Life Giving Light

Art and I are beginning to believe that Keira is part monkey, because she is always trying to do new things with her feet. She uses them more than her hands. She has been a kicker since the day she was conceived and has never stopped since. Her feet are always moving! Recently, she learned how to make herself bounce in the bouncer by kicking one foot in the air over and over. Today she learned how to kick the toys on her bouncer. Then this afternoon, she was playing on her rainforest gym and lifted her feet all the way over her head to kick her jingly toy.

She is crazy with those feet! You would never guess she had any problem with her spinal cord! I found out her MRI is scheduled for Tuesday, March 17th at noon at Children's Hospital. I knew they would have to sedate her for the scan since babies can't hold still long enough to complete it, but I didn't connect that to the fact that she wouldn't be able to eat for 8 hours before hand just like anyone else. They said all she can have is pedialite 4 hours before her appointment. I am NOT looking forward to making her go that long without eating, especially since we are used to feeding her the moment she indicates she is hungry. My mom and Art told me I will probably be more traumatized by it than her, but I'm STILL not happy about it.

Let's see, besides that... Art has had a fever for the past 2 days. I took him to the doctor today and they told him he has an ear infection which is strange because he didn't have any complaints about his ear. As for me, I am fairly healthy physically, but feeling a little unstable mentally. Before I had the baby, I knew that working and having a baby would mean that I had to use "the best of me" at work and the baby and Art would get "the rest of me" but now that it is actually happening, it is much harder to deal with than I thought. Every day I feel like I am failing at SOMETHING. I am having the hardest time just getting dinner on the table every day and am very overwhelmed at the thought of accomplishing more than that. And with all the stress I have in my life right now, I am having a really hard time concentrating at work resulting in a lot of stupid little mistakes- which is frustrating because I am a dang good secretary and my bosses expect perfection from me at all times. Things might be different if my husband and I were on a normal schedule where we were both home in the evenings and together on weekends, but in our current situation I find myself alone most of the time- and I can't do everything alone. I talked to my boss last month about switching to part time, but for a myriad of reasons I don't believe they are going to go for it and the thought of trying to find another job right now that would pay me what I'm making now just compound my stress all the more.

I'm so glad I have an impeccably happy baby or else I would be a very bitter and depressed person. I'm sure God knew that when he sent me her. Keira Evelyn means dark-haired, life-giving light- which describes her in perfection.

Text-less

I have had my cell phone for the better part of 3 years and it just doesn't seem to be pulling its weight any more. Every time I talk to my mom she says I sound like I am underwater and it gets a horrible signal even compared to other phones with the same service. Additionally, it has no idea how to utilize the memory card. It won't save things there and doesn't give you the options of saving things there, so the memory fills up very quickly. I am constantly having to empty my text message archives and every time I want to take a picture or a video, I have to delete something else to make room. Now if you know me, you know I don't want a phone that does too much. All I need it to do is make calls, take pictures and video, and text. I'm pretty easy to please. However, most of the phones available these days do everything short of cooking you breakfast and are quite expensive. I want a phone with a good camera, but all of the basic phones have lousy cameras. The one with the best camera was going to be too expensive.

Art has also had his phone for nearly 3 years and got the itch for a new one then all of the sudden it stopped turning on entirely. It would get to the startup screen and freeze. I have my suspicions that he purposefully sabotaged it so he could get a new phone, but he claims it was just a coincidence. My mom told me how she got her phone at Walmart through AT&T for way less than AT&T charges for the phone so I investigated it as she advised. I checked out their website and it's TOTALLY TRUE! The fancy pants phone I was looking at with the 3 megapixel camera was only $49 instead of $99. That's even less than what I paid for my less than desirable phone long ago. Art got his phone for significantly less as well. Even better, 2 day air mail delivery is free. How cool is that? They even had options to get the phone for free, but then you have to pay more per month for the plan, so it ended up being cheaper just to pay more for the phone and get the cheapest plan. The only downside is that they activate your new phone upon shipment, thus deactivating the phone in your possession. It's strange though, the moment I ordered it, my text messaging stopped working but I can still make phone calls. I imagine that will change any time between... NOW and the next couple days. So, if you text or call me and can't get a hold of me don't go thinking it's because you smell bad- even if you do. I will be text-less and potentially phone-less until Monday or Tuesday.

My Phone and Art's Phone - Aren't they cute together?

Now I will have a fancy pants phone, but I'm not paying an extra $30 a month to utilize all the fancy pants features if it's still not going to cook me breakfast. At least I can take decent pictures with it though. Oh, and it has crazy good talk time and standby time which will be nice.

As for Keira's potential tethered spinal cord, we are still waiting to hear from the pediatrician for an MRI appointment to see what's going on in there. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us at this stressful time. We had a family fast for Keira this Sunday and even though Art thought he was going to starve to death, we felt a lot of peace about it. I know that one way or another, everything is going to turn out ok in the end. I will certainly let everyone know as soon as we get the MRI scheduled and get the results back.

As a continuation of my previous post about the conflict with my orthodontist, to make an entirely long and bloody story short- by the end of that day I had to threaten to take them to court and remove myself as their patient. They are claiming that I will owe them way more money if I stop treatment early and go somewhere else, which is totally untrue, so I am consulting with an attorney to draw up an agreement that if they let me out of my contract and settle for what I have already paid them, I won't sue their pants off for everything they did to me. Sounds like a good offer for both of us at this point, so I am hoping they are smart enough to take it. The trouble I am facing now is finding another orthodontist to finish out these last couple months on my braces. I learned that not all orthodontists use the same braces and tools so no one will even give me a ball park price over the phone since they need to see me first. It just sucks so bad that they couldn't have just resolved the issue like reasonable human beings and stuck it out for the next couple months until I get my braces off! That pretty much sums up my lack of luck in life. Sometimes I feel like the world is taking a big dump on me.

Lastly, it has come to my attention that I have made no mention anywhere about the fact that my younger brother Kyle is serving a mission in Canada, specifically Montreal, Quebec, speaking Canadian French and he has been gone since November 5th. I feel like a horrible sister for not having acknowledged this fact in any way, so to make up for my poor sisterly-ness I have prepared a blog in his honor for all of his mission letters, pictures, video, etc. The link can be found to the right under Friends and Websites. He sends letters every Monday and I update it accordingly. Please feel free to check it out from time to time and share it with anyone who may be interested in Kyle's adventures in Canada.

Trading Murders

I am absolutely fit to be tied! Last week, my orthodontist's office accidentally charged MY debit card for someone else's payment in the amount of FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETEEN DOLLARS. I called on Friday to talk to them about it and their office was closed for the weekend! They called me on Monday repeatedly apologizing for the error and told me they would credit my money back and here it is Wednesday and there is no trace of that money coming back to my account. I called and pitched a fit, but they do not seem to be grasping the fact that I NEED MY MONEY BACK NOW. All of my end of the month bills are past due, I need to go grocery shopping like nobody's business, and my account is overdrawn.

So I called up my mom to rant about it and she tells me what kind of trouble she has been having with her neighbors. Their big ol' dog knocked down her fence and has been terrorizing her back yard, causing her pets to be too afraid to set paw in the back yard, thus causing them to relieve themselves in the house. Her property management company won't fix the fence because it is a shared fence and the cost will have to be split between them and the owners of the other house. The tenants of the other house are teenage boys who will not accept responsibility for their dog nor the fence and won't give up the information for their landlord because it is a family member. No one seems to be grasping the fact that SHE NEEDS HER FENCE FIXED NOW.

We did a little thinking and decided it would be a good idea for us to trade murders so that they can't link us to the killings. She can go postal on my orthodontist's office, and I can go massacre the neighbors and their dog. I'm telling you... my friend Robyn has a chiropractor who says there is a vertebrae or something that goes out of alignment and makes you "want to kill people" and I am sure mine is out of whack. Keep your distance... I'm dangerous.

***DISCLAIMER: If my mom's neighbors or anyone at the orthodontist's office goes missing or turns up dead it is purely coincidental and is in no way connected to me or my mom, as this story was written in jest.***

Worrisome

Keira finally went to her first checkup at the doctor this morning. She was in between insurance for a while so she is now 4 months old and just now going to the doctor for her shots. We were fortunate enough to get her in with the same pediatrician that I went to since I was a baby, Dr. Jones, who is absolutely awesome. She weighed in at 12 lbs. 9 oz. and is 2 feet tall. Well, 2 feet horizontal that is, because she can't stand. We have tried to get her to stand and she has got really bad noodle legs. She can't support her weight at all. My mom said that each of her 4 kids could stand by her age, so we were a little concerned. Our concern went from a little to a LOT after the doctor's appointment today. He noticed a dimple above her butt called a sacral dimple which is often a sign of a spinal nerve defect called a tethered spinal cord. One of the symptoms is leg weakness... GREAT.

Everything I read about it says that the earlier you detect the problem, the better, so I am glad that we discovered it early, but it seems like the only solution for it is surgical which I am NOT happy about. It is well understood that in the majority of children with tethered cords neurological function will deteriorate with growth and activity. So even if your child does not have any symptoms, surgery is often recommended to prevent future neurologic deterioration and complications. It is considered a low risk operation, with a good chance of success for their future development, but some cases are more difficult and may require more surgery as the child ages. The doctor wants her to have an MRI done to get a better idea of what the problem is and how severe it is, then we will have to discuss what to do about it.

Here is a link to some pretty good information about tethered spinal cords-

http://www.boston-neurosurg.org/publications/faq/tethered_cord_MP.shtml

I am SO WORRIED about my little girl and I want her to be able to walk! Please say a prayer for her and our family.

Raspberries

What do you do when you are teething, don't feel like talking, and have lots of drool to spare? Make raspberries of course! Today is Keira's 4 month birthday and to celebrate she decided to put that drool to good use by making raspberries with her mouth. A couple weeks ago, she decided that "talking" was "so last month" and now she mostly smiles, giggles, and uses her newfound skill of making raspberries. I'm sure she will resume talking again once she can keep those hands out of her mouth. Right now she is constantly teething on them. Hopefully she will pop those teeth out soon.

UPDATE:

Here is a video of Keira doing raspberries during our trip to the coast this weekend. We were having lunch at Round Table in Morro Bay and she entertained herself (and us) the whole time with a chorus of raspberries. You can hear it if you turn off the music and turn up the volume. See all that drool? What a silly girl.

A year ago today...

Valentine's Day never had a special place in my heart a year ago today when I discovered I was pregnant with my beautiful baby girl after nearly a year of painful trying. Now it brings back the memories...

That Valentine's Day, I stayed home from work because I was sick with a cold. I had been trying to get pregnant for the past 10 months and had taken many pregnancy tests in my haste, all of which were negative. I wanted to know if it was safe for me to take cold medicine so I went to Rite Aid and bought a pregnancy test to take the next morning. That night I was awake until some time around 4:00 in the morning because I was too sick to sleep and I was fed up so I went in the bathroom to take the pregnancy test, expecting it to be negative, so that I could take some medicine and go back to bed. Much to my surprise, it was positive! No doubt about it, two dark pink lines immediately materialized in the display window, and I was home alone will no one to share the news with! Art wouldn't get home from work for another few hours and can't answer his phone at work. I texted my mom and told her the good news. She called me and we talked for a while.

I was so excited I couldn't go back to bed and since I had some time to kill before Art got home I devised a clever way to tell him I'm pregnant. Neither of us had exchanged gifts on Valentine's Day since we were sick so I decided to give him a "late Valentine's present" and wrote him a card. It said "Happy Valentine's Day. I'm pregnant!" When he got home I told him I wrote him a card since I didn't buy him anything and he read the card with a puzzled look on his face. He looked at me and said, "You're pregnant???" I said, "YES! I'm PREGNANT!" and the excitement sank in for both of us. It's hard to believe it was a year ago already.

This year, Art brought me home a little flowering plant of some sort and a beautiful card then took me out to lunch at Plaza Ventana. At the last minute I ordered his present online so it hasn't shown up yet, but I got him a wedding ring to wear out and to church or what not. I'm sure you're thinking Dang! She bought him a ring and he bought her a lousy plant! But before you get all worked up, it only cost me $27.00. He spent more on lunch than I did on his ring. I am of the belief that diamonds are way more expensive than they justify- especially when cubic zirconia is way prettier and a small fragment of the cost. If you have "real diamond money" to spare, be my guest and buy them to your heart's content, but I don't roll like that. I only have fake diamond money. It even has a lifetime warranty. If anything happens to it, I just stick it in the mail and they send me a new one. I've been scoping out a ring for myself because the ring I have now was actually supposed to be just a promise ring as a way to deter men from bothering me. Well, it ended up being large enough that people would ask if we were engaged and we looked at each other and said, "Uh, yeah. I guess." So, he never actually asked me to marry him, and he never bought me a wedding ring either. I don't know how he pulled that one off.


Admittedly, I was kind of mad at my dear husband this Valentine's Day which is why I didn't buy him a present until the last minute so I didn't have a card either. I decided to make him a card instead of trying to pick through the remains at the store. He wasn't sure whether he should laugh or be offended.

A little while ago I was changing Keira into her pajamas and she made sound like a dog panting. I immitated her and she thought it was so funny. She started LAUGHING! She has giggled a couple times before when you get her neck or something, but this is the first time she totally laughed at something. I called up my mom and let her listen and got a tiny bit on video, but by the time we got the camera out she didn't think it was that funny any more. Ohhh, I love this baby so much- and all the more when she laughs. I'm so glad I made her. :)

Valentine's Day 2009

She has been teething on her fingers and decided it would be a good idea to get that thumb in her mouth while she was drinking her bottle.

Wiggle Worm

Playing in the Jumperoo for the first time.

Keira has always been quite a wiggle worm, but now her skills are improving with her added musculature. I acquired a Rainforest Jumperoo for her long before she was ever born, which I stationed at my mom's house for her use when she got big enough. My mom was watching her the other day and decided it was time to put Keira's kicking to good use in the Jumperoo. Her little tippy toes just touched the ground, but she had a BLAST playing in it.

I had to take her to the doctor last week because of a persistent diaper rash that kept spreading. I laid her on the exam table long ways and she would kick and kick and quickly work herself around horizontally. I straightened her out and it wasn't a minute before she was turned around sideways again.

Last night, I was doing laundry at my mom's house while my mom played with the baby and she put her on her tummy to play. She absolutely despises laying on her tummy and used her new found strength to flip herself all the way back over onto her back. That was her first successful 180 degree roll. Prior to this she had only made it onto her side from either her back or tummy.

Keira has been sleeping in her crib for the past couple weeks. She usually goes to sleep by 9:30 and starts waking up between 4 and 5 in the morning. She isn't hungry yet, but just wakes up so I just pop her pacifier back in her mouth, cover the side of her face, and she goes right back to sleep. She will do this a few times until it's actually time to get up and eat. I'm determined not to get her used to eating at 4 in the morning, so I don't feed her until she is actually hungry. Well, this morning my alarm went off and I realized she hadn't woken up at all yet. I got up to check on her and didn't see her so I pulled the blanket down thinking she must have gotten her face covered and she wasn't there!!! I started to panic a little wondering if maybe Art got home from work early and got her out of the crib. Then I pulled the blanket down even farther and there she was, sideways, all the way down in the bottom of the crib! My next thought was "OH MY GOSH! IS SHE BREATHING!?" There is no telling how long she had been down there under the blanket. I rubbed her belly and she moved, so I was relieved. She scared the living daylights out of me! First I thought she wasn't there and then I thought she was dead!

Silly girl... I can tell she is going to be on the move once she gets crawling and walking. She is already getting pretty far with her wiggling! I am concerned that she won't crawl very soon due to the fact that she hates being on her tummy, but she is already doing an "upside down, backwards crawl" as I call it. She lays on her back and scoots herself up with her feet- which is the reason she couldn't sleep in her bassinet anymore. She would wake up with her head scrunched sideways against the top of the bassinet. So, as you can imagine it was a real shock when she scrunched down into the bottom of her crib instead of up to the top!

Playing on the Rainforest Play Mat.