Here we go again...

We'll see how long it takes you complainers to realize that I have put up a new blog post!

So, it's been awhile since I've posted. That's okay, I've been busy! We sold our house, moved, got pregnant, quit my job, moved again (all the way across the country this time), opened a jerky store, and are in the market to move again (hopefully for the very last time).

Kaylee is so much fun these days and absolutely exhausting! She does not stop moving! We are getting used to our new surroundings, making some new friends and exploring our new "home". We try to get out as much as we can because I am sure once winter and baby Jack come, we will be home bound for awhile.

At her 15 month well visit Kaylee weighed in at 25 pounds and she was 30.5 inches long. She is hitting all her milestones and is starting to talk. She is a crazy climber and very independent. She goes and sits on the potty (with her clothes and diaper on) when she needs to go, but goes on the floor when she doesn't have her diaper on. She just got a toddler bed and is waiting for her daddy to move the computer, so we can set up her new big girl room. Dogs are her most favorite things in the world, all other animals come in at a close second though. Some days she may eat me out of house and home, other days she will eat nothing but cheese. I've stopped buying her toys because she would rather play with sticks, rocks, clothes or shoes. She is still bald and gets called a boy just about every week (even when dressed all in pink or in skirts).

Pregnancy number 2 is seemingly identical to pregnancy number one. I was just as sick, just as exhausted and just as happy to be pregnant! Right now I am 22 1/2 weeks. We found out 2 weeks ago that we are having a boy. His name will be Jack and his middle name is to be determined. I was really sick in first tri and lost about 9 pounds, which is almost twice as much as I lost when I was pregnant with Kaylee. I am working on gaining it back and I am sure will be back to where I started at my next appointment. I have the WORST sweet tooth this time around. Although, I remember it being pretty bad last time too. The baby is starting to move around a lot. I have an anterior placenta again, so it took awhile for me to feel strong movements. I am due on December 14.

Here's a one quick pic, she still looks the same just a little taller and with more teeth. Someday, she will have hair!


Here's to not waiting another 6 months to post!

10 months (a little late)

Someday I will be able to update this blog in a timely manner. Until then, I am trying to at least update it monthly. Here she is 10 1/2 months but better late than never.

Biggest news of the month is that Kaylee is WALKING! She took her first steps on Feb. 5, just shy of 10 months. It seemed to take her forever to learn how to crawl and then she turns around and starts walking! Needless, to say our lives have continued to change. We need to be a lot faster and ensure that our house is totally baby proofed.

At 10 months Kaylee is...

*walking
*saying things like mamama, dadada, bye. I think bye is they only one she uses correctly though.
*opening draws, cabinets and toilet seats
*doesn't go to daycare anymore, stays with her old teacher at her house with one other baby.
*hates baths, diaper changes and getting dressed
*not really eating purees anymore. Table food only
*gets mad if you don't share your food with her
*still fits into 9 month pants, wears some 18 month shirts but is pretty much in 12 month clothes
*giggles, laughs and loves being tickled
*likes to do whatever you tell her not to
*is sleeping through the night. in her crib. (big change for us)
*loves climbing and even pushes objects over to things she wants to climb to act as stairs!

Mama got a new camera, and while I have used it as much as I would like, I plan on improving my photography skills and documenting this little girls life as best I can! Here's a few from a recent trip to Balboa Park:

Crazy crawler!

This time last week, Kaylee wasn't able to do much but scoot around on her belly and flail around like a beached whale. Look at her now!

18 days until Christmas...

...and I'm a crawler!!

Wow, I can't believe that my last post was about Halloween!! I'd like to say things are settling down and I can update this more often, but that is far from true.

First off, we are celebrating the first of December with no mortgage payment!!! Woohoo!! The selling the house/moving into a new place has been the center of most of the chaos as of late, but now we are down with it. We can breathe a little easier and the pocketbook will be a little fuller! The challenge of condensing a 4 bedroom house into a 2 bedroom apartment isn't ideal, but we really like our new little home (emphasis on little)!

Kaylee was a trooper through it all! Luckily Grandma Janie was visiting to help watch the munchkin while mommy and daddy packed and moved. The dog, on the other hand, is not enjoying the moving process so much.

Kaylee enjoyed her very first Thanksgiving. She tried a little bit of everything but especially liked the sweet potatoes and the mashed potatoes!!!


Kaylee also has teeth now! Well, little bits of teeth poking through. After only one day of real pain and unhappiness, her two bottom teeth broke through. Last week she wouldn't even let our fingers close to her mouth, but now we can ask her to show us her teeth and she opens her mouth right up!

We are still technically immobile. This is a good thing for the time being. There are way too many boxes of stuff for her to get into. She wants to crawl so badly and gets frustrated when she can't get herself to where she wants to be. Frankly, I'm okay with not having to chase her around just yet!

first food...

So, based on our doctor's recommendation and Kaylee's insatiable appetite, we decided to slowly begin introducing solids. We started tonight with a organic brown rice cereal mixed with breast milk. We have been counting how many ounces she eats for so long, I guess I had ounces on the brain. I mixed ounces instead of tablespoons of breast milk with the cereal and obviously got a very runny mess. I added more cereal but I still think it was too runny. Oh well, we'll do better next time.

She seemed to enjoy this new (very messy experience). I am pretty sure she got more all over her face and clothes than in her tummy, but it was good practice!

the face of success...

Here it is:This is my proud little girl right after she managed to finally roll over from back to belly. She has been trying really hard for the past week or so. She managed to crunch and curl her body up into a "C" shape, but couldn't manage to make it all the way over...until today!!! I am sure she is just responding to my cheers of joy, as opposed to being proud of herself, but who cares. One more milestone checked off the list. I probably should keep a video camera/real camera to catch these moments with a little more quality, but for now, blurry iPhone shots will have to do!

Kaylee at 4 months

Kaylee's 4 month "birthday" came and went. Life around here has been getting busier and it has caused me to neglect my blog. I'd like to say that I will get better about updates but I go back to work in two weeks, so I can't make any promises.

At 4 months Kaylee is...
smiling and laughing a lot
rolling from belly to back (when she wants to)
rolling from back to well, her side (she can't quite make it all the way over)
grabbing her feet
"talking" herself to sleep
loves her jumperoo
hates the bumbo
exclusively fed by bottle (still breast milk only)
utterly entertained by the dog
sleeping in her crib (for the first 5 hours or so)

Who is this child?

I think my child has grown exponentially in the last 48 hours. I feel like last week she was still a blob of a baby, that couldn't move, only cried when she was either tired, hungry or wet, and wasn't interested in anything but her hands and mom.

Now she is rolling over, working out her ab muscles like a maniac (she tries desperately to pull herself up when laying down), "talking" up a storm, tries to put everything in her mouth (even the dog), is entertained by some toys, complains (i'm sure that goes along with talking but she does this weird moan thing that is not quite a cry and not a cute coo), DEMANDS to be fed (she may have gotten some of her moms impatience), laughs at her dad and just all around seems like a different baby. I am loving every second of it!

We often say I can't wait until she...(insert milestone here--talks, crawls, walks, has hair, etc) but I really try to stop myself every time and focus on all the amazing things that are happening every day. They really do go by all too fast...

Sitting. Coming soon to a baby near you.

I was really trying to get a cute naked booty pic of her to use to embarass her when she is older and because it's just plain adorable! She was not having it. She would not stop rolling over! She probably rolled over 10 times during our little mini photo shoot and was clearly amused by her own little plot to ruin my plan (maybe she knew it would come back to haunt her). This shot was the best I could do with my iPhone.
Note to self for baby #2--take cute naked booty pic BEFORE they can roll over.

Rock & Roll

Kaylee was laying on the floor this morning doing some tummy time and she started rocking back and forth. Dad was sitting close by so I yell "dad, dad, look at your baby girl". He was in the middle of doing something and didn't look up right away. Baby was still rocking back and forth and I told her "your daddy is going to miss it!" As soon as I said that, Dad looked up and baby rolled right over!!!

We officially had our first roll over! It was from belly to back and she would only do it once. She made it clear to us that she had worked hard (or entertained us) enough for one day. Now she is peacefully napping from her big workout.

OUCH!

We made it through our 2 month check up and our first round of shots. Kaylee surely didn't enjoy it much but it wasn't quite as excruciating as I thought it would be. Of course, I wasn't the one helping to hold her down while she was screaming. That was daddy's job. It was quick, but not painless. Kaylee recovered quickly, only a red face, a quivering lip and 3 band aids to show for the ordeal. She didn't have any negative effects from the vaccines but she has slept very well since then. Two months until the next round ☹

Doc says she is very healthy, very BIG but healthy. Kaylee has gained almost 5 pounds and grown nearly 2 inches since leaving the hospital after birth.

month 2 stats:
weight: 13 pounds, 9 ounces ~ 99th percentile
height: 23 1/4 inches ~ 99th percentile
head circumference: 40 1/2 cm ~ 89th percentile

She is outgrowing clothes left and right! All of her newborn and 0-3 clothes are packed up and waiting for her little sister to wear (no, she isn't on her way...yet) and Kaylee is starting to get too big for some of her 3-6 clothes! She will stop growing soon, right?

First pick...

Of all the "firsts", this is the one we catch on camera:

Baby watching:

Kaylee took her first nap in her crib last week. It was a rather short one, but sleep was had nonetheless. We have a MobiCam which allows us to hook up the video monitor to the tv. So rather than just keep her in the same room to nap, we put her in the other room so we can sit and watch her on tv.

She is definitely smiling!

Our little girl is just smiling away lately. She is making eye contact and smiles at us when we talk to her. Now the fun stuff is really starting. She is finally interacting with us instead of just laying around all day :) She also has found hr "voice" and chooses to express her unhappiness between the hours of 9 and 11 pm. Every day!

Daddy's first bottle!

Untethered

First bottle = SUCCESS!!!

I was anxious to get Kaylee to take a bottle. I appreciate all the benefits of breastfeeding for mother and baby and all, but I am happy to share feeding duties with daddy and not to mention having the ability to leave the house if needed and not worry that my child might be starving. So, I started pumping and we gave the bottle a try. I didn't really have high expectations that it would work the first time. I had multiple bottles on hand, in the event she didn't like the first one I chose. We went with the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles to start. I got her ready, gave her the bottle, and... she took it the first time! Gulped down 3 ozs and was ready for more! I thought it might have been beginner's luck but we gave her another one today without a problem. Next step: getting daddy to give the bottle :)

Sanity savers for the day:
the white noise app for the iPhone (waves crashing is our fav) & "bouncing" her to sleep on the exercise ball

Three weeks of motherhood

Apparently, it takes someone (me) three weeks to be able to manage motherhood and blogging. I have yet to master the art of one-handed typing, thus completely neglecting this blog. I have, however, mastered the art of one-handed photo uploads which is why you have only gotten pictures in the last three weeks!

Little miss Kaylee is now 11 pounds and goes to the doctor next week for her one month appointment! Yikes! I can't believe how fast it has already gone by. She gets a little bit more fun every day (and a bit louder). She is starting to stay awake more, which is nice because she is a lot more fun to interact with--difficult, because I thought I couldn't get things done before. I'm scared of the days when she is mobile and I have to get things done. It will all come with time, I KNOW!

Crying baby and barking dogs aside, life is getting back to normal. I wouldn't necessarily say we have a routine of any kind but we are managing. Best part, we have rejoined society and actually made it out for coffee and picnics with friends, gone grocery shopping and gone on lots and lots of walks. I am 2-3 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight and can fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes (they just don't quite fit the same).

First bath
So what's happened this week?? Kaylee's umbilical stump fell off at two weeks exactly. Glad that nasty thing is gone! It also means we were able to attempt our first "real" bath.



Kaylee actually seemed to enjoy the bath. She didn't cry and just kind of sat there, possibly wondering what was going on. Little did I know, she was just concentrating on a more pressing issue...


...once she was scrubbed all clean from head to toe and all rinsed off, she decided to let loose. Yes, she went #1 and #2 in her very first bath! If only she would have known that now she would have to suffer through the whole bath ordeal again!


Being in the bath was fine, but she does not like getting out of the bath!! All too cold for her and she was NOT a happy camper after this double bath.


Tummy Time = FAIL
With her stump gone, we decided we could start tummy time. While I have read that lots of babies don't like tummy time at first, they grow to enjoy the workout.
This is what Kaylee thought of her first "workout":


Yes, she fell asleep about 20 seconds into. We'll keep trying with that one!



--Rereading this I am realizing what tiny (and somewhat ridiculous) things matter to me now. Wow! Oh well, this is my life now...keep on reading or navigate away from this crazy place that is now my life ;)

Introducing Kaylee Ann!

She is FINALLY here! Born at 40 weeks and 5 days gestation and after one very long induction, our baby girl is finally here! She was born on April 12 at 11:09pm, weighed 9 pounds and was 21 1/2 inches. She is happy and healthy and got a clean bill of health at her first doctor's appointment today. There was a little bit of concern over jaundice, but after her 3rd test, the doctor said that her levels are now perfectly normal. We are home and adjusting well. Mom and Dad are trying to get used to the new sleep schedule, but Kaylee is getting plenty of sleep and forces us to wake her up so that she can eat. We are loving every minute of parenthood so far! The dogs are adjusting well too. They may feel a little neglected not that they are no longer the center of attention, but they are very interested in Kaylee. One is scared of her and all her stuff (swing, car seat, bouncers) but still likes to come and check her out. The other is her new guardian and comes running from where ever he is in the house when he hears her making noises or crying. It's cute. Here is the start of many pictures of our baby girl!