Some of the Holder cousins

We spent the better part of the past week with the Holder’s in SC at my sister-in-laws lake house. It was a very nice week with quiet moments, relaxing moments and some moments of pure bedlam and mayhem. There was a 20 hour window where we were swarmed by some of Paul’s cousins and their kids leaving us with 25 people sleeping in the house. Craziness!!

It was nice for me personally because Courtney got to spend lots of time with P’s immediate family. Courtney’s grandmother was there as well as her immediate cousins who range in age from 8 – 14. My nephew, who’s 14, may win the prize for the cutest with Courtney. You wouldn’t think that a 14 year old boy would be in the least bit interested in a 7 month baby but he was definitely interested. He held her a LOT and was even tolerant when she drooled a small pond on his shorts and even spit up on him. I just love that these kids are so interested in my baby girl. I don’t know that I cared about babies when I was 14.

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On another note, I turned another year older yesterday. I feel older although that could have something to do with the lack of sleep I got last night (and that lack of sleep had nothing to do with the baby). Every passing month Paul and I will say, “I can’t believe Courtney is now X months old,” it’s already gone so quickly and she’s only (almost) 7 months old. If Courtney’s first 7 months have gone so quickly, what’s that going to say/do for our ages? I mean, in 5 years I’ll be saying, “I can’t believe Courtney’s already 5!!” but really what I’ll mean is, “I can’t believe I’m XX.” How did I get to be in my mid to late 30’s and is 37 mid or late??? Oh my. Hopefully Courtney will keep me young because getting old is for the birds.

Then last week (Thursday, June 4th to be exact), I turned on the baby monitor and there she was, just sitting up. It was like she’d been doing it all her life. (She then fell over and hit her head and cried but still – SITTING up.) I thought she’d used the bumpers in her crib to pull herself up but now I’m thinking that’s not the case. As if sitting up wasn’t a major milestone last week, she has also started to “wave.” If you wave at her (by folding your fingers in and out), she will kind of wave back. Although, her hand is facing in so she’s basically waving to herself but STILL! Waving!!

But now there are motions, steps, movements that all lead to crawling. YES. CRAWLING. She gets up on her hands and knees and she thinks. She thinks really hard. And then she lays down in exhaustion. Then she’ll do it again. And then she lays down and scoots backwards around the room. I find if I put her down and leave the room, when I return she isn’t necessarily where I left her. All of this movement is going to make my life exponentially harder. What do you do when you need to go to the restroom? Or how will I get the laundry folded if I have to chase her around the house?

Add to all this movement and waving the looming introduction of teeth. I do believe my little baby girl is getting some choppers. She’s been waking in the middle of the night (she never does that), she’s drooling gallons of saliva a day (as opposed to the liters she was drooling before), and she’s very irritable (she’s never like that). Every time I try to take a look in her mouth or stick my finger in there, she jerks her head away and screams. And lets just say there’s some biting going on and it’s not all that comfy.

I can’t believe my itty bitty baby girl has SO much going on in her ever evolving life. Before I know it she’s going to be walking and then what will we do???

Because I had a c-section with Courtney, I would like our next baby to be VBAC – vaginal birth after cesarean. Well, I’d like to at least try for that. I really think there’s nothing normal about removing a baby through one’s abdomen. However, there are risks to VBAC’s and many doctors won’t do them. Once you have a c-section, they’ll only allow you to have a c-section. There are risks involved with VBAC’s but women do them all the time and are fine. I think it’s important to be educated and to have a doctor who’s competent and experienced with theses types of deliveries. Things don’t always work out as planned and if I end uphaving a c-section, that’s fine, as long as I have a healthy baby.

Paul will be happy to know that for baby #2, we’ll be going with an OB over a midwife. Sadly, they want you to wait at least a year before you get pregnant again if you’re going to attempt a VBAC.