Finally a few minutes for an update!

As you can see we have been incredibly busy over the last few weeks. We have not even had time to update the blog. So many new things going on I am not sure where to start. Brie is doing well and is becoming quite an independent little girl. She will finally play with her toys by herself. She loves to read books and will bring them to you one after the other to read. We probably read about 20 in a day. She is talking a little more and has added baby and Brie-Brie to her list of words.
Memorial day weekend we spent in Wildwood, NJ. Brie had a wonderful time. She enjoyed running on the beach and getting sand everywhere. At first she was afraid of the water, but once she put her feet in there was no stopping her. She kept running back in faster then we could take her out. The water was freezing! She wanted to go in further then just her feet but it was definitely too cold for that. She was very angry when we took her away from the water and screamed the entire way back to the hotel.
Later in the weekend Brie got her first chance to wade in the kiddie pool at the hotel. The weather was beautiful for the trip. The pool was of course freezing, but she loved it. It was a packed weekend and Brie did pretty well. She fussed a little at restaurants and ate pretty poorly, but that is our normal.
Since coming home from vacation we are now the proud owners of a home. On Tuesday we made the long trip to Muncy and spent alot of our savings and the bank's money on a house. Now the work really begins. This weekend we are heading back to buy paint, tear out walls, and clean before we start the moving process. The house is over 100 years old and needs some work, but will be nice once we get it finished. We are slowly going to do the work with the help of family and friends.
All throughout vacation, Brie slept very poorly. We hoped it was just being in a new place and sleeping in her pack-n-play, but no such luck. She slept well Monday and Tuesday night, but Wednesday she started with a cold. She is very congested, coughing and has a slight fever. Today she was pretty miserable and spent most of her time sitting with me or sleeping on my chest. She is eating very poorly and has only had about 9 oz of formula today so far. She did have some pedialyte and some juice to keep herself hydrated. Hopefully she will take some more formula in a little bit. She is sleeping peacefully right now and kept pushing the bottle away. I think in addition to the cold she is getting two more teeth. I can see another one of her bottom teeth poking through. At least it is all at once and maybe soon we will get some sleep.

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

Brie had a wonderful time at the beach. She loved playing in the sand, running in the freezing ocean, and walking in the kiddie pool. She had a great time!

How Preemie Moms are chosen

This is something that was sent to me on mother's day that I thought I would share.

~*~How Preemie Moms Are Chosen~*~(Erma Bombeck)

Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen?
Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation.
As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger.
"Armstrong, Beth, son. Patron Saint, Matthew.Forrest, Marjorie, daughter. Patron Saint, Celia.Rutledge, Carrie, twins. Patron Saint...give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles."Give her a preemie." The angel is curious. "Why this one, God?She's so happy.""Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter? That would be cruel." "But does she have the patience?" asks the angel. "I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it. I watched her today. She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own. She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy." "But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you." God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect She has just the right amount of selfishness."The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?"God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says momma for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see--ignorance, cruelty, prejudice--and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side.""And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in the air. God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

Our little ham!

Well yesterday Brie spent some time at the mall getting a family portrait with her cousins Christian and Brandon. I think we gave the photographer a run for her money. She did an excellent job and got great photos of the three kids, but it was not without great effort. Between Brie running away and Brandon crawling away and then spitting up all over himself and the backdrop it is amazing we got any good photos.

Recently we discovered that Brie loves to be outside. On Monday we spent the day in Muncy doing home inspections and mortgage stuff and Brie spent her entire day walking around the yard of our house. She loved it. In fact the next day she spent much of her afternoon pointing out the screen door and fussing until we finally went outside. It is difficult to find a place to take her to play outside right now. The complex we live in recently sprayed all of the grass with a pesticides and has signs saying to keep kids off the grass. How awful. The same thing has happened at the local park. The only place I am comfortable letting her run around is in the play area. It is pretty ironic that a park has signs up to keep kids off the grass because of chemicals. And the we wonder why so many kids are obese. They cannot even play in the park!

On an eating front, Brie has been doing better. She did have two days where she vomited entire bottles again. One on Monday night and then again this morning. She does have a little cough and we think that is to blame, but overall she does not seem to be affected by it. This morning I think there was just to much in her little tummy. She ate about 10 bites of my rice krispies, about 10 blueberries, an entire nutragrain bar and some goldfish all before her morning nap. She then drank 5 oz although not with out protest for the last few oz. Well I guess the protest was for good reason because a few minutes later she revisited most of her breakfast. It is so hard to tell if she is just being stubborn or if she is full.

Brie recently hit 18 lbs! She is growing taller as well. Many of her 6-9 month sleepers are getting small. Hopefully she will be able to wear her 12 months clothes for summer. I did get a good deal on some summer stuff off of ebay for her. It was a combo of 6-9 and 12 month clothing all for summer. She got about 50 outfits for $50 including socks, 2 bathing suits
(she now has 4 for the summer), and hair accessories.

March for Babies

Today was the big March of Dimes March for Babies. Even with the rainy weather it turned out to be a pretty good day. In the beginning we were not sure we were going to make it the 5.2 miles. Brie was pitching a fit and did not want to sit in her stroller. She wanted to walk. She was tired and hungry, but refused to take a bottle (we were out in public why would she). Finally after the first 1/2 mile she decided to take her bottle and a nap. Mommy's back was killing her from walking and feeding her at the same time. We actually got to sit down for a few minutes at the first rest area and give her some more of her bottle. She actually slept for the next hour or so and woke up in a much better mood. So along with our friends we made it the next few miles. We did not break any records and were the very last team to make it back to the finish line, but we had a great time. At the end there was a little picnic and we enjoyed hotdogs and chips. Here are a few photos of today:

here we are warming up before the walk:

Brie snoozing during the walk:

Brie holding hands with her NICU buddy Anthony

In addition we are almost the proud new owners of our first house. We have a signed agreement for a house in Muncy and are just working on getting a loan. It is a little complicated because of moving to a new area and me only working part time right now, but our person at the bank does not think it will be a problem. Marcus and I both have jobs lined up already so we should be in good shape. Now we have to search for daycare for Brie. Now that she is over a year we really want her to have some interaction with other children. She is very fussy and always wants to be the center of attention. Because of her rough start we have always catered to her, but that needs to stop. We are thinking about taking her to a drop in center this summer to get her used to the idea. There is a local center here that she can go to for a few hours a week so she is around other children. Now that RSV season is over it is time to enroll her. Hopefully it will help.

lounging at the Zoo

Wondering at the zoo

As for eating, Brie is hit and miss. Some meals she will eat very well and others almost nothing. Today was not a very good day. She missed her afternoon nap and was very fussy at dinner time so ate almost nothing. She did drink her bottles well today so hopefully that will make up her calories for the day. Brie continues to gain weight despite her poor eating. Last night she was 17 lbs 13 oz. It is not much of a gain, but it is something. She also seems to be getting taller. Many of her 6-9 month pajamas are getting too short.

Lots of excitement this weekend!

So Brie has had another eventful weekend. It started with a trip to Germansville to celebrate her cousin Brandon's first birthday. She had a great time playing outside with Christian and Pop. We had to leave before the party really got started, because Brie has more visitors waiting for her at our house. Grandpa and Grandma Myers, Aunt Cindy and Great Grandma Bert came to visit for the weekend. Brie had a great time feeding Grandpa grapes and playing with her blocks. More excitement occurred when Great Grandma had problems breathing in the middle of the night. Brie thankfully slept through the entire night, but Grandma ended up spending a few days in the hospital. She was released today and is feeling much better.

After a few difficult nights with Brie waking up screaming, Marcus and I discovered that Brie has 2 new teeth. The top two have finally made there appearance. She seems to be getting a few more as well. She has raised bumps on both the top and bottom.

Despite the teething, Brie has been eating fairly well. Tonight for dinner she ate almost 1/2 of a piece of tilapia, a few bites of rice, some green beans and for desert some freeze dried raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and apples. Hopefully she will keep this up. We would love to get rid of the bottle, but right now it is still her primary form of nutrition and we can get about 350-400 calories into her a day. From my research she needs about 900 calories a day to gain weight and I think on some days we come close.

As for development, Brie has been walking very well for about a month. She was even able to negotiate the uneven grass at the zoo. It was funny to hear the comments from other parents when they saw her walking. Most of them revolved about how small she is to be walking so well. Brie has also started clapping and signing. She can now sign more and all done. She even signs more for food. We didn't think that would ever happen!

Our little social butterfly!

This weekend Brie was on the move. She spent Saturday at Nana and Pop's house. She playing both inside and out with Christian and had a great time. She even took a bottle for Nana. Of course they had to go for a drive to get her to fall asleep and then she took it, but it is a start. She did not eat very well with them for lunch, but she has not been eating very well due to her cold and teething.

Saturday night we celebrated Nana and Poppop Miller's 50th wedding anniversary. Brie did very well sitting in her highchair and playing with her cousins. She actually ate pretty well at the restaurant. She munched on chicken fingers, hamburger, and mommy's salmon in addition to the various crunchy junk foods that she normally eats. She had fun sharing her baby cheese curls with Brandon.

On Sunday Brie visited with her little friends as well. A good friends baby was baptised this weekend. Brie had a good time running around the lobby of the church and did not get to see little Emily get baptised, but she had fun anyway. She gave daddy a little bit of a hard time at the restaurant, but not more then he could handle. At times she can be difficult when we are out. She was hungry, but refused to eat. She just does not understand that food makes her feel better. Brie has learned that the bottle makes her feel better, but she will not take one for Marcus when they are out.

We are trying to get rid of the bottle so hopefully that not be an issue for much longer. Brie drinks juice and water very well out of a sippy cup and will occasionally drink some formula our of one as well. This week we are going to transition her to a new formula. It is Elecare vanilla. It is similar to her current formula, but it tastes and smells better. It also has more calories per ounce, 30 as compared to 20. We are going to try only offering it in a sippy cup and see how it goes.