New Bella Pics, in her birthday suit!

Bella's first steps!!!

Bella finally walked 2-3 steps last night on her own, without holding on. She did it a few times and then got tired of Brett and I trying to get her to walk when all she wanted was her play money we had bribing her. She did when she was distracted playing with her money. Brett and I almost didn't believe it at first. She's been so timid and fearful of falling she hasn't let go of our hands and taken off on her own. Hopefully this means she'll be walking soon. It's so hard when we go out, she always wants to crawl on the floor and I have to hold her the entire time b/c I'm a germaphobe and don't want her crawling on nasty floors. Once she starts walking though, it will be a little easier (I say that now).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well tomorrow is Bella's first Valentine's day. I remember a year ago I was begging my Dr. to induce me on V-day. I'm glad he didn't though, it wouldn't be the same if it was both V-day and Bella's birthday. Speaking of her birthday, Stephanie (my PT friend from LA) asked me if she could make Bella's cake. She is wanting to try and start decorating cakes. So of course I said yes, and she and I are gonna make it the Friday before her party. It will have Mickey Mouse on it, Bella's boyfriend. Well, I have lost 10.2lbs since starting weight watchers 1/5/09. I'm pretty satisfied with that number, but my goal is 30lbs. My reward for 10lbs is to dye my hair. My sister Megan asked that I stay away from orange tones, which I will try hard to do! I am working tomorrow on V-day b/c I have been out most of the week with Bella and need to work so I don't use all my vacation time. Sarah had laprascopic exploratory surgery to see why she keeps getting sick and vomitting when she eats. They found nothing abnormal and did a test on her gallbladder and that was fine too. They are d/c'ing her home tomorrow morning and will do an endoscopy (opposite of a colonoscopy) next to see if they see anything. Please pray that they find something so they can get to the bottom of her problems. Well this post was all over the place, but that's just how my life seems to be lately. Well hope you all have a Hot Dog Valentine's Day (Mickey's words, I need to get out more!)! See ya real soon................(again, Mickey Mouse's farewell)

Bella's first day back at daycare, no phone calls!!

Well Bella went back to daycare today after having been out since 2/6 (Friday). I breathed a sigh of relief when I didn't get any calls before 3pm. Bella has had a rough, I mean ROUGH week. My last post was about an hour before we took her to the ER. We took Bella in b/c she started having trouble breathing. We found out Wednesday night she had croup, that's why she had such a funny cough. Croup is when your vocal cords swell up over your wind pipe and prevent air from getting to the lungs easily. The Dr. put her on steroids once a day for 3 days. Well Bella went back to daycare on Friday and due to the lowered immunity from the steroids she got sick from another child (the same one that gave her RSV). Over the weekend she was very clingy and cranky and started running fever on Monday morning when I woke her up. So no work for me, just another Dr's appt. The Dr thought her fever was due to lingering affects of her croup/cold so she gave her antibiotics. Well that afternoon after leaving the Dr's office, both of Bella's eyes started producing this white goopy stuff that we would have to get out of her eyes. Tuesday morning we woke up and were gonna go to daycare but Bella's eyes were matted shut and really pink and swollen. Took her to the daycare and told them I thought it was just a cold and they didn't buy it. Two other kids had pink eye the previous week, so she had to be checked out before coming back to daycare, so off the Dr's we go. Well, guess what Bella had pink eye in both eyes! Great! So as of today, Bella is much better and today was able to stay at daycare all day. Her eyes look much better, practically normal and her cold symptoms are lessening. Bella is becoming more and more independent everyday and I don't like that at all! My little girl is growing up before my eyes! Bella started whole milk today, no more baby formula, I'm sure Bev is glad! So far she likes it pretty well, but did have quite a nasty diaper at daycare! Well thanks for the prayers for Bella. Please continue to pray for her and us, as well as Sarah who is having laprascopic surgery tomorrow to see why she keeps getting sick and vomitting. Please also pray for our friends and new parents Whitney and Jamey and baby Caroline. She had a rough first couple of days, but was able to go home with her mom and dad yesterday and is doing much better. Praise God!

I'm addicted to sewing!

Beverlee came down over the weekend and taught me how to sew some. We sewed a dress and shirt for Bella! It was very fun and now I'm hooked! Check out my projects below, I'm so proud! Please pray for Bella, she went to the Dr. on Tuesday (2/3) and was told her ear infections were gone and her lungs sounded good, well on 2/4 Wednesday I had to go pick her up from daycare due to a low grade fever and she vomitted. Once home the fever went away with Motrin and no more vomitting, but she was crankier than normal. Now she is asleep and has a horrible cough, not wet gurgly like before, more like a hoarse, dry, rough cough. I think Brett's going to take her back to the Dr. tomorrow to make sure she doesn't have Strep or anything else going on. She probably got sick from the Dr's office:(. Also please pray for my friend Whitney, she was put on bedrest today until she has her baby, due on 2/10, her BP was a little high so they stripped her membranes and put her on bedrest.