Just updating

Per the request of a few people... I am updating the blog with some new pictures and info:

First off, I absolutely love this picture taken of me and sweet baby girl Sunday before church at Grannie Betty's...

Lauren's tests came back fine. However, after bragging to the dr. about how well she was doing, we have hit another rough patch. It was a very sudden change, all last week she slept all night several times, and was a much happier baby. Call it 'New Mom' syndrome, but I am taking her back to the dr. this afternoon to have her ears checked, just to make sure it isn't an ear ache. Starting friday night, she has gotten extremely fussy and won't hardly sleep. We thought maybe she was teething, and I'm sure she is, but now her reflux is bad again. And on top of that she has been running a low-grade fever. She absolutely cannot sleep longer than two hours, myabe three at the most. And during the day she's getting maybe 30-an hour at a time. It makes for a long day.

Second, tonight we are going to Hobart to get her picture taken with Santa Claus, and do some Christmas activities with our healthy families case manager. Every year they host some kind of holiday party. This year it is at the public library.

Tomorrow night is something I am definitely looking forward to. It is Levi's company christmas party at the Flying W Guest Ranch... http://www.flyingwonline.com/ A friend from church is keeping Lauren, so I am really excited that we will have a real date for the first time in so long.

Spending some quality time with her two favorite boys... and in the below picture you can see jsut how cute her dress, tights, and mary jane shoes were. She definitely got a lot of attention at church, all the little ladies just cooooed and aweeeed over her. Also I took a picture with her Grannie, we don't have very many yet...

Other than that... I'll leave everyone with a video of Lauren trying her best to roll over. I was wrapping some gifts on teh florr beside her, and noticed that she was trying to roll from her back to her stomach. By the time I got the camera out to take some video, she was starting to get mad... I was too afraid to put her back on her back for fear of her giving up. So this is what I got. She is very upset, and can't figure out how her arm is blocking her.... enjoy!

Sweet Baby Lauren

I finally got the pictures back from Lauren's two-month shoot.

<--- This has to be my most favorite picture from the shoot. It truly captured her expression, she is always 'talking' to us with this face. The shoot worked out so good, the people who were after us didn't show up, and so we kept shooting in their time slot.

When we were done, the photographer asked me to sign a release so they could use some of her pictures for advertising if the chose to.














And oh my gosh, I fall in love more and more everyday with our baby girl. And I know a big, 6'4" mans-man, who does too. Our hearts are completely wrapped up in her. She's getting more and more fun everyday.

I got some more video, I will post later, of her attempting to roll from her back to her stomach. Only she can't figure out her arm that is blocking her accomplishment, and she gets very mad.

She is growing up so fast... I pulled out a newborn diaper last night, and Levi and I were in disbelief that she once wore that tiny size...





Because I left our rings at the house the first time we took pictures. I definitely remembered them this time. The feet with the ring picture reminds me so much of what our love has accomplished... Our beautiful baby girl.

I also have some wonderful video of Hunter and Lauren laying in the floor together watching t.v. I have asked dear 'ol Santa to bring me a digital video recorder so I can quit using my crappy digital camera. Don't get me wrong, it's great to have, but the video quality isn't that good, and I now have to buy a program to convert those files in order to put them on a dvd.

Lauren's appointment got cancelled Monday due to our icy roads. We stayed in... but it is re-scheduled for Friday. The dr. hasn't called us, so I'm sure if it was something too important he would have already called. No news is good news.

Other than that, not much else to report. Life is good here. Lauren has continued to sleep through the night a couple of times. Last night was not so good, but not terrible either. Things seem to be going good with daycare. Lauren is a happy baby and gets alot of attention there.

Below is a video of Lauren and Levi playing...

Well, We hope everyone is doing good, and staying safe during the weather and the holidays!!!

We send out our love to you all!

Levi, Shannon, Hunter & Lauren

Oh happy day!!!

So I may be going out on a limb and jinxing myself here... But miss Lauren actually slept the whole night last night!!!

This is my victory dance time!!!!!

We did our whole night time routine; bath, playtime, and finally a bottle with oatmeal as usual. But she went down kinda early, it wasn't quite 9 and she didn't drink her normal 3-4 oz's. She only drank about 2 and I just knew she would wake up anytime and be ready for round two. Most nights we have to put her back down 2 or 3 times.

Finally I gave up at 11, and went to bed myself... I woke up several times wondering if the monitor was broke, and I just couldn't hear her... Oh, for those that don't know, she sleeps in her own crib the first part of the night, and then I nurse her in our bed to go back to sleep...

Dixie let me know at 3, that she needed out, so I got up, let her out, and checked on Lauren. Still sound asleep, but she had moved her head... hmmmmm... I let dixie in, and back to bed we went.

5 came, and my alarm went off, and I realized, she still hadn't woke up. I went back to her room and checked; still asleep. So I went back to bed myself, feeling quite tired, and slept another hour. Then she woke up, I nursed her back to sleep, and I got ready for work.

I still can't believe it!!!

Lauren is so ahead of her time... she has already rolled over twice, from her stomach to her back/side. She can sit up pretty good in our hands. She has wonderful head and neck control. She likes to use her legs alot to 'stand' in our hands. And now she has slept her first night through...

I am so proud!!!

She has a dr. appointment monday to follow up with the tests... I am anxious to see if anything was discovered.

Other than that, not much is going on here. I thought I would share the picture of her and Hunter from our first JC Penney's shoot. I hope everyone is doing good!

Well, the tests today went quite well... better than I expected. First thing at 9 this morning was the pyloric stenosis test: Pyloric stenosis is a narrowing of the pylorus, the lower part of the stomach through which food and other stomach contents pass to enter the small intestine. When an infant has pyloric stenosis, the muscles in the pylorus have become enlarged to the point where food is prevented from emptying out of the stomach. She was not allowed any food three hours before the test, so she hadn't ate anything since 5:30 this morning. After the test, the informed me that she could only eat about two, maybe three ounces, and then nothing again until 1 p.m....

So we ventured to Rebecca's house of Coffee, I got a carmel vanilla cappuccino, and her a bottle, and we sat there for a while. After she ate a few ounces, we ventured off to finish the rest of our christmas shopping. Yes, I said the rest... other than Hunter, we are officially done.

We did some shopping, called Levi, met him for lunch, and that's when I thought it all was going to break loose with Lauren. She started fussing, then crying, so I propped her up in the cradle of my leg crossed, and gave her a pacifier. Lo and behold, she actually stayed pretty calm, and I was able to eat one handed.

We left there, and went on to wal-mart and she fell asleep, which was perfect because we only had 30 minutes to go. Finally we made it back to the hospital for the last test... delayed gastric emptying. Gastric Emptying Study: The baby is required to ingest a small amount of radioactive material which is followed by a special machine as it empties out of the stomach. This test will determine the length of time it takes the material to move from the stomach..

Basically to see how long it takes her stomach to empty it's contents. They place her up on a, for a lack of a better word, a platform that is about 2.5x2.5 feet. They put some of the radioactive substance in her bottle, and while she eats, the machine immediately begins to take pictures. All you see is a small white dot on a black screen that represents the radioactive material in her stomach. Over a period of 2 hours, the machine continually takes pictures, and gives a percentage of how much fluid has left her stomach. Ideally they want 50% gone after one hour. At one hour she was 44%, so nothing too drastic or slow...

Oh, and for those wondering, the radioactive material is very safe, in fact it's supposed to be better than if they had used the x-ray machine for that many times.

So I'm pretty sure she just has GERD, Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease... I'm anxious to talk to the dr. and see what the next step is.

I have a lot of people ask me what are her symptoms, why am I so worried... So I thought I would make this post very informative... Below are 23 of the symptoms listed for GERD, Lauren has at least 12 of those that I know of (I marked them with a red *) ... and just like with adults, if you don't treat this, it can cause damage.

Some symptoms of reflux or GERD include:

• constant or sudden crying or colic like symptoms *
  
• irritability and pain *
  
• poor sleep habits typically with frequent waking *
  
• arching their necks and back during or after eating * (this is most likely because the milk burns as it travels down the esophagus)
  
• spitting-up or vomiting *
  
• wet burp or frequent hiccups *
  
• frequent ear infections or sinus congestion
  
• refusing food or accepting only a few bites despite being hungry or the exact opposite requiring constant small meals or liquid *
  
• food/oral aversions
  
• anemia
  
• excessive drooling *
  
• running nose, sinus infections *
  
• swallowing problems, gagging, choking *
  
• chronic hoarse voice
  
• frequent red, sore throat without infection present
  
• apnea
  
• chronic ear infections
  
• respiratory problems—pneumonia, bronchitis, wheezing, asthma, night-time cough, aspiration *
  
• gagging themselves with their fingers or fist (sign of esophagitis) *
  
• poor weight gain, weight loss, failure to thrive
  
• erosion of dental enamel
  
• neck arching (Sandifer's Syndrome)
  
• bad breath

If anyone is interested, there is many websites that are informative to the disease, one I used to get the above information is http://www.infantrefluxdisease.com/gerd-overview.php

Well, I will leave you now this this horribly lengthy post, and get ready for bed.

Hope everyone is doing great!

Shannon

Santa Claus

Every year our small town does an "Old Fashion Christmas" night. The festivities starts at 5 with cheap hot cocoa at the stores, Santa Claus at the library, and a huge drawing on the street. They started giving everyone tickets everytime you made a purchase in town over the last couple of weeks. Then at 7 they started drawing tickets... lauren won two hotwheels (that will go to bubba), a $10 gift certificate to our local cafe, and a coffee mug. Then I won a free dinner basket at the other local cafe, and a plier tool set.

Well, I have to take Lauren to the hospital monday morning to have some tests ran on her stomach. one will check to see if her opening from her stomach to her large intestine is working properly, and the other will see how long it takes for her stomach to empty the contents. If these test come back normal, then we will move on to see what else we can do. Thursday night was another horrible night of spitting up and sever tummy problems. Then Friday morning, she only ate an ounce all morning. So we know something it hurting at times. This weekend has been better. I have given her formula during the day, and only nursed at night. Since doing that, she has been a happier baby, but still has had some moments.

Well, better wrap it up for now. I hope everyone is doing fine.