Pulse Ox

We received a new pulse oximeter for Lacy today. The previous one was a total piece of junk and it would routinely read very low causing us tons of unnecessary concern. Last night was particularly bad. I was up very late sitting in her room trying to figure out what was wrong with her... should I take her to the ER in the middle of the night?

After a long discussion with another RT (thanks Wendy, you ROCK!) I decided that there could be multiple things wrong and I would do what I could to fix the situation. One of the possibilities was that her pulse ox was not working. I called our home health supply company and they brought over a new machine.

Tonight was Lacy's first night with the new machine. While the old machine had a little probe that measured through her toe, this new one unfortunately measures through her finger.

We put Lacy to bed only to find that she was chewing on her finger. The chewing would cause the probe to read a low blood saturation and cause the alarm to go off. The first time it alarmed, I walked in to her room, turned on the light and asked,

Me "Did you take the probe off of your finger?"

Lacy "Nope, I was chewing on it"

Me "Don't chew on it, it might break. Go to sleep"

A few minutes later, the alarm went off again. I marched into Lacy's room (where it was pitch black) and flipped on the light to find her in bed with a book open, resting on her chest as if she was in the middle of reading it. She moved the book to one side and looked at me.

Me: "are you still chewing on it"

Lacy: "I'm reading" (remember, it was totally dark in the room)

Me: "nice try. Go to sleep. Don't chew on your finger"

Of course it beeped again only a few minutes later. So I marched into her room and told her that she was no longer allowed the privilege of wearing her monitor. She would have to take it off and give it to me!

Stinker.

PS: I solved the problem with the vent, pulse ox, her heart rate and low saturation all in one day. I needed a good day!

Coronado Island

It was a blast. It was a great opportunity to get the heck out of Yucaipa!

This is certainly a far cry from some sub-acute children's facility! What a lucky girl!!! Isn't the Hotel Del beautiful? We were so lucky to get to go again. We hope to do a longer trip later this summer. This time our room had a jacuzzi tub in it! Too cool! Thanks for the hook-up Grams!

Decided Where To Go...

Off to Coronado Island for two days. We are running around trying to get things together. Actually, Randy is. I'm blogging. Lacy is just annoying.

Me: Lacy, pick ONE stuffed animal to take with you...

Lacy: I want a cow!

Me: Lacy, you don't own a cow. Pick something else.

Lacy: A TIGER!!!

Me: Let me restate this for you... go into your room and pick one of the stuffed animals to take with you.

as to be expected she comes out with the LARGEST stuffed animal she owns! AHHHRRRGHGHGH!

Regression

My three-and-a-half year old is back in diapers. Why do I feel like I did something wrong? I am frustrated with her, I am frustrated with the whole situation. Logically, I get it. Lacy has been through some terrible things in her life. She was never give the opportunity to bond with parents. Basically, she raised herself for the first three years. I know that some people at her "institution" would try to disagree with me, but seriously she didn't know who she was waking up to every single morning. In the end, there was not one single consistent caregiver that she could bond with in a significant way. As a result, there are a few kinks in her system. Regression is certainly one part of it. She has returned to some of the old behaviors that she did when she first came to live with us. I know I just need to keep on with keepin' on, but sometimes I just want to go bury my head in the sand and call it a week. Randy and I are going to see if we can do something out of the house this weekend. Maybe a change of scenery will do us some good. I will let you know. Hopefully I can get Randy to take Lacy to do something for a while and I can find inspiration for my novel.

Happy Three-and-One-Hundered Birthday!

Today was my dad's 60th birthday. His birthday wish was to go to the LA zoo with Lacy and then go out to lunch in downtown Los Angeles at a restaurant he took my mom to on their first date.

We started our day early at the Zoo.

Lacy and her Grampy had lots to talk about.

Lacy loves her Grammy!
And her Grampy...


and stopping to smell the flowers...

making new friends!


watching the giraffes

Funny how in a zoo full of animals, Lacy finds the statue as a major amusement factor!
She gave the statue a little encouragement!
And a hug...Danced with him... and did what my hospital would refer to as "respiratory assist time"

Lacy loved to jump up on the park benches and burst into song and dance.
But soon she started to get a little sleepy...


'till we found a pig! (Lacy wanted to get Grampy a pig for his birthday)
hoppin' a ride with GrammyFinally we eat at Philippe's Restaurant! Yum!
Grammy helped Lacy with her custard.

Happy birthday, dad! Thanks for taking us to the zoo and for lunch! We love you!!

IHOP

Please excuse my lack of posts over the weekend, it was my weekend to work and I was just too exhausted to blog. But I suspect my little encounter at IHOP will amuse you!

Every other Sunday night, my husband and daughter stay the night at his mom's house. I work from 6 pm to 6:30 am and Randy has to be at the hospital for school at 6 am. You can see that there is a bit of a problem... what to do with Lacy. So Lacy stays with her Grams and I pick her up as soon as I get off work. This morning was no exception.

Just as we were headed home, I decided to make a stop for breakfast at the local IHOP. We were quickly seated and served our pancakes. I ate my breakfast, Lacy played. I continued to eat my breakfast, Lacy continued to play. I finished my breakfast and asked for the check, Lacy was still playing.

ME: Lacy, grab a bite of food, because we are leaving.

Lacy: I'm not finished eating yet.

Me: Too bad for you. Next time, may I suggest a little less playing and a little more eating. So take whatever bite you can, we are leaving the rest here.

At this point I had no idea that I was about to encounter a stand off with my three year old child.

As the waitress walked by, Lacy turned to her and said, "I need a box". For a second I was totally stunned. My three year old knows how to take her food home? Then I realized she was looking right at me with that "I win, I beat you" look. She was staring me down!!! This was not a battle I was about to lose, NO SIR! I went eye to eye with her and said, "No box". Neither of us flinched. She squinted her eyes and lowered her brow. I held strong. After what seemed like forever (about two minutes) she gave in, "Hrmumph" she said, "Oh. well, we can do it that way". To which I replied, "You are damn right, I am in charge. Not you." She didn't miss a beat and told me "You can't say damn, mom".

Of course the waitress brought a box for her (she was not allowed to take the box, but she could carry out a sausage in each hand) and as we went to leave Lacy said, "That just blew my mind".

Is this normal? Do other parents have this kind of interaction with their three year olds?

Disney's Enchanted

I bought Lacy the movie. Cute little love story. Obviously a "modern" fairytale, but I digress. Lacy has now watched this movie a total of TWO times. Of the two times, she has managed to glean one lovely catch phrase from the movie...

"You Little Tramp"

-Evil Witch

Dave Ramsey

So I have been reading about this guy, Dave Ramsey. He's all about financial freedom by living below your means! (Imagine that!) I just had to post one of his quotes, here a caller was asking about her debt and what to do, she also thinks she is a manic spender...

"Manic spending is a psychological disorder. Buying a bunch of crap that you can't afford isn't. If you legitimately think you're bipolar, see a counselor. It sounds to me like you're just being immature. Don't blame that on being manic. You need to cut your lifestyle. Cut your lifestyle to the bone, to the point that people are making fun of you. You're spending 4 times the national family average and still going into debt! You desperately need to learn to live on less than you make!"

I love blunt people. Mostly because I am too oblivious to catch subtle undertones. I think I might buy his book and check it out!

At the hospital

They called us at 6pm to tell us to be at the hospital by 7. We arrived with all of Lacy's stuff, and for a moment she refused to get out of the car. She did NOT want to get poked! No needles for her. When we finally made it up to the PICU, we had to wait for another patient to get discharged so we could have the room. Obviously Lacy made herself at home.
Lacy was pretty excited about her new gown. But she still insisted that she was not going to allow any needles near her.The IV nurse showed up and Lacy turned into Satan. She growled, hissed, screamed, kicked. Randy was the one who had to hold her down. Lacy wanted none of it.
In the end, she got a new toy and an IV line in her arm. Throughout the night the respiratory therapist had to poke her over and over to get blood samples. Lacy was not too keen on this practice and he really wasn't that good at doing it either. At one point he turned to me and asked if I wanted to draw the blood. I went for it, (not exactly sure what their hospital policy is on that little maneuver) and Lacy woke up immediately and kicked me in the head. Nice.

I am super exhausted so Randy is going to go over for a while and let me take a nap. I have to work tonight.

Hospital Time

UPDATE #1: Another critical patient came in and Lacy was bumped from that bed. Might go later today.

*************************************

We are due to arrive at the hospital at 3:30 this afternoon. Please pray that Lacy doesn't injure anyone when they put the line into her arm. She is going to go nuts!

We will let you know how it all goes!

Feeling Hot, Hot Hot

We took her Royal Highness to Disneyland yesterday! White gloves and all! She's all shiny from a fresh coat of sunblock!

She quickly set out to find a Prince Charming...

Success!! We met up with another set of adoptive parents who have been a tremendous help to us lately. And Lacy had no problem finding one of the cutest boy out there! They held hands the entire time we were in line and I do believe that he briefly proposed marriage. Too cute!

This was the funniest thing ever. We stopped to get some ice cream on Main Street, and Lacy and I decided to share the some rainbow sherbet... as we walked along, a white glove would pop out holding an empty spoon and immediately her (wonderful) mother would run alongside and scoop another bite of ice cream and give it back. It's hard to see the spoon in this pic, but look real close. Yes, she is the queen of the universe!

Grams joined us for the fun!

After a little while, the Princess left us and Lacy reappeared.

Busted...

As you may recall I was pathetically close to buying my daughter a mega bounce house the other day. What I did not blog about was the fact that, as I often do, I called one my dearest friends to ask her if this was a good idea...

Me: (standing in the mega-bounce-house isle while on my cell phone) "Hey! Tell me, is buying a Mega Bounce House too indulgent?"

Super Dear Friend: "Yes. Seriously! Besides, that just wouldn't be fiscally responsible"

Me: "Yeah, but it's awesome, and it would make Lacy sooo happy"

SDF: "No. Bad idea. Don't waste your money"

Now, I'm not saying I was peeking over her fence this weekend or anything... but look what magically appeared IN HER BACK YARD!!!!

You can find all of the details on her new blog and send any comments HERE!

Welcome to the world of blogging, Sabrina!

This is how I'm supposed to start my day?

Up at 7 am this morning (got to sleep in!!!) and I found myself looking like this! Seriously? Is this a cruel joke? Do you realize what it's going to take to fix this???

For Lacy, today is just another day at the office, I suppose!

Camping... sort of

I set up Lacy's six foot giraffe tent in the back yard for her to play in today. She was pretty happy. I let her have a picnic as well using her camping stuff. Our poor backyard is so pathetic. We can't wait to move!

The Depository

One of the many struggles that kids with CCHS deal with is GI issues. Lacy is chronically constipated and, forgive my frankness, often craps like a college frat boy. Her stool is truly awe inspiring. Sometimes I am utterly amazed that she is able to get something that large out of a bottom so small.

All day long she seemed to be struggling with the whole thing. Randy told me that she had spent nearly 30 minutes trying to get things moving to no avail. Tonight she was, again, giving it her all. I asked her if she needed some help, and she said yes. Poor thing had no idea that a suppository was what she was gettin'. I had her bend over and try to spit on her toes (it was the best I could do for distraction at the moment). Of course she thought this was a grand idea because she is not usually allowed to spit! So while she was trying to spit on her toes, I found the little suppository a new home. She screamed. "OUCH!!! What was that, it huuuurt." I played dumb, "What are you talking about? What happened?" She wasn't buying my line so I 'fessed up. "That was a suppository, Lace. It helps you get the poop out". Like I said, it did.

Later on, right before bedtime I told her to go in the bathroom and try to see if anything would come out. By then I had forgotten all about the poop incident and just didn't want her to wet the bed. Lacy told me that she didn't have to. I insisted that she try. She looked at me right in the face, hands on her hips, eyes squinted in total suspicion and asked me point-blank, "Are you giving me another depository?"

BeenUp2

I've started another internet thing. It's called BeenUp2. It's kind of neat, but it also makes me feel old. Much like Facebook, it just confuses me most of the time. I don't quite understand how to do it yet... anyhow, it's a blog of pictures from my cell phone. I can take a pic and send it from my phone to this site and it posts it. Just another way to follow what I am doing... here is the link the pictures are on the far right side of the page. I will try to send more interesting things!

A Disney Prayer

A few nights ago when we all sat down for dinner, Lacy insisted that we all pray. (I call her my Little Pentecostal... which is really funny because Randy is totally Baptist and they like to practice a nice quiet faith.) So Lacy insisted that we all hold hands and she would pray over our dinner. Lacy bowed her head, solemnly closed her eyes and began:

"Dear Jesus... once upon a time there was a scary witch in a big castle. Amen. Hallelujah. I feel the Holy Spirit" (I taught her that last part and it cracks me up every time!)

It was everything I could do not to laugh out loud. I had to step away and call my mom! Evidently Lacy has chosen to practice a Disney-based faith right now. Too funny!

Spring Photos...

Do I really need to say anything about these? Of course they are already framed and on the wall!

The package came with a 10x14... what am I supposed to do with something that size? Seriously, it's HUGE!