January Update

Happy January!
Hope you are surviving the cold. Ellie is well decked out for the winter weather. I'm very lucky that Ellie allows us to put hats on her. And, how cute is this freakin' hat?!?

Anyways, January has been a very busy month for us. On January 8th, Artie took Ellie to her plastic surgeon to talk about a February surgery. Well, he decided that he needed to do an emergency surgery for her hemangioma and set it for January 12th. It went well, relatively speaking. She did look like she lost in a bar fight. But, the swelling went down relatively quickly. Notice the purple marker on her forehead? Yeah, that's so the doctor can identify where the hemangioma is in the operating room. Really? You need that kind of identify? Hmmmm, anyways.


Another thing that kept us jumping is that Ellie has not wanted to eat. . .AGAIN! At the tail end of December, Ellie started to gag herself when she would eat at the high chair. So, we thought it was a fluke thing. Maybe she didn't want the carrots or something. We would feed her, then she would put her fingers down her throat and throw up everything she ate. It was odd----she would take about 6-8 bites of food, then stick her hand in her mouth and toss everything back up. For every meal. Artie and I would say, "NO" when she would do it. Once night, she just started bawling at this. And, Ellie never cries. No major temper tantrums (I guess she's saving those for when she is 2). I can count on one hand the times she cried with tears streaming down her face. Well, this was one of those times. Yes, I was heartbroken; I started crying. :(
Well, I didn't see anything for bulimic babies online, so we took her to the pediatrician. Our doctor said it wasn't normal, so we had to go back to the feeding team at Children's.

Ellie's occupational therapist told us to ignore it when Ellie starts to gag herself. Just pull her hand out of her mouth and keep feeding her. And, if she throws up, place a towel over it and give her one more bite. That way, she doesn't associate the high chair with not feeling comfortable. BUT, our super smart girl learned how to throw up without the use of her hands. Oy! The OT also said her zombie stare that she does in the high chair is something she has learned. She knows that when she gets tired, we take her out of the high chair. Ellie's OT also recommended we stop feeding her right before we know she's going to throw up. Now, I'm worried that I am underfeeding her. But, the behavior modifications seem to be helping.

Ellie's GI was not concerned about Gaggy McVomit. She said that Ellie was still in a healthy band for her weight. But, she wanted to do an upper GI study just to make sure that Ellie's plumbing was working correctly. She also upped her Prevacid dosage. The study went well. The doctor didn't see anything that was obstructing Ellie's ability to eat. Of course, getting Ellie to take the barium. . . yeah, that was another story. She had a meltdown at the table! They were thisclose to inserting a feeding line into her so she would take the barium, but they finally got enough for the doctor to see the digestive track. She does have a hole between her stomach and esophagus, which is what causes the acid reflux. But, we all knew that.

I will say that (knock on wood), she hasn't vomited for a while (5 days). Any minor victory is a success in my book.

Other than Ellie's surgery and eating issues, January was uneventful. I cannot believe my 11 month old will have her first birthday in a month! When I look at how tiny she was at birth and how big she is now, I'm stunned! She's well into 12 month clothes (some are even 18 months!). She weighs about 20 lbs and is 30 inches long. We thought she'd be walking before her birthday, but she's just happy crawling for now.

Happy New Years!!!

Happy New Years (and happy 40th birthday, Daddy)!

Christmas 2008

Ellie's First Christmas! Artie and I have looked forward to this day since we found out we were pregnant. We bought a new Christmas tree and decided to go white. We went back and forth about it ("Will Ellie grow up thinking green trees are weird?"), but decided to buck tradition and go for white. In the picture, you can see Ellie TRYING to get a peek at the tree. We had to put the box the tree came in right in front of it to protect the tree from EllieMonster! She is now pulling up on EVERYTHING and semi-walking all over the place. In fact, we learned that she has a new trick----she can climb up our stairs. So, we have to have the baby gate on all the time.

We had a fun December. Artie's best friend from childhood drove up from Ft. Lauderdale with his family to visit on their way to NC.
We celebrated Hanukkah with them, which was cool. They let us participate, so it was a neat learning experience for us. I got to light the shamash (starter candle) for the first night, which was pretty awesome. I learned that Jewish families typically eat jelly doughnuts after lighting the candles. What a wonderful religion!!!!

Right after they left, we welcomed Mimi and Oppa for Christmas. They bought every other toy and outfit that we didn't get Ellie for her first Christmas. Ellie was so excited that Santa was coming, she didn't sleep well on Christmas Eve. Um, and it has NOTHING to do with the fact that she now wakes up several times at night anyways.
Ellie had a fun time opening gifts---for the first hour. Then, she crawled up onto Oppa and slept for an hour. Mimi and I continued opening Ellie's gifts! :) She got the ball popper thingy (which she isn't sure if she likes or not. She will play with it, when sitting on my lap.). . . some books. . .CLOTHES. . . and a ride-able lion who roars. Ellie LOVES that! Mimi makes funny faces, noises and does the sign for "lion", which Ellie REALLY loves! Ellie loves funny mouth noises and faces.

Ellie is doing really well, development wise. She's 10 months old right now, which blows my mind! But, her pediatrician was very impressed with her at her 9 month appointment. She is 30 inches long (90th percentile) and weighs 19 lbs, 10 oz (62 percentile). Her weight percentile went down from her 6 month visit, which caused us to be concerned. But, the doctor pointed out that El is crawling everywhere and burning up more calories. Naturally, her weight gain issues from the beginning was playing on our mind, but the doctor reassured us that we are out of the woods with that. Yay! Ellie has 5 teeth that are cutting/coming through right now. So, after they are done, we'll have a break for the teething for a while. Hopefully, we'll go back to her regular sleeping habits after that is over. HOPEFULLY!

November 2008 (yeah, a little late, too)

November. Never has a month gone by so quickly. One minute, it was Halloween. The next? Thanksgiving.

This year, we went to Big Mama and Jack's house for Thanksgiving. We have gone to the Wingate's house for Thanksgiving since I was in Kindergarten. Jason, Richard and I were always stuck at the kids' table. This year, our kids were at the kids' table! After eating ourselves into a food coma, we were able to get all the kids together for a super cute picture.

Afterwards, Mimi and Oppa gave Ellie a stocking early to get her ready for Christmas. Notice anything odd with this picture? See the tiny specks of fabric on each side of Ellie's stocking? Ha ha! But, she enjoyed presents!!!!
It gave her practice for Christmas. We also enjoyed spending time with Auntie Amy and Da Boyz. Ellie has a crush on Connery. Her little face lights up when she is around him.
Auntie Amy and I think it would be funny if Ellie and Connery got married. What cute pictures to have in their house. :)

Halloween 2008 (a little late)

If Blogger gave out awards to the worst mom blogger, I would win hands down! I could be passive aggressive and say something like, "Well, I'd rather spend my time with Ellie than on a computer typing about her." Yeah, that works! ;) But, truth of the matter is that keeping up with a full time job, commute, Ellie, Artie, house, etc., the last think I want to do is get on my laptop.

So, here are some Ellie updates. . .
For Halloween, Ellie was "Buzz. The Georgia Tech Mascot." Cute, huh? I was Cleopatra. We went to Trunk or Treat at our church and saw many other bees there. None were as cute as Ellie, but I'm not biased or anything. :) As you can see from the above picture, Ellie is a crawling maniac! She started crawling the day before Halloween and hasn't stopped yet! Artie and I tried thinking how we would TEACH Ellie to crawl. Needless to say, you don't have to TEACH a baby to crawl. In typical Ellie fashion, she didn't want us to see her crawl until she perfected it. One day, I was in the kitchen and Ellie was (or so I thought) in the living room. All of a sudden, she was in the kitchen. And, she had her big toothy grin on her face when she saw the surprise on my face! Artie kept saying "I can't wait until she starts crawling" when she was little. Now that she is crawling, we don't get a moment's rest! We need, "That's not for Ellie's" and "No" on loop in our house. We've baby proofed (and re-baby proofed) our house, but Ellie seems to find our weaknesses. She's a BIG fan of power cords, laptops, cell phones, and shoes. Her toys? Not so much!

Surgery, Part 3

Oy! So, remember when I said that her plastic surgeon said that her mid August surgery was her last? Just kidding! At her follow up appointment at the end of September, her surgeon noted that her hemangioma was growing towards her left eye. Soooooo, another surgery was scheduled for Oct. 10th. She was the first one scheduled, so we had to be there at 6am. UGH! This time, I was allowed to go back into the operating room to calm Ellie down for the anesthesia! The doctors and nurses kept preparing me for the procedure. They said she would cry and scream, etc. So, I was prepared to be strong. When the doctor put her gas mask on, she just started licking the air! No tears!!! No screams!!! Just licking like a puppy dog. Evidently, the gas is fruit flavored. The doctors and nurses all commented that this NEVER happens. Then, a nurse escorted me back to the pre-op room to get Artie. We made our way to the post-op room to wait for Ellie. As soon as we got to the post-op room, the doctor came and said the surgery was over and that NOW he thinks this was the last surgery. :) He beefed up the intensity of the lasers and worked in a wider area, so hopefully this will stun all the cells to keep them from growing. He also said that the growth is more fiberous than before, which is supposedly good. The nurses came in and said that Ellie would be rolled in to the room in a minute, but she would be upset when waking up from the anesthesia. So, Artie and I sat and stared at Ellie until she woke. And, surprise surprise---Ellie woke up just like she was waking up from a nap! She looked over at us and gave us a big ol' smile. The nurses were all surprised that she didn't have a meltdown when waking up from the anesthesia. She's such a good girl. :)

Mimi and Oppa came into town for this surgery, so Ellie had a wonderful weekend. So did Mommy and Daddy, because we were able to sleep in instead of waking up at 7:30. Mimi and Oppa spoiled us, too!

September Madness

Hello Family and Friends! I hope this post finds everyone well. September has come and gone. Like I say. . . "Time flies, when you have a kid!"

I meant to post on here awhile ago, but that didn't occur. So, let's catch you up on life with Ellie. . .
In mid-August, we had Ellie's second hemangioma surgery, which went REALLY well! In fact, her plastic surgeon said that we were done. Yipee! While Mimi and Oppa were in town, Artie and I decided to use the free babysitting services to celebrate our 6 year anniversary. So, we went to a swanky place called The Capital Grille. VERY yummy! So, as we go to leave the restaurant, Artie starts pointing out all the fancy cars in the front of the restaurant that the vallets were parking. But, where was our car? Evidently, my mom-mobile with the Fisher Price sunshades was not worthy of being parked by the vallets in the front of the restaurant! Ha ha!