We're Home!

And SO very thankful to be! Bags are unpacked. Laundry is in motion. Dishwasher is unloaded and reloaded. Fridge has been emptied. Baby has been loved on and loved on some more. We are so glad to be home! And we're very thankful to the Lands and Jameses for making delicious dinners to come home to and to the Harberts for mowing our yard! What a relief to not have to worry about those things!

Our bed and Anabelle's will be little bits of heaven tonight. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Practicing Smiles

We have had lots of time to watch Anabelle this week, which led to numerous photos and videos! Here is the sweetie showing off her smiles...

Still Smiling

Despite all of the poking and prodding, Anabelle is so happy! We LOVE having her joy fill this tiny room that we've occupied for a week. This week, she has continued to smile more often and bigger each day. It's been such a blessing to experience it with her.

We all love to just stand around and watch her.

Big smiles for mommy & daddy!

She's also been all about sitting up! When we lay her on our laps on an angle, she pulls her head up, trying to sit herself up. Such a strong girl! Here's Papa helping her with her sit up exercises.

And Papa making her giggle!

I have voiced it, but I haven't blogged this yet. We are SO very thankful to God for protecting Anabelle. We know He has been part of this the entire way and that He got our attention with her fever spiking. He has reassured us daily that she's in His care which is the most we could ask for. I have been amazed by how at peace I've been this week with everything that has gone on, and I know it's God's peace.

I also have been so touched by the faith of our doctor and the nurses in the peds unit. Dr. Miles told us on Tuesday that he was up at midnight and 5 AM (when we were in the ER) praying for Anabelle. And yesterday, when the NICU nurse was attempting the 7th IV in her head, our nurse, Nancy, stopped and prayed over the situation. The IV didn't stay, but we know there's a reason. We know that we're in great hands and are incredibly thankful for everyone's prayers, faith and support. Anabelle is healthy and happy -still-, and we couldn't ask for more!

Smiley Girl

Another day down in the hospital. Anabelle is doing wonderfully! Her appetite is back and large, her smiles are abundant, and she's still snuggly sweet. The nurses are taking great care of us, and our friends are being incredibly generous with meals, books, bedding, mowing our yard, etc, etc. We feel very blessed! Here are a few good shots of our time with our sweetie here.

Anabelle snoozing on my sweatshirt.
Her new favorite toy! She could lay in her bed all day long. We call it her baby drug. She kicks and gurgles while it's on. And when it's done moving, she yells for us to reset it. Daddy is trying to see what all of the excitement is about.

Can't get enough of her sweet snuggles! I'm actually enjoying the time to just focus on loving on her.

Focused little girl. We've enjoyed watching her become better at head/neck control as well as focusing intently. She is pretty incredible!

Our doctor didn't have the final, final results back yet from the cultures. We should know tomorrow morning for sure. He is 99% positive that the bacteria in her blood will match that in her urine. If so, the 7 days of IV antibiotics will be sufficient, and we'll be able to come home Sunday. They also did a renal ultrasound this morning to make sure her kidneys and bladder look good. Hopefully we'll have those results in the morning, too!

Tuesday Report

We had another wonderful night of sleep(lessness) in the hospital. Anabelle did really well, and her appetite seems to be back up. As of 8:00AM, her fever is officially gone! We decided to not give her Tylenol yesterday to see if her fever comes down naturally, and I'm so glad we waited!

Dr. Miles came in this morning to give us the latest update. They got the preliminary blood cultures back, which shows bacteria in her blood. He believes it's a result of the UTI. We have to wait on the urine cultures to come back, probably tomorrow, to confirm. If that's the case, then Anabelle needs to be on antibiotics for at least 7 days total. They started her on generic ones Monday at 1AM, so that will keep us in the hospital until at least Sunday, maybe later.

That's all we have so far. She's still seeming to be better but is sleeping a lot this morning. We'll be here, in this room, for several days to come! That means lots of reading, movies and snuggling with our baby girl. And we're happy to do it, if it means she'll be 100% soon!

Anabelle Update

It's been a rough 24 hours for us. Just wanted to give a quick update and request your prayers!

Anabelle had a fever on Friday, which we contributed to her 8 week immunization shots that she got on Wednesday. We gave her Tylenol, and she did well all day. By Friday night, her body was on fire, and I knew it wasn't normal. I had to go to the neighbor's house, crying, to have them help me take her temperature rectally. It was 102.4. After Mike got home, she was still hot, and it was up to 103.2. We called the doctor. He said to monitor it, and if after another dose of Tylenol it remained over 101.5, we needed to go to the ER. It was 100.9, so we continued on Tylenol and just loved on her all day Saturday.

On Sunday, she seemed a little better, but continued a pattern of sleeping 5-6 hours at a time and hardly eating. By Sunday night, she was heating up again, and her temp came in at 102.7 before she started pooping on me (ha!). We called our doctor again who sent us to the ER. After getting there at 10:00 PM, they brought her back for testing. Terrible testing. They put an IV in her, which took three tries. Painstaking tries. She has my tiny veins and a blood curdling scream when she's in pain, which did not go well together. They ended up sticking her in her temple! Talk about pitiful. Then, they did a spinal tap to test for meningitis. Good grief, how terrifying for a new mom and dad to watch their 2 month old get a SPINAL TAP!

After hours of crying on Mike and my part and hours of cuddling her, we finally made it up to a room in the hospital about 5:30 AM and got to sleep at 6. Then our doctor started his rounds at 7AM. And nurses proceeded to come through every hour thereafter. Needless to say, it's been a sleepless day.

Anabelle seems to be doing much better this evening. They have her on an IV with fluids and electrolytes running through her. She's also getting generic antibiotics to help her fight the bacteria attacking her inside. Tomorrow evening we should know the results from the cultures they're testing. It will tell us for sure if it's a urinary tract infection, which is what our doctor believes it is. If that's accurate, we'll get to go home on Wednesday.

We will be thrilled to get our girl home and back in her own bed. It's been heart-breaking to watch her go through the pain and trauma. We truly know that love and absolute self-sacrifice that parents have. We would appreciate your prayers that everything checks out and it's easily treatable. I will keep you posted!

She is tuckered OUT from all of the work they did on her.

She loves the balloon Mimi and Papa brought her!

This is my favorite photos. The caption should read "Haven't I had enough torturing, mom??" This is her this evening, with some sweetness back in her cooing and some brightness back in her eyes!

BOW!

I love giant, slightly obnoxious bows on little girls. They are adorable! It took me a while to get them on my own baby's head, but now I might permanently attach one to her head. I just love her latest graduation in bow sizes!

Now I need to get more ribbon so I can make one to coordinate with all of her oufits!

Is it possible?

We are trying to figure out if it's possible that Anabelle is teething yet. She has started drooling like she is responsible for supplying her own bath water. It's unreal! And the past two days she has spent chewing her tongue like a little baby cow. My family swears they see little tooth buds showing through, too. So, I ask you, is it possible for my little 8 week old to be teething already??

We'll ask the doctor tomorrow at her 8 week appt, but I wondered if anyone else had experienced this. I know she's advanced in size and development, but really??

Sleep Talker

In case you didn't believe me that she talks all the time, here is Anabelle at 5 and 7 weeks, talking-- while sleeping. (Sorry the first one is sideways!)

...Don't forget to press pause on the music at the bottom of the blog to hear her better!...

We love to listen to her talk all the time, and it's especially precious in her sleep! When I have her in my moby wrap at the grocery, she'll sleep through the whole trip and talk the entire time. I sometimes laugh out loud just listening to her. It's so sweet!!

Smile from Anabelle

New Favorite Toy

Starting on June 22, Anabelle started noticing the mobile above her swing. Whether it was the mirror or the stuffed animals hanging from it that caught her eye, we aren't sure and it doesn't matter. It's just awesome to watch her watch them!

Since then, we set up her play mat that came with the pack n play. She LOVES it! She loves the animals hanging over her and especially loves Charlie the cardinal that we swapped out in the center! The video is a few minutes long, but you can also hear how vocal she is... ALL of the time!

New Friend!

We got to meet little Zowie Lynn Pierce this week, too! She is Ammie & DJ Pierce's new baby girl (DJ is one of Mike's fraternity brothers) Zowie was two weeks old when we visited and almost exactly one half of Anabelle's size! She's absolutely adorable, and it was wonderful to see the newest Pierce family addition!

The boys traded babies. Look how TINY Zowie is!! 6 lbs, 5 oz at two weeks old! And only 18.5 inches, versus Anabelle's 25 inches right now....

5 Generations!

On Monday, we took Anabelle to Connersville to meet her Great-great Grandma O'Leary. My Grandma Schuler was in town for just a week, so we had to take advantage of everyone being close by to get a FIVE generation photo! We also realized that starting with my Grandma (Anabelle's great-grandma) Schuler, we are all the first born in our families, too! It was really special to capture this!

This is what my dad sent to their local newspapers:

Center- Elizabeth "Betty" O'Leary, who will be 93 on August 11, 2009, Connersville, IN
2nd from left- daughter Betty Jo Schuler, The Villages, FL, formerly from Connersville, IN
Far right- grandson, Bob Campbell, Greenfield, IN
Far left- great granddaughter, Elizabeth Campbell Mack, Indianapolis, formerly from Greenfield, IN
Baby- great great granddaughter, Anabelle Elizabeth Mack, born May 18, 2009, Indianapolis

Happy 4th of July!

It was a wonderful Fourth of July despite the nasty weather and rain all day! Sixty family members filled my parents' house for our Annual Get Together. Anabelle was thoroughly spoiled and met many more people that day. Here she is in her sweet 4th of July outfit from Aunt Deb! (Her bow somehow avoided all photos, but it was there and adorable)

Anabelle's Great-Grandma Wittig, Mimi, Auntie Rachie and Auntie Abby Anabelle's cousin Megan and her boyfriend, Robby.

It was a long day of fun, rain, family and fireworks! She was tuckered out at the end!!

Anabelle was SO tuckered out that she would not wake up for ANYTHING at 11PM when we were trying to arouse her. Aunt Rachie tried, mommy tried, and she was out cold. So daddy went to work with some of his famous dance moves. After getting her a little bit awake, he then resorted to guitar playing with her. Check out her skills---

New to Me!

Yet another busy week for the Macks! And it was filled with lots of new people for Anabelle to meet. First, the Mayers brought us a delicious lunch last weekend and spent some time playing with Anabelle. It doesn't seem like that long ago that their little girl was born! Here's their sweet family, including Colby who was our ring bearer!

Then Mike's Aunt Deb was so generous to bring his grandparents down for an afternoon and evening with Anabelle. Aunt Deb has filled much of Anabelle's closet with adorable Carter's outfits because she's a manager at one of their stores. I think Uncle Greg might lock her in their house if another great-niece is born in the family!

We all went to dinner at BJ's Brewhouse and had a rare family photo-op.

Anabelle's Great Grandpa and Grandma Lee who just adore her.

This weekend, my parents hosted their 30th Annual 4th of July Family Get Together for both sides of their families. My Grandpa & Grandma Schuler came to town for the week from Florida, and my Uncle Brett, Aunt Lisa and family came in a few days early from St. Louis. That equals a three-day extravaganza for the Campbells in Greenfield! We had a lot of fun spending time with everyone, and Anabelle was well loved all weekend. I'm not sure her pack n play will ever get used at Mimi & Papa's house. She barely lasts laying down for a diaper change before someone else picks her up!

Here's my Uncle Brett snuggling with her. She loved being with him! She sat happy as a clam for at least an hour there (before someone stole her away).

Her Great-Grandpa Schuler was loving on her lots.

And her Great-Grandma Schuler got her to smile a ton! (this week was her first for social smiles! The cooing, gurgling and toothless, giant mouth smiles have been heart-melting!)