Sickness & Picture Disaster

UGH!!! Abby & I are both sick!!! She started not feeling well on Thanksgiving and I now have my annual sinus infection. Now that I am a mom I can't wallow in self pity because I feel awful, go figure.

Today did not go as I had planned......We went to have our first family pictures taken today. I had a good friend come over to help me with my hair and she was running behind because of car issues. I got up not feeling good and so did Chuck. Our appointment for pictures was at 11am at JC Penney's. By the time we left the house Chuck was complaining, Abby was not a happy little camper and I had was just trying to suck it up since I wasn't feeling well either. As we were entering the store the studio was calling to push back our appointment because one of their rooms was down. We ended up walking around the mall for a while, got something to drink and then abck to the studio we go. Chuck has a headache which he has finally told me about. When it was our turn for pictures we went in and the photographer was awful. She did both Abbys pictures seperatelty and then family ones. Abby was crying nearly the whole time and Chuck (we wont even go there). It was just a bad morning for pictures. Afterwards when I looked at the pictures on the computer when our session was done, I decided that they were all awful and only ordered my freebie and we weould go back the next week to do retakes. That day was just a nightmare and when we got home Chuck went to bed to sleep off his headache while I stayed up to take care of Abby.

Retakes are great!!

Abby's 1st Thanksgiving

Today is Abby's first Thanksgiving!! We have so very much to be THANKFUL for!! We have a beautiful baby girl that God has allowed us to raise!! We have our health, Chuch as a great job at NORCO, we have our home, pets, great friends & family, so much more that I cant even begin to put down on here.

This is our 5th Thanksgiving away from our family in Arizona. Our first one we spent trying to move into our house on 2005. We had flooring being installed and we were attempting to move from our small apartment into the house, in the snow and cold temps on our own. That year I ordered us a small meal from Fred Myers. We have now spent the last 4 Thanksgivings in Idaho with our wonderful "surrogate family", the McGoverts, as I like to call them. Rich & Donna are the pastors at our church and great friends. They have a beautiful family. Three of their four kids are in California either working or going to school, so only Macy was home this year. Macy loves Abby and Abby loves her. Mac & Esther (Rich's parents) are probably two of the sweetest people I know. They both have hearts of gold. So this year we were over at their home and had a great time. Rich's sister and brother in law were there as well. Abby loves to watch & listen to Rich play his guitar so he pulled it out to play for Abby while Macy sat with her. It was just a nice day in general. By the time we got home we were tired though. Abby had the start of an upset tummy, I had the start of my annual sinus infection which is never fun!!

Abby is 3 months old!!

As I write this I still can't believe that 3 months ago I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl!!! Abby is just an amazing little girl and I (we) can't even begin to tell you in words how in love with her we are. She is growing and changing way to fast for us to keep up with her and I really would like her to stop it now so that way I can keep her this tiny forever!!

In the last 2 weeks she has really found her voice and now "talks" to us on a daily basis. She has also discovered that she can now shove her tiny hands into her tiny little mouth. It is quite cute to watch. She loves to play with her rattle and baby doll which she can hold on her own now.

I took her up to our women's retreat in McCall, ID from Nov 13-15th and she was an absolute angel!! Slept nearly the entire way up. She was loved on by 26 women and was in no way, shape or form spoiled :) I took her out in the snow twice to see how she would do and put her in the snow for the first time Saturday morning and she did ok with it. She made her first snow angel that morning. Sunday morning I took her out again and she was not happy with her momma.....mean mommy!! I out her in the snow to get some good pictures and she just screamed bloody murder! I was so proud of myself for doing that to her. She needs to learn what snow is at an early age.
She also had her last bottle of formula the night of the 13th. Since then she has been strictly breastfed!! I am so excited about this because I didn't want to become dependent on it.

Abby is now 10wks old!

It seems that everytime I turn around another week has come and gone and I am just not able to sit and update on how Abby is growing & changing!! So I guess I'll update on what has happened over the last six weeks or so.

I am now taking Abby to a New Mom's support group at the hospital on Tuesday mornings. It has been nice to get out of the house and meet other new mom's that are going through the same things as I am.

In the last few weeks she has started to really smile at us, though we can't seem to catch it on the camera!! I am still working on that one. She is now "talking" to us more and more each day, which is so cute.

Abby is slowly gaining weight! We took her in for her 2mth dr's appointment on 10/23 and she weighed in at 8lbs 13oz!! She is slowly gaining weight which is good, but is really small for her age. I know she is eating though so I am not to concerened. She got a clean bill of health from Dr Cron and also got her first round of vaccinations. I felt so bad for her. I had to hold her down while both of the nurses took a leg and poked her at the same time!! Oh, my poor baby was screaming and crying. So was I!!

Because of the Swine Flu outbreak here in Idaho, Dr Cron wanted us to get our vaccinations since Chuck & I fall into the priority group. So Central District Health was holding its first clinic on 10/24 we bundled Abby up and went and stood in line for 4hrs!!! We were near the end of the line of the group that was ablt to get infor this first round. About 100 people behind us also were able to get in for the nasal spray but they had run out of the shots a few people ahead of us. Abby slept most of the time we were there, but it was cold & windy out there that morning.

Later that afternoon we took our little "love bug" to the pumpkin patch to take her 2mth pictures and to pick out her very first pumpkin. It was cold & really windy out there so we didn't stay to long. Chuck had gotten a headache from the vaccination & I was exhausted so we ended skipping hoomegroup that night.




I have also been trying to get Abby to sleep in her own bed which has been slow-going. She cries for so long that I can't stand it! She's gone about 2weeks now on her own, a few nights she has slept with me though. I have finally moved from the couch to the guestbed, and hopefully one day I'll get to sleep back in our bedroom.




For Halloween Abby dressed up as a little flower!! She was the cutest one I have ever seen (am I being biased?). We spent the evening at the church for our Annual Fall Fun Night. We had a good time, but definitely were tired when we got home.



I have yet to really leave her with anyone other than daddy, and that has only happened 3 times since she was born, way to hard to do at this point still. I am with her all day everyday and get my breaks when Chuck gets hoome from work. By no means am i comfortable leaving her with anyone other than Chuck at this time. I am starting small and my first goal will be to put her in the nursery sometime in January. There are only a few people that I am completely comfortable even considering leaving her with and that still isn't gonna happen anytime soon.

We have a big month coming up for November. Abby & I will be going on the WOmen's retreat the weekend of the 13th. We leave on Friday and will return in Sunday afternoon. Then we have her 1st Thanksgiving!! I am so excited that Chuck will be off for the holiday and can spend it with us over taht Pastor Rich & Donna's home! They are like a 2nd family to us.

Well that's it for now!