Health Update

So...here we go again. Late last week, Emery's nose was very congested. To the point that she was struggling to breathe. I called the doctor on Friday and they couldn't get us in until Monday, so we had to wait out the weekend until seeing the doctor. Ugh. It was a scary weekend at some moments. Emery actually stopped breathing/couldn't breathe early Saturday morning. I was holding her and sleeping at the same time so I immediately lifted her up and she could breathe again. Still...very scary. Once Monday came I was very determined to go to the doctor and solve this problem that she has really had since we brought her home from the hospital. We ended up being at the doctor's office for over two hours, doing breathing treatments, watching Emery's chest pull (it always does this!), counting her breaths per minute, having the doctor call the pulmonologist at the hospital to get his opinion and finally deciding what to do. The doctor couldn't be sure that Emery's breathing problems aren't down in her lungs so we were sent over to have an x-ray done of her chest. That's so hard to watch them give her x-rays and hold her down. Not fun. I distracted myself with Ella and tried not to watch. Our pediatritian put her on a steroid once a day to open her nasal passages and breathing treatments every four hours. She also made us an appointment with the pulmonologist. We met with him yesterday. After looking at her x-ray and listening and watching her breathe he told me it's definitely not in her lungs. Yay for that, but we are still left without a conclusion. He thinks it is either one of two things. The first being that she has large glands in the back of her throat that are pushing on her nasal passages. There isn't anything we can do for this...just wait it out and let her grow into them. Or it could be the second thing...that she isn't swallowing correctly. When we swallow we don't breathe so the liquid doesn't go down the wrong tube. Right? Well, you know how it is also possible to choke and have liquid go up your nose? He thinks that she may be swallowing in such a way that it is pushing milk up into her nasal passages, but not enough to come out her nose. So, what do we do? Well, once again, she just needs to grow out of it, but until then we are trying some other things. The pulmonologist put her on steroids twice a day and breathing treatments every 4-6 hours. Plus we have to add a teaspoon of rice cereal to every ounce of milk she has. All in all, I feel like I've gotten no where. I really don't think that it is either of those things and it's just allergies. However, I will follow the pulmonologist's recommendations exactly so in five days when he told me to call and report and I can confidently tell him if it worked or not. So far it isn't and I really don't think it will. Hopefully, it is just a step in the direction of getting my pediatrician to admit that she has allergies...

Birthday Girl

Isabelle is in her party dress, with her party hair and wearing her squeakers (her shoes squeak). She's super excited for her party and is wandering around right now saying, "Parrrrty, where are yoooou?" over and over and over and over...

Three Kids Under the Age of 2

Today is the last day I will have three children under the age of two... I can't believe Isabelle turns two tomorrow!! If only I could say it was my last day of having three kids in diapers... :)

Hands Full

I seriously hear, "Looks like you've got your hands full," all the time. I can't leave the house without hearing some form of that statement...or at least it seems that way. In reality though, I really do. This was us yesterday:

It seems that most of my day consists of this or pumping or changing diapers or laundry or cleaning bottles or trying not to go crazy. Yep this is our life right now...

Sunday Walk

The weather was soooo beautiful on Sunday! Curt and I have often been talking about how we need to be more active as a family, so we decided to take Isabelle and Emery (Ella was asleep) on a short walk. (We can't take Emery out too long because of allergies.) I, of course, took our camera along because I love taking pictures of my kids outside since they turn out SO much better. So here is my sweet Emery on our walk:

the wind started to blow... :)

Great-grandma's Cupboard

My mom went to Utah at the beginning of March for a cousin's wedding and for Heidi's birthday. While she was there my Grandma Clark asked her to bring home her childhood cupboard to give to my girls. My mom brought the cupboard home along with a typed history of how the cupboard came to be. Well, that history has already gotten crumpled and lost a couple of times, so I wanted to type it up and make a digital copy so we would always have it. Here is her story, in her words:

"I want to give you a little history about this cupboard. It came to me from Santa one year. I don't remember how old I was, but I was little... My dad had a brother, James, who was two years older than he and needed to make a little money. He was divorced. His story was interesting (as I heard it in later years) but also sad. His former wife and children no longer lived in Hyde Park as I remember. He lived in the large family home with Aunt Mary and Aunt Lydia. They more of less took care of him. He ate with them and had a room there. If you read the family story of my dad, he mentioned Christmas and their lack of toys. He mentioned he like to get James to make things for him. He had a little shop in the yard and did carpentry work. Many of my Christmas presents came from his carpentry...though I didn't know it at the time. I had a little table and chairs made by him. I also had a child's rocker. When one of the rockers broke, Rich decided to throw it away rather than try to fix it. Many times I wish someone would have mended it so I would still have it today.

"I thought I would give the cupboard to a grandchild but that never worked out, so I hope this will. A great-grand child (or children) is even better."

When my dad brought the cupboard in from the car, Isabelle was so excited. She loves it. Often times we open a little door and there are her dolls or toys sleeping inside. The cupboard has very much become Isabelle's and she already won't share it with Levi. She's a little stinker with stuff she considers her's...and especially with Levi.

I would have been shocked if I opened the cabinet and there wouldn't have been anything inside. (Don't you love Isabelle's outfit? She had to put headbands on everyone this morning...)

In addition to the cupboard she sent two of her remaining dishes. Here's the story she told about them:

"I used to have dishes that I like to line up on the cupboard shelves and I am sending what I have left to you. The plate came from a little set with smaller plates and cups and I don't remember what else. The little pie plate came from a little set of baking dishes. When my mother made pie she would give me a little bit of dough. I would roll it and put it in the pan and also some of her filling in it too. There was also a little bread pan and cake pan."

Now we need to get her kitchen stuff so she can play with it as a kitchen too. We have plans to strip it and refinish it, but who knows when that will happen... We feel very blessed and excited to have Isabelle's great-grandma's cupboard in our home. What a piece of history! Her great-great uncle made it...approximately 80 years ago! Thank you grandma!! :)

Two Month Well Child Check-ups

Yesterday I took Ella and Emery in to have the well child exams. They are both doing so much better than they used to be doing. Emery still has thrush...it went almost all the way away, but it's come back strong again. Grrr... Poor baby too. Apparently it's supposed to be pretty painful too. Emery's sonogram and x-rays of her skull came back normal. I figured so, and that's why I never even bothered with calling for the results. Emery also gets nose bleeds...sometimes I'll look down at her and she has blood on her upper lip. The worse one was her first one and it was so bad it was coming out her mouth. It was right after she was hospitalized and totally scared me. However, did you know it's okay/normal. She's just super small and dried out. Ella's doing great. She has lots of painful gas, but we think it is just gas. If it continues though we may start having to do some tummy tests on her too. The doctor was very impressed that she sleeps through the night more times than not. Both girls received three immunizations. That was so hard. I didn't think about it before we went or I would have insisted Curt come with us, but having two babies complicates getting shots. When Emery was getting her's, I was holding Ella so the nurse had to comfort her! How horrible is that!?! I couldn't even comfort my own baby. She had to do that for both babies. I felt horrible. At least she was willing to do so. It was one of the most traumatic days...not just cause of that either. It was actually the last traumatic thing of the day on a whole list of traumatic moments. I was ready to lose it yesterday. I'm glad it is all over!

Here are each of the girls stats:

Ella:                                                                  Emery:

11 pounds 11.5 ounces (39th %tile)                  10 pounds 6 ounces (26 %tile)

40 cm head circumference (67 %tile)                39 cm head circumference (39 %tile)

22.5 inches tall (34 %tile)                                 23 inches (55 %tile)

And since my girls are so pretty, here's some pictures of them zonked from the day:

My Little Sunbeam

So, Natalie was out this evening, enjoying dinner with some of her friends in the ward. In the meantime, I (Curt) was watching Emery and Isabelle. Emery went to sleep sooner than I expected and so it was just me and Isabelle. To keep her entertained, we watched the Book of Mormon stories videos that they have at lds.org (which are super cool by the way). I pointed Jesus out to her and told her that he loved the Nephites. She nodded solemnly, looked up at me while spreading her arms wide and said, "I wan Jesus hold me". Melted my heart! She then repeated this several times before becoming distracted by a chocolate bar.

Feeding Ella

Lately Isabelle loves to help feed Ella and Emery. Really she just absolutely loves her sisters. 

Here's what Isabelle did when I requested she smile for the camera...

Lack of Blogging...

Curt mentioned to me today that I haven't been blogging and he's always disappointed when he goes to the blog and there isn't anything new. So...I thought I'd do a quick post. Both Ella and Emery have really been smiling a lot and have started to coo too. Super cute. Honestly it makes me a little more excited and less terrified for the upcoming months/year of lots of firsts. Anyway, here are some pictures of Emery smiling for the camera: