First Sickness and Up North

Well, we made it just over 6 months before Ellison got sick. I had never even had to call the doctor for anything at all, and now we have an extra trip to the pediatrician last Friday, a call to the answering service on Saturday, and a visit to urgent care on Sunday all under our belts!

Poor sick peanut hanging out up north

I took Ellison into the doctor on Friday for a couple reasons, but the main thing was she seemed to have an excessive amount of wet diapers for a few days in a row. The first couple times Jay and my mom said it seemed like they were changing a lot more diapers (I was on a three night stretch of work, so I wasn't with her a whole lot), I brushed it off and thought she must just be really well hydrated. After I had a full day home with her on Thursday and realized it was multiple diapers in an hour sometimes, I was a little worried about a UTI or even diabetes. So I called our doctor's office and took her in later that day. She also had not been eating great and had a dry cough, mostly when she was sleeping. The pediatrician said she looked fine and the coughing might be from allergies, but she wanted to catheterize her to check her urine for infection or signs of diabetes. I don't know how the parents of my patients at work watch all the procedures their kids go through, because I thought I was going to lose it watching her be straight cathed! The nurses seemed impressed by how calm I was, but I felt like a basket case. Everything looked great though, no UTI and no diabetes. They also weighed her and she was 13 pounds, 12 ounces, which was over half a pound more than the week before! So I thought everything was good and we headed up north on Saturday.

Sick baby being watched over by her friends

By early Saturday evening, Ellison seemed worse. Her cough sounded more wet and she just looked miserable at times. She was rubbing her eyes constantly, coughing a lot more, and sneezing a little too. It really looked like she was struggling with bad seasonal allergies (just like Mommy...). It was hard to think of her as being sick because in between coughs and sneezes she was smiling and laughing, but I called the answering service for her doctor's office and spoke with one of the pediatricians about giving her something for allergies. He said to try Children's Benadryl and if she seemed better the next day, we could give her Children's Zyrtec every morning until the weather cools off. It was almost bedtime when she got the Benadryl, so we couldn't really tell if it helped that night.

Unfortunately Sunday morning she woke up coughing. She had such a long coughing fit that I was worried she wasn't going to be able to eat or even breathe. Now her nose was runny and she felt clammy. We decided it was time to go to urgent care. We had to take her to the Marshfield Clinic since we were still up north. On the way there I was having all these horrible thoughts that probably only pediatric nurses would have...mainly that something was really wrong and she would have to be transported home to Children's. Of course, the cough seemed to disappear while we were at the hospital, but they did swab her for whooping cough. The doctor said it's probably just a virus that needs to make its way through her. Poor baby! The cough returned after we left...why does it always happen like that?!

Monday morning she seemed much better, other than mostly refusing food. The hospital called to let us know that the pertussis swab was negative, so that was a relief! By later on Monday she was eating better and coughing much less. I guess we have all survived our first illness!

Besides Ellison being sick, it was a nice trip up north with Jay's parents, sister Litz, brother in law Brian and our niece Isabella! Lots of good food and a hilarious game called "The Game of Things". If you haven't played it, you should. It is hysterical!!! We went on the Point Brewery tour on Monday afternoon, and Ellison was such a good girl. She is such a little people watcher. She loves looking around at new places and people and almost never cries when we are out in public. We are very blessed to have such a good baby!

A few pictures from "Up North"

Ellison also got her 6 month pictures taken over this past weekend by Krystal, who did her newborn pictures. I can't wait to see (and share) them! I know they will be amazing!!! Funny note about her pictures, to get Ells to smile and laugh during the session, Jay, Krystal and I all took turns making coughing sounds at her. She seems to think coughing is hilarious (when other people do it). What a weirdo!

Something else exciting happened at pictures...Ellison decided to sit on her own! We had been "practicing" sitting in the hope that she would be able to do it before picture day, but it looked like it wasn't going to happen. She had only ever balanced by herself for a few seconds. Something must have clicked during her photo session because all of the sudden, she was sitting by herself for several minutes! Hurray! She has been balancing in a sitting position on her own ever since. She still needs a little help getting into position, but once she is up she will stay that way for a few minutes!

Yay! I can sit!!!

Ellison starts swimming lessons in less than two weeks...hopefully she loves the water as much as her mommy. Can't wait to get her in the pool! She really likes splashing and playing in her tub so hopefully that translates to a swimming pool...

I'll post the new professional pictures as soon as I have them!!! Until then, here are some other ones to look at...

Ellison LOVES Elmo!

Favorite new pose...

She is the happiest baby ever!

First day in her big girl stroller!

Ellison's besties!

Zoo A La Carte

How are we ever going to punish her?! Look at those eyes!

She wants to crawl so badly...

Her feet are always up on everything!

SIX Months Old!

How has this day already come?! I cannot believe my beautiful baby girl is 6 months old. I find myself simultaneously thinking there is no way this much time has gone by, and wondering how I ever lived without this little girl! I feel like I say that every month but the feeling has not gone away yet. It is so crazy that the helpless little baby we brought home from the hospital has already become this smiley, bubbly little girl, so full of personality! I am so in awe of all the things she has already learned and all the changes she has gone through in this first half of a year. It is so much fun to watch her grow!

As much as I loved her as a brand new, snuggly baby and think she is growing up way too fast, I am loving this age. She is so much fun! She is a very active little girl, constantly on the move. The baby gate went up by the stairs to the basement last weekend! She is not crawling yet but can definitely move around the room. If you leave her in the middle of a blanket, she can get off of it in a matter of seconds! Between rolling and an inchworm kind of movement, she is all over the place. She is constantly reaching for objects (especially electronics) and has learned to drag things towards herself. She can pull things towards her and get them into her mouth, no problem! She always looks like she is plotting what she will grab next.

Didn't take her long at all to get from the blanket all the way across the room!

Ellison is not sitting on her own quite yet, but we have been working very hard on it. She is very easily distracted when we practice sitting and as soon as she sees something she wants off in the distance, she will tip herself over to go and get it. She sits up very well in her Bumbo or with her Boppy behind her, and has started to do what look baby crunches when we try to give her a bath or buckle her into her car seat.

Practicing sitting...and hopefully inheriting her musical talent from Daddy's side of the family

I had a week off recently so I was able to make my first bunch of baby food with the Baby Bullet I got for Christmas. Ellison has tried plums, pears, apples, and zucchini that I made so far. The girl loves to eat! She has tried 12 or 13 different fruits and vegetables now. She even had peas this week without making any terrible faces!

We had Ell's six month check up yesterday. I worked all night (actually, until 7:30 this morning), and Jay wasn't able to get off of work, so it was just the little lady and one very tired mommy! Ellison weighed in at 13 lbs, 2.5 oz (25%tile) and was 26 3/4 inches long (90%tile). Her weight was the main topic of conversation at the appointment. She didn't gain much weight since her last appointment (six weeks ago, she was 12 lbs, 10.5 oz) despite starting to eat solids. But as I said, she LOVES food! She chows down on solids, and she nurses or gets a bottle 5 times a day. But she is a very active little girl, and Jay and I are not big people. I weighed her at home twice in the last week, so I wasn't shocked by the number on the scale today.

Instead of waiting until Ellison is 9 months old for her next appointment like most babies do, we go back in 6 weeks for a weight check. The pediatrician just wants to make sure that now that she is on a new curve (the 25th percentile), she stays there. We are also supposed to attempt to give her about twice as much food as we had been when we give her solids. We did this for the first time last night and she still ate everything! However, I am not going to force feed her to try to get her to gain weight just so she fits into someone's idea of what she "should" weigh. When I look at her, I see a healthy little girl who is just on the slim side. Her nails are growing, her hair is growing, she is getting longer, and her head circumference measurement has been in the same %tile (75th) since birth. So I am going to make sure she is getting enough food, but I am not going to spend all my time stressing about it!

Overall, Ellison had a pretty good "half birthday". She got a fun new toy, and we also introduced her to a stuffed animal for the first time. She absolutely loved it! She was giggling and squealing at her monkey. So adorable! Unfortunately she did get fussy from her shots as the night went on and had a low grade temp, so she got some Tylenol and extra snuggles and finally fell asleep. I thought we would be in the clear because she did well after the 4 month shots...poor baby :(

One other quick story. The pediatrician said we could introduce Ellison to a sippy cup with water in it, so we tried giving her one last night. She acted like the cup had a force field around it. She wanted nothing to do with it! You would have thought it was full of poison the way she was looking at it. She is always trying to take cups and bottles away from us so it was pretty odd and I found it hilarious!

You want me to drink out of what?!

Here's some more recent pics...Enjoy :)

First ride in stroller as a big girl! (no car seat)

Special delivery!

Hold on Mom, I gotta text my friends!

Time FLIES!

In less than two weeks my sweet baby girl will be 6 months old. I can't believe how fast summer is flying by. Ellison continues to be more fun every day! She is working very hard to learn to sit and crawl. She spins all around on her belly and can usually figure out a way to combine spinning and rolling to get to the things she wants. It has gotten increasingly hard to take her weekly block pictures because she wants to play with the blocks! She also purposefully grabs jewelry, glasses, hair, and basically whatever she can get her hands on (and usually tries to shove whatever she can get a hold of into her mouth!).

Ellison is loving solid food now. She has tried 10 different fruits and vegetables and her favorites seem to be squash, peaches, bananas, and pears. The only food we really struggled to get her to eat was peas. She doesn't try to take the spoon or shove her hands in her mouth as much as she did a few weeks ago, which is nice! I am looking forward to the "stage two" foods because there seems to be a much bigger variety. Some of the combinations sound pretty tasty! I have tried most of the food (everything except the rice cereal) and it pretty much tastes like I would expect...mushed up whatever fruit or veggie it is. I made some food (zucchini straight from the garden!) with the Baby Bullet for the first time yesterday...it was super easy! I have a couple more days off this week so I am hoping to make some more and get a stockpile going.

You really think I'm going to take another bite of those peas?!

Now this I like!

We had a weekend visit from Litz, Brian, and Isabella last weekend. Ellison loved to watch Isabella walking around and playing, but Isabella was a little scared of Ellison. It is always nice to catch up with the family!

Helping make brownies for Uncle Brian, Auntie Litz, and Isabella's visit

Ellison had her first sleepover this past Saturday, at Grandma and Grandpa Miller's. Jay and I attended a wedding in Appleton and were able to leave Ells in Valders for the night. From what we heard, she was a perfect little angel! It was nice to have a grown up night, but we were definitely ready to get back to our girl the next morning. It was the first time Jay had been away from her overnight so I'm sure that wasn't easy for him. We are very lucky to have so many family members willing to watch our princess if we need a night out!

Outside at Grandma and Grandpa's

I am still struggling with being away from Ellison for work. I recently was asked again if I want to go to day shift, and once again had to say no. I feel like I see Ellison more working nights than I would working days, since she is usually getting ready for bed around the time I would get home if I worked during the day. We would also need more child care if I worked day shift. So it seems I will continue to work nights for the time being! Though many people said it would get easier to leave her when I have to work, so far I have not experienced that. I've been back at work for over 3 months and dislike leaving every night just as much as I did the very first one. Luckily I get to see her most mornings when I get home (thanks to Grandma Janis, who comes over and watches her so Jay can go to work!). Very rarely she is already at day care when I get home, and those are the hardest days for me. But she is always SO excited to see Jay and I when we come home from work, and that makes it a little easier!!! I just love the little lady so much, it is hard to be away from her for any length of time.

Such a happy girl!

That's about all that's going on with us. Looking forward to our trip up north in a few weeks!