Just RK

This is from a post that I put up on the iVillage DS forum that I frequent. I'm hoping to get some input from all you moms of designer gene kiddos that might pop in here too. _______________________________________________ Yesterday I took Braska to our pediatrician for her 12-month visit (at 14 months...due to my avoiding a bad nursing situation..the new nurse is great!). Whenever we go for these well-child visits, we get a little packet in an envelope that says "6 months" or "12 months" etc. It has a few pages of Milestones: What Your Child Should Be Doing with lists of things that Braska is, of course, *not* doing. It also has a few safety tips and such, but it's largely the milestones. This isn't the first time I've received one, obviously, but each time before I wasn't sure what to say about what I was thinking about it. I kept thinking that it seemed flippant and almost insensitive to hand a sheet of milestones of development to a parent o

Here's what my odometer said weekend before last about why my teeth were chattering. Don't forget that this is also the night we had 25-35 mph winds.

Shannon at Gabi's World tagged me for the Love/Hate meme. Braska got tagged too, but she got to it before I did. I had been pondering what I'd include on my list, and I had some good things that were going to segue into other posts I've been meaning to do. But tonight I've been frustrated, tired, and not in the frame of mind that would lend itself to a quality post. (I try hard to avoid the rant-post. And you can see how sparse my posts have been...get the connection??) So I am going to once again postpone a couple of topics and go for more of the fluff post, although still sincere. Forgive me, you true substance bloggers. ~~I love that God loves us even when we disappoint him so deeply. ~~I love my daughter, my husband, and my dog. (In no particular order) ~~I love my car. ~~I love my blogger friends who have taught me so much....that's a whole bunch of you! Holla! ~~I love what Reece's Rainbow does, and I love that God has blessed me to be involved i

Christina at Kwisteena's Kwaziness tagged me to do a little looking back exercise. I've chosen to make it a series, in order to cover a few angles. This first edition is mostly for us big kid members of the family. When my husband and I met online , his screen name was Muncher and mine was Wish. This is part of our story in pictures. As mentioned in my recent re-post about looking back , it's not always a pleasant thing for me to do. That's unfortunate, as I love to look at old pics and remember how fun stuff was and what was happening at each stage. SO...I'm going to have a little fun, remembering JUST the good for a few minutes(I'll try)...even if it is a little bit personally embarrassing. (What wasI thinking??) Here's one of the first pics of M and me, and that's my youngest sister, Julia. This would have been about Spring 98, I think. We'd been dating about 6 months maybe, age 24. September 2000, engagement pictures. Age 26. Here's that sto

It's 12:30 am. Way past my bedtime. I have so many things I want to post...for discussion, for posterity, or for a laugh, but I want to sleep. I wanted to sleep a few hours ago, but no can do. Braska went to bed at 9 pm. That's on the early side for her, but she was tired and I had work to do, so it's a deal. M left just before then to head out for Sunday Night Gaming, so the house has been nice and quiet. I've been sitting here by the fire in one spot for 3 1/2 hours, reading, editing, typing, listening, all parts of my job. Some parts can be done in the daytime when Braska is playing, but much of it requires more quiet than her waking hours allow lately. So it's late-nights for now, especially with as much out-of-town time as we've had recently. The debate now is do I stay up to finish a few more things that need to get done--this being one of those things. They'll be so much easier uninterrupted, but what quality will there be with my eyelids sag

This was posted moments ago. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2008 12:12 PM, CST The following message is from Levi: I got to go home today! No more tubes, no more machines, no more doctors, and no more pain! I got to see my papa too, and he sends his love to everybody. Most importantly, I got to see Jesus. I know it's hard for everyone down there, but let these words give you home and comfort: "Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back, so that you may also be where I am. I am the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me." I love you all lots, and I will see you again. Love, Levi Please continue to pray for this family as they mourn their sweet child. Thank you for all your prayers and kind words. It has meant a great deal to this family, I can assure you. I will pass on all comments

With the writers' strike in Hollywood, we've had alot of reruns and "best of" shows lately on the TV. It made me think that while I'm trying to survive this crazy month of seemingly constant packing suitcases, driving, and doctor appointments that I should utilize this same pattern. So I'll be choosing some old posts, from back in the early days when only a handful of readers popped in occasionally, to share and bring back to the spotlight for a moment. This first one, from only my second post on this blog, has been chosen because it has come to be pertinent again this week. I had occasion a couple days ago to have to face a difficult situation that I hoped I'd left behind. I feel like I handled it well, considering the way it kind of jumped out of nowhere, but I also found that in the quiet, I still had quite a bit of insecurity and pain lingering in the deeper caverns of my psyche. This post was good for me to find with fresh eyes... it's time, a

In the next few minutes, Baby Levi will be taken off the ECMO machine, and his family is there to be with him and see how he responds. The concern now is his lungs, apparently. Here's the report from his dad this morning. Please be praying for this tiny one. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2008 08:42 AM, CST Well, Levi had an uneventful evening. His pressures are up a little bit and his acid levels are better today than yesterday, which is definitely good news. The main problem is not the heart, but the lungs, and unfortunately, that may be an obstacle too high to climb. Until the last week, his lungs have performed well, and they have had no reason to suspect any lung disease or anything else. However, Dr. Gandhi said this morning that the lungs are much worse than he thought, and that there wasn't much that could be done for them at this point. He's not sure if the cause is something he was born with (most likely) or just a natural result of sitting around in the hospital waiti

Here's the update for Baby Levi today. Some encouraging news, but he'll need prayers ramped up for the next two days to Wednesday. MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 2008, 10:53 A.M. Ok. We got good news, which has the potential to be great news. Dr. Gandhi said that Levi's heart looked very good and that the pressures were pretty good for the 5 minutes he was clamped off on ECMO. If not for the kidney and another new issue, he would have been able to completely come off today. Because he was so full of electrolytes from not getting rid of waste, Dr. Gandhi didn't want him to start off life without ECMO behind the 8-ball, so he is going to hook up the actual dialysis filter to the ECMO machine and filter Levi fully. There was a new issue that has developed with his lungs, which may or may not be serious, which involves little air pockets (called bleps) which develop and run the risk of possibly bursting and collapsing his lung under the pressure from the excess air. Because Dr. Gandhi

Please take the time to read about Baby Levi. For his precious life's sake and his parents. Baby Levi was born on November 29, 2007 at 2 lbs 5 oz and 15 inches. He has hypoplastic left ventricle and has been in the hospital since he was born. His father is a friend of mine from church camp back in junior high and high school, and I hadn't seen him in close to 18 years until last month. Levi is in the CICU at Children's where we go for all our specialists, so we've been checking on him often. He finally got up to 3 lbs 12 oz before he had his open-heart surgery this past Tuesday, January 8. He has had some severe challenges since and is still on the ECMO machine to help his heart and lungs continue to function. Here is the update his father posted this afternoon. SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 2008 01:49 PM, CST Levi is having a great day today. His pressures are up and they have been staying up all day long. The only small issue is that he had a bath, which made him mad, and then

That's how I feel, three steps behind my brain. I keep thinking of all I need to do and I'm not getting much of it done. In case you are one of...gosh...maybe the 2? people out there who don't read Braska's blog , here's a rundown of my last couple weeks. 12/22-To St. Louis for Christmas weekend. Home on 12/25. 12/26-Back to St. Louis to take Braska to GI for granulation. Home on 12/29. 1/2-Back to St. Louis to take Braska to GI for granulation...again. Home on 1/3. That's 18 hours of driving right there. That might have something to do with my being behind. Possible. And it looks like another trip is going to be in order in a few days unless something changes very quickly. Better get to the library to get some more books on CD. Yesterday, I kicked my husband and daughter out of the house for several hours. That's the only way I can get real work done around here. They have to be gone. So they went and hung out with some friends and I got through 3