Thursday, November 29, 2007
Lets see........
First off I would like to thank everyone who ordered a shirt or donated money or gifts. Wow, it was a really good turn out and I would like to just say thank you from the bottom of my heart. This ministry means so much to me. Everything is going great. We have lots of toys. We are in need of more boy toys and more baby toys. There are going to be 12 open heart surgeries done that week, so we are expecting the PICU to be super full. 8 of the surgeries are baby boys. Mom is making flannel blankets, but I need to go buy more fabric to make some more. We are not going to have enough for the amount of babies that are there. Here is a magnet that Christina and I whipped up today. Micah made a butterfly ornament for Gifts of Gabi's Grace and we did the daisy magnet for Miracles Happen. There will be one of each the butterfly and daisy in each stocking. We will be taking tons of pics that day also, so everyone will be able to enjoy them here on the blog.
Bella updates
Okay, I don't think I talk about Christina enough. She is my day nurse. She is so great. I look at life with her here now and wonder how I ever survived without her. For those of you who don't know, she helped me design the t-shirt. She designed the magnet. Not only does she help me with the ministry, she has been a God send for our entire family. I trust her completely with Bella. I tease that she not only takes care of Bella, but she also takes care of me. I think everyone needs a Christina in their lives!! So anyways about this pic right here. This is Bella in the Johnny Jump Up, borrowed from non other than Christina. This is only her second time in it, but she does fairly well. She tries to jump some. She is just getting used to having ground under her feet. And not to mention this is the first time she has seen the world from this view. So I am getting her a jumping saucer thing for Christmas. I think it will be great to help her build her strength. Bella is doing great. She already has two teeth. She weighs 18lbs 8 oz, which means she gained 1 lb 8 oz just this month.
Everyone I would like for you to meet Boo
This is Boo. She is Isabella's chicken. My mom decided a few months back that she wanted chickens. So she (with the help of Matt and my dad) built a chicken coop, then went to the chicken swap (or whatever that is called) and she got some chickens. There is one chicken for each grandkid. Isabella's chicken is the cutest. She has a fluffy butt and she is just really cute....for a chicken!! Isabella has never actually met her chicken, but I am sure she would agree that she is the best chicken we have!! All of the kids names their own chicken. I named Boo. Abby's chicken is Nemo, Madison's is Alex (off the Naked Brothers Band), Sarah's is Princess, Katie's is Dora and Sione's is Bock Bock. Last weekend, Princess and Nemo flew the coop. So my mom made me go and look for the chickens with her. We walked all over the neighborhood. No chickens. Well Nemo finally came home on her own. But we then had to chase her all over the yard to get her back in the coop. Princess however never came home. I told Mom just to finally give up on the stupid chicken. I think she was a little heartbroken!! So now we are down the 5 chickens. Matt has since clipped their wings. So hopefully they will no longer be flying the coop!!
God Bless to everyone.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Family Tree Night
Happy 11 month Birthday Bella Boo
Bella's first Thanksgiving. I tried to get her to hold this little pumpkin. She just looks so cute and big here. Check out how long her hair has gotten.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Update on Santa's little helpers
And I love all of you. May God Bless you all. And in case I don't get to say it before Thursday, have a happy Thanksgiving!!
Friday, November 16, 2007
1st Annual Santa's Little Helpers
The t-shirt sales are going okay and I thank everyone who has ordered. If you would like a shirt please order soon because I will have to put the order into the printers by the end of next week. People have been asking questions about sizes. I believe we can get just about any size, and they are 50/50. All proceeds are going directly to the foundation and most of it will be to help with our Christmas project. Matt and I know how awful it is to sit in the PICU but to be there at Christmas must be horrible. We want to make this a special Christmas for the kids. I have seen it over and over again kids that are in the PICU that have no one. No mommy or daddy to love on them when they need it the most. It is heart breaking and awful but it does happen. Also being there is a huge financial hardship. So hopefully we will help make a little bit happier for these kids and their families.
This is something that Micah and I along with our families want to do to celebrate the life of Gabi and the miracle of Bella. I have said it a million times and I will say it again, these little girls have touched and impacted so many lives. We want to continue celebrating for them.
Love to All and I will keep everyone posted with what we are planning.
For the beautiful story of Gabi please visit http://gabrielesheridan.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Party Planning
Okay I have started planning Isabella's first birthday party. Since the Dr.'s could not assure us that she would make it this far, and she has!! Praise God!! We are going to celebrate. Well mostly celebrate on the blog. She will be one on December 23rd and I am going to have a small b-day party for her on the weekend before. I have bought her the ultimate princess dress. Well when I ordered it, I ordered a 6 mo dress and then I stated thinking, this is not going to fit. So I found another dress I liked even better and ordered a bigger size. So today the dresses came in!! YEAH. It felt like Christmas. So Christina (our day nurse) and I played dress us with Bella. We did try both dresses on her and they both looked very cute. The one in the pictures is the one that is too small. It actually is not zipped up because it was so small. But since I bought it, I had to get some picture of her in it. The one she will wear on her birthday will not be revealed until that time!! Since the party is going to be small (do to it being RSV season and what not) I am planning on capturing every single moment and putting it on the blog. As for the dress, all I can say is that it is 7 layers!! You all may think I am nuts but I really want to give her the best first birthday ever!! So here are the photos of her in the non birthday dress. I thought everyone would enjoy them.
As for Bella and not feeling well lately: She is doing much better. She did spike a temp today but it quickly went back down. I think she just had a virus that needed to run its course. So we are praying that we are at the tail end of it. We have lost a little progress with her since she has not been feeling well, but today we put her in her bumbo chair and made her hold her head up. She did okay but I know she will regain her strength and start moving right along. Thank you to all for your prayers.
T-shirt sales: We are moving right along with the fundraiser so thank you to all of you who have ordered. We hope to make a difference for the kids at CMH in the PICU. We are teaming up with Gifts of Gabi's Grace. So stay tuned for more details on that. Micah and I are working out a plan.
Absolutely beautiful. She is a true princess!!
One of Maddy playing in the leaves today. She is just too darn cute also. Sorry but Abby was at school when I was being camera happy today.
Love to all of you. Your thoughts and prayers have made all of the difference in the world.
Friday, November 9, 2007
We are selling T-shirts
Okay here is the T-shirt design. We are selling right now. We will be taking order until November 21st. They are going to be $10.00 each for adults and $8.00 each for kids. The proceeds go to the ministry to help other critically ill children. We are hoping to be able to do something for Christmas for some of the kids in the PICU at Children's Mercy. So if you want a shirt please place your order soon. We will deliver most people their shirts but for those of you who live far away, we can ship them, just add $2.00 to your order for shipping. If you would like to pay by paypal, please go to the sidebar and there is a button there that says donation. For those you who are wanting to do check or money order, just send to P.O. Box 94 Oswego, KS 67356. Or if you want to order in person. Whatever works best!! We hope to have a more male like t-shirt designed soon. I know this one is kind of girly. So you men keep watching for that!! Matt has already said he doesn't think he will wear this one!! Oh and please specify if the shirt is child or adult and what size you would like. And the shirt is going to be white. Also they will be ready around the last week of November. Okay if anyone has any additional questions about the shirts, just e-mail me at megangudde@hotmail.com
Okay on another note, please pray for Bella. She has a bit of a virus right now and doesn't feel so great. She is running a little temp and has diarrhea. She just acts like she feels really crummy. So please pray for her recovery from this little virus.
Love to all!!
p.s. to view a larger image of the design just click on the picture and it allow you to see it in a much bigger view!!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Good Report
We then went to her appointment. That's when it got crazy. There were a bunch of people there to see us, well to see Bella!! Melissa our awesome social worker and Dorothy our equally awesome FHP person were there. We were so excited to see both of them. They have done so much for us and I don't think they will ever know how much we appreciate them!!
Okay so on with the appt. They are not really big concerned with her throwing up. She seems to be holding her own with that so no changes there. She has grown some and gained some weight. She continues to move up on the growth curve. She is still not on the growth curve for height but she is for weight. So she is just short and chunky!!! Just kidding baby doll. I also asked about her sleeping so much. It is a concern of mine because I feel she sleeps way too much for 10 1/2 months. Dr. Gratny said she is sleeping so much because of the brain injury. She said the only time the brain can heal is when you are sleeping. So I guess the sleeping is a good thing. She needs to sleep to get better. She explained to us that Bella basically started all over when she suffered this last crash. So even though Bella is 10 1/2 months old, she is kind of like a 3 month old. She is doing everything a three month old would do. Matt and I had talked about this before. We both kind of felt like that she had to start back over at square one. She just needs time to catch up. They did say in clinic that no one knows just how much of her functioning she will get back. I would like to argue that point because I BELIEVE she will get back all of her functioning and then progress along like any other baby. It is just going to take time, determination, strength, faith and prayer!!! And whatever level she ends up at, I know she will be the best that she can be.
So, all in all, everyone was impressed with how she was looking. She had so many comments on how long her hair has gotten. Everyone thought she looked great. Dr. Gratny is very pleased with the way she is progressing. She decreased some of her vent settings but did not release her yet to be off the vent for a few hours a day. She said she would probably be ready next month for that step. So we are not scheduled to go back for another month. We will see PT, OT and cardiology next month. We will then see ENT in January and they will eval her to see if maybe she can start eating by mouth again. I think they may scope her in January. So we will see.
Sorry I didn't get anything posted until now. We did go to our friends Amber and Mike after our appt for a quick visit. We just got home and settled in for the night.
Love to All
Oh and you know I would have put tons of pics on here from today, but I went off and left my camera this morning. SORRY!!