Information

First off let me start with a disclaimer. This post is to inform everyone with the many going on's in the Kaestner household. But during this process you may find that there is too much info for your liking on somethings and then on other topics there may not be enough information for you. If you are interested in more you'll have to contact me directly and even then I may not give it up. Also I'm going to vent a little of my frustrations and thoughts, non of this is to offend anyone just to vent. So if you think you may be offended then stop right here.

Okay now for the meat of it.

First off it can be a long drive to Birmingham. It's only about 2 hours away but that first trip down to see the pediatric Gastroenterologist (Gastro) it seemed like forever. I had no idea what he was going to say about Rayne and what his ideas were about her not growing. It didn't turn out too bad. The Gastro was a very nice guy even though his name was Stephen King (No Joke). He listened very nicely to all or our concerns and ordered just about every test in the book. The blood was drawn that day and an appointment was made for three weeks later to have an ultrasound and Barium Swallow X-Ray done. And off we went to grab some lunch and head home.

Three weeks flew by and testing day came. Short story IT WAS AWFUL!!! Rayne was hungry, tired, and did not like being held down for her x-rays. Thankfully I could go in so I could sing to her and she would know I was there. We got the results later that day at the Gastro. The x-ray confirmed Rayne's reflux problem and showed an abnormality with her ovaries. Which meant another specialist. Urggg. On our merry way we went. Only to go back the following month for a repeat ultrasound and a visit with the Endocrinologist.

Our lovely Endocrinologist had the test results before we got to the office. Which were normal this time. She said it was not uncommon for children Rayne's age to have temporary cysts on their ovaries. Slight crisis adverted. But this meant no true answers. She wasn't to worried about Rayne's lack of growth because... "Well she is still getting taller." Really? Okay she is taller but did you see how tall she was to start off with?? You talking about how the child needs to stay on a curve and my child is almost a flat line. Oh well moving on. More blood was drawn and a return visit set up for January. The blood work checked her Thyroid, and Electrolytes. Both were normal. That made me very happy because Thyroid problems run rampant in my family and normal Electrolytes means Rayne is getting the basic food she needs. Lack of growth isn't from lack of food. Now maybe they will believe me when I say that she does eat.

Shortly after this visit Rayne's already iffy sleeping habits take a serious turn for the worse. Back in January Rayne had settled into a pattern that left me tired but was extremely predictable. Length of time and time of day were consistent almost to the minute. Around May things slowly declined. We tried more food, cooling the house, more cuddle time during the day. Sleeping with her at night. We even invested in a new sleep chair. Some of these things helped but never for long. In June Rayne started waking up every 45-90 minutes. Sometimes she would go to sleep with just a bottle, or rocking. Other times she would be up for 2-3 hours. And nap time was almost non existent. I didn't know what to do.

Since the biggest culprit seemed to be her breathing we went to the Pulmonolgist. Oh did that visit suck for some many reasons. First he bashed our family doctor, Dr. Richards, who I love and has be wonderful for us. He was the one that pinned Rayne with her condition and got us into the Pulmonolgist in the first place. Oh and Dr. Richards diagnosed Rayne by what we told him and being in the same room for 5 minutes. Rayne was seeing someone else that day but Dr. Richards wanted to check on her. So her was my Pulmonolgist saying that I needed to change doctors because Residents are dumb and we should have more specialized care. And Dr. Richards shouldn't be stumped by Rayne not sleeping. HELLO!!! Rayne currently has 3 specialist stumped. Why can't the Family Doctor be stumped too?? Secondly the Pulmologist tried to scare me into giving Rayne shots. Telling me stories and saying that kids die if they don't get vaccinated. Okay I'm not an idiot and I'm not not doing shots because I think the medical world is wack or I believe it will give my child autism or that they are useless. We are WAITING to do shots because first off family history. Both sides have shown a wide variety of reactions to shots. I get site infections and end up on antibiotics, Fred will get sick for nearly two weeks. Nope don't feel like putting my child threw that. Secondly, I am a stay at home mom who gives breast milk to Rayne. And if there is an outbreak I'm completely fine with quarantining in my house. Lastly Rayne has gets poked and prodded enough for reasons she can't understand. I'm not going to add to it if I don't have too. Anyway--------So I left there with no answers and really angry. I still like our Pulmonogist but I hope I never have to do that again.

A couple weeks later we went back to the Gastro. He actually wanted to help Rayne sleep. His thought was maybe her reflux wasn't under control and waking her up. So we left with two more reflux meds to see if that would help. Well it wasn't the miracle we were hoping for but things have gotten better. Rayne no longer needs to sleep in a chair, we have moved her into the pack n play! The sleep isn't perfect but we are up to four hour blocks of sleep more often. WAHOOO!!! There are still a lot of nights we have to sleep with Rayne in arms but it's a little better.

This past week Rayne got some sort of bug but we are on the up swing of that. Yesterday she decided it would be fun to get her first bug bites. Fire Ant bites!! She didn't even cry, but gosh are they nasty looking. We have a follow up with the doctor about her flu-ish thing tomorrow and I'll get the bites looked at too.

In Fred News

We finally have his reflux under control. It took three different prescriptions to find the right one but we got there. He also had to have a scope and they found several abrasions on his esophagus. That was why the pain of is reflux was so severe and long lasting. So a couple weeks of an extra med to help heal the abrasions and life is looking good. He is still battling some insomnia, but he is holding up well.

Fred has been really great at helping me out. I have to tell him exactly what I need but after that he is right there. Fred is also a great Priesthood leader. He is a driving force behind family scriptures, prayer and Family Home Evening. Are we perfect HA!!!!! But the increased frequency has brought the spirit into our home and during this time where really no one is sleep we are still getting along and peace is pretty well maintained.

For me, well Rayne's life is kind of my life right now. But there are a few highlights

--There are three times a day my life really stinks. Its when I have to give Rayne her medicine. I hope no one I knows ever have to do what I do.

--I'm so very done with people telling me how little their kids where and how just one day their kids where caught up. I understand they are just trying to be kind but what makes you think I want to hear about your child's growth spurt at 9 months??? It is kind of funny to say that Rayne is almost a year and watch those people's faces drop.

--I do LOVE how people fawn over how cute and precious Rayne is. A lot of that has to do with how little she is and how bright those eyes are but Rayne loves it when people smile at her.

Overall I wouldn't change my life. I know I can complain and be a worry wart but honestly I love my life. My husband is AWESOME and my daughter is FANTASTIC!! So really my life is rather great :)

Crys' Cloth

Several people have asked me about how we cloth diaper. Because of this I have decided to just write it all down and make it available to all.

We use a two piece system for our diapers that consist of a cover and an insert. The covers we either bought or people bought for us. The inserts I made, but we will get there.

"Cover"ing the basics-
The covers are part of the Flip system, made by the same people who made BumGenius Diapers. You can pick up the covers here. The covers come in a variety of colors so your baby's bum always looks adorable :) Also the covers are adjustable size from 8lbs to 35lbs which means you only need to buy covers once and adjust the size as needed. Covers are available in Velcro (hook and loop) closure or snap closures. We use the snap, they may take a few seconds longer put on but they do not fall off accidentally. Nor do the snaps wear out in the washer and dryer.

In total we have 8 covers. 1 cover lives in the diaper bag as a back up, 4 various color covers, and 3 covers all the same color (green). A single cover can last all day if it doesn't get messy or soaked wet. All the green covers are for night time, when we "double stuff" the diaper. Which means that we put two inserts into one cover. This allows us to not have to change a diaper during the night... most nights. But using two inserts stretches out the elastic differently, that's why we dedicated a specific color so we would know exactly which ones to use at night.

Hint- I put a notch of thread in the middle of the snaps so don't have to count to find the middle each time I change a diaper.

"Insert" Here

You can buy inserts for your diapers. They are available online but at $5 a piece that is $225 for 45 inserts. Which may sound like a lot but if you figure $50 a month for diapers that's only 4.5 months of cost. Or you can make them like I did. Granted it takes a little time but it saves a lot of money. Home much you may ask?? Using the exact same materials I used it will cost 0.85 an insert. Using similar materials ordered from the internet you can expect to pay $1- $1.5o per insert. And as it almost always true if you do the work you can save some serious money.

The How To:

Materials Needed
70 Microfiber Car Wash Towels 16x16
--I used the towels available at Costco. Yes they are vibrant yellow but it's for diapers, really does it matter??
3 Yards Alova Suede Fabric
--Yes it has to be that brand, found at Joann Fabric in store and online
Roller Cutter, Mat, and Ruler
Sewing Machine
Thread

This will make 70 inserts. I made 30 smalls, 20 medium, 20 large. You can do more or less in each size. For instance you can make all larges and fold over the excess in the diaper but that will add bulk. We have greatly enjoyed not dealing with the bulk or having to fold a diaper while putting it on.

1) Pre-wash suede and towels.
2) Get out cutting instruments and prepare to do a bunch of cutting.
3) Cut
--30 pieces 5 inches x 12 inches (small)
--20 pieces 5 inches x 14 inches (medium)
--20 pieces 5 inches x 16 inches (large)
How exactly you get them cut is up to you. Stack them neatly off to the side.
4) Fold the towels. Place the towel flat on a surface and fold the sides into the middle in thirds. It won't match up perfectly but that's okay. Just make sure they are about 5 inches wide.
5) Grab a folded towel and place a cut piece of suede. On the Small or Medium sizes the towel will be longer than the suede. Just line up on one end. We will cut off the extra later.
6) Sew the suede to the towels using a simple straight stitch. Go all the way around the suede and ounce down the middle. The stitch down the middle will help hold the miss aligned towels in place.
7) Trim the extra towel off the small and medium sizes. Make sure not to cut your stitching. The large size should fit just about perfectly. This size will not need trimming.
8) Wash in Hot water with light soap NO fabric softener. Do this twice. Then Dry either by laying out in the sun of in the Dryer on High heat with NO dryer sheet. This is how you will wash the inserts from now on.

Now your inserts are ready to be used on you baby.

Changing The Diaper
Open The Cover
Put the insert in the cover,
Put on Baby
Notice that the snaps don't have to be equal on each side. Do what works for your baby.

Other Notes
Our diaper pail is a trash can with a trash bag in it. When it's time to do laundry we just carry the pail upstairs and dump it out into the washer. We use the same bag until it gets really yucky or stinky. About every 6 weeks.

Once you get the solid food stage and poo starts to stink pick up some of these paper liners. Line the diaper with this and just flush the poo and liner away. No stink, so no need to have a special diaper pail. The ones that are just wet can either be flushed or trashed. Yes some mess may still get in the cover or insert, but most will be flushed away.

If you use a High Efficiency washer you may need to soak your inserts either in the diaper pail or the washer. But they will need more water run through them than the regular wash cycle will do.

Occasionally you may get soap build up on the inserts. You can tell you have build up if the insert smell after you wash them. Your baby has an extra red bottom or you can feel grit or grim on the inserts. Simply wash the inserts over and over with no soap until they no longer sud in the washer.

If for some reason your baby gets a diaper rash I would suggest using a paper insert, such as gDiaper or flip disposable inserts. That was the diaper rash cream does not get into the fabric. A small amount will not mater but lots will cause build up. I prefer the gDiapers because they are thinner and can easily be added on top of cloth insert if needed. Works great for night time rashes, because you can still double stuff a diaper and use rash cream.

In the diaper bag you can use a small or medium 'wet bag' to put wet/messy diapers in while out of the house. You can buy one or make one. They are simple. Last resort you can use a gallon sized ziploc bag, you can even use that over and over too.

If you have any questions let me know :)

Oddly Enough

Oddly enough I don't feel like I failed. Now I really have to reason to feel like I did but it's just one of those things that you would think you just might feel like a failure. Okay once again I should back up and explain a little more in detail.

So Rayne had her "4 Month" check up yesterday. I put it in quotations because she is much closer to 5 months than 4 but that was just when they could get her in. Any-who we went in and there was some good news and bad news. The good news is generally Rayne is healthy. No ear infections, no rashes, good movement. The bad news... can you guess?? That's right she isn't growing enough. Weight 11lbs 4ounces, Height 24 inches (They didn't tell me her head size). That's 3rd% and 25th% respectively. ekkk. Now I know some kids are just little but this plateau is not helping her get over breathing problem. I'm going to skip the details of that visit because well the fill in doctor just sucked and it was an awful experience. After the appointment while I was checking out Rayne was miserable I was almost in tears. The sweet nurses took one look at me and asked me what I needed and I told them I really wanted to see my family doctor. It was already 5pm so the double booked me into a slot for the next day so I could have a few minutes to discuss what we needed to do.

After a night of decent sleep, a morning filling at the dentist and Fred going to work early Rayne and I headed out to see the doctor. About half way there my phone rings and it's my doctor. He saw they had scheduled me to bring in Rayne and thought he could save me the hassle of waiting in the office and having to have Rayne poked and prodded again, and we could just talk through what to do about Rayne's size. Dr. Richards said he talked to the Pediatric Attending in the Peds clinic across the hall (we go to the family medicine clinic) about Rayne since there are several ways to treat slow growth. What the Attending recommended was half a scoop of formula powder (about 1/5Tbs) in 3-4 ounces of breast milk. Do this with every feeding. This will give Rayne 80-100 extra calories a day. Which should be more than enough to get her back on track pretty quickly, but small enough that when she does catch up she won't lose weight when we go back to just straight breast milk. I had a couple of questions and we just talked about how we were going to follow up with the calorie intake. We decided to go ahead with the little bit of formula for the next two weeks. At that point we will do a weigh in and see how she is doing. If she is still low, we will probably have to run a few more tests and find out if there is another problem going on. We are hoping for good steady growth so that we can see how long she may need the extra calories.

So I went and bought some formula, Enfamil. I've know a couple of people who have had success with that brand after breast feeding. And I had a $4 off coupon, oh and it came in a smaller can. Since we are using so little and once a can is open it's only good for a month I wanted to minimize the risk of waste. By the time we got home it was time for Rayne to eat and she took to her 'Fortified Milk' very well. I had worried about it being thicker and harder for her to swallow but she did just fine with it. That was only a few hours ago and Rayne has been napping most of the time so we will see how this all plays out.

But I overall I don't feel like a failure. If Rayne was 'normal' my milk would be enough for her both in calories and amount. Not to mention I wasn't crazy for asking all the questions I did. As my doctor put it, "I'm being a really good mom and I'm did absolutely everything I could for her on my own."

New Recipe

Today I discovered a new recipe, one I'm going to use daily for the next three months!

Bittersweet Love
Ingredients
1 Amazingly Precious Baby
1 Nebulizer
0.5mg/2 ml Budesonide

Directions:
1) Pour Budesonide into Nebulizer. 2) Hold mask over Amazingly Precious Baby's face 3) Turn on Nebulizer 4) Listen to Amazingly Precious Baby cry, while you continue to hold mask over Amazingly Precious Baby's face. 5) Once Budesonide is gone (approximately five minutes) take mask away from Amazingly Precious Baby's face 6) Turn off Nebulizer. 7) Enjoy some of the sweetest hugs and cuddles from Amazingly Precious Baby.

Can anyone guess we saw the Pulmonologist today? It was our scheduled two month check up. I was glad to report that Rayne has had some improvement. She isn't squeaking, she can play on the floor on her back, and she is sleeping much better on her belly. But we are still having some feeding difficulties, and general noisy breathing. Upon check in the nurse noticed that her weight gain isn't what it should be. What was her weight you may ask?? 11lbs 3oz, for you statistics buffs that hits just below the 3% line. So this of course was the main concern of the doctor, because she will grow out of this condition but she has to GROW for that to happen. Dr. Mahesh asked about her eating habits and I told him we were still doing 100% breast-milk in bottles and although we do have some feeding troubles she takes 27-30 ounces a day. Dr. Mahesh agreed that she was getting plenty intake, she must be spending too much energy breathing. Which not only makes it hard for her to grow out of her condition but it could delay other milestones as well. So how do you get a baby to grow? Make it easier for her to breathe of course. My heart jumped for joy that this doctor was more interested in treating the cause and not a symptom. Because I'm sure there are some doctors out there that would have told us to switch her to formula to fatten her up and assume the breathing problem would go away after that. I don't like those folks. So the medical supply company ran over a nebulizer for me, it took ten minutes for them to get to the doctors office, it was awesome not to have to go pick it up. We left the doctors office with a nebulizer, a prescription and a follow up appointment in three months.

After Rayne's nap we sat down to do the very first treatment. It wasn't the funnest thing in the world but it wasn't too bad either. She didn't care about the air or the noise but the Budesonide does sting which made Rayne uncomfortable. But as soon as the Budesonide was gone she was back to being all smiles. She wanted to be cuddled but she still was smiling away.

Overall this treatment is suppose to help ease her airways so it is less difficult to breathe and more energy can go towards growing. It of course will take some time but it is better than some other options and most certainly better than nothing.

That is the report for now.

PS- The mask has froggy eyes on it, that's just the one the delivery guy picked up. it was like it was all meant to be :)