Worms!

Gunnar loves worms! You'll notice that I only have pictures of Gunnar because Conrad does not like worms! He said to me "I don't love worms mommy, they scare me... they're yucky!"

Bennett's first word!

Bennett's first word is bye bye! She's been saying it for a couple weeks now and I finally got it on camera!

Bennett is 10 months!

Bennett turned 10 months old last weekend... it's crazy to think that she will be 1 in May! You'll notice that in the pictures she is not wearing her glasses since they are broken already... we didn't even have them for a week! Thankfully insurance covers broken glasses so we have a new pair on order.

We are in the process of getting a referral from her pediatrician for a second opinion on her eyes from the UofI hospitals. They have pediatric eye doctors, who we feel would be better suited for Bennett's eye condition. I liked the doctor we saw at The North Iowa Eye Clinic, but everyone in Iowa knows that the university is the best place to go. So there's a good chance that it will be June before we can actually get an appointment and start the process again. Until then, I will do my best to get Bennett to wear her glasses, but I will not be patching her eye... I have heard conflicting opinions on whether patching is really the best thing to do. Bennett has been sick a lot this winter! 3 ear infections since thanksgiving has made our nights very difficult! She is allergic to penicillin which means that finding a medication to treat the infections has been hard... she's been on a different med with each infection and they just don't seem to be working... right now we are on day 11 with her meds from a double ear infection and she is still showing signs of infection... pulling at her ears, fever, cranky, and not sleeping well at night. I am considering asking her pediatrician for a referral to get tubes in her ears... Conrad has them and her Dr even said that her chances of needing tubes is higher b/c they run in the family. I am at a total loss... my 10 month old doesn't sleep through the night b/c more often than not she is in pain! Her not sleeping through the night means nobody in our house sleeps good... We have a small 2 bdrm house and all the kids are in the same room with our room 10ft away. Any suggestions or advice on what I should do to help her ears and her sleeping?? I know that ear infection season is close to an end, but the fall is not that far away either and I don't want to be dealing with this all over again!

Beautiful Eyes

Glasses

Bennett started wearing her glasses today... It's been really rough, but I didn't really know what to expect so I suppose it can only get better. It's a huge adjustment for her to have something on her face and wrapped around her ears all the time. It probably doesn't help that both of her ears are infected right now too! This is a very hard adjustment for Thaddeus and I too. A big part of us just wants to say forget the glasses and let the surgery do all the fixing, but I know that is unwise. It's hard to understand how an eye doctor can come to the conclusion that a 10 month old baby needs glasses... I guess that's what they went to school for for huh? Needless to say this is very difficult for us, but we want whats best for Bennett and her vision so I am determined to get her to wear the glasses. Right now when I look at her in the glasses I think she looks funny not at all like my little baby girl, but I know that after some time passes Bennett will still be the same Bennett even with glasses. She does look cute, but it just breaks my heart right now. Please pray for Bennett and me during this transition. I'm trying to have a good attitude and be the strong mommy that she needs me to be, and I know there are much worse things we could be going through right now and am reminded just how blessed we are.

Eye Doctor

Last week Bennett had an appointment with an eye doctor to see what we can do to fix her left eye. Since birth her eye has turned to the inside, making her crossed eyed. Dr Riley examined and dilated her eyes and came to the conclusion that the muscles in her left eye are weak and possibly did not develop correctly. So we will be patching her good eye everyday for 6-8 hours and she will be wearing glasses! I went and ordered the glasses last Friday so we should have them by the end of the week. We see Dr Riley again on April 21 to determine if the patch and glasses are helping to strengthen her eye. Overall he does not think that the glasses will help at all and that the patch could help a little, but Bennett will more than likely end up having surgery to correct the muscles. He wants to wait until she is between 12 and 16 months old before going ahead with any kind of surgery, but this type of eye condition will not get better with time. Bennett is taking to the patch just fine, she doesn't seem to mind it at all. Conrad thinks she looks like a pirate!