Oh December...

It' a good thing Ainsley's been a pretty easy going baby. As I mentioned earlier, December was a pretty challenging month for us. We spent a lot of time at home and a lot of time trying to make our sweet Sadie Beth as comfortable as possible in the midst of her surgery recovery. We were exhausted and to be honest - discouraged. After the initial recovery stage, I think the stress of having a new sister, having lots of people around, and feeling like crud really caused her to fall apart for awhile. We struggled with finding the line between being comforting and understanding of all the change/discomfort and figuring out how to lovingly discipline her for behavior that was completely out of line - while not going overboard because of all the stress. She also starting having night-terrors (or whatever you might want to call them), where she would wake up between 9-11pm just as mad as a hornet. She would scream and cry and hit and kick and flail and growl (literally). There were times where she was awake during them and times where I don't think she was. Usually they lasted about an hour, sometimes more. It was scary and emotional - nobody likes to see their babies in that state. All that to say....praise God for his faithfulness to bring us through such a trying time! And even in the midst of all that, we still had some pretty sweet moments during this Christmas season....

Still scowling...but notice it is starting to diminish a little. And we started getting teeny smiles here and there.

Oh the bottle - Ainsley will take a bottle a little better than Sadie Beth at this point, but it is definitely a love/hate relationship. Can I just take this moment to mention how "unhelpful" most people are when talking about getting your baby to take a bottle? Most of the time, the Mamas I've encountered are just looking for a little sympathy. They've probably heard all the "advice" in the world on it. Please don't make a mom feel guilty for her baby not taking a bottle...she probably really wants the baby to take one as well. It means freedom. Unfortunately, some moms don't pump well and have to make sure they can keep their milk supply up (which means not doing too many bottles if they don't pump well). Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Our sweet Ainsley - she continues to sleep in her carseat like a champ! This makes it so much easier for Sadie Beth and I to continue doing all our fun weekday activities - like playing at the Ark, All About Kids, Storytime at the library, playdates with friends, and of course - the "red ball" store. (Target). Doesn't she look miserable? Poor thing. Note to self: for all future Balzer children, start training them early to like ice cream, pudding, jello, etc. in case they need their tonsils out at 2 years old. 2 year old logical reasoning leaves much to be desired - hence, she at pbjs the entire time she was recovering which isn't the softest food I can think of.

But we knew our sweet girl was still in there somewhere...every once in awhile we would still get a few of these to keep us going. I'm so glad my girls will grow up with a sister close in age. They won't realize what a blessing that is for a very long time I'm sure, but I am so excited to see more of this...

What a serious girl. She takes her "swing time very seriously. That green whale leaves a lot to contemplate.

And just in case you were wondering if they are truly related.....Sadie Beth just a few days old......and Ainsley just over a month old....

Sometimes I can't get over how much they resemble each other and then other times I don't see it nearly as much.

Daddy brought Sadie Beth a balloon home from work one day. A coworker didn't want it. She was tickled to have it, but would get SOOO frustarted when it wouldn't cooperate with her. :)

I think we spent 3/4 of the month in our pj's....perfect attire for wintertime.

This sleeper is the only piece of clothing I've bought for Ainsley, and it was 75% off at Meijer. So, it's one of my favorites.

oh dear....poor Ainsley. (I think I say that at least once a day)

You can start to see as the month goes on Sadie Beth starts looking a little more like herself. And on a side note - she got down to about 24 lbs after the surgery. We were at the doctor a few days ago - 27 lbs! My girl's been catching up!

Each day I think Ainsley is starting to grow on Sadie Beth a little bit. After the initial time of infatuation wore off, she wasn't so sure for awhile. She knew she loved her sister, but not so much sharing Mommy. She is handling that SO much better now and even is starting to enjoy Ainsley a bit here and there.

Cultivating a love for Sesame Street is important in the Balzer home - so Sadie Beth is starting Ainsley out early. Ainsley, meet Elmo and Cookie.

Sadie Beth loves watching Sid The Science Kid on PBS. It is a pretty great show. Here she was recording her "obser-gations" in her "science journal," or so she says.

"Mommy, Ainsley's touching me!" (she really did say it). Boy that starts early.

Finally, a picture of Sadie Beth's "big girl" bed made up nice. I fell in LOVE with this bedding set and was so excited I found it used for a ridiculously cheap price. Sadie Beth calls it her "happy flower cozy big girl bed." Now I'm just looking for another used quilt so I can have a matching set for Ainsley.

The End

Another trip to the "hoss-a-pital"

A trip to the ENT doctor in late November brought a very unexpected turn of events in the Balzer household. We went per the recommendation of our pediatrician, and I was so thankful to finally be going because Sadie Beth has had so many ear infections this past year. I fully expected the doctor to say it was time for some ear tubes, but no need to hurry. Well, to our surprise, he decided that Sadie Beth needed her tonsils/adenoids out and ear tubes put in...and that we needed to do it ASAP since her current ear infection wasn't responding to antibiotics. That was 11/23; surgery was scheduled for 12/2! Not only was it a much more serious undertaking but it also involved an overnight hospital stay since she is only 2 years old. Being the mommy that I am, I couldn't bear to think about leaving Sadie Beth at the hospital without me overnight, so that meant a hospital stay for Balzer, family of 4!
So, off to Kosair we went early the morning of 12/2/2009.
Sadie Beth was such a good sport about everything. We had processed over and over again how she was going to the hospital, the doctor was going to take her tonsils out, she was going to have ouchies in her mouth for awhile, but that Mommy and Daddy were going to take good care of her and give her lots of hugs and kisses. She was very excited to wear the new "jammies" we got her for the hospital and also to wear her "special hospital dress." She still calls her pajamas her "special hospital jammies"
The pre-op room was lots of fun! Especially after they gave her the Ver-sed to make her drowsy before taking her back to the OR. She was a total goof.

The surgery went fine and Sadie Beth did amazingly for being such a little thing. The nurses all fell in love with her and Kosair was wonderful. Initially we were going to have to be in a shared room, but when the recovery room nurse found out we had Ainsley with us, she pulled some strings to get us a private room, for which we were so GRATEFUL. Then when the floor nurse saw I was a nursing mom, she got me on the meal rotations which was very kind of her...and the food was great! They also got a bassinet from the nursery for Ainsley, who was a champ the entire stay. She ate well and slept even better at the hospital than she did at home at the time.

Unfortunately, the week to follow was no so much fun - top of the charts as far as awful weeks can go. Sadie Beth's recovery was awful. We had such a hard time getting her to eat "sick food" - we tried and tried to get her to eat jello, ice cream, pudding, etc. - if it was soft, we tried it. David made her so many "special treats" that were total duds. So he got to eat a lot of lemon pudding...and is still trying to this day to convince her that she wants to eat his pudding. It's become the running family joke.

My poor sweet girl picked up a stomach virus from the hospital and threw up for 3-4 days straight - which wasn't good since we were already concerned with her being dehydrated. We attributed the vomiting to her pain medicine though and stopped all that (per our pediatrician) - which made her pain so much worse. Then we realized it was a stomach virus because I got it too. Let me tell you what isn't fun - taking care of a 2 year old recovering from surgery who only wants, "Mommy hold you"; nursing every 2-3 hours; and throwing up all day yourself!

We would never have made it if it weren't for Darla so graciously flying out from Seattle to help. I seriously would have lost my mind. Seriously. It was so wonderful to have her help for a few days. Unfortunately, Darla was the lucky winner of our stomach virus when she got home. Way to take one for the team, Aunt Darla...we are thankful for you! We were also so thankful for our friends (from church and some of my old friends) who blessed us with meals so we didn't have to cook for awhile! That was also such a huge help. The week was awful, but we are so blessed.

Sweet Ainsley - just along for the ride. I'm so thankful to that she has been a pretty low maintenance baby throughout all the chaos. I've struggled with feeling guilty during that time for not being "with" her more - but know that God has certainly taken care of us all!

A Special Day...

Sadie Beth got to go to her first "not at a home" birthday party. Her little friend Meredith Daniel was turning two and invited Sadie Beth to her birthday at All About Kids gym. Even though she didn't understand what was going on to start with, Sadie Beth had a great time and now talks about birthday parties all the time.
We had never been to All About Kids before, but what a fun place! It was so much fun we asked for a "Fun Zone Pass" for Christmas, so now Sadie Beth gets to play 10 more times! I'm thankful to have something to do during this cold winter.

Here's the birthday girl!
Meet Reagan. She and her sister Morgan are some of Sadie Beth's most frequent playmates. The Sauls live down the street from us - it's great having friends so close! Reagan is about 7 months older than Sadie Beth.

Look at all the fun stuff to do! Playing here will be great for Sadie Beth so she can build up her confidence when it comes to physical things.

Trampoline lane + 10 crazy kids= chaos, but boy did they have fun. I hate that this picture is blurry but love to pigtails bouncing along with Sadie Beth.

Getting them all to line up like this was quite the task! I don't have a picture but Sadie Beth braved the trapese and loved it. We had to tell her to let go to fall into the foam pit.

After playing in the gym area, the kids had time in the "inflatable fun zone." Sadie Beth took a particular liking to the ball pit.

After the playtime we celebrated Meredith's birthday in one of the party rooms. Sadie Beth was tickled pink to sit next to Ty, who is "her favorite boy." One night awhile back at dinner, David was being silly with Sadie Beth. He asked her who her favorite boy was, fully expecting her to answer "Daddy!" Well, after concentrating and thinking for a minute, she gets this huge grin on her face and mischievieously/bashfully answers, "Ty-yyyyyyy." Totally took us by surprise because we never saw it coming. Ty is the sweet boy of our small group leaders. He is always playing with Sadie Beth and has such a sweet spirit to him. She was thrilled when Ty called for her to sit next to him at the party.

Longest post in the history of blogging....

Boy I wish we had a laptop - then maybe I could blog every now and then. With Ainsley sleeping in the office it's just hard right now, but this will change. I am also making a sincere effort to be more productive around the house with my time during naps, so this leaves evenings. If I choose to write in the evening then I don't get to spend time with my wonderful hubby since the computer is in the office. Hence, a laptop would solve these dilemmas....maybe someday. Not a big priority....that's for sure.
I love my girls, that's another for sure thing. Here are some fun pictures from November.

Ainsley takes a nap upstairs every now and then. I need to be doing this more often so she can get used to her crib. She's so tiny here! It's amazing (and a little sad) how fast the "tiny" stage passes. I wish I could just bottle it up and hang onto it.
Sadie Beth loves waking up the "boo-bear-squeaker" - her chosen nickname for Ainsley.

Here is Sadie Beth's most favorite outfit in the whole-wide-world. It's 18 months, so it is starting to get a bit small for her (finally). She would wear it every day if we let her. The white shirt has a "girl" sewn on it, so she calls it her "girl shirt."

David with his girls - seeing this makes my heart well up with joy and gratefulness.

Sadie Beth loves to hold her "little bitty teeny tiny baby boo bear." She asks to all the time.

What I love is that she acts likes she's been holding newborns forever, like she's an old pro.

Poor Ainsley. I've developed a sincere sympathy for second borns.

Ainsley was such a snuggler at first. Now she has decided I'm much more useful as a source of nourishment only and just pecks at me any time I try to snuggle or rock her. Makes me sad - if only I didn't smell like sour milk all the time.

My little scowler...she's always evaluating. Maybe she will be very analytical like her Daddy.

Such a goof with her silly faces.

Does it get any better?

Time to start using the SwaddleMe! It didn't take her long to get out of the hospital swaddle blankets. I don't think we will need to swaddle her as long as we did Sadie Beth...fine by me!

Sadie Beth's "job" is to get me a diaper and take care of the dirty ones. Sometimes, she loves it...when she's not too busy.

At this point, Sadie Beth still thought having a baby was a great idea. That changed some for awhile, but she's coming back around.

Still scowling....

Sadie Beth loves to "love" on Ainsley. Most of the time we try to encourage her. Then there are the times we remember she is 2 year old...like when she she pinches her nose or her cheeks and says, "Choke!" Who knows where she picked that up? Or what she thinks she's doing? She's definitely not trying to be mean and thinks it is hilarious.

Sadie Beth decided she no longer needs supervision while holding Ainsley. She orders us as serious as can be, "Mommy go into the KITCHEN." When you say, "No, Mommy needs to stay and help you...." she tries again, "Mommy needs to go into the KITCHEN." Then she smiles really mischieveously (sp?)...I wonder what she's thinking...

Again, acting like she does this all day long. Who's the mom here?

As illustrated in the background, we seriously need some toy storage/organization help - we are looking for some shelves or something - it's all so expensive though!

Still scowling....

"Choking" Ainsley's ear - again, not sure what that's all about. Neither is Ainsley.

My poor second born - so we get home from the hospital and we realize we don't have anywhere to put her! We always let Sadie Beth lay on the floor on blankets, but the floor is no longer a safe place with our busy firstborn on the loose. So, for awhile she got to hang out on the kitchen table. I don't think she holds it against us. Now we have her a bouncy seat and a swing so no more kitchen table for Ainsley!

She was such a sleepy head in the beginning that we always stripped her down to keep her awake. Then I would worry she was cold and cover her up.

Sadie Beth loved her pumpkin she got from a local fall festival and insisted that Ainsley wanted to look at it. Shortly thereafter, she felt nervous about the whole "sharing" deal emphatically declared her ownership of the pumpkin...

First tub bath! Ignore the scowling, she was definitely a fan.

Another sharing attempt...we encouraged Sadie Beth to "share" her Mickey with Ainsley. She did a great job and the rest of the night talked about sharing with her baby.

We often catch Sadie Beth, who thinks she being a big helper, trying to "bounce" Ainsley. Again I say, "Poor Ainsley." She'll either grow up to be super laid back or decide to fight back. We'll see.

Ainsley isn't even 2 weeks old yet in these pictures, but I thought it was kindof neat how she was holding onto Mickey - even if it was totally unintentional.

hehehe...

Princess clothes and Elmo - for Sadie Beth life was great at this moment.

Getting our tree up this year was quite the fiasco. About 2/3 of our fairly new pre-lit tree decided not to light up. We were so excited to decorate but this temporarily killed our Christmas spirit so we decided to postpone while I pouted for a day or two. Then I sucked it up and just wrapped lights around the uncooperative sections. It actually looked nice when all was said and done.

I'm not sure....maybe showing her baby the lights?

Already getting so much bigger in her bouncy seat!

Still intrigued by the fish....

One of her first smiles...or was it gas...I don't know.

This was my first Thanksgiving not at our big family get together, which was definitely a bummer. We have some fun traditions that I definitely missed. But Ainsley was just too small for such a big day. So we enjoyed some time our small group Thanksgiving...just down the street from our house.
We are SOO blessed by our friends from Highview. We love our ABF class and our small group.

Between the 6 families in our small group, there are 14 kids I think....

And Sadie Beth has a blast playing with them.

Ainsley wearing one of her first official "outfits." Babies are fun to dress up, but sleepers are so stinking easy...and warm.

Aunt Sarah came to visit!!! Sarah is one of my most favorite people in the world and she was so sweet to do lots of driving just to spend a few hours with us the day after Thanksgiving. Made my day.

Sadie Beth loves her Aunt Sarah and her Aunt Bridget very much - even though she doesn't see them too often she must know they are special to me because she takes to them right away every time.

Ainsley says, "Are we finally done?" Yes, sorry for the ridiculous post. If you made it this far, you should win a medal. If you didn't, well I understand.