The (Almost) Daily Brooke and Lainey

Milestones and some pictures

2011-12-01T22:33:00.006-07:00

I'm not good at keeping up this blog, but that's ok. I don't even know if anyone reads it, but it's nice to have a place to keep some notes about milestones and the like. Since my last post, Lainey turned 3 and we had a great party for her. We had fun on Halloween too, dressing up as a family with a "Tangled" theme. Brooke is growing and learning and making us smile all the time.

Lainey also started preschool. She says she doesn't like it, but she always seems happy when we pick her up. She's learning a new letter each week and learning to follow directions and share with classmates. She's doing great with puzzles, counting, and memorizing just about anything. She's in AWANAs and has learned about 10 verses so far.

Brooke is 10 months now and she's signing more now. Just yesterday she really started using "MILK" regularly. She's done it here and there, but now she'll sign it when you ask and when she wants milk. She's been signing "ALL DONE" for a while and she's also starting to sign "DADDY." She's less inclined toward communication than Lainey was, but she's more tactile. She seems to learn by doing and it's been fun to watch her grow and change. She is very close to walking. She takes one or two steps now between furniture and seems very, very proud of herself when she does it. No teeth yet, but they seem to be close. She is still not sleeping through the night which is kind of a bummer, but I keep reminding myself that this period of time is not that long in the grand scheme of things.

And now to some pictures. :)

Flynn Rider, Rapunzel, Mother Gothel, and the Flower

The Fearsome Duo

Somebody found a marker...

Getting ready to pick out our Christmas tree

Tree decorating time!

Silly girl

Reading books in the ladybug tent together.

Peek-a-boo!

I can do it too!

Boo!

This sweet hen was Lainey's buddy today when we went to ride Lexi.

The hen was so quiet and gentle. Lainey was smitten.

That's all for today! I would promise to update more, but I know I can't keep that promise. I will try though. :)

Oh no... 3 months later!

2011-09-15T21:08:00.002-07:00

Wow, I've been behind on blog posts! I'll have to pull together some pictures and videos soon. We've been overwhelmed by life lately. Between travel and getting back into the groove of life at home, I feel like we are just now getting settled back into a rhythm. Brooke is still not quite sleeping through the night. She'll grace me with 6 hours in a row every so often and it's like a breath of fresh air! Most nights it's still every 3-4 hours. We will get there soon though. She's hitting some big milestones right now and I'm certain it's not helping her sleep.

She started scooting about three weeks ago. It sort of looked like an army crawl with one foot pushing and the other hip scooting to catch up. Just in the last week, she's upgraded to a real crawl, belly up and all. She's not too fast yet, but she knows how to get around to whatever she really wants. She's fun. She's really kicking in with the talking now. She says Mama all the time. She'll say Dada and La-La-La too! So cute! Lainey loves it when she calls her La-La. No teeth yet for this little one and I don't really expect them for another two months or so, despite the massive amount of drool she's able to produce.

Lainey is cruising along toward three years old. This includes dressing herself and choosing her own clothes, (mostly) brushing her teeth (we do a once over after she's done), emptying the silverware from the dishwasher, and talking back. :) That last one is a new development that I'm told is a very 3 year old thing. We're working on it. :) She's in dance class again and she really loves that. She is also going to start preschool in about a month! Holy cow! I can't believe I have a preschooler.

Hopefully I'll get my act together and get a new video posted. I've had requests for a chat with Lainey again. We'll try to do that this weekend. :)

2011-06-16T15:32:00.003-07:00

We are in the midst of more travels. We are on trip 3 of 3 with just me and the girls. It's been... interesting. Lainey is in the throes of the terrible twos. And they really can be terrible sometimes. I've had to up my game as disciplinarian with her. It's not fun, but after a couple of weeks of a little more tough love she's really doing better. Not perfect by any means, but better.

The biggest challenge has been sleeping. We have all been sleeping in the same room for the last few weeks on and off. That is a big challenge for Lainey. She is a dark room, no noise, no distractions kind of sleeper. She's been sleeping a lot less because of the sleeping arrangements and that really does not improve behavior at all. We are now at my mom and John's house where she can sleep in her own room. She's doing so much better. She now wants the door open with a little bit of light to fall asleep. And now she is staying in bed when she's told, so that helps so much. Wake up time has been creeping earlier and earlier which is tough on this night owl. But in some ways I actually enjoy waking up earlier and getting my day started. If only Brooke was sleeping through the night and I was rested!

And that brings me to little Miss Brooke. This little munchkin is such a happy little girl. She is all smiles and giggles these days. It's awesome. She seems to be a much more expressive baby than Lainey was. When she's happy, you know it. When she's not, you know that too, but fortunately that's not too often unless she's overtired. She's a much bigger baby than Lainey. She's wearing clothes now that Lainey wore at one year and beyond. It's kind of funny to see such a young baby wearing the clothes Lainey walked in. She's off the charts for height and 93% for weight. And while you'd think that means she should sleep through the night, it actually means she's up every 3 hours round the clock. We're getting through it though. When we are home next month and I have a tag team partner again I'd like to try to night wean her a bit. We are in survival mode right now.

Brooke's milestones so far:

-Found her toes last week.
-Rolled tummy to back two weeks ago.
-Rolled back to tummy last week.
-Grabbing toys and reaching for things with more dexterity now.
-Lots of baby babble.

Lainey's recent milestones:

-Two year molars finally broke through! Uppers in late April, lowers in mid-May.
-First dentist appointment! She saw my cousin's husband, Dr. Jeff on our trip last week. All looks good, but she has some decalcification on her upper eye teeth, possibly from a fever during development.
-She surprises us almost daily with her vocabulary and knowledge of concepts (like that she can get away with things if adults aren't watching and asking us to leave).
-If it's a princess, she loves it. Sleeping Beauty is her favorite, but she's going to be "Purpunzel" in the purple dress for Halloween when she turns 3. :)
-Favorite word that she doesn't say correctly, "Leegotard"

Making shortcake with Grandma

2011-06-13T19:26:00.001-07:00

Strawberry shortcake time!

Jammie time

2011-05-23T21:12:00.001-07:00

2011-05-16T20:14:00.001-07:00

Poor Baby!

2011-04-17T17:52:00.001-07:00

Brooke fell out of the car seat today. I was hurrying to help John with his costume for the Easter cantata. He was in the other room behind the church and I was in an office with Brooke. I unlatched the handle on her seat to move it to put her in and walk to where John was. I set her in there, but didn't buckle her because we were only moving rooms. I swung the handle up, grabbed the stuff I needed and then grabbed the handle of the car seat. It wasn't locked in place because I didn't pull it far enough forward. In a split second the seat flipped and Brooke was face down on the floor. I scooped her up in an instant to comfort her and when I pulled her away to look at her face, she was bleeding on the side of her nose and her nose was smashed to the side. I then realized she hit the metal pipe bottom of a keyboard stand. I was afraid of swelling that would block her airway and brain damage from the fall, so I ran out to find someone to take us to the hospital. I was so happy to see Deb, a nurse and friend, standing outside. She helped me to calm down and did a quick assessment. She thought Brooke would be fine, but she thought it was wise to get her checked at the ER. So she went with me. Poor John had no idea and we just left because I couldn't interrupt the play to tell him. Deb's husband did tell him when it was done though.

The CT scan was all normal. I asked to see it myself. Not that I know a lot about CT scans, but I saw a lot of them when my Mom was in the hospital. Brooke's nose is straight and her skull is all intact. Praise the Lord it's not worse than a scraped nose. She is a little swollen and I expect a black eye, but it could be worse. She is acting like her normal happy self.

I suggest buckling kids in when you move them, regardless of how far you might be going or whether or not you'll be in the car. You never know when this could happen and if they aren't in your arms, no quick reflexes will save them from falling. No one wants to feel how I am feeling today, let me tell you.

Sweet sleepy baby

2011-04-10T23:08:00.001-07:00

Chatting with Lainey

2011-04-10T21:04:00.002-07:00

Brooke is sick. :(

2011-04-05T21:14:00.001-07:00

Poor Brooke is not feeling well at all. She caught a cold and it has turned into a horrible one. She is coughing a lot and not sleeping well. I took her to the doctor today to make sure her lungs are clear and fortunately they are. Hopefully she'll be better in a few days.

On the upside she was 14lbs 5oz. The child has gained 11oz in 12 days. She's going to catch Lainey in a few months at this rate!! I thought her cold was making her eat less, but I guess not. :)

Favorite dress

2011-04-03T17:37:00.001-07:00

Lainey has a favorite dress. We bought it last week and she's worn it 4 out of 7 days. I washed it and made her wait to wear it while it hung dry. I tried to hang it in her closet but she had to put it on again. I got lots and lots of thank you Mommy's for washing her dress. :)

Oh dear

2011-04-03T00:37:00.001-07:00

What to do with this kid...
Lainey is in the car with John while I am shopping. She's holding her doll and this is what she says:
"Look into my eyes. No! Look in my eyes. You're killing me."
John said he laughed for about five minutes. Her tone is impossible to share in this post, but the demonstration for me was hysterical.

Obviously I need to watch what I say. I've never said these words to her like this. We do make her look us in the eye when she's being told not to do something. And I've said you're killing me as an exasperated statement. I guess I didn't realize how well she was listening because on the days I've said that it's because she's not listening well at all. Ha!

Talkative Baby and the 2 month Well Visit

2011-03-26T09:07:00.007-07:00

Brooke has found her voice. She has been cooing here and there, but tonight we had a little chat. I've been trying to catch it on video, but it took a two man team to get it done. When it's just one of us with the camera, she gets distracted and just stares at the camera. With Daddy videoing from the side, she and I carried on a nice conversation. She talks a bit in the first half and then gets sleepy toward the end.

We had her two month check up on Friday. She is 13 lbs. 9 oz. and 22 3/4 inches tall. She's in the 95% for weight and 85% for height. It just cracks us up how big she is because Lainey has always been so small. Lainey was 10% for weight and 50% for height all along until her 2 year check up when she graduated to the 11% for weight. Haha!

Both girls got shots on Friday and neither one cried. We have some brave kiddos. We are getting caught up on Lainey's missed shots. We got behind a long time ago with baseball travel and then some illness that made us miss appointments that never got rescheduled. Brooke got her first DTaP vaccine today (very important as Pertussis is running rampant around here right now). We're following Dr. Sears' alternative schedule for the most part. There's a few tweaks that I made to it, like not doing the rotavirus vaccine. As a breastfed baby she's not at as much risk and the vaccine is too new in my opinion to know that it's totally safe. The first version of it caused some life-threatening side effects so I just don't trust it fully. I know that there isn't any scientific connection to autism from vaccines, but that's not why I'm spacing them out. There's two reasons why I prefer to space out the vaccines. #1: I just can't comprehend injecting my child with so many vaccines all at once. If we'd been on a normal schedule, Brooke would have received shots that cover 8 different diseases. That just seems like a huge strain on an immature, undeveloped immune system. #2: If there were an adverse reaction to a vaccine, how would we know which one was the trouble vaccine? With our selective schedule, if there is a problem, we will be able to discern the culprit more easily. This schedule does mean more visits and every visit will likely mean we get shots. It also means that she'll be older when she gets some of them and so she may show some fear and displeasure. But I think those things are worth it in the cost/benefit analysis of the whole thing. Lainey wasn't excited about her shot today, but she got a Tweety Bird band-aid and Dum-Dum sucker and it was all good. :)

Blogger on my phone!

2011-03-25T16:17:00.001-07:00

I just got a blog app for my phone. Maybe we'll actually make this almost daily! And just to make this interesting... here's Brooke's serious eyebrows. :)

Video update!

2011-03-22T15:04:00.002-07:00

Life is plugging along here. We've been hit with some kind of cold virus and today I feel myself slowly being taken down. Lainey has been sick on and off for over a week. She seems to get better for a day or two and then the fever or green boogers start all over again. It makes for a tough day for us when she is sick and cranky. Brooke is a bit congested as well and that makes it tough for her to get sleep. But we are getting through it. Summer is coming fast so we need to get healthy so that we can get outside and play before it gets too hot! I took a few videos yesterday. They are kind of cute. Brooke is starting to coo and babble a little bit. She likes to talk to Lainey and Lainey thinks it's great that Brooke will talk to her. The last video is one of the things John and Brooke do almost every night. She likes to sing and dance when Daddy plays his guitar. So without further ado... here's Brooke and Lainey.

Brooke Smiles!

2011-03-09T16:45:00.004-07:00

We are starting to get some smiles here and there! It's so fun and I'm excited to get that first giggle. She's not as much of a talker as Lainey was, but it'll be hard to keep up with that chatter box. :)

Picture update

2011-02-14T16:47:00.003-07:00

Well, I'm not sure that even "almost daily" qualifies, but I'll keep trying. Here's a few pictures taken over the last couple of weeks. Brooke is already three weeks old! Time flies!!

First day home

Daddy's girls

Hanging out with Grandma Lisa

First bath

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa visit

Great Grandma just sang Jesus Loves Me to Brooke as she has to all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Snow White says, "Shhh, the baby is sleeping."

Brooke Elizabeth!

2011-01-29T20:21:00.006-07:00

Brooke decided that her birthday was January 24, 2011. We had a great labor and delivery experience and a healthy baby born! She was 7 lbs. 13 oz. 20 1/4 inches long. She's a beautiful baby. Here is a link to a sneak peek of the newborn pictures we got to have done yesterday. They turned out so well and there's more to come. I'm so excited to see what else Cherise took!

Photos by Cherise Kiel Photography

You do not have to have a facebook account to view these photos.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=273777&id=209615276552&ref=mf

Flying a kite

2011-01-16T21:03:00.002-07:00

Lainey got a Tinkerbell kite from Pop-Pop (my dad) for Christmas. We haven't had a good windy day to fly it until this week. Lainey had a lot of fun and we took a few videos. These are a couple of the better ones.

I peeped

2011-01-06T21:45:00.002-07:00

"I peeped."

This is the statement I am told when Lainey has an accident. We halted all potty training attempts around Thanksgiving. She was fighting me on trips to the potty and having more accidents which only led to me being very frustrated. I didn't want to have a toddler power struggle over this, so I just let it go and stopped all references to the potty or panties. About a week ago, Lainey started asking for certain pairs of panties. Usually Dora or her ballerina frog ones. And that's when this new phrase came about. "Mommy, I peeped." I think it's really cute.

The best part is, we've had three full days of panties only for little Miss Lainey- all by her request. She has special Sleeping Beauty pull-ups to take naps in or if we have a long set of errands to run and I'm too nervous to try without the back up. But she's mastered that as well. Sleeping Beauty's star fades if she gets wet and Lainey doesn't want to lose the star. We even ran errands yesterday and the day before in panties and she asked in the store when she needed to go! I'm really proud of her. She's only "peeped" once in the last three days and that was today at the park after lunch and no potty to run to. I'm not holding my breath that we are getting close to being fully potty trained though. I have a feeling when Brooke arrives, we'll have some regression. But hopefully it'll be short lived.

And now, being 38 weeks pregnant... I have to go peep... again. ;)

Do you want to go to bed?

2010-12-28T23:33:00.002-07:00

I used this threat tonight when Lainey didn't have her listening ears on. She was outside and it was time to come in. She didn't want to come inside. I've been trying to use counting to three less often as it has become a bit of a crutch, but I don't like just dropping a consequence without at least some kind of warning. So after asking her to come inside and telling her I needed her to listen, I pulled the bed card. "If you can't listen you'll have to go straight to bed. Do you want to go to bed?" The funny thing is, she said yes. So off to bed we went and she didn't complain once about the going to bed part. She lost out on helping feed the dogs dinner and that was a little upsetting to her, but she knows that she lost a "pivilege" for not listening. She's answered yes to this question one other time with the same result. That time was even more shocking though because we were at Pop-Pop and Noni's house and it was an hour before bed time. I never expect her to say yes, but I guess when you're tired, you're tired!

Perida

2010-12-18T02:12:00.002-07:00

Lainey has named her first doll. Perida is her name. I have no idea where the name came from or how she came up with it, but it's definitely this one doll's name. And it's kind of funny because if you change the spelling it becomes a Spanish word... Perrita. It means small female dog if you translate literally, but it's usage is more along the lines of the term for female dog in English slang. There's no changing it now, so hopefully we don't offend any Spanish speaking people in the next few years. We'll just be very careful not to roll the "r" and pronounce the ending with a D, not a T. :)

Tinkerbells

2010-12-07T23:10:00.002-07:00

We are planning to go Christmas caroling with some friends this weekend. There are going to be two kids, Lainey and Landon. Landon is 3 and knows a lot more Christmas songs that Lainey does. So we chose three songs to practice this week. So far, it's been very funny, but not very accurate. :) Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Jingle Bells, and Away in a Manger are our three songs. Lainey knows the tune for Hark, but won't sing the words. I just get a mishmash of Dees, Dahs, and Nahs to the tune. That's probably because the Peanuts Christmas album starts with the kids humming the song before they sing the words.

But the best so far has been her rendition of Jingle Bells. I'm trying my best to capture it on camera, but have been unsuccessful thus far. Here's how she sings it, "Tinkerbells, Tinkerbells, all the way in a manger." It's so funny! No matter how much I enunciate Jingle, she still says Tinker. We'll try again tomorrow for some video action. Hopefully she'll perform for us.

Considering a new blog title

2010-12-03T00:12:00.003-07:00

Life here is going to be more than Living with Lainey. I'm going to need a new blog title! I thought about starting a whole new blog since babyhudginsnews doesn't quite seem to fit. But, I think I'll stick with the blog url and just change the title. Any suggestions? I think I'd like to encompass our whole family. If I'm blogging about more than just the kids, I may actually post more often. :)

Preview of our Christmas photos

2010-11-29T11:02:00.002-07:00

We took family pictures with my Mom yesterday. We got a couple of proofs back last night and this one is my favorite so far!!

31 weeks 2 days

2010-11-19T15:51:00.003-07:00

We had another check up for little Miss Brooke today. All is well! Her heartbeat is strong and was very easy to find. I've been having a lot of rib pain on the right side and was asking the doctor for ideas on how to relieve that pain. He said it's pretty common for the baby to be pushing toward the right side because the bowels tend to move to the left. He thought she might have a foot or something stuck under my rib. And because I am carrying her very high, there really isn't a lot to be done. When he went to measure me to make sure she's growing appropriately, he couldn't. Apparently I'm carrying so high, that my uterus and child are actually under my ribs. Not just a foot, probably both feet and part of her legs too. No wonder I'm in pain. You can visibly see my right ribs sticking out as compared to the left. The good news (or bad depending on how patient I can be) is that most babies begin to drop by about 34 weeks. So I have roughly 3 more weeks of this and then she should drop enough to relieve the pressure. I might even be able to breathe a bit and eat a normal meal without heartburn. But the trade off will be more bladder pressure (can I really pee more than I already do?) and possible pelvic pain.

Oh well, it's all worth it in the end. And I am so grateful to have this little one doing so well. I've really had a pretty good pregnancy all things considered. It has been more difficult than Lainey's, but hers was really a walk in the park. They are all different! Less than 9 weeks to go!

On another note, Lainey got to feel Baby Brooke moving around last night. She was really active while Lainey was brushing her teeth. I stopped her and had her put her hand on my belly. Her eyes lit up when she felt Brooke move. I don't know if she really understands what it means when I say Baby Brooke is in my tummy. She may have had a small epiphany last night. She keeps telling me that Brooke is getting ready for her birthday. She sure is!

T-minus 67 days to Brooke's due date

2010-11-13T16:20:00.004-07:00

Holy cow this pregnancy seems to have flown by!! Am I ready? I've been asked that several times and the answer always seems to be the same. Yes... and no.

Am I ready physically? Yes. I'd love to be done with the pregnancy induced fatigue, the weird hormone swings, and the heartburn. I know that without pregnancy fatigue, I'll have new baby fatigue, but somehow that seems more fun. :)

Am I ready materially? Pretty much. We do still need a crib, but if she came today, she'd be in the pack'n'play anyway. Other than that, we really have all we need. I'm being blessed with two baby showers in the next few weeks and I'll be so thankful for the extra stuff. It will be nice to have some new things so that Brooke has some things all her own, but we really don't need much of anything.

How am I not ready? I'm not really ready for the prospect of managing a toddler that is used to being the center of attention and a newborn. When I hold other people's babies, she gets jealous and that's only for a few minutes! How is going to work when her sister is here all the time? She's also in the lovely stage of being a 2 year old. Meaning she doesn't listen to pretty much anything I ask her to do... or more specifically things she's told not to do. She's a good little girl most of the time, but she's really been testing the limits in the last few days.

I know that all of these things will work themselves out. And I'm not really too terribly worried about how, but it is on my mind. I just keep thinking about how fast 67 days will fly by, especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas in the mix. Ready, set, go!

Lainey's Birthday

2010-11-09T20:34:00.006-07:00

I've been very behind with this blog. Lainey's 2nd birthday was October 31st. We had a wonderful party with lots of little kids here. It was a Rainbow Happy Birthday! Lainey loved having all of her friends to play with and of course, the balloons. She's asked me for "another Happy Birthday" almost everyday since the party. Here are a few pictures from the big day!

Decorations and yes, the World Series. :)

Appetizer spread- Rainbow veggies and rainbow fruit kabobs. We also had rainbow goldfish crackers, 7 layer dip, and blue chips. :)

M&M Rainbow Cake and rainbow cupcakes.

Making rainbow necklaces with Froot Loop cereal.

Happy Birthday dear Lainey, Happy Birthday to you!

Yummy cupcake!

The inside of the cake is rainbow too!

And finally, a video of the super awesome balloon drop!

Lainey's Ninja Skills

2010-11-08T23:03:00.001-07:00

"I be a good minja!"

Just some stuff

2010-10-12T22:46:00.003-07:00

I have random thoughts tonight and I think I need to be writing down more of the funny things Lainey says and does.

A few nights ago we were on our way out for a quick Culver's custard run. Lainey is doing really well with potty training at home. Out and about it's not as good, so we put a diaper on her to go to Culver's. As I lifted her into the car I could tell that she'd just peed. So I asked her why she didn't tell me she had to go and she could have gone on the potty. Her response? "No, I have a diaper." Ha! Why bother with the potty when you know you can just pee in your diaper? Sound logic I suppose.

Another funny thing that's become a recent trend is that most sentences from Lainey are now followed by, "OK?" As in, "Stay there Mommy, OK?" or "I can have some peaches, OK?" Apparently I say OK a lot and she's just repeating it back to me. I had to laugh though when she and I went out to visit our family in California a few weeks ago. We got up earlier than we are used to for the flight and then we ended up at my Dad's house for nap time. We stayed in Dylan's room (my step-brother). His room has a lot of windows and Lainey is used to sleeping in nearly complete darkness. I knew getting her down would be a challenge. I tried having her nap with me on the bed, but that just wasn't going well. I was very tired too and I was struggling not to drift off leaving her with free roam of a room filled with a drum set, fish tank, and push pins in the walls. I think Lainey knew I was tired. "Mommy, lay down your sleepy head, OK? It's been a long day. Close your eyes, OK?"

And last in the random list is to mention that Lainey has finally cut her eye teeth on the top. They are about halfway in and started their descent about a month ago. Her lower eye teeth are also threatening to make an appearance, but so far only the teeniest tip of one tooth is poking though. Who knows when the two year molars will decide to come in, but I've been told the longer teeth take to show up, the healthier they are!

The Cinderella Song

2010-09-23T23:54:00.003-07:00

Lainey loves to sing the Cinderella song. For a while, it was all she requested at bedtime. It's been quite the challenge to catch her singing it on video, but here's a pretty good one. She is not singing it in the higher octave anymore, though we are hoping she goes back to that because it is so stinking cute. Here is our mildly distracted, but higher octave version of "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes."

And here is the current version in her lower octave. :) She is a bit more focused in this one, complete with head shakes for emphasis.

You Are my Sunshine

2010-09-01T21:28:00.002-07:00

Chatting with Lainey

2010-05-25T22:10:00.002-07:00

Let's do this!

2010-05-16T22:30:00.002-07:00

John loves to teach Lainey funny sayings. She is now saying, "Let's do this!" all the time. He's also taught her to respond to "How old are you?" with "I'm one!" She has also learned, "Sucka!" I'm not so sure I approve of that one.

Potty training is going so well! She's having fewer accidents and more successes. The potty chair moves around the house with us so she doesn't have far to go. And now she gets an M & M each time, so she's very motivated to get her "choc-it."

She's starting to show an interest in the alphabet, so we sing and sign that frequently. She tries to sign and fingerspell too and it's really cute. A new thing in the past couple of weeks is that she is now singing along to songs in the car. It's fun to hear her sing/shout the lines she loves the most. We're going to try to get some of these on video to share soon!!

She got me!

2010-04-17T21:16:00.002-07:00

I forgot to post about this when it happened about a week ago. I was taking Lainey with me to the grocery store and we have a water and ice shop that also sells Thrifty ice cream. I happen to love their Chocolate Malted Crunch, so I thought I would treat us to a cone on our way into the store. Lainey is really big on doing things for herself these days and she always has to "hold it." So of course, she wanted to hold the ice cream cone. I decided to let her hold it, but being a chocolate ice cream cone in the hands of a 17 month old, that led to chocolate drips all over the place. I tried to take it back from her and she didn't want to give it to me. So I said, "Lainey, it's Mommy's turn for a bite. You need to share." She let me have it and I cleaned up the cone a bit, but decided I should hold the cone from now on. When I offered to let Lainey have another bite she said, "Hold it!" and refused to take a bite of it while I held it. I tried to explain to her that she was making a mess and I needed to hold it for her. Her response, "Mommy share!"

Potty training update

2010-04-17T11:39:00.003-07:00

Just wanted to post a quick update about potty training so far. Lainey is doing pretty well actually. After the second day when I spent the whole day wiping up messes and changing clothes, I decided that a gung-ho effort without diapers all day was really unrealistic for me. It takes an intense amount of supervision and I just wasn't cutting the mustard. Plus, Lainey doesn't understand the concept of trying to go when she does sit down. So we had lots of times when she would sit on the potty for a while, then get up because I didn't want to force her to stay and she'd potty soon afterward. So, my new plan is to go for a few hours each day with her training pants on, but not be so strict as to eliminate diapers all together. Yesterday afternoon went really well. She seems to understand now what we want to have happen and she tries because she wants the chance to flush the toilet. :) We had three successful potties yesterday. Hopefully we continue the trend today!

More words, more teeth, and the official start of potty learning

2010-04-13T13:36:00.003-07:00

Lainey is a learning machine these days. I went away for the weekend (my first trip away from her overnight) and I couldn't believe it when I got back. She learned combined consonant sounds while I was gone! She went from saying "cothes" to "clothes" and from "bocks" to "blocks". I told her that she isn't allowed to grow up at all if I'm not there. She's also cutting another molar. The upper left one is popping through this week.

We also are officially beginning an earnest try at the potty. I ordered 12 pairs of cotton training pants in the 18 month size from Amazon. You can't find that size in stores, so we had to wait for them to arrive. Lainey is no longer wearing diapers at all during the day. She wears one for a nap and one for bed. We've spent the last several months sitting on the potty when she wakes up and before naps and baths. So she has a positive association with the potty. Now we are sitting on it every chance we get. We've had a lot of accidents today, but I think it because we got into a bad rhythm this morning in addition to me being a little more distracted than I should be. Potty learning is not a time to put off going to the potty for any reason! I thought today that after lunch I had time to get the dishes in the dishwasher before we went potty. Nope. Oh well. Lainey is napping now and I hope when she gets up we can have a more successful afternoon.

Some of you may be wondering why I went straight for cotton pants instead of pull-ups. The reason is that all disposable diapers, including pull-ups, wick away moisture from the skin too fast for the child to know that they've gone. With cotton pants or cloth diapers, the baby knows right away that they are wet and are more likely to make the association between urinating and getting wet. The goal is to help them learn what it feels like when they need to go so that they are more likely to use the potty. The good thing about today is that despite all of our "accidents," Lainey told me every time that she had gone potty and I could change her immediately.

Some good books on early potty training/learning are: Diaper-free Before 3 and Early-Start Potty Training. Even at 17 months, we aren't that early to start as both of these books advocate sitting on the potty as early as 3-6 months and in cotton pants by 12 months. But we are earlier than most people so I'll be sure to share my experience with it. Supposedly the earlier you start, the earlier you are finished and the less diapers you have to buy! And that's always a good thing. :)

More teeth!

2010-03-23T14:36:00.002-07:00

Lainey is cutting some more teeth. We definitely have a molar popping through on the lower left side. We may also be getting the lower left eye tooth, but it's hard to tell with the redness and swelling from the molar. She was pretty grumpy and not very interested in eating for a few days, but now that the molar has popped through the gums, she's much happier.

She's picked up a few new phrases, like "hold it" as in, "I want to hold the whole bag of blueberries Mom, not just the few you give me." Or she'll say that when she wants to feed herself with the spoon or fork. She's getting really good at feeding herself these days as well. She fed herself about half of her macaroni and cheese last night. I was impressed! My favorite new phrase that she just started in the last few days is, "Hold you!" with her arms up. When she wants me to hold her, that's what she says. It's my favorite little kid thing. They don't understand pronouns yet, so instead of "Hold me," we get "Hold you!" So cute!

Fun with words

2010-03-12T12:21:00.002-07:00

Lainey is turning into quite the conversationalist these days. While we were in California last week, she was putting on a show for all of her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. We had a great time. One day at my Mom's house, Lainey found Jasmine, my mom's cat, sleeping on the ottoman. She walked up to the ottoman, crossed her arms on top and rested her chin on her arms. Then says, "Hey Kitty, whatcha doin'? Takin' a nap?" I didn't get to witness it, but Grandma and Daddy said it was spoken very clearly and was very funny to watch.

Last week we were riding around the neighborhood in my next door neighbor's wagon with her twin girls. All three girls were having a great time. When it was time for us to go home, Julie dropped us off at our house. When Lainey got out of the wagon, Maisey started to cry. She wanted to come in too! Then Lainey did the same thing she did with Jasmine. Crossed her arms, rested her chin on her arms, all on the side of the wagon to be eye to eye with Maisey. "What's wrong? Whats-a-matter? You cryin'? You wanna eat?" I about died. It's so funny to watch her learn new things and surprise us with what is going on in her little mind. I can't wait to see and hear more moments like these.

Teetheing is no fun.

2010-01-26T22:28:00.002-07:00

Lainey is cutting her lower lateral incisors right now. Poor kid. You can tell she's sore with the swelling and drooling. She had a really hard time falling asleep tonight. She's also got a bit of a cold, so that's not helping. On the plus side it makes her extra cuddly with me. There's nothing better than Lainey snuggling up with me on the couch while we watch Care Bears together. Even Daddy got to join us for a little while.

I want to try to keep track of when she's had each tooth come in, but I'm already behind and we're only on tooth 7 and 8. But, here's my best estimate of her teeth so far...

Tooth #1- Lower left central incisor - 10 months
Tooth #2- Lower right central incisor - 10 1/2 months
Tooth #3 & 4- Upper left and right central incisors - 12 1/2 months
Tooth #5 & 6- Upper left and right lateral incisors - 14 months
Tooth #7 & 8- Lower left and right lateral incisors- 15 months

Blogging is not my thing it seems!

2010-01-24T12:31:00.002-07:00

I am not good about the whole blogging thing. I am going to keep at it though. :) Lainey is growing up so fast. Each day she does something new that just makes me think that it is all going by so fast. It's the little things... like she blew her nose for the first time yesterday. That will be nice because I won't have to use the sucker much anymore.

She makes me laugh everyday. Her new thing is standing up on the couch or her rocking chair and saying, "Sish-dow" (Sit down). Then she turns around and sits down and says, "Guh girl." She's definitely a parrot now. She tells the dogs to "Beat it" when she's in her high chair because that's what John says to keep them from begging. She knows most of her aunts', uncles', and grandparents' names and faces. We have fun naming them from our digital picture frame.

She's a love and a great snuggler. She gives the best hugs. We love our Lainey!

Lainey's Vocabulary at 1 year

2009-11-20T22:51:00.002-07:00

I've wanted to post this blog entry for quite a long time now! We have been compiling Lainey's vocabulary and wanted to make a list to save.

Here are the concepts that she understands:

Eat (sign and "eat")
Cracker (sign and "kaka")
Water (sign only)
Milk (sign and "ma")
Banana (sign and "nana")
All Done (sign and "aa dun")
Mom ("mama")
Grandma ("nana")
Dad ("dadadadadadadadadadadadada")
Grandpa ("paw paw")
More (sign and "moh")
Bird (sign and "buh")
Fish (sign and "shhh")
Cat (sign, "teetee," and "maoh")
Dog (sign, "dah," and "wuff wuff")
Horse (sign and "neeeeiiiigh" with a head waggle)
Baby (sign and "dayydee")
Shoes ("soos")
Socks ("soh")
Hat (sign and "hat")
Please (sign and "si")
Thank You (sign only)
Car ("bubububububububu")
Ball (sign and "bauh")
Night Night (sign and "nigh nigh")
Bath (sign and "bah")
Teeth ("tee")
Book (sign and "booh")
No ("no")
Apple (sign and "apuh")
Pear (sign only)
Bubble ("buhbuh")
Outside (sign and "sigh")
Go ("go")
Up ("up")
Down ("douwn")
Cow ("moooooooo")
Cookie (sign and "ku ku")
Cheese (sign and "chee")
Mouse ("mou")
Duck (sign and "duhduh")
Bunny ("buh")
Landon ("yandon")
Landis ("yandih")
Piper ("di di")
Freddy ("eddy")
Good Boy ("buh boy")
Good Girl ("goo guurrr")
Hi ("hi")
Bye Bye ("dye dye")
Amen ("aaahhh-dae")
E-I-E-I-O (song) ("e-i-e-i-" or "yi-yo")
Dance (sign and "bah bah bah")
Guitar ("tah")
Sheep ("baaabaaa")
Bite ("bite")
Eye ("aye")
Nose ("noh")
Ear ("ee")
Button ("buh")
Belly-Button ("buh")
Monkey ("oo-a-a-a")
Tiger ("raaaaar")
Lion ("raaaaar")
Cheerios (sign and "Chee")

I think that's it. We may be editing this list in the days to come as we remember more. 65 seems like enough though!!

Some new videos!

2009-10-23T10:58:00.003-07:00

Here are a few videos from the last week for those of you that aren't on facebook. We got a bubble blower from the Celoria's for John's birthday. Really the gift was for Lainey, but Daddy has fun with it too. Landis loves them as much as Lainey does!

And on the 20th, we filled the baby pool and went for a swim. Lainey loves to play in the water. Bath time is her favorite time, so what could be better than a bath in the sun? It's amazing to me that we can go swimming at the end of October here while most of the rest of the country is complaining about how cold it is. Lainey loves to blow bubbles in the water and is very proud of herself, as you can see!

Thanks for watching!

Learning so much!

2009-10-18T22:05:00.002-07:00

Lainey is picking up almost a word or sign per day these days. John and I want to sit down and write down all the words she knows so that we have a record of it for her first birthday. Just as an example, this week she learned the sign for bath and says "ba" (bath) and "buh-buh" (bubble). She is also attempting the sign for dance. Will takes her dancing almost every day. So far, her favorite is the waltz. We'll have to get this on video in the next few days. Lainey loves her 'Uncle Will' and asks him to hold her all the time so that they can dance. When he puts her down, she keeps dancing with her baby. It's really cute.

Lainey had a fever this week and seems to have a little bit of an intestinal bug. We are watching her carefully for dehydration, but she is drinking water and nursing well. She's refusing almost all of her solid foods though. Hopefully when this little illness passes, she'll be back to eating well. I was beginning to wean her, but I think we'll have to put that on hold until she is feeling better as I don't want her to become dehydrated.

We leave next Sunday for California. John will be having hip surgery on the 29th and we are celebrating Lainey's first birthday with the family!! It should be an eventful trip to say the least!

Cookie?

2009-10-10T23:18:00.003-07:00

Yesterday morning, Lainey woke up around 8:15. She's been doing really well with sleeping the last few weeks. She's made it through the night from about 8-8 most of this week. On the days she doesn't make it, she's up around 6:30 for some milk and then goes back to sleep. She was having some milk yesterday, but it really didn't seem like she was all that interested. Next thing I know, she's looking up at me and says, "Coo-kee? Apple?" Then she signed eat and sat up. Obviously this child knows what she wants!

Another sweet morning moment happened today. We had a slightly overcast morning, so even though it was around 8 again, her room was very dark. After her milk she was resting her head on my shoulder and I kissed her on the cheek. She then picked up her head and planted an open-mouth, slobbery baby kiss on my nose. She couldn't see me in the dark and when she missed, she tried again. She then laid her head back down on my shoulder for a few more minutes. I am so not a morning person, but these moments are totally worth every second of missed sleep. She is so precious and I am soaking it up while I can!

www.laineyhudgins.com is closing

2009-10-07T00:45:00.003-07:00

We haven't used the website in many months, as some of you have reminded me. The reality is that I don't know how to update it, and John is just too busy to do it each day. So, it will be coming down when the payment period for the hosting is over. I don't know exactly when that will be. The good news is that we will have all the files from it, so we can put it back up if ever we feel like it. Hopefully I will be better about updating here so that those without facebook can see some videos and pictures. Thanks for following us! It's been a wonderful year with our Lainey-Bug!

Wow, I'm really behind!

2009-10-05T21:55:00.003-07:00

Since joining facebook, I've mostly posted Lainey updates and photos there. But I have a few friends (who will remain nameless) that have been bugging me about updating this blog also. So, I am going to try to add a few things here and there. Really, this blog is the best thing I have to keep track of Lainey's "firsts". So, perhaps I should stick with it! I don't have much time tonight, but here's a Lainey first for you.

Lainey got her first baby doll today. We had a $10 coupon for Kohl's, so we went there to see what we could get with it. After playing with all of the obnoxious electronic toys and listening to Elmo giggle, we found the babies. Lainey has loved the babies at the church nursery, but only has a cabbage patch kid at home. This baby was on sale for $9, so we got her for free! Lainey adores her already. She didn't put her down once we opened the package at home. She was rocking and kissing her all afternoon. She wanted to eat dinner with her, and she's sleeping with her now. It's very cute. She doesn't say the "B" letter sound in words yet, so she calls the baby Day-dee. Happy early Birthday Lainey!

Recapping the last month

2009-04-10T00:39:00.008-07:00

It's been a while, huh? So sorry!! We have been so busy this last month with Spring Training and now we are out and about getting ready to travel for the baseball season. John left for San Antonio on Monday and boy do we miss him! We are calling each other on Skype everyday and it's very cute to see Lainey recognize her Daddy.

Some highlights of the last month...

March 12th was our first trip to the zoo. We had a nice time with Sasha and Kaylan. Kaylan is so cute. I think both girls enjoyed the goats in the petting zoo the most. Lainey didn't really pay attention to much other than the goats and the macaw parrots. They were brightly colored and easy to see in their habitat. Here's a picture of us in front of the bears. You can't see the bears, but they are back there somewhere. :)

March 26th: Lainey also attended her very first baseball game this month. We went to watch John pitch, but he ended up not playing in that game. We've since been to a couple of Daddy's games and Lainey can be quite talkative when Daddy is out there. We just hope she's not too much of a distraction for him!

Here she is watching the game and holding herself sitting up!

Here's Daddy and Lainey at her first Spring Training game.

March 31st: Lainey is five months old! It's gone by so quickly. This day was also particularly big in terms of baby milestones. It's the first day that Lainey rolled from her back to her tummy. She did it in her crib sometime in the night while swaddled in her Woombie, so that was a little scary. We quit the Woombie cold turkey that night. I was too nervous to have her rolling without having access to her hands to roll back. Lainey is now a rolling champion! Just the other night while we were on Skype with John, she was flip flopping back and forth. She wants to crawl so much. I don't think we'll be able to contain her soon. Also on March 31st, Lainey peed on the potty for the first time! Some of you may think I'm a little crazy, but I've been reading about what is called "Elimination Communication". It's basically a diaper-less way to help your child to toilet train. It's a form of potty training that is common in other parts of the world. I don't plan to do it full time and we are not going diaper-less, but every pee in the toilet is one less diaper to change! Since that first day, we have done pretty well. Up until we came to California, we were going on the potty 2-3 times a day. Not bad for such a little one!

Here she is from today. So proud that she just rolled over!

At some point in the last few weeks, Lainey began to say, "Mama". It started as baby babble... mamamamama. I don't know if she was referencing me specifically or milk because she only did it when she was hungry or tired and she pairs it with the sign for milk. However, I always respond to her when she says it and now I think she is really using it to get my attention. For example, during dinner tonight she said it and I looked at her. She just smiled at me and went back to playing with her toys. I took some video of her rolling tonight and will post it to facebook. She says "Mama" in the video. John will have to get it up on our website when I get to Texas in a few weeks.

I think that just about wraps up the last month or so. I will try to do better with updating the blog, but I can't promise anything until after we get settled at our new apartment in San Antonio. Lainey and I will be driving with my Mom and getting to Texas on the 22nd. It's going to be a long drive! Lainey and I are currently in California visiting all of the family before we head out on the road for a baseball summer. We are excited to be back in the game after such a long rehab for John. He feels pretty good and we are hopeful for a great season!

Thanks for reading and we'll see you soon! I will leave you with one more photo... Lainey in her springtime onesie outfit from Pawpaw John... making what I call her turtle face. :)

First swimming lesson, horses, a doctor's appt.

2009-03-11T22:03:00.005-07:00

We had our first swimming lesson this week! It wasn't the most beautiful day we've had this spring, but the jacuzzi was warm so we went for it. Lainey got to wear her super cute bathing suit that Grandpop Tom and Uma Dawn picked out for her. We wanted to make sure we got her in that before she outgrew it! Lainey loved the water. She was fascinated with the bubbles and all her toys as they went swirling through the water. She even put her own face in to taste the bubbles. You can see her in her Daily Lainey video swimming with Mommy. I dunked her once after blowing in her face and she took it pretty well. She was startled at first, but recovered quickly. If there is one thing I can pass on to my kids, it is that I want them to be good swimmers. My Dad dunked me early and taught me to swim almost before I could walk.

We also introduced Lainey to horses this week. Our good friends, Will and Laurén live in a guesthouse on a boarding stable property. Laurén has a horse out there named Shiloh that she is using to give riding lessons. When Shiloh poked his head out of his stall, I let Lainey get a close up of him. She was entranced and smiling. Shiloh then sniffed her arm and she giggled. I think Mommy may have given Lainey the horsey bug. It's too bad Daddy says she can have what ever she wants, except a horse. Good thing Grandma Lisa still has one that we can go see and ride someday!

Lainey has also really taken an interest in Freddy. She watches him walk around the house and wants to pet him. She also thinks it's pretty funny when he barks. That's another of the recent video updates on her website.

We had our four month well baby visit on Monday and Lainey is doing pretty good. She is small for her age, in the 20th percentile for her weight. She is just under doubling her birth weight, which supposedly kids should do by four months old. She is 12 lbs. 14 oz. and 24.5 inches long. Her doctor isn't worried about her though because she has always been in the 20th percentile since birth and is doing all the things she should be doing. She is sleeping from about 10pm to 8am now. (Woo hoo!!) And nursing every 2-3 hours during the day. She is rolling from her tummy to back which Dr. Pham doesn't expect until six months. She has good head control and she is very strong. We got one more vaccine (DTaP) and she seems to be tolerating it well. She has a small, red lump at the injection site, but it doesn't seem to bother her. I think it has more to do with the nurse's injection technique than the vaccine itself. We will be getting a different nurse next time.

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo with a good friend of mine, Sasha and her little girl, Kaylan. I am very excited because I think Lainey is at an age now where she will probably respond a bit to the animals. It will be a short trip, staying about 3 hours or so, but should be fun! Expect a zoo update soon! With that, I leave you with last week's "Mr. Bear Picture".

Four months old!!

2009-03-01T23:10:00.005-07:00

John has set me up on email reminders that I need to update the blog, so hopefully it'll work and I'll be putting up posts more often! :) Lainey is four months old now! She didn't have an official birthday because there isn't a 31st of February, so we are counting today! It's been an amazing four months so far. She is really doing great. Some major recent milestones include:

-Learned to sign "milk" while nursing! She did it the first time at 15 weeks, and then repeated it twice at 16 weeks and that's when I knew she was actually signing and not just playing with her hand. She won't be able to sign to ask for milk until she's older and develops object permanence (the knowledge that something exists even when you can't see it), but I am very excited at this first step into signing. I am practicing "all done" (sign for finished), "diaper," and "sleep." I expect her to really pick up the signs at about 6 months or so.

-Found her toes! She found her toes on a walk this week. I was lucky enough to have remembered to bring the camera on our walk and captured the moment. She thought they were pretty neat!

-We may have had our first tummy to back roll over today. It happened twice and I had to make her stop because John wasn't in the room. When he came back, she wouldn't do it again for him or the camera. But I am sure we will see that more often now!

-She is sleeping through the night! I put her to bed around 10:00 and she is sleeping until 6:30 or so. She will then sleep with me for the rest of the morning until I get up. Way to go Lainey! We love that she's as good a sleeper as her Mommy! :) The last three nights she has been putting herself to sleep in her crib. She falls asleep in my arms and wakes up on the transfer, but doesn't fuss about it. The first two nights this happened she chattered and played by herself until she fell asleep. Tonight she just looked at me and turned her head to the wall and closed her eyes again. I ordered a Woombie for her last night. It's a sleep cocoon that mimics swaddling without the heavy blankets and with less restriction for their arms. It's a good transition tool to quit the swaddle and it won't make her hot as summer is rapidly approaching.

I think that's it as far as milestones go. Quite a lot of progress in so short a time! She's an amazing kid though. Not that I'm biased or anything. :) The only hang up we are having is the continued spit up. It has decreased significantly thanks to a light massage-type technique my Mom's friend Jane (a physical therapist) taught me. She said that Lainey's small intestinal rhythm isn't in place yet and so milk is backing up in there because it isn't being pushed into the large intestine. Because it backs up, it back flows through the pyloric valve and comes up as spit up. It's also not spending enough time in the large intestine and thus we get many blow out diapers. Both have improved with the massage and I am on a strict diet. No dairy, tomatoes, citrus, caffeine, lots of sweets, peanuts, and go really light on wheat/gluten. I am almost gluten free right now. It's a hard diet to maintain, but it will be worth it and now I'm only 10 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight!

John and I are truly enjoying being parents. It's an awesome experience and really makes me grateful that God entrusted us with so precious a gift. Thanks for being a part of our lives, near and far. We love you all! And with that I will leave you with this picture of Lainey in her dedication dress. It's a dress that was sent to my Grandma from my Grandpa's Aunt in Switzerland. Almost every girl in our family has worn it at one time, including me and my Mom. It's a treasured heirloom that I will be sure to pass on.

Lainey was dedicated today!

2009-02-16T01:18:00.004-07:00

February 15, 2009
Lainey was dedicated to the Lord today. Our whole family was there and it was wonderful! She is one loved little girl! For those who may not know, baby dedication is not like baptism. We do not believe that dedicating a baby will provide their salvation. Instead, it is a public commitment by the baby's parents and family to pray for the child and to teach them about the Lord. Today we committed to teaching Lainey about the salvation that Jesus Christ offers. We promise to help her find her spiritual gifts and help her develop and use them as God wills!

We were so blessed to have so much family in attendance. It is wonderful to know that everyone loves Lainey so much. We are attempting to upload the video of the dedication to the website, but the file is quite large. We hope to have it up soon. If you are interested in getting an email update about new "Daily Lainey" videos, you can go to her website and enter your email address on the Daily Lainey page. We will send you an email each time we add a new video. Also, don't forget that we are always adding new pictures to her website too!

www.laineyhudgins.com

Tongue

2009-02-03T00:22:00.002-07:00

So, Lainey has been sticking out her tongue a lot. It's pretty funny. She looks pretty silly, but it makes us laugh. Also, Daddy taught her the "peek-a-boo" game tonight. She was giggling at him. It was cute. For the last two weeks or so, she has been spitting up more often, and Mommy is a little bit worried about it. She thinks that it may be due to a lot of dairy in her diet, and so she's decided to cut back on that (a really hard thing to do for her... all she eats is cereal and cheese). Daddy's pretty sure it's just a "spit-up phase," but Daddy never really worries about anything. That's mommy's job. :)

She's starting to laugh!

2009-01-23T16:35:00.003-07:00

Lainey has started to laugh a little bit. She started just a few days ago. She is only giving us a little bit of a laugh at random times, but it's always when we are tickling her. We have tried to catch it on video, but it's been hard to catch. She seems to run out of giggles when the camera comes out. We will keep trying to catch her. It's so cute it just melts your heart!

We got Skype!

2009-01-12T15:32:00.001-07:00

We just got Skype and it's so fun! Call us if you have it! Our ID is laineyhudgins.

Lainey's Check-Up

2009-01-11T02:30:00.002-07:00

Lainey had her two month appointment on Thursday. She weighs 10 pounds 6 ounces and is 23 inches long. Dr. Pham said that she's on the thinner side of the spectrum, but still quite healthy and gaining weight appropriately. She's also on the longer side. I think being tall and thin isn't so bad! :) She had her first shot... diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis combo (DTaP). Usually the doctor recommends giving two month olds a lot of other shots, but John and I are not comfortable pumping little ones with so much medicine. We are spacing Lainey's vaccines out, and skipping some of the ones that are either low risk for her right now (Hep B) or not life threatening (Rotavirus). I do not think there is a correlation between autism and vaccines (with scientific studies to explain why), but I do think that too many vaccines can be dangerous (not so scientific... mostly an anecdotal and common sense conclusion). If anyone is curious about which vaccines we are giving when and why, feel free to email or call me. I would be happy to explain.

Lainey gets cuter everyday if that's possible. She is smiling all the time and just a joy to be around. John has one more trip to take back home. He's leading worship for his Dad's church on Sunday night. When he gets back, I think the Daily Lainey will be updated more regularly. We finally feel mostly rested and have the house put back in order. More updates soon. For now it's time to hit the sack because Lainey's been asleep for over an hour... so I should be too!

Vacation from our Holidays.

2009-01-03T13:20:00.003-07:00

We are finally home after what seems like a long time away. It has been great to be with our families, and we would definitely do it again, but it's still a long time to be without any routine and without our normal lives. Lainey is a rock star. She hits the road like a champion. Hardly a peep from Surprise to Mission Viejo to Albuquerque to Mission Viejo to Dallas and back. We even did an 18 hour stretch from Dallas to Surprise. She's been so easy, and we are so blessed. It was great for her to get to see everyone - especially John's mom's family in Dallas. We hadn't been to Dallas to see them in a long time. Amanda finally met Joel - John's cousin - and his wife Fawn, which was nice since he was the last of John's family members that she hadn't met. Lainey was, of course, adored by all.

Lainey is growing up so fast. She is giving us smiles all the time and chattering away in her own language. She had a long conversation with Mema (John's grandma) in Dallas and it was very sweet to watch. We captured part of it on video and will hopefully get it up on the website soon. It was taken on Janiece's camera, so we'll have to get it from her first. Lainey has a doctor's appointment on the 8th and will get her first shots. We have decided to separate her shots out instead of giving them all at once. We feel like that is a lot of challenge to a baby's immune system all at once. It's a hard decision to make and one that's very controversial at the moment, but we feel most of the vaccines are beneficial. (We are skipping a couple of them.) We estimate she's about 10.5 pounds now, but we will see her official weight on the 8th.

Unfortunately, it seems Lainey has caught a mild cold or maybe has some irritation from the change in environments. She wakes up with a stuffy nose which is a scary thing for a person who only breathes through her nose. She is not a fan of having her nose suctioned either. But she's soon happy again once she settles down and seems to be able to breathe much better during the day.

Well, we are off to finish unpacking, go get some groceries, and then relax this afternoon. Maybe we'll get some laundry done too. Happy New Year everyone!

Wrapping up the Trip to CA

2008-12-10T16:52:00.002-07:00

Today is our last day in California for a while. It's been a good trip out here. We've been here for almost 3 weeks, and it has been really good to be home for a while. We've had our ups and downs while here. John's grandfather went to heaven on December 6th at 2:00 am. It has been really hard on his family, but in many ways we can see God's design through it all. He called Grandad home in His timing.

We've really enjoyed showing Lainey off :). She has been a joy for everyone in our families, and she has been really, really good. She travels well :). Hopefully it stays that way, because we're definitely a travelling family! Just this month, we have over 4000 miles of driving planned. We're headed back to Surprise later today (400 miles). Then we're going out to Albuquerque for Grandad's funeral this weekend (400 miles). Then we're headed back to Surprise for a few days (400 miles). Then back out here on the 19th for Christmas (400 miles). Then, right after Christmas, we're driving out to Dallas to be with John's mom's family (1500 miles). Finally, we'll get home to Surprise from Dallas sometime early in January (1100 miles). So, 4200 miles (about 70 hours worth of driving) in the next 3 weeks with a newborn. Yikes. Gotta love the holidays! :) Still, it will be good to be with everyone. We haven't seen that side of John's family in about 3 years, and we really miss them.

Time to get packed!

Lainey's doctor appointment

2008-11-17T23:04:00.003-07:00

Lainey had her two week check up today. She is doing great! She's 21 1/2 inches long and 7 lbs. 8 oz. She's growing into her feet! It looks like our care plan from Lori, the lactation consultant is working well! She's gained 10 oz. since Wednesday. The doctor says that she looks great and is doing everything a baby her age should be doing. From here on, she will be growing fast - between 1 and 2 ounces every day. She's working hard at it today, pretty much spending all of her time between sleeping and eating. She is a good little sleeper. She sleeps like a rock - nearly impossible to wake up if she doesn't want to (just like her mommy). I think it was all Daddy's band practice while she was in the womb that is to blame for that.

Lately, we have been really blessed by the members of our church, who have been coming by to bring us dinners this week. It's awesome to know that there are people here who care about us and are sharing in our joy. Many of these same people prayed along side us for years as we were trying to have a baby. So, if you're one of those people, and you're reading this, thank you so much.

Sleep?

2008-11-16T07:49:00.003-07:00

Not for me! Lainey is not a bad sleeper... she just chooses to do it at the wrong time of day. Yesterday she slept from 11:30 until I woke her up just before 4:00. Who knows how long she would have slept if I didn't wake her up! I wish that long stretch of sleep was at night! She does seem to be settling into a pattern though. She likes to get up in the morning, eat and then stay awake for about an hour and a half. She'll eat again and then fall asleep for 3-4 hours. I am hoping we can find a routine in there somewhere that will help get her on track to sleep a little longer at night.

That 7 hour sleep we had last week may not have been that great looking back. We went to see a lactation consultant (different than the hospital specialist... this one is Board Certified) on Wednesday because I was still having so much trouble getting Lainey to latch on correctly and without hurting me. The amount I was able to pump was starting to decrease too which had me worried. Milk is made by demand... no demand and the supply goes down. I had a feeling that Lainey wasn't getting much milk even though I was nursing frequently. Her incorrect latch was leading to a lowered milk transfer. The lactation consultant, Lori, weighed Lainey at her office and she was 6lbs. 13oz. While this was on track to being back to birth weight by two weeks of age, Lainey had only gained two ounces in the week and a half since her doctor's appointment. She should have gained at least five. After feeding her in the office, we determined that she was getting about 1 ounce of milk from me and she needs about two per feeding at this point. So Lainey probably slept for so long that night because she was hungry, but didn't have enough energy to wake up. :(

Lori was a huge help. She said that my latching technique was actually pretty good and would work great for 70% of women and their babies. But for us, I need to be pretty close to perfect to get a latch that doesn't hurt and gets Lainey the milk she needs. She helped me see what a good latch really is and while I am still having trouble getting it on my own, it's much better than before. Since my supply is low (she wasn't getting enough, so it told my body that I didn't need to make more), I have to work to get that back up. We still aren't getting great latching all the time, but it's getting much better. We rented a hospital grade pump and that is really helping. It gets about twice the amount of milk that my personal pump was getting which means that we are at least able to supplement with only my milk and not formula anymore. I'm also taking a supplement called Lactaflow which might be the most vile tasting concoction on the planet. But hopefully it will help get my supply up.

I am off to get ready for church while Lainey is still sleeping. I had time to update the blog this morning because there wasn't enough time to go back to sleep after feeding time. Thank goodness for Sunday afternoon naps!

Many firsts

2008-11-11T21:43:00.002-07:00

As a newborn, just about everything is a first for LaineyBug. We had our first bath, our first time at church, and our first walk in the stroller this week! The bath was not so fun according to Lainey. But today I put her in the bath with me and it was by far more enjoyable. I'm sure Lainey felt very insecure in that bathtub all by herself. We also went on our first outdoor stroller ride today. It was a really nice day here in Arizona. Sunny, a little breezy, and just the right temperature. Freddy sure was happy to join us on our first walk as a family. He's been a little bored these last few weeks. Lainey really seemed to enjoy our walk too. It's the Daily Lainey video for today. She did get a little bit overwhelmed toward the end and needed some Mommy cuddles to help her drift off to sleep.

Another first this week was going to church. That was an interesting endeavor... trying to time feedings and getting ready and getting to church on time. We made it though! Lainey's eyes got big when the music started, but she just looked at me and listened to the band. I think she's pretty used to hearing a rocking electric guitar and drums, although it was probably a little more muffled the last time she heard them. She fell asleep when the sermon started (sorry Jonathan... I thought your sermon this week was awesome!).

The most exciting first this week is that Lainey slept for seven hours last night! Who knows if we'll get a repeat of that any time soon, but it was nice to sleep. I was a little worried when I woke up by myself and it was light outside. Lainey still hadn't stirred much, but was starting the stretching and yawning phase of waking up. She's only been catnapping today, so I think we may have another long stretch of sleep tonight. However, she may have started without us. She fell asleep around 6:00 tonight and isn't showing signs of waking up yet. And forget trying to wake her up. She can sleep through anything. Once she decides she's sleeping, that's that. And with that, I am off to grab whatever Zzzz's I can before she does decide to join the waking world. Until next time!

Happy Birthday Lainey!

2008-11-07T22:33:00.002-07:00

Lainey is one week old! It's been a wonderful first week with this little one. She lost her umbilical cord today. I wonder if she'll have an innie or an outie?? She says it's time to eat again, so off I go!

First night out!

2008-11-06T22:50:00.002-07:00

We made a small excursion tonight for some dinner and to pick up some things from Costco. Lainey waited in the car with Mimi and Auntie Schmi (Michelle) while John and I ran into Costco. Then we all went out for some great Italian food at Cucina Tagliani! Lainey is a champion sleeper. She slept through the whole meal despite the loud noises and conversation. She even went back to sleep in the car after I changed her diaper. :) She really is such a good baby.

We went to see a lactation consultant today to help us with our breastfeeding struggles. I think we have some good tips now that will hopefully bring me some relief while getting Lainey what she needs. I never knew it could be painful to start. Pictures of breastfeeding moms always look so peaceful and sweet. We will get there though!

Mimi Janiece and Auntie Schmi will be heading back to California tomorrow. It was so nice to have them here to help with meals, housekeeping, and laundry. And of course to spoil little Lainey. She's going to get so used to being held I don't know what she'll do when we can't hold her 24/7! We will miss having our family around. We've had someone here for nearly three weeks! But the good news is that we will be in California for Thanksgiving, likely staying through Christmas. (I need to make sure she won't need any doctor's appointments in between or arrange to see someone in CA.) And then we are going to Albuquerque and Dallas to see John's side of the family. I really hope that we can make a trip to Ohio and Pennsylvania soon to see my Dad's side. We really miss you guys!!

I still can't get over how precious this little girl is. She's so sweet and cuddly. I love just holding her and watching her sleep. After she burps she snuggles into my neck and I just can't put her down! Here's a picture of us yesterday. My snuggly Lainey-Bug!

Lainey has her own website!

2008-11-05T13:30:00.002-07:00

I will still be posting to this blog, but now all her pictures and videos are on her very own website! Check it out!

http://www.laineyhudgins.com

Enjoy!

Some Lainey love

2008-11-04T17:22:00.003-07:00

Just thought I'd load a few pictures while Lainey is snoozing. She is such a blessing. We can't get over how much we treasure and adore her!!

She has really big feet. They didn't even fit on the crib card, let alone the box on the card. They had to do them sideways and there's no room for my fingerprint. :)

Our first moment as a family. I will never forget seeing her for the first time. It was so amazing.

Hanging with Uncle Kyle yesterday.

My favorite picture from a photo shoot John did the first night we were home.

First night home in her going home outfit!
That's about all I have time to add right now, but John is really close to posting her new website with photos, videos and everything!

Lainey is home!

2008-11-02T23:47:00.003-07:00

Elaine Marie Hudgins arrived Friday October 31, 2008 at 12:55 pm. She weighed 6lbs. 14 oz. and was 18 3/4 inches long. We have been in baby bliss since she arrived! John and I are amazed by her every move. She's such a blessing and we just love her to pieces. Her delivery was relatively uncomplicated. I had had what I thought was going to be another round of false labor that evening, but around 12:30 it started into the beginnings of real labor. I decided at 2:30 that it was the real thing and we went to the hospital at 3:30. I tried to labor as long as I could on my own and made it to 4 cm before getting the epidural at 6:30. From there things moved along quickly as my body was able to relax. Her birth was amazing. I've never felt such a rush of emotions. They had concerns about her aspirating meconium, so she was not able to be given to me right away. Waiting for her to come back to me was the longest few minutes and the hardest part of the whole thing. She did not have any trouble though and was in my arms soon after.

She has had lots of visitors. My Mom was there with John and I when she was born, helping to take pictures, videos, and of course to help me too. My Dad flew in in the afternoon and John's parents and brother David drove in. My brother Kyle drove in too! My stepdad, John, flew in today and he, Mom, and Kyle will head home sometime tomorrow. John's Mom and sister Michelle will be coming on Tuesday for a few days to help out and spend time with Lainey. We are so blessed to have such a supportive and loving family. Once our family have left, our wonderful church family has offered to help us with meals.

We've had a great first two days with her. She is a pretty quiet little girl and her cry is very petite. She likes to look around and study whatever is in her field of vision. She knows her Daddy's voice and turns her head when she can hear him talking. We are having a little trouble with breastfeeding right now (not unusual for new mom's at this stage I'm told) and have had to use a little bit of formula supplementation. She had tested coomb's positive for ABO blood type incompatability and this increases a newborn's risk for jaundice. She's had great bilirubin numbers so far and we've not had a problem. We will go to the doctor's tomorrow for another blood draw to make sure that she's in the clear. As long as her numbers are good, I think we will be able stop the formula supplementation completely.

I will continue updating here as often as I am able to. John is working on putting together Lainey's very own website with pictures, videos, and other fun stuff. This way we will have a great way to share her with all of our far off friends and family. In the meantime, thank you for all your prayers. I will leave you with a picture of Lainey and Daddy on her birthday. She is our light in the dark!

Still waiting...

2008-10-30T10:55:00.002-07:00

We went to the doctor this morning. I am still dilated to one centimeter which is no progress from Sunday. I had another round of contractions through the night last night. I am pretty tired today, but the contractions have stopped again. Dr. Newman said that my guess is as good as his as to when she will decide to come. He didn't think it'd be today though. I am supposed to continue resting and doing kick counts to make sure Lainey is doing OK. We'll be going in tomorrow to the hospital for another round of monitoring. I will be 42 weeks on Tuesday and the doctor said that it is dangerous to continue waiting past that point. Lainey will be safer on the outside after that. His scheduler is going to call me today to set up a date for next week to induce when he will be available. It will probably be Sunday night for delivery on Monday. She still has a few days to decide to come on her own. I am hoping it won't be tomorrow, but it just might be! Apparently I am the most pregnant person my doctor has had since he opened his new practice more than a year ago. Glad I could be the one. :) In the meantime, I'm trying not to be discouraged and just rest. I suppose I have waited for three years to get pregnant and then nine months to get to this point, so what's a few more days?

We are moving in the right direction!

2008-10-29T13:30:00.002-07:00

Last night after dinner my back started to hurt and I had really bad heartburn. We settled down at home and watched some reruns of The Office and I started to feel better. That was a little disappointing since I'd hoped the back pain was the start of something. Then at about 12:30 I started feeling really nauseous. That rolled into more back pain, and the start of contractions! They weren't terrible but they were enough to keep me awake and uncomfortable. So I thought we were really on our way, but Lainey decided she wasn't quite ready yet. I fell asleep at about 5 and woke up feeling better with no more contractions. But I think we are moving in the right direction. I lost the mucus plug last night, and that should mean that we are really close. I am just hoping and praying that she comes by tomorrow. I would really rather that she's not born on Halloween and I think if she doesn't make it by tomorrow then we'll be having a Trick or Treat baby.

I still feel kind of sick to my stomach. So I think I might take it light on the meals today. Nothing sounds good anyway and I really don't want to eat anything that is going to be terrible to have coming back out. We have a few errands to run that I could pass on, but I think I will go to keep moving and hopefully encourage Lainey to scoot! Please pray that we have real labor sometime today so that she can get here soon!!

This morning's tests

2008-10-28T13:54:00.002-07:00

Everything looks good! My amniotic fluid level went up to 7.7 cm and Lainey scored another 8/8 on the biophysical profile. She's already a straight A student. :) We will go see the doctor on Thursday morning and then possibly go in to the hospital for another round of monitoring depending on what Dr. Newman says.

I have been having some contractions, but they are still nothing to get excited about. We are trying to determine when to induce if it should come to that. With Halloween on Friday, I am definitely not interested in inducing Thursday night. We may induce on Sunday night, but I will still be short of 42 weeks by then. And as long as Lainey continues to show good vital signs on her monitoring tests, I am hesitant to push her to come out earlier than she wants to.

Our plan is to take a little trip to Costco this afternoon and maybe grab dinner and a movie. We will just be waiting for the signs that she's ready to come out! It's getting harder and harder to be patient though!

No news...

2008-10-27T23:08:00.003-07:00

Nothing exciting happened today. I wasn't going to post an update, but I was afraid some people would think I didn't update because I was having Lainey. :) Not today. We will be going tomorrow around 11 am to recheck my amniotic fluid and Lainey's status. John has been predicting she would come tomorrow, so we'll see if he's right. We are all getting pretty antsy waiting for her to decide to come. I will update tomorrow afternoon after our monitoring at the hospital. Hope you are all having a great week so far.

Another day gone by!

2008-10-26T20:21:00.003-07:00

We went to church this morning and had some friends over for lunch today. I was a little bit worried that my water was leaking today, so we decided to go to the hospital to get checked out. I wanted to be safe even though I wasn't sure there was anything to be worried about.

They said that my amniotic sac appears to be intact. They also had me on the monitor again. Lainey's heartbeat was very steady and strong throughout the time we were on the monitor. I had a few contractions, but still nothing that is painful. They decided to do an ultrasound to check to make sure that I still have enough amniotic fluid. When you go past your due date, loss of amniotic fluid is possible and an indicator of placental function. My fluid levels were a little bit low. I was at 6 cm of fluid. Lower than 5 is dangerous, over 10 is normal. 6-8 cm is what they called a "gray area" in terms of how to proceed. Since we were in that gray area, they had the ultrasound tech come back to do a biophysical profile test on Lainey. They said that this test helps to prove that the placenta is functioning well enough to support the baby. To pass, you have to have a pocket of amniotic fluid that is at least 2 cm, the baby has to show practice breaths, flexion and extension of an arm or leg, and trying to roll over. They have 30 minutes to do all these things. Lainey did it all in about 5 minutes.

Since she is showing such healthy signs, the on-call doctor said we should come back for a repeat of the biophysical profile and heart monitor on Tuesday morning and Thursday morning, then see my regular doctor on Thursday. Of course, she could decide to come at any point. I am now dilated to one centimeter, so we are making progress!

Other than being overfull from eating Olive Garden tonight, I am still feeling pretty good. I think we will get a good night's sleep tonight and see what tomorrow brings.

A Haiku for Lainey

2008-10-25T16:24:00.002-07:00

Not much news to report today, but I thought I'd share the haiku our friend Steven Payne wrote for Lainey:

A Haiku for Lainey....

This might persuade you
The world is bigger out here
Your Dad has a Wii

Thanks Steve-o!

If the haiku doesn't work, we are having pizza tonight... will it do the trick??

Apparently I am a little too comfortable

2008-10-24T12:25:00.003-07:00

...for Lainey!

We went for the NST this morning and it showed a happy baby! Her heart rate responded perfectly to all her movements and I did have one small contraction during the test which she did fine with as well. We went to the doctor's after the NST and found out that I am 100% effaced, although still not dilated. This is good news since it means I've progressed some from Tuesday, so at least things are moving in the right direction... just slowly. Our plan from here is to continue waiting for her timing. Meanwhile we will be checking on her status with NST's twice a week. If she doesn't come this weekend, I am planning to go on Monday and Thursday of next week for NST's. We will have another doctor's appointment on Thursday to see how things are going and that will be my last OB appointment. If she hasn't come by then, we will decide on an induction date (probably Sunday night/Monday morning). The doctor doesn't think I'll last until then though. We'll see when she decides her birthday should be.

As for me, I am feeling fine. I have a little bit of anxiety about how she's doing, but the NST this morning did a lot to reassure me. Other than a sore back, I am doing great. We will probably try for another walk tonight when it cools off a bit. Maybe that will get things moving. I think I'll try almost anything (except Castor oil... blech). Thanks for all your sweet emails and comments. It's nice to know we have so many people praying for us!

The freezer is full, but the bun is still in the oven.

2008-10-23T19:15:00.003-07:00

Mom and I spent the entire day cooking. We made chicken and dumplings, asiago cheese mashed potatoes, and pasties (a kind of meat pie, turnover style). The pasties took forever to make since the pie crust had to be rolled out and cut, then stuffed and baked. Plus we had a disasterous batch of pie crust dough that refused to roll out well. Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix in a box is definitely better than our attempts to make our own dough. It wasn't all a loss though. We made cinnamon-sugar topped cookies out of the bad batch and they are pretty tasty! And despite how much work they are, the pasties are delicious. We had them for an afternoon snack and dinner. :)

All of the stuff we made today, in combination with the meatballs and pot roast we made yesterday, has the freezer full. I think we have dinners for about 2 weeks after Mom goes home and after our church friends are no longer bringing meals.

Baby news: Lainey is squirming around a healthy amount. I check on her a couple of times a day by laying down quietly, drinking something sweet and making sure that she's moving and kicking. We will be going in tomorrow morning for the non-stress test at about 9:00. They said as long as Lainey is cooperative, it should only take 30 minutes to run the test. For anyone who is unfamiliar with NSTs, it is a simple test where they place a monitor on my stomach to measure her heartrate. Then each time Lainey moves, it is expected that her heartrate should increase and then decrease when she stops moving. This indicates that the placenta is functioning well and that she's getting enough oxygen.

I will go see my OB after the NST to check my progress again. Depending on the findings we will determine our best course of action. As long as Lainey is doing well, I will wait for her. All of the doctors in my clinic are out Mon-Wed of next week for a conference, so I figure she will come one of those days when all three of them are unavailable. :) But don't worry, we will have a doctor... another clinic provides cross-coverage for them when they aren't available.

Now it's time to relax and watch some more baseball. You can expect an update sometime tomorrow afternoon. Good night!

Still waiting...

2008-10-22T19:12:00.002-07:00

Well, today has been another uneventful day baby-wise. We went for a long walk this morning which was fun for Freddy and just tiring for me. Mom made paninis for lunch and then we went to the store to get the ingredients for several meals to fill the freezer. We got started with a few of them and we have all run out of energy for the night. Tomorrow we plan to make the rest of the meals... which probably means that Lainey will come tomorrow since we have so much food to cook! :) Of all the meals, I am looking forward to Pasties the most. They are the most work, but the most delicious!

We'll spend the rest of the evening watching the World Series and relaxing. Maybe tomorrow we'll have some baby action! Thank you for all your prayers and encouraging emails and comments. Talk to you soon!

Not much progress...

2008-10-21T15:37:00.003-07:00

Lainey's due date is going to come and go. Our doctor's appointment this afternoon showed that her heart beat is strong and a good rate. I haven't progressed at all compared to last week's appointment though. Because I would like to try to wait for her, we are not going to induce labor. I am not really a good induction candidate at this point anyway, so we are sitting tight. I will be going in on Friday morning for a non-stress test (NST) on Lainey, then to the doctor's office to check if we've made any progress. Dr. Newman said that he is okay with waiting for her with a NST later this week and then if labor hasn't started on it's own by next week, we will go in for NST's twice. Hopefully we start having some contractions that make some progress!

My Mom got here today and we are going to work on getting some meals in the freezer while we have some extra time. It'll be nice to have her here when Lainey finally decides to show up!

Must have been false labor...

2008-10-20T18:22:00.003-07:00

Last night my contractions diminished back to once an hour. I've had some today, but not too many. Tomorrow is my due date and we have an appointment to see the doctor. We'll see what the next few days bring, but hopefully she will be coming soon!

Early labor? False labor?

2008-10-19T19:34:00.002-07:00

Who knows? I've been having contractions since last night. They are mild, but I've been having at least one an hour. This afternoon I thought maybe we were on the way toward having a baby with contractions coming every 10-15 minutes, but they have died back down to about one an hour. I don't know if this was "false labor" or "early labor", but either way I think we are going to have a kiddo here soon. Will keep you posted!

Baby Jackson is here!

2008-10-17T15:09:00.002-07:00

I don't have too many details, but Jackson Spaulding arrived yesterday! My cousin Jenn had him yesterday. Now it's Lainey's turn!

Baby Shower Pictures

2008-10-17T15:00:00.006-07:00

I'm not too blog-savvy. My sister says that if I paste what she sent me in here, there will be a slideshow of the pictures she took of the baby shower in California. It was a really nice shower. My Mom, sister, and Grandma out did themselves! Let's see if it works...

***I am having technical difficulties... stay tuned.***
There we go!!

39 week check up

2008-10-16T10:59:00.002-07:00

Well, we are making a little bit of progress. I am 70% effaced as opposed to last week when he said he had me at about 20%. I am still not dilated yet. I have noticed a few more contractions this week that are slightly stronger, but nothing painful or even close to regular. I imagine that she will come pretty close to her due date. The doctor said that they really do not like women to go past 41 weeks because of placental breakdown and the effect that can have on the baby. So we might be discussing induction next week if things haven't progressed further. However, I am really against inducing unless Lainey is in distress so hopefully that won't be necessary. I am all packed and ready to go the hospital whenever she decides to come! Only 5 more days until "D-day". :)

39 weeks

2008-10-14T12:36:00.002-07:00

We are at the 39 week mark! Still no sign of Lainey's pending arrival. I had a few mild, but noticeable contractions yesterday. We'll see if those are the precursors to the real deal or not! I had a really difficult time sleeping last night so I'm pretty tired today. Good thing I don't have any plans! Tomorrow we have another appointment to check on things. I will update tomorrow with any news. In the meantime, here is a picture of me and Lainey on the 11th. We are 38 weeks, 4 days. It's a little bit of an awkward angle because I took it myself with the timer. :)

38 week check up

2008-10-08T20:50:00.003-07:00

We had another appointment today. No news!! I am the same as last week... thinning, but not dilated. We just have to be patient! Lainey had a quiet day yesterday and didn't really wake up and start moving until 2:00am. She made me a little nervous, but I did feel her a few times throughout the day so I didn't worry too much. Today she's making up for the lack of movement yesterday. I don't think I've gone more than 10 or 15 minutes without feeling her squirm or kick all day.

In other exciting news, my cousin's wife had their little boy yesterday! Finnley Ryan Spuhler was born 10/07/08 at 10:08pm. He weighs 6 lbs. 7 oz. and is 19 inches long. Ashlee is doing well and it sounds like she had a pretty easy delivery... she only had to push 5 times and he was out! Let's pray Lainey is that easy! :)

Here's Ashlee, Nick and little Finn:

Congratulations guys! We love you!

Lainey's Room

2008-10-05T19:42:00.005-07:00

I got Lainey's room all done this week. I had a lot of fun painting the artwork and her name letters. John put together her dresser and I did the crib a few weeks ago. I think it's turned out really nicely. We are awaiting the day that Lainey decides to join us on the outside. I'll be 38 weeks on Tuesday. I have another doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Last week, I was the same... thinning, but not dilated. The doctor predicts that she's 6.5 to 7 pounds. I have been having some Braxton-Hicks contractions, but not too many. I think she's content to hang out for little while longer. I had my first moment of being ready to have her out day before yesterday. I was so tired and uncomfortable, but I couldn't sleep. I decided I'd rather be tired and comfortable with her on the outside than tired and unable to get comfortable enough to sleep.

Nesting has definitely settled in. I am trying to get some reorganization projects done around the house, but my energy level has kept me from doing too much. Today was a day off from projects and it's been a nice relaxing day.

Here's some pictures of her room before I got it all organized. She got so very spoiled by all of our generous friends and family when we were home a few weeks ago.

So much stuff!! Where will it all go?

Her crib and some artwork hanging temporarily.

More stuff! Spoiled a bit?

And here are some pictures of her room completed. It is hard to get a picture of the whole thing, so here it is in parts.

Right side of the room with her crib and glider.

The artwork I painted for her.

Left front corner of the room with her new piggie bank and my old Cabbage Patch Kid piggie bank.

The most comfortable glider ever!!

Her crib with name letters.

We are going to get a toy net to hang in the corner for all her stuffed animals. For now they are hanging out in her crib.

Some shadow boxes I stained.

Overall, I think it turned out well. The couch is against the left wall and can still pull out for guests if we ever need it. It's a nice extra place to sit in there too. I have a Pack-n-Play for our bedroom with a bassinet attachment that she will sleep in at first when she comes home. I think we are just about ready! I have her bag all packed and I am going to start getting mine put together in the next day or so. I just have to figure out how to have the things I want to wear at the hospital packed when I want to wear them now too! The hospital is so close to our house though that if I forget something, it'll be no big deal to send someone to pick it up for me.

Thank you for all your prayers for us! We will keep you posted on our progress. My cousins Jenn & Andrew and Ashlee & Nick are also anxiously waiting for their little boys to be born. Jenn is 1 cm dilated and due on the 15th while Ashlee is about 2 cm dilated and due the 21st. We have an exciting time ahead in our family!

37 weeks!

2008-10-01T11:25:00.003-07:00

We are in the final stages! They say most women deliver between 38 and 42 weeks, so we can expect Lainey to come at almost any time. I am feeling good. Just a bit tired and hungry almost all the time. I went to the doctor last week and he said things seem to be right on track. Her heart rate is good and she's in the right position. I have another appointment tomorrow to see if I've started dilating at all. I have been having some small contractions this week, but they are really mild and irregular. They say that you can have these contractions for a week or more before actual labor starts.

Lainey's room is almost totally finished. I just need to get a dust ruffle for her crib. I am going to try to get out to get that today and then I'll have pictures to share. I've been meaning to go for a few days now, but I've been taking 2 hour naps instead. :)

Our friends are moving out today. It will be very quiet around here after having someone living with us since February. I think I've gotten used to having people around all the time. But soon enough, we will have our own little noisemaker, so I'm not too worried.

For those who didn't get to see me last week for the baby shower or the wedding, here's a picture of me with my cousin-in-law, Ashlee. We are both due on October 21st and just about 36 weeks in this picture. Ashlee and Nick are having a little boy... Finnley Ryan.

The countdown is on!

2008-09-11T11:40:00.002-07:00

I am 34 weeks... just a little more than a month to go! It's exciting and a little nerve wracking to realize Lainey is so close to her debut. We just took a labor and birth class last week and I feel much more prepared. This week John and I are in California. We will be here until the 22nd. We came for a follow-up appointment for John's elbow surgery. The doctor said all seems to be going well and John should be back on the mound to test his elbow by the end of the year.

We have lots to celebrate in the next two weekends. My cousin Nick and his wife Ashlee are expecting their little boy, Finnley Ryan, on the same day that we are expecting Lainey! Ashlee's baby shower is this Saturday and I am glad we are in town to be able to share that with them. Then next Saturday, my Dad is getting married! We are really excited for that special day too. Dawn and her two kids, Dillon and Katija, are really great and we are glad to have them join our family. The next day after that is my baby shower that my Mom and sister Jessica are putting on for me. We have a packed schedule!

After all this great time to spend with family, we will be heading back to Arizona so that John can start physical therapy on his elbow and so that we can get all of Lainey's things organized before she comes. We will be staying in Arizona until Lainey is here and fully settled. No more travel... Dr. Newman wasn't very excited that I was traveling now as it is!!

I need to put up a new belly picture. We are growing daily! I think that will have to wait until we get back from this trip though. Love and hugs to everyone!! ~Amanda

30 weeks

2008-08-15T11:35:00.002-07:00

We went to the doctor yesterday. Everything looks good! He said that Lainey is growing well and is really stretched out. She has herself stretched up under my ribcage on the right side which is occasionally uncomfortable for me. But we are doing well and feeling pretty good. I got a little overzealous cleaning on Monday and pulled an ab muscle. I was back to feeling good by Wednesday though. I didn't realize how careful I have to be since my abs are stretched and moved around. I didn't do anything overly strenuous in my opinion, but the doctor said that sometimes even too much vacuuming can overdo it for a pregnant woman. So we are taking it easy.

My friends in Arizona are throwing me a shower on Sunday. I'm pretty excited for that. And my shower in California is going to be in September. Any of you out of state family, the shower will be on Sunday Sept. 21 at 2:30. If you are planning to come to my dad's wedding on the 20th and can stretch your travel plans out, I would love to have you there!

Love you!

29 weeks!

2008-08-07T13:09:00.002-07:00

OK... here is the most recent picture of me. Taken yesterday at 29 weeks! We are growing!

By request!

2008-08-06T14:33:00.003-07:00

As requested... here's a picture of me. This was taken on July 9th which puts me at about 25 weeks, so I'm a bit bigger now than I was four weeks ago. But, hopefully I can get someone to snap a new one in the next few days. :)

The new doctor's office was much nicer than my last one. I did the glucose tolerance test and another CBC and all tests came out normally. The cool thing about this office is that they email me when my tests are done and they are posted on a website that I can log into. I can see all my lab values for myself, which I really like!

Lainey is growing fast. She seems to be constantly in motion, but of course she stops whenever I offer for someone to feel her kicking. :)

Registry info

2008-07-14T14:44:00.002-07:00

My registries are pretty much complete now for anyone interested in looking. John and I had fun putting it together. I was into finding soft fabrics and nice colors. John was more interested in inflatable tires on our stroller and testing all the rocking chairs. We have another appointment on Wednesday with a new doctor. Our last office was way too busy and we didn't even get to see the doctor most of the time. I really liked my NP, but she won't be there when Lainey's born and I want to know the person delivering her. Anyway, here's the links to my registries:

Babies 'R' Us Registry

Target Registry

I'm sure there will be another update at the end of the week after our appointment! Love to everyone!

She's waking me up now!

2008-07-12T13:25:00.003-07:00

Lainey is a wiggle worm. Last night around 2 am she woke me up for the first time with some kind of happy dance she was doing. Maybe it's because I've been looking at buying her lots of cool stuff. :) I went to work on her registry yesterday with my friend Wendy. We had fun browsing the thousands of things at Babies'r'Us. I am planning to finalize a few additions to that and my Target registry this weekend. But if you are curious as to what we are looking at so far you are welcome to look them up. I'll post a link to each when we have them officially done.

Finally! Ultrasound pictures!!

2008-06-25T17:57:00.003-07:00

I know they are so very late, but I finally had some time and a functional scanner to get our 18 week ultrasound pictures scanned and posted. We are in our 23rd week now... only four months to go! Yikes! Time to get that registry started! Lainey is really moving now. I was watching her beat out a rhythm on my belly this afternoon. It's amazing to SEE her kicking now.

Without further ado... Little Miss Lainey Marie!

Profile

Apparently those three miniscule white lines mean she's definitely a girl.

Five fingers!

Smiling

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-16T19:54:00.002-07:00

Lainey gave John a nice Father's Day gift. She kicked him for the first time! :) We are growing more each day and I'm told she weighs about a pound now. I'm starting to think about registering for things, but boy is that overwhelming! Between all those aisles of stuff at Target to the monstrosity that is Babies 'r' Us, it is a daunting task. If anyone has tips on the must-have's and/or the don't-bother's please let me know!

P.S. I promise to get those ultrasound pictures up soon. We have a new monitor for our desktop, so the scanner is easily accessible again.

It's A Girl!!

2008-05-24T22:17:00.002-07:00

Just a quick post to update anyone that missed out on yesterday's news...

We are having a little girl! We are very excited and she looks great. All the measurements are right on and she was very cooperative with the tech to get all the measurements he needed to get. Hopefully that means she'll be a cooperative kiddo. :)

We have decided to name her Elaine Marie. This is a combo of John's Mom's middle name and Amanda's Mom's middle name. We are going to call her Lainey.

Ultrasound photos will be up in a few days when I get the scanner reset. Love to you all!!

Babies, dogs, and elbows

2008-05-20T16:41:00.002-07:00

In baby news, our appointment yesterday went well. The baby's heart rate was 146 and sounding good. We have an appointment set for Friday at 3:00 for an ultrasound and hopefully the baby will show us whether it's a boy or a girl. As for me, my belly has popped out a bit and my own jeans aren't comfortable anymore. My CT scan was negative for active bleeds, but they can't see any potential aneurysms. We may have to redo it with contrast later in the pregnancy or have an MRA to determine if there are any problems.

Landis has decided he doesn't like his job as a service dog in training. We are in the process of figuring out where he's going to go, be it with us for a little while, or someone else adopting him right away. It's a little disappointing that he didn't make it, but at least I'll have a say in where he goes. He's a good dog and learned all of his commands, but was frustration barking and whining when in the presence of other dogs or animals. He has never liked being restrained when he thinks he wants something on the other side of a barrier. I thought he'd grow out of it, but I guess not. We'll see soon where he ends up going.

In elbow news, John's MRI showed no tears or damage to his ligament. He has some fluid where the muscle connects to the joint, so they think it's a bad muscle strain that hasn't had enough time to heal. He's on four more weeks of rest and a slow build back to pitching. We hope he'll get back to playing sometime in late June/July.

We'll update you after our appointment on Friday with the gender news!!

Some baby news and other news too

2008-05-12T19:19:00.003-07:00

Well, last week on Wednesday night, I felt what I can say for the first time was about 15 seconds of for sure baby flutter. I'd felt a few flits and twitches before this, but this time I knew it was definitely baby and not the burrito I had for lunch. It's pretty neat! I haven't had a continuous flutter since then, but still getting those flits and pinches. Our next doctor's appointment is May 19th. We will likely make an appointment for another ultrasound for that week and we hope to find out if it's a boy or a girl then.

In other news, I finished my last day at work on Saturday. It was also my official goodbye to Lexi. I didn't expect to get too emotional since Lexi has been cared for by other people for about 3 months now, but I guess being pregnant and the fact that I've had her for 10 years got the better of me. It was a tough goodbye, but one that is best for both of us. She is being doted on and spoiled to pieces by a lady I used to work with. I have an open invitation to come see her any time and Suzi is going to email me pictures and updates regularly. Lexi is currently living at Remuda where she lives the easy life munching hay and going for a couple of trail rides a week. Suzi is really enjoying her and I couldn't have asked for a better situation. It was totally set up by God and we all know His plans are the best ones!

Unfortunately, at this point, John's elbow isn't feeling too good. So we don't know what is going on in the baseball arena right now. We are going to San Diego this week for John to have an MRI and see the team doctors. Hopefully we can get a diagnosis and it's nothing too serious.

Love you all!

Ultrasound pictures!

2008-04-28T20:32:00.004-07:00

We got quite a few pictures this last time. Hope you enjoy!

Facial profile:

The token alien face pic. :)

Arms labelled. Hands are on the right.

Full body with spine and jaw.

Lower legs. You can see the two lower leg bones on the left with the knees on the right.

Peace out!

It's A.....

2008-04-25T20:04:00.002-07:00

Baby! We still don't know boy or girl though! Our appointment went well today. All measurements were right on and everything growing in proportion. It was really neat to see and hear the heartbeat (158 bpm), see where the stomach and kidneys are, the bones in the arms and legs, etc. We will likely have a repeat in about 4 weeks. At that time we hope we will have a definitive answer about the gender. Today the tech said, with multiple disclaimers about how unsure he was and not to paint the nursery yet but if he had to guess, he'd guess it's a girl. Who knows though?? We will scan and upload the pictures this weekend. We got some good ones and a rather alien looking one and one with the baby throwing up a peace sign. :)

And in other good news... my insurance said no pre-authorization was needed for the CT scan, so I'm scheduled for that on May 5th. Thanks for your prayers about that! It also seems that the ovarian cyst has begun to shrink and they said they typically disappear by about 18-19 weeks. We love you all and while we wish we knew for sure what we are having, it's kind of a fun mystery. Things are changing daily with me, so I will probably put up more updates than there have been in the last few months, so keep checking in!

Doctor's appointment update

2008-04-21T16:35:00.002-07:00

We had our appointment today. Seems like things are right on track. We got to hear the heartbeat... 165 bpm! No ultrasound today, but we are scheduled for a detailed ultrasound on Friday afternoon. Hopefully we will get to find out what we're having on Friday! The doctor is also getting me pre-authorized for a CAT scan to check for aneurysms in this trimester. They say that MRA scans have too much radiation to be safe, so a CAT scan is what we'll have to do. If you can pray for a speedy pre-authorization, we'd be so grateful. She said her last one took three months to get authorized and we don't want to wait that long. The scan is safest for the baby in the second trimester.

I lost 1/2 a pound this month, but it's not something she's worried about yet. Despite the lack of weight gain, my shape is certainly changing! I can't sit down comfortably in hardly any of my pants anymore, so I went ahead and bought a few maternity things. Hopefully they'll last me a while since they are pretty roomy right now. :)

I also got a new pillow that will hopefully help me be more comfortable at night. Sleep is elusive these days, and only going to get harder to find as I get bigger! I believe that my last day at work will be May 10th. We are moving to our summer schedule, which last year meant split shifts and 110+ degree weather. I don't think I'd cope well with that this year. Hopefully John's elbow will get better soon and we hope to be heading out of town by the end of May anyway. I am thinking that I will get the bracelet business back up and running now that I will have some more time. And hopefully it will help supplement our income.

Thank you for all your prayers and we will update you on Friday after our ultrasound appointment!

Last week of the first trimester!

2008-04-14T09:48:00.003-07:00

Based on the fact that I've had little to no nausea and have generally felt pretty good for this first trimester, there's not been much to say! I managed to make it through with only one episode of sickness, but I think it was more related to low blood sugar and high stomach acids than baby stuff. Don't eat just strawberries on a hungry, empty stomach.

Overall things continue to look good. I'm still not really showing, but I think that will change soon as all the books and info on growing babies says they grow very rapidly at this point. I've only gained about 4 pounds, but I know that will change really soon too. Other than getting winded easily at work and some low back pain, I am really feeling pretty great.

My next appointment is a week from today. So we'll have more of an update for you next week! Love you all!

The (Almost) Daily Brooke and Lainey

Milestones and some pictures

Oh no... 3 months later!

Making shortcake with Grandma

Jammie time

Poor Baby!

Sweet sleepy baby

Chatting with Lainey

Brooke is sick. :(

Favorite dress

Oh dear

Talkative Baby and the 2 month Well Visit

Blogger on my phone!

Video update!

Brooke Smiles!

Picture update

Brooke Elizabeth!

More video fun!

Flying a kite

I peeped

Do you want to go to bed?

Perida

Tinkerbells

Considering a new blog title

Preview of our Christmas photos

31 weeks 2 days

T-minus 67 days to Brooke's due date

Lainey's Birthday

Lainey's Ninja Skills

Just some stuff

The Cinderella Song

You Are my Sunshine

Chatting with Lainey

Let's do this!

She got me!

Potty training update

More words, more teeth, and the official start of potty learning

More teeth!

Fun with words

Teetheing is no fun.

Blogging is not my thing it seems!

Lainey's Vocabulary at 1 year

Some new videos!

Learning so much!

Cookie?

www.laineyhudgins.com is closing

Wow, I'm really behind!

Recapping the last month

First swimming lesson, horses, a doctor's appt.

Four months old!!

Lainey was dedicated today!

Tongue

She's starting to laugh!

We got Skype!

Lainey's Check-Up

Vacation from our Holidays.

Wrapping up the Trip to CA

Lainey's doctor appointment

Sleep?

Many firsts

Happy Birthday Lainey!

First night out!

Lainey has her own website!

Some Lainey love

Lainey is home!

Still waiting...

We are moving in the right direction!

This morning's tests

No news...

Another day gone by!

A Haiku for Lainey

Apparently I am a little too comfortable

The freezer is full, but the bun is still in the oven.

Still waiting...

Not much progress...

Must have been false labor...

Early labor? False labor?

Baby Jackson is here!

Baby Shower Pictures

39 week check up