One small step for Merrill, One giant leap for mankind... watch out world!!

Merrill took her first steps tonight!!! It's something we've been waiting on for a while. We knew she could do it, she would just rather us pick her up and tote her everywhere, or crawl. Well, she's standing all by herself and can cruise beautifully on furniture and while holding our hands. Tonight, while at Aunt Jean's for dinner, she did it! Her papa had her by the hands and we were trying to get her to walk to me... after many failed attempts (the minute he let her go, she would just squat and get on her knees), we brought in the big guns - her blanket! I held blanket and we coaxed her to me! First, it was 2 steps and then a BIG hug from mama, then we did it again - this time we got 4 steps! She squealed at all the commotion that was made over her! She was tired after that - We'll try again tomorrow! Look out WORLD - She's on the loose!

Snow Baby

Well, as everyone knows by now, it snowed in Alabama... a lot (for us 'bamians!  We took Merrill out for all of 3 minutes, because it was Sunday, the day we went to the hospital, but we had to get her pick in the snow.  The expression on her little face said it all - she was miserable - While she was napping, Chris and I had lots of fun building a snowman!  She then had fun playing inside and watching the snow fall from the window.  

Home

We're home from the hospital and Merrill is feeling much better.  We were there from Sunday until Wednesday and the poor thing couldn't even leave her room!  She slept great last night and we went for a follow up with our pediatrician.  He said we would probably never know the cause of her illness, but more than likely it was an unusual reaction to the MMR vaccine.  We're on the road to recovery and Merrill is so glad to be back in her routine.  Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers... they worked!

Hospital Stay

Merrill was admitted to Children's Hospital around 5am this morning.  We had been up since 4am Sunday morning with 104 temperature.  Sunday afternoon it spiked back to 103 and we took her on down to Children's South.  When we got there her temp was 104.5.  They made us strip her down and give her a sponge bath.  They inserted a catheter and ran a urinalysis.  They drew blood from her arm, and did a chest xray.  All checking for signs of a bacterial infection.  Nothing showed up and they were most concerned with the fact that she was running a fever with no other symptoms.  They sent us to Downtown Children's where they performed more bloodwork and inserted an iv stunt... they did a neck xray which showed some infection built up in fluid, but nothing abnormal... They performed a lumbar puncture to check for meningitis and then they did a CT scan of her neck to double check that fluid pocket.  They couldn't find anything, so they decided to admit us since she's had a fever for 4 days with no signs of improvement.  Right now we're waiting on bloodwork to cultivate and then the doctors will meet about her in the morning to discuss where to go next.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, we really appreciate them.  All our love and kisses from Merrill!