Results of Bilateral Myringotomy with Tubes and Adenoidectomy

Thanks for all of the prayers! Gracie is recovering well. She had a previous tube with a polyp and nasty stuff behind it. That was replaced as well as the tube that had fallen out. The adenoids were HUGE and so it was necessary for her to get and IV and intubation so she could get those (adenoids) removed. She was pretty funny after she got the Versed she was hallucinating a bit, telling me that there was an ant crawling on her hand and such. The worst for me was the waking up from recovery. It's the part I dread the most for myself (for my own surgeries) so I was dreading it for her. She was very brave and settled down as soon as I got to her. Thanks to my dear friend, Kristine, I didn't have to worry about Sydney. She (K) brought the baby to me when she was hungry and then stayed with us until we went home. Thank goodness for friends! We stopped for a milkshake on the way home, and then pulled over just as we left the parking lot for a puke clean-up break. After we got home she asked for pancakes with peanut butter and asked for a second and third, we only obliged to the second for fear of puking again. Then had a million Popsicles followed by dinner of a bowl of rice krispies, 2 slices of pizza, and 2 slices of cheese. Where did this appetite come from? After a dose of the tylenol with codeine elixir we are ready for bed!

Ready to go with the cute hospital jammies

Trying to wake up...

The first of many, MANY popsicles

Surgery

My (first) baby is going in for surgery tomorrow to replace tubes in her ears and possibly remove her adenoids. Although this is a fairly routine procedure, it is still surgery and she does have to go under general anesthesia. Keep her in your prayers!

Just because

I love her

Thrush and Chunk

First of all, I hate thrush! Second, I love chunky babies!

Sydney has gained a bit of weight in her short little life thus far...

August 3 (birth) 8 lbs 1 oz.

August 11 (8 days old) 8lbs 4 oz.

August 26 (3 weeks, 2 days) 9 lb 7 oz

August 31 (4 weeks) 10 lb 4 oz

There you have it! And you also have a promise of more pics of my chunk-ier baby!

Sydney's Blessing

August 31, 2009

Sydney Kay Mollenhauer was blessed in our home in Portland, OR.

We were blessed to have "Grumpa" in town and thought we would take the opportunity to bless Sydney. I am so grateful to have the Priesthood in my home. What a sweet blessing it was. She is such a special girl and we are so happy to have her in our family!

43 days later

This made my day:

Seeing this:

And not this:

Total cost of rental car: $1859.32

Total cost of repair: $3893.23

Pain and Suffering: Not sure yet, but dang it, it better be worth my 43 days!

Note to stupid drivers: Please don't back up into someone passing you in a parking lot! PLEASE!!

Another Gracie Makeover

still alive... just busy

So I realized that we have not been present in the blogging world for quite some time...almost four weeks now? wow, time is flying. We are still alive, just busy in our lives and dealing with our kids. Sydney is doing really well, she slept from 12 to 6ish A.M. straight-through last night, so we are really grateful and happy about that. Thank you Babywise! She is spending more time with her eyes open lately, checking out this wild world in which we live, and is starting to follow the sounds of our voices. She especially loves to hear Em's, and has smiled at her a couple times in response to Em talking to her. I have not been the beneficiary of any smiles in response to my voice, but I like to count the ones where she is smiling at the fan and because of gas as mine.

The older girls are still very sweet to her, except that I think that Kami wants to start playing with her, so she has been bringing toys to Sydney, hanging out with her at mealtimes (which is fun for Em), and removing her socks for her (Kami has a thing with shoes and socks, I'll talk about it some other time). Gracie has been nothing but sweet to her and likes to imaging that when Sydney is crying, that she is the Mommy and says comforting things like, " Oh, Honey, What's the matter?" and "It's OK, sweetie". Cracks me up every time!

Funny story about Gracie, today as we arrived for church we devised a game plan for getting the kids out of the car and chauffeuring them into the capilla. I said that I would take number three and Em volunteered for number two, which left Brittany (my sister who is staying with us for a couple months, we had space, she wanted a change) taking "number one" (Gracie). When Gracie heard that she was number one, she broke down in tears, saying that she is not number one, she is three, and that she could only be three and not two or one, that she is a big girl, ....and so on. She obviously meant her age needed to be three, and that we couldn't relegate her to being one just by saying so. I just laughed as I tried to explain to her that she was our first child and that that was special,and that she was still a big girl and could be three years old and still be our first child...needless to say I was laughing whilst I explained and she thought I was laughing at her, not with her...and she eventually understood, but I was again reminded of a number of things that I should not forget. 1. Cardinal numbers are not an easily understood topic by three year-olds (get working on that Disney) 2. I have a house full of girls and need to remember that most of the time it is not what I say but how I say it that matters 3. these kids are paying close attention to everything we do, and so when I am not speaking at their level, I probably need to talk in code so as not to upset them. I

Well, this was just a short blurb that will hopefully allow Em to guilt-free post some pictures of our cutie pies without writing a whole lot. so tune in shortly for the good stuff in our next post.

Lance

Announcing Sydney Kay Mollenhauer

(notice gracie's birthday make-up...he he he)

So this is a random smattering of pictures of the first day or so of our little Sydney's life. Choosing her name was by the far the hardest part of her delivery. She just did not look like an Olivia or an Annie, and she seemed to respond to Sydney better than Janey. The name is pretty special to both of us, as Sydney is Em's Dad's middle name and Kay is my Mom's Middle name ( and Alexa's too), and it does seem to fit her. She is an extremely mellow baby and only lets out a yelp when she is hungry and not getting fed. When she came out, all she wanted to do was snuggle with her mom, so that is how she spent the first ten minutes of her life. Em will have to relate the whole birth story later, but it was great experience overall, and so relaxed. we just love Mt. Hood Legacy, and the staff there.

The big girls have been nothing but sweet to their new sister, and Gracie has been really good about holding her " by herself" (which is a supervised holding, but she is able to do it for like thirty minutes at a time, before she asks for someone else to hold "baby Sydney", which is nice that she doesn't just shove her away). Kami is really funny, and has been nothing but sweet, but I think she feels like she wants to make sure she is not left out of anything. We are constantly showing them what Sydney is up to, how she is eating, getting "help" with diaper changes, and reminding them to be soft with their baby sister. Sydney is being showered with kisses and hugs, and Is a really good baby. We were able to get sleep in a four and five hour stretch the first two nights at home, and she is awake at dinner time and sleeping a lot. She is a good eater, at least every two hours, and has only projectile vomited one time per day (which is funny until it happens to you, and you have to clean it off of your shirt, pants, and couch cushions (plural)) I think she is somewhat soothed by the sounds of her sisters yelling and playing, as it does not bother her at all, and loves to give kisses back as long as she thinks that your lips/face/arm/shirt/finger is where she gets milk from.

So the whole family is doing great. We are loving having our new baby girl around. Em is going a little stir crazy right now, so we are going to go see if we can see a movie (Julie and Julia?) Umm, this was supposed to just be a quick update, so if there is anything I left out, please ask or call.

Lance

Happy Birthday Gracie!

This is the birthday girl:

Our dear, sweet, and sassy Grace is turning 3 tomorrow. It's looking like she is going to share her birthday with her baby sister so I wanted to make sure and give her her own special tribute today to celebrate.

these are just a few of our favorite pics of our darling little three year old. Wow, it is surreal that she is three already. We love her so much and wish her her last moments of her own "Happy Birthday."

p.s. Happy Birthday to Michelle too!