12 Days

Nearly 2 weeks of Bria and I being sick and I think we are finally on the up swing. I can't tell you how many years the past 2 weeks took off my life, I seriously have never stressed so much in my life and that is saying a LOT.

Today is the second day of Bria being somewhat back to herself, instead of sleeping all day long she just took a 20 minute nap. Guess she is trying to make up for all the time she spent sleeping. She also woke up at 5:45 am this morning which she has never done, that stupid virus messed her all up!

Anyway, as much as I want to forget about the last 2 weeks since they were the scariest of my life, there were a few moments I'll always treasure.

• Monday Brian stayed home from work to help me with Bria. I was sitting in the brown chair rocking Bria and she fell asleep. Brian decided to take a nap on the couch and MJ was sleeping on the rug by Brian. All my babies were sleeping and it was precious...even the snoring. I couldn't help but thank God for my blessings.
• Tuesday morning I was extra tired when Bria woke up so after I nursed her in bed I laid there while she played with my cell phone. 5 minutes later she laid her head down on me and took an hour and a half nap with me. It was sweet...and much needed for mama.

Thank you so much for all the prayers, we truly felt them and I am over the moon that Bria is starting to get back to her normal self. Words cannot describe how much I missed her adorable smile and silly laugh.

I haven't really taken pictures the last 2 weeks so I don't have any new ones to share. But I did forget to post pictures from Jenny's 30th birthday dinner. It was wonderful that the whole family got to go out. Bria skipped her afternoon nap so she was a bit cranky but all in all it was a wonderful time.

The birthday girl and her hubby

"Dang Dad, that water is cold. Brain freeze!"

"Who's behind me?!"

Cassidy and Bria :)

My Dad and Lance, aka my Dad and mini-me

Porter being adorable with Bria (check out Bria's curl in the back!)

I love living so close to family, it's wonderful to be able to get together and I love that Bria spends time with her cousins, she adores them.

A virus

And not the computer kind. Bria is still sick and running a fever. We took her to the doctor on Thursday, no ear infections or anything, just a virus. Well she continued to get worse until the point where she slept all day long and was borderline lethargic. So Saturday we took her to urgent care, same diagnosis.

I'm worried sick and I miss my Bria. The urgent care doctor was a tiny bit helpful in that he told us to give her a higher dosage of Tylenol. Now that we have been keeping on top of the Motrin/Tylenol remedy she is doing a lot better. Of course last night she woke up crying so I went in to console her and as soon as I picked her up she puked all over, her poor tummy continued to heave. She fell back asleep and woke up an hour later to do the same thing, this time she heaved for awhile and I felt awful. She's not eating but she will drink a bottle a little and nurse. I cannot believe how long this virus is lasting.

I have been stressing all week and praying she is ok. When I took her into the doctor her pediatrician decided I needed more to worry about. She said Bria's head shape has changed considerably since her last appointment at 9 months and that she is referring us to a cranial specialist up in Portland. She kept reassuring me it was probably nothing and told me not to worry.

Oh okay, I shouldn't worry? So if someone told you your daughter's head shape was concerning enough to go see a specialist you wouldn't worry?

We would love some prayers, we are just worried about our little one.

Feeding the ducks

I am under the weather so this post will be more boring than usual, just FYI.

The other weekend we went to the park to feed the ducks and take advantage of the beautiful sun that decided to come out.

It was still chilly so we bundled Bria up, I of course still stressed whether she was warm enough. I think she enjoyed watching the ducks and looking at the trees, she loves pointing to trees.

This last weekend Bria had a fever of 103.6 and I was really worried. Friday night was rough for her (and us), she was up quite a few times and at 3 am we couldn't get her to calm down. We ended up going downstairs and turning the tv on for a distraction to try and calm her down. Once the motrin kicked in she calmed down and was much happier. She still woke up a few times but she was at least consolable. She hasn't slept good since then. Not sure if it's teeth or what but I hope it goes away fast. She acts pretty normal during the day, sometimes she gets cranky but she still smiles and laughs. Last night it was every hour until midnight, then she did a good 3 hour stretch. I am baffled. It's probably because I blogged about how she's usually a good night sleeper, darn jinx.

I'm gonna try and rest even though I should clean our house and do some laundry.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

Isn't that how it goes?

Well I decided to use this little saying and see how it worked. It works great. Here's the story:

Bria has been a pretty good night time sleeper since she was 10 weeks old. Don't get me wrong, she has her moments. But overall she does pretty well. Naps are another story. Every once and awhile Bria will take a wonderful nap, usually once every 3 or 4 weeks. But for the most part she does not like her naps and wakes up grumpy. It doesn't matter that we do the same thing before naps, she still enjoys fighting them. For the last week and a half it's been a huge battle. One day in particular Bria was fighting her nap with every bone in her body. I'd let her cry for a few minutes then go in and cuddle her. Wait a little longer, go in and cuddle. This went on for 45 minutes, she was winning. So I went in there, looked at her, and decided I couldn't beat her, she totally had me. So I joined her.

I crawled in her crib (Sarah-I was totally picturing you in the crib with Jack) and laid down beside her. Almost instantly she closed her eyes and was off to sweet dreamland. I quietly

crawled out of the crib (not easy) and did a silent victory dance. Although it wasn't technically a victory, I still counted it. Brian demanded a reenactment when he got home, he couldn't believe I actually did it. Believe it baby!

In other news, I've been able to put Bria's hair in a cute bow on the top of her head a few times. This may not be big news to you, but it is to us because Bria's hair is growing slower than grass in Arizona during the summer.

I give you the evidence:

Keys are a great distraction so I can get a few pictures.

And you may also notice Bria is in blue. I rarely put her in blue, not because I don't like it. In fact blue is my favorite color. But even when she wears pink people call her a boy so I don't want to encourage them by dressing her in boy colors. Although, I guess it doesn't matter because they make the mistake no matter what. Urgh.

Brian has been so wonderful to let me sleep in on the weekend and he says he LOVES his mornings with Bria. So everybody wins, yesss!

He does a good job of whipping out the camera when needed. Here she is emptying her diaper bag out (favorite thing to do these days):

Bria loves to stand at our back door and tap on the glass, especially when MJ's out there. She thinks it's hilarious :)

I'm busy working on Bria's birthday stuff so that's why I've been MIA. I can't wait for her birthday party!

My funny eater

Currently Bria is all over the board with her naps. One day she doesn't get tired until 12:30 pm and only sleeps for an hour, the next day she falls asleep at 9:45 am. I'm exhausted just trying to keep up with her changing naps.

Plus she is getting up earlier each day and waking up soooo crabby. The first noise out of her is a huge screaming cry. Can you say grumpy? It was only a week ago when she took a two and a half hour nap, but it seems like a lifetime ago :)

She's still in a pretty good mood for the most part though, and yesterday we went for two long walks because it was so nice out. We stopped at the park (I love our neighborhood) and I put her in the swings, she was laughing and laughing. I thought I was going to die of how adorable she was being, loved it.

I would've like to repeat that today but it is so gray and rainy out so that will not be happening.

My friend Erin and I are taking our little ones to swim lessons starting in February! I am ecstatic and can't wait to get Bria in the pool. I got her a cute little yellow and white striped swim suit yesterday at Target and am just giddy with excitement.

I mentioned how Bria is very animated during her meals, here is one of Bria's many faces during her feeding time, funny girl:

Plans for this weekend include homework, homework, and homework. While Brian does that Bria and I will probably make some trips to the library and hopefully get outside for some walks...weather permitting.

11 months

Next month at this time Bria will be 1.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse my mini panic attack. I cannot believe my little baby will be one next month, I seriously may vomit from shock. That is insane to me, didn't I just bring her home from the hospital?

Bria is up to a lot this month:

• Climbing stairs, she is starting to get really fast
• Working on going down the stairs, she still likes to try and go head first (insert heart attack)
• Saying "mama" "dada" "ni-ni" (I think she's trying to say night night) "ssss" and last night she was trying to say her name, it sounds like "Bruh" or "Brrr" it was really cute
• She is still in size 3 diapers and 9-12 month clothes. I've put her 12 month outfits on her but they are still a tiny big
• Wants to walk everywhere, but of course that still requires our hands :) When I try to let go and have her stand by herself she promptly sits down, I think she's cautious like her mama

• Crawls at lightening speed towards MJ's food dish and water dish, fun times
• Knows where her toes, ears, and tongue are. She knows where our nose is (and loves to grab it) and bellybutton
• She knows what trees are and will point to our fake tree when I ask her, she also points to the lights when I ask her where they are
• She is very into pointing these days, she points at everything
• Still waves hi and bye, blows kisses, and gives real kisses! I love her real kisses they are so sweet

• LOVES being naked, her highlight of the day is before bath time when she gets to crawl around naked, she is hilarious
• Nurses first thing in the morning and right before bed, during the day she gets a bottle or 2 of formula (I love wearing a normal bra!)
• Takes one nap a day, for an hour or two
• Goes to bed around 7 pm and wakes up between 6 and 7 am
• Prefers mom but does great with other people if I'm not there, yay!

She is such a sweetheart, especially around other people. Sometimes when it's just the two of us at home she likes to throw tantrums and test me, but she'd never do that around other people because then they'd think my job was hard ;)

It's hard to think Bria is starting her last month of her first year. She has grown so much and I love her personality. She is cautious like me, she observes people and her surroundings before making any sudden moves. She stares at people intently and observes their every move. She is curious but wants me to explore with her. She makes the most hilarious faces ever, seriously, this girl makes about 20 different faces...and that's just during feeding time. I can be frustrated one minute and then as soon as she scrunches her face all is forgiven because I can't help but laugh.

Thanks for making our lives complete Bria, happy 11 months!

Hiking

Last weekend we dropped Bria off at Grammy's house and headed out for a hike. Back in the day we use to go to Bald Hill a lot during college and go for a hike but it's been a long time since we've been there. It was a blast and the weather was perfect. It seriously felt like we were in college again and tons of memories kept flashing back.

I forgot to go to the bathroom before we left but thank goodness there was one there. Brian thought it was funny to take a picture of me going in.

We took our time and stopped at each view point to snap a picture or sip some hot chocolate. It felt good to be outside getting some exercise.


I love how green Oregon is all year round, that would be thanks to the evergreen trees.

Next I want to head out to the beach, it's been over a year since we've been (I think it's been 2 years) and we are taking it for granted that we only live an hour from the beach. Although since we're in Oregon it's not really a beach, we call it the coast. It's rarely sunny there and the water is absolutely freezing, just sticking your feet in is painful. But nonetheless, it's still the ocean and we should take advantage of our close location to it.