7 months

Some 7 month updates:
- Emma has no interest in crawling or getting in the begining phase of crawling. She would rather just roll from place to place.
- We still have physical therapy twice a month and speech therapy once a month.
- Her Peds Cardiology appointment went very well. The holes and inital pulmonary hypertension that she displayed in her inital echo in the NICU before surgery are long gone. The Peds Cardio team that we met with were an amazing group of people, but thankfully that will be our one and only appointment with them.
- Eating is going a bit better these days. We are back to eating solids, but only about half the amount that she should be eating at this age. Her favorite for breakfast is the Banana Raspberry Oatmeal(yes I cheat and by the premade oatmeal). As for dinner she enjoys vegetables - especially sweet potatoes, but isn't really in to the "meal" type foods yet. The seem a little thick and different in texture and that starts her gagging thing up. As for fruits it appears that pears are a favorite of hers. We have given her some yogurt and she seems to like that as well. A favorite of mine as a baby was Hawian Delight and Emma enjoys it as well.
- The dogs are her favorite things right now. Maddie and Tucker just have to walk by and you get a huge belly laugh from her.
- Peek A Boo is a favorite game.
- She still sleeps on her own schedule, but has started sleeping all night and sometimes has to have Daddy wake her up at 8:30 to eat.
- She slept in her crib about 50% last week.
- She still loves her sister and her face lights up anytime Cloey walks in the room.
We are now only 5 months to a year and can't believe how fast our baby girl is growing up.
Emma at 1 month

Emma at 7 months

Halloween 2010

We spent two days with Halloween festivities this year.
*Friday- We went to the downtown event. For the last few years the main road is shut down and the businesses hand out candy for the kids. Cloey had fun walking the streets and used wonderful manners that made us so proud. The wind was bitterly cold and we were glad to get the event done in a short amount of time. Emma had fun sitting in her stroller and people watching.
*Saturday - We headed to our church to attend the yearly fall festival that they have each year. Cloey played the games and got her candy and had a funnel cake before we headed back. We made a quick stop by Na Na and Paw Paw's house before heading home. We took a quick break at home before heading to go door to door trick or treating. We left Emma at home with Grammy because it was way too cold for her. Cloey made out well again and again used wonderful manners. To reward her for her manners and behavior we went and picked up Taco Bell for dinner that she had been begging us for all day long.
It was a wonderful Halloween weekend filled with a lot of hustle and bustle.
Our beautiful angel.

Our little pumpkin on her 1st Halloween.

The girls - Cloey wasn't exactly thrilled to be getting her picture taken.

A cute family picture - Emma is very into looking down in pictures right now.

Paying it Forward

Many people know that the night Emma was born we prayed and prayed and asked others to pray that our baby girl would make it. I prayed that if she made it I would make it my mission to pay it foward to other families affected by CDH. Well we all know that our prayers worked and Emma was such a fighter to get home. We have a couple of things going on right now as our "Pay it Forward" deals.
*We purchased a set of pots and pans for the Ronald McDonald House. This place was an absolute blessing while Emma was in the NICU. I can't even begin to imagine running back and forth each day to be able to see Emma. We also plan on having pizza delivered on Emma's birthday as a thank you. So often churches and organizations would donate their time to bring/fix lunch or dinner for all of us "residents" and it was nice to not have to worry about fixing meals. If you would like to help a local Ronald McDonald House collect the can tabs and turn them in or take time to organize with your group/church to donate a meal.
*We have decided to take part in a reseach study involving CDH. This is a study out of Columbia University and it is looking into the gentic aspect of CDH. We want to be able to help others out by helping the study learn more about CDH.
*Emma's Walk/Run is in the planning stages. Once we know the date we will be spreading the word for everyone. If you don't live in this area we would love to talk with you and figure out other ways you could participate from afar in this big day. Our plans are to donate the money to Breath of Hope a CDH group.
*We are throwing the idea around of creating Socks from Emma Sidney. The very first piece of clothing Emma could wear was a sock. It was just one sock, but that one sock let us overlook the wires and tubes and let us feel "normal". I will never forget the little white and pink ballerina slipper sock that said I Love Mommy on the bottom that covered her foot. We want to give a pair of socks to every child that comes through the NICU at UVA.
So as you can see we are very busy planning ideas to "Pay it Forward". We can't do it alone and are thankful for all the people who are already involved or anyone who would like to be come involved. Emma has had such a fan club from the start and we would love for her fan club to help other babies who are affected by CDH.

Mazingo Happenings

Well we have been very busy in the Mazingo Household here lately!!!
*Friday Jason and I celebrate 5 years of marriage. It is very hard to believe that 5 years ago we got married. We have been through a lot in these 5 years. Many of the things we have been through have been trials and tribulations and other things have been complete joys. After this spring with Emma's birth we learned how much we love each other and that we can get through anything together. We went to Target, The Cheap Grocery Store, and Red Lobster to celebrate our anniversary. I know we are really exciting people.
*The weekend was spent cleaning and doing some more cleaning. While we just cleaned over the weekend I feel as if the clutter is once again creeping up. It is just so hectic throughout the week between me working, Jason working on his 30 page paper, taking care of Emma, and wanting to spend quality time with Cloey on the weekends she is here.
*We were able to introduce Emma to family that were in from Gerogia for the weekend. It is always nice to show our baby girl off.
*We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Cloey comes on Thursday. Friday Emma has a follow up appointment with the Pediatric Cardiologist to get a better picture of her heart. Saturday it is Halloween festiviites at our church and then downtown. Which then leads to Sunday with Jason taking Cloey back to NC. Looks like a busy, but fun weekend with the girls. We can't wait to see our Angel and Pumpkin all dressed up for Halloween. Pictures to come this weekend!!!!

Sorry

Well I had all intentions on blogging this Sunday, but we spent time with family that was in from Georgia. My next intentions were to blog tonight, but my head has been pounding since lunch time. I have decided to head to bed and call it a night with hopes this headache will disappear. My new intentions are to blog tomorrow. Sorry no posts!

Some October Pictures!!!

I know I said my plans were to try and blog every other day during the school year, but I have been very busy. When I get home I just want to spend time with Emma and we have started getting back into our walks in the last week. I am going to work on being better about blogging, but for now here are 3 new posts about our weekend with pictures.
The best little girls in the world!

Look who is starting to sit up all by herself.

Cloey in her neon Halloween pjs. Halloween is her favorite holiday which meant her and Emma both needed Halloween pjs.

Emma enjoying the book she got from the Bookfair at my school.

Pumpkins 2010

This year we decided to sort of cheat with our pumpkins. It is hard for us to carve a pumpkin and have it stay nice without it molding quickly because we have to carve it so early. We also ended up having a big debate over who is going to be the one to get all the guts out and what the pumpkin should look like. I had seen the little kits you could buy at Target where you just pushed the pieced in, but they were close to $10 and only did one pumpkin. Cloey had picked out a pumpkin for all 4 of us and I really didn't want to pay $40 to decorate them. We considered paint at one point, but that just seemed like it could get real messy. So I got to thinking about what we could do and decided to put our MANY Mr. Potato Head pieces to good use. Instead of buying the kits at Target we used the Mr. Potato Head pieces and they served the same purpose. Cloey had a blast decorating the pumpkins and Emma stay and went through the bucket and found pieces to chew on. When all was said and done we ended up with some great looking pumpkins. I was proud that I had solved the pumpkin dilemma without having to spend any extra money. This might be our new family tradition with our pumpkins each year.
Cloey and Emma with the final masterpieces.


Our Beautiful Pumpkins

Disney Princess Wishes On Ice

Our big girl!

Daddy with one of his girls

Kristyn, Daddy, and Cloey waiting for the show to begin.

$125 for tickets
$12 for a Snow Cone
$15 Ariel Necklace - thanks to Grammy and Pop Pop
1 Minor Meltdown over not getting popcorn
A little bit of whining and worry about not making it in time
All worth seeing the look on Cloey's face when the show began.

Cloey had a blast attending Disney Princess Wishes on Ice. We made a special Cloey evening of it and left Emma at home with Nana and Paw Paw while Grammy and Pop Pop came with us to the show. Cloey was absolutely in awe of the show. At one point Jason and I both got a big hug with, "Thank you for bringing me Daddy and Kristyn, this show is awesome!" It was priceless to see and hear the joy she had over the show. After the show we all headed to Red Robin for a yummy dinner before heading home. We missed Emma while we were gone and know before too long we will have two girls with us at the show.

Emma at 6 months

Emma had her 6 month check up on Tuesday. She now weighs 13 pounds 1 ounce and is 25 and 1/2 inches long. Her doctor was pleased with her weight gain. She is small, but is gaining weight at a steady pace. We are going to try and stop fortifying her milk and see if she can still take in enough calories to steadily gain weight. He also would like us to work on adding the solids back into her diet. We tried the other night and they once again came back up. She does well with oatmeal and some fruit mixed in, but once you add something else it goes downhill. We will keep working at it day by day. She had to get 4 shots - 2 were her regular immunizations, 1 was the flu vaccine, and the other was the RSV vaccine. The RSV vaccine is one she will need each month until about April to protect her against RSV because of her lungs and their development. She handled the shots okay, but since she has to get them every month now we got a prescription for a numbing agent and hopefully that will help her out. We also increased her medicine for her reflux because it has flarred up again. If this medicine doens't work we will have to switch to another type. The office is in the process of scheduling her an appointment with the Pediatric Cardiologist at UVA to get another echocardiogram. The day she had hers in the NICU was the day of the big scare when she almost was put on the heart lung bypass machine. For some reason that day she couldn't handle getting an echocardiogram. This is just a follow up to make sure everything that needs to close in her heart has closed since the last time they didn't get the best information. She also is getting scheduled for a hearing screening. It is common for babies in the NICU because of medicines to have some hearing loss. On top of that CDH for some unknown reason causes hearing loss for some children. She will need her hearing checked every 6 months and then every year for awhile. Overall her doctor is very impressed as to where she is at in life. He even told us he was bragging about have a CDH infant who was doing so well at a meeting a couple of weeks ago. It is such a blessing to have her doing so well!!!! We thank God every minute for the healing, blessings, and joy He has given us through Emma. Well I hear crying in the other room guess she is up from her cat nap.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Last Saturday we headed to a pumpkin patch with Mom and Dad that was near there house. Cloey complained because we had to drive the 40 minutes to Mom and Dad's house and then it was about 30 minutes from their house. She was mainly complaining because she wanted to pick out her costume before the pumpkin patch, but that wasn't happening. We arrived at the pumpkin patch, our first time to this one, grabbed our wagon and headed to the patch. In previous years there has been a field with pumpkins laying around randomly. Well this year we cut the pumpkins right of the vine in the pumpkin patch. Cloey had a lot of fun at this patch and Emma was more interested in the checking out the grass on the ground.
After getting our 3 big pumpkins, 1 little pumpkin, 1 apple, peach cider we headed to pick out Cloey's costume. It was hard to find one that was appropriate this year. A lot of them were way to reveling and I am not talented enough to make her a costume. She settled on an angel and Emma will be a pumpkin. We then grabbed a few other things at Target and headed to Chick Fil A for lunch. Emma kept us all laughing as she wanted to put everything in her mouth at lunch. After lunch we headed back to our house and the girls got to visit with both sets of grandparents. It made for a very nice Saturday with the family.
Our cute little family.

Cloey picking the best pumpkin in the patch.

Emma taking it all in.

Cloey and Daddy picking the perfect pumpkin.