Santa's little helper!

So now that you all have seen the cute naked baby, here are some from our weekend adventures.

We had Joe's Christmas party and every year Santa makes a special trip to give all the kids their first present from Santa for the year.

Here is Natalie opening her gift.


The First Bank of Oink






"stashing" her "money"


Waiting in line to meet the big guy himself at the mall


Natalie and the big guy





Hope you all have a great week!

Such a cute kid!!!

Well Natalie is crawling!!! She is so funny…. She will start crawling to get something and Joe and I will do the whole "YEAH NATALIE" thing and clap our hands and she will try and clap and crawl. She ends up falling on her face and then rolling over and just giggles. She is just so stinking cute!!!

Grandpa Mike, Nana Karen and Uncle Patrick were all up for Thanksgiving and believe it or not Patrick actually played with her. He did however tell her that if she did not stop spitting up he was not going to play with her anymore. That did not last long. Nana Karen brought her a stuffed bear that is orange from her latest business trip to California and she loves it. That thing has more spit up and slobber on it than any other of her toys.

We are going to Texas for the holidays but unfortunately we will not be in Dallas for more than a couple of hours. Sorry. If anyone wants to come to the airport to see us on a Wednesday afternoon let me know I will get you our flight info.

Here are some pictures…. Have you ever seen a such cute kid???






Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!!!

Doctor visit

Well no pictures for this post but we do have a doctor update.

We took Natalie to a GI doctor last week for her reflux issues. We took her to our local children's hospital and they were wonderful. We saw a fellowship student and then the resident GI. The fellowship student thought wanted to change her medicine from Prilosec to Previcid and put her on an oral suppository. The resident concurred and also wanted to get an upper GI. My mom and Joe took her yesterday for that and there were 2 other doctors that confirmed that there is nothing going on except reflux. They were looking to see if her food was digested in the opposite direction as well as to see if she had a hernia. Since we have switch the medication she is doing a lot better! Her spit-up is minimal and she seems to be a lot happier.

Other than that there is nothing really to report. I will post after Thanksgiving with pictures!

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday!

Halloween and more!

I know you are all anxious to see pictures of Natalie from Halloween but then again I am anxious to see pictures of a friends house in Dallas that have been "on there way" for the last couple of months :). So here ya go:
If you look really hard you can see her teeth!






In addition to Halloween Natalie has started saying Dada and Hi Dada. I am pretty sure she does not know who she is referring to but Joe swears she does. She also had a very eventful morning to which I will receive the bad mother of the year award for… she was in her bouncy seat in the middle of our bed while we got ready. She was "watching" cartoons and got all excited when the music came on and was bouncing and laughing. Wouldn't you know she bounced right off the bed. She was strapped into her seat so her and the seat bounced off the bed. She landed face up and as soon as I took her out of her seat she started laughing so I am pretty sure she is not hurt. When I told the ladies at daycare they all welcomed me to the club. Those are all of the stories I have for today so I hope you all have a great weekend and I will post again next week.

Grab your coffee this is a long one...

WOW I am such a slacker!!!

OK it has been 15 days since I last posted anything. So here we go.

Natalie is doing so well since she had her tubes in. She seems to be happy all the time with of course the exception of bed time. Yep that is right she is still not sleeping through the night. Last night in fact we decided to let her "cry it out" wouldn't you know our strong willed daughter cried it out for a hour until we picked her up. She is one stubborn girl… I wonder where she gets that?!?

Natalie has also started eating table food. She now eats real peaches, real carrots and even graham crackers and loves her apple juice. Now that she is eating real food she seems to be bored with the baby food that we force down her and makes some lovely faces when forced to eat it. Better yet there are times when she will just blow raspberries with the baby food in her mouth and is able to shoot food across the room. She thinks it is super funny! Mom and Dad then need showers to get the food out of our hair. Here are some pictures of her eating her real food.






A couple of weeks ago we took little miss to a pumpkin patch where she decided to try and eat all of the pumpkins that she could get her little mouth on. Most of you have seen the pictures of the pumpkin patch but if not here are some. The reason that she does not have on any socks is because she keeps pulling them off so no one call the clipboard folks on us, she does have them and they were on!








With Halloween coming up her school has dress up day. Today was costume day and Natalie went as a Dalmatian. I wanted her to go as Piglet but Joe said that it was mean to refer to our daughter as a pig, but a dog is better?!?! She sure does look cute though.




I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday weekend and we will post more often promise!!!

OOPS!!

Sorry it has been so long! Natalie is doing better. She had her tubes in and then a couple of days later she got the flu. A baby having the flu is pretty gross. It is not like they can make it to the bathroom to vomit in the toilet so it is all over you. She is over all of that though and seems to be on the mend. Now if she could just get over her case of the hold-me's we would be in good shape! I think this will be the weekend to break her of that. I will post pictures hopefully next week. Shutterfly changed the way you up-load pics and I can not access them right now. Hope you all have a great weekend!

A long 2 weeks

Where to begin…. For starters, Natalie still does not have tubes in her ears. But she does get them this Thursday.

Two weeks ago Natalie was not acting like herself and was running a bit of a fever. With our ear thermometer it was reading 100.8. For an infant cutting teeth this does not seem high but she was whimpering and sleeping a lot!!! Again at first this was a good thing and then she started not only sleeping all night but a large part of the day as well. In addition to the rest of the symptoms she was also not breathing normally. She seemed to be breathing out more than in. So I got to talking to on of the neighbors who is a L&D nurse and she suggested that we go ahead and take Natalie into the ER for good measure. When we got to the ER the nurse took her temp and it was at 103. She had Tylenol 2 hours prior. The nurse then started telling us that she was VERY sick. All Joe and I could keep thinking was WOW and we were just bringing her in for good measure! The she started telling us that when we got to the back that the Dr. would probably start an IV for antibiotics and then do a urine cath and a spinal tap. It was at that point that I lost it. A SPINAL TAP!!! WHAT?!?! Needless to say we were a bit shocked. The nurse came in and took the blood and urine and then the doctor came in to do the spinal tap. We were able to go home that night since there was nothing in her spinal tap that indicated that we needed to stay. That night she also received two shots of antibiotics one in each leg.

Day 2: We went to the doctor and she got yet another shot of antibiotics and was given the once over. Fast forward to 1am technically on Day 3. We got a call from the hospital requesting that we bring Natalie back in that night to have blood work redone as the blood sample that they got showed positive blood cultures. After calling my Mom and the Ped. At 1 in the morning we did not end up taking her in. Took her back to the doctor for another round of shots in the morning and then it was off for blood work. On the way to have her blood drawn I got wonderful news that my Dad could come in and take care of Natalie for the rest of the week so that Joe and I could be at work. It was great!!! Dad came in on Tuesday night to take care of the princess and then my Mom came in on Thursday night to help out. They ended up leaving on Saturday and we thought we were in the clear. As my Dad would say… there we go thinking again. Another Sunday, another trip to the ER. Her fever was up again to 101 with Tylenol so the on call doctor had us take her in. This time we were given the once over and sent away. Since then she seems to be doing ok. She takes her Tylenol every 4 hours without missing a beat. We hope that this will be all over by Friday.

During all of this she also had her six month apt. She is now 18 lbs. and 26 1/5 inches long.

Here are some pictures of her last week when she was sick. She has this new thing with sticking out her tongue at everyone.

With Grandma Karen at the Irish Festival.




With Grandpa Mike on the swing

Teeth and Tubes

Well last Friday when we got home from daycare Natalie was chewing on anything she could get in her mouth including my fingers. I noticed that she had a tooth just starting to come in. Yesterday when we were at the ENT he said that she had 2, low and behold she does. She is too busy chewing her tongue for me to get a picture. I will try this weekend.

So yes, we took her to the ENT yesterday and he ran some tests. He showed 100% blockage in her left ear and 80% in her right from all the fluid. I asked if this was affecting her hearing... he said that long term this will not since she is so young. But right now if you were to take ear plugs and put them in your ears and then take the headphones that they wear in the pits of car races and put those on that is about the way she is hearing. I am very disappointed in her pediatrician that she did not refer me to an ENT. I will be in the process of finding a new one now. Joe and I were talking and we are glad that we trusted our instincts to go around the pediatrician and take her to an ENT ourselves, this could have been so much worse had we waited. So tubes next Thursday. Dr. said that we should see a huge difference by Friday. He also said that now when she cries in the middle of the night it will not be out of pain from her ears and we can let her cry it out for a while.

I hope to get pictures this weekend of the teeth and will post them soon. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Just touching base...

Well we have had a pretty uneventful week. We got the car back from the shop and it looks great.

Natalie's ear infection seems to be finally clearing up, she has one more day of medicine and then we hopefully are done! I will keep you all updated as I am sure you are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to hear about Natalie's ear infection.

Natalie, by force, made some new friends this past weekend.

Christian, my bosses son who is 8.



And Eleanor, her parents are good friends of ours and her mother was there when Joe and I met. Elle in this picture (last Saturday) was 2 weeks old.



Talk to you all soon.

What did you do that for Daddy.....

The look that Joe got right after he bumped the car in front of him on Monday. He had just picked up Natalie from daycare and was headed to the doctor, for yet another visit about her ears, and while turning on to the main street he tapped the car in front of him. Other than a bruised ego everyone is fine. Apparently Natalie felt that it was a good time to fill her diaper. So poor Joe was not only having to deal with exchanging insurance information he had a kid to cart around that smelled like poop. All I can say is better him that me.

Here is the picture of the car after the accident.


Well that is all for now. Maybe the next time I post Natalie will no longer have an ear infection.... then again maybe y'all will want more pictures before she is 2.

Have a great week!

Swimming

Well Natalie was in the pool over the weekend. She was not so sure about it but she did not cry. She did not smile by any means either. She put her face in the water, by force, and was splashing around. She lasted about a half hour.

Joe's brother was in town this weekend as well. Natalie loved him. He has facial hair and she just thought that was great. Between that and his deep voice she was in heaven. She would smile and laugh whenever he was holing her. You would think that of all the pictures that Joe and I take that we would have gotten one with the two of them but we didn't. I will be emailing Rick's girlfriend to see if she can send me one I know she took some!

Nothing else is really going on around here so here are the pictures from the weekend.

Things are getting better

I think that Natalie after a little over a month is finally over her ear infection. She has now been on 4 medications and I think the last one was the ticket. In addition she has also been put on Prilosec, just like her Dad. This in combination with yet another new formula, the least expensive on the market mind you, has decreased her spit up tremendously. Not a new kid yet but she sure is getting there. She finally had her 4 month shots yesterday. We had to wait until the ear infection was cleared up before giving her shots. She slept the best she has slept in a while last night and was in her crib the whole night. Joe and I did not sleep well, too quiet! I think that we both were up 2 times to check on her.

Well last weekend we went to Louisville to see Natalie's Great Grandmother. It was a treat for all. On Monday my mother brought her up here to Indy so that we could have the 4 generations picture taken. It was blazing hot but I just talked to Heather our wonderful photographer and she said that there are very few bad pictures. Natalie apparently hammed it up well. Here are a few pictures that Joe was able to take over Heathers head.








This weekend will be another first for Natalie... She will get to meet her uncle Rick. Joe's brother will be coming out from Connecticut for the weekend. I am sure that we will have a lot of pictures from this weekend so I will post more when I get them. Natalie will get to go in the pool for the first time!!!

Have a great week.

Will the madness ever stop???

Well, Natalie still has an ear infection. She has had the same infection since the 4th of July weekend. She is now on her third medication and we have now seen the doctor 7 times for the same infection. When I took her to the doctor the other day about her still grabbing her ears I was told that she had some dry skin and that is why she was still fussy. I hope that they are right!!

The doctor also said that Natalie no longer needed a night time feeding and that she should be sleeping all night. We were told that if she started fussing at 2 am not to go and get her. Do you know how hard it is to sleep when all she does is scream?!?!?! Two nights ago was ok, she slept from 10 to 4. Then there was last night. OH MY!! She went down at about 11 and was up at midnight crying, she got her paci and was back to sleep. But every time she would lose that paci she was crying. This went on until about 2 and then Joe got up with her and ended up feeding her. We were both under the impression that feeding her would help, we were wrong. She cried from 2 until about 5 and then she slept for about an hour. I think that she just had a lot of gas from crying so much... just a vicious cycle!

This weekend we are off so that Natalie can meet her Great Grandmother Busch. Grandma Karen will be meeting us down there and then coming up to Indy for a week long visit.

I will post pictures when we get back from the weekend trip. Hope you all have a great weekend.

MMMMMM Cereal!!!

Well yesterday when I took Natalie to daycare her caregivers said that they had done some research and saw that cereal might help with her reflux. They wanted to give her a little to see what happened. I agreed and when I went to get her yesterday she still had on the same clothes!!! They said that she ate every bite and did not spit up at all. This was GREAT news. Joe and I tried to give her some last night and I think that it was a bit runny. We know now but she did like it and she was able to keep the majority of it down. I think that this will be a new staple. Once in the morning and once in the evening. No veggies or fruit yet. I want to make sure that she is not going to have any adverse reaction to the cereal.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of days.










Have a great weekend

9 to 4

Yep that is how long little miss slept last night. When she got up at 4 she ate and was back asleep in about 20 min. It was nice having her sleep that long. Got some much needed rest by both of us.

No pictures today just wanted to share the exciting news.

Have a great day!

First Long Trip

Well we took miss Natalie to Michigan for the 4th of July weekend and the Gregory family reunion. She was GREAT!! It is a 8 hour trip from our house to the hotel with traffic and we made the same time with her as we have made in the past with out her. She slept the whole way there and home.

She was fighting the same cold that she has been fighting for the last 2 weeks when we were there. In addition she started a screaming fit every night at about 6. She was constantly spitting up and so when we got home we decided to take her to the Dr. We noticed that she had been holding her right ear but thought nothing of it since we were at the Dr. the day before leaving for Michigan and she checked out just fine. Good thing we have an excellent doctor. She did a full check up on her and found that she had an ear infection. The doctor also thinks that she may have reflux. We have put her on her fist dose of antibiotics to clear up the ear infection and will touch base with the doctor on Monday to see if her spitting up has decreased at all. If not she will be put on something similar to Prilosec. Good news is that she will more than likely grow out of the reflux. I will keep you all updated.

Here are some pictures from this past weekend.

Natalie in her 4th of July outfit




Natalie with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Mike on the Petoskey Stone Bear



Natalie with Mom and Dad



Little Miss hanging out watching the Tour de France



This is the day before we left



On our Saturday morning walk to get coffee with her Elton John sun glasses on




Have a great weekend everyone,
Sarah

3 months already

Well she is already 3 months old!!! She had her checkup today and weighed in at 12lbs. 8oz. And she is now 23 1/2 inches long. This puts her in the 80% for her adjusted age (due date vs. actual birthday). She is still a little peanut compared to the other kids in her class, but they are monsters. There is a girl in her class whose mother is about 6'2 and dad is even taller. Needless to say she is a BIG kid. I am sure Natalie will be taller than all the other kids once she is in grade school. She will still only get formula for the next month and the doctor is hoping in that time that she will start to sleep through the night.

So, I blew it…. I thought by posting Joe's Father's Day gift on the blog Friday afternoon at 3:00 I would be safe. I assumed that he would not check it before the weekend. Well you know what they say about assumptions…. He saw. He still played along and did not open it until Father's Day. Other than that Father's Day was good we went to brunch and then for a walk.

Here is a picture of Joe and Natalie at Father's Day brunch.

Father's Day weekend

We have no real big plans for Father's Day but Indianapolis is moving and shaking this weekend. We have the Us Grad Prix this weekend aka F1, there is the Indy Jazz Fest as well as a parade of cars. I think that we are going to brunch on Sunday for Father's Day and that is about it. I think that with Natalie and I being sick that we are going to try and get some much needed rest. Ken and Nancy are going to be going to the F1 race on Sunday and it should be great weather for it. I think the high for Sunday is 73. Nothing like spring temps in the middle of June. I am sure all you Texans are super jealous.

Natalie "made" a special gift for her dad for Father's Day. The daycare did it but it was really nice. Here is a picture.



the poem says:
Walk a little slower Daddy,
Said a little child so small
I'm following in your footsteps
And I don't want to fall.
Sometimes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they are hard to see:
So, walk a little slower, Daddy,
For you are leading me.
Someday When I'm all grown up,
You're what I want to be:
Then I will have a little child
Who'll want to follow me.
And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true:
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For I must follow you

I thought that her caregivers did a great job.

Here are some other pictures that we took earlier this week.







Have a great weekend!