To grandmothers' house we go

My grandma just moved to NJ from CT this weekend.  I'm so happy that I get to see her more often now.  We went to visit her on Sunday and take her out to dinner, but Savannah refused to take a nap since right after church, leading us to learn something new.  How to get her to take a nap at someone else's house. I laid her on her tummy, rubbed her back, held her close, nothing worked. Finally, I threw a blanket over her whole body, leaving and air hole of course, and she finally slept very soundly for 45 minutes, allowing us to go to a quick dinner and do a little shopping. She got to try french fries and ground beef for the first time thanks to her daddy. She also got to sit in a shopping cart and high chair by herself, that didn't go so well.

We found some really cute stuff when we went shopping at Home Goods. My grandma has a really nice deck at her apartment, but it had some water pooling on it from the rain, so we bought her a really pretty rubber mat for a housewarming gift.  She found a really cool book for Savannah that makes lots of cool sounds and we found a tambourine with owls on it for Savannah, she loves it.

This picture is from the first time Savannah got to visit my grandmother in CT. She had just turned 5 months that day.

parenting a difficult child

Sorry to vent about my baby in the last post. I really do love her.
This frustrating time in our lives is helping me realize the reasons these things are happening.  I can't figure out why Savannah has been so tired lately, but it almost like she is a newborn again. She takes 2-3 hour naps and when she wakes up we get an hour to play and eat and she's ready for bed again. I keep her up as long as possible. She also sleeps about 10-11 hours straight at night and I have the same problem in the morning. I'm pretty sure she was screaming in the mall with my mom and I, because she was so tired and refuses to sleep anywhere but her crib. She has never been the type to sleep in the car seat, or stroller.  If anyone has advice how to remedy this situation I would appreciate it. I know it sounds like I'm lucky and should be happy about this but it's frustrating when I need to go out for a few hours. 
I have a lot of trouble getting her to play by herself and I think it's because she loves her parents and thinks we are fun. Toys just don't compare. When Jake and I are home and comfortable we can be quite goofy and it doesn't take a lot to make her laugh when she is in a good mood.  These toys are repetitive and just not funny.
Everyday has been a fight getting her to eat solid foods. We got over the problems with her not drinking around 4 months but now we have a problem getting much food in her system at all. When we give her a bottle she only takes about 2-4 ounces every 3 hours and solid food I try so hard to figure out what she likes other than bananas but I just get everything spit back in my face (she has mastered the raspberry) and clenched lips. She even learned to cry with her mouth closed during this time so we can't stuff anything in there. I've just realized that we were trying the solids when she wasn't hungry enough or too hungry. I've gotten her to eat chicken and rice mixed with carrots this week.  The bottle is still a problem though. She just wants to play with it, not drink it.
Lastly, this week has been another rough one. My husband brought home this virus called the Novovirus last Sunday, and convinced me it was food poisoning.  My sister in law was unable to watch Savannah on Monday due to her child having an ear infection, so thinking Jake only had food poisoning and he was on the up-swing he watched her.  She started showing symptoms of being sick Wednesday and then I ended up with it Thursday into Friday. The symptoms mimic food poisoning so you can guess what I had going on all night. I'm still not feeling great and can't eat much but we are all starting to get over it.

P.s One of the reasons i'm writing these posts, is because I have done many searches to get advice on some of these problems and I can't ever find anything useful. We are on our second pediatrician and she doesn't have any advice either.

Savannah, my little monster

THIS WAS LAST YEAR. I'M NOT PREGNANT AGAIN!

Now that I got that out of the way I can explain. I just read a blog post about a woman who is pregnant and not enjoying it. It reminded me of my pregnancy and about this time last year I was 4 months pregnant. This picture was taken almost a year ago (kinda wierd).  I have to say, I loved being pregnant so much. I had no reason to complain, I had no sickness, and my favorite thing of all was that I had an excuse to look fat.  My only complaints were body acne, less curl in my hair, and clothes that fit my belly but wouldn't go over my boobs. Also, because I work at a doctors office, I had a lot of elderly people asking lots of questions.  I gained about 30 lbs. and everyone kept making comments about how it looked like I was having twins. The thing was, I just got big quick, it runs in the family. I lost around 25lbs within the first month, it really was mostly water and baby, and I have reached my pre-baby weight, but I still have this awful belly bulge. 

Here's the rest of the story.  As much as I loved being pregnant, I have to say, motherhood is a lot harder and less rewarding than I expected.  My husband isn't home much, which only makes it harder. Savannah has acid reflux and the medication she takes doesn't always work. I actually have to give her a little more than prescribed because otherwise I deal with screaming baby all day.  She wouldn't eat until she was 4 months old, and I figured out, it was probably because she associated eating with pain.  I've was taking her to the pediatrician every 2 weeks until 4 months, then every month and now at 7 months we get 2 months in between visits.  Now she will drink a bottle sporadically throughout the day, sometimes with a fight, and will only eat baby food with bananas or some kind of sugary food mixed in. I did not train her that way. We've been having a really bad couple weeks, with her screaming all day again.  My mom says just to ignore it as we are walking through the mall with her ear-piercing scream, making people look to see if i'm murdering her.  It's not that easy, I am very shy and don't like attention, especially bad attention. I'm very easily embarrassed. My husband is shy also, but it doesn't bother him.  I pray every day that I could just ignore the glares from people.

Although it doesn't sound like it, she is happy a few hours a day, she has the best laugh and the cutest smile. I love her so much, and I don't know if we will ever try to have another but if we do, it will be because i loved being pregnant and with the hope that we learned our lessons and the next one might turn out different.  We both come from big families and I would hate to see Savannah be an only child.

My baby girl, smiling from day one.

P.s She does not have hip dysplasia. But we had have another expensive doctor visit to find out.

Haircut and baby shower

I watched my niece Emily last week because my mom was quilt shop hopping. Everyone has been bugging my sister in law to get Emily a haircut, so I was thrilled when she asked me to do it. This is the before. It was really long on top, short on the bottom, and straight on top and curly underneath.

This is the after. I ended up cutting about 1/2" from the bottom and about 3-4" from the top. Turns out, her hair is curly and she's such a little cutie. She is 2 1/2 years old.

I finished this diaper bag for my friend a while ago, and due to her being put on bedrest for early contractions we had to move up her party to last night. It was a lot of fun except that Savannah showed everyone her bad side.  Everyone seemed to love the bag, I decided that I need to make myself a new one because it's starting to look a little worn.

New Baby Quilt

I've made my first quilt. It was so easy and kinda relaxing, it put me in the quilting mood.  No worries though, I am going back to making bags and clothes soon.  I received a lot of hand me down clothes for Savannah when she was first born and I have to admit, some of them should have been made into dust rags a long time ago. Not trying to be mean, I'm very appreciative, but some stains just don't come out.  So instead of wasting the nice gifts I was given, I made them into a quilt. I cut out 30, 5" x 5" squares from the onesies, sewed them all together, put batting underneath, and I got a large piece of jersey fabric from JoAnn's and hand stitched it to the front. The backing fabric has kitties on it, Savannah's favorite. She can't get enough of the two cats we have at home, she wishes they felt the same.  This is the quilt we are going to use for the dirtier areas, like outdoors and the kitchen floor.

Look who's finally sitting up.  It took about 7 months but we are finally there.  We went to the doctor for another weight check this week and the doctor was not very happy to see that she still wasn't sitting up on her own. We worked on it for one day and now she's a little pro.

Unfortunately we got some bad news from the pediatrician, not only is Savannah still under weight at 14.11 lbs, she possibly has hip dysplasia or un-even hips. The folds on the back of her legs are uneven and the doctor is concerned, so we have to get Savannah an x-ray of her hips next week. I'm really praying that nothing is wrong, but if there is, we are lucky this problem was caught before it is too late.  If this problem goes untreated it can lead to uneven leg length and a severe limp.

wedding pillow cases

We have been so lucky to have a mild winter and warm spring here in NJ. I've been grilling for months now and I was craving my favorite summer salad. I can't take credit for this recipe because it wasn't mine originally. I got it from a woman I work with.

Recipe for Strawberry Summer Salad:

1/2 bag baby spinach

1/2 head romaine hearts

1/2 quart strawberries

as much feta cheese as you want

1 handfull wasabi peas

Brianna's blush wine vinaigrette (i've only found this in Shop Rite)

My friend Kelly had her work bridal shower and I can now finally show something i've made recently. I made her and her hubby to be, pillowcases with a french theme. The pattern is so easy, it only takes me about and hour to make one pillow case.
 

I brought deviled eggs to the party since that is one of my favorite treats to eat on my low carb days. Everyone always goes crazy over them when I make them so I will post the recipe. All of the ingredients are by taste but I can at least tell people what is in them.

Deviled Eggs:

1 dozen eggs, hard boiled

aprox 3/4 c mayo

aprox 2 Tbls yellow mustard

aprox 1 Tbls spicy brown mustard

occasionally I will add about a teaspoon more of another spicy mustard, like Boars Head deli

salt and pepper to taste

Cut all the eggs in half and take out the yolk, put the yolks into a bowl and with a fork or whisk, chop it up into a powder. Add all of the ingredients and mix together. Put yolk mixture into a pastry bag with a cupcake frosting tip and fill the inside of the eggs. I don't like paprika so I usually don't put it on top.

Hooked on a Feelin'

I can't believe how productive i've been. I thought it would only last until I had my baby but it seems to be hangin' on. I finished my friends wedding shower gift, wrapped it and everything. The shower is coming up in a little while, so i will post photo's after. I have everything but the board done on the diaper bag and that shower isn't even until the first week of May. And the outdoor quilt i'm making for Savannah is also almost finished, all I have left is handsewing the backing on. I hope this lasts because I have a huge list of things to make and 3 tupperware boxes full of fabric to show for it. I'm starting to look like a fabric hoarder.

I sang that song (Hooked on a feelin') to Savannah last night. I love singing to her and most of the time it makes her smile, but I try to keep it to oldies. When we listen to Pandora together I keep my shuffle to music between 50's and 80's. Honestly I can't stand this new stuff. I don't know if it's because i'm getting old or what, but my mom (who is getting to know more pop music lately thanks to Jazzercise) asked me who Nicki Minaj was the other day, and I couldn't even describe it, I just said a terrible singer and a strange person. My mom and I also have a hatred towards Katy Perry.

May, 30th will be Jake's and my 3rd anniversary and I still haven't printed out any of our pictures. I'm working on it though. Last night I spent most of my evening going through the pictures and adding them to my flash drive. Even though it was only 3 years ago, things have changed so much. My neices have grown so much, Emily was just a bump in her mommy's tummy.

Jake and I have gotten old and our lives have changed so much.

This is my crazy family. 3 brothers, 2 sisters, their spouses and kids. Missy was pregnant with Emily and Melissa never even knew Stella was a twinkle yet.

This is the picture that brought back the most emotion. This is my dad and quirky uncle. I haven't seen him or my aunt and cousins since then and it makes me sad. (They are holding pinecones, not cigars.)

Excuse the random post, but I had a lot on my mind today.

Happy Easter everyone! He has risen indeed!