Wednesday, August 31, 2005

All About the Hair

As young as she is, she isn't into vanity yet. Just check out the 'do.

hair2
Side 'Do

hair1
Top Down 'Do


Someday she will be into make-up and dresses. One day a boy will come for a date, then he will meet an evil glare from her father and an older brother who will pummel him.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Big Girl

Tori has grown to a size where she can start to enjoy more things. She can see farther and likes new things. We have found that she likes the bouncy seat and swing.



She already has gotten more use out of the swing than Ollie ever did. Of course, the swing made his gastric worse, so he wasn't in it until he was almost too big to swing. The bouncy seat plays annoying music, vibrates and lights up, much to her delight. She will sit through several cycles of it playing for her before she gets tired.

She will also go after the napkin holder on our island when she gets the chance. In the mornings, we lay her down within eye sight of the holder. Before it is time to leave, she has turned to her side and scooted her butt closer to it. I'm hoping this means she will be a cleaner child, but there really isn't such a thing as a clean child is there?

Monday, August 29, 2005

Being Brought Up Right

We think we are doing a decent job of bringing up our children, but there is more than enough evidence to prove us wrong. For instance, the following picture could be used as damaging evidence of our ability to parent.


Little Oreo Lover


I'm sure there would be some court that would find against us if we told a judge the Tori liked the sound of the bag and really wasn't eating Oreo's. Do YOU see any chocolate on her? I didn't think so.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Sleeping Bird

Our little squirmy worm slept from 8 pm to 4:30 am! YEA! When I went into the room to feed her this morning, she looked similar to this:


She was ready for her food and ready for the day. At least until her first nap at 6:30 am. I think she and her brother switched places last night in the sleeping department. She slept well, he didn't, so we didn't. She also slept without the Zantac and without wiggling her way out of her seat. We are guessing she doesn't have any gastric at all, she's just a pain to burp at times. Hopefully the sleeping will continue tonight, but as it goes with babies, it is never the same 2 nights in a row.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Little Sleeper

Still on a 5-6 hour long stretch, but her parents are getting more sleep because she is going to bed later and only getting up once at night. It is much better than the several times a night she was waking up.



We got had the doctor get her some Zantac for Gastric Reflux and have been giving it to her at night as well as her sleeping in her car seat. We aren't sure if she has Gastric, she doesn't projective vomit like Ollie did, but her stomach lurches a lot. The car seat sleeping may come to an end soon. This morning Tresa had found her half-way out of her seat. Squirmy Worm indeed. We are both longing for the day that she sleeps from 7 to 7 like her brother did at one point. Of course, she'll reach the point he is at eventually and go to bed at 9 and join us in the middle of the night. Guess we need to tire them both out more.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Mover and Shaker

Tori has started to become mobile. She'll roll to her side from her back. She'll also scoot her butt around to be perpendicular to her previous position. It won't be long and she'll be rolling over and scooting around the room. We'll have to get out the gates again and it'll frustrate Ollie to no end.


Tori in a Less Active Mode

Not long after that, she'll be crawling, then walking and fighting with her brother. Guess we have a lot to look forward too. Hopefully we can keep up with them both.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Bigger Girl

12 lbs, 12 oz and 23.5 inches long. Tori is a healthy girl. 90% in height and weight, 50% in head size.



Tori also went to the Animal Farm this weekend, but her time was less adventurous. She mostly ate and slept with an occasional diaper change in between. She did go down the slide with her parents several times and seemed to like the experience. She didn't cry at least!

She also made it up to 6 hours without food, but it isn't in the middle of the night and it isn't all asleep. It is an improvement. She'll get her schedule right soon. It sure beats being up every couple of hours. The first night she sleeps through the night we won't know what to think.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Doctor Doctor

Tori goes in for her 2 month well-child evaluation this afternoon. She also gets her first set of shots (she got the hep-b in the hospital, so 1 less today). She'll get checked out and verified that she is healthy. There isn't much poking and prodding as when she was in the hospital, so it shouldn't be too bad. She did real well at her follow-up appointment from the hospital. Today will be to see how fat and long she is and to poke her a few times with a needle. If they aren't too busy, we should be on our way in no time.


Before Being Poked

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Adjustment

Tori has adjusted well to going to the sitter's. She'll even sleep in the crib for the sitter without much problem. She still has her days as seen below.


Not So Happy Tori


Yesterday, she was up most of the day for the sitter. With Ollie out of the house for the night and Tori sleeping pretty well, we had no idea what to do with ourselves. Tori found a solution.

I placed her fully asleep in her bed and left the room to change the laundry. When I came back up, she was awake! So we all played until Ollie came home. While he got his bath, she got a bottle and dozed off at 9:30. This time she stayed asleep. She was up again at midnight for another bottle and again at 4. Some nights we get 1 awakening, sometimes 2. We'll be shocked when she sleeps through the night.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Road Trip & Other

Tori's first road trip went well. We went to St. Louis for the weekend and she slept in the car, at the hospital and on the way home. Overall she was extremely good, maybe that is because she got plenty of sleep.

She also made her first trip into the Arch in St. Louis. She didn't seem too interested in it though. The trip up was fine for her, the trip down...not so much. She screamed in the elevator on the way down. I guess she didn't want to leave. She then slept for most of the trip back. That night, was not as peaceful for us. Saturday night was worse.



Tori's reaction to the view from the Arch

She was up every 2 hours approximately and she didn't want to eat. I don't know if her schedule was screwed or what was going on. On Sunday, she took naps in her car seat and that improved things greatly. Last night she went to bed at 8 and didn't get up until 1 am. Then up again almost 3 hours after that. We are guessing she has gastric like her brother, but it would be the kind where they don't spit up. She slept much better in her car seat than she has since moving to her crib. We are hoping a bit of time will take care of it. We'll ask about it on Friday during her second well child visit.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Siblings

Sometimes it is really hard to separate these two. Tori doesn't have much to say about it, but her brother sure does.



I'm glad things between the two have turned out this way so far. I'm sure the natural sibling dislike will begin when Tori is more mobile. The only thing Ollie doesn't like at the moment is when we can't get him something right away because we are doing something with Tori. He'll get over it and she'll grow to love her over protective brother.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Dress

One of Tori's first dresses. Her expression makes it look like she is none to thrilled to be in it!

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Hospital Weekend

Tori got to spend this past weekend in the hospital hooked up to a bunch of machines for a fever. She had a fever Friday morning and by Friday afternoon she was in the hospital looking similar to this:



The major difference is that she had an IV (in both hands) and a heart and resp monitor attached to her chest and stomach. They took blood, urine, chest x-ray and spinal tap. Of course, she was tired and hungry by the time we got to the hospital, so the testing made it worse. They couldn't even attempt the spinal when we got there because she was so tired and hungry, it made her mad. She raised her heart rate so high they couldn't do the test. After eating and a nap, they took her to do it again. Of course the idiot student did it twice and got nothing. Eventually, they had an attending do it correctly.

So began her weekend of mostly sleeping, eating and getting doped up on Tylenol to take care of her fever. In the end, all tests came back negative and it was concluded that it was viral because the tests were negative. This was also reinforced when Ollie got a fever Sunday. It was a horrible way to waste a weekend. Everything is fine with her and she passed the fever along to the rest of the family.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Site You Don't See



This is a site we don't often see in the middle of the night. She'll get her 5 hour sleep in, then when we try to put her back to sleep, she gets fussy once she hits the bed. Like last night, one of us ends up sleeping in the recliner while holding her. She won't take her bottle or pacifier. She'll just rumble around until 4 am when she gets ready for another bottle. Not the easy sleeper we had in the beginning to say the least. We'll see how well it goes once she starts going to the sitters. If it doesn't improve, she may have a cry fest from 2-4 am. We'll just have to see.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Big Girl Bed

Tori is all ready to try her new bed out. This was before we put it away.



She is a bit small for it still and doesn't sleep through the night, so this isn't a good combination. Since she doesn't roll over yet, she wouldn't fall out of her bed like Ollie does. Her major problem with sleep, like her brother, is that she doesn't like to fall asleep. She fights it tooth and nail until she tires herself out. This sometimes leads to late nights for her parents as she catterwalls through the night. So far she's only gone past 10 pm twice. We'll be lucky if that is all.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Dancing Queen

She can't crawl, she can barely lift her head, but she can dance with Elmo.



I guess a little help never hurt. She loves looking at Elmo. My guess is because he is red. Apparently, that is the colors newborns see best when the come into the world. Then Elmo moves and you have a newborn entertainment system. At least until your parents arms get tired or your older brother takes off with Elmo.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Future

I believe I heard a small 2 sound laugh from Tori yesterday. I'm sure I made it up in my head, but it sounded like it to me. This got me to thinking about all the things that are coming rapidly in her future.

She will be rolling (already rolls to her side on occasion). Laughing, smiling more, scooting, playing (which I'm sure Ollie will enjoy) and joining her brother in causing havoc around the house.

I think her expression in this picture explains how she feels about everything. It must be something amazing for a look like that. I'm sure everything is amazing to her right now. If only we could get her to think that sleeping quietly and through the night was amazing.