Four Months

Dear Sadie, 

We meet again... The doctor said you are one healthy baby. You weigh 12 pounds 5 ounces and are 24.5 inches long. You're in the 13th percentile for weight and 50th for height. You've grown four inches since you were born. You pretty much wear all 3 month clothes. I put some 6 month outfits on you because we're tired of your old clothes! We need new stuff, right Dad?

You had an exciting month! You started sleeping in your crib. I thought it would be a hard transition, but you seem to like it in there at night. Taking naps in your crib is a little harder. We're working on it. You'll get there!

We started a schedule of Eat, play, eat, sleep that seems to be working really well. You take two, one to two hour naps each day. For most of the month you would sleep for about 11 hours, wake up for a feeding, and sleep for another hour or two. The middle of the night feeding is starting to jump around a little, but you still sleep to about the same time every morning.

You rolled over from your back to your stomach and haven't stopped! You're my little rolly pollie. I'll leave you for a minute on your back and the next thing I know you're on your stomach. You haven't mastered rolling onto your back yet. You're getting pretty close.

You went from having zero interest in toys, to swatting at them, to grabbing them and putting them in your mouth. Speaking of your mouth, you drool EVERYWHERE! You always have your hands in your mouth.

We're still exclusively breastfeeding. My goal was to make it to a year and as we get closer to six months I feel proud that we've been able to make it so far. Breastfeeding is hard!

You won't take a bottle. We try and try, but we're making baby steps.

You are incredibly happy in the morning. We took these pictures at 6:00 A.M. because we were heading to Tucson. 

You like taking baths with me. You're starting to hit the water with your hands and make water splash everywhere.

We don't let you watch TV, but if you catch a glimpse, your eyes are glued! You use all your strength to keep watching!

You're starting to like shopping. Yay! I'll hold an outfit up and if you smile we get it! If you don't smile and I like it, we still get it.

You're attracted to the color green.

You are mesmerized by this wood abacus you received for Christmas. You used to lay on your side and play with it with one hand, now I have to hold you in my lap so you can use both hands! Your face is so determined while you make the letters spin.

You make a really weird noise when you giggle. You give me a mini heart attack because I think you're choking. Every now and then we'll get a real giggle out of you!

You talk in a normal sounding voice and a really loud squeaky voice. I'm a little worried that's how I sound to you and you're trying to mimic me!

My favorite moments are when I look at you and you smile at me without any prompting. You're still pretty serious, but we get smiles out of you.

You're starting to have some stranger anxiety. 

I love you beautiful. These months are starting to fly by. You are my sweet girl and I cannot imagine life without you. 

Love, Mom

Three Months

Dear Sadie,

Another month has passed. You don't go to the doctor this month so I don't know how much you weigh, but you're definitely growing! I love your little cheeks. You wear 3 months clothes, but you'll be out of them pretty soon.

You rolled over from your front to your back three times the beginning of this month, but you haven't done it since. You've gotten pretty close though!

You kick your legs and wave your arms all the time. You try and kick us in the face while we're changing your diaper.

You are so alert and always looking around. When we're out and about people always comment how alert you are. They also say you're pretty cute, but I already know that! :)

You love being naked and that makes your dad a little nervous.

We celebrated our first Christmas with you. It was very special. You had no idea what was going on, but it was special to me. We had family over on Christmas Eve for a brunch and went to a service at church in the afternoon. On Christmas day we opened our presents and spent some more time with family. You did such a good job with all the commotion.

I love hearing your little voice.

You don't like your head being messed with so that means I have to sneak headbands on you or otherwise you start crying.

You like taking baths with your mama.

You met your Uncle Kai this month.

You eat every two hours during the day and go 9 to 10 hours at night and another 3 hours after that.

You had a growth spurt last week and you were a little crazy! You ate for half an hour every hour and a half. You were a fussy, hungry baby!

I tried giving you a couple bottles, you won't take to them. I'm going to keep trying and hoping you'll eat from one. It would be nice to leave you with dad for a few hours. Whenever I leave you alone I worry the whole time you're going to get hungry and I won't be there to feed you.

You are starting to realize you have control of your hands. It's pretty cute watching you try to grab stuff. You have your hands in your mouth all the time and you're starting to drool all over the place!

You're a good little baby and I love you so much. I can't imagine life without you and I thank God daily for you. You have been such a blessing.

Love, Mom

Two Months

Dear Sadie,

Another month has flown by. You're growing so fast! You weighed 10 pounds at the doctor last Friday. You're such a big girl! You're officially out of newborn clothes which makes me a little sad.

You still sleep a lot. 

When you are awake you want to see what's going on. You don't like to be sitting, we always have to be moving when we're holding you. 

I live to see you smile. You have such a beautiful smile. You're pretty serious though! You look like you're solving a long division problem most of the time because you're busy taking everything in. 

Your strength continues to amaze us. You are so strong! You lift your head up and look around all the time. 

Your favorite thing in the world is to be naked! As soon as we unsnap your diaper, you kick your legs like crazy. Sometimes when you're fussy, I put you on the changing pad, take off your diaper, and let you move around! It settles you down. 

Your second favorite thing is the ceiling fan. You smile at that more than anything. If you're crying it will stop you in your tracks until you remember you were crying and start all over again!

I love your little toes. I wish there was a way to keep them this size forever.

We're getting the hang of breastfeeding. We have these moments in the middle of the night where you pull yourself off and look up at me and smile. I know I shouldn't encourage you at 3 A.M., but those moments are my favorite. 

You're starting to talk and you have the cutest little voice. You found the mirror on your swing and will talk your own ear off. 

Your dad and I often stare at you and talk about what a blessing you are. You bring us such joy and happiness.

Who knew we would talk about poop so much?

You still eat every 2 to 3 hours during the day, but are starting to go closer to 7 to 8 hours at night and then another 3 to 4 hour stretch. You must have had another growth spurt because two times last week you slept from 5 P.M. to 2 A.M.

You still have a love/hate relationship with your car seat, but you are starting to like baths more. They're not your favorite thing, but you don't cry anymore. You don't like having your clothes taken off or put on. You don't want to be messed with!

We love you so much Sadie baby. You are the sweetest little thing!

Love, Mom

Thanksgiving Week

On Thanksgiving I asked my sister if she would take a few photos because I have a lot of pictures of Reed with Sadie and me with Sadie, but only a few of the three of us together. Unfortunately, someone was a sassy pants and didn't like getting their picture taken, like father like daughter.

I handed Sadie to my sister because I told her to dress nice so I could get some pictures of the two of them and didn't want to waste the opportunity. Guess who settled down as soon as she got into her Auntie's arms? I'm going to have to keep my eye on those two.

Thanksgiving morning my mom and sister came over for a brunch and then we went over to our friend's house for a traditional Thanksgiving feast.

My beautiful friend Tonya was in town so we did what girls do and got our shop on! We tried to convince Reed that Sadie needed her first coach purse. Yeah, that didn't happen!

While the three of us were out to lunch I breastfed in public for the first time. I usually do it in my car because it's easier. That whole hooter hider thing is a pain in the ass! If we didn't have an extra step involved to get a good latch I wouldn't use it.

We took Sadie to her first Christmas parade. She loved slept through it. Reed and I had fun. We look forward to doing more things like that when she's older and can enjoy them too. 

On our way to the parade the grinch made an appearance. She doesn't like stuff on her head,

but she looked so cute in the santa beanie I made her and it matched her outfit! 

What we've been up to lately

Time is flying by. I cannot believe that Sadie will be two months old in a little over a week. She certainly keeps me busy during the day so it doesn't leave me much time for blogging. I've been trying to enjoy every moment with her. She is the sweetest thing, but she's demanding! :) Generally, I like to have everything scheduled/planned out so I know what to expect. I figured once Sadie arrived we'd get into a routine and try to stick with it as much as we could. Since she's been born, it's kind of been the opposite. I let her call the shots and go with the flow. If I have stuff that needs to be done, I work around what she's doing and get it done when I can. She still sleeps a lot so there isn't much to put into a routine anyway. When I can, I try and follow the EASY routine (eat, activity, sleep, you). However, she usually falls asleep while I'm feeding her. I know there's a lot of stuff out there that says you're not suppose to nurse to sleep, but so far it hasn't caused us any issues. I don't think it makes sense to wake her up just to have her fall back asleep or keep her awake so she's fussy.

Our days fly by. She eats every two hours during the day, sometimes she goes three hours between feedings. It blows my mind how fast two hours go by. I'm lucky because she's always been a pretty fast eater, but before I know it, it's time to feed her again.

I don't want to jinx anything, but she's been sleeping pretty good at night. She usually eats between 8:00 and 9:00 P.M. and sleeps to 3:00 or 4:00 A.M. Reed changes her and brings her back to me to eat and then she sleeps until 6:00 A.M. or 7:00 A.M. I've tried waking her around 10:00 P.M. to feed her to get her longer stretch of sleep to last longer in the morning, but she still wakes up a few hours later. It isn't horrible so I'm just letting her do her thing for now. Once she starts staying more alert we will not be starting our day at 3:00 A.M. so we may have some sleep training in our future.

We started using her one size cloth diapers a few weeks ago. I LOVE them. There was a small part of me that was worried I wouldn't like using cloth. I read so many blogs and different opinions while researching cloth diapers. There were a handful of people who tried it and for different reasons didn't like it and switched to disposables. I've had a couple small leaks, but both times she was in her diaper for longer than usual. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about using cloth diapers is that you touch poop. I touched waaaay more poop using disposables.

Christmas is about a week away. It's going to be special sharing it with our little Sadie girl. We're having family over on Christmas Eve morning for a brunch. We'll go to church in the afternoon and come home to open our stockings and eat yummy food. Christmas morning we'll see what Santa brought us, open our presents, and eat a nice breakfast. I'm very excited about starting traditions with the three of us!

One Month

Dear Sadie,

This month has gone by so fast! It seems like we were just leaving the hospital. You have changed so much and are growing so fast, but you still look a lot like your daddy. You had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. You inherited your dad's appetite and weigh 8 pounds 7 ounces. You've grown an inch since you were born. The doctor said you're one healthy baby and has no concerns! 

You pretty much slept through the first two weeks of life. I needed to wake you up for feedings. Now you're becoming more alert. You like being on your back on your play mat. You look around constantly. I'm always trying to figure out what you're looking at. 

You have a love/hate relationship with your car seat, baths, and getting changed. You love getting your hair washed and the sound of running water. 

We're working hard to make breastfeeding work. 

You are STRONG! We have to be careful when we're holding you because you move around so much. You can lift your head up and push yourself off our chests with your arms and legs. 

You had a growth spurt right around four weeks. You were a completely different baby!! You wanted to be fed every hour and had no problem voicing your displeasure. 

You like listening to music. The Lumineers station on Pandora is your favorite.

You eat every two to three hours during the day and every four to six hours during the night. 

We swaddle you before bed and you look like a little caterpillar. 

You make the funniest expressions while you're sleeping. They range from smiles, to raising one eyebrow, to looking like you're in pain. 

You're pretty easy for the most part. When you do get fussy, it doesn't take much to settle you down. You like it when dad beat boxes Mambo Number 5. 

We've made many trips to Target and Starbucks. As long as you're fed you do well being out. You like the stroller as long as we're moving. 

You were baptized this month. It was a very special day for us! 

We love you so much. You're the rainbow in our lives and you bring us so much joy. We can't believe how much you've changed already. These moments are so precious because you'll only be this little for so long!

Love, Mom