Genevieve Update

I tried to take Gen to daycare on Thursday and she just wasn't having it. As soon as I dropped her off she was very upset. A sure sign that she is not feeling well. So I turned around and went back home. Unfortunately Chad was sick too! He felt well enough in the afternoon to take Gen to the doctor with me. It turns out Gen does have Acid Reflux. This surprised me because she doesn't spit up more frequently than I would expect her to. The doctor says that the spit up isn't making it all the way out but often will spill into the lungs. This is causing her congestion and coughing issues. Based on the scan he said that she spit up 13 times in one hour! And that's with her laying perfectly still on an incline. He also said that this is causing aspirations that we can't even see visibly. Her right ear infection had cleared up, but then her left ear was very infected. Dr. Jolley said that is probably what was bothering her the most. That's the bad news. The good news is at least we know what we are dealing with now. She is on 7 different medications: Two inhalers (to be taken twice a day), an antibiotic-for ear infection (once a day), ear drops - to soothe ear infection, Reglan-for Acid Reflux (4 times a day), Zantac-for Acid Reflux (twice a day) and Nystatin ointment - to clear up a fungus related diaper rash caused by diarrhea caused by Augmentin (antibiotic she was originally on, the doctor switched her antibiotic because it wasn't working and it was causing the rash).


We went back to the doctor on Saturday and he said her ear infection is clearing up, but he would like to see her in a week. We can start weaning her off of one inhaler (and see how she does without it) and she doesn't need the Nystatin anymore. We are down to 5 meds!

Chad put one ring on Gen's leg and the left the room for a second.

He came back and she had put the other ring on her leg. :)

(Rings courtesy of Uncle Tim)

Saturday after the doctor's appointment we went for Gen's first trip to the zoo and then to the mall. We got there at 3:00 pm and didn't realize that they close at 4:00 pm. They allow you to stay on the grounds until 4:30 pm. I ended up being just enough time for us. Genevieve was very interested in the large animals that had big movement such as the Beluga Whale. She was also very interested watching other people and loved riding in dad's backpack.

We had to take the hat off for a minute to get a pic of Genevieve in her ponies :)

Despite the look on her face in these pics, she did smile while we were there, we just weren't able to capture it on film :)

I'll work on adding the videos later.

Pictures from Gen's scan today.

Gen had to get a nuclear scan today to see if Acid Reflux is causing her coughing. They strapped her down to a board and she had to stay there for an hour during the scan. Poor girl. Here are the pictures. They aren't the best, they were taken with Chad's cell phone.

We made an exception to our no T.V. rule. We watched "A Bug's Life".

She fell asleep for about 15 minutes.
A shot of how strapped down she was. They had to wrap her legs, torso and chest to a board so that she was still throughout the scan.

Just before they stopped recording she spit up so it was good that they caught that. She also spit up again after they stopped recording. Hopefully through all this we will find some answers. She is on antibiotics for the ear infection which caused diarrhea which caused a really bad diaper rash that Desitin isn't helping. I called a nurse and she suggested an over the counter anti-fungal creme. Hope this works. It seems like now the cough is the least of her concerns. We have another doctor's appointment on Saturday to see results of this scan and if they didn't find anything she has another scan a week from today.

Gen's Health

Yesterday (2/16/09) I took Gen to a new doctor to get a second opinion. He ordered a chest x-ray, tested for strep, tested for MRSA, said she has an ear infection in one ear and fluid in the other, said she has walking Pneumonia, and had me take her to the lab to get tested for RSV. See I knew my little girl was sick. I'm just glad someone is finally listening to me. He gave her a shot of antibiotics, gave her a prescription of antibiotics and asked that I give her albuterol (with an inhaler) every four hours and flovent in the evening and morning. He also asked that he see her again today to see if her breathing has improved. We have an appointment today at 10:30 AM. I really don't want to have to keep her on the inhalers because it is peer torture for her, she doesn't understand why we are doing this to her, but if it makes her better I'm all for it. We had stopped doing the inhalers because we had no proof that it was actually helping at least this way we will know. We had to miss swim class last night, the doctor advised us not to take her. Oh well, there are worst things for sure.

Pictures of Gen :)

She's definitely a happy baby!

When all her teeth come in we will miss this toothless smile.

Droopy ponies
Look mom I'm eating!

What a ham!

She loves to motor around in this walker!

First swimming lesson. The pool was so cold her hands turned blue.

They said they would have it fixed this week.

End of January

Genevieve's new favorite game is peek-a-boo. She's puts the basket over her head herself and waits for someone to say, "Where's Genevieve? Ohhh Genevieve". Then she flips it off. There she is!

Works great with blankets too! When she does this laying down
she kicks her feet. Here I am mommy!

Can you see her first teeth? Two on the bottom.

I just love this outfit. You can tell they were painting at daycare (she has yellow on her sleeve).

All ready for the Superbowl. Yes we know the Seahawks weren't in it this year, but this was her last chance to wear this outfit. It's getting too small anyways.

It's hard to believe Genevieve is 7 months old already. She is growing up so fast. During the Superbowl Genevieve gave her first kisses. It was so cute. I would give her a kiss, then say kisses and turn my cheek to her and she would lay a sloppy kiss on me and wiggle her head a little. She did this several times. I loved it!

Chad and I saw the musical "Memphis" on Saturday night and loved it. If you ever get a chance to see this do so.

On Jan. 19th I went up to Anacortes and met a potential hearing dog. She is a labordoodle and her name is Gracie. It seems like her personality would be a great match for me. So it seems it is just a matter of whether or not she can be successful in her training. She has just begun the hearing dog portion of her training. If she works out I may get her in April or sometime this summer, it depends on when I can get my training done. Genevieve is just starting to show interests in dogs. It would be very neat to have one in time for her to grow up with it. She really likes my parent's dog and my brother and sister-in-law's dog.

Updates

It feels like it has been a long time since I have blogged. Here is what has been happening in our lives.

Professional Pictures taken by Alecia Silva at The Portrait Place in Bonney Lake, WA.

The photo below was taken moments before Genevieve's first big bonk. She leaned over and then fell over and hit her head on the hard wood that is underneath the backdrop. We thought the entire session was over then, but she was able to pull it together for the rest of the shoot.

This just looks like a postcard to us :)


Whee!

Awwww!

Arlynn Caldwell took family pictures of us.

The whole crew

Just Grammy, Poppi and the grandkids

My sister, Jennifer and her husband, Eric

(and the little one on the way, due in May)

My brother, Travis, his wife, Sarah and their son, TJ.

(They also have a litle one on the way, also due in May)

My sister, Janelle, her husband Jon, and their two kids Dayna and Dax.

Just the Grandkids

We had a Princess Tea Party on New Year's Day. Princess Jennifer and Princess Dayna organized the party. It was originally supposed to take place at Princess Jennifer's castle, but had to be relocated to Princess Dixie's castle.

Chad and I are so excited we are finally getting Hummingbirds at our Hummingbird feeder!

Way, way too young for this! (the can is unopened by the way)

First came the snow, then the flooding. Jan. 7th

There was massive flooding in our area. Many cities had voluntary evacuations. For a while there was no way in or out of Washington state other than by plane or boat. Mail to Oregon or surrounding areas was not being delivered. Many schools had "flood days". It was crazy. Fortunately for us we live up on the hill and never had any issues other than a little inconvience of having to take a different route home and put up with extra traffic.

Here are some website's with articles and pictures about the flood.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/jan/07/washington-flood-2009-photos/

http://www.komonews.com/news/37289544.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifTg_yfYpAykFLdY6fVBnb3NeMZAD95ILN400

Chad, Genevieve and I went to Ohio last weekend to celebrate Chad's grandfather's 90th birthday. We were a little late to his birthday dinner. See below:

The crew of a Delta Airlines Boeing 737-800, flight DL1249 from Seattle,WA to Cincinnati,KY (US), declared emergency and returned to Seattle Airport after one engine failed while the airplane climbed through 11000 feet. The landing on runway 16L 24 minutes after takeoff was safe. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration N3749D resumed the flight and reached Cincinnati with a delay of 2.5 hours.

Our version of the story is about 20 minutes into the flight we hear a loud band and felt a rumble. Shortly thereafter we heard a stewardess make an announcement something to the affect of I'm sure the pilot will tell us what that loud noise was shortly. I was OK until I looked over at Chad and his face looked worried. He said he could fell the plan lowering and leaning to the left. Later the captain announced that one of our engines had stopped working and we would be returning to SeaTac airport. Most of the passengers remained very calm, however you could see that some were stressed. Thankfully we made it back to the airport were another plane happened to be available. Many people chose not to get on because they had connecting flights and would not make the connection or other reasons. The second plane was fairly empty so we got a row to ourselves which helped a lot when flying with Genenvieve. We also got free movies, woo hoo! The pilot and crew did a fabulous job taking care of us throughout.

Here are different versions:

Seattle Times reports-

SEATTLE (AP) - A Delta Airlines jetliner returned and landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Saturday morning after one of its two engines went out.Airport spokesman Perry Cooper told The Associated Press the Boeing 737 was en route from Seattle to Orlando, Fla., when it left at 8:15 a.m. The plane returned to Sea-Tac at 8:47 a.m. Cooper said the plane was ascending when an indicator light went on, showing an engine was out.Cooper did not know how many passengers were on the plane. He said 737s can carry between 115 to 170 passengers.

A passenger commented:
I was on Delta 1249 on January 10, seated in 4D. We were about 20 minutes into the flight when there was a sudden bang and shudder. We were in heavy cloud cover and could not observe the horizon, but it felt like the plane was yawing. About 20 seconds later, one of the flight attendants got on the PA, indicated the captain would tell us what had happened and to remain calm. From where I sat, it seemed everyone was exceedingly calm and quiet. I looked back at the right side engine, which was turning; I could see no smoke. The captain got on about 5 minutes after the incident and informed us that we had "lost an engine" and were returning to Seattle. We were on the ground about 15 minutes later after a safe and smooth landing. The fire brigade us on the taxiway for a visual inspection of left engine. Ground crew performed a second visual check after we arrived at Gate A13 prior to moving the jetway into position, after which everyone disembarked. Delta personnel handled the situation very professionally IMO.

Another passenger commented:

I too was a passanger on Flight 1249. I was seated in 21A on the left wing. I was looking out the window as we climbed into the clouds when I heard a huge bang, the plane shuddered and a rather large ball of fire came from infront of the left engine and rolled over the wing. It was shocking! Several people around me asked if we had hit a bird. I whispered to my husband "explosion". It was oddly calm - but I was very frightened, I had just seen an explosion in the left engine of the plane in mid-air...that is not supposed to happen! The pilot did an fantastic job of getting the plane turned around and landed with out any issue. Seeing all the emergency vehicles, we realized how serious this was. We were very lucky! We had a GREAT Crew that kept us calm, and an AMAZING Pilot that made a potentially critical situation appear like he does it every day! Thank you to the Pilot and Crew of Delta Flight 1249 for getting us home safely!

Yet another passenger commented:

I was a passenger on this flight and it had a stop in Cincinnati, it was not a straight thru flight to Orlando. I sat just behind the left wing and saw the engine explosion. It wasn't just a engine light going off in the cockpit, believe me. The explosion rocked the plane and there was a large flash of red light. We did decend for some time just after the explosion. I thank the pilot for getting us to the ground after this very scary experience. Delta did make arrangements for everyone onboard for another flight but I have to say, I was surprised and a little disappointed at the lack of apology and compensation. I felt like it was treated as if it was just another "mechanical problem". From where I was sitting, it was pretty major and I didn't want to get on another plane that day or have to ask twice for a hotel voucher, or not get offered a meal voucher to hold me over until my flight the next day.

All in all we enjoyed our trip to Ohio and we are glad we went. We trully treasured our time spend on this trip with the grandparents and Willwerth family.

4 generations

Genevieve and Uncle Tim

GG (Great Grandmother) and Genevieve

Genevieve and Grandma Jean

Genevieve and the boys

The Willwerth Family

Chad, Tim and their cousin Janyne.

Genevieve and Grandpa Tom.

Gen hanging out at the hotel.

GG and G

Great Grandfather and Gen.

Gen enjoyed playing in the empty sit in our row on the way home.

We didn't want to use the flash and bother others so this was taken with night vision.

Oh and Genevieve is sitting up very well at this stage, she lifts her arms to be picked up and she has two teeth coming in!