ENT Appointment

A few months ago, after Kinley had her 4th confirmed ear infection in about 3 months time, Dr. Flanagan suggested we schedule an appointment with an ENT.  In addition to those 4 infections, she also had fluid in her ears at her 9 month checkup.  It wasn't an infection at that time, but we were given a prescription just in case.  We were pretty sure it turned into an infection within a week or so, because she was running a fever and digging in her ears.        

John and I discussed what we felt was important in looking for a doctor.  We both felt that, because Kinley is so young, it was important to have a pediatric ENT.  The ones covered by our insurance were through Texas Children's Hospital.  Obviously, they're the best in the area, but that also means a lengthy wait.  When I called to schedule the appointment, it was almost 2 months before they had an opening.

I took a half day at work today, and John scheduled this as one of his days off, so that we could both go.  Luckily, they have some satellite offices, and one of them is in The Woodlands, so we didn't have to drive all the way down to the Medical Center.  The ENT, Dr. Gianonni, was super nice.  Since our pediatrician is also through Texas Children's, she had all of Kinley's records right there, so she could look it up, without me having to remember all the specific details. 

Of course, Kinley's ears looked just fine.  She said with her history, though, she would do the surgery if we decided to.  I was hoping for more of a "push" in one way or the other.  I'm afraid that as her mom, my decision might be more emotion-driven.  Dr. Gianonni said she was going to put the paperwork through, and if we decided to do the tubes, all we had to do was call and schedule the appointment.

John and I had a lengthy discussion after we got home.  It's hard to want to have a surgery performed on your child when they are perfectly healthy.  However, some of the nights when we were up with ear infections were awful, and I felt so terrible that I couldn't "fix it."  We both decided we thought it would be best to give it another month and see what happens.  We're going to wait until the end of May.  If she has another ear infection in that time, we will go ahead and schedule the surgery.  After that point, we will reevaluate what we want to do.  There is a good chance she could just grow out of it on her own.

12 Month Checkup

Today we had our 1 year checkup with Dr. Flanagan.  I didn't want to schedule her visit before her party, since she would be getting shots.  We scheduled it for the Monday after her party, but then they called to say our doctor would be on vacation.  So, we had to reschedule for today.  Luckily John was able to get off early, so we could both be at the appointment.

Her 1 year stats are as follows:

Height - 29 1/8 inches (46%)
Weight - 20 pounds, 5 ounces (34 %)
Head Circumference - 17 1/2 inches (30%)

She is pretty much growing right on track, and is healthy and hitting all of her developmental milestones.  Dr. Flanagan always seems happy to interact with her, and today was no exception.  He played with her and made her laugh.  I always love that he takes the time to play with her, in addition to talking with us.

The best news is that her ears were clear!  I was anxious about it.  Of course, our ENT appointment (that we waited 2 months for) is next Tuesday.  However, I would rather have Kinley grow out of her problems on her own, rather than need tubes.

She got 3 shots today.  :-(  Poor baby.  Shots seem to hurt more and more every time.  This time, we got shots that we haven't had before - MMR and Chicken Pox, along with Hepatitis A.  Hopefully they won't be hurting her too much tomorrow.

Kinley's First Steps

Kinley took what I'm officially counting as her first steps today after her party!  We were downstairs and she was standing up, holding onto the ottoman.  She took a little step on her own, then stopped, then took another one.  She didn't fall, or grab onto anything, like she has done previously, so I'm documenting this as her first steps!  We'll see how long it takes to really get the hang of it.

Kinley's 1st Birthday Party

Today was Kinley's birthday party.  I have been planning and gathering things for a few weeks.  I'm not sure why there's so much pressure for a great 1st birthday party, when the child remembers absolutely nothing from it!  I certainly didn't go as overboard as some people do, but I'm sure John would say I overdid it on some things.  We spent a lot of time cleaning up the house, and finishing some projects that weren't quite complete.  We were lucky that all of my family made time to come down to celebrate with us. We also had some local friends.  A good crowd, but not too many people for our house.

I had chosen a simple polka-dot theme.  I thought it would be easy enough to get decorations and stuff, without being stuck with a certain character or something.  Since Kinley isn't old enough to care or have her own opinion, it was up to me, anyway.  :-)

My most crafty thing was a wreath I found on Pinterest and made with my mom.  I thought it turned out really cute. 

This is a picture of the wreath in progress



I also printed out one picture from each monthly "photo shoot" and backed them on cute polka dot paper.  Then, I hung them from ribbon with tiny clothespins and strung them across the windows in our dining room.  It was really crazy to see the month to month change over the last year.

We had an assortment of snacks and drinks (even adult beverages).  My biggest mommy fail for this party was not taking pictures of everything.  I thought about it as we were sitting down to open gifts, and John went around with the camera.  Of course, his brain doesn't think the same way mine does, so he didn't take pictures of all the little details that I would have.  Oh well, I guess my memory will just have to serve me about some things.

The biggest thing I took on (and regretted) was making Kinley's cake and cupcakes.  After my friend Jackie made Kinley a smash cake for her 1 year pictures, I thought I could handle doing it myself.  It wasn't that anything was super hard, it was just time consuming, when we had so much other stuff to do.  I know everything would have been cuter if it was professionally done, but it wasn't too bad.

 

Kinley got a lot of goodies, including a swing from Gramps and Gran and a tricycle from Uncle Scott and Uncle Todd, who put it together, along with Aunt Katie

 

 

Cory, Rachel and Emily had driven up to Pflugerville for the weekend, and were staying with Katie and Brent.  Katie had to be back for church on Sunday morning, so they were all going back after the party.  Before they left, we fed everyone a steak and baked potato dinner.

We had such a great time celebrating our little girl's first year of life.  It seems like it passed in the blink of an eye!  I can't wait for the next party!

Kinley's Birthday

Today is our sweet girl's first birthday!  We had planned for Gran to come to town today on the Megabus to help get things ready for Kinley's party.  On Monday and Tuesday, Kinley had been acting a little out of sorts and was running a low grade fever.  I was really worried it was her ears again, and was really stressed that I might have to take another day off to keep her home and/or go to the doctor.  Luckily, my mom's schedule was flexible enough that week that we changed her bus ticket, and she was able to come on Wednesday instead.  She arrived in downtown, and John had given her directions to get to the Park & Ride a couple of blocks away to get a bus out to our side of town.  We went to Sam's to get things for the party, and waited for Gran to get there.  Unfortunately, it was rainy and there was some misinformation about the bus online, so it wasn't as easy as we had hoped.  She did get on a bus, though, and got out to the Park & Ride by us.

We stopped by our house and dropped off the groceries then headed to get something to eat.  On Thursday, Gran stayed at home with Kinley while John and I went to work.  She seemed fine and never really acted sick.  We figure it might have been molars.  After we got home from work, we decided to take Kinley out for a birthday dinner.  Since she's so young, she didn't have an opinion about where we went, so mommy and daddy picked!  We went to Chuy's and it was DELICIOUS!  Even Kinley thought so!!

On our way home, we stopped at the store and got Kinley a birthday cupcake.  It was so funny, because she was picking little confetti sprinkles off of it one by one.  It took her a little while to dig in and actually eat it.

It was a great evening, and so fun to spend it celebrating our birthday girl!  We love you, Kinley Grace!