More Close ups

Ah, more pictures. Yay!

I JUST missed her smile (stupid slow camera!) This is one of the outfits her Grandma Terry got her. You can't hardly tell in the pictures, but it looks like flowered long johns. Adorable!

This next outfit I cannot remember who got for us (I want to say Great Grandma Gina?) If I have this mistaken, please let me know so I can give you a thank you! This is adorable with a matching bib. Unfortunately, she was so tired on the day I took photos that I only managed to get her backside with the cute little flower.

This cute little frock came from my mom's cousin Diana. There's just something about a baby and ducks! They must go together like peas and carrots. We did receive a lot of duck stuff from everyone, and oddly, I really like them. Ducks are aquatic animals, it goes with the theme!

These next few are just adorable. Is there anything quite as peaceful and as precious as a baby sleeping?

This final picture I just had to take. Although she's not making the right "face", you have to admit that she does look like Dooey from Malcolm in the Middle:

Regardless, she gets more beautiful every day. Her eye lashes are so long and soft. Her little fingers are getting so long and she's getting better at using them. She smiles constantly now (I KNOW that laugh is coming soon!). She's the perfect little baby for us and I'm having so much fun being with her.

Cute Things

I have more Rachel pics!

She had on that cute outfit that Heather got her and we had a diaper malfunction :o) If only diapers went up to their necks in the back!!
So I changed her really quick into this sweet ensemble. The long-sleeved onsie is from Grandma Geri and the pants are from my friend Jenny. Unfortunately, the pants are still Newborn sized, and therefore too small. So the next morning I went ahead and changed her again to this outfit:

 Oh look! The above picture is the first smile I've been able to capture on camera!! This outfit is from her Great Aunt Connie and isn't it so sweet? I got so excited about her clothes that I found in the closet that I started trying to find the cute ones instead of paying closer attention to the sizes. This one is still too big for her, but I had to put her in it.

Check out the cute little kitty cat on the rear!

I wanted to share a few things she's starting to do that I find absolutely adorable. First off, (and she's done this since birth), this girl sneezes from her toes. I mean the whole body is involved when she sneezes and it's so cute! (And while wearing the outfit above, the feet of the pj's hung off of her so they'd flap as she moved her legs up to sneeze. Hilarious!) But she's started to give the sweetest little sigh or coo as soon as she's done sneezing a couple of times. I love this noise.

She's starting to use her hands a little more. As she's gotten longer, her arms reach more. So when we have her in the floor gyms she can touch the toys when she moves and I think she likes the noises it produces. In addition, instead of keeping her hands closed in a fist, she's starting to use her index finger. Although she's not literally "pointing", it kind of looks like it. And while this is so sweet, she's also starting to stick her fingers into her mouth when she can't find her pacifier. This brings about 2 seconds worth of comfort before she moves her arms again, and sometimes it causes her to gag since she sticks her finger into her mouth too far. But I'm loving seeing her starting to do more with her hands!

Finally, she's "talking" more. She doesn't do this every day, but sometimes in the mornings after I feed and change her, I'll lay her on the floor next to me while I pump and she'll just coo and make noise and it is so sweet. This morning was the most I'd ever heard her "talk" and instead of just the "ahhh" sounds, I got a mixture of "Ah-goo" and "booo" (it's really hard to describe). All the books say she would start doing this about now, so I'm glad she is! She was so excited and happy during her "talking" state this morning that she half laughed. I'm not counting it as her first laugh just yet....but I'm anxious for that first one to happen soon!

Today is bath day, so I might have another photo to post later today.

Next Outfit

After this morning's bath we tried an adorable outfit from Rachel's Great Aunt Heather!

You can't see it in this picture (I was in a hurry as she was fussy) but she's got on these adorable little silver shoes my friend Jenny got her. Also, her socks were from Crystal. Such a cute outfit!!

And just for funsies, here's some more from this morning:

Just before bath time. Look at her adorable crinkled forehead!

Bath time!! Surprisingly, she loves bath time. And we LOVE this tub!

Post bath time. My friend Lindsey got her this cute kitty cat towel and it's just perfect for her!

0 - 3 Months

Here we are, 12 days from Rachel's 3 month "anniversary" of her birth. (Birthdate for some reason just doesn't sound right here). Yesterday I went through and cleaned out her "I can wear these clothes" drawer. All of our family and friends have been so generous! This girl has a massive wardrobe that will last her clear up to 12 months. Before I go any further, I want to say thank you to all of you!

I cleaned out her drawer of all "Newborn" sized clothing. I've tried on a couple of 0 - 3 month sized clothing and although some of them are a bit big, they fit her better. So it was time to be out with the smaller clothes and in with the ones that fit. As soon as I saw what was left in her drawer, I realized that all that was left were a few outfits I had purchased from a garage sale last summer before we knew the gender of what is now Rachel. They weren't the cutest things, but they would work!

On a whim, I decided to organize the new clothes in her closet. Low and behold I discovered several outfits that were sized 0 - 3 months or 3 months. Holy Goodness I don't know if I'll be able to put her in each outfit before she's outgrown them there are so many! And oh are they adorable. So to thank each of you that purchased these adorable outfits, I'm going to try to get a picture of her in each one so you can see what your gift looks like on her.

Yesterday (and today's) outfit came from my dear friend Crystal:

This adorable outfit is the softest and most comfortable outfit I've ever seen. I'm a little jealous. Why don't they make outfits like this for adults? It's so warm! Not to mention, there are just a couple of snaps in the back of the shirt, which made it much easier to get over her head. Right now her head's growing faster than the rest of her (which is normal) so getting clothes over her head is sometimes difficult.

Yesterday was also a good day for us. I say that because it was the first day we didn't have a "witching hour" to deal with. I'm not kidding, normally around 8PM she will start wailing and there is no comforting her. While I really don't want to think it's colic, she has been exhibiting some colic-like symptoms. But yesterday it was just her and I all day. I was a little nervous as I had some work I wanted to get done and was afraid she'd need to be held all day. Nope! She played in the floor gym her Great Aunt Pam got for her in the living room by the fire place for a couple of hours then played and cooed herself to sleep throughout the day. Not only did I get work done, but I got our house cleaned while she napped. It was an amazing day. But the icing on the cake was a happy baby all day long. It was wonderful!

She is growing like a weed and I'm so excited that she's not quite 3 months yet and she fits into 3 month-sized clothes. This means she's catching up on her weight. I wish we knew how much she weighed! We go back to the doctor for her round of 4 month shots in March, so we wont' know her weight until then.

On Wednesday of this week Jason and I needed to run some errands, but there was no way we could do them separately. So we ventured out with her in tow. It's the first time she's been anywhere but the hospital or the doctor's office! She did great, although she slept the whole time. How liberating! We still don't want to take her out too much until this flu bug is gone.

She does smile regularly now and it's easy to get her to make a smiley face. The smiles stay a lot longer than they used to, now I'm just anxious to hear her laugh! So far we've come close, but we're not there quite yet.

Oh Rachel

Another quick update since I was able to get the picture off of my phone...

We have our good days and our bad with Rachel. A good day, to me, is one where we can keep her clean. Whether it's from spit up, pee, poo or while feeding. Sometimes we can keep her in the same outfit from one bath to the next. Sometimes, she'll go through as many as 4 outfits during one diaper change.

Recently, I was doing our usual routine: Feed her, change her, then I sit and pump with her in her play gym on the floor beside me. She's to a point where she will only poo once every day or every other day. I was in the process of changing her when I heard the familiar sound of poo. Well, hooray! I already had the new diaper on her, but hadn't fastened it just yet. I held it in place and just waited. When I thought she was done, I went ahead about trying to change her again. Mistake. Behold: the great poo of one Monday morning:

Before the new diaper could be applied, she gave me one surprise after another. The cleanup was becoming pointless, so I just did my best to keep the poo away from her outfit. Surprisingly, she didn't dirty her clothes!! But 3 diapers later, the mess was finally cleaned up. I remember going through pictures my mom took and we all got a kick out of some of them like this. So I grabbed my phone and captured this moment. Sorry if it's gross....but it's all in baby fun!

Since the picture is up there...check out her cute chubby legs! I'm so happy we have a baby that's filling out and getting chubby. It means she's healthy. And I SWEAR that yesterday the outfit I put her in in the morning that was kind of snug she had actually outgrown by the end of the day. It might not be quite that drastic, but that's how it seemed to me. Her head no longer fits in the palm of my hand. (It probably still fits in Jason's though :o) ).

Another Rachel-ism...(am I'm told these stories are all part of parenthood).....

I was having trouble getting her to burp after a feeding. A feeding, I might add, where we had just increased the amount of milk we were giving her. I had JUST changed her diaper and clothes and was holding her when out of no where Mt. Saint Rachel errupted. I had NEVER seen projectile throw up like this! I'm so incredibly thankful that right now she just spits up milk so it's not completely gross, but good grief! All down the front of my sweatshirt, all down the front of her outfit, clear to the floor!! I think she threw up half of her bottle, which is a lot to come out of the mouth of a baby. It was like a faucet. It kept coming and coming!

*sigh* I tell these stories mainly so I can remember them, but also because I think my readers get a kick out of these stories.

2 Months

Our girl has hit the 2 month mark! Some of the changes that I've noticed in here (and I apologize I might not share all of them as I meant to post this about a week ago and haven't had a chance)....

Here's a picture of her on her 2 month anniversary. A big thank you to Ginny for her adorable outfit, Holly for the adorable shoes, and Sarah for her super sweet headband! It was so fun to dress her up and nervewracking as I watched her and prayed she wouldn't spit up all over the outfit before I had a chance to snap a picture!

She's starting to move more fluidly now, but she's still grabbing and scratching at her face, which makes me sad. I want so badly to play with her and try to get her to grab at toys and whatnot, but we have to keep her hands in mittens or covered at all times otherwise she'll scratch her face hard enough to bleed. Even when I keep her well manicured!

Also, she's starting to coo and "talk" which is adorable! I'm thankful to have more than just screams or fusses. She's also smiling a lot more, even if they don't last more than a second or two. But they're adorable!

The doctor's visit that I had been dreading with a furvor has come and gone now. It was her first round of shots and I was not looking forward to it. I'm so grateful Jason was there!!

For those that have never gone to a baby's doctor visit, it's kind of interesting. As soon as we walk in, the nurse will come in, just like a normal adult doctor visit. She asks the same questions, "how much are you feeding her at each feeding? How often do you feed her? How often does she poop? Any questions or concerns?" At this point any questions we have for the doctor we go ahead and tell her, she types them in to her laptop, then asks us to strip our child down to her diaper. The first time we went to the doctor's office, I was a nervous wreck. My daughter was going to freeze! Now I don't mind so much since she's gained enough weight to hold her heat. The reason for the stripping of the baby? Easier to examine :o)

Once she's almost naked, we take her out to the scale to be weighed. We haven't weighed her in over a month, so I was banking on her weighing about 7.5 lbs. She weighed 8.5 lbs!!!! This girl's growing like a weed!!! And as soon as I saw the numbers on the scales I had a revelation: no wonder her diapers kept slipping off....they were for 5 - 8 lb babies! I was relieved to know we weren't putting the diapers on incorrectly, they were just the wrong size. Then I mentally kicked myself as just that morning I'd opened a new package of "newborn" sized diapers. I could have returned them or given them away in a nice package! No harm done. Diapers don't go to waste. Eventually, someone will have a baby that meets the 5 - 8 lb critera and can use these. :o)

The doctor then came in and did her usual physical exam. She looks the baby over, checks her eyes and ears, feels around her abdomen, and just generally makes sure she's ok. She informed us that she has a hernia behind her bellybutton, which is more common than you'd think. There's nothing that can be done right now and she should grow out of it as she gets older. We were informed that she needs to have viatmins added to her diet and encouraged us to get her some Gripe Water.

Gripe Water....what's that? It's a magical substance you can get for babies to help them with gas and acid reflux. I've finally had to agree that our daughter is overly fussy. At first I thought it was just us, but Jason did his research (he's so good at this stuff!) and determined that she has some painful gas. The doctor told us it would be fine if we wanted to get some of that, which we did. We add it in to most of her bottles each day and have noticed a significant change in her. However, when we hold her we can still feel bubbles in her side, even through her blankets! So I'm glad we've found something that helps bring her some relief.

At the end of the visit, it came time for the shots. Oh, the dreaded shots. I've been dreading this moment since before she was born. The doctor sold us some Sweet Ease (pronounced "sweeties"). It's this liquid that we dip her pacifier in and then put the pacifier in her mouth while she's given the shots. It's supposed to help keep her calm, but doesn't always work on every baby. The nurse began the shots and the cries started. She did all three shots and as soon as she was done.....quiet. What? Quiet? This kid was supposed to scream bloody murder for hours afterwards I thought! No....no wait....that was me making a nightmare out of something fairly minor and normal. *sigh* She cried really hard once, then stopped as soon as her last shot was over. She didn't hardly fuss anymore after that. Even the rest of the day her legs didn't seem to sore even though I could see the bruises on her legs! The shots did make her REALLY sleepy though. She slept the rest of the day and into the night. Thankfully, she didn't seem fussy or to be running a fever. Our kid is SOOOO brave!! (however, it's probably becasue she doesn't really understand pain. Her 4 month shots might be a whole other story). But it's over! We survived! I'm comfortable taking her back to the doctor again! :o)

In addition, we've been putting some advice we were given from the doctor into place to try to get her to sleep. This is still an ongoing process, but things are starting to work a little more smoothly! We're supposed to feed her every 3 hours during the day. We had just been feeding her whenever she woke up and was hungry. This was resulting in a baby that was up all night and slept all day. Sometimes she'd be up for a full 24 hours! So we changed my diet and started feeding her every 3 hours, regardless of how soundly she was sleeping. And trust me, as a person that kind of enjoys having a few minutes here and there, waking a sleeping baby makes me cringe!!! Although our new schedule still has its hiccups, Jason and I can finally put her to sleep at night, then go to bed at the same time. It's so nice! We both were getting tired of having to sleep alone. This new schedule has been crucial. Jason's starting to have to go back to the office and will have to travel soon, which means I'll be on my own for a week. So we needed her to be sleeping for at least 5 - 6 hours each night so I can get some rest. I'm comfortable now that if he has to travel, I can be alone with her for a week.

Finally, although I'm thrilled with how healthy Rachel is, it makes me sad. Each week I notice a few more outfits she's grown out of. My gracious she's growing so fast! I'm thankful that we have had such generous gifts from family and friends. This girl is in no danger of running out of clothes! It just makes me sad as some of my favorites are being put in the closet to be given away or donated since she outgrown them.

I think that covers everything new with Miss Rachel.