A welcome change

It's been a bit of a roller coaster week with Emma. She really hasn't slept well, and we just can't figure it out. We finally did the hardest thing of all and just let her cry it out. I think it's even harder for us to do now because this summer we COULDN'T let her cry it out...her throat would close up, and she'd stop breathing. As difficult as it was and continues to be, Emma does go back to sleep after about 5 minutes of crying. We still don't know why she wakes up so upset, but I hope it ends soon!

The welcome change I'm speaking of in the title of this blog entry started with something we've been dreading and been on the lookout for, something that plagues many kids with spina bifida: constipation. Gross, I know, but birth defects aren't pretty. We had thought that we were escaping this awful side effect, but this week taught us differently. My mom had to take some rather unpleasant measures to help Miss Emma out; in the meantime, I looked up a recipe for homemade prune baby food. Here's where the welcome change comes in - YOWZA, do the prunes work! So this week kinda of knocked me down a bit, but I was blessed to find that the food I made helped out my little girl.

Emma is getting into things now, and she's always looking for something to grab while she's in her Bumbo seat. This makes it extremely difficult to feed her - it's like trying to feed Ray Charles with all that swaying from side to side. A lot of parents dread the day that their kids starting grabbing for everything in sight - we love it! Get into anything and everything you want to, sweet girl - we're thankful for your vivacious personality! That vivacious personality is what will drive you to succeed. We thank God for you every day, and the thanksgiving holiday has never meant so much.

My sister is coming into town tonight, very late. It's been a long time since Anissa has seen Emma, and I just know we're all going to have a fantastic time this week and weekend. My mom, my sister, and I have a long-standing tradition of Black Friday shopping...long before anybody ever started calling it Black Friday. Last year we stayed up all night in Gaffney at the outlets for the first time and THEN hit the mall in Greenville. This year I'm not sure what we'll do - I'm waaaaay ahead on my Christmas shopping - HOORAY! I'm going to try extra hard to get my house decorated for Christmas during the morning hours - that's when Emma's in the best mood and tolerates being in her swing, Bumbo, Exersaucer, etc. for extended periods of time. Emma loves loud, crumply paper - which means easy gift-wrapping. Emma will be entertained with wrapping paper scraps for hours this year, let me assure you.

Ok, time for bed - no work until Monday! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and please remember to be thankful for the little things in your lives. We have learned about (and grieved over) the things Emma can't do, and we hope that others are thankful for those abilities...but at the same time, we are also thankful for the things that Emma CAN do that some parents still don't get to experience: the beautiful smiles, grabbing at anything in a 1-foot radius, and pulling my and Lola's hair! Now on to praying for an uninterrupted night of sleep...

Lots to tell

Last week Emma had a very important visit - she went to the First Presbyterian Healing Service to meet, in person, another one of her "families." After we learned of Emma's diagnosis last year, we began visiting the Healing Service at the invitation of some friends of ours who are members at First Pres. Over the following months, these prayer ministers prayed and loved and loved and prayed over our baby girl! So we finally had an opportunity to bring Emma to meet these loved ones. But first...

We were getting Emma dressed to go, and Russell was putting Emma's tights on her. He got this far



and said, "I just can't do this to her." Men. Please. Welcome to our world.

Anyway, when we did make it to the Healing Service, Emma really enjoyed meeting everyone after the service was over. She was a little hyper, which was just funny. So it was hard to get a good picture of her at the front of the chapel, especially since her mouth falls open in amazement as soon as a camera goes up.





We have no idea why, but Emma has started holding her arms up in the air when she eats. Imagine if we all did some sort of arm workout as we ate (besides the act of bringing food to our mouths!).



Emma had a few tests done on Thursday at the Shriner's Hospital and at the regular hospital to check on her bladder and kidneys. Her bladder is just a little small, but there's really no change since the last time they did this test. Her kidneys look fine, too. They're culturing her urine to make sure that her bladder infection is gone - hopefully it is, but even if it's totally gone, we'll still give her an antibiotic every day in case her bladder doesn't fully empty on its own. If it doesn't empty, it can allow bacteria to grow. As far as what to do about this later...we'll worry about it later. In the meantime, all we can do is give her an antibiotic, and that's what we're doing. Done with that topic.

Our nephew, Mason, turned the big 3 on Friday, and his birthday party was Saturday afternoon. He really enjoyed his tractor party, and Emma tried to enjoy it. She slept on the way there and on the way back but never REALLY got a good nap in. So she spent all of Mason's party wavering between sleepy and happy. Being outside generally makes her happy...so it also kept her awake. As a result, she slept for 12 glorious hours Saturday night. Here are a few shots of her loving on her sweet ZeeZee:







And here is a pitiful, stop-taking-pictures-of-me-and-let-me-sleep look Emma was giving me in the car on the way home before we both fell asleep.



After sleeping so well on Saturday night, Emma didn't sleep so well last night. She was very upset for a while Sunday evening, and she woke up a couple times during the night crying, almost like she was in pain. A new tooth perhaps? She drools all the time anyway, so that's not a good gauge...she was chewing on her burp cloths pretty intensely yesterday...I hope that's all it is.

You know what really annoys me?

Those parents who put those ridiculous hats on their kids' heads.

Our poor little sick one

I mentioned on my last post that Emma had the beginnings of a cold and that it wasn't bad yet. How quickly that changed. I stayed home from work on Wednesday to take care of her and take her to the doctor. The doctor confirmed that it's just a cold and that there are no signs of infection anywhere. That's really important because a bad infection could really harm my mom, who has severe asthma. So Emma had a few bad nights of trying to sleep, but bless her heart, she just couldn't breathe. Having her binky in her mouth is what really puts her to sleep, but she couldn't breathe through her nose, so she'd spit the binky out, and then she'd cry, and we'd put the binky back on...and you can see how this vicious cycle can last for hours at night. All in all, though, Emma really did the best you could expect. She was in a great mood during the day all week, even though she had some of the worst choking/coughing fits I've ever heard. She just never could catch her breath and would choke continuously for 5 to 10 minutes.

Today we could tell a big difference in Emma's cold recovery - she didn't choke nearly as much. We had such a nice, relaxing Sunday, and I couldn't have asked for a better day with my family!

Emma has been REALLY into trying to sit up. The problem is that her trunk control isn't the best because her head is technically still pretty big for her age. So you still have to semi-support her and make sure she doesn't just tip over. And sometimes she gets FURIOUS if she can't sit up exactly how she wants to. A slight recline isn't good enough. So one night this week she helped me fold laundry - she got to sit up AND play in the clothes.




PS - Buy our house!

We'll make this one short and sweet...

...because the chicken's in the oven and Emma's taking a much-needed nap.

Here's the short: Emma has a cold. It's not terrible...yet. She has slept pretty well at night in spite of it.

We had a delightful visit with my cousin and her daughter...who would be my cousin, too....actually, they're like fourth cousins, 3 times removed or some crazy relationship that I could never actually figure out how to label. Anyway, Jones just turned one year old, and she and her wonderful mommy, Alison, were sweet enough to come over since it was Election Day and I had the day off. And we somehow didn't take any pictures...Alison, what were we thinking?

Here's the sweet:



Laughing at Daddy




Happy to be a Tiger (before they lost to Boston College)


Being goofy with Daddy and sucking on her binky backwards

Welp, nap's over. That was a short 45 minutes!