7 Weeks

Believe it or not, I'm getting something done early!  I'll be leaving for Joplin early Wednesday while our new floors are being installed and will need to pack tomorrow.  So, I figured I'd go ahead and blog while Jason is putting Etta Mae to sleep.

On her 7 week birthday, she wore this little outfit from her Uncle Tyler to support his favorite band, Umphrey's McGee.  She was pretty happy about it!

We started Zantac this week for reflux.  I really hope it helps.  It is so sad to hear her cry from the pain. It makes it really hard for her to eat and she hates lying flat on her back.  She has also started hating the car seat, but I'm not sure that's related.  I'm just hoping this helps!  She goes back for her 2 month appointment on September 10, so hopefully it won't be an issue by then.

My dad came to visit on Wednesday, and we had a good time hanging out.  Of course, she napped most of the time.  That only seems to happen when there are people here, so they never believe that it's not always this easy.

On Thursday, Gina Lawless brought Monroe over for a play date!  Etta Mae and Monroe stared at each other for a little bit then Etta Mae fell asleep (of course - she took 2 two hour naps and a 1 hour nap that day- woo hoo!).  It was so good to see them!  Monroe was adorable and fell asleep in the swing with the hiccups!  I'm looking forward to seeing her again tomorrow while Rea's sister Shelly is staying with her.

We had some fun this week doing tummy time on the Boppy!

We took a little trip to Bentonville this week to go to the workshop for 2 Katie Designs.  They are working on an awesome frame arrangement for over our couch.  But, the reason for our trip was to pick up this awesome growth chart for Etta Mae's room.  I love it!

We were upset on our way home from Bentonville and actually took the pacifier!

It's been an interesting sleep week for Etta Mae.  There were a couple of days when she was an awesome napper!  She had been sleeping at night from 10:30 pm -4 am then from 5 am until 8 or 9.  I thought that was pretty awesome.  I decided to start working on getting her to bed a little earlier though, so we started a routine that includes a bath, coconut oil massage (she's usually crying after the bath so this is super short), eat, swaddle, daddy rocks her to sleep.  It's been going well and gives Jason and I a little time to hang out before we go to bed.  Well, Friday and Saturday she decided to sleep from 9:30 pm to 7 am without waking up!  It was great to sleep, but totally freaked me out that she slept that long without eating!  Last night, she went down around 9 but when I had Jason check on her at 10:30 she woke up.  I know she has a 6th sense about that!  She went back down pretty quickly then woke up at 4 and 8 like before.  Tonight she went down around 9 and just woke up again so Jason is trying to get her back to sleep.  We'll see how it goes!

Nap Time

The next few weeks will be crazy!  Anytime a new sport is starting, Jason has to work a lot more.  And with college football starting this Saturday, he is super busy!  We will be in Joplin at the end of this week, so he will be able to work uninterrupted.  But, I'm a little nervous about Saturday since I will be the one who has to put her to bed.  Wish me luck!

6 Weeks

Hi! I'm 6 Weeks Old!

The last week hasn't been too eventful for Etta Mae.  The good news is, we've started getting the occasional good stretch of sleep at night - yay!  One night she even slept from 10:30 pm - 4:00 am!  And last night, she slept from 3:30 am - 8:30 am.  Hopefully that will become a habit!

I do think we may be dealing with a case of reflux, though.  All of the sudden she hates lying flat on her back and keeps waking herself up with a little cough and a look like she has a terrible taste in her mouth.  And, we've had lots more spit up.  I'm going to call the pediatrician and see if we need to get it checked out.

Very rarely will she take the pacifier.  She usually gags like it's choking her!

We have had a couple of firsts this past week.  On Saturday, we met my friend Lori and her little girl Kiera at the park so Kiera could swing.  Etta Mae, just slept in the Ergo the whole time, but it was her first trip to the park!

Also, I have been too nervous to take her out to eat because she really hates being in the car seat unless the car is moving.  My mom and Dave came to visit Sunday, so we decided to risk it and go to La Huerta.  She cried the entire way in the car so I was super anxious when we got there.  I guess all of the people talking around her knocked her out and she ended up sleeping the whole time.  It was very exciting.  We'll see when I'm brave enough to do it again!

Playing with Daddy!

Cute Little Hands!

And, Congrats to my sweet friend Tiffany on the birth of her little boy, Nolan!  Tiffany and I met when she moved to Joplin our Freshman year of high school and were fast friends.  She lives in California now, and we had so much fun chatting back and forth about our pregnancies.  I couldn't be happier her for her and her precious family!

5 Weeks - An Honest Look at Motherhood

There is no 5 week picture.  I suppose that's because I'm a terrible parent and just couldn't find the time yesterday!

No one ever said that being a parent was easy, and I certainly didn't expect it to be a walk in the park.  I had no idea, though, just how hard it could be.  Don't get me wrong, I am head over heels in love with my child, but she is not an "easy" baby!  

I also had no idea how challenging breastfeeding can be.  Newborns eat every 2-3 hours.  When they go through growth spurts it's even more often than that.  Then, you have evening cluster feeding where it's more like every hour.  I sometimes feel like a human vending machine!  Plus, my kiddo refuses the pacifier, unless of course, the pacifier is me!  I still refuse to give up because A. I'm super stubborn and B. I know it's best for her.  But, it really does take over your life.  I'm not sure how parents with other children do it!  

At 5 weeks old, babies are supposed to sleep 14-18 hours per day.  They generally aren't up for more than an hour at a time, and nap frequently throughout the day.  Unless of course they belong to me.  In which case, they prefer to take 30 minute catnaps so mommy can't get anything done.  Then when they are awake, they are fussy unless they are being held or fed.

It may sound like I'm complaining (ok, maybe a little), but I assure you, I wouldn't give her up for the world. Just for fun, let's take a look at the last day or so...

11:15 pm yesterday - baby falls asleep
2:15 am today - baby wakes up - change diaper and eat
3:00 am - baby falls asleep in rocking chair
3:15 am - I put baby back in pack n play and baby's eyes instantly open so daddy takes her back in the nursery to rock her
4:40 am - baby wakes up again - change diaper and eat
5:10 am- baby falls asleep (I would normally pump after this feeding but was feeling sick so decided to sleep instead)
7:00 am - baby wakes up - change diaper and eat
7:30 am - I hear a crash downstairs
7:45 am - baby falls back to sleep and I go downstairs to see investigate.  Dog has knocked Tupperware off of counter and eaten Jason's chocolate chip cookies that I made for his birthday
9:50 am - baby wakes up - eat and then change diaper.  Then baby immediately poops in clean diaper.  Change diaper again
10:00 am - dog comes into nursery and pukes up cookies.  I pick up puke but don't have time to treat stain on floor
10:30 am - put baby in swing for 10 minutes until she starts screaming
11:00 am - change diaper
11:15 am - rock baby to sleep 
11:20 am - decide to take shower before running going to visit daddy
12:00 pm - baby wakes up while I'm drying hair.  I try putting baby in bouncy in bathroom while I get ready and baby screams bloody murder.  I get ready anyway (don't judge)
12:20 pm - baby eats and change diaper
1:00 pm - we leave to go visit daddy.  Have to park a mile away.  I get out stroller and attach diaper bag.  Stroller falls over because diaper bag is so heavy (no baby in stroller yet) and my water cup gets busted.  Luckily baby sleeps pretty much the whole time we are visiting except to get up and eat some pumped milk that I brought
3:00 pm - leave daddy's office and go to get allergy shot
3:15 pm - stop at Subway and eat for the first time today 
3:30 pm - have to pull over on the side of the interstate because a piece of my car is dragging.  Awesome!
4:15 pm - finally get home - have to pee while baby is screaming bloody murder in car seat - change diaper and feed baby
5:00 pm - rock baby to sleep
6:00 pm - daddy gets home (thank God!) so I can do some laundry and write this blog post that doesn't even include 7-10 pm which is usually when baby fusses nonstop and wants to eat for 3 straight hours :)  Like Sunday on Jason's birthday when he had to finish making his own dinner because she decided she wanted to eat all night!

So basically, this is the hardest job I've ever had.  Is it worth it?  I tend to think so (except during the screaming bloody murder parts). But, I have an entirely new respect for parents!!!!

Now for the good stuff!  Pictures from this week.  Except for on her 5 week birthday because, of course, I didn't take any.

Outtake from the 1 month pics

Waiting on the doctor after I spit up on daddy

Yay! I weigh 10 lbs 8 oz!  Finally past my birth weight 4 weeks later!

Hanging out in the swing

Laughing at mommy's kisses

EDIT: I left out the part from yesterday when I took the blender to the garage to make a smoothie.  I know "they" say you aren't supposed to make it to quiet when babies are napping so they get used to having sound, but it's so hard to get her to sleep that I don't dare take any chances of waking her up!

1 Month

Somehow, a month has passed and our little blessing is a month old!  She is awfully sweet most of the time, but decided to celebrate this milestone by not sleeping more than 20 minutes at a time last night!  Yay!  Finally, at 6 am, I just cradled her in my arm and put her in bed with us so that we could get a little rest. She's lucky she's so cute!!!

The Fourth Week (Already)

In two days, my sweet baby will be a month old.  That is enough to make me want to stay in bed crying all day.  Of course, if I did that I would be a horrible mother so I suppose I won't.

Four Weeks Old

There are so many sweet things she does that I hope I will always remember.  The way she sticks her arms straight out when you burp her (so funny), when she falls asleep eating and looks so peaceful with a little dribble of milk in the corner of her mouth, those precious smiles when she is first falling asleep, the way her eyes light up when she is playing, the way she screams bloody murder sometimes (oh wait, not that).  But overall, she is so perfect and I'm not ready for her to grow up!

I took a few pictures today with some of the tips I learned yesterday.  Still need to do a lot of practice, but I'm learning!

In some non-baby news, today is Jason and my two year anniversary!  Jason is grilling some yummy filets, and we are chilling at the house.  Since the traditional 2 year anniversary gift is cotton, he got me this awesome throw pillow with the names of everyone (and everydog) in our family! I love it!

Three Weeks and Then Some

So, I had this goal of blogging every Tuesday so I could write about the week before.  I guess I made it two weeks before completely forgetting this past Tuesday.  Thanks to Carla Hugg for making sure to call me out on that!  So, I have a little catching up to do!

3 Weeks Old - It took about 100 tries to get this because she was not cooperating that day!  Had to wait for her to fall asleep.

After 3 weeks, we are finally starting to get the hang of each other.  Sort of.  Etta Mae usually throws me a few curve balls.  We have figured out that she is fussiest between 8 and 10 pm (and man is she fussy), she loves being outside as long as she is being held and is not in the stroller, she always falls asleep when I wear her in the Ergo or ring sling which means I can actually get a few things done, and many more quirks!


My dad came to visit on the 26th, and it was great to see him again.  We ran some errands and hung out.  It was nice to have someone to talk to during the day!  Just before he left it started storming and hailing and of course, Etta Mae, was napping.  Luckily, she slept right through it!


That Friday, we took our first "road trip" to Springfield for my grandma's service.  It was a difficult day, but Etta Mae did great, and everyone was happy to see her.  It's still hard for me to believe that my grandma is gone, but I know she is enjoying looking down on her great-granddaughter every day (and I'm sure she gets some good chuckles watching me try to figure out this mom stuff...).  Since we actually put on some decent clothes, we took our first picture of the three of us.  I think it came out so cute!

Etta Mae is right on track with getting more fussy.  It apparently starts around 3 weeks, and she has definitely followed that trend.  It's mostly in the evenings, but she has been harder to console in general.  I hope that it doesn't last too long.  I have been trying to put her down for naps more often to hopefully keep her from getting overly tired.  We'll see if that helps.  She is even napping in her crib for the first time (We finally got to use the Motorola video monitor and it is AWESOME).  It also didn't make it any easier that she went through a bit of a growth spurt in week 3.  She was hungry ALL THE TIME.  I thought I would never get a break or get anything done!


We went back to the pediatrician on her 3 week birthday for a weight check, and I'm happy to report that she was up to 9 lbs 13.5 oz!  Still not at birth weight, but getting sooo close!  The doctor was happy with how much she's gaining and said she looks great.  Of course, we already knew that :)  We do have to go back again next week for another weight check, and I'm hoping she'll be back up to 10 lbs 3 oz so that we don't have to go back for awhile.


This past Wednesday was a busy day for us!  At 11, we went to Terra Tots for the a Baby Wearing meeting.  I wanted some help learning to adjust the new ring sling.  Etta Mae was awesome!  She was awake and alert the whole time and so content.  Of course, once she got in the sling she went right to sleep.


After that, we went to visit Rea and Monroe for the first time since Etta Mae was born.  Lucky for Rea, Monroe was asleep the whole time.  It was awesome to catch up and compare mommy notes!


Everything I've read says that babies don't smile intentionally until about 6 weeks, but I'm convinced that Etta Mae is ahead of the curve.  The last few days, when I kiss her cheeks she flashes a big grin.  It can't be a coincidence every time!  It's the sweetest thing!  One of these days, I'll hopefully catch a picture.


Here are some pictures from the last week and a half!

Just relaxing

Playing with my babysitter

Love this diaper!

Yesterday, I picked up the disc of Etta Mae's newborn pictures!  I must say that Amber Lanning is awesome!  I love every picture!  But, if I had to narrow it down, here are a few of my favorites. Ok, maybe more than a few.  I'm pretty sure I want a wall size version of every one plastered all over my house!

My very favorite!

Tomorrow we are heading to Little Rock for our first overnight trip away from home.  Sunday we'll be celebrating all of the birthdays in Jason's family since most of them are around this time.  Then on Monday, I'll be attending the Shoot Your Kids Workshop from Benfield photography.  Dale Benfield is an awesome photographer in Northwest Arkansas who is actually from Joplin.  In fact, he was the photographer for my senior pictures way back when.  I've heard so much about the workshops that he and his wife Meredith put on, and I've always said I would attend one when I had a baby.  Little did I know it would be 4 weeks after she was born.  It will be the longest I've ever been away from her, but it will be worth it to learn how to take some great pictures of Etta Mae for my blog!