What a Relief...

Finally got results back from the pediatricians office today from Evelyn's MRI. Apparently our regular doctor is out of town on vacation (damn him!) so I spoke with one of the nurses in the practice. The MRI showed no abnormalities of her brain growth or her pituitary gland. The only abnormality was the space around her optic nerve was larger than normal which is to be expected since her optic nerve is smaller than it should be. I can't even begin to say what a relief that this news is! It still remains to be seen how bad her vision will be and we will still have to monitor blood work with the endocrinologist for years to come but the fact that her brain is growing as it should and that there are no visible abnormalities with its structure is all very positive!

Fall Plantings...

I finally got a chance to work out in the yard this weekend since it was actually cool enough for Evelyn to stay outside longer than 5 minutes. The 100 degree heat we have here in the summer and early fall does not agree with baby or mommy. So since the temperatures have dropped slightly I decided to rip out the weeds that were growing in my front planter and put in something with a little color.

I hope that they will survive the warm weather we continue to have since pansy's usually do better when it is cooler but we shall see. I think if they stay watered well enough that they should do ok. Other than getting the 2 flats of flowers in the ground the weekend was uneventful and quiet. I hope y'all had a great weekend!

The Longest Hour...

So yesterday was Evelyn's blood work and MRI appointment. It went much smoother that i had anticipated. Evelyn as always was a real trooper. The morning started with blood work at 8. In which the nurse doing her blood work had a real job of trying to find a vein. Babies just don't have the greatest veins for donating blood samples! After the blood draw we were allowed to give her some Pedialyte to drink so she wouldn't get dehydrated before her MRI which wasn't for a few more hours. Surprisingly she drank it right down, but then after all of the excitement she was ready for a nap. So we decided to take a drive around downtown to get her to fall asleep and that way we weren't just sitting in the hospital for 6 hours straight. I fortunately remembered that there is a Bruegger's Bagel downtown so i drove around until i found it. That bagel was truly the highlight of my day. If you have never had a bagel from there you just don't know what you are missing. Beyond yummy!!! Especially if they are warm which mine was yesterday! If there was a Brueggers closer to my house i would probably eat there every day. After the deliciousness of the bagel breakfast it was back to the hospital. Our appointment time was 11:20 which apparently means our real appointment time is 12:20 they just tell you to get you there early so they won't have to wait on you. It was a lot of downtime fortunately Evelyn slept in her stroller until the nurse came and got us. For a pediatric MRI the completely sedate your child but don't let you stay to watch. They allow you to stay while they initially gas them down but then kick you out until the procedure is over. Evelyn was all smiles for the nurses and doctor before they started and only fussed for about 5 seconds when they initially put the mask on her face. It seemed like it was only about 20 seconds before they told us she was out. It was hard to tell since her eyes were still open. Weird. The nurse then said time to go and that they would come get us in an hour. That was the longest hour ever. I can't even tell you how many times I asked hubby what time it was. I don't wear a watch and of course the hospital never puts clocks in their waiting areas. After an hour and 5 minute just before we were about to go crazy the nurse came for us. Everything had gone well and she was up and screaming and ready to eat! What a relief! After a full meal they released her to us with a whole slew of warnings about possible effects of the anesthesia.We hope to get results of the MRI and blood work back quickly. Fortunately other than being rather cranky the rest of the afternoon she seems fine today and luckily for mom and dad she slept the whole night! There is nothing like 8 hours sleep in a row!

Such the Slacker!

So its been a week since i've posted anything, i did start this with the intention of posting everyday. Boy, was that unrealistic! It's been kind of a slow week around here not much in the way of excitement. We met with another new doctor, Evelyn's endocrinologist, Dr Paulo. He was super nice, a nice change from the doom and gloom of the opthamologist we had seen. He is young and seemed very knowledgeable about her condition. We will do some blood work on Thursday this week and if all looks good we will not see him again until mid December.

We also had the exterminator come this week. As you all know if you live in the south you are bound to have bugs, that is the nature of this climate. He was also kind enough to tell us we may or may not have mice in the attic. YUCK!!!! There was evidence (poop) but no little critters have shown up in the traps yet. They may have moved on this summer once the attic started to reach temps over 100. I surely hope so but in the meantime i will continue to force hubby to go up in the attic every 2 days to check the traps!!!

This weekend was uneventful, the inlaws came for another visit (i will say no more ), other than i managed to get the lawn mowed and not much else. Thank You hubby for doing such an awesome job cleaning the house!!!! Hope everyone has a great monday! I will try not to be such a slacker when it comes to posting!

Now I Know...

Now I know why my parents didn't take us on many vacations! Hubby and I decided it would be fun to pack up and go on a mini vacation over the weekend to Savannah. A little rest and relaxation to do us some good! Boy were we wrong! To start with, for such a little girl Evelyn had a ton of luggage, an entire suitcase to herself, the bouncy chair, the pack and play crib and a big bag of toys. Mommy and daddy together had one small suitcase! Savannah is only 2 hours away so the drive itself was not bad at all however due to mommy's excellent use of map quest we drove an extra 20 miles to find our hotel!!! The hotel was practically brand new so that made me happy (less germs!) and we had booked a suite so that there would be plenty of room for all of baby's things. After settling in at the hotel we drove into downtown Savannah to have dinner. What we didn't realize was that there is alot of stairs and cobblestone streets to navigate. The stroller definitely was the wrong way to go! After dinner we strolled around a bit and then headed back to the hotel for a good nights rest... so we thought! After the normal hour of sour, Evelyn went to bed only to wake up at midnight and again at 2:30 am all out of sorts. So she slept with mommy until 6:45am! Like her mommy she apparently prefers her own bed to hotel rooms! So after a hearty Waffle House breakfast off we went to downtown Savannah, this time we opted not to take the stroller. Keep in mind the temperature was in the low 90's and Evelyn is up to @ 14 lbs now. Needless to say we ended up going back to the car and retrieving the stroller. That afternoon we decided to ride over to Tybee Island. Only thanks again to Mommy's good sense of direction and awesome map skills we took the long cut adding and extra 35 minutes to the drive! We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the beach which would have been really nice except mommy was really cranky by then and baby was getting fussy due to her feeding schedule being off! So after everyone was fed and in better moods we decided it would be fun to check out the historic lighthouse. So after arriving there (after circling the island for a little while) the nice man that worked there warned us it was 176 steps up to the top!!! We laughed, that didn't seem like that many! Mommy started carrying baby but halfway up daddy stepped in, mommy couldn't hack it! The view was great but we were pooped! After all of that activity we thought we could end the day with a nice dinner! After showers ( you get VERY sweaty climbing lighthouses!) we headed out to a nice restaurant close to our hotel. After ordering and daddy's salad course, baby decided she had had enough! MELTDOWN!!! Needless to say to the relief of our waiter it became a to go order enjoyed from our hotel room! All the while we listened to hour of sour for our dinner entertainment! Evelyn did better the second night only waking up once at 3:30am and after 30 minutes we did end up getting her back to sleep in her own bed! So needless to say it was a good learning experience about traveling with a little one! Lesson learned... think twice! :)

It is what it is...

Yesterday was Evelyn's eye appointment with the specialist. She definitely handled it better than her mommy that's for sure. Even after they dilated her eyes she continued to be a happy girl. Unfortunately there is an issue with her eyes but at least now we have a diagnosis. The opthamologist said she has optic nerve hypoplasia. The extent of her case is still unknown so we will be seeing another specialist later this month for an MRI. It is fortunate that we have good medical care close by at MUSC. For more info on her condition click here http://www.onesmallvoicefoundation.org/whatisonh.html

We hope that in her case any abnormalities will be mild and at his point until further test have been run it is what it is and we will continue to love her more and more every day.

Storm Ready...

so while i was doing my daily shopping at the

grocery this morning all the store employees

were discussing getting ready for a possible hurricane.

so i thought i might as well pick up a few

supplies as long as i was there...

what more does one need to weather a bad storm? beer, diapers, and little debbie cakes!!!!