Showing posts with label Mrs. Martha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mrs. Martha. Show all posts

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Still seeing YELLOW!

On Friday, Lainey and I headed to Atlanta for her monthly CF appointment. We dropped Logan off at school, Liam off at the daycare, and off we went! I was sure it would be awful trying to get through rush hour traffic in Atlanta, but we made it in less than an hour! I think it was a record breaking drive....first of all I drove all of the way through Atlanta traffic by myself!! I hate driving in Atlanta and even more so in Atlanta traffic at rush hour! Secondly, I made record breaking time driving through rush hour at 7:45! Lastly, Lainey did not make a sound all of the way there! The music was turned up, I was eating breakfast and driving, while Lainey was napping. A perfect drive.....my knuckles were not even white when we got to the Target parking lot! Yes Target......Lainey's appointment was scheduled for 10:00 and we were only 3 miles from the CF Center at 8:15! Lainey and I did some shopping in Target before going to her appointment. I love Target's Clearance way too much!

Well, yellow seems to be Lainey's Zone. The yellow zone means she is at risk and her weight needs to be monitored closely. She only gained 6 ounces and did not get any taller. She now weighs 18 lbs. 12.1 oz and is still 28 1/4 inches long. All she needed to gain was 1 pound and she would have been in green....barely, but she would have been there! Lainey's goal weight for next month's appointment is 19 lbs. 4 oz and to keep a pace of gaining one and a half pounds per month. Lainey's lungs sounded awesome! Although she was screaming like no body's business while the doctor was checking her ears, nose, eyes, and throat, he assured me that her crying was also part of his assessment. He said that if someone with CF can cry as hard as she was without coughing, then they have very little mucous in their lungs! Wow, that is a great feeling!


Lainey preparing herself for her future profession!
Although everything checked out fine at this appointment, Dr. Caplan expressed his concern for the amount of fat in Lainey's last stool sample. He has now upped her pancreatic enzymes from 1 Ultrase MT18, to 1 Ultrase MT18 and 1 Ultrase (plain). As soon as it arrives in the mail, Lainey will also be adding ScandiCal to her diet. ScandiCal is a tasteless powder to sprinkle over food to add calories. Hopefully these changes will help Lainey to gain weight.


Yes.....Lainey is chewing on a stool sample container! No....there is no stool in it! No matter how many toys I pulled out of her bag, this is the one thing she threw a fit to have!

I often feel like I answer the question, "How is Lainey doing?" with the same answer. "She is doing well. We are always trying to get her weight up and keep her from getting sick." I usually get the response, "Well, she looks great! She weighs more than my kids did...she looks big to me...." Unless you have a child with CF, it IS hard to see why we are working so very hard to get Lainey to the 50th percentile. The bigger the better, for a child with CF. Our doctor tells us that he would like Lainey to be a little on the chunky side. The bigger she is, the more room her lungs have to grow. Being bigger also makes her heart and lungs work harder, thus making them stronger. The first three years of her life will give us an idea of how CF will effect her health in the future. Yes she does look big...her height is in the 85th percentile, her head is in the 95th percentile, and her belly is usually distended.....with that, it is easy to look past her skinny arms, legs, and booty! Yes she does look good and if I saw her with other children, I would think she was just as healthy as the kid next to her. If only more people were aware of Cystic Fibrosis!


Just look at those lashes!



With this frustration came a call from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. I spoke with Sara whom is in charge of the Great Strides Walk in Atlanta and Athens. With her help I will begin a team for the October 17th walk in Athens, Georgia. Living in Gainesville all of my life and knowing a ton of people between my parents, my sister, my husband, and I, I am hoping for a huge response. Thankfully we have many connections in Gainesville, one being that of a friend, Joel, who works for a local talk radio station. With his gracious offer to help in any way, I am sure we will be able to reach even more people. My only concern is, How will I have time to raise money and start a team with everything I have going on? Well, I manage to make things happen that I never imagined I could do so I am planning on adding this to my list! If you have any ideas, suggestions, etc. on how to organize and raise money for such a worthy cause, please share your wisdom!

The doctor is much more interesting than mommy!

Finally Gigi and Papa are home! Last week was "awful" for Logan since they were not in town! Because of their "mini vacation", we needed to find someone to take care of Lainey while I worked and Sid finished this quarter's finals. A HUGE thanks goes out to Mrs. Martha for taking care of our Lainey Bug! Mrs. Martha is only the second "non-family" member to watch Lainey for us. We are quite particular is who watches her for fear the person will not understand the importance of her health requirements. We invest a lot in her health and we hope any caregiver of hers will do the same, although we know that is hard to find. Mrs. Martha was awesome and Lainey was comfortable with her new arrangements in no time! Mrs. Martha.....ANYTHING you need monogrammed, it is yours.....just let me know and it is done!!! Thank you so much for caring for Lainey this past week.


"Thank you Mrs. Martha!"

Tomorrow Lainey will be going to an appointment with an occupational therapist. This will be her first therapy since she was in the hospital at birth and it is offered by our local agency, "Babies Can't Wait". I am very interested to see what they will be working on with Lainey. I will update later on her therapy. Until then, I have posted a "big girl" picture of Lainey below!
Lainey's 10 month picture! This is the outfit she got from The Children's Place for having a good doctor's appointment!
Thank you for all of the prayers this past week! My parents are back safely from their trip, Sid finished his 3rd quarter of nursing school with awesome grades, we had a good doctor's appointment, and I drove in Atlanta!!! We feel all of the prayers daily and are forever grateful for our family and friends! Have a great week!
DeAnn

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Mommies aren't suppose to get sick!

Well....not here! I have felt like stink this past week! I finally went to the doctor on Friday and the verdict is....BRONCHITIS! I think if my doc had performed a chest x-ray, it would have shown more. I am on my third day of antibiotics and I feel a little better. My throat is still killing me, but as Logan says, "Mommies aren't suppose to get sick!"
Last weekend the boys went to Papa Dan's house for the weekend, while Lainey and I went to South Georgia. Thank you Papa Dan and Rachel! You gave me a much needed rest! Since my Grandpa Bob reads my blog, I was unable to blog about going to South Georgia for his surprise 80th birthday party! Lainey and I went with my parents (Gigi and Papa) and it was a whirl wind weekend! It is not easy keeping secrets from my grandpa! We spent most of the weekend sneaking around so that he would not find out that everyone was coming into town for his party. My mom and her four brothers threw an awesome party for him at the Officer's Club on Robins Air Force Base.

We had several people that traveled many miles to make it to grandpa's party. My Uncle David, Aunt Nina, and my cousins Jake and Rachel traveled from Jacksonville, Florida. Uncle Dean and Bill traveled from Tampa, Florida. Uncle Dennis, Aunt Kathy and my cousins Blake & Karen, Bradd & Brooke, and Brooke, traveled from Roswell, Georgia. My sister Dayna, and her husband Brad, as well as my niece Lilly Anne, traveled from Hoschton, Georgia. My great uncle and aunt, Dan and Judy, traveled all the way from St. Louis, Missouri! A few of my grandpa's friends traveled from South Carolina. There were also several local friends that attended the party.

The Club served a wonderful meal of fillet mignon, baked potato, green beans, and garden salad. My Aunt Jenny had a friend make a yummy cake to top off our meal. It was great seeing everyone. It is rare when we are all able to get together.....coordinating schedules for all of us to gather at one time is nearly impossible. I really wish Sid could have come with me, but he had to work! We had a blast, but it was over too soon! Look below for a few pictures from Grandpa Bob's 80th Birthday party!

Yummy!

The Party Bug!


Surprise!

Grandpa is checking out all of his guests.

Papa and Lainey......hey, I know she needs to gain weight, but beer?! At least wait until college!


Wrong bottle, Lainey!


My niece, Lilly Anne


Donn, Dean, Diane (my mom, aka Gigi), David, Dennis, and Grandpa Bob.

These are my mom's brothers. My mom is the oldest, then David, Dennis, Dean, and Donn. Mom and Donn are 15 years apart in age, but she, David, and Dennis are all within 28 months of each other. Dean was born 10 years later, then Donn another 5 years after Dean.

Yes, all 5 of them have names that begin with "D". We all have a "thing" with using the same letter to begin our children's name. My sister and I also have "D" names; DeAnn and Dayna. My cousins are Blake, Bradd, and Brooke......Ryan and Rachel.........Emily, Erin, Evan, and Elizabeth...........my dad's parent's are Dorothy and Dave................and our kid's are Logan, Liam, and Lainey...............CRAZY, I know!




Lainey posing for a few close-ups!

Hopefully I will get back to blogging more this week. I have been checking on all of my blog friends, but I have not had time to leave comments or make a post. Gigi and Papa are out of town this week, so Lainey has a new sitter! A HUGE thanks to Mrs. Martha and her husband for watching Lainey this week. Martha works part time at my school and this week happens to be her week off! YEA! On Friday it will be time for another monthly visit to the CF Center! Hopefully Lainey will weigh over 19 lbs!

Please keep us in your thoughts this week, as we have a ton going on! Sid has nursing finals this week, my parents are out of town, therefore I will have to cook for my family, I will be working on getting rid of this bronchitis, Logan has picture day (this is a BIG deal for my 5 year old....he must look good in his pre-k class picture!), Liam is getting over a double ear infection (STILL), and Lainey is going for her 10 month check-up at the CF Center. Thank you!


DeAnn