Time to Baby Proof!

We have a army crawler!

Check her out here: http://youtu.be/X-oXjb24LY4

New Skills!

LT is learning more and more every day! Here are a couple videos of what she is learning today!

First is her sippy cup. She is learning how to grasp it with her hands and bring it up to her mouth. This sucking is a little difficult too so that is something she is figuring out too! LT's Sippy

Next is finger foods. She is learning to grab the puff snack and put it in her mouth. She is trying to figure out the pincer grasp using her index finger and thumb. These snacks can be tricky because they are small and a little sticky when wet. LT's Snack
DISCLAIMER: She is NOT choking!! She is simply learning to eat solid food, her gag reflex does kick in but the puff snack dissolves quickly and she is able to swallow it! Momma provides direct supervision and has her sippy cup to wash it down with!

Oh and I promised her 6 month stats! She is now 22 lbs which is the 99th percentile, 28" which is the 100th percentile (did you know that was possible? I didn't!), and 17" head circumference which is the 98th percentile. Such a big girl!!

Yummy Sweet Potatoes!

Wow a month has past since my last post...boy has time flown!
We have been keeping busy with LT, visiting mom, house projects and just everyday living. Where should I begin...
Mom is doing great! She is cancer free after surgery and is recovering nicely. She even starts back at work Monday. She will start with half days but I think she is anxious to have a schedule again. She has had a few bumps in the road but has powered through them!

Baby Girl is now 6 months old! We were supposed to go in for her well child check but got rescheduled for next week. So we will have to be back with her stats then! She is certainly getting bigger every day! She is so fun to be around, I just soak her in as much as possible! We get to spend lunch time together and she is so happy, it's the highlight of my day! She is finding her voice and squeals all the time! She giggles on a regular basis and is making all sort of vowel sounds. Vuue Vuuuh is my favorite!

We now take walks in the big girl stroller. We are so lucky to have such great friends, one gave us their baby jogger which LT loves since she can look out the whole time while we walk.

This week we decided to try some real food solids. I read somewhere that yellow and orange veggies are better to start with than greens so I decided to first start with a sweet potato. I simply washed a sweet potato and popped it into the crock pot on low for 5 hours at lunch time. Once I got home from work it was ready. Into the food processor it went with a little milk and it blended nicely. LT was a great sport and tried it with smiles. After a few bites she decided she wasn't so sure about it and gave a sour face but still accepted more. I would say the first try was a success since more of it landed in her belly then spit out!

Second try was this evening, sweet potato again. Again, she did great! She was happy to eat and really wanted to grab the bowel herself! Check out the video below the picture for a sneak peak!

 First Taste of Sweet Potatoes!

Mom's Update

After one night in the hospital, Mom is doing much better. I was able to talk to her for quite some time this evening and she sounds great! She was able to get all the IV's out and is on oral pain medication that is managing her pain much better than the past couple weeks. Those IV's are such a pain to deal with that it is nice to have free movement!
The Physical Therapists were by today and gave her the green light to move about her room on her own. She was even going for a walk around the unit after we hung up. The surgeon was by and said she was doing well but he wanted to her stay at least another night and maybe until Thursday.
She had a couple visitors today and said that was nice, I worry that she gets lonely but she said she likes to rest on her own. It's hard for me to be away knowing she is by herself. At least she has Dan to visit her but since he started his new job he has been on a schedule too.
LT and I plan to head to the big city for the weekend so we can spend lots of quality relaxing time with mom!

A Pain in the ...

Mom is back in the hospital. She has continued to have pretty good pain and at her check up they thought maybe it was an infection. She was started on antibiotics and was told to call back if it didn't get better. Well a week later the pain hasn't gotten any better so went in to see the doc. They found some fluid pooled near her tailbone and needed to drain it. I assume this is normal but too much for her body to absorb. To drain it they needed to put her under and open her up again and also place a drain in her abdomen. She is on some good pain drugs as well and is resting. The doc said she could possibly stay a couple days to allow for healing and better drugs than would get at home.
She could maybe use a visitor but please call first.

A cruel joke from mother nature to a new mom!

Well I just came home from 5 days with mom. She went home on Saturday, 2 days earlier than expected. I think we were all a little anxious but it went very well. Mom went straight upstairs to her bedroom not even considering staying on the main floor. Sunday afternoon I felt like I was hit by a truck. I had flu like symptoms with major exhaustion after being out in the heat cleaning some great new toys my brother and sister scored from a grate sale. I was cleaning with bleach and feared I had been over exposed to that or the sun or even a combination of the two. I spent all evening on the couch while attempting to entertain LT. Thank goodness for my brother who took LT so I could nap!
Monday I still didn't feel good but I had a couple bursts of energy. But now I was clammy all day, what a gross feeling! I was hoping this was just a 24 hour thing so I tried to tough it out. After not sleeping much again Monday night I woke Tuesday and finally realized that the entire underside of one breast was hard and tender. Finally I figured it out, Mastitis! I put a call into my doc and within a hour I had a prescription and was on my way to feeling better! I knew that mastitis presents with flu like symptoms, but I didn't realize these symptoms commonly occur 2 days prior to a lump found. I though it developed from plugged ducts so I completely over looked the possibility. So I am on antibiotics for 10 days but I am feeling so much better, still not 100% but better than I was! Oh and this is all safe for LT so we can continue with breast milk!
Mom continues to do well at home. She said immediately that she was happy to be home and in her own bed. She has been resting nicely and eating well without diet restrictions! Of course we have had a few snags but progressing nicely. She has even been helping with cooking and baking. We have been eating such great meals! My brother had said he would much rather cook every night I am home and freeze the leftovers to eat when it it just the two of them. Works for me!
Ok, enough for now. This momma is still recovering so early to bed for me!

Home Early

I just heard that mom's doc was in this afternoon and said she could go home probably tomorrow! LT and I will go visit tonight and find out more details!

Post op plan

I suppose I should write about mom's post op plan. She was told she will be in the hospital for a week. However they also thought she would spend a night in the ICU, which she didn't, so I wouldn't be surprised if she went home a day or two early. She does have a colostomy so education will need to be done on the care of that.
The doc had said it would be 2-3 months recovery but this morning said she looked better and the surgery went better than expected. So recovery could be more like 1 month now.
The plan is to do chemotherapy afterwards. I would think they would want to get her strength and weight up before beginning that again but I have not heard a date to begin yet. She will have a 3 week cycle. An infusion on day 1 with 2 weeks of oral chemo and then 1 week off. This will repeat for 6 months to a year.
Oh and she was already up out of bed, took a couple steps and to the chair this morning and looked really good doing that! Yay for progress! That's all I know for now. Oh and she did ask for no visitors until tomorrow so if you want to know where she is just ask!

No Tumor

Yesterday was mom's surgery day. She had to be there at 6:30 for lab and then she was the second case of the morning. I thought she would have to wait a while but surprisingly she got called just minutes after checking in. We sat with her in the holding room but again minutes later they called her in. All 3 of us kids were there, with LT and my mom's sister. Our old neighbor even came to sit with us while mom was in surgery. This was so very nice!
After they got her Epidural going and site market we were allowed to see her once more.
She was pretty nervous but still in good spirits. I think it was a high anxiety day for everyone!
They took her into the OR and we waited. It was nice to have someone there to distract us. LT did her fair share of distractions but it's though for a little girl who was woke up early! The staff was good at keeping us updated and before we knew it (2 1/2 hours later) we were being called to visit with the surgen. The doc gave a great report! He saw no tumor in the rectum but took all lymph there to be sure. The tissue was sent to pathology to be sure and the doc said we still could get a report of some or no tumor. He also inspected the whole pelvic area and said all looked good. I asked specifically about the live and that was clear too! He said she did really well and that we could see her in about an hour so he said to leave to have lunch. We were so releaved that surgery went quick and so well!
By this time I needed to pump so we went home and found some lunch. My brother ate and went back right away but the rest of us took a little more time. Dan updated us when he went back and said that it would be a while still so not to hurry. We made it back about an hour later and mom was still in the PACU. We waited a little while and after it had been 2 hours since our update from the doc, I went and asked for an update. She called back to the PACU and they were just getting mom ready to move. We were told to go upstairs and wait a couple minutes then check with the nurse.
I went to check in and was so surprised when I was told to walk into mom's room and saw her talking with the nurse! She smiled and looked so good! No visible tubes and resting under a warm blanket. I gave her hugs and kisses and the told the nurse to grab us after she completed her assessment. Just a couple minutes later she told us to come back. All four of us plus LT and our stroller made our way in the room and I think everyone was so happy to see mom looking so good!
Mom was convinced she would be on the breathing tube for days and have a feeding tube as well. I think she was surprised as well!
We visited for a few minutes but realized she needed to rest so we told her we would come back later.
What a relief! I was so happy she was ok. Knowing she was in good hands the three of us kids decided to get some work done at the house. We still are trying to go through and get rid of stuff that has accumulated over 25 years of living in the house. We got a lot accomplished and got another short visit in before mom went to bed!
Thank you so much for the great thoughts and prayers. She was in The Lord's good hands! Now onto recovery!

4 Months Old

Miss LT is 4 months old today! In some ways I feel like February 27th was so long ago but looking at LT I think she has grown so fast! We went in for her check up and of course they confirmed she has continued to grow like a weed! She is now 26 inches, in the 96th percentile; 17 lbs 13 oz, in the 99th percentile; and her head is 17 1/4 inches round, in the 98th percentile! (Meaning, if you line her up with 100 4 month old's she will be taller than 96 of them). At least she is proportional!

Must have been pretty relaxed!

She had 2 more shots but was such a trooper, momma cuddled her in close and she calmed down quickly.I truly believe in the 5 S's from the Happiest Baby on the Block (Dr. Karp). Swaying, sucking, shushing, side and swaddling; so simple yet effective!

Future Jimmie!

Her eyes are still beautifully blue and her hair is blonde with maybe a little strawberry in it! LT loves to sport the mohawk and this week a barrette even stayed in place, her hair is so fine they usually slip right out!

She still loves her momma's milk and is such a great eater! She sleeps up to 15 hours a night and only wakes to eat twice. LT loves her big girl crib so much she has to try out every position in bed. When momma checks on her, she is most often in another position from when she first went to bed. She loves to sleep on her side but if she kicks her legs to hard and ends up on her tummy she awakes with a cry! 

Of course Auntie K shares her zebra blanket during a mid morning nap!

LT continues to discover more about her surroundings. At the clinic today they were taking her temperature with a forhead scanner and as it moved from one side to another and beeped she tried to follow it! She loves to check out everything, on walks she is far to busy looking around to let the rhythm lull her to sleep!

Batting at the musical toys!

She loves her daddy time and their secret language! When daddy walks by she immediately smiles and expresses so much love and excitement! Who knows what they do all day while momma is at work but it must be a good time!

Those used to be long pants! Ha!

LT loves to sit up. If you lay her back she will immediately try and get herself upright. She gets about half way before falling back! LT is wearing 6 month clothes but this week we have gone into 9 month sleepers since the 6 month ones are getting short! I wonder where we will be in another 4 months!

LT will 'hold' the bottle if her hands are placed there!

Music to My Ears

Baby Girl has given us a small peak at her silly side. I have seen her laugh! Thank goodness I had my phone in reach and could grab a video as she continued! We were at Grandmama's house and were fortunate to have a girlfriend visit. We were just hanging out on Grandmama's bed chatting when she was telling us a story. Well she forgot the name of something in her story and LT just though it was funny! Check out the video: http://youtu.be/F-jGUP7zahQ

As for an update on mom:

She is feeling much better now 2 weeks after her first round of chemo and radiation has ended. She spent a couple weeks in bed with horrible fatigue among some other not so pleasant side effects. She had a surgery consult 2 weeks ago and today the NP told her she is healing nicely and does not need another follow up prior to surgery. Mom is feeling so well she had such an eventful week consisting of a day trip to her sister's, a wedding, a walk and even a little shopping! Not to mention finally having the energy to work on her quilting! You know she wasn't feeling well when she couldn't even sew! LT and I are excited to visit her again this weekend, maybe we can get some use out of the great sidewalks and bike path!

Of course I have to share a few pictures!

Mom got a new do!

With Uncle D checking out Great Aunt B's horses

17 weeks

Going for a walk

LT is now a side sleeper in her big girl crib and sleeping through the night! 

(Although that last part is nothing new!)

Playing with Daddy

4 weeks

Mom had a surgery consult today...4 weeks away. I think we all were hoping for the slightest chance that this wouldn't happen. Good news is that the radiation has done it's job and did shrink the tumor. This will make the job of removing tumor easier. Bad news is that there is no way to take only the tumor which means a colostomy is eminent. That was certainly not out first choice but the doctor was pretty positive that he would get it all. After surgery they will do chemo and radiation again. What a journey!
On a lighter note, Miss LT had her first giggling fit this weekend. We had a friend visiting and mom was telling a story. She forgot the name of something and hit her leg 3 times really fast and LT just started giggling! I even captured part of it on video! If I can figure out how to post a video but for now here are a few photos...
** UPDATED I forgot to mention, mom need's some visitors! If you are in the neighborhood, stop by for a short visit. She doesn't have the energy for a long visit so just 5 minutes will do. She had so much fun visiting and laughing with a girlfriend Sunday night, I think it would be great for her if it continues! Oh and remember she's back at the house, if u need the address let me know.

Crazy busy life

I have neglected this blog in the past few weeks, sorry! Life has been busy to say the least. LT and I have been on the road every weekend in the past 2 months! We have been visiting mom and even took a trip to the cities to visit my BFFs and attend a bridal shower! Yay for weddings! This past weekend we stayed in town to go to a baby shower for LT's BFF RM. RM is 6 weeks younger than LT and is smaller than LT was at birth! So fun to hold a small baby!
Mom has 1 week left of radiation as of today! She has taken a leave from work so she can rest. This was a tough decision to come to but she says she finally understands what fatigue is! She also moved back home on mother's day so we have been busy getting the house organized and unpacked.
Mother's day we went to church then had brunch with mom, my grandma, and aunt and uncle and their family. It was so nice to have family around and of course for them to meet LT! She also got to meet her uncle Dan who stayed with us for a few days!
LT is now 14 weeks and is growing like a weed! At 3 months she weighs 15 lbs and is 25 inches! She is sitting up and holding her neck! She still doesn't like tummy time and prefers gorilla time (tummy time on mommy and daddy's chests). She got a jumparoo a couple weeks ago and loves it! She is memorized by the flashing lights and sounds and is figuring out how to jump! She is wearing 6 month clothes now!

Week 1 Update

One week down of mom's 6 week treatment plan. She had her ups and downs this week but certainly ended on a high note. She was surprised by her sorority sisters cleaning up the yard at the house. This was such a huge task, we had no idea how we were going to get it done before listing the house for sale. See the article from The Forum. Thank you AGD!!!

Mom did have to take a sick day from work after her infusion hit her hard. But after two days of rest she was ready to go again. LT and I visited mom for the weekend and got lots of cuddle time in!

More great news, my big bro is flying in tomorrow to spend a week with mom and of course meet lil LT!! We are so very excited!

Lots of people are continuing to ask how they can help and I am having a hard time answering. Some have mentioned wanting to bring supper to mom. Currently she is working 1pm - 9pm at the store and has every other weekend off. I am looking into the option of using a online site called Meal Train. I will post more info on that soon. Food is kind of a funny thing for mom. She cannot tolerate any cold, even salads are not good. She also likes lots of flavor to minimize the metallic taste in her mouth. This site allows preferences to be set up and schedules made so that it is all organized in one place. Again more to come later.

Daddy sent me this pic of LT while I was at work today. She had grown so much and is now 10 weeks! Check out how short her pants are, I guess we will have to call them capris! Sorry it's a little blurry, it's from a cell phone.

Ok, enough for now. Time to get the baby to sleep and of course momma too! You know they say to sleep when the baby sleeps!

A Happy Monday!

Great news today! Mom's PET scan results came back and the liver is not involved!!! Woohoo!! Finally some good news!

Just a quick update today, mom went in this morning for a walk through of her treatments and got 3 tattoos for the radiation markers. She always told us never get tattoos, I guess never say never! Tomorrow she goes in for an infusion of a pre-therapy drug, which they called a jump start. Then the radiation starts Wednesday for 30 minute treatments along with chemotherapy to be done at the same time.

All for now. I'll try and do a bigger post for Leah later today.

It's my party

And I'll cry if I want too.
Pity party alert! When I'm stuck in a pity party with a good cry I always think of this song. I associate it with a movie from my childhood. Funny thing is that I actually think of the wrong movie. For some reason I think of 'My Girl' but its really from  'Problem Child'.

Anyways... What's really on my mind is my mom.

Mom with lil LT a few hours after LT was born

My mom is an amazing woman! We have been through a lot in the last few years and she has always been so strong. Now that I am a mother myself, I have a better appreciation for everything she has done for her family. Unfortunately at the beginning of the month mom was diagnosed with cancer. It started with a routine check up at the doctor where she realized she has not had a colonoscopy. Recommendations are to have one at the age of 50, mom is 56.  So they scheduled a colonoscopy and since I was still on maternity leave, lil LT and I made the trip to take mom to her procedure. She needed a driver due to the meds they used anyways. Well right away the doc said he saw a polyp that he thought looked cancerous. They took a biopsy and would call with the results. Meanwhile they scheduled an appointment with an Oncologist for the next week anyway. 
Sure enough the biopsy came back cancerous. The next week the Oncologist told us that it was an adenocarcinoma and diagnosed her with rectal cancer. He had asked if she had any symptoms or history that could contribute to the diagnosis. My mom is a very healthy person and takes good care of herself. She eats well and exercises regularly. The only thing I could think of was the high level of stress she has been under due to the death of my father in December. Sure enough the doc said to not stress out about having high stress...If only it were that easy! So he told us he knew where it was and what the tumor was but he could not tell the stage of the tumor. And of course the procedure to determine how involved the tumor is has to be done in the cities. It surprised us that even with the large medical presence in town this was not available. But the way I see it, we want to best treatment so we want to see the beat docs.
This was scheduled for the next week so lil LT and I packed up again for a road trip. The doc in the cities also ordered a CT scan and this was done the Monday before our road trip. Mom had her endoscopic ultrasound and the doc was able to tell us right away that it was stage three involving at least 1 lymph node. He suggested chemo and radiation as the location would prove to be difficult to operate on. Mom had an appointment scheduled for the following Monday with her Oncologist at home so a treatment plan would be determined then.
Well at this appointment we learned that the CT scan showed lesions on mom's liver. What another shock! This is unknown if it is cause for concern or not so a PET scan was scheduled immediately for today. We are praying that it is just fatty tissue so we do not have to worry about it! If that is the case then mom will start treatment next week. A radiation walk through is Monday and chemo is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Mom said it's scheduled for 2 1/2 hours and predicted she will have lots of time sitting during her treatments. I told her she needs some good books to read!

So that's where we are now... (PS this was a fast post so I could get an update out, sorry if there are errors in spelling)

My baby is 2 months!

Today lil LT is 2 months old! Which also means today was my first official day in the office. My employer gave me 6 weeks maternity leave with 2 weeks working from my home office. That was so nice to help with the transition and I must say that today wasn't so bad going back to work!

I had to take a little time off in the middle of my day to take Leah to the doctor, daddy could have taken her but I had a check up as well. My little girl has grown so much! She is now 24 3/4 inches -the 99th percentile, 12 lbs 12 oz -the 94th percentile, and her head circumference is 16 cm -98th percentile! Needless to say she was never such a little baby but because she is so long she doesn't look quite as big as her weight would show.

She also had 4 vaccines at our visit; 1 oral and 3 shots! She was such a trooper and only cried for a moment before momma's cuddles and a bottle quickly soothed her!

LT has a bit of cradle cap but her doc recommended 1% hydrocortizone cream. Should clear it up quickly! Daddy was afraid he would have to buy some head and shoulders for her!

In the past few days I have noticed LT accidently rolling from her tummy to her back! This was quite the excitement! She also has the cutest smiles and is talking with coos more and more!

Lovin Bath Time

Rollin...

Cute lil lady bug

Future volleyball blocking hands!

Hello My Name is...

Today I decided to finally create this thing. I had been thinking about starting a blog for a while now but never hit the create button. I think what finally made me start is I feel like life is changing so much for me right now that I need a place where I can sort it all out. Let me explain...

I am a wife and a new mom. Almost 3 years ago I married my best friend and God blessed us with a beautiful baby girl at the end of February. Like anyone will say, this is a huge change in our lives. She is growing so fast and hitting milestones all the time! I want to record anything and everything that baby LT does but I am not very good at writing them down. We are very close with our family but don't have everyone close by and I want to be able to share with them.

My family has been though a lot in the last few years and we have recently learned of another trial God has placed in front of us. I am hoping that writing this blog will help me process it all. In December we buried my father at the age of 55.  Just before Easter this year my mom was diagnosed with cancer after a routine colonoscopy.

So where do I start? It's just a day in my life...