BJM’s Photos

This is the third set of stickers that I put on Ally’s band.  She’s enjoying the beautiful day at baseball practice.  Tomorrow we’re switching these out for her BIRTHDAY WEEK stickers! 

It was just over a year ago, that I was in Europe for a minute. Ellen was on bed rest for 3 weeks. Little did we know all that was about to happen. It started on June 4th with a fast drive to the hospital, emergency C-section for Ellen and little Allyson was born. Although we welcomed her with open arms, the world had no intention of making her little life easy. Struggling to breathe she spent weeks in the hospital, while her lungs completed their growth. Eventually, we were allowed to take her home, armed with our monitor and oxygen tanks and pumps we our household extend her the warmest of home comings. This milestone was short lived when 23 hrs later she stopped breathing and we rushed her to the hospital which would turn into three more weeks in the NICU, this time at Children’s. Home again for a week this time, fate would send her packing, back to childrens this time for stomach surgery. Four days later after battling to get herself off the respirator, she was home to stay. Now for little Ally, this is where the real work begin, cast after cast to fix her foot, then shoes that well, made this little girl hate shoes. Her foot is fixed, however, unfortunately the extra three months of laying on her back has taken a toll on her head, which now requires her to wear a Doc band in hope of preventing future problems with sinus’, headaches, vision problems etc.

Through all of this the health issues, the medical bills, the fight with the insurance company, Ellen’s unemployment, etc, etc. Ally never let anything stand in her way. She never stops bringing us joy and today she did it again. She crawled for the first time.

Here is the video . . .Ally crawls

  Nicholas likes to get Ally up in the morning-They were having  some snuggle time before getting their day started. 

If you are having a bad day, this is sure to make you feel better.

Ally Laughing

Smooches! (I just learned how to make kissy sounds)

Here is side and back of the newly decorated band. (The side is daddy’s favorite!)

How’s this for a pose, Dad?

mmmmmm. . . . toes

Ally thought the laundry basket was pretty interesting so I gave her a ride downstairs in it.  She thought it was pretty cool to play in it.  I was in the process of changing the stickers on her DOC band, so she was without it for a little bit today.

I was taking pix of her 1st set of stickers before taking them off and caught her making this pouty face.  Lil’ Miss Attitude, huh?

I went up to check on her today and cracked up-  She fell asleep with BOTH hands and BOTH feet sticking out of her crib.  I couldn’t resist documenting that one-

Today, Ally got cast for her doc band. The experience involved taking a plaster cast of her entire head. Now for those of you who are familar plaster, will understand that this is not an instant process. So if you ever have wondered “What would a 6 month old look like if I took a plaster cast of her head and held her still for 15 minutes” Well, wait no more !

The good news is that all of this hard work will be worth it when her head is reshaped. Although, we all agree, she can not get much cuter.

If you are not around her every day, you might not think that her head is misshapen at all; however, if you look at the picture below you will see two lumps that are her ears. As you can see, they are way off, this is because her entire head is skewed causing her forehead and cheek to protrude. The back of head also has a severe flat spot. During the appointment they took some photos, I will post them when I get them.