BIG steps!

No, Annika is not walking yet, but I feel like so much has happened since November! I will try to keep it short.

Annika has been scooting around the house since the last time I posted. She started out cawling the day we got home from the hospital, and by Christmas Break, she was pulling herslf up and walking around furniture. For Christmas, she got a walker, and has been busy with that ever since! Sometimes she'll stand by herself in the room, but no physical stes yet. I'm guessing 2-3 weeks.

We've had a long winter as far as keeping her healty goes. Since October, she has had 5 ear infections. As of now, we are waiting to meet with an Ears, Nose, Throat Doctor to see if tubes will help. Because of these ear infections, she has been off and on anti-biotics all winter, which have both suppressed her appetite and given her constant diareha. Because of these 2 things, her one year appt. showed a loss of weight for an already tiny peanut. To remedy that, we've been feeding her in the middle of the night if she wakes up. We know it is not best practice, but at this point the doctor said we should do whatever we can to get her bigger. Needless to say, we're ready for spring!

A major change for us, which may not seem so large to others, is that Annika has begun taking some solid foods. We started out with "puff' crackers (crackers that dissolve). She loves these, and they were a great way to introduce something other than formula. Next, we moved onto yogurt melts (dried yogurt that also dissovles). These are much more flavor-filled, so she is still getting used to these. And just last night, I was going to attempt some more baby food, and for the first time ever, she ate a whoe (small) jar of babyfood! For many this may seem like a normal step, but we've been trying off and on for 7 months for her to be able to even keep any in her mouth! I'm convinced that the puffs were a good route to take in teaching her how to move food back to her throat.

Annika's next surgery has been scheduled for April 19. She will have a follow-up surgery May 10 to remove the retainer he puts in initially.

I promise to post pictures soon!

Home Sweet Home

We are home!!! After my post yesterday, Annika began to wake up a little more, and my mom came to visit her in the later afternoon. After my mom left, we had about a two hour break where we all relaxed a bit before the evening visitors. At about 6:15, the flood of visitors began; lucky for all of us, we had a bigger room this time around, so everyone fit, but in the midst of all the visitors, Annika became overwhelmed,tired, and very very crabby. As of this time, Annika had still not eaten anything either.

The last of the visitors left around 8:30, and Annika finally ate 8:45 via syringe. She was able to get some more medicine, and she fell right asleep. Ross and I were also thoroughly exhausted, so we went to bed shortly after 9:30. The night itself went SO smoothly; Annika only woke up when nurses came to check her vital signs and give her more medicine. Even then, she fell right back asleep each time. We all woke up this morning around 6:45 feeling well-rested.

the Dr. came in around 8:00 and gave us the okay to go home, but Annika decided to take another nap before leaving. By the time it was all said and done, we didn't end up getting home until shortly after 11, but we are so glad to be away from the hospital!

As we are on our own now, please pray that Annika begins to eat more. She is still not thrilled about eating and will only take tiny bits of formula at a time. She is also much more swollen today than she was yesterday, so pray that her body will go back to normal quickly. Even when she wants to smile right now, you can only tell by her eyes that she's smiling because her face won't move much.

Very ready to go home...note the stylish "farm alphabet" no-no bands

Annika was ready to play when she got home!!!

A very puffy-faced little girl

Surgery #2 Complete

After a pleasantly calm morning, Annika went into surgery just before 8:00 a.m.. By the time she was put under the doctor ended up not getting started until 8:45. Ross and I enjoyed a relaxing (and ginormous for Ross) breakfast in the cafeteria, and then spent the rest of our time in the waiting room. At about 10:45 Dr. Mann came in to let us know everything had gone just fine. He ended up only doing the lip repair on her left side and said he would save the pallet work for the next surgery. We spent about an hour in the recovery room before we were taken to our room where we will spend the rest of our time.

Annika has been sleeping most of the afternoon. She wakes up sporadically and cries and whines a little but falls back asleep quickly. The morphine and tylenol with codine are keeping her knocked out. As far a her looks go, it's difficult to grasp what she is going to look like because of the current swelling and crusted blood around her mouth and nose. Her nose is crooked and pinched because of the tightness from surgery but it will slowly relax back into normal position.

Ross and I are both a little exhausted since we were up at 5:00 a.m. this morning and didn't sleep much for a couple hours before that while I was trying to give Annika a little more food before her surgery deadline. On the upside the room that we are in this time around has much more space in it so we are very happy about that. Now we should have room and are looking forward to Annika's Grandparents stopping by to visit.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers. Please continue to pray for Annika as she heals, and deals with the frustration of arm restraints and a sore mouth.

Annika Still groggy after surgery

Getting some much-needed snuggle time with Mommy and Daddy

Starting to wake up a little bit

Awake and ready for visitors!

Could you please repeat that?

I got the phone call today for Annika's surgery time and instructions. They nurse said, "We have Annika scheduled for surgery at 7:53 AM..." I was thinking, "Did I hear that right? Who schedules surgeries so exact in timing?" I actually had to ask her to repeat the time, because I thought I heard it wrong! Anyway, so the time is set! We're happy to get it over with first thing in the morning. Last surgery was also in the morning, but Annika was so crabby before surgery because she was hungry! This time around I'm going to make sure to give her some pedialite in the middle of the night to fill her tummy.

The plan for communicating on Friday is for Ross and I to call our parents when surgery is finished, or in the small chance the doctor calls us to let us know he's going to go ahead with the palate work, we would call parents then too. For everyone else, please check her blog in the late afternoon for updates, or feel free to get a more personal update from a parent!

Annika is still struggling with a little cough and an ear infection. In addition to surgery, please pray that these things do not make her even more uncomfortable than expected this weekend.

Thanks again for your prayers! It is truly amazing to have such a sense of calm this time around.

Pre-op appt.

Annika had her pre-op appointment with Dr. Mann's office this past Thursday. I took a half day of work and made the trip to Grand Rapids with Annika in the morning. The nurse, who always pronounces her name wrong by the way, was updating her charts, and she said, "so this is her first surgery coming up, huh?" And I replied, "No, but if a nurse who works in this office can't tell she's had a first surgery, then the Dr. really did the first one well!" Her first surgery has truly turned out fantastic so far, and our reservations about the next are much less because of that. Anyway, the rest of the appointment went pretty much as planned. The Dr. looked at her and explained a little bit about surgery and after. The only suprise was that he said there is a VERY SMALL posibility that, when he takes her into surgery and looks at her mouth, he may start doing some palate work as well. He actually said to not even plan on it, but that we needed to know it was possible. We've been planning on palate work not starting until at least late winter, early spring, so this as great news! Its difficult to not think about it, but we also don't want anything rushed.

We won't find out the time of her surgery until a few days prior, but she is set to have it done Friday, November 12 with the plan of staying at DeVos just one night again. I will update with the time once we find out.

In the mean time, please begin praying that conditions are right for palate work to begin. This would mean so much as far as eating baby food, getting started on speech, and so many other things I'm probaly not even aware of. Also begin praying for the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and the surgical team as the day draws closer. And mostly, pray for Annika as she's the one who will be in the physical pain for a few days, but also the frustration of dealing with arm restraints. With a girl so close to crawling, not using her arms is going to be tough.

On a side note, a few developments since last post:
~ Annika has 3 teeth and a possible 4th on the way! Two are on the bottom and one on the top in her little nub area.
~ She sits up all the time and is beginning to stand by things. She's not pulling herself up yet, but once she is propped into standing, she can do it on her own.
~She's decided that 5:30-5:45 is an appropriate time to wake up every morning. I've asked the advice of too many people to count, and nothing seems to break the cycle.
~She wants to crawl SO badly! She scootches around on her butt right now, but if she's not crawling by surgery date, I would be suprised.

Thanks again for checking in, and for your conitnued prayers!

Change in lifestyle + Surgery info

Greetings from our busy little family! Life sure has changed since the last post. A month ago, Annika and I were spending the majority of our days in comfy clothes and bathing suits, taking naps at our leisure, and trying to find things to keep us occupied. Now, I'm back at work, which meas no more comfy clothes or naps for me, and I am certainly not looking for things to occupy my time! The transistion from home to work has been a good one overall. After many tears the night before and the day of my first day back at work, we all seem to be adjusting well. Annika spends 1 day a week with Grandpa and Grandma Kruithof (along with cousins Kirstyn and Erika), and she spends the other 4 days at Lakeshore Little People's Place at Providence Church in Holland. Annika loves daycare, especially because my sister, Katie, works at the daycare and visits Annika often. I think she may get a bit of special attention over there! Her caregivers say she's a very happy baby (and Katie says they wouldn't lie to me). For Ross, the adjustment comes with less shock factor than for me, but he's had to do some adjusting as well, getting up a bit earlier so we can all be out the door on time, getting things ready with me the night before, and helping with things I used to do during the day. We're finally feeling like we have things under control for the season!

Also, we got the official paperwork today for Annika's upcoming surgery! Her surgery is scheduled for Friday, November 12 with a pre-op appt. on October18 and post-op appt. on November 18. We're not nearly as anxious about this one, because we know what to expect in general this time around, and this surgery is actually less invasive than the last one. This time around, they will only be touching the lip, but not the gum areas.

Finally, Annika has made some fun developments since last post! She can roll from back to tummy, but not the other way around yet...we're beginning to think she may never learn that part. She's also sitting up almost completely independently! She makes some VERY loud noises, and we're still trying to figure out who she gets that from. Finally, she has developed an attitude even further than it was before; she refuses to drink her whole bottle (something we used to be so prideful of), she fake burps, so we stop bothering her, and she grunts when she sick of playing with something. In all seriousness though, we have a very happy baby on our hands. All it takes is a smile at her and a "hi" and she's wiggling and laughing and squealing.

Unless something dramatic occurs, I'll update again after her pre-op appt. in October. Thanks again for keeping up to date with Annika's developments and for your prayers for her surgeries. We can all start praying now that she doesn't get sick just before her surgery!

6 Months!

Its so hard to believe that Annika will be 6 months already tomorrow! Somedays I feel like she's just been with us forever, while other times we still feel like such new parents, still questioning our parenting decisions daily!

Since I last posted, Annika continued to recover well after her surgery. She is sleeping regularly at night, and has adjusted well to feeding from the other side of her mouth.

Last time I posted, we had just gotten into cereal. Annika seemed to tolerate the food for a maximum of 10 bites and then she would get mad. After about a month of frustration on both my and Annika's part, I called her specialist just to see if this is just a normal baby phase or if it could be her palate keeping her from eating. The nurse just said, "Oh yeah she probably won't really eat solid foods until after her palate surgery." This would have been nice to know!!! Just a note that palate surgery is not until late winter at least. She also said to keep giving her solids whenever possible to keep her familiar with the texture, but not to expect Annika to get any real nutrients out of the feedings. Since that phone call, I feel much less pressure about feedings. We feed when we can (maybe every other day). And we do some cereal mixed with peaches or bananas. She's actually doing better than before, so I just feed her until she gets agitated and then we stop. Thank goodness she takes bottles so well!

We also got a tentative surgery date for Friday, November 12. This surgery will be her stage 2 lip repair. Dr. Mann will be closing the other sie of her lip. In the first surgery, he attached her outter gums to her right side gums and did her lip. This surgery will be just the lip. Dr. Mann plans to leave the other side of her gums open so that later in life when she has to have dental work, the dentist will be able to move and adjust the gums easier. Also, the date is only tentative as of now because DeVos Children's Hospital only schedules surgeries 3 months in advance, so we should hear if this date is solid in the next few weeks.

Annika also had her 6 month check-up with her pediatrician. These are Ross and my favorite appointments because we can guess how much she has grown. Yesterday Annika was 14lb. 12oz. and 26in. tall. This puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and 63rd for height. She is on track developmentally, and the doctor said everything looks good!

Finally, my dad was able to take Annika's 6 month pictures for us last Saturday. Annika can sit up for about 10 seconds right now, so my dad bought a very handy little helper for her so she could still sit up for pictures. Here are 2 of our favorites!