9 Months Old

Unbelievable. Ella is 9 months old. It doesn't seem real to me that she is creeping up on a year. Crazy! So it seems like a lot has happened this month so I'll try to update on everything. We'll start with Miss Ella. She had her 9 month appt. the other day and weighed close to 12 1/2 pounds so that is good news. Her weight gain is slow but at least she is continuing to gain so we are thankful for that. She is getting stronger and is really moving and active these days. The girl does not want to sit still! She is not crawling but she will roll or kind of slide a few feet to get to a toy if she wants to. We are hoping she will crawl at some point because it will just strengthen her left arm even more and encourage her to use it more if she does but we'll see what happens with that. We're working on ways to encourage her and teach her how to move to get to other places in hopes she will be motivated to start the crawling process. Her Physical Therapist has been great with her and Ella has really responded well to therapy and has made some great progress so that is good.

Feeding is a little better by mouth but not much. Again, baby food is going fairly well, bottles...not so much. This month has been a rough one with the feeding and she is still not taking much by mouth from the bottle. She is however not spitting up as much. She normally will only spit up once a day sometimes twice where it used to be 3-4 large vomiting episodes a day and a least one in the middle of the night. Terrible! That isn't happening anymore so we are VERY thankful that things are better in that arena so that is a praise. Obviously the goal is also for her to eat well by mouth so we are in the process of making some decisions on pursuing some feeding therapy at Our Children's House at Baylor in Grapevine. Baylor has a great feeding therapy program for children like Ella so that is in the works but we are waiting on insurance predetermination and more details about when Ella's shoulder surgery will be before we know if and when we can do it. We are also trying some different options for treating her reflux, digestion, etc. and have made some changes to her feedings and medication so we are kind of in an evaluation period right now with all of that. Please be praying for us in all of this to make the right decisions, for timing, and for Ella to continue to hold down her feedings and to start EATING GREAT BY MOUTH!!

Okay, shoulder surgery. The big, long-awaited MRI of Ella's shoulder is upon us next week on Wednesday, June 17. We have been waiting for this appointment for MONTHS because we believe this is going to give us a lot of answers as far as what we are dealing with with her shoulder and when surgery will be. Hopefully soon after the MRI the doctors will be able to give us details and a concrete timeline for when surgery will be and how involved it will be. Please be praying for this appointment as well. Ella will also have to be put to sleep for the MRI which always makes me a bit nervous so be praying for her. Have you got the message yet? Pray, pray, pray!!
We'll update as soon as we know more after the results come in.

Going from one project to the next, project Cranial Band is about to be OVER people! That's right, we are done at the end of this month. The end of June will be 4 months that Ella's had the band so we are more than ready for her to get it off. That deserves a big HOLLAAAA!!! Speaking of Holla...quick funny story. The other day I saw a middle-aged mom-type lady driving her car which was shoe-polished with hearts and stuff all over it and on the side window it said Holla real big. This was so funny to me because you know that she probably has a teenage daughter who's friends more than likely shoe-polished the family car and then daughter didn't clean it off like she was supposed to which resulted in mom having to drive to work with Holla written real big across the side of her car. Real cool. Love it! I wanted to somehow acknowledge the holla when I passed her but she was focused and was not making eye contact. Way to be a defensive driver mom.


Whatchoo lookin' at?

Anywho, that's the poop on Ella in a nutshell. In other news, we have new neighbors! Not technically right-next-door neighbors but my sister Ann and her family moved here to the metroplex just 15 minutes down the road for the summer. I know, I'm so excited I'm almost hyperventilating as I write. They are moving to Thailand in September to do mission work so they decided to move here for the summer to spend time with us and to help us with Eva and Ella. A lot of things worked perfectly to make this happen and we know it was the Lord's doing and we feel so blessed that they are here. It's like a dream come true to live in the same city with them! We're in for a fun summer. Yippee!

Meg, Eva and Brynn. We've got some neat hair going on in this picture and as usual the no-smile from Eva.

Eva is doing well, just being her crazy, funny self. She is loving having Aunt Ann, Uncle Derran and the cousins here so she is having the time of her life. We love cousin time.

Yo, can I get an upgrade? They have inflatable pools now you know? Pretty sure they do. Poor thing wanted to play outside in the water so at the time we didn't have a pool so this was the next best option. We were out in the front yard so I'm sure the cars driving by thought we were a bit coo-coo and probably just felt sorry for Eva. But hey, she loved it so everybody wins.

And this, ladies and gentlemen is why swim diapers are always a good idea. Junk in the trunk! This thing was massive. I took it inside and weighed it on the scale and it weighed over 2 pounds, not even kidding. Poor Eva, just having an off day, no pool, no swim diaper=awkward fun.

I would like to end on a more serious note and ask you all to be praying for the Sebourn family. I am part of an on-line support group for mothers with babies born with Omphaloceles and I met Alicia who lives here in this area. This weekend she gave birth to their daughter Zoey who was born with an omphalocele. They are in the process of doing testing, scans etc. to determine the best care for Zoey and doing her omphalocele repair surgery this week and they could really use your prayers. My heart has been heavy for this family because they have an amazing little girl who is going to bless them beyond words but there is much to overcome for all of them so when you pray for Ella please remember to pray for Zoey and the Sebourn family. They have a blog where you can keep up with Zoey and you can visit it by clicking here.

Thank you all for your prayers, we love you!