Wordless Wednesday 4.30.08

Livi Learns to Sleep

We have been doing CIO ('Cry It Out' or Ferberizing, for those that don't know is a way for her to learn how to self-soothe and fall asleep on her own) with Livi for almost a week now. Naps are still not going that great. I had a hard time with her with naps this past weekend too. I'm not too concerned about naps right now as long as she is going to sleep on her own at night. We'll keep working on the naps.

Tonight I took Livi up, put on her PJs, etc. When I went to put her in her crib I fully expected some crying if even just a minute like the last 3 nights. She laid right down, rolled on her belly and didn't make a peep! YAY!! I am so happy you cannot even understand!!! I know this is typical for most babies her age, but not for us. Juli is and was so hard to get to sleep that this is simply amazing to me! Livi has always been a good sleeper as far as sleeping goes, she just needed to be held to go to sleep. Once she was asleep she pretty much stayed asleep all night, unless she had an ear infection or a tooth popping through or something.

Here's hoping for continuing success with this!!

Update on Juli and her tonsils.

We went for Juli's follow up yesterday. We had ordered her the book "Goodbye Tonsils" in which the little girl is named Juliana (spelled differently). Juli LOVED the book and we read it to her SO many times. Well last week out of the blue she told James that when she went back to Dr. Isaacs (his name is really Dr. Isaacson, but that's what she calls him) she wanted to give the book to another kid getting their tonsils out so they can be brave like she was. So we took her book with us.

When we went in she was holding the book and Dr. Isaacson said, oooh Goodbye Tonsils, what a great book. I told her told her to tell him what she wanted to do with it and she said, "Give it to someone else to make them brave like me!" (Awww) He said to her, "That's a GREAT idea! We'll put it right in our office where everyone can see it!" She was all smiles after that!!

He told me she still sounded a little nasular (spelling?) and he had her say a few words like Candy and some others I can't remember. He said that when she said those words and worked on pronunciation she was able to overcome it, so it should fade in a few weeks. I asked about the high pitch of her voice and he said it's hers and it's here to stay. He explained that we are just used to hearing her sound so nasal and blocked up, but this is her voice. He asked if she was still snoring and I told him that she doesn't even make a sound when she sleeps!

He asked how long she had to take the tylenol with codeine. I told him 2 days, we stopped b/c she was really fighting us and she did much better with the regular tylenol. He said that was great. He said, "his kids" don't have that much pain anymore since he uses tonsillar coblation (spelling?), the way they used to do it before they had to be on the narcotic pain killers for AT LEAST 10 days! EEK! So glad we didn't have to deal with that! He said everything looked great and her ears looked good too! I asked if she could eat whatever she wanted now or if she was still restricted in anyway and he said "nope, she is a free woman!"

After seeing him we headed in for a hearing test. We went into the sound proof booth and Juli sat in a chair and I sat behind her. The audiologist put headphones on Juli and told her to repeat whatever she said, then she left the booth. It was actually pretty funny. The booth was dead silent and then I would just hear Juli say, "BASEBALL!" "ICE CREAM!" "MAILMAN!". I could tell when the audiologist would say things lower because Juli would whisper them too!

After that the audiologist came back in and "played a game" with Juli. They put another set of headphones on and she gave Juli a bunch of wooden blocks and a basket. She told her to put the block to her ear (whichever one they were working on at the time) and when she heard beeps to throw them in the basket. Every time Juli heard a beep and threw a block the audiologist cheered for her. She was loving it! I was watching her finger on the button and I think Juli got them all. She said she did very well.

We have to go back in October for a follow up for her tubes. Other than that she is free to eat whatever she wants including red stuff and crunchy scratchy stuff. Last night she had a little treat, and I don't think I have ever seen anyone so happy to have a potato chip!

Oh My Darling

This morning Juli was being a bit of a pain in the rear so I decided to get out of the house. We went to Target to pick up a few things. On the way home, I hear Juli singing in the back. I thought she was singing Oh My Darling Clementine, but after listening some more I realized she was singing something very different to the tune of Clementine. Her song went a little something like this:

I get time out
When I don't listen
And Mommy gets so mad.

But I am good
Now I wont sit
in time out when I get home...

I wish I had started listening sooner!! Can you tell she spent some time in Time Out this morning??

Chalk Outlines

While James and Joseph were off learning how to ride motorcycles we got to spend some girl time with Katie and Denise. Livi went to bed pretty early and the big girls hung out outside for a while.

Whatcha drawing?

What should we draw now?

Let's outline ourselves! {Not sure why Juli looks so scared here, they thought outlining their bodies was hysterical!}

Juli's TV Spot

Juli loves to sit on the radiator behind the couch and watch TV or look out the back window. She finally figured out that if she tucks a pillow back there it is a nice cozy spot to watch TV where Livi can't bother her!

Wordless Wednesday 4.23.08

Ladybugs

Grandma brought Juli a new game called Ladybugs. Juli couldn't wait to play it! Here she is getting all set up.
Not sure what's going on with this smile! LOL
This is her, "I WON" smile!
She did win legitimately. I, on the other hand, did not fair as well. I gave my 10 aphids to the ants and had to go back a space. I had to keep looping around to get 10 more aphids. In the meantime Juli won and I ended up collecting a whopping 3 aphids.

Mail Call

Juli got a ton of mail yesterday. Thank you to everyone that sent her something in the mail, she loved opening them! Please ignore the outfit! LOL It's Maddie's old gymnastics outfit and Juli LOVES wearing it and tumbling around in it. There wasn't much tumbling going on yesterday, but she still wanted to wear it.

Ch Ch Ch Changes

Juli's voice is definitely different than it was pre-surgery. Ironically I caught her signing "Goodbye tonsils" on video today and remembered she sang the same song on video just before her surgery.

Before:

After:

In the Garden

Yesterday we got a chance to get a little work done in the garden. We took up the mulch from last year and got new flowers in. Juli was feeling up to "helping", so she did a little digging while we got the new flowers planted. Oh and by we, I really mean James, lol.

Juli helping.

Livi's idea of helping.

We're getting there.

I'm a big helper, right?

Our newest additions to our flowerbed:

Goodbye Tonsils

Juli finally got those horrible tonsils out yesterday. Here she is getting in the car to go to the hospital. Yeah, that looks like a nervous smile... can't say I blame her. I'm sure mine wouldn't have been much better right then.

After what seemed like forever we were finally in triage. In our bed area, they had a video game system. Juli was excited and wanted to play a game. Unfortunately football was the game that was on. She lost interest quickly!

She got to change into some hospital issue PJs.

James and Juli just waiting around.

Sandy and Juli.

They gave Juli some "silly juice" to help relax her and sedate her in order to ease the separation anxiety and help her when she went back to the operating room. She fought us on taking it, but once it was down, she was happy. Actually she was downright silly.

Everything was funny and she kept giggling and playing around. After a while she did get tired and just layed down and smiled a lot.

Here is her message to the doctor, while hopped up on "silly juice."

This is what Juli looked like when I found her in recovery, although this picture was taken when we first got to her room. A nurse was getting us settled when another one walked in. The second nurse goes, "Oh look, she's got T&A". James says, "T&A?". The nurse laughs and says, "Yeah, T&A Face, tonsils and adnoids..."

Thankfully that face went away and although still puffy and having a hard time talking Juli got progressively better as the day went on. She even found the energy to get on playhouse disney for a few minutes.

Later on that night she even ate a few bites of bread and some vanilla pudding.

I guess that was the boost she needed. Shortly after she wanted to go for a walk. Every nurse we passed loved her froggy robe and slippers with the little bells on them.

Juli had a pulse/oxygen monitor that they put on her toe. The light from the monitor made her toe glow bright red. We kept calling her rudolph the red toe girl or "glow-toe."

Later on we had some fun with play-doh. We made faces and pirate ships and tons of other stuff. She had a great time and it kept her mind off of her throat.

Just relaxing before bedtime.

This pretty face is MUCH better than the T&A face!!

She ate a little bit and drank enough so they let us go home this morning. I think being at home will be good for her. The nurses woke her every 4 hours for her medicine, which we will have to do also. They also woke her to take vitals, etc. in between. So needless to say Juli, James and I did not get much sleep last night!

We were discharged early this morning and with the exception of fighting us on medicines, Juli is doing good! She drank plenty today. She also ate a bunch. Tonight for dinner she wanted pizza, so we got her a white slice from Peace a Pizza and she ate 1/4 to 1/2 of the slice. She also had a full container of yogurt, some ice cream and plenty of other soft stuff. She also played outside for a while and had a great time watching thousands of bubbles, thanks to the bubble machine Mom Mom bought for her.

We made it through the first two days. The doctor said days 3-5 are usually the worst. Hopefully she will continue to do as well as she has been.

Goodbye Tonsils Party

Tonight we had a Goodbye Tonsils Party for Juli. On Friday she will be saying goodbye to these nasty suckers for good!

Livi Loo Who

Juli & Katie enjoying their pizza.

Juli picked purple (her favorite color) and Tinkerbell as the theme of her party.

Hanging out around the table.

Present time!

I got presents!

What does this do? {Sno-cone machine courtesy of Nonna & Pop}

Livi & Katie playing with the Cinderella laptop fromUncle Frankie & Aunt Karen.

Juli in her new robe from Grandma.

Cards & presents, lots of cool stuff! Thanks everyone!

Can we play with this one now?

Katie finally got a hold of that Hannah Montana barbie she had her eye on!

Cake time!

Sing the goodbye tonsils song!

Mmm that was good!

Thanks everyone for helping Juli say goodbye to her tonsils! After everyone left she said to James, "Daddy, that was a GREAT goodbye tonsils party!!"