Allie's First Birthday!

Allie turned one on Wednesday, July 22, 2009. I've been looking for a park with baby swings and finally found one. So to celebrate we brought her to the park for the first time. She got to ride the swings and she really enjoyed herself. She squealed with delight as she swung back and forth. We also let her try out the slides. At first she had no reaction. But, once daddy took her on the big slide her eyes lit right up with excitement.

After the park, we brought her back home and let her open up presents from the family. Of all the things she got her favorite thing she wouldn't put down was the number one candle that was supposed to go on her cake. She was also quite fond of the noise makers we got her... the kind that you blow in and the paper tube rolls out and makes a noise. She thought the noise makers were really silly.

Once all her presents were opened we changed her into her new bathing suit. We laid out a table cloth on the front lawn and brought the cake and ice cream out there. We were trying to prevent a nasty mess in the house and thought the front lawn would be a better place to have cake and ice cream strewn about. Anyway, we sang Happy Birthday to her and let her dig in. She loved her cake and ice cream. Her favorite part was the ice cream, she couldn't get enough. Once it seemed like she had enough fun with the smishing and smashing of cake and ice cream we brought her in and gave her a bath.

Then, we gave her some milk and let her calm down. Finally, we capped off her afternoon with a nice long nap. She slept like a baby, no pun intended.

Overall, her birthday was lots of fun. We wish we could have shared it with more of our family, but still had a great afternoon. We love you all.

Escape Artist???

So I called my husband after my interview yesterday, which went GREAT btw, and he tells me he has some news for me too. I asked what and he said that when he went into Allie's room she was walking around. I asked if he meant in her crib and he said no, outside of her crib. Again, I asked was she holding on to anything or touching something. He told me she was up against a wall. I then said alright, I didn't think she was brave enough to take a step without help yet. I then asked HOW IN THE HECK DID SHE GET OUT OF HER CRIB?!?!?!?!?

I checked her out when I got home and she had a tiny scratch/bump on her head but it was gone within the hour. I can't imagine how scary it must have been if she had toppled out of her crib while reaching for something. My husband wondered if she climbed out. I have no clue.

It sounds like we have a little escape artist on our hands. It's scary and silly at the same time. She cracks me up. We'll be lowering the crib to the very bottom in hopes this doesn't happen again anytime in the near future.

Milk Scan Results

My doc finally called me back. Allie showed mild reflux during the scan and her stomach emptied fine. The doc said he didn't see anything physically wrong either which is good. He told us she should grow out of it soon. We're keeping her on the Zantac and Mylanta but we can change to Prevacid if she needs it. The Zantac and Mylanta are working pretty good so unless she gets worse I think we'll be ok.

Allie's Milk Scan This Morning

Every thing went really well. It wasn't that bad but it was no walk in the park either. We got really lost trying to find the place... had to go to 3 different buildings and ended up parking in the wrong hospital parking lot so we didn't get validation and had to pay anyway.

We arrived on time after going through a series of desks to get to where we needed to go. Allie was sleepy and was starting to get pretty hungry. We sat in the waiting room for about an hour. When they called our name we took her back and they took her bottle and put some radioactive stuff in it. The lady said it had no taste. Allie drank about half of her bottle. Then she was wrapped up and strapped down to a long plank table. The radiology equipment was then maneuvered directly above her leaving only about 3 and a half to 4 inches of space from her face to the machine. She of course screamed her head off for about 15 minutes. The x-ray tech put a kids music toy on next to her head to help soothe her. After about 15 minutes she fell asleep. She had to stay there for an hour. Once the hour was up we unstrapped her and got to go home.

It wasn't too bad just a little scary at first. We get the results on Monday. They told us they took an image every 10 secs and the doc would have 360 images to review to determine if she has reflux, how bad it is, and how long it takes her stomach to empty.

Milk Scan

	So Allie has been on Zantac (Ranitidine) for a little over a week now. She's still not drinking the amount of milk that they would like her to drink. I took her back to the doctor today and they told us to give her 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Mylanta every 6 hours as needed along with her Zantac. The doctor also ordered a milk scan test. It's for this coming Friday morning. She can't eat or drink 4 hours before the test. We bring her in along with her milk. The doc told us to expect everything to take 3 hours. He also gave us some prevacid that she can start if the Mylanta isn't helping. Milk Scan: A Milk Scan test determines whether or not your child has reflux (food or liquid coming up from the stomach). It also determines how much reflux your child has and how well the stomach empties. How is the test performed? A technologist will take you and your child into an exam room. You will see a large table and camera connected to a computer. The nuclear medicine technologist will ask for a bottle of your child’s formula or will provide milk for older children. A small amount of radionuclide will be added to the milk (there is no taste or smell), and your child will be asked to drink it. When your child is full, he will lie on his back on the exam table for about 1 hour while diagnostic information is gathered. There are no side effects, and the radionuclide loses radioactivity within a few hours. The technologist will check the pictures to make sure they are complete before you and your child leaves the hospital.

Oh No Reflux!

Over the past few months Allie has been a little difficult when it comes to drinking her milk. I've taken her to the doctor because of this and they all said it was probably just teething. Well it has become increasingly difficult to get her to drink any milk whatsoever. I have come to dread feeding her. It should not be such a difficult challenge to feed my daughter.

I called the doctor again on Monday. We got to see a different doctor this time. When we got there the nurse took her weight and in the past 3 weeks Allie had LOST 9 oz. I knew something wasn't right and just needed someone to listen. Well, after talking to the other doctor she told me that she thinks Allie has reflux which can also be silent reflux. Silent reflux is when she only spits up a little or it goes up but she swallows it and it goes back down. My poor baby has been in pain and not wanting to drink because it hurts. The doc said it was probably due to her prematurity. She told us that the valve that closes her stomach off from her esophagus was probably a little loose and still working on tightening up. She was surprised that no doctor had done any studies on her and caught it before.

Allie was prescribed some medicine to reduce the amount of acid in her tummy. She was given Ranitidine and takes it 2 x a day. It's peppermint flavor and she loves it. I'm so happy that she takes it without a hassle because she hates every other medicine she's ever had. She even spits out Tylenol and Motrin. On Monday Allie only drank 9 oz. and yesterday there was an definite improvement. She drank 16 oz. That's still not as much as she needs but I'll take any improvement.

We go back for a follow up in 2 weeks to make sure she is gaining weight and drinking her milk.

10 Months Already

I can't believe it has been 10 months already. Allie has come soo far. She's crawling, pulling herself up to stand, she even let's go and stays up for a good 20 seconds or more before she falls because she is soo proud of herself that she starts jumping up and down, and she's started cruising along furniture too! She hasn't attempted to take that first step away from furniture yet but I bet it is coming soon. We need to finish baby proofing.

Allie now weighs in at 16 lbs. and 13 oz. and is 26.5 inches long. She has been given the go ahead to start table foods and is doing great with the little things we've given her. She eats all kinds of baby puff snacks, little crunchies, which are like baby cheetos, and small pieces of soft fruit. She really seems to enjoy yogurt too! We give her the YoBaby yogurt made from whole milk especially for babies.

Allie now has four teeth in. Two on bottom and two are working there way all the way down on top. Allie, of course is getting her chompers on everything she can. You have to love teething babies and all of their drool.

I snapped a few silly shots of Allie last night. Enjoy!

Allie Starts to Crawl

Allie has been working on crawling. Sometimes she's up off the ground and sometimes she does the army crawl. She can really move across the room in no time when she wants to. It's almost frightening how fast she can be right next to you and then the next moment somewhere else.

Gargling Milk

Allie has discovered how to gargle. If we squirt a little milk in her mouth she'll gargle away. It's quite funny. She does it ALL OF THE TIME.

Mother's Day Card to Grandma

9 month+ Well-Baby Check Up

Allie had a well baby check today and another DTap shot. Poor thing gets stuck by a needle just about every time we go to the doctor. She weighed in at 15lbs. 11oz. and measured 26.5 inches long.

At 9 months: (***note: all percentiles are based on a full term baby not Allison's corrected age of 7 months)

your child is 15.6875 pounds, and that is
at the 3rd percentile for weight.

your child is 26.5 inches, and that is
at the 12th percentile for height.

your child has a head circumference of 17.5 inches, and that is
at the 59th percentile for head circumference.

At 7 months:(***note: all percentiles are based on Allison's corrected age of 7 months. Doctors use Allison's corrected age until she reaches 2 years old.)

your child is 15.6875 pounds, and that is
at the 18th percentile for weight.

your child is 26.5 inches, and that is
at the 44th percentile for height.

your child has a head circumference of 17.5 inches, and that is
at the 82nd percentile for head circumference.


Allison is still sleeping through the night. It's great being able to get a good nights sleep regularly. She'll sleep a good 11 to 12 hours a night.

Allie has a well balanced diet that consists of 20 to 24 oz. of breast milk a daily along with stage 2 baby foods: 2oz. of fruit, 2 oz. of veggies, 1 oz of meat, and 8 tbls of cereal. She's just getting into finger foods. We've given her a few graduate puffs and yogurt melts now. She uses her only 2 teeth to mash up anything we give her.

Allie is pulling herself up on everything she can get her hands on. She absolutely LOVES to stand up. Tonight she stood up without any support for a good 20 seconds. She was sooo proud of herself, as were we. We love to see her big grin when she accomplishes something.

Allie enjoys playing peek-a-boo daily. She initiates it at times by covering her face with a blanket or anything else she can use to hide her face. It's really silly. I cover her face and then she takes it off and giggles and waits for me to cover it again. Some of her favorite toys include the remote control and my cell phone. She can't seem to get enough of either.

Allison is starting to learn about strangers and has some stranger anxiety on occasion when we go to new places. She does well around most people generally.

Overall, Allie is doing great. She's continuing to grow and surprises us all of the time.

"I feel like Chicken tonight, like chicken tonight!"

Allie had her first taste of meat today. She dined on Chicken and Chicken Gravy. Mmmmm! Here's her reaction.

Yogurt Melts

Allie tried strawberry Yogurt Melts for the second time today. She is still getting used to the strawberry flavor and texture of food she gets to mash up. We can't wait for her to try Baby Mum-Mums
a type of rice biscuit that melts in your mouth.

9 Months and Already Texting

Allie is addicted to my cell phone. She LOVES looking at all of the pictures of her on it. I snapped this shot and it looks like I have a 9 month old who is texting lol.

Kneebouncers: Infant Games

A friend recommended babygamer.com to us and Allie has been having soo much fun with it. I'll try and get a video of her playing some of the games so you can see how just how excited she gets. These are a few of the games that she loves from Kneebouncers.com! You can click to play them right from this blog.



and another fun one is

Two Front Teeth

Allison's two bottom teeth are in. We thought we'd share her chompers with you all.

Baby Sign LanguageBooks

A few people have asked me what books we are using...

These are the books we have and use:
Baby Signing 123 by Nancy Cadjan The Easy-to-Use Illustrated Guide for Every Age and Every Stage (I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book because it has a section on what to use at each age and suggestions on how and when to use the signs.)

The Everything Baby Sign Language Book with DVD by Teresa R. Simposon
This book comes with a great DVD that shows every sign shown in the book. A live person really makes all the difference.

Baby Signs by Joy Allen (Illustrator)(a board book for the kido)
This is a nice picture book for Allie to illustrations of another baby using baby signs.

Baby Fingers: Teaching Your Baby to Sign by Lora Heller (another board book)
This book has pictures of real children using signs.

Sign away!

Tuesday night Allie made the sign for "MILK." It was awesome. She was soo proud of herself too when I clapped for her. All she has wanted to do for the past 2 days is say MILK MILK MILK. It's too cute. I"m very excited about her being able to communicate with us in another way.

A Season of Firsts

WOW!!! Soo much has happened in the past two months. Allie is growing big and strong day by day. She's had a season of firsts. A list of her most recent firsts include: first solid food (rice cereal mmm yummy, then oatmeal and mixed cereal), first vegetables (she's now had sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, sweet peas and green beans), first juice (Allie tasted apple juice for the first time this week), first fruit (she just had bananas today), first time drinking water, first time drinking water from the end of a straw, first time rolling over from back to tummy, first time sitting in a high chair, first time out to eat at a restaurant (Corky's Barbeque - don't worry she didn't order from the menu), first time sitting alone unsupported, first time getting up on all fours, as well as first time seeing snow. Allie has done a lot of growing up in the past two months. She's talking a whole lot more.

We have been teaching her sign language. We always speak when we use the signs. So far we use the signs for MILK, ALL DONE, MOMMY, DADDY, DIAPER, CHANGE, LOVE, DOG, SLEEP, FOOD, and MORE. She hasn't used any signs yet herself but smiles when she recognizes the signs for MILK , ALL DONE, MOMMY, and DADDY. This month we'll be introducing a few more signs to her. We have four books and a dvd about signing with infants and all of them have great information. Baby Signing 123, by Nancy Cadjan, states that the developmental norm for a child at 12 months is a possible 2-3 spoken words, while a child the same age that signs has 25 signs and 16 spoken words. That's nothing! At 36 months the norm is to understand 800 words and use 3-5 words sentences easily, while the signing child has speech like a 47 month old up to 1500 words and almost total control of everyday language. By the time the children are 8 years old the IQ of signing children is 12 points higher than the developmental norm.

Allie is checking many things off of her milestone list. She's getting bigger and doing soo many things. She has outgrown a ton of clothes and is now wearing some 3-6 month and 6 month+ clothes. One of her biggest accomplishments is her ability to feed herself. Allie loves to hold her bottle during mealtime. Here is a picture of the first time she held her own bottle on February 10, 2009.

As time flies by Allie continues to amaze us. We love her very much and are excited to watch her grow. We can't wait to see what she will do next.

Cross Country To Our New Home

We got to Tennessee on Wednesday night. We left San Marcos on Saturday night and made a few pit stops to see family. We stayed at my step dad's house near LA on Saturday night. We got to see my step dad and my sister, Sherrie, that I haven't seen in quite a few years. We also got to meet her son Nicholas. Then on Sunday we drove through a bunch of cold and nothing and made it to Gallup, NM where we spent the night. Monday we continud our long trek and finally made it to my sister's house in Oklahoma City at almost midnight. We spent Monday night with her and then all of Tuesday too. We spent the night again on Tuesday. We got to meet her growing family. She now has three kidos, two boys and one girl, Keira, Caleb, and Elijah. They are all really cute. As we prepared to leave Caleb mentioned that he didn't want us to go and that he would take his house and drag it next to ours so we could be neigbors. We left OKC on Wednesday afternoon and arrived in Memphis, TN that night.

The trip wasn't that bad. Just LOTS of driving and LOTS of nothing to look at. Will and I pretty much drove alone because we each took our own car. To pass the time we called friends and family and planned how we would paint and arrange our new home. Allie and Nicki both did great. Allie slept most of the way only waking to inform us that she was hungry. Nicki enjoyed the cool weather and relaxed in the back of Will's car as we drove across the country.

We saw our house for the first time yesterday. It is a cute yellow house. It needs to have some more work done on it but should be ready next week. We are staying in a motel for a week while the house gets finished up. The motel has a kitchen in it so we can cook and don't have to spend extra money eating out.

It's cold! We are doing ok though. My sister bought Allie some warm clothes while we were in OKC and she is doing great now. She had absolutely no warm clothes coming from California. We're all going to have to adjust to the cold weather here in Tennessee.

6 Month Well Baby Check

Yesterday, Allie turned 6 months old. She had her well baby check today. Allie is doing GREAT with her milestones. She's right on track with where she needs to be. She got a few shots and shared her powerful lungs with the world. Poor baby had to be stuck 3 times today. She got her HIB (Haemophilus influenzae type b) and Prevnar (pneumococcal (Pc) disease) vaccines and 1 shot of Synangis to protect her from RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus). She seems to be doing ok now though. Once we got home she was all smiles again. I'm sure she'll be tired and run a low fever, but that's to be expected.

Allie Found Her Feet

Today, Allie discovered her feet. She can grab them and hold on tight. She seems to also like to use her pants to draw her feet up to her face. She loves to babble as you can see and hear in the accompanied video. (I'll add the video once the video uploader works again.)

Update: On Wednesday Jan. 21, 2009 Allie discovered that she can put her feet in her mouth. She found a new chew toy.

She's A Leader, Not A Follower

This afternoon I walked in to check on Allie. It was about time to get her up from her nap. This is what I found. Allie sure has her own way of doing things.

Subscribe By e-mail

I added a tool to help all of us out. On the top right of your screen you should see a box to enter your e-mail address. If you enter your e-mail address there any time I add posts for the day you will get an e-mail. This way you don't have to remember to come back to my blog, and I don't have to remember to send you e-mail updates. This is a lovely two birds with one stone method. Hope it works for everyone.

Getting Bigger Every Day

Allie had a WIC appointment today. She weighed in at 12 lbs. and 11oz. and measured 24 inches long. She is getting so big to us. Everyone still comments about how small she is when we tell her how old she is. She'll be 6 months next week and looks like a 3 and a half month old. She's cute no matter how big she is!

A Long Time Coming

It's been a few months since I have sent out an update on Allison. She is growing up so fast. As of Monday, she now weighs in at 12 lbs. and 5 oz. She is starting to out grow her 0-3 months clothes now. Allie is definitely a smile baby. She smiles all of the time. It's very sweet to see. One of her favorite times to smile is when she is getting her diaper changed. It must be really exciting to her because the second she hits the changing table she has a HUGE smile on her face and she starts giggling and babbling away. Speaking of babbling, Allie LOVES to talk. She babbles all of the time about anything and everything. She makes sure you are listening to her by raising her voice if she doesn't have your undivided attention at times too.

Allie is ticklish! Her biggest tickle spots are right at her collar bone and the back of her neck. She shrugs her shoulders up and laughs hysterically whenever we tickle her there.

This week Allie mastered rolling over from her tummy to her back really well. She rolls ALL OVER her crib and pack n' play. She thinks rolling over is a game too. We play rolly polly with her. Allie can also sit up in her Bumbo chair and loves it. She really likes to stand up though. She's working on her balance daily as she tries to stand on our lap with our support. She smiles brightly any time she stands up. This week she has decided that when we try to put different clothes on her while she is laying down that she has to stand up. It's really silly.

Allie has an exersaucer that she is just dazzled by. She loves the bright colors and plays in it often. She likes to watch the lights go off and on and listen to the music. She spins round and round in her seat and has a ball.

Allie is still on a 100% breast milk diet. She seems to be doing great with it so we aren't changing her diet. We will start her on some cereal in the next month or 2 as her doctor recommends. I'm excited about giving her her first solid foods, but I want to enjoy every little bit of her childhood, so I am perfectly happy with her all liquid diet. She has started to watch us a eat a little closer though now.

Allie has been teething for some time now. No teeth have popped through yet but she is one drool monster for sure. She even blows spit bubbles. She loves to stick everything in her mouth.

For Halloween we dressed Allie up as a pumpkin. The costume was WAY too big but we put her in it anyway. She looked adorable. Allie had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent it at my parents house in Oceanside. She got to meet more of the family and of course was the star of the day. Her cousin Hailey was mesmerized by her the entire visit. Hailey helped feed and change Allie while we were there.

Shortly after Thanksgiving Allie started sleeping all of the way through the night. It's WONDERFUL being able to get some rest at night now. She sleeps from about 11 p.m. to 8 or 9 a.m. She's definitely a night owl like her mommy and daddy.

Allie's first Christmas was great. She got some clothes and a few toys that she loves. We got a Baby Bjorn carrier from our Aunt Kris. This carrier has been a life saver. Hands free with the baby is wonderful. Allie loves to be strapped in to it and go for walks with me and our dog. She's also been to church with me in her Baby Bjorn.

Allie's personality is really developing. She'll steal your heart and make it melt in no time.

We will be doing a baby dedication in the coming weeks. We plan to raise Allie to Know and Love the Lord. We'll get some pictures and be sure to share.

We love you all and hope everyone is doing well.

And He Saw That It Was Good...

Allison Kayla Baumbach came into the world at 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, July 22, 2008. She weighed in at 3 lbs. and 8 oz. and was 16 inches long. She arrived shockingly early as she wasn't due for about another 10 weeks. She came in God's time, not ours. She was very strong and only had to stay in the hospital for 5 weeks until she learned how to eat and weighed 5 lbs. She is definitely a miracle baby, she never even had to be on oxygen while she was in the hospital!