5 Days with the Kids - Day 1

Brian left for Portland, OR today. He will be presenting at "Rails Conference". We both went last year but with Lisa having to wear contacts and the shoes I am uncomfortable with leaving her with anyone right now. She needs a lot of special time. I am going to miss him but I just keep reminding myself that it is only till Monday. It started off as a great night. I picked Ana up from school at 2:50 p.m and we went to Shopko to pick up a prescription. I purchased a disposable camera for Ana to take on her field trip tomorrow. She is going to the Minnesota Zoo and Museum. I ordered pizza for supper and we watched " Curious George". I love this movie. Then I asked her to go and take a shower and she becomes defiant. She finally gets in the shower and is in there for a long time so I went in there to get her out. She starts screaming that there is no towel. So I told her to get out and get one out of the closet. Then she finally got dresses and I asked her to make her lunch for her trip tomorrow and she got irritated about that. Because she couldn't take anything cold. I am not sure what was going on so I sent her to her room to calm down. I went up and had a talk with her and I told her that when she calms down to come back down stairs so I could spend time with her. She finally did about 20 minutes later. We ended the night on a good note with stories and prayers.

Chicago Weekend

This last weekend we took a long drive to Chicago, IL. I took my mother to see Daniel O'Donnell for her 60th birthday present. We left about 7 am and got to the hotel about 2 p.m. The hotel was nice but it definately needed some improvements. The bathroom was very small and there was no trash can in there. There was only one wash cloth for two beds and the sink did not have a way to plug it. So it made it a little hard to wash the baby bottles. It was right down town and not far from the concert hall. So a cab was only $7.00 one way. The show was good if you like that type of music. My mom was on the edge of her seat all night. I am glad that she enjoyed the concert. Saturday started off nice. We left the hotel about 9 a.m or so and got a little lost. So we call Brian's aunt and she gave us directions to her house. Most of the day was spent just relaxing. Anne had a cookout at 3 p.m for family that wanted to see us and meet Lisa. Sunday we got up early and headed over to the hospital to see baby Jack. He was born 3 1/2 month early because of complications. He is doing well now but still touch and go. Bridget (Jack's Mom) is doing a wonderful job making sure he gets everything he needs. He is one lucky little man. They aren't expecting him to come home anytime before his due date in July. I was so glad that we were able to get to see him and I am sure that Bridget was happy to see Brian. I wish her all the love and luck in the world. After the visit we headed back to Anne's to pick up my mom and head for home. We got home just when the warning sirens where going off. So I asked Brian to check and see what was going on. There was a tornado warning. We hurried and got the car unloaded and went to the basement. The storm was over in about 45 minutes and all was well.

Birth to Three

An Occupational Therapist from the Birth to Three Program came over yesterday and played with Lisa. She gave me different ideas that I can work with Lisa on to keep her meeting her developmental milestones. It was a wonderful visit and Lisa enjoyed the extra play time. We are preparing for are weekend drive to Chicago to go to a concert and to see some family. I am taking my mother to see Daniel O'Donnell for her 60th birthday. My husband and Lisa will be coming with us. Brian is unable to take Lisa's contacts out, he is afraid that if he dropped one that he wouldn't be able to see it. But he helps out with my older daughter, so everything evens out. Enjoy your weekend.

Birthday

Friday was my 27th Birthday. My husband stayed home and spent the day with me. He is such a wonderful man. Megan a wonderful friend drove 3 hours to come and spend the weekend with me. We had a nice lunch together with a bunch of friends and then went shopping. Then Saturday was the birthday party. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with friends, and just catch up. Then today my husband bought a bunch of flowers for me to plant outside in the garden. It was wonderful to be outside digging in the dirt. The flower beds look beautiful, and full of color. It has been a long time since I have been able to get outside to do some yard work. Lisa is a mommy's girl, so it is really hard for me to leave the house. Most of the time she cries when I leave. I feel really bad for my husband when he can't calm her down. He usually ends up handing her to me when she gets that way. But it is getting late and I have to get up early to take my husband to work. Good Night

Eye Doctor

Lisa had her check up with Dr. Anderson on Thursday. Unfortunately the news he gave me was not good. Lisa has a fragment of lens still in her eye from the cataract surgery. He had warned us before Lisa had her first surgery that this might happen. Even though we had discussed this happening it was still hard to hear that my 3 month old would have to go though her 5th eye surgery. The doctor is hoping that the lens will go away on its own. I can't believe I am writing that sentence. If the lens hasn't went away in the last 2 months, why would it in the next month? So Dr. Anderson wanted to set up a surgery date and have us come in with Lisa the morning of so he could look at her eye. If it was still there he would do surgery that day. The one day he could do it just happened to be the day before my father-in-law was getting married and both my husband and I are in the wedding. Needless to say my daughter comes first but there is a 4 hour drive from the surgery center to where the wedding is being held. It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't need to see her the day after the surgery ( day of the wedding). So that is going to make for one long day. I just hope that if she does have to have surgery, that is goes easier than the last one. Since the first surgery, the effects of the medication have made her more irritable each time after the surgery. I know we don't have it as bad as some parents. But it is still hard to see your baby go through surgery. It was a long drive back from the doctors, all I thought about was that she might have to go through another surgery. She is such a sweet little girl.

History

Just a little background information. I am a mother of two girls one is 8 and the other is 4 months old. It has been a long 4 months so far. Lisa was born with Aphatic Congenital Cataracts and Bilateral Clubfoot. She is doing really well. My husband and I were expecting her to have the cataracts but were not ready to hear that she also had clubfoot. She underwent her first surgery at 2 weeks old for the cataracts. Lisa was also has casts on both legs for the first 9 weeks and now wears a shoes with a brace to keep them at the right angle for 23 hours a day. She ended up having to have 4 surgeries total. After the first two surgeries, scar tissue had formed in her pupil area in both eyes. She now has contacts in both eyes that corrects for her not having the natural lens. We had heard a lot about Interocular Lens Implants. But the medical profession had only been doing them in babies for a couple of years. Even if we had decided to do that she would have had to wear contacts anyway. With her vision changing so much in the first few years my husband and I decided to just have Lisa wear contacts. The doctor was able to leave the capsule in which the lens sits in. Which means that when Lisa is an adult she will be able to get a Interocular Lens Implant if she chooses. We tried to read up on congenital cataracts, but there just isn't much information. Most of the articles out there are for children that have cataracts because of a disease. Down syndrome or some other condition. I am thankful that my husband and father-in-law both have this condition and know what to expect. I don't know what I would do if this is the first time I had seen it. It is still hard to see your newborn go through this. The first weekend was the worst and then progressively got easier. She currently has a cloudy area forming on the top of the Iris. She will be going to the doctor in a couple of days to have it checked out. I am hopping for the best but expecting the worst. Lisa is a happy baby despite all that has happened to her over the last few months. I have enrolled her in the Birth to 3 program. They will have an Occupational Therapist and a teacher come and visit every 2 weeks. They will work with her to make sure that she is meeting her developmental milestones. So far she is meeting them. I work with her during the day and my husband does during playtime at night. We have her on a set schedule, every night at 7 p.m she has her shoes off till 8 p.m. After I put the shoes back on we go in the bathroom to remove her contacts. Then she gets her last bottle of the night and falls asleep in my arms by 9 p.m and then sleeps till about 7:30 or 8 a.m. She is a wonderful little girl. She only cries when her diaper needs changing, hungry, or has a tummy ache from a bubble. Other than that she is always smiling. :) Lisa is a mommy's girl. She is starting to warm up to daddy more. Once she is 2 she will be a daddy's girl just like her older sister.