Finally, A Jenni update!

Sorry for such a delay in posting a Jenni Update. I have been spending much of my time on Facebook. It is such quick and easy to post updates on there. The past 2 months have been busy. Jenni's health hasn't been the best. Not anything bad just numerous ear infections and sinus infections. They decided to do a cat scan on her sinus cavity and she had almost total blockage of ALL sinuses. She had sinus surgery on June 12th. She also had her adneoids out and new tubes put in (her other ones fell out). They said she had alot of infection in there. Poor little thing. They think this is all caused from her Gastric Relux issue. So she had to see a Pediatric GI dr. We initially could not get an appt until Dec. 2009 but then got moved up to Sept. 2009. There is only 1 Ped GI Dr. in our city so very hard to get into. I prayed for God to find a way to get her in sooner. When I decided to call one more time to try and get her in earlier I found out one of my friends was now working there as a scheduler!! God answered our prayers. My friend put her on a short notice call list and she was seen last Wed. We loved the Dr! He is so nice and very informative. He thinks she may have something called Delayed Gastric Emptying which would explain why she is never hungry or eats just one or two bites and then says she is done. She had a full GI study of x-rays done last Friday and will have to have more tests done in about 2 weeks. In the meantime, she has another ear infection! The poor thing...Now we also have to do sinus rinses which she HATES. But if it keeps her from getting infections we will do it. We are tired of seeing her suffer. She also has lost weight again. However, I must say she is a real trooper. Hardly ever complains and plays hard. VERY BUSY!!

We also had our re-adoption hearing on June 19th so now we can get a birth certificate for her and a passport. We really want to go to Mexico in 2010. We are taking a trip to Hawaii first week in Oct. which will be the first time we have ever left Jenni. She will be staying home since it is a work convention. I have to admit I am stressing about leaving her. Even though she is so busy and tires me out everyday, I don't want leave her for even 1 night! She will be in good hands while we are gone. She is staying with her Aunties who will spoil her terribly. She probably won't even want to come back to us! Well, I have lots of pictures to download and once I do I will put they them on the blogs. Hugs to you all!

Terri

New Couch for Jenni!

We made a spur of the moment purchase at Babies R Us last week and it has been a great purchase for Jenni. It is a little Sesame Street Couch that folds out into a little bed. She LOVES it! She has been sick for 2 days and she loves to lay in her little bed with her "blankie and Pink Kitty" and watch her shows especially while not feeling well. She just looks so dang cute. I promise to get some pictures. The little bed also has a little zip up sleeping bag attached to it. She likes that too. I think it makes her feel grown up or something but I highly recommend it. It did cost us $45 but well worth it. We are planning to take it to the Auntie's houses when she stays over.

The adventures of Jenni LIn

Has it been 6 weeks since we last posted? Hard to believe. Life has been busy as always. I am happy to say Jenni is well at this point wooo hoo. She is just so busy and running around like a mad woman. The weather has been nice off and a few weeks ago we were able to go outside and play! Daddy bought Jenni a toy car to play in outside. Although it was a challenge to put together (had to get the neighbor to help with his "muscles") it was worth it! Jenni LOVES it!! She looks too cute driving around in it or having mommy push her around. She loves being outside and likes to run between our yard and our neighbors. If they don't pay attention to her she yells at the top of her lungs "HEY, HEY" (like pay attention to me. It is too cute as all the neighbors turn around to see who is yelling. She is now 19 months and sooo smart! I think the big thing is she is soo compassionate and it is so sweet. She has a little trouble at daycare as she is still so small and the other kids tend to pick on her. The daycare has to watch her carefully. Her personality is just so mild and meek when at daycare that I think the other little kids pick up on it and like to pick on her. Well, I thought I also give some cute pictures for you to enjoy!

Update on Jenni Lin

Can't believe it has been a month already since I have posted. I spend alot of time on Facebook updating about Jenni so I don't blog as often as I use to. She will be 18 months old on Tuesday. She has been really pretty healthy for the last month and actually eating much better although still very picky. She seems to be putting on weight finally and getting a little baby tummy on her.. it is too cute. Not much to update on Jenni except that she is defiantely my little independent toddler. I haven't downloaded any pictures for awhile as I lost my camera actually Jenni lost it :-). But I found it last weekend so I will try and take some updated pictures and download them. Jenni is very fond of saying NO all the time and actually answers your questions correctly which is fun. She seems to be very fond of all of her grandpa's she actually has a totally of 4. She calls them all "Papa". She still can be a bit stand offish with her grandmas takes awhile for her to warm up. I still think the "older woman" thing is because of her association with the nannies in China. She is walking and running well which is actually good as I found out I have a fracture and tendon tear in my left shoulder which will require surgery in the next month so it will be hard to lift her. I will try hard to download a couple of pictures this weekend.

Our baby is 17 months old!

My, where has the time gone? The wait to bring Jenni home seemed sooo long and sometimes impossible. Now, that we have her home the time is just zooming by. Jenni turned 17 months old on Feb. 24th. Our little peanut is becoming a real little person with ideas of her own. She is so compassionate and sweet yet at times so naughty. We do have to admit that about 90% of the time she really is a good little girl. She is very, very busy and VERY independent. She wants to do things herself. She won't allow us to feed her which sometimes is a messy event when she wants to feed herself yogurt or pudding. She has never been a big eater even in China. Food just doesn't seem to be very important to her even when she seems to be hungry. She is very slow eater and eats very lightly. I think she is just always going to be a petite little girl. We try and not FORCE food on her as we don't want eating issues later but the dr's worry about her low weight so try to encourage her to eat more whenever possible without "forcing" it on her. She is almost potty trained all of the way. She goes poo, poo on the toilet every time now unless she is sick but still has a hard time telling us when she has to go pee but we are working on it. We actually bought her some pull-ups this weekend. As it is easier to pull them off and on then a diaper. She jibbers alot but still only has about 10 distinguishable words and signs about 5 words. She still sleeps pretty well and really likes her 2 naps a day which is nice for mommy and daddy. I haven't taken any pictures lately as we have all been so sick for about the last 6 weeks but hopefully we can get some in the next week that I can download.

Jenni is healthy again!

We are all on the mend. Jenni is back to her old self and the meds they have her on for her reflux seems to being working. Mama is still sick but doing better. Jenni is just growing up so fast. She is communicating more and more with us. She was having some issues of wanting to sleep with us at night which Rich and I have to admit were enjoying but we know that she should be sleeping in her own crib. We had her sleeping with us when she was so sick (the dr recommended it). She did sleep in her own crib last night so hopefully we are going to be doing that more often. I think we all sleep better when she is in her own crib. She will be 17 months old on Tuesday. She is just so smart and her daycare says she is just the best child while she is there. Very sensitive and sweet to all the other children. We worried about how she interacts with the other kids as she is a bit spoiled in our household but they say she shares toys and shows compassion when another child is upset. She follows commands and they very seldom have to scold her. She is just a good girl. I guess we have to feel really lucky as some kids are a bit more of a rebel but we normally only have to tell her no once and she compiles. Hopefully she will be like that when she is teenager! Well, just wanted to update everyone on Jenni as I know some of you were pretty worried about her but she seems to back to her old self!

Our poor sick baby

Boy, has it been a rough couple of weeks with illnesses. Poor Jenni she has just been plagued with all sorts of minor illnesses since we brought her home from China. This last Sunday was the scariest. She had a bad cold about 2 weeks ago but seemed to get better. But then Mama got the cold which I have been fighting off now for 3 weeks. Dada also has it. It is just miserable. Well, Jenni than was exposed to RSV at daycare. So last weekend she had a high fever and was wheezing so we took her to the ER and sure enough she not only had RSV but Pneumonia and an ear infection. So after 7 hours in the ER and poor Jenni being tortured in every way possible with tests, x-rays and breathing treatments they decided to admit her to the hospital. Boy, was that a long night! Jenni would have nothing to do with the crib in her room( which I think resembled the one she probably had in China). So, I had to sit up in a chair holding her all night. She refused to sleep and just cried either at the top of her lungs or this low sad cry. There was nothing I could do to calm her which broke my heart. It was heart wrenching to have her be so upset. She just didn't understand why all of these people were being mean (even though they were just trying to help her) to her. They were all "suited" up with masks, gloves, gowns etc. as she was so sick and contagious. So it really scared her. I hope to never have to do that again. I hated putting her though all of that. The nurses and the doctors were just so great and understanding of Jenni unwillingness to cooperate. It is kind of sad as Jenni use to be so good at the doctors offices and did really well when she had ear tubes in. And now I am afraid that she not be as cooperative as before and I can't blame her. I.V.'s, a catheter (can you say owww?), having her ears and nose cleaned out and breathing treatments. It made Mama and Dada tired and anxious but we both handled it really well and never showed our fear or sadness to Jenni. We tried remain calm which can be hard for first time parents.

So the Pediatricians at the hospital have confirmed that Jenni does have severe GERD (Reflux) and needs to see a specialist and have more tests done. The doctors think this why she has so many respiratory issues. They wanted to do the tests in hospital but that would have required another night in the hospital and Dada and I decided to not put Jenni through more "torture" until she was over the Pneumonia and not so worked up. She is doing much better today although still has a cough. Dada rearranged his work schedule to stay home with her Tuesday and Wednesday and my sister watched her today. I just want to really thank everyone at my work especially my boss for being so understanding this last week. Not only have they been so understanding of my need to have time off to be with Jenni but I also have been so sick with bronchitis and worrying about my baby that I am sure I am not performing my duties at 110% (which I try and do!). Well here is to a better next week. And please pray for Jenni to be well once again and for the doctors to be able to help her GERD so she won't be so sick. Oh, yeah and an extra prayer for mama and dada to get well also so we can take good care of our baby girl!

Terri