Emmaleighclaire

Sunday, May 3, 2009

March of Dimes Walk on Emma's behalf

My Family and I would like to reach out to you and tell you how truly grateful we are for the generosity in so many people.

Our march of dimes was a great success. It was a beautiful day. All the kids had a blast. Emmaleigh had a Huge poster with her picture and story on it, which I absolutely love. She got a team ambassador trophy. Emmaleigh wasn't sure what to make of it when her story was told and her name was called to get her trophy as the crowd cheer for what a remarkable baby she is and that she is one of the blessed ones that made it. I was a nice special day for my family where we helped the march of dimes and recognized Emmaleigh, other premature or sick babies. We passed both of our fund raising goals. We are very impressed with help we are able to provide the march of dimes in the fight against babies born premature births like Emmaleigh was.

I did shed a few tears as we Released the balloons to the babies that weren't so lucky to survived like Emmaleigh. I can't help to think of the babies that were born to early and too sick.

It makes me look down at Emmaleigh and know how grateful I am to have her in our lives and part of our family. My heart still breaks when I think of what we had to go through to just to have her in our lives today, but it was worth the fight to be able to tell a story with a happy ending. I have no doubt without the March of dimes and there research I would be telling a very different story today.

I am thrilled to be part of such a wonderful cause in helping other families to not have to tell a story like Emmaleigh's story. We appreciate all the donations who were given to the March of dimes on Emmaleigh's behalf and we pray that one day all babies get there full nine months, are born healthy, and are as fully of life as our daughter Emmaleigh.

Emmaleigh is truly our miracle baby. She is such a wonderful active happy little girl and I treasure every hug and kiss and even the not so joyous moments. We are so proud of her. Emmaleigh has come so far from when she was born so premature. I couldn't imagine our family without her and I want to thank you for be part of making parents hopes and dreams of having a healthy baby come true. Thank so much for being Part of this !

20 months old

Emmaleigh is now 20 months old. We finally made it to her 18 month check up last month. I know a little late, but better late than never. She is 19 lbs now. I know that sounds small for a going on 2 year old. I knew she was small and I thought the doctor was going to say something about that. He didn't he said she was fine. She looks good and is gaining weight. She is still struggling with the iron, but other than that she is healthy.

As for Emmaleigh's 20 month update. She is running climbing doing a lot of what other 1 year olds are doing. She is a remarkable little girl for being born so early. she is still nursing quite a bit. I don't look at the clock at night or even count the times she wakes up, but it does seem that she is sleeping longer at night. maybe she will hit 20 lbs and sleep though the night before her 2nd birthday.

We are enjoying the spring and looking forward to the summer. We have taken a few trips to the beach. Emma loves the sand. She isn't too sure about the water, but hopefully she will warm up to it soon.

We also got a new big wooden swing set for the boys birthday and she loves it. Emmaleigh is learning to pump her legs.

This last month we have been so busy with preparing for our March of dimes walk. We had a blast We did wonderful we brought in $375 on Emmaleigh's behalf ! We are so proud since our first goal was $250 and our 2nd was $350. WTG Emma !!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

19 months old

Miss Emmaleigh Claire is 19 months old. She turned 19 months old on March 19th, which was the day she was admitted to the hospital so I didn't take her official 19 month pictures for obvious reasons. SO I decided spur of the moment to take her picture today. I went in her closet found this dress that is too cute for words I couldn't put it on her and now get pictures. I took her outside. The house is a mess we cleaning for big brother Cameron and Alexander's Birthday party this weekend. It was a bit gloomy and wet. It stormed last night, but I found one dry spot to shoot a few pictures. They came out pretty good if I do say so myself. Emma is now back to her normal self. She looks pretty good for a little girl who was so very sick and admitted to the hospital only a week ago for 3 days. She gained her pound back, but is by means tipping any scales. I'm hoping to see her hit the 20 pound mark soon. She is other wise doing well. starting to talk she said "zack" today. She is still nursing and loving every minute of it as I am as well. Emma's new funnies thing ever is when she wants to nurse she comes to me calling daddies. she calls my breast daddies. Where do they come up with this stuff ? She still calls Darin Daddy and says mam, but she says daddies when she want to nurse. It so funny telling her "here you daddies" I makes us all laugh so hard. She is such a joyful ball of energy and so sweet she pats my back when i pick she up and rubs my arms at night to make sure I'm still close. We are enjoy all these wonderful moments with her.

Monday, March 23, 2009

One daughter up another down ...........

took both girls in to the doctor today. Emmaleigh was in the hospital for 3 days and I was told to follow up with the pedi in a week or less. When I got home From the Hospital I found that my older daughter, Isabella had an ear infection. It was the weekend and not much I could do. So I brought Emmaleigh in for her follow up and took Isabella in to be seen as well. Emmaleigh is doing well. She has gained her lost pound back. Emma kept me running around chasing her down she was all smiles today. The doctor said she looks great ! The c-diff was just very bad luck. Nothing we did could be have seen in coming, just something that happens sometimes, but it's very rare. Emmaleigh is on the up swing. However her nursing like a newborn for 3 days built up my supply. I had to pump to get a little relief and I got almost 2 oz with just a hand pump. I'm sure it will go back to normal soon now that she is eating more solids. I'm glad to report Miss Emma is back to her old self.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

sick baby girl

Emmaleigh got very sick and had to be hospitalized. Recently she had a few loose stools. I didn't think much of it other than a virus that would pass. I'm a mother of five so I don't run to the doctor at every little sneeze. We all have been though those moments where our stool aren't "normal" but we quickly get though them and no treatment is needed. Emma was her normal self. She didn't show any other sign that she was even sick. Wednesday we went to a party for my aunt. Emmaleigh was fine. She ran around looked at the fishy was a happy normal little girl. We got home from the party late. We put the other kids down. I nursed her to sleep layed her in my bed. I got on the computer while she was asleep to just get a few things done before going to bed myself and I was on the phone with a friend. Darin come in to move Zack to his bed at that point we realized the room didn't smell of roses. Emmaleigh had pooped the bed. I told my friend I had to go and we changed the bed and the baby. I sat back down and nursed her bad to sleep. As I was getting ready to get up and bring her to bed she threw up everywhere Linda Blaire style. I changed her yet again and went and got a bed pad out of the closet. I got back in bed with her. I knew she had a 11:15 well appointment at the doctor anyway. She slept threw the night, which she hasn't done since birth. When I woke up at 7am she had pooped the bed again during the night. I cleaned it up and tried to lay down with her for a little more sleep. a few minutes later she threw up, the pad caught most of it. SO we moved to the other side of the bed when she threw up on me again. So at the point it was over. I striped the bed. Got her in the tub as well as myself. Darin got the kids off the school. Poor thing was standing up with her head resting on the ledge of the tub. I called the doctor to have her seen sooner than 11:15 she didn't look good at all. She threw up a few more times before we could get to the doctor and was going through the motions but nothing was coming up. I sat in the back with her. I had a cloth diaper ready to catch her throw up. We got to the doctors for our 9:30am appointment. She had lost a pound since her last visit only about 10 days ago. The doctor said she was dehydrated and need to go to the hospital. We were sent to the hospital. They started an IV which she didn't even cry for. They also took some blood. and decided to admit her. I nursed her as she got her first bag of IV in the Er. As soon as we got upstairs to the ped floor she threw up. So i was told at that point I needed to not nurse her cause her tummy needed a rest. I didn't know if that was best or not, but I listened. They brought me a elertic pump so I pumped for the 5 hours that they wouldn't let me nurse her, which really isn't that long for a 19 month old we gone that long on a busy day. around dinner time they let me nurse her again and she kept that down. They took stool samples. They had a crib, hospital bed and parent cot. They told me I could do what ever I was most comfortable with and allowed me to co sleep with her no fuss. They even sent me free comp trays of meals for myself. They sent her diapers since they wanted to weigh all her diapers. The stool sample came back negative for roto visus. At first they thought it was juts a stomach bug, but then came back positive for Clostrimdum diffrele. Which is a reaction to an antibiotics. It just something that happens sometime and cause and infection in the colon. She was watched until her throwing up stopped diarrhea got better. She still having loose stools, but as much as we tried she wouldn't take solids so we finally came to realized the stools changed and weren't stinky anymore so they were more breast milk only stools. I am so thankful she was still breastfeeding since that is all she would take they would have kept as longer if she wasn't taken anything. We were let go home Saturday afternoon and since we got home she has started eating more solids. I think she is on the up hill road to her old self. I had some wonderful friends who kept us in there thoughts and prays and as much as I hated being in the hospital and I hate hospital this one treated us very good. She pooped the bed one night at 3am everyone was in there helping with us. We had very good food or maybe i should say I did since Emma didn't want to eat any of it. Anything I need was giving to me including a scrub shirt when she threw up on me. I missed Alex, Cameron, Bella, & Zack alot, but it wax nice to get one on one time with just Emma and I and with nothing to do but play and take care of her. I'm so glad we are home now. I thank everyone for there calls and texts to keep me sane. and Emma is much better now.

warning nursing and IV pictures........