Our BP Machine

So our home health nurse brought us our *NEW* home blood pressure machine yesterday, courtesy of a nice grant from OHSU. How exciting! It works like a gem although it can be a little more sensitive if she moves much and then it doesn't get a reading and the cuff keeps inflating over and over. So I might have to take it mostly when she is asleep so she doesn't fight the cuff, which when she does fight against the cuff it makes the reading a lot less accurate. I took her blood pressure twice yesterday evening when she was asleep and she was 96/58 and 86/58 which is pretty good for Ms. Grace and just about where a normal baby should be. Although I did take Twinkles Toe's blood pressure just for fun (as we have cuffs for the whole family) and hers was just slightly lower than Grace's. I guess we'll know when Grace is cured when hers and Twinkle Toe's blood pressures start to look the same....

Grace is pretty much sleeping through the night now. She woke up at 5 a.m. this morning and we are letting her sleep now with the go ahead from the doctor. Grace is doing so well! She is such a happy content little girl. She still hardly ever cries. Let's hope it stays that way with two whiney older siblings. Her first MRI post surgery will be in March.

Gracie Update 1/23

We went in to the hospital today and Grace's blood pressure was 98/51! Earlier in the week it was 106/50 and last week we got 99/62 along with a couple of higher ones. We haven't had to go up on her blood pressure medicine now for 2 weeks so I am kind of hoping maybe she is outgrowing the dose and not needing it. Hopefully, her blood pressures are normalizing. Our home health nurse got some grant money from OHSU to buy us a home blood pressure machine which hopefully we will get soon and then we can take it all the time and not have to run back and forth to the hospital. Grace slept through the night last night. Oops. I'm not supposed to let her go more than 4 hours without eating but she never woke me up so we both just slept until 5 a.m. this morning! That was a weird experience!

Bumbo

Guess Who's 4 Months?

Gracie, that's Who!

Showered With Love

Caught in the Act

Yeah, so we have a MAJOR thumbsucker. She is all DONE with the pacifier. She found her thumb and that's all she wants, all day long. She is too smart for her size 3 diapers.

So Grace and I met with her oncologist, her nephrologist, and her surgeon this week and the reports are all good. They didn't do too much other than look at her and say how great she looks! I'm going to post some pictures of her doctors in a few days. Her nephrologist did some blood work which came back with good results and she took her blood pressure which is still a little high so we are having to increase the dosage of her one BP medicine, mostly because she keeps growing out of her dose so fast. Grace will have her first MRI post surgery in March, to look at hopefully the absence of the tumor, so that will be a big day.

Another Year....Turning 3

Well once again Caleb just gets a small family celebration for his birthday. One of these years Mom will get around to giving him a real party with friends. Mackenzie says that he is her best friend. They got to sit on the couch together and watch a Dora movie. Daddy made a cake and Caleb got the coolest horse balloon and a game for the whole family. Just give this kid a balloon and he is happy. It worked last year and it looks like it worked again this year. We ended up celebrating a few days early because Mommy and Gracie are going to be back up in Portland this week for followup appointments with the surgeon, the oncologist, and the nephrologist. Oh, and by the way, we HAVE A thumbsucker. It's official. She can't wait for the pacifier so it's all about the hands. She is following in her father's footsteps in that respect (he was a thumbsucker too). Note: I did change my music after much prodding from the Hubby. He got totally sick of Bing, so despite my music ineptness I searched out a couple of new songs. Do people like musci on the blog or is it better to not have it at all? I am undecided. Suggestions welcome.

Fashion Show

Auntie Kim in Florida sent this adorable hat and shoes. Grace was getting a little upset with Mommy at the time, but I love my little Peruvian-clad baby.



To our sweet friend Arianne, Gracie's hoodie is growing on her as you can see! Probably because our house is so darn cold!


Thanks to Aunt Celeste in New Mexico who sent Gracie this adorable outfit. She always has the best taste.

Thank you to my friend Gina in Connecticut too, who sent Grace the cutest outfit which is too big right now, but with the way this girl is eating she will probably be able to wear it in a couple of weeks! lol