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!