7 Months

Well I have been struggling with the whole blogging thing (if anyone even reads this thing any more). I remember watching my friends who were pregnant and then had their babies. They blogged the whole way through it and I remember loving to read their updates and trying to make mental notes of things that I wanted to do once I had a baby of my own. Namely, monthly updates, funny anecdotes, you know... the stuff people actually care to read.

Flash forward to 2011. Addison is 7 months old... the last blog post I wrote was when she was 7.5 weeks old... I barely have any video of her (although Lee likes to say that my facebook is "littered" with Addie pictures).

I have had many a blog post in my head.... some even witty I might add. But somewhere in the shuffle I kept not posting... and then it was too late... who posts a 6 month update 3 weeks afterward?

I started to feel really guilty... I'm not really a "cute" scrapbooker - I did do Addison's first scrapbook with her birth, NICU, and her first week at home... but it all stopped there (as evidenced by the massive pile of "keepsakes" that are on my ever growing scrapbook pile!)

I'm not one for New Year resolutions... mainly because my ADHD self hardly ever keeps to them after the first day or so... what can I say? But if I've learned anything since becoming a parent - it's to try to chill out and just enjoy life.

I can say that though I feel guilty because I didn't blog like I set out to - but I did spend the last 7 months thoroughly enjoying Addison and our new life together.

I've loved watching Lee become a Dad and how enthralled he is with Addison.

I love walking into her room on weekend mornings and seeing her smile when she sees me and kick her feet.

I love taking time to do things with Addie - go shopping, cook, roll around on the floor with her.

I can see all of the blog posts that were "meant to be" in my head anyways... and have countless amounts of pictures to catalog the first 7 months anyway.

So suffice it to say that I am probably going to continue to choose to spend my free time with Addie - and not feel guilty for not blogging or doing more of the things that "the good moms" do. I'm not a real fru-fru/granola-y type anyways :-)

But I would be remiss if I didn't post some info about our baby girl...

7 Months:
28.5 inches
19.2 lbs
still has a little "peanut" head

learned to hold her own bottle around 6 months
eats pretty much anything but especially likes black beans, peas, prunes, bananas, avacado, teething biscuits, alphabet crackers, and baby cheese doodles.
can almost pull herself up to standing from the floor
can pull herself up to standing when sitting on a toy
sat up 3 days before 6 months
tries really hard to feed herself but is doing more to bond with the puppies than gain any sustenance

sleeps from 730/8pm until 8am
takes 1-2 naps a day

laughs, giggles, plays peekaboo, likes to be tickled, and loves her jumperoo still, loves the puppies and smiles and laughs when they walk by; coos and babbles when she is excited, bored, or happy

3 Months Old!

A day in the life of Addison:

Mornings are tough! Gotta yawn really big, poop really smelly, and wiggle while Mom and Dad change me... Then I'm ready to start my day... I take this part from Daddy... no way Mommy could ever smile this much in the AM hours!


Tummy Time... I can hold my head up for about 5 seconds but I'm still not a huge fan of tummy time after the first 10 minutes or so I start to cry.

But looking at myself in the mirror helps alot...


I feel pretty, oh so pretty....
That's a whole lot of work.... then it's time for a bottle and a nap!

I post all of my pics to facebook, primarily because it's easier and can upload an entire file, however, for Caleb and Adrienne and my mom, here are a few pics on the blog too :-)

Daddy Can Shave Now!!

Wow.... it has been a week since I last posted! I feel like it has been an entire lifetime since then! Long story made short, Addie started to have seizure activity after being born and the doctors admitted her to the NICU at Presbyterian once they discovered this.... about 5 minutes before we were set to be discharged on Memorial Day.

It's been a crazy week - poor little girl has had a series of tests (CT, MRI, MRA, MRB, Echo, EEG, EKG, Bilirubin... the works) to figure out what was going on. Long story made really short, her labor was really long and really hard and it caused her brain to be deprived of oxygen causing some spots in her brain to be damaged (seen on the MRIs). It was not picked up on immediately because her APGARs were great and she was acting developmentally appropriate. After a week in the NICU and one large dose of phenobarbitol, Addie is seizure free and seems to be developing perfectly fine. She is even attempting to lift up her little head at 5 days old!

While she was in the NICU, Lee decided that he was not going to shave until he could bring his little girl home. Well he stayed with a beard for the first 5 days but had to shave most of it off on Friday because he thought he was going to have to go back to work for a week (so he didn't use his last week of vacation going to visit at the NICU which he could do before and after work). He shaved to a mustache which he is allowed to have at work... only to walk in to find out our little girl was getting out of jail! :-) (no really, the Presby NICU nurses are and were awesome to us and treated Addison (they called her the "big NICU baby" lol) just like she was one of their own).

Saturday was a big day for us... we got to go to the NICU and sign out our little girl! We got her home, she ate (she's eating 5 oz at a time almost and sleeping for 4 hours a stretch praise God), pooped, and then went to sleep.... it was so weird to have her in the house but it was awesome!

The puppies are adjusting well to having her around. I am sorely disappointed in Paige who has all but ignored Addie. She's wagged her tail, licked her once, and otherwise seemed completely apathetic. Brutus has yet to determine how he feels. He is the most interested in Addison's movements... but goes back and forth between licking her and waggin' his tail and barking in her general direction. Andie has done the best... for all of the people who were "concerned" that we were going to keep our Rottie... she thinks she is Addison's mom or something... she follows us around and lays at our feet wherever Addie is. She is not a fan of Addison crying and seems to get upset that we are not "fixing" things quickly enough!

Throughout this entire week we have just been reminded of how great our God is. My friend Lauren sent me this JJ Heller song that pretty much sums it up: "When my world is shaking, Heaven stands; When my heart is breaking, I never leave Your hands."

We are so blessed to have such fantastic family and friends. Everyone has been so supportive of us through the difficult labor and then the week in the NICU. Big shout out to Jason and Alesha for staying at our house and putting up with the puppies :-)