---8 months!---

Giselle is 8 months old now!

Loves:
-her brothers
-to be on the go
-bath time
-playing with her toys...and her brothers toys

New things:
-crawling
-going from crawling back to a seated position
-trying to climb us
-trying hard to pull to a standing position

Eating:
-she is eating solid food once a day and doing pretty well :)
-new food lately: sweet potatoes, pears, peas, baby yogurt

No teeth yet and she most recently weighed 16lbs 11oz (at the surgeons office on Aug 21).

---Weekend Wrap Up---

~Cook out at my parents on Friday night for a close family friend (my brothers close friend) who is in the military...home on leave. This guy is basically a brother to my own brother and I. Thankful for all the service men and women who work so hard to protect the freedoms we have here in the States. His name is John if you want to pray for him. Just finished a tour of duty in South Korea and will now be stationed in Georgia until his next assignment

~Worked yesterday and today so not much to talk about for this posting ha! Andy did bring the kiddos for lunch today and it was great! :) Giselle just smiles at everyone in the cafeteria and the boys run around and make everyone laugh!

~Mason has an OT eval on Tuesday at Parkview so please be praying about that if you have a spare moment. I will be calling the school later this week when they open for the school year to see when he can get in for an eval there so that we can make a decision on which place to go with.

2 quick updates to wrap up the week...

--Got ahold of Parkview Outpatient rehab and Mason as an appt to be evaluated for OT on July 28th!

--Giselle had her montly appt with the surgeon this morning. He said all still looks great and we can drop down to weekly dilation! She is to go no more than 3 days without pooping. If she does then we have to dilate again and if it becomes a regular thing then we will have to go back to twice a week dilation. Only reason that topic even came up is because baby girl has had a few instances of waiting 48 hours lately and this week she was on day 3 before we saw him. She did poop today a small amount so hopefully things move right along soon.

Long time no post. Oops!

We enjoyed our 4th of July! We've also been enjoying my extra days off this week and last week. Took some PTO days for the first 2 weeks of this month so I've had more days off than usual. Visiting a new (to us) playground and plan to go back there Friday afternoon I think. We've also been to the playground at my work, the book store, the zoo, and of course playing outside whenever it's not raining!

Mason's appointment with the developmental pediatrician isn't til Aug 17...that was the soonest she could see him. Called the OT dept at Parkview outpatient rehab and they were supposed to call me back yesterday...I'll call them back tomorrow and see if they can get him in sooner than the school to be evaluated for therapy. Guessing we will just have him evaluated by both the school & by Parkview and see which one will suite him better. Really praying this will work because he's been having some hard moments.

Parent orientation for Austin's preschool is next month (Aug 13) as well as his "meet the teacher" day (Aug 18)! Crazy!! I think he will do great. :)

Giselle sees the surgeon again Friday. She has been rolling all over the place and is trying very hard to crawl. Our baby is trying to be a big girl...not ready for that!

Totally forgot to do Giselle's 7 month update post! Can ya tell there's been a lot going on in our family and house life?!

Sooo what's new with Giselle?!
--she is rolling both ways and is fast when she wants to be
--she is sitting like a pro
--taking her naps in the crib now almost always (versus some in the swing and occasional crib)
--has tried oatmeal cereal, avocado and banana
--still waiting on her bald spot on the back of her head to start growing some more hair
--loves bathtime and is almost too big for her baby bathtub
--loves to people watch...with her 2 brothers being her favorite to watch :)

Basement is a stressful topic around here ha. In short summary...the carpet was not salvageable and has been apparently messed up from the first flood (meaning Water Out didn't correctly do their job). So Andy and my dad ripped that out on Tuesday night. We looked at new flooring options Wednesday and decided to just go with carpet again. Today the battery backup finally got installed after some confusion about outlets. Carpet peeps are coming to measure on Tuesday and new carpet could be installed as early as the end of the month. We are also still without TV due the the satellite dish getting bent in half during the storm. That is set to be fixed on Monday. Ugh to storms!

So on to Mason's 3 year appointment. The actual appointment went fairly well Tuesday morning. He weighs 33lbs 4oz (67th%) and is 36.5 in (26th%) tall. She said he looks great! :)

We then got to talk about Mason's worsening of his sensory processing disorder symptoms over the last couple of months. His anxiety is higher, his meltdowns are increased in both frequency and intensity, his rocking is about the same and he is now hoarding toys (doesn't play with them, just wants specific ones in a pile). He also is having a hard time coping with Austin teasing him. It's more than typical toddler stuff, trust me. It's disappointing because we were doing so well for a while and we were even discharged from therapy a little over a year ago. So a few things are going to happen. We are getting a referral to the new Developmental Pediatrician here at Parkview (actually got to speak to her nurse today and the paperwork should be arriving at our house tomorrow since they mailed it out the next day after our doc called her). Our pediatrician also wants him evaluated for OT by the elementary school that is in our district. I called them already and they don't open for the year until July 29th. If he doesn't qualify for the free (free...but essentially paid by our tax $) therapy there then we will go to the pediatric outpatient rehab here in Fort Wayne. I am hesitant to go the school route because he is so young and I've heard its geared more towards school age kiddos. I talked to our hospital OT today and she said she knows the OT at our elementary school so that is reassuring and she said she also thinks the OTs at the peds outpatient place are excellent as well so I'm hoping we will be happy where ever we end up. It is a bummer that we don't qualify for First Steps anymore since he's 3 now. Having someone come to our house was nice.

The other big thing our pediatrician is worried about is OCD. She said he is exhibiting some signs of it based on some examples and scenarios I've given her. OCD can't be diagnosed until at least age 4. She did give a recommendation of trying to get him attached to a stuffed animal or small toy to help alleviate some of the toy hoarding. The OT at work that I talked to today also agreed that it would be a great idea.

Pray for us...pray for Mason. I don't feel like my friends really understand what we are going through, which isn't their fault...they either don't have kids, have young kids or just plain don't have any experience with it.

Weekend Wrap up~~~~

Most boring weekend at work in a looong time! Hate having to be there doing nothing when I could be at home loving on my babies....or helping with our stupid basement again!

The storm knocked out our power for 2 hours on Saturday. We, the bad homeowners we are lately, still didnt have our battery backup so the storage area in our basement got wet as well as part of the basement carpet. Our insurance agent said if we make another claim so soon then we will likely get dropped or jacked up prices so we didnt feel like we could call the water restoration peeps again. Andy worked on it for 3 hours after I got home (and after we ran around trying to get stuff after work) with a wet vac from my parents. We have fans and a dehumidifier (another expensive thing!) down there now but its ridiculously stinky and he worked on it for a few more hours again today. Thank god our sitter could come (both sets of parents are out of town too) over to watch our trio so he could be down there. We have a battery backup plus the battery now but need someone to install it. Everyone this weekend was tied up with the storm so hopefully tomorrow we can get someone scheduled. Next on the list is getting Stanley Steamer out to clean the carpet as a bandaid until we can get it replaced. Ugh.

Giselle is already 7 months old tomorrow and Mason has his 3 year appt on Tuesday. More updates on him after his appointment!

---Weekend Wrap up---

--Giselle had her monthly appt with the surgeon on Friday. He said everything is still looking good since we dropped down to every other day dilation so now we will drop down to twice a week dilation for the next month. Yay for Giselle!! :) We go back July 17th.

--Mason's 3rd birthday party was Saturday. We had a small but very fun party! Theme was Octonauts (disney junior show about sea creatures that "explore, rescue and protect"). Mason wasn't shy at all this year when opening his presents and sung right along when we sang Happy Birthday!! :)

--Father's Day and my 30th Birthday were jointly celebrated today! We hung out as a family of 5 for the morning then went to the lake for lunch with Andy's family and some outside playing. Came home and went out to dinner with my family at a favorite resturant of mine and my dad's. Busy but great day! :) All 3 kiddos were so well behaved.

-----Friday Five-----

1. Giselle had her 6 mt appt today! She weighes 16lbs (42th%), is 24.5in long (4th%) and her head measures 16.5in (34th%). Tiny peanut! Her doc was impressed with how well she sits up and said everything looks great! :) Got the go ahead to start some solid food and she is fine with me skipping rice cereal and going straight to oatmeal. Her & I are still concerned for her high risk of constipation so we won't be doing it every day. Excited to start making baby food again and hope I stick with it longer than I did with the boys. Giselle did ok with her shots...seemed more clingy than usual which is fine for my day off. :)

2. Play date with Emily and Wyatt this afternoon went well. They just stared at each other and Giselle did her new usual sqwaking here and there. Wyatt was pretty quiet and serious which is unlike him...he's normally so chatty. :) So fun to watch them interact.

3. Austin and Mason are enjoying all the outside time they can get. Last few days have been hot and humid so its been limited to morning and early evening but they certainly ask to go out frequently!

4. Dinner at my parents tonight and Austin kept beating my mom in this kids Bingo game she has! Smart boy we have! :)

5. Can't believe in just over a week Mason will be 3!! He is my sweet, generous and loving mama's boy. :) (really they both are at times but lately Mason really is)

Baby girl is 6 months old! How are we already half way to her first birthday?!? (or over half way since this post is late ha)

She doesn't have her 6 mt appt til next Friday, June 12th. So official measurments to come soon. She was 15lbs 5oz at the surgeons office on May 22nd though. Sucks that her appts are not on track but having one late appt early in life put them all late since there has to be so much time in between shots.

Likes:
-to be upright ...whether its sitting up, being carried or on your lap
-bath time
-interacting with her brothers
-trying to chomp down on every toy she can get ahold of
-shrieking or making a noise that kind of sounds like peacock (really need to get it on video!)
-being read or sung to
-snuggling with her momma

Dislikes:
-waiting...this girl is impatient ha!

She now sits up for long periods of time! We still usually put the boppy around her in case she gets wobbly. She will roll from belly to back if she is already propped up on her elbows but not if her arms are out to her sides. Today she rolled once from back to belly but couldn't get her trapped arm out ha!

After her pediatrician appointment next week we will venture into the land of baby cereal! Not sure if I'm ready...she still seems like she should be a little baby. She is ready though...if Andy or I are eating something while holding her (frequent occurence if only one parent is home lol) she will try to grab it. Last week she grabbed a slice of cheese I was holding and tried to put it in her mouth haha!

Friday Five-----

1) Week is already over ...crazy! Work was crazy Thursday ...but a good crazy. I love the days where the adrenline is constantly flowing! The downside is that I only got to pump twice instead of three times.

2) Giselle had another appt with her surgeon this morning. She is 15lbs 5oz. He gave the ok to start every other day dilations...finally! :) We go back June 19.

3) Ordered some of Mason's birthday party stuff today! Looks to be a small crowd this year since several people already have plans. Hard to schedule stuff when there are several peoples schedules to take into account & it's summer. Just have to pick a day and run with it ha!

4) Boys have been showing a lot more empathy lately. If they get in trouble and I am upset...they will later ask me ..."momma, you ok now?" It's very sweet and it shows how fast they are growing up.

5) Speaking of growing up...Giselle has basically outgrown her bassinet but I am NOT ready to move her to her room. :(  #sadface #staylittleforever #lastbaby

Sorry for the long time between posts. Just have been busy most days...and not feeling up to updating this other days.

--Giselle is over her laryngitis that she had. It never progressed to croup like the Pediatrician had warned us about. Her echo revealed that she still has a small PFO so she will get another one in January.

--Baby dedication, our anniversay and Mothers Day went great! What a busy weekend! :)

--Our new sitter is doing great with the kiddos! :) They seem to really like her so far.

--Andy's work hours suck. He leaves the house around 6 am and gets home between 5:30-7pm...he never knows when the end time will be. Thankfully he only has to work 2 Saturdays a month. Two perks of his job..he gets overtime pay & he doesn't work if the ground is really wet. He ended up having Friday off since it rained so much Thursday night. Money wise we won't even miss the fact that he didnt work Friday because he already had over 40 hours in by the time he left Thursday night.

--Sleep around here has been less than stellar. My anxiety is increased right now and Giselle is also having a bit of sleep regression.

--Giselle is now grabbing her toes occasionally when she is on her back. She is also sitting up for short periods of time (3-5 mins) by herself. Big girl! Crazy how fast time is flying right by.

--Austin has not came to our bed in the middle of the night for several weeks now so I am counting that as a milestone for him!

--Mason continues to stay dry all night as well!

--Gotta look at all these positives happening here at home even though I miss all 3 like crazy when I'm at work and feel like I'm missing to much of their childhood most days.

How is it already May?! How is it that Giselle is 5 months old and Mason will be 3 next month?!?

Giselle's 5 month updates:
--14lbs 4oz last week at the surgeon's office
--sleeps from 9/10pm to 5/6am most nights now
--rolling more from belly to back
--rolls from her back to her side
--loves to sit up if you hold her trunk/midsection
--loves to "talk" and be talked to
--new found interest of being read to...she reaches out and touches the pages
--likes going on walks
--had her first ever trip to the zoo!

She is still sleeping in our room and is seriously about to outgrow the bassinet...the weight limit is 15lbs. I dont know what we are going to do because our pack n play got pitched and we haven't bought a new one. Andy thinks she should be ready to be in her room soon but I say its still to early.  :( ...and plus her room isn't finished yet ha. Havent done much to it since shes been born knowing that she would be in our room for a while anyways.

Crazy week and lots of ranting & some whining on my part so I've been avoiding the blog and updates. Soooo maybe just a bullet list of stuff going on in the Coak house?!

• My dad was diagnosed with Basal Cell Carcinoma a couple weeks ago and started chemo this week. The doctor said this has a 85% cure rate so that is promising. Prayers for him pretty please!...and everyone better be wearing their freaking sunscreen this summer or you can risk getting a lecture from me!
• I'm starting to really want a vacation or some kind of break from my job. My hours are super long and I arrive home at bedtime on the days I work. I think sometimes who I'm working with on certain weeks (the docs are on for 7 days straight then switch) also plays a part in my job frustration lately. The kiddos are growing up too fast. I do cherish my days off and try to make them quality days but lets face it...I also have to cram in any appts, errands, housework, etc
• Giselle still has another month of daily dilations. The surgeon says she still looks great but wants us to continue daily until our next appointment May 22. Had to laugh out loud in my class I was teaching at work...there is a section on dilation after surgical repairs similar to what Giselle had and it said approx 2 weeks of dilation after surgery. Yeah freaking right. Her healing has been textbook and we are almost 3 months out from surgery.
• Got a speeding ticket Friday...enough said. Had all 3 with me and Austin kept asking "Momma who is your friend talking to you at the window?" Haha!
• Andy has basically decided that school is not for him so he's not finishing. He was dragging his feet not wanting to tell me. I know he doesn't like school and it was evident from all the stopping and starting of classes and changing his major a bunch of times. It's frustrating and disappointing but I can't make him get a degree. I just hope our children will value education and want to go to college.
• Thanks for hanging in for the long blog post where there wasn't much fun stuff to read.
• Hoping for a better week!

-----5 on Friday-----

1) Been a little crazy around here for multiple reasons. We bought a new car for me last weekend! Very exciting & much more room! Its a GMC Acadia in case you missed it on facebook.

2) Andy accepting a landscaping position with CL & S Landscaping and started yesterday--so far he likes it! He found out about the job from someone we know so that's a plus. Downside is having to have child care expenses again ha! For right now he is working part time (the week days that I have off plus an occasional half day Saturday) until the girl that we hired can start in mid-May. We didn't want to go back to a in home daycare (or any daycare for that matter) due to the high cost. It would have been $300/week for all 3 if they went back to the in home that we were using. So now we are going to be paying our new sitter a daily rate which makes more sense to me. Still nervous about leaving them again though!!

3) Finally nice enough to go outside most days now! Actually went out a couple times on both of my days off this week. :) The boys got to see some turtles by the pond in our neighborhood which was really neat. Other than taking walks they like to race each other up and down the driveway and play catch in the grass lately.

4) Giselle continues to grow and grow! Lately she has quite the ability to get really loud if she thinks you should be near her or picking her up. Its not really a mad cry but more of a sqwaking babble lol. :)

5) Working the weekend and hope it goes fast!

Giselle had an appt with the surgeon yesterday and we ended up moving up a dilation size. I feel like I should just take things one appt at a time with this guy! We go back again April 24th and he thinks she may be able to go to every other day dilation after that appt but I'm not holding my breath. He still thinks she looks great and said she has good tone in her rectum.

Giselle then had her 4 month appointment today with the pediatrician! :) She said she looks great and was impressed with her trunk strength when she had her in a sitting position. She is a tiny thing when looking at the growth chart though ha...she seems big to me but guess I'm wrong (or just used to my babies at work ha). She weighed in at 13lbs 5oz (20th percentile), is now 23.25 inches long (5th percentile) and her head circumference is 15.75in (25th percentile). She was not a fan of her 2 shots but didn't mind the oral rotavirus vaccine. Had two big fussy periods today but napped a long stretch between them. Hoping she does well for Andy tomorrow while I'm at work. Think we must have had a newer nurse giving the shots because both legs have a reddish bruise. Have never had that with either boy or with her 2 month shots so I'll be keeping a very close eye on her thighs.

Also scheduled her repeat Echo...it will be May 8th. Her pediatrician did not hear her murmur today so that's promising that the cardiologist won't see the open shunt anymore on her echo next month.

Austin and Mason have been loving every chance we get to go outside lately!! :) They've also taken up a new love of playing with their Planes (from the Disney Planes - Fire & Rescue movie). Working on counting and ABC's with both and Austin can sing the whole ABC song with no help now. :)

And...last but not least...Andy got a job! It's with a landscaping and design company. Not in his field but he has experience doing landscaping so it'll work and he's excited. The pay is good but the hours have the potential to be a bit crazy. Now to get the sitter issues worked out. The company is being flexible with his start date since its contingent on us getting childcare arranged.

Crazy that Giselle was 4 months old on Sunday! She is growing fast and developing such a cute personality! :)

Likes:
-to be upright
-to be held facing out
-to hold onto her burp cloth, blanket, owl lovey
-her big brothers "reading" and talking to her
-to be chatty :)

Dislikes:
-laying flat for to long

She is a pretty easy going girl. She also started rolling belly to back consistently this weekend as well. She is in size 3mt/3-6mt clothes with some of her 3 mt sleepers becoming to short. I don't have an exact weight or length yet. Her 4 mt appt isn't til next Wednesday, the 8th. More updates after that appt.

Totally flaked on a Friday post. This week was a little crazy.

Worked the weekend & Monday. Woke up Tuesday with shingles on my left leg. Almost didn't even go to the doctor but decided that with my 3 small children I should make sure I knew what it was. Doctor said that as long as I kept it covered and washed my hands immediately after touching it that our kiddos would be ok and I would be ok to work. Small side note...did you know that when you get shingles before age 40-50 that it is almost always brought on from stress?! Interesting... Was able to work on Thursday after clearing it with our medical director (don't really have any time to take off since I need to save it in case one of the kids is ill).

Came home Thursday to a mostly flooded basement. Andy texted me around 6:30pm at work with the news. It was a big freaking mess! Thankfully my parents came over as well as our insurance agent who also happens to be a family friend. We are thinking our sump pump had some kind of mishap because my dad was able to get it going again after messing with it...which actually got rid of all the standing water. Water Out made it there around 9:30 and stayed til almost 11pm. They used the industrial sized vacumms to suck a lot of water out then put a gazillion big fans and 2 huge dehumidifiers in the basement. They came back again Friday afternoon and then again today. They ended up having to bring another dehumidifier today. Their plan is to come back Monday and unplug everything and hopefully start the shampoo/deodarizing process if time. If not then it'll be scheduled asap. The insurance adjuster is coming Tuesday morning. In the meantime my house stinks like wet,  musty grossness. We actually left the house 2 different times today just to get away from the stink ha! It's not unbearable but its noticeable. They said it would get worse this weekend and be gone by the time the carpet is cleaned. If it isn't then we submit for new carpet to the adjustor. Ugh.

We actally do use our basement quite a bit so thankfully this was caught early. We think there was only about a 15-18 hour span when it all happened. As of right now we haven't noticed any drywall damage thankfully.

Sorry for no 5 on Friday...Giselle had other plans and I didn't get to bed until after midnight last night and then worked today. So just a recap of the week. :)

-Worked Monday, Tues & Wed.
-Boys had gymnastics on Thursday night!
-Finally mailed back the paperwork and deposit for Austins preschool! Now to pray that they still have a spot for him.
-Giselle had her surgeon appt Friday and everything still looks great he said! Moved up a size...the final size!! We go back in 2.5 weeks (would have been 2 weeks but they are closed Good Friday so we go back the Tues after). Very exciting to be done with the weekly appointments!! :)
-Celebrated my mom's birthday Friday night! :) Wish we could have celebrated all together but my brother and I work opposite weekends most months. :(  They just got into town around 7-8pm & we are hoping to get together for a real quick visit at our house after I get off work tomorrow and before he heads back home.
-Also...we have a new toddler milestone in our house....Mason now naps diaper free!!  :)

-----5 on Friday-----

1) Hair cut on Tuesday! Still getting used to it though haha! I ended up just having her trim it and add some layers....and then had her do some side swept bangs. Have a learning curve on how to style them but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. They were pinned back when I worked Thursday & theres a good chance they will be most days I work since I dont leave myself much time for getting ready in the morning.

2) Was able to take the boys outside to play on Wednesday finally! We were only out for about 20-30 minutes but it was worth it. They pushed their mowers on the sidewalk, each took a turn with the trike and they "shoveled" some of the remaining snow on the sidewalk. :)

3) Giselle had her weekly appt this morning. It went well, he moved up a size and said probably just one more size increase before we can start spacing appointments out. So back again next Friday. Her weight stayed almost exactly the same as last week which was a little concerning to me. I know they start to slow down on gaining around this time but the worrier in me couldn't help but think maybe she's not eating enough. She was 12lbs 8oz last Friday and 12lbs 6oz today.

4) Date night tonight! First time out alone since Giselle was born. We went to Logan's Roadhouse for dinner and then to AT&T to get my new phone since I was eligible for an upgrade. My parents had a fun time watching our trio. :)

5) Looking forward to my friends Jamberry Nails party on Sunday....have never tried it before and hoping I like it! :)