Poor Little Monkey

Even my goal of one post per week seems unattainable. In general, things are going well. On certain days we are still unbelievably busy and with the new baby so close to appearing, I tire easily. Most recently, Monkey Flower spent five days in the hospital. It was heartbreaking because though the hospital has a policy that one family member must be present at all times, in my condition I was only able to make short visits during the day. My absence put an extra strain on the rest of the family and poor husband stayed three consecutive nights dealing with a sleepless baby!

Monkey Flower was in the hospital due to elevated calcium levels in her blood, hypercalcemia. This condition is not unusual to kids with Williams syndrome. The experience taught us a lesson about the importance of being proactive in regards to the well-being of our children. I had been concerned over her calcium levels since mid-May because she started experiencing serious constipation (symptom of hypercalcemia) but the doctor brushed off my concerns because she had just had her urine calcium checked two weeks prior. After three months of unrelenting constipation, it was time to INSIST on a new blood test that caused the doctor to admit her to the hospital the same day. I am very glad that we forced the issue and very glad that the doctor appreciated our insistence. For now, it seems like there was no permanent damage, but if left undiagnosed, the high calcium could have had serious consequences.

Poor Little Monkey

Even my goal of one post per week seems unattainable. In general, things are going well. On certain days we are still unbelievably busy and with the new baby so close to appearing, I tire easily. Most recently, Monkey Flower spent five days in the hospital. It was heartbreaking because though the hospital has a policy that one family member must be present at all times, in my condition I was only able to make short visits during the day. My absence put an extra strain on the rest of the family and poor husband stayed three consecutive nights dealing with a sleepless baby!

Monkey Flower was in the hospital due to elevated calcium levels in her blood, hypercalcemia. This condition is not unusual to kids with Williams syndrome. The experience taught us a lesson about the importance of being proactive in regards to the well-being of our children. I had been concerned over her calcium levels since mid-May because she started experiencing serious constipation (symptom of hypercalcemia) but the doctor brushed off my concerns because she had just had her urine calcium checked two weeks prior. After three months of unrelenting constipation, it was time to INSIST on a new blood test that caused the doctor to admit her to the hospital the same day. I am very glad that we forced the issue and very glad that the doctor appreciated our insistence. For now, it seems like there was no permanent damage, but if left undiagnosed, the high calcium could have had serious consequences.

Welcome Home

It has been about a month since my last post! My how time flies. We returned home last week and I still haven’t even started going through all of the information we received about Williams syndrome and Monkey Flower’s condition during our trip. It was a wonderful trip but extremely tiring. If we had stayed one extra day I think we wouldn’t have had the energy to return home. Most of the time Monkey Flower was very well behaved but she wasn’t on a routine and that disturbed her eating and sleeping. Now she is back to her daily routine and slowly getting use to going back to the nursery. Returning to nursery was tough. Normally, she loves nursery but everyday this week she cried when I dropped her off with the teachers.

There isn’t too much exciting going on around here. Monkey Flower is certainly learning a lot of tricks though. This month has been a boom as far as learning goes. She now knows and understands bye bye, can put objects inside a box, can play with a toy car appropriately, will try to feed her father, and is trying to work the stacking ring set. We are so proud of her!

Vacation?

We are still busy busy busy. It sounds bizarre, but I really hope to have a little more free time during my maternity leave. I hope for at least enough time to catch up on overdue correspondences. In the meantime, please have patience. We are still overwhelmed with appointments and next week we leave for ‘vacation.’ We will take Monkey Flower to see some specialists and then spend the rest of the time attending the Williams syndrome national convention. For a long time I was very excited about attending the convention but now I am feeling very apprehensive that we will learn our little girl is much more delayed than we currently believe. Or worse yet, that we are not providing the best services/therapies for her development.

I had the unusual experience of shopping for a toy last week. I was quite happily looking at toys when I realized that the other parents were carrying very young babies. The toy I chose was labeled for six month olds and yet I knew it would be extremely challenging for my daughter. I don’t normally have to compare Monkey Flower’s abilities with other kids her age and then something like this just hits me in the face.

Quick Update

One more post! Every time I post from now is a major achievement. We have been too busy this month. For the past week we have had appointments everyday. Our Saturday appointment was canceled because husband was sick and Monkey Flower was given to the grandparents for the weekend. That small break was a huge help to our sanity. We even postponed today’s appointment! I think going full steam for so long had just pushed us too far. Despite the fact that both husband and I can get time away from our jobs, our workload stays the same and that work must be completed, usually within the same timeframe.

The photo is part of my weekend breakfast. I woke up famished and decided to make a cheese and fruit platter. In addition, I fried an egg in my cast iron skillet and made some thin pancakes (not shown). It was a great way to start the day.

Finally

I was chastised by a friend for not writing so I thought I would at least try to keep up with the blog. Needless to say things are busy and I am either too busy or too tired to put forth much energy these days. In fact, these two sock creatures are my only crafty work this year! The creatures are Claude and Wronky from the book Stupid Sock Creatures. I greatly enjoyed making these creatures and hope to make a teddy bear soon. I am still working on my first Dalarna sock – yep, that sock I start in December 2007!

Over the weekend, we took Monkey Flower to the toy store to find a doll. We didn’t find one we liked but on the way home she fell asleep in the car. We drove around town for an hour while I clipped her fingernails and toenails. Finally, we came home but because she was still asleep I made sandwiches and we ate lunch outside with her still in the carseat! She slept for two hours and woke up smiling so it was worth the extra effort.

Proud Mommy

I am still sick. I even took two sick days from work! At least now, I am able to breathe a little easier but I seem to be getting a cough so the future is still grim. Monkey Flower isn’t doing much better either. She had four doctor appointments this week!

The picture above was ‘drawn’ by Monkey Flower. It was gift sent home from her nursery. I love how the nursery incorporates arts and crafts into their day but I have to wonder exactly how they were able to get a baby to color? I am not complaining, I love the picture and we plan to frame it and hang it on the wall. This is probably the first item ‘made’ by Monkey Flower that we think the teacher wasn’t almost 100% responsible for. I say that because last weekend daughter did independently scribble a few strokes before deciding it was much more fun to bang the pencil against the paper. : )

Sick Sick Sick

I‘m sick. That is all I can say.

Daughter had her ear ?cut? and drained over the weekend (same ear infection)and ended up running a fever for the rest of the day. She isn’t sleeping well because she is also getting a sinus infection again. So I wonder, did I catch my sinus infection from her? Did she catch my sinus infection? The answer is at her nursery where all of the other kids have disgusting things coming out of their noses!

I nearly forgot! We had snow. Because it seemed like a good idea at the time, we tossed Arthur in the snow to see if he would play. No, he ran back inside immediately.