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| Payton showing us how old she is now! |
1 Year Old Stats:
Age: 12 months
Weight: 23 pounds (78th%)
Height: 30.75 inches (99th%)
Favorite toy: Baby Einstein iPod, Touch & Feel books
Favorite toy that’s not a toy: Dixie, everything inside of cabinets
New foods: Eggs, cow’s milk, beef
Favorite food: Cheese
Least favorite food: Jarred baby food
Number of teeth: 8
Makes her smile: She closes the door where we can’t see her and then she opens it and we saying, “There she is!”, having Daddy feed her and Mommy says, “She can’t feed herself, she’s too little” and then Daddy helps her use the spoon to feed herself and Mommy acts shocked
Makes her laugh: Dixie playing, Tickling her
Makes her cry: People she doesn’t know very well holding her
Favorite place to be: Outside, climbing on Mommy or Daddy or climbing over pillows on the floor
Can say: “Haaa” (which means “Hi”) while waving
Milestones: Taking steps on her own in between Mommy and Daddy, pointing at things
Clothing size: 18-24 months
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| On her little horse that LaLa and Grandfather gave her. |
I’m One
I wake up each morning with a smile on my face. Stand up in my crib and decide to see what happens when I drop my pacifier to the ground. Amazing, it still falls. Then I realize that I can’t reach it and I want it. So I fuss until mom comes in to get me out of bed. I’m One.
I love my dog Dixie. She pretty much avoids me most of the time. She likes her personal space. But I can crawl after her and smile at her as she runs away. When I eat a snack she stays real close to me and then I can pat her back nice and hard. I also know which toys belong to her and when I find them lying around the house, I bring them to her. Sometimes Mommy and Daddy play with Dixie. She runs to get a toy and it’s so funny I just have to laugh. I’m one.
I know how to push buttons and work all of my toys. I laugh when I make the phone ring in the Little People house, when I push the “party” button on my Trick-or-Treat with Elmo book, and when I play music on my Rock With Elmo juke box. I’m one.
Many times each day I love pulling all of the Tupperware containers out of the cabinet and throwing them across the kitchen. I also like to pull things out the pantry, the cabinet on my dresser, my toy chest, my toy bucket, the books off my book shelf, and basically anything else I can get my hands on. I am not a handful though. I do help put things back up. One block goes in the bucket. Two blocks go in the bucket. One, two, three, four, five, six blocks get thrown out of the bucket and across the room in all different directions! I’m one.
I pay close attention to see if anyone might open the frig or the dish washer. Those are some of my favorite places to explore because Mommy and Daddy try hard to keep me out of them. Despite their best efforts I often make it there in time because although I can’t walk yet, I am a lightning fast crawler. And I know how to stand, even on my tippy toes when needed to reach things that I want. I’m one.
I can climb too. My specialty is climbing over people or pillows that are lying on the ground. It’s like an obstacle course. But I can also climb up onto furniture too. I’m one.
People love when I wave at them and say “Haa” (“Hi”) so I wave at pretty much everyone that I see. Sometimes people that I wave at have their backs to me but that’s okay. I also like to wave at dogs, cats, and inanimate objects. I’m one.
I love my parents very much but I’m not real sure what they want me to do when they ask silly questions like, “Who is Mama?” and “Who is Dada?” I do, however, understand the question, “Who is Dixie?” She is my dog, of course! I’m one.
I can give high fives, show that I’m “Sooo big” and clap my hands on command. But only when I’m in the mood for such things. I’m one.
I know how to drink from a straw and I can feed myself finger foods. Sometimes it makes me irritated when Mommy and Daddy try to spoon feed me something. My favorite foods are all kinds of cheese, fresh fruit, and hard boiled egg whites. That’s right, I like to mash the yokes with my fingers but I only eat the egg whites. I’m one.
I think the moon is fascinating and point to it each time that I see it. I can also point it out in some books that I own. Sometimes I even say “Mmm” when I see the moon. Of course I also say “Mmm” when I point to most everything. I’m one.
I only really need my pacifier when I sleep. But I know my pacifier lives in my crib so often when I see my crib I feel like I absolutely must have it. Sometimes I can reach my arms though the crib slats to get it myself. But when I can’t I fuss until someone gets it for me. I’m one.
I’m a whirlwind of activity at all times and I only slow down when I’m asleep. I’m one.
When someone asks me how old I am, I proudly stick one little finger in the air. Because, that’s right, I’m one!
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| Opening a present at her birthday tailgate party. |
A Sleepless Birthday
The afternoon before Payton’s first birthday we drove to College Station with the idea to spend the night in my parent’s RV so we’d be there for her 9 a.m. birthday tailgate party before the A&M versus Baylor football game. My parents were just getting back from a trip across the country and had reservations to stay the night in a Bed & Breakfast in College Station. Before arriving in College Station my mom called to ask if we could spend the night in the B&B instead because the lady who owns the place has cats inside and my mom is severely allergic to them. We were a little concerned about having Payton in a B&B but the owner of the B&B said it was fine so we agreed to the plan. For dinner we met my parents at Los Cucos Mexican restaurant and they enjoyed spending a little time with Payton on her Birthday Eve. After helping them get the RV out of storage we headed to the B&B. It was a cute little house and the old lady who owned it seemed very nice. The problem was, the bedroom didn’t have a real door on it. It was a door with slats all the way down it that let in noise and light. The old lady was blaring her TV downstairs, which fortunately didn’t bother us because we sometimes fall asleep to having the TV on. Payton wouldn’t nurse (she rarely will when we’re away from home) but she was exhausted so she fell asleep pretty quickly. It was so light in the bedroom from the hallway light that we weren’t sure we could sleep. We knew that the other guests staying in the B&B were out and wouldn’t be back until after midnight yell so we hated to turn out the light. Ultimately we made the decision to leave the bathroom light on (oh yeah, there was also only one upstairs bathroom that guests had to share!) for them and turned out the hall light. Also, thinking we would be spending the night in the RV, we hadn’t brought Payton any warm pajamas and the air was set to pretty cool. So we turned the air up. Later when the other guests got back they turned the air down again and, even though we felt bad about it, we again turned it back up because Payton seemed cold. By the time we went to bed, Payton was still asleep next to our bed in the pack ‘n play that we brought. Unfortunately right as I was finally falling asleep she woke up crying. And she proceeded to cry all. night. long! Obviously we couldn’t let her cry herself back to sleep because the other guests would hear her straight through the doors that weren’t doors so we tried everything else that we could think of. Wouldn’t nurse, wouldn’t fall asleep being rocked, wouldn’t fall asleep being held, wouldn’t fall asleep in bed with us, wouldn’t fall asleep having her belly rubbed. It was a miserable night. Finally around 4:30 a.m. she fell asleep in our bed in my arms and then woke up at 6:30 a.m. when we just got up for good in order to get ready to go to her tailgate party.
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| Table at Payton's birthday. |
Her tailgate birthday party went well. My parents already had everything set up by the time we got there and it looked really cute. The party was held in the RV parking lot, right in front of my parent’s RV. They set up an Aggie EZ-Up for shade and two tables with the food, framed pictures of Payton, and pink butterfly 1st birthday plates and napkins. Since the party was at 9 a.m. we had breakfast items plus cupcakes and juice. It was great to see friends and family members that we hadn’t seen in awhile. You could tell Payton was exhausted but she remained in an okay mood for the party. Her cousin Hank was also able to attend and he hadn’t slept well the night before either so he too seemed tired. All in all it was very fun despite the fatigue.
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| Payton, Lindy, and I |
I wish I had had people sign a guest list but here are the guests that I can remember (I know I’m going to forget someone so please let me know so I can add the names that I leave off the list! It’s definitely not that you aren’t important, only that my memory stinks!)
Guests at Payton’s first birthday/ Aggie tailgate party:
Payton Falgout
Charles Falgout
Becky Falgout
Pam “Lala” Bartschmid
Al “Grandfather” Bartschmid
Albert Bartschmid
Erin Bartschmid
Hank Bartschmid
Kyle Bartschmid
Lindsay Fleetwood
Brandon Machell
Lindy McMahan
Stephanie Honeycutt
Christina Bockmon
Brian Bockmon
Carolyn Adams
Chad Henderson
Joy Walters
Fred Walters
Linda Campbell
Bill Campbell
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| Grandfather wearing a princess ring for Payton's party! |
After the tailgate party we attended the A&M/Baylor football game. Since the game started at 11 a.m. our seats were in the sun the entire game. And despite the fact that the high temperature was only in the low 80’s, it was very hot in our seats. Which meant my mom, Payton, and I spent the entire game up under the overhang. The Aggies beat the hell outta Baylor and everyone was very happy. Payton only slept for a small part of the game but stayed in a decent mood. After the game we drove straight home and she slept the entire way. Once home we asked her the question everyone had been asking her all day, “Payton, how old are you?” and to our surprise she held up one finger! Ever since then she has been able to tell us how old she is by holding up that little finger. We fed her dinner and then gave her a birthday cupcake. She stuck her finger in the icing, tasted it, and started crying. So we bathed her and put her right to bed for the night. We were all so tired! I thought I would feel really sentimental on her 1st birthday but actually I was so busy and tired that I didn’t even have a chance to think about it. I was much more sentimental about it in the days leading up to her 1st birthday than I was on the day itself.
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| LaLa holding Payton and Hank |
Birthday Celebration #2
The following day (Sunday) we were all much more rested and enjoyed the day as a family of three. We celebrated Payton’s birthday again by having her open the presents that were mailed to us from family and friends and Charles also set up the present from us which is an outdoor toddler swing set/slide. Payton loves going down the slide on her new swing set. She doesn’t seem to really know what to think of the swing yet. Sometimes she appears a bit nervous on it. We like to take her outside to play on her swing set each day after dinner. Jason (our neighbor’s cat) usually joins us. So Payton enjoys sliding and seeing Jason.
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| Cute little 1 year old! |
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| Having fun on her new slide! |
Doctor’s Visit
The Tuesday after Payton’s birthday she had her one year doctor’s visit check up/ immunizations. Payton was 31.75 inches tall (99th %) and 23 pounds (78th%). Prior to her appointment Charles and I had already decided that we wanted her to receive the MMR and Hepatitis A shots but did not want her to receive the chicken pox or flu shot vaccinations at this time. We just felt more comfortable with her getting two shots at a time instead of four when the chicken pox and flu shots can be given at a different time should we choose to have her receive them. We are definitely all for vaccinations and understand their importance. It just seems like kids today get so many more vaccinations now than we did as kids and we simply wanted to make things as easy on her little body as possible at this time. The appointment was going fine until it was time for the immunizations to be given. At that time the doctor said, “So today she’ll be getting the MMR, Hep A, Flu, and Chicken Pox vaccinations.” And I said, “Actually my husband and I have discussed this and today we’d just like her to get the MMR and Hep A shots”. The doctor suddenly appeared angry with me and went off, called chicken pox a "deadly disease" that can easily lead to "septic shock" and that I was not making a wise decision by passing up these vaccines. I told her my daughter isn't around any other children right now so if she still hasn't gotten chicken pox by the time she starts school I might reconsider. She sat there and looked at me like I was an idiot. Then she walked out of the room without saying a word. I politely told her, "Thank you" and she didn't respond, just left the room. Then I heard her in the hall, with attitude in her voice, tell the nurse, "Tell her to read this while she waits". So the nurse brings me this booklet called "Forever Memories" and it tells the stories of children who passed away because their parents chose not to get them vaccinated and had really sad pictures. I almost started crying because it was like she was trying to make me feel like a terrible parent. I couldn’t believe she treated me that way and had zero respect for my decision as a parent. I will definitely not be taking my daughter back to this pediatrician!
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| Climbing up to her new slide |
Fall Festivals & Birthday Celebration #3
The weekend following the weekend of Payton’s birthday (second to last weekend in October) we took Payton to a pumpkin patch, Oktoberfest, and Payton’s Nana (Charles’ mom) arrived to celebrate Payton’s birthday with us. That Saturday morning Charles, Payton, and I went to Santa Fe to Aldersgate Methodist Church to pick out pumpkins from their pumpkin patch and visit their Fall Bazaar. Payton was excited about the pumpkins and wanted to touch and examine them. She’s still not walking independently but she held our hands and walked through the pumpkin patch. We picked out two large pumpkins and one smaller pumpkin to decorate our front porch with. Then we visited the Fall Bazaar which is basically a big craft sale and found a pretty decorative pumpkin for our house and a cute crocheted winter hat for Payton. After that we went home and watched the Aggie football team beat Iowa State while Payton napped. After the game we headed to First Lutheran Church of Galveston for their annual Oktoberfest celebration. Oktoberfest is always a fun time. They have delicious sausage, German beers, all different flavors of strudel, live music, people dressed in traditional German clothing, children’s activities, and arts & crafts. Very fun, this Bartschmid approves!
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| Payton in the pumpkin patch |
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| On the way to Oktoberfest |
The following day (Sunday) Nana came to visit. She was unable to attend Payton’s birthday party so this ended up being Payton’s 3rd birthday celebration. Which is exactly how I like to do birthdays! I love for them to last at least a week, if not more! One celebration is not nearly enough. Nana brought Payton several presents but her big present to Payton is a little upholstered toddler chair. Payton quickly learned how to climb up into it and sit in her chair “like a big girl”. She is very proud of herself. The first three days Nana was here Payton smiled a lot at her Nana and had a great time. Unfortunately by Wednesday Payton had come down with her first ever illness.
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| Sick but still loves to sit in her new chair that Nana gave her! |
First Illness
The last Tuesday in October, Payton woke up with pink around her eyes. She also was sneezing a lot but otherwise did not seem sick. She still played, didn’t run a fever, and seemed fine. By the following day, however, it was clear that Payton was definitely sick for the first time in her life. Her little face was extremely pale, her eyes puffy and red, her nose red and running, and she had a 100.5 temperature. She didn’t even look like herself. She also just acted like she did NOT feel good! That night she was up just about every hour, crying and crying. The only thing that would comfort her and help put her back to sleep was if I nursed her. It was like having a newborn again! I’m surprised my body cooperated since this is far from our usual routine now, but I guess God makes a mother’s body in a way that it will respond to a sick child. Thursday she was very sick again and again that night she nursed all night long. We decided at this point that we wouldn’t be attending the A&M game the following day and sold our tickets. By Friday morning we decided we should get her a doctor’s appointment to get checked out before the weekend when it would be difficult to see anyone.
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| Poor sick baby! |
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| Puffy eyes and sick but still managing a little smile. |
Car Accident/ Doctor’s Appointment
Friday afternoon I secured Payton into her rear facing car seat and set out to drive her to a new doctor we decided to see located in Texas City. We were driving down 45th street in Galveston when the car in front of me stopped to make a left turn onto Avenue N. Traffic was coming so the car in front of me had to wait and I was just sitting there waiting as well when suddenly I heard a huge crash and my truck was jerked forward. I don’t know why but my immediate reaction was to scream, “Ahhhhh!” I turned off of 45th onto Avenue N and thankfully the truck that hit us did too. I was really freaked out, worrying about Payton. I got out of my truck, opened the back door, and saw immediately that Payton’s seat was sitting up on its end with Payton’s little face just inches from the back of the truck seat. The other thing I noticed almost immediately was that Payton was not in any way upset and appeared to be fine. Because the seat was angled in such a way, I had a bit of trouble getting her out of the seat, especially given that my hands were shaking so bad from what had just occurred. The guy who hit us walked over and was saying things like, “I am so, so sorry! Oh my gosh, you have a baby in there! Is she okay? Do you need help?” The guy looked about my age, extremely tan wearing a Monster Energy cap. As soon as I got Payton out of the car seat another car that had seen the accident pulled up and asked if we were okay and told me they were calling the police for me. Then they asked if they could call someone else to help, like my husband, but I told them, “No, he works an hour away” and that I would call him myself in a minute but thank you. I told the guy who hit me, “I was stopped because that car in front of me was waiting to turn” and he said, “I know, I’m so sorry. I was reaching down for my coffee and when I looked up I didn’t have time to even try to apply the breaks”. He told me he was going to call his mom because she would be able to help with things like insurance and getting a tow truck. A few minutes later the police showed up. The guy who hit me acted like he knew the cops saying to one of them, “What’s up Stink Face?” The cops were very professional and didn’t act like they were friends with him. It made me wonder if he knew them because he’d had issues with the law before. They then asked for his driver’s license and he told them, “I don’t have it, it’s expired, I’ve been trying to work this out with you guys for awhile now.” One officer went to deal with him while the other took down my information. He asked if I would like to have EMS come check Payton and I out. I told him I wasn’t hurt and that she didn’t appear hurt either. He said whiplash isn’t always felt immediately and that we could be hurt and not realize it. Since we were on our way to the pediatrician’s office anyway I told him I would have Payton checked for whiplash by the doctor. The officers then reinstalled Payton’s car seat. They said it was installed wrong because the latch system wasn’t used. When I asked Charles about this he showed me in the Ford owner’s manual where it says not to use the latch system when installing the car seat in the middle seat. At any rate, the officers installed it using both the seat belt AND the latch system so I think that’s how we will install our car seats in the future to be certain that they are secure. Before leaving, the guy who hit us came over to ask me if there was any information he should give me. The officer answered for me and said, “No, all the information she should need will be on the incident report”. But before he left I did ask, “Do you have insurance?” and he told me, “Yes, I just can’t find it right now”. Well, it didn’t surprise me later when my insurance called to tell me what he does not have insurance. Thankfully we have uninsured driver insurance so my truck will get fixed, it just stinks that we have to file the claim with our insurance and we still have to pay at least $250. We’re still waiting on everything to get finalized with the insurance so that I can get my truck fixed. I also am keeping my fingers crossed that Payton’s car seat will be covered since it too was affected by the accident.
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| Payton saying "Haa" to our cat, Camp |
Charles called the pediatrician’s office to explain what happened and see if they could see us at a later appointment, and then he came home to get us. We ended up at the pediatrician’s office in the late afternoon. The new pediatrician was nice. She’s an Aggie, class of ’97. She is not the doctor who was recommended to us because he doesn’t work on Fridays, so we might still try to get an appointment with him next time. She said she thought Payton had a cold, allergies, and was teething. She recommended that we use a humidifier (as if Galveston isn’t humid enough) and give Payton a half dose of Children’s Claritin. I’m not real sure what the chances are of someone coming down with allergies and a cold at the same time. Now that she’s better it makes me wonder if it had just been a cold, as rapid as it came on and how she has zero symptoms a week later. Which, in my opinion, is good because allergies you have to continue to deal with whereas she is completely better from what I feel was some sort of cold virus. By the following afternoon she seemed to be feeling much better and by Sunday she was completely back to her normal self.
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| Halloween Day-- Payton is "sooo big" |
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| Cute little ladybug |
Halloween
The day Payton finally seemed back to her normal self was the Sunday before Halloween. Moody Gardens had an event called Ghostly Gardens where they encouraged children to dress in their Halloween costumes and come tick-or-treating in Moody Gardens. Payton didn’t trick-or-treat but we did have fun dressing her in her “Ladybug Girl” costume and letting her walk around to see all the other children in costumes. Quite a few people that we passed commented on, “Look at the cute little ladybug!” Afterwards we took her to the park on the ground of Moody Gardens and she had fun going down the slides in our laps.
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| Ladybug Girl loves slides! |
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| Checking out the waterfall at Moody Gardens |
The following day (Monday, October 31, 2011) was Halloween. This was the first holiday that Payton has now experienced for the second time in her life. It was fun to compare the pictures of her last year as a two week old pumpkin with the pictures of her this year as a one year old ladybug. It’s amazing how much they grow and change in just one year’s time! Instead of me cooking, Charles picked up dinner on his way home from work so we ate some yummy Taco Bell. Payton seems to like their chicken soft tacos though I also made her some steamed broccoli, baby cereal, meat puree, and squash puree to go with it. After dinner we dressed her as Ladybug Girl and walked down the street to our neighborhood’s block party. Payton held Charles’ hand and walked herself there and back. She’s getting better about being able to walk with assistance and on Halloween she really seemed to enjoy walking. Our neighborhood block party consists of some of the older ladies in the neighborhood setting up tables and handing out candy to the kids in the neighborhood. We had planned on just showing up to socialize with our neighbors but when we got there all the older ladies starting handing candy to Payton. We decided letting her try a lollipop wouldn’t hurt anything. I figured it would go over about the same as her birthday smash cake and cupcake did…. That she would taste it, make a little gagging sound, and then show no interest in it. Well, I was wrong. I guess she takes after me because she was all about eating the grape lollipop! She literally ate half of it before she seemed to get tired of it and Charles took it away. Then she placed her very sticky hand in her Daddy’s hand and we walked back home. He said he wouldn’t have been able to let go of her hand even if he had wanted to because their hands were stuck together! Once home Payton started crawling around the floor in hyper speed. She was literally crawling in circles. We thought it was the sugar but actually she ended up doing the same thing the following day so I guess she’s just silly. Anyway, Payton had a very fun Halloween!
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| Amazing the difference a year makes at this age! |
Payton’s Surgery
Thursday, November 3, 2011 Payton underwent surgery to have tubes placed in both of her ears. It is believed that Payton has had fluid in her middle ears since birth and has definitely had it for the three months that we’ve been monitoring it. We gave it time to see if it would drain itself but after continuing to wait they told us that it probably would not. It was under the recommendation of a couple of different doctors that we proceeded with the tubes in order to get the fluid drained and eliminate any doubts about whether or not that fluid is affecting her speech development. Although she’s really caught up on her milestones and is now considered in the normal range, she still falls behind in some areas such as by one year old they should be able to say three words that they know what they mean and Payton could only say “Haaa” when meaning “Hi”. Payton says, “Mama” but still does not know that I am her Mama and she has never even said, “Dada”, much less know who her Dada is.
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| In "Baby Jail" before surgery |
Because Payton wouldn’t be able to eat or drink anything all morning, the hospital had recommended that I wake her up around 1 a.m. to give her breast milk or water. I already couldn’t sleep because I was nervous about her surgery and then at 1 a.m. I got her up and nursed her. She fell right back to sleep, but I didn’t until sometime around 3:30 a.m. When Charles’ alarm went off to wake us up at 5:00 a.m., he turned it off and went back to sleep and I never heard it. Luckily I woke up at 5:35 a.m. and said, “Your alarm didn’t go off, we have to be at the hospital in 25 minutes!” So we threw on clothes, grabbed Payton, and ran out the door. We were only a few minutes late for our 6 a.m. check in time which was pretty good considering once we got to UTMB we had to find the proper parking garage and then get from there to the 8th floor of John Sealy Hospital. A nurse checked us in, had us sign some paperwork, and put a hospital gown on Payton. She played around in the metal hospital crib and we joked that she was in “Baby Jail”. She was in a good mood despite it being so early in the morning and her not being able to eat breakfast.
Once they were ready for us the nurse took us to a different floor of the hospital to the OR. In the OR prep room they said, “So she’s had some happy juice, right?” and Charles said, “No, she’s just naturally happy.” And they seemed surprised that she hadn’t been given any oral sedatives but they said, “Ok, oh well”. I kissed Payton’s head, told her I loved her, and then handed her to the ENT, Dr. Mukerji. Dr. Mukerji started to walk off with Payton and Payton looked like she was going to start fussing but them Dr Mukerji started to talk to her and the last I saw of her she didn’t appear upset. I really like Dr. Mukerji and think she is wonderful with children so I felt better knowing Payton was in her care. Charles and I then went to the waiting room where I was still pretty nervous and just kept praying that everything was going fine. About half an hour later Dr. Mukerji came to the waiting room to tell us that everything had gone just fine. She said Payton had a large amount of fluid that they drained from her right ear and some fluid that they drained from her left ear. She said they would come and get me in a few minutes to be with Payton. She left but then returned just a couple of minutes later to say, “She’s not awake yet but I’m sure you want to be with her so come on back”.
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| Still asleep following surgery. |
Only one of us could go so I went and Charles continued to wait in the waiting room. When I got there, like the doctor had said, she was still asleep. They had her lying on her side with an oxygen mask on her face, naked but covered with a blanket, and heart monitors on her chest. They told me not to speak to her but to let her come out of the anesthesia on her own. So, being the Facebook addict that I am, I took a picture of her to post on Facebook and sat waiting for her to wake up. Not too long after that she started crying and the nurse took the oxygen mask off her. Payton immediately pulled both pieces of cotton out of her ears and started crying harder. The nurse said that I could hold her but I found it really difficult at first because she was hooked up to the heart monitor and the oxygen monitor. Payton continued to cry. I kept trying to put her pacifier in but she would spit it out. I put her glo worm up against her face and had it play music for her and she would calm down for a few minutes but then start crying again. They were going to give me a sippy cup of water to let her drink but then they discovered that they were out of sippy cups. They asked if she would take a bottle instead and I told them I didn’t know because she’s never had a bottle before but if they had just a regular cup she could drink from that. They brought a cup of water with a straw and she started gulping down the water. The nurses were pretty impressed at how well she could drink from a straw. Eventually I was able to maneuver all the cords well enough so that I could sit down with her. Once sitting I held her up against my chest, the nurse wrapped her in a warm blanket, and she fell asleep. We sat there awhile before another ENT entered the room to see a different patient and the nurse flagged him down and had him sign Payton out so she could leave recovery.
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| Sleeping off the medications |
From there I carried Payton to the waiting room and put her into Charles’ arms. She woke up, was still extremely groggy, but this time she didn’t cry. Then the nurse took us back up to the original room that we’d checked in at. We lay Payton down in her “Crib Jail”, covered her with a blanket, and she fell back asleep. The nurse came to check on her and noticing a mark of blood on her arm, said if they gave her an injection of a little something extra to calm her that she might end up taking a good long nap from it. She went to check and came back to let us know that they had given her an injection of Percedex prior to the surgery to calm her down. After giving the post op instructions we were discharged and carried Payton back to our truck. Once home I nursed Payton and she fell right back asleep in her crib. She took a two hour nap and when she woke up from her nap you never would have known she had just had surgery a few hours earlier. She was back to her normal self! Her diapers arrived in the mail and I took them out of the box to put them away but she got to them first and crawled on her stomach over the packages of diapers. She crawled over them again and again. Payton is non-stop action these days and even just having surgery didn’t slow her down. She was doing so well that we decided to attend the Rotary Club’s chili dinner that night at Ball High. Payton ate before we left because we weren’t sure she would care for the chili but it was so good! And it was a perfect cold evening for it as a cold front had blown through early that morning.
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| Payton with her friend Dixie, dressed all cute in clothes/hair bow from Nana. |
Walking
By Payton’s first birthday she was taking some steps on her own but definitely not walking independently yet. She is now almost 13 months old and although she’s still not walking all the time, she is sometimes able to walk across a room. She generally prefers to crawl still, loses her balance a lot while walking, and needs something to hold onto to get into a standing position, but slowly but surely she is continuing to make progress towards walking on her own. It is possible that the fluid in her middle ears was causing her to be off balance for so long that she’s just now finding her balance for the first time. I certainly don’t mind at this point since I know once she’s running around all the time it’s going to be even more difficult to keep an eye on her.
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| Playing with her Little People house |
Sleeping/ Breastfeeding
Payton was going most nights without needing to breastfeed and was often sleeping through the night. Then she got sick and was up for several nights breastfeeding all night long. Since then Payton has woken up once each night wanting to breastfeed. At first I told Charles, “She’s too old for this, she needs to go back to sleep” and then I’d have to lay there listening to her scream for half an hour. She’d finally quiet down and fall asleep only to wake up screaming again 30 minutes later. When she would wake the second time I wouldn’t be able to take it anymore and would just get up and feed her. I had a miserable two nights like this before I decided if she feels like she needs to nurse and it’s what will help all three of us get back to sleep, then that’s what we’re doing. So around 3 a.m. she starts screaming. I change her diaper, breastfeed her and am back in my bed 15 minutes later and she’s sound asleep again in her crib. Also thankfully this only happens once a night and then she generally sleeps in until about 7:30 a.m. She also still breastfeeds first thing in the morning, before each nap, and before bed at night. I feel like this is important right now because at this point it is still recommended that she be getting a minimum of 16 ounces of milk and I can barely get her to drink 1-2 ounces of cow’s milk a day. As far as her naps go, Payton continues to take two naps a day with the first nap generally lasting about 1 ½- 2 hours and the second nap about 1- 1 ½ hours long. Occasionally she will refuse to sleep for one of her naps especially if she’s working on having a poo poo. Her nighttime bedtime is generally between 7:00- 7:30 p.m.
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| Lounging in her Winnie the Pooh chair |
First Weekend/ Full week of November
The first weekend in November was an Aggie away game so we got to stay home again and spend time together. Friday I took Payton to Laskie Park, which is a new park near our home (next to Ball High). It has a huge play set but it’s really designed for bigger kids. Saturday we took a morning walk to Seawall and enjoyed the beautiful morning. We also saw (and heard) tons of motorcycles driving down Seawall, here for the Lone Star Rally. In the afternoon we watched the Aggies get killed in football by Oklahoma. It was painful to watch, to say the least. The next day we took Payton across town to Andoue Park. This park was great because it had an entire toddler play area. Payton loved crawling across the bridge, through the tunnel, sliding down the little slides, and swinging on the swing set. Despite it not being very close to our house, we will definitely be going back. The only negative was that, like most parks in town, the trees were lost in Hurricane Ike and although they’ve planted new ones, they’re still too small to provide any shade. Monday I took Payton to Rosenberg Library for the first time in a long time. The last time we were there Payton was still pretty scared of Rose the lizard, although she was finally able to view her from a distance without crying. Well Payton did a complete 180. She now wanted to smile, wave, and say “Haa!” to Rose! Even when we sat down to read books she kept looking up to wave at Rose. I was surprised by such a change but glad she now longer has a fear of lizards! Wednesday I took Payton to Castle Park. Schrieber “Castle” Park is a playscape that is like a wooden maze with lots of steps going up and down, little hiding areas, and bridges to walk across. I have taken Payton to this park several times and each time she’s able to do a little more on her own. This time Payton crawled all over the entire play area. Anytime I would try to hold her hand to have her walk she would immediately pull her hand away and get back down to crawl. I guess she figures she is still much more efficient with her crawling (which is true). She can crawl up and even down steps very quickly. She’s pretty smart about it now too. Regular steps she’d just go down headfirst on her stomach. But if she came to a slightly larger drop off she would turn herself around and slowly lift herself down backwards (which is also how she has learned to get off of our couch at home). It was very windy and a little bit cool (I was wearing just a t-shirt and wished I had at least long sleeves on), but Payton was so busy that I’m certain she was very warm. As she gets where she can play and do things more independently, our trips to the parks are becoming more and more fun. I want to take her to the beach sometime soon but lately it’s just been so windy that I haven’t wanted to go and deal with the blowing sand. I’m sure we’ll get a good beach day soon though.
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| Sitting in her toy basket |
Hope everyone is having a good November and has a Happy Thanksgiving!!!
