My Journal
Sunday, November 28,1999
Wow! What a week! Started out Good, went to terrible, and then ended up great! ROLLER COASTER!!
Today we took pictures of the Pollock clan. They did fantastic. We were all thrilled. It is usually a huge production ending mostly in so so pictures. But today, every one of them did great, including their 4 month old new edition. He was so little and very cute. Julia went over to stay with her Mema and Papa, and I prayed that Rebecca would take her nap while we did the sitting. It looked promising. We were scheduled for 3:00 and at 2:15 she was getting drowsy, but she didn't go to sleep by the time they started arriving and she was getting fussy. As we were getting underway, Nicole asked to hold her. I handed her over somewhat dubiously, and started in on the posing. A couple minutes later I looked back and she was rocking contentedly on Nicole's shoulder and a little while later was sound asleep. I was so grateful. We did pictures of all 6 children separately and then the whole group including one with all of them around their grandmother. They are all beautiful children and all their mothers are so kind and sweet. Leslie is just gorgeous with very long thick curly hair and the sweetest smile. It is really hard for me to believe that she is 5 years old already and actually soon will be 6 (Christmas Eve is her birthday!). After they all left we took a few shots of Rebecca and she did great too! I called the Harris's and they said Julia had just gone down for her nap and they would bring her home when she got up. Rebecca is napping again now so I am enjoying a little peace and quiet. The house is even almost all cleaned up as well!
Friday afternoon Mark, Julia, Rebecca and I went out to the Christmas Tree Farm and selected our Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun. Julia was very excited about it. I absolutely love the tree. It is about 8 ft tall and it smells so good. I am so glad we have the high ceilings in our house. We decorated the tree Friday night and yesterday with Julia helping of course. We also decorated the fireplace and mantel and I just love it all. I will not be putting any wrapped gifts under the tree. Instead we surrounded the bottom of the tree with lots of stuffed animals and unbreakable Christmas toys so Julia can play with them. And we also used unbreakable balls and ornaments on the bottom half of the tree with just a few breakables nearer the top. It's working out great. Julia has played and played with the stuffed manger scene that I made years ago. She talks to the animals and puts the Baby Jesus in and out of bed and lines up all the characters in the stable. There is also a basket of her christmas books and she really likes those. She amazed me today. She was reading a book that had a picture of a snowman with a carrot nose on one of the pages in the middle of the book. When she got to that page, she put the book down still opened to that page and went digging through all the stuffed toys around the tree. I must have at least 30. She emerged with a Snowman with a carrot nose just like the picture in the book. There were other snowmen in the bunch, but she picked out the only one that matched the one in the book. Then she took him over and finished reading the book with him in her lap. Very cute. I told Mark I would have given anything to have had a video of it all. Rebecca likes to look at the lights and decorations too. I think this Christmas is just going to be wonderful! We are planning to spend a couple of days next weekend with Aunt Starr in Valdosta. We will go to the mall and take pictures with Santa and see the sights. Should be lots of fun.
Yesterday (Saturday) we spent cleaning house and Julia, Rebecca and I also went to the new Christmas store in town. I was drooling in there. Lots of pretty things. Julia loved it. They had lots of toys there in addition to all the Christmas decorations. Both girls were as good as gold and the workers and other shoppers gave me a lot of nice compliments on how pretty they were and how well behaved. I was a very proud Mommy!
We had a lovely Thanksgiving day with the Harris's (Thursday). Delicious meal. Amy, her boyfriend T.A, and their dog Guage, were there. And Jason, his girlfriend Danielle, and their dog Floyd were there. Kelly Dorsey also joined us and I was very sad for him because his Grandmother just died a couple weeks ago, and his mother died a few years ago. We took some pictures of all 5 of the Harris grandchildren together (Jason, Amy, Thomas, Julia and Rebecca) out in front of the house. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. I was so thankful for everything and very grateful not to be pregnant like I was at this time a year ago!! I was very sick last Thanksgiving and didn't enjoy it very much at all.
Julia was very sick Monday, which was also Mark's birthday. She woke up about 7 AM whiney and got worse and worse until she was crying a lot too. At about 8:30 she started throwing up also. I was searching for the thermometer and had forgotten that I had packed it when we went to Starr's. Finally I remembered where it was and she had temperature over 102. I called Mark and Mrs. Harris to come help. Rebecca was crying too, hungry and wet and Julia was screaming and throwing up everywhere. It was terrible, and it seemed like an eternity until Mrs. Harris got there. When she got there to watch Rebecca I put Julia in the bath tub with lukewarm water. She was crying the whole time. This usually brings her fever down, but when I took her temp after the bath it was up over 104 so I called the Doctor. We got an appointment for 2:45. The next temperature was 105.5 so I called Mark back and told him we needed to go on to the doctor right away. Mrs. Harris was rocking Julia and she was calm and eating pedialyte popsicles, but she looked awful. We were at the doctor's office over 3 hours. Ughhhh. They examined her and did blood work and found that her white count was high (19000 supposed to be under 15000). Then did a urinalysis and found she had a urinary tract infection and was dehydrated. I was so amazed that she actually pee peed in the little cup for me. The nurses were very impressed. She then had to get a shot in her leg. The doctor considered hospitalizing her, but said he would wait and see if she improved by the next day. Julia slept in our bed and clung to me and cried off and on all night. She had more high fever that night, but was a lot better on Tuesday morning. Rebecca also had 102 fever in the morning which apparently was teething. It came down quicky with Tylenol, and she had no other symptoms, and she didn't act like she felt bad. Julia pee peed in the cup again unbelievably. We went back to the doctor and did blood work again and her white count was down to 15000 which was better. She still had to get another shot in the other leg which was terrible. I cried along with her as I held her down for them to give it to her. She was still somewhat dehydrated too. We were there nearly 2 hours Tuesday and he wanted us to bring her back again the next day. Mark and I were both stressed and exhausted. Mark was mainly taking care of Rebecca outside while I was back with Julia. We'd switch off every once in a while. What an ordeal. Thankfully when we took the urine specimen back on Wednesday, everything was fine! And by Thursday, Julia seemed back to her old self. She is continuing on 10 days of antibiotics and will have to have some more tests done in a few weeks to make sure there was no kidney damage.
We finally celebrated Mark's birthday on Wednesday night with ice cream, cake and balloons. Julia helped Daddy open his presents and enjoyed the little party. Mark's mom made him a german chocolate cake, his favorite.
Friday afternoon Mark, Julia, Rebecca and I went out to the Christmas Tree Farm and selected our Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun. Julia was very excited about it. I absolutely love the tree. It is about 8 ft tall and it smells so good. I am so glad we have the high ceilings in our house. We decorated the tree Friday night and yesterday with Julia helping of course. We also decorated the fireplace and mantel and I just love it all. I will not be putting any wrapped gifts under the tree. Instead we surrounded the bottom of the tree with lots of stuffed animals and unbreakable Christmas toys so Julia can play with them. And we also used unbreakable balls and ornaments on the bottom half of the tree with just a few breakables nearer the top. It's working out great. Julia has played and played with the stuffed manger scene that I made years ago. She talks to the animals and puts the Baby Jesus in and out of bed and lines up all the characters in the stable. There is also a basket of her christmas books and she really likes those. She amazed me today. She was reading a book that had a picture of a snowman with a carrot nose on one of the pages in the middle of the book. When she got to that page, she put the book down still opened to that page and went digging through all the stuffed toys around the tree. I must have at least 30. She emerged with a Snowman with a carrot nose just like the picture in the book. There were other snowmen in the bunch, but she picked out the only one that matched the one in the book. Then she took him over and finished reading the book with him in her lap. Very cute. I told Mark I would have given anything to have had a video of it all. Rebecca likes to look at the lights and decorations too. I think this Christmas is just going to be wonderful! We are planning to spend a couple of days next weekend with Aunt Starr in Valdosta. We will go to the mall and take pictures with Santa and see the sights. Should be lots of fun.
Yesterday (Saturday) we spent cleaning house and Julia, Rebecca and I also went to the new Christmas store in town. I was drooling in there. Lots of pretty things. Julia loved it. They had lots of toys there in addition to all the Christmas decorations. Both girls were as good as gold and the workers and other shoppers gave me a lot of nice compliments on how pretty they were and how well behaved. I was a very proud Mommy!
We had a lovely Thanksgiving day with the Harris's (Thursday). Delicious meal. Amy, her boyfriend T.A, and their dog Guage, were there. And Jason, his girlfriend Danielle, and their dog Floyd were there. Kelly Dorsey also joined us and I was very sad for him because his Grandmother just died a couple weeks ago, and his mother died a few years ago. We took some pictures of all 5 of the Harris grandchildren together (Jason, Amy, Thomas, Julia and Rebecca) out in front of the house. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. I was so thankful for everything and very grateful not to be pregnant like I was at this time a year ago!! I was very sick last Thanksgiving and didn't enjoy it very much at all.
Julia was very sick Monday, which was also Mark's birthday. She woke up about 7 AM whiney and got worse and worse until she was crying a lot too. At about 8:30 she started throwing up also. I was searching for the thermometer and had forgotten that I had packed it when we went to Starr's. Finally I remembered where it was and she had temperature over 102. I called Mark and Mrs. Harris to come help. Rebecca was crying too, hungry and wet and Julia was screaming and throwing up everywhere. It was terrible, and it seemed like an eternity until Mrs. Harris got there. When she got there to watch Rebecca I put Julia in the bath tub with lukewarm water. She was crying the whole time. This usually brings her fever down, but when I took her temp after the bath it was up over 104 so I called the Doctor. We got an appointment for 2:45. The next temperature was 105.5 so I called Mark back and told him we needed to go on to the doctor right away. Mrs. Harris was rocking Julia and she was calm and eating pedialyte popsicles, but she looked awful. We were at the doctor's office over 3 hours. Ughhhh. They examined her and did blood work and found that her white count was high (19000 supposed to be under 15000). Then did a urinalysis and found she had a urinary tract infection and was dehydrated. I was so amazed that she actually pee peed in the little cup for me. The nurses were very impressed. She then had to get a shot in her leg. The doctor considered hospitalizing her, but said he would wait and see if she improved by the next day. Julia slept in our bed and clung to me and cried off and on all night. She had more high fever that night, but was a lot better on Tuesday morning. Rebecca also had 102 fever in the morning which apparently was teething. It came down quicky with Tylenol, and she had no other symptoms, and she didn't act like she felt bad. Julia pee peed in the cup again unbelievably. We went back to the doctor and did blood work again and her white count was down to 15000 which was better. She still had to get another shot in the other leg which was terrible. I cried along with her as I held her down for them to give it to her. She was still somewhat dehydrated too. We were there nearly 2 hours Tuesday and he wanted us to bring her back again the next day. Mark and I were both stressed and exhausted. Mark was mainly taking care of Rebecca outside while I was back with Julia. We'd switch off every once in a while. What an ordeal. Thankfully when we took the urine specimen back on Wednesday, everything was fine! And by Thursday, Julia seemed back to her old self. She is continuing on 10 days of antibiotics and will have to have some more tests done in a few weeks to make sure there was no kidney damage.
We finally celebrated Mark's birthday on Wednesday night with ice cream, cake and balloons. Julia helped Daddy open his presents and enjoyed the little party. Mark's mom made him a german chocolate cake, his favorite.