Progress!

I don't have any pictures, but just wanted to share two exciting things tonight -

1) I can actually feel Abbie's first tooth! Can't see it yet, but it's definitely there. I'll keep you posted!

2) Tonight I put Abbie down and about an hour later she woke up. I was able to go in, give her the pacifier, and she went right back to sleep. This was the first time I have not had to pick her up and rock her back to sleep!

That's it. Just a little update from me. Muah!

Bye Bye Month 7!!!

Today Abbie is 8 months old. I must admit that month 7 has not been the easiest on us. Don’t get me wrong – Abbie is still a GREAT baby with a wonderful demeanor. We just love her personality. She is not afraid of other people that she doesn’t know. She smiles at everyone and stares at other children constantly when we are out. She doesn’t miss a thing, ever. But the challenge lies with the sleep. My friend Elisa said the other day “It’s about progress, not perfection.” I am trying to remind myself of this statement! Really though, just when I think I am going to have a breakdown, we have a good night and it brings back my faith that we can do this!! I suppose I should elaborate a little more. You see, before our trip to Florida over Christmas, Abbie was sleeping well in her crib and things were good. Then we were gone for over a week, and I guess it is taking her some time to get used to being home again, and being at her sitter’s again. All last week was pretty bad – she was not going down easily at all and was basically wailing for a long time (even while we held her and rocked her). We were asking ourselves – do her teeth hurt? Does her belly hurt? Is she having separation anxiety? And on and on…She was not taking good naps at her sitters, and I was still trying to keep her up until 8 at night. Then I came to a realization, with the help of friends and more importantly prayer, that maybe she was not getting enough sleep, and that is why it was so hard to get her to settle in at night. So over the weekend she took LONG naps because we were travelling, and I swear she slept so good at night. I was relieved. Last night was a little trying again. I tried putting her down around 7, because she seemed very tired again, but she woke up for about an hour at 1 and had a hard time getting back to sleep. So I think the formula for good sleep at night is good naps during the day, and unfortunately I can’t always control what happens at her sitter’s house. I can try to emphasize to her sitter the importance of naps, but I know sometimes Abbie doesn’t want to sleep because there is too much going on. And she is the youngest, which means she is the one who needs the most sleep. So we’ll see how things go over the next month. Of course I am still not completely convinced I have all the answers…Sheesh, you’d think by now I’d have all of this figured out, but that’s just not the way it goes!

So here is what Abbie is up to these days:

Crawling very fast and getting into everything – she loves power cords, cups, water bottles, and cell phones still. She will grunt real loud if she sees something she wants. It’s hilarious. She is a baby on the go, from the moment she gets up to the moment she goes to sleep.

She is starting to cruise now – meaning she stands up and takes steps while holding on to furniture.

She raises her hands high in the air when you say “how big is Abbie” and we say “SO big!” Now I know I said she was doing this previously, but I think I was a little premature. Now she is really doing it!

She can wave bye-bye sometimes, and it sounds like she is trying to say it.

She is saying dadadadadadada over and over. Every now and then I think she says mamamama but it’s mainly when she’s fussing.

She has no teeth yet! This is another sleep problem we think, because there have been some nights where it seems like she is having teething pain. She just started smacking her lips and chewing on her tongue again this week, and she is drooling like a St. Bernard – ok, not that bad, but I am just trying to make a point here.

She is still eating 3 good meals a day in addition to her nursing/bottles, and she just cut out her noon time milk feeding. She loves all the fruits, and orange veggies – carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash. We give her Yo-Baby and applesauce too. And I just bought some of those teething biscuits from Earth Fare, and she loves them. Oh yea, and so does Brandy : )

She is so sweet when she babbles, but sometimes she gets REALLY loud. We’ll be in a restaurant, and, as our friends that were with us this weekend can attest, she’ll just start babbling at the top of her lungs. I always turn beet red and just laugh. I mean, what can you do?! This is usually a sign that she is about to crash.

Let me end this post by saying that Wes and I are truly blessed to have a wonderful child that God has given us to raise. While this gig is the hardest thing we’ll ever do, we wouldn’t have it any other way. She lights up our life!

Happy Tuesday!

Christmas 2008

Celebrating an early Christmas in NC....





And Christmas day in sunny Florida...
My dad, Eileen, and Abbie

Aunt Jane, Uncle Dave, and Abbie

Playing with new presents

I am too tired to write much. We've been sick, thankfully Abbie has not had anything too bad, but I have gotten the brunt of it. Threw up on the plane - yep, thank goodness for barf bags - and I had a nasty eye infection while in FL. Other than that it was a great holiday! Let's hope this is the end of all this sick stuff. Abbie had a great Christmas and got tons of wonderful toys, books, and clothes. And a sweet little rocking chair from Uncle Brett. She is all over the place - probably yet another reason I am pooped - and I swear she is waving bye bye and even saying it. Tonight I put away her 0-6 month clothes and it nearly brought me to tears. She is just growing up so fast and I want to press pause for a little while.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! XOXO

7 Months

Well, here I am again. Another month has passed with Miss Abbie and she is doing great! The last couple days have been a little rough around here because we all have colds, but hey, it's winter, and sometimes it's inevitable. So what can I expect? Dr. Morgan still said this morning she was perfect and has already gained close to a pound just since Thanksgiving!

Here is her downward dog yoga pose- she is going to be walking before we know it!! She actually
walks or crawls or whatever you want to call it - around like this sometimes!

Opening an early gift from Gram

Our mantle decorated for Christmas, it looks pretty sad, I know - no tree this year, boohoo, but we will be travelling. Maybe next year we'll be at home Christmas morning!

We have been busy with Christmas happenings and are enjoying getting to take Abbie to do everything! Christmas just takes on a whole new meaning when you have a child! This weekend we went to my work party and she got to sit on Santa's lap. I was a little worried but she didn't flinch! Next weekend we are headed to Wes's parents then Sunday we are leaving for FL to be with my family. It has been a couple years since we've been down there so I am really looking forward to it, and of course my family is SO excited about seeing Abbie again!

So here is what she is up to at 7 months:

Crawling, almost perfectly!

Pulling herself up to a standing position and staying steady for a while.

Eating 3 cereal/formula/baby food meals a day in addition to her milk

Clapping and trying to wave bye-bye

Raises her arms to say "so big" when we play "How big is Abbie?"

LOVES TV remotes, cell phones, cups, and anything else she can't have!

Picks things up off the floor now, like a piece of dirt or something. She'll just sit there and play with it forever!

Loves Brandy and squeals with excitement every time she is around

Guess Who's Preggers???!!!

No, not me!! It's my dear friend Misty Gordon!! I am SO excited for Misty and Todd as they begin this new journey in their lives. It's crazy how once you know what it's like to be a parent it makes it so much more exciting when someone else is about to experience it! Misty will be a fabulous Mom. She is one of those people - Rachel said it recently - it's like second nature to her to take care of a child. Even though she isn't a mom yet, she just knows how to hold them, love on them, talk to them, take care of them. She's a natural. And Todd, oh my goodness, Todd is over the moon about our dear Abbie and is so good with her - I know he will make a wonderful, loving father! So congrats to Misty and Todd! We love you guys!!

Seriously???!!!

So, Abbie will be 7 months old next Saturday, and I am not believing how quickly she is changing with each day. This morning I was doing some cleaning and walked in her room to this...

Granted I expected this to happen considering she's been trying to pull herself up for a few weeks now, but this was the first time I'd actually seen her do it on her own. Oh, and I haven't even told you guys that she's been pretty much crawling since Thanksgiving too. I say pretty much because she has it down except for one leg drags a little bit. But last night she seemed to have fixed it and it looked like an actual crawl.

We took her to the Picture People yesterday at the mall and had her first portraits done. I don't know why I haven't done this until now, I guess because I take SO many pictures, and I feel like I get some good ones, and sometimes they can be cheesy at the studios. But since it's Christmas I thought it was time. They turned out great, but unfortunately I can't get them digitally. I took a picture of the picture so you guys could see sort of what one of them looks like. We had a couple different outfits, etc. She was kind of shy (VERY surprising to us!) at first, and sucked on her bottom lip for about the first 5 minutes, but then she finally started warming up to the photographer a little bit. For some reason her hat looks like it has snow on it but it's just the way the picture turned out.