Braggin' Wagon Wednesday: Dancing Queen

First here's a little update on Ivy. She had her 18 month well check last week as well as her semi-annual echo cardiogram. She now weighs 19 lbs 12 oz (still under the 3rd percentile, but actually jumped up just a touch), and she is 28 1/2 inches tall. Her echo went okay, she was "sedated" with some medicine that was supposed to make her happy and agreeable so the doctor wouldn't have such a hard time getting a look at her heart with her fighting. It didn't work and she screamed and squirmed the whole time anyway. He still got a good enough look to tell us that everything looked exactly as he had expected. We were also able to take away one of her medications, so now she just has three. She is doing so well, and we are so proud of her progress.

In other news, Ivy has discovered some new skills the last couple of weeks. She can now walk backwards, march, spin in circles and dance. She's especially fond of spinning and dancing, so we constantly find her spinning all around the house, or booty dancing when any music is playing. She's so cute and funny. Here's some video of her doing those two things.

Braggin' Wagon Wednesday

Ivy is 17 months old today. We set a goal a few months ago when she finally started crawl/scooting that we wanted her to be walking by 18 months. We worked hard, practiced everyday. She would take 3 or 4 steps between me and Scott or the physical therapist, and was doing awesome. Well last week while my sister's family was visiting for spring break, she did it. She started walking on her own. She can actually stand up in the middle of the floor without help from anybody, and slowly make it to her destination. She falls a lot, and can't do it with shoes on, but the important thing is that she can do it. A full month before our goal date. She's a superstar.

Whenever Ivy hits a milestone it seems so amazing to me. Far more amazing than when her brothers hit those milestones. She's always late, but she has to work so hard to hit them that they seem like more of an accomplishment. I'm always so proud. (Not that I wasn't proud of the boys, but they all came without effort for them). When I think about how almost two years ago when we found out she would be born with some problems, and we didn't know if she would live, or if she did what kind of life she would have, it still makes me cry. I look at her cute little face and sweet personality and feel blessed everyday. She's a perfect little person with an imperfect little heart and lives everyday fighting for what comes easy to others. She is so amazing, and seeing her tiny, 3rd percentile little body finally walking around the living room has me in awe. You are a miracle Ivy and truly give me reason to brag. I'm grateful everyday that I get to be your mom. Love you babe, keep up the good work!

Your Mama Dresses You Funny

Look at you with your mismatched stripes and polka-dots. You're a mini fashion nightmare! What was your mother thinking? She should be ashamed of herself.

That being said.....You're still the most adorable little girl I've ever seen!

Getting Another Asterix By My Name

Don't you always have your kids' best interest in mind? Wouldn't you do whatever it takes to make sure they are happy, healthy, and thriving? I know I would, and apparently, I do. As everyone knows when Ivy was hospitalized in July and her surgery was cancelled, I was.....peeved, to say the least! I fought with the doctors and tried to force them into admitting their mistakes, and in the process, didn't make very many friends. When we went back in October for the rescheduled surgery, I was going to make sure we weren't screwed again, and I put up a fight when a certain doctor wanted to do something I considered unnecessary. (Dr. Jerkface, in case you don't recall). Pretty soon Dr. Jerkface refused to work with us and the other cardiologists made sure that we were happy. They were basically walking on eggshells. I'm pretty sure there was a big fat asterix next to my name in Ivy's medical records telling the docs "Mom is a fire that needs putting out, and try not to make her angry again!" Which is fine, because I never have to see that doctor again, Ivy got the treatment she needed, and Scott and I got the respect we deserved for being her parents.

Well, I think I got another asterix today. This time at the pharmacy. I've been going to this pharmacy since first bringing Ivy home from the hospital 13 months ago. We have to since Ivy's main medication normally comes in a pill form, its hard to come by in a liquid. We can only get it at a hospital pharmacy. Anyway, you'd think that by now, they could get it right. We had a lot of problems right at first because Ivy is required to be on Amoxicillian (an antibiotic) all the time since she doesn't have a spleen and can't fight infection on her own. It's a very long story that involved a lot of wasted medicine and me getting angry because they just didn't understand that she needed it all the time. It took them at least 6 months before they figured it out! It was so annoying. Once they got that under control we were good for about 3 months. Then Ivy's dosage for her most important medicine, enalapril (a heart medicine)was changed so that it was more than doubled. I called them, informed them of the change, the doctors office faxed over the new prescription, and they proceeded to fill it for the old amount. I immediately told them at the pick up window that it was wrong, and they told me to come back in a few days and they'd give me the rest so it would last the whole month. To make a very long story short, this was the beginning of an avalanche of miscommunication and under-filled prescriptions. It was so FRUSTRATING! So after having to go back to the pharmacy 3 times in 3 weeks in January, I've had enough! Last night night I ran out of the enalapril a full week early, I didn't even have enough for her regular dose. I was fuming mad, and called the pharmacy right then and left them a 5 minute long angry message. (I basically told them if anything happened to her for not getting her regular dose, I would hold them responsible) Today the pharmacy opened at 8:30, and they called me at 8:30 on the dot, to tell me that Ivy's refills were ready and that they double and triple checked to make sure I recieved a full 30 day supply. They were overly nice at the pick up window, and named off everything as they put it in the bag. Needless to say, seems like I got a new asterix. I don't care, I'll do whatever it takes to make sure its done right. I think making sure a life saving medicine is correct is pretty darn important, and if I have to step on some toes to get it done, I will!

Confessions of a Sleep Deprived Mom

It has now been 13 months exactly since we first brought our little Ivy home from the hospital. 15 months and 25 days since she was born, and therefore, 15 months and 25 days of my getting up every three hours to feed our little girl. Technically for the first 7 weeks I didn't feed her every three hours, I pumped for breast milk every three hours (which was worse, it was uncomfortable, freezing cold, and took forever!). Of course there are a few exemptions to the 15 months and 25 days, such as, she's been hospitalized twice since then, and during each of those times I got one night of uninterrupted slumber. That's it.

Now it's no secret that this isn't exactly my favorite part of being this special girls mom. Mostly because I complain about it to any and everyone who will listen. Any mom knows what I am talking about, getting up to feed your baby at night is hard, but at least most babies begin to sleep through the night between about 6 months to a year of age. Mine did too, except, I was forbidden to allow it. On doctor's orders I still had to wake up every three hours to feed her, whether she was awake or not. Not fun, for either one of us.

Recently, Sweet Ivy started to crawl (well...scoot, whatever). She's adventurous and excited to check out all the corners of the house and explores on a regular basis. This is all great news except that, now she doesn't want to sleep anymore. She fights bedtime and naptime. FIGHTS IT!! She used to lay down for both easily. We'd put her down while she was still awake, give her the paci, pull up her blankets, and she'd snuggle down and go to sleep. Not anymore. Now we lay her down, she refuses the paci, kicks the blanket away, and cries herself to sleep. EVERY TIME. This isn't even the worst part. I still have to get up with her in the night, when I do, she drinks her bottle and then throws a fit instead of going back to sleep. So I rock her in the rocking chair, and she sleeps. I try to put her back in the crib, she wakes up and throws a fit all over again. Its frustrating.

Last night I had had enough. When she woke up for her 12:45 am feeding, I gave her the bottle and she refused it. I tried to give her the paci, again she refused it. She kicked her blanket off and cried....and cried....and cried. I picked her up and rocked her, for 20 minutes and she slept. I try to lay her down, she wakes up and again throws a fit. I walked away, closed the door behind me, went back to my room, turned off the baby monitor, and went back to sleep. I don't know how long she cried, or if she cried again. I slept. I slept until 7:30 am.

Now I feel guilty, but I've come to a decision. I don't care what the doctor says. I am going to ween her from needing to eat at night. I've already got one rough night behind me! She's gaining good weight now and I don't feel she needs it anymore...and I just can't take it anymore! I think I'll keep this a secret from the doctor and nurse until its already done, so they don't try to talk me out of it. I bet her weight gain will still be fine and they won't even notice.

Ivy has survived night one, and doesn't seem food deprived or angry...on to night two!

Ps...HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Brunson Kid Updates

First off there's Ivy. This girl can now really get around. She still does her silly scoot thing, but she's getting pretty fast. I find it easy to lose track of her. The other day we were upstairs bathing the boys and I turned around for just a second to wash their hair, when I heard the unmistakable sound of something falling down the stairs. I'm not gonna lie, I think I had a mini-heart attack as i ran out of the bathroom to see her sitting at the top of the stairs staring down at the ball she had just rolled down. PHEW!!! I picked her up and brought her in the bathroom with me, stood her next to the tub to watch the boys, and now she loves it. Every time they have a bath she is standing there watching and giggling.She switched to a toddler formula at the end of the year, and loves it. She started gaining good weight. Even gaining 13 1/2 ounces in just a week. She's a superstar. She loves to eat, and is enjoying the typical Brunson family favorites, such as yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese.

I recently met some women in my ward that have heart babies as well, although their babies aren't babies anymore, and are actually 19 year old girls. The interesting thing about them is that one of the girls has hypoplastic left heart syndrome also, and was the first baby to survive the Norwood surgery at Primary children's (that is the first surgery that Ivy had when she was 6 days old). It was great to meet them and very encouraging to hear that their daughters are doing so well. Anyway, enough on Ivy for today.

Dexter's turn. Dex is still rambunctious and crazy, and a lot of fun. He sometimes has the tendency to torture his brother and sister, but I don't think it's always on purpose. He's learning his abc's, and learning to sing songs and recognize tunes. He is loving nursery at church, even though he isn't in our class anymore.

He recently discovered an old stuffed panda bear in the toy box (I'm pretty sure we've had it forever, because I used to collect them and its probably from my teenage years), anyway, he's pretty obsessed with it and carries him around everywhere we go. He named it poobah, and loves to introduce everyone that comes over to his new best friend. It's funny and really makes us laugh. The other day he told our home teachers that its tail was not a tail, but in fact poo. We all had a good laugh, but I'm sure my face was pretty red with embarrassment.

I'm thinking of putting him in two years of preschool instead of one, just to give myself a little more sanity, so we'll probably be registering him next month and then he'd start in september. And lets face it, if he doesn't know the difference between a tail and poo, he could use a little extra school.


Corbin is also doing well. I'm constantly amazed by how smart and observant he is. Over the last couple of weeks he has become really interested in the music I listen to in the car. Even having a few favorite songs, for example we were listening to The Muse and he loved number three (Supermassive Black Hole from the Black Holes and Revelations album). He constantly requests me to "change it to number 3" and he and Dex both giggle like crazy during the whispery parts. He even recognizes music from the car if I happen to be playing it inside while I clean the house. He's so dang smart.

He is, of course, loving school. The other day was Pj day and he was a little confused about wearing his jammies to school, and I think thought I was a crazy for making him. Once he got there and realized that everyone was wearing them, he got over it, and actually had a great time watching a movie and eating snacks in his pj's with all his school friends.

He still enjoys church, and never complains about going. He had a little trouble adjusting to changing teachers in primary for the new year, but got over it quickly when he realized his new teacher was just as nice and fun as his old one. He's done really well the last couple of weeks and goes to class without shedding a tear.

Crab walk vs Crawling. You Decide.

So about a month ago I asked Ivy's physical therapist, Katy, if she was one of those people against a baby walking without ever crawling. She said she wasn't against it, but she would prefer a crawl first. I was thinking that Ivy might completely skip on the whole crawling thing since she refused to be on her hands and knees, and liked to stand. Well, as it turns out, she fooled us both and did a crab-walk first. It's like a 50% walk, 50% crawl that's 100% adorable! She first did it on December 26th, which was exactly one year to the day since she was first released from primary childrens. What a wonderful one year anniversary present! She's also pulling herself into a standing position and cruising along the furniture like crazy. She is really blossoming and its very exciting for us. Check out our cute little missy on this video and see what I mean. She is one cute little thing.



as usual, here's the link