My Life as a Mama with CF

Hi Everyone! Sorry it's been a while since I posted last, but it's been quite a busy week, as I'm sure it has been for you as well! Here are some pictures to catch you up on our Christmas season thus far: On the last Sunday of Advent Adam set up our Christmas tree so that it would be all ready to decorate on Christmas Eve! Adam and Alida enjoying an apple snack after all the hard work of setting up the tree :) We went to the Grotto on the last Sunday of Advent as well. It's a retreat center in East Portland dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. Every year the Grotto is decorated with TONS of lights and they have choirs sing, puppet shows, a petting zoo, and of course, food. Here Adam and Alida are in the petting zoo area. I tried to get a picture of them with the goats, but the goats were too busy chasing the other kids who had food! Alida had a lot of fun looking at the lights and seeing the baby Jesus in the life sized Nativity scene.  Here is our littl...

Hi everyone! Only 6 days till Christmas, boy how time flies! Alida discovered that she could scream yesterday, she definitely likes to use those lungs! We've been able to enjoy the sunshine in the cool crisp air outside, which has been great, and now that we are all feeling well we are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Here are the pictures of Alida's new hearing aid mold as well as some attempts at taking a Christmas picture... It's purple with sparkles :) Love, The Librande Family

Hi all! We had quite the stomach bug go around our house this weekend. We were all geared up to go to the Advent Festival at church Saturday night, when Alida lost her cookies about 30 min before we planned on leaving, which was good, because I would much rather clean her up at home then in the car or at church! Needless to say she was sick all through the night, but by morning seemed to be feeling a little bit better. By Sunday night she was back to her normal self! Then came Adam's turn to share in the stomach bug delight! He stayed home from work on Monday....and my poor mother, who watched Alida for an hour on Sunday while Adam went to Mass and I was off enjoying myself at the Nutcracker (I know, what a day to go out, right?), well, mom stayed home from work today after being up all night with this very unwelcome stomach bug! For whatever reason I have been able to avoid the sickness, and I feel like it would've caught up to me by now, so I am certainly counting my blessing...

Happy feast day of the Immaculate Conception! Isn't Mary awesome? It turns out that Adam's final, which he thought was today, is actually on Wednesday, so we were all able to go to Mass together this morning, which I was so thankful for! Alida got a new ear mold for her hearing aid today, which is purple with sparkles :) I don't have a picture of it for you today (the camera battery is dead :( ) but have no fear, I will post one up ASAP! My Grandma and Grandpa Hodsdon brought us dinner today, which was so great! Anything to make life easier is a huge blessing, not to mention that it was delicious (and there's enough for left overs tomorrow!). Here are some pictures of Alida having fun with her GIANT lion from Aunt T, as well as some pictures from the hospital last weekend. Trust me, we all love cuddling with that lion! Alida's favorite things about the hospital: lots of plastic cups with straws to drink from and play with, small cupboards to open and hide...

Hi Everyone! Today was a pretty quite day in the Librande household. My sister stopped by to help me out with Alida (which was great because I was up most of the night with IV trouble, which is all resolved!) and I was able to get in a much needed nap! Alida is certainly becoming an independent little girl, which includes learning how to take her clothes off all on her own. I caught a video of her taking off her pajamas while in the highchair. I was doing dishes at the time, then turned around to find her with her clothes half off....she definitely enjoys the freedom of no clothes! Love, The Librande Family

Hi everyone! I hope that you are all doing well and making the most of this beautiful Advent Season! I was able to come home today from the hospital, which is a HUGE blessing! Thank you all for your prayers! Adam and Alida survived the weekend on their own (with the help of my parents :) and the house even looked like it had been tidied up! I'm starting to feel better, but still have about a week and half of IV meds to finish up at home. Baby Giovanni is doing well, we had an ultrasound yesterday and he's right on track where he should be! Alida had a lot of fun with her daddy and grandma over these past 5 days, and from what I hear, she slept well, ate well, and didn't even get into too much trouble! Adam is ready for his last lab class and quiz tomorrow and gearing up for his final exam on Monday! Here are a few pictures of Alida from last week or so.... :) Alida and her Aunt Kendra snuggling down on a cold day. Alida loves that Winnie the Pooh book! On this da...

Hi everyone! Hope that all is well :) I'm sure that everyone is busy preparing for the holiday, or maybe even relaxing with some extra time off! I had a CF appointment today, and it looks like my lung function is lower than normal, so I'll be going in Friday for some IV antibiotics. Luckily, the ones that they will be putting me on don't require a picc line, but rather a mid-line, which is like a picc, but only half the length or so, so it should hopefully be easier to place! We're going to try a new antibiotic which seems to have some effect on MRSA, and is only a category B drug in regards to pregnancy, which is basically the safest category that they can classify a drug in, so I am definitely happy about that as well! Like I said, I will be going in on Friday and staying till Tuesday (as long as everything goes as planned), so please keep Adam and Alida in your prayers, as they will be on their own for about 5 days!!! Alida really enjoys helping me with the laundry...

Hi everyone! Happy Friday! We are certainly looking forward to the weekend! Adam doesn't have class next week, so we have a little more time to spend together as a family this weekend since he doesn't have a test/quiz this next week to study for. We have yet another family birthday party that we'll be going to, and Adam and I are going to have a date night, which we haven't had since Dawn of the Planet of the Apes came out in theaters (aka, it's been a while!). Alida has been growing and chaging everyday it seems! She has started to have a little bit of separation anxiety from mama, which has made it difficult to exercise at the gym (after 10 min of crying they page you to get your little one), but I'm hoping that this is just a short phase...otherwise she has been her goofy self, and has especially loved playing in her crib! Adam couldn't get her out of her crib this morning, she was having so much fun, so we set up the pack-n-play downstairs, which she see...

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend! We had a good time at family enrichment night with our parish and yesterday Alida and I went to my aunt's house to celebrate her birthday. Adam stayed home to study for his big test, which he took this morning. He thought that it went pretty well, so we'll see if all of his studying paid off! Alida took a tumble down the stairs today...and by tumble I mean she rolled down all 13 of our stairs and landed on her bottom when she finally hit the floor! Other than being scared, she was totally fine, thank God! Her guardian angel must have been guiding her down because she didn't have one mark on her, and she was totally her normal self all day, so no worries regarding internal injuries! I couldn't thank Jesus and her guardian angel enough!!! Other than that little heart stopper, we had a pretty relaxing day baking and cleaning and visiting with some friends and family this evening. Hope that you all had a great day! Here are a...

Hello everyone! Hope that all is well as winter is slowly approaching. We had some freezing rain yesterday which led to some fallen tree limbs and power outages, but the sun was out today and melted all of the ice, so winter isn't here quite yet! Adam had a bit of a blessing this morning. He went in to take his test this morning and after only 20 questions in, the computer shut down on him, which means that he has a couple more days to study until they get the computer situation fixed at the school! He was pretty happy about this because he had forgotten about this upcoming test until about 2 days ago, which didn't give him much time to study. Now he has the weekend to really put his nose to the grind stone! Alida had her 18 mo appt today, which went well, she's healthy with no concerns! Unfortunately she had to get the usual battery of vaccines, which she REALLY did not enjoy. When we got home she took a great nap though, and seemed to feel much better afterwards. I don...

Happy Veterans Day to all of our family members who have served our country and/or are currently serving our country! Thank you for all that you do/have done to help better our country and the people that live here. Adam had to work today, but my parents, sister, and brother-in-law had the day off, so Alida and I were able to enjoy some time with them this afternoon. Alida woke up with a bit of a stomach bug this morning, but seems to be feeling better, which we are so thankful for! We hope that everyone had a great day! This picture was taken in early October. We have a great apple tree in our backyard that grows 2 different kinds of apples! Alida found this apple on the ground and thought that she'd give it a try... She definitely enjoyed that apple, so I'd say it was a good pick! Alida learned how to climb up on our kitchen chairs in mid-October. I thought that pushing the chairs in under the table would be able to prevent her from climbing on them when ...

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! We hope that you all had a great weekend :) We didn't do too much, just enjoyed time with friends and family for the most part and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather that we've been having. Alida and I enjoyed a nice stroll around the parking lot and grassy areas of the church across the street, which offers the biggest outside running around/exploring area near our house, so Alida had a lot of fun! Adam has been studying and working hard, and definitely enjoying some time with his family :) As usual, we enjoyed tacos for dinner on this Taco Monday! Here are more pictures from the summer (we're getting closer to being up-to-date!). Playing with letter magnets on the fridge. Having fun climbing in the toy box! This picture needs no description... :) Playing dress up! Movie star in the making! So this is at our new home! Alida discoved this little cupboard in the kitchen and had a TON of fun climbing in and out and hiding...