Samantha’s 6 month check-up!

I can hardly believe my little angel is already 6 months old, and she is getting so big! Today we had her checkup and everything looks "perfect" as her doctor says! :) As of today she weighs 18lbs 4oz (90%), is 27 1/2 inches long (95%) and her head circumference is (is huge because it has to hold in all of those beautiful smart brains) 45 1/4 cm (greater than 97%). lol. Her doctor and I discussed all of her motor and verbal skills and she is right on track, and talked about her new food and formula schedule too. Everything looks great! :)This afternoon she slept for 3 solid hours after her shots, but woke up all smiles and doing a new trick with her tongue. lol. We are so blessed to have such a happy, healthy, beautiful baby girl, and thank the Lord for her every single day. Here are a few new pics, hope you enjoy!

Samantha and Patrick at the Star Wars exhibit at the Space and Rocket Center.

We had two of our favorite couples come and visit us.

She hates green beans but at least she loves squash!

She loves the laundry basket!

My new favorite picture of Samantha and Patrick! :) 

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Dear God,

Thank you for everything that you do for us. Thank you for blessing us with such an amazing and healthy child. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to stay at home with her and watch her grow. Thank you for giving Patrick the time in the evenings and weekends to bond with her and show her the love that she needs. Please continue to bless us with our health, and everything else that you allow us to have.  Please watch over our family, friends, and everyone else and bless them in their daily lives. Thank you for watching over my friends, and especially for answering one of their prayers with a YES this past week.  Thank you for everything you do for us, have given us, and will help us through in the future.

AMEN

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First comes love...

First comes love, then comes marriage, here comes Sammie in the baby carriage! :) A friend of mine introduced me to picasa, and their collage conglomerate piknik, and I am obsessed! lol. I love collage frames, and now that we have Sam I just can't help myself. These pictures are all from very important times in our life, but I plan on making a longer one that encompasses even more of our special events, so just you wait!The first picture was our first picture as a couple, the second obviously from our wedding day, the third is one of Sam's newborn pictures, and the last one is from Sam's 6 month pictures! I will have details on Sam on Monday after her 6 month checkup, until then enjoy!

 

6 month portraits and a video

 

Click on the album to view all of Sam’s 6 month portraits!

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This is just a video of Sam jumping in her exer-saucer today. :)

Happy Half Birthday Samantha!

I can’t believe she is 6 months old today! I don’t have much else to add, but wanted to share some pictures with you all. 

   

My little roly poly!

I just had to share this, now that she is rolling like a pro and I could catch it on video!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Well there has been a lot of stuff going on, some of it good some of it not so good. I’m a positive kind of girl so lets start with the good.

Sammie is getting so big. She brightens my day so much I can’t even describe it. I can hardly believe that next week she will be 6 months old. It seems to have gone by so quickly, and I know that it won’t be slowing down any time soon. She is so adorable, and has really gotten her own little personality. She still gets fussy, and still wants to be held a good bit of the time, but now she smiles at me for the smallest of things, and buries her head into my shoulder like she is trying to hug me. In the beginning I was a little worried that we would never get to this point, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when all you know is crying, and feeding, and diapers, but somewhere it just all fades away. The love I have for my darling daughter overwhelms me so much that all I can do is smile and cry and know that it is perfect.

Sam has started being able to sit by herself. Usually we use a prop for her to lean toward, to help her keep her balance, but she doesn’t always need it, and we are always close by anyway. She is eating her oatmeal like a champ twice a day, and has moved on from her carrots to her second “solid” food squash. She is so cute and opens her mouth like a baby bird. Now that I am supplementing with formula when we go out, she knows what it looks like and spazzes out in excitement when she sees the bottle coming. :) We got her to roll over from her back to her belly for the first time on Saturday, and then Monday she started rolling over like a pro. I just call her roly poly now! It’s really cute and funny until she does it when I am changing her diaper and am worried about getting “stuff” all over her in the process. lol. She is doing so great, and we will have her 6 month checkup mid August so I will keep you posted on that. :)

Now I guess the not so good news.

First of all, mom’s fall left a little more damage than we originally thought. She went to a local ER right after it happened, but after continuing to hurt for the last couple of weeks she finally went in to see her family doctor. After an x-ray and an MRI it turns out that she fractured her clavicle and has a lateral tear in her shoulder, not to mention the bone spur that was already there. She is still doing ok, and as long as she doesn’t strain it should be fine for a while, but she will have to have surgery to correct the tear.  I am just hoping that she doesn’t overdo it when she gets back in school next week, and that it doesn’t get any worse before she can have it taken care of. Now the really bad news… Jessica is gone. She had checked into a halfway house a couple of months ago after we found out that she had been stealing from my oldest sister and two of my nephews. Sarah told her that she either had to go there or that she would file charges and have her arrested. Jessica agreed to do 30 days at Lovelady Center, and my parents kept Jakob her first month there. My mom took Jakob to go visit with Jessica every weekend so that she would realize that my parents were serious about letting him come be with her.  After the month was up Jessica said that she would continue to do the program and get her life straight, and my parents took Jakob to go stay with her. My parents continued to keep Jakob on the weekends and everything seemed to be going well. The Sunday that mom fell, Jessica took Jakob and left with a man and a woman, and no one knows where she is. I got in touch with her by creating a myspace account and tried to talk her into letting us know where she was, but she is so paranoid she won’t tell anyone, or call anyone. We are all really worried about Jakob, mostly because he has asthma and gets ear infections really often because Jessica smokes and doesn’t take him to the doctor as often as she should. Also, we are worried about Jessica and her unborn child. Apparently she is due with a girl “Makenzie Faith” on Christmas day. Jessica is under the impression that no one in our family wants anything to do with the new baby, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. We love Jakob, and will love Makenzie. Just because Jessica has made bad choices doesn’t mean that we don’t love her, and sure as heck doesn’t mean that we don’t want anything to do with her children. It’s all really sad, so if you could keep them all in your prayers I would really appreciate it.

Jakob with Sam

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Dear God,

Thank you for everything that you do for us. Thank you for giving us such a wonderful daughter and letting us love her so much. Thank you for letting her be so happy and healthy, and for giving me the chance to stay at home with her. Thank you for my wonderful husband and for letting him be such an amazing father. Please watch over my family especially my mom, and help her to heal. Please watch over my nephew, and let Jessica know that we are not against her, we just want what is best for her. Please come into her life and help her to make the right decisions for her and for her children. Please continue to show your presence in my life and to let me show others your love and forgiveness.

AMEN

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5 months old

Sorry I haven’t had a chance to blog lately. I wanted to do this last week, but Patrick had to go to Seattle on a business trip and I was a single mommy all week. We are really glad to have him home, especially after he missed his flight and almost didn’t get to come home on Friday.  Samantha turned 5 months old the day after her daddy’s 26th birthday, and is getting to be such a big girl. She is still just rolling from her belly to her back, but she is getting great with her head control, babbles and makes razzies all of the time, and seems to laugh more and more. Today we gave her a formula bottle for the very first time. I have been trying to exclusively breast feed until she turned 6 months old, but lately my supply has dropped, and when I had a stomach virus a few months ago she drank most of my freezer stash. We went through the last bottles from my stash yesterday, and today were forced into giving her a bottle of formula, or I was going to have to nurse her in the middle of IHOP which is something I wasn’t willing to do. I will continue to nurse for the most part when we are at home, and as long as she is satisfied I will do so for as long as I can. Some breast milk is better than none, and once she hits the 6 month mark I will re-evaluate what we want to do.

Yesterday was my sister Mandie’s wedding!!! She was a beautiful bride, and I am so happy that she married a man that treats her well and is so perfect for her. I am so excited that she is about to experience this step in her life, and hope that they continue to grow in their relationship!! This also means that I have a new niece and a nephew. Dale has 2 children, Amanda is 16, and David is 13. Add them to the crew, and the impending arrival of my youngest sisters baby due in December and my parents will have 7 grandchildren, 4 of them added just this year. Hopefully we will all get together soon, so that our family can bond even more. :)

Today we met my parents and all of my nephews for lunch at IHOP. My mom went out to the car to get Jakob’s sippy cup and tripped over a concrete barrier, and hurt her arm. Patrick and I took Sam, Brandon, & Jakob to our house, while Daddy took mom and Brady to the ER to get it checked out. She is still really sore and bruised up pretty badly, but thankfully nothing was broken. I hope that she learns from this and slows down a little.

 

Well I guess that’s all for now, I will try and update when I can.

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Dear God,

Thank you for everything you do for us. Thank you for taking care of my family. Thank you for letting Mandie meet Dale and for letting them have a wonderful wedding day. Thank you for letting my mom be ok after her fall. Thank you for being with me and helping me understand that everything will be ok, and that I need to let you be in control. Thank you for letting Patrick have a safe trip, and for taking care of him even when things went wrong. Thank you so much for everything you do for us.

AMEN

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Sam rolled over!

Ok, so she rolled over last week for the first time and I missed it because I left the room to pay bills, but she finally did it again today!!! I was letting her have some tummy time, and went to the other room to grab my camera, and gave Patrick strict instructions to not let her roll over before I got back. lol. I came back in the living room, and she did it! Then I got video of her doing it again only this time she rolled to the left instead of right! She hasn’t rolled from her back to tummy yet, but I think that is mainly because she hates being on her tummy, and has no desire to do that on purpose. lol. Hope you all had a great 4th, and enjoy the video! :)

Samantha’s first belly laughs!

4 month check up

Monday we took Samantha for her 4 month check up. At 4 months one week and four days old Samantha’s stats were: 15lbs 15 1/2oz (92%), 24 1/2 inches long (73%), and 42cm head circumference (96%). Her pediatrician said that she was absolutely perfect and very healthy. She was glad that I was still exclusively breast feeding, but I did get some recommendations for formula just in case we need to supplement soon. We talked about reintroducing solids in a few weeks since Sam didn’t do well with them the first night we tried them,  but the pedi said that we didn’t necessarily have to do anything until she is 6 months old. Other than that it was just your typical check up. She got 3 more shots and the oral rotavirus vaccine, and only cried for a minute or two. Patrick and I were so glad that she wasn’t too upset for too long. She didn’t have any strange reactions, just a little cranky in the afternoon. 

The one milestone she hadn’t hit was rolling over, but yesterday while Patrick was watching her and I was paying bills online in the other room, she rolled from her tummy to her back!! I was so happy and excited that she finally did it, but cried because I missed it. I was really glad that Patrick got to see it, because he might not get to see some of her other milestones, but I was upset that even though I am with her all the time I still missed it. We must have practiced a hundred times, at least 6 the day that she finally rolled over on her own, but of course the first time she does it I’m in the next room. lol

I took her back to the doctor today because she has had a runny nose for a few days, and the stuffiness is making it difficult for her to sleep through the night like her usual self. The doctor took some blood and checked Sam over, and said that it just looks like a little cold, just too keep an eye on her and she should be better in a few days. I was so glad that it wasn’t anything serious, but still glad that I took her to see the doctor, just in case. Dr. Meadows also gave me some helpful tips on how to make her more comfortable too. I put a small pillow underneath her mattress to help slant her bed so that the drainage won’t pool in the back of her throat, and have been using saline drops to make it easier to suck out the yucky stuff in her nose.  Her doctor said to call if I had any questions, or if I didn’t think it was getting any better and she would see her asap. :) I love our pediatrician!

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Dear God,

Thank you so much for everything that you do for us. Thank you for giving us such a healthy sweet baby girl. Thank you for giving her such a great doctor that doesn’t make me feel like I am silly for being concerned. Thank you for everything you do for us!

AMEN

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Little fishy

I promised pictures of Sam swimming and I am here to deliver. We went for the first time last Friday 6/18, Patrick took off from work so that he could see her in the pool for the first time. We got in the water took some pictures, she fussed a little, and then she started to like it. We tried her in a cute little inner tube my mom bought her, but she didn’t like that we weren’t holding her. We started walking her around the pool and got out an umbrella to keep her from getting too much sun. Patrick went and did some of the slides with my nephews to keep them entertained and by the time he came back Samantha had fallen asleep. She was so cute and must have really enjoyed the water because usually she won’t fall asleep unless we are rocking her or she is riding in the car. lol.

I took her back to Spring Valley Beach this week, just me, her, mom, and Jakob and we had another great time. This time she was asleep when we got in the pool, but woke up shortly after and talked and laughed the whole time. I would hold her for a little while and play, and then Granna would hold her and I would play with Jakob.

Here are a few pics from our first trip:

 

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Dear God,

Thank you so much for everything you do for us. Thank you for letting us have such a great time swimming and for keeping everyone safe. Thank you for letting Patrick take the day to spend time with us and for letting him see Sam in the pool for her first time. Thank you for everything you have blessed us with.

AMEN

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I’ve been a bad blogger

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while but I have been super busy playing with Sam and a lot of other stuff has been going on too. I won’t get into it too extensively, but my younger sister Jessica has been at her old tricks again and is now staying in a halfway house “trying” to get her act together. My parents are taking care of her son Jakob for a little while until Jessica is ready to have him with her, so while it has been hard on my parents (raising a 19 month old isn’t easy) I know it is the best thing for him right now. Again, I won’t go into deep detail but if you could keep our family in your thoughts and prayers I would greatly appreciate it.

Last week Sam turned 4 months old. I can hardly believe how big she is getting already. We are going to her checkup on Monday so I will make a new entry to update everyone on her stats then. I am not looking forward to her next round of shots, but hopefully she will do as well this time as she did at her 2 month checkup and then we can start dreading the 6 month ones. lol. For her 4 month birthday we bought her an exersaucer and a high chair. She LOVES her exersaucer, but hates the high chair. She tried her first bites of cereal this week, but after a couple of rough nights we have decided that her tummy just isn’t ready for solids yet, and have returned to strictly breast milk for the time being. I am so in love with our little girl and we are having so much fun together. She loves playing airplane and tomorrow we are taking her for her very first swim! Pictures will be posted soon, I promise. :)

As for me, I started back on my weight watchers on June 1st. As of Tuesday I have lost 11.2lbs with another 10 to go to be at my pre-pregnancy weight and another 37 to go after that to get to my ultimate goal. It has been pretty easy to stick with for the most part because I get extra points for exclusively breast feeding, but by the end of my first week my supply had dropped and I had to add a few calories to keep it up. I hope with some extra pumping sessions, more water, and oatmeal every morning that I will be able to continue to breast feed for as long as I wish. I have really started enjoying the time I have with Sam while nursing, and would hate for my diet to sabotage that.

Father’s day is on Sunday, and I am really looking forward to it. I was going to get Patrick a weed wacker but his parents got him one so I ended up finding him a video game that he wants and I got him a shirt that says “Sammie’s Daddy”. :) I’ll post a picture of that too once I give it to him.

Oh, Sam’s new favorite thing to do is scream and shriek. She is fine, she just likes to hear herself. lol

Well I guess that is all for now. Here are some pictures of Sam from her 4 month birthday!

 

  

 

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Dear God,

Thank you for everything that you do for us. Thank you for giving me such an amazing daughter and husband. Thank you for giving Patrick and me such wonderful parents and for letting them come by so often. Thank you for watching over my parents as they are taking on the responsibility of watching over my sisters child. Please help Jessica to come to the realization that she needs to stop being selfish and that she needs to start taking better care of her child and stop taking advantage of those who love her. Please continue to watch over my friends who are having difficulties starting their own families, please give them strength, hope, and eventually the children that they desire. Please continue to be with my aunt who lost her father this week. Thank you for blessing my family so much. Thank you for Patrick’s job, for our home, for the love that we share with each other. Please continue to work through us and show us Christ’s love.

AMEN

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Samantha’s Baptism!!!

Sunday we had Samantha baptized at our new church. I feel so blessed that we had the chance to commit ourselves to raising Samantha in the church and to teach her about God’s love. We were also very blessed to have all of our immediate family attend along with a few family friends. I have a few pictures but will post more when I get some from my mom. I also have embedded a video of the baptism so if you want to check it out you can!

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Dear God,

Thank you for everything you do for us. Thank you for giving us a healthy, happy, beautiful baby girl and for giving us this chance to dedicate her life to you. Thank you for giving us such a wonderful church that supports us in raising our child in your ways. Thank you for our wonderful and supportive families who came to be a part of Sam’s special day, and for such wonderful parents who were her sponsors. Thank you for our friends that were able to make it, and for the friends that couldn’t be there but were present in spirit. Thank you so much for all that you do for us, and please continue to bless us in everything we do.

AMEN

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3 months old!!!

          

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Dear God,

Thank you so much for everything you do for us! Thank you for giving us our beautiful, sweet, precious daughter Samantha and for making her so healthy and happy. Thank you for letting us know the love of parents, the perfect love that you have for us! Please continue to watch over us and take care of our perfect little princess.

AMEN

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