Gabby's Journey Through Craniosynostosis

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Three Month Check Up

Ok, so this picture has nothing to do with this entry- but it is the cutest picute EVER!!

What a fun and busy week we have had around here. Our holiday weekend started on Thursday when we made the trek to Milwaukee to see Gabby's cranio surgeon. No, that was not the fun part! We took the kidlets to the Zoo after her appointment. I do have to say I was nervous for this appointment. Now that the swelling has been going down even more, I can see that her forehead is not quite as straight as it had looked for awhile. I was just afraid that maybe the plates were starting to refuse or something. Dr. Jensen said that she is doing great though, so my worries were for nothing. Thank goodness! He said that she is not even laying down scar tissue yet and that she is still so close to the surgery that her skull may continue to change as she grows (for the better). She has to go back next April for another CT scan which will really show what is going on. He said by that time the plates should all be closed- so her skull will be all fused together- which it should be by that time. That will be good!

We spent the rest of Thursday at the Milwaukee zoo with my sister Dawn, who lives there- well in Milwaukee, not at the zoo ;) It was a really nice day there. Perfect weather. Alex was in his glory. He loves to watch those animals and ask a million questions!

We have had pink eye in our house and it has been a big pain! Both Alex and Gabby got it on the same day, who knows where from. Anyway, they had to do the darn drops every 3 hours. Gabby ended up being allergic to them and her whole eye lid and under eye was all red and swollen. They looked a bit rough. Luckily they are doing better now.

Friday we went to a beach in Kewaunee on Lake Michigan with my brother, sister in law, and 2 nieces. We had great weather, but it could have been a bit warmer. The kids however never seem to notice that it is not quite warm enough to go into the freezing lake- least of all Gabby. That girl LOVES the water!! She is a little dare devil when it comes to water- at least lakes. She crawls at top speed straight into the water and does not slow down until I scoop her up! She does not care how cold it is or that her head is going straight under water. I had to proceed to walk her in the water for the next half hour. She really needs to learn to walk on her own! Which in fact she is almost there. She can walk across the room, but then kind of will lunge for whomever she is going to. She just needs to work on her balance a bit more...

Saturday, the 4th of July, we spent at my parents house as we have for the past 3 or 4 years. My siblings and a couple friends all go over and we BBQ and swim in their pool. This year the pool was a wee bit chilly at a high of 55 degrees! The kids went in and didn't seem to mind. Alex wanted to go in to, but does not yet know how to swim so that would mean I would be going in to. Luckily I got him to hold out until my sister's boyfriend, Brad, arrived and he happily jumped right in that freezing pool and took Alex swimming. It lasted all of 2 minutes- because of Alex, not Brad!


Waiting to go down the slide.

Realizing the water was Freezing!

Gabby slept through the fireworks again this year. Maybe next year she will survive staying up late enough to see them. Alex loved them and got a kick out of his first sparklers. A good time had by all.
Alex and his cousin and friends.

Sunday we decided to invite some family and friends over to have all the kids play and to grill out. We don't get to see these friends often enough so we thought it was a good day for that. We had great weather and all the kids loved playing on Mark's makeshift slip and slide:) Compliments go out to Matt, who is the next Food Network star with his delicious gourmet burgers!!

Oh, I forgot to add the bad part of the weekend. We had an incident on Saturday where Alex ran full speed from across the room and accidentally knocked heads with Gabby. It was really scary because I was holding her and felt the force of that hit. Gabby was screaming, I was bawling, and Mark was trying to get us both to calm down. A call was placed to the on-call craniofacial resident at Children's to see if a hit like this could move or affect the surgery. I was so worried that something had shifted or something. He was more worried about a concussion and said that yes, things could get shifted, but it was unlikely. She was acting fine and eating fine, so she is probably just fine. I am still scared that something did happen with that hard of a hit, but am probably overreacting. I wish she had a helmet to protect that little head of hers!!

So all in all we had a fun weekend and are going to be recuperating for a few days:)