Our big girl

Our first pigtails now that our hair is long enough.  She loves them and says "fancy!"

We also tried a pony tail but her  hair tends to fall out on the sides.  Might wait a bit more for a try again at the ponytail but she was so excited with it!

Capturing the newborn phase before it's gone!

E at one month old.  All photos courtesy of Kari Campos Photography

So peaceful - looks like she's sleeping on a cloud!

This might be my favorite one - love those lips!

There weren't plans for me to be in the pics, but sometimes comforting a pooped out little girl is a photo moment!

D thinks she looks like an oreo here.  Tasty!

Endocrinologist appointment today

Today we met with the pediatric endocrinologist for a follow-up appointment and she was incredibly happy with E's blood sugar readings over the past 3 weeks which have almost all been over 100.  A typical infant's blood sugars are somewhere between 70 and 100 so she's doing very well.  They want her to stay on the same dose of medicine (.15ml three times/day) but this is a weight based dosage and she's now up to 8 pounds 9 ounces.  When they started her on the medicine in the NICU, she was under 6 pounds so in a sense she's growing herself out of the medicine.  As she continues to get bigger, they want us to closely watch her sugars to make sure her readings are good because the dosage from this point forward is under a typical therapeutic amount.

The genetic testing results came back but the doctor didn't have time to review them closely before our appointment.  There seems to be a slight genetic mutation she said but it's not a big one and could just be a fluke.  This is her assessment after minimal time to review.  She wants to look at them more closely, review the information with a colleague in genetics and will call us with further information next week.

We have another follow-up appointment scheduled on Sept 20th.  Overall we left feeling good and were happy to hear the doctor say how well she is responding to the medicine and basically how surprised she was that her blood sugar numbers were so good/high.  In the past week they have all been over 100 with the highest being 166.  If any go above 170, we need to call because that is too high - oh what a problem that would be!

Thanks for all who followed up with us on this appointment and we'll keep you posted as she progresses.

From the archives of the camera

I've been so used to taking pictures with my phone and being able to instantly upload that I forgot we had pictures on our digital camera. Found this one from Memorial Day at the lake house and it was so cute to not share! Thanks Grammy for the cute flag t-shirts and hair bows!

Who's who?

Today El was sleeping in the bouncy chair in a Carter's watermelon outfit and I realized I had a picture of K in the exact same outfit and sleeping in the bouncy. I tried to recreate the picture and made them both black and white since the colors were a bit different. Can you tell who is who? Do you think they look alike? Take a guess in the comments by stating who is in the top picture and who is in the bottom.

Top:
















Bottom:

Happy One Month Day!

Meeting cousin L

This past weekend J, T and L came down to see E and the best part they brought brunch - food is a great gift these days! Cousin L got to hold E and meet her for the first time. She was so sweet with her and had said to her mom when she found out E was coming home from the hospital that "Aunt E will be so happy." What a perceptive little lady!


K and L are very good friends being that they are really only 8 months apart in age. They had a fun pool party on our patio on a very hot day. Can you tell they like each other a little bit?

Firsts for El

We have been home just over a week and we are very much enjoying having E home with us! K is fascinated with her new sister but we're not quite sure she realizes she's a person and not a doll. She wants to spend all her time with her and has given us some challenges about not wanting to go to bed or down for a nap for fear she'll miss something. She has been getting better though the past few days which is helpful.

Since being in the NICU for two weeks, we did miss out on giving E her first bath and a few other things, but we made up for lost time as you can see.


Cuddling with my mama



Relaxing in the bouncy - a tiny peaceful moment when K isn't trying to pick her up and take her out of the chair.


Sleeping during my first stroll around the neighborhood.


First bath at home!



Her blood sugar readings this past week have been really strong and the endocrinology nurse I spoke to on Monday shared the results with the doctor and they were very happy with the results. Her readings have been over 100 which are great numbers so we hope to keep it up! Our in person follow up appointment with the pediatric endocrinologist is the middle of August so hopefully we can get more information about the type of HI she has and possibly how long she might have it for. We are still hoping this is only temporary and she will grow out of it with age sooner rather than later.