Growing Like a Weed

Look at how huge she looks! Bailey is definitely in the middle of a growth spurt. Over the past few days she has changed from my regularly scheduled eating baby, to wanting to eat all the time! Is that normal? Last week we bumped her eating to 5 ounces from 4, but now she's eating between 5-6 ounces every 3-4 hours! We have an appointment next week and I'm sure she's going to be huge. She's also not sleeping much at night. The past two night she has woken up around 5:00am letting us know that she is starving. I thought that babies were supposed to start to sleep longer and through the night--she's killing me! I desparately hope that by the time school starts in August that I can put her to bed at least by 10 and she'll sleep through the night. Right now I have to stay up (which I don't mind because I'm a night owl) until 12 or 1 to feed her for the last time and she'll usually sleep until 6 or 7. Once school starts I'm guessing I'll have to sleep more to function at work. So all the moms out there--any advice?

The other exciting thing is that last Monday, Bailey rolled over! I say exciting because it is for me. She can roll over from her stomach to her back. She kind of just falls to which ever side her head bobbles. It's really funny because once she's done it, she's very surprised. Bailey's other tricks at the moment are playing with her tongue, blowing bubbles, playing with her hands, and making lots of fun sounds. It's funny because she's always grabbing her hands and trying to stuff them into her mouth. She doesn't really suck on her fingers; she just licks them like a lollipop. The other thing she loves at the moment is her swing. Right now she's just chillin' in her swing licking her fingers. She's thinking about being sad right now, so I better go stop it before she turns into full on crazy cry mode.

Busy Summer

There's been so much going on that I haven't had time to post in a while. So I'll catch up on everything with lots of pictures.

The week of the 4th of July we went out to Palm Desert with my family for three days. It was super hot, but super fun. The boys would golf in the morning and then the girls would lay out and read in the afternoon. Bailey took her first dip in the pool. She liked it because it was just like a big bath. She didn't do much but chill with me in the shade with her huge sun hat on. The exciting part was that she was able to debut her cute bathing suit. It's so tiny with little elephants on it. I also discovered how much water a diaper can hold because I couldn't find swim diapers small enough to fit her. The diaper probably weighed three pounds! The last day at the desert, Kyle, Sam and the twins drove out to stay for a day. It was so fun to see them. They had a little bit more fun in the pool because they are always on the go. Bailey also saw two movies while we were there and she was a perfect angel. I'm trying to take advantage of the fact that she'll sleep through movies right now because I've been told that it won't last long. On Thursday night, all of the girls and babies drove back home to get ready for the 4th of July.

Our family tradition is to go to the beach all day on the 4th of July. Our plans had to adjust this year because of all the babies. Normally, we all go down around 6am to get a prime time spot for the day. This year we had several shifts. Our set up crew this year was Toni, Tera, Keri, and Sam. They got there at 6 to secure us an amazing spot. It was really crowded this year, but they prevailed with some beach front property. They came with the truck loaded up with all of our gear--cribs, tents, tables, barbeque, chairs, towels, etc.. The next shift of people was me and my mom. My mom had the delicious food she had worked on all morning and I had the babies--Kate, Owen, and Bailey. Luckily, I picked up Brittany along the way because I had two strollers to push down to the beach. The city of Oceanside was really stingy with parking and access to the beach this year, so it took a while to find a parking place. When we did find a spot, it wasn't as close as I was hoping. My mom, of course, did some fancy talking and gained close access to the beach front road and the best parking spot ever. She's always good at talking her way into things. I thought I would be able to talk my way through or at least get the sympathy vote with a mini van filled with crying babies, but the babies were smiling and happy and the cop blocking the roads didn't care one bit. Once all the girls, babies, and food were at the beach we were ready to begin celebrating. It was a really gloomy day, but I think that was best for the babies. The last shift of people included all the boys (after a round of 4th of July golf) and Brian with a skateboard. Brian dropped everyone off then parked at a friend's house and skated down to the beach. We were all very impressed with his skating skills. We had our usual yummy barbeque food, games, and presents for Keri's 21st birthday. We stayed until 7:00ish and then packed up and went home. It's a good thing we didn't stay to watch fireworks at the beach because it was so cloudy that nobody could see them. Over all it was a great day--a different day compared to all previous 4th of July days, but very fun. I spent a lot of the day sitting in a chair with Bailey reading The Host (a great book for anyone looking for a good read).

The 4th of July was not the end of our busy schedule. On Saturday we went out to lunch with Brian's dad and his step sister Lauren; they were out here from the East Coast for a few days. The big event was that on Sunday we blessed Bailey in church. All of my family was here--even my grandma and grandpa made the trek down here. And all of Brian's family was here too. It was good to have family around, but all I could worry about was if Bailey would cry the whole time during the blessing. We fed her about 45 minutes before church started to she would be full and get the majority of her spitting up done before church started. I didn't want her to spit up in her beautiful dress because my Grandma Miller made the dress for me when I was blessed as a baby. All of my sisters wore it for their blessing and little Kate wore it last summer when she was blessed too. It's so special to have something that was made by my Grandma Miller; she was an amazing seamstress. The dress is absoultely beautiful! Bailey looked like a little angel in it. While we were waiting for church to start, Bailey came close a couple of times to launching a load of spit up down the front of the dress, but due to some quick moves by Tera, everything was saved. Right before Brian took her up to the front of church, I gave him her pacifier to stick in her mouth in case she started screaming. Brian was really nervous to give her blessing, but he did a wonderful job. She started to make some noises right when he started, but Kyle was quick to calm her down with her pacifier; she was a perfect angel the rest of the time. The thing that I remembered the most from the blessing was that Brian mentioned obeying parents and rules three times. When he was done, I told him that and he said he wanted to make sure that she listens to us as she grows up. It was funny because that's what Brian is the most nervous about having a girl--that she won't want to listen to anything we have to say. As soon as it was done, she fell asleep for the rest of church. After church, we went back to my parents' house to eat lunch. It was such a great day with all of the family around. The day would not be complete with out a photo shoot in her blessing dress.

Here's my little happy angel!

(If you've ever seen A Muppet's Christmas Carol, she looks just like the ghost from Christmas past in this picture, but in a not so spooky ghost way)

Me, Brian, & Bailey. The whole familia.

My little Bailey. She's thinking about her day.

All the Miller kids!

My grandpa has the magic touch in walking all of his grandkids and great grandkids to sleep.

Double Digits!

Bailey has hit the double digit mark; she is 10 pounds today! I can't believe it. She's also 21 and 3/4 inches long! Last week she was officially four months old. It's funny to think about because if she would have been born on her original due date, she would be two months old tomorrow. There are so many different time periods to keep track of with her--how old she really is, how old she should be, how long she's been home, and luckily I don't have to keep track of how long she's been in the hospital anymore. I guess that most of the things will be checked according to her original due date, including her immunization shots which she received a bunch of today. So needless to say, today has been a super fun day. She actually hasn't been that bad, just way fussier than normal. She loves to be held today, but only when I'm standing up. The other thing that she loves is to look at herself in the bathroom mirror, so I've been standing a lot in the bathroom today. Right now I really can't complain because she's sound asleep until her last dosage of medicine wears off. So to make good use of this time, I'm posting this momentous occasion. This is a picture of one of her calmer moments from today.

The other momentous occasion around our house is that yesterday marked three years that we've been married. It's weird to think about because some days it seems like it's flown by and others it seems like it's been a really long time. So many things have happened since we've been married. Brian and I went out for a delicious dinner by the beach. He bought me the biggest pot of hydrangea flowers because I love them. He also bought me some new flip flops because the third anniversary is the year of leather (for all of you out there who didn't know that, now you do). He is extremely thoughtful, kind, and generous, and really into fun details like that. I thought the third year was nylon/polyester because I got him a golf shirt. No matter what I do, Brian will always win in the present department, but I don't mind.

Here are just some more pictures that I've taken recently:

When she wakes up for the second time in the morning, she is usually all smiles. I've been trying to get a good picture of her all happy, but it's hard because she moves so much.

This was a day at the beach. She already loves it just like her mom!

She loves her tummy. I promise when I first put her on her tummy for play time she's awake, but she always falls asleep. I can't wait until she can sleep on her stomach because she sleeps so peacefully and I think it's so cute with her butt up in the air.

Summer's Here!

Since today was the last day of school for my school, today is technically (according to the life of a teacher) the first day of summer. Although, this year it doesn't have quite the same feeling. Since I haven't been teaching for the past four months, I don't feel the same anticipation, excitiment, and exhaustion that I normally do at the end of a school year. I am excited though that all of my family is officially done with teaching for the year, so now I can hang out with them!

On a slightly different note: I will be forever grateful to my sister Tera this year because she has been "me" at school. Tera took over all of my classes once I had Bailey. Having your sister as your sub is the best situation ever. I didn't really have to worry about my kids because I knew that Tera was taking care of them. I know that she had a super tough job to take over with my ASB classes, but she jumped right in and went to work. I know that the kids loved her too. One student loved her so much, he even wrote a marriage proposal to Tera on the board on the last day of school. That is why I love teaching middle school.

Today my mom and I went on a walk with the dogs and Bailey. Once my dog Doby gets tired, he lays down on the ground and insists on being picked up. Now that I push a stroller on my walks, carrying Doby isn't really an option when he gets tired. So today when he decided that he was done with the walk only 10 minutes into it, we put him on the stroller. My BOB stroller (it's my favorite baby item that I own) has a little ledge in front of where I put the car seat. I'm sure that it's not made to hold tired dogs, but it worked perfectly! For the rest of our walk, Doby was perfectly content just sitting and observing everything from his ledge on the stroller. I'll have to take a picture of it next time so you can see how funny it looks. Here are some funny pictures that illustrate how Doby feels about his new little sister. He thinks that when we lay out a blanket, that we're laying it out for him to snuggle on. When we take a family picture, he wants to be a part of it. I don't think he really understands what exactly Bailey is yet; most days he just ignores her. But the times that he does notice her, I'm pretty sure he thinks that he's just like she is and deserves every bit of attention too. It's really funny to watch how he interacts with her.

Happy Father's Day

Before I go upstairs and feed Bailey for the last time today, I just wanted to give Brian a shout out on Father's Day. He is such a good dad and he loves Bailey so much. It's really fun to watch him interact with her. I'm so lucky that I have a wonderful dad and that I'm married to a guy who is a fabulous dad too! I hope that everyone had a great day--especially all those dads out there!

Now that we've switched over to this blog site, I hope that everything will be a lot easier for everyone to access. I could just stay up all night long looking and admiring everyone's blogs, but I really need to go to bed.

Homecoming

When Bailey came home she weighed 5 pounds 4 ounces and was 19 inches long. She gained just over two pounds in the hospital and grew three inches. The doctors and nurses said that she would grow so much better at home, but I was a little doubtful. I should know by now to always trust the doctors. From Thursday to Tuesday she gained six ounces. Nurse Kathy came to the house every Tuesday for the first month at home. She came just to make sure that Bailey was growing and that mom and dad weren't freaking out. At her first visit, Bailey weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces. I was truly amazed that she had gained an ounce a day! It was also really comforting to have Kathy come and visit, so I still felt some connection to the hospital and she was good company. At her next visit she weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces! She had crossed that big 6 pound barrier; she had gained exactly three pounds since she was born--in only 9 weeks. At her final visit on April 29th, Bailey weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces--she was almost 7 pounds! It was amazing that she kept growing at the ounce a day rate. I was sad that it was Kathy's last visit, but she said that Bailey was doing so well that she didn't have to come check on us.

We also had a mini celebration on April 27th because that was her original due date

What a Roller Coaster!

Bailey is five weeks old this week--and what a week it's been! This week has validated this statement for me this week: The life of a preemie is a roller coaster. What a roller coaster this week has been. On Wednesday we found out that Bailey was having some trouble; there were several options that were possible causes for her problems. They had to stop her feedings entirely and hook her back up to an IV. The doctors knew there was some type of infection inside of her, they just weren't sure where it was or what type of infection it was either. They had to take all types of tests and xrays every six hours. It was quite a set back for us because on Tuesday there was talk of taking her feeding tube out and eating entirely from the bottle--that's a huge step for preemies. So to go from doing really well on Tuesday to we're not sure what's wrong with your baby on Wednesday was very upsetting to say the least. My mom and I spent most of the day down at the hospital with Bailey to help calm her down. She didn't like being all hooked up again and they couldn't wrap her up like a little burrito. Once I held her, she was able to calm down and fall right asleep (it also helped to calm me down too). On Wednesday night, Brian and my dad came down to the hospital to give her a blessing. It made me feel much better. Thursday morning when my mom and I went to the hospital, we were greeted with a surprise--Bailey was doing much better and she had all of her tubes taken out. It was the first time that we'd seen her face without any tubes! She is so cute! The doctors and nurses all said she was doing much better and they were able to identify her infection. We were also moved from the big nursery to a "private suite" down the hall to make sure that none of the other babies get the infection. It's much more peaceful in her new room where there's only one other baby, one nurse, and a lot less noise. On Thursday and Friday, my mom and I spent most of the day in Bailey's room just chatting with the nurse. The week has ended on a really good note. They're going to start her feeding again today, but really slowly. So they'll work on getting her back up to where she was on Tuesday. I'm very glad that this week is over and I'm optimistic for the future. I'm so grateful for all of the doctors and nurses who have helped Bailey this week. They are so wonderful and loving to my little girl and they also help me too. Let's all hope for a great week number six next week!