Feeling MUCH Better!

Last Sunday morning when we went in to get Abigail up, she felt very warm. We took her temperature, but she didn't have a fever. But you know when you just know something is wrong with your child???....we just knew. That night, she had a high fever as well as when we got her up the next morning. We called the doctor and took her in Monday evening.

Her ears looked fine, throat looked fine....they couldn't find anything other than a fever. The doctors were guessing a virus, possibly Roseola, which is a virus that starts with a high fever and then a rash develops. BUT because of her heart condition and recent heart surgery, they wanted to see her back on Wednesday if her fever continued.

Abigail wasn't really acting terribly sick...no runny nose or cough. Just a high fever, fussier than normal and not eating. Tuesday night, her fever climbed over 104. We were obviously concerned so we called her doctor. We spoke to the on-call doctor and she told us to bring her in first thing the next morning. Again, her ears and throat looked fine. They wanted to rule out a urinary tract infection so they put in a catheter and took a urine sample. The UTI test came back negative and they still couldn't find a source of the fever.

The doctors and Abigail's cardiologist were concerned that she had Endocarditis, which is an infection of the heart tissue and/or valve. This is obviously very serious and made us all very nervous. They sent us downstairs to the hospital to have a series of blood tests done: Complete Blood Count and blood culture. The CBC came back quick (everything looked good other than she is still anemic because of the surgery), but the blood culture takes 5 days to get the full results, with 95% of the results coming back after 48 hours. They watch for any kind of growth, which is indicative of a virus.

Thursday, Abigail woke up without a fever. We were breathing a huge sign of relief. Now we just had to wait for the test results. Saturday, the doctor called us and said that everything looks good. Phew!

Apparently the possibility of Endocarditis is something we will always have to worry about because of Abigail's heart condition. We will always have to be extra cautious about her getting sick as well as while she is sick. There are many situations that will require Abigail to be placed on an antibiotic short term to prevent an infection (going to the dentist, large wounds...). Thankfully, we have an awesome team of doctors and they are helping us to take excellent care of our sweet baby girl. Like every parent, we will always worry about our little girl. For now, we are very grateful that Abigail is healthy (and happy!) and her test results came back great:-)

All better now! On to the pool!!! More on that to come:-)

Happy 19 Months, Little Love!!!

We cannot believe our little girl is now closer to 2 years old than she is to 1! It's no secret that Abigail was a bit of a difficult baby, but now....she is such a happy girl!!! She is constantly laughing or making us laugh. She is so silly and she knows it! We always say she has comedic timing. We just adore our little love!

At 19 months, Abigail weighs 22lbs. She wears mainly 12 month clothes and some 9 month, size 3/4 diapers and size 4 shoe. This little girl is GROWING!!! All of the doctors told us that Abigail will probably grow a lot after her heart surgery. Boy were they right!!! We think we have the only child that will go from size 9 month to size 18 months in one season! Some of the clothes that we bought her right before her surgery no longer fit and now her 12 month attire is starting to get snug! Goodness! She's not even really eating any more than she used to.

Doesn't she look bigger?!?

Abigail was laughing HYSTERICALLY! No one makes her laugh like her daddy:-)

Abigail still loves to be carried around a good bit (especially when we're cooking diner) and it's getting harder and harder to hold her for prolonged periods of time. It seems like just yesterday, Abigail fit in the palm of our hand and we could carry her around, doing all of our daily tasks. I think we need to pump some more iron! haha Abigail is completely obsessed with looking at the picture boards in the kitchen. She begs for us to hold her up for what seems like hours and ask her questions about the pictures. Abigail can pretty much identify everyone and everything that she sees. She still gets quite a kick out of pointing to everything.

The two biggest changes this month have definitely been getting rid of her binks and bottles. For the most part, she is doing great. Abigail has her moments every now and then where she melts down, but overall she is doing much better than we ever expected. Abigail still doesn't drink nearly as much milk as she used to, but we're hoping that will translate to eating more over time.

Abigail is like a little adult now. While she will ALWAYS be our baby, she is so grown up. There are so many times when we say something to her, not always knowing whether or not she will understand or not, and most of the time she does! She LOVES to help. Abigail really wants to feel like a big girl so she wants to help you with whatever you are doing. Abigail especially enjoys helping to set the table, put items away, get shoes and/or other items we need or ask for, water the flowers, clean the floor or table....the list goes on. Although when it comes time to clean up her toys....she pretends not to understand. Ha!

We think she'll make a great big sister one day!!! Such a big helper!

Awww....love the baby:-)

Abigail loves to be outside, which is where we spend most of our time. She enjoys playing on her swing (of course), writing with her chalk on the driveway, blowing bubbles, playing with her water table, going on walks, going to the playground/park...We're looking forward to taking her to the pool, lake and beach this month! If we have to be inside, we will most likely be in Abigail's playroom. She loves playing with all of her toys and climbing all over the couch and chairs. Her favorite toys of the month are her blocks/legos and grocery cart. Abigail has also been playing in the basement more. This, of course, requires tons of supervision because it's not exactly baby proof.

Abigail has really enjoyed playing with her friends. We like to get together for play dates about once a week or as often as possible and we go to at least one library program a week, which has been so much fun. It is so adorable to watch Abigail interact with her friends. She just seems so old!!!

Abigail is still somewhat of a pretty picky eater. She eats a pretty typical breakfast and lunch, but dinner is still a little more challenging. She's not really into the "typical" toddler foods. For breakfast, Abigail will either eat a banana/spinach/peanut butter smoothie, eggs, fruit, waffles, cereal, sausage or french toast. For lunch, she typically has a quarter of a grilled cheese and some of Ella's veggie pouch, yogurt, sliced turkey and fruit. Dinner is a smorgus board of cottage cheese, an orange, Ella's pouch, dates....and a bit of whatever else we're eating. She loves almost all fruit (especially oranges), chips, veggies sticks, graham crackers, pizza and ice cream/chocolate. She ate a chicken nugget with my parents, but won't touch them with us! Abigail is also quite the fan of ice! Not so good for those chompers, but she gets SO excited when she hears the ice machine and begs for a piece (or eight)!

Mmmmmmm ice cream!!!

Sleep has been a little more challenging recently. Some nights she sleeps through the night and others not so much. Same with the naps. Like everything, this is a phase. Hopefully we can get back to all of us getting some quality shut eye before the bags start creeping back!!!

Every day is a new and fun day with this little girl. We just love spending as much time as we possibly can together as a family. Happy 19 months, sweet baby girl!!! We love you more than anything in the entire world!!!

Two Months Ago Today

It is so hard to believe that just two months ago today, our little girl had open heart surgery. You would never know it except for the scar on her chest. We are so thankful for her and for how much joy she brings to our family. She is just the happiest, funniest little girl. She loves to be silly and put on a show. One night at dinner, she was being a hoot. Abigail was eating chopped dates and Colin asked for one. She would pretend to give him one and then pull it right back and start laughing. It was hilarious. That belly laugh...nothing like it!

"Haha! My dates!"

"Can I have one???" "No no no!"

"I'm gonna tickle you!!!"

"Gimme that!"

"Haha I still have them!"

"Oh no! Daddy stole them!"

"Silly Daddy!"

"Ahhh....my dates!"

Dinner time is always entertaining:-)

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

We've had a lot of changes around here recently. First, Abigail got rid of Mr. Binks (except for when sleeping). It was definitely time, but it was SO tragic! She has actually done MUCH better than we ever would have expected. Now when she gets up, we just put our hand out and ask for it and she gives it to us willingly. Such a big girl!

Then on Sunday, we switched from bottles to sippy cups. Abigail has used a sippy cup for over a year, but only for water. We have tried to put milk in them, but Abigail would refuse to drink it. We knew she was not going to be thrilled and she wasn't. Our pediatrician warned us that she probably wouldn't drink much milk until she got used to it. He was right. Abigail is a HUGE milk drinker, but she barely drank a drop the first couple of days. Now, several days later (and tons of new sippy cups purchased) Abigail seems to be doing better. We still give her a bottle at night. Well...let me take that back. we give her LOTS of bottles at night before bedtime. Abigail drinks like a fish before she hits the sack....about 12oz of milk! Crazy, huh?!?

So we've pretty much crossed off two major goals on our list that have been lingering over our head for a while. Yay! But while we have taken two steps forward, we seem to have taken a step back in the sleep department. Abigail has been sleeping through the night for a while now, but this past week she has woken up 3 times (some time between 2:00-3:30) and then pretty much stayed up the rest of the "night". Ugh! So we're running on little sleep here in the Harris household. Just when you think you are ready for baby number 2...something like this happens and then you think "Ahh maybe we could wait a little bit longer!" :-)  

Special Dinner Guest

G-dad joined us for dinner the other night. What a special treat!!!

Abigail loves her G-dad!

Great to see you, G-dad!!!

Celebrating The Dads

Meme, Granddad, G-dad and Nana came over on Saturday for an early Father's Day celebration. We had so much fun! It was such a beautiful day! Gorgeous sunshine and low humidity....can't beat that especially with the weather we've had recently! We had a blast just hanging out, talking and enjoying each others company. We love being able to honor our dads (and father of our beautiful daughter) for who they are and everything they mean to us.

The crew:-)

The dads and Miss Abigail

So cute!

Playing with G-dad.                                       Honk honk!

Some good conversation:-)

Abigail LOVED checking out Granddad's iPad!

Mmmmm....brownies and ice cream!

Selfies:) Haha

Helping G-dad open his present. So sweet of Abigail!

"Peek-a-boo G-dad!"

Collecting all of the leaves in the yard. This could take a while!

Love her expression!

Hanging with G-dad and Nana:-)

Snuggling with Meme after a good nap:-)

Abigail showing Granddad and Meme her water table. She loves this thing!

Trying to teach Abigail the water is supposed to be IN the table:-)

Thank you for coming to visit! We loved seeing all of you! We can't wait to see you all soon!!! xoxo

Sunday, Father's Day, we had a wonderful day. More family time, which was great! We took a nice little walk to Burke Lake, where we went to the playground and to the Marina. After her nap we took another walk, but this time to our neighborhood playground.We tried to spend as much time outdoors as possible because it was gorgeous out! We topped off the day with some homemade pizza. Yum! We sadly didn't take any pictures:( ....but we had a fabulous day!