7 Months

Emma is now 7 mos. Wow it goes so fast! She is enjoying baby food and has about 1 jar per day in addition to 2 bottles with cereal and nursing twice a day. She was 16lbs 9oz and 27" last week at her GI appt. She is still sleeping a long time at night, usually 7:30pm to 9am-ish, and napping 2-3 times a day. She has started trying to wave at us this week when we say "Hi Emma." Will and Emma get each other into fits of giggles and with their funny stridor laughs, it's crazy-sounding around here sometimes. Emma's been rolling around a lot, especially at night. Even though she's still swaddled, she rolls over and sleeps on her tummy like a glow worm. She is still not sitting well or pushing her chest off the ground, but hopefully she'll get it down soon or we might have some PT in the future. Many times laryngomalacia will affect development milestones, and from sharing with other LM parents, sitting seems to be a major one that's affected.

They both had an ENT check up today. Will was scoped and we found that his vocal cords are not paralyzed (yay!), they just don't move quite the right way. The ENT couldn't put his finger on the problem right away, but said they seemed almost to be working against each other or something. They might do some breathing tests or a scope under general anesthesia (like Emma had) to investigate further, but no procedures have to be done at this point. The doc said Will was probably born with a similar condition as Emma, just not as severe. We are finally getting Will’s hearing checked again too. He had hearing loss before his tubes were put in at 18 mos and never had a follow up. Overall a good appointment, better than we had expected. We also got the letter we need to send to the EFMP committee to try to get Emma's status changed to category 5 so we can stay here. Before we move, we need to get some other things checked out for Emma, like her heart murmur, which hopefully she's grown out of, and we might even talk to the geneticist since both kids seem to have been born with the same congenital problems.

In the next couple weeks, we are also planning to get Will a double bed. He's sleeping in his toddler bed right now, and at 42" long he doesn't fit very well anymore. Especially since he has to have all these stuffed toys sleep with him. Fortunately, his crib/toddler bed also converts to a headboard/footboard for a double bed, so we just need the mattress and frame...and sheets. He wants "Thomas" of course :) He also wants a nightlight now, so we'll be shopping around for a cute light too.

Christmas Vacation 2010

This was our longest trip ever - we were gone from home for 17 days, and drove 3000 miles, whew! No major mishaps, suprises or battles. It was a great trip. Jered's motto for the trip was "Put it on the credit card," and my motto was "If no one is screaming, I'm happy." Both the kids had a wonderful Christmas. Will loves his Baba, Meemaw and Auntie Abby and had a lot of fun with them. Emma was a very good baby and slept wonderfully the whole time we were gone (always the most worrisome thing with a young baby on a trip!). Since it was such a long trip, it's hard to write about everything that happened, but we enjoyed our time with family, both in Corpus Christi and in San Antonio. These are some pictures from our trip:

Before we left on our trip, our exciting news was Emma's vocal cords moved during her last in-office laryngoscope! We were SO excited, needless to say. It was only one movement, so it is still sporadic and will most likely be a long road to full use of her voice, but it was very encouraging and a fantastic Christmas miracle! In about 2 weeks we have another ENT appointment for Emma and also for Will this time. I have been a little worried about some of his breathing sounds and retractions while crying. When Emma's ENT watched a video of Will crying, he said he'd like to examine and scope him too. He might have some sort of paralysis in his vocal cords too and they'd like to keep tabs on him, although obviously he is a pretty healthy 3 year old, so it's not as dire as Emma's situation.

6 Months

Emma is 6 months old tomorrow. She is still on her reduced dose of Prevacid. She's on 15mg morning and 7.5mg nighttime and still eating and gaining well as far as we know. We have an ENT appointment this week with a weigh in and probably a fiber optic scope since it's been a couple months since her last one.

These last 2 weeks have been busy with preparing for the Christmas season. We finally got leave approved for after Christmas, so that's exciting. We have been decorating the house and getting ready to celebrate our first Christmas at home, although it is our 9th Christmas together. We have been practicing for Will's Christmas pageant, which was today, and I am singing in an ensemble and with the worship team next week for a Christmas special. We also had Jered's Christmas party for his command's Chief's mess last night, and our Young Family Ministry Christmas party next week. Lots going on, I feel harried sometimes, but happy. I've written our Christmas letter, but still need to take a picture with everyone...putting that off because I'm sure it will be loads of fun...Anyway, it is fun to prepare for Christmas with Will at this age. He is starting to understand what Christmas is about (Jesus' birthday) and told me the other day that Jesus "loves his heart." So wonderful to see the truth and meaning of Christmas start to become part of his life.

We are still in the midst of getting our new orders sorted out. Our New Orleans orders will be cancelled because Emma was put in Category 4 of the Exceptional Family Member program. That means we have to be stationed in only specific areas of the country until her status is changed. We need to stay here in San Diego until her vocal cords are working or she has surgery, so Jered's command master chief is helping him work with the detailer to either extend a couple years at his command or find orders with another squadron in San Diego. We are praying for this to work out soon so we know more about what our future holds.

5 1/2 Months

Emma has been very stable the last couple of weeks - we had a GI appointment this week and we are going to start slowly taking down her reflux meds. We're starting this week with decreasing her nighttime dose from 15mg to 7.5mg of Prevacid and keeping the morning dose at 15mg. If she does well, we'll try decreasing the morning to 7.5mg as well in a few weeks. She is gaining weight at a normal pace now and is right below 15lbs and very long at 26.5" That's only 1 inch shorter than Will was at 5 mos, so pretty long for a girl! She is very happy and smiles so much. She mostly loves to be with people, especially her family. Emma has really been developing a love for Daddy and wants him to hold her when he gets home from work. It's a nice development because she was such a mama's girl from birth (not that I minded the attention). She is still on the same basic schedule, but takes a shorter morning nap (1-2hrs) and a long afternoon nap (3-4hrs) and then a little bitty nap before dinner most days - sometimes she won't do that one! She wants to be a big kid like her brother I think. She goes to bed at 7 or 7:30 and usually sleeps until about 8am.

Will is such a comedian these days. He always wants to make people laugh. He tells jokes and makes funny faces. He says the sweetest things too. I can tell that he has a soft heart for me and his baby sister especially. Daddy is his wrestling buddy and portable jungle gym, and they are loving the same movies and tv shows. Will even requested to watch The Hobbit today. When I asked him if he liked Gollum, he said "He's my precious." Very funny - with the Gollum voice and everything. Will is also so smart. He amazes me. He was reading my feeding chart I keep for Emma. He was reading the numbers out loud, then stopped and asked me why one of the squares was blank because all the others in the row had been filled in. He brings me books and asks me "Can I help you read it?" While I read, he also points his finger to the words on the page as I read them, and copies what I say. He can pick his name out on the page and can read all his capital letters and most lower case ones now too. I'm excited for when we can afford to send him to pre-school because I know he will enjoy learning even more. He is so bright. He still can't draw a lick, but we have plenty of time for that later :o)

5 Months Old

Emma is 5 months old today! The last 2 weeks have gone much better than the previous month. Emma is now eating 4 times a day, nursing in the morning around 8am and in the afternoon around 4pm, and having a 5oz milk + 5Tb cereal bottle around 12pm, and a 6-7oz milk + 6-7Tb cereal bottle around 7pm. She goes to bed about 7:30pm and sleeps until 7:30-8am. Such a change from just a few weeks ago! Having the right meds and the thickened feedings have really helped her feel so much better. We are going to her Peds ENT next week and we'll do a weight check. We think she's getting chubbier every day and are hoping she's still gaining weight well (we're guessing about 14lbs, we'll see :o)). Emma is able to stay awake longer stretches now and enjoys the Jumperoo, the exersaucer, Bumbo seat and just being held and cuddled - especially sitting with Daddy, although she is a mama's girl when she's upset, hungry or tired. She is taking 3 naps during the day. Usually 2 hrs in the morning, 2-3 hrs in the afternoon, and 1 hr in the evening around 5-6pm. She is very alert and interactive. She is usually happy even if she misses her nap, which is a change from Will, who turned into a gremlin without his naps! She is a great joy and we love her to pieces!