Halloween photo shoot

Doing a photo shoot with a 9 month old in a costume (which includes a hat) by yourself is not easy as you can see...

What's this behind me?Ha ha!Who turned out the lights?

Not too fast are you, Mommy?

Notice me trying to push her by the head back into a sitting position?

See Ya!

Catch me if you can!

Oooo Furry!
and the winner!!!

Apple Orchard...Finally!

We had so much fun at Apple Jack Orchard in Rockford with Lisa and John! Here are some pics:

Goofiness

Sweethearts

Ohhhhh, cute family photo with tired baby

In the corn maze with sleeping Madi:

Such a tired girl Corn Maze Fun before Madeline fell asleep

This is an aerial view of the corn maze! It was fun!

Little Cheerleader

A few weekends ago both sets of Grandparents came to have lunch and watch the Vikes game. Here's our little cheerleader...

Fall 9 month Pictures

Last Saturday we hired one of our neighbors, Jessica Milkes, to do a photo shoot with Madi at the Apple Jacks Orchard. Here's the results! Great job, Jessica! We LOVE the pics!

Mother's Intuition

So Madi has been a little "off" the last few days. She hasn't been wanting to drink out of the bottle and woke up for about an hour last night. I picked her up from daycare at 3:15 for her 9 month Dr. appt. and shots and Amy (our neighbor and daycare provider) said she only slept about an hour and insisted on sleeping sitting up. She also said she didn't want to drink her bottle but would eat baby food. I figured it must be ear-related. We got to the Dr. only to find out that the appt. is next Tuesday. Grrr. I took off early on a day in which I had TONS of work to do only to find out that I wrote the day on the calendar wrong. Well I got back out to the car and pulled out of the parking lot remembering that I was going to have the Dr. check her out for an ear infection. I stopped at Aunt Bev's office (4 blocks from the clinic) and I called back to see if anyone could see her. They couldn't but said they'd put her on a waiting list. I brought her to urgent care instead. After waiting forever in the lobby with very poopy pants (Madi's, not mine)my suspicions were confirmed. She has an ear infection in her left ear. Thank goodness we found out before it traveled to both ears. Some antibiotics out of the "med vending machine" and a phone call to daddy and we were out of there! She had a little nap, her breathing treatment and some sweet potatoes, corn and apples. She just had a very exciting game of tug-of-war with the dog. We video taped it. If I knew how to upload video I would attach it but that's a lesson for another day. Let's hope she sleeps tonight so that I can get some much-needed rest as well.

Time to catch up

Sorry I haven't posted for so long. Things are going along swimmingly in our household - no more worms or hand, foot and mouth viruses. Madi has definitely changed! She is getting to be such a big girl. She's 19 lbs which is fabulous, especially since she has CF. She is much more vocal - saying lots of "ga ga gas" and "da da das". No "ma ma" yet, though. She enjoys torturing other babies by grabbing their hair, clothes, and anything else protruding. She makes scary growling noises that freaked out cousin Fredrik so much that he started bawling! She's very happy most of the time and has been off of antibiotics for about a month! Yahoo! She mastered sitting up from a lying down position over the last weekend and she seems to think she's pretty hot stuff. She has moved on from the army crawl to a weird inch worm crawl. I wish she would just figure it out, already! She also figured out how to get her hands up on the bottom stair and stand up. Yikes! Good thing we have the baby gates in place. Maggie the dog and Madeline are starting to enjoy playing tug-of-war with the dog rope. It's disgusting and germy but it's hilarious to watch Madi pull the toy away from Maggie and have Maggie pull back. I don't let her put the toy in her mouth and I wash her hands after she plays with the rope. A more difficult milestone has also arrived - stranger and seperation anxiety. She is very cautious when new people are around. She used to smile at everyone but now she really needs to check you over before awarding you with her 6 pearly whites. Oh, yeah, she's also grinding her teeth when she eats. It's enough to send shivers down my spine. I think she discovered that she has teeth on the top and bottom and likes to grind them together. Anyway, about the anxiety. She loves her Mama and wants to make sure that I am always in sight, even when Daddy is around. Last weekend I got her out of her crib in the morning and came downstairs to see Daddy and Maggie. I gave Madeline to Curt and she started screaming and reaching for me. I felt bad for Curt, but on the inside I was feeling pretty good:)

Madi had her first round of RSV vaccine last Friday. Her Pulmonologist, Dr. Phillips, set up a home care nurse to come and administer them once a month during RSV season (Oct-Apr) which is super convenient for us! No taking off of work and sitting in a germ-infested waiting room for a well child visit. Of course, Madeline hated the shots and the nurse, in my opinion, took way too long administering them. Poke-poke-Band-Aids-done is how they do it at the pediatrician but not the home care nurse. Her method was poke, open the Band-Aid, put on the Band-Aid, wash the other injection site, poke, open the 2nd Band-Aid and put on the 2nd Band-Aid. Nope - doesn't work well for babies or for the parent trying to console them and hold them down. Hopefully next time it will be a different nurse. Well, I guess I will attach some pictures since that's probably what most people check this blog for! Here are pictures of Madi playing hide and seek with the dog who is under the couch. I swear they played like this for 5 or 10 minutes! Maggie kept poking her head in and out of the flap of the couch. Madi would lift up the flap and look for her. It was so cute to see them interact.

Here's a picture of Madi playing hide and seek again. Only this time she was playing with the drapes! She would pull them over her face and the yank them off and laugh. What a cutie-pie. Maggie had fun watching her silly game...

Illness Galore!

What a weekend. Saturday we helped Katy, Peter and Fredrik move to their new house in St. Paul. I noticed Madi was pretty hot so I removed a layer of clothing and hoped that would do the trick. When we got home she was pretty hot again so I took her temp...101.5! Whoa, bad mommy! I gave her some Motrin right away and just watched her. I noticed a rash on her hands and feet but didn't think much of it. I called the nurse line and they said to call her doctor. I called Dr. Phillips, her pulmonologist, because I don't really trust the Buffalo pediatrician. They're too busy all the time and just not as educated with CF. He asked if she had a rash and I said she did. He said to keep watching her and to call him Sunday if she doesn't sleep well. Madi woke up about 3 times during the night and had a fever of 99.1. Sunday came around and all hell broke loose! Curt awoke to dog poop on our bedroom floor and on Madeline's bedroom floor. He walked downstairs to find dog poop EVERYWHERE! It was in at least 10 spots. Okay, so the dog obviously had diarrhea during the night when we were sleeping. We didn't know and she was sleeping on our bed with poop-smeared fur on her butt. Gross, we were sleeping with a poopy dog all night. An early morning trip to Cub was made to rent a steam cleaner and the dog was promptly bathed and put in her kennel with only her water dish, bedding and toys. I put all the bedding in the wash to clean any lingering poop germs. I called Dr. Phillips again and he said that since she still was feverish, had a rash, and didn't sleep well she should either go to urgent care or to bring her into the clinic on Monday. I hate the Buffalo E.R. so I opted for the latter. Monday came around and I was staying home with Madi since she wasn't feeling great. I also called the vet for the poopy dog. Turns out the dog has worms (hookworms to be exact). Gross. It is really not fun bringing a sick baby and a sick dog to the vet, by the way. Both wanted constant attention from me. I got the meds from the vet and hurried the dog home and plopped her back in her kennel as Madi waited for me in the car to go to the U of M CF Center. We saw the nurse practitioner, Carly, at the CF Center and she knew right away that what Madi has is Hand, Foot, and Mouth Virus and she's cutting an upper tooth. Click here for what the Hand, Foot, Mouth Virus is. That's what is causing the rash and fever. Okay, that's manageable. The virus is extremely contagious so she has to stay home until it is cleared up. It's a virus so it's not treatable by antibiotics. She feels okay now and is off and on with a low fever. I was home with her yesterday and Curt and Bethany are taking care of her today. Hopefully no more rashy spots show up today so she can go back to daycare. Oh, and the dog is still pooping all the time so she is spending all her time kenneled or outside on the rope. It has been an exhausting couple of days to say the least.

Good News

I received a message from the Nurse Practitioner at the U of M CF Center today. Madi's mucus culture that they took last Friday at her 2 month appt. grew normal "flora." In other words, she has no infections in her lungs at this time! Hooray! I guess the cough she has is related to an upper respiratory infection (head cold) and not something in her chest. Phew. I am searching several online support groups to find the right one. The regular Yahoo CF support group is too much of an announcement bulletin board and the CF parents support group is too scary. There's a lot of posts about older kids having problems and surgeries that I don't want to think about for Madeline right now. I emailed someone on that group and she said there's a Yahoo CF infants and toddlers group and a Yahoo CF Mommies group that I can try. I think I will check those out. I also found a woman who is 71 years old that has the same strain of CF as Madeline - boy did that make me feel encouraged. She said there's someone living with CF that is 82 years old. Wow! Now, I'll focus on our good news and try to live life to the fullest until our next appt at the U in November.