Larry took Kennedy for her check up appointment the other day to make sure her white blood cell count is where it should be. The doctor said that everything looked good and that she no longer needed to take her medication.
We noticed that her skin was starting to get rough, and she screamed when we tried to put lotion on it because of the perfumes in it. We weren't sure if she was having a reaction to her rice cereal because that was the only new thing that has been introduced to her. I have been keeping baby oil gel on her body, which seemed to help it a little...but I wanted Larry to say something to the doctor. He did prescribe a cream for her body rash. He did not think it was an allergic reaction to her rice cereal because it was isolated on certain parts of her body rather than all over. He also gave us an instant rebate coupon for the prescription so we would not have to pay for it. BONUS!
She gave Larry a belly laugh yesterday for the first time. I was picking Kaylee up from gymnastics, so I missed it. I was so jealous, but I know that I will get plenty of belly laughs in time. I am so excited about it!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
4 Month Check-Up
Kennedy went for her 4 month "well check-up" appointment on Thursday. She was feeling great and the doctor was very happy with her progress. She was due for 4 shots, and was not happy when the nurse administered them to her. We talked about introducing rice cereal and how much to give her daily. I am excited about the rice cereal so she will not be hungry as often as she is right now.
She weighed 12 lbs 3.4 ounces and was 25 inches long. We just can't believe how big she is getting. It wasn't that long ago when I was holding a 4 1/2 pound baby in my arms! Her cheeks keep getting bigger and her legs are getting rolls on them....it is so cute!
Dr. Weneck did say that he wants to get an MRI done to check the status of the small teratoma that she still "supposedly" has. We also need to see a cardiologist to check the circulation in her legs. Her little feet are always cold and have a purple tint to them. Sometimes they are a dark tint of purple and other times they will be pink. So hopefully everything will be okay, but we need to cover our tracks and make sure that everything is working properly.
Kennedy slept through the night for the first time Thursday night! However, when we woke up Friday morning, I knew that something was wrong with Kennedy. She was extremely congested and had very glassy eyes. During her morning bottle, she ended up vomiting and then choking on her vomit because she could not breathe through her nose. We immediately called the doctor and he said to come in. They took her blood and the results showed an infection. He wrote out a prescription for her to start on, and said to come in Saturday morning for a follow-up.
We started her on the meds and she slept most of Friday evening. We let her sleep as much as she wanted so she could heal her body. I woke her up for her medication and to feed her before we went to bed, and she had no problems going back to sleep in her bassinet for the night. Starting to feel better.....she woke up for her usual 5:00 a.m. bottle! :)
Her blood was tested Saturday morning and it showed that her white blood cell count was going down, and that the medication was helping her. We are supposed to go back in 10 days to make sure the infection is gone. She is smiling again, and back to being her adorable self! Dr. Weneck thinks that she was fighting off the infection prior to the shots on Thursday...but the shots made her vulnerable for the infection to take over.
We will keep you posted on Kennedy! She is feeling a whole lot better and is almost back to normal.
Update on Larry:
He is feeling better since he finished his medication for Cat Scratch Fever. He still suffers from a 101 temperature at night, and wakes up soaked from night sweats. I keep telling him to get it checked out in case it is related to the Cat Scratch Fever...but he keeps blowing it off.
He started having extreme pain in his neck Thursday night and he went to see a Chiropractor on Friday. They took some xrays and found that his neck is straight rather than having a natural curve in it. He was put on a therapy plan for rehabilitation to get his neck back to normal. Already, he has gone from not being able to move his neck at all...to having enough range of motion to drive. He is still having some pain, but nothing near what he felt Thursday and Friday. So the Chiropractor has done wonders for him!
She weighed 12 lbs 3.4 ounces and was 25 inches long. We just can't believe how big she is getting. It wasn't that long ago when I was holding a 4 1/2 pound baby in my arms! Her cheeks keep getting bigger and her legs are getting rolls on them....it is so cute!
Dr. Weneck did say that he wants to get an MRI done to check the status of the small teratoma that she still "supposedly" has. We also need to see a cardiologist to check the circulation in her legs. Her little feet are always cold and have a purple tint to them. Sometimes they are a dark tint of purple and other times they will be pink. So hopefully everything will be okay, but we need to cover our tracks and make sure that everything is working properly.
Kennedy slept through the night for the first time Thursday night! However, when we woke up Friday morning, I knew that something was wrong with Kennedy. She was extremely congested and had very glassy eyes. During her morning bottle, she ended up vomiting and then choking on her vomit because she could not breathe through her nose. We immediately called the doctor and he said to come in. They took her blood and the results showed an infection. He wrote out a prescription for her to start on, and said to come in Saturday morning for a follow-up.
We started her on the meds and she slept most of Friday evening. We let her sleep as much as she wanted so she could heal her body. I woke her up for her medication and to feed her before we went to bed, and she had no problems going back to sleep in her bassinet for the night. Starting to feel better.....she woke up for her usual 5:00 a.m. bottle! :)
Her blood was tested Saturday morning and it showed that her white blood cell count was going down, and that the medication was helping her. We are supposed to go back in 10 days to make sure the infection is gone. She is smiling again, and back to being her adorable self! Dr. Weneck thinks that she was fighting off the infection prior to the shots on Thursday...but the shots made her vulnerable for the infection to take over.
We will keep you posted on Kennedy! She is feeling a whole lot better and is almost back to normal.
Update on Larry:
He is feeling better since he finished his medication for Cat Scratch Fever. He still suffers from a 101 temperature at night, and wakes up soaked from night sweats. I keep telling him to get it checked out in case it is related to the Cat Scratch Fever...but he keeps blowing it off.
He started having extreme pain in his neck Thursday night and he went to see a Chiropractor on Friday. They took some xrays and found that his neck is straight rather than having a natural curve in it. He was put on a therapy plan for rehabilitation to get his neck back to normal. Already, he has gone from not being able to move his neck at all...to having enough range of motion to drive. He is still having some pain, but nothing near what he felt Thursday and Friday. So the Chiropractor has done wonders for him!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
New Website for Fundraisers
I have created a new blogspot to post information about the fundraisers. Currently I have all the information about Sergio's Pizza on there, and I have been contacted about a couple of other fundraisers that I will post when I get all the information.
The new blog is www.BabyRuffner.blogspot.com
If you need to get a hold of our family for any reason, you can email us at BabyRuffner@yahoo.com
Please feel free to submit any comments, prayers for Kennedy, or any prayer requests that are weighing on your heart to the email address or even on the comment section of the blog.
God Bless!
The new blog is www.BabyRuffner.blogspot.com
If you need to get a hold of our family for any reason, you can email us at BabyRuffner@yahoo.com
Please feel free to submit any comments, prayers for Kennedy, or any prayer requests that are weighing on your heart to the email address or even on the comment section of the blog.
God Bless!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Prayer Requests
Larry is recovering from Cat Scratch Fever right now, and is on some heavy medication for it. Yes, it is not just a song...lol...it's real. He was giving our cats a bath the other night and one of them bit him on his thumb. It swelled up really bad, so we went to the doctor and he gave him a medication and said to monitor it. If he got a fever and saw red streaks running up his arm, he needed to go to the emergency room. Well, the next night that is exactly what happened. He had to go to the emergency room and get evaluated there. They gave him some booster meds while he was there and prescribed him more medication to add to the other pills he was already taking. He is feeling much better now, and is not angry at Trapper for biting him. lol.
Also, JR Butcher had a little scare last week.. He had to go back into the hospital because they thought something was wrong again. To keep up on his progress, visit his blog at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jrbutcher . After looking at his symptoms, they are talking about having another surgery. He will be able to come home on the same day of his surgery, and they think he will be fine.
Thanks for your prayers!
Also, JR Butcher had a little scare last week.. He had to go back into the hospital because they thought something was wrong again. To keep up on his progress, visit his blog at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jrbutcher . After looking at his symptoms, they are talking about having another surgery. He will be able to come home on the same day of his surgery, and they think he will be fine.
Thanks for your prayers!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
July 19, 2008
Kennedy has been smiling more and more as the days continue to pass. She is starting to talk to us a little bit in her own special language...and she prefers to tell us stuff first thing in the morning. We finally have someone in our house that is a morning person...lol...Kaylee, Larry, and I are not morning people at all!
Kaylee went to her grandparents house in Ohio a few weeks ago, so I have missed her terribly. When she first left, I noticed Kennedy looking around a lot more almost as if she was searching for her sister. Kaylee tries to talk to her over the phone from time to time, but all of us are looking forward to her coming home next week. She has had tons of fun, and has gone swimming almost every day since she went to Ohio so she has loved every minute of her visit.
Well, we cleaned out our garage, sold what we could, and took the rest to the rescue mission. Late last week we filled up our nice clean garage with all of our junk that has been sitting in our basement! Needless to say, you can't even walk in our garage now, and it wouldn't even fit everything! The remainder of the stuff had to go in my dining room...so you can hardly walk through it. Our plan is to go through everything box by box and get rid of the items that we don't really need anymore.
YEAH!!! Our insurance is finally starting to pick up some of the medical bills. We were told that our insurance would cover 80/20...but that is not what's happening at all, so I have to make lots and lots of phone calls to see what's going on. So I have told myself that every extra hour I have next week will go to making all those dreaded calls. If in fact they are supposed to pay 80% and if I can get them to pay that portion, then we are estimating that our responsibility of the bills will be around $70,000. That is what we have figured so far...but I just got another bill from my C-section so who knows what else will be coming in the mail. lol. Every day there is at least one bill or one insurance claim in the mail...and they make my head spin. I will be glad when all the insurance is completely taken care of, and I am guessing that will take a few more months.
I got certified in CPR/First Aid today at the American Red Cross. I need both the certifications to be qualified to open a daycare in my home. I was shocked to learn all the changes that they have made with CPR since I took it 5 or 6 years ago. I feel so much better knowing that Larry and I are both certified in CPR in case something would happen to our children. I am definitely an advocate for parents being prepared for medical emergencies with their family.
We are waiting for Kennedy to give us some baby giggles, but she hasn't laughed yet. I think she laughed for me one time a few weeks ago, but I haven't heard one since...so now I am thinking she was just talking. You can tell that she wants to laugh so bad, so we are on our toes thinking she will laugh really soon.
Kaylee went to her grandparents house in Ohio a few weeks ago, so I have missed her terribly. When she first left, I noticed Kennedy looking around a lot more almost as if she was searching for her sister. Kaylee tries to talk to her over the phone from time to time, but all of us are looking forward to her coming home next week. She has had tons of fun, and has gone swimming almost every day since she went to Ohio so she has loved every minute of her visit.
Well, we cleaned out our garage, sold what we could, and took the rest to the rescue mission. Late last week we filled up our nice clean garage with all of our junk that has been sitting in our basement! Needless to say, you can't even walk in our garage now, and it wouldn't even fit everything! The remainder of the stuff had to go in my dining room...so you can hardly walk through it. Our plan is to go through everything box by box and get rid of the items that we don't really need anymore.
YEAH!!! Our insurance is finally starting to pick up some of the medical bills. We were told that our insurance would cover 80/20...but that is not what's happening at all, so I have to make lots and lots of phone calls to see what's going on. So I have told myself that every extra hour I have next week will go to making all those dreaded calls. If in fact they are supposed to pay 80% and if I can get them to pay that portion, then we are estimating that our responsibility of the bills will be around $70,000. That is what we have figured so far...but I just got another bill from my C-section so who knows what else will be coming in the mail. lol. Every day there is at least one bill or one insurance claim in the mail...and they make my head spin. I will be glad when all the insurance is completely taken care of, and I am guessing that will take a few more months.
I got certified in CPR/First Aid today at the American Red Cross. I need both the certifications to be qualified to open a daycare in my home. I was shocked to learn all the changes that they have made with CPR since I took it 5 or 6 years ago. I feel so much better knowing that Larry and I are both certified in CPR in case something would happen to our children. I am definitely an advocate for parents being prepared for medical emergencies with their family.
We are waiting for Kennedy to give us some baby giggles, but she hasn't laughed yet. I think she laughed for me one time a few weeks ago, but I haven't heard one since...so now I am thinking she was just talking. You can tell that she wants to laugh so bad, so we are on our toes thinking she will laugh really soon.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
July 8, 2008 New Pediatrician
Larry and I met our new Pediatrician this morning, and we really like the man. He is a very family oriented man, and was very nice to Kennedy during the visit. He was not intimidated by Kennedy's medical history and even sat down with us in his office after the examination.
I told him that Kennedy had a pretty bad diaper rash from having rice cereal and apple juice, and he told me that we shouldn't even consider giving either of those unless she is at least 12 pounds. I felt better knowing that he could give us weight and age guidelines to follow so we don't give her too much or too little with her premature size. So we are not going to try that again until she gains a couple more pounds.
She weighed in at 9 pounds 12 ounces today, so she gained 3 ounces in just one week! We just can't get over how fast she is growing and how long she is getting! The nurse said she was due for a few shots, and I had to leave the room because I was choking up with just the thought of it. I know it sounds crazy that I could see all that other stuff happen to her while she was in the NICU in DC, but I didn't want to see her in pain this morning! Larry stayed with her to comfort her, and boy oh boy was she unhappy!
The nurse even gave us some free formula before we left, so that is going to be a big help to us in the weeks to come. We were very thankful for their kindness and generosity. We scheduled another appointment for next month to get a checkup and another shot. Larry will be working day shift, so I will have to go by myself for that appointment. I will have to prepare myself for the shot, lol!
So Kennedy has been smiling a lot more lately and she even gave me a little laugh the other night. I have been trying to get her to laugh since then...but she won't give me one. The smiles are pretty often now, but not as many as we want. I try to get her to smile all day long!!! lol
I told him that Kennedy had a pretty bad diaper rash from having rice cereal and apple juice, and he told me that we shouldn't even consider giving either of those unless she is at least 12 pounds. I felt better knowing that he could give us weight and age guidelines to follow so we don't give her too much or too little with her premature size. So we are not going to try that again until she gains a couple more pounds.
She weighed in at 9 pounds 12 ounces today, so she gained 3 ounces in just one week! We just can't get over how fast she is growing and how long she is getting! The nurse said she was due for a few shots, and I had to leave the room because I was choking up with just the thought of it. I know it sounds crazy that I could see all that other stuff happen to her while she was in the NICU in DC, but I didn't want to see her in pain this morning! Larry stayed with her to comfort her, and boy oh boy was she unhappy!
The nurse even gave us some free formula before we left, so that is going to be a big help to us in the weeks to come. We were very thankful for their kindness and generosity. We scheduled another appointment for next month to get a checkup and another shot. Larry will be working day shift, so I will have to go by myself for that appointment. I will have to prepare myself for the shot, lol!
So Kennedy has been smiling a lot more lately and she even gave me a little laugh the other night. I have been trying to get her to laugh since then...but she won't give me one. The smiles are pretty often now, but not as many as we want. I try to get her to smile all day long!!! lol
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
July 2, 2008 Heart Appointment
Kennedy had an appointment to see a Cardiologist from the Children's Outpatient Center in Frederick, MD yesterday. We were praying for her to be completely healed up, but we weren't that lucky. Everyone in the office were really nice and Kennedy did a great job sticking it out while they ran tests on her. Oh, and not to mention she weighs 9 pounds 9 ounces and is 22 1/2 inches long!!! She is such a big girl!
Our friend Emmie kept Kaylee for us during the appointment so she could be entertained rather than sitting in a Jeep and the doctor's office all afternoon. We dropped Kaylee off at the Rec Center before we left and she got to play there with Emmie for a few hours before they went to McDonalds for lunch. They also went to the pet store to look at the animals and even played Rock Band on her PlayStation 3. Needless to say Kaylee did not want to come home that evening. lol
Once all the tests were completed, we waited for the doctor to come in and discuss the results. The doctor sat us down and drew a diagram of her heart and explained everything in detail so we understood what she was up against with the diagnosis. It is better than it was in the hospital, and she appears to be slowly healing herself...so we were very happy with the news we received. Granted, she is not completely healed but the doctor has high hopes that she is on the road to a complete recovery.
She was diagnosed with multiple atrial septal defects and patent ductus arteriosus. What that means in our language is that she has two small holes in her upper chambers that is allowing too much to go into her lungs and she has a small canal below her two lower chambers that is pumping too much blood to her lungs. This canal normally seals off when a baby is a week old, but hers did not. If it does not seal itself by the time she is a year old, she will require heart surgery. Again, the doctor is hopeful that she will heal her own body...but he did explain that she is on a time limit to do so.
We were very relieved when we left there, and knew that God was taking care of everything in His time. The doctor wants to check on her again in 6 months and then when she is a year old to check the status of her condition.
GOOD DAY!
Our friend Emmie kept Kaylee for us during the appointment so she could be entertained rather than sitting in a Jeep and the doctor's office all afternoon. We dropped Kaylee off at the Rec Center before we left and she got to play there with Emmie for a few hours before they went to McDonalds for lunch. They also went to the pet store to look at the animals and even played Rock Band on her PlayStation 3. Needless to say Kaylee did not want to come home that evening. lol
Once all the tests were completed, we waited for the doctor to come in and discuss the results. The doctor sat us down and drew a diagram of her heart and explained everything in detail so we understood what she was up against with the diagnosis. It is better than it was in the hospital, and she appears to be slowly healing herself...so we were very happy with the news we received. Granted, she is not completely healed but the doctor has high hopes that she is on the road to a complete recovery.
She was diagnosed with multiple atrial septal defects and patent ductus arteriosus. What that means in our language is that she has two small holes in her upper chambers that is allowing too much to go into her lungs and she has a small canal below her two lower chambers that is pumping too much blood to her lungs. This canal normally seals off when a baby is a week old, but hers did not. If it does not seal itself by the time she is a year old, she will require heart surgery. Again, the doctor is hopeful that she will heal her own body...but he did explain that she is on a time limit to do so.
We were very relieved when we left there, and knew that God was taking care of everything in His time. The doctor wants to check on her again in 6 months and then when she is a year old to check the status of her condition.
GOOD DAY!
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