Vacation equals Rest and Relaxation, right?

Family vacations are supposed to be relaxing with no deadlines, no bosses telling you to do, and all the happy go lucky shit.  I had dreams of a nice relaxing vacation.  I planned on walking 15,000-20,000 steps a day (logged with my FitBit), playing with Ava, watching Ben fish, and relaxing.  Well, my vacation sucked.  Between Ava’s belly troubles and then to top if off I washed my FitBit, I didn’t get much R&R.   

On odd years we rent a beach house in the Outer Banks with Ben’s family.  It is great fun with his parents, siblings & family, a cousin, and this year an uncle and cousin.   We can focus completely on his side of the family versus trying to split our time between my family and his when we are visiting in Pennsylvania.  This year there was a total of 18 people.  It was a full house but we still had some good family time. 

We were the last to arrive and therefore got stuck with the smallest bedroom which I didn’t mind at first.  We shared a bathroom with Ben’s sisters family and it worked out.  The problem with the room is that there was barely any room to walk once the pac-n-play was set up.  Still, my thoughts were no big deal the bedroom is only for sleeping.  Ha. Sleeping.  What a funny concept. 

There was no sleeping in our room and not because of fun hanky-panky time but because Miss Ava wasn’t feeling well. Poor baby had to have her diaper changed a lot the first couple of nights like I swear ever hour or two.  Her belly must have been giving her some major fits because she would just cry.  So Ben and I were up all night for a couple of nights tag teaming Ava trying to get her into that good sleep in this jail cell sized room.  Every time we thought she was there she would just start screaming when we laid her down.  I felt the walls caving in on me trying to get her to sleep before she woke everyone up.  It was rough. It was frustrating. 

I would apologies to everyone in the morning if we woke them up and they all seemed to be understanding about it all.  Ben’s mom couldn’t hear Ava/us (she slept on the other side of the house) and kept telling us to come get her and she would help throughout the night but we never did.  Maybe if Ava was feeling better I would have but I just felt bad leaving my sick child with her and leaving my sick child period.

We ended up doing the BRAT diet strictly and gave her Motrin and she started to act better towards the end of the week. But if the sickness/fussiness/lack of sleep didn’t ease up by Tuesday night I think Ben would have made us go home.  We were exhausted plan and simple. 

We ended up leaving Friday night and driving straight home (approx. 10 hrs).  It worked out the best, i.e., Ava slept.  It was funny to see how she perked up once we were home.  It is like she was ready for vacation to be over with and was a completely different baby now that she was home. 

Even since we have been home, she still isn't sleeping well.  I think it is teething.  But I have thought her fussiness/miserableness was teething before and yet 9 months (holy crap 9 months!!) and still no teeth.  

So lesson learned, babies still get sick even when you are vacation.  

MM Snapshot on Tuesday

MM Snapshot on Tuesday-well it is just one of those weeks.  We were at the OBX last week!  It was fun and hell all rapped up in one full week.  Before I blog about our trip I wanted to give you a sneak peak!

The beach was fun, but...

It sure was tiring! 

A mover and a shaker!

I can no longer take cute little baby pictures.  Ava is fully mobile and eager to explore her world.  Beware-all photos from this point on may cause motion sickness!  Here is my blurry blue jean baby!

Water Fiasco

So yesterday our area had some crazy rain!  Like not just raining cats and dogs but raining elephants and hippos too!  Sometime between 3:30pm and 5:30pm, our basement got about 1-2 inches of water in it. UURRGGHHH!   The poor dogs are kenneled in the basement while we are gone and they were all wet and not happy!  Luckily, they did forgive me when I gave them their dinner.  Whew – I was worried about them not loving me anymore. J

Ava was a little fussy last night so I couldn't deal with the water.  Ben came home from work last night to deal with the water and check all of his incubating equipment.   Ben started with mopping/sweeping the water out of the house in the cement area.

While I was putting Ava down he ran to town to get a carpet shampooer to suck the water of the carpet. 

For the next 2-3 hours, I used the shampooer to suck the water out of the carpet.  Yes, that just sucked!  I made countless trips outside to empty the water (FITBIT = 6,313 steps, 19 floors)  At 11pm I wasn't getting much water anymore even though the carpet still felt wet.   Ben had just come back with a couple of dehumidifiers to run in addition to our own.   I figured I would go to bed. 

Well, of course, Miss Ava woke up around midnight and was up for another hour before I could get her back to sleep.  I got her to sleep for an hour and then again she woke up.  This time I let Ben take care of her.  He said she was up for another hour before he gave her a bottle and she passed out again.  (Rare middle of night feeding – 9 month growth spurt?)

Anyways, last night was pretty eventful.  Do you have any tricks to deal with carpet or even laminate flooring and water to save the flooring and prevent mold?  Considering the fiasco last night, I am still in a pretty chipper mood today.  Shockingly with the lack of sleep.  Hope your Monday was better than mine!

Monday Snapshot - What is Daddy doing?

I tried hard to get a picture of Ava in her lawn chair but she was way too concerned about what Daddy was doing!

 

As a side note- Daddy was cutting down trees around the house with a chainsaw. The trees are great habitat for the birds.

This momma isn't ready for this

As I was dropping Ava off at daycare today, her teachers mentioned that she will be walking soon.  She pulls herself up on any and thing and everything and walking is just around the corner.  Well, this made me tear up.  I am not ready for a baby to be walking or even on the verge of walking.  She is only 8.5 months.  I realize that she isn’t going to be a little baby forever but walking… WALKING!  This momma can’t handle that!

I feel like we just completely mastered crawling.  We have hardwood floors vs. carpet so I do think she would have crawled sooner if it wasn’t for the slick floors.  I guess walking will be easier on the floors at least until she does the Risky Business slide.  

I think my only saving grace is the fact that she has my balance so far.  But if your baby is on the verge of walking, how long will it take for her to actually be able to do it?  How long do they cruise (which Ava isn’t yet) before actually walking?  

Also, how do you cope with your little one hits a major milestone?  I do not want to cry the rest of Ava’s life. 

Here we go again

I have officially started studying for the CPA, again.  Uuurrrggghhh.  I just hope I can do it this time around.  Before having Ava I had passed 3 out of the 4 parts, REG is a bitch.  Then Ava came along, I tried REG again and was met with misery.   Since I have never passed REG – I am starting with that first.  I want to pass and get it out of the way.  If I fail again, I will reevaluate if it is worth it the time and sacrifice.    The REG section includes regulations and taxation.  You hear CPA and automatically think taxes… well I am not that kind of CPA.  I audit.  I hate taxes… at least studying for them.  I think if I had more real life practices with taxes I would get them. 

It has been working out great so far.  Ava has consistently gone to bed by 7-7:30.  I get to study 4 nights all the week without interruption or guilt while Ben is working.  But the other 3 nights I feel guilty that there is no Ben and Kelly time. Not that we would be out having a great time but some of my favorite things with Ben is just eating popcorn and watching TV and arguing about what is more believable: Mermaids or Megalodon.  (FYI – I totally believe there is a Megalodon.  Ben disagree.)  Ben understands the process and that this is just a small period in time and we will get through-  I think he is just hoping I pass cause he thinks then he will have a sugar mama… boy is he in for a rude awakening! 

I still have pay the state fees, the testing fees, and schedule it but all in good time.  I wanted to make sure I was completely committed before paying $300 in fees.   

So the next year of my life will be studying - so much fun right?

MM Snapshot - Nightly Routine

This week I am excited to be the Monday morning snapshot on PAIL Bloggers (a community resource for what comes next).  Even though I do not post as often as I wish to on here.  I get a lot of ideas through the website and strongly encourage anyone that is parenting after infertility to check it out. 

Without further ado:

The daily grind can get tedious from time to time.  Get home, make dinner, play, go to bed, wake up, work/daycare, rinse and repeat.  Well, to help combat the daily grind, I try to soak in Ava and our precious moments during our nightly routine.

I have always done the bedtime routine mostly because of breastfeeding and also because Ben was scared of giving Ava a bath.  At first I loved it and then I got tired of having to do it every night but now I realized how much fun it is.  

It is my special time with Ava where nothing else matters but her.   We start anytime before 7:00 PM depending on how tired she is, how late we ate dinner, etc.  We first start with a bath.  We play with a couple rubber duckies including one on a boat that winds up and spins around the tub.  She giggles when the ducky runs into her leg or foot.  We finish up and I wrap her up in her Minnie Mouse towel and lay her down on her bedroom floor.  I put nighttime lotion on her while making sounds or silly faces getting her to giggle. I grab A Very Hungry Caterpillar, Snuggle Puppy, or one of our other books.  I read it to her while we rock and she plays with her lovey.  Next, I take her prayer dice and say the prayer that was rolled.  Finally, we nurse and I just stare and try to soak it all in.  I see how much she has grown.  How long her hair has gotten.  Man, I need to clip her fingernails again.  Before laying her down, I rock her for a couple minutes after she has finished nursing.  I lay her in her crib making sure she has her lovey and I tell her I love her and out the door I go.  She falls asleep within 20 minutes. 

I check on her before I go to bed and just stare again in amazement that she is real and she is ours.