July 2009

Well, two months have passed since Mommy has last updated--and the saga continues. Rylee seemed to be doing well when we flew home from New Jersey, but the Friday following, she woke up breathing hard, heavy and fast. Mommy made an appointment to see the pediatrician, expecting they would say continue with the breathing treatments, it's just an upper respiratory infection--but boy was Mommy wrong. At the doctor's office, Rylee's blood oxygen level was down to about 93%--not good, especially in a baby. Her pediatrician listened to her chest and said it was extremely tight-so they gave her another breathing treatment in the office. It didn't seem to help and Rylee's oxygen level would not increase, so she was admitted to the hospital. What Mommy thought would only be a night stay, turned into 5 days on oxygen.

Rylee was admitted on Friday early afternoon and after about 2 hours of torture of trying to get a vein for IV steroid access, Mommy and Daddy had to ask the nurses to allow Rylee to take a break. Finally, the nurse asthestist was called, and he got the vein access they needed. Rylee was given solumedrol via an IV, was put on breathing treatments every 3 hours around the clock and had a tube of oxygen blowing in her face. By Friday night, things had taken a turn for the worst. The respiratory nurse had to put a cannula in Rylee's nose with constant oxygen as her numbers fell to the low 80's when she fell asleep. By 2 am Saturday morning, Rylee was on 3L of oxygen. On Saturday, on a whim, the doctors decided to test Rylee for RSV--in the off chance she might have it. Although it was out of season, sure enough, RSV was what was getting Rylee down. Finally, Tuesday morning Rylee was maintaining oxygen levels high enough to be discharged and go home! But she was sent home with steroids, breathing treatments and antibiotics for yet another ear infection. We were also told she couldn't go to school for two weeks--or be near large crowds.

Grandma and Pa flew in from NJ to help and Grandma stayed to keep Rylee for her first week out of school. Aunt Jen drove down from Maryland and sacrificed a week of vacation to take care of Rylee the second week.

Since Rylee has had multiple ear infections and fluid behind her ear drum since late March, we were told by her EENT the best option was for her to have tubes inserted. We are scheduled for this Thursday, July 30th. She would have gotten them sooner, but with the RSV, we had to delay them for at least 6 weeks--which puts us to this week. So long as Rylee can stay healthy, she'll get the tubes and hopefully no more ear infections--and hear a lot better!

On a better note, Rylee is progressing along just as a 9 month old should. Although she doesn't really crawl, she gets around rather well. She does more of a dragging action, but surely gets what she wants. These days she is more interested in pulling up on everyone, everything and anything. She's determined to walk if she can steady those legs and get those little feet moving. She's become quite the dancer these days, dancing whenever music is playing--whether it be from a toy, a TV commercial or the radio. She seems to really love Rock and Roll!

She's been having more table foods these days--everything from chunks of strawberry, avocado, blueberries to turkey dogs and vegetable ravioli. She does eventually get tired of chewing and is ready to go back to the pureed stuff--but she's doing great with her solids!

She's a little chatterbox these days--as I'm sure Uncle Michael would say she's just like her Mommy. Her vocabulary consists of Da-Da, Mom-Mom, Pa-Pa (Pa) and Na-Na (Grandma). Occasionally it sounds like she is saying things like "Hi Dad, Hi Pa or even the word dog"--but we're not certain.

Grandma is in town for a visit until Monday and Pa comes tomorrow. Rylee was very excited to see Grandma yesterday when she arrived and I'm sure she'll be excited to see Pa tomorrow. We're hoping to get a visit from Uncle Michael, Aunt Catherine, Madeline and Megan this Sunday if everyone is up to it. I'm sure her big cousins will be very excited to see her and play with her, especially now that she's more interactive!

Mommy will be back to post more--probably in another two months!

And so it continues...

A picture of Rylee sitting in her own seat on the airplane reading the safety brochure before we take off--she did eventually get in the seat with Mommy for the flight!

Well, we thought Rylee was getting better, but it seems she's still battling an upper respiratory infection, ear infections and tons of congestion that is causing rattling in her lungs. She just finished her 3rd course of antibiotics and is still on breathing treatments with a nebulizer twice a day. We were given a 90 day supply of the Xopenex (for the nebulizer), as we were told Rylee would be on it for a while. Since Rylee has had ear infections and fluid in both ears since late March, we were referred to an EENT. We had Rylee's appointment yesterday and although there was no sign of infection (which we assumed since she finished her last dose of antibiotic that morning) there remains fluid behind both ear drums. We are hoping it will heal itself and are scheduled to go back in three weeks, unless Rylee develops another ear infection before then. If so, our next step is thinking about having tubes inserted to see if that will help her any.

Last weekend Rylee and Mommy traveled to NJ for Kylene's baby shower. Rylee had a great weekend being spoiled by Grandma and Pa and just playing around with them. Of course she came back home to NC with all sorts of new clothes, including outfits and hats from her favorite baseball team--The METS!

Rylee has learned how to clap with her hands now, so Mommy and Daddy are rather fascinated to see her clap her hands and feet at the same time--we always knew we had a skilled little girl! She is rolling over like a champ these days, realizing that she can get to anything she wants if she just keeps rolling. Mommy and Daddy know it will be any day before Rylee begins crawling, as she gets up on all fours and begins to rock. We guess now is a good time to baby proof the house. Rylee also is sitting up on her own, which she really enjoys. She looks like such a big girl just hanging out on the floor playing with her toys.

Mommy and Daddy are ready for a relaxing weekend at home to just lounge around and play!

Our baby girl is getting so big...

Rylee is finally getting over her bug that's had her for over 3 weeks now. After week two of wheezing and still just not being right, it was back to the doctor. A chest x-ray was ordered for Rylee in hopes to find out what was really going on and why the wheezing wasn't getting better. An initial report of the x-ray said that Rylee had pneumonia, but after an exam by our pediatrician, it was clear it wasn't pneumonia that was invading Rylee. In fact, Rylee had a portion of her lung collapsed and was still dealing with an ear infection. But Grandma (Na-Na) was coming to save the day. Two days later, on Thursday afternoon, Grandma abandoned Pa once again and flew in to help take care of Rylee and keep her while at home since she couldn't go to daycare. After three weeks of the gunk, it was another trip to the doctor to check out the ears and we found out that Rylee had fluid on her right ear. So we were sent home with Round 2 of antibiotics in hopes it would help.

We had our 6 month well child visit today and Rylee did great! No more ear infections, no fluid on the ears and lungs sounding better. Rylee still has thrush, but once we finish the antibiotics and ween off of the breathing treatments, we should be clear of that as well. We'll have to go Tuesday night for the repeat chest x-ray to be sure the portion of her lung that collapsed has reopened, but things are really starting to look up for Rylee.

Rylee is a pro at rolling over now (thanks to tons of floor time with Grandma) and immediately flips herself to her belly when she gets in her crib to go to sleep. She's realized that if she continually rolls on the floor, that she can get to her toys. We're imagining that crawling will take place any day now, as she's begun to get up on her knees and rock back and forth. We try to entice her to crawl to toys, but Spencer has learned how to nudge toys with his head towards her so she doesn't cry when she can't reach them. I guess he's just taking care of his baby girl!

We were given the green light to start finger foods as well with Rylee, like the puffs, teething biscuits, small soft vegetables and over-cooked pasta. We started today with a few puffs, to see how Rylee would react. She doesn't pick up the puffs with her thumb and forefinger, but instead with her forefinger and middle finger--she's super skilled! She isn't quite sure she likes them, as she melts them in her mouth and spits them back out. We'll give it a few tries and see how it goes.

Rylee's weighed in today at 18 pounds and 12 ounces (90-95th percentile)and 28 inches long (>97th percentile)-she must get it from her daddy--and thank goodness because short length jeans are hard to find!

Rylee took her first trip to the zoo last weekend. Rylee, Mommy, Daddy and Grandma all went to the zoo in Asheboro. Rylee rode in the stroller and got to hang out in the Baby Bjorn. Although she did enjoy seeing the animals (she's used to seeing ones in her bedroom as it is the jungle babies theme), we think she enjoyed seeing all the crazy people more! We're excited to get her on her next zoo trip, possibly one of the two in South Carolina!

The two new pictures are from this morning (4/24/09) before Rylee went to her doctor's appointment. In the one, she's looking at her Elmo basket that the Easter Bunny left her, trying to figure out how she's going to get to him.

6 months

Well, Mommy hasn't done the best job of keeping up with the blog like she thought--but it's true what they say, time flies by with little ones! With Mommy and Daddy both working full time, Rylee consumes much of our time on the weekends. Mommy and Daddy enjoy just hanging out at home and playing with Rylee.

Rylee will be spending her half birthday and first Easter, stuck at home with Mommy and Daddy getting some much needed rest. It started a week and a half ago with an upper respiratory infection that was supposed to be gone within four days. After day 8, Mommy knew something wasn't right, so we were back at the doctor. Turns out, Rylee has a double ear infection, a sinus infection and wheezing. We started some antibiotics and breathing treatments. With a suppressed immune system and probably the corticosteroids and antibiotics, Rylee developed thrush in her mouth ( a fungal infection)--so we started medication for that as well. After two days of treatments and medication, Rylee sounded and looked no better, so it was back to the doctor. Just as Mommy has suspected, her breathing had not gotten better, and maybe had gotten a little worse, so it was a dose of prednisone to see if that would help. Rylee will have three days of prednisone and should be feeling better by Monday we're told--so we're hoping for that!

Rylee is doing all the things a baby should. She's rolling over from her belly to her back, but refuses to go the other way. She despises tummy time so much, there's no way she'd put herself on to her tummy. When we actually can get her to stay on her tummy, she tries pushing herself up and is starting to scoot. She's also beginning to sit up, doing what they call the three point sit where she'll prop herself up using her arms. On March 14th, Rylee began holding her own bottle, although we're still working on her lifting it high enough to get the last of the milk in it. On March 24th, Rylee had begun saying Da-Da. It wasn't certain that she had actually associated the word with Jeff--but Mommy is almost certain she does now. Mommy is still waiting for Ma-Ma and although sometimes it sounds close, it hasn't happened yet.

Rylee started cereal right after her 4 month birthday, and quickly moved to vegetables--trying everything from sweet peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans and avocado. After doing multiple vegetables, we moved to fruits. So far she's had apples, prunes, pears and bananas. At this stage, Rylee hasn't meet a food she doesn't like! We are using all organic fruits, vegetables and cereal with Rylee. Although we do have a plentiful supply of Earth's Best food in the house, Mommy really enjoys making Rylee's baby food. We use the homemade at home and send the jars to school (since they don't provide organic).

It was late February when Rylee noticed that Ally and Spencer reside in the house with us. She loves them both and gets really excited when they run around and play in the yard. Ally doesn't pay too much attention to Rylee, but Spencer--her protector is fascinated with her. He loves to kiss her wherever and whenever he can. We are constantly telling him to stop licking her hands and face, so he's decided the top of her head is now a good spot. You'll never find him far from her, whether she's on the floor playing, in her crib or in her exersaucer. There are times when Rylee wants to play or talk to Spencer, and if he doesn't pay attention to her (sometimes food around wins out with him), she gets very upset and will sometimes cry.

In early March, Rylee got to see her first snowfall in Cornelius. We had about 4 inches in our backyard, so Mommy put Rylee in her snowsuit and Daddy, Ally and Spencer came out to join in the fun! We just stayed outside long enough to do some pictures.

Today Mommy and Rylee are at home, trying to recuperate from the gunk that's gotten Rylee. It was also today that Mommy noticed two little white squares poking through Rylee's bottom gum. Rylee's teeth have broken through-and we didn't even know. If that doesn't tell how easy going and calm this little girl is, I don't know what will.

Here's some new pictures from the past couple of months!

Fast Approaching 4 months

Well, Christmas and New Year's has come and gone and now we're heading into February! Little Miss Rylee is doing great, growing faster than we can grasp. We'll be hitting the 4 month mark on February 11th, the same day we go to the pediatrician for our 4 month check up. Rylee has started daycare and really seems to love it. She greets Miss Michelle or Miss Sarah each morning with a big smile. She enjoys observing the other babies, although it is quite tiresome for her. Grandma, Pa, Mommy and Daddy enjoy observing Rylee on the observation system the daycare has set up. Rylee will be heading into her 5 week starting tomorrow, although she has yet to complete a full week straight through.

The Sunday after New Year's Rylee developed a Upper Respiratory Infection that sidelined her from daycare for a week. Although the doctor said she could go back on Wednesday, Mommy and Daddy felt it was best to have Rylee stay home Thursday and Friday too.

Rylee was ready to go the following week, but had to miss a half day Thursday and all day Friday due to vomiting episodes at daycare. It turned out, Rylee either has a soy allergy or can not digest in, in which case the formula she was on was making her sick.

Rylee took her first trip with Mommy to NJ for a long weekend. We flew out on Friday afternoon to Grandma and Pa's. Even though it was bitterly cold, Rylee and Mommy had a great time visiting. Rylee got to meet "The Mahers", including plenty of aunts, uncles, cousins and even Great Grandma! Of course Rylee soaked up all the attention from everyone. Rylee did great on the plane both ways, sleeping entirely through both landings! This will make traveling to NJ much easier!

Rylee had her fist sleepover at Mimi's house this weekend. Although Mommy and Daddy arrived later in the night--Rylee and Mimi got some good quality time in together.

Rylee is holding her head up well now and has begun to roll herself from her belly to her back. She has recently began recognizing faces and voices, smiling and cooing for those whose company she really enjoys. She can go for minutes at a time of "talking" to whomever will listen. She has just started sitting in her exersaucer and is fascinated by all the toys she has to look at and play with.

Although Rylee loves her mommy, it is very apparent to all she is a Daddy's girl. Notice the picture above of how Rylee looks at her daddy.