Addie 4.5-5 months

Gramps, me, Great- Grandpa Totten and Addie. 4 generations!!!

My little tax deduction shirt. I just love this on her!!!

rollin over for her turtle

rollin over to Riley
playing with her vtech ball and turtle

Aunt Beth, Aunt Pam, Addie and me. Her SMC aunts!!
That's right I am a big girl sitting up all on my own!

such a big girl!!

smiles for mommy

The shirt and the smile say it all. She is my 6:30am alarm clock!

celebrating Grammi's bday on Sept 13th at the house.



grabbin for Gramps. She just loves him so much.

smiling with Grammie.

So the past few weeks we have been watching alot of ND football. I actually went to the second ND home game and my parents watched Addie while Jeremy and I went. We left the game with 4 minutes to go as ND was up, but then Michigan State got the ball back and was close to scoring. Jeremy wasn't happy that we left, but I had to nurse if you all know what I mean!

So this past week- Thursday September 17th Addie rolled from her back to her tummy like 8 times!! I was so excited that I called Jeremy at work. I got it on video too so he could believe me and that he didn't miss it either. So on Friday Jeremy took the day off from work because there is a case of the H1N1 at her daycare and I freaked out. So she did it for Jeremy when he was home with her. I was so proud of our little girl.

So Addie is figuring out who mama is for sure. I think she is developing a habit that I have to be in the room now. I would let her play in the living room with her toys while I would fold laundry or put away the dishes and she isn't having any of that the past 2 days. I am trying to figure out if its because she is teething and just wants the comfortness of me around or is she becoming aware of her surroundings.

Addie definitely thinks the world revolves around daddy. He is for sure the "fun" parent. When he gets home from work, its all smiles for daddy. It is just so cute. She just giggles and laughs with him. he makes her laugh all the time its so adorable!

Addie got some visitors lately. For the Michigan State game, Her Aunt Pam and Aunt Beth came into town for the game and stayed with us both nights. They couldn't believe how good of a baby she was. She didn't cry at all and I said oh yeah she does... and I got out the nose aspirator and proved that she can cry.

When Addie's been at church her feeding schedule has been off since she has been sleeping longer in the morning... well 2 weeks in a row I've had to leave in the middle of church to feed her in the car. I bring her back in and then she falls asleep. This week she was talking so much during church that I had to leave with her. It was so cute though... she was joining the priest in his homily.

We went to see Grandpa Totten too over the weekend and he held her for the first time on September 26th. He doesn't like to hold babies as he is afraid he will break them, but he was fine and I actually had Jeremy capture the moment.

Addie has been doing so good with her sleeping. She sometimes still gets up in the middle of the night, but we have been moving her bedtime up so still adjusting to all of this.

So funny story with Addie. On Sunday morning getting ready for church... Jeremy was in the shower and she decided to have a little fit (because of the nose thing) and she kept doing it so I looked at her and said "NO" her first real no. Well you know what she did... she just looked at me and smiled. what could I do but kiss her and smile right back at her. She was a little stinker for that one!

Addie is a pro at sitting up now!!!She just loves to play with her rainbow rings. She knows how to get them off and then she sucks on the yellow stem thing. She also likes her turtle toy. She enjoys the telephone and the keyboard.... I'm thinking she sees us to much on these!

Addie- 4 months to 4.5 months

Well alot has happened in the past few weeks..

Addie is feeling tons better.. thank goodness it was just a virus and just lasted a few days. It was going around though because a few of my friends kids had it and good to know that everyone is ok now!

Addie went for her 4 month shots and weighed in at 15 pounds 8 ounces and was 24 inches long. she is in the 90th percentile for weight and head circumference and 50th for height. no solid foods yet for Addie. Our doctor says that she is healthy and doesn't need them yet. There isn't a rush and we aren't in any rush to give her any.

She has graduated into stage 2-3 diapers now.
She loves to blow raspberries with her tongue.
She loves to put everything in her mouth.
She knows mama.... and when she wants her mama she lets it be known!
She grabs for toys... or mama's glasses.
she gives you open mouth kisses.
She does a pirate look now where she moves the right side of her face and scrunches her nose. (both of my parents said that this comes from my Grandma Totten as she would smile like this) so I wonder if this is something she inherited.
She loves it when daddy gives her kisses on the belly. he makes her laugh. It's the cutest thing ever!
Addie loves to grab at Riley and Russeau. Bob doesn't get close enough, but she follows his tail.


She can sit up now. I tested it out this week (September 4th) while putting away her clothes in her room and just let her sit in her crib playing with her Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal and she did so good. She would look at me and just smile like "mom... I'm a big girl now" and then she would play with Winnie and want to eat Winnie. She did fall a few times backwards, but it was after a good few minutes on her own. She is building that strength up. By the end of the week she was a pro at sitting up!

Addie still hasn't rolled over yet but she is getting close. She gets to her side and almost all the way over and then flips back. I bet in the next few weeks we are gonna have a mover on our hands.

So I have to back up a few weeks where I celebrated Andrea's birthday with her on August 28th.. Jeremy was in charge of Addie. He took the day off. (we have been very lucky with our work schedules that Addie has only been to daycare 6 times so far through September 12th)) well Jeremy was home all day while I worked and then I came home for 2 hours and then went out to dinner with Andrea and her family. This was my first real night away from her by myself. I called and checked in.... I just had too. Well when I called at 9:30 (which is past her bedtime) she was fussing for Jeremy so I decided to leave the party and get home to my little one. I don't know who was missing who more me or her. Well I called Jeremy on my way home and he got her to sleep, but I just missed the fact that I wasn't able to put my little one to bed. When I got home I have to admit that I got a little teary eyed because I really missed kissing her good night and going through our routine together. She must have too because she woke up 30 minutes after I was home so I was able to put her to sleep.


So I am starting to make our daytime have a routine now. She is eating less frequent now but still doing her cat naps. I am really trying to work on a set naptime schedule with her, but it doesn't always work out. I find it that if she takes good naps then she sleeps really good for me at night, but if she doesn't then she might get up at 3-4 am and then up at 6ish. so I am trying to stop that 3-4 am feed. If I feel she needs it then I will nurse, but I just think she has to figure out the self soothe now. We are working on it though.... its a change for me too.

September 12th- we celebrated Grammie's bday today. Addie was so good. We started off my going to church to celebrate Grandma Swartz's mass and then we went home and got dinner ready to celebrate. We also played some Euchre. It;s funny because at mass, Addison was all about the prayer book and then at home she loved the cards and she likes to touch them and figure it out what we are doing too.

We have been moving Addie's bedtime up to about 8:15-8:30 now as she is sleeping longer in between feedings. It's funny because on the days I have to work is the days that we have to wake her up. It's like she knows that she is suppose ot get up and she doesn't. Little stinker!

So I guess we are a little different from others that have kids, but I am sure that this will change once she starts eating foods is that we take our baths in the morning. I figured when we go to solid foods is when we will probably do the bath time at night.

Oh speaking of bath time... this past week when I was taking my bath I put Addie on the floor and just let her play.. its her naked time. Well this week she moved a good 18 inches backwards. It took about 10 minutes for her to do it, but she did it all on her own. I was so impressed. She was laying on her back and scooting backwards!!!

Addie watched her first ND game... well she slept at kickoff when we played Nevada as daddy and Uncle Adam went to the game. The Irish won so it was a good day in our house!

Week 13-17-

Well we started off on July 20th going to Redamac's with my mom and then going to the LaPorte County fair to see Hayden and Hannah show their horses. We met up with Nancy, Debbie, Stacy and Cheryl. It was so good to see everyone and visit for little bit. Addison did really good for an hour and a half and then she got hungry so we had to leave. She had a great time watching the horses though! I can't wait for next year for her to be more entertained by the horses!!

Since its been along time since I have blogged I forgot alot that has happened in the past few weeks but here are some highlights

Celebrating Grammie and Gramps 34th wedding anniversary. We had to postpone celebrating on their actual anniversary because Jeremy and I both got sick for a week..it was horrible. Thank goodness Addie didn't get what we had, but I know that she was a little tired though.

August 4th- first day of school for Addie and mama went back to work. Today we took Addie to school and went through the routine. I think Daddy will be dropping her off in the morning and I will be picking her up as it will be easier for me to get out of work than for him. I work Tuesdays and Fridays in the office and 4 hours at home on Monday's and Thursday's. So I really cut my work schedule to 24 hours a week to be with my daughter. There is nothing more important than her. I wish I could stay home with her everyday. I know that she will get to have some friends at daycare and we are entering a new world. She will get to learn new things... I just think its harder on me than it is on her.

Her first day she did really good, except for her bottle. she isn't used to a bottle and she struggles with it. She is 100% breastfed and rarely gets a bottle so its no surprise to us that she doesn't want to really take it. Her second bottle goes down a lot easier than the first so at least we are improving and she is hungry so it helps.

My parents picked her up from daycare. She was only there for 6 hours so that was reassuring to me. They picked her up on Friday August 7th too. My parents were able to check out her daycare and "approve", even though it is hard seeing her there. I know they do a wonderful job and are taking good care of her. All the kids are happy there and always have tons of fun it seems like. We know a few people that go there so it is nice to know that.

We have seen Dzie Dzie several times the past few weeks and sit with him in the court yard. he just shows off Addie and always sings to her.. "roll out the barrel" is their favorite song together.

August 10th- Addie got her 4 month shots today. She was all smiles in the doctors office until it was time for the shots. She screamed but then once I picked her up she was fine. She weighed 15 pounds and 8 ounces....she is above the 90th percentile. Her head circumference is also above the 90th percentile. Her height....well she finally reached 24 inches and she is in the 50th percentile. I think she is going to take after me for height.... something she got from mama.

well as summer is coming to an end, Grammie has been with Addison the entire summer. I think she has missed only 10 days of seeing her and part of that was them going on vacation for 3 days to celebrate their anniversary.

So the first week of August we got Addie out her new toy... her jumperoo. We got this from Adam and Elizabeth at our shower and then we also got the Baby Einstein one from my Aunt Arlene. We have the one that Adam and E got us in our living room and she loves it. At first she just didn't know what to do but spin this little thing on it and she mastered that right away, but once she figured out that she could jump...holy cow watch out because the second week in August she was going to town on it! It is amazing how quickly she learns and how fast she absorbs things to do.

August 14th- Today Addie and I met Elizabeth and Harrison for some pics in Grandma and Grandpa's yard. I had tons of fun taking pics and we got some of the little ones. Addie wasn't in a smiling mood at all so she is showing her serious look in alot of the pics.

August 15th- we went on ND campus as it was open practice. Addie took her first trip in the stadium today. However we couldn't take pictures inside the stadium, we decided to walk campus and take some pics. You can tell that Addie wasn't her smiling self... needless to say I didn't know what we were going to encounter the next few days...

At night we had poker night at Jeremy's parents house. I didn't play but Jerermy did with the family. Addie wasn't feeling her best so I decided not to play. Addie did get a poker lesson from Grandpa.... however she feel asleep.


So Sunday, August 16th was horrible for our family... Addie woke up at 2:15 in the morning just screaming and she was hot. Jeremy got to her nursery faster than I did... she never wakes up screaming so this was a shock to us. Jeremy took her temp under her arm and it was 101.1... yikes. Since it was under the arm and not as accurate we added 1 degree to the temp because the device said so and our doctor said anything over 101.5 get her to the emergency room... don't call just go so we did.

We got to the emergency room around 2:45.. Addie did great in the car. She nursed for a little bit as I didn't know what to do when we woke up. we got her there as fast as we could, but she was screaming when we got to the emergency room. It's like if you moved her she screamed. she was not feeling good at all. My heart was breaking. They gave her Tylenol right away (something we should have done before we left for the hospital.... yeah first time parents learn these things as we go). So in the emergency room we waited and they had to draw blood from Addie. This was horrible because they tried her right arm first and couldn't get into the vein and then had to go to her left arm. I hated every minute of this and just cried as I tried consoling my daugther. Jeremy was so calm through everything, I was a wreck. I kept asking him why aren't you crying and he said "one of us has to be calm and rational on decisions" so true in life. So after they took her blood they needed a urine sample and put this sticky bag over her with her diaper on. She was going to the bathroom #1, but hadn't had a bowel movement since Friday morning 9am. This was so not like her... so all this time I am thinking constipation. well.... so the doc comes back in and asks for x-rays....all the while, Addie's vital are fine and her fever is decreasing. SO Addie has 2 x-rays done. We wait about an hour and the doctor comes back in and says she thinks it might be a little pneumonia in her left lung.. I lost it at this point. Even the doctor said don't cry. I just welled up like a little baby. Addie was just sleeping on me. I held her this whole time and wouldn't let her go one second. So with the whole urine sample thing, it kept missing that stupid bag and they wanted to put a catither in her... I was like this is the final straw and I was like please GOD let there be enough in the bag for a sample. There was... I wasn't going to let them poke my daugther anymore.

So because of the "pneumonia" they gave her an antibiotic in the ER and then admitted us to the Pediatric ICU. I was not expecting this either. So I held her in my arms as they wheeled me to her room, again not letting her out of my arms. She is my baby and I just wanted her to feel better and take away the pain.

So we got to her room, Room 624, I'll never forget that. We get there and see the intern doctor and nurse before the pediatrician gets there. So its 6:30 in the morning now. We haven't called the grandparents yet. We go through their tests upstairs of checking her and meanwhile we haven't slept at all. Finally in my arms after the doctors where down checking her, she had a bowel movement. FINALLY! I was so relieved. I was hoping this would help her feel better. I had asked how long they thought we would be there and they said usually a minimum of 48 hours because of the blood work, but patients do get released before then. SO here I am thinking we are going to be in the hospital for 2 days and I started making the list so Jeremy could bring stuff back because I wasn't going to leave my baby. NO way...

We made the phone call to my parents first and my dad was already at work so my mom had to handle the news on her own. She let our dogs out on her way into the hospital and stayed with us the whole time. She didn't leave us until 8:00 that night.

We called Jeremy's parents and they were praying for us.

So the pediatrician came in and she had looked at the X-rays and said Addie didn't have pneumonia and she wouldn't have recommended the antibiotic. the reasoning behind it is that with an adult x-ray you tell them to take a deep breath, but with a baby you can't and with everything being so compressed, it looked like a slight case so that was the explanation. So it made me feel better that she didn't have pneumonia. So the pediatrician checked her and decided to release her. Thank you God. So when my mom got there it was about 8 in the morning and we didn't get home from the hospital until 10:30 in the morning.

So all in all, Addie had a fever on and off for 2 days and she developed a rash. She still isn't herself yet, but she is getting there. I am so greatful that she is not in the hospital and that she just got a virus (not sure how) and that a little bit of Tylenol has been helping.

So when we got home we were exhausted, but Addie was just in pain as she got poked in both arms for blood and both legs for the antibiotic shot. Poor thing was so sore on top of not feeling good. She just whined and wasn't feeling good at all. My mom stayed with us and Jeremy and I tried to catch up on some sleep for what we could. I basically feel asleep on the couch for 20 minutes here and there while my mom helped with Addie. It is the worst thing ever as a mom to not being able to take away the pain from your child.

So Sunday night, I slept on the floor in Addie's room and she did ok at night for sleep. She was up every few hours and would eat for a few minutes and go back to sleep. Monday night I slept in her room again and she was up every 1.5 hours to 2 hours... needless to say I didn't get much sleep at all. I was just so worried about her. On Tuesday night she was up about every 2 hours... Wednesday night I slept in my room as her fever hadn't been around all day so I felt better about not being in her room. She still woke up alot. Jeremy had to help me in the middle of the night because I was just so exhausted. He was a great help as he took Monday and Tuesday off to be with us and just help with her since she wasn't feeling good at all. We were all exhausted and just wanted our baby to be better.