Bye Bye Binky!

Our girl, she's growing up! I can't believe how she changes every day. We're about to try forcing a change on her... and I don't think this one is going to be very popular.

Now that we're in the third trimester of pregnancy number 2, things are in full swing to prepare for arrival of "baby brother." Ella has been sick a lot since Christmas. That's about the same time that one of her ear tubes "grew out." We're hoping she won't need to have it replaced, but in the meantime, we're trying to get her back into the habit of being a good sleeper.

A lot of the sleepless nights have come from being sick. She's congested, her throat hurts, she coughs, her ear hurts, etc... But, recently we've noticed that she wakes up several times at night, simply because she's lost her binky and can't find it in the bed.

We've been asking several other moms for advice, and the consensus seems to be that it's time to get rid of the binky. She doesn't use it during the daytime at Laura's house. Not even for naps. We've kept it for bedtime at home, because it really seemed to be a great tool for her to "self soothe."

Now, there's concern that she's too dependent on the binky, that she may try to take a binky from baby brother, etc... So we're going to give it a go and say "bye bye" to the binky this weekend.

At first, we'll give her the binky to fall asleep, then we'll go in and take it out of her crib. No more back-up binkys scattered around the bed. No more mommy and daddy coming to find the binky for her. She can rely on Elmo and Zoe and her blankie to help her get back to sleep. (and I"m sure we can rely on Ella to voice her displeasure with this decision)

We're sure to face a few more sleepless nights. We'll see is this trial period works... for all 3 of us!

Sick, Sicker, More Sickness.. and finally SLEEP!!!

We've basically been sick since Christmas. All of us, off and on, all at once, you name it, we've had it. Ear infection, respiratory infections, bronchitis, stomach flu, etc... We take vitamins, we all 3 had flu shots this year.... but we live with a 1 year old germ factory. Any germ that comes along... finds Ella!

She really hasn't slept well since we got home from Florida. If Ella's not sleeping well, none of us are. At first we thought she was in a rut, and we needed to use some "controlled crying" techniques to get her to soothe herself again. She's always been such a great sleeper, surely this was just a rough patch that we'd help her work through. We'd use some tips from "Super Nanny."

Then we realized she had an ear infection and we'd been letting her cry when she needed us to help with the pain! Talk about feeling like a horrible parent! But it's totally a guessing game. You never know when they're sick and when they just want to stay up and watch a video!

We capped it all off last weekend with a trip to urgent care, a trip to Children's Mercy Hospital, and Ella's fever topping 105!!! As if that weren't enough, Troy was sick at the same time with a stomach flu and my parents were in town. When it rains it pours!!

Last night, we finally got some welcome relief. Ella is hydrated again. She's drinking and eating. She went to bed at 8 and slept until we woke her up at 6:30 this morning. I was afraid something was wrong. I've forgotten what it's like to sleep for that long! Thank God we appear to be on the road to recovery!!

ELMO... our new best friend!

I have to start by saying that we blame this all on Dane! He brought Elmo into our home with a video on his laptop and there is no going back!

Ella loves Elmo. She couldn't pull herself away from the videos. Troy had to copy them onto his computer. Then she started spotting Elmo just about everywhere... on diapers, in stores, on television.

I noticed an ad on TV for "Elmo Makes Music." The live stage show was coming to Kansas City and I knew Ella would really enjoy it. I decided to get tickets, but Troy refused to go. We'd taken her to the circus late last fall, and she had little or no interest. I was certain this would be different. Music, big life-size fuzzy muppet characters, dancing, etc... they'd get her attention.

I was prepared to buy the tickets and take Ella myself when we finally wore Troy down. "I can't let my pregnant wife and baby go down to Kemper Arena alone... so I guess I'll have to go along."

Saturday morning, we got up, got dressed, had breakfast and packed our bag for Elmo's 10:30 performance. As soon as the lights came on and the first character hit the stage... we lost Ella. She was mesmerized! Lights, music, singing life-sized muppets.... she was dancing on Troy's lap, waving at Elmo and all she kept saying was "OOOOOOH!"

45 minutes into the show-- intermission. Ella finally had a chance to catch her breath and take a drink of milk! They bring out hundreds of Elmo balloons, cotton candy, snow cones... if kids will beg you to buy it, they had it-- and it wasn't cheap!! (Luckily we had brought an Elmo doll and Zoe doll from home so Ella was content.) We made it through most of the second act before she even started to wiggle. (photos all show the side of her face, I just couldn't get her attention!!)

Since the show, Ella can't get enough of her Elmo and Zoe dolls. She has to sleep with them every night... one in each arm... that's how she falls asleep. I'm not a fan of the character clothes... but it looks like Elmo is here to stay so I guess we'll all have to get used to him!

BAAAARF on Daddy

Troy says I haven't been blogging enough lately. So I'll take this opportunity to pick on him just a little bit.

Until this wekeend, Ella hadn't thrown up since she was a little baby in the hospital. That was different... really just spit-up. This was a full blown puke!

Troy was feeding her a piece of Valentine's candy from Grandma Robinson and the next thing I knew... something was splashing onto my kitchen floor. There they sat... Ella in Daddy's lap, both of them covered in kid puke. It was gross and smelly!

I thought Troy was going to hurl too!! He stood up and almost dumped Ella in the puddle of vomit. He kept saying "It smells! I think I'm going to get sick." Of course, the dogs came in to try and "clean up" for us. I told Troy to put them outside and get out of my way. He was scaring Ella more than the puke did!

We stripped off her clothes in the kitchen and I cleaned up the mess. Troy had to put clean clothes on our girl and change himself. "She got it all over me!"

Men think they're the "stronger sex," but when it comes to vomit... even our big tough Daddy gets a little grossed out.

Life is scary when you're planning for death!

When you're single you might have a little life insurance. Mine was through my employer, so was Troy's. That all changed when I was around 6 months pregnant with Ella. The doctor made the big announcement that "this baby is now strong enough to survive outside of your body. So assume you're parents from this point." That puts the fear of God in you!

Crazy pregnant lady started thinking of things like "What if Troy gets killed in a car wreck? Can I raise this baby on my own? Can I afford it?" "What if we're both killed and the baby survives? Who is going to take care of her?" "What if I die in childbirth?" (like Little House on the Prairie or something!) "This baby has to be provided for."

So we started buying life insurance. When you sit down and calculate how much it will cost to get both Ella and the new baby through childhood and eventually college, the numbers are staggering! Now that we've secured the life insurance we need, I'm a little worried that Ella and her baby brother may decide to "WHACK" us. We're worth a fortune if we're dead!!!

That's only part of the morbid discussions that Troy and I have had during my pregnancies. We also had to designate guardians. If, God forbid, something happened to both of us, we wanted to know where Ella would be, who would care for her, who would raise her as their own child if we couldn't do it?

That was a difficult decision to make. Not because we don't have many worthy choices among our family and friends. It's just that suddenly, you realize you're planning for your child's life without you. We had wills drawn up well before Ella was born. We made sure she'd be financially secure and that she'd have loving people to help her navigate life.

Now that we're expecting baby #2, we've revisited this decision. First, we wanted to consult with the friends who we chose to raise Ella. Taking on one additional child is a great commitment. Taking on two kids as your own couldn't be an automatic assumption on our part.
( Of course, they graciously accepted and assured us that should anything happen, our children would be theirs, loved equally and specially along with their own kids. )

I think it was actually harder to think about this the second time around. I loved Ella before she was born. When we selected her guardians, it was difficult to imagine not seeing her grow up. But, now that we know her, we're attached to her, we need her in our lives, I simply cannot imagine how life could continue without us all together.

How could anyone else know what she needs when she cries out at night? Is it gas? Does her ear hurt? Did she have a bad dream? Who knows that whining at the kitchen cabinet means she wants to carry her box of cereal and dump out a few pieces to eat? Who knows that when she picks up her pillow and blanket from the living room toy box and says "eye sigh" she wants to watch a Baby Einstein video? Now that we know her every move and grunt and whimper and smile, how can anyone else provide the love and care that we do?

This has to be the toughest reality of being a parent. I've always heard that if you're prepared for this sort of thing... you'll never need to use that preparation. We can only hope!

Christmas in Florida

We didn't plan on this trip. But Troy's brother, Nick, passed away unexpectedly on Christmas weekend, so we flew to Florida to be with his family and help with the funeral plans etc...

We left on Christmas morning and spent the week there. There were a lot of firsts. Ella's first time on a plane, her first trip to Grandma & Grandpa Robinson's house, her first trip to the beach... she had a great time.

It was a very difficult week for the entire family. Troy helped sort through Nick's things and make arrangements with his parents. We considered leaving Ella at home, but she was a welcome break for her Daddy and just about everyone else.

Wednesday morning, Troy wanted a break from anything that had to do with a funeral, so we took Ella to the beach. We only had about 45 minutes between errands and visitors at the house. But it was well worth it.

At first she didn't know what to think of the sand between her toes or how to walk on this weird stuff. But pretty soon she played in the sand, tried to eat the sand, and found a seashell to bring home. She wasn't big on the water... but it was pretty cool down there. We'll try that again next time.

Rough trip... but Ella made for some light moments and as usual, she was a big hit.

It's a boy!!!

It's been awhile since I've had time to post. With the holidays, my family in town, an unexpected trip to Florida for a funeral, etc... we're just now getting back into the swing of things.

We saw the specialist a week before Christmas and had our level 2 ultrasound. We decided to keep the news a secret and let the grandparents know on Christmas Day. Now I think just about everyone is aware that baby Robinson #2 appears to be a boy!

I had to ask the doctor to say it twice for Troy. He was so sure this would be another girl. I had a feeling this pregnancy was completely different, but you never know. Now Troy's greatest fear is that we'll have to buy everything again!

The most important news is that everything so far appears to be quite normal and healthy with this baby. That's all we could ask for. He appears to be growing and developing right on schedule. No signs of any of the problems that go along with pregnancy for "older women." (yes that's me, over the magic age of 35!!!) We're very lucky.

I'm still adjusting to the idea of having a son. The girl thing was pretty simple. I'm a girl. So, I know how they act, what the want, how to fix hair and dress them. Girls are drama queens. Once you get past that... you're fine. Boys are a completely different species for me. I'm still trying to figure out Troy! I'm so afraid that I'll snuggle this baby too much. What if I turn him into a Mama's boy? Troy will never forgive me! I've told Troy he's in charge of this one... I'll just handle the clothes and haircuts.

Seriously... we're both very excited and Ella is starting to get more used to the idea of another baby in the house. If you ask her where baby brother is, she'll point to her tummy and say "Mama." She knows he's in there. Sometimes she'll pull up my shirt and tug at my waistband so she can pat "him." I tell her he's growing big and strong so he can come out and play with her soon.

Hopefully she'll be ready to "play nice" by the time he gets here!