Shut-In Saturday Weeks 8 and 9: Holidays

I would have posted last Saturday but it was a little crazy. I would have posted this on this past Saturday, but my photo program kept crashing! Sorry it's so late!

On the 17th was World Prematurity Day. Princess got to wear her purple! My favorite outfit she has right now. It says "God's Precious Gift," of which she is!

Then we got Little Man's husky hat from his dad's house, so of course Princess had to try it on!

And just so you know, this is how she wakes up from just about every nap or in the morning!

And somehow I managed to catch this gem!

Then of course there was this random look she gave me:

And of course we dress her up for church, even though no one but us get to see her in these pretty clothes!

And this next photo was NOT taken on Halloween. She was wearing the shirt because I'm going to get some use out of it!

She figured out what to do with a spoon:

And of course there was Thanksgiving. This shirt is definitely true for her:

And then her first Thanksgiving Dinner: Gerber's pureed Turkey and Rice and Peaches. The only jarred baby food she gets is meats and every so often one of the very few fruits or veggies she can have. Because of the PHA2, she's on a modified low potassium diet. The baby food companies tend to add potassium to almost EVERYTHING! As a result, I have started making the vast majority of her baby food.

And when she had finished:

And the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we decorated the house for Christmas. My mom has this little tiny Christmas tree. So we put it on the drawers next to Princess's high chair and I put her Beads of Courage on it like garland. I got the idea from another Beads of Courage member family.

Shut-In Saturday Week 7: Appointments

Even though Princess is shut-in and can't be around crowds, she still has appointments she has to go to from time to time. This week, we were off to the cardiologist. I finally remembered to take pictures! Probably because he was running behind. I almost expect it now because he sees so many and he literally has them back to back. Not to mention it was the insurance nightmare mess for some. Thank goodness Princess has CCS! So I snapped a couple of pictures while we were waiting for Dr. K.

All was good. We don't have to go see him for another 2 months! This is a VAST improvement because when we started seeing him 4 months ago it was weekly. Sometimes having a diagnosis, even the diagnosis we have, is a good thing.

We also met with J, our developmental specialist. Next week we write our plan for Princess's development. So glad this is something that gets to be done in the home. I know it will help her. It kind of got me thinking about things when I was giving J all our information. It actually got overwhelming. When you sit there and list EVERYTHING that Princess has had happen and all that is going on, it's pretty overwhelming. I guess that's why I don't do it so often and try not to think about it. Sure, thinking about the PHA2 is an almost daily thing, as we have medication because of it. But I don't really think about the milk protein allergy much. Or the eczema and sensitive skin. Every so often I think about the heart condition. But I'm okay with it all.

Okay, enough of that, here's more pictures:

Princess and Pops fell asleep on the couch together. Managed to get that one.

Then there was the picture of Meme and Little Man.

And then, last night, Princess was so sleepy, she fell asleep in the walker. Believe me, after the no sleep day we had on Thursday, she NEEDED the sleep.

We got her Bumbo Tray today. So she got to sit up in her Bumbo and play with toys on the tray! Makes things so much easier.

And then we installed the convertible car seat in Meme's car. Now the infant carrier/car seat can just stay in mine. So of course we had to take it for a test drive to make sure she fit well in it. Princess loved it! She got to sit up more and look around!

And here's one of Princess just sitting up on the table. Just because.

Oh, I hope you noticed the new page at the top. It's our awareness ribbons for Princess. I'm still looking for one for the heart condition. I may not find it. But just as a reminder, tomorrow, November 17, is World Prematurity Day. Wear purple for preemies. By reading this blog, you actually know TWO preemies!

Shut-In Saturday Week 6: Crazy Blessings

How has it already been 6 weeks of being shut-in?

This week has had some pretty crazy stuff happen. First of all, I was helping Little Man make his bed and I happened to glance underneath the front corner next to the nightstand. I see used tissues under his bed. So I proceed to make him dig them ALL out. This is what I found:

Yeah, pretty much for the past 6 weeks, he has been shoving his used tissues behind his bed. This is about a box worth, I would say.

Then Princess decided to sit up almost by herself!

MeMe was playing "sit-em-up" with her and every time she sat up, she would latch on to MeMe's finger. Save for the mouth on her finger, Princess was sitting all by herself!

Then Wednesday was the nephrologist appointment. You can read about why it was crazy here, along with the other crazy nightmare things that happened this week. But on the way back from that appointment, I got this picture of Little Man:

Later that day, he got to do his favorite thing of the week: bring in the trash can! He likes the trash can here because it "shrunk" and he can bring it in by himself. This happens every week, but I finally managed to get a picture of him doing it!

Then I managed to get Little Man to write his letter to Santa:

You can read more about it here.

Then this evening I caught this little blessing:

Little Man was reading to his little sister! I promise a post tomorrow or Monday on the blessings that occurred this week, because there were a few. But until then, here's a few more pictures of Princess. Here's one of her loving on her sock monkey:

And then just another one of her:

Until next week!

Shut-In Saturday Week 5: Halloween!

This week, Princess turned 7 months old! (How did that happen?) It's hard to believe that this journey started 7 months ago. She's eating foods. She's rolling over from her tummy to her back. She's sitting up supported. She's very curious. She's putting things in her mouth.

We decided to try her in the walker. We knew her feet wouldn't touch the ground, but thought that it might give her a different perspective on things. She did really well in it and enjoyed it. She's pretty close to outgrowing the swing and bouncy seat, so we needed something other than her being held and laying on the floor.

This week was Halloween. So Little Man and I carved his pumpkin.

Princess wasn't going to get to go to our church's Harvest Festival, so I didn't even bother buying her a costume. Instead, I bought her a onesie.

And I didn't even have to buy Little Man a costume either! See, last year, he wanted to be a dump truck. I had no idea what I was going to do when I found a Chuck the Dump Truck costume at one of the Halloween Stores! This year, he wanted to be a dump truck again, so we recycled the Chuck costume!

Little Man actually did a really good job with no nap that day. He went with me early to help decorate and played the games. The great thing about the Chuck costume is that it came with a built in the treat bag: the dumper! So I didn't have to worry about him losing his treat bucket! But about 6:30 he was tired and hungry. He'd had a few pieces of candy and that was it. So I took him home. Of course, he started crying because he didn't want me to go back, but I got him settled down, got him his dinner and checked on Princess. She was having a bottle with Pops.

Harvest Festival went well. We didn't have nearly has many kids as last year, but it rained last year and we were the ONLY one doing something on Halloween that was INSIDE. Everyone else's outside stuff got cancelled. So this year, we kind of had a steady stream up until I did our drawing halfway through. Then most of them left.

Then there was today. We managed to put a bow in Princess's hair! This is the first time she's kept anything on her head for any length of time since she came home from the hospital (the first time).

Doesn't she look cute? One of my church friends made all these bows for her that would attach to headbands but then would also work in her hair as she got older. I'm so glad she kept it there for a while.

Shut-In Saturday Weeks 3 & 4: Randomness

I know I missed last Saturday. It was kind of a mess of a day. Well, it was a mess of a weekend really. But that's besides the point.

Anyway, here are the two weeks of photos. These are all of Princess. We were playing "flying baby" and this is what she did:

Mom also bought her a new crib. (The reason why is a long story. Maybe I'll share it later. Maybe I won't. Either way, she has a crib now.) She was outgrowing the bassinet in the pack 'n' play and needed some place to sleep. So that meant that my room got rearranged. I was a little worried about the dresser and the crib fitting along the same wall. Well, after some measurements, we found out that there is like an inch left over with the crib and dresser on the same wall. God is Good! Anyway, here is a picture of Princess in her new crib:

Princess LOVES eating. She made some pretty cute faces while in her high chair:

Here she is just looking cute sucking her thumb:

At one point, we had her on the floor on a blanket. We went outside with her still on the floor. When I came in to check on her, this is what I found:

Yeah, she had wiggled off of the blanket, scrunched it up beside her and scooted next to the couch.

On Sunday, we had her in my favorite shirt. It says "God's Precious Gift." She certainly is a gift from God.

This is just of her sleeping:

She learned how to suck her thumb when she was still little and in the hospital. Meme taught her. Well, now she found out that she has 2 thumbs and 2 are better than one.

Today, we went to the pumpkin farm. (There will be a post on that later.) Princess got to go too because it was outside, but we didn't take her on the tour because there were a lot of kids. So she hung out with Pops while Little Man, Meme, and I went on the tour.

Okay, so that's 2 weeks of Shut-In Saturdays for you. I promise to be better next week, as long as I don't have another explosion of life. Oh, and tomorrow she is 7 months old!

Shut-In Saturday Week 2: Outings

Last week, when we got Little Man's hair cut, we had a little time to kill, so we stopped by a new store in the mall and bought Princess a new outfit. This is her in the new outfit:

And because Little Man got his hair cut, we did this for church on Sunday:

Being shut-in doesn't mean that Princess can't go out when she needs to. This week, we had a cardiologist visit to go to. I meant to get pictures there, but I forgot. We went to the clinic that is now closest to us. Unfortunately, the equipment is old and Dr. K didn't like her blood pressures. So when we go to the pediatrician at the end of the month, he told us to stop in for a blood pressure check and labs. Okay, no problem. The day we had our cardiologist visit, she had a snotty nose. I initially thought she had caught Little Man's cold. (Trying to keep him in a mask is almost impossible!) But I think it was allergies. She was only really snotty that day and plus it was windy. So thankfully, no cold!

Anyway, Princess does need to be out and about in the sunlight. The vitamin D will help her immune system. So every day, she gets to go out in the front or back yard and soak up the sun. 

She also got to go with me to MeMe's work to pick up a paper I needed to turn in for Cal-WORKS. Thankfully, there was only a few people there and no one was sick this week, unlike last week!

This week, has been full of fun. Princess rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time! I didn't get a picture or video, but I'm working on it! She also rediscovered her thumb. MeMe had taught her how to suck her thumb back when she was tiny in the NICU and she actually did it a few times then she became interested in the binkie. Then, poor little Princess was hospitalized and poked a bunch of times and now hates the binkie, but loves her hands! And this week, I caught her with her thumb in her mouth!

She also LOVES her toys. She especially LOVES her butterfly that hangs in her bed.

She also really loves sitting up. Here she is sitting up on the couch:

As for Little Man, we did playschool and on Friday, we got to go to Story Time at the library! Here he is listening to the Librarian read a story:

Later that day, I found him asleep on his bed at rest time like this:

That's all for this week. Next week, I get to go talk to WIC. And the week after that, we get crazy with doc appointments and home visits!