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Friday, October 26, 2012

Janessa Faith...7 Months Old

So, with everyone sick, I am a couple of days behind but 2 days ago, Janessa was 7 months old. I cannot believe how time is flying by...I just want her to stay a baby! She is still the worlds easiest baby. She is a fantastic sleeper, loves her bottle and still is not much of a fan of baby food...but I don't really care about that.

She has completely mastered the art of rolling around the room and now I am terrified of what the older girls are going to leave around...just this morning while I was doing dishes, I put her on a blanket to play (sitting up I might add) and when I came back, she had devoured a fallen animal cracker a few feet from where I left her. I think she is also moving herself forward a bit although I would not go so far as to call it crawling yet.

Also this past Sunday at church, we dedicated Janessa. I will [hopefully] share more about that later today or tomorrow so stay tuned! 


Other than that, I don't have much new to share about our happy little baby. She is a joy and blessing!


Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Showing Love...

So...in the last few days, I have found myself in situations where I had to catch myself from "judging" others... or some situations where I hoped that I wasn't being judged! Let's love everyone we come in contact with and realize that we do NOT know everyone's story...I just tried to think of situations where judgement seems to come easily. While Stereotypes happen for a reason, we need to remember that not everyone that is in a si

Don't judge the mom in Target with 3 screaming kids at lunchtime. That mom was waiting for medicine that was needed to help her children get better.

Don't choose just to witness to the happy family at the mall...talk to the struggling single parent who is just trying to get their child some new shoes.

Don't judge the family in the doctor's office who is using Government health insurance. Her child may have special needs.

Don't judge someone by where they work or how much money they make. They have no debt and don't need the same as you.

Don't judge the mom who is feeding her baby from a bottle. You have no idea how hard it was for her when she couldn't nurse her child.

Don't judge the mom who is breastfeeding. She is providing nourishment to her child.

Don't judge the person who is using a thousand coupons in the grocery store. This is why she can stay home with her children.



Don't judge the Parents using WIC Checks to buy food for their family. They are foster parents.

Don't judge the family who has 15 kids. They are happy and enjoying life together.

Don't judge the man that is preaching loudly from a street corner. It might not be your style, but He loves Jesus too. If a seed is planted, does it matter how it got there?

Don't judge the family that has 1 child. They had 5 miscarriages.

Don't judge the family on the airplane with a screaming baby. They just adopted that baby and are still adjusting.

Jesus says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."-Matthew 5:44

Let us work together as Christians in letting those we are in contact with us on a daily basis feel the love of Jesus through us.

Our Pastor shared recently that if we aren't working together...we are working against each other....even within the church. Let's work together and show God's love. We all have different gifts that make up the body of Christ. The body just isn't as strong without all of its parts.

Will you join me in living this way? It's harder than you think. Please comment below with other ways that we easily judge each other.

Doctor...Doctor...Doctor

Yesterday...all three kids woke up sick...fun fun fun! Not just a little sick but REALLY sick. Fevers...coughing...the whole nine yards! Sooo....off we went to the doctor.

Keira has pneumonia

Libby has a sinus infections (I didn't even know this happened to 2 year olds!) AND...

Janessa has her first ear infection...I guess I jinxed her with my last post!

I Don't even remember a time when Keira and Libby have been really sick at the same time but all Three...that was fun!

So...being the person who is always looking for the positive in things...here is my positive in all of this.

At least they didn't all get sick several days apart from each other this time so that I am stuck in the house for weeks...we are hopefully getting it all out at the same time and we can MOVE ON!!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Janessa...updates on her condtion

A few things to update on....There's good news....and not so good news....

Last week on Tuesday afternoon, I took Janessa to meet the surgeon who will fix her Cleft palate. Dr. Girotto is a plastic surgeon and does this surgery all the time. We really liked him. He obviously knows what he is doing and gave me all of the information that I had been wondering about without me even needing to ask...seems that most people have the same questions as me...go figure! 

What we can expect is that the one night she will spend in the hospital will be awful. She will be uncomfortable, not want to eat and won't sleep well. Then we will get up in the morning and will be told that we can go home. Dr. Girotto told me that we will think they are CRAZY for sending us home. Then, by 12 or 1pm, all of a sudden Janessa will turn a corner and start acting normal and we will be ready to leave. 

I know all of this sounds really strange, but it was so comforting to me to know that these are the emotions that I should expect. It now won't be a shock to me when I feel this way.

Also, he eased my fears about the arm braces that she will wear for 2 weeks (to prevent her from putting her hands in her mouth). He said, at this age babies basically wake up from surgery and think..."oh...God took my elbows away. Oh well." and they just go on with life. Also, she will need to be without her pacifier for 2 weeks which means that sleeping will definitely be an adjustment during that time. We are trying to get her attached to a little blankie that she can snuggle with....we'll see....she really likes the binkie!

On Friday, we met with the ENT, Dr. Benoit, who will be putting the tubes in her ears during her surgery. (Because her mouth isn't formed correctly, she is very prone to ear infections and fluid in the ears).We also got to see a Nurse Practitioner, Keri, that I used to babysit her kids! She eased my anxieties in telling me that Dr. Benoit did her own daughters tonsillectomy. Thankfully we have made it thus far with no ear infections....supposedly that is rare. 

They decided to do a hearing test while we were there so they would have a baseline to compare to after her surgery....this is where the not so good news comes in. 

She fell asleep before they started the test and stayed asleep through the whole things which actually makes the test more accurate.


And then she failed the first test SIX times!!! Three times in each ear. The audiologist was obviously not wanting me to worry so she passed it off as a "not to worry" thing, and said they have a more accurate test in a sound proof room...so we headed over there. She failed that too.

To give you an idea of what it was like this would be what the results would look like in a "normal" exam.

Although I can't find a good picture of what Janessa's looked like, the arc was somewhat like this...

Yep...not so great. 

So, what does this mean? Well, basically it means that our baby girl has lots of fluid behind both of her ears. She can definitely hear us because she responds, however, it would sound to hear as if we are under water. So...the ENT called me on Friday afternoon (of course I had left my phone in the car) just to make sure that I wasn't worried all weekend. Then, she called first thing this morning to make sure that I understood and wasn't worried. 

They contemplated doing to the tubes now to get the fluid out, but with the palate not being fixed, it could cause more issues (uh...the poor kid already has milk come out her nose...well...it would then also come out her ears!) so they are going to wait unless she starts having ear issues. 

The Surgery will be in February...I should hear back today on a date! Like any mother, I am nervous about the anesthesia but I also know that without this surgery she would have a multitude of problems. In the grand scheme of things, this is an EXTREMELY minor problem for a child to have.

Sorry for the long post...this is as much for my own memory as it is to keep others up to date!




Thursday, October 11, 2012

Catch up!!! Libby Grace 2 years 9 months & Keira Marie 4 years 4 months

Ooops....life caught up with me..I was on a roll and now I got behind...but I am just gonna catch up and keep going!

So....with our family vacation (that  I still have yet to blog about) and then everything in life being back in full swing, I haven't made a whole lot of time to actually write on the blog. I struggle with this because I must come up with at least 10 things a day that I should blog about...I just never actually sit down and do it!

So....for now, I will just catch up on the two big girls:

Keira Marie--

In September, Keira moved up to the 4&5 year old Sunday School and church time...this was all very exciting to her but nowhere near as exciting as the fact that she is now a Pioneer Girl at church. For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is somewhat like Christian Girl Scouts. For some reason, being a "Scooter" in Pioneer Girls means to Keira that she has somehow "made it"! She is a big kid in her mind....she announces to random people in passing that she is a Pioneer Girl and pretty much brings it into every conversation. It is crazy. She is also loving Community Bible Study every week, being part of MOPS and of course has not lost her passion for Irish Step Dancing. Anyone who is worries about her socialization as a home school kid should please stop worrying. This kid wakes up asking where we are going.

Libby Grace--

Libby on the other hand....would LOVE to stay home whenever possible. She is no longer in the nursery at church (mommy sheds tear) and is now in the 2&3's class. She LOVES it! She is so proud of her art work and tries each week to tell us what she learned (we usually need to refer to the sheets she brings home in order to get it right). She is also loving Community Bible Study, MOPS and a Wednesday night program at church. On the off days, she is still happy to stay home and play with Minnie Mouse.

A melt your heart moment....

After a busy morning at CBS last week, I conceded and allowed the girls to watch a show together on the computer after lunch before rest time. It was worth it to hear this conversation.

Libby: Kee-wa, I missed you today at CBS
Keira: You did?
Libby: Yeah
Keira: I missed you too
(girls hug)
Libby: I love you Kee-wa
Keira: I love you too!

Although I am sure they fought about something shortly after, that is what I remember...and why I love being a mommy!