Catching Up

Loads has happened since the last post. I have a challenging time updating because my computer won't upload pictures to blogger at home, so I have to send things to myself at work to try and do it. There's a lot of stress at home right now too. But the kiddos are amazing and a blessing, and I am thankful every day that I have them in my life.

Aaron is 7 1/2 months, and starting to eat some solids. He's not a big fan -- yogurt is really all he'll eat-- so here he is with yogurt face. :) He's my happy boy. Two teeth are coming through on the bottom, and he's crawling. He likes to try to catch his sister.

Big girl is 3 1/2 years old now. She got a bike for her "half"  birthday and loves it. Here we are at the park on the "big girl" swing at a playdate last Saturday, and she's having a great time. She went "camping" with Mommy in the back yard this weekend too (those pics will be forthcoming) and had a lovely time. 

Oh, And...

She slept 4 hours solidly in the crib last night (7:30 - 11:30pm), then came to bed and slept solidly after eating for another 5 hours (11:30 - 4:30), and then slept solidly again until 5:45. We got up, Mommy showered, and I fed her. She fell back asleep around 6:30am and slept solidly until 8:20am. Not to mention she took an almost 2-hour nap at daycare today.

Too bad Mommy had insomnia last night and couldn't take advantage of any of it! I was up until 3am, wide awake. Finally went into the other room and let Daddy take over, slept for about an hour, then re-joined them and slept for another hour. Hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep tonight.

I think (knock on wood) it helps that she is ALL about eating right now! She's eating upwards of 12-13 oz at daycare routinely now, at least 2-3 meals of solids (not a lot, but more than ever before), last night she was ravenous and just kept eating and eating and eating plus nursed, and tonight she even took BOTH breasts before bed. And that was after supper and 3 oz of breastmilk in a cup.

Some other things I think really have helped are that the teeth are also almost through the skin, all 4 of them. That has to be more comfortable. It's cooler at night, so she's not sticky and hot. We're putting her to bed just half an hour later, and we're doing "active" play in the basement, then "quiet" play upstairs right before bedtime. We've got all the windows open so she can get lots of fresh air. AND I think we solved the leak issue -- I put her night-time diaper on the longest length, and no more leak. She's grown so much that our BumGenius are actually now at the longest length they can go. I hope they last until toddlerhood!

Overall, I can tell that before now, she just wasn't really ready. She wasn't eating solids all that enthusiastically other than 2-3 bites, and now she is. She's finally getting those bottles down at daycare. And physically, I think she's in a more comfortable place with those teeth.

It may not last, but I'll take it while it's here!

It's All Good

Life is good!

Work kept me very busy these last two weeks and even though it means I'm working in the evenings after Emma goes to bed, it also means we have money to pay the bills and I'm not worrying as much. I'm very thankful I've got a good job and one I like.

After introducing and her finally "getting" the sippy cup, we're getting more milk into her! She gets a sippy cup with breastmilk with every solid meal now. At daycare today she drank 3 1/2 oz from a bottle, then an hour later drank 3 oz from a sippy cup, and then a couple of hours later, drank another 3 oz from a bottle. She got 12 1/2 oz of milk at daycare today! She's been averaging 10+ this past week, which is phenomenal and I'm very happy about.

She's also getting better at the chewing thing, and eating her solids with more vigor. Tonight we went out to eat, and she had bites of our chicken dumplings and pieces of avocado that were on my sushi roll. She LOVED the dumpling. Almost ate an entire one with our help. Then she nursed while we were still in the restaurant, PLUS she nursed when we got home.

Can we say "growth spurt?" LOL.

This also means more peaceful nights. We're giving her tylenol because with the amount of drool, I was suspecting a tooth and I was right. So she falls asleep quickly now again (tonight without even having my hand on her or me shushing her, I was just standing by the crib) and last night she drank at 11pm, 1:30am, and then not again until 5am! Oh, I'm so very happy. And she was so cute -- she farted a big adult-sized fart at 5am and woke herself up. So we all got up and while I got ready for work, she and Daddy played quietly in the front room. And then around 6am I took her up and nursed her, and we all cuddled together in bed. She fell asleep around 6:20am. I got up at 7 to leave for work, and Daddy texted me later to tell me they both slept until 8:20am. With that 2-hour nap, she got about 12 1/2 hours of sleep last night.

Naps at daycare are still not great, but it's all good.... we'll figure that out too. I'm feeling peaceful and fulfilled, and thanking God that life is so good.

Hopefully I'll get pictures up from Grandma and Grandpa Lewis's visit very soon!

Eating and Crawling

Just like a BIG girl!