Mae and her new Nanny

Well, as the title reads we found a nanny for Maebry. Her new nanny will be taking care of her on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. We want to see how having a stay-at-home nanny will pan out with Dusty's work-from-home schedule. We found our nanny by using the website Care.com. It allows to search out caregivers in and around the San Marcos area. It also allows you to be specific about certain skill set that you and your family are looking for with regards to your child. You can use filters and find people who are not only pet friendly but are CPR/First Aid certified.

Our nanny's name is, Teri, she is a senior at Texas State. She will graduate in May with her degree in Family Sciences. She has worked for quite a few families and took care of their infants. We really wanted to find someone who had infant care experience. She gave us a great interview and really expressed her knowledge about infants and their growing needs. She came over this past Monday and sat with Maebry and fed her a bottle, burped her and changed her diaper. The real test will be to see what happens next week when mommy is gone and daddy is working-away on his computer. I know it will be just fine but really I am just nervous because I am going back to work. That could be a post all on its own.

Here is a sweet picture of our new nanny Teri and her new main squeeze Mae.

We are so happy this sweet girl is watching our sweet girl. At the time of this photo Teri had been with us for almost two week and it seems that Miss Mae love her Miss Teri and vice versa. We are grateful for her and is she really is helping us feel comfortable with going back to work...be it just a few yards away or in the BBQ capital of Texas aka Lockhart.

Maebry and her grandmothers

Well, Dusty and I cannot believe that are little girl is growing so fast. Her face seems longer as well as her body. We are still jubilant over her being home.

The third week of August brought many goods to Dusty and I. We had time to figure out what we were going to do with regards to Maebry and her future Nanny. We also got to see all her grandmothers again. She also got to see her Grand-daddy, Uncle Kolton and her Grand-Aunt Sandy.

Doesn't she look sweet sleeping on her sweet Grandmomma.

A closer shot showing Maebry and her sleepy face. Also this is one her favorite position, which is a face plant on someones chest.

Mae and her Grand-daddy, Alvie, he was sweet enough to sit with her and put her to sleep for us.

Mae is wearing her yellow Butterfly outfit while her Grandma Susan, who is also were yellow, is holding her, all the while her Uncle Kolton is looking on.

Then later that same week, my mom, Mamaw Charlene, came into town. My mom has been really busy with work with budgets and getting fiscal things ready for the City of San Saba, where she works. So, she was able to come down for four days and visit with us and stay a while. She came into town on Wednesday, August 19 and went home August 23.

While Mamaw Charlene was here Maebry had an eye doctor appointment. Her visit was more horrific Dusty and I, but didn't look fun for her either. Basically, they took a clamp that held her eyelids back, exposing her entire eyeball...then measured the shape and size of her eyeball. Very scary indeed, but they numbed her eyes and she was mad, but not too too upset. Needless to say, she slept the remainder of the day...wiped out! You can see from below, she did come home with one new thing that didn't scare us or hurt her...in fact, quite the opposite.

Her future's so bright...she needs shades! Terminator shades!

Mamaw Charlene helped out by cleaning while we were at the eye doctor, cooking one of my favorite dishes (fried pork chops, mash potatoes & gravy). And then later she helped Dusty and I organize a monstrous garage sale. We worked for two whole days to get things finally boxed and ready to sale. We didn't do that bad. It was probably the hottest day in August but we survived with help from breakfast tacos, cold tea and a deck of cards. Yes we played Texas Hold'em.

All the while, Mamaw Charlene was spending time with her grand-daughter and helping console Mae or putting her to sleep during the late night hours. She also got to see all her grand kids one trip. My sister and her family came by on Saturday to visit. My cute niece Tatum took a few photos of her momma and Miss Mae. I need to get those from her and post them (RIGHT HERE)!!

However, I guess I will just have to post the pictures we took with our camera.

Here is Miss Mae and she is getting held by Mamaw Charlene's good friend Joyce. Joyce came by Friday all the way from Canyon Lake to visit and bring Mae gifts. Thank you Mrs. Joyce for the cute outfits and wash clothes & towels.

Here is a close-up of Miss Mae. She smiling at her new friend Mrs. Joyce. Too SWEET!

Can you believe it...you can see our garage door. This is what our garage looked like after our all- day garage sale event. Mae even came out to visit some of our patrons who endured the intense heat to rummage through our wrongly-priced belongings.

Here are a few photos we took of Mae with her Mamaw Charlene right before she left to go back to Richland Springs. The second picture is too sweet. She looks like she wants to talk to her Mamaw. We know Mae is missing her Mamaw's kisses right about now.

Thanks to all the grandmothers who came to visit. Mae loves you all, and of course she loves all her other visitors, too. And yes, she told us herself. She also said to say "Thanks a million and come back any 'ole time!"

Maebry and friends

We pretty much lost count on what week we are on and have since decide to just update when we can and put new sets of pictures up to showcase Miss Maebry and her goings on. We, too, want to show pictures of some of her visitors.

Thanks again to all of our friends and family that have been so great to us and making things easy for our family. We love that you all come and visit and spend time with us. It is so nice to know that we have group of loving and supportive people like all of you to make our transition to parenthood and family life that much easier. Also, it helps with our bouts of cabin fever. We love our house and our bed, but sometimes human interaction does a lot more than a TV and it handy-dandy remote.

Furthermore, Maebry is doing much better since we took her off the NeoSure. She loves her feedings more and more. We also think her acid reflux is getting better...so yeah on all accounts. She seems to be sleeping better and doesn't seem to have to many painful gas moments. Poor Thing.

Anyhow, here are some more photos and updates of what has been going on with Mae.

This picture is from when Matt, Savannah and Madison came to visit. This picture was too cute not to post. Little Maddie was having fun showing Dusty and I what needs to be picked up and put away once little Miss Mae is mobile. Thank you Maddie! She just loved our remotes. Please note the location of our phone. It is sitting in our candle holder. You can tell Savannah has done that before. Way to go mommies who can get things out reach of their mobile child.

Here is a picture of Maebry and Momma. Then a picture of Maebry and Daddy taking their very first walk in their lovely stroller. Thanks to Grandma Sue for the carrier, and thank you to Aunt Brenda, Kelly, Aunt Peggy and Aunt Rhonda for the stroller. You all help make this moment happen and we love you all for it. By the way, Mae liked her evening stroll so much she fell asleep. Big surprise.

However, Miss Mae was a little star struck either from the flash on the camera, which we had to use because we went out for our walk at dusk, or she was trying to figure all what was going on with the big soon to be darkening sky above. Don't you just love the ever present soothie that shows up in most of her shots. We should start a "Where's Mae Paci" game. Just kidding :)!
Here is our dear friend Sue holding our dearest Mae. We know you cannot see Mae but she is snug in her new favorite place the innards of the "Sleep Wrap." On loan to us from the great and many baby-carrying accessorized Niemann family. Thank you sooooo much Abbey for lending this to us. We have some many cute names for it. We call it the Papusa, and Zach and Sue keep calling it the kangaroo pouch. Whatever it is called it does not matter because Mae loves it and it really just WORKS!!

Also we loved having our friends Zach and Sue who came all the way down from outside of Fort Worth, to visit us. They were on their way to San Antonio for Zach's ten year reunion. Fun times! We were so happy to have them as guests and of course it didn't hurt that Sue wanted to do nothing but hold Mae all night. All the while Dusty and I were eating pizza and hanging out. She also made us the most delectable delicatessen...the "Chocolate and Peanut Butter Rum Balls." Please note I don't know if that is the official name but it doesn't matter they are capital "A" awesome.
That next day Mae had some more visitors. My old friend Danielle and her family came over for a visit. They wanted to come spend some time with us and hang out. You can see Danielle holding Miss Mae in our rocker, her husband, Brian, helping their daughter, Emma, stand up. Look how sweet she is looking at the camera. Too sweet!

Our bunny is home and loving somethings - Part Deux

Hey guys, things have been going well, or as well as things can go for a newborn and her parents. We are still so happy to have Maebry home. She has been with us for over a month and we still marvel and stare at her daily.

However, some not so fun things have been happening. We have been trying to figure why she has gas so bad and painful sometimes that it wakes her up. We deduced it is was because of her formula mixture of NeoSure and breast milk. I felt bad for both Mae and her daddy because she was trying to swallow the milk that she wanted so badly but all the while her little tummy was having trouble breaking down the enzymes in the formula. The catch-22 is she needs the formula for the extra calories and calcuim due to her being a premie. And it is hard on poor Daddy because he was the one giving Mae these bottles and the whole process was bringing her pain. Dusty was being the great Daddy that he by doing this so his sleepy wife could get some rest...boy don't we all know and love this process.

Then we had to figure out how to help her with her bouts with acid reflux...good times to getting an infant to fully swallow a fizzy, cold and watery version of a pill. So Mylicon and Prilosec have become our new best friends and have been given with fervor and high frequency so our little one has been able to eat and sleep much better.

But we know we need to apologize because we really do have good intentions with regards to the blog. We take pictures and use our flip-video but we then forget or show a lack of dedication to posting these lovelies to our said blog.

So without further adieu and anymore painful feedings. Here is Part Deux of more bunny pictures and her weekly visitors.

Here is Mae's Papaw Gary. He was sweet enough to let our little bunny sleep on his chest. We have quickly learned our little girl loves to sleep on our chest and the chest of others.

My sister, Cherie and her family came by the first week Maebry was home. My sister is holding her while part of the Carrillo clan (aka my niece, Brother-in-law and nephew) look on.

Here is Mae getting admired by Dusty's brother, Troy, and his family. Our niece Maddie and sister-in-law Vanessa gave us some great gifts for little Mae. She has her own set of beginner chop sticks...too CUTE! We were also given some other Japanese gifts that we translated by Maddie but now forgotten. Troy and his family have been living in Japan for almost a year. We were so excited they came back to Texas to visit our little cutie.

Another set of Kraatz's came to visit earlier in August. Dusty's other brother, Bert, and his boys, Kyle and Carson wanted to come and visit their new niece/cousin. We are glad they made the trip from Katy and were kind enough to give us their rocker. Thanks again Bert for the rocker...Mae loves it and it has been used quite frequently.

Grandmomma Kraatz also came by and was kind enough to do a feeding for Dusty and me. Little Mae just loves her Grandmomma and how sweet is it that Cindy (aka Grandmomma) matches Mae's Boppy and burp clothe. We Kraatz's love to color coordinate.

And here is sweet Poppa Kraatz holding Miss Mae after her feeding. Don't they look so cute together. Grandparents have special powers of getting their grand-babies to eat and sleep contently.


Here come the Daddies and their sweet peas. Dusty is holding Mae in our borrowed sling and Matt is balancing Maddie with cute paci and bottle near by. That same night Matt, Savannah and their sweet daughter, Madison came by for a visit and bought us Chili's. A great thanks to the Tuckers for the visit and the food. And thank you Chili's for your boneless Buffalo Wings with Ranch. And Dusty says thanks because he was super happy to have his Margarita Grilled Chicken.

Mae-day Mae-day...our bunny is home and loving it!

Dearest all, as reported our little bunny has been home for three weeks. We too, cannot believe that we can see her at all times of the day and we don't have to drive 45 minutes to do it.

Dusty has been working fervently for XI Media and making sure he can manage "Daddyhood" and his work life. He has been doing splendidly at both...way to go Dust.

And well, I have been at home on maternity leave. It has been a new adventure for me. I been trying to figure out what I am suppose to be doing once Maebry is feed and asleep. I have been trying to stay on top of all her medical and yes, my medical bills too...boo! Just so everyone knows, I openly loathe insurance companies. I have to get things checked, rechecked, and oh yeah...looked over by this person or that person. We have to sign this reschedule another appointment. All the while making sure our deductible is covered and/or the remaining amount is paid accordingly. Adulthood stinks.

Anyhow, back to lighter things. Maebry has had quite a bit of visitors since she has been home. First, we had Dusty's parents with us the same day she came home from the hospital. Then my step-mom, Susan and my brother Kolton came by. We then had my step-dad and my mom, and my sister and her family over. Matt, Abbey and Kinsey came by and cooked dinner for us. Yummy shrimp scampi...oh soooo good. Our friends Becky & Joseph and Leo, Melissa and their cute daughter also came over.

Rinse and repeat because grandmas just can't stay away from our cute Mae. Most of time grandmothers want to just hold her and love on our cutie. We also have had other friends come over and a cousin or two, so thank you all for coming and wanting to see our newest bunny-addition to our family.

Here are some pictures of Maebry and her nearest and dearest...her family and friends. So other ones her doing what babies do best...being too cute and allowing their parents to take embarrassing pictures of them that will be shown at an older age. Poor thing!

Here is my Step-mom, Susan and my brother Kolton holding Maebry and
standing in her room. Too sweet.

Her she is in her cute bassinet, that was given to her from her sweet Grandmomma and Poppa. We just love having her close to us. And she likes napping in it during the day. We cannot help ourselves at night, because she sleep with Dusty and me.

Here she is getting ready to go to her first Pediatrician appointment with Dr. Lincoln.
She did great at her appointment and everyone just loved to meet her and
they keep telling us they like her name a lot.

Mae and her first bathe. She looks a little at ease or maybe she is about to get made. Who knows...but we love her tub and its netting that allows her to sit just above the water. Lately she started liking bath time...thank goodness.


Mae and her daddy doing tummy time. Oh yeah, their is our photogenic dog, Bumpkin. By the way Bumpkin really loves her Maebry. She checks on her and gives her feet kisses. Too sweet.

OK we have more...but we will have to upload them a little later. Maebry is getting ready to eat again...she so sweet. We thank the lord everyday that she is home and more importantly she healthy and has us and you all.

Love you all!

Maebry and Momma

This is a sweet photo took of Maebry and I on her first day home. Just thought I would share.
Oh yeah, we still had the welcome home banners up that our friend Muzzy did for us.

Week 10 - The "Mae-venture" Begins!

On Sunday, Christa and I decided we were about ready to break Maebry out of the NICU, we had had enough...and so has Mae. On Monday....Mary (the nurse practitioner) called the house to update us about all that Mae had going on this week. An MRI, hearing test, sleep study and more. We knew that these were all tests the NICU would run before Mae was ready to come home, so I asked Mary, "so, she's coming home soon right? Like in a week or so?" and she replied, "she is coming home VERY soon, like...in two to three days" HOLY COW!!! Our prayers had been answered and it was GO TIME!

Christa has a great deal to get wrapped up at work to secure her maternity leave, and I had clients to keep happy and a nursery to finish! YIKES! Needless to say the next few days were pretty intense. She could be home as early as Wednesday and as late as Friday. So we decided to go raid Babies R Us to get everything we thought we needed to ensure a successful homecoming.

Monday was fun getting to see Maebry and knowing it was one of the last times we would have to go to the NICU (and drive to Austin...ughhh). Janice, one of our favorite nurses, one last time, and we had a blast together that night. We talked about everything from Harry Potter to the trials and tribulations of early parenting.

Tuesday, Maebry had her sleep study and hearing test. They recommended that we use that time to get things ready, so that's when we went to Babies R Us and loaded up. We then stayed up way to late putting together furniture, arranged her bathroom and didn't sleep a wink.

Christa did a little more than half day on Wednesday and then....it was time to spring Mae! Heehee! We headed up to Austin, sat in traffic (of course) and as soon as we walked into Bay Five for the last time. Christa was inundated with discharge paperwork and instructions. Meanwhile, I stripped Mae of her leads and probes and got her into something much more comfy and picture worthy!

We loaded Mae into the car seat (scary!), waved goodbye to our good friends in the NICU and we were on our way to sit in more traffic on a late Wednesday afternoon. That's when the pictures and video began...

Here is Christa's holding dear Mae after a good feeding session. Way to go MAE!

One more cute sleepy Mae picture! We just love to watch her sleep.

Ok, really we can't help ourselves. Here is one more...doesn't she look sooo CUTE!!

OK, one more cute photo of Maebry in so cute Preemie clothes. Also she is waving to us all. Hello everyone!

MAE Video!!


Here is she, ladies and gentlemen, our daughter out in the world and in her very own car seat. Thank you Grandma Sue. She looks so cute with her paci and oh yeah, she had a few scrapes on her cheeks. She wanted to show everyone how excited she was to get out. So, she put her nails into her face just a little bit. Anyhow, it does not matter, we still couldn't believe she was actually coming home to us. YEAH, finally!!

Stay tuned because Dusty has a cute video that he is finishing up and will upload some time this weekend.

Love you all,
C, D and M