Merry Christmas!!

Christmas 2008...if you would have told me a year ago that I'd be celebrating Christmas this year with my very own baby, I'd have told you to keep dreaming. I am still amazed every day that she is mine and I'm so proud of her and proud to be her mommy.

Merry Christmas!

kate, cliff and annajo (aka Princess Toots-a-lot)

AnnaJo had her 2 month appt...shots, ouch!

My baby girl is growing so big! Her 2 month appt was last week and she is already 13 lbs / 23 inches long! She had her first round of shots and did so good! I was very proud of her, although I think I was far more anxious and nervous than she was. She screamed louder than I have ever heard her scream before - it was a little rough. Nana went along too for the visit and she had to cover her ears. Here's a few of her latest pics...

This is a headband that my aunt Kaye bought for her. Isn't she adorable!?

9 weeks old here....happy girl!

And this is proof that she does kind of look like me. I was 3 months old in this picture! Can you see the resemblance between my Mom and I too? :-)

Where has the time gone??

It cannot already be December, can it? It seems like yesterday that I was packing my bags to head to the hospital to have my beautiful baby girl. Time has flown by! She is already 10 1/2 weeks old! She is getting so big too. Such a big girl and super strong! She is always trying to sit up.

I'm back at work now - part time for December and then full time in January. It was very hard to go back too...it's so hard to leave her. She's in good hands though. Her Nana, Grammie and Daddy all watch her one day per week. That leaves me with the two other days and I cherish them both! And then weekends too, of course! With the holidays quickly approaching, I can't claim all the weekends though! Speaking of holidays...I have pictures from Thanksgiving posted on her Shutterfly picture page (www.annajohill.shutterfly.com). She was such a cutie...wore her first dress that day!

She had another first on Monday night (12/8) - she laughed really hard for the first time. she was laughing at Jersey. Jersey was supposed to be talking dirty, but she sneezed instead. AnnaJo thought it was hilarious and actually belly laughed. It was too cute!

Hope all is well with everyone!

New Way to Share Pictures

Posting pics to the blog isn't as easy as i would like. I'll continue to post the best ones, but if you'd like to keep updated on how she is growing and changing, check out this site.
http://annajohill.shutterfly.com/

Shutterfly has some really good deals for printing and they are always running specials like free shipping and discounted projects. From the shared website, you can order prints of AnnaJo or make your own projects or you can just enjoy the view.

Hungry baby is starting to stir...hope you enjoy!!

An Extra hour of sleep...woohoo!!

Earned an extra hour of sleep this morning...yea! Figures that I'm not taking advantage of it. I woke up at 6:30 needing to pump, so I thought I'd take advantage of my few stolen moments of silence to update my blog.

How bad is it that I have to put the milestones in her blog instead of in her babybook? I have yet to start a babybook for her, so if I don't put the milestones on here, they'll be forgotten. Maybe I'll be organized by the time she is one. Doubtful, I know. Plus it gives you a chance to see how are life is going, so I guess it's not all bad.

So, here are a few that I want to keep track of... I will start with the most important.

First 8 hour stretch of sleep - 10/31/08 1:30AM to 9:30 AM on 11/1 - Grammie and Opa must have worn her out for Halloween! The night before was a wonderful night of sleep too...9pm to 1am and then 2am to 8am. I don't want to jinx it, so I won't totally brag on her for this one.

First Bath - 10/11/08 - Right after MU lost a big game to ?? Her Daddy might be able to tell you who they lost to, but I could have cared less at that point. He felt so passionate about it that he proceeded to get a bit intoxicated from the fifth of Crown Royale that Kim Winder (picture attached for your viewing if you'd like to knock him upside his head when you see him) bought him for being such a trooper about bringing a life into this world. Tough job for the Dad...labor and all was pretty difficult for Daddy. And the breastfeeding!!!! Now that makes Daddy totally deserving of a fifth of Crown! Needless to say, I will let the pictures speak for themselves on this one. The last one is after I had AnnaJo to sleep and he thought it would be fun to tackle me on the bed (which is coincidentally attached to her bed) when I gave him grief about heading up the stairs to get another drink. I'm sure you can tell how I felt about him waking her up.

Winder's visit with AnnaJo

On a happier note...AnnaJo was not crazy about the bath. Since her first we have perfected our methods a little and you'll be happy to know that she has a little bathtub and we don't use the sink anymore...she wouldn't fit in it anymore anyway. On the same note, I gave her her first shower in the evening on Wednesday, October 29. She loved it! For obvious reasons we didn't get any pictures of that! Lucky you!

First Roadtrip - AnnaJo and I went to Springfield with Nana on Saturday, October 18 to visit Tia, Jackson, Harrison and Carter. We left on Saturday morning after a terrible night of very little sleep. Friday night (10/17) was the first night that AnnaJo stayed awake until 4AM. She was awake about 8AM that morning and she slept all the way to Lebanon before she got hungry. Actually, Mom's boobs were about to explode so I had to wake her up in Lebanon to feed her. I'm sure she would have stayed asleep all the way to Springfield if I would have let her. I didn't forget the pump on the next trip and life was much better. Papa ended up visiting that weekend too so we got to see him and meet Uncle Terry too. They stayed at Uncle Doug's house. We went to church the next day with Tia (her aunt Jodi. Tia is aunt in Spanish and that's what AnnaJo will call Jodi). I didn't get many pictures, but this is her first church going outfit. She did very good during her first church service...slept right through it.

First Bottle - October 20 - This came about because AnnaJo was very fussy during the day and her tummy was grumbling all day long and even worse at night. I called the dr (it was probably my 3rd day in a row of calling) and the nurse said that it sounded like she was taking in too much milk too quickly. She instructed me to start pumping and giving her a bottle to see if it helped matters. I also called the lactation consultant and asked for some advice from friends. With a combination solution from everyone, her gassiness decreased. And it's MUCH better now after visiting the dr last Monday and getting the reflux medicine. That's right...AnnaJo has terrible reflux and life is much better now that we have Zantac. I can totally sympathize with her, as my reflux was nearly unbearable during pregnancy. She is still nursing too because she isn't crazy about taking bottles from me. Daddy and Nana are loving that though! AJ continues to hope for a medical miracle too... she will be overjoyed if Daddy can figure out how to nurse!

First trip to West Plains - Saturday October 25 - We left JC about 6:00 that night after Cliff got off work. We wanted to be in West Plains early enough to surprise Grandma Hammond. She didn't know that we were coming and this was the first time of meeting AnnaJo. After a brief stop in Rolla to eat and nurse, we arrived in West Plains about 9:20. We definately surprised Grandma. I have a video, but I don't know how to post those yet. Sorry. And Papa has the pictures since I was carrying the baby and Cliff was videotaping. AnnaJo got to meet her Aunt Kaye and Uncle Homer that weekend too. We went to church with the family on Sunday and the congregation at China Church met her on Sunday morning. They had been praying for her during the entire pregnancy, but especially after our complications became more apparent. Since our dr appts were all on Wednesdays, Aunt Kaye was able to update them every Wednesday night from my text messages. I'll be posting my text messages later in an effort to save them too.

Little Britches is starting to stir, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Sleep? What is that?!

Oh my goodness...for as perfect as she was during her first 2 weeks of life, our world has been turned upside down in the last week and a half! She has been super gassy and fussy at night. We've had 2 nights of her not going down until 4 am. Needless to say, we are struggling.

Speaking of, she is fussy now and I need to feed her. More to come...

Her umbilical cord is gone!

For as much as I wanted it to fall off, I'm a little sad. It's her first little step in growing up! Cliff was changing her diaper on Friday (10/10) and noticed that it was ready to come off. It was hanging be a thread and as he was looking at it, it came off. She slept right through it...such a good baby! Her little belly button is just too cute now!

She was 2 weeks old yesterday...can you believe it!? I cannot. She is gaining weight and filling out and changing each day. Did I post anything about her first drs appt? Can't remember, but if I didn't...she gained a whole pound during her first week at home! She had lost to 7lb 2 oz in the hospital and weighed 8 lb 2 oz at the dr last Wednesday (11 days old).

Papa Rod is here today for a visit, so I'm getting caught up on some housework. I'm obviously busy at it now...can you tell?! :-) I'm finally starting to feel much more human, so if you'd like to come for a visit, let me know. My only request is that you are healthy (please don't bring any flu bugs in my house) and you're not around any sick people before you come over. If your family is sick or has been sick recently...do me a favor and just wait. I'd really like to make it through the flu/RSV season with nothing major. I was a basket case to bring home a healthy baby. I can't imagine what I'll be like the first time she is sick!

Gotta get some work done around here...talk soon!

-kate