Of doctors, potties, and life!

Last week was quite the week!

Paige had a horrible cold (actually she still has it, and the rest of us are fighting it), and was extremely miserable. But in the midst of her cold; she has potty trained herself, is wearing “big girl panties” and just a pull-up at night. What a star!!!!!

Ella had a busy week as well. We saw the plastic surgeon on Monday. She is a really nice lady, which was a relief after my great dislike for the paediatrician that we have to see. She told me that Ella’s ear and facial palsy are related, and probably occurred during development. She couldn’t really tell me exactly what is going on though. Ella needs a CT scan to see exactly what is going on. The discouraging thing was that she doesn’t think that it is something that will resolve itself, and that Ella will require surgery when she is older. Also I have to tape her eye shut when she is sleeping so that she doesn’t do any damage to that eye. The only problem is that the tape is really irritating her skin. Any suggestions???? It has to be taped though; she can’t have a patch because the eye-lid itself has to be shut so that her eye doesn’t dry out. So the next step is to wait for a call from the hospital with her appointment. We saw the family doctor on Friday, and Ella weighed 6 lbs 15 oz!!!!! Little piggy is growing very nicely. Also this weekend for the first time Ella looked at me with real recognition, and grinned at me. I totally melted.

In the midst of colds, potty training, doctors appointments, and just plain life; Miss Morgan came home from school with head lice. Now this is a bullet that we have been dodging ever since she started school last year, as the school is full of it. From what I’ve heard, 40% of the school is infested. What a pain!!! Morgan was an absolute star through the whole thing!!!! She is also being such a big help to me with the little ones.

Other than that, I am feeling much better physically, almost back to normal I’d say. I’m just trying to figure out a new routine; and learning to deal with the fact that I can’t get as much done as I used to. Actually I’m doing pretty well with that, as long as everyone is clean, fed and have clean clothes to wear we’re doing well. The vacuuming can wait. I’m hoping maybe the collie will figure out how to use it, since she is the biggest contributor of hair!!!

Well I’m off. It is a beautiful sunny spring morning, and we are off to a slow relaxed start which is kind of nice. Daddy is out of town this week, so it is just us girls. I’ll try to take some pictures of the girls this week.

Xoxo to all.

Quiet Sunday

Just a quick note to say that Morgan and Paige absolutely loved Curious George, and they cannot wait to go to their next movie.
Today for the first time, they had a play date with Devin and Tasha on their own. I dropped them off this morning, and picked them up this afternoon. They had a great time, and Kev and I had some quiet time to ourselves with Miss Ella. We also got some groceries done; which was great. Not something we can do with all three kids at the moment, and I haven’t gone since Ella was born because my incision hasn’t healed enough yet to be hauling groceries around. Many thanks to M and M for taking the girls and giving us a little break. It was much appreciated.
New pictures are up on Flickr now, and I’ll post soon about Ella’s appointment with the pediatric plastic surgeon.
Back to school tomorrow; although I don’t know if Morgan will make it, she wasn’t feeling well towards the end of the day today (actually Paige wasn’t either), and they were both running low-grade fevers so who knows…….

Where is the time going?

I can hardly believe it, but little Miss Ella Bean was a month old on Thursday. I have no idea where the time is going, but it sure is flying by. I know that I said I would post photos to flickr, but I haven't had a second, this is the first time I've gone near the blog since my last post, and I have new ones now as well, and I really will try to get them up as soon as I can.This past week was March Break, so Morgan was home. We had a great week, but very busy with lots of visiting. The girls were all awesome. As I write this Morgan and Paige are with Daddy for their first movie. They went to see Curious George. I must admit I'm quite jealous; I was hoping to take them to their first big screen movie. They were so excited to go by themselves with Daddy though, and I am sure they are having an amazing time!!!!

Last Friday was Morgan and Maddison's dance recital. You can see it here:

Video Sharing at DropShots.com

Paige did a show of her own:


Video Sharing at DropShots.com
I'll post pictures later, someone has woken up and would like to be fed. Ella has her appointment with the pediatric plastic surgeon on Monday, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Pictures as promised

Here are pictures of the girls. I have lots more, and will post them to flickr, so you can check them out there. xxoo


Big Sister Paige!!!


Daddy and Paige doing a puzzle.


The big sister t-shirts that Ashton made with the girls!!!! :)

Daddy with his three girls.

Now that's a lot of girls!!!!

A huge THANK YOU

to everyone who has sent cards, baby gifts, best wishes. You'll all be getting cards some day when I have a second to myself, but in the mean time I wanted to let you all know how much your love and best wishes mean to us.

Extra, extra special thanks to Grandma for watching the kids while we were in the hospital, Lynn for all your help throughout the last nine months, Auntie Catherine for that first week home, and Miranda for stocking my freezer!!!!!!

You are all awesome, and we love you!!!

xxoo

Ella Grace

At long last I would like to introduce the latest member of our family. Ella Grace was born on February 16, 2006 at 2:58 am. She was very tiny weighing in at only 5 lbs 5 oz, and was born via emergency c-section. She is healthy though and growing like a weed. We were at the family doctors this afternoon, and she weighed 5 lbs 11 oz, so is growing very nicely now that she is on the outside. It turns out that there was a hole in her placenta which is most likely why she was not growing well in utero. I wonder how long the hole was there because they saw blood in my very first ultrasound way back in August, and she was already measuring small by the end of September, so who knows.
Ella has some nerve damage in her face, and is missing an earlobe, so we are being followed by a pediatrician to monitor that. Our family doctor thinks that it will repair itself (the nerve damage), and thought he noticed some improvement already. She did pass her hearing screen in the hospital in both ears with flying colours though, so the inner workings of her ear are fine. The doctors just want to follow her closely because of all of those issues combined.
Morgan and Paige are so excited that their baby is finally here, and love her to bits. I have lots of pictures to post which I will try to do this weekend. Morgan and Ella share the exact same birth weight, and were both born on a Thursday. How cool is that?
Auntie Catherine came the day I got home from the hospital, and was with us for that first week home. She was an amazing help to me, and Morgan and Paige adore having her here. Thank You Auntie Catherine for all of your help to me, and for spoiling all of us so much. You made that first week so much easier for me. Also thank you to Catherine for making the new banner for the blog!!! You rock!
It will be interesting to see how the shift from two children to three goes. This past week was our first one on our own, so we are still finding our groove. Morgan and Paige are transitioning quite well, although both are having a hard time and are manifesting it in different ways. I'm sure I'll be writing all about it over the next few months.

Here she is hot off the press, maybe an hour old. I love how alert she is. As I said I have lots of pictures that I will try to post this weekend.