Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Misc Photos and Happenings

Our Valentine's photo shoot... it didn't go so well. Harlow was not a fan.






Celebrating 32...





(yes - that is our store bought birthday cake that we ate [on the floor] in Harlow's room)


Playing, attending birthday parties, sleepovers, and being sweet...





















Love these sweet curls!



My little Snow White...





Nailed it.


Bath time for Harlow (Blair LOVES to help with bath time!)







My most favorite picture to date.  : 03.16.14. :





Tuesday, March 18, 2014

THREE Months!

Sweet Lo is now 3 months! Three months...

Harlow’s sleeping is status quo. She is still getting up twice a night after going to bed between 6 and 7pm. Daddy gets the first shift, Mommy gets the second – which is timed perfectly to be about 30 mins before my 4:30am alarm! We are relying on her swaddler to keep those flailing arms and legs snuggled close as to not wake her up. I usually wake her up around 6am, once I have done all of my prep (including prepping big sister) to get out the door. She is just like Blair… so sweet and happy in the mornings. It makes my (very busy) mornings SO much better!

Different from her sister, Harlow likes to use pacis. She only likes them when she is tired and spits it out before she gets into a deep slumber. When we get the notion that she is ready to nap or go to bed, we’ll pop in a paci and she’ll snuggle deep in the crook of your arm to bury her face. 

We recently changed Harlow’s bottles to the next sized nipples – which means she eats faster and is eating more. Yay! She is now eating about 5oz during her feedings. I fully expect her to really start putting on the weight (especially in those cheeks!).

Girlfriend is now in her Size 2 diapers and 6 month clothes! She fits them perfectly (thanks to her body length and long feet). I have so many cute 6 month clothes of Blair’s – but they are all summer clothes and since we are still having really cold days, she can’t wear them quite yet. We need spring / summer to get here already! The cold, then hot weather is wreaking havoc on poor Lo’s congestion. About a week or so ago, she began coughing so Dr. Kavin instructed me to elevate her mattress, start giving her a small amount of Benadryl and to continue with the saline and Vick’s vapor rub (for babies). It doesn’t seem to be getting worse, but this poor girl has been dealing with congestion for about 10 weeks now! I am ready to have my healthy baby back. L

Harlow is holding her head up great and has really good muscle control. She likes to be held sitting up so she can see / interact or being carried on her shoulder. In the next few weeks, we’ll pull out her excer-saucer and let her play with that (how can it already be time for that?!?). For now, she is getting practice grabbing toys (and hair!) and trying to put them in her mouth. Blankets or lovies generally end up in her mouth too.

Lo has been very “into” mirrors – and staring at that beautiful baby in the mirror. Her teachers at school even fashioned a soft mirror on top of one of the bouncy chairs so she can smile and make sweet faces at it. They say she doesn’t mind her diaper changes anymore, since there is a mirror next to the diaper changing area. She just sweetly stares and smiles at herself.

She likes to play and to be a part of the excitement. One day we laid her on a blanket in the play room so she could hang out with us while Blair and I played. Harlow began to sputter and fuss, so I grabbed a piece of pretend food, pretended to take a bite, then offered a “bite” to Harlow. She got a big smile on her face and was immediately engaged. So she and I pretended to eat food while Blair entertained her other (inanimate) guests. So cute! I think Harlow will spend her entire childhood years trying to keep up with B.  J

When laying on her back, Harlow can almost roll over. Sometimes that arm stops her from rolling onto her tummy, but she sure tries her best. I don’t know what she will do with herself once she gets on her tummy since she isn’t much of a fan of tummy time.

Her big sister is still completely smitten with her. When we pick her up in the afternoons, she can’t wait to point and show all of her teachers “her baby” in the car seat. And every day, her sweet teachers oblige her and come and say hello to Harlow. Sometimes Blair will ask / say, “Isn’t she cute?!? She’s a baby!” Haha.

We are head over heels for this sweet baby and count our blessings each and every day that she is part of our family.










Friday, March 14, 2014

February 2014 Pictures


1st Sleepover

A couple of weeks ago, Blair got to have her very first sleepover with Zoey! They had such a blast and thought they were the bees knees. I picked up Zoey in the afternoon once Blair was home from school. They both squealed with delight when they say each other and immediately ran off giggling into Blair’s room. They played dolls, Lego’s, colored some pretty pictures and even got to take a bath with glow sticks. I think they were more excited about taking a bath in the dark, over the actual glow sticks. :)

I put the girls in bed to watch The Little Mermaid. As I was leaving and closing the door, I heard Blair tell Zoey, “I love you so much Zoey!” Be still my beating heart. It is sweet, precious moments like this one that make all of the hard time of being a parent, totally worth it.

The next morning, the girls got to eat donuts with sprinkles while we got ready for ballet. After ballet, we took Zoey home. The girls were already asking when we could do it again. I have a feeling that these sleepovers will be a frequent occurrence. The girls did so great and we were so happy to be able to give Ligia a night off… baby Kaitlyn will be here in the next week or so!








Our Life

So the other day, I was looking at the ottoman in our living room. It is our make-shift coffee table / hub of all of our kiddo gear. The items on it make me laugh and so I figured I would take a picture so I can remember what life is like right now.


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

TWO Months!

Yikes! 2 months (almost 3!) with our sweet little Harlow Noelle has come and gone!

This past month flew by, which isn’t a surprise since it was our last month home together. Harlow has been in school (the Ladybugs’ room) for the last 2 weeks and is adjusting well. Her lack of sleeping during the day is helping us out at night time. Of course it means she is ready for bed by 6pm – giving me only a few minutes to see her while she is awake. I remember these days with Blair… it breaks my heart how little time we have together. Hopefully once she gets a little older, she will stay up later. She pulls about 2 wake-ups during the night. Generally the first one comes between 11pm or 12am (which Daddy takes), then another one anywhere between 3 – 5am. My alarm goes off at 4:30am, so more often than not, I am already awake. We are swaddling Harlow at night, which seems to help her sleep for longer stretches without waking herself up. It helped with Blair, so we figured we would try it on Little Bit. So far so good. Harlow (unlike Blair) is a paci baby. She doesn’t use it all of the time, mostly when she is tired and needs that (and a good snuggle) to drift off to her sweet dreams. Have I mentioned that she is a cuddler? THE BEST. She is just like Blair… so sweet!

Harlow is eating about 4oz at each feeding (which is about every 2 ½ to 3 hours). When I looked back at Blair’s records and logs, she was eating 6oz at a time! We need to get this girl on that feeding schedule! She is in Size 1 diapers and still in 3 month sized clothes. She is too small for 6 month clothes, but it wont be long until we ditch the 3 month clothes for 3-6 month sizes. She is a long, skinny little thing. Looking back at pictures of Blair at this point, they look very similar, but Blair had squishier cheeks. At 2 – 3 months, they both look like little dolls! So sweet!

Here are Lo’s 2 month stats: 
Weight - 11lbs, 14.8oz (50%)
Height – 24.88” (100%)
HC – 16” (90%)

We are officially passed that really gassy stage that Harlow went through. You know, the kind where she cries after eating and you can hear the air in her tummy. I think the change of formula (Enfamil Gentlease) and her system maturing totally fixed the situation. We do still use gas / Mylicon drops, because when I don’t use them, she’s gassy. Go figure. At least the gas is mostly gone. We have a much happier baby, and household.

I don’t want to speak too soon, but Harlow just might be my easy baby. I certainly did not think that in the first few weeks when she was miserable with gas, but things have evened out and she is much more laid back and mellow (unless, of course, you aren’t holding her in the position she likes). Her teachers at school always tell us how sweet and cuddly she is – and how she almost never cries (unless she is getting her diaper changed). Maybe “easy” isn’t the correct term, but laid back may be more fitting.

Some of the things that Miss Harlow loves are: Mommy, Daddy, Blair, taking baths, cooing and ‘telling stories,’ snuggling up next to anyone that will let her,  being carried ‘up’  like a big girl (upright – not cradled like a baby), being tickled by Daddy, looking out windows, and sleeping on anyone’s chest (its lights out for her when this happens).

Some of the things that Harlow does not like: being in her car seat when the car is not moving, having a dirty diaper changed, getting saline in her nose, being carried around (cradled) like a baby, sudden loud sounds (like someone laughing), being hungry.

We are loving the sweet baby girl smiles from our girl and her sweet disposition. We are completely smitten with this little love… especially Blair. ♥