Merry Christmas!

We had an eventful Christmas eve, starting with my husband not wanting to take Abi anywhere. Mainly because she's just getting over being sick... We *almost* always go to my uncles for Christmas eve.. Well there has been a ton of animosity since my grandfather passed away between my husband and my family. It's a long story that I'll get into later.. anyway I ended up crying and bawling and we talked and he finally decided he'd be okay with us all going. Well we went and had a great time! I am so glad we went and that everything turned out alright. There are some issues that still need to be ironed out, and we're working on them slowly... but again that's for another post! For now, here is a sneak peak of our Christmas!

Okay this was the day before Christmas eve, Abi's 9 month birthday! Lol

We let her open a gift early.. and she just loved the wrapping paper!

See, no interest in her toy! My child entirely! :)

RAD

Reactive Airway Disease. It's a term that's overused like colic. But apparently Abi has it. Whatever it is exactly. I've been Googleing and talking to my friends with kids who have it but I'm still in the dark about what exactly it is. I mean I know the definition, but what I want to know is what it means for me and my kid. That's all yet to be seen because we have to go through the trial and error of which meds help and such. Ugh. My poor baby. I hate seeing her sick, I hate having to medicate her because she's sick. I feel like I'm feeding her poison.. little bodies can't tolerate so much crap. I'm not stopping her meds, but I don't like giving them to her. I don't like taking medication myself. I don't know where I'm going with this... to be honest I just want it to all go away. Especially with Christmas coming...




By the way, what's the worst reason to not have more kids you've ever heard??? I'll explain this question later...

Yesterday

A tragedy...
I was flipping through Yahoo news when I saw the headline "Tragedy in CT" I read the article briefly as Abi had just awoken from her nap. I scooped her up and hugged her so tight she began to protest. My husband heard about it at work and when he came home he said "you'll never guess what happened.." and I told him I knew and we sat and held Abi and tried to make sense of it all. My dad took his own life when I was 16 and I have never been able to wrap my mind around why someone would do such a thing, hurt so many people and not try to get help. I am grateful that dad didn't take anyone else with him.. but I still don't understand why he had to go. Just like I don't understand why on earth a 20 year old man would walk into a school of beautiful, innocent children and open fire. It sickens me to the core to think we have people like this and worse among us. It makes me leery of everyone around me and my daughter. It forces me to reconsider home schooling (we had decided against it as we were afraid the lack of socialization would isolate Abi and make her for lack of a better word, weird. Not that all home schooled kids are weird...! But my husband is such a loner that I'm afraid Abi will be too, and I enjoy my friends too much to think of Abi not having any.) But I would take a socially awkward and alive kid over a social butterfly who is dead. I'm rambling, but I just don't know what else to say or how else to say that I don't get people in this world anymore. I miss my childhood and the carefree, innocence that I once had. Hopefully I will be able to allow Abi to be innocent and naive for a long long time.

Yeah well.. thanks for nothing.

Apparently my husbands work was grossly mistaken about the health insurance policy that "covers" weight loss help. They in fact do not cover any kind of weight loss help. They used to offer something but it was so minimal that it got dropped all together and just did not remove the information from their slideshow/pamphlets etc. And here I thought I was getting an extra special Christmas gift. Ugh.

New tricks

I was going to wait until her 9 month post, but I am too excited! Abi has added a few new things to her list of things she can do. She is now clapping, raising her arms when we say "up" and using the pincer grasp to feed herself puffs! Of course, she needs more practice with the pincer grasp, but she's getting there! Oh, she's also waving, but not usually at any of us, just randomly lol. I have found her trying to get up on her knees a lot more now, once I caught her rocking on her knees in her crib. Though she wasn't up on her hands, more elbows/face than anything, lol. I think we'll have a crawler by the time I return to school in January. Crazy to think my baby will be crawling! It's crazy to think she's almost 9 months old too! How time flies. It makes me sad and makes me want another baby... but not just yet. I want more time with my little angel first.

I made Abi's first Christmas ornament! I hope to make her a different one every year!

I finally found it! I have been looking in every store since October!

Little miss booty. She's been kind of hanging out like this a lot. Not on her back or tummy, just her side.. lol

"UP!" 

Abi is now eating sweet potato and peas like they are going out of style. In addition to that and avocado, acorn squash and bananas Abi has added pears and plain whole milk yogurt to her list of yummy foods. She also gets organic puffs, tho once she's better at chewing I think we'll transition to plain Cheerios. It's cheaper and I think they're good enough to give her. heh. Oh my gosh, we've got so much to look forward to in the next few weeks! I can't wait for my baby girls first Christmas and New Years (even though I know she'll be asleep by 7!) I am not looking forward to being treated like crap because my daughter has separation/stranger anxiety and is on a schedule. Long story, and I'm not sure if I've written about it before, but I'll definitely be doing a post here soon. Anyway, just a quick update on my little miss.

OH! I got two B's and an A this semester. Passed two finals with A's and got a C on my physics final, but who cares because I passed! :) Phew!

abnormally fussy

So Abi has not exactly been herself lately. This past weekend she's been only a little fussier than normal, but has taken 1 1/2 to 2 hour naps twice a day, on top of sleeping for 11-12 hours at night. I figured it was part of a growth spurt, as she doesn't seem to be sick. Today has been nothing but fussing or what I call "baby bitching"... She's not crying (most of the time) just whining. She's been rubbing her eyes since she got up, but only took a 15 minute nap about 9:30. Now she's finally back down, but I wonder for how long. She obviously needs the sleep, but she's fighting it all of a sudden and I have no idea why. I miss my relatively happy baby. :( And if the people upstairs wake her up before she's ready I'm going up there with my screaming baby and the apartment manager.

Pinterest yummies

Sweet and sour crock pot pork with home made "fried" rice. Delicious!!!

A prayer answered..?

So apparently my husband's health insurance covers weight loss help 100%. Like at a medical weight loss clinic. We just found this out today, and as soon as we get some more details I am going for it! I wish we had known about it sooner, but now maybe I can finally get help and gt the weight off for good.

Pity party

This is so sad but true, I've gained all the weight I lost after having Abi (and then some). I think I've put on 22 lbs total... which is bringing me dangerously close to my heaviest weight ever (too heavy for my small 5'3" body) And I hate the way I look. My hips are wider from giving birth, so even the pants that used to fit me when I was at my heaviest do not fit. It makes me mad at myself for doing so well while pregnant and then throwing it all away and eating like crap for the past 8 months. I have  lose weight. Not just for me but for my family. I want to be healthy inside and out, but I am lazy. Driving to Tim Horton's for breakfast is so much faster and easier than making something at home. Especially since Abi is content in her new carseat, whereas if I tried to make eggs or something at home she would want to be held/entertained (she's teething again I believe, that or she's getting sick so she's more clingy than normal) I was so "deprived" during my pregnancy of the sugary yumminess and carbs (I had gestational diabetes if you remember) that I went completely overboard. And I am having the hardest time stopping. Especially with the holidays. I don't want to be deprived of all the wonderful holiday food, and in my mind, there's no reason to start dieting now since it's all going to be undone with the Christmas celebrations. Yes that is how I think. Every week is "one more week and then I'll do better." I just can't seem to kick the regular pop and comfort foods. It's ridiculous honestly. I know I can do it, I did it when I was pregnant. I was on such a schedule and ate so well that I lost weight or maintained until my last 2 weeks of pregnancy. Even then I think I only gained like 2 lbs. Plus I was so scared that I'd hurt my precious baby by screwing up my sugar that I forced myself to behave. And I didn't have to take insulin because of it. I almost wish I was pregnant again so that I had to watch what I ate. In my mind there is no try when it comes to being pregnant... If you are told "eat this way or bad things could happen to your baby" it's a heck of an incentive to eat right. Whereas hearing "eat this way or bad things could happen to you" is, to me at least, less of an incentive because I am making up my own mind to take the risks. Babies should not be punished for the sins of their parents, and so I ate what I was supposed to and exercised for my unborn daughter. Now.... I don't have time to exercise, or so I tell myself. I'd rather spend the time playing with Abi. Or reading. Or on Facebook or playing a game on my tablet. It's all so convenient to say "tomorrow will be better, I will eat better." That tomorrow never comes, so now I am stuck looking at my closet full of over sized sweatshirts and nothing that fits to wear for Christmas. It's an awful feeling. I look at myself in the mirror and sometimes what I see disgusts me. I have never felt that way before. I do not feel as heavy as I look. I used to be 134lbs in high school. Not super skinny, but I wore a size 7/8 sometimes 10. I'd give almost anything to get back there again. But I have to put in the work and trouble is... the laziness. I have never wanted something so badly but not wanted to put in the work for it. My hubby says I must not want to lose weight since I don't try very hard. I don't know ... I wish it were easy, it was easy for him. He went from 290 to 230 over the past couple years (he's 6'6" so 230 looks awesome on him) He cut out meat and pop for a year or so, and worked out on an elliptical a few times a week. Really that's it. He's maintaining because he does a lot of walking at work so he works off just about everything he eats. High metabolisms make me sick, lol. I had my thyroid scanned the other day, it looks normal. I know looks and function are very separate  but at the current time I don't have a reason to have a nuclear med test done to check out if it's working right or not. That could explain why it's been so hard for me to lose weight all my life. But probably not. I'm addicted to carbs and sweets and all the stuff I shouldn't have. That's what it is, I'm sure. I lost my biggest amount of weight between 7th grade and freshman year. In that time I basically starved myself, I drank slimfast 2x a day and ate salads for dinner if my family forced me to eat something. I walked on a treadmill while listening to music and singing, it was fun. But I don't remember being hungry... I've tried that since then (minus the hours on a treadmill, I haven't had time for that, but I have exercised) and I am starving all day. I don't get it. Not to mention my sugar levels go all wacky and I get light headed. Not good. :Sigh: At some point I will have to lose weight. I will get so fed up that I will make an honest effort. I hope it doesn't happen too late. I want to eat healthy for my daughter, to show her how. Problem is, I'm not quite sure how to eat healthy and still be satisfied. Oh I can eat a bucket of carrots and be "full"... just not satisfied. Maybe once I'm out of school and working I'll look into a dietitian. That's an awful long way away though....

P.S. I'm transitioning my background/blog style... trying to find the right combo and make it festive. Bear with me.. lol

Happy Birthday to me and other photos

So I just turned 25 + 4... EEK! LOL Here are a few pics of my life since then :)

Me and my lil miss at lunch on my birthday!

And of course she smiled for hubby's pic!

Our Elf on the Shelf, Hollie-Dae Joy!

Abi's new carseat, this one is a monster, but looks so comfy!

My haul from our local kids resale shop! The two things I'm most excited for are the light pink sweater and the pink coat with colored buttons! So soft and so cute!

Finally got our tree up!

Had to take a pic sans flash :)

So there you have the last week or so in pictures. Happy December!

Dadadada

Abi has been "talking" so much lately! She's been saying "dadada" and it's just the cutest thing! Of course we know she hasn't made the connection between what she's saying and her daddy yet, but she'll get there soon enough.

Another tooth?

Yes, tooth number two is poking through! I knew another one was coming with all the drool. lol!

Say what??

Abi put herself to sleep tonight. Yeah my jaw hit the floor too. Normally for bedtime we go in, read 2 books, turn off all the lights and turn up the white noise. Then she gets a bottle and I rock her to sleep. Well, tonight she was still wide awake after her bottle. So I put her in her crib and left to make 2 more oz (since she's been eating a TON lately I figured maybe she was still hungry and that was keeping her up..) well I was waiting for her to start to "rev" up a little but she was really just talking to herself and such for about 15-20 minutes. Then silence. I'm in shock. My baby does not put herself to sleep. Not like this anyway. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad and I hope it's not just a fluke. But I'm kind of sad too. My baby is growing up.

8 months

My baby is 8 months old today! Here's a rundown of what lil miss has been up to:
Sleep: Sleeping pretty much 12 hours from 7pm-6:30/7am. Unless she's sick then it's a guessing game. She's also going through a growth spurt and last night was the first night in a week that she didn't get up at 10:30pm to down a 5 oz bottle!
Eats: Drinking roughly 4-5oz at a time, every 2 hours or so. With this growth spurt however, she's been taking about 14oz in the first 3 or 4 hours of being awake for the day. That's over half of what she used to drink daily! Yesterday we let Abi chew/suck on some dark meat turkey! We put it in one of those nifty little mesh feeders and let her go to town. She LOVED it! Other than that, with her being sick a few weeks ago we are all out of whack with her solids schedule. We have finally gone back to peas and will probably either pick up bananas (remember she only tried them once back when she was sick) or try carrots again. Not sure which to be honest.
Play: She's a rolling machine these days! Abi also did try to scoot a little the other day, but I think that it will still be a while before she's actively scooting. She still loves to suck and chew anything she can get into her mouth. Now that she can sit up better, she's enjoying reaching for things and can even straighten her self back into a sitting position (as opposed to toppling over like before, lol) Abi love anything shiny and noisy (like mommy) and is totally captivated by an empty water bottle filled with Christmas ribbon that she can easily hold and chew. It makes a crinkle sound and she just loves the thing!
Other:We don't know how long she is but she was weighted last week and is 17lbs 11oz! Holy mole! She's got to be at least 29 inches because her feet are starting to dangle over the edge of her infant carseat. So today I scoured the deals online and found her a really nice looking convertible carseat with great reviews. I am so excited to get it, but at the same time I'm sad to see the infant carrier go. Especially since we just got a carseat canopy for it! LOL She's growing so fast I just can't believe it. Not two weeks ago she was fitting into her carseat just fine, then BOOM! Super length. Ha!

Abi's tree!

I can't wait to see what's in store for us this month with Abi's growth and new found abilities! I also can't wait to see what else she's going to start doing. Christmas is going to be so amazing this year!

Speaking of Christmas, I spoke with hubby about his "bah humbug" attitude and asked him to tone it down for Abi and my sake. I love the holidays and don't want them ruined for either of us. He was very understanding. Thank goodness!

Update

Abi is feeling better, she's back on her regular formula and went from constipation to poop explosions in 2 days. She's on an antibiotic (not too thrilled about that) and hopefully this darn cough will finally go away! Her tooth is poking through even more now and I think another one might be coming through soon. When she's home all day she'll take a really good nap in the late morning, but she still wont nap well at daycare. I cannot wait until Christmas break so that she gets a really good routine down (hopefully we'll have a nanny by the time I start classes again in January). Speaking of Christmas, I get to decorate this Friday! Woooohooooo! Abi will have her own tree (it's a mini tree that was once well loved by my grandma) and I bought some pink/purple garland and pink mini bulbs to add to the other ornaments we have for it. Just something to make it her own... and of course it's got to be pink! lol I'll post pics once it's up and decorated. It's going in her room but we won't be leaving it lit all night. Abi sleeps with very minimal light because otherwise she'd be up all night staring at it. My child is peculiar sometimes, lol.

What a week(end)

So this past week has been pretty bad. Abi was sick, and I mean icky sick. She was super mucousy and was coughing a lot.. then she lost her appetite and finally every night from last Thursday till Sunday she threw up. Only at night, and only in one session. Mostly mucus, but also some of her solids from that day too. We had still been on peas, but switched to bananas on Sunday.. not good. She hasn't thrown up since Sunday, but is still not eating well. She's constipated because the Dr. has me giving her a soy formula instead of her regular stuff. The reason for this is Abi had some suspicious poops (thought there might be blood in them, so she thought there might be an infection) and the soy is supposedly easier to digest. I'm beginning to wonder if this Dr. is nuts because I thought easily digestible foods didn't constipate you. Grr. So Abi still isn't eating and of course is slightly dehydrated from not drinking enough, which just makes the constipation worse! She's acting like she's feeling better tho, which is good. But I know her tummy has to be bothering her. I've tried giving her a little white grape juice with water, but she hates it and only drinks a few sips. The Dr.'s office said to try pedalyte but I want to get rid of the darn white grape juice first, lol. (we bought organic, with the least amount of ingredients we could find, don't want it to go to waste!) Hopefully we can take her off of the soy formula tomorrow and get everything back to normal again!

First tooth!

It popped through either last night or this morning, I had no idea she was teething! I mean I've been told that "oh she must be teething" for months! Her Dr said there weren't any signs of teeth coming in soon, that was 2 Weeks ago... So I didn't think anything of it. She's just been a little more drooly lately, not more fussy, no fever... No diaper rash our not more than normal.... Its such a surprise! Lol pics once I actually get one to post!

Tiz The Season

Halloween is officially over. Which means pretty soon we will be inundated with Christmas music, decorations and products at all our favorite stores. I love this time of year, and I am even more excited for this year because it will be Abi's first holiday season. That being said, my husband is being a total grinch for some reason. He's never been one for holidays, but this year is pretty bad. He's excited (or says he is) that we get to celebrate Abi's first holidays, but every time I say anything to the effect of "Oh, look at the pretty lights" or wrapping paper or anything holiday related he goes "bleh" or "blah" or something similar. REALLY?!?!? I'm all about if you don't have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut. And he used to be too. But this is getting pretty sad. Hubby doesn't like people. Well, I don't generally like the "public" but that's because I worked customer service for many years. Anyway, he doesn't like getting together with family for the holidays (or any other time really)... My mom's side of the family is messed up, bad. And hubby doesn't want to have anything to do with them. At all. Which puts me in the middle. So I'll be going to that side's Christmas party with Abi and not hubby. Which will prompt the questions "where's your husband?" all night. Lovely. But I can handle that if it makes him happy. Then my dad's side of the family, whom my husband actually likes, will want to do something and he said he wasn't even looking forward to that. Why? Because it involves people outside of our little family unit, talking small talk and I guess keeping him away from his "free time". Yes friends, my husband has free time. When do I get a break? The 20 minute naps Abi has reverted to. Once or twice a day. No longer are we taking lovely long hour naps. Ugh. Ahhh, anyway I'm not getting into what else is going on right now... but I just feel like crap lately and part if it is my husbands poor attitude. And it's not just the holidays it's everything. He's not terribly helpful with Abi, and gets frustrated when asked to help. I don't know what's going on but I feel like some days he's not the man I married. Which makes me wonder if he was putting on a front until now. .. I don't know. Maybe it's just pms, maybe I'm over thinking things. I hope that's all there is to it.

Happy Halloween!

My little teddy bear!

We're on the move!

For the past two days Abi has been rolling EVERYWHERE! She has been able to roll both ways for a while now but up until yesterday she has hated being on her tummy. So she would roll right over when placed there and that would be the end of it. Well, now she's voluntarily rolling over, and over and over to get to things. It's amazing to watch! We cheer and clap our hands every time for positive encouragement. I'm thinking she'll be crawling by Thanksgiving. She's also trying so hard to get and keep her knees under her. No more putting the baby down and walking away!! LOL

Carrots!

So yesterday we decided to try carrots. Hubby got a nice big bag of regular sized carrots and I went to work scrubbing, peeling, slicing and baking them (yes, apparently if you bake them instead of steam they 1. steam in their own juices in the foil and 2. become even sweeter and delicious!) Once they were steamed and cooled I got out my trusty Bullet blender. Which I haven't used in two years, lol. Pureeing was a little difficult but I finally got the hang of it right around the time Abi got used to hearing the scary loud noise the Bullet makes. So we got all pureed and I set aside a portion for her lunch and froze the rest. I should have washed everything right away but was too excited to see Abi try her first carrots, so now my Bullet cup is stained orange. Yes, bright halloween orange. lol. Oh well. We set Abi up and I was so sure she would take to the carrots just like she's taken to everything else.. not so much. She ate it, but I really don't think she like it much. As it cooled (because I always try warming things up first, even tho I know she likes her food cooler) she took to it a little better. But I think I need to get more avocado for her second daily meals. That way she'll have something she really likes at least once a day.
Is it just me or does everyone not realize that carrots stain so badly? Her spoon is stained, her bib and the wash cloth are stained even tho I rinsed and washed them very shortly after lunch. I'm surprised her skin isn't stained! Oh... and the poopy. Orange. Of course.

Love

I love this little girl! She amazes me every day!

Drool.. and she's not even teething! LOL And that smile melts my heart!

Simply silly and always amazing.

And it occured to me that I never posted Abi's 7 month photos with her update. Finally a monthly shot with SMILES! :)

"Who, me?"

7 month update

Abi turned 7 months old yesterday! How time flies! She'll be one before I know it and that makes me both happy and sad. Sad because I don't want my baby to grow up so fast, but happy because she'll be doing more and playing more and I'm sure she will be oh so much more fun! Every day is a challenge that I gratefully accept. I am painfully aware lately (especially since it is pregnancy loss awareness/remembrance month) of those less fortunate than we are.. who have lost babies, some before ever meeting them and what I would consider worse.. losing a baby after getting to hold them. Anyway, before I start to cry... This is what Abi has been up to!

Sleep: Sleeping is mostly through the night, unless she is sick and coughs herself awake. She sleeps mostly form 7p to 7a, however, the past few days she's been getting up at 5 or 5:30a and it drives me insane! lol. The two days prior to that she got up at 1a and the next day at 2:30a to eat, but was good about going back to sleep. Thankfully she's been self soothing at night so I really don't have to go in too often. Nap time is another story altogether. She is terribly inconsistent with naps, especially at daycare.

Eats: we're back to six 4oz bottles a day, for about the past 3 weeks she's been eating every hour to hour and a half, 4oz the first bottle then 2oz then back to 4oz.. she was up to 30 or so oz a day, which is unusual for her. I'm thinking major growth spurt! I have tried giving her 6oz bottles and she'll only take 4oz so I just follow her lead to avoid wasting anything. She is also on solids once a day (which we will be increasing soon!) Here are the things she's tried so far; avocado, sweet potato and acorn squash! She loves the avocado and sweet potato plain, but only likes the squash so-so... but with cinnamon? She'll tear it up! LOL We are two weeks behind in introducing new foods because at 6 months she was sick so we waited an extra week, then I made a ton of avocado and froze it, only to find out that our freezer zip-lock type bags are not the greatest for long term. So we spent another week on avocado to use it all up. We're not sure what's next, I'm thinking carrots or another type of squash. We got the squash at a local farm for 75 cents! Can't beat the freshness or the price!

Play: Abi loves to jump in her jumper, but is in between sizes. So her feet are flat on the floor at the 1st level, but when we raise it to the 2nd level she's barely tip-toe touching. Ah well... she'll grow into it fast enough! She also loves to chew on everything she can get her hands on! We have a small canvas box in her pack and play to hold all her toys/diapers/creams etc and she loves to roll over to it and dump it out (then chew on a corner, lol) I'm so proud of her because sometimes it's pretty heavy (like when I forget to remove the cream so she doesn't try to play with that.) Abi still hates tummy time, but is getting a little better if we distract her. She's starting to sit up unassisted, but only for a little while and I have to be behind her to catch her. But she's getting there! She also loves to hold the books we read to her, and tries to gum them as well!

Other: Abi has been going through some serious separation anxiety. She won't let me get two feet from her at daycare before she starts crying. It makes me feel like the scum of the earth to leave her there.. but I'm going to school for her, to make a better living for our family so that we can give her the best we can afford. We are looking for a nanny though. Abi just isn't jiving with the daycare scene.

We went to Abi's first pumpkin patch a few weekends ago!

Abi picked out her own pumpkin! 

I can't wait to have a house so we can get one of the BIG pumpkins for Abi to carve. I had one once and I loved it!

Here's one of my favorite shots from Abi's 6 month photo shoot. She's so inquisitive!

And my little girl on her tummy and actually smiling!

That's all I can think of for now, I will probably write again later once I think of more! Also, Pinspiration Sunday will be back again probably at the middle of December. I just haven't had the time to find anything to make or the time to make it!

How do you have time?

I am so confused as to how mothers have time to do anything. On the rare occasion that Abi sleeps longer than 20 minutes during a nap it feels like a holiday. This past week I've been off from school and amazingly she's taken at least an hour nap in the late morning every day. But what do I do during those precious naps? Wash bottles or just veg. I don't want to do any studying even tho I've got a mid term today, a test Monday and a quiz Tuesday. I'm totally spent because in addition to Abi being sick, she's also been increasingly clingy and I believe the seperation anxiety has finally struck big time. I can't leave the room for more than a minute without her spazing. Even when we are in the same room, she'll only entertain herself for a little while before freaking out. Its crazy. I wonder if she's like this all day at daycare... that scares me. I don't want my poor baby crying like that all day. I actually haven't heard her cry like that at home in sooooo long.. and now she's doing it daily. Often. It makes me feel so bad for her and myself, and after a week of it I'm so ready for a break from her... and that makes me feel like the worst mother ever.
This weekend Abi would wake herself up coughing. I mean really coughing hard core. But she was just at the dr and had been fine. A little reddness in her ears, phlemy lungs but no cough. Well it came back with a vengence and she got very little sleep because of it. Hubby and I took turns trying to comfort her, and I got very little homework done due to crying along with my sick baby. (Pms is a biotch add that to feeling realllly bad for my poor baby and its a recipe for nothing but tears) and this is to be continued because little miss is up early from her nap......

Picking up from earlier... I feel awful for leaving my baby at daycare and actually feeling a little relieved. I needed to finish a paper (that was due a week ago!) and print it out and I still need to finish studying for my midterm (procrastinating? who me?) But it's kind of nice to just relax for a minute and not be anticipating the next scream. I hate hate hate that I feel that way. I love my baby. I know and keep reminding myself that she's only this little for such a short time. But even hubby mentioned yesterday that he kind of can't wait till this phase is over. This from the man who had just worked two 12 hour shifts, who didn't even see Abi awake yesterday. Needless to say I gave him a dirty look. He drives me batty sometimes with the things he says. I love my husband. I really really do. He's the most wonderful man I have ever met. That being said, he's also the sole provider for our family right now while I finish school and take care of Abi. And he works hard. I know this. But for him to say anything about how difficult Abi is being lately, when he's not even home with her 90% of the day? That irks me. He is home for her most difficult period, the few hours before bedtime when she's just tired and done with the day. But he gets to see her happy morning self on the weekends. So he know's she's not always crabby (except for lately.) I don't know....

I just don't understand how any new(ish) mom has time to do anything for themselves. Especially stay at home moms. I did it for 5 months and it was great, for the most part. But now that Abi is older and going through whatever phase it is she's going through, I find myself just wanting to go back to sleep. How awful is that!?! Of course when she naps, it's for such a short time that I cannot unwind enough to sleep with her. Then there's the screaming. Oh yes, the screaming is back. And it's not just when she's upset, she screams in delight too. Which is funny, and ear piercing. Ouch. She's also back to doing the back bending when she's upset or hungry or tired or gassy or anything not happy. Which drives hubby nuts. Which prompts me to remind him that she's just a baby and doesn't know any better yet. But it drives me nuts too. I used to have very little patience.. I still don't think I have much patience to be honest. But I'm wondering if I have more than hubby when it comes to Abi. I found this quote on Pinterest, it goes something like "having a child is knowing what it's like to have your heart go walking around outside your body" And I do truly feel that way. She is my whole world right now. She is my heart. But I guess that a little distance from her isn't a bad thing... Every mom needs a break, right? I mean... I'm not superwoman. Although I'd love to be supermom someday....

Sweet potato!

So today Abi tried sweet potato. At first it went just about the same way avocado did.. many faces, but no real pushing the food out. She ate more than I expected her to and by the end at least she didn't seem to hate it! I hope she ends up loving it as much as she loves avocado. She practically lunges at the spoon now! LOL I love my little punkin. :)

My own menu board

So I got this idea from pinterest, to make a menu board so that we don't have the runaround conversation every night.. "What do you want for dinner?" "I don't know, what do you want?" "I asked you first.." etc. The link to the original is menu board. Of course, I wouldn't be me without making some changes to the things I find on Pinterest. So I tweaked it a little to suit our needs. It's not quite done yet, I still need to print out the recipe cards with ingredients so that we don't have to go back and forth to find what we need. Here are a few pics of my creation. (P.S. this took about 5 weeks to actually finish. I got the frame ages ago with the intent to do this project, but then school started and Abi stopped napping well.. and well.. yeah. lol)

We will write the days dinner selection with dry erase marker over the glass. 

All in all, I'm really happy with how it turned out. :)

Avocado yummies!

Today we started little miss on her first solids! Avocado! Delicious, nutritious and soooooo easy to prepare! Yesterday while we were out buying snacks for an impromptu date night, I found an avocado (finally!) that I didn't stick my thumb through. We decided that Abi is well enough to try her first solids even though she's not completely over her cold. So about a half hour after her first bottle (she's a much happier baby in the morning so we decided to start in the mornings...) hubby mashed up half of the avocado really well, and I thinned it out with just a smidge of water. We set lil miss up in her high chair and away we went! :) She actually took to it very well despite all the faces. I do believe she got more in her tummy than on her face!  I was astounded how well she did since it was her first time. To me, this just solidifies the fact that she is ready for this step. She didn't eat much, in fact we only put about a table spoon in her dish and she maybe ate a fourth of it, but I wasn't expecting her to devour the whole thing the first time! Hubby took pictures and caught some adorable faces. I don't think Abi knew whether she liked it or not, half the time she'd turn her nose up at the spoon and the other half she'd just open her mouth.. then make a face. lol. I think she'll be like her parents and end up loving avocado... someday. :)

Before I go insane...

I have a confession to make. While I have made it to 6 months of giving Abi as much breast milk as I can, I am tired of pumping. I am tired of feeling like a milking cow who's past her prime. I have been tired of latcing and unlatching and trying to get my super distractable baby to pay attention and eat from my right side which has an incredibly slow let down. Lets face it, I was so tired of that that I stopped trying to breast feed and switched to pumping around the time I started sleep training (almost 2 months ago now...) I feel like a failure still. But I didn't give up entirely. So Abi has gotten more breast milk than she would have had I given up months ago. And that is my husbands argument. I want to quit pumping altogether now. I'm already down to two times a day, once at lunch time before playing with Abi at daycare between classes and once at night while trying to study once Abi has gone to bed. To top it off, the time I take to pump at school I could be in the lab practicing my scanning. My school work has always taken a backseat to pumping. Because it had to. But now that it's been 6 months.. and I absolutely have to be able to scan the anatomy correctly to pass my classes and move on.. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I would be in the lab right now if there weren't other students in there desperately trying to practice before their first practical today at noon. Mine is on Thursday (wish me luck! I think I can pass....) But today is my first day after making the decision to cut down to a once a day pumping session, at night after Abi is in bed. Hubby and I had a very long conversation about it last night and I think I'm going to continue to let go slowly. I don't know how well my 4oz combined supply will last with a once a day... When I started this 2x a day pumping it was 5-6 oz each time. So we'll see how long it takes for my supply to adjust to once a day. Hubby says if we can give her a bottle of breast milk every other day at this point, that's what we'll do. Abi will be starting solids as soon as she's over this cold (hopefully before the next one starts!) So we want to be able to thin her first solids with breast milk.. and if that's all we can do with what I pump, so be it. At this point I don't know when I'm going to quit all together. I remember saying that "as long as I pump something, I'll pump and give it to Abi." But now... I feel so selfish, but there are other reasons along with my wanting to quit and have my breasts back. (Not to mention they hurt, my nipples are still purple and cracked even with lanolin.. sorry if that's TMI!) We are planning on buying organic produce and meats (everything in the "dirty dozen" and whatever else we can afford) to help give Abi the best possible foods. I told my husband since I was not able to exclusively breast feed, that we must give Abi organics whenever possible. There's no way around it. We are planning on making our own baby food, which looks like so much fun! I just hope I have enough time when I'm home alone. I've already got a few supplies so that I can freeze a few batches at a time and hopefully that will make things easier. I just hate that I want to quit pumping so badly. I still cry over not being able to feed my baby the way I had originally intended. The way I'm supposed to be able to feed her. Which brings me to another confession; we are thinking we may not have more kids. There are a lot of reasons for this but a major one is the breast feeding issues. I beat myself up so much over it with Abi and I am afraid I'll have the same issues with our next baby. If that's the case, I don't know how I'll handle it. It's been such a rough road, emotionally more than physically, but I just don't know if I could do it again. Then again I think "wow, I'll never be pregnant again.." and that makes me want to rethink it. So we are still in the deciding process. We are young yet, so we have plenty of time to decide. I know that if we do have more kids, I am spending every moment I have free with a lactation consultant. I may hire a dula. I don't know. So that's my bit of crazy for today. :)

Happy 6 month birthday Abigail!!

Today marks 6 months from the first day we met our little angel. It has sure been one heck of a ride! I fall more and more in love with my little girl every day, she's just such an amazing addition to our family. So here's the rundown on what miss Abi has been up to:

She's sick.... again. I'll be calling her dr Monday since she really didn't have a break between colds. No fever, no croup cough but a miserable baby with a stuffy nose and cough mostly when she's trying to sleep is not good.
Abi has rolling from tummy to back down really well! So well in fact that she rarely stays on her tummy at all when I put her there. I believe she will walk before she crawls! lol
She still puts everything in her mouth, and is very content to chew or suck on her fingers and toes. She has been sucking on her toes through her socks and recently has started pulling them off and chewing on them. I still don't see any signs of teeth yet, though the drool is getting worse.
Abi has taken a two hour nap every day this weekend (she's going on an hour today... fingers crossed) I'm hoping this trend continues after she's no longer sick. A two or two and a half hour nap midday is soooo much better than 4 or 5 twenty minute naps!
I don't officially know how much Abi weighs or how long she is. I wont know until her 6 month apt in about 2 weeks. But i weighed her here and I'm certain she's over 15.5 lbs. My best guess on her height is 27 inches. She's pretty long tho!
It looks like Abi has finally taken to her carseat. She no longer screams in the car at red lights, and if we drive for longer than 20 minutes, most days she'll fall asleep.
She's not yet sitting up on her own, although she has great head and neck control. She will sit up very well when someone is holding her. We were going to start solids today to celebrate her 6 month birthday but since she is sick we've decided to wait.
Hmmm what else... oh Abi is a groaner. Instead of the consonant sounds she makes groaning or grunting sounds. This evolved from a moaning sound (think zombie or mummy.. aaahhhhhh brains...) now it's more of an "oooohhh oooohhhh.. uuuhhhhh" It's hard to explain. I hope she starts picking up on the consonant sounds soon...  I think that's it for now. I'll post some pics later!

:side note: I have reached my goal of giving Abi as much breast milk as I can for 6 months! Originally it was to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months, but that went out the window a while back. I didn't give up, through all the difficulties and rough spots... even though I really wanted to quit sometimes, and am currently exclusively pumping, I am still giving her everything I can. It's not enough, but it's better than nothing.

When it rains...

I think I've got a post from a while back with a similar title.. but boy oh boy is it true that when it rains it pours! We've been having trouble with our washer for a while and it finally started making some noises we couldn't ignore, so our clothes have been piling up because it's taking forever for the appliance maintenance guy to get here (we live in an apartment). Then last night Abi had a horrible nights sleep, she woke every hour from 7-2:30 then woke again at 6 and again at 7:20. She wasn't screaming but she didn't do her regular "talk to herself and fall back to sleep" either. She wouldn't go down without a fight and/or a bottle. Which is so weird because for the past 2 weeks I haven't had to feed her in the middle of the night. So of course since today is my husbands 16 hour work day I took the entire night shift. Needless to say I'm a little sleep deprived and coffee isn't helping. Then at 5:45 when my hubby was leaving for work, his car wouldn't start. He had to come in, wake me up to tell me he was taking my car to work and that he needed me to call for repairs on his car. Mind you he just got new breaks and we are less than a year out from major repairs on both of our cars. So he takes my car, leaves me the stroller but not the carseat base (which I would need if I had an emergency and had to borrow a car...) but an emergency with Abi will just mean a 911 call. Anyway... the tow truck guy said he thinks the ignition switch is broke. Great. At least our insurance covers the tow. So then as the tow truck guy is loading the car onto his truck the appliance repair guy shows up... in the middle of me trying to put Abi down for her first nap. Which she needs desperately. So of course he's turning the washer and dryer (combo unit) on and off to try to figure out where the noise is coming from, which is keeping Abi from sleeping. Turns out it's something stupid that we could have fixed ourselves (some cap was loose. Go figure, lol.) He did find $20 in the bottom of the washer when he unscrewed the front. Total bonus! By the time he leaves Abi is too wound up to nap, but is so crabby from not sleeping well that I can't do much with her. She doesn't want to play or read or be on the floor or be held. So less than an hour after her first bottle I decided to try to give her a few more oz to see if that will help her fall asleep and it worked! Thank goodness. She has woken up twice from her nap but I've been able to put her back to sleep with some patting and shush-ing. I know it doesn't seem like such a terrible day, but for all this to happen so early after a sleepless night? And for it to be my husbands long day.. he won't get home until midnight. On the bright side at least I didn't have school today. That would have been awful. Hopefully we will get his car back tonight so he can go to work and I can go to school tomorrow. I have a very important test tomorrow, but if I had to choose hubby missing out on a day of money making (especially since today gives him over time) or me missing my test... I'd have to miss my test. And I don't think they allow us to test after the fact unless we are in the hospital. Ugh.

Okay focus on the positives of today so far... We are $20 richer! lol and Abi is currently going on about 45 minuets of sleeping (with a few wakeful minutes in between.) I still had creamer for my coffee this morning, always a plus. The weather is beautiful right now, nice and chilly so we don't to have on the air or the heat!

And for more positives.. here are a few pics of my little sweetie!

While I have a moment...

Oh my gosh, I feel awful for not truly writing for so long! However, I have been super busy with school and Abi has been sick and it's just been a crazy few weeks. Here's what I've been doing:
School is much harder than I ever thought it would be. Sonography (ultrasound) is very interesting, however, physics is VERY hard! And my teacher is the type who thinks everyone gets it the first time around and that she doesn't need to explain things differently. Not the way I learn at all. I have to read, see, explain, do, write.. basically all my senses have to be engaged for me to get a topic. That's not so easy with ideas that you have to build upon. I am a linear thinker I guess you could say.. I'm great with anatomy, because that doesn't change. It basically always is what it is. Unless you have an anomaly like me (two of my arteries come off of my aorta in the same spot, highly unusual from what I understand) anyway... it's hard. We have a test on Monday and I'm mildly freaked out. Mainly because my teacher doesn't give us what we need to know, she says instead "know chapters 1-4." She gave us a study guide but added that it was not all inclusive. YIKES! lol Okay enough about that.

Abi got sick a few days before hubby's grandparents came into town. It started off as a super stuffed up nose and she must have been achy because you could just look at her and tell she didn't feel well. I let her nap on me a few times that weekend (weekend of 9/1) because I just couldn't put my poor sick baby down. She had good moments and bad moments for a few days, and then the cough started. It seems she's like me when she gets sick. It starts as a head cold and then moves into a chest cold. Poor baby. So while she started to be able to breathe better, she was coughing a lot and it kept her from sleeping for a while. Eventually she could have a coughing fit and go right back to sleep, but again you could just tell she wasn't feeling well. She has had nights of awesome 7p-7a sleep, and then after a few nights of that she'll wake up every hour from 7p-12a and then every 2-3 hours after that. It hasn't been the "oh I'm awake, guess I'll talk to myself for a bit" kind of waking.. no it's the "scream till I'm picked up" kind of waking. That had gone on until just recently. Her cough is finally starting to break up (it's a little phlemy but sounding better) and she seems to be back into her sleeping 7-7... it's a wonder week this week though, so we'll see if that lasts. I'm hoping she's through the worst of it and we will be able to finally move on. Poor kid always seems to go through some sort of cold along with a growth spurt during a wonder week! (*If you have never heard of a wonder week, you can check it out here thewonderweeks) She also doesn't nap very well these days and has been waking up the moment anyone sets her down. While she is sleeping through the night, she still needs her naps and since she's not getting them, she's a little cranky! It's the worst at daycare because they can't spend the time I can to get her down and stay down for a while. I get her used to going down again by Sunday and it's all out the window come Monday because of daycare. I hate daycare. But that's for another post. Well, looks like my 20 minute window has ended and little miss is up from her nap. I hope I haven't rambled on incoherently! :)

Randomness

We have not done Pinspiration night for 2 weeks. I miss it.
I have been super busy with school, and I have 3 tests next week. Goodbye weekend. Hello studying my butt off.

Pinspiration Sunday~Abi mini update

This past Sunday we made a fun pineapple Hawaiian ish chicken with garlic ranch mashed potatoes. Here is the link to the recipe pineapple chicken. It's from a gal who has dealt with overeating and weight gain a large part of her life and she is now committed to healthier eating and maintaining a healthy weight. I love her blogsite! The only thing I'm not currently able to get on board with is her teeny tiny portions! LOL So, here are my changes to her recipe... We used a whole can of pineapple tidbits, not just 1 cup of pineapple juice. Then, since we don't have a grill (apartment living sucks!) we poured the whole concoction in a glass baking dish and threw it in the oven for 30 min. Worked nicely, except of course we missed out on the yummy caramalization you get from grilling. But once we get a house and a grill we will be trying this again. It's simple and yummy for sure and these days I'm all about simple.

yummy!

On to the mashed potatoes.. we are not a mash em' and mix em' kind of family. So we use the boxed potato flakes. No, not the best mashed potatoes in the world, but they fall into the simple category which makes me happy. We also like to punch them up with garlic powder/salt and sour cream. Well, since our discovery of Greek yogurt as an excellent sour cream substitute we've been using that instead. This time however, we added a packet of Hidden Valley ranch to the Greek yogurt.. um if you've never tried that, you should! It is sooooooo much better than ranch salad dressing/veggie dip and so much better for you! Well, anyway I made up the mashed potatoes, added some garlic salt/powder and a few big globs of ranch Greek yogurt, mixed it all together and wallah! Super delicious mashed potatoes!

Hubby says this is his absolute favorite mashed potato concoction so far! lol

This week was super simple, yummy and took barely any time at all. I love it when things can be thrown together and come out so delicious! On a side note I am not sure we will be having "Pinspiration Sunday" this week as hubby's grandparents are coming into town for the long weekend. While normally I would cook for any visitors, hubby's grandparents refuse to let us "dote" on them and usually treat us to dinner out. I am really excited for this visit because it will be the first time they get to meet Abi! Thankfully they are getting to meet her in her first year.. we were unsure they were going to make it as hubby's grandma has been in ill health. But I guess while she isn't getting better she isn't getting worse (thank goodness!) so they are driving the 18 hours to come see us!

Okay on to an Abi update:

Little miss has been doing much better in daycare this week, she's been taking naps (2-3) for about 35 minutes each! Unfortunately she wasn't eating very well while there and made up for it at night. She's been waking every 2-4 hours to eat. It's driving me crazy! But I guess that's why she's taking a long nap right now.. we're going on an hour! I love it! Anyway, yesterday when I stopped in to see Abi between classes she was napping.. and I couldn't stay too long because I had just spent time pumping and needed to leave so that I could find a parking spot near my next class. Ugh! I missed her soooooooooooooo much! When I finally got out of my last class and rushed over to pick her up I cuddled, hugged and smooched her for like 20 minutes before putting her in her car seat to go home! I hate missing her so much, but this time away is good for us.. I guess. We have her 5 month shots on Friday, so I will be able to at least update on her weight then. They don't measure her fully on the "off" months when we just go in for a nurses visit for shots so I won't know how long she is until next month. I think she's at least 27 inches though, mainly because she's slowly growing out of her 6 month pants! Which is crazy to me because she just turned 5 months. Thankfully her 6 month onsies still fit really well! There are quite a few really cute ones that I'm not ready to put away yet! lol

Alrighty, that's it for now.. I believe just heard lil miss awakening from her slumber. :)

Chugging along

I am happy to report that I have completed 8 meals from my Pinterest board! I have also made banana s'mores but I did not take pictures or blog about them, so I'm not sure I can count it toward my 35 desserts.. Also I have made a banana tortilla roll up for breakfast (tons of times!) which is on my Pinterest too.. but again no picture, no blog, no credit. LOL It's not like it was a hard recipe to follow! There are two recipes that I have blogged about that I'm not counting because my hubby made them while I just played with Abi, lol. Speaking of, little miss is now 22 weeks old, just over 5 months and has been rolling over front to back and back to front. Not consistently however, today she did it like 5 times in 10 minutes! She "talks" to her toys/burp clothes/blankets now, it is soooo cute! Unfortunately she is in daycare 3 times a week now that I'm back in school. I hate it. It's completely messed up her schedule and now she won't nap for me like she used to even though she's soooooooo tired. It is particularly difficult when we get home she want's to go to bed at 5:30 because she didn't nap all day! I let her nap but I wont let her sleep all night because then she'll get up at 4am! NOT GOOD when I have to be up at 6. Last night was awful even though she didn't spend the day in daycare. She was up every hour from 7 until 10:30, then every two hours until we got up for the day at 7:20am. Thankfully I enlisted hubby's help or I would have gone crazy. We don't even know what was wrong, she would just wake up screaming and we'd go in, pat her or pick her up and she'd be out in a few minutes. I did feed her every 4 hours because I didn't want her to get more upset about being hungry. Plus who wouldn't want snacks at night without the guilt? lol. But it reminded me of a month or so ago when she was getting up every 30 minutes screaming her head off (back when she was in our room in the rock and play) I can't imagine what we'll do if she decides she's no longer comfortable in her crib... yikes!
Abi sucks her fingers a lot now, and while she'll take a pacifier for a little while it's clear she prefers her fingers. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Hubby is all for it, but I'm more on the side of "you can take away a pacifier, you cannot take away fingers." Hubby thinks that us telling her to stop sucking her fingers will actually work. I'm sure it won't be that simple.
She is starting to grow out of her 6 month pjs but most of the other 6 month stuff fits fine. I don't know what it is about Carters clothing, they seem to have really inconsistent sizing. We just bought her some pants from a local resale shop in 9 months because she's quickly going to be growing out of her 6 month pants too. We don't have too many 6 month pants and she's growing so quickly that I didn't want to waste money on buying more size 6 when she will need the 9 month size soon. I cannot believe how quickly she is growing! My itty bitty little lady is getting so big and it makes me so happy and sad at the same time!
I can't believe Halloween is coming up in just a few short months! I am so excited to pick out Abi's first costume! I had talked with a few friends about it a while ago and we were going to have a Flintstones theme, one gals 2 yr old girl as Wilma, the other gals 3 yr old son as Fred, her youngest as Bam Bam and my Abi as Pebbles... but we haven't really talked about it since so I'm thinking we may do something a little more age appropriate instead. I really want her to be a pumpkin because that's one of my nicknames for her. So we'll see.
Gosh.. what else..? I can't think of anything at the moment, but if I do I'll come back and write some more! LOL

Pinspiration Sunday

So I've decided that I make too many little changes to the original recipes that I find on Pinterest. But honestly I'm okay with that as long as the majority of it is true to the original. Today's dish was creamy avocado pasta.

Yes, super delicious and with all the healthy fats from avocado and none of the bad fats from butter and cream! It was supposed to be like a fettuccine alfredo, but we only had linguine noodles (whole wheat). I also used grape tomatoes instead of the campari and we omitted the pine nuts. This is by far my favorite pasta dish! Here is the link to the recipe Creamy avocado pasta It's a must try!

Lastly here is another pinspiration. I've made a shadowbox of things that remind me of the day Abi was born. 

I think I'm going to add her name in there somewhere before I hang it. Simple and sweet!

Pinterest Sunday ~ Frito Pie

Yes friends it is time for yet another Pinterest recipe. Tonight I made frito pie. I made it pretty much according to the recipe here. There is one major exception... hubby forgot to pick up tomato sauce, so I substituted marinara spaghetti sauce instead. It worked out pretty good in the end though, we both liked it quite a bit. There was one other change, I used greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I do that with everything now, it's just so much better!

 I have decided, if I ever make this again, I will not be putting the fritos on the bottom as they just turned to mush. But all in all it was very good and quite the comfort food...

yum!

I keep forgetting to mention that we now make our own taco seasoning. I found out how here and we LOVE it. It is seriously the best and you can make it without salt! 

Miss Abi update

Okay, so since Abi is in bed for the night (yes at 7:15pm!!!) I will post a little update about what she's been up to this month. For starters, she's 19 1/2 weeks old. She's found her toes again (she had found them at 16 weeks, had them for about a week, then didn't play with them until just recently) and she's trying to eat her toes now too! Speaking of eating.. she's not only sucking on her fingers and favoring her middle and ring fingers at once, then her thumbs.. she's also trying to put every thing into her mouth. And while it's really cute, if she can't fit something into her mouth she screams at it. And gets so upset that she starts crying. Not just crying, but the red-faced, silent screaming cry that makes moms afraid that baby isn't breathing. Yeah, she's gets pretty upset. So we try not to give her things to hold too much, unless we really really need a distraction. But it's hard because that's how she learns right now, so I feel awful keeping things from her. She's also been screaming more than cooing. Which gets so annoying! Anyone else go through this? I know several of you have babies around 5 months or older, so if you went through a screaming phase did it end yet? Please tell me an end is in sight! LOL. Also, if any of you are currently going through this.. you are not alone! :)

On a brighter note, Abi has also been kind of grunting when she's playing with her toes, and it's hysterical! Much better than the screaming and almost always makes me laugh. She's also grabbing things with more purpose, instead of just flailing her arms and happening to grasp something that's in front of her. Fine tuning her motor skills! :)

Playing with her toes.. and grunting lol!

I almost wet myself when I took this pic, her eyes are priceless!

Little miss book worm :)

I've got Abi on a schedule now and for the most part it's working wonderfully. She wakes up about 7:30-8am. We play for an hour and a half, then she gets a bottle and goes down for a nap. It continues like that until bed time. At that point it's bath, books, bottle and bed. Up until today we were using a lullaby cd to signify nap time. But that only got me 20 minute naps. Well today I turned on her white noise machine that we use at bed time and she took 30 minute naps! Hey it's a small victory. I had been holding off on using the white noise machine for nap time because I didn't want her confusing nap time which is shorter with bed time which is supposed to be all night ;) But it seems to have helped. And so far tonight she's sleeping just fine. We shall see how the rest of the night goes. She sometimes wakes up to eat at night, other times she sleeps through. I never know how it's going to go. But most nights I get at least 4 hours straight. Which is much better than the up every hour that we were going through when Abi was still sleeping in our room. I miss her, but everyone's sleeping so much better now! Okay I think that's it for now. Time to pump and shower since I actually have time to do those things now!

Pinterest Sunday

While I have a moment (I actually have access to my computer!) I will post about this past Sunday's Pinterest dinner. I made spicy Dr. Pepper crock pot pulled pork. It was alright. Very spicy! If you don't like a lot of heat, use half the can of chili peppers! Anyway it was really easy, pork, 12 oz of Dr. Pepper, 1 can of chilis in adobo sauce and an onion. That's it! We felt that it didn't have enough flavor though so we put bbq sauce on top. Which gave it a sweet and spicy taste. So it ended up not bad at all!

The next day I made a salad and added the leftover pork. It was even spicier, but also very good! lol

Okay, I'll write again soon.. don't want to push my luck! But I'll leave you with this pic of Abi

SO stinkin' cute!!!!!

Mia

Sorry I've been Mia for a while... I've got Abi on a new nap schedule and she is doing wonderfully! However, our nap time routine involves my computer playing lullaby music, do I can't really get to it much during the day. I figured out that I was keeping Abi up too long and that she needed to wind down before naps. This led me to start feeding her about 30 min before she'd need to nap (every two hours!) and by the end of the feeding she is usually sleepy enough to put down. It's working so well, except she's not napping very long. She is however sleeping mostly through the night so im happy!

Growth progression

Abi is now 14lbs 11oz and 25 and 3/4 inches long! Wow! She has alllllmost doubled her birth weight! And she is soooo long! LOL We knew she would be tall. She's in the 95th% for height and 85% for weight and head circumference. Crazy to think that my little baby is getting so big. She's sitting up pretty well now and has taken to sleeping in her crib like a champ! She's also rolling onto her belly and sleeps much better that way. Which freaks me out, but we check on her often so.... yeah. Anyway here's a pic of her progression from 4,8,12 and 16 weeks.

Sunday pinterest

So we made pizza rolls from pinterest this past week. Used croissant roll dough instead of bread dough... And it didn't cook all the way through. But what did cook was very good! I'll post more later if I can I'm not at my computer!

Last Sunday and a mini update..

Ooops I dropped the ball this week! But not without reason. Abi has been going through a horrible time.. I'm not sure if it's the "4 month sleep regression" or a growth spurt or teething or a wonder week or a mental leap or what the heck it is! But it's really been hard to do anything except try to feed her, try to get her to nap and try to keep her happy. She is getting a little better, but she's still up every hour or so at night until around 3 am at which point she will stay down for a little while. It's making us crazy!!! Also she doesn't really want to eat during the day. We pretty much have to force her because if we don't she'll end up so hungry that she's screaming and at that point she won't eat much because she's so upset. She is still not napping very well, but I have on occasion gotten her down for a 2 hour nap... she just has to be laying on me! And on her 16 week birthday she found her toes, but has since lost the interest in them. Yes in one week... it's crazy. She was also looking like she would be rolling over soon as she was rolling onto her side and alllllmost over... but she's stopped doing that too.. It makes me sad and I wonder what's wrong..
The only reason I'm able to write this really quick is because hubby took Abi to the store! AH! I'm supposed to be studying... shhhhhhhh... I'm doing that too... lol ;)
So anyway, last week I made brown sugar balsamic glazed pork! It was pretty good, a little dry but the glaze was delicious! I also made greek yogurt cucumbers as an homage to my grandmothers sour cream cucumbers.. because it's not summer without them! :)

the pork in the crock pot with all that yummy glaze

greek yogurt cucumbers!

and the finished product! YUM!