Another Week Gone By

Another Friday and weekend are upon us. I look forward to weekends and having Brandon home more.
Last Friday I needed a major "mommy break." I called my mom in law, and she was gracious enough to watch the girls so we could go to supper. Not only did she take the girls, she took my nephews, too. We had a double date! I got to enjoy an entire meal focused only on my own meal. Yeah! After the two hour break, I was ready to see my girls again.
Saturday I went to a bridal shower. That afternoon we got some things done around the house. For dinner we went to Applebee's with some friends and their two kiddos. Thanks to the library reading program, all the kids got to eat free. Rarely do we eat out, and this weekend we did two nights in a row! We came back to our house and played the Wii. The kids had a lot of fun together.
Sunday was church. I still keep Sadie with us, so it's been awhile since I've heard an entire sermon. I miss it. I have enjoyed helping the Children's ministries. That afternoon was my Walmart run. I somehow got on this schedule. Not my favorite, but at least I can go by myself. For dinner Brandon did some smoking...on the grill. We smoked a pork loin, and it turned out really good. Brandon is such a good chef on the grill. His parents joined us, so that was an added bonus. They then hung out and played the Wii with us. Analise loved playing with them or laughing when they played each other.
Monday morning I knew I needed to take the two younger girls into the doc. They had started with colds, but Sunday night Maisie spiked a fever to 102. We were supposed to have a play date that morning, but we had to cancel. Thankfully the mom decided to take the girls to the library, so Analise joined them. Thank you, R! I was able to take both girls with me. PTL we didn't have to wait long. Both girls had ear infections. Sadie was also a little wheezy, but her O2 was 94%. We went home with two antibiotics and orders for breathing treatments. I should have already started those, but since she wasn't retracting much, I hadn't. Now I know....
Tuesday morning, I didn't think Sadie was doing any better, so I took her in again. I was at a loss on what to do with the other two, so Brandon was gracious enough to come home for an hour. I don't like to ask him, but that was my only option. Sadie wasn't really doing worse, but she wasn't doing better, either. So now we added a steroid. We'll start with an oral, but then move to a steroid using the nebulizer twice a day...for quite some time. We are hoping this works as a preventative against future things. Now I feel like I drug the girls...two antibiotics, one steroid, breathing treatments every four hours. Plus at bed time I give them either a decongestant or cough med. Just call me Pam's Pharmacy.
It took the girls longer to get better than I had hoped. Maisie hung on to her fever until Thursday. I could tell when she wasn't feeling well. Thank goodness for Ibuprofin! Tuesday evening Brandon got out for a little fishing by himself. I know he needs that time away, and I like to see him get it. When he got home, I took off for a night with gals from my Bible study. It was so nice to be with them...laughing and praying together. I got home at 10:30. Brandon said the girls did well for him. However, he mentioned that at one point Maisie just stood by the door crying and saying "mommy" over and over. He finally asked Maisie if she wanted him to pray for her. She said yes. Before he was even finished praying, Maisie was finished crying, and she was just fine rest of the night. I'm so thankful for a husband who thinks about taking these issues to the Lord.
This week I have been finalizing things for our VBS next week at church. It's something I've been planning and putting together for months. The time is upon us, and I am looking forward to it. However, I find myself constantly thinking of things I need to get done...esp. things that would be a whole lot easier to get done without three young children. :) My mom in law came over nap time on Weds. so I could get some errands done. That really helped!
The girls were finally well enough to go watch their cousin K play some t-ball yesterday. It was good to get out. Analise was able to go to craft time at the library, thanks to a friend. I can never take her since it's right during the middle of nap time. Yesterday afternoon I took off Analise's training wheels, and we worked on getting her to ride without them. She is willing to learn, so that is good. Last night I went shopping with a friend for all the snack items for VBS. It was another late night.
As of today, I'm just tired. I look at my house and see everything that needs done and secretly wish I could have 4 hours at home without the girls. I have wiped their noses more times than I'd like to remember. Many time I have told Maisie, "Wipe. Don't lick." Nothing I give her helps dry her up. Sadie still has a runny nose, and I don't think she sounds any better. The treatments are getting better. I moved the nebulizer from her room to the living room. The girls like to entertain her, and I am thankful. It just works better when we have more room for their dancing and singing.
Sadie is officially 15 months! At the doc's office she weighed about 18 1/2, with her clothes on. She is signing for "more" and mimicking other motions. Yesterday I walked into her room after her nap. She was standing in the crib and said, "HI!". It was too cute.
We've enjoyed having warm weather and playing outside. We are thankful the bad storms missed us the other night. We look forward to celebrating Father's Day with my dear husband and great father of my girls.

Summer? Days

I decided I better jot down about last weekend before another one has flown by! Last Thursday afternoon, I got my massage! An hour of bliss. :)

I had not had one in two years, so I enjoyed each minute.

Last Friday was a good day. Analise was gone most of the day with her grandma and cousin. That meant I got more time to myself in the afternoon. I curled up on my bed and finished a good book. That night we went for a family walk in the cemetary. Analise rode her bike, and Brandon pushed the double stroller. I almost don't know how to walk without pushing a stroller. It was a nice night, so we enjoyed the time. After the girls were in bed, I curled up for a movie. By the end of the week, I am ready to do something mindless. I watched "High School Musical 3." I liked it. Brandon was in the same room working on his computer. So even though he didn't watch it, it was nice having him close. I don't let Analise watch these movies, but I do let her watch some of the songs. She really likes them!

Saturday I met up with some friends at a park. Even though it was cool and cloudy, it was fun seeing a friend that I hadn't seen in over a year. She moved 24 hours away. Since she was in town, we planned a play date! The girls loved playing and didn't seem to mind the cold. Later in the day we ventured down to the lake. Brandon stayed back at the cabin with the nappers, and Analise and I joined other family on the boat. It was nice and relaxing. However, it wasn't quite sunny enough to tan.

This past week's weather has been cool, rainy and cloudy. It doesn't feel like June at all! When the sun does come out, we try and make the most of it. A couple days after lunch, we took the girls for a little walk. That means Analise is pushing the double stroller with four Cabbage Patch kids in it, Maisie walks, and I carry Sadie. Fun times.

Maisie is such a food mooch! My sister has two dogs known for counter cruising. I call Maisie my counter cruiser. I can hardly make anything without her coming into the kitchen and taking a bite of something. She's been known to take bites out of a big block of cheese! Today I was making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. I had the bread all buttered and laying on the counter; as I was assembling them in the skillet, I turned around to grab the last piece of bread, and there was a bite out of it! I laugh now, but at the time I was frustrated. She's been walking on thin ice lately. Sadie's sandwich was one bite short of complete. On top of that, as you can see in the picture, she was eating this next while I finished lunch!

I love it when the girls can play outside, but there are days I want to get rid of the sandbox. This sand is so fine, it ends up everywhere! I was working on dinner last night when I heard them outside giggling. I look out, and both girls are standing in the sandbox, and Maisie is pouring sand in her hair and getting it all over Analise as well. I like to try and enforce the "Stay out of the sandbox rule." However, yesterday that rule went to the wind. I told them to enjoy it, because it wasn't going to happen again. I had to give them showers before supper! And sweet Maisie lives by schedule...got her jammies on after the shower, and ran into the kicthen asking for her snack. She was a little confused when I told her we were going to eat supper.

Sadie is doing well. She is now giving herself a bottle. I still hold her, but I let her hold the bottle. I probably spoiled her long enough by holding it for her. The other night I put her in the glider with her blanket and bottle. It looked like she was going to put herself to bed. Thankfully, she is doing much better drinking from a sippy cup.

Sadie had her evaluation this week with the early developmental network. They came over to watch her and asked me a bunch of questions. Overall, they seemed very pleased with what they saw. One of the ladies is the sweet lady that has been working with Maisie the last year. It's nice because she has seen Sadie grow and change. Along with the team was a PT, and he gave me some good tips on getting Sadie to walk. She is cruising more (yeah!), but she loves to get places fast, and that she does by crawling. I am going to try and be more deliberate in working with her on her walking.
Sadie loves bathtime, and most nights she needs one after supper.

I've been putting Sadie in a walker outside. She is the first girl to use one! This way she enjoys being closer with the girls, and I like seeing her scoot around. The other day I ran into the garage quick, and when I came back to the backyard, there was the walker tipped over backwards in the grass. I could barely see her little legs kicking. Thankfully she wasn't hurt.

Analise is doing well. Most days she plays really well with Maisie. However, I know she needs time with her friends, too. Thankfully her cousin is coming over each week to play. Analise loves to play the Wii Hunting with her dad. She's even been looking through the Cabela's ad trying to find what she wants to get him for Father's Day. She keeps telling me he needs a scope for his gun. Then today she was talking about hand guns with him. He asked her if she wanted a hand gun. She said, "No, I want a rifle." What a girl!

Sadie Spotlight

Sadie and I took the two hour drive on Monday for two appointments. It is so nice when I can double up like that. She was a good rider, though I know she missed her sisterly entertainment. Our first appt. was the developmental check up for her adjusted one year of age. They did all sorts of things with her. They gave her blocks to see if she could stack them or bang them together. She just played with them. They put a raisin and small container in front of her to see if she could pick up the raisin and put it into the container. Yes she did! They gave her a peg board and pegs to see if she could put the peg in the board. She just laid it on top. Next was a crayon and paper to see if she could mimic coloring. She tried to, but she was more interested in seeing if she could pull a cap off the crayon. (Like she does with markers.) They put a rubber ducky in front of her with a clear, plastic container over it with the opening in front. They were looking to see if she could figure out to reach in front to get the duck instead of grabbing on top. She did it! So she did well with most of these checks. The doctor was pleased with all that. However, she thinks Sadie is rather quiet for her age. Though she says "bye bye" and "uh oh" the doctor would like to hear more babbling sounds. The other thing she would like us to get an evaluation on is with a physical therapist since Sadie crawls and pulls herself up (nicely, the doc said), but she isn't cruising. She thinks Sadie's muscle tone in the torso is a little weak. So we will have the early developmental network come over soon to do a full evaluation on Sadie. I'll admit my mother's heart was a little saddened by all this. However, once I focus on all the positive things my miracle baby is doing, this is only a couple of small things. Since we have been home, I hear Sadie babbling, "conversing" with her sisters (via spitting and "uh-ohs). She is also taking more steps when I hold on to her hands.

After our appointment, we made the rounds to see all of our nurses. First stop was my doctor's office. I visited with the techs/nurses who had seen me twice a week to take the ultrasound pictures of Sadie (with no fluid!). It was a treat seeing them. We then walked down the 4th floor to see any of my nurses who might be working. I found three, and it was great visiting! Last stop - NICU. We saw an NP that I just loved and two of Sadie's other nurses. It's always so fun to see them respond to Sadie seeing how much she has grown and changed.

We finally left the hospital to meet up for lunch at Olive Garden (yum!) with another one of my nurses/friends and her daughter. It was a delightful time catching up with each other. Thanks, K, for joining us! All week I was hoping to get some shopping done between appointments. That didn't happen. I had time to run into Barnes and Noble to get a book for Brandon, and then I went to a grocery store to get some of my favorite cereal. I can't find it locally any more. By then it was time to get to the other appt. Sadie took a 20 minute power nap on the drive there. We saw the pulmonolgist. Sadie weighed 18 lbs, and get a load of this - her O2 was 100%! Doctor seemed pleased with the things he saw and heard. He went ahead and had her do a sweat test to check for Cystic Fibrosis. Though she wasn't showing signs of having it, he wanted to be completely sure. We praise God again because the results came back normal! Sadie also had another x-ray taken. He found some spots on one lung that he is going to monitor. I'm sure those "spots" had a more official name, but I don't remember what. I just know they were white. :) He says it could be because of her lung disease (I don't like that label) or from her RSV and pneumonia. She could also be aspirating some while she eats. So we will go back in two months for another x-ray to see if it has changed any. We'll take any prayers we can for this matter.

We then made the drive home. The time was good; God answered many prayers.

Now onto other things. Sunday evening we had our first Family Fishing Night. Brandon has a membership to a private lake where he likes to take Analise fishing. He has fished there many years, so he knows Analise will be successful. A successful fisher girl likes to keep fishing! The other girls and I went along, too, to have fun. We went for a walk around the lake a couple of times. It's nice and peaceful out there. Here is Maisie watching Analise fish.

Daddy and daughter fishing!

Analise caught four fish. Her favorite to catch are blue gill and sunfish. Here she has a large mouth bass. She barely touches the fish, and Maisie pets them!

I think these are priceless...

This morning we went to the library to see a ventriloquist. Analise enjoyed him a lot. Maisie tuned in and out, and Sadie was along for the ride like most things. Later this morning I realized it's Maisie's turn to have pink eye. She is the last one to get it, and hopefully this won't go full cycle again.

Sadie's glue came off her chin this weekend, and I realized it really didn't do what it was supposed to do. Her chin is still rather split. She will have a nice little scar, I do believe.

I borrowed a baby walker from my sis in law so Sadie can have something else to sit in while the girls are outside. I didn't always want her just sitting in the swing. We put her in it yesterday to see what she would do. Sadie quickly had a V8 sister behind her racing her up and down the hall. However, this afternoon, I think Sadie enjoyed being in it outside so she felt closer to the action.

That's about all the news from here!