Saturday, November 28, 2009

California, First Crawl (yay!) and swine flu, oh my!


The Francis family is SO ready for Christmas!


Give me the camera!



Ella was slightly scared of the 19 lb turkey. 3.5 lbs bigger than our little peanut!


We were all sicky but dinner was finally served!


Look at that face. Swine flu, 5 hour flight and smiles. Love her.



Well, hmmm...I have no words for this past week. No. Words. Which, if you know me, and I am assuming you do if you know about this blog, you know that its pretty atypical of me to not have words to describe something. This past week taught me a lot about best laid plans, parenting and possesing an inner calm when everything is going to poopy in a hand basket..and fast. Because, well, it did! If nothing else, the week reiterated the things that are important and for what we should be grateful and thankful for (and, really, isn't that the point of Thanksgiving, anyway?). The things that I am most grateful for (in no way order of importance:

1. Emergency Health Services- ER, pediatricians who don't take out of state patients but have mercy on our souls, and medicine.

Well, on the flight to San Fran, I felt....just...awful. I couldn't put my finger on it but I felt.....how do you say....BAD. We landed. worse. We drove to Danville. Death. I bought meds, laid down to sleep while everyone took care of my precious baby. Eyes poked out with hot, sharp and blunt object. Then, at about 3 am, I woke up in a sweat and panic I have never experienced. My fever was 104.1. I knew it was bad. After a frantic call to my momma back east, we decided I should wake up my sleeping husband and head to the ER. I didn't start feeling better until Tuesday. At that point, Ella starting getting sick.....nothing is worse in life than a sick baby. Especially your sweet and happy 6 month old. I wanted to die. I had a mini freak out at the prospect of our baby having the dreaded swine flu. After we got her into the dr., she called to confirm the swab test. I couldn't believe it. We all were on tamiflu and the next couple of days were rough, including Thanksgiving. Needless to say, we were holed up in Danville for one full week. We had such great plans! Sight seeing, seeing friends (we are so sorry we couldn't see you guys!) and most of all, hanging out with all of Ella's family. Her aunt and cousin didn't get to meet Ella. So sad. Hopefully we will be back sometime soon.

2. Family- honestly, I knew that I had the best mother in law in the world, but really, this woman is a saint. Even after she herself got the piggy flu, she chalked it up to "life" and kept saying how glad she had the time to spend with all of us, even if we were all holed up in the house. We pulled together and got better and also managed to get Thankgiving dinner on the table, despite all of the sickies.

I also am constantly in awe of my sweet husband; he is so calm, so reassuring and caring. Even though he had a mini freak out as well upon hearing that Ella had the flu, he didn't show it and reassured me through my sobs. It was until last night that he confided in me about how scared he was. You would have never known it! He is as steady as they come....

3. Southwest- really is, without a doubt, one of the best airlines ever. The whole travel experience went so smoothly. It really helped that we have the sweetest, most easy going baby ever! She was a dream to/from California.
4. Being present- Scott, Peggy and I were all there for Ella's first crawl! How cool that grandma got to be there for her first really huge milestone. Well, they are all huge but girlfriend is getting mobile!

We are all back and in one piece and are so thankful to be home and decorating for Christmas. This is, by far, the best time of the year. I couldn't believe it last year that I would have a 6 month old by this time this year. We cannot believe it! Ella will be 6 months old tomorrow! We really cannot believe it. There will be a special Ella 1/2 1st birthday posting tomorrow for sure...
We hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We truly are thankful for so many things. Please don't take your health and family for granted! We are so very grateful for both...

Love y'all..

Nicole, Scott and E

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