Lucky #7...

August 26th, 2012. Seven months. 

First of all, whoa.

It seems like just yesterday we were in awe of Bryn's half year "birthday" and here we are again, further away from her newborn days and onto being closer to a year old.

It's SO crazy how much babies change their first year.

Giving that John and I were never exposed to babies as kids or adults we are constantly in awe of every little change that happens and always think it's the coolest thing ever, even if she's early doing it or late doing it! 

One of the first newbies that we had this last month was the little gal shaking her head "no." I am assuming she has no clue what it really means, but she always has impeccable timing when she does it. What's even better is she always does it with a smile, so it's like a false negative, LOL. I love it. We've been nodding our head "yes" to her just to give her some perspective, but all that results in is more head shaking and sometimes shaking so hard it's a full body wiggle and twist that will make her fall over. 

Defiant "snuffy" face showdown with dad. 

Sigh. 

Defiance. 

Not sure where she gets that from...ANYWAYS....

We have been on the forever fight of baby foods this month and some days we have amazing progress and other days it seems like we are back at square one.

At her six month appointment it turned out that she had not only not gained weight, she had lost half a pound. I was so shocked--totally didn't make sense to me. She nurses like a little piglet and even though we feed on a schedule I've never deprived her from nursing if she let on so. 

I set up an appt with the Lactation Consultant at our hospital and went in for a consult to come up with a game plan. Lord bless those LC's. I am in there about every other month coming to them with whatever obstacle I am currently facing and I LOVE the fact that they work with me to keep breastfeeding a priority as opposed to the usual "supplement" quick fix that seems to be the downstairs ped's favorite and most popular suggestion. 

All in that to say, I'm nursing her more often, whether she's acting hungry or not, and continuing to work on the baby food issue to get more calories in her tummy. I'm actually nursing her more often than I did as a newborn at times. I'm still not feeding her on demand but am balancing nursing sessions in between nap times and baby food attempts hoping for progress.

We've gone in for several weigh ins this month since that first consult and I'm happy to say that she's not only gained weight, but went from the 20-30th percentile to the 60-70th percentile in just two weeks time. 

Part of that progress came from some breakthrough's in the baby food portion of our struggles. We'll just say that practice makes perfect and that not only was she finally accepting her oatmeal and rice cereal with mixed in fruits and veggies, she finally started to take the purees straight without being mixed in with anything. 

Some days she totally changes her mind and won't take the purees at all and the next day she fusses the minute she sees her cereal or oatmeal. 

One thing is for sure however, that baby LLOOVVEESS her orange veggies such as squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. I have had to ration them out among green beans and peas so that she doesn't start looking like a brunette oompa loompa. 

Fruits we are still working on, with pears and apples with blueberry being the most favorite. All the others, minus banana, is a hit or miss, but hey I'm having to find progress wherever I can find it. As long as she keeps gaining the right weight I'll play her little game.

I love food too much to make her hate it by forcing her into it, so I am, for once and probably ever, letting her set the pace in this category. 

 This month we also had our first birthday party, first pool experience, first teeth (!!), and first real length of time we've gone without daddy being home.

John left for his pre-deployment training on the 12th, so little gal and I have been flying solo for a couple weeks now. I was worried in the beginning that I would be bored out of my mind stuck at home with nothing to do, but that is nothing but a faint faux memory.

I haven't had a chance to sit my butt down since he left and if anything, I'm going to bed later and later each night he's not here, trying to get things accomplished for the day.

We are getting ready to move to CO, the countdown has officially commenced!

We have been SO blessed with friend and family support with our moving efforts both here in NC and in CO. It's so humbling to have people that will drop what they are doing in their busy lives to help you out with the madness in yours. It's something I'm not sure I can fully express with words at this point, but you all know who you are and you are SO appreciated!

Getting down the crawl stance, and now have
it down plus starting to rock forwards!

This is my last full week here in NC and it's flying by. Bryn isn't helping either.

She's on the verge of crawling and if anything doing her little tummy pinwheel spin or scooting herself backwards does enough damage without the forward crawl already. The animals scatter like oil in water whenever she gets on one of her scooting sprees and it's hilarious. 

She's also discovered more of her voice and has not only started squealing just in general, but she's started a whiney little squeal that is simply pathetic. She'll do it when she's not fussy, but not happy either...just kind of blah. 

She's also started sounding out her musical sounds with lots of "ma ma ma's" and "ba ba bas," etc. I love it! We're working on "da da das," so far it's come out "ta-tas" and well, maybe that's what she wants it to mean, who knows! While John's been gone I have been slowly but surely working on the house, packing it up for our move. Slowly is the key word. I thought him being gone for 3 weeks was plenty of time to get things under control, but here I am with less than a week left and I feel like I've accomplished nothing and my house is absolute and utter chaos. 

With that we have also had our poor pup, Hurley, put into the cone of shame after he chewed out his staples he had in his leg from a mysterious cut we have no idea how he got. He got the staples the night before John left. At the end of that week I took him in to get the staples removed and he had worked them out so they coned him and gave me antibiotics. 

The antibiotics made him quit eating and he was throwing up constantly so I quit those and have just left him coned the last two weeks which has worn on both of us. 

Poor pup has no real peripheral vision with the cone, so he's constantly walking into corners of walls, couches, moving boxes, etc...

Last night was the final straw when he was banging his head into the carpet trying to scratch his nose. I couldn't take his pathetic-ness anymore, so I de-coned him and I swear he laid there scratching his nose for about 5 solid minutes. 

One highlight of the month was getting Brynlee's pictures done with the same photographer that did her newborn pictures and my maternity pictures. Her style of photography has made these photo sessions addicting, and with pictures like this you can see why...

J Christina Photography 6.5 months old.

I had a couple more appointments this month dealing with my post birth healing issues that I still have going on. Every doctor/specialist I see I get different opinions and different results which lead into different suggestions and no real answers. 

Unfortunately, I am having to put everything on hold right now until I get to Colorado where I am hoping I can start over with a new OB or specialist with a blank slate. I am so tired of hurting and being uncomfortable. I'm so tired of wearing loose gym shorts and sweat pants everywhere I go cause everything else is too tight and hurts too much. I try to not let on how much it all really does bother my day to day activities, but some days I just cry, cause I am SO frustrated. 

I just want to sit normally on a couch again, dang it! Someday....

Mastered the sippy. She even drank out of
an open glass the other day, no spills.

Well this time next month we'll be heading into month #8 and will be in Colorado without daddy for real this time. I'm so excited for Colorado but am so terrified of being virtually a single parent for a year. This lifestyle has never really gotten to me as deep as it has now that we have Brynlee in our lives. It always sucked when John deployed but we both accepted that this was part of the job and we'd just make lemonade out of our lemons. 

Just thinking of how she is now--almost crawling, discovering her voice, her first teeth--then thinking what she's going to be like when she's a year and half-- walking, talking, more teeth!--and all those first things he's going to miss seeing and experiencing---it chokes me up every time.

It's hard to not feel sorry for yourself or your baby in situations likes these. I know I'm not the first one to deal with this and unfortunately I'm not the last, and that, in a weird way brings comfort to me. 

Moving home with the babe is really going to be the best thing for her and I. The multitude of family and friend support that we'll have will be insurmountable for both her and I, and in some ways John too. Thinking about that support system that we'll be surrounded by is truly what gets me through the day sometimes. 

With that, I am going to insanely miss my friends here in NC! I have been SO blessed with a group of mom's from so many different walks of life and I value all of them so much in so many ways. I'm one of the deployment veterans of this mom group, but these mom's have more than made up for that by teaching me a thing or two about this baby business. 

TEETH x2!! 

First time moms, two kid moms, to four kid moms. :) They have all taught me something or left some type of impression on me that I will forever hold a tremendous value and memory too, especially as B and I venture into this new adventure away from them. With all the tutelage and support they have bestowed to me, I can only hope that I've been half as good to them in some way!

Meet you in Colorado...t-minus 8 days....