picture time

I realized that I hadn't put a single picture of Audrey on here since her 9 month pictures, so here's some from this last month!

Audrey's first time at the zoo!
she's such a busy little girl, always on the go, all over the house!

all I can say is "overalls!!!" SO cute! she has a hard time crawling in them, but, oh well, it's worth it!

She still loves bath time and her rubber duckies! she is fearless so we had to buy an inflatable cushion that goes all around the tub so she wouldn't bonk her head. we added something else to bath time this week: we started brushing her teeth! she seems to like it so far!

Audrey loves watching the "Baby Einstein Baby Galileo: Discovering the Sky" DVD, she doesn't sit and watch it, she crawls up to the tv and stands as close as she can.

feeding herself bananas gets quite messy but it's so amazing to watch her figure how to hold it and get it in her mouth, take a bite and then not drop it because it's so slippery...and then do it all again.
and she can't eat Cheerios fast enough, I think if we filled her tray, she'd try to fit them all in her mouth.

SUCCESS!

OH!! MY!!! GOODNESS!!!!

Audrey finally drank a full bottle from a sippy cup!! I didn’t have to remove the valve and there was no persuading or pleading (like that would work anyway)…she just did it! And I have this sippy cup to thank:

The Gerber Nuk Learner Cup

New! Soft Latex Spout. Spill Proof. Soft Easy Grip Handle.
The NUK® Learner Cup helps make the transition from breast or bottle to cup easier.
Spill proof soft spout designed to be gentle on gums, and get baby used to drinking from spout. Extra wide neck for easier filling and cleaning.
Snap on cap snaps on to protect spout.
Easy grip handles ergonomically shaped with anti-slip soft grips make it easy for baby to hold. Handles are removable for easy cleaning, and to ensure they always line up with the spout.
(Audrey’s is two shades of red with little multi-colored flowers all over it…so cute! I couldn‘t find a picture of it.)

I bought this sippy cup last weekend (I thought we would try just one more) and decided that when the next situation that came up where I needed to pump, I would feed her that pumped milk in this new cup. Well, this morning I had Bible study and she didn’t sleep a wink there. We headed home when it was over and hadn’t even been in the car a minute and she fell asleep in her car seat…so I let her keep sleeping and set her car seat in her room. I pumped and she slept for 2 hours. So when she woke up, it was 2 hours past her normal eating time, which made me wonder if the combo of her being so hungry and trying to use a new cup was a good idea. She didn’t seem to care at all! It took her a while, but she drank it all and didn’t complain or push it out of her mouth or think it was a teether. (She chewed on it for about 3 seconds after she’d been drinking for a while, but quickly went back to drinking.) She even held onto the little handles!

I am so relieved!

I even got a little teary-eyed while she was drinking, just thanking God that she finally did it and it wasn‘t a traumatic struggle. and it was kind of sad to realize that pretty soon she’ll be drinking milk all the time like this.

She’s growing up way too fast.

(and thank you to everyone for your great advice…I will keep it in mind in case this cup doesn’t work out. I really appreciated your input.)

Weaning

About 10 months ago, I was about ready to have “the baby.” (For some reason, when I talk about being pregnant, I can’t make myself say “Audrey.” We didn’t know what we were having and we didn’t use the boy or girl names that we had picked out, so we always said “the baby.” To me, “the baby” didn‘t become “Audrey” until she came out and we knew she was a girl. Does that make sense?)

Anyway…when I was getting close to having “the baby" aka…Audrey, I was very determined that I wanted to breastfeed. I always knew I wanted to breastfeed and if I could, I wanted to breastfeed for the first year. Because I wanted to so bad, there were things I was nervous about: I was worried that she wouldn’t latch on correctly. I was worried that I wouldn’t make enough milk for her. I was worried that I would be the lucky one that cracked and bled and it would be so painful that I would just give up.

And everything was fine. Breastfeeding has been very easy (once we got past the first 3 weeks of exhaustion and an episode of mastitis) and convenient and amazing and I love the fact that 4 times a day (now…it used to be a LOT more) I get to sit and hold her and she’s content just being in my arms.

Now here we are, 10 months later and I’m trying to figure out how to stop breastfeeding!! For some reason, this is much more complicated than getting started! I want to have Audrey completely weaned by her first birthday, which is about 2 months away. I want to give myself plenty of time to take it slowly so it’s not painful…I’d rather not be engorged. After I was sick last weekend and didn’t eat much for a few days and Audrey was sick and also lost her appetite, I’d noticed that my milk supply had gone down. I wasn’t really planning on starting to wean her this early, but now I feel that I need to for her sake (so she doesn't starve).

I’m completely fine with moving on from this phase of our lives. I’ve loved it but it must end soon. I never wanted to breastfeed longer than a year so I’m ready to start this process. The problem is that Audrey isn’t quite ready yet. I do not want to use bottles anymore and the girl refuses to use a sippy cup! I started giving her a sippy cup with some diluted juice in it about 3 months ago…and we’ve tried 4 different kinds of sippy cups and she thinks they’re all teethers!! She chews on them…and smiles…and looks at me as though she’s saying “thanks for this new thing to chew on!!” She won’t put her lips around it and suck! I’ve tried to get her to suck on a straw that has some juice in it to teach her to suck…that didn’t work. She keeps her mouth open and plays with the straw with her tongue. I’ve tried putting some of my pumped milk in a sippy cup and still nothing. So then I removed the valve inside the sippy cup so the milk would drip out and she actually ate about 2 ½ ounces!!! But she wasn’t very happy about it. She kept turning her head toward me and looking at me as if thinking “mom, you’ve got the real stuff right there!!” I’ve heard that someone other than mommy should introduce the sippy cup or be the one to feed the baby when you’re starting to wean, but since I’m a stay-at-home mommy, I’ll be the one feeding her every meal of every day.

So…all you mommies out there that have successfully weaned your child/children and taught them to use a sippy cup…please…help me!! Any good advice or tips?!?

last second surprise

(add another one to the family list that got the "bug" this weekend...my dad fell victim yesterday. my mom and sister are still holding strong, as far as I know.)

Yesterday afternoon my dad called to see if I wanted to go with him to Tyson's church league basketball game last night at 9. I immediately said "no" because I hadn't showered all day and Audrey had already had both naps (I usually shower while she naps) and because I still didn't have much of an appetite all day. My dad and I continued to talk and then I remembered that Tyson was going to come home early from his class so he could pack for his business trip to Wichita today and so he could get a haircut before he went on the trip. Then I didn't think it would work at all.

Somewhere during our conversation, I decided that it would be a lot of fun to just surprise Tyson and show up at his game with my dad. Audrey would already be sleeping and my mom would be able to sit at our house and "watch" Audrey in case she woke up.

So I didn't shower, I straightened my dried-funny-because-I-didn't-blow-dry-it-hair, put on a little make-up and stayed in pj's so Tyson wouldn't suspect anything when he came home. Sure enough, when he came home, I helped him pick out some clothes for his trip and then gave him a haircut and he went on his way to the game. I had five minutes to change clothes and finish getting ready and then my parents showed up and my dad and I headed to the game.

and Tyson's face was priceless when we walked in the gym.

it was fun to surprise him...and the rest of the team, for that matter. you see, the last few years, our church basketball team has always had quite a following. All the wives would go and some of their parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles would show up to cheer the guys on. Not so much any more. All of the wives are either pregnant or else we already have babies at home that have a bedtime. it was fun to sit there with my dad and chat and cheer the guys on to victory!

I'm really glad my dad called.

Famous Last Words

Steve, Angie and Malorie came to visit us (my parents and Tyson, Audrey and I) in Oklahoma for a long weekend and it didn’t quite turn out like we all thought it would. Don’t get me wrong, we did have a lot of fun, we just weren’t planning on most of us getting sick!

The guests got here Thursday afternoon and we all hung out at Nana and Papa‘s house. Friday morning I was feeding Audrey and she was as happy as could be, contently eating away. She took a short break to look around, like she always does, and without any warning, she threw up all of her milk. So we changed clothes and did a quick sponge bath. She was still pretty happy and acting like she wanted more to eat, so I fed her some more. And then she threw that up, too. Change clothes again and clean up the glider and carpet. She was still acting hungry and very interested in eating so I gave her a couple more minutes of eating. This time she was only in her diaper and I was in a minimal amount of clothing sitting on the floor on a blanket. Sure enough…she threw that up, too. At this point, she hadn’t eaten anything for the day, so we gave her some banana and cheerios, which she happily ate. Then she played for a while like nothing had ever happened. She had thrown up three times and didn’t even cry or whine! I laid her down for her nap and about 10 minutes later she was crying in her crib…and she had thrown up some of the cheerios. Change her clothes again and change the mattress pad and sheet. Then I rocked her to sleep and she slept for 2 hours. We were all planning on going to the zoo that day so I called everyone and told them what was going on and that we would still go if she kept her next meal down. Who would have guessed, but she kept her next meal down! So we all headed to the zoo. We had a great time! The weather was perfect and it was Audrey and Malorie’s first time at the zoo so it was fun to see how excited they were!

That night, Steve, Angie, Tyson and I went out to eat and left the girls with Nana and Papa. When we got back to Nana and Papa‘s, I fed Audrey and put her to bed, and we all stayed at their house that night. At 2:30am, Audrey woke up crying. This was not a “I’m tired, why am I awake in the middle of the night?” cry, this was a “rescue me, mommy, I’m sick!” cry. As soon as I picked her up I felt that she had thrown up. Quick sponge bath and change of clothes (for Audrey and me) and a new pack-n-play sheet. She fell right back to sleep…until 30 minutes later when she woke up crying again…she threw up again! This time required a full bath, then change of clothes for both of us again and a new sheet again. Then she slept great the rest of the night. She didn’t throw up at all the next day, but there were plenty of blown out diarrhea diapers…which is almost worse than throw up. I can’t even tell you the number of loads of laundry that were done this weekend!

Saturday afternoon I mentioned to Angie that it had been over 8 years since I had thrown up. Here’s where the title comes into the story. That night, Tyson, Audrey and I slept at home again and when we went to bed, both Tyson and I mentioned that we weren’t feeling that great. Audrey woke up at 4am for some reason and once I got her back to sleep, it was my turn for the diarrhea and throw up. I eventually fell back to sleep for a while and then it was time to start the day all over again. Audrey was hungry and I was hungry so we both ate a little. She blew out her diaper. (Change of clothes again!) And then I threw up again. I was supposed to take Steve to the airport after church, but since I wasn’t up for going to church or the airport, Angie took him and on her way back, Malorie threw up in the car! Tyson was playing the guitar for worship team and he didn’t feel good the whole time, as soon as he got home, he dry heaved a few times and then got the chills and went down for a nap. He was achey and had a temperature the rest of the day. Malorie was sick the rest of the day. I didn’t feel good enough to eat so I drank 7-up all day. At least Audrey was finally feeling better!

And now it’s Monday. Angie and Malorie will probably go back to Denver today, depending on the flights. And I just heard that Steve got sick last night after he got home.
What a crazy weekend!

It’s safe to say that we are all sick and tired of being sick and tired!

chain letter

A couple of weeks before Christmas I received a chain letter from a friend from college. I normally don’t do chain letters because they’re for something I don’t really want or need, like recipes or silly socks…who needs 36 pairs of silly socks? Really.

So, like I said, I got a chain letter from a college friend and I really liked this one! It’s for books for your child! Who doesn’t want more books for their child?!? I was actually really excited to send this chain letter on! I LOVE reading books to Audrey and she’s very interested in them, too. She actually loves them so much right now, we can’t have a book as a part of her bedtime routine. She tries to eat the books and gets so excited looking at the pictures, it would have the opposite effect that we are trying to achieve.

Books can be kind of expensive so I thought, “hey, I only send one book to one person and then I’m supposed to get 36 in return!!” so I picked out a book and mailed it to the child I had been assigned and I sent the letter on to 6 friends/relatives with a child.

About 8 weeks later: Audrey has received 2 books. TWO.

(Sidenote: If you are one of the people that I sent the letter to: Just take this as a friendly reminder to either let me know you’re NOT going to pass it on or else take 5 minutes and pass it on. Thanks!)

The Good Life

Apparently I grew up in a pretty good place:

Progressive Farmer tabs Hamilton county ‘best place to live’

Nebraska -- The Good Life resonates loudly in Hamilton County where the environment, economy, sense of community, sense of family and more combine to attract and keep families in the predominately rural area. It’s about to resonate nationwide with the most recent edition of the magazine The Progressive Farmer -- a national publication that has selected Hamilton County as the No. 1 place to raise a family. Hamilton County took the top honor in the 2009 “Best Counties to Raise a Family” piece. The magazine, based out of Birmingham, Ala. and owned by the Data Transmission Network (DTN) out of Omaha, provides rural and agriculture coverage to over 600,000 subscribers nationwide. Many of those subscribers are in the Midwest and Southern regions of the country. Each year, Progressive Farmer hires an independent group that looks at individual census data for counties across the nation. They look at many different areas including crime numbers, access to health care, educational statistics, environmental factors that attribute to the quality of life, household incomes and land prices. Their focus is narrowed to primarily rural counties that are selected based on their population. A list of 100 counties is first selected and then reduced to the top 10 counties. From there, Progressive Farmers sends it’s editors out to visit the counties to get a more personal feel for what those counties are like by doing interviews and taking several photographs. Jim Patrico, a senior editor at Progressive Farmer who works out of the Kansas City office, was assigned to visit Hamilton County, as well as Chippewa County in Minnesota and McPherson County in Kansas. “We are really interested in things that were important to farming families who are raising children,” he said. “Hamilton County displayed many great things during my visit.” Patrico said there was definitely a large interest in the 4-H and FFA programs in Hamiton County. He also noted Aurora is home to the Leadership Camp on the edge of town, which impressed him as well. The Best Places to Raise a Family in America piece is currently available for reading in the February issue of Progressive Farmer, which came out on Feb. 1. Interestingly enough, this will be the second month that Hamilton County is featured in Progressive Farmer. Anyone interested in reading the article can do so by visiting http://www.progressivefarmer.com/farmer/bestplaces/articles/1hamilton.html.

thanks, mom and dad, for raising me in Hamilton County, Nebraska! how ironic that you moved away just a month before it was given the honor. :)

9 Month Letter

Our little sweet pea,

You are nine months old today. It’s hard to believe that you’ve been out of mommy as long as you were in her. The nine months you’ve been out has gone much faster than the first nine, that’s for sure! We can hardly believe how much you’ve grown and changed and how active you are now! You’re crawling all over the place and quickly showing us what we need to move to make sure our house is baby proof! You’re pulling yourself up on furniture and standing like a big girl. Whenever you’re done napping, you’re almost always sitting up or standing in your crib waiting for someone to get you. You’re so active these days, mommy has really come to appreciate cuddling with you in the middle of the night while you’ve been sick. We’ll take it when we can get it!
You discovered your toy basket in the living room a few weeks ago and you love taking all your toys out one at a time, carefully inspecting each one and setting it on the floor next to you. Your favorite toys right now are not even toys: an empty water bottle and a toothbrush…you’re so funny. You love looking at pictures and videos of yourself. We wonder what you’re thinking and if you know it’s you you’re smiling at. You love crawling over to your bookshelf in the living room and pulling your books off. You look at them and chew on them with such love. You also like it when we read the books to you, too. Speaking of chewing, you’re eating a wide variety of foods! You like to feed yourself, which can get pretty messy, but you’re getting pretty good at it! You’ve kind of lost your appetite while you’ve been sick but we’re sure it will come back though. You still haven’t mastered drinking from a sippy cup, but you’re getting close! Your sleeping has also changed a lot lately. You’re usually in bed by 7:00pm now and get up between 6 and 6:30am. (Last night was a new record: almost 12 hours!!!) We didn’t set an alarm clock for a while and we learned that we still need to: there was one day that you decided to sleep in until 7 and daddy was almost late for work! :) You’re also down to just 2 naps a day! Mommy loves the extra time in the afternoon that you’re spending awake entertaining her! One of your favorite times of the day is when daddy gets home from work. You and mommy like to listen for the garage door to go up and once you see daddy get out of the car, your face lights up and you start making noises and flailing your arms and legs in excitement! Daddy loves the greeting you give him! You’re definitely making a lot of new sounds these days. You’re growling a lot still (especially when you’re happy) and you’re beginning to really “talk” to us. We can’t wait until you say “mama” and “dada” and really know what you’re saying. You LOVE Walter. You always smile when you see him come running toward you and you would crawl all over him if he let you. He’s still being very cautious around you; he‘s not so sure of all the crazy noises you make. He did get really excited a few weeks ago and accidentally scratched your forehead. You healed very quickly though.

Bath time is still one of your favorite things to do! You’re now in the big tub, and of course, you are crawling all over in the water trying to get your rubber ducky and other toys. You’ve faceplanted a few times in the water but haven’t seemed to mind too much. You’re already a little water baby!
Audrey, your smile brightens our days and your laugh is the sweetest sound we‘ve ever heard. You have already brought us so much joy in the short time we’ve had you. What a sweet blessing you are. We continually pray for guidance as we raise you and thank God that we get to be your parents.
We love you so so much!
love, Mommy and Daddy

p.s. it is getting very difficult to get a picture of you with your giraffe...can't you sit still for just a few seconds?!? :)

our sick little girl

well, it's been 48+ hours and Audrey has not gotten worse!!! praise the Lord!

She has started to get her normal voice back, but now she has a very runny nose, which means I'm having to use the snot sucker (aka nasal aspirator) so she's not too happy about that. She's taking more naps now, they're not always longer, but at least she's getting some more sleep. Her coughing is still waking her up a few times each night, which means I am also up at all hours of the night, too. It makes me think back to when she was just a few weeks old and she would still need to eat every few hours...I'm glad that's over. all we can really do is give her tylenol and cuddle and hold her. but I wouldn't complain about that!

here's a few pictures from this morning...our sad, tired, sick, little girl.

hang on, girl...it's almost over. we hope.

RSV

Audrey has RSV.

"what is RSV?" you ask. let me tell you. it's not fun.

The following is taken directly from kidshealth.org, the first website that popped up when I typed in RSV...I don't know how to explain it myself, so this will have to work:

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of respiratory illness in young children. RSV causes infection of the lungs and breathing passages. In adults, it may only produce symptoms of a common cold, such as a stuffy or runny nose, sore throat, mild headache, cough, fever, and a general feeling of being ill. But RSV infections can lead to other more serious illnesses in premature babies and kids with diseases that affect the lungs, heart, or immune system.
RSV is highly contagious, and can be spread through droplets containing the virus when a person coughs or sneezes. The virus can also live on surfaces such as countertops or doorknobs, and on hands and clothing. RSV can be easily spread when a person touches an object or surface contaminated with the virus. The infection can spread rapidly through schools and child-care centers. Infants often get it when older kids carry the virus home from school and pass it to them. Almost all kids are infected with RSV at least once by the time they are 2 years old.
RSV infections often occur in epidemics that last from late fall through early spring. Respiratory illness caused by RSV — such as bronchiolitis or pneumonia — usually lasts about a week, but some cases may last several weeks. Doctors typically diagnose RSV by taking a medical history and doing a physical exam. Generally, in healthy kids, it's not necessary to distinguish RSV from a common cold. But in cases where a child has other health conditions, a doctor might want to make a specific diagnosis. RSV is typically identified in nasal secretions, which can be collected either with a cotton swab or by suction through a bulb syringe.

Because of all this, we'll be hanging out in our house for a while. The Dr. said that if it doesn't get worse in 48 hours (it's been 24 hours already) then she'll probably not need breathing treatments...I'm praying we'll make it through the next 24 hours with nothing worsening...

The poor thing is miserable. She's lost her voice, which makes all of her noises, that used to be oh-so-cute, sound sooooo sad! She has a bad cough and lots of crud in her throat and when she coughs it really hurts her and she tries to cry but she can't because she can't make any noise, so all that comes out is a pathetic little whine and a really sad face. all the coughing makes her wake up from any kind of sleeping, naps and nighttime, so no one is getting very good sleep around here lately. Tyson is still fighting being sick (which is where Audrey got it) and he feels horrible that he gave it to her. he says that he just couldn't help but love on her when he gets home from work. I don't blame him.

so, that's what we're up to right now! wish us luck for the next 24 hours!