Progression to Angry

Mom, I'm not having fun anymore.

Mommy, I'm really not enjoying this...!

Mooooooooooom, I DON'T WANT TO SIT IN THE BOUNCER ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Learning to pick up on her cues more and more every day.

Back to work...

I am going back to work on Friday. How can I possibly leave this beautiful face all day?

No stranger is going to take as good care of her I as can.

Until I can find a way to stay home with her, I will just keep playing the lotto and hope for a win.

xoxo

Elizabeth

Happy Thanksgiving and now it is December!

Ah! Where does the time go? Every day seems to fly by, then a week is gone, and a month, and somehow my daughter turns two months old! Whoa! Here she is on her 2 month birthday. Josh sent me roses and lillies for my birthday since I was in Texas, so I took a picture of our little rosebud with a rosebud. :)

Audrey is out of her harness now. I can't remember if I blogged that, but 3 weeks ago we had a checkup and the doctor said her hips are strong and beautiful and she no longer needs to be in the harness! Yay! We were all very relieved. We have another checkup in January just to follow up and make sure things are looking good. She also had her two month checkup at her pediatrician's today. She is 14 lbs and 5oz, and is 23 inches long! Big Girl! I actually thought she was over 15 lbs. Close, but not quite. She got three vaccines today, so she has been sleepy all day...which was fine with me. :) I just laid down with her and got to enjoy a long, cuddly nap.

Audrey and I traveled back to Dallas for Thanksgiving and she was wonderful on both flights again. It took a couple of days once we were there for her to settle back into her routine with naps and everything, but once she did settle we had a great time. Thanksgiving was at Grandma Bobi's house and it was great to see everyone. Mom and Grandma decorated the house beautifully and the food was amazing.

Cristina loves baby A. Baby A loves Cristina, too.

I am returning to work two weeks from today. Luckily, I go back on a Friday so I will only have to be away from her one day. Joshua is going to stay home with her that day, and the following week she will be with Lisa for three days and with Joshua two days. Then on Monday, December 27, my little baby will start going to daycare. I am not looking forward to this day at all. I knew it would be hard, but not this hard. I went and toured some centers yesterday and today. Joshua and I toured one while I was pregnant and we loved it, but I wanted to check out some other places too, to make sure we chose the right one for Audrey. One of them was $2100 a month!! That's more than college tuition!!! Daaaaang. After touring 4 places, I went back today to the first place we toured back in June and decided it was the one for us. It is more expensive than the others (except the $2100 one!), but I felt much more at ease when I walked in and was able to see what the children were doing. I didn't like walking into an infant room and seeing three babies sitting in swings that weren't turned on and didn't have any toys. They were just sitting there. Another place had a room so small that the children looked like they couldn't even all be on the floor playing at the same time because there just wasn't room. I'm sure there are things I will not like about the daycare I chose for her, but I do feel like it is the best place for Audrey at this time, since I can't be with her. We introduced the bottle to Audrey recently, to get her ready for daycare. She seems to do ok with it. It takes her much longer to eat than when I nurse her, but I guess that is just because she is still getting used to it. Here is Daddy enjoying dinnertime with his little girl...

We are going to visit Santa Clause tomorrow at the mall. Yay! I am definitely looking forward to this first Christmas with Audrey. I know she won't know what is going on, but I will be sure to take many pictures so she can look at them when she is older, and so you all can be a part of it.

Lauren will be home in 21 days!

xoxo, love,

Beth

Traveling Baby!

Audrey took her first plane ride at 6 weeks old, and I am happy to report that she did great!!! We flew to Dallas to surprise Lexi for her baby shower. I carried Audrey in her wrap so that I wouldn't have to worry about carrying her in my arms. It worked out great - she fell asleep in the car on the way to the airport, woke up when I put her in the wrap but then fell back asleep and slept until about 10 minutes before we landed in Dallas. I nursed her at takeoff and landing so that her ears could pop. The flight home was almost as easy, except that she woke up a half hour before we landed, so I had to entertain her for that time which was pretty easy, but I was so afraid she would just start wailing or something. The lady next to me had made a few comments early in the flight about having to sit next to a little baby, and she even made a comment to her friend about me nursing on the plane (I had a window seat and I was fully covered, give me a break), so I really wanted Audrey to make her eat her words. And she did- when we landed the lady all of a sudden wanted to talk to me about how cute Audrey was and how "well behaved" she was. I wanted to tell her that babies aren't "well behaved" or "poorly behaved", they're just babies and are completely unpredictable. Whatever.

Lexi's baby shower was great!! She had lots of family and friends show up and they showered Tiernan with many gifts! Aside from the weight lifting competition going on in the room next door at the hotel, the shower was perfect. Here are some pics:


Wish you were here Lauren!!! Although the trip was short, it was really great to see the family and for Audrey to meet everyone. But, it was exhausting!!! I realized how much Audrey really needs consitency every day. She was so tired and didn't sleep well while we were there, not naps nor at night. That carried over into the week following the trip. It seems like we've just recovered from it actually, and now we're getting ready to go back in a few days!

I've been getting letters from Lauren and it is so nice to know that she is doing well. She will hopefully be home for Christmas, which would be perfect!!! It has been much harder without her than I expected it to be. I realized the other day that this has been the longest we've gone without seeing each other since 2002. And we still have 5 more weeks.

Audrey is 8 weeks old today. It feels like it is flying by, but at the same time I feel like she is older than only 8 weeks. Maybe it is because she's so big, I'm not sure. I am loving every minute of being home with her and am sad that I only have 4 weeks left. It is going to be really hard to be away from her and not know what she's doing all day. Maybe one day I will be able to stay home with her, but now is not the time. She has started smiling for me. It is the most wonderful thing. It is usually in the morning, right after she wakes up. I love rolling over and seeing her face light up when she sees me. There's really nothing like that. Here she is enjoying playtime

Last Friday we went to see the orthopedic doc and we got great news! Audrey's hips are looking great and she is FREE from the harness forever! We are going back in 2 months for a follow up, but the doctor said for right now, she is right where she needs to be. Thank goodness that is over, it was not fun! And now she can kick her legs and work on rolling over!!

She is sleeping with Daddy right now so I need to take advantage of that and get some things done around here. Love you all and I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Keeping Busy

Since Josh has gone back to work I've been trying to keep busy. I have a hard time just staying around the house, so I've been planning my errands spread out over a few days each week so that we have a reason to go out. Last week we had doctor's appointments. Again, Audrey's orthopedic doctor said she has to be in the harness for another two weeks (one more as of today!). I was so disappointed when we left that appointment, party because I know I wasn't being as strict as I should have been with the harness. I would take it off a few times a day and maybe that's why she still wasn't fully developed. So since last Friday she has worn it all day except for maybe an hour each day when we do playtime.

Speaking of play time, Audrey is having more and more awake time each day. It happened so suddenly...one day she was just awake for an hour and I didn't really know what to do with her. I just sat on the couch staring at her and bouncing her. I decided to look up a playgroup in the area as a reason to get out of the house and also so I could meet other moms and see what they do with their little ones. I found a place here in Centreville called Smalltalkers. It is run by a woman that is a pediatric speech therapist, and basically she offers hour long classes to help parents engage with their babies and learn about the development, etc. Tuesday we went to our first group, it was a new moms group for babies 0-6 months. Audrey was the youngest but it was really neat to hear the other moms talk about what they are going through at each stage. The group instructor showed me some age appropriate toys and told me ways to get Audrey used to doing tummy time and enjoying it. Yesterday we went back and did another class and it was very fun. I learned some songs to sing to her and some little activities we can do together around the house. I am looking forward to going to the next class.

I have so much more to write, but I know I don't have much time while Audrey is asleep so I better use the time I do have to do something productive. Here are some of the amazing pictures we had taken...I hope you all enjoy!

My Little Sister

....Is off to Basic Training. I've known since February that this would be coming but I didn't think it would come so soon!! How did she go from this little baby girl to this big grown up?

This morning Lauren, Audrey, and I went to get Lauren's hair cut short. The Navy requires that her hair is shorter than her collar so Lauren wanted to get it done professionally rather than have it all chopped off once she arrives at boot camp. I'd estimate she got around 8 inches cut off.

Before: During:After:I think her hair looks really cute! She looks like a Navy woman! After we left the salon, we went to Wendy's for some lunch (wow, great last meal, glad Josh cooked a real meal for ya last night!!!), and then drove to her recruiter's office. We took some last minute photos and talked about the final details and that was it. We hugged and kissed and she walked into the office...

Funny thing...Audrey usually cries when Lauren holds her. But today, for the first time ever, she actually let Lauren rock her to sleep. Maybe that was Audrey's going away gift for Aunt Lauren.

Last lunch before Lauren leaves home... So CHEERS to you LAUREN!!!! We are all so proud of you for choosing to change your life. We know you will succeed and we are all anxiously waiting for you to return home a proud sailor.

Make yourself proud. You've already made all of us proud.

xoxo,

Beth, Joshua, Audrey, Pussycat, Frank, and Dora

4 weeks old already??!!

Oh No. It's starting. Somehow, Audrey is turning one month old tomorrow. TIME. FLIES. Even during the first week that she was home I found myself getting emotional over how fast it was already going. It scares me to know that it is only going to get faster and faster from here out...

Here is Audrey at 4 weeks old:

We saw her hip doctors again last week. Thursday we had the ultrasound done at Fairfax Hospital. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike doctors, nurses, hospitals, staff, insurance companies, and just about anyone that has to do with healthcare??? Well, I don't like them much. I apologize for the generalization, but I just seem to have more bad experiences with them than good ones. And the ultrasound experience was a bad one. Audrey had a full tummy and was sleeping in her carseat when we got to the ultrasound room. The technician came in and had us undress her, which of course woke her up. Then she had me hold Audrey on her side with her leg pushed up to her abdomen, while she put jelly on A's hip and tried to get a picture. Audrey was crying within minutes. The tech asked, "Don't you have a paci to give her?". Well, no actually. She doesn't take pacifiers, thankyouverymuch. After a couple of minutes, Audrey was in full on scream mode. The technician was getting very huffy and puffy and kept saying things like, "I can't get a good picture if she doesn't sit still". Really? Is this the first time you've ever seen a 3 week old baby. Then she left the room to go get another tech to help her. Audrey calmed down while she was gone since I was able to pick her up and cuddle her. Then the techs came back and made me lay her down and it all started again. "Can't you give her a bottle or something?", she demanded. I was getting pretty mad at this point and I told her "NO, she is a breastfed baby and she's not crying because she's hungry, she's crying because she's being restrained by two strangers in a freezing cold room!". After about 20 minutes of listening to poor Audrey cry, they finally got some images they could use and it was all over. It was traumatic for me. Unfortunately, the results showed that she still is a little loose and needs to wear the harness for another 2 weeks. Which means we have to go BACK and get another ultrasound done this coming Thursday. Let's hope this is the last one. We also have her one month appointment next Friday. I think she's grown a lot, so I can't wait to see what the scale says!

People keep asking me if she sleeps through the night. I think that is a strange thing to ask considering she is 4 weeks old and needs to eat every 3-4 hours, and sometimes more. But to answer the question, no she doesn't. I usually put her down around 11 and she'll wake up between 2 and 3. Then she'll sleep again until 6 or 7. That's pretty reasonable for me, only one nighttime feeding. A couple of nights this week she has been up every two hours though. I think she is waking up due to gas and not hunger. She screams and her face gets really red and she pulls her legs up like she is completely miserable. I hate that, I feel so bad for her. I am working on getting my burping technique down so she won't have to be so uncomfortable.

We went yesterday and had some photos taken by a friend of Lisa's at Manassas Battlefield. Despite it being a chilly and windy morning, we had fun and hopefully got some good shots. I will post them once she edits them and sends them to me. She already sent me a couple of preview shots, but I'm going to make you all wait to see them! While we all wait, here are some photos to hold you over:

Aunt Cristina and Baby Audrey

Dora and Audrey cuddling:Mama and baby naptime:Like Father like Daughter!Daddy and his girls:

Pretty baby girl..."Stop messing with me!!!"Milk Drunk!That's all for now. Josh goes back to work on Monday and Lauren leaves for Basic Training on Tuesday, so next week will be my first with just Audrey and me. Should be interesting! We have two doctor's appointments, so wish me luck with getting Audrey out and about all on my own! I will give you all updates and let you know that Little A survived the week with me.

xoxo

Beth, Joshua, Audrey, Dora, Pussycat, and Frank

Audrey's Hiccups

Take a peek into the fascinating life of Audrey. Also - she looks JUST LIKE me when I was a baby.

Doctors, Doctors, Doctors!

It was a busy week for us! We had three doctor's appointments. On Tuesday, I went in for my OB checkup and it was great! In addition to already having lost almost all of my baby weight (5 pounds left!), the doctor said I was healing nicely and lifted the awful restrictions they had given me when I was discharged from the hospital. That means I can go up and down the stairs as much as I need to, I can walk as long as I feel comfortable, etc. So I'm still not able to hit the gym (I don't want to push my body!), I am definitely enjoying the afternoon walks and freedom to move around a bit more.



Wednesday we had Audrey's appointment with the orthopedic specialist. First, I really like the doctor so that is good. And when we told our pediatrician who the specialist was, she told us that she's one of the best in the area and that we are in good hands. :) Basically, the doc confirmed what the first ultrasound said - that her hips are simply loose in the socket. She felt around and said it doesn't feel like it is bad, but she ordered another ultrasound to be done next week to see how much progress has been made since the last one. She put Audrey back in the horrible harness for the time being, saying that she may not need it depending on what the ultrasound shows. Or, she might have to continue wearing it for a few weeks. Luckily, this one is a million times easier to use than the one we were given at the hospital. She does seem uncomfortable in it since she can't stretch her legs, but I guess that is the point. It won't be for long and it is better to get it done with now than have to deal with it in the future. The doctor said many times the hips will fix themselves without the harness, but it is better to be sure and use the harness.Then on Thursday we had Audrey's 2 week checkup! Two weeks already!?! We went to a different pediatrician this time because I didn't like the feel I got with the first one. WOW what a difference it was!!! This office is much more intimate, has a personal feel to it, warm, welcoming. It is definitely somewhere I feel comfortable taking Audrey. She now weighs 9 lbs 2 oz and is almost 21 inches long. Strong heart, strong lungs, good lookin' eyes and ears!! Great checkup!


In other news, I was browsing Craigslist.com on Wednesday just for fun and came across an ad for baby girl clothes. I contacted the lady and yesterday I drove to Alexandria and picked up a box of 320 pieces of clothing, sizes 0-12months, for $80!!! It is sooooo much stuff! It is mostly onesies and pants, but she had a bunch of other stuff too like dresses and skirts that I didn't even look at. I figured 320 pieces should last us. Some of it I will just resell or pass along to someone else because it is either too small already or it is the wrong season for her size. Still, you can't beat $80. I love finding good deals. :)



Today I put on my wrap for the first time. Cheryle bought this for Joy when Ian was born and Joy passed it along to me. I love it! Josh helped me get Audrey in there nice and snug and I was able to do laundry and eat my breakfast without having to worry about what she was doing. I think she liked it too because she was able to look around at everything while I was working. She fell asleep within 10 minutes too, so I guess it is comfortable.

Here is a picture of Grandma and baby A.

And here is a picture of Audrey on her TWO week birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Love you all! xoxo

Elizabeth, Joshua, and Audrey

Audrey Elizabeth Falcon

She is HERE!!! Our precious daughter arrived on September 23, 2010 at 12:07pm! She weighed (shockingly!) 8 pounds and 8 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long. She's a big girl!

We got up that day and did some last minute packing, cleaning, and other things that we wanted to finish before heading off to the hospital. We took some "pre-baby pictures" and one final baby bump picture. We were both anxious and nervous and so excited! We were giddy! Here is us right before heading in to the hospital...

We spent about 2 hours in triage while they pumped me full of fluids and monitored our vitals. Then around 11:30 we walked over to the operating room where Josh had to wait outside. I went in and got my epidural, which I hated. Once they split Josh and I up, I got really scared. I was right on the edge of crying the whole time until he finally came in, after they had made the first incision. Overall, I hated having a c-section and hope to never have one again, but I am so glad that Audrey got here safely and was healthy and happy.

Here is our very first family photo. It is my favorite of all the pictures we have...the smile Josh has in his eyes and peeking out from his mask...the way she smelled right then...the overwhelming emotions I had...it was all so perfect.
The hospital stay was actually pretty great. The Birthing Inn where we delivered was awesome - the nurses were so helpful, everyone was kind and patient with us, even the food was yummy! Here is the very proud Papa:Headed Home, Audrey's first car ride:

The first few days at home were a bit overwhelming, but so enjoyable. I was so emotional so even small things were setting me off into fits of crying. Not sad tears necessarily (though at times they were sad tears!) but also happy tears and frustration tears. The whole experience is so surreal, it was hard to control all of those emotions! I am feeling much better now though, and if I could just get out an enjoy this beautiful weather I'd be feeling fantastic! We might attempt to go on a walk today, but I'm not sure how long it will be. Standing for too long gets kind of painful. Audrey's first bath was...interesting. I was a mess. She was crying and was so upset from having to be undressed and that made me cry. I had to leave the room a couple of times. Funny story...I undressed her and undiapered her and wrapped her in a towel to take her from the bed to the bathroom and on the way there she pooped in my hand! Yay! That was my first experience with that. Then this morning I got up to change her dirty diaper and she pooped and peed all over the place while I was doing that. So I moved her to a towel on the bed and she pooped more there. So we moved to a towel on the floor and she peed AGAIN. I finally got another towel and got her all cleaned up before she could go again. Josh normally is the diaper changer but of course this one was mine.

Sweet sleeping baby...

I love laying with her...and staring at her...and feeding her...and touching her...and smelling her...

Daddy and Audrey having tummy time...
And here is baby Audrey on her ONE WEEK BIRTHDAY!!! With her little monkey friends.

So much more happened this week that I can't even begin to write it all. Every day is a blessing with her.

xoxo

Beth, Joshua, and Audrey