Merry Christmas!

So this was Ella's first Christmas and I have to say - I think she had a great time!

We started the week off rough because when we came back from Wisconsin Ella was congested. That cleared up but then she got super fussy and was grabbing her ear. So Monday morning I called and got her in and sure enough - she had a double ear infection. I was glad that I took her in because I almost didn't and then she would have been miserable over Christmas while we were traveling. So she started antibiotics Monday and I was hoping by Christmas she would be in better spirits. She was moderate. Not super fussy but not the happy Ella we had the last time we were at Grant's parents house. None the less being with family was wonderful and her cousins were sooo sweet with her.

On Thursday we got to have lunch and see some old friends of ours that moved to Johnson City and it was so nice. They have a son that is 10 months old so we had a lot to talk about! They were actually the first people we told we were pregnant outside of family because we were in town and she was pregnant too and I just couldn't help myself! After a nice visit we went to the Christmas eve service and I was really worried about Ella. She was still fairly fussy and I didn't know how she would be. Luckily she fell asleep right away in my arms wish is very rare and super sweet... it was an early Christmas present! Of course she woke up during communion though and was fussy at the end but overall she did great.

That night we got all of the presents ready and had a nice time with the family. Christmas morning was wild and fun and Ella got more toys then she could possibly need! She had funning grabbing the paper as we pulled the gift away so that she "opened" her own presents. It was fun.

We had a few unexpected visitors during the days we were there. Tuesday Grant's "Aunt" (mom's cousin but we call her aunt) came by even though she lives in Virginia. They were traveling and decided to make a 200 mile detour to visit the family. It was so nice because we had not met her husband yet and they had not seen Ella. Then thursday morning Grant's mom's sister and her husband stopped by unannounced but we missed then since we were visiting our friends. Last but not least on Christmas day Grant's uncle stopped by. He had been invited but we hadn't heard anything so we assumed he wasn't coming. It was nice to see all of the unexpected visitors but kind of funny that all these people stopped by without even calling.

The day after Christmas we spent the day at home and had some other family over (expected) and had a nice time playing games with the kids. Sometime during the evening I noticed that Ella was getting super fussy and felt warm. Sure enough she had a low grade fever. Not what I wanted to see since she was still trying to get over the ear infections. We waded it out and by morning her fever was better but she started getting a very runny nose. I thought maybe she caught a cold. She got so congested that one time when she woke from a nap in my arms she started crying immediately and choked on her mucus and threw up. We were about to get in the car to go home so we were concerned. Luckily she slept the whole way home. While getting her ready for bed I was sure she had caught something but wasn't sure what was going on. It was obvious she was miserable. When we woke up Monday morning she was worse. She was so fussy that I couldn't set her down. She didn't have a fever but was really congested and I could tell did not feel good. I didn't really know what to do. I hated to go back to the doctor's office especially since I thought it was just a cold, but she was so bad I didn't know. So I called and talked to a nurse. She thought she should come in to be checked. They wanted to make sure her ears were clearing up and to confirm that it was just a cold since she had so much junk in her head.

Well we ended up with bad news. She has RSV. Apparently nothing can be given to her to help her unless a secondary infection starts. It's pretty much a horrible cold that lasts for weeks and is highly contagious. I'm to look for a higher fever or troubled breathing and to take her in if either of those things happen.

I want my girl to feel better. I want to see the happy girl that we had a short glimpse of a few weeks ago. I want to sleep though the night. All of those things are so selfish though because Ella is the one who is really suffering. I feel so bad for her. I want to clean out her nose but she fights me when I try to suck it out. She struggles to breath while she nurses and is sneezing and choking a lot. Despite it all she is in fairly good spirits especially in the morning. She gets worse as the day goes on. I've started having her nap in her swing again because it's elevated and I can keep an eye on her.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I'll get some on here soon - I wanted to go ahead and post though.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas! We were going to travel to my parents' house for New Years but have cancelled that because of the RSV. The next few weeks are going to be challenging. Not only do we have the RSV but Grant starts teaching for this semester and we have a wedding show on the 24th that we are building a whole new booth for. I'll be happy when January is behind us. These wedding shows always stress me out!