Darn near 5 months now!

It seems like just yesterday Julie and I brought Abby home from the hospital and now our baby girl is almost 5 months old. Today Abby had her 4 month check up (a little late but the doctor wanted to hold off on the vaccinations for a bit due to Abby having RSV about a month ago). We are happy to report that Abby is in perfect health and thriving. She weighs in at an astounding 16 pounds 7 ounces and is 27 inches long, neither Julie or I know where she is getting this height. While the appointment as a whole went great, there is nothing more heartbreaking then seeing your baby get their shots. The last time Julie took Abby and it was my turn on this one as Julie said she wasn't ready to watch Abby be in so much pain. At first I thought how bad can it be, but then Abby received the first of four shots and my whole outlook on it changed. She looked up at me with eyes full of tears crying and as if to say "Daddy why are you letting them do this to me, please make it stop!" Needless to say Julie and I spend the rest of day cuddling and holding her as much as we could.
Another big thing in Abby's life right now is she has begun eating rice cereal. She seems to love it and while she is only eating a small amount each day Julie and I are learning how much work and fun feeding solid food to an infant can be. Well I think that is it for now, as always here are some pictures of Abby we have taken over the past few weeks we hope you enjoy them.

Abby and Duke

This is a video clip of Abby performing fantastically at 'Tummy Time.' It must be hard to hold up all that weight since her head is so big.

A healthy and happy Thanksgiving.

Well we have a lot to be thankful for this year, mainly that Abby has gotten over her RSV and is feeling much better! She still coughs a bit but her nose is much more clear and she was able to spend Thanksgiving with both Julie and my side of the family. We were a little concerned how she would handle the busy day but she did great. She cried very little and let anyone who wanted to hold her. The pictures below are of her in her cute Thanksgiving day dress that Grandma Beal bought for her.
The rest are pictures Julie and I have taken over the past weeks. As you will see Abby and Duke have become pretty good friends over the past 4 months.

"Luke I am your Father!"

As some of you know Abby hasn't been herself the last week. About 6 days ago she started having the symptoms of a common cold, we never would have guessed that "cold" would send us to the hospital. On Thursday Abby was running a 99.8 temperature so we called our Pediatrician and were told to bring her in on Friday. So I took the day off and Julie and I took Abby to the doctor. Well after 2 hours at the Pediatricians office we were told they were admitting Abby to Children's Hospital because she had RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus). So after being quite shocked we went home and packed our bags for what our doctor told us could be one night or up to two weeks depending on how she Abby did the first night. Once we got to Children's we sat in the ER waiting room from 2:15 until 4:30, once in a room they put Abby on oxygen to bring her O2 saturation up. When we first got in the ER her levels were at 85% when they should be no lower than 92%. She was so good, every doctor and nurse who saw her couldn't take their eyes off her and kept telling us how cute and good she was. At around 9 o'clock we were moved to a room where Abby would be staying. Unfortunately only one of us could stay at the hospital with her, so I stayed and Julie went home. While Abby slept great, I didn't. At about midnight we got a roommate, another baby with RSV. Due to RSV being so contagious a baby with RSV can't be in a room with a baby who doesn't have it. Anyway, Abby did great and they took her off her oxygen around 2 a.m. and she her O2 levels never dropped below 90. So to everyone's excitement they let us go home Today around 2 in the afternoon. We are so happy to be home and we can tell Abby is feeling better. She is her normal bubbly self and make Julie and I smile and laugh almost all the time. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers, and for those of you we will be seeing at Thanksgiving we can' t wait to see you.

Abby is almost 4 months!!!

Well this blog is going to be a short one as we have been really busy with school and work, not to mention taking care of our little peanut Abby. Abby is continuing to grow and learn, but unfortunately growing means teething. For the most part she is extremely happy but occasionally has several day spans where she is very crabby and has intense drooling as her teeth are trying to come in. So far she has no teeth to show for her pain but both Julie and I got our first tooth pretty early so we expect hers to show up in the next month. She is also beginning to master the use of her hands and regularly grabs items and shakes them around. Her favorite toy is a little doll who's head ends up in Abby's mouth as soon as she grabs her.

We know the favorite part of the blog is the pictures so here are a bunch. Oh and Abby wants to thank Emma for letting her borrow some of her old clothes, she really looks cute it them especially the pink and white butterfly onsie "It looks wonderful darling!"

Abby Smiles!

I just took this video of Abby Smiling. She always smiles after she wakes up so I caught the video after a car ride. That's why she's in her car seat still.

Mommy Post!

Well, it's October so I figured we should probably update the blog again for our interested readers! This month I (Julie) decided to write the post.

As we said before Abby is growing so quickly and it is so fun to watch her learn new things that to us may seem so simple. For about the past month Abby has been quite talk-a-tive. Her first baby talk word was "Gah!" She was laying on her changing table being very alert and looked straight at me, you could tell she was thinking about it, and blurted out "Gah" quite loudly. She has mastered "Gah" and has a whole slew of new sounds that she is stringing together to make baby talk. She even has a favorite stuffed animal that she talks to when we go in the car. Every morning, on the ride to daycare, she has a very long conversation with Mr. Frog. I wonder how long it will take before she gets frustrated that he never responds to her?

As for her vaccinations, they went pretty well. She did alright afterwards but got a very mild fever the night after she got her shots. All in all, we did everything we could to keep her immune system working at full capacity to help adapt to the vaccinations. A few days before the vaccinations she was adjusted for the first time and she was also adjusted a few days after. The first time she was adjusted she slept for about 5 straight hours at day care and pooped a TON! For those of you who don't know what an adjustment is like for a baby, it's nothing like getting an adjustment for an adult. Because babies bones are not fully developed it's very easy to move their joints. So easy, in fact, it only takes a few little finger taps or vibrations to get the bones to move. It's quite interesting and it's very effective.

One of the biggest events in Abby's life is that she no longer sleeps in her bassinet in our room. Just last week she started sleeping in her big girl crib. We have the monitor on all night in case she needs us but we'll put her down to sleep at about 9 or 10 and we always have to wake her up at 6:30 every morning. Although I don't want to admit it, think the reason she was waking up at night when she was sleeping in her bassinet was probably because I was snoring (oops.) But, the sleep is excellent and we're spoiled because she sleeps so well.

Although we've been getting great sleep with Abby sleeping in her own room, Jason and I have been very busy with work and school so he has planned a weekend get-a-way to Redwing at a Bed and Breakfast for us to relax and also celebrate his Birthday which is on Oct. 15th. Abby will be staying with Grandma and Grandpa Beal and Duke will get his own mini-vacation at Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's. Thus, the cat's will also get a vacation from Duke because it seems recently that Duke has been taking his frustrations out specifically on Leon. (Poor Leon.)

That's it for now! Here are some new pictures of Abby. The one where she's checking herself out in the mirror is pretty cute but, my favorite one is the one where she's laying on my Chiropractic table.