Wonderfully Overstimulated....

Although I didn't think it was so wonderful in the moment! Annabelle had a beyond fabulous Christmas. Mommy and daddy were home with her for a long weekend, and there were cookies, and junk food and sparkling apple juice (her FAVORITE!)... it was however a bit overstimulating for her, shoot it was overstimulating for ME, I dunno how any 1.5 yr old kid could handle all that.

Overstimulated much?

Annabelle, being the only baby on either side of the family was absolutely showered with gifts, as were her mommy and daddy. There were multiple times throughout Christmas day when I got misty eye'ed and overwhelmed by the amount of love and support my family has. Although material things were opened Christmas morning we know that behind each item is a loving caring person who genuinely cares for Annabelle and wants her to do her absolute best! What better gift could ANY parent ask for?

And of course as a kid, Annabelle (after getting settled) loved all of her new toys. I was even thrilled when she started to "feed" one of her new baby dolls after she saw me playing.... can anyone say appropriate social development!!!!!

Singin and dancin to the "pum pum pum" song (Little Drummer Boy) over and over again...

And now back to the real world. I'm not sure what we're doing for New Year's yet. The past few years I've watched the "real" east coast ball drop then went to bed, bwahahaha, I'm so cool.  More to come on new year's resolutions and such. No weight loss blah blah blah though ;-)

Merry Christmas!



Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!

Every since the first year Jim and I started dating we do some major Christmas-cooking.  This year we got to add a third and while most of the time she was walking through the dinning room and kitchen bustin' a move to the Christmas music that was on, I think she had a pretty good time! Better than painting pumpkins anyway ;-)

First was helping daddy with the spice cookies. She had a great time "booming" the cookie cutters onto the dough. Then she would sample some dough, of course! Even though we didn't use lefty (I really wanted it to be fun and not hear screaming) we thought it was some great sensory input.

Then Annabelle wanted to do some "stirring" so she sat in her chair with the spatula going "stir stir stir" and imitating mommy...

... With some more pretend "sampling".

Mmmm cookies, Annabelle got some chocolate while mommy ate some rum balls!!! I think our neighbors will be very happy this year.



The Good, The Not So Good (but not bad!) and the AWESOME!

The Good: Annabelle continues to be amazing. She is walking ALL OVER THE HOUSE!!! She also seems to be picking up a ton of new words, although only her daddy and I know what she is saying most of the time, but it will come. And cognitively she gets it. Her current favorite is sitting on our big bed with her animal book "reading". She'll go through it and make the animal noises that go with each page!

 Also good, she is giving out kisses like it's her job, I LOVE this

Also good, half of my xmas shopping is done, although I better get on the rest of it 'cause we need to ship some packages to NY so they get there before xmas. I also just finished our xmas cards this morning (photoshop is not an intuitive program by the way!) aaaand I finished sewing Annabelle's xmas jammie pants... look at me being all crafty and whatnot.

Annabelle met Santa, wasn't thrilled, but didn't melt down, and then 'Ho, ho, ho'ed' at him, way too funny!

We're getting a night splint for lefty leg to keep Annabelle's calf stretched throughout the night. Shouldn't be a big deal b/c she is generally not tight when she is sleeping, and her calf isn't even the "bad one". Her left bicep is.

The Not so Good: We're scheduled for botox injections on Jan 4. Inandof itself it's probably not a 'not so good' thing as it should really help Annabelle with her arm use and developing a more normal gait.  The not good part is the sedation, last time she was put out for eye surgery was the only time I ever felt her fontanelle bulge a bit, so it worries me. It also worries me that the procedure is not until noon and her daddy will be out of town. How am I suppose to keep that child from eating until afternoon all by myself? Totally not looking forward to that part.
I am looking forward to seeing how she does afterwards. I am planning on taking before and after pics of her left foot- I hadn't watched her walk without her braces in a LONG time and didn't realize just how badly she is collapsing her ankle in when she's not in the brace.

The AWESOME: My baby. The end.... just kidding :-) I found out this morning that I passed my board exam so I am officially a board certified pediatrician, YaY!!!!!!!!!! Such a load of stress off my shoulders!!!

Walkin in a Winter Wonderland!

Another Hiatus

So this is the first blog post in a looong time, like over 6mos... but things got busy, and life was there, and I've been in a happy place (very happy place actually) so I haven't needed the self-therapy of typing things out :-)

Looking at my last post I was talking about Annabelle's first birthday party, it was great and she had a good time! She LOVED smashing into her red velvet cake that I made for her too, she was too funny.

 Then residency finished (after a shitty time in the PICU, probably the main reason I went away) then I was done, Jim was off to Europe and it was just Annabelle and I for 15 days, then another month off home with her after Jim came back... it was MARVELOUS! And even better with her being with us all the time and not in daycare her development just took off, and continues to amaze us! After a few lil trips Jim went back to school and I started my new job just 2 blocks away from the house and right next to Annabelle's new daycare. My hours are obviously sooooo much better than residency so I've been able to hang out with Annabelle a lot more and get the gym so I've also dropped 20lbs.... So many reasons to be in a happy place!

As for development and therapy and all that good stuff... Annabelle started on some Baclofen over the summer which has helped with her daily stretches but she's still tight and still does not like to use her left arm much. When we restrain her and force her to use lefty she doesn't really extend from her elbow, so we may be looking at some Botox injections in December, also to help with her calf and hamstring (although she doesn't toe walk so her leg is not as bad as her arm). I'm hesitant about the botox because she's so young and needs to be sedated and if it's not going to help the arm (she gets a "reactive" type of tightness) it's a lot of money, although if it helps to get that arm out more money is absolutely no object! We'll see, it's still in discussion.

 Things we have seen? We got new braces- a leapfrog for the right and a kangaroo for the left, right after that her stability was like night and day and now she's WALKING!!!! She still gets nervous and likes to hold on to things (not the most stable kid on her feet) but she's doing it. I know I wasn't suppose to but I had a mental goal of walking well by Christmas and here she exceeded my expectations once again, she's amazing! Verbal vise she's also putting some signs together (more please, eat please that kind of stuff) and says around 15 words! Right on target for an 18mos old.

We're very excited for the holidays again this year since she's going to "get it" more, and she had a blast last year! We are going to be having so much fun in the next couple of weeks!!!!

Lazy Morning

and all alone too! Oh dear, the point of the Hubs taking Annabelle into daycare while I'm still home was so I could clean up the yard and run a bunch of errands for her party on Saturday. Alas, after working nightfloat for the past 2 weeks (and being awake for about 32hrs yesterday) I didn't roll out of bed until 9:30 this morning. Now it's 10:30 and I'm sitting on the couch, in jammies, with my feet up and sippin on my coffee... how FABULOUS!!! Sometimes us supermoms need a lazy alone time morning ;-).

The fam enjoying the flowers

Annabelle's first bday was fabulous as well :-D Her nana was in town to visit which was great. This mommy got a little nap after work and then we all went to the tulip festival. The weather was a bit chilly but the sun was out and all the tulips were gorgeous (apparently Jim and I went 2 weeks too early last year, nothing was blooming yet). Then we took Annabelle out for dinner to an Italian place and even though she was exhuasted she ate a TON of raviolies, which she loved. Then our waitress brought her an ice cream sundae with a lil candle in it and we softly sang 'Happy Birthtday' to her... not gonna lie I got a lil weepy again (but I don't think anyone noticed).  Annabelle LOVED her ice cream. And when it was all gone she was pissed, haha totally my kid!

Opening presents on her first birthday

Yesterday was like a continuation of her bday, we took her for her one year well child check. Her pediatrician was very pleased with how she is doing (as are we!) and she got 6 pokies :-( poor lil thing took it like a champ! Then we all went to the park- Annabelle loves the swings and she even 'walked' up the steps on her own! YaY for hidden therapies, although I think she caught on 'cause then it got hard for her and she threw a fit, hahaha. After that we went out for dinner and Annabelle got even more ice cream for desert, grandma Paula wanted to spoil her a lil bit more, and that was fine by me.





Alrighty, I'm going outside now to do yard work... I swear, I'm going.... can't wait for the party now!!!

Happy Birthday Annabelle!

I cannot believe a whole year has gone by! My little baby is a little kid ('k not really, always my lil baby). It was a mix of emotions and I got weepy a few times over the past day, doesn't help that I'm exhausted from work but I probably would have been overly emotional anyways.

My baby has come so far in a year and has worked her ass off! I'm so proud of her, she is awesome and amazing. She has a fabulous personality and waves at everyone (may not be a great thing in a few years but it's wonderful now!) with her infectious smile in place. I love her so much and could not imagine life without her- even with all the stupid stuff we all have to put up with now.

Happy Birthday AnnabelleBananabelle, mommy and daddy love you SO SO SOOOOO much!
Warning, the following is about 15min long and has music!

Nightfloat

It's 3:40am, and I'm up by myself, ho-hum. I'm on 'night float' for 2 weeks which means I work from 7p-7a. I get home from work in the morning and quickly see and say goodbye to the family as they start their day, sleep from 830a-3p (if I'm lucky, it's flippin hard to sleep during the day!), then get up and ready so that I can drive into the city and get Annabelle from daycare so that I can spend a few hours with her. We pick her daddy up around 5p and all go to dinner together. Then we say goodbye and I'm back at work by 7p.... oh it's exhuasting for all involved. Thank goodness it's only for 2 weeks!

In any case, I totally couldn't survive if it weren't for the Hubs. He's so awesome and flexible with my sometimes shitty schedule and he's essentially been a single parent for the past week, and will still be one for the coming week. He's doing everything from the dupa changes to daycare to therapy. And he's doing a damn good job too.... check this out :-D




Woo-hoo, look at us standing all alone!


It only lasted a few secs before she decided to plop back down onto her dupa, but heck I'll take it! I <3 my family!

Baby Steps...

While we were helping to hold her up and with DAFO in place, Annabelle took a step all on her own the other day. Then she picked up her left foot and stepped forward without the DAFO and all on her own this evening. We are so proud and so much more hopeful that although it's going to take a lot of work and it's gonna be slow coming, she will walk... and all on her own :-D

Lookin more and more like a lil kid, but always my baby!

I just want a JOB!

So residency is coming to a close in a few short months- good in that my soul no longer belongs to residency (ok, it hasn't been that bad but I'm done with 80-hr work weeks and 30-hr shifts with no sleepy time). Not so good in that I don't have a job in place yet and as my sweet hubby put it, he brings home the bread while I bring home the bacon... and our medical insurance.

I did have an interview this morning with a great group that I'd love to join, my only concern is it's 40min away, not ideal. The hubs and I have some talking to do because I have contacted other groups and it seems like very few are hiring, or at least hiring a straight up pediatrician, sigh.... He doesn't want to move, I don't really want to move but would consider it if we're going to be here for a while more, our current daycare is near both of our works right now and not so much this clinic, I wouldn't want to have a nanny home with Annabelle while I'm 40min away, I love our area and our neighbors although the area around the clinic is wicked cute, sigh again... I wish I knew what to do and I wish I could just have a job! I do not like all these big girl "adult" decision I need to be making :-P

On a happy and less anxiety provking note, Annabelle Bananabelle is getting used to her orthotics and is stand quite well. Still needs lotsa support but is more stable, putting weight on her left foot (YaY!) and actually allowing us to move her legs in a walking motion. And walking forward even seems to be easier than us trying to move her legs in a cruising along furniture fashion.

Long time

It's been a long time since I have written anything- I tried a few times and my computer was being stupid. Then every time I wanted to write something it was about my negative feelings and being in the dumps and I didn't want to post that much negativity...

So happy things :-D Annabelle is doing so awesome. She is still working hard with her therapies at home and started some PT in addition to OT. She started rolling over on her own and now gets allllll over the place that way and gets into things that way! She also started doing some sort of army crawling that has resulted in forward movement on her belly- when she first started it was hilarious to watch, she looked like a fish out of water, rolling onto her left "bad" side and launching off of that. She's becoming more coordinated and expending less energy to get around that way, which is good, but will still default to the easier rolling if we're not forcing it on her.

She's also pulling up to a stand off of a "seated bench" position. She likes to fall to the left because of the weakness and refusal to use her left hand (improving though! She'll put some weight on it now). We just got her a DAFO for her left b/c she puts all her weight on her heel and inverts at the ankle. She got some super cute sparkly pink sneakers to match and fit over the orthotic too. We tried it out yesterday and she seemed a lot more stable standing with it on. It also made it easier to make her cruise along the table (she won't do it on her own, we move her legs, but I think she's more comfortable with us doing that now)

My hopes for the next few months are improved mobility- I know she's far from walking on her own but she'll get there, I'd love for her army crawl to be even more efficent. I'd also love for her to be more stable just standing on her own, we'll see. My other goal is increased communication. I'd perfer in the verbal form but I'll take what we can get. She can sign a little bit which is fabulous (not even a year old yet!) and she says "head". I want to hear "mama" and in the correct context :-) Her PT is a bit more ambitious than I am, she wants Annabelle crawling up the stairs by September, I'll hope and work towards it of course but I'm skeptical.

First birthday is coming, I'm going nuts with it and having so much fun!

No Shunt!!!!!

Neurosurgery appt today- I was allllll prepped for the doc to set a date to have Annabelle's VP shunt placed. When I was working in clinic the other day I plotted out her most recent head size that I had measured and she was continuing to grow away from her curve. So I tried to mentally prepare and was *sure* it was going to happen.

At the visit today the nurse got the same measurements I had but when they plotted it out she was leveling off and not moving any farther away from the curve, although she is big (duh). I think they must use a different graph than the one we're using in clinic. Neurosurgeon said no shunt, no scan at this point and don't come back til summer!!!!

I was/ am thrilled, I cried a few tears of joy and spread the news throughout the hospital (and Internet). What was weird was the way I felt a few hours later. Once the thought settled a bit I got neurotic again- What if they should be using our graphing system rather than the one they have, what if he's wrong and there's still a lot of pressure, am I doing more damage by just going along, am I not giving her the best chance she has.... and on and on and on, ugh it's exhausting.

Needless to say, while I'm thrilled and oh so happy I'm going to ask her regular doc's opinion and see if she wants to verbally run Annabelle's case by another surgeon as a quasi "second opinion." I'd do it but I also work there and don't want to rock any boats, oh the politics in medicine and how well we all play the game ::::eye roll::::

On further happy notes- she continues to do well developmentally, although starting to fall behind cognitively too (gross motor is always gonna be slow but whatever w/ that, we do therapy) she's still plowing ahead and doing well. And the hubs and I are going for a couples massage tomorrow morning for our anniversary and then a fancy shamncy dinner the next night :-D YaY for adult romantic time!!!!

Tired

There may already be a similar post :-) seems to be a theme for me! Over the last month I worked the inpatient floor which I like a lot but it's long hours and hard work. Christmas came (on the 26th for us since I was working) and was wonderful. Annabelle had a blast ripping paper and sticking it in her mouth!

She was such a good girl the second part of this year that santa really spoiled her and she had to take lil nap break in the middle of opening all her presents.... all of course carefully selected to help in one area of therapy or another ;-) that sneaky santa. The new year was fun too, I had new year's eve off. We watched the east coast ball drop (10p our time) and I called it a night, haha how cool am I?

Now I'm working the NICU which is a call month which kinda sucks 'cause I'm away from the fam for at least 24-hrs then need to sleep for at least a few hours so I'm away for a few more. I also have some PTSD or something from our birth. Not so much because Annabelle was in the NICU, she was only there for a half of a day, but seeing the families like we were- expecting a healthy beautiful new baby to take home to have all that shattered. See their hurt just takes me back and I tend to have the constant knot in the pit of my stomach again (it was starting to only be there once in a while, bah).

Only 2 weeks left though, then it's on to a string of easier rotations! And other things to look forward to- our 5-year wedding anniversary and we already have a sitter, vacation to the grand canyon, time to look for a job (eek! more stress), and annabelle's first birthday- yes I'm already planning!!!!

One last thing, we have 2 "toofies" :-D YaY annabelle! growing up so fast!