11 Months old!

I can't believe we are only a month away from Alex's first birthday! Where has the time gone? He is getting so big so fast.

Just before Alex turned 10 months we had to start introducing formula. My supply had dropped and my freezer supply was going fast. Alex wasn't sleeping through the night and it was rough on us all. He didn't care for straight formula, so we ended up having to mix it with breast milk. He was getting bottles at daycare but nursing first thing in the morning and at night. We were trying to introduce bottles at home, but I had to act like I was leaving for him to take one. After a weekend where we were left with only 3oz of breast milk, I told Aaron we had to figure something out. Once we found out we were expecting #2, we knew why my supply had dropped and not come back. The ready to feed formula was our answer and we are now fully transitioned to formula with Alex taking a bottle from me. I was hoping to make it to 1 year with Alex and I was close. I am hoping with this next one that I will be able to make it the full year. I know your milk can take longer to come in when you have a c-section and I am hoping that it won't effect my ability to breastfeed this one. 

For July 4th we headed to Granbury. My dad was on call starting on Saturday and we got lucky again. He was not called out on a trip! My dad got a new toy that we hadn't seen yet. It was in the shop when we were in town for Memorial day. My dad got a 1986 Rolls Royce! I still can't believe it. I got to drive it around some and we tried to get the car seat in to go to town. We couldn't get it tight enough in the middle and I didn't think about trying the side seat. Next time I will have to try. We also got to go swimming and just enjoyed being with family.

My new car! HaHa

Alex is ready to drive!

Alex splashing Grandad!

July is full of birthdays on Aaron's side of the family. His brother's birthday is the 7th, his mom's is the 9th and our niece Cecelia's is the 13th. Cecelia turned 3 this year and her party was on the 9th. We headed to Galveston on the 8th with a stop in Kemah to have dinner with Andrew. Cecelia's party was nice and her face was pure joy when she saw her big gift - a swing set! She ran right to the slide. I was in charge of taking pictures and I got a couple of good ones as she saw the swing set and started to climb for the slide, but then my camera died. Alex got to swing too and he had a blast. His laugh brings a huge smile to my face! We headed home on Saturday to have a day to get stuff done around the house and relax some.

Cecelia seeing her swing set for the first time! She was excited!

Sunday night/Monday morning, Alex woke up and sounded like he could get sick. He did a tiny bit and then dry-heaved. It broke my heart. Sure enough, when he got up for the day and I fed him a bottle, it came right back up - all over me. Aaron stayed home with him in the morning and then we switched. Aaron went and got some pedialyte while I finished getting ready. Aaron started to give him small amounts and he kept it down fine. He gave it to him around every 5 minutes or so and after two hours, he gave him a small bottle. He kept it down! We thought we were in the clear because he only got sick the one time. Boy were we wrong!

Alex woke up a bunch crying Monday night but every time I went in to check on him, his had is paci. I felt him to see if he felt warm, but he didn't. When we woke him up to get ready for the day, he felt warm so I took his temperature. I felt horrible - it was 102!! I gave him medicine and started planning what we were going to do. Aaron had training all day Tuesday and Wednesday and I had several projects that had to go out. We had spoke with Aaron's mom about coming up if Alex didn't stop throwing up, so at 5:30 in the morning, Aaron called his mom to see if she could come watch him. I got him into the doctors office and it appeared that he just had some sort of virus. His temperature stayed down all day with medicine and we thought things were going well.

I had to work late and when I got home, Aaron said that his temperature had gone up to 104.8. They gave him medicine and had me check it again. I got 105.1! We decided we were taking him to a pediatric urgent care. Luckily it is still under my insurance. After running several tests, it appeared it must be just a bad virus. While we were waiting for the doctor at one point, we were discussing how my brother-in-law was sick as well. He had gone to the doctor and found out that he had the flu. We mentioned it to the doctor when she came back and she was surprised but said that we might as well test to see if that is what Alex has as well. She didn't think it would be but it couldn't hurt to test. She came in and told us he did have the flu. After calling several pharmacies, the doctors office finally found one that has thera-flu. He is now thankfully doing much better and has been fever free since late Thursday night/ early Friday morning. We can't thank Aaron's mom enough for coming to help us out. I have a feeling she really enjoyed her one on one time with Alex and I know he enjoyed his time with her. We are truly blessed to have family that is so willing to come help.

We can now see Alex's top right tooth coming in and it appears that the top left isn't far behind. I feel like my poor baby can't catch a break. He has been sick twice in the last two months and he is teething :( It has been a rough month for all of us. My morning sickness is worse this time around, I feel a lot more tired this time and I am a lot more moody! I was sick for the first half with Alex and things aren't looking much better this time. I'm sure having an 11 month old doesn't help anything!

Showing his two bottom teeth!

Happy 11 Months Little Man! We love you so much!

10 Months Old....A month late!

I am late once again! This month has been rather rough on us all, especially the week Alex turned 10 months, but more on that later.

For Memorial Day weekend, we headed to Granbury to spend some time with my family. Alex didn’t do so well on the ride there and he had a couple of rough nights. Saturday my family in Dallas came down to visit and the boys played golf. It was hot, but they all had fun and we enjoyed a yummy brisket dinner thanks to my dad. Saturday night we all (me, Aaron, Alex, my mom, my dad and both dogs) ended up in the living room at 3:30 in the morning. Alex was extremely fussy and my dad was the one who was finally able to calm him down. My parents took Alex for a few hours so Aaron and I could get some more sleep. We found out on Saturday that my dad was going to have to go out on Sunday night. London was calling and he got stuck with a trip. We had a great Sunday though. We took Alex to the pool for the first time and he had a blast. I’m glad we were at least able to have the entire day with my dad. He didn’t have to leave for the airport until 6 pm.

First time at the pool!

Already learning to swin with Grandad!

On May 31^st, Aaron got home from work and put Alex in his crib to see if he would take a nap. Alex was quite at first but then he started to make some noise. When Aaron went to check on him, he was standing in his crib! We knew he was close to doing it but he finally pulled up in his crib.

 

On June 4^th there was a PACK (Paddling Anglers in Canoes and Kayaks) get together just off Galveston that Aaron really wanted to attend. I decided to just hang out at my in-laws while Aaron and his dad went to the crawfish boil. They had a blast and we decided to hit the pool when they were done. Alex once again had a blast. I think he is going to like the water as much as me!

Mommy and Alex

Daddy and Alex

Rachel and the girls. So cute!

 

On June 10^th we found ourselves once again heading to Galveston. On the 11^th, Aaron and I volunteered with Artist Boat (www.artistboat.org). Our job was to help unload kayaks, get people set up/answer any additional questions (most people attending had not been in a kayak before), make sure no one fell behind and be prepared to tow someone if needed. Once we were done, we had to help clean and load the kayaks back on the trailer. Man oh man was it HOT! We ended up staying in Galveston that night because we were so tired. We got up Sunday morning to head home to prepare for our friends who were coming over. This was the beginning to our “fun” week.

Me and most of the group we were helping with.

Our good friends Jimmy and Melissa came over to hang out and to have dinner with us. We were all eating and Alex was falling asleep towards the end of his meal. When I picked him up to get him ready for bed, he felt really warm. I took his temperature and it was 103! We quickly decided that we would give him some medicine and see what his temperature was in an hour. If it hadn’t gone down any, we were headed to an urgent care facility. Thankfully his temperature went down, but as the medicine wore off, his temperature went right back up. Monday morning comes and Aaron heads to work for a VERY long day.


When Alex wakes up, I notice a few little bumps on him. My first thought was chicken pox. I call his doctor and make an appointment as soon as I can and call daycare to see if anyone has had chicken pox. No one has, but there was a case of hand, foot and mouth in a different classroom and she tells me that it can start off looking similar to chicken pox. Sure enough that was what Alex had. The doctor says the fever can last 3 to 4 days with the bumps lasting a week or longer. After talking with Aaron, I decide that we will see if we can pay half tuition at daycare for the week and figure something out so that hopefully I won’t miss an entire week of work. I didn’t want to pay full tuition and hope he could go for a day or two. Aaron wouldn’t be able to stay home until the end of the week if at all. Aaron’s mom offered to try and come up for Tuesday and Wednesday and my mom offered to come down Tuesday afternoon so I could work Wednesday through Friday. We decided to take my mom up on her offer.

Being cute while with Mar!

 Tuesday was also a day of shock. We decided I need to take a pregnancy test. We bought one with lines and it came back positive. We decided we also wanted an idiot proof test, so I went and got a digital test. I took it about 30 minutes before my mom arrived. Sure enough it said pregnant and I started crying/freaking out. I calmed myself down enough so that hopefully my mom wouldn't look at me and know something was up right away. I had warned her that Alex looked pretty bad but that he seemed to be feeling better. Aaron met her at her car to help her get her stuff inside. She took Alex from and started saying how much she loved him. I started crying again. She told me he didn't look as bad as she was expecting and that he would be fine. I told her that wasn't why I was crying and that I was pregnant again. She was shocked. I called my dad and he was happy. He asked if we have figured out was causes it yet (haha) and said that he is hoping for a girl. The really bad part was that we had just found out about this new adventure and I didn't get to see Aaron again until Thursday night! We couldn't talk about what we were feeling, concerns or anything.


 My mom was a HUGE help!! If Alex was fussy at night but not wanting to nurse, she would take him so I could get some sleep. Aaron had to work Monday during the day, Monday night, Tuesday afternoon & night, Wednesday afternoon & night, Thursday afternoon and then Friday. I ended up getting sick Thursday night/Friday morning. I tried to go to work but came home after 1.5 hours. I took full advantage of the fact that my mom had Alex and I slept until 4 in the afternoon. I can’t thank her enough for her help that week!

With teething, waking up at night to nurse (sometimes twice), and waking up thanks to teething/being sick, it has been a long and tiring month. His smiles and laugh make me so happy even when I am exhausted/don’t feel well. Remember - mommies don’t get sick days! Alex got his second tooth, but it looks like he is working on another. It looks like we won’t be getting a break when it comes to teething for a while. I’m looking forward to him sleeping through the night again!

Happy 10 Months Little Man!!

Ready or not, here we go again

I know I have been horrible about keeping up with Alex's monthly updates lately. This month I have a really good reason. As you can probably guess by the title, we have some big news. Baby #2 is on the way. It was a huge shock and we found out right before Alex turned 10 months. I felt that it should be included in his 10 month blog and I figured we would tell soon, so I decided to wait. Now I have to wait a little bit longer because his 10 month picture is on the camera and it got left in Galveston. We should have it back this week thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law. She is heading our way to hit the outlets with her friend.

We went for an ultrasound to determine just how far along I am and found out we are due Feb. 10, 2012.  Since this one will be a c-section, I'm sure the baby will be born closer to the beginning of the month. I'm just over 9 weeks now. With Alex we waited a little longer before we told everyone but we decided to do it differently this time. I think hearing the positive reactions and knowing that people are praying for us helps. I wanted my kids a little further apart so I am scared of how I am going to handle two little ones. I am still figuring out being a mom, wife and being a full time employee and now we are adding another one! Of course I also worry about money but I'm sure I would be doing that no matter how long we waited between kids.

A nice strong heart beat

I wanted a boy  the first time, but this time I am hoping for a girl. As long as the baby is healthy though, I really don't care! Alex's 10 month blog should be posted this week and it will be quickly followed by his 11 month blog. I promise to be on time this month!