Evelyn turned four months old a few weeks ago! So much has been going on with her, changing and growing!
Evie is getting really good at sitting (with assistance). Other than a random week where she kept slouching to one side, she's been doing an awesome job at sitting up straight! She's had her floor seat almost a month now and she loves to be able to sit up by herself and look all around. I love it too because it lets me get more done around the house.
Evie took her first road trip this month, which unfortunately, was very stressful for her. This last month, she was very wary of new people and places. She cries inconsolably when she starts to get overwhelmed from it and then the only thing we can do is put her in her car seat (which feels very safe and familiar to her) and rock her or take her for a walk to calm her down. Poor thing. Towards the end of the month, we did start to see some improvement with her, and it seems like she's starting to tolerate people-who-aren't-mama-or-daddy much better. Here are a few pictures from a short break on the road:
Evie also found her feet this month and spends a lot of time touching her toes! She kicks a lot now (of course, when mama is changing her) and loves to have her legs moved all around.
Just before hitting the 4 month mark, she also started to try to put things in her mouth. She's liked to hold onto things for a while now, but this is the first that she's sucked on them. Of course, the very first thing she showed interest in chewing on was mama's cell phone. The picture below is her gripping my phone and trying to bring it to her mouth.... We ended up with a selfie instead :)
I feel like a lot is happening very quickly with Evie. It's so fun to watch her light up as she suddenly understands that she can make a toy jingle by kicking it, or see her huge smile when mama or dada walks into the room. I love how she's growing and changing everyday. Much love to this little cutie.
So I'm getting this 3 month update posted a little late (but not as late as last time- yay!) and I thought I'd go ahead and post it today because it's Evie's 100th Day of Life (ah! I'm one day late for that now, too! darn! anyway...) How cool is that! And how can that be?? One hundred mornings waking up with her in my life, and one hundred days of smiles and tears and naps and feedings (and how many hundreds of diapers must there have been now??), and one hundred evenings lulling her off to sleep, and one hundred nights of listening to little baby snores (yes, my baby is Darth Vader), and one hundred days of pure blessings (even on the days I feel like I'm going crazy and have wild daydreams of getting all the laundry folded and put away in one go; drinking a full cup of coffee without it going cold because someone else needs my attention; taking a shower that lasts longer than 5 minutes - or, and now this is really crazy talk - a nice, hot, long soak in the bathtub. (Yes, I can hear all you seasoned moms laughing through the internet at my preposterous ideas). (I just used parentheses inside parentheses, so now I've created a sort of inception situation here and I have to end with double parentheses...) )
Can you tell I'm tired?
I'm so happy, though, that Evie is getting bigger. And I know later I'll probably wish I could make her little again, but she's been little for so long, I'm eager to see her grow! My friends keeps having babies that are bigger than she is at 3 months! A lady at the grocery store questioned me repeatedly about her age and weight. She started out in the 5th percentile for weight and then dropped down to the 4th and then at her two month check-up she had dropped into 3rd and last I calculated she was even lower than that... so as a mom with a baby who's been dropping off the charts, I can say wholeheartedly, GROW! Get big! Eat, eat, eat!
Right at 3 months, we sort of graduated into 0-3 and 3 month clothes... they are too big on her. But the smaller of the newborn outfits were starting to get a little snug in the length department! She is at least on the charts in regards to height. She's still in newborn for dresses, though, by a long shot. Sunday, I put her in 3 month dresses for church and they all looked ridiculous so we had to stick with newborn for now.
Anyway, onto what Evie has learned this month:
*She is so good at grasping things now... anything that fits in her little hands that is... She reaches for toys held in front of her, and smiles at the ones that make noise. She has deep conversations with the toys that hang from her play gym.
*She just started on a growling phase... she's been "talking" a lot for a while now, but lately she really likes to make guttural noises more than anything. I honestly don't like it. Lol... I just feel like it's strange. I think she probably just figured out she can make that noise and soon enough it's newness will wear off and she'll go back to her normal talking... at least that's what I'm hoping. Little baby coos are so much cuter than little baby growls.
*She LOVES to sit up, and is quite good at keeping herself pretty steady... of course she still needs constant support, though. She gets upset when she's laying down unless she's sleeping or eating. When she's leaning back at all, she does these cute little crunches trying to get herself in a straight up sitting position. I have a floor seat and a jumperoo on order from Amazon that should be here tomorrow and I can't wait because she constantly wants to be held in a sitting position.
*She is just starting to get a little separation anxiety. It's worse when she's tired. Sometimes it doesn't seem so bad and sometimes when anyone other than mama is holding her, she is crying. Sometimes if someone even looks at her too long she starts crying. It's like she's thinking, "Oh no, they are going to take me!" Poor girl... We are trying to get her out and with other people as much as possible to help her her used to people... And also daddy is spending as much time with her as he can when he's home. Any other suggestions from moms of a baby with this issue?? I read that 3 months is pretty young to start this but that it does happen... I don't want her to be so upset when I can't be with her!
*She is still gets so gassy and has reflux issues... Sometimes it seems like it's getting better and then it's like she goes through a bad phase of it again... Also it seems like she kind of struggles with constipation issues too which probably has to do with the gassyness.
*She loves to smile and laughs when she hears people laughing. It's so cute to watch. Peak-a-boo is becoming a favorite game and always gets a laugh or two out of her.
*She constantly tries to stick her whole hand in her mouth. Sometimes both hands. Even when she's eating. I try to tell her she can't do both at the same time, but she doesn't quite get it yet. Just in the last day or two, though, she's been seeming more interested in just her thumb... so maybe we're getting there. lol!
Happy 100 Days, Evie!! (Well, 101 now)!! And here's to 3 months of blessings!
My heart is bursting with love and excitement for little Evie. This month, it's like I've been able to see her brain working and growing and learning. We've had another "fly-by monthing" over here... another month gone in the blink of an eye! Here's what happened this month:
*Evie is such a little thinker. She has, what I've dubbed, the the cutest little "frown of discernment", when she's looking at things. It's almost as if it's a puzzle that she's thinking about so hard and trying to work out. She is learning new things everyday and picking up on objects around her more and more. It's so cute to watch her entertain herself with the looking at the same object over and over... she will frown at it for a bit, then smile at it and even laugh a little. Makes my heart melt.
*She is now really enjoying her play gym that Aunt Tanya gave her. Her favorite part is the little mirror that reflects her image back to
her. She smiles and smiles at herself and makes herself laugh. She is sort of reaching for the hanging toys and enjoys watching them swing back and forth. On her 2 month anniversary exactly, she grabbed a hanging toy on her play gym and hung onto it for a minute. It was so cute!
*She doesn't really love tummy time, but she usually will tolerate it for a few minutes before she starts crying. So we've been doing tummy time mostly on momma's chest.
*She's now sleeping from about 10pm (sometimes still a little later) until usually at least 4:30am and then falls back to sleep again until later in the morning. A lot of times though, especially in the last week or so, she has been sleeping from 10-11pm until 7:30-8am... I am super impressed with her sleeping skills! Asher has taken over the changing table portion of the pack n play (which is fine because we never use it anyway)...
*She still suffers from reflux but it's gotten a lot better overall. We had a really bad day about half way through the month and momma just couldn't soothe her. We found out that evening, that Evie loves to hear the vacuum cleaner running and it calms her down almost instantly. So momma dragged the vacuum cleaner into the nursery, sat down with Evie in the glider and rocked her to sleep to the sweet sweet sounds of the same spot on the carpet being cleaned for 45 minutes. (#thingsyouneverexpecttouseyourvacuumfor). We have now had the vacuum sitting in the nursery for 2 weeks straight and we utilize it's magical properties often.
*Momma and Evie took their first official trip out alone together at the beginning of the month. We'd driven to see daddy at work before, but never ventured into any stores by ourselves til then. It went well and we've since been out quite a bit together! We also took Evie to a sit down restaurant for the first time ever and she did amazing!
*Evie is enjoying her baths much better now. She smiles and seems to enjoy the warm water flowing over her.
*She got her first set of shots (besides what was given to her in the hospital) on her 2 month anniversary and screamed the whole time. She was happy again soon afterward, but started to become very fussy later in the day. I don't blame her. I can't handle it either. You can see her little bandaids on both legs in the picture below...
I'm getting this month posted super late, so only a bit over a week til Evie turns three months old!! I love it!! Hopefully I'll get that one posted in the proper time! :) haha! Here's a few random moments of Evie captured during her second month of life:
And just like that my little itty-bitty baby is 1 month old... (actually 6 weeks now, since I never got around to posting this at the one-month mark!) The time passed so quickly! Maybe one day I'll have a chance to post about Evie's birth... eventually. For now, here's what Evie is up to this month.
*She's been holding her head up pretty much from day one, pushing herself off your chest when you hold her up. Now, however, she's gotten even stronger and she holds her head up for minutes at a time. She is gaining a lot of control of her neck, also, and is able to turn her head (a bit wobbly) from side to side to look at things.
*In week 3 she began track objects with her eyes. She won't follow everything I put in front of her face, but the things that interest her she will watch and watch.
*People (faces) make her very happy. She loves having company and seeing new faces. She gets very smiley (and makes all sorts of faces) when people are around, giving her attention.
*"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" is her favorite song so far (accompanied by momma making her arms move in little circle rowing motions) and it usually produces smiles from Evie.
*We had her first real bath this month, after her cord fell off, and she hated it. With a fiery passion I had not yet seen from her. I felt horrible the whole time and was so worried that I was seriously traumatizing her. I can only hope her next bath goes better...
*She doesn't enjoy having her diaper or outfit changed. She rarely doesn't cry when we have to do these, and I dread it! I wish she liked playing dress up a little more, but right now we're making diaper changes as fast as possible and keeping outfit changes to the bare minimum to avoid the tears.
*She's a very quite crier. Very rarely does she give us a big scream. Mostly, her face gets all red and she opens her mouth but no sound comes out. It's like she's holding her breath.
*She's a very loud breather. She snores. We bought a baby breathing monitor for her before she was born and so far, we haven't even remotely needed it. She sleeps in our room and she snores so loud we have no problem whatsoever knowing that she's still breathing. She also makes a lot of squeaks and gasping sounds when she breathes, awake or asleep. Our doctor told us, "babies are supposed to sound like Darth Vader," so we haven't been worrying too much, but she has another appointment at the end of the week and I'm going to bring up her breathing to him again.
*She's only in the 5th percentile (if even that) for weight and height, so I'm hoping we can get a little more meat on her bones in the next few weeks. She likes to eat, but she's kind of not the best at it so far. Plus she had reflux pretty badly, and her stomach would get so upset after eating, and she'd spit up a lot. We are working with her on that and she's getting a lot better now! yay!
*She looks just like her daddy. But we have noticed that her hair has gotten a little lighter and there is a hint of red in it when she's in the sun, like her momma! And she has just a smidgeon of her momma's webbed toes!
*She's a lot more alert now during the day than when she first came home, especially in the afternoons. And no matter what time I feed her, she always wants fed or just held right over dinner time for Chad and I. So I have gotten very good at eating one handed.
*She has slept (mostly) through the night since she was born. We are super blessed. She falls asleep after a fairly long night routine, usually around 11pm. Sometimes she wakes up between 2-3am for a night feed, but often she sleeps right through until 4:30-5:30am. Then after that feed, she usually goes back to sleep until 7-9am. I was concerned at first if I should wake her up every few hours to feed, but all the nurses at the hospital and now her pediatrician say that at night we should always let her sleep if she's sleeping.
I'd say that's most of the big things we've noticed so far! It's so interesting and fun to watch her change! These little ones learn things so incredibly fast. Chad and I love her to pieces, but we are also looking forward to when she's a little older and she can really interact with us more!
We didn't get a chance to send out Christmas cards this year, so I thought I'd post the infographic that I planned to include with them. (You can click the image to make it bigger if the fine print is a little too small).
For the past few years, I've tried to come up with some realistic New Year Resolutions for myself. Things that I really believe I can do and that will help me be a better person. This year is no exception, and I've had a lot of fun coming up with a few things that I hope to accomplish by the start of 2016.
Most of my goals this year center around my anxiety & panic disorder. If you know me well, or you've read this blog, you might know that I have struggled for some time with panic attacks and periods of anxiety of varying intensities. Over the last year, I have made HUGE strides in this exhausting race to beat the anxiety. My counselor (who experiences anxiety herself) has helped me leaps and bounds and taught me ways to keep it at bay, and with help, I've been able to finally get some relief from it. I tell you all this, because anxiety and panic are silent problems that affect so many more people than we realize. No one talks about these problems. It took me YEARS to work up the courage to get help for my anxiety. I was embarrassed that I was so terrified to do things that other people did everyday without thinking twice. I was convinced I was crazy. I was afraid people would say I needed to be "sent somewhere". Anyway, I'm here to tell you, MANY MANY people struggle in the SAME WAYS. Now that I'm in a place where I can think more clearly, I've become passionate about the continuous healing process that I'm in (it truly takes constant, vigilant effort to keep moving forward), and about encouraging others who are experiencing anxiety or panic, and helping people who don't to understand this disorder so they can learn to be more understanding toward the people who do struggle with it.
ANYWAY. That was a bit of a deep bunny trail. My resolutions for this year are all actually pretty lighthearted. And that's kind of the point of them. To lighten that 'heavy' pressure of the anxiety when it tries to creep its way in! :)
This year, I really want to focus on being more positive. Positivity, gratefulness,
and finding joy are so important for keeping the anxiety at bay. :)
This has become one of my favorite verses. And
now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on
what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and
admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. - Philippians 4:8 (NLT).
It's one of those verses that I love to look at all the different translations of the Bible to understand better. There are SO many (all happy and positive) things that the different translations command us to keep our thoughts on. Whatever is: true, authentic, honorable, proper, gracious, noble, reputable, respected, worthy of reverence, honest, right, just, fair, good, clean, pure, holy, lovely, and loveable, the beautiful NOT the ugly, the best NOT the worst, friendly, amiable, admirable, winsome, gracious, excellent, commendable, worthy of praise, and virtuous. Wow! How much better would I feel if I would dwell on these things? If I focused on the beautiful, not the ugly? The best, not the worst? If I didn't just jump to the negative conclusion, and instead focus on the positive in each bad, sad, or difficult moment?
So, I decided to use this verse as a guide to start "a-photo-a-day" challenge for 2015. My goal is to take 1 picture every day of something that follows the qualifications of Philippians 4:8. I hope to periodically have these pictures printed and combine them into some sort of photo journal of all the happy, quiet, lovely moments that happened around me in every day of 2015. I have had my eye on some gorgeous Project Life albums and kits that I think would be an awesome outlet to showcase these pictures. And it would help me with the second part of my 'positivity' resolution, which is about gratitude.
I saw this awesome idea on pinterest, to keep a gratitude jar and fill it with jotted down recollections of happy moments as they happen.
I think it would be more effective for me, though, to do it in journal form, and the Project Life albums will be a great outlet to jot down these moments to remember. I love the adorable little cards that you can buy (or download) to jot these moments and memories and happy thoughts on.
So together, I think the photos and the journaling cards will come together to make a great 2015 gratitude album! :)
One last easy thing that I'm hoping to do this year (since I will be having a baby and will be home a lot more) is to keep myself busy (not that I'm expecting to just be laying around all day after the baby is born! haha!). But I want to keep my myself distracted from overthinking (a big anxiety producer for me) by entertaining myself with other outlets. For this I decided to make a list of books to read. I LOVE to read, and I always say I want to read more, so this will be a good way to follow through with that! I saw a similar idea of this on Pinterest, but I went ahead and made a category list of my own that was more suited to my tastes (and to staying positive). (I'm having trouble making this picture big enough to read, but to see it bigger, you can right click on it, and then click "view image". You can then click on the picture again to make it even bigger.)
This list ended up feeling a bit ambitious, so we'll see if I actually get ALL this done! I have a feeling, at least the Children's book portion of the list will fly by after the baby's born! ;).
Here's to a lovely, beautiful, pure, and excellent 2015!!! Happy New Year!
