Happy great-grandmothers

So Emma has two great-grandmothers, Audrey and Dot, gazing down on her from heaven, proud as can be that she has a little bit of both of them in her: Emma has a pretty bad temper that goes from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds, and she will let you know EXACTLY what she thinks about what you're doing right at that moment. Emma's temper has gradually gotten worse - more screaming and crying over the least little thing, and then her throat starts to close up. That's what's so bad about the temper. Crying because she has a tummyache or a dirty/wet diaper, is hungry or tired...those are different cries, and her throat doesn't close. But for some reason the stress and force of an angry cry makes her throat start to close up, and then we have to try to get her out of it. Then she kind of comes to and gets all groggy. It's all very strange and scary. She started off this way Wednesday night, but then the crying grew into a screaming, cat-like cry that we've never, ever heard before. It was so loud and new that I took her temp twice, thinking that maybe this was a new sickness she'd never experienced. But...no temperature. Our best guess now is that she was sleepy, mad, and had a tummyache all at the same time. Russell put Emma tummy down on a pillow on his lap, and she eventually calmed down and went to sleep. Then came the turning point: the transition to her crib upstairs. I tried to convince Russell that he could sleep in the recliner, but he wasn't buying it. So I carried the little princess upstairs on her pillow...can you believe how spoiled she is?! But if you've had a screaming, crying baby calm down, you do everything you have to to keep the peace.



Thankfully, I got Emma upstairs and in her crib without incident.

Emma's had some more gas pain today - pretty bad pain, actually. So tonight Russell has her draped across his lap on her tummy again, in her good relief position. Lola went back to my parents' house for a few days and came back home again today, so she hasn't been left here at home by herself to act up again. But she sure has become less scared and intimidated by Emma. In this picture, Lola is laid out up against Emma's legs while Russell scratches her belly...and with her head completely hanging off the couch. I have no idea how this is comfortable, but I'm typing this 15 minutes after I just took that picture, and her head is still hanging off, upside down. I may need to make sure she's still alive.



Well, that's it for now I guess. Oh, wait, I did find out a little bit of information about Emma's Chiari malformation decompression surgery from another mom whose child had it and from Vicki, Dr. Troup's nurse. We go to see Dr. Troup on Monday to talk about the surgery and just get more information. Emma will be in the hospital for approximately a week, and she'll most likely be able to lie on her back. The incision will probably be at the top or middle of the back of her neck; it just depends on how far down her brain stem is pulled into her spinal column. I don't know exactly how far down it is right now, but I think I'll find that out on Monday when we meet with Dr. Troup and Vicki.

I have a busy weekend ahead, but I hope to have time to blog a little. Everyone have a fantastic weekend!