27 Weeks: Bananas, Bronchiliatis, and Beauty

Our Beautiful Joy was a very sick girl this week and visited the Dr. three different times. The RSV and Bronchialitis continued, and she even had a chest xray to see if it had turned into pneumonia. Thankfully, the xray showed no pneumonia, and we continued with the breathing treatments and antibiotic. She has been up and down all week with fever, coughing, congestion, and this soft whining constantly. It just breaks my heart to see her so sick. I am praying and believing for a much better week next week and a much healthier baby. We tried new baby foods this week-bananas, carrots, green beans and applesauce. She LOVED the bananas, but didn't really appeciate the carrots and applesauce. She seemed okay with the green beans. Despite being sick, she continued to smile at the doctors, nurses, and everyone who saw her. She took the breathing treatments without much complaint, and even smiled and laughed while getting x-rays. The technician said he had never seen a baby so happy during an exam. She has a heart of joy and she shares that joy and her beautiful smiles with us daily. We are so blessed to be her parents!

26 weeks-A Very Sick Bella :(

On Monday of this week, Bella woke up with the same cough that she had two weeks ago. It gradually worsened throughout the week and her breathing seemed labored, so I took her back to the Dr on Thursday. He diagnosed her with RSV and Bronchitis and said that she was wheezing terribly and having bronchial spasms. He prescribed a Nebulizer machine and breathing treatments every four hours. It has broken my heart to see my baby girl in so much discomfort. Her chest is rattling and her cough is so deep and terrible. She is doing great with the breathing treatments and smiles the entire time (appparently most babies cry the entire time). After each treatment, her nose seems to drain and she sneezes frequently, so hopefully that means the mucous is getting out of her chest. Please pray for our baby girl that God would heal her completely and that these nasty germs would stay far away from our home and our precious children.

6 Months Old-Our Little Diva!

My, how time has flown by! Our precious Bella Joy is 6 months old! She delights us daily with her sweet spirit, beautiful smiles, silly giggles, and baby kisses. Her personality is so sweet and friendly. She smiles immediately at everyone who talks to her and is almost always in a joyful mood. She said her first word, "mama" on January 10th (2 days after she turned 6 mths old), and it made her "mama's" heart smile. She enjoys saying it over and over :). She is eating baby food now. So far, we have tried Gerber rice cereal from the box, sweet peas, pears, apricot cereal, and sweet potatoes. She loves the Rice Cereal from the box! So far she likes the pears and peas the best. She did not like the sweet potatoes and apricot cereal at all! She is sitting up great, and when placed on her tummy, she tries her best to scoot and get up on her knees. Her absolute favorite thing to do is to eat her feet and suck on her toes. She leans forward in a frantic effort to get her socks off and her feet in her mouth :). We love our baby girl more than words can express and thank God for the beauty that she brings to our lives! Happy Half Year Sweet Bella Joy! You are a Gift to our Hearts!

6 Months Old-Beautiful in Black

Sweet Bella turned six months old today, January 8th! Happy Half Birthday to our BEAUTIFUL JOY! I will post her monthly pictures later with an update about her, but I just wanted to share some beautiful pictures we took today before church. She looked breathtaking in black with her porcelain skin and big blue eyes. Her Aunt Heather did a great job editing the pictures with cool special effects. Enjoy!

25 weeks: Vacation, Warm Clothes, & her First Taste of Cereal!

This week we took a family vacation to Fort Worth to visit old friends and do fun things together. Overall Bella did good on the long car trip (9 hrs), thanks to the "Baby Whisperer" (a.k.a Praise Baby Dvds). It was very cold there so Bella was able to wear her warm and snuggly coats and outfits :). We tried out her new McLaren Butterfly stroller and she loved being able to sit up in it and look around at everything. Now that she is sitting up well and almost 6 mths old, we tried giving her rice cereal for the first time. She loved it and ate the entire bowl without being messy at all. Next week we plan to introduce veggies and then fruits.