Ella's other big first this fall, has been dance class. I enrolled her in preschool combo, which is a little bit of everything. Mainly, they just put on a leotard, dance around and have fun. No special supplies, just an hour a week, no pressure.
childcare kid from Laura's house) takes classes. Mary is a year older than Ella, but she's taking her class as well as Ella's class, because she wants to dance more than once a week. So, it's working really well, she loves the class, and she loves the tap shoes, notice the day she got them, she's tapping on my fireplace!
I know it's been a month since my last blog. Things get busy around here. Especially with the boy up on both feet much of the time these day. But more on that later. Our baby girl just turned 3 yesterday!
can remember! You should have heard the shrill!
him to the hospital to get it checked out, immediately. But Troy insisted it wasn't that bad.
Ella doesn't like going to bed at night. It's been a change over the past year or so from baby to toddler and it's been tough to adapt for all of us. We've tried following the suggestions to keep her in her room, not bring her to bed with us, and to let her soothe herself to sleep with a regular nighttime routine. For you regular readers, it's no surprise, what we've received in return are some sleepless nights with HOURS of screaming and crying from the parents, as well as the child.
It's excruciating to hear your child cry out for you and not immediately answer that call. I can only do it, because I hope I'm training her to be self sufficient, and able to sleep on her own. But it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life and I hate every single second of it. It literally reduces me to tears, sitting there, listening to her scream, and waiting for that clock to tick off the interval until I can go in again, even for just a few seconds.
She's been asking the dogs to come in and snuggle with her at bedtime, while we read stories, 
etc... they usually do this anyway, but just this week, she asked me to let Doodle stay while she napped in the afternoon. For those of you who haven't met our dogs, they're not small. Daisy (or Doodle Doo as we usually call her) is an 80 pound yellow lab/ golden retriever mix. Lola is a 45 pound husky/ shepherd mix. They're wonderful, protective, sweet girls and they love these babies to death. But they're also very active. They run, play, and jump at almost every creak or crack that might be heard. They normally sleep in our bedroom, on dog beds at the 
foot of our bed. It's taken Troy some real patience to adapt to this, but he's learned to ignore their scratching, dreaming, and snorting throughout the night. Getting them to lie still so a little girl can sleep is a whole new ballgame.
I tried it Friday afternoon, when Ella asked, and they just wouldn't go for it. First of all, Daisy was in there alone. Lola wanted to eat, so Daisy just whined at the door for 30 minutes until I let her out. Of course, Ella was heartbroken. I had to convince her she hadn't done anything wrong, this was just something we'd have to work on, to "teach" the doggies how to stay in her room. We'd ask Daddy for help this weekend.
So I mentioned it to Troy and we decided to give it a whirl. We tried this afternoon, and again, after about 30 minutes, they wanted out, so we opened the door and broke Ella's heart again. I explained again, that we were "teaching" them, and it's hard to learn something new, so we'd try again tonight.
Bedtime came, she asked for them and even closed the door when she went to potty and brush her teeth, so they wouldn't get away. We left them and Troy even coaxed them up onto her bed for snuggling. They didn't stay up there long. We heard her several times calling them, calming them down and getting settled herself. But they all got quiet, within about 30 minutes. A couple of hours later when Troy went to get the dogs for a bathroom break, they were waiting at the door, but Ella was sound asleep!!! Yippee!
Here's my theory and no, I'm not an expert, just a mom who's thought about this over many sleepless, scream-filled nights: Ella is incredibly social. (can't imagine where she gets that) Most nights when she doesn't want to go to sleep or doesn't want to stay in her room alone, she simply wants someone to talk to and play with. She will wind herself down, but she hates doing it alone. If I'd stay with her, eventually she'd go to sleep, but she'd drive me nuts first! I try to close my eyes, but she'll poke them, pretend she's a princess with a "magic kiss" to wake me up, etc... She just loves the companionship. Maybe those dogs are our answer. As long as they're in the room with her, she's not alone. I hate to think she's lonely in there. If the dogs can give her that comfort to find peaceful sleep at night, I'd know there was reason for re-seeding our backyard each year and spending $40 a month on dog food for sensitive stomachs.
They are her best friends, especially Doodle. I don't know why we didn't think about this sooner. I guess I worried that they'd all 3 keep one another awake. I did tell her tonight, that if the dogs weren't resting, the best thing to do, was to pretend to be asleep. I said, " If they think you're up playing, they'll want to play with you. If you're sleeping, they'll want to snuggle and sleep too." Who knows, maybe it worked, maybe it's a fluke?.
No if we can get them to go back in there, and spend the night so she'll have that comfort when/ if she wakes up, we're in business. I won't hold my breath, but what a Mother's Day gift that would be!
Alex will turn one on May 5, and I wanted photos of him to mark the end of this first year. I also want to send them to friends, family and the grandmas and great-grandma for Mother's Day. So I scheduled an appointment last Sunday morning. This is MAJOR national photo chain. They have great prices, they take good photos, it's not too expensive. We've had relatively good luck with them in the past. Only once did we have to wait a little longer than expected. I thought scheduling when many families were still at church would be ideal. We got Alex a morning nap, had a quick snack and few drinks of milk, brought the clothes with us, so no one would get messy or wrinkled on the way, and headed out.
or overly tired. There are blocks and other kids to play with, etc...
did. The mass is there on CT scan as well as the MRI, so here's what it means. It's bone or some sort of calcification. That's why it showed up on MRI and on the CT scan, just like an xray. This is what raised the initial questions. Most meningiomas will only show up on MRI and then, only when they inject die to give it contrast. Now we know that this mass contains bone-like structure. That's something, but it doesn't get us a definitive answer. 
- what are the pros and cons of crainiotomy? pros, you remove the tumor and any questionable surrounding tissue, you do pathology on the tumor to determine exactly what it is and if it could cause future problems elsewhere in your body. Cons, this is brain surgery. You spend 2 days in intensive care, 4-5 days in the hospital, minimum of 2 months before you get energy and ability level back, plus setbacks after that. Oh, and they have to shave some of your hair off.
- what are the pros and cons of radiosurgery? pros, no cutting, no shaving, no scar, you don't even get undressed for the surgery, you leave the hospital the same day, you can drive yourself home (but they don't suggest that) Cons, the tumor stays in there, it just stays the size it is and the radiation stops it from growing any larger which would cause the future problems, you don't get to do pathology, so you don't know what it is, or whether it could cause future problems down the road. (upside of that is, I'll have to get an MRI and CT scan at least once a year for the rest of my life, so if something did turn up, we'd know quickly.)
- what next? We schedule a CT scan in the next week or so. That will tell him immediately if it's bone which leads in a new direction, if it's not, we'll continue to assume it's probably a meningioma. We schedule a follow up MRI in 2-3 months and see if it's grown, etc.. and we come back to see him. (unless of course something important is revealed in the CT scan, then he'd want us back immediately for a completely different set of options, but that's not what he's expecting.)
- are we wasting precious time? no, he doesn't see anything to indicate this is fast growing and even at 2.7 centimeters, he says I'm a long way from the radiosurgery cut off points. He say that rather than a round ball, my tumor is long and skinny, like a comb. That makes it easier to target all the outside of the tumor, so it can be 5-6cm long and still be okay for radiosugery.
- what about the possible mini-stroke? he doesn't think that's the case. he thinks the spot on my brain is from the migraine drug reaction, when I thought I was having a heart attack and experienced the numb, tight, weak feeling on my left side. He thinks that did kill some brain cells, which is what showed up, but that's deep in the center of my brain. He says the risk of stroke from birth control pills is in the large blood vessels of the brain, and he doesn't see ANY problem there. His advice was to weigh our options, if the ovarian cysts are also a threat to my lifestyle, he says to go back on hormone and control the cysts, but preferably just progesterone and not estrogen. We're waiting that out for a month or so to see how it goes.
Okay, I think that covers the basics, so now you're as up to date as we are. More to come after the CT scan, if it shows anything or after our follow up in 2-3 months. Until then, keep the good thoughts and prayers coming!
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