Well, I haven't updated my blog lately because it seems like so much has been happening. We found out about a month or two ago that Kynadi has a pretty bad case of Scoliosis. She has alwasy kinda held her head crooked, and I had asked a doctor about it before but he said she had something that I didn't need to worry about and that she would out grow it. Well, that was at her 18 month check up and since then I have noticed her spine is visibly curved, so I talked to her new doctor about it at her two year check-up. He knew right away what the problem was and we got her into the orthopedic surgeon a week later.
The orthopedic surgeon here said he had never seen a case like her's in such a small child. In fact the nurse didn't know what to do for a robe for her to dress in so Kynadi just got covered in a folded sheet -- Poor kid -- she's definately a special girl! Anyway, the doctor told us we needed to see a regional specialist and they got us into primary children's quickly.. So we had to make another trip to UT (it seems like we are always going there).
Well, the doctors at Primary Children's looked at her and told us they think it is a pretty agressive case and they didn't believe she would out grow it, like some will. First they wanted to make sure that her development in the spine and spinal cord were normal. They also wanted to make sure her kidneys were ok since there can be a link between Scoliosis and kidney and heart problems. To be sure she was normal in these aspects they had us schedule her for an MRI -- which I was nervous about because they had to sedate her -- just seems scary I guess. The MRI was scheduled for a week and a half later and all went fine there. The worste part was when they were putting the IV in her they made me hold her. They had us in a hugging position basically and tied her hands to the chair I was holding her in. She hated this whole process, and kept crying, "I WANT DADDY!". I know who will hold her next time! This whole thing was almost as hard on me, but I was tuff and held back the tears.
Well, since everything else is good, the doctors told us there are basically two options. First we have her in a brace that she has to were 18-20 hours a day. She will have to wear this for two months and then we go back to Primary Children's in November for x-rays to see if it is helping. If it is helping she will continue to wear it for years while she is growing. If it isn't doing anything I don't know how much more time they will give it to work before they start the second option. The second option would be pretty hard on us all. They would have to do a pretty intensive surgery to put a straightening device in her back. Because she is still growing though, they would have to preform a less intensive surgery (but a surgery none-the-less) every 6-9 months for the next 12-13 years. I'm not sure I could handle that. Being at Primary Children's and seeing sooo many sick children just makes me grateful that Kynadi has something that isn't life threatenging. I can't even image how hard it would be to have to go through surgery after surgery like soo many other children are doing. Seeing such small children going through such big obstacles is humbling.
A
nyway, Kynadi has her brace and has been so good with it. We had tried to talk to her about it before she got it and get her excited to have it. I think it helped. It is made of this hard plastic and I can only imagine how uncomfortable it is. But she is a trooper and they only time she has really complained about wearing it, is in the car during our trips back and forth to Utah. Like the car seat isn't uncomfortable enough by itself, so I can't blame her. After we got it, we tried to get her even more excited and I took her to the store and she got to pick some stickers out to decorate her brace with. So here are some pictures of her posing in her brace. The one with her on her tummy is how she has to lay for us to put it on.
This last one I took is of the little "dress" they had her wear when they were measuring her for the brace. It was so cute all tight and snug to her body. The lady taking the measurements told her it was a dress so she thought it really was. It was so funny, so I had to take picture to remember it.
I thought it would be a good idea to get our family picture taken since we've NEVER had one, so while we were down in Utah we tried to do it. Kynadi was not cooperating at all!!! I can't blame her too much though, she had a fever and wasn't feeling well at all. But here
's how they turned out anyway.
I haven't posted much on Brooklyn but I'll try to be better. I guess since she can't talk and get around yet there aren't many stories to tell. She is definitely becoming a much better baby. Those first three months were not the most pleasant (to put things nicely). She has the most shrill cry I have heard from a baby and for awhile it seemed like that was her favorite past time. I swore during those first months I would never have another one. It was bad! I'm glad I'm with my Mom so someone else can attest to this and that I'm not exaggerating. If it wasn't for my exercise ball, to hold and bounce her on, I think I would have lost it. But now, little Brookie Lynn is much better. She is finally smiling and happy most of the time. She is getting to be as good of a baby as Kynadi was. Most nights now she only gets up once or twice, so life is getting much better. She is still pretty particular on how she wants to be held and fed and such, and if you aren't standing or holding her just right she will definitely let you know. She's also becoming a bit of a mama's girl. There are times when my mom tries to hold her but she will just scream, and once I take her she calms right down. She'll do the same with John at times. It makes me feel good that she just wants her mom, but it can be a bit annoying too :) The funny part is that Landen (Brynn's son) is such a Mama's Boy and would cling to Brynn and scream if someone took him away from her, and I used to think it would be terrible, and was glad Kynadi was never like that...now look I have one of my own. And actually I remember thinking Boston had a shrill cry and felt bad for Morgan and Joe who had to listen to it...but Brooklyn's scream puts Boston's to shame. No more feeling bad for others!
She has this shoe obsession anyway, so even though these ones actually fit her she loved them. She loved them so much she had to sleep in them. It was so cute. I had to take pictures.
nyway, Kynadi has her brace and has been so good with it. We had tried to talk to her about it before she got it and get her excited to have it. I think it helped. It is made of this hard plastic and I can only imagine how uncomfortable it is. But she is a trooper and they only time she has really complained about wearing it, is in the car during our trips back and forth to Utah. Like the car seat isn't uncomfortable enough by itself, so I can't blame her. After we got it, we tried to get her even more excited and I took her to the store and she got to pick some stickers out to decorate her brace with. So here are some pictures of her posing in her brace. The one with her on her tummy is how she has to lay for us to put it on. 
Kynadi had her 2nd birthday at the end of July. I think it was perfect timing to be able to have a day just for her since all the attention had been on the new baby. She is such sweet little girl and has been such a GREAT big sister, but I was feeling bad and was excited to focus just on her. I had been telling her that her birthday was coming and we made a little paper count-down so she would know when it arrived. I'm not quite sure she understood completely but it was so cute to watch her get excited each day about tearing off a piece of her "happy day count down" (as she called it). We also tried to get her excited about her birthday by asking her what she wanted for her birthday, and everytime I asked she told me "Cake". She obviously takes after me if all she wants is food!
was especially excited when I took her upstairs and she saw the balloons decorated over the table, and the CAKE she had been hoping for. I decorated the cake late the night before and it looked terrible (as you can see), but she loved it!! 
That night, before she went to sleep in "the big girl bed", she threw the binki in the garbage. I think deep down she didn't want to let go but we tried to make it a good thing and she went right a long with it and she hasn't really mentioned it since. Actually, tonight was one of the first nights I have heard anything about it. She randomly just told me she wants to be little and have a binki again. It was too cute!!!
Well, I had just gone to sleep for the night on July 5th, when I woke up to wet pants! I had broken myself of wetting the bed long ago (unlike some of my sisters) so I knew my water must have broken. I then started to panic, as I was not ready for this baby to come. It was two weeks before her due date and I had not prepared myself mentally for giving birth. It was too late though, so I woke John up in my panic. It was the middle of the night and unfortuneatly my parents (our babysitters for Kynadi) were out of town visiting Mindy and Kelsey, so we had to wake poor little Kynadi up and haul her off to the hospital with us. We checked in and went straight to a room where I stayed the rest of the night. 
the pain was lower where the epidural wasn't as strong...this didn't fly with me since I couldn't even feel my legs with Kynadi. But it didn't matter and after shedding a few tears of pain, John got the nurse to have her check on me. My docotor ended up coming in too and she said the baby was coming so they took me to the delivery room. This was a short, PAINFUL stay but after only 3 rounds of pushing little baby Brooklyn was born just after 9:00am. 
