Naps

Yesterday Kaitlyn was taking a really long nap. I finally decided I better go check on her (again). I walked in to find this...

She had found her colors, a coloring book and her burger from lunch. I asked, "Kaitlyn what are you doing?" She said, "I'm eating a burger." LOL... We had gone out to eat. When we returned the burger was in my purse. I took it out and laid it on the bed. I guess she did a little snooping.

Swimming

Kaitlyn loves the pool and enjoyed it even more the last time we went. She kept crawling in whenever it struck her fancy. Here's some pictures of her adventure.

Here she is climbing in for another dip.

She hated getting water in her ears.

National Anthem

Kaitlyn loves standing at the open hotel door when the National Anthem and Taps are played each weekday. Yesterday I filmed her during the Anthem. Normally she stands still while it plays and has her right hand on her heart. With me not kneeling beside her things were a bit wonky. Don't mind the chili on her face. We were eating Frito pies beforehand.

Sorry it's sideways. I totally didn't think about it. At the very end you see her lips moving; she's trying to sing the words to the song.

Here's she's telling you she just heard the National Anthem.

Swimming

Kaitlyn and I have spent the week in Georgia with Neal. His hotel has a pool so for the second time in her life she was able to go swimming.

She hated the water at first, but warmed up to it when we bought her the bear to ride in.

Here she is foot loose and brace free. For all enquiring minds, Kaitlyn is supposed to wear the brace at all times other then when taking a bath and getting her diaper changed. Dr Brock's assistant told me we could take her swimming as long as we put the brace back on her once she is done. If you are able to click on the picture and enlarge it you can see a scar going down her right thigh where they shortened her femur.

Bye-Bye Cast

I know Kaitlyn's cast has been off for two weeks now, but I never shared these photos. These were taken on my phone. My mom took some with my camera, but I had forgotten the memory card so they are saved onto the camera. The cord to the camera is with the rest of our household goods; wherever they are.

Waiting for her turn to have her cast removed.

She was calm the whole time the guy cut through the cast.

She had to slip her hand in the cast one last time.

Here the cast has been broken in two and some of the stuffing cut. As soon as the top of the cast came off she wanted out. I hesitated at picking her up because I didn't want to hurt her. She didn't care!

Cast free!!!

She was real lethargic the whole time her cast was being removed and afterwards. She woke up that morning with a 101 temp.

Cast Free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kaitlyn is cast free! She now wears a flexible foam and plastic brace. Her doctor said to plan on her wearing it for at least a year. I have yet to take a picture of the brace, but I do have a picture and a video to share.

Second bath. Her first one didn't go well. She held onto me the whole time crying while mom scrubbed her down. This time she loved it. She kept "swimming". =)

Around & Around We Go

Cast Off ~ Coming Soon

I can't believe we are 10 days to "Cast Off!!!" Seeing how I will be going to bed soon I just changed my message on MSN from "10 days to cast off" to "9 days to cast off". NINE days!! My goodness. It's not even my cast and I'm excited. It feels like the cast has always been a part of our world. As crazy as this sounds I think Kaitlyn will miss it. If I could quickly find my camera I could show you a picture of her sleeping with her hand down the cast; this is normal.

I found it! I figure there's no time like the present to post the picture so I hunted it down. The pillow by her head... she should be laying on the other side of it. I took a shower then walked back in the room to find her laying sideways in the bed above the pillows. Crazy kid. See what I mean. Why is she on the other side? I don't know. If you look closely you will see she's sleeping on a pull out couch. Kaitlyn and I spent Saturday and Sunday night at the resort. Mom and dad were having water well issues so mom put in for the resort. When we got the call they said it was a studio condo. Studio!?! Who knew they had those? So last month we stayed in a Presidential and this month a little Studio. Oh well, it was a life saver for those of us who like to wash our hands or do anything with water for that matter.

I have to share some cuteness of Kaitlyn from tonight. I was pushing her stroller through Hobby Lobby when she started saying "Praise the Lord". LOL... People stopped what they were doing to see the small child saying praise the Lord. We left Hobby Lobby for Michael's. All through the store I could hear her saying "thank you for Mommy, thank you for Daddy, thank you for Nana..." She was praying. It was really cute. Last night we had just started eating pizza when she stopped and said, "pray!" LOL... I prayed and she immediately looked at me with a grin and said, "Mommy, kiss." As much as I didn't want pizza sauce on my cheek I turned it to her. This morning it was milk on my cheek after praying over our breakfast.

Tricycle Surprises

A couple weeks ago Kaitlyn rode into my parents room, found my cousin's toy ball, expanded it, and came out like this. We laughed so hard. I have never seen her play with it before and had no idea she knew she could get in it. She thought she was hot snot riding around with it on. Hehehe...

This trike is still a life saver for Kaitlyn. She is very quick. Today she was trying out a smaller riding toy and kept flipping off the back.

FYI: For anyone reading this months or a year from the date I posted it, Kaitlyn is wearing a spica cast after having hip surgery for CDH or Congenital Dysplasia of the Hip. We couldn't get her to try out any riding toys until she had been in the cast for about seven weeks. The big trike above has been great because the back wheels are far apart giving her stability and the seat is skinny allowing her cast to straddle it.

Videos ~ Talking On The "Phone"

Having surgery and being in a spica cast has given Kaitlyn the chance to do something most kids her age don't normally get to do... play with pads! Tonight while prepping her sleeping diaper with the two pads Kaitlyn had to try them out. She loves to pull the strip off the back and stick them to her ears like phones. You can see the rest for yourself.

Blackened House

Just when mom thought she had all the black off the walls from burning candles after hurricane Ike, Tia had to go and turn 29. Thankfully Tia blew them out before to much damage was done. Hehehe... Kaitlyn enjoyed saying, "Happy to you, Tia". She said it all evening and into the next day. Now when she sees one of the lighters she says "happy to you".

Kaitlyn didn't waste time putting down her piece of chocolate cake. She even cleaned the plate with her finger. Enjoy it while it lasts kid. Once we move I'm cutting you off again from most sweets. By the way, the boy bib she's wearing she picked out herself. She likes the balls on it.

"Washable" Markers

"Do you like my make-up, Nana? I did it myself."

Don't ask me... I don't know what her deal is with putting marker on her face lately. When she gets it on her hands and arms whether it be on purpose or accident she will tell me it's ugly. For some reason it's okay to put it on her face. Last night she put black all around her mouth. Mind you I don't let her do it, I discover her with it. =)

Accidental Tricycle

Mom and dad bought a trike as a gift for my cousin's baby. She's five months younger then Kaitlyn. Dad really thought Laci needed this BIG trike. The problem is Laci is small. She is so small she looks like she is under a year old. Dad busted the box open and immediately started putting the big trike together. Of course Kaitlyn thought it was hers. When he was done with it him and mom went somewhere. While they were gone Kaitlyn rode the thing all over the house. After talking with mom a bit on what to do about the trike which is even to big for Kaitlyn to reach the pedals on, we decided to buy a smaller riding toy for Laci.
The tricycle has become a new set of legs for Kaitlyn. She goes all over the house even in places I didn't think the thing could fit. Sometimes we even have problems getting her to eat because she doesn't want to get off it. I was very tempted to take it to her doctor's appointment today so she could have more mobility; we left it at home.

So the tricycle that wasn't supposed to be has turned out to be a really good thing.

Kaitlyn's Second Surgery

Two weeks ago we set up Kaitlyn's surgery to have the pins in her right hip removed tomorrow. A week ago I got a call from Armonde, Dr Brock's nurse, saying someone canceled for the next day's surgery and wanted to know if we could come in. I jumped at the chance. She said going on Feb 25th instead of March 4th would make Kaitlyn first on the surgery list rather then second. I want her first if I can help it which is why I took her up on the offer.

The good news and the bad news is...

• The surgery is behind us.


• Dr Brock said it went well.


• She scars "nicely" meaning she isn't getting horribly bad scars from the procedures.


• Kaitlyn now has a cast that hits her above both knees.

However...

• The pins moved allowing the bone graft to shift up which means she now has a flat area for the joint to sit on rather then a nice cupped area. I know I'm saying that wrong, but hopefully you get the idea that it isn't ideal.


• She could possibly need the same surgery again when she is four or five years old because of the graft moving.


• She will have to wear a brace "for a long time" as Dr Brock put it; again because of the moved graft.

Please pray Kaitlyn's tendons will tighten nicely around her new formed hip causing it to stay perfectly in place which will prevent another round of surgeries. As of right now she is only guaranteed one more surgery and that will be to removed the plate and four screws from her femur. Her next surgery will be six months to one year from her first surgery (Jan 19th).

Although this isn't a great picture, you can see her new spica cast here.

The light purple is Duck Tape. The cast is so dark I told mom we should take her to Walmart and see how well the cast matches the dark blue tape. I ended up needing the tape before our Walmart trip so we are going with the purple. I think it's a nice contrast. =) As you can see the cast goes up to the ridge on her chest or right around the dolls foot. Although she does have a little bit more of her left leg showing you are kind of seeing up the cast making it look really short here.

For anyone wondering this is her sleeping shirt; a whopping $3.50 at Walmart for a shirt two sizes bigger then she would normally wear. The diaper is a 1.0 BumGenius one size pocket diaper from Cotton Babies. She has been able to wear this same diaper since she was two months old (around 8 lbs).

The Children's Museum of Houston

Saturday I met a friend of mine, Julie, from Fertilichat at The Children's Museum of Houston. The kids had a lot of fun. I want to take Kaitlyn back when she is out of the cast. She was very limited on what she could do. I kept seeing things I thought she would really love to do if she only could. Instead I had to do a lot of lifting to get her where she could see to drop a ball, splash in water, look at baby chicks and so forth. On March 14th they are opening two new sections at the museum so it will be much bigger then. Maybe sometime this summer, if she is walking by then, we can go back and let her play.

The telephone man at the museum. I didn't see him until we were about to walk out of the room.

Here's Kaitlyn and Juliette (Julie's youngest) checking each other out while we waited on Julie.
Jenevieve got a kick out of her sister "milking" a cow.

Kaitlyn would have loved to be under the cow too, but she had to settle for sitting on mommy's knee while holding onto the cow. By the way, Kaitlyn's new thing is, "A cow says meow, meow". It doesn't matter how many time I tell her a cat says "meow" and a cow says "moo" she still says it her way.
And here we all are (minus Julies husband who is taking the picture). From left to right we have Kaitlyn, me, Jillian (standing up), Juliette, Julie, and Jenevieve. Notice Kaitlyn and Jenevieve have the same look on their face. They were tuckered out.

The picture in the previous post with Kaitlyn playing with different balls was shot at the Children's Museum too. I would have taken a lot more if she were able to do more or Neal were with me to snap some pictures.

Some of Kaitlyn's Favorite Things

Kaitlyn loves Little People. She plays with this castle from Uncle Jeremy daily. One day she will get back her whole Little People village (it's in Guam) and she won't know what to do with herself. Okay, it really isn't a village, but it feels that way sometimes.
She loves balls. It doesn't seem to matter how big, pointy, knot of rubber loops it may be she loves it. Some of the balls in the picture above made a noise when they were thrown. I almost bought her one in the gift shop, but they were almost $11. Yikes, it's just a ball!

Kaitlyn loves sunglasses. I was back at The Children's Place today where we picked up this pair and I considered getting her a couple more. They are only 2 for $5. As things would turn out she should have this pair here in the house somewhere, but I have no idea where they are. She keeps asking for them. My next mission will be to go get the second pair, green with polka dots, out of the car.

Doctor's Appointment

All is well with us. I'm finally over my five day long tummy bug; thank God!!! Today was Kaitlyn's follow up appointment. Everything looked well in the x-ray. The doctor asked if she is crawling yet. I didn't know I should be encouraging it. She actually has started crawling. Sunday was her first time. I sat on the floor of my parents church nursery and watched her struggle to Army crawl to a toy. She made it to her toy. =) In her crawling she tore the gortex lining on the left leg of the cast. I taped her up yesterday. She now has tape on every "raw" edge of her cast. After seeing the doctor we were sent to casting. I have no idea how Dr Brock or his nurse thought the cast was to be fixed. The guy checked Kaitlyn out and asked what exactly was he supposed to do. I told him how she had torn the gortex and I had taped it up. I told him I thought it would last until the cast was to be replaced in four week. He agreed and said I did a great job taping it up. He said if he were to fix it, it would basically look the same.

Did you all know Duck tape comes in all the colors of a cast? The day we brought Kaitlyn home I picked up some waterproof medical tape from the drug store. After putting some on her cast I realized it doesn't stick well. I remebered a website I read where the parents of a girl in a spica cast said they bought pink tape for it. So I rushed off to Walmart for some pink tape. It actually matches it really well. While checking out Walmart's tape I noticed they had several colors all good matches for a cast.
Here she is Sunday, laying in a Target basket. If you look closely you may notice the pink Duck tape around the toes of her right foot.
Mom took this picture of Kaitlyn today while we were on our way home from the doctor's office. Right before she pulled the camera out Kaitlyn had stickers all over her face.

Day 2 At Home

I continue to be blessed by both my FertiliChat and blog family. Of course my biological (and married) family has been a huge support too. As expected Kaitlyn has both good and bad moments/days. She woke up around 11 PM in pain so I gave her a little sippy cup of juice with Tylenol in it. After drinking half of it she went to sleep. She woke up again around 1 AM. Her and I went around and around. Nothing I did or tried to do made her happy. I even picked her up and she pitched a fit to be put back in bed. So back to bed she went. I gave up. She wouldn't go to sleep. I went for the good stuff. Her liquid vicodin doesn't taste bad (I tried it to see what the fight was about), but she still won't take it willingly. I put the syringe in her mouth as well as my finger along the side so she would be forced to swallow. She loves spitting it at you. Grrr... Well, there wasn't any spitting this time. I played Mario Cart on the DS for 20 minutes until the crying stopped (AKA the drug kicked in). She woke up once or twice more, but thankfully not for long periods. She woke up a little after 7 AM in a great mood. I wanted to keep things happy so I asked if she wanted some milk. When she took me up on the offer I laced it with Tylenol. LOL... I wanted to keep things happy. She's napping now... and the whole house gives a relieved sigh. =)

Here's some pictures I promised.

Kaitlyn slept really good across mom's stomach this way. It was hard on mom's knees (her feet were on the bed), but she held out so Kaitlyn could have more time off her rear.

This was Kaitlyn's second wagon ride at the hospital. Although she isn't smiling here she was loving the ride. Notice her hand is in a cup; she was eating ice. I put her in the wagon and walked her around the hospital. She loved it so much she cried when I took her out.

For all who have wondered about diaper changes, I flip her onto her tummy (over pillows) to tuck the diaper into the back of her cast. Her doctor's nurse was really impressed that Kaitlyn felt good enough to push up on her hands and knees (like in the picture).
Lastly, here's a picture of Kaitlyn opening her first piece of mail. This was a get well card from "Sundance"; one of the ladies I know from FertiliChat. This picture was taken the day she got home from the hospital. She has gotten a little more mail in as well as a package which included a second little table like the one in the picture. Yes, you may be thinking we already have one and don't really need a second, but let me tell you I was blessed to receive it. I meant to buy a second table yesterday so she would have one on either side of her bean bag chair. Now she has toys, books, and markers right in her reach on either side.

We're Home!

I'm glad the hospital stay is over. When we arrived Monday morning I could tell Kaitlyn knew we were there for her. She was anxious and kept saying "poo poo potty" to get out of the room. As soon as I would get her into the bathroom she would cry while saying "noooo". She didn't need to go potty she just wanted to run away.
It helped that I brought a bag of toys. When she wasn't worried about what may be going on she was playing. We learned Makka Pakka and a Tombleboo can fit in the Barney car just fine (see the yellow car by the rail with Makk Pakka standing in it).

The nurses told me I didn't have to take Kaitlyn's sleeper off that they would do it later, but she's my baby so I thought I should have the honor of doing it for the last time presurgery. I waited until they drugged her to make the switch. Even with her limp and loopy she tried to fight me about removing her clothes. However she only gave a brief fight.
It was really odd to see her on this drug. She looked like a special ed child. I don't say that to be rude, but to give you a better understanding on how limp she was and odd her behavior became once the drug was administered. To be honest for a moment I panicked when she looked at me and gave a sluggish half (one side of the mouth) smile. The drug was supposed to take all her anxiety away and wipe the memory of the morning out of her mind. I'm not sure about her memory, but the girl still had fight in her. At one point I was trying to pull the gown down to cover her diaper better and she freaked out, bent her knees up to her chest while screeching "nooo". Also, when the anesthesiologist was carrying her away she started crying and trying to fight her. The lady slowed her pace and started singing and swaying. I had to quickly walk out. I couldn't handle watching my baby cry while someone carried her away.
I was supposed to be taken back to the recovery room while Kaitlyn was waking up. I was told I would be the first person she would see. However, I walked in the room and she was fighting the nurse. She wanted all the wrapping taken off her left hand. She ended up keeping that club-hand until yesterday. She did a bit of yanking on her IV and it started to bleed. I called in the nurse and after taking most of the wrapping off she left the room to get something. Kaitlyn started wiggling her fingers. Suddenly the IV line fell out. My mom was there and she grabbed Kaitlyn's hand, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. I pinched the IV off and called the nurse back in. They had put a spare "just in case" line in Kaitlyn's foot so they moved the IV to her foot.
Here she is resting on Tuesday. As you can see the cast goes all the way down her right leg to her toes. You can only see four of her toes sticking out the end. I'm a bit torn about her having a free leg. We had a hard weekend which left me looking forward to her being immobile. LOL... The tan strip on her left leg was just tape holding down her catheter line. By the way, the catheter fell out yesterday. I discovered her with a wet diaper. The nurse thought it was just sweat, but when she had a wet diaper an hour later we knew it was pee. With the catheter gone the epidural had to be cut way back. The wire coming from her toe in the picture is a heart rate monitor which she got to lose when the epi was gone yesterday afternoon.

I have a couple more pictures of her wagon rides (which she REALLY loved), her sleeping belly to belly with my mom (picture the casted leg in the air) and her here at my parents house.

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas. Ours has been almost like any other day other then I have had a headache for most of the day and Kaitlyn acts like she hasn't had a nap.

Last night Neal and I were talking about next year's Christmas. If we were going to be stateside (which we aren't) we would stay home for Christmas. We would put lights on everything along with a ton of garland, and shower the house with snowmen, and any other "Christmas" creatures we could find. Kaitlyn hasn't had a normal Christmas since she arrived and this was her third. Well last year we were at my parents house over Christmas, but when we left England our house sure didn't look like Christmas. We are done with drab Christmases; I want a decked out house.

Today we put all Kaitlyn's presents on the couch and let her have at them. After opening the second doll outfit she decided she was done. We tried to get her to open her Vtech laptop or her gift from Neal's parents, but she didn't want anything to do with them. I knew how she would respond to the doll clothes and she didn't followed it to the "t". Kaitlyn doesn't like change. Some things she is totally good with, but not things like, me making her a new outfit and immediately putting it on her; that isn't okay. She will scream, pull it, say she is "stuck", and basically carry on like she is dying. She was almost as bad with her doll. It was "stuck" in the clothes and had to get out. She adjusts better if I put her doll in something (like the snowsuit) when she is sleeping. When she finds the dressed doll she usually loves it. Mind you the doll isn't naked on a regular bases. Before Kaitlyn turned one I sewed the shorts onto the doll because they kept falling down then I sewed the shirt to the shorts because it kept coming up. Anyway, she opened gifts in about four rounds. Mind you she didn't have a lot of gifts, she just didn't want to open them.