We dropped her off.

We went down to my parent's last weekend
for a fun-filled time with the fam.
Ellie was thrilled to see everyone and got pretty excited every morning.
Here she is in her new found "chair."
She does this often now...

There was a baby shower for Steph on Saturday.
So here's our newest comparison picture.
If I'm counting right, I'm 26 weeks and Steph is a little over 30 weeks.

On Sunday we celebrated my 29th birthday with my side of the family.
We attempted to take some family pictures in our Sunday best.
Ellie sure proved that she wasn't too interested
as she needed to be bribed between each and every picture.

Then we came home.
This time the "we" means just Tim and me.
So far this week we've had a couple dates (long overdue),
a movie night with Tim's cousins,
a birthday dinner with Tim's parents,
and some time putting up a shelf that I got from Timmy.

Now we are one day away from going back to get the little one.
We miss her, but have really enjoyed our time alone, and our sleep.

Hmmm...

We came home last night to a fishy
(or should I say donkey)
surprise!
I'm very flattered at the gesture
but I'm sure it looked MUCH better
right after it was put up
rather than hours (with intense wind) later...

BUT no one has fessed up to my donkey surprise!

I need some clues.
Can anyone help me??

Bubbles and Bedtime

First there were LOTS of bubbles...
















and then a bedtime story about a little girl and her new baby sister...

Where's Ellie?

This is something she did COMPLETELY on her own. So Tim ran and grabbed the camera. Therefore, Tim just learned the lesson of which way the camera needs to be held.

Trying to focus on fun

Leaves + Pumpkin Leaf Bags = Tons of Fun

Finally making use of one of her birthday presents....

Some payback from my Dad....but who has the real payback?

And the kicker is...

Around 9 am the clinic called and Ellie DOES have strep. So we have our answer!! Which is absolutely wonderful! Her fever stayed below 100 yesterday and has gone without Tylenol or Motrin for quite a while now...but now she has to take Amoxocilin (spelling?) for the next 10 days.

But here's the kicker.....are you ready???

I have shingles.

Yup. I've had a horrid rash on my back since Monday. Which over the last couple days spread, so I called in and begged to not have to come in to get checked because I'm pretty sure that the medical community gets our next month's wages completely. But, of course, NO, the lady from patient care freaked out when I told her what it looked like and that I'm pregnant.

SO...I just got back to work. And I'm on meds for the next 7 days every 8 hours (which means I have to get up in the night to take it....grrr...) to only shorten the life of the shingles. They even offered Tylenol with Codeen (again...spelling?) which should tell you how painful this is. I really want to itch it RIGHT NOW. But I'm attempting self control and am trying not to.

They did say that it's caused by STRESS.

LOL.

Some info but not all...

Well. They checked her over completely and found that her temp was only 97.8 (without meds). They also found that her tonsils were large and spotted and white. Her glands were also very large.

The strep test came back negative.

So we were off to the lab for blood work. Ellie did a great job and melted all the nurses hearts that were there. She had gone from crying to a HUGE smile and yelled, "BANDAID!!!" when they gave her a Daffy Duck bandaid for her arm.

The results were that there IS an infection. AAAAAND that's all we know. Tomorrow (Friday) we'll know if it's in her blood and possibly about where else it might be. They may also know if it's bacterial or viral. Next week we'll know if it's mono and whether or not it's a new infection or an old one (Is anyone else hearing Monica flipping out, "Was the message from Richard old or new? OLD OR NEW?").

Her temp still got to 102.5 yesterday evening....and we started today at 98.6. We'll have to see if she goes up again today, or stays low...

So we have some info but not all....

Back to the Doc we go...

Ellie's fever hit 104 for yet another day...

So we are heading in at 10:45am for blood work and for her pediatrician to see her.

Please pray that they find whatever it going on...

Ellie and the ER

After a two day long 102 fever and finding it was up to 104, we strapped her in the car and headed to urgent care Sunday afternoon. After a rather long talk with the doctor there (who fell across the room because his foot got caught in the mouse cord....HILARIOUS) we were sent across the street to the ER to have a full workup done to see if Ellie had a bladder infection.
We were pumping her full of water trying to keep her hydrated and happy. We tried to keep it on the down-low that a catheter was going to be making it her way in the next few minutes. She ended up being a real trooper during that procedure (the nurses commented on how well she did!) and Mommy didn't even lose it too bad. Yay for us!
Ellie was really confused about what the deal was with everyone poking and prodding her repeatedly. Although, the Sesame Street stickers from the x-ray ladies (because she "could teach the adults a thing or two about getting x-rays taken") seemed to be a good enough distraction.
Tim got us some dinner from Micky-D's but it figured that as soon as we get the food, they come to tell us what's going on and then we get to go home. Turns out there's no bladder infection, but she was withholding some important poo (we could see it in the x-rays...didn't know you could see that on those). So her official diagnosis is a viral infection of some sort, and plugged poo. The poo has made it's appearance but the 104 fever is still here....grrr.....

Old, old, old video of Ellie...(a.k.a. Tim's first post)

This video is only 3 seconds long but it's one of my (Tim's) favorite videos of Ellie. Joel (my brother) and I were playing with the video camera and happened to catch this priceless moment. I sometimes play it over and over and can't stop laughing. Enjoy...

Ellie and the Bella Band

Ellie found my Bella Band a few weeks ago and has had a blast with it ever since. A Bella Band is a elasticy fabricy thing that helps hold my pants up, especially my pants that aren't pregnancy pants. She knows how it's supposed to work as you can tell from the video.

***I will hold my camera the right away from now on, I didn't realize that I couldn't switch it like you can a photograph. Maybe I should have known that, maybe not. ***

102.9 Fever

Poor baby...

The Moving Bump

Here we are at 5 months. We took a million pictures to try to get one I would be satisfied with. So actually if you look really really really closely you may see that I have my contacts in too. So in the picture I was trying really hard to not go cross-eyed to see the camera clearly...

Anywho...the moving bump is refering to how she wakes me up MANY times a night kicking or rolling over already. I'm pretty sure Ellie-roo didn't wake me up until I was further along. Plus my hips have been aching horribly. So I'm out of options for sleeping positions...I can't sleep on my stomach for obvious reasons & I can't sleep flat on my back anymore & I can't sleep on either of my sides because of my hips...Any suggestions????? I need help.