Thursday, October 21, 2010

Sleep Study Results

We had an appointment with Giuliana's ENT doctor to go over the results of her Sleep Study. He said it came back pretty normal, however, she stopped breathing 4 times, but not because of her tongue blocking the airway (which is our concern). I guess her brain forgot to tell her to breathe. I asked the doctor if we should be concerned about this (it didn't seem to faze him) and he said "no, that's pretty common in babies." I told him the alarm still goes off on her pulse ox. a few times at night, and he recommends we keep her on it until we don't hear an alarm for 2 weeks, but it's our call.

Since the alarm is still going off, I'd like to keep her on the pulse ox., because when the alarm sounds, it wakes her up enough to correct the issue, but not enough for it to be a problem for her to return to sleep. Plus it gives me peace of mind at night, and I still need that.

Also, I can't remember if I mentioned this in previous posts, but if not, her recent abdominal ultrasound came back negative.

We've recently started Giuliana on solids. Making my own baby food worked well with Giovanna, so I'm doing it again for Giuliana. Last week we tried Sweet Potatoes and Pears. Neither were a big hit. But can you believe tonight I made Cauliflower, and she loved it! Cauliflower? Really? She doesn't get that from me!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

New Doors and Johansen Farms

Ahhhhhh! Finally a home improvement project I wanted instead of something we had to do. Over the past few years, we've had some unexpected home improvement projects come up, and they prevented us from doing the projects we would like to do around the house. New exterior doors are the one thing I have wanted for years (well. . .besides the basement being finished, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that is going to be awhile). We finally saved enough to get them, and they're finished and installed! We got great deals on the doors themselves, and met a neighbor who pretty much does it all and is EXTREMELY reasonably priced (so if you ever need a home improvement project, let me know, we highly recommend this guy and I know he goes pretty much all over). I'm so happy with our doors that I wanted to share.

Today, Joe and I both had the day off, so we decided to spend a family day at Johansen Farms. We had beautiful weather, and being a Tuesday, there was no crowd! It was fabulous, we even got our own private hay ride! The girls had fun, and we just had an all around awesome day.

I don't know why, but this is acting funny today, so I can't get the captions to line up correctly. the first picture is the new front door, storm door and exterior trim. The second picture is the new side door and storm door.




















Just an absolutely sweet picture


Giovanna feeding the goats

They had baby chicks that you could pick up and pet.
They're quick little suckers, but Joe became the master
at catching them!
Giuliana even pet the baby chick

Giovanna in the pumpkins
Giuliana in the pumpkins

Monday, October 11, 2010

Scarecrow Festival

On Friday we received Giuliana's AFP test results, and her levels dropped again. Yay! What a great way to start the beautiful weekend. Throughout the year, Joe gets a couple of personal days, and Saturday was one of those days. We decided to spend the morning at St. Charles' Scarecrow Festival. What an experience!

This was my first time at the Scarecrow Fest, and holy cannoli, how about that 80 degree weather!? It was really neat to see the different types of scarecrows people come up with. I was a little disappointed in some because they weren't your classic scarecrow made of straw. Some were mechanical and had no straw to them at all, and it made me feel like it was more of a halloween scene instead of a scarecrow. But still very neat to see. Giovanna's favorite scarecrow had bubbles full of smoke. I have to say, it was pretty cool.

This was one of the scarecrows we thought was pretty
cute, and decided to take a picture.

Giovanna got her face painted for the first time! As you
can see, she really didn't know what was going on, so she
didn't know what to do. She just kinda sat there, very still!
It came out soooo cute. I wish we would have taken a
picture of the finished piece. She loved it, even though you
can't tell from this picture, and it really was cool!

How can you go to a Scarecrow Fest without making your
own scarecrow? This was all Joe's idea, to come to the
Scarecrow Fest and make a scarecrow, but when it came
time to actually make the dang thing, he sent Gunnar and
me in to do it! Let me tell you, what a pain in the dupa. Holy
cannoli, it was soooo hot in there, and they give you a 30 second
crash course on how to assemble the dang thing. Not as easy
as one would think! But this the Lees' lovely scarecrow. An
adult torso, with children's pants. Gotta love it! We are
officially taking suggestions for names!

The rides were a big hit with the kids, of course! Here's
Gunnar on some flying contraption!

Giovanna loved the merry-go-round. She cried every
time the 30 second ride ended. Those tears got to mommy
and daddy's hearts, so we let her ride 3 times. Whoa, those
things get expensive! At least we have a picture to last
a lifetime!

This is one of the scarecrow displays we liked.

This picture is separate from the Scarecrow Fest.
Today, I walked in to the girls' room when Giuliana
woke from her nap, and this is what I found!
Nooooooo! She's standing! Too fast baby, too fast!
Ya, she thinks she's funny.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Giuliana's Sleep Study

I have to say that Giuliana's Sleep Study was something completely different than what I was expecting, and an experience I will never forget. The room we were in was approximately 8x12, there was a huge yellow metal crib, one 3 drawer stand, a chair, and little shelf on the wall to house the necessary supplies. When I walked in the room, and the technician was "showing me around," my jaw mentally dropped when I saw there was no bed for me. Just a chair that doesn't even recline. Right then, I knew this was not going to be an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, and let me catch up on sleep while Giuliana did her sleep study. I was in for a night.

Normally, Giuliana starts to rub her eyes and get cranky around 8-8:15ish, where I then get her in her jammies, give her a night bottle, hook her up to her oximeter, and asleep she goes. Last night, Guliana decided it was fun sleepover party sleep study. She was having a ball with the technician, she loved being in the nasty metal crib, and was WIIIIIIIDE awake. When I put her jammies on, the sleep technician, Juliet (she was so friendly, gentle, and wonderful with us) put 3 sticky disks on Giuliana's chest, and 2 on her back where she connected wires and fed them through the top of her jammies. Then she put these two belts around Giuliana's tummy to keep the wires close to her body, and connected a wire to her foot which was very similar to the oximeter we have at home.

Giuliana finally fell asleep around 9:30. Juliet came in and told me she'd like to wait a half hour to forty minutes before starting connecting the remaining wires to make sure she was asleep. Around 10:15 Juliet came back in, and we got started. I had no idea how many wires were involved, nor the fact that I would be involved in this 2 hour process. Giuliana was soooo good. She slept throughout practically the entire wiring process. The only part she kind of woke up at, was when Juliet put the nose tube in, and she was half awake/ half sleeping. I quickly gave her a bottle and she was right back to a full sleep. Juliet wanted to wait another 20 minutes before finishing up. She told me, "don't fall asleep." In my mind I thought, "won't be a problem."

So, a successful study for an infant is 2 hours of data. Giuliana slept until 5:30 a.m. and did not pull out a single wire. That was long enough for an adult study. When she woke up, Juliet came in and said we're finished. Then she gushed about how wonderful Giuliana was and that she's the tiniest and most perfect patient she's ever had! She said that they record the studies, and when she has a patient giving her a hard time, she's going to show them Giuliana, the model patient! (she obviously isn't really going to show them, but it made me feel so proud).

When we finished up in the sleep lab, I took Giuliana across the street to the blood lab for her AFP test. The ladies there are so nice and gentle with her. Again, Giuliana did not cry. She is such a wonderful baby. We will have the sleep study results in a few weeks, and the AFP results should only take a couple of days.

Giuliana playing at her fun sleepover party sleep study

Giuliana still playing

These were all the wires connected the first time around

They put a hat on her head so she wouldn't pull at the
wires while she was sleeping. This is her hooked up to everything

I really like this picture so wanted to share

Followers