Lainey's Baptism and other GOOD news!

Life at the Smithson house has been wild! Logan has started pre-k at Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy, Liam continues to keep the daycare workers on their toes at the Wee Elephants Daycare for Gainesville City Employees, and Lainey is having the time of her life hanging with Gigi and Papa every day! Sid is in school 4 days a week and works 12 hour shifts the other 3 days, yet manages to make A's and B's in his classes!! He is going to be an awesome Nurse....one day! I am spending everyday with kids, kids, and MORE kids! After dropping off my own three kids each morning, I go to work to teach 20 first graders! Although the weekends are long and often quite stressful, I am beginning to take on the challenge of caring for 3 children on my own with a little "risk-taking!" For all who know my need for organization, mess-free environments, and scheduling, I am proud to announce that I, DeAnn Smithson, let my kids play with Play Dough this past weekend! They could not mix the colors, but they didn't care because mom was actually letting them play with something that might potentially cause a huge mess (not to mention Liam might make it a new meal!) As Logan would quote the chunky boy on the AIG commercial...."Things are looking up!"

Lainey is being Baptized and we are happy to invite anyone whom would like to attend! Lainey will be Baptized on Sunday, September 21, 2008. The church service is at Gainesville First United Methodist Church and begins at 10:55 am. Our preacher, Dr. Terry Walton, will be performing his non-traditional, yet overwhelmingly personal baptism. He has his traditions of lighting a candle to show the baby the "light of the World," taking the baby around the congregation for each to greet her with a smile and a touch, and giving the baby a taste of salt to experience the "salt of the Earth." Lainey is sure to enjoy and benefit from the extra salt offered by Dr. Walton! Sid and I are thrilled to profess our faith and promise to raise Lainey in a Christian home. For it is this faith that has pulled us through the tough times, given us the strength to persevere, and filled us with the wisdom we need in order to follow God's intentions. We would be honored to share this special day with all of our friends and family.

Good News! Our family has been approved for the Katie Beckett/Deeming Waiver. This waiver is designed for families with children with special needs whom do not qualify for Government assistance due to income. Through this waiver we qualify for WIC and Medicaid. WIC will take away the burden of paying $26 every four days for formula by giving us vouchers to use as our method of payment. Medicaid will cover all of Lainey's hospital, doctor, and pharmacy bills that are not covered by insurance. This is HUGE! The copay paid each time we take her to the doctor (usually twice a month), the 10% of hospital stays not covered by insurance, the $25 for each of her 4-5 prescriptions per month, as well as any other equipment we may need, will be completely consumed by Medicaid! We feel like an enormous weight has been lifted from our shoulders, and for this we are thankful.

Although we have changed brands of enzymes several times in the past 3 weeks, we now feel as though we have found the culprit of Lainey's recent issues. Lately she has had a lot of gas, stomach aches, spitting up, fatty stools, and small amounts of weight gain. In conversations with Lainey's dietitian, by accident (although good), we found our mistake. Sid and I watched the nurses in the hospital crush Lainey's Prevacid tablet before feeding it to her. After a little research, it was determined that crushing the tablets deactivated the antacid, thus no help to Lainey at all! Now she is taking 1 Prevacid capsule twice a day along with her Creon. We mix the beads with applesauce and serve it all at once. It has been amazing how settled her stomach sounds, the fewer number of stools per day, little to no spitting up, and an overall happy baby we have! It is our hope that through these changes, we will see a greater weight gain at her next Cystic Fibrosis appointment on September 17th!

Thank you for following Lainey's progress. We are fortunate to have such a sound and supportive group of people in our lives. Lainey has finally had the chance to be held by Sid's dad, Papa Noel...and boy did she like it! Her grandma Barbara and Gigi have been spoiling her with all of the cute things the stores have to offer little girls! Papa Dwight and his ticking valve put her to sleep in no time. Although Papa Dan isn't as comfortable taking care of babies, he has given Lainey and I time to bond by taking Logan and Liam out on the lake and to the pool. For an extra set of hands on the occasional weekend, Grandma Carolyn and Papa David have been here! PLEASE come to visit Lainey if you want....soon we will have to limit visitors due to the "wintertime bugs!"