Random Pictures!

Peyton riding the horsey with my dad's help!

The happiest baby in the world!



Loving her bath time

Me smooching on my sweet baby girl!

Sweet baby

Loves to eat!

Loving the horsey!

Happy Mother's Day!

My first Mother's Day was fantastic! I woke up at 10 am (yay for sleeping in!) to Peyton and Brad bringing me GORGEOUS flowers and breakfast in bed. I gave them lots of hugs and kisses for the sweet gestures, that was so nice of them to do that for me. Then we all ate breakfast, watched tv for awhile, and decided to take a nap. I slept from 12-2:30! I haven't slept this much in forever! Totally loved it. And it was storming outside too, which made snuggling in bed even better.

Tonight Brad, Peyton, and I went over to my parents' house to enjoy a nice Mother's Day dinner with my parents, sister Clare and her daughter Evans, and my brother Taylor who is home from UA. I love when we are all able to get together and hang out. Evans is so great with Peyton and Peyton loves playing with her cousin! Dinner was fantastic and we all sat around and caught up on Taylor's love life, which seems to be the topic of discussion any time he is home. I am sure he loves that, but oh well. Tough love.

Oh, I forgot to tell you all what else Brad got me for Mother's Day! I got two pair of beautiful earrings (one pair made by a local artist that I love), a funky bracelet (love funky jewelry), and a brand new computer! I definitely needed a new computer and he picked out a perfect one for me. It's even pink! This whole having a daughter thing has brought out the girlie side of me; who knew it even existed! I even have a pair of pink gym shorts now. Holy cow, Katie is wearing pink.

But anyways, Brad did GREAT for Mother's Day. All day he pulled me aside and wished me a happy mother's day and told me that I am a great mom. I really appreciated that because I have often questioned if I am a good mom. I have had trouble connecting with Peyton. I think it is because of the job I have and working with the premature and sick babies and knowing that they can pass at any time and I have to distance myself. I have gotten attached to several babies at work and then watched them pass away; it truly breaks my heart every time. But I will admit, it seems like the past few weeks I really have connected with her and I feel like we truly have bonded now. I am so relieved by this and I TRULY absolutely love being a mom. I cannot wait to have more. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before Peyton has a little sister or brother!

Happy Mother's Day!

Pictures

This is the best her eyes have looked in the past 48 hours. HUGE improvement, yay medicines!

The hemorrhagic virus that makes her eyes bleed, poor baby!

I am so impressed with how much better she looks.

And she is feeling better too, yay!

Brief recap of yesterday

Peyton has been sick with a cold the past few days. Wednesday morning, she woke up happy and content. I attempted to feed her baby food and she refused to eat. I wasn't overly concerned with this since she hasn't been eating well with her cold, who does? I gave her a bottle and then off to the gym we went. I dropped her off at the child care and told them to come get me if she was fussy. Worked out for an hour and half and went to go get Peyton. Two of the staff members were huddled around Peyton and they told me that she really wasn't feeling well. I thanked them and put Peyton in her pumpkin seat so we could head home and I could evaluate her and try to make her feel better. While putting her in the car, I got a close up of Peyton's face and she had massive amounts of drainage coming from her eyes and her eyes were a little bit swollen. Again, wasn't overly concerned about this; thought maybe it could be from allergies and I would clean her eyes with a warm wash cloth when got home. We got home and it was VERY obvious Peyton did not feel well. Peyton is incredibly active and cannot sit still more than 30 seconds, even in her sleep. When we got home, she laid down on my chest for FOUR hours barely moving. She has never been a cuddler (which drives me nuts, I want her to cuddle with her moma!), but yesterday she laid down and just wouldn't let go and did not want to move. She occasionally cried out with this weak, absolutely pathetic cry; it broke my heart. Around noon, I asked Brad to call the pediatrician to get an appointment for Peyton. She got an appointment at 4:15. My mom met us at the pediatrician and took one look at Peyton and broke down. Peyton, who is ALWAYS happy and cheery, was very lethargic, had copious amount of drainage, and her eyes were now almost swollen shut. We went back to the room and the pediatrician took one look at her and said 'wow'. After she evaluated Peyton, she concluded that Peyton had a sinus infection, a cold, and a slight chest cold and prescribed her with oral and eye antibiotics. I was satisfied and stopped by the pharmacy on the way home to pick up her meds.

We got home around 5:30, right when Brad did. The poor man nearly broke down in tears as soon as he saw Peyton; she just looked miserable. We spent the night taking care of her and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. The swelling was getting worse and so was the drainage. Around 8:30 last night, I tried to put in her eye drops. When I attempted to open her now swollen shut eyes, bloody drainage came out. Instantly Brad and I were scared. I called the pediatrician on-call and she said go straight to the ER. At this point, I got nervous. So we packed her things up, made a few bottles, and headed to The Children's Hospital ER. Of course because of the swine flu scare, the ER was overflowing with kids. We took the last two seats in the waiting room and this is a very large waiting room. I was sure we would be there for at least 4 hours before being seen by the doctors. Surprisingly, about 10 minutes of turning in her paperwork, we were called back. That's right folks, we were in the children's ER waiting room for 25 minutes. Holy Cow. We definitely got some mean looks from other parents while walking back. Well when they took one look at Peyton, they immediately said sorry and felt bad for my sweet baby Peyton.

We saw several doctors who were all very impressed with Peyton's swelling and said it was the worst they had ever seen. When they were able to pry her eyes open, I was able to get a look. Her eyes are completely bloody - the white part of the eyes were red and the inside of her lids were bloody and draining blood. Poor Peyton! So Peyton got a shot of antibiotics, a dose of Benadryl (which I did not know babies could receive at 8 months), and new oral antibiotics. While we were there, the attending (top medical doctor) called over to the Eye Foundation, at MIDNIGHT I might add, to talk to an eye specialist about Peyton's symptoms. We ended up getting an appointment at the eye foundation Thursday morning (today). After that, they discharged us with instructions and after four hours of seeing doctors and running tests, we were on our way home at 2 am.
Peyton had an appointment with a Dr. Hein, who I found out to be our eye specialist in the NICU who comes to check out all of our premature babies for ROP (retinopathy of prematurity). He examined Peyton, did some tests, checked with his partners, and decided that Peyton has both a viral and bacterial infection of her eyes and sinuses. The virus happens to be hemorrhagic which is why Peyton's eyes are bleeding (think of Dustin Hoffman's moving "Outbreak" depicting the Ebola virus outbreak in the U.S.).
So, today Peyton's eyes are looking better. She can actually open them which is good, but it is kind of scary to look at since they are bloody. But she is definitely feeling better. She is playing with her toys and ate some food today. So now, we finish all of her medicines, take her back to the eye specialist Tuesday, and pray that she feels better soon! But I will admit, I was incredibly impressed and so proud of how strong and good Peyton was throughout this whole ordeal. Way to go sweetie!

What a day!

Alrighty, I have a few minutes to myself. Score! (from 'Friends' show... anyone?)

Lauren Havard is in town for a conference and gets to visit with her 'neice' Peyton! Now it's time for the rest of Peyton's Sewanee Aunts to come visit! It is so nice seeing Lauren. It is crazy how much I miss my Sewanee friends, but hopefully a lot of us will be able to get together soon in June to celebrate Hannah's entry into marriage-hood. I am counting on some serious partying and gossiping and catching up people!

Peyton is doing well. Gone are the days that I can put her down and do some chores around the house. She has finally mastered crawling (with her gimp leg style) and she is moving around FAST. I put her down, turn my back for a second, and then look back and she is across the room. Speed demon, good lord. But I am proud of her figuring out the crawling mechanism and becoming such a big girl! She still is a VERY happy baby. Loves to play with anyone and everyone. She does get shy sometimes when she meets new people but then instantly warms up to strangers and wants to play! Too cute. Now, I acknowledge she is the perfect baby and Brad and I have been blessed, but Peyton is learning how to get what she wants when she wants. She is learning that when she cries she gets our attention immediately and Brad and I hurry and do anything and everything to make her happy again. I am starting to learn her 'fake' cry and filter it out from the rest of her cries - sleepy cry, fussy cry, hungry cry, bashed-her-head-into-something cry, and her boredom cry. But thankfully, Peyton is easily entertained and she loves hanging out with people. When I drop her off at the child care at the gym, she gets so excited about watching the big kids running around and playing. She starts to squeal sometimes, it's adorable.

ANYWAYS, I believe it is time for her Sewanee aunts to come pay a visit and meet their neice!
Okie dokie, she is awake.

OH, quick funny story. Earlier this afternoon, I decided to go for a walk with Peyton since I didn't go work out this morning. So here I am walking around, pushing Peyton in her stroller when I decide that it is too sunny and Peyton is going to get fried (again). So I reached down to pull her blanket over her (she was asleep at this point) and guess what? Blanket is gone. Somehow Peyton kicked off the blanket and it fell off without me even knowing. So I had to go back and retrace my steps to find my blanket. I finally found it. In front of a construction zone and lots of men working. They laughed when I picked up the blanket and ran off.

On Saturday there was an Easter egg hunt followed by hours of entertainment at the park next to my house. I invited Clare and Evans to go with me and Peyton to see how it was. They arrived late and poor Evans only got 6 eggs (my awesome neighbors had their two sons donate some eggs to Evans, so sweet!). After the hunt, Evans went around and rode the carousel, jumped in the huge moonwalk, and rode on the mini roller coaster. Clare and I attempted to get a picture of the girls with the Easter bunny which turned out to be disasterous. I will try to see if I can post the pic, but it was not a pretty sight. It turned out to be a gorgeous day, in the mid 70s with lots of sun. Well both Evans and Peyton ended up getting sunburned. Poor Peyton got her first sunburn at 7 months old. Her arms and face got fried. Whoops. I tried to take pics of the sunburn this morning but little miss Peyton decided she wasn't going to sit still long enough for mommy to take a picture. Peyton may be the happiest baby, but boy she does not sit still. I swear, she will be on adderal and ritalin before she hits 1st grade.
Since she is so fiesty and loses interest in toys quickly, I decided to go to babies r us to find something she can play with and pull herself up on. I found this awesome toy and she loves it. I will have to post pictures because I cannot in any way describe the thing to you. But she loves it, especially when the monkey giggles. She did some major belly laughing today and I absolutely love that sound.
Friday afternoon while at work I got a call from Brad saying that he was about to leave work and go pick up Peyton. The babysitter had called him and said that Peyton was inconsolable and really pulling at her ears. Then I immediately thought that an ear infection could explain why she was waking up every two hours at night. So he headed over to the pediatrician with Peyton to get her checked out. Turns out she does not have an ear infection but she is seriously teething. Also she has an infection of her skin on her head (she has ring worm and has had it for awhile - it's not a worm, but a fungal infection. It's embarrassing to tell people this because of the misconceptions associated with the term Ringworm). So she now will be on antifungal again, but this time for 8 weeks. If it doesn't clear up by then, they are going to do blood work and see if it is something else. I have been putting cortaid on her scalp every night and she has already been on a course of antifungal. I have scrubbed everything she comes in contact with to get rid of the source. I still have no clue where she got it from and while she still has it. Anyways, she has two bottom teeth and usually the two top ones come next, but it seems that two more lower ones are coming in. Weird. So we are loading her up with Motrin and providing lots of teething toys. Hopefully the teeth will come in quickly and we can get past it. She weighed 18 pounds at that visit, goodness! But actually she had only gained a few ounces since her last visit which surprised me since she has always gained weight quickly. I'm thinking she might have lost a little bit of weight since she hasn't been eating as much due to teething. But she is still super healthy and a happy baby.

Brad (left) when he was a toddler, what a cutie!

I am finally on day shift at the hospital! So now I work from 7:30 am to 8:00 pm three days a week, which is so nice since I get to come home and eat dinner with Brad and tuck Peyton in bed for the night. I absolutely love my new schedule! Also, working three days a week is awesome because now I truly have 4 days off instead of using those off days to catch up on sleep like I had to when working night shift. Perfect!

Peyton is just doing so incredibly well. My entire family - mom, dad, sister, neice - in addition to me, Brad, and Peyton were all very sick two weeks ago with some kind of viral infection. We were all miserable, and Brad, Peyton, and I still have colds. Poor Peyton has two new teeth and with a nasty cold, she is just miserable sometimes! But she is a trooper, especially when I have to suction out her nose to get all the goop out. Poor thing! However, Brad and I are so proud of her for having two teeth and she's not even 6 months yet!

Peyton's six month appointment is on February 27th, which so happens to be her six-month birthday. I am extremely curious to see how much she weighs now; I believe she weighed 15 pounds at her 4 month appointment (I will have to go look it up in her baby book). I am nervous about the six month immunizations since hearing about poor Frances having febrile seizures after she got her shots. Scary, scary. Some of the babies at work have had severe reactions to their immunizations but I believe this is because they are still very small and getting all those shots at once can really overload their bodies. So now, if it is time for a baby to receive his/her two or four month immunizations, we give two one day, and give the other two a few days later. Anyways, I always worry about Peyton getting her immunizations but so far she has handled them quite well, especially with the help of baby Tylenol.

So far Peyton's achievements are: sitting up by herself for long periods of time (and not in the tripod position anymore), grasping toys and objects well with both hands and transferring objects from one hand to the other, learning how to manipulate toys to make sounds, going from laying down to sitting up all by herself, having two teeth, and jumping for 30 minutes to an hour in her exersaucer. She loves her exersaucer! Peyton is also obsessed with her baby Einstein videos. In fact, she gets grumpy when she isn't able to watch at least one or two shows a day. Good lord, the girl is addicted. Peyton has rolled over a few times, but not for me! She has done it for my mom, my sister, and Brad. I am so upset that I haven't seen her do it yet. And trust me, I have tried to get her to do it for me but Peyton seriously does not like being on her stomach for more than 30 seconds. She much rather be sitting up and looking around. I am worried that she is developmentally behind on the rolling over thing, but seeing her sit up by herself for very long periods of time reassures me that she is absolutely perfect!

Peyton may be the spitting image of her daddy, but she does demonstrate one trait that is all me: she has to have a blanket covering her face when she sleeps. Growing up, I always had to have my blanket touching my face. In fact, sadly, to this very day I still sleep with my blanket. One day I will pass it down to Peyton but I am not quite ready to do that. Instead, my grandmother has made Peyton a beautiful blanket (like she did for me) she sleeps with that. I love seeing her pull her blanket over her face when she is falling asleep. It is just too cute!

Peyton sleeping with blankets over her face (actually, with my blanket since all of hers were in the wash). And yes, she covered her face by herself.


All bundled up for a walk!

The sweetest little girl ever!

Loving the carrots!