In an earlier blog post, I mentioned that we were waiting as patiently as we can to bring Shea home and trying to use the time to take care of medical needs and to make some fun memories. We did both of those things this week.

Isabelle has had mild difficulty breathing and swallowing since she came home. Our regular pediatrician has kept an eye on that for us, and we all made the decision last fall that it was time to start taking steps to improve these difficulties for her. In November, he started her on Flonase each night. Her breathing improved and her snoring pretty much stopped, but things still weren’t normal. He wrote us a referral for an ENT who agreed that Isabelle’s tonsils and adenoids should come out. We had those taken out in August. Things improved more, but they still weren’t normal. The ENT wrote a referral for a swallow study and a sleep study. The swallow study confirmed everything we thought we were seeing. She can swallow, but the movements inside her mouth and throat aren’t as coordinated as they should be. We will be starting swallowing therapy with her on Monday.

This past Tuesday, Isabelle and I spent the night in the hospital for her sleep study. She is a model patient – obedient and compliant, and she loves hospitals, so it was a fairly easy experience overall. Greg and I are both trying to invest a little extra in Isabelle right now to help her with Shea’s transition, so Isabelle and I had a little “dinner date” together at O’Charley’s before we went to the hospital.

Once we got to the hospital and settled into our room, the techs stuck all the little monitors and electrodes all over her. She thought the whole thing was very silly, and wanted to make sure I took pictures so I could show Daddy.

Even with all that on, she managed to sleep pretty well. I don’t have any idea how. We won’t have the results for at least a month, but we aren’t concerned about her. In the morning, we grabbed breakfast at Panera before we went home.

She likes Panera soufflés as much as her Mommy does. 🙂

We also celebrated Hallie’s 8th birthday. Each year since she came home, Hallie has been a little more excited about her birthday than she was the year before. This year she chose her own decorations and clearly asked for chocolate cake. This is also the first year that she can tell us how old she is. She keeps telling us that she is 8 and Hallie starts with “H”. She thinks its funny that 8 and H sound similar.

She was very excited about her birthday!

My Grandmother is visiting from Alabama, so she got to be part of the celebration with us. You can see from Hallie’s face that she thinks we have taken enough pictures and it is time to start opening presents.

She loved all of them. By the end of the party, she was starting to hit sensory overload, and we had to keep things pretty calm for the rest of the evening, but I love the fact that she can enjoy her birthday party so much now!