Bangs

Man are Abby's bangs getting long as evidenced by these series of pictures. I'm trying to be strong but it's getting more and more tempting to cut them verses letting them grow out. As for the tunnel, MeMe gave it to her shortly after she came home. She had been afraid of it each time I periodically brought it out. Last week I brought it out again and she loved it! Thanks Mel :)

Thank you all for all of your supportive comments in regards to my bad day. They meant a lot. Yesterday I did take Abby to daycare. I had big plans for my alone time with a long list of possibilities in my head. I won't list them here cuz not one of them happened. I made the mistake of laying down on my couch around 9:30 and next thing I knew it was 2:30. I got up and made myself decent cuz I had to take Abby to the doctor at 3:50. I finally got her rash checked out. Her Doc wasn't quite sure what it was either but prescribed an antibiotic cream for it. It better be some good stuff. I had to fork out $75.00 bucks for it! I about had a stroke when they gave me the total. Nope no mistake either. I gave it back and said never mind then immediately second guessed myself. Yep I asked for it back and went ahead and purchased it. Like I said it better be good.

Thought I would post a few pictures of my little Abba. I love this outfit on her:) In the first picture her lips and mouth are red because she had just finished a red Popsicle (or caca as she calls them). Check out the video I posted at the end of this post. Not sure where she got it from but she was all about ready, set go yesterday :)

Hard Day

Warning! I am going to whine. Skip this post If you don't want to hear it. It's not all sunshine and butterflies .

Today was and all around rough day. I would say based on a bunch of factors all rolled up in one. Last night Abby woke up at 2 AM. I cringed and was afraid to look at the clock. Once I finally did I was overjoyed to see that it was only 2 AM. Plenty of time for more sleep. Yeah right. Once I got up and got little miss some milk she decided she was not going back to bed. The party lasted til 4:30 AM. I'll spare you the details but it ended badly. Basically I had to put her in my bed and let her cry while I pretended to sleep. Eventually she did too.

Two hours later and my alarm goes off. I hit dose for another 30 min. Started my day off late. Abby slept away. I had to wake her. I really hate doing that to her. It makes me feel horrible. Luckily she woke in a good mood. We got to her day care around 8:15. Later then usual. It was pajama day and she looked so cute in her pink princess PJs. Of course she cried when I left.

Got to work at 8:35. My boss comes in to my office and tells me that she wasn't sure if I was aware that I had to work the weekend??? I wasn't. I tell her no problem and make a quick call to my Mom to see if they can keep her Sat and Sun. Luckily she can. I had no plans for the holiday but was really looking forward to just having 3 days off to relax with Abby. Oh well. So she tells me I'm off tomorrow since I will be working the weekend.

09:00 I go up to my units after getting a GINORMOUS coffee. Guess what? The system that we use to review the charts is down, Great. We have a 90 minute meeting at 1:00 PM . I really didn't need to be even more behind. Meanwhile I get a call from day care. They tell me not to panic but that I may want to come take a look at Abby. it seems she fell off the slide and cut the inside of her lip. Lot's of blood. they tell me that once the initial tears were over that all she wanted to do was go back outside and play some more. They iced her lip and let her play. She really wouldn't let them check her mouth inside so they didn't force it. After thinking I decided to let them call me back once she let them take a look. I figured that If I went back to her Day care I would just upset her more. They agreed and promised to call me if anything changed. So then the rest of the day I struggled with guilt and second guessed myself. Should I have gone or still go to her day care? Anyway the systems down til 10 ish. I finish the Open Heart unit and half of the CCU before I have to go to the meeting.Some where in there my monthly arrives. Post meeting back to work to finish the CCU and do the ICU. Behind of course. Long story short I'm there until 5:40 PM.

I pick up Abby and she seems happy. Yep a little bit of a fat lip but no worse for it. I notice that there is blood all over her shirt. They kept it on her all day. Am I too picky???? They had a spare outfit. Plus her barrette is missing.

After a Chick Filea run we get home about 6:15 PM. She is in a good mood. She eats pretty well actually. After I put her in the tub. Once bath time was over she turned fussy and clingy. We battled over my attempts to cut her finger nails. let's say she won. I had hoped to keep her up til 9:30 PM so she would be good and tired and then I could hopefully rock her to sleep and slip her in her crib instead of my bed. She ends up crashing on the floor around 8:00 PM. I take advantage of the situation and clip her finger and toe nails. I put her in her crib and she wakes up. The crying starts. After lots of rocking/ swaying I finally get her back in her crib asleep. I pray she sleeps all night.

So now tomorrow I think I will take her to day care and get caught up around here. My house is a wreak. I am going to call the pediatricians office and ask about her rash. She has some more bumps today. No fever but I'm wondering if our night time issues are related to it. Hopefully I can get a hair cut too. I have some major roots going on.

Thanks for all of your rash advice. And for reading this post, if your still with me that is. It was therapeutic for me. It may not seem that bad of a day to others but I am exhausted and stressed.
I got out late from work today and yesterday because of meetings. I hate doing that to Abby. I feel like I should keep her home tomorrow and spend some quality time with her. I also could use some time to get some things done too.

Rash DX?

I'm looking for opinions here. First off the top two pictures are from tonight. Just to show you that she doesn't look sick.

She was not in the posing mood :)

This (pictured below) is the rash tonight. It's doesn't cover her from head to toe but is kind of scattered, One or two on her neck, maybe three or four on her belly, 3 on her left ankle, one or two on her knees/thighs, a couple on her back, several on her rt hip. A little backround. I took her to the Doctors last wednsday for what I thought was a spider bite. They pronounced her arm fine and actually thought it might be a may fly bite instead. Anyhoo. They were more interested in her apparant upper respiratory thing AKA the Daycare Crud), with the greenish nasal discharge. They put her on Augmentin. Due to scheduling conflicts I did not get the prescription filled till this past Friday so she got her first dose that night, The next morning I gave her dose number two. I noticed she was scratching at what looked like hives on her tummy and right hip area. I called my MD Brother N Law and we agreed to stop the Augmentin. I gave her some benadryl for the itching and she seemed fine. that night I noticed a few spots on her back as well. I gave her more benadryl before bed. The next day the spots seemed smaller. We all ate at my Mom's so I got my brother in law to look in person. He didn't think it looked like a drug rash but told me to hold off on the Augmentin still. At that time she had a few on her legs as well. She also seemed to be running a fever but my Mom didn't have a thermometer. I gave her tylenol and she was in no way acting sick. Ate well, played well ect. Today when I picked her up from daycare I noticed she had a few more on her legs and shoulders but the prior ones seemed less noticable. She is scratching at her knees tho, so I gave her benadryl toonight. My brother n law thinks the rash is viral and said not to worry about it but..... What the heck is it? Anyone have any ideas????

The 8/23 pictures are from the day I discovered the rash. What do you all think? Should I call her Doctor?

My Big Girl!

Saturday while hot was not scorching so I took Abby to the Park. Swinging has always been number one for her. This time she only wanted to swing a few minutes before she moved on to the new favorite. The slide.

This slide has always been her favorite. They have three at our playground. I would consider this one the intermediate slide.

She likes to climb up the slide before she slides down.

All by her self too :) (Down, Not up!)

I think I had written that she just recently started sliding down this slide with minimal assistance. The slide below I will call the Advanced slide.

My Abby decided she was ready to tackle this one on Saturday.

Luckily it is not a very slippery slide so she just kinda scoots down it.

My Big Girl :)

Climbing too! Another new thing on the playground anyway.

My sweet little girl!

OH! And some BREAKING NEWS!!!! I am now the proud new owner of a Nikon D60 Camera! Thanks Meema and Da! Once I learn how to use it I look forward to posting lots of cool pictures!

I can't wait!!!!

I Just Love Her :)

Friday night entertainment :) Sorry about the back round noise. (The baby monitor is on so you can hear her music and sound machine running. Plus I have a fan on in my room.)

Bath X 2

Somebody who shall be nameless had not one but two baths tonight! At the risk of TMI I'll just say that bath number two was in the sink while the tub was undergoing a deep cleaning. Nuff said! Anyhoo. Check out my little peanut. She still fits in the sink. All 24.8 pounds of her:) The first two photos were taken when we first got home.....

This last photo is from tonight. As you can see there is alot less room in the sink now:)

Sick day

My baby is fighting round 2 of the daycare crud right now. Poor thing is a snot machine as evidenced by her glistening nostril above. Last night was a rough one, she was up multiple times. This morning I got up to get ready for work and she was sleeping so peacefully. At 7:30 she was still out and I just hated to wake her up and then rush her to get ready for daycare. No one likes to rush when they aren't feeling well. I had been wrestling all morning with the decision to send her to daycare or not. I decided not... Tough call especially since I am still on orientation with my new job. I don't want to set a bad example. My Mom had plans today and the only other potential babysitter we have has a 10 month old and I wouldn't want to subject her to the fountain of drainage that continues to spill out of Abby's nose. SO I called out.

Once she did wake up, she was okay just real congested. I figured I would get some good rest out of her today. Not so much tho. She took only one two hour nap. The rest of the day was a tough one. It was like she had two personalities. One minute happy and the next minute she was in melt down mode. This went on pretty much all day. Normally she doesn't go to bed until 9:00 PM or 9:30 PM but tonight after one melt down too many I had her in bed by 8:00 PM. She was out in ten minutes flat. Poor thing. I hope she rests well tonight. She has to go to daycare tomorrow.

Now that she is in bed and quite I have had time to reflect on our day. It was tough for sure. This would be the instance where I would have to say that being a single parent can be hard. There is not anyone to pick up the slack. Just you and your child all day and all night. When she is cranky there is no escaping it. I'm not complaining mind you, just trying to put my thoughts to words. I just feel like we overall did not have a good day and that makes me feel like I failed her somehow. It's a crappy feeling.

Desperate measures

No flames please. Seriously I never thought I would be the type to put my child on a leash. Shopping with Abby these days has become a challenge. At the Grocery store she is only willing to ride in the cart for a short while before she wants to get out. (That's if I was even able to coax her in the cart to begin with) I can't bribe her with food anymore either. If I don't let her down then it becomes a scream fest. Once down she will stay with me for a while but then she runs. She thinks it's a game and let me tell you my girl is FAST! She will be 3 isles over sometimes before I catch her (laughing away) and meanwhile my purse is left unattended. Since I really don't have the option of shopping alone, I had to resort to this purchase. I tried it out last night at home. She thought it was great fun and kept saying more every time I let go of the tail (leash). We just tried it out a Kmart. I was expecting but didn't see anyone give us any looks. She thought the whole thing was a game so hey what ever works :) It beats the heck out of letting people see me clumsily chase my daughter through the store:)

Vacation Pictures

Thought I would post these pictures from our Cape Charles vacation. We had a great time. Abby especially enjoyed getting to spend so much time with all of her cousins:)

Grass shot :)

Cousin Joshua

Eating breakfast.

Cousins Virginia and Josh.

Cousin Jack and Abby

I found her like this:) Such a mimic and yes the straightener was unplugged and cool.

Jumping Fun!

Hanging with my cousins:)

Sitting in Joshua's exersaucer while watching a video.

Squinting, I mean Swimming with my Uncle Pete:)

DVD time with Cousin Jack

Virginia and JoshHanging on the golf cart with Cousin's Christopher, Jack amd Zack

Abby and Auntie L

More DVD action

In the sand

Abba and MamaAbby and cousin Erin

Josh:)

Supervising cousin Joshuas bath

Jumping on the bed with buddy Chase (or Cheese as she calls him) :)

Abba and Mama

Abba was tired.

Pretty in pink

Abby with Cousins Virginia and Sissy

Her first trike :P

She liked it :)

She really did :)

:)

:) Thanks Meema!

Abby, Sissy and Auntie L

The golf cart was a hit! And yes the glow is coming from my legs! No bathing suit for me this year until I get rid of all of my adoption wait (weight)!

Good times.

Thanks Meema and Da! WE love you and had a great time :)