Sorry for the delay! LeahBug has been a little bit fussy the past couple of days as it is time for her four-month vaccines. We had them spread out over a few days so as not to slam her little body with so much in one huge shot, but that didn’t stop her from spiking a little fever yesterday. It was only 99.5 degrees, but I could tell she was working up a fever even when her temp was reading at 98.3 and then 98.7. Isn’t that weird? I was saying all afternoon that she felt warmer than usual. Maybe she takes after her mama and runs a low body temperature. She was fine today though, fever-wise, though she slept through most of the day. She did cough out her tube 3 different times and also yanked it off once, tape and all. Baby: 4. Repogle: 0.

In the afternoon. Leah woke up to visit with her Mama’s bestie, Auntie Z, while Mama played outside with Z’s baby RyRy. The plan had been for Gran to watch RyRy while Z visited with Leah and me, but I got a phone call this morning from the ER downstairs informing me that Ms. Gran had fallen and potentially broken her wrist. Oh no! As it turns out, yes, Gran has an impacted fracture in her wrist. They had to put her arm in some sort of torture device to straighten it out for splinting. Owwwwww.

There is a really long hallway on the way upstairs to PICU, and I always joke that I really want to roller-skate down that hallway. Many folks respond that they would probably break a bone if they tried, and I point out that if you have to fall, what better place than a hospital hallway where you’re already 50 feet from the emergency room? But dear Gran, I didn’t ask for a volunteer demonstration!! We are very glad it was just the wrist and not something bigger and more serious, but it still completely sucks and we hope it heals quickly and that they don’t need to operate. Feel better soon!!!

Auntie Z holds BabyBug for the first time!

Not too much to update, so I’ll mostly throw pictures at you. We had Gran stay with Leah on Friday so we could take a much-needed Mama Day, including a trip to the beach for our own little Tashlich, a Jewish custom performed during the High Holy Days. I can’t wait until we can bring Leah to see the ocean! She will be a great sand-castle architect. I just know it.

I spent Friday night and most of Saturday at Yom Kippur services, so I’ve been missing my BabyBug like crazy this weekend, even though I spent hours and hours with her after services yesterday. I’m running a BabyBug deficit. Need to balance that out with my sleep deficit. Today was better, though.

Like I said, there are not really any new updates for BabyBug. She’s growing, and her g-tube site is starting to look better. The tube is still clogging plenty, and she is still hacking up spitballs almost every day. Lately she has taken to coughing during her meals. It’s the oddest thing. We think perhaps she is salivating more from smelling the milk… but I’m also wondering if it’s possible that she’s experiencing reflux and some sort of muscle reflex is being triggered to make her cough or gag even though there is no connection between her stomach and her esophagus that would allow her to spit up.

In Mama news… I have my surgery a week from tomorrow. Keeping fingers crossed that it helps. 

Quite possibly the cutest SleepyBug yet.

This is what happens when our nurse puts a towel over our hair so we don’t get cold while we’re getting dressed. Hehe.

I had to tear myself away from this face yesterday morning to go to Yom Kippur services. With all of my health issues I’ve been ordered by my doc not to fast completely, but I managed to get through the holiday on one bottle of Ensure. But hey – I’ve had days where I consumed less (if you deduct calories up’n’out from calories in…) :-/

Mandy sent this photo to me while I was away. She made this dress!

Leah’s friends Jess and Wesley, who visited this past week. Who knew it was possible to get Leah to look at the camera at the same time as everyone else in the photo?

Working hard to hold our neck up to explore the tummy-time mat that  Jess and Wesley brought for her.

“OH HAI! LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!”

“Forget this! I’ll just eat my arm.”

Leah got all dressed up for a visit from her friends Linda and Eden this evening. She fell asleep pretty quickly, though, so we didn’t get a picture. 🙁 Next time!

Precious kiddo

Just a flash of cranky from Empress Baby. “Change my diaper!” “Feed me nummies!” “Flush my tube!” “Fan me with palm fronds!”

“ExCUSE me?” Our child can already raise a single eyebrow. This girl has ATTITUDE.

“You are a welcoming back from the ocean”

Tired Mommies

Mandy getting ready to rinse off seashells. She cleaned them and used them to make a little rattle for BabyBug. If we can’t bring her to the ocean we’ll bring the ocean to her!

As above, so below

Mandy’s masterpiece.

Today, Aunti Staci came to visit along with her childhood friend Sharona (above). Mama Lisa babysat for her a few times!

Later, we practiced visual tracking the 21st-century way – by taking selfies.

Never mind. THIS is the sweetest SleepyBug ever.

BabyBug can-can do the can-can. Then, she can-can have a poopsplosion, necessitating a bath and costume change.

“Tra la la, it’s my first time in a real bath tub!”

“You’re going to post this photo where? Now wait just one minute!”

“This hair! I will, I will, I WILL have my revenge!”

Humiliating hair right before it got fixed… but not before the next photo happened.

“MOMMY! This is  no better!”

Sitting up on our awesome new quilt from Kyra & Mike

Laying down on our awesome new quilt from Kyra and Mike

The tail end of a tantrum on our awesome new quilt from Kyra and Mike

It was a silver nitrate kind of day. Fine for the first half and screamy for the second half. BabyBug had to have Tylenol to help with the pain, which seemed to get worse after a couple of hours. But once the Tylenol kicked in she actually smiled a couple of times while I was holding her. Little twitchy smiles. In the transition from screaming to calm she had been practicing her teenager faces – one eyebrow raised, scowl, pout, eye roll. Her tube also clogged multiple times today and they did deep suctioning in her nose and mouth twice (where they stick a catheter down and suction out what’s accumulated there). Bunch of spit balls too.

Now the little Bug is in her crib, WIDE awake and talking / snorting to herself. Every once in a while I hear a little “aye” coming from her direction. That’s her favorite syllable. “Aye.” Perhaps she is working up to “oy vey.”

Tubeless bebe!!!!