What a Whirlwind!



3 months old

Wow, what a month!  With the holiday craziness and a fast-growing and quickly changing baby girl, these last few weeks have been a whirlwind filled with laughter, tears and countless memories.  Even though Addy is only about 4 months old, Brian and I can't stop talking about how big she's gotten and how she's just not a little baby anymore!  It's so exciting to watch her grow and do new things but a little sad at the same time to see just how quickly it goes by. 

Addy went through another growth spurt right around 3 months and was eating a TON.  I was having to pump every two hours at work to try to keep up with her!  We call her our little chunky monkey. :)  She graduated from the pack 'n play in our room to her crib in her own room - a step that was much harder for me than it was for her.  The first week I basically had the video monitor pressed to my face for a majority of the night, accompanied by many trips to her nursery to make sure she was breathing.  Yes, I blame my mother for the neurotic gene that I inherited.  It's gotten a lot easier though and she does really well at night.  She's still waking up every 4 hours most nights, which I hope will change soon, but she goes right back to sleep after a little meal and usually falls right to sleep when we put her in the crib for the night.  The one downfall to the crib is that she gets her chubby little legs stuck in the slats alllllllll the time.  I have to go in there and un-wedge am arm or leg at least once a night.  She also learned to roll over from her back to her tummy at 3 months old.  So far she's only done it in her crib.  She promptly got pissed that she couldn't get back over and let us know it, screaming in frustration until we went in and flipped her back over.  We were rewarded with a smile and a little coo, which we took as her 'thank you'. :)

Addy has become so much more interactive, it's so much fun!  My non-dairy diet has done wonders for her demeanor - she is all smiles and coos and gurgles.  Each one makes Brian and I laugh, we just can't get enough!  Yes, I admit, we have become those parents that think every little thing their children do is the cutest thing in the world - even her toots crack us up!  She likes to play on her own now as well, grabbing her toys while laying on her activity mat and swinging them around.  She especially loves Mr. Octopus and talks to him while she plays. :)  Along with discovering her feet, she has definitely discovered that her fingers taste pretty good and seems to have them in her mouth 24/7 these days.  I think she's starting to teeth between the finger chewing and the non-stop drool that continues to increase daily.  Of course, I'm sure the teething will be full-blown right about the same time that she starts sleeping through the night (IF that ever happens), further extending my dream of a good night's sleep.  She's also starting to lose her baby hair and has developed a good size bald spot on the back of her head.  Wow, the picture you must be envising...a drooling, chubby, bald-headed baby!  But she's still the cutest thing in the world. :)









Catching zz's at the airport

Our first Christmas with Addy was quite the experience.  Of course I had to continue the family tradition of pictures with Santa, which much to my delight didn't include her screaming on Santa's lap!  I'm sure that won't be the case next year - I would think a fat jolly guy all in red with white hair poofing out everywhere would be pretty scary to a one year old!  We made the treck to Cali for Addy's first Christmas.  Our seats were initially in coach, separate rows, both middle seats - oh joy.  I happened to be complaining to my uncle about how I was envisioning a screaming baby, irritated passengers and no hubby seated next to me to help and low and behold, he gave me some first class vouchers that he wasn't going to use and BAM!  Visions of champagne, plenty of room and a sleeping baby swam through my head.  Well, two thirds of that came true...can you guess which one didn't work out according to my vision??  It turns out that pre-boarding with a baby is great for getting first dibs on luggage space but that's where the pros end.  Addy was tired and hungry and Brian stood at his seat bouncing her as she screamed while the other passengers boarded, shooting us looks ranging from annoyance to pity to amusement.  I'm pretty sure I could have melted into my seat and been perfectly happy.  Take off wasn't much better.  I tried to feed her, stressing that if she wasn't sucking while we ascended that her ear drums could burst.  Of course she refused and just screamed harder while I burst into tears myself thinking she was in pain.  Oh what a fun start to Christmas vacation!  The rest of the flight was cake compared to the beginning.  We arrived in San Diego late and stayed the night at the retirement home, getting up bright and early to meet Nana for breakfast.  Nana was smitten with Addy and couldn't stop looking at her.  I'm pretty sure Addy was smitten as well, smiling at her all through breakfast. That in itself made the whole trip worth it. After breakfast, another exciting first - 10 hours in a car with Addy - and the fun continues!  Hope to never do that again, let's just put it that way.  Christmas at the Jones' household was a bit stressed at times.  With their remodel barely complete and Christmas dinner for 15 people to host, there was no shortage of things to be done.  Addy got to meet her other great grandma Amah for the first time along with the rest of the family.  All in all, it was nice to spend time with the family but we were definitely ready to get back home and get back into a normal routine.  We were looking forward to a shorter flight home, but those hopes were dashed once again as we waited and waited and waited in the airport, finally boarding our plane 3 hours after we were supposed to take off.  Que the screaming baby in a plane video here...  So, that was our Christmas! 

I've come to realize that with kids, there's always something.  I just started to reintroduce things with dairy into my diet (an english muffin here, yorkshire pudding there) and so far so good with Addy.  But the day after we got back from Cali, the sh*t hit the fan once again.  I came home early from work and Addy took a nap on my chest that afternoon.  She awoke screaming and I could tell something was not right.  I tried everything...hungry?  No. Gas?  Nope.  Fever?  Nada.  So in I went to change her diaper, trying everything I could.  As she lay on the changing table, I did what I usually do and started playing with her feet, kissing and blowing funny noises on them.  Her one foot was pretty stinky and I looked at it.  Thinking I saw fuzz between her toes, I went to pick it off only to discover that it was SKIN.  Upon closer inspection, I was horrified to see that she had a hair wrapped so tightly around her middle toe that it was literally severing it off, cutting it so deeply that the top of her toe was purple.  It's called a 'hair tourniquet', actually really common in babies, and I had read about it in every single baby book I've read but never thought it would happen to Addy!  My aunt and I rushed her to the pediatrician.  The doctor had me hold her as she tried to hook the hair - pretty much one of the worst moments of my life.  Addy was hysterical and screaming in pain while I held her, I was bawling myself.  Finally the pediatrician stopped and said it was too deep for her to get to and told us to take her to the ER at Seattle Children's Hospital...that's the last thing you want to hear.  I beat myself up the whole way to the hospital...how long had the hair been there?  Should I have caught it sooner??  Was this my fault???  I'm sure every mother knows how I was feeling.  The nurses and doctors at Children's were great and all assured me that this happens all the time and very well could have only been there one day.  They told me the good thing was that I caught it in time or she would have lost her toe.  WOULD HAVE LOST HER TOE!!!  Unbelievable.  They gobbed numbing cream over her foot and were eventually able to unwrap the hair and hook the rest out while they held her down on the table.  Poor thing screamed so hard and just stared at me like she was asking me "why are you doing this to me, mommy?"  Absolutely broke my heart.  I'm glad to have the worst behind us and her toe seems to be healing, although I'm completely paranoid about hair now.  Just one more thing to be neurotic about!  Like there isn't enough to worry about, now I have to worry about microscopic hairs and fibers amputating my child's fingers and toes! 

4 months old

Hence, there's always something.

We were looking forward to spending New Years Eve with Chelle and Scott at their house but I unfortunately came down with a horrible stomach flu only a few hours before we left the house.  We just celebrated Brian's 29th birthday with some great friends - it's always nice to get out of the house for some adult time!  Brian and I are definitely looking forward to next fall when we will be taking a trip to celebrate our 30th birthdays - ALL FRIENDS INVITED!  2011 has been such a whirlwind - sold a house, moved FOUR times, new state, new jobs, new house, new baby, WHEW!!  Can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for the Jones! :)



Meeting GG Amah and GG Nana for the 1st time