The Many Faces of Abigail (2 months old...almost 3 months)

I cannot believe my newborn baby is already 12 weeks today. Here is what I think she would write on this blog post if she could talk or write...haha.

Dear Readers,
Wow, it has been a busy time for us all here at the Wallace house. They put me in this "bumbo" seat when I was like 9 or 10 weeks old just for a second to get me to burp. I now sit in this seat a lot and even watch crazy cartoons with this wild hair little boy who like to hug me a lot and touch my eyes and say his version of "eyes" all the time. I really like to eat a lot and I am glad they are willing to feed me all day. I cannot wait to try some real food. My days here are never boring and I love just listening to my daddy talk. If he is in the room I will try to break my neck to see him. I give him the biggest smiles because he has a man voice, and he is my prince for now and I am his princesses. I do get to spend some one on one time with my parents when wild man goes to bed. I love it when they talk to me and say "agooo" back to them all the time. Daddy read to me last night before I went to bed from this huge book that I think he calls the Bible. I was just glad he was talking to me. Guess I am kind of spoiled because I am the first girl baby for many people who love me. My mom always is wanting to put this thing I think she calls it a bow in my hair even though I do not have a lot of hair. My parents tell me all the time how "laid" back I am and how blessed they are to have me but I just think they are really thankful that I slept last night from 11:30 pm to 8 am in my crib swaddled with a sleep positioner and a sound machine (man I think they are worried about me sleeping). Also, do not really cry that much compared to my very fun but dramatic brother. Well got to go take my nap now. Thanks for loving me and praying for me readers out there.
Love,
Abigail

Double Frenulum Procedure Scheduled for Jackson on Friday March 7th

We went to a wonderful (Christian) ENT doctor today and we will be getting Jackson's lip frenulum clipped (it is connected through his front two teeth and will have to be clipped before his permanent teeth come through anyway) and his tongue frenulum clipped. It will be a outpatient procedure and they will give him gas as long as he stays calm. If he gets really upset they might have to put him completely under. He will have 3 stitches on the lip frenulum and 3 stitches on the tongue frenulum (they will dissolve), and he will probably not be able to eat solid foods for a couple days. Please pray for him because he is pretty dramatic sweet little boy. We are hopeful and know it will at least help with his eating and might even help with his speech.

Jackson has all his labial words (words that we use our lips to say) "p, b and m" but no words that involve his tongue and his tongue is very weak.

Here is our prayer for Jackson. Jesus healed a man with part of Jackson's problem while he was here on earth. This passage is found in Mark 7:

³³After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. ³⁴He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!" ). ³⁵At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

I cannot wait to see what Jesus is going to do for Jackson! His tongue will be loosened...God gets all the glory for showing us this problem the day after we were on our face praying for answers.

Video of Abigail 11 Weeks/Playing

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It has been while since I posted anything because we have been so busy and sick. Charlie was only home for him to sleep for four straight days. He had fun Friday, upwards game, dad's night, normal Sunday (gone all day), Monday jury duty and Monday night evangelism conference. Sunday morning I woke up and felt terrible, I could not speak so I could not teach my 4th grade girls class...sad. I went back to the doctor and she said it was just severe allergies and I need some major sleep. Ha! Did not know when that was going to happen so my parents came to the rescue and come and helped me all day and most of the night on Monday. Yesterday, Jackson came down with a fever and a cough that sounds just like the croup. The croup is just a cold gone wrong but it was so bad last year he could not breath at all. Today we had to blow out Abigail's nose with saline and a blower for the first time, but I think she is going to be ok. Tomorrow we go to the ENT for another opinion about Jackson's frenulum at 12 pm. Please pray that we know exactly what to do with Jackson (my therapist thinks frenulum surgery is a must). I really do not know how this surgery could hurt him because even if it does not help with his speech it will help him have more movement with his tongue and be able to eat better.

Stay tuned for more posts soon I promise with pictures of Abigail, and an update on the doctor visit for Jackson and things that have helped him with his speech.

Happy Late Valentines Day/Abigail's Schedule

Of course, this was Abigail's first Valentine's Day and her Sunday School teacher sent her a Valentine's Day card and she was able to hold it (it is the little things that mean so much). The people serving at First Baptist are wonderful.

So, I was looking back at my blog when Jackson was Abigail's age and this is what schedule we are moving to. In a perfect world, this would be her schedule till she turns 5 or 6 months old but of course since she has an older sibling her schedule has to be more flexible than Jackson's was at this age. It is good to have goals so here it is:

11 weeks

8-8:30 am Wake Up, Diaper Change and Eat 6 ozs
8:30-10am Wake Time (in her chair and on her matt)
10-11:30 Nap Time (wrapping Abigail very tight in a swaddle---learned it from the dvd Happiest Baby)
11:30 am Diaper Change, Eat 6 ozs
11:30-1 pm Wake Time
1pm-3pm Nap Time
3 pm Diaper Change, Eat 6 ozs
3-4:30 Wake Time
4:30-6:30 Nap Time
6:30 Diaper Change, Eat 6 ozs Wake Time
6:30 on no more naps unless she is fussy
Bath time 7:30pm
9:00 Diaper Change, Eat 6 ozs
10:15 Bed Time

We would love her to eat at 8 am, 11:30am, 3:00pm, 6:30pm, 9pm roughly. If she cries before her feeding I try others things like giving her passy, but if that does not work I feed her as long as it has been 2 1/2 hours from the start of his last feeding. Also, we try our best to keep her awake for an hour and half from the beginning of her feeding. This is getting easier and easier.

Basically we try to let her have 3 big naps at 1 hour and 30 min minimum. If your baby does not sleep for at least 1 hour and 30 min times he will be fussy (swaddling her tight is crucial...we use the swaddleme kidd. swaddle) She can get 32 ozs of milk a day but usually only takes 27 ozs during the day. The doctor said for the first year they need 24 ozs of formula minimum and no more than 32 ozs in one day. Since Abigail is now probably 12 pounds he can take half of his body weight each feeding (6 ozs). Also, during the day I do not let her go more than 4 hours without eating so she does not get her days and nights mixed up.

According to Baby Wise, we are on Phase Two: Extended Night and will try to do this schedule until she is 5 or 6 months old.

However, the earliest we have gotten her to go down is 10:45 pm and then she actually slept till 7:30 or 8 am in the next morning. Sometimes she eats at 8:30 pm and then has to have more ozs at 10:30 pm to get enough ozs in for the day. Therefore some nights it is 11:45 or 12 pm before she gets to sleep which is crazy. However she sleeps a good bit in the morning (especially in her swing) which I do not mind because we have therapy Tuesday and Thursday morning with Jackson. I would just rather her go to bed latter and get all her formula in for the day then wake up at 4 am. Also, we have started to put her in the bumbo seat for short periods of time because it instantly makes her burp. She is already watching Dora with Jackson....poor baby.

It is always good to have goals for your children even as young as Abigail is. Babies thrive on schedule and routine. Do you try to put your baby on a schedule? Does it work?

With Jackson, Tuesday morning and Thursday morning he has therapy. I have started to try to have "circle time" with him before we do any activities. We pray and read a quick story (most of the time from our Puggles hand out or our hand out from Sunday School.) I actually have ordered him a new toddler bible and the One Year Children's Bible we are going to try to read out of everyday. Tuesday night, Friday morning, and Saturday morning we try to go to the gym, just us, while Charlie is at home with Abigail. I try to cook Monday night, Thursday night, and Saturday night, Wednesday night and Sunday night are church so we are staying busy. This upcoming weekend Charlie has something every night for 4 nights straight so it will be a little crazy around here and I need to plan stuff so Jackson does not get so bored that he starts climbing on everything. Lastly, I am trying to play with Jackson everyday. Monday we play with blocks and cars, Tuesdays-bubbles, Wednesday-puzzles, Thursdays-animals, Friday- coloring. I will post more about Jackson's schedule and an update on him soon.

This schedule works best for our family since three nights out of the week we are out late with church activities and we do not have to get up at 5:30 or 6 am for school yet.

Added later: This was her schedule and I am so crazy I got her on this schedule in the hospital. This was her schedule till about 8 or 9 weeks old and now some days she does eat again at 10:30 am which I am fine with.

7 am morning feeding time (diaper change before each feeding...she smiles during diaper changes because she knows bottle is coming up next) usually she will drink 4 ozs each feeding

10 am mid-morning feeding (try to have wake time from 10am-11:30ish and then nap time in the swing in the morning)
1 pm lunch time feeding (wake time, nap time)
4 pm another feeding (same)
7 pm dinner (same)
10 pm last feeding

*Note at first babies sleep like 20 hours a day so I did not worry about "wake time" and the first 3 or 4 weeks she would wake up at 3 or 4 am to eat. Because our babies are small the first 2 weeks we would wake her up to eat at 3 or 4 am and she usually would go right back to sleep.

Jackson and Abigail at the Same Age

The picture of Jackson above was his first Christmas card picture and he was more like 11 weeks I think. Abigail in this picture was 9 weeks old. Crazy!

More Answers about Jackson

It has been another crazy week, and God has been so good to reveal so much to us. God gave us a new coordinator and speech therapist and I think they might both be the best you can possibly have. My new coordinator is incredible and Jackson has progressed so much with her weekly (she has been coming for 3 weeks now). She has him saying "ball" so clearly now. My new speech therapist is an expert in oral motor issues and hardly has any openings, but she can meet with us on Tuesdays at 9:15 am which is perfect because Jackson is so alert then. We get all these services free through Baby Net (Bright Star), but because of the budget cuts if we had not gotten Jackson in when we did, we might not have been able to get these services.

Here is a run down (I have updated many of you through facebook)

• Tuesday morning we all went to see an ENT doctor very early. We have been at the doctors a lot recently. He said he would clip his tongue frenulum but if it was his son he would not put him through it and that there was a less than 5 percent chance it would help with his speech at all. He can stick out his tongue out a little past his teeth. I was very frustrated with the visit and I am not going to have the procedure done with a doctor who has no hope.
  
• On wednesday our new speech therapist came for the first time. She did a complete oral motor examination and evaluation. She said that is tongue was 90-95 % WEAK! This seems pretty extreme. She also said his lips were 30% weak. She said it all ties in to the tongue and it really hurts that he has a short frenulum. She watched him eat and said that he does not have much movement of his tongue when he eats, and therefore, has to work twice as hard to get the food down. Ah! No wonder eating time is so hard with him.
  
• I really think that Jackson has Charlie's recessive gene of a weak tongue (Charlie cannot curl his tongue to make a hot dog shape or stick it out very far) combined with a short frenulum. We will start Beckman Oral Motor exercises next week and a Z-Vib It is going to be hard because he hates when we go messing in his mouth...he really does not understand why we are putting our hands in his mouth.
  
• We have had three doctors and a speech therapist tell us he has a short frenulum. Therefore, we are going to get a second opinion and proceed with getting it clipped in the next couple of months. Pray that it does not take forever to get in with another doctor (the doctor we are being recommended to has had success with improved speech after this procedure). One of my doctors called today and she said she has always seen at least some improvement in speech after this procedure. Even if it does not do much with his speech, it will at least help with his eating and give him a much wider range of motion with his tongue. Him having a weak tongue does explain why sometimes he can say words perfectly and other times they comes out crazy. No matter what, we will need to be in therapy for a while to strengthen his tongue. He is learning so much right now, he just cannot verbalize what he is learning so I can understand what he is saying. Some kids with short frenulums push through and still use their tongue and are able to speak fine, but Jackson is not one of them.
• Keep praying for Jackson. I think God has big plans for him and I have always felt that there is a demonic attack against him from day one. I still cannot believe he had a major fire in his room. I cannot wait to see how God is going to use Jackson to reach people for Christ. Demons might when some battles here, but we know that God wins the war. Praise God! This whole ordeal has made all of us stronger and our prayer lives where it should be. We are so thankful to have such a loving and amazing son.
  

Love to hear your feedback and any experience you have had with a child having a weak tongue, short frenulum, or needing speech therapy.

EdVenture Children's Museum is Incredible!

This was our first trip to EdVenture, and I was so impressed. I guess when I think of a children museum I think it would be geared to elementary school age children. Boy, was I wrong! It had rooms and activities for all age children. Because Jackson's speech is at a 18 month old level, I forget that in most all other areas he is at a 2 and half year old. He knows all his color and shapes (he always points to the right ones). So I thought the museum might be over his head, but I was wrong. He had the best time! I almost did not get him out of the Snowville room. It had snow coming down, snow balls to throw, fishing with a fishing pole, a ski rider, and a slide. I think that is all his favorite things. Charlie did not get to go, but we are looking forward to going back and going all together. I love living in Columbia which this museum, and an amazing zoo.

My camera (Sony Cyber shots) took great pictures with this lighting and it has made up for all the bad pictures it took of Abigail. My sister and dad have a Canon camera and I think it might take better pictures.

Happy

She is such a happy girl, and nothing really bothers her. We are so blessed and every day I thank God for her.

Laundry, Laundry, and More Laundry

One of the few things that has been hard to get used to with having two babies, is that I am always doing laundry. I really need to do laundry about every day or every other day. I always have motivation to do the children's laundry when Abigail runs out of bibs. But, I have absolutely no motivation to wash Charlie and I's clothes...probably because it takes me so long. I usually do our laundry either Tuesday or Thursday and just do two or three big loads. Some days I would rather eat dirt than do laundry (I am more motivated I have found when I have gotten out of the house that day).

What do I do when I have no motivation to do something? The same thing I did in college and graduate school when I had no motivation to study. I make a game out of it, and time myself. I really can get obsessed with time management and so I want to know exactly how long it takes me to do a task. So, I have been using the timer we got at Belks for our wedding. It takes me 15 minutes to sort Jackson and Abigail's clothes on which ones need to be sprayed with Spray N Wash and to actually spray out their clothes. I now try to beat this time every time I wash their clothes. I usually do not do a task more than 30 minutes and after the 30 minutes is up I reward myself by blogging or shopping online.

Another good idea that I do sometimes is I try to memorize a Psalm while doing laundry or dishes.

Do you have a laundry system? If so, what is it?
Do you use Spray N Wash or Shout to get your stains out or another method?
Can you really make doing laundry fun?
How can we practically glorify God when we do housework?

Just some thoughts and I would love to hear from you.

I have an update on Jackson and will hopefully be blogging about it tomorrow (I have updated many people through facebook).

Abigail's 2 month Stats

Today me and Abigail braved the doctor's office at 8:15 am and it was cold! She got 3 shots (1 shot was like 3 vaccines in 1) and one vaccine was by mouth. I just do not understand why they have to give so many shots at one time. The only way to have them spread out is to go to the Health Department because my insurance (and most insurances) will not pay for them if you spread them out. If she was a boy, I might have actually done that. What do you think about getting so many vaccines at one time? She did great and the doctors office but did yell out a Jackson scream when they gave her shots to her, but she calmed down pretty quickly.

The only new issue we are having with Abigail is that she is starting to cry while she is being feed. I think the milk it is just not getting to her fast enough, but if she eats it too fast she will throw up everywhere. So, I have started to give her pacifier during feedings just to calm her down some. However, most things, like baths, do not seem to bother her at all which is crazy. Jackson has always been sensitive from the day he was born.

We are slowing trying to change her schedule and I will be posting that soon. Babies usually can eat half their body weight per feeding in ozs (which is not quite 6 ozs now for Abigail since she is not yet 12 pounds).

I am so glad I am posting these stats for years down the road when I have no clue how much she weighed or what percentile she was in.

Weight: 11 lbs (66%)
Height: 221/2 inches (80%)
Head Circumference 39 cm (82%)

I did not blog about Jackson 2 month stats but I know his head was in the like 10-15% for a while. She is growing great and definitely has a big head compared to Jackson. She also seems pretty long for her age.

Updated Pictures: I Cannot Believe My Little Girl is Already 2 months old!

It is hard to believe that this Thursday I will be taking her to her 2 month check up. Time is flying by with her. She is very easy going and loves looking at her big brother. Abigail still only cries about 30 minutes a day total which is amazing to me. I guess the Lord knew I could only handle one fussy baby right now (Jackson). Yesterday, she did not even cry when Jackson took her pacifier out of her mouth. Abigail is really not that crazy about her pacifier and really only needs it to get to sleep. Jackson is usually so loving with her and loves to hug her and give her kisses. When she is fussy, if Jackson goes to talk to her, she will calm right down. Today, he even put her pacifier back in her mouth. He loves helping me with her. I love having a little girl and I especially love dressing her up and putting bows in her hair. She is our princess.

She is already a regular attender of church and Lynn and the Burgins take such great care of her. They care for babies as if they were they own babies. It is such a blessing to have so many wonderful people taking care of her at the church. I do not even worry about her for a second. God gets all the glory for keeping her well when me and Jackson were so sick. The doctor sad the babies immune systems are very strong the first 8-12 weeks of their lives. I am so thankful.

She looks just like Jackson did at this point, only she might be a little bigger (especially in her legs) She is even getting a red tint to her hair just like Jackson did at this point. She sleep from 12 am-7 or 8 am, and I am not complaining. Our schedule is changing some, and I will have to post that soon.

I am really starting to research professional cameras. Since it is so dark (being winter time) outside whenever I go to take a picture of her the flash on my camera blinds her. What professional camera would you recommend, and where would you recommend getting it? Are there any good deals out there that you have heard of?