Busy Weekend

I had my first adventure out alone with the girls with no help on the other end of our destination. On Friday I had an appointment to go to in Lawrence and I took both girls with their leashes on. They were excellent during the appointment even though they did not like their leashes (harnesses). There is no way you can go anywhere by yourself with these girls without a double stroller or the harnesses. We then ventured to Olathe to the Old Settlers Days to meet my office out for lunch. They were behaving so well I decided to go reward them with some new clothes out at the legends. I used the double stroller for this adventure and it was a little difficult getting around the stores. The girls enjoyed pulling the clothes off the racks and taking the tags off. We took Saturday off and Troy started putting together the swing set and we just hung around the house. Today I took the girls to Burlington to see my parents and sisters and the girls had a great time even though this was the second day this weekend they have missed their scheduled naps. They are on a really good sleep schedule now and both go to sleep when you lay them down without fussing. Jordan hasn't had a bottle since Thursday and she hasn't even asked for it. She probably isn't getting the amount of milk she needs for the day but we are working on it. I am giving them a cheese stick at night to help with her lack of calcium intake. Rylee is still just drinking 4 to 5 ounces a day of her thickened pediasure and we are still giving her 8 ounces of pediasure and a few ounces of water thru her g-tube.

Labor Day Weekend

We are enjoying our long weekend with the girls. We took them to Atchinson, Ks yesterday to watch one of Troy's nephews play football. They didn't think that was too fun. They wanted no part of sitting in the stands with us. We enjoyed the day at home today and then Troy went and picked up a swing set for the girls thanks to a good friend. They are going to love having something to play on when we go outside. We had our last nurse here on Monday night and that was hard having to say goodbye again. Rylee is really doing good at night and is sleeping through the night with no issues. I did decide to no longer have her on her oxygen sat monitor as she gets wrapped up in the cords and I didn't think that was too safe. I am not real comfortable with her being off the monitor as it has always eased my mind. We have a video monitor that I have on the nightstand so I can check on her all night long. I had Troy go check on her last night as I thought she looked purple. I think I was half asleep and just freaking out. We still have Jordan on her angel pad and it goes off sometimes if she gets moved too far in the corner. It will alarm if there is no movement within 20 seconds. I thought about getting Rylee one of these monitors but she probably doesn't need it. Jordan scared us on Thursday morning as she woke up with some labored breathing and had some stridor and retracting with each breath. We took her to the doctor that morning and they thought she might have croup. I don't think it was croup as she never had a cough and was better by that afternoon. She had steroids for three days and antibiotics for ear infection. I am just really glad it only lasted a couple hours and it didn't turn into anything bad. Both girls have running noses and I think it is just allergy related. We don't have any appointments until the end of the month so this has been a nice break. It just means the girls are getting healthier and healthier by the day. I am just so proud of these girls.

P.S. Don't eat the ketchup in our house! Jordan steals it from the fridge every time we open it up.

Our Pride and Joy

Here are the pictures we had taken two weeks ago by a friend. As you can see Rylee was the model and Jordan didn't want anything to do with getting her picture taken.

20 Months/16 Adjusted

The girls are 20 months old as of the 20th of this month. They are continuing to thrive more and more everyday. Rylee has been eating very well lately. We give her water and 8 oz of pediasure thru her tube and everything else she is taking by mouth. She usually drinks about 4 to 6 ounces of her thickened pediasure and some juice throughout the day. I am weighing her on a regular basis to make sure she doesn't lose too much weight. We will be done with our night nursing as of 8/30 and we are looking forward to not needing nursing services. Troy and I were able to go on another date this weekend as our nurse was needing to make up some hours. We really miss our day nurse and we are not looking forward to saying bye to our two night nurses. They really don't do much with Rylee now that she doesn't have her trach. She still gets prevacid at 5:30 a.m. and other than that they just monitor her sats and make sure she is comfortable sleeping. It is a lot different than when we first came home. She had feedings and meds every 3 hours. She still wakes up several times at night but she puts herself back to sleep. She is really starting to vocalize and repeats several words a day. I am going to have to break out the "ear muffs" soon as she did repeat a word she shouldn't! She is still pretty quiet and her voice doesn't seem to be getting any louder. I am not too worried but just something we will have to keep an eye on. Our little Jordan has a mind of her own these days. She has been throwing some fits and gets very upset if she doesn't get her way. We pretty much just ignore her and try to focus her attention on something else. We are still working on getting her to take her milk from a sippy cup. I haven't talked Troy into just getting rid of them. He assures me that she will not go to high school still drinking from a bottle.