Cincinnati, Here We Come!!!

Tomorrow we head to Cincinnati to take Ella to the Children’s Hospital EB center. She will be evaluated by 11 specialists ranging from dermatology, orthopedics, PT, OT, etc. While we wish we didn’t have to make this trip, we are excited to get her seen by an expert group of doctors who have seen a lot of EB kids before. Don’t get me wrong, we are so lucky to live in VA and have access to an incredible pediatrician and outstanding dermatologist who have worked with EB kids before. Every time we go to see one of Ella’s doctors we are reminded how blessed we are. But it will be good to be in a setting especially geared toward people with EB, and have an entire team of doctors who can give us guidelines on how best to care for her.

Please pray for us while we are there. Pray for safe travel, as well as a good visit…and that Ella won’t have a melt down during the day. She tends to not eat very well when she’s in a new place and around new people, so I am afraid that she will be so distracted by all of the doctors that she won’t eat, which will surely result in a melt down. And potentially she won’t get a good nap, which will just add to the melt down. Ella is a good baby and typically does well around new people and places, but she is an 11 month old, so getting out of her comfort zone for more than a few hours can be risky.

You will all be pleased to know that Ella has made peace with her sippy cup. Being a new mom, I went out and bought 3 different kinds of sippy cups at around $5 a pop (those things are expensive). She hated 2 of them, and would reluctantly take the other one, but never really grasped what it was all about. Before Ella was born a friend of ours from church (a mom of 3) gave us some sippy cups with a note that said something like “We love these!” I, of course, put them in the closet to use at a later date. But last week, after Ella was still not really into her sippy cup, I decided to pull them out and see how they worked. After all, this is a mom of 3 so she probably knows what she’s talking about. I think it took about 3 minutes and Ella was all over her new sippy cup. She figured out how to hold it so the spout would go into her mouth, and she loved looking at the water inside. She LOVES this sippy cup. Of course they are “Take and Toss” and cost about $4 for 5 of them. Why did I spend all this money on the expensive ones when all it was going to take was this cheap cup? The best part about these is that they don’t have that stupid plastic valve thing in them to monitor the water flow. I think that was what confused Ella the most. Anyway, thanks to Barbara Elliff for the sippy cups.

Due to our trip this will probably be the last post for a few days. While we’re in Cincinnati we are going to see Joe’s sister, Mo (Maureen) and her family in Indianapolis. We will also be able to attend Joe’s niece’s baptism. We also hope that we will have time to visit the zoo and of course Joe is going to see about going to a Reds game. It will be a good trip.