Nine Weeks Old!

Weight: My best guess is around nine and a half pounds. When I did my nifty scale trick yesterday, I first got that she was nine and a half pounds, and when I did it a second time, it said 10 pounds... so I'm guessing we're around nine and a half, up from almost nine pounds last Monday at her two month check up.

Sleep: Remember how I was all bragging up my baby and my mad parenting skills last week because I thought I'd had Little Miss all figured out? Well, God sure knows how to humble a lady, because we have no sleep schedule at the moment! This last week, her daytime snoozin' has been erratic, to say the least. The most I'd been getting out of her for naps was 30 minutes... 30 minutes! So we went from three hours naps last week, to half hour naps this week. Sheesh!

Which wouldn't be a problem, if she were happy when she woke up.

But she's not.

More on that later.

Anyway, luckily, I've  been keeping a little journal for her since last week, and I noticed a trend. When I stop paying attention to her "sleep cues" (or encourage her to stay up a little longer, even after I notice the yawns, because I don't think she can possibly be tired yet!), she has crummy naps. However, when I am mindful of those little yawns, she naps like a dream (i.e. today... yay me!). It seems baby girl has trouble staying up for longer than an hour and a half at a time, because after that, she gets cranky. And I think overtired -- because when I consulted my friend, Dr. Google, about crummy baby naps, "he" shared with me that if a baby is overtired, they won't sleep long enough to come out of being overtired -- does that make sense? Well anyway, I decided to go with this and with what my little sleep diary was telling me, and whaddya know? Today, she's sleeping like a champ for naps. She took a one-hour nap this morning (after sleeping in until 9:20... whoa!) and is going on two and a half hours for her afternoon nap. Wowza. Let's hope my revelation is for real, and I'm not just getting lucky today :)

Her nighttime sleeping generally remains the same, with a four hour stint in the beginning, and then another three hour stretch, and finally another two or three hours after that. She and I did have a few mornings where we battled from 3:30 to 4:30, but that seems to have passed.

The big question I'm struggling with at this point is: When should she honestly be putting herself to sleep/self soothing? And how do we do that? I'm having slight panic attacks of letting her "cry it out", but maybe that's how it goes? Help, mommas!

Medical Issues: We're still using gas drops after each feeding, except in the overnight hours. I did introduce Gripe Water one evening this week because her gas issues seemed to be bothering her.

Clothes: Newborn items are still our friend, and still working on growing into a few things. Still haven't outgrown much, but our pants are starting to get a little short! So we might have to start wearing our 0 to 3 month pants because of that. We'll see.

Socialite!: Lucky babe got to meet some of our college friends over the weekend at a wedding in the Twin Cities! They loved her, and she equally loved them ;) It was so fun to see some of those faces again. I love friendships that don't change, no matter the time or miles that separate you.

But this is about her, not me, so enough about that.

Lucky girl also got to meet a dear friend of mine and her daughter yesterday. They stopped by to visit on their way from Fargo to the Outlet Mall in Albertville. We had a short but sweet visit and they got to snuggle Lizzie Bear all up :)


Diet: Milk -- still nursing exclusively.

Baby Gear Love: Still loving our Sleep Sheep and SwaddleMe swaddlers. She's also taken a real liking to her Snuggabunny Swing. She loves looking up at the little birds that rotate around while she rides in it. It is so sweet to watch :)

Crying: As mentioned previously, sleep has become an issue again simply because poor sweet baby isn't a happy girl when she wakes up from one of her cat naps. She wakes up crying, and she doesn't hardly stop long enough for us to enjoy her -- which makes me feel  bad because she's not getting fun interaction, but instead some bouncing or some "shhh"ing in her ear (I promise we're not mean... just read Happiest Baby on the Block and you'll get it) just to keep her from crying. When she does get enough sleep, she's a complete dream boat and full of smiles and coos. She is a sweet, sweet, sweet baby! But everyone needs good sleep to be in a happy mood, including this little one!

Mommy News: If you haven't noticed by photos of my little lady, I have a slight obsession with headbands for her. I've invested a fair amount of money in them, thanks to Etsy and VeryJane, and I've decided that's foolish. I mean, really -- how tough is it to make a cute headband, especially with Pinterest tutorials galore? So gone are the days of paying for headbands, because I'm opening up my very own sweatshop in my very own living room, with myself as the sole worker. Now let's hope I can find the time to finish a few :)

Also: the baby clothes obsession continues. BabyGap, stop making cute clothes already!

Milestones: The smiles and coos just keep coming and keep getting sweeter and sweeter! Yesterday I was singing to her, and she joined in and "sang" along :) It was so. Darn. Cute!

Eight Weeks Old!

 Weight: Baby girl is officially eight pounds, fourteen ounces... so not quite breaking that nine pound mark yet. I seriously look at my sweet girl multiple times a day and honestly wonder, "people push out babies your size or larger? How?!" It's hard to imagine having a newborn the size of my two-month old!

Sleep: Lizzie girl is starting to fall into more of a routine now, which has been awesome. I don't want to brag (mostly because she'll probably end up falling out of this routine next week or something and then I'll feel like a fool!), but I've made some changes after seeing her doctor on Monday and also after reading The Happiest Baby Guide to Sleep by Dr. Harvey Karp (read it? You must if you're a mommy or mommy-to-be of an infant!) and I really think it's made some amazing changes around our house. More on that later. Anyway, back to sleep: she wakes around eight, eats and "plays" with me for about an hour and a half, and then goes down for a nap that lasts a couple of hours. She wakes again to eat and play for another hour to hour and a half, and then goes back down for a nap for a couple of hours. Basically, long story short: this routine pretty much goes on the entire day, with her naps becoming shorter and her awake time becomes longer as we get into the evening/nighttime hours. She's still sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed at night, and tends to sleep her usual: four hours for her first stretch, three hours for the next, and another three hours or so after that. This provides me with plenty of time to get in a full eight hours :)

I should also mention that when we saw her doctor on Monday, I inquired about when she should be "putting herself to sleep". He said it really should start happening soon, and that we should think about putting her in her crib when she's drowsy and allowing her to cry for a little bit before rescuing her, to see if she will start to put herself to sleep. Now, I knew I wasn't totally ready for that yet. I mean, she's still my baby! But I know he's right. So I picked up that Happiest Baby book I mentioned earlier that I had gotten at the library a couple of weeks ago and read half of it in a couple of days and learned a lot about how to get your baby to be "good" at that skill. So for the past four days, I've been getting Lizzie to sleep, then putting her in her crib, allowing her (or causing her) to wake up just a teensy bit, and then shaking the crib just a bit to soothe her back to sleep. I should also mention that I purchased a "Sleep Sheep" to help with adding white noise, which also helps her stay in a deep sleep. Anyway, the purpose of this rigamarole is that when she wakes up that teensy bit, she has to put herself back to sleep on her own... and though it was tough for her to do the first few days (and we had to repeat the process four or five times in a row with me picking her up and soothing her in between before obtaining success...), she's got a report card of 100% today as far as putting herself to sleep goes. Now, we haven't done the whole, set her down while awake but drowsy and walk out of the room yet, but that will come. Baby steps :)

Medical Issues: We've been talking about gas troubles the last few weeks and I'm hoping we've figured out how to curb them. After hearing and feeling little gas bubbles in her tummy and having a cranky baby, we decided to try out gas drops. Every time baby eats (except when I feed her at night since it would be too much fumbling around), I give her a little dose. Though they don't work for everyone, I do think they are helping her a lot. We don't feel or hear those gas bubbles as much now, and she's getting rid of gas in a much less painful manner (we can easily tell by how she no longer struggles and turns red... so sad!). We did also buy "Gripe Water" but haven't used it yet because of the success with the gas drops.

We also had our two-month shots on Monday :( It was definitely the most heartbreaking moment of mommyhood yet! I read somewhere that you should talk to your baby before they give shots because it distracts them, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. Here I was, giving her smiles and talking sweet to her, and then BAM! Stabbed in the thighs times two, plus one more to back it up! Poor baby girl's face at the moment of impact is a face I hope she never has to make again... and that poor little silent cry! AH! Burned into mommy's memory. So it was sad, and there were tears from both of Andy's girls after Lizzie got her shots. But I fed her right afterward, gave her some tylenol four hours after the shots (our clinic's recommendation) because her legs were definitely sensitive and baby girl was wimpery, and she slept a good seven hours (save when I woke her to eat)... and when I woke her around seven that night to eat, my sweet girl was back to normal! We got lots and lots of smiles and had one happy sweet baby on our hands :) We survived two-month shots... hooray!

Clothes: Still hanging out in our newborn items. We haven't outgrown much of anything yet (just those coming-home-from-the-hospital jammies :( ), but we're still too little to get into our 0 to 3 month jammies... they are huge on us! Poor girl just swims in them! Maybe in a few weeks.

Socialite!: The Fourth of July was this last week, so sweet girl got lots of socializing in. She got to meet some cousins of mine that she hasn't met before and got lots of snuggles from everyone. My best friend from high school also made her way through town on Saturday, so Lizzie was lucky enough to spend some time and get some cuddles from her, too! And I mention this every week, but the girls at the YMCA drop-in childcare continue to be her biggest fans! They love when she has her eyes open when I drop her off so they can talk to her and snuggle her, too!

Diet: Milk -- still nursing exclusively.

Baby Gear Love: So many new things! We are back to loving our SwaddleMe blankets because that's what Dr. Harvey Karp (author of my new favorite book that I've mentioned three times now!) recommends to help baby sleep longer. My ultimate favorite, however, is our new Sleep Sheep. Love it! We had it on our registry but didn't receive it, and since it was $20 and didn't seem like a necessity, I opted not to pick it up until now. However, Dr. Harvey Karp (again!) recommended white noise to help soothe baby and also help her sleep longer -- so I knew just what to get to help us in that category! Plus I'd read other, very positive, parent reviews on a lot of blogs I read about Sleep Sheep. Anyway, he's become our new best friend and is always on the "rain" setting. (Sidenote: we got the Travel Sleep Sheep, as our Target didn't carry the full-size version. Full-size has a sound setting for "Mother's Heartbeat", while the travel version replaces that with whale sounds? Whatever. Anyway, I would have preferred full-size, but it's not that big of a deal. My only complaint about our Sleep Sheep is that it has a 23 or 45-minute automatic timer, which means it switches off after that. I'm not a big fan of this, as I'd like the option for it to be continuous for naptime. At night we have a fan going to still offer some white noise, but during naptime otherwise it's quiet. Anyway, that's my quick review of our Travel Sleep Sheep).

Crying: After a couple of rough weeks of a crying baby in the evening hours and Lizzie's doctor confirming that she does, indeed, have colic (I was definitely in denial!), I decided we needed to make some changes. I had already purchased gas drops (love them!) and Gripe Water (which we have yet to use) the day before her appointment, but afterward is when I picked up Sleep Sheep and started reading my new favorite book. Her doctor also suggested that maybe she's getting too overstimulated (I'll get to a revelation about this in "Mommy News"). So anyway, like I said, we made some changes... and, my friends, these changes have made a world of a difference! We have a totally different baby living in our house this week! Let me explain...

I'd been in denial about what a yawn from my sweet baby meant. I assumed that, like adults, babies sometimes yawn randomly throughout the day. Doesn't mean we need naps necessarily. But, go figure, if a baby yawns, that's one sign (amongst a few) that he or she is tired. Duh, mommy. So that was my first revelation: if she's yawning, put her down for a nap. This has made a huge difference. Instead of bouncing baby on my lap, singing her happy songs and pulling out toys to make her "happy" (and, ironically, just making her more angry!), I swaddle her up, turn on Sleep Sheep, sing some lullabies and rock her until she's asleep (which isn't long because she's yawning because she's tired. Duh, again!). Then when she wakes, she's rejuvenated and much happier... so I get smiles and love when she's awake rather than wails and cries! Love it! I think I just didn't think she could possibly be tired again for a nap, so I wouldn't put her to sleep... and they say that by the time your baby's eyelids start to droop, if you're not in the process of putting them to sleep, you've pushed them too far. So I'm learning to watch for her "tired" signs.

Our nighttime hours are a little more tricky, as I don't want to put her down for a nap at 8:00 at night, nor do I want to put her down to sleep for the night just yet. However, her doctor pointed out that maybe one reason she's crying at night could be because she's demanding to cluster feed (basically "stocking up" her tummy with milk so she can sleep longer). So I've been more sensitive to that and offering her opportunities to eat, and that seems to help. However the crying has been a lot better at night now, so we haven't had to worry about it as much.

So anyway, here're my theories: One: the gas drops have helped alleviate some gas pain and we now have a happier baby! Two: I've stopped "training" my baby and stopped overwhelming her with toys and play gyms and nursery rhymes and now we have a happier baby! Three: She was overtired before, and now I'm letting her sleep and so now we have a happier baby! Or four: a combination of all of the above.

I'm voting reason four :)

Mommy News: As I mentioned, my doctor said Lizzie could be getting overstimulated throughout the day. He also explained that it seems like I'm "training" my baby. Ha! We all got a good chuckle out of that :) Because I feel like it's true! But here's why: I've read a lot of parenting books and so many of them say that every moment your baby is awake is your opportunity to shape them and help them learn and grow... so I've felt like I need to constantly be entertaining her, or trying to get her to track a toy with her eyes, or to try to get her to coo more and smile more and to make sure she feels wanted and loved by my being in her face and smiling at her. Now, I realize, that's not true. Babies can have some downtime... in fact, they need some downtime where Mom isn't throwing an annoying, hot pink, jingling butterfly is their face (a common occurrence in our house prior to this week...)! So I've stepped back and tried to give her a little space. And I truly feel like this has helped her to be happier and less stimulated as well. I think I just want her to be on-track developmentally and I worry that she won't be if I'm not doing those things. But, again, she needs that time when she's not being bombarded with songs and toys. Live and learn, friends... live and learn.

Aside from that, with our newfound napping schedule during the day and the swaddle + Sleep Sheep combination, I've found myself with a whole lot more free-time... which means I've been taking a baby monitor out on my deck and reading books in the sunshine :) At first I was engrossed in The Happiest Baby Guide to Sleep (new favorite, remember? How annoyed are you by this yet? Ha!), but I've since moved on. Now I'm reading a book called Summer's Child by Diane Chamberlain. Seriously, if you're not usually a reader (or if you are!), read The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain and you'll be hooked on this author. She. Is. Awesome. Anyway, the point is, I've been really enjoying having the opportunity to read again and the opportunity to enjoy the sunshine as well.

Milestones: We survived our two-month shots... yay!

LOTS of smiles this week :) LOVE it! I swear there was even a giggle today... :)

Seven Weeks Old!

Weight: This week I'm guessing around nine pounds, but we'll find out for sure at her two-month (what?!) appointment on Monday.

Sleep: Baby girl is evening out her nighttime sleep pattern a little for me. It's pretty much routine now that she sleeps in two, four-hour chunks now, and then goes back to sleep one more time for a couple of hours before waking up for the day (which ends up being around eight or nine o'clock), which I'm really happy with. I don't feel short on sleep in the least.

In the daytime hours, she's more up in the air -- which is fine, because it really doesn't matter or affect much. This week, she tended to wake around eight and then not nap again until around noon -- which really surprises me! She's got a lot of steam after her 10 or so hours of sleep overnight! She'll then fall asleep and pretty much stay napping until around five, just waking to eat once in that five hour time frame before falling back to sleep. Once she wakes at five, all bets are off! A few nights this week, she stayed up all evening until 10 or so. Some nights, she cat naps a few times for 15-30 minutes and then wakes up again. She's been falling asleep for good around 9:30 or 10 each night, so we try to get her in her jammies and in a fresh diaper as soon as we see her getting drowsy. That way, we don't have to wake her at the risk of having her end up feeling refreshed and energized enough to stay up another two hours :)

Medical Issues: She still seems to have some gas trouble some days, but not always. We'll visit with her doctor about it on Monday and see what he thinks. I guess I don't feel that it's a major issue, but when she's in the middle of feeling sad about it, I do start to feel like it is a major issue. Does that make sense? Basically, I'm finicky because I don't like hearing my baby cry :(

Clothes:Newborn clothes continue to be our friend at this point! Still working on getting into some of our bigger newborn sizes. She is, however, starting to outgrow her newborn jammies because she's getting too long for them. Unfortunately, her 0 to 3 month jams are way too big! Guess we might end up having to swim in our 0 to 3 months for a little while if the newborns get much more uncomfortable!

Socialite!: We made our usual stops this week: hung out at the Y at the drop-in childcare, where she continues to be a well-behaved little lady; went to watch the Bachelorette with Grandma and Auntie Jenny on Monday night; baby girl even took in her first-ever Vikingland Band Festival on Sunday! Lizzie also met her Great Grandma Janice for the first time a couple of weekends ago, and Great Grandpa Jack came to see Lizzie again too. Lizzie also ventured to my Old Navy store last Saturday and met a few of my co-workers there. She also met some more family members on my side of the family at a surprise birthday party for my great aunt.

Diet: Milk -- still nursing exclusively, not using bottles.

Baby Gear Love: Something I realized that I've never mentioned is our stroller! We were so lucky to receive it as a gift from my brother and sister-in-law, who needed a double stroller with their new addition who arrived in early June. It's the Contours Options stroller, and we love it! Baby girl and I take walks every single day in it, and half of the days during the week, we also take a walk in the evening with Daddy. The stroller pushes so nicely and so smooth. It's definitely getting lots of use!

Crying: Oofsch. I'm afraid, my friends, that our time on cloud nine, has ceased. Though Lizzie girl is a dream during the daytime hours, right around 6:30 every night her fussy time kicks in to high gear. It typically lasts until 8:30 and consists of us doing every trick in the book until she's tired of each one, and then starting over with them again. I'm not so sure that it's colic really, because it's not a constant cry that can't be calmed. This girl can be calmed... she just wants you to change up the routine every three to five minutes! And if you don't, she'll let you know. Anyway, I would say we're in about week two of this new change. My mom says it might last three or four weeks... so I figure we've got another two ahead of us! Slowly we're learning some strategies that seem to last for longer than three minutes -- she really likes to have her legs pedaled while singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and also likes to be set up really high on our shoulder. The second one I like, because sometimes I feel guilty that she's not getting any tummy time in the evenings since she's fussy, so this kind of serves as tummy time because she has to hold her own head up like that.

Mommy News: I taught my first Pilates class at the Y this week since going on leave, and it was great! I think everyone who attended was surprised that it was Pilates because the people who filled in for me taught yoga during that time -- so I'm not sure how they felt about it being switched on them, but hopefully they enjoyed and hopefully they'll return in the coming weeks.

Lizzie's fussiness at night gives me all kinds of mommy guilt. I feel guilty that we're not playing with her while she fusses because we're just trying to keep her happy during this time frame. I feel guilty and afraid that people will think she's a naughty girl because she cries, when really, she's not naughty! I promise! I feel guilty because I think she's crying because she feels like we don't love her and aren't doing what she needs. I know this isn't true, because I've read lots of books about "the witching hour" when babies get fussy at night, but the thought still sneaks in there.

Mommy is also having a very hard time not buying this little girl skinny jeans. Ah! It's like a disease! So far, she's got four pair waiting for her when she's in 3 to 6 month clothes. Let's hope I can be strong from here on out...

Milestones: More smiles this week! They're slowly coming, more and more often :) But just when we think we've figured out how to get a smile every time, she decides that particular thing we were doing just isn't all that funny or fabulous anymore. Dang! So we try new things and get more smiles... the work to figure it out is totally worth the reward! We can't wait to see more of them and to hear some giggles!

Baby girl also spoke in a sentence this week while we were on a walk one night! Okay, so maybe her sentence was made up of baby oohs and aahs, but still. It was so cute!

I also put her in her bassinet in a sitting up position (propped against the walls, of course!) and she stayed there for probably 15 seconds! I was impressed, and promptly took a picture to send to Daddy at work, who was even more astounded than me!

On a sad milestone note, I think we've almost outgrown the jammies we wore home from the hospital :( Sad day for Mommy!

Six Weeks Old!

Weight: If you recall, I was estimating last week that she was weighing in between eight and eight and a half pounds. Well, after an unplanned trip to see Lizzie's doctor last week, we learned that she is eight pounds, three and a half ounces. Which means she gained another 18 ounces in two weeks :) She is now at the 12th percentile for weight, up from the second percentile when she was born. My goal isn't necessarily to have her "gaining" in percentile level, but rather to at least stay steady at whatever percentile she's at, if that makes sense. Therefore, I'm a happy momma to see my baby holding steady and then some :)

Sleep: This little one doesn't look like she'll be letting me sleep through the night for quite some time. She's holding steady to her typical pattern, which is a solid three or four hours when she first goes down at night, and then waking every two hours or so after that. We did have one night this week where she was waking one or two hours (without any four-hour time frame of sleep). I was wondering if she was having a growth spurt after that night, but I haven't seen much for other examples of growth spurt after that. She has started to sleep less during the day, though -- she now has nice, long awake periods each afternoon and evening, probably about three or four hours worth each.

Medical Issues: I mentioned last week that baby girl might be battling some gas issues. We had kind of a scary last Thursday (well, scary for me, anyway). She woke up and ate, but not well, and immediately following, began crying hard. This made me think she probably wasn't feeling good after eating, as she typically is so content when she has a full tummy. Poor sweet baby continued to cry for the next 45 minutes straight, which is extremely unlike my little girl. I'd never seen her act that way! Her whole body would go rigid and stiff, and she'd grab onto me with both little hands as hard as she could and just cry. Completely broke my heart. So I called her doctor, and they suggested she come in later in the afternoon. She did finally give in and go to sleep around 11:00 for a nap, which I was glad for because she finally seemed comfortable again. However, she slept for the next four and a half hours straight. Even when I put her down on the floor without being wrapped in a blanket, she slept. Even while I changed her diaper, she slept. And when she would wake, her little eyes would just open, blink a couple of times, and go shut again. At that point, I became very concerned. She had only eaten once since her poor feeding right away that morning, and that second feeding wasn't much better than her first. Typically, she wants to eat every two hours. I was worried there was something bigger going on, so I took her temperature -- normal. I walked around the house with her like a zombie, worried out of my mind. When it was finally time to go in for her appointment, I cried on the way into town. I was already planning what I would eat for supper in the hospital when they admitted her for the night (I'm obviously extremely dramatic). When we finally saw her doctor, she had just woken up (which happened as the result of her having to be stripped down to just a diaper to be weighed) and he did her little check-up. And whaddya know? She looked perfect. He listened to her tummy and thought there were a lot of noises in there (meaning, I assume, gas), but other than that, all was well. I asked about her sleepiness and lack of appetite for the day, and he said that was likely due to her "stressful" morning when she had tummy troubles for an extended period of time. She was just sleeping off the stress, I guess. So I took baby girl home, where she continued to sleep for three more hours. I was just starting to get worried again when I heard her little cry coming from her bedroom... a sound I've never been so happy to hear! Sweet girl was back to her normal self by that evening, and momma was a happy lady.
Clothes: Still sportin' the newborn sizes and have yet to grow out of anything, but are beginning to grow into more and more of our "bigger" newborn stuff.
Socialite!: Lizzie girl visited lots of family in Fargo this weekend for her cousin's baptism. She enjoyed being held by some family members she hadn't seen in a few weeks and was a fabulous travel companion, as per usual. She's also started to hang out with other kiddos at the Y when I go to group exercise classes. So far, she seems to be a popular lady amongst the two-year-olds -- because, let's face it: what toddler doesn't love a new baby? And the workers there seem to like her too, mostly because she wears cute headbands, has lots of hair, and does nothing but sleeps while she's there... so she's sweet to look at and easy to take care of :) Nothing better, right?

Diet: Milk, as usual. Still nursing exclusively.

Baby Gear Love: I'm going to be lame this week and say her crib and rocking chair. I'm loving her crib, because she takes such long naps in there, which I think is awesome when it comes to getting things around the house done. Earlier this week, she slept for two hours while I made supper and Andy and I ate supper. It was genuinely shocking at how much I'd forgotten what it was like to hang out with my husband as just the two of us. It was nice... but it was also nice when she woke up :) I'm also loving her rocking chair. She loves a good rock combined with lullabies. I've been singing many of the same lullabies now as I did to her when she was in the womb. I was especially fond of "You Are My Sunshine" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" while she was still in my tummy, and those two seem to be the  most soothing to her. Isn't that so cool?

Crying: I've realized that "crying" is different from "complaining" when it comes to babies. She doesn't do a lot of crying, but she will "talk" in a complaining tone, if that makes sense. Anyway, that being said... her crying still remains to be very much under control. She doesn't cry too often, and when she does, we can remedy it quite quickly. Sometimes all she needs is a good snuggle... to which we're happy to oblige :)

Mommy News: This week, I returned to the Y as a group exercise class goer. I've gone to a few yoga classes and one Zumba class (no more Zumba in my living room... hurrah!) and have really enjoyed them. What I enjoy even more is the drop-in childcare offered to members and the fact that she's so close by, and if something goes wrong or if she needs me, the workers know where I am (you write down your work-out plans in the sign-in book) and can come and get me.

Sidenote: seriously, Zumba is maybe the most fun thing I do in the week. So much fun!

Anyway, I will start teaching my pilates class again next week, which I'm excited for. I've missed it!

In other mommy news: I cut my hair! I think my hair stylist probably took off five inches or so... but I needed it! My hair was getting so heavy (I have very thick hair) and just needed a change. So I went for an inverted bob that can still be put into a (teensy tiny) ponytail.

Milestones: The smiles are continuing to make a gradual appearance. So excited to see them regularly and to hear those little giggles, too! We're also hearing more and more "talking" from her... we love hearing her little voice!

Lizzie has officially figured out how to roll from her tummy to her back. She's been rolling like that since she was six days old, but as of last week, it's very apparent that she knows how to do it. When we put her on her tummy, she'll just decide she's had enough and roll over to her back. It's hilarious :)

Another milestone? She made mommy realize it would be best to bring a change of pants when going somewhere. And not a change of pants for Lizzie -- but for me. When we were at my nephew's baptism last Sunday, Lizzie got hungry about 15 minutes into mass. Andy gave me a diaper and wipes on my way out to change her with as well. When we got into the gathering place, I sat down in one of the chairs and put on my nursing cover-up and put baby girl in my lap. Now, she's been wearing size-one diapers since she is up to eight pounds (newborn diapers go from six to eight pounds, size ones go from eight to 14 (or 16?) pounds), but they have seemed to be a little big for her, but we hadn't had any mishaps with them, so I didn't think much of it. Anyway, when I sat down in the chair, she must have peed simultaneously... and unfortunately, since her diaper was a bit big, the leg holes weren't tight against her little legs (I'm sure you can see where this is going) and I felt something warm in my groin area. I thought it was odd that she felt so warm (I assumed at first that it was due to a very full diaper that needed changing), but then I realized that I recalled that same warm sensation from my early childhood years. Unfortunately, it was the feeling of peeing one's pants... no, not me peeing my pants, but Lizzie peeing and it coming out of her diaper and onto my lap. Because I was sitting down in a leather chair, the pee ended up not just going on the front of my crotch, but also up the back of my pants. So it completely looked like I had peed my own pants. Great. I made my way to the bathroom as discreetly as I could, hoping to find a hand drier... no luck. So instead, I didn't end up going back into mass and stood near a window and a heater vent, hoping that both would help my pants dry out. Which they did, without any staining... but not before mass was over. Anyway, I learned a couple valuable lessons: bring an extra pair of pants, and always dress your child in a diaper that fits.

Ah, the life of mommyhood :) I wouldn't trade it for anything -- peepants and all.

Five Weeks Old!

Our fifth week with little Lizzie included some smiles and Daddy's first Father's Day. It was, of course, extraordinarily wonderful :)

Weight: As of two weeks ago, Lizzie was seven pounds, one and a half ounces. I spent the next week speculating what she might be, and I was guessing maybe around seven and a half pounds. I mean, she can't keep up the pace of gaining 18 ounces in 13 days, right? Well, I might be wrong. When we stepped on the scale without and then with her the other night, she clocked in at eight and a half pounds... say what?! Now, there's certainly room for error, because our scale isn't all that precise, but... I'd say there's a good chance she's pushing eight and a half anyway. Which means she's gained another 18 ounces (at least) in 14 days. This girl is a machine!

Sleep: Lizzie is still giving me three or four hours of sleep in our first stretch at night, followed up by two-hour chunks. Some nights when I get lucky, she'll sleep for two four-hour stretches, but that doesn't happen too often. However, I can't complain much: baby girl wakes up, eats for five to 10 minutes, and then goes back to sleep right away -- so it's not that bad. Plus, mommy gets some middle-of-the-night snuggles :) I kind of love that quiet time. Just the two of us, when the rest of the world is completely quiet and I can tell her how much she's loved. She's my girl.


During the day, she still sleeps most of the time. She has a few two-hour "awake" periods throughout the day, usually falling in the morning when we get up, in the later afternoon and before we go to bed.


Medical Issues: I have a hunch that my sweet baby might be battling some gas issues... she can tend to get fussy in the middle of and/or after feedings sometimes, and also will wake up from a dead sleep and let out a painful cry, and then go back to sleep. These both can potentially signal a gas problem, but who knows. Hopefully we'll get it figured out soon. For now it doesn't seem to be too earth shattering, but I'd like to resolve it sooner, rather than later, if it is an issue for her.

Clothes: We're still in our newborn clothes. Have yet to grow out of anything, and still have lots to grow into! We did get to break out a cute dress last Saturday for a wedding of a coworker of mine :)

Socialite!: The glamorous life of Lizzie continues! As I just mentioned, we attended a wedding of another teacher from my school over the weekend. Lizzie got to hang out with lots of wonderful friends of mine and we got to enjoy good conversations and lots of laughter :) Strangers continue to love on her, as she still appears to be a newborn even though she is five weeks old.

Diet: Milk, of course, Nursing exclusively, though I should probably take out a bottle so she at least gets exposed to it for when the school year starts.

Baby Gear Love: This week I've become a huge fan of my Moby wrap! A sweet friend on Facebook directed me to the newborn hold, and since Lizzie is now (an estimated) eight pounds or more, I felt comfortable using it -- and let me tell you, it's awesome. I now have two free hands again! I can cut pineapple, make lunch, fold clothes, empty the dishwasher, (the list goes on!) all while keeping Lizzie happy, close and comfy :) Both Mom and Lizzie are big fans. It also lends itself to dancing in the kitchen to Taylor Swift comfortably, which both Mom and Lizzie are big fans of as well :)

Crying: She's had a few fussy times, but usually those have been due to Mom and Dad's silliness. You know, when you look at each other after she's been crying for ten minutes and say, "maybe we should check her diaper..." -- and lo and behold, it's dirty! And once it's changed, viola! Like magic, she's back to her happy self. So we're learning! Check all the obvious things first. When those don't work, she loves being sung to and rocking in her rocking chair while snuggled in a blanket -- and, I'll admit, I don't hate those activities ;)

Mommy News: This mommy is learning how to "let go" just a teensy bit. And by that, I mean I'm starting to allow Lizzie to sleep in her crib for naps rather than holding her. While talking with my mom about when babies should start to fall asleep on their own, she suggested I start laying Lizzie in her crib for one nap a day so she gets used to it and being in her room. Right now, Lizzie sleeps in a bassinet next to our bed, and I tend to hold her while she naps during the day (newborns are just so sweet, how can you not!?). So even though it was ridiculously hard, I did the impossible and laid my sweet baby in her crib when she fell asleep a few afternoons ago. And although I was reluctant to leave the room, I did... and you know what? It was actually kind of nice. I cleaned the house while she rested peacefully. Granted, I was definitely in her room every five minutes to check on her, but still. I let her sleep until she woke up. And then I got to run in and look like the hero when she cried upon waking :)

As mentioned last week, I started doing yoga again and am also trying to do some more "active" things (i.e. Zumba in my living room... HA! Please don't drive down my street and peek in my windows. I'd be horribly embarrassed!) a few times a week. I'll likely go back to teaching yoga/pilates in the coming weeks, too.

Milestones: Last Saturday morning when Lizzie woke, I picked her up and said, "hello!" in that mommy-way, and she gave me a great, big, gummy grin :) Her first smile without me having to act like a fool! Unfortunately, it seems she's a tough cookie, and has been holding out on smiling much more than that. We've seen maybe one smile a day since then that we've been able to elicit... but it's coming!

She also found her hands and will suck on her fist, and sometimes her thumb :) It is so cute!

Lizzie is also getting much stronger in her neck! She can hold it up for longer, and last night she was even up on her elbows  and had her shoulders lifted, too! It was awesome. I also think she's starting to roll on purpose from her front to her back. It's amazing to watch her figure it out and take the steps she needs to roll from front to back :)

Four Weeks Old!

We are officially one month old as of today! My baby girl is looking older and older all the time. The theme of her fourth week was definitely traveling far from home on some fun adventures :) Daddy's first Father's Day is coming up on Sunday, and Lizzie is ready to par-tay!

Weight: Proud momma right here! Lizzie and I went in to the clinic last Thursday for a simple weight check, to make sure she's getting enough to eat and is, in turn, gaining weight appropriately. My sweet baby continues to be an over achiever in the weight department, because she gained 18 ounces in 13 days... woohoo! We are now seven pounds, one and a half ounces!

Sleep: Lizzie has given up her middle-of-the-night alert hours this last week, which I can't complain about :) She tends to sleep for four solid hours for the first part of the night, and then wakes up once every one and a half to two hours to eat and goes right back to sleep. This is typically her nighttime schedule, although we've had a couple of nights where she's let me get two four-hour chunks of sleep instead. Those are mommy's favorite nights :) Although, I do have to say, that I'm not bothered by her waking every hour and a half to two hours. I know this might not last a whole lot longer, so I try to enjoy it as much I can. So I get in my snuggles and gaze at her sweet little face in the dim light and say some pretty hefty "thank yous" to the Big Guy upstairs for giving me this wonderful reason to be awake at three o'clock in the morning.

She's not a big fan of being swaddled while she's awake, but if she's not swaddled, she doesn't sleep... so I try to wait to swaddle her until she's extremely drowsy. She still fights it, but she gives in to mommy's lullabies and falls asleep shortly thereafter.

On Sunday morning, we had a slight sleep hiccup that I'll take responsibility for. I didn't change her diaper earlier in the night (er, early morning) when she woke up to eat because she didn't feel wet and didn't smell much, but then she woke up pretty sad at 4:45 in the morning. As it turns out, she had a slight blow-out... which could possibly be attributed to a very full diaper since I didn't change it a couple hours before. This meant we needed not only a new diaper, but new jammies and a new sheet in her bassinet as well. All of this commotion resulted in a very alert baby who didn't feel like snoozing again until 7:00 that morning :) Unfortunately, the alarm rings at 8:00 on Sundays now for mass since I have a little one to have prepped and ready to go by 9:40. Luckily, my husband is a stand-up guy and took his turn with Lizzie at 6:30 so I could get a little more sleep.

Clothes: Still hanging out in all of our newborn things! Nothing is too small yet, and we still have lots of newborn things that are still too big!

Socialite!: Ah, the life of a social butterfly! Lizzie is still buzzing around and hanging out with lots of fun people. I mentioned last week that we were waiting for the arrival of our new nephew, who was supposed to be due right around the time we were due. Well, Michael Patrick arrived a couple of days ahead of schedule (and was 10 1/2 ounces heavier than Lizzie!), so we had to go meet sweet baby Michael Patrick on Saturday. Lizzie did a fabulous job riding to and from Fargo and only had a few tears on the way home. While in Fargo, we got to hang out with Auntie Desiree, Uncle Jake, cousins Brayden, Noah and Mykenna, and Uncle Josh, Auntie Tracy and cousins Rachel and (brand new!) Michael. Michael and Lizzie bonded over being almost the exact same size, swapped stories about womb life, and even held hands (that one actually did happen... it was ridiculously sweet)!

And those strangers are still loving our little girl :) I think it's because she's so tiny, so at four weeks, she's still looking like a newborn... and apparently people love newborns.

Diet: Milk! Still has a good appetite.

Baby Gear Love: Our new favorite swaddlers are the "SwaddleMe" sacks, which I bought in St. Cloud at their Target yesterday. They're pretty awesome, as they help out moms and dads of babies who don't care much for being swaddled but still need to be. They have velcro on them and make swaddling extremely simple. We tried them out for the first time last night and they're keepers!

Crying: The crying still remains pretty easy to solve by either changing a diaper, feeding, or snuggling her. She's a pretty sweet baby girl!

Mommy News: This momma remains on cloud nine. I am loving every single day with my sweet girl! I didn't go through a "transition" time, really -- I was ready to have the role of "mommy" and have embraced every aspect and tried to appreciate every moment. I look at Lizzie now and can honestly hardly remember being pregnant at this point -- it's still so surreal to me that she came out of me and had been living in my tummy! God is so amazing. Babies and the gift of life are proof of miracles.

Something I've found that's really odd now that I'm no longer pregnant is I'm starting to crave junk food like nobody's business! Cookies, candy, ice cream... you name it, I want to eat it. And not just a few times a day. But all. The. Time! Which is strange for me, especially because I had zero cravings while pregnant (well, aside from OJ, milk and Oreos). I'm trying my best to keep it under control :) I assume that this will pass, but we'll see...

Last week one day, I did yoga again for the first time since Lizzie was born and it was glorious. It felt incredible to be all stretched out again and to just be quiet. I was glad to feel this way, because I wasn't sure how I'd feel about going back to teaching it again in a few weeks -- but I feel like I could teach again now!

I also got to go shopping in St. Cloud yesterday. It was my first shopping trip in probably 10 months that I felt like I could really buy things that weren't maternity-friendly (and I tried not to buy much of that!).

Milestones: Our first shopping trip was yesterday at four weeks, two days old! She was a fabulous shopping companion :) She slept the whole way to and from in the car, and only woke up when her tummy was hungry.

Lizzie also met her new cousin, Michael Patrick, which I would consider a milestone :)

We think she's starting to smile for us just a teensy bit. She seems to get this slight smirk on her face when we clap her hands together really fast and say, "yay!!!!" with a big smile on our faces. Don't we sound like such cool people now? :) Babies change everything.

She is also doing some "ooh" and "aah" noises. Cutest sounds we've ever heard!

Lizzie also has a talent for being able to hold her body weight on her little legs when we hold her on her feet... maybe she'll be an early walker? Or maybe this mommy is just thinking her little lady is amazing and an over-achiever all-around ;)

We're looking forward to those smiles becoming for sure smiles and getting bigger and more frequent :) We also can't wait for her to be able to hold up her little head, just because she would love to be able to look around on her own so much!

Three weeks!

How is my sweet baby three weeks old already!? I think I'll probably feel this way always. Time goes too fast! This week marks the week Lizzie was expected to arrive. We're so blessed with having her arrive healthy even though she arrived early :)

Weight: As mentioned last week, at Lizzie's two-week check-up, she weighed in at five pounds, 15 1/2 ounces. She's continued to eat like it's her job (which, let's face it, it is), so I'm guessing she's put on at least another half-pound at this point. My guesstimate is she's somewhere between six and a half and seven pounds. I have a nephew who is set to be arrive any day now, so the big question is: who will be bigger? Lizzie, after being out of the oven for three weeks? Or baby boy, after baking the appropriate amount of time? My money is on baby boy, but we'll see...

Medical Issues: Medical issues? What medical issues? There are none, aside from being petite like mommy :) Our sweet baby is healthy and happy! So here's to hoping we can leave this section out forever (or, at least, for a very, very, very long time)!

Sleep: Most nights are still fabulous for Lizzie, but there have been a few nights that haven't been so stellar. She can have a tendency to wake up to eat in the middle of the night and take a "cat nap" for long enough to be swaddled and placed in her bassinet... only to grunt and kick two minutes later. At which point I pick her up and do one of three things: sing songs, "shhhh" loudly in her ear (I promise I'm not a meanie. I'm doing as the "baby whisperer", Dr. Harvey Karp, says to do... plus it's extremely effective), or offer her the option to nurse a little more. All three options result in a happy, sleepy baby again... until she's placed in her bassinet. It's at that point that the vicious cycle begins again. So we go through this some nights for two hours, until she finally sleeps for real and lets mommy sleep again. This has probably happened twice now, so it's not all that common. Regardless, I'm hoping it doesn't become a routine for us :)

Her morning sleep routine changed a little for a couple of days, too. I've been trying to teach her the difference between day and night from early on, so I have all the lights and the TV or radio on pretty much all the time in order to teach her that daytime is when we are awake, bright and noisy! A couple of mornings (mornings being 5:00 a.m...) this last week when she woke to be fed, I think the noticed the light coming in our windows... which, to her, meant it was time to be awake! So those little eyes opened wide and remained that way for two or three hours. Now, don't get me wrong... we love when she's awake! But we'd prefer if that wakeful time happened to fall in later morning hours, like at eight or nine (or ten...).

In spite of a few early mornings and middle-of-the-night sleep losses, I've found that I'm far less tired than I would have anticipated. I always end up not feeling like I've been hit by a bus each day, but I'm sure it helps that I'm not working during the day.

Clothes: We're still in our newborn outfits and don't anticipate heading anywhere else anytime soon.
Some of her newborn outfits are still too big, so we still have to grow into those!

Socialite!: This week, Lizzie remained a little socialite. We visited Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Wayne and Auntie Jenny one night for supper while Andy was away at his Master's class. The girls, including Lizzie, also took part in watching the premier of the new Bachelorette season this week -- which, by the way, has way too many beefcakey guys on it, don't you think? We also headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Bristow's house on Saturday to celebrate Grandma Jean's birthday, where we also got to see Auntie Megan. Our biggest outing of the week, however, was to my cousin's wedding in Wadena. Lizzie girl got to meet lots of aunts, uncles and cousins there, but she and I both missed the wedding itself because someone was hungry (no, not me!) :) That was okay, though. We got to celebrate with everyone afterward.

Lizzie remains a fun little lady for strangers to take a peek at when we are out and about, too :)

Diet: Milk -- still eating a lot, sometimes every two hours, sometimes every one hour.

Baby Gear Love: Aden and Anais swaddle blankets for nighttime swaddling remain pretty popular around here. This week we finally started using her Snugabunny swing and she loves it. We swing on the lowest setting and listen to the nature sounds or raindrop sounds and stay content for quite awhile. It's pretty fabulous for when I need to make supper and Andy isn't home yet, or for anytime when he's at work and I need to get something done.

Crying: Still not much of a crier. Her cries are louder, though. She's letting her demands be known with a little more gusto now :) She tends to cry only when she's got a dirty diaper, is hungry, or wants to be snuggled.

Mommy News: Still feeling really good and starting to be a little more active. I'm trying to go on walks with her three days a week if we can, weather permitting (which has been tough with all this rain and wind!), and I tried doing yoga last week one day, and that went well, so I think I'll start getting back into doing that once a week if I can.

Emotionally, I don't think I've ever been so happy in my entire life. The only thing I've got nagging me is the "mommy guilt" bug some days. Does anyone else know what I'm talking about? Like, we go out to run errands for three or four hours, so I feel guilty that poor baby girl is in her carrier for that long. Or the other evening, I made cookies and made supper consecutively while Andy was outside fixing a problem with water in our basement, so baby girl spent some time in the swing that we've come to love so dearly. The whole time, I felt incredibly guilty that I wasn't holding her and loving on her even though she was sleeping the entire time. Anyway, it's stuff like that -- anyone else know what I'm talking about? Now just imagine how I'll feel when I go back to work! Yikes!

Milestones: Well, a few milestones this week. First, we hit Lizzie's actual due date on Monday, June 3rd! So we celebrated her all day and spent time being very grateful that she's been here for three weeks already and was born healthy even though she arrived early.

We also had the "mommy gets spray blasted with poop at five in the morning" milestone this week as well. Under normal circumstances, I would have likely not had a sense of humor about being sprayed with projectile poop, but considering it happened by way of my sweet baby, I found it completely hilarious and had Andy take my picture. I think that's the rite of passage into parenthood, right? Check that one off the list! Anyway, as you can imagine, I've been a little more cautious about changing diapers these days and haven't had another mishap since.

Another rite of passage includes having your baby cry loudly in a store, right? Well, that happened this week, too, at Target (I know what you're thinking: how can she be my daughter if she's crying while in Target? That's right up there with Disney World as far as being the happiest place on earth! But don't worry, it was just because she was a starvin' Marvin, so it wasn't Target's fault). This was one of those "mommy guilt" days, when we spent too long in our carrier and pushed our eating sessions too far apart, and she let me know it. Normally I would have just left and gone home, but I was trying to get a new cell phone activated (which is no excuse) and it took forever. And I kept thinking, "oh, we'll be done soon... we have to be! It's been 30 minutes already, it can't take much longer." Alas, I was wrong. So we took a little break halfway through our activation process so I could feed Lizzie and we returned much happier :) I do have to say that one of my favorite parts about being a mommy is when your child is crying and you hold them and they suddenly calm down. It is an amazing feeling.

Aside from these milestones, we continue to see Lizzie's neck strength increasing, and we're seeing a lot more smiles these days, too, though I know they're not showing up purposely yet (but sometimes it almost seems like they are...). She's also gotten really good at focusing on things and loves looking around the room. She loves when we hold her so she's sitting up or looking over our shoulder because she can see so well from there.