5 months

I love Horton!

Come at me bro

Our little sugar plum is now 5 months old and just getting cuter each day!! This month we have met 3 little newborns, including Miss Delaney, one of my best friends, Alex's baby. When we got to hold her, our hearts just melted, thinking about how fast our little one is growing! Avery was just as teeny not very long ago! Already makes me want another one..but NOT anytime too soon! ;-) We are so happy to have more friends joining the parent club too. What an amazing journey it is. Every day brings even more joy and than the day before and our love for our her grows exponentially. Sometimes I just stare and admire her every little feature and think my heart might actually burst with love. Then she'll claw my face up while simultaneously sending projectile spit up into my hair and I'm quickly brought back to reality. Funny how I don't even mind though, because every smile and laugh from my sweetie makes every messy moment more than worth it.

Avery looking like a big girl!

Tiny, Sweet Delaney Marie

Wave to the camera!

 At 5 months our favorite things have been:
SPRING BREAK!! A week together was just what we both needed. We went to see Gigi and her new house in OKC with Aunt Lacy and her girls and we had a blast. We went to the zoo and Avery and the weather were both PERFECT! I carried her around in the Bjorn all day and it was awesome!! She would take little naps on my chest, then pop awake and just stayed as happy as could be. Mema and Pepa came up and spent some time with us too, and it was so good to see them!!!

Taking a nap on mommy. So sweet!

All the girls on the tram

Checking out the other passengers

With Aunt Gigi

 Making this no-lips grin!

Horton stuffed animal, being outside, babbling conversations, snuggling with Mama and Daddy,

 PETTING ABBY!

Pulling on faces and her own feet, chewing on everything she can get her hands on, "superbaby" at a reasonable height, reading, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT (most of the time) and

LEARNING HOW TO SIT UP!!

Things we don't like at 5 months:

green beans, peas, the carseat, when mommy walks away, doing "superbaby" too high in the air, sitting in the high chair without food, having to sleep anywhere other than her crib, when people talk to loud, getting dressed, and hats. 

Things we aren't sure about:

avocados, bathtime and strangers.

Can't wait to see what milestones we will hit this month, and how her little personality will continue to develop!! 

4 Month Fun!

This past month has been so busy! I know I say that every month, but really. We've had 3 baby showers, 2 birthdays and Valentine's day! Avery weighed in right at 12lbs and measured 24.75 inches at her 4 month check-up. She has dropped from the 35th to the 9th percentile in weight, which I was concerned about except she's gone from the 32nd to the 60th percentile in height. She's getting tall and skinny!! She is babbling and trying SO hard to talk and mimic us! It's so funny, you can literally see her brain working to try to say "I love you" back to us. When we kiss her she smacks her lips back and gives us sugars too! Either that or she's trying to eat our faces, but I say it's kisses!! She is a drooling machine too. I've thought she was teething on a couple of occasions but I think she is just a slobbery baby that likes to chew on everything already. She also loves blowing spit bubbles, and we found out last weekend LOVES to FaceTime on my phone!! Avery has recently become very interested in food and leans in to try take bites while I'm eating, so I've let her have a taste of my sweet potato and mashed potatoes off my finger. She's also gotten to smack on an orange wedge and a slice of strawberry. She loves it so I've been excited to feed her for real! This morning, for the first time, we gave her baby oatmeal. The first couple of spoonfuls she was unsure about, but once she figured out what was going on, she wanted more more more! She tried to take the spoon from me and do it herself. She's already so smart!

My absolute favorite new thing she does--laughing. She's been doing a halfway chuckle time laugh since she was about a month old, but now, full on belly laughs that completely melt my heart. She did it the first time on Valentine's day and I'm on a constant mission to get more laughs, but she makes me work so hard for it!! She's got to be in a good mood and I have to blow on her belly and tickle her at the same time and she might let out a couple of giggles. I have to work on being funnier I guess! 

Daddy's Valentine

No more pictures Mommy!

Playing the drums with Daddy!

Ooohh I like this stuff!!

I can do it myself Momma!

Give me the spoon.

All gone!!

3 months...a little late!!

So Avery is actually 3 and 1/2 months now, but I've been so busy that I haven't thought too much about the blog! She is at such a fun age! She has started flipping over (on purpose now!! ) in both directions and I've been lucky enough to see both of those the first time!! She did belly to her back on January 20th and I actually have it on video!! She started going from her back to tummy on February 3rd and now does it almost every time I put her down to play!! Sometimes she just gets stuck on her side and it's so cute! She also spins and rotates on the floor and especially in the crib where she can kick off the sides. That's right, she sleeps in the crib now!!

I wanted to wait until after 4 months to move her out of our room, but after going back to work I was just not getting enough sleep. We go to bed after her and I have to get up so early I was tiptoeing around in the dark trying not to wake her. Plus I slept sooo lightly with her in there that I'd wake up to her every toss, turn, grunt, snore and fuss. She and I both sleep so much better in separate rooms. I'm so glad we have the video monitor though because I just roll over and look at my night stand and can see her in her bed. She likes all the room and is even rubbing a bald ring around her head from all her squirming and dream dancing! I'm so glad we are blessed with a good sleeper! She has slept all the way through the night a few times and besides a couple of nights of not feeling well, she usually only wakes once for a feeding. She is doing really great at soothing herself to sleep for naps and sometimes bed too. In fact I think it's how she prefers to go to sleep. Sometimes she is so fussy and tired that rocking and bouncing her just pisses her off! Haha she just wants to be left alone in her crib and she sticks in her thumb and passes right out!

She is loving playtime, books and toys more and more too. She is getting really good at grabbing toys and it just so smiley and happy playing on the floor. My baby is getting so big!! I think she's about 12 lbs but we'll see what the doctor's scale says here in a couple of weeks. She's wearing 6 month sleepers now but still 3 month clothes. She's eating bigger bottles and preferring bottles to nursing now. I think it's because she can take a bottle while sitting up and looking around at the world! She's so curious and already very easily distracted! Lol :-)

First time in the exersaucer!

Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Being a working mom is so hard. I miss her so much and I hate that I miss out on most of her happy awake time. By the time I get home she's so worn out, it's just dinner and bed for her. Then she may or may not get up once or twice before I'm back at work. I hate it. I love getting a full nights rest when she does sleep all night , but then I miss out on that middle of the night snuggle and feeding. I live for the weekends and cannot wait for spring break!! 4 1/2 more weeks. I am going to just play and love on her every second that I'm off!!

She loves grabbing and shaking this ball!!

She finally doesn't hate her bath!!

Pretty baby!!

She fell asleep playing. So precious!!

12 weeks

Well we've made it out of what they call the "4th trimester"; my hormones are supposed to be back to normal-ish, although the night sweats say otherwise. And my baby is no longer considered a newborn, but now just an infant. I went back to work this week and it was better than I anticipated. Sunday night I was super emotional and today I feel the Sunday blues coming back to me again. Leaving Monday was tough, but I was fine once I got to work. The days go by pretty quickly, but the week seemed to drag on. By Wednesday I felt like the walking dead, and Friday morning I was emotional again.
The hardest part has just been trying to find my groove in the schedule. I shower at night to have more time in the morning, but between adjusting my schedule around Avery's and still trying to pump before work I'm barely getting there on time. Then I'm spending my breaks pumping when I need to somehow eat lunch and be planning/at meetings, but I just feel rushed and miserable. On top of that I'm only producing about half of what she eats while I'm gone, so reluctantly we are supplementing formula a little bit. I don't know why, but it just makes me feel inadequate and crappy. I know the majority of babies eat formula and all that, and I don't think it would be upsetting to me if this had happened while I was on leave. I think because I know that me being back to work is the problem, it just breaks my heart. I find comfort in knowing that she is getting part of "me" while I'm gone, and to know that's not enough is upsetting. This afternoon I'm going to look for a couple of supplements that are supposed to help boost supply though. Hopefully they work!!

I'm just so glad she is finally taking the bottle with no problems! She is doing so great with it now so I'm not worried about her starving until I'm back!! She's growing so fast and just gets prettier every day. I think she's about to outgrow her 3 month footed pjs, but still has a couple of weeks in the other clothes. Most pants and onesies are a little baggy on my skinny girl! After breaking out in hives one day, we've learned we still need to be washing all the new clothes before she wears them. We did that with all her newborn sized stuff but I've been lazy about it as she's gotten bigger.. I usually just pop tags and go, but after her reaction to the last outfit, I won't be doing that again!! Scary.

The latest milestones for Avery.. She is cooing and trying to laugh every day! In her sleep she rolls to her sides, but isn't making it all the way to her belly. She's outgrown the bassinet part of the playpen and I think she enjoys having the room to sprawl out in the main part of it. She somehow turns her body about 90 degrees from where I lay her. She is napping in her crib now and doing great with it. I think she'll make the transition to her own room in another month or so.
I'm not ready yet! She's always loved to snack on her hands but can now isolate her thumb or one finger to suck on and it's still the cutest thing to me! She's gone from swatting the toys on her play gym to realizing she can grab them! I'm working on trying to get her to grab other toys and stuff. And she's also discovered her lungs.. She used to wake so quietly and start with small fusses until I picked her up. Now she goes from dead asleep to WAHHHHHHHH in no time. She thinks it's funny too, because when I peer at her over the playpen she is all smiles. Little toot!

Back to work...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! We did. Avery got absolutely spoiled and was such a good sport at Christmas going to both of our family's and being passed around from everyone! So awesome too that her first Christmas was a white one!! I wish we would have taken more pictures in the snow though!! Funny that last year we were hosting a big NYE party at our new house and this year we were all in bed by 10:30!! Lol

Well tomorrow fun baby time is officially over. It's back to work for me. These last 11 weeks have gone by so fast! I can't believe my maternity leave is already over.

I know I'm leaving my baby with the best possible person though. My sister Lacy will be watching Avery at our house and if she loves Avery half as much as I love her
girls, we'll be ok! She's a baby expert and has been my biggest source for help and advice since the early days of my pregnancy. We are so lucky to have her!! I think I'd die a little inside if I had to leave A at daycare this young!! No matter who you're leaving your baby though, it's going to be hard.. We have left her for a few hours at a time here and there to run errands and go on a few dates, but all day every day is a whole other story!!

I technically could take a few more weeks off, but while losing full pay, it's just not feasible. I took Avery up to my school for their holiday party, and I'm so glad I did. I realized how teeny tiny my little first grade babies still are, and I remembered how much I do miss them. It helped me to look forward to my return a little more than I was, but it's still going to be tough these first couple of weeks. I've never been one to want to be a stay at home mom, unless of course, I had an infinite amount of money. I do like to work and I like to make my own money, and ultimately I'll be providing more for my family by working, but I would love just a few more months with my baby. I know being a working mom is the reality for most Americans, and most people only take 6-8 weeks of maternity leave while I've luckily had 11. So the countdown to spring break and summer will just be filled with more anticipation from here on out!

I'm so glad tomorrow is a work day so I'll have time to gather my thoughts, get reacquainted, prepare the week's lessons, set up where I'm going to pump, make copies and call to check in on my baby! Then I'll be ready to see the kiddos on Tuesday! One of my New Year's resolutions is to leave work by 4:30 every day. No more being the last teacher there at 6pm! It might mean I'm not as much of a perfectionist, or that I have to bring some papers home to grade, but I'll be a better mother and wife for it. Wish me luck!!

Here's some pictures, just because my baby's cute!