Physical Therapy

In late December I pointed out to Sam's doctor that she still couldn't straighten her arm all the way or touch her shoulder. 

I guess four months post injury, this is not good.

So we started physical therapy.  

Oye.

Twice a week for 30 minutes these two waited oh so patiently while our therapist worked on and measured Sam's ever so slow progress.

Every day, three times a day we stretched her arm at home.  It was not pretty.  I actually had to text to neighbor to let her know what was going on, less she heard Samantha and called CPS.

I wish I'd gotten a before, but this is HUGE improvement.  She still can't touch her shoulder unless I'm pushing and she's screaming at me, but we don't have to race to PT twice a week any more!

Leagues different

As I sit here 40+ weeks pregnant I can't help but compare how different things are this time around.  With Samantha at this time I was freaking out.  We were moving in less than two weeks and baby was staying put.  This time I'm hoping to go past my due date and every day I just pretend that I'm not near giving birth- and so far so good.  I was a little stressed the last few weeks, but things really have settled down at work and I'm just too tired at the end of the day to care about details...which is good as I was having a hard time with the idea of letting someone else take over my classes for 2 months. 

We'd really like to make it to October 1st for a few reasons- but our current and biggest one is Samantha.  She tested positive for strep on Tuesday and after 2 days on antibiotics and being fever free was sent home from school with another fever.  This time it's suspected to be the flu.
 
This girl just can't get a break. 

So she's fighting off two things right now and it would kill me (and her) if Charlotte was born and we had to keep them separated.  Heck, Sam wouldn't even be allowed in the hospital! 

Prayers please for a healthy Samantha so we can allow her to be the big sister that she has waited oh so patiently to be. 

Also, a picture from last week's hospital visit.  Jeremy said she was just too cute walking back and forth to the bathroom in her gown pulling her IV along like it was nothing.

Samantha's Hospital Visit

That's right. Sam's.  Not the 38+ week pregnant mother.  Very confusing for my students when I returned today, let me tell you.

Samantha had her first migraine in seven months on Sunday.  It was the longest stretch we've ever had, but it was a doozy.  We were at Pius and she was running up and down and up and down and up and down the hallway (her favorite thing to do there).  At 6pm I suddenly I heard a scream, walked out and saw her curled up in a ball on the floor.  "I HAVE A MIGRAINE!" she cried. 

Hoping against hope I tried the usual, "Let me see" and "open your eyes" and "stand up please" to see if she was faking it (she's four and likes to experiment sometimes).  Unfortunately this was for real. 

Luckily, I had her meds with me so I was able to give those to her, but she had to wait for me as I locked up all the doors in the building that I had unlocked.  I tried to explain to her that I couldn't carry her, but after her begging, "Just call Daddy so he can carry me, please, please please!" I decided to risk it and carried her to the van with her eyes buried deep into my shoulder.  I had to leave my room a disaster, with all of her crafts on the floor and my papers on my desk, but we made it home before the vomiting started. 

She was able to settle in her dark room and started the usual routine. 

Jeremy took the night shift to wait out the migraine and I went to bed, hoping she'd be better by morning.  It really is a waiting game.  We're suppose to give her zofran, ibuprofen and then hydrate her up with gatorade.  But this time she'd started the migraine a little dehydrated to begin with and so the vomiting wasn't very productive.

At 1am Jeremy woke me up to tell me that he was taking her to the ER because she was vomiting  every 10 minutes and there was blood. 

Now, I'm not very coherent on a regular day when I'm woken-up.  So waking up to hear this I was a complete mess.  Do I go?  Do I stay?  I'm 9 months pregnant.  Not sleeping could cause labor and then there would be TWO of us in the hospital.  My classroom.  Even with a sub they can't have class in the condition it's in. 

I called my mom bawling and she said she'd go to the hospital to be with Samantha and I was to stay home and try and sleep. 

Which lead to me calling my department head bawling and about not coming in and not having anything for the kids the next day and my room being a disaster (this may sound petty, but my teacher friends can understand- right?).  Being the absolute best boss in the world she said they'd take care of it and to keep her updated (my whole department spent the time before school in my room getting things all set up for my sub.  Seriously, I don't deserve them.)

After bawling some more and waking up a little I realized I couldn't NOT be at the hospital.  Good grief, what was I thinking!  So I called my mom sobbing and she said she'd leave to come get me, as I was "in no condition to drive". 

When I got to the hospital my poor baby was hooked up to an IV and sleeping soundly.  Jeremy told me that when it was time for the IV she simply help up her hand, they put it in, she said "It tickles" and then went back to sleep. 

Seriously.

That story makes me chuckle and cry at the same time.  Chuckle because that's my backwards daughter.  Throws a fit if her shoes aren't just right, but says an IV "tickles".
 
Cry because it was mostly likely nothing compared to the migraine pain.  It very well may have "tickled" in comparison.

Anyway around 2:45am they said it looked like she was stabilized and were going to send us home.  I asked that we stay until 3:15, as that would put us 15 minutes past the hour-mark for puking pattern that she usually follows.  She did great, slept the whole way.  They took out her IV, we signed the discharge papers and Sam asked for a drink of water (migraine was still going as she still couldn't open her eyes).

Within a minute she was vomiting again.

So, she got another IV (same routine- still said it tickled) and they decided to take a CAT scan.  I was actually very happy about this- a scan DURING a migraine.  Maybe it would give us some answers.

But it came back normal (that's good, right?)

Around 4:30 they wheeled her up to her room in the Ped's ward.  They got her into her bed and "pop" she opened her eyes.  Jeremy and I just melted with relief, as this is the "switch" that tells us the migraine is gone. 

We had to make sure the doctors orders for more meds were canceled and tried our best to explain that we knew she was ok now (and had to promise the nurse that she did, in fact, have a migraine 2 minutes ago).  Samantha was very charming and so excited about her own room and got to watch TV (the ultimate prize in her book). 

At this point my feet were puffy little pillows and my adrenaline rush was gone so my amazing mom (who was still with us!!!)  took me home while Jeremy stayed at the hospital to sleep while Samantha got her TV fix. 

Fast forward to 11:30am and Sam was back at home.  She had charmed the pants off the nurses and got some serious loot.  She came home with a new baby-doll with three outfits, a new set of PJ's (she's messed her clothes up), a Project Linus blanket and a princess book. 

The rest of the day was spent tag-teaming naps, follow-up with her doctor and game plan for where to go from here as far as her migraines go.  We'll be seeing a pediatric neurologist and a pediatric optamologist.  The latter is because Samantha has some noticeable light sensitivity on a regular day and when she has her migraines she says the pain is all in her eyes and she cannot open them or she starts to vomit immediately.

Aaaaaand that's all for now.  'Cause it's gonna be Wednesday in one hour.

FOUR

I'm not sure how it is possible that every year gets faster and faster.  I seriously feel like I posted her 3-year collage a month ago.  I'm also getting later and later in posting about her birthday every year.  And celebrating her birthday and getting her into her yearly appts.  You'd think her birthday was on a different day every year or something that I couldn't get my act together by May 18th!

Oh well, I don't have her exact stats yet (her appt is the 14th of June) but she's roughly 33lbs and 34" tall.  She had a MAJOR growth spurt this year.  When she started school in August she was in 2T clothing.  She ended the school year in 4T.  I'm SO glad I didn't buy summer clothes last fall like I normally do, otherwise I'd have bought the wrong size. 

The other usual stats:
Sleep- sleep is still fairly illusive, although I have to remind myself that she's come a LONG way.  She will fall asleep in the car and on the couch or just cuddled up with me and we haven't had a night scream fest for months.  This summer was off to a rough start due to her window being like a spotlight in her room, causing her 8pm-6:30am sleep cycle to streeeetch to 10pm to 6:30am.  After a few weeks of losing those 2 hours of sleep she was a CRANK.  Naps only made it harder for her to fall asleep at night.  Sleeping in our dark room only made us cranky too as NO one was sleeping well. So a friend sewed some black-out fabric and Sam now has curtains behind her curtains that darken her room enough so that sleep at 8pm is part of the routine again.  PHEW!  The next step will be to get her to stay in bed after we leave.  She has a hard time stopping.  And the more tired she gets, the more she moves.

Bodily functions-  A month or so ago I mentioned to Samantha in passing that if she could keep her pull-up dry she could start wearing her panties to bed.  And voila she started keeping her pull-up dry.  TOTAL shock as she has the bladder the size of a walnut.  She will have an accident here and there, but if I drag her to the toilet 1/2 asleep before I go to bed, she can usually make it until morning. 

Speech-  If Samantha is awake, she's talking.  I'm working really hard at talking to herself in her head as there are times when even whispering isn't appropriate or gets too loud.  Now THAT's a hard thing to try and model, let me tell you.  She's also into potty talk.  I know that it's normal for this age AND that the more I try and stop it, the more she'll want to do it, but it was really getting out of hand.  EVERY word or song involved the words poop or pee or potty.  So I not only tried to put a stop to it, but tried to give her other fun words to say too like "chiuaua" or "pumpernickel" or "beebee".  So far so good, however the potty talk has quickly been replaced with expressions like, "HUMPH" or "It's not FAIR" or sticking her tongue out.  She did that to papa the other day and she's lucky I punished her first! 

Eating- Sam is experimenting with the concepts of negotiation for dessert or declaring she doesn't like something, but she really has a hard time keeping up with these charades as she just loves all food.  This is an area that we are seriously blessed with.   Given the choice, she'll eat junk over fresh, but that's just because she doesn't get much of it at home.  Even then, though, I think she's the only kid I know who will get half-way through a piece of cake and say she's full.  Samantha is a fantastic eater.  She has her preferences, but we have to say things like, "Ok, that's enough bell pepper, eat some of your hamburger too" so I'm not ever going to complain about how she eats!

The famous story at school is of her and another girl harvesting all the spinach in the greenhouse and eating it all.  The other girl is a fairly picky eater, so it's very likely that Samantha ate the entire spinach patch herself!

Health update- Sam hasn't had a migraine for a few months (knock-on-wood) and has even been able to enjoy things like ice cream from Dairy Queen.  We do have to be careful of severe constipation, as she sweats all.the.time (inside with the AC on and playing dress-up for example), but a constant supply of Gatorade has kept that under control. On the physical development side of things, the preschool has been amazing in that she's learned from the other kids how to walk (and even play a little!) on sand or wood chips.  She also can climb any playground, jump off surfaces and catch herself if she gets off balance.  I've just now reached a point where I've had to tell her NOT to jump off things (like 5 stairs at once), where as we use to celebrate her even climbing onto the coffee table. 

SO there we go.  Samantha at 4-years-old!  I do hope Charlotte gets at least bi-yearly updates...I'm already slacking in the belly-shot tradition.  

Progress?

A behavioral therapist recently pulled all the idiosyncrasies of Samantha together to help us be better understand why Sam is..."different" (her migraines, hour-long night screaming fits, waking up screaming since infancy, food sensitivities, light sensitivities, etc) and how to be better parents.  So far everything we work on she responds wonderfully to.  She's able to play rather than lining toys up and forbidding everyone from touching them, she sleeps through the night (90% of the time) and can calm herself down when she gets into one of her fits (not tantrums- Lord I wish they were just tantrums) about her socks/carseat buckle/touching sand and sometimes just because.

Anyway last night we saw some progress in how she calms down from her night fits.  We hadn't seen one in about 3 weeks so that in itself was an improvement.  I almost called the therapist at midnight to tell him what happened, I was so excited.  I put her back in her pack and play while she was flailing (don't ask- it's the only place she'll sleep right now...we're working on it...) and told her I'd give her her puppy blanket back when she apologized to Daddy for screaming at him.  She threw a huge fit, kicking, screaming til she was hoarse, etc...but she stayed in her bed until she was done!!  Then she came in to our room calmly and apologized to Jeremy.  This is HUGE.  And finally, when I gave her the puppy back and told her to go to back to bed she skipped off happily and curled up under her blankets.

I laid there for quite a while trying to process what had just happened.  The therapist said that eventually we would see progress at night just by working on her fits during the day and I saw it right there first hand.  The night screaming ended under 30 minutes from start to finish- a new record.  And she did most of the work for us (ie calming herself down).

Unfortunately, that was when the bad news started.  Jeremy and I went back to sleep around midnight and at 1:30am we wake up to hear her in the hallway.  Apparently she never actually went to sleep.  I couldn't help but crack up when Jeremy told me she had every surface in the hallway and bathroom covered in blankets and towels and whatnot, claiming she was making "beds" for her animals.

So for an hour and a half she played quietly by herself.  Why can't she do that during the DAY?

Wearing a too-small swimsuit over JEANS-- big improvement on the texture sensitivity front :)

Baby steps, Kim...baby steps.

Toddler Migraines

Yesterday from 6pm-on was a complete blur.  I was at Super Saver with Samantha and just as I was getting into line to check out she got a weird look on her face, said she didn't feel well, started to sweat profusely (in the middle of a very chilly supermarket), buried her head in my chest as she sat in the shopping cart and refused to open her eyes... for the next 10 hours.  I was scared as I knew what was coming- 6-8 hrs of puking and lots and lots of laundry while I sat around and waited for the horror of watching my child writhe in pain pass. But what was really scary, was that this was first time that she was able to articulate what was happening to her.

I called Jer as I drove the short distance home and he made a "nest" for her on the couch.  It's really sad that even though this has only happened 3 times in the past year, he still knew the drill: couch covered in towels, lots of rags handy, tupperware for the puke, all lights out and TV ready.  This time she requested an icepack too- for her face. 

She didn't move from this position for 8 hours

I sat with her the whole time, holding her hand, blowing on her sweaty head and asking her to tell me where it hurt.  She just insisted that it was her face.  As the night wore on she'd whisper "I love you mommy" and around 10pm after she puked she smiled under the icepack and whispered, "It's getting better mommy!"

Around 10 hours in I was getting worried as she still was not done puking.  When these episodes stop it's literally like a light is switched and she's bouncing off the walls, making up for lost time.  Finally at 5 am she woke up screaming and demanding yogurt (pretty typical these days) and opened her eyes.  As she did so she stopped, looked at me and squealed, "Mommy! I'm all better now!"  She proceeded to CHUG tons of water and wolf down some saltines (I was way too sleep deprived to fight the whole ease-into-food-and-drink routine) and she puked it alllll up.  This is where Jeremy took over.  He was able to nurse her stomach back to working capacity and allowed me to get some uninterrupted sleep.
When I woke up I talked to Sam about her headache.  I asked why she wouldn't open her eyes (the only question she wouldn't answer during the episode itself).  She stopped and furrowed her brow, "Everything was green.  My whole face was green.*" she said.

After reporting all of this to our amazing nurse practitioner, Kathy Carter, she confirmed my suspicions- classic migraines.  Not too surprising, though, as I grew up with my dad puking from migraines and I still get some now and again that will block out my vision for a few hours. What really made my stomach churn was realizing that my poor baby has been experiencing migrains since she was tree-months-old.

I was quite relieved when she told me there was no need to schedule any MRI or further testing since the migraines only happen very rarely now and she's perfectly fine in between them. The next step is to see if we can curb the nausea during the migraines with some zofran which would allow her to keep down some Ibuprofen for the pain and loooots of Gatorade to keep her hydrated.  (Sam has a bladder the size of a walnut.  If she drinks a tsp of water, a 1/4 cup will come out.  She's ALWAYS peeing.  During the migraine she didn't pee for 9 hours despite us allowing her to sip some fluids).

Anyway, she's pretty excited to drink "Daddy's sick-juice" (Gatorade) the next time she has a migraine. She tried the whole "my head hurts" routine to get some today, but she couldn't keep a straight face and I was able to trick her into opening her eyes while she was playing sick.

So, I'm glad we have some answers now, something to do when another one comes around again and a child with the ability to communicate when a migraine is coming.  Now to figure out the trigger...**

*Kathy said she's getting an "aura" before her migraines
**Current theory is sinus infections.  That's the only constant that we can think of that she's had every time she's gotten a migraine- at least a week of heavy duty sinus gunk

The Only Shrimp I Love

We went to our last baby well check-up. Sam is in the 75th% for height, 75th% for head circumference and < 3rd% in weight at 19 lbs, 8 oz.

She also learned a new word today, "Owie." We'd signed it with her before, but she never knew what it meant. After two shots she quickly labled the spots on her legs as "oh-we-we."

Baby Book Entry 18-months

My baby is a year and a half. As time is going way too fast, I need to record everything I can think of so someday I can look back and...you know, read it again.



So, whether or not YOU find it interesting...


Sam is teasing me, hovering just under 20 lbs. Considering we're going to wait until she weighs 35 lbs to turn her to front facing in the car, I'm pretty sure I'll be taking her to her first day of Kindergarten with her looking out the rear window.


As far as her health goes, we have a new pediatrician and she is fantastic. She recently tested Samantha for cystic fibrosis and lead poisoning, but both came back negative. So, considering she hasn't had an episode since...forever...I honestly think it was some mold or something in the apartment.


Her sleeping habits are still leaving me frustrated and at my wits end. She takes a 60 minute nap in the middle of the day. When daddy watches her it stretches to a whopping 75 minutes- but not a minute more. It takes everything in me not to scowl at other moms who brag about their child's 4-hour daily nap or whine about how their child only napped for 2 hrs.


Gah, anyway, she goes to bed between 6:30 and 7 and sleeps for 12 hrs, so at least I get an evening break (which still includes a scream fest around 9pm, but the cuddling that ensues usually makes up for it)


Every time we have a physical therapy session, the therapist asks what my concerns for Samantha are- and every single time Samantha will do whatever it is that mention that very evening...

Ooo, that gives me an idea about nap lengths!

My mom has mentioned over the years how her favorite age is around 18 months, and I totally see why. She is such a darling little mimic! SO much fun and her personality (the side that doesn't involve screaming) is finally shining through. Note the wave at the beginning and arm crossing at the end:

We currently play the "grin and run away" game every time we call her or ask her to do something. It's cute except when she does it down the driveway. Fortunately her "running" is actually slower than her walking due to the numerous stops she has to make to catch her balance.

Her other semi-dangerous obsession is with putting things around her neck and head:

(Jer would like me to clarify that he doesn't actually wear the whitey tighties...which begs the question why keep them, but we won't go there)



Her current obsession with babies is almost...unhealthy. She still nurses them, rocks them, washes them, feeds them, lotions them, reads to them. If we decide to have a kid earlier than 'planned' it will be via begging from Samantha when she realizes that we are the ones who could give her a real baby.



One last thing- I've compiled a list of her vocabulary. A month ago it was at 50 words and now I'm pretty sure it's around 75.

Anyway, here it goes:

Verbal:
baby
ball
blues clues (booo!)
bonk (konk)
bubbles
butterfly (buhbuy)
bye (bye or buhbee)
car
cold (coah)
cracker (kah kah)
dada
ear
eye
hi (said to every stranger we pass by)
Joel (goal)
light (ie)
mama
papa
peek
poop
potty (pah-ee)
puppy (her blanket)
pumpkin (punk)
slide (sih)
swing (wing)
thank you (tey tey)
Tsss (Tess)
wait (weigh)
water (wa)
we (what she calls a swing set "Weeeee!")



Animal sounds
bird
car (ok, not an animal, but a sound)
cat
cow
dog
duck
elephant
fish
frog
horse
mouse
owl
pig

Signs
all done
apple
baby
ball
banana
bath
bib
bird
black
book
bread
bubbles
butterfly
bye
car
cat
cherrio
cold
cookie
cow
down
drink
duck
elephant
fish
flower
hammer
hat
help
hold you
horse
hot
hungry
ice cream
light
lotion
milk
more
movie
no
nurse
outside
phone
piano
pig
play
please
poop
potty
pumpkin
rabbit
red
saw
shoes
socks
stars
swing
thank you
toothbrush
wait
water
white
yes

Her 18 month appt is next week, so I'll post exact stats then.


And another scream fest has begun.

*Sigh*

A Day in Which I Decide to Wean

Oh, what a day.

I knew I was asking for it, announcing it on the internet and everything.

Sam was up a lot last night and woke up and


can you guess??













She puked.

I don't know if it was the dairy I tried 48 hrs earlier (the time it usually takes to get a reaction from her) or the bug that's been going around her friends and papa or just the change in the wind--I'm tired of guessing and feeling horribly guilty for something as simple as a bowl of ice cream.

The decision is not an easy one. I wanted to go as long as Sam wanted to, or at least 18 months for the health benefits. I enjoy it, Sam enjoys it, and I will miss it. I was trying to explain to Jeremy the connection I'll be losing,

"It would be like if we could never hold hands again. Yes, we could kiss and hug and such- but no hand holding--you'd miss that connection, right?"

I feel very selfish for wanting to stop, but as my mom said (with a hearty laugh),

"Selfish? Kim, she has not been a typical nursing baby! She's had the food allergies, a hard time gaining weight, needed physical therapy, had the puking episodes, colic-- I'd say you've done very well!"

I still feel selfish, as all those reasons are reasons to keep nursing too.

But I'm just so exhausted.

And it was one thing when we were living just the three of us and the whole family was basically on my diet. But now there are five other people constantly eating/cooking/baking/ordering stuff I can't have. The simple thing of putting my butter on the food made for dinner keeps slipping people's minds and I end up having to make my own dinner at the last minute. --even if what IS for dinner is in itself dairy free. I've just started crying when everyone is called for dinner and when I ask if my butter was used I'd get,

"Oh, sorry Kim--I totally forgot!"

She'll be 15 months next Wednesday. We're already down to 3 feedings a day, so I'll be cutting one out every 2 days and finish with a nice cuddly nursing the morning of the 18th.

Then let the celebrations begin!

(Lasagna, chocolate martini, ice cream, Cola Cake at work...)

And a preview to tomorrow's post...

When I called work to tell them my baby had been puking all day and just puked all over me again (3 hrs til my shift started) the response I got was,

"So, did she puke on your uniform? Is that why you can't come in?"

Health Update

I realized the other day that I haven't given a health update on Samantha after all the testing. I've been a little gun shy posting this, as I don't want to jinx it.

Sam's last puking episode (that lasted all off 15 minutes) was May 8th.

All the tests done in May, and a few since then-- including getting a urine sample (which is lots of fun getting from a female one-year-old by the way)-- they all came back normal. The docs have asked over and over what had changed, as she is a perfectly healthy (albeit small) 14-month-old now.

The only thing we can come up with is that we moved.

Our apartment always had a dead animal/dirty diaper smell to it whenever it got hot outside, and about once a week there was a funky smell outside. My dad says many places will put down new carpet, but not new padding underneath. The odd thing is, this was one of the nicer complexes in town.

I guess we'll never know.

In similar news, since May she's gained 2 lbs (amazing how quickly you can gain weight when you aren't puking). Within 4 days of learning to crawl, Sam picked up on sitting up, pulling up to stand and cruising furniture. She quickly added climbing to her tricks as well. Such talents have lead to a steep learning scale for us too. The coffee table, kitchen table, couches, chairs, and drawers are no longer safe to store stuff. Outlets, stairs, wires, trashcans, doors and dog food are all suddenly very interesting (boy I was spoiled not needing to worry about this stuff for over a year).

She's a very happy baby now, and it brings tears to my eyes to see her exploring and being independent.

It brings a totally different type of tears to see what she's getting into and how long it takes her to fall asleep now (she's pulling up to stand now, remember), but let's focus on the positives here:

My baby is HEALTHY!!

It's About TIME!

So we go to therapy today and Diana takes her into the room.

She shows Samantha a box of balls she has. Samantha then promptly gets on all fours, CRAWLS over to the box, selects one and SITS BACK UP all by herself. She then proceeded to do it for the rest of the session.

Of course, in true mommy fashion, I'd forgotten to bring the camera. So when we got home I crossed my fingers, hoping she'd perform one more time... (I'm not supporting her, just trying to prevent a head dive- she's 1st percentile for weight, 3rd for height and 75th for head circumference...she's just a TAD top heavy!)

Typical Tuesday

Did you know...

...that we have private group health insurance on me and Samantha because Jeremy's is just too expensive at work?

...that the government provides assistance to those who are
1) on medicade
and
2) have private insurance?

...since Samantha turned one, she is no longer eligible for Medicade because we have private insurance?

...she would qualify if I dropped her from my insurance?

Advice? Emphathy?

Anyone?

Ketchup Part 2

On the not so fun side of our absence, Sam has had multiple medical procedures done to try and figure out why she pukes so much and to see if there is some medical connection as to why she isn't gaining like she should. The episodic vomiting makes her loose 8 oz in a day and it takes her FOREVER to gain it back. Along with lots of fun physical therapy (which I've stopped taking pictures of because we were moving and...well, let's just say we were lucky to arrive with Samantha, let alone the camera! Plus she's just resorted to screaming any time we try and make her do anything therapy related. It's been fun. So. Much. Fun.) she has had a barium swallow, ultrasound, and biopsies taken from her esophagus and all the way town to her bum. The swallow and ultrasound came back normal, and we are waiting for results on the biopsies. They did find lymphoid hyperplasia in her rectum which usually is caused by a milk allergy.

So you wanna guess what I'm off of again?

Oh well, the cheese was nice while it lasted. And I got to enjoy a really good steak...

Poor thing had no idea what was coming.

The only reason I have a picture of her during the torture is because I was trying to distract/entertain her. But nothing could make her forget that she was strapped down with her arms above her head, being forced to drink gross white stuff on an empty stomach while being spun around like a chicken being roasted on a spicket.

And I thought labor was painful.

o

In Omaha has Boys Town Hospital for the procedure with a really long name. The biopsies. Let's just call it that.

This time they just drugged her- so she just slept through it all. She'd just stir every once in a while and get mad at the cast on her arm that was keeping her IV in. It was nice having her sleep on me, though!

My Angel.

My mom wasn't feeling well and still got up at 3am to drive us to Omaha. Then, when they came back with the results and I swore off dairy/beef yet again she popped on over to the grocery store and made me a delicious lunch of deli cuts on pita bread with Asian/sesame dressing and fruit and rice chips...like I said--Angel!

Baby PT Continued...

Continuing from the last therapy session, this week was SO much better!

First, a tangent.

Since Sam has been born, it never ceases to amaze me how she develops. It's never gradual, like a hill. Everything is a stair step. One day she doesn't sign, the next she's learned 5. One day she won't sit, the next she'll play for hours sitting. This week wasn't any different.

On Saturday, I was a little disappointed, as Sam hadn't made as much progress from all the work we'd been doing since Tuesday's session. Then Sunday came and she blew me away. She sat up in the bathtub, leaning to play with the water. She stood at a glass door by herself, shifting her weight from hand to hand to play with my sisters on the other side of the door. She sat happily in the pew at church, playing by herself and never once tried to lay down.

I was beaming with pride!

And at the therapy session she amazed us again. The therapist said several times how quickly she was catching on and how much she had learned in just 2 weeks.

Sam loved all the musical instruments Diana pulled out and happily played on them.

She still likes to "fall over" but Diana always makes her work to get back up to sitting


The triangle was great motivation (notice the hand on the ground for support!)


Tug-of-war with Daddy (great for ab work)


Trying to get her to reach for the triangle, she decided the mirror was better because it was within reach.

She's gotten so good at sitting that we're suppose to play with her balance, gently pushing her to make her catch herself.

She practiced pulling up.

Coming to her knees first

then putting one foot down

Then to standing!

Having to do it over and over, however, got a little old.


Our homework this week is to play while kneeling as much as possible, and help her come to sitting from laying down. She started putting weight on her elbows while laying on her side this past week (how she "scoots")- so she's already part of the way there!

Physical Therapy Part II

Since Jeremy was gone last week, I didn't have the brain power to post. I don't know how you single mom's do it! 5 days and I was at my wits end.

Anyway, today we had our third session. It went SO much better than last week. This is pretty much what last week was like:



She caught on to the give-me-my-favorite-toy-and-then-take-it-away game and did NOT want to play. She was happy the instant she had her toys, but threw a fit the moment it was out of her reach.

And all we wanted her to do was this:

Doesn't look like much- but getting her to put one hand on the ground to support herself was the goal.

We didn't get much done because of the tantrums so we got a lot of homework. We had to find toys that she had to pull apart to build her stomach muscles. The therapist had these toys, but had no idea what they were called. There wasn't a label on them (what toy company doesn't put a name on their toy?) Does anyone recognize them? Know what they are called?


My mom has these Melissa and Doug foods with velcro that have been perfect! It took her a day or so to get the idea, but now Sam is a pull-apart machine. She tries to pull everything apart. Which means her markers are no longer in her toy pile.

We've also been working on reaching for toys while sitting, trying hard to get her to put weight on one hand while reaching with the other. I've really had to be creative here, as Sam is not stupid. Here's what I've come up with:

1) Getting a food she REALLY likes (like banana bread) and having her tip to the side to get a bite from my fingers.

2) Any toys she has to reach into (which has become a favorite game of hers now) like a bucket, her diaper bag or a toy with a door.

3) Sitting in the bathtub (which she did for the first time yesterday!!!) and having the water running. She immediately put one hand down to steady herself to play with the water using the other hand- it took everything in me not to squeal with joy and scare her!

4) Rolling a ball back and forth with Lucy. Or any activity with Lucy, really, as Sam is always reaching for her.

Hm...this is getting kind of long and I still have so much to say, so I think I leave this post as a cliff hanger.


TO BE CONTINUED!!!...

Baby PT

Monday was Samantha's first day of preschool. It was quite fascinating to watch the therapist work! Here's the photo re-cap with some scattered details:



First, we stripped her down and Diana (therapist) observed. There were lots of new toys, so it was easy getting Samantha to do what she wanted.

Distraction was key to the whole session. She got Sam to do things in 5 seconds that I've been trying to get her to do for months.

Such as this:

She showed us how to get her to bend her legs while sitting (Sam has a bad habit of sitting with straight legs- which is why she's always hated it!)
I love Sam's face here!

Then we worked on pulling up to standing. Crazy how we have to teach her to do this.

Again, distraction and enticing with the new toys was the key.And finally, Sam has a real bad habit of not holding on when she's in a standing position, as seen here:

Basically we have to hold down one of her hands at all times so she gets use to the feeling of holding on to something.

Homework: practice sitting at least 5 times a day for 10 minutes (or as long as she'll stand it- Thank you again Baby Einstein!) Every day Sam will sit for longer and longer! Today she'd stay sitting all by herself as long as I was sitting behind her. It's a little frustrating, but such an improvement, I'm not complaining!

Next week she'll be working with her on tummy time and leg reflexes. Right now Sam moves her legs in the same direction at the same time- which will make walking, bike riding, crawling etc really hard in the future.