My Cat Had Acupuncture

My cat had acupuncture.

Yes, you read that correctly.

My cat had acupuncture.

Jerri went back to the neurologist on Thursday. (If you need to catch up, read my last post.)  We get there and I tell the resident that the medicine they gave her (Lyrica/Pregablin) really didn't do much for her. Honestly, we feel like she's been pretty bad in the past few weeks. We're almost at the point where if she's awake, she's having episodes and if she's asleep, she doesn't. We've been locking her up a lot overnight because she keeps us awake a good portion of the night having episodes. We feel bad locking her up, but it's the only way we don't hear her. So, I gave the guy my speal and off he took Jerri to get looked at.

45 minutes later (!) they brought her back with the neurologist. And he informed me that he did a 20 minute electrical acupuncture session with her and he thought she may have liked it!  He said she "complained" while he was feeling for where to put the needles, but was totally fine with the needles going in. And he said she actually relaxed quite a bit during it. Go figure.

So our game plan is to try a new medicine with her. Something more similar to Prozac (which helped decrease the number of episodes) but with less side effects. It's called Buspar. And good news-the pharmacy already called me and I should have it next week I'm guessing. In the meantime, he wants me to watch her and see if the acupuncture did anything for her. Here it is Saturday night so it's been 2 days and really there hasn't been much change to her unfortunately. He did say we could do monthly acupuncture with her if it worked.

The bad news? If this medicine doesn't work, then he's thinking of doing an MRI and spinal tap on her to see if something else is going on that we're missing. My thoughts....cha-ching! How much will this cost? I hate to sound like a bitch heartless, but how much do you spend on an animal before you say enough is enough? Yes, she's our pet. Yes, we love her. Yes, we want to help her. But...she's a cat. We got her for free. We've already spent a lot of money on her in the past 2 months trying to figure this whole thing out. I just hope it's a decision that we don't have to make.

Please, keep your fingers and toes crossed that this medicine works for her!

In regular news, Easter is tomorrow and Avery is on Spring break. She started it with a bang by getting strep throat!  Here's to everyone getting and staying healthy!

Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome (FHS)

I know I've been MIA for awhile now.

I keep debating whether or not to keep this going.

Life has been busy-the holidays followed by Cassie's birthday followed by me taking a big test for my job (which meant studying since December in any free time I have). Throw in a crazy cat (you'll see what I mean) and 2 kids and that's been life the past few months. Things have been pretty status quo for the most part I guess which is why I haven't really updated much. Not to mention I just don't feel like taking the time to do it! Haha!

But I thought this was worthy of a post....mainly to maybe help someone else out there going through the same thing as us.

So around the second week in January on a Friday night, I was on the couch studying and our cat, Jerri, was in the room with me. All of a sudden, she growled, hissed and ran around the room. This cat only hisses and growls when another cat is outside. Or if we really piss her off. I went and told Gabe what she did and he remarked that she had done the same thing the night before. About 10mins later, she did it again.

Saturday morning we wake up and she did it again. We called the vet and they got us in around 3pm. Everything checked out normal and they drew some blood to see if there were any answers there.

Saturday night was terrible. Gabe and I literally slept for 2 hours. All Jerri did was hiss, growl and run around the house. If she wasn't sleeping, she was having these episodes repeatedly. The worst part was cats are quiet sometimes so we wouldn't hear her come in our room and then from under the bed you'd hear this loud growl/hiss and it would scare the crap out of you!  Gabe ended up video taping her around 4am  so we had evidence of what was going on. From that, we figured out that she was hissing and growling at her tail and then would try to attack it and run away from it.

Monday we heard from the vet that all of her bloodwork came back normal. I told her about the tail involvement so she wanted us to bring Jerri back on Tuesday to have her anal glands checked. So Gabe took her in and all was normal. The decision was made to try a pain reliever to see if anything improved. So maybe Wednesday that week we started that for 3-4 days and there was no improvement. (And giving a cat pills is terrible-they are really good at spitting them out. Repeatedly.)

The episodes kept happening and there were nights we had to lock Jerri in the basement so that she didn't keep us up all night long. They weren't as bad as that first night (thankfully!) but she was still doing them for hours at a time sometimes!

Since the pain reliever didn't help, the vet suggested trying Fluoxetine (Prozac) to see if that would help. She also suggested a consult with a cat neurologist (who even knew those existed?!).  We called the neurologist and since the guy travels in from Cornell, we were put on a wait list for March (yep, 2 months away)-and we weren't even guaranteed an appointment then!  So we started the Prozac out for a 2 week trial.

The Prozac did pretty well at controlling Jerri's episodes. Most days she was only doing it once or twice which was a huge improvement. However, the Prozac made her a not-so-nice cat. She wouldn't come within a 5 foot radius of us. No sitting on our laps or sleeping in our bed. If you tried to pet her, she'd swat at you and hiss. She just wasn't our usual Jerri. Just before the two weeks was up, we decided to stop giving her the Prozac. It was helping in one way, but harming her in another. It just wasn't right. We called her vet and told her about the Prozac and she was fine with us stopping it. Now we just had to wait for the neurologist appointment, which could be another month or two from now.

About a week after we stopped her meds, the neurologist office called and had a cancellation! Hooray! So we took Jerri to see him. They spent about 45 minutes with her in another room doing all sorts of tests with her. Afterwards, we met with the doctor to go over his results/findings. He told us that she seemed normal except that along her spine and tail, her skin is hypersensitive. Whenever he touched her there, the skin all over her back would "jump". We agreed, as Jerri really doesn't like being touched on her back or tail.

So he gave us a diagnosis of Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome. Unfortunately, it's a syndrome so they don't know exactly what causes it. He described it as Jerri experiencing some sort of pain (could be a tingly feeling, a burning sensation, an itching sensation-they are all sent to the brain via pain receptors) on her tail area, which is causing her to have these episodes. He suggested trying a different medication (Lyrica/Pregabalin) to see how she responds to it. He said it may take several medications to control it and it could take trying different doses as well. Sounds like a lot of trial and error.   The medication has to be compounded at a vet pharmacy in AZ too. So, we got her prescription sent and scheduled another follow up with him at the end of March.

Well, the medication process took quite awhile. The one he prescribed is a controlled substance so it had to get delivered to the pharmacy via snail mail. Then get made and shipped to us. It took 2 weeks for all of that to happen. So over the course of those 2 weeks, Jerri's body rid itself of all of the other medications we tried. During this time, her episodes became more numerous again, especially in the evening.

Her medicine finally came and we ordered it as a liquid this time, hoping it would be easier to give her. The bad thing? She has to take it twice a day. I will say, the liquid is way easier than the pills were though because she hasn't figured out how to spit it out. Yet. I think as of now, she's been on the medicine almost 2 weeks. Honestly, I don't think it's working. She is still having quite a bit of episodes and we haven't seen a decrease in number at all. She is still acting like herself which is good. She's back to coming around us and sitting on our laps a lot which is good. She seems "normal" in that respect. So, she sees the neurologist again in about 3 weeks. She'll be due for a medicine refill before then, which I don't know if we'll refill it or not. It's a lot of money to spend if it's not doing anything for her. Unless this medicine just takes awhile to kick in, which may be the case. Right now, we're just going day by day until her next appointment. Hopefully then we'll get some more answers!

Dairy Free

Remember that cough I told you about months ago?

Well...it's still around.

Cassandra responded great to the 2 meds (Singulair and Nasonex) at first. Then we tried weaning her off and it's been a nightmare since. We cut out the Singulair and the coughing started right back up. So we put her back on it....but she didn't respond to it.  Back to the allergist we went (in April) and she was kept on those 2 and they also added in 2 inhalers for her as well. One to do twice daily and once as a "rescue" inhaler for her coughing "fits".  

She responded well to those so we were told to keep her on them for a month. We stopped in mid-May and she was ok for about 2-3 weeks.  Then the cough returned. We went to the allergist again in June and he told us to keep her as she is for about 6mos. Basically 3-4 meds a day for the poor girl.

I've also been talking to my chiropractor a lot about it (she has a degree in nutrition as well) and she strongly feels that the inflammation causing her asthma is tied to food and an unbalanced "gut". She suggested trying going dairy free for awhile because I guess dairy is a big trigger for inflammation in a lot of kids. That along with adding in some probiotics and Vitamin D should help clean her gut out.

Well...about 2 weeks ago or so we had another really bad night of her coughing so we decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot. So on Friday 7/11 we started her on a dairy free diet. 

I'm not going to lie....it's hard.

Some days have been easy and some have been challenging. I've had moments in Wegman's where I want to cry because everything I normally buy has dairy in it. I've also had moments in Wegman's where I'm thanking God that something doesn't have dairy in it.

The hardest part has been milk (to drink) and yogurt and mac-n-cheese. Thankfully most of the other stuff we feed the kids doesn't have dairy in it. I've tried a few different yogurts for her and she's not really thrilled with them. I found one mac-n-cheese that she ate-if she will again who knows! But the drinking milk is very hard. I tried almond milk first since it seems a lot of people like it. Nope-she knew right away it was different and drank a few gulps and that was it. Every meal I gave it to her and every meal it sat there. This week I bought rice milk and she's not thrilled with that either. She'll take 1-2 sips at a meal and that's it. And it's only because I sort of make her drink a sip. She doesn't do it on her own. I might try coconut milk this weekend and see how that goes. Beyond that, I'm stumped.

We haven't had the challenge of going out to dinner yet or going to a party, etc. I know those will be hard. I found a bakery that makes dairy free cupcakes so I think I'm going to stock up on those for when we have a party to go to. At least she won't feel left out!

And it's really hard telling her she can't have something, especially if she sees someone else eating it. We always will say "no" and she'll ask why. Our answer? "It has milk in it." Lately she'll just say "ok."  At first, many tears were shed when we said no, but I think she's starting to catch on. And it's funny because now Avery will ask "does that have milk in it?" before we give something to Cassandra. So she's looking out for her too.

I could see this being easier if your child had a life threatening allergy to something and you had to cut it out of their diet. But doing it by choice is hard for some reason. And like Gabe said, I never imagined we'd be one of those families that has to read every label before feeding it to our child. I'm not sure how long we'll do this for. Ideally 3-6months, but really we're just taking it one day at a time.

If any of you have any suggestions for us, we'll take all of the help we can get!

Cough

We've had an annoyance in this house for the past few months....a cough.

A cough that happens overnight and keeps most of us awake.

It hasn't been fun.

This goes back all the way to November. Cassandra started with this cough overnight that went on for weeks. During the day she was pretty well-would maybe cough sporadically here and there, but nothing major. Overnight? Different story. She'd be up anywhere from a half hour to over 2 hours just straight coughing.  Nothing helped her-Vicks baby rub, humidifier, baby cough syrup, steamy bathrooms, cold air. After about 2 weeks of this, we took her to the docs.  They had us try allergy meds with her for a week...no improvement. Back to the docs she went and they (a different doctor) gave us Amoxicillin. It seemed to work, but a few days after she stopped taking it, the cough slowly came back.

Pretty much right after the holidays, it came back in full force. Up every night with these coughing fits/attacks. She went to her 2 year appointment at the end of January and at that point had been coughing every night for a good 3 weeks. I was hoping her pediatrician would do something for us...and he did! We were sent home with a nebulizer and an Rx for Albuterol to try during her attacks.  I was so thankful that we had something else to try with her!

Of course the first few nights we have the nebulizer, Cassandra didn't cough (go figure)! But a few days later, it started up again. So, overnight I went in and gave her a treatment. It seemed to help-she fell back asleep and was good the rest of the night. The next few nights she coughed again and these times the treatments did nothing for her. She still continued to cough.

I called her doctor after about a week of trying it and told him it wasn't helping. He referred us to an allergist at this point.  So I call the allergist (on a Tuesday) and can't get her in for a MONTH! The thought of being awake every night for a month was torturous to me.

Well, things got really bad for her. Tuesday night (the day we called the allergist) she was up for almost 6 hours overnight coughing! Which means so were we! Wednesday and Thursday nights were really bad too-she was up way longer than her usual 30min-2hr time frame. So, Friday I called the allergist and told them what was going on. And?  They got me in THAT day! I was so relieved!!

 I take her to the appointment and tell the doctor what's been happening. He said the 3 main reasons for coughing at her age is allergies, asthma, and reflux. They decided that she should have a skin test done for allergies (cue my panic!). And they were doing it right then and there!  Cassandra did SO well though-they got the first 2 strips done before she realized what was happening and only cried for less than a minute. She was a trooper. And....everything came out negative. No allergies. And you'd think if it was asthma, the nebulizer would have helped. And if it's reflux, why doesn't it happen at naptime when she's lying flat? Hmmmm.

So, the allergist decided that he wants to treat her for both allergies and asthma. So she got put on Singulair and Nasonex for the next month to see what happens. If it helps, she might stay on them awhile. If it doesn't, then we either try upping the dose or we try treating reflux and see what happens. At least we have a game plan at this point.

I'm happy to say that the allergist appointment was 2 weeks ago now. Cassandra is a champ at taking her Singulair-it's a chewable tablet and she actually asks for it most days! The Nasonex is a different story. The first few days it was a struggle-Gabe holding her down, me spraying up her nose. But after a few days, she just stood there and would let me do it. So, it's getting better! 

And the coughing?! It's improving. She has had a night here and there where she coughs for maybe 20 minutes, but that's it!  The strange thing is that in November 2012, she had something similar happen but it only lasted a few weeks-not a few months. So I don't know if the cough is going away just because it's going away, or if the medicine is truly helping her. I'm hoping this isn't a "thing" we go through every year that's for sure. However, I'm happy that currently we are all back to getting some sleep and the coughing has subsided for now.

Camp Gorham

Over the weekend, I went on a little getaway!

My Sister-in-law recruited myself, our Aunt and Cousin to go on a women's adventure weekend at Camp Gorham in the Adirondacks. I was looking forward to a weekend getaway, but of course it was hard to leave my kids for 2 nights...I've never been away from them longer than 24hrs!  It had to be done eventually, so I took the opportunity!

We left around 11:30am on Friday and arrived at camp a little after 3pm.  We checked in and got our cabin assignment and went to unload our goods. Upon check-in, we were also given a list of activities they had so we were eager to take a look at that too!

We were in the Cedar cabin:

It had 4 bedrooms....3 of them slept 4 people and 1 room slept 2 people. There were the 4 of us, 2 girls across the hall, 2 women down the hall and a woman by herself. So we weren't at capacity. There was a bathroom with double sinks, 2 toilets and 1 shower (that sort of sucked-1 shower for 9 women!). There was also a small kitchen and living area complete with a wood burning stove. And there was a nice porch off of the back of the cabin.

Our bedroom

After we unloaded, we walked around a bit-this was the lake we were on, Darts Lake. When we got there it was pretty drizzly out-sort of a misty rain most of the night.

Along our walk, some women flagged us down to their room and they had quite the party going on-lots of food, booze and music! They were in the lodge which is a newer building, but their rooms slept 12 people, which is a lot to share a room with!

After our walk, we did a wine tasting that they held and had dinner. Then we went to the campfire they had which was fun-the staff all sang songs and stuff so it was a good time.

Saturday we got up and walked to breakfast. It was a beautiful morning, although still a bit chilly.

Doesn't the lake look beautiful?

The Lodge

After breakfast, I went to a Zumba class, a yoga class, then had a massage done (heaven!). Then it was lunch time. After lunch, I showered and we decided to try out some mountain biking! They had a bunch of things going on at once, so we had to choose what we wanted to do. We went and got our gear:

Me, Gabrielle, Molly

and were on our way! Let's just say that mountain biking is pretty hard and pretty scary at times! It makes you appreciate the psychos that fly down some of those hills! Wow! Along the way, we came to an inlet so we took some pics-it was really pretty!

Selfie!

Molly, Myself, Gabrielle

On the way back, we stopped to take a look at the camp chapel. It's right on the lake and so peaceful.

When we got back from our ride, we walked to the "Pamper Pole" to see if anyone was trying it. If you look below, you climb the ladder and then climb up the middle (shorter) telephone pole. Then once at the top, you jump to a trapeze. Yeah....no thanks! We saw a few women do it and it was pretty amazing!

We also attended a nutrition class, which was more like a cooking demo. They made a soup which was really yummy! Then we went on the jumping pillow before dinner. Let's just say that I learned very quickly that I can't do this thing (TMI Warning!)...every time I jumped I felt like I was peeing-thank you children! I'll now cross that activity off of my list of things to try! I was bummed about that because it was actually fun! Damn kids :)

After dinner we just relaxed. We were all so tired and didn't sleep well the night before. So we hung out in the cabin, built a fire and read some books.

Sunday Molly and Gabrielle woke up to do a sunrise kayaking at 7am. Since I was awake, I went out around 7:40 to take a look. This is what the lake looked like! Yep, that's all fog! So much for watching them!

Can you barely see the kayakers below?

We walked up to get some coffee and on our way back, the fog was starting to lift:

We headed over to the Zipline. I really wanted to do it until we got there. Then I realized you had to climb a 50ft rock wall before you zipline! I've never climbed a rock wall and I really am afraid of heights. I should have done it, but I was a wuss and just watched. Molly did it though:

Molly ready to zip!

Ziplining!

After the zipline, we had a yummy breakfast. Then we headed to the cabin to pack up our stuff. We left around 11am to head home. Before we hit the road, we took a group shot at the cabin!

Molly, Aunt Elaine, Gabrielle, and I

We really had a good time! The food was fantastic and the activities were a lot of fun! Of course we didn't sleep very well, but I sort of expected that. We definitely learned a few things of what to bring next time, etc. They also have another camp on Keuka lake that we talked about checking out as well. Hopefully next year we can recruit a few more gals to go with us!!

Two For One

Both girls had to go for check ups yesterday at the Pediatrician...Cassandra for her 18mo, and Avery for her 4yr visit. I decided to get them both done on the same day to get them over with-sort of a 2-for-1 deal ya know?!

That morning, Avery started getting anxious about the appointment, asking every few minutes if she would need to get a shot. I just kept telling her I didn't know. And she didn't stop asking!

We got there and Gabe surprised us by coming too (YAY!). They called us back and took Avery to a room to check her sight and hearing. Then they put her on the scale and measured how tall she is.

We got to the exam room and they got Cass on the scale and did her height too. Then the doctor came in. I fully expected Cassandra to not be very cooperative. At her last appointment, she cried from the time we walked in to the time we walked out. It wasn't fun. I was expecting yesterday to go the same way. But, I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, she was way more calm than Avery. She let the doc do his thing and didn't make a peep! He checked out Avery and she did ok-she was still whining the entire time about the possibility of getting shots.

So their current stats are:

Avery is 39 1/2" tall (50th percentile), 32lbs (20th percentile)
Cassandra is 301/4" tall (10th percentile), 19lbs 14oz (5th percentile)  Just to show how tiny Cassandra is, she is the height that Avery was at 12 mos!

Then we had a decision to make for Avery. She needed 3 shots-either yesterday or next year before kindergarten. He suggested doing it now and getting it over with since she was already so anxious about it all. I was going to choose that route anyway. So...the nurse did Avery first-2 shots in one arm, 1 in the other. She screamed her head off!  Cassandra had to get 2 shots-one in each arm. The child didn't even flinch! No tears at all!

The good news is that Avery doesn't need anymore shots now until she's 11 years old! Crazy! Cassandra doesn't need anymore (besides the flu shot) until she's Avery's age! Yay! Cassandra's next check up is in 6 months and Avery's isn't until next summer-a nice long break for us!

My Back-The Solution

Continuing from my last post about my back problems....

I went to Pace Family Chiropractic for my initial evaluation. She had me fill out a form and then we went downstairs to a room. She asked me a bunch of questions-when my pain started, what I do for a living, etc. Then she asked me a bunch of symptoms to see if I have any of them. Then I lay face down on a special bed and she felt along my spine. She could feel a few vertebrae that she could tell were out of place. Then she did something VERY important-she took an x-ray to confirm everything. (Folks-if you're seeing a chiropractor and they are not x-raying you first, DON'T have them touch you!). She took me upstairs and did my first ever adjustment and I was set to go home. She would see me in a few days to review my findings. Let me tell you, when I left after my first adjustment, it was the best my back has felt in as long as I could remember!

A few days later, I returned and we went over my x-rays. My lower back had something like a 40% increase in curve (basically it's over arched) and my neck had like a 57% decrease in curve (basically my neck is curving the wrong way!). Both of these percentages should be at or below 20%! So there's a lot of work to be done! Luckily I caught this now though because I'm still only in phase 1 of treatment-the worse things get, the higher the phase. Higher phases include things like bone spurs, fused vertebrae, etc....not good. So she set me up on a treatment plan-visiting her twice a week for about 6months then decreasing to once a week for the following 6. And I got the fees for it (insert sticker shock!). She adjusted me again before I left and I had some thinking to do. 

I basically decided to keep going forward with treatment. It's a lot of money, but I paid for the year up front (for a hefty discount). With the way my back has been, I just can't live like that. At this point, anything is worth a shot in making my life better so I opted to continue. 

So back in January I started going twice a week to her and having adjustments and traction done. The technique she uses is very rare-only one other doc in Rochester does the same technique and no one in the Buffalo area does it at all!! Apparently just adjusting someone isn't going to do much-it's the traction afterwards that re-trains your body/muscles to be in the correct position. I started at 1-2minutes of traction and have worked my way up to 12minutes currently.

I've been going almost 6 months now and do feel better! I will admit, the first month was rough and I did question my decision to keep going. I had a lot of side effects-dizziness, numbness in my arm/leg/foot, back pain in other places that weren't bothering me initially. I know a few others that also see the same doctor and I contacted them and they pretty much all said to give it more time. So I did and all of those things went away.

I had another set of x-rays done just last week...my back curve went from 40% down to around 24% and my neck curve went from 57% down to around 42%...so we're making progress which is great!

My back hasn't had very many spasms either-in the beginning it did but they have gradually decreased in frequency. I haven't had one in a few weeks now! I was also having migraines monthly before I went and I'm happy to say that I haven't had one since February now! Am I pain free? Not totally. My back is still sore a lot-it almost feels "tight" like I need to stretch it out a lot. Sometimes my neck is sore too, but not as much as my back. Now I can almost tell when my back is out of line though which is funny-because I never would have been able to before!

And learning more about chiropractic is very interesting-there are so many other things that can be helped from it which is really amazing-digestion, allergies, asthma, headaches, and even sensory processing issues (ADHD, etc)....it's really interesting!  I've also learned that pretty much every person needs adjusting-with how much we use computers these days, it really takes a toll on your neck alignment! So if it's something you've been thinking of checking out, definitely give it a go...just make sure you see the right provider!

My Back-The Problem

I think I mentioned awhile ago that I would write on here about my back issues and then never did. And it didn't cross my mind until a few days ago.  So, here it is!

Let's rewind the clocks back to when Avery was 18mos old (Dec 2010 roughly). I went to put her down in her crib for her nap and had the worst breath-taking pain in my back ever. I refer to it as my back "giving out" on me for lack of a better term. It's hard to describe what it feels like-sort of like a muscle spasm that lasts several seconds but in those several seconds you can't move and it literally takes your breath away.

Anyways, that first time sort of sparked the problem. It would happen sporadically and it would be at random times. I could be lifting, twisting, or just sitting in a chair and it would happen. It was never a consistent movement that would make it hurt. At first it would happen every few months. Just once or twice in a day and then I'd be fine for a few months again.

In March 2011 I had a physical with my physician and mentioned it to him. He just gave me some back exercises to do and said I probably pulled a muscle. The back exercises didn't really do much and I was still having spasms every few months.

Throughout my pregnancy with Cassandra, it would still happen here and there. A few months after she was born, things got worse. I'd say that summer the spasms became much more frequent. Instead of having a few months of reprieve, I would have a few weeks, sometimes only a few days. And instead of it happening once a day, it would be up to 10 times a day. It seemed to get more frequent as the months went by.

In December 2012 I had a few days where it happened several times a day for several days in a row. I ended up calling my physician again and saw him just for that reason. I told him the back exercises weren't helping and he felt around but didn't really feel anything. He said I could try a massage therapist or a chiropractor if I wanted or I could do muscle relaxers.  I really didn't want to take pills if I didn't have to and of course while the massage would be great, it's not covered by insurance. So I thought I'd try a chiropractor to see what they had to say.

A few people I know go to the same practice, Pace Family Chiropractic.  I gave them a call and was glad that I didn't need a referral or anything to be seen which was great. And they got me in within a week of calling (I was fearing for a new consult I'd be waiting months like I did for my allergist). I'll admit, I was a little nervous/anxious about the whole thing, but figured it was worth a shot!

Stay tuned for my first appointment and progress!

In Loving Memory

Yesterday we paid tribute to a very important man in our lives.

My Grandfather.

Back around November 8th, I got a call from my Dad that my Grandfather was in the hospital. (FYI he lives in Las Vegas)  From what I know, he called an ambulance because he was having trouble breathing. Upon admission into the ER, the stopped breathing and was put on a ventilator.

My Dad, his brother, and my Aunt (my Uncle's wife) all flew out to Vegas that Saturday (the 10th) to see what was going on and to make sure things were taken care of.  They had my Grandfather sedated so that he wouldn't pull the ventilator out, but when my Dad and crew went to visit, they would wake him up. He was unable to talk, but would communicate with them by writing things down.

Of course they found out he had no health care proxy and nothing written down about his wishes. Luckily they were able to communicate and ask him these things in the event that something did happen.

They were supposed to leave Vegas on Thursday the 15th, but he was still on the ventilator at that point and they were waiting for answers. They were going to try weaning him off of the ventilator to see how he responded to that. They did try weaning him I think on Friday and he did really well until they turned it way down-then he struggled and was gasping for air. So the outlook turned grim as the doctors informed them that he probably wouldn't be able to live without the ventilator. They were going to try one more attempt by using CPAP on the following day.  Well, again that attempt failed.  Unfortunately they had some decisions to make, which had to be extremely difficult for them.

The ventilator can only stay in for 7-10 days. If they're unable to wean you off of it, then they have to do a tracheotomy (put a breathing tube surgically in your throat). My Grandpa decided that he didn't want to have a trach put in and he also decided he did not want to be resuscitated if anything happened to him (DNR).

I got the call Sunday 11/18 around dinner that the end might be near. The ultimate decision was that they would gradually turn down the ventilator until it was off. They gave him morphine so that he was comfortable through the process. Once the ventilator was off, he breathed on his own for roughly a half hour and then he passed away. My Dad, Uncle, and Aunt were all in his presence at the time.

It's hard losing someone you love no matter when it happens, but 4 days before Thanksgiving really makes it difficult.

We postponed the services because the cremation process in Las Vegas takes forever!  He wasn't even cremated until last weekend which is 2 weeks after he passed! So the services were yesterday and it was very nicely done. We had a mass at a church in Buffalo. So many people came-it was amazing! And my Grandpa's sister did a very touching eulogy off of the top of her head! Then we went to the cemetery afterwards and we all gathered in the chapel for a prayer and military service ("Taps" and flag folding which was very neat to watch).

Of course the guilt kicked in as soon as I got word he was in the hospital. I only saw my Grandpa once a year or so if I was lucky...and that's since I was a child (he lived in Vegas since before my parents were married!)!  He wasn't a big talker on the phone so phone calls between us didn't happen very frequently. In fact, I feel terrible saying that I don't even remember the last time I spoke with him. My Dad talked with him almost daily so I'd get updates through him. But now I wish I would have taken a few minutes every week or so just to say hello to him.

I'm so very thankful that my Grandpa was around as long as he was. I'm so glad he got to meet Gabe several times and that he was there at our wedding. I'm also thankful that he got to meet Avery a few times as well. Of course it saddens me that he never met Cassandra, but he did see plenty of pictures of her!

Here are a few pics I have on my computer of my Grandpa

4 generations-Grandpa, Dad, Me, Avery (1wk old)

Grandpa and Avery (on my Grandpa's B-day)

4 Generations (Avery 1yr old)

4 Generations (Avery 2yrs old)

Rest in peace, Grandpa. We love you and miss you so very much!

"Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy"~Eskimo Proverb

Two Kids, One Appointment

Today the kids both had check ups at the doctors.....Cassandra had her 6 month visit, and Avery had her 3 year visit. 

And yes I'm crazy and took both kids to back-to-back appointments by myself.

I have to say-it was not bad at all. 

I knew going into it that Avery wouldn't be getting any shots, so that right there made the whole scenario easier to me. And the poor kid has been through so much this year that she's a pro at the docs now.

For the first time, Avery got on the big girl scale and they also did a vision and hearing test with her. She did a great job! 

Then we went into a room and Cassandra got her weight and length done. And then we waited for the doctor to come in.

He started with Cassandra first (per Avery's request). Currently she's 24 3/4" long (20th percentile) and she weighs 12lbs 13.5oz (8th percentile)....sister is still a little peanut!  Everything looks good with her and we got the green light to start her on solids!

Then it was Avery's turn.  She's currently 36 3/4" tall (40th percentile) and 28lbs (25th percentile).  She changed quite a bit. Last time they checked her she was in the 75th percentile for height and 10th for weight so she definitely has shifted on us, which is totally fine.  He confirmed with us that her sleep apnea appears to be gone (yay!) based on her second sleep study. We told him that we are starting her on some iron supplements to see if it helps anymore with the restless leg symptoms-he wasn't for or against it, but is anxious to see if it does help her with that. 

Overall, the appointment went really well and both girls are healthy as can be!  Avery doesn't have to go back for another year, but Cassandra will go back in 3 months!

Dentist

Today Avery had her first trip to the dentist!

Actually, let me clarify....she has been to every dentist appointment with me since she was born, but this was HER first appointment.

I wasn't sure what to expect from her. At my last cleaning in December, we tried getting her to just sit in the chair and she wanted nothing to do with it. Not even on my lap or anything! So I had no idea what to expect today.

They did my cleaning first. Avery sat towards my feet playing with some toys that had at a table. She could see everything they were doing from where she was. When they started polishing my teeth, she was very interested and asked to sit in my lap to watch.  After they finished me, it was her turn.  I was surprised that she got right in the chair. I could tell she was a little nervous, and she said, "Mommy is this going to hurt?"  I told her no and she seemed ok.

you can tell by her face that she's a little unsure of things

She wasn't a fan of the bright light, so the hygenist brought out some cool shades for her to wear.

First, her teeth got counted....

And she even let her do some picking which shocked me! Then she got polished and flossed!

After, she got a prize for doing so well for the hygenist and she basically took Avery trick-or-treating around the office for a bag full of stuff to bring home-toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste, etc. Then we both had the dentist check our teeth (no cavities for either of us-yay!) and Avery picked out another prize!

Overall, it was pretty good-I could tell at times she wanted to be done with it all, but she stuck with it and did really, really well. I was definitely one proud Mama!

Four Month Check Up

Today Cassandra had her four month check up.

She's still a little peanut....she's 23.5" long (25th percentile) and 11lbs 7oz (10th percentile). 

The doctor said she looks really good!

She had to get 3 vaccines today-one oral one and two in her leg. This kid was a champ-the oral one she sucked down in about 2 seconds. The first shot in her thigh she didn't even cry! Not a single peep-even the nurse couldn't believe it. The second shot she said would hurt more and Cassandra let out a little whimper then was done. No tears at all....amazing!

Avery's Recovery

Avery's surgery was 11 days ago now.

It wasn't the easiest road to get to where we are now.

She did awesome in the hospital-never complained about pain, took her medicine like a champ and had 8 popsicles the day of her surgery.

If only things stayed that good!

Before they left the hospital the day after her surgery, Avery started to not want her medicine. This was a HUGE struggle with us all throughout her recovery. They wanted us alternating tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours. She was resisting it so much that we just started doing ibuprofen every 6 hours like directed. But the problem with that was that by the time the 6 hours were up, she was in quite a bit of pain and would just be flat out miserable. She really needed to take the meds every 3 hours, so we bumped her back to every 3 hours. We got her the liquid form of both and I tasted them myself-they're not bad! I have no idea why she didn't want to take it, but it was really a fight. We started by using the syringe for the first few days, then something happened that we literally had to pin her down and shoot it in her mouth. She would get so upset that she made herself vomit! She has never done that before!  So then we started letting her drink it out of the dosing cup and threatened if she didn't, we'd use the syringe. That seemed to work for the most part. After a few days of her nonsense, I picked up some chewable ibuprofen. She loves taking her chewable vitamin so I thought it was worth a shot. We told her they were "special vitamins" and she had a choice of taking that or drinking the liquid form. She chose the chewable every time which was good. And she didn't think it was medicine. The only problem was that I think it hurt her to chew it. It took me a long time to figure that out but every time she took it, she would burst into tears. She wouldn't say what was wrong, but you could tell she was in pain. I think her jaw was really sore and the chewing was just too much for her.

She really wasn't into eating or drinking much either. Like I said, in the hospital she had 8 popsicles the day of surgery. She didn't touch another one until almost a week later!  The day she got home she didn't have much, although around bed time she requested Ramen noodles and mac n cheese-she had several bowls of each! We were impressed that she ate that kind of stuff the following day! She had days that she ate ok, and days where she barely touched a thing. I stocked up on popsicles, pudding, applesauce, ice cream, and jello for her thinking she'd have a field day eating all of those "treats" and she really didn't want anything...it was bizarre! If someone asked me to have ice cream and milkshakes all day long, I wouldn't turn them down!

Drinking was tough too. They wanted her to drink a quart and a half of fluid a day! Which to me seems like a ton. I know she didn't drink that much at all. We were trying to pump her with juice for the calories.  She normally doesn't get juice to drink so I thought she'd love it and she really had no interest. She wasn't supposed to have milk for the first few days, but once she was able to, she really pounded that down. Luckily she drank enough that she wasn't dehydrated-she was always peeing and had tears when she cried so we did ok.

The first 3 nights I think she woke up several times overnight. Gabe would try giving her medicine, but most times she wouldn't take it-which is why I think she woke up repeatedly overnight. She had a few nights of sleeping through with no problem too.

They did tell us days 5-7 would get worse again because that's when the scabs come loose. They were right-she definitely took a turn for the worse again those few days and again was waking up at night.

It seemed the worst parts of the day were first thing in the morning, after her nap and bedtime. I'm guessing after sleeping her throat was just really dry and it made it more painful. And it seems usually when you're sick that you always feel worse at night too.

We did have a few rough moments when I was home alone with both girls. Avery just got very clingy at times and had her meltdowns and sometimes they were at the exact time that Cassandra was crying or eating or something like that. It definitely was a stressful last week off of work! 

Avery really had no desire to get dressed or go anywhere at all. Most days she was glued to the TV watching her Minnie Mouse video (I'm extremely sick of that thing by now!). It was hard at times to get her to do anything else but that. We bought her some coloring/sticker books and she really didn't even want to do that! 

I'm glad to say though that yesterday and today she seems much better and more like herself. We got her out of the house a little bit the past few days which is good. She's eating better now and just seems happier and close to normal.

We've also noticed that she doesn't seem to snore much anymore which is great! I think her voice changed a little bit though. It sounded very different the first week after surgery. Now it sounds closer to what it was, but I still think it's a little bit changed too.

Well, I go back to work tomorrow and she goes back to daycare so hopefully all goes well with that!  I think she's ready for it!

Surgery Day (again!)

So yesterday was the big day....

Avery had surgery #2....her tonsils and adenoids taken out!

We were up early....we had a 7:15am arrival time with an 8:30am surgery time. We got there a few minutes late (yes with 2 kids you're never on time, especially when you have to wake both of them up in the morning!) and they took us almost right away.

We went to a triage type area and there were a bunch of kids already there. One was crying pretty much the entire time we waited and I'm glad it didn't freak Avery out! 

She was awesome as usual! They had a nurse come over and check a few things on her-temp, blood pressure, oxygen levels. Then another nurse came by with some arts and crafts which was really cute. Believe it or not, they had her decorate her mask that they used to "knock her out" for surgery! She put stickers on it and chapstick inside to make it smell good. She got to decorate an Easter egg and use a magnadoodle. They were really great with her.

The anesthesiologist came by and talked to us and then her ENT doc came by as well. The anesthesiologist came back and opened his arms to Avery and she happily jumped in his arms and away they went! Not a tear or sad face to be had.  She watched us as they walked away and didn't make a peep. She's amazing I tell ya!

Then it was back to the waiting room for us, which I think is the hardest part.

After about a half hour, they said we had a phone call from the doc from the operating room. Of course that freaked me out a bit, but he just called to say that they were all done and she did great. The adenoids got taken out as well since they were huge and we'd be able to see her shortly.

A nurse came out to get one of us to be able to see her. I ended up going back. They took me to where she was and a male worker (not sure he was a nurse) was holding her in a rocking chair. She was crying an odd cry like she did when she came out of her eye surgery.  I took the guy's place in the rocking chair and just held her while she cried. A nurse brought her a popsicle and I was surprised that  she ate it right away!  She had some moments of being in and out of sleep and some moments of crying really hard too.  At one point she really let out a scream and they gave her some morphine in her IV and then she passed out. I have no idea how long we sat there, but they eventually brought Gabe and Cassandra back so that we could get transferred into her room upstairs (since she's under the age of 3, they keep her overnight to monitor her). 

Luckily we were in a room by ourselves which was nice. We decided to keep Cassandra with us. We were told she wouldn't be able to be there and our plan was to take her to my in-law's at some point, but honestly the staff was great about her being there. They never hesitated having her in the pre-op area or up on the floor, so it was great. Had we had a roommate, I think we would have taken her to my in-law's, but since we were alone, we just decided it was easier to keep her there with us. 

Avery spent most of the day in bed. She was hooked up to an IV most of the time so she really couldn't get up. They had it in her foot so she wouldn't put her foot down or anything. Taking her to the bathroom was quite the chore!  She was in good spirits and watched some TV, the iPad, read books, played with her Minnie, etc.  She had probably 8 popsicles over the course of the day and was drinking juice like a champ. She really did great keeping herself hydrated!  They brought her meds every three hours and she was great taking those too!  Her surgeon came by around 5 and said all looked good and he said at that point that the IV could come out! 

Cassandra and I stayed until around 6:30 or so and then we headed home for the night since I knew she'd be getting fussy for bedtime.  Gabe and Avery went down to the playroom just before we left and she was happily coloring when we said goodbye to her.

Gabe said Avery has been up since 4am today! They ended up getting discharged very early this morning-around 8am or so, which was earlier than I expected! 

So far all is going well....she's starting to resist taking her medicine though which isn't fun and I know she's not feeling too hot because of it. Here's hoping she has a speedy recovery and is back to her normal self soon!

(and I didn't take any photos this time-didn't think of grabbing my camera at 6am yesterday!)

ENT

Yesterday I took Avery to the ENT...it was quite the day.

I got both of us ready and out of the house on time (yay!).  On the way, Avery kept saying, "Mommy?  I want to go nite-nite." I kept telling her to sit back and relax.  About a mile away, she starts to cry.  Two blocks away I turn to look at her and she's puking everywhere!  She has never gotten sick before so she was choking, etc.  She threw a fit when she saw that she puked on her beloved bear. 

I'm rushing to get there and realize I have nothing with me...no diaper bag, no change of clothes, etc.  So I get there and park. I find 5 napkins in my glove compartment which had to suffice. I get Avery cleaned up the best that I can and get her seat cleaned up as best I can.  Mother of the year takes her into the ENT's office with her outfit soaking wet in puke!

The appointment itself was very fast. Avery did great as usual-sat in the big chair all by herself and opened her mouth, stuck out her tongue and said "Ahhh" like a pro! The doc checked her out and, like expected, wants her tonsils out. I didn't schedule a date yet because I want to talk things over with Gabe first. One of the dates is right before Easter (boo!), but I would still be on maternity leave for her recovery, which is a plus. We'll see.

We get home, my Mom leaves (she was still here visiting) and I take Avery upstairs for her nap. She goes to her room and I go to the bathroom. I go into her room and she had peed the bed!  The sheets, comforter, and mattress pad all needed to be stripped as well as her clothes of course. So I left her in her room to rest with a bare mattress and a pillow. She never naps so I didn't think it was a big deal.

After about 20 minutes I did a poop check on her (she's known to poop at naptime) and sure enough she pooped. I change her and her diaper had leaked all over her clothes! Of course when I go to take them off, her legs are covered in poop! So there was another outfit change for the day! 

Luckily Cassandra slept through most of this but woke up shortly after. I went up later to check on Avery and this is what I saw:

Yep, napping on the floor right in front of her door!  It figures that the one day she decides to nap, she has a bare bed! I felt terrible!

The rest of the day went fine, but man it was a heck of a morning!

Sleep Study Results

Yesterday we had our follow up with the sleep clinic for Avery's sleep study results.

We talked a little bit about her bloodwork.  We hadn't started the prescription iron and wanted to see if there were any other options. We hate to pump her up with prescription drugs when she doesn't really need it. We came to the decision that we're going to try a multivitamin with added iron for now. She'll take it for 10-12 weeks then will get her blood drawn again to see if it's making a difference. If not, then we'll bump up to the prescription iron.

Then it was on to the actual sleep study results.

And.....

She has sleep apnea!

They found that she has a decent number of arousals per hour, and a lot of them during REM sleep. Whatever number they use to determine it, she was just above the cutoff of having moderate sleep apnea.

So, now we have to see an ENT about possibly having her tonsils removed.  If they don't think the tonsils are an issue, then we explore other options-medicine or a CPAP machine (can you imagine?!). I actually called the ENT right after our appointment yesterday and they got us in today already which is super fast! 

It's just funny how we ended up where we are....we went to the sleep clinic because we had issues getting her to fall asleep (which the NP told us today was probably "just a phase") and we're leaving there with possibly 2 medical diagnosis....restless leg syndrome and sleep apnea.  According to the NP, we would have ended up there somehow....if it wasn't now, it would have been in the future because of some other issue this would have caused.  It's just funny how things turn out sometimes!

First Blood, First Date

Saturday was a day of firsts for us....

Part of Avery's sleep evaluation was that she needed to have bloodwork done to check her iron levels.  They were suspicious of her having restless leg syndrome (RLS) and the way to partially diagnose that in children is by checking their iron levels. 

So Saturday we took her for bloodwork.

I didn't know what to expect. I know they check her iron at the pediatrician with a finger prick (which she did awesome at!) so that's what I was praying for.

Nope....they didn't do the finger prick. Apparently they only do that up to age 18 months. 

So she had to have it drawn from her arm.  A brief moment of panic came over all of us and we just had to go with it.

She sat on Gabe's lap and he held her arm out with both of his hands. She was curious and watched what they were doing. We just kept telling her that they were going to touch her arm and then it would be over. They put the rubberband on her arm and she didn't even fuss. Made a fist like they asked. And then they did it. 

It took a few seconds for the tears to come....but they came. She cried while the tube filled up but stopped as soon as the needle was out. And she got a nice bandaid too!  Overall she did great as always!! Of course Mommy teared up while they were doing it-I felt so bad for her!!

Later that day, Gabe and I went on our first date since having Cassandra!!  My in-laws babysat both kids and we went out for a little break!

We stopped at a few stores, then went to see the movie "Safe House". It was a very good movie! Of course I had to splurge and get popcorn since we only go to the movies like once a year!  After the movie, we ran to a local Italian restaurant and grabbed a quick bite to eat.

The kids did great. Avery had a little stomach bug that popped up but was in good spirits.  The baby slept most of the time she was there and sucked down a bottle like a champ!  It was nice getting away for a few hours and enjoying each other's company!

Quick Change of Plans

Yesterday at 4:30pm, we had a quick change of plans for the evening.

The sleep clinic called and had a cancellation for that night. Did we want to do the sleep study that night (a whole month earlier than scheduled)?

I called Gabe who was still working to see what he wanted to do since it was such a last minute decision. We agreed that we were ready to just get it done and over with. Even though we were both stressed out and nervous about it (more him than me since he had to take her), we decided it was for the best.

While Gabe finished up at work, I started to pack up an overnight bag for Avery and she helped me pick out her PJ's, books, and animals she wanted to bring. Pretty much all I told her was that her and Daddy would be going on a special overnight trip that night. I told her it was at the doctors office and that she needed to be a good girl and listen to Daddy and the doctors. That was the extent of it.

Gabe got home a little before 6, we ate a quick dinner and they were out the door around 6:30. They had to arrive at the office at 7.

I stayed home with the baby and of course was wondering how things were going all evening. I texted Gabe here and there, but didn't hear from him so I figured he'd get back to me when he could.

I was woken up at 12:30 from the crazy wind we had that night (so much for a good night of sleep-ugh) and checked my phone. Gabe had texted me back saying that Avery was completely amazing and that I'd be so proud of her. That made me feel good!

Cassandra woke up at 6am to eat and when I finished nursing, I got back into bed knowing they'd be home soon (they kick you out at 6:15am). Sure enough, 5minutes later I heard them come home. Unfortunately Avery was awake...we were hoping she'd fall back asleep in the car on the way home.

I came downstairs to her eating a doughnut and her hair was like a bird's nest-it was a huge mess!  I found out that they both had been up since 4am!

Basically, Avery was connected to 29 different things while she slept. Gabe said it took the tech about an hour to hook her up to everything. She had wires hooked up to her legs, feet, hands, chest, stomach, face and hair. I guess at 4am something came unhooked and the tech came in to fix it. Avery woke up while he was doing it and never fell back asleep. At 5:30am they decided to call it quits. I guess he had enough data though (thankfully!) so we're hoping things are good to go.

Gabe and I are truly amazed at how Avery did. Gabe said she was never told what they were doing. They just started hooking her up to things and she just sat there (watching videos on the iPad) and let them.

She never questioned what the wires were for.

She never tried to take them off or pull at them.

She never complained or cried.

She never asked to go home. (this from a kid who hasn't slept away from home except on vacations)

I guess Gabe went to give her a kiss and she said "but you can't kiss my face Daddy since I have all of these things on it." That was the extent that she talked about things. Even when she got home, she never talked about it. To be honest, it's the strangest thing! 

The morning was a little rough. Avery basically got about 5.5 hours of sleep last night so she was a hot mess when they got home. She was way overtired and completely wound up. We tried giving her a bath to get the paste out of her hair and it was a nightmare. She had a complete meltdown and screamed the entire time. Who would have thought that would have been the hardest part of this whole ordeal?! 

After running around awhile, Gabe finally got her to fall asleep around 11:45am and she took a 4 hour nap! I'm super glad because she really, really needed it!

We won't have the results of the study for three weeks, but we are so glad it's done and over with. And Avery was such a brave girl through the whole thing. We truly are proud of her!!

Sleep Tight

You might remember that last week I talked to the kids' pediatrician about Avery's current sleep problems. He suggested giving her melatonin, to which we really didn't want to do.

After several more nights (two weeks straight) of her staying up until after 10pm, I decided to call the local pediatric sleep center based on a friend's recommendation. 

Yesterday was the appointment.

I will say that I honestly went in thinking that we (as parents) were going to get a hand slapping. That her behavior was something that we were feeding into. Or that it was just her being a toddler. Or that it was because of the arrival of the baby. I was fully prepared to get a lecture on something and that the appointment was going to be a waste of time and not much help.

I was surprised.

They started by taking Avery's height and weight and oxygen level-all which were normal.

Then we went down the hall to a decent sized room and sat down with a nurse practitioner. I will say one thing-I was disappointed in the set up. It's a pediatric office and they didn't have a single toy for her to play with. And we were in this room for an hour! Of course Avery was running around, opening drawers, etc and the nurse was getting aggrivated. What do you expect this kid to do for an hour when you don't have a single thing to occupy her? Luckily I had my iphone with me and asked if I could pull it out (she said yes) so that kept her busy while I talked with the NP.

Anyways....she drilled me about Avery's history-health background and her sleeping background. Things were going fine-nothing out of the ordinary-until she asked if Avery snored. I replied "yes" and she said, "well, this might change things."  Apparently it's unusual for toddlers to snore and Avery snores pretty regularly.  I've never mentioned it to her doctor because I kept forgetting and I didn't think it was a huge deal. 

So after going over a zillion questions, she says she thinks one of two things might be going on....restless leg syndrome or obstructive sleep apnea.  The funny thing?  Both are hereditary and both run in my family. And neither of them were on my radar. 

She informs me about both things and says she wants to do a quick exam of Avery-check her tonsils, heart, chest, etc.  Well, she takes one look at her tonsils and says to me, "Her tonsils are enormous." She had me look....let's just say the uvula in the back of your throat (the dangly thing)-yeah, her tonsils touch it! You can barely see the back of her throat!  And when she sleeps, it closes up even more from the muscles relaxing! 

Of course she thinks there is some behavioral issues at play too. For instance-one of us always lays down with Avery until she falls asleep.  That came about when she was put in her big bed because if we leave her room, she'll play for hours on end. So one of us would stay with her until she fell asleep and it would work....until recently. So we're supposed to break that habit at some point but the nurse felt like it might be hard to break if there is a real medical issue playing into this whole thing too.

Basically we have to do a few more things until we have any solid answers. For the restless leg syndrome, Avery has to go and get bloodwork done to check her iron levels. With toddlers, it's hard to diagnose since they can't explain things to you so they check their iron levels in their blood. For the sleep apnea, she has to do an overnight sleep study to see if her sleep is interrupted and how severely it's interrupted. Once both of these things are done and we get the results, we can determine how to move forward.  I'm dreading both of them-she's never had blood taken (besides the finger prick) and the overnight study is going to be pretty rough too.

I scheduled her overnight for a weekend so unfortunately we have to wait until the end of March! We are on a cancellation list so it might end up being sooner. I'm hoping we get called in sooner because waiting that long is just crazy! If it stays as is, we won't have results of the study until mid-April....so two more months of waiting!

Gabe called our pediatrician and talked to him about everything too, just to get an idea of what he thought about this whole thing. And the pediatrician agreed that the sleep study was a good next step for us. So that was good to hear as well.

Part of me was relieved that there might be something actually causing this behavior. And of course part of me doesn't want her to have some medical issue to deal with. 

We just want some answers and suggestions to make bedtime easier.  Hopefully we're one step closer to that!

My Recovery

Now that Cassandra has been with us a few weeks,  I thought I would touch a little bit on my own recovery from the birth.

I will say that the recovery from a vaginal birth has been a cake walk compared to my c-section recovery!

In the hospital it was so weird for me to be able to get up and walk around less than an hour after giving birth. Once I was all stitched up, they had me get up and use the bathroom and move to the wheelchair so they could transfer us to our room. Once in our room, they had me up and using the bathroom immediately and I wasn't restricted from doing anything. The funny part? I kept thinking I couldn't move because of the delivery. I was afraid to get up and move around because I expected it to be like my c-section. My butt was sore from sitting in the same position for so long and my Mom was like "so roll over or get up and walk around" and to be honest, the thought never dawned on me to do those things because with Avery I couldn't! 

Of course this time around my pain was in a different spot-with my c-section it was my entire stomach and core area. This time it was my lady parts of course.  I'd say it took a good week or so for things to feel back to normal. It was uncomfortable and slightly painful at times, but Ibuprofen and ice really did help a lot. Sitting was uncomfortable for the first week, but now it's like nothing ever happened.  The only thing that's still not 100% is bowel movements-they are still painful at times even though I'm still taking stool softeners. I'm hoping that gets back to normal soon!

The one scare I had was when I got mastitis a week after having Cassandra.  And the big deal with that was that it made me nervous more than anything. Before the diagnosis, I was paranoid that my fever was because of something related to having the VBAC-I was afraid that it was something with my uterus-an infection or something....so that scared me more than anything. Even with that I wasn't in a lot of pain-it was more the fever that made me feel a little "off" at times.

I still was restricted from driving for two weeks (although I drove a week after having her) and wasn't supposed to lift more weight than the baby-which I did my best to follow. That was hard just because I still pick up Avery a lot. So it was hard telling her that I couldn't pick her up.  I'm also not supposed to take baths because of bacteria, which isn't a big deal to me.  I'll go to my OB at 6wks to get the "all clear" from them so hopefully things will go fine until then!

As for weight loss....I gained a total of 21 lbs (last I knew). As of today, I'm down 17lbs in two and a half weeks. I'm pretty surprised once again at how fast the weight came off. I'm sure it's mostly from breastfeeding and I will say that I've been eating like a pig these days so thankfully I'm burning off those extra calories or else I'd be in big trouble!  We'll see what happens with the weight now-after having Avery, I never got back down as low as I wanted to so we'll see if I get back to where I'd like to be. It was  just a few pounds that I hung onto, but it's still something! 

So those of you considering a VBAC, I highly suggest trying it! I never thought that the recovery would be so different, but it really is! I thought my c-section recovery wasn't bad, but this has been a breeze compared to that!