Day 4

Kynlie's eyes are getting better and better every day! Today, they look more orange than red! She isn't acting like she's had anything done, she's just back to her silly self!

We went to speech in Dickinson yesterday and her pathologist said she is doing great! She said her silly Chinese sounding sentenced are a huge step in progress. She said she knows how to talk in sentences, it's just getting her to use the right words. She is saying tons of new words daily, it's like it just clicked and she is getting it figured out.

We had a playdate today and her and her buddy Kayla had a blast playing together. Kayla's mom Alisha was kind enough to let Kynlie go over to their house for an hour to play after our playdate so I could go to a funeral for a woman I have known all my life. Lillian was a beautiful woman, always dressed so classy, I will greatly miss seeing her in her flashy shoes and gorgeous hats.

2nd day and 3 months

Our sweet baby is already 3 months old today, I can't believe it! She has been pretty much sleeping through the night, if she is swaddled up tight. She's nursing every 2-3 hours during the day, pooping out of size 2 diapers daily (Kynlie wore size 2 last fall!!) She is filling out her 3-6 month wardrobe and wearing size 2 shoes. She LOVES her big sister and smiles at her a lot, but she is not too fond of the pacifier being shoved in her mouth constantly, Kynlie bouncing with her hand on the pacifier in Locklyn's mouth because Kynlie is so proud that she got it in, then big sis taking it out so she can try again. It may be a form of child abuse that I even leave Locklyn lay anywhere because sleeping or awake, happy or sad, Kynlie thinks that Locklyn needs a paci- I am thinking of cutting Locklyn off completely from them so she will no longer have to endure the abuse!! She likes to suck on her lip anyways, which also makes for drool soaked shirts!
I am sure she would love to be a good napper but it is hard to sleep when someone is constantly bumping/burping you or shoving things in your mouth.

Silly sleepy girl

 She is the sweetest, cuddliest baby. She travels great, thank God, as we are on the road a lot for Kynlie's speech appointments and other appointments. She smiles and talks a lot and she's got the sweetest smile ever. She is just figuring out she has hands so its pretty funny to watch her stare at them. She likes her play mat and her toy bar on the car seat. She still has crazy reddish hair that stands straight up on top of her head.

The perfect addition to our family!

 Kynlie's eyes are looking better today. They are still bloodshot but they are not solid red on the inside corners. Besides the red eyes, you couldn't tell by how she acted today that she'd had anything done. It was interesting trying to get her to let me put her eye drops in this morning though, I finally got her to let me do it when I told her that I'd put them in her eyes, then she could put them in mine. I got them in hers then laid on the floor and took my glasses off for her to pretend they were going in my eyes, she thought it was pretty funny. Tonight she got to put them in mine, Locklyn, Neil and Sterlings, she was giggling like she had just won the lottery!

We are so happy that Kynlie can still "smile pretty"

 She rubs her eyes a little which they said is okay but it makes me nervous so I try to sidetrack her when she starts doing it.

You smile pretty daddy!

 We are going to go to speech tomorrow, she is acting like she is feeling great and we are already going to miss 2 weeks in April so I think it's important she goes. She is doing so great with her speech, repeating more words daily and saying them accurately.

I know all my pictures look like she's got a dirty face, but the only time I can get her to sit still is at the table when she is eating so she does have a dirty face, I try to keep my kids cleaned up, I promise!!

Close up of her eyes, it is hard to see how straight they are with all the blood, but they look lots better.

New Eyes

Yesterday we headed to Rapid City for Kynlie's eye surgery. She had a pre-op appointment late afternoon to re-measure her eyes and I had to get a shade checked for a crown I need made for my tooth. We ran to Target, Cabelas, ate supper then went to the hotel for Kynlie to have a pre-op treat of swimming. That girl LOVES the water, even though it was freezing.

We had to be at the clinic for surgery at 8 am this morning to straighten her eyes. They got us checked in, we got Kynlie dressed in her gown and the anesthesiologist gave her some drug that made her really loopy! She would just zone out with her mouth wide open like she had seen a ghost or something. It helped her relax so when they came and got her to go to the OR, the nurse picked her up and she laid her head on her shoulder and cuddled with her, it was pretty sweet!

Kynlie will use anything as a phone!

Kynlie has gotten big on talking on the phone, she uses anything for a phone, her hand, TV remotes, stickers (which have hands free when you put the sticky side on your face), the mask for her anesthesia, books or her cheese roll up she ate for lunch. She puts it to her ear, says "Hi" then starts talking jibberish, she .uses her shoulder to hold the phone to her face and switches ears about every other word. It is pretty comical

Sleepy smiles

Neil, Locklyn and I hung out in the waiting room for about an hour before the doctor came out and told us that surgery had went perfectly. Kynlie slept for about another hour and they came and got us before she was too awake. The care at Black Hills Regional Eye Institute was amazing. They were so great to all of us, the nurses all chatted when they walked by us in the waiting room, the anesthesiologist answered more questions than we could have thought to ask, Kynlie had the same nurse in with her from pre-op until she walked us to the Yukon after Kynlie was discharged so it was someone she was a little comfortable with. Everyone we talked to bragged Dr. N up and said they couldn't work for anyone else because he strives for excellency, and does everything possible to stay as up to date and state of the art as he can. It was an amazing experience to feel so taken care of, I had a lot of confidence that Kynlie was in great hands.

Trying on her new Nemo lifejacket

Kynlie was pretty crabby when she woke up. She didn't like the pulse-ox on her toe, she didn't like the IV in her hand or the leads on her chest and belly for her heartrate. She drank a sip of juice, ate a cracker and cried and cried, and cried. We were there for about 4 hours total when they sent us home. Kynlie didn't want to put her hospital gown on before surgery and didn't want to take it off after. I put her in her carseat without a shirt on because she was so histerical about everything, she didn't want her shirt back on. We grabbed a bite to eat and hit the road. It was a long, loud trip, Kynlie never did fall asleep like we were sure she would and she cried a lot of the way home.

Her eyes don't look good, it's hard to tell if they are straight or not

When we finally got home, she was pretty much back to her goofy self, but quite a bit more clumsy. The nurse said that she is probably going to have some double vision until her brain reprograms for the new allignment of her eyes. She said the bigger kids always tell them that they see double. When Kynlie went to grab the crackers from the nurse in recovery, her hand reached about 3" from where the nurse was holding the cracker. She walks along and trips over her feet, ran into the fridge and made me nervous going up and down the stairs.

Like father like daughter- zoned out at the TV

Her eyes are so bloodshot that it is hard to tell if they are straight or not but I am confident that they are where they need to be. We have to try and keep her from rubbing her eyes too much and put drops in 3 times a day for 7 days. It should be interesting when I have to get them in her eyes by myself.

Dirty face and yucky looking eyes

March for Babies

I am a little behind on my blogging but it doesn't seem like we have been home enough to get on the computer!

Last weekend, Kynlie got to go with Grandpa Lee and her cousins to Billings to Disney on Ice. Lee said she enjoyed the popcorn more than the show but she danced a lot to the music. He even came home with Easter dresses for the girls, he's such a great grandpa!

Helping daddy

Neil, Locklyn and I spent the weekend outside, it was so gorgeous out! We got vehicles washed, the garage floor washed off and got the yard cleaned up. Kynlie got home Sunday night and she was EXHAUSTED!!

Kynlie had to show Locklyn how her toy works

This weekend, we went to Bismarck for the March for Babies walk on Saturday morning. We walked with Med Center One's NICU team so we were walking with a lot of Kynlie's nurses, Dr Ocejo and her PT and OT people from when she was going there. They raised over $50,000 for March of Dimes so it was a very successful walk! Thank you to everyone who donated to us, we were $25 away from our goal of $1000!

Taking big girl baths now

We came home Saturday night and Neil and Kynlie went out to the garage to work on his car and Locklyn and I went out and watched. This morning, Neil and Kynlie went golfing with Neil's cousins and our friend. Neil said Kynlie had a blast out there.

Getting her hand painted

Snuggling with daddy

We have started getting Kynlie her own big girl drinks and ice creams and she thinks it is the best thing ever. She got a Cherry Limeade at Taco Bell in Dickinson on Friday and she sat in the back seat with the biggest, cutest smile on her face. I just have to accept the fact that my vehicle gets filthy with a kid eating in it!

Mmmm, Coldstone!

I had to get some pictures of the girls in their matching "Kiss Me I'm Irish" shirts. They looked pretty cute together yesterday.

My two Irish cuties

Sweet sisters

Long weekend

We had a very fun and very long weekend last weekend. My mom, the girls and I took off for Billings on Friday morning, did a little shopping and met my sister, brother-in-law and the boys in Billings. Later that afternoon, my brother and sister-in-law and Neil and my dad met us and the weekend began!

Saturday morning we went to Red Lodge to go skiing for the day. Mom and dad were only planning on taking care of Locklyn because we were going to have Kynlie and Lincoln ski,but they don't make boots small enough for Kynlie's feet so we decided that neither of them would ski, mom and dad had all 3 of them, couped up in the lodge all day, they said they were good, but it had to be hard keeping the two bigger kids occupied!

After we were done skiing, we went back to Billings, got takeout for supper and went swimming at the hotel. There were water slides, a wave pool and a little kiddie swim/slide area. The only bad thing was that it was SOOO cold that Kynlie and Lincoln didn't last long, Kynlie's lips and hands were blue she was so cold!

We played a game and everyone was so tired from all the excitement that we didn't stay up too late. We made a Costco run and ate lunch on Sunday and everyone took off for home, except for us!

We had made an appointment for Kynlie in Rapid City on Monday morning for a consult visit for her eye surgery to straighten her eyes. Her appointment went good, except it was a little weird because we were there because we were referred there for the surgery and they just checked her eye alignment, vision and checked if she uses both eyes equally. He told us everything we already knew about her eyes, then asked if we were interested in surgery. I was under the assumption that's what he was checking her eyes for, not just a second opinion! We got surgery scheduled for March 27, but we will have to be there earlier the day before for a pre-op visit to make sure nothing has changed.

The girls were great all weekend, Kynlie did wake up at 1am on Friday night and we couldn't get her to go back to sleep but she took a good nap on the table at the Ski Lodge so she wasn't  a monster on Saturday! It is so fun to see her playing with her cousins too, she absolutely loves those boys! Lincoln loves babies too, he helped mom hold Locklyn, burp her, he kisses her constantly, it is so cute watching him love on Locklyn!