3 year Check-up

Today I took Ella in for her three year check up and she got her flu shot. So, she is 36 1/2 inches tall and 28.5 lbs. A little small, she is about the 25% for both height and weight. I'm not surprised that she is small, I was the same way. I was always really small until I hit puberty, so she may be the same way.

I can't believe that she will be three is less than 2 weeks!! She is such a great little girl. She is very caring and always thinking. She loves animals (both real and stuffed), hot dogs, crackers, her kitties, and blanky! She told me that her best friends are Emma and Kaia (her cousin). Ella is also going to start a preschool program next week. It is two days a week for and hour and a half. Not much, but something for now. I'm excited for her to have more independence and see what she can do.

What to do now?!?

Ella got blood taken the other day at the doctor to test for allergies, and the doctor called last night with the results. It turns out she has quite a few mild allergies; milk, egg whites, wheat, household mildew, cat and dog dander. To be honest I'm not even sure what all this means. I spoke with her doctor's nurse today and asked a few questions, but I still have more. From what I am understanding, mild allergies means that they can usually tolerate the allergens, but if they keep being exposed to them, then the allergy can increase. So basically everything that Ella eats right now she is allergic to! I don't even know where to begin with trying to change everything, this is very overwhelming. Little steps for now and hopefully get in to see a nutritionist soon. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open for ideas.

I know it's been forever!!!!

It had been forever since I posted but I thought that Ella's trip to the hospital deserved some writing. So, on Friday night I had to take Ella to the ER. She was having some trouble breathing and it was getting worse. She had an episode similar to this about a month and a half ago and I took her to urgent care and they did a chest xray and ruled out pneumonia and said as long as it got better and not worse it was probably nothing major to worry about. We went to her regular doctor the next day and they said it was probably caused by a virus that was causing brachial constriction. So, when she started having the same issue again on Friday I was concerned, but not overly worried. But when she went to bed at 7 and then woke up at 8 and it seemed worse, I started getting concerned. I took her to the ER at about 8:30pm and we were seen right away. As soon as the doctor came in and saw her he ordered a nebulizer treatment for her and we got transferred to a different room. In our new room they came and put an IV in her little arm and took blood, gave her some magnesium and steroids and let us be for a while. She then got another round of nebulizer treatment and was feeling better, besides all the "pokes".

Doing her nebulizer treatment in the ER

They decided that she needed to be admitted to the hospital and be monitored for 24 hours :( I then called Marc and he was on his way, in a cab! All Ella wanted Daddy to bring was a balloon, so Marc stopped at the grocery store and found her a butterfly balloon, a race car, and a box of Reese Pieces. Once Daddy came with the presents she was feeling a little better.

Happier after daddy brought her a balloon

As soon as they told me we had to stay, my heart just sank. I couldn't picture how it was going to be to stay in a hospital with a two year old. It was so painful to watch her get poked and prodded by all the nurses and doctors. I shed a few tears to say the least.

We didn't get sent up to the hospital room until about 2am! I was exhausted and had been up since about 5:30am, Ella was also exhausted (obviously). Marc stayed with us until we were all settled in and then headed home, as we had his sister and her boyfriend staying with us. Ella ended up sleeping for about 4 hours and I think I maybe got about an hour. Saturday morning we waited until the attending doctor arrived at about 8am, for him to tell us the next move. He came in and listened to her breathing and decided that we better stay for another 24 hours. He also wanted to hook her back up to her IV and do nebulizer treatments every three hours and steroids every 6 hours. That news broke me, I couldn't imagine spending a whole day and another night there. I called Marc and told him the news and he came back over as soon as he could. I was able to get home and shower and relax for a bit then headed back. Ella was so brave the whole time and such a good girl. We got up a few times and walked around our unit with her IV pole and everything! We managed to make it through the day with lots of cartoons and treats. Marc stayed with us through the evening and then headed home again to spend some time with his sister and get some good sleep. Ella and I managed to get to bed about 10pm. She decided that she wanted to sleep in the pull out bed (that was supposed to be my bed), so I let her sleep there, I figured as long as she slept I didn't care. So, that left me sleeping in the child size bed/crib! Ella slept for almost 10 hours and I got at least 4 or 5, so not that bad. We patiently awaited the doctors arrival the next morning. He came at about 8am again and gave us the ok to head home. The diagnosis is still not 100%. It could have been an asthma attack or some kind of allergic reaction. She was breathing fine when they let us go home an the doctor gave us a prescription for an inhaler to use until we saw our regular doctor. We went to the regular doctor yesterday and she gave us a prescription for Singular, which Ella will take daily and they took blood to do some initial allergy testing.

It was the most emotionally exhausting thing I have every been though! I can't even imagine how parents do it when their kids have to be in the hospital long term. My heart goes out to all families with kids in the hospital. Thank you to everyone for all the kind words and thoughts. Ella is back to her regular self, attitude and all!

Hooked up to her IV and watching cartoons

Easter

We had a great Easter up in MN this year. The weather was actually great this year, warm even! Ella and I went home early, on Tuesday and spent some quality time with family. Marc drove up on Friday and then we all drove home together on Monday. Of course our time there was extremely busy, got to pack everyone in! I was able to visit my friend April and her new baby, Isabella (just 5 days old). It was great to see them, it's been a long time since I have seen April, so this visit was extra special. Ella and I both managed to get a haircut while home, and did some shopping at the outlet mall for a day. Then of course we had all the Easter fun as well. Our family does a huge seafood dinner on Easter eve, which I prepared with my sisters. Then on Easter we went to church, brunch, had an Easter egg hunt, and a big dinner at home. It was a great day.

Walking to our flight

Ella and Kaia after their haircuts

All the cousins (except Kaia) in the bath

Dyeing Easter eggs

Matching Easter dresses

This is our attempt to get all the kids in one picture.
There are about 6 or 7 pictures, all about this good!

Hunting Easter eggs

Ella and Harley got the front yard and the big kids got the back yard.

Our try at a family picture

We had such a good time in MN, as usual. While up there we also got to go see the progress on the lake house my parents are building at Lake Pipen. It is going to be a beautiful house and a great place for our family to gather. Lots of outdoor space to use and a great beach right down the street.

Ballet

Today I took Ella to her first Pre-Ballet/Creative Movement class at the park district. I was very cute. They can wear leotards and tutus and ballet slippers. Ella was all decked out. Here she is as we are getting ready to leave the house.

The class is for 18-36 months, so they are all pretty little still. The class is just about moving and trying to follow directions. The parents also have to participate in the whole class, so it's fun for all :) I hope that Ella enjoys the class and wants to keep dancing, follow in her mommy's footprints. Here are some more pictures from class today.


Here is a video of her practicing her dancing last night. She was so funny and came up with this little move all on her own. She kept showing it to me and told me it was her "pretty dance". She had just had her bath so her hair was wet and she put on her dress up clothes to perform.

We're Back!

I have my computer back and ready to start blogging again!! Well like every one else, we have been enjoying this warmer weather the last few days. Ella played outside both days this weekend and we went to the park today! It was great to be outside again and feel the warmth of the sun. Ella had a great time at the park today and was running around like a crazy kid. It was so fun to see her do things that she wasn't able to do last year. I love watching her and seeing her play and try to connect with the other kids. She is very social and not shy at all. She was walking right up to kids today and asking what their name was and she was playing pretend with a girl she had just met. I'm glad that she interacts well, I was so shy as a kid and I'm glad she isn't like that.

We also were in Ohio a week ago to visit Marc's sister, her new baby and his Grandma. His sister and brother-in-law live in Toledo and just had a baby, Gabriel, in December. This was the first time we got to see him, he is adorable. It was fun to be around a little baby again.

Gabe, Almost 3 months old

Gabe was one reason we headed out there and the other was to go and visit Marc's Grandma Brash in Cincinnati. She is in nursing home there and it's only about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Toledo. So, we drove in on Friday and stayed with Rachael and Craig, then headed down to Cincinnati on Saturday to visit Grandma Brash. His Grandma is not in very good health and doesn't usually know we are even there. She was having a good day the day we went there and she was glad we were there. It's really hard to understand anything she is saying, but we know that she was happy to see us and to meet Gabe for the first time.

Grandma Brash meeting Gabe

Marc, Ella, Grandma, Rachael and Gabe

I was very proud of Ella the day we went to see Grandma Brash. I was worried how she was going to react to seeing her. It's not easy for a two year old to understand why she looks different, why she can't walk, and why her head is always hanging to one side. But, Ella was so good!!!! She said hi and tried to talk to Grandma a couple of times. Then she colored her a picture and even gave her a hug (the best she could) before we left. Plus, she was just overall good. Marc's aunt and uncle live close to the nursing home, so we went to their house afterwards and had dinner and hung out. It was nice to visit with them. Ella loved Uncle Steve's model train down in the basement. She could barely eat anything because she wanted to go and blow the whistle some more.

It was funny to see how Ella interacted, or ignored, the baby. She really didn't have much interest in him, but she thought she would like to try and hold him once (Gabe didn't really like that). All in all it was a good weekend, busy and lots of driving, but good. I'm glad that we got to finally meet Gabe and that we got to see Grandma Brash.

Giving Gabe a kiss

One more thing: Ella loves books, always has. Lately she is into "reading" them by herself. I'm usually impressed by how many words she actually remembers in the books. Well, we checked out Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? from the library a few weeks ago and once we read it, she had to read it at least 3 times a day. Then one night she told us she was going to read it herself and she did. She had memorized almost all the words and we were able to catch it on video.

Slacking

I know I've been slacking lately on writing my blog. I don't really know why, just haven't been that motivated to update it. Plus, we had to send our computer in for repairs, so I don't have any of my pictures on a computer right now. There hasn't been much going on. Ella and I are trying to start getting out more. We visited the Lincoln Park zoo last week (when it was warm out), we also went to the Nature Museum last week and the Garfield Park Conservatory yesterday. She really likes to get out and see things, and it's nice to change up the routine every once in awhile.
Besides that, we had a good Valentine's Day weekend. Marc and I were able to get out by ourselves for awhile on Saturday. Marc's brother, Adam, came over and babysat for us for the afternoon and we went to an early movie and early dinner. We had a really good time and it was nice to be out by ourselves. Ella was a very good girl for Uncle Adam, took a nap and everything! But then Monday morning Marc woke up not feeling well. I thought I felt fine until I was out at the conservatory with Ella. While we were out I started to not feel well at all. So, Marc spent the whole day in bed and I managed through the day with Ella. I got a little bit of sleep while she was napping, but it was a rough day. We are both feeling better today. I'm not sure what we have or if we even have the same thing?!? As long as we feel better instead of worse. That's all I have for now, hopefully I'll have some pictures to post soon.