Saturday, September 6, 2008 - Update

Birthday Girl
Loyal blog reader, Mary Anne, and husband James.

Birthday Boy

The world just didn't seem right without a smiling Olivia. She's not 100% recovered, but today she was full of smiles and laughs. In just two days, we've noticed some amazing strides. She is actually showing interest in toys that don't make noise. She stares at objects a little more intently and she's starting to push up on her arms to see certain things. I can't believe that her vision was hindering her that much, but only time will tell.

Ryan attended the birthday party of our nephew, Aidan, and our niece, Rebekah. Olivia and I were unable to attend as she's still recovering. Sorry that we missed everyone, but I hear Olivia was a big topic of conversation. It's such a joy to learn that Olivia is not only a blessing to her family, but to everyone who knows her.

Eye See Smiles Again

I'm feeling much better today. Thank you for all of your prayers.
Mom and dad even got me to smile. . .

and laugh!

So Sad

Olivia is doing better today and is sort of acting like herself again. . .minus the smiles. Poor thing just seems so very sad. I can't tell you how many times my heart has broken. Olivia woke me up about every hour with crying and moaning. She still needs constant attention and reassurance from us. Thankfully, Ryan went ahead and took another day off work to help us out and because he didn't sleep all that well either. He is also struggling with a sore throat.

We are really hoping this surgery is successful. Because her eyes were not moving well together, it affected her depth perception. We are hoping that by correcting it, we will see an increase in her reaching for objects and a positive effect on her development overall. Please continue to pray for her.

Home Sweet Home

What a long day! It's nice to be home. I have to say that Olivia was an angel all morning even though she was tired and hungry. I was so proud of her. We enjoyed seeing many of the NICU nurses who came to visit Olivia today. I have to say, it was very difficult watching the nurse walk down the long hall with her to the operating room.

The doctor came in to get us about an hour later. He had that "everything went fine, but. . " look on his face. . .you know the look. The surgery went well, but afterwards Olivia developed a rash all over her body. They weren't able to pinpoint what caused it, but we have a list of everything that was given to her. After they gave her a steroid shot and some Benadryl, the rash slowly began to go away. We have to continue the Benadryl at home, along with Tylenol and eye drops. It breaks my heart to see her blood-tinged tears.

When we went into the recovery room, Olivia was not herself. She was pretty combative from the anesthesia. Her arms were flailing and she was screaming, however, there's nothing that the ant song can't do. She just wanted her mommy and we got her back to sleep. She slept and slept and slept in the recovery room. We finally had to wake her up and have her take a bottle before we could go home. We headed for home around 4:00 pm. We are all pretty tired and Olivia has been asleep since we arrived home.

Ashle, Trinity, Me and Mommy. Trinity is also a Wesley NICU graduate who was born at 23 weeks. She had eye surgery today too. I just know that someday we're going to be great friends.

Daddy, mommy, me and a giraffe. Can you believe that there was a giraffe in the room?

They gave me some medicine before my surgery to help me remain calm when they took me away from mom and dad. It made me a little loopy. I wasn't even that hungry anymore.

Surgery was tough. Afterwards, I just wanted my mommy.

All I wanted to do was sleep, but eventually they woke me up and gave me a bottle.

Here I am finally at home, but I'm still not very happy. Surgery is no fun.

Olivia's Surgery

Thank you to everyone praying for Olivia as she goes in for surgery tomorrow. Many of you have requested addtional information about this surgery. The following two links have a little more information for those of you interested.

Pediatric Strabismus surgery

Strabismus surgery

We will arrive at the hospital tomorrow at 9:30 am (although we might go a bit sooner and swing by the NICU.) Her surgery is scheduled for 11:30 am. Hopefully, we'll be home by early evening. Thank you so much for all of your prayers.

Happy Birthday, Aidan!

I can't believe Aidan is turning 3 today. Wasn't he Kaleb's age yesterday? What a sweet boy he is. He's the only one I know who may be a bigger Cars fan than my dad. He is such a funny, imaginative, sweet, laid back little boy. We love you, Aidan. Have a great birthday!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - Update

What year is it? 2008? Are you sure? Because I watched 90210 last night and right now I'm listening to New Kids On the Block's new album. Tamar and Tiffany? We should be listening to this together. For some reason, we felt that we each had to have dibs on our favorite New Kid. Tiffany had Donnie and I think Tamar and I fought over Jordan. I must have won because Tamar had Jon. :) Talk about a blast from the past. That has been what I've needed this week. . .thoughts of simpler times, although I wouldn't trade in the life I have now with my husband and amazing daughter. Who would want to be a pre-teen again anyway? Although I'm not quite looking forward to Olivia's surgery tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - Update

Did you like to watch me jumping? Jumping in just my diaper is my favorite.

Olivia slowly seems to be getting over her cold. She still has a bit of a runny nose, but seems fine otherwise. Hopefully, it won't be enough to keep her from having her strabismus surgery on Thursday. Wow, I am so nervous about that. She can't eat anything after midnight and her surgery is not until 11:30 am. That's almost 12 hours of not eating!! She can have water, juice or Pedialyte until 5:30 am, but do I really want to wake her up for that? We plan on keeping her up (or waking her back up) for one more bottle around midnight. She usually takes her last bottle at 8:30 pm. We are all going to be an emotional wreck that day. And, that's just getting her to the surgery. I'm completely nervous about the surgery and recovery. I don't want to see her back on a ventilator. . .even if it's only for a short time. I know it's a fairly routine surgery, but I just want it over with.

I also ask that you keep my dad in your prayers as he searches for new employment. He was with the same company for over 30 years, but the last 5 years have been difficult as the industry has changed so much. He works in the auto collision industry as a painter. Sometimes I don't know why he'd want to work in a hot, un-airconditioned shop around any and every kind of person, but he loves what he does. To him, it is an art form and a skill. . . .so much more than just a job. Doesn't anybody appreciate that anymore? If your car was in the shop, wouldn't you want someone who takes pride in their work instead of someone who doesn't know what they're doing and does it as fast as possible? The last shop he worked at closed down last month after promises of a new shop. Please pray that he finds something soon and that he is able to continue doing what he loves to do. So, I guess my whole family needs extra prayers this week.

Jumping for Joy

Before viewing video, be sure to scroll down and pause the music!

Thanks to our family who took a 'leap of faith' at Olivia's birthday party.

*I hope you all have been enjoying the video. I always get these crazy ideas/visions and my wonderful husband always makes them happen. So, thank you, Ryan, for putting the video together. I wonder who has watched this video the most times? Who can't get this song out of your head? The song is from one of my childhood records called Animals by Candle with the Agapeland Singers. It sells on ebay for about $40.00, so it must be difficult to get nowadays.