11 months

WOW, we have exactly one month until Emma hits the 1 year mark. It is so hard to believe we have one more picture and we will have a years worth of bear pictures. Emma is changing each and everyday. Here are some recent facts about Emma:
*She still loves the dogs. One of her favorite things is when Tucker brings her a toy for them to play tug of war with over and over again.
*She is waving bye bye, but would much rather point at people as a way of communicating.
*Therapy wise she is doing well. She is a bit behind in a few things with Physical Therapy, but way past the points they felt she would be at right now.
*She took 2 steps the other night. These 2 steps scared her and she hasn't tried it again. She will randomly stand without holding on to anything and I am pretty sure she will be walking in the very near future.
*The bottle is still her arch enemy, but she loves people food! She no longer eats any baby food(we never made it to the stage 3 stuff). Her favorites are noodles with butter and cheese, strawberries, cucumbers, zuchini, and bread. She also had quite the sweet tooth. Regardless she always thinks what you have on your plate should be hers.
*We always swear we hear her saying words, but haven't put anymore on the offical list.
*We will recieve a procalamation on March 17th from the city of Buena Vista in her honor making March 31st CDH Awareness Day in Buena Vista.
Emma at 1 month

Emma at 11 months

Behind - Back up 2 weeks

Friday(2/18) - Cloey arrived and we hung out for a little bit before heading to bed.
Saturday - We got up and hung out around the house. We watched an episode of Wipeout and then Cloey and Daddy played Wipeout on the Wii. Then we headed to stay the night at Grammy and Pop Pop's house. Grammy and I were heading out early Sunday morning so all of us staying at their house allowed for us to have more time together. We turned it into a movie party. The air matteresses were blown up, we had pizza, air popped popcorn, candy, and ice-cream. It made for a wonderful night and was fun to have Grammy and Pop Pop be a part of a movie night.
Sunday - Before heading to Maryland to the outlet mall I made cinammon rolls and bacon for Cloey. Daddy and Cloey headed back to our house before they had to head to drop Cloey off. Emma spent the day with Pop Pop and Grammy and I shopped away. I did very well for both of the girls for next fall/winter. The deals were wonderful and well worth the trip.
If you over look the red eyes both of our blue-eyed girls have and the fact that Cloey isn't looking at the camera. I just love this picture! Cloey was so excited to help Emma practice walking and this is one for the memory books.

Baby sisters don't make for the best movie party partners

Cloey and her new glasses. They make her look like such a big girl!

Brave Emma crawling on the air mattresses

1st, Well Actually 2nd haircut

Emma's bangs were getting very long and unruly. At times you wouldn't know what way to brush them to make them lay where they were suppose to. So it was finally time to give her bangs a trim. This technically isn't her first haircut as she had to have her head shaved in the NICU for an IV spot. I gave her a little trim and it is amazing what a big girl she looks like now. Her hair is still pretty unruly and her hair nickname which is The Donald after Donald Trump is still fitting even after the trim.
Before with her silly little grin

After and boy does this picture perfectly display our wild child. It makes me laugh unitl my stomach hurts when I look at it.

Cloey Weekend

Well we had a great weekend with Cloey even though it ended in her little sister having to be hospitalized. Like always it was a very fast weekend and we can't wait for her to come back this weekend.
Friday - Cloey got home with Daddy and we celebrated Valentine's Day. She got a new DS Game - Mario Brothers 64. She had a lot of fun sitting and playing it with Daddy and he was being reminded of childhood memories as they played. She also got some chocolate which she gobbled up right away.
Saturday - We got up and around and headed to the library. Cloey loves the series The Bailey School Kids. They are chapter books that she has been reading at school and she was excited to get some and read over the weekend. I had a lot of fun taking turns reading pages with her. After the library we head to visit with Grammy and Pop Pop at their house. We then headed home for some movies and breakfast for dinner. We dined on some yummy pancakes while watching Dispicable Me. Emma and I ended up having to head back to Grammy and Pop Pop's house to stay for the night to be closer to the doctor's office because Emma needed to be seen Sunday morning. Once we left Cloey and Daddy were able to have some special one on one time.
Sunday - Daddy and Cloey spent some time together before having to head back. We didn't want Cloey to know that Emma was having to be hospitalized so she wouldn't worry about her. Poor Daddy had to put on a happy and brave face while dealing with the fact that Emma was going to be hospitalized and at that point we didn't know what was wrong with her.
Sadly I didn't get my camera out on Saturday, but will make sure to take lots of Cloey pictures this weekend. She is at an "Enough with the pictures" phase, but I will sneak some in because it is hard to believe how fast she is growing up.

Hospital Pics and Update

Well Emma is still on the mend after her last hospitalization. She will have a good day with eating, but it usually comes between 2 or 3 HORRIBLE days of eating. She did go for a CDH regular check-up on Friday and they said the x-rays looked great and that it probably was just a virus that she got and one she is still yet to shake. Hopefully she shakes it real soon and starts taking her bottle better again. We are sadly back at bottles that are similar to the amount she was taking when we first got home from the NICU. I think Mom is going to try and take her by the doctor's office for a weight check tomorrow. That way we can make sure that even with the little bits she is taking that she is maintaining her weight and not losing much. She did give us a scare, but we are blessed that she just had a virus and wasn't experiencing a reherniation. She sure knows how to give everybody extra gray hairs. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers during her hospital stay. We ask that you continue to pray for her and her feeding issues as we try and get over the feeding hump once again.
Our poor sick baby girl. This was taken right after chest x-rays, lab work, and the IV. She was worn out and not feeling well at all at this point.

Trying to escape from baby jail

Emma's bum hanging out the back of the gown. Notice Blankey Blanks even made the trip to the hospital with us. It was a very comforting piece of home and security for Emma while we had to stay.

Trying to pass time by playing. It was very hard to keep an active baby happy with an arm board and IV which caused some restrictions.

Eating Cherrios, but Mommy would perfer her to drink more of her bottle.

Excited to go home after 2 nights in the hospital

Updates Later

To all our dear blog followers I will try and update the blog in the next couple of days. For anyone who doesn't yet know Emma was admitted to the hospital on Sunday around noon because she had stopped drinking her bottle and didn't want to eat. This all started Wednesday. So after visiting the doctor's office on Wednesday night, Friday morning, and Sunday morning it was determined that she needed to be admitted because she was pretty dehydrated and we had exhausted all our options in feeding her. At one point we were even trying the syringe and all different types of liquids. She had a chest x-ray and everything CDH-wise looked fine. After labs and a few other tests it was determined she had a viral infection which caused her to not want to eat. She spent over 24 hours on an IV and then last night was able to be without it to make sure she would do okay. We left the hospital about 10:30 this morning. She still isn't 100%, but is much better. I will post pictures of her hospital stay later this week. Again God worked a miracle in Emma's life and we are thankful for all the thoughts and prayers over the last week.

10 Months

I am cheating and posting this one day early, but didn't know if it would fit in our schedule tomorrow night to get it posted.
Some 10 month stats on Emma
*You now have 4 teeth on the bottom, 1 that has broke through on the top, and 1 that is about to break through on the top.
*You continue with the baby food protest. You think baby food is for babies and you don't fit that category anymore. You are all about big people food. A few of your favorite things are cherries, pears, bananas, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, yogurt, pasta, toast, and oatmeal. You will pretty much eat anything that we are eating though.
*You have picked up the pace on your crawling. You quickly can get from one area to the other before we know it. We are thinking that it is about time to put the baby gates up to keep you in one area. You will push toys and the laundry basket around to walk behind them as well as walk along the furniture. We worry about the day you walk because you will be gone.
*Even though you have lots and lots of toys your favorite two things are the VCR and the DVDs. You can bet if you walked in our house on any given night you would find DVDs strung out on the floor.
*When someone tells you no firmly you stick out your lips and let out big tears.
*You can say Mama, Dada, and we think Doggie. You make a lot of other babbling noises and get really loud when you want someones attention. You seem to really like to be loud and "sing" in church.
*Your sister is still one of your favorite people. Each Friday when she walks through the door your face lights up. You constantly crawl to her and whatever she is doing. Sometimes she gets frustrated, but she loves you dearly.
*You are a constant reminder to all of us that miracles do happen every day. Each time you get one more month older we think about the start you had.
*We will know a more acurate weight after you go for your RSV shot on Friday. You have a check-up with Dr. Kane(peds surgeon) on February 11th. We are hoping that the x-ray shows that everything is where it needs to be and that your little lung looks great.
Emma 1 month

Emma 10 months

The funny ones. It sure is getting awfully hard to get a bear picture done of Emma these days. She is all over the place and the bear when you try and get a picture now. We all suffer through it for the memories.