We are still having fun with eating time and experimenting with foods. I started you on fruits first and now you really don't like vegetables all that much. We gave you green beans for the first time on March 18th. Your face was awesome! Daddy was laughing so hard he was snorting - haha! You weren't a fan....
Mommy let you feed yourself on March 23rd. You had a good ole' time and didn't really get much into your mouth; most of the food ended up on your PJ, Bumbo, face & hands. I love letting you make a mess - it's one of my favorite things to do with you!
I cannot believe you are 6-months old!! Its like I blinked and 1/2 a year passed. You are getting to be such a big girl. Just in the past week you have figured out how to get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth. Looks like we might have a crawler soon (which honestly scares Mommy a little bit!).
You love sucking on an ice cube in your mesh teether.
Your favorite toy is an empty water bottle that has been smashed.
You think the dogs are hilarious.
You still refuse to sleep at night (which we are working on).
You are really starting to have a voice - which Mommy Loves!
You still love to stare and smile and flirt with your Daddy.
You are starting to love your solids, especially prunes, pears & apples.
Speaking of sleep training. We have been working on trying to get you to sleep longer stretches at night for about 2 weeks now. Needless to say Mommy is tired from getting up with you all night long. Mommy figures that one night you will have to sleep through the night because at this point you really do need your sleep. We have tried to let you cry in intervals and go in and soothe you. The other night you cried for 2-hours straight before you would even begin to settle. Mommy layed on the floor in your room just listening to you cry. It was so hard. We will keep pushing through this and try to get you to sleep. Mommy thinks that one day she will miss nursing you at 2 AM and watching you fall back asleep. You are worth every lost hour of sleep though....for sure!
March 15, 2012: Daddy, the Doggies and I all took you to the park for the first time this week. You had your first ride on a swing and I think you really enjoyed it! Mommy also took you down the slide a few times. The first time you loved it, the 2nd time you didn't really think it was that cool. Looks like we will be taking more walks to the park!
March 17, 2012: Oma and Mommy took you to the zoo one Saturday afternoon. The weather was beautiful and you seemed to enjoy it. Though we should have gone a little earlier because you konked out about 30-minutes in and slept the rest of the time. It was nice getting out of the house though!
Turns out you and I both have a cold. Which means you aren't sleeping, so I'm not sleeping, so we are both not getting better. Your poor nose is super stuffy and I'm using the NoseFrieda on you like crazy; you HATE it. We have been spending a lot of time steaming up the bathroom and it makes your hair super curly. I do have to say though, I loved spending so much time with you laying in bed and hanging out. You were super fussy but super fun all at the same time. It was a good day.
First couple of nights home with a new born are scary. I just wanted to stay up all night and stare at this small child sleeping next to us. I wanted to call the nursery and ask if they could watch her for an hour or two so I could go to sleep. Nonetheless, we made it through. During these first couple of months I spent a lot of time up in the night feeding and shhhing Kendall. I ate a lot of Poptarts in bed and it drove Daddy nuts that there was always crumbs everywhere!
We took you to your first Dr's appointment at After Hours and hated it there. I wasn't a fan of the Dr we saw and if you read on to the ER post you'll see why we also weren't fans of them. So we switched Dr's to Dr Phil. We really liked their office, very Christian and nice, and liked that the Dr gave us his number to call with any after hours questions. This was about the time that you were also not gaining weight very quickly. You were down about 10% of your birth weight and the Dr wanted us to start supplementing with formula. I have nothing against formula and would have used it if we really needed to but I figured you and I could figure out this breastfeeding thing together. We went to see a Lactation Consultant that same afternoon to work on your latch and I decided that we would re-evaluate using the formula if you hadn't gained weight by the next Thursday. So you and I worked really hard over the weekend at nursing. I was sore and you were a hungry girl but by the next Thursday we were at birth weight and you started gaining like crazy from there. So glad I followed my gut and worked through the weekend!
I have to start with Kendall's first trip to the ER because Mommy and Daddy were new parents and were tired and thought she just wasn't breathing right. The nice thing about taking a newborn to the ER is that they see you REALLY fast. They don't want the baby to be exposed to germs so you automatically get bumped to the top of the list. In the end nothing was wrong with you and the really nice ER doctor entertained us for about 30-minutes and $500. We tried to take a picture and this is the best we got. I should have had your Dad take a picture of us on the gurney. Oh well, better safe than sorry!
So on to your 1st bath. I was so nervous about giving one to you because of your belly button. You were so little in the big ole tub and you hated how cold you got. But you were clean and forgot how mad you were after just a few minutes. You still aren't a fan of being cold after the bath though (but who really is...).
One way we kept you calm after a bath was to wrap you up in a blanket. You still love that!
We also loved your hair after a bath. It was so curly and poofy and cute!!
On your due date (9/12/11), your great-grandpa, Papa, passed away. He was an awesome grandpa to me and I'm sure your Papa (my dad) will be a great grandpa to you. You would have loved him!
This was your first time in your bouncer. I thought you might like it and you hated it. Now that you are a little older you are starting to like it, at least for a little bit!
You really loved to sleep at the beginning and I loved to take pictures of you doing so. You were so cute and made the cutest faces while sleeping. You were up several times a night until about 7 weeks so we got to know each other in the dark a lot. Mommy was very tired but you are totally worth every lost amount of sleep. I would lose years of sleep to have you around!
Sometimes, just to sleep, I would put you on my chest and we would sleep on the couch together. Mommy was just as tired as you were.
This was on the way to your first Lobo tailgate. You slept on Auntie Ruthie's chest the entire time. You also crashed on Daddy's chest when we got home. It was a long day for you!
We tried to be on the go with you as much as possible, even though you hated your car seat until you were close to 3 months. Mommy always rode in the back with you so she could be on pacifier patrol. One night we let you ride in the back by yourself and you cried from Nana's house to our house for 20-minutes. Mommy felt so bad about it she never let you ride alone again. You also loved your Ergo. It kept you close to Mommy's chest and you always fell asleep in it.
You also had a little bit of jaundice so we had to do "sun-time" with you. 5 minutes on your front and 5 minutes on your back. You hated to lay on your tummy but we had to do it. Your jaundice was gone by the time you were about 2 months old.
This was the first time on each of your playmats (one at our house and one at Oma's). You like them a whole lot more now.
Funny story about the one at Oma's. Auntie Ruthie put you on you belly on it and forgot to take off the sides. You were probably about a month old and rolled from you belly to your back (which you did from really early on) and hit your head on the side. You were not happy but calmed down quickly.
You were always "milk-drunk" after eating. I loved how your little body would flop over my hand when I burped you. You loved to eat, that is for sure!!
Here are your 1 month pictures. Highlights from that first month included:
- Very little sleep
- Lots of different efforts to get you to sleep and not scream including - Standing next to the running shower, shushing you, pacifier, running the blow dryer, putting you in the swing, Daddy running around the house with you, putting you in our bed to sleep, rocking you for hours.
You HATED tummy time when you were little, so much that you figured out how to roll yourself over REALLY quickly. Dr. Phil said that you were going to be a genius - haha!
How can we forget the poop face?? You would push and concentrate really hard when you had to poopy. We thought it was pretty cute. Daddy would also put you in the poop stance to help you. Somehow it always did!
Not sure what we would have done without the baby swing. You spent hours in this thing, especially when you couldn't sleep at night. I would put you in the swing and sleep on the couch and we would get some sleep. LOVED the swing!
Jami came into town to meet you for the first time and took some really excellent pictures of you. They turned out oh so cute! But you always look so cute for pictures!!
Daddy went camping with boys so we went and had dinner with the girls. You loved watching all the kiddos play and you were super well behaved. Nicki also showed me how to use the Swaddle Me so we could start swaddling you a little better at night. Here you were with all your friends. You had to sit on the back of the couch so Mommy wasn't in the picture.
Auntie Ruthie & I took your 2 month pictures and you were not happy about it at all. You were very moody but we worked through it. Getting so big, even after 2 months!
You must have learned to smile sometime in your 2nd month - I honestly don't remember when your first smile was. But as soon as you learned how to smile you did it all the time. And I loved it!!
We went to the McCall Pumpkin Patch right before you turned 2 months. We dressed you up like a pumpkin and off we went. It was super windy and you were in your Ergo the entire time, asleep. This was the first time I breastfed you in public too. It was slightly awkward but we got through it. Though I obviously didn't feed you enough because you screamed 1/4 of the way home!
Daddy worked from home so I would set you next to him often while I did quick things around the house. This was you and Daddy working one day.
You and AJ in your Halloween onesies that Nana got you guys. You were too cute!!
We went and visited Gunkle one day after the Breastfeeding Support Group. He was so nervous to hold you when you were so little, though I never understood why.
