Teaching Bella to read!!

Our first day living with Brandon's parents has definetly been a busy one. Moving things out of Brandon's brothers room, packing up the old apartment, taking care of Bella, and all the other things that come with moving. But, i must say, Bella Mia seems to be having a blast :D

She gets so much attention from her grandma and great-grandma I dont think she has time to realize that she's not at home anymore! She loves cooing back at her grandparents when they talk to her and especially is loving the one-on-one bonding time with her grandma Isa.

We just finished arranging our bedroom and its not as snug as i assumed it was going to be. And a funny thing is we found our air mattress to be more comfortable than our regular mattress lol. Brandons mom has let us borrow some sheet and a comforter and between Brandons parents, Brandon, and I we got settled in quite nicely.

Bella has been sleeping good and and keeping with her schedule but her little infection doesnt seem to be going away. We had gotten the Cephalexin and have been using it like the directions say but it doesnt seem to be taking effect very well. We decided to make her another appointment so that hopefully we can get her a topical cream to help fight the infection from the outside while the Cephalexin fights it from the inside.

We have also noticed that the facial interface for her bipap is really irritating her forhead. She has 2 red spots wear the interface rubs: her hair line and in between her eyebrows. We have tried Duoderm strips, gauze, cotton balls, and yet no good results. We are going to have to invent a little something to ease this pressure because once it breaks skin theres no going back. She MUST wear that interface everytime she sleeps and if she has an open wound its only going to irritate it more. Here's a picture for you to see the irritation. She still looks amazing though :)
So how about a cute little story about Bella to change the tone lol. When she was 4 months I began teaching her sign language. Her condition makes it very hard for her to use her motor and gross motor skills perfectly but I dont let that stop her from trying and me from teaching. I taughter her the sign for "milk" and within minutes she was understanding what I wanted her to do. We practiced it all day and sure enough she had it down! We didnt get to practice it much while she was hospitalized so last night I wanted to see if she remembered how to do it. Sure enough my little Bella Einstein did!! I showed her grandma and she was soo impressed!

Tonight I plan on introducing her to her "My Baby can Read" videos. Im going to emphasize the words she can do with her limited mobility and still try to teach her those she most likely wont be able to physically do. Babies with SMA have shown time and time again to be above average in their cognitive abilities so who cares if she can't show me what she reads, I KNOW she will have learned it and eventually when we get the treatment she will be ready to show me. There is no reason I should stop her from being stimulated and challenged. My Bella Einstein has the brain of a future president so I definitely intend on exercising and utilizing it. THANKS DAD FOR BUYING HER THESE VIDEOS!!

Keep us in your prayers and really emphasize to God that Bella be selected to participate in the Stem Cell clinical trial!

God Bless you all!
Brenda