Fever, Fever, Go Away

Very early Sunday morning, Emma Kate woke up feeling very hot to me. So I went into the bathroom and took her temp. It was about 100 degrees. I figured she was teething, and wasn't too worried about it. So I fed her, gave her some Tylenol and then put her back to bed. The fever persisted all day, so I kept giving her Tylenol and gave her a lukewarm bath later in the afternoon. She seemed happy as she normally is, maybe a touch more tired, though. Yesterday morning, she woke up and was hot again... all day! Because she's teething, I wasn't really concerned until her fever spiked after her nap. It was up to 103! That got me a little worried, so I called her pedi's office, and they said it was probably just a fever virus. She isn't having any other symptoms. (No runny nose. No cough. She's happy. She's eating fine.) But her fever persisted all day. When she woke up again feeling hot this morning, I decided to take her in to see her pediatrician.

It actually worked out perfectly, because I already had an appointment scheduled for Anna Brooke to see the doctor, so took both girls at the same time. Dr. Stone examined her--ears, eyes and throat look clear. The nurse came back in and got a urine sample and drew blood from her arm. Emma Kate screamed during this entire ordeal! Anna Brooke was the best big sister and kept saying, "Ssshhh! It's going to be okay, Emma Kate. It's okay." (Just precious! I wish I had been able to record that somehow.)

Dr. Stone said the white cell count in her blood looked fine, it wasn't elevated at all and her urine sample didn't show any signs of an infection. So, what is going on? We have no idea. It is a mystery. Most likely it is just a virus that is pretty common for any child to get. I am glad that Dr. Stone took a look at her blood, though. Potentially, she could have bacteria in her blood, which is a sign that there is an infection in the lining of her heart or on a heart valve. Apparently, this is not the case. The pediatrician's office is going to keep an eye on the blood culture to see if it "grows anything." And they'll call if it does. I am probably making this sound a lot more complicated than it really is. Basically, right now we are just waiting. Waiting for the fever to go away and waiting for the blood culture. (Dr. Stone predicted it wouldn't grow anything based on her other symptoms.) If her fever lasts for 2 more days or she gets worse, I'm supposed to take her back in.

I think EK will be fine. In fact, she just woke up from her nap and she doesn't feel hot. And its been awhile since she's had any Tylenol. That won't stop me from saying my prayers, though.

Catching Up!

Whew! It's been an eventful month. I'll be honest, it will be hard for me to remember all the stuff Emma Kate has done. I can't believe it has been this long since I updated. As a matter of fact, I did sit down a few times and tried posting, but didn't have the time. We have been super busy!

First of all, Emma Kate is now ELEVEN months old! As I say every month, I can hardly believe it! We are so blessed with her and very thankful for the last eleven months she's been in our family. This month she has made some great strides in her development, including getting her first tooth, crawling and pulling up on stuff, plus she's doing a whole lot of talking! Her favorite thing to do is to say "bye-bye" and wave her chubby little hand in sync. (Yes, I know I said chubby. And to the layman's eye it may not look that way, but compared with how she was two or three months ago, you'd agree. It's chubby!)

Speaking of weight, EK now weighs 15 pounds, 8.2 ounces, according to the scale at the cardiologist's office today. She's gained a lot since she was there four months ago! Even better news is that Dr. Law did a quick echo and said her heart function was really good. Go Emma Kate! Her sats were 80 and everyone kept commenting on how great her color is! And of course, she was showing off her waving and saying bye-bye skills to everyone we saw.

Emma Kate & Daddy @ the cardio appointment

Last month, we spent a week-long trip visiting one set of the grandparents, Kiki and Lito, in Georgia. It was so fun to get to play outside and swim any day that we wanted to! Emma Kate loves the water, and I cannot believe I didn't get a picture of her swimming. It was so precious to watch her splashing and laughing! A couple of weeks later, we drove all the way to Virginia to visit Nana and Papa. It was the longest trip E.V.E.R! But well worth it, of course! We had a few setbacks on the way and didn't get there until like, 2 or 3am, I believe. We had a great time just hanging out, walking to the park in my parents new awesome neighborhood, and doing some shopping. My sister and her son (who is the same age as EK) were there, too, so the babies had lots of fun together.

Laughing with her cousin, Alyssa!
Emma Kate & Jackson playing in the pool!

On the way home from Virginia, we made a stop in Durham, NC and got to meet our heart/blog friend Charlotte and her sweet family for the first time! It was so much fun to finally see one another in person! We had a yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel and got to sit and chat for awhile before getting back on the road. I really hope we can do that again!

Emma Kate & her heart sister Charlotte!

10 Months Old Today!

Precious Emma Kate,

I am so grateful for the last ten months we have spent with you. You have grown so much in the past month! Already you are starting to crawl. You do the army-man thing, where you pull yourself across the floor with one arm to reach a toy that you want (or the TV remote!) You are also pulling up onto your knees when you hold onto something, like the couch. You are making great leaps with your physical development and I am so proud! Miss D, your physical therapist is so impressed with the strides you've taken since she first met you.

Based on my own calculations (aka our home scale), you weigh right around fifteen pounds. I attribute your weight gain to all the new foods you've been eating. You love Cheerios, peach Puffs, shredded cheese, applesauce, peaches, bananas and baby cereals. You don't really like any veggies except for sweet potatoes. We'll work on that. At this point, you are eating and drinking more that you ever have in your entire life! You love to drink water and have learned that you can blow bubbles. You don't like a sippy cup, you'd prefer to drink out of a regular plastic cup and have Mommy hold it.

You have the most precious little "silly face" where you scrunch up your nose and mouth and making a little funny breathing noise--it is so funny! You have learned to say "bye-bye" (but it sounds like ba-ba) and wave goodbye, too. You can also say "da-da" and "ah-buh." (I think you are saying Anna Brooke, but maybe it is my imagination).

I treasure each and every day with you. You make me, Daddy and your big sister laugh so much. You bring our family an enormous amount of joy! We are so very grateful for your life and we will never, ever take you for granted. Happy 10 month birthday, Emma Kate, my little blessing. I love you, my sweet girl!

Mommy

Here's the latest with the girls:

Emma Kate turns 10 months old TOMORROW!  She is getting so big and so beautiful! We are so proud of our little girl! Last week she kind of took off with her eating habits. She now eats 3 meals in addition to all the formula she's been usually taking. I am hoping that she will start packing on the pounds now. I know it's wishful thinking, but I guess we'll see. She is also starting to belly crawl around on the floor. She loves going after the remote control, little balls and other toys. It is so amazing to see her do this! I just didn't think she would progress this quickly. I am so proud of that little angel!

Anna Brooke is fully potty-trained now. Well, I say that and then she goes and randomly wets the bed when she is completely awake before rest time. I know it will take some tweaking until she completely gets it. I am debating if I will put her in a pull up on our trip to Warner Robins this weekend or let her wear big girl panties. Sounds crazy even to me. She is such a smart girl! Anna Brooke is reading books. I got her a couple from the library that are on a 1st and 2nd grade reading level and she can READ THEM! Oh my goodness, I just can't believe how smart she is!

The princess refuses to look at the camera!

We are excited about our jam-packed summer. On Saturday I will shoot my second-ever wedding. I'm excited, but also a little nervous. Then on Sunday the girls and I will head over to Warner Robins for one week! Every morning Anna Brooke asks if today is the day we get to go to Kiki and Lito's! I know we will all have fun. When we get back, I will have exactly one week to get all our laundry done, clean the house, edit photos from the wedding and then leave for Virginia on July 5. We will be at Nana and Papa's for about two weeks! We're so excited!

Update and.... um, hey that's my kid!!

I realize that it has been quite a while since my last update, but that is just because things are going great for us! We are enjoying life and the beginning of what I feel is going to be an extra-hot summer! Today was Anna Brooke's final day of Backyard VBS that Aunt Erin and Uncle Josh's church did. She had a great time! Emma Kate and I enjoyed hanging out with Jackson and a couple others at their apartment every day this week while VBS was going on. Anna Brooke had such a great time singing, dancing, playing games and of course, learning about Jesus! She has come home every day singing sweet songs and even got a CD today with all the songs they learned during the week. It was precious hearing her sing along. I have been trying to capture her with my phone singing, but she will not be having any of that, thank you!

Emma Kate has been progressing well, especially with her physical therapy and her eating. She is getting more mobile, reaching for things, doing the splits practically. She will probably be belly crawling by her first birthday (which is in almost two months!!!) She turns 10 months old next Friday, which is unbelievable to me! Yesterday she finished a jar of baby food and some rice cereal, which is more than she has ever eaten at one sitting before! I was so happy about that. EK is also going to get some teeth soon, I feel. She still doesn't have any, but I can feel the two bottom teeth ready to come through any day (I know Brooks will laugh at this when he reads this because I say that every day!) Poor thing has been miserable laying down for naps and going to bedat night, so I usually just try and give her Tylenol and Orajel before those times and she does pretty well.

So, I wanted to share something that Brooks and I found slightly disturbing. A few weeks ago, Brooks randomly Googled "Emma Kate HLHS." In the search results, he found a YouTube video that had a bunch of details about Emma Kate, like her birthday, her surgeries and her diagnosis (the facts were all jumbled) but the video was of all the pictures from this blog set to music. I was absolutely APPALLED! We looked at the person's YouTube user name who created this video, Brooks sent her a message and she took it down stating that they "forgot" to ask permission to use my pictures. But I just could NOT believe it! It wasn't the fact that it was a bad video or anything, but it just freaked me out a little. Apparently, this girl makes other videos of children who have health issues. I wonder if she "forgets" to ask their parents for permission to use their photos, too.

This type of thing is a little scary and it probably happens more than we realize. How freaked out would you be if you saw your picture (or your child's picture) in some place you never expected? I read a good example of this happening today on Yahoo: This Missouri woman gets a Facebook message from a friend who spotted her family Christmas card photo splashed across the window of a European foods store in Prague! How the heck did it get there? Click HERE to read the full story. It is just insane! You can read more about it by clicking HERE. Like she said, I guess this is the price we might pay for indulging in social media.

After we found that YouTube video, I seriously debated deleting all the pictures off this blog or deleting the blog all together. But the more I thought about it and talked to Brooks about it, I just decided to keep them up for a few reasons. The biggest one is this: we have been getting so many emails recently from other families who are finding my blog, contacting us and feeling HOPE seeing Emma Kate. Emma Kate is giving others hope! I find that so humbling and amazing. The second is that this blog is a documentation of Emma Kate's life, from the very beginning. There is no way that I would just completely delete it all. And if I made the blog private, then, well, we wouldn't be able to reach very many people that way. Believe me, it does scare me that her picture could be taken from the blog and used in some other way. I hope that others will respect our privacy and please, if you would like to use a photograph you see here, contact me and ask for permission before you do so.

Alright, enough about all that. Here, enjoy!

My Little Tiny

Emma Kate just turned nine months old on the 19th! She is doing so great and of course, she's very happy. We have been enjoying the warmer weather and are trying to get outside a little each day. Sometimes it is hard with two kids to go anywhere. What makes that harder is that AB and EK usually have opposite nap schedules, so it seems like we are home a lot.

We've been having in-home physical therapy appointments once every other week and they seem to be helping Emma Kate a lot. As of Monday, she has met all of her original goals that the therapist, D, set for her and she now has a few more challenging goals to meet including getting into a seated position from her back or belly and belly crawling. D also said that she will probably be seeing EK until she is at least walking. After that, she likely won't need any more phys. therapy! Good news!

I took EK to see Dr. Stone, her pediatrician, today for her 9 month check up. He took her completely off the Reglan and she's now just on 4 meds: Lasix, Prevacid, Aspirin and Lisinopril. Much more manageable! Size-wise, Emma Kate is 26 inches tall/long (10th percentile) and weighs in at 14 pounds, 2.5 ounces (just under 3rd percentile). She's so little, but she has always stayed on this curve and hasn't dropped at all, which is good. I believe she is the average size of a 5 month old. I love having a tiny baby. I would love her to have chunk up a bit, of course, but if she is eating well and she's still tiny, then so be it. She will likely be my last baby, so I am all about keeping her small if she is going to be.

Emma Kate is hilarious, her personality has bloomed! She loves to watch sports on TV and claps and claps. She's our little cheerleader. She is saying ba-ba, da-da, and ooooh! She's got this killer smile that she's been working on for a little while now and I just love it! She loves the swings whenever we are at the park and she loves feeling the breeze on her face. If we have her in the double stroller, she wants to be in the front seat at all times, because she enjoys the view, I'm sure. She also loves books and an occasional Baby Einstein movie. Her favorite toys are probably the Exersaucer and anything with a tag she can chew on. She still hasn't gotten any teeth in yet. Her favorite foods are sweet potatoes and banana/strawberry/apple combo. She also loves yogurt and baby oatmeal. Of course, Emma Kate loves her big sister and laughs at her all day long. She will do anything for her attention. It is the sweetest thing!

Enjoy a few pics:

"Oooooh!"

I just need to know, what is this face, sassy pants?

Clapping is Fun!

I shot this video from my phone yesterday afternoon and thought it was so cute! Enjoy!