I Wear My Sunglasses at Night

Off to begin a busy day, but had to post some cute new pictures of Bailey first! Oh, and by the way, she slept 8.5 hours Thursday night, then ate and then slept another 2 hours. Last night she did 8 hours and then ate and has been back asleep for about an hour now. Yay for my girl!

Thursday 13- Time for Some Sappiness

Thirteen things I love about my baby

1. She is so soft and smells so good (well, unless she has just pooped or spit up, I guess)
2. Her smile, which I get to see more and more each day :)
3. The way she calms down immediately when I hold her
4. Her fuzzy hair- which is already getting longer.
5. The cute clothes I get to dress her in, and the patience she has for me while I play dress-up with her each morning
6. She is such a good sleeper!
7. Every day she is more interested in the world around her.
8. She is beginning to grab things that are close enough- not yet reaching but she will often grab her dresses and put the hem in her mouth, or grab my arm or my shirt if it is near her while she is eating.
8. I have just discovered that she prefers to take a bath in the big tub with me so she can be held and play a little bit, so it's fun and relaxing for both of us.
9. The dimples on her knuckles and elbows
10. Her happy and easy-going personality even when she's sick
11. Her beautiful blue eyes, and the eyelashes that seem to get longer every day. I hope her eyes stay blue like her daddy's.
12. She is not a picky eater- bottle, breast, various kinds of formula, boobie milk, vitamins in the bottle...
13. I love that she is a girl- I have always dreamed of having my little girl and now she is here!

Hotmail Problems and Bored at Home

I can get into my account but can't open any new emails or compose an email... anyone else have Hotmail and have these issues right now?

Oh and by the way, Bailey is still snotty and coughing but acting happy. I feel fine but have no voice. So we are going to spend today at home resting and trying to REALLY get better. Ug. I hate being stuck at home and I have to miss my fun lunch plans with Jen. *Boo*

I have the best of intentions to clean my house today. At least part of the house. Something I haven't done enough of lately. But now that Bailey is back asleep my guess is that I will waste a lot of time shopping/browsing online and sleeping. I keep finding new websites for free stuff or coupons or free samples to be mailed to our house. Yes, we are even trying Glucerna cereal for free this week. But one of my favorite coupon sites for online shopping is Coupon Chief because I can find codes to save money while shopping online. Not that I spend tons and tons of money or anything like that. I am totally a bargain shopper, and I mostly look for stuff like Target or Kohl's coupons.

Also I am telling myself that I am going to update Bailey's baby book today. I have done a good job (I think) of at least getting some hospital pics in and having it updated all the way through like the first month of her life... except I need to add some more family pictures and pictures of our house... and later I need to go up to the library and pick up a book Jonathon needs for a book discussion.

Clearly, my day is going to be terribly exciting.

Wordless Wednesday- Smiles for Daddy

My Baby is Sick :(

In lieu of a Wordless Wednesday post today, I'm going to tell you the sad story of my sick baby. Well, if I am up to it later I might do a WW post... but anyway, on to more important things: Bailey has her first cold.

First Jonathon was sick, and then me, and within about a day of me showing Symptoms Bailey was also getting sniffly... so therefore I am convinced she caught it from Jonathon and not me. But that's neither here nor there. She started out sniffly on Monday night and I called and made her a doctor appt. Her pediatrician is out of town so she was supposed to see someone else in the practice. Well then on Tuesday she seemed fine so I cancelled the appointment. Of course. Only to have her crabby and very congested last night. So I got up this morning and got her an appointment for 11:30 today.

She saw a nurse practitioner in the same office. She said that she has a cold, but thankfully her ears and lungs are clear. She gave us some Pediacare cold med and also told me stuff to do like saline mist/aspirator in her nose before nursing to help her breathe while eating. And sleeping upright as much as possible, and a humidifier in her room. She also said it could take up to two weeks for her to get better at this age! WHAT!?!

Of course my first thought is anger toward Jonathon for bringing sickness into our house. Not that he did it intentionally, but I swear the guy gets sick five times for every one time I do. Normally I don't even catch what he has. Then I'm frustrated with myself for getting it. ANd I feel bad that Bailey feels bad. She is such a little trooper. She tries to smile and then she'll cough or her throat will rattle and she will make the cutest little sad face and start whining. Then she's back to herself again until she remembers she doesn't feel well.

Does she hate the saline drops and aspirator? Yes she does! I am thinking about discontinuing them as they seem more aggravating than helpful at this point. If she is having trouble eating then I can try them again. For now, she is only nursing on one side but it seems to be enough to keep her happy.

10 Weeks

I meant to do her ten week post yesterday and the time just slipped away from me. I feel like that's how her whole life has been so far. It's just flying by. She is growing so fast. Now she smiles a lot and once in a while we even get a random laugh. She can hold her head up with no problem- no more bobblehead :( Her favorite things right now are her butterfly mobile above her crib, her band people on her bouncy seat, food, and her daddy's silly faces.

This is Bailey when she was less than 24 hours old:

Notice how the sleeper is just huge on her. It is hanging several inches off her feet, and her legs kept getting caught in the body section of it. The photographer had to pull it tighter around her for her first pictures so she didn't look lost inside it!

Now here is Bailey at 10 weeks, in the same sleeper. Not much wiggle room left! My girl is growing like crazy, and she seems so happy and healthy.


After I took this last picture I spent a while trying to get a picture of her smiling... and finally had some success...

Fun Weekend

This weekend was very busy- Friday night I went out with Faith. Saturday was a baby shower and then dinner with my grandparents. Sunday was church, a diaper shower, and a dinner at The Melting Pot.

Would you like to play on your Baby Einstein mat, Bailey?


Why, yes I would!


I went to a baby shower for my friend Kim in the afternoon. She is due (well, scheduled C-section because the baby is breech) on July 5th. The gender is a surprise- what a patient mommy! Anyway I made a diaper cake for her because Jonathon and I got one at one of our showers and I thought it was really cool. I had a lot of fun making it, so I'll probably do it again sometime! Here is Kim with the cake. I'm not sure why she looks so brown- I guess issues with my flash or something.


A close-up of my masterpiece:


Grammy and Grampa bought Bailey an Exersaucer last week. Saturday was the first day we really put her in it and let her try it. I know she's still kind of little for it and she's not reaching for toys yet. But we put her pickle pillow behind her to support her and she seemed to enjoy sitting there and looking at all the toys for a while. They got the one with the most stuff on it, so it should keep her busy! Thanks again, Mom and Dad :)



She was so worn out that once she fell asleep and got moved to her bed, she slept through the night until about 20 minutes before my alarm went off for church!


Sunday night we had our weekly date night. This week we went to The Melting Pot, which is one of our favorite restaurants. We had a great time, and Bailey got to go play at Grammy's house. Everyone was happy about those plans :)

Girlie Girl Night

Jen hosted a Girlie Girl Night at her house. There were two other babies there, but Bailey was the only girl. So she stayed up late and hung out with the girls. LOL actually she always stays up late but I can pretend that's the reason, right? Anyway it was just a fun night of catching up with the girls and doing girlie stuff. We ate lots of snacks, painted our nails, and watched The Notebook. It's one of my favorite movies, but I have to be in a certain mood to watch it since it's such a tearjerker. Jonathon and I had just watched it together about a week before Bailey was born, so I didn't really cry this time- I think I had just seen it too recently or something... but anyway if you haven't seen it before you need to watch it. WITH your significant other if you have one!

Here are a few picture of Bailey and me getting ready :)




Did I mention that Jen and Aaron just got back from vacation in the Dominican? We are trying to plan a group vacation for sometime in the near future (okay like maybe next year) so we spent a chunk of our time talking about stuff like cruises, Sandals Resorts, and Crewed Yacht Charters.

Of course we also touched on all of our regular topics such as work and sex as well. Couldn't be a girls night without that!

Pet food?

I haven't heard anything recently about the pet food contamination crisis. We have a cat (fat little thing named Chloe) and although she really pisses me off sometimes, I would be sad if something happened to her. My friend Sarah's cat, Radar, actually DIED from that cat food when all that was going on. I don't know specifically what kind... but I know a lot of people were switching to organic dog food and stuff when that was going on. I am curious how many people have switched back to their old kinds of food by now. I kind of considered feeding Chloe something else for a while, but then I remembered how EVERYTHING makes her throw up! So I took my chances... that really sounds bad... but anyway I was so sad for my friend who lost her kitty to that food.

Continued Breastfeeding Progress

Yesterday I went to the nursing group again- haven't been in two weeks- and met a new girl with a baby girl named Ava who is a few weeks younger than Bailey. They are having basically the same problems we had early on. It was nice to be "on the other side" and be able to encourage her.

My milk supply seems to be much better now. I took the fenugreek for just a few days but I think that's what helped. Bailey only had 3 ounces of formula in a 24 hour period yesterday. So far in the last twelve hours she's only had one ounce, and that was to get her back to sleep this morning after a lazy feeding.

New Celeb Gossip Site

Speaking of my favorite web sites, I found a new celebrity gossip site. I used to obsessively read People magazine and US Weekly because the family I nannied for (long time ago, not Alison's family) subscribed to them. Since then I have been totally hooked on the gossip and do my best to keep up. Yesterday in the checkout line at Dierbergs, I was looking at the headlines and realized I was a little out of touch. Jennifer Aniston is adopting? Britney cut ties with her mom? What?

I'm thinking I'll have to bookmark this one so I can waste even more time sitting in front of my computer. Because I don't do that enough. Hey, at least it gives me something to do while nursing the baby!

En Route

My friend- we'll call her Funny because I'm not sure what alias she is currently using- left for China today to adopt her new baby girl! This has been a long-awaited and dreamed of journey for her family, and I am so happy for her.

Here is her journal leading up to the travel:

http://funnyinchina.blogspot.com

It's a great blog- very fun and entertaining to read, and also very honest. One of my favorites.

She has also started a new travel blog where she will document their trip:

http://meiinchina.blogspot.com

Stop by and congratulate her if you get a chance!

Wordless Wednesday- Up Close and Personal

And they call this 0-3 months?

I know my baby isn't abnormally small... in fact her weight is now in the 80th percentile and height is like 40th percentile I think. Yet most of her 0-3 month clothes are still huge on her. In the beginning all she would wear was Gerber onesies and sleepers because they ran the smallest. She has more than enough 0-3 month clothes, so I'm glad she can fit into them longer than expected. It seems like most of my friends babies were out of this size by now. But on the other hand, her 3-6 month stuff is even cuter! And more dresses!

Anyway, this is the outfit that inspired this post. A gown given to us at a baby shower, size 0-3 months. I just now tried putting her in it again because it was way too big before. Still has plenty of room. Anyone else think baby sizes are funky?

Pay Per Post Direct

I have been trying to get more into doing some advertising and stuff like that to make money from my blogs. Now that I am staying home with Bailey, I need the extra cash. It's pretty easy to do, and it really does pay (through Paypal) and I never get any spam or junk mail from it. With sites like Pay Per Post, you just go on their sites and select the opportunities you are interested in, write about them, and then give them the URL for your post. They check it out and approve your post, and then Paypal you the money.

I have told myself I won't advertise anything I disagree with or think is dumb. I try to keep stuff in line with what I blog about, but occasionally I get random stuff here and there. I figure if people don't like me advertising on my blog, they don't have to read it :) But I also know that a few people have signed up with Pay Per Post through my blog, so apparently some other people think it's interesting!

PPP has started a new thing called Pay Per Post Direct. Advertisers can find you on your blog (instead of you looking for them) and then use a link to send you job offers. You can negotiate with them and take assignments that way. Pay Per Post claims to have a lot less "overhead" than other services that do this, because they only charge a 10% fee (5% of which goes to Paypal and credit card services).

I am thinking about attempting to use this at some point in the near future. Another thing on my to-do list is to get my own domain. Not that I don't love Blogger... ha...

Vitamins

We started Bailey on Poly-Vi-Sol last night... she didn't like it a whole lot and managed to get most of it out of her mouth by sticking her tongue out over and over. Then she smiled. It's like she knew she had accomplished something. I think we might try putting them in her bottle tonight, unless anyone knows any other tricks. I have heard they stain so I am trying to be careful when we do them. Last night it was in the bathtub.

Happy Father's Day!

Today we celebrated Jonathon's first Father's Day by going over to my parents house. He got his ice cream cake like he always wants for every holiday :)

She was up late last night so she slept this morning in the church nursery- yes, this is the second time I have put her in there. But I am the nursery coordinator for the first service hour, and that's when I put her in there, so I was able to poke my head in about every five minutes and look at her. I think if I wasn't back there where I could see her, and if I hadn't worked in there for so long and known how it runs, I wouldn't have put her in there yet. Plus, our church is huge so the rooms are very age-specific. She is only in with other babies who aren't crawling yet, so they don't touch the same toys or anything like that yet.

Bailey was very well behaved all day, which was a gift to both of us! Not that she isn't usually a good girl, but she was just especially mellow today. After we got home, Jonathon and I were able to take a long late-afternoon nap together while Bailey slept. Then I even made dinner tonight!

Here is Bailey right before we dropped her off in the nursery...

My grandpa, Jonathon, and my dad- the proud daddies

Our little family on our first Father's Day together- we went to my parents house to celebrate. I was supposed to host it at my house originally but I haven't had much time to clean lately and it's just gotten embarassing. This weekend I managed to clean both bathrooms and put away some of the random junk that seems to be laying around everywhere since Bailey has been here... I will really have to do some cleaning tomorrow though because we host our small group here on Tuesday!

Bailey with my grandma while we open gifts... I got Jonathon a mini SD card for his new phone (which is also an MP3 player and his early Father's Day gift) so now he can start putting music and videos on his phone. Just what everyone needs, right? Someone actually joked about me getting him a life insurance policy for a gift- LOL- but he already has one anyway... ours is through State Farm but I know there are cheaper options out there like Globe life insurance...

Two Months Old

My drooly faced baby :)

The time has just flown by! Today is Bailey's two month birthday. And to celebrate, she has smiled at us a ton today :) No more worries about a "slow smiler." She continues to be fascinated by windows and fans, likes to stick her tongue out now, can get her hands in her mouth but not her thumb, picks her head up really far during tummy time, and is sleeping through the night about two out of three nights! Life with her gets more exciting every day.

2 Month Checkup

11 lbs 2 oz

22 in long

bigger head but I forget what

4 shots, one oral vaccine

Updated: Bailey is now in like the 80th percentile for weight and 40th for height, I think... The doctor said she was doing well and probably had a big weight gain during this second month since she wasn't gaining a whole lot during the first month.

She is meeting all of her little milestone/expectation thingies such as picking her head up enough when on her stomach, cooing, eye contact, etc. Except- the doctor asked if she was smiling a lot and we said still only once in a while- like maybe two or three times a day but she has to be in a good mood or someone has to be particularly interesting. She said she would "like to see her smiling more within the next 2.5 weeks" so whatever. I guess our kid is a slow smiler. Oh well.

She was fine for the first three shots and then screamed like crazy during the last one. I was surprised she held out that long even. She sucked on my finger for a few minutes and calmed down fairly quickly. Was crabby a little bit later in the day and had two doses of Tylenol. Then she slept last night from 11 pm until when I woke her up this morning at 8:40 because we had to go somewhere. She slept more than usual today, too, but her personality seems to be back to normal.

Wordless Wednesday

No more bassinet... my baby's growing up!

The other day Jonathon wheeled her bassinet downstairs and she's all done with it now... she probably would have fit in it for a while still, but it was kind of in the way of her crib... the original plan was for her to sleep in the bassinet in our room, but she was just too noisy so that only lasted the first night we were home from the hospital.

She sleeps so well in her crib now. She still has to be swaddled to sleep or her arms will wake her up. We have two swaddle wraps now- the original one which is fleece, and now a lighter one for the summer made by Boppy.

Naptime on the Boppy after eating

We love to snuggle!

New Blog

I don't think I mentioned this before- my old blog from before my pregnancy is back up and alive again. If you are bored please go check it out!

http://sosunshine.blogspot.com

Bragging Rights

On Saturday night Bailey went to bed at 10:30-10:45 and didn't wake up until 6:15 a.m.

Last night she went to bed at 11:45 or so and got up at 8 this morning.

She is eight weeks old today.

From This Day Forward

My friend Amanda got married yesterday at The Butterfly House! It was a very pretty wedding, and the weather turned out to be really nice for an outdoor wedding. My parents watched Bailey during the ceremony, but then we brought her to the reception with us because they had a different wedding to go to in the evening.

On Friday I made Bailey and I matching bracelets to wear. Hers is just a smaller version of mine, with smaller beads. I might have to make us some more matching stuff!

All dressed up and ready to go!


Amanda seated us at the same table as her parents and some other family members, so it was really nice to be able to visit with them during dinner. Bailey was wide awake most of the time, but she managed to behave herself. I just had to eat my meal in about ten different stages.

Me with Amanda- this is the only picture I have of her because I had a brain lapse and forgot to put the memory card in the camera before the ceremony- which was at the Butterfly House so that was disappointing- but then we had time in between so we picked Bailey up from my parents house and got the memory card before the reception.


Getting ready for bed

Can't Wait To Take Bailey HERE

Disney World. That has been my favorite vacation place since I was six. Well, I have to admit I haven't been there lately, but I used to love it. I wanted to go there a year or two ago and Jonathon insisted that we wait until we have kids to take. I was like, "No, it won't be as fun..." but now I can't wait to be able to take Bailey there and show her everything. I'm sure a lot has changed but some of my favorites were Space Mountain, It's a Small World, and the Jungle Cruise ride. Oh, and MR Toad's Wild Ride, because it looked like a train was going to crash into your car. And the Peter Pan ride... I could go on and on. I wouldn't mind getting an Orlando vacation home so I could go there whenever I wanted!

Anyone been there lately? Tell me your stories and make me jealous!

I have even kind of been playing around looking at tickets for Disney. There seem to be some pretty good deals out there. We would definitely want to stay at a Disney hotel (last time I was there we stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort) and go to The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Universal Studios. I know there are tickets called Magic My Way where you can get deals on all the theme parks together. I have also found some cheap Universal Studios tickets.

I know Bailey is too little to do it yet, but here is my question- if you have taken your kids to Disney, how old were they and was it a good age for your trip?

Honestly

Getting up to nurse at 5 am SUCKS. I fantasize about getting one full uninterrupted night's sleep. I know it could be worse- boo hoo, your kid eats once during the night. But I'm just never all the way rested.

I told Jonathon about my fantasy and he informed me that he was tired too. Oh wow, my heart aches for you buddy. I don't see you getting up during the night with her, or staying awake to make sure she goes to sleep. (In all fairness, he would do this if I asked him)... but can't he just have some sympathy for me once in a while? I'm tired and whiney. Clearly. It's 5:09 a.m. Despite what Blogger might be saying.

I also worry/wonder about how smart Bailey will be. Of course I hope she's brilliant. I would be happy with her no matter how she was, though. I just hope she doesn't suck at math as much as I did, because I had a hard time with it all the way through school. But my parents waited a long time to get me a tutor. I would do something like getting her involved in academic Summer Camps or something right away to get her caught up. The Score tutoring program looks really good and is supposed to have great results.

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My Favorite Place

My favorite place in St. Louis (well, to take kids to anyway) is Grant's Farm, a.k.a. GF in my blog. Sadly, I haven't been there yet this season. I want to go when either the playgroup goes or when my mom can come with me. That just hasn't worked out yet on a day that isn't too hot. Grant's Farm is owned by Anheuser-Busch and it's where some of the Clydesdales are kept. You enter the park on a tram, which takes you through acres of wildlife and you can see all kinds of animals, including zebras, bison, Texas longhorn cattle, deer, antelopes, ducks, wild mustangs... it's pretty cool. They get really close to the tram, too. In fact, my friend Mae has had a few interesting experiences with the bison!

The other day when I went out to get the mail, there was a card for Bailey and a check from my mom for the season's pass! Entrance to the park is free, and you get two free (alcoholic!) drinks per visit, but parking costs $8. Unless you are smart and get the season pass for unlimited parking, which is only $30.

Now I can't wait to go. Anyone up for a GF trip?