Georgia's 9 months old

Georgia's ninth month was full of lots of growing, lots of developing, and some adventure. She is now pulling up, and then letting go and standing on her own for several seconds. She crawls really fast, like a little wind-up toy. She thinks it's hilarious for Banks to "chase" her while she is crawling. Her favorite toy is probably an empty water bottle. She can entertain herself for hours with it. She is a great eater, and likes everything - pureed meats, vegetables, and fruits, puffs, teething crackers, and some small pieces of soft solids. She even had her first taste of ice cream at our church social. I'm still nursing her. She has one tooth (her bottom left central incisor) that is JUST breaking through her gums.

She is saying, "mama," "dada," and "bubba" consistently. She is waving, and imitates any sound and facial expression we make. She clicks, blows raspberries, and shrieks. She is still SUPER clingy on Momma. She is fine with anyone else holding her as long as I'm not around, but the second she sees me, she wants me. She is terrified of being lifted up in the air, which is funny because Banks always loved that. She is also not a fan of being in water right now. I hope that changes soon since we are about to go on some beach trips! She did have her first long car trip, to the river. We stopped once to feed her, but overall she did pretty well. It probably helps that she has her big brother in the backseat to help entertain her. She is also doing much better with sleeping at night. She is typically waking up one time, but we only have to go up to put her paci back in her mouth and pat her back for a few minutes and she goes back to sleep. She is still waking up around 6 in the morning on most days, but that's not too bad.

One of the most unique Georgia characteristics is that she LOVES skin to skin contact. She must be touching someone's (mostly mine) skin at all times when she is being held. Especially when she is nursing or taking a bottle, or being rocked to sleep, she wants to rub, pinch, pat, or at least touch skin. The other day I had her on my chest to take an afternoon nap, and I had a tshirt on. She wouldn't go to sleep and kept taking her hand and rubbing my neck. So I took off my tshit (I had on a tanktop underneath it), and she immediately laid her head on my bare chest and went to sleep. It's such a sweet little characteristic.

Also in her ninth month, Georgia had a hospital stay. After being on 3 different antibiotics, she had a UTI that kept hanging on and she continued to spike fevers 101-103.4. Dr.Maddox (her primary pediatrician) was on vacation during this time, so we had to see another pediatrician who recommended she be admitted to Greenville Hospital. She was there from a Wednesday to Friday to receive IV antibiotics and monitor her. Finally after two days of antibiotics (and 4 traumatizing IV placements), her fever finally broke and we were sent home with Levaquin. After a 12 day course, I later found out that Levaquin is an extremely strong and somewhat dangerous antibiotic for infants, but it was what the pediatric infectious disease doctors at Greenville Hospital recommended. While she was at the hospital, she had a renal ultrasound to check her kidneys, and her kidneys did not appear to have any defects. Praise the Lord! That was a huge relief considering all we have been through with Banks' kidneys. We have to go for a VCUG this coming week to check the function of her kidneys as well.

Hopefully the only adventures she will have during her 10th month will be beach trips!

Easter Sunday and my 31st Birthday

Banks had a blast at his Easter egg hunts this year. He had a hunt at school, and at Central. The Easter bunny came and brought Banks lots of Spiderman stuff, of course! We made it to church on Easter Sunday, all showered and ready on time. Then we went to Greenville for Greek Easter with the whole family.

For my 31st Birthday, I chose to go eat at Texas Roadhouse, where I've gone for about the last 15 years for my Birthday! Bring on the cheese fries, honey butter, rolls, and grilled chicken salad. Me, Patrick and the kiddos went with my parents and sister to celebrate. For my gift, I asked to have some pictures made of the kids, and we did that the next morning. I can't wait to get the pictures back!

Georgia is 8 Months Old

Georgia is moving fast towards being a toddler. She is full-speed crawling (she looks like a little wind-up toy), sitting up completely independently, and pulling up on EVERYTHING. She is busy, busy, busy. She is moving something at all times, even if it's just her fingers and hands grabbing and pinching at things, which she does all the time. I've already had to sign more "ouch reports" at school than I ever had to for Banks when he was in nursey. She bumps her head on everything because she is so determined to move and climb everything in sight. Gotta keep up with brother!

She is eating lots of different baby foods - still loving oatmeal and yogurt - and puffs and teething crackers. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but we are expecting them any day now, and there's no telling what she's going to eat once she has some chompers. She has finally entered into a little bit of a chunky stage, and I could just eat up her thigh rolls. She went to the doctor yesterday for some allergy/sinus/cold issues, and she weighed 17lbs, 5oz. I'm still nursing her because it just works, and it seems like more of an effort right now to wean than to just keep rolling with it (and also because she doesn't have teeth yet).

She is still super happy, especially as long as someone is giving her attention. She prefers being held (mostly by Momma). She doesn't give away her giggles as freely as Banks did when he was a baby, but when she does giggle, she gives the cutest squeal you've ever heard. She mostly just stares and studies things and when someone is trying to make her laugh, she often gives them this look like, "I'm not impressed." It's actually pretty funny. The thing that makes her laugh the most is still Banks. He can do pretty much anything to her, and she will laugh at him. She thinks he's the greatest thing on Earth. She also can't help bu laugh when we squeeze her thighs or get her belly. We've had to work for it, but we've got her weaknesses figured out now on how to make her giggle. She is now clapping, and attempting to wave. When we say, "yayy Georgia," she immediately gets a huge grin on her face and starts clapping. It is so cute. She is also starting to bop and flap her hands when she hears music or sees/hears a toy that moves and/or makes noise.

Miss Georgia is still a FIGHTER when it comes to sleep. She will fight until she literally can't fight anymore to avoid going to sleep. She is the queen of cat naps during the day, averaging about 20 minutes for most of her naps. She has been tough at night with sleeping too. Just this past week, we initiated sleep boot camp, because the whole week before we were seeing every hour on the clock. Thank goodness for Yiayia still being here with us to take some of the night shifts, but we all determined it was time for some intervention. So last Monday, we started doing her bath as soon as we got done with dinner and putting her down super early (like at 6:30), rather than waiting until Banks' bath and bedtime around 7:30 like we were doing before. We put her down and let her cry for about an hour, going and patting her back and putting her paci back in her mouth every 5-10 minutes. I fed her again after I got Banks down at 8, and then she slept through the night (waking up once and self-soothing back to sleep) for the first time since she was about 6 weeks old. She did really well with this same schedule for the rest of the week, so hopefully we are on to something.

I know she is my child and I'm supposed to think this, but she really is a beautiful baby girl. People constantly tell us that everywhere we go. She has some beautiful blue eyes, even bluer than mine, more like her Nannie's!

St.Pat's, Circus, and Bebe's Police Car

Since my parents have been living with us while their house is being built, it gives us the freedom to "go" a little more, take Banks places and have a built-in babysitter. My mom kept Georgia for us while we took Banks to the Circus a few Saturdays ago. His favorite part was having his face painted like Spiderman, of course, but he also had quite the story to tell everyone. Before the Circus started, the tigers were all in their cages, and a lot of the children were going to look at them. Patrick took Banks to see them, and right when they got up to the gate, some liquid started flying out of the cages and towards Banks and Patrick. Patrick grabbed Banks and carried him back to our seats. Banks was saying, "MOMMY, them Tigers spray like skunks!" Turns out (after some Google research), male tigers "spray" urine an average of 11 times every half hour. Banks was lucky enough to have a first hand experience with this phenomenon, and now he goes around telling everyone, "tigers spray pee pee like skunks!"

Speaking of adventure, here is my nakey head in the dryer...

And this may have been the best day of his life... give a little boy a police car and he is happy for days (or at least until it's time to leave)!

My St.Patrick's Day babies...

Georgia is 7 Months

Between 6-7 months has been the most change I have seen in Georgia yet. She has really grown and developed this month. She started crawling last week, which makes a huge difference. She is everywhere now, and you can tell it's because she wants to keep up with Banks. She is also sitting up. Her hair has grown a lot this month, which makes her look older. She hasn't been back to the doctor so I'm not sure exactly how much she weighs, but she has some delicious leg rolls going on. She is babbling like crazy and really using that voice to get attention when she wants someone to look at her. She's mostly saying "dada" and "baba," but she does throw some occasional "mm" sounds in there. She has entered into "stranger danger" mode. She has the biggest, brightest smile when she recognizes someone and sees them, but if she doesn't recognize someone she lets them know really quick that she is not having it. She still has the loudest, most high pitched cry you've ever heard, but she really doesn't cry often. She truly is a happy girl, and still just such a joy to be with. I miss her so much when I'm away from her because she's just SO sweet!

She is a good eater so far, with her favorite foods being yogurt and oatmeal with breastmilk. She still LOVES to nurse and it's such a comfort to her, I just can't bring myself to wean yet. I have weaned off pumping some during the day, but still nurse her when we are together in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings.

Georgia and Banks Adventures

We've been able to venture out of the house a little more now that Georgia is a little older, and since we've had unusually warm weather this winter. We've taken the kids on some adventures. They both enjoyed their Valentines day parties at school, and we went to both Jax and Mattox's birthday parties as a whole family. We also got to meet Heather, Brad, and Hudson at a brewery in Greenville, called Quest, and they have a nice outside area. Banks had a blast running around. A funny story, he peed outside on the lawn right next to a picnic table where a young couple was sitting. We all got a kick out of that, including the couple, luckily.

A Rocky Start to 2017

The beginning of 2017 was rough for us. On (Friday) January 13, we lost Demi, which was traumatic and one of the saddest moments of my life. Although we knew her heart condition was progressing, nothing could have prepared us for her collapsing that morning and us having to make one of the most difficult decisions. The most difficult part was having to explain to Banks that Demi wasn't going to be at the house anymore. Demi was his best buddy and shadow. The emptiness in our house is so apparent and we miss her every single day.  To make matters worse, Patrick had the flu during the same weekend we had to say goodbye to Demi, and my mom had strep so she wasn't able to come help either. We didn't want to ask anyone else to come into our house with the flu floating around, so we just managed. That was a rough weekend, to say the least. In trying to prevent the babies from getting the flu, I called Dr.Maddox when Patrick got diagnosed with the flu on that Friday and he started them on Tamiflu. The following Monday when I picked Banks up from school, we were home for about 2 hours when I noticed he was not able to walk very well. He was stumbling around, kind of limping, and not walking in a straight line. We took him to Kid's Care that night, and the pediatrician there said to watch him overnight and take him to Dr.Maddox the next morning if he was still doing it. Tuesday morning, he was still not walking well, so we took him in to Dr.Maddox. Dr.Maddox felt very strongly that it was the Tamiflu causing the issues, even though the pediatrician the night before said she didn't think there was any way it could be Tamiflu. With Banks' kidney issues, we know he may not process medications like other children, so it made sense to us that it could be Tamiflu causing it. I took both kids off the Tamiflu immediately, and Dr.Maddox told us to watch him for 24-48 hours and call back to let him know if it had changed. Well, on Wednesday, it had changed. He went from stumbling around and kind of limping to completely limping. I took him back in to the pediatrician, but Dr.Maddox doesn't work on Wednesdays so we saw the on-call doctor (Dr.Graham). Let's just say we got no answers, and we won't be seeing her again. On Thursday it still wasn't better, so we took him back to Dr.Maddox again. At that point, Dr.Maddox said that it could be fluid that collected on his hip, which sometimes happens after a virus, and that he no longer felt it was a neurological/coordination issue, but more of a muscular/bone type of limp. That made me feel better, but still no solid answers. It took almost a full month for his walk to get completely back to normal, but praise be to God, it did eventually get back to normal. It kills me with worry that we never got a solid answer, but I did notice during that time that his pants that I had just bought for him had gotten too short, so we measured him and he grew a whole INCH in a month! I feel in my momma heart that the growth spurt had something to do with the walking issues. Who knows though!

Thankfully, the rest of January and 2017 has been better!