Playing outside

The other night we decided to do some grilling as the weather here in Arizona is perfect. This is the best time of year when the temperature is mid 70's and the nights are warm but not hot.

Abby wanted to go outside too and play on her Little Tikes Slide that she got from her Tia Carol. She had such a blast climbing up and sliding down. What a little cutie.

Not much else to post. Lots of things coming up. Rodeo Day at school tomorrow, planning a trip to Raw Hide this weekend, and Grandma's Birthday in two weeks.

Until next time...

Dr. Visit

Today we had our 3 month check up with the Endocrinologist at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Little did I know they opened the new wing of the hospital and their office had moved. So while it was a little hectic trying to figure out where to go, we finally did.

Abby's doctor seemed to think she was doing ok. Her A1C number was lower and she said that was a good step in the right direction. It was even lower than a few weeks ago when we were in the ER so I must be doing something right. She looked at the blood sugar numbers and we adjusted some calculations that we will start tomorrow.

Kids Abby's age should not have to go through this. It seems so unfair. I can't even find the words to say how angry I am and how frustrated this is. At our visit today, the doctor not only asked about Abby, but how everyone in the house was doing. If you can just imagine having a 2 year old in the house-they pretty much run everything. But imagine that house with a diabetic 2 year- it's insane. I talked to her about going back to work and finding daycare that would be able to help with Abby's care. That is the most frustrating part of this. I can imagine it is hard enough to leave your child in day care, but even harder when you have to rely on someone else to make sure your daughter is medically ok. It scares me to death just thinking about it.

These pics are while we were waiting for the doctor. Abby found The Little Mermaid book and picked it up and opened it as if she had been reading for years. She just loves her books and I love that she enjoys reading so much. Even while waiting for the doctor.

Oh Crack!

Abby is so funny! The past few weeks or so I have hear her saying, "Oh crack!". I had no idea what she was talking about it but it was funny everytime she said it. Just the other day I finally realized that when she says it, she is mimicking me when I say, "Oh crap!" Guess I better clean up my language.

Finally she is feeling better. There is no more chest congestion, no more vomitting, and her blood sugars are somewhat decent. There is never really going to be a "normal" in regards to the blood sugars and it is so frustrating. Just when we think she is doing good and has a few days with some good numbers, we either get a really high one or a really low one. Or she starts to run a little higher and back to the drawing board we go with adjusting the calculations. Since she is so little, it's going to be like that for everything. Every time she gets sick, everytime she has a growth spurt, and I don't even want to begin to think about what it will be like when puberty hits! But for now she is doing pretty good and it's day by day that matters.

Other than getting sick later that night, Abby had a pretty fun Valentine's Day at her school dance. It was fun to watch a bunch of preschoolers doing dancing like the hokey pokey and the bunny dance. Abby enjoyed getting her 1st valentines from her class mates and it only made me realize that my baby is growing up.

All Nighter

I don't think that I have done an all-nighter since I was in college with the exception of last night. And of course I am much older now and these all-nighters are truly for the birds.

As stated in a previous post, Abby has not been feeling well lately. Her ketones, which is associated with her diabetes have been running a little high. I had been in touch with the nurses in the Phoenix Children's Endocrinologist office and they had advised me of signs to look for and what would constitute a trip to the ER.

Last night after Abby had gone to bed for a few hours she woke up to vomitting all over the place. Andrew and I quickly flew out of bed to see what was going on and to help her. I called the endocrinologist's office and spoke with the doc who advised we take her in to have her looked at and to do some blood work to rule out she wasn't in DKA.

At midnight we packed up our little girl and headed off to the hospital. It was packed full of sick kids, but I guess a toddler with diabetes takes precedence over the others as we were immediately triaged and given a room. They were able to do some blood work and rule out the DKA(thank goodness). We were then pretty sure she had caught a bug somewhere and after her being able to drink some fluids, we were able to go home. At 7 am!

Abby was pretty worn out most of the day, but started to perk up at the visit to the pediatrician this afternoon. We have had no vomitting sinch last night at the ER and she has been able to hold down her dinner so far.

These last few weeks with her being sick have been really difficult. All I wish for is a healthy baby.

These last few days have been very tough. Abby has had a persistent cough for over a week and I took her to the doctor last Monday (Jan 31st). We were prescribed an antibiotic and it should finish tomorrow. However she wasn't getting any better and in fact appeared to be getting worse. So much so that no one got any sleep with her coughing every two minutes Sunday night. We called the Nurse Line to see if there was anything we could give her or do for her. Sad, but for her age there isn't much. So I rocked with her and tried to keep her upright as that seemed to help and back to the doc we went on Monday. After listening to her lungs the doc detected some wheezing on the left side. She didn't want to say Abby had asthma, but she did prescribe us a nebulizer and albuterol to use every 4-6 hours and if not better to come back in on Friday. The other alternative is a steroid, but that would increase the blood sugars dramatically so she didn't want to do that just yet.

As for the nebulizer, Abby is deathly afraid of it. The first time doing it, I could tell she didn't like it, but she did most of it. When it was time for the second dose she totally freaked out. She cried, she screamed, she kicked, she punched, she fought like mad. I think she was more terified of the noise that the machine makes then the actual treatment. She freaks out when we use the vacuum cleaner and her reaction to the machine was so much worse. So we put it away and I decided I would call the doc in the morning and just do the steroid. Abby does better with the insulin injections and oral medications than she was doing with the machine so I figure I would just deal with the high blood sugars and alleviate the stress of her freaking out.

So I called the doc this morning and left a message. Her doctor will call me back in the morning and we will decide what action to take. However, grandma talked to Abby this afternoon about the breathing machine and the mask and I figured I would try again before I put her to bed for her afternoon nap. She did much better and actually let me read her a book while she had the mask on her face. Then when we were all finished with the treatment she said "All done playing with the machine." Whatever works to get her to do it. But maybe tomorrow there will be a new game plan.

I hate it when she gets sick. And I am praying this is not a precursor to her having asthma. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will just be a one time thing and I wont need to use the nebulizer again.

Last night I felt like she was a newborn again as I was trying to to sleep with her in our recliner chair. As a newborn, I spent several nights sleeping with her in that chair as it was the only way I could get her to sleep for more than a few hours in the first few months of her life. That chair has sure saved me.

Strawberry Shortcake

This weekend I went on a major hunt looking for Strawberry Shortcake sneakers for Abby. I could not believe they are non existent, even though I have seen them in a flyer in one of her DVD movies. I was so bummed. Abby just loves Strawberry Shortcake.

Anyways, reason for the new sneakers is she has developed a love of hiking. We have gone out a couple of times to catch the sunset at a few of the hiking spots in the Valley. She has no fear and loves to climb the rocks and explore the outdoors just like her daddy. Her girly sneakers are just not gonna cut it on the desert hiking trails. We decided she needed a little more something with some grip. I love that she enjoys being a princess and wearing her dresses and her "crowns" and sparkly shoes but then she loves to go hiking and get dirty. What a neat little girl. My sister says she's gonna be the girl to go get her nails done and then be able to kick some as* too. Funny.

What a pity!

I am not sure where Abby picked up the saying, "O what a pity", but she has been saying it all night when things don't go her way. She is too funny and I just don't know how kids come up with the funniest of sayings and don't ever realize how funny they are.

Another funny thing she has been doing is "reading" her books and making up her own stories. In the recent Scholastic book order from school, I got her a potty training book called "Everbody Poops". So she walks around talking about elephant poop, pig poop, and pooping in the potty. I can just see it happening while we are somewhere in public over the next few days and her blurting out that everbody poops. Oh dear.

Today was a good day. I found out today that our insurance was retro'ed back to September 2010. That means that it will pick up what our primary insurance does not. Major cool as I will be due a refund for fees that were paid to Phoenix Children's Hospital for Abby's admit back in September and can breathe a sigh of relief.

Also, a project I am working on is a scrapbook page a day. So far I have done a pretty good job in keeping up with my goal and will post some pages here as well.

This entry seems to jump all over the place with random thoughts. I am still fighting a cold and should definitely be going to bed soon.

Enjoy the pics!

Painting Toes

The other night while sitting on the couch watching T.V. with Abby she actually let me give her a pedicure. I was shocked when I pulled off her socks and she let me clip her toes and didn't wiggle all over the place. And even after I was done, she was still sitting there. Her toes are a really pretty color of pink and it makes her even more girly than ever. And she has been saying for the last few days, "Oh what pretty toes!" Next we will try her fingernails and see what happens.

Christmas time = my mom in the hospital

It seems that for as long as I can remember while growing up, my mom always seemed to be in the hospital during Christmastime. This one is no different. Mom was not feeling so great so I took her in to the ER last night and they kept her. I had a very strong feeling they would. She was scheduled for a heart cath on Tuesday as we had been going to the doc for the last few weeks and mom's pacemaker didn't feel right. So rather than wait til Tuesday when the exam was scheduled, we went in to ER and they are planning on doing the test tomorrow morning. Kinda throws a wrench in the plan of things, but hey, what can you do. Hopefully all will go well tomorrow and there will be no setbacks.

Just some Pics

Not a lot is happening and just wanted to post a few pics of my sweet little Abby. She is growing up right before my eyes.

Abby's First Birthday Party

Abigail was invited to her very first birthday party. One of the girls in her class (Maddie) was turning four and Abigail was invited to the party along with a bunch of other kids in the class. I plan on keeping the invitation and scrapping it someday. There was a bouncie house and real live ponies at the party. It was a day of all kind of firsts for Abby as she has never ridden on a pony and never jumped in a bouncie house before. She loved every minute. The next birthday party sure will have a lot to live up to.

Santa is coming to town!

We took Abby to see Santa at the mall tonight and she loved it. Before we left the house as we were getting her dressed, we told her we would be going to see Santa. All she talked about after that was going to see Santa. Daddy says she told him she wanted a dollhouse. After looking back on last year's pic of her visiting Santa, I realize once again that my little girl is growing up way too fast.

The Red Princess

Wow. Today was such a trying day of being a parent. But as I put my little girl to bed, I can't believe it's possible to love her even more than I did yesterday.
We put up the Christmas Tree and all the ornaments and it is nearly impossible to keep a 2 year old from wanting to pull them all down. Maybe with a little work at it, she will realize we don't have to redecorate the tree every five seconds.
Anyways, there is a little red nutcracker that was on the tree and Abby decided it was gonna be her favorite. She kept referring to it as the little red princess. She watched TV with it, she ate her dinner with it, she wanted to bathe with it... So you can just imagine how crazy it must have been when the red princess went missing. Could not find her anywhere. Now it was time for Abby to go to bed and all she wanted was her red princess. So I started tearing apart her room and emptying toys bins and looking under her bed. Then she told me the red princess was in the box. I becoame even more perplexed and kept searching her room. Finally inside the ball bopper the red princess lay between the pink and green ball. When I shouted with enthusiasm that I had found it, Abby began to giggle and say, "Mommy found the princess." I was the hero and now she could finally go to bed.

The Tree Lighting in Anthem, AZ

It's definitely starting to feel a lot like Fall/Winter around here and it's certainly beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The weather is getting a bit nippy here and it's time to start pulling out the sweaters and sweat shirts.

Last night we did something a little different. We decided to go up to the outlet stores in Anthem for the Christmas Tree lighting. What fun! We took Abby's cousin Leah with us and the girls had such a fun time playing together. They rode in Abby's Wagon and Abby was giggling and smiling the entire time. Many more outings are planned with her wonderful cousin in the future. Can't wait. They are pretty close in age and it would be really special if they were to have a great friendship like I remember with my cousins as I was growing up.

A Lot has happened since last post

Wow. I guess it's been a while since my last post. I'll try not to let that happen again. Where to start...

Abby was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes Sept 29th, 2010. It has been a little over a month now and we are trying to manage this horrific disease that strikes kids for no apparent reason.

She had been acting kinda crabby for a few weeks prior to diagnosis and was constantly asking for more water, juice or milk. In addition to that potty training had become nearly impossible as she was soaking a ton of diapers and peeing her bed. After a few weeks of wondering if this was just a 2 phase or if something was really wrong, I took her to the pediatrician. Fortunately, I went with a urine sample that they tested and it was off the charts. They then did a finger stnk and couldn't actually get a number on the meter. All it said was high. So my Dr. told me to take her to Phoenix Children's so they could run some more exensive blood tests and that she could be wrong but that more than likely Abigail had diabetes. I even had a dentist appointment later that day for Abby and my doctor told me that I would probably want to cancel that. So off I go to Phoenix Children's with paperwork in hand and I'm frantically trying to call my husband. I get a hold of my mom and tell her what's happenening and then get a hold of my husband and tell him I'm on my way to Phoenix Children's. He leaves work and before I know it his sisters Tina and Becky, and brothers Joe and Pete all arrive in the ER. We were very fortunate to have them with us.

Turns out we have caught Abigail's diagnosis very early as it could have gotten much worse. She could have been in DKA which is diabetic ketoacidosis. With how high her blood sugar was she should have been lethargic and pretty much comatose. Fortunately, she was not.

So we spent almost 4 days in the hospital learning all about type I and insulin shots and checking blood sugars and ketones. A lot to absorb in the time we were there. I slept in a hospital bed with my baby every night and when she went to sleep I would just cry.

She is such a trooper through all of this. In the beginning she would pull away and not want to be poked, but now when we get ready to test her sugar she says, "Let me see your finger!" And she will even count 1,2,3 when it's time to do the injection. Kids are so resilient. It's me that isn't so much.

I hate that we will have to do this for the rest of her life. I hate that she will have to go through this and not be a "normal" child. I hate this so much, it's tearing me apart.

On a good note though, she will grow up with this and it will be second nature for her. She won't know any different and she will learn how to take care of herself and be responsible. I hope.