handsful

the blue laundry basket!

I got some comments/questions about the picture of Lainey in the blue laundry basket, asking did I REALLY have it long enough to have pics of all my kids in it. So, I went looking through my albums and here ya’ go. Forgive the photos, this was before the age of digital (how did we ever survive?)

Here’s Abbey, my 12 year old, enjoying some playtime in the basket? It took years for her to grow into those cheeks.

And, here is Payton, Marley and Ethan (l to r) all squeezed in together! Payton looks concerned, Marley looks content, and Ethan looks like he’s thinking of something naughty to do.

I’d love to know exactly how many baby clothes have passed through this basket…so far! :)

Who me??

We’re never sure which one we’re gonna get these days! I know I mentioned in an earlier post that Lainey has been a little edgier than normal. Well, it’s still true. I have to imagine that her little self is getting a wee bit tired of all these restrictions on her freedom…the poor girl can’t bend her arms, swim in the pool, or play with spoons (she loves dishes…). But, the hardest thing for her has been the loss of control over her food.

She has to totally depend on us to feed her, which means she can’t choose which thing she’s eating first, how fast she’s eating it, etc. She gets REALLY frustrated with us. If the syringe with milk is heading toward her mouth, but she wanted the sweet potato? You’ll get the “Lainey show” of crying, combined with throwing the head back in frustration! And, to make things even more interesting, she might throw a fuss about NOT wanting something and then when we push it away she lurches towards it like she’s DYING for it?!?! Oh, it’s fun, don’t you all with you were here??

She LOVES sunglasses…

The good news is we’re on Day 8 and she only has a week more of her no-no’s…that is, as long as the surgeon okays it on her 2 week follow-up on 6/12. We’ve been told we can now give her full-fledged baths (we’d been standing her in the tub, washing her from the neck down, and then lying her on the sink counter to wash her hair. Big pain!). She’ll love that she gets bath privileges back! She still can’t swim in our pool until the surgeon approves it on the 12th. We’ve cut back on her pain meds, and she seems just fine. And, her sleep is much better, taking naps and sleeping through the night most of the time. Whew.

One of her fav activities…having the kids push her around the tile floor in the famous blue laundry basket. Why is it famous, you ask? We have pictures of the other kids as babies sitting in it…one, with the triplets in it at one time :)

Lainey completed day 5 of her cleft palate surgery recovery today…9 more days of no-nos. Not that I’m counting. And, honestly, Lainey doesn’t seemed phased by them at all. I anticipated all sorts of crying, whining, and down right fit-throwing with them. When we dress her in the morning and have to take them off, she’s fine to put them right back on, even offering her arms to me.

We need to raise the counters up a little…

Feedings have been pretty easy, too. We either use a disposable cup or syringes with a short bit of rubber tubing at the end. Everything is pureed very smoothly, to a “pouring paint” consistency. Nothing like mac n’ cheese with chicken and veggies that will squirt through a syringe. Yum. She’s loving it. Her favorites have been mashed potatoes and gravy and cream of chicken soup. Tomorrow, we can be a little more adventurous, going to “soft foods”…things like scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, over-done pasta, etc. Things that require very little chewing.

Another first; painted toes! She’s helping me blow them dry. She can now blow air through her mouth! Look out, birthday candles!!

Her sleeping has been slightly disturbed with her recovery…she didn’t nap AT ALL yesterday, just played in her crib for 2 hours. Today was better, thankfully! She’s woken up a couple of times during the night, but has gone back to sleep. We’re still waking her to give her Motrin around 3am and she’s been much happier in the morning. We’ll wean her from it over the next few days. Others have told us that they kept their kids on pain meds for the first week.

So, we’re pretty much getting back into life as normal. The big kids have a little more than a week left of “full school” (all subjects), then they have their testing a week from Friday. After that, we’ll keep plugging along with math and grammar through the summer, just a few days a week. We’re all feeling the pull of summer and those 4 July birthdays around the corner! Three 10 year olds, and one 2 year old! I better stock up on candles…