Eye Trouble

My poor little girl woke up this morning with a very swollen eye. Her left eye runs quite often, and has ever since she was born. I assumed it was from allergies, but today's doctor's appointment proved that was not the case.

I was concerned about the swelling, so I figured it would be a good idea to take her in to be looked at. While we were waiting, she was having a big time. We saw a new doctor (there are quite a few at the office), and for some reason we had to wait almost 45 minutes in the room. That is rare. Anyways, she was highly entertained by the paper.....



By this point her swelling had gone way, way down so I knew it couldn't be pink eye. Her doctor informed us that Ady has a blocked tear duct. About 6% of babies are born with it. Tears are made in us to help protect the surface of our eyes. They drain into a tear duct through the corner of our eyes. In Ady's case, it is blocked and so the tears build up, with no place to drain, and they often come down her face. It is made worse whenever she is outside in wind, sun, etc. It's not a serious condition at all, in fact, most babies outgrow it by the time they are a year old. But, the swelling is a step that says it's starting to become an issue. We have to put a warm compress on it several times a day and massage it and clean it out 2-3 times a day. Hopefully, it will help it to "open up".

The doctor noted that Ady had a pretty nasty upper respiratory infection. I guess it was from all those kisses and squeezes that she got from everyone this weekend :) She said that the eye's running can be made worse when there is an infection. Hopefully, it will open on it's own. Her swelling is back again this evening. If it doesn't let up like it did this morning and continues to keep swelling, I have to take her back in. I assume she'll need antibiotics and drops if this happens. As far as the massaging goes, she didn't like it when I tried today. I'm sure it's uncomfortable for her. I was able to massage it via the warm washcloth, though. Any mommies out there have any experience or tips in this?

My poor girl didn't feel quite like herself today. She was so happy though! No tears and fussiness, but she just wanted to be snuggled a little extra and watch movies all day and play Barbies, so we did just that! :) She is a trooper even when she's sick!

As for now, I'll make sure she gets plenty of carrots to keep those eyes nice and strong :)

The Bunny

We are back from an absolutely perfect Easter weekend. We had a great time visiting with lots of friends and lots of family!

We got to spend some time with my brother Austin.

Ady and Austin were two little peas in a pod with their ears on :)

We had lunch on Friday with our friends Emily and Jon and their little girl Evelyn, who is 7 months old. Just a few weeks younger than Ady. Ady was little miss social bug, but Evelyn wasn't too sure about her. I think she was ready for a nap. We had a great time!


We got to visit Joseph's Grandma Rita. She had never met Ady before. It was great to visit with her and hear some great stories that she had to share. :) I am so thankful we were able to see her this time.


Saturday morning a trucking company that my dad works with had a pancake fundraiser. And there was a very special visitor :) Ady wasn't scared at all. She surprisingly loves things dressed up. She was so cute holding onto her cousin Caden.

I love Caden's face in this picture. So sweet.

Tatay and Biggie came in town from Nashville and played with little Ady. She sure does love them both :)


We decided to go to the 7:00 church service Saturday evening. Ady was all dressed in her gorgeous smocked dress made by her Tatay. She looked beautiful. :)

She loves her Gramme :)

Ady sat in Tatay's lap the whole time

She couldn't have been more perfect. Except for just a few short "preaches" to the congregation :) And...if there was a dry eye in the place, I don't know whose it was. I can't remember many other times in church when I felt the Spirit of the Lord so strongly. It was a wonderful Easter service! When it was over, we headed over to Ruby Tuesday's and made it back home around 10:00. We were all pooped. Poor Ady fell asleep.

But, she was GREAT the whole time! She really is such a good baby!

We had a little bunny photo shoot Sunday morning. Ady was squealing and talking away. So cute!

And, the Easter Bunny made a visit to Gramme and Bampe's house! :)

We met Joseph's family at Woodhaven Country Club (where we met years ago!) for brunch Sunday morning.

We had on our pink for our family of 3 photo :)

Ady got to visit with the Easter Bunny. I so wish I had it on video. She was squealing and going crazy over the bunny. She LOVED him!

So sweet.

She even got to have a little Easter Egg Hunt with the "big kids"

She was absolutely perfect.


She loved her Aunt Linda :)


It couldn't have gone better. We left around 3:00 and she didn't even fuss once, she had been up soooo long. By the time we made it home she was ready for a big long nap! She needed that nap because once she was up, we celebrated Rachel's 30th birthday....

We went out to eat at a great Mexican restaurant, Chuy's. Ady was, again, hilarious. I love this girl's personality. She is so social. I have no idea where she gets it from. :)

With my beautiful sister, Rachel

We left Lousville around 9:30 last night and made it home, happy to be in our own beds. We had such a wonderful time. But, we miss "home", our first home, Louisville. We don't come in town as much as you might think. I sometimes wish we lived there just so I could see my family as often as I'd like to. However, I am very thankful that Joseph and I started off our marriage and family here. We were forced to lean on each other, and closer to God. I couldn't call my mom to come right over or take the baby for me so I could nap. It helped us to really grow up and mature. I love Lexington, though. We have some wonderful friends here that would make it so hard to leave, and an even better church!

But, I do miss seeing this precious little boy who still melts my heart....


And the sweetest dog, who we will forever be indebted to for saving my mother's life several years ago.



Happy Easter from the cutest bunny around! :)

Terrible Two's

No, Ady's not a two year old yet. I'm talking about the two teeth. The teeth that come in pairs. You know, those teeth we thought were in months ago? Mommy is calling out in desperation for them to sprout up and come on!

The past several days have not been the best for my little princess. I had originally thought that it was due to lowering her Prevacid dose. And, in fact, it may be a part of it. I know that she doesn't need to be on 30 mg much longer (it's not recommended until a child is 60 lbs!!), so I'm going to try and 1/2 a 15mg dose and give her one in the morning and one in the afternoon. But, I'm going to wait a bit. We're at a little standstill.

Yesterday Ady cried all day. This is no exaggeration. And then when Joseph came home, I cried. I felt like I was having some Deja Vu when all my baby used to do was scream out in pain. She didn't burp, so I knew it wasn't related to her reflux. I think it was (and still is) her teeth. She'd begin chewing on something and then scream, and I mean scream out. I took her on a walk, we went in the front yard, back yard, looked at every toy and doll she had. I even fed her double the amount thinking she was hungry. Guess what happened? She spit, and spit, and spit. So, she wasn't hungry. Finally before my LifeGroup came over, I caved and tried Motrin for the first time. Tylenol has never worked for her. Luckily, she had no reaction. And she was happy, happy, happy. It has the adverse affect on her (as does Tylenol). It doesn't make her sleepy, it makes her very, very hyper!

Today has been better, but we're not there yet. I just now gave her another dose of Motrin because she's just been fussy. Any time I walked out of the room she screamed, and screamed, and screamed. I think she's partly fussy because she is so very tired. She lasts about 30 minutes onces she's up from one of her mini cat naps (20-40 minutes), and then she's screaming again. It breaks my heart. Is this normal for teething babies? I need some mommy advice!

I really hope she gets feeling better soon. We have an insanely busy weekend ahead of us. And nobody likes to be around an unhappy baby :(

I don't know where my happy Ady is. If you find her, will you please bring her back? Her mommy really misses her!

Good News!

Ady is on Day 3 of the recommended Prevacid dose for her age/weight. If you remember her doctor was "breaking the rules", by giving her double since she was still in so much pain. She now gets it just at nighttime, and I'm happy to report that without the morning dose she is still her happy self all day long! No squirming and screaming out or being inconsolable!

Thank you, readers, for "putting up" with all my "Help me! I don't know what to do!" rants. I had WAY too many emotions following Ady's birth. Many times I'm sure my sweet husband questioned what he had gotten himself into :) I was a mess and having a baby that I couldn't "fix", made it really hard. I am so thankful for good doctors who helped us find a way to help her pain and even BETTER friends who were there to give good advice to this first time mommy! :)

Next goal: Off the nighttime dose (which means NO Prevacid at all) within a month! We can do it, Ady!

A Little More Time

You'll have to forgive me. I'm still in vacation mode. Still wishing I was sitting by the water, soaking up those beautiful Florida rays. It's taken me forever to unpack, clean up my house, wash 12 loads of laundry, go to the grocery (I went 3 times-think I'm still stuck in vacay mode?), along with taking care of a very, very mobile 7 month old. Enough to wear a mommy out! But, I'm here. Ready to report! Well, I said I'd do it. Update those of you interested on why in the world I would decide to cancel my surgery, the surgery my doctor says I need.

It was supposed to be today, and it would have been even sooner had my doctor not gone out of town as I was told by the "surgery scheduler". If you will remember, she had said I was having all this back pain again because the endometriosis must have grown back. It doesn't, (well....mine doesn't at least), show up on an ultrasound. Prior to my two previous surgeries, nothing showed up. Then, when I went in for surgery, I was a mess-both times. So, I knew that just because she didn't spot endometriosis on the exam, meant absolutely nothing. She did however spot a whole lot of cysts on one ovary (which is not uncommon nor alarming at all), and even more covering my uterus. She was a little concerned, but not alarmed at those cysts. Actually, after she saw those, that was when she said, "I'm sorry to tell you this, but you need surgery." Those cysts can come and go with your cycles, but for some reason she seemed a little more proactive than normal.

I've been over this before, but I'll refresh you. I was told that after the surgery I needed to make a decision. Whether we choose to conceive immediately after, or wait to see if the endo can stay at bay for a little while longer until we are ready. Or....I suppose the final option was to decide that God's plan for us is to adopt the rest of our children instead of having to worry about the hospital visits, expense, pain, etc. If you remember the week before my vacation, I said I didn't have a peace. I didn't realize that feeling would lead me to cancel my surgery. I just didn't feel an answer. I spent countless hours at the feet of Jesus praying and listening to what His plan was for our lives. I didn't hear anything. I actually had decided that after the surgery I would "hear". I thought my doctor would give me the information that I needed. Such as: "Rebekah, it was terrible again, there's a lot of scarring. It is in your best interest to conceive asap." or, "Rebekah, it wasn't that terrible this time. I removed some spots, but you should be okay for a while."

The week of vacation, I started contemplating cancelling it. I just had this feeling that maybe it wasn't the right time. I, like clockwork, have this back pain (that is caused from the endometriosis alone), at the same time each month. It lasts for 14 days. There is no wavering in the days. It comes and increases in pain. Except this past month, I felt none. Not a feeling. I truly couldn't see the reasoning in having surgery when I wasn't doubled over from pain. The past 2 times, I was in so much pain, it was really my only option. When it wasn't terrible this time, I thought, "Why put my body and baby through this?"

My mom had already made plans to come up here for a few days to help out. I don't get to see her that often because she's so busy with Caden, but she made sure he would be taken care of so that she could help with Ady. I know that Ady would've been in great hands, but I also didn't (selfishly!) want to go through it again and not be able to hold and play with my little girl. Millions of women have this "disease". Some people have laps and recovery quickly. But, judging by the severity of all that was burned off the last 2 times, it made my recovery very, very difficult (and long). I was in a lot of pain. Who wants to go through that if you don't have to?

Why did I not have pain this month? No, I'm not pregnant. Although, I'm sure I left some of you wondering. I should have clarified in my last post :). But, I'm not. I had truly wondered if the Lord had just healed my body. I was very hesitant to even tell Joseph that I wasn't having this pain. I was watching the calendar and thinking "well...this is the time it'd be hurting, I'll give it another day. Maybe tomorrow I'll hurt". I went through this for several days and then I realized, "Ok, this time there's no pain!" My pain starts on the 6th day of my cycle and ends about the 20th day. For usually around 14 days I have this back pain. It is caused when my body starts the process of ovulation and then the days leading up to menstration. I thought I had been healed, but I don't believe that is the case. My body was not ovulating for some reason and I believe that is why I didn't have the pain.

It could caused from a lot of factors. I did not know I had PCOS until right before I found out I was pregnant with Ady, but I'm not the "poster child" for the disease, however my incredibly intelligent doctor told me that there are many, many "faces" of PCOS. One of the symptoms is irregular periods and/or no ovulation. I was a little upset to find out that I wasn't ovulating. Just because it scares me. It scares me for the future. I can be put on medicine to increase ovulation whenever we decide to try again, I know. But, I think there is some defeat in your soul when you realize that conceiving won't ever happen the "old fashioned and easy" way for you. But, I'm thankful for Ady and I hope I express that enough :)

I know for sure that I was ovulating when I went to see her. On the exam she could see that I was. That was the ovary that was "cyst-less". Is it possible that this month when the other one went to ovulate was so covered in cysts, it was unable to release an egg? I know Dr. Bain, the doctor who performed my second surgery had said my ovaries were "weighted down with cysts like cement". Then, they were unable to release an egg. Is that the case now? I don't know. I did wake up this morning with very, very bad back pain, so that means I have not been healed from it. :(

All I know is that for some reason, the Good Lord made it known this was not the right time. We weren't (and still aren't) ready to make a decision. Joseph and I are both in agreement that we want more children ourselves, but that we are enjoying Ady so much, we don't want to miss out on any of her "firsts". We also, however, agree that we don't want to wait too long and regret it later. Joseph has said to me many times, "I'd never forgive myself for not trying to get pregnant if I find out later on, it's not possible." Yes, I know I was told it wasn't possible before. We all know that God had a greater plan :) But, the longer (and more aggressive) the endo is, the more scarring it creates. The scarring is what causes a lot of infertility in women. Miraculously, I had minimal scarring. And I say miraculously because, as bad as it was, anyone would have thought I'd have lots and lots of scarring. By "not possible" doesn't mean there aren't routes we could take. However, Joseph and I made a vow a long time ago that expensive treatments were not where we felt God leading us. We just didn't feel called to do that, and we still don't. I'd much rather spend that money on adoption.

I am so very thankful that I've been able to experience a baby moving inside my body. I know far too many people who never were able to do that. It breaks my heart, but all of those women I know have turned their pain and suffering into joy. It is beautiful to watch. I am fully at the place in my life where I can say, I have all I'll ever need. I'd like to conceive again someday, but if that doesn't happen, I'm okay with that. I asked God for "one little miracle" and he sure gave me lots more than I could ever have imagined :)

So for now my friends, this is where we are. Still experiencing, to some extent, the silence of the Lord. However, I do feel that He has spoken in a mighty way for this decision to cancel the surgery. I guess I should call it reschedule instead of cancelling. I know it's just a matter of time, but this will allow me to buy some time, even if I decide to reschedule it in a month, it will still have given me a little more time.....

Paradise.

Ah....where do I begin? There is so much to update you on. First of all, sweet Ady celebrated her 7 month birthday while we were down at the beach. She just wanted to play with her "7 month sign". So sweet. So.....what is going on with Ady at 7 months? She's sitting up 100% by herself. And I had an "oops" mommy moment this past week. I've not allowed her to "spread her wings" as much. I've always kept the Boppy behind her, but she doesn't need it (and hasn't for a long time). I realized this on vacation. She's such a big girl. She looks EXACTLY like Joseph in this picture.



Gramme bought her 3 Disney Princess diving sticks. As you can see, Ariel is her favorite.

Her food intake is the same. She gets cereal and a fruit at breakfast and supper along with a 4 oz bottle. She gets a vegetable and 4 oz bottle at lunch and then she gets an 8 oz bottle around 8:00 for bedtime. I'm not sure if this one will once be dropped? I really don't know what I'm doing, ha. But...she's gaining weight and hardly spitting a drop. I'm dropping her to one Prevacid dose this week and I truly believe that she will be completely off it in a month. I feel like I dreamed all her crazy reflux days. I was a mess, that's for sure. But, she's making up for lost time and is the happiest, most content baby ever. You would never have known how her life started off based on how she acts now.

She's scooting/crawling and I know it's just a matter of days until she's doing the busy crawling. She's into grabbing everything within reach. She is standing and pulling up on things. I'm just in shock. I can not believe she is growing so much. She loves to talk and babble and smile......all the time. She has a beautiful smile. She's just the perfect 7 month old baby! :)


Vacation....ah...how I miss it already. I took over 600 pictures. :) We left at 6:00 Friday evening (April 1). Our reasoning in traveling through the night was so that Ady wouldn't have to be in a car seat during waking hours all day. So...all 7 of us loaded in my parents van. And took up every seat. That's right. My dad, my mom, Joseph, myself, Ady, Caden, and "Aunt" Heather. It was a tight squeeze, but we managed! I had everything strategically packed for Ady. A bag for when we got there, an emergency bag, my purse (which covers the two previous bags as well-ha!), and then an "on the road" bag. In that bag you could find two bottles, two spoons, a bottle brush, a travel size of dial soap (to clean the bottles with on the road-something I do not miss doing now! It was a task! Of course her bottle has about 7 compartments to wash!), a dish towel (to dry the bottles so there wasn't water standing in them for extended periods of time), a spoon to measure her Prevacid, a spoon to poor it into, a small water bottle for her medicine, formula, cereal, and enough baby food to last us even if we got stranded and couldn't make it to the grocery for a few days to get the remaining food. Whew! It was a task, but so well. Nobody really slept much. Just a couple 20 minute cat naps. I'm sorry....Ady and Caden slept great! Nobody else really slept much! Ady got up about 7:00 (her normal time) and I gave her Prevacid (on the road!). We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and she tried Orange Juice and LOVED it.

And then tried strawberry lemonade. It must be a Southern thing because I don't see it here, and she loved it too! She was hilarious! We arrived about 10:00 the next morning and headed straight to the sun!!! The place we stayed in was a mansion. It is the nicest place I've ever stayed in, and the town itself, Palm Coast, is one of the most beautiful towns I believe I've ever seen.


There was nobody there. Most days we were the only people at the pool and the beach was like a ghost town. Check out this picture. Perfect for a family vacation. Nice and quiet.


Ady is her mommy's child for sure. She loved, loved, loved the sun, the water, and the sand.

She was squealing and clapping when her toes touched the sand!

Mommy and Ady didn't want to be splashed!


Ady looks a lot like Caden, a lot like Joseph, and a lot like my dad. BUT, in this picture, she looks just like I did as a baby :)

Does it get any sweeter?

Ready for the sun!


Her favorite play spot!


With my best friend, Ady :)

A very proud daddy!


I love her tutu suit :)

Clearly, Ady looks the best in a hat :) But, mommy's face was burned!


My sweet little family :)


Playing in mommy's Lilly bag :)


Waving to the ocean :)

She was very into the menu at dinner one night. :)

And you probably won't believe me, but she didn't cry the whole week. She was the most content I've ever seen her. She woke up at 7:00 each morning, played and ate until around 9:30. Then she took an almost 2 hour nap every day! WOW!!! While she napped then, I headed down to catch some rays while Joseph stayed up in the room playing video games (he was happier up there!). Then, she'd wake up around noon, I'd go up to the room, put her in her bathing suit and load her up on sunscreen, then make her bottle and sweet potatoes to take down to the pool. I"d feed her and then she'd play down there about 2 hours. Then, she'd usually take a cat nap in her stroller. Wake up and play until around 5 or 6 when she'd take a cat nap then. Then....be up and happy when we'd go out to dinner and fall asleep whenever we got home (or on me!) around 8-9. I'm telling you, she was perfect. It could not have gone better!


We all were on board to surprise Caden with a trip to Disney World. We were going to go on Tuesday, but the weather was predicted to be rainy in Orlando, so we decided to wait until Wednesday. We woke up that morning with everything packed and ready to go. My mom had written a note to Caden from Woody and he read it, but he didn't really have much expression after. He just went back into his room. My mom felt him and he was warm. She didn't have a thermometer (and he couldn't use the rectal one I packed for Ady-ha!), so my dad went to Walgreens and bought one. He had a fever. They took him to an Urgent Care type place and he had a bacterial infection. He had strep a while ago and either it didn't get out of his system, or he picked up something else. We were hoping to go to Disney on Thursday, but that morning he still wasn't back to himself. On Friday we already had plans to go to Daytona to visit my brother for the Nationals. So...we were sad (mostly me!), but we are making plans to go there VERY soon. A lot of people say you shouldn't take a 7 month old to the beach, or Disney, I'm telling you, she was perfect. I'm convinced I could have taken her to third world country and she would have been just fine! :)


We got our picture made in front of a castle in Daytona.
That was my fix until we head back :) We got to watch Austin and the cheerleaders perform and it was awesome! The girls LOVED Ady. And Austin said after we left the girls just kept going on and on about how precious she was. They one first place for their division! Yay!!

I love the look on this cheerleaders face :)

Go Austin!

Ady was soaking it all in!

And kicking up her feet like the girls do :)

The ride home did not go as planned. We were going to leave Saturday night and drive through the night, but I thought it'd be just fine since Ady had been so happy, to leave that morning and be back in our own beds that night :) But.....terrible, terrible, terrible traffic kept us from that. We were held back 3 hours in traffic in Atlanta. We left Palm Coast at 8:30 that morning and made it to Nashville at midnight. We were so tired we just couldn't make it the whole way, so we stayed at Tatay and Biggie's house for the night. They were just elated to see their precious Ady.
We left around 9:00 that morning, made it to Louisville, loaded up our car, and made it back to Lexington at 2:00. So...the 13 hour projected drive home ended up turning into a 30 hour drive. And Ady didn't cry on the way home. She was the happiest of anyone in the car. Ha!! At one point I let her out of her seat when we were just stuck in traffic. She loved watching outside. :)
So often I talk about Ady, but those of you who know me well enough, know just how special Caden is to me. I have loved him as if he was my own from the second he entered into this world.
I am so thankful Ady has been able to spend a week with him. She adores him and he does her as well. It is so precious to watch them together :)
We couldn't have asked for a better vacation. It was a GREAT time with great family and friends. I am so thankful we had the chance to go. We're already making plans to head back there next year (if we don't move there first!!!). It was just beautiful. We'll be heading to Florida again in August with my parents and Ady will be almost a year old. I can't wait to watch her running up and down the beach. :) She is just so much fun and I love, love, love being her mommy. And....my surgery has been cancelled. Not by my doctor, but by me. But, that's a post for another day. :) Thank you to those of you have already been praying for us!
I just love my life and my precious family. :) I am once again in awe of my Savior for his endless blessings to our family. I could not ask for more.