Julius

Before leaving Edinburgh, Matt and I decided that we should buy something special for the little one we were expecting. Ever since we had found out we were pregnant, we frequented this little toy store around the corner called Pinocchio. (http://www.pinocchiotoys.co.uk/index.htm) Throughout the UK there are these cute little stuffed toys called Moulin Roty dolls. We decided on the stuffed dog, since it was more gender neutral than the mouse or rabbit that I was dying for. His name is Julius, and we were so excited someday to see Laurelei play with it. 

Well, the playing started sooner than I expected because despite my best effort at insisting to Matt and you can't put stuffed toys in a babies crib, he smuggled Julius to the hospital anyway. One of our first pictures of her in her little plastic hospital crib she had Julius, almost the same length as her, next to her. It didn't stop when we got home as every night Matt would hold it as he rocked her or tuck it safely in the corner of her crib. Now, we cannot remove her best friend Julius from her. Laurelei is quite aware of our intentions if we even get close to her stinky little friend after she has been chewing on him for days. 

This presents quite a problem because Julius, being nothing more than cotton and wool, gets very stinky. Laurelei sucks and chews and suck and chews until he is soggy and stinky and gross. He is easily washed (since Matt and I decoded the European wash instructions,) but we simply have the worst time taking him away. The other night is the perfect example, I snuck in after she had fallen asleep, slipped him out of her arm and began soaking him immediately in the sink. About 15 minutes later our little one began to stir and promptly realized that Julius was not there. She would not sooth herself back to sleep and it escalated until Matt went into rescue her. For the next 30 minutes she cried and cried, more along the line of sobbing, until we went through every stuffed animal she had to find the closest on in material and shape. Thankfully, she was so tired that she didn't even open her eyes, so we were able to slip the frog under her arms and rock her for a few minutes until she drifted off to sleep. 

Since this incident we have discovered our big mistake.  What were we thinking to buy a toy in a foreign country and allow our child to become absolutely attached to it when there is seemingly no way to replace it if it happens to disappear. 

Currently my mom is searching the internet for a place to order another Julius, just in case.  

my version of crawling so far...

family vacation

Laurelei is currently down for a nap. When I say down I mean, she is in her bedroom fighting the idea of actually sleeping tooth and nail. She is currently trying out her arsenal of different protests such as screaming, banging, and just plain crying. We were making so much progress before we left for vacation on going down for naps twice a day, but since our return she is a bit of schedule. Sunday went just fine with naps, yesterday daddy rescued her in about 5 seconds each time, and today I am trying to give it at least 5 minutes. We are such softies its no wonder she knows she can get what she wants!

Anyway, we had a great time at the beach with my family. Seeing Laurelei's reaction to the water temperature and the sand was priceless. She cried immediately every time we put her little feet in the ocean water. The crashing waves were just too much for her to handle. We took her on long walks everyday during which she would usually fall asleep on our shoulders, but before this could happen, she would clench onto us, eyeing the water woefully until she was certain we were not going to attempt to put her down again. We are hoping for better results with that next year! 

As for the sand though, she was a huge fan. She loved picking it up and throwing it and covering her little feet with it. We are quite lucky that this was her feeling, however, since her first experience with the sand was on the first day when she rolled her self off of her sheet and directly, face down into the sand. It was quite sad! She was such a trooper about it though, and didn't begin to cry until after she was all cleaned up. 

Overall, we were so proud of her attitude the whole trip. She sat patiently during dinners out every night, took naps whenever she was tired and even slept the majority of the 10 hours car rides there and back. We can't believe how lucky we are to have such a sweet, even tempered baby. It was truly priceless to share this first family vacation with her. We are looking forward to many exciting trips to come!

baby update

Well, Laurelei had her 6 month check up today (can you believe it?) and we are hoping everything looks great! She weighed in at 14 lbs 9oz and was 24 inches long. That puts our little one in the 20th and 10th percentile. She is scooting right along! As with all check up, the needles came along in full force! She had 3 shots in her legs which were so painful to watch, once again.

 Then Dr. Mack informed us that in addition to her shots and regular check up, our hematologist from UK Children's Hospital wanted CBC, ritic. count and hemoglobin blood tests run as well. Now that Laurelei has gotten older, they can no longer take it from her heal, so we had to have the whole work up done with an IV and catheter in her arm. A nurse and I had to hold her down because she was really freaked out by all the needles and tubes. It was truly, truly awful! 

Needless to say, we have had a long day with one whiny little Laurelei. Everytime she moves, gets moved or accidentally touches her leg she gets really upset. This afternoon we had about a 45 minute long weeping session which entailed our precious little baby clinging onto me and burying her head in my shoulder while she cried uncontrollably and couldn't be comforted. 

In the end, this will all be worth it if we get just one day closer to a clean bill of health. While her thalassemia can never go away since its a genetic blood disease, we would love to hear that there are no dramatic symptoms showing up at this time. If so, Laurelei is needle free for 3 whole months! Our longest stretch so far! We are saying our prayers and continuing to count our blessings that we even have a beautiful little baby hear today. What a miracle she is!

Keep Laurelei in your thoughts, and hopefully we will all have big smiles in just a few short days!

sleep

I am still trying to figure out what to make of this whole baby sleep schedule thing. It seems to change daily. In the beginning, as to be expected, Laurelei slept all the time. She was awake maybe a solid 3 hours a day if you added up all the awake time together. Now granted, because of her thalassemia she is supposed to be easily worn out, but there was literally NO getting her on a sleep schedule back then. Trying to keep her up when she needed sleep was impossible. She was quite insistent that none of that "babywise" schedule stuff would work for her. 

So time passed and we got used to Laurelei being awake more and more, taking about a 2-3 hr nap in the daytime sleeping about 7:00-pm to 4:30am at night and starting all over again. We were overjoyed when she started making the jump from a 4:30 wake up to a 5:30-6:30 wake up. 

But as time continued to pass, she seemed to require less and less sleep, until it was obvious that our 5 month old baby was the sole infant in the world to require absolutely no napping at all. She would nod off here and there but refuse to sleep. She would not be tricked into lying down for a feeding or taking a spin around the block. Beyond that, she started staying up till 9:30/ 10:00 pm and waking up still around 6. 

(I love that when she naps, she literally has to lie ON TOP OF julius)

This did not last long, as you can imagine a baby needs her sleep. But it seems we have gone form little to no napping to a full blown newborn state once more. I decided what while I was on a break from school I would get the baby on a nap schedule to make it easier when she finally goes to a sitter this fall. After one day of instituting the lay in your bed awake and take a nap thing, she is a pro. All she wants to do is get in her bed with her blankie and Julius (her best friend aka stuffed dog from Edinburgh) and roll around until she falls asleep. As I type now, she is on her second nap of the day. While the time to get things done around the house has been nice, and I am now considering the possibility that this much sleep is not quite what she should be doing at her age. Perhaps I should not have made the idea of naptime in her crib so appealing? 

Hopefully tomorrow we can strike more of a balance. 

our trip to savannah

Matt took me on the perfect little getaway for our two year anniversary to Savannah, GA. We stayed at a beautiful hotel called the Avia in the historic district and ate some fantastic food! The trip was beyond what we needed to rest and relax. There was one small catch though, we left Laurelei behind.

Leaving her was incredibly hard, and of course she cried at the airport, which didn't make things any easier at all. Every baby we saw I would wonder if they were older or younger than Laurelei, what Laurelei was doing right now, and in most cases I inevitably would call my mom to check on her! It was pathetic. Thankfully, when we returned Laurelei hadn't had any major "firsts" like crawling. She is moving around quite a bit and we were a little worried that might happen. She had so much fun while we were gone she probably didn't even notice we weren't there! Gigi and Poppy spoiled her with kisses, staying up late and a big trip to Carters for some new clothes. Harrison and Jackson had their fair share of quality time too. She is one lucky little girl!

In the end, it was wonderful to have some alone time with Matt. It is so wonderful spending time with him, even more in love than we were two years ago. It is hard to deny how blessed our lives seem at this very moment!

baby's first wedding

As wedding season gets well under way, Laurelei took her first road trip with Matt and I up to Toledo, OH for our friends Tara and Travis's wedding. We had a great time, and Laurelei did a fabulous job. She Was very patient considering the lack of floor time she got! Matt was also very patient considering I was in the wedding and he had 24hr duty for pretty much two days. What would we do without him!? Laurelei looked fabulous in her little silk dress and enjoyed dancing the night away!

It was the first wedding Matt and I had been to since we had Laurelei just 6 short months ago. On our long trip home that night, we realized how incredibly blessed we were. Just two years ago that was us walking down the aisle and saying our vows, and now we have the most beautiful daughter in the world. Things can change so quickly can't they? While it wasn't what we originally had in mind, I wouldn't change God's timing for anything.