Boy Does Time Fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it has been a long, LONG time since I last posted, and SO much has changed. Shelbi did not start walking until the very end of January, but boy can she go now. And go she does...go, go, go...all day and all night until we all but force her to take a nap or go to bed. She LOVES to walk and march and stomp across the entry way floor, as she can make lots of noise doing so.
Along with walking comes the all too lovely injuries, and today was a doozy. We were playing with the stacking blocks that Mammi and Pop had gotten Shelbi for her birthday. At first we were stacking them on the floor and she was enjoying knocking them over, and then she decided she wanted to stack them on the coffee table. Well, sometimes she forgets that she's only 30 inches tall, and she was trying to stand on her tippy toes to put another block on the top when WHOOSH she wiped out. She has never started crying that quickly from a fall, so I knew that she was hurt. I knew that she had hit her face, but I was not sure where exactly. I held her and she cried and cried and cried and cried for a good 40 minutes. Then, she laid on the couch with me and we watched another exciting episode of "Yo Gabba Gabba" which was all about cars and looking both ways and not crossing the street and "don't stop, don't give up." Upon examination of my little peanut, I took notice to her FAT LIP. I checked to make sure that she hadn't busted her teeth out or anything, but she must have bitten the inside of her lip really good because it is very dark blue, almost black. After her crying fit, she seemed to be fine for the remainder of the day, but it was a sad hour or so in our house. She wasn't, however, real fond of going to bed this evening. Typically, I rock her and sing to her for a few, and then she either falls asleep, or I put her in her crib still awake. This evening, she was still awake and she stayed that way for 2 hours. I eventually went back upstairs, as I felt bad that she was still up, and we rocked and sang a bit longer, but then she wanted to identify my nose and eyes and mouth, followed by her nose and mouth. I then made the mistake of taking her downstairs in the hopes that maybe she just wanted to say goodnight to her Dad one more time, but nope, she wanted to play. I then, of course, had to be the bad guy because I made her go back up and go to bed. She eventually fell back to sleep, but it was still a while.
Other than that, she loves Elmo, Flipz crackers, and her Elmo couch. I love waiting to see what each and every day has in store for us, and I will definitely have to keep up with this blog more.

P.S. As I was driving home the other morning, I heard a song that I just love. At the time, I did not know who it was.
"I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter and I believe." The song is by Live, and the lyrics are SO true.

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.

It's Been A While...

So I thought that I would finally get my fingers back on here and update this blog. Well, it's official...Shelbi is officially one year old. This past year has flown by. I cannot believe that a year ago today, she was in the Harrisburg hospital NICU fighting to get her heart under control. Thank you so much to everyone out that who hoped and prayed and thought about her and our family during those very trying times.

Oh a much happier note, I believe that Shelbi had quite a nice birthday. Saturday was her big bash, and I am so happy that everyone could attend. It was so nice to see everyone, and have them share in the excitement. She got to see her Mammi and Pop (who were nice enough to pick up the chicken tray from the wacko's at Chick Fil-A and the balloons) and Pap, her Aunt Megan and Uncle Nelson (who were so very kind to come early and help Shelbi's crazy mother! LOL), her Aunt Karen, Aunt Steph, Uncle Erik, Josie, her Aunt Dana, Aunt Patty, cousin Jennifer, Aunt Deb, Uncle Tom, cousins Tomi and Hunter, Aunt Donna, Dori, Non, Miseon (who traveled quite a distance), and of course her mom and dad. She enjoyed being the center of attention, showing off her fake cough, opening presents, playing with wrapping paper, and, of course, trying out her cake. I will say that she made out like a bandit with her nice and thoughtful gifts. I'm not sure who will have more fun with them...Shelbi or me! LOL I figure that I need to enjoy being her playmate for now, as I know that it will not last for very long, as I will have to be the "bad guy."

Today, we had a very nice day consisting of visiting Zoo America with Aunt Steph and Josie. We got to see all kinds of creatures, and once we finished that expedition, we headed to a nice lunch at Hoss's, where little Ms. Shelbi endulged in a cheeseburger slider, french fries, applesauce, Cheerios, mini goldfish crackers, and, of course, some of Mommy's ice cream. We then headed on our merry way to Build A Bear, where Shelbi and Josie each made their very first "Build-An-Animal." Shelbi opted for the heart bear (Mae Beary), and she picked a very cute birthday shirt for her to sport, along with some jeans and a pair of pink and white Skecher sneaks. Josie decided to go with the monkey, Maya, and she chose a very cute "girly" outfit. After all of our birthday fun, we stopped by Mammi's house, so she could see the birthday girl, and so I could catch a couple of minutes of zzzzzzzzzzz's (thanks so much Mammi). To finish off the night, we took good ole Pap out to the dinner of his choice (Red Lobster) for his birthday celebration, where both he and Shelbi were serinaded with the traditional "Happy Birthday" from the Red Lobster staff and some whipped cream with a candle.

Little Ms. Drama Queen has decided that she does not want to take naps during the day anymore. Instead, she has decided to scream for an hour and a half to two hours, and prevent her sleep deprived mother from getting a nap. We are trying to work through it, and hopefully it will resolve itself in the VERY near future.

Shelbi is not walking on her own yet, but she is a crawling champ, and she loves to pull herself up, walk around tables, chairs, anything that she can get around, and we are trying to break her of her love of wires. She's learning more and more everyday, and she is growing and changing in ways I never imagined. I cannot wait to see what each day holds.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I tried to sum it up in a nutshell, but it ended up being an entire Oak tree. I will try to keep this updated and keep everyone abreast to what is going on with my Little Peanut! Oh, and one more thing...tooth number 2 is popping through!

Mangos Were a Hit!

This evening Shelbi got to try some mangos, and there were a huge hit. She made her typical yuck/I-don't-know-about-that/what-in-the-world-is-in-my-mouth drama look that she gives when she tastes something. After she decided that she liked them, she REALLY liked them. Heck, I couldn't feed her fast enough! LOL She ate an entire Stage 2 container of mangos, and then she had about 3/4 of a Stage 2 container of fruit medley. After dinner, she was quite an energenic and happy baby, and we hung out for a while before bed. Daddy took her up to put her to bed, but she was not having it. She cried (not her I'm-tired-and-falling-asleep cry) for a few minutes, so it was Mommy to the rescue. It was actually really very nice, as I picked her up and sat in the rocking chair, and she put her head on my right shoulder and was asleep in about 2 minutes. That really made my day, as she doesn't really do that all to often.
This morning I had an 11:15am appointment with Dr. Readence for another PAP (yes, I know, what an exciting day). I took Shelbi with me, and she was pretty good. She got a little bit restless when I was waiting for the doctor to come in, so I got her out for a few minutes, until he arrived. After Doctor Readence came in for me, I put her back in her carseat, and she just stared at him with this look that I cannot even describe. She did not even move except to watch him walk around the room. It was nice that he remembered us and asked how she was doing and if she was still on her heart medications. I kept asking her if she was having a flashback...LOL. She really seemed intrigued or terrified or something of him. After the drive through PAP exam, we headed to Karen's office and went to the yummy Pizza Grille for lunch. I had my 1/2 sicilian salad and I actually got a small spinish and artichoke pizza on wheat, as I'm in dire need of exercise and eating better.
Well, my head is POUNDING (probably because I did not have any caffine today, as I'm trying to drink water, water, water), so I'm going to close for now. I will say this before ending, however, Shelbi is changing so much every single day. She becomes more active, more entertained, more entertaining, and her personality is growing and growing and growing. She is sitting up like a fool, and doens't want to lay down much anymore. I love you beautiful and smart peanut!

Mother's Day and First Sickness (Outside of the Hospital)

Well, let me start this off by saying that I had the most wonderful first Mother's Day that I ever could have wished for! I got up Mother's Day morning to the most beautiful baby girl in the whole wide world, smiling away in her crib, talking to her stuffed animals. (Okay, she was probably talking to her ceiling fan, but you get the point!) We came downstairs and she had a breakfast of blueberry pear (I think) mixed with some new cereal (Daddy was still upstairs at this point). She ate an entire Stage 2 container of that, and then proceeded to nurse quite a bit. In the mist of her eating her breakfast, Scott gave her a couple of little bites of his Lemon Merange yogurt to try. She was fine through all of that, and she was hanging out with her Dad and Aunt Karen while I finished getting ready for church. I waltzed back into the Family Room and sat down on the couch with Scott and Shelbi. All of a sudden, he said "Shelbi, are you okay?" and right after those words escaped his mouth, she violently threw up. Now, Shelbi does throw up quite a bit, but this was MAJOR. She threw up once, then again, and the second time it was projectile AND came out her nose as well. She threw up one final time, and I ran out to the kitchen to get some paper towels while Karen was doing her best to hold what she could in her cupped hands. Scott kept telling Shelbi that she was okay, and that helped her from getting upset and freaking out. I started to "panic think," and for a brief second that I was going to be spending my first Mother's Day in the ER. After she got all of that out of her system, she was back to her old self again...wiggling around and smiling like the cute little ham that she is. I had a onesie made for Mammi for Mother's Day, and luckily, Shelbi had a sweater on on top of the onesie, or it would have been too soaked to wear to church. She had completely soaked the sweater, her onesie for Mammi was wet quite a bit on the top half, and the onesie underneath that one was also soaked. I ran upstairs to find her another onesie for under the cute Mammi one, Scott put the Mammi one in the dryer and then ran upstairs and dried it with the hair dryer, and Aunt Karen got her changed. We were playing a fun and exciting game of Beat the Clock, as I was making an attempt to stop to see Non before church. We hustled and bustled, but we were able to get it done.
Non was very happy with her picture frame gifts. Shelbi got her a framed copy of the picture of the two of them, and I got her a picture frame with two pictures from Shelbi's 3 months photo shoot and 2 pictures from her 6 month photo shoot. After a brief stay at Pap's house (and some unwanted harassment from Pap Sr.), we headed out the door and on our way to church.

The service at church was very nice and it focused on mothers and women in general. Mammi made it a point to say that the Anthem that the choir was singing was supposed to be a good one. I was expecting and waiting for a nice upbeat song, or for them to break out in a dance. To my surprise, it was a slow, contemporary song, with a slide show showing on the wall behind the choir. The slides consisted of what looked like a theatre reinaction of some biblical times with Mary and Jesus. At the end of the song, there was a slide that had none other than ME AND SHELBI! I couldn't believe my eyes! It was a slide of 2 older generation mother's, an older mother-daughter duo, and the picture of me holding Shelbi at the March for Babies! It was so neat and brought tears to my eyes. It turns out that Chuck had emailed my Mom about it, and she sent him the picture. When Shelbi gets fussy at church, I have a tendency to just get up and leave the sanctuary, and that's why she was telling me the story about the anthem...she didn't want me to miss it. Following a nice march up the isle at church to receive a cute pin, we headed out to the parking lot in the normal fashion...me carrying the diaper bag, and Aunt Megan carrying Shelbi.
Oh, here I go jumping around. When Shelbi and I first got into church, I asked Mammi to take off Shelbi's sweater, and she saw the onesie. She really liked it, and said that it made her happy. The front of the onesie said "I <3>

We told my Mom that we had reservations for lunch at the Italian Oven, so we headed on our merry little ways. Throughout the car ride to the mall, Megan, Dad, and I played some nice phone games, trying to make sure that we had everything in order, as Tim and Dad were meeting us there to surprise Mom. We arrived at the mall a little early, so we convinced Mom to do a lap around the mall first, while we waited for our table that was already ready (we didn't want to go in and have them seat us in the table for 6 plus Shelbi when she thought there was only 4 plus Shelbi). Upon our arrival back to the Italian Oven, Mom finally spotted Tim patiently (well, as patient as he could be) waiting outside of the restaurant. She got a very big smile on her face, and said "Ohhhhh! My Baby!" She was very happy to have all of her children and her hubby there to celebrate Mother's Day (even though she kept saying nonsense statements such as "Who talked you into coming home from school?" and "You should be home relaxing for your first Mother's Day!" and "You shouldn't have come all this way home!"). Shelbi got her Mammi a try picture frame with 5 pictures from her 6 month shoot, and Megan, Tim, and I got her the Wii Fit, as she is very difficult to buy for.

Sorry that this got so long, but I wanted to make sure that I had every little detail, as I know as time goes on, the exactness of the memories seem to fade. Before leaving in the morning, Shelbi presented me with a beautiful charm bracelet from Kay Jewelers with a beautiful silver heart charm. It's going to be engraved with her name, and as the years fly by, I will add more charms to the bracelet. I also received the Boyd's Best Dressed series giraffe, a card, and a very cute picture frame for a picture of the two of us. The most surprising and most cherished gift I received was a card. A simple card, from my mother to me, meant and will always mean the world to me. Thanks so very much for the picture frame as well, but the card was the best Mom! I love you, and so does your "Bi!"

Seeing Non and Meeting Pap

Today was a busy but fun day. I woke up this morning to a very smiley beautiful girl chatting away to her stuffed animals that are at the top of her crib. We had a lot planned for the day, so we headed downstairs for the daily routine of diaper change, breakfast, and nursing. After all of the hustle and bustle of the morning, we headed out to meet Steph and Josie at the mall to do a little bit of shopping. We then headed to Shippensburg to pick up our pictures, after stopping off at the Carlisle Kohl's and snatching up some awesome deals on clothes for the girls. Most of the items that I got are for her for next year, but I could not pass up on the 80% discounted prices on Carter's! During our trip to Kohl's, my Little Miss Drama Queen decided that she did NOT want to be in her stroller. She started to cry, so I got her out for a bit. She was then as happy as, um, I don't really like the "happy as a clam" saying because do we REALLY know that clams are happy creatures. Okay, I'll take that back. I just looked up online why and how the saying came into use, and the derivation is more likely to have come from the full phrase of "as happy as a clam at high water." Clams must be dug for during low tide, so I guess the clam is pretty happy during high tide. Anyway, I digress...She was quite happy, looking all around, trying to pull on my necklace, trying to pull on the clothes that we were looking at, as long as I held her. (Note to self, start taking the carrier with you in the car, and then you can put her in that when she want to be held.) I tried to put her down a couple of times, but she just started to cry, and I prefer to not have strangers stare at me and my unhappy child, so I picked her back up for a bit. A little while later, she became restless and decided she was hungry, so with the help from wonderful Aunt Steph, I nursed her (discretely) while walking around the toy department of Kohl's. Shelbi was then gracious enough to allow me to put her back in her stroller, but only if I acted like a goober. She was smiling and content if I was singing, or moving my head around like an, um, I don't even know anything to compare it to. Following my bought with whip flash, I remembered the SHHHHH technique. For some unknown but must appreciated reason, she enjoys the SHHHHH sound and it soothes her, so we, as parents, do what we have to do. After our running around of the morning and afternoon was completed, we headed over to 929 Susan Circle to see Non and Pap, as they arrived home from Florida yesterday. Non had seen Shelbi once while she was in the NICU, but that was it and Pap had not seen her in person, as they headed down to Florida in the beginning of October. Non rushed out to the Xterra (well, as much rushing as an 80ish-year-old legally blind woman can rush) to meet us. Shelbi got extremely excited when she saw Non and started squealing like she does when she gets excited. We went in the house, and Non asked to hold her for a bit, and she was playing and talking and laughing with her. Shelbi wasn't quite sure what to think of Pap, but, well, none of us really do. She was quite the little ham for Non, Pap, Aunt Donna, Sara, Camilla, Zac, and Caleb. She very much enjoyed being the center of attention and having everyone make such a fuss over her. The kids really liked seeing her as well, and eventually Pap (my Dad) came home from work and basked in the glory of his grand-daughter for a bit as well. Even though the weather was icky and rainy, it was a very nice, enjoyable day, spent mostly with friends and family. I will close for now, as she is napping in her car seat on the counter, and I'm going to try to grab a bite to eat before getting her up and ready for bed.