MckMama

I'm not sure of Baby Stellan's current status, but as of MckMama's last update (last night), it sounds as though he's in the fight of his life. Please pray for another miracle for this baby and that MckMama and her family will feel the loving arms of Christ around them, as well as the love and support coming from her thousands of readers. I'm hardly able to think of anything else. Please pray.

To read any or all of Stellan's miracle life, visit http://www.mycharmingkids.net/.

In and out.

Remember when I said that Maddy's apnea alarm was going off for bradycardia? By the time it went off almost solidly for three hours straight, I finally called the doctor on call on Friday night and she said to take her to ER to be checked out. So at 1:30 a.m., I took her on over to St. Joseph's, let her go to sleep on their monitor, and sure enough, she was dipping into the 70s after being asleep for about a half hour. The week before, I remembered she was hanging out in around the 150s.

The doctor called St. Vincent, since that is who normally deals with all of Madeline's various and sundry drama or otherwise, and they send to bring her on down. We rode via ambulance (even though there was no "emergency"), and settled her onto third floor peds once again. The doctors here ran blood and urinalysis to be safe, but were pretty sure that the monitor could simply be adjusted for her age--hanging out with a heart rate dipping to the 70s during sleep isn't all that bad, come to find out.

But while we're here, may as well treat the urinary tract infection. Yep, that again. We stayed overnight to see what the cultures would grow. Kids that are on prophylactic antibiotics (daily preventative, due to vescicoureteral reflux, urine reflux from bladder to kidneys), evidently develop other, more complicated "bugs" that have to be treated with IV antibiotics. So the question was do we have to stay here again, waiting to make sure that we don't need IVs (and thereby making mommy miss the Talley Trio leading worship tomorrow morning) or risk it and go home, and see what the test show tomorrow?

We get to GO HOME, and we'll just follow up with the infectious desease doctor in clinic, and we can do IVs that way too, if needed! Yippee!

So now I can go home and finish cleaning for my dear friend Lisa to come see me. She was supposed to come on Friday, and well, that obviously didn't work out. Can't wait.....

Not Me! Monday

To read a ton of other Not-Me-Monday posts, click on the label above! This weekly event is hosted by MckMamma at http://www.mycharmingkids.net/.

I do not get in a funk when I bring Maddy home from the hospital. And if I did, it certainly would not be because I'm overwhelmed by having to care for her on my own again, as well as two other adorable crumb-crunchers and a house to boot. That would be silly, since I am a SuperMom.

I do not wish that I could sit and read as much as I did in the hospital.

I do not keep posting as an attempt to avoid work.

I am not enjoying watching Maddy play with her fingers and elbows, and a cute little beaded teething ring.

I definitely have not made Olivia stay dressed in day clothes rather than her assorted princess dresses.

We would never stay at a birthday party 5 hours longer than we meant to, just so that we didn't have to come home and be responsible (work).

At the same b-day party, I never, never ever even thought about asking my hubby if he'd let any of the other guys get a word in edgewise!

I would shudder at even the thought of owning a dog, so I would never even think about how fun it would be to have a puppy as cute as the little Cocker Spaniel that I saw this week.

I did not say "Oh, Lord, help us!" (and mean it) when one of Obama's something-or-others said something about another stimulus package being a possibility.

I am NOT taking the time to do a not-me-Monday post because there's a rather cool prize being given by MckMamma!

Christmas at Grandma Cessna's (Yep, it's March, I know, but I'm still playing picture catch up)

Six o'clock a.m. sharp is when Christmas at Grandma's kicked off (which means we were up at 5 at my mom's to get ready). I can't figure out why I only have pictures of present openings, because the whole day was packed with all our Cessna traditions. Next year, I'm going to take pictures of every little detail! :) And again, some of these are fuzzy. Something's not been right with the camera ever since Carli dropped it into the water at the zoo.

So we start with the kids singing their Christmas program songs or reciting lines, much to the children's frustration! We open presents from youngest to oldest. Every year, Uncle Craig will peel one corner of a package and say, "Oh, thank you!" and pretend to put it aside. (Precious Memories! :) )

We have breakfast at 8:00 sharp. This now involves stretching a long line of tables clear into the great room from the dining room. The main menu item on the traditional Cessna Christmas breakfast is date loaf, and this year, I tried it for the first time, and yep, it will be an every year tradition for this little Cessna girl now too.

As soon as breakfast is over and cleaned up, the "older" ladies start setting the table for Christmas Dinner, complete with the best China, silver, crystal, cloth napkins, tablecloths and center pieces. (In order for Grandma to pull this whole day off, she has everything, and I mean everything written down in a notebook, including each part of the table setting. We have a picture of this notebook from one year that shows even how many highchairs are needed.) This year, Jordan, Kayla, Glen, and I took the little ones back to Mom's to get the kiddos changed and combed for the day.

Our Christmas (turkey) Dinner is one of the best parts of the day, especially when Uncle Craig gets started telling funny stories. Especially fun is when he tells one that embarrasses Grandma, but she can't help but laugh!

So we clean up once again, take naps, play games, chase kiddos, and set the table once again for our turkey-sandwich supper. Yep, we eat until we're about sick on Christmas. This year we talked Grandma to push of supper to 6. For supper, we also have all the wonderful goodies and fun foods that everyone has brought with them. Mmmm....

Emily and Olivia

That's Daniel (Jordan and Kayla's little boy) hiding behind Mom's hands. Aunt Pam is holding Landon (Melanie's middle child).


Grandma is the queen of Christmas.





Jordan and Daniel

Kayla (my lovely sis-in-law)

Uncle Craig (who keeps things lively), Aunt Becky, Jennifer and Andrew

Shawn and Melanie

Auntie, RB, Emily and Olivia

PS: I posted last night, so keep scrolling if you haven't seen the adorable pics of Maddy Kate yet!

Sunday update

Maddy was much happier today, though she played the drama queen this afternoon by setting her apnea monitor off every minute or two for about an hour and a half. It was the bradycardia alarm (low heart rate), and I'm not completely sure that it was just the wires, because I was getting a low heart rate on taking her pulse, as well. She popped back up easily enough, so the doctor on call thought we'd be ok to wait until tomorrow to talk to the neurosurgeon, as it is probably related to the surgery. At any rate, she's fine now, but I didn't take her to church tonight because I didn't feel comfortable taking the alarm off and I couldn't let it go off in church, either.

We are enjoying some beautiful spring weather. All five of us took a walk tonight just breathing in the fresh air. Love this time of year.

Granny sent this dress for Maddy, and she just looked so adorable in it today! :)

Carmen passed along this adorable Barbie princess dress for Olivia. She lives in her princess dresses! As soon as she gets up, she says, "I wanna be princess!"

Ok, this is back at the hospital. I was getting ready to take Maddy's picture (yet again) when Dr. Schaefer walked in and offered to snap a picture of the two of us. The look on her face is pretty much how she was every time she was moved from the time she woke up from the sedation until Friday. Not loud cries, but little scowls and wimpers.

Carli's story

Carli's Kindergarten class has some time each day for writing. They do not have any help with the spelling, etc, they just use words they know or sound out words. She's come home with some pretty cute stuff.

Here's this week's, as is, followed by translation. She knows that periods come at the end of sentences, but on this paper, that definitely didn't translate. There was one at the end of every line instead.

My dofins lif.
at calfooy anb it.
is cood her name.
is sally her.
favrit food is
pysu.

Translation:
My dolfins live at California and it is cold. Her name is Sally. Her favorite food is pizza.

Home!

We are home, finally! We will be back in 2 weeks for the impedence probe to see if the Nissen procedure (wrapping the stomach around the esophagus to help with reflux, averting aspiration)will need to be done at the same time as the G-tube, and then the surgey the next week, probably. And I need to schedule an appointment with Dr. Didelot, Maddy's orthopedic surgeon, to finalize plans for surgery to correct her feet.

So good to be back home!

Christmas trip, Stop Two (picture catch up)

Our second stop on the Christmas trip was at Glen's brother's. We had too much fun catching up with Wayne and Esther and Makayla. Glen's Mom and Dad and sisters were there as well, so we were crammed up, but we had such a good time. For some reason, I don't have pictures for some of the fun excursions we took, such as the spectacular Walk through Bethlehem or the Christmas Festival of Lights on the bay. What I do have is a little fuzzy and for some strange reason there are splotches here and there, but I wanted to make sure we got this part of the journey recorded forever in blog world! :)

The kiddos wait for the tour through Bethlehem

Sunday Morning

Cousins

Wayne, Esther and Makayla

Playing Maid...

...and starlet...

...and teacher...

...and awesome auntie...

...and chief and bottle washer...

...and tea party...

Aunt Essie had a wonderful surprise planned for the girls. She put together a vintage dress-up trunk for each girl, decorated with their names, complete with tea party skirts, hats, boas, heels, tea cups, etc. They had so much fun.

Don't you wonder what that look is all about?

Maddy slept through it all. The only thing I did with Maddy the whole time I was there was a little therapy and cathing. Between Grandma, Aunties Esther, Emmeline and Lorraine, her bottles, rocking, bathing, changing, and dressing were all taken care of! There were no knock-down, drag-out fights, but there was plently of competition to get hot little hands on that baby.

The morning we opened presents. We were all pretty beat from all our fun!

Thursday update

Maddy is doing ever so much better. She still is pretty sore, therefore grouchy at times, scowling and glaring at us when we move her. Most of the time, she's not so bad! She's been awake a lot more now, and playing with her toys a bit and rocking with Mommy.

I think we could have been discharged last night, had we not been waiting on one more doctor's approval. The GI doctor wants to see her first, and when the nurse called this morning to tell her that we were only waiting for her, she was astonished that it was a possibility that we could leave after a brain surgery! She felt badly, but she had multiple surgeries scheduled at two different hospitals, and she can't see Maddy until tomorrow morning. Oh, well. Such is life. I didn't ask if it was a possibility, but the pulmonologist did say that she wouldn't advise even the minor surgery to place the G-tube so soon after the craniectomy. So basically we're just waiting overnight just to have the GI doctor to just tell us what the new plan is. At any rate, sounds like we'll be back before too long!

On a serious note, I would ask that all of you who have prayed so faithfully for Madeline to send up prayers for a friend from our SS class who was just diagnosed with breast cancer. I think she's Glen's age. I know she and her family are in total shock right now and desperately need to feel the arms of God and His children around them right now.

Christmas trip, Stop One (picture catch up)

There are several updates re: Maddy's surgery and recovery below.

Our first stop on our Christmas trip found us at Benjy and Lisa (Myers) Sommers beautiful house in the mountains of Berkley Springs, WV. We totally enjoyed our time...just relaxing and talking, and yes, EATING. Yum-o. They have two beautiful children, Mercy and Judah.

Olivia, Carli and Mercy fresh out of the bathtub.

Out of PICU!

Maddy's PICU nurse fixing her oxygen and feeding tube. She was completely awesome.


Freshly bathed and moved to 4th floor, and now sleeping with her eyes slit open.I'll take another picture later showing the full dress. Auntie Pam brought it Monday. Too cute with LadyBug pockets. (Thanks, Auntie. So much fun being spoiled!