Teeth, Teeth, and More Teeth!!

If you recall, not too long ago I mentioned that Reagan was working on her two top teeth (she already has her two, front bottom teeth). We thought that's why she was feeling so bad, but that later turned out to be because of her knee infection. She does really well with this whole teething thing. She drools a manageable amount, nothing crazy. She chews on all her toys a little more and that's really it. She doesn't really run fever or wake up at night. Oh, and before you tell us to, David and I are already counting our blessings!!

Well, last week her first top tooth popped through! We could see the second one right next to it and my prediction was that it would only take about a week before it was in. I was right and today I looked, and it was there! However, very unexpectedly, I noticed that TWO MORE teeth had broke through the skin on the bottom! One on either side of her first two bottom teeth. That's right, in one day my daughter went from having three teeth to having SIX!!!!

Everything I've read said basically the same thing. First comes the two, front bottoms. Then the four, front tops. Then, at close to a year, you get the other two, front bottoms. Followed by the molars. Well, she wouldn't be Reagan if she didn't do things her own way! I guess I can throw my teething schedule out the window, because my girl likes to do things different! I am thankful that she hasn't bitten me yet. I know the day is coming when I'm going to be feeding her and CHOMP!! On that note, you can feel free to send some prayers my way, because I am scared to death of her biting me!

Here's Reagan with her two FAVORITE teething toys...

her feet!

These are from this past Monday. It rained all day, so Reagan and I decided to have a PJ Day and say in our pajamas all day! She had lots of fun playing with the laundry basket. Who needs expensive toys when you have big, plastic baskets??

Knee Update

We went to the doctor on Wednesday and he said she was healing well. They took more xrays and took the stitches out. She doesn't have to wear a bandage anymore, which is nice. We go back next week to see the infectious disease doc and we hope to get more good news from her. The only bad thing is that her antibiotics give her bad diarrhea and due to that she has terrible diaper rash. Over all though, she is doing really well. Thank God!

Here is her scar. It's about an inch and a half to two inches long. After it's healed more, we can put the vitamin e stuff on it to hopefully help fade it.

Bluebonnets

The Ziebarth Family Daddy and Reagan

Our BEAUTIFUL girl

Reagan loved all the pretty flowers.

So precious.

Reagan and Israel

Ok, I'm done now...

Happy Birthday Charlie!

Charlie is 6 years old today! I can hardly believe it!

This is the birthday t-shirt we make the dogs wear on their birthdays. Poor guys. I bet they get so embarrassed!

Here is Charlie when he was about a year and a half. See how much darker his muzzle was! Now he's all grey and old!

And here's baby Charlie. Only a few weeks old here. He was small enough to fit into Willie's pocket! And again, look how dark his face was! This was my first child and even though Reagan beats him out, he used to be my favorite baby!

Home Sweet Home

We got to come home on Tuesday night!! We are so happy to be out of that hospital room. Reagan is doing so good since being home. She's back to being into everything and crawling around. It's a modified crawl now. She uses her right knee and her left foot because she is still guarding her left knee. She stands up at every chance she gets, though she is still careful not to put too much weight down on her left leg. Thank goodness she doesn't mind her antibiotics. I have to give them to her three times a day for the next month and we have several follow up appointments with both the infectious disease doctor and the surgeon in the weeks to come. All in all she is doing good and getting back to her old self. Thank you for all the calls and prayers. We are very lucky to have friends and family who care for us and our little girl. Here are a few more pictures from our last days at the hospital.

This one is of Reagan's iv that they put in her forehead.

Heart breaking, isn't it?

This was the next day and while she had the iv in her head, at least she had her hands back and could play.

I know this is not a very good picture, but it's the best one I have of her knee. The actual incision is on the inside of her knee and the place on the outside was where they had the drain.

Still, she was a happy girl!

This was yesterday. Our neighborhood just opened a park and they had food and fun activities for the grand opening. It's at the end of our street, so we walked down.

First time in a swing!!! Sometimes she looked scared and sometimes she looked like she loved it. Not sure how she really felt, but we'll keep trying it until we know.

Here's a video of her first swing experience! Enjoy!

Easter in the Hospital

We had a very interesting Easter. We spent it like we have the last few days, in our hospital room. David and I hid Easter eggs all around our room and we helped Reagan hunt for them. She did really good. She picked up all the eggs by herself and even dropped some of them in the basket herself! It wasn't the Easter that we had hoped for, but we spent it together and that's all that matters. Maybe next Sunday we will get to dress up in our Easter outfits!

Towards the end of our egg hunt, the nurses came and took Reagan to try and start ANOTHER iv. I literally can't even count the number of times she has been stuck for an iv. I think only 5 have been successful, but she has bruises up and down both arms and her one leg that didn't have surgery from trying to get them. They say that her little veins in combination with her chubby limbs makes it hard to hit it just right. Plus, iv's in babies don't last very long anyway before going bad. The latest iv was the biggest shock. They took her away (for the others we got to be there) and said they were going to get a "special" iv person to put it in. When she came back it was in her forehead!!!! I kid you not! I could not believe it when I saw tubes coming out of her forehead when they returned her to us. Thank God we will most likely be leaving tomorrow! We are so over being here!

Feeling Much Better Now

Reagan is doing much better today. She is more alert and playful. She's smiling and laughing. She is also a little upset that she can't really crawl or get to her hands. They are still covered because she has an IV in both hands. But all in all she is in good spirits. Thank you for all the calls and prayers. Keep them coming. We still don't know when we'll get to leave.

The Whole Enchilada

Here is Reagan in the ER in her handy dandy hospital gown. This is right when we got there and changed her. She did not like being in the ER. Every time someone new came in the room, they stuck her with some sort of needle. This was the second IV. They put it in her foot because her wrist was too fat! Now she is on the FOURTH IV!! They don't last very long when she pulls them out! Also, the one in her foot came out of the vein right before her surgery and caused her fluids to pool in her leg. That made the surgery take quite a bit longer because they had to get the swelling to go down and start a new IV. More pictures in the ER. So, here is the whole, up to date story. I'll try to do the Reader's Digest version. Ok, starting on late Sunday night, we noticed Reagan having a fever. On Monday it wasn't getting any better and so I took her to the doctor to be looked over. He went through the whole list of normal things that would cause a baby to get fever and she didn't have any of them. AKA, no ear infection, URI, cold, etc. So he sent me home and said that if on Wednesday morning she still had a high fever, to bring her back for more tests. Well, on Wednesday her fever was not high and so I thought she was getting better. Then I went to get her dressed around noon and she cried when I put her pants on. Then I noticed that she didn't really want to crawl or put weight on her left leg. I took the pants off and her knee was swollen and hot to the touch. It was hard to really see the swolleness because her legs are so beefy anyway. So, I took her back to the doctor, he looked at her and said that yes it was an issue and a serious one. I needed to take her to Cook's and see an infectious disease doc and an orthopedic surgeon because they would need to start her on antibiotics and clean out the infection in her knee joint. I meet David at the hospital and we meet with the surgeon. Reagan had xrays, blood work and had her IV put in right away. Then the surgeon, Dr. Vara, said he wanted to aspirate her knee and make sure the swelling was infection (puss) and not clear liquid. The way he made it sound was that puss would be the better of the two options because it would be easier to clean up, but that either way it would be an emergency surgery. So two men held my baby down while Vara stuck a HUGE needle straight down into her knee. She was screaming and I was panicking. It was puss. They then took her straight upstairs to surgery. The surgery was supposed to take 45 min and ended up taking 2 hours and 15 min due to all the IV problems and the fact that Vara wanted to take a sample of her bone marrow from her femur to make sure the infection didn't get into her bone. She did well in surgery and woke up well in recovery. That's where I stayed with her all night and that was really no fun. Lots of people in and out, lots of noise, and no space to move around. On Thursday we got our room and Reagan was started on her pain meds and antibiotics. This was not a very eventful day. On Friday, today, Vara came and checked her bandage, redressed it, and took her drain out. He told us that none of the cultures he sent off (of the puss and bone marrow) had started to grow in the lab yet and since he didn't have a definite yes or no on whether the infection was in her bones, he wanted to do an MRI to confirm it wasn't. This meant they would have to put her all the way back out for the procedure (babies don't know to stay still when you tell them to and it was going to take about 2 hours for the whole study of her bone). We hated her getting more anesthesia and another tube down her throat, but that's what we had to do in order to be safe. The MRI came back clean and no infection in the bone!! YEA!! Now, through this whole thing, every time they would read Reagan's blood pressure it was high. Sometimes they would say it was due to her being upset and crying or maybe being in pain from her knee, but all day on Friday she would be real clam when they would check it and it was still high. So, Vara ordered that she be catheterized and a urine sample be sent off to check for infection in her bladder and kidneys (babies can't pee into a cup on command :). They did that a few hours ago and we still haven't heard results. So far we know they want to keep us for at least 5 days (after surgery) to do IV antibiotics and then they will send us home on some oral meds. They may keep us a little longer and I'm sure they will if they find anything else. Also, there is still a 50% chance they might have to go back in and clean her knee out again if the antibiotics aren't doing enough. Vara said he thinks we are ok and won't need to do that, but he won't know for sure until another few days pass. Please keep praying for a FAST recovery and healing for our little girl. She is tired of being here and really tired of all the poking and prodding they are doing on her. Reagan's surgery leg when the drain was still in. Playing with Yaya in her prison crib. :) Playing with her Easter basket sent over by David's work.