Going Home

Alayah still isn't drinking much, but they decided to send her home because she is just not having anything to do with being in the hospital. They hope that her being at home will help her recover quicker. I never thought we would be in the hospital so long for an outpatient surgery.

I snapped a picture of this mural on the wall leading to the pediatric unit. Alayah was so glad to be going home, but she had another freak out moment when it came to removing the i.v. Hopefully, she will come home and feel much better with her own cups and toys and bed and movies. :)

Day 2 in the hospital

Alayah didn't do so well during the night as far as drinking goes, so we are still here. She is supposed to be drinking several cups of juice a day and at this point she has only had maybe an ounce in the entire day and that is with me forcing her to drink. She is miserable and I am miserable. I think that she would do so much better at home because she is so scared of everything here, but they won't let us until she starts drinking.

She got a burst of energy this afternoon so we took a wagon ride around the unit. It was really hard trying to pull her in a wagon and push her i.v. pole at the same time. Not something that I want to get good at either. It was so sad walking past the rooms on her floor. I saw some with small babies all alone, some with chemo signs, and others with older children who looked very sick and were also alone. I know Alayah just had her tonsils out and will better in no time, but it really hits home how fragile life is and how many other families are going through far worse. I said silent prayers for all of them as we passed their rooms. Today was a long day and they said she has to stay another night. *sigh* Hopefully, tomorrow we can go home. I'm bummed Alayah will miss out on the fun of Easter, but she isn't alone as all the other kiddos on this floor are missing out too.

Surgery Day

I woke Alayah up right before we left to go to the hospital. I wanted her to sleep as long as possible since she wasn't allowed anything to eat or drink. She woke up a little after 9 and we left at 9:30 so it worked out well. She was in a good mood on the way there, but that was only because I didn't tell her where we were going.

As soon as we pulled into the hospital parking lot she started screaming and crying that she didn't want to go to the doctors. Not a good way to start out the day for either one of us. We were told to be at the hospital at 10 and that her surgery would be around 10:45. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist was held up and Alayah didn't get taken back to the pre-op area until after 2pm. It was a very long wait for someone who hadn't eaten and was thirsty. Once they took us back the nurse showed Alayah her bed. Alayah heard dead. Screaming and crying of "I dont wanna be dead" carried whenever a nurse walked by. If the nurses tried to touch her or put anything on her she would scream "it's going to kill me!" It was horrible. I was dreading them taking her from me when it was time for her surgery because she was so upset being there. Luckily, she fell asleep right before they came to get her, so she didn't even know that I left.

The surgery only took 45 minutes, but it seemed like forever. I was called back and my poor girl looked so small laying in the hospital bed. All the other kids that had gone before Alayah had already gone home except for one and he was getting ready to leave when I got back there. The nurse told me Alayah was going to need to stay the night so they could keep an eye on her. I was really disappointed because I didn't understand why she had to stay when everyone else got to leave. They said she could go home during the night if she did well, so I let it go and hoped we would be leaving soon.

Alayah was moved upstairs to the pediatric unit and again was freaked out anytime someone would come into the room. I felt so bad for her and I just wanted to go home. They brought her a tray of food and she ate all the corn on the plate and a whole cup of jello. Later, I found out the tray wasn't for her, but for someone who was in the room before her. I guess she wasn't supposed to be eating that type of food so soon after surgery.

Alayah was extremely afraid of her i.v and for several hours we had to hide her arm under her blanket so she couldn't see it. Today did not go as I had expected and everything from the very beginning seemed to go wrong. I never imagined having to stay the night in a hospital with my baby. It is something I never want to do again.

Night before Surgery

Tomorrow is Alayah's surgery and I am stressing out. She can't have anything to eat or drink after midnight tonight and her surgery isnt until after 10am tomorrow. It seems like such a long time to keep her from eating or at least drinking. I think I will have her stay up really late and then hopefully she will sleep in tomorrow and I can just wake her up and take her to the hospital and she won't have time to think about being hungry or thirsty. At least in my head that's what I'm hoping for. *sigh* I just hope she isn't in too much pain after surgery and I hope she doesn't scream when they take her away from me.

Criss Cross Frohawk

I'm really liking this style. It will definitely be something I do again.

First time in 8 Months

So Alayah's dad called and said the he was coming through town and wanted to see her. He hasn't seen her since August. I didn't want to take her, but I knew I should. We met him at his delivery site and Alayah got to hang out in his truck for a little bit. Like 5 minutes because after 5 minutes she said she wanted to go home.

The notepad she is standing on contains information about her dads wedding plans. Apparently, he is getting married and of course he hasn't mentioned even having a fiance to me before lol. I think he left it there on purpose so that I would see it and say something about it, but I didn't. I just skimmed it real fast and ignored it the rest of the time. I was a little annoyed that he only had is son listed as being in the wedding party not his two daughters. Why aren't they included?

Since Alayah wanted to leave so quickly we walked around the store he was delivering to and looked at all the stuffed wildlife. Alayah was ready to go pretty quickly into that excursion too.

He barely talked to her and spent most of the time just holding her hand and walking. Now if it were me and I hadn't seen my child in 8 months I would want to hold her as much as possible and I would want to talk to her and ask her things. I would want to learn as much as I could about her. Not him...*sigh* At least Alayah wasn't disappointed by his lack of affection. She was just ready to go home.

Pajama day and Family Picnic day

Today was pajama day at school so Alayah had to go all out and wear slippers too.

It was also family picnic day, so I called into work so that I could go with her. I would have felt horrible if she was one of the only ones that didn't get to have her mommy or daddy there. I'm glad that she had a great day

Sweet but not so Innocent

I came home from a date to find this cute little cuddle girl laying in my spot on my bed. I couldn't wait to snuggle up with her, but something just wasn't right.

Upon closer examination I found these self inflicted nail polish wounds on her toes...

her hands....my sheets my headboard...and then I couldn't quite figure out where the extreme smell of nail polish was coming from.

Until I found this. She had put the bottle back in the basket without screwing on the lid and put it in upside down. *sigh* I think I got high that night from the fumes lol. I couldn't even get mad at her because she was already asleep. She is good....real good lol

ENT

We went to see the ENT today and 10 minutes later we left with her scheduled for surgery on 4/22 to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out. I'm scared and nervous for her. I know she needs to have them out, but I don't want to put her through pain. I'm dreading it more than I did her ear tube surgery. Prayers our way please :)

Moment in Time Monday

I love this shirt and I love Alayah's afro. Everyone at school loved this shirt too :) They said it looked exactly like her hair which is something I really appreciate. I appreciate that her teachers understand the positive association I am trying to make with Alayah and her hair. :)

Build a Bear

We took the girls to Build a Bear today and they had so much fun. Alayah picked out a puppy and she picked out a sound chip of a puppy of course lol.

Alayah seemed really shy but she warmed up toward the end.

Getting her puppy all clean and brushed

Her finished puppy. She loves it.

Double Duty

Its much more work doing two heads of hair every morning lol.  The girls keep each other entertained though so that is helpful.

Today we just spent the day shopping at the outlet malls. I don't know why but the girls always chose to ride in my stroller. I don't even know why we brought my friends stroller because the girls never rode in it.

After shopping we took the girls home to hang out with my parents for the night and my friends and I headed out to Fremont street to do ziplining. It was tons of fun and I can't wait to do it again. :)

Hitting the strip

I think its so funny to see these two next to each other when they are only 23 days apart. They are so different. Alayah started out the morning with an earache that she cried about all night long. I took her to the doctor and of course she had an ear infection. Alayah always starts out trips with a bang. :)

We started the day at the mile high shops at Planet Hollywood or Ph as they call it.

Alayah was so excited to see the "babbits" they had at City Center.

Alayah also got to see Elmo...although I think this was a gangster Elmo.

The girls had lots of fun at the M&M store. It's so much fun to see things through a child's eyes. It makes  you stop and enjoy things more when you see their joy in the little things.

together again

Our friends from New Mexico finally made it to come see us. They were supposed to come for Alayah's birthday, but they got snowed out and couldn't get into town. Alayah was so excited to see her friend and even though they havent seen each other since last summer they hit it off like they had never been apart. I love these girls :)

I guess I should

Alayah was so excited to wear this shirt because of what it said. Normally, I do not buy shirts that say anything with Daddy on it because well he isn't around and doesn't do anything for her so why should he get credit for her being his princess or his little girl etc. I want shirts that say I love Mommy or Mommy's princess etc. I don't know what got into me, but I decided to go ahead and get her this shirt and she loves it . She was excited to show everyone at school and tell them what it said.

Going to the Park

Today was a nice sunny day and I didn't have work so I took my girl to one of the parks near our house. She was so excited. I was excited because everything there looked so cool. She kept me on my toes though running around the entire place. She never stayed one place long.

After the park she said she wanted pizza and cartoons, so we headed to our favorite place to eat. We had such a good fun day. These are the moments I will treasure always.

I also got my first sunburn of the year today lol

Fremont Street

We went to Fremont street tonight and as always it was quite entertaining. The last time we came here Alayah was asleep so she didnt see anything. This time however, she was wide awake. She didn't like all the loud noises and within the first ten minutes I had a hooker tell me how beautiful she was. Note to self: probably not the best place to be bringing your 3 year old. Bad parenting moment 112 for me.

We moved down the street away from the scantily clad dancers and "weirdos" to the guy who plays saxophone. He is really good and we stood and listened to him for quite awhile.

Alayah was entertaining folks by dancing around and just being her silly little self.

I also wanted to note that Alayah woke up with croup this morning so we stayed home from school and I stayed home from work. I took her to the doctor and I told her they weren't giving her a shot just medicine but the doctor made me out to be a liar. They ended up giving her a shot and I felt bad for fibbing. Luckily she didn't even notice them giving it to her. She cried afterwards. I also informed the doctor that she snores in her sleeps and has apnea episodes so we also left the doctors office with a referral to an ENT. Joy