10 Months!

I can't believe it, by my baby turned 10 months last Wednesday, on the 17th... time sure does fly! She's doing great too. Crawling all over the place (and she's got speed too!), pulling herself up on anything like it was no big deal, and able to sit down now too from a standing positing, holding onto something. Yay!

She is eating very well, has her favorites (green beans, hotdogs) and her not-so-favorites (peas, cold pasta). She is babbling more and more everyday, using her toungue to make some pretty funny sounds! She says "mama" and "dada" to the correct parent and knows where her "clock", "lamp", and "fan" are in her room! She's just about ready to point to things, but for now, she just raises her hand in the general direction of the object.

She is also waving bye bye to people and dogs, and her toys at night when it's time for bed. Speaking of bed, she's still sleeping all night, going down at 8:30 and sleeping usually until around 7. Works perfect with my work schedule too! She's also taking 2 naps a day, around 11am and 4pm. Still only has the 2 bottom teeth, but thinking the top 2 will pop through any day!

We have weighed in at 19lbs. and measured 30" even! Still tall and thin, but we couldn't be more thrilled at the way she is progressing.

Now that we are into the holiday season, it's going to be a special one. Her first everything. First Halloween, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas, first New Years, then finally, her first birthday.

Wow, that just blows me away to think of her being 1 in less than 2 months. God has truely given us an angel, and has blessed us in more ways than we probably are aware of with our little girl. I'll just try and remember that when she turns 16 :)

Pumpkin Patch!

This year I was bound and determined to get to the pumpkin patch. I think it's been a good 4 years since I have been, and now that Elizabeth is here, it makes all more sense to go! Well, since I won a pumpkin carving contest at work, the prize was 1 free pass to the patch! Perfect, then all we have to do is pay for 1 and Elizabeth is free!

Neither Tommy or I are fans of big crowds, so we decided we could each take a half day off from work and go in the middle of the week. And that was the PERFECT time to go!

We got there on Wednesday, October 20 at about 1:30pm... and it was perfect out! The weather was sunny and warm, windy, and not a whole lotta people where there. We walked right up to the ticket counter to buy our other ticket, and away we went.

We saw lots of goats, lambs, donkeys, and even a camel! Elizabeth loves animals (how can she NOT with our 2 big dogs!) We walked through several haunted houses, one of which really did scare Elizabeth and she started to cry :( So we ran out of that one to calm her down. Thankfully, a sippy cup and a graham cracker helped cure that fright!

We watched the pig races, went through a maze, played on some wooden cows and watched the big kids jump on this gigantic ball thing. Oh, next year, it will be even more fun for her!

We ended up at the bakery shop at the end where we bought a bag of fresh homemade kettle corn and 2 caramel apples...... YUM!! We headed home around 3:45, where I thoght Elizbeth would pass out in the car seat, but nooooo! She was talking the whole way home. About 2 blocks from our house is when she finally passed out! So I scooped her out of her carseat and layed her down in her crib. The afternoon was finally over.

It was a great day. I know she won't remember anything about this, but will through our pictures. And then soon after that, she will have her own memories. Plus it's fun to live through your child's eyes!

9 months old!

Last Sunday, Oct. 17th was Elizabeth's 9 month old bday... can't believe it! The Friday prior, she had her Dr. appt. She is a healthy little girl, and we can't be more excited about it!

She weighed in at 17lbs. 110z (31 percentile), 29 1/4" (95 percentile!!) and head circumference was 64 percentile. So she is a taaaaaalllll thin girl. I asked if she was too light, and he said no, she's perfect for her height. If she were shorter and the same weight, he'd be a bit concerned. So nope, she just takes after her mommy and daddy... tall!

she had a little wax build up in one hear, so he cleaned that out. Then came the shots... I hate those more than she does. She got a Hepatitus B booster and her flu shot. Have to go back in a month for the second flu shot. But after some tears, the nurse gave her a grape flavored tongue depressor (you know, those wood sticks they use when looking in your mouth?)and the world was great again. She stopped crying by the time we got out of the office.

Next appt. on her birthday! Holy cow, how time flies when you're having fun!!!

Drag Racing weekend!!

The last weekend in August was the Geezers Drag race out at Mid America Motorplex in Iowa, and it was a blast!! Tommy got our Camero out to race, and his dad raced his 1964 Pontiac Belvedere "Wehling's Wedge". Weather was hot, but windy so that helped a little. Racing started Saturday, but the whole family went out on Sunday to watch the action. Of course, when we weren't there, Tommy won 1st place in his class and brought home a nice big trophy!!

Here are a few pics from Sunday!

OK, I suck...

... keeping up with this blog! The summer was so swamped that I didn't get a chance to get over here! I usually write this stuff at work, and since I've been so busy at work, it's been impossible... so here I go again! :)

Summer flew by, so sad it's almost over. Elizabeth is growing like a weed. My little peanut is 17 lbs. and about 28" long! Tall, skinny girl. But doing great! Eating solids like a champ. LOVES veggies and fruits, but hates oatmeal and rice cereal (makes the gagging face when we eat that, so no more!). Still has some stranger anxiety with both her grandpa's, but not with the women of our family...strange. Tommy thinks that's OK for her to be scared of men! :)



This weekend is going to be fun, it's the Geezer Drag Race and Car Show at the Mid America Motorplex in Iowa! We do this every year, but it's a time for all car and race enthusiests to go out and show off their old cars, and if so inclined, take a spin down the race track too! Tommy this year is racing our "91 Camaro, which is in perfect mint condition with only 36,000 miles on it! Ready to race! He drove up to the cabin in South Dakota yesterday to pick up his dad's drag car, the REAL Geezer in the family! It's a 1964 Plymouth Belvedere (Wehling's Wedge), and has been a drag car for some time. Tommy and his dad will also race that. Can't wait! This will be Elizabeth's first experience at the races.



Work is starting to slow down for me, so this is a good thing. Now I'll hopefully have more time to blog!! Can't believe next weekend is Labor Day weekend..... have invites to 2 BBQ's already. But on a high note, NEBRASKA FOOTBALL STARTS IN 8 DAYS!!!! Elizabeth's Husker outfits are waiting and ready! :)



Hope you all have a great weekend!

Wow, have I got lots to catch up on!!!

This is CRAZY!!!!

I can't believe the last time I blogged was in March. That is not good! That means I've been too busy! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

OK, so I will start a quick update we have lots going on this month, but will update quickly what's been happening since her 2 month appt!

April 5, I started back to work (boo), so my mom has been coming over and watching Elizabeth during the day. She loves it, she gets to spend a lot of time with her first grandchild! We pay her too, so it's like a job. She is so good with Elizabeth, they have such a good time together reading, playing, going on stroller rides around the neighborhood and stopping at garage sales! :) I cut my hours down at work, so I work 32 hours a week, 9:30am-4pm Monday through Friday. Makes a HUGE difference with my mornings. I can get some baby time in the morning before I pass her on to daddy, so I can get ready for work. So it has really worked out well!

Elizabeth herself is growing like a weed! She has started to grab for everythign she can get her little hands on, and of course, it all goes in the mouth! Just recently she has also discovered her feet! So cute to watch her grab and hold onto them! She is constantly cooing, and recently, screetching in delight! :) She has definatly found her voice! She is starting to recognize people she doesn't know well, so she sometimes cries if someone is holding her, she's not familiar with. She still has no hair, so we wear headbands when we go out. Twice I've had people come up to us in stores asking me "how old is HE?" Um, yeah, not happening anymore! :)

On May 20, she had her 4 month well baby appt. She was 41% for head growth (perfect), 46% for weight (perfect, 14 lbs.) and 89% for lenth!! (way above average, 26"!) She was perfectly healthy. She also got her second round of vaccinations, which she screamed for awhile... thank God those are over. Well, she will get one more I think at 6 months, but not 3 at a time!! We go back on July 16 for her 6 month appt.

This Saturday, June 19, Elizabeth is getting baptised! Can't wait, we are having a private ceremony with the pastor that married us. Just family is invited, and we will have lunch at our house afterwards. I will leave this post at that. That will be my next blog entry! :) :)

2 Month Dr. Appt.

Wow, 2 months have flooooooown by! She's getting to be such a big girl already! She's holding her head up really well now, loves to "walk" up your tummy and chest, and loves to bounce! She's an active little shit with lots of energy. She also is learning to sleep well too! Hooray!! She slept 6 hours last night before waking to eat, then went right back down for 3 more! She's outgrown all her newborn clothes and is now in 3 month size... actually, she's been in those for several weeks now!

Thursday, March 18th was her 2 month Dr. appt. She weighed 11 lbs. even and 23 inches long! She was above average for her height, weight and head circumfrance. Dr. Kaufman checked her ears, they were clean and clear! Eyes look good, lungs sound great, and everything is healthy! The only thing she has is baby acne, that all babies get, so we will consider that minor! :)

She's doing well with breastfeeding, and the dr. said I can now start spacing out her feedings a bit. She is also now on a vitamin daily, Vitamin D, to help with her bones. We go back in May for her 4 month appt, and hope all is well in between!

St. Patricks Day!~

St. Patricks Day was a busy one this year! First, I had a Dr. appt. with my OB in the morning (more on that later...), then when I got back, Tommy's cousin Sarah and her boyfriend Drew were in town from Grand Island! They visited with us for awhile, and got to meet Elizabeth for the first time... she really took a liking to both of them!



Our dear friend Kendra bough Elizabeth the cutest little St. Patrick's Day outfit.. she filled it out well! It was so freakin cute...





Later that day, we went to our neighborhood bank where we know everyone.. they wanted to see Elizabeth! We also opened an account for her there so she will be rich by the time she goes to college! Let's hope, anyways!

It was a fun day, full of lots of new things and people to see. Happy "first" St. Patrick's Day, little one!

First Restaurant!

Thursday, March 4th was my birthday... ugh. I really tried to forget about it as I knew it was coming up. I was hoping too that Tommy would pull the typical "oops, I forgot your birthday" man card, but he didn't... he remembered. I guess as I get older, I keep thinking birthdays will just disappear. I am 36. 4 more years until 40! OH NO!!!

Anyhoo, my in-laws also didn't forget, and they wanted to take us all out to dinner to celebrate. I thought that was OK, it was a night off of cooking and trying to balance baby duty and dinner. So we packed up the whole family and headed to La Mesa, a pretty good Mexican restaurant. This was Elizabeth's first time out at a very crowded restaurant! And she did great! She basically slept the whole time.. you'd think SHE had the margarita! Oh, and it was GOOD! :)

Here are a few pics. I realized I didn't get one of Elizabeth in her car seat snoozing away, but she was there, next to us at the table!

First roadtrip!

Last week we took our first road trip! Yep, we packed up and drove to Sioux Falls, SD to go visit great grandma Wehling! It is about a 3 hour drive, one way. We surprised grandma by just showing up at her door, and she was sooo excited! We visited for awhile with grandma and got caught up on the family "happenings". It was really nice, and Elizabeth was so well behaved! Here she is with her great grandma:



After that, we stopped by the mall there in Sioux Falls, to surprise Tommy's cousin Alissa and her brother-in-law Tim. They both work at a shoe store there in the mall. It was great to see them both, and they both enjoyed meeting Elizabeth for the first time!





She did really well on the trip up and back... slept most of the time, but when she wasn't, we played in the backseat together. We also realized in a hurry that we have instantaneously grew out of my car! We had to scoot the front seat up so far to get the car seat behind it, so I had enough room in the back to sit and feed her. My knees kept hitting the glove compartment, so I mostly sat in the back with Elizabeth. Can't imagine traveling like that further distances! no room for the dogs either! So looks like we are looking at a Tahoe or Suburban. Better for those trips to the cabin this summer... can't wait for those! :)

Holy cow, how time flies!!

Good grief, it's been over 2 weeks since my last post! We have been so busy these past few weeks, so I'll try and update more often, so it won't have to be all in one post! Elizabeth is doing great! She is growing nicely, and changing everyday. A couple weeks ago we had some issues with nursing that I think we finally resolved. It's been a hard road for that! You would think it's the most natural, easy thing in the world to do, but it's not! Thankfully now, she's eating normally and growing well as a result! I weighed her this morning before we gave her a bath (I have a US postage scale for the business that measures pounds and ounces... up to 10lbs!), and she is now weighing in at a healthy 9lbs. 2 oz! She has also grown an inch in length, so we are getting too tall for some of her sleepers already! She sleeps pretty good at night, we are down to only one feeding a night, usually around 3am, then off to bed again until about 7:30am.

We have made several outings already. On Feb. 6th we went to our friend's daughter's, Sofie, 6th birthday party! She was such a good girl, just let her get passed from person to person, eventually passing out in her carseat while we all ate dinner. She even got a picture with the birthday girl herself!



We also went to another birthday party for my nephew Ben, who turned 6 also! That was on Valentine's Day, where we had lots of good pizza, Stacy's famous salad, and cake and ice cream for dessert! This was the first time all the nephews got to meet their cousin Elizabeth! They were all very excited to meet her. The oldest cousin, John, who is 14, even held her for awhile!



We have also been to Target (which she slept through the whole time) and to a wedding rehersal dinner last weekend. She was perfectly behaved the whole time, as everyone just oohed and ahhed over her. Gotta love it! We have had lots of visitors come too, which is fun. It certainly has kept us busy at home. She also loves this gym thing that one of my friends bought for us for her, and I got a video of it. It was taken on my cell phone, so don't know how clear it will be:



Today, she is 4 weeks and 4 days. She is so much fun! Here are a few more pics we took recently:











I hope to keep updating more frequently, so please keep checking back to see how our peanut is doing! Thanks again for all the love and support everyone has shown us! We are so blessed!!

Elizabeth Rose is here - a birth story!

First off, sorry this is coming so late, it's been a bit hectic around here the past 2 weeks since the baby has come! But it has been such a joy and blessing to finally have her here and being able to love on her!

It all started Jan. 16, Sat night, when we went to the hospital to be induced. We got there, got checked into a room, was hooked up to all the monitors, when the nurse said, "looks like you're contracting on your own!" HUH?? I didn't feel anything, so she showed me the monitor. Sure enough, there were contractions! So I went into labor on my own, so no need for Cervadil! I hadn't really felt them yet, so my nurse suggested we walk around the floor to get things going. So Tommy and I got up and did several laps around the floor. That's when I started to feel them a bit. Yep, feels just like a really bad menstral cramp. We got back to the room and I sat on a birth ball (like one of those excercise balls you blow up and use for different excercises). Rotating my hips on that and leaning on the bed helped me through the contractions. Tommy just watched TV, poor thing that's all he cound do!

The Dr. came in about 9pm and told me to get some sleep if I can, that they will start Pitocin around 3am. Yikes! I heard that brings on some good contractions! So I tried to sleep.... yeah right! Every time I would just start to fall asleep, I would have a contraction. They were like 4 min. apart. I got NO sleep. Just watched the clock until 3am. So I labored all night (med-free!) and was only 1cm dilated by 3am. Crap. So they started Pitocin in hopes to speed things up. Contractions got a litte worse. By 7am they checked me again, and still only 1cm. WHAT!? The contractions sucked at this point. So my Dr. broke my water at 7am (that was a wierd feeling...) and then the contractions REALLY kicked in! By 8am, I couln't take it anymore and the Dr. checked me... 3cm! Time for an epidural! The anestesiologist (sp?) come in and got me all prepped. I had to sit all hunched over while he put the epi in my back. OUCH! It hurt to curl up like that, especially during contractions. He was having a hard time getting it in, so he had to try several times. I started to feel nauseaus from getting too hot. The best trick ever I got from my nurse, she opened one of those little packets of alcohol wipes and had me sniff that. It worked! My nauseausness passed! Finally the epi was in, and ahhhhhhhhh.... that was pure heaven after no meds for 14 hours! I felt NOTHING!

I finally got some sleep on and off and then the epi started to wear off on one side... so they came and juiced me back up. He gave me some extra heavy meds that lasted for an hour, then the regular epi took over. It was all good again. It was about 1pm on Sunday at that point. I was feeling pretty good, my mother-in-law Sharon and sister-in-law Shelly came up to visit. That's when I started feeling some pressure down there. I got checked.. 4-5 cm! Woo hoo, finally making some progress! So after they left, I tried to get some sleep again. Meanwhile, we were watching movies we brough from home to help pass the time. About 3pm, the nurse came in to check me, 7cm!! YES!! She also said she noticed some swelling on one side of my cervical lip. Weird. She said she will check again soon to see if it had gone down.

She checked an hour later, and the swelling was worse! My entire cervix and surrounding tissue was swelling, and I closed back down to 4cm. Come to find out, Elizabeth's head was too big, and my pelvis too small, so she kept hitting my cervix with her head and caused it to swell. Also, my epi was wearing off AGAIN and it ws getting painful. So Dr. Gernhart told us it didn't look like she was going to come out naturally, and said we better do a c-section now. I was upset for about a minute, but was so tired after 22 hours labor at that point, that I was ready and excited to meet my baby girl! The nurses quickly got me prepped, Tommy dressed in his scrubs, and we were wheeled down to the OR around 4:20pm.

We got in the OR, there were so many people in there ready to help out! It was Sunday, and I guess it was just me and one other person on the L&D floor, so lots of nurses were bored! :) Tommy got a picture of my laying on the operating table, as the anestesiologist put in more meds into my epi to get me totally numb. I was soooo sleepy at this time, mostlyl from not sleeping, but also from the meds that I was given. It was so hard to keep my eyes open! Tommy finally came to sit by my head and he grabbed my hand. Surgery started.

I didn't feel a thing, of course, but Tommy could see everything around the drape they put up in front of my head. He didn't look much, as I'm sure there was lots of blood! At exactly 4:42pm, Elizabeth Rose was born, weighing 7lbs. 7oz., and 20 1/4" long, screaming and all! They cut the cord, and brought her over to me to take a look at her for the first time.. I just cried. It was so great to see her finally and hear here crying! She was fine! I pushed Tommy to go get pictures, so he went over and got a bunch of pics. The nurses were great too and got lots of pictures with Tommy in it. I couldn't see any of this, so glad it was documented for me.

While Dr. Gernhart and the others sewed me back up, I could barley stay awake. I just wanted out of there to hold my baby girl. Tommy went with the nurses and Elizabeth down to the nursery on the floor below us. Meanwhile, I was wheeled into recovery, where I dozed on and off for an hour. They gave me good pain meds and took out my epidural. They had to watch me for an hour to make sure my blood pressure and stuff was fine. Tommy came up to see me and showed me the pictures he got of her... she was perfect! He also brough up her footprints that they stamped on stickers. Big feet! Around 6:15pm, I was taken down to my room (Tommy negotiated with the nurses to get us a corner room.... they are HUGE!! Way to go, baby!!!).

When I got there, only nurses were there waiting for me. Tommy and Elizabeth were in the nursery still, I heard she was getting her first bath. About 15 min later, the proud papa came in with our baby girl and I got to hold her for the first time... and it was wonderful!! She was so tiny, cute, warm and absolutly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Tommy had called our families and soon Tommy's parents, sister, my mom and my sister were up there in the room welcoming the latest Wehling into the world. It was great. Soon after they left, I was sooo tired, I had to pass out.

We ended up staying in the hospital for 5 days total, due to my c-section and Elizabeth's unwillingness to pee or poop like she should! She held it for 24 hours at one time, so Dr.'s wanted to make sure she was OK. Finally she peed and pooped like normal, and has been normal since. She is stubborn! :) We finally packed up and left the hospital Wednesday afternoon. It was so good to be home with our family. The dogs were REAL curious as to what this "thing" was that we brought home. Lucy really just sniffed her to check her out, and walked away. Oscar, on the other hand, is very protective. He is always looking at her, sniffing her, wondering what she is doing, wehre she is going if we walk with her. He's the over-protective big brother. It's kinda funny!

So here we are, 2 weeks later, trying to get into a routine. Elizabeth is sitting here next to me in her bouncy chair, fast asleep so mommy can type this out. She is such a precious angel brought to us from God. I still can't believe it sometimes I am finally a MOM. And to see Tommy with her, makes me so proud... he's such a loving dad, so excited about her, and such a wonderful husband. I truly and blessed to have him in my life. He is and will be the BEST daddy ever. To see him hold her makes me wanto to cry in happiness. I finally was able to give him what he wanted.. a child. And me, I finally have what I always wanted... a family.