Melana is Three Months Old!!

Oh what a week this has been!!
For starters we still have not found a permanent baby sitter for Melana which leaves me still frustrated and teetering on the brink insanity. Argh!! Secondly, Melana turned three months old and has started teething. Good times in the Miller household....
On the 24th, Melana turned three months! It seems like time has flown by. I can't believe my baby is growing so fast. She gets bigger every day it seems and her long little body is filling out and her little face is getting rounder with chubbier cheeks. She is so stinkin' cute! :) She is going to roll over any day now. Every day I put her on her tummy for tummy play time and she rolls over about 3/4 of the way. I stopped putting her on her tummy during the day 'cause I was afraid she would roll over and Darian would miss it. So now, when he comes home, we put her on her tummy and watch, video camera on. If she could just get that one leg over.....

She had a busy weekend too. On Friday night we drove to my parents' house and stayed so Darian could get up early to go work for his dad again. She spent all day Saturday with Grandma and Grandpa while I caught up on some much needed sleep. (sleep is always much needed to a night shift worker). She gets so tickled when people talk to her, especially granny and grandpa, who enjoy it as much or more than she does. She laughed so much and was really cooing and talking up a storm. We couldn't believe how much she was trying to talk to us! She also had fun jumping up and down on Grandma's lap. Granny thinks she is ready for her Johnny Jump up. I'm not sure she is old enough, but we are planning to get her an exersaucer this week and we'll see how she does with that. On Saturday night we bundled her up and took her the fair again. She was so cute in her hat and in all her blankets.

She hadn't napped well throughout the day and once in the stroller she slept for nearly four hours straight. I was worried that she wouldn't sleep last night because she had slept so long and hadn't been eating much yesterday but the little doll still slept all night. She woke us up this morning with two sneezes followed by a loud burst of gas and a giggle. She cracks us up. While at the fair, we ran into Darian's cousin Abby and her family. I was telling Abby how Melana's feedings and naps had been off for the last couple days and how she was really sucking on her fingers and how my mom thought maybe she was teething. Just then Melana started crying and Abby looked down and pointed out two little buds inside Melana's mouth. Sure enough, there they were. Two little white bumps trying to push their way through the gums. My poor baby! Here she's been teething and I had no idea. No wonder she's been acting funny. At least she's still been in a good mood.... Well, that was until today. We drove home this morning from MI and headed to Darian's Aunt Martha's house in Hicksville, OH this afternoon for a visit. Darian's second cousin Nick, wife Jen and their boys Christian and Caleb joined us for pizza and a fun visit. Well, it was fun in between Melana's screaming fits followed by twenty minute naps followed by more screaming. Wow, that girl can scream! I felt so bad. It was the first time for them all to see her and here she was acting totally opposite of her usually sweet self. I've put teething rings in the fridge for tomorrow and broken out the Oragel. Here's hoping tomorrow is a better day.

On a happier note, we are loving this fall weather! Open house windows, golden colors of the fields against the periwinkle sky and the crisp air. I don't know what it is about fall that makes me want to bake, but I'm planning a trip this week sometime to an orchard just north of here. I got a great Apple Cream Pie recipe from Darian's Aunt Martha tonight that I just cannot wait to try out. And of course, I have to make my favorite, Apple Crisp. I also want to get some applesauce made and canned and maybe some pear sauce as well. I'm looking forward to picking up some pumpkins for the front porch and maybe a few materials to make a new harvest wreath. Here's a pic of a pie I made earlier this week. It's a Chicken pot pie! It was awesome. Not as good as Apple Cream, but so good just the same. My secret? Why, Pillsbury Pie Crust of course!!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

As I previously posted, we interviewed the day care provider on Saturday and when I called tonight to see when she could start, she told me that she gave away the position on Sunday. Seriously??!!!! This is so very frustrating. I'd like to say that this is a sign from God that I should stay home, but I'm afraid the bills on the counter would beg to differ. So it's back to square one.

Crabby Baby and Cotton Candy

As I write this, I'm sitting next to a sleeping baby in the swing who has been fighting sleep for about an hour. I don't know what her problem is, but the swing is the solution. We usually are able to just lay her down at night while she is still awake and she goes to sleep. Well, tonight she was having none of that. We tried rocking and pacing and even a pacifier, which she never takes, but she just kept fighting. After about the third time I tried to put her down and she started screaming, I decided to try the swing and Presto! it worked.
Her schedule has been really off these last couple of weeks and I don't know what is going on. She doesn't eat as much or as often as she used to then other times she does more. Her naps are sporadic, and she fights me sometimes while she is eating. She'll arch her back and scream almost like she's throwing a fit. I'm definitely seeing more of her personality. haha. So, what is going on? Not sure. So we keep trying to be flexible, but also keep the balance of a routine.
Developmentally, she is making leaps and bounds. We were positive she was going to roll over tonight. A few times throughout the day I kept the video camera on just waiting, not wanting Darian to miss seeing her big moment, but she didn't deliver. Tonight Darian tried to cheat by pushing her leg over, but I told him that it didn't count. :) She has finally loosened up her hands and instead of keeping them in a fist all the time she holds them open out in front of her face and looks at them or grasp things like her burp cloth or my shirt with them. Today I gave her a link toy to play with and she had a blast just touching it and trying to put it into her mouth. She has also found her thumb. When she is trying to go to sleep or soothe herself in the carseat she sucks her thumb with the rest of her hand over her face. It's so cute!!! She is still smiley as ever, especially in the morning or whenever someone is talking to her. She loves to be talked to!


This weekend we were finally able to interview a daycare provider. We both felt pretty confident that Melana will be safe and well taken care of with this lady. I have to call her tomorrow to tell her we decided to go with her and see when she can start. It's been really stressful trying to find sitters for two days a week and we're glad to finally have someone steady.
On Saturday, Melana and I went to Michigan for a wedding and then afterwards she got to spend some time with G-ma and G-pa Ives. After the first wedding, I drove, like a crazy person, back to FW for another wedding and Darian did some work for his dad. Sunday afternoon we drove back up to MI for the start of the St. Joseph County fair opening. It's a tradition back home and we wouldn't miss it. We were especially excited to take Melana to her first fair and to show her off. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see a lot of old friends, but we saw a few and ate enough to keep our cholesterol up for weeks. Ha! We also met up with our good friends Adrian and Kristie and little, er, I mean, big Gavin there. They had been in MI for a family wedding and, of course, couldn't leave without seeing us and going to the fair. They came home with us last night and stayed here only to get up and leave to drive home to Philly early this morning. :( We love their visits even if they are never long enough.

Melana's first fair!!

Tonight Darian and I are both sick with some sort of head cold/sinus junk so we just vegged. This was Darian and Melana chillin' and watching TV after dinner. She loves her daddy. We are hoping she does not get sick. It's hard to keep from kissing that cutie little face!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

We've been so busy with me being back to work and desperately searching for a sitter etc., that I haven't even had time to update the events of last few weeks. It may not be of interest to any of my readers, but I'm using this blog of sort of a journal of Melana's developement. I'm hoping I can print it later for her to read and keep.

She is actually 11 weeks now as of yesterday. She is getting so big! I swear she changes everyday. At ten weeks, she had found her hands. She was putting her fists in front of her face and just staring with wide eyes at them. I imagined her thinking "what are these? and where did they come from?" And you could see her trying to intentionally move them but she's not quite coordinated enough to flex her elbow and move her arm at the same time, at least not when she's trying to concentrate. It's funny. Her whole arm just waves around in the arm and then her eyes fly wide open and she gets startled all over again. She cracks us up. She is so much fun to just sit and watch. She has also been drooling a lot. I don't know why or what that means, but I'm just praying it doesn't mean teething already. Poor thing already has chapped cheeks from the drool. She is also "talking" more. She coos and make "ahh" and "aye" noises that I swear is her saying "hi". Darian thinks I'm crazy. :) She is still all smiles in the morning and when you talk to her, but now she has started actually laughing. Not every time she tries, often it's a silent mouth open wide laugh, but she is trying so hard. It makes us laugh every time and I think she likes the response she gets. :) Her smiles always start on one side of her face and then it's like that side of her face pulls the rest of her face and head with it and she turns to that side until the other side catches up and she just grins wide. I call it the "drunken sailor smile". Too cute.



She is almost completely in 3 month clothing now, mostly because her legs are sooo long. She is one tall girl. She doesn't want to snuggle as much either, but wants to look out at the world. Instead of snuggling on my shoulder now she likes to sit on my lap and look out and watch the dogs, out the window or at the TV. She's like her mama. :) She is addicted to her Baby Mozart DVD. We only play it maybe once a day, but she is glued to it the entire time and kicks her little legs in excitement. She even knows when she is at the end. She starts fussing right before the credits roll. We also enjoy reading time and we especially enjoy Dr. Suess' "Mr Brown Can Moo Can You?" and "Goodnight Moon".



She's so fun. Oh the changes and joy of a growing baby. We're loving every minute of it, but both agree it's going by way too fast!!!

She's SO beautiful!

In sitter news, we finally got some leads and were actually going to meet with a lady today that a fellow nurse recommended. She had used this lady for her kids and so had one of the docs that I work with. Unfortunately, I got called in at 3 am this morning and worked on call till 4 pm so we had to cancel. Hoping to reschedule for later this week. I still don't like the idea of leaving her with someone, but it's only two days a week while I sleep, so I guess it could be worse. Our niece, Emilee, was here for two days watching her last week and this week one of Darian's co-workers' wife watched her yesterday and my mother in law came down last night and stayed to watch her while I slept today. I'm so thankful for the help and so glad she got some good grandma time.

Welcome To the World, Juliette!

In other fabulous news, I just received pics from my sister of my newest niece born today. My brother Jason and his wife Rachael along with my nieces Jordyn, 7 and Jenna, 3, welcomed Juliette Alexandra born today via c-section. And good thing too, seeing as how she weighed a whopping 9, count em NINE pounds and 6 ounces. For anyone that's a big baby, but my sister in law is barely five foot tall and is probably a size zero when not pregnant so I can't imagine how that little chubster fit in there! Wish I was there to kiss those chubby cheeks! Luckily my sister was able to go to my brother's house for a few days to help with my older nieces while Rachael is in the hospital. Needless to say, I'm jealous!! Can't wait to see her cutie face. Maybe at Christmas....

Back To Work

Well I survived my first week back at work. I worked twelve hours Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Many of my coworkers have been telling me how quiet it's been on the unit for the last month or so and how nice it's been. I told Darian and my friend/co-worker Jill to just wait till I get back. There is a reason I have the nickname, (for the sake of maintaining my "G" rating) "Crap Magnet". Oh yes, it seems if the you-know-what is gonna hit the fan, it's gonna be on my shift. So I was already having anxiety about leaving Melana to go back to work, and to make matters worse she would not nap, which of course meant, neither did I. :( Well, the evening started out just fine and it felt nice to be slowly easing back into my routine. I had a wonderful patient and was enjoying the calmness of the evening. And THEN, at break time no less, we had a patient come in and ended up scrambling to deal with an emergent situation. The three nurses that were on labor ended up being five after we had to call in the reinforcements. While I was glad for the distraction of not having to think of Melana (all tucked away in her bassinet without Mama nearby to check on her), I did resent the fact that my coworkers asked me to take a permanent leave of absence. Just kidding! :) Last night was a much quieter and pleasant night so I guess I'll return next week.... A big thanks to Emilee who watched Melana while I slept both days and even stayed overnight with her last night as Darian was in Indy on business. Talk about a nervous mama. lol

Grandpa update- seems my grandpa did not have a stroke but instead got a Staph infection in the shunt used for his dialysis, which led to encephalitis (infection in the brain). Last I heard he is doing as well as can be expected and was responsive and knew my dad and aunt. Whew. He still has quite a road ahead of him. The dialysis is really taking it's toll on his body, especially his heart, and the doctors aren't sure how much longer his body will take such rigorous treatments. Only time will tell.