Mobile Chloe

Well I offically have a crawler now.. She took her first crawls on 8-25-09 in the hospital waiting room (get to that in a bit). She was so intrigued by a watch my Aunt Deb has that sings and has a little red light on it that she went for it! It was soo much fun to watch her crawl for the first time.. I am so glad I didn't miss that! Now I know why I stay home with my girl! She also now sits up on her own started doing that on 8-22-09. What I mean by sit up is she can take herself from her stomach to a sitting position. She gets better and better with each day. She has a hard time getting around in certian clothes (her PJ's & dresses) so I try not to have her in them for to long. She is very attracted to our TV stand. It is all open with Glass shelves, so she sees the lights on the electronics and all the DVD's and game controlers etc... I worry that she will hurt herself on the glass if she falls near it... So I currently have made a blocker with our laundry hampers.. may not b to creative, but it gets the job done! I am pretty sure she is trying to pull herself up also.. She trys to climb the walls sometimes and can get onto her knees when holding on to something so far. I don't know if I can help her in anyway or if she just has to do it on her own? She tends to fall down the most when she is attempting to pull herself up though and I hate to see her fall. So yea... she is a busy little girl getting around now.

About why I was at a hospital, my cousin Mandy was in the hospital in kidney failure. They said she had a condition called TTP and they were treating her with platlate transfusions which seemed to help her. She did however find herself in the ICU for a couple of days, she def had the family worried for awhile there. Now I have heard she is home with her baby, but still recovering.

Papa came here for a visit along with my sister and nephew. That was fun. I think my sister was in awe of how pretty the mountians are here. She couldn't get over the view we have from our very front yard. I am glad that she could get away from all the drama in her life and come here for a couple of days though. My sister, nephew (Dom) and I all went to a waterpark for a day. That was very fun. That was the first time I was away from Chloe for more than just 2 hours. Chloe stayed with Papa and Eric at home until they later met us in Branson for dinner. It was great to enjoy that time with Denise and Dom though. I think they had a good time also.

Eric has been doing good at work. He lost one of his best sellers a week or so ago. That seems to be a lil hard on him, because not many of his other people are that good. They have decided not to rehire right now either until things pick up a little bit more. Eric did sell a lot more last week and is having a good week this week also so I can't complain about that too much. I know it is just going to be a little more stress for him for awhile though. He does really good with Chloe also. It seemed hard in the beginning as I felt he didn't really want to help a lot and he felt I just wanted to push her off on him as soon as he got home from work. We went in circles with that for a couple months. I know that I stay home with her, but that doesn't mean he gets out of everything either. I did night duty pretty much everynight (except maybe the first couple weeks, that was bc we kept her in our room). I slept in the livingroom with Chloe for a good month - 6 weeks. She was a hard baby the first couple months as she had acid reflux and colic... yea. She literally cried 10-12hrs a day. I was lucky to get 1hr of sleep at a time. But we made it through it, and now she is a really good girl. She is on a schedule (not to the minute), and she seems to do well with it. She takes 2 naps a day eats 4 bottles and 3 solid meals, and plays a lot! Now when I lay her down for naps/bedtime she goes to sleep on her own without a fuss. I am so lucky that she is doing so good now and thankful. Anyway, I don't really know where all that came from.. lol guess thats bloggin right!

Anyway, Eric and I are doing great today is actually our 3 year anniversary. I am making ham, mashed tators, and green beans for us for dinner tonight. We will be together for 9 years on the 12th. I bought him the newest iphone a couple weeks ago and I get an iphone in Oct when I can upgrade so that is our gifts to each other this year. Oh yea... when we were at the waterpark I lost my new diamond cross necklace I got for our ann. last year. Sad sad... I miss that thing it was soo pretty and expensive too. but what can ya do... Okay well, I think thats about it for now... maybe I need to get on here more so these are so long lol!

Smooches ;)

Changes...

My title "Changes" of course referring to Chloe... what else right? I mean she is a pretty big part of my world. Anyway, She has been chaning so fast lately. She is now clapping, waving, giving high fives, and of course saying Mama. The best of the three is clapping... she just loves to clap and she does it at the cutest times. She was getting good at waving, but seems to be back stepping a little bit on that one. She also is becoming mobile. OH MY! She rolls all over the place and uses her arms to spin her while her tummy is the pivot point. It is so cute. She just rolls around and has to figure out what everything is about. I can see now that crawling isn't too far away. Just one day out of the blue she starting rolling all over the room. Now i set her down and look back in a couple minutes and shes in a whole new spot. She has been such a happy girl and it just melts me that she is content just laying on the floor giggling away. Pretty independent, but likes company as well. She has recently also went from 3 naps a day to 2. She takes one in the morning usually around 9ish and then one in the afternoon around 2-3. The morning nap is about an 1-1.5hrs. The afternoon nap is usually 2 hours. She used to take three 1 hour naps or longer sometimes.

Her eating habits have changed a little bit also. She takes 4 6oz bottles a day, I still have to help her hold them, but sometimes I can let go of them for a little bit. She eats cereal in the mornings, a meat meal in the afternoon, and some veggies or fruit in the evenings. Usually I will also give her some puffs or yougart melts for her to feed herself at least 1time a day after one of her meals. She is just learning to finger feed herself though. We have tried in the past and she would freak out and chock and throw up, but now she gets the food down when she makes it into her mouth lol. She is just growing up... so crazy to think she will be 8 months old next week.

Well, besides all of that, Denise, Dominic, and Papa are currently on thier way here to visit. I am making some lasagna for dinner when they get here. I look forward to having them here to visit us and see Chloe and how much she is learning and changing.

Oh, with Chloes new found mobility, I decided to try re arranging out living room... which I did. I wanted to try and make sure things would be as safe as possible for her, wires out of the way, nothing she can break where she can get to it, etc... Also she has lots of room to move around now. So it worked out well.

Alright, I am sure I will write more about our visit later...

Vacation & Colds

We went to TN for the week of the 12th -19th and it was fun. Eric seemed to enjoy his time with us and his parents. We went to Opry Mills mall one day, enjoyed putt putt golfing, and really just enjoyed hanging around together. Chloe was a good baby as she normally is. Eric went golfing with his Dad one morning so Chloe and I went shopping with Eric's Mom. We went to Babies R Us of course and Grandma and Mommy got Chloe all kinds of nice clothes. I think we got her pretty set for the 9month range. She was in need of some sleeper outfits so we got her a few of those also. Everything I saw I wanted to buy for her, girl baby clothes are just so stinkin' cute!! Overall it was a great vacation.





The last day or so of our vacation I started to notice I wasn't feeling so great. Of course when we got home I was pretty sick.. just very congested, sore ears and throat. I then passed it off to poor Chloe... her first time being sick. I hate having to suction her nose and she hates it too. We have been giving her saline spray in her nose also. We also gave her vapor baths and stripped her down to her diaper and put baby vicks on her. The first two nights were the worst. The first night I was up with her for a long time up and down until I finally put her in our bed with us. The next night she just went straight into our bed (this whole time I was still sick too). The thrid night she was back in her bed sleeping all night, although she is still congested as am I and now Eric may be catching it, she is doing much much better than those first days.





Things that we are looking forward to is having my sister Denise and nephew Dominic and Papa come to visit on August 10th. Denise and Dominic are going to stay thru I believe the 15th and Papa is going to stay till the end of August then Chloe and I are going to drive him home and visit people in Paxton for a day or 2. Eric's parents said they are going to see about making it here for her birthday or at least before her birthday. And Papa is talking about coming here for the holidays also. So that is going to keep us busy for awhile.





Chloe's progress is good.. she weighed 18lbs at the doctors office when we took her in for her cold. She is in the 67%. She still has no teeth, she isn't crawling yet (not really showing a lot of interest in it either), she really prefers to just be sitting up playing with her toys or in her jumperoo. She is a really good baby though hardly ever cries anymore. She is learning to wave and it is so cute!! I like to hold her when she lets me lol. She really is independent, and seems to like it. I had a great bonding experience with her when she was first sick however. I just held her so close until she feel asleep in my arms and then I just didn't put her down. I really felt like such a Mommy holding my sick baby (even tho I was sick too)... heres a pic of me holding her. That has to be one of our most close moments yet...

So that is about all I really have to say for now.. Hope all is well...

Recent Happenings

Lately I have had some things going on in my life. Papa had back surgery on June 24th and I went to IL for a little over a week to be there with him. His surgery was on disc's 4 and 5 in his lower back. The surgery went well, just will take a long recovery process now. Papa was transported from the hospital to a nursing home in Paxton where he lives on Monday June 29th. My Dad was also there for Papa's surgery. My Dad was having severe pains in his stomach/side area so on June 25th (Papa's worst day) my Dad went to the ER at the hospital. The woman doctor told my Dad that she thought it was his liver and his gallbladder. Not much of a shocker with how much he drinks. Anyway, he got out of the ER 7-8hrs after going in and was told to take Ibuprofen and stop drinking. During that time I was in Papa's room most of the time helping him as he wasn't doing so great with pain and comfort. My Dad and I ended up staying the night in Papa's room on Thursday night. Friday morning the 26th we went back to Papa's house for showers and so I could get Chloe (she stayed with Eric's parents as they were in town checking on Eric's grandma who had a stroke). We went back to the hospital on Saturday and took Chloe with us thinking we would stay for just a couple hours and lift Papa's spirits as he was asking about Chloe. Well, my Dad still in a lot of pain, went back to the ER, so I was stuck waiting for him. Chloe and I went to my Aunt Carol's house for awhile while we waited to see what was going to happen with my Dad. He finally called and said they were keeping him in the hospital overnight so we went and said goodnight to Papa and went home. Sunday I left Chloe with some friends of ours in Paxton (where she stayed Tues night and Wed also) and went to check on Papa and my Dad. Papa was doing better with each day at this point. My Dad was going to have his gallbladder removed, but the surgeon told him that he wouldn't do it since he didn't have insurance, he told my Dad to go to the hospital in Joliet to get it handled. He doesn't medically need it removed, but he doesn't want to have this pain ever again so he wanted it removed. Anyway, Monday Papa and my Dad were released from the hospital. My Aunt Carol took my Dad to the train station to send him back to Joliet and I took Papa to Paxton to the nursing home. Papa had me drive him by his house and a couple other places so I could tell he was feeling better. It is just really hard for him to move around. Finally on Tuesday I came back home to be with Eric and Chloe. Papa seems to be doing better with everyday and I talk to him on the phone quite a bit. So that was a very stressful trip to IL for me, but it is over now.

For the 4th of July we went to "I Love America" a celebration our church hosts. There were over 120k people this year, last year there were around 80k. This year though the city of Springfield did not have fireworks, so I know that is part of why so many more came out. It was a good time for us, we saw some concerts an air show and of course fireworks. We had earplugs for Chloe's ears, and she loved the fireworks. As soon as they started she got all excited flinging her arms around, smiling and just staring at them. I think I watched her more than I did the fireworks. I love fireworks so she must get it from me lol. I am just glad she enjoyed them and so did we.

In a week we are going to go to TN to see Eric's parents for a week and relax. This time we are not going to IL and TN as it just gets to be stressful driving all that distance, its not even a vacation for us then. So we hope to enjoy ourselves and just have some quality time together. I'm sure I'll write about that later!

That is about all that has been happening lately. Write more later...

First Time Blogger!!

I am new at this whole blogging thing.. but why not give it a go! Maybe it will be a good place to get some things off my mind.. right? So I don't exactly know where to start but with Chloe Jo of course!! I am sure anyone who would be interested in even reading my blogs will know that Chloe is my 6 month old daughter. She is my world!! I love her so very much... Here's a pic, just bc I wanna look at her... gosh she is adorable!! I know I know I am biased for sure!

Chloe has changed me so much these past 6 months into pretty much a new person. I still can't quite grasp the fact that I am a Mommy.. me.. Jen McQuinn a Mommy.. WOW! I just never was the person that had to be a Mommy growing up, but I wouldn't change it for anything (if you would have asked me when she was 1-2mos maybe different).

Of course Eric is the LOVE of my life! He and I have been going strong for nearly 9 years now.. married for nearly 3 of those years... I hope to be 73 and blogging on here someday as Eric says I will be lol. He is silly and makes me laugh all the time. He is a great husband and great Daddy too! He works hard to do whatever he can for his family. Still a typical guy though.. loves his sports, and doesn't always clean up after himself. But who cares about that... hes a guy its to be expected right? All that really matters is he loves his family and would do anything for us as we would for him.

So anyway, besides my love for Chloe... new in my life is that I will be going home (to IL) next Monday as Papa is having surgery on his back. His surgery is on Wednesday the 24th. I am nervous for him and feel kinda bad that I can't be there longer than just a mere week. He will do okay though as he is a strong man.

After I get home from going to IL, a week or so later Eric, Chloe, Boomer, & I will be going to TN to visit his parents for a week. That should be nice to get away with the family and have Eric all to us for a week. Other than that, well not much happening.

Hope all of you do well.. whoever may decide to read this. Any blogging tips are welcome!!!