EMTV

My sister got to spend the whole day with Emma today! Anissa came into town late last night. She has seen Emma before and spent many days with her, but all of those times were in the hospital when Emma was hooked up to monitors and looking and sounding all pitiful. But now - what a difference! Don't get me wrong, she still has her issues, but how wonderful for Anissa to be able to hold her and snuggle her however she wants and however much she wants. And Emma has a video monitor that we can't live without, which Anissa has coined Emtv.

Emma has been pretty good since I last blogged, and I have lots to report. It's just a matter of finding time to blog! I have gone back to 5-day work weeks, and it's glorious. I've been working around the corner from my parents' house for most of this week, so Emma and I have been staying with them. Needless to say, my parents are really enjoying having Emma in their house and sleeping in her crib in their bedroom...well, enjoying it until she wakes up at 5:30. But then she just gets in the bed with Nan, and all is right with the world again.

Emma has made some trips to come see me at work this week, and she has loved getting out and going, of course. We have quickly discovered more and more that quieting Emma (in most cases) simply requires going outside. It's rather unfortunate that it's 100+ degrees outside, but sometimes you just have to pick the lesser of two evils. Anyway, one day Emma came to visit and fell asleep in my arms. My 16-pounder was getting a little heavy, so I leaned against the counter. That turned into letting her rest on the counter and one of my arms...which developed into her lying on the counter all by herself. We of course were hovering over her, but here is a picture of our sleepy, dead-to-the-world baby.



The last time I blogged I mentioned that my coworker had Emma laughing - Russell has now taken over as the best at everything: making Emma laugh, making Emma smile, helping her calm down, and just plain entertaining her. He REALLY had her laughing the other night - definitely the cutest thing I've ever seen to see my beloved husband getting so much enjoyment out of making our daughter make the cutest noises with the biggest gummy smile. My mom calls her her little gummy bear because Emma smiles these huge smiles and all you see is gums. We're waiting for teeth to come through, but right now it's precious to see all her gums.

Emma had her first visit at the Shriner's Hospital on Tuesday afternoon, and she had her entire entourage with her - me, my mom, Russell, and his mom. Emma had x-rays of her spine, feet, and ankles, and she had some urinary tests as well. Her spine was a little crooked, but it could have been the way she was laying. Her feet and ankles look ok, too, just a few bones that are a little crooked in one of her feet. We still don't think that Emma has much feeling in her feet, but her overall leg motion is good. The orthopedist said that the flexion in her right foot is a little pointed, so we have to stretch her foot into a flexed position more. She also has very loose hip sockets, so there's a pretty good chance that her hips will come out of the socket later. The best case scenario is that they both stay in, of course. Second best is that they both come out, and worst is if one comes out and one stays in - then one leg would appear slightly longer than the other. They don't really surgically correct this because over time, her hips would either get really stiff and straight or really stiff and bent. This was a hard pill to swallow because I don't like to look that far into the future. I'm not in denial about Emma's mobility issues, but we have enough to deal with right at the moment with Emma's swallowing and breathing problems. It's just so hard to hear about all the other difficulties in the distant future. Right now, I'm asking God for her to be able to eat, breathe, swallow, crawl, roll over...all the other things that 5-month-old babies do. We also found out good news and a little bit of bad news about Emma's bladder - it doesn't reflux urine back into her kidneys, but it's a little on the small side. She also has a bladder infection that Jean, the spina bifida nurse, believes is from Emma's frequent dirty diapers. Luckily, Emma hasn't been showing any symptoms, and she got some antibiotics today. We are still fighting some horrific diaper rash...poor Emma just poops all the time. And every time she chokes, she poops - this alone happens about 10 times a day. Sweet Emma has just got all kinds of problems going on. So in the meantime, I just try to think about how cute she is laughing now and how much she enjoys her sugary medicine.

Other small developments with Miss Emma are that she has figured out she can twirl her hair, just like her mommy. I have always twirled my hair...ALWAYS. And I still do it to this day. Emma has also found her ears, and no matter how much we cut her fingernails, she still manages to cut the insides of her ears and make them bleed. Her head control is improving significantly, almost on a daily basis. We are going to have a great weekend with Anissa and then prepare for a great swallow study on Monday. Please pray that Emma's swallowing function is improving. Time for me to go to bed and rinse out my hair - I smell Emma's spit from when she decided to knaw on a fistful of my hair, unbeknownst to me until it was too late.