There went November...

I just realized I've only posted once this month. Nov. crawled and flew by...Blaine started his first month at UAMS on a general medicine ward team. It's been busy for him, a lot like July again, as far as a new hospital, new medical records, etc. He's done well of course, but the month hasn't been w/o it's stressors. I've passed the time by going on a few job interviews. I plan on giving a full update on that by the end of the week, since I'll hopefully have a definite job nailed down by then! That's been a bittersweet process. I'm looking forward to starting work in a lot of ways, but then I think about having to leave my sweet girl and it makes me sad! I should also have childcare nailed down by the end of the week, and it looks like I won't have to put her in daycare afterall. Thank the Lord for his provision there! Full update to follow on that too. :) Nov. has been kind of stressful for me too, as I've been dealing with a nursing strike. Disclaimer: if discussion about nursing disturbs you (Susan) than just scroll on down. For the past few weeks, Audrey has decided she didn't want to nurse...she'd get hungry, I'd put her up to nurse and she'd scream and pitch an angry fit. To make a long story short, I finally discovered that it was basically a supply issue. In the process of the strike, I had to give her many bottles, then I'd pump, by which I realized my supply was dwindling. The good news is after may weeks of frustration, guilt, "rejection" and many tears on both our parts, we seem to be back to normal. I started taking fenugreek a week ago. It's an herbal supplement that acts to increase your milk supply. I actually noticed an increase within about a day. I'm so glad to have things back to normal...I wasn't ready to give it up (though my frustration level nearly drove me to it!), She was only about 3 months when it started, and I was dreading having to pump and do bottles for 3 more months. So, now that it's Nov. 30th we're on to new adventures. Looking forward, Blaine starts night float (night shifts) tomorrow at UAMS. Not overly thrilled about that, but at least he gets wknds off! Again, hopefully I'll have news about job stuff soon. We're looking forward to the Christmas season and seeing all our family around Christmas. Here comes December!

Sweet thumb-sucker, and Visit with the "home folks"

Audrey has been such a great baby! Everyone has warned me that as soon as you get a baby on a schedule, they go and change things up. So far, she's been doing great, sleeping 12 hours at night for about 3-4 weeks now and eating about every 3 hrs during the day. She's a very happy baby, with frequent big wide grins and occasional giggle and squeals. She especially loves flirting with her Daddy (and her toy monkey, strangely enough.) Audrey is certainly a thumb sucker! She finds that thumb so quick when she really wants it, and is great at self-soothing. All this to say we had what seemed to be a strange occurance the other night. We did our normal bedtime routine (feed around 7:30ish, play a bit w/ Daddy, bath and bed) and Blaine and I bedded down aout 10 or so. In the middle of the night (actually about 4am) I groggily roused from deep sleep- Audrey was crying. I actually remember thinking "what IS that?" then I turned to Blaine to ask "WHY is she crying?" Shows how long its been since I woke up during the night. :) I thought, well, for some strange reason, she wants to eat, maybe she's starting a growth spurt IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. Once I got in her room, I immediately saw the problem- she was trying desperately to suck her thumb, but her pajama sleeve has covered her hand. She sure enough had that thumb in her mouth, but I guess it didn't taste right in a sleeve. :) Sweet baby...once I got her hand back out, she chowed down and went right back to sleep. So for now, I'm still enjoying her routineliness!

This is how I greet Momma when I wake up- smiling even around my favorite thumb!

Last weekend, we got the chance to go down to Shreveport for a visit. It wasn't nearly long enough, of course, so we didn't get to visit everyone we wanted to. Audrey and I went to meet baby-buddies Caiden (and mom Lauren) and Kinsley (and mom Kim). Kinsley and Kim were sick though, so we didn't get to see them, but we had a good visit with Caiden and Lauren. Caiden and Audrey took pics together, but it was too close to Caiden's naptime, so he was a little unhappy. We attended the fall festival at our old church, Emmanuel Baptist. Audrey was dressed as a flower for her first Halloween. Too cute! It was SO great to see everyone down there, and catch up on all the news. We haven't been back since we moved June 1st, and they've all been itching to meet Audrey. We also went to SS and church at EBC Sunday morning, then stayed for choir luncheon with all our old choir folks. What a great visit! Blaine and I were pretty nostalgic- we commented that it "just felt right" when we pulled in the parking lot Sunday morning. Finding the bulletin stuck in our Bibles a couple days later made us homesick too. Not that we're unhappy in LR or at FBC, it just doesn't quite feel like home yet. Plus, EBC and Shreveport are where we started out as a couple, our first "home" together. Anyway, we sure do miss everyone down there and wish we could visit more often!

Me and my buddy Caiden in our costumes.

Sweet flower face!