Perspective

Yesterday as tough, but today has been much better. I realized last night that I needed some much better perspective. Mia really can't help it when she throws up and I need to recognize that it is going to happen, unfortunately. Thankfully, it's not an every day occurrence, so overall, she does end up getting substantial nutrition. It is such a battle sometimes. But I do believe that this is something God is teaching me through, I don't completely know the lesson yet, but I feel him breaking down all my stereotypes of what I thought parenting was and how it should look. And I've realized that many other parents struggle with this just as much as I do, and it's giving me more sympathy and understanding when I hear about their battles. So, just keep praying for us, we are doing better and we'll just keep taking it one day, one meal, at a time. :)

Ups & Downs

I don't know why I have such a hard time letting go of the eating thing, but it truly is a daily, even meal to meal thing that I have to do. And today we had a really bad day eating, we threw up our lunch and our dinner. I wasn't surprised at lunch because we were trying some new things, but dinner was one of her favorite meals so it really hit me hard. And I know she can't help it, but I just feel for her and wish she didn't do it so much. So, just pray for me and for her, maybe we need to go see a doctor about it...I just have no clue at this point. I just feel so much pressure as the Mommy to make sure her nutrition is right and she's getting all the calories she needs. And that is what I need to give over to God all the time, so just pray for me, today has been really hard for me.

Salsa

Mommy, I wish you wouldn't take so many pictures of me...

Dancing to the music of my very cool table!

So I made Mia eggs this morning with salsa, and she ate half an egg! Go figure! Usually when I give her eggs, she'll just hold the bite in her mouth forever, but she munched it right up, no problem. So, maybe this spicy thing is really going to work for her, which would be such an answer to prayer, I'm excited already, praise God!!!

And I weighed her and we are back to 21 pounds 3 ounces, which is great. I do feel like we are moving in the right direction, we'll keep on working on getting more calories in and praising God as she does gain weight.

School and Therapy Stuff

Mia has been doing very well at school and therapy, which is awesome! It's always encouraging to see her making progress toward her goals. Her Occupational Therapist told us tonight that she's really impressed with Mia's writing skills, she can hold a pen very nicely, not in a fist, but with her thumb and pointer finger and other fingers helping. She can make lines that go up and down and across and she can make circles that stop. This is actually something very new, she's been making circles for awhile, but she'll do them continually, she just learned to stop after one circle. This apparently is very impressive for her age. It's something Mia has been practicing, her Grandma got her a magnetic erase board where you can draw and then erase and start over. She loves it and would play with it all day if someone helped her. Anyway, it just goes to show you that exposure and practice makes you get better at something. We are horrible at throwing balls and catching, but I've seen kids who are 18 months who can do that exceptionally well, we just don't really practice that. I'm just thankful that the things we do practice do get better, even if it is slowly. :)

During one of her therapy sessions at school they gave the kids hot cheetos and jam to try and eat. Apparently the feeding therapist said that kids with low muscle tone who aren't great eaters (Mia fits this perfectly) really like spicy or sour in their mouth because it wakes up the mouth for eating. I had no clue how Mia would react, but she loved them...they made me nauseous, but she ate them so quick, it was slightly frightening to watch. But, it made me think about how I tend to make food that is more bland because that is what suits me and maybe, I should consider more spices with her food because she might enjoy that better. The therapist thought I should give her salsa to dip things in as one option. So, we're going to try some of that at home and see what she thinks.

We have decided to get a second opinion on Mia's nose just because we can and this isn't a surgery we need to rush into (removing excess scar tissue). So, our appointment is in early april and we'll let you know then what happens, thanks for praying!

Peanut is doing well, my nausea is slightly better. I'm 14 weeks now, so we have about a month until our ultrasound. We keep asking Mia if she wants a brother or a sister and she keeps shaking her head no to both. We think it's pretty cute. :)

LA and More

You know what's nice about LA...the weather! It was gorgeous while we were there. You know what's not so nice, the traffic. It seemed like we were in traffic quite a bit, thankfully we made it to all of our destinations and home just fine.

On Tuesday we left for a 1:30 EEG appointment, I timed it for then because that is Mia's nap time and I knew that they would want her to sleep for part of the EEG. I forgot how "little" sleep they actually get. After they hooked the elctrodes to her head, she fell asleep immediately (she was a tired kid) and then after about 10 minutes of her sleeping they started a strobe light, which seemed to last forever...amazingly, she slept right through that also! And then about 5 minutes later they came in and said, now we need to wake her up because we want to see how she comes out of sleep also. I tried, but she was so tired, I was rubbing on her face, the lady was tickling her foot, we were talking to her and she was out, but after a few minutes of that she did start to come around and then it was over, lights on, take the electrodes off, no more sleeping for your kid. So, probably a 15 minute nap with some weird disturbances was all she got. I knew we weren't going to get anything else because she was done, so we just decided to do our best the rest of the day. It's not an every day occurance, so that made it ok, I knew we could tough out not getting a nap. The results of the EEG should be in in about a week, so hopefully we'll know more then.

After that we decided to head over to USC to see my former boss and walk around the campus a bit. Like I said, traffic and parking were a nightmare. But, once we finally arrived to our destination so many people remembered me, I was shocked! It's been 12 years! They told me I looked the same, ha! So, it was fun reminiscing, and then we walked over to campus and took some pictures with Tommy Trojan, we knew it would make Daddy happy. And then Grandma proceeded to buy Mia a USC t-shirt, of which again, we knew Daddy's thoughts, but I told him that at least it wasn't a shirt for him! And that did make him happy.




We had some dinner and left and went to our hotel in Santa Monica and all went to sleep at 8, we were tired! The next morning we headed to UCLA again for a noon appointment to have Mia see the Ear, Nose, Throat doctor about her snoring and continually runny right nostril (the one she had surgery on at 5 months to unblock). They took an x-ray of her adenoids, those looked just fine, her tonsils look great, so the thought is that there has been some scarring since the surgery and the nostril isn't as open as it should be. She wanted to do a CT Scan, but I told her we didn't want one done if it wasn't necessary because Mia's already had several of those and she's only 2. So, her thought is to do the actual procedure instead of the CT scan, she'd have to be put out for both regardless. It would be a 1 day hospital stay, pretty minor overall, so pray for wisdom for us because we are hesitant to do more stuff and there wasn't a clear indicator that it was necessary at this point.

After that we headed home, Mia slept the whole way, which was great.

This morning we went to see our eye doctor in town and she is still very concerned about Mia's left eye turning outward, so it looks like we need to really focus on training those muscles, I have some things I can do with her at home, but they tend to get put on the back burner with everything else going on, so that's going to change, we are going to work very hard on that over the next couple of months. Pray for Mia's left eye to strengthen and to start working with her right eye consistently.

Whew...that was a long summary. :)

Off to LA

I weighed Mia this morning and she's at 20 pounds 13 ounces, it's a bit less than last week, but I'm actually grateful it's as much as it is considering how little she's eaten and how much she's thrown up...it hasn't been a good week for her. So continue to pray for wisdom for us, I think the hardest part for me is figuring out different foods to feed her, we can sometimes get in a rut and have the same thing over and over again...so maybe you could leave suggestions of your kids favorite foods. I can tell you that we like grilled cheese and french fries, we absolutely don't like scrambled eggs and pasta can be a hit or miss thing with us...any ideas would be great!

We are off to LA for two days...Daddy is going to be a bachelor tonight, hopefully he'll enjoy his time off. We have an appointment this afternoon to have an EEG run on Mia where they'll hook her up to the cute electrodes and monitor her brain activity when she's awake and asleep. They'll be looking for any abnormal activity or seizures, so pray for good results because if everything looks great then we are going to try to wean her off some of her seizure medicine. Pray for an easy testing time for her also.

And then tomorrow we see the Ear, Nose, Throat doctor because Mia snores at night, I've been meaning to get this looked at for some time, so we'll see what she has to say about that.

So, Grandma Cheri will be coming along for the long haul, it should be fine, but pray for safe travel and a safe stay while we are there.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Dearest Daddy,

Happy Birthday! I love you so much! And I'm so excited your birthday is on the "loviest" day of the year! Thank you for being the best Daddy ever. I love how you can always make me laugh, how you throw me in the air even though it makes Mommy scared, and how you know just how to tuck me in at night and read me my bedtime story. Thank you for taking such good care of me and always praying for me.

I love you!
Always and Forever,
Mia

Caturday...

Well, that's what we like to call Saturday. It would be perfect if we could be lazy like a cat. :)

Mia has decided that she doesn't want to eat very much anymore. We were doing great until a few days ago when she just all of a sudden lost her appetite. Which has been super discouraging for me, I just don't understand. She's ended up throwing up her breakfast yesterday and today, which used to be her best meal. Between our new drink and that meal (and I don't think it's the new drink because we've been doing that for quite some time), we could get in quite a few calories for the day, so will you just pray for wisdom for us. Pray that Mia would regain her appetite and that she'd continue to gain weight in spite of this little hurdle...I hope it's a little hurdle. :)

Otherwise she's doing great, babbling all the time, and now she'll stand against something and let go by herself, so it continues to encourage me that we are getting closer to the elusive walking. :)

We hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's weekend and get to be able to spend time with those you love.

Peanut

Today we went for another doctor visit. I thought we were supposed to be getting my bloodwork results back, but apparently that's not how it works. They combine the results with another blood draw at 15 weeks and then give you the results. So, I will be getting my next blood draw in another 4 weeks and it will probably be a few weeks after that before I find anything out. So no news for awhile on that. My doctor did say that at 18 weeks I would have my ultrasound done with a perinatologist, a doctor who specializes in prenatal ultrasounds, so that should give us some more information also. :)

We did get to hear Peanut's heartbeat...154, which is very normal for 12 weeks. Good job Peanut. :)

21 pounds!

Mia weighed in today at 21 pounds, which is so exciting because we are making great progress. Thank you for continuing to pray! We will keep at it and see how she does next week. Mia is also making progress toward walking, we thought she might do it at the superbowl, but not quite yet, so keep praying for that!

Tomorrow Peanut has a 12 week appointment, the first trimester is almost over! We are expecting to find out the early bloodwork results on whether or not there are potential complications, so please pray for a good report, we would love a healthy baby this time, but are at peace with whatever God decides. We will let you know what we find out!

I can't believe it's Saturday already, wow, time flies! Mia is doing great, we actually went to LA on Thursday to see the nephrologist (kidney doctor). Mia's kidney's look great, when she was born, her one kidney had some fluid on it and each year that has decreased, they also thought she had a kidney stone at one point, but that spot is gone also, so the plan is for her to have another renal ultrasound done this summer, and if the kidney with a mild amount of fluid on it is completely better, than she doesn't need to see a nephrologist anymore. Wow, one less doctor, that would be awesome!!!

Mia has started saying the sound "ba" again, which is awesome, so we now get, mama, do do, and ba, and lots of other sounds, which is great, so thanks for praying and we'll continue to praise God as she gains more language! We do keep working on sign language, and she's actually absorbing new signs like a sponge, her mommy and daddy need to learn more signs to teach her more.

This picture was taken a few weeks ago when our cousins came to visit, Mia was ready for a nap and wasn't very cooperative. :) Tricia, made this awesome book for Mia on Picaboo covering the last 2 years of her life, it's awesome, when you come to visit we'll let you look at it. Thanks again Tricia, we are grateful!!!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Today we went to LA to see Mia's orthopaedic surgeon (remember the hip brace?), because I figured she would get an xray and I would not be allowed in the room (peanut and all), Daddy graciously came with us today. On a side note, Daddy doesn't know how I do this all the time, I guess I just don't think about it to much, it's part of the package of being home with her all the time.

Good news is that her hips look fine, there are still some minor issues, but he believes they will clear up as she gets stronger and better at walking. He said she doesn't need to wear the hip brace anymore! Praise God, one less thing, yay!

I also weighed Mia today and she is now up to 20 pounds 10 ounces, so we are finally making progress in the right direction, thank you Lord! I'd like it to be quicker, but am grateful that we are heading the right way.

It was a long day and we are thankful to be home.