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What Summer?

September 12, 2013 by

It’s September. Not May, June, July or even August – but September (12th to be exact). I have no idea where the summer went, but I’m pretty sure we missed it. With two surgeries and moving to a new home full of projects, we’ve somehow fast forwarded right past that beautiful time of year in which you bask in the glow of the warm sun!

As a last minute attempt to enjoy any type of summer vacation, we went on our annual trip to the Dells this past weekend. When I say the Dells, most parents wouldn’t envision a relaxing time, but we do it a bit different & always have a great time. No overly-crowded water parks or long lines, but instead a stay at a cabin on the river with very few other guests. The weather was beautiful and would have been considered “scorching hot” if we weren’t in the water the entire day. It’s crazy to think last year I was super pregnant with Will and this year he was independently sitting on the beach, drinking a beer (I kid) with his buddy Bex!

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We’ve lived in our home just over 2 months and we’ve accomplished a ton (even if it doesn’t feel like it). In that time we’ve built a fence, painted the kitchen, hall, living room, Ella’s room, landscaped (planted & removed) and tackled some small craft projects (stairwell, front door, etc). In addition to all the other things we do – Joe thinks we should try to blog the before & after’s of each project. I agree, but currently I don’t have a ton of time to do it well, so you’ll have to stay tuned for a photo update soon!

 

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Out of Practice

July 23, 2013 by
Almost 4.5 years ago, I reluctantly put my first baby in the hands of a surgeon that I had only met a few times. At the time Ella was only 4 months old and too tiny to know what was going on. As first time parents, things happened so quickly in her first year of life (two major surgeries & a ton of doctor appointments) that we barely had the time to think of the danger she was undergoing.

Tomorrow I will have to watch my second baby be rolled down the long hallway. Will was born with an undescended testicle and tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. will go under the knife to see exactly what that means. Back in May we had an ultrasound that indicated that the testicle was there, but it had not dropped on it’s own. Since then we met the surgeon who will perform the procedure, who indicated that ultrasounds can’t be trusted. That means that we are facing three scenarios; 1) the testicle is not there at all, 2) the testicle is there, but not “good” or 3) the testicle is there and good, which means that it most likely didn’t descend due to a lack of blood flow. While I’d like Will to have two testicles, especially through his teen years, option #3 involves re-routing of veins/arteries, so I’m not quite on board with that scenario yet.
I am the person who is frequently heard saying, “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be fantastic! There’s no sense of worrying, it doesn’t change the outcome.” Typically I can handle these types of situations. This time feels different though.

I don’t know if it’s simply the fact that I’m out of practice (4.5 years is a long time) or if it’s because I’m older & wiser, but I have been feeling very anxious with the thoughts of these upcoming surgeries.

I know that everything will work out fine and he is in fantastic hands, but that doesn’t remove the risk of anesthetics. It also doesn’t address his recovery time and trying to keep him immobile, all while he’s on the move 24/7, learning to walk. It doesn’t factor in how hard it is to see your baby hurting and crying out in pain.

On the bright side, Will’s surgery can get me back in the game and prepped for Ella’s next surgery in August. It also helps Ella see that she’s not the only one who has to endures these unfortunate circumstances.
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Turning the Page

June 26, 2013 by
Tomorrow’s the big day. That’s right, we close on both houses bright and early in the morning. I’m not sure where the time has gone and I don’t just mean the months leading up to the closing. This was our first home. It was a huge milestone to be able to buy a house at all and an amazing feeling to move in with our already 10 month old baby. That was 4 years ago!

Ella was just learning to scoot (she didn’t crawl) and no where near the sassy little girl she is today. This is where she learned to ride her bike (including wrecking in the driveway), terrorized her first neighbors and camped in her first lawn. We watched her move out of her crib and into her first big girl bed, sing and dance the nights away and chase her pets through the hallways. It’s hard for me to even write this without tearing up. We’ve gone through so many things in this house that it’s hard to leave!

We planned a wedding, experienced a pregnancy (in the middle of summer with no AC) and brought home our new baby boy here. I’ve rocked him to sleep, wiped his tears (and butt) and had bath time fun all in this house.

We’ve poured blood, sweat and tears into this place to make it our own. We spent countless hours pulling weeds, setting posts and breaking our backs to create an outdoor space we could enjoy. We’ve been through more paint samples and frog tape than most contractors, just so we could give our kids childhood bedrooms worth remembering!

We’ve tackled almost every DIY project in the book (fence, deck, finished basement, added bathroom) and just when things were perfect, made the decision to move on. While I’m sad to leave and feel nostalgic looking back at the things we’ve accomplished here, I’m excited for the next chapter of our lives.

One thing I can always be sure of – with the turning of each page is another story, another memory made and another new adventures waiting to happen!
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Bigger Closets

June 13, 2013 by

With less than two weeks to go, I need to find a way to kick it into gear. As I mentioned in my last post (a million years ago) we sold our house and bought a new one. We close on June 26th and need to be packing since we have a ton of stuff and no free weekends in June.

The excitement of having a bigger closet should be enough to motivate me, but I can’t seem to bring myself to get anything accomplished. We’ve started downstairs, but now our house just looks like a disheveled mess. Instead of organizing, my head is spinning with all the things left to do – it doesn’t help that I have a lot of other balls floating in the air (Ella’s surgery, Ella’s speech, Will’s surgery, summer weddings, my grandpas health, family pictures, ahhhh the list goes on and on and on…)

Deep breath! Back to the original thought – once we’re cleared to close and I can line up movers and someone to shampoo the carpets – I think I can just focus on packing. 

I shouldn’t be stressed, we had multiple offers and were lucky enough to sell our home within 1 day. While we’ll greatly miss the home we raised our babies in and our extremely kind neighbors, we were able to sell to someone we know will be a great addition to the neighborhood. Lets hope our new neighbors feel the same about us. If not I’ll just hide in my new closet!

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Overflowing

May 16, 2013 by
It’s been over a month since I last wrote (not counting work related posts like this one). Typically I fall into dry spells because there’s nothing to write about, but in this case – life has been so hectic that I just haven’t had the time. Now I feel like my brain is overflowing with things that are worth documenting that one post won’t be enough! Between selling our house, buying a new one, going on a honeymoon, scheduling surgeries for both kids, family photos, participating in the March of Dimes Walk – the list of things goes on and on and on.

As I sat down though the most important & ironic thing is the fact that my last post was about the loss of a dear family friend and the importance of spending times with the ones you love. Since then I sadly lost another family member due to failing health and my grandfather was rushed to the emergency room with internal bleeding. He has since been released from the ICU but the scare it created is something my family was not prepared for. Hopefully as we go through many other tests, everything will come back in the clear and we can stop worrying.

Since we’re discussing medical ailments, I’ll use this post to update on what’s going on with the kiddo’s and upcoming surgeries. We’ll start with Will since he’s easier. Will was born with a condition called cryptorchidism, more commonly known as undescended testicle, which affects 6% of all newborn boys and it either means that the testicle just didn’t drop or it doesn’t exist at all. Most of the time, if it’s there, the testicle drops on it’s own within the first year of life. In our case, that hadn’t happened – which made me worry that he may not have two at all.

We finally had the much anticipated ultrasound and were able to locate it within his abdomen. I feel very relieved for his sake, however that now means we have to have surgery to bring it down.  Nothing is on the books yet, but we meet the surgeon tomorrow to get things in order.

So now for a regular update on Will:
He’s already 9 months old! It makes me sad that he’s growing so quickly, I wish I could freeze him exactly as he is right now. We had our 9 month check up last week and he weighs 21 lbs. 9 ozs. and is 29″ long. He is the most mobile kid I have ever seen, considering he hasn’t figured out crawling or scooting yet. He rolls all over to get to where he needs to be. That doesn’t mean he isn’t trying to crawl though and I think any day now he’ll be on the move. He’s still not in love with solid foods, but he loves the Gerber Puffs.

Onto Ella. As most of you know Ella was born with a unilateral cleft lip & palate. That means we have undergone many surgeries already, with an unforeseen amount remaining. Overall we have been happy with Ella’s surgical path, however as she’s grown – things have stretched and shifted, making us feel like she could benefit from another surgery. Our surgeon is conservative and prefers to wait until they are absolutely necessary so we have held off.

In the beginning of April I took her to a routine dental cleaning and learned that she had cavities within a few of her bottom teeth and the teeth in her cleft line could benefit from some work as well. The front teeth are extremely important to keep in a healthy state. If we were to pull them out (after all they are baby teeth) it would allow her bone to shrink even more than it already is, thus making a bone graft down the road more complicated. So, within a matter of seconds the appointment went from conversations of what prize she would get, to when we could schedule surgery.

I quickly got on the phone with our surgeon and was lucky enough to get into Cleft Clinic that same week. After our meeting the plan was set in motion; in addition to the dental work, we’ll have a lip & nose revision, fistula repair and the tubes replaced in her ears. As you can imagine, speech development is also affected by cleft lip & palate, so we’ve been in speech therapy since Ella was 2 years old. Recently it seems like her progression is at a stand still and I have yet to see an improvement in the air escape or hyper-nasality. Therefore, in addition to the other procedures, we are exploring the possibility of a pharyngeal flap (P Flap) surgery to create a seal between the nasal & oral cavity. I have about 1,000,000 questions and have yet to decide the best way to move forward but the only real way of knowing is to undergo a nasal endoscopy again. We have done that once before and it was terrible. It consists of a rubber hose with a camera on the end being inserted into her nostril and down into her throat. She then has to be cooperative enough to follow their prompts to say certain sounds, all while we watch to see if the closure is happening. At this point we’re leaning on having the scope again so that we’ll know for sure and then get something on the calendar.

I had wanted to get both kids surgeries handled before the end of June, so that they could recover in a home that is familiar and comfortable to them (more on the house selling/buying in a future post), but as this continues to drag out – it doesn’t seem realistic to accomplish it all. Wish me luck!

So now for a regular update on Ella:
She continues to be the most rambunctious, crazy kid I know. She ceases to amaze me with the witty things she says. Tonight at bedtime I was asking her to act like “my big girl” (we’re having potty issues again randomly). She replied with, “Well dad wants me to stay just like I am, but I can’t help getting bigger. I didn’t make that choice! God did! Silly God.” We had a great turnout at our 2nd March of Dimes Walk on behalf of Cleft Awareness (more on the walk in a future post) this past weekend. She loved spending time with her cousins and couldn’t believe that we all had shirts with her face on them!
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Filed Under: being a mom, Cleft Awareness, Kiddos, parenting, Uncategorized
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