Crazy Life

It's been such a whirlwind. I moved us out of our apartment the first week of June, and flew out to California to meet B when he finished up his outprocessing in Georgia. Two weeks in Cali and he was finallly back with us! We spent another two weeks between there and Nevada and then we were finally heading back to Hawaii.

We're currently staying at the Navy Lodge on Ford Island (part of Pearl Harbor Naval Base) waiting for our home to open up on Hickam AFB. We'll be moving into our house on THIS FRIDAY - YAY!!!!!

Meanwhile, we're getting back in the hang of family life. We took advantage last Sunday to go out and drive out to the northwestern part of the island. We found a neat area that didn't seem to get much traffic and showed Garin the tide pools - it was a good time.

Checking out the fish and crabs in the tidepool:

Cool tide pool:

We're also back in our crazy appointment cycle. Brianna met with the pediatric neurologist and the feeding time. The neurologist checked her kidney function (okay) and had them take blood to send off for genetic testing. It'll take a few weeks to get the results back from that. They sent some off for chromosonal testing, and others off for other genetic testing - there are hundreds of different possibilities there. If those show anything abnormal then B and I will get testing to compare the results. Yipee.

The feeding team was interesting. It includes the pediatric neurologist, a child psychologist, the nurse for the GI doctor, the speech pathologist and a nutritionist. Dr. Pederson (the neurologist) suggested that she may have GERD (reflux) and put in a prescription for that - we start her on that today. Hopefully this will help her gain weight. She doesn't spit up a lot, but has other flags for reflux, and it's possible that once the reflux kicks in, she stops eating and just snacks all day and never quite gets the calories she needs. Which is possibly why at 10 1/2 months she's only 13 pounds.

The speech pathologist also told me that her muscle tone weakness also seems to extend to the muscles in her mouth and esophogus, so we're going to continue to stick with the baby food. It takes her a while to eat it, since she doesn't really use her tongue and swallowing muscles ver well.

The nutritionist also instructed me to feed her solids more often (she can only handle baby food at this point) - about every 2-3 hours, since she can only eat about 2 ounces at a time. The child psychologist wanted me to "replace" two of the times I nurse with feeding her baby food. I had to bite my tongue, because that made no sense to me at all. Her reasoning was that for her psycho-social development she needs to focus on eating solids and less on breastfeeding. Which I could maybe get if she was over a year and we wanted to focus on her feeding herself, but to me, I don't quite get how spooning baby food into her mouth over nursing her will help her psycho-social development. But whatever.

I AM however adding some powdered formula to her jarred baby food (at the suggestion of the nutritionist) to bulk up the calories, which makes sense to me (breastmilk would thin it out and kill the consistency). Once I able to make my own babyfood again I'll use breastmilk when I can since it has more calories and better nutritional value than formula, but for now this method makes sense.

I'm giving her baby food about 4-5 times a day right now, she's totally not interested first thing in the morning, but it seems that as the day goes on, the more she likes to eat - and she DOES enjoy it, lurching towards the spoon with open mouth. But she can only do so much before she starts to cough and sputter, and then I "top her off" by nursing her. I nurse her whenever she wants, because she can certainly use it, and she needs it.

But she is doing so much better. My next post will be highlighting all about the things I have to be thankful for, because she IS improving and it's not all gloom and doom. =)

Garin had his speech evaluation two weeks ago. No surprises there. His ability to understand language and follow directions is right on target, but everyone else's ability to understand what HE'S saying, well, not so great. He has a difficult time translating what he hears into proper pronunciation, so he has some speech idiosyncracies (his hearing is fine, however). His vocabulary is great, and he speaks short phrases, he's just ridiculously difficult to understand. He mis-matches a lot of his consonants (he replaces many sounds with f-, g-, k- sounds). But he's getting speech therapy, and the speech pathologist was confident that with some work, he'll be right on track, so that's good!!

So that's it for now. I plan on posting in the next couple days with LOTS of pictures showing how great Brianna is doing!!

God bless!!

A Day at the Zoo

Last Thursday we went to the Honolulu Zoo. I bought our annual pass ($30!) and I've decided to make this at least a bi-monthly occurance. It gets us out and Garin LOVES to look at the animals. Since I pack a lunch it's a very inexpensive occurance. Less than $1 for parking!!

I'd like to point out that Garin knew many of the animal names courtesy of Eric Carle's books.

Pointing out the pink Flamingos (King-go)

Garin thought the tortoises were really cool. He came back later and accidentally donated his apple to them. I figured it was okay since they were over at a big pile of fruits and vegetables that included apples. Garin calls them Kuh-kahs

Love this picture of Garin looking at the giraffe (Ja-yaf)

Really cool video of a rare sighting of a hippo out of the water - Garin thought it was really cool until the hippo came up to the window. That kind of freaked him out.

Garin checking out the elephants on our way out of the zoo. Garin refers to them as "phants"

Garin with the goats - note the one at the end butting him - TOO funny!

Mealtime Progress

One of Brianna's challenges has been feeding. She has struggled to gain weight since she was three months old. I found out when she was six months old that she had a weak suck, which was making it difficult for her to draw milk from me. On top of that, she has a severe gag reflex that prevented me from supplementing her with pumped milk or introducing solids to beef up her caloric intake.

So we seem to have been successful in getting her to be able to nurse better. I believe part of the problem is her sensory issues. She is very sensitive to her environment, and I believe that the energy level at my sister was so high that she couldn't relax, and she was also feeding off of my stress. Since we've moved into our condo, she really seems to be thriving. Between increasing my supply and the relaxing environment, her weight gain seems to be picking up. She really seems to have made some big leaps in her development since we arrived here as well.

We've also embarked on the world of solids. She still can't work food to the back of her mouth, but she's started accepting a spoon in her mouth for a brief period of time, and so far has tasted rice cereal mixed with expressed breast milk and mashed avacado. I wish she had the motor skills to pick up food because I think she would figure it out much better if she could self feed. But she's not gagging as much unless I miss her STOP cues (watery eyes and drool) that indicate a spew is on the way. Today I used the babyfood book my mom got me for Christmas and made some pureed roasted sweet potato. I tasted it and it was yummy! Which meets an important rule I've made - not to make my children eat something I wouldn't eat myself (I made an exception for the rice cereal...) My next endeavor is pureed sweet peas. And while I hate peas, my husband loves them, so I figure that's okay under the rule.

Here's a picture of Brianna sitting in her high chair getting used to her spoon.

Garin wanted in on the picture action too - he's eating his oatmeal (I mix in natual peanut butter and wolfberries YUM!)

I also made the orange puree that the sneaky chef uses. It's a good way to get some added veggies into our meals. It's made of sweet potatoes and carrots. I like to mix it with pasta sauce. It's great with a ton of things though. Mac & cheese, cheese sandwiches, etc. There's also a green puree (spinach, broccoli and peas), a purple puree (spinach and blueberries), a white puree (zucchini and cauliflower) and white bean purees. It's an easy way to get all those extra vitamins and antioxidents and such.

I also wanted to throw in some pics of us breastfeeding, since this will be the most important and her primary source of nourisment for probably at least the next year.

Videos!!!

Here are some videos I took the other day!

Brianna Squealing in delight at her brother

Garin Showing Daddy how much he loves him!

Conversations with a 2-year-old

Brianna is rolling over – and not happy about it!

Garin is trying to figure out what everyone’s name is – and no, Brianna’s name is not “CRY?!”

Garin is sitting on his sister!!! But she thinks it’s funny

The babies are being NOISY!

Garin is stuck!

Another video of silly Garin

Garin trying to “help” Brianna roll over

Just playing with Brianna

Easter Pictures

We had a pretty uneventful Easter Day with just the three of us. I knew if we were going to be able to go to mass, it would have to be the 7am mass. So as soon as Garin woke up I got us ready and out the door. We were only 15 minutes late, mostly because I missed the exit AGAIN and added 10 minutes onto the commute time. The service was PACKED but some kind soul gave up their seats. The kids did pretty well - I never know when I go to mass how I'll be able to handle it if I have Garin trying to run off while Brie is nursing, and there's no nursery. But it went smoothly.


We came back, had some brunch and the kids went down for their naps. I took that time to make Easter dinner. Of course I was the only one who ate any, but it was yummy and I have lots of leftovers to make meals! I made an 8 pound ham, roasted some acorn squash and asparagus and made some steamed baby carrots with a brown sugar glaze. Yummy!


Here are some pics of the kids in their Easter attire. It wasn't fun trying to get crazy Garin to settle down!




No! I don't want to take a picture!! (Brianna kept reaching for him and he was trying to get away, and then she'd cry because he pulled away from her...so sad) =)



Feeling a bit crowded?


Aww, look how sweet we are!


Mommy! Look what I found in the closet!

Mmmm, Easter candy

Brother and Sister

I am constantly amazed by how Garin acts towards his sister, and her response to him. He is incredibly gentle with her. I've tried to instill in him from day one, the importance of being a big brother, and that he needs to cherish his sister and take care of her. I know I'm instilling in him the lessons of how he is to treat women.

It fills me with love and humility when I see how he treats her. When she cries, he gets upset, and says "cry?!" in a really sad voice and points at Brianna. Sometimes he goes and tries to pick her up! When she's doing tummy time, he lays down beside her and talks to her. She thinks Garin is the funniest person alive. She breaks out in a big grin whenever she sees him and laughs at whatever he does. When I'm holding them both, she loves to reach out and grab him, which he thinks is funny, and they both end up breaking out in giggles. He has such a big heart, and she ADORES her big brother.

So today I just wanted to share some pictures of my babies together.

Garin and Brianna the day after she was born:

Garin and Brianna...November 6th
Garin and Brianna...November 13th

Garin and Brianna (December 5th)
Garin and Brianna...December 5th

Don't mess with my sister... December 6th

Me and my sis... December 8th
What IS that face she's making? December 13th

Bathtime fun! January 27th

Helping sister with tummy time...January 5th

Upset because Brianna's in "his" bumbo seat...Jan 7th

Giving Brianna a hug after mommy explains that he needs to share

"Reading" a story to Brianna...Jan 23rd

Giving Brie a hug...March 3rd

Hanging out with sister in our new place...March 31st

Brianna has to make sure she has a hold on mommy AND Garin...April 6th

Making Brianna laugh...

Giving Sister a kiss...

Hanging out... April 9th

Brie laughing at Garin...yesterday

Phew, so NOW where are we?

Okay, needless to say, a lot is going on.

I'm ECSTATIC about being in our own place. It's a furnished apartment, so it's not REALLY my own stuff, so I'm not feeling totally settled. Still, it's nice that Garin has his own room to sleep in. Not a storage closet. And I know Heather is jubilent to have her space back. And man, I couldn't believe how much stuff I had there! Good thing my current place has a garage to keep it in until I can figure out what to do with everything!

The kids are really settling in. Garin loves sleeping in a real bed, not in a crib. The transition went really well. He goes into his bed and lays down and goes to sleep without a hitch. Occasionally I have to go in to tell him to lay down and stop looking out the window, and then he's usually asleep within minutes.

I think it's doing Brianna a lot of good as well. I can really focus on nursing her and helping her get more to eat. And spend time with her and her motor skills. She rolled over for the first time a few days after we moved in. I was so happy! She can't roll from tummy to back yet, but she's managed a way to get from her back to her tummy. Her body kind of stiffens up and she jerks her head around until she gets there, and then works her arm out from under her (it took her about 3-4 days to figure out how to get her arm un-stuck). For a few minutes she can actually look around, push up on her chest as well. She gets frustrated, though, because she can't get anywhere, and can't even roll back over onto her back. And her neck gets tired and she eventually plops back down (after about 5 minutes at the most) and she kind of lays there and cries. But it's a huge progress from where she was.

She lasts a bit longer with the exersaucer. It seems she has less trouble holding herself up when she's being held upright. She actually seems to enjoy herself there.

So we're still in the midst of the diagnostic process for Brie. She met with her new peditrician, Dr. Nguyen last week (or was it the week before?), and he seemed pretty competent and knowledable. And YOUNG. It's weird seeing doctors younger than me. But I guess I am getting older. =) Dr. Nguyen gave us all the refferals we needed. He dod a thorough examination of her. He noted that when standing she has an unusual stance and her legs seemed to be hypertonic (stiff).

I cued in on this right away. These are key words that you find in the symptoms of cerebral palsy. She has her MRI on the 20th. We'll meet back up with Dr. Scurry on the 25th to get the results. I'm about equally terrified and at peace, probably with a good dose of numb thrown in. I don't think anything will really sink in until we get a diagnosis, and there's a decent chance we might never have a cause, just a list of symptoms to address. That's the way it is with theses things sometimes, I guess.

I have a feeling that she has CP. Sometimes it doesn't seem possible. But sometimes it seems glaringly obvious. It just depends on hoe she's doing. But it doesn't really matter because I know who she is. A sweet, sensitive, baby girl who lights up the room with her smile. And it doesn't matter what the diagnosis is - THAT will never change.