Much Better

Our little Aubrey Strawberry has been amazing this week. She has consistently been drinking 2 bottles a day at daycare along with a feeding from me at lunch. Daycare said she didn't fuss once over the past two days. Each time that I have stopped by for a visit, she has been greatly enjoying herself. She busily plays with all of the toys, chats with her teachers and other babies or sleeps like a little angel. My stress level has greatly reduced this week knowing that she is doing so well.

This weekend, we will be relaxing, prepping meals for the upcoming week and enjoying time together. Yeah for the long weekend!

Home is a bottle free zone

Aubrey has made a decision to take bottles at daycare but not at home. After our angst over the weekend and a wee breakdown on my part at daycare, when I dropped her off in the morning, Aubrey decided to be an Allstar and drink both of her bottles without fussing yesterday. The daycare took one of my hooter hiders and layed it next to her face as she was feeding and that seemed to do the trick. She wanted my smell next to her. Too cute and very flattering. Hopefully that trick will work at home. We'll need to try that over the weekend.

We enjoyed a nice dinner at home last night with our friends Paul and Gina and their 5 month old son Ryan. He has a really cute laugh and thought Aubrey was hilarious. She didn't know what to do about Ryan so she just looked at him with a stone face most of the evening. Both babes were sleeping by 7:30 which gave Aaron and I some time to chat with Paul and Gina. It was a great visit.

4 month check-up

Today was Aubrey's 4 month appointment where she was weighed, measured, and poked with a couple shots. Aubrey had a fun time in the first part of the appointment but that came crashing down at the end. Luckily a little mommy comfort post shots did the trick.

Here are her stats:

Weight:14 pounds 2 ounces (dropped from the 90th percentile to the 60th...the doctor thinks this is largely in part to Aubrey's habit of holding out for me instead of taking the bottle at daycare :-( .

Height:25 3/4 inches (90th percentile)

Head: all I remember is that it is in the 80th percentile.

All in all, our girl is doing great. I'm home with her today as daycare suggested it might be a good idea to keep her home and she also has a pretty nasty cough she's trying to get over. Lots of naps today for Aubrey girl.

As for the bottle, the weekend went poorly. Aubrey refused the bottle despite our efforts to make it an enjoyable experience. Being home with her today makes me wish I could stay at home with her everyday. Bottles are no fun! We'll keep trying though!

Could this be the one?

I don't want to get too excited but we may have found Aubrey's bottle of choice. Per the suggestion of the daycare providers, we went out and bought the Tommy Tippy bottle which is supposed to resemble the breast the most. I guess it's the "rage" in the UK. I just called daycare and they said she drank the whole bottle after only a short stint of crying. They're going to try it again this afternoon and see how that goes. Gosh would that ever be wonderful if Aubrey began drinking from Tommy Tippy's!!! I'll keep you all posted as I'm sure you're all dying to hear about our saga.

In other news, we ventured off to the mall last night to cruise through Victoria Secret with Aubrey in a stroller. Before you start questionning my purpose of the trip, I was needing to buy lingerie (sp?) for 2 coworkers who are having a dual bridal shower titled "Naughty and Nice." Somehow, I got finangled into hosting it at our house but I think it will be a fun time. Luckily the Nice part of the party will be at our house and the Naughty part is happening afterwards at locations TBD (I can't say where just in case they read my blog). We all felt very out of place in Victoria's but Aubrey seemed to enjoy all the costumes :-). Dress up anyone?

Some new pictures

Aubrey Strawberry

Aubrey at daycare

Hi Mom! Can you see what I'm doing?!!!

Oh Dad! You're hilarious!

I think I want to walk...let's just skip the crawling.

Oh my gosh you guys! I can stand!!!

I'll be honest that blogging is low on the totem poll these days but it feels good to not feel too tired tonight to get a post up. We've had a great week since last Friday. Everyone was healthy over the weekend so we were able to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather we had. Aaron and I had fun taking a bunch of photos with Aubrey in the backyard. She loves to stand and always has an expression of great pride when she is able to hold herself up on her feet with little help. I always say "Aubrey!!! You're standing!!!" and she gets really excited. A highlight from the weekend was jogging to Proctor for a cinnamon roll at the market and a decaf coffee at Starbucks while hanging out with my girl. We'll definitely need to do that again soon.

The daycare update is: unfortunately they continue to struggle with Aubrey not taking a bottle without putting up a long and painful fight. I had to teach a couple classes in Kent today and wasn't able to feed Aubrey until 2 so she had a tough time holding out. As I was walking to my car, I could hear her crying so popped my head in the baby room to see if it was her. It was unfortunately but when she came to the door to say hi, she immediately let out a squeal of glee. She was like "Yeah mom! You're going to save me!" After a bunch of kisses, I had to pull myself out of there and get to the classroom. The teachers said she held out really long and only had a couple ounces before I was able to get there after the classes. It's tough, to say the least! We just need to keep doing it and eventually I hope she'll realize we aren't torturing her but trying to help her :-)

3 more days left till we can have a nice weekend again. Aubrey and I are headed to a wedding shower for my friend Elizabeth on Saturday and then enjoying some family time the rest of the weekend.

No Bottle for Me!

Our little Aubrey Strawberry is very adament about what form of container she will take her meals from. Bottles are off of the ok list, to our dismay. Daycare is working with her daily and have been so great about it. They are trying a different bottle today that was brought in by another mom I met yesterday. We'll see how she does. After my bout of sickness this past weekend, my milk production went way down which really freaked me out. Luckily my mom did some research and helped calm me down. After downing about 6 pints of water over the course of a couple hours and eating a bunch more food, the milk returned. Yeah!!! I was so relieved and so was Aubrey. She was starting to get a little fearful that the bottle would have to be the only option.

She's doing great today in daycare. The teachers said she is in love with her pants and has been eyeing them all day. Other kids, especially Blake, have also been checking them out. They are brown pants with lots of different colored flowers on them. Very cute.

Rough Weekend

Well we didn't quite make it through the week last week. On Friday, Aubrey woke up with a really stuffy nose and cough so we decided to keep her home from day care. Aaron took the morning shift with her while I went to work and I came home in the afternoon. Unfortunately, soon after my return home, I started feeling very queezy. Within a couple hours I was throwing up and struggling to remain upright. Aaron had to make a swift return home to take over. The rest of the night, I was sick with flu-like symptoms and pretty miserable, to say the least. On Saturday after a charity walk for Juvenile Diabetes, we came home and suffered a second round of the flu with Aaron. It hit him hard and he is actually still at home today trying to recover. It is so hard when both of us are sick! Aubrey was a trooper and made our lives easier by going doing for naps and early bedtimes as well as being her happy, go-lucky self. I'm back at work today feeling a lot better. Aubrey seems great too. Just popped over to feed her and she seemed to be having a nice day. Can't wait to pick her up :-)

Almost done with week 1

Well we're almost through with the first week of our new chapter. Lots of bottle sanitizing, lunch packing, daycare visits and phone calls have been had. Each day that has gone by, I notice Aubrey becoming more and more comfortable with daycare...she actually seems to really enjoy it! I've been very lucky to be able to stop over at least once a day and that has made this whole thing so much easier. Last night, Aubrey and I enjoyed a walk with Emily and her little girl Natalie. Tonight, I'm looking forward to a walk with Aaron and Aubrey followed by some down time.

Aubrey the Allstar

Aubrey is doing great at daycare and I am doing well at work. We're on to day 2 today and I am feeling like everything is going to be ok. Aubrey is now accepting a bottle twice a day and I am able to go over at lunch to feed her which has been great. Yesterday, Aubrey had 3 or 4 very short naps and was so exhausted when we put her down at 8 last night. She was extremely jazzed and excited about all that went on at daycare. I can't wait to see her at lunch and pick her up at the end of the day! Blogging has been tough with all that we need to do after work every day but I will continue to update when I can! Thanks for all your well wishes!!!