A Memorable Memorial Day

What a weekend! We had so much fun on Sunday, but it wiped us out! We took Kiera to our friends' baby's 1st birthday party at 3PM followed by an early birthday cookout for my sister (and an evening playing rock band). So what does it take for an 8 hour day out with Kiera? :) A WHOLE DAY of preparation. We woke up early, administered meds and nebs, tried some feeding therapy, followed by a bath and trach care. This took till about noon. Then it took about 2 hours for me to pack needed baby gear, oxygen, meds and food to allow us to stay at my sister's till late, along with getting myself ready, and wrapping birthday gifts for the 2 parties. 9 hours out on 3 liters O2 used 2 travel tanks of liquid O2 and had us on 1 of our 2 compressed tanks by the time we left at 11 ish. Since Kiera isn't quite mobile yet, we, of course, needed the walker to help her interact with the rest of the family, her pack n play for a nap later, and her booster seat to join us at the table. I usually try to arrange trips around feeding times so I don't have to pack food; however, that was not possible for this trip so I packed formula to last till 1am, feeding bags, and feeding pump. We usually just use an inline inhaler for nebs while we are out, but again, that wouldn't do for this length of time so we had to pack the nebulizer machine.


Here are some pics.


Belle of the Ball



Party at Jessica's. It got a little chilly later although it was hot most of the day, and I forgot a sweater. 1 thing! Not bad considering.


Anyway, we got home and collapsed, but it was nice to be out and about ALMOST like NORMAL people.


Unfortunately, Monday Kiera came down with some kind of stomach bug. She's been throwing up all her food and has bad diahrea. I've done 3 loads of just her laundry since last night. I have her on continuous pedialyte and had to stop her feeds for the time being. And, ohhh, the diapers! I was up with her most of the night Monday night, but had a nurse last night. The funny thing is, this is pretty much the first NORMAL SICKNESS Kiera has had, so in a weird way, it has been kind of fun. Is that strange?


Also on Monday, my stepsons rode their bikes to the pool, and on the way, Mitch ran a red light to catch up with his brother, and a car hit his bike and knocked him off. His head and arms are scraped up, but generally okay. Thank goodness he was wearing his helmet! His 8th grade graduation is tonight, so he'll have pictures of the battle scars. :) The difficult part through this was that I was stuck here and unable to go get them since I can't drive alone with Kiera. I thought Jer was still in a meeting too far away to get there in a time acceptable to the ambulance drivers. The drivers wanted someone there in 5-10 minutes or they would have to transport him to the hospital since he's a minor. Their mom and stepdad live more than 10 minutes away, as well. Luckily, my parents were available to go get them.

Gotta go. I smell another diaper.

Therese