Holiday Season

Well we went to Thanksgiving this year in Crockett. We had a great time. We went to the Christmas Tree Farm on Saturday and then the Polar express that evening. Thanksgiving was great. We really enjoyed Crockett, we hung out quite a bit at the house but it was really nice. MP was quite cranky b/c her two front teeth were coming in and then Allison had fever the morning of thanksgiving so needless to say that morning 12am-6am of thanksgiving was almost every hour we were up with the girls. It had been quite a while when we have had a night like that. But luckily it was nothing more serious than a cold and teething so they were able to enjoy their cousins and crockett as well. I made a corn casserole and a millionaires delight. Allison really enjoys her cousins its so cute, Josh helps take care of her. Maegan and Chayse were great with MP and helped just walk her around b/c she was very cranky. I gave her ibuprofen every 4 hours, you could just tell she was in so much pain. As for the xmas tree farm we had a great time, didn't stay too long which was good. MP and Allison both were terrified of santa. Will and I are going to take the girls again so we will see if they do better. WE found a great tree, rode on a trailer to go saw it down and all. 9 Months: MP started more solid foods-table food. Her first meal was spaghetti. SHE LOVED IT!!!! couldn't get enough in her, she has also been eating rotisserie chicken, corn, green beans, mac/cheese, yogurt. She is so cute right now. She weighs about 19 lbs and is wearing 9-12 mo clothes. She is so funny. She stands on her own for a while but hasn't yet taken a step. She is clapping and just started waving. She has said da da and maybe mama but nothing too definite. She LOVES climbing the stairs. WE start her on one side of the house and then it gives us a minute or two to do something before she is at the bottom of the stairs. She is very difficult trying to get dressed as she just wants to roll over and crawl away. She makes the funniest noises and her laugh is just the cutest thing ever. She still at times will get up in the middle of the night but its def not the norm. she goes to bed around 7pm and we go get her around 645-7. She naps around 9 for either 1.5 hours or 2 and then sleeps again around 1 for 1.5-2. She drinks about 5oz of formula although still getting some breastmilk b/c I still have some frozen. We took Allison to see her first movie at the movie theatre. We saw Frozen. She loved it, her eyes were so big. We got popcorn and she wanted skittles. She has gotten into christmas a lot more this year and loves to sing the Christmas songs. Anytime we are out and about she screams I SEE SANTA!!! She has an elf named Revelie (Will swears he didn't tell her to name it that, but I'm still skeptical). We wake up every morning to see where he has moved to again. The only crazy thing he has done is toilet paper the stair well. (Its nice that Allison gets up later these days as one of us is always up with MP before Allie gets up). I see Revelie move quite often in those hours of the morning. :) Allie doesn't know yet what to really ask for from Santa, she seems to still be figuring it out in how this all works. But for now she wants a doll. We went to American girl for the first time, what an amazing and crazy place. THE DOLLS CLOTHES WERE AS MUCH AS THE AMT I SPEND ON THE GIRLS CLOTHES. But she found a double stroller that she pushed around the store the entire time. SHE LOVED IT, so I found a cheaper on on amazon. SO got other stuff we are going to get and I am having fun figuring out what to give. She is still a picky eater, and has been sleeping with us for quite a while so our next goal is to get the bedtime routine figured out again. Its just so much easier throwing her in our bed and all just sleeping vs going upstairs for 1 hour or more to just try and get her down. She is really into drawing, blocks-building things, Sofia, princesses, and books lately. She likes playing school where I am on of her teachers and she is the other. She lines all the stuffed animals around or asks me and will to sit down on the floor while she reads to us. She loves eating at mexican food restaurants (queso) she is my child, loves cheese quesadillas, she states she doesn't like chicken anymore loves PB, honey nut cherrios, spaghetti, PIZZA is her favorite- cheese at the moment. Here are some pics from the past holiday:

MP 8 Months and Allison 3yrs

My My My, nothing to say for myself. I have to give myself a deadline or I wont post, which was 4 months ago. Things are busy around the Driskell home. MP is crazy active, started crawling at 6 1/2 months. She sat up at 5 months and I thought she was going to crazy earlier than she did b/c she was constantly on her hands and knees rocking back and forth. As well as her downward dog yoga pose. haha. She is a mess. Very cute and so smiley. She has a cute personality and PUTS EVERYTHING I MEAN EVERYTHING IN HER MOUTH. She loves to eat too, which the only thing so far she does not like are green beans! Mixed veggies are not her favorite. She likes squash but wants it mixed with pears or something, sweet potatoes, loves sweet peas, of course all fruits. She is also a big fan of oatemal and fruit. She likes cereal too. We havent started table food which I feel she is ready so we may start that a little earlier than what doc thinks which she said we need to start it at 9 months. Allison is doing great, she is growing and its so cool to have such grown up conversations with her. She still has the cute proununciation of all words its quite endearing. She is really into jake and the never land pirates while she eats breakfast in the mornings. She loves the movies annie, littler mermaid, finding nemo (Honestly all disney), love real kids movies like pippy longstocking. She plays with blocks a lot and leggos, loves to build things. Still not too into dress up unless Kynleigh comes over. She is still a very picky eater, loves quesedillas, pizza, not a big fan of chicken these days, spaghetti, loves most fruits, only eats honey nut cherrios for breakfast, loves croissants. I give her daily vitamins (gummies) and 1 claritin per day which I really think helps her. She is very independent and wants to do things by herself, get dressed, bathe, etc. She wears 3t and size 6-7 shoe. she loves MP, but complains when she pulls her hair. She tries to carry her a lot but I have to obviously intervene. MP is obsessed with remotes and cell phones. SHE LOVES BABY mum mums. She prefers store bought baby food-which I get the organic and try different flavors hoping she will not be picky. She goes down about 7pm and sleeps until 6-630. We put a paci clip on her clothes and she listens to music all night long. She is still getting some breastmilk but prefers the taste of forumla as the BM is frozen. I quit breastfeeding at about 5 months but had enough saved to make it to 6 months exclusively but had enough to last until probably 9 months with 1/2 formula too. She loves her jumper but then gets mad if she is in it and no-one else is in the room. SHE IS crazy trying to get dressed these days as she turns over and crawls away, kindof a beating trying to get her to sit still. SHE LOVES TO GET BAILEYS dog food. She is talking quite a bit, and I think I have heard both dada and mama, but its not distinct enough. She also started at about 7 months holding her arms up so that you can pick her up. She is so cute in her crib when its night night time in that she pulls up (7mo) and sits there and giggles if your still in the room. I play a game where I sneak up by the crib where she is standing and play peek a boo, she just squeals with laughter. She is wearing 6-12 and pretty much in 9mo clothing. She is a good baby but dramatic at times :).Having a lot of fun with both, its just crazy how fast time is going by. I cant believe we are in the holiday season.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Beginning of Christmas 2012

OH the holidays!!! Its been a good couple of months, busy for sure but a lot of fun. Things are about the same working on potty training, UGH :) although she has done quite well we are going through a small regression at this time. About a month ago she started wearing big girl panties all the time which for the most part we were no having a lot of accidents although she has a harder time with #2, which is to be expected I guess. But this past week it has been every day there seems to have been an accident, but Im going to try and bribe harder :) Terrible I know. anyways Halloween was a lot of fun, we went over to Sara and Jt's and they had her brother and wife over there with their child. The girls had a lot of fun, Allison was a pink pig this year for halloween and the McCarroll girls were princesses. OH I FOGROT to say we found out we are having another girl. We found out October 22nd. We werent that shocked, I felt for sure that it was a girl and Will at the appointment said he was 99% sure it was a girl, but it was indeed confirmed. We are excited. I am glad Allison will have a sister. We are still trying to decide on a name. Its SO HARD on the second girl, Allison we knew right away but we cannot decide and are quite picky. But back to Halloween, we went over to their house ate hot dogs and chili and then took the kiddos. It actually got dark quite quickly so it was hard to take a lot of pictures, which I was sick about. But I got quite a few at our work halloween party and her primrose party. For thanksgiving we went to Mama Mel and Poppy's. Nat and Wyatt were there, they have moved back from NY. We had a great time. Mama Mel made cookies with Allie, and Allison played with all of the toys Mama mel has at her house not to mention the new ones she had bought for her. She also watched Finding Nemo all of the time as well as that has been her new obsession and will often watch it 2 times per day not all the way of course. I need to get her some new movies as she really has gotten into them vs. Elmo/Mickey Mouse etc. Aww she is getting older. She is also talking so much, its precious.

Mary Peyton Driskell

Mary Peyton Driskell, Born March 8th at 732 am, 8lbs 1 oz, 20.25 inches. WOW what another amazing event in our lives. I cant describe the feeling when you go through the entire labor experience and the delivery of a beautiful baby girl. The moment they place her on your body its like nothing you have ever experienced, its an out of body moment. I am always in the most shocking state that it truly is a baby inside, an overwhelming amount of pride and extreme joy/happiness flushes over you. My labor story was very similar to Allison birth story except everyone had not partied the night before :) My water broke at 830pm, I was in bed, Will was upstairs putting Allie to sleep and I felt this terrible pain that lasted for two minutes, I couldnt tell if it was yet another contraction but it was different in that it hurt so bad. Five minutes later I had a flood of water and I immediately knew it was time. I was so calm, and like here we go vs. before when i was like oh sh** its time. I cannot explain how easy this was the second time around, I was not nervous and was so ready to meet Mary Peyton. Labor wasnt terrible, they started the pitocin at 1130, my contractions were still not regular. I called everyone and everyone headed our way. Natalie and Wyatt came from Wimberley, dad from Longview, Mom from Houston, and the Driskells had just settled down in their hotel room in monroe LA. My family got there around 130am in the morning and the driskells got there about 4, they had to drive 8 hours starting at 9 that night. Everyone was very tired but anxiously awaited the new arrival. MY DELIVERY was the easiest thing in the world, I pushed three times and she was here in less than five minutes. I thought she was maybe 7lbs but when they said she was 8.1 I was in shock, and then in my head realized that was why I was so uncomfortable the last weeks of my pregnancy. WHAT a wonderful day. Even the labor part was easy, my epidural worked great and really wasnt even that numb or at least it didnt bother me that much. I will say the part that is hard on both of my deliveries is that I never get to sleep the night b/c I labor that night and that morning. so it sets you up to not having sleep but hey who is counting these days, sleeps isnt at the top of the list. Also because it was in the middle of the night it was another doctor that was on call not Dr Harms. So I labored all night and pretty much knew I wasnt going to get Dr Harms as my doc but around 630am the on call doc came in and said i was almost ready for delivery and that dr harms was the on call doc that switched at 730 and she was hurrying to my room to make the delivery as she was scheduled for a csection that morning but instead got to deliver Mary Peyton. She is such a great doctor and was so encouraging. She also rounded on me the entire weekend which was great. It was such an easy and smooth process couldnt have asked God to have done it any better. I pushed for maybe two minutes (3 times) and she was here. It was again the most amazing indescribable feeling in the world even have been through it once before but when she came out out and was placed on me it is so surreal and unbelievable that a human being was just born. Its complete elation and joy. I couldnt wipe the smile off my face, I was so calm during the entire labor and delivery, I wasnt scared, I was so excited to meet this little miss. When they said she was 8lbs 1oz I was in shock that she was that big of size (for me) as I was used to Allison who weighed 6lbs 9oz, I guess that explains why I was quite uncomfortable during the last of my pregnancy not to mention chasing after a toddler. What an amazing day yet again, what an amazing experience. The rest of the hospital stay was great, breastfeeding went great, MP nursed like a champ and my milk actually came in the next day after delivery which made it nice. I had great nurses except for the first day and they truly helped me. Will stayed with ALlison at night as she was clearly having a hard time so we felt more normalcy was better and I hated for him to be on the couch. MP went to the nursery at night. The hospital stay was actually kindof nice, although annoying too b/c they would wake you up for vitals etc, but they would also bring you graham crackers juice water :) and your baby to feed and then take her back so that I could sleep some. We discharged from the hospital on Sunday March 10th and headed home where mom/fred nat/wyatt and allison were at. It was great going home but I did get a little emotional I think out of tiredness and fear as to how it was going to be. When Allison first met Peyton in the hospital I wasnt holding her, I think Aunt Sabrina was but nonetheless she was terrified of me in the hospital bed and did not want to come near me. I of course felt guilty in a way but completely understood too. I just wanted Allie to be okay, not to mention the night before I went into labor she was sick throwing up all night and also threw up at Uncle Jim and Aunt Brinas as well. You could tell she didnt feel well and was completely freaked out with this new thing in our lives :) The next day she was better although still took a while to warm up to me but I was walking around more so I think that helped. She got in bed with me and watched movies which was good. Aunt Natty and MeMel took great care of her and unlce wyatt and poppy. When we got into the next days at home it was apparant Allie was having a difficult time, she was nice to the baby but did not like it when I was breastfeeding. She would look at us and make this grunting noise like she wasnt going to talk and just be mad. She would sit in the corner etc. She also started throwing up nightly at this point so Will had to be upstairs with her while I was downstairs with the baby, we were afraid it was a virus. It had gone on this point for more than a week so when i called the doc they said that she must have gotten a second wave of the stomach bug. but it was weird as it would only come at night she would throw up once and then act fine the next day. She would eat play etc. Finally after about three weeks of off and on throwing up we took her back to the doctor and they did bloodwork and stool sample tests. COME to find out she has a peanut allergy, which is awful as baby girl loves peanut butter. the only thing she would eat at that point were waffles and peanut butter, but according to the doctor overexposure can cause allergies and im ashamed to say we def overexposed her for sure. we are now peanut free, I am still a little skeptical that it is that but it hasnt come back since we took peanuts out of her diet and she has an appetite now things have really turned around. SO needless to say the first two weeks were kindof brutal because we were dealing with Allie not only being sick and us afraid it was something really wrong with her and her having a hard time adjusting with all the new changes. ALthough she did pretty well as to be expected I just wanted her to be okay. I still had to discipline her as she would throw tantrums and I understood why but there were things she just couldnt do. But we gave her some slack as well.

July 2013-- 4 months, 3 yrs old

Still been a while since I posted, just going to get over it and do it when I can. MP doing well although this past week she is back to her old symptoms of arching her back, screaming at the bottle. Called the pediatrician and they increased her medicine- she is taking 1 15mg solutab of prevacid in morning and 1/2 at night. our normal schedule has been feeding her oatmeal around 630 (she loves it btw) and would eat and eat some more but I tried not to give her as much last night b/c I am afraid its making her gassy. Nonetheless then I bathe her usually in kitchen sink with her bathtub but I also put the bumbo in the sink or her bathtub in the bathtubs upstairs. I put her in her long pjs and a blanket sack and feed her a bottle. she was eating like 6 oz at this feeding but lately she wont eat. Either overtired or her acid reflux I guess. From there she would sleep until about 230 (so 645-230) and then I would feed her and she would sleep again until about 530 where I would either then get her and bring her to bed with me or just put paci in her mouth. She is eating on average about 5 oz give or take, she is a little more used to the frozen Breast milk but of course prefers the fresh. She likes her jumper and exersaucer and she also plays on her activity mat. She has found her feet and today put them in her mouth. She loves her hands and lately she has started squealing. She is very strong, almost sitting up just supported. I am thinking I will start her on some veggies in a couple of weeks, we will see how she does. She is a great baby. Still giving her gas drops and as of yesterday moved her to size 3 diapers. She likes to jump on your legs and she gets lonely if by herself for longer than 10 minutes. She will start squealing or protesting until someone gets her :) She also enjoys tv, she used to sleep in the car but that is no more. Maybe an hour on the road trip but doesnt automatically go to sleep like she used to. I am working on her nap schedule it looked like she is waking up around 7-730 and then I put her down between 9-930am. She has slept for about 1.5 hrs and then eats at 11. then put her down about 1230-1 then sleeps about 1.5 hours then i feed her after the three hour mark. I recently started her on zegrid which seems to have really helped, I wasnt noticing any difference on adding on to her dosage like doc said. The zegrid is over the counter and when I asked doc they werent too fond of starting her on it, maybe because it is new not too sure but def have turned a corner, she still has her moments of gas pains but nothing like we were dealing with. the last so many night I have put her down around 630 and she slept until 430. she also loves to talk and has the sweetest smile. i love her so much. right now we are going through some scary stuff with allison. she has started throwing up again in the middle of the night around 3-4am and will usually throw up for an hour and not able to keep anything down. its a violent throwing up multiple times. its the saddest deal. we orignally thought it was peanut oil causing these recent episodes but the last two times she had no peanuts. so we are all confused. we took her to pediatrician monday and she scared us. she stated it was causing many red flags to go up b/c its only happening in the middle of the night, she is concerned it could be that the spinal fluid isnt draining properly in her head causing it to put pressure on the gag reflux causing it to only occur when she is laying flat. She wants us to do an MRI just with a three year old they have to go under anesthesia. so we decided to do a food diary for a week to see if we see any correlation btw food and any possible episodes, I went ahead and called a pediatric gastro doc which we are going tomorrow to see if they agree with our pediatrician or if there is another angle they think we should go. im scared, i pray its nothing serious. im worried about my little baby girl. i hate when she gets sick in the middle of the night. ALlie on another note has been doing so good in the pool, she took swimming lessons really only one week b/c the next week she was sick and baby scarlett was born. but now she is able to go under water and grab objects although still very new to swimming but is def getting it more. Allison right now is into lassie, monsters inc, jake and the neverland pirates, sofia, cinderella,b brave. she has also started going by herself to the potty without needing any help, its quite awesome. she is getting more used to going to school full time although still a fight many mornings but does seem to be getting better. SHe still enjoys sleeping with us the most and has a difficult time not wanting us to leave while she falls asleep in her room, she wants all lights on but we have compromised and did only two lamps. she still loves lamby and her thumb. she weighs about 29lbs still doesnt eat a ton but that is how she is. her normal schedule is to get up around 730- eat honey nut cherrios with milk and watch her tv shows. then if school day I will bring her clothes downstairs and we will get her dressed while she finishes watching tv. then ill pick her up around 430 and either do an errand or go home. lately she has been wanting to play critters, or paint. she also likes puzzles these days so we have been doing those. then i fix dinner she usually eats chicken with mac and cheese or cheese quesadillas, or turkey and cheese, pizza, then for desert if she eats she can have chocolate ice cream. she still loves goldfish, animal crackers, fruit roll ups, oreos, chips, fruit-grapes apples with no peels, watermelon, pineapple, bannanas, the only vegetables she likes are green beans and corn. she usually takes a bath and plays around 630 gets out and gets dressed- she still wears a pull up at night. then watches tv/movie until about 8 then we go upstairs and read and lay with her. lately though she has been sleeping with us in the bed as we are scared about what is going on with her. will and i went to hawaii july 12th-july 19th, we had such an awesome time. it was gorgeous, we missed the girls but sur enjoyed our free time. we rented a jeep and went snorkeling went to a luau went to a magic show all sorts of stuff. Scarlett was born on July 29th, such a cutie!!!! nat and wyatt are hanging in there, just dealing with the throws of a newborn.

3 months and almost 3 year old

Wow time has flown by. We have been so busy. I just went back to the hospital a week or so ago for 2 days a week. It was not nearly as hard going back like it was with Allison. But there is a sense of sadness that the "maternity" time is over as you look forward to the moment you have the baby and the entire time off. but working part time with both girls has allowed me to still be with them a lot and I am cherishing every moment on those days that im not at hospital although I am also working for my dad on my "off days" but so far the schedule is awesome! the girls are doing great. WE are planning Allison's 3rd birthday party, how is she already three. amazing! she is doing well, still having an issue with going #2 on purpose around us. Its so annoying and now we have started putting her in time out bc she knows what she is doing but I think she either likes the attention or its not bad enough for her to stop whatever the reason it is IT HAS TO STOP. She is potty trained with #1 as she doesnt like to be wet therefore she doesnt have accidents in that category. We are doing better at bedtime but still a work in progress as sometimes she falls asleep on days that she hasnt napped in our room with a movie so we just move her upstairs but then on the days she has napped she isnt really tired until way later. SO its a toss up as its nice when she is tired at 7 and goes to bed so it gives us more time at night but then when she does nap she doesnt melt down near as bad but she doesnt want to go to bed until later although we make her go upstairs by 8 or start the process but she is upstairs moving around until 10. so probably we will drop the afternoon nap soon. She is in swim lessons now on tues and thur, we are doing a parent and me class which is a little more babyish than I would prefer but its either do that now and start the real swim class in july or wait in july to do a class then move to the real swim class so we chose the first choice so we could go ahead and get started. we have actually learned quite a bit such as 123 bubbles, getting in and out of the pool, monkey walking the side, and grabbing the side of the pool. We have also started allie full time at school, im still on the fence about it as her class has kindof gone downhill as there has been some turnover and now there are some random people in there, so well see. Right now we are still having meltdowns, but then you can also rationalize with her and have real conversations. very cool age, still hard as we are working on not being bratty and talking back etc. slippery slope as you hate to say no no no but then on the other hand if you dont then they try to get away with everything and act bratty. haha oh well maybe all parents feel this way. she talks so much its really cute, she loves her baby swister (as she calls her), tries to hold her but then gets over it quite quickly. She loves swimming right now, doc mcstuffins, sofia, animals, cinderella, lady and tramp, toy story, and now as of today monsters inc. she wants the calico critters for her birthday-doll house thing. she loves art still, plays with makeup quite a bit (takes mine and puts eyeshadow all over herself). our routine is that she will wake up between 7-730 come downstairs, sit in bed with us for a little while, get up have some ceral while she watches tv usually doc mcstufffins, we get dressed if school day and then if sat its up in the air as we have been traveling so much. At night if after school day we watch a little tv usually b/c i have to pump, eat dinner -- she likes chicken with ketchup, mac cheese, fruit. or we have cheese quesadillas and fruit. she still likes spaghetti although I feel like it hurts her stomach the next day b/c of all the acid. she likes pizza a lot, chick fil a (although mainly to play) chocolate ice crea or choc cake, oreos, she likes granola bars now the hard ones, and animal crackers. she loves marshmellows too. As far as little miss mary peyton, she is doing great. we are much better with the acid reflux although its been a roller coaster this go round with it working and what works etc. she was on prevacid which was working, she was eating etc but then it stopped working I felt like. so then i asked dr to switch her to nexium which OMG what a pain in the ass, it was 10mg of granules that i had to mix with water in syrine and give it to her. but she was so sensitive that if i didnt do it an hour before she needed to eat in the morning it wouldnt work all day b/c it was extended release, even if I mixed it with breastmilk I felt it didnt work very well. so after three weeks with that I called doc back and asked her to switch us back as I didnt see a huge amt of difference and it was much easier to give to her. She was sleeping very well usually 9-330/4 but recently we have gone backwards and only making it to 1 but that was since we got back last week, I left her woombie in Wimberley and I am thinking its bc she is waking herself up or something.... who knows, but she is eating much better. she is eating around 4 oz every 3 hours.were still not on a set schedule as her naps are so erratic.. she will usually no fail only sleep for 45 minutes. she does wake up around 7 which is usually when i give her the prevacid and then have her first bottle around 730-8 while I pump (which is when I make about 7-8oz on each side) due to not having fed her throughout the night. I try to feed her while I pump. MULTITASK! she then will play for about 30 min and go down about 830-845. I usually can get her to sleep until about 930 or so then she cries and I will go get her. Play with her for a little while and then she gets tired again so I put her in the swing if she will have it, these days she has started protesting much more about that swing. then by 1030 she is hungry again. I may get one good nap from her which is 1.5 hours maybe :) im hoping she will get in a nap routine soon. as far as night time I was trying to put her down between 830-9 in her woombie and then let her sleep until she woke us up which was usually around 330 or so. but now since she is all out whack for whatever reason I have started putting her down around 745-8 and im going to try the dream feed tonight. We werent doing the dream feed b/c we felt like it was getting her out of whatever deep sleep she had. but right now I dont know if she is even getting in one. the good news about her is that for the most part you can get her back to sleep quite easily, so I often bring her downstairs when she gets up in the middle of the night. depends on the time, if she gets up around 330-4 then I will leave her upstairs but if she gets up at 1 then I bring her down as that usually means she will be up multiple times and I am too tired going up and down the stairs. Mary peyton is such a good baby though, so sweet and smiles and coos at you. she has the cutest cheeks just want to sqeeze them all the time, she is laughing now too although not all the time, but its the sweetest little laugh ever. I really do enjoy the baby stage, they are so sweet and just want you to love on them and have their milk ready when they are hungry :) she still loves to be by you when she is sleeping, or if I hold her hand in the car when she starts to cry. She loves loves loves to jump on your legs which she has loved doing since she was really small. she loves when I sing to her, the itsy bitsy spider, also sing to her hush little baby. she doesnt like to be swaddled but I think she does better sleeping wise if she is so she doesnt have much choice. She sits really well in her bumbo now which is great as she doesnst like the swing as much nor the vibrating chair. she has started grabbing onto toys and Jessica our babysitter (she is also keeping MP ) this summer has noticed she loves to watch the TV. She talks and talks which is precioius. She still squeaks when she is mad and will protest if she isnt happy. I use the baby bjourn all the time when we are out with both the girls as Allie still loves the stroller, im still debating on if I want to get a double stroller. I probably will. We went to San Antonio with both girls after Memorial Day bc will had an audit there. we had so much fun. we stayed on the river walk. we had allie in one bed, the pack in play in the bathroom... and all of our crap in that room. We had the stoller baby bjourn and then would take water taxi on the river walk. go eat have margaritas and then eat and go get ice cream. come back to hotel get girls down and watch tv. we really had a lot of fun, we also took the girls to the zoo. allie had fun but everytime we got to an animal she would say I want to see another animal, so we got out of the zoo in about an hour which was perfect as we then ate at this awesome pizza place and had sangria. the girls did great, we traveled with two girls for more than a week and the baby was not 2.5 months old. we have been to wimberley twice in less than 3 months, houston, crockett twice, busy busy but its been fun.oh i also got to get away and go to a girls weekend at a winery. will kept both girls by himself all weekend. he did great. I had fun and it was great to get away. things are going well, just trying to keep up with everything. now that natalies shower is over I feel like things are slowing down, but now im planning allies third birthday which we are doing at storybook ranch, they have 2 ponies, a petting zoo, and bounce house. she is really excited,she wakes up almost everyday and says is it my birthday today? then we are going to wimberley for the Fourth of July and then the next week we are going to hawaii notes i made about the previous weeks: switched her to size 1 diapers after her 2 week apt fussy times started around 5 weeks from about 5pm-9 6wks started woombie and had her in her crib car seat on dryer ALL THE TIME really around 8 weeks 9 weeks slept from 9pm-4 without dreamfeed size 2 diapers around 8 weeks started nexium at 10 weeks swichted her back at 13' 10 weeks started loving the fan oh around 2months started drooling and her HANDS are constantly in her mouth, wonder if she is teething.

The first six weeks

WOW what a whirlwind. How has it been 6 weeks since we had Mary Peyton. It has been so far so good although def has its ups and downs :) Surprisingly enough not getting enough sleep hasnt been as bad as I thought it would be considering you cant sleep when the baby does when you have a toddler as well as how hard it is to sleep just winding yourself down or at least for me. I would pump and then know I could have three hours to sleep if I needed with people taking care of both kids yet I still couldnt sleep, some weird anxiety I guess but I def didnt feel anxious like I did with Allie. This go round has been much smoother for the most part. We put the pack in play in our room with the intentions of having her sleep in there but the first night home after two hours of trying to make that work,miss MP was a new member of our bed or shall I say there and in our arms and our chests. She is a snuggler and love loves loves to be held. SHe isnt much for sleeping alone although I will say we have gotten MP in her crib right before she turned six weeks. Just decided to try it out for the first half of the night and she did quite well. I think I got her around 3am. The next night she slept from 9 am, dream feed at 12 then until 415 and then 630 and then the next night she did about the same although we did dream feed at 11 and she woke up at 330 and 630. Then I thought wow how nice I will just put her down at 8 dream feed at 11 and she will sleep until 330 again but NO that either backfired or was weird night,b/c she was up at 1 230 5 and then we just brought her down and she slept on us until 630. I am trying to do the babywise method but then I feel 6 weeks is a little young but I have already let her cry 15-20 min before I went and soothed her. She is actually much better about 830 vs during the day naps. DAY NAPS in crib are non-existent, I may get 30 min in her crib. But if we are out and about and in the car driving we can get 3-4 hours. So I am trying to remember these first weeks so here it goes. The first week nat and mom stayed with us and really helped out, cooking taking care of us and the girls, they stayed until Wed. Then Mrs. D came and stayed from Wed-Sun and she was a tremendous help as well. That weekend Christine,Mae Mae and Josh came in and stayed with us Friday night. It was a good weekend, I was pretty tired but that was also when Allison started throwing up some more, so it def increased the stress level as I was worried about Allie as well as the baby getting the possible virus we thought she had. That first week the baby slept most of the time and nursed a lot. I didnt give too many bottles and soon that week I started to feel that I had lost my milk b/c I wasnt pumping after she ate like I knew I should have been. I only would pump like once a day. So nonetheless by the Friday I was in a panic that I had lost my milk. I went to sprouts and bought Mother Love this stuff the pedi told us to buy to help increase lactation. So I took that four times a day, fed the baby and/or pumped every 2 hours. So if I fed MP then I would pump after, it was pretty exhausting. By that next week though my milk came back up to my preference even more so that I could have imagined and was pumping easily 12-14 oz per session. WE HAVE A TON of milk in freezer. The second week everyone had left which was good but also anxiety provoking at the same time with two all alone although I asked Will to stay with me when Allie wasnt in school. But with Allie being sick that week he stayed home with me to take care of the baby so that I could take her to doc that Thursday. It was pretty stressful but we managed and started getting used to our new normal. We were still taking a while to get Allie down at night usually by staying in her room until she fell asleep. So Will was on Allie duty most of the time which he is still as well. The first week Mrs D took care of MP while we picked up Allie and took her to the mall to ride the horsies and ate ice cream together. Then she got to to pick out a toy from the disney store. She seemed to like it but def had some tantrums many of time that week. MP only sleeping at this point 2-2.5 hours but I will say she has been good at night besides having to sleep on us, she would always go back to sleep after her feedings so I would get about 2 hours every time. The problem was that it took 1 hour to do the whole routine- feedings as she would fall asleep so fast and then the diaper change. and HOW Many of times I would do the diaper change swaddle her and then she would poop again. OH how frustrating. During those nursing sessions I started recording supper nanny episodes and would watch those during the night. IT actually was great because I feel it gave me some tools to help Allison and the terrible twos. We are still doing the techniques and they are working. IF anything it got me over trying to appease her and just deal with her behavior straight on vs being scared of the tantrum. I am very thankful as I feel we have turned some major corners with her. The third week I was super tired as everything was just continuing to catch up. I usually could only try and take naps on the days Allie wasnt with me which was MWF and I usually could only sleep for like 45-1 hour. Usually would try to do it about 1pm. MP would sleep a lot though which was good and would eat about every 2.5 hours. We did our first trip that week and went to Crockett for Easter. It went pretty well, I was pretty tired and still was trying to figure out the bf and pumping etc. but it went well. We started her on zantac this week which didnt help at all but I didnt call until her fourth week. We also would swaddle her in the miracle blanket these nights. The fourth week was about the same schedule MP in our bed being held in our arms or on our chests up about every 2.5 hours. She is and was eating about 3 oz, sometimes 2.5 but her usual from beginning has been about 3 oz. We started her on prevacid this week and it did seem to help. She has a witching time period at night from about 5pm-830 which seems like she is either over tired or hungry. so that def started about the end of the third week-fourth week. Her first smile though was at the end of her fourth week, such a sweet smile. I LOVE when they start to smile although she wasnt doing it very often. The fifth week I took Allie to doctor and weighed MP, she was 11 pounds. Poor ALlie had pink eye and an ear infection. Luckily we got the ear infection before it got her real sick with fever. We moved her to her room in the sixth week, she goes down great about 9 and will sleep until 230am maybe :) very unpredictable but much better than in our arms. in our sixth week our baby girl has truly woken up in that she does not want to nap. Once I can get her down which I try and do in the crib but honestly it has gotten really hard during the day to get her to sleep in there, sometimes I Can get her to sleep in the swing and we have resorted to putting her in her car seat on the dryer which works for maybe 30 minutes. As im reading baby wise he states baby should sleep at each nap 1.5-2 hours. YEA RIGHT. Im confused if I am supposed to let her cry it out for naps this young. It is nice that she does very well at night. We are just trying to think of the best time to put her down for night. Last night we put her down at 9 and she slept until 230 , will tried to do dreamfeed but she wouldnt wake up. So tonight we are not going to do dream feed and try to get down at 10 which hopefully will get us to 330 then 630. it seems she will do a 5 hour stretch then she is up every 3 hours and then at 7 which is when I start the feeding she wont take anymore naps unless we are out and about. WHO KNOWS its a guessing game. Once we go to our 8 week appt then Im going to ask them about CIO with naps. Allie is precious these days, def still have our moments but they are so much better. I dont know if its b/c she feels well bc she isnt getting peanuts, or that she is getting more sleep as we are putting her down earlier, or if its her age or that we are discipling more whatever it is its better. She talks so much and you can have conversations with her which is hilarious. She is a pistol. She will look at you and be like you want this mama, or thank you mama, i love that she has named me mama now. pretty cute, Her and will are closer now which is great. He usually bathes and puts her to bed. I am missing some of my Allie at night time but we hang out during the days she isnt at school. She is into Doc Mcstuffins, Sofia the first, kindof Mickey and Barney. She watches netflix on our phones usually before bed. She has to take a doll with her to shower so she can bathe her baby, when I bathe MP a Allison always gets her baby bathtub and will get next to us on her stool and bathe her baby. She has to use real soap with a washcloth. Allie still loves her stroller and does not like it when MP uses it. So I usually have the baby bjourn on with MP and she is in stroller, Still trying to decide if I need/want a double stroller. I have decided to wait for now. Allies fav foods these days are def mac cheese, cheese pizza not pep pizza, queso and chips, oreos, chick fil a (mainly b/c she likes to go play), rotissierre chicken, SHE LIKES GREEN BEANS YAY!, loves most all fruit although wont eat bannans much anymore, granola bars, honey nut cherrios, shreeded cheese not any other kind, ham, spaghetti, cheese quesadillas.. SO MUCH MORE THAN WHAT WE WERE DEALING WITH PRIOR. She is doing alright with potty training. She never usually pees on herself but she will still have accidents with the other. UGH. I feel like its on purpose sometimes, not really sure but Will and I get quite frustrated b/c she knows better. Some weeks better than others in regards to accidents but she is in big girl panties every day, she has a pull up on during naps and night night time. She still listens to her music at night. Our schedule usally goes like this: dinner (grilled chicken with ketchup, mac cheese, green beans or fruit. Then if she does well she gets oreos. Then Will will bathe or shower with her and then she will watch some tv on our phones or ipad in her room or in our bed until 8. Then we take the shows from her and we read about 3-4 books. Then we lay with her for about 10-15 min although she would love much longer :( but she is getting so much better and not getitng out of her room. SHe seems to be doing great at school and likes it although she still in the mornings does not always want to go but when we pick her up she is in a great mood. She loves to go the park and swing and slide. She loves to go to chick fil a to play on playground and the mall to ride the horsies. She loves to get out and about also loves to go the grocery store they have a small buggy and she helps me get groceries and she loves going to the baby store (BUY BUY BABY) they have a play shopping cart and she can push it around. Its a cute age and challenging but I will say 2.5 and on is fun b/c she is starting to be able to do more stuff without all the drama :).. eating out is not bad, we went to a wedding and she did really well. She sits with us in church but lets not say its for the entire time as we usually are told she needs to potty twice and only goes once. Allie loves to do art, PAINT but not really not on paper well at first on paper but then she always starts to paint herself. She loves dolls and playing store. She loves the movies Cinderella Lady and the Tramp, Honey I shrunk the Kids, just now into Toy Story. She gets up around 7-730 and comes downstairs and gets in bed with us. MP is always in there before she is as she gets up between 530-630 but then we all go back to sleep. Then she watches a little tv then we get up and eat cereal while I feed MP and then pump. Its fun times, stressful times, happy times, annoyed times, but truly love being a mother. Its hard with two but I am so excited for the times ahead. Now is good but its great to see how MP personality will come about and see how ALlison grows every day. SO sweet...

We are almost there

Well we are a little less than three weeks due with our second baby girl, Mary Petyon Driskell. ALlison is getting so excited and keeps telling everyone that she is about to have a baby sister. ITs really cute she calls her baby siwsta. All has been about the same with this pregnancy as it was with Allie especially b/c she doesnt move much either in utero, I pray its the same thing as it was with Allie in that I just have chill babies in the womb. We have been doing extra monitoring with weekly sono and NST tests just to confirm that everything is looking good. Which so far so good, they are thinking Petyon is about 6lbs 8oz as of last week so we will see if she is bigger than Allie as I know sonos are off. We have the nursery ready, Allie's big girl room which she is in although its been a harder struggle with her big girl bed vs the toddler and the playroom is still a work in progress. Allison is so cute these days, what a ham. She loves music and still loves the songs if your happy and you know it, you are my sunshine, row row your boat, if all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops and then of course any of the songs on her toddler cd from Primrose. She seems to like her class a lot and doesnt cry when we drop off as much sometimes she still does with me but overall she seems very content. We are still working on potty training, she was doing great then we would go out of town and get her off schedule which would throw us through a loop and were still doing that week to week. She is in big girl panties but we have accidents. WE give "treats" to her when she uses the potty, like hershey kisses although Allie would prefer the blue cookies "oreos" Those are by far her favorite. She is still a picky eater and loves her waffles samwiches with only peanut butter no jelly, she loves cheese pizza, mac and cheese, strawberrie,grapes, sometimes bannans, apples, organges, mostly all fruit, spaghetti, lasagna, sometime quesadillas, chips of course. For breakfast she either wants waffle with pb, or cereal and fruit. For lunch we can sometimes do ham/cheese, spaghetti, chicken nuggets etc for dinner its a struggle if she is even hungry as she really wont eat what we are eating unless its like pizza,spaghetti, so she will do either pizza, pbj, fruit, mac cheese, chicken and fruit eating is not a strong suite of hers. :) We had another ear infection recently, next one she has to get tubes, I hope we can make it through without another one. I worry I should have done it alot sooner. RIght now our other struggle is bedtime and getting her to actually get to sleep at a decent hour, I truly think its b/c I let her nap long and later like I put her down at 230 so she doesnt get up until 5 so by 830-9 she isnt sleepy. SO we maybe trying to drop her nap so that she can go to sleep around 730 or maybe i should put her down no later than 1 work in progress. She is just talking so much too, its so cute. I know our lives are about to change so much again, I worry about how she will do but excited at the same time. Cant wait for her to be here. ALlison loves loves loves to paint, mainly with her fingers vs a brush she loves playing with her baby dolls but does not like them to have clothes on she loves watching dora, Mickey Mouse, sophia the princess, she has recently started watching lady and the tramp and cinderella. She still likes Barney and lots of the time she has our IPAD or IPHONE and will watch different things on it like the backyardigans, barney, wheels on the bus. She has also started to love taking showers with us esp her daddy, its pretty cute. she loves going to the mall and riding the horsies, she also goes to chick fil a quite a bit :) and loves to play on the playground. She loves stoty time and is really into animals right now. I need to take her to a petting zoo soon. Anyways I need to go to bed, just trying to jot things down so I can remember them later. Two year olds are pretty funny, crazy, indepedent, cranky, sweet, irrational all in one.

January 2013

SO I cannot seem to get better about blogging but hey its a new year. WE are 32 weeks pregnant with our second baby girl, Mary Petyon Driskell. It was a hard name to come up with but ultimately we have decided on her name. Mary from both of our grandmothers whom we dearly loved and Peyton is a name we both liked and agreed upon :) Allie is getting so excited about her baby sister, she tells everyone she sees that she is going to have a baby sister, its precious. Its pronounced baby siwsta. WE had a great Christmas, half at dads until Christmas Eve and then to the Driskells. We had spent Thanksgiving at moms, which was a great time. OH AND THE NEW news is that Natalie is pregnant, I am so excited. Christmas was great as we were both the non drinkers and also got to spend a lot of time together. Allie got quite a bit for Christmas this year although we were trying to be quite mindful of not going overboard. So Santa brought her an wooden easel with art supplies-paint, brushes, markers, stampers,chalk; then a basketball goal, and a trampoline for toddlers. She also got two baby dolls with a changing station, feeding supplies bottles etc and she got a Minnie Mouse and some books. She got a motorized car from papa d and sherry; all sorts of fun food stuff, CD player, clothes, shoes, and baby carrier from mama mel and fred, she got a big Mickey Mouse from grandmother and grandaddy, and all sorts of other fun stuff. She had a great time hanging out with her cousins. RIght now things are settling down, mrs d and will painted the new nursery *allies old room) and ALlies new room which we painted a baby pink and the nursery a grey. we had the woodwork and doors painted white. SO now since the paint fumes have settled we are transitioning ALlie from her toddler bed to her new big girl full bed which we actually got from craigs list from a lady that only got to use it for one year. still was quite a bit since it was from PB but oh well. We got her a dresser too and all new bedding from PB. SO things are coming together although there is still so much to do. We are in the process of getting both rooms complete, the play room organized including my dads office stuff, and getting all the newborn stuff out washed etc. So I guess you would say I am nesting as I want it all complete, but do feel better since we have started. We also have to clean out our closets, and the garage, and I will feel better. Will hasnt had to travel too much since early dec really before thanksgiving so we have been spoiled having him here so much during the week. Its so nice. Anywho we are also still working on potty training, over the holidays it kindof went to the wasteside although we still tried but being off schedule and so much going on it was just no practical. We got back from xmas, and Allie went to another classroom at her school which really concentrates on potty training and she has done really well but then we have had quite a few accidents since we got back from Crockett which we went to last weekend because Grandmother died she was 101 amazing!sad funeral but then also glad for what a wonderful life she led for that long. Allie is doing really well and talking up a storm. She has def done her fiar share of toddler things such as writing on the couch writing on moms phone, pouring milk out all over the floor, picking up on mommy and daddys wrong language which she remembers but then changes it with Oh my goodness. She loves to sing songs such as oldmcdonald, wheels on the bus, all her primrose music, if your happy and you know it. She loves going to the mall and riding the horsies and she loves talking about the farm where she fed the animals i guess in october. she is a loving little girl and so cute but she def has her two year old tantrums. she loves going to story time at the library. She loves getting in her stroller but then is over it after 15 min. She loves bailey although she will also try to pick her up which I tell her not to. She doesnt eat much these days although obsessed with waffles and pb; she will eat spagehtti, croissants, pizza, ham, chips, chicken nuggets, french fries, she loves reeces mms hershey kisses which are all treats she can get when she potties. She is pretty funny and has great expressions. She told me the other day with my phone in hand, Mommy this is my phone, Ya hear me. I know she got this from me b/c im constantly asking her if she heard me. but she said it in a funny way but still had to tell her she coulding say that to mommy. She also tells us to go away please when she is in the bathroom. She still sleeps to her music but its not a necessity and we are trying to get rid of the paci although she is just moving on to her thumb. SO that is another battle we will fight, right now we are trying to get her bed routine to an earlier time not to mention not as long as she wants us to sleep with her which is our fault b/c she had to sleep with us for 2 weeks while we waited for the paint fumes to settle. She still loves to play with babies and art supplies. I will post later im getting tired. Pregnancy is going well, lots of Braxton Hicks and this baby is acting a lot like allie did in utero with not a ton of movement, she was really active so I didnt think it was going to be an issue but it is , the doc wants to monitor more with sonograms and nst test to just make sure everything looks good. which she thinks it does. Getting ready to meet this new addition although its strange to think we are going to have another one. Crazy.