A Great Long Weekend

We are: 8 months!!

We are doing MUCH better. We are finishing up the antibiotics and the neb treatments and Riley has made a wonderful recovery. Thanks for all the love!! We had a wonderful LONG weekend together and we spent some great time perfecting our crawling and standing. I picked her up early on Wednesday and we cam home to enjoy a nap together. Then Thursday we headed over to Joe's parents house for Thanksgiving. We had a great time and everyone loved on Riley all day long.

On Friday we headed out for a little Black Friday shopping. It was actually not as bad as we thought it would be and we got a lot done. We are almost done with all the shopping for the holidays!!

Saturday was spent by running more errands and then on Saturday night Joe and I went out for Matt's surprise birthday dinner. Aunt Kerry and Uncle Brian were in charge and Riley learned to pull herself to the standing position on their clock!! She spent all day today practicing that and her crawling. Joe and I will never relax again!!

We made a little play pen out of tables, bins and car-seats and she enjoyed herself with all her toys while we enjoyed watching her. We also had another big outing....to see SANTA!! Riley loved him!! She sat on his lap and just stared at him....then broke out into her usual huge smile!! She kept looking at Joe and I to smile at us, then would look right back at him. It was really cute!!

A few of her new tricks are:

* Crawling....EVERYWHERE!!

* Pulling herself from laying down the sitting

* Pulling herself up to a standing position

* Saying RaRaRaRa, GaGaGa, DDDDDD (not dada, just the D)

* Making a blow fish face. She blows her cheeks out, curls her bottom lip down and sticks her tongue out.....so stinkin' cute!!

* Feeds herself. Riley loves to eat her Gerber finger foods, but she also enjoys using a spoon to "feed herself". Although we are smart enough to not put food on the spoon. While feeding her, Riley enjoys having her own spoon to "feed herself" in between real bites from us.

* We are now slowly starting her on stage 3 foods.

* We are in 9 month clothes....and those are slowly getting small. When standing upright she comes to Joe's mid thigh!! We have a tall one on our hands!!

* She also got her first pair of REAL shoes. We are in size 3, wides!!

* Riley also loves to climb all over us. She likes to lay on our bed and crawls over me and over Joe. She thinks it is hilarious to try to get to the edge of the bed....she is dangerous already.

We are also teaching her the word "no". She doesn't quite know what it means, but she is learning that it is not good and that she should not do it. However, she will try a few times and then finally moves on. We find ourselves using "NO" most with Busters food and water bowls. Riley knows that she is not allowed near it, but thinks it is a fun game to try to get over there. Buster could careless if she goes over there, even while he is eating. But she thinks it is great fun!!

She is also in love with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. Specifically the Hot Dog song!! She will become mesmerized with it!! It is wonderful for during her nebulizer treatments!!

Ok, enjoy the pics and video. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

A Horrible Weekend

We have had a pretty crummy weekend. Here is a play-by-play of our days, starting on Friday.

Friday:
12:35- While enjoying my lunch I get a call from GiGi saying that Riley seemed to be getting worse. Riley had had a rough night on Thursday, but she was fine when she woke up. GiGi said that she did not have a fever, but that we should get her to the doctor since her cough seemed to be getting worse. So I called the doctor and they got us an appointment for 4:15.

4:15- We get to the doctors and get to see Dr. Cross (our favorite doctor!!) We explain that we were there a week ago and that Riley had been getting Pulmacort 2 times a day for a week. We explain that her cough is getting worse. They take her temp (101.3) and weigh her (18.4...a pound less that a week earlier). Dr. Cross says that she would like to get some blood work done so she can see what Riley's CBC's was and to run a few more tests (check her kidneys too..they were ok). So a few nurses hold her down and try to draw some blood, but her veins are too tiny and they could not get enough blood. So they also have to prick her finger. She was not a happy camper. After they pricked and prodded we give her a neb treatment while waiting for the blood results. More bad news comes.....her white blood cell counts were really high. So Dr. Cross says that she needs to get a shot of antibiotics so that this respitory infection does not turn into pneumonia. So....more pain for Bear. Two nurses come in and both give her a shot (one in each leg at the same time). By this time Riley was SSOOO upset that when I picked her up she would not let go of me and within 3 minutes she was sound asleep in my arms, yet still whimpering. It was a really hard evening for Joe and I. We hated seeing her in so much pain.

We had to wait around for 20 minutes to ensure she didn't have a reaction to the meds. Then Dr. Cross told us that we had to come back in on Saturday to repeat it all again!! She said that since her blood count was so bad oral antibiotics would not work fast enough and that the shots were going to help much faster.

6pm - We headed home. I was scared to let her sleep on her own because she was having so much trouble breathing that she was choking on her spit and mucus. So I had her fall asleep in our bed for about 2 hours while I watch TV and kept an eye on her. After a little bit I brought her back to her crib. ...but I checked on her every 1-2 hours.

Saturday- Riley and I went back to the doctors office for more poking and prodding. Although this time it brought a little good news. They poked her finger and drew some blood. Yet the shots from the night before had brought her blood count down. Well, it brought it down enough that she was able to get oral antibiotics instead of shots!! The antibiotics are for her Respiratory Infection that she had. They also put in a catheter and are testing for RSV, which we will find out if she has that in a few days. The culture needs to sit for a bit.

Last night was pretty bad again, but nothing like it had been the nights before. Today brought a bit more smiles and laughs. Although don't get me wrong, through all this pain she has smiled and laughed through it all!!I have never know a happier baby!!

She has become very cuddly over the last 2 days and now loves to give bear hugs!! OK, I have rambled on long enough!! I am hoping for a better night and a good day tomorrow!!

A Sick Punkin'

We are 34 weeks!!

Riley has been fighting a cough for about 3 weeks. I called the advice nurse a few weeks back and she advised that we raise one side of her mattress (check), use a humidifier (check), give her saline if there is congestion (check) and call if the cough gets worse....check!! Thursday night Joe and I were up all night with a sick baby girl. She was coughing all night and her cough had become "wet". Friday morning I went to work and left Joe a note to let me know how she was doing when he got her up. He called me and said that we should probably bring her in. We just didn't want it to get worse over the weekend and end up in the ER.

So Friday afternoon we headed to the doctor, only to find out that she has croup. Basically a wet cough. So, Riley now gets 2 nebulizer treatments a day (one in the morning and one at night). She handles it pretty well. We find that it works best to give it to her after she eats and while she is just sitting in her highchair enjoying some "stars" (her finger foods that she feeds herself). We are getting the hang of it, although it is not fun. Last night she was really not feeling well and was running a fever. We couldn't put her down without her getting really upset. She just wanted to be held and just hugged us.....so sweet!! I knew she was REALLY not feeling when she freaked out during bath time. Today was a better day, but she is still coughing pretty badly. Hopefully it doesn't last too much longer. It is just hard to know that something is bothering her but she can't tell us what it is.

Neb. treatments

Still smiling

However, she did start out happy yesterday morning. We went to Eggspectations for breakfast and she sat in a highchair for the first time. She loved it and felt so grown up!!

All grown up!!

She had a number of visitors too. On Friday night Aunt Kerry and UNCLE Brian stopped by. She loved visiting with them and hearing all about their honeymoon. Then on Sunday Tommy and Tara stopped by and loved on her all afternoon. Although, since was was not 100% she kinda napped a lot. But when she was awake, she was really happy to be with them.

I added a few photos for your viewing pleasure!! Enjoy!!

Sleeping Beauty

Crazy hair after bath time!

We're Moving!!

It is official.....we are "crawling"!! Riley is now doing a combat crawl, moving with her hands/arms then her legs follow. We put a toy out in front of her and she will scoot to it. She still prefers to roll to it, but she is now just figuring out that she can go forward to get it. It is much easier for her instead of making 4 right rolls to get something!! We got her second part of the flu shot yesterday, she barely even cried. I think she is so used to geting 4 shots at one time that getting only 1 was nothing for her!! Below are some videos of her. One is of her in the tub. She LOVES the water every night. The other one if a video I took on my cell phone of her scooting.

We LOVE our nightly tub time!!!

Scooting around the room.

Sausages Don't Wear Shoes

Joe and I just got back from Target. We went to do a little shoe shopping for Riley. We finally gave in and decided to get her some shoes. Yesterday Riley and I went to the mall and I looked at shoe stores for her. I just could not bring myself to buy a pair of $40 shoes that no doubt will be too small in a month, like everything else we get her! (Seeing that she is now in 9 month clothes and bypassed all her 6 months clothes we had gotten her!!) So after my spa day (heavenly!!) Joe and I headed over to Target to see what they had. Well, Riley has sausages for feet and none of the shoes fit!! While at Stride Rite yesterday I measured her feet as a 2. So we figured that we could get her 3's and that would last a few weeks. So we started to shove 3's on her feet.....no-go!! Length is fine, but we could not buckle them!!

So...we went with these:

Her new kicks.

They are slipper-ish, yet boots. They actually look and feel really soft and comfy. I would not mind a pair myself!! We also have a pair of purple Uggs that she wears, but they don't stay on. Hollie gave them to her and they are really cute.

Another big thing is that she is eating Gerber Puffs and Wagon Wheels. They are little finger foods that melt in her mouth. It is to help her learn to feed herself. She seems to like them, but is still having trouble getting them in her mouth. They have all different flavors. Here she is eating some, after her lunch of blueberries and peaches. Meals are starting to get messier and messier!!

Riley eating a wagon wheel.

Riley and I went yesterday (Saturday) and voted. I was able to vote early since I will be working all day on Tuesday and can't make it during the polling hours. I have Parent Conferences all day. She was the hit of the line. I allowed her to push the button to vote. It was a big day for her! I was really proud of her and how she voted ;-)