KerryAndGabe.com

Sunday, Monday…what’s the difference, really?

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about making some muffins for breakfast with Maddie. Obviously, I started writing this before breakfast on Sunday. We did indeed make muffins.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to be able to attend That Board Gaming Thing after missing it the last couple of years. I suppose we need to decide this week.

Something happening around the house: Ants! It feels like they may finally be under control. I hate dealing with ants!!!!

Something I’m reading: I didn’t read anything this week, but I do plan to start on Mockingjay very soon! I did start on this last night, but I only read about a chapter or so before passing out from exhaustion.

Something I’m watching: We watched some more Supernatural. I’m not sure we watched anything else. Shows are going to start pretty soon, and I don’t know how we’re going to keep up with them this year.

Something I’m playing: I’m mostly playing Carcassonne on the iPhone. Fun!

Something Maddie is doing (30 months old): This weekend, she didn’t nap on Saturday or Sunday. Saturday was mostly our fault, but Sunday we stuck to the schedule and still had no nap. She continues to answer every question with, “Um, I don’t know…” regardless of whether she knows or not. I know she gets that from both of her parents. She had a great time with her Kentucky grandparents and Aunt Heidi. She and Grandpa are “buddies” and talk in British accents about potstickers and a “spot of tea.” This amused us all. I also love how she declares that she’s “playing a game” when tossing a ball or doing some other repetitive action. She’s getting the concept. It won’t be long before I can teach her some “real” games!!!

Something Cullen is doing (32 weeks old): Another week went by, and I didn’t finish up the photos for his letter. At this rate, I’ll have to post the 7 month and 8 month letters at the same time. Cullen had pears for the first time, and I made him a new batch of carrots that weren’t singed. Tonight, he tried organic cereal “puffs” for the first time. It turns out that he has that pincer grasp down pat. Who knew? He picked one right up and put it straight into his mouth. He’s not quite sure what to think of them so far. I don’t blame him. The ones we got aren’t as tasty as the Gerber kind, but I like the smaller ingredients list and the organic content.

Something I am struggling with: I’ve been quite exhausted this weekend (hence posting a day late).

Something I learned: I learned that Shutterfly has some new layouts in their photobooks since the last book I created.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m definitely NOT looking forward to my dental appointment this week.

Something captured: Cullen and Maddie playing a duet.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

I wrote this on Maddie’s half birthday (August 20th), but I couldn’t get my photos organized until now. It’s been a crazy week. I finally sorted through the photos, and it’s time for another letter to Maddie! (more…)

Since I’m not going to get either Maddie’s letter or Cullen’s letter finished tonight, I thought you might enjoy a cute video of Cullen-Man playing the piano. Click through to the original post to see the embedded video.

Something that makes me happy: Theoretically, being caught up with photos would make me happy.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about ways to reduce our electric bill. Wow, I know the last month was a hot one, but I still didn’t expect to see our bill that high. Yikes!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping for cooler temperatures soon. I’m a big fan of the fall.

Something happening around the house: Our broken toilet in the master bathroom is finally fixed! Yay!

Something I’m reading: Nothing, really. I’m not going to finish this month’s book club book before Wednesday’s book club. I’m ok with this. This will be the first time that I’ve attended book club without having read the book.

Something I’m watching: More from Supernatural. We’re still on Season 1.

Something I’m playing: More Carcassonne. Not much Words with Friends.

Something tasty: Twice this week, I made fresh pasta sauce with our tomatoes and other veggies in The Produce Box. That’s a yummy way to use the tomatoes (and makes me tempted to have a little vegetable garden).

Something Maddie is doing (30 months old): She is now officially 2.5 years old, and I swear I’ve written her letter. I haven’t had a chance yet to organize the photos, but I do hope to have those done soon. We had her 30-month conference with her teachers. She’ll be moving from the daycare to preschool in about 6 months – wow! They have no concerns about her development, and she seems to be doing very well in all categories.

Something Cullen is doing (31 weeks old): He’s now officially 7 months, and he’s crawling all over the place. He’s still mostly sticking to his army crawl and is getting faster at it. I love how he crawls across the room towards me when he’s upset now. It’s so adorable. He had carrots for the first time (before I burned the rest of the batch). He loved them! I’m going to have to get some more carrots for him. We have been doing a few simple combinations like peach/banana/oatmeal and prune/avocado (which gets mixed reviews from Cullen, but the first time he loved it).

Something I am struggling with: I’m struggling with making baby food this week! Things have been going quite well, but this week I burned a batch of carrots and discovered that the peaches were moldy before we had a chance to use them. What a waste of fresh, organic produce! Oh well, I guess I’m still learning.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We went to the Jack Johnson concert on Saturday. This was one of the items on my list!

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to meeting with Cullen’s specialist on Thursday so that we can finally get some answers. I’m looking forward to some other stuff, too… our last ribbon dancing class, a possible movie with my hubby, book club, the cleaners, and a visit from Gabe’s parents.

Something captured: Before the Jack Johnson concert last night.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

The other day, Maddie wanted to pick out her socks. She was wearing a very pretty shirt with purple and blue flowers and butterflies. Her shorts were khaki, and she was going to wear her brand new tennis shoes with purple butterflies. The child picked out neon green and pink striped socks. Daddy, not wanting to criticize her fashion sense and ability to pick out matching clothes, stated that the socks were too long. He explained to Maddie that the socks that she picked out were more suitable for winter. Maddie quickly responded, “It’s ok, I’ll roll them down” and proceeded to do so.

Maddie 1. Daddy 0.

Today, my daughter is 2 and a half. Wow! I can’t believe it. I have written her letter, but I just don’t have the photos ready quite yet. I’ll post the letter and photos in the next few days. Right now, I’m going to bed.

I think not! Click on the original post to see the embedded video.

Last week, Cullen officially became a crawler! He’s mastering the army crawl and seems to be getting quite good at it! He’s fast and repeatedly goes after anything that is not a baby toy. He has a strong preference towards Maddie’s toys. Maddie is having to learn to share with her brother (if you count him playing with her toys when she isn’t looking as “sharing”). Click on the original post to see the embedded video. His technique is a bit different from his big sister’s pull-flop method.

A couple weeks ago, Cullen had his first high fever and some vomiting. He also had a cough and a little congestion, so we were pretty sure that he had some sort of cold. I now think that the congestion was unrelated, and he had learned how to make a new noise with the coughing. The fever got worse over the next couple days. This time period coincided with his regular 6-month check up, so they decided to go ahead and test his blood and urine for signs of infection. The doctor wasn’t overly concerned, but we all figured that we could save another trip to the doctor since they would want to test everything by the next day anyway.

His white blood cells were elevated, so now the doctor was a little more concerned. Once we got the urine sample. it looked a little abnormal at first. They prescribed him with antibiotics and said they would contact us about the culture. She did not want to diagnose him with a bladder infection since that would mean we needed to get additional testing done at the hospital.

Meanwhile, Cullen improved greatly after just 12 hours of the antibiotic. I didn’t think that this was a coincidence! They wanted us to complete the course of antibiotics and then scheduled us for an ultrasound of the kidneys and a VCUG (Voiding Cystourethrogram) study. We had these done about a week ago.

Poor little Cullen has been subjected to at least 5 or 6 catheters now. He has had this done at least twice in the doctor’s office (testing for infection), twice in the ER (two separate trips), and now the VCUG study. The ultrasound of his kidneys was the easy part. The hardest part of that was keeping a wiggly baby from wiggling off the exam table. It didn’t hurt, and he didn’t seem to care about the slippery gel all over his belly.

The VCUG was NOT fun. He hates being catheterized (can you blame him?), and this particular test takes much longer than it does to get a urine sample. After they collected a urine sample, they injected a dye into Cullen’s bladder. For infants of his age, they like to do this twice. Once the dye fills the bladder, they wait for him to urinate and watch the x-rays to determine whether urine is refluxing into the kidneys. Unfortunately, we did not need to do it twice as the reflux was immediately obvious with the first void.

Cullen screamed through out the whole test. I am not sure how long it took, but it felt like FOREVER (not to mention the tube that I swear they were threading all the way up to his brain). It was so difficult as a parent to subject him to such torture. Poor little guy looked at me as I held his hands. His questioning eyes demanded to know why I was doing this to him and why wasn’t I picking him up?? I felt so bad for him.

I thought it was very interesting that the radiologist told us the results of the test and the severity right away. I thought that it was quite unusual that they did not send the results to the pediatrician first. She explained that he has Grade 2 reflux on one side and Grade 3 on the other.

From what I had been told (and the research that I have done online), it is common for many kids to outgrow the condition. The ureters are not properly attached to the bladder, allowing urine to back flow to the kidneys. This is a condition that was present at birth. For many kids, the problem corrects itself presumably as they grow and the “valve” gets bigger and stronger (the connection isn’t exactly a valve, but it acts like one, I think?). Many kids require surgery, especially those with more severe reflux. The severity is on a scale of Grade 1 through 5.

These are all the facts that we know. We now have an appointment with the specialist next week, and I hate to have to wait so long to get more answers. Based on the experiences of others and Dr. Google, I’m guessing that they are going to want Cullen to take a maintenance dose of antibiotics. He would have to take the antibiotics daily until he grows out of it or has surgery. From what I have gathered, it is very common for kids to out grow Grades 1 and 2. Grade 3 can be outgrown as well, but it sounded like it was maybe just as likely to have surgery? I’m not sure. I have also heard that it is very common in siblings, something like 30% of siblings also have it. Given Maddie’s history of unexplained fevers, I would be very surprised if they did not want to do the same VCUG test and ultrasound on her. If they do not feel that surgery is necessary at this time (seems unlikely), then I think that he needs to be retested every year or maybe twice a year. Again, everything in this paragraph is a guess.

It’s my understanding that undiagnosed kidney reflux can be very serious. The earlier the diagnosis, the better. Cullen is very young, so we are lucky that his doctors did not wait for infection after infection to find out about the reflux. It sounds like it is manageable upon diagnosis with careful monitoring (periodic VCUG tests/ultrasounds, diligent testing of urine with fevers, etc) and regular, low dose antibiotics. Repeated bladder/kidney infections can be bad, but we would hope to prevent them, if possible.

I am looking forward to getting our questions answered at next week’s appointment. Until then, I’m trying not to worry too much about my sweet little boy. He is getting extra hugs and kisses from me in the meanwhile.

I know that in the grand scheme of things, having two different sized feet really isn’t a big deal. That does not make it less frustrating to find shoes for my daughter. We went to the outlet mall this weekend, hoping to find two or three pairs of shoes for Maddie’s fall wardrobe. With two shoe stores carrying toddler shoes at the outlet, I thought that this wasn’t an impossible dream. Six months can make you forget a lot. Almost as soon as I entered the shoe store, full of hope, I remembered how awful it is to shoe shop for Maddie.

We got her feet sized, and determined that we would be shopping for a size 6 for her left foot and a size 7.5 for her right. We found a pair of shoes that we liked and were then able to locate both sizes. Unfortunately, after trying them on, we determined (and were told by the sales person) that the style runs a bit small. So, we needed a 6.5 and 8 in that style. The 6.5 we found right away. The 8 was nowhere to be found. They weren’t able to locate one in the back either. So then we searched for another “pair.”

After failing to find a match, I pulled EVERY SINGLE 6 AND 7.5 from the shelves, hoping to find a match. I had no such luck. I brought the 8 boxes up to the front and said, “I’d love to find a 7.5 in ANY of these 7 or a 6 in this one.” The only 7.5 that I found started at size 7, so that one was out right away. The sales lady went to the back in search of any 7.5s and came back with two pairs of shoes. One was a navy pair and the other was black. They were cute enough. The brown pair was passable. It’s not quite what we were looking for, but it will do. The navy ones were too wide. Maddie has very narrow little feet.

Next, we tried the other shoe store and found one hideous shoe. I couldn’t bring myself to even have her try it on. It was awful and would not have gone with any of her outfits.

It was a long exhausting trip to the outlets, and I no longer think it is worth it. I think from now on, we’ll just stick close to home and either pay full price at Stride Rite or just find whatever we can at Target or Kohl’s or wherever.

Shoe shopping is a pain for us, but my heart aches for my poor little girl who will one day grow up and buy her own shoes. Perhaps she will find that getting special inserts will work for her. I have heard from other adults with two different sized feet mixed reviews on that approach. Maybe she will become friends with a shoe buddy with opposite sized feet?

In other news, I found a pair of shoes that I liked. My feet are still a full size larger than my pre-pregnancy days. Joy. Nobody warned me of the permanent shoe size change that comes with pregnancy for some people!