Arianna's 6 month

I can't believe how much time flies. My baby is 6 months old already. I took her to Portrait Innovations to get her pictures made. She was awesome! She was so happy, cute and adorable. I had such a hard time picking the pictures I wanted. There were so many good ones.

Last week she had her 6 mo. check up. She was 18 lbs and 4 ounces and 26 inches tall. She is in the 90% for weight and 70% for height. She is such a happy baby (well, most of the time). Her favorite time of day is the morning. When she wakes up and I come into the room she gets so excited and gives me her biggest smile ever. She is rolling over now and sitting a little bit on her own. She has been teething lately and has already gotten 6 of her teeth in. So, needless to say, she is drooling a lot! She loves to grab at stuff now and she thinks everything she sees is a chew toy. She doesn't like the pacifier but loves to chew on her fingers or suck on her fist. I think I would prefer the pacifier to her hand. She is so interested in the world around her. I can take her to the store and she will just sit in her stroller and stare at everything. Have you ever noticed how bright and colorful Wal-mart or Target can be? She has started eating baby food. She loves sweet potatoes and squash and will tolerate carrots but I don't think she likes it much. She loves applesauce and bananas but not the peaches. Next food to try is sweet peas, YUCK! She does the cutest thing when she is going to sleep. She will "talk" to herself. You can tell when she starts getting tired and ready for a nap because she will start "talking" until she falls asleep. This definitely is a trait she got from her dad! She is such a wonderful baby girl and I am so glad to have her in my life!

Arianna's Surgery

Well, it has been awhile since I posted last. This has been a very busy time for us. But I wanted to write about one of the things that happened in January. Arianna was born with a skin tag and the doctor was concerned so they did an MRI back in November and found that her spinal cord was attached to a fatty tumor (non-cancerous). So, we scheduled her to go in and have her skin tag removed, untether her spinal cord and take out the fatty tumor. Of course, as the time approached for her to go to the hospital, I got a bit nervous and anxious for my baby girl. She was only 5 months old and was going to have major surgery. What parent wouldn't be nervous? Monday, January 11, Arianna and I arrived at the East Tennessee Children's Hospital at 7:00 am in the morning. First we got registered then they called us back where I had to change her into her little hospital gown and then they lab tech came in to put the IV in and draw some blood. At about 9am we went back to the surgery where I had to say good-bye to my baby and wait for it all to be over with. Steve showed up around 10 and we waited. It seemed like a very long time but it was only 3 1/2 hours when we got the call that the doctor was done and that we would be able to come back and see her soon. The surgery was a success and our neurologist, Dr. Harris, came down to tell us that everything went as planned. It took about another hour before we could go back to see her. She looked so small and pitiful in the big crib they had her in. The first night was very bad for us. We had to keep her laying down and could not pick her up. She was in a lot of pain so they gave her some morphine at the beginning but I could tell that it was not working very well. It would last about 30 minutes and then she would be upset again. Her heart rate kept going up and her O2 Sat dropped so they had to give her oxygen. She couldn't hold her formula down. All I could do for her was to hold her little hand and cry along with her. Finally around midnight she was able to drink a little bit of formula so the nurse gave her some Lortab, a very strong pain medicine. Lortab worked wonders. It was still a pretty rough night but finally her levels were going back to normal and she was able to get a little sleep. By the next morning we were able to pick her up and hold her and she looked 100% better. Steve and I were so afraid of hurting her unintentionally that the first couple days that we held her we had a egg crate mattress under her to keep her as comfortable as possible. We ended up staying in the hospital until Saturday because she wasn't taking her feedings very well and they wanted to make sure her bladder was functioning properly. It was a very long week and by Saturday, I was glad to take her home. After a couple of weeks at home, she seemed to be back to her old self again. It was amazing to see how fast she healed. She was such a good, brave baby girl and I am so glad that it is all over with and everything turned out great!