Sunday, November 30, 2008

OH..she can crawl now too

In the past few days Audrey has really done well crawling as well. She can get across a whole room without falling down. Her "crawl" may include a few scoots where she pulls both knees forward at the same time but she can definately get to where she wants to go.

She can pull herself up!

Audrey pulled herself up to a stand for the first time yesterday! It was at my parents' house on their couch. It was so cute! She tried a few more times but couldn't do it again. Today she has done it several more times on our couch at home. It's so exciting. It's definately time to start baby-proofing though. She gets into everything she can. Granseur made the mistake of teaching her how to open drawers. She has some low drawers in her room and when she opens them she bonks herself in the head. I love watching her grow!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

My little girl is growing up

Since there is another baby on the way, Granseur and I had a discussion with Audrey. She's going to have to learn how to be a little more independent. It seems to have worked. She will grab and hold her own bottle now to feed herself (even though I still have to hold her.) She's been doing that since Sunday. It was hard to teach her though. She would see the bottle and just start opening her mouth for us to put it in and leave her hands way back. When we wouldn't give it to her right away to try to make her grab for it, she'd just cry. She just didn't make the connection. Finally we placed it in one of her hands and its like a light bulb went off. It was so exciting. :)

On top of that, I can have conversations with Audrey now. They don't make much sense and her end is usually just "mamamama" or "dadadada" or "gggggggg" but I'll talk to her and she talks back.

She loves it when Granseur flips her upside down. When he brings her back up she just wants to do it again and will arch back again and giggle. She's strong!

She's so close to crawling too. She can get about three scoots in before she falls down but she's doing so good. She can also hold on to the side of her pack n play, crib, or coffee table and hold herself up. I can't believe how far she's come from the day she was born. I can't wait to see what she does next. I love her so much!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Night Terrors

What an 8 month old little girl could have night terrors about...I have no idea! Audrey has night terrors almost every single night. We feel really lucky if we get two straight nights in a row where she doesn't have at least one night terror. That's probably happened only three times. She's not hungry in the middle of the night anymore, she just has issues sleeping. Sometimes it only takes me 5-10 minutes to calm her down and put her back to bed, other times it could take an hour and a half to get her back down only for her to scream an hour and a half later. I'm praying I finally get some relief tonight....even if its the only night this week. Now that I'm pregnant again, I'm even more tired than I was before getting up all the time. Last night one of her night terrors was at 5:00 a.m. (She normally gets up and stays up for the day at 7:20) It didn't take long to calm her down - probably 20 minutes when it was all said and done so that was good. The only problem is, I still feel exhausted and want to plop right back in bed but at that point I'm awake. It took me two hours to fall back asleep...I only slept 20 minutes because then she was up for the day. It's so funny though...when she wakes up for the day, she just talks to herself and makes cute noises. It's completely different than when she has a night terror. You'd think someone was killing her! I hope that this is a phase that ends soon. I need as much rest as I can get before the new baby gets here. I'll never sleep then!

Oh and I'm SO excited this is the week of Thanksgiving. All of Granseur's commitments during the week are canceled for the holiday so he gets to come straight home after work. I love it!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

I'm PREGNANT! (again)

I've been dying to write this but wanted to wait until we told all of our family and friends. We found out in late October. We bought Audrey a onesie that said, "I may be little but I'm the BIG SISTER". That's how we told our family. The weird part? No one got it! My mom saw it and read it aloud as soon as she saw Audrey and then just went about like nothing had happened. Finally we told them and asked how they didn't understand the shirt. My mom said, "Oh, well I thought it was a hand me down shirt and I didn't want to make a big deal about it." I said, "We're not so poor that we need to make Audrey wear a big sister shirt if she really isn't one." Granseur's grandmother read it aloud and didn't get it either. We have most of these reactions on film....I'll try to post them up here sometime soon.

When I first found out I was pregnant I absolutely couldn't believe it! We tried for 18 months for Audrey and with a RE the entire time! After I had her I was even told by my regular endocrinologist that my hypothyroidism had gotten worse and that he was surprised I got pregnant at all. So even though we weren't preventing anything, it was still a huge shock! I figured we would go back to the RE in March - June of 2009 and even then I thought it would take us a while. I guess not! The funniest thing to me is now some people are calling me fertile Myrtle. I NEVER would have thought that label would be put on me.

At first I was concerned about having enough time to spend with Audrey once the new baby is here and how hard it is going to be, but it did not take long at all for me to be excited. God really put a few things right in front of me to give me the right perspective. The day after I found out I went to one of my MOPS meetings and there is a lady at my table that cannot have any children at all. She adopted her beautiful little boys. I realized I should be truly grateful and just as excited about this gift God has given me...not everyone gets this chance. The day after that I went to take Audrey to a pediatrician appointment. I sat next to a cute little boy and his dad. While we were waiting I started talking to the man. It turns out that his little boy was 15 months old and his wife was going to have their next baby THAT day! Another sign that everything will be okay...other people do this, too! The day after that I went to my bible study and there is a woman in that group that also did fertility treatments to get her first child. She has been trying since her son was born and nothing yet.....the boy is now two. As if it didn't sink in enough by then and I was truly grateful and thrilled, about a week after that a woman came over to my house and we got to talking about this stuff. She has the exact same two diseases I have that make me infertile (not now though!) and her and her husband have been trying for 6 years and also seeing a fertility specialist and they have not had a child yet. Now I'm feeling really fortunate! God chose to give me this baby that he clearly has a purpose for. I am so blessed!

Then I thought about all the other great advantages even though I will be very busy! The kids will be close in age and will be able to enjoy the same outings....like Disney World. I also cut down my years of diapering. I will be doing double duty....but time wise it will be cut short than if I had another child later on.

My due date is July 4th. Ha! Independence day....kind of ironic, huh? and that's just two days after our 4th anniversary. Here we go again!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

I hate Boy Scouts!

What a weird thing to say, right? Well Granseur is the Boy Scout Master here. He was asked to be the Scout Master about a year and a half ago since he used to be a boy scout with that troop, is an eagle scout and can teach the boys a lot, and none of the boy scout parents would step up to the plate. So he said yes. He felt that this was a good way to give back and be a good role model for young men and in essence serve the Lord since we aren't able to tithe as much as we'd like.

Here's the problem. He's gone one night a week until about 10:00 usually for scout meetings. They are only supposed to last until 8:30 but there's always something he has to do afterwards like see if a boy is ready to advance to the next level, etc. Then there's a scouting trip one whole weekend each month. During this time I usually can't reach Granseur at all since they are out in the woods in some remote place. Then there's special events like Eagle Scout ceremonies and opening for special events like share holders' meetings for companies. There's also planning meetings which take place any given night and boy scout camp where Granseur does not spend the night but goes straight after work and stays late. This is only one week of the year but its on top of everything else! I just think its getting ridiculus since we have a family now that he needs to spend time with and that does not include a little boy in boy scouts.

I realize that there are husbands that are gone a lot more than mine is, but here's my thing.... It's not benefiting our family in any way. We don't have a child in boy scouts and its not work related so we're not getting any income from it either. I also think its strange that out of all the boys in boy scouts that none of the parents will step up to be the Scout Master and that they actually called someone who does not have a child in it at all. I like to call it Baby Sitters of America instead of Boy Scouts of America because a lot of the parents seem to think that its great to get their kids out of the house for a whole weekend each month and not help at all.

On top of this Granseur is also on a local board and is also part of the handbell choir at church. The local board meets once a month and the handbell choir meets once a week then he has to be there to perform as well on weekends. He has something going on 3 out of 5 nights this work week and likely won't see Audrey at all until she's already asleep. That of course does not even include last Sunday when Granseur had to get to church early so he could play in the choir. I had to get Audrey ready again all by myself. She was being a terror that morning and everything was going wrong. I made it, but it was awful trying to get there. It's just too much! None of these things are work related or benefit our family. I feel like he's missing Audrey's life and for no good reason.

Sometimes I feel guilty for feeling this way since he is trying to be nice doing all of these things that are good community service activities and he can teach the boys a lot and he's good at it, but I just don't think he needs to be the scout master. Something has to give. I'm getting really fed up.