Naps!

It's a rainy and absolutely dreary day. I love it!

H and I will be staying home today and enjoying a day of cuddling and just playing. Daddy will be home earlier than normal too - so it will be the whole family.

We had a much better day yesterday. I was much more prepared to handle BB and H. He was awake when we got there and was up for a good hour and a half or more. After he had his bottle he passed out and would sleep most of the afternoon. H and I played and watched the Incredibles.

The only thing that is going to drive me nuts - is if I can't get her to nap while we are there. She spent the last 30 minutes getting super fussy. I put her down in their pack n play - but she just kept getting up. Any secrets on helping me to get her to nap? That would be great. I know it's a new place and she is just excited.

On a completely seperate note -I've been in a slight blogging funk.. I haven't been around much at all - including commenting on all of your wonderful blogs. When I finally had checked my reader last night before I went to bed I had something like 567 posts to read. I have come to the conclusion I really need to clean up my reader. I think I am also going to revamp my blogroll. If you want on it please leave me a comment! I want to make sure I'm reading everyone who reads me!

My Blessing...

My peanut butter covered blue eyed girl.

Taken right before her bath this afternoon.

She has also figured out how to say No. When I went to towel dry her hair, all I heard was nononononononono!

Ways to keep your child entertained.

Yes I realize it is the same song in all clips. The child loves it. She constantly wants me to play it.

The joys of motherhood.

My beautiful little girl has basically been sleeping through the night since before she was a year old. We co-slept with her until she was one and it was her dad and I that suffered from a lack of sleep. She moved around constantly and we both were kicked in the stomach and punched in the face more times than we could count. When she was a year old we had to transition her to her crib and her room - because I was losing my mind at this point. She did fairly well and the transition for us was luckily an easy one.

However, last night was far from easy. We laid her down after we spent some time catching up with Aunt Erin and Uncle Rhyan (who live in Canada) over Skype. (On a completely non-related note, Skype is AWESOME. It's free for us to talk and we get to use a webcam/mic to talk to each other!)

I stayed up after she and Anthony had gone to bed catching up on my blog reading. I was also trying to edit several of the videos I have been taking of Hailie. For some reason the movies I have taken will not let me open them in either Windows Movie Maker or Muvee Autoproducer 6. I'm so FRUSTRATED! I decided to give up and picked up a book (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon). I read about 5 pages and decided to go to bed, or so I thought.

30 minutes after I went to bed Hailie woke up. It was 11:30. She was NOT happy. I picked her up and rocked her and calmed her down. I laid her back down and as soon as I went to walk back out of the room she started crying again. I grabbed a blanket and brought her to the living room and laid down with her on the couch. She kept wiggling around. Took her back to her room, laid her down, and went back to our room to go to sleep. 30 minutes or so go by and she wakes up again. Pick her up because I'm exhausted and take her back to our room. That didn't happen. Wiggle worm was all over the place and would not go to sleep. Back to bed she goes. 1 am rolls around and I have not slept much at all. Anthony gets up this time even though he has to get up in an hour. Tells her to lay down and comes back to bed. Anthony's alarm went off at 2 and I could hear her through the monitor babbling. Anthony took care of her then. She finally passed out.

Of course, I knew she would sleep late so I figured I could catch up on my sleep after that. Not so much. I woke up at 6:30 and it took me over an hour to fall asleep again. She started stirring around 9 so here I am now while she is eating breakfast.

This particular episode really reminds me how far I have come over the last 18 months in terms of patience. I have never been a patient person and have moments when I am quick to snap, even at Hailie. When she was a baby and wouldn't sleep I had moments where I just wanted to run away and cry. I was so frustrated. I was a new mom and felt like no matter what I did I couldn't keep my child happy. The worst was in those first few months when I was dealing with my PPD. I remember having to walk away from her and counting so I would calm down. I just wanted to yell and scream. I had no idea what I was doing wrong. At that point I remember asking myself how other people could do it. I felt like I was failing as a parent and was the worst mom in the world.

I eventually realized that this happens to a lot of people and I wasn't alone. Things got easier as she got older. My patience levels grew and I am much calmer when these types of events happen.

This is what I do instead of studying.

Part III: Hailie's arrival.

Most of my pregnancy was uneventful. I would end up in the hospital once for dehydration, and another at 32 weeks when I had a kidney infection that would put me into pre-term labor. Luckily they were able to stop them so home we went.


Here is Hailie's birth story.

I was having a ton of trouble sleeping the last month or so of the pregnancy. Sunday (11/5) was no different. I was constantly getting up to go to the bathroom and playing on the computer since I couldn't sleep. I finally laid down again to sleep after going to the bathroom at about 11pm..

I felt this weird almost like a pop and then felt the water - I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. I was freaking out.. I sat there for a minute to try and let it all come out... it stops but every time I got up it just kept coming out.. It finally stopped long enough for me to get dressed and get a pad on. We called our families.. Anthony started packing the car with all the bags so we could go.. well we get in the car and it doesn't start! So we have to transfer everything into the truck.

We haul butt to the hospital and got there at about 11:30-45. My parents and grandma were already there.. they helped Anthony take everything up. We had called my doctors office on the way since my water broke and we knew since she was breech we would have to have an emergency c-section. Got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the IV and pumped me full of fluids.. did the ultrasound to confirm she was still breech. Also gave me some medicine to neutralize my stomach since I had eaten dinner..

Once the doctor got there they took me back to the OR.. I got my epidural and that was fantastic.. the nurses and doctor that administered the epi was fantastic.. kept me calm and lord knows I needed to be.. I started getting the shakes because I was really cold. Doctor came in - and they started. I didn't even realize they had started. I asked Anthony who looked over and saw they had already cut me..only thing I felt was the pressureof them pulling her out. She was born at 2:01 am on November 6, 2006 and was 8 lbs 5 oz - 19 1/2 inches long. She scored 8,9 on the Apgars.. She was taken to the nursery and was given oxygen because she did have fluid in her lungs and was given a slight bit of formula due to her blood sugar being slightly low.

I was taken back to recovery and I had the shakes for a good two hours.. I think my mom was a little scared about that, but I knew it was normal. They then took me to my post partum room and they finally brought her to me around 5amish. She stayed with us most of that day.. We had SO many people come up.. At about 11 they took her to the nursery so I could sleep because I had been up almost 48 hours.. 5am she was brought back to me and was with me for almost the entire rest of the time we were in the hospital.

Instead of bombarding you all with pictures here is a video of the first three months of Hailie's life. I took lots of pictures.

Wordless Wednesday...

Pool time!

Anthony's mom got Hailie a pool and bubble machine.. These were from Wednesday. Looks like the pool especially was a hit!

Too big.

So Hailie has learned how to climb up on the chairs to get things off of our dining room table. This morning she grabbed a drink and spilled it all over herself. Since she needs a bath I just stuck one of my tshirts on her.. She looked too cute not to take a few pictures.

Adventures in sweeping.

So Hailie has discovered a love of sweeping. Over the last few days it never fails that when we go outside to play in the yard she makes a beeline for the broom as soon as we get into the garage. I compiled a video of Hailie's sweeping. She's so funny.

Blair Witch Project Baby Edition

Whoa, picture overload!

This is what I found when I heard Hailie wake up from her nap.

This is the face she made when finally grew tired of me taking pictures.

What is even cooler about the whole thing? She FINALLY looked at me when I was taking pictures. Yippee!

Our day.

It was a fun day. Hailie and I went and had lunch with my friend Michelle, who I used to work with and had not seen in a long time. It was nice catching up. It definitely felt a little weird walking into that office again. I didn't leave on the best terms, so that made for some awkwardness.

After that went up to UH to turn my paper in and headed home. Fairly uneventful after that. Here a few little videos I caught today.. I know they might be a little boring, but hey I love my new toy!

Hailie babbling in the car


Hailie running away from the dog across the street


Talking on the phone

Blog makeover and other ramblings..

So today I spent the day learning how to create a 3 column blog. I did okay, just need to figure out how to space the left side further from my posts. I also changed my header and background. Not the best - but it was a start. I really want to learn to do some cool stuff, so this was my start.

It was a good day, although I am definitely exhausted at the moment. My mother in law came over and watched Hailie so I could go and workout again up at the Y. I was definitely feeling yesterday's workout this morning. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and about 15 minutes on the bike. I did some weight training, but not a whole lot. Anthony had a test tonight in his economics class so I had to get home once he was off work.

Hailie over the last couple of months has discovered how to take off her diaper. She did it tonight and I didn't think it was a big deal. When I go to put a new diaper on, I see that the MY COUCH was wet. Yes, she peed on my couch. AND that isn't the only thing she did today. When I left to go work out she was eating lunch. She had made a mess so my MIL said she would bathe her. Come to find out when she got her out of the tub and was drying her off she ran off into the office where she proceeded to pee on the carpet. MIL walked in to see her rubbing her hands in it. What am I going to do with her? I was mad about the couch thing, but looking at it now it's funny. Thankfully my couch is easily cleaned.

Anthony is off tomorrow so I should be able to get most of my paper done. I've done some of it (about 4 pages.. and I need 15). I have to take it up to school next Monday. Hailie is spending the night with my mom tomorrow night too, so I will have Thursday morning too.

Time for bed... I could keep rambling for hours.

Pacifier-free.. Update!

So Hailie did really well yesterday. She cried a little bit at naptime and when we put her down for the night, but nothing too major. She's fussier today for some reason. She's doing good.. and I couldn't be happier about it. Get me through this first week and I think we are home free!

Productive morning.

Our typical morning normally consists of Hailie and I sleeping until sometime between 8-9. Once she's up I typically make her breakfast and sit on the couch checking e-mail and all of that good stuff. We normally just relax most mornings. She normally goes down for her nap between 12-1.

Today, that changed. A and I decided we would reinstate our YMCA membership. I went up there this morning (after Hailie and I slept until 9:30, whoa!) and took care of that.. and stayed to work out. It felt fantastic. I was getting bored with just our treadmill at home. We just have so many more options there. I did about 25 minutes on the elliptical machine. I then got on the bike for about 25 minutes. I didn't do much weight training - I usually leave that for when A and I go together.

After the Y Hailie and I went to the park for a little bit. Chased her around and played.. It was nice. We just got home and she's eating lunch.. and then nap time. (That equals shower/lunch/reading time for mom!)

I weighed myself this morning and I've gone up a pound to 197.4 (I never thought I would post my weight.. but you know - I think it just makes me want to work even harder to lose it!). My goal is to lose 2-3 lbs this week. Wish me luck!

On another note - Hailie did pretty well in their childcare. Apparently she cried everytime they picked up another kid. Hopefully if we start going every day she will get better about it. I think it's good for her too - she really need the social interaction and we really can't afford to put her in a MDO program.

Breakthrough!

Anthony and I (with much prodding from my mom) have taken away the pacifier from Hailie. She is almost 17 months old and we figured it was just the right time to do it since she seems to be chewing on them. She did so well tonight at bedtime. She laid down and fussed a little bit, but went to sleep not too long afterwards. I am SO happy about that. Let's hope the new few days are just as easy. Next on the list is potty training, but I don't think she's quite ready for that.

On another note (an exciting one I think) I was talking to my friend Shellie tonight. She has the such a great sense of humor and outlook on things that I figured I could convince her to start a blog and in addition we are going to do a joint one - still deciding content, etc. I will have the links up once we're ready to go.

Apologies for the ads on the sides - figure since I am spending so much time here I might as well make a little money. So do a poor girl a favor and click on the ads once in awhile!

Anthony is off tomorrow - so my goal is to get my paper written and ready for proofreading and editing. I have almost 3 pages - so only 12 to go! Woohoo. Off to read one of the million books I have to read. Is May here yet? I am officially out of school as of May 3rd, I can't wait!

It's a blah Friday night...

I'm exhausted.

I can't fall asleep.

Hailie is on some screwed up schedule. She has been sleeping until 9ish. I lay her down for her nap about 12:30. She didn't fall asleep until 3! She slept for about an hour and a half. (Better than yesterday, when she didn't nap at all!) We laid her down at 8:30 tonight. I attempted to get to bed about 9:15. She just felt asleep at about 10:30-45ish.

It's wearing me out.

I have so much reading to do for class, but I have seriously NO motivation whatsoever.

Blah.

Wordless Wednesday..

We went to Galveston today for lunch and to play on the beach. It's a slideshow because I couldn't pick just a few.