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.