46 weeks and finally on the path to wellness!

Well to say we got the sickies at our house would be the understatement of the year!!!!  As I said in the last blog post Chloe got pink eye in one eye, 2 ear infections, and the hanf, foot an dmouth Coxsecki virus again.  Well after she began to heal, she gave it to her momma in a serious way.  Chloe still was not completely herself when we took these pictures on Sunday as you can see she had just been crying, and was not offering too many smiles  :(

 Also the reason this weekly post did not get up on time is because I have been home from work so sick with this stuff she gave me.  I have never really experienced anything like this to be honest.  My eyes turned blood red and swelled almost totally shut.  It was sooooo painful my Mom took me to the ER on Sunday and they said it was one of the worst they had seen.  Interestingly though, the doc did not say I had pink eye, which I thought I got from Chloe, he said I had a very virulent strain of the Adenovirus.

 They gave me some steroid drops mixed with an antibiotic for my eye, but its Tuesday night and my eyes are still very red and crusty.  It really scared me, you take your vision for granted until you feel like it may be threatened or its totally out of your hands!!

 And on top of the eye situation, my whole body ached, had a migraine and both me and Sweetness had severe throat pain.

 Daddy has been super amazing as he always is, he dotes on me and Chloe hand and foot, he lets me rest and totally watches Chloe.  I mean I have the best hubby in the world, this is just one  of the reasons!!!

 Chloe's new thing is to blow kisses, as you see in the pic above.  It is actually so incredibly sweet!!  She even does it to strangers and its amazing how grouchy strangers just melt when a baby is blowing them an innocent kiss!!!

 Chloe is also pulling into a standing position now!!!  She did it for the first time in her crib when we awoke yesterday morning.  When we went in her nursery to get her, there she was standing and smiling- so pleased with herself!!!  Yeah baby girl!!!  You are getting sooooo big!!!

 The pics above and below are Daddy actually giving her the toys he was dancing around behind me with trying to get her to smile for this photo set.  She wasn't in the mood, but I had to get the pics, so then he rewarded her by giving her the animals to play with and she smiles then of course!!

Because this week's pictures were not so happy, I thought I would go ahead and include some pictures from a small reshoot we did of her 9 month professional pictures.  The professional photographer April-Marie asked if she could do a few more shots about a week after we did all the others I posted a link to on here.   Chloe only gave us a short time the first time because it was soooo hot outside and she got overheated!!  So we met last week in the same place and Chloe turned on her charm!!  These are some really cute pics!!

 The picture above is probably my very favorite of the lot.  She just looks angelic, and her perfectly smooth porcelain skin.

 Here she is showing us her teeth as she reads her book!

 I also love this pic, she looks like she is looking up to Heaven!!!

 After the blue outfit, we did one more outfit, in front of a little flower garden.  She was not too happy at first but she eventually warmed up and smiled so cute!!!

All of these are so precious to me!!! 

I just can not believe her 1st birthday is in less than 6 weeks!!!  My mom and I are already planning it- the theme is bright rainbow colors and candy!!  Her outfit is soooo amazing and it fits in perfectly with our theme!!

It will be on Saturday October 13, 2012 at 2pm.  If any of my friends are local and would like to come please let me know.  I want her to have some kiddos there to run and play with!!  We are having it at a park that has a HUGE park with tons of climbing and swings etc.  Just let me know!!

The weekend before on Oct. 6th we are getting her 1st birthday pictures done!  I have thought about these pictures so many times and looked for so many cute ideas, and I hope they turn out and that she is in a good mood that morning!!  You will certainly see them soon!!

Thank you for all the prayers and comments on lifting Chloe and I up for healing as we have had a tough 2 weeks with all this sickness- but we are getting through it!!!  We love you guys!!!  Until next time........



45 weeks old and Sick AGAIN!!!!

So we are another week closer to that first birthday!!!  I must get it together and start planning that really soon here. But I have been so busy with a very sick girl that I haven't had time to do anything really (I'm even a day late on the weekly photos).  It started out on Friday afternoon, Ms. Cassie from Nursery school called and said she was refusing all bottles all day and she had a fever of 100.2 F, so I went and picked her up at 3pm and we came home.  By the time I got her home, changed her clothes and took her temp again it was already 103.1 F!!!!  I was very worried.

 But I remembered what they said in May when she had the Cosecki virus, that babies get high fevers and not to be alarmed if she is not limp or lethargic, so we rode it out all day Saturday, pushing fluids, And administering ibuprofen and Tylenol around the clock, but the fever was persistent and she seemed to be getting worse.

 So Saturday night/Sunday morning we called the pediatrician on call and they got us an appt to see our doctor on Sunday morning.  I love it that they have this after care office hours for acutely ill children on the weekends, because kids don't just get sick Monday thru Friday 9-5pm!!!!

 So we took her to the doctor, and they said she had an ear infection and some type of virus that was making her have such a high fever and starting to make her left eye yucky.  I snapped these pics on Sunday after noon when we came back from the doctor, when she was in a half way good mood, but it went down hill after these pics were taken.

 Her fever was back at 103.5 and we were frantic.  So Sunday night we headed to the Children's Hospital ER and let them check her out.  By this time her left eye was completely bloodshot in the white portion called the sclera, and she was crying uncontrollably and was burning up with fever.  They told us she had conjunctivitis (pink eye) and it would probably go to the other eye.  Great.  Just great!!!

 They also said she had the Noravirus and that was what was making her have all these high fevers.  They said it lasts 3-5 days, and we were on Day 3 so it should be coming down from here.   So we headed home in the rain, and all I kept thinking was how bad I wanted to get some sleep.  Two nights of no sleep is not a good combination!!  Ironically she couldn't go to daycare- the one place where she picked up all this crud, I now had to take another vacation day and stay home with my baby.

So yesterday I stayed home with her and she was so incredibly fussy, nothing made her happy, she was still burning up with fever, her eye was terrible, and I was exhausted.  Yikes it was not the best of days.  And to make it worse, Chloe seemed so hyped up like she could not go to sleep.  She finally crashed at 9:30pm last night after rocking with Daddy.  She did sleep all night last night and Grandma is on diaper duty today!!!

Chloe loves her Grandma!!!  I called and they are eating breakfast and Mom said her fever is gone.  She feels cool to the touch this morning- and I am so very thankful!!!  She was still sleeping when I left for work so I didn't have a chance to see her today.

You can look at these pictures I posted in this post and see the beginnings of her left eye but it looks even worse today mom said than yesterday!!  Lovely!! 

But all I can say is my girl is seriously building up her immune system!!!  That's for sure!!

Thank you to everyone that has been praying for my girl's quick healing and sending sweet messages. Nothing hurts worse than knowing you cannot fix it or back it better for your baby!!!  But hopefully we are on the mend for our 46 week pictures!!!  Take care and God Bless!!

10 months old !!!

How is it truly possible that my girl is already 10 whole months old???  I can hardly believe it has been that long- but boy does she change and blossom into her own self more and more each month!!!

She is so fun at this stage!!  She is doing so well at her new Day School- and she is such a hit with her teachers.  They love their Chloe girl!!!  The other day I picked her up and one of her teachers said she was so cute that afternoon, she was rolling the ball back and forth with one of her friends Jonathon!!!  I wish she had caught it on film, but just the thought of it makes me smile!!  Her first little boy friend!!

She is doing sooooo well with crawling now.  She crawls everywhere and she is just beginning to pull up on things to try to stand.  She has not stood up yet, just one her little knees but it wont be long for sure!

My sweet girl has decided she likes to be rocked at night to go to sleep now.  Her whole life, we have just laid her down in her crib with her little blanket and she soothes herself to sleep on her own- such a good baby.  But lately she has wanted Mommy to rock her to sleep and I sure don't mind snuggling with my angel, but it's interesting that she is changing in this way.

Grandma bought her a Little Tikes swing that we are hang on a wooden brace that Daddy built in our backyard and she LOVES that swing!!!  She loves to swing in it and it is so nice not to have to travel to the park every evening after a long day at work.  We all go outside and swing her for about 30 mins and then she is exhausted, and wants to be rocked to sleep and that's it, until 6:30 am in the morning!!!  She still sleeps 12 hours a night!!

She still is the happiest first thing in the morning when we wake up, as evidenced by these pictures.  These were taken this morning right after getting her up and getting her dressed in her little piggy dress for her 10 month pictures.  She was so full of smiles!!!

We truly are so blessed to be the parents of this amazing child.  She is far more than I could have ever dreamed of all those years that I yearned for a child.  I guess I didn't want to let myself go too far in my dreams of my baby and what they would be like, so each day is such a fun and new adventure with her.

I want to thank all of our blog readers who are praying for and have sent me sweet facebook comments on the fact that they are praying for my grandmother. We went to visit her Saturday and she looks so much worse than the last time I saw her. She has lost all her hair from the radiation/chemo and she is so very tired and weak. But Chloe made her smile and of course was the star of the show. In speaking to my uncle he said she has made peace with the situation and is comfortable and not in any pain. I don't know how long she has but it isn't that long- I'm glad I have been able to see her and tell her that I love her and somehow make peace with the situation myself.

Until next time...... be safe and hug your loved ones!!

44 weeks old!!!

This little angel is such a tease these days!!!  She loves to make the face shown here and show everyone her cute little teethies!!!  I can not believe she just turned 44 WEEKS OLD!!!  This is so very close to 52 weeks old and her being one years old!  It has been an amazing year and it has gone by so very fast- just like everyone told me!! 

She doesn't just sit there and let me snap her pictures anymore- oh no!!!  She has to touch everything!!! And she is beginning to show her dislike for when you take something away from her!!!  Now that she is crawling she has been told no about 6 million times already, but when she is headed  for something she knows she shouldn't touch, she turns around mid crawl and looks back smiling to see if anybody is watching her!!!

Beautiful Chloe's smiling and showing us her little pearly whites!!!!

Her favorite thing to do these days, especially while I 'm trying to take her picture is to break out clapping and yelling "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!"  But man she is so stinking cute- I need to get this recorded so I have this frozen in time!!!  It's just sooo cute  :)

I hope you all enjoyed seeing her 9m professional  pictures in the last blog post.  The photographer is so wonderful, I mentioned to her that I was surprised that more pictures in front of the barn did not come out- because I really loved that setting.  She said she was also, but she wanted to ask me if we could go back to the spot where we took the pictures and shoot a few more of her in that spot as well as do the one outfit we didn't have time to put her in because she was getting so fussy.  I said are you serious?  Sure more pictures of my angel- who wouldn't snatch up that opportunity?

So we are going to take some more pictures the day after tomorrow, on Thursday afternoon, and I cant wait to see how they turn out!! 
The photographer April has really gone out of her way to make this a wonderful experience for us and she has worked so hard on making sure the photos are right and that we are truly happy!  I just love that about her!  If any of my local friends reading this reading this need a local, extremely reasonable priced, excellent photographer for any of your family's needs, please let me know and I will give you her contact information!!!  She is really fun to work with and she is great with children!!

Next week, we will be going back to the Neurologist for Chloe's next appointment.  At this appointment, we will be making the dreaded appointment for her first year MRI.  They will have to sedate her for this and I am so not looking forward to it, but they really do need a baseline level of her full body and make sure nothing is growing abnormally.  So that will be probably be in October sometime I would guess.

When this last picture was taken, she was pooped out from all the clapping and smileing she had done and just laid herself down right where she was.  I thought it was such a sweet picture, and a good way to end this post.  I am pooped myself baby girl- but we will find our joy and strength in the Lord!!!

Until next time- be safe and hug your babies and your spouse every single day- you never know when it may be your last!!

Chloe's 9m Professionals

We are thrilled to be able to share with you Ms. Chloe's 9 month professional photos.  We are so happy with how these turned out!!!!  If you should happen to want one of these pictures in print for yourself, please le me  know which ones and what size and I can get them printed for you at cost through our phorographer!  She is nice enough to just charge us the cost price, so a 4x6 is about $3 and a 8x10 is approximately $13.  SHE IS SUCH A WONDERFUL PHOTOGRAPHER-!!!!!

Click here to view these pictures larger

43 weeks old!!!

Wow, we have 9 weeks until my angel is a year old!!  I can not believe it!  She is blossoming into her own independent, sassy little self.  She is very aware of when I leave her now, and she is learning the meaning of "No" very quickly these days.

 Chloe is crawling on all fours now, and she can get anywhere she wants to go!!!  She is all over the floor, and we have tried to baby proof the den, but she seems to find everything!!  So we are looking into one of those large baby gate systems that hook together to make a play yard , so we can section off a safe place for her until she can walk.  She is trying to pull up on everything these days and it will not be long until I will come into to get her out of her crib and she will be standing there to greet me!!

 Baby girl had some real milestones this past week!!!  She actually ate a whole waffle french fry by herself without choking at all!  This is really her first solid food to speak of and I was so proud of her.  She actually used her 4 little teeth in the front to chew on it, and she swallowed it no problem!!!  So with that information, I think I am going to fore go the Upper GI study that is scheduled for tomorrow, because I think she is solving her own problems in time.  Yeah!!!

 Also on Saturday, we had her 9 month professional portraits made!!!  I have gotten several proofs to share with you but I absolutely can not wait to share these with you!!!  One of my students used this lady as her daughter's photographer for her first birthday and that's how I found her!  She is soooo reasonable in price and spends unlimited amount of time with you and lets you do as many outfit changes as your baby can stand!!  LOL  We went to an arboretum here locally and it formed the most beautiful backdrop for these photos, not some stuffy ole studio.  I love the classic candid shots or just taking pics while they do their thing- the forced still shot is good in limited areas, but these came out just as I envisioned!!!  So stay tuned!

 We also just introduced the sippy cup to baby girl, and she can hold it really well, but she gets very frustrated because she can not get anything out yet.  She does not know how to suck on it- but she will learn it in time!  I mean I remember holding her for the very first time, and now we are weaning her off her bottles????  Really???  Where did all the days go???

 I am looking so forward to fall and the cooler weather so we can get outside with her more, and be more active doing outdoorsy things.  It has been a brutal summer and the humidity is suffocating!!  But that's life on the East Coast for ya!!!

 And this past Tuesday, we had our monthly Operation Hope baby play date and Chloe had so much fun again with her little miracle friends.  Of course this momma had the camera in their faces to capture a few shots, so I will post those this week hopefully!!

And my girl is adjusting so well to her new day school!!!  Last week was out first full week where she did not miss any days due to illness!!!  Yeah!!  She is becoming more and more comfortable with the ladies there and when I get there to pick her up, she is playing with her little friends and it just makes my heart so happy to see her interacting and socializing with babies her age!!!

Not too much happening this week, but hopefully my next post will include her beautiful 9m professional pics!!  Until then God Bless!!!