Rescheduled

Sometimes life with kids is unpredictable.

We were supposed to go to Birmingham this past weekend to go swimming.  Eli was supposed to have his 9 month well baby appointment this afternoon.  But all of that has been rescheduled.

Last Wednesday I went to get Eli up for the day and realized as soon as I touched him that he had a fever.  I yelled at Doug to get the thermometer and got a big, messy surprise when I changed Eli's diaper.  We decided that Doug would stay home with Eli on Wednesday, my sister would watch him on Thursday if needed, and worse case I would stay home on Friday.  We decided to wait to see how he did before we made an appointment with the doctor.

By lunch Eli's fever was up to 102.7 so we called and got an appointment for 1:30pm.  I met Doug there at 2pm.  His fever was at 103, even though Doug had given him some medicine.  He weighed 21.8 lbs and was 28.7 in. long (which is over an inch longer since the last time we measured him earlier this month!).  Our doctor was out of town but the Nurse Practitioner looked him over and told us that she felt like it was either viral or bacterial but wasn't sure which.  Since he was holding up pretty well she sent us home with instructions to call back on Thursday, if he was still running a high temp we would do blood work.

Wednesday night was rough, without much sleep for any of us and a high fever for Eli all through the night, so we knew we were going for blood work that day.  At first we decided that Doug would  go to work and then I would meet my sister for the blood work but when I changed Eli's diaper, I noticed what looked like blood in his poop and kind of freaked out.  Since I don't have much sick time, after using it all for maternity leave, Doug stayed home again.  I met him and Eli at the hospital lab for the blood work and a stool study (thankfully they took the full diaper we had from that morning rather than making us bring back a fresh sample) at 9am and then came back to work while they went home.  We had been told by the doctor's office that it wouldn't take long to get results and they would call us.  When we hadn't heard back at 1pm I called and asked them to call the lab since the lab hadn't called them.  Less than 15 minutes later they called me back and said to bring Eli in right then.  Well, that freaked me out so I called Doug and told him I would meet him there.  Before I could get there they had taken Eli back which only made me more nervous that something was really wrong.  Thankfully, that wasn't the case.  Eli tested positive for an overgrowth of a bacteria that lives in a person's bowels on a regular basis.  Apparently this bacteria only causes problems when it gets out of hand.  Our doctor said that most kids test positive for it but that the positive test combined with his symptoms meant we needed to treat it.  He gave us an antibiotic and we went home with our sick boy.  Thursday night was long again and Friday I spent most of the morning with Eli sleeping on my chest.  Because Eli was so sick they had me reschedule his well baby appointment, turns out he'll have his 9 month appointment on his 10 month birthday :)

Then around 2pm he just suddenly seemed better.  He played for almost 2 hours and the fever finally broke.  It was amazing the difference in just a matter of hours!  Since we knew it wouldn't be a good idea for Eli to go swimming we had already cancelled our trip to Birmingham.  When we woke up Saturday Eli still felt really good so we decided to meet my parents in Montgomery.  We had a great time shopping and Eli hardly slept more than an hour the entire day, I guess he was making up for all the sleeping he had done while he was sick!  We also had some 9 month pictures taken at Sears and while I was worried I wouldn't like "studio" photos, they came out really good.

Next weekend we'll be doing more photos outside and going to a wedding.  That is... if our plans don't get rescheduled.

One More Day

Three years passes so quickly and at the same time it seems like it's been forever.  Two songs have been on my mind lately and I think they pretty much sum up how I'm feeling today.  So here they are:


One More Day by Diamond Rio
Last night I had a crazy dream
A wish was granted just for me
It could be for anything
I didnt ask for money
Or a mansion in Malibu
I simply wished, for one more day with you

One more day
One more time
One more sunset, maybe I'd be satisfied
But then again
I know what it would do
Leave me wishing still, for one more day with you

First thing I'd do, is pray for time to crawl
I'd unplug the telephone
And keep the tv off
I'd hold you every second
Say a million I love you's
That's what I'd do, with one more day with you

One more day
One more time
One more sunset, maybe I'd be satisfied
But then again
I know what it would do
Leave me wishing still, for one more day with you

One more day
One more time
One more sunset, maybe I'd be satisfied
But then again
I know what it would do

Leave me wishing still, for one more day
Leave me wishing still, for one more day
Leave me wishing still, for one more day with you




Home by Nicol Sponberg
What is it like to be held in the same arms that hold the universe?
What is it like to sleep on the chest of the King of Heaven and Earth?
When you open your eyes and look on the face of the Giver of Life, the Author of Grace, do you know


That your days here changed everything
You're missed here and will always be
But you left here the greatest gift of all
Cause our heart ache for home


What is it like to breathe in and breathe out Heaven's glorious light?
What is it like to be robed in perfection, no reason to cry?
When you feel on your face your Father's kiss
His welcome embrace, we prayed for this, you should know

That your days here changed everything

You're missed here and will always be

But you left here the greatest gift of all

Cause our heart ache for home

So twinkle, twinkle little star

We will keep you in our hearts

Twinkle, twinkle little star

We will meet you where you are

Your days here changed everything

You're missed here and will always be

But you left here the greatest gift of all

Cause our heart ache for home

We love you sweet boy and look forward to joining you in Heaven one day!

9 Months

Today Eli is 39 weeks and 2 days old.  No, I don't actually keep track of his age by weeks anymore, but one of the many baby newsletters I get in my email every week does.  So I happen to know that today marks the day that Eli has been growing outside of me as long as he grew inside me (according to the doctors).  I, for one, find that amazing!  I still look at him sometimes and am completely amazed that he is actually mine.  Sometimes I feel like I need to pinch myself.

He weighs 21.8 lbs and now has 4 teeth on bottom and 3 up top.  And tooth #8 is on it's way, just not through the surface yet.

He tries to pull up on everything and gets very frustrated when he can't get a grip on things like the wall, doors and other vertical surfaces.

He can sit himself up now.  A couple of nights ago I put him to bed and he would not go to sleep.  He kept crying no matter how many times I tried to soothe him so finally I decided he could just cry for a little while.  It breaks my heart to do it, but when he gets too tired, there's just no other way.  This particular night he was fighting sleep so hard and Doug and I sat and watched him on our monitor.  He sat up in his crib and tried to prop himself up against the railing, almost like he thought if he could just stay sitting up he wouldn't fall asleep. He bobbed and weaved for quite a while before he finally fell asleep completely bent in half at the hips.  I did go in and lay him flat before we went to sleep :)

Now that he is standing, he loves to dance to music, he even does this thing that looks like he is tapping his foot sometimes.  It is so funny to watch him.

He loves our dogs and they do well with him.  They will go lay down somewhere and he will crawl to them and sit up and try to pet them.  Callie usually gives him her belly, which isn't too smart on her part since that's where the longest fur is, but we haven't had any hair pulling problems yet and I hope we won't.  I always sit with him when he heads for the dogs and I constantly remind him to be easy and not grab.  He has grabbed her hair before but I tell him no and he always lets go without pulling.  Last night he wanted to play with the dogs so bad but every time he got close Callie would move away and Bella would try to lick him.  He thinks it's funny when they lick his fingers but I don't like them to do it so I kept pushing Bella away.   Every time I would push her away he would get upset because he wanted to play so finally I grabbed Bella's collar and turned her back to him so he could pet her back.  He leaned right over and hugged her!  It was adorable and I wish I could have gotten a picture.

Oh how the time has flown.  Only 3 months to go before we're celebrating his first birthday!