Sick Mommy

January has been a rough month in our house.  Everyone has been sick, at least once.  This past weekend I came down with another cold - sore throat and congestion.  If only I could take my head off and replace it with a healthy one!  Hannah has been sick since January 6th and just yesterday finally finished all her antibiotics.  Now I am trying to keep my germs off her so I don't reinfect her. 

In happier news, this past weekend we had amazing weather in Atlanta and enjoyed it to the fullest.  Being able to wear short sleeves in the middle of winter just puts a smile on my face.  We had all the windows open and even had a picnic in the backyard.  Perfection!  Unfortunately it was just a tease and today it is raining, bringing back the chilly temps.  But it was a nice reminder of how wonderful it will be in the Spring!

I leave you with some pictures of Hannah (who else) enjoying the beautiful weather -

Sick Baby

Our little peanut is sick.  It all started with a cold, over two weeks ago.  She had her first fever (101.7 at one point), was stuffy and just overall not feeling well.  I knew she was sick when she fell asleep on my chest for over an hour (on two different occasions!).  I will say that I enjoyed every second of those naps though! ;-)  After two weeks with a runny nose and horrible sleep patterns, I knew something wasn't right.  I finally decided to take her to the doctor this past Thursday afternoon and I'm so glad I did!  She has double ear infections, wheezing in her lungs, and a yeast diaper rash.  She is now taking Amoxicilian for the ear infections (2 times per day for 10 days), an inhaler for the wheezing, and nystatin cream for the diaper rash.  We are a regular pharmacy around here!  After 2 days of medicine, she definitely seems to be feeling better, but her sleeping has not returned to normal.  Her naps are a mess - she is crying again when we put her down and then when (or if) she does fall asleep, she only sleeps for 20-30 minutes before she is up and screaming again.  UGH!  I know she needs more sleep than that!  I am still hopeful that the medicine will continue to make her feel better and her sleeping will get back on track, eventually.

Big Girl!

Hannah is growing up so fast!  I can hardly believe that in less than 2 months we will be celebrating her first birthday.  We have started planning her big bash and it has really started to take on a life of its own.  Less than a week ago we didn't even know if we would have a party, but now we are throwing a big bash! :-)  I am excited about it, but also getting a little nervous.  I don't plan on going crazy and doing an over-the-top soirée, just a gathering of our closest friends to celebrate this special milestone in Hannah's life.  I am determined to have fun planning it and on the day of....I will not get stressed out! (Now, you better remind of that in a month!!)

There have been a lot of fun milestones happening around here.  Hannah has been doing the cutest things lately.  She started giving high fives a couple weeks ago - I had never even thought to teach her that, but the day I started, she caught right on.  I hold up my hand and say, "Give me five" and she slaps my hand a couple times with the largest smile on her face!  She loves it!!  This past weekend she also started playing peek-a-boo.  When she is laying on her back, she will pull a blanket over her face and then we say, "Where's Hannah?" and she pulls the blanket down, smiling her enourmous grin!  PRECIOUS!  Another favorite that she learned this past wekeend is "So Big!"  We ask her, "How big is Hannah?" and she throws her arms over her head as we say, "SO BIG!"  Again, she smiles the entire time.  Then just today she started my ultimate favorite - kissing!  I ask her for a kiss and she will lean in with her mouth wide open and then I go in for the kiss.  She giggles and I melt!  Oh my sweet baby girl is growing up so fast and I am trying to soak in all those precious moments.  I just can't get enough of that sweet baby girl!

10 Months Old

Sweet Little Peanut,

Your tenth month was the fastest yet. I blame that on Christmas and our monumental snow storm in early January!

Speaking of Christmas, this month you celebrated your first one!  We spent it in Florida at Grandma and Grandpa Vaccaro's house.  It was wonderful to be with family (Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Julie, and Uncle Chris) and you loved all the attention!  But surprisingly you weren't very interested in the presents on Christmas morning.  You didn't even care about the wrapping paper or boxes.  I think you were a bit overwhelmed.  But you were a HUGE fan of the Little People Nativity Scene.....maybe you already understand the true meaning of Christmas! :-)

Here's what you are up to at 10 months old:

•You weigh 21lbs. 13oz. (71%) and are 30 inches long (93%).  One tall girl!!
•You wear mostly all 12 month clothes (9-12 months) and some 18 months (12-18 months). But you can still fit into some of your 9 month clothes (6-9 months).
•You are still wearing a size 4 diaper and size 3 or 4 shoes.
•You have your two bottom teeth now!
•You are cruising all over the furniture these days, but don't seem too interested in standing on your own or walking.  You have also mastered crawling up the stairs, but have no idea how to get back down...which resulted in a scary fall a few days ago.  Thankfully all is well! :-)
•You have been eating lots of new foods and love feeding yourself.  Sometimes your entire meal is finger foods!  Right now your favorite foods are pasta, bread, puffs, and blueberries.  Not surprising since those are some of my favorite foods! :-)  You are still nursing 4 times per day and doing great!
•You said your first word this month - "DaDa"  You had been saying it for a while now, but I hadn't counted it yet because it didn't really have any meaning.  Then the other day I asked you, "Where is Daddy?" and you pointed right to him and said, "DaDa"!!  Adorable!
•This month we realized just how much of a little person you have become.  You understand so much of what we are saying, which is so fun!  When you start to refuse to eat something we start a little trade off where I will give you a bite of the food you don't won't, followed by a bite of something you do.  I say, "One bite of this and then you get a blueberry (or pasta or whatever)" and you will suddenly open you mouth wide.  It's amazing! 
•This month, naps have been a nightmare.  I blame it on all the craziness of the holidays, but I'm ready for you to get back to taking better naps.  Right now you take 2 naps each day, but they are sometimes only 30 minutes each!  UGH!   Thankfully you have been sleeping 12 hours straight at night for the past couple weeks!  That is a huge improvement from last month.  It took a week or so of retraining for you to sleep through the night again, but it worked!
•You have started to get really whiny and clingy, which has been challenging for me.  You don't like to be too far away from me and would really like for me to hold you all day long.  It's hard to get anything done.  But I am trying to enjoy this clingy stage because I know it is fleeting and soon you will want nothing to do with me. :-(
•You still arent' waving or clapping, but you are pointing at everything.  You point and then grunt, which I interpret as you asking for something or an explanation of what something is. 
•You make the cutest sound that is too hard to explain, but it's when you click your tongue on your bottom teeth and say "dododo"...I think I got it on video....at least I hope so! :-)
•Your eczema is still flaring up, but I have continued the lotion regime and I think it's getting a little better.  I'm hopeful that it will disappear when the weather warms up! 
•Your hair has grown so much that it hardly sticks up anymore...that makes me sad!  My little girl is growing up!
•You still love to share everything with us - your pacifier, your toys, your food. 
•You have started giving high fives - ADORABLE!!!  I say, "Give me five" and you do!

It amazes me how much you change every single day.  I lay you down at night as my little peanut and when I pick you back up in the early morning, you have changed into my big girl!  It is the most amazing thing to watch, yet also a little heartbreaking.  But there is nothing else I would rather do!

I love you little girl!



2010 Summary

I saw this survey on a blog that I have been following since I found out I was pregnant - Baby Dickey - and thought it was a good way to sum up 2010.  Enjoy!


1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
- So much!!  Birthed a child (unmedicated, I might add!), nursed a child for 9.5 months (and still going), did everything required to keep a newborn alive and raise her to be a healthy and happy 9 month old, became a MOM!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
- I don't remember making any last year (not a big resolution fan), but this year I did feel a sense of renewal and have been determined to be more intentional with my time.  I'm not sure that doing a survey like this is very "intentional", but I figured it would be an insightful way to summarize the last year of my life.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
- ME!  And several of my close friends - Amy, Lindsay, Asheley, Heather, Lindsay (another one), and more...

4. Did anyone close to you die?
- Thankfully, no

5. What countries did you visit?
- Definitely didn't make it out of the country, but did make it to several different place - NYC, Flagler Beach (3 times), Panama City (3 times), Siesta Key, and probably other places I am forgetting.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
- More time to enjoy with family and friends - 2010 was ALL about the baby and I want 2011 to be more about the world outside of these four walls!

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
- March 11 - Hannah was born!!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
- Delivering my first child without any medications (not even a tylenol people!)
- Succesfully nursing my child for 9.5 months (and counting)
- Keeping her alive for 9.5 months (and counting!!)

9. What was your biggest failure?
- I wouldn't call it a failure, but I do feel like I didn't get to enjoy Hannah's newborn stage like I thought I would because I was so concerned with her schedule and making sure she did 'xyz' every day.  I was definitely obsessed with that (and still am, if I let myself be).

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
- A cold here and there, but nothing serious.  Recovering from my labor was illness enough!

11. What was the best thing you bought?
- Our new camera (Nikon D3100) - just have to figure out how to use it in a mode other than auto now!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
- Brian's!  He has been the most amazing husband and father!  During my labor he was unbelievable!  He didn't even sit down for 8+ hours and was by my side the entire time.  He was the best father right from the beginning - so involved and just in love.  He would wake up with me in the middle of night when Hannah would cry and come into her room with me while I nursed her.  He was my rock!  He was understanding of my crazy hormones and listened to me cry over the silliest things.  I wouldn't have made it this past year without his amazing support!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
- No one I can think of

14. Where did most of your money go?
- Hannah!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- All of Hannah's milestones: smiling, laughing, rolling over, sitting up, crawling, pulling up, sleeping through the night!

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
- "Goodnight Sweetheart" - I sing it to Hannah every time I put her down for a nap or at night

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner
c) richer or poorer? Probably about the same - nah, poorer because we are remodeling our kitchen soon! ;-)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
- Spent more time with friends, but babies make things so much more complicated!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
- Wasting time

20. How did you spend Christmas?
- In Panama City with Brian's family

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?
- Absolutely!  Hannah has made me understand God's love for me in a whole new way.  I am madly in love with that baby!!

22. What was your favorite TV program?
- We became DVR junkies this year, so we watched a lot of shows (that's what happens when you have a baby that has to be in bed by 8pm) - Top faves were Modern Family and The Middle

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
- I don't hate anyone - I might not like their choices or actions, but I don't hate them.

24. What was the best book you read?
- I don't think I read any books in 2010 (besides children's and parenting books)...sad

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
- Hmmm....not sure.  I think I knew about him in 2009, but Mat Kearney became a BIG fave this year.  We went to the most amazing concert at Eddie's Attic in the summer and were blown away!

26. What did you want and get?
- Hannah!
- Our new camera
- Lots of baby things

27. What did you want and not get?
- Nothing...I mean there are things that I would like to have, but nothing that I need.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
- I don't even know if we went to the theater once in 2010.  I know I saw the new(er) movie with Katherine Heigel about raising a baby, but I can't even remember who I was with or where we were.  It was cute, but definitely not the best movie I saw.  We just watched Inception a few weeks ago and that was good.  But there really wasn't a stand out movie that I saw this year.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
- I turned 28!!  At first I wrote 27 because there is no way I am 28, but I am!!  Yikes!  Brian's parents were in town on my birthday and we went out to dinner at Maggiano's (technically I think we went out the night before my birthday). 

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
- It was overal a wonderful year!!  But if Hannah has been born a natural sleeper, that would have made my stress level a lot less! ;-)

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
- Whatever fits and is clean and comfy.  I spent the majority of 2010 on the floor with a drooly, reflux baby!  Fashion wasn't really in my vocabulary.

32. What kept you sane?
- Brian, my mom, my playgroup girls!!!

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
- No one I can think of

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
- Political issue??  I don't even watch the news, I hate politics!  I only want to know the stuff that impacts me directly and that I can do something about.  If something is going on that I have no control over, I want nothing to do with it.  What's the point??

35. Who did you miss?
- Family!  I hate that we live so far away from everyone.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
- My playgroup girls!  Heather, Asheley and Lindsay, I don't know what I would have done these past few months without you!!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
- Take things one day at a time. 
- Life flies by, so enjoy every second. 
- Everything with a baby is a phase!