Feeling a little better

Claire was less congested today and acted like she felt better!  We are so glad!  Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers! 

I forgot to mention yesterday that they checked her O2 sats and they were around 95%.  They are usually 99-100% but the doctor said 95 was good with Claire crying and for being so congested. 

Don't forget that Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Week is February 7th through the 14th.  I hope to have some good posts planned that week.  Things have been really crazy lately with changing jobs and getting things ready for the farm this year that I haven't had time to plan what I want to do for that week  to raise awareness.  But hopefully I will come up with something!

Love,
The Scott Family

That kind of day

This is the kind of day Claire had today.  Poor, pitiful thing.  She became sick around the end of last week with a runny nose and terrible cough.  She had her 15 month check up today and scheduled Synagis shot, so I didn't want to torture her twice by taking her to the doctor this weekend.  I called Sunday but they said since she didn't have a fever that there was nothing they could do. 

So as soon as we walked into the doctors office today, Claire's bottom lip poked out and she burst into tears.  She is TERR.I.FIED of the doctors office understandably.  I feel so bad for her. I felt the same way  as we walked into the "SICK ROOM".  Our office has a well waiting room and a sick waiting room.  We are usually always in the well room or we wait in the breastfeeding room to stay away from sick kids. But today we were the sick kids!  Well at least we were the only ones in there.  But I felt like we were in a petri dish and the walls were closing in on me with germs everywhere.  I know, a little obsessive. 

She was scared of the scale again.  She weighed 22 lbs 15 oz, measured 30", and head circumference I think was 46 cm (I couldn't remember or really hear over Claire's crying).  The doctor said she was 69th percentile for weight (I am still not sure??) and 22nd percentile for height (so she's short!).  But she said Claire has a double whammy being a preemie and heart baby which can both cause her to be small.

Claire calmed down after all that and was actually cooperative with the pediatrician.  She was occupied eating Cheerios so the doctor got a good listen to her lungs, etc.  Then the dreaded words came - "I think she has RSV."  She said she could test her to be sure but that would mean a trip to the hospital to be tested and she didn't want to put Claire through that.  And she said she would treat her the same way anyways.  I also told her Claire had been sticking her finger in her right ear.  The pediatrician saw some fluid behind her ear so she prescribed Claire an antibiotic for that.  For the coughing and cold symptoms, we are to just do the normal cool mist humidifyer, vicks plug ins, boogie wipes, etc. 

Claire is lucky that she has received the Synagis shot last year and this year due to her prematurity and health issues.  This shot is kind of like the flu shot except it is for RSV.  So the doctor is hoping since Claire has received several rounds of Synagis, this will help Claire not have as severe symptoms of RSV as if she did not have the vaccination.  So I guess that's a good thing.  We will just watch her and pray she gets better soon.  She is so miserable.  :(

So Claire got her Synagis shot today and several other shots for 15 months.  I asked if we should wait but the doctor said no.  I weighed my options of having to torture Claire again by bringing her back later for the shots.  So we just went ahead with them today. 

Oh, before I forget, all of Claire's 1 year molars are almost through!  :)

Then the doctor asked how Claire was doing developmentally.  We discussed that and she said she didn't really recommend getting evaluated by a PT but she also thought it might be a good idea for Claire's gross motor skills (walking, following demands, etc.).  I kind of didn't want to do it since she has a SICC appointment in May, but decided to go ahead and schedule the evaluation.  I can always cancel it.  I thought maybe they'd give us some things to work on at home.  I am still not sure about doing it or not.

So after that kind of day, I was in a hurry to pick up some supper and get home.  I decided to get us something healthy and was on the way to McDonald's.  So all of you who live where we do know that one of the McDonald's is off of Red Robin Lane.  And you KNOW the speed limit is 25 mph like I do.  But......I was speeding trying to get there.  There were some men walking down the road so I swerved around them and sped up at the same time not really paying attention to my speed.  Then I saw it. Hiding behind the bushes parked pointing at me at the old Food Lion.  NBPD.  And of course, he pulls out behind me with his lights flashing.  Yep.  I got pulled for speeding.  First time ever for me.  So here I am in front of McDonald's at 5:30 pm with all the traffic staring at me as I sit on the side of the road.  I have no idea what to do. I don't even know what my registration is to give the officer.  I had to seriously ask him if I had the right paperwork. 

I am praying at this point he will see I have never even been pulled in all my 17 years of driving and just give me a warning.  Nope.  He comes back with a ticket for going 40 in a 25.  I am so freaking out I can't even cry.  He said the residents back there had complained people had been speeding through there so they were pulling people.  Great.  Well can you tell the "residents" to stop walking down the roadway so I don't have to speed up and swerve to get around them?  Ok, thanks.  That's what I wanted to ask but I didn't. 

So I go to McD's to order our food and the guy asks how my day was.  I told him it could be better and he said "oh you were the one who just got pulled?"  I said yes and he told me he had been at work for an hour and I was the 3rd one who had been pulled since he had been at work.  Sorry for you other two people ahead of me!  :/  I feel your pain!

So then, that's when I came home and looked just like Claire did in the above picture.  So here's to Monday!!!!! 


Love,
The Scott Family

PS - Please keep Claire in your prayers.  RSV can be really hard on children health issues like her. 

A need to vent {heart mom to heart mom}

I am in the need to vent to another heart mom about a situation.  Nothing major, but nothing I really want to post publicly.  So any heart mom out there that might want to listen and offer me some advice, please let me know and I will email you my situation!  ;)  I promise I won't email all of you!  I just need someone to tell me either I am justified in feeling the way I do or that I am a crazy, overly obsessive mother.  It might be a few days before I can get it all typed out and sent, so don't worry if you don't hear back from me right away.  Thanks in advance! 

Love,
Rebecca

Pot of Gold

I don't know about your children, but Claire would rather play with books than toys.  She absolutely loves books!  Well, it was a pleasant surprise this week when we found a box of books on our porch from our neighbors, the Stimsons.  It was like Christmas morning all over again for Claire.  Or like finding a pot of gold!

She started pulling the books out and reading them and screaming with excitement.  Claire found Elmo right to start with and then found the Baby Einstein books with the animals in them. 

I am so glad Claire loves books.  I hope it is something she always loves. 

PS - Claire has on a mele of clothes as I forgot to pack her a matching outfit to wear yesterday in her bag.  So she has on unmatching attire, but she doesn't care!  :)

Love,
The Scott Family

Simple things in life

Claire has recently discovered her tongue.  She sticks it out when she's looking in the mirror and will then look at you so you will do it too.  So the other night we were sticking our tongues out at each other and I started making a stupid noise along with it.  Claire thought it was HIL.AR.I.OUS!  She was laughing so hard that she had tears in her eyes!  I was laughing at her laughing!  And every single time she laughs, she gets the hiccups.  She has done that since she could laugh.  So you get to hear the hiccups along with the laughs!  



It's the simple things in life that make us happy!

Love,

The Scott Family

Play date with Izzie and Ava

Saturday we had a fun play date with Ava and Izzie.  We loaded all 3 girls up in one van and headed to CiCi's Pizza!  

It was a rainy, nasty day so Claire's hair decided to be even more crazy than usual with the humidity. 

Ava had fun at CiCi's chilling with her leg thrown over the booster seat.

Izzie also had fun spicing up her food with black and red pepper. 

These were not our plates........  You know we didn't eat this much food that we had to put our used plates on the table next to us......  And I took this picture before we were finished........

The little girls had a blast and I think us big girls did too!

We then headed back to Izzie's house for some play time.  The girls really did well playing together.  Sometimes they played with each other and other times they just played by themselves.  (Izzie kept calling the naked Ken doll "Da Da".  It was hilarious!)

Then we broke out the Fruit Loops for snack.  Izzie graciously took the Fruit Loop from Ava. 

Ava thought Claire should have a Fruit Loop.  She tried desperately to get Claire to take it from her. 

She even tried putting the Fruit Loop in Claire's hand, but Claire would just get her own out of the bowl and wasn't paying Ava any mind. 

"Look Claire - this Fruit Loop is really good.  I have even smashed it up and made it soft for you in my hands!  Why don't you take it!!!!" 

I put Claire on Izzie's indoor slide and helped her down.  She really liked it! 

Ava and Izzie decided to play kitchen while Claire was obsessed with "The Wiggles" on TV and all of Beth's electronic equipment. 

Claire finally joined in on the kitchen fun when she found the plastic food and dumped it everywhere. 

Claire was worn slam out and had to have a bottle and relax on Izzie's couch before we made the 5 minute trip home.  She fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept for almost 2 hours!!! 

We had so much fun!  I wish we had time to do it more often.  I think I took a million pictures because it is so neat to watch them interact with each other.  We can't wait to do it again! 

Love,
The Scott Family

Operation SLEEP {week 2}

Week 2 of our sleep changes has seemed to get a little better.  I hate to say too much so that I don't jinx it.  But I am doing better about getting Claire to sleep a little earlier before she is exhausted.  And I am doing better about running into her room as soon as she wakes during the night.  Some nights are better than others, but hopefully we are continuing to make progress. 

It's also time to start making some food changes with Claire meaning switching from formula to whole milk.  I am very nervous about throwing another change in, but hopefully once we start the change over it won't be too traumatic.  I am scared that she will have the same reaction she did last January with the bloody stools and terrible gas when we switched from breast milk to formula until we got her on the Alimentum.  But she did ok switching from Alimentum to Gentlease (which IS milk based) so I am keeping my fingers crossed that any reactions or allergies to milk are gone.

We've been really busy lately so I haven't had a chance to update the blog, but I promise some good pictures to come soon! 

And we are gearing up for February - National Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Month.  Also it will be Claire's 1st anniversary for her open heart surgery and complete repair of her Tetralogy of Fallot.  So I hope to have some good posts planned to raise awareness in February and I really want to get some good Valentine's Day stuff on sale to have a party celebration February 23rd for Claire.  Claire has already received her Heart Heros cape in the mail but I am trying to hold out on posting those pictures until
February too. 

Claire is starting to really want to walk.  We are having to hold her hands and walk with her everywhere.  Maybe it won't be too much longer until she is strong enough to walk on her own!

Love,
The Scott Family

A "howling" good time

Claire has learned that my parents' dog Woody will howl and so now she goes up to  "Woo Woo" as she calls him and starts howling at him in hopes he will howl back at her.  It is SUPER cute!!!  Enjoy the video!

Love,
The Scott Family

Hodge podge weekend

We had a pretty good weekend!  Here are a few things that happened:

- Operation SLEEP night 6 (last night) went well.  Claire played really hard all day Sunday despite her runny nose.  She only took a 40 minute nap around lunch time and no afternoon nap because she was playing so much.  At supper time, she ate well and while drinking her milk in the high chair, she fell asleep.  I thought I would let her "nap" for about 30 minutes to take the edge off so she would go back to sleep at 8 pm.  But when I went to wake her up, she was having none of it.  So I changed her into her night time diaper and gave her some benedryl for her nose and she went right back to sleep.   So she slept from 6 pm to 6 am!  Very solid sleep.  Not sure if it was the benedryl or what.  But we all slept really well. 

- Saturday, Granny, Claire, and I got up early to head to Cary and Durham.  Granny and Claire stopped off at Aunt Amanda and Uncle Colby's house to visit and I drove on to Durham to cook breakfast at the Ronald McDonald House in Durham with the Duke ICN Family Advisory Board (and PICU and PCICU boards).  I never got the chance to stay at the RMH of Durham down the street from Duke, but Grandma Neat Neat and Aunt Doe stayed there several times when they came up to visit Claire.  So I was excited to be able to give back and volunteer to create a fresh, hot, satisfying meal for the families staying there. 

It was so nice and I hope the board decides to do it again.  I enjoyed getting to meet some of the other mothers/board members face to face and to visit with them.  It's so nice when you connect with other mothers who have been through the same or similar things.  We just all "get it" without explaining everything.  We had a great visit and good trip!  Claire slept the entire 2 hour ride home from Cary!  That's a first! 

Someone mentioned that the Durham RMH had made like $60,000 last year off of can pop tops.  You know the little "8" shaped thing that you open your can drink with?  It hit me that we drink so many can drinks all the time and are just throwing away important money that can help the RMH continue to allow families to stay there while their children are having procedures done or living in the ICN.  Families are asked to donate $10 a night to stay but if they cannot afford it, they don't have to pay that.  They can just pay what they can.  How nice is that?  It's such a wonderful service to families.  So it hit me that we needed to start collecting the pop tops and sending them to Durham RMH!  I can't wait to see how many pounds Claire can collect!  So if you have some you want to donate, let me know and I will arrange to get them from you.  Or you can start collecting now! 

Ronald McDonald House pop top collection box

Eating shredded cheese with Aunt Amanda, Uncle Colby, and Granny at Sweet Tomatoes

- Claire is really into her "laptop" computer.  She has always played with it, but recently, she really studies it when she is pressing the buttons.  I saw her with her right hand on the mouse while pressing buttons the other day and it looked like she knew exactly what she was doing with the computer!  She's also wearing her new walking shoes that Grandma Neat Neat got for her.  Grandma and Claire took a trip to H. Stadiums in Kinston last week and got fitted for some walking shoes.  Claire is now wearing a 3.5 but they went ahead and got a size 4 to grow into.  They also told them that Claire has a high instep. 

- Sunday morning was really fun!  Trent brought us breakfast home and we all 3 snuggled in our bed and ate breakfast.  It's a rare occasion in our house!!!  But boy was it nice!  :)

So in a nutshell, our weekend was a lot of fun.  I hope we have more just like it!

Love,
The Scott Family

Operation SLEEP {nights 4 & 5}

Nights 4 and 5 seem to be getting better.  Although Claire still seems restless throughout the night and wakes up a few times, she is not completely waking up.  I am thinking the restlessness is due to this pesky stuffy nose she has and that she is having trouble breathing.  Hopefully when that is gone, she will sleep much better. 

I took the advice of another heart mom friend of giving Claire 5 minutes before I go and comfort her.  It seems to have worked so far.  She either soothes herself back to sleep or I just go in and rub her back and head and she settles back down and goes back to sleep.  So I am going to continue this method too along with the earlier bedtime to see if the combination keeps working.  Keep your fingers crossed!

So we are still waking up a few times a night but at least it's quick periods of time.  And I am hoping it will get better once her cold is better along with the new things we are working on! 

Thanks for all of the advice and encouragement!  We need it!  :)  And thanks for letting me journal this experience here.  I hope it helps me look back and see the patterns and progress.

Love,
The Scott Family

Claire's version of self tanner

"Who needs self tanner when you have spaghetti sauce?!" - Claire Scott 1/10/12

"What?  This doesn't look natural?  What do you mean I have orange skin?  Can you see the lines??" 

Love,
Claire

One year at the zoo {and Operation SLEEP updates}

A year ago today, we brought Claire home from Duke for the first time.  It was a great feeling, yet very scary!  We had been told several times we would be going home by a certain date and they always fell through.  The nurses then said you were not allowed to say "home" in front of the babies.  You had to say you were going to take a trip to the zoo!

So when I called to check on Claire during the night, the nurse asked if they doctors had said anything about taking Claire to the zoo the next day.  I said no and that I figured since she had just had surgery 2 days before, that there was no way she would go home. 

Everyone had gone back home for a few days and I was at the hospital by myself that morning.  The doctors came around for rounds and said Claire was going to the zoo right now!  Wow!  It was crazy getting everything ready in just a few hours to come home (or to the zoo!)!  But it's been a wonderful year at the zoo and we wouldn't trade a minute of it to go to the circus again!  ;)

This was us walking out of the door of TCN! 

**********************************************************************************

As far as the sleeping project goes, nights 3 and 4 have been better.  Claire went to bed by 8:20 pm each night and has pretty much slept through the night.  She has been up a time or two, but only stays up for maybe 15 minutes.  She's dealing with a runny nose now so that makes it hard for her to sleep when she has trouble breathing through her nose.  But I hope this means we are making progress??????  We are planning to keep the new early bedtime routine up for at least a whole week in hopes that it will start better sleeping habits.  So please continue to keep us in your prayers!

Love,
The Scott Family

Operation SLEEP - Yep, it was beginners luck {night two}

Remember how I was worried that the first night we tried the new sleeping routine that it would be beginners luck?  Well, I was right.  Night 2 was crazy.

Claire only had 1 nap on Tuesday around lunch time for about 1 hour and no afternoon nap.  So she was sleepy at bath time.  We did the same routine and after her bath, we started wind down time.  She went to sleep easier than the first night.  Here's the timeline:

8:15 pm - Asleep

12:15 am - Awake, crying.  I just rubbed her head and back in the crib and she went back to sleep. 

12:45 am - Awake, crying.  I changed her diaper and rocked Claire back to sleep.  She acted uncomfortable so I thought changing her diaper would help.

1:26 am - Claire is back asleep in her crib.  I get back in our bed.

1:36 am - Claire is awake and crying.  I think it must be her teeth bothering her.  I put teething gel in her mouth.  That doesn't seem to help.  I rock her.  That doesn't help.  I put her back in her crib with some toys and I lay in the bed in her room.  She is not interested in playing and keeps crying.  I hear her pass gas, so I think maybe she needs some gas drops!  I give her gas drops in hopes that maybe it's just gas that's bothering her.  I rock Claire back to sleep.

2:38 am - Claire is asleep and I am back in bed.  Trent and I realize that his favorite show of all time is on tv at this time of night - Dukes of Hazzard. 

2:40 am - Claire is awake and crying.  I figure is has to be her teeth bothering her.  I give her motrin.  I see that she has a booger blocking her nostril so I get that out.  That must be the culprit!  She is really awake now so I rock her again.  She starts babbling and talking about Elmo.  I explain that Elmo is asleep and she should be to.  That doesn't seem to matter to Claire. 

3:16 am - Claire is asleep. I get back in bed in my bathrobe/house coat  (I wear it over my pjs b/c Claire loves to snuggle her face in the material).  Trent asks why I am sleeping in it and I explain that I am sure Claire will be awake shortly so I just didn't take it off.  We lay there a few minutes trying to figure out what is wrong with Claire and why she is crying and waking up all night.  We figure we have have covered the bases.

3:27 am - Claire is back awake.  See???  I told you I should just stay in my bathrobe!  This time I don't take her out of the crib.  I just put a bunch of toys in there and figure maybe she wants to play and will play herself to sleep.  I lay in the bed in her room.  She does not play with the toys, but stands in the crib and jumps up and down crying.  I call out to her and tell her it's ok.  I think I scared her because it's dark and she can't see me and she starts crying louder.  Trent peeks his head in and asks if I have considered that she might be hungry.  Wow!  Why in the world did I not think of this earlier!!!!!  He takes Claire and I fix a bottle.  She sucks it down in no time and is asleep. 

4:01 am - Claire is sleeping, and we are both back in bed.  My husband is my hero.  

It is now 7 am and she is sleeping soundly.  It's time to go to work.  ***sigh***

Love,
The Scott Family

PS - Today, one year ago, Claire had her first liver surgery.  It had snowed and was very icy in Durham.  We are glad we are home this year even if we were awake all night!  :)

PSS - enjoy the other post with the videos for today!

Walking and Talking

Here are 2 videos Granny Mary took last week of Claire walking with her toy and also of her making a new funny sound!  Enjoy!

Love,
The Scott Family

Operation SLEEP - Beginners luck? {night one}

After getting some good advice yesterday on what to try to get Claire to sleep through the night, we started Operation SLEEP last night.  ;)  I decided to start small and just try putting Claire to bed a little earlier than normal.  She had adequate naps yesterday so I figured she might not be tired any earlier than her normal 9 pm bedtime.  But we started wind down time about 1 hour earlier than usual and I attempted to get Claire to sleep about 45 minutes to an hour earlier. 

She fought it a little bit but we were able to put her down at around 8:20 pm.  So approximately 30-40 minutes early.  I just knew she would be up in no time so I anxiously waited all night for her to wake up. 

Call it beginners luck, but she slept all night and I had to wake her up to go to work this morning!  I guess we will keep trying this method for several nights to see if it makes a difference or not.   But we were happy with at least ONE full night sleep! 

So we will see what happens!  It would be nice if this was the answer, but I am not usually that lucky.  But it's definitely worth a try and is the "easiest" suggestion to start with. 

Love,
The Scott Family

So....Here's the situation

The sleeping situation that is.  In reality - I should say the non-sleeping situation. 

Here is a run down of last night's non-sleeping situation:

8:45 pm - I believe Claire is trying to cut 2 more 1 year molars so I give her some ibuprofen in her bed time bottle.  I TRY to put teething gel on her gums but she clamps her mouth shut so this is impossible.  I attempt this 3 times.  Claire drinks her bottle and is sound asleep.

12:47 am - Claire is awake crying in her crib.  I go up, rock her back to sleep pretty easily. 

1:12 am - Claire is asleep, I am back in bed.

1:30 am - Claire is awake crying in her crib.  I fix a small bottle of juice and ibuprofen thinking the other has worn off and her teeth are hurting again.  She drinks the 1/2 ounce bottle with medicine.  I attempt to put teething gel in again and her mouth is still clamped shut.  No success. 

1:50 am - Claire is back asleep in her crib.

2:17 am - Claire is awake crying in her crib.  We have a discussion that this is unacceptable and it is bed time.  I don't rock her this time, but lay her back down and rub her head and back until she is asleep again.  I go back to our bed. 

2:43 am - Claire is awake again crying in her crib.  Trent suggests teething gel and ibuprofen and I explain my previous attempts.  I just sit in the bed and watch her a few minutes on the monitor to see if she will go back to sleep.  No such luck.

2:50 am - I attempt the teething gel again while Claire is crying thinking I might be able to sneak some in her mouth while it's open.  I am partially successful with the majority of the gel smeared all over Claire's face and my hands.  I rock Claire and explain again how this is time for sleep and ask her to please explain what is wrong.  She does not answer me.  This is when I will be really happy when she can talk and tell me what is bothering her.  I rock Claire back to sleep.  As I leave her room again, I cross my fingers in hopes God is listening for my prayer for sleep. 

3:11 am - I am back in our bed for the final time.  And we all sleep. 

6:00 am - We are up getting ready for work.  Claire is sleeping ever-so soundly.

6:45 am - It is time to go leave to take Claire to Granny's.  She is sound asleep and is not ready to wake up.  I wake her anyway.  She greets me with a huge smile, waving her hands and clapping, and a "mama"!  I then forgive her for not sleeping, my heart melts, and I forget the fact that we were up for 2 1/2 hours during the night. 

So, how do I fix this?  I have no idea.  This is a typical night for us.  We get maybe 1 or 2 nights every week or so that Claire sleeps all night.  She is exhausted at bed time so we can't keep her awake any later at night.  I am not really into the "cry it out" method even though that may be the solution.  I need other solutions.  Any suggestions?????

Love,
The Scott Family

PS - Claire took her first steps by herself Saturday night!  That's the one and only time she has done it but she is so close to walking.  I will post videos soon of her pushing her walking toys around!

A turkey leg kind of day

Happy Friday!

Claire likes her "plastic" food she got for Christmas with her grocery cart.  Now if we could just get her to eat the real thing....

Love,
The Scott Family

Percentiles

After my confusing appointment with the pediatrician last weekend saying Claire was in the 70th percentile for weight, I decided to do some research on my own.  I went to a Interactive Growth Chart to see exactly where Claire stood based on her weight and height.  I don't know what her head circumference is and don't think she would sit still long enough to get a good measurement.

The last weight I had on Claire was from 12/31/11 of 22 lbs 9 oz.  This is with no clothes or shoes on or diaper.  The last length I had was from her last Duke appointment on 12/7/11 31.1 inches.  I charted those on the graph using 15 months as Claire's age (as that is what she will be Friday!).  The points landed directly on the graph lines so it was easy to read!

As far as Claire's weight goes, she is considered to be directly on the 50th percentile line.  For her height, she is directly on the 75th percentile line.  Not to shabby for a premature heart baby with liver disease who has endured 3 surgeries this past year and born at 3 lbs 2 oz, 16 1/4" long. 

So what exactly does this mean?  From my research and from what I understand, it means that of girls Claire's age, 50% +/- of them weigh less than Claire and 50% +/- weigh more than Claire.  So she's right in the middle.  And 75% +/- of girls Claire's age measure shorter than Claire while 25% +/- measure longer than Claire.  So to me that says she's pretty "average" when it comes to weight and height and that is a good thing.  I think I explained that correctly and if I didn't, someone please let me know!!  :)

I am not sure if you can use the same growth chart to compare and use her adjusted age of 12 months instead of 15 months to see where she stands.  If I did, she would be on the 75th percentile line for weight and the 95th percentile line for height. 

The way I look at it is that she is growing and developing by leaps and bounds all the time! 

Love,
The Scott Family

Our 2012 New Year's weekend {and the reason I was so worried about breaking the Cardinal Rule...}

Well, our New Year weekend didn't go as planned, yet again.  Did I really just say that 4 letter word again??  P.L.A.N?  Don't I remember how bad that word is?!?!  ;)

New Year's Eve started out normally with Trent hunting and Claire and I eating lunch with Granny at Carolina Bagel.  First, I took Claire to peds to get her synagis shot.  We were the first ones in the door so we would not have to make contact with any sick children.  Of course, Claire panicked and freaked out when she had to get on the scale.  Not sure if this is a female fear of weight (hahaha) or that she just knows she's act the doctor.  I am thinking the latter.  Claire weighed 22 lbs 9 oz!  They didn't measure her because she was so upset!  I asked the doctor what percentile she was in and he told me 70th.  At first I thought, "wow! That's GREAT!"  But after I posted something about it on Facebook and thought about it, I am thinking he told me something wrong.  I am going to research it more and let you know the real truth!  Compared to the other children Claire's age and same weight, they are all in the 20-25th percentile.  So I am thinking that's where she is.  I really can't imagine a preemie heart baby being in the 70th percentile?!?!  I looked back at how much I weighed at 15 months and it was around 22 lbs.  But who knows.  I will report more later on this subject.  We got the shot after much screaming and crying and headed out the door. 

Anyways, I noticed Claire didn't really eat much lunch that day, but she just seemed to busy watching everyone at the restaurant and waving at them.  That afternoon, the temperature was like 65 degrees (on December 31st y'all!) so we went for a stroll around the farm.  Claire munched on Cheerios and milk and fell asleep for about an hour outside.  It was so nice. 

We had planned (there's that word again) to attempt to take Claire out to eat at a real restaurant for supper for the first time.  I did the call ahead seating for Outback and we were getting ready to go.  I laid Claire down to change her diaper and she made a face like she was going to gag.  Then out of NOWHERE, projectile vomit went all of our bed and Claire!  I picked her up and put her on the bathroom floor so I could clean her and the bed.  The more vomit all over the bathroom rug.  Ugh. 

Claire started smiling and acting normal like it never happened.  We chalked it up to the fact that she got overly excited when Trent came home and had just had a bottle.  Maybe she just got too excited and when I laid her back, it just upset her stomach.  Hmmmm.....

So onto Outback we went!  So naive.  I dropped Trent off at the door to get our buzzer and Claire and I met him outside on the bench.  As soon as I set down with her, the vomit returned.  All over the concrete at Outback.  Then I knew it wasn't the over-excitement that we thought it was.  So our NYE steak turned into drive thru McDonald's and a stop at Rite Aid to pick up some Pedialite. 

The thing that really worried me was that earlier that afternoon, Claire had hit the back of her head on the wall.  Not hard at all, and no goose egg or bump on her head.  But it was almost exactly 1 hour after she hit her head that she started throwing up.  So with the shot, the head bump, and the vomit, I wasn't sure what to blame it on. 

Claire was sick several more times (I had to change clothes about 4 times) up until around 8:30 pm.  Poor thing just laid on the floor in a ball or in my lap.  She still had no fever.  I called the after hours nurse and also talked to the pediatrician on call.  They both thought it was the bug going around and to just watch her for dehydration.  So I slept with Claire in her room and was up all night feeling her head for fever or a goose egg.  We were both up at midnight so I could get her to drink some fluids, but Trent had fell fast asleep so none of us got to see the ball drop.   She slept well and was very thirsty Sunday morning. 

She didn't eat much food Sunday, but drank lots of Pedialite and clear liquids.  We started her back on formula last night and she seems to be back to her self this morning.  Thank God.  So we still don't know exactly what caused it yet.  I am hoping just a bug and hope that no one else gets it.  So we have no pictures from the weekend except 2 cell phone pictures I posted on yesterday's post (the last 2 pictures - one of us strolling on NYE and one from Sunday morning of her feeling better playing the piano).  But that's ok.  I will remember not to use the word "plan" ever again.  And on top of that, I got my payback for breaking the Cardinal Rule.  Lessons learned. 

Love,
The Scott Family

2011 - A Year In Review {from cell phone pictures}

I have a Blackberry and it doesn't take very good quality photos.  But sometimes it's all I have to take a picture of Claire at just that moment.  Or I like to use it to send pictures to family of Claire via text or BBM.  I don't have a memory card, so my phone doesn't hold very many pictures.  So when I was thinking about what to blog about for New Years, I thought I would post the year of pictures from my cell phone!  It kind of documents what was going on in our lives this past year - even if they are blurry.  I have had to delete some pictures that I wish I had not have.  But to take really cute ones or newer ones, I have deleted some old ones to make room. 

So here it goes!  Our 2011 year in review via cell phone pictures!!  Starting on January 1, 2011 and ending January 1, 2012.  It includes time in Duke ICN, all 3 surgeries, coming home for the first time, lots of firsts, Easter, her baptism dress, fun times outside, a hurricane, Fuzz, etc.  It was fun looking back at how much Claire has changed over the past year!













 




Love,
The Scott Family