Happy Fall!

Well, I pretty much gave up on the blog for a while, but decided today that I should try to keep up with it again. We'll see how it goes! I can't believe that it's been five months since I last posted - and five months since Emery took her first steps. I can barely remember that, to be honest.

Life has been busy around here, as usual. Adam continues to work at UVA and the hospital part-time, and this October he also added a couple of shifts at Kings Dominion per week to his already-full plate! They apparently needed some help, we needed the money, so there ya go. I pretty much haven't seen him all month, but I know that once Halloween is over (and the park closes) things will calm down again. Well, then there are the holidays, so maybe not!

I'm still absolutely loving staying home with Emery. I cannot even describe how happy I am, even though it is a lot harder than I ever thought it would be. I know, I know...my friends with careers outside the home are probably rolling their eyes, and I don't blame them. I remember thinking, too, that I'd have so much time on my hands and that I'd get to happily play with my daughter all day long...what's hard about that? It's hard to describe, but there are days - especially when she's been cranky for weeks on end (whether from teething or sickness or whatever) that I sometimes dream of my old office where I could go sit & close my door. I don't have that awful stress that I had to deal with while working, but it's been replaced by a lot of exhaustion & frustration - and I feel bad saying this, but every once in a while, boredom! Especially when, like right now, we're stuck at home due to illness. I still 100% feel that I wouldn't trade it for anything...I can't believe that it's been almost 8 months since I quit to stay home. Time has really flown!

Here are a few things that happened over the last few months that I didn't update:

We painted the house


Emery turned 1!


She was dedicated at Oakland Baptist Church (that was an interesting experience)


She gets more & more girly - here are her "bracelets"


She gets more & more cute ;-)

So Emery has become a toddler now, no more baby for the Alfords (sometimes, I think, ever)! She's walking and running, getting into EVERYTHING and driving me batty, and learning so much...so fast! At her 12 month appointment in July Dr. Christian was pleased that she could already say about 8-10 words. Well, I've lost count at this point, but I know we're probably close to 30 or 40 words at 15 months. She is definitely a little talker, and now she is putting two words together - "Daddy work" "Daddy shower" "Mommy's shoes" "Nanny's house" "Chessie hair" etc etc. And yes, she tells me that there is "Chessie hair" on the floor and actually brings me the broom...several times a day. Isn't that nice of her?

We're starting to deal with a few typical early toddler icky stuff - she's very attached to me, understandably since we spend all day together. This was particularly bad around 13 months. It's starting to get better, which is a relief! However, the church nursery situation is a nightmare and I've started avoiding going lately. She also is too young for disciplinary things like time-out so when she does "wrong" things it's difficult for me to really know what to do other than redirection...which quite honestly is cumbersome because someone is extremely stubborn and has a one-track mind. When Emery wants something, she isn't going to forget about it just because I try to show her a toy or something. So there's that. My day is now spent chasing her around a lot, needless to say - especially if we are somewhere that isn't toddler-proofed!

We went to the pumpkin patch a few weekends ago, and it was her first time. I'll have to post pictures of that when I get them. It was pretty miserable...rainy, cold & muddy. However, it was a fun experience and at least we went! We also went to Charleston, SC last weekend to visit my great-aunt & great-uncle and my grandfather and his wife. My great-aunt/uncle had never met Emery before, so it was a fun (yet exhausting) trip. Em came down with a cold the day we left, and we've been dealing with that all week. I will try to post the Charleston pics soon as well.

Emery has her 15 month appointment next Thursday, even though at that point she'll already be 16 months old (holy cow). I'll be sure to try and update all her stats afterwards. I am pretty sure she still hasn't hit the 20-lb mark yet.

Notice that I said "try." ;-)

And she's off!!

Well, as of my last post at the beginning of April, Emery had yet to crawl. I am happy to report that our little girl crawled on Easter Sunday, at my grandmother's house in front of my side of the family. Since then she has been into EVERYTHING and making my life absolutely crazy. Even though she finally figured out the crawling thing, she still much prefers to be on her feet and "walking" - she loves for me to lead her around all day (and I do mean all day) holding onto my hands. We walk circles around the room until I am dizzy, and she just screams for more when I stop. We also have a few push toys that thankfully she likes, and it gives my back a break. She is all over the place, and I know that it is really just a matter of time before she is RUNNING everywhere.

Emery took her official first steps yesterday, once again in front of my side of the family at my grandmother's house. I'm not sure what it is about my grandmother's - maybe Emery just really needs an audience before she decides that she's going to do something momentous! It was really amazing, and I cannot believe that our tiny little baby is actually taking those first steps on her own. Below is a video we took of her walking right before bedtime. She can only do about 4-5 steps by herself, but like I said...I know our days of babyhood are limited and we're approaching that "toddler" phase pretty darn quickly!


Her first birthday is fast approaching, and I'm planning to send out invitations this week. I can't believe it...and I have to admit I'm starting to get pretty emotional about it. It's been a really fast year.

Ahh, Spring!

The weather is slowly becoming warmer and we're thrilled about that in the Alford household! We love getting Emery outside and she seems to really enjoy it too. I know that it must get so boring for her to be stuck inside with the same old toys, looking at me and the dogs all day. Below are some cute pictures of outside fun with Em:


The last week or so has been pretty difficult because Emery came down with her first cold. Emery woke up one morning completely stuffed up, cranky and miserable. And it lasted about 9 days until it was all over, and by that time she had given her germs to me. Fun! Nursing was next to impossible, and I felt so bad for her as she tried to eat without breathing. She'd nurse for a few seconds and then gasp for breath - it was pitiful! Thankfully we're through all that and I am now totally paranoid about her getting sick again. I didn't realize how lucky we were to have made it 9 months with a very healthy baby! I don't want any more sickness, it was awful!

Emery turned 9 months old on April 3rd, and we took her to her pediatrician for her well checkup (though she wasn't really all that well since she was in the midst of her cold). She checked out great, except for the fact that her weight gain has slowed down considerably. At her 6 month appointment Emery weighed 16 lbs, 8 oz and was in the 75th percentile. At 9 months, she had gained less than a pound and is now in the 25th percentile. The doc gave me a little bit of a hard time about how much solid food I've been giving Em - apparently she feels it isn't enough. After stressing about it for a few days, I decided that I needed to get over it and go with the flow - Emery would eat when she was hungry. I am offering her more solids now - sometimes she eats and sometimes she doesn't. I can't force her! We'll see how it goes. I know my baby and I know she isn't wasting away and she isn't hungry...so I am trying not to worry so much about what the doctor said.

Emery continues to grow and develop right on track. She isn't crawling yet but her pediatrician isn't worried. She feels that given Emery's desire to stand and pull up so much, she may just crawl for a very short time or not at all. Emery can even stand for about 10 or so seconds without holding on to anything if she gets her balance - it's amazing! We'll see what happens. Below is a video of her pulling up. We've had to lower her crib mattress and I've had to start seriously babyproofing the house...fun times are about to begin, I hear!

The Definition of Insanity

I am determined to get Emery to say "Mama." She has no interest and thinks that I'm hilarious when I try to convince her to say it. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over and getting the same result. That's me.

Me: "Emery...Emery, say Mama."
Emery: (looking at me like I'm crazy) "Da."
Me: "No, MA."
Emery: (big smile) "DaDaDa"
Me: MA...MA...MAMAMAMAMA
Emery: (giggle) "Da! Da Doh!"
Me: "Say Mama!! C'mon, you can do it! Ma!!"
Emery: (big sigh, getting distracted as the dog walks by) "Bwa. Da. Goo."
Me: Oh forget it.

Repeat throughout the day. This has been going on for 8 months and we have zero progress in the "mama" department.

Home, Sweet Home

The title of today's blog entry sort of sums up the theme of the past six weeks for me. The month of February and the first part of March have made me truly love & appreciate being home with my family...it's what I kept in mind during the crazy, busy & stressful moments (and there were many of them).

As most of you know, February has always been the craziest month of the year for me at the AHA. The Go Red For Women Luncheon took place on February 19; I was working late and working from home quite a bit, and the week of the Luncheon I barely saw Emery at all! It turned out great, however - we had almost 400 women (and men) attend, the silent auction was a huge success and people seemed to really enjoy themselves during the lunch and keynote address. I wasn't thrilled with our speaker, but that was the only thing I wasn't happy about. Fundraising-wise, it was a struggle. As we all know, the economy is hurting right now and it's hard for any nonprofit to raise the same or more funds as they did last year; I don't think the final numbers are in quite yet, but I am hopeful that this year's Luncheon will raise as much as we did last year - just over $200,000. It is wonderful to know that those funds will go towards life-saving research and education specific to women's heart health. If you are interested in learning more about this cause, check out www.goredforwomen.org!

Even after the Luncheon was over, I still didn't get to see much of Emery or the rest of my family because I got pretty sick as a result of not taking care of myself while working so hard the week of the Luncheon. I definitely didn't eat right and I barely drank any water - not good for anyone, much less someone who is breastfeeding. I was severely dehydrated and required four bags of fluid - I was so weak and nauseous that I couldn't take care of Emery, so thankfully Adam and both sets of parents did their part in helping out with her for a few days. Those are the times that I am soooo thankful we live so close to family!

So now that February has come to an end, I am officially a stay-at-home mom. My original plan was to try to find a small, brainless part time job - but after discussing it with Adam at length, we decided to hold off on that for a while and see how things work out with me staying home 100% full time. With Adam's full-time job at UVA and his part-time work at St. Mary's Hospital, we should be ok. I am so grateful to Adam for being willing to work so hard in order for me to be able to stay home with Emery...he is putting in nights and weekends, working late at the hospital during the week and waking up early to drive to Charlottesville. It's hard on him but he says he doesn't mind doing it because he knows that it's important to me (and to us) to be able to stay home with Emery. Times like that really show me how wonderful Adam is and how lucky I am to be married to him :) And that's as sappy as I'll get, I promise!!

The last two weeks at home have been amazing and I absolutely love being a full-time mom. We have stayed pretty busy so far, going to playdates and running errands, visiting relatives and going for walks when the weather was so nice last weekend. Though there was a little hiccup with the huge snowstorm (10 inches!) early last week - we lost power for about 24 hours and had to pack up and go stay with my in-laws. They also lost power but had a generator, and there was no way we could stay home with Emery. Even when the power came back on, it took almost a full day for our house to warm up again - so that was 2 days displaced and out of routine. We got through it though...my only regret was that we didn't take Em out in the snow at all except when we walked to and from the car! It was so incredibly cold and she wasn't showing much interest anyway, so we just didn't bother. However, I'm sad now that we don't have pictures of her during her first big snowstorm.

So speaking of Emery, she is now 8 months old! I really, really can't believe it. We're starting to talk about her first birthday party...granted, it's a few months out and we won't be doing anything huge, but it's fun to think about! She has learned a few new tricks these days, and it's so fun to watch her grow and become a little person instead of just a baby. Below is a video of her clapping. She has also learned to wave bye-bye and she gives big, slobbery open-mouthed kisses. She also likes to make the "Indian" noise (I know that's probably not PC, but what else can you call it?) by humming while she moves her hand against her mouth.



She is so close to figuring out how to crawl, but I'm not sure when she'll actually master it. She can get onto all fours from a sitting position, and sometimes she'll rock back and forth...but then she just flops down on her belly. I can tell that she wants to move around so badly, though. I don't think it'll be too long before she figures it all out. I am not encouraging it though - I cannot imagine what my life will be like once she becomes mobile! I'm starting to babyproof, but I look around at my house and I just feel like there are hazards everywhere and I don't know what to do about it. It's overwhelming.

Below are a few cute pictures of her from a few weeks ago. She has gotten so big! We have her 9 month doctor's appointment on April 3rd, so stay tuned with updates on her growth progress! I am betting she is close to 20 pounds now. At least, that's what my spasming back muscles are telling me.

Busy, Busy

Things have been a little busy around the Alford household, which is why I have been such a slacker with this blog! I'll try to quickly bring everyone up to speed on everything that has been going on over the last month or so.

First, Emery turned 7 months old...I say this every month, I know, but Adam & I just cannot believe how fast she is growing and how time is flying. It's crazy to think that she's now closer to her first birthday than she is to her birth! She went for her 6 month checkup about 3 weeks ago, and she was 16 lbs, 8 oz (75th percentile) and 26 inches tall (60th percentile). Dr. Christian was very happy with her growth and encouraged us to really start the solids "for real" and also said we could start practicing with a sippy cup and cherrios! She loves all her veggies (fruit not so much) and looooves her Cherrios. So far she just chews on the sippy cup.

She isn't crawling yet, but gets stronger every day and I see signs of her becoming ready. I honestly am perfectly happy being able to plop her down someplace and know that she isn't going anywhere...I'm not quite ready for mobility, so I'm not pushing the crawling!

We've really been working with Emery now to have a set schedule for her meal times and sleep times. I know I reported in my last blog entry that we were optimistic that her sleep had gotten better; well, I completely jinxed myself because it got about 10 times worse! She started napping worse and waking up at night a LOT...sometimes every hour. So, after a lot of soul-searching and talking about it, Adam and I decided that we needed to implement a schedule and really enforce her nap times and night-time sleep. We knew that it might involve some crying, and we were right. For a few days I felt like the worst mom in the world because Emery wanted to be with us instead of in her crib taking a nap (and boy, did she let us know it)...but miraculously, things really started to improve and she's doing much better now - naps are at least an hour long, and she is sleeping through the night or waking only once to eat. We are ecstatic! I have to say that doing the "crying it out" thing was something I said I'd never do, but at 7 months old I knew that she was old enough and she really didn't leave us any choice. Thankfully she still loves us :)

Here are some recent pics of her:

Other than the Emery news, Adam started his new part time job as a tech at St. Mary's Emergency Room. He really seems to be enjoying it, and I am happy that he's doing something he likes and also bringing in some extra money! I am done with American Heart at the end of February, and while I do plan to find a small part time job somewhere to bring in a few dollars, Adam's job at the hospital helps us out a lot.

Speaking of American Heart, things are pretty crazy there these days. My Luncheon is less than two weeks away, and I am understandably very busy. Working only three days a week is pretty difficult; I try hard to do work from home on Mondays & Fridays when Emery is napping, but it's hard. AHA also unfortunately had to do with many other companies are doing right now, which is go through some pretty awful budget cuts. A few of our close friends & colleagues were let go last week (one person who helps me with my Luncheon, so that didn't help my stress level!), so it has been pretty rough around the office for a while. We're getting back to business as usual, but there is a certain emptiness that I think we're all feeling and I doubt it will go away anytime soon.

The last month or so has been a blur, but once I get through my Luncheon on the 19th, I am hopeful that things will really calm down and I'll be able to actually breath a bit. Right I just feel like we're trying hard to keep all our balls in the air...I can't wait to have time to clean and see friends and *gasp* read a book!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, & Happy 6 Months!

Well, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind around here! The holidays were a blast with Emery, though I really can't wait until next year when she will somewhat know what's going on - I can't wait to bake cookies, decorate with her, and do the Santa thing (Adam can't wait to leave those cookies FOR Santa!). I don't have pictures on this computer, so if you want to see pics/video check out my Facebook page. Adam & I decided that rather than get each other gifts, we'd get a video camera - it's been fun so far! Adam needs to learn how to edit the video and things like that, but I love the fact that we're documenting our little girl since she is growing so fast!

Which leads me to...Happy 6 months Emery! I am floored that it has been 6 months since we brought that little bundle home from the hospital. It has been such a crazy, exhausting and emotional (both good & bad) half-year! She has changed so much - she is now sitting with ease, grabbing EVERYTHING putting things in her mouth, I think she is teething (but who can tell?), and jabbering all day long. It seems like she makes a new sound every day...and then practices it for days on end. She started with ha-ha-ya-ya a few weeks ago and in the middle of the night I would year ya-ya-ya-ya-ya on the monitor (better than the high-pitched shriek she was practicing about a month ago). She has since evolved into ga-ga and da-da-da-da, which is cool but we know that she has no clue that "Da-Da" means anything. I swear this morning I heard her say "Ma" twice...but again I know it doesn't mean anything yet! She does know exactly who we are, though, and is starting with a bit of separation anxiety - when I leave the room she starts to fuss, and when I return I get a huge smile.

I am also (cautiously) happy to report that it seems like she is sleeping better. I have to say that the last 2 months have been pretty awful - she went from sleeping through the night at 2 months to waking up anywhere from 4-6 times a night when she turned 4 months! It got really, really bad for a while...but the last 2 weeks or so have really calmed down. I was so sleep-deprived and felt like I was doing something wrong to cause her to have these sleep issues. I even took her completely off solid food because I wondered if it was upsetting her stomach and causing the wakefulness - ironically, the sleep drama started when we started solids. I still haven't given her solids for a while, but may start them back this week. I told Adam that if she starts sleeping horribly again, she can just stay on breastmilk forever if it means I will get some sleep!! (OK, just kidding) She still doesn't like to nap and rarely does more than 30-45 minutes at a time, and she still fights sleep especially if she is overtired (which is not a rarity)...but if we can stick with her just waking up 1x a night, I will be thrilled and can deal with the other issues.

I have reached my initial goal of breastfeeding her for 6 months, and I am proud of myself for it! It isn't easy to do, so I'm glad I was able to stick it out. I am not entirely sure of when I might wean her, if I even do - I may just let her wean herself. However, she is getting huge and it's becoming more awkward. I am also scared of teeth! We'll just have to wait and see how it goes. I do enjoy it and it's nice not to have to buy formula and know that when we leave the house I am all she needs if she gets hungry. We'll see!

She has her 6 month doctor's appointment in a few weeks and I can't wait to see how big she is...she certainly is starting to hurt my back, especially on nights when she fights sleep and I have to walk/sway her around the nursery. It's starting to get to the point where I just can't do that anymore! We had to retire her bouncy seat and even her bumbo seat to the attic because she can't fit in them anymore (her chunky thighs became an issue with the bumbo!). I'll be sure to update the blog when we have all her new stats.

Happy Half-Birthday, Emery!!

Happy New Year to all our friends & family - I wish you all the best in 2009!!