Hostage

I am being held hostage in my bedroom by my 3 yr old. She refuses to sleep in her bed, so she is sleeping on the couch, which means that at approximately 8 pm each night, we have to either go to bed (not usually a problem considering the lack of sleep) or hang out in our room - which, given the circumstances - means we fall asleep. The whole couch conundrum is stressing me out. Hailey has never been allowed to sleep with us unless we are on vacation. I don't mind snuggling her, but Jon hates it, so she has always slept in her room. Over her 3 years we have had a handful of sleeping problems, but my trusty sleep book has guided us through all of them. Jon is ok with the couch set up, because she isn't in bed with us. I don't like her on the couch because I cherish the two hours between her bedtime and mine, and really don't want to be confined to my room. She says she just doesn't like the upstairs anymore, and I understand that she wants to be downstairs with us and the baby, but I still don't like it, and I am not sure how I am going to fix it! My book does not address this issue very well!

This does give me time to update my blog, so this is what is going on here!

Jon is TDY. Its been a long two weeks, starting last Tuesday with a very long overnight flight that turned into 3 long work days for him, and then he had to work all weekend to get ready for his current TDY. (He was TDY when I wrote this, but again, it takes me about 3 days to finish a blog, so he is home now.)

We tried to have the baby's pictures taken again. I can't remember if I ever wrote about the first attempt - it did not go well. Aubrey was 2 weeks old for that one, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with that picture lady and her camera. Lauren ( the photographer) is a magician or a genius or something, however, and managed to get a fantastic picture of both of my my girls. Unfortunately it was during the taking of that picture that we accidentally helped poor Aubrey's umbilical stub thing fall off, which made her very very upset and we had to leave. I decided to try again this past Friday. I managed to get all of us in the car on time, only to discover that the GPS that has Lauren's address in it was not in my car. At the time, I thought Jon took it and had it in his car, but I later learned that it was stolen. It was of course like 110 degrees with 200% humidity, but I ran inside and mapquested myself to an address that I thought might be Laurens and then proceeded to be lost for about 45 minutes. When I finally arrived I realized that the bag with the wardrobe changes for the girls was still at home on the kitchen table, which would have been sort of ok, except that due to the heat, I had dressed Hailey in part of two outfits that did not even remotely match.

Aubrey did a little better this time, and Lauren got a few more pictures, but Aubrey still didn't really like it. So, we left again, and I got lost on the way home too. The following is the link to Lauren's blog which has some of the photographs on it. I am having trouble making it just take you there, but if you copy it and paste it, it should work for you...I hope so because the pictures are great.

http://laurendunlapphotography.blogspot.com/2010/08/introducing-baby-aubrey-hampton-roads.html

While I am off work this summer, I signed Hailey up for gymnastics, soccer and swimming. She is currently in a 2-week swim session where she goes Monday thru Thursday from 9-9:30. I managed to get all three of us there all four days this week. I am generally not out of pajamas, and Hailey's hair is rarely combed, but its at the YMCA and she is swimming so I decided not to care and just be happy that we left the house. She is a great little swimmer and we finally got the good teacher, so it is going very very well.

Her gymnastics class is fantastic and she LOVES it. I haven't been able to take any pictures because I don't actually get to go in with her - she does it all by herself and I can see her thru a window. Its in a real gymnastics center and has all the real equipment. She is so adorable and learning a ton. I had to bribe her the first few times with Dairy Queen, which is on the way home, and now she thinks she gets it every time. I love DQ = DQ every Tuesday for dinner!

Soccer is parent/child soccer and Jon takes her. He says she doesn't love it and would rather play on the bleachers. They didn't go today and are outside doing lawn work instead. She must be learning something though, because the other day she set up a line of baby dolls on the floor and told me to "drivel the soccer ball through the cones".

This upcoming week is a week of doctor appointments. Monday the baby has a hip ultrasound and its at the Navy hospital that is about 30 minutes away. Because she was breech and a girl she needs to have her hips checked. Hopefully everything will be fine, because I really do not want for her to have to wear a brace. Tuesday is Aubrey's appointment with the ENT. She has an ear tag, which is basically an extra piece of skin right by her ear. When I had her all the doctors and nurses assured me that its no big deal and they could just "tie it off." At her two week appointment, a different pediatrician told me that they won't do anything about it until she is at least a year old because it is cosmetic. She also told me to put rice cereal in my newborns bottle to help with her spit up problem. I was not happy with either of these answers and she begrudgingly gave me the ENT referral. I am hoping for easy answers on Tuesday. Aubrey gets fussier and gassier and acts like she is in more pain each day. I don't think its acid reflux, but I am covered in baby spit up all the time, and she screams like she is pain a good portion of each day. Yesterday I decided (because my sister told me to) to try soy formula. She seems a little better today, but I think its because Jon is home, and she always acts better when he is around.

Soy formula spit up smells way worse. Plus I don't think I can call what Aubrey does "spit up". Its way way worse than that. My ENT referral is not for this issue, but I figure an ENT specialist might have some insight on this matter.

Wednesday is my six week appointment. Hopefully that will mean I can use my brand new Schwinn Arrow Double Jogging Stroller and start losing the rest of my baby weight!

Well, this blog is getting long, so here are some pictures..

This is what your 3 yr old does when daddy isn't watching but should be....

Aubrey spending some quality time with Dad and learning the importance of video games

Being entertained by the ceiling fan

Hailey getting splashed by a ride at Busch Gardens. We ventured there last Saturday with both girls. It went ok, and Hailey was happy.

Aubrey spent most of the BG trip in my brand new Baby Bjorn that I got with all the gifts and giftcards from my friends and Nana and Papa. She loves this thing, which is good because she hates the car seat, and she spends a lot of time in it when I am trying to do stuff with Hailey.

We got out the play gym for the baby because she likes stretching out. Big sister immediately crawled in too. Disregard the fact that she has no shirt...Hailey doesn't feel the need to wear any clothes most of the time.