Grace is Getting Better!!

I'm so excited to share that Grace is getting better.  She still has the yucky nose and a little cough, but she's on the mend.  The appetite is still here and there but I'm not too worried about that.  We went to a fun fair today!!!  Fat Cats was having a free fair so of course we had to go join in the fun and see what it was about.  A lot of booths to play at, free waters, candy and cotton candy, food vendors and animals!  Here's some pictures of the camels :)

And then here is Miss Grace chasing me around with a spray bottle...

And then here she comes with some exciting news....

Oh my goodness, those are undies!!!  We are going to see how it goes.  Bowels is going to be an issue because it's a constant...void, but we'll see what we can do with the bladder.  So we'll probably have our morning of eating breakfast and then put the undies on.  This will give her the chance to wake up and warm up to us.  As we go on in the weeks (yes, I'm hoping I'll last that long) then we'll start going potty right in the morning.

Every 20 minutes to the potty...boy, what a schedule!  I'm guessing I'll last 2 days, and will be nice and give myself "nah, probably 3 days."  What do you think?

Amanda

Sick

Well, Grace is sick again.  This is a pretty nasty one.  Extremely runny nose, horrible hollow cough (which I'm hoping isn't whooping cough) and horrible phlegm.  She actually choked at dinnertime tonight because she was trying to eat a piece of pork but there was a huge chunk of phlegm in her throat.  I had my finger in her mouth and thankfully, she got it up before I had to dig in.  I just got a good bite but that's ok :)

We went to the splash park yesterday and you know what's weird, it was so crazy to see just how fast this came on.  I mean, Monday she had a very slight runny nose but we were also up in the mountains and so I thought it was allergies.  On Friday, she woke with a horrible red and wet eye.  I was so scared it was pink eye but there's no way it could come on that fast.  So I researched and learned that it was allergy pink eye.  And to be absolutely sure I was right I gave her allergy meds, cleaned her face and then watched her.  I figured if it didn't go away by the typical hour or so for medication to kick in, then we'd head home so we didn't share it.  But it went right away and never came back again.  So poor girly and mommy because my allergies started as well!!  Anyways, Monday...runny nose.  By Tuesday she still had the runny nose by was fine otherwise, so I was so dumb to think she was fine!  Wednesday was the same, and so I took her to the splash park and by Thursday, it was horrible.  I was so blind and should have known to have already been watching for the signs.  Horrible runny nose, the cough...everything I talked about above.  Darnit.  I flubbed on that one.  Sorry girly.  Here's some cute pictures of her!!!

 Can you see the red eyes and nose? She freaked out! She is on the carousel and went absolutely crazy. She was literally shaking...visibly shaking. I teared up because I knew she was scared but I wanted her to see that she could handle it. So we finally got to the point where there was laughing, cheering and smiles...as long as she had her arm wrapped extremely tight around my neck (it was tough to breath!) and I was completely draped over her and the horse. I love this girly

SO FUN!!!!!!

We come to today :)  No therapy since she's sick, so she got to watch a show this morning.  I didn't feel too well so I stayed in bed for a while and Daddy fed girly and turned on a show for her while I rested.  After a while I was better so I was up and we all just hung out together, read, and chatted.  Grace and I went to get her a new bathing suit because the one above is too big.  She always pulls it away from her body and shows her chest, which I'm not going to allow!  Plus, when she gets wet the bathing suit hangs way down at her crotch and it looks silly.  So now she has her own size 5 cute bathing suit.  Then we came home and had some lunch and really quickly it was 2 pm!  Off to bed she went and she was out like a light.  Poor girly.

We got her up about 4:30 pm just because she's been so tired, and usually she gets really grouchy when I get her up this late but she was so wonderful.  I could tell she was so refreshed and happy, and I was so excited she felt so well!  I let her watch another show (I know, we watch a lot of TV when any of us are sick) while I made dinner because she was being a bit clingy.  So after we cuddled and read for a bit, on went the show and I got to dinner.  We had pork ribs, a baked potato, salad with tomatoes and cucumbers, and sliced peaches.  Sadly, the peaches were really dry and they weren't that good.  And Grace didn't eat too much because, silly mommy, I gave her goldfish crackers to eat as a snack AS I was cooking.  What a goofball!

After dinner we played out back for a little bit and then went on a walk around the block.  I try to get at least one walk around the block a day :)  It was so nice to go on a walk and it was so beautiful out.

Next came our home teachers coming, kisses goodnight, prayers and then being tucked in.

Love you Grace!

Amanda

BABY!

Here's baby boy or girl's picture!!

12 weeks, 2 Days :)

Grace is so excited that there is a baby coming, and is so excited to hear that she's going to be a big sister.  I asked her what she wanted and she said "BOY!!!"  We'll see in 4 weeks if she can get what she wants :)

Amanda

Catch up

So, before I shared that I was pregnant, I started documenting about the nausea and other things like that.  And now that I've shared my pregnancy news, I've also opened up all the posts!!  They are published based off the days written so if you want to read them, you'll have to look back through all the posts to see if you missed anything :)

I'm way behind on posting but I'll be waiting until tomorrow to post since Grace has her three hour block of therapy in the morning :)

Amanda

Picture Craze!

Well, you might think this picture craze is of Grace, but actually, there is just one picture of her!  This is showing Sissy's baby shower and couple pictures.  I thought it would be fun to have them in here for her memories.  I won't put all of the ones that were taken up because that would be WAY too many!  But here's enough :)

 We didn't get this for her, but I just loved Kailyn's smile and so I had to share this one!

 There's our entertainment!!  She did gymnastics for everyone, sang and danced and it was so much fun!  I could tell she had a great time, and it was absolutely obvious that the party was only for her, for sure.

 The crib that Grandpa Hildreth made for Kailyn.  What a beauty, isn't it?  Handmade and hand carved.

 Yummy food!!  BBQ pulled pork, deviled eggs, cream puffs, strawberries, grapes, pink lemonade juice and cupcakes.

 The super cute diaper cake!

 Me and the mama-to-be!

 Most of the women of the family!

 This is what we got for Kailyn and baby :)  Well, obviously all of them but mama always uses things the most!

 There's the couple!

 Skyler and Mariah!

 And the three of us :)

And there's Aunt Lisa!  Those flowers smelled so good.

All in all, a wonderful trip.  Kailyn was overloaded with gifts and she definitely has a good start on prepping for baby girl.  At this point, her name is Elaine, but we'll see when she comes out.  Grace was always Willow until Daddy saw her and the name no longer fit.  

Today was an ok day.  Only because the weather was just ok.  Grace had gymnastics this morning and oh my gosh!!  She took three steps on the balance beam all by herself!  Her support therapist was about as excited as I was!  After that her home therapist didn't come over...hm...so we had an early lunch and then Grace actually went to bed at noon.  She definitely didn't sleep, though.  She didn't go to sleep until about 1:30 pm...after I went to sleep for my nap!  We got up at 3:15 pm and were going to go on a walk, but we ran errands instead.  We finally picked up some Renew from the Melaleuca store for Miss Grace since her skin is SO horribly itchy.  I'm really hoping it takes care of it.

It was a good day!  Not an ok day.  The weather was wonderful because it was that "not too cold, not too hot" weather without an insanely strong sunshine that makes you squint.  You know?  Grace loved going out on walks today.  She's definitely got a strut, and I love watching her walk from behind.  Adorable.

Amanda

An Empty House

Well, we have an empty house now.  Kailyn and Antonio had to leave this morning because of a work mix-up and there was no one covering work for them tomorrow, which is when they were supposed to leave.  But that's ok.  Sometimes, plans change!  They barely packed the truck up with everything that had gotten (crib, baby supplies from us and baby shower gifts).  It was funny watching them try to piece everything together in the truck!  They left about 7:15, so I got Grace up at about 6:45 am.  I now know that if I continue getting her up at this time, then I can put her down for nap at noon and she'll actually sleep for me, so this might just start happening.  Granted, I had to take 2 naps during the day as well.  I think all my excitement of having family come and the baby shower has caught up with me and I'm much more tired!  But it's been a good day today :)  I can see that Grace has calmed down from all the excitement, and so she's not as wired and crazy.  We didn't do much today other than my studying for an exam and playing outside.  Daddy worked in the garden this morning and so we went out and soaked in some sun while he tilled the dirt.  It's been too wet to plant yet so he's hoping g that the tilling will help soon.  It was nice to have such a beautiful day, and we definitely took advantage of it.  Went on a couple walks, ran some errands and so forth.  And already, we are getting ready to get together with family for Memorial day!  Spring and Summer are both so exciting when school is out of session.

Tomorrow Grace has gymnastics and therapy, and after that...depending on our weather...we might go to the park and play!!

All in all, a great day.

Amanda

So far Behind!

Well, I can't believe it's already Friday and I haven't written since Monday!  Kailyn and Antonio got here on Tuesday, so that day was completely full of gymnastics, therapy and then massive cleaning.  They got here about 9:30 pm and I let Grace stay up to welcome them.  We watched out the window for them but then Daddy went outside to wait, so of course we followed suit!  We then stayed up until midnight visiting...yes, that means Grace as well.  Do you think she slept in?  NO WAY!!  She was up at 7:30 am like clockwork, ready to go to school.  It was her last day of school and so after I dropped her off, I went home and sliced up some strawberries for the pancake breakfast her class was having.  It ended up being all the preschool classes so the strawberries went so fast!!!  Here are the pictures with her teacher and aide!

 Here's Miss Kim!  Grace absolutely loves Miss Kim and I'm so excited that she gets to be with her again next year.  

 And here is miss Kylie!  This is the aide for her class and she is so sweet with Grace.  I hand Grace off to her every school morning while I'm signing Grace in with Miss Kim.  

And here's our Miss Grace eating her pancake!!  She wolfed it down and I was pretty amazed by her :)

 Here we all are at dinner...Gringos.  Mariah isn't there because she had to work :(  This was on Wednesday.  I was going to make chicken and gravy over rice but everyone talked me into going out! It didn't take too much work to get me to go.

Ok, for Thursday Grace had therapy for 3 hours and while she was there, I worked on homework.  Kailyn and Antonio had gone to Yellowstone for the day and didn't get back until 9 pm.  When Grace got home she was supposed to take a nap but we all know how that goes!  I did homework while she was in her room but I finally let her out because she was yelling for me :)  "Mom!!!  I tum out now?  I all done sweeping!"  I felt bad for her so I let her out, but I still worked on more homework.  I have an exam coming and so I spent a few hours (through nap and then for a little while she was up) writing up my notes and taking the pre-exam.  Then came dinner :)  By this time it's 7:50 pm and I'm rushing to get some food in me because I had a meeting online in 10 minutes, so I scarfed some pizza rolls and then worked on my meeting.  Grace was already in bed :)  Daddy was so good and bathed her and got her tucked into bed.  Oh yeah!  We went on a walk to the park near us before we ate.  I was spinning Grace on the...I don't know what it's called.  It goes around like a merry-go-round but there isn't anything to ride on.  Anyways, I was going a bit fast because she kept asking for more, and instead of asking me to stop she just slid right off!!  Poor girly.  She feel on her stomach but thankfully, she didn't cry.  But boy did she get messy!  She fell into dirt and got super dusty :)  My tough girly.

Now it's Friday and the boys went to the cabin.  Kailyn, Grace and I have been running errands.  We went to Walmart, Family Dollar and Broulims and finally, we have everything we need for the baby shower.  Ah.  Feels so good.  We got home at 10:30 am and were surprised at just how early it was, and how tired we already were!  We left at 8:30 am...which is normally when I drop her off at school. So we finished decorating ladybugs for the diaper cake and hung up some decorations in the kitchen and dining room, and now the eggs are boiling so that we can shell them.  We are going to make them into deviled eggs tomorrow morning, and also making the cupcakes tomorrow morning as well.  Actually, we have a lot of food to do in the morning!!  Now Kailyn has a friend and the friends mom over...ug...but they are leaving soon.  And then I'll put Grace to bed and either shell eggs or take a nap!  I'd love to take a nap but I know the eggs are more important at this point.

Amanda

Baby Shower Coming up!!

So excited!!  Sissy (Kailyn) is going to be here tomorrow night...so is Antonio of course!  I'm so excited, and so is Grace :)  I keep telling her over and over that sissy is coming, and we've been practicing his name.  It's pretty cute to hear her say his name!  I've been super busy finishing up getting things ready for the baby shower and Grace has been back to school today so it seems like we're back to our normal schedule, but we'll see.  There are always curve balls thrown into our story.  It's 10:30 pm and I'm pooped.  It's time to head to bed for sure :)

Amanda

The New Mama

It's so weird to see how many things have changed with me during this pregnancy.  Oh, first I'll share that the baby had a heart rate of 173 beats per minute and I'm 9.5 weeks along.  So far, so good!  Anyways, here are my new dislikes...

Ice cream (I know, right?!  Me NOT liking ice cream?!  It's not that I won't eat it, just rarely sounds good)

Cake

Cupcakes

Cookies

String Cheese

Popcorn

So far, this is what I've found.  It's weird to see that all the sugary things are out.  

I've had some bad nausea, but never the vomiting from it, so that's wonderful.  I got some new medication to help with the nausea and it worked great today.  I've also had some extreme exhaustion, but surprisingly, today went well and I got quite a bit of work done.  I've got all the burp clothes cut out and ready to be sewn, I got a hoppy pillow cover sewn, and got the rest of the fabric necessary washed and dried.  Oh, and another hoppy cover ready to be sewn together.

All in all, I'm feeling well.  We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Amanda

Being Lazy

Well, I wouldn't say that necessarily.  With Miss Grace so sick and then me getting sick, I've been so tired all throughout the days that I haven't had the desire to stay up and write about anything!  Plus, if all we do all day is sit around, then there really isn't much to write about, right? :)  But she's getting better, and I'm feeling up to catching up.  There isn't much that has happened, but I'm excited to say that Grace finally gets to go back to school!  They are having a field trip on Friday and will be going to Bear World, and so I'm super excited :)  I'm going to see if I can tag along as well.  I would have signed up but obviously, we weren't at the school to be able to.  And then next Wednesday is the last day for school for her, so I'm so excited that she can finally go back to school!

She's still got spots but they are all scabbed over, and so her teacher said these are ok.  Poor girly...but I'm glad she's getting over it and she's been so strong.  We've been watching a lot of Care Bears lately.  She just absolutely loves this show...and I guess mommy does as well!  And while I was at a doctor's appointment, Grace and Daddy watched her first ever Disney movie!!  They watched Ice Age, and she absolutely loved the squirrel in the movie :)  It was cute to come home and see her so excited over the squirrel.  Don't worry, all is well with me!

I'm so excited she gets to go to school!!

Amanda

Nausea Oh my...

Oh my gosh, this is horrible.  I've never had nausea this bad in a pregnancy and I'm so sad about it.  Today is the closest I've ever gotten to throwing up.  I got my bathroom ready.  Cleaned the toilet, disinfected everything, mopped the floor, fluffed the carpet around the toilet, put a candle in there, a towel, and my toothbrush and toothpaste.  Oh, and a pack of gum.  Throwing up is pretty high on my fear list...so I called the doctor in hopes of getting a different medication that will stop the nausea but keep me awake.  The one I have knocks me out.  I've been napping at least once a day, if not more.  I can't really give Grace the attention she needs if I'm sleeping or trying to not throw up!  I'm really hoping this goes away after the first trimester.  I'm 10 weeks along tomorrow...13 weeks is the average time that this stops.  Please please please stop!!!  I can't imagine being like this through the summer and then into classes starting September.  I have two on campus classes and two online classes and can't afford to miss them because of this.  Ug...

Amanda

So Tired

I can't believe how tired I've been with this pregnancy.  It is absolutely insane how tired I've been.  I took three cat naps today and poor miss Grace is probably so tired of TV.  The nausea wasn't too bad this morning.  It's been pretty bad some mornings, but thankfully, I haven't thrown up or anything like that.  This morning I had some saltine crackers while still in bed, and then I had a drink of water pretty quick after that.  I went and got Grace up and was feeling a bit gross, and so I quickly shared a bagel with Grace and felt better.  I have definitely noticed that as long as I'm full, I don't feel nauseous.  It's been tough keeping up with the hunger because there are times that I just do not want to eat!!  But I do my best.  But this darn sleep issue...sheesh.  I can't believe there are women out there that can handle the situation I'm in...have a child, working on schoolwork, and then having a second like this.  Ug.  I'm hoping it doesn't continue for much longer!!

Amanda

Sick Day for Sure

Oh poor Miss Grace.  She's gotten even more spotted today.  Darnit.  This poor little girl has just hated these spots, and I feel the same way.  

See all the spots?  This photo definitely does not do justice.  We've been using Melaluca oil and A/D ointment and we've been really hoping that this is helping her feel better, but I don't really know.  She's been picking her bumps so much that I'm really hoping she's not going to scar.  She's specifically been picking at the corners of her mouth because she's got enormous bumps there.  Daddy was so fun with her today because he took her on a walk, and she had a fabulous time.  I caught up with them after a while and it was so fun to see them together :)  After that he gave a her a wonderful bath and then I lubed her up and tucked her into bed.  The day has been pretty much sleeping and watching a show.  She has been so miserable that this is pretty much all I can do to keep her happy.  

I'm really going this gets better soon.  I'm ok with the extra cuddles, which is what I got at 11 pm last night for about an hour, and I'm in love with the times when she is cuddling with me, watching Care Bears, and she looks up at me and says, "I love you, Mom."  How beautiful!  I didn't say anything to her to spur this or anything.  It was absolutely random, and this is what I love the most.  My favorite part of the day, that was for sure.  I love you, too, sweet girl.

Amanda/Mommy

Sick Girly

Darnit...poor Grace has Hand Foot Mouth.  And a cold.  When this girly gets sick, she really gets sick!  She's trying her best to be strong through this.  It's been so hard for her to not itch, but she's doing the best she can.  Our friends came over and brought Melaluca oil to us, and that's definitely helped her itching.  We lube her up the rest of the way with Vaseline and it seems to make it easier to deal with the itching.  

 Poor girly, but Daddy is helping so much!!  He's lubing her up :)

Poor girly.  This picture is from the morning...she looks nothing like this now!  It's so much worse than this now.  Daddy was so good to girly and gave her a long bath this evening with a soap I got from a friend.  It's got no chemicals whatsoever and is Ph balanced so it does absolutely no irritation to the skin.  I'm so glad I still had it!  Her bath was about 30 minutes long!  What a wonderful daddy. After that is when I lubed her up, and then after some Tylenol and Benadryl, off to bed she went.  Poor girly. :(

A wonderful friend brought over soup for us!!  She had made so much for her families dinner that she had too much, so she brought it to us.  It was so wonderful.  She had forgotten to put spices in and so I spiced it up and added a can of corn and mmm, mmm, mmm!  I've had three bowls already.  It had potatoes, meat, black eyed peas, celery, onions and then the spices and corn.  Grace was given some but by dinner time, she had lost all her appetite.  Thankfully I had given her two cups of Jamba Juice, so she's gotten some nutrients in.

What a day.  Hopefully she has a calm sleep tonight.

And here are some random pictures of our sweet girl, just because I've got them but never posted them :)

WONDERFUL GIRLY!!!

Amanda

Therapy Day!

Well, Grace had a great day at therapy.  I got there about 15 minutes early to pick her up and got to watch her working on the treadmill with her physical therapist.  He had her hooked up to the emergency stop, and then every so often he would but a plastic step stone in front of her every so often and she would have to take a big step over it as it came down the treadmill.  She was working as hard as she could getting over those plastic stones, but the TV playing in front of her was so distracting :)  

She is such a hard worker, and enjoys it so much.  I love hearing that she's working hard on using the steps one foot at a time, and I'm loving that she can walk up the steps, one foot on each step, with help.  She does so great!!!  She still does two feet going down the stairs, but that's ok :)  She's working hard, so I'm just so darn proud of her.  

She is finally asleep, now.  It's 2:50 pm and I had put her down at 1:30 and she JUST went to sleep.  That little stinker!!  She always has to fight it so much.  I would take a nap every day if I had the time and chance like she does.  

Now I'm off to go work on some homework, in hopes that I can keep my eyes open.  I might have to take a nap as well!

Amanda