Thankful to be Wrong

I never thought I would ever enjoy being wrong .... well I was wrong about that! and this ...

Clover has been doing so well ... we hadn't seen a doctor for awhile and I started getting antsy. Clover's urine has started smelling, but I thought maybe it was just me. Then it got so stinky that I knew I wasn't being paranoid. So we called the doctor and he let us come see him just a couple hours later.

Does this look like a girl with an infection?? I don't think so!


I WAS WRONG, I WAS WRONG AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT!!!!! :)

He didn't even have to sample the urine, he told us since it's an "open system" it will have a smell but as long as she eats, isn't fussy, and has no fever she is fine. WHOO! And as soon as he looked at it I felt much more at ease, it was good just to let him see it and tell me it was normal. PHEW.

Clover said her first word : Uh Oh. Not on purpose or else she'd be a genius and I'd sell her to science ... JUST KIDDING! Please don't call child services on me :) Here's a preview. don't mistake Brian's "uh oh" for Clover's . hope you can tell the difference!



Clover also helped daddy fix his engine on his Mustang, I think he needs a baby boy.


Coming up next in the Irby's lives:
Visit to Arizona leaving tomorrow morning at 1am(so Clover sleeps the majority of the time in the car, it's a 7 hour drive), to see Great Grandma (GG)
Introduction to solids starting in June
First plane ride - to Georgia in July where she will get to meet all her new baby friends (our friend's babies)

we got a busy summer ahead ... hopefully I'll be better at updating! And to end this full update, here is a picture of Clover falling over . enjoy .

5 Months & counting

. 14lbs 6oz . 26in .

.Milestones.

sits up alone
says "ohhhh"
army crawls in circles
she can go from lying on stomach to up on her knees and hands (see picture below) and then lunge forward
recognizes her name

It has been 6 weeks since we have been in a hospital!! A record since she has been born! Looks like the surgery is working so far. Praise God!

This year was my "official mothers day". It was awesome. Clover got me a gift certificate to get my hair done. I did get it cut pretty short, Clover likes to pull my hair out and chew on it, so I had to do something! :)

Nothing else is really new, I find it hard to update these days because for once since Clover has been born we have a somewhat normal life! So now Im trying to figure out a schedule. I have so many things I want to do, read my bible, catch up on bible studies, clean, cook, work out, paint the next bedroom, hang out with friends .... the list goes on and on ...... So now I just need to figure out when I can do all this stuff!

Clover is doing great. She just had her 2nd set of shots which went well. The pediatrician was surprised at how "high strung" she is, said she acted like a 9 month old. Clover is CONSTANTLY moving, not one for cuddling or just sitting with mommy, and she is VERY observant. I need to be extra careful with how I act or what I say around her, she is going to be a smarty. Next month we start solids, that will be interesting.

Her favorite toy is Huckleberry (our littlest dog), fortunately he likes her too. He'll get a shock when she's finally able to crawl after him, see, she likes to grab his hair too.

Clover was dedicated at church on Sunday night, which is pretty much a parent dedication, to raise our child up in the Bible and in the church. I have been going to Calvary since I was 3 years old. I have watched countless children get dedicated, and now it is my turn! I love our church family!!

Hopefully I will have more to update you all with, but Im praying it wont be because we have trials going on!!! I would like to update with more good news from now on :)

Lets Catch Up

So sorry it's been awhile. My computer was in the "shop" for about a week and I just about went crazy without it! Then it came back and my in-laws were in town so I had no time.

BUT I'm back! so whats new with you?

What's new with me? well, here we go ...














Another Disneyland trip! Whoooo! We were caught in a fishing net, saw the pixar parade (which was awesome) and Clover wanted her picture taken in front of the C and the A of the CALIFORNIA sign. She's already so independent. We met Mickey and Pluto ... Clover thought Mickey tasted VERY tasty.





















Clover got a new car ... she's so spoiled already.










I decided to paint our room and the baby room. I like to paint and not to brag but I think I'm very good at it. I can do it fast and neat. But, I have never tried painting a room while being a mommy. SO HARD! It took me four whole days to do one room! But after that we got a new bed and did a little photo shoot with Clo Clo.














The biggest news in our household is .....

Brian graduated ... YAAAAYYYY









We decided that he would not go on for another degree, so we are officially done-zo. Brian's mom, dad, brother and maw maw flew out. This was the first time Maw Maw and Michael met Clover, so it was very busy and exciting having them here.

And not only that but Clover went to her first birthday party for her cousin Ben. They had a huge bounce house and a monkey head cake. It was a ton of fun, I think Brian and I had more fun in the bounce house than Clo.














Pretty much this has been such a busy weekend, I'm exhausted just thinking about it. And now you are up to date, and as for me I will be keeping up with the posts now I have a computer and I'm going to go rest!



In the words of Bill and Ted ... "Be excellent to each other and party on dudes"

4 Months & counting

Month 4
13lb 8oz . 26in .

Milestone:
sits up for a few seconds WITHOUT help!
grabs EVERYTHING! especially my hair
found her feet and plays with them
plays with toys and puts everything in her mouth

Clover is doing great ... health wise that is. Attitude wise, she has turned into a little miss priss! That's for sure! So after the surgery I went easy on her for awhile, but then when I was sure she was fine we started crackin' down on the "tude"(attitude). We spend most of our days with Clover fussing at me while I practice letting her cry it out in her chair and then when she stops crying, I reward her with being picked up. Who knew they would be like this at such a young age?

We went for a check up appointment yesterday, Monday. Clover fell asleep sitting up in daddy's arms in the waiting room, so cute. We had an ultrasound and met with the urologist. Everything looks good. Her ureter is a little swollen, which is completely normal after a surgery. The incision is looking better and better, and it doesn't scare me to touch it anymore! :)

We go back in 2 months for another ultrasound.

So out of everything we've done, I've got to say that Clover's fussing these days is worse than any of the procedures/surgeries we've done! crazy clover.I still love her, I figure the Lord has taught me to trust Him and grow in faith, and now He wants me to learn patience!! :) But I thank the Lord everyday for my little lucky clover, she is one of the best things that has happened to me!

the surgery & an infection ... boo

Okay before I tell you about her surgery and infection let me just say I've got a bone to pick with some of you! I put up THE CUTEST video of Clover laughing and only a couple of people commented on how cute she is. That will not do, so before you read the rest of this post you must scroll down and watch the video of the cutest little girl in the whole world laughing!! DO IT!!

Okay, I hope if you're reading this you watched the video. On with the update :)
First things first . THE SURGERY .
It went well considering that we had to do a surgery. We had to be there 5:30am again, but that's actually a good thing because she isn't allowed to eat 4 hours prior to surgery. So at 5:30am she is still pretty tired. The surgery was a success, the urine is flowing good out of the little incision. The incision is about an inch long and at first looked really gruesome, but now that it's cleaned up and has had a couple of days to heal it looks good. We had to stay overnight in a room with 2 others patients ... NOT FUN! Let me tell you. And Brian wasn't allowed to stay with me AND I wasn't allowed to use the bathroom in the room because it is for patients only. Of course at 3am when I really needed to go to the bathroom and I'm by myself with my baby, I did use the "restricted" bathroom. But only once!!! :) We were discharged before noon with a prescription for antibiotics for a little while longer and a Neosporin type cream that I need to put on the hole ... now THAT is gross. I don't like touching it, it gives me the willies. ESPECIALLY when I'm about to put it on and Clover pushes her butt up in the air making me touch it when I wasn't expecting it... ewwwww. :)
Clover did great though. She didn't sleep well the first night but only because she wasn't swaddled and when she isn't swaddled she is C-R-A-Z-Y! So I held her most the night. We only had to give her Tylenol twice, once the day after and once 2 days after. You wouldn't even know she had surgery. The day after she was already trying to roll over onto her stomach and stand up and push up against you. She's amazing!

The whole next day I was going around jumping and singing about how we are done! no more infections! whoo hoo a normal life!

..... BUT THEN .....

The Lord had other plans, He was like "Kenzie, you still have a lot more to learn!"

Yesterday, Saturday. She was really fussy and her urine was yellowish (which it is supposed to be clear) and it stank. Oh no ... not another ........ BLADDER INFECTION!! The day before the surgery her urine started smelling just a little bit, but she had no other symptoms. I called the surgeon and pediatrician and they said that as long as she didn't have a fever we could do surgery. The day of surgery, they tested her urine before to check and it came back negative for infection. Well yesterday when I called the hospital the surgeon told me that her urine cultures eventually grew a bacteria. And what bacteria is that, you ask? Psuedomonas, AGAIN! NOOO! I thought we would have to go back to the hospital for a 10 day stay again. But the doctor said that the first time we had this bacteria it was resistant against the oral antibiotics, but this one isn't. So we were able to get a oral antibiotic for her and stay home. I've got to say though, usually when I'm right it feels good, but now I always hope I'm wrong and just being paranoid! So here we are, dealing with infection again. Although yesterday was rough, she had a fever of 100.1 all day and night, so she cried and cried and cried and slept and slept and slept. ugh .. I'm exhausted just remembering it. But her fever broke last night and she's back to normal today. YAY!No worries though, just because she has an infection, it is not going to affect her incision at all. We will see the doctor hopefully this week just to be sure and check up with him since he was on vacation and didn't do our surgery.

The picture to the left is how Clover is repaying me for taking her to the hospital so much.

All this has taught me so much though. I've really had to mature and grow up to be the mommy I need to be for Clover. He's teaching me patience, trust, strength, courage, how to call and ask questions (which I HATE doing), and how to do things myself that I don't want to do and usually pass off to Brian :) (sorry Brian). But I'm still learning and there's still a lot more sanctification that needs to happen. Thank you everyone for praying, you don't know how encouraging it is to hear! Please keep them coming, we aren't done yet :)

Easter!

First off let me just say that if you were an official follower of my blog you may need to re-follow because I was trying to be computer savvy and make my blog look cool and somehow ended up disabling my comments and making my blog post twice ... so I tried fixing it and couldn't. So pretty much a made a new blog with the same address and just imported all the old posts. I just didn't want anyone thinking I somehow deleted them from following my blog-I appreciate those that read it to keep up with my family and Clover!

Okay on with the Easter update! We started by going to church to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Clover had the cutest little pink outfit on, but before the family came over she decided to poop all over that outfit. SO! We changed into her pink ballet outfit decked out with a tutu and ballerina socks.

We had my mom's side of the family come over which is the BEST FAMILY EVER!! (they read my blog :) Clover is the only girl, she has 2 boy cousins Ben and Christopher who like to play rough and tough. Maybe one day (soon) she will have a little girl cousin to play with ;) No pressure guys!

Clover had her first Easter egg hunt but slept through it ... party pooper. But all in all it was a goodfirst Easter.

This has nothing to do with Easter, but Clover had her first laugh this morning! It's such a cute laugh!

Urology Visit

Today we met with the Dr. He is going out of town and his schedule is also super busy but his boss who has done way more ureterostopy's is here and he is available right away. So Clover is able to have her surgery WEDNESDAY!!! AH! so soon. It's the weirdest feeling right now. I'm so so happy because we are getting this taken care of, but at the same time I'm so sad because she has to have surgery.

The doctor said that we will do an ultrasound a month after surgery, then 6 months and then at the year mark. And after one year they will be able to determine if the kidney is able to be reconnected or needs to be taken out. And if the kidney does need to be taken out, after a year the other kidney will be much more mature and able to handle it.

So she is having the ureterostomy and we will finally be able to have a some what normal life. This should fix the UTI problem and she will be able to come off antibiotics. And even though she'll have this little hole in her lower abdomen, she will still be able to take a bath and go in a swimming pool like a normal person. And because she is still a baby, it will drain directly in the diaper, so there wont be any maintenance really.

The Lord worked this out so perfectly. At first we thought it would take 3-4 weeks to get a surgery, leaving time for a UTI. But this other doctor is able to do it in 2 days, and not only that but he is a more experienced doctor in this type of surgery. And then we also thought that this would take 2 years to find out results, but it will probably only be one, just long enough that Brian can get one more degree in theology. He's also provided us some family friends whose daughter has been through a similar procedure ... so they have been a huge encouragement and help to us. Even in times that we feel like are bad times, we see how the Lord guides us through to show us what we need to do and how to do it and when we look back we always see why those times were the best thing for us to go through.


Easter update and pictures coming soon......