Taylor "Teefers"

or in other words... Taylor's Teeth! (It drives chris nuts that I call them her teefers... but I don't care... that's what I call them.)


So, some of you may know that Taylor did not get ANY teeth in until she was 13 1/2 months old... pretty late compared to most kids. I worried a bit that she'd forever be a toothless hillbilly, but they finally did come in. We actually noticed the first one had broken through on July 4th! She now has two teeth on the bottom, and I think 2 or 3 coming in at the moment.


Since she now has teeth, we decided to go shopping yesterday and buy Taylor her first toothbrush and toothpaste. She's big into Elmo right now, so we found a real cute Sesame Street toothbrush with him on it. She held it the entire time we were at the store. We also got some great toddler toothpaste (flouride free so she can swallow all she wants!)


Last night before bed, we brushed her teeth (though she did have her sippy cup of milk afterwards... atleast we're getting a habit started.) First, I made sure to get her 2 little "teefers" clean and then let her have fun with her toothbrush. So tonight, we brushed them again. I figured this is pretty monumental so I got out the camera.


That's when I realized, we have never taken any picture of her teeth! So after a few shots with her toothbrush... I tried getting some of her teeth! No luck. So then, I asked chris for his help. I think the pictures explain themselves!

We finally gave up after this last one... You can kinda see one of her teeth in the one before it, but chris's finger is in the way a bit. Oh well. So much for the cute little picture i had in mind of her smiling and those cute "teefers" showing. I guess it'll have to wait til she can say "cheese".

Taylor's Striptease & Feeding her Baby

Yesterday me and my mom were in the kitchen, talking and cooking lunch... I had set up the baby gate and put some chairs in another doorway so that Taylor was stuck in there with us. She was just walking around, playing with some tupperware and stuff... then all of the sudden, she grabbed the front of her diaper and just ripped it right off. Me and mom started cracking up laughing and I had to get pictures!

She was trying to put it back on!!!

Then last night, taylor was having a hard time getting to sleep, so I thought we could put her baby to bed first, then maybe she'd be more willing to go. She gave her baby her sippy cup and then it was off to bed.

I thought it was so cute to see her holding the baby and sharing her sippy cup :) She's having so much fun playing with this baby doll, it's making me more hopeful that she'll really get into being a Big Sister once maddie is here.

Cravings

Here's my weirdest craving I've had with either pregnancy. Last night I ate sliced onions (raw) dipped in ketchup! Oh my goodness... it was SO good. Chris said he thinks it only tasted so good because I'm pregnant, but there's no way... it was delicious. I may even eat some more today. Yum Yum Yum!

C-Section Vs. Nature

I have known since before I was even pregnant with our little Maddie that she would be born by C-Section. Taylor was a c-section (not necessarily emergency, but not planned either) and though my doctor is not one of those "Once a section, always a section" I knew that I would never be able to deliver vaginally... I'm an "Always a section" kind of girl. I didn't really KNOW this until I was toying with the idea of maybe being induced a little early to see if I could deliver a smaller baby... Chris told me before he came into the room with Taylor's C-section, my ob pulled him aside and told him to really pay attention, because it was physically impossible for me to deliver a baby and so all our kids would be c-section. She didn't put it quite that way to me and so I was still hoping a tiny bit.

There are lots of pros to all this. For example, chris has had the time scheduled off from work for quite a while now. We don't have the worry of waiting around for labor to come. We already know what our daughter's birthday will be. I won't have any pain (before she's born.) There are a few cons for me too though. A c-section is alot harder to recover from. There's like 4 times greater chance of death in a c-section than otherwise. The scar tissue from my previous c-section could cause problems. There's not quite the thrill of anticipation. There's lots of pain afterwards. But all in all... This is what's best for me and my baby.

It was very hard to come to grips with. You can ask my mom and chris's mom. I kinda figured I'd have one with Taylor, but when I was finally told that she would be a c-section, I broke down. I knew I would never have the feel of pushing, of delivering a baby. I felt like my body was defective... It wouldn't be able to do the ONE thing it was created for. Then there were the little things my mom told me that helped! Taylor's head would be beautiful and round... not cone shaped. :) Funny, but true! Atleast I could carry the baby full term, even if they wouldn't come out on their own in the end. I finally calmed down and realized this was the way it was suppose to be.

Lately, I've been questioning whether or not this is the only option for me now. I think it's mainly due to the fact that I watch all these baby TV shows during the day. Every time a woman is able to deliver her baby, I feel a bit of Jealousy. A part of me hopes more and more that something happens that allows me to deliver this baby. I had one woman (actually smaller than me) who told me she took lots of classes and did all these different things to be able to deliver her 2nd child (her first was a c-section also.) She told me not to say that I'm an "always a section" kind of girl. That just made my hoping worse. I insisted to her that it really is physically IMPOSSIBLE for me to deliver a baby. But she made me wonder...

I guess I just didn't think I'd be having a hard time with this, since I've known it from the beginning. All that truly matters is that my baby, and myself, come out of this okay and are healthy. But a part of me can't help but feel jipped a little. I really would love to be able to deliver this little girl myself, to have my body do what it was created for. But either way, c-section or not, my dear beautiful daughter will come into this world and hopefully will be the healthy, happy little girl I keep dreaming about. I just have to keep telling myself this is the way it was meant to be... and maybe turn the TV off more often!

Breakfast in Bed

My husband is wonderful. I just have to brag for a minute. Last night, he got up with taylor both times she woke up in the middle of the night (I don't know why she woke up, but she was FREAKING OUT!) Then this morning, when she woke up, he got up with her again. They sat in bed and watched TV while I slept... When she tried to crawl on me and wake me up, he pulled her back and told her to let me sleep. Then, when she wouldn't quit trying to wake me up, he took her downstairs, made her breakfast, made my entire family breakfast, made me cinnamon rolls, and then brought a plate of two cinnamon rolls and a cup of OJ up to me in bed. I was still asleep when he did this (it was like 10!!! I haven't slept in that late in a LONG TIME!) but I gladly woke up and ate my DELICIOUS breakfast. Then I went downstairs where he was still cooking pancakes for everyone and cleaning and such. Taylor had already eaten and been cleaned off! It was great. Then he said today was my day to relax, but I tried to protest. So he reminded me my OB had said I needed to quit doing so much. "You're going to end up hurting the baby and yourself." Okay... I gave in. We came back upstairs and by that time it was time for Taylor's nap... so we laid her down and then laid down ourselves. We watched some olympics and the Titans Game from last night. We both fell asleep at like 11 or so, and slept til 2 when taylor finally woke up from her nap... It's been a great day so far and I can't wait for the rest of it. Chris promised me some Yahtzee!!! We used to play all the time when we were first married. I can't wait.

Yup, I'm married to a great guy. He's the best. He's wonderful! I love days like today!

Keaven's Karriers

Devrie and I made this baby carrier yesterday for Madison. I LOVE the fabric (Hobby Lobby) and can't wait to use it.

Below is the fabric I used for the outside

Below is the inside fabric Here is taylor's baby in the sling!
Here's the buckle in the back!
I'm so excited to use this and I hope I get tons of good use out of it.

Mommy's Makeup

Taylor has a BIG fascination with my makeup and hair stuff. And of course, it's all in the bottom two drawers in the bathroom so it's within perfect reach for her. I don't mind too bad (except when she gets ahold of my eyeliner!) She LOVES to use the brushes I use. I adore how girly she can be sometimes.

She's got her daddy's bottom lip!

Soooo Priddy!

She's making sure i'm watching!She loves to use my headbands too... but won't keep them on for too long. I think this one is So Stinkin Cute!Using Mommy's brush!

Her hair has been such a mess lately. It's way too long in the front now and is always in her eyes, but I don't have the heart to trim it. I want her first hair cut to be a BIG one! It'll probably be a while before that happens... I usually have that crazy hair (courtesy of dad!) pulled back, but she woke up this way.

Thanks for all the comments too folks. Glad ya'll enjoy the pics.

New background and pics

I finally figured out how to add a cute background to my blog. It only took me forever! I also realized I haven't added pictures of Taylor in a long time, which is one of my favorite things about other people's blogs... so here they are.

So I wanted to get a picture of her favorite blankie! This is the one we actually used at the hospital and on her way home from the hospital. My old boss Lori and her daughter Elizabeth brought it to us at the hospital when Taylor was born. I love the fact that it's her favorite.
Here's where I start to feel stupid. I tried to put her on the ground to take a picture with it (I need some for her scrapbook.) She's got her winnie the pooh slippers on (getting ready for our pajama party at devrie's) and she fell down :( This is her still crying after I had already held her for like 10 minutes! She knows how to milk it!

Now she's totally indifferent to me or anything else in this world, because the Mickey Mouse Club is on TV. We always watch an episode or two before breakfast... It's how I get my extra zzz's.
Here is her "Taylor"tude. She's mad at me for making her fall down. Or maybe it's for interupting Mickey Mouse. Oh well... I needed pics of her blankie!

Warning: This could get long

It's been a while since I last blogged, well, a while for me. I haven't much felt like myself and I'm just waiting for this baby-ectomy to happen 6 weeks from TOMORROW. Here's what's been going on in the meantime!

EMMA SMITH: MY STORY - Last week I went to see this movie with two of my sister-in-laws... I loved it. It got me pumped and ready for this next month in our book club (we're focusing on Emma for the month, any book or article or whatever, just has to be about her.) I can't wait to find a great book about her and learn more. So excited.

WORST DAY EVER - Last thursday was honestly one of the WORST, most STRESSFUL days of my life. Me and Taylor left at 7:00 in the morning to go to Nashville for alot of errands we had. One of those was taking my car through emissions. After sitting there in line for 1 1/2 hours, my car failed. My gas cap needed replacing. Have you ever just SAT in a car for 1 1/2 hours with a 14 months old? Not fun. Not the smartest Idea I've ever had. It sucked. She cried. I yelled. And we'd have to go back through, after I bought a new gas cap. Then off to the OB. That's next on my little list here. Anyways... after my ob appt (still in a rough mood) we have to go to some car part store. These are not places for women, especially with a kid, especially pregnant with a kid. I walked ALL over the store... 3 times, looking for a gas cap. Chris said to take mine in with me... but it had been attached to the gas door thing, so I had to RIP it off! And I'm looking and looking. I started to walk up to 3 different guys to ask where they were... all of them walked off when they saw me coming. (Grrrr) I finally go to the back to ask a guy where they are... Guess they're in the back of the store where people can't go... he ran off to get the right one. Didn't need my old one... guess i needed to rip it off anyways though. So krispy kreme is right up the road and I needed a doughnut, so we go get them... I thought this would cheer taylor up. NOPE. She threw hers on the floor! So we go to krogers... I bought a new sippy cup and some sprite hoping this would get my dear daughter to quit crying, which she'd been doing since like 8 that morning. NOPE. She threw the sippy cup at me. More crying from her. More yelling from me. I flipped out. No way was I going back through emissions with Taylor crying like that. No way was I going to be able to make it back home (45 minutes away.) So we went to my mother-in-laws. I cried, Taylor Cried... but we calmed down after a while. I called chris also and told him I couldn't do the whole tags thing that day. Too much for me. He'd have to do it all. Anyways. After we had both calmed down, we left again. I decided I could probably make it through emisssions this time (Taylor was asleep in the car.) So I sat for another hour or so... Then, when the lady had gotten done with the test on my car... her computer crashed. Right before it was going to print out my little sheet thing. WONDERFUL. So her manager came over and they had to reboot it. I swear I waited 30 minutes this time. Sure the people behind me were upset, but it wasn't my fault. They had to go back through and retest everything on my car. This time, I got my print out though and left, before anything else could go wrong. We came home and I went to bed. Chris was great that night though and took taylor and let me relax. He also took my car the next day to the county clerk to get my new tags. So that was the worst day ever. Seriously.

OB APPT - My appt didn't go quite like I thought it would. My dr. is great, the nurses are great, but i was in a foul mood already. We had to make one more payment on our baby, after I thought we were already through. Then, I had lost weight. Are you kidding me? I've already been terrified that this baby isn't growing right because I hadn't been GAINING enough and now I'm LOSING what I've Gained? With the way my day was going, I broke down. My dr assured me she wasn't worried about the baby, but how can this NOT affect my little baby? I have no idea. I'm just worried. She also told me to take it easy. Right. That's very easy to do when I have a one year old to chase after all the time. But I am trying ... to take it easy and not worry. If something was wrong, they would have done something about it. I hope my next appt goes better.

FRIDAY NIGHT = PAR-TAY! - My mom and dad threw a party friday night. Lots of people came, from church, my brothers and sisters friends from school. We had hot dogs and smores and lots of other stuff... it was fun. the guys played music all night long... Taylor even showed off her talents on the drums and with singing. She sat and played drums for a while, and would get SO mad when we had to take her off them. Then she found the mics and she sang and sang and talked and sang into the mics. She's definately going to be a performer one day. She gets in these moods where she shows off and loves to entertain those around her. Guess she gets it from her Papa (my dad) and her dad... he loves to make people laugh and I see alot of that in her too. Anyways, the party was fun. it was fun to see everyone who came. and the food was good.

BREAKING DAWN - after the party friday night me and leeann and cayce all went up to barnes and nobles to get my reserved copy of Breaking Dawn, the last book in the twilight series. There were around 300 people there waiting to get the book. Crazy. I did meet a new member of the Hendersonville Ward. She was behind me in line. I only read one chapter that night before I went to bed... then I read to about 3/4 the way through on saturday, and finished the rest yesterday after church. It was SOOOOOO GOOD. I've always been on team Jacob and I think the ending made alot of sense. I think it will make people who like edward happy and people who like jacob happy. Anyways. I loved it, and definately reccommend it. Cayce started reading twilight friday night/saturday morning when I went to get my book. She finished twilight on saturday and started on new moon after that. I let me borrow all my books :( I'm glad she's into them also now, but I wanted to read them all from beginning to end of the story now that I've got all the books. Guess that will have to wait. I made her promise to get them to me before the baby's born so I can do that! Leeann is also into them now. She's on new moon also, and bought the third and fourth book friday night at B&N. They're so good.

Well, that's my update. I did warn you it would get long. Good Job to those of you who read and finished this :) I'm proud of your endurance!!!

Did everyone I know blog yesterday?

Man, I got on my computer today after not getting on for 2 days and BAM! Everyone I know has blogged. I got to read about new pregnancies, old ones, my wonderful nieces and nephews, how higher gas prices are a plus to parents of teenagers, and on and on... I love blogging. I'd rather read these things than fix my hair, put on make-up, and get out of my bath robe, which is what I did! :) It's so nice to read about all y'all.

Anyways. Yesterday I visited GIRLS CAMP. Chelsea didn't go to stay this year. She was planning on going a few times during the week to visit for the day, but it hadn't happened yet, so I offered to take her yesterday since I didn't have anything going on. They had free time from 1-4 for swimming or repelling or whatnot. I packed stuff for me and Taylor to swim in, told chelsea to get ready, and off we went. I got caught speeding on the way there by a good friend of mine, also on her way to girls camp. I passed her doing 75 in a 55. Oops. LOL. The funny thing is as I was passing her I thought, "that looks like devrie's car." Atleast it was her who caught me and not a cop. We got there just fine, a little early for swimming infact (probably thanks to my lead foot), so we got to eat lunch with the girls. I realized girl's camp is actually a camp full of baby sitters! Taylor was a big hit. Almost annoyingly so. Almost. We did go swimming though... for two hours! They had one of those sloped edges so taylor could just walk in. I was so nervous about it... and rightly so. She fell! Face first into the water... THREE TIMES! Everytime, I'd catch her right after she went under and hold her up. Just a little blinking, and she was fine. No tears. My little girl loves the water! The pool was so cool... part of me wished I was a young woman with no child and no pregnancy. They had two awesome slides, it went up to 12 feet... it was CLEAN! anyways... i had fun. taylor had fun. Chelsea had fun. I figured on the way there we'd leave after swimming, but chelsea gets left out alot with stuff (cause of her epilepsy) and she was having a blast, so we stayed... through devotional, chore time, dinner time, the fireside, practice for skits, and skits themselves. A couple hours of girls camp turned into ALL DAY. We didn't leave until after 10 when the girls were getting ready for a late night hike. Taylor slept all of 10 minutes the WHOLE time. But she was a TROOPER. She'll usually sleep for close to 3 or 4 HOURS after only 1 hour in a pool cause it wears her out so bad. Maybe she was too tired to argue and fight. She was out after 2 minutes in the car when we finally left. Chelsea had a blast too, which was the point of the trip. She even got up with the rest of the YCL's and danced (she can shake her little ghetto booty!!) to the camp songs! I was pooped, Taylor was pooped, Chelsea was pooped. But it was all worth it. She went back up today thanks to one of her YW leaders. they picked her up this morning early. But today has rained all day, so I'm sure it hasn't been quite what yesterday was. I hope they still had a blast and Chelsea felt included. Her YW leaders are also my new friends here in the white house ward and they are amazing women. Her fellow YW are also amazing girls and always are great about including Chelsea in all she/they can. I appreciate them for loving her with all her quirkiness. Thank you ladies!

C-Section Scheduled!

Madison Emmarie Neely will be born on September 16th (as long as she doesn't come before that...) at 9 am -ish. That's when the c-section will start, so probably like 9:30 or 9:45... I don't know how long it'll take them to do everything. But I'm so EXCITED. 8 Weeks from today I'll have 2 gorgeous little girls instead of 1! I think taylor's in for a big shock! :)

Council Wedding...

I posted just a few pictures from the wedding this past weekend on my photography blog. Check them out if you want... there's not alot there yet... my computer's being slow and I don't have the patience at the moment to wait around for it. I think they turned out okay though... Hopefully Robyn will like them!

OB Update and a great Knight!

Like I mentioned before I had my ob appt yesterday. Not too much has changed. Baby's growing, heartbeat sounds good... I'm still having weight issues, but I won't go into that. I've been real tired and was thinking it's my iron but my dr was real busy, so she didn't draw my blood to check and said it was just cause I've got taylor this time around. She did give me a perscription for Nexium though cause my stomach's been acting up and I've been feeling sick alot from it. Hopefully it will work. She said it takes 3-4 days to really start working. So we'll see. I go back in another 2 weeks! Other than that, I've got the usual Braxton Hicks and ECP. 60 days left!

Me and Chris also went to see Batman:The Dark Knight last night at midnight. I have to say it was AWESOME. The only super hero movie I've seen this summer (chris saw the hulk and iron man with the guys... i wasn't invited... but there are no hard feelings.) I LOVE Christian Bale! He's AMAZING. And I think Heath Ledger was so good as the joker... I never once thought of "Heath Ledger" while watching the movie... do you know what I mean? It was actually kind of hard for me to think about him being the Joker, he played the role so well. I give it both my thumbs and big toes way up! 6 out of 5 stars! An 11 out of 10. The 2 1/2 hours FLEW by. The movie did not disappoint at all... at least not to me. In fact, me and chris are going to see it next week or the week after in IMAX. And I wouldn't mind seeing it again after that either. Heck, I wouldn't mind going back tonight, besides the fact that I'm about to fall over I'm so sleep deprived. So I definately recommend seeing it. I LOVED IT!

9 weeks!

So, I guess it did take me a while to post the last post... I don't know why but I just didn't feel like posting anything. Sorry. But here's a little blip of what's been going on. My mom's uncle passed away last week. So we attended the wake on Sunday. We decided not to go to the funeral yesterday. Chris changed the oil in my car this weekend! He's such a good guy. He did end up losing his wedding band at his parents house though (he had taken it off to change my oil.) Luckily they found it. I told him if we didn't find it, it'd be a little while before we'd be able to get him another one. Chris won BOTH his softball games last night! But he pulled his hamstring right before the end of the second game. Poor guy... I guess I should have massaged it or something, but by the time he got home, I was pooped so I fell asleep.

Taylor learned THREE (3) new words yesterday. HOLY COW! She needs to slow down. She learned bug! We went out at like 8 as it was starting to get dark and watched the fireflies... she loved to watch them light up and would point when she saw one, but she didn't like it when I caught them and showed them to her. I guess she is a girly girl after all. She also learned to say bunny. Actually, she might have already known this word thanks to her Aunt Chel-rae, but I didn't realize it. We went out to see chelsea's bunny MJ and I said it, and she said it right back. It was crazy. Her third word she learned yesterday made me so happy. She said "LaLa." But not in a singing way. She was trying to say "Aladdin" cause that's her favorite disney movie. I've honestly seen that movie well over 50 times in the past month alone. We've tried to get her to like other ones. Some she'll watch for just a few minutes, others she won't bother with at all. "Aladdin" is her one true love when it comes to movies. And now she can say it! Kinda.

She also learned to sneeze this weekend at Grandma's house. She'll toss her head forward and say "doo." She had us cracking up laughing. She gets in these moods sometimes where she just loves to perform. She'll show off all her little "tricks."

I almost forgot, one of my favorite parts of my day yesterday was when me and my mom had to drive down to Nashville to pick up my brother Michael from work. We decided to leave early and stop by the Farmer's Market for a bit. I'm sure I went as a kid, but I can't remember it. It was so cool. I bought 3 cucumbers, 3 tomatoes (my favorite), 3 squash, 8 zuchinni, 2 lb potatoes, 3 bell peppers, 1 lb okra, a sweet potatoe, and I think that's it. I only spent like $10! I've got tons of Fresh good food! I feel so healthy! I'm going to cut up the sweet potatoe and zuchinni and squash today. Some I'll cut up for taylor to eat with her meals, some will be frozen for a casserole, some I'll probably eat right now. I think I might have to make a salad also with my cucumbers and tomatoes. Anyways... me and my mom decided to go down atleast once a month. I think we came to the conclusion too that everyone there was pretty much farmers from here in TN. Mom said they usually have people who have food shipped in from out of state too, but we didn't see any there yesterday. Maybe they are only there on the weekends. I do know they also have a Flea Market thing set up on the weekend. So I may have to check it out then too. I also saw a few Chef's for local restaurants there shopping also. WOW! it reminded me of all those movies where the chef goes to the local market and buys all the food for dinner that night. It made me feel even cooler being there too. Silly, I know. But I got excited. I'm almost thinking I will try shopping there when this baby's old enough to eat baby food and make my own. It's cheaper than vegetables at the store, and healthier too since there aren't the pesticides and such. I probably won't make all of it, but maybe some.

Now I'm rambling so I'll end this. I'll post again on thursday probably after my ob appt! Wish me luck!

Coincidence !?!

I have a friend whose life since she got married has been almost parallel to mine with few exceptions. We were married on the same day (opposite sides of the country), honeymooned the same days to the same location and did the same things (never running into each other.) After that we differed for a few years... She got pregnant with their first child after only a month of being married... me and chris on the other hand waited. There are other small similarities in there. She found out she was pregnant with baby number two the same time I found out I was pregnant with our baby number two. She KNEW it was a boy just like I did. We were both completely taken by suprise when our ultrasounds told us otherwise. Again, we differ just a bit, her due date was one month before mine. AND she had a massive cyst on her ovaries that caused her to be induced a month early, so her baby was born two months before mine. Only, it wasn't a little girl as the ultrasound had said, but a baby boy! My friend had been right! Her little baby had a winky!

I was paranoid before, especially with the blessings I've gotten from chris since we found out the baby is a girl... Now I'm beyond paranoid... is there a word for that? I can't think of one now if there is. My next ob appt is this thursday and I'm SERIOUSLY debating on whether or not to ask for another ultra-sound. Is that insane? I already saw that there was nothing between those two little legs... but my friend saw the same thing, and hers came out with a suprise. Mistakes do happen... ARG!

I'm not honestly thinking just because my friends girl was actually a boy that my girl will be a boy. I'm really not. But wouldn't it be insane if that was the case? I can't wait to tell chris and see his eyes roll as I debate about asking for another check.