Nursery Pinspiration – Baby Girl #2

I have been busy working on the nursery. It’s coming together really nicely. I don’t have any pictures yet, but I hope to post pictures once it’s complete. We have the crib set up, curtains hung, crib bedding. I bought a sewing machine recently, so I’ve made a changing pad cover, teething rail guard, no-sew crib skirt and a blanket that all match. I’d like to make a few more things. We have no wall art yet. Here is my inspiration for baby girl #2’s nursery. I decided to go with a navy theme with hot pink accents.

Here are some pins that have been my inspiration…

Navy and hot pink nursery

Love the navy crib skirt with hot pink sheet

Elegant combo of navy and hot pink

I love this pink stripe with the baby’s name over the crib

Cute navy crib skirt with a hot pink border

I want to make a pillow just like this

Hot pink flower ball & navy/pink wall art

Would love a hot pink and navy pennant banner

Teething rail guard to match the crib skirt, this pink is too light

Baby #2 BUMP REPORT – 21 Weeks

PREGNANCY WEEK 21 – June 13, 2015

Swirls, twirls and curls….we are going to have a house full of GIRLS! We are so excited to have found out that the baby is a healthy girl. We would have been happy with either gender, but I was really hoping for a little sister for Winter. Since the two girls will be exactly two years apart, I am hopeful that they will grow up as best friends and playmates. I am close with my sisters and hope for the same experience for my daughters. Plus, let’s be honest, it will be SO NICE to reuse all of Winter’s baby things and clothing, especially because all of the sizes will fall in the same seasons since we are having another October baby.  Well–that is, unless this baby turns out to be a giant or exceptionally small. We couldn’t be more happy for another girl.

On the ultrasound she looked great and is measuring right on track. She appears to look very similar to Winter’s ultrasound, as much as you can really tell from looking at a 2D ultrasound. Same round head, button nose, chubby cheeks. I hope they look alike since Winter is so adorable!

There was only one slight “concern” noted at the ultrasound. “Concern” might not even be the right term. More like something to watch for as the pregnancy progresses. I already knew my placenta was anterior, on the front of my belly, but now I have what is called a “low lying placenta.” This means that the placenta is down low and in close proximity to my cervix, though not covering or touching it. My midwife said it’s 16 mm (1 cm) away from my cervix. She said that typically as the baby grows, the placenta will continue to grow upward and away from the cervix. She was not concerned, but she said it’s something to be noted and check again later in the pregnancy. Because of this, we will have a follow up ultrasound at 28 weeks just to make sure things move in the right direction. If for some reason my placenta would be any less than 15 mm away from my cervix, there is the possibly of needing a c-section for safety purposes. I’m praying that a c-section isn’t necessary as I’m really hopeful to have a 100% all natural drug-free birth experience.

My age: 29

How far along: 21 weeks

How big is baby: the size of a carrot (10.5 inches and 12.7 ounces)

Gender: Baby girl!

Events of this week: Had our anatomy ultrasound, got pedicures with a few mom friends, babysat, pet sat for two dogs, went swimming at a friend’s pool, went to Tiny Town, went to an outdoor concert at the park, hosted a play date, had small group, went to my women’s bible study, went out on a date to see Jurassic World on opening night, and went to a BBQ/movie at church.  Busy week!

Symptoms: Growing belly, feeling really great overall.

Exercise/Activity: Got 5 days of exercise this week; two days of running and three days of workout DVDs. In my workout DVDs I skip a lot of the ab exercises and instead do cardio in it’s place (like jumping jacks, etc). Feeling really strong and fit! Signed up for a local 5K at the end of July when I’ll be 27 weeks pregnant.

Sleep: Pretty good, minus trying to force myself to sleep on my side. I wake up on my back.

Maternity clothes:  Yes.

Stretch marks: No.

Belly Button: In.

Food cravings: Mixed berry smoothies from Einsteins.

Food aversions: Chicken.

Movement: Yes. Eric felt the baby from the outside last week too!

Best Moment of the Week: The ultrasound!

Worst Moment of the Week: None.

What I’m looking forward to: Enjoying the summer days with Winter now that the weather has been great. We have a baby pool in the backyard that she uses nearly every day. I love being outside and so does she. Over the weekend I sported a bikini so I could get some sun while she played. I normally wear tankinis while pregnant, but I figure in my own back yard no one is looking!

What I’m nervous about/praying for: Nothing.

What I miss: Nothing.

Next appointment: Monday, July 6th at 9:40 a.m.

Comparison with my first pregnancy:

A look back at the entire week by week pictures so far:

And finally, this week’s pic on it’s own:

 

It’s a GIRL! “Big Sis to a Little Miss”

Baby #2 is a girl! We are thrilled!

Winter’s 11 Month Update

BABY WINTER’S MONTHLY UPDATE: 11 months old

Baby’s Age: 11 months old

Height: not sure this month

Weight: 19 lbs 5 oz

Diaper Size: Size 3

Clothes Size: 12 months

(All as of September 10, 2014)

Here is a look back at the past few months:

Here is Winter in her Bumbo:

September 2014 – Last update before Winter turns 1!

Is it really only one month until Winter has her first birthday?!?  No, that is not possible.  It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant.  I was clueless as to what our lives would REALLY be like once our baby would be born.  I thought I knew, but boy was I CLUELESS!!  I didn’t know just HOW wonderful life could be until Winter was born.  Who knew there was a void until it was filled?  Here I was almost a year ago:

First off, I am in denial.  Serious denial.  How could THIS baby:

…already be turning one in a few weeks?!?  This picture was taken at the hospital, right before we brought Winter home.  To think that my little girl is soon to be walking and soon-to-be a toddler blows my mind.  DENIAL!  Here she is now at 11 months:

Winter is a MOVER!  She loves to move, move, move.  She doesn’t sit still.  She is constantly on the go, whether she is crawling or cruising.  This momma doesn’t have much time to do anything besides chase a baby around anymore!  Ha!  I love it.

In the past month we have been busy getting unpacked and settling into our new home.  Winter didn’t exactly pull her weight around here by chipping in for any of our DIY house projects….although I’m sure she would’ve helped if she could’ve!  She’s sweet.  All joking aside, the dog nor cat pulled their weight around here either.  🙂  So, Eric and I have been busy whipping this house into the kind of shape we’d like to live in.  We have been painting like crazy, hanging pictures on the walls and whatnot.  The new house is actually FEELING like our home now!

Winter has been teething hardcore.  She is working on the top two center teeth.  They have been working on coming in for weeks.  Any second they will be cutting through.  (Update: As of Sept 25 they finally cut through.)  These two teeth are little boogers…they have proven to be more difficult and painful than her first two teeth.  Baby Tylenol, teething tablets and amber bead necklace have been our friends.  A friend recommended we switch from baby Tylenol to Ibuprofen or Motrin since she is old enough for it.  She said it is more effective and lasts longer.  I think I’ll be buying some soon!  Now, about these center top teeth, I have to admit…it’s going to really change how Winter looks when they finally come in.  She will look older and different with those teeth.  I bet she’ll be cute, but I am never a fan of change.  😦

While Winter is not yet walking on her own, none of us feel any urgency for that milestone to happen just yet.  I’m sure she will start walking within a normal time frame.  She pulls up on everything, walks along the furniture while holding on with one or two hands, walks while pushing her cruising toy, etc.  She is a mover!

Winter has started making a super cheesy face when she smiles.  She gives a big old toothy grin and squints her eyes–so cute!  She cracks us up.

Nursing is still going in full force around here!  At 11 months, I dropped her lunchtime feeding, bringing us down to 3 feedings per day.  She has done well with the transition.  Nursing only 3 times per day feels SO EASY!  It hardly feels like I’m doing it at all.  I am in no rush to wean her.  We will keep on nursing until I feel that we are BOTH ready to stop.  As of now, we are both perfectly happy to keep on going!  At this rate, we will be continuing past the 12 month mark.  I must say, she is pretty funny when she nurses these days.  She only takes about 5-7 minutes in total, but 1-2 minutes of that is her popping off to play with or pinch my nipple.  It’s hilarious…I laugh every time!  In addition to her “play breaks,” she also is such a mover that she does not just lie down to nurse, she stands up, crawls around and climbs all over me during the nursing process.  I’m like her boob jungle gym!  🙂

I am planning her first birthday party for the day after her birthday.  We are keeping the guest list short and sweet.  We have my sister and her husband coming to Colorado to help us celebrate!  We are excited to see them.  Also on the invitation list includes a few close friends as well as a few of Winter’s and my friends from our mom/baby group.  The theme is a “Winter ONEderland.”  I know.  Perfect!  I bought all kinds of wintery décor and am asking guests to all wear white attire.  I am also planning to do a cake smash photo-shoot.  My goal is to attempt to DIY the photo-shoot to avoid paying a hefty photography bill.  I will post pictures after we do the shoot!  I plan to do the photo-shoot a couple of days before her birthday.

Here is what Winter’s invitations look like (with the address removed, of course):

Milestones: Crawling, pulling up on things, cruising, assisted walking (holding onto our hands), talking a lot (mama, dada, meow, da for dog, and other various sounds), clapping, has almost 4 teeth.

Sleep: Same as before, 2 naps (each 2 hours; 10am-12pm and 3pm-5pm) and 12 hours (8pm-8am) at night.  She rocks!

Best Moment: When Winter called ME “mama” for the first time.  Though she has been saying it for months, I felt like she finally associated the word with ME!

Worst Moment: Winter got her first boo boo.  She felt against our bedframe and busted her lip.  OUCH!  It was bleeding and she was hysterical.  I was too.  Mom fail.  I know this won’t be the last time she gets hurt, but I am not looking forward to future accidents!  😦

Health:  Excellent!  She is growing lengthwise it seems, not weightwise anymore.  She really has “thinned out” lately because she’s so active.  I haven’t measured her in a while, so I will be curious to see how tall she is at her upcoming 12 month appointment.

Eating:  She nurses 3 times per day (morning, before afternoon nap and bedtime).  She eats breakfast, lunch and dinner, all regular foods, no baby foods.  She is obsessed with raisins and bread.  I’ve been working to teach her the sign for “more,” but instead of doing the correct sign, she claps and says “mo.”  I think that is sufficient…

Likes: Eating, clapping, walking/pushing her crusing toy, jabbering, making cat “meow” sounds, getting into everything, feeling soft textures.

Dislikes: Diaper changes, getting dressed after a bath.

How Mommy is doing: I am getting a little emotional that my “little baby” is turning one!  I know every new mom says that the first year flies by in the blink of an eye, and they are right.  It can’t already be a whole YEAR since I gave birth!  You can find me sobbing in the corner looking through photos from last October….

Aside from being emotional about Winter growing up, I’ve been busy training for my half marathon (coming up 10/19), being a table leader at MOPS and doing activities with our mom/baby group.  I love my life and getting to spend my days with Winter.  It’s the best!

Winter’s 9 Month Update

BABY WINTER’S MONTHLY UPDATE: 9 months old

(All as of July 10, 2014)

Baby’s Age: 9 months old

Height: 27 inches

Weight: 18 lbs 8 oz

Head:

Diaper Size: Size 3

Clothes Size: 9 months

Here is a look back at the past few months:

 Here is Winter in her Bumbo:

July 2014 – This baby has gone through some ch-ch-changes… (Tooth, Crawling and Sleeping Through the Night Again)

(Written July 20, 2014) Looking back over the past month, from eight months till nine months, I’d say we have hit some big developments.  First of all, the “teething” that Winter has been going through for the past 3 months finally produced a tooth!  About a week before she turned 9 months, I started to see/feel the developments of the two bottom center teeth.  On the day she turned 9 months (July 10), her bottom right tooth finally began to cut through the gums.  It continues to make more and more of an appearance as the days go on.  Her bottom left tooth is on it’s way next, but has yet to cut through at this point.  It’s exciting for her to finally have her first tooth!  Took 9 months to achieve that goal, but by golly, it has finally happened.  Perhaps it’s better that it took until she was 9 months old to cut a tooth for the sake of breastfeeding and having yet to get a nipple gnawed off.  🙂  My friends said that biting during breastfeeding only became an issue once the top teeth made an appearance….  So at this rate, Winter might not have any top teeth until she is 12 months, and then she will be going through the weaning process anyway!

Another big development since last month: Winter is officially on the MOVE!  She was on the cusp of crawling for the past several months, getting on all fours and even rocking.  But finally, on July 3rd (a week before turning 9 months old), she finally took things to the next level and began arming crawling.  Not even a week later, on July 9, she upgraded from army crawling to regular crawling!  Just one day before turning 9 months old.  The more she crawls, the quicker and more efficient she has gotten.  No longer can I sit her down on the floor to play with toys and expect her to stay there…no, no.  She crawls all over the place, making me have to watch her like a hawk!  As exhausting as it is chasing her around, there is such a magic feeling to watch your child learn to do a huge new milestone!  Eric and I feel so proud of Winter!  It’s overwhelming how much joy she brings us.

In last month’s update, I remember I spent a fair share of time complaining about our sleep issues.  For about 7-8 continuous weeks, Winter went through a major sleep regression.  She went from previously sleeping through the night (12 hours), to waking 2-3 times every night.  I was beginning to feel desperate that my sleep filled nights were never going to resume.  At Winter’s 9 month pediatrician appointment, I explained our situation to her doc and hoped for some positive feedback.  Well, the doctor explained that by this point, Winter was in pattern of night waking and she was in a trained routine.  The best way to break her of this routine was to cut her off, cold turkey.  Oh boy!  I never thought I’d have to implement the “cry it out” method on Winter, as she was always a good sleeper.  But here we were, at a crossroads.  If we wanted to get our household back to a good sleeping routine, then it was time to give a new approach a whirl.  The doc said that it would take 3-5 continuous nights of letting her cry without going in to rescue and nurse her until she resumed a healthy nighttime sleep ritual.  Knowing myself, I knew that if I had to listen to her cry, I would cave and go get her.  So, we decided that it would be best to create a sound barrier so that it didn’t allow me the opportunity to cave in.  Night one, we made sure both her nursery door and our bedroom door were both closed.  We plugged in a huge (and very LOUD) boxfan in our room and turned it on the highest level.  That first night, she did wake up around her usual first wakeup (midnight), and we watched her on the monitor.  After approximately 15 minutes of crying, she went back to sleep.  That was the last we knew of her waking up!  I’m sure she has woken up and cried several times in those first few nights of sleep training, but we never heard her.  And that was wonderful.  She has always been happy in the morning, so obviously she was fine.  We have now gone 10 nights where all 3 of us have slept through the night and woken up refreshed, happy and healthy in the morning.  SCORE!!  Praise God that Winter is back on track in regards to sleep.  We went nearly 2 months with sleepless nights, and boy am I glad those are (hopefully) behind us.

Along with crawling has come the desire for pulling up on things.  We dropped Winter’s crib down to the lowest level after we realized we were long overdue for that.  She is so strong and she constantly tries to pull up on everything.  She is really good at getting up on her knees, but she still can’t always pull up to her feet.  She has done it a few times, but she’s still working towards that.

In mid June (June 20th to be exact), when Winter was 8.5 months, she spoke her first word.  “Mama.”  I was thrilled!  She now says “mama,” “dada,” “baba” and various other sounds mixed together.  She calls our dog, Koda, “a” (as in “ah”).  So cute.  We love hearing her speak her mind now!

Another big change in our family….we are MOVING!  When I say moving, I mean, moving out of our current house and into a new house.  We are staying in Denver, just buying a bigger home.  Mid June we officially put our house on the market, and received multiple offers within a weekend.  We accepted an offer and have been under contract, set to close soon.  Meanwhile, we had been house hunting for a while, but could officially begin putting offers on houses once our house was under contract.  After putting offers on 3 homes, we were finally able to get one of them.  Yay!  We are SO excited about our new house.  It has 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths and 2 half baths, a big back yard, and is in our desired neighborhood.  We couldn’t be happier!  These past few months of getting our house staged and ready for the market, selling, house hunting, and now buying a house have been quite the adventure, to say the least.  We are exhausted.  We can’t WAIT for closing day so that we can move and get our lives back to “normal”….whatever that means.  Let’s just say, we hope to live in this next house for at least 20 years.  We’d like to avoid buying and selling again.  🙂  But we are so happy that we found a house that we can grow into.  Winter will have more space and she’ll actually have a yard to play in!

My brother, sister in law, and their two kids spent about a week with us at the beginning of July.  It was fun to spend time with them.  Winter really enjoyed playing with her cousins, David (3 years old) and Emily (17 months old).  Emily and Winter look a lot alike and could almost be sisters.  One day, the two of them were in a stroller together, and someone asked me how old they were.  After spouting off their ages, I quickly explained that they were cousins, not sisters!  🙂

Milestones: Crawling, pulling up on things, clapping, got her first tooth, back to sleeping through the night, and learning how to wave goodbye.

Sleep: After cold turkey sleep training, Winter is back to sleeping through the night.  She goes to bed around 7:30-8:30 pm and wakes up in the morning around 7:30-8:00 am.  She takes two really good naps, usually from 9am-11am and from 2:30pm-4:30 or 5pm.

Best Moment: Watching Winter crawl for the first time.  Also hearing her speak her first word: “mama.”

Worst Moment: Feeling like our sleepless nights were never going to end (thankfully that’s better now).

Health:  Very healthy!  She’s continuing to gain weight and reach her milestones.

Eating:  Lots of changes in regards to her eating once she hit 9 months.

1. We increased to 3 times per day of solids (breakfast, lunch and dinner).  We used to do only twice per day.

2. I dropped one feeding and now we are doing 4 nursing’s a day (instead of 5 and sometimes 6).  Dropping her to 4 liquid breastfeeding’s and increasing to 3 solid feedings, she has really done well with the transition.

Maybe I was a little dumb to drop a feeding at the same time we were sleep training her, but hey—it all worked out!  She’s 9 months old and she doesn’t need to be nursing every 2-3 hours anymore.  I realized that if I was going to drop a feeding that I needed to be consistent 100% of the time with 3 solid meals per day.  When it comes to solids, she doesn’t want “baby food” anymore.  She is totally OVER the purees phase.  She wants “big people food.”  So that’s what we give her.  She eats finger foods (ex. black beans, corn, chopped fruit, cheerios, chopped turkey/chicken, etc).  In addition to finger foods, she is obsessed with yogurt.  SHE LOVES IT!  She can eat yogurt nonstop all day long.  The pediatrician said that is perfectly fine, but just make sure she is getting the full-fat, full-calorie yogurt, not the low cal Greek yogurt I eat.

Here’s her current eating schedule:

7:30am – Nurse

7:45/8:00am – Eat breakfast (ie, yogurt, cheerios, prune juice)

11:30am – Nurse upon waking from nap

11:45am – Eat lunch (ie, chopped turkey, chopped strawberries, yogurt, puffs, water)

2:30pm – Nurse before nap

6:00pm – Eat dinner (ie, black beans, corn, peas, yogurt, water)

7:30pm – Nurse before bed

Likes: Smiling, laughing at herself, crawling, getting into things, standing up.

Dislikes: Lying still while getting a diaper change.

How Mommy is doing: As I mentioned, we are feeling exhausted with all of the house stuff going on these past few months.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel!  We close on our new house in a few weeks.  I know that once we move and get settled into our new house, life will feel a little less exhausting and there will be fewer elements of stress.

Overall, life is great.  I’m beginning my half marathon training for my Denver Rock and Roll Half Marathon (Oct 19th).  The first few weeks of training are always easy as I have maintained running and the distances are what I’m used to already.  In about a month from now, I’ll be running a little longer distances that always are a little intimidating, but that is why I progressively work up to them!

If you missed her previous updates, you can check out:

1 Month Update

2 Month Update

3 Month Update

4 Month Update

5 Month Update

6 Month Update

7 Month Update

8 Month Update

Winter’s 8 Month Update

BABY WINTER’S MONTHLY UPDATE: 8 months old

Again, I am posting late this month (considering she’s nearly 9 months old), but all of this was written and the stats are as of June 10, 2014!

Baby’s Age: 8 months old

Height: 27 inches

Weight: 17 lbs 14 oz

Head: Not sure

Diaper Size: Size 3

Clothes Size: 9 months

Here is a look back at the past few months:

Here is Winter in her Bumbo:

June 10, 2014 – Our theme this month: NO SLEEP!  Those glorious sleep days are OVER.  I’ll explain in a minute…

Can you tell that I am a busy mom with an 8 month old to take care of 24/7??  The fact that I keep getting around to posting Winter’s monthly updates late is just a taste of how little time I have for things these days.  Especially blogging! 🙂  I made a goal to continue with monthly updates on Winter until she is 12 months old, so I’ll bust out a few more months.  I know that when Winter is grown, I will look back and appreciate the time I took to write monthly updates on her during her first year of life.

Winter is growing, growing, growing!  Between 7 and 8 months, she has grown an inch (by my amateur measuring skills, that is).  It’s amazing to see the difference in how much “taller” she looks.  She not only looks longer, but her body is thinning out a little.  Don’t get me wrong, she is still PLENTY chubby, she is just not as roly poly as she was before!  Right before she turned 8 months, we finally put away her 6 month clothes and moved into the 9 month outfits.  I notice I hold out as long as possible to keep her in smaller sized outfits because I hate saying goodbye to her clothes!  Poor thing was stuffed into some of her 6 month clothes like a stuffed sausage!

I have been swearing that we have a teething baby on our hands.  Everything has been pointing to it!  But I am still seeing no “true” evidence of it.  She has been very cranky and fussy.  I am looking forward to seeing something actually pop through at some point.

As I have written about every month, Winter has been a champion sleeper.  She started sleeping through the night at 9 weeks old, as has consistently been a fabulous sleeper (usually 12 hours at night).  That is, UNTIL THIS MONTH!  Over Memorial weekend (she was about 7.5 months old), we said “so long” to those beautiful sleeping patterns.  Her nighttime sleep and daytime nap routines went out the window!  For 3 weeks straight, Winter was waking up 2-3 times every night.  Not just once, but TWO TO THREE times!!!!  That is very, very hard on parents who have been spoiled by a baby who sleeps like a rock for 12 hours.  VERY hard.  Not only did her nighttime change drastically, she also didn’t want to take very good naps during the daytime.  She would only sleep for short periods, or sometimes not at all.  She was cranky, fussy and making mommy feel completely exhausted.  Thank goodness, we seem to have passed the worst of it.  As I said, she was doing that for 3 weeks straight, but she seems to be tapering off—she’s now only waking once per night and she’s back to doing two 2-hour naps per day.

She isn’t crawling yet, but she is very close to it.  She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks.  She can transition from sitting to moving into a crawl position.  It took her a little while to master that maneuver. She would often get “stuck” on her leg.  But now she has skillfully mastered the technique.  Part of me thinks the reason she hasn’t started crawling yet is because she can successfully roll everywhere she needs to go.  She just rolls and rolls and rolls.  🙂 We know that once she begins crawling, our lives will drastically change, so I am in no utter hurry to see her crawl just yet.

Winter is very expressive.  She loves to wave her arms around and clap when she gets very excited about something.  Her little feet and hands are always moving–usually in a circular motion.  Constantly.  She also makes the most hysterical facial expressions!  She loves to scrunch up her nose a lot.

We got to see several family members recently.  At the end of May we took a trip to Hermosa Beach, CA to visit my brother Paul.  While there, we also go to visit Eric’s great aunt and uncle and cousin.  We had so much fun there!  We also had Eric’s parents here in Colorado for several days the first week of June.

Milestones: She is clapping, nearly crawling, is trying to pull herself up on things, and stands against a object.

Sleep: As I mentioned, we have experienced a rough month of sleep.  We really hit a low!  We seem to be somewhat getting back on track, as Winter is only waking up approximately once per night instead of 2-3 times.  She usually goes down around 8pm, wakes to eat anywhere from 12am-5am, and then wakes up for the day around 7 or 8am.  She is back to napping pretty well again.  Her morning nap is 2 hours and her afternoon nap is 2 hours.  The afternoon nap used to be consistently 3 hours, but oh well!

Best Moment: Getting to spend several days with her Grandma and Grandpa Lute!  She adores her grandparents.  We had a great time when they came to Colorado to visit.  We also had a wonderful time seeing Uncle Paul (my brother) in California.

Worst Moment: There have been a lot of bad moments this past month.  Lots of crying, screaming and overall fussy baby…..

Health:  She is healthy and I believe she is teething.

Eating:  Breastfeeding is still going well!  She eats 5-6 times during the day, and lately 1-3 times during the night.  We are eating at around 7-8am, 11-12pm, 2-3pm, 5-6pm and 7:30-8pm (plus any night time wakings).  She is eating 2 meals of solids (morning and evening usually).  She begs for EVERYTHING we eat, so I often feed her tiny pieces of whatever I’m eating (grapes, broccoli, chicken, peaches, banana, watermelon, etc).

Likes: Standing up, playing with her feet, the pets, swimming, eating my food, and jumping.

Dislikes: She dislikes getting her diaper changed lately.

How Mommy is doing: I am doing well.  But I’ll be honest…this lack of sleep is KILLING us.  I mean, we are so exhausted all of the time.  We are doing so many things trial and error to try to get her back to sleeping well.  I know that it’s just a phase and she will eventually get back to sleeping through the night.  But it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel (especially because as I’m posting this blog, it’s been 6 weeks since she has slept through the night, and that’s a long time!).

It probably doesn’t help that we are going through the stressful process of selling our house and house hunting to buy a new one.  That is a full time job right there!!  The good news is that our house received multiple offers within a weekend and we got under contract quickly.  Now the hard part is finding the right house to buy.  We need a bigger house, bigger yard, etc.  I know we will find it!!  It’s just stressful and very time consuming to go through this process.

As far as “post partum” goes, I am feeling great!  I haven’t had time to do a post-baby body update in a while.  I’ve been maintaining my 40 pound weight loss for the past several months.  Breastfeeding is really allowing me to eat whatever I like without much consequence.  I love that!  I still exercise 5 times per week (mostly running and some weight lifting too).  I am registered to run my next half marathon in October, but haven’t begun officially training for it yet.

***Also, I apologize if I have been less than stellar at responding to comments!  I love and appreciate all of your comments, and do plan to eventually write back!!  So sorry that I am not very good at all of this blogging stuff now! 🙂

If you missed her previous updates, you can check out:

1 Month Update

2 Month Update

3 Month Update

4 Month Update

5 Month Update

6 Month Update

7 Month Update

Photos of Winter and Our Family:

Winter’s 7 Month Update

P.S. Sorry this is posted late–I wrote it May 10th and then never got around to uploading the pictures to go with it!

BABY WINTER’S MONTHLY UPDATE: 7 months old

Baby’s Age: 7 months old

Height: 26 inches

Weight: 17 pounds

Head: Not sure

Diaper Size: Size 2

Clothes Size: 6 months and some 9 months

Here is a look back at the past few months:

Here is Winter in her Bumbo:

May 10, 2014 – Okay, I know that every month I talk about  how “quickly time is going” and how much I wish “time could slow down,” but seriously, how on earth do I have a 7 month old baby?!?!  I remember when Winter was just a few weeks old and I would see moms with “older” babies like 6-9 month olds and I couldn’t even imagine Winter being that big or that “old.”  HA!  Now, not only is my baby not a tiny little newborn, she is a full personality, spunky, silly, cute as can be, chubby 7 month old!  She sits up and plays, she attempts motions of “learning to crawl,” and she constantly wants entertainment.  Winter is so much fun!  I don’t miss those newborn days–as cute as she was back then, I love every new stage more and more!  Her personality continues to develop and she is more opinionated about likes and dislikes.  It is incredible witnessing her grow and change.

The last week of April into the first few days of May, Winter and I travelled to Texas to visit my best friend.  Travelling with a baby solo was an adventure!  The last time that I flew with her alone was when she was 5-6 weeks old when we went to Florida to attend my husband’s work project launching into space.  I knew that travelling with a 6.5 month old was going to be very different from travelling with a one month old.  Overall, the trip went well!  Since I am a more experienced mom than I was at 6 weeks, I felt a million times more confident about my ability to travel with Winter alone.  In the airport, I chose to wear her in the Ergo.  I kept my stroller and carseat with me because I actually used the stroller as a “luggage cart” to transport my carryon bag, diaper bag, and my breastpump (which is a little backpack bag).  People stared at me as I walked by, but who cares!  People probably just wished they had thought of my idea to use the stroller as a luggage cart!  On both of my flights to and from Texas, I had really nice gentlemen who helped me get on the airplane.  I had to take the carseat out and breakdown the stroller to gate check them, as well as carry my pump, diaper bag, baby (who I was wearing), and pull my carryon suitcase.  The nice men who helped me took my carryon for me and placed it in the overhead bin.  I am grateful for people who see a woman in need and volunteer their help!

Winter isn’t crawling yet, but I am in no rush for that to happen!  I know that once she begins crawling, our lives will drastically change.  My prediction is that she will master the ability to be mobile (whether it’s crawling or army crawling) within this next month.  She is really “trying” to crawl.  She gets up on her hands and pushes her belly off the floor.  She hasn’t quite gotten onto her knees yet, but she attempts getting on her knees.  I see her frustration–she really wants more independence!

Still no teeth!  That’s ok though!  Again, no rush on that.  We really thought she was for sure teething recently because she was acting differently and being more fussy than usual.  But we haven’t seen any true evidence of teeth yet.  Sometimes she will put something into her mouth, bite down hard and furiously shake her head back and forth….that must feel good on her gums?  Who knows!

At a restaurant, Winter sat in a booster seat/high chair for the first time on Easter weekend!  What a big girl!  She looks so cute and grown up in it.  🙂  We put her in one of those a couple of times since, and we have started to realize that our relaxing days of going out to eat with a baby in tow are pretty much over.  It isn’t that much fun or “relaxing” to have her along with us at restaurants anymore.  I guess it’s time to start thinking of getting a sitter every now and then so Eric and I can get a nice dinner away.

In the past month, Winter has become obsessed with her feet and toes.  She adores playing with them and putting her toes in her mouth.  It’s WAY too cute.  🙂

This little girl is needing constant entertainment!  She gets bored of things quickly!  When she sits on the floor and plays with toys, she moves so quickly from one toy to the next.  She loves shaking toys really hard (especially if they make a rattle sound).  She likes waving things around too.  Even when she is not playing with toys, we’ve noticed that she uses her arms to show emotion a lot.  When she is happy or really excited, she waves both arms out and waves them around.  She nearly claps, but not quite yet.

Winter is getting to be a bit stubborn and a “stinker” sometimes.  One example: she used to smile on command for a picture.  Now, getting her to smile for a picture is nearly impossible!  When we went to get her 6 month photos taken, we were exhausted afterward from our failed attempts to get her to smile.  Don’t get me wrong, she still laughs and smiles A LOT—just only when she wants to.  Not when we are trying to prompt her to do it!

We love this little girl.  She brings us so much joy!

Milestones: Sits by herself for long periods, while sitting she constantly rolls her toes in a clockwise or counterclockwise rotation, she isn’t crawling, but she is “wanting” to–she has started scooting backwards, she isn’t quite clapping her hands–but almost there, she is eating 2 solids meals a day in addition to 5-6 nursing sessions per day.

Sleep: Our rockstar sleeper is still going strong!  She consistently sleeps from 8pm to 8am (12 hours).  She takes 2 daytime naps, one around 9am to 11am (2 hours) and one from 2:30pm to 5:30 pm (3 hours).  After she first learned to roll over onto her tummy, she was always sleeping on her tummy, but I have noticed lately that she sleeps on her back half of the time and on her tummy the other half of the time.  What I do notice also, is that she uses every square inch of her crib!  She moves around so much throughout the night.  Often times she wakes up in the morning in the corner of the crib (sometimes with one of her legs stuck in the rails)!

Best Moment: When she and I travelled to Texas at the end of April/first week of May, on our return flight home, she slept the entire duration of the flight with her head cuddled on my chest/shoulder.  For a baby who is too independent and never wants to slow down to relax and cuddle, it was truly a special 2 hours of getting to have my daughter cuddle with me!

Worst Moment: On the flip side — while travelling, on our flight to Texas, I had a baby who slept briefly, and then cried for portions of the flight!  I nursed her 3-4 times to console her, but those moments where she was belting out loud cries felt stressful to me!

Health:  Winter has been very healthy this past month!

Eating:  After 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, we are now a full month into the addition of solid foods (ie baby food purees–all vegetables so far).  For the first week or two of introducing solids, Winter didn’t know what to think about the new tastes and textures she was experiencing.  Much, if not all of the food was spit out and ended up all over her face!  After a couple of weeks, she started catching on and getting the hang of this whole eating thing.  For the past 2 weeks, she has been doing great!  She went from eating about 1/3 of a 3.5 oz jar of baby food to either 2/3 or all of a jar!  Initially we were only adding solids to her routine around 6pm, but for the past few weeks she has been so interested in baby food that we have been doing twice per day solids in the mornings and evenings.  She is loving pureed carrots!  Those are her favorite.  So far we have tried: green beans, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, avocado, mixed vegetables and chicken/vegetable mix.

She still nurses 5 times per day.  8:00 am upon waking (then solids after), 11:30 am after her morning nap, 2:30 pm right before her long afternoon nap, 5:30/6:00 pm after her nap (then solids after), and 8:00 pm before going down for the night.

Likes: Winter loves blowing raspberries.  She absolutely loves animals!  We took her to a petting zoo and she squealed and waved her arms in delight at the cow, goats and sheep!  She really loves our dog, Koda.  She smiles and laughs when she sees him.  She likes the cat too, but the cat tends to keep a little more distance from Winter compared to our dog.  Winter really likes my phone, go figure!  When we were out of town, we would facetime (or sometimes just call) Eric and as soon as she heard the ringing, her eyes lit up and she smiled.  When she saw her daddy or even just heard his voice, she smiled and cooed out of happiness!  I try to call Eric several times per week during the day just so she can say “hi” to him — she loves it!

Dislikes: She really hates getting her face wiped off after eating solids.  HATES it!  She also hates having her nose wiped if it has been runny.

How Mommy is doing: I know that the choice to be a stay at home mom has been such a great decision for our family.  I truly love my days with my daughter!  I know that Eric struggles with the fact that on weekdays he only sees her for about 2-3 hours before she goes to bed (she wakes up from her nap around 5:30 when he gets home from work and then she goes to bed at 8pm).  That would be REALLY hard for me to be a working mom and only get to spend those few of hours each day with her.  I think I would just die!  It is truly a blessing to be able to stay home with Winter.  I know not all families have this option, but I thank God every day for the gift of all of this quality time with my little precious girl!

As I have mentioned in previous months, Winter and I are very active in our moms/babies group.  At least 2-3 days per week, we spend and hour or two with our friends at various activities….stroller runs, play dates at someone’s house, working out with babies in the carriers (like climbing the stairs at Red Rocks), walks, park days, etc.  We also have mom’s night out with no babies about once per month too.  It’s SO MUCH FUN getting to bond with other moms who are in the exact same stage that I’m in!  We talk about everything mommy related (like breastfeeding, teething, solids, crawling, etc) to birth and personal things (like sex, weight, body image, periods or lack thereof, etc).  I’m so happy that I found this group!  (If anyone reading this is interested in finding a mom’s group, the place I found my group was on http://www.meetup.com.  The group I am in is for moms of babies born in 2013 or 2014, so that way we all have really similarly aged kids!)

If you missed her previous updates, you can check out:

1 Month Update

2 Month Update

3 Month Update

4 Month Update

5 Month Update

6 Month Update

Photos of Winter and Our Family:

Winter’s 6 Month Update

BABY WINTER’S MONTHLY UPDATE: 6 months old

Baby’s Age: 6 months old

Height: 25 1/2 inches (34th percentile)

Weight: 16 pounds even (50th percentile)

Head: 42.2 cm (43rd percentile)

Diaper Size: Size 2 (we are about to move up to size 3)

Clothes Size: 6 months and some 6-9 months

Here is a look back at the past few months:

Here is Winter in her Bumbo:

April 10, 2014 – How on earth has half a year already passed by since Winter was born?!  It seems like you blink and you could miss it.  I’m constantly begging my little baby to stop growing and for time to slow down.  But somehow my wish hasn’t been granted.  🙂

Winter is doing so well.  She sits up all by herself.  Her main activity that she enjoys is sitting on the floor with toys all around her to play.  She grabs a toy and plays with it for about 30 seconds to a minute and then moves on to the next toy.  She is constantly wanting entertainment!  She loves to pick up a toy and shake it really hard, or wave it around.  She has started throwing things, though I think it’s still unintentionally!  When we are at play dates with her baby friends, she grabs toys away from other babies.  She sees a toy she wants, and she takes it.  I guess I’m going to have to introduce the concept of sharing.  For now, sharing doesn’t happen.

I experienced Winter’s first jealous moment.  I babysat all day for a friend’s baby (who is only 10 days younger than Winter) so they could enjoy a day skiing together as a couple.  While I fed the baby her bottle, Winter started getting really fussy and kept reaching her arms towards me!

Winter still has no teeth.  I love her gummy smile.  She is showing no true signs of teething, aside from constantly putting everything in her mouth.  Honestly, she is so darn cute toothless that I am in no rush for any teeth to make an appearance!  I want my baby to stay a baby.  🙂  Plus, I am not looking forward to getting bitten during breastfeeding with those baby teeth!!

Winter is so goofy sometimes.  She makes the funniest little faces and expressions!  My favorite face she makes is when she sucks her bottom lip in her mouth and purses her upper lip while blowing raspberries.  So cute!

She loves playing in her Little Einstein jumper/activity center.  She bounces up and down endlessly!  She loves that thing.

Friends and people are continuously mentioning to us how “good” of a baby she is.  We agree, she is such a joyful, happy little girl!  We feel so blessed by her in our lives.

Milestones: Rolls over constantly (rarely stays on her back for longer than 30 seconds), sits up unassisted, picks up toys and shakes them furiously, sleeps 11-12 hours non-stop each night, has gone 6 months exclusively breastfed.

Sleep: Winter sleeps for 11-12 hours at night without waking up.  This has been extended from a month ago when she was usually sleeping more like 10 hours straight, but I finally got brave enough to drop her late night “dreamfeed.”  Instead of waking her up around 10:30 pm to feed her, she goes down for the night around 8:00 or 8:30 pm after her last feeding.  Her usual wakeup time is around 7:45-8:00 am.  In addition to being excellent nighttime sleeper, Winter is a fantastic daytime napper too.  She usually takes a 2 hour nap every morning (9:30-11:30 am typically) and a 2.5-3 hour nap in the afternoon (usually 2:30-5:30 pm).  I LOVE that she is such a good sleeper!  Mommy is in heaven!

Best Moment: Lots of best moments.  I love how she always smiles at me when I come into her nursery in the morning to get her out of her crib.  She beams when she sees me, and I beam when I see her after missing her for 12 hours!

Worst Moment: Can’t remember any 🙂

Health:  Just shy of a month ago, she somehow caught a cough that lasted for about 12 or 13 days.  It wasn’t anything serious (no congestion or anything too terrible), but it was a lingering cough.  It’s amazing how these germs gets spread around during cold/flu season!  Hopefully we are DONE with sickness for a while!

Eating:  Now that we are hitting her 6 month mark, we are going to begin introducing some solids.  I still need to figure out our exact game plan, but we plan to start with pureed vegetables.  Our doctor said that we could skip rice cereal if we wanted.  As of her 6 month mark, she is still exclusively breastfed.  She has shown much interest in food, so it will be interesting to start feeding her solids!  (Because I am delayed on posting this by a week, we have now been trying to some vegetable purees once per day for the past several days.  We have tasted carrots, avocado and squash.  She isn’t so sure about actually SWALLOWING anything until last night, she finally seemed to get the idea a little bit!  Our pediatrician said that she might be getting vegetable facials for a little while until she actually grasps the concept of EATING.)

As of now, her current nursing schedule looks like this: 8:00 am upon waking, 11:30 am after her morning nap, 2:30 or 3:00 pm right before her long afternoon nap, 6:00 pm after her nap, and 8:00 pm before going down for the night.  5 feedings per day, occasionally 6 if she gets cranky and I put her on the boob (many times around 1 or 1:30 pm she tends to have a “hunger moment” where I just feed her an extra time).  It seems that no matter whether she has just eaten hours ago or 5 minutes ago, she will NEVER turn down the opportunity to nurse.  She loooooves milk!

Likes: Jumping up and down in her bouncer, sitting and playing with toys, rolling all over the place, pulling hair, putting anything & everything in her mouth, smiling, laughing, singing songs, sucking on her wabbanub pacifiers, reading books, putting her hands in her mouth, playing with toys, putting ANYTHING into her mouth, taking a bath, feeling textures, getting tickled, standing up, looking at her reflection in the mirror, getting her hair brushed, getting thrown up in the air, watching the dog & cat.

Dislikes: She occasionally gets scared at loud sounds.  Like one time Eric sneezed really loudly and she started crying!

How Mommy is doing: I’m doing great.  Eric is doing great.  Winter is doing great!  We are enjoying parenthood very much.  We adore Winter and can’t get enough of her.  As a stay at home mom, I am so grateful that I get to spend all of my days with her, so I don’t miss anything.  We are staying very busy with activities with my mom’s group (play dates, park days, stroller walks, swimming pool, runs, etc.).  Life is great!

Twice in the past month Eric and I took an entire day away from Winter to go up to the mountains to ski together.  Though both of us dislike time away from her, we know that in the big picture, 8 or 9 hours apart isn’t going to kill us.  And we know that those times together as a couple are very important in our marriage!  Skiing is our most favorite hobby and we LOVE doing it together.  We plan to take one more day away before ski season ends this month.

As a couple, we trained for a half marathon together over the past 3 months.  We just completed the race together!  It was so much fun training for this race with my husband and daughter!  It was really exciting to run side by side with my wonderful husband and cross the finish line together.  I’m somewhat sad that the race is over, but we are grateful that we get our weekends back since we don’t have to go for long runs that take up a lot of time anymore.  🙂

If you missed her previous updates, you can check out:

1 Month Update

2 Month Update

3 Month Update

4 Month Update

5 Month Update

Photos of Winter and Our Family:

Family Photos

We had our photos taken by C.Klein Photography a few weeks ago at Red Rocks Park and I love how they turned out!

Winter’s 5 Month Update

BABY WINTER’S MONTHLY UPDATE: 5 months old

Baby’s Age: 5 months old

Height: 25 inches (approx.)

Weight: 15 pounds, 1 ounce

Head: not sure

Diaper Size: Size 2

Clothes Size: 6 months

Here is a look back at the past few months:

Here is Winter in her Bumbo:

What Winter is Like at 5 Months: Our baby girl is no longer a newborn!  She is rapidly growing up and constantly learning.  Sometimes we feel truly shocked at how quickly Winter is changing and developing!

A few weeks ago, Winter learned how to roll over from her back to her tummy.  Ever since she learned how to do this, we cannot keep this baby on her back no matter how hard we try!  She is just a little rolling machine.  In fact, because she refuses to stay on her back for longer than 15 seconds, this affects her sleeping style–she no longer will sleep on her back.  When we put her down for naps or night time in her crib, we always lie her in the middle of the crib on her back.  Instantly she rolls on to her side and typically sleeps on her side/partially on her tummy.  In the morning, I usually wake up to her either in the corner of her crib or with her legs stuck in the crib rails — always on her tummy.  She is too funny!  Honestly, her rolling all around scared me at first because I was afraid of SIDS, but now I realize there is nothing we can do to keep her from rolling, so I’ve accepted that is how it is.

Winter is the epitome of a happy baby.  She has a stellar personality and absolutely loves anyone and everyone.  As soon as she sees a person (whether in real life or on Skype/Facetime, she instantly lights up and grins from ear to ear.  She is so social and loves attention!  Whenever we take her to the nursery at church or the nursery at MOPS, we are always praised for what a joy she is to watch.  Everyone adores her.

She is no longer content to lie down and observe or quietly bat at the toys in her play gym…no, no, no — she wants to play and interact constantly!  As I mentioned, she won’t stay on her back for very long, so she rolls on to her tummy and then she plays with toys and wants to constantly be entertained.  Sometimes it’s exhausting because when she is awake, I’m constantly playing with her and giving her attention.  She does enjoy playing and jumping in her Little Einstein exercauser/jumper.  For a while she was too short as her feet didn’t touch the floor, but now she is taller and has discovered how much she enjoys jumping up and down!

She has become very interested in our two pets (dog and cat).  She really likes both of them.  She loves petting (eh–grabbing and pulling) their fur.  She enjoys when the dog licks her face.

Winter is really ticklish.  She giggles and laughs when you tickle under her arms, on her toes and squeeze her chubby thighs.  She loves being sung to.  We sing “What Does the Fox Say?” to her multiple times per day.  She also likes “Jesus Loves Me,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “Pat-A-Cake,” “Bushel and a Peck,” as well as other lullabies and praise/worship songs that we sing.

Sometimes if she starts fussing because she simply wants attention — I start to clap repeatedly and this gets her attention and she stops fussing.  You’ll find me clapping a lot while eating dinner so that we can get through our meal without having to hold her! 🙂  It’s really kind of weird, but clapping works!  It gets her attention.

Several weeks ago, she caught her first bad sickness–the stomach virus.  In 24 hours she vomited 12 times and couldn’t keep anything in her belly!  It was a truly awful experience.  No mom wants to see their little baby go through that.  We felt scared because we were very concerned about her becoming dehydrated at this young age.  We closely followed the guidance of her pediatrician.  We did take her in to see the doctor, and aside from losing a little bit of weight, she was just fine.

Overall, Winter is growing, learning and a very happy little baby.  She is so much fun, and I enjoy every single day with her!!

Milestones: She can roll over in both directions, she is learning how to sit up unassisted, she puts everything in her mouth, she stands up while holding onto our hands, she sleeps through the night, she jumps up and down in her Little Einstein exercauser.

Sleep: Our champion sleeper sleeps 10 hours at night.  She takes 2 long naps (2+ hours) and one or two shorter naps.  She is such a great sleeper!

Best Moment: Finally getting well after her stomach virus.  It felt amazing to have the throwing up stop and get back to normal.

Worst Moment: Watching Winter vomit repeatedly during her sickness.  She puked so much and you could tell she didn’t feel good.

Health:  Aside from the stomach bug, she has been doing great.  She is growing and learning and reaching her milestones on time!

Eating:  Winter is still exclusively breastfed.  We are waiting to start any solids until she is 6 months.  Though she is showing a lot of interest in foods, I am fine holding out for one more month.  Once we start solids, I plan to begin with vegetables and eventually add fruits (start with bland and eventually add sweeter tastes).  We might skip rice cereal as her pediatrician said there is very little nutritional value in cereal.  As for now, she is nursing 5-6 times per day.  Her typical routine for eating is this: 7:30 or 8:00 am, 11:00 or 11:30 am, 2:30 pm, 6:00 or 6:30 pm, 8:30 pm, 10:30 pm.  Sometimes the 8:30 pm and the 10:30 pm feedings blend into one feeding somewhere in the middle–but it really just depends on what we have going on.  I am very laid back and will nurse her on demand if she seems hungry at a non scheduled time.  I still follow Baby Wise, but have realized that I make it into what works for me — I don’t worry too much if I don’t follow it to a T.

Likes: Pulling hair, putting anything & everything in her mouth, smiling, laughing, singing songs, sucking on her wabbanub pacifiers, reading books, putting her hands in her mouth, playing with toys, putting ANYTHING into her mouth, taking a bath, feeling textures, getting tickled, standing up, looking at her reflection in the mirror, getting her hair brushed, getting thrown up in the air, watching the dog & cat.

Dislikes: She doesn’t like it when we aren’t paying attention to her.

How Mommy is doing: Life as a mom is great!  I love spending all of my days with Winter.  We have gotten very busy and involved with my moms groups.  At least 2-3 times per week we have activities going on during the day with my moms group.  Usually walks or playdates at someone’s house.  Sometimes we go swimming or do other fun activities.  I love all of the mom friends I have made and Winter likes playing with other babies her age.

If you missed her previous updates, you can check out:

1 Month Update

2 Month Update

3 Month Update

4 Month Update

Photos of Winter and Our Family: