Randi's first tooth

My daughter turned 9 months old yesterday and on that day we discovered a little somethin' somethin' in her mouth, a little pearly white tooth emerging from her gums!! She hasn't been sleeping very good, she'll wake up every other hour crying and she's been doing this for about a week now and this tooth explains why. She's been perfect throughout the day so I can't complain. We're so excited about her tooth, I didnt' think they would ever come. :) A few other milestones I'd like to mention as I use this blog somewhat to keep track of what Randi's doing, she's very very quickly crawling now. About a month ago she was scooting all over and just last week she's full blown crawling. She stands up next to everything and sometimes thinks she can walk and quickly lets go of whatever it is she is holding on to and then plops firmly on her little behind. She is much more vocal and I swear she's telling us stories. She'll ramble on for sometimes 10 minutes at a time just talking in her own little language. I love it! She is absolutely in love with the Sprout channel. There's this little chicken on there I think, it is called Chica and every time she comes on Randi smiles big and claps her hands. She does the same thing for Elmo too. I love love love being a Mom to her. She is absolutely a wonderful baby. She's still a pretty terrible sleeper but I'm sure that will get better as she gets older. I will leave you with a pic of Randi's new teeth. Ok, so they're fake halloween teeth that her aunt thought would be funny and so did Randi. She played right along and underneath those teeth was making a huge smile. She's such a ham! The pictures hard to see but it totally cracks me up.

Reflux

I took my daughter back to the doctor on Thursday because she has been spitting up a lot, has wet burps and cries when we lay her down. Reflux right? This is the third time I've taken her to the doctor and finally they gave us some medicine to help her. She has been making weight so I guess that's why they weren't too concerned before. Well, we gave her the med on Thursday night and it seemed to help and we gave it to her again on Friday morning. That afternoon I picked her up from the sitter's house and she said to me, "I think she's allergic to her medicine". My poor baby was covered in hives. She had just gotten the hives so I called the doctor and they said to bring her in. We were told to give her benedryl and that it should clear up soon. Well almost 24 hours later, they were much much worse than they had been. The benedryl wasn't helping at all. We took had to take her to the ER. They gave her some steroids and told us to give her a larger dose of benedryl. Well, the hives are finally starting to clear up some. They're still there but are getting better. Has anyone else had a child allergic to Zantac? I asked the doctor if children are generally allergic to this particular reflux med and they said, nope, she's the first one we've seen be allergic to it. Go figure.

Randi's 1st Easter

Here's a pic of my darling sweet girl rockin' her little polka dot dress for Easter.

6 months

Hello Ladies!!! I know I said my last post would be my last but I simply just couldn't stay away. Although I haven't written any posts since the birth of my daughter, I honestly still read yours every day. So I must say that motherhood is the absolute greatest thing in the world. I love love love being a mom. The first eight weeks were the toughest after we brought her home. I have never ever been that tired. I was lucky to get a few hours of broken up sleep a day. I was sleep deprived to say the least but as they all say, it does get better. Although Randi has regressed some in the past few weeks due to some pesky gas that she seems to get at night, she normally gets up just once a night. I still get very very tired sometimes because she'll have her good nights and then some not so good ones mixed in there too. She is an excellent eater. She loves all her fruits and vegetables and drinks her bottle like a champ. She recently started palming the bottle. She was too cool to be holding it with two hands anymore so she switched to one. So cute! She can sit up all by herself and just talks talks talks to us all day long. The doctor says she's meeting all of her milestones and then some and is just perfect and healthy. Babies honestly do grow up just so very fast. I feel like I'm missing so much when I'm at work but I have to work so there's no way around that, it just makes our time together all that more special.

I don't have much time to write as you can imagine but I just wanted to drop in and let everyone know how things are going. To those of you ladies out there still waiting for your precious miracles to come, they will and I promise you, it's all worth it and then some! Hang in there!

Welcome Randi Lyrae

Randi Lyrae Hire born August 18th, 2009 at 11:38a.m. She weighed 6 lbs 11oz and was 20 inches long. She has tons of dark hair and is just the most beautiful sight I've ever laid my eyes on. I love her so much already. I started getting contractions at 12:30a.m. the morning of the 18th and went into the hospital at 2:00a.m. They checked me right when I got there and I was at 2cm. They hooked me up to the monitors which showed that I was barely having any contractions at all. They then again checked me an hour from that and I was still at 2cm so they sent me home. As soon as I got home I started having severe back labor. Ladies, if you haven't experienced labor, it is the most excruciating pain you will ever feel in your lives. (don't want to scare you but it's indescribable pain). The contractions were less than a minute a part and were lasting over a minute with each one. I managed to stay at home for a couple hours after they discharged me for the first time but I just couldn't take it any longer. We went back to L&D and they no sooner got me hooked up to the monitors and I got checked and the nurse started moving very quickly. I asked her what I was dilated to and she said "You're at a 9, you're going to have this baby soon!" Excuse me, what???? I was freaking out. I started sobbing hysterically because I knew at that point there was no room for an epidural or pain medication of any sort. I literally thought I was going to die. I didn't know how I was going to be able to live through any more pain than I had already been experiencing. Everyone was moving very very quickly. They got me to a room, my husband managed to call my labor team in and within about 20 minutes they were all there. The doctor came in and was scrubbed and ready to go and he checked me and, a great thanks to the Lord for this one, I was really only dilated to 7cm. The nurse who checked me previously was obviously a little off. They called the anesthesiologist in and got me an epidural and after that I quickly calmed down. We arrived at the hospital for the second time at 7:00a.m. and Randi was out by 11:38a.m. The whole process seemed very very quick but I was actually in labor for about 12 hours. The pictures are mostly from when she was just minutes old. My dad, Randy is holding her in the first one. Only fitting as she was named after her Grandpa. We're so over the moon in love with this little girl. I just can't stop looking at her. I barely stayed in the hospital for 24 hours. We went in at 7:00a.m. on the 18th and were released by 1:00p.m. on the 19th (by the way, the 19th was my 3 year wedding anniversary and we couldn't have asked for a better present than what we got, our daughter). I haven't slept really but maybe 5 or 6 hours in 3 days but I just can't take my eyes off this girl. She's perfect in every way. She's the best eater and sleeper and almost never cries.

This will probably be my last post. I have gotten what I need from this blog, all your support got me through the most difficult time I had ever faced in my life. My life has started a new chapter now that I'm more than thrilled to begin. I will continue to follow your posts as I think of you girls often and want so badly for your miracles to come as I know they will. I can't thank you enough for all the support you gave me. I will continue to do the same for you. Thanks girls!!!

38 weeks

Wow, 38 weeks today. Where does the time go? It's been a little over a week that I've been on bedrest and I'm not as bored as I thought I would be. And surprisingly I thought I would be taking many naps throughout the day but I have yet to take one. What I'm doing, I'm not really sure, but something seems to be occupying my day. My appointment last Thursday went well. BP is good, urine is clear and I only gained a pound from the week before. I didn't get my cervix checked so not sure if I'm dilated any more or not. I will get checked this Thursday when I go back to the doctor though. I'm hoping she comes soon, I'm ready to see her.

Shower

Had my baby shower and it was all that I could have ever hoped for. Almost everyone invited showed up, the food was great, the presents were absolutely adorable, but most importantly, I ACTUALLY had a baby shower!!! Something at one point and time I thought would never happen. I had been working on a slide show to present at the shower recapping all of our struggles to have this little girl and let me tell you, there was not a dry eye in the place. My goal wasn't to make anyone cry but let's face it, infertility sucks and it's bound to bring many tears. But at the end of the show, they were tears of joy. The song that played during the slide show couldn't have been more appropriate. It's called 'I would die for that' by Kellie Coffey. You have to check it out. It applies to all of us infertiles. I didn't get any pictures with my camera but plenty of others did so when they send them to me I will try and post them. I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow and this little girl will then be considered full-term. Next appointment is on Thursday.