Layla 6 Months

On October 12th, Layla turned 6 months old! Its so hard to believe that pretty soon, we will be planning her first birthday! She is such a sweet heart, still much harder than her sister was as a baby, but so darn cute and cuddly!

Weight: 13lbs 3 oz (3rd %tile, I try not to worry about this, as my doctor does not, but she is so little!)
Height: 25.5 inches (21st %tile)
Head: 41.5 cm (17th %tile)
Size: 6-9 months for the most part. I still squeeze her into my favorite 3 month outfits, but its getting harder and harder to do that; size 2 diapers (prefer pampers swaddlers, huggies leak poop everywhere!)
Diet: still breastfed,, about every 3-4 hours during the day, will take bottles of breast milk, has tried organic baby oatmeal, bananas, apples, sweet peas, squash, dry toast, cherrios (and other random cereal). I think that's it 

Sleeps: on her right side or belly (she rolls into position), wakes up around 7:30am, morning nap about 10am (35mins or 2.5 hours), up for another 3-5 hours, then if its early enough she will take another 35 min nap, or just stay up til bedtime around 6pm-7pm...still usually wakes up once or twice during the night to nurse. Now, instead of pumping before bed, I wake her a little and nurse her, and then she generally doesn't wake up to eat until 4:30 or 5:30 to nurse then goes back to bed for usually a couple more hours
Milestones: sits up by herself when put into a sitting position for at least a few mins at a time, rolls everywhere and attempts to get into crawling position but not able to move this way, still babbles and blows raspberries, turns well to voices and sounds and can spin self in exercise saucer, transfers objects between hands and can put objects directly into mouth, able to put paci directly into her mouth the correct way, gives me kisses and hugs, practices fine motor skills with cherrios, drinks from sippy cup (cannot hold by herself), drinks from large straws
Playtime: loves interactions with caregiver, sissy, and the environment, love going outside and on walks in snuggli, very friendly to to others, but gets very weary when strangers get too close
Other: First 2 bottom teeth cut through about a week ago!

I love this little girl so much I can hardly take it sometimes. I love to squeeze her and tickle or and make her laugh. She is so silly! I feel so blessed to have 2 healthy baby girls in my family <3

All the caffeine in the world won't help

I feel so tired all the time. I know my daily caffeine habit is getting worse, but when I don't indulge I feel like the walking dead. I am trying to cut back, and I don't drink any after 2pm, because I have a hard enough time sleeping.

Any ways, not too much new to say other than we are setting in the familiar routines and making headway in baby rearing fronts. Kelly has been  back at Speech Therapy the past 4 weeks, and starting this week she will be going twice a week for 30 mins each, instead of 1. She is making very minimal progress, and its making me very nervous. She doesn't know her colors, other than purple and orange, doesn't know letters, won't even sing the ABC's, only knows the numbers 2, 6,7, &8, but cannot recognize them...and don't get me started with potty training. She will pee in the toilet anywhere but at home! She responds "No" to pretty much anything you ask her, even when she means yes, and everything is still "mine". I wouldn't call 2, terrible, because there is lots of good too. She is very loving to her family, she loves playing outside, playing hide-and-seak, and reading stories. She also loves helping me cook and trying new food while in that mode. ::sigh:: she is exhausting.

Layla is doing fine. I will write a seperate entry for her and about her 6 month well-baby appointment.

Right now I have a bad cold and cannot get my nose to stop running! Probably from working the other night. I picked up a shift at UPH, the overnight. As the only RN in the building, and on the floor (the other 2 floors have just 1 LPN and 2 CNA's), I was the house officer. Basically I think the night went really well, and though I only got a 2 hour nap the morning before, it was only an 8 hour shift, so I had no problem staying awake. Of course the large coffee and starbucks frapp I had while I was there sure helped too! After work I came home, found Layla and Aaron snuggling and joined them for about 2 mins before Layla woke up, nursed her, and then played until Kelly woke up. Then we all went to mass at St. Patricks. We had to leave right after communion however, because it was WAY longer than usual and I kept falling asleep! I ended up taking a 3-4 hours nap when we got home.

I was supposed to work Monday, a day shift, also at UPH, but on the 3rd floor, which I do not like, but was going to do it anyway, but I got canceled because one of the nurses picked up a double. I was kinda disappointed because I had my mind set and everything ready, and didn't get the call until about 4AM! Oh well, there will be others.

Speaking of the job front I finally got my phone interview scheduled for today, in about an hour and 20 mins. I am excited! It is for the Penrose ICU, not my dream job (that would be L&D), but a good alternative. I think its for at least part-time, but can't remember because I applied like 3 weeks ago and since then have applied for like 6 or 7 other jobs.

I have also been selected by my current employer to go full-time as a Case Manager for some place near Cheyenne Mountain, I can't remember the name. Its for full-time, Mon-Fri, 0800-5pm. Doesn't pay great, about $52k/yr, but I am considering it. They know I don't have experience win the area of case management, but are really in need and willing to train me. Basically I would interview, and if I like it and they like me I will be a temp-to-hire, then if it works out I will take it. I am thinking of doing it until at least something else better comes along, because at least then I would be guaranteed hours. I still need to go pick up the information on it today, but I am thinking I will do it. Who knows, maybe I will really like it? It would be good experience to put on a resume too.

wish me luck on my phone interview!

no rest for the weary

Things have been incredibly busy since we got here. We have been here about 2 1/2 weeks, and we have already settled in nicely. We just got our property Friday, and what a cluster that was. We still have a couple boxes to unpack. Our bedroom in nice and cozy though, and the girls room is coming together nicely! I got some blackout curtains for the girls room, and can't to hang them up! I also hung up some other pictures in their room. I put my glider up there and it looks great with the crib and Kelly's twin size bed.
The Thursday of this week my mom had the house re-carpeted with new, much nicer stuff. Though hardwood floors would have been a nice touch, having little babies calls for stain-master carpet, not to mention the cost of putting in hardwood. It looks so much better now though!

Everyday the girls and I pretty much go to the YMCA first thing in the morning after breakfast, so they can play and I can get my workout on. Aaron has been meeting me there, and I have been getting in some really good runs and I even started doing weights again. This week I ran about 26 miles, which is good for me. I think I am loosing weight too, not that I care either way. My clothes are just getting baggy on me again. I am sure in no time I will be up again, especially since Blue Bell ice cream was on sale at Kingsooper and I got my favorite, Happy Tracks!

We also got our first snow fall, and how pretty that was. Kelly really liked it and we even went shopping yesterday for some snowboots! Her winter coat from last winter still fits, actually she probably grew into since then, because now it does fit. Kelly is a petite, no doubt about it!

Also in the past couple weeks, I have worked an evening shift at a new place, Nameste, its an Alzheimer unit. I was Charge nurse, which I thought it would be easy since no med pass or treatments, however I was probably busier than everyone else! We had a fall and so lots of paperwork. But in all it was not bad, and good to put my nursepants on again for the first time in almost 6 months. I barely had time to pump, but managed to make some time and not on purpose but drew a lot of attention to myself. (I had to leave my pump out in the room I was pumping in, with the bottles filled with milk to deal with an issue, and when I came back the women were commending me for continuing with breast feeding while trying to go back to work). I got off almost an hour late, but since I got a raise, I was okay with it. Layla did really well without me being there, ate way more milk than I ever thought she would, luckily Aaron was there the whole time and stayed on top of it. She was also very happy to see me when I came home, but not very impressed that I pumped when I got home, not knowing she'd wake up minutes after finishing to eat. Eventually she accepted a bottle and went back to sleep, until we awoke again a couple hours later.

Lately she has been waking up a lot at night. Its pretty tiring. My milk supply finally resumed to the levels they were before I had started the orthotricycline birth control. I had been taking the minipill, but got really paranoid about getting pregnant again, so I started the low-dose orthotricycline. What a disaster! Within 2 weeks my milk supply had almost completely dried up, and we went through 2 large ziplocks of packed frozen breast milk (ever 90 ounces), kind of a bummer, since I only actually worked 1 shift and was therefore around the rest of the time. But, I restarted the minipill a week ago and my supply came back basically completely. I was almost in the clear! haha. No, I'm kidding, its better if I am still nursing, while I am not working full time and Layla is still waking up at night. But that brings me to the next thing.

I have applied for 4 nursing jobs at 3 different hospitals in the last week. I have a phone interview next week for Penrose Hospital. Unfortunately not the one that is 2 miles from my house, but rather the one downtown, like 10 miles away, but that's okay. It is for the ICU or Cardiac step-down unit.  I am not sure which one they want to talk to me about. I really want to work in L&D, but am still waiting to hear on a possible contact at Evans hospitals, since the ones up near my house are not hiring. I would love to work at least part time, but would do 3 12s a weeks too. So far things at my mom's have been going great, and I think she is really looking forward to watching the girls. I really would like to pay her too, because then she can continue upgrading the house :)

Aaron goes back to work tomorrow. Sigh. It has been great having him off, though I think we do argue more, so its not a terrible thing per say. I love him though and we went on a fun little date last night after the babies went to bed, for drinks. It was like old times and I don't think we talked about the babes even once, other than when we ran into people we knew and they wanted to see pictures. Its a good thing, since they are all we ever talk about sometimes.

OK, I am starving! Time for a PB&J!

Oh yeah and Aaron and I went on a run together today, it was great. So nice having built in babysitters!!! LOL :) J/K. I love being back here, even crowded into my mom's house. Its like twice as big as our NC house, but also twice as many people. For the most part that is just fine though :)

More to come!

Made it to Colorado!

Wow, I have not updated in a long time! I've had some time, but not really, ever since my last post at the beginning of September, its be go-go-go for the McIntires!

Basically, our last 2 weeks in Fayetteville went something like this:
Workout at the Y almost every morning. The girls got to play, and I got to run, but literally would spend less than an hour, sometimes less than 45 mins there, because then we would have to head home and have lunch, and put babies for their naps. Then I would find other things to do, i.e. Paint the kitchen, then paint and chalk both bathrooms. Meanwhile, Aaron did other things, like take donations to goodwill, replace bathroom facets and shower heads. We also had the house power washed, and placed nearly all our furniture on Craig's list. Before we left, we sold our washer/dryer, kitchen table, living room couch, bed/mattress from the spare bedroom and baby walker. Since we were moving into my mom's house, we obviously were not going to need these things. The best part was, none of it was picked up until the day the packers/mover came to move us, so we weren't living on the floor or anything, other than our last night in our house.

The movers came on a Friday morning (Sept 16th). The 2 packers and 3 movers, had everything loading into their gigantic truck within 6 hours. We didn't have to pack anything, other than what we would be bring in our cars. The last night in our Raeford house was bittersweet. We lived there over 2 years, and since we own it, at some point we may be going back to it. (Lucky for us, we had it rented out less than a week after we left it.) Our last meal there was at a delicious Mediterranean restaurant. The last night I spent mostly cleaning and taking care of sickies babies. Aaron was sick, Kelly got it that night, pretty much loosing her voice, and Layla had it by Saturday morning. None of that mattered though, we left by 0930 Saturday morning. Because we have 2 cars, Aaron and I would be driving solo, him with Kelly and me with Layla.

I would have thought after driving from upstate NY to NC in August that the drive to CO would have been an even bigger nightmare, especially with sick babies. However, I was indeed pleasantly surprised and grateful it was not. The first day we drove through NC, past beautiful Asheville and into Knoxville, TN. We drive about 300 miles that day, and stayed at a Marriot. Because the babies did so well in the cars, resting a lot and all, they were both ready to play all night! I don't think they went to bed until around 10pm or later!

The next day we got up early and I ran about 3.5 miles before we drove around 6 or more hours through beautiful TN (reminded me of upstate NY, because of all the trees--Smokey Mountains are smaller, but still very pretty! I am definitely a mountain girl! haha) to Memphis, having stopped in pretty Nashville for a delicious meal at a top notch Mexican Cantina. Memphis was kind of dumpy, but we stayed at the Marriott Downtown, which was a very nice hotel. We went to Beale Street for dinner, which was basically a tourist trap, because the BBQ was disgusting! We ended up getting most of our money back, because it was really that gross and couldn't even force it down. So we had a couple beers, and walked around all over the place. We probably walked at least 3 miles that night, each wearing a baby, I had Layla in the front carrier, and Aaron had Kelly on his back.

Monday morning we had to find a store to buy dry ice from. We had over a gallon of frozen breast milk we were transporting, and the dry ice only lasts about 24-48 hours. Also that morning, we both got up early and went running. Aaron ran through the city, and when he got back, I ran on the hotel treadmill for about 30 mins.  With all the junk we had been eating, it was nice to get a couple workouts in. That morning was not good however. Right before we were about to walk out of the hotel room, Kelly puked allllll over herself and the bed. So I gave her a quick bath. It was mostly mucous, because she had been battling a productive cough and nasal congestion for several days at this point. Then we left the hotel and made our way further into town to find the Kroger we were getting the dry ice from. We all went in to the store, because we also were finding breakfast, and I really wanted fresh fruit. So we did that, got the BM repackaged, and were about to leave, babies in their car seats and all, when Kelly puked again! This time all stomach bile. So I sent Aaron into the store to get towels, while I attempted to strip her down and clean her off. Just as I had her standing in the parking lot in only her pull up, I look up and Layla is projectile vomiting! I look around for Daddy, but he was no where to be found.

I got the girls cleaned up, and re-clothed, and again we were on our way. I would have thought that this was going to be the worst day, but the only other bad time was when I started my PERIOD for the first time in like 3 years! That was shitty. But the rest of the day was uneventful. We drove through the boring state of Arkansas and through Oklahoma, and setting in at the Courtyard Marriott in OKC. By the time we got there, we had driven over 370 miles and about 7 hours of just driving, so I was pretty exhausted and grumpy. Plus I was also feeling sick too. That night was like all the rest, babies up late, mommy wanted sleep. But it wasn't too bad.

The next day we drove probably about 7 hours, to make it to Clovis, NM. That is where Aaron's brother Sam is stationed (Air Force). Clovis is basically a dump, but Sam lives in a cozy house that had a swing set in the back yard, and Kelly really liked that. We grilled out and then basically went to bed pretty early because we were exhausted and Sam had to work the next morning.

The next day, Wednesday, was our last day on the road. We took the back roads out of New Mexico, which offered really beautiful veiws from dinky little mountains, and platues, but it was interesting any ways. It was a little scary, because there was absolutely no cell phone service and from where we got gas until we found another gas station was well over 200 miles and my oldie but goodie Rav4, filled as it was, could barely get 250miles to the tank. We eventually stopped so I could feed Layla, somewhere I think still in NM, and then hit the road again. We managed to make it to Colorado within about 4 hours, and from that point, it was only another 3 or so to the place we would call home for the next few years, at least.

Everyone, especially me, was so happy to see us. We arrived here at my mom's house around 4:30pm. I was so mentally spent, I couldn't wait to go to bed! Kelly was insanely happy to see Uncle and Nonnie. She latched onto Dylan and was squeezing him and kissing him so hard, it was so cute! The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. Aaron went and picked up some champagne and we toasted a safe journey back to the mountains.

All in all our road trip was not really bad at all. We drove 2,016miles over the course of 5 days and 4 nights. We spent an ungodly amount of money on gas and food, thanks to the U.S. Army. In fact we are set to make about $4,000 or more, just because we moved and were "displaced." Yes the babies were sick, and yes it was hard driving 2 separate cars with 2 babies aged 2 and under, but I am so grateful to be here, it never mattered how much it might have sucked for someone else. Because we were doing it, I think we blocked out the parts that could have been really bad, its the only way we could survive :) And now we are finally home!