Weekend fun

On Saturday my parents came over to celebrate a belated Fathers Day. We grilled out cheeseburgers and just had some nice family time together. Sunday we had a graduation party for Matts cousin....off to college he goes!! Cassie was not in the mood for others to be holding her and screamed bloody murder if anyone tried taking her from me, however Mikey and Jake (2 younger cousins) were able to hold her and she did fine. She is just going thru the stage of just wanting Mommy I quess...like I mind :o)

On Friday night Cassie woke up crying, I found she had turned over from her tummy to her back and had her arm wedged in her crib...poor girl. I also watched her playing under her gym where she rolled from her back to her belly and back again...I just post this because its rare for her to roll over. She hates tummy time with a passion and is just content as can be where ever I put her, if a toy is out of reach its to much work to get it so she will make do with what she has. I tell ya...she is SO laid back.


Playing at the graduation party


Cassie and Sarah


Sitting in a big girl chair


With Daddy


Today I have a funeral for a friend who passed away. She had lung cancer and passed on Saturday leaving a husband, 19 year old son and 22 year old daughter. I knew this would most likely happen but its so hard to beleive she is actually gone.

GI Appointment at Childrens Hospital

Of course the doctor was running late. Thats ok, my Mom came with me so that helped the time go by. Cassie now weighs 17 pounds 4 ounces. She is still a bit raw around her G-tube site but the doctor didn't seem concerned about it and said to keep applying the ointment I have. The dietican gave us the "ok" to stop using the pump at night - yipee!!! He said to make sure she gets 26 ounces by bottle, which I disagree with. She will eat when she is hungry and stop when she is full. I have researced what other babies are taking at this age and there is such a wide range, anywhere from 16 - 24 ounces. Cassie took 20 ounces the other day plus 3 meals of solids. Anyways...we don't have to go back to the GI clinic until after her cleft palate is repaired. Oh my goodness, it feels like things are starting to wind down and come to an end. The real end of course is her cleft repair but its such a big step to be done with the pump!!


Do you want to see something?


This is my G-tube in my baby bell!! Comes out in a few short months!!


This girl is lucky to have a nice headful of hair!


I hear a baby starting to stir from her nap....what?? Its only been 30 min and people are coming over today, if she doesn't take a longer nap we will have a cranky baby on our hands. Gotta run and try to get her to nap a bit longer!! I will post pics of our weekend later, we have a busy weekend ahead of us.

TGIF

So happys its Friday! Plus its going to be a beautfiul weekend. Went for a walk this morning with Cassie and the dog....Oh the dog!!! I was holding Cassie, (meltdown)pushing the stroller and had the leash in the other hand, a friend saw me and came up to talk. Umm...Athena thinks they are coming to rub her belly and its chaos. I had to make sure she didn't wrap the leash around me and she kept trying to pull and jump to get to my friend faster. By the time I got home I had worked up a sweat.

Today we have to go to Childrens Hospital to see the GI doctor. I SO don't want to go, they always tell us what we already know and it seems like such a waste of time. The doctor is always running an hour late and then she spends 5 min with us. If that is the case today I will have to drive home in rush hour, I don't want to do that!! Cassie is taking everything by bottle and I have weaned her to 2 hours on the pump at night...I am planning on no pump by next week......that will be so exciting!!! No G-tube extension tube hanging from her belly at night. We may have to keep the G-tube button in until the cleft surgery, that is what the doctors would like, but her skin is so irritated around it right now and if she is taking all the bottle by mouth now, why do we have to keep it in?? That is one of the only reasons I am keeping the appointment today. Monday we have to go to the Hospital again to see the swallow/feeding doctor, I need to talk to her anyways about the sippy cup.

I will update on how the hospital visits go. Now I am going outside to enjoy this beautiful weather!

Fathers Day, Playdates, Pools and something popping thru the gums!!!

On Saturday we had our first family picnic together, bought some subs, chips and soda and ate at the picnic table together,then went for a walk. It was nice family time.

Daddy and Cassie at the park on our picnic


Fathers Day - Cassie gave Daddy a "Dad" mug and a frame featuring her and Daddy. Miss Cass did not take a very good nap and was pretty crabby so we went "downtown" Oconomowoc and walked around the art fair that was going on. We got home and she finally took a good nap. Grandma and Grandpa Rosek came over and we cooked out hotdogs on the grill...yum!! It was a beautful day.

Daddy and Cassie on Matts FIRST Fathers Day


Monday - Cassie and I went to a friends house in Ixonia, we went for a walk but it was pretty hot, Cass did not like the heat and I had to hold her the rest of the walk. Pushing a stroller with one hand and holding a 17 pound baby in the other in 90 degree weather is no easy feat!! I was pooped!!! We got back home and Cassie took a "dip" in her first pool. She loved it and splished splashed for an hour.

Cassie relaxing in her pool


Tuesday - We had another playdate with our friends Haley and Ella. It was a HOT one today. I got home to find out the fan on our air conditioner was broken. Its so hot in the house, Cassie was sweating poor girl. The repair guys came round 5 and are still here at 8 at night!!

Cassie and Ella sharing a toy


Tooth!!!!! I thought I had been seeing a tooth popping thru but Cassie would never let me get a good look. I would try to pry her lip down to look but she was not letting that happen. Today she fell asleep in my arms so I had no resistance...sure enough a little tooth is popping up.

Surgery is set for...

Oct 23rd.

This is to repair her cleft palate. It is a rougher surgery on the kids because it is pretty painful. We have to have Cassie off a bottle and on to a sippy cup by the time surgery is here, if she isn't off a bottle they will move the surgery date out. They don't want her sucking a bottle as this could damage the cleft repair.

I am not looking forward to this surgery but it is exciting as it will be her LAST procedure and there will be no more trips to Childrens Hospital!!!

A Mommy and Me Day

On Wednesday I took Cassie to Walgreens to pick up her 7 month old pictures, it was so beautiful outside I decided to take her to the park. She swang on the swings, played in the grass and had a little picnik of yummy fruit baby food. It was so relaxing and nice to be at the park with her, she seemed to really enjoy it and loved watching the other kids play. We also checked out Imagination Station, this is a play area that was designed so that disabled kids would be able to play on it with other kids and not be segregated, it is SO neat!!! The grand opening is next Sunday. Awsome job!



Imagination Station


Eating food and playing



Sitting Pretty


Swing, Swing, Swing!!

The results are in.......

Her Sleep Study came back as the best yet!! In March when she slept on her tummy she stopped breathing 4 1/2 times per hour, last week she stopped breathing shy of once per hour. Her oxygenation level was 98% all night. Awsome news - that nurse made my day!!!!

Recap of Sunday and Monday

Ok....its been a couple of busy days and I am finally sitting down at 9:30 to update the blog!

Sunday - Cassie did awsome at church, she actually fell asleep in Matts arms. It was SO nice to be back at church - I have really missed it. I wanted to cry a couple of times because I remember the days before we had Cass, standing in church and seeing all the familys holding their babies and hugging their children...wondering if I would ever have that, and there we were..singing worship songs holding our daughter - it was awsome!! Later in the day we went for a walk and stopped at a friends house whos yellow lab and a "rendavous" with the golden retreiver across the street - the result was 7 adorable puppies!! Oh my goodness - so cute!! We sat Cass in the middle of them and 3 of them thought her little naked tooties were nipples and were trying to suckle them - it was so funny and cute. Cassie was petting them and bopping them on the head. We continued on our walk and stopped at the park to give her a couple pushes on the swing. Fun day.

Monday - Went for a walk with Cassie and Athena bright and early, then I met my old hair-dresser at a park. She had a baby in Jan and is now a stay at home mom. It was great meeting up with her and her baby. We hung out for about 2 hours, it was a beautiful day. We went for another walk later in the day to the park (we love the swings)By the end of the day Cassie had it and let me know. I didn't even have time to heat up her bottle because she was so upset so I plugged it into her mouth, she drank 1 ounce and was out like a light. Fresh air wears that girl out!!!


Sucking her thumb while swinging



Puppies and Babies - who can't love them??

Date Night

Today was a busy and fun day. This morning I met an old friend at Starbucks. We each got a yummy drink (peppermint mocha for myself - yum!!) and walked around the lake. After our walk I went to the salon for a greatly needed haircut. Once Cass woke from her nap we loaded her up and went out to lunch and also babies r us. We needed a much bigger diaper bag than what we had. The diaper bag we registered for is "pretty" but not nearly big enough for all the items we sometimes need to pack. Lesson Learned.

Once we got home my parents came over to watch Cass and we headed out to a movie. I have not been to a move in 1 year!!! We watched Terminator and ate way to much popcorn - felt really gross afterwards. We ran to Walmart and Target and then to Chilis for some appetizers. It was a very nice date!!

The report back from Grandpa and Grandma was Cass had been a very good girl, full of giggles and went to bed shortly before we got home. Tomorrow we are planning on trying to bring Cass to church for the first time.....yikes!! We will be sitting in back in case I need to make a break for the door if she decides she has had it. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Bring on the Prunes.....

I won't go into detail but I am sure you can deduct why I am having her eat Prunes. Just waiting now.....

This morning I called my Mom and we went for a walk with Cass and Athena, stopped at a park and pushed Cassie on the baby swing - she really enjoys that. I had tied Athena to a picnic table but she let it be known she was not happy to be far from the action, making me bring her over where she proceed to almost knock my Mom down and rolling in the cedar chips...goofy dog. After we got home Cass fell asleep at the bottle and I was able to get some things done around the house, it took me an hour to clean up some big pots and pans. The other night Matt had taken his steak off the broiler pan and left it on the stove where it started to smoke and set off not 1 but 2 fire detectors in the house, (all around 8 at night and Cassie is sleeping). One of the detectors is right outside her door, I frantically ran over to it and kept opening/closing my bedroom door trying to make it stop, in the meantime Matt grabbed the chair in order to take out the batteries from the alarms....AMAZINGLY Cass did not wake up - what a sound sleeper!! Anyways....that broiler pan took me a lifetime to clean!!!



Just waiting for Cass to wake from her nap and see if those Prunes have done their job! Ha!



Prunes for Breakfast this morning


After a nap

Then and Now

I was thinking back to how far Cassie has come since she was born and thought it would be interesting to list some of them:

1)At birth she was 5 pounds 10 ounces.....Now she is 17 pounds!!

2)At birth and even a couple of months ago we were lucky if she drank 30-40 ml of her bottle by mouth at each feeding. Now she takes 120 ml by mouth a each feeding!

3)At birth and up we had to use the feeding pump for every feeding, Now we don't use the pump during the day anymore!

4)At birth she didn't have much of a lower jaw, Now she has one!!!

5)And of course we have all the normal baby changes - rolling, sitting and eating solids ( she sure is a messy eater I might add)

Both Dad and I are proud of how far she has come and she is such a trooper!


No lower jaw!! Poor Baby girl!


Look at how much catch up growth she has had!

Sleep Study and she can FINALLY......

ROLL!!! Cass finally rolled from tummy to back yesterday. The problem she has is her arm gets in her way which is preventing her from rolling. If her arm is under her she has no problem flipping her self over...goofy girl. She almost rolled from back to tummy yesterday as well - all in one day!! I did video tape it so I will try to post that video later.






We also had her sleep study last night. She hated being hooked up to all the wires, they use an air blower to dry the glue they put on her head and it FREAKS her out. She had her little arms around me, squeezed so tight and screamed!! She did end up throwing up because she was so upset. The sleep study people said its pretty common for kids to throw up when they are there because of how upset they get. There was a 3 year old in the other room and we could hear her screaming bloody murder - the kids are just terrified. We sounded like we were in a torture chamber. We got her to sleep around 7 (she wouldn't drink her last bottle cause she was so upset and tired after all that crying). Matt and I went to the cafe to grab some dinner for myself and we saw one of the residents that cared for Cassie while she was in the NICU. She was talking to some other doctors so we waited for her to see us, I asked if she recongized us as it has been 7 months and she did , she said "Cassandra" right away - very impressive that after 7 months she remembers us and Cassies name as we are sure she sees tons of babies in the NICU. It was so nice to see her as we really liked her. Matt left and I stayed with Cass, around
1 am she woke up very upset trying to pull off the wires, I had to pick her up with the nurses help. I had very little room to move as she was hooked up to so many wires but she eventually calmed down and I was able to lay her back down. Within the hour she was back to sleep. This morning the nurse said that I did a great job, she didn't think it was going to happen as Cass was not a happy camper. Anyways...thank goodness that is done and we are home. We get the results of her study in 7-10 days.

Rummaging

We were up bright and early this morning (not that Cassie gives me any say in the matter) for garage sales. Mom and Grandma came over at 7:30 and we were out the door. I was able to have some self restraint this time around, there were tons of toys but alot of them we already have or she just doesn't need because she has so much already. I ended up buying a cute pair of sandles,dress,jumper (all for Cass of course)one toy and a bath seat - all for $12!! You just can't go wrong. Cassie sat in her stroller the whole time, she was such a good girl. At 10:00 she let us know she had enough so we went home. She slept for 2 min in the car, I gave her a bottle and she was fired up and ready to go again. She finally laid down for a nap at 1:00....after being up pretty much 6 hours straight.

Tomorrow is her sleep study...I am NOT looking foward to it. If I think about it its not to bad, its just getting her to sleep with all the wires attached and hoping she does not wake up in the middle of the sleep study. Crossing my fingers it all goes well and the results are good - I really am not to worried about the results, I think she is doing great.

Day with friends

Today our friends Haley and Ella came over for a visit, Ella is 3 days older than Cassie. They are SO different, Ella is on the go constantly!!! Cassie is laid back and content to be where I put her...if she can't reach a toy then thats fine with her....to much work to move to get it.



Cassie also took 2 faceplants today trying to reach for a toy out of reach while sitting, the first time she laughed but on the second one it wasn't so funny. Tomorrow we head to a HUGE subdivsion rummage sale with Grandma, Great-Grandma and possibly a friend of ours who has a 1 month old. Hope to find some great deals!

Saturday

We had another busy day on Saturday. We went to the kids baseball game and then to Claudias to hang out. Again.. Cass did just great, it seems her stranger anxiety is already going away. Below are some pics from Sat.