Step 3

We had an amazing weekend with Neil's family last weekend. For Christmas we were given a trip to Big Sky for a weekend of snowmobiling and skiing. Everyone was there except for Neil's sister who had to stay to work at her store over the weekend. It was sad that she couldn't be with us, hopefully next time.
Kynlie did a lot of puking over the weekend. Thursday, she puked 3 or 4 times in the vehicle on the way to Big Sky and when she was going to bed. Friday night she puked quite a bit when she was going to bed. I decided that I was going to call  Dr. Ocejo to see if we could get her some Zantac for her. He did give her a prescription for ranitidine- the generic Zantac. She is supposed to get 1 ml, 3 times a day. I say supposed to because I am not sure if she has ever got a full dose. She hates the taste of it and can even taste it when I mix it in with her food. I tried mixing it with some sugar yesterday and she didn't like that either. I am going to call the pharmacy and see if they can add some flavoring to it to make it taste better. He also suggested we try the Enfamil AR formula and see if it makes a difference. I haven't given her any of the formula yet because I had some Similac that was already open and wanted to finish that first. So far she has been doing pretty good, only puking once since we have been in Bozeman and that's because she was making herself cough.

Kynlie and I stayed in Bozeman with my sister and brother-in-law and will be coming home with her on Friday. We have been busy, going to Gina's PT, Matthew's gymnastics and doing some shopping. Kynlie is doing a lot better here this time  than she did last time we stayed. Before she wouldn't let me put her down at all without screaming and this time she will actually play with the boys and is having fun.

I don't have any pics from the weekend because we took all of them with Neil's camera and I forgot to transfer them to the computer before they dropped us off.

We want to say thanks to Lee and Linda for the wonderful Christmas gift, it was such a blast and it was nice to have most of the family together for a weekend.

It's a go

Kynlie has been doing fairly well on the reduced spit formula. One bonus of it is that she actually drinks it, way more than she ever drank whole milk, juice and water, combined! She must  know formula isn't cheap! She hasn't been randomly puking since we started her on the formula, she has, however been puking a lot from textures. She ate a pea last night and puked, drank water from a straw and puked. I have been working on pressing on her tongue with the spoon when she is eating to try and get her over the high gag reflex she has but it hasn't seemed to worked at all. PT suggested running an electric toothbrush over her tongue to try and numb the spot she gags on so we may have to try that next.

I am going to keep her on the formula, we still add 4 tsp rice cereal to her Pediasure she drinks at night and if she is drinking, we try to feed her absorbic foods like her snacks or crackers to try and absorb some of the liquids.

We have had a fun week with a nice change of scenery. We have been helping my sister-in-law down at her store, just doing some busy work that she needed help with. It was fun being down there, getting to hang out with Connie and check out some of her new goods that are coming in. Kynlie did well down there too, she took some good naps and liked wearing her pearls and bracelets!

Kynlie's nap tent. I love the little shoes beside the bed!

Kynlie the little business woman with her cell phone.
She wore her pearl necklace around all day!

She is really repeating a lot of words lately too. She has had 3 bracelets that Connie was letting her wear and I would say "one, two three" when I would put them on her arms and she would repeat it after me. When I am putting her socks on in the morning I say "one sock, two socks" and she repeats that. She says thank you, pretty, good girl. She still won't say mama though, little stinker!

Step 2

We started putting the rice cereal in Kynlie's drinks on Friday morning. She didn't puke once on Friday, Saturday morning she did good until I put her in her car seat to leave my parents' house and she puked all over the pickup. She did fine again until we were at Kourtney and Nathan's beautiful wedding reception and she was eating something and it made her puke a little. Twice, later in the night my mom was holding her and she puked, a lot both times. I decided that we would try the formula that Dr. Ocejo suggested and see if it would make a difference.

I had done a lot of research on Friday after I talked to Dr. Ocejo about which formula was better for reflux and what was the best price. Everything I read said that Similac does not contain palm olein oil. Enfamil does and it can cause constipation, which we are already battling with her. I also remember hearing either Dr Ocejo or the nurses telling some moms that left the NICU that were formula feeding, that their babies may not like the texture of the powdered formula after they had been fed the premixed, ready to feed formula in the NICU. They said the powder is more grainy textured. I thought that the premixed would probably be better for Kynlie as she never did have to drink formula and might not like the texture of the powdered formula.  I looked at Reynolds when I was getting some groceries on Friday and they happened to have the Similac reduced spit, ready to feed so I ran down there and got some today. Kynlie loved it, she drank about 8 oz right away. We will see if it makes a difference in her puking- I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

We had a great time at the reception last night. It was so beautiful and they had an amazing turnout. Kynlie lasted until about 11. She was great, besides her puking incidents, but she danced all night and loved all the music. Neil brought her home when she fell asleep and I stayed there for a while longer to visit.

Today we are just hanging out, catching up on sleep, watching movies and doing laundry.

Reflux

Dr. Ocejo called me back this morning about the constant puking that Kynlie has been doing lately. He said it sounds to him like she has reflux. He suggested a few things we can try before we put her on Zantac, he always likes to try different remedies to keep the babies off medicines if he can.

He suggested we put 2 tsp rice cereal in every 4 oz of milk she drinks to thicken it. He also said we could switch to 2% milk as it takes less time to digest. He said if she is drinking fluids, she needs to be eating solids with it so her stomach isn't full of just fluids.

He said if that didn't work that we could put her on Similac Sensitive RS formula or Enfamil AR for spit up. He said those formulas are made for babies with reflux and that they might help also.

We are going to try the rice and solids with her fluids first as it will be a lot cheaper than putting her on formula.  If that isn't working after a few days we'll try the formula, if the formula doesn't do anything, we'll put her on Zantac.

Besides wrecking all her clothes from all the puke, I am worried about Kynlie's throat and teeth developing issues from all the acid.

Yesterday, I was feeling Kynlie's teeth that are trying to come in and her left top molar is now trying to poke through- that's 4 teeth at one time for the poor kid! Dr. Ocejo did say that teething does not cause puking so that's not what the problem is.

We went over and helped Kourtney decorate the reception hall for her dinner/dance on Saturday. It looks beautiful and I am so excited for the party!

Last night I finally made it to league basketball, it was a lot of fun and I am in better shape than I thought I would be in. After basketball we went out for a drink for St. Patrick's Day and ended up staying for more than one.

Today is my last day taking care of Pyper full time. I'm a little sad about it but I am looking forward to all the free time I'll have when Kynlie is napping, which she's been doing a lot of lately, sleeping and puking.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 Happy St. Patrick's Day from our house to yours.
I definitely have some Irish luck getting to spend St. Patrick's Day with these two cuties!

Kynlie has been her rotten self lately. Three teeth trying to come in has made for a very crabby girl! She has been puking a lot lately too, I am not sure if it's the teeth, snot nose or if there is something else going on. I have a call into Dr. Ocejo to see if it's something we need to get her checked out for  or if he is not concerned. She is puking at least 3-4 times a day this week.

I forgot in my last update post that Kynlie has been done nursing since we got back from Hawaii. She did great with the transition and has actually been drinking a lot more fluids from her sippie cups since we have been done.

Besides being  done nursing, I was VERY excited to hear that a family that had adopted a baby was going to be using donor milk to feed her. I thought it would be a long shot, but sent the mommy a message telling her about my surplus of milk that Kynlie wouldn't drink and offered to ship it to her if her baby could/would use it. She accepted my offer and on Monday, I shipped 107 lbs of frozen breastmilk to them. I was so happy that someone was going to use the milk that I had worked so hard for, I had some attachment to it and it was killing me thinking about throwing away all that milk when someone, somewhere could benefit from it. Needless to say, our deep freezer is now EMPTY!

Look at how far she has came from last year

Matt got the jumperoo out last night for Pyper to try out while we were eating supper and Kynlie decided she liked it again. She had a blast jumping and dancing in it and being goofy.



Dancing in her Jumperoo

Looks like these two are planning something mischievous!



Going green

It feels like we have been going nonstop since we got back from Hawaii! I can't believe it's almost been two weeks.

Last Saturday, we had a baby shower for my cousin Shantel who had a healthy baby boy on Feb 12. There was a great turnout at the shower and Tryppton got very spoiled.

4 generations of Rustads- Lincoln, Gina, Matthew, mom, grandma, me and Kynlie
just to the right of me in the picture is Kirsten's leaf on the tree at the Luthern church

When we were done with the shower, we headed to Thee Garage for an 80th birthday party for my great uncle. My whole family was here for the shower and party so it was great getting to spend time with them all.

Jordan, Ashley, Lincoln, Gina, Ken, Matthew, mom, dad, me, Neil and Kynlie

Kynlie and Pyper are ready for St. Patrick's Day

This is going to be my last week watching Pyper. I  am going to miss her, but I am also looking forward to being able to get some of my projects done while Kynlie is sleeping.

I got some very sad news last week, my uncle's brother, who lives in Bismarck, had a set of quadruplet boys that are 3 months older than Kynlie. The boys were born in Minneapolis at 26 weeks, and Kevin and Marquel were starting to bring them home when Kynlie was still in the NICU. I had followed their caringbridge site from the time they were born and had read that they were wanting volunteers to help care for the three boys they had home- Dylan was the sickest of the boys and was in the hospital past his first birthday with a traech and g-tube. I decided I might as well call them as I had nothing I really had to do besides be at the hospital. I helped with the boys up until the time I started nursing Kynlie, then I had to be at the hospital too much to help them anymore. Marquel still updated their caringbridge site now and then and last Tuesday, Feb 1, she put a brief note saying that Dylan needed prayers. She updated again on Tuesday night about what had happened, that Dylan couldn't catch his breath and had to recieve chest compressions for over 20 minutes and was in the hospital, heavily sedated but stable.  Wednesday she updated again that they were waiting for to bring him off the sedation meds to check for brain activity as they were unsure of how long he had gone without oxygen. Thursday night, I got a call from my uncle saying that there was no brain activity and they were going to take him off life support on Friday. I am still heartbroke for this family, they have gone through so much, little Dylan fought so hard for so long, then was gone in an instant.

I was going to go to Bismarck to go to the funeral and woke up on Thursday feeling like I was coming down with the flu again, it broke my heart that I wasn't able to go for Kevin and Marquel, but thought that I would be better off at home than getting everyone else sick. Please pray for the Berger family as they try to get through this. You can check out their caringbridge site at
www.caringbridge.org/visit/bergerboys

Kynlie has 3 new teeth coming in- for a total of 13. Her two top eye teeth and her top right molar are all trying to poke through at the same time, poor girl. She did take two steps, by her self, between my dad and I last week but she is still pretty wobbly on her own.  She does take off and walk whenever you put her on the ground so you better be holding on to her. She is starting to say some words now- at least I say she is! She says "uh-oh, aha, all done, dada" she shakes her head no, which also means  cold. She wipes her mouth off, putts chapstick on, when you ask her if she wants to take a bath or put her pajamas on, she pulls at her shirt to take it off. She has been doing pretty good with her eye patches too, as long as you can keep her occupied for the first 5 minutes she'll forget about it. If any music comes on anything, she's dancing like crazy and she's a pretty good singer too!

We had a playdate last Wednesday with a little girl across the street that is close to Kynlie's age. Kynlie was her normal drama queen, if Emmalyn touched her she would let out her worst fake cry. Next time, I think we'll try it at our house and see if she's any better. I can tell she gets uncomfortable in new places, around new or a lot of people so we'll see if she'll play good with her at her own house.

She has been having a great weekend, her cousins are staying the weekend with us so she has had an endless amount of people to play with. The girls love her so much, it's great that they are getting to spend some quality time together. We tried pulling her around in the sled yesterday but she wasn't a fan of that, I felt bad though, when we got her in the house, her little hands and feet were freezing!

Hawaii

We had such an amazing trip to Hawaii. The weather was amazing, the island was amazing, the resort was great, the company was the best we could've asked for, needless to say, we did not want to come home to the below zero temperatures.

Kynlie was a great little traveler, none of the airplane rides bothered her ears at all, she was good about taking naps wherever we were and when she didn't get one, she was still pretty well behaved.

Kynlie thought the convertible was cool- unless we were driving with the top down!

Tuesday was the first day we had at Turtle Bay. We took a little walk around the resort and out on the reef. Met up with the Hanleys and Stortzs and had a few drinks by the oceanside bar, then hung out at the beach. We got "free" (I'm sure they added some charge to the room for it) snorkel rentals with our room so Neil did a little snorkeling and Kynlie and I walked around sand and in the water. Kynlie loved the water, she would just walk right in until she couldn't walk anymore, then her little feet were kicking like a little frog.

Walking on the reef by the hotel.

Walking down to the beach.

Taking a sink bath to wash off all the sand!

After we lounged around the beach, we headed to a nearby town called Hale'iwa to go in a shark cage. Neil, Kourtney, Rita, Nathan's brother Kyle and I went in the shark cage and it was amazing. There were 4-5 blue sharks swimming all around us most of the time. The sharks ranged from 6-8 feet. Nathan's mom volunteered to keep Kynlie on shore so we didn't argue. The shark cage was a great experience, it was very intimidating at first but the sharks just circled around us.

Blue shark that swam around us while we were in the shark cage

Wednesday morning, Neil, Kynlie and I went on a walk along the beach by the resort. We found a World War 2 bunker right beside the ocean. A lot of the land we walked along was where the series Lost was filmed. It was such beautiful scenery.

Neil, Kynlie and I  with Turtle Bay Resort behind us

 The wedding was Wednesday afternoon and it was the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen. I told Neil that if I ever get married again, I'm going to Turtle Bay! He didn't think it was very funny!

Neil, Kynlie and I after the beautiful wedding.

Kynlie smelling the flowers after the wedidng.

 Kourtney and Nathan took pictures after the wedding, then we went and had a couple drinks and had supper at an oceanside restaurant. The day was perfect. The bride looked amazing, the groom was pretty hansome in his "mokey suit." I can't wait for the reception in a couple weeks!

Kynlie and I at Pearl Harbor

 Thursday we got up early and drove down to Honolulu to go to the Pearl Harbor Memorial. It was a great day, Kynlie was a good little tourist and the memorial was an amazing site!

American flag flying over the USS Arizona Memorial.

Neil, Kynlie and I, ready to go aboard the USS Missouri

Neil playing poker in the officer's lounge.

Kynlie riding the nose of a jet at the Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor.

 Friday we hung out at the resort again. Neil was lucky enough to be able to take free scuba diving classes. He is now a certified scuba diver. Kynlie and I hung out by the pool while he was doing his lesson, she took a nap on me, then we went to the beach again.

Headed to the beach.

Two hats are better than one, right?

Neil got certified to scuba dive

How we roll at the pool!

Taking sand off the beach, putting it on the chair.
Kynlie's favorite thing to do at the beach.

My sand eating beach bum

 Saturday we walked up to Waiamia Falls, which was very pretty. It's a 3/4 mile walk through botanical gardens, along a stream up to a waterfall. The fall is about 30 feet and there is a lake at the bottom that you can swim in. We didn't swim in the lake, but it was a beautiful walk. After we were done there, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and wandered around there, then went to the Luau there. It was a great show and it was very interesting learning about the Polynesian cultures.

One of the beatiful sunsets we watched from our balcony.

Another sunset from our balcony

Waiamea Falls

 Sunday, Neil put his scuba certification to use. He had to be in Hale'iwa at 9:30 to get on the shuttle to go into Waikiki to go diving. Kynlie and I dropped him off then went down to the local farmer's market. They had a lot of local made products and some great food. We had to be at the harbor to go on a whale watching tour at noon.

Whale Tail

 When we got on the boat to go whale watching, Kynlie started getting crabby. I knew she was just tired, but was gettng some dirty looks by people that were wanting to relax on the boat. I finally got Kynlie to sleep and the captain let me put her under the cab of the catamaran and she slept there for half of our trip. We saw a lot of whales, very close up. It was a great trip, until Kynlie woke up. We went out on the side of the boat so we could see the whales and Kynlie was mad at me because she wanted to dive in the water!

How Kynlie took in the whale watching excursion, sleeping under the cabin of the catamaran.
When she wasn't sleeping, she was mad at me that she couldn't go in the water.

Helping mommy pack to go home.

 We didn't want to pack up to come home, it was such a relaxing trip in 80 degree weather, but all good things must come to an end. We checked out of Turtle Bay on Monday at 11 and headed to Honolulu to go to the zoo. We didn't have to be to the airport until 8 pm so we had the whole day to kill in Honolulu. Kynlie liked all the animals at the zoo, but her favorite part was the playground.

Kynlie and daddy with some hippos at the Honolulu Zoo

Kynlie loved the playground at the Zoo

We had such an amazing trip. I told Neil that I am ready to go back again, soon!

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Stortz!! You are an amazing couple and we wish you many years of happiness.
Thanks for the great excuse to go to paradise!