Feeding Freedom!!

Last week was a very, VERY happy week because we got our first feed in through a syringe and not the pump.  This means I can now attach the feeding tube to Abiella's button on her stomach and insert a syringe full of formula.  Boom. Easy.  Fast.  The pump, (which allowed the food to insert her belly at a slower rate) took 3 times as long and required bags, an IV pole, etc, etc, etc... Long story short, the first successful feed with the syringe was a HUGE deal in our house. Like a REALLY huge deal.

Then on Thursday, Abi's nutritionist gave us a higher calorie formula to start using. She suggested we devote three days to transition Abi to the new food while simultaneously increasing her day feeds and getting her off of the night feeds. A pretty tall (but exciting) order. We decided the weekend was a perfect time to do this and other than two minor vomiting episodes it went really well...

Saturday we needed to have a pretty low-key day while Abi's stomach got used to the new situation... So, it was deemed a "palette day."  Few things are better than a good palette. Sidenote: I've discovered that some of my friends didn't use this term growing up. I'm not talking about a wooden palette.  I'm talking about a stack of blankets and cozy pillows that you lay on in the middle of a living room floor... we used to make them during sleepovers, or if you were sick and wanted to be in the living room by the fire, or if you just wanted to stretch out for a Saturday in front of the TV.  Pallets are THE. BEST. and the best place to take a nap. Hands down.

By the afternoon, Abi was feeling good and we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather.

I was getting serious cabin fever, so 55 degrees and sunny was nothing short of a miracle. (It's now 28 degrees as I type this... warm weather come back!)

By Saturday night we had successfully increased all of Abiella's day feeds, so she went to bed withOUT the pump. Oh my gosh- what a feeling.  We just tucked her into bed... no cord attached to her belly... no worries she would roll over and snap the entire button out of her stomach... no 30 minutes setting up the pump, no cleaning the bag, no priming the tubes... just a book, prayers, and tucking her in.  SO. NICE.

Oh sweet freedom!  As I type this I'm staring at the massive IV pole hanging beside her bed... I think I'll move that sucker to the garage today.  Forward motion!  Woohoo!!!

mae

PS- Abiella fell asleep at 9:30 last night!!! Woohoo!!!  (She had been falling asleep near 2 in the morning...)  This did mean, however, that she woke up at 4am - but who doesn't want a little Shel Silverstein and double rainbows in your life before sunrise? I'll take it.

Alright friends- how was your weekend??

The Weekend

Last weekend was kind of a big deal.

Reason #1- Our good friends Brooke and Ryan got married. I was a bridesmaid and Sean was a best man.  It was a huge honor to be a part of their special day. We love those two so much.

Reason #2- We left Abiella for the weekend at my mom's.  This was the first time since she'd been home that we'd both been away from her overnight... I was a little nervous about how I'd handle being away from her, but over Christmas I spent two days training my mom how to work the feeding pump, give medicines, clean the g-tube site, etc. etc. and she ROCKED it.

Although I was sad to be away from Abi, Sean and I had an absolute blast at the wedding...the bridal party stayed at the same hotel and basically took over 3 floors...we got to spend two full days with the bride and groom... I got to know some very, very cool people... annnndddd to top it off, Abiella had a BLAST at my mom's farm. These are the pics my mom texted me while I was gone:

I mean seriously.
Abi on the farm... it's almost too much.

I wish I had some pics of the wedding but I was having too much fun to remember to take any... The only one I got was this one from the car...

Lame, I know. As soon as other people's pictures surface I'll share them, b/c you really must see how gorgeous the bride was... absolutely STUNNING. The wedding was perfect and the reception was insane.  Sean's brother James and his girlfriend, Meredith, were there, which made the weekend even sweeter. Also, Sean somehow accidentally found himself in a dance-off and rather than saying, "oh... no... I'm not going to do that..." he just went for it.  And won.  Hello moonwalking breakdancer... I didn't see you come in.

Sunday morning we slept in, drove back to the mountain to pick up Abi and then got home Sunday night. The next day Abiella "talked" NON-STOP.  I'm convinced she was telling me all about her weekend at the big log cabin with the lake and the barn and that one really old cat... (Norman's 25 years old... he's kind of a legend.) In fact I'll be blogging about him soon... 25 years of feline domination needs to be documented.

Alright- Happy Wednesday friends... Hope you're having a good week!

mae

eight.

8 years ago (this last Tuesday) I married this guy...

 and I've been having a blast ever since.

This year we had the best anniversary yet.  My mom drove an hour and a half (one way) to babysit  (God bless her) and Sean took me to my very favorite restaurant in the city... This was my first time leaving Abiella AND my first time in a restaurant since I left for Africa in late-September.

Sept...emb...errrrrr.... 

That's like 4 weeks BEFORE Halloween... what?!?

I was pretty much shaking I was so excited.

It was hard leaving Abi, but as soon as Sean and I sat down at a booth my mom sent a pic of Abiella smiling and I was able to relax. I got my favorite meal, favorite drinks, ate two baskets worth of my favorite chips and salsa and then walked across the street to my favorite ice cream shop.  I got sweet potato & burnt marshmallow ice cream. It. was. divine.

Cheers to the next 8 Sean! 

Can't wait!!

***

mae

Wowza.

Wow.  What an incredible response from all of you LIY readers! Your comments and emails have been so encouraging and absolutely awesome to read.  My mind is kind of blown actually.  So many mamas who have adopted, or are thinking of adopting, or are raising kids with special needs... an email from a gal I met way back when I used to sell merch for my husband at his shows...other comments that had me laughing out loud... including this one: 

"I may or may not have made a ribbon dance routine to "I Saw the Sign. Yep." Thank you for that awesome visual Kate. 

(And to all you folks who said you have equally as incriminating photos... start digging them out... I smell a link-up...)

All that to say, I'm SO excited to have you here... and one by one I can't wait to check out all of your amazing spaces on the web... so cool how this whole internet thing can make the world so much smaller.  

So welcome new friends... can't wait to get to know you better :)

*****

mae

Hello fellow LIY Lovers!!

If you're here from Living in Yellow, THIS is how excited I am to see you. 

(me, Christmas, 1995.)

Stick around won't you? 

Happy Monday! (Or Tuesday if you're reading this tomorrow.)

Love, 

Mae

PS:  Introduce yourself. I'm easily addicted to blogs and would really love to stalk you ;)

PPS: If you're wondering what gift got me that excited... I believe it was a purple Trapper Keeper or an Ace of Base record... my memory fails me.

Instawhat? Instawho... and I'm raising a night owl.

First, I've heard about it, I've been told to do it, but it wasn't until yesterday that I took the plunge.  I'm now an official instagrammer. You can find me @twohootsandaholler.

Come introduce your instagrammin' self, won't you? 

Second,

The past few weeks Abiella has not fallen asleep for good until the wee hours in the morning.  Last night, I finally fell asleep at 1:30 am with visions of her playing in her crib on the monitor beside my bed.  I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.  At 3am I heard a noise and when I went into her room, she was STILL. AWAKE.  She just smiled at me like, “Oh hi… good to see you Mom. Don't mind me... I'm just in here looking around.”  

During these hours she’s typically not upset (unless she has stomach issues). Instead, she’s playing in her crib… laughing, “talking”, kicking, stretching, trying to roll… If I pick her up and try to rock her to sleep, she gets even more excited and begins REALLY laughing and stretching and wanting to play games…  The more attention I give her, the more awake she gets.  Because of this crazy schedule, she'll sometimes sleep until 10 or 11am if I let her.  Problem is, we have morning appointments... 

I hear of women whose toddlers go to bed at 7:30...this is my dream.  However, the problem isn't just a sleep thing, it's her night feed. The feed starts at 10pm and runs for 8 hours.  I really can’t start it any earlier because it would run too close to her dinner, thus making her stomach too full. Everything is on a tight schedule around here regarding her feeds.  With this in mind,  I would ideally put Abi to bed at 7:30ish, have the extension already on her ready to be plugged up, then I would sneak in at 10 and connect the feed.  But this plan has been foiled every. single. night since we got the tube. 

On the rare occasion that she DOES fall asleep at a decent hour (I’m talking before midnight) she often wakes up with gas pains… Once they pass, she’s wide awake and ready to play again. I’m convinced the feed is the problem.  She’s getting high-powered nutrients pumped into her body all night long.  Her energy always skyrockets as she’s being fed (even during the day)… annnndd she's being fed through the night for 8 hours straight. It’s just not natural.

Soo… I met with her nutritionist and spoke with our feeding therapist and the goal is to get her off her night feeds ASAP.  However, this means ALL THE FOOD she gets during the 8 hours at night must somehow make it into her daytime feeds.  OMG.  That’s a lot of food. 

So starting tomorrow, I’m going to try to give her 4 meals during the day and then subtract that amount from her night feed… thus making her feed last 5.5 hours.   Eventually, I’ll add more during the day (as she can tolerate it) and continue subtracting at night.  It’s a constant math equation. How much food can she tolerate? How quickly can she get it without getting sick? (Obviously you want the feeds to go as quickly as possible b/c you don't want to be hooked up to a tube ALL. DAY. LONG.)

I dream of the day when she’ll only get water and liquid medications through the tube… oh, the freedom. 

But for now, it’s 12:20am, and my daughter is laughing, kicking, rolling towards stuffed animals, and having a ball… another late night…here we go.

mae mae

PS- This weekend we did start a new nighttime routine with baby massages, scalp massage, sound machine, etc. etc. etc. and it’s been working! Both nights she fell asleep immediately afterwards… BUT she woke up an hour later and started playing like a mad woman.  I'm thankful for the nutrients and I'm SO GLAD she's happy... but we need a reasonable routine and a 3 am dance hour with a 7am wake up call just ain't gonna cut it...Oh night feed, you really must go.

PPS. Downton Abbey's back!  I may have done an interpretive dance in the living room as the premier started... Don't ask what I was "interpreting" because I don't know.  Neither does Sean. 

1993 vs. 2013 Resolutions

A few months ago my father found my list of New Years Resolutions from 1993.  It was a glorious find. Here's the list exactly as I wrote it: 

(I was 8 turning 9.)

1)    Stop my habbits.

2)    Be myself.

3)    Spend time with my pets.

4)    Pick up trash, wise electricity, help people.

5)    Wright my friends.

6)    Make good choices.

7)    Try my best.

8)    Be more igreable.

9)    Earn my money.

10)    Be a good sport.

Okay. A few things you should know.  #4 was so important to me that I penned a “Save-the-World-esque” song in my playhouse one day and then proceeded to march all over my working horse farm with my scribbled lyrics in one hand, while dramatically using the other hand to help nail down the perfect melody. (Celine Dion Style.)  I’m certain that someone on that horse farm must still recall seeing a scrawny white girl walking around all by herself, in a tie-dyed shirt, messy ponytail, gym shorts and cowgirl boots, belting phrases like “We are the answer”, “rise up!”, and “take re-spons-ib-illlll-ittttt-yyyyyyyy.” (This was also the year I led my 4^th grade class to state in our ‘Robots Made of Recycled Materials’ 4-H competition…We didn't win but we made one hell-uv-a robot with a soda-can body and toilet paper roll arms.  Did I mention I was voted the 4-H secretary and project leader for our class? It was like no big deal.)

Anyhow, 20 years later, I’m still making New Years Resolutions… with only slightly better spelling.

 So, without further adieu, here’s my list for 2013. 

1) Exercise.  At least a little.

2) Get up earlier...before Abiella wakes up.

3) Drink more water, more coffee, and more protein shakes. 

4) Eat more veggies, or as my grandma says, “Eat my greens.”

5) Blog more.  Because I really like doing it.   

6) Work on art more…

7) Read more.

8) Go on a date (or many) with my husband. (aka- find a pediatric nurse who is also an awesome babysitter.)

9) Play more with Abiella… (not physical therapy, not hauling her around to different appointments, but good-ole-fashioned P.L.A.Y. Time.)

10) Read the Bible more. 

There we go folks.  Simple but good. 

2013… I’m really happy to see ya. 

mae