Tonsils

Back in November when Rob was in Ohio for work, Julie had a fever that reached 105 one night, and basically freaked me out. Got it down pretty quick with some lavender oil, since she hated taking medicine and would throw it up. She was actually sleeping on my bed since Rob was gone, and I slept on the couch because she was breathing so loud. Called Rob in the middle of the night and we did a three way call to a nurse through our insurance. I took her into her pediatricians in the morning and I mentioned her large tonsil, it was pretty much touching her hangy ball. So with her high fever and no other symptoms, he wanted us to see an ear, nose, and throat doctor. We left not realizing that he was going to call and make an appointment for us that day. Got home, and barely was in the door when Rob called saying that the doctor was trying to get a hold of me and that he had scheduled an appointment with Dr. Blotter for 1:45, but to be there at 1:30, which was like 5 minutes from when I got home. I hurried and dropped Melanie off at my Mom's and headed for the office. Our doctor actually talked directly with Dr. Blotter, because Thursday's he was not in the office, he was doing surgery's. So, he was so kind to make a special visit with us that day. Julie had a asymmetrical tonsil, which means one side was larger than the other. He gave us an antibiotic in case it was an infection on one side, and we made another appointment in 10 days. She still had the huge tonsil and so he suggested it would be best to get her tonsils removed but that it was up to us. We decided to get it done and also to have her left nostril cautorized as well, since she has nose bleeds all the time on that side.

So, we were hoping to get her tonsils out during Christmas break so that Rob would be home to help, but no openings. We scheduled it for the first part of February and then rescheduled for January 30. 

Julie helped me make some popsicles a few days before, she loved sticking those sticks in the holes.

Here she is enjoying one of the popsicles after they were frozen for a while. She liked them.

I called the hospital the day before her surgery for the time we were supposed to be there, and 6:30a.m. it was. Bright(dark) and early. We basically woke Julie up and dressed her and off we went, since she couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight it worked out well.

Side note: the last three days she has been really doing well using the potty, number 1 and number 2, and I was so hoping that the surgery wouldn't set her back.

While we got her checked in she colored and used her tablet and just watched what was going on around her.

We got Julie dressed in her hospital gown and then right before they weighted her I really needed to go to the bathroom and so I took Julie with me because she hadn't gone that morning either yet. She peed and we went back and finished getting ready.

I don't think she knew what was going on, she knew her tonsils were in her mouth and she would cover her mouth when we told her what they were going to do. She just kept saying, "Mom, I want to go home", I am glad they let her take her blanket and Pooh Bear with her into surgery. We walked her to the doors to the operating area and then the anesthesiologist took her the rest of the way and she went with him just fine. I think it was because she was holding onto her blanket that she didn't flip out and not want to go. 

The whole process was rather quick, the doctor came in before the anesthesiologist to explain things and the he came back probably 20-25 minutes later. He came in and said, "I don't do this very often, but I took a picture of Julie's tonsils" He showed them to us and I was shocked, I was expecting one to be a lot bigger than the other, but they were the same size and a little more than an inch long. I don't know how those fit in her throat. 

He said everything went well and she would be back when she started to stir and wake up. It was about 5 minutes or so later when I hear this moaning/crying noise. It was Julie, it was kind of hard to see her like that. Poor kid, not knowing what just happened to her and feeling crappy.

I am glad Rob held her, because I was holding back tears, so sad to see her like this. She would come in and out of it. Being awake for a second or two. And we were home by 9:30 -10:00. We came home to the City digging a hole in the road by our house, because a pipe had broke, got some water in pitchers before they shut off the water. My mom came over and watched Melanie for us since she was still asleep.

Melanie had fun playing with whatever she wanted, there was a few times that Julie would wake up and see something Melanie was playing with and she would perk up and wanted to go take it away. One time she even got off the couch, walked a few steps and then went back and fell asleep.

She was only awake for a few minutes at a time. She didn't eat or drink anything that first day, just slept basically, I turned on a movie for her at one point and she told me, "Mom, I can't stay awake", haha, silly girl. I told her that she didn't need to stay awake and that her body was tired and wanted to sleep and that was okay, and that she didn't have to watch the movie. She was asleep within a few seconds after that. She woke up at one point, I think when we were trying to give her some medicine and she was crying and said, "I feel different, put my tonsils back in, I don't like this".

Grandma and Grandpa Taylor came by that evening and brought her a Frozen book, she was not in a happy mood then, but later enjoyed having me read the book to her. She did a lot of laying on the couch watching "Daniel Tigers Neighborhood", that is her favorite right now. It is a really cute show, it has the characters from Mr. Rogers in cartoon form. 5 days later and she still is watching the same 19 episodes over and over.

After a day and a half of not eating or drinking I kept threatening her that we would have to take her back to the hospital if she wouldn't drink anything. Didn't work. The nurse from the hospital called about lunchtime the day after her surgery and asked how she was doing. I explained that she was eating or drinking anything and she was shocked she wasn't eating popsicles either. She told me to also give her IBuprofin the next time I gave her her pain medicine, and to rotate that every 6-8 hours, and that should help her be comfortable enough to eat. So we did that about 1:30 when she woke up and I think she slept again after, and all of a sudden at around 3:30, she woke up and I was sitting right there on the couch and she came over to me and gave me a hug, and told me she was feeling better, then she got off the couch and started playing and talking. It was kind of crazy, but so nice to see her up and about. She just kept talking, I don't know if it was that her voice sounded different to her, because it did, but it was so very nice.

Her happy face she gave me.

She was drinking and eating now, and every time I asked if she wanted a popsicle, she would say, "I will when I am better", silly girl, they are for before you are better. She still has yet to eat one, but before I left to get a few things at the store Rob asked if she wanted some ice cream, she said when I am better, but Rob scooped some anyway and offered her some and she ate it and had a couple bowls while I was gone. Adding that Ibuprofin sure did the trick. She wanted pancakes, so I made her pancakes, and she had some eggs. The first night she slept good, only waking up once and the second night, she had slept so much the last two days that she wasn't tired when it was time to go to sleep. She watched a video and I finally told Rob I was going to bed at about 12:00. He was watching a movie so he stayed up with Julie, and apparently Julie didn't fall asleep until 1:00.

As long as we kept her pain meds of a good schedule she was fine and happy. She was very huggy and talkative. We have also noticed that she is a lot more sensitive or emotional. I was eating a piece of toast and she asked if she could have toast, I told her not yet, since it could scratch her throat, she just tipped her head down and ran into the other room crying softly. She can tell when I am not happy, even the slightest. She will look at me and say, "Mom, are you smiling" or she will give me a hug. She will do something that she shouldn't have and say, "I am sorry", just so many little things that were not there before. I might get a little angry with her and before I even realize it I notice that she went and hid under her blanket and I go in and ask her to tell me what is wrong. 

Day 5, 6, and 7 have been more painful for her. We were warned that this would happen and it has, I think 7 has been the worst so far, just keeps holding her blanket up to her mouth and saying, "It hurts".

 Holding blanket to her mouth, at least she is pain free when she sleeps.

 Slept until about 10:00 on about Day 7, was hurting when she woke up. Then it takes her awhile to eat anything. She really is not a breakfast person. Some days she could care less about eating in the morning.

Even with medicine she is still hurting and doesn't even eat very well, or she will stop after a few bites because it hurts. Okay, we have now been threw day 8 and even with her medicine her throat still hurts. She can eat some things but other things she will start to eat and then stop after a bite or two and start crying because her throat hurts. Crackers, Ice Cream are fine, but frozen fruit, apple, tomatoes, are some of the foods that were not good. Weird, although I think towards bedtime she is doing better. She did a lot of laying around on the couch and when she was hurting she just wanted me to stay right by her, which I couldn't do all the time. 
We got netflix and she is still watching Daniel Tigers Neighborhood, but has also discovered Calliou, and Handy Manny which is her favorite right now. It helps when she is in pain to get her mind on something else. Now to break her of that habit. It is not an all day thing anymore, but still more than I would like. She likes to watch a little bit right before she goes to bed.
They said 7-10 days of recovery and that is no joke. Hopefully after the next two days, she will be better. She keeps telling me she is glad she got her tonsils out. She says that she can talk better now.
Day 10 was the turning point where she didn't need much medicine. Day 12 was her no medicine day and she woke up from a good nights sleep and came in so excited, "Mom, my throat doesn't hurt anymore". Yay, sweetie, no medicine at all and eating most foods. The foods that made her throat hurt today were Bananas, which is strange. She wouldn't even try apples or tomatoes since she remembered they hurt her throat. She asked for eggs this morning for breakfast and she was able to eat them(gave her pain before) and asked for spaghetti and eggs for dinner. She ate a bunch for dinner, she had eggs, spaghetti noodles, baked potatoes(which at first she complained that her throat hurt but then finished the potatoes), cottage cheese, she has had a lot of grains today. Oh, another thing that hurt her throat were frozen grapes.

 But yeah, we are in the clear, she has done great today and grateful to have this behind us. Her voice is still a little nasaly sounding since her nose is still a little plugged, but she is doing great.

First Word and her Walker!

Melanie said her first word on January 22. It was "Julie". Rob had both kids in his lap on the reclining chair in the kids bedroom and the lights were out so just the hall light was shining in and Rob kept repeating Julie's name, and Melanie would say it and tap Julie on the back or wherever. It was so cute. We were at the Library tonight and Rob was pushing Melanie in the stroller, they were across the room and I was looking at kid movies and I hear Melanie trying to get my attention, I look over there and she got the biggest grin and was waiving at me. Love her!

We had her IFSP with the Up to 3 program today and she met all of her goals that we had made for her 6 months ago. Her new goals are 

-Melanie will stack blocks and put toys into a container during play

Strategy: Give her large blocks to stack

-Melanie will walk independently as her primary way to get around

Strategy: Let her walk more in the walker

-Melanie will locate 5 familiar objects when named by family

Strategy: Hold the object close to her when named

-Melanie will consistently follow 5-10 routine 1 step commands with prompts.

Strategy: Direct her to do something she likes to do.

-Melanie will attempt to imitate a variety of facial expressions and easy sounds

Strategy: Practice animal sounds

-Melanie will communicate 3 wants/needs spontaneously using gestures, signs, visuals, or words.

Strategy: Give her choices and make her say/show her choice.

In all she is doing great and they were all so positive and excited about the progress she has made. She has done so well with the walker already.

 After her first week with the walker she is getting a lot better and faster, Julie wanted to push her and did a very good job helping her little sister. Didn't realize they were matching until I took this picture.

 She loves her walker, and will crawl over to it and kneel down next to it and start whimpering and touching it until we come over and help her walk with it. So funny, she also knows that she wears her braces with the walker and she does the same thing when she sees her braces on the table. Smart kid.

Once she gets that down better, they have gymnastics classes for these kids that we will be able to go to for her.

Melanie 23 months

 Hopefully I can get caught up on everything so I don't have to do a monthly picture overload.

So, Melanie loves to come into our room, and I have a bunch of shirts that are going to the DI that are sitting on the floor, and every time she comes in they end up all over. You would think I would pick them up and move them somewhere else. She has so much fun though.

 Christmas(another post), but she loved her baby bottle and stuck in in her mouth and started sucking.

 This kid got sick, started with not eating anything all day, which meant she has a sore throat and was going to get a cold. But this time she also started throwing up around 4:30, and with nothing in her stomach, it was just a lot of dry heaving. So so sad, I was headed to the store and I think she threw up just before I left and so I hurried and got what I needed along with some Pedialite and Hylands Complete Cold and Flu tablets. We gave her two under her tongue every 15 minutes or so for 7 doses along with squirts of pedialite from a syringe and she finally dosed off and took a little nap, and when she woke up around 10:30 she was feeling better and when I went to squirt some more pedialite into her mouth, she was drinking it so fast and wanted more. I hurried and filled her bottle up with some and she was just drinking as fast as she could, don't blame her she was hungry. She didn't want the pedialite after a bit but was still wanting more so I gave her some milk and she downed that and we were able to lay her down for bed with no more throw ups. She slept pretty well too. I was just glad we got some milk in her before she went down to sleep. I hate it when she has a cold, and this one was nasty.

 Julie wanted to play in the tub with Melanie and Melanie is really starting to have fun and splash around in the tub now. (We need to re caulk, so yes, it looks disgusting).

 Watching a video together with their big dog.

 She still loves sitting in the nook.

 She has been doing this lately, for about a week or so she would face plant and eat her food like this.

Love her hair and the cheerios stuck to her face in this one.

 She loves to get her fingers stuck in tight places. Her thumb is stuck in this blender bottle ball. She also gets them stuck in the heater vent slats, in my sisters necklace, in the shopping cart.

 I love this girls smile, it is just straight but I just love how her whole face lights up.

 Loving her green smoothie, drinking more and more each day.

 Common place for the kids to be, if Melanie is sitting with Dad, Julie has to come and have a seat to. She wants Daddy's attention.

 Love how straight her back is in this picture. Some things she likes right now is to take the shapes out of the box, play with blocks or balls. Still gets everything taken away by Julie. But she is fighting her ground more now, letting Julie know she is mad.

-She points at things now and makes a sound like she is saying a word and instead of pulling hair, she looks at it and grits her teeth while holding her hands up like she wants to pull it but doesn't. It is like she is growing out of this. One of my favorite things about her was when I would feed her bottle right before bed in her room in the rocking chair and she would have her eyes closed and she would reach her hands up and just pull at my hair. Really, it felt pretty good unless she got a tangle or just a few strands. 

-She is sleeping through the night again, waking up once a week if that, although sometimes she will wake up at 6 or 6:30 which is still early for her so I will feed her a bottle and then lay her back down and she will sleep usually until at least 8:00. 

We sure love you!

22 months

Well, this little girl is 22 months and continues to make good progress.

If I could only want to write it all down, I used to be so good at blogging and just don't have the desire, but will continue since it their milestones.

Melanie loves my parents dog Buster, she gives him massages if he lets her.

 We were referred to the Moran Eye Center and went down in November to meet with the doctor there. It was a bit of a wait, and all but it was a good appointment. We don't have to patch her eye anymore and we go back in 4 months for a follow up. She gave Melanie the same diagnosis that our eye doctor here gave her. They dilated her eyes so she got to wear these awesome glasses, and I was kind of surprised that she kept them on. She also did so well with the long doctor visit.

 She has ventured into the kitchen and loves to open and close cupboards. Thankfully she hasn't pulled anything out of the cupboards yet. I have to watch where I am stepping when cooking dinner.

 Rob helped her learn how to climb stairs, he is so much more patient at teaching her than I am. She now loves stairs and we can't keep her away.

 Rob got a sphero ball after Melanie crawled after his brothers. Both Melanie and Julie love to chase that thing around.

 Waiting to get labs done at Primary Childrens(another post). She looks so excited doesn't she. Poor girl.

 When I am to slow at getting her to bed for a nap, this is what happens.

She has started to pull up to furniture. This is so awesome to see her doing this. It still shocks me every time I come into a room and see her standing by the couch. 

 The only problem is that she pulls up to the couch and then turns herself outward and she doesn't have the balance to go along with her new skill. So this kind of keeps me on my toes. I hear Julie say from the other room, "Mom, Melanie is standing" to which I have to run in the room to make sure she doesn't hurt herself. What a big girl she is, sometimes it makes me so sad because she wants to do so much and her body won't let her. But, she will get there.

 Having fun with Dad. Still loves to hang upside down.

 Daddy's headphones.

 I just love this face.

 Now that she can get herself to a sitting position, she does this all the time.

 This is also another thing that is crazy to see her doing when I come into the room.

 Since she has discovered sitting, she can now kneel in place too, which I think takes more strength and muscle than sitting. She has even started to get onto her hands and knees and crawl a little. I think she has seen a taste of what she can do and just doesn't want to stop.

 Giving herself a nice hairdo while eating is a common occurrence.

 Touching Matthew's hair, he didn't seem to mind much.

 This just makes me laugh, Julie loves to do what Melanie does occasionally. Funny that they were both undressed as well.

 Melanie just exploded with milestone after milestone this month, really a lot of them were within a weeks time. During the week that she started to get to a sitting position, she also started to be more interactive, as in interacting with Julie while they play, trying to get your attention, she will point at something and then make a sound, pointing instead of using her whole fist. She is just more bright and alert, wanting you to play with her. I wish I gave her more attention, she is so fun and I am so excited with the things she is doing.