Eli is 6!

Ok, its just crazy that our Eli is 6 already! On this day, 6 years ago, Eli came into this world at 5:45 a.m. weighing 7 lbs 11 oz, and was 20 3/4 in long, and was perfect (of course)! He has changed our lives, for the good, in SO many ways! What a blessing he is! Now our Eli loves sports, and I mean LOVES sports! He basically eats, breaths, and sleeps sports lol. Which reminds me so much of my brother, and from what I am told Ross was the same way too lol. He also loves Ninja Turtles, playing with his siblings, and his cousin, and buddy from school, swimming (he is a little fish), hugging (he seriously gives the best hugs), playing video games, and scotch-a-roos. The little man he is turning out to be amazes me. He can try to push my buttons (which of course, what kid doesnt) but he is such a good kid. He is loving, and for the most part patient with his brother and sister, especially with his sister. We are so proud of him! For his actual birthday we aren't doing anything in particular since we are celebrating his birthday tomorrow (on Saturday) with family! He has requested scotch-a-roos instead of cake, and a Ninja Turtle theme party :) So thats just what we are going to do! Since Eli was 4, I started asking him the same 20 questions on his birthday, so here are this years 20 questions....

1. What is your favorite color? Green

2. What is your favorite toy? Purple ball (Its the only ball he can play in the house with, its SUPER soft and light)

3. What is your favorite fruit? Banana

4. What is your favorite tv show? Rabbids

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Ramon noodles (he does not eat those much)

6. What is your favorite outfit? Ninja Turtle shirt

7. What is your favorite game? Donkey Kong

8. What is your favorite snack? Fruit snacks

9. What is your favorite animal? A Lion

10. What is your favorite song? In the Summer

11. What is your favorite book? Drummer Hoff

12. Who is your best friend? Cousin Ben

13.What is your favorite cereal? Peanut Butter Captin Crunch

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Swimming in the pool

15. What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas 

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Water

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Sandwhich

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pizza

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Be a doctor

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! We love you more than you'll ever know!!! 

Our baby is one!!!

Awwww our sweet girl is one today!! I really can't believe it! So I will say at 8:40 a.m. a year ago, we got to meet our sweet, chubby, 7 lbs 11 oz baby girl. She was 20 1/2 inches long, with a head full of beautiful black hair. She stole our hearts and took my breath away. I had hoped for a little girl for so long, and here she was in our arms! Now she is one :) I tell you time goes faster and faster the more kids you have. What a year we have had with Elle! There have been some scary times, to absolutely wonderful times! She has made us laugh, and cry (in a good way). She loves her family, pink things, Disney princess things, Her Disney princess little people castle and klipity klop stable, any kind of food mommy is eating, ice cream, babies, the movie Frozen, and the Frozen soundtrack, playing outside, swimming/playing in the water, bath time, feeding herself, swinging, helping mommy with laundry (especially diaper laundry), and giving us kisses. What an absolute joy and blessing she is! Man she is a onion (meaning she makes my eyes water with her cuteness and love).

What a bitter/sweet milestone this is for me.....no more "babies" (even though all my kids will be my babies, even when they are 45). We had her Disney Princess birthday party yesterday and what a fun time we had! We (me, and the kids) have been battling a cold, so Elle was pretty miserable sounding, but made the best of it, and enjoyed most of her party (as long as mommy had her). We had lots of fun with family, and friends, and I had so much decorating her party!

Today for her actual birthday we are celebrating hers, Eli's, my dads (cause it is his birthday today too), and Ross' birthday's with my dad, his girlfriend Jamie, and my brother D. A great day to spend at home. Love you baby girl! Happy Birthday!!

                                                       Only 2 days old at the hospital

One week old photo shoot

First photo as a family of 5!

                                                                      3 months old

                                                                     6 months old

9 months old

                                                             At her birthday party :)

Our last appointments in Ann Arbor

I have been meaning to do a blog of how Elle's appointments went at Mott's at the end of May, and it went good! Our first appt was with the ENT. The purpose of this appt was to do a hearing test, and to talk about if we should do tubes or not during the surgery (even though we already said we are doing tubes no matter what, with Elle's history of ear infections).

So we went into a sound proof room, with two little tv screens in the front corners of the room and below the tvs was a puppet and lights, and there was a large window for the doctor doing the test, to see Elle. So I had Elle on my lap, in a chair, and the doctor doing the test had a head set on with a microphone and would make a noise out of one side of the speaker, and if Elle would look over to that side where the sound was coming out from, she would then light up the puppet and lights, and sometimes the tv. It was hilarious because the very first sound the doctor made Elle looked over to where it was coming from and the turned right around and looked at me like "what. the. heck." LOL. It took all I had to not start laughing hahaha. After we did the hearing test, she also did a test to see if she had fluid in her ears. All they do for that is put little "ear buds" in her ears, and those push a small amount of air on the ear drum and if the ear drum doesn't move much, then that shows them there is fluid behind her ear drum, and if it moves a lot then there isn't fluid behind her ear drum. Now we knew she had a little bit a fluid in her ear all the time with the ear test she had done when she was 2 months old, and from all the ear checks she has had from her doctors office. So after those tests were done we talked with the doctor and were told that she has "minor" hearing loss due to the fluid that is in her ear. She said some days she could have more fluid in her ears then other days, and the days that she has more fluid, she is hearing everything muffled, like being underwater, and the days she has very little fluid she hears more clearly. When I heard her describe that, it kinda bugged/hurt me, because here she is not hearing me/us clearly call an object every time, and this is the age that is so important for development in language. So that being said they said that they would recommend us getting her tubes done. So we got that set up with her cleft surgery. After the ENT appt we met up with the speech therapist and filled out a bunch of questions, and talked with her, and then we seen her surgeon for any last questions we had about the surgery, since this was the last time seeing him before her actual surgery. We also had to go register Elle in the hospital, so she was all set up for Aug. 5th. It was a long day, but everything went good!

I am ready for her surgery, but at the same time, I am not. I am really not looking forward to seeing her go through any of this, but at the same time, I want to get it done with, and move past this, because I know it has to be done. We have known she was going to need surgery since she was born, and this last year, with prayer, and God, I can feel him giving me strength and peace for this event that is coming. Her surgery is less then 3 weeks away, and I have a wave of emotions when I sit and think of it. So I just try not to think too much about it. My mother in-law sent us a video a couple weeks ago, thinking we had saw it (which we hadn't) and I am glad she did. It was really emotional and hard to watch at first, but it has helped prepare me, even more for what to see and expect with Elle. For our friends and family that pray, please keep Elle and us in your prayers, please. Pray for peace, comfort, and patience for whats to come, and pray for her during surgery. I will be posting updates on Facebook, the day of, but your prayers and thoughts are very appreciated! In the mean time we are just enjoying our summer!! Having lots of fun, and getting ready for Elle's and Eli's parties!!

Here is the link, for any of our friends and family, that want to know what Elle will be going through.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?autoplay=1&v=Yi3LWWnEhew&app=desktop

10 months

Elle is 10 months already, and what a busy girl she is now! She is crawling everywhere, which she started about a month and a half ago, and she is fast at it too! She also is pulling her self up on everything and now cruising a long the furniture! She loves to stand. In fact she has been balancing standing (holding on to nothing) for about 15-30 sec at a time. I will be really surprised if she isn't walking by her first birthday. She loves to be moving and seeing everything. I knew she was going to be a happy, happy girl, once she got mobile, because before she was mobile, even after she was born, she never liked to lay down to play, or even lay down to be held (unless she was sleeping). She has always liked to be sitting up, looking at everything she can see. She has always been very curious on what goes on around her. Here are the things she loves now......She loves to dance to the ABC's song (its her favorite), bounce on the trampoline with her brothers, bath time (especially with her brothers),  splashing in the bath tub, yogurt, bananas, oatmeal, help fold laundry, play with her toy kitchen (its her favorite toy), say ma-ma,  play with her brothers, ma-ma snuggles (daddy singles too), and just get into anything she can :)

I thought she was starting to get a tooth, but the little bump I felt, I don't really feel anymore lol. All I know is teeth have to come anytime now. Both of the boys were about 10 months when they got their first tooth, so I am guessing thats about when Elle will get hers, so we will see. I think it is in the process though, she has been chewing on her fingers a lot the last week.

At her 9 month check up Elle weighed 17 lbs 11 oz (28%), 28 1/2 in long (79%), and head circumfrance was 44.1 cm (53%). She just got weighed this past week, while at the doctors office and weighed 18 lbs 9 oz! She is just perfect! She has been battling a ear infection this past month :( Boo for ear infections! She had her last does of Rocephin (antibiotic shot) on Friday, and has another ear check on Wednesday, to make sure the shots did their job. Praying that it did the trick! I think it did, but we will see :) Her doctor said if she gets another one in the next few weeks or right away after this one, we are going to have to talk tubes before her cleft surgery. Which in the beginning I didn't really like the idea of doing that but these last 4 months have been crazy with ear infections, that I hate seeing her battling these darn things, so I am all for, getting the tubes before her surgery if she needs them!

We have appointments with a ENT, speech therapist, and her surgeon on Thursday in Ann Arbor. Last appt with her surgeon before her surgery. We have been slowly working on getting her on her sippy she needs to be on, and she now can do it herself, but what she drinks mostly comes out of her mouth and down her shirt lol. So this next month I plan on really offering it to her with her formula in it, during and in-between meals, and doing her bottle for naps, and bedtime only, and by 11 months no bottle at all (thats the plan at least).

Its unbelievable to me that I need to start thinking first birthday party planning for her already!! It will be a Disney Princess theme and I am not going to lie, I am SO excited to plan it :) But at the same time, I am not rushing it at all!

EP, and this and that

I have been exclusively pumping (EP) for 7 1/2 months now, which is amazing, cause I have EP longer than I nursed my boys, and EP is WAY more work than nursing!! Some days are completely overwhelming, and I feel like I can't do this anymore. Recently I had discovered that all of my frozen milk I had wasn't any good (taste wise) due to lipase, and I had to get rid of all of it! That was SO hard, and I think about if that milk was good, and that never happened, I would so be done pumping right now! I wish it was that easy!

My supply has really dipped and I now have to have some formula in with the breast milk, cause I don't make enough a day for Elle. I thought I might possibly be drying up, which I could slowly be, but for right now I am continuing to pump. I don't feel ready to quit. I think about how long I have been doing this and Elle is almost 8 months old! I have been doing it for 8 months, what is 4 more!? I know it would be different if I was a working mom, but I'm not, I stay home with my kids, so I don't have a good enough excuse to stop doing this! Mainly I know its what is best for Elle, and thats the most important! Plus it is cheaper! It is a hassle, to lug all that crap around when I am away from home, but o well, it is what it is! I just keep telling myself, if I could of breastfed Elle I would of done it till she was a year old, so why is this any different.

I have used since the beginning, a madella hands free pumping bra, and I have to say that I LOVE that thing! I highly recommend it to any mom that is going to be doing a lot of pumping or EP. I know that thing has helped me get as far as I have! There have been times that I have pumped, ate, and fed Elle all at the same time! LOL! Take that multi-tasking! I think of how it may be challenging when Elle gets mobile, but I can just put a gate up and keep Elle in the living room with me while I pump for 20 min.

This last month Elle fractured her left tibia. I had an accident on the steps and thats what caused the fractured tibia. Poor baby! I was heart broken. But her cast is off and we have moved on! YAY! Those 3 weeks of having a splint/cast on went by fast which I knew they would. Thankful that babies heal so fast and she didn't need it on any longer. Elle is saying momma, which I LOVE!! She asks for me all the time! And she can army crawl short distances, and rolls all over the place. She is eating all sorts of baby food! Chicken, and yogurt is a new one, which she is still trying to decide if she likes yogurt lol. Takes 3 naps a day, and is waking up 1 time a night! She is such an easy baby! Goes with the flow. I just can't believe she is almost 8 months old!! I like to think back to before I was even pregnant and praying for a little girl to complete our family, and God did! O how He has!!

We had Eli's parent teacher conferences last Thursday, and his teacher said that he is the smartest kid in the class. Proud parents we are :) But she did say he is one of the top 3 rambunctious kids in the class. OY! LOL! He is just like Ross was as a kid! So we had a talk with him, and we are hoping he settles down a bit. His teacher did say that a lot of kids are antsy because of this winter we have had! They have not been able to go outside much!

Dom is getting bigger, and mouthier (I think thats a word lol). The other day he was talking back, which is a new thing he is doing, and I told him he needed to stop talking back to me like that, its disrespectful, and he was going to get in big trouble. Of course his response was "I don't need to stop talking back to you." LOL!! O that boy! He is very strong willed and stubborn! But he is such a sweet heart!

Met Elle's Surgeon

Well we met with Elle's surgeon, and it went great! Nice doctor, and I am feeling more and more better with the whole situation. God is just preparing me for this whole thing, and I can feel it! We will be getting a call in the next week to set up an appt with the ENT and Speech therapist because they need to see if Elle should get tubes put in her ears during her surgery. Babies with Cleft pallet don't have fluid drain out of their ears easily because of the muscle back by the tubes don't work very well when you swallow, which causes the fluid to stay in the ear, and then causes ear infections. Knock on wood, Elle has had one ear infection so far (hoping it stays that way!) but since she is already going to be put under anesthesia for her cleft repair, they always do the tubes then if needed.  So we will go to the ENT appt in 3-4 months and see what they recommend doing for tubes. We will also be getting a call I am guessing in the next week to set up Elle's surgery date. The doctor was saying we will be doing it when Elle is around 12 months. Before Elle's surgery she needs to be off of her bottle, and drinking out of a cup, or a special sippy cup (which we have 3 of them for her when the time comes to introduce them to her). They are really cool, never seen them before until I talked with a mom with a child that had cleft pallet and has been through all of this, told me about them (her daughter also went to the same surgeon Elle is going to).  They look like this........ http://www.amazon.com/Philips-AVENT-Natural-Drinking-1-Pack/dp/B006GYLL8Y/ref=pd_cp_ba_3

So the surgeon recommended introducing Elle this cup when she is about 10 months old and slowly getting her off the bottle. Crazy to think that is only 4 months away to start that! We asked him how long the surgery typically takes and he said about 3 hours, thats including pre-opp, surgery, and post-opp. He said that when they take her back for the surgery that don't do the surgery right away. They get her ready. Put gas on her to make her sleepy, get i.v in her and the tubes, then put her under and do the surgery. Thats hard for me to think they will do all that and I won't be there with her to comfort her. Makes me tear up when I really start thinking about it, but I also know that it is for the best that I am not there, cause I know it will be hard for me to see it. I am just praying now, that she doesnt have stranger anxiety, cause that will be really hard for me! So after surgery, the doctor said that we won't be able to see her till she has waken up from anesthesia and is breathing ok, and everything is good. He said that could be 30-40 min till she wakes up, its hard to say. Doctor also said that they will have "no-no's" on her, which is bands that go over her elbows so she doesnt put her hands in her mouth. He said that they will send those home with us, cause she is going to need to have those on for naps, bed time, and not being right by us to supervise hands going in mouth. She will need those for 3-4 weeks. He said that we should be there for one night, thats if everything goes good. Typically one night is all that is needed. Then we go back to see him 2 weeks after surgery, and then back again 4-6 weeks after surgery. Then if everything looks good at that last follow up we won't need to come back till she is 2 1/2-3 for the yearly clinics.

I think thats all that was discussed and I don't think I am forgetting anything. I am hoping that her appt is early August because thats before Eli goes to school, and it would make things a little bit easier during this, but really when ever it is, we make it work! Not that I haven't been praying about it since we found out Elle had cleft, but lots more praying until the surgery date comes.

1/2 a year old!!

Well I can't believe the time has already come that I am writing Elle's 6 month blog post, but it has, so here I am!

Elle is getting so big!! She has a 6 month check up on the the 28th. So we will see how much she weighs! Last appt which was Jan 2nd (her last weight check) she weighed 12 lbs 11.5 oz and if I remember correctly she was 25 1/4 in long! She also has an appt the 23rd at U of M Mott Hospital for her consolation with the doctor that is going to do her surgery. Looking forward to meeting him and seeing what he has to say on what to get ready for, for Elle's surgery. I have been dreading Elle having surgery since we found out she had a cleft pallet. In fact I get choked up. I know sounds silly! They do surgeries for this sort of thing all the time, and we are going to the best place to have it done,  and she is going to be just fine, but its my baby, so thinking of her going through that makes me sad. But I know it is going to be all good. I am slowly getting more at peace with the whole thing, which is answer to prayer.

Elle has been eating baby food along with oatmeal. She loves her oatmeal and seems to like sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, apples, and pears. We are going to try some bananas this week. A week ago we started putting her in her crib at night (cause she was co-sleeping with us and has been doing naps in her crib for awhile) and is doing amazing!! She has made this whole transfer a piece a cake! Especially compared to Dom!! It was not fun making the transition with Dominic and I was preparing for something along those lines. She is ready for bed between 7:30-8:30 and sleeps till 1-2 am and is ready for a bottle, then goes back to sleep till 8. Sometimes she wakes up for a bottle around 5:30 am. She is getting on a set schedule now, and it is so nice. She is doing 2-4 naps, it all depends on how long she takes a nap for.

She is such a happy baby!! She started this thing where she loves to jump when you stand her up (she probably started that because she figured how to jump in her jumper she has). But she will also try jumping when she is sitting. Its quite funny! She can now sit up on her own for a few min at a time, and sits up well when a hoppy pillow is enclosed around her. She has been drooling a lot since she was 2 moths old, but the last week, she has been drooling a ton! The flood gates have been let open!! So I think the whole teething process has started.

Aunt Mandy will be doing her 6 month pictures this coming up Sunday, can't wait to see her in her tutu I made her! Well thats whats new with Elle :) She is such a blessing, along with our other two little boys!!