Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Hey June













































I used to be worried about how kids would react to Davy. Not that they would make fun of her cuz she's a baby and wouldn't care. I was more worried for them. Is that weird? I always try to explain to kids before they see her. I explain what a cleft is and how to not to be afraid to ask questions etc. For the most part I find kids don't care. Some are drawn to her even more, Like June here.
Last week we had a play date with a boy that had never seen Davy and I forgot to "explain" her cleft. He walked past her and yelled" the baby!"My SIL, Nan thought Davy was falling out of the stroller or something. But then the boy said. "That baby's nose is sucking her lip up into her face!" I started laughing, I don't know why I thought it was so funny. I guess it's cuz that is exactly what it looks like. And kids just call it how they see it. He wasn't being mean, just honest. So what do you think? Is better to explain to kids or let them come to me with their questions?

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

It's summer-it's summertime!





























I love summertime. I love the sun, going to a pool, to a beach, to a BBQ. Summer is my season. Having Davy has changed summertime, I really am not getting to do all the things I love. So in order for our kids not to have a bummer summer, Scott came up with a plan. Now for those of you who know my better half, you truly know he is indeed my better half. If I get into heaven it is purely by riding on his coattails. It's the truth and we all know it. Scott sat down with the boys and planned fun stuff for us all to do at home. He was trying to have a different theme for each day. I have to admit when he came up with this plan I was thinking, " yeah right, like I will be able to do any of this. This is going to send me over the edge.'' But he is so patient with me and my grumblings. He will make sure that the boys will have a decent summer. This day was "Art Day" We got out a bunch of paint and painted the wall in our back yard. The boys loved it. I think Harper loved it the most. Who gives their 2 year old a bucket of paint to play with? In a matter of minutes he was covered head to toe in grey paint. He was in heaven. We still can't get that paint off of him. He looks pretty white trash, dirty kid. Ahhh summertime.





























































































Friday, June 25, 2010

All dressed up and no where to go






























You want to know some thing funny? Or maybe it's sad, you decide. If you were to come over my house, I would be in the same sweats I wore yesterday and my hair would probably not even be brushed. But Davy would be dressed up like a Midwest diva.
I've been dieing to tell you something. You know how I've been working on bottle feeding her? Well, Lil' Miss Davy drank a whole bottle yesterday. The WHOLE thing, no G-tube, no joey!! I wanted to cry but I had company, so I kept it together. This is another big step for us. Now if I could just get her to do this once a day.......That would be really awesome. The girl is not very consistent though, so I can't rely on it yet. But at least I know she can do it. So I won't give up.







Wednesday, June 23, 2010

This is how we do it



This is Davy's room. Well it's her corner in our tiny room. I've always dreamt about how i would decorate my little girls room and it never involved an IV stand. Oh well, enough of the pitty party. I've been getting a lot of questions on how I feed our little Davy, so I thought I'd give you a peek into one.
Meet Joey, he is a kangaroo. He slowly but surely pushes 130mls of pure mom juice through a tube, straight into Davy's tummy. This is done over a half an hour.


After each feeding we have to push warm water through the bag to clean it. I hate this part. There is no fast way of doing it. I wish we could use a new bag every time. But we have to make it last 24 hours.





The rubber tube you see is called a G-tube. Do you see the clear knob at the end there? That's where we plug her into the Joey. On the side is an extra opening for us to push her meds through. Aren't her little legs the cutest? She has my fat knees, poor thing.


Babies with clefts get really gassy cuz they are always sucking in air. They also projectile vomit. This here bag is connected to her feed bag and it sucks up the extra air and spit up.

Now this, this is the piece DE resistance. This is the syringe that we hook into her tube and can literally suck air out of her tummy. It is awesome. Sometimes she has so much gas, I put it in and the air pops the syringe up all by itself. This is the best part of a G-tube. I really wasn't utilizing this at first and Nurse Angie told me I was crazy. So now I'm always busting this bad boy out.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

3 Months (and 2 days)

I call this the 80's work out photo shoot. I love dressing her. Love love love it. And since she throws up a lot, I have more opportunities to dress her. That's me making lemonade out of lemons. During the last month Davy has made some progress.

* she is growing like weed. She is 11 pounds 11 ounces and 21 1/2 inches.
* as of Saturday she started laughing. I only heard it over the phone. It sounded so cute, I was a little jealous I wasn't there to see it. Unfortunately she hasn't done it since. She keeps teasing me with a big smile and then... nothing.
* we have been working on bottle feeding. She needs to eat 130ml and she has gotten up to 60mls. She is kinda sporadic with it. Some days she does better then others. But there has been progress. She gets tuckered out pretty easy, so we only try it once or twice a day. And no longer then a half an hour. Anymore then that and she is burning to many calories.
* she is down to 6 medications a day. This may seem silly but Scott and I were stoked. It was given every 6 hours, so it's helping our schedule get a little bit easier. Really at this point, we will take what we can get.
* She loves to be sang to. She doesn't even mind my ugly old voice. But I can tell she prefers Daddy. I can't blame her on that one, I sing like a goat.
* she loves to push her tongue through her cleft. I wonder if it feels good?
* she loves being outside. I think she's been feeling a little couped up lately, so we've been taking her out for a stroll or two. The girl has gotta get her vitamin D, right?
* she has started the stare at her hand thing. You know what I mean right? It's like the most fascinating thing to her.
Every time she hits a "normal" baby milestone I get teary eyed. It makes me hopeful for her future. Like maybe everything is going to be OK with her.




Once again my talented mother made her the headband.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

My Dad can beat up your Dad



Happy father's Day Dad!! Your still the funniest guy I know.

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Shower

My sister in law, Amber had been trying to throw me a shower for a while. Before Davy was born I was nervous, scared and not ready to celebrate. She patiently waited for Davy to be born, get healthy , and for my mental state to get healthy. I am so glad she didn't give up on me. I told her to not go all out. Let's get pizza and coke0 and call it a day.
There is one thing you need to know about my in-laws.....they can throw a par-tay like no ones business. They take care of every detail food, invites, and linens; and they do it effortlessly. So no pizza parties, that would be an insult to the Schultz name.
My sisters know me well. This shower was very me. Thrift store finds, fowl and fresh waffles. And not just any waffles(try 3), buttermilk, lemon poppy seed and pumpkin with fresh rasberry, maple and butter syrups. Thank you to my friends who pitched in and helped with food and decor. You didn't go unnoticed.



I'm still nervous about bringing Davy around crowds, so I brought her in for a quick baby parade. Besides i need to show off some of the cute onesies I made. I kept hoping someone would play the lion king song as I held her above my head for all to gaze......didn't happen.
Davy with both of her Grandmas. Can you see where she got her good looks from?
These are my beautiful sister in laws. I really hate calling them in laws, cuz they feel more like sisters to me. SO I think from now on, I'm dropping the in law part.
Obviously these are my "blood" sistahs. i think we resemble each other. What do you think?
I think Davy was a little jealous of Archer's hair. I know I am.
The only way I could describe this day was amazing. I had so much fun just being out of the house and around people. The good food and lovely presents were just a bonus. Thank you every one for coming. It meant A LOT to me.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Ollism 20

Tonight we took the boys out for pizza to celebrate the last day of school. We found a very empty pizza joint, apparently no one likes round table any more. But it was good for us cuz we could bring Davy on her first night out on the town. And not to mention our little terror of a 2 year old, stinky. He tore that place up. Anyways we had a good time talking about their school year. I don't know how we got on the subject of girls, but we did. I was telling them how they are not allowed to date until they're 16. In fact they are not allowed to even kiss a girl tell they are 16. I looked over at Ollie and he had a huge smirk on his face and he said, " too late." (whaaaat)
And no he was not talking about me or Davy.
It was someone else and he has kissed her twice!(dun dun duh)

Sunday, June 13, 2010

She is blessed

Last Sunday our Davy girl was blessed. If you are not LDS, it's basically like an inspired prayer, given usually by the Father. This was such a huge milestone for me personally. I needed my little lady to make it to this point. I was hoping for some comfort or maybe a thought of the future, something to calm me. Scott did a wonderful job. It was a great blessing.
Davy was well loved. Thank you everyone for making the trip to see her. It means a lot to have your love and support.
Scott and Ollie both stood up and spoke their testimonies. I was so proud of Ollie. He told Scott, I have something to say. So up he went. it was so sweet and from the heart. He was just so happy his sister didn't have to have another surgery and then he said Heavenly Father is happy with everyone....everyone here. I stood up as well and couldn't tell you one thing that I said. I apologize now if I said the word crap. I tend to say that when I'm nervous. It could've slipped out. So..... sorry.

It still feels foreign to me. the whole girl thing. Dresses, ribbons, tights. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it, it's like I'm playing paper dolls. But I feel like I'm cheating the system some how. Like I'm not supposed to be doing it. I'm the boy mom.

And thanks to my moms beautiful dress she made for Davy girl. I have a very talented Mom. She hardly ever uses a pattern, she just goes for it and it always is amazing.

Did I mention this was Davys first time out in the world. We were a little nervous. We were nervous about germs and looky lous and how we were going to feed her and do meds. But it went really smoothly that day. Especailly cuz I didn't need to worry about feeding everyone else. My sister Beth headed that up and all my family pitched in. It made the day way less of a stress for us, Thank you guys. I mean it, really....Thank you.




3 bffs, Lily, Davy and Archie.

Friday, June 11, 2010

UUUUGGGGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This will be the end of me. No really, it's causing me physical pain. Do you think I can sue lansinoh for ruining my life. Is there a lawyer out there that will work pro bono? Let's take on the company that is dedicated to breastfeeding mothers! I'm walking a thin line folks and this just might push me over the edge.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Genetics, cardiologist, endochrinologists..... oh my

Long day, very long day. Started off with no sleep, then off to numerous Doctor appointments for Davy. I was nervous about how i was going to feed Davy on our long day away from the joey(her feeding machine). She really doesn't take the bottle so well and breast feeding hasn't been happening :( . Scott and I have fed her through a syringe for the first time on Sunday, so I went with that and a bottle for back up. The Doctor appointments went good. Nothing new really. This is how they went........
Genetics/Cranio facial- She is the right weight and age to get her lip and nose fix. We just need a clearance from Cardio. It will most likely happen 5 months(august-ish). She is back to gaining weight and growing taller. Yeah!!
Cardio- Heart is doing the same, which is good. We are on target for probably a heart fix when she is one. We will get an echo next appointment. They also cleared her for any surgeries.
Endocrine- All is good. She gave us a year prescription for 2 of her meds. The shot is a whole other story. We are still waiting to see if our insurance will even cover it. Really, don't even get me started on this topic. We will be doing labs next month to see how her thyroid is. And we are getting her a medic alert bracelet for her adrenal insufficiency(cortisol).

Unfortunately her last appointment took f o r e v e r, so i tried to feed her in the car(not while driving.) To make a long/frustrating story short, it did not go over well....at all. There were tears(from both of us) and hot water spilling all over me and the car. So I tried to rush home in traffic with my screaming baby. Good news is we all survived and I learned a valuable lesson.

1. ONLY 1 APPOINTMENT A DAY!
2. I will always schedule around her feedings, even if it means I have to wait a week.
3. I have to remember that Davy is a person and that means..................
I can drive in the carpool lane. I totally forgot this until I was almost home. Come on Ruth , get with the program.




Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Train the beast

This morning while doing some Kangaroo care with Davy, I over hear Ollie playing with Harper. He was being so sweet with him, it kinda got me emotional. In the midst of my tears I hear Ollie tell Harper, "come on Harper, let's go potty on the potty chair. You want to be a big boy like me don't ya?" Playing with Harper is one thing, but potty training?!!! I walk out and tell Ollie how awesome he is, and thank you for being such a big help to mommy. He smiled and kept on working with Harper.
What he didn't tell me was that Scott told him he would buy him a video game if he potty trained Harper.
Is it sad that we are relying on our 6 year old to potty train or 2 year old? Or is it genius. We will see. Know that this offer stands for anyone. You come over and potty train Harper, you get a video game.