Lily is a fourth grader!

Lily started fourth grade today. I can't believe she is that old!!! Wow...it seems like not long ago I was dropping her off at her first day of kindergarten. She had a great first day. A couple of her good friends are in her class and her teacher loves peace signs so Lily thinks that is cool. The classroom is decorated in dogs and her teacher refers lovingly to her class as the "dog pound." So Lily gets a kick out of that!

Ivy and I are officially on our own during the day! I look forward to getting into a better routine so that I can get more, or anything, done during the day. My goal for tomorrow is just to take a shower! Oh, and pump more than once...that would be really helpful! So if someone can let Ivy know that she should nap so mom can pump, shower and eat that would be nice. I keep trying to tell her but she doesn't listen to me....it's all about her!

Newest member

I want to introduce you to the newest member of Ivy's NAMMY WAHMY....it's her Nasal Stent! This is permanently attached to her NAM with a wire. It is made from a softer acrylic material than the rest of her NAM so we have to be careful not to damage it. The purpose of it is to help shape the cartilage in her nostril as she grows so that after surgery both of her nostrils will be rounded instead of having a flat nostril on her cleft affected side. She has adjusted very nicely to it. She only seems bothered by it if it slips into her nose a little too far but that is easily fixed with some Fixodent on her NAM.

The orthodontist said that it will be about 7-9 more weeks before her surgery. They are going to be scheduling it soon. I don't really want to think about it but it is coming quick!

Craniofacial Acceptance Month

Did you know that September is Craniofacial Acceptance Month? Well now you do! You can check out this website, http://www.ccakids.com/, to learn more about various craniofacial conditions. Cleft lip and palate are the most common but there are many others. So let's celebrate all the faces out there: big, small, short, tall, clefted and not. Happy Craniofacial Acceptance Month!!!

Our Cloth Adventure!

This past weekend we (well, I) finally started using cloth diapers on Ivy. I had planned on doing it from the start but with everything else going on it was just too much. Now that things are settling down I am getting to it. Some of you know that I also used cloth diapers on Lily. I was frugal then and just used prefold and covers. That is just a rectangular piece of cotton cloth with a bunch of padding in the middle that you lay inside a waterproof cover. I really didn't know that there were any other types of cloth diapers until a couple years ago. Oh my goodness it is so overwhelming!!! I decided to wait to purchase a bunch until Ivy was here so I could figure out what works best for her. I have found that the prefolds are just too bulky. My sweet friend Angie gave me some super cute "fitted" diapers which you put on just like a disposable but using velcro and then put a cover on them. (She also made some fun printed diaper covers with matching shirts. The covers fit great but the tops are a little big. I can't wait until Ivy can fit them!!!) ...back to the fitteds......So of course I have to find more because they are working great. They also have diapers that are super cute that you don't need to put a cover on. These are called "All in Ones." Well, now I am obsessed. I won't even tell you how many I have purchased or am planning on purchasing this week! It is crazy! But it will still be cheaper than disposables in the end! I have been looking for deals and buying some used so that is keeping the cost down. I will probably get a few more before my spending spree is done and then we will be set for a while. I am pretty sure Ivy is going to want more cloth diapers for Christmas though!
Just had to share...oh, and if you have used cloth diapers and have a brand you want to recommend please do so!!!

An update..finally!

It's been a while since I posted here. Miss Lillian turned 9 years old a couple of weeks ago. She is growing up so fast. In a couple of weeks she will be a big old fourth grader! The time has flown by. She is just an awesome kid and I love her so much!

Today Ivy went up to the hospital for another adjustment to her NAM. The doc says everything looks great. Ivy did so well! She basically slept through the whole appointment. I was wearing her in the pouch and she was sleeping. I put her down on the little table thing and the doc took her NAM out and looked in her mouth with his Q-tips. She didn't love that but as soon as he was done I picked her up and bounced with her and she fell asleep. When the doc was finished with the adjustment I put her back down and she barely peeped her eyes open when he put the NAM back in. So that was fabulous. Usually there are some big tears for this appointment. The doc informed me that next week when she goes in for her adjustment, he will put in her nasal stint. That is a small ball that will be attached to her NAM and go up into her nose. It will help shape the cartilage in her left nostril to be more rounded. I am interested to see what that will look like and interested to see how that will affect how we do things with Ivy. Hopefully it won't be too much different but we will see.

Ok....that's about enough for now. I am sure I will have more to say soon.

Peep show

I thought many of you might get a kick out of this...
I wanted to make sure to pump today right before Ivy's appointment since I knew we would be in there about 3 hours. So instead of bringing my manual pump in the car with me I decieded to bring my electric pump with a car adapter. This way I could make sure to really drain the milk so that I could last longer before the next pump. We ended up being really early for the appointment so we pulled off onto the side of the road at this scenic pull out spot on the way to Doernbecher. I put a balanket in the window facing traffic and started the process. I took off my shirt and took of my bra. I lowered my cami and put on my fabulous hands free pumping bra. If you have never seen one of these you should google it....they are funny looking but oh so handy! While I am getting this all ready, Chris take Ivy out of the carseat and is walking around outside. As I am putting the hands free bra on I see Chris walk by the car....only it wasn't Chris....Oops! I think this innocent man talking a walk up the hill got an eyefull of my breasts in my fab hands free bra! Needless to say I was a little more careful after that!!!

Hearing Test

Today we went back over to Doernbecher for another hearing test. This is the third time we have been there for her hearing so I was kind of expecting her to have a hearing loss. She failed her first newborn hearing test due to excess fluid in her ears. So a few weeks later we had to go in for an Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test. We were instructed to postpone a feeding and nap so she would be super hungry and tired. Despite this, it took a while for her to fall asleep. Once she was asleep the test could being. The audiologist, who is awesome, put little electrodes on Ivy's earlobes, her forehead and right shoulder. Then they put little earphones in her ears and send various sounds and different frequencies and decibels in to her ears. The test measures how her cochlea, auditory nerve and brainstem respond to the sounds. The results of the first test indicated that she may have a mild hearing loss in the right ear and the reading in the left ear was not clear enough to give a good results so we would have to come back when Ivy was older and hopefully the fluid in her ears would be gone and her system would be more mature. We were there about 4 hours for that visit.
Today we went back for the second ABR. Ivy was much more sleepy this time so she was asleep within ten minutes of getting in the room. This is after she projectile vomited all over Chris in the waiting room...that was fun. This time the audiologist was able to get clearer pictures and therefore more accurate results. After holding a sleeping Ivy for 3 hours the audiologist told us that Ivy appears to have normal hearing in her right ear and close to normal hearing in her left ear! She was also able to redo one of the original tests that Ivy had failed at her newborn screening and the results were normal. The audiologist was really happy with the results.
It is a great thing because with Ivy's cleft palate, her speech development may be delayed. So at least we can rule out a hearing loss when we are looking into her speech development.