Wow! I can't believe it's December 26th already! Doesn't seem possible. Seems like we just celebrated our first Christmas with Brielle the other day. 

12/25/10

12/25/11

We decided it would be best if we didn't travel this year for Christmas. It was a little bittersweet. We missed being home with our families but at the same time, it was nice not being in the car for hours upon hours traveling from here to there.

We had a nice time celebrating with our little family. Brielle went to church with us which is very rare. We still have a nurse, Jane, that comes twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays. We are so blessed to have Miss Jane in our lives. She became part of our lives back in March. She is definitely one of Brielle's favorite people! It's so nice and comforting to know that even though our families are so far away, we still have someone to give Brielle the special care she needs when we're not there.

Brielle has been "talking" like crazy lately. She babbles a lot now and tries to mimic a lot of what we do...especially laughing.  It's is so funny! She also tries to say, "elmo, love you, hohoho, and ball". Sometimes they're pretty clear, other times...not so much! :-)

 Our dining room all decorated for Christmas!

Here's some new pics of Brielle

Brielle has had a MUCH BETTER time this month! She did have a week where she was extremely irritable and sleepy all the time but she's over that...again. For the most part, October has been pretty low key as far as travel and appointments go. Brielle did get weighed a few weeks ago and she's up to 19 pounds, but with the way she's growing, I'd guess she's close to 20 pounds now. As long as Brielle's  feeling up to it, we'll all be going to the church's harvest festival on Monday. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on a costume, so I've decided she'll "dress up" as a cutie! :-)

Here's some new picture of our cutie!

Brielle had a lousy September. She did celebrate her 1st birthday, and that was pretty much the last normal day she had that month. The day after her birthday, she got an extremely horrible cold along with allergies that she struggled with for about 3 weeks. Plus, she was teething. As of right now, she has 6 teeth, with 6 MORE coming in. She is pretty miserable. 4 of those teeth are molars! POOR LITTLE GIRL! The past week she has been feeling and acting like her normal silly smiley self! But yesterday she started feeling yucky again. I think it's a mixture of allergies and teething.

We are starting to let Brielle taste baby food. So far she's tried banana and applesauce and did
pretty well with them.

Brielle was supposed to have another sleep study done tomorrow evening in St. Louis, but with Brielle dealing with teething and allergies, her nights haven't been normal. She wakes up quite a bit either crying because her gums hurt, or because she's itched her nose and eyes so much her cannula has moved out of her nostrils and her monitor alarm goes off. So, I called the sleep study lab today and they suggested not coming since Brielle hasn't had normal nights lately. They'll need her to be as "normal" as possible so they can get a proper baseline for the study.

Here are some recent pics of Brielle. ENJOY!

I LOVE this little girl's smile!

Brielle thinks applesauce is pretty yummy!

Brielle got to see Aunt Dawny for a few hours during our recent St. Louis trip. 

"New Eyes!"

Brielle is doing extremely well since surgery. It's been 2 weeks now and she has healed perfectly. Here are some new pics for you to enjoy!

Successful Surgery

Brielle's eye surgery was a success! The doctor said everything went perfectly, except that it took longer than expected to get her IV in. Go figure! Thankfully, they had already given her the gas to fall asleep, so she didn't feel any of the pokes. Tuesday, we'll go in for a follow-up appointment. Her eyes are extremely bloodshot, but that is to be expected for at least the first week post-op. It's so interesting to watch Brielle look at things now. Her peripheral vision seems to be better developed...which is something we never really noticed before. She is much more observant at anything and everything. We're so proud of our little girl!

An hour after surgery (Tuesday)

Looking good and feeling great (Wednesday)

The blood is beginning to dissipate (Friday)

Big girlie!

Wow! I can't believe it's been over 2 months since we last updated. Brielle is doing very well lately. She was originally scheduled to have eye surgery to fix her esotropia (crossed eyes) July 22 but caught a viral infection, so they postponed it to August 23. She has recovered from the infection quickly and was back to normal in no time at all. We're excited about this and how it's going to help Brielle, but at the same time, we're a little anxious because she will be "put to sleep" during the surgery. We are planning on it being an outpatient surgery with about a week long recovery time. As long as everything goes as planned all we'll have to do is put eye drops in her eyes during that week to keep them clean to keep out infection. We'll keep you updated about how everything goes.

Brielle met with her surgeon recently to follow up with her g-button site. She was very pleased to see how strong Brielle is getting but was concerned about her lack of weight gain in the past few months. Ever since March, Brielle has been weighing in the 16 pound range. As of Monday, Brielle weighs 16 pounds 14 ounces which puts her around the 5th percentile. Even though she hasn't gained any weight, she has definitely grown length wise. She's 29 inches which puts her near the 75th percentile. So, the next step is to increase the volume of Brielle's feedings. Hopefully that will do the trick.

We meet with Brielle's new pulmonologist next week and are very excited about that. The only downfall is that this doctor is in St. Louis (4.5 hours away) and our old doctor was in Springfield (1 hour away). Unfortunately, the doctor in Springfield is the only pediatric pulmonologist in our area, and he went to part time and we haven't really heard from his since April. So, our pediatrician strongly suggested that we find someone else. We are excited about meeting with our new doctor and seeing what he has to say about how to handle Brielle's need for extra O2.

Brielle's cough and swallow have gotten so strong over the past month or so. We rarely have to suction her anymore. July 27th was the first day in her entire life that we didn't have to suction her at all. It was a very exciting and momentous day! Because of her strong cough and swallow, we've been able to turn Brielle's O2 flow down quite a bit. Sometimes we turn it off completely. Yesterday, she was off for a total of 4 hours! So far today she was off for 3 hours. This is HUGE!

We are so proud of our little girl. She brings so much joy and laughter to our lives. She has 5 little teethies and another one is about to cut through!

We are also getting close to doing another swallow study. Brielle's speech therapist wants to give Brielle some water trials and see how she handles them before we do another study with barium (a mixture of barium sulfate and water that is opaque to X-rays that is swallowed to permit radiological examination). In September we'll do the water trials...we'll use water to be on the safe side. If we were to give her formula or juice and she aspirated, then she'd be more likely to grow bacteria in her lungs which could lead to pneumonia. Theoretically, if we use water, the chance of infection would be slim to none. My guess is that the swallow study would take place in October. If she does well on the swallow study, then we'll slowing start to incorporate baby food and formula...and make our way to solids! Even after Brielle does eat and drink everything by mouth, they'll still want her to keep the g-button for another 3-6 months.

Brielle is pretty much sitting on her own now and working hard to crawl. She'll get there soon. We have incredible therapists and nurses who work with her and teach Cody and I what to do to help her along. She loves to stand and dance...as long as she's holding on to your fingers.

We are extremely blessed by our family and friends, church family, therapists, nurses, and doctors. Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement.

-Dianne

Bri looks radiant in red! :)

Some new pics of Brielle

If you look closely, you'll see 2 little teeth!

Photos taken by my dear friend Samantha. (Elah Photography)

http://elahphotography.blogspot.com/

Joplin Tornado

As most of you have probably seen or heard, Joplin, MO was hit by a EF-5 tornado on Sunday, May 22, 2011. The tornado left around a 3/4 mile wide and 6 mile long path through the majority of Joplin. The tornado was a few miles south of our home in Carl Junction, but there was an overwhelming amount of devastation done in the Joplin community. Thankfully, no one we know lost their lives, but several we know lost their homes. Last I heard, the death toll was at 122 lives lost. 9 people have been saved from the rubble since the tornado hit Sunday evening and 1500 people are still missing. FEMA has assessed 8-thousand structures, over more than 18 hundred acres have sustained damage. Please continue to pray for the people of Joplin and the families who lost the ones they loved.

Here are a few pictures of Applied Psychological Services, the counseling office I use to work at and the surrounding area.

A small portion of APS is left standing off to the left. This is 20th st looking east. It used to be lined with businesses and apartments.

APS on the right. The other side of the street had a

3 story apartment building.

3 story apartment building across the street from APS.

The remainder of Dillon's Supermarket on 20th st.

Facing east on 20th.

20th facing east

Therapy with Miss Rachel