniture scratcher). As I am typing Adam is reclining on our loveseat, watching ESPN and feeding Bree...his eyes glazed over in comfort.

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Pulmonology appt

Yesterday, Bree had her pulmonology appt at PCH. Our good friend, Aleasha, watched Riley for us so that we could concentrate solely on Bree (HUGE thanks girl!)! We met with Dr. O'Hagan, and briefly talked about her oxygen needs and how she has been handling it. Our next conversation was about everything else going on with her: how she cries (loud!), how she eats, how her weight gain has been, and how she has been with peeing and pooping (eh...).

Dr. O'Hagan left the room to go round up our needed consultants after hearing all of our information. So, in came a nurse that was skilled with the oxygen and all those needs. She brought with her an oximeter, and we hooked Bree up and turned off her oxygen. Funny enough, Bree HATED having the oximeter on her foot! (Maybe she figured the past three months was enough to last her a lifetime!) She screamed, kicked and fussed so much that it was hard to get a good reading. No amount of shooshing, jostling, swinging or consoling could calm her down. After the test period, the nurse went to consult with Dr. O'Hagan about what his reccomendations will be.

Next came the dietician. Due to Bree's problems with gaining weight, we discussed all that she was getting. What it was, the frequency she was eating and how she does with burping and "urping". Bree was on a 27 calorie per ounce diet. It is breastmilk fortified with Enfamil Enfacare. The dietician put Bree on an additional fortifier which now makes her 'meals' 30 calories per ounce. The new 'adder inner' is called Duocal, and can only be purchased online. For right now, we have about a twenty day supply given to us. So Bree's cocktail is now 180 cc's (6 ounces) of breastmilk, four teaspoons of Enfacare, and a teaspoon and half of Duocal. We mix that all up and use it as needed for her feeds. We go through about two six ounce bottles every 24 hours. We now have to call and give the dietician Bree's weights after our nurse comes to the house so that her weight gain can be tracked. We need to see if this increase is going to help her gain weight, or if something else needs to be tried.

The pulmonology nurse came back in after the dietician visit and since Bree did pretty good with her test. She was able to keep her oxygen saturations above 85 even with the screaming and fussing (which is what they want to see). However, since Bree is having issues with gaining weight, they do not want to stress her body anymore than they need to so we are going to wait on weaning her off the oxygen for a few weeks. We are doing an overnight study on January 23rd. This consists of us hooking her up to oximeter when she goes to bed for the night and taking her off of her oxygen. For a good 6-8 hours, we will monitor her saturations. In the morning, the machine will be sent to PCH and they will pull all the data and it will take about a week for them to consult with everyone to be able to make the best move for Bree.

Time will tell what will happen and all we can do is trust God and pray!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Little cutie Riley

So, I need to get these things written down before I forget! Riley has been doing some SUPER cute and amazing things this past week. I am sure you all will enjoy them just as much as I have:

1. "High chair? High chair?" Riley has exploded in language as of lately! She now says high chair, all done, Sissy (as in sister), baby, cookie...the list goes on and on.

2. She now gives Bree high fives. She lifts Bree's arm up, then lets go of it and gives her a quick high five while squealing in delight at the same time!

3. Today, I took Riley shopping with me and after parking in our parking spot I had to find my shopping list. The radio was still playing and on the song it was singing "Baby, baby, bayyybeeeee". Next thing you know I hear "Bay-bee, Bay-bee" coming from the backseat. I immediately said "Aww, are you singing?" (not expecting a response) "YUP!" says Riley emphatically...too cute!

4. Riley will run towards you with arms stretched out saying "HHHUUUUGGGG!" and then tackle you at full force. I am surprised I have not been knocked over yet!

5.This one is the best! Bree has her monitor that if the cord is stepped on, the wires become loose and make a very VERY loud screeching noise. Well, Riley stepped on it today and Adam came to rescue when the noise started. After it was fixed, Riley sat down in front of the monitor, and started lifting it up to look at it all the while repeating "Oh sh*t, Oh sh*t, CAP (crap), Oh no!"

Hope that put a smile on your face...I know it did ours!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Measurements, shots and poop

Both the girls had check ups today with their pediatrician, Dr. Pham. Oldest goes first!

Riley is 23 lbs and about 32'' tall. For weight she is in the 50th percentile and for height she is in the 75th to 80th. He is not at all worried that she is still using bottles and wants to wait a little bit before we start phasing them out since we are having so many changes in our family as of lately. This was the first dr. visit in a long time that during the exam she did not cry. She just sat there and looked at him as he listened to her heart, looked in her eyes and then looked in her ears. I was so proud! She did get her 15 month shots today, which there were three of them. After some tears and crying (and some snuggling with Mama) she was able to walk out of the office on her own steam.

Now onto Bree...she weighed 5 lbs 10 oz and that was only a weight gain of 4 ounces in two weeks. He would like to see her gain at least a half an ounce a day. Since he can't increase her calorie intake (she's already at the max) we are going to be watching her weight very closely. If she continues in this pattern we may be looking at having a feeding tube put in again. She was 19 inches long, and is doing pretty well in all other aspects.

We are having issues with her pooping (every parent's favorite topic of discussion). She is not doing it on her own for some reason. So we have been instructed to give her a suppository every three days. Right now, it has been five days and she has not gone since christmas. We know it is bothering her because she was up over half the night last night (and we were too!). So needless to say, I am exceptionally tired today. I never thought I would say this, but I am excited to give her a suppository today because it means that we will all get WONDERFUL blessed sleep tonight. (Hopefully Riley complies with this too!)

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Faith Motto

"Trust in God with all your heart
No matter what you do.
Lean on him during hard times
and He will see you through"

Eye, eye, eye!!!

So today we had another eye appt for Bree with Dr. Golub. He is the doctor who did her laser eye surgery for her ROP and we have a standing date with him every Monday. (Okay, so it's not really a "date") Bree's left eye is doing great and he said today that it looks as though there is a complete recession of the disease. Her right eye is a different story. There are some great parts that are healing, while there are other parts that have showed no change for the good or for the bad. There is also a slight retraction of her retina, which is the biggest concern. If it retracts any further, we will be sent to consult with a retina specialist and we will probably be having another surgery of some sort.

Let's all take the time to praise God for his goodness and faithfulness! We thank Him for all that He has done, and we ask that He continue to be with Bree and to help heal her right eye. We would like to avoid all surgeries, but if that's what He has in store for us we will take it and do our best!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

First Smile

One momentous event for Bree occured on Christmas Eve. We were all getting ready to head off to church service to have Bree dedicated (which went great...and I will post pictures when I get them from our good friend!). Daddy was holding Bree while sitting in the recliner and Riley was standing next to them peeking at Bree. I happened to walk by and made some comment to Bree (I don't remember what it was), but she turned her head, looked at Riley and smiled. It was so precious that she gave her first "awake and aware" smile to her big sister. I can already tell that there is a special bond between these two and I can't wait to watch it grow and blossom over the years to come.

Hitching a Ride....

See...In our family, the women make the men ride on the back of the motorcycle. Rock on Riley!
Poor Ethan looked a little scared about Riley's driving skills though...


Happy Birthday Jesus!
















We all had a GREAT Christmas today! We all got everything that we had asked Santa for...even little Bree got lots of cool toys. :) As a family we all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus (cheesy I know, but it is important to me)....We hope that you and your family had a joyous and blessed day as well.










The best gift of all...







Home sweet home?

When I always thought of bringing Bree home from the NICU, I thought it would be so great to snuggle with her, help Riley interact with her, and it would be filled with bottles, dirty diapers and all that other fun "baby stuff".

SURPRISE! It is nothing like that....we have at least two doctor visits (pediatrican check ups, eye doctor, pulmonologists, etc) a week that are out of the house, two nurse visits where the nurse comes to the house to check her weight, height, head and abdomen circumferences, and then to address any concerns that we have.

Here's an example of how our next week looks: Today is Christmas (Thursday). Tomorrow we have the RN coming to the house at nine in the morning. On Monday the nurse will come out again in the morning and then we have an eye appt at two thirty to check on her ROP. Tuesday both girls go to the pediatrician: Bree for a two week check up, and Riley for her fifteen month appt. On Thursday the nurse comes out again. And then on Friday we have an appt at PCH (Phoenix Children's Hospital) at ten in the morning with the pulmonologists to evaluate her need for oxygen and to see how she is doing.

Somehow I am suppose to find the time to pump amidst all of that. I am a little embarassed to admit that my pumping has fallen to the wayside since she has come home. I pump in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. I only get about 50-60 cc's each time. Luckily, we have a good stock of frozen breastmilk so we are doing half fresh, half frozen and then supplementing it with the formula to jump up the calories for her. I have ordered and am going to take an herbal supplement called Fenugreek to help boost my milk production. I had it recommended to me by one of the nurses at PCH so I hope it works. I was reading some of the side effects of it and it seems a little iffy. However, even with regular medicine (benadryl, tylenol, etc) there are some wierdo side effects so hopefully none of them from the Fenugreek will affect me.

As of Tuesday, Bree weighs 5 lbs, 12 ounces! Woo hoo! We are almost at the six pound mark !!!!! Yee hee!

Hope that this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Early Christmas Present

With Adam's Mom here for a little visit we decided that we would each open one gift while she was here (each of which she either helped with or is going to). I tricked Adam by filling a large box we had with "stuff" (random things to make the box heavy), put a blanket on top of that stuff and put two small slips of paper on it with the tattoo's that he wants of the girls names. Before he opened it I asked him what he thought was in it, his answer was perfect..."I don't know, a bunch of crap? Ha ha ha!" He was right on the money!
Adam gave me a shoe box with a "certificate" for any type of shoe that I wanted. So I get to go shoe shopping after christmas! Woo hoo!
Bree didn't open any because, well, she can't. We didn't wrap any of her presents because as we learned last year, she'll get gifts that are wrapped from family so there is no point in us wrapping presents ourselves to unwrap them ourselves...
Riley ended up with a motorcycle...a crotch rocket to be exact. Seriously, she did. She loved it and enjoys being pushed on it so much! We even have the pictures to prove it:


Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!



Friday, December 19, 2008

Photos















First Family Photos as Four

Whew! Say that ten times fast! Ha ha...so today, with the help of Adam's Mama, we made the trek to Sears to have our annual "Christmas time" family photos done. They went, well, as good as they could with a newborn with acid reflux that spits up anytime you move her, and a toddler that gets stage fright in portrait studios. We only got four pictures out of Riley, (two of which were accidental). Riley proceeded to pull out all of her tantrum tricks, which include: screaming, flailing, hitting anyone within reach (including trying to hit Bree), and all out Mama-clinginess. Needless to say, we are hoping that she'll do a bit better next time.

Bree did better than her big sister did! We were so careful to dress the girls right before we left the house and we put a bib on Bree so that if she spit up it would go on that and not the dress. Well, lo and behold, we whipped her bib off about ten seconds before the first picture was taken and Bleh...that's right, all over the dress. Luckily, she was dressed in an off-white dress which perfectly matched her spit up...one quick wipe and you never knew she spit up in the first place.

Today was the first, and last time, Bree will go out of the house to a public place (the exception being doctor visits). We had a great time...and we love the pictures that we got because they all tell a story of our family!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!