mini fall photos + mosquitoes

As you all know, I am the worst at lining up family pictures. We've done it once. Three years ago.

And here it is the middle of October and yet again, I didn't get around to or even think of scheduling family pictures. 

(Maybe every 4th year is the ticket?)

Recently I helped a friend take some impromptu newborn photos. She literally texted me one day and said, "You have an expensive camera, can you take some pictures?"  I said yes, and then quickly tried to learn all there was to learn about our camera in the course of two hours. 

Long story short, I took the photos, Jared did some hefty editing to make up for my lack of eye/knowledge-of-anything-camera-related and they turned out much better than I ever expected.

So I've been suggesting we take a few of our kids. And by "we" I mean Jared.

There was beautiful weather out one evening, so we fancied up the kids and took them to a local walk park with lots of trees and fields in the background.

They were pretty decent sports for about 30 seconds.

Because while we had accounted for the sunset and their clothes and all that, we didn't really think of bugs, specifically mosquitoes. And they were out in full force.

In almost every photo, one child or another is swatting one or scratching somewhere.  We were able to get one or two acceptable ones, but we will definitely need to retry another time.

And the biggest mistake on our part was that school photos were the next day. And the poor things already had bites on their cheeks and foreheads showing up that night. So I had the pleasure of shelling out an extra $6 a piece for "touch-ups" so their school pictures wouldn't showcase the massive welts on their faces.

Lesson learned.

Cleft Update

We're now 2+ weeks out from Bailey's most recent surgery - an adenoidectomy and a lip/nasal revision. 

It's gone basically exactly as we expected.

Our only real instructions upon discharge were for the lip and nasal revision: 
antibiotics for 7 days,
triple antibiotic cream twice a day to her lip incision area,
moistening nasal spray 6-8 times per day,
no swimming,
no blowing of her nose.

She had very minimal pain. She actually never once complained of pain, even the day of the surgery itself. However the second night she had a massive meltdown around bedtime, which is totally out of character for Bailey, and we realized we should have been at least giving her some Tylenol even if she denied pain. For the next few days we did Tylenol about every 5 hours or so, and that prevented it from catching up to her. The main struggle was the nasal spray. You would have thought we were attempting an amputation every time we did it. And we did it 8 times a day. After a few days she finally just resigned herself to it, but it was rough there for awhile.

She had a follow-up appointment last week at 8 days post-op. Her throat looks great; the ENT was pleased. The plastic surgery follow-up was a bit harder on Bailey. Last time around she had a really hard time having the nasal stent removed, and this visit was no exception. It took five of us to hold her down so that he could cut ONE stitch. The other side actually slid right out with ease. Bailey can credit that to her younger sister since Avery accidentally smacked Bailey hard in the nose and not only popped the suture but caused a massive nose bleed which gave her parents quite a fright.

Our plastic surgeon Dr. Miller thought everything was looking really good and wants to see her back in about three months.

Since then, things are back to normal. Bailey is only restricted in one area - nose blowing. He asked her to not blow her nose for another month or so. Don't ask me the reason for that because I have no idea. 

We went swimming for the first time today, and to say Bailey was ecstatic is an understatement. 

Also, the biggest perk of everything, is that Bailey's sleep apnea and overall sleep appears to be dramatically improved. Since those stents are removed, she can breathe through her nose alone. She isn't mouth breathing at night, and her bed remains completely made come morning time. Before surgery she was so restless that she was turning in her sleep sometimes every 10 or so seconds, and her bed was absolutely destroyed every single morning. So the fact that she is getting a restful sleep is HUGE for her.

We're very happy with how well surgery went and that we were able to get everything done this summer well before school starts. 

Cleft Surgery #4

I know I don't write much about Bailey concerning her cleft (or really about anything at all lately - yeah, sorry 'bout that) but I wanted to make a point to write about it tonight. 

You see, when I was a scared, pregnant mom-to-be carrying a baby already diagnosed with a cleft, I googled. 
Yes, yes. 
I know that is what you're specifically told NOT to do, but really, does anyone actually heed that advice?
Anyway, here I was. At home. Sitting in my basement alone. Staring at the computer screen. I tried every search term; I visited all kinds of different sites. Some sites were good (the BabyCenter cleft support group comes to mind), others were not. I immersed and overwhelmed myself in all things cleft, reading about far too many things I shouldn't have been worried about yet. Looking up statistics. Looking at hundreds of pictures. Worrying myself silly.

Eventually I stopped that. Long before she was born I got myself in order, we met our future plastic surgeon, and I focused on the fact that we were having a baby. I got the worry and freaking-out out of the way so I could move on.

But, I still clearly remember how extremely comforting it was when a coworker linked me up with a friend of hers who had just given birth to a little boy with a cleft lip and palate - exactly what Bailey ended up having.  Yay, finally! Someone to give me real information! - not something more akin to a medical pamphlet.

So while this blog rarely focuses on Bailey's cleft, I also notice that I get traffic from people using keywords like "cleft blog" or "cleft palate information." 
And very likely that is a future or current cleft-parent looking for some validation or reassurance or maybe just some real talk. So that's why I'm writing tonight. Hopefully this gives some insight into what comes after the special bottles and first two surgeries.


So Bailey has had 3 other cleft surgeries up to this point (lip repair, palate repair, nose/lip revision) as well as 5 sets of ear tubes. (For more details, click here.)

This surgery was planned after she had a sleep study completed in May. Bailey has always snored, but her restlessness and complete destruction of her bed at night finally caused us to dig deeper. The study revealed she had sleep apnea, which we were already pretty sure of to begin with.

It was recommended by the ENT to remove her tonsils to hopefully open up her airway. And since our plastic surgeon had mentioned doing a touch-up to her nose and lip either this year or next, we opted to schedule them together. The ordering ENT was not able to coordinate schedules with our plastic surgeon, so we went with another ENT associate.

Bailey was the first surgery scheduled. They took her back on time, and we settled in to wait. About 30 minutes later, our ENT came to our room. Since he wasn't the one who ordered the procedure, he wanted to know exactly why her tonsils were being removed even though they were not enlarged. We talked about the sleep study and her trouble breathing through her nose. 
Then the plastic surgeon walks in.
(Very unusual to have both operating doctors leave and come chat with the parents half-way through. I'm pretty sure our nurse had a mild panic attack!)
We talked over more of what they were seeing in the OR, and we agreed to leave the tonsils and check to see if the adenoids were enlarged and needed removed. Turns out they did. Our doctor told us they were some of the biggest he's seen. They were 100% blocking her from breathing through her nose. 

Not having her tonsils removed was definitely a change in plans, but a positive one. In cleft kids, leaving the tonsils in place for as long as possible is advantageous because it assists the palate in some ways, especially when it comes to speech and swallowing food without leaking. So while many times tonsils and adenoids are removed together, we're glad they didn't have to be in Bailey's case.

For his part our plastic surgeon shaved off scar tissue on the underside of Bailey's lip, shaved down the scar between her nose and lip, and lifted up the cartilage of her right nostril after removing more scar tissue. She has nasal stents in both nostrils to help them hold their shape. 

All I can say is that our girl did awesome!
I don't know if I can adequately describe this child's pain tolerance. 

It's high.

The highest she rated her pain the entire day of surgery was a 2. 
One time.
She denied any pain the rest of the day.

We've been keeping her on Tylenol, and she has to use nasal spray 6-8 times a day. But she can eat normal foods and is back to all normal activities (except swimming). 

It will probably be a week or more until we can tell if the adenoidectomy helped her breathing and sleeping. It would normally be about 4 days, but I'm guessing the facial/nasal swelling might prolong things a bit. We're very hopeful that she will see dramatic improvement in her breathing and be able to get much higher quality sleep.

And to all our friends and family members, we appreciate all the prayers you have said for our girl this week. She felt every one of them! ♥

run, Bailey, run!

We all survived elementary track & field day.

Just barely. 

I enjoyed it. I get a kick out of the little kids. You can tell which ones are already super competitive and which ones are laid back. A stray toddler ran on to the track to run after a relative. Many shoes went flying as their owners wove in and out of lanes during that long 50 meter sprint. It was entertaining.

Bailey was excited to run, but I think she was more focused on trying to locate us in the stands than on her actual race.

Speaking of the stands...
Graham.
He barely survived the track meet.
Have I mentioned that this kid is adventurous with zero fear?

As the races were finishing up, we sat next to a friend in the stands. She was telling me that her son was afraid of the bleachers because she warned him that he could fall through if he wasn't careful. I'd already told Graham the same thing, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to reiterate. 
Not even 60 seconds later, Graham fell off the 2nd-top-the-top row of bleachers, looking like a game of pinball all the way down to the bottom where he hung above the ground by his elbow.

That was game over. He didn't come back from that one. Although he wasn't really hurt, he was already tired from missing his nap, and the fall just added insult to injury. Off he went, home with Jared. 

There were no winners at the track meet. No one was measuring or keeping tally of anything, which was nice. They all just got to try their hands at the different running and field events, and everyone was having a good time.

Bailey did well at long jump, although I missed her best jump since I was dealing with the injured 3 year-old climber.

That long, curly ponytail makes me smile.

The day finished up with some tug-of-war competitions.
I am not exaggerating when I say that Bailey took this very seriously.
I've never seen her so competitive. 

She went straight to beast mode. 

She was pulling on that rope so hard, she started basically stealing rope from the other team and ended up near the middle of the entire rope by the end. Her enthusiasm got a lot of laughs from the crowd, and she was beaming with pride when her team won.

It's a good thing that it was enjoyable because we have a lot of these days in our future.

May photo randoms

Birthday Breakfast: Daddy's Famous Cinnamon Roll + 5 candles

Grandma Snuggles

Grandpa Wheelbarrow Rides

New in the Solko household
It's like that weird extra room was just waiting for this piano to show up and complete it.

Ladies' Tea at church

I thought digital cameras made it fool-proof and virtually impossible to cut off someone's head. 
Guess not. 
Boo.

Tiny bowls for tiny chefs

The hat and pink aviators. 
Be still my heart.

Planting with Daddy

A scolding from Daddy

 Back yard chillin' and cupcakes with Papa Alan

Always Fighting/Kicking/Pinching/Hitting/Arguing

"Push me, Papa!"

 Painting

Photography by Bailey

 Photography by Graham

Photography by Avery

Workshoppin'!

found on my phone

I don't take photos with my phone much. If it's handy, sure. But if the photo is even somewhat important, I try to get out the good camera. 
So that means that lots of the photos on my phone are slightly blurry or downloaded from a Snap I took and sent to family.

And what usually happens is that I forgot I ever took them, and I am surprised to randomly find them months later.

Like this one last month before Boo's first concert.

Easter morning, anxiously awaiting the egg hunting

Have I mentioned this guy is obsessed with stealing my coffee?
Some days I will take one or two drinks, leave to do something for a few minutes and come back to find the entire mug empty.
And then I find him, and he is smiling really, really big.

This lady taking a nap on me in the doctor's office (Hour #2).

It seems there are seasons in parenting: all-night feeding season, diapers, constant activities, the teen years... 

But is there supposed to be a UTI season?

We're still trying to get to the bottom of all the issues, and we're trying whatever we can think of.

Currently: chiropractic. 

Photography by Avery Jo.

She really captured his essence, don't you think?

The day is finally here: Kindergarten

Our baby started preschool today.

Can you even believe it?

Here she is all smiles and looking thrilled to begin a new school year - complete with school lunches and access to the whole playground at recess - but the morning was a bit rough...

Jared woke her up and immediately she burst into tears. I don't know if it was the fear of the unknown that is the first day of kindergarten or tears because Sister loves her sleep.

She cried while getting dressed and getting her hair done. She cried on the way down the stairs and while her breakfast was prepared. (Homemade chocolate chip pancakes - her favorite.) She continued to sniffle and tear up while eating. All the reminders of the fun she was going to have at school made no difference. So we loaded up her new Disney princesses backpack and took pictures anyway. 

With the help of her siblings, she turned on a smile and some of the fear was forgotten.

Some before school sillies.

While Bailey was away learning and stuff, Avery and I were busy preparing a delicious after-school treat.  

Classic Mint Chocolate Brownies by Mel's Kitchen Cafe. 

(Mel is Jared's online homegirl. We are constantly making food from her website.) 
Bailey has started to get choosy about what desserts she prefers and is offering her opinion on which recipes we should try. She's been requesting this one since she saw a picture of it while Jared was browsing. 

Three o'clock arrived pretty quickly and back in the car I went.
I picked Bailey up in the entryway of the school and she ran to me like an airport scene out of a movie. Makes you feel loved. ;)
Her teacher said she had an excellent day and once I left, she adjusted immediately. No more tears. The unknown is scary - sometimes even for me as an adult - so I don't fault Bailey for being afraid. I'm just glad to know she was able to shake it off and have fun.

Once home Bailey told us about her day while she wolfed down two of those brownies. (Although I should caution Bailey to not get too used to homemade dessert for her snack every day. I'm not that awesome.)

She filled us in on the important stuff like, you know, what was for lunch.
When asked about her favorite part, she quickly answered: Recess.
See? 
She's got this school thing down already!

Bailey turns 5

Bailey turned 5 years old last week. 
And like every other living, breathing preschool-aged girl, a Frozen party was asked for. 
(And asked for. And asked for. And you get the point.) 
So at her party this past Saturday, she got what she wanted.

She was especially excited about the larger-than-life Elsa balloon. Even I was surprised by its size when it was inflated.

One word to sum up her mood of the day: Sassy.

She was sashaying around the house in her beloved maxi skirt, throwing spunky attitude for every possible photo.

(Isn't this the most pathetic "wall" banner ever? Negative Amazon review coming soon.)

It was a good party and Bailey soaked up all things Elsa and Frozen, including a large majority of her presents. 

Graham is also particularly Frozen obsessed, so he had to give Bailey's new sneaks a test drive. 

He heartily approves.

Some other pics from the day.