Our Little Football Player

Finally after a few issues with the insurance and the physical therapy center we were finally able to get Noelle's helmet. The first few days were kinda hard. We slowly had to get her used to wearing it. Finally by day 5 she had to wear it 23 hours on 1 hour off. During that hour we give her a bath and get her ready for bed. If she gets in the water at all she doesn't have to wear it. While the helmet is on we can't put any sunscreen any where near it. I guess it can eat away at the skin and is really bad. We haven't been going outside a ton because her face is already red from the sun and I don't want it to get worse. We even went camping with it on and, for the most part, it went pretty well. We try to take her outside when it's a little bit cooler so she doesn't get so hot. The helmet is about 8 to 10 ounces. She is getting used to it but just hates when we put it back on after having it off. She's been wearing it for about a week and a half and we know she will have to wear it for about another 4 weeks. We'll see her progress after that. I'm grateful for all this technology and for great doctors who have helped keep my baby girl healthy and strong. We have called her our little football player along with: our little boxer, snowboarder, and soldier.

Here it is. Those are thumbprint bunnies on her helmet. Doesn't she look like she has on one of those old football player's helmets on?

This is the side of her helmet and how we get it on and off her head.
The top has a big whole to give her head some air. Her hair comes right out of the top of it.
Playing on the floor. This was the first day with the helmet. She is so very cute with it on.
Some tummy time with the helmet. It's really going to make her neck strong. Except sometimes she head butts us with it on.
Happy girl. The helmet has actually saved us a cry or two as she has hit her head a few times. That I am grateful for.

Noelle's Adventures Part 1

Noelle is all done with physical therapy, even though we still have to do her exercises once or twice a day. We even got this paper that said "torticollis graduation," it was funny. She improved so well and was so happy during her sessions with the physical therapist.

tummy time on the mat of the physical therapy room

more tummy time

With Tera, her physical therapist, doing some exercises. We loved her, and she was so good with Noelle.

She loved the sparklers on the 4th of July. She really wanted to touch it.

I love her eyes in this one. She was fascinated with the sparklers and fireworks.

This is a video of Noelle bouncing in my parent's little activity center thing. She loves it and goes crazy in it sometimes.

The Move, 4th of July and Noelle Updates

I'm normally really good at updating our blog weekly but we've had a busy couple of weeks. After Noelle started to get back to normal Michael got sick with a cold and then when he was getting over it I got sick. Of course during this time we had to pack our entire apartment. Luckily one day my mom and sister came to help and that helped a lot. Friday, July 3rd, my parents, sister, brother, and sister-in-law came to help us pack up our moving truck and move. I'm so grateful for this because what could have taken ALL day took a few hours. Thank you so much guys. I owe you big time! We're living with my parents for a little while to save up some money. The 4th of July was pretty relaxing. We had pizza at my grandma's house and then afterwards we had fireworks on the road in front of her house. I love those 4th of Julys sometimes. Noelle was stubborn the whole day about taking a nap. When the fireworks went off she just stared at them and smiled. I love sparklers and when I showed her one she just stared at it and wanted to touch it (pictures to come). Noelle's first 4th of July was a fun one.

Noelle isn't very good about taking consistent or long naps. So I've been trying to get her on a schedule. I've realized that Noelle's body might not want to take 2 hour naps like other babies and that's okay. But I'm still going to keep trying. Whatever happens I know she is healthy and growing and I'm grateful for that. She sleeps great through the night but moves like crazy. We always wake up to find her head on the opposite side of the crib. She always sleeps on her tummy and very rarely will sleep on her side. We've started to put her to bed awake and suprisingly it has worked. She will only cry 10-20 minutes before she is asleep. We have a fan in our room and I think that really helps. Noelle is sitting up all on her own and only falls over sometimes :). She loves this activity, bouncy thing my parents have and goes crazy in it (I'll post a video soon). She is loving the fact that she can use her legs to bounce and move. When she is on her tummy she can slowly scoot herself around. I can tell she is close to crawling. She loves sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, applesauce, bananas, pears and peaches but doesn't seem to like anything green. Any advice? I just know she is teething because she is chewing and biting hard on EVERYTHING, but no teeth yet. We are getting her helmet in about a week. She is always smiling and just lights up any room she is in. She loves to be around people and loves the attention. She folds her arms, so cute. We are going to try camping in a tent for the first time with her next week with my dad's side of the family. This should be interesting considering Michael won't be able to come because of work. I would love some advice on this.?.? I always intend to write a quick and short update but it never turns out that way. Oh well. Noelle makes our lives so much fun and so interesting. She is constantly showing us what a bright, loving, sweet, stubborn girl she is. She is growing and changing right before our eyes. I am amazed and feel so much joy at how far she has come. We are always surprised by her and love her to pieces!!

Pictures to come soon.

"Where's Noelle?"

Here is Noelle's newest trick. It's so cute and she is so happy when she does it and we have fun with it too!

Just not herself

Since Noelle's surgery last Monday I have come to feel how truly exhausting being a mom sometimes is. I'm not complaining I'm just stating how I feel. Noelle's surgery went well and the day following was pretty good also. But since then here are the things that have happened that have truly worn me out emotionally and physically (if they have worn me out I can't imagine how Noelle feels):

~Noelle has been very fussy and ornery
~she had a fever that's been off and on
~she threw up everything after giving her a very necessary dose of Motrin
~Her cough and runny nose have continued
~the worst case of diaper rash-i cried as i was changing her diaper a few times
~sleeping schedule has been thrown off
~her eating schedule is totally off
~She just hasn't been her normal, happy, active self.
~She went to see a plastic surgeon about her head and we found out that she would need a helmet.
~We went and saw the orthotic doctor (helmet guy) and he scanned her head for the helmet. You know your child doesn't like to be messed with when it takes you, the doctor and the nurse just to get her to hold still through a 2 second head scan.
~Went and saw a pediatrician who stuffed instruments in her ears and throat to see what was wrong, just to get told that most of her symptoms are probably because she is teething. Dang teething.

I feel so sad at how I imagine Noelle is feeling. She can't tell me anything, all she can do is cry and I'm sure it's frustrating to her when she's trying to say "my bottom hurts" but I'm attempting to give her a bottle. She is doing better today and smiling more and this just makes my heart jump for joy. I'm so glad that I've been able to be with her to take care of her. I'm always worried about her but I guess that's normal. I've been told that the worrying never ends. I love being a mom and wouldn't trade it for anything even the exhausting, hard things. So all I can say is bring on the worrying!

Post-Surgery Update

So Monday was the big surgery day. Noelle was not able to eat anything after midnight except water, apple juice, or pedialyte. And then after 5 am she couldn't have anything. Thank goodness she slept all the way to the hospital. My mom came with me because Michael had to work, which I was so grateful for. We had to check in at 6:45am and surgery was at around 8:15am. Towards the end of the wait she was getting a little fussy, a hungry fussy. Then we had to walk her back to the doors and the anesthesiologist took her away quickly, which I was grateful for. The surgery was really fast and when it was all over I got to go see her. She was totally out of it. She had an iv in her foot. We went into another room that looked like the NICU, this brought back a lot of mixed feelings for me. There we just waited until we could take her home. They gave me a bottle of sugar water to start her on. When she woke up she was totally happy like nothing had ever happened. I was really grateful for this. We went home and since then she has felt really good. Of course I have had medicine on hand. Her stitches will dissolve soon and then she will just have a small scar. I'm actually really grateful for this experience. This little girl has made me feel things that I never knew I could.

This is Noelle is her little scrubs. They were so cute on her and I wish we could have taken them home with us.

They had to put her little hospital band around her foot.

I just had to take a picture of the open back scrubs, like a hospital gown. So funny.

Noelle and Grandma Fullmer :)
Noelle and Mom.

Open House

Today we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was rainy and a little cold. An hour or so before we got there a storm had rolled through and apparently lightning struck Angel Moroni. Sure enough when we looked his arm and trumpet had been blackened. I've never seen that before. We went inside the temple and it was beautiful. Noelle even behaved well the whole time. She not only was good but was very happy and I could tell she could feel the spirit too. It was so nice to walk through it and just be reminded of how special and sacred the temple is. I'm so grateful for temple ordinances and that families can be together forever.