8 months, piercings, insomnia, and such :)

So, my last lil bitty is 8 months old already. Time sure is flying by. I am sure I said it with Nicholas too, but it seems to be going so much quicker this time than the last! It is bittersweet. I hate that it is going by so quickly that I barely feel like I can catch my breath... or even enjoy her milestones *sigh*



So, at 8 months Madison is

• sitting up - not going from a tummy position to a sitting position. But when put there, she will sit and entertain herself! Though, she is trying to get to the sitting position on her own. She will be on her belly and turn in such a way that she will ALMOST get herself to sit. But then she flop back on her belly! Lol!
• CRAWLING! - oh boy is this girl crawling! We actually had to go out this past weekend and buy a LOOOOOONG 5ft gate to keep her out of the dining room. There is just too much in there for her to get in to. Like all of the kids arts and crafts stuff, their games with small pieces, etc. She will be able to play with them someday :) She is still doing the belly flop crawl, but she can crawl on all 4's. She just choses not to for some reason.
• eating stage 2 foods. - But I think I am going to move her to stage 3 shortly. She is just always hungry!!! Looking at her, you could never that she had dropped a few pounds and we were once worried about her weight! She is a solid 18 pounds! My lil chunky monkey!
• Snacking! - She is now snacking on the Gerber Graduates baby snacks!!!! She loves the sweet potato and cherry puffs! We have just started trying the cheese puffs, she isn't as crazy over those! She is using her little pincher fingers and trying so hard to get it all in her mouth! She needs a little help sometimes, but she gets it for the most part!!! Usually we find a stash underneath her when we take her out of the high chair though!
  
• TEETHING! - Still!!! She only has those two teeth but the girl is teething like crazy. Anything that CAN go in to her mouth WILL! And let me tell you.... it hurts. I know from experience! She is biting everything from her clothes to my fingers! OUCH!
• Blowing Kisses!!! - I love it!!! Ok, so they are more like raspberries, but they are still the sweetest, slimiest, lovins you'll ever get!!! She is such a sweetheart!
• AMAZING! - She is such a happy baby! She has such an amazing personality and she melts my heart! She really does! I know every mother says that about their children!! LOL!! And each of mine have turned my heart in to an oozing mess time and time again! I just love watching her! I love listening to her! She is just a wonderful addition to our family!!!

We are still working on getting her to say Momma and Dada!!! She is too funny!! When we say those words to her, she laughs hysterically!!! She thinks it is so funny when we talk to her!!! She sings to me at night when I rock her to sleep. It is so sweet!! I love it!!! I have been especially taking advantage of the past few weeks bedtime routines. I know it won't last much longer. Mackenzie and Nicholas grew out of cuddling like this way too soon. Well, let me correct that, Nicholas was (and still is occasionally!!) a big time cuddler! He just grew out of it during the night time routine sooner than I would have liked. So, I am enjoying every second I can with Maddybug.

Mackenzie is still enjoying school! She looks forward to going everyday! I am so glad! I hope it continues!! She is already learning to read! She has been working hard on her sight words! And she has several of them down!

I still can't believe she is in Kindergarten!!! Time has seriously flown right by! She has been trying so hard to express herself in her clothes lately! She always tells me she wants to wear something cool and fun! She surprised me when she came downstairs after changing out of her school uniform the other day. She was toned down from pieces that she would normally pick as of late!

I seriously have the most gorgeous kids!!! Ok, so I KNOW!!! EVERY Mother thinks that way!!! But, I am still going to say it :)


(So, on a side note. How do I get better quality pictures on here? Do I need to use Flickr?? And how do I get them to where I want them without them uploading at the very beginning of the post and having to drag them alllllll the way down?? Any help?)

On another note.

For the past 2 months or so I have been having a heck of a time sleeping. For some reason I CAN NOT fall asleep at night. I kept blaming it on the fact that Adam was away. And I ALWAYS have problems falling asleep when he is not home. However, he has been home for some time now and I still can not fall asleep. I have been taking Unisom, and it has lost it's effect on me. So I started taking Advil PM. That was working great, however, I did not want to use it for too long without talking to a Dr (Via the directions on the back of the bottle). So, I finally caved and I made a Dr's apt.

My apt was yesterday morning. I did not walk out of there a happy camper. I thought maybe he would want to do some blood work or something. Thought he would at least want to TRY and get to the bottom of what is causing this insomnia. But no. He asked me a bunch of questions, some about everyday life and others about my thyroid surgery. Like if I have had bloodwork to check my levels since the surgery (June 22nd). He told me the insomnia COULD be due to my thyroid levels, gave me a script for Ambien, and sent me on my way. Wow. That's it?? Seriously?? Just prescribing a controlled substance that can get out of control?? No seeing what my body is needing in order to get back IN order?? I asked him if we could do bloodwork, he said he wanted to wait until October. Seriously, it has been 2 months already that I have been dealing with this. I don't want to wait another 2. So, I went on my way alright.. On my way to patient advocacy and demanded a new Dr. I should have paperwork in the mail by next week as to who my new Dr is. I will then make another apt and ask for bloodwork. This Ambien has definitely been helping me sleep. But it has been helping too much! I took one at 11 last night, apparently got up to my alarm at 6 this morning, got Mackenzie on the bus, and went back to sleep until 10:30. I woke up to Adam down stairs with the younger two. I DO NOT like this. I need some answers. Hopefully it all get's figured out soon. Because I don't know how much more of this I can take!

So, last but not least. I decided to get my nose pierced! I have been talking about it for YEARS! My mom and I were actually going to do it together once upon a time. But, we never did. We did go to get our belly buttons pierced together one time. But that was over 6 years ago! Mine lasted for all of a few weeks before I found out I was pregnant with Mackenzie. My mom still has hers. So, I went in to a tattoo parlor on Saturday night and got my nose pierced. It was the first time I have ever gotten anything done without my mom! She took me when I was 17 for my cartilage piercing, 18 for my eyebrow piercing, 18 1/2 for my first tattoo, 19 for my belly button piercing, 21 for my 2nd tattoo.... And now at 26, I finally went by myself and got my nose pierced! Well, not by myself!!! A friend of mine came with me! 9:30 at night I decided to get crazy :)

(you can see my icky scar on my neck from surgey. It won't fade yet... I have been putting stuff on it like crazy)

Alright, well that is all folks! I am going to take my pill a little early today so maybe it won't have such a hard effect on me. And I am going to take only half of it! Night!