32 weeks

Get a load of this!!

Enjoying her veggie cracker covered in green beans!  (She did it, not me)

Just as cute as can be

So, perhaps we have figured out the answers to our technical problems... I do not know.  So hopefully we'll be more punctual with our posts (of course, i will be out of town this weekend, so, not til next week, I guess).

Anyway, our precious girl is 32 weeks old.  She is such a joy.

The sleep department isn't going so well.  In fact, it is down right frustrating.  It seems like we are taking a few steps in the wrong direction.  I do believe that she is working on some teeth... but, regardless, she is waking up more than once or twice a night.  ugh... it's exhausting.  So if you're reading this, and you want to pray for us... we would welcome your prayers for a little reprieve.  I know that the Lord can and will bring us the rest in His time.  In the meantime, I'm just trying to take each day at a time.

This past week, I did have Anna weighed.  She weighed in at a wopping 16 pounds, 8.5 ounces.  She is still in size 3 diapers (which she will be for some time), she's in 3-6 month clothes, but I am transitioning out of them into the 6-9 month clothes.  I realized this week, that I needed to replace the extra clothes in her diaper bag....

Anna still LOVES her jumper.  She is so fun to watch. She loves to giggle, and bounce.  This week, it was particularly interesting to see Anna interact with the dogs.  (We were watching them while my parents were on vacation.)  She LOVED Franklin, it was funny because she would get mad if he didn't pay attention to her.  And I was proud of Franklin for his patience with her even when she would grab big hunks of fur... and he would just relax and wait for her to release her grip.... of course, i was always there close by helping her release quickly.  But one time she was having a grand time with his fuffy tail, and he did great...

Well, I think that's about it... thanks for continuing to check in on us, even if I'm a little late.  We love having people LOVE on our little girl.

A special thanks to some SUPER special friends who watched Anna this week so Jer and I could have a FUN FUN FUN date to the Indians game.  (And they won!)  it is so nice to have friends

31 weeks

Such a pretty girl!

Well, as you can see, our sweet Anna girl is 31 weeks old.  Not only is she 31 weeks old, but this week we celebrated her 7 month birthday.  7 months!  I can hardly believe it!! It's my blog, so I can oooh and aaahhh.  I LOVE, love, love Anna's beautiful blue eyes.  I [not-so-secretly] hope they stay blue.  They're absolutely gorgeous!  I love to capture them in pictures as often as I can!

Anyway, I am still experiencing some technical difficulty that has my IT department stumped.  Hmph!  Who knew that was possible?!  So, the pictures may be minimal until the issues get resolved!  (However most of my readership is on my daily picture list, so you see these pictures already.)

This week was pretty busy!  Monday we had dinner at my parents' house, because they had out of town friends come in and spend the night with them.  Tuesday I spent a really, REALLY hot day at Cedar Point and Anna spent the day with my parents.  Wednesday, I worked and we went out to see Jer's parents (and eat some yummmmmmmy chicken and dumplings!).  Thursday, I worked.  And Friday we hung out with friends.  So... it was pretty busy.

I am glad that it was busy, however, because Anna got to spend some extra time with her Grandma and Grandpa C because they are on vacation (suffering in Bermuda) all this week.  (We are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sad we couldn't go.  :-(  Really, I regret not being able to go... anywho...)

So, Anna has been back in a groove this week as far as sleep goes.  Her naps were a little bit more predictable, and night time was pretty much the same.  She slept decently, although not through the night.  But waking once isn't bad... and she mostly slept til 9 every day this week... and twice she slept til 10 or later.  So, really, it wasn't a bad trade off.

Anna has done a lot better this week with eating food.  There were far less tears shed, and much more got in her mouth.  We're making progress, and progress is good.  She still likes the rice rusks, and will still eat every 2-3 hours on average.

Anna is still in a wide range of clothes... still some 3-6, and now some 6-9 month clothes.  Just depends on the outfit.  It seems crazy that she's already in some of the 6-9 month clothes.  But, I like it all the same... it reminds me that she is healthy and growing!  She is also in size 3 diapers.  I look at the size 2 and there is no way that is going on her butt any more!  haha

Anna's new thing this week is clapping... a lot!  And she definitely has the hang of sitting up now.  She sit up for 15-20 minutes at a time before toppling over.  When Anna does topple over, it's usually because she wanted to, and now she topples over to her tummy... ooooooh boy she's getting so close to crawling.  She still gets on her hands, or her knees but never both.  One usually sprawls out!  But, I think it will be soon.

She giggles a lot as well.  This week my mom and dad gave her some news paper.  She had such a fun time crumpling it up and giggling at it!  Grandparents are fun!

30 weeks old!!

Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A.  If you dress up like a cow, you get free food!!  She was an incredibly cute calf!!  

Unfortunately this week I am experiencing technical difficulties.  If I quit annoying our IT department about how annoyed I am that my computer isn't working properly, it may get fixed.  With that said, I have other pictures, but only this one will be on this post (at least for right now).  And yes, yes, yes, I know I'm late at posting this.  We were out of town, and extremely busy.

Anyway, Anna is now 30 weeks old.  In fact the day that I'm writing this is her 7 month birthday. Wow! 7 months!!  It's been 7 months since I've had an amazing night's sleep.  Ha!!

Here's her stats....

I did not have her weighed this week, but I'm sure she's at least 16 pounds, maybe even closer to 17.  She's still in 3-6 month clothes, but also wears 6-9 month clothes.  She is in size 3 diapers.  Even though it's been only a few weeks that she's been in size 3, when I find a size 2 and put it on her, it seems really really silly.  (Not to mention, I'm always scared that there is going to be a diaper malfunction.)

I had some breakthrough this week with eating food.  She doesn't hate sweet potatoes (and as far as yesterday and today she even opened her mouth and ate some!!).  We are making progress.  Slowly but surely.  She still definitely likes to eat every 2-3 hours... and prefers it not be solids. 

Sleep these days is hit-or-miss.  Occasionally she will sleep through the night, but those are few and far between.  Anna definitely seems to wake up each night between 3-5.  Today, however, she slept in til 10:30.  That was after she got up to eat about 4ish.  Either way, it was nice to not move out of bed until 10:30.  I think this weekend we pooped her out!!

Her new trick for the week is sitting up WELL on her own, AND she claps.  Sometimes she even claps when we say "clap, clap, clap" or "yay!"  It's really cute.  I spend many hours a day clapping, because it makes her smile!

Anyway, that's about it.  If my computer gets working better, I will post other pictures!

Thanks for checking in on us.

29 weeks old

Well, this week it dawned on me... our little girl is A LOT of fun!!  (Maybe it didn't just dawn on me, but I do appreciate how fun she has become!)  We've kind of laid low this week... except for Wednesday, the 4th of July.  Anna was struggling with (I think) teething that day... and she wasn't nearly the happy, easy-going baby that I know, and love.  But, we're working on it...she's starting to get back in the swing of things.

As you will see in the pictures below... Anna is starting to look super big, and super old... it may be the pictures and her little facial expressions, but this week, she just looks like she's a cute little kid... and isn't as much a baby... goodness!  Where has time gone?!

She really is such a ham!!  I soooo
want to know what she's thinking!!

She looks so big!

Still being silly.

What mom?!  Another picture?

Auntie Katie came to visit...
She decided to give feeding Anna a try...

You're going to give me, what?  More food?

Getting closer

And it's in, with a smile nonetheless!!
Great job, Auntie Katie!!

 

 

Give me the keys!!  Give me, give me!!

Auntie Katie left these at our house... I tried to figure out
if I should eat them, or wear them.

Kisses for Katie!

Avocados!!

Pretty girl!

She loves to play with, see, and CHEW on the remote.
Friday she actually taped "The Price Is Right."

 

 

Here's the stats of our little princess....

She is now fully in size 3 diapers.  I found a rogue size 2 today... man did it look small!  haha...  So, we're growing like a weed.  We are still dabbling in 3-6 month clothes, but maybe this week, I'll try to get out the 6-9 month clothes.  She has a whole bunch that are soooo cute, but oh, so, summery!  So we've got to enjoy them while we can.  I did not get her weighed, but I'd have to say close to 16 and a half pounds... we'll see on Thursday, I'm sure.

Last week was glorious as far as naps went.  However, this week was a little bit more of a struggle.  I am not sure if she is actually full fledged teething or not.. but, she has seemed to be in a funk.

She had one very horrible night's sleep (Tuesday), and was a cranky pants on and off on Wednesday, and very difficult to get to sleep at night... (Thanks Auntie Jill for being in for the long haul!!) but, since then, she's done ok.  It's almost like she has taken a couple steps backwards.  The last week or two she did really well at night putting herself to sleep... the last few nights, we have not been as fortunate.  Either way, she's been getting up about once a night.  She did sleep through the night once this week.  Sleep... it's a work in progress.  Oh well... I guess it is what it is. 

Anna is still not a fan of food... solid food that is.  We've been doing better with the rice cereal.  She didn't like watermelon when I gave it to her... but she apparently sucked on a bit of watermelon that Auntie Katie had.  I have a sweet potato, so I'm probably going to cook that up, and see if she likes that or not.

Anna also is a sitting up master!  She can sit up for long, long stretches at time without falling over.  So that's good.  It also makes for a little bit more fun play time!

Anyway, that's about it!

See ya next week!

28 weeks

I'm 28 weeks old!!

Enjoying some time outside, even though it was super hot.

Practicing our sitting up on our own. She did well.

This is how we started....

Moving...

"I'm gonna get them mom!"

"What?  I can't get my feet?  What are they there for?"

"haha!  I got them!"

She has finally figured out exactly how the jumper works!  She can jump in it for a long time!!

While trying to get her to "like" her carrots, I decided on a new approach... set it on her tray, and let her feed herself.
This is how it turned out.... she did get some in her mouth, but mostly played... and that's ok too.

Some DID get in her mouth, I promise.

Now, Jeremy made an interesting observation... he said she's cleaner feeding
herself, than she is when WE feed her.  Interesting.... and TRUE.  Hmmmm

Someone wanted to Skype their Auntie... Her daddy should be proud. She already
likes the computer, and is taking it over!  hahaha

Her Nana gave her some "rice rusks"... so I decided to see if she wanted one... she didn't hate it, and yet
didn't love it either!

Well, we are 28 weeks old.  Each day she gets more and more fun, and I find myself laughing more and more.  I love her silly personality.  I know that "class clowns" tend to be the "baby of the family,"  but, Anna definitely has the potential.  She is SUCH A HAM!!  We love her so much!!

This week we have made great strides with sleep, particular naptime sleep.  I purposefully didn't make too many plans this week... so we could kind of get back on track.  Each day, Anna has take a morning nap, and a longer afternoon nap.  The morning nap was usually about 10:30/11-12/12:30, and the afternoon nap was about 3/3:30- 5/5:30.  Then she has had her last meal around 9, and then in bed after that... usually about 9:15-9:45.  A couple times this week she has gotten up about 1:30/2:30, but I sent Jer in there to settle her, and then she'd sleep til at least 5:30 or later... then I'd feed her and go back to bed.  We'd wake about 9.  So, that seemed to be a good enough routine. Now if she wakes up a little earlier or goes down a little earlier, it seems that everything else shifted too.

This week we finished up our size 2 diapers, and moved Anna into size 3 diapers.  We had a bunch of size 3 from before she was born, so I decided to see if she fit... she did, therefore we went with it.  She is in the tail end of 3-6 month clothes, and sometimes the beginnings of 6-9 month clothes.  This week she weighed in at 15 pounds 15.5 oz.

As far as the food front is going... Anna would still prefer we NOT give her food.  I have never seen so much drama in my life (and I worked with Jr. High girls for the last 4 years!).  She doesn't mind it so much going in, although, would prefer that not happen too, but when the food seems like it's going to "go down the hatch" that's when the gagging starts!  haha... so dramatic!  I did decide on Thursday to put a plop of carrots on her tray and see what happened.  She definitely didn't gag (as much) then, and did get a few in her mouth.  Yesterday (Friday) I gave her a rice rusk to feed herself... and she only gagged once (when it went to the back of her mouth), but eventually finished most of it.  As a whole, she still prefers to nurse, than eat.  I'm not going to force it.  She'll eat when she's ready (as long as she's ready before she's 1... haha!)

Well, that seems to be about it.  Thanks for checking in on us this week!!

27 weeks old!!

 As you can read, Anna is now 27 weeks old.  And each week is becoming more and more fun!  We did have a few rough nights (namely Tuesday night/Wednesday morning), but I feel like we're on the up and up.  We've been working this week on teaching our little princess to put herself back to sleep if she wakes up in the middle of the night.  Thank you to my wonderful husband, who-per the doctor's advice- has taken the night shift (since she associates me with nursing, and doesn't associate it with Jer...).  So, we'll see if next week we are talking a different story.

 Anna is getting big enough to sit up in high chairs... so I thought I'd give a shopping cart a try.  She did ok, but definitely did lean a little bit one way or the other.  But, she did pretty well, and she liked it too!  (Next time I will have the cart cover handy!)

 She is also starting to grow a little bit more hair!!  Which is GREAT fun for me in the bath tub!  The last time I attempted a baby mohawk, you had to have something white behind it to see the little tuft.  Now, even though there is the white bath tub behind it, it is still very obvious to see. And her expression is pretty cute too!

 We are still working through a book entitled "The Big Book of Children's Classics"... We're in a bunch of stories that don't have pictures... or many pictures at least... so I read a page, or two, and then Anna is usually looking all around, or sliming something.

 Last week when we were on vacation, we took our little umbrella stroller.  I think Auntie Katie was worried we weren't using the "baby Cadillac" anymore.  This picture proves otherwise.  Thank you Auntie Katie (and Uncle Todders) for the wonderful stroller.  It makes strolling a lot easier!

 Again, her silly little expressions during story time!!  Gotta love it!!(She's such a ham!)

 Anna is also making good use of her jumping center! She can make the music go, she can roll the "rolly thing", she can jump!  It's so fun to watch her explore the different parts to it.

 Some of the pictures I took just to get the "good" one.  Pardon the blurry hand.  She just moves too much!  (That is why I've started putting words on the picture using a computer program.  It's easier than trying to get her not to move and NOT eat the paper!)

 Yep, still likes her hand/thumb!  (but most of the time it is her hand!)

 Sometimes she claps too! However, I think it's slightly coincidental.  When she gets really excited, she "flaps" her arms.  I think sometimes the hands meet, and the flap becomes a clap.  Either way, we'll take it!

I just love her little inquisitive expression.  She has definitely come to realize that if I have my phone out and it's pointed at her I will either be taking a video or picture.  Nine times out of ten if she is doing something really cute and I go to take video of her, she will stop talking, smiling, jabbering, or doing whatever it is I am trying to capture, and just stare at my phone.  Gotta love her!

In other news, Anna had her 6 month well-baby check-up.  She is now in the 40th percentile for height and weight.  She weighed in officially at 15 pounds 12 ounces.

This week we started transitioning her into size 3 diapers.  She is in the tail end of the size 2, and I happened to have a lot of size 3 that I purchased before her birth... so it's time we start making some room in her closet!

I think we're back to sleeping better. (As mentioned before, Jeremy has been a wonderful help in helping teach our little angel to be a better sleeper... with the hopes of potentially sleeping through the night soon- on a regular basis.)  We had a VERY rough few nights.  One night she was up every 45-90 minutes.  That was a pretty miserable night!  We had her check-up that evening, so the doctor gave us some tips that we immediately put into action.  She has done pretty well.  So, here's to hoping!  We also purchased some mesh bumpers for the crib.  They're breathable, and not a suffocation risk (like regular bumpers are), but they will help (1) keep rogue arms and legs from becoming lodged in the rails, and (2) will help us keep pacis from falling on the floor.  It's great when purchases are dual purpose!!

This week we also started her on rice cereal.  She's still not a huge fan of it.  But, we can get some of it in her.  Yesterday, I put a cucumber slice in this mesh food thing... and she gnawed on that for quite a while.  So, she must like cucumbers enough.  Today, however, she was NOT a fan of the carrots I made for her.  We'll keep working on it (since we have a whole bag of them.)  I did try to add a little bit of seasoning to it (not salt, sugar or butter, for those who may be concerned)... and we'll see how that goes over.

Other than that... we're still here, still doing well!  I like to reflect on how blessed we are.  Especially on days that are miserable because she isn't sleeping.  Anna is a cutie pie.  It's so much fun to see her personality develop!  She's such a ham!  I love her facial expressions, and how she now tries to play with us!  It's darling cute.

Anyway, thanks for thinking of us, and checking in on us!!

6 months old

I can hardly believe our sweet Anna girl is 6 months old.  On Saturday, June 16, we celebrated the blessing of being her parents for half a year.  Unfortunately most of our day was spent in the car driving home from vacation... but during the periods of long silence, I enjoyed thanking and praising the Lord for such a sweet gift He gave us with our darling daughter, Anna Kimberly.  We love you!!

 

We took a break while driving, and I snapped this picture.

  

 After we got home, I gave her a bath.  (She still LOVES bath time!)