Them darn drains..... And big sister troubles

Right after we moved to MT I became best friends with a girl named Jamie. She would travel to Chicago often, just like I would travel to CA. Jamie & I are still great friends & our family is still great friends with her parents. They gave me the names & numbers of Jamie's 2 aunts who live in the Chicago area, just incase we needed anything, then there's someone close!

Well last night we got a text from one of the aunts, Karin, who works at a restaurant called Shanty. (It was on Diner's, Drive-In's, & Dives a while back.) She invited us there for breakfast & would be our waitress! It was nice to meet her (& her husband even stopped by to say hello & even give the girls a gift) & to know that we at least KNOW someone in the area now, just incase we need anything. They were very nice to us...& we had a great breakfast!

Karin told us about a mall close by that we could go to...for something to do. It was very much appreciated cause we need ideas of stuff to do while we're just waiting for our last appointment & to go home. We were about 1/2 way through breakfast when Cali was playing around in her syrup. I should have known better than to order her something that required syrup. (DUH!!) Anyways, she was getting messy & sticky & we just didn't like that. All of a sudden she started crying...& crying...& crying...& CRYING! She wouldn't stop! Eventually it went down from sobbing to more of an annoying-type of cry that was meant to be more of a statement to us that she was still there. Oh it was horrible. Dustin & I traded places so I could sit next to her to see if I could calm her down. Nothing helped. I tried kissing her butt with anything & everything I could find. Nothing helped. We tried bribery. We tried threatening (LOL). We tried tickling. Again...Nothing helped. And again...Oh it was horrible. I kept looking around & no one was staring at us so she wasn't bothering anyone. We even tried ignoring her, but she just WOULDN'T STOP! About 15 mins of this & poor Dustin was just getting ticked off. We felt horrible that we were guests there & Cali was acting like this. (Btw: any parenting advise/hints/tips on this kind of situation would be greatly appreciated.) So Dustin ended up taking her outside & putting her in the car. Then I packed up all our stuff & we left. Again...I felt so bad that she acted like that when we were invited somewhere. But what do you do?!

On a big side note: This trip has been SO incredibly hard for Cali. The other 3 families that are/were here also have an older child (ages 5 & younger....Cali being the youngest) & then their youngest child had the surgeries. It's a concensus among all the families that the older child is the biggest problem. We can take care of the younger one that had the surgeries just fine...but the older one is so tough. I mean think about it... They have no idea what's going on. They're not at home (not even in their own STATE), not in their own beds, don't get all their regular toys, don't get to do their regular routine or see any of their regular people, or even go to their regular places at home. Instead, their lives are turned upsidedown. They're in different hotel rooms, are going to weird places, going to hospitals, seeing their siblings hurting with big "owie"'s. They don't know which way is up. For the most part, Cali has been handling herself alright, but boy does she have her moments...& the "moments" here are so much more often & worse than they are at home. We try to have daddy/Cali time & mommy/Cali time as much as we can, but there's only so much you can do.

So continuing on... We got in the car & decided that even though Cali was being a pill, that we'd go to the mall so she could run around & let off some steam. We found it easily & got there, but she refused to walk or ride in the stroller...she insisted on being carried. Unfortunately, she's getting up there in weight & it's pretty difficult to carry her everywhere. Long story short...we left the mall very soon after we got there cause she couldn't handle it. I think that by far...today ranks in the top 5 worst experiences we've ever had with her.

Unfortunately, Dustin & I have to not do what we want, cause Cali is being "punished" by going back to the hotel room. Even MORE unfortunate is that Cali doesn't even understand that! We can go back to the hotel all we want but come on...Dustin & I need to have a life here too. So when she said she wanted to swim we said no. On the way back to the room (oh around noon maybe) Amie & I decided to hit the mall with her 2 kids & with Brooklyn. Cali & daddy went back to the room (which daddy was perfectly fine with cause football was coming on). We had to take Cali's seat out of the car so we could put Zac's seat in. Well apparently when we took her seat out & then mommy left was when Cali really knew she messed up. Dustin said that she kept saying "I good girl Daddy. Mommy leave. I swim now." LOL

So Amie & I went to a mall that's pretty close to our hotel with Brooklyn & Amie's 2 kids. We got there maybe around 1'ish & didn't leave until 5:30'ish!! It was fantastic. We just walked around browsing, getting coffee's, & going to the bathroom! :o)  When we got back to the hotel I took Cali swimming cause she'd been super good for Dustin. Then we ate dinner & she fell right asleep.

Now for the "Darn Drains" comment... I hate those things. I really do. I can handle the dressing changes. I can handle the no sleeping. I can handle everything...except those darn drains. I've definitely cussed them out over the past few days. Our typical dressing change routine is this: putting Bacitracin on the stitches, putting vaseline gauze over the areas, putting regular gauze over that, then putting the stretchy wrap over the top of that. In order for it to stay on her head we cut a hole in the wrap for her little face, so it goes under her chin. Then we put the drains under the wrap & pull them 1/2 way through it so they'll stay in place. In order to get her to not pull on everything we have arm restraints/immobilizers that go on her little arms so she can't really bend them & get to her head. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong.

She's learned to pull/tug/grab at her dressing WITH the immobilizers on. We've managed to keep her from pulling it completely off...until today when we were walking around Bath & Body Works. She pulled the ENTIRE thing off. One arm had the restraint on & the other didn't. But she pulled it off. I yelled for Amie so she could help me put the other restraint on & then I re-dressed the area as quick as I could. How sanitary.



Her sneeky little grin...after the 2nd time she took her dressing completely off!

 All was well...until we were getting a drink from McDonalds when she did it AGAIN! And yes, she still had BOTH restraints on. Grrrrr!!! She just hates that thing. Oh and so do I. I hate the dressing cause it's holding the drains in place. Once the drains come out then we don't have to put the dressing on anymore. The drains can come out once they haven't drained for 24-hrs OR on Monday the 17th, whichever comes first. They have been draining only DROPS every 4 hours so I emailed the nurses at Dr. Bauer's office & asked them if we could just come in tomorrow & have them taken out. Gosh I hope they say ok!!!

So that's that for today. Brooklyn still detests her antibiotics. It seriously smells horrible, but it's gotta be done. Tomorrow we don't really know what we're gonna do in the AM, but tomorrow evening we're going to have an early dinner with Christine & her family cause they're leaving on Tuesday. I can't believe they're leaving already! (Josh's surgery was 1 week before Brooklyn's....so that means that we just have a week to go, almost.)

1 down 4 to go!

WOW...a LOT has happened since I wrote last...where do I begin? Well I'll just start from where I left off last. We got up Thursday AM pretty early & left the hotel by 7:30am because we needed to be at the hospital at 8am. After I took a wrong turn onto a freeway, cause Bessy (our GPS lady) decided to freeze up on me, we ended up getting there just 5 mins late. :)  We walked in the front doors of the hospital & were directed to the ambulatory surgery area. We checked in there & they put us in the pediatric room that is the size of 1 regular hospital room, but is divided into 4 sections with 4 cribs in them. We were greeted by a nurse who had me sign some paperwork, get arm bands, & took her vitals & weight. Then we just had to wait until 9:30am when they came to get her for surgery.

We changed her into her little hospital gown & put her superhero cape on her. (Btw, Amie - our next door neighbor - & I have been trying to figure out what our kids superhero "names" will be. She was thinking maybe Captain Happy for Zac!! I came up with Super Brooklyn. But we'll see if I can't think of something better!)



Brooklyn with her superhero cape on!





Brookie & Oma, waiting for surgery

 We took some pictures & then at about 9:15am the anesthisiologist came in pretty fast & asked me just a couple questions. At 9:35am our "escort" took us down the hall. I got to carry Brooklyn & he pushed the crib. We all got to go as far as the surgery waiting room goes...& then mom & Cali had to stay there. Dustin & I got to go to the surgery department where it was another "room" where they just held the patients until everyone was ready for the surgery.

We sat there just waiting for them to come get her. Almost everyone that came by stopped to see Brooklyn & admire her. She was a ball of fun & happiness!! Dr. Bauer came over to sign papers, say hello, & ask us if we had any questions. Then at about 10:20am they came to get her. The nurse, who we could barely understand, said "Ok I take baby now". LOL There's really nothing more cold than that! But we gave her about 100 kisses in a 10 second time frame & then I gave her to the nurse & then stood there as I watched them walk down the hall & turn the corner...

Dustin & I walked back up the long hall to the waiting room where Amie's family was waiting. (Zac's surgery was right before Brooklyn's, so Amie was already in with him in the PACU.) Little Cali was sitting in the chair & as Dustin & I walked in without Brooklyn she got a confused look on her face & said "Mommy where Bookie?" That's when I couldn't hold it in anymore.

We were told that once she gets out of surgery we basically couldn't do anything, so we should go get food now. So we went to the lobby of the hospital & mom, Dustin, & Cali ate while I had a coffee. I didn't even want to be down there so as soon as everyone was done we went right back to the waiting room. They had a TV there with our family "number" so you could watch the progress... But unfortunately for us it just said "In OR" the whole time. At about 12:20pm Dr. Bauer came in & said that she was awake & everything went great! He put the 2 ports pretty close together above & in front of her right ear, which will be nice for the fills, & he said that she did great. He put 30cc's in each expander during surgery.

We waited until we got a call from the PACU that it was ok for me to go back there & see her. That was probably about 12:40pm. I went down & had to put on a full body paper suit & hat in order to go in. The nurse was holding her & right when I walked in she started telling me how beautiful she was! I sat down in a rocking chair & got to hold her then. Oh my poor little baby! She was a little swollen & she was sleeping away.



Brooklyn right after surgery.


I sat there with her for a little while, waiting for her to wake up & for her sats to stay up. When she had O2 blowing in her face her sat was up to 97'ish. But when they took it away she was down to 92%, so we had to wait for her to stay up without the O2. Then we waited for her to wake up...which she did once we aroused her. The nursing staff per patient care was 1:1...which was very nice. I had a nice conversation with the nurse.

Around 1:30pm Brooklyn was ok enough for them to move us to our room. The nurse had me hold her & sit in a wheelchair while she wheeled me to our room. The hospital was pretty nice, I think. The beds were air mattresses, which I hated cause they fill up & adjust with the motor 24 hours a day (yes...even in the middle of the night). But the TV was nice. It had free Netflix that you could watch, plus a Nursing message, & a President's message. It is a Magnet hospital, which I didn't know before going. Magnet status means it's the highest in nursing care. It takes a LOT to become a Magnet hospital so it's quite the accomplishment. Plus you have to keep it up every year. Anyways, the nurses were great & gave us great care.

Brooklyn was sleepy & cranky the whole afternoon. She just couldn't get comfortable. Her whole head was bandaged up & there are 2 drains (one on each side of her head) that she has to be careful with. We just kept up with her pain meds every 4 hours & she seemed to be alright & less fussy. At around 8pm was the first smile that we saw from her! It was so wonderful. She started "coming around" & crawling all over me, trying to stand up, & playing with anything she could get her hands on. It was so great to see her acting more like herself...because earlier in the afternoon I was pretty teary. I was really regretting our decision to have it removed. But once she started acting more like herself I felt better.

One of her first smiles on Thursday night!

Dustin took mom & Cali back to the hotel so Cali could swim & they could have dinner. I stayed with Brooklyn & just held her until Dustin came back. Then he stayed for a while & went back to the hotel to sleep. Unfortunately in our room there were just 2 regular chairs. They did bring in a rocking chair, but there wasn't anywhere for Dustin to sleep.

We had a pretty rough night. She fell asleep around 10pm so I immediately layed down next to her....gotta sleep when she sleeps! She kept tossing & turning. She had arm immobilizers on that she hated, so she kept banging her hands & arms up & down. Plus she had the O2 monitor on her left big toe & her IV in her right foot, both of which she detested!! She just kept kicking at both of them. The O2 monitor was just not staying on, so they turned that machine off & just took her O2 sat when they got her vitals. The IV however shouldn't have been kicked as much as it was. I felt horrible for her. She was drinking great & the stupid IV was only giving her 30cc/hr so I asked the nurse to take it out. She totally didn't need it anymore. And boy was she happier once that came out!

They kept up on her pain meds every 4 hours, her antibiotics every 8 hours, & her drain changes every 4 hours. They came in & gave her the pain meds at 12:30am. Unfortunately at 12:45am she threw up more than I've ever seen before. Poor little baby. She threw up & threw up everywhere. I don't know what I was thinking when packing for the hospital, but I didn't take a change of clothes. :(  I immediately called the nurse & just sat there with her waiting for them to come in & help us. I didn't even want to move cause I had no idea where to start! We had to have a complete bed, pillow, gown change. And they got me OB scrubs that I could wear, thank goodness. Right after they cleaned everything up though, she went right back to sleep. It definitely made her feel a lot better! I think it was a combination of over feeding & the anesthesia wearing off.

At 3am she woke up & decided she was going to play! LOL It was bitter sweet. On  one hand I was so happy that she was acting more like herself, but on the other hand....I WAS TIRED!!!!!! At 3:30am I decided that I'd just keep her up until 4:30am cause that was the next antibiotics, pain meds, & drain changes. But of course, she decided otherwise. She fell back asleep at 4am. So of course we had to wake her up at 4:30 for all that stuff. Thankfully though, she feel right back asleep as soon as they left & she slept until about 7:45am!!

Dr. Bauer came in at 7:20am to change her dressing & see how she was doing, but since she was sleeping he said he'd come back. Daddy came back at 7:50am, right as she was waking up, which was a treat for both of them. Daddy brought me a coffee...thank goodness! :o)



Before her dressing change on Friday AM.
You can see the port in her right temple area & the forehead expander in her left forehead.

 We continued on with our regular pain meds, drain changes, antibiotics routine throughout the morning. Mim, one of Dr. Bauer's 2 nurses, came in around 10am & changed her dressing. This was our first sight at her "new" little nevus head. When you look at her you can see the 2 ports on the left (which is her right), the expander which starts about 1/2 way in the middle of her forehead & goes all the way to above her left ear. There's stitches along the left side of that expander. Then the back one goes from behind her right ear to the middle of the back of her head. Those stitches go along one side of the expander as well. Then there are 2 drains, one coming from each expander site.

Mim showed me how to do the dressing change so that we can do it at "home". She said that we don't need a follow-up appt on Monday unless we really want to come in. She said that we can just call & let them know how she's doing.

The drains are the biggest pain in this whole problem. They have to be attached under the dressing on her head so that she doesn't pull them out. Then when she's asleep she has to have the arm immobilizers so she doesn't pull them out in her sleep. They can be taken out when they haven't drained for 24 hours, or on Monday the 17th when we go in for the first expansion, whichever one comes first. I am hoping & praying that they will stop draining sooner rather than later so we can just take them out. I hate them with a passion. Once they're out, she doesn't need a dressing on her head anymore! We can wash her hair too...which she needs like no other! ;o) 

Once we were done visiting with Mim we told the nurse we were ready to go so she got all our discharge paperwork together & gave us the script for her antibiotics. We changed her clothes & then put her in her seat...cause she was tired & wanted to sleep. Indeed, she did fall asleep right away!!


All ready to go home!

At about noon we left the hospital, went to Walgreen's for her prescription, & then came back to the hotel...where Cali was chomping at the bit to see all of us! We just took it easy, watching her like a hawk to make sure that she didn't fall over.

We didn't have a bad night, it was definitely better than in the hospital, but it still wasn't the greatest. She got up around 3am needing pain meds. But she fell back asleep about 1/2 hr later & didn't get up until about 9:15am.

Today (Saturday the 8th) we've just been taking it easy...although Brooklyn doesn't even need to! She's been pretty much acting like herself again. We're just being very careful that she doesn't fall on her drains because that's what hurts her the most. She hates getting her diaper or clothes changed cause we have to lay her down. As soon as her head touches the bed our couch she just screams...but if we use a pillow she's generally ok. She's getting to know that her head is really hurting though cause when I try to feed her she wants to eat sitting up. Smart girl.

So we've had a good day today. I went to Carter's to get her a couple button-up outfits, since NOTHING is going to be able to fit over her head at all anymore. Right now she's napping peacefully...

We're going to be taking it easy for about another day & then we'll get out & do stuff. Even Mim said not to sit in the hotel room. "Get out & do stuff!," she said. So we're thinking of stuff to do that's inside. Cali has been doing a lot of swimming. I tell you what, I'm very glad that we changed hotels & are here, where there is a pool, cause she's gone everyday (at least once)!! She's been playing with Zoie a lot (our next door neighbors) & they have fun together...although Cali really needs to learn how to share! LOL Something else we need to work on!

Thanks for everyone for all your thoughts & prayers. It means a lot & we really do appreciate it. :)


T-Minus 12 hours...

Well we got the dreaded phone call... but let's talk about the good news first.

We got up fairly early & left by 9am today!! We wanted to be able to do a little driving around in downtown Chicago before we went to the airport to get my mom...which is exactly what we did. We started out going to Wrigley Field... now it is important to note that I am NOT a Cubs fan...but I just had to see the field cause it's so old & amazing!....but I don't feel like I'm a traitor to my Dodgers cause all we did was drive by & take a couple pictures! ;o)   (wink)

Next we (well I) decided that I wanted to go to the Sky Deck of the Willis Tower (what used to be known as the Sears Tower). We headed in that direction by taking major small side streets, & then going on the road boardering Lake Michigan. We got to Willis Tower & holy cow...downtown Chicago is just like downtown NYC......BUSY with NO place to park! We looked around for a place by driving around the block a bunch. Saw garages charging $35 for the day!!! The cheapest we found was $17. Unfortunately my mom was getting in at 11:30am so we wanted to head towards the airport at 11am...but we were driving around the Willis tower at 10:30am. So basically we only had 1/2 hr. There was no way I was paying $17 to park for just 1/2 hr! Then we'd have to hurry up the tower, hurry to the Sky Deck, hurry down, & hurry to the airport. I don't like hurrying! So we decided that downtown Chicago will be a day trip for us sometime later next week. THEN I can justify paying $17 for parking. We found the Original Pancake House & Mike Ditka's restaurant that Dustin wants to go to...so we'll just make a day out of it & then I'll kinda semi sorta feel "better" about paying $17 for a day!

So we found a Starbucks...(LOL it was one of the 40,000 that we saw today) got a coffee, & headed towards the airport. We got my mom, who got in 20 mins late, & then it was time to head to Brooklyn's pre-op appt. What a nice office they're in! We got to see Mim & Wendy (2 of the wonderful ladies that were in Dallas with Dr. Bauer for the conference). It was great to see them again! We met with Dr. Bauer who went over the "plan".

Pretty much everything that I'd thought remains the same: 2 expanders. One in her left forehead area that kind of goes towards the middle of her head. One kind of above her right ear that goes towards the back of her head. The ports, however, are a lot different than I thought. I'd thought they were going to go behind the ears. However...the left forehead expander's port will be under the nevus...actually ON the head. The right port will be in FRONT of her right ear. He said we can stay the night tomorrow night if we want, but we don't have to. We have decided, with the Moller's, that we all will stay the night. My mom can come back to the room with Cali so Dustin & I can stay the night...(IF Dustin wants to stay).

Speaking of Dustin... I usually get a little nervous when he starts asking doctors questions!! I never know what he's going to say so I am kind of nervous!! Well today he very much surprised me when he asked TWO of the questions that I had had already...but totally drew a blank & forgot to ask. He asked about the durability of the expanders & about the infection risk. Good boy!! ;o)

We then headed to a conference room with the Moller's for a teaching sesson about what will go on tomorrow & about the expanders. Our appt with Dr. Bauer was at 1pm & we didn't leave the office till 4pm! It was a long day, but very informative. All I can say is I'm glad I'm a nurse!!!!! :)

Then we came back to the hotel so my mom could get settled in. Then, of course, everyone fell asleep. Mom was on the couch, Cali was actually watching a movie on the couch, Dustin was asleep in bed, & that just left me & Brooklyn. I was quite peeved actually that I NEVER get to take a nap. Everyone else does, but Merilee never does! Well today...thank the Lord that he changed my thinking very quickly. I got to have a good hour plus...just me enjoying Brooklyn time. I needed that. Even though people were around, it was just me & her....& I loved every minute of it. I got out my video camera & took a short video & some pictures. We played, then I fed her...it was just a good time. Thank the Lord for changing my mind-set.

Then, as mentioned earlier, came the dreaded phone call. The hospital calls you the night before to tell you when to be there & when the surgery is. It's at 9:30am so we need to be there at 8am. So we'll get up & leave here at 7:30'ish. She can't have any formula after 3:30am so we're going to wake her up at 3am to feed her. Then she can have clear liquids until we leave at 7:30am. Boy this is going to be fun...

Prayers...prayers are needed for us all tomorrow, especially for Brooklyn, for her plastic surgeon Dr. Bauer, & for the anesthisiologist. We start (supposedly) at 9:30am tomorrow Central time. I won't be posting anything cause I'll be in the hospital all night but I'm always available on my cell. I'll post again when we get home on Friday. Thanks so much everyone for the thoughts & prayers so far...keep em coming!

Day #2 in Chicago!!

First off, if you have read the post from yesterday but didn't see the picture...scroll down to see it. I posted it last night but just posted the picture a couple hours ago. :)

So another day in Chicago has come & gone!! WOW I slept late! Brooklyn was up twice in the night so her & I got to sleep until 10:15am!!!!! I had no idea it was that late though cause it's pretty dark in our room when the blinds are closed. We ate a very small breakfast, & then Cali got all ready to go swimming. Dustin & Bruce (remember...the nevus family staying next door to us) took Cali & their daughter Zoie swimming. Apparently they had a ball...but Zoie caught a lot of water in her mouth so she ended up throwing up...and Cali decided she could swim all of a sudden so she just took off in the water. LOL Thank the Lord that Dustin was right there cause he was able to grab her. But even tonight when you ask her about swimming she gets a very concerned, straight face & says "I water in ma eye mom". Hahaha so cute.

While the dads took the older sisters swimming, the mom's took the little babies shopping! :o)  We needed to go to either Target or WalMart and then the grocery store...and then, of course, bring lunch back for the big boys. We found a WalMart within a couple miles & ended up getting all of our grocery items there too, which was nice. I had a cart-full of food...LOL I'd definitely gotten more than I thought I had. But I guarantee you...it'll all be gone in 2 weeks. On our way back to the hotel we found a Philly Cheese Steak Express so we grabbed lunch & came back.

We hung out for a while & then Dustin took Bruce to get their rental car. Hahaha yes you can stop laughing now. Dustin DID drive in this place all by himself! I programmed Bessy (our GPS lady) so all he had to do was hit the big orange GO button & it'd bring him back. Well a stop to get gas made Bessy mad, but thankfully Dustin was close enough that he found his way back!!

I'd seen a PF Changs the other day that I couldn't get my mind off of, so that's what we had for dinner. I had totally forgotten to get nightlights at WalMart when we were there earlier today...and they didn't have swim diapers for Cali, so I programmed Target into Bessy & what do you know...they were literally less than 1/4 mile from each other. All we had to do was go down not even another block & we'd have seen a SUPER TARGET!!! Oh well...at least we know it's there now! :) So I grabbed a nightlight & swim diapers and then got our dinner.

We ate our dinner & then I took the laundry down & put it in the wash, walked on the treadmill for 35 mins, put the laundry in the dryer, & here I am!

So let's see...tomorrow...... We're PLANNING on getting up & out of here quite early...like by 9am. (Fingers crossed...wish us luck...prayers!! LOL) My mom is getting in at 11:30am so we want to go to the city & drive around sightseeing before she gets in. Then once she's here we have to drive right to the doctor's office for Brooklyn's pre-op appt, which is at 1pm. After that, who knows....I'll keep you updated!

Full-Day #1 in Chicago

Well we had (& survived) our first full day in the Chicago area today!! We had a great day, but I'm super tired today for some reason.

We got up pretty late...around 9:15am... But I'd already been up with Brooklyn twice in the night cause she was hungry. Dustin had slept in the living area part of our room & I was in the bed with Brookyn. We did it that way because there was no light that we could keep on in the room for Cali in the middle of the night...and it gets pretty dark. We wanted to go to a grocery store today to get a nightlight but just didn't make it. It definitely WILL be on our list for tomorrow. So anyways, to avoid a total freak-out by Cali if she just so happened to wake up in the middle of the night, Dustin decided to sleep with her & then I slept with Brooklyn. But as soon as we have the nightlight she'll be in the bed in the living area (the couch that turns into a bed) & we'll be in the room.

We (well Dustin) tried out the breakfast here at the hotel...not bad he thought. Then we got up, got dressed, & left for the day. Our first priority was to get the horrible road salt off the car. Our car was literally WHITE from all the salt. We probably should have done it last night, but that wasn't about to happen! We weren't in a hurry today...so it wasn't a bad thing that it took us about an hour to find a hand-wash place. We needed a self-serve hand-wash car wash cause we have the rack on top of the car. We tried doing a drive through but they wouldn't let us, so we had to keep searching for a hand-wash. Dustin did a fantastic job washing the car while the girls & I watched him through the windows!! ;o)

We wanted to scoop out where the doctor's office is & where the hospital is...so that we kinda/sorta would know where we're going when appt times & surgery times come. We found the doctor's office great. Then we met up with friends of ours...another Nevus family...the Melton's. Mom & Dad are Adam & Christine who have Katie, who is going to be 3 in just 2 days, and Joshua, who is 8 months who just had his very first expander-insertion surgery last week. (This is the family who did the cookbook at the same time as me.) Josh is doing alright, but has been fighting a fever for a few days now. Prayers are needed for their family as they try to figure out what's going on. He had 2 expanders inserted in his back, so he's a little uncomfortable too. Poor baby.... :(

After lunch we drove by the hospital. It was nicer than the picture looked online, which I was happy with! Then we decided to just drive around for a little while looking at the houses & the area. About 4pm we came back to the hotel & then left just 40 mins later to go meet up with our other Nevus friends! It's like a big reunion here. We got to meet the Moller family (who is staying next door to us in the hotel). They have a 5 year old daughter & an 8 month old son. He is having surgery the same day Brooklyn is. We'll probably actually be next door to each other in the hospital too. It's nice going through this with other people...but especially nice having someone that close too. His nevus is on his back. We also got to see the Nagel's. (Mom, Beth, is who I got the idea from to do the cookbook.) They have a son Lincoln & another son Sully. Sully just had his 4th surgery (removing the expanders) last week - the same day that Joshua had his surgery. Beth Nagel got a meeting room at their hotel & we all hung out in there. It was really nice to catch up & see everyone!...and nice for them all to meet my family as well!



In the back: Christine & Joshua, Amie & Zac
In the front: Beth (son Sully was in the room), and Brooklyn & I


Unfortunately though, Cali decided that she wasn't going to act like her normal Cali self. Figures. Long story short...it was good we came back to the room cause that's when she started acting like herself again. I'm sure she's just so confused at what's going on. Long car rides, new places, new people, poor girl is just so confused. Hopefully she'll start acting like normal soon.

Probably the best part of the day was a HUGE surprise from Beth tonight after we ate dinner. She got out presents...which was, first of all, SOOO nice of her to do, but second of all it was amazing to me. Almost brought tears to my eyes. She has talked about Wonder Capes for a while now. (http://www.wondercapes.com/index.html) You can read a post on her blog about them here: http://www.newsfromthenagels.com/ You need to go to the "Archive" on the right, click on "2010", then "August", then "Celebrating Kids with Capes". Brooklyn is even mentioned in that post. I've heard all about these capes ever since I've known Beth. Her son, Sully, wears them in the hospital before he has his surgeries. When he got his it was dragging on the ground...but now he wears it & it flaps in the wind when he runs! Well imagine my surprise when Brooklyn got a present...and it was a cape!! She has officially joined the Nevus superheroes with her adorable pink, sparkly cape. Of course it's big on her, but I'm so excited for her to wear it & grow into it...and then it can flap in the wind like Sully's! HUGE thanks to Beth for the cape...I hope someday I can express what it means to me!!

To many of you this may sound different... but tonight just before I started writing this I was unpacking the diaper bag...putting the formula back in the fridge, etc. Well right there on top was Brooklyn's sparkly superhero cape. In an instant I felt a rush of one feeling in particular..."she's going to be ok". Not that I didn't think she'd be ok this whole time, but now I really know it. Taking that cape out of the bag & just staring at it & remembering what she looked like when I put it on her for the first time...I just felt at peace. It brings tears to my eyes as I sit here typing...   SO again....thank you Beth!

So tomorrow...we're going to eat breakfast & then Amie Moller (the family staying next door to us) & I are going to go to the grocery store with the babies while the dads stay & swim with the older girls. Yay...I'm actually looking forward to that! Then who knows. It's another free day (what was supposed to be her MRI day) so we'll see what the day brings... Lots of prayers are needed as we inch our way closer to surgery day...

Travel to Chicago Day #3

Travel Day #3... We got up this AM & Dustin had gone downstairs for breakfast, but he said it wasn't good at all (AND they didn't have any flavored coffee creamer) so we left & went right to McDonalds!! This put us starting about 15 mins later than yesterday AM, but that's ok...we got our breakfast! :)

The roads, again, were bone dry...for the most part. I bet a good 95% of the time they were perfect. What an answer to prayer! We got to go the speed limit the whole day. Dustin drove as we passed into Minnesota...another state that the girls & I got to add to our list! We stopped in some town that I totally can't remember the name of & got lunch, & then he continued to drive...all the way into Wisconsin...LOL Which was yet ANOTHER state we got to add to our list. Except that this time Dustin got to add it to his list too! Haha, it was a fun few seconds for the Vance Family! ;)

When we got to Madison, WI I took over driving because Dustin's NOT a city driver. We then drove straight through to Linconshire, IL (oh and yes, the girls & I got to add this state to our list too!) Traffic was great, roads were great, girls were great...it was a great day. They were a little antsy, but who wouldn't be if you were stuck in a car for 3 days?! I swear though...those portable DVD players were a life saver! I hooked the 2nd one up to the back of Brooklyn's seat so she could see it as well and believe it or not there was a LOT less crying & fussiness going on!!! She just "watched" the same thing that Cali was watching & it worked out great.

They were pretty happy when we got to the hotel cause they could get out & run/crawl around. Dustin got all the stuff from the car while I unpacked everything. When I go to hotels I NEVER unpack my stuff...I just live out of the suitcase, but this time (cause we'll be here for 16 nights) I unpacked every single bag....and trust me, we had a lot of bags. Food that we brought from home is in the cupboards, clothes are in the dressers, & bathroom stuff is on the counter. And I feel great about it! :o)

After we got here, checked in, & unpacked a little bit we decided it would be best for ME to go out & find food since it's city driving & since I have a good sense of direction. LOL What a little adventure I had! I had NO idea what kind of area this was when I booked the hotel...I just booked this cause it's close to the hospital & the surgeon's office (& I got a great rate). Well wow all I can say is that I'm excited to get up & go exploring tomorrow! I literally could not find a SINGLE fast food place! The area we're in (from what I could tell in the dark) is a bunch of office buildings & very expensive houses. I really wanna go drive around tomorrow to see these houses & to find out where exactly we are!!! :o)  So literally after 20 minutes of driving around honestly the ONLY thing I found was a 7-11...so that's where I got dinner! LOL

So what does tomorrow bring.... First off, exploring this hotel; then exploring the area we're in; finding a grocery store & doing some grocery shopping; and possibly going into the city just to drive around & see the sights. We have all day tomorrow & Tuesday to do whatever we want...& then we have pre-op appts, surgery, & recovery. So we need to do all we can do in just 2 days. Tomorrow night we're getting together with our nevus friends too. I'm SO excited about that cause I haven't seen them since the Nevus Outreach conference in the beginning of July. It worked out great that all our kids are having their surgeries with in a week of each other.

Well off to bed...it's midnight & I'm tired!! Plus, my school starts tomorrow so I need to get up & begin my very last semester of school...EVER!

Travel to Chicago Day #2

First off...Happy New Year!! It 100% does NOT feel like New Year's Day to me, for obvious reasons. The girls fell asleep by 10pm last night & Dustin & I literally forced ourselves to stay awake to watch the ball drop. Seriously...3 minutes after the ball dropped we were asleep!! (LOL Makes me think I'm getting old!!)

Today was a long day... We got up & were out of the hotel (in Gillette, WY) & on the road by 9:10am. We started heading East & the roads weren't too great, but Dustin did a great job driving. I'm sure he pretty much wanted to kill me though cause I kept telling him to slow down...but he did give me the benefit of the doubt & go slower for me. I just like to play it safe!! ;)  We then passed into South Dakota. Dustin had been here before, but this was a new state that Cali, Brooklyn, & I could add to our list. :)  We got to Rapid City & decided that cause I've never seen The Heads (a.k.a. Mt Rushmore) before that we'd stop by there on our way. We didn't know it was so out of the way though! (Well ok, not TOO out of the way, but it did add an hour to our trip today.)

I'd always been told that it was a pretty disappointing place to go... That you are SO far away & all you can do is look up & see them from a very far distance. Well I tell you what...I was SOOOO pleasantly surprised!!! I was a lot closer than I thought we got to be. I got some great pictures too. So all-in-all, I was VERY happy that I finally got to see Mt. Rushmore. Unfortunately though, it was SO darn cold...& VERY windy so we basically got out of the car, went to the bathroom to change diapers, took pics, & went right back to the car. But It's definitely a place I'd love to go back to someday (in the nicer weather). The little town there is so adorable, but everything was closed (& we were kind of in a hurry) so we couldn't see anything. There's also a bear sight-seeing place, an Old MacDonald place, & tons of shops to see. So it's definitely on my list of places I'd love to go back to!

We then grabbed Wendy's & got right back on the road...which I can say...was totally bone dry!!! :o)  We were SO happy & relieved that we could go 75mph again. The only stop we made between Rapid City & Sioux Falls was at some tiny gas station about 1/2 way through the state. Pretty much 90% of our drive was great...perfectly dry roads...not much traffic. But once we got close to Sioux Falls the roads started to get bad again.

We decided to stop here in Sioux Falls because it's bigger than any of the super small towns that we'll come across when we cross the border into Minnesota. So we found a hotel, made reservations on the way, checked in, ate dinner, grabbed some much needed Icy/Hot at WalMart, & are now sitting in the room watching Tangled on the TV!

Beth, a friend of mine who is a fellow nevus-owner mom, lives in this area & she makes it to Chicago in 9 hrs. So, weather permitting, we should be in Chicago tomorrow!!! :o)  That'll give us a whole extra day there, which will be very nice. But...if the weather isn't on our side, that's ok, cause we weren't planning on getting there until Monday anyways. I'm just really glad that we decided to leave a day early because if we had left today, there's no way we would have made it by dinner-time on Monday.

The girls did fantastic again today....until dinner time! LOL They were perfect angels all day! Cali watched DVD's all day & then took a super long nap. Brooklyn played in her seat a lot, but slept mostly. But then we got to dinner & I think that cause it was so crowded, & that neither of them had any idea what we're doing & why we're in a car so much, & that we're not home...the attitudes turned south. But they still weren't horrible. It was nice to get back to the room though so they both could run/crawl around & unwind.

Will keep everyone updated again tomorrow. Thanks so much for all the messages supporting us. It really does mean so much to us to know that everyone is thinking about us & praying for us. We'll be in touch!!!

Travel to Chicago Day #1

Well we got up this AM, took Brooklyn to the doctor, & found out that she's perfectly 100% healthy! :o)  There's not a lick of fluid behind either of her ears. Yay!! But we got a script (& filled it) for some antibiotics just incase she starts to get sick between now & surgery. So we were finally all set to jet!!!

While we were at the doctor, Dustin packed up the car. When we got home we were all ready to go so we piled in the car & headed to Billings. We ended up leaving at 10:30am. We stopped there for lunch at 1pm (& my famous frozen yogurt) & then got back on the road towards WY at 3:30pm.

As of last night we were planning on going through WY, NE, & IA. But this AM Dustin's dad called & said that roads were closed in all 3 states. Oh how great. We already knew that ND was horrible, so our only other option was SD. So we went through Sheridan, Buffalo, & then stopped for the night in Gillette, WY. We got here around 7:30pm. The roads were pretty bad so we ended up getting to Gillette a lot later than we would have if the roads had been good. But that's how it goes when you travel in the middle of a huge storm!

The girls travelled quite well. Brooklyn gets a little restless, but as soon as we get her up & out of her seat she's just fine. Cali watched DVD's all day (the same 2 over & over...but hey, she was content!!)

So here we are in WY in a hotel on New Year's Eve! :o) We're planning on getting up at our regular time in the morning & heading out (which is around 7:30am). I see the ball drop every year, but I'm not so sure we'll be staying up tonight!!!

I hope everyone has a great New Year's. To my family: eat some Black Eyed Peas for me! We'll be buying some when we get to the grocery store in Chicago & eating them a few days late. But hopefully the good-luck fairy will understand why we couldn't eat them on New Year's Day! ;o)

That's Life!!

Originally we were supposed to leave New Year's Day. But because of the weather we've been having we decided to leave New Year's Eve. Now we're wondering what the heck is happening!!! LOL 

First off, we have 3 different ways we can go: through North Dakota, through South Dakota, or through Nebraska. For some reason my gut is telling me not to go north...that we'll be safer driving if we go south. We heard of a bad car pile-up in ND. So now we're feeling better (gut-wise) if we go through Nebraska...even though it adds about 4 hours to the trip. (But hey, what's 4 hours when you're driving 20-24 anyways?!) I've been checking road reports but it doesn't predict the future. Right now in Iowa it's totally clear so we're now thinking NE is the way to go. So here's to praying for clear roads!

Second off...when we picked up the girls after I got off work today our babysitter told us that Brooklyn had been pretty crabby today & that she was grabbing at her ears all day! Fan-flipping-tastic!!! So, since our doctor is closed on Friday, I'm going to take her in to the doctor I work for tomorrow first thing in the AM. Here's to praying for a healthy baby!

And last but not least, Noro-Virus has been going around our town like crazy. Well guess what...tonight at about 8:30pm I started with the symptoms. I'm certainly not going to get into details, but I've been pretty queasy & yada yada yada (but thankfully no vomiting...yet). Thankfully though I've been feeling slightly better in the last hour or so....so hopefully we'll be able to leave in the AM. If I do end up with this, we won't be able to leave until like Saturday PM or Sunday AM which surely won't get us there on Monday night like we need to be. So here's to praying for a healthy mom!

And that's that!!! I'll update more as we know more! Thanks so much to everyone who has given me links online to road reports. I really appreciate it. This is the time when I wish I wasn't an adult...and that I could just ride along with whoever was driving! Many prayers are needed right about now...

A Great Christmas...and Packing!

What a great Christmas!! I think Cali got a bit overwhelmed though! By the end of the day we were literally forcing her to open presents! LOL  Brooklyn just watned to open stuff so she could put the paper in her mouth! What a silly monkey. I took more videos than pictures, unfortunately. So I don't have a lot of pictures but here are a few:

 Brooklyn wearing Uncle Curt's hat

 Uncle Curt with Cali & Brooklyn

 Brooklyn eating Oma's keys

 Cali finishing up her popcicle before she opens up her Christmas Eve present

Brookie standing by the cat...she's so proud of herself too!



We had a great Christmas. But Christmas also meant that we leave in a week. UGH! Unfortunately though, we have been having a HUGE snowstorm. I guess we're supposed to get like 6-12 inches in just a day or 2. So we decided to leave a day early. We're not leaving early to beat the storm or to miss it or anything; we're leaving early to give us enough time to get there. We need to be there by the 3rd at dinner time, so by leaving on Friday that'll assure that we're there in enough time. So off to do more packing I go!!

I also wanted to share this paragraph again. I'll be posting it often, becuase I want everyone to see it!! :)

(I do need to make a very quick side note...I need everyone to know that we're still living our lives as though Brooklyn didn't have a nevus. This means that we use our OWN money for anything and everything. We are BY NO MEANS using ANY of the donation/Brooklyn's Best money for our own personal use. I have said & I will always say, and mean, that that money is being used for insurance deductibles, anything that insurance doesn't pay, and for our trips to/from Chicago. So when I talk about getting Christmas pictures taken this is just like every other year - meaning that we save up for them & use our OWN money. I just wanted to make that clear, so that I don't have to repeat myself time after time!)