The rare occasions when your new baby sleeps more than 7 hours straight during the night can feel like the dawning of a new era.

Jude slept from 9:30 PM to 6:30 AM this morning!!! Unbelievable.  She didn't fuss once during the night. I went to bed at 11:00 so I got 7 1/2 hours of sleep and then a shower this morning, I feel like a new person :)

It really is amazing how much our bodies need consistent sleep. It's sooooo good for you.  Now the quest continues to make it continue.

As Jude starts to get the hang of this sleep thing, we're in the midst of scheduling her first surgery.

We went back to Shriners hospital in St. Louis last week and she had more x-rays done on both arms.  The left arm, which didn't grow an elbow, an ulna or a full hand and fingers, basically is what it is.  There are no surgeries to be done right now.  Nothing in the immediate future.  Although I have high hopes that by the time Jude reaches adulthood, bone transplants using a patient's own stem cells will be commonplace and something can be done on her left arm.

Jude's right arm, which by appearances looks completely fine, won't bend or straighten.  It's locked at about a 115 degree angle. The x-rays confirm her radius is fused to the humerus on her right arm.  No elbow joint was created there.  There is space between the ulna and the humerus.

Doctor Charles Goldfarb at Shriners said he could perform a surgery to try to seperate the two bones.  He would separate the radius from the humerus using a small chisel and then put fascia in the middle of them hoping it will act as a connective tissue or fake cartilage.  Dr. Goldfarb was very honest with us.  He said he's done the surgery twice and it has failed both times.  Failed in the sense that the bones refused back together after they were separated on the other two patients.  The odds aren't good, but we have to take them.  It's essentially breaking a bone and then moving it dozens of times a day in physical therapy to keep the bones separate.  As you can imagine that's going to come with a lot of pain and if I think about it too much, I almost feel like passing out. 

The mere thought of my baby girl with her sweet smile, going through so much pain breaks my heart.  I know she won't remember it, but I'm still fearing it. They will give her pain medication and if we can be successful in keeping the bones separate, we're talking about giving her the ability to have an elbow.  It could mean the difference between Jude being able to feed herself and do everything else around her head and face for the rest of her life or not.  We have to try.

All the prayers everyone's been sending our way will help, I'm sure.  I am positive we can make this happen and I can feel myself gearing up to go into battle for my daughter's arm.  The surgery is not until the end of July, so we have time to think lots of good thoughts and go into this with the right attitude.  Anyone who's had surgery on their baby can probably lend me a little perspective on this ... I would definitely appreciate it!

We hope to have some good news next week after our second appointment with Jude at Shriners Hospital

Meet me in St. Louis. That's where we're heading next week for our second appointment at Shriners.  It will be the first time Jude has had xrays taken since the day she was born.  I have high hopes of some good news about her right arm, which won't bend or straighten.  Maybe they can do something to help it.

In the meantime, check out this story about the group that grew a man's jawbone in his back.  It's amazing.  These researchers in Europe are actually growing body parts using a patients own stem cells.  There's some debate about whether the bone was grown from stem cells or from growth promoting agents the doctors added, but I have high hopes that in the years to come, this will be something Jude can benefit from:

A GROUP OF DOCTORS AND RESEARCHERS IN EUROPE MAKE UP THE MY JOINT PROJECT.  THEY APPEAR TO BE ON THE VERGE OF SOMETHING REVOLUTIONARY.  GROWING YOUR OWN REPLACEMENT PARTS FOR YOUR BODY.

THEY ARE THE SAME GROUP THAT WAS FIRST TO GROW A NEW JAW BONE IN THE BACK OF A CANCER PATIENT AFTER HIS OWN HAD BEEN SURGICALLY REMOVED.  THE TECHNOLOGY USES A PATIENTS OWN CELLS TO GROW THE PART INSIDE THE PATIENTS BODY SO IT WON'T BE REJECTED.  COMPUTER MODELING AND SCAFFOLDING HELPS THE BONE FORM CORRECTLY. GROWTH PROMOTING AGENTS ALONG WITH THE PATIENTS OWN STEM CELLS ARE IMPLANTED AS WELL.  THE JAWBONE WAS THEN TRANSPLANTED BACK TO THE MAN'S FACE AND ATTACHED.   

THE GROUP IS NOW WORKING TO GROW A FINGER JOINT AND EVENTUALLY THE RESEARCH MAY ULTIMATELY BE USED TO GROW MORE COMPLEX ORGANS. YOU CAN IMAGINE THE WIDESWEEPING IMPLICATIONS THIS PROJECT HAS AS IT COULD ALLOW US TO SOMEDAY GROW OUR OWN BODY PARTS TO FIX OURSELVES.

The mind of a 2 year old is a wonderfully, imaginative thing.

When you make the decision to have kids you have made your own bed, now you must lie in it.  Or in some cases, never lie in it.

We are doing the typical night wakings with Jude, our 4 month old.  She's gotten to the point where we're up about once or twice a night.  Reswaddling her or putting the pacifier in to settle her back into sleep.  Pretty normal, I think.

Joey, our 2 1/2 year old, though has become somewhat perplexing.  The other night, he woke in the middle of the night crying (around 3:00 am).  Joe went into his room and he said "something's in my bed"  Sure enough Joe felt around and three of Joey's plastic dinosaurs that he had placed there earlier in the day were rattling around at the foot of his bed making noise. Joe removed the dinosaurs, showed them to Joey and tried to cover him back up to go back to sleep ... no dice.  The tears started and Joey's next comment was "Swiper's in my bed"

For all of you non-Dora the Explorer watchers, Swiper is Dora's nemesis, a sly Fox that likes to swipe all the items Dora and her friends hold dear.  They are often able to thwart Swiper by saying "Swiper no Swiping"   

Joey watches Dora, periodically.  He's really gotten out of that phase over the last few months as Elmo and Sesame Street have taken over as the favorite.  So where Swiper came from, I'll never know.  But he was convinced Swiper was in his bed and would not lie back in his bed until Joe removed all the blankets and got a new blanket out of the closet.  Joey went back to sleep with his new blanket.

But that was not the end of it.  Swiper made a re-appearance the next night when I was trying to put Joey to bed.  He went down around 9:30, but came running to his door, crying immediately after I had left the room.  He told me again Swiper was in his bed.  I knew the story from the night before so I removed all the blankets that had been put back that morning.  Got the other blankets out of the closet and resettled him.  I thought that was the end of it.  But he was back at his door crying 3 more times before I finally got him to go to sleep around 11:30.

Over a period of the last two weeks, Joey has been getting out of bed, crying at his door (there's a short gate there to keep him in), until we come to his room to  tuck him back into bed.  It happens at 10:00 at night, at Midnight, at 2:00 & 3:00 am and sometimes at 5:00 in the morning.  No time is off limits in the mind of a 2-year old. I know some parents would say (including myself), let him cry, he'll go back to bed on his own.  At 2 1/2 I believe he will.  He's old enough to calm himself and I don't want to set a bad precedent where he thinks he can cry at the door and Mom or Dad will come every time.  Then none of us will get any sleep. 

The problem is, his door is right across from his sister's door and when his crying or tantrum goes on long enough it wakes the baby, then we've got two crying kids on our hands.  I had this very scenario for 2 nights, when I decided it had to stop.  After three repeat appearances at his door, I put him back in his bed and held his door closed, there's no lock on it.  That really set him off into a tantrum. He tried to open the door, but I held it closed.  He went into a fit of crying and screaming saying "Open the door Mommy", "Open the door".  I started to cry myself, but I held firm, something had to give.  After about 10 minutes his crying subsided for a few minutes, then he would try the door again and I would hold it and the crying would start all over.  I felt like the worst Mom in the world.

Finally he did go to sleep.  Over the next few nights, he would be up crying because of various things, the train outside was screeching, an owl he saw in a book scared him or "skeletons in his closet".  That's a reference to an experience he had last Halloween, not some hidden innuendo to his past wrongs.

Joe and I did the calming thing many times and had to use the "hold the door" technique two more times, before the tide started to turn.  Now he comes to his door about once a night, usually right after I put him to bed, he cries for maybe 2 minutes and then closes the door and goes to sleep.

I feel like we're close to getting on track with both kids sleeping soon, but I've learned a very valuable lesson ... Even something as seemingly innocent as Dora can come back to bite you in the mind of a 2-year old.

I never thought I'd say this, but I wish my child could suck her thumb.

At the risk of being too much of a downer on this blog entry, I have to have an outlet for a few paragraphs.  I came to the realization this past week, that Jude's right arm, the arm we thought was going to be fine, just won't bend or straighten.  I thought it was bending a little bit, because it appeared she would be able to suck her thumb.  But as the bones grow longer, she can't get her thumb in her mouth. 

You can see in the picture I posted she's bending her hand back at the wrist trying to get her thumb in her mouth.  Her arm is locked in about a 45 degree angle.  Lock your elbow in a 45 degree angle and see if you can get your hand to your mouth, or your face, or your hair.  You can't.  It's breaking my heart because babies at this age explore everything with their mouths.  They use their hands to bring toys, clothes, stuffed animals up to their mouths to learn more about their environment.  They use it for comfort.  It just makes me mad at God all over again.

How am I supposed to think about this.  Am I supposed to try to look on the bright side and be positive that someday something will be done?  It seems futile to think that way. I have prayed about a thousand Hail Marys in the last 4 months, just hoping somehow a miracle will happen and both of Jude's arms will be healed while she's sleeping one night.  Is that faith or am I just living in a fantasy world?  I wrote to a doctor at Duke University Medical Center about the stem cell experiments growing bones and he said it's not being used for congenital bone malformations.  Basically it's being used to help with bone fractures, but not to grow entire bones.

It's ironic because I know parents who tried or are trying to break their kids of the thumbsucking habit or pacifier and I would give just about anything for my daughter to be able to suck her thumb successfully or raise the pacifier to her mouth in a few months. 

On the flip side, I want to tell you about a useful discovery I think I made with Joey.  He has been sucking his thumb since he was about 4 months old.  Always has done it.  Now at 2 years and 8 months old, the child just plain stopped.  Quit cold turkey.  He doesn't do it anymore at all.  A friend of mine asked how I got him to stop and I think the answer is I never brought it up.  I never made it an issue, it didn't worry me.  Since it wasn't an issue, I think he just dropped it on his own.  Now let's see if that approach works for potty training :)

The topic on many parenting websites. When will she sleep through the night?

Jude for some reason has regressed on her sleep.  When she was about 1 1/2 months old she started to do 5 to 6 hour stretches. 

In the last 2 months.... no dice.  Waking up every 3 hours is more the norm.  Last night she and I were up from 1:30 - 4:30.  She'd sleep for about a half hour at a time, then wake up.  I gave her the pacifier to calm her down.  She'd go right back to sleep.  But the pacifier would fall out and then she'd be up.

I know what you're thinking, don't give her the pacifier.  But then she won't go to sleep at all.

Swaddling is the biggest question on my mind.  When Jude is swaddled she's more secure and she sleeps longer, that's when I get those 3 hour stretches.  Once her arms comes out of the swaddle, she's up.  But some nights she's up even if her arms don't come out of the swaddle.  She fusses like she doesn't want to be swaddled, but then she won't stay asleep unless she is swaddled - what to do?

She was at the doctor last week and she's been on medicine for an ear infection for about a week now, so I'm assuming the ears are feeling better, if they were the cause of the wakeup.  But the waking up has been going on for a long time, longer than her ear infection, so I don't think that's the cause.

We started some single-grain oatmeal mixed in with breast milk last week and she likes it!  She's eating a bit. I thought it would help, but it's not.

I have a sleep positioner around her middle to hold her in place in the crib.  I've tried not swaddling the arms and keeping her in the middle of the positioner and that didn't work great either.

I feel like I've tried every combination of sleeping option possible with the child. Does anyone have any new ideas?  I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to let her cry it out.  I need to get her back to those 5 to 6 hour stretches.

PS. If Joe and I are holding her and rocking she will sleep all night, of course :)