and counting… I didn’t think we would go this long, but we’re going strong!

Shameless Photo Brag!  Our little miracle joined us as the New Year’s Baby in 2008.  This year has flown by too fast.  Our family is so blessed.

And I have to add a quick cutie-patootie ones from Christmas (which I still have to finish uploading!  Ack!)

Has certainly been busy.  Taking her first steps on Thursday (Dec 4th) and now two teeth!!

And, in true family form, she’s defied the “norm” and it’s her two top teeth that burst through first.  Just a few weeks from her first birthday, and she’s making so many changes!  It will certainly be strange to see a toothy smile, after all these months of gummy grins!

As I sit here on this Friday morning and watch you play with your sister on the floor… I realize you are growing so fast.  Too fast.  I think you’ll be walking before you get teeth!  You are eight and a half months right now, and the time has flown.  You are a miracle from God, and I thank Him every day for giving you to me. 

I wanted to make a “time capsule” for you, but I’m really crappy at projects like that.  I never even did baby books for your other brothers and sister.  But I will try to remember some things and blog them, so one day we can print them off or you can look back at them when you’re older (guess I should find out how long they’ll stay on Wordpress, eh?).

Lemme see… you came into this world on a snowy morning, the first baby of the New Year at our hospital.  You were healthy, mama felt great, it was exactly the delivery I planned for (except I wanted to stay home, but that’s a story for later!).  After a brief 5 hour stay, we went home to be greeted by your big brothers and big sister, and Gramma and Grampa, too.  You were (and are) beautiful.  You breastfed like a champ from the minute of birth.  You were a big girl, weighing in at 8 lbs. 5 oz. (same as your big brother Justus!), and haven’t stopped gaining since. 

It looks like you will be a redhead, like big brother Brett, and Mama.  You don’t have much hair right now, and at 8 months, you still don’t have enough for me to put in a bow.  Sniffle.

You sleep safe and sound between me and Daddy in our bed every single night.  You are so glorious to wake up to – little fingers in my nose, little feet pressing on my back or tummy… smiling all the time.  I don’t think you’ve ever woken up crying, and that makes me know you are truly happy.  I carry you in my wrap all the time, bonding closer and closer with you, my perfect little miracle.  You breastfeed a lot – which I love so much.  I nurse and rock you to sleep for every nap and every bedtime, and it’s so wonderful and loving.  You slide into dreamland knowing Mama is right here beside you, and won’t be going anywhere.  How secure you must feel!

I wanted to wait on “real” food with you until six months, but you had other plans… so your first solid food experience was the carrots and rice from my plate, that you grabbed at dinnertime and was faster than Mama at getting at it.  This was the week you turned 5 months old.  You chewed (well, gummed!) it like you’ve been eating for weeks.  We decided you were ready to enjoy our foods along with Mama’s milk now. 

Your first on purpose foray into solids was at our “goodbye” meal for your big brothers, who were heading off to Germany with their biological father for the summer.  You enjoyed crab legs and thai sauce, just like your big sister did!  Autumn’s first solids were also crab legs, they’re so tender and easy to gum, and to this day she’s still a great seafood eater.  I hope to instill in you the love of seafood that the rest of the family has.  Since that day, now, you have enjoyed every food the rest of us have, and so far love it all.  I’m so happy to have child number four that eats such a great variety of foods.  I’m also glad I did the same thing with you that I did with the others and bypassed jarred and pureed foods.  You will benefit so much from this choice, just as we have benefitted from the ease, healthy aspect, and recommendations to do it this way.

You started crawling around 5.5 months, much to our surprise.  Your brothers and sister were much later.   Right now, you stand without support, but haven’t braved that first step yet.  Again, a huge sign my baby, probably my last baby, is growing up too fast.

I dread the day that it will be time for you to move into your sister’s room and sleep with her on her queen size bed.  She moved around 14 months, although she kept coming back to my bed about half the nights (yay!) until you were born.  She’s tried to squeeze in a few times, but I think it’s a little cramped for her!  Ah, yes, this is probably the milestone I most dread.  There’s simply nothing better than waking up next to a baby every single morning.

Perhaps I should talk Daddy into a King Size Bed.  Then you and sissy can come back and sleep with us, for however long you want.  Hmmmm….

I watch Brett prepare to get his driver’s license, I watch Justus begin his adventure into puberty, and I watch Autumn grow so much every day, and am in awe of my beautiful, perfect family. 

I want you to know that Daddy and I love you so much, that you have brought even more joy to our lives with each and every moment we spend with you, and that we can’t wait to journey with you and the rest of our babies into whatever the rest of your lives unveil.  We hope you find the same love that we have found in each other, we hope you are happy and healthy, and we hope we get to bear witness to all of the great things that we know you will accomplish in your blessed life.

I love you, Ayla.

Was today, about 3 weeks late…

In this corner, weighing in at a massive 20 lbs. 6 oz., and 28 3/4 inches long, we have Ayla “Dimples” Stehly!!!

Wow.  Big gal, this one is.  She has now surpassed what Autumn weighed at 12 months.  She is stretching some of her 12 month outfits to the max.  Hopefully she will slow down on her weight gain since she’s eating so many meals with us, and the doctor concurred with that…

 

Holy Cow! Or should I say, Holy Mom’s Milk!

Ayla went in this morning for a quick appointment for one vaccine (we spread them out liberally)… they weighed her in at 18 lbs 14 oz.  She has gained TWO POUNDS in one month!!!

Wowza… maybe her newfound interest in our food will slow her weight gain down a little – not that I need to, but WOW!  

Daddy took us to the Mongolian Barbeque today to help me get over my depression about the boys leaving… Ayla could NOT get enough crab.  So we have another little seafood eater here.  We’re thrilled, it’s so good for her to eat healthy seafood, and we love it so much as a family.  So she enjoyed lots and lots of crab, some salmon, and my rice with Thai Peanut sauce (I think?  Teryaki and Peanut sauce makes it Thai, I believe).  She’s such a happy eater!

Now… onto the boys’ room to find 4 month old bowls of cereal and 10 month old cans of soda, I’m sure…

 

Ahhh… what a wonderful feeling it was visiting our new family doctor yesterday!  Ayla had her four month check up, and it was our first time in the new office.

Doc X is a wonderful, brilliant Osteopathic Physician – exactly what this family needs and has needed for decades, and I couldn’t be happier!  She was very open to the alternate vax schedule we suggested, and even made some additional changes that made it better.  She too doesn’t understand the whole “cereal, jarred foods” phenomenon and wonders how any of us older than 35 or so ever survived, simply eating what the family eats!  She even had a great suggestion for teething – gnawing on frozen green beans.  I’ve never heard of that, nor thought of it before!  Ayla’s not teething yet, but I’ve got that stored in my mind for when she does. 

So chunky monkey topped the scales at 16 lbs 10 oz., and 26 inches long… and this doc doesn’t mess with those percentile bs things, so I don’t know if she’s “normal, big, or small” – cuz she’s just PERFECT!   She is the picture of roly-poly health!

We go back monthly for the first year or so to spread her vax’s out.  I filled out the paperwork to move our family of six to her.

She’s even worked with LYMPHEDEMA patients before!  That is a rare doctor indeed!!!  So she should be able to enter me into the clinical trials for lymphedema at the cancer institute after I’m done nursing Ayla…. yay!

So a hugh sigh of relief and happiness is heard in our household, as we begin a new venture with a great partner in our healthcare.

 

Well, you don’t have to read this if you don’t want to “hear” me vent about my doctor.

First off, Ayla “failed” her hearing test in the hospital BECAUSE they gave her the test when she was only 3 hours old (normally this test is given at 24 hours or so, but we left 4 hours after she was born).  The vernix and liquid from birth was still in her canal – this was what the doctor actually wrote on the sheet. 

I was instructed to have her retested… no big deal – until I received the instructions:  Drive across town to be there at 8:30 a.m. on a weekday in rush hour traffic.  Other children must remain in the waiting room.  Child must be asleep for the 30 minutes of the exam.  Okay, so I need hubby to take a day off work to watch Autumn, I need to leave my home an hour or more before the appointment and deal with a miserable car-riding child who I have to “ensure is asleep” during this 30 minutes.  Impossible.  So after detailed research, and knowing she has no hearing problems (startles well, responds to sounds, etc.etc), I’ve canceled the appointment.  It’s just not plausible.  Hold that thought – it fits in with my rant.

Soooo… I’ve been seeing “Dr. S” for nearly a decade – our entire family does, even my sister.  Loved her.  Loved the practice.  Never wait, fast appointments, she even takes calls and doesn’t make us come in if I know what a child has (pinkeye, etc.).

She brought up Ayla’s hearing appointment and told me that Child Protective Services could come to my house if I don’t go thru with it.  Well… hmmm.  This upsets me to no end.  Children are being beaten, burned, washed in high-powered car washes, and murdered, and you’re saying CPS will take time out of their apparently boring schedule to visit my clean, cared for home to see a child that has no problems?  Send ’em over.  Ayla will hear them coming.  Give me a BREAK. 

Okay, then, well, I’ve never been one to “buck the system” (believe it or not), but this recent information about vaccines has been getting my attention.  I’m a FIRM believer in vaccinating children – I believe they absolutely should be vax’ed – no questions asked.  But the recent information about the aluminum and simply spreading them out to maybe lessen the shock on baby’s system has really given me pause for thought.

So I purchased Dr. Sears (God bless you, Dr. Sears – you really are my hero even though you won’t research the SIDS information more!) book, “The Vaccine Book” and it is very comprehensive and informative.  He suggests an alternate schedule, still giving the baby all of their vax, but spreading them out a bit.  I loved it. 

Ayla had her two month appointment yesterday (yes, she was 10 weeks, don’t know how that happened but whatever) and I brought the book to my trusted, knowledgeable family physician.

She won’t even acknowledge it.  She said no way, in good conscience she would not delay any shots, the book must be old (it’s brand new), it’s not credible, blah blah blah.  I felt struck in the face.  I didn’t say anything, and really, I should’ve packed up and left, but I must find another doc before I do so.  She “let” me refuse one shot so Ayla only got two yesterday, but that’s not the point.  I no longer feel like I have a “partner” in my child’s care.  I no longer feel that I can express a concern with this licensed “expert”.

And both her and her nurse said things to the effect of “not being able to go to school without shots”.  Well, that’s blatantly WRONG.  I don’t have to vax my child and they will still be able to go to a public school.  So if she’s so misinformed about this fact, what ELSE is she misinformed about?

Sigh.  I have left several messages at different care clinics this morning to see if any of them are more current on their information.  I’m going to move my family to another practice.   I don’t like being threatened with CPS.  Why don’t you be my advocate, like you’re supposed to be, and note her file that all is well?  And I no longer feel that I can trust this doctor to listen or even simply discuss something with me.  I wish she’d have at least left it as “I will look into it”, instead of NO.  Sorry, lady, I am the paying customer here, and I now have to find another service provider. 

And that makes me sad.

Wowza.

Ayla had a two week appt yesterday – this is new, none of my others ever went in this early… but I digress…

Remember at birth she weighed 8 lbs 5.6 oz.  Beautiful, perfect baby.  As is normal, in 24 hours she lost a few ounces, only shy of three – so down to 8 lbs. 3 oz.

At her 15 day appt, she weighed… 9 lbs. 14 oz.!!!  Girlfriend gained an extraordinary and wonderful amount of weight… and she’s exclusively breastfed right now!  I haven’t begun supplementing formula on a regular basis yet!  90th percentile, for all that’s worth.  Both her big brothers followed this pattern too!  I guess Autumn will be my only “petite” widdle one…

Holy cow – literally!  Mama’s got some good milk a goin’, I guess! LOL!

Anyways, she got a completely clean bill of health – she’s perfect!  I must’ve done something right, for God to bless me with yet another great nurser, fantastic sleeper, peaceful and content little one…

 

She may only be 10 days old, but Ayla may by far be the most mellow of all of my babies… maybe I just breed ‘em that way!

I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard her cry (that’s if I’m not fast enough in grabbing her when she stirs), she nurses like a champ, sleeps phenomenally snuggled between me & Daddy (or me & Autumn & Daddy!), and is just so perfectly beautiful. 

I do truly thank God every day for four perfect little human beings, all healthy, happy, and loved so much it hurts.

Yes, I’m bragging.  I deserve to.  I’m old.  I have had my fourth baby at 40.  I am woman, hear me roar.

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