Hadlee is here!

Lou and Alaina welcomed their adorable little girl, Hadlee, Friday morning.  They were expecting her to weigh at least 9 pounds, so when she came out at 7 pounds 11 ounces, they were shocked!  She was just perfect.  Because we had sickness running through our house last week, we didn't go to the hospital, but we did manage to go over on Sunday afternoon.  

Hadlee Jean Hallock



Drew, Kara, and Ainsley playing....while Kara told us everything there is to know about babies!

 

Me and Hadlee!

Proud parents!

Mommy and Hadlee are doing good (Daddy is too), and I can't wait to go over and hold her again!  I know Ainsley was two pounds smaller than Hadlee, but I don't remember her being that small.  It was so weird to hold a baby that little.  In a few short months, Ainsley will have a little friend to play with!

Ainsley with her new friend!

Abby's Bachelorette party was Saturday night, and I'll just say that I had fun.  The next morning was a little rough, but we had things to do on Sunday so I didn't have time to feel bad.  And, Joel says that the "brown bottle flu" doesn't count as being sick, so I didn't have anyone to feel sorry for me!

The Bachelorette

I think we were suppose to act "gangster" here....obviously, I'm not very good at it after I've had a few drinks!

After we visited with the Hallock's, we met Dad and Tanner that night for Dad's birthday in Springfield.  Ainsley was, of course, a perfect little angel while we ate (did you really expect anything else out of our perfect baby?!?)  She only tried to grab Uncle Tanner's food, glass, menu a few times!

Ainsley with Grandpa Bill

Friday morning I picked up Ainsley's new helmet.  It has a different type of foam, which is much softer than the other foam.  So far, she doesn't seem to sweat as much in this one.  I don't know if it's the cooler weather, the different foam, or a combination.  Her face/head also isn't as red as it was with the other one when we took the helmet off.  It's like she didn't miss a beat with having the helmet off for a week.  She doesn't seem to mind this one either.  I put her decals on the back of the helmet Friday night and it turned out super cute!  I had to put modge podge over the top of the decals so they don't come off, and I picked up the glossy modge podge instead of matte, so her helmet is a little shiny in the back!

Ainsley's new helmet



Notice her monkey feet????

She doesn't skip a beat with her helmet on.



Watching the Brockhouse guys out the window

7 months

Ainsley is 7 months old today! 

Ainsley 7 months

She's really changed just in the last few weeks.  Her hand/eye coordination has gotten much better, she's started putting anything she can get her hands on in her mouth, and she will mimic certain things.  If you laugh when she does something, she'll do it again.  She's starting to get her personality and it's adorable!  She's sitting up in her bathtub to take a bath instead of using the bath sling, and likes to play with her rubber ducks.

Bath time!

Her head looks a lot better than it did earlier in the week.  There is no more redness, and almost all of the skin has flaked off where she had the allergic reaction.  We go tomorrow morning to get her new helmet, and start the process over again.  I'm hoping she does as good with this one as she did with the last. 

That tongue is constantly out!

Joel has had problems with allergies all week, and my throat started hurting on Monday.  I woke up yesterday morning and it felt like my throat was swelling shut.  I tried calling a few doctors in Jacksonville Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, but all of them have to have the doctor's approval before they'll accept you as a new patient.  They said it could be a few days before they would get the approval.  I couldn't wait a few days because I felt like crap, so I ran over to urgent care in Springfield.  That place was wonderful!  I was in and out in 40 minutes.  They said I have acute laryngitis and an allergy infection.  I got an antibiotic and came home and slept most of the afternoon.  I'm totally exhausted and slept quite a bit today, too.  I went to pick Ainsley up from Lisa's this afternoon and Lisa said she's had a runny nose all afternoon.  Isn't that just great?!?!  I got her home and she's been sneezing, coughing and her nose has a constant trickle of snot coming out of it.  I hope she doesn't get what I had and it's just a common cold and will be gone in a few days.

Of course, all this sickness couldn't have come at a worse time.  Alaina's scheduled to have Hadlee tomorrow morning, and that means I can't go meet little Miss Hadlee.  We're going to have to wait until next week when we're all better and Alaina, Lou and Hadlee are home to meet her. 

I got Ainsley's 6 month pictures the other day.  There are so many good ones.   Here are a few of my favorites!

Amateur couponing

I tried couponing today.  I mean, really couponing.  If I see a coupon in the Sunday paper that I think I'll use, I usually cut it out and stick it in my coupon wallet.  I may save a few dollars here and there with coupons, but I've never really planned anything out.  Today, I guess I was in the "saving money" mode, and as I was browsing the ads in the paper I decided I want to really try couponing.  There were quite a few deals at Walgreens that included things we needed or would use in the near future.  Ainsley was taking her afternoon nap, so I cut some coupons, grabbed the Walgreens ad, and headed to Jacksonville.  I really didn't know what I was doing, but I walked in with somewhat of a list of what I wanted.  Of course, I found other "deals" as I was in there that wasn't on my list or included in the ad, but I think I did pretty good for my first time!

Here's a picture of what I walked out with.

I got $150.78 worth of stuff and paid $52.39, which is a 65% savings!!!  I think that's pretty good for my first try.  I got each of us a razor, razor refills for mine, two packages of diapers, refill of wipes, two toothbrushes, two tubes of toothpaste, four big bags of M&M's, two deoderants, two body washes, two packages of Dayquil, and two packages of Nyquil.  The razor refills were $22 and each razor would have been $12/each, so I pretty much got everything else for free!  I was excited.  Now, Ethan, the assistant manager of Walgreens by Sonic wasn't as thrilled as I was.  I felt so bad for him.  Of course, it all didn't ring up correctly, so he had to go through everything and get my money for me.  I'm glad Joel wasn't with me....he would have been so embarrassed!!!

Last night we met Lou and Alaina for supper at Chubba's in White Hall.   Ainsley had already had a pretty busy day shopping with Mommy, Callie, and Madilynn and was getting tired.  She did good through supper, and we decided to stop and get ice cream in White Hall on our way home.  When we got in the car to head home, Ainsley was not a happy camper and cried, or maybe I should say wailed from the time we left and was still at it once we got out of Roodhouse.  The next thing I know, Joel is kicking off his boots in the passenger floor board of the car and is climbing to the back seat through the center console.  He gets into the back seat and tries calming Ainsley down.  I mean, he was doing everything...pulling out toys, talking, turning on the light, etc.   At one point, he was shaking one of her rattles and doing an Indian chant:  Hey-ya-ya-ya, hey-ya-ya-ya, hey-ya-ya-ya.  She finally calmed down about half way home, but we had to leave the light on the entire time.  She was so tired, hungry, and wore out.  We got home and I put her pajamas on her, gave her a bottle, and she was out for the night!  I love how Joel is a good Daddy, even if he won't do a lot of the things he does with Ainsley in front of other people.  He has a dance he does with the music her bug plays that hangs off of her carseat, but he says that dance is just between him and Ainsley and I've only seen pieces of it.  All I have to say, is that our daughter is in for it with Joel as her Daddy!  Here's what I found this morning when I got up (he was up with her this morning playing before leaving for Bluffs).  

Poor sock monkey!

I guess Joel was bored last weekend, because he found some new apps for my phone.  One of them was the "brostache" app.  Check out this video of Ainsley with a brostache!  Mom said how much Ainsley liked the puppy when she stayed the night earlier this week, so I went out and got her one like Mom's.  She really does like it.  Here's a video of her playing with it. 

Ainsley fell asleep again in her jumperoo earlier in the week.  I got a better video of her, and you can see at the very end that the phone ringing finally woke her up!  Here's a video of her shrieking.  She'll mimic me when I do it and she usually cracks herself up after she does it.  

I forgot that I had taken a few pictures of Ainsley's head Thursday morning after I took her helmet off, and when her head looked really bad.  I took this picture with my phone, so it isn't very good but you can see how red it was.

Allergic Reaction

Long story short:  Ainsley had an allergic reaction to the foam in the helmet Wednesday night and is now without a helmet until next Friday.

She started wearing the helmet 23 hours a day on Wednesday and when I took it off of her that night to give her a bath, I noticed that her head was really red and her hair was crusted to her scalp.  We just assumed it was from sweating all day, but the redness didn't go away, even after her bath.  I was concerned and wanted to call the Orthotist and leave the helmet off, but Joel convinced me that it was just her sensitive skin and it was fine.  We had our one week follow up appointment Thursday and we would be able to get answers then.  So, we put the helmet back on her Wednesday night and what a mistake that was!  She was up numerous times Wednesday night and couldn't get comfortable.  I should have taken the helmet off during the night, but again, I just assumed she was getting use to sleeping in the helmet and was expecting a few bad nights until it was more comfortable for her. 

I took the helmet off Thursday morning to get her dressed and her head was even worse than the night before.  It was bright red and you could see exactly where the helmet was because of the outline on her head.  She had blotches of scaly spots, spots where there were little bumps, and a few places where there was yellowish-orangish ooze.  Her hair was completely matted to her scalp and I knew something was definately not right.  I refused to put it back on her, and called the Orthotist.  When she returned my call, she confirmed that she was having an allergic reaction and to leave the helmet off. 

This picture doesn't really show how bad the reaction was, but you can see that her head's pretty red here.  It looked MUCH worse in person.  Poor baby!

We went in for our regular one week appointment Thursday afternoon and the Orthotist said that it was rare, but they have seen babies have allergic reactions to the foam in the helmet before.  She called Dr. Johnston and they told us to give Ainsley Benadryl last night and to follow up with them this morning.  Because Ainsley's helmet wasn't fabricated correctly, we had to get a new helmet ordered.  They did another scan yesterday to order a new helmet, and we're getting a different type of foam in the new one.  Ainsley will also have to wear a knit hat underneath the helmet so her skin isn't in contact with the helmet.  We go next Friday to pick up her new helmet.

With the scan they did yesterday, the measurements didn't show any improvement with Ainsley's head.  I could tell that is was looking different, and the Orthotist got out the scan picture from the week before and held it up to the scan from yesterday and you could tell the difference in the pictures.  Her head is starting to shift to the left, which is exactly what we wanted it to do!  I was happy to see the improvement, even if it was a small improvement.

I took Ainsley in to the pediatrician this morning to see what else we could do for her head.  The redness was almost completely gone this morning, but her skin had started to peel.  She also had 5-10 small red dots on her forehead and in her diaper area.  The doctor confirmed that she had an allergic reaction and thought that the red dots looked like some type of bite.  I couldn't believe that they were bites of some kind, because she hadn't been anywhere.  I came home and washed her sheet and mattress cover, just in case.  (By the way:  if you put a mattress cover in the dryer, the plastic will melt.  Lesson learned in this house!)  The red spots on her forehead were pretty much gone tonight, so I really don't think they were bites.  And, more of the spots have now popped up and they are on the top of her head now.  I'm convinced it has something to do with the reaction, but I don't know what it could be.  We're putting cremes and lotion on her head 2-3 times a day and the doctor thinks she will be completely cleared up in a week.  She looks like a big grease-ball with all the cremes I have to put on her head. 

I also felt a lump on the back of her head Wednesday night when washing her hair.  I freaked out, imagine that, huh???  Joel felt it and was worried about it also.  It was confirmed today at the doctor that it was a lymph node and it was because of her allergic reaction.  They said that we may feel more and that they will go down as the rash goes away.

I'm hoping for a big improvement by tomorrow morning and that most of the red bumps will be gone.  I feel like the world's worst mom, and wonder when things are going to start looking up for us.  It seems like every week it's something different that comes up.

I've been swamped with work for the past few weeks, so Mom took Ainsley home with her Sunday night and kept her for me Monday.  I put Ainsley in her pajamas that Uncle Tanner bought her, and didn't realize until I was putting them on that they buttoned up the front and there wasn't an easy way to get them on or off.  So, I'm sure Mom had a fun time changing Ainsley that night/the next morning. 

Are you wondering what kind of pajamas Tanner got for his favorite niece?  Well, camo pajamas, of course.  Did you expect anything else?

 

I guess my baby needs a butt flap in case she needs to squat in the woods......



Ainsley's helmet

We got Ainsley's helmet on Wednesday afternoon.  It took about an hour for them to cut it down and adjust it to fit.  One of the ear holes was fabricated wrong, so we'll be getting a different helmet in the next few weeks.  She didn't do too bad during the fitting, and only cried once and that was because she was hungry and tired.  

In the waiting room waiting to get fitted for the helmet

Daddy got a few pictures of the Orthotist making adjustments before cutting it down.  One thing's for sure:   the helmet makes her cheeks look even chubbier (if that's possible!)

Figuring out where to cut the holes



That toy was magic!

Notice how much bigger the face hole is in this picture?  They have to measure it and cut out the face and ear holes, etc.

All done and ready to go home with the helmet.

The first day she wore it for one hour on and then had it off for an hour, and repeated that all day.  The next day was two hours on, one hour off, etc.  We're up to 6 hours on and 1 hour off today.  She's done really good with it and doesn't seem to mind it.  She doesn't like it when we have to adjust it, but it's still a little big, and slides down on her face sometimes.  I've been putting bows on it and she loves playing with the bows, especially when she's taking her bottle and is tired.  

Happy baby!

I already miss kissing her head and cheeks.  When she's upset, you can't really cuddle with her, or put her head on your shoulder....at least it doesn't feel the same.  I know have a hard plastic helmet burrowing into my shoulder/chest instead of her warm little head.  The end results will be worth it in the end, but it still makes me sad.  

Grandpa Bill came to visit and check out the helmet.

While I'm typing this, Ainsley is laying in the floor playing for the hour while her helmet is off.  Joel just said that she looks so different without her helmet on.  It's true...we're already getting use to the way she looks with the helmet on and she's going to look so weird in 3-4 months when she gets it off after wearing it all the time.  With or without the helmet, she's still our precious baby girl!

She fell asleep for the first time in her jumperoo yesterday.  She loves her jumperoo, but was so tired.  She would nod off and then bounce a little and wake herself up.  She would do that 4 or 5 times and then finally fell asleep.  Of course, the camcorder was completely full so I couldn't get very much of her falling asleep, but I did manage to get a little bit on video.  

This was the first night in her helmet

She absolutely LOVES the newspaper.  It's become a ritual to look at the Sunday ads with Mommy each week. 

What is Daddy going to buy me this week?!?!?

Have a good week, everyone!!!

Sitting up and rolling over!

What a weekend!  Ainsley is now sitting up by herself and she rolled over for the first time tonight.

She's been sitting up pretty good with the aid of her boppy pillow for the last couple weeks, but she can now sit up for half an hour or so at a time completely by herself.  Granted, you can't leave her because she still flings herself backwards or occasionally face plants it, but all in all, she's getting to be a pro. 

Sitting up with her boppy.

She rolled over for the first time tonight after her bath.  I always get her dressed on the kitchen island after her bath and stick her on her belly to put lotion on her back.  I put her on her belly tonight and she started reaching for her bumbo seat that was behind her.  I yelled at Joel and said that she was really trying to roll over and I had to move the towel up a little bit so she didn't go off the island if she did decide to roll over.  Sure enough, she got her chubby little leg up and over and that was it.  She rolled over onto her back!!!  We couldn't believe it.  Uncle Tanner was able to watch it all too.  Dad had just gone to the bathroom, so he missed it, but me, Joel and Tanner watched her do it.  I was so proud of her!  Of course, she wouldn't do it again for us. 

Grandpa Bill took Ainsley out to swing this afternoon.

We had a pretty busy weekend.  I ended up working late Friday night, and Ainsley likes to sit on my lap while I work.  She loves the computer, mouse, keyboard, etc.  She helped me get the final payroll out Friday evening!

Thomas and Jamie spent the night Friday night and brough Avery along with them.  Ainsley was asleep by the time they got here, but Saturday morning it was funny to see Ainsley and Avery together.  Avery didn't like it when Ainsley played with her toys and would take them away from her.  It cracks me up because they both just sit and stare at each other!  I got a bow in Avery's hair, even though she wasn't thrilled about it at first.

I don't think she's used to bows in her hair, but forgot it was in there after a few minutes!

Josh and Kathleen met us Saturday morning with the boys to head to the parade.  All four kids were really good all day.    We only had one small injury all day and that was from Augie falling at the front door and getting a little bump on his head.   It didn't phase him, though.  He was back playing in no time.


Augie, Nathan, Avery, and Ainsley waiting for the parade to start

We were able to get together with Lou and Alaina this weekend, and they got a little practice putting pajamas on Ainsley.  I should have timed them to see the difference in time between now and after they've done it a million times after Hadlee comes! 



Aren't they done yet, Mom????



Ainsley and Hadlee's first picture together