April Already? and 5?F

We've officially hit April. Sigh. My "baby" girl will turn two this month. I find that quite impossible since she was just born yesterday. Wasn't she???

See this picture? It was taken yesterday.

Just yesterday she was giving me her first smile and cuddling against my chest. Today she's running at full speed and wanting to dress herself.

This is the product of that independence. We may need to work on that. So the countdown is on until her birthday and party next Saturday. It's all she can talk about (Happy Day Emma! Emma cake and cookies at gym!).

But for now, I'm going to remind myself that it's only Friday and she's still one.

Speaking of Friday, it's time for:

1. Have you ever had surgery?

Twice. Once to lose something (wisdom teeth) and once to gain something (Sophia). I hope to keep it at just the two times.

2. Ever ride in an ambulance?

No, thank goodness.

3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm?

I'm somewhere in the middle. Luckily, I haven't had to find out firsthand, but I'm pretty sure I would handle this like I handle other areas of my life; I would be fine until there was a major change in plans. Then I get anxious and begin to lose it.

I don't handle change very well.

4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies?

In my fantasies I have a clean bedroom, straight hair and a beautiful garden that produces gorgeous flowers that fill my home and provides fresh fruits and vegetables for my family.

In reality, my clothes are piled on my dresser, my hair frizzes, and I have a black thumb.

So that's a no.

5. When did you move out of your parent's house?

I'm a product of my generation; I'm a boomerang kid. I first moved out when I was 18. I came back when I was 22 to go back to school and left again when I graduated at 27.

Happy Friday everyone!

Still Trying

I took Sophia back to the doctor today since her reflux is still giving her problems. If you remember, her doctor prescribed her Zantac for her silent reflux. We saw marginal improvement and then BAM! Regression. We called the doctor's office to see if we needed to increase her dosage and were told that she was on the highest possible dose for her age and that she would need to switch to a stronger medication.

We weren't really comfortable with giving her a stronger medication as the first and only option, so we decided to try thickening her formula with rice cereal, which her doctor said would help keep the fluid down. That began to help too and we had high hopes.

She was still having occasional issues, and her fussiness was random; she'd have a great day and we would think that we had made it; she'd only be fussy in the evening and we would chalk it up to colic; she'd have horrible days were we'd cry and scream that she had some weird baby disease.

The latter began happening more often than not, so that brings us to today. First off, remember how we were told that she was on the highest dosage for her age? Wrong. She is not on the highest dosage and her age doesn't matter. Her weight does. Her dosage will fluctuate as her weight changes. That would have been good to know two weeks ago. So she's now going to get more meds. If that doesn't work by Monday, then her doctor wants to switch her to a stronger medication. I feel more comfortable knowing that we tried everything before giving her stronger medication.

We had to find out the hard way that we will only feel comfortable with our doctor's answers. We're not willing to let Sophia suffer based on the opinion of someone who has never met, or treated her. It makes me so mad that she's had to suffer unnecessarily due to...lack of communication? Insufficient information? Unwillingness to view her as a patient and not a phone call? Who knows.

We are praying that this gets resolved soon. We want to see more of this:

And less of this:

Wordless Wednesday-Sisters

Irony

If you have ever met Sophia, you are familiar with her scream. She sure knows how to get your attention. That's why I find this picture so funny...it looks like she is covering her ears and yelling at us to be quiet. Go figure.

Pictures!

When I found out that our beloved photographer, Emily, was moving to California, I was devastated. She was so great with Emma and always managed to get wonderful pictures, no matter what. I didn't know if I would be able to find another person that would be able to capture the kids' personality so perfectly. Luckily, I met Tracie Ancelet from Ancelet Photography. She's a mother of four, so I knew that a newborn and a toddler wouldn't scare her. Which is a good thing, since Sophia made sure to make a strong first impression, if you know what I mean.

Tracie never got flustered; she just kept telling me not to worry and that we would get great shots. We tried everything; we laid her down, I held her, we went outside. Nothing. She finally settled down for about 15 minutes when she was good and ready.

While I tried to calm Sophia down, Tracie took Emma outside to get a few shots of her as well. Emma immediately felt comfortable enough to go with her away from Mommy to have her picture taken. She liked her so much that she didn't want to leave!

Here are a few of the pictures from our "Sneak Peek." The rest should be ready in about a week. I can't wait to see the rest!

Wordless Wednesday- Sophia in Bloom

A Preview

I love watching my two girls together. They just love each other so much! Seeing them together gives me a little glimpse of what is to come as they grow up:

They will fight,

Compete for attention,

Play together,

Laugh,

And love one another.

It's going to be an amazing ride!

Sophia's Baptism

Yesterday was Sophia's baptism. Even though we were worried that Sophia would have a fit in church, especially during the pouring of the water, she was the perfect child. She slept the entire time, thank goodness.

Sophia wore my christening gown, as did Emma, and she looked beautiful. It means so much to me that both of my girls wore my gown, seeing as they most likely won't want to wear my wedding gown.

We had a wonderful celebration with family and friends and we are so thankful to be blessed with another beautiful baby girl.

Our family with Pastor Stelter

Sophia with her godparents, Brad and Amber
Here's a glimpse of real life; I have no idea what is going on here.

Five Question Friday!

This is my first ever Five Question Friday! Here we go:

1. Have you ever testified in court? For what?
No. I almost did when I was in high school. There was a domestic problem in the parking lot of the store where I worked. The couple came in and I had to give a statement about how they were acting. I'm glad that I never did though; it was pretty intimidating!

2. Do you still have your wedding dress?

Yup! It's taking up an obscene amount of space in my closet. I keep meaning to have it cleaned, by the way. Right after I got married, I would put it on just for fun (picture the Friends episode). I haven't put it on since then. After two kids I think it would just bum me out.

3. Is there a special place you like to go when you're happy, sad, stressed, etc.?

My favorite place to be for all of the above is home with my family. I love to share it all with them. I'm not sure they appreciate me sharing the stress though.

4. If you have kids, do they sleep with you? If you don't have kids...will you let your kids sleep with you when/if you have them?

They don't sleep with us, but when Emma wakes up early we try to drag her into bed with us in the hopes that she'll go back to sleep. However, what usually happens is this:

Emma lays down and is still for 5 minutes. Mom and Dad have high hopes that they will catch a few more minutes of sleep. Emma dashes said hopes when she whacks Daddy in the face and kicks her little feet into Mommy's back. We all get up for the day.

5. Do you watch late night TV?
Of course. We have a newborn. We watch "All hours of the night" TV.

Happy Friday everyone!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a little luck o' the Irish today and Sophia had a relatively good day with her reflux. The doctor recommended adding a little cereal to her bottle to try to thicken the formula, helping to keep the acid in her stomach. This was the first full day we tried this, so we're hoping we'll see some positive results. Any little bit helps!

Emma spent the day with her Mimi and had a great time. She told us all about her day during dinner. She took a trip to the bank and picked up a few gold coins while she was there. She didn't know that they were chocolate filled until after dinner; you could almost see her thinking "If only I would have known!!!"

Here are a few pictures of my wee lasses:

I love those chubby little hands!

A little smile!
She enjoyed her chocolate coin!
Then, we had to run off the sugar.

Bumbo Baby

Sophia loves sitting up and is already really good at holding her head up, so I decided to try out the Bumbo seat today. She sat in it for a good 45 minutes and was happy the entire time. That in and of itself was good enough for me!

Emma was pretty excited to have Sophia sitting up too. She liked being able to talk to her eye to eye.

She even wanted to give it a try.

Aren't my babies cute?!?

Sophia and Daddy

Sophia is staying awake a lot more now and loves checking out her surroundings. Her current favorite subject is faces. Here she is inspecting Daddy's.

We still haven't seen a major improvement in Sophia's fussiness since my last post, but we're hoping we will soon. Keep your fingers crossed!

One Month Checkup

Today we had Sophia's one month wellness check. We've been looking forward to talking to the doctor about Sophia's constant fussiness to see if there was anything that we could do for her. We had already changed her formula because she was so fussy and gassy. She would scrunch her body up in pain and we felt so bad for her. She's gotten better since the switch, but she would still cry inconsolably throughout the day. We knew there had to be something wrong. Unfortunately, we were right and the doctor diagnosed her with silent reflux. She'll have to take medication for it for the next four months or so and then we should be able to take her off the Zantac. We're hoping that this will help; we feel so bad that she's been suffering with this for a whole month.

Other than the reflux, she is doing very well. She weighed 9 pounds, 3 ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches. She's in the 50th percentile for both; perfect! The doctor was impressed with her focus and how well she was holding up her head.

Here's hoping that we'll all be able to enjoy some peace soon!

One Month Old!

Sophia is one month old today! She's so smart that she can even show you herself!

We're Hanging in There!

I know it's been a while since I've updated, but we're just starting to see through the newborn fog. Sophia is doing great, but when I have a few minutes, blogging tends to take a backseat to sleeping. So let me catch you up on what has been going on:

Sophia is three weeks old and is growing like a champ. At a check up last week, she weighed 8 pounds 13 ounces. I assume that she's passed 9 pounds by now because this kid is an eater. I can tell when she's going through a growth spurt because she wants to eat ALL the time. Whew! She has her one month checkup (!) next week so we'll get all the nitty-gritty details about her weight, length, percentiles, etc. She is holding her head up really well, and even rolled over! I'm pretty sure it was an accident, but she likes to roll up onto her side as soon as I set her down. Her favorite pastime is staring at the ceiling fan or looking around for her big sister.Just about to roll over!

She has started to fall into somewhat of a schedule. I say this tentatively, because I don't want to jinx anything. She has presented us with a little bit more of a challenge, because she tends to want to stay awake after eating, unlike Emma, who used to fall asleep while eating. She's been getting through the night with only one feeding, which is great, and waking up for the day around 5:00. Today, she slept until 6:00, which would have been wonderful...except Emma woke up at 5:30. Sigh.

Speaking of Emma, she is still the best big sister in the world and will drop everything and anything to help with Sophia. Aside from the occasional tantrum over wanting to play with the baby's toys, she is handling this huge change in her life exactly as I knew she would; with a smile and a maturity beyond her years. God definitely blessed us when He gave us that one. We always laugh at how calmly she reacts to one of Sophia's full-blown colic meltdowns. She seems to have a switch that tunes it all out...a switch that I would pay any amount of money for, I might add. My dad jokes that she's going to be a bomb diffuser.
She is still enrolled in Little Gym, which she looks forward to each week. We're thankful that we can provide her with this special time for herself. I'm looking forward to clearance from my doctor that I can start lifting again so that I can participate rather than just spectate.Hopefully, as we begin to establish our routine, I'll have more time for updates, even if it's just a quick picture here and there. Thanks for stopping by to check on us!