Angelina's progress post surgery and sickness!

Now that my little lady is feeling so much better and enjoying vomit-free life she has been doing so well with all her therapy sessions. Today we had all three starting with Occupational Therapy (fine motor movements). She did very well with disassociating her top from her bottom and really getting good rotation to reach her toys. She is really trying to pick things up with her finger and thumb now. I told her therapist, Ms. Mary, that yesterday we were playing and I told her to give me five and she actually found my hand and gave me a few fives! She did this with both hands separately. It was great! Physical therapy is going good as well. She still doesn't' like to be on her tummy, but sometimes life doesn't care what we like just what we need. She is trying to scoot across the floor though as long as we can keep her from flipping back over on to her back. She has been working on staying upright on her legs and can really control the top portion of her body if we hold on to her waist. She even takes steps to get to toys. All of this is with assistance, but she couldn't do this 6 months ago so this is quite a big change! Speech therapy is good too! She can handle bigger bites with little or no gagging. But even if she does gag she is able to recover without assistance or distraction. That is HUGE!! We are trying to get in 2 "food" session per day at home. She really likes mac-n-cheese and also Alfredo sauce. Apparently she is a savory girl and not a sweet girl! I am trying to get her an appointment with the ortho (leg braces) therapist either through her usual therapy sessions or through her neurologist's office. We need to have her braces looked at and adjusted. She can still wiggle her heel out of where it is supposed to stay and that pretty much makes the braces ineffective and somewhat painful to be in. It's causing a rubbed place on her left big toe that is beginning to be an issue. Hopefully we can get this resolves sooner rather than later. No news on the new chair she is supposed to be getting. That will probably be here mid-summer. Oh the joys of bureaucratic insurance!!! We are also working on adjusting her stroller to be more accommodating so that she doesn't slide down and can keep her hips and pelvis posture correctly. That is a work in progress though. Her PT is trying to keep her out of a wheelchair for as long as possible because you can only get one every 5 years and that leaves little growing room. We'll see how it goes.

I think that is all for now. Angelina is doing really great and we couldn't be happier or more proud of her!

Brady's first day at Mother's Day Out and OB appt update

Monday Brady went for his very first day to a Mother's Day Out program and he did so well! We went into the church, signed in and I walked him to his classroom. He was just looking around at all the things on the wall with so much excitement! We got to his class and met his teacher, Ms. Sally. She was very warm and welcoming as were the few toddlers already there. He set his sippy cup down and started playing with one of the boys and cars. It was so cute. I kissed and hugged him goodbye and he said in such a sweet voice "bye bye mama" and went right on playing! No crying, no hanging on to my pants - really just what I wanted to happen. It made my morning easier to leave him there. Larry couldn't stand to wait until 2pm to find out how he was doing so around 11:15 am he called to check in. Brady was having such a great time and was doing quite well. Angelina and I picked Brady up at 2pm and he was glad to see us! He had "colored" a picture with a fuzzy lamb on it and behaved himself quite well for the day! I was so proud of him. He said bye-bye to everyone as we left the room and on the way out as well! He is such an independent boy!!

Okay, on to baby news. Monday afternoon I saw Dr. Suba. He says I am dilated to 1 cm so we are looking at 5/12 unless this baby decides to come sooner. We talked about an epidural and I am really going to try to go as long as possible before getting one. We'll see! I am ready to meet this little alien trying to pop out of my tummy!!! I will go back next Tuesday and have a sono as well. It will be the last one until D-Day!!!!

OB appointment update

I saw Dr. Suba this morning and all is well. He checked to make sure I wasn't dilated and I am not at this time. Everything else seems pretty normal! We talked about when induction might happen if this kiddo doesn't come on his/her own around 5/11. My weigh in was right at 153 lbs! YIKES! That is pretty well it for this appointment. I will see him again next Monday!

36 week OB appt and Sono pictures!

Giving us a smile!

Snuggling it's cord!

More snuggling!

FACE SHOT!

Yesterday I had my 36 week OB appointment and sonogram. We did the sono first and once she got what she needed it was play time! I didn't realize that they had the ability to do the 4d pictures in the office. I always thought you had to go to a speciality "store" to get that done. Anyway ISN'T HE/SHE SO PRETTY! I just couldn't believe it. Look at those pouty "come kiss me" lips! This baby does have hair, but some of what looks like hair in these pics are really just garbled image due to the sono machine. This one is favoring Brady somewhat but I guess we won't be able to fully tell until D-Day!

This baby is now weighing in at 5 lbs 11 oz! It is head down at this time so maybe it will stay that way until time to come out! I am weighing in at a hefty 151.4 lbs as well. Dr. Suba says baby looks good and is at a great weight for it's age. That being said, now he won't even think about induction until 39 weeks. So if we wanted this baby to come earlier than the first week of May it will have to come on it's own! Mom - your scheduled week off may be a week off! I am anxious to meet our new little addition but anything that will avoid time in the NICU is okay with me. We have had enough of that to last a few life times! Now I will be going to see him every week until baby is born and in 3 weeks I will have another sono.

Somebody asked me if I was nervous about the baby coming --really it can't be harder than 2 at the same time. I am more nervous about the delivery since my OB isn't even talking about a repeat C-Section unless it is necessary which he doesn't think it will be.

I am getting really excited about bringing our new baby home now. I have washed everything that I can think of. We have arranged both cribs in Angelina's room as well as moving the chest/changing table in there from Brady's room. I have rearranged the drawers in both of the chests and rearranged the closet as well. I need to put all of Angelina's wall hangings on her side of the room still but I'm not in a big hurry for that yet. After the baby is born I will be purchasing crib bedding for it and will put that room together over the course of the summer. It's not like the kid is going to be sleeping in there anyway until the fall so no rush!

It's a Baby Shower!

This past Saturday at Nanny's house there was a baby shower for the new baby and we all had a good time! The cake was hummingbird and so yummy. The food was so good too - tuna salad and chicken salad sandwiches, yummy pasta salad, assorted chips, assorted cheeses and crackers and a veggie tray. I don't have pictures just yet but when I do I will post them! To say the least this kid's butt is covered for a while! I think the ration of diapers and wipes B & A received is the same for this baby. We have a closet floor full of diapers and wipes stacked 3 high! It was so good to see my great aunts that I hadn't seen in a little while, but we really missed Gail and Angela. My kiddos were in true form playing and eating up all the extra attention as well! In addition to the mounds of diapers this baby has lots of gender neutral items but they are all so cute. I have washed all of it as well as the things that I have purchased and put them in drawers! I was really excited to do that. Nanny apparently thinks it's going to be a boy because she bought all boy clothes and Nana (Karen) played it safe by getting a really cute outfit for each gender!

Thank you so much to everyone that attended! Thank you Marcey, Cailtyn, Jennifer, Nanny and Mom for putting this on for us. It was so nice and relaxing! I can't wait to put all this stuff to good use!!

Life is much better today!

Angelina is feeling so much better now! She went to therapy yesterday and didn't have such a good time but she just got tired much faster than normal. I guess her energy level hasn't totally recovered, but she is not trying to vomit and wretch like before. Now it's only every once in a while. No more seizures either! We will be taking her to have an in-office EEG at the end of April so that we can see if the change in her medication is still okay and keeping her partial seizures at bay.

Larry and I actually got to get away on Monday to see the Texas Rangers opening day with our friends Andar and Lisa. We had such a good time the four of us! We probably only watched half the game and walked around the rest of the time. It was so cold in the corridors and walk ways on the outer parts of the ball park so we were glad to have jackets and scarves. It was pretty warm though in our seats. We were eventually in the sun so that was a nice warm up! It took like an hour just to get from the ballpark to I-30 so we could get the heck home! That was kind of crazy. Larry and Andar were acting like teenagers in the back seat doing Chinese fire drill and stuff, but what the heck, we didn't have anything better to do as we were just sitting in traffic mostley! It was way funny and got some honks from other drivers. Brady and Angelina were good boys and girls for their Nana and Papa as well!

Angelina has had her first spastic seizure :(

Larry and I knew it would eventually happen but not in the middle of the night. This morning around 2:30 a.m. I went to check on Angelina because she was making weird noises and found her in the middle of a full on spastic seizure. I couldn't see her very well at first because I was half asleep and her night light isn't very bright. Her arms were flexed out stiff as well as her legs, she was breathing erratically and making a weird smacking sound with her mouth. Her eyes were fluttering uncontrollably. I shouted at Larry through the monitor to get up quick - she was seizing! He ran into her room and I asked him to see what time it was so we could tell how long it lasted and to get the phone. I rolled her onto her side and swiped her mouth just in case there was anything in there. He called the on-call neurologist and explained what was happening. Once she stopped twitching she had her eyes closed but still breathing erratically. She had her jaws clenched shut and I was afraid she would bite her tongue or cheek so I pryed her mouth open at the back of her jaw. This made her cry - FINALLY. Larry was still on the phone with the doc when she started crying so this was a big sign of relief. He advised us not to take her to Cook Children's just yet because she would probably be acting fine by that time and we would just sit and wait, but if it happened again to take her in and call him back.

Angelina contracted the stomach bug Brady had and yesterday her pediatrician's office advised us to give her Kaopectate and Imodium. She had diarrhea pretty badly but was keeping down the Pedialyte - not that she had a choice. Apparently, when a child has something like this and has a fundo like she does it's not a good idea to give those kinds of medicines because the child can't throw up. So what happened was that her gut just clogged up and the bacteria festered. When a person is seizure prone sickness makes that person more susceptible to seizures. Things I did not know!

Anyway, she came to bed with us and about an hour later Brady joined us. So we four slept (sort of) sandwiched on my bed. Poor Larry had to get up at 5:45 am to go to work and needless to say neither of us really got any sleep after that.

She is acting okay today and I haven't seen any other seizure activity as of yet. Her neuro nurse says that it very well could happen again maybe even a couple of times before she is well. She called in a prescription for Angelina that will stop the seizures if they happen again. This is a relief to have on hand. I just hope we don't have to use it!