4 MONTHS!!!

I cannot believe I can say that she is 4 months old. I don't know, for some odd reason it just seems like leaps and bounds older than 3 months!! Maybe, it's b/c this past month has been FULL of so many awesome, wonderful firsts!! :) Beware, this blog is full of pictures!! I just can't resist!!

Here is my 4 month old angel on Easter Sunday!!! Ahhh, I could just eat her up!! :)

Here we are having fun with the camera before we went to "Jo Jo's" for Easter Sunday lunch!!

We went on Friday for her 4 month old well checkup! Everything went great. She got two shots (booo), but did great with them! She ran a small temp that night but Jo Jo had her, and said she kept her all under control with the help of some Tylenol! She was 24 3/4 inches long and weighed in at a whoppin' 14lbs 6 oz!! She was in the 70th percentile on her height and weight! Dr. Hurlock said that those numbers were nothing to complain about! We got the go ahead to start solids!! :) I was so excited about that, I'm such a dork, but it's just another milestone that I was ready for! I don't want to wish her stages away too fast, but it's a first for me too, and I just get excited about it all. She told us to try cereal first and then slowly progress to the stage 1 baby food and to do it once a day and to keep the same number of bottles she gets a day the same. Sooooo....of course I immediately left the doctors office and we went to walmart and stocked up on rice cereal and a few different kinds of level one foods!! When Josh got home, I was too excited and we gave it a shot. I'll let the pictures below speak for themselves. The first pictures...rice cereal....

This is one of the first pics of her with a bite of the rice cereal...not going too well

And another picture of the rice cereal....it's not looking good....

And here is the LAST picture of her eating rice cereal. And this is our LAST experience EATING rice cereal. hahahaha.

And so, what do we do next....NANNERS!! :)

This is the first pictures of bananas. She looks intrigued by the taste!!

Liking it....

Hahahaha, she looks like she's thinking, "now this is what i'm talking about!!"

So for a few days, we are sticking to bananas!! She doesn't eat much of it at a time. What you see in the bowl in the above picture, was WAY too much for her to eat!! hahaha. Shows what I know! It's so much fun watching her eat though!! She seems like such a little girl when I feed her with a spoon!!

Other things that have gone on this past month:

*We are still sleeping through the night, though not quite as well as we used to. I'm wondering if it's b/c her window faces the east, and her room lights up first thing in the morning. I might try a darker shade or blanket over it, and see if it works. I can't complain though. We still go from about 8:30 at night to about 7 or 7:30 in the morning.

*Instead of crying when she wakes up, I hear her giggling and cooing in her crib through the monitor, and when I walk in there, she gets the hugest smile on her face!! It's the best wake up call EVER

*She actually LOVES tummy time now!! She raises that head of and props herself up on her elbows and can just watch the world for minutes at a time.

*She does not like to lay down now. She wants to sit up all the time!

*She is rolling over!! Sometimes when we are on the play mate I have to remind her that she can by helping her the first time, and then she's like, "oh yeah, I forgot about that!"

*She is talking and cooing all the time.

*She is eating 6oz ever 4 hours, (plus the baby food now!)

*She loves to stand in our laps!! It always stops her fussing!

*She's at a stage where she doesn't sleep much but can't quite figure out what to do with her toys...so mommy seems to be her favorite entertainment....which doesn't help with getting anything else done!

*She can grasp her teething toys and put them in her mouth! She immediately gets mad at them though and throws them down when they don't fit ALL the way in her mouth!! hahaha

*We have a very good schedule going. After being awake an hour and a half in the mornings, she's ready for a 45 minute nap (usually my time to get myself ready!) and then a 2 hour nap in the afternoons around 2pm!! I like predictable schedules!! :)

Well, I think that's enough for month four!! Now that she's up to all sorts of good things more often, I just might have to start blogging more often!! Stay tuned... :)

3 months! :)

My goodness she is growing like a weed!! She is turning into such a cute tiny person with her own personality and everything. She is now 3 months (and 6 days) to be exact. So much has happened this past month and I feel like we are always doing something different daily to blow my mind!

Here she is at 3 months!! She doesn't like looking at the camera! I get frustrated b/c she will be smiling and as soon as she sees the camera go up to my face, it turns instantly to a frown! She's so stubborn! :)

Here she is in her glider in her room. Daddy got her that stuffed teddy bear for Valentines Day and it is defiantely her favorite right now!! :) (look at those cheeks!)

She loves colors, lights, sounds, music. As you can tell in this picture she is so focused on those lights flashing. I had to get this moment. She studies everything so hard! She looks like her daddy here. He has to know how everything works!! :) (Me on the other hand, could care less!)

hahahaha. Daddy got home from work and put his hat on her backwards. I already thought it was funny until I took the picture and realized it looks like she's holding up some gangster sign along with it!! hahaha, she's such a hoot! She knew what she was doing! ;) You don't want to mess with her! (see what i'm talking about with the personality!)

I don't think I have shown this on here before. We got this chalkboard too too from Josh's aunt Serena. Is it not one of the cutest things ever?!?! I absolutely love it!

And on to where we are developmentally!! In the picture above, is about where we are on the head lifting thing!! OMG, if someone knows a way to get my child to like tummy time please let me know. We get toys out, I lay in the floor with her, and I take her and roll her over, but nothing works!! She is ready to get up as soon as I lay her there. I do torture her a few times a day with it, for at least 5-10 minutes. I keep thinking if she's there long enough, she'll get used to it and like it. I think I might be wishful thinking.

Here's some other things though for month 3 that we are doing:

*She coos and makes noises nonstop! She has definately discovered her voice

*She has the belly giggle laugh now!! Oh my goodness, I was so excited that night because that noise of that giggle (instead of a squeel) is the cutest sound in the world. I told Josh we needed to get that on video camera and he looked at me and said, "no we need to get how crazy you look when she does it!"

*We are still sleeping through the night. We used to have to wait until about 10 or 10:30 to give her the last bottle to get her to sleep all night. We can now give her a bottle between 830 or 9 and she's out like a light for the night! :) This has finally helped with Josh and I getting at least 30 minutes or so together before the day is over.

*She is not a fan much anymore of laying in our arms or anything like that when she's awake. She likes to be sitting up and seeing the world around her

*She is starting to reach for things that I put in front of her. And this little girl just might be left handed. She does everything with her left hand. But she loves holding on to necklaces, and loves to hold onto my hair! Ouch!

*We have started a thing to where if she makes a noise, I mimic the noise back to her, and then she'll make another noise and I'll do the same. She loves it, and it always ends up with her and her giggles!! :)

*We went to the doctor for her 2 month shots at about 11 weeks, b/c she had been sick. She weighed in at a whoppin 13 lbs and 1 oz and she was 24 inches long! She was in the 70-80% on everything. Dr. Hurlock said, she is probably going to be a tall girl!

*She likes putting weight on her feet. If I hold her up in my lap, she likes to bend those legs up and down!! :)

I think that's about all the new stuff. I can't wait to see what we are able to do this time next month!! Isn't next month, food in a spoon?!?! I hope so! :) Stay tuned!

2 months old!!

My goodness, where does the time go! I cannot believe that she is already 2 months old (2 months and 4 days to be exact!). She blows my mind on a daily basis! I'm obsessed. Completely head over heels in love with this little girl! It makes me wonder what I did with my life before she was born. Apparently nothing of any importance!

The second month has been cloud 9 compared to the first, and I know that things are only going to get better! Learning her has been so much fun! Learning her personality, her facial expressions, what makes her happy, what calms her down, even learning what different cries mean has been surreal! At different times, I'll just look at Josh and i'm like, "she's ours!, we made her!" God is so good! :)

Here she is at 2 months old!! She is such a cutie! And she's usually always up for a good smile and some sort of a laugh. It's almost like this little squeel tone that comes out when she's having a good smiling moment, like when mommy is being goofy!

She loves to smile and whenever she gets really excited about what is going on, she throws her arms around and kicks those legs while she's smiling (hence the blur in her arms..it was an action shot!) I usually have to act pretty crazy to get that to happen. She probably thinks, "my mom is nuts!"

And this is her on her play mat looking up at a twinkling lady bug that she just loves! I tell ya, this girl loves color and anything that flashes or blinks! She gets mesmorized!

So this past month, I have stopped breastfeeding and she is now taking formula like a champ! She's like her mom, if it's food, it's good! :) I think she was 5 weeks when we attempted her first bottle, even of breastmilk. I was told that sometimes you have to go through a few bottles, b/c they can be picky on the nipple. Boy, we went through 4 bottles before we found one that she would take. And of course, when I went to go buy the bottles that she would take, I was not happy to find that they are the most expensive ones out there!! Josh said, "did you expect anything less from her!" hahaha. But at 2 months old, she's downing 5 oz at every feeding which is every 4 hours during the day!! whew, we've got a chunk!

Here are some of her 2 month milestones:

*We have changed to formula with no problems. I was afraid of belly trouble and all that, but so far, so good!

*She is now sleeping through the night. She started that at about 7 weeks. Her last bottle is anywhere between 930 and 1030 at night, she wakes back up usually around 6 to eat breakfast! (Mommy sings her praises and prays nightly, that this is for good!)

*SHE IS NOW IN HER CRIB IN HER ROOM!! Hallelujah!! :) Can you sense my excitement!?! For the first 7 weeks of her life, she slept in her bouncer in the living room and I slept on the couch! I missed my husband and my bed!

*She does have acid reflux so she sleeps in a thing called a snuggle nest, that is slightly inclined but she seems to sleep really well in it.

*She definately started smiling this month, and just within the past week, she has really started to "coo" all the time! I love it. I read to respond back to them when they do this, b/c it's there way of talking. So we have multiple conversations a day. She tells me all about it! :)

*She's holding her head up like a pro! We hardly have to ever hold it anymore! It wobbles from time to time, but she can always regain control of it before we have to intervene.

*She still isn't a fan of tummy time, but she's slowly trying to raise that head up when she's flat on her belly.

*We no longer cry during bath time. I think she likes the warm water now! I enjoy giving her a bath and it always seems to help with the nighttime routine. I think it calms her.

*We have pretty much established a schedule with her and I am very proud of that. She has taken to it very well. Before the nighttime feeding is bath time, and then when she's eating that last bottle of the day, we do it with the lights out and noise level down and I rock her while she eats it, and I think she knows that it's bedtime after that.

*She had her first ER visit actually last night with a high fever. She is ok, and nothing serious is wrong, but she handled that very well. I was so proud of her! She handled it better than mommy! I told her she ruined my goal of never having to take my child to the ER. I guess I had unrealistic expectations!

I think that's it for month 2!! I love how she is changing and growing daily! I feel like she does something different everyday! Can't wait to be able to tell you the things she can do at 3 months! Stay tuned! :)

1 month old!!

While having a baby is the BEST thing in the world, and looking at your child look at you makes your heart melt...the first month was well....how do i put this...EXHAUSTING!! I honestly feel like I have never been so tired in my life with a few days of not knowing if i can go on!! hahaha. And i'm saying that now, because I'm finally at a stage where I can look back at the first month and realize that if I can make it thru that, I will survive anything!!

It might have been because I was used to sleeping 11-12 hours a night before her, or the fact that I was not a coffee drinker before her...or the combo. But things change, things change quickly. I now can run off of 45 minutes of sleep for a whole night (have proven that by living thru the first month), and I now am a half a pot of coffee drinker a day! hahaha. But I have come to the realization that I can sleep when I'm dead, and that there is teeth whitening kits out there for the coffee stains!

So on to my pretty princess (that now sleeps!) Here she is around 1 month old. Sorry the blog was not on my mind then, and probably didn't get her on the exact date!

Look at those cheeks!!! I just love her. She is a mess!! As for the first month of her life these are her milestones:

*We accomplished breastfeeding

*Towards the end of the first month, she learned to focus on things...especially if they were the color red.

*We would do daily tummy time, but not a fan of it. But she did learn to roll her head from one side to the other, even though her nose never left the mat.

And well...there's not alot besides eating and sleeping that goes one during that first month, but surviving with food and sleep (for the both of us). I believe that we have adjusted very well and so has daddy. She was during the first month, definately a daddy's girl! He was the only one that could really calm her down! God bless that man!

Her arrival on December 8, 2009 at 12:33pm!

Here we are as a new family!! I think I was definately still scared of what my life was just changing to be!!


I was holding her for the first time in this picture!! I was crying, she was crying! It was sincerely the most special moment of my life thus far! Words can't describe it! I get teary eyed looking at this picture!



I thought she looked so scared in this picture!! I think it's amazing how God is trusting me to raise one of his children!! I hope I make him happy!!



She wanted to go back inside but her momma said no!! She's got a little conehead there...they had to vacuum her out! She was as stubborn as her momma when it came time for her to come out! Boy, i can just see her teenage years! Thank goodness we have Josh to referee! :)

And here we are AFTER my epidural had kicked in!! I am glad we don't, but part of me wished we had a picture of the BEFORE epidural look to put beside this one! Actually, no one should have had to witness that or see me during that time. Not even my husband. I'm still embarrassed to this day what I was like before the epidural. And I thought I could handle pain pretty well. Contractions proved me WRONG! Pitocin is the devil!

Oh my goodness, I have to play catch up!!

Soooo...as everyone who probably reads this knows that our daughter has arrived!! As new mommyhood took a toll on me for a while, my blog got neglected! I am going to try to catch back up! I will do monthly updates on my little one with a cute new pictures and new things that she is able to do that month! Please enjoy as you watch our daughter grow and learn all about this new world she has entered!! It's going to be a great year!

Chubs!

So I went back to the doctor today for the SECOND time this week! I went Monday and I hadn't dilated anymore, so he made me come back today and get an ultrasound and another check. He wanted to get an ultrasound to get an estimate on how much she weighs. They say at this point that the ultrasound weight isn't very accurate, up to a pound difference either way, but oh well, wasn't going to argue getting to see her! The ultrasound weight is showing around 7lbs 10 oz!! hahahahaha, so i'm hoping we're on the smaller end of the scale, but oh well. Dr. Howell also said that I was a very loose 1cm. Which didn't perk me up too much. So he said that an elective induction could be scheduled. I was concerned on the induction about whether it's bad for her, or bad for me, but he said that he believes that everything will go just fine. He is on call this weekend and said that it wouldn't surprise him at all if I ended up coming in. So let's hope and pray for that!
The plan right now is to go in Monday night at 8pm, and to get two doses of cervadil, and then start the pitocin at 6am. He said that the cervadil can speed the labor process along faster and that alot of times the pitocin isn't relied on as much, which means it won't be turned up as high, which is what I wanted to hear! :)
So here's my little princess!! Look at those cheeks!! :) She's leaning against her arm or hand or something. Just like I thought....she's nice and cozy....and her momma isn't!! I'll let you guys know if something happens sooner! Looks like her birthday just might be December 8th, 2oo9! YAY!