EB family featured in Discovery Channel show

Next Wednesday, December 2nd at 9 PM EST, Discovery Health Channel will be airing a special titled "Truth Be Told: I Have A Special Needs Child".  One of the three families featured on the show will be the Sheridans.  Samantha Sheridan is a tremendously brave and awesome 14 year old girl who lives in Florida.  She has just undergone the stem cell transplant procedure that Dr. Wagner at the U of Minnesota has been doing for a few years now.   

This special has previously been scheduled to air several times and the network, for some reason or another, always pulls it off the schedule at the last minute.  So hopefully I won't have to blog a retraction of this ..... (ahem ... Discovery Channel!!). 

I was watching a DVR'd episode of 17 Kids and Counting this morning when I came walking back into the living room with some of Leah's laundry. I looked at the TV, gasped and said "That's Sam!!!"

I was so excited I had to rewind the show and snap a photo:

I hope everybody can watch the show and learn about our beautiful hero Sam, and her amazing family.

In other news ....................

Can you tell Mommy is super duper excited about Leah's first Christmas?!  Yes, she has 3 stockings.  I figured she's been such a good girl that Santa will need more than 1 to fit all her goodies in.  : )

What I am thankful for

This year I am thankful ............

for my Leah; my beautiful little butterfly girl Leah and

for every breath she takes

for every cuddle we have

for every smile for gives me

for every soft blonde hair on her head

for every tear I dab away

for every booger I blot

for every line of drool I grab

for every diaper I change

for every bottle she drinks

for every second I watch her sleep

for every slap of her hand

for every finger she grasps

for every little toe I kiss

for every book we read

for every toy she discovers

for every prayer for her that has been answered

for every day .... for every minute .... for every second that God blesses me with and allows me to spend with my precious little pearl of a baby girl: Leah

Freshly bathed and bandaged and 100% pooped (and 200% gorgeous)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Jeff's Video for Leah and Thank You's

I'd like to send out a very special thank you to the local Kenilworth Women's Club who have blessed our family with a very generous donation to help us through the upcoming holiday season!  We are truly appreciative.

And on that note, I'd like to send another special thank you to everyone else out there who sends us your prayers, love, support and donations.  We continue to feel blessed, humbled, thankful and grateful for all you folks out there who keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

In other news; we actually didn't make it to Leah's eye appointment today.  A 'perfect storm' of sorts was created that made us think it best to just reschedule for next week.  Most importantly, Leah's eyes look awesome.  They are definitely healing and she is feeling great.  Secondly, traffic today was awful.  Grandma called Jeff around 12:30 to say that Grandpa Guy had just left from work in D.C. and had called her to say that traffic was already really bad.  We Google mapped our commute, entering in traffic consideration and saw that our commute would have been well over an hour.  Thirdly, it was raining today.  Also, Jeff had work tonight and wouldn't have made it in time with the traffic situation. And lastly, both Jeff and I have had moderate headaches all day.

Dr. V already emailed me to ask how everything is, and to say that he is on call this weekend should anything happen with the status of Leah's eyes.  But I'm sure everything will be fine. 

And for your daily dose of cuteness .... here is something Jeff made up for his little princess - enjoy!:

Summer 3-in-1 Seat

Today after her lunch I decided to try putting Leah in her Summer 3 in 1 infant seat again. Every other time we've attempted it - it hasn't gone well. If I'm not sitting right there with 1 hand on her and another on the toys, trying to persuade Leah to play with them - she's just gotten so fussy so fast that I have to pull her out. She even upset herself to the point of making herself spit up one time. When she has been calm in it she showed no interest in any of the toys and won't grab at anything. She just sits there staring at me like" 'Ok, Mom - now what? You mean I'm supposed to entertain myself in this thing?! Don't you know that that's your job?'

But I'm stubborn so every few days I try again - hoping she'll get the concept and enjoy herself.

Today she actually liked it!! Well, I didn't get any huge smiles or excited kicks, but she didn't cry until she was just too tired to play anymore. And she didn't spit up all over herself and the seat - so I consider it an accomplishment - and a step towards her being in it more often and being able to play while sitting up without me sitting right there with her, trying to suction while I sit behind her.

I got some video but not any great moments -- my camera ran out of battery power; as it's known to do anytime I use it for more than 4 consecutive minutes.

And I'm hoping that you can see that her eyes are looking much better!  We go back to see Dr. V tomorrow so we'll see just how much healing she's done over the past few days.

Lights, Camera, Leah

I finally figured out how to put some videos up here. I took some neat videos on my phone but then when I uploaded them, the sound was distorted. And anytime we've ever tried to shoot a video with our camera, it plays uber slow once it's uploaded onto the computer. Anyway, long story short (too late) I figured out that I can use the camera, I just have to make the videos 30 seconds or so and it'll work.

Leah has been feeling so much better lately with her eye drops that she's coming around to being the same ol' happy baby. I can tell she's still not 100% yet - but she's getting there. In the videos you can see she's still keeping her eyes squinted a bit. Plus, it was super bright here today and she's still sensitive to the light.

With her eyes hurting less, she doesn't feel the need to rub her face so much - so hopefully we can get that healed up pretty soon as well.

The plethora of eye drops and ointments I ordered hasn't arrived yet so we've just been using the stuff I picked up at Target on Friday night. Refresh Liquigel Lubricant Eye Drops are fantastic. They're somewhere between a drop and an ointment so I don't have to struggle to smear anything on her lids, while it isn't watery to the point of just dripping off her lashes and down her cheeks. I recommend every EB parent picks some up just in case.

I also recommend you turn down the volume some on these videos ..... unless you want my baby-talk voice to fill whatever room you are in.

Just something neat to share .........

Enjoy!

Eye Doc

So this morning we had our first appointment with our new opthamologist, Dr. V.  I won't use his full name because I don't want anybody stealing him away from us!!  He's sooooooooo nice.  I'm really glad Nurse MacLeod picked him out for us. 

Leah does indeed have an abrasion on her left eye, but on the bright side the right eye (old abrasion) is healing nicely and Dr. V only saw a few marks on her cornea that would indicate it's still not 100% healed.

I showed him the list of eye gels and ointments that Sara was kind enough to find for me and we went over what we should try and what we should hold off on.  He said Restasis would be like putting kerosene in her eye right now, so we won't do that!  And he was totally sympathetic to our problem where Leah wants to rub her face because of the pain but rubbing her face will only aggravate  the situation - not to mention her skin.

I can't say enough good things about Dr. V.  First of all, he trained at Jefferson up in Philly, so there's enough reason for me to like him.  (I was wearing my Villanova hoodie today and so he asked if I went there - I said 'No but I'm from Philadelphia and I actually went to Temple' - and so that's how I learned that he studied at Jefferson).  Then on the wall of his office were 2 before and after photos of little kids who had a lazy eye and had the surgery done to correct it.  When I was a kid I had a lazy eye and when I was 14 I had surgery done. 
Dr. V had stepped out of the exam room for a second and when he came back I was pointing out the photos to Jeff and doing a kind of 'Awwww!! Look!' thing.  Dr. V started to say how it is correctable and if you see someone with a funny eye you should let them know that.  So I just smiled and told him that I used to be that kid.  Then we talked about my surgery, and how he knew the doctor who performed my surgery, and that my old doctor had actually passed away last year. 

Small world huh?  So anyway, Dr. V wants to see Leah again next Wednesday just to see how her eyes are.  There is typically a 6 week wait time to see him but when I got home and called to schedule the appointment, the girl on the phone knew exactly who I was and it wasn't any problem at all. 

But ..... (spoiler alert: blessing coming up) the nicest thing about Dr. V is that while his practice does not typically accept our insurance, he is willing to see Leah, if need be: for free. He actually said 'If you don't mind I'd be willing to see her for free'.  If I don't mind?!  Say whuuuut?

So let me get this straight ... we've got a nearby, pediatric opthamologist who is a genuinely nice, caring, and compassionate guy who actually communicates with his staff.  He doesn't act like Jeff and I don't know what we're doing and he's willing to treat my multifaceted special needs child for free?   OK!

So when we came home I went online and ordered lots of different stuff from DrugStore.com .... eye drops, eye gel and eye ointments.  I also ordered a new cool mist humidifier to keep in the living room.  We already have a cool mist humidifier right next to Leah's crib but I figured another one for the living room wouldn't be a bad idea.  I must do all I can to try to avoid this new problem from continuing.  Leah just isn't her normal happy self with all this eye pain.  And add her teething pain to it and gosh, she must want to just rip her head off. 

And here's the little girl from when we came home from our appointment:

Did someone say 'Pooped'?


P.S. A special thank you to Patrice for reminding me about the zinc oxide content of the different diaper creams.  I actually ran out tonight to Target to pick up some eye ointment, nursery water and diaper cream and I picked up some of the dead fish smelling stuff.  : )

Meet Elly!

The other day I got a Facebook friend request from Elly's Mom Emelie.  They live in Sweden and Elly is almost 9 months old and has JEB just like Leah, Jonah and Tripp.  Isn't she just the cutest thing?! 

I guess she is my little Miss Turnquist's long lost Scandinavian cousin. : )

I received a comment/question on the blog this morning and I accidentally rejected the comment instead of publishing it. Once a comment is rejected it cannot be retrieved.

The question concerned the lack of dressings that we put on Leah - and wouldn't it be better to wrap her for a more complete-coverage type of look.

Whoever (they commented as Anonymous) wrote the comment said they didn't want to come off as rude; and I admit I was taken aback for a second, but I realize any question is a chance to educate on EB and I'm all for that.

Well, as you know, every baby is different; and every EB baby is different. Blisters can be caused from friction, pressure, or heat.  We have found through trial and error, that Leah is susceptible to more frequent and severe blisters if she is overheated.

Heat seems to be worse than general friction for her. Right now her upper arms are not covered, and she's also been rubbing her arms against her blanket a lot when she plays. She has given herself 0 blisters on her arms by rubbing them like that. However, if I wrapped them, she'd most likely blister from the heat AND the extra friction being created by her rubbing her wrapped arms against her blanket.

In early July (hot as heck time), right before Leah turned 6 months old, she was completely blister free. She was also not wearing any dressings other than a thin wrapping over her legs to protect them while she kicked her blankies. I kept her in a diaper and a blanket to keep her cool.

Then we had our month and half long in-and-out of the hospital time and of course, she came home banged up.

There have been times we've had to thickly bandage Leah for various reasons, and when the dressings come off it always seemed as though we'd done more harm than good by bandaging her so thickly.

Dressings for an EB baby aren't just gauze. It's usually a layer of some kind of cream or ointment, then some kind of non-adhesive dressing (which come in a variety of thickness) then a few wrappings of gauze, and then a retaining dressing like Tubifast over that. When all is said and done it's like wearing a thick sock over your skin. Thick socks = warmth. And warmth for Leah is a bad thing. After all, like Elly, she's got Scandinavian blood. ; )

Tuesday: Eating and Eyes

The good news is that Leah's eating is improving.  The bad news is that I'm pretty sure she's got a corneal abrasion on the other eye now.  Ugh.  We go to see our new pediatric opthamologist on Thursday morning.  Any EB'ers out there know of any good eye goop, drops, etc. that I can ask the doc for that'll help the little girls eyes?  It breaks my heart that her beautiful blue eyes can look so sore.  The new sore eye doesn't look nearly as bad as the other one did so hopefully it'll heal a lot quicker. 

Leah's eating started me on an hour long breakdown today.  And yes, I did just write that her eating was good news today.  I was so happy that she drank 4 oz in one good suck of the bottle that I started crying.  Then I felt sorry for myself that I feel compelled to cry just because my child drank a bottle.  Then it just got out of control.  I started thinking about Jonah and Patrice - and how I wish I could magically teleport some of Leah's good eating to Jonah.  Then I started thinking about little Tripp and Courtney, and how I remember how overwhelmed, exhausted and scared we were when Leah's trach was new and she had just come home.  (Leah had dozed off after her bottle so she wasn't fazed by my quiet blubbering).  So then it just became a general 'I hate EB and what it does to these poor kids who don't deserve to be in any pain at all' cry fest.  I hadn't had a good cry in awhile so I guess it was due.  I snapped out of it by reminding myself that I shouldn't waste my time on a day where Leah is here at home, doing relatively well and not sick in a hospital, by sitting on the couch and crying. 

I also got myself together by boxing up some supplies we're donating to dEBra's Wound Care Clearinghouse.  EB Nurse Geri had posted on Facebook that they're running low on supplies while requests keep on coming in.  So here's what I gathered:

So now I just have to tape them up, measure them and send the measurements to Leslie and she'll send me UPS shipping labels.  If anyone else has some wound care items they'd like to donate, please email Leslie at: leslie.rader@insightbb.com

Weekend Update

Leah wasn't such a happy girl this past weekend.  But, I figured out why she hasn't been eating so well lately.  I figured she was teething .... but in reality: she is a teething machine.  This poor kid is getting her first molars!!  Once I could finagle my finger in her mouth with some Orajel and feel around, I was amazed at how many teeth I felt cutting through her gums.  And she bit me!!  So along with a still somewhat sore eye, she's got a mouth full of hurting gums .... oh yeah, and EB and a trach. 

She does pretty well once her Tylenol kicks in, and the Orajel helps a bit; but what she really likes is frozen binkies.  Her MAM pacifiers can take on enough water that when I pop them in the freezer for a bit, we get nice, cold and soothing binkies.  So I've made many-a trip back and forth from the kitchen to Leah for the past day or so, fetching her freshly chilled binkies. 

She's starting to eat better today and so I'm hoping her mouth pain is easing up.  Yesterday we got up to 22 oz and that was with not having Nurse Ann overnight because it was our every-other-weekend without her.  Ann normally can get in a good 6 or 7 ounces overnight and so I know we would've hit well over 26 oz if she had been here. 

I'm beyond tired right now though.  I woke up at 4 AM yesterday to relieve Jeff who had been sitting up with Leah.  Then I was up being Mommy all day until well after midnight .... then I woke up at 6:45 this morning, just as I normally do, to relieve Jeff's Mom who had come over to sit with Leah overnight.  But - tonight we'll have Ann back so I can sleep soundly knowing Leah's getting all the Atarax, Tylenol, Orajel, frozen binkies and formula she needs.  Thank the Lord for Ann!!

This past weekend Leah's Nana and Aunt Joanne came down from Philly to visit her.  I just wish Leah had been feeling better to appreciate her visitors. 

Nana brought with her a very special gift for Leah.  It was a super cute card from some of Leah's buddies who read her blog and pray for her often.  They are the children of my Mom's co-worker Geneva, and they pooled together their allowance and rather than spend it on themselves, they chose to send it to Leah.  $6.77.  Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard!?  So; to Brooke, Dan, Machi and Trinity: Thank you so much!! I'll be sure to get Leah something extra special and always remind her that it's from you guys and that you're thinking about her and praying for her.  She'll love that!!  God Bless your hearts you guys!

I copied all the photos from my Mom's memory card this past weekend ....... so now I can post some never-before-seen older pictures of Leah.

Here are some of my favorites:

Strike a pose

Look at how tiny she was!

Our favorite way to cuddle ... pre-trach  : (

In the hospital with the Ed Grimley hairdo

"Lets get some more tape on my face for this feeding tube ... yeah, that'll work"

Right after her baptism ..... feeling the Spirit.

War paint

Check out my gorgeous new blog!!!!

Isn't it purty?!?!

So recently I was wondering about getting a blog button for my page.  I even went so far as to Google 'how to make a blog button' to see if I could do it.  After going to a few sites I quickly realized I have neither the talent nor resources to do it.  So I put the thought in the back of my mind.

Lo and behold the other day I wake up to a blessing.  Well, any day I get to wake up and spend with Leah is a blessing so this would be a blessing on top of that.  It was a comment on my blog from a certain Mrs. Cuddles. Here is her blog  Her comment was super nice and supportive, and she offered to make a prayer button for me!!  I contacted her and said 'Yes please!'.  I picked a photo and a scripture (But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. Psalm 3:3) and within hours she had made me the cutest prayer button! Then about 5 minutes later she sends me another email, offering to makeover my blog for me!! Again, that's something I don't have the talent or resources to do - the fact that I figured out the old design with any decoration before is a miracle.  Again, super fast; (1 day!) she turned out the most awesome blog layout I could imagine.  (And she has a sick baby at home to care for so she did all this during naptime!) 

Even if I had the ability to do a blog layout I couldn't have picked a more appropriate design. 

A new feature on here now is the ChatBox on the right.  This way folks don't have to comment on any particular blog post (though that's still welcome!), they can merely type in something like 'Hey how ya doing?' and I'll know you're out there reading and keeping up with us!

I've said it before but I'll say it here again: Thank you Mrs. Cuddles!!   ; )

Fashion plate Leah

Hi everybody!  Leah's napping so I'll blog for her today.  : )

We went to the pediatrician yesterday for Leah's 2nd flu shot and while we were there Nurse MacLeod did Leah's 9 month check up.  Everything went great.  I was glad Nurse MacLeod was there and able to do it.  She's super nice and sweet.  She calls me periodically just to check in on Leah, and gave me her personal cell phone number to call her for anything.  Nice, huh?

Nurse MacLeod also arranged everything so we can go see a closer opthamologist, and a strictly pediatric opthamologist at that.  An official appointment hasn't been made yet but I believe next Thursday is when we will go to see Leah's new eye doc.   

Today, after her bath, we put Leah in the outfit that Aunt Penny's neighbor Lynn made for her!!

We received it quite a few weeks back but with the face rubbing fury and the eye issue, we postponed putting her in it.  It's super cute! It's like a little baby kimono, that way we don't have to fit it over her head, ears, or trach.  The collar is nice and loose and there's no zippers or anything metal.  In case you've never shopped for clothes for an EB baby ... it's hard.  And then try finding clothes for an EB kid with wounded ears and a trach and a whole other group of 'EB-friendly' clothes becomes not so friendly.  So it was super duper nice of Lynn to make this outfit for Leah.  She's definitely comfy in it.

 Thank you Lynn!!!!!

And I'm sure most of the people who read this also read up on Jonah and Tripp and already know what's going on: but if everyone could send extra prayers Tripps way this weekend, that would be great.  Little Tripp is in the hospital after a scary trach-related episode at home yesterday. 

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tripproth

http://randycourtneytripproth.blogspot.com/

9 Months Old!

I'm 9 months old today!!

Mommy says I'm old enough now to do these posts on my own, and she supposedly has 'a bazillion' things to do anyway so I'm going to write about me today!

I'm getting pretty big .... almost 16 pounds!  I haven't been gaining weight this past week as rapidly as I used to but Mommy thinks (and hopes) I'm just getting longer and the rest of me still hasn't caught up yet.  She changed my formula to give me more calories and I'm not sure I like it.  I've been having tiny bottles every few hours ... maybe cause the extra calories make me full faster, or maybe cause my teeth hurt, I dunno, I am just a baby after all.

My eye is getting better, though Mommy decided to let me rub my face because it's my favorite thing to do, and having my arms bounded down wasn't making me very happy.  So my eye still isn't back to normal yet since I keep rubbing it.  But Mommy just puts Aquaphor on my face constantly and tries to give me my eye medicine everytime I fall asleep.  She says everything in the house is getting covered in Aquaphor; my bottles, the remote, her cell phone ... because she constantly has Aquaphory hands.  But anyway, I've overheard some rumblings about getting me to an eye doctor sometime this week for a checkup and another look-see.  And I need to go see my baby doctor to get my 2nd Flu Shot now that Mommy's leg is better and she isn't hobbling around.  Bleeeeh, doctors.

Mommy says that lately I look like a combination of Rocky and Chase Utley.  Rocky cause my face looks like I've been in a fight, and Chase Utley because I smear the Aquaphor all over my head and grease my hair down.  I don't know who any of those people are.  Daddy says they're Philly people and Mommy loves Philly.

Speaking of Daddy .... I love me some Daddy.

I finally figured out how to hold my super-heavy head up on my own!! Mommy keeps apologizing for giving me a thick Gehring skull like hers, and says that a squishy Turnquist skull like Daddies would be much easier to hold up.  Mommy also says I could've figured this out months ago if only I'd learned to embrace the Bumbo ... or the Summer 3-in-1 seat .... or the Boppy.  But if I could talk I'd tell her that I don't like those things because they could let me fall and hurt my neck, but I know Mommy won't.  So I only practiced it while Mommy, or Daddy, held me or sat with me.  So now I can do some fun new things.  Mommy sits me on her knee and bounces me up and down while we watch Imagination Movers and sing all the songs together.  Kind of like this:

And I just know that I could roll over if it wasn't for this trach.  If I go too far it jabs into my neck and well, lets just say it upsets me.  But I like to lay like this when I get pooped from playing on the floor with Mommy and decide it's nap time.

I sleep in my big girl bed now! No more Pack N Play for me.  Here is my crib:

It's super comfy.  Mommy gave me 3 Z-Flo gel pads and always puts a super soft fluffy blankie on top of them.  Then Nurse Ann always tucks me in so comfy at night time.  And I have all my dollies around me to keep me company.

Mommy gave me a very special 9 month birthday present.  It was her most favorite doll when she was a baby. 

She calls him Cullen Mac, and says he's a Cabbage Patch babydoll.  She wrapped him up in gauze so that he looks like me!!  Then Mommy told me all about Cullen, and how when she was a baby she picked only the bestest and cutest dolls out of the cabbage patch to have as her own.  Then she told me that when she grew up, she wanted a real baby and so she went to the cabbage patch and picked me because I was the cutest and the bestest! 

Here are Cullen and I getting aquainted:

Oh, Mommy wanted me to write that she's sorry that these pictures are all either too dark, too bright, or make me look way too blotchy and greasy. She says her camera 'sucks' and she hates using the flash on it cause it makes me squint and makes me eye look worse than it is. She's going on and on about how she tries so hard to keep the living room nice and dark for my eye to heal but then the stupid camera needs its stupid flash ...... man, she needs a vacation.  Oh well, I'm still cute!!!

Want to see the most beautiful thing ever ....

Look at her widdle mouth! Her love for her binky gets us few non-binky pictures.  She has the cutest mouth ... and yes, she did inherit my mouth (Thanks, French ancestry for full lips!) but that's neither here nor there .... on her it's the most beautiful thing ever, and so is she.  I'm trying to get a good picture of her gorgeous blonde, slightly curly hair too.

Sorry I haven't updated the blog lately but this past week we were kind of off our schedule.  I typically do all my blogging in the morning while Leah sleeps, and since she sleeps in until 9:00 ish most mornings, I have plenty of time to blog, read other blogs, reply to emails, cut diapers, ready any supplies we'll need during the day, clean bottles, etc.  But with my leg still bothering me earlier in the week, Jeff was getting up early to let me and my leg rest.  Isn't he sweet?

Leah's eye is almost totally back to normal.  Only after awhile of keeping it open and exposing it to light does she start to squint a bit and you can tell it's still not 100%.  But she's definitely feeling better: being awake more, playing, smiling, doing her trach-laugh (where you can only hear a puff of air coming out of her trach, but the rest of her body language lets you know: it's a laugh).  We're still having to keep her arms down because it seems like all she wants to do is rub her face. 

Her eating schedule has been off for the past few days.  I think she's teething because there are times she doesn't even want her binky, and then other times when she does this move where she basically does a big pout, holding her binky further out (so the rubber is against her gums) and then sucks on the binky hardcore.  Yesterday she only got up to 22 1/4 ounces and that was with essentially snacking all day on small bottles.  If it looks like she's heading in that direction again today I'll do a combo of Baby Orajel and Tylenol to see if it helps.  Yesterday was the only day in weeks that she hasn't had upwards of 27 oz per day so I don't want her new 22 and a quarter becoming the norm. 

And as for me, my leg is getting better, I'm basically back to normal, just having to go a little bit slower than I'm used to.  Every once in awhile I'll step a certain way and wince from the pain but after an hour or so I'm fine again. 

Great weekend .... till Mommy injured herself

My injury is that I pulled a muscle in my calf last night around 7:30.  Or I could have torn it - I don't know.  I just read up on it.  There's 3 different grades of the injury and I'm guessing it's not that bad.  But I did it trying to stop Leah from rubbing her face.  Last night she had a 10 minute long episode of being fussy, while trying to get to her face.  She kept dropping her binky and then wanting it back, only to drop it again.  So I thought she may want something to drink so I tucked her arms in, speed walked (which I normally do around the house) to the kitchen to prep a bottle, popped it in the microwave, then speed walked back to the living room to check on Leah.  As I turned the corner to come into the living room I saw Leah had fought her arm free and was rubbing her face - I started to run the last 8 or so feet to get to her when I heard, and felt a 'Pop!'.  In the back of my mind I thought, 'Well that's not gonna be good' but in the front of my mind was still 'Must stop Leah from rubbing her face'.  So I got to her, sat down in front of her and that's when the pain hit me.  I called Jeff since he was at work, and told him to come home because I didn't know if I'd even be able to stand up.  Then I called my Mom since she had tried to call me earlier, but I also just had a 'I want my Mommy' moment.  She gave the phone to my Dad who has done this to his leg several times.  I remember him talking about playing baseball, running to a base and hearing the pop in his leg - now I know what he was talking about.  But he told me to ice it and elevate it.   So that's what I've been doing.  I can still hobble around, and we did give Leah her bath and did her bandages today - just a little bit slower than usual.  I basically have to move my leg as if I had a brace on my knee. 

But anyway, enough about me; this blog isn't called 'Mutilated Mommy Meggie'.  Leah's eye is looking better every day.  It's still not totally back to normal but it is surely improving.  She's smiling more and more as the pain in her eye is getting less.  But she has been wanting to rub her face more, so I'm guessing as it heals, along with the rest of her face, she's itchy again.  If only she would willingly take her medicine!

The rest of her skin looks good.  We didn't have any blisters to pop today!  Even Leah's ears are looking really good at the moment. 

Plus, Leah felt better after having her special visitors this weekend.  Nana and Pop-Pop made the 3 hour drive down to see her on Saturday morning!!  They helped us rearrange the living room to give us more room for baby-fun-time-zone.  Our living room is big enough to be separated into a 'tv-watching zone' and 'baby zone' so that's what I wanted to do with it.  Now the whole one side can be to set up for Leah's play mats and toys.  With Christmas coming I know she's going to have even more things to entertain her -- and encourage her to learn to sit up on her own!