Hello 2009!!!!!

Let us start by saying Happy New Year to everyone. We hope your new year brings you everything you hope for. We are still amazed we are home with Nayeli. It is surreal to us after all she and we, as a family, have been through. We continue to feel blessed and fortunate for each and every minute, hour, and day we have with our baby girl!

We started off the new year with an appointment at Kaiser. Nayeli weighs 10lbs. 11oz and 23 3/4 inches long. Nayeli got a "well baby" check, three shots (DTP, Pneumo Conjugate vaccine, and Influenza vaccine), and a liquid form (for whooping cough) of medication. We don't think she appreciated her after Christmas gift. When the Nurse gave her the first shot...she paused....got lobster red.....and moments later, screamed at the top of her lungs. This happened with the remaining shots. Poor baby. Liz cried with Nayeli and I held Nayeli's hand and assured all would be well soon. The Nurse said the shots could cause Nayeli to have an elevated temperature and signs of illness. We got concerned about this and made the Nurse go ask the DR if he truly wanted to give Nayeli the shots. The DR said he did as this would prevent her from getting sick and having a dreaded visit to NICU (which is almost a a guarantee if she gets sick). We are still very paranoid about any of us getting sick, and per the DR's, rightfully so. For this reason, we continue to limit and be very sketchy of visitors. WE hope everyone understands, and we assure you all, we want to show Nayeli off as she is beautiful. After what Nayeli has been through, and at the direction of the DR's, we will be paranoid until at least late spring or summer.
Nayeli getting examined

Nayeli getting her oral vaccination

Nayeli is hungry after her exam

Nayeli's pediatrician Dr. Hahn

So, on to other things. Nayeli's appointment was this past Wednesday and she has had some wierd stuff going on since she came home. She has vomited pretty much a full meal, but mommy suggested this may have been due to over feeding her. But, then she puked about a mouth full of brown fluid and that freaked us out as we thought it was blood. For those of you who do not know, vomiting is a major sign of re-herniation. As you can imagine, we freak out every time she vomits, which has been in small amounts since we changed her formula. Of course, we cant help but associate every spit up as possible re-herniation. This is a reality we will live with for many years. We called the DR once, didn't like some of the responses, and called back again to confirm. In the end, the DR and Nurse suggested that if Nayeli did not have a fever, was eating, and acting normally, it was not worth bringing her in due to the fact the hospital is full of sick parents and kids. In the end, we were comfortable with the DR/Nurse's suggestions and decided not to expose Nayeli to all the sick people on the weekend. On the weekends, it is a sick baby clinic only. The appointments, during the week, are still a risk, but less crowded and easier to stay away from sick people.

Since Naylei's DR visit and shots, she has displayed some things we have not seen. This has been pretty concerning to us and if it continues, we will be taking her in this week. Nayeli's spitting up has stayed pretty steady (in usually small amounts of what appears to be milk) but her gas has now increased. This is unusual to us as her gas had been pretty good since switching the formula we are putting in the breast milk. The past several nights, Nayeli has sounded very congested and seems gassier than normal. Last night, after feeding, we lied her down and she burped most of the almost six hours she slept. This was after we got worried about her still burping and mommy picked her up and burped her a second time. She still had gas and burped for several hours, but did not vomit. This morning, she awoke with pretty bad gas and had to be burped for 30 minutes before she would eat. Then, after feeding, she had to be held upright and burped for an hour and 15 minutes before her burps and audible gas stopped. We are not sure what to do and plan to talk to the DR first thing tomorrow. We are hoping Nayeli continues with her trickery of Mommy and daddy, and suddenly gets better tomorrow, like she did when we took her to the ER when we first brought her home.

On a happy note, Grandma Victoria and Grandpa Telly visited this weekend. We had some nice dinners courtesy of them, and as usual, they were a great help in tidying up our house. Grandma Victoria also watched Nayeli for a couple of hours while we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Liz had her favorite sun dried tomato and fettuccine pasta and I got adventurous and had a hamburger. It was the first time we have gone anywhere together and Liz didn't want to leave Nayeli. It was actually pretty adorable as she cried when we were about leave. I went through some strange emotions when I first went back to work but managed to coral them on my second night. It was nice to have a couple hours together and a nice meal away from home, but we rushed home as soon as we were done because we missed Nayeli.

Again, we pray you all have a glorious and healthy new year! We thank everyone who continues to follow Nayeli and our family. It means a lot to us and the kind words are always encouraging.
Nayeli enjoying her bouncy seat

Liz and Shane on their lunch date


Grandma (Nana)Victoria and Grandpa Telly