Lillian's Six Months Appointment

Lillian's six months appointment was today.  She is doing great, and almost handled the shots like a champ.  When the nurse did the first one, she kind of loud-sighed/squeaked, then took a deep breath and was on her way to fine...when the second one when in.  She looked at me like, "how can you let her do that to me??!?!," then wailed until I get her her pluggie.  Thirty seconds later, she was fine.

Here are her 6 month stats:

Weight: 18 pounds, 4 ounces (up 2 pounds, 3 ounces from 4 months) - 84th percentile

Height: 27 inches (up 1.25 inches from 4 months) - 88th percentile

Head Circumference: 45 cm (up 2 cm from 4 months) - 98th percentile

It was at Evelyn's six months appointment that she started to fall in her growth curve and we started having to see specialists, so I wanted to compare them a little.  At 6 months, Evelyn was 14 pounds, 5 ounces (14th % - down from 90th at birth), 24 inches tall (1st % - down from 21st at birth), and her head circumference was 42.5 cm (50th % - down from 85th at 2 weeks).  If I compare Lillian to her birth stats she was 98th in weight, off the chart (on the top end - 99+) in height, and 96th in head circumference at birth.  So Lillian has remained relatively close to her birth percentages, while Evelyn definitely declined pretty significantly.  Just interesting to look at, for me at least!

Lillian's 6 Months Pictures

Once again, Cat did an amazing job with Lillian's 6 months pictures!  Here are some of my favorites!

My Mom made this quilt for Lillian!

I wanted to get a Broncos sister picture...we should have done it first so everyone would be cooperative and happy!

I do like this one! :-)  

Sweet sisters!

Six Months, Already?!

Sweet Lilly-Belle, you are the happiest baby I have ever known!  You were sick for the first time over Christmas, and you barely cried...and still smiled at everyone when they smiled at you.  Your personality really starting to show!  You smile at everything, and it doesn't take much to really get you giggling.  The only times you cry are when you are hungry, tired, or your sister does something that makes you mad.  And when you get adjusted by Dr. Walker - you are not a fan of him!  You went to Colorado for the first time this month, and got to experience "playing" in the snow.  Just this past week you started sitting unassisted, which has opened up a whole new world of toys and playing!  You really like your exersaucer and the jumparoo at Grammie and Grandad's house (we'll get yours out soon!).  You have also started babbling like crazy.  Mostly squeals and grunts at this point, but you like to "talk" to whomever will listen!  I think one of my favorite things that you do is the reaction you give to us when we come to get you out of the crib.  You can be crying out for us, and as soon as the door opens - you stop.  You then peer up at the crib edge just waiting - then flail your arms and legs and give us the biggest smile!  It's fun to watch you on the video monitor when Daddy goes in to get you because you can really see how you turn your head and wait for whoever opened the door, then get so excited when you see them!  Makes my day (and nights) every time.  Speaking of nights, you still are not sleeping through it.  You still get up 2-3 times per night most nights.  We've tried letting you cry it out, but you outlast us every time!  I thought that starting solids might help, but so far it has not!  That is probably your biggest milestone this month - solid foods!  You had zero problems swallowing it and never really went through a phase of pushing food back out of your mouth with your tongue.  So far you had had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, bananas, green beans, and apples.  You haven't really shown distaste for any of them.  You have started to have a little bit of stranger anxiety, mostly if you can't see Mommy or Daddy.  Most of the time in the church nursery you do alright because your sister is in there with you!  We were able to enjoy being outside some this month - both on jogs in the jogging stroller and in our yard.  Daddy hooked the swing up to the tree branch so that you can swing on it - which you love.  You have finally warmed up more to tummy time, and you'll sit on your tummy - reaching for things - for longer periods of time.  While you can roll both front to back and back to front, you haven't really started using that as a means of locomotion, yet!  You are such a joy to watch grow and develop, and you smile lights up the room.  You have such a sweet spirit that is evident in your smile, I can't wait to watch it develop!  Happy 6 months, sweet girl!

Children's Hospital for Everyone!

Today was the day that Evelyn's MRI was scheduled.  Because it was an MRI of her pituitary gland/brain, she had to be put under anesthesia for it.  She had to fast after midnight again for this lab.  When we got there, they prepped her in a small room before carting her over to the hospital (the day surgery building is connected to the hospital).  When I sat her on the bed to take off her clothes, she crawled under the covers and just stared down the nurse.  I know she could tell something was happening, but how do you communicate it to a 2 year old?

She did keep Cheep Cheep with her during the stare down!

Showing us the penguin that one of the hospital volunteers left for her.

After sitting in the Day Surgery room for about an hour, they took us to the pre-op room at the hospital.  While there, we met with the anesthesiologist who explained what she would be doing, as well as the MRI-tech who would be doing the actual scan.  They then gave her a medication to make her sleepy so that the separation from me wouldn't be as scary (can I have some of that, too, please?!). It was entertaining watching and listening to her.  As the medication really kicked in, she was trying to stay in a seated position, and was swaying all over the place.  She kept saying, "oh dear" - it was hilarious.  She finally let me help her lay down, but you could tell she was fighting it, knowing something was up.

She was a fan of the TV in that room! 

I then had to go wait in the waiting room while the carted my baby off.  The procedure lasted a little over an hour (including the time they kept her in the recovery room).  It felt like time stood still during that hour.  I can't imagine what it's like to wait for your child to have an actual surgery!  It broke my heart when she was scream-crying in the hallway when they came to get me.  I guess I hoped they would have me in the recovery room as she woke up so she wasn't scared.  They took us back to Day Surgery from there where we had to wait for her to be able to eat/drink before we could be released.

Drinking some juice

They took out the IV and released us after a little more than an hour.  On the way home, I looked back in the rear view mirror and saw that she had put the bandaid from her IV on her head.  It's one of those moments that will forever be seared in my Mommy memory because after she saw that I had noticed it, she just grinned from ear to ear...then went back to her stone face.  Precious.

While we were finishing recovery in the Day Surgery room, Dan (who was home with Lillian because Amber was sick) texted saying that Lillian wasn't taking a bottle and had thrown up.  Lovely.  He ended up taking the rest of the day off to help me (who, did I mention was dying from some sort of bronchial infection during all of this?!) take care of the girls. 

It ended up being necessary that he was there because Dr. Paez (Evelyn's endocrinologist) called with the results from her lab around 4pm.  Evelyn's pituitary glad was abnormally small and flat on the picture from the scan, which explains why she was diagnosed with GH deficiency.  I asked Dr. Paez if that can change, could it grow, and she said no.  Apparently as we start the GH therapy, it could unmask other problems like diabetes or thyroid issues in Evelyn.  This would be punch to the stomach #3.  To be honest, at that point in time, I felt like God had brought us to the edge of a cliff (yay - Missouri job, yay - healing prayer) and pushed us off.  I know that's not true - but my flesh was overwhelmed and broken in a million peices!

Lillian wouldn't nurse all afternoon, and hadn't had a wet diaper since around 8am this morning.  Around 5:00, we decided we better take her in before she got dehydrated (she had thrown up 2-3 times over the course of the day as well). 

Sweet angel - you can tell she didn't feel well!

She just let me hold her for the entire time we were there (which ended up being over 3 hours!).    While we were sitting there, the International House of Prayer posted this status on Facebook...

Like I said in my share of the post, it was exactly what I needed to hear as I was sitting there bookending my day at the children's hospital trying to make sense of what God was doing in our lives.  Around 8:30, Lillian finally nursed at the hospital.  At that point, we had been waiting for over 3 hours and still hadn't been seen.  I started praying that if this was just a bug and nothing more serious, that she would pee.  With the new "Affordable Care" (whatevs) Act, I knew we were going to be paying upwards of $1500 for an ER visit, and we had been told that Evelyn's MRI was not going to be covered as well.  Thank God, she peed!  :-)  I told the attending nurse that we were going to leave since she had nursed and peed, and she checked her vitals before taking us off the list.  Everything looked fine, so we headed home. 

Dan had gotten Evelyn in bed by then, and I was exhausted beyond belief.  Needing a good night of sleep so this mama can get better!!  And needing a kiss from God to remind us that we are in His hands right now.

December Random Pictures

December was a busy month for us!  I guess it always is with traveling for Christmas, but with the Mizzou waiting and Evelyn's labs, it seemed especially crazy.  Here are some random pictures that didn't really fit into the other blog posts!

Just playing dress-up...without the clothes

Sweet Lilly-Belle!

Evelyn learned the hard way that Mommy means it when she says not to open the gifts!

Aforementioned gifts...

I always find it hilarious (or annoying, depending on the time of day/night) that men can sleep through anything.  Lilly's just looking around while Dan's snoozing away...

Could I get some help, Mom?

It's hard to be two...and have to watch your sister sit in the high chair you hated so your parents got you a booster for the big table.

 Christmas dancing to New Kids...Daddy didn't want to play

Getting ready for baking Christmas goodies for our neighbors - and our trip to Colorado.

She wanted to pretend the cart was a car

Just hanging out at the aquarium

Lillian loves the stuffed Olaf she got for Christmas...particularly his nose!

Daddy playing with his girls - making Lilly laugh

Our New Years Eve...wouldn't have it any other way!

Christmas in Colorado

After the North Pole on Thursday morning, we headed to Ed & Sandi's house in Colorado Springs (Ed is Dan's brother).  We stayed there through Saturday morning.  Evelyn pretty much loves her Uncle Ed (and I think her Uncle Ed is pretty fond of her, too!).  The two of them fed off of each other most of the visit.  Ed has a million tricks and musical instruments, and he pulled just about every one of them out for Evelyn.  She, of course, was eating it all up!

And this one just played cute the whole trip

One of the many tricks...

Opening gifts from Uncle Ed & Aunt Sandi and Grandma & Grandpa Gaines

Still loves the paper most...

It's not snow...but it's frosty trees - a close second!

All bundled up!

After we went to healing prayer at Rez, we headed to my parents' house in Wray.  Thankfully, Evelyn took at nap in the car on the way (we never have to worry about Lillian taking a nap - she takes after her mama and loves sleeping!), so she could play with Grammie & Grandad when we got there.  It was fun watching Evelyn at my Mom and Dad's.

She helped Grammie make cookies

Might need to space those out a little more...

Doing a little tummy time

We slept in on Sunday, and started the day with some cinnamon donuts...a favorite at Grammie's every trip.  We then got ready for some Broncos football.  Evelyn enjoyed having Grammie & Grandad to herself (my sisters were both at their in-laws).

Is there something on my face?

Go Broncos!

Lillian loved playing in the jumparoo

Evelyn loved the endless supply of new babies and toys

She also was Grandad's little helper - getting a TV hung up in the sewing room

Grammie was hoping for a snuggly Lilly to watch a Hallmark movie with...Lilly was not on the same page.

(When Lillian was a newborn and my Mom was here - it was the Hallmark Channel's "Christmas in July"...so Mom would snuggle with Lillian while we got Evelyn down every night)

Her Harms cousins arrived around dinner time - let the fun begin!

She loved having Katie read to her!

We went to see Frozen (again!) in 3D at the Wray Community Theatre!

Love this cute girl!

Evelyn did such a good job sleeping in big girl beds the entire time we were in Colorado!

Lillian loved being the center of attention

Snowman sisters!

(Cheez-its are good for breakfast, right?)

All dressed up for Christmas mass

Our sweet family of four

Christmas morning was nice and leisurely.  Lillian wasn't feeling well (grrr - both of our girls were sick on their first Christmas!), so she was pretty sleepy and snuggly.

She did tell me that this was her favorite gift, though!

Pete (Evelyn's nickname by my family) eating some beef jerky, wearing the cuff of someone's pajama pants as a hat, and playing a game with Grant.

Evelyn opening her gifts from Grammie & Grandad

I love this picture...

Lillian is a big fan of Grandad

Evelyn ended up with my sweater on...and looked like Darth Vader - particularly when she picked up the light saber

Dog pile on Grandad...Darth Evelyn still in the background

Merry Christmas from Evelyn & Lillian!

Fun on the eliptical with Kolbe and Heidi

Let's move this party to the pack-n-play!

I'm just going to sit on this box and do some reading...

Decorating some cookies

Daddy helped Lillian do her share

Sweet, sleeping baby girl

We had family pictures on our last day there, then we planned to drive back to Texas over night.  Evelyn got sick around 3am that morning and was throwing up most of the morning.  We were finally able to get her to fall asleep for a couple of hours around 10am, but she was not in a great mood for pictures.  And it was super windy.  We ended up starting back any way, which turned out to be a good decision.  I was a little worried we were going to be cleaning puke out of a rental car at a gas station.  She slept all but about 3 hours of the 18 hour trip home - so that was good!

Heading out of San Antonio...a foggy sunrise.

Sweet, sleeping girl!

Once again, a great trip home for Christmas!  We stayed relatively healthy for once, other than one night of throwing up for me (where I felt 100% fine the next morning) and Evelyn's bug.  Lots of OnGuard must be the trick!