3 Months

Aubrey Girl
Sweet Baby
Monster

Just a few of the names I call my Sweet Angel. 

I am about 2 weeks late with this, but A is now 3 months!

Look at how much she has changed!

Her little personality has developed, she is not so easy to get a HUGE grin out of.  She enjoys talking with you, I just love the sound of her little voice when she coos (not screams).

We didn't have an official weigh in at the doctor this month, but according to our scale, Aubrey is about 12 pounds.  She can still wear most of her 0-3 clothes, but has also began wearing 3-6 month outfits.  Again she is mostly cloth diapered.  She wears a size 1 disposable to sleep in, and once a week while we are waiting for her weekly poop.

A schedule is starting to emerge.  It has been difficult with Liam's activities, Aubrey wants to take her first nap around the time Liam needs to go to preschool. {as I type she is napping in her carseat because she feel asleep on the way home, she cannot be moved out of her place without waking}

We have had a few good nights of sleep, mixed with  a lot of terrible.  2 nights after Sleeping Beauty slept through the night she decided to wake up every 40 minutes!

Her mood is definitely improving as she is becoming more active. At 3 months+1 day she rolled over, belly to back.  Of course she did this on Grandma's watch, but has continued to do it a few more times.   And just the other day she rolled over from back to belly.


We have also gotten out some of Liam's old toys for her.  She is technically not big enough for the exersaucer, but with the HuggaBebe she can sit in it and she enjoys looking at the toys.  Same with the Car Walker.

Some days it seems like she has been with us forever, others she just grows up so fast!

Good Night, Sleep Tight

So I was just saying last week how I was looking forward to hopefully getting some sleep in the future.  Aubrey had slept so well while we were in Michigan, until 4 am each morning.  But once we got back home she started waking up at midnight and then every hour after that again.
Liam was almost 2 years old before he slept through the night, I was ready to believe I would just have terrible sleepers.

Well, Brian has been asking me for a while now when we are going to move Aubrey into her own room.  I keep telling him, when she starts sleeping longer.  Friday I decided to start putting her down for naps in her bed.  Go ahead and slap my hands, but I did put her on her belly for the naps, I thought it might help her to sleep longer and I could watch her during this time.

 

 

This may or may not have been a well thought out plan considering we were leaving for the weekend and she wouldn't be sleeping in her crib anyway.

 

So the 4 hour drive to Atlanta for the weekend was stressful to say the least.  Aubrey screamed most of the way there.  We would stop to feed her and she would calm down, but once we started driving again she would start screaming.  By the time we got there she would not let me put her down, she slept on me the entire night.  I was scared for the babysitter Saturday night, luckily she did better the next night.

 

Okay now onto the meat of our story.  When we got home last night, Brian asked again, when can we start putting Aubrey in her room to sleep.  Little did he know I had already decided to put her in her room for the first part of the night, then when she woke up probably around 1am, I would just bring her back into our room since after the first stretch she usually wakes everyhour.

 

BUT LAST NIGHT.... OH LAST NIGHT

 

That girl was still asleep when I woke up a 3am.  YAY!  My boobs hurt, but I didn't want to pump and have her wake up 30 minutes later, so  I went back to sleep.  When I woke up at 4:30am, that girl was still sleeping.  At this point my boobs were rock hard, seriously I could have put on my stripper heals and went to work.  I had to relieve myself.  And then I went back to sleep.  UNTIL Aubrey woke me up at 6AM!

 

And after all this sleep, it was ROUGH getting up this morning.

 

Just to be realistic, I do not expect her to sleep like this every night from now on, but if she can do it at least 1 more time this week I might feel we are heading in the right direction.



Five on Friday {v.3}

{one} cookies for breakfast.

No I am not above bribing my child into taking his medicine.

{two} Family!
 We just left Michigan last weekend and this weekend we are going to Atlanta to visit Brian's sister.

{three} HOT DATE!

 I get to have lunch with this lovely lady while in Atlanta. She used to be my date when we were working in Asheville.

{four} running.
 I had been running consistently before we went to Michigan, and even managed to get in a run there. It gets hard during the week, but this big guy came this week so I can run at naptime when I won't be able to in the evening.

{five} Sleep

Aubrey slept amazingly in Michigan.  Not so much since we have been home.  I am looking forward to hopefully sleeping sometime in the near future.

Weekend Replay

Yes, the new week is half over but we had so much fun over the weekend we needed a little extra time to recuperate.
We left Wednesday last week to fly up to Michigan and visit family.

Its no joke flying with 2 children, this is just the beginning of our luggage.  Liam was even "forced" to pull his own suitcase.

 

We were able to get in plenty of relaxation... its so nice when grandparents are around to temporarily relieve us from parent duty.

Friday we went to Uncle John's Cider Mill.  The pumpkins there were AMAZING!  I'm sure I have never seen pumpkins like those here in the Sweet Carolinas.

 

 

Saturday Grandma was on duty all day while Brian and I went to the football game.  Every time I go back I forget how beautiful campus is, I sure do miss it!

 

Aubrey slept like a champ while we were there.  Until 4am each morning.  I knew I should have stayed there and let Brian come home alone, last night she was up nearly every hour!  As much as I did enjoy the extra sleep, 4am is a difficult time for her to wake up, I have had just enough rest to make it difficult getting back to sleep after feeding A.

 

All great things came to an end when we had a long day of traveling on Sunday.  I am very luck to have children who travel well.  Aubrey slept most of the time of the airplanes and had fun observing others at the airport.  Grandma had just bought Liam some new trucks that kept him occupied.

Childhood Cancer Awareness: The Best Days of My Life

We were at an even recently where I got to hear a father speak about his daughter. This girl went through 8 months of treatment for Neuroblastoma before losing her fight.  This father made a very profound statement, one I don't think can be understood unless you have lived through it. 

Roughly stated; Cancer gave me the best days of my life.

Again, as I would never wish what we have been through on anyone, I can not disagree with this man.

There has never been another time in my life that I have known so much love; from family, from friends... from complete strangers.
I've never know the amount of love inside myself.  There was so much joy felt in each smile Liam had.

I know that no matter how much money we inevitably spend on family photos, this will always be my favorite picture of Liam.  the innocence of a child who has no ide what he is about to go through, who at this moment only feels joy and love.

I know I said before, it was a time I really felt purpose in my life. I had taken a leave if absence from teaching to care for Liam during his treatment. I wasn't forced to go to a job each day, I didn't need to bring work home with me each night. I was able to just be there with my son.

Cancer changes your life, there is no doubt, but it doesn't have to ruin your life.