Holidays Approching!

Wow! Time really does go by fast! Maybe more so with a baby?! I have often wanted to "catch up" on my blog...have so many great memories to write about, but sadly I let time slip by. I do continue to take many pictures/videos and usually get them posted on Kodak Gallery and/or facebook in a somewhat timely manner. Just this past weekend, I was working on Olivia's baby book and baby calendar. It's amazing she is already 9 mo old!!

I'll try to summarize the last few months as best I can: Trevor had his 1st Father's Day June 21st. The week of June 22-26, Olivia participated in her 1st Kindermusick Camp (an hr class each morning). We decided to purchase wood floors for the downstairs in our home. We got the same wood we placed in Olivia's room. We love it, but it has been quite a process getting it down. Trevor works so hard on many things and time gets away! He still has to figure out what he wants to do with the powder room floor-continue the wood in there or wait and maybe put tiles down? We also painted downstairs this summer. Our den is now a soft blue, kitchen/breakfast area green and our dinning room a golden shade above the white chair railing and a burgendy shade below. We had some great help from friends, Chad & Kate, this summer!

July: Olivia got to see her 1st fireworks right from our front yard! Several folks in our neighborhood had their own fireworks-some right across the street from us in the culdesac. Olivia had her 1st trip to her Granddad's and Nona's in Murfreesboro, NC July 10-13th. On the way home we stopped by a dear friend's home, Ms. Frances Taylor and Grandmother Faircloth's. I remember Grandmother and Oliver had some delicious food for us to eat that evening. I miss Grandmother's cooking SO much!! Olivia enjoyed a few times in our neighborhood pool this summer. :) She started waving "hello" to us around this time.

August: This was an exciting month! I turned the Big 30 on Aug. 7th and family came to stay with us for the weekend. My parents, both sisters and nephew Brayden were able to come as well as almost all the Setzer family. We celebrated Olivia's baptism, Sunday, Aug. 9th. What a special day!! It meant so much to us for all of our family to make the effort to be here for Olivia. We pray God's blessings on our daughter and for us to raise her to know her Savior, Jesus. We enjoyed lots of family time that weekend-talking, shopping, swimming, taking pictures (even made some pictures of Olivia & Brayden on the beach). Sunday after church that weekend, we all had lunch at Magnolia's here in M.B. Special times!! Dennis & Jeanne were gone traveling out west a couple weeks this summer. Olivia's cousin, Lyla, turned ONE, Aug. 24th, and we enjoyed celebrating her day. :)

I started taking Olivia out by myself some this summer. I must confess, I don't really enjoy going out without Trevor. We've basically just been to church or kindermusick. Now that I'm married, I want to be with Trevor when doing things and really miss him when he has to work. Since we both work 12 hr shifts and are working "opposite" days a lot so we can keep Olivia at home-it's been a drastic change in our time!!! We only get 2 days in a row together about every two weeks. :( Their are some advantages to 12 hr shifts, but like all things, their are negatives, too. And taking a baby out by yourself requires getting used to-planning ahead-and boy is that car seat heavy to carry around!! Another challenge going out is Olivia is really not a fan of the car seat-one of her least favorite things. So, when she's in the back seat by herself and I'm driving, she just has to cry sometimes. Since she is able to hold a bottle by herself in the car seat, things have improved! Boy, what a difference that made!! We've sung, "Precious Baby Girl" to her countless times since she was about 3 weeks old in the car. She'd start crying, but if she heard us sing to her, she would stop crying almost instantly! It was almost funny at times how fast she stopped crying when she head "her song".

"Precious Baby Girl"

Mommy loves the baby girl, daddy loves the baby girl
With curly brown hair, deep blue eyes, cute button nose and ten tiny toes.
We love the precious baby girl.

Granddad loves the baby girl, Nona loves the baby girl
All across the miles, they send the baby love because they miss her everyday.
Yes, they love the precious baby girl.

PopPop loves the baby girl, Nana loves the baby girl
Each and everyday, they love to come and see her, just so they can play.
Yes, they love the precious baby girl.

September: The first day of this month I got to be "on call", and it worked out that I never had to go into work that day. :) I got my hair cut for the 1st time since Olivia was born, but I made the mistake of getting bangs cut. I've been pulling the bangs back ever since-what was I thinking!?! Olivia was sitting up well by herself at this point. She had been enjoying new foods-stage 1 and 2 baby foods. We've gotten her mostly organic foods and/or ones with DHA added. She enjoys taking about one oz of Vemma Next each day as well. (Children's Vitamins/Minerals). Trevor passed the CPNE this month!! This was the big clinical competency he had to pass for the nursing program. He went to Georgia Sept. 11-13th for this. So, Olivia and I has a couple nights by our self. We were SO proud of him-he did really well that weekend. We went to a "home show" at the convention center. Dennis and Jeanne were helping at a booth with Vemma, so Trevor and I went by to see how things were going. Olivia had outgrown most of her 3-6 months clothes this month. She said her 1st word, Dada!! Kindermusick started on Friday mornings, and she seems to enjoy this time. We had a visit with friends, the Salamanca Family, toward the end of the month. Their daughter, Macy Blue, is just 8 days older than Olivia. So, it's lots of fun staying in touch with them. I love reading the blog their mom, Andrea, writes. She is great with pictures/videos!! A great inspiration to me in this area. Olivia's 1st tooth came in Sept. 29th!

October: Work for me was going pretty well. I am so blessed to work 2 days a week, so I can be home with Olivia the other days. It means so much to know Trevor or his mom can watch her while I am at work. I had continued to breastfeed Olivia, but cut back right much. It was one of the most challenging things I've had to do at work-fitting in time to pump twice a shift!!! I am always SO busy, so finding time to pump took significant effort. My body never seemed to produce much milk by pumping either-would only get 2-4 oz of milk! So, of course we had to start supplementing with formula soon after I started back to work. She's done well on Similac Advance. I was very grateful when Olivia adjusted to nursing mostly at night and early morning. This allowed me to cut back to pumping once a shift at work, and recently I've been able to stop pumping at work! What a relief!! (Just in time too, because the patients I've had lately have been pretty demanding, and I'm often at work late to chart even without having to pump!) I am happy to nurse her as soon as I get home and at bedtime. She's continued to wake about once a night to nurse and then in the early morning she'll nurse.

My Grandmother Faircloth turned 87, Oct 5th!! What a blessing her life has been to my family. I'll always cherish all the summers and holidays I got to spend at her house. And especially grateful for the 3 years I lived with her to attend nursing school at Sampson Community College, 1997-2000.

Olivia continued to do many "new" things: loves to cross her ankles when she is sitting and even sleeping, kisses us on the cheek, making more "sounds"-ahh, grr, uhhh, dadada. We enjoyed shopping for 12 mo size clothes at Once Upon a Child. The owners of this store used to live beside us, and we were blessed to get our crib and changing table from them. It's amazing how much Olivia has grown!! When we first started going out with her "everyone" thought she was "so small/tiny" and now they often guess her at a year old! (she's was just 9 mo old Nov. 12th)
We attended the Warren Reunion, Sat, Oct. 10th. Grandmother Faircloth came also since she lives in the same community my Grandmother Warren did. We miss you Willie!! I was able to get a "Four Generations" picture with Grandmother, Mom, me and Olivia that night. :) We went on up to Murfreesboro that weekend with my parents and stayed there a couple days. Olivia's 2nd tooth was in that weekend (on the bottom). It is lots of fun to see her play with her cousin, Brayden, who is just 11 days older!! This month she sat in the front of a shopping cart with a seat cover-getting to be such a "big" girl! Her 1st swim class at the new YMCA was Oct. 28th. We have a very nice new Y! Trevor and I had our "first date" since Olivia was born Oct. 31. It was nice to have a dinner out and go to a movie (used the free movie tickets my work gives employees on their birthdays).

November: The last few weeks we have had our challenges. Trevor especially felt torn with some feelings related to church. He was able to talk with our pastor Ken and this did help Trevor feel better. Since Trevor has a pastor's education and a pastor's heart, our pastor noted that this may be a large part of Trevor's "disconnect" feeling. To try and be a church member when you have the background Trevor does for ministry can be frustrating at times. Another major challenge this month has been a "first" that is NOT fun, sickness!! Poor Olivia had teething and a "cold" going on at the same time. I got home from work Thurs. night, Nov. 5, and realized she felt "warm" and knew something was not right when she was falling asleep in my arms without nursing. She will often fall asleep just rocking with Trevor, but when she's with me she wants to nurse at night. So, we checked her temperature and it was 100.9. Friday morning, Nov. 6th, she woke with a temp of 102. :( Her upper left tooth was coming in. So, for almost of week I was her "nurse" at home-keeping up with her I&O's, checking her diapers often to make sure she was still voiding well, had to "push" her intake, comforting, holding, checking her temperature, giving cooling baths, suctioning, listening to heart and lung sounds, even got a "mediscope" to check her ears (which we've ordred a better quality otoscope to have from now on). You could tell she was miserable! She had no energy, would drink some milk and go right back to sleep. I had to call out of work one day that week myself. Yes, I got a bad cold as well. I take care of sick kids at work often and don't get sick from them....but when you're home 24/7 with your own and not wearing gloves or a mask, I guess I was likely to get sick as well. Trevor felt bad about a day, but thankfully was able to help us both feel better much of that week. We went for extra chiropractic adjustments and took more vitamins, along with all the rest we could get. So, she's missed her swim class and kindermusick the past two weeks. Along with all the cool, rainy days here in M.B. recently, we've been sort of "down"-lack of sun and lack of time out of the house! We also had a few days of "stress" when the hospital was saying they were not going to hire any more family members! Thankfully, he was finally able to talk with the nursing administrator and she verified that Trevor would be "grandfathered" in and able to work at Grand Stand. Goodness!! I was back at work this past Friday and "lucky me" got to float to 2 North. My patients and the staff that day were pretty nice, but things were busy as usual and I had to stay late to chart. I've had four days off work, but we've been inside still most of this time. I didn't feel the best today-took a nap when Olivia did! I'm really ready to feel back to "normal"-getting tired of this lingering stuffy nose and cough. Also, I'm having my second period since being pregnant! The joys of being a woman! Trevor has to study some more, lots more really, so he can get the NCLEX behind him! We pray this works out around the end of the year. We've missed our church family the last few weeks, too!! Yesterday was November 16, Fourteen years since my friend from high school, Amy German passed away. I was blessed to receive a scholarship in her memory when I graduated from h.s., and it paid for a large part of my ADN degree. Special thoughts and prayer go to her parents, John & Jennifer.

As I've been typing this tonight, Trevor is playing with Olivia. She is so precious! Again, it's amazing she is 9 mo old! She is getting quite active! Scoots, gets up on her hands and knees, bending/reaches out to get toys, "crawls" backwards...so not much longer and she'll be crawling all over! (got to get those safety gates up asap along with childproofing the cabinets!) Oh, one thing I forgot to mention-she LOVES the Baby Faith videos I bought last fall when I attended a Women of Faith event with Jeanne. And we read several books each day. She gets a book in the mail every month from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

The holidays are now just around the corner! We are looking forward to seeing family. All the Setzer's are coming here to the beach for about a week. :) I pray for everyone's safety during travel and for good health. May we pause and thank God for all he does for us, not just on Thanksgiving, but each day. We are so blessed-even in the "unsettled" times of life. We just need to do our part and trust Him to provide for our needs. What an awesome God we serve!

(maybe one reason I get behind on the blog, is I'm also making Olivia a baby book and First Year Calendar, so it can seem repetative right now...but I do want to try and record our life together) :)