Currently

Ruby finished preschool on Monday. They had a Circus day party and Ruby was the elephant. This year has been so good for her and she has made some good little friends. I know she will look forward to Kindergarten in 2011. We decided that she will be doing preschool at home next year. It will be an interesting adventure, but one I am looking forward to. Ruby absolutely love her teacher Mrs. Forsyth, on her second to last day she came home with a packet of work that consisted of work she did at the beginning of the year and things she did at the end. The difference was amazing. She had learned so much this year.


I have started getting smiles from Eli occasionally. He is such a little love.

We are working on getting his splints still. They had to special order the supplies to make them. ECI was supposed to come on Monday for an evaluation and never showed. Then I got a call from his caseworker on Wednesday to reschedule. Somehow there was a mix up and she got a message that I had canceled our appointment. She appologized profusely and we got a new appointment set up for June 8th. Eli had his MRI on Tuesday, and it went really well. They had to give him multiple doses of medication to help him stay asleep so they could get the images they needed. He was very sleepy after the procedure and wouldn't open his eyes for 5 hours. He would respond to us moving him around and would take a bottle so they sent us home. It was nice when he finally opened his eyes and was extremely hungry. It was a blessing that Jed was able to come with me. It would have been a long test without him there. We got the results yesterday, the images showed that there was no tearing of the nerves, which is excellent and then we discussed what we need to do until his next neurology appointment in June, all of which is in the works. We were extremely relieved with the news.

Ruby is our little nursemaid and loves to hold Eli up to her shoulder and move him around.


Saturday my Grandma Delly was down for a visit along with my Aunt Marla. We had a girls day out and had a wonderful time. Eli and his cousin Josie were born a day apart, when you see them together though you would never guess that. They are about 4 lbs different, it will be fun watching them grow up together being so close in age.

"Who's behind?"

"Mine."

I do love the humor in Toy Story 2. Here is a little clip from Ruby's Mothers Day program at school. It was so fun to watch her. Each of her classmates answered questions about their moms. The answers were hilarious. It was a fun day. The little boy sitting to her left is named John. I was talking to his mom the other day when we came to pick them up and she was telling me that John talks about Ruby all of the time and always wants to buy things for her. On another day we were getting into the car and John told his sister "That's my girlfriend." He then proceeded to scream "I love you Ruby!" as she was getting into her car seat.

My boy

Eli was one month old yesterday. If I felt like time flew before it feels so even more. It has been such an incredible blessing adding this little guy to our family. When I was at the hospital with Eli in the nursery the lactation consultant recommended doing skin to skin time with him, especially because I'm not nursing. It is time I look forward to, I love the quiet bonding it provides.


If I were to describe Eli, it would go something like this.

-As long as he is fed he is content.
- He can sleep anywhere, but seems more comfortable sleeping while being held. (As we speak, I am hen pecking at the keyboard while he sleeps in my arms.)
-He has such an easy going nature, and such a sweet spirit.
-He is my little cuddle bug.
-Eli has the deepest blue eyes. Sometimes when he looks at me, I wonder what he would tell me if he could.



There is nothing quite like a new baby. It has been so sweet to see my girls want to be actively a part of Eli's care. Often when I feed him, Emma comes over to help hold the bottle and then tries to take it out of his mouth, and when I tell her not to take it away she says "He needs to breave." Which was the case when he first came home. Ruby loves to help with bathing him and is helpful to get whatever I need.

EMG

Not really sure what it stands for but that is what we traveled up to PMC for yesterday. My mom and sister were saints to help with the girls. I am so grateful because it would have been impossible to take them.

As we got up there we did the usual routine of weight and length check and then off to the room to wait. We were then transferred to another room where the test would take place. I sat on the patient bed with Eli on a pillow on my lap and they placed little white sticky sensors on his hand in various nerve locations and then they would take a two pronged shocking device and press a button to send the electrical pulse. Then they would measure the how long it took for it reach one point to the nerve. (Don't worry when I say shock. They showed me what it felt like and I could hardly feel it.) Then they placed a needle that was hooked up to a microphone in different nerve sites, and were watching for p waves, amplitudes and bunch of other things that went over my head. Eli did really well for most of the test, but they put the needle in right behind his elbow and make him furious. Can't say that I blame him. As soon as I was able to put him back up to my shoulder to comfort him and talk quietly in his ear he would be calm immediately.

Basically the run down on the test is this. They verified that it is indeed a brachial plexus nerve injury. So on our end we have been working on getting him bilateral wrist splints (Which has been more difficult than I thought because he is so small. But the company we are working with is very helpful and looking into what options we have, or possibly custom making him a pair.) We have also been in touch with Early Childhood Intervention to get an appointment set up, so he can be evaluated for physical therapy. We have an appointment set up June 17th with his neurologist to see if he has made progress. He also has an MRI set up on the 25th so that they can have a visual of the extent of the damage. They will have to sedate him for the procedure and I am hoping Jed can get the day off so that he can come with me.

At the end of his appointment yesterday they said that if they don't see improvement by 6 months of age we will probably want to look into surgery to improve the movement in his hands. If this was the route we were to go, we would be going out of state to either Oregon or Texas since those are the two closest locations that preform the surgery. I am hoping that it doesn't come to that.

I was a wreck on the way home from the hospital. As I was talking with Brent we figured in the state that I was in I probably shouldn't have been driving. Thankfully I made it back to my mom's unscathed. I am feeling better and hopeful that taking these measures will bring improvement. I found so much comfort and support in talking with family about what has been going on. I always feel so loved and find so much assurance that all will be well with our little guy.

A few words

Are in need of being said about these two. Emma is my child who, if she wants something she does it. She isn't one to wait around for help if it doesn't come in a timely manner. Hence, she scaled the pantry flour bin and a shelf to get herself some crackers while Ruby was at school yesterday. One of her favorite phrases is "It's not fair!" Sometimes when she has to go to her room for think time, she always tells me she loves me after we have the reminder talk about why she had think time in the first place. I delight in our ritual of singing "Snuggle puppy" together as she gets tucked in at night. Emma delights in teasing Ruby and taking things from her, because she knows Ruby won't hurt her to get them back, and I think she just really likes the thrill of the chase. Most of the time Ruby can't catch her, and it takes a couple of laps for me to catch her, all the while she laughs, until she gets caught and then she cries.



Recently Ruby had her eye appointment up at PMC and her Ophthalmologist was thrilled at her progess. He was amazed at how her visual acuity has improved. She can see much smaller letters from a far distance than she used to. He said it was very obvious that her patching is helping and that she is doing it. I gave her all of the credit, because she is willing to do it and doesn't drag her feet. We will continue to do the patching for another 4 months until her next visit and we will see where we are at.



As of January 1st we made a bed making chart for Ruby to give her some motivation. She completed her chart at the end of April and she just earned her reward. We tried talking her into doing a one on one outing with daddy but she insisted on having "The Ariel Barbie just like Ellee's" It was a second choice, what she really wanted was a Jessie doll (from Toy Story) but they were all sold out and way to pricey. She goes back and forth to the bathroom to change Ariel's tail color in the sink. She said some pretty humorous thing today, Eli's skin is peeling up by his eyelid's and when Ruby noticed she said "Mommy, his skin is falling apart!" This afternoon I was changing Eli on the bed and he was crying and Ruby said,
R:"Why is he crying?"
Me: "I don't know."
R: "I think it's because he doesn't like his name."

Life

I was talking to my SIL Sarah yesterday, and at first I missed her call and as I was leaving her a message I said that I was getting the kids in the car. And it struck me as funny to say that because Ruby was at school. It used to be that I was just getting Emma in the car. Anyway, I sure love these three little ones. As I look back at pictures of Emma as a baby I realize that she and Eli could be twins, minus the fact that they are a different gender. They look so much alike. Don't you think?



Last week before FHE Ruby was sitting on the couch with me while I fed Eli. She was holding the Gospel Art Kit and was telling Eli stories and showing him pictures. Most of them were pretty accurate, until she turned to a picture of Mormon abridging the plates. She said to him "Eli, this is Mormon. He was a Prophet and was very, very English." I couldn't stop laughing and wondered where she came up with it. She looked downright pleased with herself.

It has been great, the past two weekends I have gotten a nap in. One was over 3 hours long. It was blissful. Jed has taken such good care of me and I don't mind a bit. I am so thankful for all of his help.

The girls love to cuddle Eli, and whenever Eli is doing anything other than sleeping Emma will ask "What's wrong with Bubba?" When I got on to post I thought I had a lot to write about, I'm not sure what I have forgotten. One thing is for sure, we are loving life as a family of five.