All's clear

Well, the smoke is almost clear. Thankfully the fire was contained in time and it didn't get to any of my neighborhood's homes. We were lucky, but an estimated 1500 homes did burn down. I feel for these families loss. I feel even more for the family of the 4 people who lost their lives in these fires. I'm so thankful for my county's organization in crisis, San Diego really did come together. Most of all I'm thankful the worse is over.

Natalia literary didn't see the light of day during the worse of the fires. Our home was closed down: No windows were opened, only the garage door was opened as needed to go for supplies. We put wet towels under the door so the smoke couldn't get in and made sure the AC's filter was clean. So many of my friends kids got sick, even though they used face masks so I was extra careful. Our effort payed off because Naty didn't get sick, not even a sniffle. :-)

Oh, and we bought a new camera an Amazon but decided to return it after reading a bunch of bad press on a a faulty lens E18 error that isn't covered by the warranty. Sorry... the pictures are still on standby.

Fire!

These are scary times. We live very near the Harris Fire in San Diego. A few of the neighboring areas have issued voluntary evacuations. A bunch of roads are closed near our house and the smoke is getting really bad. It really hits you when you start getting phone calls from out of state fiends to ask how you are. We're glued to the TV or in my case the web. These darn Santa Ana winds are moving these fires quickly. I'm hoping for the best... keep us in your prayers.

Less is more

Yesterday was the first time a doctor has told us we don't need a follow up appointment. :) It was time for Natalia's 6 month check up with her Urologist so she had 2 studies done to see if there was still reflux from her bladder to her left kidney and guess what: NO MORE REFLUX!!! She'd been on Septra since birth to prevent any UTI's, but tonight, for the first time in her life she's not going to take it. We couldn't be happier. Oh, and btw she was 13lbs 6 oz , no wonder my arms ache...

Up, up ...and down

I’ve had a loss of inspiration since I lost my camera two weeks ago :( … and no, I haven’t bought a new one just yet but I wanted to share how Natalia’s feeding was going.

On Natalia’s appointment with her GI doctor about 6 weeks ago, she said she was time to change her feedings from Isomil to Nutren Jr, a more calorie rich and age appropriate formula. She gave us the game plan: transition slowly with just one feeding a day, and every 2 days change a feeding until she has 120mls of Nutren for her 3 day bolus feeds. Monitor her for 3 days after that is done, and if that goes well then change her 250mls at 30ml/hr continuous night feeding. If everything was still ok then we could start slowly upping the bolus rate to have Natalia finish her day feedings in 30 minutes instead of 1hr 15 mins.

We followed the exact instructions, and it went very smoothly… soon we were upping the feeding rate slowly 5mls per day. We started at 90mls and moved steadily to 130, our goal was 200mls an hour. We were transitioning like experts! Yayyy!!

Then one day Natalia was fussy and extremely gassy, her stomach was extended and she has having a lot of residual (the formula that comes out of the gtube if you vent it). We had celebrated too soon. After calling her dietitian she confirmed that Nati wasn’t tolerating her feeds, and we should slow the rate down, waayyyy down. So that’s what we did, all the way down to 75mls!!! So Natalia was taking almost 2 hrs to finish her daily feedings. We are SLOWLY bringing the rate back up, and after 2 weeks we’re at a 100mls/hr rate, this rate seems to be working well for her, so we’re letting her stick to it for a while before we try to up the rate again. What’s important is that she’s getting the food she needs with the least discomfort.

I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch again...

Owies :(

Natalia’s geneticist ordered some lab works for a gene study, since we had an ophthalmology appointment Tuesday at 7am, we figured it was a good idea to go ahead and get it over with. The lab was just a few doors down the ophthalmologist’s so we were there at 7:30am sharp.

When I checked in I made sure to tell the receptionist that that Natalia was an extremely hard stick (that’s lab lingo for impossible to find veins to draw blood from J ). I also told her I thought it was a good idea to get the CHET Team, who are like paramedic superstars, to draw the blood since they’re the only ones that have a red light in their equipment that makes Nati’s tiny thin veins visible through her skin (imagine a thick laser pointer), it’s been the only way we’ve been able to put an IV in her when she’s needed it. I think she thought I was an overprotective mom, but humored me by making a few calls. “The CHET team can come at 9:30am”, she said, but I’ll ask our most experienced nurse to take a look, and if he can’t then we can wait for the CHET”.

20 minutes later, in came the Super Nurse and tried to find veins everywhere: arms, wrists, feet, ankles. Natalia hates to be held down and hated even more having tight rubber bands on her arms and legs so there was a bit of drama. And, you guessed it, no veins! That nurse called another, and another, they all seemed pretty amazed that there was not a vein in sight. So with a big I TOLD YOU SO face we left the Lab to wait for the CHET Team in the Hospital’s cafeteria.

Two CHET Team members arrived at 10am and since we only needed 3 cc's of blood to be able to have the study done they thought it was going to be a piece of cake… Nati had something else planned.

To make a long story short: after 30 minutes, 4 unsuccessful sticks and one exhausted baby girl, they only had 3/4^th of a cc. At 10:45 they called it an unsuccessful mission, a first for both CHET members… I think it hurt their superstar ego's.

Now I have to regroup with our genetics doctor since we really want to have the study done. Although I think it’s a good idea to wait till Natalia is bigger so her muscle tone is better and her veins don’t play hide and seek.

PS. The Ophthalmologist said Natalia’s eyes are perfect and her vision is exactly where it has to be. Yayyy!!