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!!!!