Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Kate-Before & After

Most of you have already heard about Kate's accident on Sunday night, but for those who haven't, here it is.  Kate fell off the couch ottoman.  We immediately knew something was wrong due to the amount of blood in her mouth, her blood curdling screams, and that her teeth were hanging much lower than they used to.  Thanks to a friend who happens to be a pediatric nurse practitioner, we decided not to take her to the ER.  The bleeding had stopped and she didn't seem to be in much pain, but her teeth were very obviously loose.  We went to the dentist first thing in the morning and after an exam and x-rays, he determined that they had been completely ripped away from the roots.  We had a couple of options:

1) Have them re-implanted.  They would likely fuse together and need to be extracted when her permanant teeth came in.
2) Have them extracted.  We had a couple of ways of doing this:
     a) Do it in his office with some novacaine.  It would be quick, but painful. 
     b) Go to an oral surgeon and sedate her.
Since I thought she'd been through enough trauma and I didn't want the dentist to be a place of pain, I opted for the second choice.

We went in for a consultation yesterday.  Bright and early this morning, we went in and she had them removed.  Other than some initial confusion and anger on the way home, she has been fine.  Once the meds wore off, she was up hopping around like usual.  She has enjoyed her non-chewing diet of bowls of chocolate ice cream, jello, popsicles, pudding, and oatmeal.  Hannah has been trying to "break" her teeth all day long because she didn't think it was fair that Kate didn't have to eat a PBJ at lunch or pizza at dinner.  Hannah has very much shared all of Kate's goodies so she hasn't been deprived.

So...what next?  We can just leave the space open or we can look into getting an implant device.  I am going to discuss it with her pediatrician tomorrow and with her dentist again.

For those interested in what Kate's teeth looked like...here they are.  These were pictures from Sunday night. 


Notice Hannah laying on the couch in the background.  She had a 24 hour fever and didn't feel well.

 Pictures from this morning, still a little doped up.

 Probably one of the only times eating ice cream on the couch is acceptable.  The doctor wanted her on the couch for the first 4 hours until the meds wore off.
All smiles.  She cried for a second when I showed her in the mirror, but I think she has accepted it now. 

A lot of you sent texts, e-mails, or commented on facebook and I wasn't able to get back to each of you individually.  THANK YOU!!!  I really appreciate all of the prayers and support.  God has blessed us with a beautiful girl and I am so grateful for His provision.  The night that this happened, I just layed with her and thanked God that my daughter had teeth to begin with.  Many moms around the world worry about their children's teeth falling out due to malnutrition.  My child fell off the couch (another blessing) and had an accident.  It happens.  Life goes on.  We are so blessed to have dental and medical insurance and that we have options!  

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Spoken Too Soon

Do you remember my words from yesterday's post regarding Reagan, "Whatever seems to be ailing her is gone today"?  You think that I would know as a mother by this point to never speak so soon.  I was even just telling Sarah in the hours before we discovered Reagan's fever that it's been a month since she's been sick.  Well, as I was getting Reagan out of the car yesterday from a shopping trip, I noticed that she has "grown" hundreds of little red pin pricks all over her arms and legs.  I thought to myself, "We've seen this before."

 




I was pretty sure it was hand, foot, & mouth disease.  I took her to the pediatrician just in case though.  The doctor confirmed that I was right (may I have a co-pay refund, please?) and sent us on our merry way.  There is nothing we can do.  It's hard to tell from the picture below, but she is pretty spotty.  Not nearly as spotty as Hannah was.  Although, Reagan has developed some blisters on her hands and feet.  They look like little fire ant bites.  They don't seem to bother her and she has been pretty happy today.  She isn't even contagious, but I've kept her home from the gym because I don't think I would like to see my children playing with a spotty baby.  


Here's to hoping we don't have anything else too exciting to post about this week!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Three Little Lantzs

Reagan celebrated being 9 months old yesterday with her first fever.  She was crabby all day and only consoled by the arms of her mama (of course).  She took 3 solid naps and even an extra bottle or two.  Whatever was ailing her seems to be gone today.  So on with life we go...


Most of my posts have been about Reagan lately, but there hasn't been too much going on with Hannah and Kate.  They did go to their first dentist appointment last week and were fantastic patients.  The dentist didn't see a need for an actual cleaning, but did just scrape a little bit of plaque off their teeth.  That's all for now!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Driving Miss Reagan

My little peanut is growing up so quickly.  She will be 9 months old tomorrow.  Ugh...how did this happen?  Good thing we will be adding a newborn to the family in a few short hours!  Too bad that he will live states away. 

George has gone fishing for the entire day so it is just the girls and I.  I am trying to have a relaxing morning.  Sarah convinced George and I to run a 5K (3.1 miles) with her and Matt and my dad.  I have run twice this week and my foot is hurting a bit so I'm trying to rest it so I can get back to the gym.  I have successfully run just over 3.1 miles!  That is a miracle for me because my body was not built to run and I have went from running a .5 mile to 3.1 miles in less than two weeks!  I think that all of my working out has really built my endurance.  I am so excited because I feel like I have accomplished something that I never thought I'd be able to do.  Now that I know I can run the distance, I just need to work on getting my time down.  I have until March so I think I can definitely meet my goals! 

I think with my increased working out and Reagan just getting older, my milk supply went way down so I decided to wean her.  It is a little sad, but making it just shy of 9 months breastfeeding is another accomplishment I am proud of.  I have 3 months of frozen milk to work through from the deep freeze and then a closet full of free formula.  Here's to hoping that I don't have to pay anything or very little for formula.  While it is a little sad to know that we are done with nursing, it's also nice to have a little more personal freedom and my body will finally be all mine after over a year and a half of growing a baby and then working to meet her nutritional needs.  Now it's time to lose some weight and tone up the baby blubber!



 Big sissies pushing little sissy around...in a good way.

 Another piece of baby equipment put away...the swing.  Reagan will sit and watch her Baby Einstein without any restraint.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Putting the Brakes on Life

Ahhhh...I feel like I can at least breathe a little more after all of the holiday craziness.  We have actually gotten to go out and do some things that are "fun" things.  Here is some of that!

 Hannah & Kate were sharing a smartie lollipop

 We went to the park last Sunday.  We went later in the afternoon so the weather was perfect.  Reagan really enjoyed swinging.  The reason she is looking sideways in most of the pictures is because she was watching the kid in the swing next to her.



 And these next 3 are for you, Grammie & Grandpa Kelso.  We managed to wrangle all 3 for a picture in their pajamas.


 I LOVE these next two pictures.  She is just one gorgeous, chunky baby!  Look closely and you can see her two bottom teeth.


 She loves to pull up on everything now.  She has already started pulling her sisters' toys off the couch.  The aggravating begins.  Hannah and Kate are very good with her though.

I thought this picture was cute because she just wants to be on the couch with her sissies.

We start our NICU support group tonight!  Please pray that God would just use us an encouragement to others and that we might be given the opportunity to share real hope with them.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Sweet Girl

Reagan has changed so much in the last month...from crawling to teeth to babbling to squealing to screaming at the top of her lungs to pulling up on her knees to feeding herself puffs/cheerios to pulling herself to her feet.  That's a long list!  And the best part of it all is that she has been healthy for the last month!!!!  Woohoo!  I have been able to get to the gym 3-4 times a week with kids in tow.  The ladies at the gym love her!  And we have been able to go to church together.  Hopefully she got all of the season's colds out of the way already.  

There really isn't anything too exciting going on.  Our New Year's was relatively quiet until a pipe in our kitchen/garage area started to backup.  We tried Drano several times and every attempt failed.  George's next step was to call in his reinforcements and begin to dig around the septic tank, cut out our wall in multiple places, and then tear up the carpet.  All of this to only end up calling a plumber the next day (wink wink...guess which choice was on the top of my list).  The plumber fixed it and after a $300+ bill, I am happily using my dishwasher and kitchen sink again!  From snake bites to clogged pipes, we sure do know how to start off the year with a bang! 

I found Reagan standing in her crib after naptime this morning and I tried my best to catch her in action later on.  Here are my attempts.






 I love this little face.  She loves to scrunch up her nose, close her eyes, puff out her chin & cheeks, and give me a huge smile!
She also enjoys getting into the dog dish.  Kate and Hannah have actually been really good about putting it up out of her reach on top of Bella's kennel.  That hiding place won't last too much longer when she starts pulling up.