Fixing the washer

I have a love-hate relationship with aquaphor.

I love that it makes Wyatt all hydration-y

I hate that it coats all of his clothes

It really does work wonders for Wyatts skin

But it's impossible to get out of clothes

Wyatt is a much happier boy with a fresh coat of aquaphor

It's destroying my washing machine.

Because of the obvious benefits aquaphor provides I know it will be a part of my life until the day Wyatt moves out of the house... but even then it won't really go away because I'm sure he'll want to visit his favorite mother all the time.

So to get to the point... aquaphor is destroying my washing machine.

When I turn it on it's all rattley, and then when it gets the the spin cycle... psshhh, it sounds like a freaking freight train is going through my house.  I'm surprised the thing hasn't rattled itself to pieces yet!  So I went to my trusty advisor, GOOGLE, for help.  I checked out a bunch of different help blogs and a few you tube videos and decided that the bearings were bad.  With Jareds help we pulled up the user manual for our washer to get the item number and couldn't find it anywhere, figures.  So we called sears for help and wouldn't you know it, they don't sell the bearings separately.  You have to buy the whole friggen outer tub.  What?!  No thank you, I DON'T want to spend $350!  eBay it is.  Oh eBay, you have yet to let me down!  We were able to find and purchase the part for less than $100, so we also purchased a new water valve and boot {water valve was dripping and the boot was all saggy and gross from all the aquaphor} All the parts we needed were around $150.  Not too shabby!  Definitely worth attempting to fix it on our own!

Yesterday was the day Jared decided to tackle the project.

 New part vs. old part... covered in aquaphor lol

 new bearing vs. old bearing

 Jared tried scrubbing the aquaphor off of the drum with a brush and degreaser to no avail.  He had to take a pressure washer to it!

 Even the pressure washer couldn't get it all

 Installing the new bearing

 Putting it all back together

 This is how all the professionals put their stuff back together right? :)

 All back in place after only 5 hours!

I'm so happy to have my washer back!  And guess what?  No freight train anymore!  I'm thrilled that with my diagnosis and Jared's handiness we were able to fix and clean the washing machine all by ourselves {ahem, and the internet!}

To have a tech come out and do this same project we would have had to put out around $1300 between parts and labor {based on the pricing I did} So we saved around $1150 by doing it all on our own!

I'm definitely feeling pretty proud of Jared right now!  Even my dad said he was impressed :)

Learning to stand

This last week our main focus with Wyatt has been helping him build the confidence to stand on his own.  He's gone from immediately falling over, to standing for a few seconds all on his own.

We're so proud of him!

I feel like the timing of Wyatt's helmet couldn't have been better.  Often, when kids with ichthyosis learn to crawl, then walk, as with other children they fall down.  A lot.  The difference with ichthyosis kids is, each fall can result in some pretty bad damage.  A blister on their feet or a chunk of skin missing on their head when they clipped the table or ran into the door-jamb... luckily Wyatt's helmet is not only helping to shape his head, it's helping protect him from his falls :)

We're soooo close to having a walker I can hardly stand it!

I got kicked out of Wyatt's therapy

Wyatts therapists have decided that he is too attached to me.  For example, last week when his PT walked in the door, he crawled behind me, stood up, and peeked around and gave her this look that said, "You'll have to go through my MOM to get to me!"  So... My presence is now a distraction and they want to work on getting him less attached.  Thus I got kicked out.  They're in my living room working with Wyatt and I get 50 minutes of free time!  

Woohoo!!!  

Now I just have to decide what to do with these 50 golden minutes...

I could give myself a pedicure

I could lay out {yeah right}

I could... oh who am I kidding?

It means I have time to clean my office.

Teething & the park

Wyatt is getting his 4th molar in right now and is going through some serious teething pains.  These molars have been harder for him than any of his other teeth.

I never had my wisdom teeth removed and a couple of them came in a few years ago.  HOLY CRAP IT HURT!  I really feel for these little guys!  I can't imagine having that happen over and over and over for months on end.  But I really feel bad for kids with EHK.  When Wyatt teethes it stresses out his body and he gets blisters all over.  Pain inside and out.  The past 2 weeks he's been waking up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night dealing with itchy skin and now we get to add teething and blisters to the list.  This isn't any fun for him

On a fun note...

Yesterday was Wyatt weather!!!  70 degrees and overcast until noon!  We celebrated by going to the park.  It's been so hot out the past few months that we haven't had any outdoor excursions so we were both very relieved to get a break from our house prison.

This was Wyatts first time at the park.  I plopped him in the stroller and walked the 3/4 mile to get there.  Wyatt was practically in a trans with all of the activity around him.  He loves walks :)

When we got there I discovered that our park doesn't have any swings.  Lame!  What park doesn't have swings?  So he slid down the slid {with some help from me} over and over and over.  And then he stood at the bottom of it and hit it for like 5 minutes.  It made a different sound than all of the other things that he's hit before so of course it was entertaining.  I'm glad he's easily amused!

Hopefully this heat goes away for good soon so we can have lots more outdoor adventures!

Close to walking!

Wyatt has been cruising and crawling EVERYWHERE lately and it has been wonderful!  I love his independence!  Yesterday he started pushing his activity table away from the couch.  I thought he was just being lazy and pushing it our of his way because he didn't want to walk around it.  But then he started doing this!

My little boy is getting SO close to walking on his own!  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!  I expect he'll be walking within 2-4 weeks WHICH MEANS he'll be walking by Halloween!  People won't look at me like a complete freak when I roll up with a stroller bc my big boy is going to walk to the doors this year!  :)  Eek!

I'm a runner

Sooooo... this is how my weight has gone for the last 7 years.

I looked fabulous for my wedding.  Then I got married and gained a couple lbs.  Then I started a new job.  I was a receptionist.  Sat on my butt all day.  Gained more weight.  Got promoted to the business office.  Even more sitting and now add stress.  Gained more weight.  Decided I hated how I looked.  Lost some weight.  We decided we wanted to have kids.  Lost a few more lbs.  Found out we had to do IVF.  Gained, lost, gained, then finally lost a lot.  First appt. with IVF dr.  Gained weight.  Got pregnant, yay!  Finally gaining isn't a bad thing!  Gained, gained, gained.  Had baby.  Lost like lightening.  Pumped milk for Wyatt.  Lost even more.  This pumping thing isn't too bad!  Got down to wedding weight.  Pump breaks and I stop pumping.  GAIN GAIN GAIN GAIN...  yikes!  Where's the stop button?!  What do you mean I have to eat differently?

This is when I decided to do something about my weight for good.

I trained for and ran the Orange County Marathon for our fundraiser.

Then I started a diet called Ideal Protein and I started running some more.  Not a lot at first, but something.  Over the next 10 weeks I lost 25 lbs and 7 inches on my waist.  I went from a very tight 10 to a 2. :)  I can't remember the last time I felt this good!

I run my next half marathon, the Long Beach half, in 3 weeks and will finish the Beach series with the Huntington Beach half in February.

I run about 5x/week and am proud to be able to call myself a runner again.

This was me before getting healthy

{I used this very picture as motivation to not cheat}

and this is me now!

It's nice to be able to look in the mirror and actually feel good about myself again :)

Follow up with the IVF Dr.

Mid July Jared and I decided to have our follow up appt with our IVF dr.  The purpose of this appt was to discuss how my pregnancy with Wyatt went, for the good dr. to be able to meet Wyatt, and to touch on what he expects for the next pregnancy.

Before we went to the appt. Jared and I discussed what we wanted for this next pregnancy.  We decided that we wanted to try for twins again.  I know... the idea of trying for twins again freaked me out.  We didn't know if our dr. would even agree to it because, bottom line, it might be too dangerous, but we wanted to at least try.

So we get there to meet with Dr. Wilcox and when he came in the room he actually remembered me!  I guess I shouldn't be surprised because he did see me 2-3x per week for 2 months straight and I can't imagine IVF dr.'s have tons and tons of patients... but still, I was impressed. :)  We told him about my catastrophe of a pregnancy and gave him the low down about what is going on with Wyatt. 

Then I got to what I really wanted to know.  What should I expect for my next pregnancy???  I told him that we wanted to try for twins again and before I had even finished the sentence the expression on his face told me what his answer was going to be.  Not going to happen.  He told me that it's his job to not only get me pregnant, but to get me pregnant in a way that I can have a full term pregnancy.  With how everything went with my first pregnancy he doesn't think my body is built to handle twins and that something similar would happen, or I would lose both babies. 

He wants to transfer one embryo at a time.

The thought of only transferring one embryo at a time is a little disheartening.  In my mind it means it'll take 2 or 3 transfers before we're successful.  The embryos that I have left are lower quality and because they're frozen they have a slightly lower chance of growing.  And I've kind of decided that I don't want to have to do full blown IVF again, so I'm hoping to be able to get at least 2 more babies out of the 6 embryos that we have left.  I guess we'll see what happens!

Anyway, we're looking to start our frozen embryo cycle in February.  I'll go in one month before and we'll figure out exactly what our game plan will be and get everything on the calendar.

Not gonna lie though... the idea of having 2 kids under 3 freaks me out a little bit...

Fundraiser results

EMBARRASSING!!! I just realized that I never published the post with the results of our fundraiser back in May. So here it is!

I would just like to say that I think our first FIRST Fundraiser was a complete success :)

I want to thank every one of you that chose to participate with us this year!  Your support means so much to not only my family, but to all those affected by Ichthyosis. 

I'm excited to share that we raised a total of $2210!

Thanks again everyone! :)

Summer at the Barney's

We had a very busy and very fun summer here at the Barney household! :)

{hence my lack of blogging, my bad!}

We went to a graduation, had a family reunion, and went to Missouri to see my side of the family and lots of other smaller things.

Wyatt is growing up a lot and we have grown closer as a family.

 Fathers Day

at the beach

at daddies softball game

 getting in the tub at Grandma and Grandpa Pope's house

hanging out in the grass

 hugs in the backyard

So to sum up Wyatt's big milestones for the last few months...

On 6/28 Wyatt said his very first word, "kitty".  And then he didn't say it again forever, but he definitely knows what a kitty is.  He knows mama and dada and tries to imitate a lot of the words that we say to him.  He understands sit down and come here and on 8/25 he started to wave 'hi' and 'bye'.
 Wyatt is still in 3 different therapies a week {PT, OT, and infant teachers}, with one on hold {aquatic} for the next month because it is SO hot outside.  I'm grateful for the programs that are available to help him because, drum roll please, as of 5 weeks ago he started cruising, and a few weeks ago he started bear crawling!  I have a crawler now!  All this kid wants to do is stand though so I'm pretty sure he'll be walking within the next month.  He just has to get his balancing act down.  :) As grateful as I am for the therapies, I'm so ready to be done with them!  I'm anxious for Wyatt to be all caught up.
Bear Crawling!

Driving daddies car

 Cruising like he owns the place

Shortly after Wyatt started cruising he FINALLY started rolling onto his tummy.  I know he's known how to do it for forever, he's just stubborn like his momma and has to be motivated enough to do it, haha.

My little guy has eleven teeth now.  The 4 in front on top and bottom, plus the 2 upper molars and one bottom molar.  I expect the other bottom molar to break through any day now.  I try to keep my fingers far away from those things, baby teeth are sharp! {kudos to all you mommas that are still bf'ing with those little daggers in}

As you can see from the pictures above, Wyatt has a helmet.  His head is SO flat!  Something that is very common for preemies.  I put off the helmet as long as I could because I was afraid at how it was going to affect his skin.  Fortunately, we haven't had much of a problem with it.  He keeps it on very well and after 5 weeks of wearing it, I can see a difference.  Fingers crossed he'll only have to be in it for 3 more months!

Wyatt recently had his bi-annual high risk infant appt.  At this appt he's given the Bailey test to see where he is at developmentally.  This is how he scored;
Cognitive - low age appropriate - 11 months
Receptive communication - mild delay - 9 months
Fine motor - low age appropriate - 10 months
Gross motor - mild delay - 10 months

About a week later, his OT assessed him at home and these were her results;
Cognitive - 14 months
Fine motor - 12 months
Gross motor - 10 moths
Adaptive - 14 months
Social-Emotional - 10 months

It was explained to me that Wyatt's better scores with his OT were due to the fact that the test was done in a familiar environment and he was cooperative so he 'tested better'.  See, this is how the scoring on this test works.  Say the therapist puts something on the ground so that they can observe if the baby can pick it up.  If the baby won't pick up the object, even if it's something they do all the time at home, the therapist has to mark that the baby is unable to perform that task.  Personally, I think it's kind of dumb because to me it means the test scores aren't really accurate, but whatever.

So Wyatt is almost caught up to his adjusted age on just about everything but gross motor skills and communication.  He'll be assessed in November to see if he can start speech therapy.

Bath time is still a favorite around these parts.  I've started doing saltwater baths and oatmeal baths in addition to bleach baths.  Wyatt's in the water anywhere from 45-60 minutes each day and he loves it.  I think he would live in the tub if he could :)

 the picture below was his first oatmeal bath.  He had been going crazy with itch all day and was SO happy to finally feel better!

Wyatts skin is looking pretty good these days.  He has his good days and his bad.  Times where he blisters more {like when he's teething} and times where you can't even tell he has a condition until you get up close to him.  I'm happy to say that I'm about 85% confident in taking care of him now... sometimes when he's uncomfortable I only think about skin issues and forget about the things all babies deal with, like ear infections, so I still need to work on that!
This is how his feet have looked lately.

 Wyatt being silly

 he loves his daddy so much!

I will update more tomorrow, it's late!  But if I don't post this now, I'm afraid it will sit as a draft for forever! :/ That's just how my brain has worked {or not worked} lately haha ta ta for now!