Happy 8 month birthday Layla!

Layla still won't eat and actually gagged and projectile vomited last night an hour or so after dinner. It was an aweful sight. We have a 2nd opinion on Monday with another GI. In the meantime we are just keeping her hydrated any way we can. She will eat her cereal and pears from a spoon so we are watering them down a ton. This is very baffling. I keep hoping it just stops as suddenly as it started.

First time in the car - too funny right until she fell through the bottom.

Sisters being silly.

No movement on the crawling front. She is working so hard to get on all fours, but hasn't quite gotten there yet. She pushes herself backwards across the room which is still funny to us. She is a trooper though and keeps on trying. She will get it.

Eight months........Layla has been a joy and a challenge. I keep thinking that any day now her belly will magically get better and our lives will settle down some. Someday...........

Refusing to eat!

Yes - sometime in the last week, Layla has started to refuse her bottles. We then stopped her cereal and pears hoping this would help her take her bottle again, but it didn't work. At the GI today, Layla weighed in at 20 lbs (4 oz less than 3 weeks ago) so she is loosing weight. We have 2 days to get her drinking before they place a feeding tube. The hope is that she just isn't hungry after not eating for a few days and her stomach needs to be stretched back out. The GI disagreed with trying to change her meds, up her meds, etc......She said that since the scope looked good, there is no reason to change anything.

So can you believe her sleeping has gotten even worse.......Ugh! This baby will be the death of me yet. Hope to update with better news on Friday.

More super cute pictures

Layla is doing well after her surgery. The ear popping should be behind us, but her sleeping has gone downhill again. We have had many night wakings so we hope this resolves soon. It is sad when I wish I could go back to just getting up at 1:30 to feed her a bottle. JUST getting up for one bottle at almost 8 months and 21 lbs........Silly girl. Mommy needs some sleep.

She wants to crawl so badly it is funny. She actually got a start and then chickened out. I got the video going right before she chickened out, but she did lunge for some pretzels and got one foot out behind her. She will be mobile soon I'm sure. I couldn't get the video to upload, but will try again later.

Surgery is over - Thank goodness!

The surgery is over and it went pretty well. The ear doctor removed fluid from behind both ear drums and said she should be much more comfortable now. Her balance and hearing should also be greatly improved. The GI didn't see anything alrming, but we will know more when the biopsies come back on Thursday. I am a little bummed. It sounds bad, but I was hoping to hear "Oh - we found X(something) and we can fix it!". Oh well.

Layla came out of anesthia very fussy and screamed for some time before falling asleep. We let her sleep for 1/2 hour and then came home. She did drink a bottle and hung out with mom for a while and is now back asleep. I am not holding her as she really didn't want me to, but I am staring at the video monitor on it's loudest setting and she is breating fine. A good nap will make a baby feel much more together after a rough morning.

Nap update.....

So yesterday morning's nap lasted 1 hour and 5 minutes. I suppose I jinxed it by reporting, but hey - it was still a step in the right direction. Her next nap at 12:30 lasted 1/2 hour - boo. She took a final nap at 4:00 and we woke her up at 5:30! Yes - we woke her up to get her medecine and dinner, but she as so peacefully sleeping - it was lovely. Isn't she an angel?

This morning she has been sleeping for 1 hour and 16 minutes! By golly I think it is working - finally! Look how happy she is when she is well rested.

We also had some great belly time yesterday! Layla is pushing up and scooting backwards. It is pretty funny. And finally - we had some happy naked time before her bath last night and it was pretty cute. We are brave ;)

Longest nap ever!

So my husband had this idea - lets just put the baby down for a nap without rocking her or feeding her, etc. I thought he was crazy, but it turns out - it worked! I put her in her crib and she babbled at me like "Mom - what on earth do you think you are doing". I thought for sure this would never work. I warmed up my coffee and ran back to the hall expecting to hear whining or fussing, but I heard..........nothing. I jogged to the video monitor and turned it on. Low and behold - the baby is sleeping. All by herself. and here it is an hour later and she is still asleep. WOW! Bliss.

Update and cute videos.

So Layla is scheduled for surgery on the 22nd (Tuesday). She has a slight cold right now and I may take her in tonight to just make sure she is not getting an ear infection. I think she just pulls on her ears for fun now or as a soothing technique? I just want to make it to this surgery - so extra prayers are appreciated.

Layla gives big sloppy wet kisses now! She seems to be trying to eat your face, but no - those are just super sweet baby kisses. Yum.

Here are two little videos of Layla from this past week. I just think they are cute, but of course I am biased.




And this picture of Hannah and Matt.......just melts my heart. She loves him so much and is such a daddy's girl. Not to mention she has him wrapped around her pinky and pretty much gets whatever she wants from him. I actually have found myself in the evening saying "alright you two - time to settle down". They are just peas in a pod.

Cute pictures........

I can't believe you woke me up.














Happiest baby ever....














Super Cute Playdate.......

Look how cute I am..........
Check me out! My mom put me like this, but I'm still looking good!












Still happy......














Me and my sis!












mmmmmm feeties!

Ode to the swing.........

Goodbye my dear sweet fishy swing. Thank you for all the minutes and even hours of sleep you provided over the past 7 months. Without you, I would not be here - or at least I would not be functioning quite as well...........We will miss you.
So Layla, my chunky monkey, is over 20lbs now and officially doesn't even come close to fitting in her swing. We hung on to it as long as we could, but alas - she looks terribly uncomfortable and the poor swing just can't go on. It has been moved back to the basement to gather dust until such time that we have a big baby garage sale.
So sad.........Napping used to be a blissful 2 hours and now is a hard fought 30 minutes. Not to mention our middle of the night shenanigans are extended as I can't just pop her in the swing and let it rock her back to sleep in a semi-upright position. After her surgery (rescheduled for the 22nd) I may be forced to take away the middle of the night bottle to avoid such extended awakenings. Surely she will not fade away to nothing without those 4oz. We could all use the extra sleep! More news to come on that.

Christmas!

It was tons of fun. The girls had a great time (especially Hannah). Hannah got some really fun new toys and dress up stuff. She also got a new baby which she named Dexi (not sure where she came up with that). This was her first year where she really understood everything and it was so exciting for her. We were up all night with Layla (and I mean literally ALL NIGHT) Christmas eve, but we were rejuvinated by Hannah in the morning. It is hard to be tired when your little ones are so happy.

In other big news - Hannah is potty trained! She did awesome. It was basically two days of lots of accidents, but then - she got it. She has had one or two accidents all week, so that is a success to me. She got all new big girl pants and a new movie for doing so good. My big girl.

Layla's RSV has resolved and she is doing well. Her sleep went to pot when she was sick (as if she was ever a good sleeper) so that is no fun. We are working on sleep training this month. We took her our of her swaddle (yes - my giant 7 month old was still swaddled) and she is learning to sleep in her crib. It is going to be a long month, but in the end we should have a better sleeper. She weighed in at 18lbs 12 oz last week at her RSV check :) So she didn't waste away to nothing during her illness.

It was nice to be home for 10 days with the girls. We had lots of fun and good playtime. Now we are looking forward to our weekend away just Mom and Dad. In 48 hours I will be on my way to Key West to meet Matt (who is already there on "business"). Yay for mommy!