Thursday, May 27, 2010

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Getting Better all the Time

We were on the road again this weekend. Kynlie had doctor appointments Monday and Tuesday in Bismarck. Monday she saw Dr. Ocejo again. He is very impressed with her progress. She weighed 10 lb 9 oz, which is in the 25%, she is 22 3/4 " long, which is in the 50%. She got 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine. He said we can start her on rice cereal a couple times a day until she gets to where she is really eating it, then add in some veggies, then some fruits. I'm excited to get to start feeding her real food! We have to go back to see him again in July, but just for a check up, no shots. It is so great to go back and see him, he spent the first 4 months of Kynlie's life with her.
After her appointment with Dr. Ocejo, Kynlie had occupational, physical and speech therapy. They are very pleased with how Kynlie is doing, they said that she is acutally ahead of her milestones for her adjusted age of 4 months. She is right on the verge of rolling from her stomach to her back, if her arm would get out of the way she'd be doing it. She can roll from her back to her stomach though. The only thing I was concerned about with her was that when she is on her tummy or standing sometimes, she puts her arms behind her. They said that is just a stage that babies go through and just keep putting her arms in front of her and she'll get it.
We tried eating at the Olive Garden after all her appointments but she just was not happy. She wasn't screaming mad, she'd just sadly whimper. We ate our salads and got the rest to go because everyone was giving us looks.
This morning, Kynlie had an eye appointment with Dr. L. He said that her eyes look perfect, even her left eye where the blood was. He doesn't want to see her for 2 months, which is nice, we'll get a break from Bismarck. We had been concerned about Kynlie's right eye because we had noticed that it wasn't dilating like her left eye was. Sometimes the pupil would be the same size, others it was tiny. Dr. L looked at it and said that it can be caused from a few different things such as the surgery or injection or just from being dilated for a month. He said that if we notice that the left pupil is very dilated and the right on is not at all that we need to call, but otherwise, he is very impressed with how she was doing.
We stopped up and saw Kynlie's nurses that were working, which is always fun. They said that they can't believe how much she has changed since she left in Jan. She has doubled her weight since she left the NICU, which is crazy because she is still so little! These pictures were taken by one of the nurses when we were visiting her.




Monday, May 17, 2010

March for Babies

After our 2 day trip to Denver, Kynlie and I had one day home, then on Friday, went to Dickinson with my parents and brother for a luncheon. Jordan got nominated for Outstanding Graduate at Dickinson State University. He wasn't one of the winners, but it was quite an honor for him to be nominated. After the luncheon, Neil came and picked Kynlie and I up and we went to Bismarck to do the March for Babies on Saturday.

We walked with MedCenter One's team, which consisted of a lot of Kynlie's nurses, her doctor, physical and occupational therapists and some fellow NICU graduates. The picture above is with Joe. He was born a week after Kynlie, one of a set of triplets, they were neighbors in the NICU.
Joe's mom Jen and I spent a lot of time together the 4 months Kynlie and Joe were in the NICU together. She is an amazing person who I can relate to very well as she lost one of her babies too. I was blessed to create some amazing relationships with some people while we were in Bismarck, relationships that, even though we may not talk or see eachother often, will always be very dear to my heart. I am so glad that we decided to go to Bismarck to do the walk, even though it seemed silly to drive to Bismarck for an hour walk when Dickinsons was the same day. Thank you to everyone that donated to our cause, we exceeded our goal by $45!

After the walk was over, we drove back to Dickinson and went to a barbecue for Jordan and 2 of his old roomates from college for graduation. After the barbecue, we came home and went out for supper for a celebration for a dear friend that got a new job.

Sunday we finally got our yard mowed, which looked more like a hay field than a yard! It was a beautiful weekend and was so nice that Kynlie could finally be outside because the wind wasn't blowing. We had another barbecue at a friend's house last night.

I'm so excited because we have a full week with nothing we have to do! No where to go, no appointments, nothing. Just Kynlie and I hanging out, enjoying the beautiful weather.

Mothers Day

This one is a little late, but last week was too crazy to get any pictures uploaded and resized.

We had an amazing Mother's Day. Neil and Kynlie cooked me breakfast in bed, then we just lunged around the house for a while. Neil's brother and sister-in-law hosted a supper at their house so we went out there for a while in the evening.



Mother's Day was also Kynlie's 7 month birthday. I can't believe she is closer to a year old than she is to a newborn. She is wearing 0-3 month clothes and as of this week, is in size 1 diapers. She has turned into quite the chatty little girl, talking to anyone or anything that will listen to her. She is going to be rolling over any day now so I can't just set her anywhere anymore.


The little girl NEVER stops moving. When she's nursing, her arms are flailing and her feet are kicking up a storm. Most nights, she will sleep all night, from 8pm -6 am. She loves to be in her playmat or swing if she's awake during the day, but if you lay her down during the day when she's sleeping, it makes her very mad.



I have started setting her in her high chair if I am doing things in the kitchen to get her used to setting in it for when she gets to start eating solids, which I think will be after her appointment next Monday. She does ok for a while, but I don't think that she is very comfortable in it because the straps have to be as tight as they will go because she is so small yet so the buckles are right up in her face.



We are so blessed to have such a perfect little girl. She brings so much joy into our house.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

What a week

We have had a crazy week around here. Neil found a great deal on a snowmobile in Denver so he called on Monday and the guy said that he was going to sell it to the first person that showed up with money. So, Monday night at 6, we headed down to Denver. We made it to Cheyenne Monday night, woke up Tuesday and went to Vail, CO, then back to Cheyenne. We wanted to make it to Casper, but got stuck in rush hour traffic in Denver and it was pouring rain, at about Ft. Collins, it started snowing and the roads were getting pretty bad. Kynlie was screaming because she couldn't sleep anymore and just wanted out of her car seat- I don't blame her!
Wednesday morning, we woke up to 6" of snow in Cheyenne. When we walked out to the pickup, Neil noticed that his wiper had broke, I noticed that some of the chrome on his grille was broke and asked him what happened. We looked a little closer and someone had backed into his pickup in the hotel parking lot. It broke his grille, pushed his headlight back, creased the hood and dented it farther back on the hood. We went back to the hotel lobby to call the cops and one of the ladies working heard Neil on the phone and said that she had the person's info who was responsible for hitting his pickup, they had got off the night shift and pulled into the parking lot and there were no spots to park so they tried turning around and backed into the pickup. It was so nice that the guy left his info because we were sure we were stuck with it.


Neil fixed his windshield wiper and we were off. We got out on the interstate, Neil had his wipers going full blast and the driver's wiper flew off. Luckily we were still in Cheyenne so he pulled off and got a new wiper at a truck stop.
We got back on the road and went up through Sheridan and met with our investment broker to decide what to do with my 401K from when I worked at WBI. We got on the road again and finally made it home at 8 last night. It was a very quick trip, not one I would recommend with a baby!

50 hours
+ 1500 miles
+ 1 beat up pickup
+1 lost wiper blade
+ 2 nights in a hotel
1 exhausted family

Next time, I will discuss the trip ajenda a little more thorough before we load up and go!

We have today to stay home and get rested, then tomorrow we are off to Dickinson for a banquet for my brother for being nominated for outstanding senior. Neil will come after work and we will go to Bismarck to do the March for Babies on Saturday morning, then back to Dickinson for the barbecue for Jordan's graduation.
Congrats to Jordan on his graduation, we are very proud of you.