T & A

That's the doctor code for the procedure that Bella had done last week. Tonsil & Adenoid Removal. That's what Bella was in for. Her tonsils and adenoids were extremely swollen; negatively impacting her breathing - especially at night.

Here she is just before the surgery.

She's smiling in this picture. And I think it's the last smile that I saw for days.

When they took us back there, Bella got dressed in this get-up, chose a little toy (stuffed pink pig), and was given a cup of "silly juice".  There was something in the juice that was supposed to relax Bella prior to the procedure.  Based on its name, I thought it was going to make Bella act all goofy.  Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work for her.  She was just plain scared.  Her tears broke my heart and I kind of lost it a little when they wheeled her away.

After about an hour in the waiting room, they called us back.  The procedure was done.  She was in the recovery room and just waking up.  Again, this was not pleasant for her.  There were more tears in her eyes and she kept saying, "I want to go home."  She was also in a lot of pain at this point, so they added some morphine into her IV.  Within minutes, she was back to sleep.  We spent another two hours in the recovery area before being discharged.

That evening was not fun.  Bella did not want to take her pain meds.  We literally had to chase her and pin her down to give them to her.  Oh boy.  We also couldn't get her to drink anything - which was bad since we didn't want her to get dehydrated. 

The next few days were up and down.  She made her bed on the couch and took a lot of naps.

Meanwhile, my mom was in town to help out with everything. I managed to let a whole week go by without getting any pictures of her with the kids. Big bummer. Graydon had so much fun with "Gah-Ma". He was her little shadow. She has been gone for five days and he still asks me "Where Gah-Ma!" I know that he's going to be thrilled to see her again.

Monday morning rolled around and Bella was starting to perk up. This was now six days after the procedure. She wanted to go to school and we let her. This was the last day that she took any pain medicine.

She seems to be feeling much better now. She's eating and drinking just fine. I'm so glad to have my happy Bella back!

And she is breathing so much better!

Too many trips to the doctor

After two trips to the pediatrician and one ER visit, we've seen all that we care to of the doctor this week.

On Monday evening, Bella began to complain of stomach pain - though she was pointing to her lower left rib/lung area as the source of the pain. It was manageable and she just warned us to be careful not to touch her there.

Tuesday, all day, not a problem. Later in the evening - around 10 pm - she wakes up crying in pain. I rushed to her to try and calm her and find out what was wrong. She just kept crying and couldn't stop long enough to tell me. I soothed her as best I could as we figured out that her pain had come back - intensely.

We didn't know the cause or how serious/not serious this pain could be, but we didn't want to take any chances. It was now 10:30 pm. A friend from church came over so that Andy and I could both go to the ER while Graydon stayed at home asleep.

A chest x-ray revealed some cloudiness in the area where Bella's pain was coming from. The ER doc (who Bella was terrified of) said that is may be a slight pneumonia on its way out. She was already on Augmentin for an ear infection, so that should also take care of this too.

Great. Home we go. Sleep for everyone.

The next morning, Graydon had a scheduled dr. visit to re-check his chest (he wasn't sounding too great at his check-up the previous week). He's all cleared up - which meant shots for our boy. He was a trooper, but of course they hurt his poor little legs.

On Thursday, Bella's pain resurfaced again - and it seemd to get worse. More pain that laster longer. She spent the day on the couch watching movies.

That was one thing she didn't mind.

Then evening came and she woke up crying in pain once or twice. Things were still bad in the morning. I had a fear that the pneumonia was on the way in, not out. And, since we were heading into the weekend, we scheduled a visit with our pediatrician to check her out. Again.

Our ped. said that her lungs don't sound too bad and that she may have pulled something (due to her 2-month-long-cough-that-wouldn't-go-away). That makes sense to me as she had some pretty long, hard coughing spells. Thankfully though, the cough appears to have gone away in the past couple of days. Thank you Augmentin.

She remained in pain on Friday - afraid to move around much for fear of 'hurting her stomach'. Saturday was a little better and today. . . I haven't heard a thing about it.

Now the hangnail on her thumb that is hurting oh so bad. . . that's another story.
***
You can't tell from the photo that Graydon is watching "Baby Signing Time", but he is. Really, this photo is a pretty amazing phenomenon.This kid has no attention for TV (which I am fine with), but when "BST" is on, he will sit and pay attention for about three songs. Bella helps him with his signs. He has mastered "all done" and once we nail down "more", I have a feeling our mealtimes will be much more pleasant.
His spoken vocabulary is growing. . . I think. We hear a lot of "Ma Ma" and "Da Da". Sometimes they are in context, sometimes not. It's hard to tell at this point. . . but I have a feeling he's on the right track.
***

Due to Bella not feeling so well, we bought some popsicles. I intended to share mine with Graydon (ie. I give him a few licks). He had other ideas.I'm the one who ended up with only a few licks. Score for Graydon! How can I resist when it makes him so happy?

***

I did a little art project in Graydon's room. He now has a "mobile" hanging over his changing table.

Well, my cheap version of a mobile. I took some photos of his bedding and then "cut" them out in my photo editing software, printed the image, cut the circles, inked the edges, then hung it on the ceiling.

Graydon absolutely despises diaper changes. As soon as I start to even lower him to the table, he starts crying. I thought that something to look at above him might help.

It kind of does. Only, now he just cries out of frustration because he can't reach the circles.

At least it looks cute.

Yuckies!

It seems that we just can't get healthy around here. Bella has a cough that's been plaguing her for over a month. It doesn't seem to bother her at all, but sounds just awful. This week, Graydon got slammed with a cold. Icky cough, runny nose, interrupted sleep, and very grumpy baby. He was such a handful this week. Every little thing would set him off. Lots of screaming and crying. I did my best to console him, but he wore me out. By the end of the week, I was feeling so edgy and irritable. He was waking up every few hours at night, which did not help matters. I think I reached my breaking point on Thursday and then, miraculously, that evening he slept from 7:30pm - 6:30am. I gave him his paci at that point and then he further slept until 8:30 when I had to wake him up so that we could get going to Bella's ballet class. It always seems that the kids like to sleep in on days where we actually have somewhere to go. I think that God knew I could not handle one more day of the cranky Graydon or I would seriously lose. my. mind. The past three days have been much, much better. Thank you Lord!

Bella drew a picture of our family on her doodle. Daddy is on the left, then Graydon, Pumpkin (our baby's nickname), me, and her. Bella is very excited about the baby. . . but only of it's a girl. She only refers to the baby as "she" or "her" or "sister". Her logic makes sense. "I already have a brother, now I want a sister." So I countered her with Graydon's point of view, he already has a sister and may want a brother. Bella's response: "How about this baby can be a girl and then you can have one more that is a boy for Graydon." We'll see Isabella!
Another attempt at catching Graydon walking. I seem to be having a hard time with this as here is another blurry, out-of-focus walking picture. He's up to about 20 steps and can even turn corners. He'll just take off on his own - arms outstretched, steps wobbly. But he gets around. It is so cute and he is so proud.

Miss Bella had her four-year check-up on Tuesday morning. She is now 40.5 inches tall (75th percentile) and 35 pounds (50th percentile). I didn't read up about what to expect at this visit, so I hadn't prepared myself or Bella for the four shots plus a finger prick that she'd be getting. She was so brave. The finger prick must have hurt, but she didn't cry. Then the first two shots went in one arm. She whimpered an "ow" as tears filled her eyes. The next two shots on the other arm really did her in. Big time crying. I don't blame her. That was a lot. She did receive a certificate of bravery for a free kid's meal from Chick-Fil-A that we used the next day. I also treated her to ice cream after our visist. Prior to receiving her shots, Bella was asked to draw a person. That went well as they are one of her favorite art subjects. She also had her first hearing and vision test. Things look really well for our girl. Everything came back normal and healthy. Yay!!!

I had a baby appointment on Friday. It was a very quick, in-and-out appointment - which I like very much. Everything is looking good with me and the baby and we heard a very strong heartbeat, which is always a joy. I think I may have started feeling some movements, but nothing that I can be sure of. I'm still waiting for the very obvious kicks and flutters. I'll be 17 weeks tomorrow!

Christmas!

The festivities began earlier in the week with Christmas cookie decorating. Bella really looks forward to this and I didn't want to let her down. . . even though I was feeling completely miserable that morning. The cold that hit the kids latched on to me. And it still lingers with all of us. Back to cookie decorating. . . here's Bella armed with some frosting!
She's becoming quite the pro.
All finished! I think we had a few minutes to lay down on the couch before Graydon woke up from his nap. Christmas Eve! After the church service, we got the kids changed into their jammies. Poor Bella started to break out into hives that evening. I'm pretty sure these are the result of the cold virus that we just can't seem to shake around here. Thankfully I haven't seen any on Graydon for a couple of days. Since Bella was not feeling so well, we had Graydon finish his bottle on the floor. He's starting to get whole milk once in a while. We're still working on a sippy cup with him. When the stopper is in, he won't drink from it. When it's out, there's a huge mess. The bottle is just right. And, I have to mention his shirt. It says, "All Mommy wants for Christmas is a silent night." I bought this over a month ago and it was very true at the time as Graydon was not sleeping well at night. Turns out it was even more true now as our house has been overcome with the sickies and no one is sleeping well.
On Christmas Eve they can open one present. Bella was so impatient. The anticipation was about to do her in. After the kids were in bed, we put the presents under the tree. There are quite a few there. We only get three gifts for each of the kids, and then a gift for each other. If it were just us, then there'd only be eight gifts under that tree. But, the kids get spoiled from church friends and that's what makes up the remainder of the presents. Christmas morning! Bella's first reaction when coming down the stairs and looking at the tree.
First, each of them checked out their stockings. They were filled with snacks for our road trip to Wisconsin in a couple of days.
Before opening any presents, we lit our Advent wreath. Graydon beginning to open a gift. I think the most he did was rip it a little. It was probably a waste of time and paper to wrap his gifts. Oh well. Bella was more than happy to help him out.
Our two kiddos. I was going to try to get a better picture of the two of them, but then I decided not to bother. Both were feeling kind of sick and this was just our reality this Christmas. Helping Daddy open up his present from me. I got him some snacks for our road trip as well and his big gift was a new robe. He got me the Peanuts DVD set that contained the Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas specials. I love those movies!Graydon liked the boxes.
Baby's first Christmas.Playing with Daddy (all snug in his robe).
And a close-up of that smile because we just haven't seen much of it during this past week of illness.
Once the presents were all unwrapped, Andy made some pancakes for breakfast. While Graydon napped, the rest of us watched 'Snow White,' one of Bella's presents. Andy and I pretty much fell asleep at that point as well. Eventually, we all got dressed and headed outside to play in the snow.

Graydon stayed put the whole time. He was either unsure of the snow or unable to move in all that get-up. Either way, it made him very easy to keep track of as this boy rarely sits still anymore.
Here's the beginning of our snowman!One of the gifts for the kids was this snowman kit. Very cool!
Bella put the face on all by herself.
The hat was the final touch.
All finished!With the snowman complete, we moved on to sledding. There's a little hill just off the church parking lot that is the perfect size for Bella. We tried to get her a sled, but every store was sold out. Some friends from church let us borrow theirs for a little while.
Even Graydon took a turn.

Our Christmas dinner that evening came from a local Chinese restaurant. We know the owners pretty well and since we're heading out of town, we didn't want a huge meal with leftovers. I can't begin to describe how good this food tasted. So delicious! I think this will become one of our Christmas traditions.

Our last plan of the evening was to drive around looking at Christmas lights. It was all going well until Bella's hives flared up again. She was in agony...so itchy. They didn't seem so bad the night before and went away pretty quickly. That was not the case this time. She was crying and wanted to go home. We stopped at a CVS and picked up some Benadryl for her. The meds and a bath really did wonders. She hasn't had any hives today and has seemed fairly healthy.

With sickness lingering in our family the whole week prior to Christmas and then raging up again on the actual day, the holiday didn't go necessarily as planned in every part. But we still celebrated the birth of Jesus and spent quality time together as a family. That's a Merry Christmas to me. :)

Snowed In!

I almost forgot that I had a blog to get to this evening. Doesn't feel like a Sunday. The reason? Church was canceled. Why was church canceled? We were hit with 24 inches of snow!!! The snow started falling in the early Saturday morning hours and continued into Sunday morning. I haven't seen anything like this since we've been living in New Jersey. In fact, the news said there hasn't been a December storm like this since 1966! We're finally going to have a white Christmas!

Bella excitedly looked out the window that morning. "It's Christmas!" she said. The previous 24 hours hadn't been so good for her. It began with her waking up just after midnight the previous night. She was crying. She felt warm. She started coughing a lot. I brought her downstairs to lay on the couch where she proceeded to throw up on her blanket. She then watched Cinderella while I laid on the other couch, attempting to get what sleep I could. Unfortunately, sleep was not easy for me to come by that night because. . .

Graydon was also dealing with his own sick issues. For several days, he had a runny nose and slight cough. We also noticed a strange rash developing on his body that completely baffled us. He'd break out into red blotches and then an hour later they'd be gone. We tried to figure out what he might be allergic to, but couldn't think of anything new or different that he'd been exposed to. After some research, we determined that they were hives, which was later confirmed by the pediatrician. They can be caused by a virus, which may be Graydon's case. If they continue to reoccur, then we'll be seeing an allergist. The next day, Graydon's slight cough developed into a barky, croupy cough.

Two sick kids. Two exhausted parents.

By Saturday's snowfall, Bella was over 24 hours into her illness. She still had a slight temp, but she was up and moving around - a vast difference from the previous day where she literally laid in bed or on the couch ALL DAY. She was begging to go outside and since the fresh air would be good for her, we complied. She was happy. All bundled up and ready to play! Braving the blizzard. I happily took a few photos from inside the warm house. Notice our rake propped up against the fence. We still hadn't cleared the yard of all the leaves. Maybe we'll finally get to it in January. :) Bella made a snow angel and tried to put together a snowman, but the snow was too dry. Before all this snow melts, we really need to get this kid a sled!

And here she is inside and all warmed up, cute rosy cheeks and all. Sorry again for the lack of Graydon photos. Any picture of him would have been of a snotty, buggery, cranky, hive-y kid. Thankfully, both kids seem to be on the mend (though Graydon still has an icky cough). And. . . now Andy and I seem to have caught the colds. I think it's the kids' turn to take care of us.