Thursday, December 30, 2010 9:12 AM, EST

It has been a busy few weeks in our household! Everyone except for Cade and Jacob got a virus that was going around, possibly the flu, it put most of us in bed for 2 or 3 days and included a horrible headache, congestion, coughing and a general feeling of exhaustion. Tori seemed to be spared some of the symptoms, she only ended up with a stuffed up head and was extremely crabby, but it was enough to produce a very significant brady episode on Monday December 20th. Apparently eating with a extremely stuffed up head messes with her newly coordinated suck-swallow-breath skill. Unfortunately when she quit breathing she didn't seem to know what to do to recover so I had to stimulate her (rub her rather roughly and pat her back and gently shake her) to get her to start breathing. It all happened very quickly and she was fine as soon as she took a breath, but it was very scary! In my heart I know that she would have self recovered, but I just couldn't wait for her reflexes to kick in! Since then she has been doing really well, although still crabby and stuffy but she seems to be battling through her first real head cold like a trooper!

I had to cancel her follow-up appointment with her surgeon because of us being sick, I didn't want to make anyone else sick by going into the hospital with a bug, so I need to reschedule it.

She is growing like a little weed, hitting her 3 month growth spurt right on schedule, nursing all the time and outgrowing most of her tiny outfits! It feels strange to NOT pack away her outfits, since for the first time ever, we know there won't be another baby!

Sorry everyone, I am doing some much needed site maintenance and also trying to copy over Tori's Caring Bridge journal entries since it occurred to me that if her journal isn't active, they might delete it and I would hate to lose all my thoughts from those months.......I plan to dedicate more time to the blog in the upcoming year........

Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and that 2011 brings you the things you want. 2010 has been quite a ride!

Wordless Wednesday:

Merry Christmas 2010!

Through the blessing of friends, the love of family and the fellowship of our church family, Christmas is especially merry this year! Hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and marvel in the wonder of God's gift of his Son to each of us!

Just a few pictures! Jacob, Tori, Luke, Noel, Sophia and William on Christmas Eve....and the family, minus Noel and Sarah (who were sick) on Christmas at my mother's house!

Christmas Craft Day
Submitted by Melodie

What an absolutely GREAT TIME! The kids were so excited with all the ornaments they made, I completely forgot to take pictures during the event and by the time I got around to it, some of the ornaments were MIA, but here are a few that we made. I don't have pictures of the cards the kids made, the round foam ornament or the beaded snowfllakes. Hopefully this will become an annual event with the homeschool group!





What: Christmas Craft Day
When: Friday, December 17th 10:30 AM to 1 PM
Where: Wyoming Public Library Meeting Room (located in basement) 500
Springfield Pike Cincinnati, Ohio 45215 Phone 513-369-6014
Who: Homeschoolers of all ages
RSVP: Melodie by Tueday December
14th so that I can get a count of participants to everyone
What to bring: Christmas themed craft to share and your lunch/snack
if you wish to eat

Join us for a fun day of crafting! Each family will be asked to bring
supplies to make one christmas craft for each participant (example, if
we have 12 kids attending and you want to make candy cane reindeers,
you would bring the supplies to make 12 reindeers plus bring a sample
to show the kids). Hot glue guns will be provided, if you want to use
a different type of glue for your craft, feel free to bring it with
you, or if you want to use no glue at all, even better! I will
provide additional supplies and coloring sheets. The kids will leave
with crafts to decorate your home and tree!

The Wyoming Library is centrally located, not far off of I-75 or off
of Ronald Reagan if coming from the east side of town. The library is
located on the corner of Springfield Pike and Wyoming Ave (mapquest
has the location off by about a block).

Any questions, just ask! Hope you can join us!

Friday, December 10, 2010 9:43 AM, EST

Literally minutes after I posted the update yesterday the following happened.....Because life is never dull here...

Sophia (8 year old): "Mom, Tori just sneezed and something is coming out of her nose"

Me: "it is just snot, you can wipe it with a diaper"

Sophia: "it isn't snot, it looks like a clear wire"

She brings Tori to me....EGADS...her freakin' stint is sticking OUT of her nose! Of course it is now AFTER HOURS so I have to call the answering service for the Cincinnati Eye Institute and try to explain to the woman who is answering the phone that 1) "yes, Dr. Kulwin is an eye institute doctor", 2) "yes, my 2 month old sees a plastic surgeon" and 3) explain and spell twice for her nasolacrimal reconstruction. Finally she figures out that she can't transfer me to the doctor on call because Dr. Kulwin returns his own patients calls (how amazing is that?) and says she will page Dr. Kulwin. All I am imagining is turning around and driving back to Chrildren's after just getting home! Literally he calls back 3 minutes later. He tells me that I can take a q-tip and gently push the stint back into the nose and that it should stay. Of course it didn't. Every time she sneezed it popped back out. Hopefully it will stay in after a good night's sleep! If not, I will be back on the phone and probably heading to see the doctor sometime today!

Thursday, December 9, 2010 5:02 PM, EST

Just got back from Children's! Tori's appointment went well. She weighs 9 lb 15.79 oz (OK, let's just call it 10 lb), measured 21.5 ", has a 15" head and the doctor was thrilled with everything about her. I was apprehensive about telling them that she wasn't taking the multivitamin or the sodium chloride and that we had transitioned to nursing full time. He was fine with everything! I am amazed. She goes for her follow-up with him again in early Feb.

She has a follow-up with her surgeon next week!

On another note, I walked out of my OB appointment today. I was supposed to be going back for a 10 week post surgery follow up and had told them that I needed to be at Children's by 1:30 PM, they assured me that the 12:30 appointment, the first one after lunch, would be PERFECT......well at 1:20 PM, after NOT SEEING THE DOCTOR, I walked out of the office so that I could get her to her appointment. I was so pissed off.....wasted over an hour of my time for NOTHING.

Friday, December 3, 2010 8:55 AM, EST

Tori is NURSING!

For a baby with feeding issues, who forgets to breath while eating and a lazy/weak latch on her bottle, Tori is doing AMAZING when put to the breast. She has an ironclad latch, although a little low on the nipple, but she sucks strong and swallows hard and has only had one brady episode (very short and self recovered) while nursing!

I am trying to let her nurse at night rather than use the bottle and hopefully soon we can transition away from the bottles completely! Although I love the fact that Tori is getting breastmilk, I really HATE the breast pump and the whole pump and feed cycle we are experiencing. We are still doing bottles during the day, so that I can see what she is taking in while she is still figuring out the whole nursing thing! She doesn't seem to have any nipple confusion at all!

Without her feeding tube it is pretty much impossible to get her to take her sodium chloride suppliment. She HATES it and will literally hold it in her mouth and then SPIT it ALL out at you....not like she is spitting up but a forcefully SPIT IT ACROSS THE ROOM kind of spitting out, she would certainly win a watermelon seed spitting contest with the force she uses. I keep trying to figure out how to get her to take it, but even mixing it with all 3 oz of breastmilk, she refuses the entire bottle. She doesn't like the taste at all. Going to talk to the pharmacist at Children's to see if it can be flavored or something.

We have our follow up with the high risk clinic at Children's next Thursday, hopefully she will have gained weight and grown!