New Trick

Have to share what Alyssa learned today.

Can things slow down?

As I type this title I don't really mean it. But things have been SOOOO busy lately of the last 5 nights I have not been home to put Alyssa to bed 4 of them. That is hard for me and her. But I think right now is a good time for me to be away from her. I came down with a bad cold on Sunday and it has gotten worse each day. Since I came down with it on Sunday I was probably contagious Friday and Saturday. So hopefully she won't catch this cold. I left work early yesterday and I think I will stay home tomorrow so that I can really feel better for the weekend.

Also I need to get caught up on my college classes because I have been gone so much I am behind in those classes as well.

Lets see what the next few days bring.

Money

I have always wanted to be a stay at home mom. But my desire to be a mom outweighed being a stay at home mom.

When Alyssa was born I knew I could not stay home. I told everyone with in the next few years I will be able to stay home. After another rough year with students I want to stay home next year. For the last two nights I have spent over an hour staring at our budget. There really isn't much we can cut out. Chris and I have always lived within our means. Last night as I laid in bed crying I asked him "Why couldn't we have lived a really extravagant life style the last few years? It would make it so much easier to cut things out?" Chris laughed and told me next time we will try that.

So until I win the lottery(that I don't play) or some how figure out a way to cut our already small budget in half I guess I will continue to be a working mom.

If only I can figure out how to get a easier class.

Sick Again

My poor baby just can't seem to get and stay healthy. She was healthy for 5 days. On the morning of the 6th day she woke up coughing and with a runny nose. By the time I picked her up from daycare at 2 she was grouchy and had only eaten 4 ounces. So off to the doctor we go. She has a double ear infection and another virus. The doctor gave us medicine for the ear infection and told us there was nothing she could do for the virus. I told her I was concerned about the number if times she has been sick. She told me it was part of a baby being in daycare. The other thing that I noticed at the doctor is she is not gaining much weight. At her 6 month check up she was 17 pounds. Friday she was 17 pounds 11 ounces, and she had just drank 8 ounces. I guess she will be wearing 9 month clothes for awhile longer( since they go up to 20 lbs).

Chris and I are very lucky that when she is sick she is still pretty happy. She had a great day yesterday. Her cousins came over and ran around and were loud and were having a blast. She sat and watched them, crawled after them and laughed at them. She had a lot of fun.

Her new thing is to laugh at everything. This morning Chris went to get her up while I was still in bed. I could hear her laughing and laughing at Chris. When I got up I asked what he was doing and he said nothing.

She has also started to cruise the furniture to get to things. She walked with Chris's help today, I think that her walking days are closer than I want them to be.

Pumpkin Patch

Today Alyssa went to her very first pumpkin patch, well okay it was all of our first time at a pumpkin patch.

We took a wagon ride, picked out pumpkins, got back on the wagon and rode back. Everyone that saw Alyssa thought she was cute. She was able to get a lot of smiles at others and even saw some kids from her daycare there.

It was a lot of fun to take her to the pumpkin patch. Next weekend it is off to a corn maze and Grant's Farm again for a Halloween night. She gets to wear her costume for Halloween night.

On another note this is my 100th blog post. For something I didn't think I could keep up, I'm very happy to see that I'm at 100!

Dear Alyssa

Dear Alyssa,

You are now 8 months old! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday I could not wait for you to be born.

You have now slept through the night 98% of the time for the last two weeks. Sleeping through the night for you is going to bed between 6:30-7 and getting up to eat between 3 and 4:30 then sleeping until about 6:30. Mommy is enjoying getting a full nights sleep.

Last night you woke up at 3:30 and were coughing so much that you could not fall back asleep. I brought you to bed with us and you went right to sleep. I thought about taking you back to your bed, but you hadn't slept with us for over a month and I wanted the cuddle time so I kept you in bed with us until I had to get ready for work.

You are eating more table foods. You love saltine crackers with a passion. We give you the whole cracker and you just go to town on it. You still could care less about the baby food solids. Some days you will take them, other days you are not interested.

You can now crawl really fast across the floor and Daddy and I love to pick you up from daycare because you will see us, get a big smile, clap your hands and then crawl across the floor as fast as you can to get with us.

You also can pull up on everything! You want to try to start climbing, and we are not thrilled with that. I think you are going to be a climber.

You have been very sick the last few months. I have said a lot of prayers for you to get healthy and this week ( though it is not over) looks like you might avoid the doctor.

You are such a happy baby and I love spending every minute I can with you. I cannot wait to see what the next month brings.

I love you baby girl!

Love,

Mommy

Whine

This is going to be a very whiny post so I understand if you don't want to read it. Today is Monday and already I can't wait for the week to be over (that is never a good sign).

This morning started out good. I did not have to be to work until 9, so Alyssa and I both took a morning nap. +2 points

I dropped her off at daycare at 8:15 and hit construction on my way out of Alton. -1 point.

I then went to the wrong location for the meeting. -1point.

Therefore I got to the meeting ten minutes late. -1 point

It was then so cold in there that I could not concentrate. -1point

This was the second time I heard the lecture so even though I could not concentrate I was able to do the activities. +1 point.

Lunch was given to us. +1 point

We got out at 3 ( an hour earlier than I get out of school). +2 points

Go pick up Alyssa and she has a rash all over her body. -2 points

Call the doctor and they tell me they can't see her and that the nurse will call me back. -0 points I guess

Go to Walgreen's to pick up her other prescription and it is not ready and their computers are down. -1 points

Doctor calls back tells me that he thinks it is a viral infection and should get better in two days. -1 point

Babysitter calls to tell me that one of the girls at daycare has been exposed to H1N1. -1 point

Chris is able to pick up prescription and dinner. +2 points

Alyssa is some what happy for the evening and goes down easily for bed. +1 point

I get all my homework done for the night. +2 points ( an extra one cause I got 14/15 on a quiz)

So if you are keeping track of points I am actually up two points for the day but it sure feels like a down day.

I know I should be grateful that Alyssa is healthy enough that Chris and I can both go to work, and that she did not have to spend any time in the hospital and that she is a beautiful loving child. But I feel that her body has to be tired. She has been sick for two months straight without a break. I know that has to take a toll on her body. I would love to pull her out of daycare for a few weeks, let her get healthy and stay healthy for a week or two and then put her back in daycare. She might not be as sick since her body would have time to heal and relax a little. But I can't do that until at least Feb, so until then I suck it up and do what I can to make her happy and comfortable.

Okay I think that is enough whine for one night and now I think I need a glass of wine. :-) and maybe a good nights sleep. Hopefully tomorrow is a +10 day.

Sleeping through the night

Alyssa started sleeping through the night last Monday night. On Friday she got really sick and ended up at the doctor AGAIN. He gave her abuterol. These meds make her wired. Last night she was up until 8:30 crawling and playing all over the place. Needless to say she was up twice last night. I'm hoping once she goes off the meds on Friday she will go back to sleeping through the night. I am also hoping that she will be healthy and stays healthy for a few weeks.

She is really crabby today and the only thing that makes her happy is watching the TV with wild designs on it while playing music. So I have resorted to the TV babysitter!

Hope you weekend is going well.