My baldie

I had an inkling our 3rd little lady would have the least amount of hair out of the three girlies, and I was right!

And, the little hair she does have since birth is becoming even less these days! Her hair seems to be shedding, and you can tell she's going to have Maddie's hair color I think. 

Faith-y had so much hair that I could comb it and style it since the day she was born. Maddie had enough to put in a little clip sometimes, and Abrie has the least amount of hair! It will be some time before I can put enough in a clip;)

I'm loving my little baldie though!

I am apparently chopped liver...

.... but, doting big sissy's? 

Now, THEY are cool.

I just call in my two helpers when ever I want to capture a sweet Beeba show smile on camera! She absolutely adores her big sisters. The second she sees them, she starts smiling her biggest smiles. It's precious.

3 months old

Why is it that these little ladies of ours have to grow up so darn quickly?

Abrie has been rolling since she was 5 weeks old. She rolls all the time, and then smiles. She was on her back in the crib this morning with a huge smile, just waiting for me. She is noticing her hands all the time now and trying so hard to suck on them. She will get up on her knees and rock back and forth when she's on her stomach the way her big sisters did NOT do until they were about 5 months old. Why can't she slow it down just a little bit?!

Baby girl is now 11 lbs and 4 oz as of her doctor's appointment for hives on Tuesday. She may seem so small to everyone that sees her, but to me she look enormous. What happened to my little 6 pound peanut that I remember bringing home from the hospital?! 

It's unreal how in love I am with my Abrielle. My Breeze. My Beeba Show-y. The cliche you hear all the time of "will there be enough love for another baby?" should be totally eradicated. There's SO much room for more love. The question I ask myself all the time instead is, where was she all this time? 

My beautiful 3-month old baby girl: I love you. Plain and simple.

Hoping it's a simple case of allergies?

I would very much like for Abrie's hives to go away now.

I hate seeing my poor baby covered in these darn things every single morning. It is the strangest thing. She started this last Sunday, and they come without fail every morning. They've been splotchy and only on her arms, but lately now they make her entire arm red and inflamed with white little welts. She's also now been getting them on her knees and on the bottom halves of her legs. It's got to be itchy for my poor baby girl; it coves her little knuckles and fingers, and I just want them to go away for once and for all.

I'm trying to not eat clementines (the only food I can think of that I've been eating regularly since getting them at the store last Friday-- although, I've eaten them many times before since having had her) and strawberries (same deal-- I've eaten them regularly since having had her and it never made her break out, but apparently Dan used to have reactions to strawberries when he was little), and hope that this helps? It's so extremely sad seeing her arms- and now legs- covered in these hives and wondering if my milk is making her stomach hurt so badly that she screams and screams and screams. Nursing is supposed to be soothing and comforting to my babies, and yet it seems to be torture lately to my poor little Breeze. I feel so guilty and helpless. 

Sweet sleeper

Abrie slept til 7:30 this morning. She ate last night at 6:30pm, which means she slept 13 hours straight. I missed seeing her at her usual 3am or so middle-of-the-night snack. Not to mention, I was wanting her to wake up so I could alleviate my poor boob pain. It still amazes me how with all three of my little girls, the first night that they sleep the entire night through, I wake up without fail at the time I am used to them waking and hurrying to their room to check on them. Then, instead of sleeping soundly, I lay awake until they finally arise to nurse because of the incredible pain! Irony!

Regardless though, I am so proud of my little sleeper. I'm amazed that being as little as she is, that she does sleep so incredibly well.

Now, if I could just rid her of these horrible hives, I would be happier still!

Experimenting

Abrie's sleeping in a light blanket sleeper tonight as part of my experiment.

She's been having the strangest hives since Sunday morning. They're strange because they only occur in the mornings after feeding her. Shortly after feeding her in the morning, you start to see the hives slowly appearing and becoming raised and blotchy just as Maddie's used to do when she had them for that year+ after the lovely hand, foot, and mouth virus of '06. And, then after I put little Beeba down for her first nap of the morning, she wakes up with them all gone. Weird. I can't figure out what it could be. It's only on her arms, and only on the exposed parts of her arms. So, I don't think it could be any reactions to the laundry detergent since it's not where the clothes touches her body. I change her bed sheet all the time, and I don't think it's any type of allergy to the bed sheet. I started to worry- as much as it makes me want to vomit- that perhaps it could be bed bugs? But, I really don't think so because it's only in the morning that she gets these mysterious hives and then they are gone for the day after she awakes from her first nap. I guess I will see how she awakes tomorrow morning since I put her in long sleeves tonight.

*****

I love my spring baby. I'm so used to winter babies! And, I'm loving the fact that Abrie is outdoors nearly all the time with her big sissys. Of course, both Maddie and Faith have always been outdoors as well even though they were both winter babies. Maddie, of course having been born in Shreveport, it was so much easier to get her outdoors. Faith was more of a challenge in getting her into her snowsuit for the mere 15 minutes or so we could be out at a time, but it was imperative that I get Maddie out for fresh air and all. It's quite easy with Abrie. It doesn't require TOO much effort, besides the typical 'get-three-girls-out-the-door-and-all-in-one-piece' effort. That goes without saying though that there are different things then to worry about with the Breeze. Now I worry about sunburns and not having enough sun hats for my baby instead of keeping Faith out of the 30mph winds and below 30 degree weather for too long. 

But, besides that, Abrie just loves every chance to be outside. I truly think she already loves it. We read stories out on the deck now, and this girl can read 4 or more books in a row. It's great. She sits so quietly kicking her legs while she studies the pictures. We even found some books for her at the library yesterday-- her first borrowed library books!

By 7:00pm

Failed to mention that I don't get Abrie at 9pm anymore for her "last" feeding. On Monday (so, 9 1/4 weeks old) I started just letting her make it to 7pm for the last feeding of the night, and she sleeps now from then until about 2am- sometimes later, and occasionally earlier- and then until morning. She can't quite make it to 7pm, so she usually goes to sleep by 6:30pm or so, and I just get her at 7pm to feed her and then she goes straight back to bed. She's awesome.

******

Little woman has been smiling up a storm at her sisters lately. Maddie was so incredibly proud of herself today because Abrie would pretty much smile on cue if her Dee made a Faith "monster face" at her! It was too cute. Maddie and Faith beam with pride when they do something that elicits a smile from their baby sister. Abrie's starting to grab at their hair now too, and they think this "tickles." However, I do think they will change their minds about it only "tickling" when she really starts grabbing AND pulling!

Perhaps cliche, but yet true

I am so very in love with our littlest lady.

Abrie has been with us now almost 10 weeks (as of tomorrow) and I wonder how we ever thought our family was complete before her. I was just telling Dan tonight before he left for work that next week it will be 10 months since we found out we would be parents for the third time. Before that day, we always talked about how our life was complete. We had our two beautiful little girls. We were not planning on any more babies. We both truly feel that God felt differently. He knew we just were not done. And, I am so very thankful that this was His plan for us. 

I hold my Abrie, and there are so many times that I am flooded with emotion. Louis Armstrong's song "What a Wonderful World" pops into my head, and I find myself singing that to her all the time. Maddie improvises the last song in "Bolt" to the lyrics, "There is no Abrie like the one we've got, because this Abrie belongs to ussssss!" Quite true. I couldn't be luckier, or feel more blessed. I have a constant nagging guilt that overwhelms me because of my initial reaction at finding out we were pregnant for the third time, and I am sure that will stay with me forever. It's crazy how I let fear overwhelm me thinking that I would never be able to show three little individuals the unconditional love I always promised myself I would show my children. The love that I never necessarily felt as a child myself. A love so deep that, as I have learned, prompts those unnecessary fears and begins that vicious cycle of Momma guilt. 

It's a cliche I have always said since the day we brought Maddie home from the hospital and still remember was written on one of my favorite neutral Maddie outfits, "If they could just stay little." I wish all three of our girls could stay little forever. I feel this now even moreso with Abrie, wanting to hang on to every little smile, coo, and even her precious baby farts! It's inevitable, and it's already happening inevitably with our Breezer. 

I just hope Abrie always knows how incredibly loved she is. She may be just two months old, and yet I am already so proud of the person that I know she will become, and the person that she already is. She has completed our family, and taught us to "never say never!" No matter how old she is in life, I will always remember my darling little Beeba-- our happy little girl that came into our lives and made us even happier.

I love my baby, and when she smiles at me with that irresistible smile of hers, I know that she loves me right back-- unconditionally. 

Bookworm already

I love it. My baby loves her books already.

Maddie was a bookworm since a tiny newborn. Faith used to wriggle in our laps when we would read to her, but of course was loving books- and had a better attention span- by 6 months or so. And, Abrie? She loves reading.

Her favorites are a Sesame Beginnings book and a Baby Einstein book that Faith also loved as a baby. Faith and Maddie come running when they hear us reading in Abrie's room. So long as Abrie is not ready for a nap (which means her attention span is non-existent!), she is so attentive and has read as many as 4 books in a row, and has loved it.