Look who's excited to move to Hawaii.....

P.S- Thank you Tita Lisa for my new outfit!

Muzak.

Some of you may have noticed that I recently added a music playlist (scroll all the way down to see it) to the blog. Tonight I decided to update it and add a few more songs. In doing so I feel compelled to defend myself over adding a country song. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't do country. I don't have a problem with it, (Ray loves it) it's just not my cup of tea. Growing up my Mother listened to it and always said that Leann Womack's "I Hope you Dance," reminded her of my sister and I. Years later it does in fact remind us of our daughters too. All of the songs remind me of Romy in one way shape or form. The song "Pretty Dress" by Rosie Thomas really struck a chord. Listen to it and you'll see why. Here's the lyrics:

Put your pretty dress on
It's time for you to go to the dance
Tie your hair in ribbons and lace
And wear pearls round your neck
And all the pretty princes will see you
All the pretty princes will see you
Some day
Some day

Put your red boots on
It's time for you to walk home from school
Every one will laugh
They'll point fingers at you
They'll be cruel
But cover up your ears and don't listen
Because you'll know much better than them
Some day
Some day

And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you

Put your red coat on
And walk with a light in the woods
If it gets dark don’t get scared
There's so much waiting for you
Cover up your tears and don’t show them
Cause you'll know much better than them
Some day
Some day

And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you

Cause they don't see you like i see you
If they did, they'd see
The nice little girl whose
Grown up to become homecoming queen

Put your pretty dress on
Put your red boots on

And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you
And we'll wave to you
And we'll wave to you

Put your pretty dress on
Put your red boots on
Put your red coat on
Put your pretty dress on
Put your pretty dress on
Put your red coat on
Put your red boots on
Put you pretty dress on


Well I guess I can't write and not post a picture so I will leave you all with my new favorite picture. It's of Romy and her Lolo (great grandpa) or as I like to call them "Ebony and Ivory."

Mystery Rash.

It's not Chicken Pox. It's a mystery rash. I took Romy to the ER and waited patiently for a few hours just to be sent home with some pedialyte and glycerin suppositories and not a whole lot of answers. I personally think it's Roseola. More spots sprang up last night, but this morning they are a lighter shade. Romy doesn't seem to be itchy and she doesn't have a fever so I'm not too worried. But I am worried about her eating or shall I say, lack thereof. For the past week, Romy has slowly been decreasing how much she'll eat. Yesterday was the worst, she only drank 8 friggin' ounces of formula! The ER doc didn't seem too worried about that either since she wasn't dehydrated. I think I'd have to bring Romy in with a gaping head wound before they got worried. Whatever. Anyway, today was a little better and she drank 15 or so ounces, but for an underweight baby that usually drinks 20-24 ounces a day, that isn't nearly enough. She hasn't been interested in solid food lately either. She's also been really constipated and irritable too and her sleep schedule is so unpredictable...she woke up 4 times last night!! It doesn't help that she's got two more teeth about to erupt. Poor kid can't catch a break! I'll try to get her an appointment to see her pediatrician on Monday to discuss all of these funky problems. I'm sure a lot of this is related to her teething, but it's still a bit worrisome.

Polka Dots


I took this pic a few weeks ago...crazy kid.

Chicken Pox?!??!

I decided a while ago that I would NOT vaccinate Romy against the Chicken Pox. I did research on all of the vaccines and for the most part I'm pro-vaccination. But I thought to myself, "Isn't Chicken Pox a rite of passage for kids?." Not to mention that it contains actual human cells (from what human, I don't know) and cow fetus (yes COW) serum. Well, 9 days ago I took her to get her 12 month shots and failed to realize that that is when babies recieve the immunization. They had all of the syringes prepared and were going over what exactly she was recieving. I felt bad for failing to mention that I didn't want the vaccine and knew the vaccine would have to be thrown out and go to waste if I denied it. So long story short, Romy got the chicken pox vaccine and in turn got vaccine induced CHICKEN POX. Well, I'm assuming that's what all these little red spots are. What do you think? Chicken Pox or some other rash? The only out of the ordinary food she's eaten lately was a vanilla milkshake from Burger King and some Kiwi fruit. Do you think it could be an allergic reaction instead? Click to enlarge the pictures.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Even though we were without Raymond this year, we still managed to have a pretty good Valentine's day. Daddy sent flowers and Romy got a bracelet! I had a couple of friends over, who's husbands were also deployed and we had a yummy dinner, chocolate covered strawberries for dessert, and watched a movie. We're heading down to San Antonio in a few hours for a Neurology appointment tomorrow and of course to hang our with family.

These boots were made for walkin' and that's just what they'll do.........Check out her bracelet.

Pretty Flowers from Dad

My little Rock Star

She LOVES her exersaucer....thanks Grandma Dude!

Romy sitting pretty with her PT, Carol.

Drumroll please........

Romy weighs 13 pounds and 15 ounces! She's gained half a pound in 3 weeks! Pray that she keeps on climbing those charts!

Goober.

Romy's eating one of her favorite foods, homemade butternut squash soup. She loves this stuff. I made a huge batch and froze it for future meals. I added a lot of fatty goodness, so hopefully she'll gain a bit of weight. We've also discovered La Creme brand yogurt that has 140 calories a container. Romy can usually polish off half of it.

She's been a goofball lately, always smiling and goofing off for the camera. I can't get enough of that little lady.

P.S- Her eyebrows make her look like the Grinch, don't you think?

Prayer request.

I've recently begun to follow a blog,http://themcclenahans.blogspot.com/, the McClenahan's 11 month old daugher, Cora, lost her life battling cancer. Please say a prayer for her family. Please ask to give them strength through this difficult time, and maybe leave an encouraging comment. Hug your kid's tight today.

Smiley.

Romy has the greatest smile ever. No, really she does!




Her mad face is pretty cute too.

Munchkin fever

Okay, a new camera charger is in the mail so don't worry, new pics will be up soon! I didn't plan on updating until I could post new pictures, but a lot has happened, so I think I should update before I forget everything. So let's see....

Romy got sick for the first time in like 9 months, not too shabby for a micropreemie. She had a minor case of bronchiolitis but bounced back after only a few days of wheezing and coughing. A couple of nebulizer treatments and some extra sleep and she was good as new.

Little Romy is crazy constipated. Poor thing, she cries and stiffens every muscle in her body. She even bled a little! I bit the Mom bullet and helped her out a bit. I think other Mom's know what I mean. Gross, right? Anything for her. So I think I'm going to incorporate a few ounces of prune juice in her daily diet. Hopefully it helps. Me and her doc decided to pull her off of the nasty thickener which I believe is adding to her constipation, and replace it with brown rice cereal. More fiber equals more poop, right? We'll see how it goes.

Romy has officially been labeled with "Failure to thrive." The kid won't grow! She's a little string bean. Signs are pointing to some kind of hormonal problem brought on by the steroids. She's been on them for a while now, 8 months I think. Before she even started steroid treatment, she was a little chubby, that leads me to blame steroids too. We took her off propranalol (hemangioma meds) and she's in the process of being weaned off of steroids. She'll be completely off of them in 2 weeks. Hopefully that helps and she can pick up some chunk. More testing is being done, they're even doing ANOTHER chromosome analysis.

Romy had a developmental appointment today. It went pretty well. Her adjusted age is 9 months and she's in the 7-8 month range for fine motor skills(picking stuff up, playing with stuff), 6-7 for oro-motor (speech and eating) Because of the cerebral palsy, she's not tested for gross motor (sitting, crawling etc.) So she's delayed but not by much and she did much better than both the doctor's and I thought she would do. We don't give her enough credit! We saw them 2.5 months ago and she was gauged at 4-5 months, so she's come pretty far. Her social skills seem to be intact and hams it up for anyone that looks her way, so that's a great sign of development.

So other than being a scrawny little one, she's doing great. She's becoming more and more curious. She's mesmerized by mirrors. Toys hold her interest more, and she likes to be read to. Overall she continues to beat odds and impress me everyday. I can't thank God enough for such an amazing daughter.