Bree's First Birthday

Her birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, so everyone had work and school.  On Saturday a cold that she had been fighting started to sound worse and she wasn't sleeping as well as she normally would.  That being sad, she wasn't sleeping horribly either, just not well.  She was also slightly more clingy, but aren't we all when we are sick?

On the morning of her birthday I tried my darnedest to get a picture of her in her birthday outfit.  She really did not want to cooperate.  During the day we took her over to the store to pick out a balloon.  I'm not sure who liked it more--Finn or Bree.  And finally when everyone came home, we had her little "party".  She tried pizza for dinner for the first time and really seemed to enjoy it.  And then she had chocolate cake for dessert.  She got a few fun presents and really just enjoyed having the spotlight all on her with everyone playing with her.  She had so much fun that it seemed she didn't want to go to bed.

Well.....that's what I thought.  I took her to her 12 month well-check on Friday (3 days later) and when we checked in I told the nurse she was sick and that we weren't going to do immunizations that day because I was concerned about her.  When the doctor came in, I talked to her for a bit and told her that at Urgent Care the previous month (when we all had bronchitis and got antibiotics except for Bree) the doctor said she couldn't see her ear drums because there was wax in the way and since she wasn't presenting like she had an ear infection she didn't want to go digging around in her ears.  Well, the pediatrician removed the wax for us and wouldn't you know, poor baby had two very, very bad infections.  Poor baby!  The numbing drops helped her for the rest of the day and within about 36 hours of starting antibiotics she was back to her happy, playful self.  I hadn't even realized how bad she was feeling and I felt awful about it.

Anyway, she did enjoy her birthday.  At the first 12-month well check she weighed 15 pounds 12 ounces and was 28 inches long.  We went back for immunizations and a weight check two weeks later and she was up to 16 pounds.  She started eating and drinking better once she was feeling better, go figure.

As for skills, at 12 months she was not taking steps or standing independently.  She could, but she was a chicken.  If she realized that she was standing alone she would sit down real fast.  She was a decent cruiser but was not interested in walking.  She could follow a couple of simple commands which always surprised me (such as "come here", "clap", etc.) and she made sounds that sounded as if she was imitating our words.  There were several times I was convinced that she had said, "I get it!" or "I did it!", but she really doesn't talk that well so it didn't make sense to have those moments of clarity.  She could say "mama", "daddy", "bah" (for bye or peek-a-boo), "this", and "that".  She also had 3 teeth at 12 months old.  Two on the bottom and the top left central incisor.

We love her so much!  (I seriously took over 100 pictures this day.)

My attempt at distracting her with toys to get a good shot.

Excitement over the large chocolate cake.  This girl can spot chocolate very quickly!

The concerned look over the flame.

Presents!

Some of you may recognize this as the helicopter that we got Kai for his 1st birthday.  A couple of years ago I cleaned and stored all of the baby toys to be used again.  So, we went shopping in the toy bin for Bree's "new toys".  She doesn't know the difference.  She LOVES the helicopter!

Yep, all of these presents were recycled ones.  And she LOVES them all!  Cheapest birthday ever.

Easter 2014

Easter was the last big holiday that Bree had not yet celebrated.  So, of course that means every picture I took on Easter was of Bree!  Honestly, I didn't take that many pictures.  We do have video of the egg hunt, but that is long and relatively uninteresting to everyone else.

The day before Easter we dyed eggs, which is something that the boys look forward to.

Waiting for the eggs

Goofing around while they wait

Pretty eggs

And then Easter morning we had an egg and basket hunt.  Bree's basket was right in the middle of the room since she can't really "hunt".  The boys had a good time finding their baskets and it actually took a little more time than normal this year, which was fun.  Bree's basket was a giraffe and despite her new found love of chocolate, she was quite nervous about the giraffe and really did not want to have anything to do with it.  It made me laugh.

I tried to get a picture of Bree in her dress after church (since we were running late before church) but she was tired and not really willing to pose.  She looked adorable, though.

Trying to find her bow

Bow found and successfully pulled out

And then I put it back and the game began again

Finally gave up for a second

The program at church was beautiful and a great reminder of our Savior's sacrifice for us.  The boys are getting old enough to start to understand some of it and so it's interesting to have more in-depth conversations with them about church and the gospel.  The suprise me with their questions at times, and I just hope that I come up with an age-appropriate answer for them.

At the end of the day we had a yummy Easter dinner of ham and potatoes.  It was a beautiful day!

Where to Start?

So much has happened in the last two months that it is overwhelming to think about catching up the blog.  But I need to.  We love having this blog to look back on and keep as a family journal.  So, I need to update it.  Here it goes.

At the end of Spring Break Kai was diagnosed with bronchitis.  And then slowly everyone started getting sick.  Eventually, Reid, Kai, Finn, and Bree all got it.  I got a head version of something but I thankfully did not get the worst part of it.  I slept on the couch going between the boys and Bree for a couple of nights.  I did not get much sleep at all.  And I washed my hands like crazy and prayed really hard that Heavenly Father would keep me healthy to take care of the kids.  Thankfully my prayers were answer.  Finn got an antibiotic and increased treatments.  Reid and Kai got z-packs.  Poor Bree did not get any medications from Urgent Care.  And since we were all getting sick, Bree didn't get an 11 month post or really any 11 month pictures.  This is the only one I managed to grab on her 11 month day.

And I got this video.  As you can see, by 11 months she had started waving, clapping her hands, and blowing kisses.  She could do them on request and melted my heart every single time.

Then the beginning of April arrived.  That first week we were all recovering from being sick and so we didn't get out or do much at all.  The second week of April is when we had the ENT follow-up.  Finn's sinus CT showed that he had inflammation and infection particularly bad on his right side.  He recommeded surgery with a one-night stay at the hospital.  I will admit to being skeptical, but as he showed me that the bone under Finn's right eye had shifted and was thinning out, I decided to trust him for a bit.  He said the fact that the bone was thinning indicated that the infection had been there for some time.  The conversation wasn't long at that point and Reid and I decided to schedule the surgery.  The doctor's first available appointment wasn't until May 23rd (today).  If we didn't take that appointment we would have to wait until the middle of June.  So, we took it.

Also that first week in April, we had a give-back night Fundraiser at our local Freddy's.  It was fun to eat dinner with some good friends and in the process we raised $71 for CF.

We had some good weather that week and enjoyed some time outside.

It was a bit windy this particular day.  This is a park right next to the Children's Colorado Outpatient Building in Colorado Springs.  You can see the building behind the kids.

Water Ballons!

This cracked me up.  Bree didn't want to put her feet on the grass.  She kept alternating what foot she had in the air.  She was too funny!

Say "Cheese!"

She finally relented and stopped tugging at her sunhat.

The week before Easter this girl discovered chocolate.  Shoot!

She loved it!

After holding her foot up in the grass, she learned that it can be a useful tool for balancing her toys.  She spent a half hour one day perfecting this.  Notice the "ta-da" pose with the right hand.  She was VERY proud of herself.

Kai had no school on Good Friday so we used the time to go on a little family "hike".  This is the Santa Fe trail near our house.  Turned out it wasn't great for Bree's stroller and I forgot a hat for Finn.  By this point he was on constant antibiotics and I was worried he would burn so we were only out for about 45 minutes.  I wish I had thought that through a little more!

That takes us up to Easter.  33 days ago.  How much can one family do in 33 days?  Two CF fundraisers, Easter, a wedding anniversary, three birthdays in the house, teacher appreciation day, several volunteer hours at school, two pediatrician visits, GREAT STRIDES, Mother's Day, Reid working countless hours of overtime, and I'm sure there's more.  Clearly I'm going to need to start another post!

Spring Break

I had big plans for Spring Break.  I had places to go every day that the kids would love, things to do at home for the in-between times, etc.  And then Monday of Spring Break arrived and Kai had a cough.  By Wednesday he couldn't stop coughing and by Friday he was diagnosed with bronchitis.  Yep, goodbye to Spring Break plans.  We still had a great time at the house, though, and it really wasn't all that bad.  Of course, Kai shared his virus with all of us and so the last week has been full of antibiotics, breathing treatments, runs to Urgent Care and sleeping on the couch for me so that I could go in-between kids' rooms at night to help out.  I'm grateful that the Lord answered my numerous prayers and spared me from getting a horrible case of it so that I could take care of the kiddos.  Bree is starting to impove and so is Finn, thank goodness.

Anyway, on Monday of Spring Break we went to the mall.  We stopped ath the Pet store, rode the Monkey Train, and had ice cream at Baskin Robbins.  At the Pet store an employee brought a Golden Doodle puppy right up to Bree to meet.  She didn't get scared at all but was very intrigued.  I was impressed with her reaction.  And on the Monkey Train, Bree was in heaven.  She LOVED it.  She actually really liked the mall it general.  It was a fun outing.

The boys on the Monkey Train

Bree staring out the window of the train

Yay for Kai being able to take pictures for me!

We also got to go to the zoo with friends on Tuesday, but I didn't take any pictures of that.  That was our last outing before Kai got seriously sick.  So.....yeah, that's the end of this post!  :)

Random (and not very good) Playtime Pictures

Finn isn't exactly cooperative for pictures anymore

Breen is really enjoying balls.

I was trying to get a cute picture of her in a purple outfit with a purple ball.  She had other ideas!

Finn and I used every spare blanket we could find to build a fort one afternoon.  He LOVED it!

March CF Clinic

Finn had his quarterly CF clinic visit on Monday March 3rd.  I will admit to being nervous going into this visit as he had been on antibiotics three times in the three months since our December visit.  He goes on antibiotics quite frequently, as do most people who battle CF, as a precautionary measure.  Anytime he gets a cold that results in him coughing for more than 2-3 days, his doctor likes him to go on antibiotics.  The purpose behind the antibiotics isn't to clear the cold (or virus) that he is fighting but rather to discourage any bad bacteria from taking up residence in the sticky mucus that his body produces as it fights the virus.  I honestly feel that Finn has had mostly clean cultures and is not culturing any bad "super bugs" because we have been so generous with the antibiotics.  He cultured Staph for 6 months or so last year and I feel somewhat responsible for that as I allowed to him to try to clear a cold on his own last summer without antibiotics (simply because I worried about overuse and building resistance).  Anyway, I've learned my lesson.  His culture taken at this March clinic came back clean.  So, we have finally gotten ridden of the Staph!!  Yay!

At the visit in March he also attempted PFTs (Pulmonary Function Tests) for the second time.  Because the laptop was unavailable he had to actually leave our clinic room and go to the testing room.  They had him gown up for this and he loved it!  He called it a cape and hopped his way down the hall!  He tried hard and came close to actually getting a good reading for us, but not quite.  I actually think I figured out what we forgot to tell him and so I'm hoping that in June we may actually get a good reading.  Crossing my fingers!

attempting PFTs

Anyway, because of all of the antibiotic needs and his sinus-like symptoms, his doctor referred us to an ENT.  We visited with the ENT just a few days later.  That visit did not go as smoothly as I would have liked (insert screaming baby Bree, Finn who didn't want to fully cooperate, etc.) but we did get a good discussion with the doctor.  Finn had a sinus CT taken two years ago that showed all of his sinuses with complete opacification.  (in other words they were totally full)  As a result of that CT, we had his adenoids removed and began using Flonase daily.  Because of this CT and all of his recent sinus-like symptoms, the doctor thought we needed to go ahead with another sinus CT.  He thought we should try to do it as soon as we had finished a round of antibiotics so that we could see how good his sinuses could be with all of the proper treatments.  Unfortunately, we didn't get in to the CT as soon as we should have, but we did get it done.  It took us longer to schedule the CT because we were coordinating with the CF doctor to decided where and how to do it.  The ENT recommended sedation and both CF clinic and I wanted to avoid that.  We ended up driving to a brand new Children's Hospital Facility in Highlands Ranch (south side of Denver) that had a super fast machine.  It only had to circle around one time to get the picture!  And I talked to Finn about it several days ahead of time and bribed him with whatever he wanted (he chose ice cream).  He did FANTASTIC!  The day of the CT I showed him some pictures of a CT machine on the computer and of a person laying down inside of it.  When we got there he took his coat and hat off and jumped right on up to the bed.  The room had a children's projector with images on the ceiling that he loved.  His only request was that I stay in the room with him.  I was allowed to hold his hand, but he told me he didn't need that.  I was so proud of him!  I talked him through it and it was fast and painless.  And then the CT tech let him pick from a mountain of really awesome toys (picture full on Lego sets here!).  He chose an Angry Birds puzzle and a sticker and was the happiest boy in the hospital that day.  We walked in at 2:10 for a 2:30 appointment and walked out (with Finn waving to everyone that we passed) at 2:30pm.  It was a great experience.

The brand new Children's facility

Being a CT rockstar

Prizes!

Anyway, we are now awaiting CT results.  I will admit to being nervous as we did not go right when the round of antibiotics was finished and I am not sure that we remembered to do his Flonase the night before the scan.  And then just days after the scan he was very sick.  Sooooooo........I'm nervous that the scan is going to show opacification again and that the doctors will interpret that to be his constant state when it may not be.  I'm crossing my fingers for better results.

10 Months?

So, Bree turned 10 months old on.....well, I don't know when.  I've never had a situation where a birthday doesn't always exist in every month.  With her birthday being the 29th, and February having no 29, I decided she turned 10 months old on March 1st.  But it was funny to think that she was turning 10 months in March and then 12 months in April.  So.....yeah, decide what you'd like.  I have no idea how moms with babies born on a 31st do it!

Anyway, the time between 9 and 10 months was great for Bree.  At her 9 month well-check, she had  a complete oral aversion.  She would not allow anything to go near her mouth AT ALL.  And she would not babble or make any sounds other than coos or squeals.  I debated on the feeding and speech therapy and when the hospital called to set up the evaluation I told them that I was hesitant.  So, the scheduler had me talk with the head therapist.  We decided that Bree's oral issues very likely could be related to an episode of constipation that she experienced in early December after she had really started to take to solid foods and do well with them.  But it was hard to say for sure.  The therapist talked me into scheduling an evaluation and my thought was that it was so far out that if things got better I could cancel beforehand.  Well, about mid-way through the month we started making some really good progress.  I dropped one nursing session and my supply tanked (again!) and she finally started taking food again.  By the end of the month she was eating two solid meals a day.  As much as I would love to be able to let her take it at her own pace, my body just can't keep nursing her and so I'm glad she's finally willing to accept solids again.  Of course, by solids I mean stage 2 or stage 1 baby food.  But hey, it's progress.  She still won't accept bites of table food, but we are working on that.  The longest my body has been able to nurse was with Kai and I made it until he was about 10 1/2 months old.  So, we will see what happens and just keep plugging along.  With all of the pumping that I have done since August (and I still pump twice a day) I have enough milk stored that I just might make it until her 1st birthday.  I had extra milk and was putting it away in the freezer up until about Christmas, and since then I've been slowly using up the supply.  It's going to be close, but I just might have enough.  So, that's great that is working out, too.

And as for speech, someone "flipped her switch".  She is babbling up a storm and imitating sounds.  It's so cute to hear her little voice finally.  She still has times where she is quite quiet but there are times when she just talks and babbles and it's adorable.  Her very first word was "Hi!" said with only an exhale of air and she started that quiet young (around 7 months or so) as it seems we all say "Hi" to her when we go to see her and pick her up.  Her second word, though, has been "Dada" which made Reid super happy.  It kind of sounds more like "Zaah Zaah" to me, but she definitely uses it for Reid.

As for her weight, according to my scale she did not gain a single ounce between 9 and 10 months old.  So, we have some work to do there.  She continues to eat one time a night (sometimes two) and she takes two naps a day (normally at least an hour and half each).  She crawls everywhere!  (as you can tell from the pictures she is in constant motion)  And she can pull herself up to a stand on just about anything.  She loves watching her brothers take baths and would crawl right into the tub with them if she could.

Oh, and I almost forgot, she learned to wave this month.  That has to be one of my most favorite things.  She did it the first time while we were playing on the XBox.  To get the Kinect started you have to wave at it, and she heard me tell the boys to wave and watched them do it so many times that one time she crawled right over next to Kai and just started doing it, too.  It's adorable because she does a full arm wave.  I've tried to get a video but she won't stay on the other side of the camera!

Anyway, it's been a great month for Bree.  I did end up canceling her evaluation as she is doing so well.  Now we just need to work on that weight issue.  At this rate, it's going to be difficult to get her to 16.5 pounds before her birthday.  Eeekkkkk!