Mac & Cheese

I started slowly adding dairy back into Brielle's diet. Mac and Cheese was on the top of the list of things to give her. She LOVES it! Of course she does...what kid doesn't! Still had to use gluten free noodles, but she went nuts!

Celebrating Brielle's Birthday

On Sunday we celebrated Brielle's birthday with the Ericson's. It was tricky finding a gluten/dairy free recipe that everyone would eat. I ended up making my favorite meal...Hungarian Goolash. Brielle loved it. After dinner the kids played and played. I made little gluten free cupcakes and Brielle ate them, but didn't really like frosting on her fingers. She loved the gifts we got her...a water table, push car, and little couch. We love you Brielle!

 

Bubbles!

My mom gave Brielle this fun bubble machine for her birthday. The kids have gone nuts over it! It puts out TONS of bubbles and they haven't stopped playing with it.

Cystic Fibrosis Test

What a roller coaster we have been on lately. We continue to go to different doctors as we try to find the cause of Brielle's health issues. We are still off dairy and wheat, but she still continues to have abdominal cramping. The latest specialist we went to ran some tests and determined she had low iron, high acidity level in her blood, white blood cells in her stool which indicates intestinal inflammation, and split fats in her stool which indicates malabsorption. The specialist wanted to wait a bit before we did anything. I had them fax our pediatrician the test results so we could discuss them at Brielle's 1 yr checkup. He was very concerned about the split fats, so he decided it was time to see a specialist at Primary Children's Hospital. It was a 5 week wait to see someone, so the pediatrician called one of the doctors directly and talked to him about Brielle. After discussing her history, the specialist's first thought was to test her for Cystic Fibrosis. I guess that even though she has no respiratory problems, CF can attack the digestive system first. She has a lot of the symptoms of CF kids, so he wanted her tested immediately. So we went in the next day for the test. They first put some electrodes on her arms and held her arms still for 5 minutes while it stimulated her sweat glands. Then they put gauze on her arms and wrapped them up with heat packs and an emergency blanket. We walked around the hospital for 30 minutes while the gauze soaked up her sweat. Brielle did quite well and we were glad it was an easy test. They said that they usually call those with positive results sometime in the evening. So we waited ALL day, sick to our stomachs. I couldn't stop crying for most of the day. My mom had the day off so she came and helped with the kids while I was gone, then waited with me all day. It was very emotionally draining as we couldn't stop picturing what life would be like if she had CF. The life expectancy is in the 30's, so it was crushing us to think that her life would be cut short. We waited, and no phone call. We continued to stress all weekend until we saw the doctor on Monday morning where he confirmed that the test was negative. We feel very blessed to have this behind us. We still don't know what is wrong, but it feels nice to cross this off the list of possibilities.

Brooklyn's Talent Show

Brooklyn had her class talent show. She did great! She chose to show some of her tumbling moves. My mom was able to come and it was fun to see all the kids and their talents.

Brielle's Birthday

We had a lot of fun on Brielle's birthday. Her current stats are:

15 lbs 6 oz (-20%)

28.75" (60%)

Yes...she is super tiny and is the size of most 6 month olds, but she acts like she is 2. She loves to walk (run) around and loves to play with her siblings. She says mama, dad, hi, and ya. It's too bad that she has so many health issues, bc if it weren't for those she would be the perfect baby. 

For lunch we headed to her favorite play place...Burger King by the mall. It has the best area for her to play in and she loves it. We invited Natalie to bring her kids and they all had a blast. 

 After her nap the kids were anxiously waiting to surprise her with balloons. They played with all the balloons while Brielle snuggled on my lap while she woke up.

 We waited for Josh to get home and then we grabbed some dinner and took the kids to a playground. They chose their school playground, which worked out great bc no one was there. They played and played until the sun went down. Happy birthday Brielle!!!

 

Bday Party

Brynlee's little neighbor friend Ryann had a bday party and invited Brooklyn and Brynlee. They played games, painted nails, colored, and decorated cupcakes. The girls had a lot of fun!