At least it's not a loss

Well, Iris was weighed yesterday. She was up to 15 lbs 15 oz. Which means that she gained 2 1/2 ounces. It isn't much, but I guess it is better than losing. This is even with me mixing her formula thicker, so there are more calories. I hope she starts gaining a little better. She is 8 months old now. Can you believe that? 8 months! Seems like she was just born and going through her OHS (open heart surgery.)

Anyway, when the nurse was weighing her and checking her oxygen yesterday, she looked at her gtube site. Noticed that there is scar tissue under there and it looks tender. I knew this as just this week, the site started looking prett red and tender, so I knew she would mention it to me. So, I called the family doctor to have him take a look at it. We have an appointment for that tomorrow at 2 pm. I am going to give her some tylenol or something before we go, as they may have to cauterize the area to stop the scar tissue from forming. Poor little girl.

And, last but not least. Tomorrow is Halloween. YAY. Lowden decided out of the blue, that he wants to be Optimus Prime from The Transformers. So we have his costume. I need to get something for Iris yet. I know, bad mom :( But I am going to get something today for her...I hope. I will get pics of the kids in their costumes up here in the next couple of days.

Love You All,

Anna & The Kings

Headaches

Once again, it is headache season....for me anyway. I have had one for about 2 weeks straight now, and I just can't seem to get rid of it. I know that part of this is my fault and my near constant ponytail in my hair, but that is not all. I have quit drinking soda, pop, whatever you choose to call it. And, today I have not had any coffee....it is not working very well for me and I miss it. Pathetic? maybe, but I think I am going to have to brew some here shortly, or I will never make it all night with the kids. Jesse has school, so he will not get home until close to 10:00 pm. Both of the kids need baths, but that shouldn't be too hard, now that I have a seat for Iris to put right in the bathtub, so I can give them both a bath at the same time. Iris loves the seat, and Lowden loves to "help." I also have to make some time to make noodles for some chicken noodle soup. I refuse to make it with store bought noodles since it takes all of 4 ingredients to make egg noodles and only about 20 minutes of my time. I just hope both kids cooperate with my plans. We also have to head up to Manchester to pick up Lowden's Halloween costume from Sis', she was nice and went and picked it up for me in town there since I could not find it in C.R. or Marion.

Anyway. Iris' formula recipe has changed. Recipe? you ask. Well, kind of. I have to mix it thicker now. So, I am. She will get weighed tomorrow by the nurse, so I am curious to see what this has done for her. I hope a lot! She did throw up quite a bit this weekend though, so who knows.

Had a nice little visit from Grandma & Grandpa Fass this weekend. That was nice. My house was a complete disaster area, but oh well. I did get some cleaning done over the weekend, but not enough for me to be satisfied. Why does it seem like to get one thing really clean, you have to make 3 other things really dirty?

Yeah, time for that coffee before I fall asleep......at work :)

Anna

Up a bit, down a tad, down a tad more, UP a lot!

We are talking weight here. And no, not mine. As always, Iris is having weight issues. Here is her months weight gain and losses, week by week. Week of Sept 29th, she gained 5.5 oz(13 lb 13.5 oz); week of Oct 6th, lost 3 oz (13 lb 10.5 oz); week of Oct 13th, lost 5 oz (13 lbs 5.5 oz); week of Oct 20th, gained 8 oz, which puts her back at 13 lbs 13.5 oz. This leads to conversations with her visiting nurse. We will call her K. K has to talk to the dietician and see where Iris needs to be sitting at with her daily caloric intake. Obviously, it is not enough, and since Iris' vomiting makes her expel quite a bit, we have to figure out a way to get the calories in her without making her have to take in more ounces. Make sense? So, we have to make her formula thicker. When formula is mixed normally, it is 20 kilocalories per ounce, I believe. But, we have to start mixing Iris' so that it is anywhere from 24-27 kilocalories per ounce, as she needs anywhere from 715-750 calories per day. And, as she is now, she is only taking in approximately 550-600, depending on how much she throws up.

Have I mentioned yet that Iris has been feverish the last two days, and throwing up a little more than usual? I don't know if it is due to her teething or something else. I hope it is the teething though. She has been such a healthy girl, even with all that she has been through.

Anyway, I really need to figure out a way to start making more time to work with her on her eating. I know, more like lack there of, but we need to get somewhere with it. It is hard to find the time to fit everything into the day, especially the work week. I don't even get to pick her and Lowden up from daycare until 5:30 pm and then we drive home and get in the house and unpacked and all that. By then it is 6 pm, and I have to get supper started and Lowden fed....I need time to give them baths and Lowden has to be to bed by 8 pm, sometimes 8:30 if he took a nap at daycare or not. Iris is mad as ever if I am not in the "designated" rocker by 8pm to start feeding her, and she falls asleep chewing on her moose around 8:30. Life is so fast, and I need more time to work with her. And here comes daylight savings. GREAT! *please note the sarcasm:)*
**Oh, one last thing before I publish this. I am planning on pulling a bunch of pictures from her carepage to put on here, so, sorry if you have already seen them.

Much Love,

Anna & The Kings

Scraping my windshield....already

It's as horrible as it sounds. I had to scrape my windshield this morning. I am SOOOOOO not ready for winter. AT ALL! And there are two different Farmer's Almanac descriptions of the winter hanging around out there, so we can't really be sure what to expect. Cold, yes we know that, but lots of precip.? Man, I hope not! I can deal with the snow, but not the rain/ice. It makes me so nervous driving all the way to work in that kind of weather/road conditions. What can I say though, Iowa weather.





I am starting to think about Christmas. Ick, I know. But, with the crappy (carpy for all my online mommy friends. hehe) economy, money is something I cannot be frivolous with. I am making a lot of the gifts this year, so I need to get my butt in gear. I am missing my sewing machine dearly, so I need to get back to it and get some gifts made. I am so excited about it. And no, I am not posting what I am making. Can't give it away!





Can I just say THANK YOU MIRALAX? Not for me (HAHA), but for Iris. It has done wonders with her um...digestion. She is like a new baby and it works like a charm for her...and is non-habit forming. So, yay for that! BUT, she has not gained any weight in 2 weeks, but lost it. Granted, it is not a huge amount, but for her, any loss is not good. So, we have to figure out what to do to make sure she is getting the amount of calories she should be. Anything by mouth is still a big no-no for her. She gags instantly. And I mean INSTANTLY. Just this last weekend, I put a mere TASTE of butterscotch pudding on the end of my fingertip. It no more than touched her tongue, and she gagged. Poor girl....mean mommy. But man alive is she a chatterbox. She went from saying blah blah blah to a kind of dah dah dah. Very cute. And she squeals, man can she squeal. I know, I am just getting paid back for all the screaming I could do back in the day. But I love it.





Lowden is great! Getting so big. He says he wants to be Optimus Prime for Halloween. Now that I can't find a costume anywhere for him...except Ebay, but they all want too much for them. So, I may try to talk him into going as something else. I found a race car driver costume and I think he would like that. He and another boy at daycare are the best and worst of friends. They play together, but then end up fighting. I swear it happens everyday. I always tell him that he should maybe play with other kids. He does for a day, and then is back with his "biting buddy." What can you do. I am still trying to get him to branch out with his foods. I think he should get the award for "Pickiest Kid Ever." But, I was able to get him to eat an actual real chicken breast. I of course cubed it and covered it in shake 'n' bake and baked it. But he ate it....and some mashed taters and corn. Yay Lowden. Baby steps.





Anyway. Work has been busy this week, as my boss is on vacation in California. Monday was BAD! But the rest of the week hasn't been too bad. I am so ready for Friday, thank goodness it is tomorrow. No real plans for the weekend, but I know Jesse will be hunting, so who knows what we will do.





Anna

Brrrrrrr

Time to dig out the hats and gloves! Wow, has it gotten cool. It was a bit of a drastic change for me too, I would have liked to have been eased into the cool weather a little better....but it is not up to me. Jesse is loving it, because of course the cool weather means it is time to gear up for Deer Bow Hunting Season (a.k.a. his real love! haha)

Iris is gaining weight steadily. She gained 5 1/2 oz. last week and gained a whopping 7 1/2 oz. this week. wahoo Iris! She is now up to 15 lbs 8 1/2 oz. Getting big! She is such a happy girl too! I have been trying a sippy cup with her the last couple of nights. It has a soft spout, so if she bites on it, liquid will come out. I just put water in it, and I try to make it so she doesn't get a bunch in her mouth and throw up....like she did last night. Some of you have already seen this pic, so I apologize. I have more pics to get off my camera and onto the computer, maybe this weekend I will get to that.

Lowden is turning into a little man before my very eyes. It amazes me that he used to be as small as Iris. One day a few weeks ago, we were driving to daycare in the morning, and out of the blue, he says "I wanna Transformers." I said "huh?" He then says "Optimus Pwime (Prime)," I asked him what he was talking about. He said he wants to be Optimus Prime. OH, "For Halloween?," I ask. Yeah. I about laughed to death it was so cute. Now, he has not watched that movie in ages, so I don't know where it came from, but it was too cute. So I have a picture to put of him on here, and I think when Kelly reads it, she is going to say "There is an orb on his sleeve." I know, I saw it.

Anyway. I will try to get some more pics on here this weekend......TRY being the operative word.

Anna