A Great Idea for Allison's Halloween Costume

We decided what Allison is going to be for Halloween - A Big Sister! That is right, I'm pregnant. Either right now, one of my faithful blog readers and good friend, Joie is completely shocked or someone spilled the beans. I would have loved to tell Joie this great news on the phone, but since she lives in California, the time difference has made it hard. I can't stay up until 11 pm to give her a call. Although I did try one weekend but realized I have her old home number programmed in my new cell phone, and not her cell number. (Please email me it)

I am due October 28, which puts me at a little over 16 weeks. I'm feeling good right now. A little bit of morning sickness in the beginning, but I started taking B6 and a Unisom at night, which helped a great deal. I don't know why I didn't do that when I was pregnant with Allison.

Brian and I are very excited. We wanted our children to be close in age (they will be 15 months apart). Hopefully they will get along. One plus of having them so close together is that we can get rid of the baby stuff sooner. I already feel like the house is bursting at the seams. I can't imagine holding on to all the gear and clothing for a few years.

We heard the heartbeat at my 10 week appointment. It was 165. At my 14 week appointment it was a 140. We are contemplating keeping the sex of the baby a surprise (no pressure from my family to find out, please). I figured with a scheduled c-section, I would like at least one thing to be a surprise.

Now that I am out, I will post updates on the baby, along with stories and photos starring Allison. At some point in time I will have to change the blog name, so if you are reading this and I am not aware of it, be sure to let me know so I can pass on the new name once I change it.

Thank You Nanny Jo Jo

To help with Allison's bedtime issues, I thought I would try a technique we saw on Super Nanny. When I put her to sleep, I tell her it is night time and give her a kiss. I walk out of the room and wait in the hall; peeking into her room. As soon as I see her sit up or try to pull herself up, I walk in, tell her good night, give her a kiss and lay her back down. I go out again and wait. When I see her pull herself up, I go in and lay her back down without saying a word. I did this several times the first few days. At first she would put her arms out when she saw me.

It didn't take long for her to catch on. One time, I went in as soon as I saw her head inch up past the bumper pads. She took one look at me and slowly started sliding down, like she never had any intention of sitting up. Today Allison saw me and plopped back down on the mattress and closed her eyes. Now rather than having her cry it out for 45 minutes, I just spend a few minutes until I know she is down for good. It has gone much smoother. In fact we had a few days where she took 2-3 hour naps.

Thanks Nanny Jo!

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mom's who read my blog, happy belated Mother's Day.

This year I was very excited to celebrate my first Mother's Day. I waited a long time for this and often wondered if I would have my day. Seeing Allison first thing in the morning reminded me how lucky I am to have her. She is such a blessing in my life.

Both sets of grandparents came to brunch at my work, along with Brian's brother and his family, and his sister Lynn. I had to work our annual Mother's Day brunch, so they joined me. I was able to take a short break and eat with them. I can't say it was the most relaxing meal. It is hard to tell yourself not to worry about what is going on with the event when you are in the middle of it. But I did get to enjoy the wonderful food that our Chef made. It was delicious and best of all I didn't have to cook that day. I was also treated to a beautiful display of pansies by my mom (thanks mom!)

After putting in a full day, I came home to feed Allison dinner and give her a bath. Allison gave me a gift of some DVDs and a book (and my favorite - Reese Peanut Butter Cups.)

After dinner, I sorted through six large bags of baby clothes that my sister Keri had given me (thanks Keri.) Allison is set for the next couple of years. That was a huge job and I finally crawled into bed around 11:30. I'm actually not finished putting everything away yet.

Since I had to work on Sunday, I suggested to Brian that we celebrate Mother's Day on Saturday. My one big request was to sleep in; I asked if he could get up with her take her for a walk or keep her busy for a bit. Allison must have heard my request because she slept in until 8:30, which is sleeping in compared to 7:30 or so when she normally wakes up. Thank you Allison. Household chores and lawn work kept us busy for most of the day, so we didn't get to do anything special. We did go over a friend's house to watch a little bit of the Red Wings game. She cooked us burgers on the grill, so at least I didn't have to make dinner. (Two days in a row!)

I'm hoping that since I worked so many hours on Sunday, I can get all my work hours in by Wednesday or Thursday and use one day to relax and do something fun with Allison. Maybe she will even take a good nap, so I can take a nap.

A Little Update

This week we had Allison's nine month doctor's appointment. She weighs 18 lbs and 15 oz and is 27 3/4 inches long. All is going well. She did great with the doctor, especially since she only had a short morning nap and no afternoon nap (her good behavior probably was at least partly due to the fact that there are no vaccinations at the nine month appointment).

Napping is a whole other story. For some reason she decided to go on nap meltdown this week. Almost every time I laid her down to sleep (both naps and at night) she would cry so hard. Normally Allison fusses for a little bit, however will eventually fall to sleep. This week she would cry for 45 minutes or longer. What makes it worse is that she sits up and puts her chin on the edge of the crib, so she looks so pathetic.

On Thursday, I needed her to take a nap as we were bringing her to a babysitter, so I finally rocked her to sleep and laid down with her. This was a one-time deal, as I don't want it to become a habit.

On a positive note, Allison is sleeping through the night from 7:30 pm - 7:30 am or longer. Today she slept in until 9 am. She actually did go down a little better tonight, so I am hoping that teething was playing a role in her lack of napping.

Allison's New Toy

For Allison's birthday we picked her up a Push Around Buggy. As you can see we didn't make it to her birthday before we gave it to her. Oh well, I'm sure she will have plenty else to open that day.

Wow, I look pretty cool in this.

Off We Go!

Ahhh..Dad...How do you make this thing go?

Faster Dad, Faster

Ozzie, that was so much fun, you should give it a try.

My Favs

Here are some of my favorite photos from the past month

Allison tries her first pickle

What happens when you let Allison feed herself mashed potatoes & veggies

This is the clown I had given to my niece over 16 years ago

Testing out her new shades

She is going to love me for this photo

More Vacation Pictures

If you would like to see more pictures from our vaction check out

http://moreofallison.shutterfly.com/action/

password is allison (all lowercase)