Happy Birthday Jarika!

Well my sweet firstborn is 17. How in the world did that happen? Jarika is such a beautiful and wonderful daughter I am proud to be her mom. She has definitely had a rough year but within the last couple of weeks things are turning around for her and I am once again seeing my bubbly, happy girl who cracks me up. She had to cheer tonight so I took some cupcakes up for her. She is crazy about The Little Mermaid so that's what she got and she was thrilled. It just so happens that one of her best friends, Tasha is also celebrating her 17th birthday today too! I got a quick shot of them before the game started, aren't they cute?? Well, I worked for half a day today and I am completely wiped out. LOTS of pain, I thought it would be easing up, but since I was actually pretty mobile today I guess it stressed it a little. So off to bed for me! Happy Birthday JARIKA!! I LOVE YOU!!!

I have no idea why this pic is turned this way, it's not when I preview it!!!

Addy is sick

Miss Addy Boo is sick. :( We took her to Urgent Care this morning because she woke up with her eyes all crusty and green gunk all over her poor little face! She's been fighting a cold for a couple of days but I could tell that it had moved on to something more significant. They checked her out and decided that she has a pretty good sinus infection and her ears may be infected too. She had so much wax in them that when one was cleaned out it bled a little. Poor little thing, she can't even have her mama pick her up! SO frustrating! She's handling it pretty well and her daddy is awesome so we are getting through. She started some Augmentin so hopefully she will be a much happier baby by tomorrow.
I am feeling quite a bit better today. I am hoping that I am over the worst of the post surgery pain. I go back to the surgeon tomorrow. I am hoping that he will take my stitches out so I can soak in the jacuzzi tub, that helps everything feel better in my opinion! I also have a very itchy rash/irritation from the tape that is making me nuts. I've tried cortisone cream but it hasn't helped so maybe he will have something better.
Thanks for all of the prayers during my recovery! I am feeling good so let's pray that it continues!

Details

Okay details relating to my surgery. I am really bruised around my incisions, but it's hard to see in the pix, we couldn't get the lighting right. This was supposed to be a 30 minute minor outpatient procedure. The anesthesiologist was placing a "block" in my shoulder so it would be numb for the first 24-36 hours after surgery. The surgery itself took longer than expected because there was a pretty large bone spur under my AC joint on my clavicle that was causing a lot of the problems. There was also so extra fluid and "floaters" in there that were also removed. When the anesthesiologist was trying to get me to wake up it was apparent that I was unable to breathe on my own. She went in too deep when placing the shoulder block and it ended up "paralyzing" me from the neck down. Therefore, I had to be placed on a ventilator. I was on it for a little over 3 1/2 hours. When I did start to wake up I could only see shadows and I couldn't hear at all. I was scared to death! Once I could hear they explained what had happened and why I still had a tube down my throat. They told me I wasn't breathing on my own so I just closed my eyes again and said "Okay God, I'm giving this to you. Please help me relax and let them take care of me so I'll be okay." I don't really remember anything after that except some gagging when I am guessing they were taking me off of the vent. They were going to have to keep me in the hospital if I couldn't get off of the vent, but fortunately I was okay and they did let me go home, several hours later than expected of course! I was in a ton of pain and the shoulder block that was supposed to be so great, ended up coming apart a couple of hours after we got home. So I pretty much had had no pain medication so that was why I was having so much trouble. Fortunately a good friend of mine was at church and she brought over a friend of hers (that I had never met) and she is an Orthopedic nurse! Bless her heart, she came right over and was able to removed the pump in my shoulder and get it all dressed for me. What a blessing, she really helped out. I am having a really hard time sleeping and the pain meds aren't really helping at all, but I am taking them. I had to go to PT yesterday! It was horrible, I just cried. My PT fortunately was one I worked with before and she was so gentle so I made it through but it really hurt! Today is a much better day but now poor Miss Addy has a horrible cold and she cannot figure out why Daddy keeps picking her up and not giving her to mommy! I have been able to sit and hold her some, but I am nowhere near ready to be lifting. My great friends have been keeping us well fed which has been a huge blessing. I go to the doctor on Monday and he will let me know when I can return to work. My big Friday plan obviously didn't work out at all! I'm hoping by the middle or end of next week, but I'm not going to rush anything I don't want to have to go through this again!

update

just to let everyone know that surgery was horrible I am in a ton of pain. i will post more later, I am alive and breathing on my own, which is good because I wasn't after surgery. Long story,will tell more when I'm up to it.

Surgery Tomorrow

Well I am going to have a distal claviculectomy and subacromial decompression done to my left shoulder at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Sounds like fun huh? I am really praying that this takes away the pain and constant discomfort in my shoulder, it's about to drive me nuts. I am very hopeful that things will go well and recovery won't be too bad. I am going to have to get pretty creative when it comes to taking care of Addy one handed! I know there are people in this world that function with no hands so surely I will be able to adapt for a few weeks. Please pray for my family as they deal with the Boss being out of commission for a little bit!

First week of Daycare

Well Miss Addysen did GREAT her first week of daycare! I was so thrilled! She has already learned something new from being around the other kids too. She now waves "Bye Bye"! We have worked and worked on this but she could have cared less. I guess it just took some cute little babies to show her it's not so hard! I couldn't find the video camera last night, surprise surprise, but I did get the digital so I sorta got pix of her waving to her reflection in the window. I am so thankful that she is there and is getting exposed to other little ones, I know it's going to be great for her overall development!

Eating/Drinking

I had Addy's six month IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan) meeting on Monday. Basically things are changing. I'm okay with the changes, I think. Addy's biggest concerns are obviously her feeding and motor skills. Don't get me wrong she is way delayed in communication, but I feel it is pretty commensurate with her developmental age. Anyway, her current speech therapist feels that Addy's feeding issues are behavioral so she won't be seeing her anymore. She is having a new SLP see her to increase communication. That is okay by me, I do think she needs the communication to be addressed. Her developmental therapist will now be working with Addy's new daycare to teach them how to deal with Addy's "behaviors" when it comes to feedings and playing appropriately with toys. This is what is bothering me. I do think Addy has swallowing problems. It is obvious that Addy has extreme feeding aversion, it's pretty much a no brainer there. So I was talking to her OT about it, Delene, who is also a good friend of mine. She wanted to see Addy eat so yesterday during OT we did feeding. Needless to say, Addy showed her true feeding aversion. She clamps her mouth shut, turns her head, cries and pushes you away. We did get a couple of good swallows of applesauce, very audible swallows, but they were swallows. Addy was doing really well with a certain sippy cup, but she is on a sippy cup strike. (as a speech pathologist I will be the first to tell you to forget sippy cups and go straight to a straw, but this is a case of trying anything that works, we are also trying her Honey Bear with a straw, so far same aversion) So I am hopeful that going to daycare will help with so much of this. She is going to be in the baby room and there are babies in there that take bottles, sippy cups and baby food so she will be included in mealtime. We include her at mealtime everyday, but we know kids learn from their peers. This morning Avery came downstairs and said Jarika needed me. I told him just a minute and I'll be up. This is what I found when I got upstairs:

This last pic is a little deceiving, it looks like complete aversion, but actually an ice cube hit her lips and she was shaking because it was cold, she immediately turned to me and smiled!

This is obviously something that Addy was "choosing" to participate in. Now the bad mommy is going to confess that Jarika was giving her Dr. Pepper, but hey she took it willingly and that is progress!