My little toughie

Today Bonnie had to go to the dermatologist. She's been having issues with her skin since she was little and I've pretty much gotten it under control but she still scratches horribly at herself whenever she gets the chance. Her doctor finally decided to send her to the dermatologist to see if that is normal or if there's some under-lying cause. He decided to do a full metabolic work-up on her since Jake and I both have auto-immune problems. We were at the Center for Health and Healing down at the waterfront and they don't have a pediatric lab, so the lab tech gave me kind of a worried look when she saw how young Bonnie is and called another tech over to help me hold her down. They put the tourniquet on and got the needle in and the whole time Bonnie watched while they drew the three vials and never even flinched. We are so blessed to have such a sweet girl! We'll find out the results on Monday or Tuesday.

Yes! It's been less than a year...

Her first bath at home.
Loving lovin' from her daddy.
Monkey feet.
So cute, so much hair!
Excited!
Doesn't like to be dressed up...
One of my favorite pictures ever :)
So sweet.
She loved this monkey.
Cute little Bonnie rabbit :)
Sleepy in the sun.
So happy!
Chubbiest knees ever!
So tired after her first day swimming.
One of our only family pictures!
Jake got her this Brookings T-shirt right after discovering I was pregnant.
Not too impressed with her first bite of solids!
Her first ride in her big girl carseat.
Haha! My mother-in-law calls this the return of the Boston strangler :)
So pretty!
Bonnie with her daddy.
Such serious eyes!
Loves chocolate like her momma!
Birthday outfit.
I love this girl :)
Sweet profiles.
Her first faux-hawk.
Just us girls at the park on a beautiful day.
This kid is hooked on the swings!
Me and Banana with my dad and little sister
Just chillin' in their crib...
My big girl Walker :)






Ok, so I'm officially horrible at maintaining a blog! If I was creative and good with words, I would make up a word much stronger than horrible... So in the last year a lot has happened. Bonnie is now 15 months old! She just started walking a couple weeks ago, she says mama, dada, yes, baby, bye bye, hi (especially on her imaginary phone), uh-oh, wow, and her personal favorite "no-no." She sleeps through the night, she feeds herself, she has enough hair now for pigtails!, she is a trooper and comes with me to both of my jobs, she is an all-around great kid. I'm amazed at how easy-going she is after the drama of my pregnancy and her birth. She has had zero complications since we came home from the hospital, and is perfectly healthy with the exception of her skin. She has some type of eczema or something that nothing seems to be helping, so we finally got referred to a pediatric dermatologist this weekend, and I'm calling first thing tomorrow morning to set up an appointment.

Umm, what else? In December I had to follow-up with my cardiologist after all the chaos with Bonnie's delivery. He hooked me up with an event monitor that I had to wear for a month and record my heart beat anytime something felt abnormal, and then call them from a landline and transmit my rhythm over the phone like a fax. It was awful and uncomfortable and made my skin incredibly irritated! About 3 weeks into it he decided he had enough information to decide to do a procedure and attempt cardiac ablation. They put catheters in my femoral veins in my legs and put probes up into my heart while I was mildly sedated and hooked up to a continuous x-ray and EKG. While in there, they tried to stimulate my erratic heart-rate so they could determine where it was coming from and ablate (burn and destroy) the tiny part of my heart that was sending the electrical impulses that caused the arrhythmia and fix the problem. No can do! It didn't work, so now I'm on meds for the time-being, which isn't a big deal, but I would have liked to just fix the problem. We'll see what he says at my next appointment on May 5th (maybe you'll even hear about it before May 5th, 2009!). Other than that, it has been a tough winter for us. We've all taken turns getting sick, starting with a stomach flu that affected Bonnie and then me and caused my poor baby to vomit in her crib all night long, and the entirety of the next day. We've all had multiple colds and coughs, not very fun.

Jake works for Comcast, doing internet support. Not his ideal job, but it pays the bills and keeps him busy. I work for two families as a nanny. Three mornings a week Bonnie and I take care of a 2 yr old girl, and 4 afternoons a week we care for two boys, ages 6 and 10. Not very glamorous, and some days extremely exhausting, but it allows us to keep Bonnie out of daycare and that is so important to us.

Other than that, the most exciting thing of the year was my dad and sister coming up for a visit. I've only seen them once since Jake and I got married almost 5 years ago, and that was a super short visit, and one time my sister came up with a friend and I had another super short (less than an hour) visit with her. This time they stayed for 3 days and got to meet Bonnie for the first time, which was great.

The pictures are from the last year. Sorry, I won't post this many regularly :)

Our time in the hospital

We had to stay in the hospital a little longer than planned. Originally, the plan was to give birth in a water birthing center, but had to switch care to OHSU due to Tara's complications. Since Bonnie was born via c-section, we had to stay three days for Tara to recover and have tests done to be sure her heart was okay since it was beating too fast during delivery and afterward in recovery. They were getting ready to discharge us on the third day, but noticed Bonnie looked a little yellow, so they did some tests and found she was a little jaundice. So we stayed until late the following night so Bonnie could do some light therapy to get her jaundice under control. That coupled with the two days in labor meant we were there for six days. I think we were all relieved when Bonnie's tests came back okay and they released us... Jake especially since he had been sleeping in what was essentially a window seat during recovery and a rock-hard chair during induction (not that he slept much during that time). Bonnie was a fabulous baby from the start. She had no trouble eating, and hardly ever cried when we were in the hospital. She was so alert after she was born that Tara stayed up most the night just staring at her. After her first night, Bonnie pretty much slept and ate the rest of our stay in the hospital... at least one of us was well rested!

The Guppy Arrives

Bonnie Anna Herring was born at 10:11 pm on January 20, 2007. She was due on Valentine's Day, but Tara had to be induced early after developing cholestasis (a pregnancy-related liver condition that can cause an increase in still-birth if the baby isn't delivered before 37 weeks gestation). It was sort of a rough pregnancy from the very beginning, but of course worth every second (have you seen her?). After confirming cholestasis, her doctor decided to schedule induction to begin January 23... but after the fetal monitoring wasn't looking exactly how the doctors wanted, they decided to induce after her appointment on the 19th. We had thought that may happen (they had almost done it the previous appointment), so we had our bags packed and with us, the carseat ready, and a key under our doormat so someone could get in to take care of our dogs. Induction was by no means pleasant, but Tara progressed well... until time to push. After nearly 3 hours of pushing, Tara ended up with an emergency c-section (she was definitely ready for pushing to be over) because of her and Bonnie's irregular heart rhythms. "Little" Bonnie was 3 weeks and 4 days ahead of schedule and still weighed in at 7 lb. 0 oz. and measured 20 inches long (lucky for us, easy stats to remember) and had a full head of hair. We consider her to be our little miracle baby after doctors told us we may never be able to have children due to Jake's cancer, and she has been an absolute blessing. She is named "Bonnie" after Tara's mom and "Anna" after Jake's grandma.