Thursday, June 26, 2014

Ellie Became a BIG Sister!

I haven't written here in ages, but felt I needed to share some wonderful news!

Ellie is a BIG SISTER. Charlotte was born May 29th. She weighed 9lbs and 6 oz. It's an amazing story and I want to share it soon, but for anyone still checking this old blog...and I'm sure that's exactly zero people, here are some pics of my girlS!

E with C at the hospital. 
This one melts my hearts. 
Sisters!
Precious girl. 

Ellie is in love with Charlotte and of course her mommy and daddy are also. 
God has blessed us with two precious girls and we could not be happier!

Jennifer

Thursday, December 27, 2012

RSV, Pneumonia and Christmas, (oh my!)

My Christmas break started a week early this year. It wasn't really a break though. I need to back up a little. 2 weeks ago today, I took Ellie to our pediatrician. She wasn't sleeping, had a cough, runny nose and slight fever. He diagnosed her with a virus that needed to run it's course. By Saturday she was awful! Neither of us were sleeping, her temp was 103.5, horrible cough and lots of wheezing. Off to urgent care we go.

The doctor working did a step test, which was negative. But, there wasn't anyone to do a chest X-ray. She diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection. Well, my momma instincts knew it was more than that. The antibiotic the doctor gave her was horrid and she vomited it up every single time I gave it to her. By Monday she was pitiful and I was terrified. I won't even post pictures because they are so sad. I didn't even put them on FB. Only sent to my family and closest friends.

Anyway, back to the pediatrician we go. He took one look at her and ordered all sorts of tests. I'm so thankful for the office we go to. They do everything right there. He'd already mentioned admitting her to the hospital because her O2 sats were 88. So I texted barry and told him to come asap.

The chest X-ray showed pneumonia so he told us he was admitting her and to walk next door to the hospital. There is a breezeway connecting the two buildings. Barry arrived just in time to walk over with me. When we arrived on our floor, they sent us right to our room. We did all the admit stuff over the phone from our room and Barry just walked downstairs to sign the paperwork. The nurses came in and got things going immediately. They were fantastic, explaining everything in great detail. They hooked up her IV, then did an RSV test and taped on the nasal cannula for her oxygen. 15 minutes later we knew she also had RSV. They started her on a strong antibiotic and she basically laid in my arms all day. It was just so scary and pitiful. I knew she was in the best place, but having your baby so sick is awful.

Our friends and family were fantastic! They came up to pray with us, brought us food and just came to sit. I know I say it all the time but, we have the best friends and church family!

We ended up staying three days. She was on oxygen the first 24 hours and then they slowly weaned her off while keeping her O2 levels up. It was a balancing act, but they finally got her off. We had the best nurses and other health care providers! They were truly amazing!!

We came home in time to have a few days to rest before our Christmas with Barry's family. Ellie still isn't 100% but she's back to her normal, sassy and sweet, almost two year old self.

I have a new appreciation (not sure that's the correct word) for mommies with sick babies.

We celebrated Christmas with Barry's family and then had a Christmas Day snow. It was beautiful. I'll have a separate Christmas post soon. Now we are enjoying some down time with daddy home for the week.

Not sure how to type below each pic from my blogger app so here goes:
The first pic is our first day in the hospital after we were all settled.
Pic 2: breathing treatments at home...every 4 hours
Pic 3: Christmas Eve!






Monday, November 26, 2012

iPhone Picture Update

Just a little glimpse of what we've been up to over the past couple months from my iPhone pics.

This one in the OU dress is for Daddy!


Ellie LOVES Elmo!


Our family on Thanksgiving.


This is Ellie's "crazy face."


Ready for school


Ellie loves to read!  And yes, that's her "pappy"  Don't judge me!


Cheerio loving girl!


Homecoming dress...she wore this to the parade


Ellie loves her puzzles.  She is actually really good at them too!


Feeding the ducks with grandma.


Daddy wasn't feeling so good on Thanksgiving day and he laid down on the couch for a little rest...ellie climbed right up with him.


Ellie loves to go to the park, but does NOT like to sit for pictures.


This was around Halloween


Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  My mom was here as were Barry's parents.



Ellie was an owl again.  Her costume still fit.  I guess that's what happens when you only gain 2 lbs in a year.

I used my new blogger app to upload all these pics and they are all out of order.  Not sure what happened.  At this point, I'm just happy to have some on here so I'm not going to worry abou tit. 
Just so you all know, I do still check in on your blogs...mostly from my phone so I don't comment much, but I promise to try and get better again.  Try, being the key word. 

Joy

I just had to share some pictures of my sweetie little girl.











This is my favorite, just because of the joy on her face!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

6 months???

How in the world have I neglected this blog for 6 months?  Oh wait...I have a toddler!  Ellie turned 20 months old yesterday.  How that's possible, I just don't know!  Time seems to be flying by at warp speed.  Each stage just gets more and more fun.  I think God must do that so we don't miss the previous stage so much.  That's not to say I don't miss by bitty baby rocking and snuggling with me for hours on end.  Oh how I miss that!  But, right now I love my wild, crazy, sweet, and sometimes sassy toddler.  We must say no less than 10 times a day how much fun she is or what a great stage she's in.  I seriously could not love a child more than I love her.  Sometimes I just watch her and smile and my heart feels like it's going to burst it hurts so much with all the love I have for this amazing child.  God sure got this right!

She says more words and phrases than I can count these days.  She loves her baby dolls and Elm0.  Oh how she loves that guy.  I tell Barry all the time I think he must be crack for toddlers.  She has an small stuffed Elm0 she carries with her all over along with her baby doll.  We bought her a new bike (radi0 f1yer tricyc1e that we can also push) that she is in love with.  We take her for walks around the neighborhood. 
The pool was a HUGE hit this summer.  She loves it and has no fear of the water whatsoever.  She would spend the day in the pool if we let her.  She'll look out the window and say, "pool, pool."  How can you say no to that? 

Ellie is still so little.  Well let me clarify that.  At her 18 month checkup she weighed 21.8 lbs. Last week I actually had to buy 24 month shirts because the 18 months were showing her belly.  The 24 months are huge around, but just the right length.  She has a long torso...she's going to be tall.  She's still wearing 12 month pants though.  She actually wore a pair of jeans last night that were 6-12 months and I had the adjustable straps pulled as tight as they would go.  The bottom half of her is just tiny.  Her waist is so small. 

Picky eater doesn't begin to describe what our girl has turned into.  She will eat any fruit you give her, but that's about it.  ha!  Well, she will eat chicken and steak as well.  But nothing with ground beef.  She hates most veggies and will spit them out and cry if I try to get her to eat them.  I still put them on her tray every night.  I've talked to my OT and Speech Therapist friends and they've given me lots of suggestions.  Some of it I think is a texture issue and some of it is a control issue and I'm sure some of it she just doesn't care for.  So far our pediatrician isn't worried.  He said she's little, but has stayed on her own curve so that's good I guess. 

Our bedtime routine is still the same....books, books, books.  We also read a bible story and say a prayer each night before bed.  I could read 20 books and she'd still want more.  Now that I'm back to school, she's in bed by 6:30 or 7:00 each night and I wake her up at 6:40.  She naps 2.5-3 hours a day and will ask for her nap if she's ready to sleep before our normal nap time.  She still gets her pacie when she sleeps (don't judge me!)  I'm sure I could break her of it, but I didn't do it this summer so I'm waiting for Christmas Vacation.  Yes, it's all about my convenience.  Well, that and the fact that she loves it and sleeps so good with it.  She calls it her "pappy"...she knows she only gets it at "night night" times and usually is fine with that.  Before we had Ellie, I would have been sure that thing would be gone long before she was 6 months old, but guess what I've learned....you do what works for you! 

I need to do lots of updates with pics from probably all the way back to last Christmas.  I'll get to that someday, but I do want to start keeping this blog updated if only so I can remember all the cute little things my girl does. 

Here are a few pics from recently all the way back to the summer...
First sucker after her flu shot on Thursday

Lake Michigan in July.  Would only walk on the sand with these water shoes on.

Trying to catch butterflies at Grandma's house

Fresh from the bath

Pool time in May

Family Pics the end of July...it was 109 the day we had these done.  HOT!

June

June

Lake Michigan in July

First time to visit our new yogurt place in town.  It was a hit!

I guess that's a little more than a few.  Some of these are from my iph0ne.  I've been bad about using my regular camera because by the time I get it out, she's over the moment and on to something else.  Photographing a toddler is not easy. 

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Wordless Wednesday























- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday, February 10, 2012

Just some pictures

pigtails




sweet sleeping baby!












funny puff face


brushing those 10 teeth










-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
 
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