Adventures in Rice Cereal

Last Saturday we started Aubriella on rice cereal. It is an adventure in itself. Here is the schedule that the doctor recommends we use:
Week 1
Day 1- 1 tablespoon at lunch
Day 2- 1 tablespoon at lunch and dinner
Day 3- 1 tablespoon at breakfast lunch and dinner
Day 4- 1 tablespoon at breakfast lunch dinner and before bed
Day 5-7 same as day 4

Week 2-
Day 1- add 1/4 jar of a fruit at lunch
Day 2- add 1/4 jar of a fruit at lunch and dinner
Day 3- add 1/2 jar of a fruit at breakfast lunch and dinner
Day 4- add 1 jar of a fruit at breakfast lunch dinner and before bed.
Day 5-7 same as day 4

Week 3 and 4
try a different fruit 4 times a day

Week 5
add in a vegetable.

So I have decided with much research to not really go by what the doctor is recommending. So far this week we have started with 1 tablespoon of food at lunch everyday. Aubriella is still learning how to swallow and use a spoon.

Somehow we managed to get cereal all over her face, in her hair, on her leg, and on her hands.

Week 1 Photos

I've decided to take a photo every day in February. I have no real plan of what the photo is to be of. Every Saturday I will post the photos from the past week. This weeks photos all seem to be of Aubriella.

February 1- Watching Mulan

February 2- Happy 4 month birthday

February 3- Just a happy baby.

February 4- Enjoying her bath after her first try at rice cereal.

4 month dr appt.

Aubriella went to she her doctor today for her 4 month wellness appointment. It went very well. She weighs 13 pounds and 9 ozs. She is 23 and a half inches long and her head circumference is 40 cm.

We got the approval to start her on rice tomorrow. In a week or so we start her on fruit also. Then in about a month and a half she gets vegetables.

One thing the doctor recommended is we give Aubriella some more leg exercises. David put together her jumperoo tonight so she can start to play with it. She still a little two short. I had to put together 4 phone books to make it so she could touch. After I took this picture I duct taped the books together so they wouldn't move.
Have a nice weekend.

Happy 4 Months

Happy 4 months to Aubriella.

- She is outgrowing her size 1 diapes and will be starting size 2 once we are out of 1's, which will be in a few days.
- She's wearing size 0-3 months clothes still for the most part. Depending on the brand some are 3 to 6 months.
- Aubriella loves to stare at the fish.

- She loves her tummy time. Especially when she is laying on us and looking at us, she just likes to talk away.

- Her drooling has started. Teething has begun. No feelings of teeth yet though.
- Aurbriella likes to sit and watch us eat. She wants to try whatever you have, even though she is not suppose to. Everything she has tried she likes:  ranch dressing, french onion dip, cream cheese, chocolate syrup, carmel apple empanda (taco bell)
- She is still sleeping in bed with us. I have started putting her in the pack and play next to the bed a few hours each night that I don't work.
- Depending on the night she wakes up once other nights its every two hours. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason.
- I pulled out the swing the other day to give it a try again and she loves it.

- She loves her bouncy seat and sits in it quite often.

- You can tell when she is hungry cause she cries and holds her hands. When she is tired she starts to rub her eyes.
- Aubriella can be a chatty cathy at times and will tell you all about her day.
- She is a happy baby and smiles and giggles all the time.

Thats a lot of stuff sorry.
We got to the dr tomorrow for her 4 month wellness appointment with shorts and all her new stats. I'll post tomorrow with her new weight, height, updates etc.

Life Changes

I know I say this every time but it has sure been a while. Where has the time gone. Being a mom has changed my life so much more than I expected. I love being a mom and watching my daughter grow every day. I do want her to stay small though. She is growing up so fast.

I can't believe it is February 1, 2012. Where did 2011 go and January. Time surely flies. Things will be here before we know it:
- 1 day until Aubriella is 4 months
- 9 days until my 10 year anniversary since we started dating.
- 11 days until Valentines Day
- 140 days until my 4 year anniversary
- 148 days until I turn 27
- 170 days until vacation
- 244 days until Aubriella turns 1
- 327 days until Christmas

Time surely does fly.

Lets see what has changed in my life.
- I am no longer at my hair cutting job where I was assistant manager. I was working there and at Dunkin Donuts still, with crazy hours, barely any sleep and never seeing my little pumpkin or husband. It is for the best to find something where I can still have somewhat of a life and my world not have to completely revolve around work. Unfortunately the company believed work comes before family which is not the case in my life.
- I am still working at Dunkin Donuts a few days a week just for some extra money. I am looking for a full time job that is more stable with possible benefits.
- I can live without sleep. I use to sleep all the time but now I've learned to run on less hours of sleep. I may get more crabby but it happens.
- My car is almost payed off. I have one more payment. Yippee.
- We got a puppy. Well a dog, just small. He is two years old named Nicky. A family friend had to get rid of him due to moving arrangements and all the no kill shelters in the area are full. I am a sucker. So far he is doing pretty good. He has only eaten a few things. We are just getting use to having to let him out and what what we leave laying around. Nicky is a minature doberman pincher

- I use to be a neat freak. Having a baby who wants to be held or played with makes it hard at times to get things done. Dishes get left in the sink, clothes don't get put away, the floors don't get sweep. and OMG it hasn't killed me yet.
- I will leave the house with no make-up on. I am not a big whole face make-up girl anyways. I normally only do my eyes: eyeliner, eye shadow, mascara. Now I have no problem leaving without any on. Half the time if I don't work my hair isn't done just up in a pony tail.

Belated Halloween

So I am a little behind. I don't get much done when my little pumpkin, Aubriella always wants held. I know bad habit but I go back to work in two weeks and will miss her so much.
Keeping up with the Halloween Fall tradition we went to a local pumpkin patch. We ended up going to the same place that we went to last year since we liked it so much. Last year it was warmer out and not as busy. This year we didnt do the corn maze. Also due to our weather this past summer there was a lot of GREEN pumpkins.

We ended up buying a bunch of pumpkins but never got around carving them. We may still do them just so they dont go to waste.

On Halloween I took Aubriella to my mom's house for "trick or treating". We didn't get there until after trick or treating was done. We really were just going to visit. My mom got her a couple of books instead of candy, since she can't have and doesn't need any candy. We also went down to my aunts house to show her off. Here's my little froggie

I also never did any decorating this year. Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween.

This Time....

This time one month ago I was in labor with my precious little pumpkin Aubriella. Below is her birth story. Sorry so long.

I got induced at 39 weeks. On Saturday October 1, 2011 I went to labor and delivery at 5am. I got checked in, registered, put in a room, and got all ready to go. I was hooked up to monitors and the IV started. At 5:30am they started the pitocin. The plan was to start at the lowest dose and up it by 2 every 20 to 30 minutes and to check my cervix every 4 hours if not sooner. When I arrived I was 1 cm dilated, and 80% effaced.


Little by little my contractions started and I dilated to 3 cm. Since I wasn’t progressing as quickly and smoothly as they had hoped, and I was to the limit on the external monitoring of the pitocin at 3pm the Dr. came in and broke my water. Along with breaking my water I had to have internal monitoring. A half an hour later my contractions became really strong and the back labor started. I couldn’t deal with the back pain so we started the epidural and the catheter.

My contractions were not regular. They varied from either being too close together and strong enough, or strong enough but to far apart. They kept monitoring this and switching the pitocin up and down for hours while I still kept dilating. By 8pm I was getting tired and moody. I kicked everyone out of the room expect my husband. I kept trying to sleep in little naps as they kept monitoring me.

At 11:30 I was given an antibiotic since my water had been broken for 8 hours. I was almost 10 centimeters at this time also. The nurse called the Dr. to let him know. He said to call him again when I was fully dilated that he wasn’t too far away. By 1 am the Dr. had came into see how things were doing. He checked me and gave the nurses the ok for me to start pushing. When I started to push I was feeling the pain again. The anesthesiologist was called back in to give me some more meds. After pushing for close to an hour and a half the doctor brought out the vacuum. He tried the vacuum and ended up using the forceps also to get Aubriella out. She was born at 3:10am weighing 6lb 8 oz, 19 inches long.

She was put on my chest for a few minutes then taken away to be cleaned up, examined, etc. David did cut her umbilical cord. He tried to keep the scissors but the nurse took them from him. I was freezing and starting to shake and was also getting sick. I had 3rd degree tares, which took the Dr. 45 minutes to sew me up.

David was amazing in the hospital taking care of me and Aubriella. I had lost a lot of blood so I wasn’t aloud out of bed without help. I was allowed to hold Aubriella but wasn’t allowed to carry her or take her out of the crib by myself. Also with the tears and hemorrhoids I had to have help in the bathroom also.

Since being home I ripped part of my incision and still have to be careful with what I do.