All About Katelynn

I really can't believe that Katelynn is almost 4 years old already!  It seems like just yesterday we were trying to get pregnant with her and now here she is with a mind of her own... and really, she has a mind of her own.  She gets her stubborness and strong-will honestly from both her daddy and I. 

So what's she up to?  Well, besides getting ready to start preschool on September 1st, she is loving playing outside and having a blast.  For months now she is very, very adamant that she wears her hair down with a headband and that she wears dresses or skirts only.  I try several times a week to convince her to let me put her hair up or wear some of the 50 pairs of shorts or capris that she has, but I cannot convince her to change her style.  She has her mind set.  I wonder how long this will go on as it's been months already with no relief.  When it first started, I could convince her on rare days to wear braids at least but now she is strictly headbands.  Until a few weeks ago, she even insisted on wearing them to bed (the headbands), but it looked like she was losing some hair where her headband sat 24 hours a day so I set down a rule that they must be removed at bedtime.  She still complains about it, but she's following the rule at least.

Her favorite breakfast food is pancakes, which we eat almost daily and pizza is probably her favorite dinner (both hers and Justin's).  She LOVES eating out at restaurants and often requests to eat out versus eating at home.  It's a bad habit from Daddy traveling that I am trying to break (us eating out so much).  Katelynn loves reading books and playing dollhouse.  She has quite an imagination that is really showing itself more and more.  She often tells Justin and I that we are other names and gets upset when Justin isn't coming to her when she calls him by "Max" or "Rudy" or whichever name she has chosen for him at that moment.  Katelynn has her moments (especially with dropping naps), but for the most part she is soo much fun to be around!  I don't know how I'm going to handle being away from her four half days a week very, very soon!

 Some of you may remember that we had seen a urologist for Katelynn some time ago.  After being fully potty trained, she began having accidents back in November of 2009.  For a while, we chalked it off as just regressing in potty training, but when both the reward system and discipline failed to correct the problem and months had passed, I took her into the pediatrician.  She was diagnosed with a UTI at that point, put on antibotics, and the condition improved some.  It never went away though.  Even though she wasn't having full accidents, she would "drip" in her undies.  So after a few more months, we consulted a urologist.  Katelynn went through quite a bit of testing and the conclusion was that she has a few issues going on that have created this problem.  Her bladder is larger than normal and oval instead of circular.  Due to this, she has learned she can "hold" it longer.  Overtime, she has begun to hold it even when her bladder is completely full, causing the bladder and the muscle to fight against one another (and therefore causing some leaks).  Sadly, because of this a condition has started where her bladder has developed weak points that is pushing the urine towards the kidneys when it gets completely full and is not being emptied.  It has not gotten in the kidneys yet thankfully, but it's a pretty serious condition that needs correcting.  She is currently on a medication to help her feel the urge to go to the bathroom sooner, is on timed potty trips (every two hours) to try to retrain herself when to go, and is on an antibotic for the next year or two.  It's going to be a long process, but we'll get it fixed.  While we have seen improvement, it is still not even close to being resolved so we're just praying it will all work out.  Katelynn did have some scar tissue in her kidney from the UTI's (we are unsure how many she has gotten during the time her condition was untreated as she had no symptoms other than accidents), but for now they are just monitoring the kidneys and not overly concerned.  We are also heading back to the ENT for possible tonsilectomy :(  I will keep you all updated on that as well!