Carly {11 Months}

 11 months.  Less than a month until she's one.  Carly has been such a fun baby, I'm sad to see her growing up, but I'm also looking forward to seeing her personality develop and see the little person she's going to be.  She is becoming more demanding of what she wants and lets us know if she's unhappy about something.  She doesn't like when someone (usually Mason) takes something from her or she can't have what she wants.  She is still the most laid back of the three at this age, but she is busy, busy!!  She discovered the stairs about 2 weeks ago and that has made my life more difficult.  We don't have a great way to gate the stairs that is safe for Carly and the other kids.  She is pretty good about going up and she is fast.  It's opened a whole new world for her.

 She has taken a couple steps over the last two days.  Just one or two, but she's getting braver.  We could have a walker by next week!  She got to ride in the shopping cart this week and thought it was the greatest thing. 

 The poor thing is finally cutting some more teeth.  She got her first two at 6 months, so its been 5 months since shes gotten any teeth.  She cut the upper right a couple days ago and is working on a couple more.  It has made for some rough days and nights.  Her sleep had been getting better.  She would sleep throught he night a couple times a week.  Major regression over the last week, but I know its the teeth. 

                                                       
                                                           Using those toes as a teether

She is still a great eater.  I'm starting to plan her cupcake birthday party, crazy!  Carly is such a sweetie.  Love you, baby girl!

Carly {10 months}

Carly girl is 10 months!  Wow, she is getting so big.  It seems like it happens all of a sudden around 10 months, my babies go from seeming like small babies to pretoddlers.  It's crazy.  Last month I thought of her as just a baby and now I can see that toddlerhood is right around the corner.  Makes me sad:(  Her personality is emerging.  She loves to play with Alyssa and Mason and is starting to get mad when someone takes something from her or she can't have what she wants.  She smiles and waves all the time, at everyone.  It's pretty adorable. 

 

                                                                   Hello blue eyes

 She is a great eater, but doesn't care for baby food much anymore.  She wants the real stuff and eats everything we give her.  It's awesome to have a kid who actually likes the meals I prepare!  I really hope it stays that way.

 

She has been sleeping better.  She sleeps through the night a couple times a week.  When she does wake up at night it's usually after 4am and she goes back to sleep quickly.  A big improvement from a month or so ago.  I think she had RSV in January.  She was exteremely congested, coughing, watery eyes, and miserable.  She was sick for about 10-12 days.  Nobody else got sick, which was my first clue it was probably RSV.  I probably should have taken her to the doctor, but by the time I realized it might be RSV she seemed to be getting a little better.  She was a trooper and when she was finally better, her sleep improved!  She naps for an hour in the morning and 2-3 hours in the afternoon.  She goes to bed at 7 pm and is up between 6:30-7:30am.

 

She is cruising around everywhere and even took 2 steps the other day.  She's right on track to be walking before her birthday, just like her sister and brother.  She isn't as busy and into things as Mason was.  I was looking back at Mason's 9 and 10 month posts and he was crazy! Climbing the stairs, climbing on the fireplace, climbing in the cabinets.....he was exhausting.  Carly fell down our stairs once and still hasn't tried again.  She likes opening the cabinets and pulling stuff out.  She likes the bathroom and toilet paper.  She likes shoes.  She likes Mason's car track and Alyssa's small toys. 

It will be just a couple more months before she is off and running with her brother and sister.  I'm really cherishing all the snuggles and nighttime bottles.  Enjoying carrying her on my hip and the fact she will still sit quietly in her infant carseat through all our activities, but not for much longer I'm sure.  Babyhood goes far to fast.  I love you baby girl.  Grow slowly, please!

January

 This was Carly at 39 weeks 3 days on January 3rd.  Out as long as she was in.  I love these pictures of us.  I couldn't decide on just one.

 Mason really likes trains now.  He still loves cars, but he is branching out to other things too.

                                  Her eyes are piercing in this picture.  Her face is messy too.

 Nate and the kids built a really cool fort.  Nate decided that the kids needed proper fighting equipment (Nate insisted that Mason needed a sword so he would play fight with that and not other weapons he creates.  We've set up some rules and its been working out pretty well).

                                                                         Snow day

 Alyssa and Mason went out to play in the snow and Carly was a bit sad she had to stay in.  She just stood at the window and watched them the whole time. 

 

 We are going to Steamboat this weekend, so I plan on giving her her first snow experience then.

Carly {9 months}

I'm sneaking these pictures in on the last day of 9 months. I thought I posted her 9 month pics already.  I will try to remember what happened from 8-9 months. 

*Carly is a great eater.  She started eating more table food.  She will eat anything, so different than her brother and sister.
* Started crawling on her hands an knees around Christmas.
* Loved Christmas
*Still wakes once or twice at night.  She was sick after Christmas and woke up every 2-3 hours.  It was rough. 
*Finally moved her into 6-9 month clothes.
*She weighed 16 lbs 8 oz at one of Mason's doctor appts.
* No new teeth.  The four top teeth look like they are about to break through any day. But I''ve been saying that for two months :(
*Stayed with Nana, Poppop and Beezy while I went to Vegas.
*More mobile.  Pulling up, started cruising a little. 
* Fell down the stairs once.  Hasn't climbed up since.  Fast learner.

I'm sure there was a lot more, but I keep thinking about all the stuff she's done this month.  Carly is so fun and happy.  Its fun to see her interacting with Alyssa and Mason more and more.  Love you, baby girl!

Mason's hospital stay

We had a great Christmas Eve with our families.  We had our traditional dinner with my family and then went to church with Nate's.  We got the kids in bed, a little later than normal, but Alyssa and Mason were both excited for Christmas morning.  Mason woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and said his head and throat hurt, so Nate gave him some medicine and he slept until morning.  Mason was excited in the morning and didn't seem too sick. He had a bit of a croupy cough, but he didn't cough much.  He opened presents and played with his toys all morning.  He started feeling worse around lunchtime, so we put him down hoping he'd wake up feeling better.  I happened to go upstairs during his nap and heard him crying/ coughing.  It was so quiet, but when I went in he was a little distressed and didn't seem like he could catch his breath.  I am so glad I went up there. 

 

Nate took him out in the cold air for awhile and it seemed to help.  He got worse from there though.  He felt terrible and as the evening went on his breathing got louder.  I always thought with croup, the kid would cough like crazy and that was the reason for respiratory distress.  Mason hardly coughed, but when he did it was very barky so I knew it was croup.  We googled the signs to watch for and felt like he was fine around bedtime.  The poor kid couldn't sleep though so Nate tried to sleep with him on the couch.  Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling great that night either, so I was up a lot of the night.  At 2am his breathing was a bit labored, but neither of us thought it was dangerous.  I woke up at 7:30am and took one look/listen at Mason and knew he was in bad shape.  He was breathing so hard and loud, the stridor was way worse.  He was also retracting his chest with every breath.  I debated whether to take him to the ER or to the clinic, Nate thought the clinic would be fine and they happened to have an appointment in 45 minutes.  So I took him up there and when we checked in, even the receptionist was concerned.  We saw the doctor and he confirmed croup and said he was really sick.  He said we probably should have taken him to the ER a couple hours ago.  I felt horrible, I knew they were wondering what kind of mother I was to not realize he was so bad.  At first the doctor said we had a couple options, steroids and go home and wait, or a epinephrine breathing treatment that would require us to go to the ER for observation.  I said lets do whatever is best for Mason.  He checked Mason again and said he was going to send us to the hospital by ambulance.  I guess he changed his mind about how bad he was.  They did the breathing treatment and it helped immediately!  He was breathing so much better after one minute of the treatment.  The paramedics came and strapped Mason's car seat to the gurney and wheeled him out to the ambulance.  It was so hard to see him on that gurney.  He was so tiny.  So sick. 

 

We got to the ER and they said they were going to admit him.  I knew he was pretty bad, but I was surprised how quickly they made the decision.  Listening to the paramedic was interesting.  He said that the doc at the academy clinic said he hadn't seen a kid that sick in years.  My poor baby!  We went up to our room and he had a few more breathing treatments.  He hated them at first but when he realized they were helping him breath he tolerated it better. 

Then he finally got to go to sleep.  He didn't sleep much all night. He was so exhausted. 

He perked up a bit in the evening.  Alyssa came to visit and I think that helped.  We went on a little wagon ride around the pediatric floor. 

                                                            

                                      Checking out the bed.  Isn't he so cute in the little gown?

 

They gave him all kinds of Christmas goodies.  He liked the stickers. Nate spent the night with him and he slept good after the nurses finally brought his medicine and left him alone.  The doctor came in the morning and said he could go home.  I'm so incredibly thankful that this happened when it did.  If it would have been a week before, Nate would have been gone.  The night before would have been Christmas. I'm so glad Nate was here and we were able to enjoy Christmas day.  Mason is back to his normal self now and we are so so happy to have our happy boy back.  It's been a rough week for our family.  The girls have been sick, Carly is teething as well.  Nate and I haven't had much sleep.  Here's to hoping that we start this new year out better than we ended last year :)

Christmas 2012

                                                                 Christmas morning

 New Diary.  Alyssa loves diaries.  She got one for her 5th birthday and used all the pages.  It will be interesting to see if she likes to write when she's older.

 Carly wasn't quite sure what to do at first.  Alyssa and Mason were happy to help her.

                                    Alyssa got Nate deodorant.  She was so proud of it :)

                                                                   I love this picture.

                         This table is perefct for her right now.  Carly loves pulling up on everything.

                    I made all the families a scrabble name board.  I think they are pretty cool.

                                                    Alyssa got her Poppop's silly glasses.

Nate got his Dad Bronco tickets.  He had never been, so we were excited for him. They went to the game on Sunday. 

We had a really nice Christmas day with both our families.  It has been so great the last 3 years to be able to spend the day with them.  It's strange to think that we won't be in this house next year and possibly away from all our family.  Can't wait to see what God has in store for us!