The Chronicles of Bri: Brianne Updates and Pictures

It's been so long, where do I begin... We just had Brianne's 5 month old pics taken and they turned out fantastic! She's growing like a weed and learning new things every day. She loves rice cereal, especially with peaches in it and tonite we had our first veggie - green beans. They were hit too! She's super strong and can roll over now, both directions, and nearly sits on her own too. She's a little chatter box and loves to squeal and laugh. She's nearly too long for her 3-6 month sleepers too, she's 25.5 inches long!! And at her last doctor appointment she was 13 lbs 8 oz.

So, in my last post I mentioned our hospital visit and the EKG and echo... Well about 2 weeks ago we took her to the Vascular Malformation clinic at Chidren's Hospital because her hemangioma was bleeding and super sore. While we were there, the doctor looked at her EKG results and said they wouldn't do surgery until they were sure her heart was fine. Apparently the EKG showed she might have right ventricular hypertrophy but no one had told us that. So they did another EKG in the office and called me a week later with the results. The results this time showed she might have left ventricular hypertrophy. They explained it as the right ventricle (that leads to the lungs) is slightly enlarged. This could be because of all the apnea spells she had which caused the heart to pump blood to the lungs harder. Obviously, at this point I freaked...

They referred us to a Cardiologist at Children's and we go on Sept 7. Everything seems to be going good now though. Her hemangioma is heeling since we've been keeping it covered and doesn't hurt her anymore. Her reflux seems to be better too. But she had the croup and then an ear infection and now she is super congested and there's not really much we can do for her. Other than that, she's happy and full of smiles, sleeping through the night, eating good, gaining weight and always entertaining us.

We went to the zoo a couple weekends ago with Sam, Alex, Jack and Anna. It was super hot though so we didn't stay very long but she seemed to enjoy herself, at first. She just got so hot! And the AC in my car isn't working too good so we had a hot ride home. I was trying to get us there quickly but was scared because my freaking check engine light came on! I called Jason freaking like "what do we do if the car breaks down, how will a tow truck take the car seat, what if Brianne dehydrates...". We made it home okay and Jason fixed my car today. We had a real estate agent come by last weekend to meet with us and give us a market appraisal of the condo. She was great too, was referred to me by Liz, the mom of 2 preemies whose blog I've been reading. I'm not sure how soon we'll be able to actually move because it's not a good time to sell a house and we're both pretty deep in debt right now with all the hospital bills but it can't hurt to put our feelers out.

Jason's and my first anniversary is coming up and we've got big plans! Can you believe it's been a year?!?!? We are going to drop Brianne off at my parents and go kayaking! Then drinks and dinner at Hooters (yes I know that doesn't sound too romantic but it's one of the many places we went on our first date). Then we're going home to open our champagne we saved from the wedding (we didn't keep the top tier of the cake). So Brianne will be having her second sleep over at her memaw and pops' house. Ironically enough, our anniversary falls on Grandparents Day so it all works out in the end.

Last weekend we had Bri on her activity matt on the floor and out of the clear blue she rolled over onto her tummy! Then she kept on going and rolled onto her back. She did this like 3 or 4 more times and went half way across the room! We got some of it on video too. She has also found her feet and spends most the time with her ankles in her hands. One night I heard her grunting in her co-sleeper at about 3 am and I looked over and she had rolled over onto her belly and was being too lazy to roll back. So I had to roll her over, but then she kept trying to do it! I had to sleep with my hand in front of her to keep her from doing it again. And this morning she woke up at like 6 and I was awake too but I just laid there and watched her. She was totally entertaining herself! She was grabbing her ankles and rolling onto her side and back onto her back. I put her glow worm in with her and she played with him and eventually found her thumb and put herself back to sleep. I was so proud of her independence! We have such a good baby!!

I'm sure there are a million other things to write about but I can't think of any right now. Oh, except I have already started to plan her first birthday (yes it's still over 6 months away but I plan, it's what I do). I've been working on her invitations because I'm doing photo collage ones and of course there will be a St Patrick's Day theme. I've also been writing a poem to her that I will give to her on her birthday that she can read when she grows up.

So, I leave you with pictures: