Just When I Thought It Was Safe To Relax And Go To Sleep..

I love the message board at WTE. I've gotten a lot of great advice and learned some really neat stuff from the other mommies there. It's also nice to just be able to interact with mommies that have babies Drea's age.

But for the second time we've had a baby on our board die while sleeping. The verdict of whether this was actual SIDS or not is still out, because the medical exam and autopsy hasn't happened yet. The last time it happened I felt weirded out by the mother (I found out for sure she wasn't faking, but she still weirds me out even though I feel sorry for her), but this time I don't have the same feelings and doubts.

Averie's parents were really young, and they struggled to provide for their little boy. They weren't perfect parents (who is?), but they were trying their best to do the right things to support their son. He was eight months old - born just a little less than a week after Drea - and I'm sure his mom had been thinking (as I have been) that the risk of SIDS is decreased so much by this age that it's not something you should worry so much about.

I don't know details - I've heard that he was taking a nap and crawled underneath his blanket and they think he suffocated, but that's not SIDS technically. I have no idea how thick the blanket was or if he just happened to be under one and that makes them think he might have smothered. I have no idea. In the end the details never help me feel less nervous when I hear of something like this. You always hope though that there will be some sort of explanation so you can avoid the same thing happening to you.

I think about it every night. I have to sleep in a different room from Drea to sleep at all, because I constantly worry if she is still breathing. I've done everything I can do to prevent it; my baby is probably cold every night because I'm scared to even put so much as a receiving blanket in her crib. She rolls over on her tummy and scrunches up in a ball every night, and it makes me a nervous wreck. When I hear stories of all the myriad things that can suddenly take a child away I am consumed with fear for Drea. During the day I'm OK, but at night I have a hard time staying calm. I can't imagine how little Averie's mom feels; I hope and pray that I never find out.

Glimpses of every day life

Next Thing You Know She'll Be Driving

We bought Drea a walker that looks like a pink and white Mustang GT. It has a steering wheel that has lights and plays music. She loves the steering wheel, but she hasn't figured out that she can walk in the walker yet, so she isn't too excited about it at this point.

She's growing so quickly it makes my head spin. Instead of short spurts in the living room, she's now crawling all over the house. She's also gotten really good at pulling up on furniture, and has even started "cruising" - hanging on to things and taking side steps. She likes to pull on my fingers and stand up, and has started trying to take steps with us holding her hands. The evening of Brian's birthday party (July 11) she let go and stood up all alone for a couple of seconds. She's in a hurry to be on the move. I can hardly get a picture of her these days that isn't blurry. She's not a fan of sitting still.

Drea and I have been to a couple of local babywearing meetings with Brian's cousin Katie this month (we're going to miss seeing her and the boys now that they've gone back to Germany), and I'm planning to go back to one of the groups in the future. I haven't decided whether to go to the Clemson or Greenville meeting next month. I think Brian might want to go to the Greenville meeting - there was actually a babywearing father there.

Katie made Brian a mei tai wrap conversion to make it easier to carry Drea on his back. We also bought an Ergo and got a short homemade wrap and sling rings from Katie. So three new options for babywearing in addition to the two wraps we already had. But I still want more.....

Drea has been eating a lot more solid food now that she's gotten much better at feeding herself with her fingers. She refuses to be fed purees from a spoon. She wants things she can pick up and feed herself. She's been eating mashed up bananas, watermelon, cauliflower (steamed), apples (steamed), grapes (sliced into tiny pieces), sweet potatoes, and squash (steamed). For snacks she loves the Gerber graduates snacks for crawlers. Just in the last few days I've noticed that she seems to understand what the sign for "milk" means when I'm getting her bottle. She gets excited when I do the sign and looks at the fridge (we get the bottle from the fridge a lot). I can't wait for her to start doing signs herself, but that's a way off I think. It's possible that she also understands the sign for eat now, but I'm not sure about that one yet.

She's been saying Ma-Ma occasionally when she wants me to get her. Tonight she spent some time at Mama's house while Brian and I went out for our anniversary. Mama attempted to hand her over to Daniel, and she leaned back to Mama and said "Nana!". It's amazing to see the things she seems to learn over night.

She's got three teeth coming in now, and she's been a little clingy and fussy this last week or so. She wants to get down and play, but she keeps coming back to be held every few seconds. She wants two things at once, which is sometimes frustrating for both of us.

In the last two weeks she's started throwing her arms up in the air when she wants me to pick her up. I always pick her up when she does it too - even if I was planning to walk away for something. I can't turn down that sweet little face when she looks me in the eye with a hopeful expression and throws her little hands up. I don't care if people think I'm spoiling her; there will come a day when she no longer wants to be picked up, and I'm pretty sure I won't regret one single time I've done it when that day arrives.

It's all going by so fast. I keep thinking if I blink too slow my baby is going to be replaced by a teenager begging for car keys and heading off to college!

July 4th weekend

I haven't updated this blog in a while because we've been pretty busy and my laptop has been uncooperative. Drea's had some ear infection issues, we had a holiday weekend, and we took a little extra time to squeeze in some visits with Brian's cousin and her kids while they were visiting South Carolina from Germany. Now we're getting ready to take Drea on her first vacation next week.

During the last week or so of June Drea had to take some Amoxicillin for an ear infection. Her fever came back and the doctor prescribed Keflex, but she wouldn't take it (she spit it out), so he gave her a shot. This finally seemed to take care of the infection, she's been doing well ever since, but we had to wait out the July 4th weekend before we were able to go in and get it. So our poor little pumpkin spent the holiday with a fever.

We went to a party held by my high school friends Jeff and Lia on the third. We drove through Williamston on our way home just as the city's fireworks display started. We enjoyed both the party and the fireworks.

July 4th we had Mama, Daniel, and the kids over to grill steaks. We had a good time with the kids, good food, and the boys lit some fireworks in the driveway afterward. Drea seemed interested in them at first (she's too little to know she should be scared), but we had to go in after a while because she was getting sleepy and wanted a bottle.

On July 5th we went up to Clemson after Drea's doctor appointment and had some barbeque with some of the Stepp family.

We had a pretty busy holiday schedule, but we enjoyed spending time with our friends and family. Drea got to see some family members she hadn't seen since Christmas and try out some new foods (we gave her watermelon and canteloupe).