Home Again

It's good to be back to our home in Maryland.  Tim completed his two months of training in San Angelo, TX.  Sophia and I spent the first month in Texarkana with our families, and the second month we got a furnished apartment in San Angelo with Tim.  We have been home almost two weeks, and i'm still unpacking and cleaning..sad!  All of my free time is spent working on my real estate class, which I will finish this week and take the final test. 

Sophia is growing like a flower.  "Growing like a weed" isn't as pretty.  She will hit 6 1/2 months this friday.  I can't even believe it.  She is rolling all the time, "talking" non-stop, and eating so much more baby food..so cute!  Her favorite is sweet potatoes.  Ohh, and she is teething, so you can imagine the drool. 

This past friday I made a last minute appointment for Sophia to see her Dr.  I have been concerned about her spitting up more than normal still, night waking constantly, screaming out randomly like she is in pain, and a few other things.  Of course I have researched all the symptoms, and they all lead to GER or GERD.  Gastroesophegial Reflux (disease).  Sophia does not sleep more than 3 hours at a time.  She wakes up constantly throughout the night, seeming to be uncomfortable.  Nobody gets much sleep in this house.  Anyway, the Dr. put her on prevacid (reflux medicine) and told me to call in two weeks.  If I haven't seen any change, she will refer us to a GI specialist.  Lets hope this works!

                                                    Winter hat that NanaDee made Sophia

 

A warm Russian Princess

Sophia's first Halloween (in San Angelo)

My 25th surprise birthday present from Tim! (ignore the mess)

The Happenings

So much has gone on since my last post. I have not been good about blogging, but once we make it back home to Maryland, I will post more often.

Sophia turned the big 5 months on October 12th! I can't even believe I have a five month old. And not to mention I will be 25 in 3 weeks! Where is the time going?! Anyway, Sophia has done much better with spitting up. When I was in San Angelo (my last post) we decided to switch her formula (with the help of NanaDee, Thank you!) to Parent's Choice Added Rice Starch "for babies that spit up frequently". It has been a miracle drug for her...until she got sick, but I won't get in to that. She was a totally different baby almost immediately after switching. I didn't consult her pedi on this matter, because her dr. has switched for formula several times with no success. Her dr. has staying with the same brand of formula, Enfamil, (probably because she gets paid by them), but I decided to try something new...so happy I went with my own instict. Mom's know best sometimes, right? I would go on a long tangent about how we are all brainwashed to think that only name brand anything is the best. Well, that's not always the case. Parent's Choice (walmart brand) has worked the best for Sophia thus far. And it's much cheaper. Why? Probably because they don't spend millions of dollars selling their products to Dr's and hospitals, or making their formula cans look pretty. I will leave it at that before I get angry again.

Next: Tim decided to get some of his family together in Austin on his four day weekend. Two weeks ago, I drove from Texarkana, Stephanie (his sister) drover from Houston, his cousin Megan drove from College Station, his cousin Amber and her husband Kyle drove from Tyler, and good ole Uncle Dave from Texarkana. We all met in Austin for a bit of a family reunion. At the last minute I decided to bring Sophia, so that we could just drive back to San Angelo with Tim to stay for his remaining time in training. It wasn't the best circumstances to bring an infant to Austin, but I'm glad we made the trip, because Sophia and I have been in San Angelo for the past two weeks. We three got a furnished apartment off base until November 5th. We are enjoying our time here with Tim.  We had a great time seeing everyone in Austin, and plan to make it a yearly reunion.

Oatmeal:
Sophia's pedi back in Maryland insisted that I do not start solids until she is 6 months. However, her temporary Dr. in Texarkana starts their feeding program at 4 months. So i figured since she is 5 months, we would give in a whirl. I started with 1 teaspoon rice cereal mixed with formula. She absolutely hated it. Her face was priceless. The next morning i tried Oatmeal mixed with formula..same story. I figured she just wasn't quite ready, so I would wait about a week and try it again. My wonderful friend Stephanie, who has two kiddos (we miss you girls!), one of which is only 3 weeks older than Sophia, told me to try apple juice mixed with oatmeal...Anabelle loves it. So this past monday, October 18th, I tried it once more with Steph's recommendation. Sophia loved it! ( I really prefer her to eat oatmeal over rice cereal, since it doesn't cause constipation) It's the cutest thing now! I have been giving it to her every morning and evening, and then of course her bottle afterwards. The past two days I have even given her some at lunch. I upped her feeding to 2 tablespoons each time today and she gobbled it all right up! She has gotten to the point of opening her mouth every time the spoon comes near. She hasn't quite mastered the art of putting her tongue down and closing her mouth around the spoon, but so far, she's a champ! Does anybody have any recommendations on how much oatmeal to give her each time? For now, i'm just sticking with 2 tablespoons.

Now that she is eating oatmeal, i don't feel like she is even a baby anymore (until she screams uncontrollably) haha. The Pedi in Texarkana recommends 3 weeks of oatmeal, and then go on to baby food, starting with squash and other yellows. Try each one for 3 days to make sure no rash appears and then move on. Any other ideas, moms? If not, i'll stick to that plan.

In other news, i'm still working on my real estate license course online. I should finish within a few weeks, and take the final test when we get back to Maryland. I'm very excited! We are set to make it back around November 10 or 11. Tim goes back to work on the 12th (my b-day). What a bummer! I actually cannot wait to get back home though. Our great friends Dave and Flee, whom we haven't seen in over 3 years and now have 3 girls, moved 1 1/2 hours from us in Virginia! We are so excited to see them and meet all their babies! Their twin girls are only about a month younger than Sophia and Lizzy is 3 1/2! I can't wait to get our little families together.

Ok, pictures! A bit out of order with the oatmeal pics.

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Who knew that this $15 dollar umbrella stroller would come in handy!  It swallows her right now, but she loves it!

We are back!

It's been too long since my last post. So much has happened, and Sophia is pretty much grown! I have deleted my facebook, and will blog on a regular basis now. My goal is to post on here at least once a week. I hope to keep up with it so that one day Sophia can go back and read all about her growth and milestones and how much we love her.

Sophia turned 4 months on September 12th. She actually rolled over for the first time two days ago. She rolled from her belly to her back during the night. I happened to be awake so I was able to witness the adorable experience. She is making all kinds of noises (talking all the time), and smiling non-stop. She hasn't quite giggled yet, but she is so close! I cannot wait for that sweet sound.

She went through a colicky spell that started about a month ago, but is getting over that. She has still been spitting up a lot which causes her to be fussy and not be able to sleep very well at times...so she is on her fourth kind of formula, which she just started last night. We will give it about 2 weeks to see if it makes a difference. She was on the most expensive kind, for colic, but it wasn't helping with spitting up at all, so we switched her to Similac Sensitive Tummy for Spit-Up. We pray that this new brand/kind makes a difference. On a positive note, Sophia did start sleeping through the night at 4 months. She has been sleeping from 10pm-7am on average. She may wake up once during the night and get a little fussy because her tummy bothers her, but normally giving her the pacifier puts her back to sleep.

In other news Tim, Sophia, and I have been in Texas since September 9th. Tim was sent to ALC (military training) in San Angelo, TX. This training will last for 7 weeks so we figured we should all travel to Texas so that Sophia and I could spend time with family. I actually left Texarkana yesterday and drove to San Angelo to surprise Tim. He was totally shocked! I will stay for about a week. Sophia is with her Nana Dee (Tim's mom), and i know they are having fun. I miss her so much, but I try not to worry too much because I know she is in great hands. It's tough being away. I'm torn between Sophia and Tim, so i'm trying to do my best at being a good mom and wife. It's hard when they are in two different places, but we are making it.

It's getting late here in San Angelo, so I will leave you all with a few recent pictures of our angel.

Anniversary Surprise

Tim and I celebrated our five year anniversary on June 11th. Luckily we had family here, Papa Cox and Mama Cox, to keep Sophia so we could slip away for a couple of hours. (They were a HUGE help by the way..THANK YOU!) I had no idea what Tim had planned..He just told me that he would be wearing dress pants and a tie. Oh great, I had no idea what to wear..so I threw on a dress to be safe. We drove to a restaurant in downtown Annapolis (which is picture perfect). It was a fancy little local italian restaurant. The manager led us through a locked door to our own private table. When I walked in the manager said, "Happy Anniversary Mrs. Rice". Sooo Tim had been planning...haha. It was very sweet. On our table sat an arrangement of pretty flowers and candles. Tim had a local florist deliver the flowers about half an hour before we arrived. He's so thoughtful! A few minutes after we sat down, he started a sweet speech, that made us both tear up of course (sorry Tim). And THEN to my SHOCKING SURPRISE he pulled out what looked like a ring box! I was speechless. Tim had upgraded my wedding ring! I couldn't speak..i had no idea what to say! I was so surprised!

See, five years ago we were 19 and had NO MONEY..therefore he was forced to take out a loan for 400.00 for my first ring! Which we laugh so hard about now when we realize how far we have come. I love my wedding ring and will always wear it (until i give it to Sophia someday) however, I LOOOOOOOVE my new ring. Tim explained, "five diamonds for five years". It's so big! I don't even feel like I can wear something this nice! But I will quickly get used to it, haha. I'm actually picking it up today from being sized. I cannot wait to wear it proudly. Thank you so much my love! You are the greatest thing thats ever happened to me.

So I had to post a picture of it, which does not do it justice!

I also found our first family photo in the NICU. My poor baby. But she's doing great now. This past tuesday she weighed in at 7lbs 9ozs. We go back in 2 weeks for another weight check. Also we go for a follow-up head ultrasound in a couple of weeks. This is because her first head scan in the hospital came back questionable. The Dr. said there was possible hemmoraging (bleeding) in her brain after birth and also the scan showed an englarged ventricle. It sounds bad, however, the Doctor assured us that he would not send her home if he thought it was dangerous. So he sent us home from the hospital with instructions for a follow-up head scan to make sure everything looks ok. Please pray that everything checks out.

Sophia hasn't quite mastered sleeping through the night yet. Tim went back to work this past Thursday so i have been taking all the night feedings. I get about 2 hours of sleep at a time. I hope she steps it up soon! For those that know my sleeping habits, knows that lack of sleep to this extent has been extremely hard for me, haha. But i'm loving every minute of my time with Sophia. We hang out all day at the house and wait for Daddy to get home around 5pm...then i'm off to run errands and gain some sanity, lol.

Pops, Nanadee, Aunt Melo and Aunt Katy arrive tomorrow (Tim's parents and sisters). We can't wait for them to meet Sophia!

We love you all!

Aren't they adorable??

Register

SHR

So Haleigh and I are officially falling in love with Sophia here in our home. She reallyis being a good baby. Her fussing and crying is minimal and she has eating quite well lately. We bought a jogging stroller and have taken her on several walks already. As luck would have it, just as soon as she feels the stroller in motion, she falls asleep. It's precious.

David, Tresa and Zach left earlier this afternoon (notice I'm up feeding Sohia at 3 am, so I guess they left yesterday now), and we had blast with them. Lots of games with Zach and company, and David and Tresa proved quite helpful with the house and babysitting. Hal and I were able to go and celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We had a great time.

Now it's just the three of us until my parents and little sisters come to visit on the 20th or so. We're really looking forward to spending time with them, and I understand they're pretty excited about meeting Sophia. Then again, who wouldn't be??? :)

God bless everyone. Thank God our girl is home.