A Mountain Weekend

Our family had a mountain weekend this weekend. But Billy went in one direction and AnnaKate and I went in the other.

Billy went backpacking with a friend. He hiked over 20 miles with a very heavy pack. I would show you pictures BUT he did not even take a camera. Something about not having any room... :)

AnnaKate and I went with my parents to their mountain home. He was so relaxing and a true getaway weekend for me.

There was a lot of this...

Some rock collecting...

Flower smelling...

The fall leaves were still beautiful

Wrestling with grandaddy...

What a cutie...

I had such a wonderful weekend! I even slipped in 2 great runs amongst the falling leaves... it was so beautiful that I conquered the hills without complaint!

We got back and as I unpacked I walked by AnnaKate's room and this is what I saw...

Thanks to AnnaKate's great OT...AnnaKate can take off her clothes...anywhere...and I LOVE it!

Happy Halloween 2009

Wow...what a fun Halloween! AnnaKate was a Queen Bee this year. She was just precious!! A big thanks to my mom for helping me with the costume.

A fallen bee...

One of my most favorite Halloween traditions is the Meyer Center Trunk of Treat. The community and the Meyer Center do such a nice job hosting this for the kids.

AnnaKate and her "Super SLP"...(speech language pathologist)...

Dogs are AnnaKate most favorite thing in life....so sad she does not have one for herself!!

Joining in with her class.

Hmmm...what is in that bag??!!!

We went trick or treating at AnnaKate's grandparent's, George and Luckit's.

Again...the best part was seeing Dean!

Then we went to her great grandparent's house...Kenny and SweetCakes.

Boy was she pooped....but we still had neighbors to visit!!!

We had such a fun time visiting friends and family!



Side note...on Halloween I ran in another 5K. I was so excited because I beat my last 5K time by almost 1 minute. I finished at 25:56. Bring on the half marathon in December....

Success!!

Sorry no pictures today...it is 6am and I just had to shout this from the mountain tops....

AnnaKate has conquered Cindy the CPAP!!!!

AnnaKate has been wearing Cindy for 3 weeks and last night we had complete success! She went to bed at 7:30pm and woke up at 6:00am. No crying, screaming, wailing, me rocking her or her coming to our bed. She has been doing much better than most but I wanted the transition to be over. The first week we rocked her when she woke up and put her on our bed if she woke up early. So the last two weeks we had to break her of those bad habits and ta-da....

We all slept divine last night!

Yippee!!!!!

Victory!

Our amazing, adorable, angel
AnnaKate did it!!!
She slept with Cindy the CPAP last night-at full pressure-ALL night.
We have been acclimating AnnaKate to the CPAP mask for over a month and she has slept for an hour or so with Cindy at low pressure but last night she amazed us.
After a rocky sleep study, I was unsure what she would do. But our little trooper pulled it out for us. She was so happy this morning when she woke up...I guess she finally got a full night sleep!

After a full day of errands and a birthday party, AnnaKate spiked a fever today. She wanted to nap so I put Cindy on her and she even napped with her on. I hope things continue to go this well!

I am unsure about this random fever...a few friends' kids have had it too. Fine all day then a fever in the late afternoon/evening. I hope it is nothing.

Here are some pics of AnnaKate resting and waiting for her Tylenol to kick in. It kicked in in about 15 minutes and she was back to being silly. :) I hope the fever does not come back...I hate it when AnnaKate is sick!!

Wordless Wednesday

Sleep Study...number 3!

Waiting at the door to go...

Blissfully unaware of what is to come!

Watching a DVD while she waits...

Anita was hooking her up.

And this was before they put the mask on!

It was the BEST sleep study and it was the WORST sleep study!

Because I am a half cup full kind of girl, I will tell you the good things about sleep study number 3 first.

BEST
+AnnaKate has gotten used to the whole "hook-up" routine so there is virtually no problem with that part of the study. This is good because that takes well over an hour.
+We requested to have our same sleep study technician, Anita, and that was nice to have a friendly familiar face.
+ We went and had great pizza before the study...I am really stretching it here to have a few more things on the positive side! :)
+They were able to do a "titration" to see what pressure AnnaKate's machine needs to be set to.
+They did not have to switch AnnaKate to a full face mask.
+The best thing fo all...we are finally well on our way to solving AnnaKate's sleep issues!



WORST
-Due to the nature of AnnaKate's sleep issues, the doctor did not want her to sleep with the mask until the study. So Friday she was supposed to sleep with it all night! NOT...she woke up at least every 30 minutes. (Which in turn meant that I did!)
-Everytime AnnaKate woke up she would sign for me to sing her "Wheels on the Bus" to lull her back to sleep. I am sure the sleep study tech got a kick out of that!
-Because AnnaKate woke up so many times and cried so much she clogged her oxygen sensor tube 3 times. Which means, wake her up, untape the tube from her face and retape a new one on.
-They had to draw blood in the middle of the night to check blood gases.
-My bed in the room is horrible! I really could not even sleep in those 30 minute windows that sweet AK gave me.

So we made it home by 6am Saturday and we will wait to hear what to do next from our doctor. I am anxious about starting to use the mask at home for sleep but I know like every thing else...AnnaKate will adjust and so will we!

Wordless Wednesday