One Week

I am so excited next week at the time, we will be packing the car to get ready to leave to head back to Nebraska for the month. Im really excited. I cant wait to go home. I really miss everyone. Its been since June since Ive been home. With it being Ciarrahs bday next month, hard to believe she'll be 3 on the 24th, we are going planning on having a bday party for her. I know everyone is excited that they will get to see us and we actually wont have to rush to make sure we see everyone. LOL. Like all the other times we go home.
Its sad that Michael doesnt get to go home with us, since he'll be in California for training to go back to Iraq at the end of the year. We've been hearing lots of guys saying they have dates to deploy most are a few days from Christmas, but we're still crossing our fingers that he gets to stay behind a month. I would really love for him to be home for Christmas, since more than likely I'll be stuck in the hospital on Thanksgiving, since I'm due 2 days before that holiday. I really hope he decides to come a few days early, it would be nice.
Today is just one of those days, bored at home, usually I would be doing some stuff around the house, but the last few days I have no energy after taking care of Ciarrah and cleaning to do anything, and since Michael wont be home tonight, he has Staff Duty stupid 24 hour shifts, I have no real reason to do much.
Well I hope everyone is doing well and everyone has a good Holiday weekend, I know we will since Michael has a 5 day weekend.

Blah Blah Blah

An quick update on the no cup at night thing. Well its going okay, we havent gave into her. But that doesnt mean she doesnt try to get us to give her one. Most of the time at night she will throw a fit for a good 20 minutes everynight. During nap time, well its the same thing that goes on at night. But we dont give in, and eventually she will give up, at least thats what Im hoping for.
The whole potty training thing, well she just isnt interested in it. Somedays she will want to go, other days she wont. I ask her every 2 hours if she needs to go potty, and she says 'NO' so we are just taking it one day at a time and letting her tell us when shes ready. I figure when we go in for our doctors appointment for our 3 year check-up next month, I'll discuss what we should be doing, but for now Im not going to force her, when shes ready she'll be ready.

Now on to some funny stuff. Last night Ciarrah decided that she needed to go swimming in the bath tub, so of course I had to get it on video so here it is:

She has decided that she will be in the Olympics some day lol. Lets just see her get to her 3rd Birthday. Which on that subject, we are going home to Nebraska for the month of September so since we will be home, we are going to have a big party for her. Especially since we dont know when we will get to go back home. It may be for Christmas or maybe later, we'll just see what happens with the army. So we are having a big birthday party, but without Michael since he will be in NTC in California. We will miss him at her birthday, since he hasnt been home for a birthday with her yet, but we'll make sure he sees lots of pictures.

I guess thats really all the new news down here. Hope everyone has a good weekend.
Love ya'll

Update on Doctor

Yesterday I went to the doctor for my 6 1/2 month check-up. For the first time ever, it was really quick getting in and out of there. My appt. was at 9am, I got there around 845 and well I checked in, I hadnt even been sitting 5 minutes, when a nurse came and got me to check my vitals. While I was sitting there the waiting room was very full, so I was shocked that I got in so fast. While she was checking my vitals, I was really nervous about stepping on the scale. I know your suppose to gain weight, but I felt like in the last month I had put on 10 lbs. After stepping on the scale to see that I only have gained 3 LBS. yes this was all, I was relieved. My blood pressure was normal, which is good since the last few times I have gone it was a little high.
Usually after I get my vitals taking, they take you to a back waiting room for the doctor t call you, but this time I got to go straight back to a room. I was waiting for like 10 minutes for the doctor which was awesome.
She measured my uterus, and she said it was on the small side. I am 26 weeks, so I should measure 26cm, but apparently I am only measuring 24 1/2 cm. She didnt seem to concerned but it still makes me worry. When I was pregnant with Ciarrah, I always measured exactly with the week. I know its probably nothing. He is a very active baby, so she said he is healthy. I am just going to make sure that I do everything that I can to make sure he is growing properly.
Well I hope everyone has a great week.

This Weekend

This weekend was a great weekend. We went to Austin on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. We got to hang out with Brenna and Hunter. We also got to see Aunt Cimi and Erinn. Ciarrah met them for the first time and the same for Michael. It has been since Ashley's wedding that I have seen them. It was great to get to hang out with them.

Ciarrah and Hunter played for the most part really well. This visit went alot better than the last time we visited them. They made Brenna's house a mess. We had a great time, we hung around for dinner, which Brenna got to cook on the grill all by her self, she said normally Ed does it, the burgers turned out great. Way to go Brenna.

Also when we got there, Brenna, Erinn, and Aunt Cimi, had a bunch of baby clothes for me. Which I really appreciate. I went through them all today, and I think Cooper will have enough clothes to wear a different outfit for the 1st 3 months. LOL. She gave us alot of nice clothes, and some other baby stuff.

But again it was a great time getting to hang out with them. I really had fun. Ciarrah did too. I know Michael was out numbered with him and Hunter, but he had fun too.

I'll leave you with one last picture of our weekend.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Potty Training

Today, when I was upstairs going through clothes getting them ready for when the baby is born. Ciarrah came in and said I have to poop. So we ran very quickly into the bathroom, took off her pjs and sat her on the potty. At first she didnt want to go on the potty. I reassured her how much of a big girl she was, and well she did it. She went poop on the potty. After she was done, she got some candy. Then she picked out some Dora undies and well so far so good. We have been doing well for most of the day so far. So we'll see how things go through the rest of the day. Ill keep you a'll posted. Wish us luck.

Day 1

The past few nights, Ciarrah has been waking up wanting more juice in her cup in the middle of the night. Yes I know this is one of the worst habits I could possible do. But when she was younger and sick, I let her take a cup to bed with her, and hence it went to bed every night with her for about a year. So now last night after some frequent wakings, we decided to stop giving it to her. Ive talked to a lot of moms about how they did this. In the end we just put her to bed last night without it. She cried and whined for about an hour or so. Since I am the softy, Michael got to be the mean guy. Which he doesn't mind, but Ciarrah knows now, that when Michael says something Mommy isn't going to give in, but she cries for Mommy even when Michael tells her no.
Last night, after she watched her bedtime cartoons, about 9pm, we got ready for bed. We brushed our teeth, told everyone good night. Then we went to bed. She didn't realize that she didn't have a cup for a while, but when she did, pretty much all, she went crazy. Crying and Whining. After multiple trips to in her room, to calmly tell her to go back to bed, she finally did it. AND GUESS WHAT.....She slept all night, and is still sleeping now as I write this. YEAH YEAH YEAH for her. I know this was a very hard thing for her to do. But she did it. I am so proud of her.
Now all we have to do is be continuous. This may get easier or harder I'm not really sure. But I'm guessing Ill soon find out at nap time and at bedtime.
Wish us luck.

Doctor Update

We just got home from the ear doctor. Well I think it was pretty stupid. The doctor didn't tell me anything that I didn't know. Yes her tubes are still in, but he didn't say anything else really. He did say that one of them is clogged, but the only thing he said to do is to put ear drops in her ear and give her benedryl at bedtime. He said that the blockage may be because her nose is draining and when she sleeps it goes to her ears. So we will do this and see if it helps. We are to come back in for a follow-up in 6 weeks. Although he did say that if has continuous drainage then we need to call and get her in to see him. He was a nice guy, but I feel that he didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. He did say no swimming for her for a while, which may upset her. Since she loves her pool, unless I get her ear plugs. So I guess for now we'll just wait and see what happens.

Tantrums and More Tantrums

Ciarrah has been throwing quite a few tantrums. Nothing we did would seem to work, we tried sitting her in time out, spanking her (not very hard), even just putting her in her room. Well we finally figured out a solution. We recently moved into a 2 story house, well, we have found out that if you put Ciarrah on the bottom step she sits there. She knows that the sooner she stops crying the sooner she can get up, but she only sits there for 2 minutes, cause I was told only 1 minute per there age. I would have never thought this would work. She doesnt like the step, but she will sit there, once you get her to stop crying, we make her apoligize for what she did wrong. Then she seems to be all better.

On to a happier note, since we have moved, we now have a yard, where Ciarrah can go outside and play. Well yesterday we went outside so she could play in the pool. She had a lot of fun. She also has a play kitchen outside as well. So some days she cant decide what she wants to play with. In the mix of her playing outside she decided that I needed to get my legs wet, so she started pouring water on them, apparently they are to white, I mean yes I know they are pretty white, but still. LOL.

She has been having a hay day with our puppy, Jack, as well. We really missed having him around. When we were living at the apartment, they wanted us to pay a really big pet deposit, and we knew we wouldnt get it back, so we were leaving him at a friends house til we got moved, now that we are moved all is well. Ciarrah and Jack play together for hours, they run around the house. It is so funny to see. When Ciarrah goes outside Jack usually does too. Except for when we are playing outside, he thinks her pool is for drinking lol.
I guess that is really all the news for now. We are all doing well. Well we are heading back to Nebraska for about a month in September, which we really cant wait, since it will be the last trip I get to do til after Cooper is born.

Okay I know Im a Bad Blogger

Well lets see I havent blogged on here in over 4 months. So to get everyone caught up to speed. First we'll start witht he pregnancy. We are 24 weeks pregnant. He is due to come into the world on November 25th, 2008. We are having a boy. His name is Cooper Michael Keeler. He is a very active baby. I dont think he ever sleeps. He is a very violent child on the inside, he kicks and moves 24/7. He is growing very well. When we went and had our ultrasound the doctor said he was a little bigger than the average sized baby, so maybe this means he'll be bigger than Ciarrah was. We have been going in every month for check-ups, and so far they have been going well. The first few appts. my blood pressure was high, but the doctor doesnt seem to worried, so neither am I. But that is really all about the pregnancy.

Now on to Ciarrah. She is getting really big. She is about 40 inches tall, but only weighs 30 lbs. She hasnt gained much weight, but she is really getting tall. Although we have been at the doctors office ever other week, for the most part. She has been having ear infections for about 8 weeks straight. We have been doing courses of antibiotics and ear drops. But nothing seems to get rid of them. So last week we had to go in every day for 3 days so they could give her shots of antibotics. Her ear stopped draining, but she says it still hurts. So we finally got approved for her to see an Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor, the army health care systems sucks it takes forever for them to get a referral put in. So she goes next week to the ENT, so we can figure out if they need to reput the tubes back in her ears or what they want to do. Cause she feels awful all the time thanks to these stupid ear infections. But other than that she is doing well. She is loving the warm weather.
Well other news we just moved from our apartment to a really nice townhouse, with a privacy fenced back patio. So Ciarrah can go outside and play on the patio and she has a pool for her and there is a park right behind the house. We really like this place, mainly because we didnt have to get rid of Jack after all. Our apartment wanted us to get rid of him or pay like $900 to keep him for a deposit which is in sane cause thats way to much money to have a dog. LOL. Other than that things have been going well.
Ciarrah, Jack and I will be heading to Nebraska in Septmber cause Michael has to go out to Cali for NTC training. Since his unit is set to deploy in December back to Iraq or they are talking now about Afghanistan. We really wont know where til it gets closer to the date. Right now its the middle of December, but we were told that he gets to stay back a month since we will have the baby at the end of November. But thats only rumors. So we are hoping that this baby takes his time coming out, the longer he stays in, the longer he gets to stay home. So we are hoping for a 10th of December baby, that would make me about 2 weeks late, I dont want to be pregnant longer than I have to but in this case I want to stay as long as I can. It sucks that he has to go back so soon. He just got back from Iraq on the 11th of December of last year, they were supposed to give them 15 months home since thats how long he was over there, but they are just get a year and a few days. So we are really hoping that things change, but we dont think they will.
When he returns from Iraq he is putting in a transfer to Fort Riley, Kansas, then we will be 3 hours from Nebraska and we can have family visit more often. My mom was down here for the 4th of July it was nice to have ppl come see us. After the baby is born his dad and step-mom will be coming down, too. Hopefully mom and Troy will be coming down for Thanksgiving, that is what the plan is right now, so we'll wait and see when the time gets closer. Well I really think this is up to date now. I hope this blog finds everyone well, and Ill try to be a more active blogger. Hope everyone is doing well. Talk to you a'll soon. Love Becky, Ciarrah, Michael, Jack and baby Cooper.