Liam - 6 months!

Ocean city and camping

So we went on our first family vacation this summer. We camped about 45 minutes away from Ocean City MD. On the way down we stopped to visit some relatives, went through an awful storm outside of DC, and spent the afternoon at the beach on Thursday, relaxed at the campground and spent time at the beach Friday, and went to Busch Gardens in VA on Saturday. Sunday we came home! Eric's mom came with us and it was great to have her, and also another adult with two children. Liam was so good, he loved being outside and is quite the camper. I was surprised at how well Genni did sleeping outside too. She can't wait to go camping again. We made it through the first night sleeping on foam.....then we bought air mattresses for all of us. I can't seem to post pics right now, but wait till you see how big the waves were!

Food....and Stress

Usually a title like this would mean that I was eating a lot because I was stressed out - not really. Actually sometimes I spend so much time making food that Genni can eat that I forget to make anything for myself. Eric usually does a lot of the cooking and he has been away a lot because of London, so this entry is definitely not about me eating.

About a month ago we noticed that Genni was having reactions that she usually has if she eats something she shouldn't (used to be milk and soy). We thought that first week that something was just contaminated...then the next week I tried to cut wheat out because I thought it happened when she ate bread and wraps and such. Then the next week I cut eggs out because there had been mayo on the wrap too that we noticed her breaking out directly after. Then the next week I cut BOTH of the out. By last Saturday her face was very much improved - actually normal again. Her eczema was clearing up and I was so happy we had found the solution. EXCEPT - that night she had rice noodles and pasta sauce from our garden....that morning her eyes where red again. Did Eric thicken the sauce with some flour? Could be...OK so no more sauce from the garden. Her face still isn't normal a week later. I don't know if it's because it takes awhile to wear off or if something else was contaminated along the way this week. I'm going to eliminate the salami from her diet (although she loves it) till I can figure out if it has any fillers. At this point all the food we make for her is totally allergen free (of the top 8 allergens that make up 90% of the allergies people have). The Dr. refered us to an allergist, but she can't get in with them till the end of December. ADD to that the fact that she has become incredibly picky and doesn't eat much at all during the day....all this equals one worried mama. I just keep applying lotion, looking up recipes, and cleaning the many dishes that are the result of all this baking. Some of the recipes are really good actually - I made pancakes that taste great, red velvet cake tasted great too - going to need to make some kind of pizza for her today because she is going to a birthday party. The flour tortilla's didn't work out that great but I might try them again because she loves wraps. The mayo is OK - bread is still a learning experience. Eric and I both say we don't mind adjusting....we just want to know what it is. Not to mention the fact that her behaviour is worse when she is having a reaction and she itches like she is going through withdrawl!

Well my next project today after I put on some laundry is to make a list of all the things I need to bring from the pantry with us to NH for Thanksgiving...we will tackle eating out and cooking in someone else's house for her. I'm thinking about making up cards for when we go out to eat that list her allergies so that the waitress doesn't have to write it down. Something like : my daughter is 4 and allergic to wheat, egg, milk and soy. Please do not use vegetable oil or butter to cook her meat in - canola oil and olive oil are fine. All my reading indicates that she had a 20% chance of having food allergies because Eric's mom has them - lets hope that Liam falls in to the 80% instead :). As I'm typing this Liam is trying really hard to crawl forward...he moves so fast rolling all over and crab walking on his head and heels while on his back.

Well I caught up on one issue...tomorrow I'll try to get some pictures up from Ocean City/camping and Busch Gardens...Till then!

Anxiety - Performance and Seperation

I know I have a lot of catching up to do - my son is 5 1/2 months old now and the last entry was from when he was born....but for now I'm going to talk about something current:)

This struck me as a good title because it seems both of my children are going through a certain type of anxiety. Liam is at that age where he wants mommy, and only mommy, all the time. In some cases another mommy will suffice, but a boy (daddy, grandpa, or any other guy, especially with facial hair) will result in either a frown and a simpering cry - or an all out scream fest. The cure to the scream fest? Mommy need only walk over and pick him up for immediate smiles. Unfortunately, mommy likes to do things like shower. At least this time around I expect it so it's not as frustrating. And we know he'll grow out of it someday. In the meantime I'll just enjoy being his favorite thing....because eventually they grow up and get other favorite things.

Now Genni's anxiety is performance anxiety. They are doing Thanksgiving stories in preschool and everyone has a line. Of course my child knows hers, she is excellent at memorizing just like her mommy, but she refuses to say it in front of everyone. What do you do? Part of you is a little embarrased that your child is the one who won't cooperate (sorry Genni, just a little, I still love you though). And the rest of you is trying to figure out how to encourage them without pushing and not say the one thing they will always remember that will negatively effect thier ability to say things in front of a group for the rest of their lives. It's a lot of responsibility! Whatever happened to just making sure they were fed and changed and slept! This parenting thing gets harder every year. That and going from being the teacher to being the parent....that is tough.

Well - there is a lot to catch up on, camping trips, Busch Gardens and Ocean City, the marching band season, Eric's trip to London, my gallbladder surgery, Liam's escape from the hospital and first 5 months, school and new classes, Genni starting preschool and turning 4, Halloween etc. But I will try to do that in various posts instead of one huge one. So till next time.....

My First Born is 4

Genni,

My sweet girl, my first child, it's your long awaited 4th birthday. Your Birthday presents where mostly clothes (pink), hair things (pink), books (still pink!) and art supplies and they so fit you. You are such a cute little girly girl. You love dancing, dressing pretty, drawing and painting and writing letters. You just started preschool this year and you love it, I can't wait till open house so I can see what you do at school. You are so tired that you always fall asleep in the car on the way home on school days.

Genni you are such a sweet, sensitive, caring child.

Liam on the mend

So Monday morning comes and we went to see Liam about 6:00 because we know we will be kicked out from 7-9 for shift change - he's sleeping peacefully and so we just watch him for awhile and go back to the room for breakfast and a shower (well at least for me :)) before we go back at 9. So they have just had a shift change and a new admit and the nurse hasn't had a chance to really look at Liam's chart yet. We talk about how I'm anxious to nurse and I get the same old "we'll probably put what you pumped through the IV first to see how he takes it, and you won't be able to nurse till the Sipap comes off" well I said something about how they were talking about taking it off soon and putting the other thing on and she looks at the chart and says "oh! they did change that". So she gets everything ready for the change, takes him off the Sipap to breathe on his own for awhile (this is all about 9:30/10:00) and the dr. comes over for rounds. He says to her "do you think we really need that? He's been doing fine on his own for the last half hour" then he says something about food and the nurse tells him I want to start nursing and he just says "Ok lets do that" YES! I'm so glad we were there or it may have gone differently, but I was so excited that not only would we get to hold him but I could start nursing! So I stayed in the NICU till about noon and he ate on and off for the first hour and a half (making up for lost time), came back to my room for lunch and an hour of sleep before they called me back that he was hungry and he's been nursing every few hours ever since. Even all night...now I am tired but very happy. We will be doing a lot more asking today about when he can go home because I'm going to be discharged sometime today, and we are hopeful for a positive response because he's been fine for so long and he was full term. It really just depends on who the doctor is and what his opinion is I've learned, so we will definitely be there at 9:00 so that we can influence any decision that is made. Hopefully my next post is from home!

Baby Liam

June 6, 2010 Liam Eric Griffin was born at 2:44 AM, weighting in at 6lbs 10.4 oz and measuring 9 3/4 inches he is VERY close to his older sisters measurements when she was born and just as gorgeous. Genni and Liam look a lot alike, both absolutely beautiful children. I will post pictures later, but there aren't too many yet...I'll explain why but I'm going to start at the beginning of the story....

It was a wonderful free weekend in June, usually this is Dairy Festival Parade weekend, but this year the band wasn't doing that parade. Saturday morning Genni woke up all wheezy (she'd had a cough and runny nose for a few days) and Eric wanted to call the Dr, so we brought her into Southern Tier Peds over in Elmira. She had some pneumonia crackles in her lungs so they gave us a nebulizer and antibiotics and she was doing much better by evening. She really was happy all day though. We went to Wegmans to eat lunch and wait for her prescriptions and Genni had mango sorbet that she LOVED. Then mom and dad came over for dinner. When they left they joked about mom having to come back later if I went into labor. Who knew?

So about 10:40 my contractions kicked in immediately at 5 minutes apart - by 11:40 I called the Dr (so happy that Dr. Surosky was on!) and Eric had already called mom to come over. By 12:45 we were at the hospital and the contractions were still 5 minutes apart, and getting very strong. After monitoring me for a little bit they got me all ready to go (IV in the arm and such) I was 4 cm and when the Dr. came in they broke my water (not sure exactly what time that was) I do know that the contractions get A LOT stronger and after about 4 or 5 of them I did wuss out (don't argue with the terminology, I had planned to do it without and didn't make it as far as I wanted to) but no epidural, just some IV drugs, one dose of stadohl? at about 2:15 and then everything happened very quickly. The contractions still hurt a lot but I think the edge was off them, I was like half asleep in between them though from the pain meds - I made myself wake up a bit when some other nurses came into the room to set stuff up for delivery and I was like - really? so soon? I knew once they broke my water they said his head was right there and I just needed to get dialated enough, but I had no idea my contractions where dialating me so quickly. So 4 or 5 contractions was probably about 20 minutes (mabe 1:50 or so) then at 2:15 I got pain meds, at 2:40 the Dr came in the room and I started pushing (screaming every time, it still seriously hurt even with the pain meds! I really didn't think he would fit....) Then 3 pushes later at 2:44 Liam was born! I can't take much credit for that, he was just really ready to come out. No tearing, and not as sore as I was last time around. The nurses are all surprised that I'm walking around like normal already - the nurse came to take me to the bathroom in the AM and couldn't believe I just got up and walked in to the bathroom like normal....I'm not trying to be a hero or anything, I just don't feel that badly. I did take one mortin about 4PM because the cramping was getting painful and I wanted to sleep some. So I'm doing fine, I'll get a good nights sleep tonight and by the time they let me go on Tuesday I'm sure I'll be pretty great. Now on to the important part.

Right after Liam was born we spent a good half hour together in the delivery room and he was nursing very well, they took him to do the normal tests and stuff while Eric and I got settled in the Maternity room. We where waiting for him to get back and dozing off and about 5:30 a nurse and dr. come into the room and tell us that they are taking Liam to the NICU for monitoring (huh?!) OK, they said it didn't seem to serious but that he had stopped breathing a few times and his blood oxygen level went down so they wanted to put him on a monitor and they couldn't do that without him being in the NICU. So they told us to go to sleep and they would tell us when he was settled and we could go see him. We weren't able to see him till 9AM because of the shift change, but he was doing OK when we got there. The whole CT scan and we might get discharged before him thing really freaked me out, but I figured since I just gave birth less than 12 hours before I could cry a little. The CT scan came back fine though, which meant there are no defects which is exactly what we want to hear.

So all day Sunday Liam was hooked up to the Sipap and they monitored his breathing and gave him IV antibiotics - the worst was with the Sipap in I couldn't nurse or even hold him most of the day. My mom and dad came up to see us and him and Eric's parents came with Genni so we had a busy afternoon and everyone got to at least see Liam and hold his hand a bit. Gary came to see us too which was wonderful, I really appreciate that he came to see us and Liam and that we all got to pray as a big family before everyone took off. (they could all see I was getting tired and left so I could sleep some.) Eric went to the NICU to spend some time with Liam while I was sleeping. They offered to let him hold him while he got his antibiotics and my wonderful husband came back and woke me up because he knew I wanted to hold him. It took awhile to get him out with all the tubes and wires but it made us both feel better that one of us had held him. They started talking then about taking him off the Sipap cause he was doing so well and putting in a nasal (can't ever remember this word, but it's what you're used to seeing for other people getting oxygen). Just talk so far but encouraging. Sunday night was the last semi full night of sleep I can expect to get......more later - this post is very long already!!