Rebekah-isms

I love the stage that Rebekah is in now - trying to say "bigger" words and sentences, only mixing them up.  :)  It's so fun to hear what she's going to say next!  I wanted to post some of them before I forget what she says.

Rebekah occasionally plays with her baby dolls, bottles, and stroller.  If you ask what her baby's name is, she will either answer with "I not know" or "Rebekah Ellis."  Either Rebekah has a lot of little clones or nameless babies!  :)  Rebekah also puts her finger in her baby dolls mouth and pretends the baby bites her.  Then she jumps back very startled and says "ouch!"

If there is something Rebekah doesn't like (particularly food), she always says "I not like it" followed by whatever "it" is.  For example, we had baked beans tonight, which usually she loves.  As soon as I set them in front of her, she said, "I not like it beans."  When it was time for medicine, Rebekah told Daddy, "I not like it messin (medicine)."  Then she promptly opened her mouth and took it!

Rebekah loves to sing!  Some of her current favorites are "Jesus Loves Me," "The B-I-B-L-E," "Zaccheus," and "Deep and Wide."  Although most of the songs are recognizable, they are considerably shortened versions of the originals.  :)

When Rebekah starts to get anxious or tired, she usually asks, "Where my taggy?"  If she gets very upset or hurt, the cry becomes, "I need my taggy!"

Rebekah recently had hiccups.  When I asked her if she had hiccups, she said, "I have hiccups in my mouth!"  And then she proceeded to reach her hand as far into her mouth as it would go and pointed to her throat.

Anytime we leave the house as a family, we always drive our van.  Rebekah usually says "Bye-bye, house! Bye-bye Daddy's truck!"

We spent Memorial Day weekend at Grampy and Grammy's house and got back home late Monday evening.  Tuesday morning when I went to get Rebekah up, she asked me, "We go Nana and Papa's house now?"  She asked me the same question later in the day and I told her we had more sleeps before we could go see Nana and Papa.  Rebekah then closed her eyes for approximately two seconds and popped them back open.  She said, "I no more sleeps!"

Nancy

Ice Cream Etiquette

This is the story of a little girl and an ice cream sandwich. Her first ice cream sandwich, to be exact. And, oh, what a story it is! Actually, there is really very little that can be told about this story, so I will let Rebekah share the pictures and video. Enjoy!

We're testing the waters here.

Never had one of these before.

Do I bite it? Lick it? Poke it? Eat it? Play with it?

Hmmm....seems like licking and biting seem to work well.

Or, poking and pinching, whichever you prefer.

Of course, the mash and smash method works well, too!

All in all, the best method is the one that gets ice cream into my mouth!

Which gets my mouth (and the rest of me) into the bath!

Oh, how I love bath time!

Rebekah's wrap-up: bye-bye, bubbles and being silly

Pretty pink piggies playing in a bubbly bath.

And that, my friends, is the story of a little girl and an ice cream sandwich.

Her first ice cream sandwich, to be exact.

Produced by Rebekah Ellis

Edited by Mommy

What's a trip to Charleston....

......without a fire alarm or two?? We are currently in the PCICU with the fire alarm light flashing. Thankfully, they do not have the actually alarm sound in here or the nice little voice saying "Code red, third floor" over and over and over. :)

We had an interesting trip downstairs for lunch yesterday. Apparently, someone on the maternity floor (above us) got too close to an exit with a baby and locked the entire floor down, as well as the elevators for the entire hospital. At lunch time, no less. So a very friendly nurse was able to lead us through the maze to a stairway that we could walk down to the first floor. Let me tell you, I would not want an actual fire evacuation in this hospital! I can't imagine the mayhem that would occur if several thousand people were rushing down those stairs! In all seriousness, they do have a very good security team here, and an excellent fire plan. All of the hallway doors on each floor close during a fire alarm as a matter of precaution. Each unit gets closed off and security and fire personnel go to whatever floor the "fire" is on. I think only once out of a dozen or more times that we have seen the alarms has there been a real incident. And that was only a boiler overheating.

The other thing that wouldn't make this trip complete is the construction! Last summer the cafeteria was under construction, so the "cafeteria" was a big white tent outside. Thankfully the cafeteria is completed now, but the floor that the PCICU is on is now being renovated. There is temporary plastic ductwork hanging from the ceilings throughout the floor (not in the unit, though), and you literally have to duck around and behind the ductwork in order to get into the PCICU waiting room. It's quite funny.

Miss Bekah-boo is doing quite well right now. She was so fussy and nothing was seeming to help. She had been given pain medicine and tylenol and just wouldn't settle down. Finally, Drew cuddled her (we can't hold her until her arterial lines are removed), and she went right to sleep. Our little Boo-bear just wanted some cuddles. She is absolutely peaceful now. Hope Drew doesn't have to go anywhere in the next three hours or so! :)

Nancy

Day 2!

I am happy to announce that we are having an uneventful morning in the PCICU this morning! Rebekah was taken off the ventilator around 2:00 this morning, and although she has a nasal cannula with a little oxygen, she is breathing on her own today. We are listening to the familiar beep, beep, beep of the monitors in the PCICU.

The view outside the hotel we are staying at. It is a beautiful fall morning today.

Since Rebekah is in the PCICU, the doctors took the opportunity to do a few other tests as well. This is Rebekah during her EKG yesterday. She slept right through it! You can't see the g-tube due to all of the leads, but it is on her left side about at the level of her belly button. It is clear and kind of rubbery feeling (almost like a pacifier or bottle nipple) and has a 8-10" IV catheter through the center of it. She has not started using it yet, but as soon as we are moved to the step-down unit, they will begin giving her some clear Pedialyte through the g-tube.

Speaking of step-down units, we are moving there just as soon as they have a bed available. We must have come at a peak time because the PCICU was completely full yesterday (the most we had seen previously was all but one bed full) and the step down unit is completely full today. As soon as someone is discharged, we will be moved to 7C and if all goes well, we could be discharged as early as tomorrow!

Rebekah during EKG.

Sleeping beauty. :)

This is a sign that is posted in front of the parking lot at our hotel near two very large trees:

Hmmm.....draw your own conclusions.......

That's it from the PCICU this morning. We are hoping to move to step down soon and have a very quiet, uneventful day. Of course, we will post anything new that happens and try to get some more pictures a little later when Rebekah is awake!

Nancy