Katelyn, Conner and Caleb! » September 2006 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Wed, Sep 20, 2006 4:46 PM
I talked to the nurse at the pediatricians office to see if results were back from Caleb's sweat test. Standard disclaimers apply because I haven't discussed this with the pediatrician yet but... it appears that the results are negative. Here's a webpage describing the sweat test and results...

http://www.pulmonologychannel.com/cf/diagnosis.shtml
"Newborn babies usually cannot produce enough sweat for a sweat test (at least 50 mg needs to be collected in a 45-minute period), so an IRT (immunoreactive trypsinogen test) may be done instead. If enough sweat can be collected from a newborn or infant less than 3 months old, a concentration greater than 40 mmol per litre is indicative of CF."

They did the test on both arms...
1st result:
Sweat Chloride: 6
Volume: 71.3
2nd result:
Sweat Chloride: 12
Volume: 24.8

I asked the nurse if she knew if the second volume was large enough to make the test valid or not on that arm and she said she didn't know but that if a value is abnormal, it shows up on her screen in red and nothing about these results was red. That is wonderful news. She also mentioned that there was no baseline for the volume but the baseline (what they're looking for as a good result) for the sweat chloride was 0-40.

I'm waiting to talk to the ped to see if we need to redo the test or not based on the second volume being low but so far I amd very relieved about the results. It looks like the first was definitely negative even if the second was inconclusive.

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Wed, Sep 20, 2006 11:58 AM
We just returned from the sweat test. They did the test twice... one on each arm. One arm might have barely had enough sweat collected, the other definitely did. Thank you for your prayers in that regard. Please continue to pray that the test is negative.

The machine that tests the sweat is not currently working but we were told that it might be fixed this afternoon. If so, we'll have the test results this afternoon. If not, then it should be sometime this week.

Thank you for praying!

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Mon, Sep 18, 2006 12:32 PM
Caleb's sweat test will be on Wednesday the 20th at 10:00 am.

Please pray that:
Caleb sweats enough to have a conclusive result
The test is negative
That his pancreas be working properly

We made a milk delivery today. Did you know that breastmilk is tax deductible if you donate it? I didn't, but it is.

While we were there I weighed Caleb using their scale to get a weight for him when we expected he'd be born. He was 9 pounds, 15.5 ounces. I was expecting around 10 pounds because he was reminding me of how Katelyn felt in my arms when she was born.

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Sun, Sep 17, 2006 4:42 PM
Dad: Katelyn, do you need to go potty?

Katelyn: No... I went potty last week.

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Sat, Sep 16, 2006 4:51 PM
I've been told that disposables hold more liquid then cloth. Then I've been told the opposite also. From different people, of course.

Apparently Caleb has a super sized bladder though because neither was cutting it for a while here. I got out my Fuzzi Bunz but must have packed some into a different box becuase I don't have as many as I should. So occasionally I've been using disposables. And it's nice to put a few disposables into the car for "emergency" diaper changes so that I don't have to leave one of my cloth ones there and essentually have it out of commision.

Unfortunately everything has leaked. I've been going through clothing changes nearly every single diaper change. The advantage with the Fuzzi Bunz though is that even if they leaked liquid, they didn't leak poop. So at least I wasn't having to clean yellow stains off the clothes in addition to washing.

Then I remembered... duh... double up the inserts! For those who aren't familiar with the FB diapers, they have these inserts that are absorbent that fit into a sort of pocket formed by fleece and a waterproof material. The fleece keeps the liquid away from the baby, the waterproof layer keeps the liquid from getting to the clothes. So cloth diapering with no plastic pants... gotta love that! And snaps instead of pins. Even better. No accidently stabbing the baby with the safety pin.

So I put two inserts in instead of one and so far today has been leak free. Yay! Sure, I'm washing diapers more often but I don't have to worry about stains with them and I don't have to fold them either. So diaper laundry isn't hard.

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Thu, Sep 14, 2006 12:52 PM
Caleb has officially rolled over.

I set him down for a minute and set him on his tummy. He was hungry and wanted to eat so he got mad and flipped himself over on to his back.

And to answer any questions.. Katelyn and Conner were not nearby during any of this. I was upstairs, they were downstairs.

I had just changed his diaper and was cleaning up. Then I set him down again and made his siblings lunch before feeding him. Poor guy... he's not too happy with me right now since I made him wait for his lunch...

What he's not thinking about is that I *just* finished feeding him his breakfast when I went up to change his diaper for him! This little guy just keeps eating and eating and eating and eating!

I'll weigh him this weekend and see what he weighs on the date we expected him to arrive. He should be over 9 pounds by then.

I thought Bible Study started this week so I got the kids dressed and in the van. When we got to church though (appropriately early, I might add)there was no one there. I pulled out my Bible and checked the date on the flier... it starts next week. So I guess this was a dress rehearsal.

We went to the library instead and that made the kids very happy.

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Wed, Sep 13, 2006 12:34 PM
We're homeschooling preschool here. I have no clue if we'll homeschool beyond preschool. But isn't it sad that in today's society preschool is so expected of children that I'm actually referring to myself as homeschooling it? I find that ironic. To me this is just normal stuff that you'd do with a young child.

We bought Katelyn a really neat workbook that has all sorts of worksheets for her to do. Boy, it's a good job no one is grading this. Katelyn is working on mazes right now and it's interesting listening to her explain what she's doing. For example, there was a maze asking her to help the butterfly find a flower. Along the way were various dead ends including a bird feeder, a bird bath and stuff like that. She decided to intentionally stop at the birdbath because as she explained, the butterfly needed a drink before it went to the flower. It was "berry thirsty". (She watched Strawberry Shortcake a few days ago so everything is Berry instead of Very.)

Conner is sitting at the table coloring in a coloring magazine that a friend sent me for the kids. Everytime that he colors a little he says, "Did iiiiiiiiittt!" because Katelyn is saying, "We did it!" when she finishes a maze.

Caleb is finally sleeping a little. This little guy is growing well but has an odd feeding schedule. It is approximately 2 hours eating and then 2 hours sleeping. All day. He only wakes up once or twice during the night though so that is a blessing. But his daily schedule makes it interesting to get much of anything done around the house. The kids are doing fairly well with that.

Last night during the rainstorm Eric and I decided to take the kids out for a ride in the rain. We like to say that it was to let them have fun with the rain and the lightening. But in reality, we wanted to listen to the "Jerry Doyle" show on the radio. Jerry Doyle played one of our favorite characters on Babylon 5. Mr. Garibaldi.

While we were out, we stopped at my parents house and while we were there, my dad found a baby opposum. He put it in a basket and then held the basket up to the window so the kids could see it as he spotlighted it with a flashlight. After we watched it for a while he let it go.

So this morning we surfed the internet looking for pictures of 'possums. We found a few of them hanging upside down and a few mom's with babies but none with the babies in a pouch. But we talked about the babies living in a pouch on the mommy after they're born. I guess that was our science lesson for the day/week.

Then we had to look at Pandas... Katelyn adores pandas right now. We even found a panda cam but it wasn't showing any pandas at the time.

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Mon, Sep 11, 2006 10:51 AM
When I suggested to Katelyn that it would be OK if she went to help her brother pick up trains...

K: Please I help Conner? Say No.
C: No
K: I not help him. Him say no.

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Sun, Sep 10, 2006 8:17 PM
The kids are watching Eric install a stairway light in our basement. They are very excited about "helping" him. As he unboxed the light, part of it was wrapped in bubble wrap. Katelyn saw it and started squealing with glee (complete with arms raised in victory) because there was "Bubble Pop!"

Both kids are watching Eric while playing with bubble pop.

Kid's are so cute in what they say.

When ever we drive by the bike path near our house Katelyn starts chanting: "And walking and walking and walking and walking and walking... and walking [then as we approach the corner] and look at map and find star and walk home." The map is a map of the trail with the star showing where we are on the map. We walk down to there and then walk home. It's a good walk for the kids before bed.

When we drove into Sam's Club last time, Conner started cheering, "Pee Jay Pee Jay Pee Jay Pee Jay Pee Jay..." He (and Katelyn) associate Sam's Club with a certain employee there... PJ. The kid's are the founding members of the PJ Fan Club. So if you go to our Sam's Club, look for PJ serving samples and say Hi to him and mention that you know Katelyn, Conner and Caleb. He'll enjoy chatting with you.

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Thu, Sep 7, 2006 7:02 PM
You've heard of pet rocks? Conner has a pet ball. This ball is a definite favorite. He carries it around all day (we insist that it stay at home though... we're concerned about it getting lost if we took it out and about) and even takes it to bed with him.

Last night when we were done working in the basement for the night, we went upstairs and Conner had gotten up and come into our room. This isn't a big deal because we have a sleeping area all set up for Katelyn and Conner in case they want to come in and sleep in our room. There he was with the ball still in one hand.

I think I need a scrapbook page about the ball!

Tonight we went out and bought big boy underwear for Conner. He was so proud to get it. Starting tomorrow he'll be in underwear during the morning and until his nap.

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Wed, Sep 6, 2006 8:11 AM
Caleb slept so well last night. Except for the little while thit it took his tired mommy to figure out that he wanted a diaper change, not more food. But once I figured that out, he fell right asleep and refused more food. The diaper was so wet that I completely understand his wanting it changed.

Conner woke up around 7 this morning. It was his typical ritual... come in, talk to mom for a bit and then ask for his diaper off so he could go potty to earn a cookie. I tried him in underwear last week for one morning and he did fantastic. It was dry until nap time. I'm going to get him some big boy underwear sometime this week and he can wear it in the mornings. He's keeping a nearly dry diaper all day so I think he's ready to give underwear a try.

I have a tooth that chipped a few years ago. The top of it just crubled one evening. I don't know what caused it and the dentist I went to didn't know either but he smoothed it over. I asked him at the time if I needed a cap or something to protect it and he said that it was still good enough that a cap wasn't worth it. Unfortunately I think another chip fell off yesterday and now it's hurting on and off. It's like the newest chip is close to a nerve or something. I have an appointment for Thursday to get it looked at. It's just a small chip but it's new and that concerns me. I still have no idea what might have caused it though!

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Tue, Sep 5, 2006 7:11 PM
Katelyn when asked what Aunt Laura's mom named her when she was born:

"She no have a mom."

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Mon, Sep 4, 2006 7:56 PM
We went to IKEA today. I like that store! Caleb has been in need of a dresser. Or rather, I'm tired of trying to keep his clothes neat without one. We found one that we liked enough that we bought two. It's a smaller 3 door one made of what looks like pine (probably is) and instead of drawer pulls, it has two holes in each drawer. Katelyn and Conner were both having fun using it in the store. We're going to eventually have both Conner and Caleb in the same room (our 3rd bedroom) and so we bought Conner one to use also so that they match. These dressers won't last them forever because they are on the small side but they're a perfect size for now and the price was very nice.

Caleb did the drive well. He rode around in the sling all day. I felt sorry for the moms of infants who were walking around there without a sling, they looked like their arms were exhausted. I did see a few strollers though and one car seat hooked to a shopping cart.

We ate our lunch there and so when we drove home, both kids fell asleep. Conner was asleep before we even left the parking lot.

We weighed Caleb yesterday with a fish scale. It was his due date and we were curious what he'd gotten up to. My mom made a sling out of a towel and tared the scale with the towel on and then we put Caleb into the towel... he weighed in at 8 pounds 7 ounces.

I'm not too surprised by the gain... he's fitting his 0-3 clothes now very well (but still has room to grow) and he feels heftier. He's getting more chub to his look too. His arms and legs are still thin looking but his face and head is growing. The arms and legs are definitely longer too based on how he fits the sleepers.

It is strange though to think that he's *still* smaller then either of the other two kids were at birth! He still has over 2 pounds before he catches up to Katelyn's birth weight!

We're going to weigh him again in the middle of the month to see an approximate weight for when he would have been born without the complications. I generally go 2-3 weeks past my due date so I strongly suspect that if I hadn't had PROM that he'd have been born in mid September.

It's strange to feel him snuggled in close to me in his sling and then think that if I hadn't had complications, he'd still be inside right now. I'm really enjoying having him be little longer but I'm also so pleased to see him growing so well.

He's starting to stay awake more and to watch what's happening around him. Conner loves this part of having a brother. If he sees Caleb awake and not nursing, Conner will try to engage him in an activity. Usually the activity is to lay next to each other and stare. Conner loves it though and giggles. On Saturday I was doing some organizing in the kids' room and I set Caleb down safely on a bed. Conner got up there and I was watching him from close by so I just watched to see what he'd do. Conner sat down next to Caleb and tried to pull Caleb over to his lap. He did a pretty gentle job of it. I was impressed. But I stopped that activity before anything bad happened.

Katelyn is really talking up a storm lately. She watched a Strawberry Shortcake vido and kept referring to her toy horse as "Ponypie Pony". Strawberry's horse is Honeypie Pony. :D Katelyn is also super into Please, Thank You and You're Welcome. Thanks comes out as Shanks though. Last night we went to a bonfire at my parents' house and Katelyn pulled our wagon of stuff out to the campsite. She kept saying, "Shank you Conner for pushing the wagon. Shanks very much." Conner was walking behind and occasionally pushing. The trail to the site was slightly uphill the entire way so I was impressed that Katelyn managed to pull it out so well.

Things are finally starting to feel like "normal" around here. We have a chance to get settled into a routine and that is a comfortable feeling. Up until last week things have just been go, go, go... between the NICU and then getting ready for Laura's wedding it was very busy. Then I was sick last week with a bad cold/cough.

I'm looking forward to a normal week!

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