One year update

I am sorry I have neglected to update for so long! I am very pleased to report that Lyriel is now a healthy, happy, and fully normal one year old!

God has healed our baby girl, there is no other explanation for her miraculous healing! It is as if one day she just "woke up" and she looked into our faces and smiled! She turned her head to look for the sounds she heard! She is no longer afraid of bathtime and water :0)

At one year old she is saying several words...
She points out the window and says BIRD
She touches bumps in the paint on the wall and says BUMP (Braeden taught her this word LOL)
She yells BOOK! very loudly every time we go into a room with bookshelves.
She LOVES being read to, and points out several things in picture books.
Her favorite thing to point out is caterpillars, its so CUTE!

For her first birthday she was going to have a Hungry Caterpillar themed party. Because of the all the snowfall and bad weather though we have not yet had the party. She picked out a caterpillar toy at the store, each leg has a letter of the alphabet on it, and it plays music or says the letter name or sound, and sings the ABC song. She just rocks back and forth when the music plays, and stops when the music does. SO CUTE!!!


She scoots like a caterpillar too, not really crawling, not really army crawling. Its hard to describe but I do have it on video to show her later on. Today she actually got up on her knees to crawl! It wont be long before she stands right up and walks. It will be a bittersweet day for me!

She is 18 and 1/2 pounds now, still wearing a size 0-6 month robeez shoe, a medium in cloth diapers, and mostly 12 month size clothes. She is petite and girly like her sisters. Her hair is longer at one year than all the rest of the kids' hair was at that age.

Praise God for all of my beautiful blessed children, and for the opportunity to keep them at home and school them myself. Praise God for my work at home business, so I am able to provide for our family right now, yet I am able to be right here when they need me for anything. The Lord has great plans for these little ones, I am amazed each day by all they say and do, and how quickly and thoroughly they learn from the word of God. I am learning just as much as they are!

Amen!

Opthalmologist visit

I just got home from the eye doctor. My Mom said he is the best one around here and I agree. He was very thorough and very nice. As soon as he came in he asked me why she had been referred there. I told him that Lyriel did not track objects or seem to focus on objects, and the pediatrician had also seen this and wanted her eyes checked. He asked me if I thought there was a problem, since I was Mom and with her all the time. I said I was concerned because shes now over 2 months old and still has not looked me in the face yet, and she doesnt look at toys or anything, but she does squint at night when I go into the bathroom to change her and switch on the light.

So he got out his light and tried to get her to look at the light and follow it but she didnt. She squinted a little and blinked but thats all. So they numbed her eyes with drops and checked for glaucoma with this thing that looked like a fat ink pen by poking her eye with it. EWW that was hard to watch! She didnt cry though. That test was good, all normal. So they put in the drops to dilate her pupils. Now she cried, I know those sting We had to wait 10-15 minutes while they dilated fully so I nursed her and she fell asleep. The Dr came back and fully checked her eyes for any abnormalities and he found nothing. He used 2 different lights to look inside, and even put some corrective lenses over her eyes to see if she would respond to the light, but still she didnt. He tried about 10 different lenses too.

His diagnosis..her eyes are perfectly healthy, theres no physical reason why she cannot see, but its obvious that she cant. His next plan of action is to have her head scanned to look for a neurological reason. So he is sending a note to her pediatrician to schedule that for her as well. He said for some reason the signals from her eye are not being interpreted by the brain. He didnt give any more details on what that might mean. Im sure he didnt want to scare me.

Jason isnt taking this too well. Usually Im the panicker and hes the one calming me down, this time its the other way around. I just have this calm feeling, like its all going to be OK, and I should just be patient. All prayers are very much appreciated!

I will update here again once we have any other news. She sees the audiologist on the 16th, next Thursday.

2 month well baby visit

Copied and pasted from March 30th 2009.....

I took her today for her 2 month checkup (how can she be that old already??) and met the new pediatrician. Well I REALLY like this woman! Shes about my age, and so sweet and talkative, it was like visiting with a friend, only she was checking out the baby a little more closely LOL. She weighs 11 pounds and 5 ounces and is 22 inches long now. Her muscle tone was great and she said shes growing great and looks really good Her length was at the 35th percentile, weight at the 50th percentile, and her head was at the 95th percentile. She isnt worried at this point though about her head, she will be rechecked at 4 months.

We have been battling a stubborn case of thrush, and its now on me also because Im breastfeeding her. She was very glad I was treating the thrush with gentian violet and that I am taking probiotics for the thrush. She gave me a prescription for a dose of diflucan for me to take to help get rid of it a little more quickly, and hopefully for good!

She also commented on Lyriels perfect round head and I told her she doesnt lie around much, and I wear her in the moby wrap and she smiled really big. Shes also a babywearer! I am so happy to have found such a nice and understanding doctor! What a wonderful answer to prayers!!

I also have a little sad news, but I kind of knew before I went in. I had not told any of my family because Id hoped it was all in my head and that I was just being a worry wart of a Mother. Lyriel does not respond to sound at all, and she still has not looked at faces or toys, and does not track or try to follow moving objects or people with her eyes. I was hoping she was just a lazy baby. She worked a lot with her and tried to get her to respond to sounds, but didnt get any. She did get Lyriel to respond to bright light but not to any objects. The doctor agrees there is reason for concern and is sending her to a pediatric ophthalmologist and ear doctor. They are going to call me with appointments as soon as they get insurance approval and all. Ill let you know when we will be going.

She told me try and not worry, and she was glad I had noticed and told her about my concerns because catching this early will enable her to get the help she needs earlier. Im very hopeful actually and not panicking at all. Im trusting God on this one completely!

Meet Lyriel Star

Lyriel Star was born on January 29th 2009. She weighed 8 pounds 1.6 ounces and was 20 inches long. Here is the story of her birth.....

On January 29th 2009 I went in for a doctor visit, knowing I was overdue even by the original due date I was given of January 27th 2009. I was feeling pretty miserable, she was lying on my sciatic nerve and walking was very difficult that day.

First the student doctor came in to do the routine measuring and listening with the doppler for heartbeat. The heartbeat she found was at 112, very low for a baby! I asked if she was sure it was hers and not mine, she kept searching for another heartbeat but wasnt finding any. I started crying and praying, then she did find another heartbeat and the rate was OK but by then I was already in a state of panic. My doctor came in and did a pelvic exam and told me I was dilated to 4 and easily stretched to a 5 and my cervix was like butter. He told me I could wait or he could break my water and he thought things would go pretty quickly after that. He said just the pressure of her head against my cervix would make me go to a 6-7 immediately after the water was broken. Then he mentioned the horrible word, pitocin, and I had been told with my previous 2 VBAC's that I could have pitocin due to risk of rupture. He assured me that a little would be enough to get me going and then he would take it off. So knowing this weekend would be so perfect childcare wise I agreed to be induced the next day.

So he tells me to go back to the waiting room and he will make the arrangements and send me over with the paperwork. My SIL drove me there along with her new baby, Ava. So I went back to tell her what was going on and the reality of this all happening started to set in. So Im out there crying again, and I know Im making everyone in there so nervous but I cant help it. I am so emotional anyhow and being this pregnant and full of hormones does not help!

The nurse called me back in to talk to the Dr again and he said Friday was booked solid and we couldnt do it that day. He also asked about Saturday and same thing. He asked if I wanted to go right then. Well what the heck I said sure, and he sent me over to the hospital with my chart in my hand. I called Jason on the way over and they couldnt find him at work, it was lunchtime, but lunch is only 1/2 hour so I knew he would be told in plenty of time, it took longer than that just to get all the paperwork done even though I was already pre-registered.

I got to my room and 2 nurses came in to talk with me and get me settled in. They were so sweet and nice to me, they could see I was nearly in a state of panic and wasnt holding up very well. We went over the plan my Dr and I had discussed, if I was getting pitocin I wasnt about to take any chances, so I asked for an epidural. This way if the unthinkable happened, a rupture, they could get her out as quickly as possible because I would already be anesthetized. So I called Deb and told her what was going on while we waited for the anesthesiologist to get there. It was about 12:30 when we got things started.

The epi went in very smooth, hardly any discomfort at all, much better than when I had one before! They started the IV and pitocin then and contractions started showing up on the monitor. Jason showed up about this time, he got to miss all the gory stuff LOL.

This went on for about 1-2 hours before the Dr finally came to break my water, he had been so busy it took him that long to get there. At that point I was dilated to 5 and 80% effaced. After he broke the water I started to feel pressure with every contraction, good thing! I didnt let them check me again until all of a sudden I was in excruciating pain, the dang epi wore off on my right side only. It was so weird, the right side felt as if it was going to split open, the left side was like a dead tree trunk attached to my body.

The nurse checked and I was dilated to 9, in transition and boy was I feeling it! She started setting up all the equipment and stuff and said I could push if I felt like it. So at 5:20 the pushing began. At 5:45 the pushing was doing nothing so she suggested we change positions. I had been semi sitting, she wanted me on my side. Lyriel was in a weird position and not coming down like she should be. The side pushing was the worst kind of h***, seriously! I had to hold up my right leg, which was semi numb still, and the PAIN got 100 times worse! After 20 minutes of that I said no more I wanted back on my back!! This did the trick, we started to see progress right away. I felt her crown, and asked Jason if she had and he said yes. My Dr still had not come, almost an hour later! The nurse was telling me not to push anymore till he got there. I said cant you catch her?? She said yes but she only had one glove on and she would rather I wait. My body had other plans, it was pushing without me, I couldnt help it, and with one last push on my part her head was out. She told me to push gently so I didnt tear so I did and she finally came out after a full hour of pushing. She was born at 6:19 PM. Ive never had to push that long ever, I think the most was 20 minutes tops.

Just then my Dr walks in, haha, and he caught the placenta, said I had one very small tear but didnt recommend any stitches. Then he was off again to the next birth! 5 babies came that evening alone! Not to mention they were booked for the next 2 days with scheduled births. LOL

My SIL didnt have time to leave, she got to watch the whole birth, and she took pics for us too I havent had that before. Kinda weird but oh well Im glad she was there. It left Jason free to be with me only.

We got to keep her for over an hour before they took her to be weighed and cleaned up. She latched on right away after birth. She seemed to nurse just fine until about noon the next day. She had cried all night long no matter what we did for her, I got no sleep at all, Jason couldnt do a thing with her so he slept while I tried to make her happy. She seemed to be nursing and getting something but we realized later she wasnt getting anything because she couldnt suck well, so she was starving and thats why she cried so much. As a last resort we gave her some formula from a cup and she finally slept for the first time ever a day later. Then we took her home and fed her formula the first night.

By the second night I finally got her to latch on and she seemed satisfied so I didnt give her any formula before bed, we made it through the night!! Today she has nursed beautifully!! It takes a lot of effort to get her latched and sucking but every time we nurse she seems to do it a little better, shes learning!! Yay!!! I feel so much better now knowing nursing wont be such a struggle anymore. She goes in Monday for a bilirubin check and a weigh in, I hope she didnt lose too much weight. Shes a big baby though, my biggest! @ 8 pounds 1.6 ounces. her face is all filled out and even her legs have meat to them instead of being super skinny. She may be my first chunky baby girl