My "Me" Day

I'm on my "me" day today. I took a vacation day today, and I went to open aerial trapeze class and practiced my routine 4 times! Then, I got dry ice and shipped off my 2nd and probably final milk donation - 265oz. On the way home I stopped and got the oil changed in the car. Now I'm home, just pumped and am watching some tv, just relaxing and wrapping some Christmas presents! It's been a wonderful extended Thanksgiving holiday.

Thanksgiving!

For Ariella's first Thanksgiving, I decided to go all out and make a full Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey and whole dinner came out amazing! I had one of those turkeys with the buttons that pop up once they're done. Ariella had turkey, green beans, and homemade cranberry sauce. She went to town with the turkey and green beans. She picked it up with her hands and put quite a bit in her mouth.

She made the funniest face with the cranberry. I guess it was too tart for her. I mixed it with apple sauce, but I guess without added sugar, it wasn't that great. But, I liked it well enough, so it didn't go to waste. She's really gotten the hang of eating with her hands. She ate a lot of turkey and green beans! It was very exciting.

I also made gravy, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, creamed spinach, canned cranberry sauce (for Tyree and his mom), and apple pie (pre-made, just had to bake it)! It was a full morning of cooking, but it was well worth it.

Holiday Cards - Shutterfly

We haven't traditionally done holiday cards, but with Ariella here this year, we're extremely excited about making our cards to send out to friends and family.

I immediately thought of using Shutterfly to make them, since that's where I've made Ariella's photobooks in the past. Here's the most recent one that I made:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Then, for Christmas, I made 2 ornaments:

Blank Project Pewter Ornament

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

and

Blank Project Ceramic Ornament

Unique party invitations and greeting cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Now it's time for the Holiday cards. I think I'm going to do this one:
Scarlet Script Frame Christmas 5x7 folded card. I think it's very classy, and it lets me use 2 pictures - 1 main picture on the front and another on the inside of the card. Plus, I can add a personalized message.

I also made a desk calendar for Tyree for a Christmas present (Ssssshhhhhh! Don't tell!)

It's so much fun doing pictures and making picture projects since we have a baby! I can't wait to see how our Christmas photo cards turn out. There are so many choices to choose from, and it's so easy to upload my pictures. The hardest part is going to be figuring out which pictures to use. Ariella is beautiful in all of the, so it's going to be hard to decide. :-)

Ariella's 9 Month Doctor's Appointment

We had Ariella's 9 month appointment Saturday. She's 28 1/4 inches (75%), 19lbs 7oz (50-75%), and head circ 17 3/4 (50-75%). The doctor says she's growing perfectly and very proportionally (yay)!

The scary part of the appointment came when the doctor was examining her. She said that her inner labia was entirely fused! Inside I started freaking out. But, the doctor said it was not a big deal, very common problem caused by hormones. She said I would just have to use a cream once a night until it opened, and then use vasoline on it once a night for 2 weeks.

Ariella also had 3 shots, 2 vaccines and the 2nd dose of the flu vaccine. She actually did very well with them, although she's been a bit more fussy than normal for the past couple of days, and I think it's because of the vaccines (poor baby girl). There was no mention of wanting to do any blood work.

The doctor said I should switch Ariella from bottle to sippy cup by 12 months. Also, by 12 months, her BM intake should go down to 12-16oz (not so sure about that). And by 12 months she should be fully on table foods (not so sure about that either). But, overall it was good.

The prescription cream turned out to have a $50 co-pay (yikes), and then at night before I used it, I figured I would read the warnings, side effects, etc. A huge yikes! The first sentence on it was that it can increase the risk of womb cancer and cancer of the ovaries! Other risks include increased risk of heart disease, stroke, blood clots, etc! The medicine is premarin vaginal cream. I did NOT use it yet.

I called the doctor's office today. She said that the side effects listed were probably for the oral form of the medication or for larger doses. She said that an alternative to the medication would be that they could open it in the office by pulling it apart (no thank you). She said that it should NOT be left as it is, that she would develop bladder infections, UTIs, etc. She said that the worst side-effect she's ever had (which has been very rare) is that one baby developed breast buds while on the medication. Our phone connection wasn't that great, so we got cut short. But, I essentially got the info from her that I wanted to ask.

This all seemed pretty consistent with the research that I did online, although online many sites advised just leaving it alone, but the doctor seemed very adamant that it open (maybe because it was fully fused?). So, I guess I'm going to use this cream, unless some magical solutions arises. This is the first time I have really disliked being a parent. I'm so afraid that I'll make a bad decision that will really hurt Ariella. With my family history, I'm very wary of cancer. I wish Tyree would have participated more in this decision, but he has pushed it on me, so I'm just going to have to do the best I can. Hopefully this is the correct decision.

Picture of baby me and Ariella wearing the same dress

My mom/grandmother made me a brown velvet dress that I wore as a baby. I still have the dress and just got pictures of Ariella in it this weekend at her 9 month photo shoot. My husband merged my picture with one of hers. I think it's so neat that we wore the same dress. She's a bit younger than I was when I wore it. I was a bit over a year old in that picture. I was a much smaller baby than Ariella. But, it's very neat to look at the 2 of us side by side.

There's another picture as well that really shows how we have the exact same mouth as well as some other very similar features. I love that she's starting to look like me!

Pics of Ariella's First 2 Teeth

Ariella finally let me get pictures of her first 2 teeth. She does NOT like showing them off. I realized that the trick is to let her "gum" my finger while I use the other hand to pull down her lip - lol.

It melts and breaks my heart at the same time...

This morning I was leaving to go to work. I went to give Ariella a kiss and to tell her to have a good day. She held her arms up, reaching out to me. It melted my heart. I picked her up and gave her a great big hug. Then, I set her back down (she had been sitting, playing with a toy with Abuela). I told her to have a good day and turned and left. It made it so hard to leave, though. I keep picturing her with her arms stretched out to me. Sigh... This is definitely one of the hard parts about being a working parent.