Bad, Bad Blogger

Well, life has gotten away from me! Adelyn is already four months old...going on five. She has continued to change daily. I jinxed myself when I wrote that she was sleeping through the night. That same night, she stopped doing it. Now she's back to it for the most part, although last night she was up every two hours with gas. Not fun!

She hit a growth spurt right around her four-month birthday. I couldn't keep up! We had to supplement with a bit of formula. We've finally found some that works fairly well for her. It's specifically for fussiness and gas. We tried regular formula, it made her miserable instantly. We tried soy, and it gave her terrible gas.

Addie has recently discovered her feet. They have provided her with endless entertainment! She also continues to babble and has started making 'o' sounds which vary in pitch, often times in one try.

I've taken her to the gym a few times. They have childcare there...and she LOVES it! She really loves watching all the kids moving around her. I felt guilty the first time I brought her, thinking I should be spending time with her and not 'dumping' her off at the gym childcare, but she gets a kick out of it! I guess she doesn't really see many kids her age?

She continues to struggle with eczema and scratching herself, but neither seem to bother her too terribly much. For the most part she continues to be a happy baby!

Three Months Old!!

Adelyn is now three months old. Where did the time go? She's discovered her hands and just glanced at her feet last night. She's still really verbal, which is fun!

We are now preparing for both her baptism and her three-month photos. My mom and I (mostly my mom) finished the baptismal gown. We tore apart my wedding gown and reconstructed it for Addie. It has the same beading on the front skirt as my wedding dress. It's a bit big, but it will do the trick. I will be sure to post photos after Adelyn's baptism on May 17th.

As far as Addie's three-month photos...the dress has been a bit more difficult. I always thought finding dresses for babies would be easy. Aren't new moms the easiest target market? Well, I found out while looking for an Easter dress that the baby designers cater to the one-year plus crowd. So, for Easter Addie wore a dress that was a bit too small that she had received as a gift before she was born. I am determined to find her a new dress for her photos. I've found two. One is the white one with stripes in the photo above. It's a bit casual, but it might work. I have another that is a bit frillier, but it might be too big. We shall see.

Not much else is happening. Adelyn is still full of smiles and giggles. She has started going to bed around 8:30, which has opened up a whole new world of productivity for Mark and I! Who knew that such a bad sleeper in the beginning could turn into a three-month-old that sleeps from 8:30 to 7am?! I love it!

Twelve Weeks Today!

It has been quite some time since I've posted. You can tell that I'm back to work full time again. It has been interesting trying to balance Adelyn and work, but I'm thankful for my flexible schedule so she and I can spend mornings together.

Addie has gotten on a good routine. She's still eating every three hours throughout the day, generally takes a good morning and afternoon nap, and is basically sleeping 10pm to 6am. It has been a dream! Thank God for Colic Calm and white noise!

It's amazing to watch her develop day by day. She has continued to grow like crazy, mostly in the cheeks. She is also verbalizing and enjoys having conversations. She giggles, she plays well on her gym mat, batting at all the dangling toys. She continues to love to watch light, and has started watching other kids. We visited some friends of ours, the Vegas family, with two girls ages 4 1/2 and almost 2. They liked Addie and Addie enjoyed watching them and listening to them. We didn't have to calm her all night, which is amazing because it's generally her crabbier time. She just liked all the action.

Everyone always says, enjoy every minute because it goes so fast. I just can't believe it! It seems like yesterday we started the journey of trying to conceive followed by the devastation of infertility. Now, here I sit, with a beautiful baby girl who is twelve weeks old! We just love her so much and are thankful every day! God has really been watching out for us!

Two Months Old and Already Vacationing!!

Our flight from Florida just got in at midnight on Monday. I'm so very sad vacation has ended. We had such a fabulous time and I swear Adelyn grew double the normal rate both physically and mentally in those ten days! She also has a lot of 'firsts' for her baby book:

-First flight

-First vacation

-First time at the ocean

-First time at a pool

-First time she rolled over (with a little help from Grandma and Granddad's bed)

-First time she purposely swatted the toys on her car seat


...and most importantly...


FIRST TIME SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT (ah, vacation was good to all of us!!)

She is also getting much more interactive. She likes to have conversations, especially after she is fed. She also has developed a, "You are not paying the proper amount of attention to me" cry. She is really becoming a baby rather than a newborn. On that note too, she is solidly into 3-month clothes. This week I will be packing away her newborn clothes. It's so sad. I can't believe how fast this first 9 weeks has gone. I can only imagine how fast our time with her will continue to go!

Now it's back to work (officially) for me. Addie will be going to Grandma daycare with Grandma Emily. We are so fortunate to have Emily. It makes this transition so much easier. I know Addie will be in great hands. Addie will be with Grandma every Tuesday-Friday, 12-6. I will spend mornings with her, and Mark will spend evenings (if/when I have showings). Mark will also have her every other Sunday afternoon and Grandma Sue and Grandad will have her the other Sundays so Mark can do things at our properties. We've reserved Wednesday night for date night, as we've been doing since we got married. We've also reserved Saturdays for family days. It's hard to have a schedule in the real estate business, so we've mapped out our schedule and I'll work my clients into it. I don't want to miss too much of Addie's childhood! I'm happy that my job allows me to spend every morning with her as well as Mondays and Saturdays. I think I'm going to go through withdrawal after being with her for ten plus days straight...not to mention the last nine weeks we've had together! We'll see how it all works!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Addie has been busy since I last posted. She's been to her first wedding and consequently hit her first dance floor, she has been to the Science Museum, on her first walk outdoors, met her first boyfriend, and she has also started having nightly dance parties with Mark. She loves when he dances for her to music. She watches him for a bit and then starts wiggling herself. It's just too cute.

Today we celebrated her first St. Patrick's Day. It was hard to find anything green for her to wear in her sea of pink...but we did! We finished the St. Patty's Day evening celebrating Mark's new promotion. It was a good day!

We are getting ready to head to Florida. It's so fun that everything is a first for her. This will be her first visit to Grandma and Grandpa's (Lee) condo in Naples. We've obviously never traveled with such a little one, so it's a new experience for all of us.

Adelyn is One Month Old!!

Adelyn celebrated her one-month birthday with a sleepover with Grandma Emily and Grandpa Lynn at our house. They took the night shift on Friday (2/27), to give Mark and I a break. They celebrated until the early hours of the morning. Finally Addie fell asleep in Grandpa's arms. She didn't go down until 2:30am. On Saturday night, Aunt Jenny spent the night with her and she slept straight through until 5:40am. Such is life with Adelyn...you win some and you lose some!

Addie's night issues have been caused by gas. This is what I thought, and this is what I still think. We brought her to the doctor and he said it was probably reflux. I think she has that too, but I don't think it's what bothers her. He gave us a prescription for Zantac. We've given her a few doses, but I don't think it did anything. I've also gotten a homeopathic product called Colic Calm, and I think it is close to a wonder 'drug'. Saturday night was our first night with it, and she has slept well ever since (although it's bedtime right now, and she is struggling a bit).

In other health issues, she has gotten a bad case of baby acne. It's something that will resolve itself, and they say it doesn't bother the baby, but it looks irritating. It looks like windburn at this point, and I would think it would be bothersome. It seems like her skin is dry? As long as it doesn't hurt her, and as long as I'm not neglecting to treat her ailments that can be treated, I'm fine with it. I just hope it isn't something else. The doctor said it usually lasts until a baby is eight weeks or so.

In the last 24 hours, Addie has started taking a pacifier. Now, it's not a habit I really want to start, but it seems to really help. She had rejected pacifiers up until yesterday, but she seems to like them now? We shall see!

What's New?

Well, Adelyn has been growing and changing! She is cooing and smiling a lot more. She also opened her first savings account today. We are so proud of what a planner she is! Ok, so I opened it...but it's officially hers. Other than that not much is new.

Addie is smiling more. We were talking and playing this morning and I caught a couple versions of her smile on camera, as you can see above. It just warms my heart every time I see her smile, especially the big ear-to-ear smile.

The girls of the house are feeling better now, but I'm afraid we gave Mark our cold. He came home from work early today and took the next two days off. He had planned to take Friday off because we are taking our first family road trip. It's just to Red Wing and Winona, to check out cute shops and play at a hotel, an excuse to get away from the house. Hopefully we can still go. We are supposed to get eight inches of snow tomorrow. With that and Mark's cold, we are hoping to still make our mini road trip.