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.

Happy Birthday Brin!

Well January is gone, getting closer to Bella's big day (check out her birthday suit below). My birthday just passed, I was 28 on the 29th. When I got to work on Thursday, my desk was all decorated and balloons and banners all over and hanging from the ceiling. I felt loved when I saw all the hard work they put into the decorations. I guess my co-workers really do like me! I'm starting to plan for Bella's 1st Birthday, I can't believe she is going to go from an infant to a toddler, scary. She is so sweet and so good, I'm scared to have another baby b/c I'll probably end up with just the opposite!
Beverlee is down this weekend, she misses Bella so much so she has to come see us since we barely make it to LA. Brett and I have finished demolishing the bathroom, now time to put it back together. Brett hurt his finger, but will live! Going out to Shogun's for a birthday dinner, I get to splurge and each something that's not on my diet! YEAH! I am super excited though, I have lost 6 lbs and counting. My clothes are fitting better and my face isn't so fat and round! I have to hurry and lose weight, or Bella may be an only child (no more insulin needles for me hopefully)!

I'm SICK of my family being SICK!

Well the Hammonds have all been sick since 2009 began. I got sick on New Year's Eve and stayed sick until the 3rd of January. Then Bella got sick from a kid at daycare on the 8th with RSV. I'm so mad at that mom for bringing her child to daycare after going to the MD and finding out he had RSV (which is highly contagious!). Bella started breathing treatments on the 11th and was on her way to recovery when she woke up on the 15th with fever again and then found out on the 16th she has double ear infections. So now she is on antibiotics for the ear infections and breathing treatments for the RSV, oh boy! Then on the 15th Brett started feeling bad and actually sounded like death on the 16th when he had to keep Bella while I could finally go back to work. When Brett took Bella into the MD, she said he probably had RSV too, are you kidding me? Well I started Brett on a Z-pack that I had left over from my pregnancy and Mucinex-D and Tylenol and whatever else I thought would help (echinacea). He thankfully is much better today (18th)! I'm so ready to get back to normal. I never thought I would miss work! Hopefully in the morning, we all wake up well (well enough that is) and Bella can go to daycare and Brett and I can go to work! Prayers are needed that Bella's lungs clear up, her snotty nose is getting better, but her cough is still pretty bad at times. Also, prayers that Brett is also on the road to recovery. And finally prayers that I don't lose my mind! Bella is not her happy, cheerful self when she doesn't feel good and Brett is not a lot of help with her when he feels bad, so I've been going solo. Besides all that I am trying to think about Bella's first birthday party, I can not believe I just wrote that, she's gonna be 1 already!!!!! This has truly been the best year of my life, I love that little girl so much and am truly blessed that she has grown and developed normally and is very smart! She is walking very well with hand-held assist, she'll be doing it all by herself soon, I think. I can't imagine my life without her and I hope she knows how much she is loved. Until next time..........

Well the Holidays are over, back to the daily grind....

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. The holidays go by too fast! We had a blast with Bella on her first Christmas. She got stuck on her first toy and I had to be the mean Momma and take it away so she could open all the rest of her toys. She had fun, but didn't quite know what to do as far as opening the presents. She mostly wanted to climb on all the boxes, imagine that! Santa brought Bella lots of new toys that are more age appropriate than the stash she had before, we didn't want to buy her too many and then Santa not be able to bring any. She is starting to walk really well behind one of her new toys, no time now before she'll be taking off on her own. We really enjoyed my family being here for Christmas. Dad, Mom, Sarah, and Megan were all here with us at our home on Christmas day. We then travelled to Haynesville for Christmas at Bev and Keith's house which is always fun as well. I got a sewing machine and Bev has promised to teach me all she knows, which I hope is a lot, b/c I know nothing. I plan to sew Bella lots of new spring clothes and maybe I'll get so good I can quit my job and just sell clothes for babies. We came home on Monday the 29th, thankfully over our entire trip, we did not get a ticket, but we did get stopped once (we got a warning). Megan and Dad and Sarah all came back on 12/31. Brett popped some fireworks, but unfortunately I didn't get to see them b/c I was very sick, something I caught while in LA. I was sick all day New Years day too and then didn't go to work on Friday either. Finally feeling better today! Sadly, Megan is leaving for Alaska tomorrow, I wasn't able to convince her to stay with us here in Houston. I am really going to miss her! Well I guess that's a wrap on our 2008 Holiday season! Hope you and yours had as good of one as me and my family did!