Written:  July 18th, 2002

Oh my, how the month has gotten away from me!!  It's already the 18th of July and I haven't updated anyone on Ashleigh's newest accomplishments!  Please forgive me!!

Let's see.  On the 4th, we went over to my sister's house to have a Lobster Bake.  Not the typical 4th of July, but it was actually really great!  My sister had bought Ashies a pool, that is shaped like a fire truck, so we blew it up and she just loved that.  It was actually a huge pool.  Big enough for me, Ashies, and my nephew, Kevin, to all get in and move around.  It has a little hose on it, that you spray water out of, much like a fire hose.  It's absolutely CUTE!  We didn't turn on the fire hose, because, as Nealy always said, all that pressure really hurts when it hits ya', and since Ashleigh is just a little thing, we didn't want to go there because it does come out with a good bit of pressure.  Oh well, maybe next year.

What else?  Oh, took her back to the doctors on the 3rd of July.  They did the tympanometry, where they inserted a soft plug that is about the size of a person's little fingertip into her ear canal. The probe was connected to a machine called a tympanometer.  A low noise sounds for a little while and the machine records how the eardrum reacts. An eardrum with fluid behind it does not move as well as a normal eardrum.  Her test showed she did have fluid in both her ears, but it was minimal at the particular time so they gave us a reprieve on seeing the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist!  YEAH~!  She is on a low dose of antibiotics every day now and she's got a two month supply of that.  Her doctor told me that if she gets one ear infection while on these antibiotics, we'll have no choice but to go see the ENT.  So, we're keeping our fingers crossed.  It's been two weeks without ear infections... so it is a good thing thus far! 

She is now at 16lbs 7ounces!  Losing 18 ounces put her back but she's recovered from that and gained more.  We're all very pleased!  She's about 28 inches long now, so she's getting pretty tall... she's grown 10 inches since she was born and tripled her birth weight, so we're all pretty pleased with our petite little girl  :-) 

She's been eating normal food for the past few weeks.  Her staple is still formula, but she's eating pretty much real food most of the time.  Anything from pancakes and English muffins to roast beef and peas!  She's also drinking from her sippy cup now, so that's a thrill too.

Ashleigh made her first real trip to the Outer Banks for a long five day weekend on the 11th.  She loved the sand and the ocean although a bit taken back by it at first.  While she spent basically the first 3 months of her life there, she really is just now at the age that she can do stuff and react to it, so it was neat to see the way she handled the house and the ocean and stuff.  Her proud Nana and Pop Pop took her and showed her off to all the people that they'd bragged to one day and she absolutely had a ball looking at all the people and taking it all in.  She didn't sleep much at all the first two days we were there, because my nosey little girl didn't want to miss anything!! 

Written:  July 25, 2002

OK, time is getting away from me again!  Ashleigh has bilateral ear infections AGAIN!  She also has bronchitis.  I picked her up from day care on Monday, the 22nd, with a temperature of 102.4!  Took her over to the doctor's and was not the least bit surprised when she was diagnosed with bilateral ear infections.   SO - I literally just called and requested the referral to ENT so someone who knows ears and noses can diagnose her correctly and so we can fix the problem and get past it.  

Really nothing else major going on with Ashleigh right now, so I'll close this here and do my best not to forget to update again soon!

God bless you all and take care!!!!

p.s., I've furthered my wonderful HTML skills, so to enlarge any picture, just click on it  :-)

Ashleigh all dressed up in her summer dress	"I'm coming to get you Mommy!"	Ashleigh in her Pooh Sailor outfit

Written July 30, 2002:   

Just a quick update on two things:  

One, we got the referral to the ENT within an hour, which was pretty impressive considering I have an HMO.  So, we go see one of the best ENTs at my HMO August 29th.  This ENT happens to be the same one who continues to treat my Dad after his surgery and radiation years ago.  So, I feel pretty at ease with this doctor and I've never actually met him.  

The other thing:  Well.. you'll never believe it!  Little Miss got bit!  Not by a dog, but by another baby.  Oh, I was fit to be tied!!!  Everyone told me I was overreacting, every kid bites at some time.  I don't care!!  Ashleigh had 5 clearly defined teeth marks on her right wrist area.  I know if Neal were still here, he'd have cried when he picked her up.  She has a bruise, but all in all, faired well.  Grandpa Randy said he was going to have to kick some baby bootie if it happened again!!  Don't we love protective grandparents?  I know I do.

Oh, one more thing.  She has a new tooth.  She's up to 4 now!!  That little kid better watch out, Ashleigh may just learn to bite him back!!  We're off to the doctor's tomorrow, so will update you soon on how that went!

Take care!!

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