Abbie's first bath.

I'm a little late in posting this, but things have been kinda hectic around here lately. Here are some pictures from her first "real" bath. She LOVES baths.


She always curls her feet around the edges of the hammock.




She seems to really enjoy the water being poured on her.




Our cute blueberry.




Getting her hair washed.





All done.





Her Elvis impersonation.





This is why I think she's going to have curly hair. Her hair is really curly right after her baths.

Before we put her in the tub, I was trying to fill it up with water so she'd be partially submerged in it when we put her in. But I decided it was going to take too long to fill the whole thing up with a cup, so we decided to put her in it. I told Mark to hang on a second while I went to get her towel and wash cloth out of the hall closet and I told him not to put her in the hammock bc it was cold since I'd gotten it wet trying to fill up her tub. Apparently he didn't hear me or didn't listen bc I got out into the hall and Abbie let out this blood-curdling scream. Haha! She just screamed once and then she was fine, but I know it was bc the cold hammock surprised her and probably wasn't her most favorite thing in the world. But she really enjoyed the rest of her bath, despite the rough start.

I can't believe she's going to be a month old tomorrow... She's going to be 18 before I know it. I'm loving every minute of being a mom (except for maybe getting up every hour with her last night... that wasn't my idea of fun, but oh well.)

A day of firsts

Today was the first time Mark flew the F-16 solo. He was pretty darn excited about being in a jet that only has one seat, which is a first for him. He flew the T-38 solo also, but the T-38 had room for an IP in the back. But this F-16 was a single seater, so he was all by his lonesome, and he had a great time. The first thing he said when he got down was "I fly better when there isn't someone in the back" and the first thing his IP said to him when we walked over to him was "You fly better when you're in there by yourself."

Here is Mark and his IP running the jets up before takeoff. Mark's in the one on the left.



Mark taxiing out to the runway



Mark and his IP at the end of the runway. Mark's on the right.




Mark taking off. (I'm surprised I actually got this picture bc the whole time I was at the end of the runway I was crying... Not sure why, but I was, and by this point I couldn't even see through my tears.. (= )

Mark taking off and the ground crew watching

Mark's plane is the one in the air.

Mark and his IP flying through the pattern.

Mark pulling in to the parking spot after he landed.

My hot F-16 pilot!

We have a picture almost identical to this, except it's in the T-38

I'm so proud of him.

Him in his G-suit.

He's officially a captain now! Changing the sign on his locker.

Seeing Mark fly these jets is kind of surreal to me. Logically, I know that he's a pilot and that he flies fighters for a living, but I guess in my mind I think that he goes and sits behind a desk when he goes to work. I always assume it's someone else flying them when I see (and hear) them flying around, not my husband. He has a pretty cool job and I'm so proud of him.

The other first was that I left Abbie for the first time. I left her with my friend Julia, who's husband is also in Mark's class, for about an hour and a half. I was nervous about it the night before, but today I was fine when I was leaving her. It went better than expected.

Mark's promotion

Mark was officially a captain as of June 10th, which means he's been in the Air Force for 4 years. It's hard to believe it's already been that long. He's having new rank sewn on all of his uniforms. Someday hopefully I'll be good enough with a sewing machine to do that for him, but by then he'll probably be out of the military. He has his first solo flight in the F-16 on Tuesday. I'm going to try to go take pictures of him, but we're not sure what to do with Abbie since she can't be that close to the jets since we don't have ear protection for her. We'll figure something out.

Here are Abbie's 3 week old pictures





Chillin with mom last night


Here's what she does when we give her her vitamins. Mark always gives them to her and she's looking at him in most of the pictures.

Taking a nap with Daddy

Cute as a bug's ear!

We think this outfit is adorable on her! Look at those little capri's!

She's a stretching machine - this is how she stretches

I look really frumpy in this picture, but she looks cute so I added it.

3 weeks old

I can't believe my baby is 3 weeks old already! It really doesn't seem like it's been 3 weeks since we were in the hospital. Today at her dr's appt the pediatrician said that she's losing her newborn look, which made me kinda sad. I'd like her to be a newborn forever, even if I'm not getting any sleep.

Today at her appt she was up to 9lb5oz, which was up 300grams from last week. The dr said that they're doing well if they gain 30grams a day, so since she gained more than that, she's doing well. Thank God. Now we don't have to go back to the dr until her 2 mos appt.

Last night was her best night yet. She slept well from midnight to 3am. I got her back to bed around 4am and then she slept well until 5:30am. That was a first for us, bc usually she's up every 15-30 mins from the time she gets up at 3am until about 6am, so I was pretty excited that she went back to sleep for an hour and a half. Of course I got up to check on her a few times in between there to make sure she was okay since it was unusual for her to sleep that long.

I think she's going to have my curly hair because when we give her her baths, her hair gets really curly afterwards. And she LOVES having her hair washed. She's not a big fan of the sponge baths right now (we can't give her a real bath yet, until her belly button is completely healed), but she gets really calm and quiet when we pour warm water on her head. It's pretty cute. Mark gives her her nasty vitamins every night too, and she makes the funniest faces when he does that. The stuff tastes HORRIBLE, so I don't blame her for making funny faces.

She seems to be a real snuggler. She's much happier when we're holding her compared to being in the swing or stroller or bouncer. She doesn't mind laying on the bed, as long as she's right up against one of us. Sometimes I take naps with her on the bed, but it's hard to keep the weinas away from her. They like to get right up in her face and lick her and it bugs me. I had no clue baby's dream like dogs do. She makes the funniest faces and noises in her sleep sometimes. And she LOVES to stretch. Any time you move her or she wakes up she arches her back and extends both of her arms out all the way and puts her head back and brings her feet up to her butt and makes grunting noises. We'll have to video tape it. It's adorable.

I'll try to take some 3 week pictures today and post them later tonight or tomorrow.

No more biliblanket!!

As of Monday, Abbie's bilirubin count was down to 13.9, which means she's in the clear now for the jaundice, thank God. We have her appt tomorrow at 7:20am to see if she's still gaining weight. Hopefully if that appt goes okay we can stay away from the dr and lab for a while. We've been going 3-5 times a week since she's been home, so it'll be nice to not have to go anymore.

Since I'm behind on the pictures, here are a BUNCH.

She LOVES to sleep with her hands up by her face.

It's hard to believe how tiny she is sometimes, especially when she frogs up like this on Mark.

Our usual spot in the downstairs chair.

Taking a nap with Daddy

Wide awake!!

She's not a big fan of her swing yet, but she was interested in it for a while this day.

Showing some tongue

Deep in thought

She falls asleep like this a lot.

Chillin with grandpa. (My dad surprised me and come down for 3 days while my mom was here.)

Another weekend gone

Mark and I had an okay weekend. I would love it if my husband had a job where he didn't have to spend 70% of his time at home studying... It gets kinda old, especially now that I'm home with a newborn by myself for 45+ hours a week. By the time he gets home, I'm ready to hand her off and go take a nap (since I average 4-5 hours of interrupted sleep a night). But he comes home and has to study for another 2-4 hours every night, so I don't really get much of a break from the baby. Luckily she's pretty cute and I'm not too burned out (yet) so it's been okay. I just wish he wasn't so busy all the time and that I didn't feel like a single parent at times. I guess we knew it would be like this though, I was just hoping it wouldn't be as bad as we were anticipating, but it is. Luckily Mark sleeps through me getting up with her during the night, so he'd getting enough sleep. Kind of important when you're flying jets for a living.

Saturday we went to Lenny's to eat. It's a little burger joint in Glendale and it was pretty good. As we were there, we saw a place that was featured on the show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives", so now we're excited to go try that place also. Then we went to a mall we hadn't been to before and shopped a little. I made the mistake of trying on some capris in my pre-pregnancy size. That was depressing. Needless to say, I didn't buy them, but I did get a few cute shirts. Mark wore Abbie around in the mei tai at the mall. He says he feels like he's waddling when he wears her. Haha! We picked up the movie "Taken" on the way home and watched in on Saturday night. It was a really good movie, but it's different watching movies like that when you have a daughter. It puts things into a different perspective. If you haven't seen the movie, it's pretty good, but it's disturbing, especially since I'm sure stuff like that actually does happen.

Today we got Abbie's newborn pictures taken. I'm excited to see how they turn out. She was kind of difficult during part of it and it probably would have been easier if she'd been a week younger, but hopefully she was able to get a few good shots. I'll let you know when the album is online in case any of you want to order some of them. And I'll post more pictures tomorrow while Mark is at work. He's on the other computer right now studying.

Hitting our stride

Today (and last night) was a good day for Abbie and me. We had her weight check at 8:30am and she actually layed in her pack n play and slept long enough for me to take a shower and get ready, which was a relief for me. At her appt, she was up to 4.1kg, which equals about 9lb1oz. How she gained 6oz literally overnight, is beyond me. I seriously thing the dr's scale is messed up. After her appt, we went to the lab to get her bilirubin checked again and they also got blood for her 2 weeks screening. After the dr's I went to the BX (store on base) to look at bouncers because I think I'd like to have a bouncer that I can move around more easily than the swing. The BX didn't have any decent ones though, so I got Father's Day cards instead. There were a few elderly people there that commented on Abbie. She started to scream once, even though she wasn't fully awake, and I was trying to push the cart and talk to my friend Gail on the phone and find her pacifier in my purse and 2 old people came up and started talking to me then. Haha! Luckily she was quiet again as soon as I got the pacifier in her mouth.

After the BX I wanted to go to Babies R Us to get more Kiddopatomus swaddle blankets. Last night I dug out the one that my friend Jackie got me, and she slept better then she has since we've had her home. The blanket has velcro on it so it stays tight even when she manages to get her hand/arm out of it. I also wanted to get a sound machine for her and a wedge for her crib. She seemed to sleep better in the hospital when they propped up her bassinet, so we thought if we could get her to sleep at an angle at home, maybe that would help too. I called my friend, Greer, (her husband is training with Mark) to see if she wanted to go with me and then out to lunch, and she did, so we headed up north to go to BRU and to eat. Abbie slept most of the time. She got a little sputtery at the end of our time in BRU so I nursed her when we got back to the car for about 20 mins and then she was good until we got home.

When we got home, I nursed her again and then decided I wanted to take a nap. So I swaddled Abbie up again and put her in the pack n play in our room, but by that time she was wide awake. She was perfectly content laying there by herself, but I always feel bad leaving her by herself when she's so awake. So I rearranged the pillows on Mark's side of the bed and brought her sleep positioner over from her bed and put her on the bed with me so she could see me and I could talk to her. I read a little bit and slept a little bit and nursed her once or twice. It was actually pretty relaxing. We got up around 5pm and I strapped her into the mei tai my friend Emily made us and I did a few chores around the house until Mark got home.

I just felt like we hit our stride today and I'm figuring Abbie out a little more and fitting into the motherhood role better. I didn't feel as overwhelmed as I did yesterday, and that's probably partially because I got more sleep last night, and also her dr's appt was more positive today than it was yesterday. (Although her bilirubin is still going up. Tuesday it was 15.5 and today it was 15.8. So we have to go back on Monday again for another check. She's looking a lot less yellow though, so that's good.)

In other news, Mark flew the F-16 for the first time today. He was pretty nervous about it last night because this week as been SUPER busy for him and he felt like he didn't have enough time to prepare. But he had fun flying it and it went better than he anticipated. He pulled 8.7 G's during the flight too. He flies 4 times with an instructor before he takes the jet up by himself. (Yikes!!) He's been really busy and I have a feeling he's going to stay busy for quite a while.

Time to get ready for bed. It's bath night for Abbie. Hopefully tonight will go as well as last night. Thanks to those of you who've called and emailed suggestions. I really appreciate your help and support.

2 week appt

So I might have spoken too soon about the breastfeeding going well... She's now down to 8lbs 10 oz - still almost a full pound under her birth weight. Her dr. doesn't seem all that concerned though. She just said to keep nursing her whenever she wants it (which is all the time) and I have to go back tomorrow for another weight check and a bilirubin check. *sighs* Maybe I'll rent a pump to see if that helps my supply come in more, but I know she's getting something to eat bc her diapers prove it. I guess her bilirubin was up to 15.5 on Tuesday but the dr said that's not enough to raise concern yet. Hopefully it's lower tomorrow at her check. The scale at the dr's office was kinda weird. I put her on it the first time, and she was 4.05kg. Then the 2nd time she was 3.9?kg, and then she was 3.3kg, and the 4th time she was 3.95kg. So I'm not 100% sure their scale is very accurate. I hope it's not.

A few more pictures.

Since I usually get around to writing blogs at night, and Mark is on the computer where we have our pictures at night, studying, I don't get to add pics to the blogs as I'm posting them. But here are a few from this week.

We love our baby.

Ollie loves our baby too.

Unfortunately, this is where I usually sleep.... No wonder my back and neck and head hurt...

Our little glow worm in her biliblanket.

So I'm at a loss as to what to do about Abbie's sleep habits. 9 times out of 10 she cries when I try to put her to bed. I feel like she's too young to let cry at this point, so I go get her out of bed, and as soon as I pick her up, she's fine. I'll try to nurse her some more, thinking maybe she's hungry, and as soon as my boob is in her mouth, she falls asleep. So I try to put her in her own bed again, and as soon as I get back to my bed (about 3 steps), she's crying again. I really don't know what to do. How do I get her to sleep on her own, without me holding her? I know she's not hungry and she doesn't need to be changed, she's just crying bc she wants me to hold her, and as much as I love to hold her, holding her ALL night long is getting really old. I got less than 3 hours of sleep last night and it's really starting to wear on me. Does anyone have any suggestions? I just ordered Dr. Sears' Sleep Book, but it probably won't be here for a while.

13 days old.

This time 2 weeks ago, the anesthesiologist was trying to get the stupid epidural in my back for the 2nd time. It's hard to believe that that was really 2 weeks ago...

Abbie's doing well. Her bilirubin count was down to 14.8 yesterday, which was low enough for her to be off the blanket, thank God. Last night she actually slept from like 11pm to 3am. It was amazing. I got up and fed her at 3am, but every time I tried to put her back to bed from then until 7am, she'd start to cry, so I was in the chair with her again for a few hours. I don't want to let her cry, partially bc she's too young for that, and partially bc I don't want her to wake Mark up, but I don't know how to get her to go back in her own bed. We really don't want to do the co-sleep thing at all, but I guess essentially that's what I'm doing - just in a chair. I finally brought her into bed with me around 7am, but I don't sleep well with her in our bed bc I'm constantly worried about the dogs getting too close to her. Hopefully we can get her on a sleep schedule soon.

Breastfeeding has been going amazingly well. I was fully expecting it to be much more difficult that in has been. My boobs don't really even hurt anymore and she latches on really well. I'm still not sure how much she's getting and I'm worried about her not being back up to her birth weight by her appt tomorrow but we'll see. She's peeing and pooping quite a bit, which makes me think she's getting enough, but who knows. I've been mainly wearing nursing tanks under other shirts, and that seems to be working well. I think I'm going to get those Lilipadz things to use instead of the disposable pads. The disposable ones make my boobs look lumpy and they don't always stick to the inside of my tanks very well.

It looks like we'll be able to come home (to Dubuque/ Galena) for the 4th of July weekend to have Abbie baptized at my church. We just bought our tickets today, so hopefully everything will work out. We should be in the Dbq area from Friday PM to Sunday afternoon. I'm really excited for my 94 year old grandma to meet her. It'll be fun to have 4 generations from my side of the family together. Hopefully we can get some good pictures of my grandma, my mom, my baby and me together.