Busy, Busy

We have done several fun things in the past few days. Saturday Karla's cousins, aunt, and uncle came over and brought birthday cake and presents. Grandma and Grandpa came over too. It was exciting to finally have Karla meet these special family members. Her cousins (ages 9, 6, 2) were happy to see her and we were all sitting around staring at her. I think everyone wanted to get their hands on her but knew they had to wait until she warmed up. She was very shy at first but by the time they left she was running around the house and screaming happily with the rest of them! It was so fun to see! I'll have to talk about the cake in another post...gotta get Karla to bed soon.

Sunday we went to church together as a family for the first time! We weren't sure if it was the best idea since it was cold out but Mommy and Daddy were so excited for her to meet her church family. She did really well there too. She was quiet and clung to me and first. She sat through the songs at the beginning of the service (well, stood with me) and then I went with her to the 2-3 year old Sunday School Class. She sat and listened and attempted some singing. By the end of sunday school she was playing without being in my lap and was starting to interact with some other kids.

Today we went to Pap-Pap's school over his lunch time. He is a teacher and he has told his coworkers about Karla and shown them pictures for the past 2 years. So, before Jason goes back to work we wanted to go to the school to introduce Karla in person. She went into the teacher's lounge and wanted to sit in one of the teacher chairs. So I put her in one and then two of the teachers shared their lunch with her. (I did feed her before we left) It was pretty funny and cute. She is saying Pap-Pap and likes when he gives her attention!!

Tomorrow we are going to Jason's office to see his coworkers. Then we have Karla's doctor's appointment. It will be a busy morning!

We've had lots of fun but there are certainly some difficult things too. Overall I think Karla is transitioning VERY well. However, she only wants me to do the caregiving and comforting. She is getting better about this but it is not as fast as we would like. Jason was hoping she'd be more "attached" to him before he had to go back to work - Wednesday. It is hard for me because I get so tired - especially my arms. My one shoulder is really hurting and I am hoping I can go to the chiropractor tomorrow afternoon. They've helped me with my shoulder before. It is hard for Jason because he wants to help me but she gets upset when he does something that I usually do. We are going to talk with the doctor about this tomorrow (she specializes in adopted children) and see what she says. It is so hard to tell what is "transitioning" and what is just being a 2-year old.

We had a scare today at our house. This morning our house smelled like gas. Long story short, Jason sent Karla and I to Grammy and Pap-Pap's house while he stayed home to figure out what was going on. It was something with our furnace and it is now fixed - and it wasn't a big, expensive problem. Whew. I was worried we wouldn't be able to sleep at home tonight. We've had enough "new" beds.

I will post more pictures in the next day or so. We've taken tons! :)

Here is a picture to hold you over. It is Karla with my brother. It made me so happy to see them together..hope he doesn't mind I post the picture. Love you Eric!

One Month

I forgot to mention - I have now been with Karla for one month!! I still feel like I am dreaming. It is so nice not to have a headache and stomachache nearly everyday from the stress of wondering what was going to happen. I almost forgot I had those symptoms and they'd been happening for at least a month prior to going to Guatemala. She is HOME!
She's the best!

Catching Up

Good morning from Karla and Oso!

Today was our second day at home this week! We took our first family outing this morning. We went to Walmart! Jason's parents had bought us some food that got us through this past week but we really needed to go shopping. I don't think we've really gotten groceries since before I left for Guatemala... So we went to Walmart and stocked up. Karla sat in the cart most of the time but then I got to hold her the rest of the time. She was pretty quiet and looking around the whole time. One funny thing that happened was that when I was putting some milk in our cart, Jason and Karla were talking/playing, and some lady said "Boy, I wish I was having that much fun here". We just smiled but I wanted to say, "this is the first time we've gone anywhere around here with our baby!!" I didn't feel like explaining it though so I kept quiet. :)

Karla is doing a little better everyday. Her inhaler seems to help her a lot. We are going to her new pediatrician, who called us at home yesterday to check on her, this coming Tuesday. She will have Karla's records from the hospital and she is the doctor we have been sending Karla's monthly medical reports to since Karla was 7 days old. I am interested to see if we will have to continue the inhaler during the winter. Karla does a great job with her inhaler. Now when I say it is time, she just sits in my lap and smiles or laughs while I give her the puffs. The past two nights I had to get up in the night to give her treatments. Tonight I won't have to since we are reducing how often we give it to her.

Karla has eaten more today than she has since we were in Guatemala. I think that is a definite sign of improvement.

Karla is saying new words everyday. I wanted to keep track of her words and cute or funny things she does each day but it is impossible! She imitates a lot of words we say and seems to understand more of what we say all the time. Today she said "yellow" and "pizza" for the first time. She makes sounds for a lion, cow, horse, and sheep. Jason taught her to stick out her tongue and today he started singing a song - we can't think of the name of it - to her and she started singing it too! It was pretty funny. She also sings part of Old MacDonald (e-i-e-i).

Tomorrow Karla is going to get to meet her cousins for the first time!! I think the adults are as excited (or more so) than the kids.

I am surprised at how worn out Jason and I can feel after playing with Karla all day! Jason has had a bad cold for the past 3 days so I'm sure that doesn't help. He's feeling better tonight. I also didn't realize how hard it would be to get anything done during the day. :) I had to get up early this morning to clean the floors. One of my least favorite jobs.

We watched part of The Little Mermaid tonight and Karla was talking back to the TV loudly saying "uh-oh", "wee", and "singing" along with a song or two.

Karla doesn't like anything wet or sticky to be on her hands, especially when she is eating. We have gone through a lot of napkins. :) She also is particular about certain things. If there is any scrap of paper or food on the floor she immediately picks it up and walks to the trash can saying "yucky" and throws it away. She'll help me keep the floors clean! Tonight Jason couldn't figure out what Karla was wanting when she walked into the kitchen. He finally figured out that she wanted him to get the same bowl she used last night filled with Goldfish crackers. Then he had to sit in the same place on the floor where he was sitting last night. His legs had to be crossed - not straight - and then she sat down in her spot. I have uploaded a picture of the two of them.

Karla was giving out kisses to both of us today! We both loved it.

Karla got a new Elmo toy from Carey when she was in the hospital. She has been saying "Elmo" a lot!!

She is so cute and we can't wait for her to meet more of our friends and family!

I uploaded some more pictures to flickr from the past few days.

Home and Happy

Home again on a Wednesday night! Hopefully this time we'll be here longer. :)

Karla was discharged from the hospital this evening! Her diagnosis was (RAD) reactive airway disease - which is basically asthma. I guess in toddlers they have to have more than one episode to call it asthma. We will hope that is not the case. Now we know the warning signs and will be watching carefully for them. They are still saying she may or may not have had pneumonia. Her ear infections are almost gone. Guess what..she didn't have TB?

Everyone kept telling me she'd perk up all of a sudden. I didn't believe it...until I saw it! She was a totally different kid this evening than she was this morning. Praise the Lord!

Karla was sent home with 3 medications and an inhaler. Our first inhaler use at home went surprisingly very well!

I have to go settle down my two kiddos now...Mommy wants to go to bed!

Speaking of, this is from Karla: zsz`wsw`qwswz

Small Victories

This morning has been disappointing but there's been a few small victories. First the good news - Karla was taking off her IV this morning! She ate a little dinner last night and had a "big" breakfast this morning of toast and water. The doctor said that was good and they want to see if she'll eat lunch if they take her off the IV. The bad news is that she didn't have a good night with her oxygen saturation levels and she can't go home until she sleeps through the night at 92% or above while not being on the tubes. This is somewhat disappointing because it's a regression for her breathing from the night before BUT it's clear she's breathing a lot easier now. You can't see her ribs or her stomach lurch when she's trying to breath indicating that she's not wheezing for air anymore. So it may be that now that her body is comfortable not wheezing, she's still a little short on oxygen.

I got to attend the "rounds" discussion on her this morning. More good news is that they're "pretty certain" she doesn't have TB (duh!) or whooping cough but they're still waiting on both of those tests. Karla's TB test is "done" at 1am tomorrow and if it's negative this silliness about TB can end. They also said that she definitely had pneumonia on Thursday's chest x-ray and there was a little on her Sunday x-ray but it was mostly clearing up. The doctor said that they think she actually has/had a viral pneumonia instead of bacterial pneumonia since the antibiotics didn't make her perk up after a few days. They are still giving her the antibiotics for her ears. They also said she definitely has "RAD" (reactive airway disease) and that's the bulk of her problems right now. If they can get her airways working correctly, she'll go home.

The saddest part of all of this is that she's very angry when she's awake. The slightest move towards her by anyone makes her scream in anger because she thinks they're going to do something to her. Hopefully when we go home, she'll be back in surroundings she feels more comfortable with and won't be like she is now.

Aunt Brenda is coming to visit this afternoon.

O2

I slept until about 4:30 this morning. I had vaguely been aware of respiratory coming in to give Karla breathing treatments and the nurses taking her vitals overnight. She didn’t cry at all so I was able to stay in bed. At 4:30 the nurse was hovering over Karla for a while so I asked what was going on. She said she has been “desat – ing” all night, meaning her oxygen level kept dipping down below where it should be and then she would bring it back up within seconds. They had turned the alarm down a little bit so I guess that is why I didn’t hear it. Then, that is ALL I heard from 4:30 to 6. I pushed the help button at 5:30 because I was getting anxious. The nurse said respiratory was coming. At 6 the respiratory therapist came in and put her on oxygen. I was sad that was going to happen because, as the nurse said, it is a step backwards, but now that she has the little nasal canula of oxygen in her nose I feel relieved because I know she is getting the air she needs. It was time for her breathing treatment at 6 am too so she got that and has drifted back to sleep with oxygen levels near 100%. I am going to try to stop hovering now but I know I’m not going back to sleep for a while.

Please pray for her lungs and for the doctors to know what is happening inside of her little body! I’m feeling frustrated because I don’t know why this had to happen now and I don’t want anything to be wrong with her!

I called Jason at 4:45 am and asked him if I should “freak out”. He said no so I am staying calm. I told him to come before rush hour this morning so he can speak to the doctors as well. Who knows, he may be here any minute. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Karla!

Today is Karla's birthday! It didn't really seem like it since we were quarantined in a hospital room but I told her Happy Birthday many times and sang to her quite a few times. This is certainly not how I imagined her birthday - but I'm learning things are rarely how you imagine them. :) I am happy though because we are together and that is all that matters. I told Jason that I felt bad because we didn't have any presents or cake to give to her today. He said "she doesn't like cake, plus she hasn't eaten much the past few days and we are giving her the gift of health care". I thought that was funny and true. I'm sure it is what every 2 year old wants - poked and prodded ceaselessly. :)

Jason brought my computer to the hospital this evening. I feel like I'm back in a hotel room - caring for Karla, trying to sleep and blogging.

I just spoke to the doctor a little while ago. She seems to think that we could be able to go home on Wednesday. We can't go sooner because we won't have results of the TB test and because Karla just isn't well enough yet.

I have to keep reminding myself she is improving. It doesn't always seem like it because she is sleeping most of the time or crying because someone wants to touch her or listen to her breathing. Her breathing is still not as easy as it should be and she still hasn't eaten very much. It is so different than the little girl I could hardly keep up with just last week! Her oxygen levels have been normal since last night without having to wear the oxygen mask anymore. Whew...it was difficult keeping a mask on her! My arms are still recovering. She is continuing to receive breathing treatments every 4 hours. An additional antibiotic and a steroid were added to her regimen today. I don't think that the doctor's are seriously suspecting TB anymore because her arm has not reacted at all where they performed the test. Also, they said they wouldn't give her steroids if she had TB because it would make it worse.

I was trying to get a clear answer on what was going on tonight and what the "plan" is. The doctor said we may not get a clear answer. The main thing is - her chest x-rays haven't been normal and after being on antibiotics for 4 days and breathing treatments for 2 days she hasn't improved as much as we'd expect. The doctor said we may or may not get a "clear" diagnosis. We just want her to get better. They are confident she will but for some reason it is taking her a while.

The good thing about being "quarantined" is that we have our own private room. I can hear kids in the rooms next door...so I am very thankful we have our own room! Otherwise I might not get any rest. :) The bad thing is we can't have visitors! It is strongly "discouraged" anyway, just in case. I have been so excited to talk to people and for people to meet Karla...and we're isolated here. Oh well. Thank goodness we are in the U.S. and I speak the same language as the doctors and the 3 of us are together!