0300 Is Not Playtime! (But What An Amazing Daddy!)

Why am I up at the wee morning hours? Because Little Miss Princess decided that 0245 was a good time for her to wake up. I have to confess that I was awake anyway, as Ry's working graveyard and I usually have a hard time sleeping when he's not here; but I'd be an unhappy camper if I really did have to wake up at that hour. Selfish, you say? Only if she is a crying, hungry, needs-a-poopy-diaper changed baby. But folks, she decided it was playtime and she was happily fine tuning her pterodactyl screech. I wasn't mad though. How can you be mad at the prettiest little blue eyed girl with a beaming smile? You can't.

I thought a bottle would put her back to sleep, but no. Almost two hours later she is still screeching and babbling. I guess it will be good for when Daddy gets off at 0600. He can soothe her to sleep, which hopefully means she'll sleep later, and Mommy and Daddy will get some sleep too. She has a hard time with bedtime when Daddy's working graveyard (it switches every month) because her usual routine is that I give her a bottle, cuddle a little bit, and then Ry scoops her up, we both give her kisses, "I love you and goodnight"s, and he puts her to bed. It's hard for her when he's gone; she adores her Daddy so much. We may have our troubles over his husband duties, but he is the perfect father. Our relationship with our daughter isn't Mommy 80%, Daddy 20%, it's always 50/50. And because of my back problems I would say it's more like 60/40 in his favor. He always makes sure to get her in the morning when she wakes so that she doesn't wake me. (I have horrible, horrible sleeping problems) He will play with her, crawl around with her, giving her extra time and attention because I can't do those things with her. (Can't bend down or sit for too long because of my fusion) He feeds Sam her lunch - solids - everyday (sans graveyard); not because I am unable, but because it's his favorite thing to do with his daughter.

Speaking of favorite things, he was holding her the other day and told me he can't wait until she puts her arms up on his shoulders (he made the motion with her arms). You know why? Because he cannot wait for the day when his daughter holds onto him, or gives him a hug. He says that will be the best thing. My heart went "Awww!".

I love that man.

P.S. It is 0505 just now and I believe the baby is asleep. *silent yay!*

I Guess I Owe You Some Pictures

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR!

(Well, three humans and one beautiful kitten!)

The Beginning...

Ryan and I on vacation in Florida during Thanksgiving 2007 at his family's cabin. We had been dating 11 months.

Same vacation, except we were alone, by ourselves, across Florida in Orlando at DisneyWorld and Universal Studios.

Slowly Starting a Family...

Our first baby Missy. We saved her from a disgusting pet shop September 9th, 2007. She was in a dirty environment where she picked up fleas and a nasty respiratory infection that lasted 3 months. She was born on Ry's birthday, June 21st, she's 100% deaf, and she can either be the sweetest cat or the most evil little devil you've ever seen.


...but we still love her to pieces. She is now almost 2yrs old! (And yes, she's wearing a hoodie!)

Just after we got married on March 12th, 2008. We did a court wedding due to moving with the thought of doing a big wedding in the Summer. It didn't happen; instead, we got a baby. Much better than a wedding! (Besides, we didn't want to waste the thousands on a 20min ceremony.)

First Love, Then Marriage, Then Comes Baby in a Baby Carriage...

What can I say about this beautiful girl? She is our first child, a princess, a miracle from God, and the day she was born was the happiest I have seen my husband. Her name is Samantha Lillian Pearl, and she was born at 1330 on September 24th, 2008 via emergency cesarean. She weighed 8lbs 1oz and was 21 & 1/2 inches long.

Taken October 1st, just seven days before she was admitted to the hospital. At this point she only weighed 7lbs 1oz. She was only losing, not gaining. She was projectile vomiting the breast milk that I pumped, and her bowel movements were almost non-existant.

Almost a month old, a little bit after her hospital stay. There she was diagnosed with reflux (later GERD), an infection, and dehydration (duh, she was puking) and sent home on antibiotics (which caused her to get thrush, which required more antibiotics. We fought that for four weeks because of the doctor's neglect!), Zantac (for reflux) and an expensive prescription formula that thank God the military paid for. In this picture she was almost back up to her birth weight of 8lbs 1oz. Look how skinny she was. :-( Her skin flaps on her legs were awful.



Moving on Up...


This is Samantha now, both taken just last week! After 7 months of hard struggle, we are finally at a point where every day is a dream instead of a nightmare. This picture was taken this month on the 21st. Her "Easter" pictures. Isn't she beautiful? Today she weighs just 15lbs 12oz and is 26 & 1/2 inches long, but she has come a long way since that skinny little baby you saw up there. Her weight is all in her now chubby little legs, and her arms and torso are still petite. But instead of screaming, pain and sleepless nights, she is laughing, smiling and enjoying life!

Samantha's first trip to the park last week. She loved the swing, but hated the slide (we held her as she slid down). She'd swing all through the night if we let her. She is still on her expensive formula, but we are going to start weaning her off of it and onto a regular formula which scares the heck out of me. I don't want a repeat of last October when she almost died. I am concerned with how her system will handle it, as her formula now is free amino acids, milk and soy protein free, hypoallergenic, etc. and the regular formula has all those. But we are starting slowly under the close care of our wonderful Ped GI Dr. C, and are supposed to feed her one bottle of regular formula once every three days and report bi-monthly weight checks to Dr. C. We are starting that regime this week. She has been upgraded to a stronger reflux med, Prevacid, because for one month straight (Jan through Feb) she would scream half the day and all night because she was in so much pain. A few days after we got her on the Prevacid, she was 1000% different. We were seeing a baby we never saw before. It was pure bliss, and still is. She is slowly starting on solids - due to her GI issues we have to be careful - and loves pears.

Well, there you have it folks. Faces to the names, and a little about our past few years!

Officially Hate BCP

Not more than 9 days after my BCP scheduled period, I started yet another one, but this time it came back with a vengeance.
Last night I woke up around 2am to severe cramping in my lower abdomen. I've heard of miscarriages described, and I am guessing I just had an insight as to how they feel. No, I didn't have a miscarriage; just cramps, I guess. It felt like a contraction, and I remember wanting to push because I thought it would make me feel better but any pressure only made it worse. I was doubled over screaming, and eventually vomiting as well. Hubby got me settled into bed, and put a heat pad on my tummy. Eventually I felt well enough to fall asleep.

Why is this happening?
A) I thought BCP was supposed to control bad cramping.
B) What in the world is with the twice a month, heavy random periods?!
C) Wouldn't even know if they're preventing pregnancy because I am not having sex! You can't have sex when you're constantly on a period and your sex drive is in the gutter! (Well, you can have sex on your period but it's not something I practice. Ew.)


ARGH!

No Words; Just Pray For Kayleigh