December 2015 Review

Well another December has come and gone. Overall we had a great month! :)

Here are some of the highlights:

Kaylee's Birthday Party was a ton of fun for all ages. *I think the adults enjoyed playing more than the kids.* I want to say thank to each and every one of you that came out to celebrate my daughter turning 5. It really means a lot to me and to her to know she is surrounded by such love.

 She was VERY excited about her party! 

Pump It Up

 

 She sure does love chocolate cake.

Even the Grandparents got in on all the action!!!

 Grandpa

 Grammy

 Grandma

Memaw & Pawpaw

Our Christmas season kicked off with a trip to Prestonwood to see Uncle Scott & Aunt Jenna in The Gift of Christmas play. It was an amazing show! Way to go guys!!!

It really was a Christmas to remember between the Bennett, Elliott, & Ortiz families we are overflowing with love and appreciation for the generosity shown this year. Of course trying to explain to a five year old that Christmas should be about giving and spending time with family instead of all the packages under the tree can be difficult. We will work on that. ;P 

We were even lucky enough to get another visit this year from our good friend Sophie the Elf. :)

From our family to yours we hope your holidays were everything you hoped they would be and more. 

 

PS - Thank you again to our families and friends for everything you did, purchased, and said that made this holiday so great. 

Did I say five....I guess this makes number eight

We went in Monday for pre-op at about 10am. They did the usual tasks of checking her stats, taking blood, and doing a chest x-ray to make sure everything looked great for surgery the next day. After having all of that done we headed down to have a consultation with her surgeon Dr. Mendeloff. He is truly a brilliant pediatric heart surgeon and we got really lucky that he was the one to handle all of Kaylee's heart surgeries. As usual he was able to calm our nerves about the surgery and explained everything so that we were able to follow. Going into the meeting we were expecting to hear bad news such as she is going to be in the hospital for about a week and her healing time for the breast bone would be about 3 months. Dr. Mendeloff quickly shook that off and explained that normally kids are only in the hospital for 2-3 days on average and it should take about 2 months for her breast bone to heal, but of course we would take it day by day and see how Kaylee does. This was GREAT news!!!

The surgery was set for Tuesday at 11:30am, so we needed to be there at 10am. We got there a few minutes after due to some traffic on 75 (ughhhh :/). After bringing us back the nurse did some quick vitals and then let Kaylee go to the playroom to hangout until it was time to go. Dr. Mendeloff's first surgery that day ran a bit over so we did not head up for surgery until about 12:20pm. They gave her the "silly juice" to calm her down and let her watch Frozen. When they came to take her back she was waving bye to us.

The surgery took about 3 hours. Dr. Mendeloff came out to tell us that she did amazing and that he had put in a better lead this time that is actually a bi-lead; which means if one side goes out the other will keep everything going like normal. AWESOME! He let us know that we could see her being wheeled into the unit in a bit. When they brought her by to go to the Cardiac Unit it got a bit emotional in the room because Kaylee was still intubated and just looked so weak. It's heartbreaking to watch a young little girl that normally has more energy than anyone look like that.

Kaylee right after Surgery

We finally got to go back and be with her after about an hour more of waiting for the them to get her set up in her room. They let us know that they were keeping her sedated as she was coming out of anesthesia feisty (that is normal for Kaylee). She was on some strong pain medication that was also helping her rest. She woke up a few times throughout that first night complaining of pain in which she was given some morphine to help her out.

They took her off of sedation about 5:30am the next morning and she quickly wanted to have some water and watch Peppa Pig. She went in and out of sleep until about 7:30am. Dad came up for a visit before work, but unfortunately Kaylee was out cold the whole time he was there. Dr. Mendeloff stopped by briefly to let us know that the drainage tube would have to stay in another day due to how much was still coming out. Ray from Medtronics stopped by after that to check out her pacemaker and let us know that everything looked perfect. YAY! :) The doctors made their rounds about 9:30am and let us know that she was clear to eat what she feels like, get some IVs out, and she needed to start doing some walking. Kaylee went straight to work eating with some donuts and poptarts. Taking the ART line out of her right wrist and the IV in her right ankle was painful for Kaylee, but she was glad to have at least one hand free to use (her left hand had an IV that we needed to keep). Her first walk around the unit went pretty well with a bit of crying because Kaylee thought she was getting to walk out of that place.

Day after Surgery - Kaylee's First Walk Around the Unit

Day after Surgery - Heading up to the 6th Floor, First Time Riding in a Wheelchair

At about 1-1:30pm Kaylee was moved to the 6th floor which is not considered ICU so she would have more freedom to move and play as she pleases. She was overjoyed at the fact that the 6th floor had a playroom and she did not need to be hooked up to the monitor anymore. We played until dinner time when Daddy came up for a visit after he got off of work. He left when it was time for bed.

Day after Surgery - Making Crowns because we are a Princess

Our second night was pretty good due to not hearing beeping from a monitor and it was darker in the room. At about 5am they came in to give her a good dose of pain medication because Kathy was coming up to take out her drainage tube. Kathy was there at 5:30am and got her tube out super quick without much fuss from Kaylee. One more thing gone...we were on a roll. Kaylee went right back to sleep until about 7:30am when it was time to get up for medicines and a chest x-ray. The doctor came in to visit while Kaylee was eating breakfast. She was originally saying that it would be tomorrow before we went home as they would like to monitor her some more, but then she started watching Kaylee and checking her out and decided they was no reason why she shouldn't be able to go home today.

WHAAAAAT???????

I was so excited!!! After playing in the playroom for awhile and then taking a good nap we were ready to leave by about 2:00pm.

I couldn't believe it! My little girl who had just had open heart surgery looked amazing, was acting like a toned down normal self, and was going home 2 days later. She is truly an extraordinary little girl and I could not be any prouder to be her mother.

WAY TO GO KAYLEE!!! :)

We want to send out a huge THANK YOU to all of our family, friends, and Kaylee's grandparents that were there for the surgery, visited, or just checked in on Kaylee. We seriously cannot express enough how thankful we are to have such an amazing support system.

Kaylee's Hernia Surgery 10/7/15

Kaylee's surgery last Wednesday to fix the Hernia that had been created due to all of the past surgeries in that area by her belly button went perfectly...well at least the actual surgery part did.

 Waiting to go back for surgery

Watching Blaze and the Monster Machines

We found out after the surgery that they had spent the first hour they had her back checking her pacemaker and calling Cardiologists to make sure she would be ok to do the procedure if she only had one lead working (Kaylee's pacemaker has 2 leads connected to the heart, one in the top chamber and the other in the bottom chamber to help the two halves communicate with each other since her electrical system does not work). We knew that one of her leads was not performing at 100% (cardiologist was monitoring it) but we did not know that it was fractured. They turned the lead off knowing that if its not working right it could cause more harm than good for Kaylee......greeeeaaaaattttt, Ryan and I both knew what that meant........

ANOTHER SURGERY

Kaylee has a Cardiologist appointment on Wednesday so we will see what happens then...

David's CPA Party

First and foremost I need to say CONGRATULATIONS to David on passing all 4 of his CPA exams on the FIRST go around! That is really impressive! :)

Whitney always said that when David passed all of his exams she was going to throw him a party because he had worked so hard studying all the time (almost a year and a half) and deserved the celebration. So after she found out he passed his last test in July it was time to finally start planning.

I enjoyed getting to go shopping with her for supplies, but we found out quickly that no store carries CPA party stuff and very little congrats party supplies. That meant we were going to have to improvise and make some decorations (which was an exciting thought in our world).

Whitney came up with some great ideas and we ran with them.

The only "issue" we had was when making the cookies from scratch we made the icing a little too runny and the word "CPA" didn't turn out like we wanted it too. BUT the cookies still tasted great and were cute anyways.

Whitney didn't want to go too crazy; just a few decorations, good food, great company, and some cornhole competition.

The party was a success!!!

The food was absolutely DELICIOUS! Major props to the Chefs! Ryan and I won at Cornhole twice even though I am not very good. Haha :) The kids enjoyed getting to run around and play, while the parents got to enjoy some good conversation. 

Thank you for inviting us! We had a fun night!

Frist Day of School 2015

Kaylee started her first day of official Pre-K today. She has been apart of the PPCD program for a year and a half now. This year is a little different. They have placed her in a "blended" class which means most of the kids in her class are "normal" with the exception of a couple of students (Kaylee being one of them). We are hoping this will give Kaylee an opportunity to experience main stream schooling and give her the challenge she needs.

I am happy I was able to get a couple of good pictures of her this morning. :) Thank you Pinterest for helping me find the link to this beautiful "First Day of Pre-K" printable (it can be found here). 

Backpack on and ready to go. Her first day of school was more so an Orientation, as it was only an hour long (normal class time is 3 hours). The teacher was able to talk to the parents about everything to expect this year while the kids explored their new classroom.

Building a log house with daddy at the end of class.

I went with something a little easier this year for the teacher back to school gift. She has an extra aide in her class this year which brings my total to three teachers (main teacher plus two aides). I got the idea again from Pinterest and you can find the original inspiration here.

Its looking like its going to be a great school year!!!

The Decision to Leave Facebook

This may come as a shock to some people and others not so much, but I am leaving Facebook. I have been on Facebook for 6 years (created the account the summer after I got married) and its been like any relationship with its ups and downs. Facebook has seen me through Kaylee's surgeries and hospital stays, relationships that have come and gone, and keeping up with people's lives that really intrigued me. I feel as if I have come to a fork in the road for my life and everything in me seems to be pushing me in the direction of doing some soul searching and that requires me to leave Facebook. I want so much more for my life than just the image of who I am on Facebook. I want to become the person I have always dreamed of being no matter how hard it might be to get there. I want to discover things, learn new things, meet new people, enjoy my family, hangout with my friends, and just be ME. I'm tired of deciding whether or not to post something because it might upset this person or give another person the wrong idea. It's my life and I will live it how I see fit. I have always been the people pleaser, giving in to whatever the people closest to me needed or wanted even if it meant sacrificing something for myself. I enjoy making people happy but within the past few months things have started changing. I still enjoy making people happy but I am done going out of my way to please people and never have it be returned, not even a thank you. I have always said that I wished I was more assertive in my life and that I would be able to stand up for myself, well buckle up world because that day has finally come.

My Facebook page itself will not be deleted as it is linked to my Mother-in-law's real estate business page, but I will not be on it.

If you would like to keep up with whats going on with me or Kaylee you will find updates posted on this blog. :)

I wish everyone nothing but happiness in their lives!!!!!

Take care,

Switching Jobs

Laser Quest Mesquite closed on January 14th, 2013. It was very sudden and we had no time to prepare ourselves for it. I was not sure what to do with myself considering I did not know anything other than being the General Manager of LQ. I felt bad for my management team and crew members. There was nothing I could say or do that could heal the pain of being laid off. I couldn't help but blame myself for not being able to bring the sales up enough to save it. It took me a long time before I could look positively at the situation and say maybe I was meant to do something else.

I went on a ton of job interviews, but just couldn't find the right fit. My husband and I sat down and talked about our situation for a long time and finally came to the conclusion that I should just become a Stay at Home Mom and just be there for Kaylee. We knew it would be tough without that extra income, but given how much attention Kaylee really needed we knew it would be the best move for her.