Making the best out of life

Today was a good day! My parents came and sat with AC so we could have a day with Amelia. It is freezing outside so that took out any outdoor activities, so we went to the wolf chase mall to ride the carousel and jump on the spider bounce.  She rode the carousel 3 times and wanted to change animals throughout each ride, but was ok that she couldn't. She loved the bounce. I was nervous she woul freak out, but she didn't at all!  I will post the video when we get home.

This afternoon I had some giggle time with AC.  She is such a fun girl! 2 mores days and we will be home! Let's just pray we don't have to come back!

Drew and Amelia are staying at the FedEx house. It's nice they are right across the street! The moon is huge tonight. I love it, I keep looking at it out the window and thinking of my sweet girl.

Sweet Angel

Yesterday, my dad brought me and Amelia back to Greenville so that I could work a few days.  It was the worst car ride of my life.  I was completely broken hearted to leave my sweet baby in the hospital.  I think that it will be a good bonding experience for her and her daddy though.  Work today was a little difficult at first, and seemed a little weird.  But, I really do think it was good for me to have a "normal" day.  I was also excited to have these days just me and Amelia.  The problem is that when I am away from Amelia for a few days, she really gets her feelings hurt, and it takes a little while for her to forgive me.  I tried to get her to cuddle with me and watch a movie last night.  It only lasted for about 30 minutes.  Tonight, we went out to dinner.  We had a good time, but once we got home, it was melt down city!!!  Oh my goodness!  I just decided that we just needed to have a bubble bath and go to bed.  She loved her bubble bath.  We then read a few books, a couple of times.  Then my sweet angel said her prayers.  We say them every night.  I usually say them for her.  Tonight, she said them on her own and prayed for her and Anna Claire.  It was the sweetest thing ever!  She asked God to watch over them.  I love my little girl, and the way her face lights up not only when she sees her sister, but also when she speaks to her on the phone.  I pray that my girls will grow up being friends and will always love each other. 

Merry Christmas Eve

Today was a fun day of hanging out with my baby girl.  I'm loving my mommy and Anna Claire time, but will love when I have both my girls together again.  We did a lot of playing, I redecorated the Christmas tree, (it looks a lot more even now), and we did a lot of giggling.  I am pretty sure I have officially found her tickle spot.  I also think her favorite color is red.  She just stares at all things red. 

Kicking around in her bed.

She was startled by the bright flashing light.

As I was writing this, it occurred to me that I should do a before and after pic, since we are here again.  This is the night before her surgery.  She was getting her pre-surgery bath.  Her belly looks a little bigger here because of how she was laying.  But, there is definitely a huge color change!

She was laying on the couch trying to rollover and eat that worm on her loopalooza. 

 

 I forgot to write about last week how she rolled over from her back to her stomach!  She is definitely going to be a little rolling pin.  Girl goes after what she wants.  Amelia was 7 months old before she rolled from back to stomach.  She is trying so hard to get on her stomach here.  She sleeps on her belly at home.  I was slightly worried since she can't sleep on her stomach here, but she has been doing fine.

Hanging out in her swing.

 

Le Bonheur truly is a wonderful place.  As much as I hate being here, the nurses are all so sweet that it makes it not so bad.  The food isn't very fabulous, but it is ok.  I had my 3rd dinner of grilled chicken sandwich tonight.  Glad our meal was so yummy the night before coming here.  Plus, we have leftovers waiting on us in the freezer!

 

I got to do some more video chatting with my big girl today.  She showed me all she's been doing.  She is loving life right now.  I am glad that even though we are in a tough situation, she is still so loved and so happy!

 

I think Anna Claire is going to share my love for Christmas trees.  She could not take her eyes off of it tonight.  I eventually had to just turn it off so she would go to sleep.

 

 

 

Christmas Cheer

Today, our friend Misty came to visit us.  We were so excited to see her.  It keeps my spirits up, and Anna Claire got to meet her for the first time.  She was so sweet and brought us Christmas tree for our room.  I hadn't even thought about it, but it made me so happy when she brought it out.  I decorated it while we chatted.  I'm not the best tree decorator, but it makes me happy!

 

I don't know how long we will be able to keep it, the cleaning lady informed me that we aren't suppose to have trees.  I'm not going to worry about it until I get told I have to turn it off.  They don't want you to have lights.  I don't think we have to worry about Anna Claire chewing on them.  We will see.

Anna Claire is doing so well.  We get labs again in the morning.  But, she is acting more and more like herself.  She is still sleeping a lot, but I think that is good.  Let her body heal.  She is slowly eating a little better.  Hopefully that will get back to normal soon.  I got to video chat with Drew and Amelia today and yesterday.  I love modern technology!  She wasn't very chatty yesterday, but she talked a good bit today.  I miss her so much and can't wait to see her in a few more days!

Back to LeBonheur

This year we decided to have our families come to Greenville for Christmas.  It is just not so easy traveling with 2 babies.  So my family came Thursday, and left Friday.  We had a lot of fun.  It went by way too fast!  I hardly even saw Amelia because she was having too much fun with Madison and Brady.  I cooked dinner.  That was the deal, I said I would do all the cooking if they would come down, so I had to hold up to my bargain.  It was all yummy.  My mom helped some too.  Sharon was great and cleaned up the kitchen for me!  We had a fire and made smores and hot cocoa. 

It would have been perfect if my sweet Anna Claire had not started running a fever again.  We were all excited because she was fever free for most of Thursday, but it came back with a vengence.  So, I took back to the clinic Friday morning for more bloodwork.  Her liver enzymes had almost doubled and her bilirubin is going back up.  I knew that we have cholangitis and were going to Le Bonheur.  I called her doctor and told his nurse that we were on our way.

My family was still at our house so to keep Amelia out of the ER my sister took her home with her.  We were very lucky.  We didn't have to wait long at all.  We got there around 1 and had a room at 5.  Her fever was 103.1.  They finally started her IV antibiotics at 9 PM and she has been fever free since!!!  And, she is much less fussy and sleeping a lot.  She slept almost all night, which was wonderful.  I was exhausted.  I may have been averaging about 3-5 hours of sleep a night plus working and entertaining guests.  I am so glad my little girl is feeling better though.  Her liver enzymes have come back down almost to where they started, her bilirubin is still slowly creeping up, but hopefully that will change after a few days of antibiotics. 

My heart is sad though because my sweet Amelia has a bad cough.  With RSV going around, we can't let her get near AC.  So, she and Drew are going to his parent's house and will come back on Wednesday.  We will be here for at least 10 days of IV antibiotics.  It breaks my heart that we are all going to be seperated at Christmas.  I am just glad that they are so small that Santa can come whenever and they will never know the difference.  I just pray that this doesn't happen to us too many more times.  This mommy can't handle this too much more!

Good time with friends

Last night, we had a few of our local friends over for a Christmas dinner.  It's kind of our new tradition.  We had it at our house because I thought it would be easier with the girls.  We are the only ones with kids.  Well, I got home from work and Drew says Anna Claire feels like she has a fever.  He had checked it with the ear thermometer and it was 98.8, so I checked it with the rectal thermometer.  It was 101.6.  That of course threw me in to complete stress out mode.  Not what I needed right before having friends over.  I immediately call her doctor.  He tells me that since she isn't jaundiced to have her checked in the morning by her pediatrician and check labs and let him know.  I hardly slept all night.  All I could do was pray for my little girl that she is ok.  Her fever did drop a little over night, but was back at 101.3 that morning.  I got to the clinic as they opened the door.  We did lab work, were checked by the doctor.  Her lab work still looks very good, no obvious reason for the fever.  But, she is now at 99.8 without medicine.  So, we are watching and waiting right now.  If she still has fever on Friday we will repeat the lab work.  Praying no more fever!

We did have a good time at the dinner party though.  It took my mind off of stressing for a little while.  And, we got to make a new friend.  Our friend John Mark has met a girl, and he finally brought her to meet us!  Amelia loved entertaining our guests.  Anna Claire had to go to bed early for all of our sanity.  I wish I took pictures.  I truly didn't think about it.  Drew did everything.  He made duck gumbo, and everyone else brought a side.  He did a very good job with the dinner party.  I was impressed.

I think I have said on here that Amelia really loves the moon.  But, as I was picking her up from daycare yesterday, she was very excited to try to find the moon.  She talked about it the whole way home.  So, we went and said hi to the moon as soon as we got home and told it night night.  She is so silly!

Puppy love

For Amelia's birthday, my parent's gave her a furr real puppy.  (Which is the best kind of puppy there is!)  We can just turn it off when we are tired of it.  But, she loves her puppy.  She totes her (Anna Claire) with her everywhere she goes.  She was sitting in Drew's lap on Saturday and saw the puppy, we had forgotten about it, and she says, I want puppy.  Drew looked at me like, oh no.  She has him completely wrapped.  Can get anything she wants!  It was a huge relief when we realized it was the furr real puppy she was talking about!



The puppy isn't too fond of Drew.  Grawls and snaps at him anytime he gets near.  I wonder what that puppy senses in him!

Amelia with her "Anna Claire"

Giggles

Anna Claire is really starting to get quite a little personality.  She is giggling and laughing.  It is absolutely the sweetest thing.  As I was putting her to bed, we sat down in the glidder rocker.  I'm not sure what was so funny, but she got tickled.  And, she just couldn't quit laughing, which made me laugh, which made her laugh more.  It was so cute!

Amelia is getting to be so smart.  We read a story every night, I let her pick it out.  She is starting to recite the books along as we read them.  Such a smart girl!  Now if she could only tell the difference in blue, and all the other colors.  All things are blue now.  Every now and then we will get a pink out of her. 

reaching new milestones

Today, daddy is finally coming home.  It really hasn't been very bad with the girls.  I think I can hold my own with all of this traveling that he does.  Luckily though, he won't be going anywhere anytime soon.  Anna Claire is really starting to grow up.  She has gone the last 2 nights with only getting up to eat once!!!  She woke up this morning at 1:30 and I thought, oh no, she will be up again between 4 and 5.  I didn't hear from her until 6:40!  I was a little nervous, but I am hoping this is a sign of progress.  She is really starting to chunk up, so I think she has stored up calories to help her sleep longer. 

So, typically Amelia would be home with me on Fridays, but today is her school Christmas party, so I took her to daycare.  It was really sad though.  She did not want to go.  She said she wanted to stay home and play with daddy.  When I told her daddy isn't here, she said I want to stay with Anna Claire.  I took her anyway because I really need to get things done around the house.  Daddy got home around 1 then we went to the Christmas party.  It really wasn't very exciting.  I really should have just kept her home.

Enjoying some goodies at the party.  There are some wild kids in her class!

 

Afterwards, we tried to get the girls picture with Santa at the mall.  Well, Anna Claire finally fell asleep for a long overdue nap, and Amelia was just not having it.  She would not sit in Santa's lap for anything.  Santa just so happens to go to our church, so we are going to go see him on Sunday and talk to him and try to make her comfortable with seeing him.  We will see how it goes.

 

Anna Claire had a very exciting day.  We were doing some tummy time, and she finally rolled over from her belly to her back.  I was so proud of her.  I was just trying to get some pictures of how well she holds her head up, but instead I was able to video tape her first roll over.  Amelia rolled over in her sleep the first time, so I missed it.  It was a little shocking though when I went to check on her when she was crying. 

 

My baby is getting so big!  I would upload the video of her rolling, but it really isn't very exciting. 



Sisterly love

Today starts the first for 2 days that it will be just me and the girls.  I am a bit nervous, but we will make it through it.  Daddy is going hunting with some friends in Arkansas.  He was going to take us to Memphis, but traveling with the girls almost seems more stressful.  So, today we just hung out at the house all day.  I do enjoy a lazy day with my girls.  I had planned on trying to start potty training with Amelia today.  But, my friend, Heather and I talked about this, and we decided I should wait until after the new year.  There is just too much going on right now to start all of that.  We had a lot of fun playing.  Amelia really loves her sister.  I think Anna Claire feels the same way.  Amelia really never acts very jealous of Anna Claire.  I think daycare has taught her how to share attention.  But, Anna Claire, not so much.  We sat in Amelia's room and read books.  Anna Claire was fine as long as Amelia wasn't in my lap, but as soon as Amelia sat down, Anna Claire would start screaming.  She is going to be my jealous child.  She's going to have to get over it though.

My girls playing.  Amelia was loving making Anna Claire laugh.  They are so sweet together!

This picture is completely unrelated, but it was on my phone and I saw it when uploading the above pictures, and had to share.  This is Drew being silly at Amelia's birthday party.  Love the crazy eyes!

 

Leaps and bounds

Friday, we had our appointment for Anna Claire's follow up.  All of the doctors were very pleased with how she looks.  Dr. Langham, as much as we love him, is a realist though and is always quick to burst our bubble.  He likes to remind us that even though she is good now, things can change over night.  But, we had to wait until today to get her lab results.  Her bilirubin has dropped from 5.2 to 1!!!!  This is so exciting!!!  Her liver enzymes are still slightly elevated, but returning to normal.  Everyone expected there to be improvement, but not that much.  So, now we just have to keep her healthy.

 



Since she is doing so well, we get to stop some of her medication!  Yay!  Now just antibiotic, but we will keep that for a while.

 

Birthday Celebrations

We finally got to celebrate Amelia's birthday.  We had to travel to Memphis for Anna Claire's doctors appointments, so we decided to take advantage of the weekend.  Friday night, mom and dad watched the girls so Drew and I could have a date.  It was wonderful!  We ate at Firebirds then did a little Christmas shopping. 

Saturday, we had a low key party to celebrate Amelia, just with the family.  I made tacos and rotel, bought cheesy decorations from Walmart, and we had a wonderful time!  It was definitely a lot less stressful than her first birthday!

Getting ready to open presents!

She loves getting presents!

 

This video isn't very exciting, but I love that when Drew asks her, Amelia, what is your puppy's name, she says Anna Claire.  She names all of her babies and animals Anna Claire.  I hope this means that she loves her sister.

 

I didn't get many pictures at all.  I don't even have one of her cake, just a video of her blowing out the candles.  But, it was cute.  Chocolate with white icing with colorful sprinkles with an elmo candle.  We really enjoyed the party!



 

Flashback Friday

It's been a while since I did a flashback Friday, but I wanted to post about Amelia's bday last year.  We had a little get together at our house with a few close family and friends. 

Excited about her birthday present!

Entertaining her guests,

Yummy food waiting to be eaten!

Another view of yummy food!

Painting our Christmas trees.

Excited for some cake!

About to dig in!

Enjoying some yummy cake!

She says, This is good stuff!

On a sugar high!

 

3 months old

Today is Anna Claire's 3 month birthday.  The day started out great.  I had planned on doing better on getting Anna Claire to take good naps, and maybe attempt to get a schedule started.  The morning went fabulous.  She woke up a little before Amelia's nap time.  I planned on us just hanging out for a while then putting her back down for an afternoon nap around 2.  Well, as I was sitting eating lunch, a bunch of trucks pull in front of our house.  We are very blessed that we are getting a new roof out of the storm that came back in October.  This is fabulous, but they were not suppose to come today.  At least not to my knowledge.  So, that shot down any hopes of a good nap schedule starting today, for anybody.  Needless to say, it was a rough afternoon.  I will be glad for the new roof, but even more happy for Friday morning when it is all finished!

Anna Claire is definitely getting a lot of personality.  She is eating like horse.  We are at 6 oz 6 times a day plus a 3 oz bottle at bedtime.  I will be glad when she starts eating real food and we can cut back some on the formula.  Especially since hers is so expensive!  I'm not sure what she weighs, but she is definitely getting heavier.  We go for a check up on Friday, so I will have a lot of stats then.  She is still not a very good sleeper.  That is why I am trying to work on a schedule.  But, she sleeps great till about 1 or 2 then it's pretty rough after that.  She is so sweet though, and has the cutest, biggest smile that takes up her whole face, so it is hard to get too frustrated with her. 

This was the best smiling picture I got.  She was ready for a nap.

This is her normal face.  She loves to have her tongue sticking out!

Dinner time at the Ellis household

Amelia is probably one of the messiest eaters.  She knows how to eat properly.  She does it when we are out, or when she is not completely comfortable where she is, but not so much at home.  So, at home, to prevent food getting caked in her hair, this is what her daddy does to her at dinner time.

Love the sweat band head band!

Happy Birthday, Amelia!

Two years ago today at 9:02 AM, my world was for ever changed and blessed with the birth of my sweet baby girl.  She has been such a joy to my life.  Today, I feel like a terrible mother.  It feels like it was just a regular day.  I had to work, she was suppose to go to daycare.  We were going to bring cupcakes for her to have a party there.  Unfortunately, she started running a fever on Saturday night and today was her first day to be below 100 all day.  So, she stayed home with daddy.  He did take her to McDonalds for a special breakfast.  She then got to visit mommy at work for a check up.  Poor girl has ear infections.  She never complains about anything.  It is hard to know what is wrong with her.  I thought we would take her to get ice cream tonight, but that didn't work out either.  She did have some friends from church come visit and bring her a present, so that was fun.  The celebrating will continue this weekend though.  She will get to celebrate just a little late.  Hopefully I will do better in the future with making her birthday day a little more special.

So, Amelia's stats.  I really have no idea exact values.  We measured her height tonight and it was 35.5 inches, and she weighed 30#s a month ago.  She is starting to slim up.  I really don't think she has changed much in a month.  She wears a 2T, she is still in diapers.  She is definitely a very active little girl.  She is starting to get shy.  Some of her favorite things, breakfast (she could eat breakfast for every meal), Elmo, Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Minnie Mouse, reading books, playing in dirt, all animals, her little sister, swinging, the moon, and princesses.  She is the smartest, funniest little girl I know.  She brings so much joy to my life.  My favorite thing is to hear her laugh, sing, talk to her babies or toys.  I just love everything about my little girl.

Happy Birthday, Amelia!  Mommy and daddy love you!

Amelia's birthday

1st birthday!

2nd birthday!

Amelia's Happy Birthday

Monday will be Amelia's 2nd birthday.  I can't believe it!  I've been talking to her all week about her birthday because instead of a birthday party this year we were going to take her to see Sesame Street Live.  Well, I didn't know what she would think of a big elmo, so I've been trying to get her excited about it all week.  I also wanted to make sure that she would understand that Elmo was going to be adult size.  So, she has been a little confused about her birthday.  She really doesn't know when it is.  Last night was a little hectic and I had a dinner planned, but daddy said, let's just go out to eat.  So, we went to the pizza place in Indianola.  Amelia was so cute when we got there, she says, Amelia's Happy Birthday.  She thought we were going for her birthday.  I just let her think that.  We did go ahead and give her her birthday present last night.  A radio flyer pink tricycle.  It is the cutest thing ever! 

She hasn't quite figured out how to petal yet, but it will come.

 

Today, we drove to Vicksburg for Elmo live.  We had to get there by 10 for the meet and greet.  I was a little nervous about how the girls would do, but they both did great.  The show lasted 1.5 hrs and AC actually stayed awake for the whole show, only slept during the 15 min intermission.  She loved it.  We had front row middle seats.  It was perfect.  The characters interacted with Amelia, she loved it!  She even did well sitting in Elmo's lap.  Maybe we will make it through Santa this year.  We all had a lot of fun, but were exhausted after all the driving and show watching.

Amelia with Ernie and Elmo.

The family photo

Amelia had a blue raspberry snow cone.  Let's just say, she was a bit crazy on the beginning part of the ride home.

AC watching the show.  I really think she has a future in show business.  She loves all things theatrical!  She even turned her head too as the different characters spoke.

So far, Amelia's Happy Birthday has been a lot of fun, and it isn't even her birthday yet.  Lots more celebrating will be done!