Prayer for Little Miss

Please pray for Little Miss tonight.  She has yet another ear infection.  A “raging ear infection that would even make her mother cry,” says the doctor.  We had an okay night last night (Hud and AK both slept in our room at alternating intervals), after a horrible night of being up all night Sunday night . . . and when we came home today from our morning activities, I pulled her out of her carseat and she was hot to the touch.  Another fever.  Then, about an hour later, she vomited.  It was awful.  I thought I would post a picture of her crying instead of me crying, because she is much cuter, even when sad.  After crying on the phone to our beloved pediatrician, we headed into the office, and we are on yet another antibiotic as well as numbing drops for her ear to see if we can get her pain under control and eating back up to normal.  {they think she vomited from the pain.  poor baby.  break my heart!  but, fear not, she has gained weight:  18lbs, 12oz . . . no wonder my neck hurts from carrying her!}  Please pray for Jesus to heal her ear, to protect her from further illness (her breathing is still not good, but it is a little better—no Little Fishy anymore), and to give us all rest.  I keep thinking of Psalm 23 . . . “[the Lord] leads me beside quite waters, He restores my soul.”  Both quite waters and rest or restoration sound lovely right about now.  I’d like a dose for me, and another for my love bug!  Thank you for joining us in prayer!   

Our Little Fishy

Little Miss has had to wear her “bubbles the fish” mask (that is the actual name of the mask) this weekend as we’ve had to do nebulizer treatments every 4-6 hours for her cough.  Poor little love!  She is actually smiling in these pictures, but most of the treatments do not go quite as well!  William is most upset by the treatments—he screams “it loud!  it scary!  it hurting her!”  Hatch and I have tried to explain that it does not hurt her, but when she cries, it doesn’t help our case!  Hudson stands on guard as my assistant—he turns the neb on and off each time we do it . . . he, of course, has no fear.  Today, the boys and I sang songs to Anna while we did her treatment, and it was such a precious time for the four of us.  They were so sweet, and she just stared up at us grinning and grinning!  We hope that she will feel better soon.  We are praying that Jesus will heal our littlest love and help her to feel like her tiny self again very soon!

And, I forgot to mention on my last post about Anna Banana (or, “the banana,” as W says) being 5 months old that she also loves to purse her lips together and make a raspberry sound—which, really, actually results in her spitting everywhere!  She is also loving grabbing onto things, like her mama’s hair and necklace and the tubing that goes to her nebulizer . . . and she also pulls out her paci and tries to put it back in! 

William and Hudson both offered for Anna to sleep in their big beds tonight.  She kindly declined and is snuggled in her swaddle (yes, we still swaddler her.  I know, I know.  One day she will not be swaddled any longer, but for now, her father says that “she cannot handle the responsibility of the freedom of her hands!”), and she is all nestled in her crib sound asleep—after talking to her birdies for 20 minutes!

Nighty night night!

AnnaBug is 5 months old!

Well, technically, she is 5.5 months old, but with all of the chaos around here, I’ve just now managed to get some pictures together!  Annabug still LOVES to giggle and grin, and if you are lucky, she’ll be happy to talk to you, too!  Lately, she spends her days saying “Dada Daaaaaaaaaaa Da Da.”  William informed her, today, that DaDa is currently at work at the office.  Thank you very much!

Anna has started to roll from her tummy to her back—mainly because she hates being on her tummy!  She loves to kick her feet, especially in the bathtub (we’re looking forward to fun swimming this summer!), and she is getting to be quite accurate with giving her little dangling toys a pat-pat or swat. Anna continues to be a great sleeper for us.  While I wish she’d stretch a tad longer in the morning, I know I really have no room to complain.  I am grateful for her love of sleep, which her father thinks she got from me!  She takes one or two catnaps in the morning, and takes a big ole nap in the afternoon with her brothers.  It is a glorious time for us all!  The challenging part is that all three chickens go to bed around the same time, so it is all hands on deck around here at night!

Anna is really enjoying playing now, too.  She loves to play with her baby, her ball (thank you, Melanie!), her rattle, and anything her brothers send her way.  Her dearest friends continue to be the birdies on her mobile—she loves to talk and laugh at them.  Hatch and I can hear her laughing at them from outside of her door!  It is so cute!  With most of her other friends, she chats with them and then, when she is done, she gets mad and yells at them.  With baby, she grabs her by the pigtails and tries to suck on her head—it is hilarious!  While she loves her toys, snacking on her fingers is still her favorite way to pass the time!  Anna Kathryn continues to be the most ticklish child I have ever known!

Anna loves looking around and riding upright in the stroller or bjorn when she can.  She enjoys seeing the world around her, and she will make it known if she is unable to see her brothers in action!  She adores her brothers and loves being with them, talking to them, and being near them.  They have become increasingly attentive towards her as well—if she cries, they want to know what is wrong and how to fix it.  And, if they realize the accidentally squished, hurt, poked, or did something else to her, the immediately apologize and kiss her.  It is so dear!  

While we won’t go back for a check up for another month or so, when we went last week to see the doctor for a sick visit, little chubette weighed 16lbs, 3 ounces.  She is positively squeezable!

Anna does a great job of smiling through the tears . . . this month has brought Anna’s first fever, first two rounds of antibiotics, and, as of today, first nebulizer treatments.  We had hoped the winter germs were a thing of the past . . . hopefully, our little love will feel much, much better soon!

Because of the sickness, Little Miss has decided she prefers to be fed by bottle.  This has been a little sad for me, but I know I will always cherish my time feeding her as a baby.  We still have a good morning snuggle each day before we go in to get the rascals.  Anna guzzles her morning bottle and then talks and talks and coos for a long time!  After she finishes her adorable monologues, she tends to nod off for her morning nap.  Such a little love!

Little Miss loves her bunny, too . . . yummy bunny!

Oh, my heart!

 

Right after I took these pictures of Anna Kathryn with her (brother’s) rattle, she started to suck on her toes!  She is very into her feet and hands these days, and she loves the rattle, too!  Busy baby! 

It is such fun to watch her grow and become increasingly aware of her world.  As soon as her DADA enters the room, she locks her eyes on him until he speaks to her.  It is so precious.  We are enjoying every moment with our sweet Anna Kathryn!  Oh, how grateful are we to call her our own!  She is so dear to us all!  Thank you, Jesus, for our precious girl.  Oh, how sweet she is!

Loves

I love these boys. And, I promise to cut their hair as soon as we exit this latest round of survival mode . . .

Someone refused to have his picture taken, and opted to play “Where’s me?” instead!

I love these chubby, dirty fingers!

These boys love their sister: I have a hunch that it is these same chubby, dirty fingers that cannot keep their hands off of Sister that end up spreading the dreaded germs . . .

Kiss, Kiss Baby Sis!

And, right back at ya, Brother!

Meanwhile . . . (GROSS.)

I love this baby: This is Anna Kathryn’s latest talent . . . grabbing her tootsies!

Returning to the safe zone . . . toes!

Can you see the look on Anna’s face? Mama, are you going to do something, here?

The rascals LOVE DIGGERS: Today we went to the Garden to see 1 Million Blooms. What we did not expect was to see a FARM full of diggers. I feel certain that my boys think you go to the garden to see multiple big trucks. I fear some disappointment lies in our future.

We saw both an excavator and a mini-excavator. And, both of them were digging. It was THE. BEST. THING. EVER. AMAZING.

We headed home for a quick lunch before naps . . . and, well, Anna was a little too interested in Sugie’s food. Much like her brother Hudson (who grabbed a cracker out of someone’s hand and put it in his mouth before he was eating real food at all!) So, it’s true, we Reppards have a thing for food. We love it.

And, tonight we started SugarLump on his medication. We have to check his heart rate before giving it to him, so we had a round of playing doctor . . .

We have high hopes that this medication will really change the appearance of W’s hemangioma. We are praying that Jesus will use it to heal our boy! Hopefully, these are some of the last pictures with the hemangioma being this big. We shall see! Please pray for us and for our boy!

Thanks, so very much, for your prayers! And, for your phone suggestions . . . keep ‘em coming. I need to figure out what to do soon . . . and you know how I love to take pictures with my phone!

Night!

This is a test

I know nothing about blogs and am trying to figure something out.  Bear with me.

In the meantime, did you know that this is one of the things that my crazy pregnancy nesting instinct produced?  Love having a little lady!

Lately . . .

Daddy went to the Men’s Weekend at church on Friday night and Saturday morning, so we had a little extra snuggle time after naps on Friday.  It was definitely one of the highlights of Mama’s weekend . . .

Saturday morning, we headed to watch “the game” (aka:  the race, the Monument Ave 10k) with cousins Kelly, Greg, Mary, Aunt Beth and our newest family member, puppy dog Roger (who belongs to Kelly and Greg).  The boys loved Roger!  I’m sad to report that I don’t have any pictures of him, but I’ll be sure to post some when I get them from Mary.  Below is an act of genius . . . Aunt Beth worked her magic and had William and Hudson hold each other’s hands while one held her hand as they walked back to Kelly’s house.  The picture was taken on my phone and isn’t the best, but those two blue dots are the boys.  he he he!

We found out yesterday that Anna Kathryn still   has an ear infection, after 7 days on meds.  We tend to find these things out the hard way . . . you know, after another night of her being up screaming in the night.  Well, smiling and then screaming, and then cooing and laughing, and screaming.  Even amidst the screams, she is such a sweet girl.  She had her first fever yesterday, and we are praying her new meds will kick the fever and the ear pain!  This weekend definitely called for some resting (Mama had a headache too) . . . we were tired people . . . 

I have tried to get in some good snuggles with my chubby bunny.  She is such a doll and SO happy.  She giggled the ENTIRE time that we waited to see the doctor last night—fever and ear pain and all.  Still giggling!

Despite the fact that Anna is actually spitting in William’s face, it is so dear to see the boys and Anna interact more and more.  She is increasingly aware of them and will crane her neck to see what they are doing.  She gets quite upset if she is in a position where she cannot see or watch them, and she lights up and smiles and giggles when they talk to her or play with her.  It is so dear.  It warms my heart! 

After many, many phonecalls and doctors visits and much prayer from many people over the last three weeks, we have decided to start William on a new medication to try to treat the hemangioma on his eye.  While we think that it does look good (and our doctors agree) and while we believe that Jesus is continuing to heal his eye, we also desire to see it completely disappear.  Our hope and prayer is that this medication will help the hemangioma disappear completely so that the skin around his eye will regain its elasticity so that he will not need plastic surgery in a year or two.  After seeing a pediatric cardiologist on Friday and having not one, but TWO blood draws (which took a team of doctors, nurses, a lab tech, me, a book of 2000 stickers, screaming, crying, more yelling, Chick-Fil-A fries and a milkshake—for W and for me! to get through it all), we hope to start W’s treatment tomorrow Thursday (change of plans—the doctor just called and we have to wait a bit more).  We are not sure how William will do on the medication or if he will respond, so we do covet your prayers.  First and foremost, please pray with us for Jesus to protect William on this medication—that he would feel normal and not have any side effects (which, like all drugs are present, but rare).  Please also pray that the Lord would use this medication to completely and finally get rid of the hemangioma . . . and for his skin to heal well, too.  You can also pray for peace for me and for patience for Hatch, as he is my loving listening ear when I start to worry or become anxious or stressed out about things regarding my babes.  Pray for God to give us grace to trust Him in this—especially when we (and I) may feel tempted towards doubt or anxiety.  And, while you are praying, you can pray for Hudson too—he randomly threw up last night.  So, our tally as of this afternoon is:  one baby with ear infection, one boy randomly vomiting, one boy about to start a new big treatment for his eye, and two tired parents.  Despite these small bumps in our road, I am so grateful for the health that Jesus has given to our family.  We are so thankful for that, and we do not take it lightly!

More to come! 

(AND, I am on the hunt for a new cell phone mine may have been dropped one ten too many times . . . if you love yours and it has a good camera, PLEASE tell me about it!  Do I take the iphone plunge? Ah!  help!)