Our Wedding - Pictures

It has been requested to add more wedding pictures for everyone to view. I hope you enjoy them. The day was perfect in everyway.

This picture was not posed. The dress was a little snug at first, but we got it zipped. Thank you to all my bridesmaids and personal attendent Katie for getting the dress on.

Here is Kaitlyn seeing me the for the first time that day. She was such a great girl that day.

My sister and my mom helped get Kaitlyn ready for her big debut down the aisle. She loved being in a pretty dress.

My favorite picture of my sister and I... Granted my hair was in my face.

My beautiful Bridesmaids - I love each and everyone one of you. Thank you for being part of our day.

The guys! Aren't they handsome! Nate and I really appreciate all of you. Thank you for being part of our day.

It's Official - Mr. and Mrs. Nate McNeilly!!!!

The cutest picture ever!

Helpful or Not Helpful?

Where do I start? Last week we dealt with a high temp for 2 days... a doctors visit... possible bladder infection (or UTI in the medical world) to the most current... Rash, and crabby, highly emotional baby. Here is where I left off... Saturday evening I noticed Kaitlyn had a rash that covered her entire torso and her face. My first thought is allergic reaction to the antibiotic. (Side note: Lab results did not show any bacteria growth which equals no UTI or Bladder infection.) I tried calling a pharmacy, but soon realized that they were all closed by 8:15pm. Ugh! So my second choice was call the nurse line... I called earlier in the week about Kaitlyn's temperature... they suggested to contact my doctor within 18 hours. (Disclaimer on Nurse line: They will always recommend you contact your doctor within a certain amount of time... they don't want to be held liable for anything that happens. I try to use my motherly instinct to determine the appropriate reaction.) After giving the nurse line the specifics on Kaitlyn's rash and medical problems... their response... (suggestion)... take Kaitlyn to the nearest ER immediately. What? I am watching her play, laugh, smile, and enjoying the world as we speak. After hanging up and assuring them I would take appropriate action I decided to call my friends mom. (A pediatric nurse) She said that her rash could be a reaction from the antibiotic or from her fever. (Infants can develop a rash after a viral high fever.) My thoughts... viral fever with rash.

Sunday was not a good day in the McNeilly household. Kaitlyn was so crabby... What happened to my smiley happy baby girl? Plus - she only wanted me (her mommy) which is cute, but can get tiresome after a few days. Sunday night was even worse... she was up all night... actually from 2:30 until 5:45am. She went to bed just in-time for us to get up... I made the executive decision to sleep in. At the end of Monday after staying home and comforting my crabby baby... she started to return to her normal self. Last night she slept almost all the way through the night, woke up happier, and she has two little white bumps on her gums. (Teething?) The jury is still out, but it is looking like we may have an answer to the crabbiness.

I guess the bottom line is to trust your instincts and only take the nurse lines advice as an opinion in which it has a big disclosure.

Here is Kaitlyn enjoying some time in her new pool. The water was a little cold, but we both got used to it pretty quickly.
This picture was too cute not to post! Enjoy!

Am I the only mother? Updated

It's Official

The other exciting news in our family is that Nate has joined the Mayer Fire Department. Monday he had his first training with the department. He got to drive all the fire trucks and learn about all the buttons and gauges. He was like a little kid in a candy store. He also has been waiting for his first "FIRE CALL". 80% of the Mayer fire calls are actually medical emergencies and not fires. Last night his pager went off and he was out the door in 2 seconds... he was the second at the station since we do live 2 blocks away. Unfortunately the call was canceled so now we have wait for the next call. He will start his fire fighting classes in September.

Am I the Only Mother? UPDATE:
After another night of high temperatures... we brought Kaitlyn into the doctor. The jury is still out, but we are pretty confident she has a bladder infection. While in the doctor's office... he tells me he will need a urine sample from Kaitlyn... Not knowing all the medical procedures I ask... "And how do you get a urine sample from a baby?" I know we can't just hold her over a cup and pray she pees into it. The doctor than tells me she will need a catheter... okay, now I am wishing Nate was there... I was thinking this would only be a ear infection and already starting to say NO to tubes... I was not expecting urine extraction.... After a few minutes the tests came back with a possible bladder infection. Today they are growing the bacteria on a petrie dish... just like in science class... to determine what kind of bacteria. Once these results are in... we will discuss further steps with the doctor. We may need to bring her in for an ultrasound of her kidney's to see if everything is in working order since Bladder infections are not typical in children under the age of 3.

Am I the Only Mother?

Am I the only mother? I ask this open ended question because I feel that parenting is mostly trial and error. (and questioning?) Here is my most recent dilemma. Kaitlyn is 11 months old and toothless. This being said... I am not sure what her body will do when her first tooth comes in... will she be crabby, have a temp., red cheeks, up all night, etc... Last night after our evening walk I noticed she was very warm. After taking her temperature 3 times it was confirmed she had a fever. (101.6) I gave her some Motrin and put her to bed. (Praying she would sleep through the night.) Of course, God didn't answer my prayers the way I wanted them to be answered... and she woke up around 1:30am... approx. the time the Motrin wore off... I checked her temp again... still 101.6... Gave her some Tylenol. Of course every 30 minutes after that she would wake up and be sitting up in her crib. After about 3 times of this routine... I broke and let her sleep with us. So, here is where my questions start... do I bring her to the doctor when they open? (Last time she spiked a temp. she had double ear infections.) Or do I wait? Well, both scenarios played out in my head all morning... My daycare said I could bring her with a fever... she was happy and smiley all morning. I decided to wait... and see how the day went... No calls from daycare and when I finally did call... her fever was gone without additional medication... Hopefully it was just part of her teething process.... but... am I the only one who questions what to do?

I think this is the hardest part of parenting... guessing and trusting your instincts. It doesn't help that I worry about everything... Good thing Nate doesn't worry because when he is worried... you might as well send me to the hospital too.

Here is Kaitlyn on her new toy she got from Grandma and Grandpa. She thinks she is such a big girl. I can't believe next month she will be one.

This past weekend we went to Mora for the Kanabec county fair. Friday night Nate and I went to the Motocross race, while Kaitlyn played with her cousins. Here is cousin Hailey feeding Kaitlyn dinner. She is going to be a great babysitter one day.

Up North!

Our first family vacation was a huge success. I wish it wasn't over... next year we are taking the whole week. Our vacation started on Friday the 4th. We left in the morning for Mora. We dropped Cody off with my dad, made sure Thomas had enough food and water... and left on our journey north. We spent the 4th of July with the in-laws. It was so much fun! We parked in the Cambridge Target parking lot... to watch the fireworks. (Target got a lot of my business while we waited.) Kaitlyn stayed up the whole time and loved all the colors in the sky. Grandma and Kaitlyn watching the fireworks. She also loved spending time with her Aunty Mandi and her cousins.It is really hard to get 3 kids under 4 to look at the camera at the same time. This is the best picture of all the ones I took. As you can see from this picture. Nate loves taking pictures with me as you can tell. I think he is burnt out from all the wedding pictures. Saturday we left in the afternoon for the cabin near Nisswa. Kaitlyn stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while mommy and daddy got things situated at the cabin and could enjoy an evening with out baby.

Kaitlyn loved swimming in her new floaty! She figured out that she could touch the bottom and move around the shallow part by herself. She loved chasing after her cousins in the water. Sunday night Kaitlyn got to spend the night with her cousins... Thank you to Aunty Mandi for giving mommy and daddy another night off.

Kaitlyn loved to play in the water and eat the sand and suck on the rocks. She is pretty quick to get it up to her mouth.

Forgot to Add

Okay - As I am sitting at my desk... working!?! More and more blog topics started entering my brain... So, I am going to tell you about them only because I am behind on Kaitlyn's baby book and this blog is starting to be Kaitlyn's baby book. (Or my memory holding pot until I can write in her baby book.)

One of the hardest part of being a parent happened to us last night. First I need to give you a little history on why we had to be "bad" parents last night... or some could say "good" parents. Last week Kaitlyn decided she didn't want to sleep by herself at 3 in the morning. This lead to her not wanting to fall asleep by herself in her crib... The last 2 nights every time we would put her in her crib she would cry... So last night we had to start breaking her of this new routine. (7 days ago... she fell asleep by herself in her crib.) Anyway, last night we had to let Kaitlyn cry herself to sleep... we have a video baby monitor... so we watched her cry and just stare at the door... waiting for us to come get her... We didn't. (I have to say having Nate there... made it a lot easier on the both of us.) After about 25 minutes she fell asleep. I have heard it usually takes 3 nights to break habits... so we will see how tonight goes. (I am crossing my fingers.)

To be honest... I have now forgotten all the topics I wanted to blog about... Wait... here is one. It is not official as of right now, but Nate is going to join the Mayer Fire Department. He had his interview last night so now all he needs to do is get a physical and get approval from the city council. I am very excited about this because my dad was firefighter growing up. (My dad is also very excited to have his son-in-law follow in his footsteps.)

Another new thing is that Kaitlyn is now on formula. I have decided that I am done pumping. I am very excited about this decision and it is one less bag I need to remember in the morning. I still feed Kaitlyn in the morning and before bed, but she gets formula during the day. She loves it or doesn't know the difference.

Here is a picture of my sister, papa, Kaitlyn, and I on our boat on Father's day. (Nate is taking the picture and driving the boat.)
Kaitlyn and Grandpa a great buds now. Kaitlyn loves to go over to Grandpa's house to play with his cats and of course see Aunty Anny. (FYI- I stole a lot of these pictures from my sister.)

One last thing... SOLID FOODS. This is one of the hardest things for me to do so far as a parent. I am not very good at introducing new foods and adding more solids. She loves cheerios and those infant star puffs. Yesterday she had cheese and watermelon at my Aunt and Uncles... I am okay with other people giving her new solid foods because than I don't have to! Every time I go to the doctor I tell them how horrible I am at this part... They must think I am so strange.

Speaking of the doctor... Kaitlyn decided to hold onto her double ear infections for 6 weeks. It took 2 oral antibiotics, 3 doctors trips, and 2 shots to get rid of the infection. (The doctor pretty much told me that we have used every oral antibiotic out there and if the shots don't work... it is off to a specialist.) The shots seem to be working... so I am keeping my fingers crossed that we don't need to see a specialist.

Disclaimer on the picture above! I was not with Kaitlyn... my mom and sister thought it would be funny to pretend that they gave her a chip to eat. They were so cleaver that they broke a piece off to make it look like she actually had some.

Well - I think that is all I wanted to add... unless I remember more later. LOL!

10 Months and Counting

Where do I begin? Kaitlyn is growing so fast... she seems to be learning new things everyday. Here is a little recap of what she can do.

When my mom came to visit for our wedding the beginning of June she decided that Kaitlyn's current mode of rolling from point A to point B was just not good enough. By the second day my mom was home... Kaitlyn learned to army crawl across the floor. Now she is starting to get up on all fours. I have a feeling that she will be crawling on all fours within the next few days. Another milestone my mom taught her was to stand flat footed. Ever since she was a few months old Kaitlyn loved to stand on her tippy toes. I am not sure if she wants to be a ballerina, but she sure was good at it.

Here is Kaitlyn playing with her new toy I found a garage sale for $8. I love garage sales! We use this toy as a way to block the cords for the laptop and lamps in the living room. This may be the only toy she really plays with at home or she is just trying to figure out how she can get to the cords. I have found that I don't need to buy her toys. She will have toys surrounding her and she chooses to play with the following: Coasters, baskets, socks, strings on my pants or sweatshirts, the cat or dog, car seat straps, and the list keeps going. The good news is that I buy her toys at garage sales, so if she doesn't play with them it is not a big lose for us.

I am not sure I want to thank my mom for this or not... because she is now a master at pulling herself up on everything... laundry baskets, couches, tables, legs, and anything that is taller than her. We had to do some major baby proofing now that Kaitlyn has learned to crawl and climb a few stairs. We bought this new gate and decided that Kaitlyn doesn't need to have full access to the upstairs. (Or we just are lazy and haven't baby proofed everything.) We have a sunken living room, so we decided she could stay in there. The benefits to this are: Cody doesn't bother us because he chooses to stay on the other side of the gate... this also allows for less dog hair where Kaitlyn is playing, and we don't have to worry about the stairs.

Every since Kaitlyn was a few months old she has been very vocal. This has made it hard for us to determine what her first word will be or is... She loves to say "mamamamama" when she is upset. Last week she said "hi" really loud when the phone would ring at my aunt and uncles. We are pretty sure now that she knows how to say "dada". (I think she just likes to make the "da" sound and it is easier than the "ma" sound to make.)

This past Sunday... Kaitlyn came out on the boat with us for the afternoon. She loved playing with the rope, her Gerber food containers, but not her toys. About 20 minutes before we decided to head in for the day... she decided she needed a nap.