Five Months

5 Months

Weight: about 16 pounds

Height: 26 inches

Sleep: She’s starting to sleep really well. She’s doesn’t sleep through the night consistently, but occasionally she will. We’ve gotten rid of (for the most part) the middle of the night feedings, so when she wakes up in the night, we just give her the pacifier back and she’ll go back to sleep. We also discovered that she loves sleeping on her stomach. She was constantly fighting her naps, but she goes down so easily when she’s on her belly. At nighttime, we put her on her back, but she usually rolls over in the night.

Size/Diaper: She’s in 3-6 month and 6-month clothes, and in size 2 diapers.

Diet: Breast milk and formula. I’m pretty sure we’ll start cereals and other solids this month. I know it’s one more thing for me to think about, but I’m really excited for this next stage.

Baby Gear Love: Our friends let us borrow a Baby Einstein bouncy seat. It has toys all around the seat and things hanging from bars above it. She can practice standing and bounce up and down. It’s a great way to keep her entertained while we try to get stuff down.

Milestones/Firsts: She rolled over from her back to her front for the first time, and now she’s a rolling champ. Just about every time we lay her on her back, she’ll end up on her tummy. She’s reaching for things really well, and has a good grip when she grabs things.

She’s also become more aware of our dog, Ace. She’ll smile at him and often reaches out to pet him when he’s nearby. He’s pretty good with her, and will just start licking her hand when she tries to pet him.

Likes/Dislikes: She has a Lamaze brand doll that has crinkling fabric, rings, and a rattle on it that she loves.

She gets so excited every time we give it to her. She also enjoys FaceTiming with our family. She’s always loved things on screens, but she gets so excited and smiley when we FaceTime. She reaches for the phone like she’s trying to get to the people on the screen.

She’s also a big fan of books. She loves to hold the book and help turn the pages, and she’s so enthralled with the pictures. You can just see the wheels turning in her head as she takes it all in.

She’s not a big fan of those teething rings that you freeze. I think they are just cold on her cheeks and a little big for her mouth. She’d much rather suck on her hand or mommy’s fingers.

Things I don’t want to forget: The way she rubs her eyes when she’s tired. The look (and smile) she gets when she sees her Daddy. The way her whole body shakes/wiggles/spasms when she gets excited. 

Four Months

4 Months

Weight: 14lb 7.5oz (56%)

Height: 25 inches (73%)

Sleep: She is (by definition) sleeping through the night! “By definition” is that she sleeps 7 or more hours for 3 or more nights in a row. Now when she goes to sleep at 8pm, that means she still sometimes wakes up at 3:30am, but sometimes, I get lucky, and she sleeps longer. This took awhile since we messed her schedule up when I took her to Oklahoma to see family. But it seems we are back to normal, and sleeping well.

Size/Diaper: She is mostly in 3-6 month clothes and still in size 1 diapers. There are some 3-month things she can fit into, but they are getting tight. She’s out of all of her 3-month sleepers because her legs are just too long for them. She can fit into some 6-month clothes, but 3-6 month seems to be just right.

Diet: Breast milk and some formula. I’m really looking forward to starting her on some solids like cereal and bananas here soon – probably in the next month or so.

Baby Gear Love: We really like her baby monitor. It’s a video monitor that has an app, so I can watch her on my phone or iPad. I can also play music through it, take pictures of her, talk to her, & turn on a night light all through the app. The only bad part is that my phone can get disconnected from the monitor, and if I’m asleep, I don’t know that it happened, so I can’t hear her. I still get notifications if there is sound or movement coming from her room, I just can’t hear her. I think this is just a glitch that needs to be updated, so hopefully they can get that fixed soon!

Bonus Gear Love: I just got a gliding chair. Actually, it’s been in our garage for a few weeks because we were going to paint it, but I just decided to bring it into the house to use it until we get around to painting it. A friend gave it to us. They actually offered it to us when Addi was 2 weeks old, but it took us this long to go get it from them. Wow, I wish we had gotten it sooner. I personally love swinging/rocking/swaying, so I’m enjoying having the glider. She seems to like it, too, since she’ll easily calm down and fall asleep when we’re in it. So, I highly recommend some sort of glider/rocking chair to any new moms out there (or those who, like me, like gentle movement to lull them). 

Milestones/Firsts: She started giggling this month. Usually it’s in response to something Chris does. It’s so adorable to watch her look at her Daddy doing something silly and just laugh. We love that sound. She also rolled over for the first time from her front to her back! I thought it may have been a fluke, but then she did it 3 more times in the next 10 minutes. She hasn’t done it since then, but she’s definitely done it. She almost rolled from her back to her front, but couldn’t quite make it all the way over yet. And then of course, she’s starting to sleep through the night (mommy’s really happy about this one)!

She found her thumb this month. She’s been sucking on her fist for a while (and she often still does), but I’ve found her sucking on just her thumb quite often. Braces, anyone?

She’s also started “talking” a lot more this month. She will just jabber on and on telling some story. Hmm, I wonder whose kid she is? She will just gab and gab, and we’ll listen to her and ask her questions like we understand what she’s talking about.

Likes/Dislikes: She loves sucking on her thumb/fist. She really enjoys her baby gym and all the toys hanging from it. She loves watching her Daddy make funny faces and noises.

There’s not a whole lot she doesn’t like. She’s a very content baby, so just the usual stuff like having a dirty diaper or when she can’t see one of us nearby.

Things I don’t want to forget: Her giggle. It’s just so sweet and makes me laugh every time. The way she closes her eyes and raises her eyebrows when she’s eating while she’s tired. It’s like she’s trying to stay awake by raising her eyebrows, but she just can’t keep her little eyes open. Her little features: her nose, hands, feet, eyes, ears, belly button, her long tongue and her little tooshy. Even though she’s getting bigger, she’s still just so small, and I want to remember this time, and all her little features, forever.

Three Months

3 Months

Weight: 13lbs 4oz

Height: 26in

Sleep: Her sleep hasn’t changed much. She’s still waking up 1-2 times a night. We went out of town (with a time difference), she got sick, and we had the time change all in one week, so it really threw her off and messed up her sleeping schedule. Luckily, she got back to normal pretty quickly.

Size/Diaper: She’s in 3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. She can fit some 0-3 month clothes  and some 3-6 month, but the 3 month sizes seem to fit her best.

Diet: Breast milk. Chris and I always joke about what Addi would order for dinner. “I’ll start with a bowl of breast milk bisque. Then I’ll have the breast milk soufflé with a side of breast milk, and I’ll finish with some frozen breast milk.” Ha. It cracks us up every time.

Baby Gear Love: Swing. We have the Ingenuity swing. It’s blue/tan and has an elephant mobile. It swings, vibrates, plays music, and has auto shutoff if it’s been going for a long time. She really enjoys her swing, and it’s not too heavy to move around the house. Another great feature is that it folds flat. We packed it when we drove to Arizona last week, and it fit just fine.

Milestones/Firsts: She hasn’t really hit any major milestones, but her neck is getting much stronger. When she’s on her stomach, she can push her whole chest off the ground. She’s also been trying to sit up. If I lean her against a pillow, she often tries to use her little baby abs to sit up. She’s also engaging with her play gym more. She tries to swat at the toys to make them make sounds and loves staring at them. 

Likes/Dislikes: She likes mornings. Every morning she’s super smiley and happy. She also likes being in the same room with us. She will start crying and whimpering if we walk out of sight, but as soon as we come back in view, she flashes one of her famous smiles. She dislikes having her nails clipped. She pretty much hates it when I mess with her hands at all (I’m constantly pulling lint out of her fingers). I think she just doesn’t like me to hold her hands still in order to cut her nails. But, man, those puppies hurt if I don’t keep them cut short.

Things I don’t want to forget: Her smile. I can’t get over how much she smiles. I get “morning smiles” every morning when she wakes up. When I pick her up from day care, she smiles at me. When I walk back into her view, she smiles at me. Those smiles just make me feel like a million bucks. Sometimes I think her face might explode because of how big she smiles. Her little eyes disappear, her mouth opens wide, and her tongue usually sticks out. It’s adorable!

Sleeping baby on her three month birthday.

Baby Girl trying to sit up. Use those baby abs! (This is Chris and my favorite sleeper of hers. We separately decided it was our favorite, and once we realized we both love it, we put her in it as much as possible. She is just so cute in it)!

Two Months

2 Months

Weight: 11lb 5oz

Height: 23 ¼ inches

Sleep: She’s still a very good sleeper at night. She usually sleeps in about 4-5 hour stretches at night, which I really appreciate. In fact, for the last 2 nights she slept for 7.5 hours straight, fed, then slept for another 2.5 hours. It’s been wonderful. She doesn’t sleep very well during the day. She has no problem falling asleep in our arms, but as soon as we put her down in her bassinet, she wakes up. She does like to sleep in her swing, so that helps me out a lot when I have to get stuff done. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE having her sleep in my arms! But I’d get nothing done if I always let her sleep like that. Our schedules are very different everyday, so it’s hard to keep the same routine everyday. I keep trying to get her to take naps in her crib, but, like the bassinet, she wakes right up. So we’ll keep trying.

Size/Diaper: She’s in 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. She fits in the 3 month sizes, but they are just a hair too big, so the 0-3 month size is perfect.

Diet: Breast milk and a little formula. She is mainly on breast milk, but my supply is a bit low. So in order to have enough breast milk to send to day care we will usually feed her a bottle of formula right before bedtime. This seems to work well and she sleeps well after getting full on formula. The doctor said she’s growing well and doesn’t need more than 4-5 ounces, so I may back off the formula assuming I have enough stored up for day care.

Baby Gear Love: I love our travel system. We have the Britax B-Agile travel system (http://www.britaxusa.com/strollers/b-agile), and it’s awesome! We did a TON of research on strollers and car seats. When we went to check out my top two choices at Babies R Us, we found this one (which wasn’t even on my radar) and fell in love. It is the lightest stroller I have found (16 pounds), folds up with one hand, and moves really well. Our two complaints are that it takes 2 hands to lay down the handle on the car seat, which we don’t do that very often, and the basket underneath is a bit small. Other than that – we love it!

Milestones/Firsts: She’s sucking on her hands. When she gets hungry and doesn’t have a pacifier, she starts sucking on her hands. She also smiles and giggles/coos a lot more often. It’s not full on giggling, but it’s getting close.

Likes/Dislikes: She loves her swing and riding in the car. For the 6 weeks or so, I didn’t really have anywhere to put her except in the bassinet. Then we bought the swing. She loves it, and mommy can put her down in a safe place. Whenever we go anywhere, she’s almost always happy in the car seat. The car ride usually lulls her to sleep, and if she is awake, she’s almost always content.

She’s not a fan of her vitamin D drops, but I can’t really blame her. It smells like black licorice, so, yeah, I wouldn’t like it either. She puts up with the taste, but she always makes a “this is yucky” face.

Things I don’t want to forget: The way she smiles at me every morning when we wake up. It’s like she’s saying, “Good morning, Mommy. I’m ready to eat!” After one of her middle of the night feedings, I was trying to put her back to sleep. She was wide-awake and all smiles. She finally settled down and closed her eyes. I was looking down smiling at her, when she opened her eyes, looked at me, smiled, then closed her eyes again and went back to sleep. It was adorable and totally made my heart happy.

 Some more favorites from month 2!

One Month

Hello All!

Since the last time we were here, I had a baby. :D I still need to go back and write her birth story, but for now, here is her one month update (a couple weeks late. Hey, I just had a baby so I'm trying to cut myself some slack). 

One Month

Weight: about 9.5 pounds

Height: about 21 inches
(She had a two week check up instead of a one month checkup, so these are just guesses based on how she's growing and my home scale
).

Sleep: She's a pretty good sleeper. She usually only wakes up 1-2 times per night, often sleeping in 4-5 hour stretches. Occasionally she'll wake up more, but she usually sleeps well.

Size/Diaper: She's in newborn diapers and clothes. When she was first born, even the 0-3 month clothes were too big. After a couple of weeks she was able to fit into some 0-3 clothes, but she's mainly in newborn. I was pretty surprised by this. She was 8lb 11oz when she was born, so I thought for sure she'd be out of the newborn stuff. Wrong.

Diet: Breast milk.

Baby Gear Love: I love my breast feeding pillow. It's called, My Brest Friend. Ha. I was using a Boppy for the first few days, but the My Brest Friend pillow wraps all the way around me and stays in place, so I like it better than the Boppy. (The Boppy is still great for laying Addi in and propping her up, I'm just not a fan of it for breastfeeding).

Milestones/Firsts: Well, pretty much everything she does is a first since, you know, she's never done ANYTHING before. Ha. But my favorite "first" is her smiling. In the beginning, she smiled when she had gas or was filling a diaper, but right around 1 month, I'm pretty sure she started smiling in response to people. Whatever the reason that causes it, I love seeing that smile!

Likes/Dislikes: She likes her pacifier. Pretty much since she was about 4 days old, she loves sucking on the paci. She has a long tongue and loves sucking, so she loves the paci. She is a pretty easy going baby, and not much bothers her. However, she doesn't like being cold after a bath (but what baby likes being cold and wet)? The bath itself doesn't bother her, just when she gets out.

Things I don't want to forget: Her tongue! She loves her tongue. The moment she was born, she had her tongue out. She sleeps with her tongue out, and she often sticks her tongue out while she's awake. In fact, she even looks a little different when her mouth is closed since it happens to rarely.

Baby Girl - Week 40

Baby Blog

How Far Along:  40 weeks – DUE DATE – let’s get this show on the road!

Maternity Clothes: Always.

Best Moment This Week: My mom came to town on Friday. It’s weird to think that she’s here for the purpose of Baby Girl’s birth. I’m so excited to have her here for the birth – now if only Baby Girl would come out!

Also, the looks on people’s faces when I told them I was due “tomorrow” made me laugh!

Gender: Girl!

Movement: Still moving around in there. Her movements are more like rolls or twists because she’s just about out of room, but I still feel her. Plus, she often gets the hiccups still.

Size and Development: Baby Girl is the size of a Jackfruit (who comes up with these foods)? Her hair and nails keep growing, and her lungs keep developing. (Read: She’s done baking, so let’s get this kid out of me)!!!

Food Cravings: Soda and ice cream – you know, really healthy foods. HA.

What I Miss: I know I’ve said it for a few weeks, but I mainly miss just feeling like myself. I’m ready to have this kid out of me so I can move and function like normal.  

Sleep: Sleep is ok. I’m always tossing and turning, but still sleeping soundly when I am asleep. Every few nights, I’ll wake up for about an hour, and it’ll take me awhile to get back to sleep. This is usually due to heartburn or having trouble breathing because my lungs are being squished.

What I am looking forward to: Meeting Baby Girl and finally revealing her name! I can’t wait to introduce her to everyone and share the name we’ve been keeping a secret for so long!

Symptoms: Lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, heartburn (mainly due to the spicy foods I’ve been eating to try to get labor going), being emotional, and fatigue.

You Know Your Pregnant When: Your husband helps you put on and tie your shoes because it’s too hard to lean over to do it yourself.

People’s mouth’s drop when you tell them you’re “due tomorrow,” because they can’t believe your walking, talking, and functioning as a normal human being.

 

Baby Girl - Week 39

 Baby Blog
(Is it me or is that bump getting a little lower? Maybe?)

How Far Along:  39 weeks – FULL TERM - anytime now!!! Now the real-hardcore-can’t take it anymore-I want to meet my baby-waiting begins. Sunday was the first time that I thought, “Yup, I’m done being pregnant.” I feel pretty good about the fact that I made it to just shy of 39 weeks before feeling that way, but it’s here and I’m ready to meet my kid! Today was my last actual shift at work. I’m still doing some work from home, but I’m officially on maternity leave as of right now! YAY!

Maternity Clothes: Yes.

Best Moment This Week: Putting the finishing touches on the nursery. We have some of our stuff still in the room that we need to move out, but other than that, it’s done! All of her stuff is set up – painted, put together, and organized. I’m sure things will change a bit or get re-arranged. But if she comes today, I’d be satisfied that her room is ready for her.

Gender: GIRL! – I sometimes have this fear, though, that the tech got it wrong, and they’re going to tell me I gave birth to a boy. I would love to have a boy one day, but we’re all ready and planning on a girl – so our ultrasound tech better have gotten it right!

Movement: Still lots of a movement. She was pretty still for a couple of days last week to the point that I almost called my doctor. But about 5 minutes before I called, she started moving a ton, so I felt much better.

Size and Development: She’s the size of a watermelon – I’d say that means she’s ready to come out! She should be about 19-21 inches long, and probably close (if not over) 8 pounds. Although her brain is still developing (and will continue to develop for a LONG time), she’s ready to live in the world outside of the womb. So, let’s get this show on the road!!!

Food Cravings: Soda. I just would love to have a soda with every meal (I don’t), but I just love the sweetness. Let’s be honest, though, I’m probably craving sweets because I keep eating sweets. If I ate veggies, I’d probably start to crave veggies.

What I Miss: Good, non-restless sleep. I know that this isn’t really go to change much in the near future. But I’m at least hoping that once I have the baby, when I’m sleeping, I will actually be sleeping instead of tossing and turning for the majority of the night.

Sleep: Sleep is ok, but not as good as it was. It really depends on the night. Some nights I get good sleep, and others I don’t. I usually toss and turn every night to get comfortable, but some nights I lay awake for about an hour or so in the middle of the night and then eventually go back to sleep. Last night, however, I woke up at 5am and couldn’t go back to sleep. After fighting it for almost an hour, I finally got up at about 5:40 because I was so hungry. My hips are starting to ache again when I sleep, so that’s part of the problem.

What I am looking forward to: Meeting this Little Girl of ours. I’m just so stinking excited to see what she looks like, get to know her personality, and just hold her in my arms!

Symptoms: Tiredness, achiness, a giant protruding belly, hips hurting at night, restless sleep, minor swelling, and people looking at me with surprised looks on their faces saying, “You haven’t had that baby yet?!” Ha. It actually doesn’t really bother me that they say it; the looks on their faces are just funny. About a week ago (around 38 weeks), I had someone ask, “You sure you’re not having twins.” I responded politely with an, “I’m sure.” But in my head I thought, “Yes, I’m sure, but thanks for pointing out that, at 38 weeks, I not only look like I’m ready to pop but that it looks like there should be more than one child stuffed in my belly. I appreciate it.”

You Know You’re Pregnant When: Your feet swell up like a balloon from standing for just a few short hours. People ask, “You haven’t had that baby yet?!” on a regular basis. You feel like a grandma when you just want to go to bed at 8pm – on a Friday.