A few things I want to Remember

All about Kaitlyn...

* Anytime we are in the car she loves looking for "slug bugs" and "cruisers." (PT Cruisers) She is very good at spotting them. If she sees a slug bug, she also has to say the color. My favorite is when she sees a yellow one, she says "Slug bug! Yeller!

* She is absolutely in love with her sisters. She is such a big help around the house. She can even almost change a diaper by herself. This is a new thing we are working on. She is good at feeding Claire. And she loves to read to and play with Cora.

* She is a VERY big help around the house. She loves to clean the house with me - especially anything that requires dusting or Windex.

* She loves cinnamon toast.

* She actually enjoys shopping and trying on clothes. I don't know where she got this from, because I hate it.

* She is learning to read and doing very well! She reads a couple of B.O.B. books every night. She asks about Kindergarten frequently and when we can go sign her up.

* She is very into Webkinz. She has two of them that she is very good at taking care of. Chelsea and Wolfie are two of her favorite things in the world. (Even though Chelsea the Koala bear is currently missing)

* She has to color every night while I dry her hair. It has to be with a marker.

* She has started a snow globe collection. She calls them snow glows.

* She is just growing up so fast and we are so proud of her!

All about Cora......

* She also loves her sisters. She gives Claire kisses on the head all of the time. (I have a cute video of this that I need to try to post)

* Her words now are mommy, daddy, baby, sissy, Pappy, Mamaw, Nana, No, Bye-bye, please, thank you, pat-pat, Brenna, uh-oh. Not all very clear, but understandable!


* She loves to curl her tongue and chew on it.

* She is very good at taking off her socks and shoes in the car.

* She loves to "brush" her teeth, or have her teeth brushed. Or just chew on the toothbrush.

* She is getting a lot of teeth right now.

* One of her favorite things to do is take a cushion (always the same one) off of the couch and jump on the couch where the cushion was.

* She LOVES looking at books. She will bring a book to me (or anyone) and then just turn around and sit on my lap and wait for me to read it.

* She loves to sit on her pink bean bag and watch Baby Einstein movies.

* Her favorite toys to play with are a Tylenol bottle and a teething tablet bottle.

* She is still taking 2 good naps a day, which I LOVE.

* She loves to play chase around the house - this makes her laugh really hard. Her little laugh is so cute.

* She is the pickiest eater. I don't know how she stays so fat. She really only drinks milk and eats yogurt. Vegetables are the hardest to get her to eat, and she really won't eat fruit that much either. She does like Nutri grain bars and gold fish and bread. I hope she learns to like other things soon! What does/did your one year old like to eat?

All about Claire.....

* Little miss Claire got SPOILED rotten in the hospital. She was pretty much held for 6 days straight and now she thinks that's the norm. She doesn't like to be put down too much. Once we get her to sleep it's about a 50/50 shot at getting her to stay asleep once we do put her down.

* I think she is going to have big blue eyes like Cora.

* She sometimes likes her paci, but she is not, by any means, attached to it. She has also found her thumb a couple of times.

* She is a tummy sleeper - just like Kaitlyn.

* She is starting to smile more and more. It's funny to hear Kaitlyn talk to her in a real high pitched voice. She smiles a lot at that.

* She's a good eater! She is eating about 5 ounces every 4 ours or so. Her longest stretch at night so far has been about 7 hours. Not too bad.

I love our girls so much, but I am one tired momma. I did start back at the gym last week, so I'm hoping my energy will start to pick up. I've got some serious weight to lose before my brothers wedding in July.

The past few weeks we have enjoyed play dates with friends, Kaitlyn has started playing her second season of soccer, lots of trips to the doctor, a few shopping runs with all 3 kids, a couple of ACU baseball games, basketball games, and family walks on Sunday afternoons.

Sweet girl...

The fake cry...

kaitlyn reading to cora.. I love the expression on her face

what kaitlyn can do to cora when i'm not looking. she is ready to go with her backpack, her necklace, her lipgloss... and oh yeah - the laundry basket.

Baby Claire..

Happy Valentines Day to my FOUR Valentines...

There's no place like HOME....

We have all enjoyed having Claire back home with us. That was a long six days! She has been doing very well the past 24 hours. We will take her for a follow up appointment on Friday and then enjoy the rest of this flu season from the comfort of home.

Her sisters were especially excited to see her....

We think she may even have some red hair! This picture doesn't show it all that well, but what do you think?

Enough of this!

Claire has decided she has had enough of this stuffy room. Hopefully - if she continues to do well, we can go home this evening!!!!

She had a really great night and has been off of the oxygen since early this morning. If she can go through all of her cycles (resting, eating, awake) and stay in the mid to high 90's, then we are outta here. Praise the Lord!

I have to admit - as much as I want her home, there is a slight level of fear of having her there. My prayer now is that I can just trust that God will take care of her and I won't have to stay awake and watch her every breath.

Yay for 100%!!!!!!

End of Day 6

Claire and I are just hanging out watching the Grammy's...

There hasn't been much change today. They went ahead and did another chest x-ray this morning. We'll get the results of that in the morning. Hopefully things are starting to look better.

Her respiratory therapist was just in and said she's not going to take her off of the oxygen again until tomorrow. UGH!! The doctor wants it to be 94% or higher when she is off oxygen. Today she has been sitting at 95 or 96 while receiving oxygen. So... again - we just wait for her little lungs to clear up.

Good news: Her feedings have gotten much better. She hasn't thrown up since 11:30 last night. We had to stop her formula for awhile and just give her Pedialite. Now we are just watering her bottles down and she seems to be tolerating that pretty well.

Kaitlyn is feeling much better today. She has her appetite back and is not coughing quite as much. Sweet Cora's just been walking around wondering what the heck is going on. She has walked over to Claire's swing a few times and rocks it saying, "baby, baby...."

Hopefully she'll be swingin' again soon.

Day 5

It is such a beautiful day outside today! I am sitting on my little bed in the hospital room with the sunshine spilling in on me.... I kind of feel like I'm outside! Little Claire is asleep next to me in her Pappy's arms snoring away. Or maybe it's congestion. I don't know.

This floor of the hospital is completely FULL of sick babies with the same stuff Claire has. It's so sad to walk down the hall and hear all the tiny little cries. It's just not right I tell you!

The doctor made rounds today and things are a little bit better (I think). Her chest is beginning to sound less "crackely." She is just on a tiny bit of oxygen - I think the lowest setting. But still, everytime they take her off her level drops within the hour. It's so strange to me that 1/16 of a liter of oxygen - hardly anything - can make such a difference to such tiny lungs.

She is also struggling with her feedings. After every other feeding she throws up. And I'm not talking about a little spit up on my shoulder. She coughs and coughs and coughs and then throws up everything in her little tummy.. until there is just nothing left. Not sure what this is all about...

So, we wait. I have taken some really sweet pictures of her up here (I think her hospital gown is really cute), but James won't let me post them on here... you can take that up with him.

Thanks for thinking of us!

Day 4, Going on 5...

Claire has decided she is just going to take up residence here at the hospital. She must really like it. She seems to be doing a little better though, which makes me very happy. However, they didn't even attempt to take her off of oxygen yesterday because she really wasn't ever at 100% even with the nasal cannula. This morning they tried taking her off of it, but that only lasted for about 10 minutes until they had to put her back on.

We also got the results back from her Echo cardiogram. Forgive me - I can't remember the technical names for anything. Basically, Claire has a hole - not in her actual heart, but in one of the passageways where blood travels to and from her heart. The doctor said it is possible, but not likely, that is affecting her current condition. If all of her flu/bronchitis symptoms go away and her oxygen levels remain low - then they will possibly do more testing.

Most likely this hole will close on it's own as her heart grows. If it doesn't, then there is a simple surgical procedure that can fix it.

We really have no idea how much longer we will be here. Hopefully just a couple more days. It really is draining, and I feel pulled in so many directions with two other kids at home.

Update

Well, we are still here. We're not going home today. Claire is still about the same. Her little lungs just still can't get the oxygen that she needs yet. It doesn't sound like we can go home until she is completely off oxygen for 24 hours. The doctor is pretty sure she has the flu and bronchitis. Not too fun for a 2 1/2 week old. Today they have just still been giving her breathing treatments and sucking out her nose and throat (not a fun thing to watch). We are still waiting on resuls from the Echo-cardiogram that they did yesterday. Thanks for your prayers!

Kaitlyn and Cora are doing okay. Kaitlyn is still running a fever and threw up a little bit this morning. Hopefully she will start feeling better soon. My mom and grandmother are here helping out - I seriously don't know what I would do without them here!

BTW - James turns 30 today. I wanted today to be really fun for him, and I'm not sure how that will happen. So, leave him a birthday wish!

Prayers for Claire

We had to take Claire to the ER last night because she was having trouble breathing. They went ahead and admitted her and we will be there until at least tomorrow. They have run all sorts of tests on her lungs/heart and so far everything has come back okay - but we are still waiting on a couple more results and for her oxygen levels to stabilize.

She gave us quite a scare, but I think everything will be okay. I just ran home to take a quick shower and then I am back up there.

Oh, and James had to take Kaitlyn to the doctor this morning as well - she has a full blown case of the flu.

When it rains, it pours.

More updates later...

Yada, yada, yada

All three girls are asleep right now. WHAT?! I know. I'm trying to enjoy every minute. So, instead of putting on a load of laundry, sweeping the floor, or washing out bottles - I'm blogging. Oh well. I just uploaded a bunch of pictures from the past couple of weeks.....

This is what we did to some of our Huddle girls last Wednesday night. I'm sure there is a spiritual application there somewhere.....

A couple of weeks ago, James took Kaitlyn and Cora to visit his friends at an "Activity Center for old folks." That's my name for it at least. This guy is literally 100 years old. He had fun pushing Cora around in his walker. I'm sure Kaitlyn just talked everyone's ear off. I think they had a good time.

I chopped and donated 10 inches of my hair. You can't see it really good in this picture (Kaitlyn took it), but I guess you can get the idea. It's way short. Yikes.

Just a few pictures of my three girls...

These little "stacking dolls" (not sure of their real name) are Cora's favorite thing right now. She will literally play with them for an hour straight.

Happy Friday!