5 months old!

I can't believe how fast time is flying! The days go pretty slowly but the months just whiz by. Our little Abbie is now 5 months old! She is doing really well in everything but the eating department. We thought we were progressing for about a week when Abbie started actually sucking on things but now she's kind of regressed to the point that she cries and whines when she sees the bottle, before it even gets to her mouth. Oh well, we'll just keep working. She is throwing up a lot less than she was before which is great! So, in honor of her 5 month birthday, here are 5 pictures of our little cutie!

Our little ballerina!

Helping Daddy with the laundry

Trying her best to enjoy tummy time

She already has a sweet tooth! (Not that she'll eat it, she just wants it because Dad has it)

And finally, one of her few perfectly peaceful moments. What an angel.

Catching Up

Life has been pretty busy for us these last few weeks so this will be a catch-up post. We've taken Abbie on a few adventures lately. Last week we went jet skiing at Pineview Reservoir. We had a blast and Abbie had fun chillin' in the shade and getting lots of attention from Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Connor.

Lance and I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house a few days ago and we decided to take Abbie with us. She slept the whole car ride there and was pretty well-behaved during the tour, but on the car ride home she let us know that she had had enough. She was hot, sweaty, and tired and she screamed and cried for half an hour. I hate when she cries like that in the car because there is nothing I can do for her. Anyway, the temple was beautiful and we are so blessed to know that we will be a family forever.

This 4th of July was pretty interesting for us. Abbie started the day off with some fireworks of her own by yanking out her tube yet again. Despite the rough start, we were excited to head off to the airport to meet Lance's brother Tyler who just got home from serving a mission in Mexico. We're so glad to have him back and we're so proud of him for his willingness to serve the Lord and share the gospel with the people in Mexico.

We've had a few new developments with Abbie in the last week. We've started seeing a new feeding therapist and I think this one is going to be a lot more helpful. I feel like Abbie is already starting to make some progress. She still won't suck but she's doing a lot better at letting the bottle be in her mouth and swallowing small amounts of water or formula. We are also seeing a GI (gastro-intestinal) doctor to see if we can get Abbie's acid reflux and vomiting under control. We're just taking one step at a time to see what works and the first step was to increase the dose of a medicine that Abbie takes to help her stomach empty faster and to help the food move through her intestines. She's only been on the higher dose for a few days now but it seems to be helping. We'll keep seeing our new therapist and probably start Abbie on some oatmeal soon to see if she handles that better than the bottle.

It's what Fun is!

Wow, it's been a busy week! Lance and I got to go to Lagoon, Abbie turned 4 months old and had her 4 month check-up, and we celebrated Father's Day of course!

So first things first, we got some discount passes to Lagoon and we were so excited to go, especially me. I wanted to go on some roller coasters so bad since I was pregnant last summer when we went to California and Lance got to go to Six Flags. Anyway, so we get to Lagoon and went immediately to Wicked before the line got too long. It was a pretty sweet ride! Only a few short rides later, Lance was feeling nauseous, I had a killer headache, and we were both tired! What happened to those carefree days of youth when we could run around, going on ride after ride, and never get tired? We couldn't believe how old we felt! We even had to take a break and go to my parents house to take a little nap! Oh well, we still had fun, even though it didn't turn out to be the day we had imagined. Abbie had a fun day with Grandma J going on walks and being spoiled! Thanks Mom!

I can't believe Abbie is 4 months old already! She gets cuter and cuter everyday and she's doing well developmentally, despite her rough start in life. She weighs 12 lbs. 12 oz. (30th percentile) and is 24 1/2 inches long (60th percentile). She had to get some immunizations and she was a little cranky, but a little bit of Tylenol, a cute new dress, and some stylin' sunglasses, and she was as good as new. The most common question we get about Abbie is "How much longer will she need her feeding tube?" We have no clue! We are trying to work with her but there is only so much we can do if she won't suck. We're going to make an appointment with another feeding therapist (I didn't feel like the first one was helpful at all) and see if that helps.

And last, but not least, Lance got to celebrate his first Father's Day on Sunday. He is such an amazing Daddy! He's so good at taking care of Abbie and he's not afraid to change a dirty diaper! Abbie loves her Daddy and always has a smile for him! Thanks for being such a wonderful husband and father!

Fun Weekend

It's 10 o'clock in the morning and Abbie is STILL sleeping! So I thought I'd take advantage of it and do a little blogging. It's always a little sad when the weekend is over (especially because Lance takes the Abbie night shift on weekends!) but I love the weekdays when Abbie and I get to relax in our PJ's all day. Anyway, we did have a fun weekend. Lance and I got to go on not one but two dates thanks to our wonderful parents. On Friday night we left Abbie with Grandma Moss and went mini-golfing at Cherry Hill where Lance proceeded to give me a good walloping.

Saturday we did a little shopping while G & G Johnson watched Abbie. We love our little baby but let's face it, it's nice to have a little break sometimes. Saturday night we had a BBQ with Lance's family and Sunday night we had our monthly family night with my mom's side of the family. It was a pretty full weekend but Abbie gets cuter every day and we love watching her grow and change and showing her off to friends and family.

Just Another Day

I guess it's been awhile since our last post but there hasn't been that much to post about. There still isn't that much to post about but here goes. We've just been getting into a little routine around here, Abbie wakes up anywhere from 6-8 and is usually pretty happy in the morning. Sometimes she even lets me get a load of laundry in! The rest of our day consists of short periods of Abbie taking cat naps while I try to sneak in some breakfast, lunch, and rest. When she's awake and happy (which doesn't happen very often some days) we try to work on bottle feeding. She still won't suck on anything but at least she'll let the bottle into her mouth without throwing a fit. Lance gets home at around 4 which is so nice for me because that is generally when Abbie starts to get crabby. It's nice to be able to switch off when our muscles and joints are aching from bouncing and rocking and jiggling. She usually goes to bed at 9 which gives Lance and I a little time to watch a movie or play a game before our eyes start to droop.

In other news, Abbie has finally graduated! Since we came home from the hospital, Abbie has been seeing her pediatrician every week to make sure she is gaining weight. Well, yesterday, after Abbie weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 2 oz, our pedi told us that we didn't have to come back for TWO weeks! hehe. Well, we have to celebrate the little things! Heck we celebrate when she only throws up twice a day instead of the usual 4-5 times. Lance went on a short business trip this week. He was only gone 2 1/2 days but wow it seemed like a lot longer than that! Abbie and I missed him and are very glad he's home now. Well that's about all that's been going on with us. We're excited for nice weather and a fun and laid back summer. Here are some random pics just for fun.

Abbie's new talent

Abbie's funny hair after her bath

Sunday Night Drama

Ninja Warrior

We should have known from this picture that Abbie had lightning quick ninja reflexes, but we were fools and turned our backs for one minute. In that one minute, Abbie managed to do this:

Yes, she pulled out her feeding tube! The feeding tube that we tried so valiantly to keep in! And you can tell she was pretty proud of herself! (ok, this picture was staged, but isn't it perfect?). Anyway, we had to call a home care nurse to come and watch us put it in since we've never done it ourselves. We had to try three times to get it all the way down her nose to her stomach and little Abbie was not a happy camper! I have never seen her as upset as she was last night! We felt terrible, but of course she was just fine a few minutes later. Now if she pulls it out, we can put it back in all by ourselves, not that it's a happy event, it'll just be nice to not have to call a nurse to observe.

3 Months Old!!

Wow, I can't believe my little baby girl is 3 months old already!

3 things Abbie loves

1. Being rocked to sleep

2. Watching American Idol with mom and dad

3. Going for rides in the car

Dad rocking Abbie to sleep

3 things Abbie hates
1. Getting strapped in her carseat
2. Getting her nose suctioned out
3. Right now, her binkie :(


3 things Mom loves about Abbie
1. Dressing her up all cute
2. She sleeps through the night!
3. Her big smiles!

Abbie's favorite sleeping position

3 New things we've tried with Abbie this week

1. Going to church for the first time

2. Going to the feeding therapist

3. Getting a new tube (an NG-tube that goes to her stomach instead of her intestines)

Abbie sporting her new tube and a new hat. Isn't that face priceless?!

Mom and Abbie chillin' after church