For Documentation Purposes

Today was a pretty scary day. My poor little Sadie spent most of the afternoon in the ER. Her woes seemed to be due to medical negligence, and so I write this to preserve the facts as we plan to move forward legally.

While in the PEMU earlier this week, Dr. Rabin suggested we start giving Sadie something called Baclofen to help with her high muscle tone. It's basically a muscle relaxer because she's tight all the time, he said he'll start her on the lowest dose and we'll see how she does. He also mentioned we should do it right then while she's on the monitoring because Baclofen can lower a person's threshold for seizures, and we'll know right away if this happens. We started it the next day, she was supposed to get .1mL 3 times a day, which is 1mg and BARELY a drop of medicine!

She seemed to do fine, and her muscles seemed to be relaxing, so Dr. Williams (the neurologist) wrote the prescription and the hospital found a pharmacy who would mix the compound and called it in. They also gave us the paper prescription when we were discharged Wednesday morning (she had been given 3 doses total when we left the hospital).

Brian picked up the prescription that afternoon and we gave her her first dose at home Wednesday evening (so she skipped the Wednesday midday dose). The bottle from the pharmacy said to give her 1mL, which is a lot more than the tiny drop we were giving her at the hospital. But, like so many medicines, I figured the concentration was different than what they were giving her at the hospital, and we gave her 1mL.

Sadie fell asleep that night at about 7:50pm. She snored a lot during the night, and even had some periods of apnea, it worried me a little bit, but I didn't know what it would be. She slept in her crib all night (which doesn't EVER happen), and when she stirred in the middle of the night, I pulled her to me to nurse back to sleep (and fill her tummy), but she fell back asleep as soon as she got close to me. I figured she had been cold and being next to me and under the covers made her all cozy so she could fall back asleep. I was AMAZED at how well she was sleeping! I even got up early and went for a walk!

I had to WAKE her up at 7:45am, and even that was tough. She didn't want to nurse, she wanted to go back to sleep!! I couldn't believe that she was still so tired! But I gave her another 1mL of medicine then (at 7:45) because that's when her next dose was supposed to be. Then I went to change her diaper and it was completely dry. I was amazed, and thought she must have slept hard! I was still having trouble keeping her awake though.

I got her dressed and tried to nurse her again, she sucked a little, but immediately started choking and coughing and gagging. I wondered if her new medicine was causing her throat to relax and making her aspirate. So, I called and left a message for her pediatrician. Then I tried to nurse again, same thing. She was really floppy, I could manipulate her arms and legs unlike she usually lets me, and she was very calm, dopey, not herself.

We had Occupational Therapy at 9:00am, Jessica came to work with Sadie. She noticed Sadie was sort of out of it also. When she got there I had placed Sadie on her tummy and she wasn't even crying like she usually does, she was just laying there passively. She didn't want to hold up her head, her top half was really floppy, but her legs were VERY stiff. And when she cried/protested, it sounded funny. Her voice sounded funny. About half way through therapy, I tried to nurse Sadie again because she was indicating that maybe she was hungry, and she nursed briefly, but she just wanted to fall asleep, so I pulled her off and gave her back to Jessica. At one point, when Jessica was holding her Sadie spaced out for a moment, even Jessica said, "you weren't with us for a moment there!" I wondered if that could have been a seizure and I worried since we had JUST come home with a seizure clearance.

As Jessica was leaving, I sat down to try to nurse Sadie again, thinking she was probably tired. She was crying a weird cry that didn't sound right, so Brian took her for a moment and he agreed with me that she was acting weird. I told him I wasn't going to give her anymore of that medicine until I talked to the doctor because I didn't like what it was doing to my baby. That's when Brian suggested maybe the dosing was wrong. During this conversation, Sadie had nursed herself to sleep in under 10 sucks and was SOUNDLY sleeping in my arms. Usually when Sadie sleeps, she startles a lot, and the slightest movement when holding her will wake her up, this was limp limbs, toss her around, never wake up sleep. We got the bottle of Baclofen and read the dosing again: 1mL. Then we read the strength, that it's 10mg/mL. I quickly did some math in my head and said to Brian, "wait, her prescription says to give her 1mg, and if this is 10mg/mL and we're giving her 1mL...we gave her 10mg!! No wonder she's dopey!"

We immediately called the pediatrician's office again, but nobody answered and we had to leave a message. Next I tried the neurologist's office and a nurse answered there, Stephanie. I told her what happened and she kept putting me on hold and trying to reach Dr. Williams or Dr. Jarrar (who also knows Sadie) to find out what to do. She said we could bring her in if we felt like we needed to, but Sadie was sound asleep in my arms and didn't seem to be too bad off. Stephanie told me that since it's a muscle relaxer to keep a close eye on her breathing, I assured her that Sadie was breathing, but her breathing wasn't normal. I asked her about the eating, because it was now 10:45 and Sadie hadn't really eaten much since 7:30 the night before!! She told me to try to wake her up at feeding times and encourage her to eat, but she may not be interested. She said it's important for her to sleep and when the medicine wears off she'll be hungry. And she made sure to tell me NOT to give Sadie anymore medicine until we talk to her again in the morning! She also asked about seizures. I told her I think maybe I saw one already. She told me to keep an eye on that and if I see Sadie having big seizures, cluster seizures, or doing anything concerning to bring her in right away.

I didn't want to put Sadie down. Her breathing was irregular. She was still snoring and having episodes of apnea, but I had to go to the bathroom and my stomach was growling because it was after 11:00 by this time! I laid her on the floor while I used the bathroom and made lunch and I noticed that her lips were blue. She looked dead and it scared me. But she was still breathing, so I figured we just needed to get through it and she'd be better tomorrow.

Then she woke up.

She woke up about 11:45am and was groggy, nursed a little, then went back to sleep for another half hour.

The next time she woke up (about 12:30) she wasn't happy at all. I couldn't get her to nurse, she just kept screaming, and her voice sounded funny (I think her vocal cords may have relaxed and this is why her voice sounded funny), it was lower, more throaty. So, I tried putting her in the bouncy seat and that didn't help either. I picked her back up and tried again to nurse her, more screaming. So, I laid her on my knees and she started shaking. Like weird shaking with her arms outstretched and uncontrollably. That scared me. I didn't know what to do, but then it happened again and the look on her face was of utter terror. I called the nurse back and she said, "I can hear her screaming, take her in."

I grabbed my purse, Sadie's blanket, and the medicine (and the written prescription) and headed out the door. I put Sadie in the car seat and called Brian as I was pulling out of the driveway. He said he'd meet us at the ER as soon as he could. Even though PCH is not the closest hospital, I knew it was the best place to take her since 1.they have all her records (and I mean ALL), and 2. I know they are the best at treating children. And I didn't regret it. The car ride was HORRIBLE. Sadie would stop screaming (probably because she was having a seizure) and I'd reach back and pat her on the head or flick her cheek to get her to cry again. I was so afraid she was going to stop breathing, and I couldn't see her. I knew as long as I could hear her crying she was breathing. The one time I WANTED her to scream in the car!!

PCH has free valet parking, so I pulled up and asked the guy where the ER was. He quickly wrote my ticket up and we practically ran to the door. When we walked in everything happened VERY FAST. I'm sure I looked terrified. I was carrying a screaming baby. One guy handed me a visitor's badge, another guy asked me what happened. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to bring the medicine, so I pulled it out of my purse and said, "she ODed on this." I followed a nurse back to a room and laid Sadie on the bed and that's when I saw the scariest thing I've ever seen. I saw a BIG seizure. Her pupils were dilated, her eyes were darting back and forth, her arms were outstretched shaking, then she'd bring them in tight and to her chest and everything went rigid. I said, "look! Look what she's doing!" I swear we all stood there with our mouths open and watched. They quickly got a pulsox on her to measure her oxygen levels, I told them her breathing was irregular, then they stripped off her clothes and put the EKG monitor stickers on her to measure her heart rate, and a blood pressure cuff went around her ankle. I was crying, they were telling me it's not my fault and I came to the right place, then the lady came to ask me who we are. This is why I came to PCH, all I had to do was tell her Sadie's name and birthdate and she was able to get everything from the system. That took a load off of me!

I was asked a lot of questions about Sadie's medical history and about what happened exactly and what I had observed up until now. Then Sadie calmed down a little bit, and I calmed down a little bit, and WHERE WAS BRIAN!!! Next a doctor came in to ask me more questions and to look at Sadie. He took the bottle of medicine and went to call a toxicologist. When I asked him how do we detox her, he said he was waiting to hear if what we gave her was a toxic amount. If it was determined that she did get a toxic amount, they'd admit her and keep her overnight. If not, they'd just keep her for a few hours to monitor her. By the time he came back, she was already coming out of it. The doctor told me she wasn't acting like she should if she'd ODed on Baclofen. When I asked him what it should look like, he described to me what Sadie had been doing the first half of the day, before the seizures started. But once she started seizing, she tightened back up and started screaming, instead of being floppy and comatose, like before. He said it's good that she was looking more normal, even her pupils were starting to shrink a little. By the time Brian got there she was almost quiet.

They decided to keep her and watch her for at least 4 hours. They wanted us to sit with her and let them know if we see anything weird, or normal, and they wanted to make sure she could eat and pee and stuff before she left. So, we sat there for a long time. And Sadie calmed down quite a bit, but everytime I started nursing her she'd cry, or even scream again. But, eventually she did nurse, and she started to fall asleep again, and eventually she did fall asleep, and she was soundly sleeping when the toxicologist came in to talk to us.

We relayed our story again to him and he assured us that any seizing that Sadie did did not cause permanent damage. The thing they'd worry about with seizures is low blood/O2 levels because these can cause lack of O2 to the brain, but Sadie's levels never went so low that she was in danger, and she was at 98% when we were talking to him. He also said that the amount she overdosed was not enough to have long-lasting effects on her system. He said we gave her 10X too much, but it'd really have to be 1000X to REALLY hurt her. So, that was good news too. He told us we could choose to keep her overnight for more monitoring, which he recommended, or we could take her home. He wanted to keep her there in case she had another big seizure with the crazy eyes and the tightening up of limbs and everything. He said they could break it via IV if she was in the hospital. We politely declined. We have the same medicine at home that they would give her in the hospital to break/treat the seizure, she seemed to be a lot better already, and we (I) did not want to stay another night in the hospital!! So, at 5:50pm, we left PCH and headed home.

Since we've been home, Sadie's been a little fussy. We had to give her her phenobarb (unfortunately), but then we took a nice long bath, and the warm water calmed her down quite a bit. She is still very tired, and as soon as we were out of the tub, she fell right asleep. And she's sleeping hard, she is laying next to me on the couch as I type. She will be sleeping with me tonight so that I can listen to her breathe all night! And hopefully in the morning, she'll be back to her *cheerful* self again. Poor little baby, what a rough day!

Day 2/ Night 2 in the PEMU

Another day down in the PEMU. Some things happened (like X-rays), and some didn't (like naps). Sadie screamed another day away, and then finally fell asleep an hour before daddy came. I've never needed a break from her so badly before!! And I did get a break once she woke up and Brian was there to watch her.

I went down to the library at the hospital and checked out two books. The first one is called The Out-of-Sync Child and claims it's the "parents' bible to Sensory Processing Disorder. I haven't started reading this yet, but I hope it has some ideas on how to help Sadie cope with her environment. The other book I checked out is called Teaching Motor Skills to Children with Cerebral Palsey. I might actually end up purchasing this book. It is really good and seems like the kind of thing we will want to continually reference as Sadie progresses. I just started reading this and it's like they KNOW my child, which makes me feel like the advice and exercises they recommend are credible. I'm excited about this book.

X-RAYS?! WHAAAA?!! That's the reaction I had. Sometimes it's like people at the hospital assume you can read their minds, so they just drop information in conversation like it's no big deal. Not much gets by me. I asked. The nurse told me some doctor I'd never heard of (let alone met) requested X-rays of Sadie's hips. I was sure they must have gotten her mixed up with someone else...but then she came back and told me it was actually Dr. Rabin (he's the rehabilitation therapist we saw the first night we were there). And actually, I was glad they were going to X-ray her hips, because I have hip issues that are hereditary, and her condition makes her prone to hip issues, plus genetics do too. The outcome was that her left hip is a little out of socket, so we are supposed to go see Dr. Rabin in a couple of weeks to talk about what to do about this. Because of my history they can't tell yet if Sadie's hip displasia is congenital or developmental, but I'm glad they're finding it now and not when she's learning how to walk.

Our night was rough, but that's to be expected with sleeping with the lights on. Sadie fell asleep fairly quickly once she had her medicine and her melatonin. Sadie's getting good at falling asleep nursing, but then letting go and not needing to nurse the entire time she's asleep, so I was able to sit there for a while with her while Brian and I hung out a little. And I met our night nurse. It was almost 7:30 and I mentioned to her that when Sadie wakes up in the middle of the night she can check her vitals (they have to put this blood pressure cuff on her and it squeezes and she hates it) and give her her (new) medicine, and more melatonin. This worked SO WELL the night before. What I didn't realize was that the night before we had a competent nurse. So, Sadie and I laid down around 8:00 and she slept soundly, while I laid there and listened to the announcement that visiting was over, then listened to people saying goodbye and leaving, then listened to children protest to shots/going to bed/etc, then listened to babies crying...finally I turned on some white noise. But, our nurse came in around 9:00 and listened to Sadie's heart and lungs and tummy, and we talked again about how I'd call her when Sadie wakes up (between midnight and 1) and we can do meds and melatonin. 1:00 came around, Sadie woke up, and I held up my side of the bargain. However, nurse "doesn't-get-it" had to call the doctor to approve the melatonin (even though we gave it to her the night before AND I told her twice I'd like to give it to her again), then wait for the pharmacy to send it up. It took almost 2 hours, and by the time we gave it to her we had lost our window of opportunity to go back to sleep peacefully. I ended up having to move to the little couch and nurse her to sleep, then bring her back to bed. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but 1. we were sleeping with the lights on and I was REALLY tired and cranky, and 2. she was all hooked up and moving her takes 2.5 hands (but it's easier with 3). Needless to say, I'm super mom and was eventually successful at not only putting her back to sleep, but transferring her to bed without her waking up. Whew!

Morning came too soon, and people started coming in and out of the room hustling and bustling about. Before we realized, there were 2 ladies in there removing Sadie's "headdress"!!! They never told me, but I figured it was a pretty fair assumption that we were going home! Soon after Dr. Williams came in to talk to us. I love what he said, "we treat seizures, and since she's not having seizures and there's no EEG seizure activity, there's no reason for her to be treated." I think we probably knew this 3 or 4 months ago...but the medical world needs real, tangible evidence. Now we have that evidence and we can go home and start weaning off the phenobarb. It's going to take 6 weeks to wean Sadie down because it's important her body doesn't go into shock or withdrawals from being on it for almost 7 months, but then we'll be done!! Dr. Williams was careful to tell me that Sadie still shows a lot of tendencies for seizure activity and don't be surprised if they show up later down the road, but he never promised it will or won't happen, just that we'll cross that bridge if we have to.

So, we go home victorious. To God be the GLORY for my baby's health and well-being. And may we never have to sleep with the lights on again!!

This was a test where they flash a strobe light into Sadie's eyes to see if it'll induce a seizure.

Cozied up with my babe.

This is Sadie sleeping, you can see the video of her in the background. We were always being watched, it was sort of creepy.

Taking the EEG off was a little easier than putting it on!

Sadie flirting with Dr. Williams (they were saying goodbye)

Day 1/Night 1 in the PEMU

PEMU stands for Pediatric Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, and boy do I wish we didn't have to be here!! Sadie is being hooked up to an EEG monitoring system to determine her seizure activity in hopes that we can be med-free...at least for seizures!

We got here about 7:15 Monday morning (on 8-9-10!) after Sadie had pretty much woken up around 2 and never really went back to sleep (maybe a short nap in the bouncy seat). So, we were all tired and cranky to begin with. But people at the Children's Hospital (PCH) are so nice, and they welcomed us no matter how whiney or cryee we were...mostly Sadie was this. Luckily, we had brought the bouncy chair with us, so Sadie was able to bounce for most of the morning, when they weren't squeezing her, and listening to her, and undressing her and measuring her. However, once they put on the EEG electrodes, we were told the bouncy chair 1. was too much movement on her head where the electrodes are, and 2. was too much motion and interfered with the EEG reading. So, we had to give it up cold turkey.

We met a new neurologist, Dr. Williams, the one recommended to us by our pediatrician (everybody LOVES our pediatrician, by the way...I think we hit the jackpot with her!). In the 20 minutes we talked with him, we probably got more useful information than we've EVER gotten from Dr. Jarrar in all our visits combined!! He said he was going to go ahead and make the diagnosis for cerebral palsy for Sadie (Dr. Jarrar simply told us they can't diagnose until kids are 2, but she'll have it for sure), and he really made sure I knew what that diagnosis means. Then he went the extra mile and called the library here at the hospital and had them put together a packet of information (complete with an available book list) about CP for us, and told us to check out the CP You Tube channel. When I mentioned that we don't communicate well with Dr. Jarrar and he's been recommended to us as a neurologist we might want to switch to, he told us that if it's determined that she's not having seizures, he'll give us a schedule to wean her off the phenobarb, then we won't really have to see neurology anymore unless she starts having seizures again at a later date...which is realistically possible. Then he mentioned that her muscles are tighter on one side more than the other and wanted us to talk to a habilitation therapist (I think Dr. Jarrar mentioned this therapist, however, all she said was we needed to see him...not how, why, or who he was). This therapist, Dr. Rabin, came in later and mentioned that we could get a brace for Sadie's trunk to help her with sitting. He also said there's medicine to help with muscle tone that can help her have more control over her limbs (which would be nice as she's starting to sort of bat at things and reach for them). We're going to try this medicine while we're here in the hospital because one of the side effects is that it lowers her threshold for seizures, Dr. Rabin thought since she's being monitored right now it'd be a safe place to experiment. (the other side effect he mentioned was sedation...which I don't like, but on a low dose it might just be enough to make her tolerable)

Once the electrodes were put on Sadie's head, which she HATES, she continued to scream for another 3 hours!!! We had no bouncy chair, so I was stuck just letting her tire herself out...which you would think would be short seeing as how she was short on sleep. Nope, not my daughter!! Unfortunately, we are also being video monitored, so not only could everybody in the hall hear her screaming, but most of the staff could also SEE how miserable we were. However, this turned out to be a blessing once she finally fell asleep because they knew how long and miserable the going to sleep process was, and they knew not to disturb us. So, we had 3 good hours of napping undisturbed. Luckily, my dad came during this time and I was able to hand Sadie off to him and get a break. There's no way I would have been able to sit there for that long with her! And I was able to lay down for a few minutes as well. It's hard to move around with her anywhere because she's all wired in and whenever you go anywhere with her, you also have to take this "battery pack" pouch and make sure none of her cords are tangled. It's not easy if you're by yourself.

Later in the evening, Brian came and we were able to have dinner and get Sadie her medicine. She luckily went to sleep pretty quickly. It was funny because her bedtime is right about when the nurse shift changes, so our new nurse came in to check her vitals and stuff and I was like, "she's down for the night, sorry dude." So, we agreed I'd call him when she woke up, which happened to be about 1:00am. We had also talked to the nurse about giving her a second dose of melatonin at this wake up juncture (because she has a tendency to wake up and NOT go back to sleep for 3-4 hours), so we were able to give her more of that around 1:30 and in an hour she was back asleep...until 8!!

Sleeping was rough on me. When we first checked in to the hospital they had a crib in the room for her and told me the couch folds out for me to sleep on. I very politely told them there's NO WAY she's gonna sleep in the crib without me...as much as I'd like her to. So, they brought in a bed for us to lay in. It wasn't a bad size, we both fit in it pretty well, so I think that helped her sleep as well. But because they have to video her, we had to leave the lights on all night...OYE! Okay, for one, it was a little creepy to be videotaped sleeping (even though I bet we were pretty cute all cuddled up together), but we layed down about 8:00pm, and I woke up at 9:30 SURE it was probably 2 in the morning already. I couldn't believe it'd only been about an hour and a half!!! Sleeping with the lights on is ROUGH, like prisoner torture rough. Plus, to top it off, the night shift wasn't real quiet out in the hall at about 3:30, and starting at about 7am, they started coming in our room and checking things.

This morning, Sadie has been in THE BEST mood!! Sleeping really helps...if only I had had restful sleep as well, but I think we know what to do now at home. Dr. Williams just came in and told us he saw NO SEIZURES yesterday!! woo-hoo!! He said I almost fooled him when I was bouncing her (during her 3 hours of SCREAMING), but then he looked at the video and saw why it looked like seizures (see? good thing they do the video). He said of course she is still at a 70%-90% risk of developing seizures in the future because of the brain damage she suffered, but that if he sees the same thing today he'll let us go home tomorrow, with a schedule to wean her off the phenobarb. This is the best news we've had since we were discharged from hospice!

So, we're here for Day 2 in the PEMU. I'm going to try to get down to the library, and try not to be too bored! Keep praying for us!

This is Geri, she's done all of Sadie's EEGs, even the ones in the NICU. She's really nice.

Daddy always makes it better with his silly noises and his kisses.

These are the electrodes Geri put on her head, 25 of them. Each spot scrubbed, dabbed, and "cemented."

Almost done and ready for the gauze hat!

Geri working on Sadie's head. She is VERY good at what she does. I'm always amazed.

Sadie's ski mask...or we like to call it, her "abominable snowman costume!"

Finally asleep with grandpa after 3 hours of screaming.

So happy after a nap!

Getting ready to go to bed!

Tired baby. She was asleep within minutes of this picture!

Generic Post

No Pictures. Not even an interesting story to make up for it. We made baba ghanoush but only documented the Egg Plant as whole, post grilled and then the finished product. We completely forgot the middle steps and considered inserting a Sienfeldian "yadda yadda yadda" into the recipe but that didn't seem fair considering someone, anyone, might actually be inspired to try baba ghanoush.

We only made it because it is the only productive portion of our garden at this point. Everything else burned up or is barely alive trying to survive until it cools down. We harvested 10 Egg Plants and needed a unique way to eat it.

A fun Sadie story, she has begun to realize when we are not in a room with her. This is an event that brings us mixed emtions. We really like the development, however the whimper cry when we're not with her (going to the bathroom, rummaging through the fridge, inspecting cat damage during their desperate ploys for attention, etc.) is a bit troublesome.

Coming up: Sadie has her lengthy EEG to determine whether or not she is having seizures. We suspect they do not exist.

Foundation for Blind Children

Last week we were visited by a lady named DeEtte from the Foundation for Blind Children. Since Sadie has been diagnosed with CVI (cortical visual impairment) she qualifies for services from FBC, and I had no idea how much of a blessing that would be!!

DeEtte was super nice. She played with Sadie a little, she had a bag of tricks which included a big yellow and gold pom-pom. Sadie LOVED the pom-pom and DeEtte showed me that Sadie was even trying to touch it a little. She really likes yellow, I guess yellow and red are the easiest colors to see. (McDonald's is genius when it comes to marketing!) DeEtte was impressed and noticed that Sadie really sees a lot and is able to follow a lot of different things. She recommended getting Sadie a toy bar so that we can hang toys in front of her face and encourage her to bat at them.

She gave me a flyer about deep tissue massage, which is supposed to help organize Sadie so that she's not so sensorily stressed out (I don't think sensorily is a word, but it fits best with what I want to say) and she recommended the book where the flyer information was taken. I ordered it on Amazon that day.

But the best thing she told me about was the infant program at the FBC Center. This is a play group they do Friday mornings and it starts with music therapy, then lets the adults split off into a group where they can talk, while the children continue to play with other FBC staff. This sounds like MY kind of play group!! Other special needs parents? All the babies will be special instead of us being the only ones? Free music therapy?! How could it get any better?! (you can read more about it here)

This morning we attended for the first time. What DeEtte failed to tell us (probably because that's not really her department) is that in the summer time, they 1. have the infant program in a different building, and 2. it's only the music therapy portion, oh and 3. it starts at 9:30 instead of 9:00. So, when we showed up this morning, there was a decent amount of confusion, but we found it and we had fun...well, I had fun. Sadie made it through about the first song, then she fell asleep and slept through the whole thing!! haha!


We plan to go back next week (and maybe even participate). Then the week after next the program goes back to "normal" and we'll be able to participate in the entire thing. I'm really excited about this, and I'm so glad we've been hooked up with the Foundation for Blind Children.

I'm sorry it's hard to hear, but I thought you'd enjoy the last song we sang!

First Foods

We've officially embarked onto the world of first foods. My original desire would have been to use the baby-led weaning method, and I'm a little sad that we haven't been able to go that route, but it's really all about exploring and grabbing and baby sticking things in her own mouth. Sadie can't do those things yet. And who know how long until she will, so we instead have started with purees and a spoon.

When we saw Dr. Wendy last week I asked about solids and she mentioned that she thought it'd be okay to start stage one foods. She told me to watch for severe tongue thrusting (like not getting ANY down her throat) that doesn't seem to be correcting itself. This is a sign that she's not ready. And of course we had to really be careful of choking and watch for that since everybody is still hyper-paranoid about her swallowing. (HIE babies have swallowing issues, Sadie seems to have grown out of hers, but nobody is willing to accept that) Armed with what the doctor told us, a high chair, and some fresh pureed squash from the garden, we went for it!


Sadie did really well her first time. She didn't eat a lot, but that's to be expected. She was able to figure out how to use her tongue to swallow...after a few tries. And still most bites end up all over her face! She is pretty cute though when she eats. The next day, we tried again and she ate a LOT more that time. She's doing such a good job!

So, we continue with squash for the rest of the week, being careful not to introduce too many new things at once, just in case! Then maybe over the weekend we'll try bananas. There is conflicting advice as to whether to start with vegetables or fruits for worry that your baby will get hooked on the sweetness of fruits, but bananas seems like a great next try!

I'm working on making my own baby food and have gotten a book from the library all about it. It seems pretty easy, and since I'm cheap, it shouldn't be hard to do, especially as she grows into more sophisticated stuff. We have a food processor and a freezer, that seems to be all we need really. HERE WE GO!!!

Hippy Banana

We have been hippy-ifying ourselves quite a bit recently. We recycle nearly everything. We compost our kitchen scraps and we garden extensively. We use cloth diapers. We however have taken a new step in our Hippy-tastic lifestyle. We now are proud owners of a wheat grinder.

A few years ago we had dinner with Aunt Elisabeth. We spoke about libraries, El Paso and grinding wheat. I thought grinding wheat sounded like a blast and a very interesting thing to do. Fast forward a while later, and we ran into Aunt Liz again. She proudly told us that she managed to secure two giant buckets of unopened wheat kernels. Awesome! Thanks! How do we grind it? Stone and pestle she joked. She recommended that we find someone with a wheat grinder and borrow theirs. I know of no one who owns a wheat grinder locally. So the wheat berries sat in our kitchen enjoying the pantry.



We recently bought a new washer - don't worry, we clothes line dry our clothes -a front loading washer with a sanitation cycle (to sanitize cloth diapers). At the time of purchase there was an Arizona Rebate program going on. It essentially was a cash for clunkers but for old inefficient washing machines. So we signed up for it, and three months later received a 200 dollar gift credit card. We used it to buy a wheat grinder.




We made bread using the ground wheat last night, however the outcome was awful as the bread did not rise. The end product was a cinder block, teeth chipping chuck of wheatastic inedible disappointment. I'll try again once I'm done mourning.


The other learned bit of knowledge: my arm is sore from grinding 2 cups of wheat. It is hard work. The appeal of an electric grinder is apparent. Plugging an electric grinder in and pressing "go" is certainly easier. On the bring side, grinding 2 cups of wheat will give me a 20 minute arm work out. Yes....20 minutes.