A Difference Between Night and Day

So you may recall that I learned a few things the hard way when doing Roxey's newborn photos. One was that they should always have a diaper on, two was to work out the lighting situation better, and three was to do them long before they are a month old. Well, now that I am supposedly wiser but still on the same (if not tighter) budget, we ventured to do a 6 month photo shoot with Roxey. The results were like night and day.
Rather than crying the entire time like she did in her newborn photos, this time around she was so happy we didn't want to stop. And rather than having her naked, I had a blast dressing her up. I love baby girl clothes! And as a wonderful side note, there was no pooping on mom this go around either. It was ironic how things fell into place. I got it into my head that I wanted Roxey in a little white rocking chair. Fortunately one night Jordan and I went for a walk to get landscaping ideas. We stopped to admire a neighbor's yard and pick his brain, and what just happened to be on their front porch, a little white rocking chair. Then I also had the brilliant idea to ask my sister-in-law to take the photos. She was so cute and humble about it, claiming she didn't know what she was doing, but we were so pleased with her work. As you can see I ruined many of the photos with the wind blowing my hair and I looked high and low for a red belt in order to tie in with the theme but couldn't find one, so I just figured Jord could switch the color for me before printing the photos. It is wonderful being married to a graphic designer for those reasons, but I grew tired of waiting for him to fix the photos before sharing them with others, so you get the raw footage.
Needless to say, it was a fun experience and I am amazed at the little girl that is developing right before our eyes.

Mama called the doctor and the doctor said...

Roxey is back to her old self. We went to Primary Children's yesterday and got a clean bill of health for her. To celebrate we all went to the zoo. Who knows if she enjoyed it, but her parents sure did. The weather was overcast and there were so few people which was perfect because I hate crowds. When Roxey was sick, she digressed quite a bit. She had a hard time sleeping, she wouldn't eat solids, and she didn't laugh. This experience has helped me to appreciate those things that I was beginning to take for granted. I complain often that Roxey is still not sleeping through the night, but the Lord showed me it could be a lot worse. I hated how messy solids were, but I want Roxey to grow and develop, so I have learned to let go now that she is back to eating them. And finally, her laughter and smile is what Jordan and I cherish the most, so we are truly grateful for the doctors and medicine that helped to make Roxey better.
As a side note, Roxey getting sick also lit a fire underneath me to finally make her blanket. I grew up with one that I clung on to until it was honestly down to the size of a napkin. So here is Roxey's and I hope she will love it.

Quarantine

'Tis the season for family trips, right? Well, our trips don't seem to have room service or bright sun shining beaches, that's because our trips consist of going to the hospital, the doctor's office, and back home again. Yep, you got it, we are a sick family. Thursday night around 7, Roxey's bedtime feeding, she threw up her cereal. Then at 10, when I just attempted to give her a "dream feed" she threw up all over me. Sweet Jordan decided to sleep in her room to listen in on her better; therefore, he heard her throw up yet again not too long after that. We then moved her to our room where she threw up again, so Jordan decided to give her a blessing. During the blessing I realized it had been since 4 p.m. that she had truly kept something down and now it was 2:30 a.m. I also remembered that an infant's soft spot becomes sunken in when they are dehydrated. So I felt Roxey's and sure enough it was sunken in, so we decided it was time to go to the ER.

There they were able to draw her blood, take a urine sample, and put in an IV. All of which we could not have done at home, so I am glad we in our sleep deprived state decided to go to the hospital. While there I was able to hold Roxey the entire time the fluids were going into her. She is "Little Miss Independent" and doesn't let me rock her anymore, so it felt nice to hold her in my arms. The tests came back indicating that she has a bladder infection. This made me feel horrible because the most likely cause is that feces got up in there. I change her diaper so promptly when I know she has a dirty diaper and I thought I was always very thorough.

After a day of forcing medicine into her at home and filling her up on Pedialyte, we took her in to see a pediatrician for a follow up. Fortunately ours was not available, so we had to see different one. When going over the cause, I felt prompted to mention that we have been battling her constipation for well over two months now (I left out the fact that our other pediatrician just blows us off anytime I mention it as a grave concern). Once this was said, she mentioned that the hard stool could have obstructed her urinary tract, thus causing the infection. We still have to have more testing done to see if her plumbing is all set up right, but for the time being, Roxey is back to her own self. However, due to going to the ER and the doctor's office, I was the lucky one to pick up a bug. You got it, as if it weren't bad enough dealing with my daughter's throw up and now diarrhea due to her medications, now I'm the one throwing up.

It was funny that Friday when Roxey was recuperating, I kept thinking what do you let an infant do when they are sick. I did with her what I would want to do and allowed her to veg out. She stayed in her pajamas and I let her watch some Signing Time, which ironically had a segment on being hurt, Roxey could relate. The next day, Jordan and I wanted to get out of the house and also reward Roxey for being such a trooper, so we headed to the nearest snow cone shack. If you are a snow cone lover, then you need to come our way. We both got the smallest size and yet they were ginormous! Jordan got a cup with just the ice to feed to Roxey. She wasn't too sure about it, so to spoil her even further, we gave her her first sippy cup.

It was truly hard to see her go through this, but it made me very grateful for modern medicine, our insurance, and more importantly, the power of the priesthood.

4th of July

So we didn't see any fireworks this year, but we certainly enjoyed time with our little firecracker. We were able to celebrate with Jordan's family by having a good ol' fashioned barbeque in his brother's backyard. Roxey had fun playing in their sandbox and we couldn't pass up the beautiful landscape for a fun family photo. Our neighbor's husband is in Afghanistan right now, so I think this 4th we really were filled with gratitude for the men and women that continually fight for our freedom.

6 MONTHS OLD!!!

It's hard to believe that our little one is already six months old. She of course has gradually been growing right before our eyes, so it is interesting to look at these pictures below and let reality set in. The first picture was taken the day we brought her home from the hospital. She didn't even fit into her outfit which was a newborn size (her feet are nowhere near the footsies), and now she is growing out of her clothes so quickly I find it hard to keep up.

I wonder what the next 6 months will look like. To be continued... :)