Nasonex

10 days ago I posted about Goldie still not being able to breathe, here. I just wanted to update that things are 100% better. The antibiotics weren't working so her ped had us stop them. Then she asked if we wanted to try Nasonex or Singulair. Nasonex is a nasal spray to reduce inflamation and Singulair would be an oral medication that also reduces inflamation. I opted for the nasal spray because I thought it would be best to treat just the problem area. Wow, what a difference it has made. After less than a week, she breathes quietly through her nose with no congestion. I don't know how long we'll have to keep using it, but for now I'm not messing with a good thing. Its only one spray per day and you don't build up a tolerance to it like OTC nasal sprays.

On the baby front, I'm 39 weeks and really uncomfortable. Apparently, most of my weight gain is just that, mine, the baby isn't expected to top 7 pounds. After doing some research, I found that my mom and my brother were both around 6 1/2 pounds. That put my mind at ease. As the midwife put it, "Your growing a baby that is the right size for you." Goldie was so much smaller than my first two and I always attributed it to the DS, maybe I need to rethink that. I should go to bed now, but even that is painful and I don't really sleep all that much anyway. Just mother nature's way of getting me ready for the big day!

The Never Ending Search for Sleep

Its been 3 months since Goldie had her adenoids and tonsils out. Long story short, her sleep is worse than ever.

Eight weeks post op we were supposed to have another sleep study. I politely declined. Goldie seemed to be sleeping better, even though she is still a restless sleeper. I think it may be genetics and not the trisomy 21 kind. Its very common for me to be up with Goldie and hear one, or both, of her sisters talking in their sleep. Goldie has even started saying "No! No!" in her sleep.

Then, right at the eight week mark, I noticed Goldie's breathing was really noisy when putting her to bed. It sounded like she was getting a cold. Her sisters both had colds within a couple days. Even though nothing was draining from Goldie's nose, I used the saline drops and vaporizer trying to clear her congestion. That was 4 weeks ago. Since then we have tried antibiotics, herbal supplements, more drops with suction, and two antihistimines. Her breathing is still noisy and causing her to wake up all night. I called the ped today and she wants us to try a different type of antibiotic and if it hasn't improved by Monday to call back. I told her with the baby due soon, she would be seeing us either way!

I'm not crazy about giving her more antibiotics, but I thought we should try it before we head off to the ENT. And it doesn't help that she drinks just enough to survive. If this drags on until the baby arrives, I can always hope letting her nurse more will be the cure. Any other ideas?

T & A Setback

I'm exhausted but wanted to update on Goldie's recovery. Thursday morning she wouldn't eat or drink and was very tired. After lunch when I tried to take her temp she had a nose bleed, so that sent us straight to the ER. They determined the bleeding was stopped, but she was transported to Children's Hospital for dehydration. After some convincing on my part, they admitted her. She was soooo lethargic I don't know why they even considered sending us home. We stayed until this evening. I was very hesitant to bring her home because she was not drinking reliably. Although, she was eating and running around. She's done a little eating and drinking since we got home. I wasn't able to get her new pain meds because all the pharmacies are closed on Saturday nights. (One of the reasons I wanted to stay until tomorrow am.) I'm ready for bed, but Goldie is still up. Why don't any of these meds make her tired???

Honey, We Have a Problem

That what I heard when Hank was upstairs putting up the girl's "new" bunk beds. Curious, I go up to see what's going on. He quietly takes my hand and points into our bedroom,at the ceiling. There is a HOLE and BEES are flying into the room. That was definitely not there this morning when I got a shower. While I called exterminators, he set some foggers off in the attic and sprayed some bee killer in the hole. Of course he put duct tape over it when he was done. What man could pass up a chance to use duct tape. That should hold them back until Friday when the exterminators come. I'll be sleeping on the couch in the meantime. Hank assures me its safe to sleep in our room because bees sleep at night. That's nice to know, I'll still be on the couch.

Goldie is doing ok. Her appetite is pretty good, but she's still not crazy about drinking anything. Her sleep has been horrible. She wakes up in pain. I give her the Tylenol w/ codeine. She hates it and puts up a huge fight. Then she's up for a couple hours. So, tonight we're going to try the regular Tylenol. She doesn't like it, but tolerates it somewhat better. Her sleep schedule is off and she takes longer naps during the day. Last night I couldn't get her to bed until almost 12. Then she was up by 5. Right now, she's laying on the couch kissing her baby. Maybe they're ready for bed.

Post surgery update

Goldie's surgery went well. Her surgeon is very thorough and even had an ICU room reserved for her afterwards. This was a huge precaution considering Goldie has never been hospitalized or had any previous surgeries. However, this caused some confusion as to where we were supposed to go while she was in recovery. By the time her ICU nurse called the waiting room Goldie was awake and really ticked off. I could hear her screaming in the background!

We spent the night for observation and so Goldie could get IV fluids. The next morning we were given the option of moving to a new room and staying to see how Goldie was going to eat and drink or going home. At that point she was eating jello and asking for her drink so I thought she would do even better at home. I thought.

Now I'm rethinking, because it's been a constant battle to get anything in her. At least until Daddy came home from work. She insisted on eating pizza (no crusts) with him and he got her to eat some soup. Then her sister got her to eat some Jello. I think she associates me with the yucky medicine and doesn't want anything I have to offer? The top shelf of our fridge is full of half-eaten foods I've been offering her. I even leave food around the house, hoping she'll find it and start eating. My end table is now covered in some sticky smoothie my mom brought and I keep stepping on Jello. At this point she is still having a normal amount of wet diapers, so we'll see what tomorrow brings.

As far as pain goes, that seems to fluctuate throughout the day. She was miserable all afternoon, but had a really great evening. We'll just keep taking it one day at a time.

Before T & A Surgery

Goldie is having her tonsils and adenoids removed on Friday. I wanted to document for myself what her sleep is like now. She has been sleeping through the night most of the time. By sttn, I mean she doesn't wake ME up. When I was sick, I sat up and watched her for an hour in the middle of the night. She must have sat up at least 6 times. No wonder people are constantly telling us "she looks tired."

I think the melatonin has helped Goldie with being able to fall back to sleep on her own. She gets 1-1.5 mg before bed. I read on an email list that melatonin works better in conjunction with omega-3's. I didn't give it much thought until we ran out of Goldie's fish oil. I kept giving her melatonin, but she wasn't sleeping at night. After two nights it dawned on me that she wasn't getting her fish oil. I bought more and she was back to sleeping well again.

Which brings us to last night. Omega-3's have a side effect of thinning the blood so we had to stop giving them before Goldie's surgery. Then we ran out of melatonin yesterday. I went to get more and they are out of the brand we use. The brand I ended up with takes 4 droppers to equal 1 of our normal brand! And the droppers aren't marked with ml. Last night, Hank and I were up with Goldie from midnight until 2 am. That's when he put Signing Time on and stuck her in the pack and play while he slept on the couch. She was tired the entire time she was up. She kept moaning and sucking her thumb. (this is her self soothing technique) Her only nap today was 20 minutes in the van. She fell asleep outside in the swing at 7:30 and was back up at 9. I got her back to sleep and haven't heard from her yet. I'm off to join her as quick as I can. Who knows what tonight will be like.

I would appreciate any prayers or happy thoughts you can spare on Friday. I'm having a hard time just thinking about handing my baby girl over for surgery.