Happy Halloween!

How little miss Kayla spent the better part of her first Trick or Treat night:

While her cousins were out gathering candy:

When she woke up, she was less than thrilled about being put in a penguin suit, but indulged us anyway. 

Although it didn't exactly go as we'd hoped (a late/short nap, an epic meltdown, a rushed feeding in the middle of it all) we still enjoyed her first ToT night, and look forward to walking around with the gang next year.  I'm already plotting the next adorable costume for her; I really enjoy the fact that until she's a little older, I get to choose.  ;-)

Rolling over! And over, and over...

Last night I got to see Kayla roll from her back to her belly and then right over onto her back again!  She rolled two or three times across the living room floor until the recliner got in her way.  Now I know the secret is to put her right on the carpet instead of on her blanket.  I guess I need to run the vacuum when I get home, just to be sure it's extra clean!  I'll try to get a video of it tonight when I get home. 

Can't wait for tonight!

Go Phillies! 

For some extra phun, check out the hilarious shirts at Birdland. 

My right wrist/hand

Has gone from numb to in excruciating pain.  But it's done now.  I got the cortisone shot, and by the end of the week, I hope to have two wrists that are as good as new!

Growing into things

It's truly amazing how fast these little ones grow.  We tried putting Kayla in her jumperoo for the first time last week.  She's still a little small for it, but she really lit up when she saw the array of bright colors and fun things to play with.  Hopefully as her neck gets a little stronger, she will be able to spend more time in it. 

She's rolling like crazy now too!  She rolled from her back to her belly for the first time last Saturday, and all of a sudden on Friday she decided it was something she wanted to try again.  And again and again.  She rolls over and then lifts her head up to look for our approval.  It's too cute. 

It's amazing how much she will still do even with a completely stuffed up head.  We were set to go visit Adam, Kristen, Trevor and Addison last week, until Kayla's cold ramped up again.  I really don't want to pass that on to Addison, so we opted to stay home.  We did go over to Matt's place for football on Saturday, and she was really pleasant all day despite only two short naps. 

Each day is more and more fun for us; I am so looking forward to putting her in her Halloween costume on Friday!  Here's hoping she holds up OK for a walk around the neighborhood and that it's not too cold!

Holy crap!

I was so wrapped up in my wrist issues, I totally forgot to mention...

Kayla rolled over!

On Saturday, she rolled from her back to her belly for the first time!  She seemed quite shocked and unsure how she got that way, but she immediately started rocking to one side to try to get back over.  Despite our pleas and coaxing, she hasn't done it again, but I'm sure it won't be long before she does.  Time to start really baby proofing... Eek! 

This may take a while.

Let's time how long it takes me to post this.

I'm typing pretty slowly today on account of my wrists.  I've got this hybrid typing/hunt and peck thing going on right now.  The soft splint on the left wrist makes it a little difficult to type, and the pain in my right wrist had slowed me down a bit too.  At least I know relief is in sight.  My left wrist was feeling about 90% as of yesterday.  I try to be good and leave the splint on as much as possible; I take it off any time it might get dirty or wet (cooking and doing dishes, showering) and when changing or feeding Kayla (mostly for the sake of speed) but leave it on the rest of the day/night.  What a difference!  I am actually looking forward to getting the coritsone shot in my right wrist now.  The pain still comes and goes a bit, but it's pretty strong a lot of the time.  The only thing that worries me is how I will/won't be able to handle a computer mouse with my right hand in one of these:

I guess I'll figure that out when the time comes.  As of now, my next shot is scheduled for a week from today.  Hopefully the left side is feeling good enough to give it regular breaks from the splint so I have at least one functional hand at all times. 

(And 13 minutes later... publishing this one!)

The D40 Rocks. That is all.

<3

New Blog Design and an Update on Me

Please do not adjust your monitor.  Your eyes are not deceiving you.  Things are looking a bit different around here today... I am working on a blog redesign now.  I'm not sure if I want to pull a premade template from somewere or if I actually want to attempt my own header, etc.  I don't have a whole lot of time to put into this either, so we'll see how long it sits here with a standard Blogger template before I get around to doing something with it.  ;-)

So about 3 weeks ago, I started to notice a pain in my right wrist that went up my arm a couple of inches.  I didn't think too much of it at first; maybe I strained something.  No big deal.  So I went about my  normal (ha!) life and tried to ignore it.  Within a week, the pain was nearly unbearable, and I was starting to notice tenderness in my left wrist as well.  So off to the doctor I went.  I was seen by the office nurse practitioner, who determined that it was not carpal tunnel and instructed me to take 3 ibuprofen 3 times a day for 10 - 14 days and see what happened.  By the two week mark, my right wrist was no better and the left was worse than the right had ever been.  So back to the doctor I went, but this time I was prepared. 

Thanks to a message board friend, I was armed with information about DeQuervain's Syndrome (also known as "washerwoman's sprain" or "mother's wrist") when I went to this appointment.  I discussed the pain I'd been feeling with the doctor, and he said he thinks I "nailed it" with my self diagnosis.  He said it is really unusual to see it develop in both wrists at the same time (so that makes me really lucky right?) but it was the most likely culprit for my pain. 

Unfortunately, the initial treatment for this is cortisone shots and a stint in a soft splint that immobilizes my wrist and thumb.  This means the doc couldn't treat both wrists at once.  We elected to start with my left wrist since it was giving me the most pain, and revisit the right wrist in 10 - 14 days if I feel like the shot helped.  The shot itself wasn't bad, and actually numbed things for a bit.  I could use my hand normally again all of a sudden.  Sweet!  Or not. 

By the time I got home from work, the numbness had worn off and pain took its place.  It was even worse than it had been before.  Even now, closing my hand is near impossible.  Picking up Kayla is excruciating.  Holding a pen in my left hand to write?  Not a chance.  I really hope the soft splint I need shows up at the pharmacy today.  I'm sure the amount of stuff I'm trying to do despite the pain isn't helping my cause any.   I'm so looking forward to this weekend and being able to rest it a bit and let the shot take effect... I'll report back on how that works after the weekend. 

PS - I promise I'm not holding out on you in the picture arena.  I'm still waiting on my new memory cards to arrive so I can actually save the pictures I take.  I have been playing with the camera though and I am absolutely loving it!  I can't wait to put it to real use!

We love long weekends!

One thing I will surely miss if I ever leave banking will be the awesome random holidays we get paid for.  Thanks to Monday being Columbus Day, we got to stay home with Kayla for her first teacher inservice day at daycare.  But I am getting ahead of myself...


This weekend's adventure began on Thursday when I got a call from daycare saying that Kayla had spiked a fever of 99.7 earlier in the day.  I picked her up a little early so I could take her to the doctor, but her fever had already broken by that point.  Her temperature was normal at the doc's office, but he prescribed an antibiotic anyway because of her persistent congestion.  So far it doesn't seem to be helping much, but we're only through about half the bottle. 


Friday was a typical day.  Shaun worked early and came home in time for me to head out and come in.  Kayla was fine all day with him if not a little more tired than usual.  She was great for Pepere and Grammy Sue's visit in the evening.  After that, we packed up and went down to the hospital to met Addison for the first time.  What a teeny little cutie!  She barely made a peep the whole time we were there, until Kayla woke up and started crying... but most of the time she looked something like this:

She is so incredibly tiny - Kayla was born nearly a pound heavier, and she seemed itty bitty at the time!  I can't wait for them to be able to play together! 

We designated Saturday as our running all over creation day.  We got up early (when Kayla woke up that is - I think around 6:30 or 7?) and stopped for coffee treats and then made our way to Walmart, BJ's, Babies R Us and the grocery store.  We managed to get home at a reasonable time and just sat and watched football most of the day while I cleaned and did laundry.  Sunday was more football watching, and a lot of cooking.  My mom stopped up for her visit with Kayla too.  Kayla LOVES it when she visits - I think my mom gets more smiles than even I do! 

Then Monday came.  So nice not to have to go in to work!  I was feeling pretty wiped out, so I "encouraged" Kayla to go back to sleep after her morning feeding.  When she continued to fuss in her crib, I took a different tactic and brought her over into bed with us.  Lucky for me, she snuggled right into me and went back to sleep.  I got to sleep in for the first time in ages!  What a great morning.  We did some shopping, trying to find new Christmas stockings for the family, but had no luck.  Not even at the Flower and Craft Warehouse!  Maybe once the Halloween stuff goes away there will be more out.  In the mean time, I'll look around online and see what I can find. 

Today I am especially anxious to get home to my new toy!  I finally broke down and ordered my Nikon D40 last week and it's scheduled to be delivered today.  It was expensive, but I'm really excited to be able to capture some of the moments I may have missed with our old camera.  I'll be sure to post results of that soon! 

Congratulations Adam and Kristen!

It's hard to believe it was back in March that we found out that Adam and Kristen were expecting their first baby together... today they welcomed Addison Elizabeth to their family! She was born at 11:14 am, 6 lbs 3 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. I hear that she and Kristen came through the c-section just fine and are doing well! Congrats to Mommy and Daddy and big brother Trevor! We can't wait to meet the little peanut!


PS - Kristen, if you read this still... so much for your "little tank!" My delicate little flower outweighs yours by more than double! Too funny. ;-)

3 Month Pictures and Stats

I've updated the Photobucket Account with a few pictures I took of Kayla yesterday, and her three month photos taken by the Picture People are here. The pink sweater and hat were knitted by my mom. We chose the Phillies t-shirt because the Phils started their run at another world series yesterday with a 5 - 1 win over the Rockies. Go Phillies!!

Kayla is now checking in at a healthy 12 pounds 11 ounces and 23 1/4 inches long. She's growing so fast!

Happy 3 Months!!

Dear Kayla -

The picture you see here was a result of mommy getting over zealous this morning. It was very cold when I took you to daycare yesterday morning (about 40 degrees) so I put this obviously too large sweatshirt on you this morning to help keep you warm. As it would turn out, it wasn't as cold as I'd thought. At least it made for some adorable pictures.

This month was a lot of fun for us. You've gotten much better at lifting your head and we were able to put you in your bumbo seat for some fun. You like to push toys around on the tray and knock them on the floor. So cool! You've really started to use your hands a lot more. You shake and grab at toys so they make noise. You love to bat at the duckie toy on your carrier, and to shake your keys around. Your play mat still entertains you, but you are loving to sit up more too.

You are such a happy little baby; I love picking you up out of your crib each morning. No matter how fussy you are when I open the door to your room, you always smile as soon as you realize I'm there. It's the greatest thing in the world.

The ladies at daycare just adore you. It's still hard to leave you there every day, but I am getting better with it. I have been finding excuses to "drop in" and see how you're doing as often as I can even though driving away the second time is often harder than the first.

As before I am finding myself being torn between absolutely adoring the baby that you are right now, and looking forward to who you are going to be in the future. What I do know for sure is that I am even more crazy about you now than I was the day I brought you home. You are my little angel, and I love you more than you will ever know.
Love always -
Mommy