Emily is 3 Years and 4 Months Old!

Hard to believe another month has passed!  Here's a glimpse into life with our big girl!

- Emily has started to notice differences in people.  Recently we were in Walmart and our cashier was an elderly lady.  Emily said, "Look at my new shirt Little Old Lady!" Thank goodness Walmart is about the loudest place on earth to shop and the lady didn't hear her...

- Alongside this realization that people are different is Emily new love of asking EVERYONE what their name is.  It goes something like this:
Emily notices a complete stranger- anyone, anywhere. "What's your name?" (and then, before then can answer...) "My name is Emily Claire Ferguson.  My mommy's name is Allison."
The person usually responds and then she will talk to them about how she is Tinkerbell (or Cinderella, or Ariel, or some made up name she created right there), she is 3 years old, etc. etc.  I want to talk to her about not talking to strangers but I feel like I'd be wasting my breath!  For now I'll settle with not letting her out of my sight...

- She wrote Paul's name this month- I am not even kidding!  She asked him how to spell his name while she was playing on her MagnaDoodle.  He spelled the letters and she wrote them down-- I think she did an amazing job:

 

- She has gotten to play outside a little bit as we've had some warmer weather.  It's so nice to let her run and play!  And of course she loves it too: 

- She is back to napping most days at school, thanks mostly to her sticker chart.  She loooooooves earning stickers and prizes!  It was so stressful for us to hear that she was having behavior issues at school and she certainly is easier to manage at night if she's had a nap..so it's definitely a win-win for everyone. Part of me wishes she would just nap out of the goodness of her heart, but she won't and that's ok. If she needs to earn stickers then that's just fine.

- She has decided (much to my dismay) to stop attending Dancenastics class on Saturdays.  For whatever reason (I think it's because the class now has about 12 girls in it regularly instead of the original 4-5) she has decided that it's not fun anymore and she doesn't want to go.  We forced her to go last weekend and told her she had to try it one more time...after class she was still saying she didn't want to go again and so we are not going to push it with her.  If she's not having fun anymore I'm not going to make her go to something she doesn't like.  Once we move back home this summer I will look into getting her into another class- maybe dance, maybe tumbling, maybe soccer? Who knows?  I wish she had made it to the recital this spring because I'm sure it would be PRECIOUS but I don't want to make her do it if she doesn't like it anymore.

- She is completely obsessed with The Little Mermaid. I mean OBSESSED!  She is constantly either watching it, pretending to be in it, playing with the figurines, etc.  She was watching the other day and Granny asked her if Prince Eric was good looking....Emily looked straight at her and said, "Uh, YEAH!"  It was so cute. I keep teasing Paul that she's in love for the first time, haha!

- I am contemplating a haircut for her (again).  Since her birthday, when I cut it for the first time, it has grown a lot and it is SO hard to manage!  Every single morning is a fight- she hates to have it brushed (despite using detangling spray), runs away, cries, yells, etc. It's misery!  I want her to be happy and more and more I wonder if that means having shorter hair.  I am filled with dread every morning when it's time to do hair!

That's our update for this month.  Make sure you look for more pictures on the Picasa albums!

My precious girl

Last night I told Emily goodnight and mentioned I wasn't feeling well. 
She asked me why. 
I said I thought I was getting a cold. 
She asked why I was cold. 
I said I wasn't COLD, I was getting a cold...when your nose is runny and your head hurts and you don't feel good. 
She said I should take some medicine. 
I told her I would. 
She touched my cheek so gently and said, "I will make you feel better, my precious girl." 

Melted. My. Heart. I don't know where this sudden burst of sweetness is coming from, but I love it!  She is compassionate, gentle, loving...it's so precious.  She is melting Paul and I both with the unexpected hugs and kisses.  I love that sweet girl so much it hurts.

Valentine's Day 2011

The Ferguson family just had Valentine's Day. Audrey slept through all of it :).  Emily loves her new Disney Fairies doll from Daddy!  She was so excited and keeps flying Vidia (doll), all around the house.  Vidia matches the Tinkerbell doll that Grandaddy bought her and she noticed on the back that they also sell Silvermist, Rosetta, Fawn, and Iridessa... so I see some potential gift options for her in the future!

Daddy loves his gift from me, a photo scrapbook of our journey together over the past 9 years. And I love my two 1-hour massage gift certificates from him!! Love my sweet family so much! We're making a special dinner tonight- braised short ribs and garlic mashed potatoes...mmmmm! Happy Valentine's Day!

Baby's First Hospitalization

We've had quite a rough couple of days with poor Audrey.  As I mentioned in her Monthly Update, she has been sick again recently.  Over last weekend, she would have periods of looking rough- lots of retracting, grunting, tugging, etc., but then it would sort of get a little better and we wouldn't feel AS worried. We specifically noticed a huge decline in her appearance and heightened breathing trouble after she would drink her bottle. However, we decided to go ahead and send her to Miss Jamey on Monday since she appeared to be better on Monday morning.

On Monday afternoon Jamey let us know that Audrey wasn't looking very good and so Paul called and got her an appointment with our pediatrician.  He took her in and she received a breathing treatment (albuterol) to see if she couldn't do better.  Her pulse oxygen level was in the high 80s...normal is close to 100.  Our pediatrician observed her for a while and decided she needed to go to the emergency department at the hospital to be assessed there.  Around this time I was getting out of work and called Paul, who told me what was happening.  I quickly called my in-laws to come down and help us, and called Jamey to see if Emily could go over there for a little while while we took Audrey to the hospital.  Luckily it worked out that my in-laws could make it and Jamey was a saint and allowed Emily to come play over there too.  We were (and are!) so grateful to all of them.

I met Paul at the hospital and we were seen by the peds residents and attendings.  Audrey was checked for RSV and the flu and tested negative for both of them.  She had a chest x ray and it was found that she has a pneumonia in one of her lungs. At this point we started talking about doing a barium test on her to rule out any malformations in her digestive tract or esophagus, and a swallowing study to see what was causing her to have such trouble breathing after she eats.  Unfortunately, neither of those tests is available in the middle of the night (well, probably if it's an emergency they are but this wasn't an emergency), so she got admitted.  We headed up the the 6th floor around 10:30 and got settled.  Paul went home and got me some clothes, my contacts case, toothbrush, etc., and then I sent him home to get some sleep. 

I stayed with Audrey and she was very uncomfortable.  Her O2 sats kept going around 90-91, which was better, but still not good.  Between her machines beeping, vital signs every hour, the helicopter landing, etc, I think I slept around 2 hours!  It was such a long night!  Thankfully in the morning Paul came and brought me some breakfast (for whatever reason, the food at the hospital is kind of crummy, but their breakfast is amazing!  I was so glad to be there for that meal, lol).  After breakfast the team rounded on Audrey and told us that they had ordered the barium and swallowing studies so we could be getting ready for that.  We headed upstairs and waited just a little while before the tests began.

First was the upper GI x ray... for this one they had her drink 2 ounces of a barium solution and then x rayed her while she drank it.  She liked the drink but HATED being confined to the x ray table- as with all babies, she had to be velcroed to a board with her arms over her head...definitely NOT her favorite position for sure!  The x ray showed that she didn't have any malformations but that she DOES definitely have reflux-- we watched the solution go down, down, down into her tummy and then some of it came right back up into her esophagus.  She was already receiving Zantac for that so we will just keep on giving her that.  She had 2 more of these x rays throughout the day to make sure she has no intestinal problems and everything looked clear and normal- so thank Heavens for that!

Next was the swallowing study.  She was put in a little carseat-like chair and they took xray video of her drinking a variety of different fluid consistencies (all with barium for contrast).  THIS was the test that gave us our answer!  It turns out that when she is drinking plain formula or breastmilk- consistency liquid, she is aspirating fluid up into her nasal cavity (causing her chronic runny nose and congestion) and also into her lungs (causing her frequent upper respiratory infections AND the pneumonia that was discovered the night before).  The test was AMAZING- to see her swallowing everything and aspirating some of the liquid.   speech pathologist was conducting the test and she was SO nice and gave us so much information...but I was just so impressed with how well she did her job.  My highly untrained eyes were missing the aspirations so she slowed down the playback and pointed them out...we're talking like a SPECK of white on an x ray film and she was catching that every time.  We experimented with a lot of different consistencies and finally got the right mixture for Audrey to successfully swallow-- something called "nectar thick". 

Basically, we have to add a gel thickener to all her bottles to ensure that she doesn't aspirate the fluid anymore.  We ordered the gel stuff (it's super expensive AND not covered by insurance...AWESOME!) and the hospital gave us a bunch of samples to use until that arrives.  I can attest to how much of a difference this stuff is making already- just the first few bottles she's had have been entirely different than her usual feeding behavior!  She is still coughing a little and sputtering after she eats but that probably has more to do with the fact that she definitely has pneumonia and the attending yesterday said she believes she's fighting a virus right now too.  Poor girl!  But just in the past day she has improved so much... we are so thankful for all the resources that are at the hospital here that helped her to get diagnosed.  It's so wild to think that this swallowing problem has accounted for most of her illnesses this winter!   We are so relieved to have an ANSWER and to know that she's not just some sickly little kid who catches everything she gets exposed to.  We are definitely looking forward to her getting better and being so much more comfortable when she eats.  Thank goodness for modern medicine!

Sweet Sunday

 Here's a glimpse into our morning this morning:

Emily put a huge hat on Audrey- do you see the joy in Em's face here?!

Audrey is 5 Months Old!

Audrey Grace is now 5 months old!! Here's a snippet of what life is like with her RIGHT. NOW.

- She is in size 2 diapers (did I write that last month? She switched over right after her last monthday).

- We've now switched to Enfamil AR (Added Rice) formula to help control spit up.  She is getting mostly this and a little of our frozen stash of breastmilk each day.  We also recently made the jump from 4oz every 3 hours to 5oz every 4 hours...SO NICE not having to do as many bottles!

- She is learning to sleep through the night...she had been making a lot of progress and then she got sick, AGAIN, and we sort of derailed.  Now it seems to be getting better! The other night she slept from 8p-4a, which was awesome! It seems to me that if I can sleep from 12-3 straight through, I am in MUCH better shape for the next day.  The nights that she wakes up during this time I am really dragging the next day.

- She has gotten SO CLOSE to rolling over (back to front) but hasn't done it on her own quite yet.  Tonight, on her Monthday, she was literally millimeters from doing it.  We (Paul, me, my inlaws, and Emily) were all watching with baited breaths tonight, thinking she was going to do it... Emily walked over and leaned down and said, "Here-- let me show you how."  It was so funny!  I am thinking she'll roll over any day now.

- She has been started on Zantac for reflux.  In addition to looking absolutely identical it seems that she and Emily are the same in reflux-land too!

- She has had a couple more colds. Seriously...this whole Sick Baby thing is just killing me!  I hate to see her so sick.  It feels like we are constantly fighting a cold, runny nose, cough, etc. around here.  I am sick of sick kids!!! (Well, not of the kids...of the sickness!)  I keep telling myself that next winter she might not get sick at all since she'll be home with me and not exposed to other kids as much.  I just hate to see her suffering so much. :(

- She has moved up into all 6 month (or 3-6 month) clothes.  She is so long!  I am guessing she's probably 25 inches.  She can still fit in a few 3 month pieces but it has to be 2 piece outfits- she can't straighten her legs in the one piece ones.  I am now faced with the question of what to do with all the outgrown clothes??  I donated all our preemie and newborn clothes to a preemie baby we know but she is growing slowly so the seasons and sizes don't match up.  Not exactly sure what to do with this next round of clothes.

- She is now reaching, grabbing, and pulling toys to her mouth.  SO cute!  We need to unpack all our little teething toys for her so she has more to play with.  It's adorable to see her grabbing at everything!

- Speaking of teething...I think she is getting teeth!  Now I KNOW I said this with Emily and the teeth showed up 30 weeks later (no joke!) but Audrey has 2 hard white spots in her upper gums and she is constantly chewing on everything.  They've not come in a lot more since initially breaking through but I guarantee they are teeth, not Epstein pearls or anything else.  Little overachiever! :)

That's about all I can think of for her right now.  Be sure to check out the pictures!!  :)  

First Dental Visit!

Last week I took Emily to the dentist for the first time. She was a true champion- I was so nervous, thinking she would have trouble holding still or wouldn't cooperate when it came time for the exam, but she was great!  She held perfectly still for the xrays, listened attentively, held still when she needed to...it was wonderful.  I was so proud!  They said her teeth looked good- just keep brushing and flossing every day.  They said they weren't worried about cavities at all!  She ended up getting to pick a prize from the goody basket and I let her take a business card back to school (she wanted to show her friends the actual dentist...as in, she was her to go with us!) and she still had the card in her hand when I picked her up later.  Such a sweet girl!

Entering the tiny patient entrance at the peds dentist- so cute!

Waiting to see Dr Kim!

Her teeth, post-cleaning (nevermind the rash- she had a reaction to the gloves. :/ )