Ella and her snack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI4aCLQiiPo&feature=player_detailpage

Really Mom... Really?

8 months old

It's true my baby is growing up! At 8 months old she can roll from her stomach to back, her coordination has greatly improved she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, occasionally she can even sit unassisted for a few seconds before toppling over! Ella loves her pets. Sophie (one of our doggies) is her best friend, it is amazing how much they love each other! She is also eating quite a bit of solid food at this point and is becoming disinterested in the bottle. I have a feeling this is going to lead to a plateau in her weight gain. She is around 14 pounds and today I switched her entire wardrobe over from 0-3 months to 3-6. They will be a little bit big on her, but not too bad.

 It must be hard being this beautiful!

PiCtUrEs

I am very behind on blogging. December was kind of a crazy month. Between the holidays, hospital visits and FINALIZATION I fell behind. Since I fully realize that everyone is only here to see the darling baby here ya go!

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.