Halloween!

Lana wore her fairy costume from last year to the Trunk or Treat

Katrina, Jasmine and Mac in their costumes:)

On our way to go Trick or Treating

She's a Batrina

Mom, Kat and Lana waiting for Trick or Treaters

Oliver was a Cat Buglar

Fall is here!

My mom's new well has an actual windmill to bring the water up!

Lana eating her eggs

Saying goodbye to Jason

Lana eating her cheese:)

In the airport at 6 am

At the Airport in Omaha. Jason is in Rhode Island for Officer Development School. We will see him again the day after Thanksgiving in California!!

Update!

I thought I'd post an update on Lana our family.
Lana is doing much better. She is eating well and drinking her milk:) Lana had her first day of primary the other week. She loved it and this last week she still loved it. She walked in and sat next to a little boy blew us a kiss and said bye bye. I'm very happy she can have so much fun without us there. At least this part was easy for us;)
Jason and I have been planning our next move to Lemoore California. Jason goes to ODS in October.
He is finally done with school! And my pregnancy is doing well despite the extreme exhaustion. I'm already 4 1/2 months along so we find out the gender of the baby in September.

Zoo!

 My little sister Katrina came up to help us while Lana was sick. But now that she is feeling much better we took a short trip to the zoo. Lana may look really thin, but she really is full of fun-loving energy:)

Pneumonia:(

Just over a week ago on Friday before last Lana starting having high fevers of 104-105. At first we called the nurses and were told they came from a virus going around. They gave us instructions on how to bring the fevers down. After a few more days and sleepless nights of these high fevers the nurse said to come into the doctor on Monday to get checked for an earache. We went in and the doctor was very concerned with her high temperatures and ordered a slew of tests. After a urinalysis, strep culture, blood work, and chest ex-ray she found an infection in her lungs. Lana had a bacterial pneumonia, pneumonocaccal form. She got a big peanut butter shot of antibiotics and we went home. But, she had another high fever that night. So we got another shot. This went on for 5 days! We almost went to the hospital at 2 am one night. Once we got in the car we checked her temp again and it had gone back down to 102. On the 5th day the doctor did another blood test and ex-ray. The blood work looked great, the ex-ray looked the same. She had her 4th and last shot of antibiotics and sent her home. On the follow-up apt the next morning the doctor was surprised so see her doing so well, she thought for sure she'd be sending her to hospital. Lana was finally herself again after a week of suffering. Plus, she had her appetite back:) She lost almost a pound overall. It was so stressful, but from her priesthood blessing I knew she would pull through-so I held on and tried very hard not get overwhelming scared. We are very lucky, her only symptom was a high fever and her doctor picked up on it right away before the infection had time spread to more parts of her lungs:)

Empanadas!

We made homemade empanadas for the missionaries. This recipe came from Jason's mission to Argentina.

Lana at the pool party:)

It's good to be a girl:)

She had lots of fun playing with my ear rings.  You can see her fat lip in the picture:( Being a toddler is ruff!

Success, at last!

I had a good break in my research for Lana's eating behavior. I was so close to force feeding her so I typed it in the search box so see if there was anyone out there that supported it. I was so desperate, Lana has fallen off the charts for weight. Her height, which was in the 75th percentile at birth, was also almost off the chart. If that were to happen then she'd be labeled as failure to thrive. Yet, she's so healthy looking, active, and smart. She reaches all her developmental milestones just fine. But then again, she's not getting any better and the specialist and doctors so far have not had any success.

So I read one article that mention something about a primary disorder of appetite. I goggled it and found a bunch of research articles published various medical journals for pediatrics and psychiatry. I started reading one about infantile anorexia and bingo. Every bizarre behavior explained and not one detail was left out. I'm not a psychiatrist, but I was convinced. It said to feed her every 3-4 hrs with water in between. So I tried it, only this time they said to give her a small amount of food and step back and refrain from praising or saying anything. Then when she motions for more give her more.

I put her in her chair, gave her some pudding and walked away. She ate a lot! Then I gave her some zucchini bread and she ate it too! Ever since then I've had better success at her eating more. Tonight she gobbled down a whole chicken nugget and some pudding. I assumed she was finished, but not at all. She kept trying new things.

I talked to her speech therapist she saw a month ago about her swallowing and she said it is a food aversion. She calls what psychiatrist calls Infantile anorexia food aversions. Which makes sense.  It's so nice, now I can sit back and sigh and say "all will be fine." That's such a wonderful feeling! Thank you all for all your suggestions, helpful advice, love and support, and prayers. This research was found only after an earnest prayer with the faith you all helped me gain:)

Lana's Feeding Update

So, a month ago we took Lana into a new pediatrician because we wanted more done about her low weight and refusing to eat more solid foods. Come to find out-she at that time had dropped 1 pound when she should have gained. This 1 lb disadvantage threw her off the growth curve and put her below the 5th percentile for weight:(
The new doctor suggested we completely ween her to get her to eat the more calorie full solid foods. We went to a feeding specialist and she suggested we take away snacking and feed her solid foods every 3-4 hrs before nursing. We went along with the specialist for a few weeks-nothing happened:( Just a lot of wasted food and money. So then I tried the Dr.'s suggestion of weening-only the Feeding Specialist suggested nursing once at night. I took her to my moms for help the other weekend and the insanity began. It was soooo painful-but I had to keep reminding myself that she needs to grow and nursing isn't enough for her little body. She nurses just twice a day before sleep times now. The feeding solids part is still shaky. She's not eating very well. Her diet consists of pudding, eggs, cereal, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate, potato veggie straws, and french fries. If I don't let her eat the junk-she will never gain any weight-she'd rather go hungry. So after all this effort and work-even cramming yogurt in her mouth a few times in hope of healthier food choices-we took her in for her weight check last Friday. The nurse put her up on the scale and we anxiously awaited the results. She gained...........2 ounces:( That's it, that's all that work for the past 4 weeks! Not good enough. The doctor is switching plans and we are now working with a dietitian to get more calories in her. I guess we will worry only about calories for now and healthy food choices later.

Chocolate pudding....num.

We have discovered that Lana loves chocolate pudding. And she prefers to feed herself. Usually she does alright, but tonight I added homemade whip cream to increase the calories and fat. It turned out a little too runny.

Zoo

Here we are the petting zoo.

 

Jason had an injured hip so he walked around on his crutches:(

Feet Playing

 Lana loves to play the piano, here she is playing with her hands and toes. She also loves that dog.

Easter

Lana loves her basket!

She Climbed Out!

Lana's been waking up in the middle of the night screaming so we decided to try and let her scream herself back to sleep. The other night we did just that. Her screams are quite hilarious from a third person perspective as she stops screaming to yell baby words at us like she's using very explicit nouns. Not three minutes go by and we hear her screams go across the room and pounding at her door. I ran in there to find that she had climbed out of her crib uninjured and furious. Her doctor suggested we put on a mattress on the ground and close her door. Like that's going to work. I can just see her trying to put herself back to sleep when she can walk around. Ha!

Ward Easter Egg Hunt

 

Esther Clarke and Lana