August glimpses

I haven't been so good about posting pictures, so I thought I would show you a few to give a glimpse of our baby girl.



The first two are of Samantha wearing outfits that she was originally wearing several months ago. The pink one is the first outfit she ever wore, and yes, it really does still fit, although it is a bit short. The other one is the dress she wore on St Patty's day, and once again, it fits wonderfully, except for the length, which you can see is very lacking!


Just for a reference, here is a picture of Samantha wearing the pink outfit while she was still in the hospital. The sleeves were rolled up about three times. She was so tiny!!


What do you think? Is she the next Gerber baby or what?!


Our double fisted eater.


Holding her own bottle (for once at an angle which allows her to drink milk rather than air!)

I Will Call Her Oscar

the grouch, that is. Yep, today has been a very tough day. My sweet Samantha has not been all that sweet. Obviously, SOMETHING is wrong, but I sure haven't been able to figure out what it is. Instead, I have been privileged to listen to her scream until she chokes at least 4 times today. All the while, I am trying everything to figure out what is wrong and what she wants. And NOTHING works.

Mid afternoon, I went to Jennifer's house (they were back for the weekend) and told her that I was auctioning the baby off for the afternoon. She came over and managed to get Samantha to drink 2 ounces of milk. Up until the point, since 7:30am, I had only gotten her to drink 3 ounces. So I was very grateful. Plus Samantha showed her happy side again AND went down for a nap for Jennifer. Woohoo!

During dinner, she refused to drink anything, she spit everything I put in her mouth out and she wouldn't even take her favorite puffy stars anymore. Just more and more screaming. I finally called Jennifer, and asked her to come use her magic touch on Samantha. Jennifer was able to get Samantha to stop screaming, but even she couldn't get her to eat. So she took Samantha to her house for about 45 minutes to allow Brent and me to eat dinner in peace. And Jason worked the magic getting her to eat some and drink some. Yeah for friends and neighbors!!!

Going to bed was more of the same. Screaming her head off even while just sitting in my lap. I tried reading her stories, I tried singing and I tried giving her her paci and her teething ring. None of it worked. I tried teething tablets. Nope, that didn't work. It was over 30 minutes and she was still screaming, and making herself choke on all the drainage. She got very angry about me giving her Tylenol and tried to refuse to take it, so I had to hold her mouth shut until she swallowed. She refused to nurse and refused her bottle.

I finally put her sitting up in my bed so that I could pump, and then she finally stopped screaming. I don't know if it was what she wanted or she had been hurting too much and the Tylenol finally kicked in, but I am grateful that she is now sleeping mostly peacefully (still coughing some from the drainage) and I desperately hope that tomorrow is better. If not, I hope the babysitter doesn't quit, cuz I was sure tempted to myself today.

The Lakehouse

One of the things we love at our church is the small group we meet with on Wednesday nights. We are a diverse group with older and younger singles, two young(ish) couples and several couples with grown children.



One of the couples, Wayne and Beverly, have a lakehouse at Lake Kiowa and they invited the rest of us to come for the day yesterday. Yesterday was also Beverly's birthday, so Susan brought three of Beverly's favorite cakes for her (and the rest of us) to enjoy. It was a wonderful day with plenty of food, lots of fellowship and games and some time in the lake.





This was Samantha's third time to go swimming, but the first time that I have managed to get any pictures. She has adorable sunglasses, but decided to keep taking them off, so those didn't make it into the lake. She also showed off her newfound splashing skills and giggled like crazy when she made a big splash...almost as if she thought it was funny to get her mommy all wet. Hehehe...

Farewell

Well, we knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it any easier. Our next door neighbors have been keeping Samantha during the day while I am at work. It has been wonderful to spend more time with them and to have Samantha so close by. I love not having to put her in the car and get her out before I leave for work. I love that she is the only baby being cared for. I love that she has older children who love to give her attention just as much as her parents do. And I have loved getting to know Jennifer better. They are moving on to the next phase in their life, so Friday was Samantha's last day to stay with them. Jennifer, Jason, Ryan and Haley, we wish you well in Oklahoma, but we will really miss you!

7 months

I can hardly believe my baby girl is already 7 months old. This month she started doing many new things. She found her toes and finally managed to get them to her mouth after a couple of weeks of trying, she found her tongue and stuck it out for MANY pictures, she started giving baby kisses. (You know, the wide open, slobbery ones...gotta love it!) She has started singing. (REALLY!! There is no other explanation for the sounds other than she is singing.) She started making rasberry sounds with her lips, she is fascinated by Cori and will watch her for as long as Cori will stay within sight and then look for Cori when she moves out of sight. She has started attempting to feed herself, she can now sit up by herself for as much as two minutes before she tips over, she has learned to splash in the bathtub, she started protesting sleep by screaming until she has no energy left and conks out, and she is still teething but hasn't cut a tooth yet. What a busy girl she is!