Teething & Standing

As many may know, Emma is cutting her first tooth at which she is not very happy about. The poor baby has been pretty fussing & is refusing to eat solids but really enjoying her bottles. She does eat Gerber puffs & yogurt melts, but no baby food of any kind. I called the doctor yesterday to ask a nurse about her not eating for a week + & she said not to worry, that she would eat eventually. As long as Emma continues to take her bottles she is getting enough nutrients.

Emma did really well in therapy on Monday. Emma actually pulled to the standing position all by herself Monday morning before we left & I was so proud of her. She only stood for a minute or two & I wish I could have seen her do it but I only saw the end result. Leslie says her stomach muscles are getting much stronger & Emma was even sitting up from laying down on her back, which she has never done before. I was really not in favor of her going to therapy but it has really helped Emma a lot. The idea of therapy made me feel as if I had done something wrong as a mom, but it is mainly because of her first surgery, low weight & low muscle tone that caused her delay.

On the move

Its official, Emma is crawling & I must say our dog Spencer isn't happy about it at all. She loves Spencer & our 3 cats but I must say they don't share the same feelings towards her. Emma is constantly wanting to pet Spencer & play with his toys, which consist of stuff animals that squeak & balls. Spencer has been pretty depressed & grouchy since her crawling began. We are trying to teach Emma to leave him alone so he doesn't bite her. It looks as if our hopes of Emma & Spencer being buddies may have been just that a hope.

Is is feeling better but she still isn't sleeping very well, at night or during the day. I am guessing its her teething that is bothering her, but she has been doing this for about a month or 2 now. She fights for 20-30 minutes going to sleep at night & for her naps + she isn't sleeping through the night anymore. My oldest sister told me that babies change & become more aware at 9-10 months & their sleeping patterns sometimes change. I sure wish her sleeping patterns would settle back down, I am tired & need some sleep.

Emma's therapy went really well on Monday. The therapist is now working on helping Emma gain strength to pull herself & stand. At first I wasn't real happy about this but after much thought & conversations with my sister & Chris they have help me relize this is for Emma best interest. I was afraid maybe the therapist was moving too fast & that Emma would be walking really soon but it did take Emma 4 weeks of therapy before she started to crawl & she has been trying on her own for a month or longer. Plus walking is a more difficult task to master & she has a lot of upper body strength to gain before she can begin pulling herself up properly. The therapist also started teaching Emma how to hold onto furniture & walk but Emma didn't seem to like it or be ready, she cried. One final thing they worked on was crawling up stairs, which I totally objected to. I pretty much told the therapist I would not be encouraging Emma to do that at home. I do not want her crawling up the stairs, or at least not anytime soon.

Highs and Lows

Lets start with the highs first. Emma is doing so well in her therapy. She is starting to crawl (a few feet at a time) and then she sits back down. The therapist is predicting that Emma will be crawling all over the place by next Monday when she goes back for her next session. She also sat up from a laying down position for the first time on Monday. I can't tell you how proud I am to see her progressing. She has sat up several times since then but I think she forgets how to do it so sometimes I help her a little as a reminder. Chris has found her sitting up in her bed twice this week already so we will probably need to lower her bed. Emma is also trying to pull up to stand but she hasn't quite figured it out yet. One other high is Emma's first tooth has broken through. Its on the bottom left & when it comes in I will try to take a picture of it.

Now for the lows, I have taken Emma to the doctor twice in the past 2 days. She has a really bad cold, low grade fever & vomitting. She didn't sleep very much at all Monday night. She coughed all night & cried. I spent most the night rocking her or holding her to comfort her to relax. When we went to the doctor yesterday Dr. F said her breathing sounded good, her ears were clear & she didn't want to do anything other than see if Emma could work through it. She did say she would have a nurse call today to check on her & if Emma wasn't better or worse she would probably need to come back in. So Emma slept maybe 3-4 hours last night with a lot of coughing & crying again. I did get a call from a nurse this morning & I told her Emma probably wasn't any worse but wasn't any better. She suggested I try a saline solution to try & break up some of the mucus & if that didn't seem to clear up Emma's breating to bring her back in to be seen. So we went back this afternoon & we saw Dr. K this time & she her a little wheezing so they did a breating treatment on Emma & sent her home with an inhaler. If Emma isn't any better in a few days I am suppose to take her back. Dr. K wants to make sure Emma's body doesn't work too hard with her heart condition. I really hope the combination of Emma's humidifer, the inhaler & using the saline solution will help bring her some relief soon. She sounds just pitiful.

10 months old

Yesterday Emma turned 10 months old & we celebrated by taking her to the park for the first. Unfortunately she is still too small for the baby swings but I got in one of the regular swings so she could at least have a chance to play. She seemed to really like it & jumped up & down on my lap when the swing would stop. It was as if she was trying to make it swing again. We took her to the slide & held her while she went down & she seemed to like it too. One of her favorite parts was this tunnel she could look through the window holes on the side & peek at us.

Emma is getting really close to crawling & is babbling a lot these days. She is finally getting the hang of self feeding but isn't crazy about table food just yet. She is also doing much better with her sippy cup. She had her second session with the physical therapist today (although she cried most of the time) & Leslie could already tell an improvement from last week. She seems to think Emma will be crawling within the next week or two but I am not quite sure. Dr. K (pediatrician) wanted Emma tested to see if she needed therapy & the therapist says she is only slightly behind. Emma will be going to therapy once a week until her heart surgery in Oct & she will start going back to therapy soon after the surgery.

I started putting bows in her hair over the weekend, doesn't make her look so much older.

Sweet serious look with those big blue eyes.

Emma napping Sunday afternoon & cuddling with her bear blanket, she was too cute I had to take a picture.

I think she is watching Spencer or some other children off in the distance.

Here she is waving at her Daddy right before I help her go down the slide.

Look at that sweet face.

See how tiny she looks in the baby swing. It almost came up to her chin. You could have fit 2 or 3 of her in that swing.

Peeking at Daddy


She looks so big here all by herself

Daddy & his little girl

Surgery Scheduled

I got a call from Dr. B's (Emma's heart surgeon) office on Friday morning & they have scheduled her for Oct. 28. Yes, we will be going back to Charleston for this surgery & man am I nervous. After I got off the phone with his secretary I cried. Now I know the surgery is totally necessary but I also know its very invasive & a long surgery. The up side is we are familiar with the process, the hospital, the staff & this should be the final surgery.

We really don't know what the surgeon will do to repair Emma's VSD's & Dr. O (Emma's cardiologist) said Dr. B may not decide until Emma is actually in the OR. The main goal is to patch the large hole in the apex of her heart & to hopefully patch most of the little holes. There is a possiblity that some of the smaller holes will not be patched but Dr. O said that should not cause Emma any problems + he will be monitoring Emma after we get home Charleston.

One of your goals before we go to Charleston is to get Emma a flu shot. Dr. K (her pediatrician) had suggested at her 9 month check-up that she wanted Emma to get one & Dr. O agreed. Dr. O was also hoping to get Emma's surgery done before flu season but she will be in the hospital at the beginning of it so its even more important that she gets the shot. Now I just hope the pediatrician gets them in soon enough.

So we would like to ask you to keep us, Emma and the staff at MUSC Children's Hospital in your prayers as we take this journey one more time.