Goodbye Grandpap...

Yesterday was a difficult day for the Wade family...

Grandpap passed.

I had the honor of knowing Grandpap for 11 years. He was always so kind to me and was so excited when Greg and I got married. Over the years, he often grabbed my hand or put his hand on my shoulder and said he was so happy that I married Greg and that I was so good to him. Although he wasn't a man of many words, he always found subtle ways to say what was on his mind. As the years passed and Grandpap aged, I always made sure to send little cards to him in Tuscon just to let him know we were thinking of him and that we loved him. He loved getting these cards and whenever I saw him he would make a point of thanking me. Last year when we found out we were pregnant he was so delighted. We had a little Birthday party for him at our house and I remember him patting my pregnant belly and smiling. I am so thankful that he got to meet Sydney. Up until the end, Sydney was able to bring him joy.

We will miss you Grandpap....

Congrats Rich and Jessica

What a big day yesterday was! My sister in law, Jessica and Greg's brother, Rich, had a baby boy!!! They already have 3 girls and they did not know the sex of the baby until he was born. They named him Jack, which I absolutely love! Congrats guys!!!

Here is a picture of Sydney and her first Easter bunny...

Her smile just melts my heart...I seriously cannot get enough of it. She is such a happy baby!

More Pictures!!

Well, we didn't get an offer on our house from the people who looked at it 3 TIMES!!! They decided to go with an older home that was cheaper...their loss!! So, another open house this weekend. All we can do is stay positive and focus on our beautiful little girl. Speaking of, here are some recent pictures...Enjoy!

Look at my teeth!

Silly girl playing with her sippy cup!

Mmmmm.....

My little love bug

Rollie Pollies!!

Beautiful Moments

Yesterday was such a wonderful day! No, we didn't hear back with an offer on our house, nor did we win the lottery!

Something more wonderful than all of that...

I was with my daughter, living in the moment, thankful to be her Mother!

We went for a long walk in the sun and later we went to the park where I fed Sydney some pears while sitting in the grass. We then went for another walk and did a little window shopping. As our night came to a close, I sat Sydney on the sofa next to me and read her some books. As I changed my voice to read the pages, she would look up at me and stare. I actually cried...I was living in that moment with my daughter.

And today, well who knows what's in store. I am so lucky to be able to be home with her and share these moments. Now that she is a little older and a little more independent, we seem to have so much more fun together.

As I look over at my daughter who is jumping in her jumperoo, she brings yet another smile to my face...

as she has her poo poo face going which means I need to get her out of the jumper before we have poo poo all over her back!!!

Thank You

Thank you to all of you who emailed me or called me to offer support in regards to my post on our 6 month checkup. I really appreciate the kind words of encouragement. Thank you for reminding me that we all just do the best we can and as long as our children are thriving and smiling everyday, we are doing something right!

At this point, we have decided to not proceed with the helmet suggestion from the doctor. We instead are focusing on rolling over and belly time and we are already seeing improvments on her head placement while she is sleeping. Many times over the last few nights when I walk into her room to check on her, she is sleeping on her side. We will give it a month and see how it all goes.

I have to remember that the doctor is not God and does not know all. He is speaking from his medical education and experiences. In the end, we as parents have the final word and we have something the medical experts do not have...intuition! And my intuition tells me to let this go as it will all be fine!

Again, thank you all and I will keep you posted on how it all turns out.

Busy Weekend

Another busy weekend here at the Wade residence...

Sydney got her shots on Friday and of course was fussy and had a little temp. I had just placed her down for a nap and our realtor called and said a family that just flew into town wanted to see our house in an hour. Can we say #@*! As I went into full panic, she called right back and said that the people were going to come see the house tomorrow instead and that she would call me back with a time. Well, we didn't hear back. Sat. morning came along and we had just gotten out of the shower. I was in my rob and Greg was in pants and Jordan was packing up getting ready for a soccer game. All of a sudden the dogs started going nuts downstairs so we started walking down to see what was happening and imagine our surprise when there stands a realtor and a family in our living room!!! No one called us to tell us that they were coming to show our house! We were pissed!!! They said they would come back in an hour so we quickly had to get us ready, get the house ready, get the baby ready and load everything up - all in an hour!!

The good news is that the people narrowed their decision down to our house and one other and they came back today at 1pm to see it again. It is now 6pm and we are still waiting to hear back! This selling crap sucks!!!

In the meantime, Sydney is doing well with all of the commotion and interferances to her schedule. She doesn't seem too concerned about it all!

Lastly, Sydney is already getting stronger during our increased belly time and last night when we went in to check on her before we went to bed, she was sleeping on her side!

Until next time...wish us luck!

6 Month Checkup

I walked out of the doctors office today feeling like a horrible Mommy...

I walked in with my list of questions and was eager to get Sydney's measurments. Unfortunately, the doctor was running really late so I had to keep Sydney occupied in the small cold room until the doctor could see us. This was no easy task! Finally, the doctor came in and we started our appointment. He did all of the measurments:

17.6 pounds (she was 15.5 at her 4 month old checkup)
27 inches (she was 26 inches at 4 months)

Size wise she is doing well....now the "horrible mommy" stuff...

The doctor brought up her flat head again. It hasn't gotten any worse but it hasn't gotten any better. He immediately started talking helmet to fix it. I am very hesitant about jumping right into a helmet. Many people I have talked to have said that the flatness will dissapate as she is less on her head, which she now is starting to do. I guess it was the tone in his voice, as if I am doing something aweful by not putting a helmet on her. I know that this technique has been successful for many children and I am not against it by any means. I just think other options need to be tried first in Sydney's case since there are no other medical issues causing the flatness.

He then asked if she was rolling over yet. Again, "horrible mommy" echoed through my head. Well, she started rolling over at 3 months but then stopped. She rolls half way and then just hangs out there. The doctor said her head would do a lot better if she were sleeping on her tummy at night but that we cannot put her on her tummy since she isn't rolling over on her own. So, I guess we will be doing even MORE tummy time!

We then discussed feedings. At least I am doing the solid thing right. I explained that she is eating 3 solid meals a day and breast feeding in between. He then asked about the bottle and I explained to him all of the ways in which we have tried to get her to take a bottle. Basically, what it came down to was that he said if we wanted her to take the bottle, we needed to skip meals until she was hungry enough to take the bottle. Basically, we are to use the "cry it out" method.

And lastly, we discussed night time sleeping. Again, he said we needed to use the "cry it out" method and quit going in to her room to sooth her. He said there is no reason why I should be getting up to feed her. I know he is right and I know that I shouldn't go in to feed her, I guess I just suck at all of this...I just totally feel like such a failure right now. And then to end a perfectly depressing appointment, Sydney got 2 more shots! So now we are home, fussy, feeling down, and tyring to figure out how to fix all of this...because that's my personality - I need to "fix" things!

This day sucked!!

6 Months Old Today!!!

Half a year old...my baby girl is growing up! She is at such a fun age right now. She is starting to giggle more often which just melts our hearts. We find that we do the silliest things in public just to get her to giggle...many people probably think we are nuts!! She is also in a reaching stage...she will reach for everything and anything - I learned this the hard way at the grocery store! She has also become very cuddly at nap times...this I love!!

Unfortnately, she is still teething quite badly which breaks my heart. We have a doctors appointment this week and I will be able to answer the most asked question in regards to Sydney..."How much does she weigh?"

Greg and I stopped by my old gym yesterday to see the owner and to introduce her to Sydney. They were all so happy to see her. I worked with Denise, the owner, for 2 years and she was working with me during both miscarriages. They were amazed at my size and wanted to weigh me and check my body fat...Wow, even I was amazed! I am smaller now than I ever have been! I wonder how much this will change when I stop breastfeeding. I am going to start working with her again once a week...I am very excited! Lastly, I finally got to go shopping yesterday and buy some clothes that fit. It's very exciting for me to have clothes that fit!

Enjoy the pictures...

Sydney in her stroller

Mommy and Sydney at the park eating apple sauce!

First time eating in my new high chair...Mmmm, prunes!

Reaching for the camera!

Look at my rolly-pollies!!!

Busy Day

Sydney got her 2nd tooth today, right next to her first one (two bottom teeth). She had all of the symptoms: drooling, ear grabbing, rosy cheeks with a rash, and irritablity. What really sucked was that we couldn't be home because we had showings on our house all day! So, we had to get up early, stage the house, pack up the dogs, all of Sydney's stuff, and us and leave for the day. We went to Jordan's soccer game. Since I still breastfeed exclusively, I had to be creative for Sydney's feedings during the soccer game. I breastfed her in the car and then I fed her apple sauce outside by the field! All in all, what could have been an incredibly stressful day, ended up only being a little stressful!

Oh, and Jordan won his soccer game!

It is now 9pm and we are completely exhausted so it's off to bed!