Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Sick Baby

Isabella spiked a fever and had diarrhea today forcing the cancellation of her play date with Tracy and Paige. We're all hoping she's just got a 24-hour bug.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Moving along

Just checking in to tell you that everything is going well!

I'm finally starting to feel better but the nerve pain can be pretty unbearable at times. Thank goodness for pain meds.

Isabella is having a blast playing with Grandma Mary and is finally sleeping better for her!! YEAH!

Hoping to load some pics in the next few days but not sure what those days will bring!

Check back soon!

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Talking up a storm

After five days without Isabella I was THRILLED to have her back in my arms. She walked through the door and I thought "is that my Isabella?" She seemed to have grown three inches; her hair seemed inches longer and her vocabulary tripled.

She is finally repeating everything we say to a fair degree of understanding. While she stills omits the v and l sounds in most words she really tries to pronounce the words accurately. On to the multiple words statements!!!!!!!

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Award winner

Congrats to Kevin who received the Technician of the Year award at his company's annual meeting! This is the second out of three years he's earned the title. Way to Go!!!!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Loving her visit

Isabella is loving her visit with Grandma Sue & Grandpa Al. She's sleeping really well for them and is enjoying playing with all the toys at their house. Grandma Sue even bought a little table and chairs set so she could play tea party with them, but she's using it more for looking through pictures and naming all the relatives.

Kevin will pick Isabella up tomorrow evening and head for his annual Family Work Party. While I would love to go, I can't ride in a car for another 13 days. She'll head to Grandma Mary's and Papa Steve's house Friday night.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Lots of pain

Who really knows other than the doctors in the surgery room what they do to your body during a surgery. All I know is that every muscle in my body aches!

Thanks for all the e-cards and calls. I may be offline for a few days as I recover!

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

On the mend

Surgery is done! I had to stay until late today but now I'm at my mom's and very sore. Getting out of bed is not fun but I've got at least three weeks before I will start to feel relief. No car rides or driving until the first doctor's appointment in 2-4 weeks.

Isabella is having tons of fun with Grandpa Al and Grandma Sue and enjoyed her play date with Uncle Tim and Aunt Melissa Monday. She'll be making a "mama" visit tomorrow but may have to stay away for a few more days so I get a jump start on recovering.

Picture: Isabella playing at Aunt Julie's & Uncle Chris's Rehearsal dinner.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Surgery Day

Less than three hours to go...

The last few surgeries I've had were instant - in through emergency, no preparation - so I've had time to think about this one. And I'm nervous.

But Isabella is well taken care of. She was happy to go with Aunt Melissa.

Thanks for all the emails and calls. I'll check in later this week to update you on everything!

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Moving Day

As my surgery is 30 hours and counting, Isabella and I are packing up some final items before heading to Grandma's and Papa's house.

Isabella has been sleeping much better this week so I hope it lasts after the move as my mom will take over the night-time rituals.

Everyone in the family is working hard to help out so any early thanks to: Uncle Tim, Aunt Melissa, Grandma Sue, Grandpa Al, Aunt TT, Uncle Keith, Aunt Julie, Uncle Chris and of course Kevin (who will take over all the house duties, work and visit us every day - We love you!)Papa Steve and Grandma Mary (who will not only care for us but will cook, clean and help us both to the bathroom, ha. ha). Aren't mom's great!!!!!!!

Check in mid-week for an update!

Friday, January 19, 2007

Benign

After days of worry and tons of pone calls to the doctor's office, my ENT finally called with my biopsy results. All benign - yeah! He said I would have to have a biopsy each year to make sure the cysts don't turn into cancer but for now I'm safe. The other cysts - the congenital one that started this fiasco - has split into three cysts but they are small. The docs will check those each year, too, to make sure no cancer develops. YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!

Now on to back surgery!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

No socks, what else?

Isabella did the funniest thing today.

At 7 a.m. she started to fuss in her crib. I've tried to let her cry herself back to sleep so I didn't jump up right away. Plus, I figured Kevin was up for work and would check on her (yeah right!). So by 7:30 a.m. the fuss became a cry so I gave in and went to check her out.

She was standing in her crib COMPLETELY butt-naked. She had stripped off her pajamas, her onesie, socks and her diaper. She stood there in the crib as I walked in and said 'socks'. I told her she needed more than just socks.

So diapered, clothed and soothed she drifted back to sleep.

And again at nap time (even though no nap was taken), she again stripped off her socks and pants. Thank goodness I checked on her before the rest of the outfit came off. Poop would have filled her bed.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Sleep Solutions???

Isabella is 19 months old, plenty old enough to sleep through the night. But she doesn't!

Her doctors say it's normal toddler behavior to a point, but she wakes up three and four times each night. Sometimes she wants her diaper changed or wants milk and sometimes she just wants to play, at 4 in the morning.

Kevin and I are so tired. Please share your sleep techniques for your little ones. We'll try anything to get some sleep!

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Welcome Site Meter

I visit a lot of blogs and a lot of them have site meters to record visitors and page views. Now that As the Kramer Family Grows passes its one year mark, I've decided to add Site Meter to the homepage to see just how many of you visit our site each day. Big brother is now watching!

Happy Saturday!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Car rides

Isabella loves riding in the car. Heck, what child wouldn't love hopping into a cozy reclineable car seat with her own DVD player. She's got a cup holder, a snack pouch, lots of leg room and tons of movies to choose from. But sometimes, sleep is all she needs.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Today's smile!

After a post like today's, I needed an Isabella smile. Enjoy!!!!!!!!

Surgery schueduled

Tuesday was a rough day for me.

Isabella spent the last two nights at my parent's house so I could go to my back surgeon appointment and my thyroid biopsy. And neither appointment shed good news...

I'm having back surgery on Monday, Jan 22. Yes, in 12 days! The scheduling department tried to get me in Thursday (as in tomorrow) but a cancellation fell though. The urgency surrounds where the herniation is protruding. If it swells any more, it will hit my bladder nerve causing incontinence, which may be irreversible. So I'm on strict orders to "take it easy" until the surgery to make sure I don't worsen the herniation.

The biopsy was a lot more traumatic than I thought it would be. Put under just a local and laid on a metal table (very uncomfortable for everyone but especially so for someone with a hurt back). Told the procedure would take less than 20 minutes, I struggled with the pain, the needle pressure and the throbbing back. At 20 minutes, the procedure was still going. The doctor was able to aspirate to three cysts (Yeah) but they found a large solid mass inside my thyroid that they needed samples from. One set...not enough says pathology...another set...need more says pathology. This continues through five sets. And let me tell you, even with a local, I could still feel the needle's pressure and the instrument’s snip when extracting the tissue. So five sets later, I said no more. I said that if they needed more tissue that we would schedule something under twilight or anesthesia. The doc said no problem because he only extracted blood on the last set so he was done, too.

And the pain is much worse than I expected! The doc told me to expect swelling and bruising and soreness in the biopsy site for a few days. Soreness...I can barely bend my neck back it's so sore...and swollen! So off to the couch with an ice pack. (I've got a lot of these types of days ahead.........)

Thanks for checking in!

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Teething Troubles

We've had a few rough days and nights with Isabella. She is cutting more molars and while many experts say that teething toddlers don't suffer as much with molars as they do with the front teeth, I strongly disagree.

Not only have Isabella's gums swollen and turned bright red, she refuses to eat anything that is not cold, in fear that it will further aggravate her mouth. She has diarrhea (which her pediatrician insists is not related to the teething, but I beg to differ since Isabella has always suffered from diarrhea when new teeth cut.) bad enough to have needed three nighttime baths and sheet changes in two nights. She's really fussy and clingy, only wanting to be held even when sleeping.

Infant Motrin and Tylenol have helped sooth her pain but baby orajel seems to help her the best. Lots of pedialyte and Popsicles help with the diarrhea but she's still in a lot of pain.

Needless to say, we've canceled our plans to visit with friends tonight since we aren't 100% sure the diarrhea is teething related. We also didn't visit with cousins Kelsey and Kylie yesterday as planned. Hopefully though, Isabella is feeling well enough tomorrow to attend the adoption agency's annual holiday party. We'd hate to miss it!

Friday, January 05, 2007

Free me!

Our living room quickly turned into Isabella's playroom. We've moved out end tables, pictures, breakables, DVDs, CDs and a coffee table to make room for toys. Since Isabella loves playing in the renovated playroom, I can cook dinner and go to the restroom knowing she's content. But sometimes she still needs a reminder of where she belongs. In comes the baby gate! Even though she's learned to climb over the gate, it still provides me with a sense of safety. But Isabella really hates it!



Thursday, January 04, 2007

Christmas Afternoon at the Gaylords

Even though Isabella had no nap, she was not crabby by the time we made it to my parent's home. Isabella was greeted with hugs from Aunt Julie, Uncle Chris and Grandma Mary & Papa Steve. Zoe, Bayli, Kalli & Molly licked her as soon as she walked through the door.

But Isabella didn't care about any of that. She went right for the presents! And spoiled she was! (even by Great Aunt Dee Dee, Great Uncle Ted and second cousins Brittany and Jessica.)




Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Christmas Morning with the Kramers

Any Kramers gathering is bound to be filled with laughter and jokes and lots of fun-filled screaming (adults and kids both).

Tiffany and Keith hosted the traditional Kramer Christmas brunch with cooking help from Kevin and me, though our help just made a big mess. Not only did bacon grease spill all inside the oven causing smoke throughout the house, but the french toast was rubbery and the sausage was chewy. The bacon smoke set off the hard-wired smoke alarms so we had no way of turning the loud buzzing off. Tim tried fanning the alarm for awhile but quickly tired so Keith unwired the kitchen alarm. But that still let the upstairs alarm blaring. Trying to be helpful, I grabbed a towel and fanned the kitchen alarm until the gang made fun of me. No sense in fanning wires. Duh!!! (They are still making fun of me for that one!)

The girls had a great time unwrapping TONS of gifts! We are all so blessed!





Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Christmas morning at our house

Isabella didn't know what to do with herself.

Kevin carried her into the living room and told her Santa had visited since she was such a good girl. (She says "good gggurl".) He set her down and she looked back at both of us and smiled. She ran over to the presents and started picking them up.

She needed a little help getting started with the wrapping on each but quickly learned to tear it off. She wanted the toy immediately which meant prying and ripping for both Kevin and me. Kevin went and got needle-nose pliers to snip the braces and wires.






Monday, January 01, 2007

Santa: Before & After

Santa must have liked the cookies because he ate all but a half of one!



Getting ready for Santa

Isabella helped set out cookies and milk for Santa after we tracked his travels at the Norad Santa site.


Christmas Eve Dinner

For as long as I can remember, no matter which church service you attended, who you had to visit, or who was visiting, my family has gathered for Christmas Eve dinner at Olive Garden.

We continued the tradition this year attending the restaurant with Aunt Julie, Uncle Chris and Grandma & Grandpa Gaylord.



Christmas Eve Mass

Now that Isabella is part of our family, we knew we had to attend the children's Christmas Eve service at Immaculate Heart of Mary. She has a hard enough time sitting though a regular mass, let alone one with so much excitement and activity.

Seating goes quickly at IHM's children's service. We knew we'd have to arrive at least an hour before mass started to locate pews. Plus we needed seats for Grandma & Grandpa Gaylord, Grandma & Grandpa Kramer, Aunt Julie & Uncle Chris, Aunt Melissa & Uncle Tim, Aunt TT & Uncle Keith, and Kelsey & Kylie. It was such a special event because the entire clan was together.

The kids did really well, playing with their toys and running back and forth to different relatives. The service was beautiful with a live performance of the nativity story.

Grandpa Al showing Isabella his camera.

Both Grandmas entertaining Isabella.
Isabella and Daddy reading the service program.
Isabella pointing to the alter.

The beautifully decorated church alter.