Update and Hospital cuteness

I am trying to do my best to get back in the swing of things as best as I can.  Its hard, I am constantly nervous and worrying over Ivy.  I feel like I am poking her ears with the thermometer every hour examining the outside of her ear a few times a day.  The stress is just overwhelming.  I admit I stress a lot, but since living here I have really learned how to calm down but I still get stressed here and there.  I am working on it but when your child is this sick its really hard not to let the stress over take you.

As most of you have heard now we were discharged from the hospital Monday early evening. The enzyme measuring bacteria had gone down from 206 to 3.2 .  They tell us the level has to be under 2 for it not to be considered an infection but everyone including the doctors want to see the level at 0.  With her low number and her willingness ( at the hospital) to take the medicine allowed her to come home.  We are all very happy to be home and Ivy especially is happy to have the needle and the wires ( she calls them wires) out of her hand.  However, most days I wonder if it wouldn't have just been easier and less stressful to stick things out at the hospital and finish the antibiotics via IV.  The Doctor in the hospital said there was no way they could keep her hooked up to the IV for 3 weeks and I agree but still I felt more comfortable with them monitoring her.  So now we just keep watching her ear like a hawk, take her temp etc.  If this thing comes back it will not wait it will flare up in a mater of hours.  Its just a waiting game a very long waiting game.  I just keep praying and praying every free min I get that this thing clears up with the antibiotics.  Watching them put her out for a CT scan was traumatic enough for me. They didn't tell us until they were giving her the anesthesia that it would be painful.  She started screaming and crying all the way until she went out then she bubbled at the mouth.  I lost it and had to leave.  That just brought to many horrible memories and to see my poor baby like that was more then I could take.  I can't even imagine if this had to go farther and they needed to resort to surgery.  They had to put her down because the day before they tried first without anything and she did ok until they turned on the machine well then with the lights and the turning of the different compartments she freaked out and we couldn't hold her still.  So they resorted to this liquid that was suppose to put her to sleep but not knock her out. She was so stressed and afraid of " The Tunnel ( that is what she called it") she wouldn't go to sleep.  They gave her a higher dose nothing.  That was the first day of her life she didn't nap.  That poor child was up at 6:30 and didn't go to bed until 9pm due to the stress of it all.  She was so drugged up.  She would just wave at the ceiling and out of the blue say " Hallo" she sounded weird when she talked and she was so out of it.  She kept looking at her fingers like they were something she had never seen before.  Any way, we are home praying the rest of the infection clears up with the antibiotics and this will be a thing of the past.

We had an appointment at her doctors yesterday and she just didn't understand the severity of Ivy's case. She had not yet received the records.  When she saw the dosage of Ivy's medicine she said it was too high and this can't be right. I had to argue with her and she finally called the hospital. After many minutes on the phone she came back shocked. She said she understood and didn't realize that part of the bone had deteriorated.  So she was leaving all alone and filled out our prescription.  We are to go right away to the doctors if a fever spikes or her ear becomes increasingly red.

Ivy has to take 15 ml of her antibiotics 2 times a day.  Each dose is 375 mg of medicine.  Its a very thick sandy ,pasty like syrup.  From Ivy's face its very disgusting.  She took it well in the hospital but since we have been home has put up a fight.  Each time she takes it the fight gets less and less due to bribery.  We hold up a piece of candy and my old cell phone and say you can have this if you take your medicine. I hold the candy and phone in her face persuading her while Kevin holds the medicine and juice in his hands.  She chases every sip with juice.  It just makes me wonder what people use to do before modern technology.  The phone is the thing she wants more. The candy is second but it helps get the bad taste out of her mouth.  Just to give you an Idea of how much this poor girl has to take in such a short period of time here is a pic

This is 4 bottles 100 ml each in 11 days, yes 11 days.  Most kids would take 1 bottle in 7-10 days.  Poor girl .

Sorry for the long post its been a very emotional process for us.  Now for the cuteness!!  

Well, near the last few days at the hospital Ivy decided to try something on her own . She is very creative and I have no idea how she came up with the idea.  She stood on the feet of the Ivy stand and said " Mommy ride"  I looked confused for a few seconds until I realized what she wanted.  She loved to be pushed up and down the hallway.  Nurses, Doctors, and others would stop, stare and then start laughing.  She is too much!!!! I am still working on improving the video. I shrank it so if you view in full screen the quality is awful,  but you get the idea.

 

Here is 2 really precious pics of Kevin and Ivy from Saturday!!  

Just a note, Ivy has been off the bottle for a while.  We only give it to her to have hot tea in.  I don't want her having it in her plastic sippy cups and I haven't found anything else I like to put it in.  Any suggestions would be welcome!!!  

Here is a pic from today, Ivy was feeling under the weather until after her nap.  It could be the antibiotics or her tummy from the antibiotics.  I have a feeling she is going to have ups and downs over the course of the rest of her treatment!!!

If I didn't have video issues I would post a video of her dancing earlier in the evening when she was feeling better.  The other thing that is frustrating is we had her off the pacifier except for an hour before bed time and when she slept.  Then this happened and we let her have it in the hospital.  After she is better we have to start all over again.  Oh well, its not the end of the world.  I just rather hear her talk then plug up her mouth!!!

I hope you all are having a wonderful week. I will try to update you in the next few days if any thing changes, Keep the Prayers coming!!!!!  

My little Princess!!!

Well its Friday!!!  I did it!! I can't believe I did it but I put something together in 3 days and she loves it and that is all that matters to me.  She makes my heart melt some days!!  I am learning a lot from her innocence.  Honestly it makes me wonder where along our growing process that we stop learning to be so thankful, so happy with what we have, and just all around grateful.  Before I post pics I will say this, She looks precious and beautiful.  However, I am not really sure it looks like a princess dress it looks more like just a dress.  Without proper tools, lack of experience, and such a time crunch I am very happy with it and she is only 2.  She loves it and was so excited to wear it today and that is all that really matters.  Enough words here are the pics, see for yourself!!!

Trying to make mommy happy and wearing this big over sized ridiculous princess hat.

  

Just in case I made another little crown at 1 am last night. 

Looking cute and admiring myself in the mirror.

Maybe this thing isn't so bad after all!!

Back to admiring myself!

I am tired but it was so worth it!!!  We will just have to wait and see if the dress falls apart or stays together.  Happy Friday !!!!

Lesson Learned and Time challange

Well we all know that I am the most organized person there is.  As you should know I am just joking of course!!  Any way, weeks ago Ivy's school had a note for the parents and it had cute little princess and knights on it.  I assumed it was some party and decided I would translate it when I got home.  Well, with our trip to Croatia coming up in a few days, I put it on the table planning on translating it that evening. I am sure you know where this is going to go.  So we went on our trip and got back on the Monday before Ivy's birthday.  Well, it sat on the table until that Friday where I decided to clean off the table and put items in my room. Well there is sat and sat.

 Fast forward to this Monday. A lady of one of the boys at daycare was nice to offer me a ride as she saw me lugging this huge trash can that I had to return for the school.  On the way there I decided to ask her what RosenMontag was.  I don't think I ever got the real explanation, just information on where the best parades are and that this Friday is Fastnacht.  This is where people celebrate and dress up in costumes etc.  She proceeded to say like at the Krippe ( what they call the day care). "You know this Thursday and Friday ( Friday is the only day Ivy will celebrate as she doesn't go on Thursday) they are having a princess and knight theme and the kids have to dress up in costumes!! " At this point my draw was dropping and my face was red in embarrassment for not being more organized with my daughters school life.

Well, I got home that night and the first thing I did was translate that darn piece of paper I had for several weeks.  Google didn't like a lot of the words but what I got from the translation was that there are no limits but you had to make the costume.  Its MONDAY night and I have to have a princess costume made for Ivy for Friday morning!?!?!?!?

Well that was my lesson learned.  You guessed it my time challenge is a costume in 3 days!!!! Plus I still had to buy the supplies.  OH boy what fun.  I feel like I am on special olympics project runway or something.

Any way, I sat in bed that night coming up with a vision.  We shall see how it turns out.  Any way, So Yesterday Ivy and I went to town and I bought some supplies.

I bought a pack of long sleeve onsies, two things of pretty shiny fabric, some lace, ribbon, and other colorful lacy things in the picture. To make it even more fun I left all my sewing supplies in Colorado. You guessed it I am hand sewing this bad boy myself.  Exciting!! Never hand sewn a thing in my life and never have ever sewn a piece of clothing or a dress at that !!!  This is going to be great!!  To make it even better I have no cutting supplies but scissors (bought extra fabric so I could folder over my bad cuts).  I started off with breaking the first 2 rules of sewing I did not pre-wash nor do I own an Iron.  We don't have a dryer and it takes 2-3 hours per load no time for that so I had to cut corners.

Last night before Ivy went to bed this is what I had done so far.  

It looks ok. Its just the bottom I am making ruffles to sew on top.   I got all but 1 ruffle hand made.  So I was in decent shape, in my opinion. I tried it on Ivy, its a good length and everything. Here is the clincher, I left a slit in it so Ivy could move.  She loves it so far and is so excited mommy is making her a dress.  The problem is the material is not flexible and when I put the ruffles on I am afraid it will be too tight, or the split will not open and she will not be able to sit, or it will just snap and she will get upset.  So as I lay in bed last night I did some more thinking.  IT makes it hard be she loves it as is. .  

So as if I didn't need more of a time crunch I went to the Euro store ( dollar store) and found a stretchy workout halter top.  It was really cheaply made but in my opinion it is flexible and comfortable and it was a 1€.  I was sold.  I came home ate lunch did some measurements and cut the strap and about an inch off the top to get the same length as the one here in the picture.  I kept the one I already started as with the lack of time I didn't want to spend the time ripping out the stitches.  Since I had 2 more why not start a new one and let Ivy decorate this one with sparkles on a rainy day and she can have a play outfit for around the house.  The split goes way up high so she is not wearing it out.  

Here is what I accomplished today 

The white is so plain and the other looks so much prettier, but this one actually looks better and will look much more colorful when finished.  I will give you a sneak peak at it pinned with one ruffle!!!

Ok, enough posting this mamma has her work cut out for her and its 8pm Wed night.    Does she finish it in time?? Does it fall apart?? Does it even look decent enough for her daughter to wear out the door??? Dant dant da!!!!!  Stay Tuned!!!!!

I am back and starting off with Ivy's 2nd Birthday

Sorry I have been slacking on my blog.  One of my New Years Resolutions was to keep up with my blog and well I am off to an awful start. I have been learning how to better organize my time and schedule ( another resolution) so hopefully I can do more things like blog, knit, and read.  I apologize for the long delay but I promise I will do a better job.  Being  a stay at home mom is harder then one thinks. Yes, I hear it from a lot of people how hard can it be when Ivy goes to day care 3 days a week.  Think what you want, its only 6 hours a day, 3 days a week.  I don't have a car, and I am in a foreign city and doing my best and I am happy with how things are going and that is all that counts.
Enough excuses, lets get to the good stuff.  So as you all know Ivy turned 2 on February 13th.  I can't believe my little peanut is 2 already!!!  Where did the time go??  She had , well a 3 day celebration.  I tried to make her day special, but all it did was pour here as it does in the winters in Germany. We made the best of it and she had fun but we got soaked!!  Her and I spent the day in town doing some of what she loves.  If it were not raining we were to go to her favorite park.  Instead, we went to town and watched the fishes in the underground part of the market. She enjoyed a pretzel and had fun shopping with me.  Before getting on the bus we stopped and got a balloon for her.  Balloons are her favorite.  Then after her nap we painted and played until Kevin got home.  We had what I would call an Ivy hodgepodge dinner.  A hodgepodge of  all her favorite foods and we finished it off with chocolate  ( no cake since she was getting cake Friday and Saturday).  Then we opened gifts and played and let her stay up late.  I baked a cake for school.  Friday they had a little party for her.  Her tagesmutter made her a crown.  They sang songs, she blew out a candle , and they ate cake.  I got to see some pictures from it and she looked so happy and like she had so much fun.  Then on Saturday we had a little party at our house for her.  I have read that parties are not for the kids at 2 years old they are for the parents and family members.  I wanted to do something special for her and I wanted her to have a good time.  She loves being around other children and I knew that more then anything that is what would make her happy.  So Kevin and I decided we would brave it out and invite 5 children to our apartment.  We had a good turn out and had 4 out of 5.  We warned the other tenants of the building prior and I may be wrong but I think we were the only ones in the building that day.  There are only 3 other apartments but I think we scared everyone off for the day.  Any way, I didn't do the typical American theme party, or a structured party.  After all, it was a 2 yr old birthday.  I invited what I would call her best friend from school. Her name is Laya.  I hope to get some pictures from her mom and share them with you at a later date if possible.  Kevin and I were so busy we could only get a few pictures.  Any way, I let the kids have free play until 3 (party was 2-5).  I played kinder musik in the background.  At 3 we ate snacks. We did family style since they all ate at Ivy's little table. I had a plate of veggies and cheese, and a plate of fruit and butter crackers. Oddly, the veggies went first , then the cheese and crackers and only a little bit a fruit.  Smart kids!!!  Here are some pics of them sitting around the table eating!!! Ivy decided to wear her crown while she ate.

The little girl sitting next to Ivy is Laya.  They are just the cutest .  Her mother (Jen) and I are planning on getting together one afternoon with the girls and get coffee. Jen is going to show me some real German culture and I am very excited about this.  After snack , They had a few minutes of free time while everyone finished up eating. Then I decided to do a simple game with them to keep them busy.  The first game we did was dancing ( Tanzan) all the kids loved this and had a blast.  I would put on music and when I stopped it they were to freeze.  The kids who stopped and froze got stickers.  They all really enjoyed it and even the parents got in on the dancing.  Here are a few pics from that.  

Then we played one other final game.  I made some fish out of construction paper and put paperclips on the end of them.  I took a wooden dowel rod and attached a butterfly magnet we had to it.  They had to catch a fish. The fish had a number on it.  That number matched a prize.  They fished until they caught one and then their turn was over.  Everyone of course got a prize. They all really enjoyed it.  

Here is a picture of my little cutie taking a break from all the fun to get some water and some fruit!!

Sadly, Kevin and I were so busy during the cake time that we didn't get a picture of the cake ( I made it all from scratch even decorated it myself).  We also missed pics of her blowing out the candle as she went so fast she didn't give Kevin a chance.  Laya's mom says she has 2 ok pics from her phone and she would email them.  Assuming I get any videos/pics from her I will eventually post them.  Ok, well its late and I need to get to bed. I have decided one of the reasons I got so behind on posting was I wanted to keep you all up to date.  That was impossible when I just didn't post as much.  So if I get behind I will just move forward from that point instead of going backwards with things.  I think that will be easier. Since I started off with Ivy's birthday and I don't have anything at this point to share.  I will go back and post about Strasbourg next.  Before Ivy turned 2 we took a last minute trip to Split, Croatia.  I will post about that also.  I will try to get these two posts out in the next few days.  I hope you enjoyed this and I will do my best to stay on top of things this time. 

Helsinki

Well, I figured it would only be appropriate for me to go ahead and post about Helsinki as we just got back from Strasbourg France tonight.  I did download all my pictures this evening so I should have no excuse but to keep up on my posts.  Well, Kevin had a holiday the first weekend of October so we went to Helsinki for 3 nights.  We had a wonderful time.  The first day we arrived at our Hotel a little after 4pm.  We stayed in the radisson blu plaza hotel.  It was a great location and it was very close to the train station.  We had breakfast included and our room was very nice, very modern.

 So we only had time to walk around for a few hours and find dinner.  It was a long day so we were all tired.  They only really cute shot I got from our first day was a picture of Ivy on this turtle statue in the harbor.

The second day we took a ferry over to the Island where the castle was and toured that for the better part of the day.  Some of my pictures are from the boat and some are on the Island.  

Then we went to The Lutheran Church 

While Kevin and I carried Ivy in the stroller up the many stairs, mine phone fell out of my pocket and fell down on one stair.  The screen is destroyed.  We thought it was ironic as Nokia is made in Helsinki!!!

Then we just walked around the town and found a quick place to eat.  The next day was quite busy.  Next to the hotel was (if I remember correctly as its been a month now) the national theater. I think it was originally the opera house and when they built the new one it became the national theater.  They were closed but some nice gentlemen was very nice and gave us a private tour. The first picture is of Ivy at the hotel before we left.

Then we went to the amazing rock church.  If you ever go to Helsinki you have to see this.  My pictures just don't even come close to how beautiful this church is!!!

Then We went to the Helsinki National Museum and learned a lot about Finland history which we found very interesting!!!  

 We stopped by the current Opera house but there was a show going on so we really couldn't get pictures.

 One of my favorite things we did was visit the Olympic stadium.  I loved the track and field since I did that in highschool.  

These pictures are taken at the top of the tower where the Olympic torch was.

 The Olympic torch 

At the end of the day we went to this fabulous restaurant that served Lappi food , which is a region in the northern part of Finland.  If you ever go to Helsinki its a must.  Send me a message and I will look up the restaurant.  I can't remember the name at this moment but I have the maps and its listed on there. Well, I will try to post in the next few days. I have a lot to get you up to date on!!!!