Rylee's first Christmas

I can not begin to explain how good it felt to be able to spend Christmas with both my girls this year. I get teary just thinking about it. Renee and I have had our ups and downs the last few years and our Christmas's have been hit and miss, mostly miss. This year she graced me with her presence BOTH Christmas eve AND Christmas day. I'm not sure that she realizes how much that meant to me. That girl can melt my heart like no one else can and she has broken my heart like no one else has. I thank god that we have the relationship that we do today and I pray that it keeps getting stronger.

As for Miss Rylee... She had so much fun too. She is 7 1/2 months now and forget the presents, she'll take the wrapping paper! We were good as long as she had her binky in her mouth, she kept the paper out, Her favorite toy was the bumble bee pillow pet that nana and papa gave her. She hugged and hugged then when she was all done opening presents with papa, she layed on it to drink her bottle.

She is growing so fast. She sits now all by herself for long periods of time. She holds her own bottle and is perfectly content with feeding herself. NO TEETH YET. We are still waiting for those. I am still waiting to hear the word MOMMA come out of her mouth but I guess that will come in due time too.
This truly was my best Christmas EVER. I love my girls with all my heart!

6 Mos. 3 weeks (Thanksgiving Day)

I laid in bed last night thinking to myself, how do babies know when they are supposed to do what? Strange question to ask myself ? Probably. It was a sleepless night. Rylee has a cold. So, I laid awake listening for every little sniffle and snort from her room.
I opened the e-mail from baby center the other day that said: Your Baby 6 months week 3. "You baby is turning over now. She is turning ffrom back to front and vice versa." I thought, "Nooo, she's not." Well, 2 days ago, there she goes, turning over like she's been doing it all along! This is a good thing right? Except when she cries because she's wandered all the way across the room and can't figure out how to get back to her toys! I know that I should be careful what I wish for. I am not rushing her. She is not sitting up on her own yet. That will come. I am enjoying her everyday.
Today is her first Thanksgiving. I'm sure it will be waay overstimulating for her as she is going to be spending time with a lot of family. Uncle Lyle alone can be overwhelming as he is VERY loud. I have no doubt that she will sleep very well tonight though. I'll update later with a Thanksgiving pic of my 2 favorite girls on this Thanksgiving.

Sound Effects ( 6 mos.)

She may not be crawling yet or sitting up. But, my kid has the best sound effects of any 6 month old out there. My attorney was telling me yesterday that her son was learning sign language at 7 months. I told her that while her son might know sign language, my daughter knows how to wrinkle her nose and snort real loud. She started this at sunday family dinner last week. While waiting for her next bite, she thought she could get my attention by wrinkling her nose and breathing heavy through her nose. Well, she got the attention of everyone in the room and when she realized everyone was laughing and watching her, she did it even more until she was snorting over and over. Yes, my family and myself are easily amused but it was great fun. Now, she snorts every chance she gets and yes, I still find it quite amusing. She will crawl and sit up when she is ready. In the meantime, I am enjoying the little things everyday.

Rylee's first Halloween 2011

Well, I'd like to be able to write about a wild and crazy Halloween. BUT..... truth is, it was pretty uneventful. Halloween being on a Monday this year made it even more uneventful. We went about our nightly routine as usual. She is making life for mommy so easy with her schedule that I don't like to do anything that might mess it up. So, it was like any other day for us.
However, Friday night was a different story. I got her dressed up and we headed to Harvest Fest at Ridgecrest Elementary. She wore the outfit that her sissy bought for her and she made her appearance. All the kids loved seeing her and she loved seeing all the kids. I figured that was enough of a celebration for her first halloween at only 5 3/4 months old. Next year will be totally different. We will party like rockstars and rake in the candy.

Rylee's dedication 10/22/11

This was the first of many important events in Rylee's life. I am so thankful for those who cared enough to join us and celebrate this with us.... Thank you to Nana and papa, The entire Fierro Family, Uncle Lyle and Cassie, Big sister Renee and finally ..... mommy!

We started shopping for THE DRESS weeks before the date. We did not have to pick a formal, fancy dress but nothing but the best for our little Rylee. We announced the event on facebook and invited everyone we knew to share this with us. Charlene, her godmother got her outfit together for her and even bought her the cutest little tights.

We decided to have everyone over after the service to celebrate with cupcakes. Charlene made pink cupcakes and even put cream filling in the middle.

The service was really nice. She looked so cute and was such a good girl! She was soooo tired. After being passed around before the service, she passed out in fillip's arms. The pastor called all the babies to the stage and she slept until the pastor said into his microphone," Lisa Resser with Rylee Elizabeth" Just then she popped her head up with eyes wide open at attention. Everyone laughed and she stole the show.
Some members of the church came and prayed over us and she was dedicated!

It was perfect! Just an incredible day. Thanks again to those people who shared it with us.

Mastering her skills by leaps and bounds. 5 months already

     It feels like she just got here and already, overnight, she is mastering skill after skill. She has perfect control of small objects in her hands. Unless her pacifier is stuck under her, she can find it and get it anywhere in her crib. (along with burp cloths that she likes to pull over her face.) She sleeps best with a blanket over her face which I don’t really like but puts her to sleep and keeps her asleep. I can tuck her blanket around her and come in to check on her and find it all up around her head.

     I watched her playing on her playmate yesterday. She turned completely around in a circle on her back trying to get to her baby. Struggling to flip over. She will be turning over by the end of the week.

     She is interested in whatever mom has in her hands now. As long as she was on my lap this weekend, texting on my phone was impossible. She kept grabbing it until I gave up. It won’t be long before I am pulling the cell phone out of her hands.

     I found the secret to keeping her occupied while I’m trying to get ready for the day. I propped her up on a pillow on my bed and turned spout on the TV. I know she is a little young for TV but at least it is educational and whatever gets us through! The only problem with that is that she does not know how to sit back and relax anymore. That girl has abs of steel! She has to be sitting up and will not let you lay her back. She is practically sitting up from a laying position. She is still wobbly but will be sitting up all on her own soon.

     As far as her diet, she is getting so much better about eating. She is eating a full jar of veggies and then some cereal too all in one sitting. She opens her mouth and we can finish a meal now without getting it in her hair.

     The last biggest thing she has almost mastered now is that she is holding her own bottle. She is still trying to get used to controlling it and it’s a little heavy when it’s full but she does okay.

Boy, she is growing waaaay to fast. That’s about it for now. Update ya later!

Managing mornings alone

I usually manage to get up, get ready and get out the door to work on time. This morning my darling was in her crib talking to herself before I even got out of bed. I put her pacifier in her mouth in hopes that she would put herself back to sleep. Well, by the time I got out of the shower, my poor baby was crying so hard, she was hyperventilating. This is the first time I've "propped" a bottle for her. Into her car seat she went with a bottle to hold her over as I gathered everything and headed out the door to get ready on the go. She was just really hungry I guess. As soon as she ate, she was cheerful, talkative and ready to face the day. So, tonight I fed her until she didn't want anymore and kept her up a little later. Hopefully she does not make getting up before mom and habit. It's really hard for mom to "make it all better" AND get ready for work at 5AM. I love you Rylee. Sleep well my darling

Where she has come in 5 months

She will be 5 months in 3 days and I enjoy her so much. I had a really hard time at first. Unfortunately I had to deal with some health issues while trying to take care of her and if it weren't for my family, I have no idea what I would have done. I had a hard time dealing with the lack of sleep at first. The first 2 months I felt like i did not sleep at all. But, I promise you that whe that little girl looked at me and smiled for the first time at 2 months, I forgot any of the negatives or struggles I had experienced up to that point. That smile made it all worth it. By 3 months she was sleeping through the night. She'd go to bed by about 10 and be up at 6AM. I could not complain. Anything was better than every 2 hours like the first 2 months.
A  couple of weeks ago she was put on solid food. Doctor said she was ready. So, every night now she eats and eats at dinnertime. The fuller she gets, the better she sleeps. If she stays up until 9 PM, that's late. She still wakes up at 6AM but that's cuz during the week, I wake her up at that time so she is programmed. I will write more later. It's late for this momma too

Clarification

I guess that I should clarify. I am NOT becoming a single mom for the first time at 40. I have been a single mom to Renee, my oldest #1 beautiful daughter. I have my trials and tribulations with her. They are just a different kind.

She is going through her own period of adjustment and struggling with having a new sister who she loves with all her heart but has to share her mom with.  Renee is very demanding of my attention and due to the fact that her dad is absent from her life she has a hole in her heart that she is always trying to fill. I do my best to show her that she is still my world and that I love her no less now that she has a sister. But, we still go through times when she feels her sister is getting all the attention. I love you Renee with all my heart!

Why did I not start this sooner

Rylee is almost 5 months and I am just starting a blog about my trials and tribulations as a single mom at 40. She gets more amazing everyday. So, there is a lot to catch up on. My entire pregnancy I worried about how I would manage being a single, full time working mom. I invisioned all these terrible things that would happen when I could not handle everything on my plate. I worried I'd lose my job, my house and everything else when I could not take care of a baby and a job. Everyday gets easier and everything seems to fall into place. I get up and go to work in the morning because Rylee's future depends on me being able to provide for her well being. I get through my day knowing that at the end of my 8 hours I get to rush home to her and spend the rest of my evening doing what I love the most; caring for my beautiful little girl. I will talk about where she is with her development in the next blog