I'm a Believer!

On Sunday morning I did something very, very, very dumb. I took off Clare's amber teething necklace. Why I ever did that is beyond me. I think my reasoning was something along the lines of "this doesn't really match your outfit." This is what vanity gets you.....

I will be the first to admit that I wasn't really sure the thing worked. I had read all the reviews and talked to enough "not crunchy" mamas who swore by them to at least give it a try though. "It couldn't hurt, you know." She's done pretty well with teething so far, but Clare's laidback as it is, so I never knew if the necklace really had anything to do with it.

For those of you unfamiliar with the workings of amber teething necklaces, they are a natural teething remedy. The amber contains succinic acid which is released from the amber when warmed by the babies skin. This is absorbed and helps with pain, inflammation, and even drooling. This all sounds great, but... really? Reallllyyy??

No really.

After a horrible day of tears and whining, and a even more horrible evening trying to get her to sleep, I realized she hadn't been wearing her necklace all day. I couldn't imagine that this was really causing her funk but, hell, I was running out of other options so I went to get it. Unfortunately, it had gone missing. The 3 year old claims he "threw it in the playroom," but I don't know that he even knew what I was talking about when I woke him up in a panic searching for it. So I don't completely blame him. Completely. 

Regardless it remained lost and we decided to give her Advil as often as we could, which also helped. The next day her attitude was even worse and she wouldn't nap, so what does a crazy, sleep-deprived mama do? I overnighted a new one of those bad boys to us. Within an hour of putting it on her, she was back to her normal happy self. An hour! 

Nate and I are still in awe. 

So... I'm a believer. Big time.

I'm also hoping I can find the old one and try it out. Maybe it will help with soreness from running/working out? 

Damian and Clare

I love having more than one child. Of course there are days I consider locking myself in the bathroom with a bottle of wine and crying on the floor because I'm all class like that. But usually having two is awesome and on most days I'm like LETSHAVEALLTHEKIDS. And then 5:30 rolls around (both AM and PM) and then maybe ALL the kids seems a little ambitious.

Anyway, this isn't about me. We're talking about them.

I know Damian was a bit of a difficult journey into motherhood, so it's probably not fair to compare. But life's not fair so we're going to. This second baby has been SO. SO. SO. much easier. And I say this while she is still waking up every 2-3 hours. (Another day, another post.... ugh) She has a much more laidback personality, so I know that helps. But having Damian around to entertain her is pretty nice. On the days Damian spends with my mom, Clare is so bored.

"Wake Up!! I miss you!!!"

They're best buddies. And already get into mischief together. I really thought I had a few years before that would start. Oh well...

Who else would take her glamour shots while her parents sleep?

Anything one of them does, the other one has to follow. Is one eating? The other is suddenly starving. Is someone playing with a toy that used to be the most boring toy ever? Then the other has to have it.

Buds

It's sometimes hilarious, sometimes a little painful. But she's doing her best to keep up and when he's not hoarding all his toys, he does a great job showing her how things work or what to do. 

Because grainy and shadowy pictures become cute when it's of them playing nicely together

It's silly to think how worried I had been about them getting along or Damian loving Clare. I would have never imagined this...

And now after 9ish month, I'm finally feeling like I can do this. I'm sure once she starts running with him I may change my tune. But for the most part, I feel pretty confident in my ability to manage them. Or maybe I've just accepted our Survival Mode and have completely forgotten what sanity I used to have. It's probably a bit of both and I'm ok with our new normal. 

Kitchen Update

Oh the kitchen.... The home improvement we've been working on the most recently is the kitchen. There are so many things we want to do. If you remember our list of never ending things, one To Do was add beadboard and after a few weekends we finally got it up. And by we, I mean Nate. 

Since we were going to put the beadboard around the bottom part of the cabinets that extend out, we needed to raise the chair rail to counter height. That involved a lot of sanding, repainting, repairing, etc.

 I think fixing all the old molding took longer than actually getting the beadboard up.

Nate used a nail gun to put everything back up and then after a few coats of primer and paint, it looks wonderful!

I can't wait to fix up the rest of the kitchen, because it's so fun seeing the vision come to life. Slowly, slowly. If only we had all the money and all the time. Am I right?

BEFORE

AFTER/ PROGRESS

The Week in Review (7QT)

1. 

Last Friday was 4th of July. 

We spent it with my family out at the beach house like we do every year. We still haven't attempted the fireworks with Damian because they start so late. But this year, as we were driving home, he was able to see a ton and loved them. Hopefully next year!

2.

Saturday and Sunday 

were spent both recovering and trying to finish putting the beadboard up in the kitchen. (Before and After post to come.) It's finally done, looks great, and now really makes me want to get started on the rest of the kitchen so it can match it in prettiness ;-)

3. 

Monday is RUNALLTHEERRANDS day. 

And thanks to Target having a $20 off $100 baby/kid sale, I stocked up on some much needed kid things--such as a new booster seat for Damian. I can't believe he's big enough to not need a full carseat. He still fit in his old one, but Clare is almost too big for the infant carrier one and will need it soon. And honestly, I was sick of buckling him in that horrible carseat (FYI-I'm not a fan of the Evenflo Triumph for anyone who is shopping for a carseat.) I'm going to enjoy the few months we don't have to use it before Clare. 

4.

Tuesday was doctor day. 

You all remember this sad face.

5.

Wednesday = Nanny day (the day he spends with my mom.) 

I got an absurd amount cleaned in my house... It was wonderful. Just wonderful.

6. Thursday was nothing special. 

I've been attempting teaching Damian letters and writing, but there hasn't been much interested until recently. So yesterday he did his first letter--a 'g.' And then he got sad that none of his other letters "looked right" and so we stopped. I've learned not to push things with him, but I also see some of our perfectionist tendencies so I need to find ways to encourage trying through failure. Who knew at 3 this would be an issue?!

7. 

Can we all say YESSSSSS to it being the weekend?!?!?!

This is our first weekend without much going on and we plan to finally get some other stuff done around the house and enjoy the end of the World Cup. I think I'm going to cheer for Germany considering my German heritage and Coach Jurgen, but I like Argentina....sooo we will see. We will see.... 

Linking up with Jen

Regarding the Little Man

An update of sorts...

If you saw my Instagram today, then you know Damian was at the Children's Hospital getting a Meckel Scan today.

I asked him to smile so Daddy could see how brave he was...
And this is the face I get. Don't be fooled, he was happy-ish.

I will let you click the link if you really want to learn more, but in short sometimes the yoke sac (yep, from fetal days) can form a Meckel's diverticulum (small bulge in the small intestines.) This small bulge can contain cells which produce gastric juices, which can cause irritation and bleeding. It's rare and weird and more common in males, so.... it does sound like something Damian would like to add to his List o' Medical Fun. So that's what we were looking for today.

Poor guy wasn't allowed to eat or drink after midnight last night, so it was good our appointment was early. Considering he had to lay perfectly still on a table for an hour while they did the scan, he did really well. It involved strapping him down, injecting him with some radioactive material through his IV, and letting him watch Ice Age while I held his hand. I swear hearing him say "Mama I got you. I hold your hand," broke my heart a bit, but he's a brave little guy and didn't cry or freak out. I was definitely proud of him. 

Also... he bounces back pretty quick!

We hear back about the results in a few days. If they come back negative, then we move on to doing a scope. Thanks for all the prayers! I'll keep you updated!

8 months...

Dear Clare,

Here we are, another month has gone by and you're still as cute and sweet as ever. I could go on and on about how you're getting so close to your first birthday and how I've already started planning it (and thus crying over it) but I will spare you that... Instead, let's look at all you've done this month!

You got two more teeth and now have two teeth on both top and bottom.

I bought you little hair ties and have started doing pigtails on you. It may be the cutest thing I've ever seen. All the old ladies at church think you are just precious. You love being a little ham for them too!

My favorite thing this month is you now give kisses! Talk about melting our hearts...

You also started clapping. Anytime you do anything you promptly sit and clap. We all cheer "yay Clare" and you light up and clap even more excitedly until you inevitably bounce/fall over.

Crawling is still going well. You can sure move quick too! Also, you are into everything! EVERYTHING!!! Your favorite things to try to explore are shoes, the garbage can, the dog food bowl, and the bathroom. Seriously girl, could you have picked anything more gross.... Sigh.

No real first steps yet. You are still cruising around on furniture, and you love to walk holding our hands. You've attempted to stand yourself up a few times but haven't managed that yet. You have let go while standing by the sofa (etc) a few times and can stand independently for a few seconds. As fun as seeing you walk will be, we are in no hurry sweet girl.

You say Dada, something that sounds kinda like dog and something that sounds like cat. I am still something that sounds like boo. Although most animals are "cats" for some reason.

Damian is still your favorite and you love to chase each other around. He's nice enough to crawl around and let you follow him. You really want to do everything he does. Thankfully you're pretty laid back about the fact he steals all your toys. 

We won't talk about your sleeping habits. I will say you've started taking naps pretty consistently and that has been wonderful! WONDERFUL!!! And because you are able to sleep for a of a longer stretch the first part of the night, Mommy and Daddy had our first date since you were born. So I guess I should thank you for that bit of progress. Whenever you want to sleep through the night though, we are ready to have that happen!

That's all for this month! Looking forward to all the fun ahead.

Love you so much sweet girl,
Mama

Damian Update

If you saw the Instagram post from yesterday, you know Little Man has been having some issues. I hope to keep you updated so you can continue to pray for him. 

A little background... 

Damian has Biliary Atresia--a rare liver disease in which the bile ducts going from the liver to the intestines disintegrate. He was diagnosed at 2 weeks of age and at 3 weeks had a surgery known as a Kasai Procedure in which they take part of his intestines and make a new duct for bile to drain through. Praise God Damian's liver seems to have responded well to this surgery. Every 6 months his liver levels are monitored and they have always been relatively stable. We hope this means a liver transplant can wait a nice long long long time from now. However, I've been given a short list of things to keep an eye on as they could be signs of complications that can arise when one has a compromised liver. These things include a sudden, unexplained fever (from a potential bout of cholangitis,) blood in stool, spitting up or coughing up blood (from potentially bleeding varices caused by portal hypertension,) etc.

So what's been happening... 

Yesterday Damian began experiencing "some bathroom issues" with what appeared to be a decent amount of blood in it. I knew this was a sign of bleeding varices so I immediately called our pediatrician, and he got us to come in right away.

Crazy kid is just happy to have a lollipop

He confirmed it was definitely blood, and we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon trying to figure out what the GI Team at the local children's hospital would like for us to do. I kept saying if I don't have a "plan" by 3pm I'm taking him to the ER because I know that early intervention is key as far as limiting the damage done to his liver, and I was starting to get a little mama bear crazy.

Thanks wifey for finding something that accurately depicted my mood

Normally I do a decent job keeping my whits about me when stuff happens with Damian, but we had still not been able to get into see the new GI/Liver Team here since moving back in February (that's another frustrating story for another day) and I didn't feel like I could "trust" these doctors yet. 

Anyway, a little before 3 o'clock I hear from the GI team and they would like to see him at 8 am the next day (today.) I questioned whether or not he should be seen sooner and they made it seem like it was up to me as to whether or not to take him to the ER. (Mama Bear be annoyed at this point.) So I promptly called our old GI who recommended we take him in, if he had another "episode with blood in it." Thankfully Damian didn't and we went to the GI today. The doctor explained that while it could be varices, Damian would likely also be spitting up blood as well since varices tend to bleed a lot. Also his liver and spleen felt fine, so he's hoping that's not what's causing it. We did blood work today, and the results should tell us (based on his cell counts) how profuse the bleeding is. If it is profuse (or the episodes continue,) then we will be scheduled for an emergency scope to determine the source of the bleeding. If his numbers come back fine, we will schedule him some time in the first week July to have the scope done. 

The doctor is speculating that it may be hemorrhoids that formed at the site of the new bile duct created during the Kasai Procedure or something else going on in the large intestines. Neither are life threatening, but both would require a minimally invasive surgery to correct. Or (although I find this unlikely judging by the fact Damian is acting like he feels fine) he's having a bacterial infection of some sort. 

So if you could, please keep him in your prayers that it's only something minor, and that it's an easy fix! As of tonight, we haven't heard back about blood work so I will keep you posted once we hear something hopefully tomorrow. 

Thanks again for all the kind texts, comments, etc. We really appreciate them!