HAPPY HOMECOMING

One year ago today we brought Kinley home for the very first time! Kevin and I were so excited to show her off to family and friends since we were finally able to be with Kinley and have more than 1 person in the room at the same time. (You are only allowed 1 visitor at a time in the NICU.) We planned a small homecoming party for Kinley at our house on the day she came home. What Kevin and I did not plan on was that we stayed up pretty much all night, the night before, in our PCU room at Children's Mercy with Kinley. Then it took longer than we planned to be discharged. By the time we actually got home and settled in Kevin and I were pretty worn out, not to mention that just after we left the hospital Kinley started throwing up after feedings. I guess you could say we were worn out and stressed. Not the best combination, especially for me. Needless to say, we were not very good hosts that night. All the excitement of bringing Kinley home, coupled with all the responsibility that came with it got the best of us.

Tonight, to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Kinley's homecoming we had the same group over for dinner and it went much better. For starters, Kevin and I stayed awake. Kinley played and ate dinner with everyone and there was no throw-up to clean up afterwards. Yeah! It was awesome to see Kinley having fun and doing so well now. It was also really special to celebrate this milestone with the people who were there 1 year ago.

Now for the pics...

She loves playing in her rocking chair and watching a little Phineas and Ferb.

Somebody stole Daddy's straw right out of his drink.

So close to walking, I really think it will come any day now.

Shawnee County Courthouse

We took Kinley to the Shawnee County Courthouse on Thursday since she was subpoenaed. Not really, but Grandma Seep works at the courthouse and she did ask us to come visit. It was really nice to bring Kinley to the courthouse (finally) because Grandma Seep and her co-workers have done so much for us and for CDH. Kinley did great at the courthouse meeting everyone and the trip to Topeka and back went pretty well also.

Here is Kinley with Grandma outside the courthouse.

Special Care Clinic...Again

I know I said last time that it would be our last visit to the Special Care Clinic, but we ended up going one more time. This time was a little better than the last time we went, but it still takes up most of the day and Kinley screamed the whole time we were there.

Basically we learned that Kinley now weighs 21 lbs (yay!), is still sating 100% (yay!), and we got the go ahead to stop Kinley's thickener (yay!). Before the appointment we had been giving Kinley unthickened whole milk in her sippy cups with meals, but she still got 1 bottle of Pediasure at bedtime that we thickened with half a packet of nectar thickener to 8 oz of the Pediasure, so she was not really on much thickener, but it will be nice to get her totally off thickener now. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful appointment. I just felt bad that Kinley was so stressed out and screamed the whole time. Poor Kinley. She slept pretty well on the way home though.

I guess it is time to start thinking about a front facing car seat for Kinley. We still have her in her rear facing infant car seat because it goes up to 22 lbs., so there wasn't really a reason to switch to a front facing car seat before now. I am sure Kinley would like to finally be able to see where we are going rather than where we have been. She is growing up so fast.

A Big Switch

This past Monday was Kinley's last scheduled OT visit with Infants and Toddlers of Johnson County. Kinley has improved so much with her eating and motor skills that she does not qualify for their OT services anymore. While we are extremely happy with Kinley's progress we will definitely miss Jami. Thanks for all your help with Kinley and her eating!

Next Wednesday Kinley will start her visits with the Early Childhood Development/Speech Therapist from Infants and Toddlers. We will be focusing on Kinley's language skills since she is still not saying any words. We are hopeful that with a little focus and hard work Kinley will start to pick up her language skills just like she did with her eating and motor skills.

We are so thankful for the great staff at Infants and Toddlers of Johnson County. They have been great with Kinley!

Tan-Tar-A

We left for Tan-Tar-A Resort at Lake of the Ozarks on July 16th and were there for 4 days. (Finally I finished this post, with a few minor complications that will show up towards the end.) We went with Grandma and Grandpa Seep and it was Kinley's VERY FIRST VACATION! Kevin and I were a little worried about how Kinley might react being away from home especially for eating and sleeping, but Kinley surprised us both and did really well. It was such a fun trip! If only we could go every week.

From our house it took us just under 4 hours to get to the resort (I think the GPS took us the long way). Kinley slept for most of the trip and just woke up and got a little fussy towards the end, but that is to be expected. We made it without having to stop more than once, so that was great.

Once we got to our room we settled in and tried to make it as much like home as possible. At home Kinley still eats meals while watching her favorite cartoon, Phineas and Ferb, since we still are trying to make mealtimes fun and enjoyable for her. We set up a portable DVD player and played Phineas and Ferb for most of her meals on vacation. This is what the set-up looked like...



Lucky for us Kinley still fits in her Bumbo, because it worked out well. Kinley ate really good for most meals. Yea!! (That makes vacation a lot less stressful for Mommy and Daddy.) As far as sleeping arrangements go, Kinley sleeps in her own room at home, so we tried to set up a little corner of the room for Kinley to sleep in where she would not be able to see Kevin or I. We thought that if she could see us she would never go to sleep and would just cry until one of us went to rescue her. Here is Kinley's sleeping corner...

We brought our pack-n-play from home as well as my "screen" (as it came to be called in it's previous function, which I am sure my co-workers might recognize). Anyway, it is a little hard to tell in this picture, but the screen is actually blocking Kinley's view of the rest of the room, so it was like she had her own little room within our room. That also worked out really well. Kinley slept great while on vacation. I don't know if it was all the fresh air, excitement, or both, but we actually had to wake Kinley up at 10:00 AM on the second day. Normally Kinley is awake between 7:30 AM and 8:00 AM.

There was so much to do at the resort. There was an indoor water park that we didn't make it to, but there was also 1 other indoor pool and 2 outdoor pools, and each of them had a baby pool nearby. One of the outdoor pools even had a water slide. There was a golf course, bowling ally, shops, playground, putt-putt course, picnic areas, marina, restaurants and more. We didn't have nearly enough time to do everything, oh well, I guess we will just have to go back soon. Here are some of the fun things we did get to do...

Kinley loved to splash and play with her new water toys in the baby pool. The water was only about 6 inches deep and there were little fountains all around the pool that Kinley would crawl into. (That is what's obstructing the view of Kinley in the 3rd pic.) She had a lot of fun in this pool, it was just her size.

Here Kinley is in one of the adult pools with her little water boat.

Grandpa pushing Kinley in her boat.



Just chillin with Daddy at the kiddie pool.

The first day Kinley wore her very own life jacket on the pontoon boat that we rented. Kinley was a little uncomfortable in the life jacket, but eventually was crawling all around the boat having a great time. She even ate dinner on the boat with all the adults.

The second day we rented a speed boat and borrowed a life jacket that Kinley was much more comfortable in since she could move around a little easier with it on. Kinley must have been really relaxed on the boat this time because she actually took a nap in Daddy's arms towards the end. Here are some pics of Kinley at the beginning of the boat ride before she fell asleep.

You will have to bear with me for the next 2 pics. I have them rotated before I upload them to the blog, but for some reason they go back to horizontal in the uploading process. So annoying. But, these pics show Kinley having a blast crawling up and down the hallway outside our room. She saw that long hallway and was off in a flash. She thought it was so funny when Mommy and Daddy as well as Grandma and Grandpa would chase her.

We were able to get a family pic in just before we headed home.

We also needed a pic of Kinley with Grandma and Grandpa, but just before this pic someone let it slip that we were heading home. Obviously Kinley was not too happy about leaving.

We had such a great time on vacation! The fact that Kinley did so well away from home and had so much fun made it that much better. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a great trip!!!

Kinley's First Haircut

Just before we left for her first vacation, we took Kinley to get her first haircut. The only thing Kinley really needed was a little trim in the back since her hair had grown in a little uneven. We took her to Sheer Madness, which is just a few blocks away from our house. The salon was so cute and kid friendly! There were different cars for the kids to sit in while they got their hair cut and even tv's at each station so that they could watch their favorite shows. Kinley did pretty good at first, here she is checking out her purple wrangler...

And here she is when she realized what was about to happen.

Kinley's hair cutter was really flexible and this is how Kinley actually got her haircut for the first time...being held by mommy.

And now for the after pic. Kinley was happy as can be back in her purple wrangler as long as no one came near her with a pair of scissors. As you can see, not much of a change in looks from the front, but the back really does look a lot better all trimmed up.

A Couple Weeks Of Horrible Eating

I have been so pre-occupied with the Letters for CDH project, Kinley's first haircut and Kinley's first vacation (pics to come later) that I got a little behind on her blog. Lets go back to the beginning of July.

For the first couple weeks in July Kinley had a dramatic drop in appetite. She had been eating so well, and then just stopped. Kevin and I chalked it up to teething at first, but when it continued Kevin took her in to the pediatrician's office for a second opinion, and to see how long Kinley could go on like this without more intervention by us. Dr. S. said he could not see any teeth coming in, nor did Kinley have an ear infection or anything else that might hinder her appetite. I wanted an x-ray, but Dr. S. listened to Kinley's chest and said he didn't hear any bowel sounds or anything that might indicate she re-herniated, so his recommendation was to hold off on the x-ray and try to save Kinley from the exposure at this time. He weighed Kinley and she had gained a little over a pound from her 1 year check up, so Dr. S. was OK with her weight at this time also. Kinley weighed in at 20 lbs. Kevin and Kinley left the appointment without an answer to her feeding troubles, but at least we ruled out re-herniation.

Kevin and I were really getting stressed out and frustrated during feeding times. We were actually having several conversations a day about poop and wet diapers. It pretty much consumed us for those couple of weeks.

When the OT came for her visit we explained what was going on and she thinks Kinley was protesting us taking her bottles away. A couple of weeks or so before Kinley stopped eating we decided that she was drinking so well out of her sippy cups that she didn't need bottles after her meals anymore. I was thrilled about this because what we had been doing was giving Kinley breakfast for 30 minutes and then a bottle for 30 minutes. Same thing for lunch and dinner, and then just a bottle for 30 minutes before bedtime. Getting rid of the bottles after meals would cut feeding time in half and give us more time to get out and do stuff. (That is how we had time to get all the summer fun in.)

Well, we have since compromised with Kinley and now she gets breakfast with a bottle of whole milk afterwards, lunch, dinner, then a bottle of Pediasure at bedtime and it seems to be working well for everyone.