To catch you up on Aubree's first holiday season so far:

Our little duck passed out candy from a roasting pot for Halloween.

For Thanksgiving Aubree, John, and I went to Fort Worth to see my parents.
Here's almost the whole group snuggled into one elevator.

Aubree attended and slept through most of another first,
a Christmas parade in downtown Fort Worth.

Most recently, Aubree got to meet Santa Claus for the first time.

Calorie Counting

Aubree is on a diet! She gets to eat as much high calorie and high fat food as possible. She hasn't gained much weight in the past few months so her doctor wants us to try to beef her up before her next appointment. She gets to eat milk, yogurt, meat, cheese, oil, cereal, crackers, rice cakes, egg yolk, and all kinds of fruits and veggies.

Aubree is very tiny (less than 14 lbs) but we have a lot of small babies in the family so we're not really worried.
She has been burning a lot of those extra calories by crawling, playing, and walking while holding onto something. We've been having so much fun with our precious little girl!

We especially enjoy going to baby time every Monday, where we read, sing, dance, and play with other babies.

A Well-Loved Baby

We are starting to see our baby grow up already. She's learning so fast. She can:

• pull herself to standing & stand leaning on something
• say "hi," "Mama" and "Dada" indiscriminately
• eat rice cereal, oatmeal, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, carrots, pears, peaches, apples, and bananas

• wave by opening and closing her hand
• grab things with both hands and grab things with a pincer grip
• sit and play with her toys or a box independently for about 15 minutes (She's working on the Your Baby Can Read program. It's entertaining if nothing else.)
  

Our family is so thankful to have her. She brings us so much joy every day! We often sit around looking at her and laughing with her and telling her how cute and wonderful she is. I hope it doesn't go to her head!Unfortunately, Aubree had to have her first ER visit when she fell off the changing table on Sunday. Praise God for protecting her sweet little head from any serious injury.

We took a trip to Destin, FL and stopped in New Orleans for some fun on the way. My mom and both of my grandparents on my mom's side of the family grew up in New Orleans, so we felt like riding the St. Charles streetcar was a historical mode of transportation.

Aubree also enjoyed her first Astros game. She even stayed awake to watch the Friday Night Fireworks!The most exciting part of the summer was welcoming Aubree's new cousin to the world. His name is Nathan and he is precious. Aubree is going to have so much fun playing with him when he gets a little bigger!

The Lake House

We've had 2 trips to my parents' lake house since my last update. They were so much fun!
Most of my dad's family came out on the first trip. We got to see parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, and second cousins. Some of them live far away and we do not get to visit very often. Here are some of the highlights:

We picked plums & peaches in the yard.

We skied, wake boarded, and tubed.
Aubree used her special spot on the boat to catch up on her beauty rest.

We went fishing.
We made bracelets.
We enjoyed relaxing by the water.

We went to Six Flags. My mom, Aubree, and Annabelle stayed home where Annabelle showed Aubree how to hold her own bottle.
We played with puppets.

We had a Hula Hooping contest.

Taylor hooped for almost a half hour and won the contest! Taylor taught Elizabeth how to Hula for her birthday and she has been practicing a lot. Elizabeth hooped for over an hour when she got home!

We've been having such a fun summer!

Summer is here!

I'm staying home with Aubree! We have been having a lot of fun and the time has gone by way too fast.
Taylor graduated from high school!
We had a party to celebrate!She cheered for us when we did the Dad's Day run for prostate cancer.
http://texustoo.org/

Aubree loves to swim and play. She's happy most of the time these days, despite her new nap strike.
Her newest skill is waving at people! So glad to have a friendly baby!

Back at Work

I've been back at work for about a month now and Aubree has been getting to spend special time with our family. She's had days with her daddy, days with Aunt Sharon and her cousins, days with my mom, and she even got to have some days with my dad.
I am the one that is sad and pooped out. She's having a blast!
Here are some of the things she's up to:
laughing, cooing, & babbling
rolling from front to back & trying from back to front
putting everything in her mouth
growing (she's over 11 lbs and almost 24 inches long)
sleeping through the night often
loving bath time and the outdoors

I only have 3 1/2 weeks until summer vacation when I'll be able to relax and enjoy my baby girl full-time!

Aubree's Recent Adventures

I haven't had a lot of time to update posts and Aubree has had so many fun times lately. She went to her first Pirate Party to celebrate her cousin Elijah's 4th birthday. She played the part of the pirates' pet parrot, squawking appropriately.

She also went to a fun birthday party for her cousin Kate's 4th birthday at The Little Gym. All of the little girls looked so darling in their tutus.

Aubree had her first road trip to Fort Worth where she visited her Grann and Grandaddy for Easter.



We had so much fun at the strawberry farm. We ended up eating 15 lbs of strawberries in 3 days!
No, Aubree didn't get to go to prom, but she did get to go to the pre-prom party to take pictures of Scott and her beautiful sister Taylor

With me being back at work, Aubree has been lucky to spend a lot of time with her daddy. Isn't he handsome?
Her Aunt Sharon has taken care of her quite a few days too. Kate has been loving every minute of it!
Last week Aubree went to her first baseball game. It was a good one to go to because her cousin Jack was having a great game playing third base. He was awarded the team ball. Click on the picture to see the video.

Progress on Hips

Yesterday Aubree went in for another ultrasound for her hips to find out that her right hip has healed completely! We were so happy. Her left hip has not completely healed so she is going to wear her harness for a couple of weeks then she will switch to wearing her new hip brace only at night. It looks almost exactly like the one that I wore as a baby!

The tears from this photo are from recovering from her shots, not from wearing the brace.
Yes, she had to get quite a few shots today when we visited the doctor for her two month check-up. I think she's handling it well so far. She's just been a little grumpy.
She's just 7 weeks and 4 days but Dr. Nguyen had her weighed and measured and gave us her stats as compared to other 2 month old babies:
Weight 9 lbs 14 oz
25th percentile
Height 22 1/2 inches
fiftieth percentile
FOC (head circumference)
38.4 cm
fiftieth percentile
We were very happy with her growth and her measurements.

She's had a very good week and has started to smile a lot more. She's also more aware and gets a kick out of new things to see and hear. She's even started trying to talk to us!

Thank you so much for your prayers for our precious Baby Aubree!

From the Torture Museum:

Here's the old hip brace that my parents found in their closet:

This is my mom getting ready to leave the hospital with me 34 years ago:

Finally, here's me and John with Aubree the first day that she was put into the harness. Thank goodness for the upgrade in medical devices!
Click here to see more pictures of our past 3 weeks with our sweet baby girl, Aubree!

Aubree's First Week

Today Aubree turned one week old. What a wonderful week for us! We were in the hospital recovering Friday-Monday. We finally came home about 10:30 PM Monday night. Aubree already has so many people that love her and came to meet her in the hospital while we were there.

Since the hospital, we've had to spend a lot of our time running from one doctor appointment to another. Sweet Aubree was diagnosed with bilateral hip dysplacia. She has to wear an annoying little harness to hold her hips in place so the bone won't grow with them out of socket. I had the same condition as a newborn, so I don't know why it never crossed my mind that it might happen to her. I was a breech delivery and had to wear a brace to correct my hips for three months as a newborn. The risk factors for hip dysplacia are:

• female
• first born
• runs in the family
• breech

Aubree met the criteria for every risk factor! Her orthopedist thinks she'll be able to correct it with the brace in three months. She will have to go in weekly to make sure that it's developing correctly. Please pray for her that the brace will fix the problem completely.
Unfortunately, the brace is getting in the way of some of her cutest outfits, so my mom has been helping me go through her things to see what she can wear with it.
We had a visit with the pediatrician yesterday because she had lost close to 10% of her body weight in the hospital and they wanted to make sure that she got it back up. She wasn't eating a lot in the hospital but has been a hearty eater since we've come home. Just like her mama! We were so happy to hear that she has regained nearly all of her weight. Her birth weight was 7 lbs 6 oz and yesterday she was 7 lbs 5 1/2 oz. She's also grown an inch already! I'm so happy that she's growing so well but a little sad that I won't have a tiny baby for long.
We love sweet little Aubree and are so thankful for everyone's prayers and support.
Click here to see more pictures from the past week.

Aubree Ann Laurell

Aubree Ann Laurell is here!

January 8, 2010

10:07 am

19 1/2 inches
We love her! More to come soon.

Click here to check out our Picasa Web Album:

Aubree Ann Laurell

Baby Laurell Will Be Born Tomorrow!

Just a quick note to let you know that Baby Laurell will be born tomorrow by C-section. She is still breech so Dr. Pinell scheduled a C-section for her to make her way safely into this world.
We are very excited and a little nervous about all that will take place in the next 24 hours. We can't wait to meet this little girl!
Please say a prayer for us and for her that all will go well!