Doctor, Doctor!

Until a couple weeks ago, Abby went to a doctor that I wasn't fond of... I had tried to get into my sister's doctor a couple times, but they weren't accepting new patience, so I just stayed where I was. F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. I was able to get Abby into this doctor, and I love her! She's German and so, SO sweet. She took the time to get to know Abby and me and really, genuinely cared. If you're looking for a doctor in the Irving area, I strongly recommend Dr. Edenhoffer!

TOFW HOPE

Earlier this month I was so privileged to be able to not only attend, but to work at Time Out For Women, Plano. For all of you who know what EFY is, it's kind of like that but a two day thing for women. And it was awesome!

My sisters/friends and I had to be at Time Out early and stay late since we all worked it, so we decided to get a hotel room. This was the first time I was going to be away from Abby since she was in the NICU (and now I realize I never really wrote in detail about that.. 8 months later.) Even thought I knew I was leaving her with my wonderful husband, it was still so hard. I was a mess driving up to pick up Chelsea after saying goodbye.

I mean really, who wouldn't miss this sweet face? I wanted to badly to take her with me (which I could have, but I'm not breastfeeding her so she wasn't allowed.) It tuned out to be ok, though.

The first day of TOFW was Friday and it was AWESOME. I just love to sit and be edified in surroundings other than church. Don't get me wrong, church is great and all, but this event was just different. Laughing, crying, clapping... There were so many moments during the day when I would just think "WOW!" Some things that I'd heard before but now they mean something totally different. Last time I went to one of these, I was in high school I believe. My goodness how things have changed!

After the Friday event, a bunch of us went to Chili's. I LOVE MY SISTERS so much. They are just so much fun to be around. We also had a few friends go with us and we had a blast.

(Cortney, Beth, Heather (Olivia in belly :), Me, Chelsea)

Saturday started off early, but great! I was able to pick up Hillary Weeks from her hotel and take her to the event. She is so fun, kind, and genuine. And she also has a daughter named Marley! How cool, huh? The whole day was filled with uplifting moments, great music, and awesome experiences.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I had to go to this wonderful event. It was so great to be behind the scenes and get to enjoy so many more aspects. All of the presenters were just awesome and perfect for TOFW. So many women have told me how they heard something that just rejuvenated them and gave them Infinite Hope to keep going. I'm so glad those women were able to go as well.

When I finally got home, the house was s.p.o.t.l.e.s.s., I has some beautiful daisies waiting for me (my favorite) and everything I've been meaning to organize was done (closets, my side of the dresser, Abby's room) I just couldn't believe it. Paul sure did an awesome job with Abby. I love Paul so much and am so grateful that he is so capable of handling Abby and all that she needs. I love that he succeeds at making me happy and surprising me constantly. He's just the best!

Brace Yourself.

So this morning I got a text from my little sister, Beth, about my last post. It said "Wow thanks for the caution notice before anyone starts reading your blog. CAUTION if you read this you WILL bawl your eyes out! Jerk." Yes, she loves me.

So, after receiving this text, I thought I would caution you all.

CAUTION, GRAB A TISSUE!!! You WILL need it!!!

(Consider yourself warned, Beth.)

Ok, so maybe you didn't need a tissue... Or maybe you did. I sure did when this was happening tonight. If you know Abby, you know it takes an amazing event for her to laugh. I don't know what she was on tonight, but she was HILARIOUS! I mean, Paul and I were laughing so hard we couldn't believe it. And all over a dirty diaper.. Ahh..

Maybe this is just because she's mine, but I really think she's the cutest little girl ever.

8 Short Months

Isn't this just the sweetest face you ever saw?

8 Months:

• Lots of crawling
• Lots of Pull ups
• Babbling whole conversations
• "Whispering" (yeah, it's the sweetest thing ever)
• Teething (still)
• Laughing
• Screaming

Abby's become a pro crawler. She's mastered it not only on carpet, but on hardwood and other slick floors. I love to watch her crawl around and play with toys. In some ways it's helped her become more independent, but in more ways it makes for more mommy watching. Shes constantly crawling to things so she can pull herself up. Once she gets up, she can stay up for quite some time, but then she almost always falls down. Lots of crying all day long because there is lots of banged heads and faces. I try not to "bubble wrap" her by preventing her from falling all the time, because I feel like thats how she will learn how to get down more gracefully. Am I wrong? Or just Mean?

Abby talks a lot and she has such a sweet little voice (when it's not used for screaming). I love it when she gets a serious look on her face and talks so quietly like she doesn't want anyone else to hear. I give her my undivided attention when that happens because I think it's just precious and when she's done talking she's such a happy baby.

Yes, she is still teething but I can finally see that they might break through soon! I wish I could have a timeline, but then again I don't because I fear it will say "About another month".... Grr. Needless to say, she is v.e.r.y. cranky lately.

Luckily, Abby's been taking lots of naps (usually 2 short and one 1 long) during the day. If she doesn't get them in you will know. But now that she's napping more bedtime is a JOKE ... But the lame kind that you never want to hear again. She stands, she cries, she cries, she cries, she screams, she cries... Did I mention she cries? And screams? We have the suspicion that she might be afraid of the dark so tonight she's sleeping with her closet light on but with the door pulled too so there isn't too much light.

As a result to the endless hours of crying each night, Paul or I rock her to sleep a lot. Only after we've tried to wait it out and feed her and wait... It's exhausting and causes both of us to be short tempered on occasion. Luckily, we are never short tempered together. It's wonderful. One of us is always able to take a deep breath and regain control of this loud situation.

So tonight as I rock and rock and hummm and rock and "shhh" and rock and hummm, Abby attempts to cry her way out of it so she can play OR she takes her paci out of her mouth and tries to stick it in mine OR she just starts "whispering". All of these happen when it is not the time nor place. Then the thought comes to mind "What if this were the last time?" Bam. I pray so hard to my Father in Heaven that tonight wasn't the last time I would get to have the priceless privileged to rock my baby girl to sleep. Heaven knows how much I would regret tomorrow if I hadn't taken the time to comfort tonight. As Abby finally fell asleep I found myself once again grateful for this huge blessing in my life. This blessing that drives me to tears of frustration and joy. I thought back about how fast these 8 months have gone. I really don't want to have many regrets when I look back next month, so Heaven help me to keep my patience through this trying stage of Abby's time with us. I hope the crying, teething, hissy fits will all be over soon, but even if they last another year (and fits till she's 30), I hope I can dig deep to find the patience to sit and rock and humm and shh and rock and humm and shh and love this little bundle who is growing so insanely fast. I hope that when she's a nutty teenager that maybe she will just have an inkling of a feeling that maybe her mommy and daddy love her more than she could ever imagine.

And when I finally got her in bed I saw that sweet "sleep smile" that has become quite the stranger around here the past 5 months.

HaPpy BirtHdAy Jamie!

(turns out it's not so easy trying to get an almost 8 month old to hold a sign. it sure was hilarious though!)

We hope your day is wonderful!

Absters

Abby is going to be 8 months in 1 week. It makes my stomach hurt to see how fast she is growing. She is such a joy, though. I love all the new things she is doing (which I will tell you in my 8 month post about her in a week :). She's starting to keep us on our toes for sure!

These 3 pictures are from Abby's first swinging experience. She didn't really care to much about it, but she didn't ever cry. She was just super chill in there looking around! It was fun to meet a few friends and have my sister come down to go with us. Next time we'll choose a better park because this one was pretty crappy!
Last weekend was the first time I've been away from Abby for a night since she was about a week old (when she was in the nicu). I tried not to think about it too much, but once I met Paul to leave them for the night I just couldn't contain myself. Yeah I'm pretty much a baby when it comes to my babies! I wanted to take them both with me so bad!
This is how we find Abby every morning now. Don't be alarmed, Paul so graciously moved her bed down today after church. The first morning I walked into this, it scared me to death. I was half asleep just going to check on her and all I saw was a little girl on the verge of flipping out of her bed! eek! She still climbs up and stands, but just her head sticks over now. She is so tall!

Speaking of the Absters... She's crying. Time for mommy duty.

Bum Wigglin' Fun

Here you go, folks! She sure does know how to get where she wants to go now! I think it will be both exciting and scary once she realizes she can go out of the living room now. Thats really the only room she knows!

3 days clean

Abigail has been on Acid Reflux medicine since she was 4 days old, but as of last Friday she's been off of it. I have to admit, it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. We are seriously pushing solids for 2 of her 4 meals a day and it seems to be working. Don't get me wrong, she still spits up like a faucet, but she doesn't scream much when she does, so I guess thats a good thing. I'm going to call and see if I can get into a friend's doctor tomorrow. Hopefully they are accepting new patients, because I'm ready to move on from Abby's old doctor. I'm not sure if we will get Abby back on the acid reflux medicine or not, we'll just have to see what her new doctor says! It's really nice not having to worry about when to give her the medicine and how long we have to wait after, so I kind of hope she will continue to do well without it.

BIG NEWS!

Abby started crawling last night! It was super fun because both Paul and I were here for it. I know he misses getting to see her all the time, especially when she does new and fun things. He frequently says "You go to work" so he can stay home. :) Last night once she started crawling she didn't want to stop!

She also learned, just yesterday, how to go from the crawling to sitting position! This will surely make nap and bed time interesting. When she does get to the sitting position, she gets the BIGGEST grin on her face like "I DID IT!" She's been trying for so long to get that down!

I love seeing her little bum crawl across the floor! It just makes me smile so big. Today she kept crawling into things and trying to ram them with her head so they would get out of the way (i.e. Paul, the kitchen table...). She cracks us up. I will get a video of her crawling soon and get it up. It's just the cutest thing I've ever seen :)