A Long Day

There are some days that we just have no control over...this was one of those days!  People often ask me "How do we do so much in a single day?"....others ask "WHY do we do so much in a single day?"  I usually tell them that it is not a choice so much as our calendar filling itself.  This is a perfect example of what I mean.

We started our day with Henry's art lesson (he has one more tomorrow) which was designed to fulfill a birthday gift.  We did not set up the dates for these classes but were determined to get Henry to the classes because he really enjoys them and does such a great job drawing.  So, the date was set for this class several weeks ago by the instructor...in other words, we had no control over this date on our calendar.  We left the house at 9am and the class ended at 11am.

Now...entering in a two hour break without anything to do.  Why...you might ask...are we waiting around for two hours?  Today Zaira turned two weeks!  [SO HARD TO BELIEVE TWO WEEK HAVE GONE BY ALREADY!!!!!] And, she needed to have her two week check up along with the torturous PKU test.  So the only appointment time with the doctor was 1pm.  Again, no choice for us as we added it to the calendar! So to make it work we had a picnic lunch among the trees at the nature center and waited for the doctor to arrive at the clinic.

not Zaira but close to what hers looked like

Zaira's appointment went well.  She gained an ounce from her birth weight.  After the normal newborn loss, we were glad to know that she was back up to her weight and then some.  She also grew 3/4 in...so we were happy with these stats.  The doctor also was impressed with her obvious control of her eyes and reflexes.  There was only two items that needed to be addressed.  At birth, we were told that she had an issue with her tongue.  The flap of skin attaching her tongue to the gums (known as the frenulum) was extended to the tip of her tongue.  This condition is known as Ankyloglossia [better known as being tongue tied].  The tongue is stuck to the bottom of the mouth by a band of tissue called the lingual frenulum.

We were told in the hospital that it was a procedure that might need a specialist.  They had me a little concerned, so I was not sure what to think when I took Zaira in today.  Come to find out...Surgery is seldom necessary, but if it is needed, it involves cutting the tissue under the tongue. This surgery is called a frenulotomy.  AND, our pediatrician was able to do it in less than a minute with me holding Zaira in my arms!  

The other issue was her umbilical cord!  Can you believe that she does not have her belly button yet?  When I asked the doctor, he laughed and said that the cord was so thick it was going to be at least another week before it would be off!  That was a relief but also funny because I had been told that I had large cords for my babies.  Maybe that is why I have such big babies....they can get more to eat through that big tube!!!  So we will have to wait a little longer to have a sweet little belly button.

When I asked about the PKU test, he told me that he did not do that test in the office because he wanted to babies to like him!  LOL!  So, we had to make another trip before the end of the day to get the tests done.  Which meant yet another appointment was slipped onto our calendar!

We had to race home...grab some supplies for our 4H expo night (also not our idea for the calendar but had to be done on this date...see my 4H blog for that part of the story) and head to the hospital lab.  We got there after three tries looking for the location.  Thankfully, the lab was not busy and we were in and out after a painful 15 minutes!

Raced to the store to buy salad for the 4H dinner (so glad I picked an easy side dish to serve!).  And then off to set up for the project booths we were sponsoring.

So glad to be home after the long day.  Praise God for giving us the strength to make it through.