Kate's First Haircut

(This is also my 300th blog entry!)

Over the last week or so it has occurred to me that it was about time for Kate's first haircut. The back of her hair was just much longer than the sides, and it needed to be evened up.



So I made the appointment and we went this afternoon! Kate was so good. Originally we put her in a yellow car chair, and she was NOT a happy camper. We didn't know what was wrong, and the lady cutting her hair said we'd probably have to cut her hair in my lap. I took her out and she said "down" so I put her down. She ran right over to a red car chair, and wanted up! After that, she was fine. Whatever!!

"Before" Picture





The first snip!



Adorable little hairdo!





I did fine with it too - I wasn't emotional at all! I think it's because it's not like she was losing anything babyish - she's already such a big girl in every other aspect it's just par for the course. It's really not a drastic change either, so that probably helps. All I know is that I need to go learn how to cut hair, I couldn't believe how much a child's cut costs!!

Update

Just a few random things there and there to update! First of all, Kate is sick again. On Friday morning she woke up with her nose running like a faucet, and running a low grade temp around 100.5 . Since then, her temperature has come back down but her nose is still bad. I think this is the first time she's ever had just a plain cold, something without a fever! I also think this is the first time that she's gotten "sick" that (so far) we haven't had to take her to the doctor for. When she wakes up from overnight or her nap, however, she does sound a slight bit croupy, but maybe it's just all the gunk in her system because she sounds better after an hour or so.

All of her immunology bloodwork has come back, and everything is normal. Her immune system is functioning correctly. She is, however, a strep carrier. All that means basically is that whenever she does get sick, it may or may not be strep, but she's going to test positive for it every time. So the doctor has to make a judgment call on whether or not to treat her with antibiotics based on all her other symptoms, rather than the results of the test.

She is growing mentally in leaps and bounds lately. It's amazing and so much fun to see her develop verbally. Jeff is now "Daddy" instead of "Dada" which is cute, but a little sad too! I'm still Mama. :) She also has a cute but annoying habit of wanting to tell and how me EVERYTHING. She will say, "Mama, mama, mama, MAMA, MAMA!!!! MAMA!!!!!!!!" Until I say, "What, Kate?" And she will reply with, "hi!" or "bow?" or "bye bye!" or "Bailey!" or "Backpack!" and so on. She will not give up until I say, "Yes, Kate, Bailey." I know it's very cute, but it just goes on and on and on and on!!

She loves repeating words. I ask her to try lots of words, and she makes an attempt at repeating everything. I love it! She is internalizing a lot more than I give her credit for, too... I'm constantly amazed at how much of what I say to her she is understanding.

Normally every night we read her favorite book, "Goodnight Moon" at bedtime. During the month of December we read a Christmas book, "Angel Angel." Well, Goodnight Moon is lost right now, so we're still reading Angel Angel. Basically, it follows the same premise as "Brown Bear Brown Bear," but insert Nativity figures. Her favorite part is where Baby Jesus enters the book. Everytime we get to that page, she points to Jesus, her eyes light up, and she turns to look at me with the BIGGEST smile on her face! It's so sweet. :)

One week from today Jeff and I will be sitting on the balcony off our room on our cruise ship, somewhere in the Caribbean. :) We are so excited to take a vacation! We will miss Kate but we know the Grandparents will enjoy some special one-on-one time with her.

Merry Christmas!

... A day late! We are in Oklahoma for Christmas and we've had a great time. The best part was, we had a white Christmas! I've been very homesick for Minnesota this winter, so it meant everything to me to have a white Christmas! The sleet started Christmas Eve morning, then gradually changed to snow a little after noon, then it just kept coming down the rest of the day! 60 mph wind gusts made for a seriously awesome blizzard. :) We took Kate outside Christmas Day to experience the snow firsthand once everything had calmed down outside. She was pretty non-reactive to the snow, although once she fell down and her (gloved) hands touched the snow, she was pretty much done and wanted inside.

If I had known we'd get a record setting blizzard in Oklahoma, I would have brought my good camera with me. Of course, all I had with me was my point & shoot. Oh well, I managed to get an "ok" picture...



Kate got all sorts of fun presents. Surely they'll keep her busy for a couple weeks at least! :) Once we go back home, it's back to reality. I have to take her to the doctor for a blood draw on Monday. Dreading that one with every ounce of my being! Poor little girl.

Strep Throat.... AGAIN

On Friday I got a call from Kate's daycare, letting me know she was running a fever, so off I ran to pick her up. Her cough sounded like Croup, and of course they told me she had been exposed to it earlier in the week. Our weekend was pretty rough with the croup, high fever and little sleep. She seemed to be getting better, her fever was diminishing, but her cough just kept getting worse and worse. I decided to take her to the Pediatrician today.

Take a wild guess - yep, it's Strep Throat. They said that in 10-14 days they want to run a blood test on her, that will tell them if she was/is truly infected with strep, or just carrying it. They did say, though, with her symptoms and the way her throat looks, she looks to be actively infected.

They said the next step, as long as we're in there taking blood, is to finish out the rest of the full immunology workup. See what's wrong with her immune system. They've looked for all the "normal" stuff already, so now they'll be testing for the more rare stuff.

I just feel so defeated. I am just feeling bad that I put Kate through the whole awful experience of surgery and recovery, seemingly all for naught. Poor little Kate is such a trooper, but I can't help but wonder if we will ever achieve long-term health with her. I know it certainly could be worse than recurrent strep, but at the same time, it's so difficult and sad to have a child who is constantly sick. I'm very thankful that my job is so flexible. I've been going to work in the 3-4 am time frame all this week so I can get done and be home in time for Jeff to make it to work at a reasonable time.

Because she was sick for my birthday yesterday, we had to cancel all our fun plans, but we're hoping to reschedule my PF Changs dinner for Sunday or something. I'll leave you with a sweet seasonal picture of my little Angel. :)

18 Month Checkup

Overall, all is well! The Pediatrician said her tonsil area looks great, just a little bit of scar tissue sitting there.

She weighs 28 lb 14 oz (90th percentile), and is 34 inches long (99th or greater). When she weighed in the morning of the surgery, she was 31 pounds and change! She's lost 2.5-3 pounds through all this! The Ped said as long as she's still eating well (she is!) then it's totally fine. It's weird to see her slimming down so quickly - she still definitely has a gut, but her face has changed the most I think.

I did mention that I thought I've been noticing Kate walking a little pigeon toed. She watched her walk and agreed, then sat her down and lined her legs up. She said Kate does have some Tibial Torsion and her left is worse than her right. She said most of the time it fixes itself by 4-5 years old, but we will watch it from now on, and if it gets worse she'll send us to Scottish Rite to check it out further.

Recovery III

Jeff is up in Oklahoma at the OU game, Kate is asleep, and I'm bored so I figured now is as good a time as any to update on Kate's recovery progress. So today is, what, day 9? The last time I posted, she was doing great - then, starting around day 6 or 7, she took a turn back downward again for a few days. She started waking up twice a night in pain, needing more meds and comort rocking, and during the day she would be eating, drinking, or playing and then all of a sudden cry out in pain. She'd run over to me and lift her arms up for me to hold her/carry her around a bit. The pain scared her and she didn't know why it was happening or where it was coming from. Poor little sweetie.

Today, however, she was a little bit better again. She was more playful, had a decent appetite, and an even better thirst. She took a few sips of water and drank TWO Capri Suns! Prior to this it would take her about 2 days to finish ONE! The ENT told us at this point not to worry about the nutritional value of what she's eating or drinking, as long as she is. I can already tell she doesn't WANT to drink water when she could have Capri Sun, but that's a battle I'm going to save for when she's feeling better. I'm not going to let her get away with that one! But for now, as long as she's drinking, I'm a happy mommy.

She's supposedly going back to daycare on Monday, though I'm not sure that's really going to happen. Recovery really is taking longer than I expected, and I just don't know if she's ready for daycare. The ENT also said she should be completely off the Codiene before she goes to daycare - which we are still using at night. So tonight since she had such a good day I decided to go without, just giving her regular Tylenol to see what happens. Well, she's been down for 3 hours and has already been up twice crying. Wonderful. She was just due for more, so I gave in and gave her Codiene. We'll just take this one day at a time. At some point she has to go back to normal, right?

Recovery II

I am happy to report that when I was writing my last post, I didn't know it yet, but the worst was over. When she woke up Sunday morning, she was markedly better than the previous days. I also instituted my "forced hydration" policy - if she hasn't voluntarily taken a drink within an hour, we hold her down and force her to drink a 2 Tbsp syringe of water. It has really helped, and just as the ENT said - the more that goes down her throat, the more she'll be willing to drink. I rarely have to force her anymore. She still isn't drinking as much as I'd like, but it's enough to keep her out of danger.

She is still eating pretty well. Her favorites are watermelon (thank God! A great source of water), macaroni and cheese, eggs, mashed potatoes, and sonic ice. I think I might venture out to try her on hot dogs today for lunch. We'll see! Can anyone suggest other slimy, soft foods for her to eat? I feel like she's eating the same things for every meal! I alternate yogurt, applesauce, and pudding through the meals as well. She won't touch Jello. I have Pedialyte pops as well, but she doesn't really "get" how to eat them, and just ends up poking at it, or wanting to carry it around the house and spill it all over the carpet.

Our buggest challenge lately was her drowsiness. That tylenol with codiene really knocks her out. She'd fall asleep while eating or in the bath tub! As much as she hated taking it anyway, I was pretty eager to get her off of that stuff. So as of today, we're attempting to keep her on regular Tylenol! She's about 2 hours into her first dose, and so far so good! She isn't complaining of pain or anything! I think for a few more nights we'll still knock her out with the "good stuff" but try to maintain her during the day on regular Tylenol.

Jeff and I have also come down sick. Of course. We're not sure if we caught the virus Kate had just after surgery, or if we caught something different all together. So if you've been praying for us, now we'd appreciate prayers that we don't pass this on to Kate!