Six Month Sweetie

I wrote this yesterday and wanted to post her 6 month pictures, but my camera is on the blink.  Bummer!
I managed to get a couple pictures of the kids painting today. I'm also going to post her 5 month pictures.  I need to get this resolved soon!
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Brinley is six months old today. It makes me sad to think in six short months she is going to be ONE!!!  Where has the time gone?  This time last year we didn't even know I was pregnant.  It's crazy to think she's celebrating her half birthday today!!  Depending on how her birthday celebration goes in December, we may start celebrating her half birthday in order to avoid the Christmas season chaos.

I'll post her weight and height after her well visit.  I am sure she is sitting pretty near 100th percentile in both height and weight.  We don't go to the doctor for a week, so I'll let you know later.  I'm sure the suspense is killing you!!!

What is Miss Brin doing these days?  Not Much!!  She sits up extremely well.  We are afraid to think that she may be crawling soon.  She doesn't mind being on her tummy and when she is, she is kicking her feet like she's trying to squirm away somewhere.  It seems like we were just in the hospital with her last week.  Wait- we were...  oh, yes, but I meant bringing her home as a newborn!  :)  It seems like yesterday.

She is still nursing exclusively.  I tried to feed her a little rice cereal, but she really didn't like it that much.  They say the longer you nurse, the better.  I think I am going to try to nurse exclusively for 9 months.  That gives us three  more months before we start feeding her baby food again.  She's a big girl and sleeps well, so there really isn't any need.  Baby food is such a hassle AND it's expensive.  If this is better, we'll just keep doing it.

She is still on a VERY flexible schedule.  Because I was in the hospital, she has started a new routine.  She wakes up super early (like 4 or 5).  She eats and goes right back to sleep until about 9AM.  Normally I would say this is completely unacceptable, but right now my milk is pretty low at night.  I'm sure she is just hungry.  I'm not worried about it.  She'll drop that feeding soon enough, and we'll be back to our late morning schedule!  She stays up until about 10 AM and then takes a 3-hour  morning nap.  This puts her waking up shortly after I have put Cayden to bed, but it's okay.  Once Cayden gets up, she is goes down for another afternoon nap.  Both kids are crashing pretty late these days.  We've been going to the pool every evening when Matt gets home, so they're getting their baths and into bed after 8:00.  That's a little late, but it's summer time!! 

Brinley is still super easy.  She plays well by herself and loves to laugh at Cayden.  The Bumbo is still our dear friend.  She sits in it for several hours out of the day.  She sleeps when I am out running around and doesn't seem to mind her car seat nearly as much as we originally thought.  She has a cute cackle for a laugh.  We have been waiting for more teeth, but she still just has the bottom two.  That's fine with me!  The less the better.  They are SUPER sharp!

Most of all, we just love that sweet little girl.  She is quickly captivating the hearts of everyone around her.  She completes us, and we are SO thankful she is a member of our family.  Happy Half Birthday Brinley!  We love you!

Camera is going out...  6 Month shot

Happy Half Birthday to Brinley!!!

5 Month Pictures

The Power of Pearls

Recovering from meningitis isn't fun.  It has made me extremely thankful for our families (which I already was).  My mom and dad stayed through the weekend and helped out with meals, cleaning and the kids.  My dad left Sunday, and my mom stayed until Tuesday morning when Jean came back.  Jean picked up right where my mom left off. 

Friends and family across the board have stepped up in order to help us continue some sort of a normal life, but the recovery process in general just stinks.  I have been reading on http://www.meningitis.com/, and I feel much better now.  I was beginning to worry that my feelings and my emotions were not valid.  I couldn't understand why it was taking so long to feel normal.  Would I ever feel normal?  I spent the morning weeping and had no idea why.  I'm weak, I feel hazy, emotional and lonely. That is not me at all.  I found this in the article, "Recovery is dependent upon the body developing an effective immune response to the infecting virus and usually occurs within a week or two. Consequently most people recover within a week or two. However some people may have recurrent headaches and experience tiredness, problems concentrating and/or may be irritable or depressed." Depression.  That is what I am experiencing today.  It's horrible. Two of my best friends called at the perfect time, just as they always do. Somehow that made me feel less lonely.

Finally, I had relief.  This is normal.  I am normal, so I dried my eyes and put my pearls on.  I'm not sure what it is about pearls, but they do wonders for me.  Now, I'm resting on the couch in my shorts, t-shirt and my pearls.  Life is good.  Everything is going to be okay.

Back Blogging- The Finale

Cayden, Brinley, Memorial Day Weekend and Jean's visit...

Cayden still loves to put things (and people) into baskets.

This was hilarious to me, so I had to take a picture of it.  I ran into HEB for just a few things!!!  About 30 minutes later, this was us at the checkout.  Cayden was buried under all the groceries in the cart.  I was literally laughing out loud in line.  People where laughing at us as we strolled the aisles, but what was I to do?  I would have been even crazier to let him out, so I just buried him!  Don't worry.  He found PLENTY to eat on the bottom!  :)  I don't know if you can see his red shirt, but he's there (right under Uncle Julio's chips)!!!

 

Cayden & Nana

Playing with Nana & Papa. 

Cayden LOVES the water, but wants to be in close contact with you at all times!

Cute Boys

My sweet girl.  Recognize that pink polka dotted swimsuit?

Yep! It was Cayden's...

when we thought he was going to be a girl, my mom bought it for him!  :)

I sure am glad she talked me in to saving it!

Who's the Captain here?

Brinley's already working on Papa...

If he did it once, I bet he did it a thousand times.

Smooch!

Look at those sweet fat feet!!

I can still kiss on them while they're not stinky!

My Boys!

Cayden NEVER sleeps with us.  He's not a cuddler. 

We are always trying to get him to take little naps with us, but he won't stay still. 

We were shocked when he crawled up in the chair with Papa and actually fell asleep. 

Who is that kid?!?!  :)

The faster, the better!

Bye, Bye!

While Pop went on a motorcycle trip, Gigi came to spend a little time with the kids. 

Cayden talked to Pop on the phone several times.

We took Gigi to the pool to watch Cayden swim.

I never would have let Jean leave that day if I had known I was about to get so sick. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family and support system.

Back Blogging- Part Two

My brother's family came and visited us a few days before Cayden's party. Cody was almost one month old!!  The kids played really well.  It was busy, but lots of fun.  Five kids is a house full!

Amanda took some cute pictures of the kids with her fancy camera.  I love it.  Enjoy!

Mixed Bathing!

Morning hugs with Ansley & Cody

We went on several walks!

Brinley & Cody sat on the sidelines.

Sweet Emily

They weren't too sure about it at first. 

You should see Cayden swim now!

Jeremy & Emily

Ansley & Cayden boy

Back Blogging- Mother's Day

I have let the blog slip to the sidelines with all that has been going on lately.  Mother's day, my brother's visit, swimming and Memorial Day weekend.  We'll make a picture update to bring this blog up to date!

First: Mother's Day

We drove in from Fort Worth around 1:30 in the morning.  Matt's parents had driven up to surprise Matt for Mother's Day. It was wonderful having both of our moms with us.  I just love it, and I love being a mother!

Cayden helped Papa read the cards.

We have a wonderful family.

3 Generations

Cayden looks so ugly in this picture.  He was acting real stinky.

Matt was going to ski in his wet suit, but the dock severed the power cord. 

No skiing this weekend.  :(

I love this picture.  Two of my favorite boys!

Sister Needed A Break!

I know- there are SO many things that I want and need to blog about, but I have failed to do so.  Having said that, I am going to push them to the back burner and blog about our most recent event. 
Wednesday morning, June 2nd- I woke up to a headache.  It didn't surprise me because I had been waking up with a headache for about a week. Usually I would pop a few Advil and that would take care of it. Matt's Mom was at our house visiting the kids.  I kept telling her that my head hurt, and I wasn't sure why the Advil wasn't helping.  When we got from from running an errand, (scary to think I was driving all of us around with this) I went into the kitchen to take Advil again.  To my shock, I found little piles of Advil.  "What in the world??" Come to find out, I had never actually taken them. (WEIRD)  I immediately took four because I was in a considerable amount of pain. 

Jean needed to leave and it was nap time, so I figured it wouldn't be any problem. Right? WRONG!!
As soon as I got Cayden down for his nap, I went straight into my room and prepared to sink into my bed.  About 15 minutes into my nap, Brinley woke up.  "Oh great! Of Course!" Up we went.  She played and let me rest on the couch, but I really needed to sleep. Two hours later, she was ready for another nap. I had no more gotten her down before Cayden started crying.  "AGH!!!"  He still had a good two hours left before he was due to be up.  Nap time just wasn't meant to be.

The rest of the day went about the same.  My headache never went away, but I plugged along.  What else was I supposed to do?

Thursday, June 3rd, 5AM
I was in a fitful dream, begging Matt not to go to work.  I pleaded with him and told him my head hurt too badly to take care of our kids.  After much convincing, he agreed.  That was just a dream though it wasn't too far from what was about to happen.  I woke myself up and crawled out of bed to go get more Advil. I made it about halfway across the room before I had to stop and cry out to Matt.  He jumped out of bed and tried to find some stronger medicine for me. We got back into bed and tried to sleep, but couldn't.  By six we decided to call his parents and see if they would come up and help with the kids while Matt went to work.  Calling in the reinforcements for a headache was a first, but this was one MAJOR headache!!  Matt also called Creighton down the street.  He is a good friend and a PA, so we hoped he would have a good recommendation for us as far as seeing a doctor quickly. His wife, Crystal, was so sweet.  Creighton wasn't home, so Crystal was the middle-man and offered to keep Cayden.

I hated to barge in on her so early, but I desperately needed relief, so we took her up on her offer.  Matt rushed me to a clinic around the corner from our house.  The doctor almost immediately sent me out and to the ER, but not before I begged her for a simple sinus Rx. She assured me that I didn't need any sinus medicine.  I couldn't help it.  I clearly was impaired, and all I could think about was getting that prescription.  I knew it held all of the answers.  She almost gave in to my plea, but after failing her chin to neck test, she refused and urged me to head straight to the ER.  I was SO frustrated.  I told Matt I was refusing to leave the ER without a prescription.  I couldn't believe we were about to WASTE so much money to get a simple sinus prescription!!!

We arrived at the ER and Matt dropped me off.  I was climbing out of the car when my phone rang.  It was Courtney.  God must have put it on her heart to call me.  Funny how He works like that!  I wanted to talk, but I wanted relief more.  As I was closing the door, I heard Matt joking with Courtney and telling her I was being dropped off at the ER because I was pregnant again!  AGH!!  I didn't even laugh, and I didn't even hit him!!  I just closed the door and blindly felt my way into the ER.  Within 5 minutes, I was in a bed and in the worst pain in my life....  YES- you heard it right.  The Worst pain ever.  This HANDS DOWN was SO much worse than delivering Brinley without drugs.  Seriously.

They took me for a CAT scan and did a spinal tap.  The results came back... Meningitis.  I didn't even care. I just wanted relief.  The only thing that concerned me at this point was Brinley.  The doctors wanted her out of my room immediately.  I begged them to let me nurse her before she left, but they said no.  That was the first time I cried.  She had never had a bottle before, and she was hungry.  Brinley got the worst end of the deal that day.  Between my in-laws, Matt and Colette, I think she choked down a little milk, but mostly she just cried.  I've always said babies will eat if they are hungry enough.  That was true for her too.  The next morning, she gulped from a bottle that Crystal brought down.  From that point on, she was super happy and well taken care of.  I could worry about myself then and focus on getting better.

Sister needed a break, but I definitely went about it the wrong way!! The next few days were boring... actually, it is still boring.  I have to stay in bed or on the couch.  It is SUCH a bummer, but at least I am alive!  The infectious disease doctors told me to expect this type of lifestyle for one to two weeks.  I can't imagine doing this for two weeks, but we'll see.  It will be a week tomorrow, so maybe we're halfway there.  :)

This all happened so quickly.  We really didn't have time to inform anyone.  For those of you who have found out through the grapevine, I am sorry.  We did not mean to offend anyone.
I am resting, healing and hopefully will be back to normal very soon.  We covet your prayers and look forward to getting back to our "normal" life.  :)

Much love to you all-
The Culli Family