Drs Appt

Adam has his 4 month check up today and is doing great. He weighs 16 lbs 3.5 oz and is 24.75 inches long. Nothing really exciting about the appt other than the dr is now saying that he will most likely has the lump on his head forever which totally irritates me. First it was a few days, then a couple weeks, then a few months, then it'll be gone by the time he's a year and now it's that he will have it forever. Grr! And I really still do not understand why he got the cephalohematoma in the first place. We've had other kids that the vaccum was used on and they never ended up with one, so what was done differently with him?? Poor little guy is going to have a lumpy head for life all because of me. :(

Drs Appt

Adam had his 2 month checkup this morning. He's doing great...now weighs 13 lbs 12 oz and is 23 1/4 inches long. He ended up getting 4 shots and an oral vaccine today. Poor munchkin is a little cranky now. And it didn't help that one of the needles came off the syringe and got stuck in his leg. With all the vaccines that our kids have gotten, I have never seen that happen before. He sleeps 7-8 hrs a night...such a good baby which is such a switch from Keari who was up every couple of hours til she was almost a year old. He still has the hematoma on his head which the dr says has now calcified and will eventually smooth itself out...in about a years time. Guess he's going to be lopsided for awhile. And now he has a couple of hemangiomas on his head too. Those will eventually go away too but right now the poor guy is just a mess up there. LOL

Long Night

Sheeze, we went from one extreme to the other. Last night Adam was up every 1 1/2 hrs. I'm glad I didn't go to bed last night with the expectation of him sleeping the entire night because I would have been sorely disappointed. The one bright spot was that I wasn't in pain last night. LOL

Adam had his one month check up today and he weighed in at 11 lbs 14 oz and 21 7/8 inches. He's just growing up a storm. Still have his hemotoma which the dr is still claiming will go away...we'll see...and he still has his acne but that's starting to improve. Won't be gone by this weekend though but nothing can be done about that.

Keari also had a drs appt for here two year check up. She weighs 25 lbs 6 oz and is 31 1/2 inches tall. I made this appt for her today because she was supposed to get a second shot but the drs office counted wrong and she wasn't able to get it...the two shots need to be done 6 months apart and it's only been 5 months. If I'd known that, I would have waited another month to take her in. And combined with having to argue with the office about the filing of one of Adam's claims totally put me in the wrong mood for the visit today. I totally love the pediatrician but the lady that handles the claims submissions leaves a lot to be desired. I get so sick of hear "you need to get me someone to talk to" or "you need to call and get it straightened out". Just because I work at the company where I have my insurance doesn't mean that I have anything to do with the way claims are paid and it shouldn't be my responsibility to have to straighten things out. I'd already made a call to company to find out why the claim paid incorrectly but there drs office didn't think that was good enough. Grr!

Drs Appt

Adam had his 2 week checkup today and he's doing great. His weight is now 9 lbs 10 oz. The dr just laughed when he saw his weight and said whatever I'm doing is working and to keep it up. Unfortunately, I think it's really all Adam's doing and his 2 hr around the clock feeding schedule. He'd make a great alarm clock, if you were so inclined to want to get up every 2 hrs throughout the night. He's very punctual. LOL He's still slightly jaundiced but nothing to worry about and is most likely due to the combination of breastfeeding and the cephalohematoma...which has gotten a little bigger and will still takes weeks to resolve itself. Poor little guy. I'll be very glad when he no longer has a lopsided head.

Drs Appt

Adam had a drs appt today as a follow up from his hospital stay over the weekend. He is looking so much better than the orange pumpkin he looked like on Friday. His coloring is much much better...still slightly yellow around his chest area and his eyes are a little yellow but the dr says it's nothing to worry about as long as he continues to eat & poop the way he has been. He also has a nice bump on the one side of his head from where the vaccum was used on him. Every dr that's seen him...his pediatrician right after birth and the drs that examined over the weekend...have said that it's nothing to worry about and that it will eventually go away. Because its blood that's caused the swelling, that's also contributing to his jaundice as his liver is having to work harder to break down the unwanted blood cells. I'm glad that it's nothing to worry about but I'll be glad when it's gone because it constantly reminds me that I did that to him. =(

On a good note, his weight has gone from 8lbs 14oz at discharge last Wednesday to 9lbs 2oz at his weigh-in today so the little munchkin is growing. =)

Drs Appt and Ultrasound

I had my ultrasound for the nuchal fold test which is a check for down's syndrome this morning. Everything looks great there and baby is measuring right on target...he's measuring about a week before my due date so he's growing well. And yes, I did say HE as they are thinking that this one is going to be a boy. Things are still pretty tiny so it's hard to say for sure but it definitely looked like there was something there. We should be able to find out for sure at my April 11 u/s assuming that he is as cooperative as he was today. They were done the test in less than 5 minutes whereas last time it took almost 1/2hr to get Kearsyn into the right position to the measurement. They said he was laying in the perfect position today. Also had my 12 wk drs appt this afternoon although he laughed and said there really was no need for it since all he was doing today was listening for the heartbeat and since I'd already seen this morning, it didn't really matter.

Here's a couple pics of him. He looks like such a tiny little thing in the 3D pic.

I sure hope this boy likes a pink room and pink carpet as that's currently what color the baby's room is. Guessing we'll be painting at some point before he gets here. LOL

Fracture

That's what Alex ended up with after a game of soccer with his dad last night. And no, Andy didn't cause the break. LOL Alex couldn't put any weight on his foot last night and when we took him in to the orthopedics office today, they said the injury is located in his growth plate area...what else is new, that's where all his injuries have been. He's now in a very attractive looking black shoe which gives his foot great support...he wasn't able to walk into the office but he was able to walk out with this shoe on. Dr says no sports for a month which is a bummer because baseball is just about to start. Hopefully his coach will be understanding and still let him be part of the team.
I had to make a stop on the way home because one of my headlights burned out. I'd just gotten it installed when this happened. What timing.

I also discovered today that the drs office made a mistake in scheduling my appt to have the nuchal translucency u/s down. They scheduled it for 3/27 instead of 2/27 and needless to say the March date doesn't work at as it's way too late for the test. This meant that I needed to reschedule the appt for an inconvenient time for me which defeats the purpose of why I made it a month in advance in the first place. Ugh!

First OB appt

I had my first OB appt for this pregnancy and it went very well despite the fact that they called me on Friday having to reschedule it. The dr is a hoot...he comes walking into the exam room holding my chart saying that he is confused. You see, he uses green charts for pregnancy patients and yellow charts for annual visits...he had both a green and a yellow chart for me. He finally asked if I was pregnant to which I laughed and said yes. He thought I was just there for my annual, which of course I didn't even realize I was due for, so we were both confused. LOL He pulled out his u/s machine and we got our very first pic of this little munchkin. My dr took one look at the baby and proclaimed that it looked like a girl to him...as if he can tell at this point. LOL Guess we'll see in a couple of months how good his intuition is. Baby is measuring right where she should be so all is well so far. He then congratulated me, said that he didn't need to tell me anything since I've done this so many times and said that he'd see me in about a month. It was only later that I realized he didn't even give me a due date for this little one. Guess he figures I'm smart enough to figure it out for myself. LOL

Good news

Just a quick update on Kenzie...I took her to her drs appt this morning and the test results show no fracture, no infection and no tumor. Whew! He's thinking that's it's either a deep bruise or possibly a damaged nerve. If it's a bruise, it will go away and if it's a nerve, it won't so he wants to reevaluate her pain in another month.

Not a Break

We didn't have a good feeling about Kenzie's diagnosis after hearing the specialist's comment about it when she saw him on Weds...he just seemed really blase about it and then when I picked up the xray report Weds evening (which we didn't have at the time of the specialist visit that morning) that basically said that he didn't feel that it was a break but that the spot was a normal variation in the bone. Because of the conflicting info and just our gut feelings we decided to get another opinion. I took her in this morning to see another specialist who was awesome! I really liked how much he talked to us and how he took the time to explain things. He is very confident that her collarbone isn't broken...so confident, in fact, that he took her out of the brace and sling she'd been wearing and said that she could return to softball. That's the good news. The bad news is that he's worried about the localized pain she's having which is associated with a dark spot on her xray. He's concerned that it could be a bone infection, osteomyelitis, and he wants us to have a whole series of tests done including blood work ups, an mri and a bone scan. And he wants all of this done so that we can go back to see him Thursday morning. It will be interesting to see if I can get all that scheduled in time...blood work is no problem but the other two I'm not sure about and I have to wait til Monday morning to call about them. The drs assistant told me that if I had any problems getting the appts to give her a call and she would make some phone calls for me. Sounds pretty serious to me and after reading up a little about osteomyelitis, I'm now wishing it was just a simple collar bone break. Hopefully all these tests will rule out the bone infection...although, if they do, I'm not sure where that leads us since something is causing her pain.

Drs Update

Alex had a recheck for his ankle today. Of course the radiology place hadn't faxed over the written report like they were supposed to so while we were waiting for it the dr took a look CT scan images that we had brought with us but he didn't make much comment other than he wanted to see the radiology report and have his interpretation as to whether there was an issue with his growth plate. The report finally comes in and he walks back into the room commenting that he needs to take another look at the scans. Then he asks Alex how the injury happened and where the pain was. Turns out the radiology report says that he most likely has a Salter-Harris Type II fracture of the distal fibula (now if that isn't a mouthful LOL). Dr doesn't necessarily agree with that diagnosis as Alex's pain isn't where the location of this fracture would be. So we are going to keep in the brace that he's currently wearing full time and reevaluate him in a few weeks. Alex's hasn't made a peep about any kind of pain since he started wearing this brace last week so I was extremely surprised by the diagnosis that came back. We are also going to get him a Little Ritchie brace which will be specially made for him that will be used just for when he plays sports. That way, he'll be able to stop wearing the brace full time and only use it when he really needs it which is during his sporting activities.

Bridge Over Troubled Water...

Okay, well maybe the water wasn't so troubled the other night but I did have to travel across the bridge more times than I wanted to Friday night. The first time was to get Alex's CT scan done. It was originally scheduled for Monday evening but he has a baseball game so I thought I'd check and see if there were any cancellations Friday evening and there was as after getting my temporary crown work done, we headed across the bridge for his appt. We came home with lots of pictures of his ankle...none of which mean a thing to me. I'm sure when we get back in to see his dr we will find out that the CT scan doesn't show anything wrong either. The good news is that the brace really seems to be helping. He hasn't complained about his ankle since getting it on Thursday.

Upon returning home from that appt, I was met with Connor complaining about his ears. He's has a cold for about a week, ran a fever for a day or so early on and then settled into his throat and ears aching/feeling stuffy. I figured since there was no way I'd be able to get him in to a dr on Saturday with all the craziness going on that I'd better call and have him seen at urgent care Friday night. Thus the second trip across the bridge in as many hours. Turns out it was a good decision as he has an ear infection in both ears. Poor guy! We got him some meds so hopefully it will clear up quickly for him.

Specialist Appt

Alex had his specialist appt yesterday to get his ankle looked at. Nothing diffinitively came out of because, of course, it didn't hurt yesterday. That's the problem with having to wait for an appt...by the time you get in, the pain has generally gone away. He say that there has to be something going since it's been such a pervasive problem for the past couple of years. He's speculating that it has something to do with his growth plate but he couldn't confirm that with the x-rays he did yesterday. We are scheduled to have a CT scan done on Monday so hopefully that will show something conclusive as to what is causing he periodic pain. He also gave Alex a brace to wear which Alex is loving! He says his ankle feels great and was even able to go for a 6 mile walk with his dad last night.

I get to go to the dentist in a couple of hrs to have my crown work started. I'm hoping that will alleviate the pain I've been having while eating on that side. That will make two crowns on that side in less than 2 yrs. Let's just hope the other side doesn't decide to start acting up. ;-)

Sleepy Head

Wow, guess there wasn't much need to worry about Kearsyn today. She slept from midnight until 10:30am. When she finally woke up she gulped down 2 oz in no time and then over the next 3 hrs, drank 5 oz more and then fell back asleep from 3 - 6pm. She got up and nursed like crazy and is now back asleep again. I'm thinking she's going through a growth spurt with all this sleeping she's doing here.

5am came really, really early today. I wasn't at all happy when my alarm went off. Thankfully I had gotten everything organized last night so I didn't have to do too much thinking when I got up this morning. I made it to work okay and everyone was very happy to see me. I even tried to do some "real" programming work today although it took me awhile to figure out where I'd left off. A coworker and I have to have a discussion about rewriting a portion of the program but I wasn't up to doing that today...luckily she wasn't either...so we'll tackle that tomorrow. Since I'm still nursing, that means I have to pump while at work. I went down to the nursing moms room this morning only to find out that it's no longer there! Ackk!! Not a good thing. They've been doing renovations throughout the buildings for the last couple of years and finally made it to where the health and safety office was. That office got relocated but they didn't put in a new nursing moms room when they did the relocation. We do have single handicapped bathrooms on each of our renovated floors now so I do have a place to go but it's a pain to have to pump in a bathroom...especially when there is no chair in there. The things we do for our children.

The next couple of days are going to be crazy because the kids go back to choir practice and Kenzie starts her softball practice again. Neither of those is normally a problem but with having to fit in two nursing sessions at work that extends my day so that will make it rough trying to get everyone to and from stuff on time. I know it will work out somehow...it always does.

We'll actually get to meet the kids new pediatrician sooner than we thought thanks to Kenzie's ear infection. She's go in for a recheck on 1/11 although I feel kind of weird taking her in when she wasn't seen there to begin with for the infection but I guess that's what happens when kids get sick over a holiday.

Ear Ache

That's how we rang in the new year last night. We went to Safe Harbor church's new year's eve party last night and were having a great time up until about 11pm when Kenzie starts clutching her ear and has tears running down her face saying that her ear hurts. How in the world a child can be happy go lucky one minute and in excruciating pain the next is beyond me. We stuck it out at the church until the new year and then we went home and got some motrin into Kenzie. Maybe this was a bad mommy moment, but I figured that even if we had left at 11 to go to the urgent care center the chances of making it before they closed at 12am were slim since we would have packed everyone up, gone home to switch vehicles then headed across the bridge to the urgent care place. And I wasn't at all looking forward to being out on the roads that late on New Year's Eve. I figured the motrin would do the trick until we were able to get in to be seen today. We got a 1:20pm appt this afternoon and sure enough she's got an ear infection. Poor thing...not the best of ways to start off the new year. Hopefully this isn't a sign of what the new year is going to be like.

Today is my last day of maternity leave and I'm in a very blah mood because of it and having to drive through the fog and rain to the urgent care center earlier hasn't helped any. :( Tomorrow I have to get up at the unspeakable hour of 5am to get ready to go to work. I'm so not looking forward to it and if there was anyway to avoid it, I sure would. Unfortunately we kind of need money in order to pay the bills although I think eating and having a place to sleep are highly overrated. LOL Andy would just say that I should talk to my boss about telecommuting but work isn't into that at this point...maybe at some point in the future they will be.

I think it's going to be an extremely long day for Andy and the kids tomorrow since Kearsyn still does not like eating from a bottle even though she's been getting one every day for over a month and a half now. Hopefully she'll catch on soon. Makes me very sad to think she's going to be so upset while I'm at work tomorrow.

Nothing exciting happening on this New Year's day...the kids are being bums, either watching cartoons or watching football games. Andy's doing some laundry. Kenzie's playing pool. Pretty boring around here. Hope things are more exciting elsewhere.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Shots, Shots and More Shots

How many shots? 5, plus an oral vaccine. Poor Kearsyn didn't know what she was in for when she went in for her drs visit this morning. That seems like a ridiculous amount of shots to give a 2 month old at one visit. Both her legs are sore after getting 3 shots in one and 2 in the other. Poor thing has been miserable since we got home. She's been screaming at the top of her lungs which she never does during the day and rarely at night...she's cranky at night but rarely does she scream like she's been doing. I've given her a couple of doses of Tylenol and once that kicks she's seems to calm down for a little while but I have a feeling it's going to be a long night. On a good note, she's gained almost 3 lbs and now weighs 11 lbs 6 oz. She's also grown 2 inches and is now 21.75 inches long. It's almost time to go through her drawers to get the next size cause she's almost outgrown her newborn/3 months clothes....most only go to 12lbs. What a big girl she's getting to be. We'll have to start giving her a bottle soon so she can start getting used to it before I have to go back to work after the new year.

Wowwee, what happened to our nice weather?? It was downright cold today and very windy with gusts up to 30+ mph. I was disappointed this morning, though, cause they'd been calling for a chance of snow last night and early this morning and I didn't see one flake. Darn!

Busy, Chilly Weekend

Of all weekends for it to turn chilly, it would be this weekend. Andy and the kids had two soccer parties scheduled for this weekend and of course they are outdoor parties because they always do a parents/kids soccer game. The chilly weather didn't deter them and they had a great time at both parties. Connor & Kenzie's party was on Saturday and Alex's party was today.




Saturday was also pick up day for our family pictures and they turned out great, if I do say so myself. They always do such a good job both with the group shots and with the individual pictures. Getting 9 people to look at the camera at the same time and keep their eyes open is not small feat. Here is our Christmas picture for this year.





On Friday, Connor, Kenzie & Tyler got to play a little bit at one of the stores in the area. There piano teacher was providing background music for the evening and had invited his students to stop by and play a few songs. It was fun for the kids even though there are alot of distractions playing in that type of environment.



Today is the first day of Advent and Tyler got to do the honors of lighting the first candle.






And here's picture of Kearsyn smiling. =) She has her two month check up tomorrow and she's due to get lots of shots so I don't expect alot of smiling tomorrow. Poor baby.

Big Girl Bed

Bekah got her big girl bed today and she was so excited about it. She had the biggest grin on her face that you could imagine when we finally got it put all together. She's having a hard time staying put in it now that it's time for bed...funny how she had no problem being in it earlier when Taylor and her spent the afternoon playing in it. LOL



This means that I was able to get the crib moved over into Kearsyn's room so now her room is complete other than putting some additional items on the walls. I still need to get frames for my Noah's Ark stitching to hang in there but eventually that will get done.



Kearsyn did excellent while I went to my two appts today. She slept the entire time I was gone both times...approx 1 1/2 - 2 hrs each time...that might have had something to do with me stuffing her full of milk before I left. LOL I got a clean bill of health from my OB with instructions to come back in a few months for my annual. Ugh! Everything checked out at the eye doctor as well and I made it out of there without needing a new prescription. Whew!

Andy and the kids decided it was time to put the Christmas tree up...we're trying to having all the decorations done by the time my family comes over for Thanksgiving. Because we don't have much room this year, Andy decided that we should only put up half a tree. Now when I first heard this, I thought he meant the top half of the tree and couldn't figure out how that was going to help us (just blame that on sleep deprivation) but in reality he meant the front half of tree, leaving the back half off so that it could sit flush against the wall. I have to say it was a good idea and works really well. They were able to get all the branches assembled but I have to say that their grooming ability leaves alot to be desired. But as I was told, their job is to make the tree functional while by job is to make it pretty. LOL Tomorrow I'll work on fluffing up the tree so it doesn't have any holes although Andy claims those holes would be good to put ornaments in. Hmmm...LOL I'll take a picture of it once it's completely decorated.

That's about it for the day...was a long one for me as I'm not used to doing all this running around so I'm going to be tired tonight. Let's hope Kearsyn's goes back to sleep after she's gets her middle of the night feedings...she has a habit of eating and then staying awake for another hour looking around before she drifts back off to sleep.

I'm sure most have read about this already on Andy's blog but just thought I mention it here that we have a hawk making breakfasts out of our chickens. Hopefully the netting that Andy and Kenzie put over the run this morning will keep him, and any of his friends, at bay.

I just went to check on how Bekah was doing in her bed and found what the pic shows. Now that's true sisterly love.

Happy Birthday Times 2

Today is Tay's and Ty's 7th birthday and they were very excited about it. Tyler has been asking me for days how many more days it was til his birthday. It was a beautiful day for it. They got to help their dad put up Christmas lights on the roof...for once it got done while it was still warm outside. I think we should have opened their presents earlier because they got skateboards and today would have been a wonderful day to be riding them. I think they are calling for rain tomorrow but maybe they'll get a little bit of time to play with them before it starts. They also got some movies which of course caused some controversy because they each wanted to watch a different. We said for tonight that the oldest one got to choose and that it was Tyler's own fault that he was younger because he had pushed his brother out first so he could have more room. He so hates when we say that! LOL

Connor and Kenzie had choir practice this afternoon so that left me with making dinner. I decide to try a recipe that I'd seen on the Large Families board called Tator Tot Casserole. I don't think the kids were too thrilled with it. I actually liked it although it was a little bland..will need to add something else to it if I make it again to spice it up a little...but it was easy to make and I'm all for that as I hate to cook. =)

Tomorrow will be a busy day as I have my postpartum check up in the morning and then have an eye exam in the afternoon. Makes for a lot of running around but at least I'll get them over with. Let's just hope Kearsyn behaves herself while I'm gone.

Drs Appts

Both Bekah and Kearsyn had drs appts today...Bekah for her 2yr check up and Kearsyn for her 2wk check up. Kearsyn's doing great! No more jaundice, weighs 8lbs 7oz...up almost a pound from last week...and is 19 3/4in long. She's grown over an inch since she was born. What a big girl she is. =) The only issue we are currently having is with some diaper rash, which I've never had with a newborn breastfeed baby before. It all seemed to have started when I was sick the other week...Kearsyn got a touch of it which caused her have really loose stools which in turned gave her two ulcers on her bottom. After trying a number of different diaper rash medicines, I finally resorted to plain old vaseline and wouldn't you know that it did the trick and cleared her ulcers up. Should have saved my $10 on the butt paste and just gone with the vaseline from the start. Now we are just trying to keep her well protected so that it doesn't happen again. I'd forgotten how many diapers a newborn goes through...seems like that's all we do is change her. For once we actually have a child that can use newborn diapers but we didn't stock up on that size diaper since our kiddos are usually too big for them so we've made a couple of trips to the store for more already. LOL At the rate she is growing we should be able to use more package of them before she's too big for them.

Bekah's checkup was pretty good. She weighs 29lbs and is 33in tall, 75th percentile all around. The dr is a little concerned about her not stringing any words together yet. She understands everything you tell/ask her to do, she just won't say much of anything. She does say mine when her siblings try to take something of hers so that's a good developmental milestone that the dr looked for. He was also happy that she knew all her body parts...actually exceeded in the amount she should know at this age. He recommended that we talk to the Child Find people in our area about having her evaluated for her language skills. I tried calling today and it turns out that for her age the program is done out of the health department. They will make a home visit to determine where she is developmentally and then depending on what they find, they'll make a recommendation on what program she should be in. I'm still up in the air about this...I'm not sure if there's really something wrong or just the fact that she's got 5 older siblings that give her everything without her needing to ask is the reason she doesn't talk much. What's funny is she will imitate any animal sound that you make. Ask her what a cat says, she'll say meow....what a dog says, arf arf...what a cow says, mooooo. But ask her to say cat she'll just looks at you and smiles. The person that runs the infant and toddler program wasn't in when I called so I left a message. We'll see what she has to say when she calls back.

I'm really hoping that tonight is a better night. After a rough weekend with Andy being gone with Kenzie for the softball tournament, Kearsyn decided that she did not want to sleep last night. I'm not sure why...she was just cranky. Everytime I'd go to lay her down, she'd wake up flailing her little arms around. She's been a pretty good sleeper...considering she's up to eat every two hours...but generally when I'd lay her down, she stays down until it is time to eat again. So needless to say I was pretty tired today and I had to make the trip to the drs in the morning. Ugh! Thankfully I was able to get a nap in after we got back and had lunch. That helped tremendously so I should be okay if she decides to be up again tonight but I'm still hoping for a more restful night tonight.

I decided to do some baking yesterday and here's a pic of my rendition of the Peanut Butter Cake that Margaret posted about the other day. I couldn't make it as a bundt cake as we don't have a bundt pan but it seemed to work pretty well in the 9x13 pan that I used. It would have been better if I had remembered to put the butter in it. I'd put the butter in the microwave to soften it up and then forgot to take it out. Oops! LOL