Julia must have stepped on a crack!?

OK, I didn't break my back, but it sure feels like it! Yes, I threw my back out yet again. Even after dealing with back problems for over 7 years now, it still gets me every time how easy it is to throw it out. My dad (who also has back issues) and I always joke about how we can pick up heavy objects and bend all different ways and not hurt our backs, but when we do something simple like pick up a piece of paper or bend down to put air in a bike tire (this happened to me once), our backs go out. My recent back episode started on Friday morning when I woke up. I had a slight twinge in my back (not sure from what), nothing major, but it just gradually got worse throughout the morning. I did a morning workout (stupid idea) and it didn't feel good at all after that. I thought the workout would help loosen up my back and help with the pain, but Mike said that was a dumb thought! By late morning, I was assuming the typical humped back, slouched over, poor attempts to walk position. I had to attend a local heart failure conference on Friday and that wasn't too bad. Sitting was the most difficult part of all. Sitting made my back extremely stiff and I could barely walk when I stood up. Once I got moving and walking, my back would loosen up and the pain would subside a little. Of course, I was sitting most of the day in lectures and this did not bode well for the back. When I got home, I couldn't walk, every step hurt, I didn't want to sit and stiffen up, and I was too tired to stand, so what did I do? I laid on the floor, on my belly with an ice pack on my back and played with Julia. Julia was definitely confused by mommy's position and extremely weird body contortions while trying to get up off the floor, move and even turn to adjust belly positions. When Julia would fuss, I had to call upon Mike to pick her up. Julia was not happy with this and again could not understand why mommy wasn't picking her up. Mike has had to basically do all the lifting and moving Julia around. Mike was having to carry her up the stairs to her room or to the changing table so I could change her. I was able to rock her to sleep, but I couldn't get out of the chair to put her in her crib. Mike had to take her and lay her down which of course made her mad and woke her up. This is the first time I have thrown out my back since having Julia and it is a totally different scenario when you have a small child to care for. Mike being the great daddy and husband has really stepped up to the plate and taken on many of the mommy jobs these past few days. Being on wafarin (coumdin) definitely limits my pain reliever choices. In the past when I threw out my back I relied on Aleve which always helped the pain. Since Aleve as aspirin in it, I can't take it because it increases the risk of bleeding. I can take some prescription pain medications, which I do have , but I try to limit those to when the pain is just unbearable and I know I will be laying down because they make me extremely drowsy. So, I can only take Tylenol. This works OK. It takes the edge off the pain, but doesn't work as well as Aleve or prescription medications. I know the drill to cure the pain...walk, walk, walk, move, move, move and ice, heat, ice, heat; throw in some Tylenol and it should be better by Monday or Tuesday (hopefully).



On Saturday my back pain was improving, but I was still struggling to get out of a chair and walk. I limited my sitting and purposely walked around the house and cleaned to make sure I didn't stiffen up. Julia's swimming lessons were in the late morning and I told Mike I still wanted to go. He thought I was crazy, but I knew being in the water would help my back and it sure did! The 30 minutes Julia and I were in the water were wonderful. The weightlessness was a great relief on my back and I was able to lift Julia in and out of the water and swim around with her without feeling one twinge in my back. Of course once I was out of the pool, gravity took over again and all the weight was upon my back again, but it wasn't nearly as bad of pain. The rest of the morning the pain was much better and I looked less like a 80 year old lady when I walked. Mike watched the swim lessons this time (I made him come with in case I wasn't able to walk or get out of the pool!)

Practicing floating on our backs


Now on our tummy's (mommy is blowing bubbles in the water)Taking a break in between activities

Our whole class in the pool

More floating on our bellies...practicing getting our faces wet

On Saturday afternoon after Julia took a 2.5 hour nap (swimming tires her out!), we did some grocery shopping and our monthly trip to Sam's Club. This helped my back immensely to be walking around and having the support of a shopping cart made the walking easier. The grocery bill and Sam's club bill was definitely painful though (we buy all of our diapers and most bulk baby stuff at Sam's).

I am beat after all that shopping (read Julia's shirt-it says "I drink until I pass out" with a pictures of a baby bottle). Thanks Uncle Jim for this cute onesie!

Tooth #5 has arrived!

Yes, Julia got tooth #4 last weekend, but she is sprouting teeth everywhere! She now has tooth #5 coming in on the top...finally a top tooth! We didn't think the teeth would start poking through this fast, but we think it might be because she has been eating so many solid foods lately and her body is just adapting to the fact that she is needing to chew (that is our theory at least). She has been doing pretty well. She chews on everything and we have been giving her some Motrin at night to help her sleep, toys to chew on and cool teething rings whenever possible. Saturday night wasn't so pleasant though. When a new tooth is breaking through, she does not sleep well. I ended up sleeping with her in our guest bedroom because when she woke up around 11:30pm she wouldn't go back to sleep in her crib. Of course she snoozed just fine next to me in bed. Her gums are full of little white nubs, so more teeth are on the way!

On Sunday, we attended a NICU reunion at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. Now, you are probably wondering why we would want to go back there. Well, that place was a huge part of our lives for 7 weeks and we developed some great connections with nurses and other family members. We also wanted the staff to see how well Julia was doing and that she is thriving and growing very well despite the bumpy road at the beginning of her life and the fact that their great care and treatments helped Julia and us navigate through that bumpy road. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see as many people as we thought, but we did briefly chat with a doctor that cared for Julia.

Julia and Daddy at the NICU Reunion


Julia and Mommy at the reunion (they had cheese and crackers there and of course Julia loved the cheddar cheese!)

Now some random pictures...

One of Julia's new favorite foods....mac and cheese! Of course she loves it because it has cheddar!

Julia loves to stand with support and would rather do this than be on her belly. We think she is going to skip crawling and go straight to standing and walking.

More fun with Noah, Swimming lessons, tooth #4 rears its ugly head, and Father's Day

On Friday, we spent the day with Jenny and Noah (aka: Noahman). Julia was napping when Jenny and Noah arrived and was surprised to see Noah playing with her toys when she woke up. Once she was awake enough she was all smiles and was playing nicely with Noah. We hung out for a while at our house while the kiddos played together. Then we went to the zoo (for the third time this season...we are getting good use out of our membership!). The zoo was a blast as always, but Julia fell asleep about halfway through our walk and missed some of the exhibits..like the goats at the farm! She did wake up in time to share some of mommy's chocolate soft serve ice cream...she really enjoyed it.

Playing with Noah

Watching Noah and his moves

Julia enjoying Noah's company

Julia sleeping at the zoo...behind her are the goats

On Saturday, Julia started swimming lessons. Yes, they actually have lessons starting at 6 months old! As you can guess, we don't actually swim, but get the little ones used to the water and pool. It is a parent and child class, so one parent in the water at all times with the child. There were a few other young babies with Julia. Maybe 2 or 3 kiddos that were 7-9 months old. All the other kids were older around 2-4 years. Julia had a blast! She LOVES taking baths and we mean LOVES! She splashes all over the place and this carried over to the pool. As soon as we got into the water she was splashing all over and of course in mommy's face. She loved playing with the various toys we worked with and singing songs (we sang hokey pokey and wheels on the bus while moving our body parts in the water). She enjoyed the various swimming moves on her back and belly, but really loved being on her belly and splashing/moving her arms. She wasn't kicking too much until the instructor moved her legs and showed her how to kick. Our instructor occasionally took Julia and helped her with some swim moves. Julia enjoyed this and was not at all anxious about being briefly separated from mommy. She actually liked that she could see better and see me bobbing around and swimming in the water with her. The best part for her was "jumping" into the water into mommy's arms and being dipped up and down in the water. Of course, she can't stand and actually jump, but they have a lower ledge the babies can sit on and the parent can lift them in the water as if they are jumping. The class is every Saturday for 1/2 hour and I think Julia is really going to continue to enjoy it. She was tuckered out at the end. Just to give you and idea: we left the parking lot at 10:42am and she was sound asleep in her car seat by 10:44am. Once we got home she went down very easily in her crib and napped for 2 hours! Mommy was tired too because it is a workout for the parent because we are in 4 ft. water and have to squat and lift the babies up and down and all over the place.

I am ready to go swimming!

Julia and mommy after the lesson

Julia and her instructor (I can't remember her name!)

During the afternoon on Saturday, Julia got extremely crabby to the point of being inconsolable at times. We had no idea what was going on. We tried playing with her, rocking her, feeding her a bottle...nothing work. I noticed that she was chewing on the bottle nipple a lot, so I checked her teeth and sure enough, tooth #4 was busting through. This tooth is on the bottom left next to her other teeth. Now that we knew what was going on, we needed to give her some Children's Motrin and Baby Orajel stat! (of course I didn't say stat...sorry to disappoint you). Once the Orajel kicked in and we gave her some cool teething rings, she was better. You could definitely tell when the Motrin kicked in because she was all smiles and very happy again. She then enjoyed her dinner of cheese, bread, squash and apple banana puffs and went down to bed very easily.

Speaking of eating, Julia is doing great on her solids. She is enjoying a few new foods every week. She absolutely loves cheddar cheese. I think she would eat it every day for every meal if we let her. She definitely is the off spring of Wisconsin parents. She also loves yogurt and ice cream (we just let her have tastes of our ice cream of course). She is persnickety about her cheese though. Today we tried to give her a combination of cheddar cheese and a cheese she had never had, mozzarella. We had small cubes of each on her high chair tray and she picked right around the mozzarella and headed straight for the cheddar. She knows by the color which one she likes. If you put peas, bread, puffs and cheddar on her tray she gobbles up the cheddar first before partaking in the rest (because it is all that is left). She does enjoy other whole, solid foods like green beans, bananas, mandarin oranges and diced peaches and pears. She loves cheddar rice cakes too (because it is cheddar of course!). Julia is also consistently sleeping through the night. We are now going on 8 straight nights of sleeping through the night. She goes to bed around 6:15-7pm and always wakes up around 6-6:15am. She is quite the scheduled sleeper now that we have a nap routine and bedtime routine down pat.

Mike's first Father's Day was pretty good. Julia woke up at her usual time as stated above and she and I played for a little while Mike slept in. Once daddy headed down the stairs to greet us, I threw Mike's gift over Julia (see pictures below). It was a Wisconsin "W" flag. There is a story behind why we gave this to Mike. The neighbors in our backyard have an in ground swimming pool and right by that pool is a tall flag pole with a Minnesota "M" flag flying high. Of course, we can' t avoid this reality living in Minnesota, but as Wisconsin fans, it is tough to view through our living room window everyday. So, we got Mike a Wisconsin flag to hang in our backyard somewhere. Maybe off the deck or we will just have to get an even taller flag pole than the neighbors and sore it high above in the Minnesota sky (he, he!). Julia and I also got Mike a mouse pad that has a bunch of different pictures of Julia in Wisconsin sports attire. Since Mike is on the computer all the time at work, I thought it would be a nice gift instead of having multiple picture frames on his desk. We started the day with breakfast (from McDonald's-yes we know-classy). Julia enjoyed sharing some hot cakes with mommy. We then grilled some good food and then Mike graciously spent about 3 hours installing a ceiling fan in our bedroom. You would think it would be a piece of cake to install a ceiling fan in a brand new house, but it wasn't. Mike had to actually go in the attic to finangle a new harness for the fan (the old light fixture was just attached to a small piece of wood) and then mess with the wiring and everything else to make it work. He also installed a fan in Julia's room the day before and that went a lot better and was a lot easier. Mike is of course exhausted after this home improvement project, but it will be well worth it to stay cool this summer.

Happy Father's Day daddy! Can you please get this off of me?

Peek-a-boo daddy!

I like this flag!

The dreaded Minnesota "M" flag in our neighbor's yard.

Julia enjoying her hot cakes breakfast

Washing down the hot cakes with some diluted apple juice

Here are some of the photos on the mouse pad we gave daddy:

Fun with Noahman!

On Friday, Julia and I spent the day grocery shopping for two nights of entertaining/dinners over the weekend at our house. On Friday evening, our friend, Andy (the doctor I used to work with at the U) came over for some grilled ribs, grilled veggies, corn muffins and a brownie dessert.

On Saturday, our friends Jenny and Eric and their son Noah babysat Julia for a few hours (more than we expected) to test drive some vehicles. We drove a Nissan Rogue and Toyota Rav4. Both vehicles have their pros and cons and we haven't made a decision yet about which one we want. We are leaning slightly more towards the Rogue, but that could change within the next hour. When we got home, Julia was all smiles and had a great time with Jenny, Eric and Noahman (his daddy's nickname for him). Noah is 6 months old and it is so fun to watch him and Julia interact. Noah was showing off by cooing and babbling and smiling while Julia showed Noah how to jump in her Baby Einstein exersaucer. Jenny said Julia was very well behaved, but did steal toys from Noah's hands when he picked them up. Julia seems to do that to everyone and Noah is working on his reflexes and reactions. I am sure Noah will learn and just steal toys back from her when he is a little older. It was so fun to see Noah and how he is developing and remembering that Julia just went through what he was currently learning to do. What a difference 2 months makes in babies! Noah is a cutie pie though and his big smile and bright blue eyes definitely melt the heart.

On Sunday, we ran some errands and just kind of vegged out at home. We all took naps in the afternoon and then Julia and I went for a nice long walk to the park by our house. We swung on he swings and also watched some older boys playing some odd game where they hit each other with a tennis ball while running around on the jungle gym and other playground equipment. Julia was greatly intrigued by their game and shenanigans that we could have sat there for hours watching.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share for this post. I am sure there will be some next weekend when we celebrate Mike's first Father's Day!

New addition to the family coming soon!

I am happy to say that we will soon be.........getting rid of my Dodge Stratus car! No, we are not expecting our 2nd child (tricked you, didn't I?)....it is WAY too early to even be thinking about that (at least in our opinion). This weekend we went new car shopping. We went to the car lots today (Sunday) to avoid the salespeople and carefully look at the vehicles we are considering. Sorry Uncle Jim, it won't be a BMW like the recent addition to your family (we don't have a money tree that big). Julia has taken control of the money tree in our yard. We are looking to get a small to mid-size SUV. We are focusing on Toyota, Honda, and Nissan brands. No decision yet, but probably have the new addition within a month or two. Of course the vehicle has to be kid friendly and have a lot of safey features. It also needs to be easy to get a little kiddo in and out of (it is tough getting Julia in and out of the Stratus).

On Saturday, I worked at my MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) church group garage sale. We didn't have any rain for about 2-3 weeks and of course the day you DON'T want it to rain, it rains of course. Despite the wetness and cold, the turn out wasn't bad. The sale was a part of a huge neighborhood sale. Mike and I donated a whole bunch of items to the sale (a great way to get rid of our old lawn mower and other stuff). All the proceeds will go toward our groups next meeting sessions/semester year starting in the fall. After my shift at our sale, I hit one garage sale. I didn't want to walk around in the rain, so I just drove by a home on a side street (off the main area where most of the sales were) and found a house selling tons of girl's clothing and toys! I hit the jackpot! I bought tons of 9-12, 12 and 18 month clothes for Julia. I pretty much cleaned the place out. I also got a steal on some Mega Blok toys. A whole bin of Bloks and accessories for $5! I also purchased some other toys for Julia. I was happy to get the clothing (which we desperately needed) and fun toys for Julia (and Mike and me) to play with.

Julia playing with her new Mega Bloks

Julia playing with her Mega Bloks kitchen (with daddy's help)

Safari Mega Bloks

Flower Power PJs!

Even though the rain was not a welcome sight at the garage sale, it was nice for our lawn and garden. My garden is doing very well. Everything has started to sprout which is a great sign. The much needed rain should definitely help the little seedlings thrive.

Julia is 8 months old! She continues to advance on solids and we started her on small pieces of cheese (slightly softened in the microwave), bread and pieces of banana. She was a little hesitant about the cheese, but once I showed her how to chew it, she loved it. She ate a lot during her first try. She is getting very good at feeding herself too (finger foods of course). She still isn't too fond of meats though even when we grind and mash up the meat we are eating for dinner or lunch. Maybe she will be a vegetarian, but I am sure once she gets to eat chicken fingers she may change her mind! She loves yogurt too, especially raspberry flavored yogurt. Julia's third tooth continues to push through without too much protest from her. She is handling it well. No tooth on the other side yet like we thought, but that could pop it's head out any day too. No crawling yet, but Mike and I make sure she gets plenty of tummy time to practice. She wiggles her legs and arms and does a great job of army crawling on the floor. We have put her in a crawling position only to have her plop her butt and belly down within a minute or two. She is perfectly content not crawling yet, which is fine with us because we aren't quite done baby proofing the house! She will crawl when she wants to and on her own time.

Mmmmmm! Cheese!

Practicing some crawling

Some have asked how I am doing with my leg and blood clotting stuff. I continue to take the blood thinning medication, warfarin, and am finding that it is difficult to get in the therapeutic range. How frustrating! Almost every Friday I have to get my blood drawn and checked for my blood thinning level. The people who work at the lab I go to know Julia and me very well. They love seeing her and greet us as if we have been there for years (think Cheers and the "Norm!" greetings). They know all about Julia and her medical history as well as mine. It is kind of nice to have the "lab family". There is always someone who holds or plays with Julia while another person draws my blood. They love seeing her and watching her grow. My leg still bothers me, but this is to be expected. It is common for there to still be pain and annoyances after a clot due to inflammation and damage to the vein where the clot is/was. I wear a tight stocking on my leg everyday to help with the blood flow. If I don't wear it, my leg gets sore and really hurts. I have learned to live with it all and make sure I get plenty of walking and exercise to keep the blood flowing well.

Mike is doing well himself. He is in a golf league every Wednesday evening and his team is undefeated. He enjoys it a lot and it is always nice to get away for a while.

Daddy being silly with Julia

Wisconsin, Celebrations and Teeth!

This past week/weekend was so much fun and busy. There were a lot of happenings that I am just going to bullet them and cut out the chatter and other stuff that probably bores a lot of people!

- On Thursday, May 28th, Julia got a third tooth! Her first two teeth came in around 4 months on the bottom and now she has a third tooth next to those. We think she might be getting a fourth on the other side, but that has yet to be seen

- On Friday, May 29th Mike and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that it has been 5 years already. Some days it seems longer; other days it feels just like yesterday. So much has happened since then! What did we do to celebrate? We took a 6 hour car ride to Wisconsin with Julia and ate at McDonald's (twice-needed to stop twice for feeding and potty breaks).

- Also on Friday, May 29th, the Stephany family welcomed a new member, Thomas Joseph. (My first cousin once removed; Julia's second cousin-I think that is how it goes). We were actually going to Wisconsin for my cousin Jenna's baby shower and Thomas was not supposed to make his appearance until June 30th, but he had other plans. He was born healthy and breathing on his own. He weighed 5 lbs; 10oz and we got to visit him in the hospital. Such a little peanut and such a cutie!

-On Friday, May 29th we spent the night in Sauk Prairie, WI visiting Mike's parents. Mike's dad is still recovering from all the events of the past 2 months and we wanted to visit and have them see Julia. She was a delight and a ham as always and hopefully brought some cheer and get well feelings to Gary.

- On Saturday, May 30th, we drove to Campbellsport to visit my family. We had lunch with great-grandma Voelker, Grandma Stephany and cousin Ainsley (Aunt Heather and Uncle Dave were at a wedding). It was a fun time.

- On Sunday, May 31st we visited cousin Jenna, cousin Nate and new cousin Thomas in the hospital. We of course brought them their gifts because they need the supplies!

- The rest of the weekend was spent playing with cousin Ainsley, Grandpa Stephany, daddy, Aunt Heather and Uncle Dave.

- On Monday we took a nice long 6 1/2 hour trip back to Minnesota and then rested. We were beat. Below are pictures from our fun weekend. Remember to vote on the new poll to the right!

-In other news, Julia has started to show some separation anxiety. She is getting especially clingy to mommy and prefers to be held by me. Even when Mike is holding her, she will reach out for me to take her. I try not to give in, but sometimes those big, brown eyes just melt my heart and I have to take her. She also shows her protest when I leave the room for even a second.

Some morning play time at Grandma and Grandpa Mock's house
Julia's healing touch for Grandpa Mock

Cousin Ainsley and Julia playing at Grandpa and Grandma Stephany's house

Ooooo...what is that?!

Ainsley is SOOOO BIG!

Julia's side pose position (again, such a ham!)

Wow, you can stick that whole block in your mouth?!

Ok, my turn to try to get the whole block in my mouth.

Julia and Great-Grandma Voelker

Like my hat? The front says "Future Badger"

Uncle Mike, my daddy is not going to be happy that I have a Brewers hat on. He is from Illinois and is a Cubs fan!

Grandpa Stephany playing with his litte grandgals.

Julia and Ainsley enjoying some morning fun in their PJs.

More PJ fun!

Cousin Ainsley, Aunt Heather and the Ham (I mean, Julia). :)