Hi everyone, it’s Mary Margaret!  I know I’m not even six months old yet, but I thought I would write my first post on Mommy’s webpage.  It’s called Tonight’s Dinner and it’s about the first time my mommy let me fed myself.  Hope you enjoy!

Mommy always uses this round thing to feed me, but once she gave it to me I’m not sure what to do.

Does this look right??

I decided to ditch the mangos and eat some cereal…with my hands!

Maybe I’ll just chew on the bowl.  I wonder what it tastes like?

Who needs spoons or hands?  I’ll just lick the bowl clean! 

As MM gets older I realize I’m carrying more and more toys with us.  When she was small anything was a “toy”–my keys, a straw wrapper, my finger–but the bigger she gets the more she wants to chew.  And she loves things that make noise.

So instead of throwing everything in the diaper bag every day, I got her a little backpack. 

 It’s a little too big as she can see…but goodness, won’t she be JUST PRECIOUS in a couple of years when she starts preschool?!

 Also, I’ve started items to my Etsy store for Cab and his parents.  So far I only have three listings, but will be adding more for them as the other fabric comes in.  My friend, Carrie is also going to be doing a notecard design to benefit the family on her Etsy site.  I’ll keep you all updated on the little man and the other fundraiser projects my sorority sisters and I are trying to do.

Here’s a blanket I did yesterday.

Well, my friend’s son, Cab, has to have a heart transplant.  They were told on Friday and officially said yes to the transplant on Saturday.

I can’t get them off my mind.  I can’t imagine what it must feel like.  I look at my healthy, giggling, thriving daughter and I cry.  

I remember my mom crying for hours after I was diagnosed with cancer while I didn’t shed a tear.  I wondered why.  Now I get it–to see your child sick & the possibility of them dying is like dying yourself.  I can’t even picture my life without my child.  I don’t know if I could make it.

So…I’m thinking of ways to help my friends.  They are not able to work right now (their home is four hours away) and the cost of a transplant is astronomical so I’m going to do some items in my “I Heart Cab” collection on Etsy where all the proceeds will go to the family.  My childhood friend (and sorority sister), Amanda, and I are also discussing doing a baby/kids’ all-natural cookbook with all proceeds going to Cab.  

If anyone has any other suggestions for fundraising, please let me know.  I really, really want to help this family all I can.

I will let you know when I start posting the charity items on Etsy.  It will probably be later this week/early next week because I’m doing an owl theme (that’s what Cab’s nursery is in) and needed to order the right fabric and ribbons. 

Well, the great Summer ‘09 Tooth Watch is finally over as a tooth has made its appearance.

And in true MM-fashion she just couldn’t cut any old tooth.  Nope, she had to go and be dramatic about it and cut a tooth that usually comes through at 16 - 22 months of age.

Her right eye tooth!  (The third tooth over on the top; also known as the canine tooth.)

I will say that it explains a lot…these eye teeth cause a lot of problems when they come in and they take awhile too–which completely explains the *17* weeks of drooling, chewing, tad fever now and then, the night this past week where she woke up every 2 - 3 hours (that was fun, let me tell you!), and general crankiness as she gnaws on things.

I just hope the other teeth start making their appearance pretty soon or my baby is going to look like a vampire with just one fang!  

MM is a pretty scheduled baby…but not due to me.  In fact, I was one of those mothers who believed that she could go to bed, get up, eat, etc. whenever she wanted.  But MM had other plans, of course.Since about two months she has put herself on quite a strict schedule.  No matter where we are she adheres to said schedule.  It goes a little something like this:  between 7:15 - 7:30 she’ll wake up (it’s always in this fifteen minute block–like she has a baby alarm clock or something), exactly one hour she’ll eat a 5 oz bottle, play in her playroom, eat breakfast (usually oatmeal, yogurt, and a fruit), and watch some Noggin.  Then she’ll take a one hour nap.  She also takes an late morning/early afternoon and a late afternoon nap.  At 6:30pm she’ll have 4 oz bottle, at 7 she’ll eat dinner, at 7:30 she’ll get her bath, at 7:45 she’ll have more of her bottle, and by 8 o’clock on the dot she’s asleep.And even though I was against schedules, I must admit I enjoy knowing when she’ll wake up, or need a nap, or need to go to bed.  As I type this she is laying in her bean bag (her newest toy from her grandparents that she absolutely loves) and watching Little Bear.  She has stopped cooing at the TV so I bet she’s asleep.Guess it’s time for that one hour nap. 

Tonight I sit here with a heavy heart.  One of my sorority sisters, Amy, has a son born just 14 days before MM.  Other than having some reflux and a constant cough, he was a normal little guy growing and developing just like he should.  Until his condition got so bad he stopped eating.  Then they discovered an enlarged heart on a chest xray and flew him four hours to Atlanta.  Tonight he sits in the ICU at a children’s hospital here with a very rare heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy.  

There are very scary words being thrown around right now like “heart transplant”.  Scary statistics are being discused about this condition: 1/3 of children die, 1/3 of children will never improve, and 1/3 will get better.  His parents are wondering which one he’ll be.

And every time I read Amy’s updated blog I want to cry.  That could be *my* MM.  I can’t even imagine.  Just thinking about it makes my heart stop.

If any of you are the praying sort, please pray for this family.  Please. 

Haha, I love the title of this post–it just sounds funny!

Tonight at my parents’ church they had a lady come with various animals to show the kids.  There was a crocodile, a boa, a hedgehog, a centipede, a lemur, and a chinchilla.  Of all the animals MM only wanted to pet one–the super furry chinchilla. 

 She kind of closed her eyes and said ‘mmmmm’ (as in, ‘MMMMM, I want a chinchilla coat!’   Just kidding!).

Afterwards: ‘What exactly was THAT?!’

 Then it got a little later–8 o’clock to be exact–and it was her bedtime.  Here she is falling asleep to dreams of furry critters (and taking her paci in and out–her latest trick).

 So, a pretty fun experience for her all in all.  She just discovered our pets on June 13th (yes, I remember the exact day) and now tries to attack and scream like crazy pet them every time they come within ten feet of her so this was right up her alley.  I can’t wait to do a couple of petting zoos with her this fall.

Taken last Friday.  After I dress her in the mornings she waits for me in her crib while I clean up her room.

 I know I say it all the time, but here I go again.

I am so very very blessed. 

So… I guess I’ll just start from the beginning.

MM is 5.5 months old.  Since she’s been born I’ve had three periods at 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 13 weeks. Then I didn’t have a period for 10.5 weeks.  I took five pregnancy tests even though I was on birth control.  All were negative.  But my head kept screaming at me, ‘Something isn’t right!’  I had lost all my pregnancy weight and then some, but my belly was still big.  My abdomen had a full feeling to it…a feeling I’ve known several times in my life.  

Finally I went to the doctor and had an ultrasound.  They found another cyst.  I say “another” because I’m a cyst growing kind of gal.  I only have one partially damaged ovary that apparently works since we have MM, but always in the back of my mind I know that if I get another doozie of a cyst I could lose my ability to have any more children.

And this cyst is the size of an orange (about the size of a three month baby in utero and the reason my belly was still rounded) and filled with “gunk” as the sonographer described it so, as you can imagine, I became pretty distraught as I waited on my doctor.

I thought about my health of course, but I also thought of the future child (or dare I say, children) C. and I might have.  While I was sitting on the table in my paper gown I realized with certainty I wanted another child.  I had been going back and forth with this since my delivery.  I wasn’t sure if I could physically handle another triple high risk pregnancy (Pre-E, GD, Eclampsia) and another trimester (or more) of bedrest.  But then today when I realized my fertility was in jeporady, I KNEW I wanted to have another child.  And I started to grieve the loss of my future child(ren).  And then I felt guilty because I am so blessed to be given the opportunity to have MM and I shouldn’t care if I can have another child or not–I should be satisfied with my life.  I felt so torn in my heart about what I was thinking verses what I should be thinking.

Then the doctor came in.  She told me due to my history that she wouldn’t do surgery right now and that we would just wait six weeks.  She said the cyst should be gone by then, but if not we would “deal” with it then.  She also said to get off the birth control because it was obviously making my teeny, tiny, partial ovary kick into overdrive to produce these cysts.

Then I breathed for the first time in over an hour.  We might just have another child one day. 

Father’s Day 2009 

Happy Father’s Day, Big Daddy!

I feel so blessed that we were able to have a child together.  You are a great dad who is really “coming into their own” with this whole fatherhood thing.  Every time you put her on your shoulders, or tickle her, or feed her a bottle my love grows for you even more.  You two people are my whole world and I feel so very very lucky.