Almost the end of an era

An era of pumping that is. Aubrey has dropped another bottle which means that I now have enough milk stored that I can quit pumping and she will still have enough milk to last until her birthday. I was in shock when I did the math Friday and realized that. I thought I would be going a few more weeks before I hit that mark. I am still amazed that I can really start weaning from pumping now. I need to take it pretty slow because I've had a nasty clogged duct in the same area twice in the past 2 weeks and I don't want to take the chance of causing an infection. But, I have dropped to 3 pumps a day now and hopefully I will be down to 2 next week and then 1 the week after that. I still plan to nurse first thing in the morning until she decides she wants to stop that. I don't mind nursing at all. But, I despise pumping. I am proud that I have made it this long, though. There were so many times in those first few months I never thought I'd make it to this point. I am going to buy myself some sort of present on the day I put the pump away. I think I've earned it.

Moving on down

Since Aubrey has started consistently laying on her belly and pushing up, she has been greeting us in the morning almost looking over the side rail of her crib. Even though she is nowhere near pulling up, knowing she is that close the top has made me nervous ever since. So, we decided to move her bed frame down. Todd didn't think it needed to go all the way down, but it's not an simple task, so I decided moving it once was enough. So, we put the frame all the way down to the bottom and it is so low. Getting her in and out is now quite a struggle for me since her crib is not drop side. Todd's dad built me a stool, which helps some. But, I am sure it is still quite comical to watch met getting her in and out. Todd said the crib looks more prison-like now, and it really does. The first time I laid her down in it, she looked at me like "where the heck are you putting me?" I know she'll be pulling up in the next few months so I think I can deal with the strain for a few months if it means I know she can't maneuver out yet.

Up on all fours

I think Aubrey has decided to bypass army crawling. She has shown no signs of wanting to pull herself around on her belly, which I guess I can't blame her for that. I wouldn't want to do that much myself. She has decided to start working hard core on crawling. She has started to pull herself up on to all fours, which is amazing to me because this is the same baby who hated her belly just a month ago, but has somehow built up those muscles with a quickness. The first time she did it, I got so exited and squealed, which got her excited and she proceed to face plant. So, she did it again and I just cheered quietly, so she decided it was safe to keep going. Then, she started rocking back and forth like she was getting ready to launch off. It was really cute to watch her get so excited. I know it is probably just a matter of days before she realizes that rolling to get where she wants to be is just not efficient anymore. Sigh...my life will never be the same.

Pumpkin patch fail

Ok, maybe not complete fail, but partial failure for sure. There are some Octobers that I can clearly remember wearing shorts and flip flops. So why it decided to be brrr freakin cold this October is really not clear to me.

Saturday was the only day that Todd and I both had free to take Aubrey to a pumpkin patch and take those gloriously cute pictures amongst all the pumpkins. I found this cute little farm in the University area called Hodges's Farm that has a maze, farm animals, and of course, pumpkins. Luckily, it wasn't raining so we thought we'd be ok just dressing Aubrey in her cute Halloween t-shirt and jeans. She was ok while we checked out the maze and the goats. She even let us take a few shots on the ground with some pumpkins. But, then the failure started. I put her on this cute hay stack with her pumpkin and she let loose with the tears. We realized she was cold when I touched her hands and realized they felt like ice cubes. I deserved bad mother of the year award right then. I felt so bad. I stay hot most of the time so I tend to forget other people actually get cold. I should have brought a coat for her but in my rush, I forgot. So, no cute pics of her posing with her pumpkin flashing that famous grin because mom was the doofus who forgets warm clothes for her 8 month old. Luckily, I had a fleece blanket in my car, so we wrapped her up in that. Once she got warm, she was much happier (imagine that) so we finished touring the farm, which included Aubrey getting to rub a pony. We bought 2 nice pumpkins and hopefully I can get some cute pics of Aubrey with them. So, all in all, things weren't completely ruined, but I did learn my lesson.

Cute shot with the pumpkins

Failure


Warm again and in love with rubbing the pony

Teething hell

Ughh, we are back in teething hell again. Aubrey has been such a pill the last 3-4 days. She does not want to do anything except be held, which makes it hard to do anything else. When she is by herself, she is whiny and fussy. To top it all off, she bit me 3 times while she was nursing this morning. After the 3rd time, I sat her up, firmly said no biting, that hurts, and she gave me the most pitiful face and started crying. I held out and ended nursing because it usually happens at the end so I knew she was done. It was so pitiful to hear her cry, but her little shatp teeth freaking hurt. I can't tell what tooth is coming through, but I really wish it would come on. I'm almost out of Motrin and that's not good when teething.

Aubrey's first wedding

At the ripe old age of 8 months, Aubrey was in her first wedding. As soon as Todd's sister got engaged, she asked if Aubrey could be her flower girl. How could I say no to an excuse to dress up a baby in a frilly dress? Finding the dress was a bit of a challenge, since most flower girls are a bit older than Aubrey. But, Grammy pulled through and found the perfect brown pageant dress for us. It's just been hanging in her closet for the past 2-3 months and I was so excited that she was finally going to get to wear it.

The plan was to pull Aubrey down the isle in Todd's old wagon. And pulling the wagon would be the groom-to-be's nephews. I still don't remember exactly how old they were, but they were so excited about their roles. The wagon ride went very well on Friday night, which made me nervous for Saturday. Practice is supposed to be bad so the real deal is good. On Saturday, Aubrey was a pill by the time the ceremony started. She didn't take much of a nap during the day so by 5:00 she was not happy to be forced to sit up in this wagon. Luckily, Todd was walking behind her in case things went south. She kept scooting forward in the wagon but managed to stay up until she got about halfway down the isle and fell backwards. Luckily, she didn't cry and Todd managed to get her back up. She then proceeded to "talk" throughout the entire ceremony, but I don't think anyone noticed. She wasn't very cooperative for pictures after the ceremony, so we'll see how those turn out. But, we did manage to get a few dances out of her at the reception before she wanted her dinner and then passed out in her stroller. I think she did pretty well overall and I'm excited to use the dress again for her 9-month pics in a few weeks.

First beach trip

Todd's cousins own a house in Cape Carteret, NC, which is on the Intracoastal Waterway and they were nice enough to let us use it for the week. So, we loaded up both vehicles, Aubrey, and both dogs and took off for the week. Aubrey seemed to love being at the beach. She got to hang out at her Aunt Traci's bachelorette party for a bit the first weekend and got her first visit to the ocean. The water was a bit cool for her to sit in long, but she loved to kick her legs in the water.



We also took her to her first aquarium in Pine Knoll Shore and it was so neat to see her face while she stared at the huge tanks. She also went with us to our wedding anniversary dinner and decided she wanted to be fussy, so we entertained her with crushed up crackers, which she managed to get everywhere! On Thursday, we went to Beaufort, NC which is a neat old town with a beautiful downtown on the waterway. Friday, Todd's cousin took us out on his boat on the waterway and it was so much fun. Unfortunately, we left on Saturday and drove home in the pouring rain. We stopped in Kernersville to see some of my family from Kansas before we finished the rest of the drive. It was a great week and I can't wait to do it again.