9 month proofs

Ellie had her 9 month pictures on Tuesday. We took advantage to have some in her Christmas outfit as well!

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LOVE the ones with her sweet little tooth!

She also had her 9 month check up today. She is off the charts in length at over 30 inches long and in the 50th percentile for weight at 19lbs 8oz. Big girl!

Ellie's Christmas Tree

This is how picture taking goes at our house these days! Ellie will not look at you she chooses to play with her tree. Then she thinks what if I look and keep my arm back here. Next a little smile....but she is really only smiling because she has found the ornament. Finally she's got it! Then Mom and Dad give in and just turn her around.....someone sure knows how to get their way!

Big Day

We all woke up from our afternoon nap and sweet Ellie has her first tooth poking through!! She's been quite the trooper especially considering some of the horror stories you here!

Steven has a nasty stomach bug so Ellie and I are camped out at my mom and dad's for the night.


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Happy Thanksgiving

We are so thankful for this little turkey!


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My Very First Blogger Award!!!

I got my very first blogger award from sweet Kindall at Some Kind of Wonderful!! Everyone should definitely go check out her adorable blog and follow her hilarious post!! I get sad when she doesn't post for a few days...step it up Kindall ;). I know Kindall in real life! She recently became a stay at home mommy to sweet Mason...he's adorable! Maybe Ellie and him could have a playdate soon....they share a pediatrician! Kindall used to work at the non-profit were Steven and I both volunteered for many years! Thanks Kindall for the sweet award!

Here are the rules:

1. Thank and link back to who gave you the award!

2. Share seven things about yourself!
3. Pass it along to seven blogs you've recently discovered and enjoy!

4. Let the recipients know you've left them an award!

My 7 facts:

1. On March 16, 2010 my entire world was rocked when I became a mom to a premature baby girl!! She is a blessing in every way imaginable and I wouldn't change one second of our story!

2. I must drive the same day to work EVERY SINGLE DAY. I don't go the quickest route but it's typically the least traffic route. Even days i'm running late there are two other routes that would be a little quicker but I can't do it's like my car is on auto pilot.

3. I take preventative migraine medicine in the morning and at night. I must take this little bitty pill with a glass of ice tea....a FULL glass of ice tea. It typically gets poured, pill taken, and then the rest of the glass WASTED sitting right next to the sink....terrible I know.

4. One time when we had open house at preschool I had to draw a picture of what I wanted to be when I grew up. Most children drew things like a fireman, postman, doctor, dentist, etc. I colored a picture with different colored hair.....I wanted to be Cyndi Lauper. I'm sure my parents were proud.

5. I graduated college in 3 1/2 years.

6. Upon college graduation I accepted a job in Colorado Springs. I knew absolutely no one. I moved a few weeks after graduation....I made some life long friends and don't regret my decision one bit even though I am back in Oklahoma now!

7. Steven and I dated for 6 years before we were married.

Now my award goes to.....

Behymer Business. I know Daysha in real life....her sweet Lyndon was a preemie. We are neighbors and she welcomed us home and into loving arms when sweet Ellie was a preemie! She is also expecting baby #2 and we are praying everyday for a healthy full term pregnancy!

The Steen Style. I worked with Laura's husband AND she went to high school with my husband....such a small world! They are currently remodeling their home and I LOVE following their adventures!

Live.Love.Laugh. I only know Heather through the blog world. She commented and offered support during our journey with Ellie. Shortly after she announced her pregnancy. In August her world was rocked as she delivered sweet Brayden 3 months early. He got to come home right before Thanksgiving and is doing wonderful!

The Adventures of Mc & Max. Casey is my very best friend and I love following the boys on her blog!! We don't get to see each other too often with her living in Tulsa and us both having full schedules....maybe this award will encourage her to post!

Life With the Earles. Bobbie is one of my sorority sisters and I LOVE reading her blogging adventures...I rarely comment and I love how she always talks about her two readers....make that three I read you just don't know it!!

Footholds of a First Year Teacher Lindsey is 'family'. She is braving her first year teaching and after a challenging start is doing fabulously well as everyone knew that she would! Lindsey you make us all proud!!!

The Strope Situation My sweet Becky! Becky is my 'big sis' from the sorority house. She has three BEAUTIFUL children! I love keeping up with them all!

Ellie's Story

In honor of Prematurity Awareness Day I will be sharing Ellie's journey. Some of it is posted in various post throughout the blog. I believe there is even a short birth story on here and one day I do hope to post a full birth story and how it came that we had a premature baby.

I will say this...there was no pre-e, no pre-term labor, nothing. Basically there was no warning....THANKFULLY there was a VERY vigilant doctor and nursing staff that insisted on non-stress test and bio-physical profiles even though the test had said I was NOT leaking amniotic fluid because the results of that bio-physical ultrasound showed MUCH different results in just 5 short days my fluid levels had went from a 12.34 (the high side of normal) to below a 2 (the very dangerous side of normal for baby and mom).

There were no decisions to be made I was delivering that day via c-section. Due to a condition Ellie had there wasn't even time to be monitored in the hospital for steroid shots to be administered to develop her lungs. We had been seeing a high risk doctor the entire pregnancy because Ellie had a 2 vessel umbilical cord they did not feel that this would present her with any problems but the doctor wanted to monitor her growth as it can cause intrauterine growth restriction during the third trimester. Ellie had no growth issues and there had been no fluid issues my entire pregnancy however due to this condition and the already fragile state of her umbilical cord the on call doctor (mine was out of town) felt it was best that we deliver immediately.

So March 16, 2010 at approximately 9:00 am I got the phone call that rocked my world. As she said we were having a birthday party and I was becoming a mom to a preemie. A preemie being born at 35 weeks that could be perfectly healthy and go home in 3 to 4 days or a preemie that could need a little help.

Ellie arrived at 5:13 pm. She weighed a healthy 5lbs 7oz and was 18inches long. She was crying and appeared VERY healthy. I spent a few minutes with her in the OR. Her proud daddy then took her to show her off and to the REGULAR nursery to get cleaned up! Ellie was doing great post delivery and right about bath time she started having breathing trouble. She was put on the CPAP carried down to my recovery room so I could see her precious face and then transported to the NICU were our roller coaster journey would begin.

Ellie did AMAZINGLY well her first night and was doing so great the next morning it looked like maybe that would be the end of our NICU journey but that wasn't to be. But by lunch time she was back on the CPAP. By late that evening the news begin to get pretty bad and she wasn't doing too well even with the CPAP. Come to find out her right lung had collapsed so it was time for a chest tube and to be intubated. Ellie spent one week on the vent which is a very short time compared to some but during that time it seemed like a lifetime and I was longing to hold that sweet little girl! Finally on the morning of March 23rd Ellie was off the vent and was time to get that little one in my arms for the VERY FIRST TIME!!!! She still spent another 2 weeks in the NICU.....learning to eat, talks of moves to bigger hospitals, getting brain scans to test for cerebral palsy, echos for murmurs, renal scans for kidney functions and countless other pokes, prodes and tests.

I know our NICU journey is one of many. I know it is short compared to lots. But, it's our story and on March 16 my world was forever changed. Not only was my precious baby girl brought into this world but she was brought into this world TOO soon. We experienced and saw too many scary things in that hospital! I don't want to change my journey but I don't want anyone else to have to experience it! I look forward to a day when all babies are born healthy.

Ellie Grace - 3 days old in her tanning bed

Stealing this quote below from Heather's blog everyone should go check out sweet Brayden and his story....the power of prayer is AMAZING!

"We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise if we have waited in the darkness"

Fight for Preemies

Prematurity Awareness Month

November is Prematurity Awareness Month. This cause is very near and dear to my heart since sweet Ellie joined our world. Awareness day is November 17 (the day after Ellie's 8 month birthday!). I have signed up on Bloggers Unite to blog about it that day and make people more aware this entire month.

These pictures are from some of Ellie's first few hours in the NICU when things were actually still looking up. The NICU is a roller coaster with MANY ups and downs. Throughout the month I will share some of our experiences and our story. While Ellie was only 5 weeks premature as the nurses would remind me when I would get frustrated towards the end when we were SO close to going home but not quite there yet Ellie started out her sweet little life VERY sick and she had a struggle!


While you are joining in this fight please feel free to join in prayer for some fellow friends some real life and some blogger friends...


Heather's son joined this world 12 weeks too soon! You can keep up with the latest on her blog. I don't want to jinx her but things are looking up!


Daysha's 1st born joined this world 7 weeks too soon and is now a healthy growing boy!!! But please keep her in your prayers as she embarks on the pregnancy journey for a 2nd time! We are praying for a healthy FULL term pregnancy!!!


And finally my sweet friend Casey's nephew recently joined this world 7 weeks too soon and he is tiny but doing well!

Trick or Treat

Ellie liked her trick or treat back from Pottery Barn Kids! We figured she could use it in the future :)
We hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! We sure did!

Berry Sweet

Ellie did surprisingly well in her Halloween costume she didn't mind it at all. She did get a little warm but other than that she was as happy as could be! Dad even stayed home from the game to go trick or treating with us!

Steven says this pictures mean....she really wasn't unhappy. I think it's hilarious!

Happy Halloween

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Mummy Munch

Today I made Mummy Munch and it is super yummy!!!  I got the recipe from the Picky Palate! This literally took about 5 minutes to throw together and makes a fun treat.

4 Cups Honey Nut Chex Cereal

16 oz package Vanilla Candy Melts

1 Cup Autumn Mix (candy corn, mini pumpkins, etc)

1 Cup Salted dry roasted peanuts

2 Cups mini pretzels

Place cereal, Autumn mix, peanuts and pretzels into a large bowl. Mix to combine. Melt vanilla candy melts according to package directions then pour into cereal mixture.  Gently stir until well coated then pour onto wax paper or a silpat lined baking sheet to dry.  Once dried, break into pieces and put into cute cupcake liners or little bags.

Here is my Mummy Munch while drying.

Here are my fall cupcake liners.

I’ll try and remember to post a picture of the finish product!

Also, if you don’t have silpat liners I HIGHLY suggest you check them out!  LOVE these things. They can be found at many places and I couldn’t live without them when it comes to baking! They are great!

Duckie Bath

We bought Ellie a new inflatable duckie bathtub. The picture below was her reaction when Steven first sat her down.....she wasn't quite sure about this new thing! However, like she does with most things she quickly loved it! I'm sure she will love the new bath toys that are waiting for Christmas!


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New Blog!!!

Thanks to my sweet friend Nicole we finally have a new blog background!!! I was SO frustrated the other night because I could not recall how to update the background even though I knew I just needed to swap out the html code. Talk about making you crazy! Everyone should go check out Nicole's super fun blog! You can follow the link above or check out her super cute button on my sidebar!

Thank you so much Nicole I definitely owe you!!!! Tune in for more regular posting :)

Happy Fall!

Our front door! As I'm sure you can see I apparently have some lights out!!!!! I have a light tester.....packed in my Christmas stuff. So I must go find a new one or deal with the burnt out lights until the Thanksgiving night when the Christmas stuff makes an appearance.




On a different note apparently it's been awhile since I changed my blogger background and I have no clue what to do now....can someone please help!!!!!


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6 month proofs

Ellie was not too interested in having her picture taken this time around!

Thankfully Trish was able to capture some good ones! She said not to worry 3 and 6 months are always the hardest to entertain.....next time we will bring the circus. The biggest problem was we decided to shoot at the park and realized after arriving that there was a car show. So Ellie was more interested in checking out the woof woofs, people, cars and everything else she could find!

www.sweetberryphotography.com
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client proofing
password egf6

Berry Berry Sweet

Ellie had pictures taken in her Halloween costume. LOVE the way they turned out! For a sneak peek go to www.sweetberryphotography.comenter blog!


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6 month sneak peek

We had Ellie's 6 month pictures this morning! She was more interested in checking out her surroundings, figuring out how to get out of the basket she was sitting in and looking at us like we were nuts rather than smiling! We had to work hard but we did manage to get some cute ones!

Go to sweetberryphotography .com and select enter blog!

I can't wait to see the rest!! We just love Trish and couldn't be more happy that we chose to purchase a 'baby plan' package.

Be on the lookout! In a few weeks we will be having a special Halloween session with Trish!


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Ellie and her sunglasses

Hello!! I realize the last time I posted our sweet girl was 4 months old and she will be 6 months this week!!! Slow down! Where is the time going! I need to do her 5 and now 6 month post!!

In the meantime sweet Avery had her 9th birthday party! What fun is a swim party without some cute sunglasses. She LOVED them and they didn't seem to bother her one bit!






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Happy Girl

We are so blessed to have such a happy baby girl!! That smile melts my heart!!

4 months already....

I absolutely can't believe that our sweet little girl is 4 months old! Time flies when you are having fun! She has changed so much in the past few weeks it's unbelievable. Some of her favorite activities are 'talking', rolling over, chewing on her hands, drooling, and mirroring your facial expressions! She's developed quite the little personality. She's a great sleeper and still LOVES bath time and being in the water!

We had her 4 month check up and all was well. She weighs 13lbs 2oz and is 25 1/2 inches long! She is in the 90th percentile for length and head circumference and 40th percentile for weight all for her actual age not her adjusted age! He was impressed with everything developmentally. He did ask if we'd been feeding her lead in her bottles....she was 9lbs even at 2 months. I actually can't believe in her short four months of life she has gained over 8lbs and grown over 7inches! Growing girl! I am still pumping exclusively and she is getting breast milk only. And on the controversial subject of cereal in bottles she DOES get cereal in her bottles of course by the recommendation of our pediatrician. She's battled a little reflux but none of us felt it was quite bad enough to treat with meds so he suggested thickening her breast milk....it's worked great!

On another note I can only imagine what her monthly pictures are going to look like when she becomes even more mobile. As you can see the 4 month pictures were a fail! She was more interested in playing with her hands, eating her hands, grabbing her feet and scooting down in the chair far enough so she could roll over! Oh well we still think she's precious!

We love you so much ellie belly!

I can't believe 4 short months ago they brought this precious angel in for me to see on her way to the NICU. What a long 3 weeks but of course we wouldn't trade it for the world!!

mmmm these hands sure are good!

playing with these hands is so much more fun then looking at my mom

Oh well there is always next month!

Boomer Sooner!

Ellie got the cutest OU outfit from her friend Camden! The way our little baby is growing I knew it would be way too small come football season. So what better time to wear it then while watching OU in the college world series. Unfortunately she wasn't a fan of the outfit.....I hope that's not a sign!!! As disappointed as I would be I told Ellie from the beginning in the NICU if she would just get better she could do whatever she wanted....ha i'm sure I might pay for that some day!! I did however find her staring at the UCLA baseball players on tv during tummy time (no we don't let her watch tv regularly)!!!I can't believe my sweet little girl is going to be 4 months old on Friday!!!

Dancin' Shoes

Ellie has more shoes than I do.....ok MAYBE that's a stretch! But for someone who rarely wears shoes she has quite a few. However, none of them are quite as cute as these little gold numbers! My best friend Casey and her mom Shannon....otherwise none as Aunt Casey and Grammy Shannon got Ellie these adorable shoes before she arrived! They also got an adorable shimmery top to match. The minute I saw them I just knew she needed the perfect jeans to match. The Gap didn't fail and we found these adorable dark washed straight legged jeans a few weeks ago. Yes I know it's hot outside and she will probably never wear them again but they were a must have for this photo shoot!

Ellie kicked and played in these shoes for hours!! I think she likes them :)

Dancing Queen

She was over it!!!

Thanks Aunt Casey & Grammy Shannon we LOVE them!!!

Sweetberry Photography

When we booked Ellie's newborn package we also booked a Watch Me Grow package. This got us a session at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 1 year...as well as a few other perks! As always we couldn't be more pleased with Trish's work! Thought you might enjoy!! The link will be active until Friday!

http://www.sweetberryphotography.com/

Client Proofing
Password: eg3

ENJOY!

3 Months

I can't believe our sweet little girl was three months old on June 16th! She is still such a happy and content baby! We went through a fussy spell that lasted about 2 weeks but after that she was back to her normal happy self! She still LOVES bath time, LOVES to smile and LOVES to 'talk'! We couldn't ask for a better baby!

Ellie Belly we love you!