She Makes Me Smile :-)

Fishy Face!

She's all cheeks here...

Pretty Girl

Side view of the fish face

Having a laugh with Uncle TJ

It's Been 10 Months...

It's been 10 months since Bailey was born, and I'm still in awe of her every day.  She has SUCH a great personality, and I can't help but smile when I look at her.  We celebrated her first Easter on Sunday, and she joined in the celebration by crawling for the first time!  It was so cute to watch her go...but now she's into everything!  Yesterday, I left her in the living room with some toys while I ran upstairs to change.  I came back 2 minutes later, and she was gone.  I found her all the way in the kitchen (which is in  the back of the house) opening and closing my cabinet drawers.  She's a fast mover!

Her newest "trick" is that she's able to stand up now, though only in her crib.  Scott lowered the mattress Sunday night (not a moment too soon!), just because she was starting to get herself on to her knees and we knew standing was coming eventually.  Little did we know she'd be standing up in there the very next day!  I put her down for a nap, came downstairs to finish my coffee and looked at the video monitor...and she wasn't there.  I ran back upstairs to find her standing there in the corner of her crib, just out of sight of the camera.  She had the biggest smile on her face and started waving to me when I walked to the doorway.  You could just tell she was SO proud of herself!

Last night, Bailey went to bed at 9:30...waaaayy later than normal!  She and I met up with a friend for dinner and got home around 8:30.  I should have just changed her and put her right to bed, but she wanted to play and, well, I'm a sucker.  She loved crawling all the way to the edge of my bed and then leaning over the side just enough to get some momentum going before I caught her and tossed her back onto the bed.  She did this over and over again until we were both out of breath from giggling and laughing so hard.  It was one of many fun times I've had with her, and it still makes me smile when I think about the sound of her laughing and the little humming noises she made while crawling around the bed.  All that play tired her out, though, because she slept 10 full hours without waking up!

I still think of her as a miracle, and I feel incredibly lucky that I get the special job of being her mommy.  She is truly a blessing.  She was sleeping still when Scott left for work this morning, and he peeked in her room before he left (at this point, she was sleeping on her belly with her baby butt up in the air).  When he came downstairs he was smiling and he said, "She is so beautiful".  We might be biased, considering she's our baby...but she really is beautiful.  :-)

Here are a few pictures of Bailey on Easter...

What's up, doc?

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!

Bailey's on the move!!

Got My Hands Full!

I had no plans to post today, but had to share with you before the day got away from me and I forgot...

I had put Bailey down for a nap this afternoon, and she went down without a fight.  She slept for almost two hours and I had kept an eye on the baby monitor during that time.  When she woke up, she started playing and talking to herself in the crib and I figured that as long as she was happy and occupied I wasn't going to disturb her.  At the time, I was reading a book (quite the rarity these days) and had gone back to reading.  I just happened to glance back at the monitor to see Bailey's adorable face filling the entire screen.  She had the most confused, and yet mischievous, look on her face and she started to smile...and then the room started spinning and I was treated to an up-close-and-personal view of my daughter's mostly toothless gums.

I sat there for a few seconds thinking to myself, what the hell is going on?!  And then I realized that, no, there wasn't an earthquake in her bedroom and no, I wasn't in the middle of the Wizard Of Oz.  Bailey had apparently woken up and decided that she was bored after playing for a few minutes.  So, she turned herself around in the crib, pulled herself up, reached over the edge of the crib to the changing table (which is attached), and pulled the video camera off the table.  The zoom shot of her mouth happened when she decided she was hungry and started chewing on the camera.  Sooooo, in addition to the rest of the baby-proofing we'll be doing, Scott and I will also be lowering her mattress and moving the camera to a shelf where she can't reach it.

Speaking of baby-proofing...Bailey is REALLY starting to get into things now that's learned she can move.  She's constantly going after cords and tables and outlets and the baseboard heater.  And I'm fairly certain she swallowed something questionable that she found under the couch while on one of her reconnasaince missions this morning.  I'm afraid I've got my hands full for the time being.

And now, I've gotta run.  It seems my little darling has decided that the vaccuum looks more fun than her toys and is trying to climb on top of it.  Till next time!

On the Move!!

Bailey is officially on the move!

No, no...she's not walking yet.  Not even crawling, really.  But she IS moving.  I posted a few days ago about how Bailey had just started to sit up from a lying position on her own.  Well, that same afternoon, her grandparents had come over and were going to take her to their house for an overnight visit.  While we were sitting in the living room talking, Bailey rolled over onto her belly, put her arms out in front of her, and started dragging herself across the room...picture the "army crawl".  She did it so nonchalantly that, at first, I didn't take much notice of it.  But then it hit me...my baby, who just a few hours ago was doing nothing but rolling, just scooched all the way across the room!  She's been doing it ever since.  She can get to her hands and knees and she'll start rocking back and forth, but then she drops flat on her belly and goes into the army crawl.  Take it for what you will.  Scott and I are considering her mobile now!

On to Bailey's sleepover with her Mom-mom and Pop-pop...she had a blast, and slept through the night for them!  She hasn't slept through for us in about two or three weeks, and we've been chalking it up to her top teeth coming in.  Anyway, they took her to their mall and got her picture taken with the Easter Bunny there and she did great!  They got a picture for us, and she's got a big smile on her face.  Scott's mom said that Bailey didn't want to leave, so they ended up buying her a pretzel and sitting on a bench by the bunny so she could watch him for awhile.

Scott and I picked her up last night after my last daycare kid went home for the day, and I will never forget the greeting I got when Bailey saw me!  She got this instant look of recognition on her face and the BIGGEST smile...then started waving her arms and making all kinds of noises until I picked her up.  She missed us just as much as we missed her!  

There isn't too much else going on these days.  So far, with the exception of her teething, Bailey has been healthy and happy.  She loves to play in the tub (I still can't believe it, after how much she hated the tub when she was first born!), and will constantly flip herself onto her belly to try and play with the drain.  She's sort of, kind of, almost trying to pull up on things...but we'll take it one day at a time.  For now, she's happy and funny and we're just loving being with her.  Scott is on Spring Break this week, so I know they're enjoying having this time together.  It's wonderful to watch!

Here are just a few more pictures of Bailey that I can't help but share!

Waiting in line to see the Easter Bunny

Just because it's so cute!

A Little Update

We took Bailey to the mall yesterday to have her picture taken with the Easter Bunny.  Scott and I both fully expected her to cry as soon as we sat her on the bunny's lap, but we were surprised when she didn't!  She looked adorable in a blue dress from the Children's Place with a little blue cardigan to go over it, white tights and her white Easter shoes.  As soon as I can get a picture uploaded, I put it on here.

Over the weekend, Bailey started moving around a lot more (time to get baby-proofing!).  Her newest "trick" is that she can now go from laying down flat to sitting herself up without help!  She just started doing it all of a sudden, and it blew me away.  Scott thinks she'll be crawling in the next few weeks...I can't even imagine that!
She's making strides with her sippy cup, as well.  She actually drank from it (water, no less!) on Saturday, so we're hoping that she'll be drinking water more often.  We're tossing around the idea of breaking her of the binky habit.  We decided that we'll still give it to her for bedtime and naps (and long car rides, because she's a monster in the car), but that's it.  Unless she's having a total meltdown and the bink is the only thing that will make her feel better, we'll keep it hidden throughout the day and just offer it to her when she's getting ready to sleep.  We have no idea how it'll work, or if it's even a good (or feasible) idea right now, but we're going to give it a shot.  Luckily, she's not completely attached to the binky, so it shouldn't be too hard to say bye-bye to it. 

She's spending the night with her grandparents (Scott's mom and dad) tonight.  They're on spring break and wanted to take her over night.  Hopefully, she sleeps okay for them!  She's getting her top teeth in and has been sleeping pretty much like crap for us.  Crossing my fingers!

I feel like she does something new every day...I can't wait to see what she'll do tomorrow!!  In the meantime, here are a few pictures from the last week or so...

Giving a little over-the-shoulder action

Out for a ride in her car

We went all Hollywood with the shades...

My Little Stander

She was yelling at me in this one....note her face.

9 Months and Counting...

Bailey had her 9 month well-visit a few days ago, and all went well.  She's almost 28 inches long and weighs 19lbs. 5oz.  She's in the 50th percentile for both height and weight.  Developmentally, she's doing great!  The only thing her doc says we should work on is getting her to drink from a sippy cup.  Easier said than done...

We've tried a sippy cup before.  She knows how to hold it and to put the spout in her mouth.  But she'd rather chew on it or play with it than drink from it.  We tried water in the cup...she won't drink it.  Tried juice...she won't drink it.  We tried her formula in the sippy cup...also a no-go.  Interestingly enough, she'll drink both water and juice from a straw or straight from the glass, but absolutely positively will not drink from the sippy cup.  Any tips any of you may have are welcome!  For now, I've just been filling the sippy with water and giving it to her with snacks and throughout the day to get used to having it around.  

Bailey's just started to get on her knees and rock back and forth (a precursor to crawling, they say!).  She's rolling all over the place and LOVES to stand, but crawling and walking seem to be on the back burner for her these days.  I don't mind, though.  A lot of people have asked me, "Aren't you worried that she's not crawling yet?" or "Aren't you excited for her to start walking?"  My answer to both questions is a firm NO.  Yes, I'll be thrilled for her when she starts crawling and walking.  But am I worried that she isn't doing it right now?  Not a bit.  She'll do it when she's ready.  She was born 6 days after her due date (a full 16 days after her original due date), and decided to make her debut just hours before I was scheduled to be induced.  Just like her birth, I fully believe that she'll know when she's ready and when it's time, and she'll do it.  And not a moment sooner.  Besides, before we know it, she'll be all grown up.  She's already growing before our eyes, and it seems like every day she grows just a little bit further away from being my baby...I'm not quite ready for that yet.  I don't mind that she's not ready to crawl or walk yet.  Just like I don't mind changing her diaper or giving her a bath or feeding her or waking up with her in the middle of the night...or any of the million other things I'm lucky to be able to do as her mother.  I cherish it...all of it.  

Whenever we see someone who we haven't seen in awhile, the first thing they ask us is whether or not Bailey is crawling/walking yet.  There's a little girl who comes to the daycare who is a few days younger than Bailey, but is pretty much crawling.  Sometimes I watch her and wonder when Bailey will do it.  Sometimes I even get a little nervous (and, I'll admit, my competitive mommy spirit kicks in) that a child younger than her (albeit, only by a few days) is crawling.  But then I remember the things that Bailey can do that a lot of other kids her age can't do yet.  She started clapping earlier than most.  She mastered the pincher grasp way ahead of the curve.  She held her head up very early.  I remind myself not to compare any of the kids, because they'll all do their own thing in their own time.

Yes, I sometimes worry that she isn't doing some things yet (unfounded fears, her doc says).  But then she smiles at me, holds out her arms, and says "mama" and I think to myself, who cares?  Let her stay my baby that much longer.  Some day, she'll be running away from me instead of holding out her arms.  She'll be scowling at me instead of smiling.  And I'll be thinking back to these days when she was still "my baby" and wishing I could go back.  Soon enough she'll crawl.  Then she'll walk, and then she'll be running, and it's anybody's guess where she'll go from there.  For now, I am wonderfully, perfectly content with her not crawling.  I am wonderfully, perfectly content with her needing me.  I am wonderfully, perfectly content with her.

Recap!

Once again, it's been quite some time since I devoted any time to this blog.  The last few weeks have been the "one step forward, two steps back" kind, and the blog has taken a backseat to other things.  But so much has happened in the last few weeks that if I don't take a minute to update now, I'll have to make multiple posts just to put it all in!

First off, for those of you wondering, I got my biopsy results back and I do NOT have melanoma!!  You have no idea how relieved I was to hear the doctor say those words over the phone.  I hung up and said to Bailey, "Mommy's fine!  Mommy's fine!" much like I say to her when she falls or is fussy.  And Bailey, intuitive one that she is, looked at me and started clapping like she had any idea what I was talking about.  It was an interesting moment, and I didn't realize until then just how nervous I was about getting those results back.  They weren't perfect, unfortunately.  All three moles that were removed were, in fact, dysplastic and changing.  But, the good news is that the surgeon removed everything and the margins are all clear.  I just have to see my dermatologist for a mole check every six months for now...which I will gladly do.  What a relief!

Now on to my Bailey.  She's come quite a ways since my last post, and I hope I don't forget to put anything in here that she's begun to do.  Let's see...she's still clapping, though more frequently these days, and she seems to really understand that we clap when she does something "good".  Every time we say "Yay, Bailey!" she smiles and claps in response.  She's standing like a pro, though not completely on her own yet.  She has to hold on to something.  She's trying to pull up on things and getting closer and closer to actually doing it every time--she can get to her knees before she gets this confused look on her face and just balances there.  She's rolling all over the place, and can crawl backwards.  Yes, you red correctly.  My girl crawls backwards.  She can't go forward yet, but she's trying.She'll get to her belly from a sitting position and will pump her arms and her legs...but she doesn't get anywhere yet.  I've got to give her points for persistence, though.

We still can't get her to take a sippy cup, although we haven't been trying all that hard.  She's holding her own bottle now, and likes to hold a sippy cup and put it in her mouth, but she refuses to drink any juice or water from it.  She likes her formula!  She's trying new foods, and really loves to eat!  Her favorites are still sweet potatoes, but she also likes chewing on soft pretzel sticks and cut-up apples (without the skin).  And I'm pretty sure she'll be eating Gerber yogurt bites in college.  She LOVES banana-flavored yogurt, but is not a fan of peach.  She'll occasionally drink from a straw but, in typical Bailey fashion, will only do it when she feels like it.  She's a stubborn one!  One of her absolute favorite snacks are Weight Watchers strawberry smoothie popsicles.  Yes, I let my 9-month-old eat popsicles and she loves them.  She splits them with Scott, and as soon as she sees him take it out of the freezer she gets a huge smile on her face and starts leaning forward trying to get to the popsicle.  Here's a picture of her enjoying one with Daddy...

Bailey and Daddy sharing a popsicle

And here's a picture of Bailey when the popsicle is all gone...

Yep...clearly she hates when there's none left.  And, sympathetic mother that I am, I grabbed my camera and took a picture of her crying over her finished treat before consoling her.

Bailey is doing a lot of pointing now, too.  We have pictures of Scott and me in Aruba that are hanging on the wall as you walk downstairs from the bedrooms.  Every time Bailey and I come downstairs, she starts pointing to the pictures.  We always stop and I say "There's mommy and daddy!" while she points at the photos.  Now, she's saying Mama and Dada more frequently, and I honestly think she associates me with Mama and Scott with Dada.  When she wants me to pick her up or play with her she'll hold out her arms to me and say "Mama, mama" over and over again.  Same with Scott..."Dada, dada" when she wants him.  Some might say that she probably doesn't associate us with those names just yet, but I'd like to believe otherwise.  She waves hello and bye-bye, too.  Sometimes when we're walking in her stroller, she throw her hands up in the air and just start waving at anyone that comes our way.  She's quite the friendly baby these days.  And she gives kisses now!  It's the absolute most adorable thing to watch.  We'll say, "Bailey, give daddy kisses" (or whoever) and she leans over and opens her mouth super wide for a kiss.  I love it!

This past week, Bailey had yet another illness issue.  Roseola this time, and it was the worst one she's had yet, in my opinion.  Coughing and congestion I can handle.  Vomiting I can handle.  Teething, gas, fussiness...I can handle.  I absolutely could not handle the roseola, and I felt terrible about it.  She started with a fever of 102 on Friday afternoon.  She was fine otherwise, just more tired than usual.  I chalked it up to teething, although she didn't get a fever when her first two teeth came in.  I gave her some Infant Advil and put her down for a nap, thinking she'd be fine when she woke up.  Not so.  She woke up and her fever had only gone down to 101.2.  I gave her more Advil.  Over the weekend, her fever was anywhere from 102 to 104 degrees, and Advil only brought it done for a little while.  She slept a lot during the day, ate very little, and was generally miserable.  Bedtime was a nghtmare.  She was up just about every hour from Friday through Sunday.  It wasn't like when we were sleep-training her and could get her back to sleep in just a minute by giving her a bink.  No, she woke up screaming, writhing around her crib and NOTHING we did calmed her down.  It was horrible.  Finally, late afternoon on Sunday her fever broke.  Two hours later she broke out in a rash that covered her belly and back.  Then, it spread to her arms and legs, all the way up to her ears and scalp.  We called the after-hours line at the doctor's office, and they were no help at all.  At this point, she had no fever and didn't seem all that bothered by the rash, but she was definitely fussier than normal and just wanted to be held.  

At 2am Monday morning, Bailey woke up screaming again.  We brought her into our room, gave her Advil in case she was uncomfortable, and tried to get her to sleep in bed with us.  No go.  She continued to scream and flail and writhe around for over an hour.  I called my mom and, after an hour of Bailey screaming and flailing around, we took her to the ER.  Now, I've been to the hospital so many times it's almost like a home away from home for me.  But going in as a mother with your child is an entirely different and frightening experience.   Bailey had calmed down by the time we got there and they took us back to a curtained room.  They tested her for both types of influenza and strep (both all clear), then took her to get a chest x-ray.  I got the unfortunate job of having to hold her still while they took the x-rays, and she was not happy.  By the time we left the x-ray room, Bailey was in tears and I was close to it myself. 

Three hours after we had walked in the ER, were on our way home with instructions to follow up with Bailey's doctor the same day.  The ER staff didn't know what it was.  Fast forward to her appointment with her doctor (she looked awful and the rash was still all on her face and body).  They told us there that she had roseola, which is characterized by a high fever lasting up to three days followed by a rash once the fever breaks.  The good news was that the rash didn't hurt her and she wasn't contagious at that point, but being sick in general makes Bailey miserable, and this is the worst I've seen her since she was an infant.  She cried whenever she was awake, and if she wasn't crying then she was constantly fussing until she worked herself up to a good cry.  She just wanted to be held, and all hell broke loose if she was put down.  I ended up wearing her in a chest carrier all day Tuesday because she just wanted to be held and I needed my hands free to take care of the daycare kids, too.  It was crazy.  And she still wasn't sleeping at night (or during the day, for that matter) which meant that Scott and I weren't sleeping either.  We both felt like zombies all week.

She's FINALLY starting to feel better, and I couldn't be more relieved or grateful.  Last night was the first night in a week that she slept well and didn't wake up inconsolably screaming.  She's starting to eat more now, and while she still has her fussy moments, they seem to be few and far between.  Today, at least.  She's slowly getting back to her happy self, and I'm so happy about that!

Tonight we have her 9 month well-visit with the doctor.  No shots at this appointment, so it should go pretty smoothly.  I'll update with her height and weight later on.  For now, I'm going to enjoy the peace and quiet while she naps...and I get to enjoy one more cup of coffee. 

My happy little girl!