Day #3 at Gym Daycare

I guess 3rd time is the charm. Abby flipped out when I left her in the daycare yesterday. She didn't want to let go of me. She cried and yelled "mama". I just had them pull her in and I left quickly. I immediately went to the monitor to watch her. All I could see was that the girl who took her in was holding her and then sitting on the floor with her. I couldn't tell if she was still crying or not. After about 10 minutes she got up and wandered out of the view of the camera. ( I assume she went to the little kitchen she likes to play with) I only left her in there about 45 minutes as I don't want to push my luck just yet since she will at least calm herself down. I don't want her to feel like she is in there very long until she is okay with being dropped off. When I picked her up she saw me and came running as fast as she could saying "mama mama". Before she saw me I was watching her and she was standing by the little slide they have, pushing trains down it, saying "go, go, go"! It was pretty cute. They said that she only cried for less than 5 minutes and then just sat there watching the other kids play dinosaurs. I hate that she cried when I dropped her off, but I am so glad she could at least calm herself down in less than 10 minutes so that they didn't call me to come pick her up. I know how good this time away from me is for her.

Day # 2 at Gym Daycare

Yesterday went just as well as Day #1!!!! However, this time she did at least get excited and run to me when she saw me come in to pick her up. It is so fun to watch her on the monitor. The only problem is that she LOVES the little play kitchen and it is out of sight of the camera. So, a lot of the time I can't see her. She has adopted a little baby doll both times she has been in. She carries it around with her the entire time she is in there. It is a good thing that I go at a slow time in the afternoon when there is only a few other kids in there. Otherwise, I don't think she would be able to hold on the baby very long before another child stole it away. We took today off, but will be back tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed that she continues to enjoy it in there!

Day #1 at Gym Daycare

Abby did AMAZING today. She didn't cry when I dropped her off or even seem to miss me. When I went in to pick her up she just looked at me and went back to playing. I was sooooo incredibly relieved. They have cameras in the daycare so of course I was glued to the TVs the entire time I was there so I could see what she was doing. She seemed to have a great time playing with all the toys they have. I went at a slow time so there was only a couple other kids in there and it wasn't too overwhelming for her.
I am still not completely convinced that I can breathe easy. She could decide at anytime that she doesn't want to be dropped off there. Today she didn't know what was going to happen. Next time she will know what is coming. We will go again tomorrow and hope she does just as good!

Gym Daycare

I got an early birthday present from Marc.....a 3 month membership to Mountainside Fitness. I have really been wanting to get back in the gym again. We have a nice home gym set up but it is hard to get a workout in when Abby is around. She is great about letting me do cardio on our elliptical, but that is it. If I am on the ground she is not having it! It is actually really cute because she will try to workout with me. Unfortunately, this usually means she is in the way or at risk of getting hurt. I also am looking forward to a larger variety of exercises I can do.

Soooooo....I will be leaving Abby for the very first time tomorrow. She has never been with a sitter other than my Mom or Marc's Mom and those times have been very few and far between. I have not left her outside of our house since she was 4 months old. I am super nervous. I don't think I will get much sleep tonight. I know it seems so silly but I am really freaked out about it. I am not worried for her safety or anything like that, I just feel horribly guilty because I know she will be very upset when I leave and cry like crazy. I keep reminding myself that a healthy and happy Mommy is what is best for her, but I still feel bad.

The plan is to give it two weeks of going every day before I give up. I am going to try to take her at the slowest time of the afternoon so she isn't too overwhelmed by everything going on in there and can get some one on one attention. I am not planning to even work out. The daycare will let her cry for 10 minutes before they call me in there. I am hoping that after a while she will realize I always come back and be able to handle being left in there. She is still super clingy and very weary of new people so I am not sure how long it will take. She freaks out when I just leave the room she is in at play dates. This will be very good for her if she learns that it is okay when Mommy leaves for a little while.

Wish me luck. It will probably be harder on me than it is on her. I hate to see my baby cry :(

Abby's New Words

Abby has added quite a few new words to her vocabulary in the last few days. I have to admit I am a little relieved because I was starting to think she might never talk. Although, I am sure I will look back fondly on these days at some point when I can't get her to STOP talking.

The latest additions to her vocab are Abby (Abba), Layla, Elmo, bite, please, yellow, blue, hi, and bye bye. This is in addition to the words she was already saying...mama, dada, dog, duck, more, on, off, up, down, ball, blankie (baba), bath, banana, cracker, Grandpa (papa), shoes, love (lof), Night Night, hot, hat, and help.

It is so fun to see her talking more. My absolute favorite is when I ask her what her name is and she gets all excited and says ABBA!!!!

Summer Fun

It has been extremely hot lately so we have been trying to spend as much time as possible in the water. We got a cheap little plastic pool for the backyard. Marc has been taking Abby out to the pool after dinner while I clean up. It is the best time of day for her to go out there because there is a little shade. She loves to get in and out of the pool and take water from the pool to dump on the patio. She calls any kind of water a bath. All day long she is grabbing my hand, pulling me to the back door and saying "bath" over and over again. It is these days over 100 degrees that really make me wish we had decided to have a pool put in when we built the house. Oh well, for sure in our next house!

Here are some pics of our recent adventures.....

Abby getting ready for some fun in the water

Playing in the pool at a play date

Hanging with Grandpa when he and Grandma were here in July

Swimming with Mommy

Mommy always makes me wear a hat in the sun!

Chillin' in my own little pool

Daddy likes my pool too!

Drinking out of the hose already!

Home Improvement

We still have many projects going on in our house but we finally finished a couple rooms. The dining room and 1 of 3 bathrooms is complete. I am really happy with how they both turned out. So happy I married a man who is so handy around the house!

Here is a list of what Marc did in the dining room:

• Painted (twice)
• Ripped out carpet and put in wood floors
• Installed blinds
• Put up crown moulding

Here are some pics while the work was being completed...

and the finished product.....

I didn't take pictures of the bathroom before we did it but just picture the blank slate they provide with all new builds (unless you pay them to upgrade).

Here is the list of what Marc did in the bathroom...

• Replaced all hardware (towel bars, toilet paper holder)
• Took down mirror and added framed mirror
• Replaced faucet
• Replaced light fixture
• Painted (twice)

Here is the finished product....

Abby is 18 Months

Abby had her 18 month checkup over a week or so ago. She did really well. She only had to get one shot so they let me hold her this time. She just watched them stick it in her leg and did not cry at all. I was so proud of her.

So, here are the stats. She weighs 28 lbs 13 oz (94th percentile) and is 36 inches tall (99th percentile). I heard somewhere that if you double a child's height at age 2 it is a good indicator of how tall they will be. If that is the case then Abby is going to be over 6 feet tall! She is slowly starting to thin out. Her roll on her chubby little thighs is getting smaller and smaller.

We are beginning to experience some of the typical toddler stuff. She has stopped eating many of the foods she used to love (as if she wasn't picky enough already). She has decided that meat is not cool and she only wants to eat bananas, bread, or yogurt. Hopefully this doesn't last very long. :) She is also starting to express her feelings a little more. (okay, call it what it is, she is throwing tantrums). It is actually a little funny because when she is told no she will throw whatever is in her hand on the ground, even if it is something she wants, like her blankie. She still only says a handful of words but I know eventually I will look back fondly on the days when she was so quiet! She is walking (or running) everywhere now and greatly enjoys climbing on the furniture.

Despite the occasional tantrum, we are having so much fun. I just love this age. She is like a little sponge and absorbs so much. She is constantly imitating me by pretending to put on make up, deodorant, lotion, etc. She also enjoys "helping" me sweep and vacuum. She lOVES to throw stuff away for me too. Every day she amazes me with something she has learned. It is so fun to watch her grow up yet so sad at the same time because I am slowly watching my baby turn into a little girl.

Think She Likes To Swing?

18 Month Pictures

Sideways Sleeper

Why does she sleep like this all the time when she would fit so much better sleeping the right way? This will never work when it is time to convert to a toddler bed :)

VIDEO: Abby Rides Thomas

This is a video of Abby scooting along on her Thomas riding toy that was given to her by her cousins. (Thanks sis) She just started to get the hang of it recently but still finds it a lot easier to go backward than forward. I took this video the day before she got sick. As you can see, she seemed to be feeling just fine. Just mute your computer so you don't have to listen to my annoying voice talking to Abby.

Update on Sick Baby

Abby seems to be feeling a little better. We got through the whole day today with no fever and only one dose of Motrin. She has only been willing to eat yogurt and applesauce the last couple days so I know her throat is still hurting her. I am pretty sure the fever was just from the virus that caused the blisters on her throat.
However, issue #2 (blood in urine) is still not resolved. The test came back negative for a UTI, so they need to test her urine again. We are going to wait about a week to see if whatever is causing it clears on its own. Then I have to take Abby to be "bagged" at a lab. Apparently they attach a little bag that sticks to her to catch her pee. Once it catches enough they will collect the urine and we are free to go. Using the bag instead of a catheter also ensures that the blood in the urine wasn't caused by trauma from the catheter. Hopefully, her urine will come back clear. If they find blood again they will begin running more tests to try to figure out why.

Sick Baby

Abby woke up with a fever yesterday but it was only about 101 and I thought it was probably because she has all 4 of her canine teeth trying to break through. I continued with our plans for the day and when I touched her to get her out of the car when we got home she was on fire. I came inside and took her temp. It was 104.2! Yikes. I was able to get it down to 102 with some Motrin. She has had viral throat infections 5 times in the last 6 months so I assumed her throat was bad again.
I gave her Motrin again before bed. She basically fell asleep as soon as I laid her down and it was only 6pm. She woke up at 2:30am crying. I went in to check on her and she was SOOOO incredibly hot. She was shaking when I picked her up. This time her temp was up to 105. I gave her more Motrin and got her to drink some water. I rocked her for a while and then tried to get her to lay down in our bed with us. No luck. She still will not lay down anywhere but her crib. So she sat between Marc and I in the dark for a while. I did not want to put her back to bed unless her temp. came down. Otherwise we would have headed to the ER. Luckily her temp came down to 101 after a while and I was able to put her back to bed. She slept in until almost 8am (much later than her typical 6:15am, thank goodness). Her temp. was high again this morning so I called the Dr. and made an appointment.
When we were at the Dr. I mentioned that she has been acting like it hurts when I wipe her even though she has no rash. They mentioned that she may have a UTI, but wanted to still check her throat and ears. Sure enough, her throat has huge blisters on it. Not just puss, but actual blisters. The Dr. couldn't believe that she is still willing to eat with a throat like that. They still wanted to do a urine sample to check for UTI though. Well, a 17 month old can't exactly pee into a cup so they had to use a catheter. I asked to be in the room with her and they looked at me like I was nuts and said they didn't recommend it. So I went back to the exam room to wait and had to just listen to her scream. It was really hard. They brought her back to me and she just cried and cried. They found blood in her urine so they broke the news to me that they were going to have to give her a shot of antibiotics. Poor kid. Not sure I could have put her through much more in one day. After I got her calmed down the same 2 people that did the catheter came back into the room to give the shots. Lets just say she was not happy to see them again. She got one shot in each leg while I had to hold her down. :( We don't know for sure that she has a UTI, but the Dr. wanted to start antibiotics immediately just in case. The results will be back tomorrow and we will find out for sure. It it is not a UTI we will stop the oral antibiotics and run more tests.
My poor baby girl! She cried A LOT today. She was just miserable. Two separate issues at the same time....throat infection and something causing blood in her urine. After we got home from the Dr. she slept for 3 hours. She woke about every 20 min, cried for a minute and went back to sleep. Hopefully she can get though tonight without spiking a super high fever again. I will update when I know more.

Abby Loves Elmo, or Maybe Not :)