The Joys of being a Parent

I realized this morning when it was 4am and I was getting up with the little one how much I am loving being a parent....I love watching her sleep, seeing her smile, seeing her learn all the new things.

She looks at this world in an entirely new way, everything is new to her. When she saw a vehicle in the parking lot moving the other day it was so intriguing to her. To me it was just a vehicle but to her I can't even imagine what she thought it was. She sees the dog moving and it's so enjoyable for her - HUGE smile on her face every time Mac comes into view.

Its been a really rough month for us, but we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I have my baby girl back!

Some thoughts I was having this morning when I was up with her and tonight when I was putting her to bed.

For every 2am feeding there is the joy of watching her nurse.
For every cry there is a smile that makes it all worth it
For every diaper blow out, pee episode there is the fun of watching her grow.
For every raspberry of pureed food in my face, there is joy of watching her taste new foods.

No matter how tired I am, how exhausted I feel, there is no greater joy in my life than becoming a parent. When I am away from her all I want to do is be with her again. She has completely changed my life for the better. These past six months have been the most challenging and amazing six months of my life and I wouldn't change it for the world!

Wordless Wednesday

6 Month Checkup

Gabby had her 6 month checkup today. I was hoping for good news and we had some, just not all of what I expected. She is doing well growth wise. She is 27.25 inches (95th percentile) and 16lbs 8oz (50th percentile) and her weight is even up about 5oz from last week, so that's all great news. She is doing well with her milestones and the doctor says she is looking great! She said to up the solids to 2 times a day, but we are going to stick with one until she gets a little more solids in her. Right now she doesn't quite know what to do with the food and she hates being fed food. So far the Bananas, Pears, and Sweet Potato & Chicken have not gone over well. We will get there, it will just take time.

Gotta love Sweet Potatoes!

The bad part of the appointment is the fact that her ear infection in her left ear is still not gone and now the right ear is bad again. We just can't get rid of this darn ear infection. It's been over a month now and I know she is hurting. Her and I both aren't sleeping and we both need to start getting sleep. They tested her for RSV, and luckily that came back negative. She didn't like the test, but it was over in a few seconds. They also gave her an antibiotic shot in her leg. She really didn't like that. Mike is taking her back to the doctor tomorrow for her 2nd dose, and then she has a 3rd dose on Thursday. The needle was pretty big and the poor little one cried for at least 10 minutes after. She does really well with shots, but this one hurt bad. I felt so bad for my little one. She seems to be doing better. She had a chiropractor appointment again tonight so she is sleeping well. We are also putting garlic drops in her ears when she is fussy and that seems to be helping. Although the dog won't leave her alone because she smells so good :)

We go back next Monday to have her ears checked again and to get 1/2 of the shots she needs for her 6 month check. She will be getting the rest of them a little after (a week or two I think is what she said). So we are on our 5th trip to the doctor in the last month and after this is all over we will be at 9 trips in two months! Guess we will be reaching our deductible for her soon :)

My Food Challenge

So Mike and I watch the Food Network a TON! We watch Worst Cooks in America, Next Food Network Star, Good Eats, Dinner Impossible, and many many other good cooking shows... For those that know me I can't cook worth anything! My specialties are Mac & Cheese from a box, Spaghetti & Meatballs. Mike is usually the one that does the cooking in the house. He is also the one that goes outside the box and tries some new things. Well since we started Gabby on solids, I figured that I should probably venture outside my box of mac and cheese and figure out how to cook. I want to be able to cook for my daughter and not have it just out of a box.

So inspired by the movie Julie & Julia I am going to do something a little similar. I am not going to be as assertive or aggressive as Julie was in the movie. I am not going to be cooking myself through Julia Child's Cook book, but I am vowing to try a new recipe (no matter how simple it is) each week. I figure with a 6 month old that's a pretty good thing to do.

In starting that this week! I made Gnocchi with a Sun Dried Tomato Sauce, Turkey Sausage and Broccoli. I got the recipe for the Gnocchi from a friend of mine. It was a little intimidating and I don't know if I am was doing it right, but I got them pretty close to what Gnocchi is supposed to be like. Not quite like we had in Venice, but for my first time it wasn't bad.

The hardest part was rolling the potato dough. It kept breaking up on me and I couldn't roll in into a rope. Going to have to watch a video on it to see what I was doing wrong. When I boiled them they weren't quite holding together and so they ended up a little mushy. I might fry them in a frying pan after boiling them like Mike does with the pierogies and see how that goes. But all in all it wasn't too bad. We also enjoyed the bottle of Moscato wine that we brought back from Florence Italy when we went there. It was wonderful!

Next on the Menu -
1. Pierogies - Homemade recipe from Martha Stewart - Thanks to my friend Aurora for giving it to me.
2. Deep Fried Banana's with Chocolate/Honey Sauce

Please send me any idea of what you would like me to cook!

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

My Baby Girl is 6 months old, how and when did that happen. It was just yesterday that I was giving birth to her and she was laying in my arms for the first time!

All Smiles

She has grown up in the past month and had a rough month of sickness. She wasn't sleeping well around her 5 month mark and so we took her into the doctor. I actually felt a little silly bringing her in because she was really happy otherwise. But when we went in there she had a double ear infection. Well 1 month later and 3 different antibiotics later she is finally getting better.

She started sitting up all on her own. She is still a little wobbly, but getting much better. We also started solids this month. She is having so much fun eating everything! Okay, well maybe not actually eating but she is getting the idea and in a few months she will be eating.

Yum Broccoli

My little girl is getting so big and growing so much so fast, as is my love for her. It's so much fun to watch her learn new things and explore her foods and the world around her. She has had a really rough month and hasn't been herself but we think with the chiropractor visits that we are taking her to that she will get back to her old self again.

Gabby's New Trick

Wordless Wednesday

So a few of my friends have been doing this - so I am jumping on the bandwagon because I love the idea - Thanks Ella and Alyssa!

My Valentine

3rd Time's a Charm

That's what Mike and I are hoping for at least....The poor Little Peanut still has her ear infection. She ended her 2nd round of Antibiotics on Saturday and we thought she was doing pretty well. She didn't nap however at all on Saturday (except for a 45 minute nap on Dad). Her normal nap schedule is a 1/2 hour to 1 hour nap around 9am and then a 2 to 3 hour nap in the afternoon around 12 or so...but not on Saturday. Sunday we were busy with her baptism so no nap there. She fell asleep in church for about 30 minutes or so and then a little in the afternoon after all the festivities were done.

Sunday night we knew something was still not right. When we got home and tried to get her down for bed around 6:30 or 7:00 she wouldn't sleep. She was fighting it, which she normally doesn't do. We didn't get her down until 10:30 and then she would only sleep in her carseat. So I called the doctor on Monday and in we went for the 3rd time in just less than a month. The poor thing has a cough (from the drainage of the ear infection) and still has the ear infection in her left ear. We are on the 3rd round of meds: Azithromycin which is a once a day for five days antibiotic compared to the twice a day for 10 days as the first two. the doctor said that there is one more round of antibiotics and that normally after multiple ear infections and not responding to this they move to tubes. I want to avoid this at all costs if I can. Mike and I are contemplating on bringing her to the chiropractor that I went to when I was pregnant. Dr. Clark deals with babies and kids all the time and I have a few friends who have used her for their children so I trust her. If we go that route I will talk with her about my concerns and see what they can do for the little one. I just hate seeing her in pain. We are having to use numbing drops for her ears at night. So hopefully this will take care of it. I might still bring her to the chiropractor after she is done with her meds to see if that helps keep them away....

Changes

Sorry for all the changes on my blog...I tend to feel a bit restless in how it looks sometimes and don't always have the time to work on it in one shot...I am done for the time being :)

Baptism

Click here to view these pictures larger

Sweet Potatoes

We gave Gabby some Sweet Potato Fries on Friday night. She was actually really excited about it. We used the booster seat and put a few fries on her tray and she knew what to do with it. It was a lot better than the banana when I was holding her. She was watching Mike and I eat the fries that we had and she was trying to copy us. She was doing really well putting them in her mouth and gumming them.

We gave her some pureed bananas the next night, but she didn't like those as much and especially didn't like being fed. She is pretty independent and wanted to do it herself, so I guess that's what we are going to do.

5 Months in Review

As we get closer to her 1/2 year birthday I wanted to put together some pictures of her at 5 months.

Photo album generated with Smilebox

Gabby's First Food

It's a bit long...and she really doesn't know what to do with it at all...but this is her first real attempt at solids. It's a banana, next we are going to try some Yams.

Gabby Sitting all by herself

My little girl is sitting up all by herself! I can't believe how big she is getting.

Sleeping Like a Baby...

....I have never understood this saying. I mean I know there are a lot of babies out there that sleep really well and when they do sleep they are very peaceful. But the past couple of weeks in the Epp household we haven't been "sleeping like a baby". Our poor little pumpkin was doing so well. Our schedule every night was:

6:30 - 7:00pm - Bedtime, reading a book, bathtime and down for the night

10:00 - 11:00 - She would wake up and eat and then back down in 20 minutes

1:00 - 2:00 - Back up for another feeding and back down in 20 minutes

6:30 - 7:00 - Up for the day and off to daycare.

I was able to get some good sleep between her 1st and 2nd feeding and before we were up for the day. and even though it was interrupted sleep it was still enough for me to function during the day. then about 2 weeks ago we took her to the doctor because we had a few rough nights of up every few hours or sleeping in the recliner. Turned out she had a double ear infection. But after a few days on the meds she did great, only up 1 to 2 times during the night and sleeping really well. Monday we took her into the doctor again because she still wasn't back to her old self again and found out her left ear still had an ear infection and then she also came down with a cold. 

So the past three nights Mike and I have been running on 3 to 4 hours of sleep for each night. She was up each hour or hour and a half and just wanted to be held. 

She slept much better at daycare, she got like 2 hours for her afternoon nap instead of just 1. She fell asleep on the way home tonight from daycare and has slept almost an hour. I left her in her car seat and put her in her room...she needs her sleep so bad. Depending on how she sleeps tonight Mike or I might sleep on the futon or in the bed with her. We haven't wanted to do co-sleeping and Mike isn't comfortable with the three of us being in bed, so one of us will be in the futon and we will see how it goes. We just need some sleep - all of us.