Abby: Week 10

Week 10

We've hit double digits!!!  No more single digit weeks for this growing girl!  This was Abby's last full week at home with Nana.  I'm not sure who is having a harder time with that.  Abby has developed quite the bond with Nana.  I suppose spending half your life with one person can do that.  Abby learns a lot being with Nana.  They play everyday on her mat, in her musical chair, and even on the floor with all of Abby's friends.

Special Bond <3

Abby has been getting better and better at holding her head up.  She is now holding it up when Daddy holds her upright in his lap.  She still can't sit up on her own, but that's ok since she is only 2 1/2 months old.  She is advanced, but not that advanced.

Abby's favorite toys right now are Monkey and Miss Monkey.  (I know, super creative names Mommy.  Meh...they work)  Monkey is a little plush rattle Mommy bought before Abby was born.  It was just really cute so for $2, why not!  Abby is learning how to hold on to Monkey herself.  She can grasp it for small periods of time and she shakes it around too.  Well, really she is just moving her arm and the Monkey happens to be in her hand so it kinda happens by default, but I think it's all a part of learning.  :)

Look at me hold Monkey all by myself!!! :)

Monkey's ears taste the best. 

 Abby's other favorite toy right now is Miss Monkey.  It's a little pink blanket with a monkey head.  She has a pink bow on her head so we named her "Miss" Monkey.  Not to be confused with Monkey.  Like I said, super creative names. ;)

Meet Miss Monkey

Abby has become very fond of Miss Monkey.  She now goes with us everywhere.  She sleeps in Abby's lap on car rides and even plays peek-a-boo with Abby.

PEEK-A-BOO!!!  I SEE YOU!!

Monkey and all of Abby's friends like to take naps outside.

It's amazing how much more alert she is and how much she interacts with people.  She is getting in much more play time during the day and sleeping well at night.  She has been consistently ready for bed by 8 and finally goes to sleep by 9, sleeps until 3 when she wakes up to eat and then back to sleep until around 6:30.  Looks like little one is starting to get into a night time routine.  Her daytime routine is a little all over the place though.  She has been eating every 2 hours, but sometimes she downs the milk and 45 minutes later she wants more.  Then after that she might go 3 hours before she wants to eat again.  We are still working an "on demand" feeding schedule with her.  She is starting to eat more during some of her daytime feedings which Mommy thinks must be contributed to the fact she is eating less at night because she is sleeping.  (YAY!)  Whatever the reason, she sure does let you know when she is hungry.  She goes from 0 to 100 in a second.  She'll have to get used to waiting a few minutes to eat once she gets to daycare since there will be others there too.  Abby will have to learn to be patient. (That's going to be interesting for her to learn....patience, what's patience?)

Abby starts her transition week at school (a/k/a daycare, but the academies down here refer to themselves as school since they are accredited.  Imagine that, two months old and going to an accredited school already. Crazy)  We will be bringing Abby to her new school to meet her teachers and get her used to the environment before just dropping her off there on her first day and leaving her for 10 hours.  That to me seems a little drastic so Mommy is really happy they let you come in for a transition week and even better, they don't charge you!!!  We'll start slow and increase the amount to time there each day so that by the time she starts full time on September 3rd she'll feel comfortable.  I'm guessing this is going to be another one of those times that it is harder for Mommy than it is for Abby.  Sigh....

Overall, Abby is still a very happy baby.  She is getting stronger and more alert everyday.  She loves to play and talk to anybody that will listen.  She tells great "stories" and when she is tired she is the best cuddler ever.  She is really starting to show her personality and let me tell you something...I think Mommy and Daddy are going to have their hands full with this little girl. :)

Smiles :)

 Devilish eyes....gonna be trouble this one...

Oh yeah, I made a new friend this week too!!!  Meet my new bear!  Mommy's boss at work got her for me.  It was really nice of him and his wife.  :)  She is wicked (yes, Abby although born in Georgia is a New England girl and will learn terms like "wicked") soft and cuddly.  I've haven't decided on a name for her yet so right now Mommy just calls her "Other Bear".  Again, not too creative with the names, but I'll work with Mommy on that.  ;)

Abby: Week 9

Week 9

Abby officially turned 2 months old this week!  Her official 2 months fell on her Great Gram Mason's birthday!  Time is flying by so fast.  I know that seems to be a repetitive statement from me, but it's so true.  I feel like I'm going to be saying that for the next 20 years.

Here is Abby at 2 month old.

This week was again mostly Mommy at work, not really working, looking at photos and videos of Abby and showing them to anybody who would listen to me gush about her.  I did manage to get some work done this week.  Abby had her 2 month check up with the doctor today.  She is now 12 lbs 5 oz and 23 1/4 inches tall!!!!  She's a growing girl!  She seems to be in great overall health.  Since Mommy had to be at work, Daddy worked from home so he and Nana could take her to her appointment.  When they are this young, they prefer a parent bring them to the appointment so we couldn't just let Nana take her. Poor little girl got three shots while at the doctor's office.  Mommy was told she was NOT a happy camper getting those.  She felt like crap the rest of the day and just wanted to snuggle with Mom as soon as I got home.  Mommy wished more than anything I could take away the pain, but all I could do was hold her and rock her.  I'd like to think that in a way, that helped.

Abby had a good week with Nana.  She does a lot of playing on her mat and they even got to spend a couple of days outside because it wasn't blisteringly hot out.  Nana said they went on two walks in one day.  Abby loves her walks, she falls asleep every time.  Abby is getting much stronger.  She holds her head up for quite a bit on her own.  We bought a play seat for her at one of the consignment shops, but she's not quite able to use it yet.  She needs a little more neck and core strength.  Nana said she put her in it with a blanket around her back to give her support, but she would still just fall to the side so we will have to wait a little longer until she is able to sit up on her own for that toy.

In the meantime, we got another toy for her that she can use now.  It's a Fisher Price Learning Chair.  Yup, picked it up at a consignment sale.  I live for those things!!  We cleaned it all up and let her play in it and she really liked it.  It has lights and sounds and bright colors that she loves to look at.  I think it was a great find. We even ran into the woman selling it and she said her two year old son loved it and was mad at her for selling it.  :)

Abby in her new chair

Everybody asks how Abby is sleeping.  Well, I'm happy to report that she has been consistently sleeping great at night.  She eats around 9-9:30 and goes to bed by 10.  She sleeps until 3 when she is ready to eat again and then back to sleep until she gets up around 6:30.  She started doing this a few days before Mommy had to go back to work.  Thanks kid!  It's like you knew I needed more sleep in order to function at work.

We also went to visit Doug, Missy and Brayden this week.  It was the first time Abby had spent time at a different house for a while.  She did pretty good, but we've noticed she is starting to show signs of separation anxiety when she is not with Mommy.  We worked on that a little by letting Missy hold her until she realized she was ok.  She put up a little bit of a fight, but once she realized she was perfectly fine she calmed down and fell asleep in Missy's arms.  Mommy is thinking transitioning into daycare is going to be difficult.  :(  We'll get through it though. 

This was a good week for Abby.  She is growing up so fast! (I know, I'm a broken record!)  We'll see what the following weeks have in store for us. :)

 

Abby Week 8

Week 8

Week 8....wow!  Mommy has been back to work for two weeks now.  I think I subconsciously messed up the weeks from the last blog because I didn't want to think about going back to work. Actually, it's just hard to keep the weeks straight when I don't get them posted each week because technically Abby turns a week older at the end of the week that I write about.  For instance, today is Sunday the 18th.  She turns 9 weeks tomorrow, but technically I'm writing about what happened the week before which is during her 9th week, but she is still 8 weeks.  Does that make sense?  I think I just confused myself even more.  

Regardless, Mommy went back to work on the 5th.  It was horrible.  I knew I would have a hard time, but I think I just cried for the first hour at my desk.  Luckily I have my own office and I get there before everybody else, but I still had co-workers coming by throughout the day saying "Hey, you're back!  How are you doing?" which would trigger my eyes to start watering.  That first day was tough, but Nana helped by sending me a couple of pictures.  Well, actually, I got the pictures and started crying again, but it was a nice gesture.

So most of my week consisted of being at work, not working.  I spent more of my time looking at pictures of Abby, videos of Abby and even Skyped during my lunch break a couple of days.  Nana brings Abby outside in the garage with the door up waiting for Mommy and Daddy to get home.  I think that first day home I grabbed my bags from the car and ran to her, dropped them and scooped her up.  Each day has gotten a little easier, but it's still difficult to be away from her.  Especially now that she is really beginning to interact with us.  She is much more talkative, playful and expressive.  Here are some examples of her "expressions"...  

When Mommy and Daddy get home Abby likes to sit and tell us all about her day.  She goes on and on talking, smiling and laughing.  It's the best part of my day.  :)  I have a video to post, but I seem to be having trouble getting it to upload.  I'll keep working on that and try to update later.

Even though Mommy had a pretty rough week, Abby had a great week with Nana.  Those two are like peas and carrots (a little Forrest Gump reference).  I'm so glad Nana is here to take care of her.  It's really been great for Abby.  Not to mention it has helped Mommy adjust to being at work all day.  I know she is safe and happy at home with somebody she knows.  I'm sure the day I have to bring her to daycare will be a rough one too.  Not only will Abby be in a new environment, but Mommy won't be able to call and get photos of her throughout the day.  Boo. :(  But let's not rush things.  We have a few more weeks until that has to happen.

Abby: Weeks 6 & 7 (Mommy is playing catch up)

Week 6

 

I seriously can't believe we are at 6 weeks.  What's more is that I can't believe this is my last week home with her.  Booooo.  I'm not looking forward to going back to work next week.  I hold back tears just thinking about it.  I'm planning on investing in a couple of boxes of tissues to bring with me and I'm warning Nana Rose to be on standby all day for random phone calls of Mommy checking in.  

There isn't a whole lot to share this week.  It was a nice quiet week with Abby.  Mommy had a bit of a breakdown though.  I guess I finally pushed myself to my limit with lack of sleep.  I found myself with a massive migraine and feeling weak and run down.  I was pretty much crying at anything all day.  Poor Abby had to deal with her crazy over tired mom.  Abby was fine, but Mommy learned the hard was that she needed more sleep and couldn't continue to work on a couple of hours a night for 6 weeks and expect to be able to function.  Once Daddy got home he took Abby for a bit and made Mommy get some rest.  I got an hour power nap in and felt like great.  My headache was gone when I woke up and even had enough energy to go for a walk that night with Abby and Daddy.  That night Abby slept like a champ which helped Mommy even more.  Daddy stayed up with Abby after her nighttime feeding until she fell asleep.  He said he put her down around 12.  She slept until 3:40!  She woke up, fed, was changed and went right back to sleep until 7. I woke up that morning feeling like a new woman.  It's like she knew I just really needed a good night's sleep.  

This week her sleeping has been getting better at nights.  She is starting to get into a routine of 3-4 hour blocks of sleep instead of 2 hour blocks.  It makes me excited, but I don't want to get my hopes up too much.  She is still eating about every 2 1/2 hours during the day, but stretching that out at night.  

Abby did have some gas issues this week.  Before I go any further I need to make sure people reading this know that as a parent, your topics tend to change from what they were pre-child.  Before having Abby conversations were never really about things like poop, but now it is just an everyday conversation starter.  Never did I think talking about poop would consume so much of my conversations, but I guess that is what happens when you become a parent.  You talk about poop.   

So anyway....Abby hadn't had a dirty diaper since she filled one on Wednesday night right before our walk.  She has a tendency to have tiny little dirty diapers until she releases the mother load so this wasn't too far from normal.  However, after that massive unloading she didn't go again for three days.  This of course was a bit of a worry for us and that is just not normal and she was extra fussy, gassy and tooting like crazy.  After 36 hours of no poop I began to get concerned.  By 48 hours we had called the 24 hour nurse line to see what we could do for her.  I had tried giving her a warm bath to see if that would help and although she loved it, no poop.  The nurse gave us a list of things to try including the bath, white pear juice with water, a q-tip with lubricant (yes, it was to put up her butt) and if all those failed we were to try a suppository.  Well, after a day of trying all that was on the list it was down to the suppository.  I will admit, I was so nervous.  I think it was worse for me than it was for her.  Having said that, she did really well with it and sure enough it worked.  I think we went through about 6 diapers.  Daddy said it was like a volcano. (Just less violent)  We all went to bed Sunday night feeling much better about the situation thinking she was all better.  Well, Monday rolled around and back to no poop, fussing, pushing and lots of gas.  Sigh.....and now we have today.  Still no poop since the volcano and fussing, pushing, lots of gas and an uncomfortable baby.  We ended up going to the doctor's office (which was technically the beginning of week 7) to get checked out to make sure everything was ok, but once there we were told that it is actually common for breastfed babies to go up to a week sometimes without having a dirty diaper.  (information that would have been helpful when we were calling the nurse line so Mommy and Daddy would stop worring)  Given that information and a clean bill of health from the doctor Mommy and Abby headed home.  Since then we haven't had any more issues, but part of it could be that we know she's ok if she skips a day or two before giving us a nice present.

Week 7

 

This was a pretty busy week for Abby.  After the doctor's office this week Mommy and Abby went to meet up with Daddy for work and they took a trip into Mommy's work to meet her co-workers.  It was pretty funny.  Mommy managed to sneak into her office, but I think all women must have a baby radar because before I could get Abby out of her car seat half my department was already in my office ohhhing and awwwing over her.  Needless to say Abby was a bit overwhelmed for a minute because she had just woken up and was hungry.  After a quick feeding and diaper change we made our way around to say hi to everybody and Abby was a ham!  Smiles, and stories for everybody.  :)

 

Come Thurdsay we had the last of our big introductions!  Uncle Ryan was finally here to meet Abby and he brought his girlfriend Kristine too!

 

This is Uncle Ryan meeting Abby for the first time.  And let's not forget about Nana!  Nana literally came into the house and took Abby who was sleeping on Mommy.  No warning, or hi to Mommy, just straight to Abby.  (I figured that was going to happen.)

 

 

Reunited and it feels so good....

 

That weekend we took a trip up to wine country!  Starting her young....on the long drives that is.... ;)

We went up to Frogtown.  It was a bit hazy, but still a nice day.  Kristine had never been to a winery so Ryan wanted to take her.  Abby met Craig and Sydney (the owners) who were thrilled to finally meet her.  Although, I think Craig may have been more excited to know Mommy could drink wine again. Mommy and Daddy always took photos together on the deck of Frogtown so on this trip, of course we had to get our first family photo together!

 

And Mommy just couldn't resist some snuggle time.



 





 We also took another big trip that weekend to the Atlanta Zoo.  Nana has those pictures so maybe I'll add them later.  Abby did great.  It was a long day, but we had a great time.  Overall it was a great week, but Mommy was dreading Monday as it was back to work for me. :(  I don't think I let her go that night when we got home.  I just wanted time to stand still forever.  But, such is reality that we need money and come to find out, my work won't pay me to sit at home with my daughter and not do work....figures. 

So....here are more pictures of Abby....just because I know you love 'em!  I know I do!

Pretty girl back from the Zoo!

GO PATS!!!! (start 'em young!)

Strong little girl.  She lifts and holds her head up all the time. 

Talking with Mommy <3

 



 

The many yawns of Abby

So I've really dropped the ball on these last two weeks, but give a Mommy a break.  It was my last full week home with Abby and my first week back to work.  Mommy is learning two important things...1) Now that Abby is a little older we can do all sorts of things which means less time at the house to get things done (including blogs) and 2) I HATE being away from my little girl all day.  More on those later....I promise, I'll get week 6 and 7 up this weekend.  (Just in time for week 8 to go up too).  HOWEVER....as a consolation I have put together a fun little post I like to call "The many yawns of Abby".  Our little girl sure does have a great yawn and after going through a bunch of our photos it's obvious we like to capture each one of them.  :)  So without further ado, I give you....

THE MANY YAWNS OF ABBY