Tessa's CRIB

I follow Kelly's blog and every Friday is SHOW US WHERE YOU LIVE. Every week a different room in your house is picked and everyone posts pics. This week is nurseries so I thought that would be a great opportunity to give those of you who have never been over a chance to peek in to her "crib" (no pun intended) and see where our little miracle lays her head each night.

I actually just re-decorated and am still doing so. We had issues with furniture recalls so all new stuff had to be purchased....great excuse to go shopping!

(If you click on the picture it enlarges them)

The Holly Hobbie pics are actually framed quilt blocks....made in the 1940's

We all know where the custom Tessa & miracle wall expressions came from....Uppercase Living

These are the mobiles I made. I didn't really like any I could find online or in stores besides they really weren't "girly" enough for her room. I surprised myself when they turned out so great!

Most of the books I read Tessa are ones that we collected while she was in the NICU. I read to her EVERY night. I usually get all teary eyed now when I read them.



That framed picture is Tessa's tiny hand gripping the tip of my finger. It really puts in to perspective how small she was.



This is the quilt shelf my dad made years ago and a vintage quilt I found that matched the room perfectly. The dresser is the only piece of "original" nursery furniture. I painted it white and added the vintage crystal knobs to match the other new pieces.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of Tessa's Crib. Oh...my little monkey has a bad case of thrush from the antibiotics she's been on since discharge. It's also caused a bit of hoarseness to her voice. It's so sweet and so sad at the same time. If I can figure out how to upload a video I'll try and post one.

TOES!

On Sunday I shared with you what my favorite thing to do is....cuddle with Tessa in the a.m. Well, I asked her if she felt the same way and she answered...not by speaking but by putting her toes in her mouth. So there was her answer, plain as day, a mouth full of toes.

Thought I'd share with you what we are seeing a lot of these days....

You'd think those things were covered in chocolate!

Even Daddy can't resist them...

"Can I help you??? Whatcha lookin at??"

Not even socks can stop her....

Okay...this one is her POOPING face...I just had to add it!

A diaper full of poop and a tummy full of toes!

Good Morning!

Wanna know what my new favorite thing to do is....

Tessa usually wakes around 7am (after putting in 8-10 hours of sleep..thank you JESUS!). I prepare her gourmet breakfast...8oz of Similac...and we snuggle on mommy and daddy's bed while it's being consumed. Afterwards she's still a little sleepy so we snuggle some more until she drifts of to sleep for another hour or so. These are pics from this mornings cuddle session...



She's more interested in the seeing herself on the view screen on the side of the camera...

Now she's reaching for the camera strap in an attempt to take a bite 'cause her gourmet breakfast wasn't as filling as she had hoped!

What does 8oz of warm Similac and a half hour of snugglin' get you....

about another hour of snoozing time!

What's sweeter than a baby full as a tick (as my dad would say) and dreaming? NOTHIN!

Sit Pita...Good Girl!

Well, Pita (our English Pointer) isn't the only one sitting these days.....Tessa is too! I hear it's actually called a tripod sit - but who cares what it's called she is sitting! This occurance only lasts a good 5-10 seconds then she slowly falls to the side. It's pretty sweet!

Reminds me of a baby arangatang...I just want to eat her up!!!

Today we finally broke down and had professional pictures taken of Tessa...and a few of the rest of us. Ever since Tony bought me my fancy new Canon camera I've felt guity asking to have pictures taken. The dang thing cost so much and the instruction booklet is so thick...it's takin me FOREVER to figure out how to use it. Not long ago we got wind of Ashley Lafler who is trying to build her photography business and she only charges $75 to come out, take a some pics, do some editing and then sends you a CD with all your photos. HOW GREAT IS THAT!!??


Beware - I couldn't pick just 1 or 2 to post so there are MANY!
For the record...she does smile a lot and laugh a lot! The camera brings out her serious side!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Yes...this post will have a little bit of everything.

First let me start with the reason we have this blog....Tessa! Boy, she just continues to melt my heart. She's started to reach out for people and I was the first. I couldn't believe it....and YES it made me cry. She is becoming more and more vocal and I try all day long to get her to say "mama" but I think we still have a month or so. However the specialist have warned me that babies don't say mama first, it's always dadadada...they can't seem to bring their lips together to say mama. So at least there is logic behind it if she says dada first...doesn't really mean she loves him more than me! She still hates to be on her belly and I try NUMEROUS times during the day to get her used to it but it doesn't help now that she rolls over. It takes about 3.6 seconds to roll from her belly to her back so her poor little head will just have to have a slight flatness to it. She certainly isn't neglected and besides, the long beautiful hair she is bound to grow will cover it just fine!

Oh...before I forget. No one bothered to get a photo of me and my sweet girl on Mother's Day....dang my first Mother's Day and there is no evidence of my new title!

So about the interview with the foundation. A few weeks ago my OB, Dr. Biss, called and asked if we minded if she had someone from the new Baby Place Foundation give us a call. She said she was on the board and thought our story would be one that would spark interest and possibly get people to donate money. So out came Deborah from the foundation for our interview. They still aren't too sure if or how they will use us but we are willing to help. I think it is the least I can do for the wonderful care they gave me while I was restricted to the bed there for 16 days!

And that leads me to my last bit of info....You may have noticed a fancy new banner on the right side of the blog. The one with the woman who is not me holding a baby who is not Tessa. Well, if you click on that it takes you to the link for the team me and one of my nurses (who has since became my friend) started to help raise money for the NEW Baby Place. I'd like to encourage you to click on it and take a peek around the site. You can see what the hospital will look like when they are finished later this year. Most people may not know this but even though Bayfront's Labor and Delivery will be inside All Children's Hospital, it is still Bayfront. Which means they have to fund everything themselves. When you are peeking around the site, feel free to make a donation. 5, 25, 50 or 500 dollars....doesn't matter 'cause EVERY little bit helps. Keep in mind our next pregnancy may also include a period of bed rest and just think, with your donation we could be watching TV on a flat screen, cooking dinner in the antepartum lounge or even doing laundry. Those things would have been so nice when we were all there....wouldn't you agree!

I'm pretending this was my Mom's Day photo...even though it was taken a week earlier!




The only picture from the "real" Mom's Day...at church with my mom....not sure how long this pic will stay posted as I failed to have Grandma Marsha sign off on a release!

It was bound to happen...

I'm going to spare you the photos....

Some of you may not know but Tessa isn't what you would call "regular"... I'm talking poop here. Before incorporating prunes into her diet, we were lucky to get a poopy diaper every 3 days or so. And when we did it was pretty solid. Now, I'm not complaining but on more than once occasion I would tell Tony that I couldn't wait for the day I had to change Tessa's clothes because she had a blow-out.

About 2 months ago we introduced her to stage one baby foods and she only took to prunes and pears. After doing some research I discovered that these two food help you become shall I say....REGULAR. So yesterday, as we are getting ready for our interview with Deborah from the Bayfront Baby Place Foundation (I'll talk more about that in a minute) I decided to feed Tessa to ensure a happy baby for the meeting. While feeding her I continued to hear this "bubbling" sound and just thought it was her usual gas. Upon finishing, I picked her up to discover a brown pattern on the belly of her pink onsie. This was not a pattern that was on this outfit 30 minutes ago when I dressed her. Like any proud mama, I grabbed the camera before heading to the changing table. I was soooooooo excited. Our 1st outfit change due to an explosion. As I assessed the situation I quickly discovered it was not as confined as I thought it would be. There was brown seeping through everywhere. It was so far up her back it was almost coming out the collar of her shirt. I quickly called Tony and I could tell he had no idea the extent of the poo. So I did what anyone would do in this situation...snapped a pic on my Blackberry and forwarded it to him. If I hadn't of called him ahead of sending it he may have thought I covered her in chocolate...YUMMY!

As I sat there trying to figure out how to get this over her head without making her eat it I snapped a few pics with the camera and then decided I had to pull it off from the bottom. The look on Tessa's face was priceless. I think she was just as disgusted as I was...keep in mind it was the first time for us both! Once I got the onsie off she was stilled covered in poo so I quickly ran her into the shower. No problem...this should work. Yeah right....I pumped a little too much Johnson & Johnson into my hand and before I knew it she was pretty slick and I was praying to not drop her. To avoid a drop I had to hold her tight to my chest which then covered my shirt and shorts in poo....YES there was that much poo! Needless to say we both ended up nekid!

Aside from worrying about dropping my little angel in the shower the whole event was very comical. So like I said...I'm going to spare you the photos but I promise to post another update in the next day or so!

Oh....since this one went so long....I'll explain the interview with the foundation in the next post!

Is it too soon for chores??

Cinco de Mayo started out just like any other day. Eat, sleep, poop and laundry. Tessa LOVES to sit on the bed and watch me fold laundry. So I figured I'd let her help. For all of you who REALLY know me....you know laundry is my arch enemy! So I am hoping if I start her early and make it FUN (yeah...like it could ever be fun??) Tessa will soon be taking over the laundry duties!! Just kidding....NOT!

"You want me to do what??"

"Okay but the ice cream has to be chocolate!"


I think she likes it!



In the evening we had plans to meet The Howells in Safety Harbor for the towns Cinco de Mayo celebration. Mary and I read online there would be food, drinks and music and that's right up our alley. So we packed up the car and headed that way. Safety Harbor is a small town with a two way street (Main Street) that runs through it. There are a handful of cute shops that are perfect for strolling. I knew once we turned on to Main Street something wasn't right. The spots on the street are usually blocked when events are planned and we didn't see any people walking around. We proceeded to drive around a few more times just in case we missed anything down the streets as we drove by. We finally met up with Dan and Mary and they too were confused as to why we were the only people in Safety Harbor out to celebrate the 5th of May. So we wandered down to a little restaurant and ate. Before parting we posed for pictures and spoke again about the lack of interest in the celebration we read about online. When we got back home I was still curious and got on the internet to check it out. The calendar of events that both Mary and I had seen was from 2006. We were 3 years late! Better late than never!!!!

Tessa waiting for the "party" to start....


She's in there....I promise!


mommy and Maggie Simpson....


Much better without the binkie!