Casting of Auggie's Helmet

Today we took Mr. Auggie in to have his helmet casted.  He having to wear a helmet to help shape his head.  This picture is a pretty good before picture.  I will post about his head in a later post with more shots of his head.

The before picture with Momma...

Here they are placing the wrap on before adding the plaster.

My little knight!

Here is a picture of the plaster shaped helmet.  They now will send it off to have the helmet made.  In a couple of weeks we will get the actual helmet and start the process.

Goree Picnic

I have to say I'm slacking in the photos department lately.  With the twins it's just enough that we get to where we are going lately let alone trying to capture pictures. 

 

But we had a great night at the Goree picnic.  Here is Hettie and Halle they are not quite 2 months apart.  They both have the same middle name Marie. I love that Hettie is going to have a cousin her age to grow up with.

Unfortunately the big kids decided to roll around in the grass and they all got bit by fire ants.  Poor Sadie was COVERED! This picture is even after an allegra that Susie gave her at the park.

We gave her a bath and this picture is after the bath.  Poor thing we had to get cream to put on it and it still took forever for the bites to go away.

Our Scare

** warning: this post contains graphic baby/woman information**

Well Monday afternoon late I stood up from the chair in the living room and starting leaking. I immediately went into the bathroom and called Steve.  His response "I'm not a doctor I have no idea.  call them"  Duh!

(A little back ground history here...when I was pregnant with Sadie I was induced  so my water never broke on it's own.  So I wasn't sure what to expect.)

I called my doctor and they said to get over to the hospital so they can run tests.  So off we went.  We dropped Sadie off at the Fieldsteds (thank goodness for them) and we were off.  We got to the hospital and went right up to labor and delivery.  They ran a test to determine if it was ambiotic fluid.  And the test came back postitive.  Not a good sign.  So they ran another test and we waited.  They ordered an ultrasound and 24 hr monitoring.  Now baby monitoring is normally very simple but since there were two babies they had to keep track of both separately.  Twins are hard to keep track of.  Especially when you have kids that don't like ultrasounds or like to be monitored.  They literally kept the nurses hoping.

The ultrasound happened later that day and the results were encouraging the fluid levels looked normal. But they wanted to monitor me for another 48 hours to make sure the levels didn't go down. In the meantime they started me on antibotics and a steriod for the babies in case they delivered early it would help with their lung development. (that shot hurt!!!)


The next day was Valentines Day so Steve and Sadie came up and brought things for us to make for Sadie's preschool group.  A mother's job is never done.  Even while in the hospital.  So we made Rolo butterfly valentines for her friends.

So on the 15th in the late afternoon they gave me another ultrasound and the levels actually had increased.  So the good news was the fluid levels were just fine.  I had stopped leaking by then but I was only getting up to go to the bathroom.  So I was released to go home on a few conditions. 

1. I had to take my temperature twice a day to make sure I didn't start getting a fever.  That would indicate an infection.

2. I had to limit my activity.  I wasn't on strict bed rest but I couldn't walk around alot and I was not able to lift anything heavy.

3. I had to go to the doctor's office once a week for a check up and blood work.

So I went home.  I was very lucky. 

Disneyland

Sadie got to have another Daddy Daughter day at Disneyland.

 She had alot of fun visiting the princesses.  It was the first time ever there was NO LINE.  Steve was utterly amazed.

 Sadie decided to test her muscles.

 Then they headed over to California Adventure.

 Our one of a kind priceless daughter!

 While at California Adventure Steve and Sadie had a real adventure.  They were playing at the carnival games and Sadie got a real bad bloody nose.  They had several attendants and a nurse come to help.  They even gave her a new t-shirt and a huge stuft Mickey Mouse.

After that Sadie was really drained but refused to go home.  On the way back to Disneyland they ran into Doug from the movie UP.

This picture captures the situation perfectly.  This is the new Mickey mouse.  Doesn't she look sad and drained?  Well she was.  She really missed Mommy but Daddy did a good job of taking care of her.

First this they did was run into Donald when they made it back to Disneyland.

They made their way to Pixie hollow again.  Notice the picture with Silvermist was from the morning but the picture with Fawn and Tinker bell is from the afternoon.

Fawn and Tinker bell talked to Sadie for a good 3 minutes and even tried on her glasses.  Steve said they were really sweet to Sadie and were really funny.

After Pixie Hollow Daddy decided Sadie needed a break so they found a comfy shady spot to wait for the parade.  While waiting the Mad Hatter came by.  Sadie wasn't too sure about this guy.

After the parade they made their way to the tea cups.  Sadie had a good time despite the "blood issue" as she calls it.



Another Eye Surgery for Sadie

Sadie's eye starting to get infected due to a stitch from her surgery so we had to go down and do an emergency surgery to remove the stitch before it got worse.

This time they gave her a Doctor Teddy Bear.

We had a LONG wait.  but she was a good sport.  She played with Steve's tablet and when the batteries ran out she played with her princesses. 

Luckily this time she didn't have to go fully under and so there were no iv's and the recovery was minimal. 

Sadie's Surgery

After seeing Dr. Stacey at UCLA they determined they needed to perform surgery on Sadie's right eye to remove the posterior cataract.  So the surgery was scheduled for August 2nd.  (Just three days before we were supposed to do a frozen embryo transfer...more on that later.) 

We went down to UCLA the night before since we had to be at the hospital bright and early. Sadie was a little nervous but did really well.  Especially when they gave her baby Valium. 

Sadie was pretty funny when she got her medicine.  She was totally stoned.  Here she is fascinated with the balloon named bob that the nurse made her.

She was examining everything and couldn't keep her head up.  She would be fine one second and then plop there goes her head.  Oh and the Yes written above her eye means "yes this is the eye to have the procedure"

On the way into surgery I got on a gown and cap and she couldn't stop laughing at me.  She kept saying I looked funny.  And when the orderly asked if he could pick her up she smiled and said "I love you".

Here she is in recovery.  She didn't like the fact she couldn't touch her eye but as soon as I started talking to her and gave her little pink she calmed down.  We had to stay in recovery for about an hour and a half and then we came home.

The first night we had to take turns staying up so she wouldn't sleep on her patched eye but after that it was just the struggle of the drops and patching.  We have to patch her good eye for 4-6 hrs a day to try and strengthen her bad eye. 

*11-17-11 Follow up:  Everything went well.  The drops are history thank goodness.  We still have to patch her eye but she has been released to normal activity. She now has her glasses and is wearing them great.  We occasionally have to remind her to look through the glasses not over them.  But she is improving daily.

Sadie's First Splinter

We made it to Etna and it didn't take Sadie long to get her first boo-boo.  Yep have you heard of those deadly and very painful Splinters?  Well according to the patient it was the most painful thing that has ever happened to her.



Here is Daddy inspecting the splinter.

 

Notice Steve's face?  haha...He hasn't even started anything yet.  Oh and the evil looking frog is actually a flashlight.



How many people does it take to remove a splinter? 

See all better!!  She was completely traumatized.

My Baby Girl

Well today was a big milestone for us. We took Sadie in for an eye exam and it has completely turned my world upside down. Let me start at the beginning...

Back in January at Sadie's 3 year check up her doctor told me that Sadie had a slight stigmatism in each eye. I asked then if it was something I should follow up on and he said they would check again next year and if it was worse they would suggest seeing and optomitrist. Well months went on and I told myself that I wanted to get her into an eye doctor but with Steve's insurance and job situation we were kind of in limbo.

Well the last month it has been wearing very heavily on my mind so I decided at the beginning of the month to schedule her and I appointments. I thought no biggie we would just get a base line for her and go from there.

Well today has thrown me for a loop. We have found out that she has a cateract on her left eye. Not a normal one though. Her lense in her eye is perfectly clear except for a round white circle right in the middle of her lense, over her pupil.

So in essence she has not vision except slight perphal vision out of her right eye. The doctor was wonderful and called and got us an appointment in UCLA for July 18th. Sadie will more than likely have to have surgery but luckily we caught it early her eye can still develop correctly. Which I am very thankful for.

Now for the Momma bear stuff:
I am full of so many emotions tonight. I know there is nothing we could have done to prevent it or anything we could have done sooner to catch it but I still feel like I let my baby walk around blind in one eye for 3 years. How do I get over that? Not to mention that all afternoon and evening everytime I looked at her all I saw was a little girl with one eye. I know completely irrational but it's the truth. My heart is hurting a little tonight. And everytime I look at her it clenches just a little. Then my emotions turn from saddness, anger at myself and then to planning mode (what can I do to fix this and who needs to be called). So my emotions are in a constant state of flux right now. So if you see me and I'm in front of Sadie I probably won't go into too much detail only because I'll probably end up crying (I know I'm such a girl) and I don't want her to see that. I will be more than happy to talk about it out of her presence.

I don't want her to think anything has changed or that anything is wrong. I don't want her to feel different. But she already knows something is going on. I know we can get through this. So my goal until the 18th is to go on like nothing has changed (easier said than done). I'm a bit of a worrier so we'll see how that goes. Luckily we have a few fun things planned this week and next week we head to Etna for almost 2 weeks of camping, cousins, fishing and reunions. So that will keep us distracted.

I've decided to drop my classes I enrolled in this fall semester. Between doing another round of invitro on the 12th of August and a possible eye surgery for Sadie I think my plate will be full enough for a while. We've also opted not to put her in preschool this fall either. We just don't know what's going to happen or when and we could use the money for the school for doctor bills.

I want to thank everyone who has already given us their well wishes and prayers. I am so appreciative of that. Your support and prayers will help us get through this and I know we will get through this one way or the other. Because we are fighters and we will not let this get in our way. For anyone who knows Sadie knows this. I'm actually a little worried about what she's going to be like with two good eyes. If this is how she is with one...look out world.

Sadie's Scrapes

My poor baby. Well it finally happened. She took a spill off of her bed. After we put her to bed we heard a loud thump and then the crying. I went in and found her crumpled on the floor covered in blood. Mainly from her gums. We don't know if she was jumping on the bed and fell off or if she was reaching for the ceiling fan and slipped. Both are common activities for our young adventurer. Although this is the first time she's actually fallen off of the bed.

Here is the results of the spill.

I tried putting bandaids on it and it just made her look like she'd had a bad nose job.

Sadie's Nose

Sadie vs Dogs

Dogs Won!

We were outside playing on the swings and Sadie decided she needed to play with the dogs. Which at that moment in time the dogs were playing pretty hard with eachother. Before I could stop her I heard a THUD! She came up crying and covered in grass, dirt and blood.
I thought she broke her nose but upon examining her nose we discovered it wasn't broke. But is was bruised pretty good and sore.
I was pretty certain she was going to have two black eyes the next day but luckily enough she didn't...she just had two bruises on either side of her nose.

Poor baby!

Geese & Ducks, Oh My!

There is a reason there are no pictures of Sadie with the ducks. While I was doing my photo shoot, Steve and Sadie fed the ducks. However there was an agressive goose that nipped at Sadie's sleeve. That was fine, but then it nipped at her foot. That was ok too, but then the goose got her leg. Yah the romance was pretty much over at that point.

Here are a few pictures of the ducks and geese though. Steve stood at the edge of the pond "PRETENDING" to be throwing bread. This was the picture he got.

These guys were on the shore looking for the fake bread.
Steve managed to get a nice size crowd with his theatrics.

They were not too happy with Steve. They decided to charge.

Recuperating Sunday

While I was busy getting ready for my sale and the wedding, Sadie decided it was her mission in life to climb out of her crib. (Yes this is going to end badly) She got on top of the crib but couldn't figure out how to get down, until she fell and chipped her tooth in the process. She also ended up with a swollen lip. So Sunday was spent recuperating for us all. Me from doing too much and Sadie from her tumble.

Here is a picture of her tooth. She is covering the swollen lip. As you can see it really affected her.

Sadie's favorite candy apparently is milky ways. Here is a picture of Sadie trying to get a treat out of Steve's pocket.

We have been struggling with listening in our house hold. So Sadie has been a frequent visitor to the Time Out Corner. (She looks a little too happy to me)

With the move, we've had a lot of bubble wrap floating around. Well Steve showed Sadie how to pop it. She thought this was the funniest thing ever.