7 months

I am behind on my blogging! Here are Ellas 7 month pics. She is getting big. 13 pounds and about 22 inches long. She recently had her bronchoscopies done, and she does have some mild tracheomalacia (floppiness of the airway) and subglottic stenosis (a very small airway about that of a 35 week preemie). The tracheomalacia she will grow out of between 18 and 24 months of age. The small airway we really don't know what will happen. She is doing well enough that right now we wont be doing anything. However as she gets bigger and becomes mobile she may not be able to move enough air. She is very far from being mobile, so fingers crossed it will just get bigger on its own.

Merry Christmas!

Life would be easier if she wasn't so smart!

For anyone who doesn't already know. The life of a preemie is always an adventure. Last week Ella was hospitalized for a high fever. Normally she would have been able to stay at the hospital I work at, but simply because she is Ella (and has a fairly lengthy respiratory arrest history) she got transferred to Primary Children's. Everything turned out fine. She had some type of a virus. I have a feeling that it likely wont be the last time something like this happens.

The thing that is really disturbing is how quickly Ella learns to distrust people. For a few days after being in the hospital she wanted to be held, and went nuts if I put her in her crib even if she was already asleep. This wasn't her first picnic... and she clearly remembers. She was this way to a lesser degree when she was in the NICU. It makes me nervous that the older she gets and the more frequent people are "mean" to her the more emotional scarring it will leave on her little psyche. It kills me that we are going back in 9 days for her scopes. The fact that as soon as she regains trust we are going right back just makes me plain sad. The scopes are unfortunately completely necessary and need to be done before she gets sick again. So I guess we have no choice.  

Rolling

She finally did it! Backwards from what I had expected tummy to back.

Santa!

First Thanksgiving

It was Ellas first Thanksgiving and I have allot to be thankful for, I'm sure you don't need the list!

She ate "real" food today and did FABULOUS! She had cereal mixed with prune juice. I also fed her rainbow jello (good parenting...I know). I didn't think she was ready for solids but I guess I grossly underestimated her!

In true Thanksgiving fashion she promptly fell asleep after her meal. I was kind of tempted to reach over and unbutton her pants too!

We had a gingerbread house/train decorating contest while she napped...

Of course my team won. Although it may have been rigged simply because I had the 5 year old on my team, but hey I'll take it! Played a little and then...

6 Months old

I can't believe my precious little one is 6 months old. Six months ago I was likely one of the most neurotic people on the planet! Being a Mom is starting to feel normal for the most part. Our lives never quite seem to settle down completely it is always something around here. Maybe after the holidays?

Health wise Ella is really doing well all things considered. Since receiving her tubes we have been battling an ear infection that was finally cultured and is staph and strep, so that is now being treated successfully. This left us unable to get a new hearing test, so we still are unsure what she hears. As her Mother I can say with confidence she hears most things. We will look into a new test in a few weeks. We met with the pulmonologist today and he thinks she looks good. He will be teaming up with her ENT on December 20th to perform a broncoscopy (flexible and rigid) to really see if there is something wrong with her airway. Hopefully that goes well! It is only supposed to be about an hour, but that being said he underestimated my daughter, tubes are supposed to take 15 minutes, catch my drift?

Her pediatrician if thrilled with how she is developing. This month he plotted her growth on the normal chart and her head (15.4 inches) is actually on it! It is the 5th percentile. Her height (almost 22 inches) and her weight (11.8) are not actually on the chart, but they aren't too far from hitting the bottom. He was impressed with her growth curve as is doesn't curve, but instead aims straight up. He feels that if this is maintained she may actually be a petite, but "regular" sized person. Projections in the past have put her being very small. He thinks that she is ready to start trying solids. I am not ready, but I guess we'll give it a try. This is perfect timing. You see as a single Mom I have found one of the main things I'm missing is a camera crew. My hands are busy and I don't have anyone to take pictures. However on Thursday (Thanksgiving) she can have an audience (one who doubles as a camera crew!) while she gets her first bite!

What I have seen lately: she is just starting to grab toys and hold onto them. She likes linkies. She does not however know what to do with it once it is in her hand. She loves to eat, suck on, chew her hands and fingers. For a time she did allot of babbling, now she just likes to spit and do raspberries (that must be more fun). She has no interest in rolling for her tummy to back, but she is sure trying to go from her back to tummy and she will likely succeed at that shortly. She scoots everywhere on her back and she is fast. She is never where I left her. Lastly and for sure one of my favorites is she gives Mommy open-mouth kisses!!!

She hasn't changed one bit!

3 days

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months!

Bald is beautiful?

A couple of weeks ago Ella's hair started coming out. I am not talking normal baby hair loss, but spots of smooth skin that is also loosing pigment. I tried everything and nothing helped. So today the pediatrician told me it was severe eczema. I really hate to sound superficial but as a parent the hair loss is really disconcerting. It is possible that this is so hard for me based on race. It is hard to be a white Mom with a black child. Even though I know it is not my fault I feel like I failed her. Her birth-parents didn't have a problem with my age, or me being single, but they cringed at the fact that I am blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Were they right? Would I screw up her hair and skin?

before

now

This breaks my heart. I hope we can get it fixed soon. On a much funnier side-note the following picture makes me laugh...

No, this isn't everything! Does is not scream white lady, black baby?!?!

New pictures, enjoy!

My little Emmanuel Lewis?

My brother always tells me that Ella looks like Emmauel Lewis. Truth be told I'd be lying if I didn't say I can see a few similarities. Maybe she is destined for stardom! 

 

An uneventful ER trip

On Saturday I could tell Ella wasn't feeling well. She was a little bit warm, had some diarrhea. All in all not that big of a deal. That night was my nieces super hero birthday party, so off we went. Once we got to my brother's house she was on fire. She was super warm and her cheeks turned bright red. She was so uncomfortable. I gave her some Tylenol and she remained hot and became inconsolable. She just wouldn't calm down and normally she is such a good baby. So I finally decided she better be seen. I thought she probably had an ear infection. It was a Saturday night. I really had no other option than just to go to the ER. To make a long story short once we got there she smiled at all of the nurses her fever was close to gone (because of the Tylenol) so I looked dumb, was told she had a virus and we went home. Sigh.

She did look cute with her red cheeks though!

Witches breakfast & Pumkin carving

My nieces bithday was on Monday when Ella was in the hospital. I also didn't know at the time I would be taking Ella to the ER during her party (story for later) Luckily I took her to witches breakfast at Gardner Villiage. She is a cute kid.

Later we went shopping and carved pumpins. Ella helped be sleeping and not bothering us while our hands were covered in guts!

The finished products

Quins Spiderman, Laura (my sis-in-law's Bat)

Mommy and Ella

Luxie's Monster High