More phone time

Little bit will make ANYTHING a phone.  Hahaha.  Just thought I'd share this quick video of Rossleigh

Throwback Thursday - Christmas 2012

I came across these in my drafts folder.  Never got around to posting them for some reason and in the spirit of Throwback Thursday, I now have the perfect opportunity.  LOL  Enjoy...

Both of my babies on Christmas

My seester and mama

I'm not even sure what to say about this photo....lol

I can't stand the sweetness.  

Hanging out with Aunt Marcy

Nana and her grandkids at Christmas

Crazy bunch

First family Christmas - Lance no smiling but baby's eyes are open

First family Christmas - Lance is smiling but baby's eyes are closed.   

Sicky girl

Sunday and yesterday, Rossleigh has been VERY fussy, not too interested in sleeping, a really high-pitched cry, and has had some diarrhea.  I didn't think too much of the diarrhea on Sunday because on Saturday, Lance had her out and about and was giving her the ready-made version of her formula, which tends to upset her digestive system differently (sometimes giving her diarrhea).  Also, when she's been out a lot and her nap schedule is thrown off, it usually causes her to be overtired and fussy even the following day.  When she started feeling warm yesterday, was sounding a little congested,  AND she was still having the diarrhea, I knew something was going on.

I took a rectal temperature and she was 99.8 degrees.  I know that this normally is not considered worrisome in an infant, but she normally runs a little on the lower side (usually around 98.2 or 98.3).  I gave her a dose of Infant Tylenol and then called the doctor's office.  I really figured I was just being a new mama, but after speaking with the on-call nurse, it seemed that combined with her heart problem and age/size, there was some cause for concern.  She felt like it was possible she had an infection and told me to take her to Cook's ER.

I told Lance what was said, called both grandmothers, and made a plan to leave.  Lance decided to stay home since he worked today and I didn't, so my mom went with me so that I wouldn't be there alone (THANK YOU, MAMA).  They listened to her, did a chest x-ray, and because I jumped the gun with the Tylenol, she no longer had a fever.  They diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection.  :(  They told me to let her sleep upright (like in a car seat or swing), have a cool-mist humidifier blowing on her, give her saline drops in her nose, and use the bulb syringe (what Lance calls the brain sucker).

Here's a pic of my little sweetie in her hospital gown.  You probably can't tell from this picture, but her poor little eyes were rimmed in red and her little cheeks were flushed.  After some good sleep last night, she has been feeling MUCH better this morning, but is still a little cranky and congested.  I'm keeping a close eye on her temps in case I need to call her doctor again.

Thanks for the prayers (for those of you who knew about it from Facebook).

Looking back...

Sometimes it's hard to believe that Rossleigh is just 9 1/2 weeks old.  When I look back at everything that she's been through in her short little life, it just doesn't even seem real.  It feels like it was almost like a dream?  Fortunately (and unfortunately), I have pictures to remind me of how far she has come...

September 26th, 2012 (just shortly before noon) - Happiest day of my life!!  :)

First time I got to see her - about 10:00pm
the day she was born. It was a LONG day!

First family photo - taken the morning of her surgery (5 days old)

Post-surgery in PICU/recovery.  Swollen, but rockin' the bow!  ;)

Post-surgery...Love the expression on her face!

Happy little bean pod!

Daddy getting to REALLY hold her for the first time after surgery.
  

First time for Nana, Pops, and Gigi to get to hold Rossleigh.  Such happy, happy grandparents!

First time to be able to wear CLOTHES!!!  ;)

Sweet, smiley girl

No tubes or wires!  Last night in the hospital.  Praise the Lord!

Finally at home in my own bed!!  :)

Bath time!!

Last night, my mom (Nana) came over to drop off some new bows she bought for Rossleigh.  We love our bows - fo sho!  ;)  My little stinker needed a bath, so Nana stuck around while we did that.

We had some fun trying on one of the bigger bows - LOL!!  

I'm so lucky that she doesn't mind things on her head.  Bring on the bows and hats!!  

Nana took this next shot right after her bath.  Such a little sweetie.  :)

Seriously, check out how RED her hair is!!

Getting ready for Christmas

Since I'm still not back to work yet, I didn't have to take part in the dreaded retail/Black Friday festivities (darn)!!  Instead we got to work on decorating our house for Christmas.  Nana and Megan came over to help fluff our...ahem, FIVE Christmas trees (but this year we're only putting up 3) and start decorating a bit.  While Nana fluffed the trees, Lance got everything out of the attic and put the outdoor decorations out, and Megan and I put away the Fall decorations, cleaned up a bit and decorated the big tree.

In the midst of decorating, Rossleigh needed a wardrobe change (and BATH) after an incident with a diaper (yes, again)...While I was getting stuff ready for her bath, Megan held her.  I absolutely LOVE these pictures!!

Rossleigh LOVES her cousin, Megan!!  Nana refers to them as the Alpha and Omega.  With Nana's grandchildren, the order goes:  Megan, Conner, Jake, and Rossleigh, so she started and ended with girls!  At one point in the evening, Megan was holding Rossleigh.  After a while, Nana couldn't stand it and wanted to hold her.  After she took her from Megan, RCD started fussing.  Nana gave her back to Megan and the fussing stopped!!  We found out that Megan is the BABY WHISPERER!!!  ;)


After the bath, we ate Thanksgiving leftovers and then decorated some more!!  We got a LOT done!!  Lance and I still have a ways to go to be completely ready for Christmas, but we got a very nice head start thanks to Nana and Megan.  :)

Relaxing in Daddy's arms

Rossleigh's First Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  We spent ours surrounded with family and wonderful food.  We started off at Nana's house in Watauga for a Thanksgiving lunch with Rossleigh's Uncle David, Aunt Marcy, and her three cousins.  After the meal, everyone decorated Nana's three Christmas trees.  Since Nana worked so hard creating the meal, she took a break in the backyard with her two youngest grandbabies.

She started out on the chaise lounge with Rossleigh.  Jake is used to being Nana's number one guy, so he decided that he would climb up into Nana's lap with his cousin.  :)  Rossleigh didn't mind sharing.  Nana didn't seem to mind either!!  ;)


Then we headed over to Gigi's and Pop's house in Bedford.  We ended up getting there later than we expected (hard to always make a "plan" with a newborn...lol), so we missed the meal.  That was okay because Rossleigh got to spend some time with her Pops, Gigi, Mimi (great grandmother), Uncle Randy, Uncle Paul, Aunt Jeanette, and her cousin.

So Rossleigh's first turkey day was fun-filled but we were all three pretty tired by the time we went back home!!  Hope your day was as fun as ours!!  :)

Prepping for Thanksgiving

As tomorrow will be Rossleigh's first "real" holiday (does Halloween count?), we went over to Nana's house today to help prepare Thanksgiving dinner.  Because of some little mishaps at home (more on this later in the post), we ended up arriving much later than we intended.  Nevertheless, we made it and were there for working on pies!  I learned how to roll how pie dough and tried to master the art of forming the dough.  I failed miserably.  Things like that really aren't a skill you just pick up; it really is an ART!!  I'll get it one of these days.  And Rossleigh?  Well, she pretty much slept through all of it...LOL

So the mishap...This child of ours is a little stinker!  I had planned on giving her a bath this morning, but delayed it due to...grunting.  Usually this loud grunting that our little sweetie does indicates that we are about to get an extra special present in her diaper.  ;)  So I waited and waited and received no "present".  I decided it must have been gas and foolishly proceeded with the bath.  She was undressed, placed in the tub, and I started bathing her.  All of a sudden the grunting starts again and I realize that the dreaded is happening - there was poop in the tub.  So I pulled Rossleigh out, cleaned her up and had her wrapped in a towel on the counter right next to me.  I got the mess out of the tub, did some disinfecting, got the child back in the tub, and we finished the bath.

Finally, I got her all dressed and smelling like a precious little baby...and the grunting starts again.  Really??  As I'm changing her "present" diaper, she peed everywhere - all over the outfit I had just put her in.  Soooo, I undressed her, got her cleaned up again, changed her clothes, and got her back to smelling like a precious little baby.  Whew!!  She wore me out!  Plus I still had to get myself dressed, get her loaded into the car, and head over to my mom's.  What a stinker!!  She doesn't do that sort of thing often (and the gift in the tub was a first), but it's actually a little - LITTLE - bit funny, so I thought I'd share.

After we got home from Nana's house, I started working in my own kitchen - Oreo Pudding Poke cake, Pumpkin Crunch cake, and Corn Casserole!!  Can't wait for tomorrow!!  :)