Monday, January 25, 2010

Worst Hospital ER EVER

Today my mom started having stomach pain around 11:30 and by the middle of lunch it was excruciating, so we made the decision to go ahead and go to Gainesville because last time she had this happen we went to Shands Jax and by the time they finished arguing about who could operate on her and where it would be done, her pain had gone away and they just sent her home. We didn't want that to happen so we went ahead to Gainesville.

We got there around 3 and checked in. The room was decently full, but no one was "sick", thankfully. Everyone was there for broken bones, abdominal pain or accident trauma, we got a spot in the corner away from where anyone would be walking by, and started waiting. The people working there were the rudest, least helpful and quite frankly, dirtiest healthcare professionals I have ever encountered. The hospital will be hearing from us as well as several other people, because it was 9 hours later before they called us back.

Around 12:15am, we were taken to a room where they started doing tests on her, including an xray, ultrasound and blood work. They came back around 4 and told us that since her gall stones had moved again and were no longer blocking the duct (which is what causes the extreme pain) that it was not an emergency issue and that they would send her home. Her pain is not completely gone, but when we talked to her lung transplant doctor, he had tried to get her in to see the general surgeon, but couldn't today. Since we both were tired and dirty, we came on home because hanging around Gainesville indefinitely was not acceptable. lol. They are going to get her in to see the surgeon in a couple of weeks when she goes for her clinicals.

I cannot express how frustrated it has been dealing with this and with Shands Gainesville. It was horrible! Just praying that everything will work out.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Milestone Moment

Brookelynne just accomplished a great feat! She was playing on her play mat, chewing on one of the toys hanging down and I look over and she's turned herself over from her back to her stomach!!! I, of course, was so excited, so I went to see if Mitch was asleep. He was, so I didn't tell him. I came back in the living room and took a picture of her and as I stood back up, she turned herself back onto her back!!!! YAY!!! So then I went and woke Mitch up to tell him and he was really excited too! lol We're such dorks, I know but its a big step!!! YAY for Brookelynne!!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Brookelynne's Baby Dedication

Today we had Brooke's Baby Dedication at church. We were so excited to get to have all of her grandparents there and most of her aunts and uncles. We got to the church early enough so that we could feed her and then change her clothes before we took pictures at 5:30. She wore a dedication dress that her Great-Aunt Doris crocheted for her and she looked beautiful in it! She even had matching shoes! (She has the matching bonnet too, but it didn't stay on well, so we went ahead and put a bow on instead). This is the picture that the church took of our little family!



We were the forth or fifth family to go and Dr Brunson gave us the meaning for her name and a verse for her. It was a really sweet time, and when the dedications were over we took her into the service with us for a few minutes so that everyone would get to hold her for a little while. Afterwords we went to dinner at Olive Garden and had a great time!! :)

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Mortifying Moments #1

I have decided that I am going to begin a series of posts, starting today, on an 'as needed' basis called "Mortifying Moments." These posts will include the accounts of the motherhood moments that are so mortifying that I just want to crawl into a hole and never come out! lol. I got this idea today after having my first "mortifying moment" of 2010, it went a little something like this...

Today I had a baby shower to attend for a sweet girl from church named Brenda Robinson! It was hosted by Whitney and Julie and I knew most of the attendees from church, and we had a really nice time! Brenda got many great things and everyone talked and caught up and it was really lovely. Unfortunately Brooke didn't get the memo that she was supposed to be on her best behavior...

When we first arrived, I had a bottle ready for her so that she would be full and happy. She ate and was very sweet for a little while, and then as soon as Brenda started opening presents, she got fussy and I mean REALLY FUSSY! Within a few minutes I was in Maxwell's nursery trying to get her to stop crying as she screamed at the top of her lungs! And nothing was working. I had changed her, rocked her, bounced her, walked her and it was not helping. It was only 3:15 and she usually doesn't go to sleep until after 4:30, so she shouldn't have been really tired or hungry because she ate at 2:15. But I made her a bottle anyway and started getting my stuff together, because she was not cooperating. She took the bottle, but would suck for 15 seconds and then scream, and then do that again. So I got her in her car seat and was walking to the door when she kicked the bottle out of her mouth and was sound asleep. Whitney said I noticed that and said "Why don't you see if she'll stay asleep and then you can stay?" So I went back into the kitchen and she stayed asleep! lol. But I was seriously ready to crawl behind a wall and hide!

As if that weren't enough drama for me in one day, we took another swing at it about an hour later. Brooke woke up and was in a very good mood after a 45 minute nap, but I no sooner pulled her out of her carrier that she pooped! I began getting a diaper and wipes because she was definitely going to need a diaper change! :) As I walked across the house to the nursery so I could change her, Angela and Jennifer were on the couch with their little girls and called me over. They said we were going to take pictures of all the mothers and babies, so I needed to sit down! I told them that Brooke smelled and needed to be changed but if they didn't mind smelling it while we took the pictures then I guess it could wait.

We sat down and got everyone in the picture, and between the different cameras and the 3 different pictures we took, we were sitting there for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Brooke had pooped again. When we were finished, I moved Brooke from my lap, to my knees so I could stand up and when I looked down, I had a pool of poop in my lap and some on my shirt. She had it up her back and all over her dress! I was totally humiliated, and had to get napkins to soak it up before I could even stand! Jennifer helped me get Brooke's clothes off, and we held her under the faucet of the bathtub to get her clean. (For the record, she DID NOT like that). :) I then had to borrow clothes from Whitney to drive home in! It was definitely a day I won't forget anytime soon and will probably tell ALL of her boyfriends about it one day! :) Hopefully there will only be one or two more of these posts this year, but I have a feeling that the older she gets, the more creative ways she'll find to embarrass me!

Here's the pic! Just so that you know I'm not lying!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Brooke is 3 Months Old!!


Brookelynne in her playseat that her Aunt Betty gave her!



Such a stinker!

I seriously CANNOT believe that my precious little baby girl is already THREE MONTHS OLD! That is CRAZY! :) It seems like just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital! That is just not so! She's growing leaps and bounds and sometimes I just blink my eyes and she's bigger! She weighs 12 lbs and 8 oz the last time that we checked (last week) and may be closer to 13 lbs by now! She has complete control of her little head and knows exactly what she want to do with it! And by-golly if she doesn't want to look at you, she'll whip that head back and forth to make sure she doesn't! HA! She loves sitting up, and hates being laid back, except occasionally when she's eating. She's becoming extremely expressive, she smiles, frowns, laughs, and grunts! It is SO CUTE! I just want to eat her up! She'll talk up a storm if she wants to, but won't do it on demand if my life depended on it! Every day I can see her learning more, and trying more, and its just amazing!


"Ka Pow!" :) My little ninja!

Just today Mitch got her laughing so hard over and over, it was adorable! Almost every day he works on something with her (ie they work on "our Spanish," or "our numbers", or "our letters") but HIS favorite thing for them to work on is saying "Daddy". So to accomplish this end, he started working on her 'd's. So he would say "Brookelynne, let's work on our "D"s. We can say 'Daddy,' 'Doggy', 'Doorbell,' which goes 'ding ding ding ding ding'." And he would say the first words really slowly and then say the 'dings' really quick and she would just laugh! After a few times she got to where she knew it was coming so at "doggy" she'd smile and would be pulling her legs up when he got to "doorbell" and started laughing even before he got to the 'dings.' I was able to grab the video camera and get it on tape! I loved it! So precious!

That video is going to be uploaded some time soon, but until then I'll leave you with one more picture!


My sweetie with her beanie and bow!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

1 Weekend down, 51 to go!

Well this has been the first weekend of 2010 and I'm glad to say that Mitch and I had a very good time! Friday was New Year's Day and Mitch and I went to the Gator Bowl to see the Seminoles play West Virginia in Bobby Bowden's last game!


Marie, Kris, Mitchell and Me!

We bought tickets with Kris and Marie in the south endzone and we tailgated with Russell and Kelly and some other ppl that I didn't know! :) While the weather was pretty bad all morning, we still cooked hamburgers and had a really good time, out in the cold and rain! :)


Marie, Kelly and Me sitting under the back hatch to stay out of the rain!

The game was really good and even though the Noles were major underdogs, they played their hearts out and won it for Coach Bowden! We had an amazing time and it was even more fun for Mitch and Kris because they had never been to a college football game before! We're probably going to get season tickets next year so we can have that kind of fun more often! :)


Mitch and Me!

Saturday morning Mom, Brooke and I headed to Madison to see Aunt Betty. (She had heart surgery on Wednesday). While we did leave later than I had wanted (because I left the presents at home and Mitch had to bring them to me), we were on our way and Kelley called to tell us that Aunt Betty had been having chest pain all night and that the doctor wanted her to come into the ER. So they left Hannah and Rebecca at the house and we went there and waited to find out what the doctor told Aunt Betty, Uncle Alvin, Kelley and Laura. The girls had a good time with Brooke and we were horsing around a lot, while they were doing tests on Aunt Betty.


Hannah holding Brooke


Rebecca holding Brookelynne

Aunt Gail and Uncle Mark stopped by unexpectedly and caught me playing cheerleader as if I still were one! lol. They didn't stay long, but had wanted to check on Aunt Betty. Thankfully we heard, shortly after they left, that it was just some inflammation around her heart from the procedure and that the discomfort she was feeling was perfectly normal because of her small stomach, and will go away in a few days to a week. :)

They got back to the house around 3 or 4 and Uncle Alvin came straight over to the couch and took Brooke from me! That meant a lot to me that he wanted to see her and hold her!


Aunt Kelley and Aunt Laura playing with Brookelynne

Then Kelley and Laura took their turns, and Aunt Betty got to feed her and snuggle with her after that. We spent the next few hours having dinner, catching up and opening presents! We had a wonderful time and got some great gifts too!:)


Aunt Betty rocking Brooke, with her new beanie on!


Uncle Alvin holding Brooke's hand!

Mom and I loaded up around 8:30 and got on the road. Unfortunately we didn't get very far before the car started acting up. After a few near death experiences of ppl running up on us going 80 mph while we were going 40 mph w/ our flashers on, we finally got to an exit and were able to make it to a gas station before it really died! Uncle Alvin and Laura came and picked us up and took us back to the house where we had an unexpected sleepover! haha!


Me and the girls in our PJs!

The thing that I really liked about this was that Brookelynne is her sweetest and most interactive at night, usually between 9 and 11, and the only people who get to see that are Mitchell and me. So I was really glad that they got to see that side of her! When I went to change her into some pjs, I had her laughing and of course that meant everyone else was laughing too! :) It was sweet!

When we got up Sunday morning, we all had breakfast and Aunt Betty got some more time with Brooke! We got the truck towed back to Jacksonville, and then Laura took us home. Mom and I really enjoyed spending time with "just Laura" because we never get too! We had a really nice time and then I transferred myself into my car with Brooke and headed home. I was sooo exhausted that I took a shower and slept for most of the afternoon! But what can I say? We've got one weekend of 2010 down, just 51 to go! :)