We've also tried a new brand of vitamin drops this week. They still seem to do a number on poor Addy's tummy, but they don't look and smell quite as much like tar as the other ones did.
Last but not least, we have smiley pictures!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Grape is also yummy
I'm allergic to penicillin, so I had asked the urologist if we could try an antibiotic in a different drug family so I could nurse her without worrying about whether it might literally put me in the ER. Turns out to have been a total bust because the new antibiotic is a sulfa, which I'm also allergic to. (Yes, as soon as I filled the prescription I realized that we hadn't actually solved the problem.) At least Addy seems to enjoy the new grape flavoring just as much as she did the bubblegum.
We've also tried a new brand of vitamin drops this week. They still seem to do a number on poor Addy's tummy, but they don't look and smell quite as much like tar as the other ones did.
Last but not least, we have smiley pictures!
We've also tried a new brand of vitamin drops this week. They still seem to do a number on poor Addy's tummy, but they don't look and smell quite as much like tar as the other ones did.
Last but not least, we have smiley pictures!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Such a big girl
Addy was very brave yesterday for her second round of immunizations. Not even a sniffle--at least not until she decided it was taking too long to get through the check-out desk at the pediatrician's office!
For those keeping track, she was up to 11lb 4oz. Officially too big for all of the newborn clothes we have!
For those keeping track, she was up to 11lb 4oz. Officially too big for all of the newborn clothes we have!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Maybe the bathroom scale isn't so inaccurate
Addy had her first appointment in the Spina Bifida Clinic at Vanderbilt yesterday. She's up to 10lb 14oz already--must be all that eating she keeps doing!
It was a full day at the clinic, but it all went really well. It's set up so that the patient goes to an exam room and the doctors come to you. For people who have a condition that crosses over several medical specialties, it's a fabulous setup. Addy had scans of her kidneys and hips in the morning and in the afternoon saw the neurosurgeon, urologist, orthopedist, nutritionist, physical therapist, and the occupational therapist. We were there for about 45 minutes in the morning and then a couple of hours in the afternoon.
All of the doctors and therapists we saw said she's doing really well, but we did get 2 extra special pieces of news. The best news we got was that Addy's kidney scan and catheter output logs show that she doesn't need to be cathed anymore--hooray! Now, if Addy wants to sleep through the night, Mommy can too! She'd been doing pretty good with sleeping at night for the past couple of weeks. She would usually sleep from about 11pm - 5am, snoozing through the middle-of-the-night cath. Last night she was asleep by 10pm, but got up at 3:45am. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to do whatever she needs to be healthy, but I'm also happy to get more sleep if she doesn't need me to get up every 4 hours!
Second best news was that the neurosurgeon said that, as far as he's concerned, we can switch from the car bed to a regular infant car seat--can I get an Amen please?? I'm waiting to hear back from the plastic surgeon to make sure he's okay with the switch, but I'm guessing he will be. We've been bringing both the car bed and the regular car seat with us when we go out, using the car bed for actually transporting her to the store and then using the car seat for carting her around in the store. (For those who are curious, our car bed looks very similar to the one on this link: http://www.allegromedical.com/children-pediatric-c531/dream-ride-se-infant-car-bed-p215141.html)
It was a full day at the clinic, but it all went really well. It's set up so that the patient goes to an exam room and the doctors come to you. For people who have a condition that crosses over several medical specialties, it's a fabulous setup. Addy had scans of her kidneys and hips in the morning and in the afternoon saw the neurosurgeon, urologist, orthopedist, nutritionist, physical therapist, and the occupational therapist. We were there for about 45 minutes in the morning and then a couple of hours in the afternoon.
All of the doctors and therapists we saw said she's doing really well, but we did get 2 extra special pieces of news. The best news we got was that Addy's kidney scan and catheter output logs show that she doesn't need to be cathed anymore--hooray! Now, if Addy wants to sleep through the night, Mommy can too! She'd been doing pretty good with sleeping at night for the past couple of weeks. She would usually sleep from about 11pm - 5am, snoozing through the middle-of-the-night cath. Last night she was asleep by 10pm, but got up at 3:45am. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to do whatever she needs to be healthy, but I'm also happy to get more sleep if she doesn't need me to get up every 4 hours!
Second best news was that the neurosurgeon said that, as far as he's concerned, we can switch from the car bed to a regular infant car seat--can I get an Amen please?? I'm waiting to hear back from the plastic surgeon to make sure he's okay with the switch, but I'm guessing he will be. We've been bringing both the car bed and the regular car seat with us when we go out, using the car bed for actually transporting her to the store and then using the car seat for carting her around in the store. (For those who are curious, our car bed looks very similar to the one on this link: http://www.allegromedical.com/children-pediatric-c531/dream-ride-se-infant-car-bed-p215141.html)
Monday, January 10, 2011
What exactly is the difference between a road that is "impassible" and one that is "closed"?
So, we got some snow last night. Okay, we legitimately got A LOT of snow. Our immediate area got about 7-8 inches according to the TV weather guy. Now I'm from up north where 7-8 inches of snow in one night is not pleasant, but you just wait a couple of hours for the salt/plow trucks to get out and you're good to go (slowly). Down south where snow is truly a novelty, they save money by not budgeting for things like salt and snow plows. Never mind the small mountains, never mind the crazy raised roadways, never mind the roads that go over rivers and creeks, never mind that it actually seems to snow at least once per year. It's easier to just shut down the city. Or at least it's less expensive. (I will absolutely admit that it is safer and more prudent to go ahead and shut down the city because no one is willing to drive appropriately for dry conditions, let alone snowy/slushy/icy conditions.)
People around here are so terrified of snow that schools and businesses actually started closing Sunday morning--6-8 hours before the first flake even fell. Side note: What was the first thing to close? Auburn, as in the school, not the town. And not just the school, but all of the football tailgate / viewing parties that were planned due to Auburn going to the final game in the BCS tournament. Good thing the game is being played in Phoenix. There might be riots if the game had to be postponed due to snow.
Which brings me to my original question. We've been watching the local TV station to keep tabs on what's open, what's closed, how much snow is coming, when will it finally melt, etc. They keep making a distinction between roads that are "closed" vs. "impassible". For example, the interstate, several of the main artery roads in Huntsville, and the highways that go over the mountains are "closed." In contrast, the roads in Madison City, Madison County, Limestone County, and several of the other small towns in the area are just "impassible." So, what in the world is the difference between "closed" and "impassible"? According to the news anchor on the local CBS station "closed" means there are police actually out and physically preventing travel on that particular roadway, while "impassible" means that, if they had enough staff to do so, there would be police out and physically preventing travel on that roadway, but they don't.
People around here are so terrified of snow that schools and businesses actually started closing Sunday morning--6-8 hours before the first flake even fell. Side note: What was the first thing to close? Auburn, as in the school, not the town. And not just the school, but all of the football tailgate / viewing parties that were planned due to Auburn going to the final game in the BCS tournament. Good thing the game is being played in Phoenix. There might be riots if the game had to be postponed due to snow.
Which brings me to my original question. We've been watching the local TV station to keep tabs on what's open, what's closed, how much snow is coming, when will it finally melt, etc. They keep making a distinction between roads that are "closed" vs. "impassible". For example, the interstate, several of the main artery roads in Huntsville, and the highways that go over the mountains are "closed." In contrast, the roads in Madison City, Madison County, Limestone County, and several of the other small towns in the area are just "impassible." So, what in the world is the difference between "closed" and "impassible"? According to the news anchor on the local CBS station "closed" means there are police actually out and physically preventing travel on that particular roadway, while "impassible" means that, if they had enough staff to do so, there would be police out and physically preventing travel on that roadway, but they don't.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Smile
Usually when she's starting to wake up, Addy makes this serious of faces (in no particular order: grouchy, just sucked on a lemon, worried, and smile). This morning we achieved smiling while awake! It is super cute, especially with the little dimple in her left cheek. Unfortunately, it's really sporadic and not predictable, so there's no photographic proof of it. At least not yet...
Everything else is going fabulously. We seem to have found a brand of formula that doesn't turn poor Addy's tummy inside out (she wants more to eat than I can give her, so she gets topped of with an ounce or 2 of formula now). Other than that, we're counting down the days to our first big clinic appointment at Vandy. Fingers crossed that the urologist says we can back off on the caths!
Everything else is going fabulously. We seem to have found a brand of formula that doesn't turn poor Addy's tummy inside out (she wants more to eat than I can give her, so she gets topped of with an ounce or 2 of formula now). Other than that, we're counting down the days to our first big clinic appointment at Vandy. Fingers crossed that the urologist says we can back off on the caths!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year!
Addy decided to ring in the new year with lots and lots of eating (and not a whole lot of sleeping). I think she and I rang in the new year with the lovely people of Alaska, and joined the people of both New Zealand and the Solomon Islands in welcoming January 2nd. (Did I do that right? I hate the International Date Line.)
She is continuing to practice her thumb sucking technique. So far no additional war wounds, but it's still not the soothing activity that it will probably be in a few weeks. Everything else is going really well with her--her sides look fabulous where she had the skin grafts, her back incision is also looking really good, diapers are consistently wet and dirty, and cath outputs are (generally) nice and low. There have been a few higher residuals on the cath recently, but I'm pretty sure it has to do with Addy's growth spurt. Eventually she'll stop eating 24/7, right??
Hope you had a safe and happy new year, and wish you a blessed and successful 2011!
She is continuing to practice her thumb sucking technique. So far no additional war wounds, but it's still not the soothing activity that it will probably be in a few weeks. Everything else is going really well with her--her sides look fabulous where she had the skin grafts, her back incision is also looking really good, diapers are consistently wet and dirty, and cath outputs are (generally) nice and low. There have been a few higher residuals on the cath recently, but I'm pretty sure it has to do with Addy's growth spurt. Eventually she'll stop eating 24/7, right??
Hope you had a safe and happy new year, and wish you a blessed and successful 2011!
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