A New Year...Reflections, Ambitions, and All that Jazz

So here's my obligatory post for the new year, where I will talk about the past year and what I hope the future will bring.  Boy oh boy, was 2011 a whirlwind of a year! Here's a quick recap:

January:
I was pregnant, bloated and feeling generally awful.  I was also extremely excited that my little girl was due in March and we'd be meeting her in the new year! I was busy planning her nursery and washing and folding clothes that friends and family generously handed down to us. I remember smelling the freshly laundered in Dreft detergent clothes and imagining what it would be like.

looking at my face and hands in this picture makes me sick. I had such severe swelling (which was due to preeclampsia only I didn't know at the time) I had no idea what was to come! It doesn't even look like me!

February:
WOW, now this was a crazy month! I had very bad swelling for most of my pregnancy, but when I woke up on February 3rd and my eyes were so swollen I could barely open them - I knew something was wrong.  We happen to have a blood pressure cuff at our house, and I decided to check mine just to calm my fears.  My blood pressure was 100/90 or something crazy like that so I called the doc, they had me come in, took some tests, and sent me to the hospital. I had preeclampsia and had to deliver early.  6 WEEKS early! It was a bad experience, but thankfully our beautiful daughter Penelope was born healthy (although very small at 3 lb, 9oz) on February 5, 2011. She spent the next 3 weeks in the NICU so the rest of the month is a blur of driving back and forth to the hospital and going from wishing they would send her home to being terrified that they'd send this teeny tiny baby home with us!

March:
Penelope came home! She was SO tiny and delicate.  I was nervous for probably this entire month.  Worrying if she would have some sort of episode and we wouldn't know what to do.  She was still in premie clothes and her cry was so quiet.  But Sean and I became more and more comfortable as time went on.

I mean seriously....how tiny was she?!?

April:
I think this is the month that I went to my first mommy group.  I went to the last 2 sessions of one group and the entire 8 weeks of another group.  In those 2 groups I met the most amazing group of women. I am so thankful for this program because I now have about 20 new close friends who I never would have met otherwise! When I moved to Columbia I was kind of worried because I didn't know anyone in the area.  And all of my closest friends from college have all moved to various areas and have their own lives and families - we don't get together as often as I would like.  But at least now Penelope and I both have a group of friends that we can get together with on a regular basis.  We have lots of fun!

May:
Sean and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. We had his parents come and watch Penelope so we could go out for dinner.  It was weird being away from Penelope for even a couple of hours.  I think we spent the entire time talking about our crazy first year of marriage and even more about our little girl.

wow...that feels like so long ago!

June:
Penelope and I spent a lot of time taking walks with our new mommy and baby friends.  I was also starting to get more worried about a birthmark over Penelope's eye.  It was continuing to grow and I had read online that it could effect her vision.  She had already gone to see some doctors about it but nothing major was being done about it.  We had another eye and dermatologist visit scheduled for July and I was nervous.

July:
Penelope went on her first vacation this month. It was definitely a new experience for Sean and I as well! No more spending hours lounging on the beach...our little Peanut wanted none of that! She did enjoy taking naps on the beach though. When we got back from vacation, we went to her doc appointments and it was decided that we would start her on propanolol for her birthmark.  We ended up having to be admitted to the hospital for 2 days to watch her reaction to the medication.  She did great, and we started giving her the medicine at home 3 times a day.  12 nooon, 8pm, and 4 AM!! This went on until very recently.

August:
Lots more hanging with our mommy and baby friends.  A lot of the moms were going back to work in September (lots of teachers in this group) so we wanted to get as much hang time as we could!

September:
Penelope really started eating solids this month....well purees.  It was fun seeing her try new things.

October:
Penelope celebrated her first Halloween with a bang! We had a huge party with a lot of her baby friends.  It was so much fun seeing all the babies dressed up! Penelope was a little black cat...so cute!

November:
We enjoyed the leaves changing, and Penelope tried the swings for the first time.  She loved it! We also celebrated Penelope's first Thanksgiving.  She tried turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce.

December:
Those who know me know that I LOVE Christmas! I was so excited to have our first Christmas with Penelope, and the season did not disappoint! She looked adorable in her little holiday outfits, she stayed healthy (although Sean and I were both sick this month), and she got her 2 front teeth (along with 2 more on the top!) We went to holiday parties, spent time with family and Santa treated her very well! I couldn't have asked for a better month! And to top it all off...the best present to ME....we weaned Penelope off of her propanolol treatment for her eye. That means she is now able to sleep thorough the night without me waking her up at 4am for medicine and a bottle! That also means that I don't have to get up at 4am either! YAY! She is now sleeping on average from 8pm-7:30am. IT IS HEAVEN!

December is also the month that I started getting back into taking photos.  After taking Penelope's pictures I started taking lots of pictures of my friend's babies.  It has been so much fun and I'm really enjoying it! I hope to take more and more and continue to sharpen my skills!

So...this ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated.  And I know that it's mostly about Penelope, but this year has been all about her.  She has been our world and has turned it upside down.  Sean and I were just talking about how difficult it is to remember life before her...and we don't mind at all.

For next year's resolutions (I'll keep this short) I plan to:
1. the obvious and cliche - get into shape, eat better, etc...bla bla bla
2. focus on my husband and relationship more now that the sleepless nights (and 4am wake ups) are over.
3. continue to hone my photography skills

That's about it.  I hope you all had a fantastic 2011 and are as optimistic about the future as I am.  I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring! Happy New Year!!

Moving on Up to Cereal and other updates

Penelope tried rice cereal for the first time today. She didn't seem to like it too much but it sure was fun to watch her!

I don't know about this guys!

It's kinda weird tasting....

Get it out of my mouth!

She is doing really great! She loves her daddy, and loves to roll over on her belly!

This is AWESOME!

That's right...just chillin on my belly like a big girl!

I'm also very happy to report that her hemangioma is doing fantastic! We started her on Propanolol a month ago and it has drastically reduced the size of the mark.  So much so that in our last eye doctor appointment on the 12th he said that her vision is symmetrical again and she is no longer in need of glasses! This medicine has saved her vision and she has had no side effects at all! We are so very lucky to live near Johns Hopkins where they are pioneering the use of proanolol as treatment for hemangiomas!  Here are some before and after pics just so you can see how amazing this drug is!!

And in non-baby news.... it's crazy but it's true.  3 years ago today, Sean and I met for the first time. It's amazing how much has happened in the past 3 years.  I love you Sean!

Our first picture together. Date #4 - day trip to Cape May, NJ

Right after he proposed on the beach in Cape May!

married!

Honeymoon.

our baby is born!

And now we're the lucky parents of a beautiful 6 month old little girl!

Have a happy weekend!

So many updates - Penelope Milestones, Birthmark, and Beach Trip

Shew people....I sure do suck at blogging! I think I say that every time I post! Guess that means it's true..haha. Anyway, a lot has happened since I last posted so I figured I'd just do a cluster post of our lives in the past month.

Trip to Cape May, NJ:

Penelope had her first trip to the beach this summer. While I can say that bringing a baby to the beach does not make a relaxing vacation - it was still a good time! She spent a lot of time sleeping on the beach and rocking her awesome sunglasses! I can't wait to bring her back next year and hopefully dip her toes in the water a bit. It was way too cold and she would have just screamed this year.

sleeping away

hanging with daddy wearing her awesome sunglasses

Trip to the Hospital, Update on Penelope's Hemangioma:

Big things are happening for the better with Penelope's hemangioma. We brought her to the eye doctor right before our vacation and he said that her eyesight was getting worse and that she is probably going to need baby glasses (as I mentioned in the last post). Well, once we got back from vacation we met with her dermatologist and she said it was time to get more aggressive with the treatment. That meant it was time to have Penelope admitted to the hospital for a few days to start her on Propanolol. Propanolol is a hypertension medication that they've found also shrinks hemangiomas. We had to admit her to the hosptial for monitoring because the medication can have adverse effects such as low blood pressure or drops in glucose levels. We checked into the hospital this past Tuesday and Penelope rocked it like a champ! She was so good the whole time we were there and just played with her toys! She didn't even cry too much when they pricked her toe to check her blood sugar (well except for the first time!) We were out by Thursday and we can already see a huge improvement in both the size of the red part of the hemangioma as well as the stuff under the skin that is actually pressing on her eye!

hanging in the hospital

chillaxin in the hospital crib

Penelope's eye before any treatment

Penelope's eye after 1 month of timolol topical treatment and less than a week of Propanolol treatment! It's amazing!!

Penelope Milestones:


And now on to the fun stuff! Penelope has just been learning and growing so fast these days!  She has discovered her tongue!

She has learned how to roll over!

What's up guys?  Oh that's right....I just rolled over again. No biggie!

She has also learned how to grab things with her hands and bring them to her mouth!  We are just so proud of our little girl! She is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to Sean and I and we are amazed every day that she is ours!  I couldn't possibly love her more than I already do.

just relaxing for a bit

Woah...what's that?  A monkey!?!

And that's about it for now!

Penelope Eye Update

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted - I'm a bad blogger! I've just been so busy with making new friends with other moms, playing with Penelope, and just general life. I really don't have too much time to write now, but I wanted to give everyone an update on what's going on with Penelope's eye and her hemangioma. Basically we've been putting a topical beta blocker called topolol on her eye for the past month hoping that it would shrink the mark. It seems to be working ever so slowly...but we went to the eye doctor today and it wasn't good news. Basically her eye is in need of glasses at this point. He showed me the lenses of what her eyesight is like, and it's pretty blurry. He said that the best thing to do at this point is to put drops in her good eye to make it blurry so that she will be forced to use her bad eye. This will hopefully prevent her from developing a lazy eye. In 2 months we'll go back to him where he will probably prescribe baby glasses. We may also have to patch her good eye from time to time to continue making her use the bad eye and avoid a lazy eye situation.

We're going back to the dermatologist who prescribed the topical treatment on the 13th. We may decide to try a more aggressive treatment, depending on what she says. The eye doctor said that if this stops pressing on her eye soon that there may be a chance that her eye could go back to normal and her vision could improve....but if it just keeps pushing and pushing it's only going to get worse.

I was pretty upset when I heard all of this today, but I'm trying to keep it all in perspective. She's healthy, she's happy....and she's awesome. She just may take after her mommy and need glasses. They're pretty cute anyway, and I think she could rock them!



Well that's about it for now.