Grandma Mary

 My sweet Grandma Mary passed away this month. I love her and I miss her so much but am grateful that she is no longer suffering in this life. Her love and kindness was always unconditional. I look forward to seeing her again someday.

 Grandma got to love on Claire and Sean. She was already struggling with Alzheimer's by the time Luke came along. Grandma and Kaylin met when Kaylin was two days old. I wish I had managed a picture but Grandma was not well.

 Her funeral was on Saturday, March 8th. It was a beautiful day. The program was lovely and we appreciated so much support. It was very apparent that Grandma touched many lives. I was in charge of watching all the crazy great-grandkids in the nursery for a time.

 I'm glad that Mark was apart of everything. Grandma and Grandpa both accepted him and loved him as a Grandson.

                                                     My mom and her sister

                                                 My family minus Brian in Texas

 

Everyone loves Claire

                                      This little girl makes everything all better.

Kaylin's rough year

Kaylin will turn one year old on Friday. I was doing some math and found some interesting figures from her first year. In her first year, Kaylin has:

• Been to the Emergency Room
• Seen two specialist
• Had three jaundice tests her first week of life
• Had 7 x rays on her leg
• Fractured a bone in two places
• Provided two stool samples for testing(I literally threw up collecting those)
• Had two blood draws-one was super smooth and one was incredibly traumatic
• Spent 6 weeks with major diahrrea
• Cut 5 teeth in the month of March

Our sweet baby girl has been through too much this winter. We met with a Pediatric Gastroenterologist. It was determined that the original virus from our trip in St. George moved down into her bowels and damaged the lining of her intestines. The cilia no longer functioned properly thus causing the food to flush quickly through her system. At the worst part of the experience she had diarrhea 8-10 times a day. Another side effect was her new intolerance to milk. Things got much better when we switched her to soy formula. After 2 months I finally feel like things are back to normal. The doctor assured us that her system would eventually heal itself and I believe it has. She has a healthy appetite and has amazed us by her ability to eat anything we offer her!! I made some mistakes with the older three by catering to what they wanted to eat and have had to really work with them on eating. It has been wonderful to sit down with a baby and feed her whatever I'm eating. She likes bbq sauce, sweet and sour sauce and tomato sauce. This has been a great blessing in my life. I'm experimenting with milk products this week. I would love to be able to switch her to cow's milk but I don't think she is ready. I gave her a bottle of regular formula last week and she woke up from a nap in pain. Hopefully this part resolves itself as well.  I am grateful for the progress she has made and for how her body has healed. I am hopeful that her second year of life will be less traumatic.