Crud is fun!

I went to the squadron tonight, to learn how to play crud from the Top Dog ladies. (The Top Dog's is Mark's squadron.) I had a ton of fun learning, even though I'm not that good at it... yet. =) There weren't that many girls there, so we had to play with a few of the guys, and they were easy on us newbie's, but I'm still intimidated playing with the guys. I would have been more comfortable if it had just been all girls, but it wasn't so oh well. I guess most likely there will always be guys around watching and/or playing anyway, so I might as well get used to screwing up in front of them now. There are so many rules and I'm still confused on how you know who's turn it is to serve/receive, but I think a few more practices and I'll have it down.

For those that aren't familiar with crud, it's a game you play on a revised pool table (doesn't have side pockets, only corner ones, and it's bigger) and you play with the cue ball and one other ball. You just use your hands to throw the cue ball and try to hit the object ball before it stops moving, but you can only throw it from the ends of the table, not the sides. You have 3 lives and there are a whole bunch of ways to lose lives, and I don't know half of them. But that's the jist of it and it's a lot of fun.

I love getting together and hanging out like that. I think in general, I'm much more social than Mark is, and we'd probably go to a lot more things we're invited to if it was solely up to me. But I think that's mainly because he hangs out with the guys all week at work, while I'm at home with Abbie, and when the weekend comes around he wants some family time, and I want to get out of the house. There is a crud tournament coming up and I would love to play in it mainly for the social aspect of it - getting together for the practices and being out and about.

Abbie did really well while we were there also, especially since we were at the squadron for lunch for over an hour earlier in the day. I wore her in the mei tai during lunch and she looked around quite a bit and then she slept for a while. During the crud game, she hung out in her carseat for a while, and then Mark fed her and then she fell asleep for an hour. She's getting a little bit easier every day.

I have some really cute pictures of her that I need to post, and I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Abbie is 10 weeks old!

It's funny. I feel like I had so much more to blog about before Abbie was born. You'd think I would have a lot to blog about since she's come along, but sometimes I seriously have to think about what to write about.

Nothing too exciting has happened this week so far. Mark's busy with training as usual, and I'm trying to keep my head above water with the housework. You'd think I'd have tons of time to get things done since I'm home all day, but I don't. Especially on days like today when Abbie is a little bit crabby. We went to Wal-Mart and she did well there (no crying) and then stopped by Office Max on our way home. She slept in the car and in Office Max, but she woke up when we got home. I've tried to put her down at least 3 times, but she screams when I do that. It starts out as a cry, but if I let her go, it quickly turns into a scream. I managed to get a batch of cookie done, but I haven't even eaten lunch since it's hard to make lunch holding a screaming baby. Oh well.

She was grinning away today when I was changing her diaper, so I grabbed the camera to try to catch a grin on film. While I was taking pictures, she was peeing all over the place again. I'd gotten the dirty diaper off, but hadn't put the clean diaper on yet. That's the 2nd time that's happened this week, although the first time I wasn't taking pictures, I just wasn't quick enough. You'd think I'd learn my lesson...

We're still having trouble getting her to sleep in her own bed. Lately we've been having trouble getting her to go to sleep at all. We try to get her to sleep and then put her in her crib, and usually she'll wake up at least 2-3 times as soon as we get her in her crib. But eventually she'll go to sleep. I'm trying to push the 1-2am feeding to 3 or 4am. I figure if she's getting 4 oz of formula between 10-11pm, she can go until at least 3am. I got the idea this week when she slept with us all night and woke up around 1am. I gave her her pacifier and patted her back to sleep and she slept without eating until 3am. She woke up last night around 1am and I went in to her room and gave her her paci again and turned on her little mobile thing in her crib and she slept for another hour and a half. Today at Wal-Mart I picked up a bed railing for my side of our bed so I don't have to worry about her rolling off the bed. I try to keep her between me and the edge of the bed to keep the dogs away from her, and she usually sleeps in the crook of my arm, so she can't roll anywhere anyway, but it'll make me feel better.

Tomorrow I'm learning to play crud at the squadron. I'm pretty excited. Hopefully I won't get beat up too much!

Sleep issues, training craziness and holiday plans

I've been meaning to get more pictures on here, but it's easier said than done with the little one around. It's amazing how much time she consumes, but I love it.

Here are a few of her 2 month photos.

Very displeased.

She likes to blow spit bubbles now.

Still loves her baths.

Almost caught a grin on film. The little smile will have to do for now.

Hanging out with Sadie before bed.

Our three kids.

I have a feeling my night time supply is fading quickly. I hope my new pump gets here soon. I'm going to pick up some fenugreek this weekend to see if that helps also. Last night was not a good night for us. I generally nurse her from 7:30pm to 9 or 9:30pm. She doesn't nurse actively that entire time, but every time she slows down/falls asleep and I pull her off, she cries. So I put her back on and she'll actively nurse for a few more minutes and then slow down/fall asleep. Needless to say, my boobs hurt a LOT from all that sucking... Mark fed her a bottle (4oz) around 10pm, and we finally got her to bed around 11pm. She woke up around 1am and I nursed her for about 10 mins and she fell asleep. However, I knew she needed to nurse more, so I played with her feet and rubbed and blew on her face and moved her around some. We went through that routine about 2 times and she'd nurse for maybe 2-3 more minutes and be out again. So I tried to put her back to bed. As SOON as her head hits her bed, her eyes fly open and she cries. *sighs* So I tried to leave her in bed and pat her to sleep again, but no such luck. So I got her out of bed again and tried to nurse her again. Five minutes and she's out again. Tried to put her to bed again and same thing. As soon as she's in bed, she's wide awake. What the heck? She was screaming so I decided to bring her to bed with me, and she calmed down for a second, but then she was still crying, so I tried to nurse her in bed and she was getting really impatient and flinging her head around and not latching on right. My boobs already hurt and this wasn't helping matter at all. So I finally went and got her a 4oz bottle again. She drank 3 oz's of it and was out until 6:30am when the garage door woke her up from Mark leaving. So I don't know if my supply is just low at night now or what. I used to leak at night, and I don't any more, but I thought that was just because it had regulated itself. Maybe not? I'm very tempted to start giving her bottles at her 1-2am feeding because it takes her a LOT less time to drink a bottle than it does to nurse, and she doesn't fall asleep when she's drinking a bottle. But then I'd have to pump for 20 mins if I did that. That might help my supply though if I pumped both sides, and it would be a lot faster to feed her a bottle and then pump than it is just feeding her at this point. I don't know. It's frustrating.

Mark is an entire month ahead of schedule in his training now, which is crazy since he's only 3 months into this training. I feel bad for him because he's so busy and stressed out. He's gone before 7am every day, and is never home before 6:30pm every night. He gets home, takes a shower while I give Abbie a bath, and then he spends a little time with Abbie while I make dinner. Then we eat quickly and he studies some before he falls asleep. He comes home exhausted and he could probably easily go to bed by 8pm every night and still not get enough sleep. I know he wants to spend more time with Abbie, but he just doesn't have time at this point. I hope training slows down for him in the near future because the pace they're going right now is just ridiculous.

We decided we're not coming home to IL for Christmas this year. It's just too expensive for us, and it'll save us over $1000 if we just stay here. Plus we'd have to bring the dogs (which is even more expensive) or find a place to board them, and we're not comfortable doing that. So I think we're just going to stay in Phoenix this year. Besides, the weather will be GORGEOUS then.

Abbie's 2 month appt

Abbie's appointment went pretty well. We saw a pediatrician that we hadn't seen before, and I liked her better than the other two we've seen, so I'm glad she's Abbie's primary care provider.

Abbie weighed 10lb 14oz, which puts her in the 50th percentile. Her head circumference was just under 40cm, putting her in the 75th percentile for that. Her length however, was 61.5cm (24.5 inches), which puts her ABOVE the 95th percentile. Her weight to length ratio is well under the 5th percentile though, meaning she is an exceedingly long, skinny baby, just like her daddy. I was like that also when I was a baby though, and they had predicted me to be 6 feet tall so given that fact, and how Mark is now, I'm not the least bit surprised that she's the way she is.

The doctor checked her out and said everything looked good. Right after the dr left the room, Abbie pooped and she had blood in her poop again, so I went out and found her dr and had her come look at it. I think it kinda freaked the dr out some because she seemed pretty worried and said "we're going to have to get a culture on this right away" and she took the diaper and left. I could hear her in the hall consulting with another doctor and she was more calm when she came back. She said it was the first time she'd seen blood like that, but the other doctor said that it looked like anal fissures and it wasn't a big deal as long as it didn't get worse. I wasn't too worried about it since I'd seen her poop like that before, but I wanted the doctor to see it since we were there and it was fresh.

I'm doing a delayed vax schedule with her, so this time she got the DTaP and rotavirus vaccines. The DTaP was a shot and the rotavirus was an oral vaccine. I felt bad when she got the shot. She jumped quite a bit when she got poked, and her eyes got huge, and she started to scream. But her cry was pretty short lived. She's pretty lethargic now though. Been sleeping and eating a lot since we've been home. She's laying in my lap right now. I'm going to go take her temp and get her ready for bed and maybe give her a little bit of tylenol. Her leg doesn't seem to be too sore.. yet.

Overall the appointment went better than I'd anticipated. I always wanted a fat little baby, but I'll take my long, skinny one. I think she's perfect.

Abbie Rose is 2 months old

Our little pippy (short for pipsqueak) is two months old today. Where has the time gone? She has her 2 month appt on Wednesday, so we'll find out her length and weight then. Our scale at home ranges from 10-12lbs, but I'm hoping she's closer to 12 lbs now. She seems incredibly long to me, so it'll be interesting to see how much longer she is also.

She's still not sleeping very well. Last night she slept from 11pm to 4am, which was a good stretch for her. But then when I put her back to bed around 4:30am, she was up every 20 mins until I finally brought her to bed with me around 6am. I don't know if I should put her to bed earlier or what. We've tried that a few times, but she sleeps even worse than normal if I put her to bed earlier. We'll figure this out eventually.

She still LOVES her baths. If she's fussy, we can put her in the bathtub and she's fine... until you take her out. Then more often than not, she gets upset. But as long as she's in the tub, she's fine.

We still swaddle her at night. She gets about 4 oz of formula a day, give or take 2 oz's. She drinks fine from a bottle, though she always has. She likes to have her pacifier sometimes - it seems to calm her down half the time, and piss her off even more other times.

She snorts when she's crying sometimes, which is hilarious. Every time she breathes in she snorts. I need to record that. She also still wrinkles her nose when she does her big grins. Sometimes she just smiles, sometimes she just wrinkles her nose, and occasionally, she does both at the same time and it's just adorable. Unfortunately every time I stick a camera in her face and try to get her to do it, she pays more attention to the camera than me, and stops smiling. I'll keep trying though.

Abbie is 2 months old and she's already been to 4 states. Not bad for a little pipsqueak.

San Diego trip

If you ever get the chance to visit San Diego, do it. The city is just amazing. Coming from Phoenix, the 40 degree (yes, literally 40 degree) temp difference was enough to make me pack my bags and move there. SD is a beautiful city, and I love all the hills and the coast. Plus it was great to see so many people out and about. You don't see that here in Phoenix this time of year.

The drive there was interesting. I'd never seen rocks like we saw on the way there, or been in the desert really. It got up to 119 on our way to CA, which was crazy, and it was 74 when we got to Coronado Island. We went through a few border patrols and at one point we were probably 500 feet from the Mexico border. That was the closest I've ever been to Mexico.

We wanted to eat seafood on Friday night, so we went to downtown Coronado Island. After driving around a while, we saw a place we wanted to try. But after seeing the menu posted outside, we didn't want to pay $30 per entree, so we decided to go somewhere else. We drove to the harbor in downtown San Diego and checked out a few restaurants, but one was really expensive, one we'd eaten at the last time we were in SD and the others were all fast food. So we opted for the one we'd already eaten at, which was annoying bc we wanted to try something new, but it was 8:30pm and we were hungry and tired of carrying Abbie and her car seat around. At one point Mark went to the bathroom while I was holding Abbie, and it wasn't until Mark got back that I realized I'd had an entire conversation with my less than 2 month old for the past 5 mins. People probably thought I was nuts. Oh well.

After we ate, we went back to our hotel, which was right on the beach, and went for a walk. We figured out how to use another mode of our camera - night portrait. Here's one of the shots Mark took. Next time we'll use the tripod, but we didn't have it with us this time.


Saturday we decided to go to the San Diego Zoo. Last time we were here we went to the Wild Animal Park. Mark got in free due to the military discount and I got a 10% discount so overall we saved $40! We had a great time messing around with our camera also. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

Though after seeing all those animals in the zoo, our most favorite thing to look at is still this.

(Doesn't get much cuter than that.)

It is great fun walking around with a baby. It seems in general, most people just LOVE babies. She's an instant conversation starter. It's fun to watch people look at her and then look at us and smile. We had quite a few people come up and start a conversation - usually grandparents who want to check her out and then tell you all about their grandkids and how old they are and where they live and when they'll get to see them next, etc. Mark and I enjoy the attention she brings and we love showing off our cute pip-squeak. I mean, seriously. How cute can one kid be??

We went to the squadron bbq on the beach Saturday night and then afterwards we took some more pictures on the beach. Some of these look like they're fake backgrounds, but I assure you. They're not.

After our beach photo shoot, we went downtown Coronado and ate at a 50's diner and then drove around the island some more.

Sunday we got up and ate breakfast downtown Coronado and then we were going to take more pictures on the beach during the daytime. However, the beach was PACKED and parking was scarce, so we decided to drive around the island a little more before we headed home. Along our drive we found a park on the other side of the island so we did another photo shoot. Here's one of those pics.

We loved our time in SD and we were sad to leave there (and the cooler weather). We did discover two things on our trip though. One - Abbie really is a good little traveler. It was over a 5 hour drive to CA and she did really, really well. If she'd get fussy, we'd pull over and change her and then feed her a bottle while we were driving and she was good to go. She got a little fussy on the way back, so Mark got in the back with her and she was ALL smiles for him. She was "talking" and grinning away. It was really cute. Two - we decided we want to get an RV when we retire and just travel all over the place. There seem to be RV camps EVERYWHERE and it just seems perfect to be able to have a portable home. Hopefully by that time we'll be able to afford it because we really would love that. In the meantime, we might try to get a pop-up camper so we can go camping with our kids.

 

Thank God for friends

Abbie was being particularly difficult today, after being particularly difficult last night. She's been doing fairly well at night, but last night Mark fed her a little earlier than normal, and she fell asleep a little earlier than normal, and that seemed to throw everything off and she was up a LOT more than normal. Bummer.

Today I had things I wanted to get done and I was hoping she'd let me do a few things, but no such luck. She let me put her down for 15 mins so I could get some breakfast. I got materials to make a few more pacifier leashes for her so when she spits them out they don't land on the floor, and I've been wanting to make them for a while, but never had the time. So I hauled her bouncer upstairs to my craft room and put her in it and dug out my sewing machine and materials and started on my first paci clip. And then she started to cry. Nice. So I tried putting her into a ring sling, and she screamed. Double nice. I knew she was tired, but she was fighting sleep as usual. So I tried to put her in her crib to sleep. No such luck. Got her out of the crib, changed her and decided maybe she was hungry so I nursed her a little bit, and she fell asleep. Tried putting her in the crib again and as soon as I put her down her eyes snapped open and she was crying. (sighs) Calmed her down and tried to put her in her bouncer again. She cried again. Tried to put her on a blanket on the floor on her tummy. She screamed. Tried flipping her over on her back. She still screamed. At that point I gave up and took her downstairs to "our chair" (recliner in the living room) and nursed her for about 3 mins before she was out. I knew if I tried to put her down then she'd wake up again so I decided to wait a little bit until she was in a deeper sleep. Well I fell asleep waiting. Nice.

In between all that, my friend Gail called and offered to come over tomorrow to entertain Abbie while I pack for our San Diego trip. How sweet is she! (She's also our official weina dog babysitter while we're out of town. The weinas go live with her and her husband Nate, and their pups Jada and Lacy while we're gone, this weekend included.) After lunch I was just finishing up feeding Abbie when the doorbell rang. I assumed it was a solicitor since we get a TON of them and they still ring the doorbell despite the No Soliciting sign on the door. (Idiots!) So I didn't bother to get up. Then the phone rang and it was Gail who said she was outside. Here she'd come over to hold Abbie for a while so I could get a few things done! Seriously, they don't come sweeter than Gail. She said I'd sounded stressed on the phone when I'd talked to her earlier, which I was a little frustrated, so she'd come to help out. She held Abbie for me and entertained her while I made a batch of cookies, cleaned up some of the kitchen, put a bookshelf together for Abbie room, rearranged Abbie's room a little bit and hung more things on the wall of Abbie's room. I was so thankful that she came over and let me get a few things done. Maybe I should consider having our next door neighbor come over once or twice a week for an hour or two to hold/entertain Abbie while I get some things done. How much would you pay for something like that?

Anyway, thank God for good friends like Gail. I am so blessed.

The naming ceremony is over.

Here's the outfit my sister got for Abbie. It is seriously adorable!

Caught her in one of her infamous stretches. The kid is ALWAYS stretching.

In her bouncer.

This week was Mark's naming ceremony. It was Friday after work, and basically it's where they get their new call sign for this squadron and it's a chance for the higher up's to haze the new kids.... His call sign is Tom Tom - after the GPS system, since his IP passed him the lead during a flight once and Mark was trying to figure out how to get home and didn't exactly go straight there. Not the best call sign, but a heck of a lot better than Cod... Anything would have been better than that. Some of the other call signs given to his classmates were kinda funny. There is a Steve in his class and a Chris, and they both have the same last name. They ended up giving Steve the call sign "Chris" and Chris the call sign "Steve". Tell me that's not going to be SUPER confusing... There's a super nice (and smart) guy in Mark's class, Joe Bob, who is your stereotypical southern boy. They were going to give him the name Bob Joe, but instead called him Cletus. And there's another guy in his class who's been having a few problems pulling G's and his name is Folo, which stands for fights on, lights out. (They call "fights on" when they're starting they're practice dog fights and that's typically when you pull a lot of G's.)

Mark's glad to have that over with. He was not looking forward to it at all, since it is just a huge hazing process. They make them stand at the front of the room and throw things at them. They fill up an entire dog bowl of "grog" and make them drink it and he wasn't quite sure what was in it. They make them do shots of "weed" (short of Jeremiah Weed - which I *think* is a cheap whiskey or tequila, I'm not sure), and if they are non-drinkers, they make a horrible concoction of stuff for them to drink. Something along the lines of coffee, pop, jalapeno or pickle juice, and whatever else they can find. Gross. And Mark had to eat a dog bone - as in a real dog treat, dog bone. And he had to eat an entire raw egg, shell and all. And despite eating all of that, he didn't puke! Anyway, at least all of that is over with, until we get to our next base, and then he'll have to do it all again. Yay.

Abbie's doing well. She's smiling a lot more and she seems to be sleeping better. The good thing is, if I want to sleep, all I have to do is bring her to bed with me and she'll sleep for hours. The even better thing is, she's doing better in her own room now and will last from about 10pm to 6am in her own bed, in her own room, with a feeding at 2am. We're getting better at knowing her cries and what they mean, so if she's just doing her "I don't want to be alone but nothing else is wrong" cry, we'll let her go about 5 mins before we go check on her. But usually she's back asleep before then. Sometimes it's just a matter of her having dropped her pacifier so we just have to go in and put it back in her mouth and pat her a few times and she's good to go. The 2am to 6am is her hardest stretch - when she wakes up the most, but I've read this is common in babies... Something about their circadian rhythms. I haven't really tried getting her on a true schedule yet, but we're starting a routine to help us get on a schedule when she's around 3 mos old. I start nursing her usually around 5-5:30pm and then we play a little bit. Usually around 6-6:30pm I give her her vitamins and give her a bath and get her in her PJ's. Then she hangs out with Mark while I get dinner ready. Sometimes she'll let us put her down so we can eat, other times we hold her while we eat. I usually nurse her again around 8-8:30pm if she's awake, and then sometime between 9:30-10pm Mark gives her 2 oz's of formula and puts her to bed. In her own room. Granted she takes little cat naps quite a bit in between 5-10pm, she's definitely not awake the entire time, but eventually I'd like to start putting her to bed around 7-8pm. Soon we'll also add reading time in there, where we'll read her books before she goes to sleep.

On a side note, nursing has been a little rough lately. She started this BAD habit of, while she's latched on, she starts whipping her head around a bunch and then sometimes sucks while she's pulling off. Needless to say, it hurts a LOT, and now I'm really sore all the time. I thought for a while that maybe that meant she's done feeding, but if I put the boob away she'll start rooting and crying again, and then if I put her on again, she goes to town eating. But then pretty soon she's whipping her head around again. I've started putting my hand behind her head to keep her from moving around too much, but does anyone have any clue as to why she's doing this all of a sudden? It really hurts. A lot.

Not much else is happening here. We went to a drive-in movie last night - Transformers 2. It was pretty good, but not as good as the first one. It's just nice to be able to see movies with a baby. It'll be even nicer when it's not 110 degrees at 10pm... Today it was 117. Nice. This coming weekend we're going to San Diego with the squadron, and I'm excited about that. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures to show when we get back. But for now....

.... here's my new favorite picture of her.

1st night in her own room... kinda

Abbie was 7 weeks old yesterday. I've been debating on when to try to put her in her own room (as opposed to a pack n play in our room) at night, and after a few tears on my part last night, we decided last night would be it. Actually I decided last night would be it since Mark was so tired he was dead asleep about 30 seconds after he laid down...

Let me just say, I love having a snugly baby, and I don't think they get more snugly then my Abbie is. But I truly do not like her sleeping in my bed with us. It's way too crowded since Mark sleeps in the middle half the time, and then we have both of the weinas sleep with us also. I always put Abbie between me and the edge of the bed so I can shield her from the dogs and Mark, since I'm afraid he's so tired all the time he wouldn't even realize that he's smushing her. When I bring her to bed with me I'm constantly afraid she's going to roll of the side of the bed (even though she doesn't roll yet and I put rolled up blankets next to her on that side so she can't roll that way), or that my pillow is on her face, or my blanket is on her face, or she's rolled into me (which she does a lot) and she can't breathe, etc. So in other words, I don't sleep well. However, I don't sleep at all when she's not in bed with me so I guess I have to choose the lesser of two evils. When we were home this weekend, one of my parent's friends, who's a nurse, said she's been to a few county coroner talks, where they talk about babies suffocating while they were sleeping with adults, so that's constantly in the back of my mind. Plus all the nurses and doctors in the hospital said that co-sleeping was not a good idea - for that reason - it's dangerous.

Anyway, so I decided to try to put her in her own bed in her own room last night and needless to say, it didn't go very well. Between 10am and 4am, I got up to feed her 3 times and got up at least 5-6 other times to soothe her because she just would NOT sleep in her own. She wasn't all out screaming for most of the time, but she was doing her quiet "sad/annoyed" cry on and off for most of the night. I'd give her 5 mins when she started crying (as long as she wasn't screaming) to see if she'd go to back sleep, but she didn't. Ever. The 3 times I nursed her she'd sleep for maybe a half hour after each time after I got her back in the crib, but then she'd wake up and cry. I'd try to soothe her without getting her out of bed, and she just wasn't having any of it. I'd put the pacifier back in her mouth and that would give me MAYBE 5 mins sometimes, but that was it. Then she'd be crying again. As soon as I'd pick her up, she was fine, so I KNOW that she just wants to be by me. Which is good and great and all, but not 24/7. I don't think I got more than 30 consecutive minutes of sleep all night, until 4am when I couldn't see straight anymore I was so tired, so I brought her to bed with me. And lo and behold, she slept great until 8:30am. Grrr...

I don't know what else to do to get her to sleep on her own. I swaddle her, I make sure she's fed and changed before I put her down, I have a sound machine in her crib, I have a humidifier on in her room and it's mostly dark except for a nightlight. What else can I do? I bought a small CD player today to see if music soothes her more than the sound machine and I also bought a little entertainment center thing to hang on her crib that plays music and has lights on it. I figured maybe if I can just get her to enjoy her time in her crib, instead of screaming every time she realizes she in there by herself, that will help out some.

I just don't want to end up having a year and a half old who won't go to sleep by herself and I'm afraid that's where I'm headed. I figure I'd be better off breaking her of this habit now, instead of waiting until she really knows what's going on and having it be 10 times harder then. But it is HARD. It would be a lot easier if she would sleep a little longer than 30 mins between her crying episodes and if Mark was able to get up with her sometimes, but that's not an option right now. Maybe tonight will be better.

Naturally, she slept for 3 hours straight in her car seat today since I had my 6week check up. And now again, she's asleep in my arms... At least one of us is getting some sleep. She's lucky she's the cutest thing ever...

Abbie's baptism weekend

Our weekend home was really busy and exhausting, but fun. It was so nice to see so many of our friends and family while we were there.

Abbie did really well on both flights. She cried a little bit on the flight there, but as soon as I nursed her, she was fine. Her ears didn't seem to bother her at all, which was great. She slept most of the way back, which probably had something to do with the flight being from 3:15-6:30am our time. (Although I can't really say she sleeps during that time period when we're at home, but that'll be in the next post...)

(Sorry the pictures are in backwards order again. I don't have time to switch them all around.)

Here she is right after being baptized. Ken was introducing her to the congregation.



A view from the front of the church.



Me n my snuggly baby.



The whole clan, minus the IL Nix's who got there later.

Going home really made Mark and I miss all the green in northern IL. That truly is a beautiful part of the country. We love all the trees up there - something that's missing down here (and in OK too).

This was the one shot we really wanted to get and Mark got it. Four generations of hands - my grandma's (who's 94), my mom, mine and Abbie's.

Another 4 generation shot.

Just playing around with my camera.

My friend, Rachel, meeting Abbie.

Abbie's first boat ride. I REALLY miss going out on the river. She loved it, despite the fact that it was kind of windy and loud.

Another 4 generation shot.

My grandma holding Abbie for the first time. One of the main reasons I wanted to come home is so my grandma could meet Abbie. My grandma is doing well, but she is 94, so I didn't want something to happen before she got to meet her.

Another boat ride shot. I love Abbie's crazy hair in this picture. She looks like Cindy Louwho from Dr. Suess.

A halfway grin shot while we were on the plane. (On a side note, her baby acne is almost completely gone now. It lasted about 3 weeks.)

I'm going to try to come back to the Dubuque area sometime in Aug or Sept. I'll be coming by myself though, so that might be interesting.. I'm still looking at plane tickets - they're expensive right now!!

Things looking up

I don't notice Abbie getting much bigger physically, although I'm sure she is, but I definitely notice LOTS of other changes in her. She is MUCH more alert now when she's awake. If I sit or lay her down, she will follow me with her eyes as I move around the room. She's just starting to smile. I'm still not 100% sure if she knows she's smiling, but when I get close to her face and talk to her, sometimes she grins. And she does this ADORABLE thing where she wrinkles up her little nose and shows her top gum. I need to catch it on film so you all can see. Too cute. This morning when she woke up she was all smiles.

Hanging with Daddy after her bath. (I could be biased, but I think she's starting to look more like me.)

Daddy gives her about 2 oz of formula a day, so he can have some feeding/bonding time with her. I've been shocked though, at how easily breastfeeding came to us. I was expecting it to be much more difficult due to latch issues and supply issues, etc, but we really haven't had any problems. (Knock on wood.) I'm not sure nipple confusion exists since she had her first bottle and pacifier in the hospital and we've never had any issue with her breastfeeding or taking a bottle. I guess we lucked out on the nursing end of things, but she made up for it in the sleeping end of things so no worries. =)


Usually she loves to be worn. My carrier of choice is our mei tai (the colorful carrier in one of my previous blogs). It's so easy to strap that thing on and carry her around. It makes me feel strong when I wear her for some reason. Not physically strong, but like powerful strong I guess. Like I can still have my baby close to me and yet get things done around the house or go grocery shopping. This picture is her in the Moby wrap. We usually use this one around the house since it's much more complicated to get her into and out of it than the mei tai. I am going to get another mei tai one of these days though, so I can have one for the house and one for the car.

This picture is a little dark, but it's one of my favorites. She's getting so good at holding her head up.

About a week ago she started getting baby acne. While it looks TERRIBLE, it doesn't seem to bother her much and everyone is telling me it doesn't last long. I sure hope not because I hate her poor face looking like this.

Time to feed her again. Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!