Nora’s First Field Trip

Since I don’t have flexibility to volunteer at school, I was all in for the field trip - a whole day at Sun Rock Farm in Kentucky.

Nora was so pumped - a whole day with me! She was also pumped to ride a bus for the first time. It sure brought back memories for me - I spent nearly all my school years riding those bad boys. I forgot they don’t have air conditioning and it’s crazy windy with the open windows. 

We arrived around 9:45am and by 10:30 the kids were already saying they were hungry : )  There were a lot of parents, enough that I was only in charge of Nora - whew! I only had to redirect kids once or twice.

The kids had to help the farmers with chores; gathering eggs, feeding the goats, milking a goat (Nora did not want to participate), brushing the miniature horse and sowing seeds. 

It was great spending so much one-on-one time with Nora that I spontaneously (what?!) went to UDF for ice cream with her. 

Spring 2018 Photo Dump

by Nora

Nora’s monster chosen for the Milford Art Show

Wiped after Grammy & Grandpa’s

Great inclusion, Target <3

Cincinnati Nature Center

Highland Discovery Garden in Glendale!

A local brewery, 50 West and their beloved Penny Lane.
She caught fire a while back and now serves as a seating arrangement at the brewpub : )

You know, design, branding, or making wrappers.

Flying Pig 2018

This is my year of scaling back the running. No halves. Perhaps nothing above the 7 miles I did for the Pig Relay! And I’ve been okay with it. 

I can either run at 5am which is proving difficult since Hannah does not sleep through the night and I really need every minute I can get. I can sometimes muster out if Nora falls asleep by 7:45pm. Once 8:30pm hits, no way. I’m typically upstairs and getting ready for bed at 9pm. You know, because of the night waker.

Myself and three other friends agreed to do the Pig Relay - my first relay! It runs the course of the full marathon - each leg was between five and seven miles. I volunteered for the last leg, seven miles. Not bad - I didn’t have to train too hard. 

But between Hannah’s dehydration and life, I just managed to get myself up to six or seven miles before race weekend.  

It was fun... being the last leg, however, means a lot of waiting. Ooph.
I woke up at 4am; I need one hour to drink coffee, eat and digest. 
Left at 5am to pick up my friend and her husband. 
Parked around 5:45am and we went to our bus loading zones to be bussed to our transition locations along the marathon route. 
My bus didn’t leave until about 7am. At our location was a small Baptist church which was extremely friendly and allowed us all to wait inside as needed, with beverages and light snacks. I sat for a good half hour since it was a cool 50˚ outside. 
My 3rd leg didn’t arrive until about 10:05am and by then it was actually warm out - maybe 70˚? That’s hot for marathoners believe it or not. 
My seven miles weren’t too bad - hot and a little flat though. I felt like a jerk among all the marathoners who were struggling though! Pardon me as I pass you on fresh legs! 

I finished around 11:20am. I think our group time was something like 4hours, 50 minutes - not sure how that compares to a full marathon time! 

Another medal to add to my rack!

T&A: The Other Side

We planned pretty well: dividing up the recovery days between ourselves and the grandparents for the first week, then onto the babysitter the second week. 

Hannah really started eating like herself on Wednesday - Day 10. We haven’t quite evened out with sleep yet... I’ll be curious to see if the surgery affects sleep. 

We will have a follow-up sleep study the firsts week of August. Oh my Lord, if it doesn’t come back better, I’ll tear my hair out. We have a little friend whose T&A did not benefit his sleep apnea so now he needs an MRI to see if there are structural issues in his airways - !!

In the meantime, I may consider getting a weighted blanket if she continues to not sleep through the night. I think I’d rather her sleep issues be behavioral and not physiological - ? 

Positive vibes and prayers!

Hannah’s Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy

Holy cow everyone. Tonsil and adenoid recovery is no joke. I was warned.

Thankfully our routine was pretty regular Monday AM, we were able to drop off Nora just a bit early at Extended Day. 

Checked in at 8am, got Hannah’s vitals... waited a good hour for anesthesia to come and see us. We were headed to the OR at 10am. I hate seeing my daughter go under, even though I think it’s better she see our faces. She really fought this time which sucked. I almost cried leaving even though this procedure was small beans. 

*April 30 is also Hannah’s heartiversary! Last year her tubes were April 25th -
funny how everything lands on this week with us!

They were done in about 40 minutes, barely enough time to get a bagel scarfed down!

I also hate walking back to recovery - seeing Hannah being held by a stranger, then she starts crying because she’s confused and scared... I sat on the bed holding her and they wheeled us up at 11am to the PICU to her room for the night. 

Tim and I took turns holding her on the bed while she slept for four hours - !! 11am - 3pm! I thought for sure my night was screwed. 

Tim left at 4pm to get Nora from school and keep her on routine. I made the mistake of letting Hannah eat Goldfish which she scarfed down... then later was crying off and on for a good half hour which I assume was because it irritated her throat. Doh. Not making that mistake again : (

During Goldfish

After Goldfish

Crawling up me in anger.

We mostly watched movies for the evening. I continually tried water and juices with her. Few sips, did take some milk. Zero food. I finally turned off the lights and TV by 9pm, she fell asleep quickly. 

I slept like I expected - like crap. I knew they were coming at midnight to give pain meds, so I basically wasn’t able to fall asleep until about 1am - 3am. I think some monitors were going off at 3am... her pulse oximeter fell off her toe. Then her IV fluid drip line kept alarming for no reason, so they took her off her drip. So all that woke me up, Hannah woke up, then we decided to give her 4am meds early. 

Then I slept from 3:30am to 5:30am when the night nurse came in and Hannah woke up which is basically her normal waking time. 

The morning was long... at least Hannah was tethered to the drip line and could walk around. I was freaking out because she wasn’t drinking or eating much. Hannah isn’t typically a sweets person, but I took an ice cream cup from the RN. And wouldn’t you know it, Hannah at the whole cup! They consider that “fluids” since it’s liquid at room temp, and the cup was 4oz which is what’s needed to be discharged - Amen! 

Getting her IV out was another battle. Poor kid is just constantly poked and prodded this month. We left Children’s around 10am. Hannah fell asleep in the car and took another two-hour nap that afternoon! Poor booger. 

I was warned by loads of other Moms in the Ds community that recovery is awful. Just trying to stay on top of pain management, getting the kids to take the meds every four hours, and forcing fluids and food. It’s been difficult! It makes me feel like a mean, terrible Mom when I have to literally wrestle my child down and force meds down her throat : ( At least we know after two weeks it will be done. 

Wish us luck!

Finally eating strawberries because big sister did.

Mother’s Day Commercial

Well, they sure got the ugly cry out of me!

Teleflora Mother’s Day