9 Months Old

Wow, where does time go?  I'm only a week late with this!

Getting bigger....soon I'll be big enough to hop on that Giraffe!

This is the face of a baby who lost interest in this photo shoot....long ago.

I can see the rebellion setting in already.....Lord help me!

This cracks me up -- she looks SERIOUSLY MAD here, ha ha!

I highlighted Morgan's growth in her Dr. Appt. post, so I won't rehash all that.

I will mention what she's doing and how her little personality is developing though:

• She's eating 3 meals of solids every day.  Breakfast is almost always bananas + oatmeal/cereal mixed in, plus diluted apple juice/water.  Maybe a few cheerios thrown in to work on her dexterity.  Lunch and dinner are a vegetable + ground turkey (that's the only meat we've tried so far and she loves it!) + a fruit. 
• She takes maybe 4-5 bottles per day, anywhere from 4-8 ozs. at a time.  Usually 4 ozs. though, I think I am really filling her up on the solids!
• She's working on drinking diluted juice (50/50 apple juice or prune juice with water) from a sippy cup.  Finding a cup she liked was the hard part.
• She still needs to drink more liquid with all the solid food she is eating because it's making for some hard little nuggets in her diaper (and a painful experience for her, poor thing!)  We're doing prune juice and her Ped also recommended Karo syrup in her formula once a day.
• She loves her puffs and freeze-dried yogurt bites.  I've also given her bits of cooked egg yolk, toast, and blueberry pancake.  Girlfriend loves to eat ; )
• SLEEP:  She usually goes to bed around 7:30/8:00 and sleeps til about 7am.  I am SO LUCKY, I know.  One night, she slept from 6:30pm - 7:30am.  13 hours!  Her naps, however, aren't as lengthy.  I've been staying home more during the day to get them regulated.  They are usually 30 minutes - 1 hour in the morning and again in the afternoon.
• She is THISCLOSE to crawling.  She can scoot & roll around pretty good so I have to keep my eye on her.  She is often on her belly, kicking her legs and looks like she's about to go mobile any second.  Yikes!
• She babbles constantly.  Some of her favorites are "Heeeee", "Tss Tsss Tsss", "Naa Naa Naa", "Buh....Buhb Buhb" and what SOUNDS like "Da Da" and "Ma Ma", but I know it's just random right now.  I also swear she sometimes says "Hi" to me.  On purpose!
• In the grocery store yesterday, she was yelling out "Ninneee ninn ninn ninnneee".  It was hilarious.  She was saying it so matter-of-factly too.
• She has really started grabbing things - usually my face/nose/mouth or hair, lol!  Also when I hold her or carry her somewhere, she has started wrapping her arms around my neck and really hanging on.  It's SO cute.
• She rubs her hair as she falls asleep when she's sucking on the bottle.
• She arches her back and throws her head back (very dramatic) when she's mad/crying.  She has also started doing this when I put her in her stroller, and she slides under the bar and almost out of it completely before I can get her buckled.  Little stinker! 
• There are no teeth in sight, according to her Ped.  I asked if I would have to buy her dentures, lol!  He said no worries til she's 15-17 months.
• She watches me like a hawk.  If I leave the room, and if she sees it, she lets me know I've forgotten her, ha ha. 
• She lights up when her Daddy gets home from work and is all smiles for him.
• She is fascinated with Dakota and is always reaching her hand out trying to touch her.  Today, Dakota let her.  It was sweet, but I of course was a milimeter away the whole time.  You never know how a dog will react and I don't want to find out the hard way.  Morgan giggles SO HARD at Dakota when we tell her to "speak" and she barks.
• She could have a diaper chock-full of poo - and the kid has never once cried that she's wet or poopy.  I think she could sit in it all day long and not care....weird.
• She loves her bath time, especially now that we've added some fun toys that she can practice grabbing.
• I just know she will make a wonderful big sister.  We love this little turkey SO MUCH!!

Thankful this Thanksgiving for....

This little turkey, plus one more on the way!  That's right, Baby Kremer 2.0 due in June 2012.

I've been trying reaaaallllly hard to keep this in for long enough as I've known for nearly a month now...

I thought SOMETHING was up...my skin was a nightmare and I kept getting so dizzy and lightheaded to the point of nearly passing out.

I kept thinking in the back of my mind "Could I be pregnant?"  Nah.  No way....could I be?  

So was this planned?  Sort of.  We had TALKED about STARTING to try.  I felt like I now have a good handle on things at home with Morgan and amnesia had officially set in a while ago from my first near-death birth experience.  We were thinking it would take a few months to conceive.  But......as my husband corrected me "All I had to do was walk into the room." 

Holy Fertile Mertile. 

Again, I do not take this for granted because I know some people really struggle with conceiving.  I thank God that we are so blessed.  I know in my heart I want more children and if this is God's plan for me, then so be it.

I saw my OB this week and as suspected, I will be very closely monitored this time around.  I will also be taking a baby aspirin daily.  My chances for recurrent Pre-Ecclampsia are 1 in 3.  Higher than I'd like, but it is what it is.  My chances for recurring HELLP Syndrome are roughly 10%.  I'm praying these odds are in my favor and am going into this cautiously optimistic.

So my babies will be 17 months apart.  I'm totally excited and terrified....EEEEEK!!!  I've had some pretty awful nausea these past few weeks, so between dealing with that, the tiredness that comes along with growing a human and chasing my 9-month old human around....I'm kinda tired out, lol.  But SO SO grateful!

I'm also thankful for my hardworking husband -- and his job.  Because of him, I am able to stay home with Morgan and give her my undivided attention and not miss a thing with her.  I am also thankful for our health - we've all remained in good health and I feel like we've dodged some big bullets there.

I'm thankful that I hit the jackpot marrying into my husband's family.  They are my family and have been there for me  when I needed them (or have been too chicken to ask).  I'm thankful for my family back home in MN that I miss dearly, but am still able to talk to at least one of them every single day.

So many blessings!

Mo has a Question

"Mom, do these pancakes come with a side of bacon?"

I had to laugh when I snapped this pic at IHOP last week....we went to breakfast with some friends for what was supposed to be a surprise bday gathering for our friend Perla.  Well those sly ladies also surprised ME and celebrated my birthday since I was gone around my real birthday.  We enjoyed food, conversation and the girls were SO generous -- they gave me a gift card to Madewell!!  Can't wait to use it!!

Morgan was FASCINATED with the other little kids there, especially the little boy sitting to her left.  But once he started talking to her, she was over it, lol.  She was pretty good, sitting in her high chair for most of the time.

I sure do love my little outing companion!

Lil Turkeybutt

The Hubs goes a little crazy online shopping sometimes (I secretly love that but try to pretend I'm going to be all strict about it, ssshhh, don't tell him).  Especially if there's a sale.  He bought Morgan a whole bunch of new PJs recently, including these "My First Thanksgiving" jams.

They have a turkey on the butt, so I call her "My Lil' Turkeybutt"....they are SO cute!

And tonight I accidentally scared lil Turkeybutt REALLY bad.  I was taking some trash out, so I got the garbage bag out and ya know how you fluff the sack to get it to open up?  I'm not sure how to properly describe this, but it makes a loud smacking noise when the sack smacks itself.  Make sense?  Good. 

So I do this once or twice and Morgan SCREAMS.  Like out of nowhere SCREAMS a bloodcurdling scream.  I immediately drop the bag and run to hug her to make sure she's OK.  She doesn't cry, just looks at me in disbelief.  So after calming her down, I go back to my garbage bag, which I have to fluff all over again.  I try to look at her and smile and say "It's OK...mommy's just opening the garbage bag, see?"  But she wasn't going for it.  Again she starts screaming.  So I gave it up til after I put her to bed.  I felt so bad for her because she had a look of sheer terror in her eyes!  Poor girl.

9 Month Well-Check

Morgan had a fantastic 9 Month Well Check today... She now weighs 17.4 pounds (I overstimated a bit at 18 pounds) and is in the 25th percentile.  Yay Mo!  Her doctor was THRILLED with her growth!!  Her head is gigantic (aren't all babies' heads big, lol?) and her gross motor skills are on target.

Her fine motor skills are something we will continue to work on.  I suspected she might be slightly behind because she has not developed her pincer grasp yet and rather than pick up her food to feed herself -- she will stick her head out and open her mouth as if to say "Feed me.  I'm ready!"  So we'll work on that.  Her doc said he's not worried until she hits 1 year old, then we might have to get an OT on board.

So here we are BEFORE her flu shot, final round of Hep B and the finger stick they do to check her hemoglobin level (which was fine).  She was not happy about being undressed, but my girl was all smiles as usual:

I love how she smiles now anytime I whip out the camera....little cheeser

And then the shots started.  She was SOOOO MAD!  Poor baby...  Necessary evils.

And speaking of shots that are necessary evils, our insurance company DENIED her approval to get the Synagis vaccines, which helps build antibodies to RSV.  If Morgan were to get RSV, it could easily land her in the hospital -- it's very serious for babies, especially those born prematurely.  So her Ped and I are working on an appeal because each shot is $1500 and she'll need one a month through the end of the RSV season (sometime around March-April).  Yowza.

In other news, when I described what's been happening occasionally at night (when Morgan wakes up screaming & is unconsolable for 20-30 minutes and then goes back to sleep), the doctor suggested she may have night terrors.  Yikes!  It's funny because she doesn't really seem to wake up or notice us when we are trying to comfort her.  And it's only happened a few times...so hopefully it's just a phase.

We got the green light to start meats.  Her diet is about to get a whole lot more exciting, ha ha!

It's so weird to think that as long as she stays healthy (big prayers!) the next time we will see Dr. H is at her ONE YEAR appointment.  Time is flying by WAY too fast for this suddenly sentimental mama!

Christmas is Coming...

The kids' catalogs have our number. Or rather, our address. We have been inundated by toy catalogs and it is SO hard to not spoil this little munchkin!  I've dreamed of becoming a mommy since I was a little girl and now that I have my sweet baby girl, of COURSE I want to spoil her!  I've been reading a lot on traditions other families have begun, so as not to let the gift-giving (and expectancy) get out of control.

I know growing up, my parents always tried to make Christmas special, no matter how much or how little they had. But it was definitely about "quantity" for us kids. The bigger your stack of presents, the better. I hope my kids never have to go without anything, but I also hope they never take anything for granted. I don't think my brother, sister and I grew up to be spoiled brats - and I see them as parents trying to always make Christmas special for their children too.

I think our generation of parents just want to give and show our children EVERYTHING. We can't bear to think they might go without something. I don't want to get caught up in that. I read an article (a blog somewhere, but can't remember where to give proper credit) about a family that gives their children 4 gifts every Christmas: Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. It's catchy, but practical and that's what I like about it.

Speaking of getting crazy with Christmas, maybe its the Hubs I have to worry about....he ordered these from Pottery Barn recently...something about personalizing things makes them WAY cuter:

I just know I am looking SO forward to Christmas this year now that Morgan is here. She won't really know what's going on, but she will have a blast. There are so many things I can't wait to do with her, like take her to meet Santa (which I fully expect her to cry and not to get a good picture), get her a holiday dress, show her snow, watch her marvel at the lights and start to teach her all about Jesus, just to name a few.

As for me, I've been trying really hard to force myself to WAIT. WAIT to start playing Christmas music, WAIT to start decorating and bring out the tree, and WAIT to start any sort of goodies baking.

But one thing I'm not waiting on  putting off is Christmas shopping this year -- I can online shop like nobody's business yo.  I am really excited about the gifts I got for my husband. He's the best gift giver I've ever known and I usually always feel lame about the gifts I get him. Mostly because if he wants something, he just buys it. Real fun :(  

But NOT THIS YEAR! I think he's going to be pleasantly surprised this year!! (Let's just for now ignore the fact that since I am a SAHM now, I am technically using his hard-earned money to buy him gifts, mmkay?)

I just ordered our holiday card and will share once they arrive. Hmmm....I think being a SAHM makes me a little more on the ball! Or I just have a lot more downtime to obsess about such things ; )

Guess I had a lot to say for not blogging in a while...

Time for a Hair Cut

November has been a bad month for my poor lil' blog.  Ooops.  I've been a tad under the weather and haven't felt like reading blogs, nor writing much on my own.  Nor cooking dinner.  Or getting off the couch.  Or going places.  More on all that next week (wink wink)...

Morgan, however, is as active as ever!  We have her 9-month well check tomorrow and I know her Pediatrician is going to question WHAT THE HECK I'm feeding this girl.  She feels SO heavy these days!  That's a good thing!  I am excited to see the curve on her growth chart make a sharp increase....I snooped and looked at the CDC's growth chart for healthy TERM infant girls.  I'm predicting 75th percentile....  Amazing, considering she was in the bottom 2% when she FINALLY got on the curve at a few months old!

I gave her a lil' haircut again this week. The wispies were getting out of control and her bangs were poking in her eyes. And I was tired of combing out the snarls that seemed to nest in the top of her hair every day.  The rest of her hair (the back) is apparently on strike from any sort of growth. 

BEFORE...

AFTER...good thing she has wavy hair to hide my hack job.  Poor Girl.

So now she looksa little less like Harry and a little more like Lloyd...ha ha!!!.....I'm a mean mom!

She is grabbing things like crazy these days.  Mostly, my hair (OUCH!!!)  I usually always have it in a pony tail, but sometimes I like to let my hair down!  She's also babbling away and is a total chatterbox.  And a new thing she has started is arching her back and throwing her head back, in a tantrum-like fashion, whenever she doesn't like something.  WHERE did this come from??  She's smacked her head on more than one occasion.  She gets the biggest kick out of the dog and will giggle endlessly at her.

I love this little girl to no end and get such great joy out of seeing the person she is turning into every day.  She has brought so much love and light to our lives.  We are truly blessed.

Game Face

Despite the fact we're not huge football fans....Someone had her game face on this weekend:

WHO DEY!

 And was flinging her arms about so wildly, the camera couldn't even capture them.  So it looks like she doesn't have any arms, lol.  Catching her sitting still is nearly impossible these days.

And I had to snap a cell phone pic of her in the hat my Grandma Edith knit for her...it is just too precious! I plan to get a much better pic to send to Grandma...

Morgan is growing and changing so rapidly these days.  I realized she didn't get the memo for Daylight Savings Time on Saturday night.  Oh well...I love any opportunity to snuggle with her and lately she has been waking up at midnight, crying.  Then again at 6am.  Maybe a growth spurt?  I've been trying to give her more solids throughout the day because she's been drinking SO much formula.

She loves watching the dog, examining her feet, Sweet Potato Puffs, falling asleep in her Jumperoo, hanging out in the kitchen with mom, pureed corn, and bath time.  I've noticed lately that she has really stinky feet, lol!  You know how some people do and some don't?  Well...she does.  Must've got that from her dad ; )

There's been a lot going on these days in our household....lots of excitement.  I've been redecorating (thank you Pinterest + Craigslist) and am almost done.  Or rather, the spending window has officially closed, according to the warden.  For now.  Hee hee ; )

We had a fantastic weekend and got together with friends.  On Sunday, I attended a Baby Sprinkle for a friend who is pregnant with her second baby girl.  Her babies will be somewhere around 17-18 months apart.  I think I'm going to need her advice ; )  Anyway, I think I am a curse for Sunday Baby Showers.  At 2:30am this morning, her water broke.  We're still all anxiously awaiting baby's arrival.  After my Sunday Baby Shower, I ended up going into the hospital and having Morgan.  Coincidence?  Probably....I just like to dramz it up a bit ; )