My 26th birthday!

I turned 26 on Friday, I know I'm still in the young category but approaching 30 is scary and my 20's are FLYING by! (getting married, graduating nursing school, starting a career, having two kids....guess I've been busy!)
Thursday I had dinner at plaza with my parents, Emma knew it was a birthday dinner and was so confused that we didn't pull up to the bounce house!! Lol
Friday I spent the day with the kids, playing outside and then had a yummy chilis dinner to-go before heading into work for 4 hours. My sweet and thoughtful friend Michelle brought me beautiful flowers.
Saturday we had our favorite babysitter come over and spent the day in Williamsburg. We toured the winery first, this was so fun! Then we went shopping at the outlets and merchant square before having an early dinner at trellis. We were worn out when we got home but thankfully so were our girls! Michelle, again brought me a cake...an Adrian cake!! We ate a big piece that night. She is trying to make sure that I know she's a better friend than me lol I love her!
Sunday the girls were both not feeling the greatest so I stayed home with them, when Harry got home I went to get a pedicure and had lunch with Tiffany at bakers crust, then came here to have more cake and wine on the sun porch listening to the rain. Tiffany gave me the cutest travel cup and a Starbucks card, she is always so thoughtful. Tiffany is always sending thank you cards and little notes, the sweetest friend you could ask for!
I feel overwhelmed when I think about how amazing my husband, friends and family are. I often think about how sweet my handful of friends are, and how much fun they add to my life! I hope they all know how much they mean to me!

6 months old and Propranolol

Alyssa you're 6 months old!!

You're back to waking up during the night, but only once for a quick 6oz bottle and then back down until early morning.

You love pulling Emmas hair, and she lets you because she loves your giggle!
You really know how to get around, if you see something you will roll and roll until you can reach it. You can scoot on your back to get to a toy and are getting closer to figuring out how to crawl....I am not ready for a mobile baby so take you're time on that one!!
You're starting to make sounds, not just noise "mamamama, dadada, bababa, gagaga"
You're wearing size 3 diapers, and 6-9 month clothes (but quickly moving to 9-12). We aren't wearing shoes right now because you've discovered your feet and aren't happy if there is more than a sock!
Tiff and Carl let us borrow Hunters old jumper, and that is one of your favorite places to be, you still love the swing and take some of your naps there (but are getting better at napping in the crib!)...you're most favorite places to hang out are on the floor so you can wiggle and roll!

 We took you to see Dr Williams yesterday, she specializes in vascular birth marks. You were pretty good for the appointment! She measured and took pictures and decided your periorbital hemangioma was one that would require treatment and because of its placement wouldn't go away all on its own, it could potentially cause vision problems or disfigurment/sagging skin around your right eye. She decided to start you on Propranolol 2ml BID and possibly follow up with laser treatment if needed. This medication is usually used to treat hypertension, its a beta blocker. Before we started this you had your first EKG, normal sinus rhythm. And then we gave the first dose in the office with lots of blood pressure checks. The potential for hypotension is there, but as long as you take it with your feedings we shouldn't have problems. The dose is so low that Dr Williams doesn't see any adverse affects, but we will still be careful.You did great, but didn't like the nasty taste so we diluted it in your bottle (thankfully you were hungry!) Mommy was hoping we'd get the "keep watching and waiting, it will fade on its own", but I am glad that we are taking this path and hopefully this won't affect you in the long term. But I know I'm raising strong girls and no birth mark is going to hold you back! I love you so much and was up checking on you all night, you are the sweetest little thing and I would trade sleep for seeing your cute face any night :)

and an edited picture, of what we are hopeful for this time next year....

Our morning moments...

I love that every morning that I was off last week the baby woke up just cooing and giggling, Emma hears her and climbs into the crib to snuggle and chat with her while I sit in the glider drinking coffee. It makes me so happy that my girls already have so much love for each other!!

3 Months Old!

This is 4 days late because every time I attempted to get pictures, it didn't work out. Spit up happens :)

 This month you are awake more than you are asleep! Rarely do you cry unless you are hungry or tired. You are so different than your big sister, you have to have quiet to sleep and are just not happy if you get over stimulated. You don't like to be passed around at family gatherings. Thankfully Michelle got you a white noise machine for Christmas and we've figured out that if there is too much going on we can stick you in the car seat with that and you're out!

 I'm not sure how big you are, but today I had to stretch out your 3-6 month top and the pants looked more like capris!! Almost time to move up to 6 month clothes. Seriously, you're one tall girl. I think you might be taller than Emma! And all this growing explains why you were so hungry and just not yourself the last two days!

 You are officially sleeping through the night consistently. You have been for weeks, but every mom knows not to say it out loud for a while! You go to bed at 730-8pm and sleep until 6-7am! I feel like a normal person again :)

Time for a bottle Momma!!!

iPhone purge

Sunday we had a date night, yummy dinner and drinks at CPK then went to a movie! My girls have been so sweet (could we be leaving terrible 3's so early?!?), every morning Emma starts the day off snuggling her sister and Alyssa just smiles! She is the happiest baby, and she just "talks" all day long. I really can't remember life without her beautiful smile. 3 month post coming tomorrow, I can not believe its been 3 months today since I gave birth.

My big girl can swing!!

Back to Work

I went back to work officially January 1st. I am still PRN (as needed), but will be working 24hours/week. So far it's been an okay transition, the hardest part is getting off at midnight and still getting up in the morning. I will have to say today I slept in with the girls until 8am...which I somewhat regret because I felt like I was playing catch-up this evening!

A typical monday goes something like this:
6am feed Alyssa and put her back to sleep, get up and shower and have coffee.
7am The girls are up, make breakfast.
8am free play or cartoons for Emma while I do some cleaning, laundry and dishes...and recently my 30 day shred workout!
9am feed Alyssa
10am get the girls dressed (huge battle for my 3yr old Diva)
1045am leave for Dance class, starts at 11 and goes until 12
1230pm home from dance, make lunch, feed Alyssa and get them both down for naps
130pm clean up lunch, pack my dinner
220pm leave for work
3-1130pm help bring some sweet miracles into the world....(girls are home with Daddy)
1230-6am....much deserved sleep!
Thankfully I have every tuesday and thursday off and that is when Emma is in school, I should probably be all June Cleaver when I have so much free time but lately I've just been taking that time to spoil my sweet baby!

Now if only it wasn't a HIPAA violation to share all my good work stories :) I will share pictures instead