Making Baby Steps

Let's see where do I start....This past weekend my baby sitter has finally graduated from high school. It's so weird!!!!! I"m super duper excited for her though. It's a "new start" sorta speak for her. She is going to be going to the Kansas City Art Institute in the fall. I'm so very proud of her. She one so many awards from the high school this year which was totally amazing! So after Zoe's graduation we went and had lunch at Rio Grande...yum yum yum! Then one of my good friends called and invited me to go see Tim McGraw in concert. So I went and it was a ton of fun! I hadn't been out in quite a while and hadn't been to a concert in a few years. It was a blast!!!! :)

I have successfully completed my first class at Columbia College and passed my psychology course with a B! I'm very very very proud of myself. I just signed up for my next course which ought to be interesting i'm taking Intermediate Algebra...yikes!

Lorelai is doing well she continues to grow! She is all smiles most of the time. She is sitting up extremely well and is working on crawling. It's so funny she can get up on all fours and then starts rocking but just hasn't quite figured out how to get the hands and feet moving! So hopefully we will work on that some more. The doctor gave her the okay start eating real "grown up" food if it's soft and small. We have discovered she loves pasta, vegetables, yogurt, and boy oh boy does she love bananas! She has also discovered the joys of playing in mashed potatoes! She had her fashion show at the kids day last weekend and she looked so stinking cute! I will post some pictures soon!

Wow I'm Really Behind!

Lets see where do we begin. Lorelai had her six month check up last week and she is getting big! She is now 26 inches long and weighs 16 Ibs 11oz. She is in the 60th percentile for height and weight and 25th percentile for head circumference. So that is awesome. She is now sitting up and working on crawling. She can get on all fours and starts to rock but she can't quite get the movement going. Hopefully she will get going pretty soon! I swear she is so stinking smart. She is keeps trying to drink out of a regular cup and plastic water bottle. Which is nuts! Anyhow, this past weekend on Mother's Day Lorelai got dedicated at church. I was very excited about that! Pictures will be posted soon! Easter was fun we went to church twice and then went and had lunch at my mom's with my brother, sister, and my mom. Oh Lorelai is going to be in a fashion show this coming weekend for Children's Orchard family fun day! I'm very excited about that. So I have picked out some cute outfits for her to wear! Everyone is welcome to come out it's a free event held at the Holiday Inn next to the mall on Saturday May 14th!

Nothing too exciting is going on with me. I have been working lately. Things are starting to pick up at the apartments and students are on the hunt for apartments! That has been keeping me busy. I'm getting ready to finish my first class at Columbia College. I have my final on Saturday so that ought to be interesting! Then I get to start a math class...ugh!

That's about all that's new with us McDougals

A New Chapter

Well friends, I feel like I'm starting a new chapter in my life. I got accepted to Columbia College and will be starting school again shortly...hopefully like next week if everything goes well. I'm very excited about that. I plan on finishing up my pre requisites and then I can apply to there nursing school! I'm extremely excited about that. Meanwhile, dad's house is up for sale. The landlord decided she had one to many properties and has decided to put the house up for sale. So, dad and I are dealing with house showings which is driving me nuts at the moment. It's kind of hard to keep a house perfect with a 5 month old. So if you know of any places for rent fairly cheap in Boonville please let me know.

Lorelai is now 5 months old and getting into everything! She is still working on sitting up. She can get the top half of her back up but not the lower half. She is still rolling over to her stomach but hasn't figured out rolling over to her back. Oh and we started actual baby food. She is totally loving that and I can't seem to feed it to her fast enough. These past few days she has been congested so I'm trying to keep her from getting sick. Vicks vapor rub is totally amazing! Anywho I can't believe it's been five months already. She just keeps growing and suprising me everyday!

On the other hand my good friend Nic came home from boot camp this past week! It was good to see him. I can't even begin to say how proud of him I am and how greatful I am for his service even though he is just beginning! I pray for all of our service members and the hard work that they do and their families that allow them to do it! Unfortunately, Nic had to leave this morning to go to combat training and then to tech school. So it's going to be awhile before we see him again.

Last but not least apart of this new chapter in my life is I'm once again determined to lose more weight! Being pregnant does some strange things to your body. I have to say I have lost all the "baby weight" but it has shifted all the weight into some places that I really don't like! So I'm working on that! Bring on the fruits, veggies, water/tea, and some good old fashion exercise!

Brittney is Going to Drive Me Nuts if I Don't Do This!

Here it goes....Since the last time I have posted Dad managed to fall and break his ankle in three places on Nov 22nd. Then Nov 29th he had surgery on his ankle. That went pretty good and since then he has been home with his foot elevated and on "good drugs" as he likes to say. So Lorelai and I have been staying at my dad's helping him out and trying to get him back on his feet, literally. Dad just recently got a letter stating that there is a possibility that he could go back to work on light duty on Jan 17th but would be unable to go back to full duty until May 2nd. Just in time for my sister Zoe's 18th bday and graduation! Meanwhile, he has just recently this past week gotten a low grade infection which had been causing him to chill and have a slight fever. He was put on antibiotics and we get to wait till he goes to the doctor on Jan 18th. Thanksgiving was fun. Me and my siblings spent thanksgiving with my mom. At our house we consider Thanksgiving to be "mom's holiday." She loves it! It was great to be around my family and spend some time with them. Then we were going to go to dad's that evening but we were so exhausted that we just decided we would have Thanksgiving w/ dad over the weekend. That was totally enjoyable we went out for our dinner and got to enjoy each others company.



December and Christmas was an interesting time. December I got a 3rd job which is a temporary full time job at MBS Books in there call center. So I started training for them Dec 13th and finished training on the 28th. I actually had my first day on the call floor on Dec 29th and that was a totally nerve racking experience in my life. There are so many little details involved in that and make it a kind of complicated job when you are first learning. You definitely have to be good at multitasking. I guess that's why a lot of women work there. lol. Anyhow, I'm still working there and hoping that it may lead to a full time permanent position. We will see what happens with that though! Christmas, Oh boy what a story! It started off Christmas Eve my entire family including both my parents went to Christmas Eve service and sat together. Mom then invited dad over for chili afterwards. So we all loaded up after church and went to mom's for dinner. It was almost 11pm by the time we wound down. So mom suggested that Dad should just go stay the night at my brothers house with him and then come back in the morning and we can all open presents together and have breakfast. Christmas morning us girls woke up and got the morning rolling and waited oh so very patiently for my dad and brother to arrive. It was noon before they finally got there! We then all got our presents and opened them one by one. Then we sat down and had what was supposed to be breakfast but turned out to be more of a brunch. After that we all laid down and took naps because we were exhausted. When we all finally woke up it was time for another McDougal Family tradition.....CHINESE! This all started one year when mom burnt the food for our Christmas dinner so we decided we were going to go out to eat and the only place open was the Chinese restaurants. Now every Christmas we go out for dinner at the Chinese restaurant. So Dad had invited mom to come to Chinese dinner with us. We all went to Chinese and had an enjoyable time. I will say though trying to get food when your on crutches is quite the experience as dad was soon to find out. Lorelai, managed to knock over my full glass of soda with her arm at dinner. I was very happy to have her around and watch her experience her first Christmas w/ all the crazy McDougal Family Traditions. I was also very blessed to actually get to spend an entire Christmas with my whole family together. That was quite the experience in being humble and learning to forgive.



It's now January and Lorelai is now 3 months old. At her 2 month doctor appt she was 10 pounds 12.5 ounces and 22 in long. At that same appt she got her first shots. She handled it like a champ. She cried for 5 minutes and then was just fine. I also found out that she has colic. That has been a test of my patience. Overall though she is doing wonderfully and getting big. She has gotten a lot more vocal and this weekend we hit a huge milestone. She rolled over all by herself! i was a very proud mommy to see that happen!

Things just continue to be interesting around here and full of new adventures every day!

Learning To Be Mommy

Okay so Lorelai is now 1 month and two days old! She has grown quite a bit in the past month and she currently ways 8 pounds and 3 ounzes. We have already gone on lots of adventures. She has met the dogs and they are slowly adjusting to each other. Archie still whines like crazy when he is around her. We have gone to the park and gotten lots of pictures taken. Thank you Laura! We have gone to my dad's aka Papa's house and stayed there in Boonville. We met a bunch of Papa's friends from work at caterpillar! The girls have gone nuts everytime they see her. We have gone over to Brittney's house and played with Gabe! Play dates already. She went to her first Halloween party over and Greg and Laurens and we had tons of fun! Then we stayed home and watched scary movies and passed candy out to all the trick or treaters. Then this past weekend Lorelai got to meet her daddy for the first time. He has been in St.Louis which is where he lives and couldn't make it for her birth. So we spent the weekend with her dad and let them try to get used to each other. I'm definitely learning a lot being a mommy but I do have to say is thank you god for giving me a very relaxed and easy child to deal with! She is sooo patient with her mommy! Anyhow, I will keep everyone updated on the new experiences we have as we go along!

Lorelai Elizabeth 10/7/10! She finally made it to the world!

I know I'm a little behind but I figured I would try to update a little bit. On Oct 5th I had my 37 week doctor appointment. Well at that point I was still doing ultrasounds every week and in these ultrasounds they watch the baby to see if they do their practice breathing. Well my daughter decided not to do her practice breathing. My doctor then decided that we would do another ultrasound the next day and see if she decided to do it then. So I went in the next day and they did the ultrasound and of course my stubborn daugther decided that she didn't want to do her breathing exercises again. Then we went in and talked to my doctor again and he decided that it was time to induce!

Next step was to run home get my bags and call everyone under the sun and let them know we would be having a baby the next day! After about an hour or so I finally got back to the hospital and they gave me a med called cervadel to try to thin out my cervix. I had to keep that in for 12 hours and then they started the pitocin. This started my contractions and there I sat for the next 12 hours having contractions that they kept telling me were as strong as contractions that women normally have at 10cm and I was sleeping through them! They were totally amazed! Anyhow eventually I dilated to 4cm and then got stuck there for about four hours. The doctor then said that it was time to consider a c-section. Which made me extremely upset. I was bound and determined to have this baby naturally but they were worried that if I kept trying naturally that something would happen. So, I finally agreed to have the c-section. They then wheeled me off and got me prepped. I ended up having a spinal block which totally numbed me from mid belly all the way to my toes. One of the strangest feelings I think I will ever experience. They got me into the operating room and it was freezing cold. I was shaking so bad I thought I was having a seizure. Eventually they finally let my mom come in and sit with me which was very comforting to have her in there with me. Next thing I knew I was getting sick and threw up apple juice all over the place! Mom laughs and says I managed to make it 21 years with out getting puked on! Anyhow the doctor is sitting there tugging and pulling on my stomach and all I feel like is there is some very weird numb,pressure feeling all over. Then all of a sudden at 7:04pm I heard my baby girl cry! It was the greatest thing ever. It felt like it took forever for them to bring her around to me so I could see her. When I finally got to see her all I could think was how much she looked like me. She has my eyes and mouth and her daddy's nose, hands, and feet! She was goregous. She weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 20 and 3/4 inches long! She had a head full of black thick hair and she came out peeing on the doctors and flipping them off. We then stayed in the hosptial for four days after that and met everyone! Then we got to go home and have been enjoying each other and learning about each others little tendencies ever since then!

I'm exhausted!!!

Ok so it is now 11:35 pm and I have now been up for about 24hrs straight. I'm officially exhausted and all I want to do is sleep but I just can't manage to get comfortable. The good news is today I'm 36 weeks pregnant meaning I have hit the nine month mark and I only have 4 weeks to go that is if Lorelai doesn't decide to show up before hand. I have a doctor appointment in the morning so we will see what the doctor has to say and if he is going to make her show up early! As much as I'm anxious to meet my bundle of joy I figure she will come out when she is ready. So I try to just deal with all the things that are making me uncomfortable at this point knowing that it is all to keep her healthy and happy!

I went to check out a home daycare today. I was very excited about it. The lady who runs it is very friendly and she was a nurse but her real passion is run her daycare. There are only three other kids there at the moment one of which is her daugther. The oldest kid there is only two, this made me feel more comfortable knowing that Lorelai would have kids pretty close to her age around. I was also pretty excited because she works with the kids on sign language and spanish...I know it's a tad early for the spanish but I had definitely planned on teaching Lorelai some sign language anyway so that was very encouraging as well.

Well I think I'm going to attempt to go lay down and see if I can catch a few zzzs. Anywho have a good night everyone and I will let you know the appt goes in the morning!