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5 months old and a very merry Christmas :)

We all had an amazing Christmas!  There was a lot of driving, but Daughter did pretty well in the car- not too much fussing.  She even got into gift opening at the last Christmas :)

Yay for wrapping paper!  (in her right hand)

"stop talking, Grandpa.  My cousin is telling a story"

cousin says "try my thumb"

"I'm full and content"

Angel!

She got really fussy and her sleep schedule was thrown way out of whack, but we all had fun. 

Last night she slept 12.5 hours straight!  Mama was able to get an 8 hour stretch of uninterupted sleep.  I feel like a new woman!  Generally she goes to sleep around 7 and sleeps for 8 hours- so up at 3ish to nurse and goes back to sleep... but last night... awesome!  Woot woot!

Wonderful puppy :)

This is the best puppy in the world (for our family)

I took that when he came in the house with a snowball on his nose. 

Anyway, Daughter was on my lap on the couch today when Mookie came over for some snuggles.  I put my arm around him and was petting him and Daughter reached out and grabbed some fur.  I said "No, Daughter", and disentangled her tiny hand.  Once I got her to let go, Mookie gave her kisses.  This happened around 5 or 6 times.  Mookie never snapped at her or got upset- he just gave her kisses when she let go.  In the end, Daughter got upset with me for continually saying "No" and loosening her grip on Mookie.

Mookie's an awesome dog.  We're so blessed to have him as "puppy brother" for Daughter :)

I got a good pic of Daughter's hand while nursing today.  Doing the "breast stroke"

our happy girl :)

Christmas train!

Living in the middle of nowhere, it's hard to drive an hour to a mall to see Santa.  So Santa came to our little town by train!

When we took her out of her snowsuit she was so warm!  I'm suprised that she wasn't fussing.  But she loved the lights so much!  And the fireworks :)

It was a late night for her.  She didn't get to bed until 8:30.  But then (after being up for about an hour at 5:00) she slept til after 9!

She made a 10 hour stretch last night :)

Fighting sleep

Every baby fights sleep.  And it annoys and aggravates parents... but sometimes it just makes me laugh.  Daughter is so darn cute when she's fighting sleep!  When I put her down for a nap, if she hasn't started fussing yet, she usually goes peacefully to sleep.  But if I don't catch on to the tiredness before the fussing begins, I need to rub her tummy and keep replacing her nub nub (pacifier).  I stand there rubbing and she starts to drift... then she realizes it!  *WAAAHHHH!*

It's so darn cute.

Now, because I'm so busy, what with the tummy rubbing and nub nub holding, I've never gotten a pic or video of the oh-so-cute fussiness.  Maybe someday... but she'll probably wake up more for the camera.

Anyway...

I'll leave you with a picture of her enjoying daddy's Guinness :)

Nursing is hard... but it does get easier

I feel so blessed that I'm able to nurse Daughter.  So many people can't for any number of reasons. I know that many mothers really want to, and try so hard, but never succeed. 

It started to get easier about 2 months ago.  Then much easier about a month ago... I still have the occasional blister, but I'm toughening up.  Now Daughter is teething so she occasionally chomps.  Still- so much easier than it was at first!

Did I mention that 8 hour stretches at night are now the norm?  They are!  Plus then she usually goes back to sleep in about 30-60 minutes for another 2-3 hours :)

While nursing, she often strokes my chest.  It's like she's trying to swim.  It's so cute!  And I just love to look at her little hands on my chest.

Also adorable, is the addict look she gets in her eyes.  Like she's getting her fix- her eyes roll up into her head as I've seen countless times on Intervention.  A look of pure ecstasy without the actual Ecstasy!

Obviously, there are no pics of her nursing, so you can't enjoy how she looks while nursing... but I'll share some other pics :)

stop singing, Grandma!

Always happy to help with laundry :)

Christmas card outtakes

 At this point we decided to sit down for the pics...

Then we took some pics of Daughter alone... this is a very funny progression.

I'm ok...

I'm less than ok...

NOT OK!!!!

Ahhh... nub nub.

Thankful Thanksgiving and 4 months!

Thanksgiving 2012 was our first BFP telling us that Daughter was still with us :)

Captions are her words, translated into English.  Not everybody speaks baby, so translations help ;)

Hmmm... What's this thing?

There's a baby in there!

Mama wants help putting laundry away.  This goes in my mouth.

The top two pics are when I held my phone in front of her during tummy time.  In the second she was getting so close to rolling over! 

It's snowing in ND.  I had Daughter looking out at the snow and I was telling her about being a Snowflake :)

Speaking of Snowflakes, one of my friends had this up on FB.

Snowflake nursery wall decall

I'm seriously thinking of getting it... even though her nursery is already decorated.  I wish I could find that saying in a frame instead...

4 month well child

Daughter had her 4 month check yesterday.  I can't believe she's growing so fast!

She got three shots.  She had already been very fussy all day, so I really wasn't looking forward to it.  Luckily, our clinic really encourages nursing right after shots so they left the room to let me calm her down with a bit-o-boob.  Once she was calmed, I took this pic...

She's short... only 16% for height (23.5 in) but 45 % (13lb 13 oz) for weight.  Her head is 72%!  She must have a really big brain!

I asked about the percentages for a breastfed baby, and the Dr said there were only charts for premies or term babies.  I had heard a lot about the breastfed charts, so I just looked it up.

kellymom breast fed growth chart

According to that, Daughter is over 50 % for weight :)

Daughter can read!

Not really, but I got a great pic of her looking at a book :)

playing with Mookie

She has a walker!

She can't reach the ground yet... but when we push her around in the walker she has fun.  And there are toys to play with on it :)

Daughter's one year anniversary!

Daughter came into our family exactly one year ago today!  She was so small! 

She was thawed with two of her siblings, one of them didn't survive to be transferred.  Daughter and her sibling who were transferred are in the pic.  The sibling didn't attach.  So two more of our children are in heaven.

Here's some pics of Daughter one year later.

Daughter helping with laundry

fresh from the bath- pre-combing!

new way to play with play mat!

It's been an amazing year.  We are so unbelievably blessed.  God is awesome.  

Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."  

Well, Daughter, you weren't formed in my belly, but through EA, that's where you grew.  God knew you from conception.  He has plans for you.  You're our miracle and we'll always cherish you :)

Teething?

Pretty sure daughter is teething.  She's gotten really fussy and the only thing that will calm her is teething gel and sometimes baby Tylenol.  Twice after getting baby Tylenol, she's slept an 8 hour stretch!  But last night, she seemed ok without it, so we didn't do it and she woke up every three hours.  This morning she took a pretty good nap after some teething gel, so I got a nap in.  But she's still much fussier than normal.

Hopefully she'll get past this soon!

Niece was born!

This weekend Daughter and I went down to visit my sister and new niece.  She's so darling! 

one day old Niece and 3 month old Daughter

Daughter gets hot easily

Smiling in her bouncy chair :)

Sleeping on the walk yesterday

I just love the first pic.  It's at the hospital and Niece looks like a little doll compared to Daughter!  God has blessed our family immensely :)

Daughter gets hot so easily.  We keep the house 68 during the day and she can only be wearing a thin cotton layer, no fleece for this girl!  Sometimes she can sleep in a fleece sleeper, but we do lower the temp at night.  Otherwise it's just a cotton sleeper and a sleep sack.  The pic was at my sister's house.  With a newborn, they had the house at 70 or 72.  Either way, way too hot for Daughter to wear clothes!

Our little pumpkin is 3 months!

My mom kept asking if she could carve a pumpkin and put Daughter in it.  I told her OK- as long as she did the pumpkin carving and the clean up.  She was all excited.

Well, now she's staying near my sister who will go into labor any day... so she was going to have my dad do it yesterday.  He carved the pumpkin, but because it was in the back of his truck it was way too cold to put Daughter in.  So Mat and I had to do it last night...

I knew that Daughter would not like it.  But, because we love my mom, we did it.

Eeeek!  What are you doing to me?!?

I don't like this...

Get me out of here!

I'm going to start bawling in 3...2...1

Not in a smiley mood today for a three month photo

I blame today's fussiness on the fact that the pumpkin is still on the table.  We seriously only had her in it for about 30 seconds- but that was 30 seconds too much time in a pumpkin!  Grandma is happy, though.  Daughter will get over it eventually... and we got some hilarious pics :)

Mr Potato Head

This weekend some friends from the cities came up to meet Daughter.  And shoot... that was fun.  We used some potatoes for some reactive targets and boy did they react!  We also put up a stuffed bear...

Friend meets Daughter

Today my dad came out so I could get some work done and he would watch Daughter.  Guess what he brought?  

 So I took it out for a few rides.  Just a few miles... but it was awesome!

Daughter hung out with Papa while I was having fun riding around.  Mat and I will probably get one of those eventually... but it's a long ways down the road. 

I never realized...

that I would often have a lullaby stuck in my head. 

that I would really enjoy grocery shopping by myself.

that sleeping for a 6 hour stretch would seem like a dream come true.

that I would get mad when a fast food restaurant along the freeway didn't have a changing table.

that spending $40 on a new play mat would seem like a bargain when I see the joy daughter gets out of it. 

that I could get so much joy out of being a mother :)

"I can't put my arms down!"

God has blessed us so incredibly with our little Daughter. 

The cutest baby in the world!

I may be biased, but pretty sure she's the cutest :)

12 lbs 4 oz!

Woah!  Daughter is getting big quick!  I brought her to get weighed today and she's now 12 pounds 4 ounces!  She'll probably double her birth weight by the time she's three months!

waiting to be weighed

So she's been gaining 1.6 ounces a day on average.  Yikes!  She's getting so big!

Busy weekend and a long Monday...

This weekend Daughter and I went down to the Twin Cities for my sister's baby shower.  It worked out that my nephew was getting an award at school, so went a day early so we could go to the ceremony.  We car pooled with my mom, so that we wouldn't have to do the entire car trip (4+ hours) alone.  It was a very busy trip, but fun.

On Friday after my nephew's ceremony, I was able to meet up with some NEDC friends.  Ome of them lives in my sister's neighborhood, so I strapped daughter on and walked over.  One of the friends has twins from NEDC, and one is going for her first transfer in November.  They are wonderful ladies!

Yesterday Mat let me get a good nap (after my mom had taken night shifts with Daughter over the weekend) so I was the most rested I had been since we had Daughter.  I still had to get up to pump, but it was much faster to do that than nurse and get Daughter back to sleep.

Last night she didn't go even a 3 hour stretch.  She cluster fed from 7-10:30, then woke up at 12:30 to feed again.  It proceeded like that all night.  I was not well rested.  This morning she went 3 hours nd napped in her swing.  I took the chance to nap myself.  Good thing, too...

She had a total blow out.  All over her clothes, my clothes, a flannel changing pad, a comforter (the changing pad was on a bed) another changing pad (I switched) and I just had to give her a bath.  This was her first bath with mama solo.  We've always done tag team baths... I did pretty well.  She didn't drown and she got clean.  As I laid her down on a third changing pad (this time using a disposable blue pad thingy) she peed through her towel and on the pad.

And she was pretty fussy all day.  And I had to work... Mat brought home Subway and showered and took over.  Both so I could  get some work done and so I could get some respite.

It's a good thing she's so darn cute!

Honestly though, I waited 5 years to be pooped on.  It was worth the wait :)

Daughter's first cold

It hit her and me on Thursday.  Mat on Friday.  We're thinking we probably picked it up at the clinic on Tuesday. 

Last night she couldn't sleep because she couldn't breath well through her nose and she doesn't know to breath through her mouth.  So at about 2:30 (after already getting up twice to nurse and calm her... even though she usually makes it until 1 or 2) I went to nurse again and when she fell asleep on my lap I just went with it.  Reclined the couch and tried to get some sleep myself.  Didn't really work, though... and she was still pretty fussy.  She woke with a cry every 1/2 hour or so and I had to calm her back down. 

I'm so tired.  Now she's sitting in her swing content.  I may try to get some sleep....

Tender Transitions

I went to the breast feeding mothers support group, tender transitions, yesterday.  It's an hour away, so I only went because Mat had an appointment there.  They weighed Daughter and she had gained 6.5 ounces since Friday!  She's really growing!

There were a couple of lactation consultants there.  One tried to help me with my blister problem, but the only advise she had was the same as Pauline's (the LC I had seen for private appointments).  Just pump for a while when it becomes unbearable.  Once it heals, put Daughter back on the breast.  She also said that it might be because I'm fair skinned... but, oh well.

So I've been pumping.

After TT, I took daughter to the floor that Mat was on.  She was getting really fussy so I ended up nursing again in the waiting room!  Thank goodness for nursing covers! I used this tutorial
http://madebythemamamonster.blogspot.com/2008/04/nursing-cover-tutorial.html
but made some adjustment. No D ring because my neck is always the same size... less boning because I wanted a bit more privacy.

here's a pic...

I'm going to make one for my sister :)  She wants one in a solid fabric though... I don't have any n my stash.  Guess I best get shopping!

I also made one of theses...
http://www.thecoterieblog.com/2012/05/diy-modern-nursing-shawl-sew-one-line.html

but I like the other so much I haven't even used it yet.

And here's a pic of Daughters "smiling for daddy" yesterday.  It's not the best quality, but it's a very happy pic :)