The Mama

I had another doctor visit today because I still haven't been feeling well. Although, today has been the first day I've been feeling better. Ends up that I strained some muscles from overdoing it on Saturday and so I've been told to just "rest". I'm not on bed rest, but if I start not feeling well, I'm supposed to take a break and rest. I just feel so blessed to have both Grandma and Nana around to help me. (Mia isn't complaining either...she loves all the attention.) Hopefully in the next few days I'll be even better and won't need so much help. Thanks for praying!!!

Mia weighed in at 21 pounds 14 ounces today, she's climbing in the right direction again! Thank you Lord. She is one smart cookie, which is really exciting to us since they never imagined she'd do this well. She's into words these days and has lots of flashcards that she likes to practice with. She knows quite a few words and can occasionally get individual letters in the right order for words. In fact, Grandma was helping me today and said that she left her in the office with her toys and when she came back she had spelled ELMO with her alphabet puzzle. I then asked her to spell CAR, but she didn't get that in the right order, so I think it is luck sometimes, but it is something she enjoys, so we keep challenging her with it. :)

I'm feeling a little better, but I notice when I am walking around too much that the same feeling/pain comes back and then I make sure I take a rest for awhile. I think I just overused my muscles and they are going to need a little more time to heal. :( Thanks for praying for me and Brother!

Brother

So I have been calling Peanut "Brother" for a little while now, especially to get Mia used to the idea of having a brother. So yesterday I had this brilliant plan to clean out Brother's closet and organize things a bit. There were some boxes with books and they didn't seem any heavier than Mia is, to me, so I moved them, along with some other stuff. Well my body didn't like it and when I woke up this morning I had lower back pain and lower abdominal cramping pain. I thought, oh no, maybe if I just rest it will go away. Well by early afternoon it was still there and I had done some reading on preterm labor, so I thought it would be best to go get it checked out. Brad took me to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors, Brother sounded great and the cramping pains didn't show up as contractions, thank you God! Brother is only 23 weeks, so he needs to bake awhile longer. They told me I needed to take it easy these next couple of days, almost like bed rest, but not completely, and I need to drink tons of water and I can't lift anything. Which makes it slightly difficult with a 2 1/2 year old who can't walk, but thankfully there is a Nana and a Grandma who can help me during the day when Brad is gone. Will you pray that the pain goes away and that it doesn't turn into anything more serious. Will you pray that Brother stays inside for quite awhile longer, thanks! And thanks for those who already knew earlier and were praying. Praise God it has been ok so far.

Recently I read some articles about autism and intestinal issues and it made me think about Mia, not that she is autistic (we don't think she is), but that she still has bowel issues since her surgery. Bowel issues in that we frequently go and it isn't as formed as it should be. Anyway, I was reading that some autistic kids do really well on a gluten free, casein free diet and that it clears up their bowel issues, which made me start thinking about Mia. Brad's grandmother had Celiac Disease (gluten intolerance) and it's not uncommon for something like that to reappear in a family that has a history of it. So it made a lot of sense to me just to go and get Mia tested. The first step is a blood test, the second step would be an intestinal biopsy. I don't necessarily think that Mia has a gluten intolerance, although she does fit some of the classic "symptoms" of it, but I thought that it would just be a good idea to rule it out. So, she got poked today and was so good while they did that. It's hard to get IV's and blood draws with her, even still now that she is older, but she was much more patient as they were trying to find her vein. Her stuffed animal kitty was right there with her and they both got bandaids at the end for being so brave. We should know in about a week what the results are.

LA LA LA...

Yes, we were off to LA LA Land this morning, that's what I plan on calling LA from now on. We were being seen by the NICU staff to follow-up on Mia's weight concerns. I weighed her in this morning and she's around 21 pounds 8 ounces, so we are heading in the right direction again, we were at 22 pounds a few weeks ago, but I'm confident that we'll get there again in the near future. They were very happy with where she's at for her weight. I explained my concerns that she is totally off the chart still, but apparently since she was born at 36 weeks, they use the premie chart and adjust her age by a month, which makes her weight look more realistic. Personally, since she's 2 1/2, I think she should have caught up to the normal chart by now and I recognize that she's still not quite where she should be, but she is doing much better. As long as we continue to grow, my goal is for her to be at 26 pounds by age 3 and then she should be just barely on the normal growth chart. It's my goal and it's just a number, but it's good to have goals.

They then did their infant development test on her and she was in a much better mood than last time, which made her more cooperative. She did great. Her cognitive ability is at exactly average...I love the word average! 50%. And she probably is slightly higher, but much of what they do requires her to use language and even though she signs quite a bit, she still is rather deficient in expressive language. Her language ability is at low average, which is still very good and her motor skills are much lower, but that's because she isn't walking yet. We've always been low in that area, but continue to improve and so we just work on it. I'm just super thrilled that her cognitive abilities are so high, especially since they told us she'd have "no higher cognitive function" after her stroke. Praise God for a miracle!!!

They just love to see her there, it's like visiting family since we see them so often and they've known her since she was a baby. I love that they just always want the best for her and go out of their way to make sure that she gets the best. She's a well loved little girl!

Peanut reveal video clip

This is how it happened:

And Peanut Is...

So, we had some friends and family over to find out whether Peanut is a boy or a girl...

We had some fine treats to eat, which were super yummy!

And everyone had to pick a side, there were lots more blues than pinks...

And then we opened our package, and Peanut is a BOY!!!

Today we went to LA to see another ear, nose, throat doctor for a second opinion on her nose. It was a great trip and well worth a second opinion, we really liked this new doctor. He had quite a bit of wisdom regarding Mia's nose. Her right nostril is definitely blocked again, he says it is very common and happens quite often after nose surgery. He says that you have to be very aggressive in making sure it doesn't become blocked with follow-ups that include dilations of her nose. It doesn't seem like a fun process. His thought is that he prefers patients to be older, around 4, before doing anything because their nose is bigger and it allows them to do a better job with larger instruments. He said she breaths fine through her current nostril and there isn't really a need to have anything done immediately. So, now we just need to pray about the right timing of doing this. We definitely believe that he is the doctor we want to do the surgery, so you can pray that we would have wisdom for when to get this done. I know many of you were praying that this doctor would be wise and discern what's best and I feel like God has totally answered that prayer today, so thank you for praying!!

On a side note, we weighed in today and lost some weight, Mia hasn't been feeling the best this weekend and wasn't eating well, so I wasn't super surprised. And I know that numbers fluctuate, I was just hoping that we'd stay the same instead of losing weight. So, pray for her appetite, that it would increase this week.

We've talked about a possible nose surgery for Mia and tomorrow we go to LA and get a second opinion from another ear, nose, throat doctor. The thought is that there is some possible scar tissue build up from her first surgery to unblock her right nostril, but no one can definitely say at the moment. Her ear, nose, throat doctor couldn't really tell when she looked up her nose, and so she said rather than having another CT scan done where Mia would have to be put under general anesthesia, why not just put her under and look at her nose and do the actual surgery. And I like that reasoning because we don't want her to have more CT scans if she doesn't need them, there is just so much radiation in them, but we also don't want her to go under general anesthesia if she doesn't need it either. So, that's why we are seeing another doctor to get a second opinion, maybe he will see things more clearly when he looks in her nose. So, pray for our trip tomorrow, pray for wise discernment from the second opinion. We'll let you know what happens.

Peanut

We finally got to see Peanut via ultrasound today! And Peanut is definitely a baby and definitely only 1 baby. It still amazes me how much they can see and tell from an ultrasound. Since Mia had so many issues, the specialist took a very thorough look at Peanut. Peanuts heart looks just fine, there is definitely not an AV Canal and all the pieces appear to be just where they should be! Praise God! There is a slight concern with Peanut's kidneys, they are slightly enlarged, but he thinks they should resolve on their own. Because of this he wants me to do another ultrasound in May, just to monitor what's happening. But he did say the kidneys were functioning fine because the amniotic fluid looks just as it should. So far the bowels and intestines look fine also, but he wants to relook at them in May also because when the baby is a little bigger it will be more clear to him. Overall, it was a great report, Peanut is growing and looks healthy. To me, Peanut's ultrasound pictures looked so much like Mia's...long legs and arms. :)

Is Peanut a boy or a girl? He wrote the answer in card that we plan on opening next week, so you'll wait with anticipation as we do. In the mean time, will you pray that Peanut's kidneys resolve on their own and that there are no bowel issues.

Mia is now 21 pounds 15 ounces! We are so close to 22 pounds, I'm excited. I'm grateful that the scale is moving upward at a steady pace. We have officially never been to 22 pounds, so that will be awesome when we get there. Thank you for being so faithful to always pray for Mia.

Peanut got an Easter gift yesterday from Nana & Grampa, we took a picture. How cute is that?!?!



Mia had school today and was the only one there. She got lots of attention from her 1 teacher and 3 aides. :) She is doing great, she now can recognize the words CAR and CAT, and will give you the sign language for them if you write the words and ask her what that says. She loves words and is a little sponge right now, so I'm thinking I need to make her some word flash cards to play with. You can never start too early right?

Family Fun

This weekend we have been busy with family fun activities, which included dyeing Easter eggs and having an Easter egg hunt. Mia enjoyed both activities very much. Her Grandma Cheri has quite the system to make sure hunting for Easter eggs is fun and fair. Each grandkid gets their own "color" of eggs to look for and they are hidden based on their age and ability...we tend to get carried away hiding some of the older kids eggs and they sometimes can't find them and we can't remember where we hid them...hmmm...but anyway, Mia got the color green, which of course is her favorite color, so that worked well for her. Here are a few pictures from the past few days.







On another note, we got a letter today that said my prenatal bloodwork is within normal results, which is fantastic news! It doesn't mean there couldn't be any problems with this new baby, but it is a great first step in the direction of their not being problems. We will have my ultrasound done on Wednesday this coming week and we'll know quite a bit more information then too. Praise God for such great news on this wonderful weekend to remember the best news...that Jesus died for us, and if we believe, we get to spend eternity with Him in heaven. Happy Easter everyone!

Wow, is it already Easter? I didn't think our spring break would go by this fast. Mia didn't have school this week and she got her therapy done on Monday and Tuesday, so these past few days have been so nice not having any obligations. :)

Yesterday we drove to Shafter and went to Insect Lore, a bug museum. It was very tiny, but there were alot of neat bugs to look at. They even got out Beetles and Cockroaches so the kids could touch and hold them. Talk about gross! Their marketing plan is very smart, the store and exhibits are all in the same room, so as you are looking at bugs there are all these neat toys tempting you to buy them. I imagine parents have a hard time resisting buying their kids something. It was worth the trip once, but unless Mia becomes a bug enthusiast, I'm not sure we will make many more trips there. :)

Today we are "dye"ing Easter eggs and tomorrow an Easter egg hunt. Our weekend will definitely be busy. Our prayer is that in spite of all the fun activities, may we remember we are celebrating Jesus' death and ressurection. May He be our focus through it all!

Enjoy your Easter!!!!