I think I might cry!

My baby is sleeping all by herself...in her own room...in her CRIB!  This has been the goal for the past few months, right???  :::sniff, sniff:::

Avi has been sleeping in her swing at night since the day we brought her home, and when she outgrew the swing we moved her to her carseat to maintain the upright position that seemed most comfortable for her due to acid reflux.  We did attempt a crib transition when she outgrew the swing, but a few sleepless nights later we just decided to embrace the carseat idea where she slept for 10-12 hours straight.  Other babies sleep in their carseats too, right?  We didn't care, at least we were sleeping. :-) 

For the past month she's been sleeping 12 hours straight almost every night.  But a few nights ago Avi decided to wake up every two hours after midnight.  The first two times she put herself back to sleep fairly quickly.  The third time I decided to go check on her (we moved her out of our room a couple weeks ago).  It's a good thing I did, because given another couple of minutes and she would have fallen out of her carseat onto the floor (the carseat snaps into the Graco swing base)...it's only a ~1 foot drop, but still.  So I got her back to sleep and put the carseat inside the crib.  That worked until morning.  The next night she again slept in the carseat which was inside the crib.  In the morning when I heard her normal happy chattering over the monitor I went in to get her and she was out of the carseat, laying sideways in the corner of the crib!  Goodbye carseat sleeping...

The next two nights were not fun for Daddy.  I was at work.  Let's just say they both only got about 5 hours of sleep each night.  She has proved that she is capable of sleeping 12 hours straight, she just doesn't like sleeping in her crib.  Last night I got cancelled, so we decided to do her bedtime routine like normal and put her to bed in her crib and see how long it took her to go to sleep. She cried off and on for 90 minutes.  It was never a frantic cry (which I would have responded to), but it was still hard to listen to.  She was in the crib by 7:19pm and the last peep I heard was at 9:12pm.  Scott and I tiptoed in together to see her before we went to bed around 10:30 and she was snoring away.  We probably looked ridiculous, haha. But she didn't wake up until right before 6am!!  And if she did she didn't make enough noise to wake me up over the monitor (and it doesn't take much). 

Tonight she didn't cry at all.  I put her to bed in the exact same way.  I kissed her goodnight, laid her down, and she immediately rolled onto her side and reached for her seahorse (which I had turned on) and started talking to it.  She was asleep within 10 minutes and still is (almost 3 hours later).  We've heard two momentary cries over the monitor, but she's gone back to sleep very quickly.  I just peeked on her:



My Sleeping Monkey

 :::Big Sigh:::  Our baby is growing up!!  Which I know sounds silly to say at 5 1/2 months, but I looked at Scott tonight and said "She's sleeping by herself!  In her crib!"  This is so weird.  This is what we wanted, right?  

So my baby is sleeping in her own bed all night long, has two teeth, can sit up pretty well by herself, is rolling all over the place, can scoot backwards, can get up on her hands and knees and rock, laughs a LOT, has a ticklish spot right under her ribs (found that today!), is eating bananas, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, avocado, rice and oatmeal......

Where did my baby go????????????

5 Months!

I really can't believe it.  Where have the last 5 months gone?  Really, where has the past year gone?  I feel like it was just yesterday that I was sitting here holding my breath for my next ultrasound and praying we'd still see a heartbeat...

And now our precious girl is five months old!! A few things she's doing lately:

--Rolling around like crazy...although she hasn't quite figured out that she can use rolling as a mode of transportation yet...

--Eating "solid" food.  So far, bananas and brown rice cereal.  She's had a bite of avocado, but promptly gave me the worst icky face ever and spit it all back out.  We'll be trying it again, lol.

--*Almost* sitting...she can sit for a few seconds, but then falls backwards or sideways unless someone is sitting behind her.

--Sleeping 12 hours (almost) every night.  This seems crazy, and every night I wonder if she's going to wake up.  She goes to bed between 7 and 8pm and wakes up between 7 and 8am.  Which has been wonderful for my work schedule too, because she's ready to eat when I get home at 8am in the morning! :-)
--Smiling and laughing like crazy
--LOVING her jumperoo...she goes nuts in that thing! 
--Getting SO much better at falling asleep by herself, with the help of her musical seahorse (plays soft music for 6 minutes).  This has been so wonderful for nap times and and quick night wakings, we just turn the seahorse on and she's usually asleep before it's done playing.
--She weighs ~17lbs 14oz now!  (weighed w/clothes and diaper on at her vaccine appt today)

The last few days I've been working on a "schedule" with her.  Routine is probably a better word, as I don't want to be controlled by the clock, but rather stick to a close order of the day.  Now that she has a pretty typical night schedule and waking up at roughly the same time every morning, this will work better.  I am reading the books Baby Wise, and really liking the principles in it.  Scott is going to read them too, although I've told him about some of it already.  I did not and do not agree with a structured feeding/sleeping schedule for newborns (who really do need to eat "on-demand"...it's not a heart issue but a health issue as newborns), but for babies over 4 months I'm beginning to believe it's not only good but necessary.  The book says a baby should be sleeping all night long by 6 to 8 weeks, which just seems crazy.  It also said they won't just start sleeping all night on their own without training.  Well, Avi did.  Right at 4 months she started sleeping 10 hours straight and that has now extended to 12 hours most nights.  All we've done is stuck to the same bedtime routine since she was about 2 weeks old.  And she's already responding well to more "routine" during the day too, even in just a couple of days.  One example is the naps.  I tell her "it's naptime, Avi, time to go to sleep" and put her in her crib, turn on the seahorse and leave the room.  She fusses for a few minutes, and then falls asleep, usually within 3 to 5 minutes.  When she wakes up I don't go get her right away.  She doesn't get to decide when the nap is over, I do.  If she's crying I go in and tell her she needs to stop (which I know she doesn't understand yet...) and when she pauses for just a few seconds I pick her up and tell her good job.  She will learn. 

Anyway, that's what's happening lately!  I hope the next 5 months slows down a little, or she's going to be a year old before we know it!!  And walking!! AAAHHHHH!!!

A very blessed wife and mama,
~Abigail~

21 Weeks...

*Sigh*  I'm such a sentimental weirdo!  This morning (and last night) at work all I could think was that 21 weeks ago we were there...my water had broken and we were awaiting our sweet girl's arrival.  And then this morning at 5:16am I thought (out loud to the 2 nurses who were at the desk with me...) "Aww, she's 21 weeks old now! 21 weeks and 10 minutes!!"  :::insert sniffles here::::  Told you I'm a weirdo...

And I remember a year ago we were in the midst of one of the loooongest weeks of my entire life.  And I say MYentire life because Scott swears he knew that everything would be fine.  But I couldn't bring myself to have that much faith or be that positive. 

Thank you Jesus for answering our prayers and blessing us with our healthy September baby!  She truly is our little miracle.

01-11-10

Yes, I meant to write 01-11-10.  Although today's date is pretty awesome too, 01-11-10 is the same forwards as it is backwards...but it's also the day we found out our precious little girl existed.  Of course we wouldn't know she was a SHE for a few more months, but just knowing she was there was a dream come true.  I won't go into how scared I/we was/were, because I spent the majority of the past year posting about that. :-P  I am just SOOOO so thankful that this day last year turned out the way it did...and that TODAY we have an incredibly happy, smiley, healthy and beautiful almost-four-month-old daughter in our arms!

I keep thinking to myself how fast she is growing, and how I wish she would stay small longer.  But since I can't keep her little, I will praise God for each and every passing day (both the good and the challenging) that He blesses me to be her Mommy!!  While I know every parent wants their baby to stay a baby as long as possible, it is also soooo much fun to watch her grow and reach new milestones!  And I imagine that continues forever. :-)

So THIS is what it's supposed to feel like on the one year anniversary of a positive pregnancy test...arms full of wiggly baby, shirt full of spit-up (lol) and a heart overflowing.  I could do this a million times!  HA, okay maybe not.  But it feels pretty great.  :-)

From day one, I knew this baby had to be special.  If we hadn't gone through the challenges we did, she wouldn't be here.  I know God has a special plan for her...I wonder what it is?  I can't wait to see it unfold. :-)

I love you, my sweet Avi girl!!

(And yes, I know I need to post a recent picture...but my computer has a virus it would be a miracle if I figured out how to get a picture on here from Scott's Mac!  So I apologize for the lack of pictures...)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Well, after waking me up at least 3 times last night (I lost track), Avi woke up this morning as her usual happy self and we have had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all our family! I'm so glad she was feeing good today after last night!

My parents showed up at about 8am to help get things started. I had put Mom in charge of the turkey (after her insistent prodding that as the "hostess" I needed to delegate, delegate, DELEGATE! Okay fine, you get the turkey! HA! Lol), so she got busy with that while my dad set up a couple of coolers with drinks and got out the Johnny Cake he had made at home for our breakfast. That's a tradition I plan to keep going...Johnny Cake for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning while watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, all while turkey preparations are underway.

15 pound turkey, 13 pound baby, lol!

Me and my Monkey! 10 weeks old today!

Smiling at her Uncle Sam

Scott's family arrived around noon-ish with a bunch of pre-dinner snacks and the rest of the trimmings. My mom timed the turkey perfectly and it was finished right before 2:30 (which was her goal! GO MOM!!), and she, Brenda and Susan all helped me prepare the rest of the side dishes while Scott carved the turkey. We sat down to eat at about 3:30. I fed Avi right before dinner started, so she was passed out in her chair for most of it. :-) Grandpa and Letha came over for dinner also, and we all had a wonderful time! Sam stopped by after dinner for a little while to say hi...he was a traitor and had dinner with friends. :-P

I scored a cute outfit for Avi a few weeks ago at Babies R Us, and couldn't pass it up (It was on SALE! I can't help myself, lol!). It says "Thankful for Mommy and Daddy". It's perfect! Of course she had NO idea what the heck was going on today, but I love the outfit because we are so so so thankful for HER! As I mentioned previously, last Thanksgiving I wasn't feeling too cheery or thankful (even though I knew I still had LOTS to be thankful for...), and this year our prayers we answered and we have our precious child in our arms! She is our biggest reason to be thankful this year...and she's not that big. :::wink::: Hehe. :-) I wonder what NEXT Thanksgiving will bring?? Haha, I'm just kidding!! :-P Seriously, though, God has blessed us with way more than we ever could have asked or imagined, in every sense of the phrase. We have each other (I love you Scott!!), our precious daughter, our families and friends, our health, a wonderful house, jobs, and the list goes on...

The first song that comes to mind on thankfulness is the one in Veggie Tale's Madame Blueberry. Lol, go figure. Unfortunately youtube has failed me and there aren't any videos of The Thankfulness Song in its entirety, but here is a short clip. I love Veggie Tales! And thanks to my dad, Avi is accumulating quite the collection of Veggie Tales DVD's! Yaaaay! :-D

Poor Baby :-(

Avi had her 2 month appt today and got 2 shots. She got the shots at about 2pm and I got home around 3. She ate and then has been sleeping the rest of the afternoon/evening except to wake up and eat a couple times. I tried to feed her again before putting her to bed around 9:30, but instead she threw up a TON...like everything she had eaten at the previous feeding. She spits up a lot, but this was waaaay more than I've ever seen come out of her and it was forceful! Poor baby. :-( And she was not interested in eating anything afterwards either, which is weird. When she spits up a bunch she's ready to eat again right away, but this time she went right back to sleep and is still sleeping. I hope she feels better in the morning. :-(

We only got 2 shots today instead of the typical 4 + 1 oral. We got the DTaP and HIB, and she'll get the Pc shot and Rotavirus oral liquid in 3 weeks. We're spreading them out a little bit so her body doesn't have to process as many toxins all at once. Since I have 2 MTHFR mutations, chances are she has at least one if not both of the ones I have, and that reduces the efficiency with which the body processes and excretes toxins. It is not well researched (MTHFR in general is not well researched...), so we're taking the precautionary approach while still vaccinating. We'll be skipping the Hep B and Polio vaccines for now (and our pediatrician says those really aren't necessary at this point anyway, even though the AAP schedule gives them now). I was very happy to learn that the brands they use do not contain mercury, even their flu shot (which she's not old enough for this year) is mercury free. That is awesome, as mercury was my biggest concern. But they do still contain aluminium and other chemicals/preservatives.

Her official two month stats are as follows:
Weight: 13 lbs 2 oz--90th percentile
Length: 23 inches--75th percentile
Head Circ: 15 3/4 inches--75th percentile

So in the past 14 days she's only gained 8 oz. That is still totally normal, but a lot slower than the previous 14 days, lol! We also are switching from Zantac to Prevacid to see if that is a bit more effective at controlling her acid reflux. The Zantac seemed to be hit or miss whether it would work for her or not. Some days the spitting didn't seem to bother her at all (and therefore the zantac was working...she'd still spit up but it wouldn't hurt her), and other days she would still cry before and after spitting up like it was bothering her. :-( Her pedi said it might just be colic, but we'll know for sure if the Prevacid doesn't make a dramatic difference. But with the timing of her fussiness and then spitting up, I really do think it's a reflux issue.

Okay, I'm off to bed. Big day tomorrow! Gobble-gobble!

Is it weird that I still think of things like: 10 weeks ago at this time I was just getting comfortable with my epidural. She would be born about 6 hours from now...
Sometimes I wish I could go back and relive it all so I can savor and take in every second. It all seems like such a blur!!

:::Sigh:::

Goodnight!

Time marches on...

I remember when September 19th seemed SO so far away. It seemed to approach at a snails pace. How the heck did it turn into November 19th??? Goodness. Today at Mom's Group Avi weighed 12 pounds 15.6 ounces...so just barely under 13 pounds! THEN she had two massively dirty diapers, which I'm convinced accounted for at LEAST an ounce...so I'm sticking with 12-15 for today's official weight, LOL! Speaking of massively dirty diapers...it was so bad I had to take her carseat apart and wash the padding. And her clothes. Twice. I'm so glad she was already in the carseat and we were on our way home when I heard the noise. That would not have been fun to deal with in a public restroom changing station! It wasn't fun at home, but at least we were HOME. Oh the joys! :-P

After Mom's Group I went up to my floor and printed off the December schedule. The one I'm on. As in, I go back to work in just over 3 weeks. :::sad face::: I also put in my requests for the January schedule. For now I'm trying to work two days together as much as possible, but I do have a couple single days in there too. We'll see how this goes. I did get some good news about some changes happening at work...but I won't spill the beans until they're for sure happening. It has nothing to do with me personally, just a few "process" type changes. But from the sounds of it it seems like I may have a little more quality/quantity time with my patients and also time to PUMP...which I was starting to stress out about because I will NEED to pump once I go back to work, it won't be an option anymore!

And on that front, I'm excited to say that Scott put Avi to bed tonight without any help from me...he did her bath, got her into her pj's, gave her a bottle and she was totally zonked out. She did wake up about 30 minutes later, but he went in and put her back to sleep. I stayed out of our room completely so she wouldn't know I was there. If she had seen or heard me she may have refused the bottle and may not have gone back to sleep. I'm SO glad it worked and I feel so much better already about having to leave her at night! I have no doubts about Scott being able to handle her, he is AWESOME with her. But that doesn't change the fact that she's not used to being away from me and especially at night. If we can do this a few more times successfully I will be much more confident about going back to work!

Actually, since she's been asleep for over 2 hours now I should probably go to bed. She has only been sleeping 4 to 5 hours for her first stretch of nighttime sleep and then wakes up every 2 to 3 hours after that. So much for 7, 8 or 9 hours straight like we were getting! That only lasted about 3 weeks...but it was SO nice while it did last! :-)

Goodnight!

2 Months

Already! Yes, I'm going to be saying that a lot. It just doesn't seem like two months have passed since she was placed in our arms!! We are so so thankful to have our sweet girl with us and thank God every day for this opportunity and blessing of being her parents! One year ago this Thursday I had an appointment with my Dr, which was one of many appointments last fall, but at that particular appt I left with a paper in my hand with several referral options for a Reproductive Endocrinologist. Thankfully it was only another 3 months before I was back in Dr. A's office 10 weeks pregnant. But we didn't know that was going to happen, and I remember leaving that day feeling so down and depressed because the prior three months of Clomid therapy had failed, and the paper in my hand was just one more reminder that my body was broken. One thing I often do when I feel that way is tell myself to imagine that day one year in the future. So I did. I had no idea if we'd be holding a sweet baby in our arms or not, but I made myself believe we'd be at least one step closer.

And look where we are. :-)

11/15/10

This was yesterday...trying out the Bumbo seat! Haha, that expression is too funny..."Um, Mom? What the heck is this thing? Do I like it??"

Love her!!! I wish you could hear the sound effects... "Did that sound come out of ME?" 11/16/10
Happy 2 months sweet girl!! (Same outfit as her 1 month photo...except this time with babylegs leg warmers...it was kinda chilly in the house this morning!)

Love love love this chubby little face!!!

Miss Aveline is 2 months old today, and starting to show off her bubbly little personality! She babbles and coos almost non-stop when she's awake and happy. This past week she has started to chew on her hands...mostly just trying to shove her whole fist in her mouth all at once, lol. She hasn't found her thumb yet, and I don't know that she will. She isn't a pacifier baby...we've tried a few different kinds and it stays in her mouth for less time than it takes to get her to take it in the first place! She's also started smiling a LOT more...and I've even gotten a few little giggles out of her! The best thing in the whole world is when she hasn't seen me for a little while and then all of a sudden realizes I'm there and gives me the biggest grin ever. ::::heart melting!:::: She's done that a few times in the morning when I go to pick her up out of the swing (still sleeping in the swing due to reflux...although we don't have it swinging anymore, it's just so she can sleep inclined). That's the best way to start the day! :-)

Oh yes, and I did see Dr. A again today to follow up on my blood pressure. I've been taking it at home twice a day these past two weeks, and while it is still borderline, I don't need to be on medication. YAY! I forgot to ask about whether she thought my pre-hypertensive pressures are PCOS related or not, but I'm going to assume they are seems how it is part of the syndrome. By the way, a pretty "normal" pressure for me is 120's and 130's over 70's and 80's. Sometimes they'll be in the one-teens over sixties, but not often. They used to consider 120/80 to be the "textbook" blood pressure, but now it is considered pre-hypertensive. At least that's what we were told in nursing school...

I have to go back to work in just 27 days. :-( :-( :-( I am actually looking forward to working again in the sense that I miss my co-workers...they are a huge part of my social life and I love them all!!...and I do love my job. Oh, and there's the money part...getting paid 2/3 my normal pay isn't much fun. I also feel like I can be so much more helpful to the new mommies I will take care of now that I've actually experienced first hand what they are and will be experiencing! But I'm dreading the schedule change back to night shifts again, and of course I'm dreading leaving my little Avi girl at home! I know she'll be with Daddy or one of her grandmas whenever I'm gone, but it's still hard knowing I won't be there when I have been there for her 24/7 for the past YEAR! (Minus a few hours for the couple times Scott and I went out without her and the times I've gone to the store while Daddy watched her...) I won't be there to nurse her to sleep at night, or to do her 4am feeding (or any other time she wakes up in the middle of the night...usually it's once but sometimes it's two or three times!). And then if I have to go back to work the next night I will be coming home and sleeping so I won't be there during the day either! UGH!! At least that will only be about 1 day a week. If I'm NOT going back to work the next night I plan to just come home and try to take a nap with her in the morning. But man, I'm totally dreading this schedule...will I ever sleep again?? And is she going to scream all night if she has to take a bottle at bedtime and 4am instead of Mommy?? Trust me, we're practicing now, but it's not going so well yet. We've crashed and burned the two or three times we've tried giving her a bottle at bedtime instead. :-( :-(

I guess there is a reason you don't remember anything before about 3 years of age. If she screams all night until she figures out that the bottle is the only way she's going to get food that night, it won't kill her. I'm not sure about Daddy though...I feel bad for him! Hopefully she gets the hang of this bottle thing sooner rather than later...

:::sigh:::

Man, I wanted to end on a happy note!

Oh yeah...MY BABY GIRL IS TWO MONTHS OLD!!! I love her. SO so much.

And I like this song...

GER

And I don't mean "GRRR!" Although sometimes I feel like saying that!! GER stands for Gastro-Esophageal Reflux. Avi has it. I knew she spit-up a lot, and I didn't think it was normal but the pediatrician told me it was at her 2 week appt. Well, in the past week or two it has gotten worse and she's also been much more fussy, especially in the mornings and evenings, and she'd cry before and after spitting up. Where'd my happy baby go? :-( I almost called the pedi about this a couple times last week, and finally did this morning because I could not make her happy. She would spit, cry, spit, cry, spit, cry. She seemed miserable! They got us in this afternoon, and he agreed with my suspicians and gave us an Rx for Zantac. She got her first dose this evening, and right now is sleeping like a log. Yay! So hopefully this is the quick and easy answer and it's not something more complicated. We'll go back in 2 weeks for her normal 2-month well visit as well as to evaluate whether the Zantac is working or not. If it's not, we can try Prevacid instead.

Despite all this, it certainly isn't affecting her weight. She weighed 12-10 this afternoon. She was 12-2 five days ago and 11-5 twelve days ago. We have a chunker! :-P

And now some pictures (of course!). :-)

11/9/10

(I wish this wasn't so blurry!) 11/10/10

7 Weeks

Already?? :::sniff-sniff::: Where'd my tiny newborn go?? Okay, okay, so she was never the definition of tiny, but seriously--she's getting so big!! It seems like she's doing something new almost every day, to which I make a mental note that "I need to blog about that!" but then someone, and I won't name names, seems to keep me super busy and I find myself days and weeks later without having blogged about much at all!! *sigh* Where does the time go??

Last week at Mommy's Group she weighed 11 lbs 5 oz, so only a 5 oz gain that week, which is quite normal but less than what she had been gaining. I will be weighing her again tomorrow. I don't do it out of concern, she's gaining wonderfully, just out of curiosity. :-) I am, however, getting more concerned about her spitting up issue. Maybe concerned isn't the right word, cause I'm not real worried about it, but I do wonder if she has a reflux problem and not just "spitting up". She spits up after almost every feeding, and at least half the time it's a pretty decent amount...we're talking an ounce or two, sometimes more. It's not projectile, but it's also more forceful than just a dribble. Once in awhile she acts uncomfortable, but mostly it's just messy. I can deal with the messy part, but I don't like how much she's spitting up. I'll ask the pediatrician about it again at her 2 month appt on the 17th. I mentioned it at her 2 week appt and he wasn't concerned, but that may be different now that I have more info and it's been going on this whole time. We'll see! But she's certainly thriving despite this issue, as evidenced by her growing fat rolls, lol!

One big milestone she just reached is rolling from her tummy to her back. I caught her doing it Tuesday morning so I immediately put her back on her tummy and she did it again! Later that afternoon I pulled out the video camera, but didn't really expect her to do it again, but she did! I was shocked! And of course proud. :-D She did it again today, so it's not just a fluke! :-P If I can figure out how to upload the video I will...

Tuesday morning I had my postpartum doctor's visit. I took Avi with me and she was mostly good. I fed her really well right before we left, and she fell asleep in the car, but then woke up again once we got there (she sleeps well if she's in motion, lol!). Once we were in the room, the MA took my blood pressure and it was through the roof...literally. 178/100. Say WHAT??? So onto my left side I went. And Avi, since she was getting sick of her carseat by this point (she'd been in it for an hour and honestly had been very happy/patient the whole time), went out to the desk with the MA (she offered). When Dr. A rechecked my BP it was still 140/80, but even that is much better than the initial one! Good grief! I know my BP has been borderline off and on the past few years, but it has never been as high as that first one. Three years ago, on Thanksgiving actually, it was 150/100 one day at work. I remember feeling weird...and feeling like my heart was about ready to beat out of my chest as I was at work and was shocked to see my BP that high. I attributed it to my birth control and stopped taking it a couple months later. My heart rate and BP settled down considerably. Well, this time I don't FEEL like it's high, but apparently it is. I'm taking it at home for the next 2 weeks and then will go back to see Dr. A again for a re-check and possible med discussion. I wonder if the borderline high BP is related to my PCOS. I know it's one of the symptoms. Ugh.

Picture time!!

10/24/10
Yep, totally looks like Daddy. :-D

10/30/10 I caught her mid-grin! :-) Grandma with the little kitty! First halloween (the costume lasted about 10 minutes...then she got fussy and ended up in the Moby wrap, haha)
10/31/10

11/4/10--7 weeks exactly