Guess we're back to the sleeping bag jammies . . .

Picture explanation: We had a crib bumper on her crib but she moves around A TON in her crib. Actually, she moves around A TON all the time. After a few times of finding her with her face smashed into the crib bumper we decided to take it out. I'd rather her tweak her arm or leg then suffocate. (One's permanent, the other isn't). So, that's why we took the crib bumper off. But after the first few nights/naps she figured it out and now I have blankets shoved along the edge of the crib so she can't push her binkie out onto the floor as easily.

6 months.

Milestones:
On Sunday I was asking my MIL if she thought that Elea made sounds like a normal baby. Because up to that point, she very rarely made any noise at all, except for when she cried and the sound "geee".
Jeff thinks she heard me "talking trash," because starting Monday morning she has become way more vocal. When she gets frustrated she gets almost loud. It's pretty funny. Her noises have grown in variety too. She doesn't "babble" much except for when she has her binky in.

I feel like she's almost been trained in a "Pavlov's dogs" sort of way. Whenever we click our tongues on the roof of our mouths, she smiles. For about 2 seconds. And then goes straight faced again.

All of a sudden she likes to sleep on her back. It's weird. It's going to look awesome if she rubs a bald spot on the back of her head.

She spends a lot of time on her tummy on the floor. We spread some toys all around a big blanket and she scoots around to play with them. By scooting I mean that she draws her knees up under her and then tries to move forward on her face. Usually it just results in moving away from what she is trying to get to instead of making progress towards it. But now she's figured out that she can just reach out and grab the blanket in front of her and pull her arm back and it brings the toy to her.

She can roll from her tummy onto her back but hasn't really figured out how to get back to her tummy again (on purpose at least).

She's starting to understand peek-a-boo and actually smiles instead of just looking at me like I'm a complete idiot.

False Alarm.

This week has been stressful. It feels like Monday was a month ago, not 2 days ago.

It all started out normal, I took Elea to her 6 month Doc appt. She has gotten back up to the 50th percentile for height and 45th percentile for weight (up from 25% since we started her on formula). Her head circumference is getting bigger on the percentile scale every time, last time it was 70th and this time it was in the 80th percentile. Big heads run in the family, what can I say.

Then the doctor starts telling me how because her face is narrow and the bridge of her nose is flat and wide it gives her the appearance of having crossed eyes. In my head I'm thinking, yes, I know, we've covered this. . . Then he does the light test and the reflection is on the pupil in both eyes. So she really doesn't have crossed eyes, it just looks like she does sometimes. It's called pseudo_____________ (whatever the medical term for crossed eyes is). But she's adorable so who cares.

Anyway, so that was great and then the doctor does the hip check thing. And he says he feels a "clunk." Not a click, a clunk. Then he says that he has to go check with the head doc in the practice to find out if they can do the ultrasound in Cedar or not. He thinks she has congenital hip dysplasia. So then he comes back and says that they can do the ultrasound in the hospital in town, and not to worry too much, yada yada. He also gave us a referral to an orthopedic surgeon. Then Elea gets her immunizations and handles them like a champ, I am very glad though that this is the last round of shots for awhile. On the way home I called Jeff and he instantly got really stressed out. So then I get home and call my mom and ask her what she knows about it. She says that she doesn't think it's a big deal, and looks it up online.

Congenital hip dysplasia/dislocation is when the baby's hip socket in utero is pushed out of joint and the head of the femur bone never gets back into place once the baby is born. So it's fixed by a brace, and if that doesn't work, then they put the baby under anesthesia and ram it back into place (delicately, I'm sure) and if that doesn't work then they have to do surgery. Then my mom starts describing the brace and it's a shoulder to toe contraption that has to fit just right or it can be ineffective or problematic. Fantastic. If the problem isn't corrected the child limps and/or walks like a duck the rest of their lives.

We went down to St. George to pick up Jeff's computer and met his parents for dinner. His dad has a way of just saying over and over whatever Jeff needs to hear. This time it was, "Everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be fine. She is healthy. Be thankful she is as healthy as she is." (and repeat). When we got home later that night Jeff and Jace gave Elea a blessing.

Then Tuesday I took her to the hospital to get the ultrasound. 2 1/2 hours, 1 bottle and 1 poopie diaper later, they finally called us back to get the ultrasound. Supposedly there is only 1 radiologist in the whole hospital that can oversee that kind of ultrasound and he doesn't do appts until 2 hours after they scheduled my appt. Anyway, he was a nice guy and him and the ultrasound tech were good with elea. He looked and looked and moved her leg all around and pushed on it and tugged on it and didn't see or feel a thing. So then I asked if it was worth seeing the orthopedic surgeon and he said that it never hurts to get a second opinion. And he also ordered an x-ray just to be thorough.

So I left the hospital feeling a little better about things.

Then today Jeff and I drove down to the orthopedic guy in St. George (we weren't huge fans of trusting one in Cedar). His dad was able to get us an appt. w/the surgeon who did his knee replacement. He checked her legs and looked at her x-ray and didn't see or feel anything either. She's totally fine. If she walks like a duck or with a limp it will be because she has her mother's coordination, not because of congenital hip dysplasia that was left untreated. The orthopedic guy seemed almost apologetic that he didn't find anything wrong. . . which was weird because it was the best news we could have heard, obviously.

So yay for it being a false alarm. Not cool that there was an alarm in the first place because between that and her trip to the ER for her RSV a couple weeks ago I think we're going to be meeting the health insurance $1000 deductible for the year 2 weeks into 2009. Fabulous.

I'm just grateful we were able to get it checked out so quick. And maybe next time I'm gonna try and see the specialist before the tests are done. Because honestly, I think that he wouldn't have even bothered with the ultrasound or x ray to begin with. So who knows if there was a clunk on Monday and the blessing healed it. Or if there wasn't anything to begin with. I'm very grateful that giving her a blessing was an option and that it's all good now.

And sorry Derek, you don't get to call her Elea Gump anymore.

Elea's feeling better!

So last week I ended up taking Elea to the E.R. Not because it was really an emergency but because it was New Year's morning and it was the only medical facility open within 50 miles. She had had an insane runny nose the days before and a mild temp but Thursday morning she did not look good at all. And she was acting like she didn't feel good which was what made me the most nervous. And she was basically refusing to drink anything. The E.R. doc said she had an ear infection and a cold. He ordered a breathing treatment and when the respiratory therapist came in he kept talking like she had RSV. So then we were a little confused. He did give us one of those giant green bulb syringes which is pretty fabulous except that now if it gets within 12 inches of Elea's face she starts thrashing her head around, crying/yelling, kicking her feet while simultaneously issuing a series of karate chops with her arms until the syringe is no longer aimed at her face.

But besides that it works fantastic.

Friday she seemed even worse than Thursday. Shanna had lent us her breathing machine (nebulizer?) so I called our pediatrician to see if they would prescribe her something but when I described her symptoms the pediatrician wanted to see her himself. So we took her in and her oxygen level was still good so he didn't do an official RSV test but he said that all the symptoms pointed to RSV but that we caught it early. And he didn't see any sign of an ear infection. So who knows what was going on with the ER doc, but I trust our pediatrician- he's very thorough. He also said that the 5th day was always the worst and then they start to turn around. And that was about the 5th day, luckily. So since then I have kept her on lock down. Partly for her sake, partly for the sake of all the other little babies around.

One would think that since I have been home for almost 2 weeks straight I would be getting all sorts of things done around the house. Yeah, not really. I feel more like a giant snot rag than anything else at this point. She is doing much better though and I am so glad. Now that she's breathing easier she has been sleeping 12 hours at night (not completely straight through, mind you). I don't know if it's because she's still fighting the bug(s) or if it's angels descending from heaven on my behalf. I guess we'll see.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our 4 year anniversary. Jeff asked me today if it felt like 4 years. I told him I felt like we've been married for forever. He took that as an insult. . . I meant it as a good thing. I'll try to tone down the butterflies and rainbows but I am a really lucky girl to be married to him. The other day I was sitting on the couch while he vacuumed with Elea in a baby bjorn on his chest. Not many men are willing to take care of their kid while cleaning all on their own just because they want to. I am seriously spoiled. Except for a couple of months early on, I have been able to stay off the anti-depressants since we've been married too-- so that's a good indicator of our life together I suppose.

So anyway, yay for anniversaries. I'll probably post a picture of our wedding if I get around to scanning it in the next day or 2. Crazy how being married ages a person. I think I looked exactly the same when I graduated high school and when I got married. But definitely don't look the same now.