The Doctor Came In

Dr. Brock just came in and said he feels like we can probably go home tomorrow. He took the catheter out and she slept right through it. It didn't even bother her. She has kept the last 2 4 oz. bottles of pedialyte down so that is good. She's sleeping again and she even went for a wagon ride earlier. She didn't think she was going to like it at first, but she enjoyed it after we got started. We hope she will be able to eat some baby food tonight, but the Dr. said he's just glad she's kept the pedialyte down this afternoon. One funny thing that happened yesterday after surgery was Dr. Brock came out and talked to us and one of the things he told us was that Ella Kate probably wouldn't feel like eating or drinking for a while after surgery and that was fine. Well, by the time we got back to recovery she had already downed 4 2 oz. bottles of apple flavored pedialyte and they were already trying to wean her off of it because she had taken so much. Leave it to Ella Kate to prove the Dr. wrong. Below are some pictures of her wagon ride. So, until tomorrow. Good afternoon!

Update of Ella Kate

This is Ella Kate this morning after sleeping about 16 hours and just getting up once to eat. She is running a fever this morning and not keeping her clear liquids down so she hasn't been able to start eating "real" food. They are a little concerned, but hope it will get better as the day goes on. She still has a catheter, an IV, and a drainage tube coming from her stomach. We hoped they would take the catheter out today, but it looks as if it may stay until tomorrow. Right now she is sleeping very soundly. Below are some pictures from yesterday.
This was us before surgery yesterday morning. She was still happy. :)
Kyle and Allison came to visit yesterday after school. She slept most of the time they were here, but did get up for a little to read a book and get a pink puppy dog that Kyle brought to her.
Here she is looking at Kyle after she woke up.
Uncle Bobby thought she looked funny after getting some Lortab for pain. Bless her heart.

Thank you again for the prayers and encouraging messages we have gotten. I hope to update sometime later. Love, Amy

Ella Kate's surgery

Ella Kate is sleeping right now and the surgery went well. The Dr. was able to re-route all 4 ureters into the bladder. He did have to place stints in that will be removed in 6-8 weeks. She is not wanting to keep her clear liquids down so that is a concern right now. I'll update later after the Dr. comes in tonight. Thank you for all your prayers and wonderful messages!

The Night Before Surgery

Look at this sweet happy baby! Well, tonight is the night before her surgery. Tomorrow morning we have to be at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital at 6:30 AM for Ella Kate to have the duplicated ureters (the tube that goes from the kidney to the bladder) that she was born with corrected. The Dr. hopes to be able to re-route the ureters into the bladder and make only one on each side. We are praying that this is all that will have to be done. You would never know by looking at her that she has this problem. She has been on antibiotics since the day she was born to help prevent infections. We are spending the night tonight in Nashville because we have to be at the hospital so early and Ella Kate can't eat anything after midnight. We thought just driving a few miles to the hospital with a hungry baby would be better than driving an hour! :) We did some shopping at Opry Mills tonight and ate at the food court. Ella Kate loves to shop!!

Here she is loving on her Ella the elephant. She sleeps with Ella every night and we hear Ella the elephant sing sometimes during the night, but she never wakes up Ella Kate.

Ella Kate loves books! She would rather sit and turn pages in a book than play with her other toys. This has started Allison calling her a nerd, but it hasn't stopped her from reading to Ella Kate.

Now, this is one thing that I would never let Ella Kate do at home and that is play with the remote control, but since we are in a hotel room the rules do not apply. Ha,ha!

I leave with you with this picture of Ella Kate. I love this picture! She loves mirrors and "talks" to herself in them.
Please remember us tomorrow morning and I plan on updating my blog to let everyone know how the surgery went. Until tomorrow, good night!

Where did December go and look what Ella Kate can do!!!

I totally missed posting any Christmas information or pictures! I was so busy and when I did get to sit down at the computer it was spent reading other blogs and getting on facebook (a new addiction!). I apologize for that and I hope to do better this year. That is actually one of my new year's resolutions (which a complete list of resolutions is coming in a future blog). I hope to blog at least once a week. My goal is to blog every other day, but that may be stretching it. This is just a quick blog, but I wanted to wish everyone reading a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I also wanted to post these pictures of Ella Kate to show all of you what she can do. She just completely surprised Scott and myself. She just took off across the living room so I had to grab the camera and video camera. I actually tried to upload a video but for some reason I couldn't get it to work. She got this stroller for Christmas and she loves to pull the doll out and try to climb in. Now that she's doing this I'm afraid walking is not to far off! OH MY!
The doll she is pushing has on an orange cheerleading outfit with a paw print on the front! GO TIGERS!!




Well, until next post! Goodnight!

An Update on Ella Kate

I posted earlier that we were taking Ella Kate back to Vanderbilt last Monday and had planned on spending the night on Sunday and doing all kinds of things. Well, our plans got changed when Ella Kate woke up Sunday morning and sounded congested. We decided not to drag her all over Nashville and make the trip on Monday morning. We got up Monday and she still sounded congested, but was running no fever and didn't really act like she felt bad so off we went to Vanderbilt. The Dr. set her surgery for Feb. 26th. She'll be in the hospital for 2 or more nights and then out of commission for about 2-4 weeks. He will have to make an incision and reroute tubes from her kidneys to her bladder. Here is a picture of her before we left that morning.
After we left Vanderbilt we decided that she didn't sound too bad so we took her to Cool Springs to have her picture made with Santa. They requested you use no personal photography equipment so I have no pictures of her with Santa except for the $30.00 package I bought!!! So here are some of her after the picture. By the way, she LOVED Santa!
By the time we started home I got a little concerned with her breathing so I called her pediatrician and we took her right in. They gave her a breathing treatment and thought it was just a chest cold. Fast forward to Wednesday. I got her up Wednesday morning and got her ready for daycare. I thought she sounded a little worse, but still no fever and she still acted fine. I went on and took her to daycare. At 12:45 they called me and said she had been asleep since 9AM and had just gotten up and sounded terrible. I called the pediatrician again and took her right in. This time they tested her for RSV and guess what? She tested positive! Bless her heart, I felt terrible. So in the house is where we've been since last Wednesday and where we'll stay until this Wednesday when she can go back to daycare. She had really bad days Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Yesterday was pretty good and so far today has been ok. I think she is on the mend now. There is nothing worse than a sick baby (except for maybe a sick husband-HA,HA!).
Well, she just woke up from a nap so until next blog, see ya! Love, Amy

A Special Prayer for a Dear Friend

One of my closest and dearest friends lost her son this week. Cathy and I worked together for 11 years before she left me and retired. We were with each other more than we were our families. I love her and I am hurting so much for her. Please take time to say a special prayer for her and her family. I know she needs them in her time of sorrow. I love you Cathy and I know that one day you will see your precious Josh again.