Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Wacky Week

Kathryn is taking to the Pediasure a little bit, but not like gangbusters. I called her nutritionist yesterday and they are prescribing a baby dosage of Periactin for her. This is an appetite stimulant to hopefully help encourage her to eat like a crazy woman!! I hope to pick it up today and get her started on it right away and be able to report next week that we have a small semblance of a porker! (Hear me when I say that I am joking - I hardly believe that Kathryn will be referred to as a "porker" for quite some time in her life!)

Last weekend, we sorta stayed quiet around here. Maddie had a birthday party to go to on Saturday and Sunday afternoon was our church Trunk or Treat! Maddie dressed as Daphne from Scooby Doo and Kathryn is a chicken. I will try to post pictures soon!

We have a crazy fun filled week this week also! Last night, I took Maddie to see High School Musical 3 - very cute movie!! Tonight is our last soccer game of the season (and thus a party)!! Tomorrow night is choir, Thursday we do trick or treating at Greg's work in the afternoon, and Friday is Maddie's Halloween party and parade at school and then trick or treating that night! Whew!! Then on Saturday we collapse!! Actually, I will spend a fair amount of time each weekend from here on out engrossed in study as I prepare for my certification exam on November 18!!

Anyway, that's our world this week!

Kelly

Monday, October 20, 2008

Great news at clinic

So last week was filled with birthdays! Cousin Reed turned 1 and Nana - my grandmother - turned 89. Greg and I also got the opportunity to go out without the kids for our quarterly Sunday school supper club and we had a great time! On Sunday, Maddie's choir that she is a part of sang in church and they did just fabulous!

Today was BDP Clinic and I think it went wonderful! Let me back up a bit, last week was Kathryn's 6 month checkup with her eye doctor and he said that her eyes have flip flopped from far sighted to near sighted in the last 6 months. He said it seemed significant and that he didn't doubt that Kat would acquire glasses before she is 3. As a mom, I left in tears because I can imagine all those mean kids out there making fun of my precious miracle one day. Plus I am ready to get rid of equipment, not acquire more, and to boot - glasses aren't cheap! Anyway, after I sucked it up and realized that this is truly not an end-all-be-all type issue, I was much better. Kat also received her first synagis injection of the season last week and her weigh in was only 13lbs, 10ozs. I was devastated - I just knew she would be 15 or 16 pounds by now! We also went to her pediatrician last week for her 15 month check up and shots and they added back Zantac. So needless to say, I was praying hard for good news today!! (And God heard me!)

Here are the changes in a nutshell:
1. We discontinued her iron supplement - FINALLY!!
2. We changed from Neosure formula to Pediasure - FINALLY!!
3. We have a weaning plan for her diuretics that would hopefully lead to discontinuation of those by Nov 4!!
4. We are turning her Oxygen down to 1/4 liter!!
5. One week after discontinuing her diuretics (Nov 11), we can start weaning her oxygen
What that means:
3 days of 30 minutes off of oxygen, then on the fourth day double it to one hour
3 days of 1 hour off of oxygen, then on the fourth day double it to two hours
3 days of 2 hours off of oxygen, then on the fourth day double it to four hours
You get the picture!!!!!

This O2 weening is only for daytime hours until we go back to clinic on December 1. If she is napping or sleeping at night, she'll still get the oxygen. If my calculations are right, this will mean that she is doing 8 hour stints of daytime without oxygen (and possibly longer by that point) by Thanksgiving - !! What a gift!! Fear not though, especially if she comes off of the oxygen as planned, we will be keeping her away from large crowds and any travelling to limit any possibility of illness that could push her backwards!

I have been praying for this good news!! We are on our way to a cordless baby!!

Pray with me for one other issue we are facing - Kathryn is apparently on food strike and is not interested in bottles, baby food, people food, anything! We get small levels of cooperation, but not much! Please pray with me that it improves soon!

We actually have a quiet week the rest of this week!! How amazing!

Faithfully, Kelly

Monday, October 13, 2008

Happy Birthday to Maddie!!

We had a wonderful birthday weekend for Maddie!! She had her birthday party last weekend and invited her two best girl firends over for a spend the night party - we know, we sure are brave!! The girls were sweet as ever! They had pizza for dinner, then we decorated our own cupcakes, and then they watched the new Barbie movie. For breakfast, we took them to Chappy's in their jammies and they all thought that was great fun!!

Friday Maddie took cupcakes to school. At school, she wore the birthday crown, the birthday t-shirt, and got a lot of special treatment. I also went to school and was a "celebrity" reader to her class. This past Friday night, we asked Maddie what she wanted to do for her birthday. She wanted to go see Beverly Hills Chihuahua at the movie and then eat dinner at Joe's Crab Shack!! The four of us went with Nini and Pawpaw to see the movie and eat and we all had a great time. I absolutely can not believe that she is really five years old!! I was telling her Friday afternoon that five years ago at that moment, Greg and I were meeting her for the first time and she said, "Could we talk about this in a minute, I'm reading a book!" Promptly put in my place!


Saturday, we went to get Maddie a Barbie case for her newly found Barbie collection. She got 6 for her birthday from various people - two from Greg and I. Barbie is her new favorite thing and she has promptly decided that every other doll that she previously had is complete mush and NOTHING compared to Barbie! Isn't it funny how quickly Barbie becomes important? She also went Saturday night with Nini to see a magician! She definitely had a wonderful birthday!! She also racked up with 6 Barbies, 3 movies, a butterfly pavillion, Color Me Gems, a painted bulletin board (also her new favorite!!), money, and plenty of wonderful new clothes from the Children's Place.


Here are a few pictures!


Wednesday, October 8, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAWPAW!!

It's Pawpaw's 62nd birthday!! Happy Birthday Pawpaw!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Happy Fall Y'all

Hope you like the new picture above - we had a wonderful time on Saturday at the Pumpkin Patch! (And notice - baby's got a new pair of shoes!! Kathryn's first shoes! She needed them since she is now standing up a lot!)
Here's a few more pictures from our house lately. Enjoy!










Kathryn lost a toy under the table so she went in to find it!










With her new found talent, Kat crawled into the kitchen!










Maddie and the Great Pumpkin!













Maddie did the bungee jump at the Great Pumpkin Patch - she's fearless!









Sisters in their jammies! They adore each other.

Have a great week! Kelly

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Past Week

Sorry for not posting the past week, but it's been a week of soccer, choir, and study!! Nothing wild and crazy for us. I have really picked up studying lately for my certification exam! I am studying to be CAMS certified which is certified anti-money laundering specialist! I am well on my way in the books, but still plenty to go and the exam is on November 18!! I am trying to spend any of my free time lately preparing for that (what free time, right?) I do plan to spend the weekend before the exam locked in a room so at least that will be two-three days of extreme study!!

This week, we are gearing up for the Pumpkin Patch (Sat), a visit with Uncle Beau, Aunt Britt, and cousin Reed (this weekend), Maddie's starfish week at school (means I have to make a poster for her - HOMEWORK), soccer (Tues), choir (Wed), two United Way speaking engagements (Tues & Wed), Pawpaw's birthday (Wed), my monthly committee meeting at Children's (Thurs), and celebrity reading at Maddie's school (Fri) (oh - and studying in my free time!) And did I forget to mention work somewhere in there! WOW!

I don't know about where you are, but the weather here is so nice lately!! I wish our house windows weren't painted shut, or we would open them and enjoy the breeze!

Oh and we got wonderful news yesterday that our insurance has approved for Kathryn to receive her monthly Synagis injection at home this winter with no copay!! We start those in October and they go through April!

Have a blessed week!! Kelly