Touch-A-Truck

This weekend we took the girls to the Touch-A-Truck fundraiser the Rotary put on.  The kids had so much fun!  There were emergency vehicles, construction vehicles, race cars, all different types of buses, and trucks.  Of course the fire truck was the big hit!  Kaitlyn got to play with lights and sirens and sound the truck horns!

Mother's Day Races

I've been running off and on for the past few years, but I've always been too big of a wuss to sign up for an actual race.  Kevin apparently got tired of listening to me say "someday I will do the Sea Dog's Mother's Day 5K", because he came home one day a few months back and told me he signed me up for it.  After I got over the fact that I would have to start my running season earlier (in the cold!), I got pretty excited about it!

Slugger and his mom kicking off the race...

We thought Kaitlyn would like the kids Fun Run before hand, so we signed her up for that.  She loved it! She got to hang out with Slugger and his mom.  She got her own race bib, t-shirt, and medal.  Her race ran around the track of the stadium next door and then into Hadlock Field where it ended at home plate.  She loved her medal so much, she wore it all day... even to the movies when she went to see Captain America Civil War.

Kaitlyn's Recital

Kaitlyn is the tall one... she starts out front row in the middle.

Kenzie's Surgery

Kenzie's surgery went well this morning.  She was a big hit with all the doctors and nurses.  After we went back to pre-op, she was yelling down the hall at anyone who walked by and playing peekaboo around the curtain!  She got a mixture of Tylenol and Versed (which is to help with anxiety and help relax her).  We could tell when it kicked in, because she got giggly And a little loopy.  Kevin said that "at least we know she'll be a happy drunk", hahaha.

Kenzie also got a Barbara Bush Children's Hospital teddy bear.  She a good Bear Mommy.  She loved all over him with big hugs and "Mmmmms".  Kenzie was happy enough to go back with the nurses, so we didn't have to go back with her for the anesthesia.

The surgery itself only lasted about 15 minutes, but because of her age she had to be put to sleep and intubated.  Most of the time was spent waiting for her to wake up.  The doctor said she came through it well.  She will have a post-op appointment next week.  Right now she's not allowed to take a bath and get her eyes wet or rub them vigorously.  She gets very upset when we pull her hands away from her eyes.  We have these little elbow immobilizers for when she sleeps.   

They told us that she should eat something soft and easy like pancakes for her first meal.  After days of watching IHOP commercials for cupcake pancakes, I was only too happy to have an excuse to go! Kenzie sucked down 5 of those small silver dollar pancakes and some scrambled eggs.  She was pretty drowsy for most of the day which was to be expected.  At least she wasn't nearly as cranky as they told us she would probably be upon waking up.

Tonight she is doing well.  Her eye is still a bit puffy, but again that is expected.  They said her eye could be red and bloodshot for 3 weeks.  It also could be up to 3 weeks before the alignment changes.

In other Kenzie news, she had her genetics appointment this week.  Her neurologist had referred us, because she was concerned that Kenzie's head hadn't grown at all between appointments.  The neurologist wanted genetics to try and determine if there is a reason her head size is so small.  At the genetics appointment, they took an extensive family history.  They appreciated how easy and uncomplicated our families were... Only one sibling for each Kevin and I.  

The doctor also watched Kenzie play and observed her movements.  The doctor was a little concerned that Kenzie keeps her legs stiff and her feet pointed, but the orthodic she will most likely be getting to support her feet (because she currently rolls her ankles in when standing) should help with that.  Of course the freaking doctor comments on that and mentions cerebral palsy just to freak me out.  She did mention that she sees familial features in Kenzie rather than features that show up in syndromes (she used Downs as an example).  They also measured my head and Kevin's.  Kevin has a huge head, as we all know.  He's saying it's just because he's so smart (insert eye roll here).  I, on the other hand, actually have a smaller head.  Apparently I am in the 10th percentile for adult women.  As the doctor said, it could be Kenzie is just small.  This is the hope I'm holding onto.

Lastly, they drew blood from Kenzie.  They will run her blood to test the various chromosomes that are associated with microcephaly (small head size).  They are looking for missing parts of chromosomes or "misspellings".  We should hear the results in about 4 weeks.  They will either be normal, abnormal, or unknown variant.  Unknown variant just means something is different, but they don't know how it will affect her.  If everything is normal, we get a phone call.  If not, we will get a call to come in and talk about it.  Either way, she has a follow up on her birthday.  

In short, Kenzie is a medical mess and our insurance company hates us.  Hopefully, we will get some answers soon.  In the meantime, Kenzie seems to be a very happy baby and not in any pain or distress and that's what keeps me going.

Hopefully I will have a happy Bermuda blog in a couple weeks.  We are still scanning the professional pics and collecting pics from Kevin's mom and sister.

Happy Easter!

We started our Easter celebrations yesterday with egg dyeing.   Kaitlyn and I made Minion eggs this year.  They weren't Pinterest perfect, but I'd say they didn't come out too badly!

I made a special Easter cake which Kaitlyn loved.  Aunt Bev, those are M&M chocolate eggs in your honor...

The Easter Bunny found our house!

 Kenzie wasn't in the best of moods today, so I considered it a win that we got some non-crying photos...

Hunting for eggs...

Checking to see if there's anything in those eggs...

Checking out her basket.  The Frozen sticker book was a hit.

 She also really liked the CD from the Beauty and the Beast play we went to a few weeks ago.

Really excited about Kung Foo Panda and the Land Before Time movies.

All the loot from Kaitlyn's basket.

Kenzie was not too thrilled.  She was quite tired and cranky most of the day.

Trying to have our first Easter egg hunt, but it wasn't going very well...

She was angry, so she enjoyed banging her eggs together.  Maybe she was just angry that her eggs were empty and Kaitlyn's had chocolate in them!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Kenzie`s Optometrist Appointment

Today we had an appointment with Kenzie at Maine Eye Center. The doctor she saw is an Optometrist that specializes with young children. Her primary care doctor referred us here because a couple of times he thought he saw a misalignment in her eyes and wanted it checked out. It was a very long appointment with Kenzie getting her eyes dilated.  In the end the doctor very quickly determined she had fourth nerve palsy which basically means one of her eye nerves or muscles is weaker than the other causing the eyes to be misaligned, and is also the root cause of her head tilt as she is tilting her head to compensate for the misalignment.

The cure for this requires surgery. It will be a minor 10 to 15 minute eye surgery where they weaken the other eye muscle in order to help balance them out and make them stronger. The doctor said they normally don't suggest this on a first visit but Kenzie`s was pronounced enough to need it. It will require Kenzie to get general anesthesia so she will be knocked out. We don't have a date for this yet but will be in late April at the earliest. As we know more we will get more information out there.