Progress, growling and dang cute outfits!

Okay, so I'm the first to admit that the growling on the previous post was a pretty lame example of Mia's incredible growling ability.  Unfortunately it was the only available video I had access to at the time, so I gave in to peer pressure and posted it for all those asking for a video of her growling.  lol  Well, I got another one and you can definitely hear her growing in THIS one, though the picture quality isn't as good because I haven't been able to get my nice little video camera to work.  Luckily my archaic, forever old, huge digital camera has a picture mode so I was able to capture this:



As for progress,  Zeus and Mia and I went to an informational Cleft Conference this past Saturday for families with cleft affected children.  During it they were going over the different treatment options they do, and suddenly a picture of this GORGEOUS child popped up for an example of the NAM device.

That's our little Mia!

We grabbed the camera out of the diaper bag and took a picture of the power point screen as quick as we could - hence the bad quality.  What a surprise to see her sweet little face peering at us from the "big screen"!  I guess they really ARE pleased with her progress.  Yay Mia!!!  They even announced that she was "the cute little skeleton in the audience," as she wore her Halloween costume (the flyer encouraged the kids to wear Halloween costumes and they had a little party for the older kiddos during the presentation).  Hello, like I'd pass up ANY chance to have Mia wear her costume...!  ;) 

unfortunately we forgot the bow at home - sadness!

our tired little skeleton, wiped out after the conference

We had another NAM adjustment appointment on Tuesday of this week.  While we were there I asked them for a copy of the power point slide that they showed of Mia so that we could have a better copy.  They didn't have it, but had taken the pictures so they printed them out for us side by side.  Check out the difference:

my little cutie patootie!

 look how much the NAM has helped to pull down her little lip - quite the difference, and will help so much to have everything in place before she has her lip surgery

In fact, the doctor said that it looked ready to go, so she was going to talk to surgery and get it scheduled.  Wow! 

While we were there, the ladies in the office went CRAZY over her cute little outfit. :) All the office workers always check in with us when we are there to see how her progress is coming along and to fuss over her cute little outfits. Since it's October, I figured it was time to break out some of the darling Halloween hand-me-downs. It's been SO fun. They thought it was so cute that one even asked to take a pic with her cell phone and they got out the fancy camera and had us go to the photo room to take a pic to hang on the board. Too funny! Here's the little outfit she wore:

 my little fashion plate - Boo!

man how I love this little girl!!!

Argh!

Argh! #1.  As I was holding my sweet little cuddly baby girl against my chest this morning and enjoying the wonderful mommy/daughter snuggle-fest moment... she growled!  Argh!  I told Zeus he could no longer reinforce the growling sound by growling back at her because she now growls ALL THE TIME!  lol  Uh, this is why kids need daddy's... to teach them all the things a mommy never would!  :)  We WERE able to catch the growling on video last night, but I've got to figure out how to upload it so that I can post it.

Argh #2.  Mia is getting really, really, REALLY good at pulling off her NAM.  As soon as I put it in, her cute little hands go right for it and grab/pull on it and dislodge it.  I tried taping across it - cheek to cheek across the NAM - but she would get her fingers under the gaps of the tape (the gaps from where the tape goes from the appliance to her cheeks on each side) and still manage to pull it off or pull it out such that it was sitting crookedy and pinching her lip or mouth.  When this happens, it causes her to emit a high pitched squeal of pain that stops our hearts when we hear it!  The worst is when we are driving and she 's in the back seat when it happens.  Not only does it startle us and scare the bajeebers out of us, but we have trouble getting to her quickly from that angle.  Also, in the car we don't have anything to cut the tape with.  I can usually find a way to angle back and rip the tape to get the NAM out, but it pulls on her little skin and sometimes actually pulls skin off and makes her little cheeks bleed - worst thing ever! - so I try not to do that. 

Good news is, that it seems to be doing what it's suppose to be doing as we saw from yesterday's appointment.  Bad news is, the other day she pulled it out three times in an hour!!!  Argh!  It wouldn't be so bad, but it's not like a shoe that you just pop back on and can go on your merry way.  With the NAM, I have to clean her little mouth out with a special sponge and water because the denture cream residue becomes slimy and gooey in her little mouth, as well as pick the remaining denture cream off the NAM and then scrub/rinse every crevice of it before putting it back in.  The process of actually putting it back in is high drama and causes her to cry for the two minutes I have to hold it in for the denture cream to set, so needless to say it's a time consuming and heart wrenching process.

Today I came up with the Darcie Austin Moreno adaptation of the Nasal Alveolar Moulding device,(or DAM NAM as I like to call it) which has successfully kept the NAM in her mouth the entire day.  I'm actually quite impressed with my ingenuity and wonder why I didn't come up with it before hand.  Unfortunately it is extremely, and I mean EXTREMELY, unattractive and odd-looking as you can see below.

Pobrecita with the DAM NAM.

Fortunately it doesn't seem to bother her, and it makes it so there are no upper edges for her little fingers to curl under so she can't grab onto anything to pull it down.  Unfortunately, she now resembles a nose-less creature from some sort of bizarre sci-fi show.  *SADNESS!!!* 

Now we REALLY get looks out in public!  I keep telling myself that it IS helping and that we only have to do this for another month and a half... we only have to do this for another month and a half...

In the "good news" arena, have I mentioned before that I love craigslist?  I rarely buy anything new anymore.  I always watch craigslist for it and usually can find the item in great shape for about half the original price.  Woooo whoooo!  Yesterday I sold my old shower curtain and towel set from my Utah house (Zeus didn't like it cause it was too "girly").

 Goodbye cute bathroom set that had been sitting in the closet for 6 months.  I will miss you terribly.  :)

It sold for $40 - yay!  I was able to use $25 of my profit to buy...

 ...a Bumbo seat and tray for Mia for $25!

I've been wanting one for a while to help her with sitting up and neck control.  Thank you craigslist for helping me clean out my closet AND save/make money!  Not only did I NOT have to spend $50 to get a new Bumbo and tray, but by selling the bath stuff ON craigslist and buying the Bumbo set FROM craigslist, I have a $15 surplus AND a cleaner closet AND a Bumbo seat for Mia to chill in!  SCORE!

How do I love thee, craigslist?  Let me count the ways...

Oh my!

Oh my goodness x2!

Oh my goodness number one:

On Saturday morning Mia woke up early to eat as usual.  After feeding her, she was awake for the morning so I took her in her room to play so papa could sleep.  I put her down in her crib on her tummy so that I could go through her clothes and box up ones she's grown out of so far. (<-- Sadness!)  I expected her to fuss because she's not a big fan of tummy time, but she didn't.  I looked back over and she was on her back.  At first I was perplexed, thinking, "Uhm, I didn't put you down clear over on the edge of the crib..."  Then I realized that my little turkey was now on her back and had rolled over! 

Thinking it may have just been a fluke, I put her back on her tummy and wah-lah! she rolled over again!  I knew Zeus would be SO sad to have missed it, so I went and woke him up.  When I told him she'd rolled over in his crib and asked him if he wanted to come see it, he first asked me how many times she'd done it.  I guess if she'd only done it once, he would have chalked it up to a fluke and would have stayed in bed.  Upon hearing that she'd done it twice in a row, he groggily got up and we headed down the hall with the video camera for the big show.  *grin*

Oh my goodness number two:

Zeus had taught our precious, delicate, feminine little baby girl to GROWL!!!  We were at the doctor today and had our first meeting with our plastic surgeon today.  While we were there the PA came in and checked Mia's vitals and then asked about some developmental benchmarks and if she was meeting them yet.  Mia was asleep during this.  One of the things was does she coo.  I told the PA that not only did she coo, but that her father had recently taught her to growl.  lol  The PA looked a little taken-aback.  Then, later on, there was a whole team of people in the room and they were commenting on how cute and sweet and mild Mia was.  She'd woken up by this time and was smiling and cooing at everybody.  All of a sudden she let out one of her new growls.  The PA said, "What was THAT?!?!"  I reminded her about her new found growling skills and everyone chuckled.  Silly little Mia!


While we were at the doctor's office they showed us pictures they had taken of Mia when she was a week old so that we could see the difference the appliance had made thus far.  I made Zeus hold Mia by the computer screen so I could take a pic.  He didn't think it would work.  He was WRONG!  :)  hehehe

Quite the difference, eh?  :)  It's already brought that front little lip area back quite a bit.

We talked with the doctor who is over her NAM device and the plastic surgeon today.  It was the first time we had met with the plastic surgeon besides running into him in the hospital.  They want to see that front premaxilla come back a little farther, especially on her right side, but they are really pleased with the progress.  The plastic surgeon said it was great that she had so much lip area on the protruding part because it would make the surgery easier to do and that the recovery from this surgery really isn't that bad.  Yay!  They think she will be ready for surgery in a month to a month and a half.  That will put her surgery date (if all goes as planned) at the end of November.  Oh my!  I'm not sure I'm ready to hand her over yet!!!

Random Pics and Just Chillin'

I think that Mia's come down with a little bit of a cold - her first one.  When I take out her NAM she has a lot more congestion build up than ever before and does NOT appreciate my efforts to clean her little mouth out of all the extra "gunk".  I hope it clears up soon!   Because of that, we are just chilling at home again today. 

After yesterday's post of her sitting on the couch, I felt the need to take some pictures of her this morning to show that she is INDEED still small and little and not ENTIRELY grown up yet!  lol

My little sweetie in her little outfit my sister Nik passed along from Germany.  I think Sofia wore it when she was a baby. 

It's hard to see but it has a little fairy in the middle and says, "Komm, wir machen eine Reise en mein fairyland..." (Which roughly translates to, "Come, we're taking a trip to my fairyland...")  I'll have to try and get a pic of Sofia in it and post it along side Mia so we can see the two little cousins in the same outfit!  :)

Here's a quick one from this morning as well - Mia and I snuggling while we wait for her bottle to warm.  As always (of late), Mia's got her milky mouth spots on my shoulder and her fingers in her mouth!  Black is definitely NOT the color to wear during the drooly stages apparently.  lol 

See!  She's still little!!!!  :)  (But growing WAY too fast.)

Here are a few extra pics from the past week that I found on my phone.  :)

got her toes! 

Mia's randomly caught a hold of her toes a few times this past week.  It seems totally on accident for now, but we'll see how long it takes her to do it on purpose.  :)

Both grandma and Mia THOROUGHLY enjoy snuggle time with each other.

I found this paper tape that is touted as "removes easily" and "for delicate skin".  It's really helped keep her NAM on all day, but doesn't necessarily come off as "easily" as I was expecting.

"Mia, what do you think of this new tape?" I asked. 

"Hmmmm," she replied, "Let me think on it and get back to you mom."

Thankfully she doesn't seem to mind it!

Okay, I admit it - I'm a bit of a loon and as anyone who knows me well can attest to, I am also VERY curious in nature.  Mia wasn't thrilled when I had to peel the tape off her cheeks, even though it didn't leave a big red mark behind like the previous tape she had.  So, I wanted to find out what the best, most gentle way was to remove the tape.  Pull in the opposite direction?  Pull straight out?  Fast pull to remove?  Who knew?!?!  Of course, you don't want to experiment on your darling, sweet, precious baby...

Twinners!

Come to find out, the "fast pull" actually hurts significantly and burns for quite some time, while the most gentle way to remove it seemed to be to pull gently in the opposite direction.  She still doesn't LOVE it, but it holds her NAM in place SO well, even if she catches her little fingers on it and accidentally pulls on it - HOORAY!

On a side note, on our one outing for the day yesterday afternoon, Mia and I went to the Hallmark store and video store.  At the Hallmark store they had these mugs and piggy banks with kids names on them that were 40% off.  I was happily surprised to find Mia's name on both - so cute!  Which then left me with the conundrum as to which one, if any, to buy.  I took pictures with my phone and sent them to Zeus to see if I should get them or not, hoping he would be the voice of reason in my shopping craze. 

the mug

the piggy bank

They are so dang cute, aren't they!?!?!  Thanks to papa's calm voice of reason, Mia is now the proud new owner of a personalized mug AND piggy bank!  :)

Good times in Utah

Mia and I are having a blast in Utah so far, even though we are missing papa/Zeus like crazy.  We talk to him a couple times a day and even Skyped with him last night for a little bit.  For some reason he couldn't hear me, so we ended up video chatting and using our cell phones for sound.  Crazy technology - so grateful for it!  :)

We flew in Tuesday night and the rainy/stormy weather in Texas seems to have followed us here as it's been a bit stormy here as well.  I guess parts of Austin ended up getting up to a foot of rain and there was lots of flooding.  Thankfully Zeus and our little house were fine and didn't flood!  My dad was a dear and held Mia while I got her NAM cleaned up to put back in after she'd pulled it off for the ump-teenth time.  :)

Grandpa advice video

On Wednesday Mia and I relaxed a bit in the morning and I unpacked and put away and organized our clothes while Mia took a nap.  When I went to put in her new NAM she SCREAMED.  The part that goes across her lip was added too a little too much and really was squashing her little lip.  Also, one of the nostril pieces really pushes up that side and I wonder if that was bothering her too.  Because of the screaming and the pinched way her lip looked I decided to make an "executive decision" and take it out and switch back to the old NAM for a few days to help bring her front lip and gum area back a little further in the hopes that it won't pinch so badly anymore.  When they first made this new NAM, I don't think the lip part was built up enough, so her front gum/lip area came forward more than it had previously.  I'm really hoping my plan works and that the new one fits better tomorrow after using the old one for a few days!  *crossing fingers* 

Because we were using the old one, I ran to a medical supply store to see if they had some liquid adhesive to help the nose/lip part stay on.  On the way home we stopped by my friend Amy's house to see if her and her adorable twin daughters were home, but they were out.  :(  Then, we headed over to surprise my good friend Heidi.  Mission accomplished!  It was so nice to sit and visit with her and to see her two youngest interact with Mia.  Jacob and Eli were SO adorable with her and Mia just smiled and smiled at Jacob.  We were able to stay and chat quite some time before I headed off to Layton to meet up with some of my old roommates (Lori, Marie and Sara) for dinner.  We some good food at Mimi's Cafe and a nice chat,then Marie and I headed over to Lori's house to check it out now that she's all settled in and has it all decorated.  On the way home, Mia and I stopped by my friend Nicole's house to say a quick hello before I took Mia home and put her to bed.  While we were at Nicole's house Mia got hungry and Nicole wanted to try feeding her and did a GREAT job!  So fun to have friends learn how to feed her too!  :)

On Thursday, Mia and I went and ran some quick errands with Heidi and Eli and then came home and hung out with grandma for a while.  Later that evening Mia and I went over to visit my friend Marie and see her cute new home for the first time and to chat for a bit.  It's so nice to be able to spend some quality time with good friends!

Her house ended up being out by my friend Sandy's house, so I decided to drop by and surprise her too.  I worried that it might be a bad time because it was around 7 pm and I wasn't sure if she'd be putting her kids down to bed or not.  She actually ended up being at a church women's meeting down the street but her husband Mike said I could go down and surprise her there if I wanted and that she'd just texted him and it sounded like they were starting to wrap things up.  I drove down there and it was so fun.  She didn't even see me walking towards her until I was almost there and then she was so surprised!  :)  I'd asked Mike if he minded if I kidnapped her to go get some ice cream after and he said it would be no problem, so we headed to the ice cream shop for my FAVORITE ice cream that I can only find at two places in Utah - fire stick ice cream - YUM!!!  It's a light pink color and is cinnamon (red hot) flavored.  I know it sounds crazy, but the combination of creamy ice cream and red hots is a total hit in MY book!!!  :)  I wish I would have taken pictures!!!  :(  Sandy had her adorable baby Camilla with her and we SO should have taken photos!!!  Camilla is two months older than Mia and is SO stinkin' cute!!!  I wish I'd have gotten pictures of her and Mia next to each other in their car seats - Camilla with her light hair and big blue eyes, and Mia with her dark hair and big brown eyes!  I could just kick myself for missing that photo op!!!

I've been pretty bad about taking pictures and that's my new goal for the rest of the trip.  I do have a few on my camera that I need to upload from our visit with Heidi, but always seem to think of taking pictures AFTER I'm already back home for the day.  Sadness!

Today, I slept in a little later than normal - 8 or 9 am, because Mia was up at 5 am and I was TIRED.  :)  I got Mia fed and we showered up and got dressed and headed down to pick up my sister Tiffany from BYU down in Provo.  It ended up taking most of the day to drive down there (about an hour each way), including going up to the student union area to eat lunch.  It was BEAUTIFUL down there and some of the trees were starting to change on the mountains. 

I sure do miss the gorgeous season changes that Utah has! 

While we were at the Cougar Eatery we sent a pic of the salad wrap that my mom got to my sister Michelle in the UK.  She was SO jealous and sad!  I guess she LOVES those things.  :)  It was so cool that I could send a picture from my phone to her email and have her emailed response come up as a text on my phone!  Another who-rah for technology!  :) 

My mom and Tiffany took turns holding Mia so that I could finish eating.  It is so nice to have extra hands sometimes!  I tried to feed Mia a bottle of pre-mixed formula because she got hungry, but she was having none of that!  She likes her regular formula and likes it really warm, if you please!  Silly little girl!  Anyhow, we finished eating and Mia was getting tired but sometimes has trouble falling asleep when there is a lot of stimulus around.  The miracle fix to that is to cover her head with a blanket and pat her bum.  :)  The funny thing is, lots of times she will be out like a light after about 5 or 6 pats!  lol  Well, at one point Tiff was working the magic with her and I started laughing and told Tiff that it looked almost like she was nursing Mia with the blanked over her head like that.  (I'm such a mean sister to tease her like that, but I just couldn't help it!)  lol

Tiff is NOT breast feeding my daughter in this picture, just helping her get to sleep by covering her little head.  :)

I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but she turned BRIGHT red and started giggling nervously and looking around to see if anyone was watching.  lol 

We stopped in the bathroom on the way out to get some hot water to mix a bottle of formula for Mia and there was a nice lounge area off to the side with couches that we could chill in to feed her.  Tiff wanted to try and feed her and ended up doing a great job!

Great technique Tiff!  She even did it standing up!!!  :)

Tiff ended up being a natural!  She DID comment on how it was harder than it looked, and had to hand off near the end because her hand was getting tired of squeezing the bottle, but she did a GREAT job!  Grandma wants to learn next.  :)

Then to end the night, I went with my parents to a church presentation and dinner.  It was nice to hang out with my mom and dad and to eat some good food.  For desert they had assigned people to bring pies.  There were all these tables they put end to end that stretched across the large room and there were tons of pies from one end to the other!  It was so hard to choose which slice to try!!!  I ended up choosing a slice of fresh home-made peach pie and it was AMAZING! 

Y U M !

I took a picture on my phone and sent it to Zeus to torture him because he LOVES Utah peaches.  :)  I'm such a sweet and thoughtful wife!  ;) 

When we got home, Tiff was excited to see Mia.  I put her on the ground on a blanket while I went to get Mia's pajamas and clean her NAM off so I could put it back in for the night (we're suppose to take it out and clean it at least twice a day).  When I came back, Tiff was laying on the floor with Mia.

It was so cute!

Tiffany and Mia were just a chatting away like crazy!  Tiffany would talk to her and Mia would just coo and coo back at her.  I took the cutest video of it on my phone, but unfortunatley when I uploaded it there wasn't any sound to go with it.  I had my phone on silent when I recorded it, so I'm wondering if that's why the video ended up having no sound!  I didn't know it did that and was SO sad to have missed capturing the moment!  :( 

It has been SO fun spending time with friends and family and introducing Mia around to all these important people in my life.  Can't wait to continue working on making the rounds next week, and this time, taking pictures!  :)