Sam's 1st Christmas and her 1st ER trip - updated with pictures**

Well this year was definitely an eventful one. I hope all future Christmas' prove to be less exciting!! Pictures will come a little later since we left my computer power cord in New Orleans. We started off by celebrating with my family on the Saturday before. We headed over to FtW for the weekend. Sam got some very fun stuff. She got the Play and Learn Kitchen from her grandma and pops. She already loves playing with it. She has fun opening and closing the refrigerator door. She also got a stroller/walker and her very first baby from her Aunt Andy, Uncle Dave, Ryan, Taylor and Reid. She is having fun trying to move around with that. Believe it or not, she is already standing up behind it and taking a few steps. She was a little delayed compared to her friends with the crawling, but I think she may pass some of them up with her walking. She never went for the commando crawl. She just started straight in for the real thing, and now she is trying to find any and every which way she can to walk. She has started crawling on one knee and one foot. It is so funny.
On Tuesday, We headed out to New Orleans. That was such a long drive. We am really hoping that Grammy and Papi get on the ball with selling that house and moving closer. Fortunately, Aunt Andy gave us a DVD player for the car and that helped a ton. We drove all night and arrived around 3 in the morning. Of course Sam slept a lot of the way and was ready for action at 6:30!! Grammy and Papi took over so we could get some much needed sleep. That evening we went over to Gramercy for the annual bonfire lighting. It is a very cool tradition(has been going on for the last 100 years). They light bonfires on the levy (about a 100 we were told every 150 ft). They are lit to light the way for "Papa Noel". Todd's dad rides Harleys with one of the guys who has one of the bonfires. We hung out at their house had some good food and watched all the excitement. The 2 bonfires next to his were covered in black jacks so when they went off it was crazy!! For about 5 min it was so loud. They had gobs and gobs of fireworks being shot off as each of the bonfires burned through the night. It was very cool. Todd's dad got some amazing pictures, so check back in a few days to see them.
On our way out to the Bonfires, we noticed a few bites on Sam's leg and one above her eye. We thought maybe there was something in the bed that had bitten her and would check it out when we got back. By the time we got back from the bonfires they had spread quite a bit on her body. We gave her a bath hoping that might help and to get all the smoke and soot off of her. After they bath it was worse. We checked the bed - no bugs. Papi said it looked more like a rash, but the rest of us were convinced that it was bites. We put her to bed and she was up bright and early for Christmas morning, and boy was she bright. From head to toe she was covered in these bright red whelps She looked awful. He face was a little swollen. We immediately called her doctor. He said it was either an allergic reaction or a viral rash. Either way he thought we could probably wait until the next day so we would not have to visit the ER. However, if it got worse of the next hour, we should definitely take her in. You know what happened next - it got worse so we were off to Children's in New Orleans. Sam got 2 extra toys that we were not counting on. She got another baby and a snowman (they were free, but as well all know, we will be paying out the wazoo for those:)) Fortunately, we got there early enough that we did not have to wait too terribly long to be seen. It was a unanimous decision that she was having an allergic reaction to something. They gave her a dose of Benadryl, Orapred and ended up giving her 2 epinephrine shots. After all of that, the rash started to disappear somewhat. We spent the whole time racking our brains trying to think what in the world we gave her that would be causing this. She had been to New Orleans in Spet with no problems. What was different this time around? They sent us home and said that it would probably come and go over the next few days. We get back to Todd's house and after her nap she was starting to break out again. We thought ok well it will come and go. We opened our presents. Sam got a Leap Frog learning table from Aunt Tanya, Uncle David and Matthew and some blocks from Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Josh. Grammy and Papi got her a little princess crown, a couple of books, some socks and bloomers, and her very first ornament for the tree. We noticed the rash was getting worse. Todd called back down to Children's. They said it would come and go, but if it was around her mouth we needed to come back. It was around her mouth so back we went. This time it was super crowded, but I think since we were there that morning the guy kind of sped us through. We really did not need to go back. The dr said that what they should have told us was if it was swelling around her mouth that we should have gone back. Thank you for the miscommunication, but you know they charged us anyway:))
The next morning she woke up looking all horrible again. We called her dr and they said if it was that bad again, she was still being exposed to whatever was causing the reaction. We gave her the medication that they had given us and she immediately threw it and her whole bottle up. Once we had her out of the room the rash starting clearing up. We had considered the laundry detergent but ruled it out because we had been there in Sept with no problems. After she got up from her nap and it was coming back, we decided that that might be what it was. Todd when off to the store and bought some Dreft. We rewashed everything in that room and a shirt for everyone that wanted to hold her. No more rash, no more spots, so we are guessing that Tide or Boucne Dryer sheets were the culprit. I don't use anything special at home, just a scent free detergent, but you can bet that I will not be buying Tide or Bounce anytime soon!! They still want us to take her to see an allergist to have her tested. Just to make sure that we don't need to start carrying around one of those Epi Pens. I really hope that will not be necessary. We had planned to go see several of Todd's friends but that did not happen. Mike, Maddie(Todd's goddaughter) and Alex came over for a little while. We enjoyed spending time with them. They brought Sam a busy ball popper. It is a pretty fun toy!! She enjoys everyone chasing the balls all over the place. She did make some big changes while in New Orleans. She found it very easy to pull herself up on their chairs. They are very heavy and do not turn over on her like our ones at home. She learned to travel from one chair to the next in her attempts to walk. It really will not be long now. I am so sad she is growing up so fast. I cannot believe that she will be 9 months old on Friday. As you can see it was quite an eventful trip. We are back home now and no more break outs, or rashes. However, last night she woke up running a pretty high fever. We are monitoring it today and if it is not any better tomorrow, we will be heading off to the doctor - AGAIN!!
We have lots of fun pictures, so I will get those posted as soon as I get my computer back up and running.
Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!! While ours was a little more eventful than we would have loiked, we enjoyed it so much. Spending time with family is always fun and we were so greateful for the opportunity to see everyone. It is hard to believe that this time last year we were getting ready for a major life change. WE are so blessed to have be given this precious gift and we cherish everyday we get to spend together as a family!!

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