Sunshine!!!!!

Finally, we are getting some sun. I had to add this because we have been just getting tons of rain here in the midwest from hurricane Ike. At least I read it was because of that. There were some tornados as well. The other night I put my middle child in the tub and came out into the living room. Gabriella was already asleep. I noticed I heard a siren. It's not unusual for the siren to go off because of a fire or accident but this siren was steady...not letting up at all. I opened the front door and sure enough it was the tornado warning. We get a whole lot of watches in this area but for a warning to occur it means something has been spotted. I was a little scared and quickly turned on the news. It was our county but not our town. They had spotted rotation in the clouds. I informed my daughter to get out of the tub. I had no idea it was even raining so hard. The warning passed finally but I was ready after that in case we had to rush to the basement. We have a nice basement thankfully and got no water at all in it. I'm so happy the sun is back and the mud can perhaps start to dry up! I love thunderstorms but I've had my fill for awhile. :)

Gabriella is 10 months old tomorrow!

She's really getting big. She has two teeth on the bottom now. For awhile she was waking up like once every hour at night. I think it was due to teething. She does wake up a couple of times in the night still but usually she'll go right back to sleep. I've forced myself to begin giving her a little water in a bottle instead of milk in the middle of the night. I know it's my fault she's a little chubster. (That's what I call her) So, she's getting some baby food for breakfast with a 6 oz bottle and then lunch with water or juice and then a bottle with her nap. One bottle at bedtime but no more during the night. Basically I read she's supposed to get 24 to 32 oz of formula at this age. I never really kept track. I just fed her when she was hungry. I think the night time bottles were seriously adding up! She needs to learn to sleep through the night anyway. I have spoiled her because I was always so worried about her. During the pregnancy I was worried she'd be small or something would be wrong. When they said they would induce me at 37 weeks I searched the Internet for the risks of inducing so early. Then I had her naturally at 36 weeks anyway. I stared at her after she was born just to see how little she'd be. She was 6 lbs 2 oz which I think was pretty good! Now at her 9 month checkup she is 95% on EVERYTHING! Head, height, weight. The doctor said he wasn't concerned with her weight being up there because she is proportionate. Still, I don't want to be one of those people who just lets her kids eat whatever. I like my children to eat healthy and I believe it starts in childhood. Now if someone can give me any tips on teaching her to like her vegetable baby foods it would be great!!! haha She only seems to enjoy the fruits. She gags herself on the vegetables. I'm including a recent pic. She does have a big round head...but it runs on my side of the family. She's my cutie! I always say she'll *grow into it*. :)

Stand up 2 Cancer!!!!!

Let's beat this thing. Let's not let this disease kill us and hurt our children, parents, brothers, sister, aunts, uncles. I can't stand seeing one single person suffer or go through the fear and uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis.


https://www.standup2cancer.org/donate_splash.asp

Curious to know who my readers are :)

So, if you are reading, could you please post a comment to let me know. I don't get a lot of comments but it seems there are some out there reading my blog. Let me know. I love hearing from everyone!

Bit of a Disappointment Today

I had a bit of a disappointment today. I can only say I came close to being able to share Gabbi's story on a wider scale but it fell through. It was an exciting thought! I am still working on my book and I hope to have it finished in a month or two. haha I don't really want to rush it. I want everything to be accurate. Not only that but I have to stop and cry every now and then. It's hard reliving everything. I totally relive it all when writing about it. Sometimes things I forget come flooding back. It's hard. The joy comes back too. Like the day Gabriella was born. My husband and I had some time alone together last night. My older three were invited to a sleep over and Gabbi was sleeping. So, we lay in bed just talking. He began to talk about how incredibly happy he was when she was born. It wasn't hard to tell. He cried like a baby himself. Let me tell you my hubby is not a crier! I have not seen him shed tears very often in our marriage and even then, not more then one or two tears he didn't manage to wipe away before I saw them. It was different when Gabbi was born though. Here was this miracle we didn't know for sure would even live. We had to inject chemo into my body every two weeks with the uncertainty of whether or not it would hurt her. It's incredibly hard. I had cramps after all my chemos but they only became strong enough to really worry about at the second to last one. They didn't go away. The fear then was incredible. It was 30 weeks. After a trip with Life Flight and a long 5 days in the hospital I was sent home on strict bed rest. That is also hard with three other children in the house! I managed but it happened after the last chemo. It was kind of amusing almost. The last chemo I had the ceremony for my completion. I rang the gong. Oh how amazing that was...and hard to not cry! I held back the tears but even the nurses were choking back their own tears. I felt the minor crampiness during all of it. I went straight to the hospital on the way home. They were able to stop the contractions in one night this time around. For the record, magnesium drip is awful. Anyway that was only 4 weeks before my beautiful girl made it into this world. All my other girls never cried right at birth. They waited about 10 to 15 minutes before I finally got worried then they would cry. I prayed hard about Gabbi. I didn't want her to wait so long! I was already scared. I just said quickly while in labor, "God, please make her scream as soon as she comes out so I know she is breathing and OK!" Sure enough she cried the second she came out. That's my girl. I think she said mom today. I hate jumping to conclusions but I try so hard every single day to get her to say it. I always repeat mama while touching my nose, then touch hers and say Gabbi. I had her in her highchair today. I looked at her and said "Say mama and I'll get you out." I chuckled and sighed and started to open her chair. She did a lot of babbling but clear as a bell I heard "mommmmm" And let me tell ya. It does NOT matter if she meant it or not. It made my day! :)