Halloween Hangover

We had a lot of fun on Halloweekend. It is a lot more fun with a girl big enough to be excited about trick or treating and understand the idea of going door to door and saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" to each house. Abby had a great time. We had a party and went trick or treating with all her best friends. When I say we went trick or treating I mean Abby and Steve - Olivia slept through the entire costume part of the party. Now the hard part is regulating the candy consumption, since we had quite a bit of leftover candy (I may have overdone it with 4 bowls...).

Olivia is getting quite close to figuring out crawling. She's been practicing picking her belly up off the floor for the last couple of days. She's going to have me running around chasing her soon. And I'm going to need to get my baby gates up before I want to. Olivia's also working on night 3 of the Cry It Out method of sleep training tonight. I wish she could have been easy like Abby, who started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks and never stopped after that. Olivia, on the other hand, has been up once or twice each night since about 6 months (we had that brief interval from 4 months to around 6 months where she slept all night, so I know she can do it). We started Sunday night with the CIO plan. Olivia woke up at 11:45 and after Steve checked on her and put her back into bed she cried until after 2:00. It was a long, long night laying in bed listening to her cry. I hated every second of it, but I hate feeling exhausted even more. Last night she woke up twice, but only cried for 10 or 15 minutes each time, so I'm hoping after another night or two she will have the system figured out and will just put her little thumb back into her mouth and go to sleep.

Abby is still cracking us up. She has been really into barbies and dancing lately, so we had a barbie dance party last night. She had all her barbies lined up around one of Olivia's blankets and they were all taking turns dancing. She also dances at any opportunity (music on t.v. shows, songs she makes up, even the nintendo wii dancing game). I think dance class will be in her future - and I know her dad is not looking forward to all those dance recitals.

Can A Mom Get A Break Around Here?

And lately the answer has been no. But that's okay - like I told Grandma Jennie, there will be plenty of time to rest when I'm dead. Or when they grow up and move out. Then I'll probably wish I was back to the craziness and exhaustion that has defined my last few days. In fact, as I am typing this, my children are both confined in Olivia's exersaucer and jumper (yes... Abby climbed into the exersaucer again and she can't get out. I am leaving her there for now. It is safer).

So... our craziness started Saturday. We took the girls to Mackinac City for the day with the intention of getting Abby some winter appropriate shoes of some sort and we heard that the Hush Puppies store was having a sale. It was a great sale, so great that they were all out of Abby's size. But we had a good time being tourists and checking out the other stores. Sunday was also busy - we attended the birthday party of Abby's friend Autumn and tried to get cleaned up a ready for a busy week. And I committed myself to helping our friend Andrea with two extra emergency foster kids (she already has 2 adopted foster kids and another that she has permanently and will be adopting). So yes... I willingly put myself into a situation where there would be 7 kids and 2 adults with all the kids under 5 and two of whom didn't speak English. It was a hard day to begin with, then my friend Kimberlee called to tell me that the doctor thought her water had broken and she needed someone to take her two little boys so she could go get that checked out. So... 9 kids, under 5, two who can't communicate with Andrea and I. Yep... I'm tired. Still. Luckily, Kimberlee's water hadn't broken, so we are still waiting for that baby to arrive in a few weeks. And the Spanish speaking foster kids were moved to a Spanish speaking foster home near the school where the little boy attends. But boy, did that day wipe me out.

Olivia hasn't helped matters any. She has reverted to newborn sleeping habits at night. She is up at least once, and some nights twice. And if I don't nurse her, she is not going back to sleep. We tried Monday night to get her back to sleep without nursing. After 1 hour I gave in and fed her. After 2 hours she finally was sleeping soundly enough for me to lay her down. Grr..... Some days I wonder why she can't get with the program. It wouldn't be so frustrating to be up in the middle of the night every night had she not slept for 11 hour stretches just a few months ago (for like 9 weeks). I know she can do it. I don't know how to get her back into the sleeping habit without depriving the rest of us of a lot of sleep. The Ferber (cry it out) Method does not work for this child. So yeah... I definitely have 2 strong willed children. This could be a long, long 18 years.

And all of that only brings me to Tuesday, when my willingness to watch Kimberlee's kids for a dentist appointment and house viewing turned into another 5ish hours of extra children. They had a lot of fun. Maize, maybe, did not. I am happy to have them around to entertain Abby, but it makes resting or getting anything done impossible. Abby loves having "her boys" Rian and Huron over. She even thinks they are her brothers. So, we'll keep them around. Then she can have 2 "brothers" without me having to have 2 more kids.

Now onto Thursday and Friday and then Trick or Treating. And maybe by December my life won't be so crazy busy. Or Olivia can sleep through the night. Or something...

A Bowl on the Table...

Is worth a mess on the toddler, right? It is in our house anyway. We have some bowls that have a handy little suction cup on the bottom. They work great for keeping little people from picking up their bowls of sloppy, wet cereal and walking all around the house. At least I thought they did. Then Abby tried to pick up the bowl to drink the milk out of her cereal and the entire bowl of cinnamon toast crunch ended up coming down on top of her. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe for a minute or two, then I took her picture, then we cleaned up the mess.

We also cleaned up a very big mess inside. We had a bathroom with a major ceiling mildew problem. Part of it was pre-existing, but the rest was our own creation from not running the vent fan so that we didn't wake up Abby any earlier than she got up on her own. Needless to say after scrubbing the ceiling with bleach and repainting the whole bathroom, no one in this house will be showering without running the vent fan. But, the bathroom went from a blah (and dirty) light blue to a fabulous "Tinkerbell" green, so I think it was well worth the effort in the 80+ degree heat.

Olivia and Abby are both cutting teeth. Abby has her last two molars just about through and Olivia has been chewing her fists for a solid 3 weeks. They both also developed snotty noses over the weekend, which for Abby has always been a sure sign that the teeth were just about through. No coughs, no sneezes, no fevers, just icky running noses. I hope their little teeth hurry in - Olivia kept me up most of the night since she couldn't lay flat to sleep and she is definitely too big to be crammed into an infant car seat, even if it is the most comfortable way for her to sleep. So, after keeping me up all night (I'm operating on maybe 3.5 hours of sleep today), Olivia took a big long morning nap. Of course, I had to stay awake to watch Abby who is wearing her big girl panties today. So far no accidents... I hope she can keep that up.

Sleepless in Sault Ste. Marie

Olivia slept 5 hours last night, which was awesome. Unfortunately Abby was up two separate times during that 5 hours. These girls need to communicate better so I can get some sleep.

Abby has decided she wants to wear big girl "underwears" but she has not decided that she needs to use the potty also, so my laundry is increasing exponentially. And my floors are really clean from all the mopping.

Other than those two events our life has been pretty uneventful in the last 24 hours. I'm enjoying that uneventfulness. Now we just need some really nice weather so we can go outdoors and enjoy some fresh air.

2 Weeks Old

Or negative 3 weeks... depending how you look at it.

Olivia went in for a check up today to make sure she was gaining weight. She's gained 11 ounces since Friday - I'd say that's pretty good progress for a little lady. So she was up to 7 pounds 11 ounces again and was 19 1/2 inches long (although the length measurements always seem a bit shady to me).

Abby's been having a great time with Grandma Mary - they spent a lot of time outside blowing bubbles and exploring the backyard. She is sure enjoying her grandma time! I am trying to enjoy it too, but today a nap was definitely not in the cards for me. First the mailman rang the doorbell. Then once I got back into bed the phone rang. After that Olivia wanted fed. Then she was gassy and squeaking, so I needed to hold her upright against my shoulder. By the time I got her comfortable and ready to nap Abby was up from her 2 hour nap. So... I think early to bed is in my plans. Especially after Abby woke us up at 4 a.m. and Olivia joined her awake party at 5:30 a.m. It has been a very long day...

Heading Home

Our family of four will be making the trek back to Sault Ste. Marie tomorrow to take Olivia to her home. We had considered staying down state longer, but we needed to get Olivia in to see her own doctor within 48 hours of her discharge from DeVos. Obviously, we aren't quite getting her there within 48 hours, mostly because our doctor was booked solid until Friday afternoon. So back into the car we go...

I forgot how long the night is with a newborn. I've been pretty spoiled the last week getting to rest without having to wake up and feed a little person. Last night was a learning experience for both Olivia and I. We had to figure out how she likes to be swaddled (apparently her arms are never to be confined), what her feeding schedule is (she likes to eat and then "snack" again about 20 minutes later - this is a habit we are going to break), and what sounds are just her normal squeaking and which ones are because she needs something. I hope tonight we can do a little better on getting her needs met without keeping me up all night. I'm sure Steve was enjoying the fact that he and Abby were sleeping in another room.

Abby has been loving her little sister and really enjoying picking out her outfits and helping with diaper changes. She seems to be on track for being an awesome big sister. She has also been saying some really funny stuff in the last 48 hours. I'm noticing it more and more now that we are spending time with her and not with the NICU staff. We have a pirate book at home, so the other day when she was up visiting at the hospital she just randomly said to me "prepare to meet your doom" - there were quite a few people in the room that day trying not to break out laughing.

Our Girl - 33 Weeks

How your baby's growing:

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

from (http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-33-weeks_1122.bc)

We had another check-up today. Everything was good and growing on schedule. There have apparently been a ton of really sick people around town lately and the doctor had admitted three kids around Abby's age to the hospital, so we are hoping to avoid whatever it is that is making the rounds.

Abby and I have almost survived our first day of our little stretch with Steve. He made it safely to Chicago around 3 this afternoon and Abby and I have been missing him already. Abby is all off schedule, didn't take a nap at all today, and is still going strong at 8:40 p.m. I'm hoping that means she will sleep in for me, since there won't be any alarms going off in my room tomorrow morning. Although she seems to have a knack for waking me up early. This morning Abby woke me up at 5:30 a.m. to tell me "Abby is tired." It's one of those things where you don't know whether to laugh or be upset that you have to crawl out of bed at 5:30 to go put her back into her own bed and turn her Veggie Tales c.d. back on. She didn't even want cuddled or anything, she just wanted to tell me she was tired. What a girl...

And... to keep today even more interesting, Abby wore a skirt under a dress today. And I had to take her out in public with her skirt on under her dress. Luckily they were both denim and the skirt didn't peek out too much. Unluckily, she got food on the dress (which was on the outside) and had a diaper leak on the skirt and tights, so I get to do double the laundry for today. Oh well... at least she has a little bit of spunk and independence.

Abby is Grouchy

"Abby is grouchy."

The above statement came directly from the little girls mouth on the way home from play group. She wasn't kidding. After 1 entire hour of crying before taking her nap, I am exhausted. So for today, all you are getting from me is Abby's revelation that she is grouchy (this was said before the napping incident).

I think I should be grouchy too... but I am trying hard not to be. First my little grouch woke me up at 3:30 because she wanted to listen to her veggie tales c.d. Then the city decided they needed to remove the huge embankments along the edge of the road. Last year they were chest high when the city came through and took them down. This year they are mid-shin to knee high. I'm not sure that amount of snow merited waking me up at 6 a.m. so that they could remove it - I could see over the bank just fine, even in the granny car.

I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Insomnia Again

I thought the insomnia was supposed to be a late pregnancy problem - at least that's how it went with Abby. Boo! I am super tired and have to stay awake with Little Miss Sunshine, who is all energy. Maybe it was that sprinkle donut I let her have for breakfast.

No Internet Worms Here

Apparently we were not victims of the internet worm, or maybe we were and we just don't know it yet. Either way, the computer is still working and Abby is still trying to play with it.

I slipped covered an old chair today - the quilted one from all the pictures. I'm not 100% happy with the result, but I am about 90% okay with how it looks, so we're just going to leave it at that. For an old $5 garage sale chair it's been through a lot. And considering I made the slip cover from scratch without a pattern, I think I'm doing pretty well. I just need to hem the bottom and then we will be ready to photograph it (with Abby in it of course).

So it is again April Fools Day. There was no white pony in my driveway this morning. I didn't even have the energy to try and trick any of you today. Abby already used up all the tricks in this house when she woke us up at 1:15 this morning and then continued to cry intermittently (both while awake and asleep) for the rest of the night. It was the first night in months that Maize did not wake me up, so of course Abby had to make sure I didn't get any uninterrupted sleep in.

I Just Want A NAP!

But Abby apparently doesn't want one herself. She is on an afternoon rampage and only had a short nap this morning, so we are getting to the ridiculously tired stage. It's a very good thing her best friend in the world, Maize the dog, is feeling rather playful today and is enjoying Abby's petting and pulling game.

Abby is still working on her 4th upper tooth (it will be her 6th overall). She's been chewing lots of things that she normally keeps out of her mouth. For example, she's been trying out pacifiers, which she hasn't used since she was about 8 weeks old. Unfortunately, she wasn't old enough to read the instruction manual, which would have told her that she has the pacifier in her mouth upside down.

Tonight is library night. We normally go during the day, but Steve will be heading to Salem, Oregon in about 10 days and he wanted a chance to pick out some books too. Abby has been much more interested in reading books lately, especially with her dad. I bet they will have a good time choosing some new things to read at the library tonight.

Busted!

We caught Abby red, or should we say whites, handed pulling all the laundry out of our clean clothes basket. Even more impressive is her standing on her own - she's on her way now!

We have it all on video tape, but Blogger won't upload it for us. We will keep trying, because it is too cute not to share. The little turkey loves to pull clean clothes out of the basket as fast as I can put them in.

After 5 nights in a row of Abby waking up in the middle of the night, we are finally reaching wits ends here. I think the first few nights she didn't feel good, but I have a feeling now she just wants to have a little snuggle and sleep in our bed. Last night I spent over an hour trying to get her back to sleep and in her crib, but she would have none of it. Tonight she may just find herself alone and awake for a while to see if that will help break her of this new and not cool habit. Afterall, moms have got to sleep too!

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa Steve Osgood! We wish we could be down to help celebrate Grandpa's birthday, but we will hopefully be down in Hastings this coming weekend, so we can give him a birthday hug and kiss then. Until then, Abby taped a special birthday message for him.

Abby doesn't get to take her morning naps anymore, at least for a day or two while we try to figure out why she keeps waking up at 4 in the morning. We are hoping she is just sleeping too much during the day and not taking the morning nap will solve that problem. She is getting bigger, so we bet she can make it all morning just playing. I, on the other hand, may not be able to make it all morning after being up around 4 a.m. for the last 4 mornings. That is just too early!

Abby has survived one wicked bout of diaper rash. Something she ate yesterday morning must have been a bad idea because it make her little insides sick and she got the worst diaper rash in her short history. It went from nothing at noon to broken skin by 1:30. Luckily our great doctor's office was super helpful and got Abby some prescription diaper rash cream ("Magic Butt Paste"). She is now feeling good again after a whiny afternoon and evening. We are guessing that the yogurt covered cranberries were the culprit, since everything else she ate yesterday was previously eaten and successfully digested. I guess we'll have a whole bag of yogurt covered cranberries up for claims when we come to visit on Friday night.

Ten Months Old

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Abby partied all day yesterday, literally, to celebrate being 10 months old. First she went to church, then to a baby shower, then she had friends over to play Nintendo. And she did all of this with no naps. Not a good plan on her mom or dad's part. But since she is pretty darn cute and generally happy she pulled it off without too much crying or crabbiness.

Abby loves her newest hat, which came from her future Aunt Courtnie's mom and dad. It was very soft and warm. She's been wearing it a lot with her new coat and doesn't care if you don't think red and pink are a good match.

Today is Abby and Mom do laundry day - and boy do we have an abundance to wash again. We also have a ton of dishes to do after the partying yesterday. I can't wait until Abby is big enough to be a helper instead of a distraction or a pulling the clothes back out of the basket non-helper. At least she is the cutest kid on the block while she is preventing me from getting things done.

Abby typed the first part.

New Foods

These are the last of the Florida pictures that we are going to blog, since we are getting behind in what big girl Abby looks like now. You can't see her new top front tooth, but it is in and coming down a little more each day. So, for the rest you'll have to check out our flickr page (see the first Florida picture post) or wait until we get the 9 months photos posted on the Walmart page where you can print them off yourself. This bottom photo cracked me up. Abby can see over the top of her stroller tray, but she kept peeking under it to get a better look at the fountain. She is one smart cookie!
















Abby has been enjoying a few great new foods lately. Today for lunch she munched some lima beans and ravioli. Now, Grandma Lorraine can tell you about our family and lima beans, but I'll give you the short version. For the few weeks Steve and I stayed with Grandma Lorraine and Grandpa Harley, Grandma was investigating what Steve liked to eat, since he is a wee bit picky. When she asked about vegetables he told her he liked green beans, corn, and lima beans. The one vegetable that most vegetable eaters can't handle - lima beans. So apparently Abby has a little bit of her daddy's taste buds. Abby's also been eating snow peas and dried fruit, especially cranberries.

We are finally back on schedule for napping, and hopefully soon for waking up. I had to get up at 7 am this morning since some little bug went to sleep at 5:30 pm. We did force her to wake up at 8:30 to eat, but she went right back to sleep after her dinner. We are not going to do that one again!

Clean Teeth, Tired Mommy, and Jumping Beans

Abby had to brush her teeth after all the candy canes she tasted. Good thing she likes to brush her two little teeth. She even got to use a Crest SpinBrush to get them super clean. We had to document the teeth cleaning since we documented the candy eating. That way no one gets the wrong idea about what the dentist around here does to ensure Abby's teeth stay beautiful!

Abby is wired today for some reason - she has had no candy, no sugar, and only the normal baby food (plus she tried baby food chicken). Her poor jumper is going to be worn out by the time she is done with it. And the unfortunate thing is that I would really like her to have a nice nap this afternoon instead, since she woke me up at 4:30 this morning. Maybe all this playing will make her sleep really well tonight! On top of the lack of sleep, my coffee maker has decided to be worthless and somehow, no matter how careful I am, half the coffee grounds end up in the pot. There is nothing worse than crunchy coffee. That may be on my Christmas list, or maybe I will just give up drinking coffee all together. After all, I did make it 2 whole years before having a cup a few weeks ago. But a hot drink on a cold day is a good thing... what a dilemma!

That being said, I think my jumper is almost jumped out, so it is probably back to changing diapers for me. Have a wonderful Monday - we are going to enjoy watching the snow fall (again) tonight.

It's Good To Be Cute

If it weren't for Abby's cuteness she'd be in trouble. Abby and I slept a lot of last night on the futon in the living room - that worked out okay until the dog came to check us out and woke Abby up. Now the story of how we got on the futon can be told in the long version or the short version. Here's the short one - crying, whining, finally asleep in her own crib, one hour, screaming, inconsolable, feverish, tired mom, making up the futon. Abigail and I had a talk today about the need to sleep in her own bed tonight OR ELSE...

On a good note, Abby's fever is gone for good, we hope. If it does come back today then the doctor's office wants her to come in and get checked out. I told her that information, so hopefully she will decide to feel better, since she really doesn't like the doctor right now. But for now we have a super happy girl. She was playing peek-a-boo with me earlier (she holds up the blanket, or in this case pants and covers her own face). Right now she is eating her breakfast and watching Sesame Street. Hopefully today will be a good day all day with no fever and lots of naps! Happy Tuesday :-)

Un-Slumber Party

This is the face Abby made when I told her to show me her tooth. We'll have to work on a smile version of "show me your tooth" later. We are much to tired today for learning many tricks after our un-slumber party. After the perfect storm of shots, teething, and a babysitter on Saturday, Abby was a hot mess last night. Mostly hot. Her fever was back and was hotter than before, so when she woke us up at 12:30 we decided she better snuggle with us so we could keep an ear on her and feel her temperature more easily. Nine and a half hours later she was awake and well rested, while I was exhausted from trying not to fall off the edge of the bed and having a little wiggle bug sleeping right next to me. Luckily she is feeling back to normal today, except for being wiggly, which has resulted in a bumped head (again). It's a good thing she is tough, this learning to crawl and stand is dangerous work.

So... for Abby this will be the last un-slumber party for a long while. Next time I am just going to snuggle her on the couch since I didn't get any sleep anyway. Good thing Abby likes to take several naps during the day!

Regression

Someone needed rocked back to sleep at 1:30 in the morning and another furry someone wanted to go out and pee at 6:00 this morning. I am tired. Abby and Maize need to get back to the sleeping all night pattern or I am going to have to start taking naps again!

Abby is awake and watching Noggin this morning. For some reason they are showing the exact same episodes as were on yesterday morning, except that the 9:00 episode from yesterday was on at 9:30 and the 9:30 show from yesterday was on at 9:00. Don't they realize that adults are forced to watch these terrible shows too in order to keep an eye on their little guys? I may have to find the address for Noggin and give them a piece of my mind. Maybe that is the tired and grouchy part of me...

Abby and I are going to try and make an apple berry crisp today. I'm not sure how that will taste, but we've got apples to use and not enough for an apple only desert. We are getting pretty good at cooking. Hopefully the sun will be out enough tomorrow to take Abby to the Soo Locks to get her picture with some pretty fall leaves. Happy Friday!

Crazy Night Owl

I am tired this morning. Very tired. I don't recall approving a late night party, but Abby was sure that it was on the agenda. So, until 11:30 we had a party that was fun for her and not so fun for Steve and I. She had like 3 full bottles, we tried rocking, singing, putting her into bed and leaving, letting her lay in bed with us. We finally gave her a little tylenol since she is working on some new teeth and she went right to sleep, but I doubt that is because of the tylenol. And... she was up 1 whole hour earlier than yesterday. Not that 7:15 is too early, since Steve had already been through the shower, but still a short night for our normally long sleeper.

It is cold here. Yesterday we didn't make it into the 50's and we are expecting more of the same today. We will be wearing lots and lots of sweaters for a long while. That and staying inside - especially because a skunk was outside and making the neighborhood way stinky last night.

Abby's been eating some great new things, like animal crackers. We bought a solid food feeder, which is basically a netted bag that she can gum foods through without big pieces choking her. She is happy and we are happy not to be picking food out of her mouth every few minutes. She had mushy cookie all over herself and her clothes yesterday. Not only does she love the feeder, Maize loves it too. We've had to disinfect it and Maize has been lectured about her position as a dog and how she is not allowed to eat people food or use people utensils.

And so, time for Thursday in the chilly cold, U.P. We've got to make some yummy foods for our bible study tomorrow. I'm thinking pumpkin bread :-)