I've been a bad blogger!

Bebe turned five months old and I realized that I neglected to update my blog last month!

In the last two months Bebe has learned to roll over onto her tummy, and now from her tummy onto her back. She can push her fanny up as if she is getting ready to crawl. She can scoot for short distances across the floor. She can grab her toys now and loves to have conversations with her stuffed animals. She laughs a giant, whole hearted belly laugh and is starting to become ticklish. Her silly sense of humor is developing more and more every day--something she definitely inherited from her father--and it melts my heart more and more every day.

Ron and I enjoy her silliness, how she ferociously sucks on her toes and smiles up at us. I love that she can recognize people--my mom, dad, Nanadee--and gets excited to see them. Ron has even had the pleasure of snuggling her to sleep a few nights in a row now. (Something she only did for me until lately.) It is an amazing feeling to see my husband's big hands rubbing her little back while she falls asleep on his stomach. I hope she stays small enough for us to enjoy this experience just a few months longer.

Although it was going to rain today, we managed to get to the beach before the bad weather rolled in. With my moms help we got just a few great pictures to mark Bebe's fifth month in our lives. Enjoy!

Three Months Old!!!

It's hard to believe, but my little Bebe is now three months old. It's been the most exciting month yet!

The biggset change is that I went back to work this month. I love my job, but it was still difficult leaving my daughter behind every day. Luckily we found an amazing babysitter to care for Bebe. Her new sitter, Kimberly, lives just a few minutes away from us. Kimberly has two adorable children of her own, Audrey (2 1/2) and Luke (3 1/2 mos). I am so grateful to have Kimberly and her family in our lives! Every day that I leave Aubrey with her, I know that Kimberly is giving Bebe love and attention. Bebe likes watching Kimberly's daughter run around their house, too. Bebe comes home tired and happy, which is priceless to me.

Aubrey's been a lot more active this month as well. She is very close to being able to roll over. Bebe has some serious core strength and can pull her legs to her chest and then roll from side to side. She still doesn't like doing tummy time, but we are working on that. Just a few weeks ago Aubrey discovered her toes, too. She hasn't quite brought them up to her mouth, but she does grab her feet and pull them to her chest. She does this a lot when on the changing table, so we spend a lot more time up there lately.

Bebe has also become much more vocal this month. She doesn't talk as much to me, but she chatters away to Ron whenever she gets the chance. We laugh at how serious she gets with her expressions while she is blabbering. I wish I knew what she is trying to tell us!

Bebe and I also got in our first argument just a few days ago. Bebe has begun to suck on her knuckles a lot, and I keep trying to get her to use the pacifier. I am hoping that it will be easier to break her from the pacifier than to stop her from sucking her fingers. In any case, I kept taking her fingers out of her mouth one morning and putting the pacifier in there. Bebe kept spitting out the pacifier and chewing on her knuckles again. After about five minutes of this, Bebe finally had enough. When I popped the pacifier in her mouth, Bebe spit it out and began to babble at me angrily. I was being scolded! It took everything I had not to kiss her face at that moment. I ended up arguing with her, explaining why I was pushing the pacifier on her instead of her fingers. It took another five minutes for me to win the battle. I'm in serious trouble when Bebe reaches her teen years!

Halloween was amazing this year. Ron was home so he set up the garage with lots of cool lights and lasers for the kids in the neighborhood. We didn't have a ton of trick or treaters, but we had a lot of fun. Bebe went trick or treating at her Aunt Donna and Uncle Randy's house. Aunt Donna had a Macy's bag for Bebe instead of candy--who hoooo! My mom and dad came over that evening and helped us with the garage light show, too. It was probably the most fun I have had on a Halloween, ever. Here is Bebe in her Halloween outfit. We also took Bebe to her first lunch at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor. For anyone who remembers, Farrell's was that awesome ice cream place when we were kids that was obnoxious, loud and fun. Unfortunately, Farrell's went out of business probably twenty years ago. The restaurant chain has been revamped and a new location just opened in Mission Viejo. Ron and I went on opening day. It was a lot of fun taking Bebe, and her Daddy gave her a small taste of his dessert. Something tells me our little girl is going to love ice cream!

Bebe also had her first sleep over experience this month. Ron had the flu a few weeks ago, and we rushed to get Aubrey out of the house while he had a fever. My parents kept her until Ron was healthy again. Thankfully, neither Bebe or I caught the flu. That Friday Bebe also stayed at my parents house, giving Ron and I our first night alone (other than when Ron had the flu). How did we spend our first night alone on our anniversary weekend? Sleeping. Yep, we are a wild couple!

My sweet angel is waking up, so I will leave you with a picture from her three month old photo shoot. Ron and I took her to the butterfly garden at Wagon Wheel Ranch and got some adorable pictures.

Aubrey is Two Months Old!!!

I'm two days late posting this, but I am now the proud Mommy of a big two-month old girl!

This last month has been much easier than the last. (I am jinxing myself here!) At around 6 weeks old things just got easier. It's like I woke up one morning and everything had worked itself out overnight. Aubrey is happier being set down for more than 2 minutes at a time, which makes it much easier to get some laundry done . . . or even to eat an actual meal rather than just another quick bowl of cereal. I have been lucky enough to take long, refreshing showers daily since Ron has been home. Aubrey is healthy, happy and loved. Our life as a family is good.

I had a moment early in the month where I realized that by not teaching Aubrey to tolerate being laid down while awake, she will never reach certain milestones like rolling over. Who needs to roll over if Mommy is holding you 24 hours a day? Aubrey and I discussed this, and came to an understanding. I get to put her down for short time periods during the day as long as I promised to have the dogs keep her company while I am distracted. Thankfully Josie and Trudie thought this was a good idea and they take their jobs seriously.

I keep trying to stop and soak in everything about where we are at this point. Aubrey's smell. Where each little chubby fold is on her arms and legs. How soft her hair feels. The sweet little sigh she always makes when I snuggle her close at bedtime. The feel of her laying next to me in the mornings when we fall asleep together for a few precious hours. How pink her little lips are. The sound of her almost giggle. I wish I could just bottle it all up for safe keeping.

I know now that what everyone said is right--that this time with Aubrey will fly by and she will be grown before I even realize it. For now I am going to enjoy having such a sweet, happy and adorable two month old little girl. Every day with her is a new adventure. I wake up in the mornings to the sweetest smile and most amazing laugh. I can't wait to see what this next month will bring us!

Sleeping through the night!!!

That's right, folks! Aubrey is officially sleeping through the night!

For the last four nights in a row, we have put Aubrey to bed at about 10 p.m. She doesn't wake up until 6:30 a.m.!!!! At first I thought it was a fluke, but hopefully four nights in a row isn't just a big tease.

To top it all off, Aubrey is also sleeping in her own bedroom at night. When the weather cooled off last week Ron did a bit of a happy-dance. Ron loves sleeping with the window wide open in the cold months, but couldn't do that with Aubrey sleeping in our bedroom. We decided to give it a try and put her in the crib two nights ago. She stayed asleep all night! We had a successful repeat last night, so I am thinking we made progress.

Although I am proud of my daughter for being so independent at night, I haven't slept nearly as well as she has these last few nights. The first night Aubrey slept 8 hours straight, I kept waking up wondering why Aubrey had not made a noise yet. Now that she is sleeping in her own bedroom, I find myself half awake most of the night listening to the baby monitor. When I can't hear her chattering in her sleep I end up in her bedroom checking to see if she is breathing. Luckily Aubrey is a bit of a chatterbox so I don't have to make those trips down the hallway very often.

Now excuse me while I go pout that my eight week old child is already growing up and moving out!

I Finally had my Gall-Bladder Removed!

Yes, it has been close to a year since the saga began, and yesterday it ended.

Last year Ron and I were married on 11/8/08. On 11/23/08 was had some minor stomach pains while out four-wheeling with Ron. Later that day I was riding the quad while my brother rode the dirt bike and somehow I managed to roll the quad. I was really bruised up and missing probably 85% of the skin on my back, upper arms, elbows and left thigh, but luckily no broken bones. On 11/24/08 I had a severe gall-bladder attack that landed me in the hospital until Thanksgiving.

Being in the hospital was miserable. In the emergency room they placed a nasal/gastric tube to help empty my stomach and give me some relief. It was incredibly painful! The tube sits on your sinuses and there just is no way to get comfortable with that thing in place. I became severely depressed instantly. After 3 days I was feeling good enough to demand that I be released AMA unless the Gastric Surgeon came to see me that day. (By this time I had been in the hospital 24 hours longer than I needed to be.) I was finally released that day, Thanksgiving, and came home to a Marie Callendar's Thanksgiving Feast. Hey, at least we had a family dinner. I was so disappointed though, because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I felt it had been ruined.

I was scheduled to have my gall-bladder removed at my regular hospital 12/10/08. On 12/5/08 the surgeons office called me to reschedule my surgery until my second trimester. WHAT? Ron and I had no idea, but somehow we had managed to get pregnant immediately after our wedding. Because the babies vital organs were all developing during the first trimester, surgery was not recommended at that time. After doing further research, I decided to decline surgery while pregnant due to the risks to the baby from the gas used in your abdomen during laporascopic procedures. (There was something like a 30% chance of causing miscarriage, which would be in the second trimester, which made me very uncomfortable.)

During the course of my pregnancy I stuck to a very low-fat diet to help reduce the chances of having another gall-bladder attack. Thankfully I only had two attacks, the last one being at 17 weeks. Coincidentally, when we were leaving the Urgent Care after being checked out from that last attack Ron and I were rear ended by a drunk driver. In May I was in a small boating accident on the Mississippi River while visiting Memphis. My cousin suggested wrapping me in bubble wrap at this point . . . not a bad idea.

I was horribly nervous going in for surgery yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I love my hospital (St. Joseph's in Orange) and my surgeon. While planning my surgery back in December, it never occured to me that having a baby at home would change how I felt about receiving a general anesthetic. I had a morbid reaction to my fears and spent a day labelling and making instructions for everything regarding Aubrey's care -- how to empty the diaper pails, wash her bottles, her laundry, etc.

My parents stayed with Aubrey while Ron took me in for the procedure. Things went smoothly, and we were home by dinnertime. Ron's Aunt Donna kept us company while in the hospital which was a huge help. I was glad that Ron didn't have to wait alone while I was in surgery.

I am glad I had my gall bladder removed, especially since my stupid low-fat diet became an issue once it was time to start breastfeeding. I can't wait to actually have something cheesy, like enchilladas! In the meantime, I have 4 tiny incisions on my abdomen that are right where I hold Aubrey. While feeding her this morning I received a few strong kicks against my tummy. I'm trying to let Ron catch a few minutes of extra sleep this morning, but I am definitely waking him up for her next meal.

I've decided that this is one time I will listen to my husband and try to relax. My usual idea of relaxing is, well . . . not relaxing at all. I don't sit still well. I got scolded last night for dirty spot off the front of the kitchen cupboard. Ron swears it will kill me to take an entire day off and relax, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Although I do have an afghan I started working on just sitting there calling to me . . . . It's still relaxing if I am at least sitting down, right?

We Have New Books!

Yesterday my Mom came over and brought with her three boxes of children's books. My parents had saved all of the books that Buddie and I grew up with. These books are now going to be loved again (hopefully) by my daughter.

It felt like Christmas morning as a child when I started poking through the boxes. Although my mom was a single parent for the first few years of my life, she splurged on some great book clubs for me. Every month a small box containing two new books would arrive. I had forgotten how much I loved some of these great stories!

In my opinion, the best book series was the collection by Stephen Cosgrove. He wrote Serendipty, the Muffin Muncher, Wheedle on the Needle and many more entertaining stories. My favorites are the Leo the Lop books. Leo was a bunny with particularly long lop-ears. The other bunnies made fun of Leo's useless long ears. I was obsessed with Leo when I was little. Years later, when we had a lop eared bunny, I was slightly disappointed that my parents didn't purchase a boy rabbit so we could name him Leo. (For the record, our super sweet lop was named Bessie. I forgave my parents for mistakenly purchasing another girl bunny because Bessie was truly a character.)

To anyone who is looking for good stories that just don't get old, I would recommend you check out Stephen Cosgrove's books. The stories are timeless, the artwork is beautiful, and each story has special message to children. The moral of Leo's story is "Normal is whatever you are."

And now, I'm off to read to Aubrey!

My New "Must Have" Items

In the course of my pregnancy I realized that everyone is an "expert" on pregnancy and child rearing. I received a ton of advice, both solicited and un-solicited.

After having been a mom for six whole weeks I have realized that no one really gives you enough advice.

My advice to new moms? Go for the useful things and don't buy so much of the "cute" stuff. I have tons and tons of beautiful outfits for my daughter. Everyday rompers and pajamas? I have just a few. See what I mean? I got all the pretty stuff and not so much of the useful things.

Here's my list for other moms-to-be of the useful things I just couldn't live without. From now on these are the items I will be giving my friends when they have children:

Gripe Water from Baby's Bliss
Aubrey has a really sensitive tummy, which she inherited from me. (I in turn inherited it from my mom, who got it from Nana. Thanks guys, thanks a lot.) We spent a 24 hour period dealing with a crying, painful baby when Aubrey became suddenly incredibly gassy. Ron discovered Gripe Water and it saved the day! We give it to Aubrey usually twice a day and it almost instantly relieves her.




Soy Baby Formula
No one, and I mean no one, told me that most babies are lactose intolerant. This made no sense to me initially. However, I am finding out that this is not an uncommon problem. Lucky for me Aubrey is lactose intolerant. While I was still breast feeding she became very fussy, almost inconsolable. After her pediatricians recommendation we finally tried a soy baby formula and within just a few hours we had our happy baby back. My advice to anyone expecting? Save yourself some stress and keep a can of this in your cupboard. If you are breastfeeding and your baby is lactose intolerant, the symptoms will never show up at a convenient time.







Playtex Bottles
During my pregnancy almost everyone recommended the Dr. Brown's bottles to me. I took their advice and purchased a few to keep on hand. The bottles are great, but they leak a bit when you first invert them. (It bugs me.) I had a few Playtex bottles on hand as well, and found out that I love them! My mom had used the Playtex bottles with my brother years ago, and Aubrey loves the newest incarnation of their product. The nipples are much easier for her to latch onto than the Dr. Brown's bottles. Because of this, Aubrey tends to eat a full 4 ounces or more per meal from the Playtex bottles, but will usually eat only 2 to 3 ounces per meal from the Dr. Brown's.




Nipple Shields
Yes, I am recommending Nipple Shields. Thankfully I have a friend who advised me to have these on hand in case I needed them. Breast feeding is not as easy as one would think it is, and these handy little creations make getting your baby to latch correctly a breeze. Although I breastfed for just a few weeks (which is another blog for another time) these things were crucial to my success.



The Baby Book by William Sears M.D. and Martha Sears R.N.
This is now my baby bible. I had not heard of this book until Aubrey was a few weeks old. I wish I had read it while pregnant, because it would have changed the way I looked at a lot of issues. This book takes a more common sense approach to baby raising than some of the other books I have read. The best part is that the Sears' recommend a style of parenting called "Attachment Parenting." Before I had Aubrey I did not know much about Attachment Parenting, but from what little I had read I knew I did not agree with a lot of it. Hah! Within just days of bringing Aubrey home I was an Attachment Parenting Mommy without even meaning to be! By following my heart and Aubrey's cues I am able to parent my daughter in a way that is emotionally and physically fulfilling for both of us. I particularly love "Baby Wearing." I spend most of my day holding Aubrey, so why not put her in a Moby Wrap and wear her! At least while using the wrap I will be able to get more done in the day besides memorizing every small detail about my child.