First Swim

We went to Big Splash one evening for a free christian concert they were having. Here Isabella got her first pool experience. The water was a little cold but other than that she enjoyed it. Hopefully she will be a little fish like her mom.

Talking to Daddy

This was during the hospital stay and Preston was making noises as he looked over her. She started talking back to him. It was the cutest thing ever.

Belly Time

At Nonny and Papa's Isabella gets lots of tummy time. This is a quick video of her trying to crawl away from us as fast as she knows how.

1st Father's Day of Many to Come

Well as our hospital visit came to a close we realized that a very special day was around the corner... Father's Day... We had looked forward to spending Preston's first fathers day at home taking it easy and we did just that. After church we met my brother, his family and my parents for lunch then headed home to give Preston his presents. We attempted to get Izzy's hand and foot mold so that we could make a plaster out of them. Well... like I said we "attempted". Her foot turned out great and her hand we couldn't get to open so we did her fist. That was perfect since that is how her hands are all the time anyways. After that we spent the rest of the night resting and catching up on lost sleep from the hospital. Preston said this was the best Father's Day EVER... since he has so many of them... LOL.

So, Isabella's 5th week of life went by like a blink of an eye. It all started Wednesday night, June 17th. At 10:30 a night Isabella had one of her choking spells. This time she turned blue on us and stopped breathing for about 30 seconds. After we got her to breath and calmed down we thought about what to do. After calling my parents, we decided to take her to the ER cause she had some busted blood vessels around her eye and forehead, which is a sigh of stress. The ER got her stabilized and took us by ambulance to St. Francis Children's Hospital to admit her. This ambulance ride (pic 1 starting from the bottom) was both mine and hers first. After arriving at the hospital they laid her in this crib (pic 2). She looked so helpless, it broke my heart. Nothing can explain what I felt to see her lying there. We were to soon find out that our little girl is a champ. With in the first hour Preston took her to the lab to get blood drawn, I waited in the room. He came back to tell me that she didn't even cry. They took blood and they stuck a catheter in her to draw out urine. After that they hooked her up to an apnea and oxygen monitor. The wires attached to her were beginning to become unmanageable. We soon realized Isabella has a calm sweet spirit. Anytime they did something to her she didn't even cry. At 11 am another doctor came in and told us they are going to have to stick tubes down her throat to measure the acid levels in her stomach and puke. I cringed, but knew it hurts me worse than her. The doctor was gentle and fast but by 1130 am the we now had more wires and another monitor to document her every little move (pic 3 &4). She stayed on these monitors for 24 hours. That 24 hours was the longest 24 hour of my life. Every time I got her out of the bed to feed her, hold her or change her diaper I had to have help because there were so many wires coming out of her. Plus, we had to push buttons on this monitor every time she coughed, spit up, laid down, was being held, pooped, peed, ate, stopped eating... the list goes on. Finally the 24 hours was up and the Dr came in to take the tubes out of her throat and the rest of her monitors(pic 5) . So Friday we were back down to just having the apnea and oxygen machine but still we had 4 wires we had to worry about. Just as we thought we were in the clear, her doctor came in and told us her white blood cell count was to high for comfort and they were going to have to start her on an antibiotic, which meant they were going to have to stick her again and start an IV in her arm. After blowing a vein in her foot they got the iv started in her left arm (pic 5). Through this they gave her antibiotics. Since her white blood cells were high they now had to watch her urine culture for 24 hours to see if bacteria grew in it. It is now Friday evening. Isabella, Preston, and I are getting delirious beyond belief and ready to go home but we still had about 12 hours to go before we knew they would send us home. Nurses are coming in every 6 hours to give antibiotics. Not to mention, the results came back from her acid tests that they did and they determined that she has a sever case of acid reflux. They immediately started her on Zantac every 12 hrs and Reglan every 6 hours. So between all the meds and normal vitals they had to take the nurses were none stop in our room for the rest of the time. Saturday morning FINALLY came. The nurse came in bright and early and told us that they were already looking at her charts and trying to get us out sometime today. That was the best news we had heard in over 96 hours. PRAISE GOD! The doctor came in not to long after that and told us that the culture came back and it was negative for infection so she no longer needed the antibiotic... one medicine down. They took out the IV shortly after that and got us discharged so we could go home. When she was finally all wire and IV free she started smiling and laughing (pic 6) It all happened so fast when they finally told us we could go home at 950am. Preston had the car loaded and we were on our way home by 1010am (pic 7). We were all spent. When we got home I sat down to feed Isabella. As I was feeding her she looked up at me and started smiling, laughing and talking (pic 8). It was like she knew it was all over and done with and that she was home. We made it home and slept the entire afternoon excepting for feeding times. This was definitely a life threatening experience for her and we never want to experience it again. Nothing can describe the hurt and the love that you can have for someone, especially someone so small. We are all doing great, just trying to get caught up from not sleeping for 4 days.

1 Month Pics

She is a month old!!! Isabella amazes us every day. She is so advanced for her age. She smiles, talks and even tries to crawl during tummy time. She is so calm spirited and a joy to have in the house hold. This last month has flown by. As I sit here and add these picture I know that the next 11 months will fly by also and before we know it, we will be having her first birthday party. Sorry I haven't written more often, but over the next coming months hopefully I will get the hang of being a mom and I will have time to blog more often.