Roll Over Beethoven

Ally rolled over on Monday night! So far she has only done it once, from tummy to back, and Karl was the lone witness so hopefully she will do it again so we can capture it on video. She will turn 4 months this weekend and has her check up next week so more to come soon.

Ally's Baptism

This weekend we went back to Oshkosh to have Ally baptized at the church I grew up in, which is also where we got married. We had planned to do this much earlier but with Karl's injury and the holidays, this was the first weekend we had available. It was a very quick trip but Ally did great! She slept through the entire church service and most of her baptism. My brother and Karl's Aunt are her Godparents and she looked so beautiful in her white dress. She woke up in time to take pictures at the church and stayed awake through a nice dinner with the whole family. The water and oil combination made for a very crusty hair do by the end of the night! Even after two baths, she still smells like the oil. Here are some photos from the weekend's celebration.

A Big Girl Chair

For Christmas, my grandparents gave us money to buy Ally a big girl high chair. We hadn't really done any research at the time so we weren't quite ready to buy before Christmas but we did some looking and ordered this one from Graco last week. Karl put it together on Friday and Ally sat in it for the first time while we ate dinner on Saturday. Despite not feeling that well, she was so happy to sit at the big kid table! Its a 4-in-1 chair that can be used a variety of ways so we really think we picked a good one. It also has great shoulder straps so Ally really looks like a big girl sitting up tall. We put some toys on her tray while we ate and she just loved to look around and check things out from a new angle rather than on the floor or in her swing. We are going to start solids after her 4 month check up in a few weeks so this is one step closer for her.

An Unhappy First

Ally officially has her first cold. We sort of assumed that once she started day care that she would get sick and we were right, it took all of 7 days really. Two other kids at day care were sick with fevers and a cough last week so sure enough she started to sound a little congested early in the week and wasn't sleeping well. We plugged in the humidifier in her room mid week and that seemed to help her sleep a lot better, she didn't wake herself up coughing and we didn't really her any rattling in her chest. She wasn't running any type of fever until yesterday when her little body finally decided it was full on sick. She was acting a little tired last night when she came home from day care and I wasn't feeling well either so we checked and both of us where running a little fever. We gave Ally some baby tylenol and she ate well and was happy so we decided to meet Karl's parents for dinner like we usually do. Well... she fell asleep in the car and when she woke up at the restaurant she was pretty fussy and all of a sudden was throwing up gross green stuff all over! She was hysterical coughing and crying and I was having a hard time calming her down. She settled down enough so we could get her in her car seat and get home. We checked in with her pediatrician (nice when its a family friend who is just a text away) and he said just give tylenol for the fever and watch her so we did. Her fever was back up to 100 but she was still acting happy and normal after another dose of tylenol. I put her to bed at 10:30 and prepared myself for a long night but she actually did really well. She only woke up at 12:30 to eat more then slept from 2 until 8:30. This morning she has been happy but is a little more congested and a little feverish. Its obvious she is having a hard time breathing through her nose but she is still wanting to eat, play and smile so we are confident she will survive. Good thing its the weekend so we can relax at home! Both of us hope to be feeling better when we go back to work and day care on Tuesday.

Concentration

Ally spends much of her play time hard at work trying to get her hands on things she sees. Here is a short video I took the other night of her laying on the mat. You can tell she is a thinker, she was concentrating hard until she got her hands on what she wanted. I used my regular camera and not the video camera so the quality isn't the best. I hope to have the video camera handy when she decides to roll herself over.

New Toys

My dad got Ally a playmat for Christmas and she loved it so much we decided to get another one so we didn't have to constantly move the one all over the house. I had been eying this one up even before Christmas so we went and picked it up last week. Its really the first "girly" thing she has- its pink and yellow with flowers and lots of fun pieces for her to grab and pull on. It has loops all over so we can move the pieces around, take them off or add more. It's been great to be able to move the pieces between the play mats and her car seat, and she just loves to reach for anything and everything these days. The center flower sits just low enough that it touches her big belly when she lays on her back so she can really get hold of it and make the music play. She also has become interested in mirrors so its fun to watch her play. She still prefers playing on her back to her tummy but this mat allows you to attach the toys to the bottom of the mat which has helped her be more patient on her tummy. She loves all of her toys and now talks to them and squeals with delight when they light up, make noise or she finally gets a good grip on something she has been trying so hard to grab on to.

Tummy time on her new mat


Look at all this fun stuff


What a cute and drool-covered face

A Big Change

Monday was the day...back to work for me and off to day care for Ally. I was very fortunate to be able to take off the full 12 weeks of my maternity leave and with the way the holidays and university holidays fell, it was actually almost 14 weeks. I was able to spend the first three months at home getting used to life with a baby and all that comes with it. While I have much respect for those moms that chose to stay at home, I just didn't feel like it was an option for me for many reasons. I love my job very much and have a lot that I want to accomplish for myself and we want Ally to be well socialized and flexible. Karl and I began researching day cares in July and found a few quality options, two big ones that we really liked but one had a waiting list that was 9 months long and the other would be open right when we needed it. Its a long story but it actually turned out that we are still on the waiting list for the one we liked best that said a spot would be open when we needed it, and ended up getting her into the other place with the long list. Anyway, Ally started at Just us Kids on Monday and is doing great. I don't want to jinx anything because its only been two days but I really think this is going to work out great for all of us. I was not at all worried about taking her to a day care because she is still too young to understand strangers or have separation anxiety and we know we would not take her anywhere we didn't feel confident she would enjoy. I was on the other hand, very worried about how I would manage getting myself, the dog and Ally up, dressed, fed and out the door on time each day. I was really stressed on Sunday but we got everything packed up that night and Ally went to sleep a little earlier with no issues. I got myself up at 6 and ready, got Ally up at 6:45 to clean up and eat, Karl got himself ready and took care of Ella and we were all out the door by 7:45. We got all of her things put away (extra clothes, 3 blankets, diapers, wipes, bottles, burp cloths, bibs, etc...) and she went right to the "teacher" with no issues. It really wasn't too hard to say good bye and leave her because she was so happy. I called at lunch to check on her and she had been napping for two hours then Karl called later in the afternoon and she was busy playing. She did great! She was happy to see us when she came home, slept great again at night and was ready to do it again the next day. I am very lucky that I have a pretty flexible schedule at work when I don't have morning meetings so I will always take her and Karl will be picking her up since he is always done by 5 and I am not. Ally has been pretty tired the last week but hopefully she will continue to nap well at day care and sleep great at night. I am also really hoping that day care allows us to be on a more regular sleep and eating schedules since I've been having a hard time getting it going on my own with her.
My first day back to work was pretty uneventful. We had a big basketball game Monday night so I worked 8am-9pm but really didn't have a lot of responsibility. I spent most of the day digging myself out of a mail and email hole and visiting with the coaches and other staff I work with to make sure they knew I was here. I am still nursing Ally in the morning and at night, and putting the milk into bottles while I am at work. I was scared of it at first but I think its going to be very manageable for now and we will consider making the switch to formula once she starts cereal and other solids next month. This transition will also help me to keep more regular hours at work and not be there all night because I feel like I have to. Now I am forced to put trust in others and get home to be with my baby! It is hard when I do have to work those long days and I don't get to see her or spend time playing but she needs daddy time too. We are very comfortable with our decision to have me go back to work and to take Ally to day care and we hope things will continue to be a success.

Happy New Year

To ring in the new year, we kept it pretty low key with a visit to Aunt Sue's holiday party. Ally was not behaving very well that day and she really didn't seem to want to be out and about so we only stayed for a few hours and left right after midnight. Ally fell asleep before the ball dropped and before I could really get any photos of her. She did look very cute in her striped sweater dress and white furry boots.

So much has changed for us in 2009 and we are looking forward to bigger and better things to come in 2010. We wish for health and happiness for everyone in the new year!