Allison's First Family Party

On Saturday Brian and I drove to Swartz Creek so Allison could meet her extended family. We threw a little party. A special thanks to my sister Jodi, who allowed us to use her house.

Allison actually did pretty well on the car ride there. On the ride back, we had to stop to feed her and she had a little bit of a meltdown during her feeding. Miss Allison is not the best car rider, so we were a bit nervous. She is known for her meltdowns (which are very loud, I may add).

Brian and I had a nice time. I don't think Allison even knew she was there as she slept the whole time. She met the newest member of the family, her second cousin, Jackson. He is 2.5 weeks younger then her. After the party, my mom and dad watched her so we could go out to dinner (her first baby-sitter.)

Next week she gets to meet dad's side of the family.

Allison is One Month Old

I can't believe it - Allison turned one month old on Sunday. Here are my top ten highlights of this past month.

• 10) Upon being admitted to the hospital, I had to sign the HIPPA forms for her. For the first time in my life, I signed my name on the parent line.

9) Rocking her to sleep at night.

8) Listening to her "squeak", especially when we are holding her and we change her position. She sounds like she has an air leak.

7) Watching her "smile" as she dozes off to sleep. There is nothing like a newborn smile.

6) Seeing how cute she looks when I go to change her diaper in the middle of the night. She lays on her changing table looking so cuddly, especially when she is wearing one of her sleepers. For some reason she always seems to know when she has given us a hard time the day before. It is as though she is trying hard to be extra cute.

5) Giving her a bottle. When I go to give her a bottle and tuck the burp cloth under her chin, she gets a cute look on her face and smacks her lips and sticks out her tongue.

4) Watching her stare intently at something. Half the time we can't figure out what she is staring at - usually it is the ceiling or nothing in particular.

3) Seeing Brian give her kisses.

2) Seeing her for the first time in the OR and being told that she was perfectly healthy.

1) Giving her a bottle the morning after she was born and locking eyes with her. I realized at that moment how much I loved this little creature.

Library Meltdown

My sister Jodi told me that she could never make it to Target without one of her girls (I won't name which one) having a meltdown. It would never fail, as soon as they walked through the door, the unnamed niece would lose it.

I figured out Allison's meltdown location - the library. Me being an innocent, naive first-time mom, I had visions of taking Allison for a walk, where she would promptly fall asleep by the soothing pace of the stroller. On my way back home I would stop off at the library, where I could sit and read a magazine or check out a book. This would help pass time and break up my day.

Well, I have to report that I have yet to step foot in the library. For some reason, just as we start to approach the library, Allison has a meltdown and starts crying. It never fails. We end up walking the rest of the way home (luckily less than 1/4 of a mile) with her screaming and wailing. My neighbors probably wonder why I even take her for a walk because we usually leave the house crying and arrives that way as well. What they don't realize there is a period of time where she settles down and stops crying.

I'm not giving up. I am hoping that daily walks will get Allison used to the stroller and car seat.

Such a good big brother

Everyone has been asking how Ozzie has been doing with the baby. Answer is...great! As you can tell he is a proud big brother (thanks to Aunt Keri for the shirt.) He will always go over to where Allison is at and sniff her. If we have the monitor on while she is sleeping and she starts to cry, he will look around the room to find her. Then he gives us a look like ...."get her - she's crying." Allison's response is a little less exciting. She doesn't even bat an eye when Ozzie goes over to sniff her.

I just found out that the website has upgraded and now allows video clips. Now I just have to figure out out to download the video from our camera to our computer and then I can add clips. That should be fun.

Allison's New Toy

We got Allison an activity mat that she can use for tummy time. You can tell by the picture how "active" it made her.

She conked out as soon as I put her on the mat!

It's Official - I'm a mom

It's official - I'm a mom. Last night I went grocery shopping with my friend Jeannie. Brian stayed home because we weren't sure if Allison would behave long enough, so I asked my friend if she would come along with me to help me load my groceries (Brian is making sure that I follow my doctor's orders about not lifting). I was so excited to get out of the house. About halfway into the trip, I saw a baby around Allison's age. Later on I saw the same baby again and he was crying. He sounded so much like Allison that all I wanted to do was to go home and see my baby. It figures - I was so excited to get out of the house and then all I wanted to do was go back home.

Allison did better about staying up last night for her bottle, however she did a little too well for her 3:30 feeding. I had to change her out of her swaddle blanket after she ate because her bottle had leaked and soaked the blanket. Well that woke her up and she must have figured she had slept enough. She was wide awake until 4:30 am. Then I went to bed to find Brian snoring. By the time, I feel asleep it was a little bit after 5 am and she woke up again around 5:20.

We did get a trip to the Meijer Gardens in today to see my friends there. Allison did great. She slept most of the time and didn't fuss when people held her.

A New Venture

I have decided to venture into the world of blogging. I figure this will be a great way for you to keep up with Allison's Adventures. We will see how often I update it. I was thinking this will also be a good way for Brian and I to remember all the stuff she did.

For the past two nights Allison has decided to wake up for a feeding but figured about a 1/3 of the way into it, that staying up was just too hard. So she only got an ounce at each feeding. Nothing I did would keep her up. Since Allison eats so little she is up again 1.5 hrs later. In fact in the middle of writing this entry, Allison woke up from her nap. She acted liked she was so hungry, but then only ate 1/2 her bottle.

Allison is also discovering that she can grunt and make various noises. The past few nights and mornings Brian and I have been woken up to her grunting like crazy.

On Sunday, she was able to see her Nana, Aunt Jodi, and cousins Allyssa, and Karleigh. She was very good for them. On Labor Day weekend we are going to Swartz Creek for an afternoon so my entire family can see her.