Thanksgiving 2013

We have so much to be grateful for this year! It was truly the best thanksgiving we've had in a while, because we had lots of family with us. Susan even got to share in part of the meal before going to work! Norman had the night off, and John's cousin Teresa & Tim brought their sons Shane & Dillon too!
  They were so generous to come over with soooo much food---I really appreciate how much thought and time, money etc were put into planning for all the food and transport of it to our house. We made a few dishes too. Everything was delicious. So glad my mom got to come over after her work shift at 8pm and have some of the food, meet Tim and Teresa and spend time with the kids. I was reminded of a few slideshows I made on discs a few years ago, so I put them on--my mom was very appreciative to get to see her old childhood pics and my dads, and their pics together. I treasure those memories and photographs that I get to share with my kids. They are the one thing you can never replace once lost, no matter how much power or money you have. :)
   Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving celebration:

 Norman making red mashed potatoes---he volunteered to make them, because he didn't want me to screw them up lol. He did a good job!

 The Johnsons :)

 Teresa prepping Sangria.

 Dillon helping out

 Purple drank?

 This is the 24 lb bird they brought!!

 Olivia & Teresa with her godchild Frankie--wearing his "First Thanksgiving" bib :)

 Funny picture to me--Dillon & Shane with the 24 lb baby, and TNT with a 9 lb baby. 

 These fruit cups wanted to hold hands all of a sudden. Then we prayed---Lucas led us with an enthusiastic "Our Father" :) My sweet boy.

 Susan got a plate of food in before leaving for work :(

 Talking about walmart lol.

 Uncle Norman staring contest?

 Change, feed, burp, pump, repeat.

 What a fun cousin- they bought Chutes & Ladders for the kids--Lucas LOVES it. In fact he beat daddy twice tonight :)

 Tim and his boys checking out their phones.

 Then we took a stroll down to the park to burn off some calories.

 The boys all played soccer. Lucas was frustrated that he had to wait his turn, but he actually does well while running and kicking the ball.

 The boys, and a tom-boy.

 Then we had a little music when we got back. It was really fun playing with Norman. It has been a while since I played and sang...I hope to get back into playing live next year when things settle down a bit.

 Olivia trying on Teresa's boots--she REALLY wants "boots like teresa has" for Xmas :)

 My favorite picture--so sweet.

 An apple pie and pumpkin pie TNT's parish group made (very good!) and Aunt Pauline's pumpkin bread recipe (so good and moist!)

 The men when to have their gentlemanly time on the balcony with cigars. Norman got a little nauseous but he's okay now lol. 

 My mom came by after work and had a plate of food and held Frankie :)

 The guys played Acquire--John's favorite strategy game we learned from Jim & Shawna our game night buddies. Norman said it's also his favorite...and subsequently won the game :) I think this picture is cute because L & O are rolling dice on their kid table.

It was a great day. I didn't even have to use my AK. :P

God bless our family!

Medical Stuff

Frankie had his appointment with the ENT monday down in Plano. I was nervous, but I think we did the right thing. The doctor said he never sees newborns with upper lip ties; he said with newborns, the most common frenulum issue is the tongue tie, and that he sees the upper lip tie in older kids, when their teeth have grown in with a big gap because of it, or they have speech impediments. I said I think I'd like to prevent all that, and also allow for his upper lip to splay up while he's drinking the bottle so he's not sucking his lip til it's red. The doctor agreed. He and his assistant stayed late to do the procedure. As soon as they brought out the little board they tie him down to, I got nervous again. We swaddled him and tied him down, the nurse held his head straight and the doctor numbed the surface, then injected more numbing stuff, and snipped the tissue. It bled quite a bit, so he applied pressure while Frankie screamed--probably more from being held down. Then he used silver nitrate to cauterize it. It looked pretty bad, but it's getting better every day. The doctor said to massage it daily so it wouldn't meld back together. I even tried to nurse but he's too used to the bottle now--his lip doesn't quite go up yet on its own, but I am too scared to force it to while it's still healing. When I know it's healed and isn't sore, I will try to pull it up while he feeds. Here's a picture of right after the procedure:

This is the scar on his upper gums...obviously there is also more scarring on his upper lip. That band of tissue was connected all the way down his gums--meaning if we hadn't clipped it, his lip would probably totally cover his top row of teeth. 

It doesn't seem to bother him much anymore (there was once when the pacifier pressed on it and you could tell it hurt). I hope it heals up totally this week.

  Then the next day (yesterday) we went back to Baylor hospital to get his ultrasound for his sacral dimple. The technician was really nice and did a thorough scan of his spine, and into his dimple. He was a little uncomfortable but I held his pacifier in and massaged his head and he calmed down. The radiologist then took a look at all the scans and at Frankie's dimple and said he looks great, and there is no indication of any neural tube defects. :) Very relieved to know those 2 things are taken care of.

Little Frankie before his ultrasound

   We still can't quite shake the fears about his lack of real eye-contact/interest/smiles etc, but he still has a few more weeks til we are technically allowed to worry lol.

   I love him muchly and we are excited to have a big thanksgiving feast tomorrow, with the Godparents Tim & Teresa and their sons Shane & Dillon. Norman has the day off, but Susan doesn't :( My mom might come over after her shift at 8pm. Can't wait to eat that turkey! It's kinda funny--last thanksgiving we were still in Houston, but we were supposed to come up to DFW to have dinner with Tim & Teresa. I think we got sick and couldn't make it until the next week, but here was the dinner I made.

 I remember that day because I cooked and cleaned and took pictures of the whole house for our realtor to find tenants, since we had just found out John got the job up here :) Very happy to be here and closer to family!

New Pediatrician

Frankie had his first appt with his new pediatrician today. First off, last night was the most difficult thus far; he had a terrible time trying to poop and was turning red pushing and struggling and kicking. I try to find the easiest positions to help him push, but nothing was working last night, so it was a struggle every half hour, to feed a little bit, poop a little bit and change him, and then try to soothe him. We were both so exhausted and it wasn't until after 4 am that we finally slept. John is on nights, so I was just up texting him to pray for Frankie to feel better :)
   Nevertheless, I got up and pumped 10 oz and took him to his 9:30am appointment. Since his pediatrician we chose from the hospital does not accept patients who don't fully vaccinate, (we are choosing a more selective/limited schedule) I asked my neighbor (who has 6 kids, and doesn't vaccinate at all) to recommend a good pediatrician. I am very thankful I did, because this doctor seems very competent, and allows parents to have more control in their children's health. She also encourages more holistic approaches, supports awareness of toxins and how to keep your kids healthier, in natural ways, as opposed to through medications. We only saw the nurse practitioner today, but even she seemed more competent than former dr.
   I am happy to say Frankie gained over 1 1/2 lbs since last week's appt, exceeded his birth weight, and is at 8 lbs 11oz! He is feeding well, pooping/peeing lots, and is no longer jaundiced.

   As for my other concerns, he has his next appt in 2 weeks which will be his 1 month well-child appt. At that appt, there will be more behavioral/development milestones like focusing, tracking, smiling etc. I know it was too early to really tell, so my concerns about his eye contact etc will have to wait.
     When she looked at his sacral dimple she immediately said it was a little deep so they will need to do an ultrasound. I am glad there is not an open hole there, but I think the dimple is fairly deep and the hair alarms me so I am glad they agreed that an ultrasound is warranted to ensure that the spine is complete and without any neural tube defects. I am waiting for a call back from Baylor to schedule that.
      Then she did a routine examination of his ears nose and mouth. She immediately noticed that his upper lip is tied. She said he needs his upper frenulum clipped. Basically the frenulum is a little flap of tissue attaching the lip to the gums. I had noticed when I was trying to nurse and even with bottles, that his upper lip would never splay up, no matter how I tried to pull it up, and so his upper lip is bright red after feeding since he inevitably sucks on his lip with the nipple. I am kinda disappointed that this possibility was never explored when I was in the hospital and trying to get a good latch. Maybe my nipples would've sufficed if we had corrected his lip in the first few days. All that pain and frustration me having to pump, and his weight loss etc may have all been preventable. So she referred me to an ENT specialist in Plano, who uses a painless laser procedure to clip the tissue. If not fixed now, it could cause feeding problems and speech impediments among other issues involving a thick short frenulum.
   He has the appointment on Monday afternoon...I hope it's quick and he heals quickly and eats normal after. I am saddened because he won't be able to nurse after having had bottles all this time.. that chance to directly nurse is gone, and the lactation consultants, nurses, other pediatrician never said that was a possibility when i would tell them how painful it is, and how my nipple doesn't get far back enough, or how he never fully drained my breasts. The time that passed not knowing the problem probably somewhat diminished my supply too since I was engorged. It explains my engorgement since his inability to latch all the way around, prevented him from fully draining my boobs, and he would exhaust himself sucking so hard in vain :( which also explains his weight loss.

  I am comforted that this pediatric office seems on top of things and respects the parent. I feel much more at ease tonight. I love Frankie so much and can't wait to see him interact with L & O :)  I pray we are able to move forward from all these things and be able to just deal with the normal chaos of a new baby and a 3 & 4 yr old. I'm grateful hopeful faithful. But mostly tired right now....probably obvious in my redundancy in this post haha...

Some Concerns

I haven't been as forthcoming with some concerns I've had recently, mainly because I know most people will write me off as just being a paranoid mom. I hope that is all it is. I know it's very early to know anything for sure, so it's really just another waiting game, and of course praying.


    While it's been an adjustment to balance things with L & O, and Frankie,  (especially when John works--he's been such a huge help, I am so grateful for his unending acts of love) and nursing presented it's own challenges, I am very happy to have my little baby Frankie, and thankful that I am able to pump a lot of milk for him. I know that right now it's kind of hectic as far as giving as much time and attention to L & O, and I think we all try to compensate for that- we even took them bowling 2 nights ago (they loved it)---thank God they have each other to play with. So those 2 concerns (my milk, and neglecting the kids) are pretty much fixed. I wasn't too concerned about the jaundice, since it was expected. I didn't supplement with formula like the dr's wanted, because my milk finally came in, and I can see he is drinking around 24 oz a day now,  (which is on the high end actually) and pooping/peeing a lot.

    For the past week I have been concerned that Frankie is not interested in my face, or any face, and his eyes never focus, no eye contact. Yes he is only 2 weeks old, but I can only compare him to my other 2 as babies, and yes I know newborns have blurry vision but for ~8 inches from their face, and colors are pretty much limited to black white and red. But call it a mother's instinct, I sense there is something wrong. I first thought of the possibility of a vision problem, or blindness. But I know he responds to light and dark, so then it turned to a behavioral or mental concern. In fact the only time his eyes seem interested or focused (and the only times he smiles) is when he dreams---most of the time that  he has his eyes open, he is dreaming. I chose not to share these concerns except with John, because I know everyone will say the same things:
--he's only 2 weeks, it's too early
--you can't compare babies, every baby is different
--his vision isn't developed yet

That all may be true, and I hope I am just paranoid. But it doesn't take away the worry, so I am giving it to God and praying for the grace to take the best care of my babies regardless of what may or may not be wrong.  Frankie was unexpected, and considering how late we conceived, we feel it was God's will that we have another baby. That said, I know we are blessed with his arrival, and love him tremendously already. I just want to be as prepared as we can be, and also look into what if anything can be done etc.

   The other concern I had, was something called a "sacral dimple". Right above his butt crack, there was a little indentation, that was dark. I never paid attention to it, but then Susan noticed it was dark because there was some dark hair in the middle. I researched it a bit, and read that although sacral dimples are somewhat common, and harmless, they sometimes can be indicative of neural tube defects like spina bifida occulta, and more so if they have hair. There are even some dimples that are actual holes all the way to their spinal column. Frankie's is not an open hole, and it's not a LOT of hair, but I was still perturbed that the drs didn't say anything about it in the hospital when the on-call pediatrician checked him over. I read that when there is hair, dr's should perform an ultrasound just to be sure the spinal column is complete. Unfortunately, the pediatrician we initially saw, doesn't accept patients that don't fully vaccinate, so I only recently found a new pediatrician and he has his first appt tomorrow morning. I did however express my concern over the phone with the former dr that won't accept him, and she said "if he's moving his legs and arms equally he's fine". Then I remembered when we went to her office for his first checkup, she had a big banner on her window advertising "$49 ear piercings"...I guess that should tip me off to how serious a doctor she is.

    I know that she probably won't be able to know much about his vision/eye contact at this point, but I hope we can get some closure on this sacral dimple thing. I hope I am just jumping the gun, and Frankie begins to focus and smile within his first month, like the books say. I just have video of Lucas staring right at me at 1 week of age, and soonafter, smiling and focusing on a light up toy we bought him. John Susan and I have been trying to get him excited and interested in our faces when we hold him, without success, so I can't shake this. I have faith that if anything is wrong, things will all work out, I just want him to be healthy and happy and know he is loved. :)

On a lighter note, here is Lucas' drawing he made tonight. Word for word:
"this is me, and this is daddy, and this is daddy's phone" haha. Guess he knows all 3 of them are inseparable :)

End of Tball Party

Yesterday was the warmest day in a while. Probably in the 80's. We walked to the park in our community, where they had the end of season party for all the 380 sports groups. It was all free, and Frankie slept through it all, so it was enjoyable. :)

   First we had some Palio's Pizza, cotton candy and McAlister's lemonade, then we played some games, then they got balloon animals and Olivia got her face painted.

  We also got our team pictures---I am so happy Lucas smiled and looked at the camera, but man I didn't realize what a pale little boy I have--my mom always says she thinks Lucas resembles Robert Pattinson in Twilight haha..maybe his pale skin adds to that.

Here is his personalized trophy :) He's excited to try soccer next!