Sunday update

It is that time again...time for me to post because you are all checking in on us to make sure we are here.  B and I have been SUPER busy with bubbles...I wish I could say that this was something fun, but it is not.

After a GI appt we decided to change her reflux medicine from Prilosec to Zantac.  The goal was to step down from the Prilosec, use Zantac for 6 weeks, stop the Zantac, change milk in a few weeks (back to the Boost), and then add a vitamin.  The plan was in action for 2 days before we realized that it was not going to work...AT ALL!  We changed back to Prilosec quickly.  Poor B has bubbles in her stomach with almost every feeding that take a long time (sometimes over an hour) to get out.  They hurt her poor stomach.  I have tried everything I can think of to make it better.  We will call the doctor again Monday morning to see if she can think of another route.  

Once the bubbles are out of her tummy she feels great.  During those times we have been busy with doctor appointments (B, H, and I), hauling H to his practices, pool time, and a few very small house projects.

I just ordered this for B:

www.totcollar.com

It's not super attractive, but she does have torticollis and this should help.  She will only wear it at home for a few hours each day.  It's not bad at this point so this device should correct it quickly.

She also has a new positioning device.  They have this same piece of equipment at therapy.  There are tons of different ways to use it...we have had fun figuring out all the ways that work for us.  It's called a Tadpole and made by TumbleForm.  Here is a pic of some of the pieces: tadpole  We have a few more.  Battley's awesome Physical Therapist helped us order one...this is one of those things that, at least for me, isn't common knowledge...I would have never known we could get our own or where to get it.

B is also working on having her immunizations!  This is something we never thought was important before, but certainly a must do now.  She has had 3 so far and all have gone well!  Yay!

Oh...the new rug!  You won't believe this!  First let me show you a snippet of our rug in the living room:

It's not like I go around taking pics of stuff in our house so that pic will have to do.  I love this rug...it's a grasscloth with a wide cotton binding.  It is AWFUL on your feet!  We always wear socks or hop quickly to the sofa...haha!  It basically makes our living room unusable for playing on the floor.  

The company I used to work for GAVE us a piece of carpet...well, I should say they gave Battley a piece of carpet for her living room!  Can you believe that?  After all they have done for our family, they did that too!!!  They also put a pad on it and bound it for us!  So...I'll have to work on a pic of it all together, but here it is when we rolled it out...I was so excited to walk on it with bare feet that we didn't straighten it out:

It's wonderful!  Battley loves it too!

My goal for the next few weeks is to take care of the next issue in the living room: the front doors.  We need shutters or blinds for them so that we can use this room more...remember my gal doesn't like bright lights.  Hopefully this will be easy!

Just a few random pics:

And finally a few blogs I'd like to send you to:

* This is a friend who could really use some prayers this month...she has 2 babies in Heaven both born in July.  Her baby boy had T18.  She doesn't update her blog often, but please pray for this beautiful woman as she faces her hardest month.

http://kinseygracethompson.blogspot.com/

* A former customer of mine is having a sweet baby boy very soon.  He will need heart surgery shortly after his birth.  His parents are living away from home during this...which is something I can't even begin to imagine.

http://babynolanwilliams.blogspot.com/

C

TV Star!!

Battley was filmed at her therapy place one day a few months ago for their new commercial.  I haven't seen it on tv yet, but my friend texted me last night and said she saw it on HGTV.  I hope this link works...should be a link to see the commercial.  I'm not sure if it is exactly what is playing on tv, but look for Miss B in the swing.  She is swinging with her physical therapist!  I had to view it on my computer...it wouldn't work on my phone.

http://blusource.bluwaveproductions.com/024632

C

Lately

We are home from vacation!  We went to Gatlinburg, TN and then drove into North Carolina through the Smoky Mountains...it was fun!

A few days before we left for vacay Battley started having some stomach issues with her milk...or so I thought it was her milk.  It was awful on vacation.  I was back to spending an hour or more feeding her each time.  She was in pain from tiny bubbles in her stomach.  We called the nutritionist while out of town and ordered new milk to start the day we got home.  A few days into the new milk (which is Peptamin Junior by the way) there was no change.  Battley and I both spent the majority of one day last week crying together.  She cried because she was in pain...I cried because I couldn't do anything else to help her.  A few tricks later and we are at least making it until we can see the GI doc this week.

Then on top of the milk issue, Battley has been grinding her tooth against her gums so much that it has been bleeding.  We noticed her making a tooth on tooth grinding sound (awful!) Thursday night.  She only has one tooth!  After a good peek in her mouth with a flashlight we found out she has gone through the top gum...ouch!  Emergency trip to the dentist Friday morning!  The dentist says that some of her kiddos grind their teeth more when they have another issue going on...the milk issue I'm guessing!  Thankfully there is nothing much to worry about but I am praying for another tooth to come in soon.

Therapy is going really well!  Battley got a new piece of equipment for our house last week...it's been fun to figure out how to work it.  She is doing a really good job holding her head up when we are holding her and working so hard to hold it up during tummy time! 

We spent most of the weekend moving furniture around to make room for baby.  The office moved to a cabinet in the breakfast room, so maybe I can find more time for blogging now that it's right beside me.

Time for dinner...more later

C

pics and video

Had a few minutes to post some pics and video...the dogs went to the vet today and I have all this free time!

A few weeks ago at therapy we were trying to get B to hold her head up.  I grabbed a baby doll that was beside me and she loved it...so off to the baby doll store we went!  Every gal needs a baby doll...she loves "baby"...not a very creative name, but it gives us a chance to work on the sign for baby.

Pool time...best float ever.  We were told we could put her in the pool with her gtube, but I'm not ready just yet.  This float just lets her lay on the water.

Battley and I spend LOTS of time in the car together.  Sometimes it is because she needs to be fed when we are out and sometimes we are waiting on her brother...well, lots of times for that reason.  I get in the back and we play.  Here we are waiting on him to workout the other day.

Here's a video.  Watch her shake the rattle when I ask her to!!!!!

And as promised a video of her room.  I could have cleaned it and made it look picture perfect, but this is the way it really is...surprise, our house is always messy!  And we don't care!

C

Update

We are FINALLY all well!  Battley is still using a little bit of oxygen at night.  Hopefully this won't last much longer.  It's hard to sleep when she had cords in the crib with her.

Hmmm...I haven't blogged in so long there are random things going on.

School is out for the Summer...HOORAY!  And the pool is open...Double Hooray!  Battley still loves her floatie from last year.

Battley's room is almost finished.  It's painted, everything is back on the walls, the cornice and curtains are up (which she LOVES...this sounds strange, but she now has the darkest room in the house...her FAVE), and we are still on the lookout for lamps.  I'll work on some pics soon.

Oh...and all of that is finished just in time to start on the other baby's room!  We WILL finish this room before this baby comes!

I am somewhere between 15 and 20 weeks pregnant...I can't keep up this time!  There is just too much other stuff going on.  I still get nauseous at night, but that seems to be less frequent now.  All is well with this baby.  We found out that we are having a BOY!!!  

We switched B to a pediatric formula (it's Boost Kid Essentials 30cal per oz) from her infant formula.  I'll just say we are still in the testing phase...haha!

We are packing up and heading out on a vacation!  I didn't think this would be possible for Miss B, but we are going for it!  Since the beach is totally out of the question for her, we let H choose any other place we could drive to.  Gatlinburg, TN is the place.  We have some good stuff planned that we can do with her!  Yay!  We haven't been anywhere with her except 2 soccer tournaments...should be fun!

This Friday is my last official day of work!  I am really excited for Amy to have taken my job...if you haven't heard it before now...my best friend, Amy, has been hired and is up and running in my old job.  I couldn't be happier to pass such a great job on to someone I love so much.  And I couldn't leave my company with anything better than her.

Just for my record:

B weighs 12lb-7oz

oh...and she is having her first immunization tomorrow...this is quite the big deal for her...wow!

C

On the mend

My poor girl has been so sick.  We took her to the pediatrician last week and put her on an antibiotic. She apparently got whatever H and I had that turned into some type of upper respiratory infection.  By last Friday she could barely breathe.  She spent most of the weekend screaming and had so much trouble resting.  We spent the weekend contemplating a trip to the ER...which we never want to do.  Our wonderful neighbor saw that B was sick and brought over a nebulizer on Sunday night.  That thing made a huge difference immediately and she was able to rest.  

After a trip to the doc on Monday morning we found out there is no sign of pneumonia!  We borrowed an oxygen saturation monitor from a friend.  B just isn't able to get enough oxygen into her system just yet so we have her on .25L of oxygen.  She is also doing breathing treatments every 4 hours.  

I think yesterday was her day.  She finally felt better and I got a few smiles.  She did run a fever, but I can tell she is on the mend!

We have SO many things to be thankful for, but after lugging around an oxygen tank (just think...if you move to a different room you have to take the machine with you!) I have a new respect for all our blessings.  

We have an oxygen concentrator for the house...this is just a big machine that plugs into the wall and uses oxygen from the room.  It has a smaller metal box that goes with it (pediatric flow meter) since B is tiny and needs a tiny amount of O2.  Then we have very small oxygen tanks for the car...we have never used these tanks before this week but are super thankful we had them...if we didn't we wouldn't be able to leave the house.

We had 2 other doc appts this week besides the one Monday.  We saw an ear, nose, and throat doc...no news from that.  We also saw B's cardiologist.  Her heart looks the same.  She is still not in heart failure and has pulmonary hypertension!  Yay!  

Thank you for all your prayers...we appreciate you all so much!

C

Checking In

This isn't even going to be a real post...it has just been so long y'all are starting to call and text to check on us.  Thank you!

We are here.  We have all (except Adam) been sick.  We are still sick.  Once we feel better I will be back with lots of updates.

Battley seems to be doing well now.  She is her normal happy self again.  I listen to her often with a stethoscope just to know what her normal sounds are...this way if something is off I should know.  It's not something I do every day but just something I do when we have a few minutes on the changing table.  I did notice an extra sound with her breathing yesterday so we went back to the pediatrician today.  They did hear a "very small" amount of fluid in her left lung.  This could be normal...especially since she sleeps on that side.  We decided to do a different antibiotic and listen closely...should clear right up.  Prayers are always appreciated though!

We also had our first appointment with the maternal fetal specialist today to scan the new baby.  All looks great!!  Yay!!

C