Ainsley has a slight obsession with the octopus that hangs from her play gym. She LOVES her. She will talk and laugh at her for at least 10 minutes. It seems to be the only toy that can keep her attention for longer than 30 seconds. I often wonder what goes through her mind when she is smiling and talking to her. It is one of my favorite things to watch. I must say, just the sound of her voice melts my heart…not to mention the smiles she gives me all day long!
And one more because I love it…..
I need a vacation. Don’t we all? Since Ainsley has been somewhat sleeping, my mind has been drifting to dreams of a vacation. Also, I sift through all my vacation pictures on a regular basis, blissfully recalling our travels through Europe and the US. I have the travel bug, I was born with it. Our family would take off for weeks at a time through the US dragging the trailer behind us. It was great. One of my fondest memories of my childhood, of which I will definitely be torturing our children in the same manner. Anyhoo…we are going to start out small. Maybe a trip to Florida or something. I can imagine that something that once seemed easy will definitely turn challenging with a baby in tow. So we will see. But that is our goal for now. I haven’t been to Florida that much anyway. It seems like that is where every family goes. So why break the trend?
In other Halloween news I am a bad mommy and didn’t get a chance to get Ainsley a Halloween costume, so I went with the pumpkin onesie given to her by her aunt. She is growing so fast, I can’t believe she is 13 weeks. Her 3 month birthday photo is on the way. I would really like to be able to put a bow on her head, but she HATES it. She generally freaks when something is put on her head and won’t calm down until it is removed. So my dreams of uber cute hats for my daughter is over….for now. I bought a really, really cute cupcake hat. This was her reaction……
And this…….
But alas one I can live with where she only looks slightly peeved…..
I then bought her a very cute beanie. This was the initial reaction……..
Which progressed to the “I know it is on my head but I can’t find it” look……
We never did end up with a livable picture of that hat. Our daughter certainly has her own personality, even at this young age, but that is one of the many things I love about her!
It has been a bit since I have posted on the status of our adoption. I don’t really know why, mostly because I could not deal with one more thing being on our plate. Now that things seem to be streamlining (which I have stated in the past, so we will see how long that is true) I can finally face all the updates, submissions, apostilling, and just good times in general that the paper chase can bring. So I will start from where I left off….my update from the day I found out…the day I had Ainsley.
We found out at the beginning of August that we had to submit more information regarding our HS and a few issues on the psych eval. Needless to say I was a little frustrated by the issues that we had to address in our amended HS. I had previously addressed them with our former social worker, but she did not see them relevant to be in the final draft. Luckily, she is no longer with our HS agency and our new SW seems GREAT! Where was she a year ago? Need I say more. Anyhoo, we addressed the issues in both documents and finally resubmitted them recently. It is greatly embarrassing to me it has taken so long to get these together, but when you move and have a baby at the same time it is what it is.
We are also at the point in our adoption where we get the lovely opportunity to have contact with USCIS. Which consequently, they seem to be more on top of things this go around, or I am so busy that I don’t notice the time lapse. BUT, the “help” line they tell you to call with questions, is not so helpful. To make a long story short if you move, you must send an updated HS before you can get refingerprinted. Now some of you experienced USCIS goes are laughing right now, thinking…um…duh. But the idiots on the other end of the phone who are going to “help” you know less than I do. The following were suggestions made to me by the “helper” in order to resolve my issue of an address change:
1. Make an appointment at the USCIS office to let them know about our address change. When I told them I lived 6 hours away, that was still their suggestion.
2. Submit a letter with my request form. Okay….I did that.
3. They don’t deal with “local” filings, only national ones. Gee thanks. Pretty much code for good luck with that.
So in the end, I sent a letter, in which they sent a notice back to me that I have to file an amended HS with them before I can get our new fingerprints. Which makes sense, but why can’t anyone just tell me that. And this is only to get our fingerprints. Whatever.
So we are in process to do that right now. Our actual I600A has to be refiled by February, which I have no idea what that entails, but I am sure I will have the pleasure of finding out. Luckily I have regained a wee bit of consciousness….. just enough to fight the good fight. 
This week my SIL called to have an impromptu photo session at our family pumpkin patch. Ainsley did really well, which is great! In the past, she has not loved it so much. So I was happy. Particularly funny was a series of photos with Ainsley and her 1 week old cousin, Tate. I think we will see plenty of this scheming in the future.
Let me fill you in on how to keep your parents up all night......
Hmmm, yeah but lets add this also.........
Yeah, that is good too! hahahahah!
So far this month has been packed with festivities! Ainsley got her first set of 2 month vaccinations. The drama was high, believe me. I don’t really blame her, it was just hard to watch, but I didn’t cry. So I am proud of myself. I felt sick and woozy, but no tears. The pumpkin patch also opened this month. Usually we are so busy getting things ready, but this year I have been so busy/sleep deprived/delirious, I barely realized it was open. I hope to get some better pictures in the coming weekend. We shall see, you never know with a 10 week old!!!
Before shots.......
After shots.....
Mommy and Ainsley at the patch!
What is the deal with the pictures?!
I am going to blow out my candle….
Then I am DONE WITH THE HAT!
We have been experiencing technical difficulties here at the compound for a while now. In a few aspects of our lives. We would have loss of internet at random times, but almost always between 7pm to 7am. My husband, being the internet junkie, was completely disturbed by this. After many, many days and lots of perseverance, it was resolved. FYI, when our flood light kicked on it would short out our internet. Bizarre right? Well that is just technical difficulty number one.
Technical difficulty number 2? Our beautiful daughter. Let me start by reinterating…she is NOT a sleeper. I read articles that babies usually sleep approximately 15 hours a day at her age. Ha. Not our child. Maybe 7. Sleep 4 hours at a time at night? Ha! Two hours. Yes, you heard me correctly. See I have birthed one of the only children who does not need sleep. My husband can go on very limited sleep and I am starting to think she got that gene from him. Both of our mothers have told us that we were the same way as babies. It took a year for both of us to actually sleep, so the fable is told. A year? Seriously? By that time my eyebrows will make me the third hombre in the Burt and Ernie posse, my roots will rival Shakira, and my body…let’s not go there. I am not exaggerating that for 5 days straight, she would not nap or sleep. She would go 8-12 hours without a nap. Nothing would work. NOTHING. This is of particular concern as we are nearing my return to work. I guess I am just going to have to accept that about 3-4 hours of sleep per night is the new norm. I feel like I have gotten a full night sleep if I get 4 consecutive hours.
In her defense, I do believe that part of her problem is her GI system. She got that from me. I have a weak and bizarre GI system, and so does she. From birth, she would scream at night. On and off for about 4 hours per night. It was determined that she had gas, very, very bad gas. As with most babies who are nursing, she pooped like 15 times per day. Which of course gradually declines with their age, until about 2 weeks ago when she stopped pooping. We had started her on some formula as I will be returning to work in about 4.5 weeks, which stopped everything dead in her tracks. For the last two weeks we have had to induce the poo. If you know what I mean–which also translates to one fussy baby. After several years being taken off my life and a visit to the pediatrician, we changed to a different formula which has a laxative effect. So now she is back to her usual, along with ripping them so loud people look at me like I am the one who is socially unacceptable. Ah, the joys of parenthood. Makes a mommy proud.
One thing that has a particular calming effect on her is her swing. Most people rock their children to sleep. Not our child. She wants to be put in her swing on a high setting. So that is what we do. We put her in, strap her down, and crank it up. The faster she swings, the happier she is. Works for me. I knew being a parent was going to be hard, but this has been a wee bit more challenging that I thought. Although, it could be a lot worse. Overall she is a happy, smiley, loving baby who loves to be awake 24 hours per day.
Sleep??? NEVER!!!
Things have been so busy!! We moved into our house this weekend, more on that later. Ainsley turned one month on September 4th, which is so hard to believe. Where did the time go? I guess it is whizzing past me because of my sleep deprived state. Anyhoo, we had a little par-tay for her, which basically consisted of me eating her cupcake and her mesmerized by her candle. I had a great time and I think she did too. We are making some progress with her. She is finally letting us put her down to nap. She would not hear of it previously, we are only getting like an hour at a time, but we are thankful for any progress! She also makes the funniest faces. I love it!
Things have been ultra insane in the past two weeks, no one can argue that. All of the things events that we knew were going to come together this month are in the process of doing so, which is super exciting and super exhausting all at the same time. Where to start……
1. Ainsley-she is great! She is starting to be awake more so she is much more interactive and fun to play with. We are still having sleeping issues, in that she wants to be held all.night.long. But it is great to have a cuddly baby and we are just going to take advantage of it. We wish we had more sleep as her cuddliness is interrupted by fits of severe gas that, until early this week, would keep her up all night long–along with mommy and daddy! She still has bad gas, but it is getting less severe as she gets older. Which is a double edge sword. I am thrilled she is growing and flourishing, her daily changes amaze me, but I can’t believe she will be 4 weeks old next week. I can’t think about it. It’s almost too much to handle. Especially when you are emotionally liable due to exhaustion. Our living arrangements do not allow us to have a true crib at the moment, so I have purchased a co-sleeper. We are hoping that the security of having us by her side will eventually transition her to her own bed, when she actually has one. She wants nothing to do with the pack-n-play, which I don’t blame her. It really does not look very comfortable. BUT she does take short cat naps, but only in her bouncer. It’s the little things….
2. Adoption-In true fashion to our lives, I found out information on our adoption the same day I had Ainsley. I was actually waiting around in labor and delivery…how fitting. We are working on getting the information needed, but it is definitely a slower go than before. Lack of sleep and pure exhaustion has slowed almost everything…but we are starting to get back on track. I will post more in the coming days.
3. House-It is 90% finished. We will probably start setting up the nursery this weekend, but we have people scheduled clean it next week. Usually I get a lot of satisfaction from cleaning, but not so much right now. Our cabinets are not done, but we can move in and that is all I ask right now. They should be finished in the next 2-3 weeks.
Well, I think that is it….for now. Life is certainly changing, but it is all for the better! I sometimes am driving down the road (one of my only truly coherent times) and still can’t believe I am a mother. Ainsley was born almost 2.5 years after we started thinking about becoming parents and I still can’t believe she is ours. I do believe everything is as it should be and she was worth the wait.
I always said when we ever have children I will get newborn/immediately home pictures of them ASAP. So yesterday was supposed to be my day in the sun. I made the appointment with the photographer, ordered some way cute newborn hats, made sure I had the perfect outfit–for both of us–, and was off to the studio. Which, BTW, took 2.5 hours of perfectly planned timing to get us to the studio by 3:30. I could hardly contain my excitement when we arrived…my day in the sun had come. Let’s be realistic, most of the things we do to our children are for our pure enjoyment. At three weeks old, they are just happy with love, food, and a clean diaper. Ahhh, maybe I should contemplate adapting that same attitude. Anyhoo, the pictures started out innocently enough, she spit up all over daddy. Which we found to be a wee bit bizarre, since she is not really a spitter, but nothing was going to deter me at this point. We got a few cute pictures, then it was time for the typical newborn poses, generally taken without a diaper. It was going okay, but then it all broke loose. I was holding her in my lap propped up with my knees, looking deeply into her eyes, cooing at her for the camera, when she let go. She doodied a huge one in my lap. And again, and again. I was sitting there helpless while she unloaded what seemed like every meal she had eaten in the last 24 hours. Still motivated for the perfect picture, I pressed on. Ainsley was finished, but not finished with the bodily fluid show. Over the next 45 minutes, she proceeded to doodie on me 2 more times, while topping it off with three peepee’s. All.over.my.shoes. All I remember at one time is saying…save my shoes as my husband and the sweet photographer were trying to dry me off. I believe that we did get some good shot. Alas, mama said there would be days like this………
