Once Upon the Myers

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Family Reunion 2011

This summer was the Baucom family reunion. My Aunt Martha and Aunt Anita planned it in McQueeny, TX (outside of San Antonio). We had a house on the lake and each night we had a theme and activities. It was a lot of fun and Addi and I had a great time. Scott couldn't make it since he had taken off the week before to vacation in SC. There were 27 of us and we had a few visitors (my friend Emma, Annie's bf Trevor, and Ricky's gf Melanie).

When we arrived Hawaiian night had just begun. We enjoyed a Polynesian style BBQ and macaroni and potato salad. Addi surprised me by running around and visiting with everyone from the start. The next day the group went tubing down the Guadalupe River. Addi and I passed on this excursion and just relaxed at the house for some mommy-daughter time. That night we had Mexican food and decorations. Later that evening we had a family talent show (turned out great!) and the kids hit a pinata. We spent the next day at Sea World. We rode the roller coasters (twice!), visited several exhibits, saw Shamu, and hung out with Sesame Street characters. Addi took her picture with several of them (Telly, Rosita, Grover, Cookie Monster, and Zoe - Elmo didn't stay for pictures). She sat mesmerized when they came on stage. Afterward she wanted to go say hello and take pictures with them. She really enjoyed all of the fish, Shamu, and the dolphins as well. I really want to go to the Sea World here in Orlando now. The next day we went to the zoo, had a picnic lunch, and then to downtown for a riverwalk tour. Addi loved the zoo and feeding the birds. She fell asleep on the boat and slept through shopping downtown. That night the adults (Michelle, Charles, and I were included in this!?!?!?) went to New Braunfels to the Historic Greune District to the Gristmill River Restaurant. The food was amazing! We came home and played games. The next day we relaxed at the lake. Michelle and Charles had to leave :( and that evening Emma came and visited from Austin. Thank you so much Emma - it really meant a lot that you drove all that way to see us! Emma and I hung out on the balcony catching up and enjoying the breeze and view of the lake. After Emma left we played more games. It was oldies night. A large portion of our group left on Saturday. Those of us left (excluding Dad and Addi - they wanted to stay and swim) headed back to Greune for Market Days. I bought a handful of gifts for people (including a few Christmas gifts - all handmade), and we walked around all of the vendors. We came home and swam and then got ready for church. We went out for Mexican food on our way home. We headed back the next day and had a teary departure. Addison traveled well on all of the flights. On the way home we had to switch flights because our flight was delayed and we would have missed our connection. So we had to say goodbye to mom and dad earlier than expected. On a positive note, we were upgraded to first class and had so much room! We enjoyed it greatly as we were given lots of drinks and snacks. Addi even got bananas and cheesy sun chips. It was a wonderful vacation and it was nice to experience both the city and the "country" within Texas. Although the temperatures were in the 100s everyday, it didn't seem that bad most days because of the breeze. I was grateful to have so much help with Addi, and I know she enjoyed being around everyone. Once again it makes me homesick. She was a complete angel during the entire trip. Of course she is a sweetheart most of the time so this wasn't a surprise. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Charles watching the pinata "show"

Swimming in Lake McQueeny

The Family

Meeting Cookie Monster at SeaWorld

Grover!

Look fish!

Checking out Shamu.

The baby whale and big whale waving to us.

Baby Shamu

Zoe! Addi wanted to go back and see her again and again!

Hippo at the San Antonio Zoo

Asleep at the Riverwalk

Aunt Anita's birthday present to Addi - so adorable!

Holiday in SC

We had a wonderful vacation in SC. We spent the week at Scott's family's condo on the lake near our parents' homes. We had Mom and Dad's pontoon boat and a nice pool located in front of the condo. Most days we went out on the boat in the morning and after nap time we went to the pool. We spent the week with Derrick, Elise, Sally, and Ella Russell since they rented a condo right down from us. Friends and family visited all week and Addi had slumber parties with both sets of grandparents giving us a couple of free nights. Addi was of course shy at first and cautious of the water. However, by the end of the week she wanted to "jump" in the water and enjoyed playing in both the pool and lake. Every time we leave home I am homesick and miss everyone so much. I didn't take very many pictures :( but here are a few that I did take. Special thanks to everyone who visited us and to everyone who helped make it such a relaxing and nice vacation.

Driving the boat with Daddy.

Elise and Addi playing.

Elise showing off her swim skills - I swear she is a fish!

Playing in the pool

The birthday cookie cake that Ashley brought for Addi - she is such a sweetie!

Riding in the boat - this life jacket is the only one we can find in her size.

View from our balcony.

Swimming in the lake with Uncle D, Elise (not pictured), and Sitti.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Road to Recovery

Addison's recovery from surgery was much harder than any of us expected. It didn't help that we were told it would be quick - a couple of days max and that most of the other people I talked to said their children's recovery was quick. Goes to show that all people are different and heal differently even if the surgery went well.

The day of the surgery - Wednesday she did well. She ate some of her dinner and went to bed fine. The next morning she played and was having fun. Then sometime later that morning she started whimpering and crying. When I asked her why she said, poop. So I asked her if she was trying to poop and it hurt. She said yes. One of the side effects from the lortab was constipation. So we tried multiple things but at that point she refused to eat or drink anything else and what we tried didn't work. She wouldn't eat Popsicles, ice cream, fruit - you name it we tried it. By the next morning when we talked to the nurse at the ENT about her really bad congestion and her constipation they told us to try a stool softener or a glycerin suppository. They said to force her to drink and use a syringe to shoot liquids down her throat and to only give her the loratab as needed. She didn't seem to need it so we didn't give it to her. The suppository worked but when she woke up from her nap she had a 102.7 fever and still had a lot of gunk coming out of her nose. This was well over 48 hours from the surgery that they told us to watch for. She was inconsolable during this time. So like we were told, we called again. They said to give her the loratab every 4 hours through Saturday and Sunday if needed and to get fluids in her. If we needed we could rotate the loratab and mortin to get the fever down. She wasn't sleeping well at this point either. We were told that she shouldn't have a fever or the gunk coming out of her nose at this point, and she did. I asked about switching her antibiotics since she has been on amoxil a bunch and in the past they have needed to switch but they said no and to ride it out. We kept getting conflicting information as well so it was hard. If they would have just told us that we might expect this, I would have been happier. Instead they said if *this* happens its not a good thing and call right away! Saturday she was the same and the fever seemed slightly less as long as there wasn't any lapse in the medicine. She was cranky as expected and her stomach was still upset. Sunday was a turning point. She had a low grade fever only and was able to poop on her own. We gave her Tylenol instead of lortab after the morning. She ate a little bit more and was up to a half of a cup of milk and a little water so progress. Monday morning she was much better. She ate an actual meal and had 3/4th cup of milk and some water. She didn't need any Tylenol although she still had a low grade fever. She slept until normal time Tuesday morning without waking. It was a hard time for all of us. She was hurting and had a fever and we didn't know what to do. My friend (ENT in KY) told me that kids can have low grade fevers several days after surgery and that was okay so I was relieved at this. Once again, I wish they would have told us this after the surgery.

Once we got to SC (Thursday the 2nd), Addi didn't really have an appetite. She travelled well and didn't fuss. The next couple of days she didn't eat and was fussy and clingy at times. We figured it was because she was around a lot of people she doesn't see often. She can be shy in large groups. Saturday was the pool party at the condo (pictures and posts to come). Sunday night she was up all night. Finally, at 4am I realized that her scab had fallen off and she was in the final stages of recovery. She didn't sleep but a few hours that night and had smelly breath again. It also explained her clingy behavior and her lack of appetite. The next day she was back to normal. So it took a total of two weeks for her to heal completely.

We had a great lake vacation and once I get back to FL I will post pictures (which I didn't take enough of! - I don't have my camera cord otherwise I would go ahead and post some now) and details. We miss our family and friends so much already and had so much fun with everyone. Scott is back in FL, and Addi and I leave in the morning for a trip with my family.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Update on Adenoid and Tube Surgery

So far everything has gone really well. The surgery went great and it all took less time than we were told, which is always nice.

The morning in a nutshell...(a really big one)

Around 6:00am we woke Addi up and changed her diaper so we could get to the hospital by 6:30am. She didn't fuss, but looked very confused as to where we were going so early. Of course we barely made it in time but were there by 6:30 nonetheless. We were taken straight to the surgery center "interview rooms" and they got her vitals, had us sign a bunch of paperwork, and took payment for their chunk of the bill. Thank God we have health insurance! After that we headed over to our room and put Addison in her hospital gown. She was doing well but started getting cranky because she wanted something to eat or drink. We talked to the doctor, several nurses, and the anesthesiologist about everything. Once we answered a million of the same questions we were allowed to walk around a bit. We gave her a little present I had picked up last night, and she played with that until they came by. They gave her some Tylenol with a drying agent (no clue what that is for) and explained the procedure again and what we would expect.

Around 8am we took her to the operating room doors and one of the nurses took her from there. She didn't want her bear, but really wanted to wear a bib she had found in the diaper bag. I guess she thought they were going to feed her. She didn't fuss when we left, surprisingly. They used a mask to put her under, then put in the IV and breathing tube. We headed back to the waiting room, expecting it to be 45minutes when it only lasted 25minutes! The doctor came out and told us that everything went really well. He said that her ears had a lot of thick fluid on them and that her adenoids were really large with swelling and infection. There was a lot of bacteria on them. Behind all of that was a lot of nasty stuff. It turns out that the adenoids are pretty much the same as the tonsils, but in a different location. Anyway, he told us that he was really glad we made the choice to take them out because of how bad they were. He also said the fluid on her ears looked worse than the last time we saw him except that there was air behind some of the fluid on one of them. I forgot to ask what this means and need to ask one of our doctor friends. She just finished a round of antibiotics just over a week ago for an ear infection so having all the gunk still there or formed again stinks. He also said that because of the amount of swelling/infection on the adenoids she would probably be in more pain than usual. So he prescribed loratab instead of Tylenol. She only needs that for a couple of days though. After that she shouldn't need any pain meds. She also has drops for her ears and an antibiotic. He said she would probably snore for a few days but it would go away once the area scabbed over. He removed the adenoids and cauterized the incision (?) so there aren't any stitches there. It will be raw for a couple of days then it will scab over. Over a week or so it will heal. Then the scab will fall off and it will be a little raw again. During the raw periods she will have smelly breath. The whole process should take about 2 weeks. The tubes should be healed pretty quickly as well. This is the second set of tubes so we know what to expect more with them.

After we met with the doctor, we had to wait until they came and got one of us to be with her during recovery. Eventually they came and I went. A nurse was holding her, and she was whimpering. She wasn't really awake yet but when she heard me she called my name and started crying. I held her and we rocked. She still had an IV in her foot (they didn't take it out until we left). She fell asleep on my shoulder occasionally whimpering. When she woke up they gave her some apple juice, and we headed over to the room we were previously in. Scott joined us. She stayed cuddled on my shoulder for a while. Then she wanted Scott. We maneuvered the IV and switched places. A few minutes later she started to cry. Nothing calmed her. They gave her some pain meds and she cried for about 30-40 minutes while it kicked in. Once it kicked in she was fine. She stole Scott's granola bar and ate the entire thing while watching Sesame Street. We checked out. Then we ran to pick up her medicine and some popsicles and headed home. She had a banana, took a nap and woke up asking for some avocado and milk. We couldn't give her the milk but we had avocado on hand. These two pictures are from before the surgery - too much crankiness and hurting to get pictures after. She is in the same little gown as last time.

Tubes and Adenoid Removal today

Addi's surgery is today. We have to be at the hospital at 6:30 (the latest the informed us!) and her surgery is around 7:45. It will be about 45 minutes. She has an hour of recovery (only one of us can be in there) and then 2+ hours in the post operative room to make sure everything is okay and she can handle food. Will try to post updates and a summary of how things went tonight. The hardest part will be denying her food and milk until the surgery and having to wake her up in a couple of minutes :o) and of course when she wakes up from surgery she will be really cranky like last time I imagine. We have lots of prayers coming our way and are really grateful for that.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Go tigers!

We took Addi to the Clemson-FSU baseball game the other afternoon. It was a lot of fun! We only stayed for an hour and a half and got to see a few innings (lots of Clemson points on the board and a couple of home runs! The innings we saw were the best ones evidently!) since it was a 6pm game. We all had a great time! Addi clapped at all the right times and said "go tigers!" as well. An added bonus, we won!

We've only put Addi in time out once in the last several months. She didn't really understand it enough when we tried it before. Several weeks ago was the first time we put her in one. She hit Dylan, and we explained that we don't hit, we love and that if she did it again she would get time out. She hit Dylan again, and we put her in the corner in time out. She cried but stayed in the corner. After we talked to her and she gave Dylan hugs and gave us hugs and we all went back to our day. Fast forward a week, her and I are hanging out. She hits Dylan. I give her a warning and she walks over to the corner, stands there, and cries. I did my best not to laugh since I hadn't put her in time out, but she had put herself in time out. I told her it was okay to come out of the corner and we talked and hugged and she told Dylan "sorry." She did this the next week with Scott when she started to get into some books she knew she wasn't suppose to get into. When Marie and Ricky were here she started to do something she knew she wasn't suppose to do (I don't know exactly what it was) and she looked at Ricky and said, "time out" and put herself in the corner. He told her she didn't have to go in time-out and she came out and gave him hugs. We just try not to laugh when she puts herself in time-out, which is more than we've put her in time-out!

Addi had me in tears the other night as she insisted on reading to me. She has been "reading" pieces of books to us and reading them with us for a while now, but she pretty much read I love you, Stinky Face verbatim. It is such a sweet book that when she read it by herself, I got teary. I also got teary because it really made me realize that she is growing up so quickly. She also wanted to say her own prayers that night and has parts of her prayers memorized as well. It is precious! She did want to rock and cuddle afterward and let me read her some other books (she read 3 and I read 3) so she isn't all grown up yet. Of course she really likes to go through and only read her favorite parts on most nights and last night she wanted to read Stinky Face over and over and over but she only wanted to read the "mama, mama..." pieces. My little baby is becoming an independent little girl who also loves to be held and rocked.

Our new favorite park - Winthrop Park - nice and shaded and has small toddler equipment so we don't worry that Addi is going to fall off climbing to the slide. She has not grasped this yet...the other day she almost walked off of a 4 foot drop at a different part.

Wearing one of the dresses mom made when we were little.

I think I have it tied up too high in the back :)

Catey & Arch's Wedding!

I had the pleasure of heading down to St. Croix (US Virgin Islands) for my dear friend Catey's wedding. It was a small and intimate affair, and we all had a wonderful time. Sitting by the pool just a couple hours before the wedding...it doesn't get better than that! :)

I arrived Thursday afternoon. I was able to site-see most of Friday and we had wedding stuff on Saturday. Then I had to leave early Sunday. The resort was beautiful and the food was amazing! Everything was on "island time" so it took a while to get food...we quickly learned that if we wanted to eat we needed to show up an hour+ early at the restaurant. On Friday a few of us rented a Jeep and headed out. Our first stop were some sugar cane ruins. After that we headed up a dirt road that we were told to venture on since we had 4-wheel drive. We were very lucky we had 4-wheel drive because driving up a mountain a few inches from a cliff is a bit scary! After we drove around a bit, we ended up at the top of the mountain looking down onto our resort! It was a breathtaking view. From various points we were able to see the coast no matter which way we looked. We drove through parts of the rainforest and under rainforest canopy. After an hour or two of driving and site-seeing and getting a little lost, we stopped at the Country Snack. They are famous for their local-fruit smoothies. There is only one kind and it is amazing! Made from a long list of fruit that they had just picked. There were mango and avocado trees in the yard. We had lunch and hung out taking in everything around us. We even were able to sample some "special" spiced rum home-brew called Man-up! They sell bottles with handwritten labels. Reminds me of fruit soaked moonshine except much stronger. Within seconds I was warm from head to toe. The 1/8inch sample shot I had was enough to last me, well forever. After that we headed to Mt. Pellier Hut Domino club to see famous beer drinking pigs (non-alcoholic beer). There were two pigs. We each paid $3 to see the pigs and give them an Odouls. It was crazy! The pig takes the entire beer and crushes it in his mouth so he can get all the beer out. Then he spits the can out. In the few minutes we were there they each had 3-4 beers and were loving it! That is probably why they switched to non-alcoholic beer. There was a monument up for the original beer drinking pig. There were a couple of pigs in training as well. We didn't have time to hang out at the bar itself. It is a local hangout where people play cards and dominoes and enjoy drinks and company. After that we had to head into town to pick up flowers for the wedding and then back to the resort to get ready for the rehearsal dinner (or non-rehearsal dinner since there wasn't a rehearsal). The next morning we enjoyed breakfast on our screen porch and then hung out by the pool for an hour or so before we had to help Catey get ready for the wedding. The ceremony was at 2pm overlooking the beach. After that we went to the reception. It was a great time!