January & February brought us more teeth in the Mag-mouth, along with a move to the "pre-toddlers" room at daycare, which reunited Maggie with our friend Rachael! Needless to say, Maggie flourished in her new environment. There are literally 500 photos from the January to May time period that Maggie was in Rachael's room, and there are just too many good ones...but I'll make a separate post of my faves soon after this post. No really, I promise. :)
During January and leading up to the first week in February, Maggie had a couple of low-grade fevers, which were seen as ear infections and treated with antibiotics, but more on that later.
January and February also gave us a more mobile Margaret! She went from taking just a few steps at a time to full blown walking a week before we went on a family cruise with Annie's parents! Just when we thought we'd be in the clear for the week, Mag-pie decided to one-up us by walking, but since she was new at it, it was easy for her to get her sea legs. I actually think the slow sway of the ship helped her stay upright!
Maggie & Annie waiting at RIC for our flight to Ft. Lauderdale...at 6AM.
"Here Mommy take my milk. I'm going for some coffee."
"De plane! De plane!"
Gigi, Pop-pop & Maggie prior to take-off.
"Mommy, I need air!"
Pop-pop & Maggie in Ft. Lauderdale. Maggie's first flight went off without a hitch!
Maggie's first shuttle ride.
Shuttle to the ship.
Maggie & Annie pointing at the ship in awe.
Lunch photo-op pre-shove off. Self portrait skills abound.
Maggie can't wait to get out on that balcony.
"Hey everybody! Look at me go!"
The family set of cruise passes. Maggie gets two holes punched: one for no go on the alcohol, the other to indicate that she can't charge that gold-plated spoon to our account.
This is literally 15 minutes after we got in our room. What could possibly make you think we have a small child?
Looking down the atrium of the ship.
Time to kick back at happy hour.
A stately-looking Dad.
A relaxed-looking Dad.
Maggie enjoying watching the land and water go by as we shove off on our cruise.
The ship had a great little play hour set up every morning that was sponsored by Fisher Price. Maggie liked it so much that she couldn't help drooling over the abundance of new toys.
Dad getting in on the play time.
First nap in international waters.
First soft serve ice cream cone and in international waters.
Maggie had a few playmates on the ship. The girl on the left is Gianna from New Jersey, and the boy in the back is from Norway. Never got his name.
Formal night in the dining room.
Elephant towel animal! Maggie destroyed it right after we took this photo.
"It so early...why are we up? Oh land!"
Annie & Maggie cutting a rug before we hit Labadee, Haiti.
VROOM!!!!!!
We headed off the ship to enjoy the private beaches at Labadee, and Maggie passed out before we even set up beach camp!
The view from the beach we decided to set up camp on.
...still asleep. :)
Annie & Mom (the twins) and Maggie.
Learning how to walk on wet sand.
Maggie & I posing in front of the ship.
Maggie & I having fun in the water park.
"We've got to touch every water jet, Dad!"
"Yay water! Ok, Dad, I think that was the last one."
Pretty lady
Lunch was provided on the island, and Maggie had her first rib!!
Nap round 2 on the way back to the ship.
Pretty lady round 2.
Sister ships docked at Labadee. The Navigatgor of the Seas, our ship, is on the left. Explorer, the sister ship, is on the right.
Happy hour as we shoved off from Labadee.
Dad! I want to come out there please!
"Whoa! Why is the living room table outside?"
Gotta love the smiling face of my baby girl.
Good Morning!!
"This is not my child; she just got up and sat in my lap."
Montego Bay, Jamaica
Maggie's playmate, Gianna, ended up being on our beach excursion. The girls had fun.
Pretty lady round 3 with Red Stripe Light in tow.
Fun in the sun and in the water.
Maggie & Gianna battling for bucket rights.
Panorama of the beach and picnic area.
Nap on the beach.
Pretty lady round 4.
She's really, really napping well.
Pretty lady round 5.
Jamaica was definitely interesting scenery on the bus ride to and from our excursion The shuttle was actually so late getting back from the excursion due to the traffic that we picked up in a hurry and left Maggie's brand new shoes on the ship. Oh well. Some little baby in Jamaica enjoyed the baby Saucony shoes. :)
After shoving off from Jamaica, Annie and I went to a dinner by ourselves at one of the restaurants, while Mom and Dad took Maggie to the normal dinner seating.
Pretty lady round 6: dressed up and lookin' hot (as usual).
Pretty lady round 7.
Soft serve round 2 - equally as messy as her first cone.
Maggie decided to show off her sign language skills by signing "hungry."
Maggie at our last dinner seating of the cruise.
And the last towel sculpture on the cruise was: a towel swan. Once again demolished soon after this photo.
Maggie found this to be really hilarious: banging her head against walls.
The next morning we deboarded the ship, and after waiting in the customs line for about an hour, we hopped on a shuttle to the airport, where we got through security in about 45 minutes. It took so long that Maggie fell asleep on Mom's shoulder for her midday nap.
Maggie was sleeping so hard that when she woke up, it looked like she was in a baby fight!
There was a Richmond guy on our flight who had been on the Oasis of the Seas to do balloon sculptures. He was making a crazy amount of things while we waiting for the flight. He made Maggie a balloon rattle!
After the cruise, we were home for about a week, which also coincided with the amount of time she had been off her last round of antibiotics, and the low-grade fever struck again. This was the third time we had this happen in two months, and everytime it was diagnosed as an ear infection, although the doctors always said that her ears "don't look too inflamed." Finally, Annie put her foot down and insisted that they perform a urinalysis due to her own history at Maggie's age, which led to a surgery.
After trying with the conventional method (putting a liner in the diaper) with no luck, the doctor had to use a catheter, and Maggie was not happy at all. Compounding on the unhappy baby was the trauma of a 3-day course of antibiotic injections to kill whatever was causing her fevers. This treatment method was needed since Maggie had been on two different antibiotics so close together that a third in an extended course would not be effective. So, for the next two days after that, we took her in for injections.
The results came back, and Maggie had a rare bacterial urinary tract infection. Our doctor's scheduled an appointment with the VCU pediatric urology group, and Annie helped expedite the appointment: since Mags has VCU health insurance, she gets to cut in line for a new patient appointment.
After an initial ultrasound, followed by an xray with dye injected intravenously (also resulting in an unhappy Maggie) we met with the doctor again to discuss the next step: surgery. Maggie had what is called a duplex ureteral system on her right side. Basically, her right kidney had two ureters: one connected where it is supposed to be, and a second one connected to the top of the kidney, which was dilated and then reduced at the outlet point. This is what was causing her infections. This also was very similar to what Annie had. The major difference is that Maggie's extra ureter was emptying from the top 10% of the kidney, which was acting as a separate system; while Annie had a completely detached third kidney as well.
The doctor gave us two scenarios for the surgery: 1. cut out most of the extra ureter and splice it in to the top of the normal one. or, if there was too much vascular tissue to do that, 2. remove the extra ureter to the furthest extent possible and remove the top portion of the kidney it was serving. Obviously, we were hoping for option 1, but the doctor would know until the surgery was under way.
So, the surgery day finally came at the end of May. We went in on a Tuesday. Although we didn't have a working camera since we lost the charger in packing to leave the cruise, we weren't able to get all the photos, but the new iPad I won came in handy for them. Maggie went back with the surgery team at about 11:30, which was about an hour or so late, and then the surgery didn't actually start until 12:30 or 1. The entire day was filled with playing Angry Birds and doing anything we could to take our mind off the surgery. And, finally, after a few updates throughout the dat, we were called at about 5:30 and told that the surgery was complete. We talked to the surgeon, who was very pleased with the outcome, and then we waited another 30 minutes until Maggie was transferred to the pediatric critical care unit.
The little Mag-pie just after we got into the pediatric critical care unit.
We were told to keep her elevated, and although she seemed in good spirits at first, the pain was obvious despite the meds.
Annie stayed with Maggie the first night. Only one parent was allowed to stay in the critical care unit, so I stayed with Jill that night. Following a visit from the surgeon and his team In the morning, we were transferred to a room on the pediatric unit. (The good doctor requested a private room, which was really nice.)
The first day in the pediatric unit was ok, but Maggie was still in pain, and she wasn't able to eat anything yet. So, we did a lot of coddling and loving on Mags, but we didn't do much else that day. By that evening, and after a nice dinner provided by the parents, we - I - got back to the room to find that Maggie was eating a popcicle! She inhaled the first one, but she only wanted to hold the second one. She held that thing with a death grip until it had melted all down her hand and stained her orange!
The next day, we started off with some breakfast!
"Yay breakfast!"
...then lunch...
"Yum, Lunch!!"
Dinner was not captured in photos, but she ate well...she also was enjoying all the toys on the floor by this point:
Mags and "her" wagon.
By Thursday night, maggie had gotten so used to nurses taking her vitals, she decided to try it for herself. I think she may be walking in some footsteps in the future.
On Friday, we were ready to go by 10am, but we had to wait around until about 5PM for the doctors to take out the surgical draindischarge Maggie. For the next week or so, Maggie had to run around with a tube and a bag to let her right side system rest. You'd think that she would pull on that tube every chance she saw it, but she never touched it once. We went back to the doctor about 10 days after the surgery, and Maggie had healed enough to take the tube out! But still no rough housing for a month...yeah...good luck with that one! I think she was pretty much running around that night.
So, that was our winter and spring. I'll have the daycare photos and some select photos of our own a separate post to cover the gap between February & May.
Cheers, and stay cool in this heat!
Peter
