Schedule

I think I finally did it, I got Payton on a schedule! One we can all live with. The cereal is helping things, not sure why, but it really seems to be.

She wakes up and gets a bottle at 7, (I pump and get enough for 2 bottles), then she usually takes a little 15 minute catnap on our way to the gym. At 10, she gets cereal and another bottle, and takes a nap, but not too long. I've discovered this throws her afternoon nap off. So it is usually about 30-45 minutes, but no longer then an hour. Then when we read stories to Garrett at 1, her and I go off to her room, she nurses and sleeps about 3 hours!! When she gets up she gets more cereal and her veggies dinner, with a small bottle, then plays and and gets a bath if it's bath night, then by 8, she's usually sound asleep.

Night time is a guess, some nights she's up a lot between 4 and 6:30, some nights (last night), she's up every couple hours, and some nights she sleeps straight though. She no longer nurses at night, I just pop the paci in and rub her back and she's out before I'm out the door. Why she wakes up, I have no idea, but I can NOT wait for her to figure out how to get that paci back in herself!

5 months

Oh, i can't believe I forgot to post Payton's 5 month birthday! I took pictures, but by the time you upload them onto the computer, then to Kodak, then share them, then onto facebook, I guess I forgot the blog!

Yes, my little Peanut is 5 months old! She is rolling and squirming everywhere. She can now get to a toy if she wants it. It might take her a little while, but she gets there. She turned 5 months on Friday, Saturday morning she discovered she has a voice, and boy does she like hearing herself! By the time she fell asleep Saturday night, I had a headache, that girl can talk. She is trying to sit up, she does this tripod type sit up, then usually falls on her face or rolls on her side.

We started baby food on Monday night. We finally got her high chair down from the attic and she looks so tiny sitting in it, but she loves it! She had sweet potatoes the last 2 nights and those are a big hit. Now that I'm feeding her in the high chair and not the Bumbo seat, she isn't making as much of a mess.

Monday, I decided it was time to firm up her nap schedule a bit more, but she had her own ideas! The research I did said to keep her up for 3 hours (I was going for closer to 2), well, at 2 hours she fell asleep on me at Target! She took a 30 minute nap and then about 2 hours later another 30 minutes, but her next nap was 3 hours long! I was feeling quite proud of myself. Today, she napped for 1.5 hours at church....and that was almost it for the day! She slept maybe 10 minutes on the way home from church and that just messed everything up. At 4, she finally passed out, but only slept for 30 minutes, so she was in bed a little after 7! Baby girl was beat.

Her hair is coming in blonder, so we are about to say good bye to the red, I think. Her eyes are still blue. I wish I had noted when Garrett's changed, so I could compare, but I"m still holding out some hope she'll get her Daddy's blue eyes. I need to weigh her, but her and the car seat are 26 pounds! No wonder it's so heavy to carry around. If I can, I just carry her and leave the car seat in the car.

I am officially back to my pre pregnancy weight :) I am now working on losing the last 10 I never lost after I had Garrett. I figure I'm going to keep working out as hard as I can until I finally do go back to work, i figure it will become much harder at that point.

I did decide to start weaning her. I have cut out one feeding, the mid morning one, and it's made life a LOT easier. I don't have to worry so much about when we can go to the gym, or about taking her to the nursery for bible study, or running errands. Maybe it's a selfish decision, but I still pump first thing in the morning and get enough for 2 feedings, so she's still 100% getting breastmilk.

To wean or not to wean?!?!

Payton is 5 months today (pictures coming soon), and I am seriously considering starting to wean her. I originally wanted to nurse her until she was 6 months, but we have a trip coming up and the idea of traveling in the car, on the airplane and just all the fun stuff we have planned and breastfeeding sounds a bit overwhelming to me. So, I think it might be time. The cost of forumla always scares me, but at our last Dr's appt, I asked for some samples and they gave me 6 cans!! I figure if I ask again at her 6 month appt, hopefully, I can get a few more, and maybe we won't have to buy any for a little while.

I get sad, since she's my last baby, but then I think of the freedom, and I get a bit excited, is that wrong?!?!

Rolling, rolling, rolling

I need to get back on track with adding comments about the kids!

Payton is now a rolling machine. You lay her on her back and she immediately flips onto her stomach, and then proceeds to complain because she can't see you.

About a week ago, I decided to go ahead and start her on cereal, she didn't do too well at first, but then i thickened it a bit and now she loves it. She gets it everywhere, she follows the spoon with her fist, then grabs her toes, so it is quite a messy meal, but she opens her mouth and gets very excited about it.

Same with a bottle, i've been pumping a bit more to make sure she is good with the bottle and now she will reach for it and help you hold it, if you try to take it away and burp her, she grabs it and shoves it back in!

She loves the bath now, lots of kicking and splashing going on!

Garrett is still her favorite, she just lights up when he looks at her. She's laughing so much more now, it is the cutest sound ever!

As for Garrett, he's doing great! No more pooping issues, everything makes it into the potty now, except for the occasional naptime poop (in a diaper), but he's even woken up dry from his nap a few times :)

We took him to see Toy Story 3, he loved it. He was scared a couple of times, but as soon as we walked out of the theater, he was asking if we could see it again.

The other night he was trying to watch Scooby Doo, and it was kind of scaring him, he came to me and said he was being "smart" and watching Scooby Doo, it took me a minute to realize he meant brave.

Payton is getting very good at putting herself to sleep. Tonight, she was crying when I was rocking her, so I laid her down, she turned on her side and went right to sleep! Kind of bittersweet for Momma!

4 months old

My little peanut was 4 months old yesterday!! What a difference a couple months makes. I now have a smiley, happy baby girl. The acid reflux medicine has made such a difference in all our lives! She had her checkup yesterday, she is:

14.1 pounds, which is in the 75th %tile

24.5 inches long, which is in the 60th%tile

with a tiny head, 40cm, which is in the 30th%tile.

She did get her shots, I'm proud of her though, she only cried until I picked her up, but boy did she give that nurse her best sad face! I almost wish I could have snapped a picture, that face was priceless.

She loves Garrett and her exersaucer, she hates her car seat and tummy time. She rolled over a bunch at 9 weeks, but hasn't since then, the Dr just said she's not motivated enough, we obviously know that she knows how. He said just more tummy time. The only problem is, Garrett doesn't like it when she's cries, so he tends to roll her over, lol!

Her eyes are still blue and her hair has a reddish tint to it still. I'm hoping to post some new pictures later today.

The Dr said we could start cereal, but he also said the latest, newest research suggests waiting until 6 months. He said it's completely up to us, but I think I'm just going to wait. She still has that gag reflux where she tries to push everything out of her mouth, and life is difficult enoughright now, so since she's growing quite well on just momma's milk, I'm just going to wait. He said we could wait as long as 9 months if we wanted too!! I am thinking more like 5 or 6 months, not 9!

She is a great night time sleeper, not as great a napper. I have just banned her from her swing, so she is not napping nearly as well. Her "normal" routine is a 30-45 minute nap at about 8, then again about 11, then she sleeps from 2-4 or 5, then takes a 30 minute nap about 7, then goes to bed about 8-8:30 and sleeps until 5 or 6. I decided if she could sleep 10 hours in her crib at night, she can nap in it too!

Bedtime

I've decided that bedtime is one of my favorite times of the day. Not just because it means "me" time, but I just love laying in bed with Garrett and talking about the day, and giggling and whispering in the dark, reading stories to him and hearing how he interprets things. Then going and rocking and nursing Payton. She almost always falls asleep nursing now, and she is just so sweet and like a little ragdoll. She tries to pick her head up off my shoulder, but her eyelids are so heavy and she just relaxes down into me, it's just so sweet!

Sometimes I put her to bed while Matt reads Garrett stories and I can hear them and that's just so sweet too. Listening to them talking and hearing Matt read to our son, it's just a very nice time of day for me.

3 months old

Payton turned 3 months on Sunday! I weighed her this morning and according to my scale, she is up to 14 pounds. She is still in 0-3 month clothes, even though they only go up to 12.5 pounds. I think I need to start washing the 3-6 month stuff though.

She is still sleeping from 8:30 to around 4;30/5, some days she goes back to sleep, some days she doesn't :( She is smiling a LOT more, she coos and just lights up whenever Garrett is around. He loves her too, he only gets upset if we're in the car and she's crying. She doesn't seem to like the car much lately, i'm not sure why. But, the last few times we've gone to run errands she's cried.

But, this weekend, Payton and I headed to Aunt Heather's for a girls weekend, other then a small bit of crying at the start of both legs of the trip, she slept the entire time! She did great at Aunt Heather's. She fell asleep in her arms the first night, she loved going shopping with us, and even enjoyed her first trip to the pool (she fell asleep!)

Heather is coming to visit us this weekend and I"m hoping to get some good pictures of both kids and maybe even me :) since i'm always taking the pictures there aren't many of me!