St. Patty's Day!

So like I said in the previous post we were in Chicago for St. Patty's day for my mother in laws annual party! She makes a big batch of corned beef and has some wonderful people over! It is always a good time! I told myslef to take pictures during the party, but I guess it slipped my mind! SO here are some pics of us and friends before the party! Jude and Aila are just the sweetest babies!

Jude's not so sure about hanging with the Irish Princess!

Love that little hat on him :)

Hilder boys

Mom got Erica and I bottles of wine that is called Mama's Time Out!
I will go to time out anyday!

Erica and our sweet kiddos

Pretty little Aila Rose!

such a big boy!

the boys and grandma!

they love her :)

the happy couple! Jude is sharing his paci! I am trying to teach him to be a gentleman early!

Love these ladies~!

We had a great time and love it when we can make it up to Chicago! Next trip for Aila's FIRST birthday party! HOLY COW!!

9 Months in, 9 Months out!

I have to say that having a 9 month old is too much fun! I am loving the personality and humor my little guy is developing! He is learning new things everyday right before my eyes and I am so very blessed to be able to stay home to witness it! We have had an exciting month by getting out of the house more, going out to eat, and a trip to Chicago this past weekend. We went to Chicago for Gradma's annual St. Patty's party! we drove  on Friday night and left at Jude's bedtime so he slept most of the way which was nice! He woke up when we got there and got to see grandma for a little bit before going back to bed. The next day was the party and we got to see our bff's the Mansavages and Justin! Andy, Erica, and Aila came early so Jude and Aila could play! They are just adorable and will make a very happy couple someday :). The party was a great time and it was good to catch up with all of the Chicago peeps we see every year! They all couldn't belive how big Jude is getting, and to be honest, neither can I! We had delicious corne beef and cabbage for dinner and indulged in a couple of beers too! Jude was a bit fussy and wanted to be held alot by me while we were there, but has been a peach since we've been home so thats good!

So here are the detail of this month:
sleep- has been going ok for most of the month, with Jude going to bed around 6 and waking up around 6 with one night feeding around 1am. Could be worse, but could be better. Then the time changed and suddenly Jude doesnt want to go to bed at 6 anymore, and who can blame him as it is still really bright at that point! So he has been staying up until about 7:30, which is actually really nice bc it is allowing us to be able to do more in the evenings and it gives Doug a little more time with "taco" after work! The past two nights Jude has even slept through the night! I have been loving that!! He naps okay, but still prefers to nap in our bed, which I am trying to break that habit. Here's my conundrum though, when he naps in crib its 20 -30 min tops. When he naps in my bed its 1-2 hours. But maybe if I get consistent with it the crib naps will get longer?! who knows!

food- this kid loves to eat! Everything... including grass, leaves, and woodchips! You have been trying so many new things and loving all of it, Jude! Some of your latest feasts have included scrambled eggs and cheese, black beans, quinoua, chicken, rye bread, and corned beef! You will still eat some purees, but prefer to feed yourself pieces of finger food! We are working on just putting one piece of food in the mouth at a time! Still nursing like a champ too and enjoys having a sippy cup of water and drinking from a glass of water also!

teeth- STILL just those two bottom toofers! Teeth confuse me, so I am not even going to try to predict them anymore :)
talking- says "mama" and "baba" and on the verge of "dada" and "hi"! From here on out he is just going to keep learning and learning!

motor skills- (fine) he has mastered his pincer grasp to feed himself and continues to pick up small objects! If he can find something on the carpet he will pick it up!
(large) he is still pulling himself up on everything and moving from object to object. Still waiting on walking, but to tell you the truth, I am not quite ready for that so he can totally take his time on that one! He got a little car to ride over the weekend and he likes to scoot around on that (and when daddy put him on it *naked* before bath last night he showed us that he likes to pee on it too! HAHA!

personality- this kid kills me with his sweetness and humor! He is my little sweetie and loves to lay his head on my shoulder and give hugs and kisses! I love it! He has the *BEST* laugh in the whole entire world and smile too! He is fearless and I am worried that will one day get us in trouble, but we'll see! He will still go to anyone, but prefers to keep me in his line of vision. He plays shy when someone new comes into the room by putting his head down to avoid eye contact. Then he peeks his head up, gives a big smile, and puts head down again. Then he repeats about 15 times! It's really quite cute! He loves to actually play peek-a-boo too! With blankets and with us when we hide around corners. He anticipates where we are going to pop out next! Smart cookie I tell ya!

I really can't believe that I will have a one year old soon! This has just gone way too fast and so sad to think that this is probably the last of the baby times I will experience. That means that I just need to soak up as much as I can now! We are going on vacation to NC in May and I am sooo excited! I can't wait to see his little baby toes in the sand!

Big Adventures

With his new found mobility, Jude has taken a liking to exploring around the house! His latest quest, under the dinner table! I see lots and lots of fort making with that table in the future! He crawled all around under there and out every which way he could! He even found a couple of puffs which was a total bonus! Mama showed Jude where the sun shines in on the floor and how it makes a nice warm patch on the carpet! I told him how I used to take little catnaps on patches like this when I was just a girl. I am hoping that he took a mental note of that and maybe wishful thinking thinking that *someday* he will be so sleepy that he takes little catnaps on the floor! Love my sweet boy!

Give it to me, dear baby!

When I became a mother I changed. All of my selfishness flew out the window. My life was no longer about me, but moreso about the little one I brought into this world. So as you can imagine, when that dear baby is sick I'd rather it be me. I would take every ounce of pain just to spare him. I know this is not realistic and every person needs to go through pain to grow, learn lessons, etc. but when your innocent baby is sick and there is nothing more you can do about it, well, it's a pretty bad feeling.

I noticed Jude felt very warm when he awoke in the middle of the night to nurse on Thursday. I figured there wasn't much I could do at that point and I didn't want to wake him further, so I just put him back to bed and waited till morning. He woke up with a fever of 99.8, which is not too high. I was associating it with teething and kept a close eye on him. Throughout the day he was very clingy and the temp was rising. My mom was coming into town so we were just waiting on her. Jude took a late afternoon nap and when he woke up I took his temp and it was 102.5. I started freaking out. I called his doctor and they told me to give him some motrin and if it went back up and over 103 I needed to take him to Urgent care. I felt so bad for my little love. He obviously felt miserable. Thankfully my mom arrived shortly after and she kept me level headed (love her). We managed to keep the fever under control most of the night and I slept with my little love in my arms (or barely slept I should say!). Sat was very strange. Jude would go through times where he seemed like the world was ending and his fever was awful and then there were times where it seemed nothing were wrong.
After a nap Jude woke up feeling pretty bad and we decided to take him to urgent care center. I am really not a fan of these places, but it was either that or the ER, and I am not a fan of those either. So, we get all checked in and the nurse comes in and takes his temp (103.5... OMG MY POOR BABY!) and takes about 20 min trying over and over to get his oxygen level on his toe, finger, earlobe, while he is screaming because he is feeling terrible and it's just not working. FINALLY the nurse got it to work! Then the doctor comes in...
And, it is the same doctor (unfortunately) that saw Doug when he first went in for his nose infection (way back when I was prego). If you can remember the guy took one little look, perscribed some wimpy antibiotic, and sent Doug on his way. This led to a three night stay in the hospital because it was such an bad infection and the guy didn't give Doug the time of day to explain what was going. SO, he comes in and says "I have a plan" before even asking any questions. We tell him that Jude has had a fever for the last 2 days and is a little stuffy, along with being lethargic. He looks in his ears and says one is "a little red" and decides to order a chest x-ray (better safe than sorry I guess, but he has not been coughing at all). The x-ray was not a fun experience for Jude or myself. He did not like being trapped in a cylander like chamber with his hands forced above his head, but we all survived! After waiting for what seems like forever he finally comes back in and says "I have a plan" again, and says that he thinks Jude has a mild case of pneumonia, an ear infection, and bronchitus, and is teething. He perscribes and antibiotic, ear drops, and a nebulizer. He said Jude should be better in 2 days (or he wants to see him again) and that was his "plan".  All that just didn't seem right to me. Now, I think it may be a problem on my end, but I have a very hard time trusting doctors. You see, I have worked for a (very shady) bad doctor and know all about alterior motives ($$) and over perscribing to get the patient to return. On the other hand, I have also worked for a very fair and ethical doctor, so I know they exist. I guess I feel if I don't have a good first impression, than they are the bad kind, but I know that is not fair, so I need to work on that. But, we had already had a bad experience with this doctor, so I just don't trust him.

So to make a long story short, Jude is doing  much better and has been since the day after vising urgent care. We filled the antibiotics and ear drops, even though he was never pulling at his ears at all, just to be safe.  We oped out of the nebulizer because it just didn't match up with a symptom that Jude was experiencing. So in the end, I am not 100% confident to say what exactly Jude had, but I am SOOO glad he is feeling better! Nothing is worse that having a flaming hot lifeless little baby laying miserable in your arms and not being able to do anything to help him!
Thanks friends for all of the prayers and well wishes for my little guy! We sure appreciated them bc this mama was worried to death! And I consider myself to be a very independant woman, but I will admit it was nice to have *my* mommy in town during all of this to keep me grounded!

Poor sickie baby boy before his x-ray.

I am so thankful to have had a *for the most part* very healthy 9 months with this little guy!

Swim Little Fishy

Judah had his first swim class today and loved it! We signed up for this class at the ymca and have been looking forward to it for awhile! I have been so anxious to see how Jude would react to being in a pool since he loves to use his legs so much! He was just a kicking away! He would also dip his face in the water and then come up all surprised and give me a big smile! We sang songs and played with toys and it was great exercise for both of us! Plus it was nice for me to meet some other moms. We are looking forward to the next 7 weeks of classes! And my boy looks seriously cute in his fishy swim trunks :)