A Little Backed Up

I just got the pictures my sister took at Emmeline's blessing so i thought i would share. she was almost 3 months old before we could bless her. we had permission to do it in the hospital but i just couldn't. it was like if i did it meant that she wasn't coming home. anyway, we decided to do it after she had been home for a couple of weeks to make sure it got done in case she had to go back to the hospital again. She was blessed in the dress that me and all my sisters and Isabella have been blessed in. mom found that cute sweater for her. it is so tiny. i was thrilled that one of the bracelets and headbands that Whitney made me matched the sweater perfectly so she got to wear those too. over all very cute.


Sleeping while i make dinner. pretty cute accessories huh?



Big eyes.



more big eyes.



Smily.



Watching people



Grandmama and Appy.



Mommy and Em. even the passy matched.




Watching more people. she really likes to know where everyone is.




Daddy and Em. we have a picture that is almost the same for Josh and Isa.

HAPPY 5 MONTH BIRTHDAY!!!

Emmeline is 5 months old today. i wont even try and explain how i feel about it or reflect back on things. well, other then posting now and then pictures.



i think she looks so warm and cozy in this picture. it makes me sleepy.



This is her all dressed up to go home. this wasn't the actual outfit that i brought to bring her home in. the one i had was much to large. or maybe she was much to little.



This is actually the outfit i brought to bring her home. i got isabella a matching sweatshirt that says " i am the big sister" for them to wear but Emmeline's whole body wasn't even as long as the oneies.


Here are the cute sisters. Emmeline's cheeks look huge when she is sitting up. i guess because they hang down. isabella LOVES being a big sister and wants to hold/smother her all the time.

Emmeline's Sparkly

The whole family went to Winston-Salem yesterday to get Emmeline's hearing aid. we were all really excited. The first thing the audiologist said was how tiny the earpiece was. she said it was the smallest one she had seen. I was really worried about how Em would react to it since she hated having things in her ears for all the testing. she did really well though. she actually seems to like having it in better then out. she defiantly looks around more. we got a whole kit of stuff to take care of the hearing aid. Isabella really liked all the things that came with it designed to help kids adjust to having a hearing aid. since Emmeline is so small she didn't really care about that stuff so Isa got to play with it.



Here is the whole set. it has all kinds of goodies.



Here are some stickers to decorate the side of her hearing aid. Also batteries and you can see the top of her toupee tape. this helps keep the aid in place if it starts to flop. you can also see the edge of her Oliver the elephant case.



This is her black holder for the hearing aid. the white container with Oliver on it is a dehumidifier. it is very important to put the hearing aid in there at least for the night. this keeps it very dry. even a little sweat can make it stop working. next we have a battery tester. below that is her hearing aid and the earpiece. the bulb is for blowing any moisture out of the earpiece if we need to wash it. the little pink round thing goes in the dehumidifier. the tube in the bag is and earpiece for josh and I to test the hearing aid with from time to time to make sure it still works. below that is something like a passsy holder. it attaches to the hearing aid and clips to the child's clothes so they wont lose it if it falls off.



Here is a close up of her hearing aid. we chose blue with glitter for the earpiece. we will get a new one about every month or two so i can pick a new color when ever i get bored. the actual aid will be the same for years.



Here she is the first time we put the hearing aid on her. they just made a new hearing aid that is smaller. thankfully they determined that her hearing loss is stable so she was able to get the smallest one they offer. the micro. otherwise she would have looked pretty silly with a regular one. it would have looked huge. she can't wear it all the time since if things get close to it gives feedback and she isn't sitting up yet. we put it on her whenever we can she she seems to like it. hopefully she will be sitting up soon. then she will be able to wear it whenever she is awake. pretty cute if i say so myself.

A Long Time Coming

It has taken me a very long time to get this post together. every time i tried it brought back so many painful memories. it is hard to accept that fact that Emmeline's life has been so eventful/miserable so far. i am just very very glad she wont remember what has happened to her. i only wish i couldn't either. Here are a few pictures of the last 4 months. it feels like alot longer then that. i am pretty sure i am missing some but maybe i just intended to take a picture of some stuff and then didn't. if i find them i will post them later.




this is em and Is when she is like 2 days old and looking a little yellow.


Aunt Terra look these pictures right before everything fell apart.


Before the flash woke her up.



This is Emmeline right before her first surgery. she hadn't eaten in like 7 hours at this point.


Post surgery with her head IV. it took them awhile and that was all they could get. the blue tube is blow by O2. she really hated that b/c it was very cold. a very nice lady made that blanket for the kids in the hospital. It has a hood.


Looking like and anorexic Buddah. that band aid cracks me up.



Isa came with us to winston when Em was admitted. this was the day before the crash.


she is actually sleeping well here. The glowing hand is the O2 sensor so we would know when her airway collapsed.



The next morning i woke up to nurses bagging em. within 30 minutes we had more doctors then i could count in the room and more in the hall way. shortly after that the took her to the PICU and when they let me in she looked like this. I wasn't ready for that.



She had had two surgeries at this point and we thought we were going to go home soon. boy where we wrong.


One of the few times she wasn't hooked up to so much stuff that i couldn't hold her.




After her third surgery right after being extubated. you can see a notch cut out of the ring on the passy. that was so she could suck on it while she had the breathing tube in.



She had to have a barium swallow before the g-tube was placed. this was her all strapped in. it was pitiful looking.


Top view in the barium swallow.


Her very last picture whole.



This is what she looked like after she got back from recovery from the g-tube surgery. very cuddly and small.



She was in the hospital for Halloween. she actually had her g-tube placed that day. we had to dress her up though. the nurses loved it!

Josh took this. it only shows part of all the machines that she was using. it looks like she is in a prison in hell.


Sleeping through the hunger. they had to work up to a regular feed over several days and she was starving.


The passy holder.



cozy with the O2 after a bath.


We have taken so many more picture of her but i wanted to try and give you a glimpse of what her life was like from birth to when we finally cam home. i will show you how fat she has gotten later.

Christmas Pictures

Katie and i decided to take some Christmas pictures. this was much easier said then done. either way we preserved the memory.


Isabella was having some stiffness troubles.



Clovis don't like to be touched.


she will consider letting you take her pictures. if you are good.



The best I could do.


Pretty darn cute I think.

The Nutcracker 2008

Isabella was in her first ballet in December. she absolutely loved it. she sat still and watched the entire two hour ballet. she can't wait to get big enough to do the lifts and things. ballet has been her one escape from the house in the last 6 months. josh and i really try and make sure she gets to go every week. for the ballet she had to have curly hair. since she has the same hair i had at her age i knew it would be nearly impossible to keep it curly. so we had to use sponge curlers with a massive amount of hair gel and hair spray and we got the cutest little ringlets. here she is with all her curlers in holding Em. Em has chunked up quite nicely eh?




putting make up on for the first time. she was super excited.




after we got her whole costume on.


Dancing while she waited to go on.



Little angels in a row. well, kind of.



Silly pose.



her and her friend Kendall



posing with the flowers daddy got her on the stage. she could barely hold them up.


ballet is so great for isa. since she can't be in school right now it is the only time she is with other kids her age. and for the first time since she was born i think she has more girl friends then boy friends. i can't wait for her spring ballet.