An update for most of September

Alright, it has technically been "forever" since I posted. F.O.R.E.V.E.R. I have my reasons though!

This month has not been a good one (in general). The beginning of September found us greeted with some pretty horrifying news. We found that our dearest friends lost one of their baby boys to SIDS. Neither Mike and I knew how to function with this news and to date we still haven't really talked much about it to each other. I still can't admit to myself that it actually happened because it just hurts too much.

Shortly after getting that news we were in full swing for the fair. That meant lots of distraction thankfully. Lots of time helping to set up the department booth, processing temporary event applications and inspection vendors. After work Thursday night I gathered up my family and dragged them down to the fair. We got to see all the barnyard animals. One of the women from work even pulled out a baby bunny for Lily to pet. She had TONS of fun. Due to a change in our weekend plans, we weren't able to have a birthday party for her on her birthday (nor were we really in the mood for it) so it was fun to at least do a little something for her for her birthday.

The next day I spent the majority of the day manning the department booth. Later that evening the family met me as I was getting off my shift and we attempted to watch the rodeo but the sore throat that I had woken up with that morning had, over the course of an eight hour day, turned into a full blown cold. I was so miserable that I told the hubby that we needed to leave. We were meeting our friend's brother so that he could follow us most of the way toward the funeral location so, while we waited, I slept in hubby's office. We did end up getting there around 6 am and got up at 8 am.

The funeral (9/6) was...beautiful but horrible. That's not something that anyone should ever have to plan or witness. I was glad to be there for our friend's though. My only wish was that we could have taken the next couple months off of work and just stayed down there.

After we returned I went back to work. Oh wait, no I didn't! Remember that cold I had? Yeah, well, it got a lot worse. I ended up taking Monday and Tuesday off work and returned Wednesday through Friday. Thursday I was all better and felt fantastic but on Friday I started to cough. Ohhhhh the cough. The cough lasted all Friday and all Saturday. Saturday was, fortunately and unfortunately Lily's first birthday party. Gramma came down for the party and oh goodness was it fun. We had a decent turn out and good food. Lily got a lot of lovely gifts, all of which she needed and loves! After presents we had cake. All the non-babies had chocolate cake and all the babies...okay, just Lily, had angel food cake topped with lite cool whip and bananas. I think she liked it. She did eat a few chunks of it, but in order to even get her to touch it I had to take her hand and just smoosh it in the cake. She must have got some of the sugar because she got super excited and then just crashed. By crashed, I mean she went to sleep at 5 that evening and got up at 8 the next morning. Not a peep from her. It was crazy!

After the birthday party we had a PartyLite party with Gramma's friend that was nice enough to come down and do one for us. Overall the party turned out very well! I was quite pleased. Our friends from Richland also showed up and stayed nice and late for us. That was fun.

So, the rest of the weekend was spent coughing. Sunday my mom came to visit before heading back out on the road. She'll be on the east coast for a few years this time so that is a little difficult. I'm guessing that I'll probably have a sibling for Lily before she's back on this side of the country (if ever). She likes it though so I try to not give her too hard of a time.

She left Monday morning and I spent the rest of the day playing with Lily at home. I had originally taken the time off because of my mom but now spent the rest of the time at home because I was sick...still. The coughing never ends! Tuesday I called in sick because I just could not stop coughing. This time, however, I spent the day dying on couch babyless. Lily started a new daycare on Tuesday. Her previous daycare is taking classes and finally got to a point where her classes were not affording her enough time to watch Lily anymore. She will be DEARLY missed. I was super comfortable leaving Lily there. Lily's new daycare seems nice so far, but I'm always super nervous about looking for daycare so we'll see how it turns out.

Wednesday saw me back at work despite all the arguments that I shouldn't be there. By Thursday, rumors were going around (I was still coughing because of the drippage into my lungs) that I had bronchitis. If you didn't know, bronchitis just means that your lungs create extra phlegm. This needs to come out so the result is increased coughing. It's not like you have a separate disease and are going to give people "bronchitis." It's usually the result of a long cold and 90% of the time is viral which means that antibiotics don't work. Barring any previous breathing problems, all that is required for treatment is rest, fluids and possibly some Mucinex to help things move along. I discovered this from the doctor that I had to go see to prove that I COULD be at work. Even though she said I was not infectious and that even if I did have bronchitis she would still tell me to go to work, Friday found me still fighting to stay there. Seriously, what's the deal.

This weekend was pretty nice. I had one inspection on Saturday and then we spent the rest of the weekend lounging around the house. Oh it was glorious. Would have been even better if my poor baby girl hadn't been so cranky. The entire weekend was a cycle of a few minutes of happiness followed by hours of crying and hours of sleeping. We think she's getting her back teeth in because they are super swollen and she is obviously in a lot of pain.

Monday was business as usual at work as was today (plus a bit of drama).

And that, my dears, is the general idea of my month so far. I am still coughing and my nose is still running but I believe that it is now due to the poor air quality. Thanks for burning your fields stupid grass growers.

Oh, one last thing. My classes are STINKING hard core. Lord these suckers are hard!

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Happy Birthday to My Baby

One year ago right now I was probably sitting on that stupid birthing ball glaring at Mike and threatening to throw my pitocin machine at him. Yep, that's right, my little bug turned 1 today!

It hardly seems possible that she was once so tiny as her pictures prove she was. She's such a big girl now. For about the last 3 weeks Lily has consistently been sleeping through the night. She'll wake up and give a short cry sometimes in the middle of the night, but she always goes right back to sleep. I think having a routine with her has definitely helped. Dinner, play times, jammies, play time, rocking and pass out.

When Lily isn't sleeping she is one energetic little girl! Holy cow! I don't think I've ever met a baby that has as much get up and go as she does. She's cruising around on anything she can pull up on now. She'll stand on her own on occasion, but usually something catches her eye and she'll either cruise over to get it or she'll plop on her rear (she loves to do this) and will speed racer crawl over to whatever she wants. Speak of crawling, my baby girl crawls on her hands and knees! She's been doing it for a while - ever since she learned that she can go much faster on her hands and knees than on her belly like a zombie.

I'm in a bit of a hurry so I can't spend too much time updating right now. I'm also getting a cold (congestion and sore throat) so I don't feel much like updating. In a short summary, life is decent, my graduate classes are kicking my tail feathers, my baby isn't a baby anymore and her Birthday Part will be on September 13th if anyone is interested.

Also, on a less than happy note, please keep our friends K and J and their family in your thoughts. They lost one of their 5 month old twins Monday morning. We will be heading over tonight for the funeral tomorrow.