Sunday, May 02, 2010

Can it be?

I cannot believe that Elaina has been home for 1 month already! The time just seems to fly by! We've been keeping VERY busy! Between the med schedule, feedings, and visits from our Home Health providers, not to mention the day to day things like homework, laundry etc, I've barely had time to sleep. I've had good intentions to update the blog, but sleep has won out!

Elaina loves being home! She is such a happy little bug! Here she is in the kitchen helping Mommy fix dinner:


and playing with her toys...


She's still having a hard time establishing a good sleep schedule. I was SO tired one night that after an hour of unsuccessful rocking, I put her in her crib. I figured that she didn't get rocked to sleep at South Davis, so she didn't really need Mommy to rock her, right? Well, I thought she was asleep. Then I heard a noise. Many noises. I peeked into the crib to see this:


On her hands and knees, rocking. On the bi-pap. Looking like an elephant. (Elainaphant, hehehehe!) As soon as she was "caught" she flopped over, like she was ready for bed. I moved her up onto her pillow, and tucked her blanket around her, telling her it was "night-night" time, and within 5 minutes she was asleep. Silly little girl!


She's been getting LOTS and LOTS of floor time. She's still not crawling, but she is SO close. She can get anywhere she wants, by rolling and scooting and pulling herself. A couple of times she has tried to follow me out of the living room, so I know that full mobility is close at hand.



And Ben? Well, he takes every opportunity that he can to love on his sister. His favorite thing is to hold her while she's sleeping. She was napping on my bed early one morning (after a particularly sleepless night), and Ben came in for some morning snuggles. I had to get up to get some meds, and when I came back into the room, this is what I found:



And of course, one of the favorite things to do is cuddle while watching Nemo or Little Mermaid.



Elaina is in LOVE with her brother! She gets excited whenever he comes into the room, and she loves to pull his hair to get his face close enough to give him smooches!

She's had a little cold for the past couple of weeks. Either that or allergies, the doctor wasn't sure which it was. So I'm keeping the suction close and giving a few extra snuggles afterward. She hasn't had a significant fever, so the doctor isn't too worried, but I'll be taking her in again on Monday, just to be sure. She's been coughing a lot and pretty congested. Dr Black told me to increase her oxygen a little bit right now to keep her sats up, but otherwise just keep her suctioned and happy.

Suction does NOT make her happy.

Luckily, kisses DO!

Thanks for checking in on us!

Hugs,
Hollie, Ben and Elaina

7 comments:

Staci said...

It warms my heart to see your beautiful family home ALL together! Enjoy every minute of it.

Staci (angel Bridger's mom)

Melynda said...

hehe Elainaphant love it! She looks SOOO happy to be home. =D Thanks for the post its good seeing things going so very well.

Heart hugs

Melynda

Becca Jane said...

MELT my heart! I love the snuggling pictures with Big Bro! Elainaphant...cracked me up! I love her pretty hair...I need to send her some BOWS!!! Remind me of your address, okay?

Loves to you and your beautiful kids!

Stephanie @ Ralphcrew said...

Oh my! Hard to see how your kids could be any cuter. Love, love those little pigtails!

carolyn q said...

I just love that post. I am so glad that she is loving life and being home. What a miracle Elaina is and I so enjoy reading that even though you are exhuasted that it's going well.
(HUGS)

The Portas said...

She looks adorable and SO HAPPY to be at home! I am so incredibly happy for you guys. It is so much fun to see her enjoying you and Ben in your own home. I love the brother-sister snuggles. How adorable!! Thanks for the update! I hope the snot is all gone by now.

Amy Sabin said...

Hollie-
I am so glad that Elaina is home with you and doing so well. It sounds like it has been such a journey getting her there. I love the pictures of her in the crib and of her with her brother. I want to tell you how much I have appreciated your comments on my blog. It is so nice to hear from someone who has experienced much of what I am going through. My thoughts and prayers are with your family.

Amy (Mom to Annie)