Playdates

A little over a week ago we were hanging out after a basketball game when Georgia made a comment to Morgan about it not being much longer before she and Luke could start having sleepovers. That sparked an idea in my head. Yes, they are probably too young for sleepovers, however, they are definitely not too young for an extended playdate. Since this weekend was Valentine's Day I proposed the idea to Georgia that we take turns watching each other's kid so we could both finally have a "date night" with our husband's. We both decided that since the kids go to bed early and probably wouldn't just fall asleep anywhere that we would plan early afternoon dates. David and I took Saturday. We dropped Morgan off around 3 and headed into town for our "date." We spent the majority of our date (like we do most dates nowadays) shopping for Morgan. I had been searching for weeks trying to find her a googlie head band with hearts on them. After searching for a while we decided to give up and head to dinner at the Macaroni Grill. After dinner we headed back to pick up Morgan. She had had a blast hanging out with Lucas and we had enjoyed a nice break.

The next day was our day to stay home with "the kids." I went by to pick up Luke around 1:45 (he was supposed to still be napping). Since he was already awake we headed down to our house to play. Morgan was SO excited to have Luke over. She had been talking about it all morning and had planned lots of activities she wanted to do with him including playing "noodle swords," the water table, and bike riding. Thankfully it was a beautiful 80 degrees so it wasn't a problem to do all Morgan had planned.

David and I were both a little nervous about how soaked Luke might get in the water table, so we stripped him down to his diaper. He had a blast splashing everything, including Morgan. She thought it was hilarious and has definitely found her voice for speaking up. She kept telling Luke, "No, that's mine." Although we had to remind her not to be bossy, it was good to see her asserting herself.

After cleaning up the water table we headed out front to ride bikes.

I love the "pucker" face!

After riding bikes it was time to come in and get some chores done. I was emptying the dishwasher and both kids decided they needed to help. It is never too early to start training them.

Before we knew it Matt and Georgia were here to pick up Luke. It had been a fun afternoon and we all decided this was something we would definitely have to do again. I don't really know why it took us this long to figure out how great this could be.

Out it came....

Monday night was a long night with very little sleep for me. I wanted to keep a close eye on Morgan so I had her in bed right beside me. All night long I was on high alert. Anytime Morgan even just moved an inch I was wide awake reaching over trying to keep her hands down and away from her face. She only fully woke once around 3 am, cried for a bit, and then went back to sleep. Around 5:30 I woke David and told him it was his turn to sleep next to her so I could get in the shower and start getting ready for work. David very sleepily climbed in next to her and fell fast asleep. Around 6:40 as I was packing the rest of my things about to leave for the day I heard Morgan begin fussing and a moment later I heard David yelling for me "It's out hon, It's out!" I went running into our bedroom to discover that Morgan had accidentally pulled the tube about halfway out. We didn't know what to do. Should we pull it the rest of the way out (which we knew Morgan wanted) or try to push it back in (which we knew she would HATE). We wanted to be sure they had enough data collected because we did not want to have to do this again. After several tries we finally were able to get a hold of the on call doctor to see what we should do. He said we needed to pull it out. So we did, and then we had to make some quick decisions about our day as it was now 7:15 and I was officially VERY late for work. The plan had been that Morgan would spend the day at Donna and Charley's and miss school, but now that the tube was out we thought, she might as well go to school. So I quickly made a couple of calls to let everyone know the change in plans and then headed out leaving poor David behind with only about 20 minutes to get Morgan dressed, hair done, breakfast fed, and off to school.

On Thursday we received the results of the PH test. We were told that they did in fact get enough data and that everything looked fine. Morgan did not show any signs of reflux. However, around 4:30 I looked at my cell phone (still sitting at work due to conferences) and saw I had a message. It was the nurse calling back. She said that they needed to go over the results again and you could tell from her voice that something was wrong. Of course by this time everyone had gone home for the day so I would have to wait until Friday to find out what was going on.


Friday morning while running around town I received a phone call from the nurse. Apparently the nurse and the doctor both misread the test. Comforting. Anyway, according to what they now were saying Morgan definitely has acid reflux and in her voice it sounded like it was pretty severe. They want to put Morgan back up to her full dose of medicine (reflux medicine twice a day) and then repeat the test in a month. I was so mad to hear that they want to do the test again. I told the nurse we would have to think about it. I really can't imagine having to put Morgan through this again. However, I also don't want to have her going through life not on the right dose of medicine and damaging her esophagus with acid reflux. I just don't know what to do. In the meantime, we have put her back up to the full dose of medicine and we will see what happens.

Sleeping Beauty

Today was a rough day. You know you all have them. Some days of being a mom are the greatest, happiest days ever, and others are a challenge. Today was a challenge, actually the past few weeks have been. It seems like things have been so crazy around here lately between colds, basketball, work, and appointments. I have hardly been able to keep things straight lately and thanks to doctors changing appointments on us it has been even harder. Morgan had two really important appointments scheduled this month: one was with a GI specialist to talk about her reflux and constipation issues we have had for a long time now. The other was with the opthamologist to follow-up on her eyes. Both were originally perfectly scheduled for the days I don't work (the whole reason I work only part-time). Then just days before both appointments I received phone calls telling me the doctor needed to reschedule. It was either accept the day and time they had available (of course days and times I have to work) or wait over an entire month to get in at a time that is convenient for me. So what was I to do, she had already been waiting so long to get in. I decided to take the first available appointments. David and Donna would take her to the GI and I would leave work a little early to make it to the opthamologist.

At the opthamologist we learned that while Morgan's eyes are improving, her vision is still a little blurry. Her right eye is still a bit worse than the left as well, so it is back to wearing glasses. At the GI doctor we were told that part of Morgan's reflux problem could be that food is not passing through her system fast enough and not so much an acid reflux problem, however, the doctor wanted to be sure. She decided to order a PH acid reflux test that requires a nasal catheder for 24 hours.

So this is kinda where my horrible day begins. Donna and I spent hours with Morgan on Thursday searching for eye glasses. Now that we have vision coverage for her and she is in school we wanted to be sure to get her a "good" pair of glasses and not just go to the one hour place. I also wanted to try to get her the ones that wrap around the ears (cable temples) so they would stay put and we wouldn't need the tether we used to use. So, we went to countless places and found that no one carried what we needed in stock. A few places offered to order some in (no obligation) so we could try out the frames.

One place called this morning to let me know the frames they had ordered had arrived and we could come in at anytime to try them on. So, after picking Morgan up from school we went home for a quick lunch and then took off to meet up with Donna to check out the glasses.

Totally adorable right?

The glasses looked cute and fit well. Of course when we sat down to start the paperwork to order them is when my day started taking a turn for the worse. I was just so frustrated. Apparently having vision insurance really doesn't mean anything. I mean why do we pay this monthly payment to then have to turn around and still pay over $200 for a pair of glasses? I was just so mad, but what could I do. We had searched all over town and there weren't any other glasses that would fit Morgan's face ( I should say head, it is rather large) and that had the cable temples. Reluctantly I decided we didn't really have any other options, so I placed the order.

Totally fed up with the idea of paying so much for a stinking pair of glasses when we have insurance (mind you last time I bought her two pairs for $120 with no insurance, of course it was from the one hour mall people) we loaded Morgan and headed to the GI doctors. Today was the day we would be getting started with the 24 hour reflux test.

I hadn't told Morgan where we were going or why thinking that was what was best for her. I was afraid that she would freak out if I told her she would be getting a small tube put through her nose and down her esophagus. I thought, this will be no big deal, she will be fine. No reason to panic her. I thought this because this is pretty much what the doctor had told Donna and David. Now remember, I was not there for the appointment, but the way they relayed it to me is that the doctor said they would put a tiny tube (almost like the size of a hair) through her nose and down into the esophagus just above the stomach. They would then tape it really well against her check, behind her ear, and down her back. She would have a small machine attached to the end to make recordings. So, with that being said I thought no big deal. We should probably keep her home from school just to be safe but this will be easy. I pictured the machine being small like an ipod and thought it would be taped right to her side.

Boy was I wrong. It was/is HORRIBLE! First of all, the doctor didn't even come in so I never had the chance to meet her. There were two nurses that came in to insert the tube. I had to hold Morgan (which I wanted to do so I could be there for her) down, but it was horrible. She was squirming with all her might trying to get away so I had to lie down over her. I hid my eyes because I couldn't bare to watch it. She was screaming, and gagging, and chocking. It seemed like it took them forever to get the tube inserted. Then, once it was finally in they did the worst job taping it. Morgan was instantly grabbing and trying to yank the tube out. I was doing everything I could to hold her arms down and try to get the tape better. Because she was crying so hard and had tears running down her face the tape was not wanting to stick. The nurses solution was to hand me a roll of tape and she told me to try tapping it better once we got home and she was calmed down. I was so mad. I thought yeah right. Do you realize we have a 40 minute car drive home. This thing is never going to last. The nurse actually said that they didn't really expect it to last. She said that most times the kids pull them out, even when they do them in the hospital. Oh, that's comforting. To make matters worse this "small" machine that was going to be connected at the end is not small at all (at least in ipod standards) and they barely taped the tube to her. So here we are with a screaming child, a nose tube hardly held in the nose, and a long tube with a machine attached trying to get out to the car.

Once outside Donna and I were able to get Morgan to calm down a bit and then we had to try to figure out how to get her in the carseat without snagging the tube and machine on something. Once she was in we then had to also figure out how to place the machine and extra tubing so that it wouldn't fall and slip out while driving. We ended up having to tuck it up and behind her carseat.

My brave girl finally calmed down and ready to go home.

I think I watched less of the road driving home than Morgan. I had turned my rear view mirror (I know, totally unsafe) to point directly at Morgan so I could see clearly if she made an attempt to pull out the tube. She actually only went for it a few times and as soon as I said "no, don't touch it please" Morgan stopped. She is such a good kid.

So we survived the car trip home without losing the tube. I knew I needed to try to tape the tube better now that she was calm. Since she was supposed to try to keep this thing in for the next 24 hours I decided to just change her outfit for the night and then tape it. I also decided that I would just go ahead and put her in a comfy outfit that she could both sleep in and play in all day tomorrow. I wasn't going to mess with multiple wardrobe changes. So with a little finesse we got the old outfit off, more tape on, and new clothes. It was then time to have some dinner because I was going to have to rush out for a preschool PTA meeting as soon as David came home.

By this time Morgan was getting over the tube. She even smiled a few times.

Morgan was getting used to the tube and was only occasionally telling me that her nose hurt. However, as soon as she tried eating her favorite dinner, meatball subs, she started screaming again. Again, those stupid people lied to us. They said she could eat a normal diet and not to change anything. Well, Morgan was not having it. Anything with any kind of substance that she tried bread, meat, cheese, carrots, pears, she screamed. The only thing I could get her to swallow without complaining was some pudding. (hmmm, I wonder if she was just playing me).

So after a meal of pudding Morgan and I ended up heading to the PTA meeting together. David had been stuck in a meeting and wasn't going to get home in time. He would meet us at the preschool to pick her up. Despite having the tube and lovely machine to tote around Morgan was so happy to be going to school. She sat joyfully playing playdough with two other little girls until her Daddy arrived.

So.....it is now after 10. I am exhausted. It was been a horrible day and I just want to go to bed....but I can't. Instead all I can do is sit here watching my little girl sleep. Feeling awful for what I put her through today and worried that she will wake in the middle of the night and tear out the tube.

The not so little machine that gets to follow Morgan around for the next day. She has taken to calling it her "fancy purse."

Our Sleeping Beauty. She is such a brave and amazing little girl. She puts up with so much and is so resilient. And amazingly enough, after all I put her through today she still threw her arms around me tonight before drifting off to sleep and whispered "I love you Mommy!"
Love can not even begin to describe how I feel about this little girl.

Look what I can do!

So for the past month or so we have been leaving the front wheels on Morgan's walker unlocked trying to force her to learn how to control her walker. At first she was all over the place, running into everything. But after not too long she started to get a handle on how to control the walker when trying to go straight or taking corners. The other night while at the basketball game she totally shocked me. At half time she was making her way out onto the court to go chase after Lucas when all of a sudden the cheerleaders came out. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned slightly to the side to watch them perform. Then, when they were done she turned all the way back around to come find me to make sure I had seen their performance. After coming back to me and talking to me for a second she decided she wanted to go find Lucas again. She proceeded to turn herself completely around again and headed back out on the court. Since then she has started to perfect the turn. She did it twice more on Friday at Therapy and a bunch of times on Saturday. Here is one I captured:

(Sorry, the video was too long to post directly here on blogger. They seem to max out around 30 seconds on this site. Click the link below to see the video)
http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f281/spiesldm/?action=view&current=MVI_1424.mp4

She is moving a bit slow in this one, but wanted to go outside to play. David misunderstood her in the video. He thought she said she couldn't go outside. What she said if you listen carefully is that the back door is not open wide enough for her to fit out. She was trying to ask David to open it wider for her.

Anyway, today is Sunday and she is definitely perfecting the turning and controlling of her walker. As I sat down to start working on this Morgan walked herself out of the kitchen, turned to find me at the dining room table, then decided to head back into the kitchen by going around the island. I can't tell you how life changing this is for all of us. Just yesterday I needed to put her laundry away. Usually that means a 5 minute job taking about 30 minutes because I have to stop after folding each piece to go help Morgan get whatever she is after. Well, not yesterday. I left her playing in the living room facing toward the back door and headed into Morgan's room at the front of the house. As I was putting the last item of clothing away she proudly entered her bedroom. Morgan had turned herself completely around and then walked, maneuvering the sharp hallway corner, and into her room completely by herself!!!! I was SO PROUD!!!!!! It is still not perfect , she is still cheating with getting her legs going and often still drags her left foot, and can technically really only consistently make the turn to the right,but we will take it. She is really starting to realize her independence and that motivates her even more! If only everything in the world she wants or needs could be to her right she would be set! :)