13 weeks (that's 3 months folks!)

I am one blessed mommy! I get to hang out with my little buddy every day! She has spent this week cracking me up. Her little personality is so funny. I have a feeling she is going to be quite the ham when she gets older.

Today she is not only 13 weeks as the picture says, but she is also exactly 3 months old. I think Jeremy and I have passed our 90 probation. haha... Anna is such a delight.

We're still having fun each night in the sleep department. Some nights are definitely better than others. We usually go 3-5 hours each night in each stretch. So... we're getting there. We have tried to eliminate our midnight bottle with dad, but, she definitely sleeps better and longer if she gets that in her. So, maybe not just yet. Of course, if Jer is feeding her, I am most likely asleep. So, the stretch seems longer to me.

She did not get weighed this week, but if I had to guess, she weighs probably at least 12 pounds. She's in size 2 diapers, and we're still in 0-3 month clothes. Which is good... because there are so many cute clothes she still has to enjoy. Although, her wonderful Aunts are keeping her well-stocked in Aunt-wear. hehehe... I love it!!

Anna and I have been enjoying a lot of walking this week. We've had fun going to the mall and mall-walking on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. She spent Wednesday with her Grandpa Corbett. And Thursday we went to Mastering Motherhood at our church.. where she steals everyone's hearts.

Since I brought it up... she had a much better Wednesday with her Grandpa C this week than the previous weeks. I think she enjoyed the walk they went on since the weather was so nice. Speaking of walks, we've enjoyed going for lots of walks this week since the weather was soooo nice this week.

One of the biggest pieces of news this week is that WE HAVE A ROLLER!! She officially rolls from her tummy to her back!! Ahhhhh!!! My baby girl is rolling over!! It's so cute. Of course, she has a love-hate relationship with rolling over. The first few times she did it, she did it 4 or 5 times in a row. She did it for my mom later that night, and again for Jeremy. Some nights she just is done and doesn't want to do it.... so she cries when she's on her tummy. It's sad but cute at the same time. I have a short 4 second video that I will try to post when I can figure out how. :-) (Just fair warning, I get a little excited so you may want to turn the sound off or REALLY low when you watch.)

Well, I can't think of anything else... so, thanks for checking on us. Enjoy the pictures below! (3 weeks from yesterday we head towards the beach for Anna's first vacation!!)

Daddy's little snuggle bug!!

We met up with Aunt Jill and Uncle Dawson on Monday. She was apparently a little more interested in something on the table. But Aunt Jill and Uncle Dawson are looking at the camera and smiling pretty!!

12 weeks!! (And a litte auntie montage)

Our little girl is 12 weeks old!! I love getting to see her personality shine! She is so much fun already! I decided to put on all the pictures I took while trying to take her "12-week-picture." It sort of shows her little personality. Therefore, I thought I'd share. Not to mention, there are quite a few Aunts out there that check in on the blog, so I thought they'd like to see this shirt over, and over, and over again with different little smiles each time. :-) Gotta love it!!

















This past week was a good week. Lately it seems like our weeks are getting busier, and busier. My friend from college, his wife and I have become great walking buddies. Our daughters are about a year apart... so I think that some day they'll be little buddies too. So, it seems like on Monday and Tuesday we do a bunch of mall walking in the morning. Then we come home for naps. :-) Then usually by the time naps are up, then it's almost time for Jeremy to get home. So, we're falling into a nice routine... not to mention, I get to get out and get a little bit of exercise.




As far as sleeping is concerned, we are definitely making great strides in the sleep department. This past week, she slept usually from 9 or 10 til about 12 or 12:30 when Jer would feed her a bottle. Then, she'd go from that time til about 4am. Then she'd sleep from 4:30 or so til about 7 or 730... one day it was even 7:50! Last night, we did a little experiment. We eliminated that 12am bottle and waited to see how long she'd sleep. So... she ate at 10pm, and slept until 4:15. So, we're doing pretty well if you ask me! It's like there is actually a light at the end of the tunnel. Now, hopefully this will be the norm, not the exception. :-)


Our little girl is growing so big!! Yesterday she was about 11 and a half pounds. :-) I have to say about... because normally I weigh her, and then feed her, then weigh her again (to make sure she's getting enough) all with only a diaper on. This week, we went and visited a friend on her lunch break, I fed her while she was eating her lunch... then when I went to weigh her I didn't take her clothes off. Soo... she weighed 11 pounds 15 ounces, but she was fed, and had clothes on. So... maybe 5-7 oz difference? Either way, we're getting closer and closer to that 12 pound mark.
Jeremy and I are constantly trying to be a good example for Anna.. even if she is itty bitty. This week, we had the opportunity to vote. Of course we took Anna. She was the hit of the voting place. And why wouldn't she be? She's so stinkin cute!

Today we had the opportunity to go out to see Anna's great-grandparents. It's always good. I really want Anna to get to know them, because they have been such a big part of my life. I love them so much!! My grandma is such a cutie pie, and it's fun to watch her with Anna.

It's rough being a baby at your great-grandparents house! hahaha...

11 weeks and wonderful!

Well we're 11 weeks old now! I love it!!

Anna is starting develop quite the personality! She's figured out how to con her grandpa on Wednesdays into holding her the entire time. Such a little bug!! Haha Even in the pictures above, you can see a little bit of her amazing personality. She's such a cutie pie & very sweet natured.

She's been doing at least 3-4 hour stretches at night... it seems that she wakes up between 3-4am, and then will sleep until about 7. Now, if I feed her, and lay her back down (and most definitely if I put in her in the swing so I can get ready) she will usually go back to sleep until 8 or 9.
As you can see, she is smiling a ton! It is pretty easy to get smile out of her too! I LOVE IT!! Occasionally she makes this noise that we call a laugh. I'm not certain it is just yet, but it's really cute...and as first time parents, it's nice to think we can make our little girl laugh just by being silly. She definitely likes it when I read a book to her (although she usually falls asleep by the end of the book haha), and really likes when I sing songs.
All I can say is "what a cutie pie!!" I get this look regularly. It's almost as if she's saying "Really, Mom? I can't believe you just said that/made that sound/made that face/did that dance...etc."

This past week she has really taken a liking to the play mat. She swats at the toys quite a bit, and sometimes actually looks at the ones she's swatting. She seems to be enamored with the "other baby" in the mirror. The other night, I was getting her bath ready, and I asked Jeremy if she woke up (she was sleeping a little bit), and he looked over and this what he saw. Instead of swatting the toys, she was chewing on the toy! hahaha... I even got a good video of it. It made me laugh a lot! She was really chowing down on the toy. What a cutie!! (are you tired of reading that yet?)


Our little girl is now just about 11 pounds. Yesterday at the group she was 10 pounds, 15.5 ounces. So we've slowed down a little bit, but we're still gaining weight. I must admit, I'm ok with the slow down. I was afraid I'd have a 80 pound 4 month old at the rate we were going! We're still gaining weight, that's the important part. I must say that I was a little disappointed. I'm usually pretty good at guessing her weight. It was 2 weeks since she'd been weighed, and I went in very confident that she was 12 pounds, or at least very very close to it. But, we've still got some growing to do, I guess!! We're moving her into size 2 diapers. They seem to fit. So, I guess we'll just keep going with that. We're almost done with all our size ones we got before she was born (or shortly thereafter), so we're ready to use our size 2s. I guess she's a little bit "small" for them, but they don't seem overly big, so, I think we'll be safe.

She still likes tummy time, but not as much as she likes being on her back on the play mat. She prefers tummy time to be when I'm laying flat on my back, and she's laying on her tummy. We're still working with her on grasping objects... she doesn't like things in her hands. I know that will come... but I am trying to teach her as best I can... even though she's little.

Well, there isn't much more to say. I'm going to try to get in a little nap while she's napping. So, thanks for checking in on us!! Hope everyone has a great week!!

K

10 weeks old

Well, we've hit those double digits!! Ahhh! I'm also finding it more difficult to not get a blurry weekly picture! She's just sooo wiggly. So I need to either take it when she's asleep, or just deal with the wiggly blurry picture! hahaha

Well we love this little girly so much! She's just the joy of our lives. I can't believe she's 10 weeks old.

This week was kind of busy. On Monday we met with another Bradley mom and her son at the mall. We had lunch, and we did some mall walking. On Wednesday this week, I returned to work. I had so much fun. I took a photo album with me, and the residents loved it! Not to mention I absolutely loved showing off our little girl. Anna spent the morning with my dad. She was having a blast conning him into holding her all day. I felt bad because he didn't get much done that day. Thursday I went to Mastering Motherhood at our church and then to the employee anniversary lunch at work. (It was delicious.) Anna spent the morning with my dad also... I think she did better with him, and didn't con him so much. We did however invest in a portable swing, since she loves the swing so much.

She hasn't been sleeping as well this week as she did last week. I don't know if this is because she had her first round of vaccinations last Friday (when the great sleeping stopped), or if it's just something else. Guess we may never know. hahaha... But she has been doing well with a sort of flexible daily routine which involves usually a 3 hour nap. It's nice to get a break to do dishes, or get dinner ready, or take a shower... without having to worry about if she's upset or not. A lot of times too, there's enough time to do one or two of those, AND get a little nap in. So, that's a blessing.

I do not know how much our little angel weighs this week since we didn't go to our group on Thursday (because of the employee lunch). But if I had to guess, she's probably 11 pounds with a few ounces. She's very nicely fitting into her 0-3 month clothes, which has been really fun because it has brought on a whole host of new clothes from her closet! I LOVE DRESSING HER! It's so much fun!

Tonight we're going to take some family pictures.. which I hope will mostly be our little angel. Besides, who needs a bunch of pictures of us? We haven't changed much in the last 6 years. But, I do look forward to our first family pictures as a family of 3.

Oh, well, our little sweetie is getting up... so... time to get off here and get ready for pictures!!

Thanks for checking in on us. If I get a chance this weekend, I will definitely post some cute pictures. (They're always cute, right?!)

K

9 weeks old!! (And 2 months officially!)

Well, we've hit the 9 week mark... although, this week also brought us Anna's 2 month birthday. YIKES!! 2 months! Where is time going? I keep telling Anna that I want to get her to sleep through the night, and then freeze her!

This week has been fun. Really fun! And more importantly drama-free. Week 8 has been one of the best so far!

One thing that has made this week so great is that we've made bigger strides in the sleep area. We've sort of gotten ourselves in a great routine. She typically has been falling asleep around 9pm. Anna will then wake up to eat around 11. The last few nights she has then gone from 11 until 4am. Then she'll wake up again to eat. After that she usually has been waking up around 7 each morning. I feed her, and then if I lay her back down, usually she will go back to sleep for an hour or 2. So, then I start getting her up around 9. I feed her again, change her clothes (although, we did have a day maybe 2 that we had pajama day!). I've been trying to read a Bible story to her in the morning, and if she makes it through the story without falling asleep, I also try to read her another story.

We play a bit... although, it's slow going. We've gotten good use out of our play mat. She likes to spend time swatting at the toys... but a lot of the time, she just swats and randomly hits the toys, usually a toy that she ISN'T looking at. hahaha... then I will flip her over for a while, and we do tummy time. And believe it or not, it's not that traumatic.

She will usually eat again around 11:30 or 12 (depending on when she actually did eat). But, after she eats, Anna will generally take a nap. Granted, she has been falling asleep in the swing. (We're working on it! So, don't judge me. Baby steps... baby steps. After we establish a routine, we will work on getting her sleeping where we need her to be sleeping.) She will generally sleep for 3 hours in the afternoon. So it's a nice time for me to eat lunch, watch some tv, blog, surf the internet, shower, laundry, dishes, or prepare dinner. It's a nice little break. Plus she seems to do really well with this routine we've fallen into. :-)

During the day, other than her nap time, she is still eating about every 2-3 hours. Which is evident by the fact that as of yesterday she was 10 pounds 4.5 ounces. What can I say, she has her mother's uncanny ability to gain weight. Poor girl! (Sorry sweetie.) However, this 10 poundages brings us happiness because back when she was 6 1/2 pounds, the doctor said that the "magic number" tends to be 10 pounds. That's when they seem to sleep for longer periods at a time. Oddly, it seems to be true.

I also love that we have been seeing far more smiles this week! I LOVE IT!! She's such a cutie pie. Her sweet gummy smile just makes me sooo happy!! I could look at her little gummy smile all day!

Today we have her 2 month doctor's appointment. I am NOT looking forward to it since there will be vaccinations involved. Luckily, Anna has the greatest daddy in the world. He's going to come with us... so when that comes up, I can go for a walk! (I'm a pansy, I know!)

All in all, I just love our little girl! Each day, I get to look into her beautiful [still] blue eyes. She has been such a blessing to Jeremy and I.... while testing both of us in many areas, she is such a joy. I still cannot believe that she has been here turning our lives upside down for 2 months now. Each day, she seems like she's growing more, and doing more. Some times it seems like she learns something over night! (Again, by learning I mean going from not swatting toys, to now swatting at them. Not smiling much to smiling a whole bunch!!)

All right, well that's it for now, I have to get ready to head out to our appointment. (Prayers are appreciated!!) I'll also leave you with some pictures!

See what I'm talking about with that cute little smile?!

Love it!

Yep, cutie pie!

She kept slipping, and that was making
picture-taking difficult. But it's still
cute with her half-smirk.

Action shot of a smile!

Pretty sure this was about 9:15 last night...she
was out!

This week, we took of the baby sling from the bath tub. She's getting so big!
Ahhhhhh! But she likes it. She's in more of the water... it's warmer...I think
she'll be a good candidate for loving to swim! (As long as the water is warm!)

Ok, thanks for checking in on us!! Hope everyone has a great week!

8 weeks old... where is time going??

So this week was a little more drama than I like. On Saturday, I started feeling a cold coming on. (Sad, too, because Friday night she spent it with my parents... so a night to sleep, and I started to feel a cold. Blech!) So, I did what I could. I bought zinc tablets, I washed my hands like crazy (to the point where they started bleeding), and did my best to try not to breathe on her. And what do you know, Tuesday our little Anna started sounding congested. So, I called the pediatrician's office, just to be safe. I'm not normally a call the doctor for a sniffle kind of person, but since she was 4 weeks early, I thought it would be best to play it safe. The nurse took my info, and had another nurse call us back. That was the funny part because the nurse that called us back was a good friend of ours. Nothing puts a new mom's mind at ease like talking to a good friend... and not just talking to talk, but talking and getting reliable advice. At that time, Anna had a 99.0 fever... not too bad. So, we kept her elevated while she slept, ran the humidifier, used a saline spray, and a nasal aspirator. (And for those of you who know me well, know the nasal aspirator takes a lot for me not to gag. UGH!!) So, I watched her closely on Wednesday. I got really good at taking her temperature. And the little sweetie cooperated well, so that was a blessing. By 3pm, though her temperature was 100.6, and at 100.4 they told me the day before to call back. So I called the doctor. We went to the doctor Wednesday night. Praise the Lord that when they took her temperature, it was coming down. The doctor also said her lungs sounded clear. So we were to continue doing what we were doing. Wednesday night, she slept pretty well... and last night (Thursday) she slept well again. So... hopefully this sleeping well business will last! It's been nice only getting up once in the middle of the night. :-D Now we're all starting to feel better. Of course, yesterday (Thursday), Anna was all smiles. She's soo stinkin cute!! I love the little gummy baby smiles.

Since our week was spent with colds, we didn't really do a lot. So there isn't a ton to update on.

This coming week, Anna will be 2 months old. I can't believe she'll be 2 months old already. (Although I do seem to say that every week. I can't believe she's 4 weeks old, I can't believe she's 8 weeks old. But, even though I say it every week... I still can't believe how quickly time flies.) It's been a crazy 2 months. We've had our ups and downs... mostly ups... we've had our good nights, and our TERRIBLE nights. But, we've triumphed, and patience and perseverance is paying off.

This week, even being sick, she's done a few more "regular" stretches of 3-4 hours. I really could get used to it. I like sleeping a little bit longer rather than the every 2 hours she was doing. Ahhh, this is the bliss all people with children talk about. Who knew 4 hours could be sooooooooo delightful?! It spoils a person, really.

Well, that's about it... a relatively uneventful weekend other than 1 trip to the doctor's. Now I'll end it with some pictures. Enjoy, and thanks for checking in on us!!She's a good eater! We didn't go to our normal group on Thursday, but I did have them weigh her at the doctor's office. She now weighs 9 lbs, 10 oz. Grow, baby, grow!!


Look at this cute little face!!

She caught me with the camera!! She loves her play time with her daddy!! He's so good with her!

7 weeks old

As I sit here watching my beautiful baby girl in the swing, it's hard to believe that 7 weeks have gone by. Sometimes I even sit back and think about what I was doing this time last year. Seems crazy to me, that now I get to enjoy being home, and oooo-ing, and ahhh-ing over the cutest little girl I've ever seen. God has been so good to me.

This week has been a great week! It is, by far, my favorite week yet!

We've made some great strides in the sleep department. While, we're not "great" yet... we're getting there. I would high-five my little munchkin if I could, because she has been doing a lot better. Also this week, we've been having her sleep in her crib. YIKES!! On Monday & Tuesday, I slept in the room with her. On Wednesday, I started out in our room, then in the middle of the night she just wouldn't really settle, so I ended up sleeping in her room for a few hours... and then I went back to my room. But, last night, I slept in MY room the whole time!! She slept from 12:30-3:30, and then from 4 (although, it was on and off til 4:30) til about 7 ish. Then today, Anna was up from 7-10. Now she's sleeping... So, see what I mean? We're definitely making progress. (The picture below is of her in her first night in her crib.)

Anna is definitely growing! In our weekly weigh in, she was 9 pounds 5.5 ounces!! Hmmm... she's getting big. Although, the doctor said that 10 pounds seems to be when they go for longer stretches. While I'm not interested in her growing up too fast or getting overly big (someone has to carry her around...) I am interested in the "going longer" periods between meals... especially at night (see above). Also, she is in 0-3 month clothes now... for the most part. A lot of her outfits are a mix and match of newborn clothes and 0-3 months. Most 0-3 months are comfortably big on her (especially the pants), while newborn clothes seem to be a wee bit small. However, she is still fitting just fine in the newborn undershirts we put on her. Figure that one out!

She also had on her first pair of real shoes this week. They were cute! Really, teeeeeny, tiny, but Oh-so-cute! Although, I wasn't a fan of them being actual buckles. But Anna cooperated just fine in her sleep while I fiddled with her feet.

Anna had her first trip to Marc's this week. It was a good experience for the both of us. I tried to clip her car seat onto the seat portion of the shopping cart. However, the way the carts there were designed the poor little thing was practically laying on her head. So, I had to stick her car seat IN the cart. This is where it was a good experience for both of us... you see, when you have a baby in a car seat IN the cart... it severely limits how much stuff you can put in that cart. And as most of you may know, with the hodgepodge of stuff at Marc's, you never know what will jump in your cart. I made it out of Marc's grocery shopping for the week in under $35. Go team Anna!

Well, that's about all I can think of for this week. So, thanks for checking in on us!!