Overalls

Overalls
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Tuesday was a fun day. Holly ate more squash, and in the afternoon Granny and Joel made lasagna. We also went for a walk around the neighborhood. We took a long loop around and looked at all the trees changing colors as fall is approaching. Holly strolled in her little umbrella stroller and a sun hat, then fell asleep before the walk was over. Great Uncle Ty came over in the late afternoon, and we had some visitors who were cousins come over in the early evening before dinner. They had their daughter Casey with them who was about 11, and Holly was sleeping when they arrived, but woke before they left and had a lot of fun playing with Casey, they played peek-a-boo, and Holly was very intrigued with her. Joel has a theory that Holly thinks all the big people are here to serve you, feed you, change you, and then the smaller you are the more important you must be, as you have to do less and get more attention. Casey’s parents are working artists, who take antique furniture and paint it, like landscapes and other pictures, typically something that would match the period of the piece. The Dad has one of his armoires in the Smithsonian. The mom also an artist does more figure painting, but right now she is home schooling, so doesn’t have a lot of time to do her art.

They were in town visiting Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s house, as a history lesson. So after their visit they stopped by to say hi to Irene (Holly’s Great Granny) we are thinking about going to Monticello later this week.

Yesterday I also decided to read Twilight, it is a Vampire Book, that was on the best sellers list, there are now 4 out in the series, and as expected, I got addicted to it, and finished the entire book from Monday Night – Tuesday Night. So those of you who have mentioned that you also have a strange fascination with vampires, this is a chick lit, romance story about a girl in High School. I quite enjoyed it, but I am cheesy that way.

Dinner was good, it was the lasagna from earlier, with spicy sausage, and for desert we have been finishing off a cake a visitor had brought over. Holly’s sleeping schedule has been weird, she took several really long naps yesterday, and ate 30 ounces, and I think she is having a growth spurt. She has also been really sweaty, she wakes up with a soaked pillow, and her hair is all wet. Last night we went up to bed around 10:30 and Holly was lying down with Daddy, when I came into the room she began to laugh hysterically. It was very cute, she was so happy and excited to see me she started to kick her feet and turn her head and just laugh and smile. It took a while to settle her back down.

She woke from a bad dream with a startle at 4:00 Am. We fed her a bottle and she settled, this would have been 1:00 Am in California, and She doesn’t wake in the middle of the night anymore unless she is having a growth spurt or teething really bad, both I think are possible.

Holly has also been having a lot of fun in her exersaucer. Jackie (granny) calls it her executive desk, and she spins around and around, keeping herself busy. We think this has taught her how to rotate even more while sitting, she is now scooting herself in a sitting position around a circle. She will be looking forward, and then reach to her side, support herself with one hand, doing an extended reach with the other, and then scoot her butt around, so that when she sits back up, she has turned herself 90 degrees, she does it again, and is now facing the opposite way.

We have also been putting her is a crawling stance to strengthen her arms and backs, she will stay that way for quite a while looking around at the world, occasionally she will extend one arm out.

Today I realized that her playschool archway rotates down to the floor, allowing her to have some tummy time, and look directly at the mirror if she lifts her head, so we did this, and she was on her belly for several minutes, then up to a crawl she would stay there, and then back to her belly. We had a lot of fun. We have also been reading her lots of stories, and she has had lots of attention from her granny.

Squash

Ok, so today I will make a short, sweet and quick post. Sunday was a fun afternoon. First we were hanging out in the sunken living room and we noticed there were flashing red lights against the back wall. Holly was intrigued by this, so we went outside to see what all the ruckus was about. There were two fire trucks. Hoping the neighbors were ok, Jackie went to ask. It seems that there was a fire alarm with a dead battery, and when the battery died, the alarm went off, and this auto-called the fire station... Holly and I sat in the front yard under the shade of a tree in the grass and watched all the firemen. As the truck was preparing to leave, all the firemen waved goodbye to holly, she laughed and was happy for the excitement. The neighbors came by, this time we met Francisco the son, and the grandmother Sarah. The grandmother only speaks Spanish, but was able to tell me how beautiful she thought Holly was, and it was fun for holly to hear Sarah and Jackie speaking in Spanish.

After this commotion, Holly took a nap, when she woke it was time to eat some yummy squash. Since we didn’t have holly’s red eating chair, we sat her on a towel on the middle of the dining room table, it took the three of us to feed her, but really it was Joel holding her up, even though she sits on her own, he was stabilizing her, We let her Granny feed her, and mommy documented the process with picture taking. Holly did a great job, I think she really liked the squash, and we suspected it must taste like the carrots which she also likes. We think she wasn’t very messy at all, but she did get food all over her face, and on her pants, but that’s was ok, since the next activity on the schedule was a bath!


Holly really needed this, and she was covered in travel sweat and grime, so we over filled the sink, which she loved, and as we were bailing her out with a measuring cup, I dumped lots of waterfalls of water over her head, this made her laugh, she was then covered in soap and all rinsed off and when she was done she was a sparkly clean baby!




Later in the afternoon she was getting sleepy, but didn’t want to sleep so Joel and Jackie (Granny) took her for a walk, they went all around the neighborhood, through the woods, and even off road along a trail for a few minutes. While she was on her walk she met up with a dog who was also taking a walk, and she was quite curious about him. She loves being outside and taking walks, she looks around at everything just soaking it all in, and towards the end she fell fast asleep.



Another time she took a nap in her swing and she wasn’t falling asleep right away, the swing at the moment is manual, because it takes 4 D batteries and well, it is just as easy for Joel to push her, so she was swinging, and in that room is Granny’s Stand Up base, so she decided to play for Holly. She did this, this morning also. I think Holly really likes it, at the very least it amused her for a long time, and eventually she fell asleep. At first she was confused and not sure where the low tones and sounds were coming from, and a little distressed, but once she saw her daddy was right by her side rocking her, she was happy to be audience to her granny’s music.


In honor of Holly’s Squash, Daddy and granny had squash with dinner as well. Mommy tried a bite and it wasn’t bad. After diner, granny babysat and Mom and Dad went to the old downtown area to see a movie. We saw Blindness, it was like Children of Men meets Invasion, sorta, I Don’t know.. I mean I did like it, but the ending was just anti-climatic, and somewhat disappointing, it was interestingly done, as it was in a “global” city, filmed in San Paulo Brazil, Ontario Canada, Japan, and a few other places, to all look like 1 city that wasn’t anywhere “real” Parts of it was truly disturbing and a reflection on human nature and what our world might devolve into, which was sorta sad. But I did enjoy it, although somewhat depressing, I was glad to have seen it, and would recommend it to some of my friends.


Holly was fast asleep when we got home, and stayed that way until 8:30 this morning. Thought she was rather restless, and neither mom or dad where having much luck falling asleep, so after tossing and turning until about 2:00, I finally put her up on the bed with me, and with my arm around her fell asleep. She slept soundly as well until morning. Her internal clock is a little off, as she is trying to be on her California schedule, but it just isn’t quite working out for her.


She was rather playful today, and she rolled and sat and attempted to crawl all morning. We have been putting her up on all fours and letting her stay there, she will for several minutes and then sometimes rolls over, other times does a face plant, sometimes flops down, and occasionally will reach, those are the best, as they get her one step closer to crawling, not that I am in any rush. She is having fun playing with all her toys and getting lots of attention. Today since her clock is off, she has been taking many 20-40 minute naps instead of any long ones, we will see how this goes and what time she gets to bed tonight.

Off to Charlottesville

She slept for about two hours and woke up in such a cheerful mood. The plane we were going to get on was teeny tiny, a Holly sized plane. It had only 12 rows with a two seat and a single seat, so not more than 36 people. Holly loved the plane. She woke up laughing and she is a big flirt, I say this in an innocent way, as she flirts with all types of people men, woman, girls boys, it is my way of characterizing how social she is, she just smiles at an engages everyone she looks at. She sat on Mommy’s lap and sucked hard on her pacifier as the plane took off, she looked across daddy and out the window watching the landscape go bye and was quite enthralled, then she would look at the other passengers and smile, and the stewardess just adored her.

From her seat at the ront of the plane she was facing us, and she would smile and make faces at Holly, who in return would smile and coo back. Once we were at cruising height, I dropped the tray table and sat Holly down on this; she liked reaching out and feeling the leather of the seat back in front of her, and was happy to sit on the table. Daddy took many pictures of the landscape and a movie of the plane taking off; she really enjoyed having the window seat. And then, it was literally 15 minutes we began our decent, and in about 45 minutes total, we were getting off the plane and arriving, at 9:35. We had to walk up and down stairs to get in and out of the plane they were practically like a latter, and we were on the runway, walking into the terminal.

Mom and Dad were exhausted, we had not really slept all night, and although it was 10:00 AM, in SF it was 7:00 AM, and we had been up all night, and traveling for about 12 hours. So when we arrived at Great granny’s house, we said our hellos, settled in for a few minutes, but then quickly went to try and get a nap. We left Holly with her Granny and Great Granny, she was in good hands. She went for a walk in a little umbrella stroller and gathered some fall leaves to decorate around the house, one of Granny’s cousins had brought over Fall decorations including a pumpkin candle and the fall leaves were an added flare. There was also a jack-o-lantern in the house that they carved the week before when one of granny’s friends an artist was visiting, we lit it that evening and Holly liked looking at the color and flickering lights.

The house was all prepared for Holly. She had new clothes to wear this week, and several cool new books. One was about a Rhino and its mommy cooling off in the mud, another was classic Sesame Street exploring nature, and there was a cool texture book, a book of colors that was interactive and many more. Holly also had many new toys to play with, including a cool little fold in half cell phone that made a ringing noise and had 4 buttons that said hello and goodbye in English and Spanish. There was a playschool overhead archway with a mirror and dangling rattles, Holly liked this toy, and played with it both laying underneath and sitting up and looking at the little animals attached. She also had an exersaucer which she played in with granny, and then later when we were eating dinner she sat next to mommy and played in it while we ate.

Speaking of dinner, granny made a yummy chicken breast stuffed with pesto, and fettuccini, there was also homemade bread that great granny had made, and it was all very yummy. Holly’s Great uncle Ty came over for Dinner and she was always happy to meet a new face. Also, Holly and granny went next door to say happy birthday to the neighbors daughter Gabriel who was turning 5 and her and her sister and brother loved Holly, they brought her a doll to play with and laughed and smiled at her, she loves other kids and was excited to make the social call, then there granny sent them back over to our place to deliver a chunk of birthday cake to Irene (great granny) So after dinner we had a yummy caramel filled cake for desert.

Holly took another short nap, and I thought she was down for the night, I was exhausted, because I only slept for about 4 hours in the afternoon, as I wanted to get a good night’s rest, so I was ready for bed at like 9:00. But alas, Holly was not as sleepy as I thought and woke up just a few minutes later. So we tried to get her to go back to sleep, but came back downstairs to make a bottle and let her wear herself out. We watched some TV, and fed her and then brought her back up to bed, she laid in bed with Mommy until about 11:45 and then finally fell asleep. We didn’t have her pack-n-play so we set up a soft quilt on the floor for her to sleep on, this was cozy, and she was so content that she slept until 10:45 the next morning. 11 whole hours. I was amazed. I had woken up at 7:45 and was a little chilly, we had opened the window during the night to air out the room and let it cool off from the day, and so at 7:00 I put a blanket over her and went back to bed, sure she would awaken any minute, she did not.

At 10:45 I changed her, and got her a bottle and then she played all morning, until about 2:00. Another new toy she has is a xylophone, and we played with that, hitting a note and then saying a note so eventually as she gets older she may be able to develop tone and learn them. I am realizing she is on her California Schedule, waking at the equivalent of 7:45, and napping at the Equivalent of 10:30-11:00, and even falling asleep so late, would have been t he same as going to bed at 8:30 back home. So we will see how she continues to adjust. In the afternoon Joel and Jackie went to church where they had borrowed some more toys and a swing for her, which is where she is napping currently, fast asleep.

Airplanes

When I go to the airport I get pretty anxious until I am on the plane just worried I am forgetting something or I will miss my flight, our flight wasn’t until 10:00 but we had to go to offsite parking and wait for the shuttle and had the baby and we were told to check in by 8:30, so by the time we were on the road it was 7:30 and then I freaked thinking oh my god, its Friday night and we are driving through San Francisco to get to the airport I forgot all about traffic. But to my amazement, there was no traffic and we were zipping through, we got there in like 20 minutes, and I was amazed. The parking was a smooth and warm butter and before I knew it the shuttle was dropping us off at the united terminal, then took out bags curbside and in 5 minutes we were ready for security. Holly was riding in the Bjorn, and I had her Birth Certificate, as the internet said I would need it, and Joel was carrying her diaper bag. I had a bottle with breast milk that I was anxious about, and we proceeded through security, they didn’t even ask about the breast milk, told me I didn’t need the birth certificate, and together we walked through the metal detector, then a woman patted us both down, and in like 5 minutes we were done with security. I couldn’t believe it, it was not even 8:15 and we were at our gate. That said, they told us the wrong gate and we had to trek all the way to the other side of the airport to find the right one that ended up being a good thing as we got to walk through the food court, and have dinner. There were so many children and babies everywhere we looked. I had a wood fired pepperoni pizza and Joel, in honor of saying goodbye to San Francisco had a yummy sushi bento box, as we were going somewhere where sushi is exotic food (and you don’t get it in the airport) his dinner was delicious and hit the spot. Also, they had a Just Deserts in the airport food court too, so I got Joel a yummy macaroon cookie, some mousse cake for later and a scoop of mint ice cream.

There seemed to be at least 4 other babies on our flight, and so many kids wherever we looked, we think this must be because like me they thought with an overnight flight they will sleep. Holly was having a blast looking around at everything happy to be in her Bjorn, and just soaking it in. She was getting sleepy and hungry but had not cried or fussed once all night. Just before boarding we changed her and made a bottle, and then boarded in the last group. During takeoff she ate, and in minutes she was on mommy’s chest, tucked into the Bjorn and fast asleep. She stayed like this until we were standing up to deboard the plane.

Mommy watched a movie, the American Girl, a Kit Kittredge Story, which was about a ten year old during the depression, who wanted to be a reporter and made friends with some hobos. With all the talk about today’s economy it was very topical, her friends were losing their houses, and her dad had to leave town to work, and they took in boarders to make ends meet. Kit was played by Abigail Breslin and she did a great job.

So while she was asleep, holly had a poopie diaper, I suspected she might, I hoped that riding in the Bjorn at the airport she would before we got on the plane when I changed her but she did not. Since I suspected she was sound asleep, and since I wasn’t sure, I wasn’t going to try and change her on the plane if she was sleeping, so I let it be, but once we arrived at Dulles, I knew she needed to be changed, well it was the worst poopie diaper I have ever seen, it got all over her belly, and when I was taking it off, she decided that she wanted to eat her toes so it got on her hands and her heel as she was trying to do that, the bathroom didn’t have a real changing table, and it was a mess everywhere. To top it off, I have trouble on planes with my ears, so my ears had not fully popped yet, only 1 did, so I was in pain. Also to try and get them to pop I had drunk a Snapple, 2 cans of cranberry juice and a water, so I had to pee like a race horse. I finally got her cleaned up and had to take her all the way back to the gate so I could give her to dad and go back and pee. I was lucky to make it to the bathroom just in time.

Once we were settled I was quite traumatized and ready for a break, Holly was hungry and just eaten, so Joel handed her t me so he could go to the bathroom, and she puked all over me. Yea!! Just my luck, first poop everywhere and just as I cleaned us all up, there was puke. She mostly missed herself, and I hadn’t dressed her yet because she was so sweaty from the plane, she didn’t get it all over her clothes, but she got it all over me. I cleaned myself up, and dried her off some and then we were settled back in. Our flight to Dulles was supposed to arrive at like 6:45 but it was early and arrived at like 5:30. Our flight to Charlottesville wasn’t until 8:57 so we had over 3 hours to wait in the airport. Holly was exhausted and after the pooping, eating and puking she fell fast asleep.

Friday

So I have lots of updates, going all the way back to Friday morning. Friday was my last day of work. Joel stayed home with Holly to help prepare for our trip. So I went in and said goodbye to my office for the last time. Then I went to a meeting for the Regional Accrediting Agency for Schools and Colleges, this is a professional organization that I am a member of, and will continue my work with while I am at home with Holly. During the day I had several calls back and forth with Holly’s pediatrician and the various pharmacies. Dr. Hagerman wants her to do a high foliate treatment, up to as much as 7-8 mg, or 1 per Kilo, the pediatrician thinks this is rather high, so wants to start off on a lower dose, regardless, we don’ wan to have to manually crush various tablets daily and put power in her milk, so we are trying to get a liquid. Two of the pharmacies I use do not have it in liquid form, and in fact the only way it comes as a liquid is when it is made for an IV. Since this is categorized as an injectable, the Insurance does not cover it. So we had to make calls back and forth with the insurance company who said to me they would cover an injectable taken orally, but when the pharmacy called to verify they still rejected it saying they needed to talk with the doctor. By this time I was in my meeting and then on my way home to finish packing and head to the airport, so I had to leave it be until next week.

While I was dealing with all of this, daddy was having a fun day at home with Holly. They practiced music in the morning and read a story and then took a nap. Later Katie arrived and wanted to do a mini assessment to prepare for Holly’s 6 month appointment with the regional center on the 20th, which is more annoying drama, because Leela called and told us she could no longer make it on the 20th, and this was after sally had changed an appointment with another child to accommodate that day and time. So I was a bit annoyed that we would have to rearrange everything, and that I would have to try and do that from Virginia with limited internet access.

Anyways, at Katie’s appointment Holly demonstrated a bunch of new skills. Katie asked Joel if Holly plays peek-a-boo, and he said well I think, and proceeded to put the blanket in front of him then lower it and say peek-a-boo, which Holly of course laughed at. Then he put it over her head, pulled it down and said peek-a-boo and she laughed and smiled some more, and then Katie said, well.. I mean does she do it on her own? Well I don’t know he said, and so we gave her the blanket and put it n her head and waited. She then proceeded to pull it down, and laughed and smiled. Then, still holding the blanket, she took it and lifted it back up over her eyes, and then quickly pulled it down again and laughed, so she proceeded to play peek-a-boo with Daddy. So the next thing they looked at were her sitting skills. Joel was telling Katie how Holly would sit, and then reach and go into a crawl, but Holly wasn’t in the mood to do this, so Katie didn’t quite believe him, so then they put holly into a crawl stance and she proceeded to transition back into sitting from a crawl stance, now this had Katie floored, as this is a much more advance skill, and typically babies learn the other way around first. So just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke, they put her back into a crawl stance and three more times she went from crawl to sit. But never while Katie was over would she go from sit to crawl. We decided it’s all about motivation, she likes to sit, so she is very motivated to go into a sit position, she needs a lot of motivation to actually reach for something and almost crawl to get it, it isn’t very often she does it, but she can if she wants to.
Holly had woken up around noon, and was changed and had a bottle by 12:30 when Katie arrived and in a blink of the eye it was already 2:00 and she was still playing.

She slept just before mommy got home around 4:45. I had to go to Alta bates and return the breast pump I had been renting. I got one from craigslist for 50$ and had it at work, now that I am not working, I can use it at home. It is not as powerful as the one I was renting, but it will do, and it will save us the 50$ a month rental fee. I had some last minute packing to do, and was running around as usual until about 7:00 when I was ready to take stuff to the car. Joel lifted the big red suitcase, and said oh my this is too heavy, and I was scared, because I knew they would not take it if it was 70 pounds. So we pulled out the scale and weighted the bag and it was exactly 49.5 pounds. YEAH! So off to the car Joel went loading up all of our stuff.

Postcard

Postcard
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

So I went to daycare to get Holly, and they decided that they would give me 1/2 refund for the month of October. I was very happy to hear that and have the extra Money. That did mean that I had to bring all of her stuff home with me. I got her formula, and wipes and diapers, her blankets and toys, and extra cloths and bottles, but alas, I forget her teethers, I will have to get them when I go and visit after my trip and pick up the refund check.

After bringing all of her stuff to the car we went to pick up daddy. He was trying to finish up a project, so we went into the office and waited for him in this cool conference room area. There were comfy couches and we sat and played for about 20 minutes waiting for Joel to finish up his project. I was on my way to a professional dinner, for work and Joel was going to stay home with Holly. It was nice to get out and not have to worry about her, and it was a great dinner at a place called mint leaf, a Vietnamese restaurant.

Tomorrow Joel will stay home with Holly while I go into work for my last day, and to a off-site meeting, for that same professional organization. Then I get home and finish packing, though I did most of it tonight, and we are off to the Airport.

Joel and Holly had a lot of fun playing today, they had some piano practice, and she was super energetic as usual. I think she is beginning to learn both object permanence and cause and effect. While we were playing and waiting for Joel, I had my keys sitting on the couch, Holly began to try and reach over for them to play with them, but could not reach. She stretched and pulled and tried to literally crawl over to them, then she decided to pull on the strap of the bag which brought the keys close enough for her to reach them, she was very impressed with herself. When she pulled the bag down she left her pacifier underneath it, so when she was tired of playing with the keys she looked under the bag to get her pacifier and pushed it back up again. I was pretty amazed.

She wants to move, and reach and explore, its only moments away.

BTW - This is a picture of Holly reading a postcard from her granny preparing for her trip to Virgina.

Hearts

Hearts
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Wednesday we had a great session with Sally. Holly always has a little bit of trouble transitioning when we start her therapy in the early evening right after I pick her up from daycare, she is so happy to see mommy, that she gets angry that I would even think to allow someone else like sally or Katie to play with her. Once she was fed, and I got down onto the floor with her and we let her sit on my lap she was fine. Today I was concerned with her back and neck. A few posts ago I posted a picture of myself in a crawling stance, and after seeing it over and over worried myself, because Holy can;t get herself into that position, or better put perhaps she just doesn't want to, so that is the thing. If she doesn't want to, then ok, I will work with her and we will come up with ways for her to move as she likes, but if she is not capable of bending her back, or extending it, or tilting her head all the way back, then I am concerned.

So today Sally and I looked at this and worked on it. First thing that Sally told me is that rotation is similar to back extension. When you do a "back bend" or arch your back all the way, you are extending the joints on both sides at once, when you rotate or twist and turn, you extend those same joints, just one side at a time. Well this immediately relieved some of my concern, as Holly is really good at the rotation. So then we tried to get her to tilt her head all the way back. She does this thing where she turns if she is trying to look at something or simply looses interest rather then tilting all the way. Both Sally and I tilted our hears to see what angle they were out, and said, its not really 90 degrees, more like 60, and we think Holy is tilting at around 45. Sally is confident she can tilt her head back more, but her being so tight simply makes it that she does not. She wants to be upright and so the goal is putting her in positions that give her the opportunity to stretch her back and next while allowing her to still be upright.

We also worked on her sitting, she uses her heals to bear down and keep her balance rather then her core, so we want to get her to tuck in her legs, forcing her to use her core, and relax her tendons in her legs. Overall it was a really good session, but I decided to be a mean mommy and really push her today, and if she cried, not immediately move her into a different position. I found that sometimes she would find something that interested her and stop crying, and I need to give her a second to adjust before jumping into action.

We also talked a little bit about Sensory Integration issues, Sally had just done a workshop on this, and although it was geared more towards 3-4 year olds, she is planning on getting the 1 test that exists for under 18 months and going through it with Holly to see where we stand. I had recently read an article about this where it indicated that you can have both sensory overload, but also an increased need for greater sensory input, and I had not realized that before, and that a child can have a mixture of both on different days, when in different moods, or for different areas. After reading the article I reflected on some situations where Holly seems to want or need additional stimulation, and others where she gets somewhat overwhelmed. But I think any indication of these is still very mild in her. I am interested in seeing what the test says and what it measures.

We leave tomorrow to fly to Virginia and see Holly's Great Grand Mother. I am really looking forward to the trip and being in Virgina and seeing the family, Holly will also get to meet her Uncle Alan for the first time. But I am a little anxious about her flying. I called United last night to find out more about what if anything I needed to do. Thank God I called. First they added her name to the itinerary, then told me I needed to bring her birth certificate, which I had not realized, so I am thankful, then when I asked about how many bags we could check, they told me as many a s i want, surprised I inquired further and they said, but it is 15$ for the First and 25$ each addition, BOTH WAYS!! Can you believe that. So in order to bring Holly;s Travel Pack and Play it will cost us 50$, for that price, we could buy a used one on Craigslist. So I called Joel's mom and told her to start looking, and she was able to borrow one form he church, sot hat saves us at least 50$

I was up all night last night packing, because tonight I have plans, and Friday evening we need to leave by 7:00. So now I have to re-think my packing strategy, and see if i can get everything to fit into 1 suitcase to save an extra 30$ or perhaps get a different one, as a carry on, which apparently is allowed. So if being on an airplane with a baby wasn;t stressful enough, they have to add in a pat per bag rule. Now I am just worried about bringing breast milk in her diaper bag, they said it was ok, but who knows if the security guards will follow that when it come time to walk through the gate.

Tomorrow is also my last day at work. Today was a farewell party, and it was very sad and exciting, I feel back for those I am leaving behind, but so excited about this new adventure, my life is about to utterly transform. I am still trying to figure out daycare. Joel is staying home with Holly tomorrow, to meet with Katie her OT, and to get ready for the trip, so she won;t be going, so today may be her last day, but they still have not decided if they will give me a particular refund for the month of October, and if they don;t I intend on bringing her back later in the month. The week I get back I have Doctor's and Dentist Appointments (squeezing it all in while I still have my insurance) so it will be easier to be able to drop her off, but not worth the full cost of the month if they will give me it back.. so we will see, I find out today.

I plan on updating the blog from Virgina, but with traveling, it may be a few days before I get around to it.

So Much Energy

So Much Energy
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Today was a fun day. I picked up Holly around 5:00 and we stopped at Joel's work to visit him. He is in a new office for the next 6 weeks to mingle with them and support the software he developed. So we got to see his new desk, and meet all the new people. Usually we visit the R&D group, all hard core programmers, but now he is sitting with the artists, so they all ran over to see Holly, and thought she was amazing. Two of them just had babies that were 8 and 9 months old, so we joked that we should arrange a playdate.

After a short visit Holly and I went home. While I was unloading the car I saw a mom walking with her baby who looked familiar, and she asked me, you are in swim class right? and I said I was and recognized her. Well she lives like 1 block away, her baby Alex is 11 months. She said that she wondered who lived in my house for months, because a while back, someones mom, mine or Joel's saw her walking and said, there is a new baby here. And then pointed out that the hedge in front of my house is shaped like a Bunny. She had lived in the neighborhood a few years and never noticed.

So she was excited to learn that It was me, someone she knew from swim class. We decided that next time we see each other at swimming we will exchange emails and plan a playdate.

I know this sounds cheezy, but I was thinking of making Holly and Mommy Business cards, with our names, info, maybe a picture, and our email address, and phone number. So then I can give them out to other moms I meet and they will have my contact info easy. Anyway it was exciting to meet her, not in a crowd of like 30 other mommy/baby couples, and learn she lives really close.

Holly was amazingly fun and energetic tonight and my goodness, it is like she thought, hmmm... I am almost 7 months old and I should be babbling by now, so let me start. She would not quiet down at all, and was saying ma babababababa mamamama bababa maba all night long. It was amazingly cute, and very intentional. When it was quiet she would stop, and when we were talking or had the tv on she would join into the conversation. late my mom called and I put her on speaker so she could hear Holly, but Holly decided to get all shy and intrigued with the phone and the disembodied voice, she tried to eat it and was quiet disturbed hearing it, come from the phone, she was quiet and wouldn't say anything.

Once I hung up she was hungry and fussy but started to babble again. She drank her bottle and fell fast asleep. Well I am off to get stuff down before bed, so talk more later.

Oh?

"Oh?"
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Saw this on Photo mommy's Page.

All About Me and My 1st Baby Meme - those fun details about my pregnancy and 1st delivery.

1. Were you married at the time? Yes, 9 and 1/2 years, together almost 15.

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? Super excited, In awe, amazed.

3. How old were you? 32

4. How did you find out you were pregnant? Took a test, 3 times, I thought I got my period 17 days prior, but then started to feel nauseous. it was all very confusing.

5. Who did you tell first? Joel, called him into the bathroom, he was sleeping and didn't want to get up. he had no idea I was taking the test. Then I took a picture, and kept it a secret for a few weeks until after the first ultrasound at 9 weeks. Then emailed the pictures of both to my mom and joel's mom.

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes, I could not wait to find out, but I was sure it was a girl.

7. Due date: March 1st 2008, but technically she was due on Leap Day, but the day after the 28th on the chart was the 1st, in reality the day after was the 29th (leap day)

8. Did you deliver early or late? 11 days late, I was so happy about that, since I worked until my due date, and then the next week I got to lounge around the house on my leave, until she came.

9. Did you have morning sickness? I did not vomit once. I felt nauseous a few times in the beginning but then started eating something every 2 hours and was fine.

10. What did you crave? Every few weeks I would crave something. I just had to have that thing, but each time it was something different. I also craved and missed fruit during the 2nd half.

11. Who irritated you the most? No one really, I don't think.

12. What was your first child's sex? Female

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? For the first 7 months I gained no weight. During the last 2 I gained 17 lbs, almost all during the last month.

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? I had gestational diabetes. This was hard later when I was craving fruit all the time. and there was too much sugar.

15. Where did you give birth? Alta Bates Medical Center, Berkeley, CA

16. How many hours were you in labor? 67, and I was in Triage 3 times the week before for various reasons.

17. Who drove you to the hospital? Joel, after 2 days of labor starting on a Saturday we went to the OB on Monday Morning. I was three centimeter's finally. So he said to go to the Hospital even though my contractions weren't at 4.1.1 Instead of going right to the hospital we went home to get all my stuff.

18. Who watched? Joel, both of our families live in Florida, and my sister is in the peace corps.

19. Was it vaginal or c-section? C-Section, After taking Pitocin for several hours, I never progressed passed 5 centimeters, The Dr. said c-section at 11:00 PM Monday, but I wasn't prepared, he said he would give me one more hour, so she ended up being born at 1:13 am Tuesday morning.

20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Yes, Epidural to start, after 50 hours of labor, I was ready. Plus with the Pitocin the contractions are pretty bad. Then with the c-section I had no choice.

21. How much did your child weigh? 8 lbs

22. What did you name him/her? Holly Zamira

23. How old is your first born today? 7 months on Saturday

Mommy made this ;-)

Mommy made this ;-)
Originally uploaded by vczdavis

Baby @ Work Day!

Monday was a fun day. Holly got to come with mommy to work. Mommy works (for 4 more days) at a Health Science College. One of the programs here is nursing. In nursing they have a pediatric course, and on Monday they were learning about giving a health assessment to a baby. Well of course that means they need a "Standardized Patient - Actress" to play the part of the baby, and Holly got the roll.

She did such a good job, acting cute, chewing on everything in site, trying to take the stethoscope, displaying object permanence, when she followed a toy that she was dropping. Modeling her belly, and truck, her back and fontanel. She was quite the star patient, and didn't mind an audience of 30 student's one bit.

She even made friends with the other actress, Sarah, a 4 and 1/2 year old, playing the part of toddler.

Since she was in the office with me, we were lucky to run into a faculty meeting just before her debut, and she was surrounded by nurses cooing and smiling at her. She quite likes her adoring fans, and of course I was told that people can quite understand why I would want to be at home with this precious little girl. She showed off here teeth, and her foot chewing abilities and all were impressed.

After her performance as "baby" she realized it was way past her nap time, and on cue fussed for a bottle after which she fell fast asleep. Not wanting to disturb her, and knowing how tired she was, Mommy walked all the way across campus while she napped to visit some other co-workers and show her off. She old dozed her typical 25 minutes and woke refreshed with a big smile for one co-workers, who was amazed that she would wake up so happy. her face frowned for a moment then, but turned saw that mommy was still around, and went back to a huge smile, and to pay attention to her new fan.

we stopped at the Library, Financial Aid, Registrar, IT, and Media Services, some Faculty, and then went to see my boss. I told my my boss that she had to meet my new boss. knowing this was someone to impress, Holly showed off her sitting and chewing and playing skills.

After we went to another friend's office, where Holly decided she needed a change, and played on her lovely couch. it is made of scratchy fabric, so holly really enjoyed feeling the new texture. Then it was time to bring her back to daycare, as the day had been long, and the people she met many.

When I picked her up, she played with me and ate but was very tired, so much so in fact, that she fell asleep on Mommy's bed at around 7:00 was transferred to her crib around 10:30, and didn't wake up until 6:00 AM.. That's like 11 hours.. wow.. that is a long time. Daddy had missed her, since she was already asleep when he got home, but he got to feed her at 6:00 AM, and she was up again by 8:00, and this time with a vengeance, she had soooo much energy, she was bouncing off the walls, and right out of her play nest.