BIG Steps for Aubree...and Brock

Have we finally come up with a medication combo to make our baby girl feel better???????
I am praying we have...and the past two days haven't just been a fluke.










Here's the run-down on our little Aubree...
* fussy from day 1!
* diagnosed as colic at 2 months
* ALWAYS spitting up and STILL very fussy (the hurt cry...not just the fussy to fuss cry)
* at 3 months, start Zantac to see if the problem is reflux
* Zantac works really well! Zantac is the first class of medications usually prescribed for reflux; an H2 Blockers which decrease acid production in the stomach.
* between 4-5 months, Zantax stops working
* ditch Zantax, start Prevacid (which I am still fighting with the insurance company to cover) Prevacid is the second class of medications...it is a proton pump inhibitor which is designed to block the stomach from producing acid.
* STILL fussy, spitting up, and now have a rash breaking out on her little head (causing her to claw at her head constantly, leaving scrapes & scabs all over)
* begin testing for various food allergies. Thankfully, they came back negative, but that still leaves us with no solution. :(
* begin Reglan which is a prokinetic agent. it is designed to cause the stomach’s contents to exit more quickly into the intestines...leaving less time for it to come back up!
* at this time, our pediatrician has referred us to an Infant GI Specialist and we have that appointment next week

OK...so if you followed all that, you will likely understand these last few months have been nothing but a whirlwind of frustration, no sleep and a very SAD & hurting baby girl!

Well, the last two days, we've seen a good improvement in Aubree! Even her teachers at school today said that she was only fussy when she was getting tired, she didn't spit up nearly as much today, and she was overall HAPPIER!!

Gracious God,
You have given us many healing remedies
that are a benefit to us when we are sick.
Through the miraculous intercession of St. Anthony,
we ask Your blessing upon the medication prescribed for
Aubree so that she may experience healing,
and be restored to full health in mind and body.

Amen.

Now, all the focus can't be on the baby! ;) Brock is very excited that he has moved up in the world to an even BIGGER BIG BOY BED! And company is now excited that we have a good place for them to stay when they're in town! Brock's bed and bedding is an early birthday present for my BIG (nearly) FOUR YEAR OLD!!

"Around the lake, past the christmas trees, past the bears, to the X!"

Four times the fun!

Tom and I had the pleasure of watching our darling neighbors, John Patrick & Elise last week. The kids all had a great time, and although tired, we did too!

The boys were a great help! I don't think I'd have gotten all my printouts from the printer in a timely manner had it not been for Brock & JP so diligently keeping watch!
After the printer lost it's enchantment, the boys took to watching Mickey Mouse while the girls played on the floor.


Things started getting a bit interesting when all the kids decided to get hungry at the same time! I had fun juggling feeding the two girls while chef Tom served the boys up some delicious deer sausage!

We had a great night. It was hectic, but fun! I'm so thankful we have such good friends and can flip flop babysitting for each other!!! Pat & Annie...schedule another night out! We're ready!

The Forever Rose...

Ok, so no relationship is perfect, and Tom and I have had a few hard times...but lately, I feel like a newlywed again and I LOVE IT! :)
Before our date to the Spurs game this week, Tom brought me a rose. One look at this rose and anyone else would think it was the most lame, junior high crush, velvet covered fake rose. Well, that fake rose melted my heart.

When Tom and I first started dating, he picked me up at my apartment in College Station and handed me a fake, plastic, long-stem, pink rose. I thought "ok, talk about a broke college student"! As he handed it to me, he said that it was a forever rose..."like our love, it would never die". Looking back now, that was a pretty bold statement at the time, as we hadn't been dating too long. However, it was VERY romantic! The caveat to that story is later that night (or in the next few weeks...I can't quite remember), he told me that when he bought it at Kroger's, he didn't realize it was fake! I didn't care...to come up with a story/statement about it being a forever rose still captivated this love-struck girl! I kept that rose for a very long time. I really think I still have it somewhere...but about 4 moves later, I can't tell you where.
So when Tom came home with another "forever rose", it meant THE WORLD to me! It was incredibly thoughtful, loving and still very romantic!

(Also, it was quite coincidental (or is Tom really that good??? haha!) that he gave me this rose just one week and one day prior to the 10 year anniversary of the original rose!! The picture above was taken on 1/22/99 and was the first day we said "I Love You"!)

I LOVE YOU BABY!

Go Spurs Go!

I was fortunate enough to win tickets from work to the Spurs vs. Lakers game on 1/14! Tom and I had a great time!!! The game was fantastic as well!


So here is the catch for any big event such as this. You can get free tickets, free parking, free suite passes, and free food but the drinks just kill you!!!

Here is a picture of Tom and I after we placed our drink order. One beer, one glass of wine. Look how happy we are!!!


I should have gotten a picture of my face when the bartender placed the wine glass down on the counter for me. Um, I don't think he knows who I am! I told Tom that was crazy. Tom said, "No, what is crazy is if he comes back with $2 change (from a $20). Not one minute later, the bartender returns with two dollars and some change! It was a good thing everything else that night was free!!!

Here is our $7+ dollar beer, and our $9+ dollar wine!! (I can get a BOX of wine for that!)

Thanks!

Another week, another post to stop and give thanks for my blessings!

* I'm thankful for insurance. Even though Humana has me unbelievably upset (and I mean REALLY UPSET)...I am thankful to have very good medical benefits through work.

* I'm thankful for some really GREAT neighbors! I have a couple neighbors who are ALWAYS there to step in and babysit when I need a sitter, they are my sounding board when I need to talk and get things off my chest, they are there to give Brock a playmate so he doesn't have to resort to using his imaginary friend, to feed us dinner when we are out of food, and so on! A special shout out to Mrs. Judy and Mollie for helping with the kids tonight so Tom and I can go to the Spurs/Lakers game!!

* I'm thankful for a CLEAN HOUSE! (Ok, so I might buy that...but today I came home to a clean house and there's very few things that can make you feel as good as I do now...especially after SUCH a hectic day!!)

*I'm thankful that I hear kids do grow out of the "Thomas the Train" stage! I'm not sure I could handle many more years of Thomas movies!

* And I'm very thankful gas prices are back to a reasonable level! I filled up today for $33! A big difference from the $96 or so I hit when they were at their highest!

Five Months and all is...pretty well.

Most kids don't go to the doctor for a 5 month checkup...but we did! Aubree is having a hard time with her reflux. The medicine is not working as effectively as it did at first. The doctor prescribed a new medication which Tom just stopped to pick up at Walgreens. Unfortunately, he isn't coming home with it. (Without having time to get approved by insurance, it costs $178!! Ouch!) We're saying some prayers it gets approved and is effective. We have a follow up appointment in 2 weeks. If there is no improvement, we're off to a GI Specialist next! Goodness knows that I have learned there are always worse circumstances, but I say prayers that we can get this under control. Nothing hurts your heart more than knowing your baby is hurting and you cannot do anything about it.
Even so, she perserveres and has lots of smiles to go around! She is getting SO big! I know every parent says that...but truly...she's wearing 9-12 month clothes!!! She's only FIVE months old!!! If there's one thing Tom and I do well...it's grow big kids! :)

Her big brother is beginning to adapt into his role. I managed to catch a series of pictures of his latest achievement! Making her bottles!! Unfortunately, it requires quite a bit of supervision. (darn! that could have been a huge bonus!)


TA-DAAAA!!!!!!!

Imaginary, and not so Imaginary friends...

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Kids (especially mine) crack me up! They are just so funny. The other day Brock was playing outside while I was sitting at the kitchen table working on the computer. After some time, he came inside and said that there was a girl out there who wanted to play with his bouncer (bounce house). Knowing that the only girls we have around us in the back are a couple middle school/high school girls next door, I highly doubted they wanted to play with Brock and his bouncer. I asked him what her name was. He didn't know, so then I asked him to go outside and ask the girl her name. He walked to the retaining wall we have in the back, leans down "talks" and then comes back inside and tells me the girl's name was "Pinky". At this point I'm biting my tongue not to burst out laughing. KNOWING this was a story to blog about...I called Tom into the room and then asked Brock to go ask Pinky if she wanted to play today, or tomorrow. That's when I got this picture. :)


Because this was just too funny, I then asked Brock to go stand by Pinky so I could get a picture of him and his new friend.
YOU can see Pinky, right??? :)










I figured this kid must be starved for more kid interaction (coincidentally this was during his 2 week break from school) so we made sure to play with his real friends as much as possible in the last few days of the break. :)

Counting my Blessings

As my New Year's Resolution stated, I want to count my blessings a little more often! So, though I'm quite sleepy tonight, here goes a few.

* I'm thankful for my husband. I love him more than words can describe. Just the other day he told me he wants to spend the rest of his life letting me know just how much he loves me! Diddo!
* I'm thankful for my beautiful, healthy children! As we get older, we tend to notice just how blessed we are! Brock and Aubree are truly our little miracles and only another parent can understand how deeply they are loved!! I also find it amazing how they can drive you crazy and you're crazy about them...all at the same time! ;)
* I'm so thankful to have all my family living in Texas again! Since my parents moved out of state when I was a sophomore in college, and only moved back a couple years ago...I spent a lot of time being 15+ hours away from them! Now, being just about 2 & 4 hours away is such a blessing! My mom is coming up next weekend and I genuinely enjoy our little weekends together! I'm happy we can do it more often!
* I'm thankful for not being pregnant so I can TAKE all the GOOD COLD MEDICINE this year!! :)
* And as a pretty random one (because I have a couple pictures to go along with it)...I'm thankful that both of my kids can be captivated by the tv! (This one is good and bad...but with as busy as we can get sometimes, it's nice to know I can occupy them long enough to get something done!)

Here are some pictures of the ONLY thing these two kids have in common so far! (ok, except their parents!)

Lots of Firsts in the First days of the First month of her First year!

Our little princess!

Just NINE days before Aubree's
FIVE MONTH birthday, she has
thrilled us with a lot of firsts!


She is starting off 2009 with a bang!







#1. Rice cereal!!

Aubree's reaction was one of: "Where has THIS been my whole life????" She was quite spastic, but did remarkably well! Better than I remember Brock doing on his cereal debut! And he was a FULL five months old! ;) We're hoping this helps her reflux a little, and rumor has it, she might sleep better at night. That remains to be seen. I think she may be a teenager before she sleeps through the night on a consistent basis!

She made a Happy Bowl!!

Brock's reaction to Aubree eating was a little entertaining as well!

#2. Rolling Over!!
Aubree rolled over for the first time on Christmas Day, but she always did it when waking up from her nap and we just witnessed it for the first time today! She's really funny, she does it "ballerina style". The pictures and video don't do justice to the way we saw it the first time, but she arches her back and keeps arching and kicking her head/feet back until she gets all the way over! She's going to rock at "back-bends"!

#3. Laughing!!
Remembering back to all the firsts I experienced with Brock, I believe the best things you can experience with your children are: first smiles, first laughs, and first time they say "I love you mommy"! All of those melt your heart! The second child is no exception! Aubree has been close to a laugh for a week or two, but we FINALLY found something to consistently make her chuckle! What cracks me up is the technique we used!
Who remembers the Friends episode when Rachael & Ross get Emma to laugh by singing "Baby Got Back"? http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi799802137/
Well, Miss Aubree prefers: "I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it. I like to move it. move it. I like to...MOVE IT!" (Which coincidentally is one of Brock's favorite lines/songs to recite...from one of the Madagascar movies)

New Year, New Beginnings

Happy New Year to everyone!

This year I'm making resolutions that are more likely to be kept. The whole "lose weight" resolution that nearly EVERYONE makes just doesn't cut it anymore. Either 1) I should be whittled away to nothing now...or 2) I never manage to keep that resolution! or maybe there is 3)I lose but then manage to gain back to I can re-resolve to lose again next year!!! Whatever the case, this year will be different. Here is a sampling of my resolutions for 2009 (and as Brock would say: And Beyond!!)



1) Remember to stop and count my blessings every day! We tend to get caught up in the daily grind, and before we know it, something slips away, or we forget what things are really important in the first place. To help in this endeavor, I'm looking up to my friend Sara. (Yes, YOU Sara!) Your "Thankful Thursdays" are some of my most favorite postings to read. You're my inspiration to start some of my own! I've tried to think of a clever title, so I'm not completely stealing yours...but haven't got one just yet!






2) Spend more time focusing on me and Tom. Two kids and 10 years into our relationship, it's easy to put the kids first. They require so much time and attention. However, if you think about it, without "Tom and Lori" there is no "Brock and Aubree"! So, as Waylon would say: "Baby, it's time we got back, to the basics of love!"







3) Spend more time every day in prayer. During my maternity leave, I read a few books that really strengthened my relationship with God. I never thought of myself as a "bad prayerer" (that's probably not a word!) until I learned how to step up my prayers by a few notches! Now I find there's not really enough time to get all the prayers in I want to get in each day! Everywhere you turn, SOMEONE needs your prayers, and needs them badly. And for those who don't seem to "need" your prayers today, well...we need to pray for them so they don't "Need" our prayers tomorrow!



4) Chill out!! Who remembers anal Lori who likes things structured, tidy, planned, and organized neatly in an excel spreadsheet? Ok, so maybe she's still here, but we're taking all that DOWN a notch or two. Remember the "not enough time in the day" I mentioned in resolution #3? Yeah, that pretty much applies to everything! I'm learning to "go with the flow" a little more regularly and I've found out that you don't HAVE to have a clean house every day. When I look back at my life 10 years from now, I want to remember playing with my children. Making them laugh that hard belly-laugh that just cracks you up! Going to the park with my family or friends. Spending time with Tom and the wii fit and laughing at each other as we look totally ridiculous! Watching football with Tom and enjoying that I'm doing MUCH better in my bowl picks than he did. ;) You will likely never see my home in the pages of "Good Housekeeping", but you'll see a family full of love and laughter on my blog, in pictures, and in my memory.


Well, that's a start on my resolution list...but it's late, and I need to get off the computer in order to work on some of the resolutions listed above!

May you all have a wonderful and blessed 2009!