Pyogenic Granuloma

I was able to get an appointment today at the pediatric dermatologist for Sydney.  With the bad weather, they had some cancellations.  (Usually it takes about a month to get in to see her!) Luckily the appointment was late enough in the day that Jeff was home from his morning surgeries and was able to take us.  The roads are still a little scary with ice on them, but the scarier part was the other drivers.

On the way there the bandaid Sydney had on her face came off and she started bleeding again. :(  It wouldn't have been a big deal except with the bad roads I didn't want to crawl in the back of the car.  She was asleep and so the bleeding was fairly minimal. 

The doctor took us right back and told us it was a pyogenic granuloma.   The pyogenic granuloma is caused by a trauma.  This makes sense because I had originally thought she had cut herself with her fingernail, but then changed my mind when I thought it was a strawberry developing.  Apparently "strawberries" occur within the first few months of life.

The doctor gave her a shot of lidociane on her cheek.  She couldn't put anything topical on it because it was actively bleeding.  The doctor scrapped it a little and took the "base" out and then cauterized it.  It stopped bleeding the first time she did it, but she cauterized it a few more times just to make sure she got it all.  The doctor thinks that she will have a small little poc mark where it was.  We have to watch it, because it could come back.  She thinks that because she was able to cauterize it good on the first try that the likelihood of it coming back is small.

To keep her still they wrapped her up in a little papoos - yeah, she didn't like that very much.  She didnt like the shot in the face either.  Jeff helped keep her head still while they did everyting.  Afterwards, Jeff picked her up to comfort her and she calmed down.  He told Sydney to show everyone her dimples - she looked around the room at the doctor and nurse and started crying again.  Poor thing!

Here she is while they did the procedure.  Jeff stepped in a bit to help hold her head still.

All that was sticking out was her little legs and her head.

Here she is right after everything was done.  She was just staring at the doctor.

All happy again...She is wearing her little PJ's from last night. That is the blood from our trip to the doctor's office. Her bandaid is much prettier now. She was happy to be home!

Being a Big Girl & A Big Owie

For our RS activity this Thursday, we are making some Valentine's day blocks and also doing a hairbow/flower exchange.  I am now the RS activities coordinator, so :).  I needed to get some more supplies for Thursday night plus get hair stuff to make and exchange.  Stacy, her daughter, Bella, Sydney, and I decided to venture out together.  Bella is just a few months older than Sydney and they both adore each other.  Sydney watches Bella and sooooo wants to be doing everything that Bella can do - sit up, walk, eat "real" food.  We were going to go to Joann's, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's to look for our supplies.  The shopping carts are itty bitty!  I am lucky if Sydney's carseat will even fit in the basket part - there are times I have to balance the carseat across the basket because it won't fit in the basket.  Sydney has been doing better at the whole sitting thing, but still likes to slump to the side after a few seconds.  I knew that in Joann's we weren't going to be too long, so I decided to try her out sitting in the shopping cart "big girl" style.  Worse case scenario is that she hates it, I carry her the rest of the time and next store I keep her in her carseat.  No need!  She loved it!  The back of the cart seat was high enough to support her and the belt fit right under her arm pits.  I strapped her in and we were off....She looked over at Bella, who was also sitting "big girl" style in her cart and started giggling and reaching for her.  (I do think it helped that she watched Bella sitting the same way.)

The blankets were there just in case we needed some extra support. 

Stacy & I debated what day to go on...Monday, but her husband, who works insane hours, was home, Tuesday afternoon, or Wednesday.  Since the activity is Thursday, I thought the earlier the better - so we knocked Wednesday off our list.  Stacy was worried about the weather on Tuesday afternoon, so we went Monday.  Good thing too!  Here is what I woke up to:

It was suppose to be in the 50's this morning, and get down to the 20's in the afternoon....hmmm, weathermen!....I actually listened to it sleet all night long.  They ended up cancelling school here and Jeff got a text saying that his office was closed as well.  Jeff went to the hospital and did a couple of c-sections, then was home the rest of the day!

The niceness of a snow day was short lived... Sydney has a "strawberry" on her right cheek.  She has one on the top of her head as well - Jeff has several on his forehead, so we didn't think much of it.  We have noticed that the "strawberry" has grown quite a bit lately.  Jeff felt it the other day and talked about how hard it was.  We have been wondering what to do about it...Jeff even was thinking that maybe it was more of a mole, because of the way it has developed.  Today we got a definative answer as to what it is....Sydney wasn't liking her green garden vegetables (I don't blame her!) and didn't want to eat anymore of it, she was smearing it all over herself and her pj's.  We took her out of her high chair to change her pj's and I noticed that she had a little dribble of blood from the "strawberry".  We wiped it, and wiped it, and wiped it.  Grabbed a tissue to put pressure on it, grabbed a few more.  From this new development, Jeff said that this is a "cherry angioma".  He had one similar to this on his leg.  It is almost like a blood blister, except it keeps "popping" and oozing blood.  He ended up having to go to a doctor's office to get his removed/fixed.

We ended up putting several bandaids on her face, but they kept leaking.

This is the 3rd one we put on.  It looks worse than it really is.  It is just a small spot that is bleeding.  This is just the bloodsoaked bandaid.  We finally got it to stop, so the last thing we wanted was to pull off this bandaid just to put a pretty one on.  In our luck, it would've started bleeding again.

Well, that bandaid was short lived.  About 2 hours later, the spot started bleeding again.  :(  Sydney fights us everytime we try to clean it or put any sort of pressure on it.  The more she fights, the more it bleeds.  Jeff ended up throwing her in the shower to help wash her up - she had blood everywhere - and to distract her while he put some more pressure on it.  She is now sleeping soundly with a new cottonball bandaid on. (Thanks Dad for the suggestion!)

With this bad weather, I am a little worried that all the doctor's offices will be closed again on Wednesday.  Jeff has already gotten the notice that his office will be closed again.  (He has a few c-sections again and then we have another snow (ice) day.)  I think he will come home with a few supplies to help with the bleeding if it starts up again, but hopefully we can either go to the pediatrician's office or find a dermatologist who can see her and fix it.

It is hard watching my little girl bleed and cry and not really be able to do anything about it.  Thankfully I got her "Red Dress" photos in before all of this happened!  Trying to see the positive! :)

The Red Dress....

No..."IT" hasn't frozen...Yes, I am updating my blog! Crazy I know!

I will eventually do a Oct 31st - Jan 25th update soon I hope.  Right now I am going to write about the past few days. 

Wednesday, Jan 26th, we got a little surprise....well, actually 2 little surprises.  Sydney cut her two bottom teeth.  Jeff surprised me with lunch on Wednesday.  While I was eating, he decided to entertain Sydney.  She was all smiles for him and that is when he saw them!

She was not very pleased when I tried to take a picture of them though...

They have barely poked through, but what a pain they have been for us!  For the past several nights, she has woken up every 2 hours.  We are not use to that anymore.  Jeff is pretty good about taking his time with her so I can sleep a little.

Grannie Whitford (my Dad's Mom) gave my parents a little red dress back when Susan was a baby.  Susan had her baby pictures taken in it.  Later I had my pictures taken in it.  When Susan had her first girl, Emily, out came the red dress again.  All of Susan's girls, Emily, Kate, & Kari, have had a picture taken in it.  I would estimate they were all around 6 months old or so...old enough that they can sit by themselves.  I have been a little worried.  Sydney is almost 9 months (I KNOW!!) with the development of an almost 6 monther but with the height of an almost 9 monther!  I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for her to sit up by herself.  I have been stressed though that if I wait too much longer she will not fit in this little red dress.  So today was the day...with coupon in hand for a free picture, I decided that sitting up by herself or not we needed the picture taken. 

I sat just outside the camera view on the floor by Sydney.  I held her up, balanced her, made her smile, and let go... here is the result:

Can you say "TIMBER"?!?!?!  I heard the photographer say, I got it! and then conk, Sydney was flat on her back and started crying!  Needless to say, she didn't want to try sitting up by herself anymore.  We took a few more shots of different poses.  It was really hard for me to choose which ones I loved, cuz I really love them all!

Little attitude (with a dimple...)

The Popeye smile....

Love the chubby legs!

(now I wish I had some fake nails!)

Raspberry anyone?



Love those dimples!

Colorado 2010

Jeff had an oppurtunity a couple of weekends ago to go to Colorado to learn about a new product.  We decided to make it a family weekend, so Sydney and I joined him.  After the seminar on Saturday, we drove up to Fort Collins to see Jeff's sister, Wendy, and her family.  This was their first time to meet Sydney.  We had a fun weekend together.  It was nice just to sit & visit.  Plus we got to watched Bronco football.  (They lost.) 

Sunday morning we went up into the mountains and took some family pictures.

It was a beautiful day. Jeff, Wendy, and Mark were very surprised that it was Halloween and not snowing.  I always expect it to not snow on Halloween...but then again I grew up in Texas, not Colorado. 

Thank you Wendy & Mark for such a nice weekend!

Bottles are for Babies!

Yesterday I had some friends over for a jewelry making get together at my house.  Thursdays just happen to be Jeff's half days at work too.  It was a perfect opportunity for Jeff,  he came home after running a few errands and swooped Sydney away to have some "Daddy/Daughter" time.  After about an hour, Sydney starts crying and Jeff asked if it was about feeding time?  I made her a bottle and Jeff went to feed her.  She still kept crying, and crying, and crying so I went in the room to see if I could help.  He said that he just didn't understand - he held her this way, that way, and the other and she would arch her back and refuse the bottle.  I picked her up and tucked her in my arms and proceeded to give her the bottle - she refused and started crying again.  Diaper had been changed so it isn't that - looking at the clock, it is time for her to eat....so I went into the kitchen grabbed the bowl and spoon, the mixed the "squash", rice cereal, and extra calorie formula together, plopped her in the bouncer and started feeding her - she smiled and ate the whole bowl!  She then cuddled up with binky and blanket and went to sleep. 

That night, we fed her a bottle and then about 1 1/2 hrs later we fed her the rest of the squash.  She went to sleep at 10pm and didn't wake up until 5am.  Jeff being the wonderful husband that he is got up with her this morning and fed her her bottle.  Except that the milk kept flowing out of her mouth.  We thought that the nipple might be bad on the bottle and it was flowing too quickly.  We changed it and we got the same results.  Then we realized...she was refusing to swallow!  So at 5:20 am I got up grabbed some sweet potatoes, cereal, and formula and made her a bowl of "food".  She ate about 1/2 the bowl, refused to eat anymore, but was crying, then drank the bottle, burped, and finished off the food. Then, curled up with binky and blanket and as I am typing at 9:40am is still sound asleep!

Where did I get such a 'determined' child?!?!?!  (determined if you don't know is 'Southern' for stubborn!)

We are flying to Colorado for a quick trip this weekend - Jeff is going to learn about a new product to do a bladder lift on Saturday morning and then we are driving up to Loveland to visit with his sister, Wendy, & her family for the rest of the weekend.  This new development in eating is going to make flying very interesting!

I love her and am having so much fun seeing her personality blossom!  She is a fun, happy baby! (who in a few weeks will be 6 months old!!!!! aaaahhhhh!!!!)

Carrots & Butterflies

For the past month, off & on, we have been feeding Sydney rice cereal w/ probiotics (the stuff that is in the yogurt "Activia" that helps keep things "moving"...).  She was getting a little bored with it, so we tried some carrots - I added the rice cereal to it so it would be a little thicker, plus she would still be getting the probiotics to help her. 

She actually smiled at the end of the first spoonful.  The rest of the "meal" was a little more difficult. 

The 3rd day we fed it to her, she seemed to do a lot better.

Today we tried sweet potatoes - she really enjoyed them!

Last Friday - Oct 22nd - was our ward's trunk or treat.  I know some of y'all are saying that the 22nd is way too early for such a thing, but we have 3 wards in our building & this was our night to have the building.  Sydney dressed up as a "butterfly".  A friend from our ward, Karen, found these small little wings that fit her just right.  I went to JoAnn's and bought some "netting" and made a little purple tutu to match. (Yes, I know that butterflies don't have tutu's, but it was cute!)  Her little headband with a "too big" flower - it is a costume dad, so it is ok! - and her little antennaes.  Grandma & Grandpa Phil came over and went to the chili dinner/trunk-or -treat with us.

As you can see, Sydney was soooo excited to go trunk-or-treating!  It would've been nice if she would've woken up for some part of the night's festivities.  :)  Oh well, there is always next year!

Sleeping Positions & The Ft Worth Zoo

Sydney is pretty funny  when it comes to being sleepy.  She can fall alseep in any postition.

Here is her little butt sticking up in the air... look at her little thigh rolls! (This is the only time in life where that is a good thing to say about a girl!)

Sydney and I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Phil earlier this week.  Sydney loves to play and sing with Grandpa Phil.  She also loves falling asleep on him!  She can fall asleep in the weirdest postitions!

Here she is tonight (Saturday) with her arm straight up in the air...

We mit her hands on the nightgowns to keep them toasty warm.

The Houston Gang along with Mike and Jeff got tickets to the BYU v TCU football game on Saturday.  So, Grandma Cami, Aunt Angie, JT, Andrew, and Keller drove up early on Friday from Houston and we met up at the Ft Worth Zoo...
Here is a picture of Andrew and a big gorilla...Andrew had no fear and walked right up to him.  (There is a piece of "glass" between them. - Andrew is the little blonde kid!) JT was a little more cautious (JT is not shown.)

This is Sydney enjoying the zoo in her stroller....(I know the picture is sideways, I couldn't get this blog thing to upload it the correct way even though on my computer it is portrait not landscape! - technology!)

Here we all are...Me w/ Sydney in the stroller, Grandma Cami w/ Andrew in the stroller, Aunt Angie w/ JT facing the camera and Keller in the infant seat.  It was actually pretty hot outside.  Kinda surprising for October, oh wait...this is Texas, I shouldn't be that surprised!

It was a long, hot, fun day!  Thanks Angie for inviting us!



MRI

Yesterday Sydney had a follow-up MRI with the nuerosurgeon.  This was just a check-up.  We don't suspect that anything is wrong with the shunt.  He just wanted to see how it was doing and how her ventricles were 2 months after the surgery. 

We arrived downtown at 6:30am (yeah, I know...it's early!) and checked in.  By 7:30 we were in the MRI room.  Because an MRI is just a big magnet, they have to be careful about too much metal in there.  Snap and zippers are ok on Moms though, so I got to go in the room with Sydney.  Her little snaps on her onesies were not ok since she her whole body fit in the magnet.  I wrapped her up in a blanket to keep warm and then the tech did a little wrapping of his own.  He wrapped a sheet around her and then there was an inflateable mattress looking thing that was wrapped and snapped around her and then blown up a bit to really confine her so she doesn't move.  Yeah, Sydney didn't like this at all!  She hates having her hands pinned.  I put her binky in her mouth and then the tech moved the head piece in place.  Her binky just fit.  I think it kinda freaked her out a bit though, cuz the binky popped right out of her mouth!  As he conveyer belted her into the magnet, I could see her struggling and moving - then the machine started up.  I think it scared her - she held perfectly still!  It was pretty loud, they had Sydney and myself wear earphones to protect our ears.  Once she was belted in, it was pretty fast. The tech was kind enough to direct me to the neurosurgeon's office on a different floor and we were off to get the results.

We got up to the office and it was completely empty.  Where the lady behind the glass sat was a metal privacy/lock-up screen.  I checked my watch 7:45a and checked her appt time...10:30a.  A 3 hour wait!  Someone didn't plan this very well!  I debated hopping in the car and driving home (1 hr), sitting around the house (45 min) and then drivng back (1 hr) plus paying another $2 for parking and all the gas money - I stayed.  Luckyfor us I did.  Dr S had picked up a surgery case that was going to last 3 hrs, but since I was already here and ready at 8:30a, he went ahead and saw us to help alleviate the massive backup this surgery was going to cause.

Now the important stuff - what did the MRI say?  Everything looks great!  The ventricles are "normal" and the shunt appears to be working and doing it's job.  Our next neurosurgeon appt - 1 year!

So now Sydney has gotten rid of the eyedoctor - the ROP has corrected itself and gone away - the neurosurgeon has been put off for another year.  Let's pass this stupid hearing test in a month and I can scratch off the ENT and we will be down to her pediatrician and developmentalist.  Whew! 

Dance with Me, Sydney

Sunday, Jeff, Sydney, and I went over to Grandma & Grandpa Phil's house to watch conference and hang out.  I did a few posts to the blog (FINALLY!), Jeff did some indexing, and Grandma & Grandpa played with/fought over Sydney.

Sydney is really starting to be awake for longer periods of time, to respond to her environment - smiling and giggling.  When she wakes up in the morning or from some of her naps, I sing to her - "Good Morning, Good Morning, It's great when you sleep in late, Good Morning, Good Morning to you...." then a few kisses. (I adapted this from a song from "Singing in the Rain".)  She smiles and giggles when I start singing.  I'm not sure if she likes the song or thinks it is funny that I try to sing to her!

Last night before we left, Grandpa Phil decided to sing to her.  It was really cute!  Because he loves me sooooo much and loves Sydney sooooo much, I am sure he isn't going to be tooooo mad that I am posting the video of him singing to Sydney.  (He thought I was just taking pictures.)

I love it that Sydney is "dancing" while he sings!  She sure does love her Grandpa!  Thanks for singing to her Dad! Love you! :)

Tummy Time

June 10, 2010

Sydney is about 1 month old in this video. With all the wires and tubes, it got kinda frustrating moving Sydney around. You would untangle everything, and put her in your lap - somehow that small act would tangle everything again. So while y'all were sitting there, the nurse would untangle her lines again. In about 30 min when it was time to put her back in the crib, her lines would be tangled again! (all you did was just sit there!)

To keep her head "rounded", the nurses had a schedule that they tried to do. Lay Sydney on her right, next feeding - the left, next feeding - her back, next feeding - her tummy. They rotated this schedule every 3 hours. I think it worked - Sydney doesn't have a flat spot on her head!

The video shows the nurse putting Sydney on her tummy....it is kinda cool!