Is That Beard Real?

So Cora is doing a lot better, her appetite has returned with a vengeance and the cough is gradually going away. She is in a new phase where she is really doing good at recognizing voices and faces. and she is starting to really grin a lot. We took her out tonight for the first time since her overnight stay in the hospital last week. Granny has been here all week, and has been a HUGE help. Tonight after a dinner we did a little shopping at the mall. We bought our first christmas gift of the season, and who knows, it may be for one of you. We bought a new dress for Cora, and few other odds and ends. I Pushed the stroller most of the night, and everyone kept telling me what a beautiful baby she was. Several people saw Cora drinking from her podee and wanted to know where they could get one. We just couldn't pass up taking a picture with Santa when we saw that there was no one in line waiting. Cora was pretty tired and didn't give us her best grin, but overall she did a pretty good job.

Thanks for all your prayers for the little one. We are blessed to have good friends like you guys.

a beautiful girl

cora made my day yesterday!  she was having a fussy spell and seemed to be hungry, so i went to the kitchen to fix her a bottle.  As I came back into the living room, shaking her bottle, she looked up at me and gave me the most beautiful smile I have ever seen.  Its like she knew exactly what I was doing for her and was grinning as if to say "thank you, mommy, for reading my mind." I am blessed beyond measure to have such a darling baby!

 

Cora is feeling quite a bit better.  Her appetite is pretty much back to normal and she doesn't seem to be sleeping as much.  She has an ear infection, but is on meds for it, and her cough is improving. 

 

I think she is missing her buddies.  Her babysitter gives us pictures quite frequently of things Cora does at her house.  One of Cora's best friends appears to be a black and white spaniel named Bailey.  We have a sweet picture of the two snuggled up together on the couch with Cora's arm wrapped around Bailey's front leg.  They are good buds.  I was showing her the picture and Cora clicked her tongue at it.  This is significant because TonTon, Cora's sitter, clicks her tongue at her and the only times that I've heard Cora click is when I showed her this picture and when i mentioned TonTon to her.  For the rest of the week, Cora is hanging out with Granny til we know she isn't contagious.  She and Granny are having fun together--they're good buds, too.

 

Please continue to pray for her as she recovers.  Love to all!

Thanksliving

Yes, thanksliving, meaning we are thankful our beautiful baby girl is alive. Our thanksgiving holiday was cut short this year by a sick baby. Cora started feeling bad last Saturday, before Thanksgiving, congested and the like. We went to the doc and he said she was just congested and needed a work of the bulb syringe. Try as we may, we didn't have much success with the thing and by Wednesday, Cora wasn't doing well at all. She'd developed a cough and a loss of appetite. We decided to go to Kentucky only for the day on Thursday and drive back home that evening. Cora enjoyed meeting her great aunts and many cousins and they enjoyed spoiling her rotten, from what I could tell.

Friday morning, back in Chatt, we took Cora in to the doctor's office. They checked her pulsox ---oxygen level in the blood-- and it was very low, an 81. She was asleep, so we woke her up and it went up to a 93, but was mainly resting around the high 80's, which isn't good. The doctor sent us to the children's hospital immediately and had us admit her. They tested her for RSV, a respiratory virus. She tested negative, but was diagnosed with Bronchiolitis, which is also a respiratory virus. She received breathing treatments about every two hours Friday. Albuterol being the drug of choice, made her quite hyper and FUSSEEEEEE! Her little nose was "hoovered" about every hour, too, to get all the mucous out. Let's just say, Geron and I were absolutely exhausted that evening. We stayed at the hospital with her, of course, and managed to get some sleep. We were sent home Saturday afternoon with a nebulizer to give Cora breathing treatments at home.

Granny (my mom) has come down to care for Cora while we work this week since she is contagious and can't go to TonTon's house this week. I think she is missing her friends, especially Bailey, the dog, but she and Granny are getting along well. She is still coughing a bit, but her breathing is slowing back down and her appetite is gradually returning to normal. Please keep us in your prayers this week as she continues to recover.

We have a darling picture of Cora in her oversized hospital gown--just like an adult's with the ties in the back. My fav' is one of her with her backside to us and her Elmo pamper is showing through the opening in the back of the gown. Even when she's sick, she's adorable!

O Happy Day

Hallelujah!!!!

Got the report from the doctors today, and
the brace comes off.
Her hips look normal.
Praise the Lord!!















in other news...

don't make her angry, you wouldn't like her when she's angry!!

the little munchkin

Those blissful days of Cora sleeping endlessly with her little head on my chest are over...well mostly. Cora has been able to sit and hold her head up for a few weeks now, and now she refuses to lay her head down unless she is ready to sleep or she is extremely tired. That sounds ok, but apparently she has decided that sleeping is for losers. If your holding her she pretty much insists on sitting upright. enter our friend bumbo.

who or what is Bumbo? Bumbo is the coolest thing to hit the baby merchandise aisles since the arrival of the Podee hands free bottle. It's a little seat made of a really cushy foam that completely holds baby girl up. It makes her feel like a grown up. I saw these when we were registering for baby stuff back before the arrival of our little princess, and always thought they looked cool. But now i realize they are so much cooler than i could have ever imagined. it even works with her brace that will soon be coming off...we hope. We go monday for her next ultrasound. help us pray that her hip issue is cleared up.

here are a few pics.
the first one is while we were fixing dinner in the kitchen.

notice the cool stack of free formula.




This is is mommy reading to Cora from her new bible. i think this is the christmas story. by the way you should toatally check out "The Big Picture Story Bible". It's the best visual bible for kids i have ever seen.

This one was a gift from Roger and Pam Bartley, our good friends in Ky.


This is Cora doing one of her favorite activities.

my little punkin