One of my FAVORITE things to do when I was little (and still today!) was read. I adored reading. I used to sit under the covers at night and read... That is why mom say's I need glasses! :o) But, apparently Eli loves to read too. I am telling you, he doesn't just sit through the little short kiddy stories... He will sit through entire Magic School Bus stories! He also likes to hear more than one story during a sitting... We usually read at least 3 or 4 books during the morning! We read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs today and he laughed!! :o) It was so great! Today is the first day that he really laughed. It was FANTASTIC!!
Here are some pics of Eli with some of his books... We just moved all the rest of them to the new condo so these are the ones we read today! Today we had a good time playing with our boppy! :o) Check out the pictures!
#1 is tummy time! He picked up his head really well today! #2 is Eli eating his Sophie teather! #3 is Eli telling mama that he is tired now and want's to rest. So, I am really going to try to get better at doing a blog! There is always so much that I would love to share with everyone! :o) Eli is 5 months old now and getting really big! He is 13 lbs 3 oz and just a tiny bit under 24 inches tall!! He is cooing and talking to us all the time! Eli has discovered his tounge and loves to lick and suck his hands! Here are some recent pics....
#1 is Eli in his bumbo holding the lamb toy that was in his Easter basket at G-Ma's house. #2 is Eli and mama meeting Giada DeLarentes at a cookbook signing. It was Eli's first time meeting a celebrity! For those of you who didn't know (or were wondering) Eli James Corbyons was due on February 2, 2010 but he was born on November 23, 2009 at 29 weeks.
At 27 weeks I went to the OB's office for a regular check up. She noticed that I was having some high blood pressues and that I was spilling protine in my urine. She sent me to the hospital to be checked out. They kept me for 3 days and I did a 24 hour urine test to see what my protine count was. It was 666 when I left the hospital that Wednesday. I left the hospital with a follow up appointment at my OB's office and an appontment with a high risk neonatolagist after being diagnosed with mild toximia. The next Monday (after being on BP meds for a week) I went to the OB's office and I was still having high BP's and protine. On Tuesday we went to the neonatologist office and he sent me back to the hospital for observation. I was addmited that day again. They started another 24 hour protein test and when it came back it was about 1500 and they said I had to stay. I knew then I would not be leaving the hospital till I had the baby. I was getting ultrasounds everyday to monitor the baby's growth and the amniotic fluid. I was being put on a baby monitor at least once a shift to watch the baby's heartbeat and movement. I got a round of steroids to help the baby's lungs and waited. They had decided to do another 24 hour protine on the following Monday. On Saturday night my BP skyrocketed and they took me down to labor and delivery for continuous observation. My BP went down and the baby's stats looked fine so they sent me back upstairs. They started another 24 hour urine test on Saturday night. When I got the results on Monday morning it showed that my protein level had increased to over 8000. Protine levels at 5000 are concidered sevier! So my OB came in on Monday and said we are going to have this baby sooner rather than later. I was scared and called Rick and my family to come. They all came right away and they took me down to L&D again, this time to prep for a c-section. They hooked me up to an IV with magnesium sulfate (gross!) and they told Rick, "If her BP goes over 200/100 we are going in right away so please watch it." They planned the c-section for 8:00 pm. By 7:30ish they said we are going, my BP was up to about 210/100. They pushed me back to the OR and did the prep for the c-section. By 7:53 they had the baby out. Eli weighed 2 lbs. 11 ozs and was 15 1/2 inches long. I had to ask what the sex was! lol. They said it's a boy! I got to see Eli for about 20 seconds before they rushed him to the NICU. But I did get to hear him cry... That made me feel like things would be ok. (FYI: I felt fine the whole time! I didn't have any other symptoms!!!) They took me to recovery where I spent the next few hours. I asked to go see Eli before we went to the room. They pushed me (gurny and all) into the NICU and I got to see him for another 5 minutes before we went to the room. I was bed bound on the mag sulfate for another 24 hours after the birth. It was not a plesant experience... I was seeing double, really hot (they had the room set at 65 degrees!) and couldn't have a coherent conversation. Yech! At the end of the 24 hours I got out of bed (OH THE PAIN!) and was wheeled over to the NICU to see Eli. That was when I first really understood how little he was. I still didn't understand how sick he was. Things went smoothly for the next few days. He was on CPAP for his breathing and an IV for nutrients. On day 3 things went south. Eli had something called "stiff lungs" which was basically an air bubble popping outside of his lungs and moving things. He had to be put on a vent and have a chest tube inserted. It was the hardest day ever to see my baby hooked up to all sorts of machines to help him live. I will never forget it. After 48 hours he came off the vent, and after 4 days he got the chest tube out. After that we had to deal with the tummy isses. He was not pooping spontaniously. After many enemas, they gave him a upper and lower GI to check and make sure things were ok. They were and soon after that he began to poop on his own. Eli also had a heart and brain ultrasound and things looked fine on both of those. About a week after he was born I finally got to hold Eli. It was a wonderful day. Eli was on the CPAP for about 2 1/2 weeks and the IV for about 3 1/2 weeks. He was on a NG tube (for feeding) till about Dec. 31st. He had some temperature issues and went from the iscolete to the open crib back to the iscolete back to the open crib. He failed the carseat test 2X and finally passed on the 3rd try. We were supposed to bring Eli home on Jan 2, but we did not get to bring him home till Wednesday Jan. 13, 2010. He came home at 7 weeks 2 days old after spending 51 days in the NICU. When Eli came home he weighed 4 lbs 15 ozs and was 17 inches long. We are so proud of our little NICU graduate!! We are so thankful for the support and prayers that were said for Eli and our family during this hard time. We are looking forward to everyone meeting our little one!! #1 is Rick's wedding ring around Eli's arm. #2 is the first time mama and Eli got to cuddle. #3 is Daddy and Eli on New Year's Eve 2010! #4 is Eli is a NICU grad! #5 is our last family pic in the NICU! #6 is Eli's first car ride... 51 days old! #7 is Eli's first time in his very own crib! So I am starting this blog to update everyone on our family. I guess we should start at the beginning...
Rick and I met on April 24, 2003. I had been at church the month before and Mary Lu Odom stoped me and said, "There is someone I want you to meet when you come home from school for the summer." I said, "Uh, ok." So when I got home for the summer, Mary Lu brought Rick to church. We talked and planned to go to the "drive in" movie at church that night and out for ice cream. When I got home that afternoon, I called Anna and told her that I found the guy I was going to marry! :o) So we started dating, I went back to Flagler that fall and decided to come home for good that spring. There were some things happening (Aunt Karen, wanting to be at home, etc) that I wanted to be close to home for. We continued to date and on Chirstmas Eve 2006 Rick asked me to marry him. He had talked to my parents the week before and everyone was there... My mom and dad, his mom, Gram, Vicky, Del, Bethy, Ms Dottie, Aunt Karen, Uncle Bob, Kevin, Chelsea. It was a great night! We were so excited!! So we set the date for April 21, 2007. It was as close as we could get to the date that we met. During the time between getting engaged and getting married we lost Aunt Karen and Ms Dottie. It was a sad time, but I am glad that they were there for the engagement. They both mean a lot to us! So April 21, 2007 we got married and moved into our condo in Pembroke Pines. We honeymooned in Las Vegas and it was a blast! We planned to travel a lot in the next few years. We traveled to Alaska in the summer of 2008 and to the Carribean in Feb of 2009. Both were great trips! We had planned on traveling a little more, but to our surprise we found out we were expecting in May 2009! :o) #1 is us on our wedding day! #2 is us in Alaska. #3 is us with Vicky and Anthony swimming with the stingrays in Grand Cayman. |