Daddy’s little helper

Abbie is all into “helping” now, and let me tell you, she’s a HUGE help….  =)  Especially when I’m trying to unpack and organize things and as fast as I can get them on shelves or in drawers, she can get them off or out.  It’s great.

Anyway, we were putting the bench we got from Ikea together, and Abbie had to help Mark.

And here are a few more pictures of her from her birthday.  We got her a little instrument set that she LOVES.

“Hurry up daddy!”

Kazoo’s make funny noises!

“Hmm..  What IS that thing??”  (It’s a harmonica.)

She actually got it to make a little noise!

Abbie’s 1 year appointment

We had Abbie’s one year appointment today.  Again, thank the Lord that the friend He sent me, Brittney, was willing to go with me.  That girl truly is a gift from God and I am SO thankful that we met each other online and hit it off right away.  (I am very thankful for all my friends who are reading this too and send me letters and emails to make home seem not so quite as far away.  Love you all!!)

The whole appointment was slightly traumatic for both of us.  I like her pediatrician here, but she’s obviously not for delaying vaccines like I have been doing with Abbie so far.  She said the decision is ultimately up to me, but then put the fear of God into me.  I hate it that Mark isn’t here to help me make these decisions right now.  Luckily Brittney was, and she’s an RN.

So Abbie is 31.5” long (95+%), weighs 21.11lbs (between 25-50%) and her head circumference is 42.5inches, and I have no clue what percentile that was.  The doctor visit was really quick because she was late for some meeting I guess, but she said overall she’s right on track and doing really well.

So then came the shots…  I’m following Dr. Sears delayed vaccination schedule, or I had been anyway.  His schedule says to get the polio vaccine and the mumps vaccine at 12 months, instead of the 5 that the CDC recommends…  I’m just not comfortable pumping her full of that many “things” all at once, especially considering that one of those 5 could have been the MMR shot, which is 3 in 1.  Well they don’t have vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella separately anymore, it’s all or none.  So after much deliberation, I decided to go with the polio vaccine (her 2nd one) and the MMR, which is a live virus vaccine.  I don’t know if I really believe that the MMR vaccine causes autism, but I’d be lying if I send it didn’t worry me a little bit, even if it has been proven that it doesn’t.  So she gets 2 shots, one in each leg, and she screams, but she got over it quickly.  That part wasn’t too bad, it was more the deciding what to do without Mark’s input that was hard for me.

The blood draw, however, was a different story.  I guess they drawn blood on all 1 year olds to check for anemia and they take it from their arm.  So we sit down in the chair, her on my lap and they put the little bar down and she’s already getting tense from the 2 people hovering around her, no matter how big they were smiling.  So I’m supposed to bear hug her and keep her other arm tight against her, and one technician holds her other arm while the other one draws blood.  They put the tourniquet on her tiny left arm and she pretty much looses it, and then I, in turn, loose it.  They’re feeling around her little arm for a vein, she’s screaming, I’m in tears… It just wasn’t good.  So they decide that that arm wasn’t good so they put the tourniquet on the other arm, and she screams even louder, and then her cries turn into big sobs and she keeps looking at me with her big blue eyes like “mom, why are you doing this to me?”, and I feel like an idiot because I’m sitting there hugging her against me with tears running down my face, but I couldn’t help it.  I know it didn’t hurt her that much, but I know she was scared and I had to keep her in that uncomfortable situation.  Again, thank GOD Brittney was there.  She did her best to distract Abbie for me and helped me with Abbie and the diaper bag and purse and grocery cart and packages, etc, all day.

So Abbie got over it pretty quickly, more quickly than I have obviously since just writing this makes me tear up again.  I’m hoping she doesn’t have any sort of reaction to these vaccines, but the guy that gave them to her said that them having a reaction (getting a fever, being drowsy, etc) is actually good bc it shows that they’re building up an immunity.

Anyway, so that’s the saga of her 1 year appointment.  I’m glad it’s over…

What was I thinking??!?

I cannot believe I never posted these pictures!!!  I guess a year ago I was a tad bit preoccupied and it didn’t even cross my mind.  Our doula ended up being more of a photographer than anything else, but I’m glad she captures the moments.

So here’s the birth story from a year ago, via pictures.

Just getting settled in.

Contractions starting.

It’s funny, I don’t really remember the pain at all now.

I absolutely could not have given birth without Mark’s help.

He was at least 10x’s more beneficial to me than the doula was.

Finally dilated to 10cm’s!

My first look at her.

Yep, I cried when I first held her, and I still cry every time I think about that moment.

The nurses called her “extra cheesy”, meaning she had lots of gunk on her.  Took them a while to get it all off.

Apparently my adrenaline is still kicking at this point.  A few minutes after this I got so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open for the life of me.  They don’t call it labor for nothin’….

Our brand spankin’ new blueberry.

She was a rather large blueberry…

Mark was enamored with her from the first moment he saw her, and he still is.

They all look like little aliens when they first time out, but she looked perfect to me.

This is when her bruising started showing up.  You can see a few on her arm here.

She was so tiny!!

Us with our doula, Julie.

Daddy and brand new daughter.

We’re both tuckered out!

Here you can see the bruising on her head some.  Poor little thing.

Our cutie-patootie!!

Our little glow worm.  (She had jaundice so she had to be on those lights quite a bit the first few weeks of her life.) 

I think this was taken the day after she was born.

I can’t believe how big she is now, compared to what she was a year ago!  It’s amazing!

Abbie’s first birthday

Abbie’s first birthday was a little bittersweet for us.  I wish it could have been a big celebration with lots of friends and family, but it wasn’t.  It was just the 3 of us.  I feel bad for family members who missed out.

I thought Abbie would tear into her cupcake, but she really didn’t.  I don’t think she knew what to do with it really.  She poked at it some, and then offered some to Mark, and then finally tried to take a bite.  But she more or less smeared it all over her tray vs actually eating it.  Whatever floats her boat.  She had fun.         

She had a bunch of presents, so we opened them in 2 days.  She has a pretty short attention span still.  She’d open a present and then just want to play with that one verses opening more. 

Thank you to all of you who sent Abbie gifts!  We really appreciate it and she had fun opening all of them.

 

PS:  I have a bunch more blogs to post, but I have strep throat and feel pretty crappy so I’ll have to post them later.  But I promise I’ll get them up eventually!

Tranquility

I’m not sure I’ve ever lived anywhere as tranquil as Sarone is.  Growing up in Galena, I never thought I’d find a place as quaint and peaceful as it is there, but I guess I never considered moving to Italy an option either.

Sarone is SO quiet!  I listen to the birds and the wind rustling through the trees and that’s pretty much all I can hear, except for the bells on the church occasionally.  It’s absolutely amazing.  Everything is so green and pretty, and I’ve never seen so many flowers.  The fields here are the red poppies growing in them, which is gorgeous, and 95% of the yards are beautifully landscaped.  I would say at least 50% of the yards around here have rose bushes in them.  We have 6 in our yard that Jodie and Jason planted (the couple that lived here before us) and all 6 of them are blooming right now.

Mark and I have been eating dinner on our porch lately.  It’s fun to be able to look out over the town of Sarone and watch the sun set over the mountains.  I have a feeling this assignment is going to be hard to beat, except for the Mark being gone all the time part.  But it’s nice to have a calm, relaxing place to call home for the next few years.

My splurge

So I’ve been thinking about that cork purse ever since the bazaar.  I looked them up online to see if her prices were within reason and they were.  I was planning on buying on at the fall bazaar, but she had a little booth set up between the BX and commissary this week. so I was pretty sure that was fate.  (Venders always have little booths set up between the BX and commissary, selling stuff from all over.)  So I stopped and looked at the purse I looked at 4 times at the bazaar.  She still had it.  (That was also fate.)

So after finding out that she’s not going to be at the fall bazaar, like I had assumed, and talking it over with Mark (who’s quite possibly the best husband in the world, for far too many reasons besides letting me buy this purse, to list), I splurged.  

The lady is also a military spouse, and she’s based out of Germany, near Ramstein.  She was really nice and wanted me to put her info on my blog.  So here it is!  Her webpage is www.cork-lady.spaces.live.com and her email is cork-lady@hotmail.com.  Her name is Maria and she’s very nice.  Contact her if you’d like one!