Rainy yet Fun Weekend at the Lake!

I was fortunate enough to get cancelled from work on Thursday so Peyton and I packed up our things, loaded the car, and headed to the lake house where my parents, sister, neice, brother, his girlfriend, some of of my brother's friends, and my parents' four dogs - Murphy, Gunner, Luke, and Boone - were waiting for us. Brad had to work Friday, but joined us Friday afternoon after he was able to take a half day (yay!). I was so looking forward to sitting out on the dock, chatting with everyone, introducing Peyton to the lake water, and sipping on afternoon cocktails.

It rained the ENTIRE time we were there, with the exception of an hour on Friday afternoon. Ugh!

But still, we were able to all have a great time hanging out and relaxing. Peyton is really, really using her voice when she feels like no one is paying her enough attention. I swear, while sitting on the porch (which is covered thank goodness so we weren't stuck inside the entire time), Peyton would holler and her voice carried so far with the water's help. But she is too adorable to scold! She really is trying to talk, and will have conversations with you. I can't wait till she really talks! I am so curious to see what she thinks and talks about. It won't be much longer!

The adults minus my parents stayed up late every night playing drinking games and let's just say us older folks (me, Clare, and Brad) could not keep up with the college kids. Anyways, it was a great time and I was sad that Brad, Peyton, and I had to leave today since I have to work tomorrow. That's one thing I hate about working in a hospital - we are never closed!

Ok, side note. Peyton has been either early or right on track as far as acheiving her milestones. In fact, she has actually been early for all of them except rolling over (which is my fault since I never put her on her belly). But we are really, really struggling with finger foods/solids. She is eating stage 2 foods perfectly, but when Brad and I try to give her crackers, cheese puffs, even cut up bananas, Peyton ends up choking and throwing up. She now has had two major choking episodes that have scared the hell out of us. Thank goodness I work with babies because I am required to be certified in infant CPR and choking rescue and we do training seminars yearly. I have always had a big fear about babies choking. When I would babysit, I would always break out in a sweat if I had to feed the infant/toddler. Anyways, I am concerned with the fact that Peyton cannot eat any solids, even mashed up bananas! I have tried several different snacks (all approved for her age), and she has choked every time! I now will not allow anyone feed her any solids unless I am present because I've had to use choking rescue on her twice. Peyton has her 9 month appointment soon so I am planning on discussing this with the pediatrician.

Alrighty, I have rambled. Time for sleep!

My Little Chunky Monkey!

I swear, you would think all I do is feed this sweet child! These are even after a week of not eating as much as she usually does!

Inside voice, please

Peyton definitely has discovered her voice. She now hollers for any and every reason possible, and then some. And she has developed this thing called 'talking back' which I am so not happy about. It goes something like this:

Peyton: (hollering)

Me: Peyton, can you please use your inside voice?

Peyton: muh ya

Me: Are you talking back to me?

Peyton: ahh yoo

Me: That isn't very nice Peyton.

Peyton: muuuu yah yeh

Me: You are going to make me have grey hair soon aren't you?

Peyton: (smiles and giggles)

Me: I knew it.

I am not ready for this sassy side of Peyton. I can't really complain though because she has been such a model baby and we have had no problems with her at all, but I am just not ready for all of this hollering and talking back thing. I guess it is a way of preparing me for the terrible twos and the teenage years. Ahhhhhh.

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!