My little cruiser and trooper

Ava began her 6th month (and celebrated her first Thanksgiving) on a cruise to the Bahama's!  She was the youngest cruiser (by one day) and the star of the ship!  She smiled at just about everyone she met and loved people watching:)  She's developing into quite the social butterfly.  

We took lots of long naps, dipped her in the ocean (and pool) for the first time, and ate lots of good food.  We brought my mom so Ava got lots of bonding time with her Granny.  We're so thankful to have had a week of relaxation together. 

That wonderful week started off very stressful, though.  I spent weeks before the cruise stressing about every little thing (what to pack, having enough formula for Ava, Ava being sick, etc. etc) and 2 hours before the ship sailed my fears came true.  I got a call from Ava's doctor asking if I could come in to the office to see him.  Ava had blood and urine taken the previous Friday because of her weight loss weeks before.  Friday's visit was "supposed" to be the final clearance that everything was ok and I left the visit confident.  Well, her doctor told me it looked like she had a UTI and he wanted to get her looked at.  MELTDOWN!  He knew about the cruise weeks before and when I "reminded" him where we were, he reassured me that he could call in an Rx for antibiotics for the week so she could start treatment.  THANKFULLY, the ship's medical clinic had the medicine, along with a very helpful doctor.  We had the medicine in hand an hour before the ship sailed.  So now my sweet girl has to have an ultrasound and catheter to figure out the cause of the UTI.  I'm looking forward to having all these doctors visits behind us. 

On a more positive note, the holidays are here!  Hopefully we'll be getting the Christmas tree tomorrow.  I can't wait to see Ava's reaction to it!  I'm going to soak the next few weeks up...