4 Months

We had your 4 month shots and yes you cried just as much as you did the last time.  I hate taking you to get shots.  You look at me like you are wondering why I have let someone do this to you.  While we visited the doctor she told me to start you on cereal and see what you thought.  Then at 5 months we can start some baby food.  That day I went to the store and bought you some cereal but you were not that interested.

Sleeping:  You really do fight to sleep now.  You use to only fight naps and fall asleep at night with a bottle but now you are fighting to go to bed sometimes too.  We are still swaddling you and bouncing you to sleep.  You fight so hard not to go to sleep.  It normally only takes 10-15 min to get you to sleep but if you wake up the process starts all over.  Ugh!

Eating:  You are still eating 4 oz of half breast milk and formula. You started cereal this month.  You still have your tongue reflex so you try and push the food out of your mouth instead of swallowing.  I tried to give you cereal 2-3 times a week but you never really wanted and always pushed it out of your mouth.

Clothes:  You are wearing mostly 6 month clothes now and some 3-6 month clothes fit you.  You are so long that your clothes are hard to snap!

Diaper: Still in a size 2 pampers swaddler.

The weather has started to get really nice.  We have started to spend a lot of time outside.

Our good friends Travis and Kelly had their first baby boy on April 2^nd.  His name is Wyatt so we went and visited them the night they came home from the hospital.  You look so big next to him!

We went to Grandma Vicky’s for Easter and then to great grandma Sues for lunch!  We had a long night before Easter so Lakelyn was kind of cranky on Easter.  Grandma had a fun game planned for Lakelyn.  We had clues around the house that lead us to her Easter basket!  It was really cute and a lot of fun!  Not only did the Easter bunny come to grandma Vicky’s but also to great grandma Sue’s and brought her a new rocking chair!

We got out your jumper this month but you are still to small for it.

6 Months- Thats 1/2 a year!

Holy Cow I can’t believe I have a 7 month old baby! These last 7 months have seriously flown by. Where is that pause button when I need it! Lakelyn has changed so much! Where do I begin!? I have decided that I am going to do my monthly recap at the end of the month so that I can recap everything that she has accomplished when she was this old.

As much as I miss my sweet baby I have really enjoyed Lakelyn this month and she gets better and better each month. Her daddy and I love to sit for hours in the living room and play with her.

Eating: You are eating 4-6oz of formula every 3-4 hours. Most days we can get you to eat 6oz every feeding but you have your off days and sometimes will only eat 4oz at a time. You are eating peas {your favorite}, green beans, carrots, sweat potatoes, apples, bananas and mixed strawberry bananas. You really don’t care for the fruit but seem to love the vegetables. Daycare gets you to eat your fruits by mixing them in with your vegetables. We started giving you a sippy cup, puffs and yogurt snacks. You haven’t figured out the sippy cup yet, we have to hold it for you and then you don’t suck hard enough to get anything out. Same with the snacks, you like them when we put them in your mouth but you haven’t figured out how to get them in your mouth yet!

Sleeping: You are such a good sleeper! We put you to bed between 7-8pm depending on how fussy you are at the end of the day and how well your naps went during the day. You will sleep until most morning around 6:30am. It’s early but I’ll take it over waking up all night long! Some mornings you wake up hungry at 5:15ish and I can give you a bottle and you will go right back to sleep in bed and sleep until I have to wake you up to go to work at 7:30am.

Clothes: You are wearing 6 month clothes and some 6-9 month but they are a little big on you.

Diaper: You are still wearing a size 3 pampers cruiser diaper.

You are a pro at sitting up on your own and have been for a few weeks now. You love to sit and play with your piano and toys. You rode in the grocery cart like a big girl this month and you sit at restaurants with us now in a high chair! You are becoming such a big girl! I wish I could push a pause button because I have really enjoyed seeing you develop this month and become an even happier baby!

Your official first word is “Dada”! We worked with you on this word so I wasn’t surprised. Every time I would say it to you, you would smile real big and shake your booty! So cute! 

This month was your first visit to the grandma and grandpas lake house at the Lake of the Ozarks.  We played on the water mat with you.  You loved splashing in the water although it was hard since you had your life jacket on! 

I am not sure it’s possible but Lakelyn, I love you more each day and can’t believe I am a mother to such an amazing daughter!

Waterful Weekend!

We live in a cul-de-sac and get along with all of our neighbors really well.  Most of our weekends and some week nights consist of sitting outside having a few drinks and watching the kids play.  We cannot wait for Lakelyn to grow up with these kids and be part of the crowd when she gets older.

On Saturday we contemplated going to the lake because it was so windy.  We stayed up way too late on Friday and ended up being lazy.  Lakelyn started her morning playing with one of her new favorite toys, Mr. Elephant.  He blows balls out his nose and makes really funny sounds while he does it. 

After Lakelyn took a 3 hour nap we decided to stay at home and go on Sunday.  We thought our neighbor was going to blow up his water slide but after the blower went out and couldn’t be replaced we had to take desperate measures.  We had Lakelyn in her swim suit so we had to let her play in the water.  So we took Lakelyn’s tub and put it out on the deck and filled it up with water.  I am not sure who had more fun, her playing in the water or me watching.  She loves playing in the water.  She splashes and gets the water all over her face and in her eyes and doesn’t mind at all.  She was born to be a water baby!

Since we didn’t go to the lake on Saturday we knew we had to go on Sunday.  Oh and what do you know, it was windier on Sunday then it was on Saturday!  After Lakelyn’s very short morning nap we headed to the lake.  We got on the water around 11:30 and as soon as we started boating Lakelyn was out.  She slept until 1:15, so Luke and I got some quality relax time on the back of the boat!  Because it was so windy the water was a little chilly but we definitely got in.  When Lakelyn woke up we took her to the swim beach to get out of her life jacket and to play in the sand for the first time.  She loved it!  Again she splashed in the water and played with her water toys.  The girl will not pick up a puff or yogurt melt and put it in her mouth but she picked up sand and put it in her mouth!

After the lake and sand we came home and had more water fun taking a bath!

We had such a great weekend and love Lakelyn so much!!

3 Months Old

Lakelyn really has changed so much from being born to 3 months old. She has really good head control, doesn’t mid tummy time and is really smiling. My cheeks hurt sometimes from making a happy face to get her to smile. She is really working on her hand-eye coordination under her play mat. Daddy saw her figure out how she can make her hand move the toys that dangle over her and he was so amazed. To this day he still talks about it!

Month 3 seemed to be an easier month. Somehow all 3 of us seemed to be on the same page. Daddy and I knew how to make you happy and keep you happy and you knew that when you were upset we were going to make you happy.

Sleeping: Sleeping has gotten even better. You still take your after daycare nap, play and then back to sleep for bed. We still swaddle you and bounce you to sleep for naps and you fall asleep on your own at night with a bottle. You have started sleeping now until 5 and sometime even 6am! It’s so wonderful. Sometimes daddy brings you into bed with us and you will fall asleep in my arms until 8.

Eating: You are now eating 4 oz of half breast milk half formula.

Clothes: Still wearing 0-3 month clothes but they are tight! You are so long, 6 month is still too big so you wear mostly 3 month.

Diaper: You are now wearing a size 2 pampers swaddler diaper! They look so big on you but 1’s are definitely too small!

Every year Luke and I go to the Lake of the Ozarks for our annual St Patricks day of fun.  His parents have a house on the lake so we invite a couple of friends and go down for the weekend.  We take the boat out on the water and cruise from bar to bar.  This year we decided to drop Lakelyn off at grandma Vickys so we could have an adult weekend.  This was the first overnight stay for a weekend.  Luke and I knew we were going to miss her so much.  But we had a great weekend and on Sunday couldn’t wait to get on the road to go see Lakelyn.

While Lakelyn was visiting Grandma Vicky she gave Lakelyn an early Easter present, an exersaucer!  She loved it!

You also rolled from tummy to back a few times this month.  I don’t think you knew what you were doing but we were still amazed of this new milestone you accomplished!

Your daddy and I are so amazed at how beautiful you are. We talk about how lucky we are and how we thought you were beautiful from the moment we saw you. You have such a sweet face that we cannot wait to continue to kiss and see grow into an amazing little girl.

2 Months Old

After 9 weeks of maternity leave I had to go back to work and that meant Lakelyn had to go to daycare. I dreaded this. I wanted to stay at home with my baby where I knew how to take care of her and her every need. I was looking forward to going back to work, because I liked my job, and having adult interaction was going to be great but I had to think of my baby at daycare while I was at work.

I didn’t cry when I dropped her off but it took everything inside of me to hold back the tears. The first day back at work was one of the longest and shortest days of my life. I was so behind at work that day seemed to go by fast but then again I kept looking at the clock and couldn’t wait for it to be 5 o’clock so I could run and pick Lakelyn up from day care. Daddy went and saw her over lunch to check on her. She was asleep in the swing. I got through the morning without crying but I didn’t think I could see her over lunch without crying, so that’s why daddy went to make sure she was okay.

Sleeping: You’re sleeping changed tremendously this month! I forgot to mention previously that you would NOT take a paci. We tried to force it on you but you couldn’t keep it in your mouth.

After we learned to swaddle you with your arms in at week 8 you started sleeping so much better! Your naps however still suffered, especially at day care. You were not a baby that just fell asleep when you were tired, you didn’t like the swing and our bouncer at home was not great. Putting you asleep at night was so much easier then down for naps. You fought sleep so hard. Daycare would get you to sleep by swaddling you and then bouncing you in the bouncer {you liked there bouncer but not ours at home}. At home we would swaddle you and then hold you tight in our arms and bounce on an exercise ball. Then we would pray we could lay you down without waking you up. Sometimes you would only sleep 30min other times several hours. You didn’t have a consistent nap schedule. Since your naps were not very good you were ALWAYS tired when we picked you up from daycare. Which meant you needed a nap from getting home around 5 until bed time between 8-9. Most of the time you would take a nap from 5:30-7 and then we would wake you up, play and then get ready for bed. Night time was the only time you would take a bottle and fall asleep right after eating. We would leave you in the living room with us and then right before bed give you a “dream bottle” {this is when you are sleeping, we stick a bottle in your mouth and you eat sleeping, it was one last chance to get more food in your belly before bed, and hope you slept longer}. We would pick you up and move you to your crib and you would sleep until 3-4am. When you woke up we would change your diaper, give you a bottle and then let you suck on the empty bottle until you feel back asleep, once we knew you were in a deep sleep we would move you back to your crib. This however did not always work! If you woke up while trying to move you, it was back to the beginning of trying to get you back to sleep. I think know I was more successful at getting you to stay asleep then daddy was. If he got up with you, you would stay awake for an hour sometimes; with me it was only 30min.

Eating: You are eating 3-4 oz every 2-3 hours. I couldn’t keep my supply up so we started giving you half breast milk and half formula. That way I could freeze half to send to daycare with you. You were still extremely gassy so we started putting gas drops in every bottle and this help a lot!

Clothes: You are wearing 0-3 month clothes but the 3 month clothes fit you best! You are so long!

Diaper: You are still wearing a size 1 swaddler diaper.

I talk about sleeping so much because it was what we struggled with the most. You were a great baby and happy most of the time. When you cried it was usually because you were hungry, wet or tired. You never really cried to cry, which we were thankful for. Once we mastered the sleeping situation our lives got a little better because you were happier which made us happier!

Lakelyn loved bath time!  She was born a water baby!

Grandma Vicky and Great grandma Sue came to spend a day with Lakelyn.  Grandma bought her a new valentine outfit and did a little photo shoot.  She is so cute!  Great grandma took one of these pictures and put Lakelyn in a local cutest baby contest and Lakelyn won runner up!

Grandma Vicky’s birthday is in February so we tried to have our own mini photo shoot.  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  We took a picture, put it in a frame and gave it to her with a balloon.

1 Month Old

This month was by far the hardest month.  The newness began to wear off and the sleep deprivation set in.  Your daddy went back to work and I didn’t want him to be tired so I got up with you almost every night.  Me and God had a lot of talks in the middle of the night.  I prayed every night for you to sleep good and if you didn’t for the strength to get through the night. 

Sleeping:  You did not sleep good from 4-8 weeks. Around week 4 and 5 you were waking up every 2 hours and sometimes every hour. At times you would cry and cry for no reason. Daddy and I would try everything to try and make you happy. GRIPE water was a savior! If you don’t know what Gripe Water is, it is basically an all natural sugar water. Whenever you would get worked up we could give you a few drops of this and it would get you calmed down enough to get you to eat or take a breather. You LOVED your changing table. Anytime we would put you on it you would stop crying and smile. When you were a baby in the hospital they would swaddle you but you would always get your arms out. We thought that you liked sleeping with your arms out. So when we swaddled you we would swaddle you from your arm pits down and leave your arms out. One night after several long nights of no sleeping, Daddy decided to swaddle you with your arms in. And guess what, you little booger sleep 6 hours straight! From that night on we swaddled you and you slept so much better!! At 5 weeks we moved you from your bassinet in our room to your crib. You were getting to long for your bassinet and Daddy slept better with you in another room since you were such a loud grunter.  Being swaddled you still wiggled a ton but it wouldn’t wake you up since you were swaddled. We would put you in your crib at one end and by the end of the night you would be at the other end!

Eating:  You started eating 2-3oz every 2-3 hours.  You were such a slow eater and got gassy really easy and you would fuss when you needed to burp!

Clothes: You started wearing 1 month clothes and newborns were definitely too small.  You had a big growth spurt and got really long!

Diaper:  You were wearing a size 1 pampers swaddler.

Luke had a work Christmas Party December 16^th.  This was the first night we left Lakelyn with anyone.  Luke’s mom and dad came over and watched her.  She slept most of the time on grandma’s tummy while her and grandpa watched TV.

Daddy and I took you to see Santa a few weeks before Christmas.  I think you were to young to even realize who Santa was, you weren’t scared but not thrilled about him holding you.  After we had your picture taken we had lunch at the mall. 

Lakelyn’s second road trip was back down to see my family again for Christmas. Grandma bought Lakelyn new Christmas pajamas and an activity mat. Although Lakelyn was still a little young for the activity mat but she still loved looking up and seeing herself in the mirror and looking at the toys dangling over her. Grandma and I squished her into her Christmas stocking, it was a tight fit but we made it work! I loved being able to see my family for Christmas and start Lakelyn in the holiday traditions.

Surprisingly Lakelyn sleep most of the night New Years Eve {bless her} but when I woke up I didn’t feel good {and it wasn’t from the drinking}.  Luke convinced me to go see the doctor.  I went to the doctor and told her I felt like I had the flu, cold shakes, hot sweats and high fever {104}.  She sent me home and told me to get over it.  Well after doing some research online and beginning to notice my boob hurt I found out that I had Mastitis {an infection in my boob from a clogged duct}.  I called the on call doctor who called me in a prescription and told me I would feel better in 24hrs.  I went and got the prescription and the doctor was right, in 24 hrs I was feeling better!

"Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn't know you had, and dealing with fears you didn't know existed." Linda Wooten

Birth to 1 Month

My sweet baby Lakelyn-

Bringing you home was the best birthday gift I could have ever asked for.  My birthday was the day after we came home.  I loved being at home with you and daddy, it was a very relaxed day and you were the best birthday gift ever!  Bringing you home was both very exciting and nervous for your daddy and I.  We didn’t know what we were going to do when we got you home.  Who was going to be there to tell us everything right and wrong, or when you cried who was going to help make you stop!  Fortunately it all came very natural for us both.  Plus you were such an easy baby that really the only time you cried is when you were hungry.  You were so tiny, daddy would carry you around with one arm.

Eating:  Breast feeding was not as easy as I thought it would be. I had imagined that I would just pop you on the boob and you would start eating. You would do really good one feeding and then not the next. You were getting frustrated and so was I.   You were hungry and I felt like I was starving my baby. So I finally decided until my milk came in I was going to feed you formula, this was really hard because I wanted to breast feed and I was afraid after you had the formula you wouldn’t want to go back to the boob. However the lactation consultant at the hospital assured me you would prefer my boob over the formula. After being home for a few days and pumping, my milk came in, we went back to the lactation consultant who helped me with breast feeding again, she decided I should try a nipple shield and this helped some but still was very difficult for you to get as much milk as you wanted. I continued to work with you at home with the nipple shield but after a week or so I decided I would pump and feed you with a bottle. I came to this conclusion because 1) I would never be a person who breast feed in public 2) You would take 20-30 min on each boob to eat and still not be satisfied 3) I was paranoid you weren’t getting enough to eat. So after a few weeks I began pumping exclusively and giving you my milk in a bottle. You ate 2-3 oz every 2 hours. We went to the breast feeding clinic every 3 days for 3weeks until you were back up to your birth weight and to make sure your jaundice levels were normal.

Sleeping:  We woke you up every 2 hours during the day and 3 hours at night until you were back to your birth weight. After that we were lucky to get a 4 hour stretch at night without you waking up. The first few weeks of life you seemed to have your nights and days mixed up. You would wake up at 3am sometimes with Daddy and stay up for several hours, just wanting to look around. Daddy went back to work after a week of being home so I stayed up with you most nights. There was no reason to have Daddy being tired at work when I could sleep during the day when you slept. Daddy did a great job of getting up though when he knew I was really tired. Getting 4-5 hours of straight through sleep made me feel like a refreshed person. The first few weeks everything was so new and getting up in the middle of the night several times didn’t really bother me. At this time you slept in the bassinet in the pack in play in our room. You were such a noisy sleeper, I didn’t mind but Daddy had a hard time sleeping though your grunts.

Clothes:  You wore a newborn size but 1 month was just a tab to big. 

Diaper:  You wore a new born pampers swaddler diaper.

You love bath time!  I was very surprised but even your first bath you didn’t really cry.  You loved having your hair washed!  The first few times we washed you in our bathroom sink but then after your umbilical cord fell off we put in the baby bath tub.  I loved giving you baths because you enjoyed them so much!

Lakelyn’s first road trip was November 23^rd, only 5 days old! I wanted to have Lakelyn early so that we could go back to my hometown for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I wanted to be sure I could be with my family for the holiday. Holidays just aren’t the same when you can’t spend it with your family. Lakelyn did so good. She slept the whole car ride down, slept her normal at night, so she got up every 3 hours, and then slept most of Thanksgiving while she got passed around and then slept the whole car ride back. She was such a good baby!

Catching Up the last 6 Months

I wish I would have started this blog when I was pregnant. I know there are so many memories I wish I would have written down to remember for the next time I am pregnant or to compare to the next baby. I look forward to looking back and remembering all the little memories that are not always remembered, they may not be significant now but will be fun to read later in life. I want Lakelyn to read this when she is older to see how important she was to me and her daddy. Lakelyn just turned 6 months on May 18th. I feel like my memory hasn’t completely gone yet so I am going to try and play catch up over the next few posts.