Photos Galore

Here are a bunch of photos to catch you up on our past few weeks...

 

 Meeting Great Grandma Jo.

 

"Here, let me help you with that."

 

 "But I want to drive!"

 

 Tummy time with daddy.

 

 Tasty fingers.

 

 Hanging out in her Pack'N'Play at our friends Darren and Julie's house while we played a game.  She slept a little but mostly just rolled around contentedly playing with her blanket and socks.

 

 Again, playing with the socks.

 

 Relaxing.

 

 Making a cute face.

 

 Tummy time.

 

 Similar faces.

 

 Peas for the first time.

 

 She seemed to like them, especially when allowed to feed herself.

 

 Showing off one of the pairs of leg warmers I sewed her out of womens knee-high socks.

 

 Just hanging out.

 

 Ellie's first Get Well Soon card.

 

 From her not-so-secret love, Anthony.  Hehe.

Prayer Update

Thanks for your prayers for baby Tyce!  From what I heard from Kirsten yesterday, he's doing well and eating enough for them to release him today.  Praise the Lord!

Prayer

Please pray for my sister-in-law's dear friend, Laurie, and her baby boy, Tyce.  Tyce is only one week old and had emergency surgery on Saturday to fix his twisted small intestine.  Here's a link to the story from Kirsten's blog.  The Lord was definitely with little Tyce in that they even found the problem in time to fix it and in keeping away any tissue damage.  At this point, the big prayer is that the little guy could start keeping fluids down.

All Is Well

Sorry for the delay since my last post.  Ellie is doing well.  She's still extra cuddly and has a pretty big cough, but she's her same old self otherwise.

We've taken a few cute pictures lately that I'll have to post soon, but the camera battery died last night and had to be recharged.  I haven't gotten around to putting the battery back in yet, but I'll post the photos in the near future.

Thank you all for your prayers!!  Ellie has definitely escaped the worst of this flu.

So Far, So Good

Ellie seems to be surviving H1N1 quite well thus far.  She has a horrible cough and has thrown up three times, but she hasn't had a fever since Monday.  I've continued giving her Tylenol during the day as it seems to help her feel better.  She's a lot more clingy and fussy, but from what I hear that's completely normal for any sick kid.

She's actually eating remarkably well, though she's substituting two smaller bottles for her normal large evening bottle (and staying up later).  I think her tummy's just upset so that she can't eat as much in one sitting as she normally does.

The pediatrician called tonight to check on how Ellie's doing and was glad to hear that she's proving to be a champ about being sick.  Thanks for all your prayers!

On Monday afternoon/evening we were having trouble getting her to drink/keep down her milk so I cracked open a bottle of Pedialyte.  She drank about three ounces (one of which she threw up).  According to the package, you're supposed to throw it away 48 hours (or something like that) after opening it.  She hasn't needed it since Monday.  But the stuff is stinking expensive.  So this morning I figured I'd have a glass with my breakfast.  After all, I'm still feeling sick too and should continue to make sure I'm well hydrated.  It'll probably taste like orange Vitamin Water, right?  Wrong.  The stuff is disgusting.  It's like watery Otter Pops with some medicine-y flavor added.  Who comes up with this stuff?  Gross.  Of note, I did still finish my 16 ounce glass because, well, "waste not, want not."  I'll be pouring the rest of the bottle down the drain in the morning.

Go Big or Go Home

Well, after all our hard work to try to keep Ellie from getting sick, she decided to make her first illness the journalistic doozy of the year.  That's right, she has H1N1.

The pediatrician's not overly worried.  She's seeing 3-4 cases a day and hasn't had any kids come down with the major issues reported in the media.  She even saw a little boy who had it in follow up today who was a preemie and has bad asthma; he got through it just fine.

So now we're just watching Ellie closely and dealing with normal sick baby stuff - fever, fussiness, not wanting to eat very much, coughing, shortness of breath, etc.  We stocked up on Tylenol and Pedialyte (if she'll take it, it's better than nothing at making sure she's hydrated).  We'd appreciate your prayers!

"What's H1N1?  My daddy says I shouldn't have licked a pig.  What's a pig?"

Ellie's First Cold?

Sometime between 3:45 and 4 this morning Ellie woke both Kit and me up with her coughing.  She seemed uncomfortable so Kit went in to check on her (since I'm still sick and was planning to shower this morning before resuming my mommy duties to try to keep germs away from her).  She was in an uncomfortable position in her crib so he adjusted her.  At 4:10 she was still fussy and rattly sounding so I washed my hands (and forearms), went into her room and rubbed her chest and talked to her to try to lull her back to sleep.

Now that she's up for the morning, she's still sounding rattly and trying to cough.  She also seems belabored in her breathing.  So today I'm taking her in for her first official "sick child" appointment.  I do realize that most babies don't need to go in this soon (if at all) for a cold, but we're supposed to be extra careful and proactive with any illnesses Ellie might get.  I'm hoping it's just a fluke and not even an illness.

Overall, she's still relatively happy and chatty so at least it doesn't seem to be bothering her too much at this point.  Pray she heals quickly!

Oh, and thanks go out to my wonderful hubby and mother-in-law who were able to take care of Ellie for the past three days so that I was able to rest and she was able to keep her exposure to mommy's yicky germs at a minimum!  This is the worst cold I've ever had, and I truly couldn't have done it without them.

Coco, We Still Love You!!

I need to submit a formal apology to Coco.  Amidst all of the hullabaloo of life, we managed to completely forget his birthday this past Monday.  Those who know us know that the past two birthdays Coco has celebrated with us were filled with homemade doggie cakes (and a stinky house from cooking said cakes) and doggie frozen yogurt (yes, they do make such a thing and Coco loves it).  He normally gets gifts, and he even celebrated his first birthday at Nana and Granddad's.

If you are looking for a little humor and wit in your day, I would encourage you to celebrate (albeit late) and enjoy a little bit of Coco's writing (link starts you at the beginning of our blog) from back in the day when this was actually his blog (pre-Elise).


Happy third birthday, Coco!!  We love you!

Sick

I have a cold.  Please pray Ellie doesn't get it.  Kit's home today to watch Ellie so that I can rest and heal and so that Ellie doesn't get sick from my coughing and sneezing.

I've been fighting bad allergies for the past month or so (and off and on since the spring).  Since I'm still pumping for Ellie, I haven't wanted to take anything.  But they got pretty bad, and I went to the doctor Tuesday to make sure I hadn't gotten an infection of some sort.  I didn't have an infection.  He just gave me some nasal spray that his wife, an OB, confirmed was okay for me to use and suggested I get a Neti Pot to flush out my sinuses.  (We're also supposed to keep Coco out of our room as much as possible and get dust mite free bedding since lately it has been worst at night.)

The Neti Pot worked at clearing my sinuses but now the allergies appear to have turned into a cold, complete with a hacking cough and sheer exhaustion.  Yuck.  We've been so careful to wash our hands and keep Ellie away from germs.  And now I'm the one who might get her sick.  Argh.  Thanks for your prayers!!

Best Buds

Last weekend we had dinner with Paul, Susan and Anthony - our good friends from the NICU. Ellie and Anthony still seem to be communicating to each other somehow as they seem to decide to start doing similar things (like rolling over more) at the same times. When they play, usually Anthony stares at Ellie and tries to hold grab her hand and generally put the moves on socialize with her. Ellie is quite good at playing hard to get, though she seems to be coming around a bit more lately.

Since Kit has told Ellie that she can't date for many, many, many years, Susan joked that they have a forbidden love. So cute.

We were given the fun job of bringing dessert to the dinner. I made apple pie and had no problems deciding what to cut into the top of the pie...

I was going to write "A+E=Love" initially. But I knew Kit wouldn't appreciate that. So I put "A+E=BB" instead for Best Buds.

Clearly a happy camper.

The adorable Mister Anthony.

Girl Talk

A couple of weeks ago my friend Christie posted a video of her daughter talking on their blog.  Harper and Ellie are about the same age developmentally so it's fun watching the two of them grow.  I was pumping when I watched the video, and Ellie was in her bouncy seat fussing.  Since I was in the middle of pumping, I couldn't really do anything to satiate Ellie.  The moment the video of Harper started, however, Ellie quieted right down and started listening (since she couldn't see the screen).

I replayed the video over a dozen times, and it continued to fascinate Ellie who started talking back, especially during the silent portions.  When I was done, I grabbed the camera and laid Ellie next to the computer so she could both watch and listen to Harper.  Although Ellie didn't talk much during the filming, you can tell how much she enjoyed talking with her friend in Alaska.

Enter girltalk09232009 to watch.

Developmental Assessment

Last week Elise had her four-month developmental assessment with a pediatrician who specializes in neurodevelopment and a physical therapist.  She did awesome.  They gave her various toys to play with (a pink plastic barbell, a silver bell, a pair of red dice, etc.) and showed her various flashcards (plain gray box next to a black and white striped box, a bunch of primary color balloons next to a primary color beach ball, two bunches of balloons, the beach ball and balloons in reverse order, etc.).  It was fun to see Ellie choosing what she thought was most exciting to look at.  On the card that had two of the same pictures of balloons, her eyes went back and forth many times before finally just picking one bunch to look at.  They even tried to offer her a Cheerio.  I thought she might really go for it because she's always staring at me when I eat my Cheerios for breakfast, but she was only mildly interested (which is fine for her age).

Then they laid her on the floor with the toys and did various things to see how she does with rolling over, including putting her in positions to assist in rolling.  They also tried to have her sit up while they held her on the floor.  She did her usual back arching to fight sitting.  (As I've told a few friends, whereas most kids would slump forward when placed in a sitting position, Ellie normally flings herself back, which could easily result in hurting her head quite badly given the veracity with which she flings herself.)  In the floor exercises she exhibited things typical of premature babies who never got cramped enough in the womb to be forced into the fetal position (lots of straightening of the body and trying to arch backward).  So they gave us some worksheets with exercises to do with her to encourage her to learn to roll, sit and ultimately crawl/walk correctly.

Overall though she tested in at four months and ten days.  They were counting her as being four months and one day so that was definitely a good assessment.  The only area where she came in low was language.  But the PT said before the assessment that she doesn't like the language part because it's not very accurate at this age.  She also said as she was giving the results (and Ellie was yammering) that Ellie would have scored higher if she had been talking like she was then during the assessment.  In other words, Ellie's doing great!!

The PT will see her again at eight months adjusted age.  The doctor didn't see any signs of neurological issues that would require her to see Ellie at eight months.  So she she and the PT will both see Ellie at twelve months adjusted.

Also, they showed me her size on the premature girl growth chart, and she was in the 90th for height and head circumference and the 50th for weight.  She's getting to be a big girl!  I can't remember the measurements from that appointment, but on Monday she was 13 pounds, 3.5 ounces at the nephrologist's office and about 25 inches.  That means she's officially put on over 10 pounds and 10 inches!!!!

And now more recent pictures...

Showing off her cute hat and onesie from Unce Sean and Aunt Laura.

 

It's still a little big, but her hat is a reversible hipster cap.

 

Waking up from a nap after she rolled onto her tummy.

 

 Still a little groggy.

 

A sneeze.

 

Tummy time.

 

Hey, mom!

 

Trying out  her mini-Boppy (much better than a rolled blanket) for extra support per the developmental exercise sheet.

 

Must...reach...toys.

 

All ready to go for a drive.  Now she just needs a pink car to match her keys.

Photo Shoot

Here are some photos of Ellie that I took a couple of weeks ago...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Screechy Roller

Today Ellie had her first developmental consult to see where she's at developmentally and to give us information for helping her where she's having troubles.  I'll post all about it later, but she picked up something while she was there.  Rolling.

She's been rolling from time to time but seemed to have seen no need to roll when she could scoot on her back to see in whatever direction she wanted.  But today they encouraged lots of rolling, and she seems to have brought the idea home with her.

Lately she's also started screeching. I got a quick video with my camera phone tonight just in case she decides to stop screeching, but I can't load it on here so I'll get one with our real camera to show you what I'm talking about.  But the girl seriously screeches.  It's a sign that she's either upset or that she's passing gas or that she's pooping.  So in the past few days she's gone from still using her silent cry that was left over from when she really couldn't make sounds due to her vocal cord damage to high pitched screeching.

And a few moments ago she combined her rolling and her screeching to become a screechy roller.  I put her in bed and a few minutes later she started screeching and crying.  She usually talks herself to sleep and maybe cries softly for a minute or two, but this was all out top-of-her-lungs noise making.  So I went into her room to check on her, and she had rolled to her stomach and was not planning to sleep that way.  I rolled her back over and she's been talking to herself in bed ever since.

Isn't she adorable?

Trying a new trick from the appointment today - sitting with the Boppy under her arms to help keep her arms supported out in front of her.  The fuzzy thing in the upper left corner is her big brother pug trying to get in some kisses.