10/22/10 - Oy...

Today started off VERY rough! It's my Friday off, so I spent the day with the girls. YAY for that. However, Amelia had a very hard night last night. She's always slept really well at night, so I don't know what was going on. But, at around 1:30 she woke up, and she and I fell asleep together in bed. I'm not big on co-sleeping, but sometimes it's just so nice to cuddle! She woke up again at the "usual" time, ate, and would not go back to sleep in her bassinet...so I kept her with me again. Finally, Olivia started waking up, and Amelia woke up, so we all ate and started off our day. At about 10:30 I had an "Oh Crap" moment when I remembered that Olivia had a Doctor's appointment...at 10:05! Dang. Luckily it was actually just a "nurse" appointment to get some shots, otherwise they would have charged me for missing it! They were able to fit me in this afternoon, so after lunch and naps, we all got ready and to the Doctor we went.

Now, this was my biggest challenge to date! The nurse was running late, so we ended up waiting in the lobby for about 25 minutes. Amelia started getting really fussy, so I took her out of the car seat and held her while Olivia played. Finally, they called her name. Here I am, holding the baby, carrying the car seat, trying to shuffle Olivia towards the door. She was NOT cooperating, and I looked like a complete idiot. Finally this sweet lady came and helped me get Olivia through the door. I had to put Amelia back in her seat so I could hold Olivia down for her shots, so Amelia started freaking out right away. Olivia started freaking out as soon as I sat her on the table, ended up getting her hand loose, grabbing the needle and scratching her leg pretty bad with it, but was fine as soon as it was all over. Finally, we were all on our way, and I was exhausted! NO MORE doctor's appointments when it's just me and the girls, that's for sure!

Amelia passed out on the way home, so Olivia and I took advantage of what is supposed to be our last nice day of the season, and played outside for a while. Coloring on the sidewalk, rolling on the grass and having a good ol' time. Finally Christian was home...I made dinner, did the dishes, we gave the girls their baths, put them to bed, and I finally had a chance to pay the bills and get on the computer for a while!

BEST NEWS OF THE DAY: Today marks my one year non-smoker anniversary! One year ago today I quit, and I can't believe I made it. It's been so hard..it's still hard. Every day I think about it and wish I could smoke. I guess in a way those feelings are always going to be there. But, here we are, I pushed through all of the stress and temptations and I made it! I'm so proud of myself!

10/21/10 - Yet Another Thursday

Today was just another ordinary Thursday for us. Work was busy, as usual. Christian has still been getting his hour or two of OT every day, which is great! We took it pretty easy tonight. I was just simply exhausted, and decided all of the dishes and cleaning up could wait until tomorrow! I love when I don't work the next day, and don't have to wash bottles/pump parts and make bottles for the next day. It sounds like a simple enough task, but it's nice to get a little break...makes me even happier that we don't have to worry about bottles :)

Here's a picture of Olivia trying to teach Chuy how to play the keyboard...poor Chuy...

10/20/10 - Hmmmmm

Well, I don't have a whole lot to report today. Things were pretty low key for all of us. Just work, home, dinner, clean up, baths, bed. Pretty exciting stuff! HOWEVER, I got Amelia to give us her first real, big, belly laughs tonight. It was hilarious. As she was laughing, Olivia started laughing...their laugh sounds exactly the same. It was so wonderful, such an amazing little sound! Anyway, tonight I'll just share a couple cute pics of the girls :)

10/19/10 - It's Come To This..

Well, today I "made" Christian pick the girls up after work and I left work early...used 2 of the precious vacation hours I have remaining, and went grocery shopping. Yup...shopping. We still don't really take Amelia "in public" because she's such a fussy little thing. Olivia is OK, and I usually take her with me, but since I had to go on a weeknight, I just wanted to be able to get through the store and focus on what I needed to get. I must admit...it was nice being able to walk through the store and do my thang, rather than focus on shopping and entertaining the little one. I think I was spoiled...

I got home and started packing up my food for the rest of the week at work and getting everything put away. I also managed to unload and load the dishwasher, prepare Amelia's bottles for tomorrow AND start dinner before Christian and the girls got home! Go me!

I'm on a big diet/weight loss kick right now, and loving it. I "started" about 2 weeks ago, and am just trying to get better and better. I stocked up on my fruits and veggies and healthy snacks, and got everything packaged and ready for work. So far, since my kick started, I've lost 7 pounds! YAY. 3 more pounds to my first goal...my Pre-Amelia weight. SO excited. I was going to follow weight watchers again, but since I'm breastfeeding I get 36 points...36! There is no way I could eat 36 points a day, so I don't really have to bother recording my food right now. Just watch my portions and keep the healthy foods flowing!


Finally, we all ate dinner, watched a little TV. I spent some QT with Olivia since I'd gotten my "chores" done early, and gave her a bath tonight. She's so goofy in the bath...I finally invested in some bubble bath at Target today, so she was in heaven! After she was in bed, I fed Amelia and got her to sleep while Christian put up the first of the plastic on the windows. I can't believe it's plastic on the windows time already!

Here's an innappropriate naked picture of the girls. Daddy is funny, at least the girls think so!

10/18/10 - It's Official...

...Our baby girls has some acid reflux going on. Poor thing. I finally broke down and brought her in to the doctor today. She's still been really fussy, and now she spits up EVERY time she eats. It comes pouring out like a faucet, then she gets really upset. It was interesting to sit down with the doctor and really learn what reflux is. Basically, Amelia's body isn't understanding the concept of holding her food down. It goes up and down her throat, and eventually comes pouring out. And, at times, gets some of the stomach acid mixed in with it, causing the painful heartburn feeling that makes her fussy and upset. Poor thing. He's having me elevate her mattress, sit up her during feedings and for 15-30 minutes after she's done, burp her multiple times during feedings and start her on Infant Probiotics. It's a natural remedy kind of thing, which he said he usually is not "in to", but swears by them for gas, fussiness, reflux, etc. So, after the appointment I stopped into a pharmacy and picked some up. We'll be starting her on those ASAP! He said to do all of this for 2 weeks, and if it's still not better, I can fill the Zantac prescription he wrote her. I really don't want to do that...I'm not big on meds, especially on a daily basis. And, I've heard babies grow tolerances to medicines very quickly, so it will become pointless in no time anyway.

In the end, he said it's often developed between 2 weeks and 2 months, hits it's peak around 4 months, starts getting better around 6 months (when they start on solids and start sitting up more) and usually resolves between 8 and 12 months. Good times....

Anyway, that took up my morning. I finally got to work around 11:30. After work Christian ran to Menards, and we all met up back at home. He fired up the grill and we all just hung out playing all night. Olivia was VERY sleep deprived today, and VERY goofy as a result. It was quite hilarious! Here's a picture of our littlest big girl :)

10/17/10 - Fantastic Sunday!

Today was a great day! Immediately after getting up, ready and eating a quick breakfast, we made our annual trip to Sever's Corn Maze and had a blast! Olivia and I played in the corn pool, which is the best part of the entire place. Christian took her down the giant slide (she thought it was simply wonderful), helped her shoot the corn rocket and took her on a pony ride (of course). We hung out in the awesome petting zoo for a while...she was obsessed with the deer, she loved them! They had a free jump house there, which she of course spotted immediately. We finally let her go in it, and of course it was impossible to get her out. Christian finally had to go in and get her...she was NOT happy about that. We had to bribe her with some silly carnival game/prize to get her to stop screaming and crying. DRAMA. Finally we grabbed some lunch, and Amelia (who was AMAZING the entire time) started getting fussy and hungry, so we snapped a quick family picture, picked our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch and were on our way home. GREAT TIME! Can't wait for next year already!

Once we got home, I fed Amelia and we attempted to put Olivia down for a nap so we could eat some pre-dinner snacks and watch the Vikings game. By the time we finished eating, she still wasn't sleeping. Finally, we just got her up and brought her downstairs to watch the game and play. I made a quick run to Sam's at halftime because the cats were STARVING, but we were out of food. Poor neglected cats. We finished watching the Vikings WIN WIN WIN over the Cowboys, made our read dinner and hung out for the rest of the night.

Busy, wonderful day. Now, back to work in the AM!

10/16/10 - Plans Are Made...To Be Broken...

Apparently.

Today started off well. We all woke up, started some breakfast, then Christian was off to help my Mom move the rest of her stuff out of her house. We assumed that would take a few hours, then Christian would come home and we'd get ready to head off to my Cousin's little girls' 1st birthday party. Well, birthday girl came down with some kind of bug and wasn't feeling up to partying. Poor thing. I was really looking forward to seeing some of the family, but it sounds like they are rescheduling for next weekend, so that will be fun. Right after I found out about the cancellation, the Madrid's asked us to hang out and make "haunted" gingerbread houses with the girls. Why not! Well, as soon as we're showered and getting ready...Christian's parents call...they went to the mall, and now their car wouldn't start. So, he had to drive all the way up to the city to give them a ride home (they have his sister's old car at their house still)...so, we had to cancel. The Madrid's didn't want to be out too late, and it was going to take Christian a while to get there, drop them off and get home, so it wasn't worth making them sit around waiting for. So, needless to say, we really didn't do anything.

Once he was home, we just pretty much hung out, watched some TV. When we switched over to Dish Network we got 3 free pay-per-view movies. We used one of them tonight to watch "The Crazies"...ummm, waste of a free pay-per-view and time. Oh well.

I've also pretty much decided that Amelia has some reflux going on. I amazingly managed to get an appointment for her on Monday to check it out and talk with her pediatrician...I hope we can do something! I can't take much more of the constant fussiness...and she's spitting up SO bad now on top of it. Poor thing. While I tried to do some cleaning up before bedtime, I distracted Olivia with money...she probably thought she was filling her piggy...but, I'm sneaky, that's Amelia's! Since Olivia was born, we put all of our "pocket" change in her piggy (and, let me tell you, that thing is HEAVY). We decided that once Amelia got here, we'd give her all of our change until she's 18 months old, then we'd start splitting it among them. It's not much, but it's something! Every little bit helps, right?!

10/15/10 - Everyone Needs a Drink

Well, it's been a LONG week. My first FULL week back to work is officially done. And, I need a drink! My entire body hurts...from my brain to my feet. I need a vacation, already! My poor mom did not have a good day with little Amelia either. Amelia seems to have a hard time warming up to people. After a couple days with Christian's mom, she seems to be doing much better, so hopefully she'll get better for my mom...SOON! So, I think my mom probably needs a drink tonight too!

My BFF and I made last minute plans to hang out. She stopped over tonight, and I had all the intentions in the world of having a couple drinks. I feel comfortable enough now in Amelia's sleep patters, that I think I can get a couple drinks in, then get it out of my system before she needs to eat. However, I by the time I got her down after visiting with Kari for a bit, finally got my first beer, and finished it...I was exhausted, and it was getting late. Those party animals stayed up and chatted for a while, I snuck into the room and passed out! I am too old and too tired to stay up past my bedtime these days!

Here's our little peanut....upset that bathtime is over!

10/14/10 - Ugh

So, I can honestly say I've just about lost my mind. I cannot remember anything anymore, and it's getting ridiculous. This morning was rough. Amelia woke up at 3:30 to eat. By the time she finishes eating, there's no sense in going back to bed, so I just laid there for a little while with her. Then I had to shower, get ready, pump and pack everything up for work. Then, we get the girls up and ready to go. I pay my mother in law on Thursday's, so I usually take Christian's card to work with me to get cash...forgot that today. I got to his parent's house to drop the girls off and realize we'd forgotten Amelia's pacifier (and his mom swears she doesn't have the extra one there)....great. Get to work, I forgot my ID badge. AHHHHHHH. This is how everyday is, just a serious of things I forget to do, calls I forget to make, things I forget to tell people. I don't even know what to do! I need some kind of secret cure for restoring ones memory!

I got a surprise text from the Madrid's this afternoon, inviting us over for some dinner and play time. We ordered some food from Buca's (YUUUUUM), and watched the girls go crazy together. They were quite hilarious tonight. I think they love each other and have fun together, but they definitely drive each other nuts too. It's quite entertaining.

Finally, it was time to head home, put the girls to bed and PASS out! Tomorrow is Friday, and I am VERY excited about that! We are beyond ready for the weekend! Here are some pics from our play date...

10/13/10 - Another Toddler Milestone :(

Today was a good day. I was pretty tired after being up so late, but I made it through. Work was good. Our work has this club you can join every year...the club puts on different events (craft sales, Halloween parties, etc.), and twice a year we have a luncheon. The food is great, and it's nice to get away from the office for a little while here and there. I ended up winning $15.00 at the luncheon, and since my my graciously paid for my lunch, I made out like a bandit! It's sad that I get so excited over $15.00!

After work, I picked up my ladies and made the long drive home. I hate rush hour. Christian was just finishing up mowing the lawn when I got home..I'm sure he's happy to have that out of the way. At least this time of year the grass doesn't grow quite as quickly! With all of the business of last weekend, I didn't make it to the grocery store, so we've been living off of leftovers and whatever we can scrounge up...tonight was no different.

After dinner and a little hanging out, Christian and Olivia headed out to the garage to turn Olivia's car seats forward facing. Yes...she is officially too tall to be rear facing any longer, and I'm very sad about it. I feel so much more comforted with her rear facing, but with her seat, it's no longer safe. The seat in his truck was a breeze to turn....but my car is a different story. Our seats come with a special latch system for added security, but my car doesn't have anything for it to latch onto. Christian ended up drilling a hole in my car (yes, he drilled a hole in my car...) and made his own latch. Whatever works I suppose. So, yes, my baby is even less of a baby now!

Finally, it was time for baths. Olivia went down; I fed the baby and she went down; then, it was my new nightly ritual...washing my pumping supplies, getting bottles ready for the next day and freezing the little extra milk I get. YES, I've actually been getting extra milk! So exciting (again, this is what I get excited about these days!). I really hate this chore though...

Here's a picture of her checking out her new view (she was not enjoying the flash...tired girl)!