Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Goodnight!! 

Visit from AK!

We recently saw Jesse's aunt and uncle, Don and Cindy (his mom's brother and wife), who were visiting from Alaska!  Jesse was lucky enough as a child to go to Alaska and visit.  Hopefully one day we will get there again.  But as always, it was so fun to see them and so short!! 

Oops, I guess we didn't get a picture of Don!!  Sorry Don!  And isn't Allison's artwork beautiful??  She was putting on "makeup"!  AAAHHHH!!!  Luckily it was all washable markers!

TAGS!!

I know I previously posted about Kara's love of tags, well Grandma Linda bought her a new tag blanket!  Made by a lady she works with, it is sooo cute and soft!  She loves it.  It is so funny, she still always looks for the tag on a toy or finds it and sucks on it! 

Need.More.Time.

So much to do, so little time!!!  Seriously, how is it possible that Christms is 10 days away??  Well, at least I finally got my Christmas shopping done!  Now...to find time to wrap these presents!  Oh, well, the kids (I mean Allison, since Kara isn't mobile yet) wouldn't leave them alone anyway if I had them wrapped and under the tree!  Need to get a picture of the kids with Santa...I had my chance...  It happened by accident.  I went to St. Cloud to pretty much start and finish my Christmas shopping in one day (and get a haircut!) on Monday, and at about 12:30 Jesse calls and wants to know when I will be home!  He had an interview in St. Cloud (which I was very excited about!!).  So, what to do with the kids...well he brought them to me at the mall while he had his interview...great, but that was 2 hours I got basically nothing done at the mall!  ANYWAY, while we were walking around and I was trying to keep Allison from breaking anything, I saw Santa!  So we got in line.  While in line I realize poor Allie looks like a homeless child.  This is what happens when you are gone and dad is in charge and lets her dress herself and leaves like that!  Not that Santa cares, but I thought if I want to get a picture I wanted to dress them all up cute for it!!!  Well, I probably should have taken the opportunity because now I don't know when we will get to see Santa!!  Neither one cried and both sat on Santa's lap too!!  Allison told him she wanted a bunny for Christmas...not sure where that came from!  Anyway, also on my to do list, go see the light show on Eagle lake (I think that is where it is anyway).  Hopefully Friday.  I also wanted to see the Hollidazzle, but maybe next year, Kara will like it more next year.  Oh, and I guess I might as well just put away that box of Christmas decor I have still sitting in our living room that I didn't get around to opening!  If it isn't out by now, I don't think we need it!  We do have decoarations, I just found this box after I thought I was done and was gonig to put a few more things out.  But oh, well.  Baking to do Friday as well!!  I have no idea what I am wearing for Christmas, but at least the kids have cute outfits!!  Thanks Grandma Nancy!  OH, but that reminds me, I need to get Allison tights yet!  ANyway, right now on my list is sleep, so good night!

Kara gets Tubes!

Today was Kara's surgery day for her tubes!  Mom was very nervous.  First of all she couldn't have anything to eat/drink after 3 a.m.  Well, she sometimes sleeps all night and sometimes she gets up...so what to do, wake her at 2:30 or just pray she sleeps.  I went with let her sleep, and she slept ALL Night, I had to wake her to leave at 6:50 (and she was so tired the night before she had been in bed since 7:30).  I was so proud of her!  Lets hope that continues!

Striking a pose before surgery!

All ready to go with the CRNA.

Struggling to wake up after surgery!  She was soo sad!  :(

As far as the surgery, everything went fine.  She has some fluid in her ears which our pediatrician told us at her 6 mo. check up, so I knew that.  But because of that she needs to stay on the oral antibiotics for 10 days along with doing the ear drops for 4 days.  Oh, well, hopefully this is the last time for a while anyway!  She was/is kind of fussy after the anesthesia and procedure.  But that should be over by tomorrow (at least for Rhonda -our daycare lady's sake, I hope so). Thanks so much to Grandma Nancy for coming with and helping out!!

The numbers

Miss Kara weighed in at 17lbs 14oz and 27 1/2 inches long.  She is following the growth curve perfectly!!  Which we knew she was plenty chubby!!  And getting so big, she wears 9-12 month clothes already and that is because she needs the length!  People think Allison was not this chubby...here's her stats at 6 mo...17lbs 4oz and 26 inches long, so she was at LEAST as chubby since she was 1 1/2 inches shorter than Kara!  It is just hard to believe my skinny minnie had rolls like Chubbs (Kara :).  Anyway, we are just glad they are both healthy!!

6 Months!

I probably start every month post about Kara's age this way, but I can't believe she is 6 months already?!  How is it possible that my baby is 1/2 way to 1 year???  She is so much fun.  She is now eating cereal, fruits and veggies and she has even had a couple baby crackers, she LOVES it all!!  She is almost sitting on her own, will for a short time, but I like to keep the boppy around her yet...she gets a bit tippy especially when she is excited or reaches for something and forgets she is sitting up!  She rolls, but still only to her stomach!  The little stinker just won't roll back.  She is such a happy baby now, even with all her ear troubles!  Poor baby has had ear infections and is getting tubes on Tuesday.  I am looking forward to it, the tubes helped Allison sooo much and I am hoping for the same results here!  Unfortunately because she is so young when she is getting them, she will probably need at least one more set.  And hopeing after her tubes she will start sleeping through the night consistently...please?!  Right now she sleeps all night maybe 1 or 2x a week, but even when she does get up, usually we just feed her and she goes back to sleep.  Normally by 6 months I would be all about letting her "cry it out", but with her ear infections and she has had a cold, we get up with her and usually end up feeding her, then she goes back to sleep.  There are pros and cons to her sleeping all night tho...she goes to bed between 7:30/8 and if she gets up during the night (usually between 2 and 4) she will sleep until 7:30/8 (maybe longer, but we wake her by 8 so she will take 2 good naps).  If she doesn't get up during the night she will get up between 5:30 and 7.  If it is before 6, I try putting her back to bed.  Sometimes she will fall back to sleep, but sometimes she just talks in her bed, kind of funny, but I usually can't fall back to sleep then.  She had proffessional pics taken last week, so hopefully I can post a couple pics from that soon and she has her 6 mo. check up on Mon., so I will update then!!  Prayers for a good surgery on Tuesday please!  :)

Tag Baby

Kara LOVES tags!  If there is a tag on a toy/blanket, she will find it!  It is sooo cute!  Yes, she does have a taggies blanket, but she seems even more excited to find the tags on her toys!!  I love this age!  Hopefully a longer 6 mo. post to come!!

Dirty Thirty!!

The term coined by our MUCH younger :) friend when we got together to celebrate turning 30!  While I also am "MUCH" younger :)...we recently got together and celebrated 3 of my best friends who turned 30 this fall.  It was a MUCH anticipated and awaited girls night out.  We stayed in downtown Minneapolis and went to a piano bar (UGH,  mind block, I can't think of the name of it!!) that was a lot of fun and then we went to a couple "other" bars...  It was a fun night with many laughs and it was decided we MUST do it again this spring when their MUCH younger friend (ME) turns the big 3-0!  Miss Amanda has a few years, but we won't hold it against her!

The 30's!  Well...everyone but me!  :)

Celebrating Jamie's b-day, tradition to go to BL or H Thanksgiving weekend!

Allison Kay

Here are a few pics from Allison's 3 year pics!!  Thanks so much to the wonderful Steff Jansen who took them!!  Tomorrow we have Miss Kara's pics!  6 months!!!  I would write more, but it is after 10 and I neeeeeeed to get to bed!!!  Hopefully more posts to come tomorrow!!  But isn't she beautiful!

Roll Over Rover

Miss Kara is rolling over...she rolls from her back to her stomach (has been for a good week now).  Doesn't surprise me too much because since she was 2-3 months old she has been going WAY over on her side to look at something or reach for something, but she does not like tummy time!  So she rolls over and then gets mad after about 5-10 minutes...occasionally longer and starts grunting and now screeching (she is very loud!).  She is very strong, she gets way up on her arms, but then when she is getting sick of it she puts her arms out to her sides sometimes with her head up and kicks her legs, then she will put her nose on the ground and eventually lay her head down.  We are trying to teach her to roll back, but she hasn't figured that one out yet.  I think she did it one day, but no one was in the room.  I left her on the blanket to get something and she was WAY off the blanket, the only way I can figure out that she got there was rolling.  The silly girl rolls over ALL the time tho!  Everytime we put her on the floor within a few minutes she is on her stomach! 

Happy Halloween - A bit late!

I was sooo frustrated, on Halloween we had taken some cute pictures of the girls on the front step before we took Allie trick or treating.  However, when I went to look at the pics later on my camera, they weren't there?!  Turns out my SD card was full!!  I didn't even know that could happen, oops!  Anyway, ever since then I have been meaning to get the girls dressed up again and take some pics, we can't not have any pictures of them from Halloween this year!  Anyway, I FINALLY got around to it today!  It went good considering I had to try to do it by myself (not easy to get them both to look at me and get Kara to smile with me behind the camera!).  Only bad thing was it was too windy (and cold) to go outside.  But here are my kiddos in their "Halloween" costumes!  Better late than never!  And they are pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!!

Meow!

They are so cute!!!

My beautiful "butterfly" ladybug - Allie says she is a butterfly.

Cereal and More

When you go a month between posts there are about 100 things I could blog about, and it seems overwhelming with where to even start, but I'll just start here:

A week ago we started cereal with Kara!  She was showing all the signs she was ready, sitting with support (minimal), watching us eat, opening her mouth if you pretended like you were going to give her something!!  It was more a matter of I wanted to do it when she was feeling good...no ear infection!  (We'll get to that!!)  Anyway, the first time she made some pretty awful faces, but did pretty good.  Second time she gagged.  I was ready to quit, but we decided to try one more time.  She did GREAT!  And has ever since.  We are now giving it to her 3x a day.  I think she still prefers her bottle, but especially today I noticed she was really going for it. 

All ready...

WHAT was that?!

Ok, we'll try again...

Not going well

Seriously mom?!  Ok, believe it or not, she DOES like it now!!

Another mile stone accomplished in the last couple weeks...she now rolls over.  Just one way so far, which it baffles me, she rolls from her back to her stomach.  Which she hates - or used to, actually she is starting to like it for 5-10 minutes.  But then she grunts and screeches, and complains until you help her roll to her back.  Silly girl!  She does it ALL the time though, it kind of drives us crazy because we will put her on the floor and within 5 min. she rolls to her stomach and then gets mad! 

AND...her ears.  Poor kiddo.  I feel like we live at the clinic.  I think we are there EVERY week at least 1x!!!!  I told our pediatrician, I remember a time in my life when I went to the clinic MAYBE once a year for a physical and that was it!  Anyway, the latest is she was in last Monday and started on an antibiotic that she is supposed to take for 3 weeks.  HOWEVER, last night and today she didn't sleep the greatest.  She is happy as can be when awake, but it is not like her to not nap good and tonight she woke up after being in  bed for an hour and was crying.  So, I had called the clinic earlier, not sure what to do (I feel so paranoid sometimes!) anyway, we are going to see ENT.  They are supposed to call me tomorrow for an appt.  I am very anxious.  I am so sick of her poor ears hurting and her having to be on antibiotics!!!  I also have to see ENT, so maybe we can get a 2 for 1!!

Go Fish!

Last Wed. Grandma Linda invited Allison (and me) to the Go Fish concert in Hutch.  I wasn't sure what Allison would think of her first concert!  She LOVED it!  It was so fun to watch her watch them, get excited, dance, clap and sing!  I was so proud!  And I really enjoyed the concert too.  I guess they have Bible School programs that some kids have done, the gal who took our pics last week said her kids had a Go Fish bible school program.  Her kids have not been to a concert yet.  I am going to be getting a CD!  I need something besides E-I-E-I-O in my car!!!  Here is the link to their website. 

Oh, yeah, we had pics taken last week.  Mostly pics of Allison for her 3 year pics, but a few of all of us and a couple of Kara and Allison to use for Christmas cards.  Kara will have 6 month pics at the end of Nov.  They are pretty darn cute!  Here is the link to those.  The password is Mages11.  If anyone is trying to see the pics and can't let me know and I can send you the link another way. 

Bitten

It seems we have all been bitten in our house by a bug of some sort!  It started a few weeks ago with Allison.  Got a call from daycare, just as we were going to get the girls anyway, that Allison had a fever.  Sure enough.  Well after 3 days of a fever and then she woke up from a nap with a temp of 105!!!  Jesse took her to the dr. (I was at work).  They ran just about every kind of test and did blood work, everything was negative, so it was viral, which is what I figured.  But her fevers continued until last Monday, which was the day the dr. said to bring her back if she still had a fever!  So, she was over it.  Well, then Allison got a stuffy nose...which, of course, led to an ear infection!!  And the first antibiotic she was on upset her stomach!  Poor baby!  So after trying to force it down (and then of course it only stayed there for 5 min.!) for 3 days, we stopped it and saw our pediatrician on Thursday.  New antibiotic seems to be doing the trick.  And in the meantime, I came down with a fever, sore throat, body aches!  I was starting to get a sore throat, but got my flu shot anyway, which I don't think helped!  Ended up with a fever that night.  Blamed it on the vaccine, went to work the next day, fever again.  Ended up coming home sick!  And now I am finally feeling better!  I still have a sore throat, but I have my tonsils yet, so I am blaming that.  They are swollen and huge.  I did have a strep test done at work (we can do them at the lab there for $15, FINALLY a perk of working at a hospital!) on Friday because I was feeling so miserable, but it was neg., of course!  So, I am trying to be patient.  I am hoping this isn't a sign of how our winter is going to go and instead we are just getting it out of the way early!  In either case, I think I will be flexing extra medical next year...

Laser Treatment - Round 2

Kara just had her 2nd laser treatment on her hemangioma by her eye.  Dr. Wood of Gillette Children's is the doctor we have been seeing for it.  It went very well.  At her last appointment when we scheduled this laser treatment he started her on the Propranolol (that I had thought we were going to do in the first place) and I think that has really helped.  So did he.  This should (hopefully) be her last laser treatment.  I don't know for sure how long she will be on the propranolol, we go back for follow up with Dr. Wood in 6 weeks so I suppose we will find out then.  Kara did GREAT during the laser "surgery".  They were fighting over who got to carry her back.  She was so cute, talking and smiling.  They just gave her a little gas to put her to sleep and didn't even have to start an IV, which I was greatful for.  She has chubby little hands and feet, I don't think it would have been very easy!  Anyway, she came back to us and did great.  The car ride was great too, she slept the WHOLE way there and home!!  I wish she napped like that at home all the time!  I did have a camera this time and we snapped a couple pics. 

In her hospital gown! 

Princess Palooza Party

I have not seen so much princess/pink etc in all my life.  And she loved it.  She being the birthday girl, of course!  Miss Allison turned 3 on Sept. 30.  And, of course, as any 3 year old girl would want, we had a "princess party".  Complete with a princess cake, courtesy of Grandma Nancy. 

The Princess Cake, it was beautiful!!  Allie loved it. 

A new princess bike from the Zupkes!

We love you our little princess!!  I can't believe you are 3 already!!

4 Months

Finally getting around to posting a few pics of Kara at 4 months!  All smiles and all cheeks!!  Enjoying every minute with her!!  She is growing so fast.  Still not sleeping all night...but last night she was up just 1x at 4 a.m., ate and back to sleep!  But I no longer stress about it (most days/nights! :).  She is my last baby, and I know it will not last forever.  So, for now, I just hold her, love her, rock and cuddle her to pieces.

4 month and 3 year check ups!

We got a 2 for 1 today (not literlly, I am pretty sure we are paying for 2 appointments! :).  Allison was the big sister and went first.  As everyone who has seen Miss Allison knows, she is petite (weight wise, I mean).  Although she must be going through a growth spurt or something, we can't seem to fill her up!  And I love it!  Anyway, she did great showing Kara how to be a good pt.!  She weighs 28.4 lbs, 25% for age, and is 37 inches tall - 50% for height, explains the tall skinny think (hmm, I wonder where she gets that?!).  She got her flu "shot", we tried the mist with her this year!  No shots, yeah!  She also had a vision and hearing screening.  Vision went well, she has perfect vision!  They have the kids point to the matching letters, but I was pretty proud, instead of pointing she said the letters since she knows them!!  The hearing screening she didn't quite do.  She raised her hand everytime the nurse told her to raise WHEN she heard the beep.  But she would also raise it for the beep or look at her.  I am not too worried, I know she can hear, the problem is listening!!  :)

And Miss Kara Beara (one of her MANY nicknames!)...she also did great, charmed the pants right off the nurses and dr.  But my poor baby.  She has had a cold/runny nose for a few days (and actually had one last week too, I thought she was over it and it seemed to come back on Sat.).  She has not had a fever and it has been clear.  She has been getting up 2x at night, but she eats and goes back to sleep, hasn't seemed exceptionally fussy, so I did NOT think she had an ear infection...WRONG.  Poor kiddo, her left ear was very red and filled with icky fluid Dr. Swanson said.  Ugh.  Looks like she is taking after her big sister!  Allison was 4 months when she got her first ear infection too.  So, MAYBE, once this clears up, she will sleep all night...?!  Really hoping and praying!  Then again, sometimes I don't mind cuddling her at night.  She is my last baby.  And as for my little chubs stats...15lbs 5oz and 25 inches long - both 75th %.  But believe it or not, Allie was chubby at 4 months too (a bit smaller, 14lbs 10oz and 24.5 inches).  But otherwise they are doing good and growing fast!  I can't beleive they are 4months and 3 years already!  Allison is sooo excited for her b-day party this weekend!!

Life

This pretty much sums up life around here these days...

Kara is 4 months old today!  Hopefully later I can post a 4 month pic of her!  She is growing and changing so fast!!  And VERY thankfully the colic seems to be gone!!!  YEAH!  We still have a few night issues to work on, but she is a very happy, sweet baby these days!  Loving her to pieces!

3 Months!

Behind a little and no sign this time, but here is Kara at 3 months!  I did actually TAKE the pic when she turned 3 months, but am FINALLY getting around to posting it!  Also, didn't quite get around to making a sign this time.  Oh, well, you get the idea.  And just look at those chubby cheeks!!  They certainly aren't getting any smaller!

And she is already rolling over.  Not consistently yet, but she has done it BOTH ways a couple times.  For everyone but mom.  Jesse has seen her and my mom too.  I am afraid how fast this one is going to grow up!!! 

Brad's Camo Party

Some Hot 100 for Brad!  Yum-O...or not.

This past weekend another friend joined the 30's group!!  Happy 30th to Brad Triplett!!  We celebrated at their house with a camo party.  Jesse and I went all out...turns out we were the only ones!  I guess when you don't get out much and you finally do, you go for it!  It was so fun!  Ahhh, it feels so good to be young..haha!  7months exactly for me yet!  :)

Neglect...

So the blog has been a bit neglected.  I would like to say it will get better...I just don't know if it will.  I will do my best to post, and I am not quitting, but hang in there with me.  Life with a full time job and a mother of 2 is VERY busy!!  I know many of you already know this, but it seems there are NEVER enough hours in a day!  (Or night!!).  So hang in there with me and keep checking it, I feel so blessed that anyone reads this!! 

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's back to work I go...

Well, even though I filled in on Tuesday evening, I really feel like tomorrow (Friday) is my first "official" day back to work.  It is the first day I have to get up to my alarm clock since the day I left for the hospital (oh, except on baptism day too), it is the first day I have to get the girls ready and get them to daycare before work.  That should be interesting!  I am both looking forward to it and dreading it.  I am ready for more of a routine, I am ready to see my co-workers and feel productive!  I am sad because we are finally getting into a good routine at home.  Kara definitely recognizes and is excited to see me, so I am sad to be leaving her with daycare.  And today as I was rocking her for her nap, I was sad to think that I won't be doing that for the next 3 days.  I am sad to be leaving Allison more again too.  We have had a really good summer.  But I don't worry about her as much at daycare, I know she likes it and has fun.  She already has a routine there (although this is the first time in 3 months that she has to go so early again!  This will take some getting used to by everyone!:).  In the long run, I know it will be good and we will all figure it out and get into a new routine.  But I also know these first few weeks are going to be hard and I will probably cry.

Oh, and Sat. is Jesse and my anniversary.  6 years!  He will be spending his first ENTIRE day with the kids and I will be working ALL DAY LONG.  Happy Anniversary to us.

3 Months - We've come a long way baby!

Yes, we have!  We all - Jesse, myself, Allison, and Kara survived colic.  And we are now blessed with a very happy, smiley and "talkative" 3 month old.  And I think (almost afraid to say it though) we are getting there with sleeping!!!  Why does all this have to happen RIGHT before I go back to work?  Now I just want to stay home with her and Allison!!  (Ok, I am still slightly looking forward to getting back to work).  Miss Kara has been going to bed at 7:30 and sleeping until 6:30 to 7:30 a.m.!  She does still get up once or twice, but I have stopped stressing about it.  She eats and goes back to bed good.  Last night she was up at 11 and then not until 5 and both times was about 15 min.  The girls are spending their first day together at daycare today.  Lucky me, a day to myself before I officially go back to work!!  I did end up going in extra last evening though, they called and caught me at a weak moment and Jesse was home from work already and knowing the kids were going to daycare today I knew I could take an uninterupted nap today, so I agreed.  So, I was more than happy to get up with my baby at 5 a.m.  Speaking of nap...I better get to it.  I have big plans for today and it is slipping away fast!

Valleyfair!

Last Friday I got to take Allison to Valleyfair with Grandma Nancy and Jesse's sister and her family, and Jesse's aunt Mary Jo who was visiting from Montanna!  We also had a friend of MJ's and her daughter, and Kelly and Bella join us.  ANYWAY, I probably wouldn't have thought about taking Allison yet, I felt she was probably a little young and didn't know how she would do on the rides and stuff...well, she LOVED it.  She is such a dare devil!  I couldn't believe how much she loved the rides.  She even got to go on the Octopus ride with me and she went on the scrambler with her Aunt Mandy.  She just shrieked, laughed and giggled the whole time.  She was sooo good.  I was so proud of her.  She did fall asleep on Grandma Nancy for about an hour on the lazy river in the water park!  I couldn't believe it.  But that power nap and the excitement of the day kept her awake almost the whole ride home! 

Miss Kara spent her first day at daycare.  Rhonda's daughter, Hannah, actually watched Kara since Rhonda had 2 other babies that day.  And they had to take Kara with to an appt. that Hannah had.  Kara did great!  They said she was very good!  I was so happy! 

Laser Treatment

Kara had her V-Beam Laser Treatment today at Gillette Children's in St. Paul.  It went very well (the facility is beautiful, BTW).  Except...the ride there AND back.  Kara had to be NPO from 8:30 until her procedure at 1:30 (We had to be there at 12).  I thought it wouldn't be too bad, we would feed her and then leave by 9 and she would sleep at least most of the way.  Well, she woke up by Hutch!!!  Ugh.  And proceded to cry the rest of the way there, falling asleep only just as we were in downtown St. Paul!  And then on the way home we had fed her and I thought she would still be a little sleepy from the anesthesia, well started out good, she fell asleep.  We were leaving the cities at 3:30/4 and the traffic was starting to build so it was a little slow going and then we were STARVING, we hadn't eaten since breakfast so we decided to go through a drive through in Albertville...she woke up.  We tried stopping in Monticello to feed her more and get her out of her carseat for a bit.  Didn't help.  She finally fell back to sleep about Paynsville.  Made for some rough car rides!!!

Anyway, as far as the treatment went, she did great.  We won't know if or how well it worked for a while.  Right now her hemangioma looks about the same.  Maybe even a little swollen (from all the crying or the treatment today I am not sure :)!  We go back to see the Dr. (Dr.Wood) in a month to evaluate things.  We are to call and be seen sooner if it is getting bigger.  He said it would be a success if it is smaller or even the same size since hemangiomas grow the first year of a baby's life.  And it has gotten bigger as far as the swelling goes.  So I really hope it works.  Our options are another laser treatment and/or treating it with the propranolol yet.  So. we'll see what happens.  And they do usually shrink and even sometimes disappear after the first 8-12 months of life.  So many unknowns!!!  So all the prayers are much appreciated and if you would continue to remember us every now and then, I would really appreciate it!!  Thank you everyone for your support and words of encouragement. 

And once again...I have no pics.  Jesse and I took some on our phones, however we are old school and don't have internet on our phones yet.  I am holding out yet.  And I did bring our small camera (I had enough stuff to bring and remember without also trying to bring the cannon!) BUT as luck would have it, battery was COMPLETELY dead.  And it is a rechargeable one, so we couldn't even get some batteries from them (they offered!).  Poor kiddo was so cute. 

Sisterly Love

Today when Kara was fussing, Allison was sooo sweet to her.  First she tried to give her her paci, then she gave her a toy and then a blankee.  Unfortunately none of these things did the trick.  I just can't believe how sweet Allison is to her sister.  It just melts my heart!!!  So proud!

2 Months~

So, I missed the 1 month photo, but here is her 2 month pic...a little late (just in posting, I did take it the week she turned 2 months!).  Love, love those cheekers!!

2 Month Check-Up

Kara had her 2 month well-baby check up yesterday.  Sorry, no pic to go with it right now...wanted to get this posted while girls are sleeping and didn't have time to download.  Maybe later.  Anyway, our little porker weighed in at 12lbs even and 22 1/4 inches long.  Same length as Allison was at 2 months but a pound and a half bigger!  Love it.  So even with all the spitting up, fussing, etc, she is gaining and thriving!  :)  And, of course, as I am trying to explain to our pediatrician Kara's intense crying/colic spells she is laying on the exam table quiet and cheerful...she even gave him big smiles!!  So, now he thinks I am crazy.  J/K.  Actually we talked about a lot of things.  It is of course very hard to know for sure what causes the intense crying in babies, could be a milk protein allergy, reflux, or just plain colic.  We are trying different things.  Now she is switched to Prilosec (which unfortunately tastes TERRIBLE and she hates it!), and I am trialing no milk products for a week to see if things improve.  Let me tell you, no milk products sucks.  It is very hard.  No milk, no cheese, butter, yogurt, chocolate, etc.!  Ugh.  If it turns out to be a milk allergy thing, I don't know if I will be able to continue this...might end up switching her to special formula...we'll see though.  Dr. said if it IS a milk allergy thing (which she would grow out of, babies do this sometimes) we would see a dramatic difference.  I am really not convinced any of these things is really going to help.  I really believe she has plain old colic.  But I don't want to take a chance that one of these things could help, so we'll see.  And on the bright side, if it IS colic, we should be over the hump...  Of course last night after her wonderful show at the Dr. she got shots and then we had a rough evening.  A good 3 hours of crying...HARD, you feel sooo sorry for them and so helpless.  We tried everything.  She was also very spitty during this time, so I tried to give her tylenol, but I think I ended up wearing most of it.  Anyway, the night was pretty good.  I think the storm woke her at 12:40 but she ate and went back to bed and slept until just after 6.  I'll take it. 

Colic...What colic??

This picture just doesn't quite do it justice of how wonderfully peaceful and beautiful she looks sleeping!  I had to take it with no flash so I wouldn't wake her!  Anyway, we have been dealing with colic at our house the past 2 months.  I have read and heard that it does go away at 3 months...I am waiting and praying it does.  It is sooo incredibly hard to deal with.  I have questioned just about everything.  We started her on Zantac a few weeks ago for possible reflux...we weren't sure it was helping so last weekend we trialed stopping it.  Needless to say she is back on it today and I do think she needs it.  I am nursing and I question just about everything I eat and drink.  I wonder if she would better off getting formula...but then some say it is worse on formula.  Plus that is so expensive!  I wonder if we should be bottling her instead (sometimes it seems like she swallows a lot of air nursing).  I wonder if when we do start formula if we should have her on special formula (soy?).  I don't know.  I am just trying to make it through the next month and then we will probably switch to just bottles because I will go back to work.  I plan to continue to pump, but she will also get some formula then too. 

Also, night sleep.  Allison was sleeping mostly through the night by 2 months already!  She would get up just once at 2-3 a.m. to eat and then back to sleep until 7 or so.  BUT she didn't go to bed until 10-11 p.m.  Kara (usually) goes to bed by 9, but she gets up for sure 1x and sometimes 2x.  I am WAITING for the night I wake up at 6 a.m. and she hasn't gotten up!  I realize this is expecting a lot.  I just need to have faith that she will eventually sleep all night!!!  (PLEASE, PLEASE do it by 3 months....please! ;)

Gillette Update

The part that had us worried most...the car rides to and from the cities...went well!!  She slept both rides the whole way!  No screaming!  Praise the Lord!  There were many prayers said about this, so thank you!  I think timing in the car is just key for her.  If she is not happy she is not one to just go with the flow...she WILL let you know and won't stop until she gets it I think. 

As for the appt. itself, it went pretty good.  We saw Dr. Wood at Gillette and he recommends laser treatment.  I thought we were going to get the oral treatment - Propranolol, but he said the type of hemangioma she has responds very well to laser treatment and there are less (virtually no) side effects with the laser treatment.  The bummer part is that we have to come back to the cities and this time we have to go to the Gillette hospital in St. Paul to have it done!  And she has to have sedation because it is right by her eye!!!  Poor baby!  They are supposed to call us to schedule it today.  Although I am going to ask at Kara's Dr. appt. on Friday if she can have the laser treatment done here in Willmar.  I know they do it, I just don't know if they will on such a young baby and with the location of the hemangioma.  We'll see.  Thanks for all the prayers and keep em coming!

Baby Shower Blessings!

This past Sat. I helped host a baby shower for a very good friend.  It went very well and Jamie got so many fun baby things!!  I can't believe how many cool things she got!  Anyway, congratulations Jamie!  Can't wait to meet this sweet baby!!

Lookin' FABULOUS!  Only 1 1/2 months to go!

Cousins!

Allison adores her cousin, Emma (Dan's daughter).  Even though she doesn't see her often (or maybe because she doesn't?), she ALWAYS asks about Emma and last week when my mom was bringing Emma up to visit us, Allie was sooo excited!  They are both 2 - Emma is almost 4 months younger than Allie.  So, we heard a lot of "That's mine" and "She took it" from both girls!  Funny!!