Play time

So Saturday morning we get up and start to get ready for a swimming party that we were supposed to go to. Then the entire morning Addison kept getting choked and gagging from being congested so bad. (Besides I was already worried about a string that I thought was wrapped around her g-tube.) So I went ahead and took her to Children's. First I took Eli over to play with Blake and Ryan and Jacob went with me. Big mistake going to Children's because I failed to mention that this was at 12:30 when the Florida game started at 3. Our 10 minute drive to Children's took us almost an hour I think. They ended up not really doing anything for her because she can't take anything and she has a mild viral infection. (A cold.) So we went home and got Eli and went down to the lake in Karns and played in the water a few minutes (mainly because I locked my keys in the car and had to wait on mom to come and let us in.) We were actually just going "riding." LOL Anyways. We got back home and Jacob and Eli were playing with Addison. Jacob totes her around everywhere now and she played wrestling with them and even chewed on John Cena's head. :) Then Jacob hollars at me and tells me to come find Addison. His new game is to hide Addison and then get me to come find her. He did this with Josh once so I already had an idea of what he was doing. I've attached a picture. We made a trip to Babies R Us and found a Mickey's Clubhouse chair. Addison loves Mickey's Clubhouse so that's definately going to be a 1st Christmas present for her. Shhh! :)

By the way, Addison weighs 14 pounds now. She's basically discharged from the GI doctor since we no longer use the g-tube (which we're hoping to have taken out on Thursday) and she only goes every 3 months now just to check her weight and stuff. Enjoy the pictures!

This is Jacob and Eli showing her how to play with wrestlers...the right way. :)

Jacob and Addison are dressed up as ninjas. I think she just has one of Jacob's white t-shirts on.

Addison being attacked my Mickey Mouse. She loves watching Mickey's Clubhouse every morning while waiting on Daddy and I'm getting ready for work.

This is the Mickey Mouse chair that's going to be a MUST for Christmas. She laughed every time I put her in it.

Jacob putting Addison in the lake. (I think it's a lake. Lake, river, same difference.)

Can you find Addison?

Tennessee football time

Addison got to wear her 1st UT outfit. I figured I would post some pictures. Uncle Kenny would be so proud. :) The Gouge and Elrod families are big into UT football so of course Addison has to join the crowd and be all decked out. Not sure how Josh's family is on the Vols yet but with mine it's definately a sin to not join in. The boys had matching UT clothes this morning too (until Eli spilled toothpaste on his shirt) but I can never sit still long enough to get morning pictures of them before we're rushing out the door to catch the bus. :(

Here's the 1st UT outfit (notice I said 1st...she has several.)

Me and Traci agree she's starting to look like Sarah Kate. I think this one she looks like her.


This is just a picture of her new toy. She was playing with it then got really tired and ended up falling asleep.

Addison's 4 month check-up

Addison had her 4 month check up today with Dr. Machen. She weighed 13 pounds 8 ounces. (She weighed 13lbs 5oz Tuesday but she had a full diaper today.lol) She's 24 inches long and in the 49th percentile in her weight and length and 10th percentile in her head size. He said she has a pea head. :) Neurologically he said she's doing perfect and all around she's "fab-u-lous." He kept on and on commenting on how good she was doing. She kept blowing bubbles at him and grabbing for his stethoscope. She even let him put the tongue depressor in her mouth and didn't get mad. As soon as she finishes what Neocate (preemie formula) she has left then we will be going to Similac Alimentum. Then when she finishes what he gave us, we're to start regular Similac. He said she's ok on eating baby food and cereal and whatever else she wants basically. He's hoping they take the G-tube out soon too. He was surprised she still had it with how well she's been doing. Then of course he had to drop in there that she looks just like her daddy. (What am I chopped liver?!? LOL) He tried to sit her up to see how she's doing with that and he laughed because she didn't want to sit up, she wanted to stand up completely. He asked her if she thought she was older than 4 months or something. LOL That's my girl (or Daddy's girl, so he thinks.) Then the nurse came in with the shots. She had 2 shots and then had 2 medicines by mouth. I stuck the pacy in her mouth the minute the first shot went in and she didn't even make a noise. Then when the second shot went in she made a face with her eye brows and then she quit. She didn't get fussy or anything. I'm so proud! :)Needless to say I'm really excited that she's doing so much better. Now to get the g-tube out and start turning over again and crawling. Yay!

Waiting on Dr. Machen

Addison and her ring. She loves these. We had to show the doctor she can hold onto things and put them in her mouth. She definately knows how to do that.

After her shots, ready to go home.

GI appointment 8/24/2010

We took Addison to see Dr. Al-Tawil today. She weighed 13 pounds 5 ounces. Big difference from her 10 pounds 13 ounces that they said she weighed about a month ago. The reason we took her in today is because she's been starting to have choking episodes again and spit up a few times yesterday after she would eat. Here's what they said: her stomach is 3/4 the size that it should be since she's had the surgery done. When she over eats that's what will cause her to spit up. So basically he's saying that she's overeating. lol But last month he was telling us that she was doing good and to let her eat as much as she will. (I'm rolling my eyes right now.)Which I was starting to have a feeling that she's eating too much because she's waking up a lot at night but all the doctors were saying that's ok for now so I didn't think anything about it. So now we have to write down what all she's eating and take it back in a week and let them see if that's the case. She's getting little fat legs and starting to get a belly but everyone still says that she's so little but then they turn around and call her a "chunky monkey." Good grief. Will everyone make their minds up. :)

8/19/2010 Dr Fowler appointment

Dr. Fowler is Addison's surgeon (which I love.) She doesn't have much of a personality but she's really good at what she does and she's actually grown on me. We went in yesterday hoping to get her g-tube taken out but it didn't happen. Dr. Fowler came in and automatically said she had gained some weight just from looking at her and she seemed very happy. She even asked if she was always that happy. She was smiling and squealing when Dr. Fowler came in and even lets her mess around and look at her belly and still continues to laugh. Even tho Addison is eating completely by mouth (formula, cereal, and baby food) and burping on her own some now, she wants to keep the g-tube in one more month just to make sure. Dr Fowler said that she usually keeps them in a minimum of 3 months just to make sure so they don't need to go back in and put another g-tube in if she ended up needing it. So we have the tube in still for another month. Oh well. I was a little upset and almost started crying but I'm just glad that she's healthy and doing so much better. She loves eating baby food with cereal now. So far she's eaten apple sauce, bananas, peaches, and sweet potatoes. She loves all of them so far and gets so excited and thinks it's funny to spit her food out. Oh and they didn't weigh her yesterday so I don't have a current weight yet.

I bought her a Bumbo seat last week. Best thing since sliced bread!!! She loves the seat. She will sit in it and watch tv, play, and it's really easy to sit her in it to feed her. I've even brought her to work a few times and sat her in her seat on my desk and she just sits there and talks to everyone and watches the computer screen. It's awesome!

Here's Eli getting his hair cut before school started. The mohawk had to go.

Jacob and Addison. They're such hams. :)

Addison loves watching tv. Cartoons, movies, whatever. But she's starting to take after her cousins and getting into Mickeys Clubhouse.

Addison at 3 months old

Addison says "Thank you Ben for the Bumbo seat." Ben says "What are you doing in my chair woman." lol

Update on Addison

Addison turned 3 months on July 20th. On July 26th we took her to the pediatrician to get a weight check and they said she now weighs 10 pounds even. But then the following day we took her for a GI check-up and they said she weighs 10 pounds 13 ounces. So someone's scale is wrong and we're not really sure how much she weighs right now. :( The important part is she's gaining weight now. The GI doctor said that he's happy with her gaining weight and eating everything by mouth now so he estimates that we can have the g-tube removed in about a month. Yay! She's eating by mouth and she's even burping some on her own as well so he said "I'm proud!" (He's foreign so that came out funnier when I say it. lol) She's still on the Neocate formula for preemies and I've started her on cereal, applesauce, and even gave her some bananas yesterday. She loves all of it so far.



This is when I put her 1st pair of shoes on. She's looking at them like "what is that on my foot!" I thought it was too cute. :)


Jacob has been such a little helper thru all of this. He enjoys picking her clothes out and now that she has her first pair of shoes, he likes to put her shoes on her. He will even use her tube to burp her sometimes and likes to feed her. The boys think it's hilarious to watch her formula come up the tube when we use it. Eli still isn't too comfortable holding her so he usually doesn't pay her much attention but I do catch him talking to her and playing with her someimes. He's just still a little shy about touching her and gets ansy when she starts to cry. They fight over who gets to sit next to her in the car but as soon as she starts crying, Eli is the first one to move over and let Jacob help her while I'm driving. I want to thank everyone for all the prayers and thoughts for her thru all of this. It's been a long and emotional time but she's made it thru it (and so have I and Josh) and no one got hurt. LOL :)



We've also taken Addison to her first time at the lake and first time swimming in a pool. She loves it even tho the picture I have on here she looks pitiful. I just took that one because I thought it was cute. The others look much better. :)

This was her 1st time in the lake up in Roane County.

This was one of the 1st times in the pool. Maybe the time after I stuck her under water. :/ lol

This is just a random bath time picture I took. She loves the bath and she didn't know what to think of rubber duckie.

Addison's hospital visits

So we've spent a total of 3 1/2 weeks in the hospital with Addison. She's now had a head and abdomen ultrasound, upper GI test, modified barium swallow, NJ tube placed (and removed), sweat test, and a ph probe test done. She got admitted to the hospital the first time by her pediatrician. They sent us home after she gained a few ounces. When we went back to the pediatrician, she had lost again so he sent us to a GI doctor. As soon as he saw Addison he said that she was malnourished so sent us to the hospital to have an NJ tube placed. When we got to the hospital the doctor on call decided not to do that and sent us home a few days later after gaining 1 ounce (no joke.) 2 days later we had a recheck appointment with the GI doctor and he was upset they didn't place the NJ tube so we went back to the hospital. This is when they finally did the NJ tube and ended up doing a fundoplication, g-tube placement, and a pyloriplasty all in the same visit. So she's been out of the hospital for 2 weeks now and has only gained 5 ounces. They're still worried about her weight and we're going for weight check and GI appointments and also starting on a feeding pump at night starting tonight. We go back in 2 weeks to see if this has helped and find out what to do next. Secretly, I'm starting her on cereal to help. LOL. Here are some pictures from the hospital:

I think these 2 are during her first visit when they didn't do anything to her.


This is the NJ tube. It bypasses her esophagus so food can go straight to her stomach. This was to see if her refluxing in her esophagus was what was causing the problem.

This was after the G-tube was finally placed with her poor little IV in her hand.

All wrapped up like a burrito. :)

That's a picture of her G-tube. While we were in the hospital she never acted like none of this was bothering her. She did awesome!

Jacob and Eli came to see her in the hospital. Jacob missed her. He was worried about her and kept asking if she was ok.


This one is when she had the IV in her head...which we were not fond of. :(