1 Year Home

Well, I had originally meant to type this the Sunday night, but, as it seems to happen a lot lately, time got away from me. Anyway, 1 year ago on Sunday, October 25, 2009, we brought our little Shelbi Mae Gaffney Wert home from the hospital. I do not think that I will ever forget how nervous and anxious and happy and scared and amazed I was. It was definitely an adjustment, but a wonderful one. No more going to the hospital two and three times a day. No more waiting in the waiting room while the nurses and doctors took longer than the alotted time for rounds and shift changes. No more 24 hour monitors. No more machine beeps and anxiety of machines beeping and keeping her in the NICU longer. No more constant IV, C-Pap, isolette, wires, tubes, etc. What a joyous day that was!

Fast forward 365 days. Shelbi is now a playing, crawling, laughing, fake coughing, smiling, entertaining little princess. We just got the proofs back from her one year photo shoot, and I cannot believe how much she has changed since her 3 month shoot. She is still super adorable, and the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my whole life, but she has grown so much.

Last Tuesday, she had her 1 year appointment, and, well, that was a rough one. She came in at a wopping 15 pounds 9 ounces (less than 3rd percentile) and was 28 inches long (15th percentile). She had a different doctor (well, nurse practionisher to be exact), and she said that we need to give her more calories and get her weight up. Um, hello! Have you seen my daughter eat? She eats and eats and eats and eats. She is just tiny and has a high metabolism. I'm trying not to stress about that too much, but it's difficult to not think about. I'm not sure of the dimentions, but her head is in the 90th percentile. THEN came the fun stuff. The nurse was asking me about a zillion questions about stuff, and one of them was "has she come in contact with anyone who has been in Africa." I initially answered no, as that was the answer to all of the other questions, but then I had to go back and change that, as she was in contact with Scotty, and he was in Africa for 6 plus months. Due to the fact that she had been in close contact with him, she had to be subjected to a TB test. I held her for that, and I must say that she did rather well. She watched the Medical Assistant insert the needle and empty the fluid into her arm, and she didn't as much as flinch. Once the needle was removed, she let out a bit of a cry, but it only lasted for a brief moment. Heck, she handled that better than I did! Next, they had to perform a finger prick on her left ring finger, due to the fact that she (as well as the rest of the women on the Branyan side of the family) has low iron. She didn't seem bothered by this torture either, but she was not real thrilled with the band aid that followed. While we were waiting for the Medical Assistant (and the student) to return, she proceeded to attempt to get the band aid off, first by pulling with her right hand, and then by putting the band aid in her mouth. Following their return, we were informed that the iron count came back extremely low, and they had to do another one on her middle finger. Again, she took it like a champ, but did not appreciate the band aid. The results of that one came back better, so we were on to the shots. She had to get FOUR shots, and let me tell you, that was difficult. The STUDENT gave them to her (and I do have to admit that she did a really good job), and she was so, SO upset. She did her right side first (one in the arm muscle and one in the leg muscle) and I have never heard her bawl like she did that day. I felt so incredibly bad for her, as I knew that there was nothing that I could do. She had her arms up for me to pick her up, and after she got the second shot, I did pick her up for a few seconds to try and ease her pain as best as I could. The student did the other side, and then she just cuddled with me for a few minutes before getting dressed and heading back out into the world. My heart broke for her, as I know she was so helpless and unsure of what was going on. We do have to go back in another 5 weeks for a weight check and her second flu shot, but that shouldn't be near as bad.

Other than that, she was stricken with a fever Thursday through Saturday, but she seems to be pretty much back to her old self.

Busy Week

Well, I finally had a minute or two, and I wanted to update quickly before I forgot. This has been a pretty busy week with work, Karen's surgery on her arm, running around with Steph and Josie, Read With Me at the library, trying to figure out outfits for Shelbi's 1 year pictures, and babysitting Josie. On Tuesday, my wonderful, exceptionally helpful mother (aka "Mammi") came over to the house to hang out with Shelbi (and the dogs). I guess instructions were not properly given, as Mammi did NOT EAT ANYTHING ALL DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was there from 8:30am until 6:00ish, and "did not want to root around in our cabinets." Anyway, while they were hanging out, Shelbi was eating some mini goldfish crackers. My mom had them in her hand, and Shelbi was taking them from her and eating them. At one point, she took one from my Mom, put it on the floor, got on all fours, and attempted to eat the goldfish cracker off of the floor with her mouth. I promise you that she is NOT being raised by wild animals, but I'm sure that was very, VERY humerous to see, and I'm sorry that I missed it.

Friday morning Shelbi and I got up early and headed over to the Julian residence, as Steph had to work, and I stayed with the girls. I had a very good (and busy) time with them, as they were quite entertaining and all over the place.

Well, that's it for now, I just didn't want to forget to jot down the fun stuff that I can think of for the moment.