New Look

As you can tell I have changed the blog background. Elizabeth LOVES red. In her opinion, if it is red, it is better. The previous background was giving me problems, so I thought I would change things around to better reflect Elizabeth's style- RED and GLITTERY (please disregard the fruit).

You might also note I am in the slow (very very slow) process of copying my CarePage postings over to the blog- so April-July 2007 are in along with some pictures.

Here are a few pictures of a recent zoo trip, notice Elizabeth in red.

Chocolate ice cream cone + do it your self face painting = We are pretty sure she was the filthiest kid in the whole zoo (the dress came clean after 7 washes)

Ava's Dance Recital

Oops! When checking my blog the other day I noticed that first this original post was published instead of saved and second wasn't saved so I am starting over!

A few weeks ago Ava had her first dance recital. She loved it! Ava was such a little star. She spent hours practicing, on her own without encouragement (ok a little, but not much). Wow did it show! Ava was the leader on stage and all the little girls looked to her to know the next move. I am pretty sure she was bitten by the stage bug; she is already talking about next year.

Defending Preemie Moms Everywhere

The ignorance of people is always amazing to me. I once had a lady at a green house ask me how I carried Elizabeth around when she was only one pound (why I brought up her birth weight (Elizabeth's not the nosy lady) is beyond me now). I firmly told this women that Elizabeth was VERY sick and required lots of medical attention and I couldn't hold for for weeks; she was shocked.

A few weeks ago Elizabeth and I were shopping at a craft store. We were getting things for her birthday party, some beads to make jewelry (my new hobby), and t-shirts for the March of Dimes walk. They store didn't carry the correct color and my conversation with the check out women went like this:
I told her why we were walking; she was very excited to tell me "oh! I have a friend who had a baby at 23 weeks or something like that!"

I looked at her for minute then quietly asked if the baby survived.

women- "oh sure (obviously she has no idea that many don't),he was in the hospital for a while (no kidding!!)"

me- "that's great! How is he doing?"

women- "oh fine he is still on oxygen, but I don't think he needs it any more. I think his mom is just over protective and worries to much, I think he has CP too"

me- (eye brows raised to my hair line, inside I am screaming WHAT!!!) "Well, doctors are really the ones who make those calls. They are pretty careful about not keeping kids on oxygen any longer than they need to be. Too much can cause problems. If he is still on oxygen that it is the doctors call and he really does need it" (I was not going to let slide, we preemie moms need to stick together!)

women - "oh"

me - "what is his name?" (you know because I know ALL of the local mirco preemies!)

women- "his name is Hunter"

me- "Hunter! I know Hunter! His mom and I are friends and involved in the same NICU group for our hospital."
After our little exchange I felt so much better. I not only did I defended a wrongly judge mom, but a friend too.

If you haven't seen your baby hooked to machines and tubes, been told your child might not survive the week, if you don't live in fear that the next cold could put them in the hospital, then please don't judge. Yes we buy purell in bulk, avoid crowds, miss family functions to keep our kids away from germs, and drive ourselves CRAZY trying to feed our kids. Sure some people might think that we overreact, are over protective, or just plain crazy; but we have earned that right. Bring on the purell!!

WOW!

Well the big walk was last weekend. We had another amazing year. Team Elizabeth Grace rose about $6500 this year and proudly walked in the cold to save babies. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who walked with us or supported us in any way.

19 days

We walk in the March for Babies in just 19 days.
Why?

Because our daughter is a miracle. With out the life saving advancements made by the March of Dimes Elizabeth would not be here today.

We walk so that other parents won't have to meet their child for the first time separated by the plastic walls of an isolete.

We walk so that all babies will get their full nine months.

We walk to show that miracles are possible.

We walk to remember those babies who didn't make it home.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Can you help us?
Please click HERE to join us in the walk or to donate to our team.

April Fools!!

I was just working on a new post the other day. In it I was writing about how healthy we have been. Elizabeth had a great winter, no ER visit, blah, blah, blah.

April Fool!!!

With the warm weather and healthy winter I have let me guard down. It started out with a runny nose Tuesday. She has not been sleeping well the past week (a molar coming in as well as a cold will do that I suppose) as a result I have not been sleeping well. Last night she was coughing all night- we are now doing breathing treatments every four hours; I can hear her hacking as I type and she isn't due for another for another two hours. Right now we aren't at the point of going to the doctor. By now I know what they are going to say, I will wait until she gets worse. Maybe she will fly through this cold too. I just keep waiting for the "big one" to come.

On top of her cold Elizabeth has had thrush for over a month caused by her asthma medicine. We are rinsing and washing out her mouth, replacing toothbrushes all the time, trying different kinds of medication to battle this. The good news is that it doesn't seem to bother her.

We have had some fun lately. Elizabeth had her first visit with the Easter Bunny (she wasn't a fan up close) perhaps we know where this cold came from or maybe we picked it up from the butterfly tent we visited. The girls loved it and the butterflys weren't shy about landing on us!

What else are we doing this spring? The March for Babies - of course!

This will be our third year and we have raised over $10,000 to date!!! We would love to have another huge group of family and friends walking with us again this year; the past two years we have had been about 100 walkers strong. Clink on the March for Babies tab on in the upper right or HERE to sign up and join us. You can walk with us in Ann Arbor or join our team and walk where you are. If you can't walk we would really appreciate a donation to sponsor our walk - in any amount. Can you donate just $1 for every pound you or your baby weighed at birth? Together we can save babies and help find solutions for babies who are born too soon like Elizabeth.

Darn Faries

Well they are at it again.

Our fairy friends have been causing some trouble around here- well at least according to Elizabeth. As you might remember we discovered that we have fairy visitors last summer. It has been very exciting to see if they have left things around the house and sometimes a little sad to discover that toys that weren't put away are sometimes taken back to pixi-land. Well the unthinkable has happen. Those naughty fairies have STOLEN Elizabeth's bottles! She is horrified that they could have done such a thing and she really doesn't care that there are baby fairies who might need them.

DONT THEY KNOW THAT SHE NEEDS THEM!!??!!!

How could they do that to such a sweet little girl?


Here's hoping that she continues to gain weight and makes up for the calories that she took in with the bottle in other ways. We are trying to make due with a sippy cup before bed, but it just isn't the same.