Abby's First Birthday!

Teddy Bear Birthday Cake - Super easy cut-up cake using a 9" round cake pan, an 8" square cake pan, and two cup cakes for the ears. I just decorated it with butter cream frosting using a star tip. The miracle is that Abby napped long enough for me to get it done!

Birthday Dinner - Cheesy bagels from Smith's. Love'm, but I really did have something else a little more nutritious for Abby planned. However, sometimes little girls, especially birthday, girls get to have their way. It wasn't long after poor hungry Brian sat down with his bagel before Abby intercepted it and would not let go until it was thoroughly gummed to death.

Cousin Ivy

Her brother, Ethan bouncing around the house like a Tigger.

 Grandma Leavitt

 Cousin Genevieve

 Aunt Minta

 You'd think she was happy or something?  Pretty sure it was all the attention.

 We had lots of helpers opening presents.

 Abby's first taste of birthday cake. 

We think she liked it.........

 because she was clapping for joy!
The question is did she like it because it tasted good or because it was really fun to play with and dump on the floor?

Always happy to have a clean face again!

 One last present.......

 A rocking horse!  Almost like the one at Grandma Tanner's house!  She loves it:)  And of course all the cousins loved taking turns on it as well.

Beca, Damon, and Abby's best friend Vraina made it!  Abby gets so excited when Vraina is here.  She just wants to climb all over her.  Love her super cute skirt with matching hair bow.  I should make one for Abby.

Veggies

Gone are the days of Abby letting me feed her with a spoon! She is playing little miss independant and wants to feed herself. Unfortunately this behavior has drastically reduced the amount of veggies she eats. There just aren't a whole lot of vegetables she can pick up and not choke on. So my brilliant idea was to dump goopy baby food veggies on top of bread peices (her absolute favorite food). Surprisingly enough, it worked! Works even better with a dash of salt.

The Aspiring Pianist

I've recently been called to play the piano in Relief Society. Well I had really played much in the past year or so but I sure do practice (or try to practice) now. My challenge is that I have a little helper. Abby thinks it's her job to help Mama play the piano. She's pretty good at standing up on her toes to reach the keys. When that's not good enough she complains until Mama picks her up so she can really pound out a tune. Meanwhile I get an amazing amount of "hands alone" practice with my little accompanist.

One Happy Baby

Abby had a fabulous nap and just woke up bouncy and happy. Yes, bouncy. I swear this baby is going to jump around like a bunny before she can walk. Brian's mom says he was a lot like this too. Abby, however, is much more smiley and social. She loves watching and interacting with other people, especially other babies and young children.  If there's another kid around, no matter how fussy she may be at the time, her eyes just light up with delight.  I wonder if she will continue to be such a happy extrovert as she gets older?

Abigail

Abigail Marie Tanner
Born Oct. 1st at 7:40pm
2 pounds 5 oz and 14.75 inches long
28 weeks gestation

Abigail was born so early because I came down with pre-eclampsia and HELLP. They life flighted me to Boise for the delivery because their NICU was better equipped to take care of her.

She was in great condition (APGAR scores of 8 and 8) when she was born. She was intubated for the first two days on 22% oxygen but after that she was placed on a CPAP. The little cutie had fingers the width of toothpicks and a head the size of a baseball. Her daiper was smaller than an index card and her binky looked like it belonged to a doll, not a baby. But, I geuss she was about the size of a doll.

I visted her as often as I could while I was recovering in the hospital. Sometimes it was very frustrating because my blood preasure would get so high that the nurses refused to let me get out of bed to see her. I kept trying to persuade them that if they would just let me see my little girl that my blood preasure would go down. They agreed only if I was wheeled over in a wheel chair. Even after I left the hospital my doctor still ordered me to not move around too much. So I'd catch the shuttle from the Ronald McDonald House to the hospital and then have transport wheel me up to the NICU. Gosh I felt silly. But at least I didn't have a stroke.

The first day I held Abigail I was just grinning from ear to ear. She was just so prescious and so tiny. I loved watching her little face make such tiny perfect expressions. I think she enjoyed being close to me after being torn apart for a few days. That's also when my milk decided to come in. By the time I put her back in bed I was drenched!

Abigail progressed pretty well for the first two weeks. Then we hit a pretty big bump in the road. She had to have her UV (umbilical vien) line taken out because it had migrated into her liver. They placed a PICC line in her left leg to give her IV fluids, TPN, and lipids. Then she stopped tollerating her feeds and became extreemly "spelly" meaning she had frequent periods of apnea and bradycardia. A blood test revealed that she had a systemic bacterial infection. Most likely it was from her PICC line. So they pulled her PICC line and gave her fluids through IV sites. They also had to give her several blood transfussions and intubate her for breathing support. The tube in her trachea was very irritating and made her creat lots of mucus secreations. After the antibiotics kicked in she started to feel better. So well in fact that she decided to pull her tube out. We tried her out of CPAP for the night but she was still so weak from her infection that she had to be reintubated the next morning. The trauma of being re-intubated caused a lot of blood to pool up in her lungs and her belly. Poor little girl.
A few days latter she started to feel much better. She had a new PICC line placed and they started weening her off the vent. Then she pulled her tube out AGAIN! This time we put her on a high flow nasal cansula and she's been doing well ever since. She is now a wappen 3 lbs 2 oz!

Yellowstone Trip

Brian and I decided we weren't really busy last weekend, so, we packed up and went to Yellowstone! Life holds few such perfect windows of opportunity for taking vacations and enjoying one's freedom. We called it a babymoon:) I'd love to take a few more if we can.

We biked on Friday and Saturday wherever we possibly could. This was a fun way to see the park because we weren't cramped in the car and we could get places a lot faster than on foot. Watch out for wild animals thogh. I didn't see the bison on the road until we were practically right next to it.
We also swam in Firehole canyon. This was a great way to cool off in not so cold thermal heated water. At the head of the swimming hole we jumped into some deep rapids and let the river carry us down stream . It was fun, but possibly dangerous. I'd recommend a lifejacket (which of course we didn't have).

Of course we walked around many of the geysers and took all sorts of pictures.

Our camping experience was, well, different. The campground was amazingly crowded. I never knew you could shove so many campers into such tight spaces. I'm amazed there was any room left for the trees. We had a bear roaming around the outskirts. Yikes, it was scary having to run to the bathroom at 3 A.M. Despite the crowd and the bear, we actually slept pretty well. Thanks to the electricity in the bathroom we were able to pump up a comfy air mattress. I might also note that this campsite bathroom had flushing toilets, soap, and a mirror:) Not too shabby huh?

My belly is definitely looking pregnant these days! I'm not huge, but I do have a very destinctive buldge. I guess that's about right for 20 weeks, right? I'm having fun with it. It nice that I feel so great and energized. I think I might even be up for the Mt. Timp hike we were planning on sometime in August.

We're Pregnant!

Well, we were pretty sure we wanted to have a baby. Now that we're pregnant, we're finding we don't have a clue on a lot of things:

1 - what the gender is (needed for baby shopping and baby shower planning)
2 - how to pick the perfect name
3 - how much the whole thing will cost
4 - what colors to paint the baby's room
5 - what advice to follow when everyone has different opinions
6 - how to tell other people I'm pregnant without them going ballistic and making a scene
7 - which hand-me-down baby accessories are "okay" to accept
8 - what kind of crib and car seat do we need
9 - how to "baby proof" the house
10 - how to take care of a baby 24-7

But hey, despite our ignorance, I think every thing will work out just fine:)