Mel & Company: 02/10/09

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Girls just wann have fun!

Girl's weekend...Camano Island, WA 1/24-1/26-09

Every Janua ry my girlfriends and I escape for a weekend. No hubbie, no kids (babies are an exception :)), lots of food, laughter, and fun. We usually go somewhere within 1 1/2 hours from home, there are so many beautiful place to visit in Wa!

Me, Summer, Cathy, Debbie, Angie, Bridget, and Melanie (aka Mel K...she even has a daughter named Morgan too! )

This pic was taken on the balcony...Summer wasn't too happy with the whole idea...

Our Vacation rental was gorgeous. It was set in a wildlife preserve, full of huge windows, cool antiques, and 2 jetted tubs (a must for our weekends).

The house was beautiful...

The kitchen was huge and we messed it up good!! (Like mine English?)

This railing is in the process of being hand carved.

They had a few unique instruments place around the house

The cool stained glass inserts above the two upper bedrooms

The master suite bed...ahhh, very comfy....zzzz

The view of the stained glass from the master suite's bed

Overlooking the living room and back wall of windows

The dining room

...the view was very peaceful...

The small lake in the back yard...it snowed Sunday morning

The front yard pond

...we provided the wildlife....

My sis, Debbie, and I on the back deck

Summer

Aunt Debbie loves Summer...she held her most of the weekend

Bridget and Summer

Summer adorns the Chikita Banana hat...she's a party girl in the making!

mmmmmmm we tried something new....a NACHO CHEESE FOUNTAIN, WOW! This gave birth to a whole slew of "fountain" ideas....marinara, sweet n sour, BBQ sauce? The skies the limit...check out the steam! I discovered that it worked best just to dip my whole plate in it....no gluttony here, ha haha!

Bridget sliced up the ice cream....hey, is that all for you? No FAIR! (did I sound like my 6 year old there?)

Ahhhhh, the weekend souvenir...

It's sanitary, disposable, practical, comfortable, fashionable, and versatile....

MAXI-PAD SLIPPERS

WOW!

I custom made a pair for each person....how sweet :)

"Yes, I'm serious...you will have to wear them".

Cathy wears hers with black socks...sheik!

Melanie is tickled pink with hers!

Angie is just plain cute!

We make this railing look good! :) Bridget looks the happiest hiding behind the camera!

....and the close up just for dramatic effect...

Some of us took a walk...I forgot my baby wrap so I crammed her into my coat

Mel models her cow socks complete with udderly cute toes

Mel gave us haircuts too...it's so nice to have talented friends :)

As always....the chocolate fountain! No we didn't plan our matching outfits, but we do shop at the same store! So which one of us is the evil twin?

Angie and I had a little too much chocolate and not enough sleep....makes for a lot of fun!

I delivered the kiss of death to Bridget....death by chocolate is really not such a bad way to go!

Mel posed for me...she's so cute :)

Debbie, me and Angie...we are so cute too, ha ha

Bridget on the back deck

My sis and I are really cute too, NOT...

But, hey....it's no fun being normal!

It's tune up time again!

Well, we have had Summer home from her last trip to the hospital for a month (almost to the day) and are back again. A few weeks ago the doc gave the okay for us to come to clinic only every other week because she is doing so FANTASTIC! I knew that with a change like this, another hiccup was in our near future. Call me pesimistic...I have been told this is just how things work around here :)

As usual, we have been increasing Summer's formula through her NG tube slowly. With this last week's increase (from 35 ML's per hour to 38, then up to 40) she did great...until Sunday night. Summer usually will sleep through the night, sometimes as long as 10 hours at a time, but that night she woke up crying. I went to check on her and she was soaked from brim to brim. Her diaper was so full, it couldn't hold anymore. I did a full head to toe/bedding change and tucked her back in. After about another 4 hours, she woke again crying. Back in to her room I went for the full change again. After another 4 hours, the same routine. By this point, she was shakey, her lips were dry, and she was licking them f, uriously. She was also very fussy. I had to change her and throw her in the car to take little Tom to the doctor. I put a bottle in some hot water and away we went. When we got to the doc's office, she sucked the bottle down, but was still fussy. She was soaked again.

I called her clinic nurse....time to bring her back to the hospital. Summer had had so much diarhea, she was getting dehydrated. Fortunately I was able to recognize the signs easier this time and we caught it before she got too sick, or lost much weight.

We spent the night last night with her food turned off. This morning we started at 5 ML's per hour and have been increasing it up 5 ML's more every 2 hours. Her labs looked decent, dispite the hiccup. so we may only be here for a day or two more...let's cross our fingers.e

Today was also a scheduled Occupational Therapy appt. so they came to us. Summer is doing pretty well, considering her 3+ months stuck in bed. She is definitely VERY social...she smiles, coos, responds, etc. The testing did show that she is a little behi nd in her fine motor skills/desire to grasp at things. The OT said she should come alo ng nicely with a little encouragement and this is no surprise for a baby like her. She is so cute and sweet...her smile brightens up any room she is in :) Ahhhh, like my cliche?

Enjoy some recent photos of her below...