Memorial Day Weekend

We decided to go up to my Aunt Marilyn & Uncle Frank's house for Memorial Day weekend to join them in celebrating my cousins' birthdays. My cousins Jenny, Marcey and Frankie all had birthdays that week. My cousin Jenny was there with her husband and three kids, Marcey was there with her husband and their five foster children and we were there with all three of ours. My parents were also there, as well as several of Frankie's friends from school and work. We spent a good portion of the day Saturday sitting by the pool relaxing. We spent the night Saturday and Sunday morning Marcey's two former foster kids, Cory and Kyle (twins), came with their mom, brother and cousins. We were also celebrating Cory and Kyle's birthday. We had 15 children on Sunday afternoon - most of whom were swimming!

Marcey's current foster children include three girls around Hannah's age (Lexi, Haley and Destiny) and two boys around Kyle's age (Ethan and Austin). Jenny has two boys, ages 7 and 5 (Quinton and Chance) and a 5-month-old girl (Kayleigh). Cory and Kyle just turned 9 and their cousins Zaide and Bray were around Hannah's age. It may seem overwhelming to have that many children in one place but it was great! They all entertained each other! The girls played ring-around-the-rosies while the boys made "music" on the piano. A couple of times, while they were all playing together in the back room, I heard a loud chorus of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" from several cheerful voices!

Updates...

My grandmother is home from rehabilitation and doing well walking around with the assistance of a walker.

Audrey weighed in at 9 pounds 4 ounces at her check-up on Wednesday and is still doing very well with breastfeeding.

Kyle is still expirimenting with tasting by licking foods but that's a good step for him to get to eating.

We got the certificate of eligibility for Hannah to attend the voluntary pre-kindergarten (VPK) program starting in September. Now we just need to choose a site and sign her up. The VPK program is a government-paid program for children to attend a childcare center or school's pre-kindergarten program to prepare them for kindergarten. All families are eligible regardless of income as long as the child lives in Florida and is four years old as of September 1st. I was surprised to see such a good selection of sites including a few Montessori schools, even!

I've gotten word that I am all set to start my full-time externship June 2nd at St. Petersburg General Hospital. I will need 32 hours a week for 6 months before completing my program.

I checked with my friend Kristin, who used to work as a nurse at that hospital and found out that they do have a nursing mothers room where I can pump milk on my lunch breaks. A growing number of companies (not just hospitals) are starting to provide a "corporate lactation program", including a private room with electrical outlets, a comfortable chair and a sink. Some places even provide a fridge or even a hospital grade pump! It's a growing trend because even the corporate world has come to acknowledge that nursing mothers are happier, have shorter maternity leaves and have fewer absences for child illness, among other benefits.

Chris went to the Health Department for his vasectomy last Friday morning. The government actually pays a portion of the cost based on income and family size and his insurance is paying the remaining cost. They actually let me stay in the room and watch the procedure being done. It was definitely unusual to watch. A student nurse came in to observe, too, but she had to leave shortly after the cauterization because she was a little queasy. He had to stay in bed Friday and take it easy Saturday and no sports for one week.

Dedication

Our church, Cypress Meadows Community Church, had child dedications on Mother's Day and we dedicated Kyle and Audrey. (Hannah had already been dedicated when she was a year old.)

Hannah's dedication May 2005:
















Kyle & Audrey's dedication May 2008:

Imagination

As a child, I had quite an imagination. I not only had an imaginary friend, I had a whole village of imaginary friends. I hadn't thought about it for a long time. But recently Hannah has started telling us of her "pretend friends": Carla, Poona, Tobwalla... All of them, four years old, like her. I never heard of anyone else with multiple imaginary friends like I had until now. I'm happy about it. I think it shows that she's creative and has a very active imagination. I've always felt that a good imagination is priceless!

Chilling Out with God

One day last week, Hannah asked me where Audrey had been when she was a baby and I told her Audrey wasn't even in my belly yet when she was a baby. But that wasn't a good enough answer for Hannah. She still wanted to know where Audrey was when she was a baby. I absentmindedly said, "I guess she was just chilling out somewhere". "Where?" asked Hannah persistently. "Well, with God, I guess," I answered. I didn't think about the conversation again until I overheard Hannah telling Uncle Jay, "This is my sister Audrey. She was chilling out with God for a long time."

Audrey's Follow-Up

Audrey had her two week follow-up on Wednesday with Dr Arango (the kids' pediatrician) and she weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz - a whole pound up in one week! Considering she's been nursing practically nonstop, it figures. She's looking very healthy and getting lots of sleep (during the day).

Kyle's Progress

Kyle had an appointment with the pulmonologist Tuesday. When he sees the pulmonologist, they also bring in a nutritionist and speech/feeding therapist to consult.

The nutritionist was concerned that the GI had recommended taking Kyle down on feedings but Kyle still isn't taking meals by mouth but the GI doctor said that it should be fine as long as he doesn't lose weight quickly. Kyle had gone from following just below the growth curve to smack dab in the middle of the curve in less than 3 months. Now, he's at the bottom of the growth curve and I explained to the nutritionist that I always ran right below the curve and so did Hannah so I'm not concerned if Kyle falls below the curve again. Genetics dictates it!

The speech/feeding therapist was more concerned with his slow progress in feeding. She recommended that Kyle's therapy be more focused on feeding and occupational therapy than speech and increase days of feeding and occupational therapy each week. She also said we might need to do an intensive 4 week feeding program. I'm not sure how well that would work because that's at All Children's Hospital every day for 4 weeks but we're running out of other options.

We discussed adding more feeding and occupational therapy with his current therapy center and they are going to try to work him in for it.