Another catch-up post – stories along with their corresponding photos.

The many faces of physical therapy: Pissy Baby and Proud Baby

The many faces of physical therapy: Flying Baby and Melty Baby

Dinner at our cousins BB&E’s house – random sweet babyfaces

Leah got this awesome blanket from Lovies 4 Littles – I had forgotten that I requested one, and then suddenly it showed up just in time for Leah’s birthday and Mother’s Day. SO awesome!!!

Mandy’s brother and his family came over to visit and celebrate a belated BabyBugBirthday and an early Mother’s Day with Gran.

Leah is doing a better and better job at sitting up!

Sitting at the table like a big girl!

Our first Mother’s Day outside the hospital! Our whole family met up – grandparents, siblings, parents, a few cousins, my great-aunt and aunt – and celebrated together. Love the family!

We love Grandpa Bill! Leah was throwing up the entire ride out to brunch (hence the shoulder diaper pictured in nearly every photo) but Grandpa Bill makes it all better.

After brunch, Mama, Mommy and Baby went for a walk on the beach! Leah LOVES the wind in her hair.

Practicing our Dainty Ballerina moves.

Practicing our Zombie Ballerina moves.

Practicing our Melty Ballerina moves. What an exhausting Mother’s Day!

Modeling our awesome new blanket.

One of Leah’s Instagram friends made this sweet collage for her birthday. <3

We love our Aunti Staci. Her hair is delicious.

Sharing a moment with Jeepers Creepers. He is her guard-cat lately. I’m thinking he watches out for her because he REALLY likes her toys and vibrating chairs.

Another moment with Jeepers.

Just because. Because this face.

This face again.

And then, you know, THIS face. PONY FACE.

PonyGram

Proud Baby!

Mmmmm. It tastes blue.

Mandy sings in a choir, and Leah and I spent the afternoon at her dress rehearsal. Leah was SO good during the actual show – I only had to take her out one time, and she really wasn’t actually making noise, but it was during the “In Memoriam” section so I didn’t want to risk it. She slept through the rest of the show.

My favorite moment during the dress rehearsal happened while Leah was watching the ASL interpreter. She was hypnotized by the movement of the signing, and you could tell she was fascinated – until somebody walked by with a bunch of colored balloons. Then the ASL interpreter didn’t exist. Leah tracked those balloons all the way up the aisle and out the back door.

This happened twice. At least we know the kid has great visual tracking.

Sweetie Pie.

Leah’s GI ordered an esophagram because Leah had been experiencing so much vomiting in recent weeks – it was getting pretty ridiculous. And messy. So he ordered an esophagram. This sweet baby fell asleep on the x-ray table. Precious doll.

The next day we started hearing the gurgling that signaled to us that her diaphragmatic hernia might be back. If only it had started on this day, we could have simply watched the contrast as it moved further down into her digestive tract. But because they were only looking at the esophagus, they stopped when the contrast left her stomach, and it would be another few weeks before we had confirmation of what we were dealing with.

I think I’ve already filled you in on the circumstances surrounding the return of her hernia. I was convinced from day one that it was back due to the gurgling, and shared my concerns with Mandy when she got home. It didn’t take much convincing – it was obvious that something was out of place; you could hear rumbling and gurgling in the kid’s chest. That shouldn’t be there. It took another week or so before we were able to get this confirmed by her doctors. The esophagram was on a Monday. The gurgling started on Tuesday. Leah’s checkup with her primary was on Thursday, at which point they did a chest x-ray. That’s when they found the bit of pneumonia brewing, but did not see the hernia. We saw her GI the following Tuesday, and they were able to get her in for an upper GI study that Thursday. The radiologist saw the hernia before he even started with the contrast (which he did ultimately do so he could get better pictures). He looked at the very first image and said, “There it is.” A week and a day later Leah was in the OR having her second hernia repair. And I think I’m repeating prior blogs at this point, so I’ll defer to those longer posts and carry on with the photoblasting.

Leah got this sweet ladybug toy from the Awesome Kids Foundation. Thank you! She loves it!

Another awesome and sweet gift from The Butterfly Fund. Such a nice surprise to receive this Pillow Pet from Leah’s wish list. I swear, Leah knew that it was for her as soon as I took it out of the box. She actually smiled at it from across the room. I’ve never seen her respond so immediately and without prompting.

I couldn’t resist making a little collage.

Another kitty moment. A few days later, our other cat, Lobo, somehow managed to sneak into Leah’s room. He was on the rocking chair in there and Mandy couldn’t get him to move – so she put Leah down near him and let Leah grab at his fur and ears – basically sicced the baby on the cat. It actually took a significant chunk of time before Lobo got annoyed enough to leave the room. I’m surprised and impressed at his endurance. It’s not that Leah actually hurts the kitties – but she does like to grab hair, and she does like to grab at the root. For the kitties this translates to squeezing handfuls of fur over and over again.

Leah loves her new chair, a birthday present from Gran! Can’t remember if we’ve posted a pic before. Her physical therapist recommended it when I asked about a chair that she could use so that she could spent more time sitting up instead of reclining in her bouncy chair, which is, you know, kinda for babies. 😉 In this chair Leah can sit upright and play with toys on the tray in front of her.

This is Leah’s new favorite chew toy. “What, Mama? Don’t bite my tubie? Don’t do THIS?”

We typically don’t let Leah watch television, but our favorite band in the whole wide world, Raining Jane, was playing with Jason Mraz on American Idol, so we had to let Leah watch with us when we watched the recording.

Raining Jane received the Foot-Nom of Approval. Congrats, ladies!

Yeah. It’s a problem. But it’s better than her pulling out the g-tube itself, which we work soooooo hard to avoid.

Mama-Baby Sillie Selfie Time!

Goofy Baby, Outfit #2 (seriously, this kid was projectile-vomiting multiple times a day for days on end.)

Goofy Baby, Outfit #3! Mommy was out of town at a work conference so Aunti Staci stayed over to help, and help is exactly what we needed, because Leah required a minimum of three costume changes on this day. Poor spewing kiddo.

Back on the table for the upper GI. Yucky ducky radioactive goo in our belly!

Guard-kitty stationed at his vibrating chair – and yeah, okay, also guarding the baby in the chair.

We got to the point where we had to just keep a bib on her to avoid going through her whole wardrobe with all of the spewing episodes. “But are you for real with this flower headband???”

Hey, sitting AND holding the necklace with both hands? That takes coordination!

Aaaaand that’s the month of May!

ALMOST!

I’ll do a separate post for LeahBug’s May 31 baby naming / birthday party – stay tuned!