Very Best Christmas

I hardly slept the night before. I was so excited for the kids to wake up and open their gifts. We had a wonderful day. We didn't have to go anywhere, just stayed in and enjoyed each other.



Kelton gave us a present that he made at school. We absolutely loved it and hung it up right away.



Katie actually gave us two gifts. First was the video below. She's figured out that raise her arms above her head when we ask, "How big is Katie?" She does it all sorts of random times now just to see us make a big deal out of it.

Second was that she slept Christmas night, the entire night, in her crib. She slept 9 hours, I nursed her in the rocker and then put her back in her crib for 3 more hours! No screaming what so ever. It was like a Christmas miracle.



And because you know I have a thing for matchy matchy jammies...

Rudolph

This couldn't wait for a flashback friday. This was Kelton last year. He's quite the ham.

A twofer!!

Katie's last week or 10 days or so (really it all becomes a blur) were really bad. Her reflux got so bad, she wouldn't even eat and she loves to eat. I probably don't even have to say that she wasn't sleeping. It was really starting to get to me, so Eric suggested that I spend the night at my mom's. I did and it was wonderful.

Then Eric's parents decided to come stay the night on Saturday night so that we could go stay in a hotel and get a full nights sleep. Ahhh, sleep. It's a wonderous thing.

I really think she does better when I'm not home. Each night I nursed her and then put her to bed before I left and each night, she did really well. I also think the 2nd dose of prevacid is starting to kick in. We hate having to give it to her, but don't really have any other options at this point because recall the ped gastro won't do any testing because she's not skinny.

Speaking of that. I weigh Katie every month. She's 10 months today, so I took her in to be weighed and she's lost 4oz since last month. Thank God I'd gotten some sleep or this would have pushed me right over the edge. I'm taking her back in a week to check it again and just praying that she doesn't lose anymore.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

It started snowing last night, continued through the night and this morning. Kelton has had a tummy bug since Saturday and was vomiting again this morning after seeming to get better. So I got to drag both kids out into the freezing cold and snow. Fun stuff. Kelton's a bit dehydrated, but I think he's finally on the mend.

This evening when Eric got home I went out to shovel our driveway. OCD and shoveling snow does not mix. I felt as if I couldn't stop until every last flake of snow was removed from our driveway.

Then I went across the street to our neighbor's who weren't home yet. I shoveled their driveway, sidewalk, swept all the snow off their porch and their car. I cannot wait for them to get home and see. Of course, I'll never admit to doing it. I LOVE it when I get a chance to do something like that. It's so important to pay it forward. In a world that often seems like such an icky place anymore, little random acts of kindness are HUGE.

PINK

Since she graduated cosemetology school about a year ago, my sister has been dying to get her hands on my hair. I finally let her cut it about a month ago and I really liked it, so when she offered to do some color for a bday gift for me, I was excited to pick somthing out. I settled on a bright reddish/pink and a blue/black. The blue/black doesn't really show that well, just looks darker than my natural color. I love how the red/pink turned out!

When my sister was first taking the foils off, my mom kind of made a face and I told her, "I've had a long hard 9 months with Katie and I've been feeling a bit rebellious lately. At this point, let's just all be happy that I haven't run off with some 17 year old boy or something." LOL!!

denial

When Katie was still very young, it was suggested to me that she might have reflux, that maybe it bothered her when I ate dairy. I was sure that couldn't be the case. Wrong and wrong. I just didn't want it to be the case.

She's not just up at night because she's teething. Her reflux is acting up again an it's very clear. Her breath is nearly always sour smelling. We can hear her reflux and spit up in her mouth and if this happens while she's sleeping, she wakes up screaming. Sometimes in her sleep, she wakes up coughing and gasping for air. She had been spending the majority of the night in her crib had been getting some good stretches of sleep. Now we're back to every hour, sometimes less and it's in her swing.

As I said before, the gastro didn't want to do testing because she's otherwise healthy and not underweight. So because she's not skinny, she has to suffer. We can give her prevacid 2x/day instead of once, but we're worried about side effects from that large of dose.

We're just at a loss. Apparently, there's nothing left to do.

Sweet Potatoes!!

I have been waiting FOREVER for sweet potatoes to go on sale. At Walmart they are normally $1.12/lb, but I knew as Thanksgiving drew near that they'd go on sale. Finally the day came and they were marked down to .33/lb! I filled up three big bags. I love sweet potatoes myself, but my main purpose was to make baby food. I now have tons in the freezer and if they're still on sale, I might do more.

My first batch...


I decided it was easier to bake and peel, rather than peel, cut, and steam. It was nice to have the oven on too since it was a cold day.


The first batch yielded 4 ice cube trays plus 6 baby food containers (I kept 2 out for her to eat right away). To the right, you'll see summer squash that I made earlier this year. To the left is my meager supply of breast milk. I don't have the crazy oversupply like I did with Kelton and I work for every drop of it!



Lastly, I must brag on the boy's duck hunting adventure. Kelton was super excited and had no problem getting up at 5am, even though I have to drag him out of bed during the week. Hopefully Eric will make duck gumbo again soon. It's super tasty and awesome on a cold day.


And in case anyone is wondering, no, Katie is not sleeping and has not been in a very good mood lately. She's back to being up about every hour at night. I'm attributing it to teething.

sneaky sneaky

Last night while Eric was downstairs playing with the kids, I snatched his phone and programed it to play Pour Some Sugar on Me whenever I call. Hehehe.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I finally shed some more poundage and I'm now 6 lbs under prebaby weight. Funny how my jeans still don't fit quite the same. Big babies and csections aren't very forgiving. I'll take my precious babes over killer abs any day.

This morning Kelton climbed in bed with me and snuggled up. He'll be 5 in less than two months. I'm so proud to see what an amazing little man he is growing into, but I'm going to have a lot of trouble holding it together when he starts kindergarden next fall.

While Kelton was getting dressed and ready for preschool, Katie woke up. I brought her into the bed to nurse all warm and cuddled under the covers. I noticed how long her hair is getting and drank in her sweet baby smell. I know I'm going to blink and she'll be Kelton's age with very little time to snuggle with Mommy.

These kind of moments make all the hard times so worth it.

No rest for the weary

Katie hasn't given us more than a 3 hours stretch of sleep in a week. I'm in a fuzzy haze. The other night, I was just bawling as Eric tells Katie while changing her diaper that she will never have a little brother or sister.

Just when I think we're dealing, we're obviously not. Kelton has adjusted the best, constantly soothing and playing with Katie. He has a huge heart, but I never imagined how much he would truly adore his sister. Just yesterday at lunch, he told me, "Mommy, I love Katie soooo much."

I don't think I've eaten anything to upset her and I know she hasn't eaten anything. My only guess is that it's her teeth. Perhaps since we have a generally discontent baby already, teething has hit us harder than norm?

Anyway, in addition to my yearly Black Friday order on The Children's Place and Gymboree, I indulged in a little retail therapy last night and put in an order at BabyGap. I had free shipping, 15% off and a gift card, but who am I kidding, I would have ordered without those.

Since Katie is such a terrible sock taker offer, one of the things I ordered were some footie pants.

Cross you fingers that semi-happy Katie returns shortly.

Firsts!

We've had lots going on here lately and I'm happy to report it's been with minimal crying which means much less anxiety on my part.

Things have definitely improved as Katie has gotten older. There is also a noticeable difference if I watch my diet very very closely which means not even a smidgen of dairy. Katie's diet needs to be closely monitored also. She mostly eats one ingredient fruit and veggies that way when she has a reaction we're not trying to guess what caused it. Gerber puffs don't seem to cause any problems, but all other crackers have. We're doing okay with oatmeal cereal also. Coconut milk yogurt is another treat I've found that both Katie and I enjoy. While I am able to substitute milk products in my diet with soy/tofu products, I am not doing so for Katie since it's pretty highly allergenic.

Now for our firsts!

Katie was 9mo old on Saturday, which meant a trip to Portrait Innovations for pictures! She wore her first pair of stripey tights. She, of course, was adorable and I bought more than I planned.







On Sunday I was cleaning the little lady up after dinner and noticed our first tooth has finally started to break through the gums! I'm a little nervous as she has a bad clamping habit when she's nursing, but we'll just see what happens. Sorry, no pictures. It was all I could do to snag a little peak myself.

Monday we visited our pediatrician for Katie's 9mo check up. She weighed in at 17lbs 9oz and measured 26 inches. Yep, she's a shorty, which doesn't surprise me since she barely wears 3-6mo shoes! Of course, we must look cute at all times when leaving the house, so ta da...our first piggy tails!



I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Please take a moment to pause and reflect on everything your're thankful for. It's really something we should all do more often.

Hurry up and wait

We saw the pediatric gastroenterologist today. Can't say that it was worth our while.

Since Katie isn't skinny, she's obviously getting enough nutrition, so they won't do a scope or upper GI at this point. The allergy testing (which came back negative) was basically pointless because she's too young for accurate results.

Supposedly most babies outgrow reflux and food allergies by 1 year. That's encouraging right? Yes, except I've been being told from the beginning that things should be better at 4mo..6mo..9mo, only they're not.

So our plan is to wait, continue being very careful to avoid milk and anything else we can figure out that bothers her, and continue the prevacid with the option of upping the dose yet again.

So there you have it. Apparently the answers we've been searching for all this time don't even exist. So forget praying for answers, I guess at this point we just need to pray that she does indeed outgrow this and sooner than later.

Thank you!

Thank you to all the veterans who served selflessly and bravely, so we are able to enjoy that great freedoms that come from living in the United States. Thank you to those who gave their lives, thank you to their mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sisters, brothers and children. Thank you to those who continue such a dedicated service to our country. May God bless and protect you all.

Thank you to my husband, a man of strength and faith, a man I am proud to stand beside and raise my children with....he's not bad looking either. :)

So I'm only a week late

Thank God I'm not talking about my period.
It's Halloween pictures!!

My whole family and a couple friends came over for trick or treating. I couldn't resist the matchy matchy skeleton jammies.


We had ourselves a mini Kyle Busch.
And a little ladybug.
















Katie saw her ped and the chiro on Tue. We're doing more allergy testing and we have an appt to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. I'm really hoping we're on the right track to getting her tummy figured out.

On Wed we saw a ped eye dr for her constant yucky eyes from plugged tear ducts. He didn't feel it was severe enough to warrant the tear duct surgery and that it should get better as she grows. Good news!

We've been transitioning Katie from sleeping in her swing back into her crib. (She hasn't slept in it since July.) We bought the rainforest mobile since she likes her rainforest swing so much. Eric has been a champ, rocking her a lot since she thinks she needs to nurse everytime I go into her room. We did treat ourselves to a new glider about a month ago. Until then we'd only had a creaky wooden rocker that was hell on the back. The padded arms were a must. Definitely has become one of our favorite buys. I can't believe we waited so long to get it.

There's still time

If you haven't voted yet, you totally should. Kelton and I are going after I get off work. Daddy stayed home with Katie today and they voted this morning.

Maybe Later

I simply don't have the energy for a blog about our trick or treating.

Katie is spitting up again in the total absence of dairy and I have no idea why. She's also screaming a lot and naturally not sleeping at all either.

I'm so full of anxiety over it all. I would give anything, anything at all in the entire world to have this get better. I want her to be able to eat normally. I want to be able to eat normally. I want life to be normal again.

Eric is staying home tomorrow. He's going to try to get her into her ped and the chiro.

Flashback Friday - Happy Halloween!

Last year...Tigger and a pumpkin belly. I seriously love how this child would wear any costume I got him. I did resign that it would probably be my last year to have him something cute and cuddly, which was okay, because I was cooking a new one to play dress up with.


2006. Barney. The big purple guy's movies did drive us crazy, but I couldn't resist this and he was oh so snuggly.





2005. My favorite costume ever. What a little stinker! I spent a fortune on it last minute on ebay. Katie will wear this next year.



Kelton is super excited to Trick or Treat tonight.

Katie is almost over a terrible cold that had us completely sleepless last weekend and the first part of this week. She's been eating up a storm and passing it all without any trouble. That's one hurdle out of the way! Hopefully soon reflux and diary problems will be a thing of the past also.

Some things fall...

are enjoyed by all!

I received my package today!

Thank you so much, Shannon

It was filled with loads of wonderfulness! It's funny because some things are surprisingly similar to what I sent.



There was a beautiful handmade table runner. By the looks of her blog and the runner, Shannon is a very talented seamstress.
A pumpkin spice scented reed diffuser. A pumpkin recipe with ingredients plus a fall plate to put them on! There was also a fall oven mitt and hot pad! Some cider mix and a Country Living magazine to be enjoyed at the same time while curled up on the couch. Fall scented lip balm and soap made locally. Caramel candies and decoration of stacking wooden blocks with a fall theme.

Shannon sent along a little note explaining each thing and why she chose it.

This was totally fun and a great way to help take a little stress of our problems with Katie. Thank you, Laura for hosting it!

The eagle has landed.

Shannon received her package on Saturday. YEA!

Here's what else I sent her:



Homemade apple butter and dehydrated cinnamon sugar apples. They were picked from the trees at my inlaws farm. YUMMY!
Apple cinnamon and pumpkin spice scented candles.
Apple cider mix and fuzzy socks.
Spiced pear lip balm and pumpkin scented hand soap.
Pheasant feathers from birds Eric shot last year.
Football cupcake cups because I'm always making cupcakes for Kelton and fall means football!!

It's in the mail.

I sent out a box of my favorite fall things this morning. It was super heavy. Thank goodness for flat rate shipping boxes.


Of course I'm not going to say what's all in it yet. I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I will provide a little sneak preview.




I started stamping cards about a year ago. Mine are nothing super exciting or special, but hey, they're fall-ish.

I rarely send out a package without including some tools of the trade. I've yet to have anyone complain, in fact, they're usually asking for more!


That's all for now. I'll post the rest after it arrives at it's destination, which hopefully will be by Saturday.

Farewell Fishy

Nemo went belly up over the weekend. We gave him a proper burial. That's him in the little gold box. Kelton marked the site with some of those flags they use to mark your gas and telephone lines. RIP Nemo, I won't miss cleaning your bowl.

BOOING

Definition: The art of secretly delivering bags of candy to friend's and neighbor's porches without being caught.

We had much success since most everyone was at work on Friday afternoon but us. Although Kelton and Eric have also successfully given away the secret to all but one of the neighbors already.

This was the first time I've been out booing since Kelton was born. I read a friend's blog to see that Kelton's beautiful little girlfriend had been out booing and since I'd already bought the stuff I figured I'd get him in on it this year.
Bags are ready!

Kids are ready!

Delivering the bags.


And now playtime at the park!!

Tears

Crying out of frustration and relief.

Although Katie still refluxes, we hadn't been having much spit up for quite some time now. I'd have to look back through my blog to see when it improved, but I know it's been a couple months.

Lately however, we'd been having spit up again despite me being diary free. Tonight she spit up a good amount of her baby food after dinner and I was super upset about it. I am 100% certain I haven't even had any hidden diary lately.

We were literally racking our brains when we checked the Beech Nut Brown Rice Cereal that I'd been adding to her veggies. Sure enough, it contains whey. Seriously. WTF? Why does it need whey? I'm so sick of milk being in freaking EVERYTHING.

At least we know the cause and that it's not something new, but I still wish she could eat normally. (Which would also include me eating normal.)

Poop and Ponytails!!

Katie has been eating solids once a day all week. On Tue and Wed she was constipated again and straining to produce tiny hard marbles. Yesterday and today...we have poop! I never thought I would be so thrilled over a loaded diaper!


I was playing with Katie last weekend when I noticed she seemed to have plenty of hair to get a rubberband around and viola..her first ponytail:
Kelton's surgery went well and really fast. He wasn't scared at all, took the nurses hand and walked away without even looking back. He wasn't nearly so excited when coming out of the anethesia. It bothered his tummy a bit and last night was a little rough, but by this afternoon, he was feeling much better. I couldn't resist taking this picture of his little undies sticking out of the back of the gown.

Not so happy when waking up..

Really, I'm tired of dr visits..

Katie and I visited the ped's office today while Kelton was at preschool.

In a few weeks we will be seeing a pediatric opthamologist for her yucky eye. The pink eye that we've treated 3x, 4 if you count trying breastmilk, is from a tear duct that is somehow clogged and not draining well, leaving us with recurrent cases of conjunctivitis.

She'll now be getting a whole tab of the prevacid instead of 1/2. If we don't see any improvement, we'll schedule to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. If things do get better our ped still wants to try to wean her off of it around 9mo and if we can't successfully do that, we'll see the gastro. I almost figure we should just go ahead and schedule because we're doing solids again and while it was going good for awhile, she's constipated again. It's super frustrating because breastmilk and prunes aren't exactly at constipating combination.

The eczema in her diaper area is still spreading, but apparently not much of a concern. We're supposed to continue putting aquaphor on it. It works really well and since Kelton's eczema started around 4mo old, I bet I've spent a couple hundred dollars on it cause it's not cheap stuff.

Think of us around 6:30am tomorrow morning. That's when we arrive at the surgery center for Kelton's tubes and adenoid removal. He's not scared at all. I know he'll do great. We've promised him Starbucks on the way home. (Mommy's excited about Starbucks too!)

More Fun!

Ya'll should know Katie had a rough night last night and tonight isn't panning out so well either. I'm also getting quite anxious about Kelton's surgery on Thur. So instead of thinking of all that, let have fun!

I'm participating in a swap! I know Laura would love to have lots of people involved so head on over to her page and sign up!

A Little Fun

I thought we were in need of a fun light hearted blog.

What more could a former cheerleader love than hair bows? Although Katie has quite a bit of hair, I'm currently using headbands to clip the bows to. I have a nice size box that's overflowing with bows and bands. She loves to dig in the box and it's nice distraction to sit her with it when I need to get something done. I'm pretty sure we have a bow or band for every outfit or at least we will soon as I just made another order. I get them from a sahm and she does absolutely wonderful work. She also sells them on ebay.







Another thing I am totally digging are babylegs. There are tons of different styles and work great with a onsie or under a dress to make diaper changes a breeze. This particular pair came from a great friend that miss Katie shares a bday with.



And who doesn't love little baby socks? Trumpette baby socks have to be the most adorable of all. Katie has a box of the maryjane pastels but they're starting to get a bit small. We'll definitely be ordering more soon. A little hint...they're cheaper on ebay!



A quick update on our little leprechauns.

Sleeping is going so-so. It seems like we'll get a couple good nights and then have a couple bad nights, so we're obviously still trying to find her groove. Her breath has been super sour lately too, so it doesn't appear the prevacid has taken full effect yet. Hopefully soon..

Kelton is scheduled for tubes and to have his adenoids out on Thur. I'm sure all will go well, but please keep him in your prayers.

Nothing lasts forever

Seems like everything we've tried with Katie either just plain doesn't work at all or works for a bit and then stops. Chiro seemed to make a difference, but I'm guessing it was just a fluke as she's slowing morphing back into her old sleeping habits.

Don't get me wrong, I EXPECT to be up to feed her at least once or twice a night. She doesn't need to eat every hour though. She's back to immediately screaming when she sees Eric walk into the room instead of me.

It's depressing and infuriating.

Just cross your fingers that maybe last night was the fluke and she really is going to continue to do better.

I have a new friend

Recall neighbor down the street that just had a baby? We've run into them here and there and guess what? Baby cries...a lot. Baby has reflux. Totally not shitting you. Baby's momma has been joining me on my evening walks. It feels so nice to talk to someone who TRULY understands. The daddys need to get together too. Eric is forever saying that nobody really gets it. Well, now he has someone who does.

Katie's still sleeping reasonably well. The last two nights she's insisted on a party from 3am-5am. I haven't much cared for partying at those hours since I was in college.

I met the chiro on Friday. He's nice enough, not bad looking either, but maybe a bit radical in regards to diet for my taste and I'm pretty hardcore. He didn't understand why I wanted to be able to eat dairy. Dude, have you ever tried cheesecake? Alrighty then.

Sweet Sweet Sleep

Eric stayed home with Katie on Tue because she was so screamy and we didn't want her wailing her little head off at daycare all day. I'm not quite sure how I made it through the day on 1 hr of sleep, but I did.

As you can see by my blog, we've tried just about everything. Chiropractic care had been mentioned to me in the past, but I was leery of chiropractors and didn't believe it could actually help with colic.

There is a chiropractor in town that Eric has been to and really liked, so he called and made an appt. He said breastfeeding is absolutely best, to nurse her as long as possible and not to give her any formula. He really likes to avoid rx medications when possible. Sounds like I'm going to love him. He applied gentle pressure to an area in her neck and one in her back.

She slept 10 hrs Tue night. She slept almost 9 hrs on Wed night, ate and went back to sleep until I had to wake her to leave for work almost 2 hrs later.

I'm not sure if it's a fluke, if it was the chiropractor or the prevacid is finally kicking in. Whatever it is, I don't care. We're all sleeping! First the first time in over 7 mo, we're all sleeping!!

Good Morning

I'm getting ready to jump in the shower because I have to work today.

I had one hour of sleep last night.

I want to break something, cry uncontrollably and laugh hysterically all at the same time.

Bit Bits

So since the prilosec was so terribly nasty, we've switched to prevacid. It's a little tab that disolves in a just a bit of water and goes down easily. Hopefully we'll start seeing it work soon.

One test came back and she's not allergic to cow's milk. We're still waiting on the results for the whey. Keep your fingers crossed.

We're giving it a go with solids again..very slowly.

Katie is 7mo tomorrow and both Eric and I are feeling super discouraged as we really thought by this point, things would be 100% normal. We're exhausted (she didn't sleep worth crap this weekend) and just ready for things to get better.

I realize that after 7mo of this, I'm a little sensitive, a little touchy. I also realize (and believe I have said so before on this blog) that we're pretty blessed that overall, Katie is a healthy little girl. It makes me feel like an ass to be told repeatedly how I could have it worse. Of course we could and we're thankful we don't, but that doesn't help with the problems we're having or the rapidly rising stress level in our home.

The good news is that the change in Kelton's medications seems to be doing the trick. He even spent a lot of time on the tractor with Papa this weekend...and he's not coughing!

the down and dirty

So I'm not really all cheerful and hopeful all the time. Quite frankly, these past almost 7mo have nearly done me in. I just want to throw my arms up in defeat. What am I doing wrong here?

Before we could even see if the prilosec would work for Katie she spiked a damn fever again. It's 103 right now. And the prilosec? It's tastes so terrible that she gags and chokes when we give it to her. It's terrible. Just watching us give it to her made Kelton cry.

Speaking of Kelton, how many medications am I going to have to put him on before he gets better? Why are his allergies so bad, the ear infections, the asthma?

And you know one of the most terrible and shitty things about colic, reflux and sick kiddos? Fighting with your husband. Unless you've been there, you can't imagine the stress, the sheer exhaustion and frustration.

I want my life back.

I should listen to my husband more often.

At Eric's insistance, we decided to see another pediatrician for a second opinion on Katie's relux and tummy issues. Turns out we should have made the switch sooner. While I liked our previous ped, I absolutely love this guy and Eric thinks he's great also.

Katie had an odd looking diaper rash that turns out is eczema. He had her blood drawn to check for milk and whey allergies. He also switched her med to prilosec, a proton pump inhibitor. I'm hopeful, so very helpful. I mentioned the consitipation issue, but didn't get the chance to discuss it more. I'm going to bring it up again in 2wks when we go back to see how the prevacid is working.

We're also going back in 2wks to recheck Kelton's ears. Yep, you guessed it, infected again. 5th time since January. Instead of rushing into tubes, the new ped wants to get his allergies and asthma under control better and he thinks that will stop the recurrent ear infections. I should change my blog to my life dealing with reflux, allergies, asthma and eczema. The chance that Katie will be the same as Kelton is pretty high, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that some how the allergies and eczema will pass her by.

I seriously love this new ped. If anyone close wants his name, let me know and I'll get you the number. I just love how he wasn't rushed, came in, sat down, discussed things at depth. He's mega awesome.

What time is it?

It's 5:44am. Been up since 4:30am.

Miss Katie was hell to get to bed, but then seemed like she was going to have a good night as she slept from 8:30pm until 12:15am. I fed her when she woke up, but then she was up again at 1:30am, then 2:30am, and yes, then 3:30am.

Eric took a turn, then I got back up. At 7:30am, I'm going to wake him up again.

I so wish this was abnormal and not the norm.

Thousand Words Thursday

Fall, Frustration and the Floor

We're actually having a fall this year. Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. I love football, it's great camping weather, the leaves, the smell, jeans and sweatshirts, I met Eric in the fall. I just love the fall.

We're all still recovering from colds here and trying desperately to get Katie back into a 1/2 way decent sleep pattern. It's so frustrating!

The kids and I spent the weekend at my mom's house so Eric, Jason and his dad could put in our new floor. It looks amazing! I can't wait to pick out an awesome rug. The only downside is it's a bit louder now and Jasmine's little nails clicking around drive me batty.

15 hrs

We spent our first night away from Katie last weekend. We were gone a total of 15 hours but it felt like much longer than that! Nana came down to spend the night and we were super nervous about leaving her. Nana kept telling us not to worry, that she'd be fine. We weren't worried about Katie though, we were worried about Nana! Turns out we had nothing to worry about. Katie was up and down until about midnight and then gave her two 4 hour stretches of sleep! The next two nights she gave us 6 hour stretches! That ended quickly with a 104 temp on Tue night. It's nothing serious, we're just fighting a terrible cold. Poor baby. We're crossing our fingers that she bounces back quickly and goes right back into a nice sleep routine.

Our night out was wonderful though and just what the dr ordered. Colic, reflux and nonsleeping babies play hell on a marriage. But that's another blog entirely..

I was thrilled to find out our swings have weight limits of 25lbs, which should last us through her 1st bday if need be. These stretches of sleep I was referring to took place in one of her swings. She still hates her crib.

She's been off of solids for a week now. She absolutely loves to eat, but decided to give it a rest because even prunes were plugging her up. We're going to give it another week or so and then try every other night for awhile and she how her system handles it.

Flashback Friday

I haven't done one of these posts yet and I figured what a better time than today. Katie is 6mo old today, which got me thinking back to when Kelton was 6mo old. It was 4 years, 1 month and 1 day ago. I can't believe the amazing little man he is now. He is a doting and loving big brother. He makes me remember to stop and enjoy the moment, even if that moment is just a caterpillar crawling down the drive way. I love him to pieces. How lucky I am to be his mother.

These pictures also remind me to snuggle and enjoy my little Katie now while she's still little.