Happy 8 Months Emma!!

I can't believe Emma is already 8 months old (yesterday)! I know I say this every month :) She is really changing and developing so much. 

Teething: Emma is cutting her top two front teeth (one of the two have actually erupted) which will total 4 teeth

Crawling: Emma is on the VERGE of taking off any day now!! She gets up onto her knees and rocks back and forth. She can lay on her tummy and manage to inch worm her way around. 

Eating: Emma loves to eat solid foods! There isn't much she refuses to eat (so far just green beans and peas). We have recently introduced blueberries, broccoli, turkey, beef and she loves it all. The other day Reese and I were eating apple slices and Emma wanted some so I broke off little tiny bites and she ate them just fine! She has been eating whole puffs for a while now and also likes to eat Mum Mums (rice biscuits for teething). She can reach for a puff off the table and put it in her mouth very gracefully now (so far I think she is left-handed, she always reaches with her left for eating). 

Sippy Cup: Emma has started drinking water from her Nuk sippy cup. We have had it out around her for exposure for a while now but she mainly just chomped on it. She is now drinking from it with a purpose :)

Play Time: She LOVES to play and play!! Emma is pretty self entertained for a baby. She is happy as long as she has something to play with. She loves to jump in her jumperoo and walk in her around-we-go. I think bath time is her favorite!!
Sleep: She is now officially a tummy sleeper. Even if we lay her down on her back she will roll onto her tummy within 5 seconds. She has been going down pretty early at night since starting day care (around 6:30pm). She was sleeping till about 5am but now with the two teeth coming thru she is waking up several times a night.
Communication: Emma can now shake her head "no" and sometimes she will mimic me signing "milk". Her only words so far are "mama" and "dada" :)

Playtime!

The girls have been having a lot of fun lately!

Emma is cutting her top two teeth

Playtime (she has started taking the paci for teething)

Dress-up time!

Heels & a cell phone...growing up too fast!

Playtime!

Sweet girls!

Finger paint!

 

Look what I did!

A true artist!

Story time

She loves her daddy!

Arriba!

Video from last night :) This was the 1st time Reese has flipped her shirt up like this and we could not stop laughing!

A Blessing From God

The week before Easter we found out that God has his own miraculous plan for our family.

This year we are getting a Christmas SURPRISE!! 

Baby Sweatman #3 is due to arrive December 31, 2011! 

Today we got to see the little heart beating, which makes this all seem so real. 

We are thrilled to be expanding our family and couldn't imagine our life without our two precious daughters!! Seeing them truly love each other everyday just melts our hearts & I know that the addition of another child will be a true blessing for our family!! We have always wanted 4 children close in age :) This baby is truly a SURPRISE since I was still breastfeeding Emma. We had planned on baby #3 around the time of my graduation but this miracle of life decided to bless our family a bit early :)

I could not ask for a more supportive husband!! Cody is absolutely THRILLED about this baby :) 

Emma's 1st Swim

On Saturday, May 7th we took Emma for her 1st swim. She loved Meme's pool and played in the water for quite some time!!

Reese's Lab Results

We finally got our answer to why Reese is chronically sick! She has Selective IgA Deficiency meaning she doesn't produce IgA (an important immunoglobulin for the immune system). Normal values for IgA are 12-140 and Reese's level is 2! This explains why she gets sick more often than other children and is sick for longer periods of time. She will require antibiotics for 14-20 days instead of the typical 7 day course. 

There is no treatment for this. 1 in 500 people have this but not everyone becomes symptomatic, like Reese. The 1st 6 years of her life will be an obstacle of illness according to the hematologist. She will eventually outgrow it. The best thing we can do for her is prevent her from getting sick. We are to continue her daily vitamins, start probiotics daily, and nasal rinses to keep her sinuses clear.

"IgA is known as the secretory antibody. If our mucosal surfaces were spread out they would cover an area equal to one and one-half tennis courts, so the importance of IgA in protecting our mucosal surfaces cannot be overstated." IgA protects the "mucosal surfaces, which include: mouth, ears, sinuses and nose, throat, airways within the lung, gastrointestinal tract, eyes, and genitalia". This is why Reese is always complaining that her tummy hurts. It can cause something called Leaky Gut Syndrome, where the tight junctions of the intestines now have gaps. This might explain how Reese was septic with Salmonella at 7 months old. She didn't have the intestinal protection. 

She was negative for celiac & crohn's disease....Thank God!

Isn't she beautiful?!