Just another typical, fantastic, memorable day!

Let me begin by saying... I, Mommy Kepley, am so lucky to get to spend each day with the little one. She changes so much and grows each day. A friend asked me yesterday when I was "going back into the workforce" and I answered by saying that I plan on looking for a job to begin this fall. With that being said, honestly... I can't even imagine leaving her anywhere or with anyone on a daily basis... I never thought I could be a stay at home Mommy, but I can totally see it for a year or two... Oh well, good thing I don't have to cross that bridge yet.
So, the weather was great early this week! Mommy and Grace Anne got to go on lots of walks! She is really a fan of riding in the stroller but she has also started enjoying the Baby Bjorn and the way I look at it.. the Baby Bjorn is like carrying around an almost 10 lb. weight, thus it has to be a better workout.. right?

Our other latest interest is .. Baby Einstein. Little Miss Sunshine found Baby Beethoven was captivating! She just sits there in awe and watches it! But, no worries... she only watches 1 DVD a day and they last 30 min. She isn't being brain washed or corrupted by TV!

Tonight Grace Anne went to her first basketball game.. she slept through most of it! Mommy did get to show her off at the school she did her student teaching, but we really went to see Alyssa cheer and get recognized for 8th grade night. Grace Anne really didn't take in too much-- she slept as the picture above indicates!

And an end-note... Keep hoping Daddy gets a job soon. UPs has had lay offs and minimized routes and put drivers in the warehouse. Please keep him in mind if you hear of anything.. now is not a good time to not have a full time job. Daddy and Mommy both want Mommy to be able to stat home with Grace Anne for a while. So, keep us in your thoughts and pass along any job leads!

Forget Lullabies, we sing ROCKY TOP in this house!

In honor of the good news coming from the University of Tennessee...

We have had a better week than last... UT hired a new football coach (Daddy thinks its a good hire which makes life in the Kepley house much easier), the Vols have been tearing it up on the basketball court and just beat Alabama tonight (another plus for keeping Daddy happy), and Grace Anne has not decided to descend from anywhere!
Bath time has become much easier! I won't lie and tell you that she doesn't have some weird faces, because as you can see... she sure does! But, she doesn't cry at all during bath time! She is so stinkin' cute in her little bath tub that I couldn't help but to post a picture! She will kill me when she is 10!
The weather has been great the last couple days! Mommy and Grace Anne have been on a walk each day this week, thus far.

Oh and finally, I am very excited to announce that I have figured out the video feature on my camera... AND, I can post to blog so I'm trying one of her rolling over... But, keep coming back, fans and followers, there shall be more!

No Mother-of-the-Year Nominee in this House

What a day.. what a week I might say. Seems like this week has been full of surprises.. and might I add not good surprises! We lost our football coach, UPS laid off 1,800 people in management which means that job promotion front isn't looking too good so that coupled with a little unforseen, unfair, unwelcomed expenses made for a bunch of rough surprises... But, we have managed to avoid medication and professional therapy. We were trucking right along.. trying to keep our chins help high... Until.. last night... our little sweet pea came down with her first fever. :(

As you all well know Miss Grace Anne has been fighting a stuffy nose but she had not had a fever at all. She seemed really fussy and really warm -- mom's intuition said fever... and thermometers don't lie. After talking to the on-call nurse I learned that shots can cause a mild fever (which explains the Infant Tylenol coupon the nurse gave us at our doctor's visit!). The nurse warned that she could be sluggish or have a lack of appetite for up to 48 hours after shots. I rushed to buy Infant Tylenol, gave her a dose and hoped she would feel better. The Tylenol seemed to help and she slept well until about 1am when the crying began full and the screaming.. whoa.. rough night. I was exhausted and probably should have woken Daddy up.. but didn't-- after all, he had managed to sleep through all this...

At 5am this morning little Miss Wiggle Worm wiggled off the guest bed. I had been laying in the guest bed and got up, laid her on the bed from the bouncy seat, turned my head... and BAM she wiggled off! My 2 month old baby girl was flat on the floor -- she had fallen.. I had let her fall right off the dang bed! THE BED! I was hysterical. She cried for 3 minutes and acted normal. I didn't know what to do, but my horrific feeling lasted much longer than those 3 minutes! I was officially the worse mother in the world! I tried to get Kris to weigh in on the situation, but had no luck. Finally after 15 minutes of mere panic (that seemed like 3 hours) I called the on call nurse. While I waited on the return call, Grace Anne took a whole feeding, she smiled, and stretched -- she seemed perfectly normal. The nurse said I would probably be fine waiting until the office opened, rather than rushing to the ER. She said she'd leave that decision up to me. Well of course I tried again to get Kris to weigh in... after several attempts Daddy woke up and determined we could wait until the office opened. Needless to say, that's exactly where we went first thing. The doctor said she looked fine. He told us to watch for losing her appetite, sleeping or acting sluggish more than normal or vomiting. He said if we noticed these symptoms within the next 24 hours to call him ASAP. Of course I was thinking how do I know if she has a head injury or its a reaction to shots. What poor timing to decide to be the worse Mom of the century!

By lunch time she was not very active, had skipped a feeding, and I found myself force feeding her, which is unusual. When she wasn't sleeping she was screaming and crying (not her typical style). After finally getting her to take 2 oz. I realized it was all coming back up. She was sound asleep before I could even clean her up! I called the doctor back and he said to come on in. He could tell she was much more lackadaisical than the morning.. of course neither of us slept much during the night and she had an eventful morning. He still saw no bumps or bruises, but decided it'd be best if we went for a CT Scan. I am all about erring on the side of caution (as ironic as that sounds since I was the idiot who laid her on the bed and started this mess). He wrote the orders and then sent us on our way to Children's Hospital. I called Daddy and insisted he not leave work early but to just head to the hospital after he got off.
We arrived at the hospital and went to check in. At that very moment in time I realized it was real. I was nervous, scared, and felt terrible. I needed Daddy.. heck I needed my Mama! But.. I'm strong and didn't show any fear. We checked in, got her hospital bracelet (or anklet rather) and went to radiology to wait. We were lucky that the pediatrician had called it in as an emergency so we didn't wait long. Daddy wasn't there when we went back. They put my sweet little girl in a positioner and it was the most pathetic thing I've ever seen. I was so sad for her. I put on my anti-radiation apron and stood right by her side. I got to put my hand at the very edge of her cheek to calm her and keep her still. She was perfect and didn't move. After she went through the scan the radiologist tech said we were done. I thought "DONE!?" how could we possibly be done.. what about the doctor and the results. She told me that Grace Anne's doctor would call tonight or tomorrow or sometime. HELLO.. this is my child we are talking about! So, I asked if the radiologist would read the results immediatly or not..? She looked at me and said "well there isn't a radiologist here right now." I was stunned when we left. Daddy wasn't there yet and I told him we'd just meet him at home. Of course he was very concerned and wanted to see his baby girl!

A couple hours later the doctor called and said that Grace Anne's results came back negative. She is apparently just tired and sluggish from the vaccines. I felt relieved to know that I didn't cause any permanent damage. Whooooooo! That's reassuring.

The pretty girl is sleeping and smiling now. She seems fine, just tired, sluggish, and a little fussy.
Mommy is feeling better since Daddy has reassured her she really isn't an idiot and is defiantly not the worst mother on earth!

We do want to extent a "Thank You" to everyone for your concerns, text messages, thoughts, prayers, nosiness, phone calls, and facebook status comments! We have a wonderful network of fans (also known as friends and family) and Grace Anne is lucky to have each and every follower!

TWO Months...(sorry for poor picture quality--cell phones haha)

Wow, our little girl is already two months old.. it has flown by even with the sleepless nights and 8 feedings per day.. it seems like just yesterday when we welcomed our 7lb. 2 oz. little girl into the world! Well folks, its been two months to the day! We went to the doctor this morning- she is now 9lbs. 8 oz. and 21 1/2 inches long-- our little runt is growing! I was 9 lbs. and 21 1/2 inches at birth, but it took our little babe two months to get there! haha

She is actually not big for her age at all. She was in the 20th percentile for weight and length. But hey, we feel like she is huge! (well you know what I mean.. not huge but... not as runt-ish).The doctor said she had very strong neck control for her age. When he put her on her tummy she rolled herself over, yes.. at 2 months! He picked her up and in his amazement set her right back down to watch her do it again! What can I say?!.. she is accelerated!!

In other news, Daddy has been in a state of shock and hysterics. Lane Kiffin left the Univerisity of Tennessee and put Knoxville in a rare state. Daddy has not been medicated or sought any type of professional therapy as of now. Please keep our family as well as Vol nation in your prayers during this crucial time of adjustment.

On the MEND..

The precious little Kepley sicklings are on the mend. Kris is still not feeling wonderful, but seems to have improved a lot. Being in the cold hasn't helped matters. It has been below freezing for a week and of course he is exposed to the bitter chill throughout the day! Grace Anne is still very snotty, as unladylike as that may sound. This morning I suctioned out lots green snot and she actually sounds like she can breath a little now.

This weekend we took it easy though. I was convinced we lost Grace Anne's zutano hat !!! We love her Zutano hat (its fushia)! I searched everywhere with no luck so I ordered one from New Baby Products in Atlanta because all the Zutano retailers in Knoxville were sold out. (although, in the search, we did find a very cutesnails zutano dress and a cozie matching jumper that were both must haves!!) Well, guess what I found on Sunday afternoon? you guessed it.. that silly hat. Now we have two of the same exact hats as the second one arrived today. I wish we had this one too.. isn't it cute.. jester hat. I also think she needs the mittens since her fingers are always so cold!

We go to the two month appointment early tomorrow morning! I'll keep everyone posted on an exciting developments!

Our Little Runt is GROWING!

That's right, she is now a little over 9 lbs. Monday went to the doctor and our little run has hit the 9lb. mark! we were concerned that she had been spitting up a lot, sneezing, and coughing. The pediatrician attributed the symptoms to reflux and increased her reflux medicine... sadly, the coughing continued and a stuffy nose came along with it so I decided to call the doctor and make sure everything was okay-- so we went back today (the picture is at the doctor-- she was eating Pinky's nose while waiting for the doctor to coem in). They tested her for RSV, but it was negative luckily!!! We saw the doctor on call and he was very nice. He has a little girl at home that is 3 weeks older than her. He completely understood what we are going through. His little girl has reflux and spits up too and he assured me that medicine doesn't stop spit up and the spit up is more miserable to us than to her. He said that spit up doesn't feel like throwing up and she isn't in pain. But, she does have a miserable cold that I'm guessing she got from her Daddy since he has a miserable cold too. Dr. Mommy has her hands full suction her baby's nose out, getting medicine for Daddy, and whatever else the sicklings need. Let's hope they both feel better soon.

Welcome 2010!

The Kepley family spent New Years Eve welcoming 2010 in Atlanta. Grace Anne's first Atlanta trip! Daddy went to the Georgia Dome to witness another loss. UT just doesn't have a lot of luck in Atlanta at the Dome. But, Daddy and Uncle Mitchy had a really good time.

The girls (Grace Anne, Mommy, and Christy) shopped-- until Grace Anne's spit-up got the best of us! We did get to hang out with the Andersons. Davis got a kick out of Grace Anne crying in the bathtub. Brian cooked us dinner and was overly hospitable! (even if he claims it was because he was bored.) Michelle brought us margaritas! So, yeah it was pretty much a laid back sorta night..but fun! Sadly the beloved Vols lost. :(

Christy and Mommy picked up the boys in time to make it back to our hotel in time to ring in the new year with Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest.