Makenna's Adenotonsillectomy

Yesterday Makenna had her tonsils and adenoids removed. I am happy to report that everything went extremely well and she is at home resting. She was extremely brave and never even fussed about it once before the surgery. She was by far braver than either Josh or I... we would have to look away at certain points so she couldn't see us getting upset even though she wasn't.

The surgery went just as planned. Dr. Carpenter is unbelievable and the nurses at St. Luke's were great as always. I felt more of a sense of peace going into the surgery knowing that they were the ones taking care of our little girl. Dr. Carpenter was back in our room within 30 minutes to tell us that everything went well and that Makenna was doing great. She was in recovery at that point still waking up. He said that her tonsils and adenoids were all extremely large and he said her right tonsil was almost rotted to the inside of her mouth/throat due to what looked like scar tissue from a really bad infection.

The hardest part had to be seeing our baby being wheeled back to us on the gurney. The look in her eyes was just terrified and she couldn't talk at all. We immediately put her in my lap and she just laid with me for awhile. The first hour to two hours after surgery was by far the worst. She had so much phlegm and blood in her mouth from the surgery and she couldn't swallow it so we had a lot of gagging and spitting up going on which obviously caused a lot of pain for her. Plus it seemed to take awhile for the pain meds to kick in. She slept some in between spitting up due to the anesthesia still wearing off. We slowly got some fluids in her and by 2:30/3:00 we were discharged (surgery was at 11:00). She was 100% better from what she was earlier by the time we got her home and she has continued to improve. We continue to keep a steady flow of painkillers in her and that seems to help keep the worst of the pain away. We woke her up periodically through the night to give her meds and make her drink and she did well with that. Josh slept on the floor in her room which worked out well because she woke up choking on all the phlegm a few times. She can talk hoarsely a little already and is slowly adding to her diet. She's loving all the popsicles and ice cream though :) Oh and all the movies! She's getting to do all kinds of things that mom and dad typically don't allow, but she deserves to be spoiled! She has been so brave and so good through this entire process! We couldn't be more proud of her! Thank you God for watching out for our little girl!

Our brave little girl prior to surgery showing off her hospital pajamas.


I know this picture is blurry but it's the only one we have like this (I forgot the camera so Josh had to use his phone). Here is Makenna on the gurney getting wheeled back into the operating room. She was all smiles and mom and dad were choking back tears. Luckily I held them in until she was out of sight and then I lost it.


Recovering with mom after the surgery. She did so well. We are so proud of you Makenna! Mommy and Daddy are in awe of what a strong little girl you are!

Play Time With Daddy

Play time with Daddy always starts off so sweet and innocent...


"I kind of like that when you do that Daddy.. it makes me smile :)"


"Okay, seriously! What's this guy doing to me?!"



"Mommy!!!!! Help!!!!!"

Maya - 2 Months Old

All About Maya Grace at 2 months old....



Nicknames: There are a ton... Maya Baya, Maya My, Maya Saya, Myna, Maya Mae, Baby Blue Eyes
Weight & Length: We'll find out tomorrow at her appointment... I'm going to guess that she's 85% and up for everything
Hair: A decent amount of dark brown hair all over minus the bald spot on the back of her head
Favorite food: She doesn't get any options so it has to be breastmilk, but she sure does seem to enjoy that! She currently eats approximately 5 - 6 times per day for about 15 - 20 minutes each time.
Favorite toys: A white bunny that she got for Easter, crab rattle, her play mat, and swing. But mostly she just enjoys having other people interact with her and smile at her.
Favorite stuffed animal: the white bunny from Papa and Nana
Bedtime: typically any time between 9:00 and 11:00 pm
Wake-up time: typically any time between 6:00 and 8:00 am
Naps: She likes to take a long nap about an hour after she wakes up in the morning. She also usually takes another longer nap (2 - 3) hours in the afternoon and another shorter nap in the evening.
Favorite person: By default it has to be me since I'm her food supply :)
Latest Accomplishment: SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! She has slept through the night 4 out of the past 6 nights. And on the nights that she didn't sleep all the way until morning she still slept for at least 6 - 7 hour stretches before getting up to eat. What a good baby! Maya has also started moving more lately... she can push off with her heels and arch her back to the point that she propels herself sideways and backwards. She turned in a complete circle on her playmat the other day and yesterday morning I found her all the way at the top of her crib with her head smashed against the sides.
Likes: baths, smiling and having people smile at her, being worn in mommy's sling when she's sleepy, car rides (she typically falls asleep within minutes of the car moving), and being swaddled,
Dislikes: getting put in her car seat, bottles, pacifiers
What gets said about Maya most often: that she looks just like Josh and her sisters, what beautiful blue eyes she has, how big she is for her age, and what a good, content baby she is

Maya you are such a joy and we have enjoyed every moment with you over the past 2 months. You are such a sweet, beautiful baby with an easygoing, pleasant disposition. We couldn't be more blessed. If you look up the definition of "easy baby" in the dictionary it would probably have a picture of you ;) Nothing lights up our world more than seeing you smile :) What a blessing you are to our family and we can't wait to see what God has planned for you! We love you so much!

Just In Case You Forgot My Name...

Just in case you forgot her name, Maya has this adorable hat she can wear :) She also has a matching onesie with her name on it. It was a very thoughtful gift from one of the insurance companies that Josh does a lot of business with.

And I am very excited to announce that MAYA SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT LAST NIGHT!!! Whoo-Hoo!!! Yeah!!! I feel like a new woman! She fell asleep between 10:30/11:00 and I woke up in a panic this morning at 6:30 when I realized that I hadn't heard from her all night. I ran into her room and there she was still sleeping but making sucking noises in her sleep. She was getting hungry and was starting to wake herself up. I'm smart enough to realize it might be a one time thing for awhile, but I'll take it for now! Way to go Maya!

Easter 2009

We had a wonderful Easter this year! Saturday was a crazy busy day for us. We had Addie's birthday party, an egg hunt at Papa and Nana's, and then dinner and deck fishing at Poppy and Peepie's! We were all exhausted by the time we got home that night. Sunday morning we enjoyed Easter bunny activities with the girls and then enjoyed celebrating our risen Lord at our own church! Sunday afternoon consisted of working outside with the girls' new gardening gear, watching a triathlon on TV, an awesome grilled dinner and lots of relaxing and playing. We definitely needed a laidback Sunday after our busy Saturday.


I think Makenna found 90% of the eggs... take a look at her basket compared to Maryn's.


The girls' Easter baskets... we went with a gardening theme this year because the girls LOVE to work in the yard and get dirty with daddy! Maryn just couldn't understand though why Maya didn't get boots. She kept asking "Where Maya's boots?!" Maya got some bibs and sandals instead.


Trying on their new boots.






Happy 1st Easter Maya! She sat contentedly in her bouncy seat the entire time the girls were hunting for eggs.


I LOVE this picture! It looks like she belongs in the movie "The Worst Christmas Pageant Ever" just make it Easter instead.


Doesn't Makenna look so grown-up? Just lately she has been looking older and older.


Baby blue eyes... this dress totally brought out Maya's gorgeous blue eyes.


Finally a picture with me and my baby where I actually have make-up on! Too bad Maya's starting to cry.


All the Budke girls


Oh so sweet! I typically don't think Makenna looks a thing like me, but I think there is a striking resemblance between Makenna and me as a little girl in this picture. Just picture her with darker hair.


This is probably one of my all-time favorites!


Makenna and Maryn showing off their bunny masks from Poppy and Peepie.

Sleepy Baby

For the most part Maya is a very good sleeper. I think Josh would disagree with me (he thinks she should be sleeping 12 hour nights by now ;) but given her age she is doing very well. The past few nights she's been sleeping for 5 - 6 hour stretches and we even had one 7 hour stretch last weekend. The part that's hard for us is that she starts her day at a typical baby time (usually somewhere around 6:00 am) and we were used to Makenna and Maryn always sleeping until 8 am! She typically takes 2 longer naps each day with a bunch of cat naps as well. Sometimes she gets in such a deep sleep that it seems like there is nothing we can do to wake her up... the girls can be as noisy as they want to be and she will snore through the whole thing! One notable difference between Maya and the other two girls is that Maya will almost always fall asleep on car rides. She hates being buckled in the seat but almost as soon as you start driving she will nod off. She's actually still napping in her car seat right now as I type this. It seems so snuggly and warm in there I just hate to take her out! I also finally broke down and put her in her crib in her own room two nights ago. I was hesitant to take her out of our room for the night... that just made her seem too old. I knew she would do fine since she loves to nap in her crib but it was still a hard adjustment (for mommy that is!). Honestly, as long as she is swaddled I think she's content to sleep anywhere :)


All of these pictures below are times in the past week when she was in such a super deep sleep that I couldn't wake her up to eat during the day. So I decided to get out the camera to see if the flash would wake her up but as you can tell I had little luck. Josh discovered that blowing gently on her face seems to work best.

Grandma's 90th Birthday

A few weeks ago we celebrated my Grandma Boutott's 90th birthday. My mom and dad have been working hard to pull this off and I think they did a great job! All your months of planning paid off! We had a pretty good turn out... I believe we were only missing four people. It was fun to see everyone's kids! There were five kids (great grandkids) that were new additions to the group since the last time we got together!


The entire Boutott crew! Boy how we have grow over the years! I'm not going to list everyone by name because that would take too long... but Makenna's in the front row in pink, Maryn's in the second row in yellow, my mom, Josh (holding Maya), Jeanne and I are all kind of clumped together on the right side of the third row, JT is holding Eden in the far back (kind of center right) and my dad is on the left in the back.


Happy Birthday Gram!


Our immediate family at the party! Poor Eden was not too happy about having her picture taken (actually I think she wanted to play with the camera if I remember correctly...)

BIG Girl!

Maya is getting to be so big! I look at other babies and they seem little compared to her and she's only 6 weeks old! Look at my big girl hanging out with Daddy and holding her head up!!!

Makenna & Maya

These pictures were just too cute not to post! Look at how proud Makenna is! And can you believe that Maya can actually sleep like that?! Maya looks just absolutely huge in these pictures!! What happened to my itty-bitty newborn?! Thanks for the cute outfit Aunt Shelly!

Tummy Time

We continue working on tummy time with Maya. Granted it is not her favorite time of the day, but she'll typically put up with it for at least a little while before she starts to fuss. She has had a very strong neck since birth but I definitely think she's holding her head up even more and more steadily since we've been doing tummy time.

Big girl!


Look at me hold my head up so high!


Sucking on the boppy pillow!

Thankful

We have been overwhelmed and humbled by all the acts of kindness from our friends and family since Maya's birth. So many offers to baby-sit the older girls, drive Makenna to preschool, pick Makenna up from preschool, take her to Wednesday night church, come over so I can take a nap, take time away from work and family to come help us out, and of course the endless amount of food we have had prepared for us. Unbelievably we've recieved 14 meals from friends and I was surprised when yet another friend told me today that she was bringing us dinner on Monday. And then you throw in all the wonderful meals our families have prepared for us and it's almost overwhelming to think about. Add in the leftovers and I seriously don't think I had to cook a dinner for the first 4 weeks of Maya's life. It was an absolute blessing. There were so many nights when making dinner wasn't even a possiblity given the chaos of our house, but on nights when I might have had a free moment it was great to spend that time with the two older girls instead.

You'd think since this is our third child that we would be used to this by now, but I can honestly say we've never experienced generosity like this in our lives. We have formed such amazing relationships in the short time that we have lived in Marion. It is obvious that this is where God wants us to be and we are so thankful. Josh has been telling me over and over how blessed I am to have so many amazing friends and he is right. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU! You have no idea how much all of your meals and kind offers meant to us. We feel completely blessed and just hope that we can be a blessing to you in return.