Friday, October 18, 2013

Just that time of year

You know when fall hits and you say,
"What happened to summer?"
Yea that's where I'm at.
We didn't get in near as much as I wanted to this last summer.
Since June Liam has had
Pneumonia,
Infection of his G-tube site 3 times,
and 2 colds/virus's.
All of this and:
1. It wasn't even the scary cold/flu/RSV season (aka quarantine season)
2. And only resulted in one hospital admittance!
The fact that he was sick that many times and was only in the hospital once
is absolutely AMAZING!
The fact that he was sick that many times
and it wasn't even quarantine season is scary.
To think that just a few months ago
an infection of his G-tube site would land him in the hospital,
a year ago a cold would land him in the hospital,
and now he's at home fighting all this on his own.
There is reason to have faith in the future
that things will continue to improve,
that one year soon,
Liam just might not have to be quantantined all winter long.
But sadly he does,
and the season is upon us.
The paperwork for synagis,
to help fight RSV,
was submitted a month ago.
Two weeks ago they were informed that pediatrician referral wasn't enough,
that insurance required the pulmonologist to make a referral on Liam's behalf.
Technically he fits the criteria.
Has chronic lung disease,
asthma,
and frequently requires oxygen.
BUT now the ball is in pulms court
to be bounced back to insurance.
That was two weeks ago.
It's going to be a scary year if they  don't approve them.
Liam just "got over" an infection of his G-tube site.
We just stopped the antibiotics on that this last Tuesday.
His stoma looks great now,
but he's still not tolerating all his feeds.
He's doing great with his day time bolus's
but not so good with his continuous night feed.
Not sure if he caught a virus or not.
He still seems to be gaining weight
and growing taller.

But now here we are,
at the time of year we start quarantine.
Liam has a therapy "field trip" coming up with Bright Start.
It will be our last fun outing for awhile.
And with it goes all my hopes I had had for summer.
We didn't get a chance to go to church like we wanted.
That was a huge one for me.
The hope that we'd get to go regularly when Summer hit,
got me through winter.
Yes I watch the surmons online when my internet is working properly,
but its not the same.
I still feel blessed that he escaped summer,
with so few hospital stays,
and we got to make a little vacation
and take Liam to the beach for the first time.
I know I need to get those pictures posted.
And Liam is doing so much better than he was this time last year
so I have faith that next year we will have open doors
to do things differently.
I would love my kids to be able to go to
Church for the Christmas surmons for once.
And for Lanie to go to Sunday school every week.
I know a real Christmas tree is out of the question right now,
but maybe we can get a real pine wreath to hang,
or atleast show Liam a live tree.
His asthma and allergies just aren't up to a real tree yet.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Lanie is doing great in school.
She loves it.
She was sad when she didn't have homework
the first month.
And now she finishes her homework
AND ASKS FOR MORE!!
I love that she loves school.
She does very well listening in class,
and concentrating.
She even has learned to read some.
Its so amazing.
She says she has lots of friends.
I've watched her play before school,
and she does have lots of friends lol.
I was quiet and shy when I was her age,
but not Lanie.
She's outgoing.
My little social butterfly.
She's very picky on her clothes
and always wants to look nice.
There are some outfits she picks out that I'm not sure I like
but since they aren't inappropriate for school
I let her explore her own fashion sense.
She should be allowed to be creative,
and develop her own personality.
I think soon I will take her shopping,
give her a budget,
and let her choose the clothes she likes.
(as long as they are appropriate for age and school)

I started working.
Its been officially a week now.
Last Friday I had orientation.
I'm doing good at work,
and having alot of fun.
It feels like a mini vacation away from home.
Since working,
I've been happier.
More energetic.
Justin has been able to be home with the kids
while i've been working.
Liam's doing great with it.
He still wants his cuddles and loves from me,
but he isn't as clingy.
Doesn't follow me from room to room.
He still throws a fit sometimes when I leave,
but not every time like he was doing.
When I get my first paycheck next week,
I think Ill surprise both kids with something.
I think new shoes and outfit for Liam
and Ill take Lanie on a girls day to pick out her own.
Then I'm going to use the rest of it to get started on Christmas.

So all in all life is pretty great.
God is amazing.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Say What!?

The last week or two have been a whirlwind of development for Little Lamb.
He started running!
I never thought I'd see the day when I'd have to say to him
"Don't run with that your going to get hurt!"
but sure enough 3 nights ago I did.
He has also been talking up a storm!
Saying things that cause us to turn our heads in shock and say
"Say what?!?!"
He loves to say the word broken.
He tells us EVERYTHING is broken,
including himself.
He pulls at his tubie and says
"broken"
I told him
"your not broken baby your perfect"
He smiles and hugs me.
Tonight he pointed at the ceiling and said
"floor"
I explained that it wasn't the floor.
"No baby thats the ceiling"
Liam responded "ceil".
"Yea baby ceiling".
He pointed again and said
"ceiling"!!!
I am so proud of him.
As of yesterday he says
"Nascar"
He has a long list of words now:
Fiss (fish)
Cuddles
"ook ook ook theres donald duck"
ball
bubbles
Walmart
Run
"Go go go run"
"go go go rae" (race)
Haro (our dog)
Cat
Jack (our cat)
Daddy
Mum
car
eat
wey wey (water or wet)
pay (play)
red
geen (green)
boo (blue)
Boo (as in peak a boo)
puple (purple)
cow
moo
duck
quack quack
woof woof
diaboo (diaper)
bye bye
hey

He adds words to his vocab daily.
They said he would catch up quickly,
I just didn't realize it would be this quickly.
He having growth spurts.
Acting like a healthy 2 year old.

He did have that seizure while sleeping a week ago last saturday.
Pedi isn't worried about that one.
He is worried about the ones he's having during the day.
I had been having such a hard time getting anyone to believe me about these episodes or to show interest.
I don't know why but Pedi believed me.
He knows me well enough now that Im not going to overreact so when I bring something to his attention he needs to listen to the whole story and then come to a conclusion.
Like Ive said a million  times before,
We have the best pedi.
Liams body will tense up and his extremities will shake and his eyes go blank.
An MRI has been ordered to check Liams brain.
Hopefully we wont find it worse off.
The last scan was when we left NICU and there was a bright spot on the cognitive thinking and fine motor skills area of the brain.
We are also waiting for Pulmonology to submit their paperwork as to why Liam needs synages this year.
As of right now he doesn't meet their requirements but we all know Liam needs them.
Its up to pulmonology to say
"this kid frequently requires oxygen and has chronic lung disease".
Praying they do this because we DONT need Liam getting RSV.
We need to keep him out and away from the hospital as much as possible.
More big news.
I am going back to work.
For the first time since April 2011
I will be working.
For the first time since Liam was born July 2011,
I will leave him to go to work.
It's so hard to believe that he's well enough to go back to work.
He's come to far!!
I forgot to mention that he is also eating ALOT by mouth!!
This kid eats almost as much by mouth as a kids his age is supposed to eat!
Amazing! 
2 months ago things didn't look like he'd be doing this great,
but here we are.
And I thank God for it!

New horizons in crafting

I got a new toy today and am super excited! 
I purchased the Original Cricut machine today from a friend for only $75!!
It's brand new.
Box is still sealed.
And white with PINK accents!
Its very pretty.
The machine only cuts images up to 5 1/2" so its the perfect starter machine.
I've been wanting one for years.
Originally so I could create shirts with vinyl.
CDH awareness was my main focus.
But now that I've been looking at all it can do Im super excited about the prospect of
making homemade cards and scrapbook embelishments.
Now all I need to do is sit down and play with it.
I tried tonight but Miss Lanie kept talking in my hear so I couldn't concentrate.
Being a mom,
you gotta know when to walk away.


In my search for help and ideas on how to use the cricut I can along some resouces that I not only want to bookmark, but thought I'd share:

1) http://www.myvinyldirect.com For those who are looking for vinyl they have it at the best prices i've found yet. You can buy vinyl by the yard. 12"x1 yard is $2.98 and shipping is pretty cheap too. They also have iron on vinyl, transfer tape and more.

2) Apparently most machines come with the George and basic shapes cartridge and apparently it is already uploaded on every machine you just have to unlock it. The cartridge is very expensive but this site shows you how  you can easily make one and it works great. Theyve only seen 1 in 100 users not work. http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-Cricut-George-cartridge-for-free/

3) The few minutes I had to sit down and play with the Cricut made me realize it was going to be harder than I imagined. I got to looking at the manual and read about the craft room. Its a free software download thats compatible with all cricut machines. Even though you don't have to have a computer to use your machine it does make it easier. From what I read you just drag and drop the images until you get what you want then you connect the computer to the cricut and cut. Sounds pretty awesome http://www.cricut.com/home/craftroom

4) Pintrest had lots of great ideas. I just searched "Cricut project ideas"