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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...