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Found this on one of our many, many walks. VR = Veda Riley
Somebody must have snuck out. Oh, and we have a spirit with us on our walk,
notice the bottom left corner =) |
Prepare for photo overload. I swear, she went from a newborn to a grown up over the last month. She's just changed so much! Her personality/demeanor is typically pretty calm. She has cried a lot this last month, but I think I'm finally figuring her out. She will let you know when she's tired or hungry and it's usually RIGHT.NOW! She needs to take a nap about every three hours, usually an hour and half after wake time. If I can put her down as soon as she shows signs (slight whimpering, fussiness) there's no issue (well, except that I can't put her down anywhere, I have to hold her - spoiled!). If it goes into full on meltdown... it's not pretty!
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| Beauty Queen Veda, being an angel at the doctors office. Right before shots :/ |
Routine/Schedule: Not a lot has changed. We wake up around 7 every morning and get on our every three hour schedule of wake/eat/play/(attempt to) sleep. Week eight was a big week for us, she started sleeping through the night. We're talking 10PM-6-7AM. At that point she was still in our room, so once she was doing it consistently (maybe a week or so) we transitioned her into her own room. This was much harder on mama than baby, but we both survived. Initially I put her in her "bassinet" (an attachment of her Pack N Play that she'd been sleeping in since birth) in her crib. A week later I tried no bassinet, directly in crib. She woke up at 2am and required a feeding, I was afraid she wouldn't sleep the rest of the night so I put the bassinet back in and continued to let her sleep in it. Well, then she started getting pretty long and it was inevitable that she'd need to be in the crib alone soon. So we tried again, same thing, up at 2 but this time I put her back down in the crib. Then next night, and every night since, she's slept soundly. I usually put her to bed awake and let her fall asleep on her own. Last week I added a mobile to her crib to give her some noise (I always put it on heartbeat rather than music) and something to look at as she's drifting off.
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| Matching outfit from head to toe! |
This doesn't really fall into this category, or any category, but overnight she outgrew her newborn clothes and now wears 0-3 months, or 3 months. Her feet seem to be the first body part to outgrown an outfit, guess we'll have to teach her to swim ;) She also finally outgrew newborn diapers and wears size 1. PS I was told the cheap ones are just as good as the expensive ones... not so much! She's had a few blowouts, including one where I had to cut her onesie off of her! We were gifted a few of the cheap brands and I had coupons for a few as well so she's tried a bunch of different kinds. I put her in the cheaper brand (Luvs or Huggies) during the day and Pampers Swaddlers at night or if we're going to be in the car/stroller for awhile.
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| Oh yeah girl, I hear ya! |
Feeding: I'm still feeding Veda every 3 hours, over the last week or so it's been closer to every 2.5 hours - must be a growth spurt. I plan to start spacing them out a little bit more, hoping to feed her every four hours. She's had some pretty rough days with a lot of gas, we had tried a couple different kinds of gas drops but she still seemed to be having some pretty serious pain, so we started BioGaia. It's a probiotic that our pediatrician recommended. We've been on it for about 3 weeks now and its safe to say I can see a change! The only problem is, it's hard to find on the West coast. We buy it from our pediatrician, but I finally found it at Walgreens this week! It's expensive, but works. She still occasionally has gas and our friends introduced us to Gripe Water which also helps.
She is still getting only breast milk. For the first 3.5 weeks of life, I pumped and bottled because her latch was not good. I got really tired of washing bottles, which I'm sure I've mentioned, so I transitioned her to the breast via a nipple shield. Again, I got tired of washing the nipple shield and it's not that easy to manuever in public under a cover, so I worked really hard and finally got her on the breast! Woo Hoo!!!! Good job baby girl! She gets between 3-5 oz per feeding.
I think she may have an allergy to eggs. Just like daddy... great! I'm not sure when you can get infants allergy tested. My theory behind this, is that I had been eating eggs every day for breakfast since I came home from the hospital. She had been fussy and gassy pretty much the entire time. She also had a reddish rash on her face, it looked a lot like the baby acne they can get so it didn't really concern me. I even mentioned it to her doctor, but he seemed to think it was just my hormones coming through. Then I noticed it spreading behind her ears and even to her neck, her chin was also getting bright red. So I cut eggs everything has cleared up. Brett's pediatrician told me to be careful with things he was allergic to, smart man!
I also think coffee upsets her little belly. I was drinking a couple of cups a day, then quit because I thought it was effecting her. I would occasionally get something half-caf at Starbucks with no issues on her end. This week I started drinking half-caf at home and again she's fussy, so no coffee either.
Sleeping: My little girl is an angel and is still sleeping through the night! She stirs occasionally, but never cries and puts herself back to sleep. It doesn't seem to matter what time I put her to sleep, she pretty much always gets up at 7am. My goal is to get her sleeping twelve hours soon. Its good to have goals! ;) Napping is another story, however! She is not a good napper! Unless it's on me which means I can get nothing done, she doesn't want to nap. The only thing that's working right now is to take her for a stroll, so we're getting lots of walks in around here! I have to figure out how to get her to nap, maybe swaddling, or putting her in the front pack or Moby so at least my hands are free!
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| After a loooong walk with mommy, when she still refused to sleep! |
Milestones: Well, she's still working on that social smile. I can't wait until it's consistent! Her smiles are huge and so freakin' adorable, but they are like seeing a shooting star at this point. I'm also super excited for her laugh!! She is cooing up a storm and her most common 'words' are "Ah-goo" and "Yeah." So cute! Her neck is getting stronger and stronger and her hands are no longer in constant fists.
Adventures: Holy moly! We've been busy this month! We went to our friend's, Derek (our ring bearer) and Jay (his dad), joint birthday party at a local bowling alley, had brunch with my friend Alyssa who was visiting from Minnesota, went to my coworker's house for a gathering, had friends visit for a day to meet our little princess, had Brett's Uncle Chris and his family stop by on their way to Palm Springs, went to the zoo, went bowling - twice, went to sushi, went to a mommy & me group at the hospital with friends and finally Grandma Rhonda came to help me out for the weekend while daddy was gone. Wowzers!
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| Look at her checking Derek out! Happy 4th Birthday D! |
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| It was Nana's birthday, she said this was the best card ever! |
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| It was Daddy's birthday, too, this month. |
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| Veda & her friend Henry |
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| Veda & her friend Brooklyn |
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| Grandma Rhonda came to help out again, and totally spoiled us! |
Realizations: Man these little ones grow up fast! Physically, Veda is getting so long. She really is a little string bean. I never in a million years thought I would have a long/lean baby! Brett & I were such chunky monkeys, it just doesn't make sense! Her little cheeks are filling out though, so maybe it's just a matter of time!
Her eyes are so focused now and she tracks Brett and I when we're moving about the room. She's just such a little doll face, I can't stop staring at her!
I know we are so, so blessed that we both get to spend so much time with her during this age. I am looking forward to the next few months when she's holding her head up, smiling on command and beginning to sit up, but I'm also savoring every single second. Even when she's upset, I remind myself we will only get to do this once (with her... I'm sure she'll have siblings eventually).
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| I just love her! She is so perfect! |
How we (the parents) are doing: We are doing amazing! I am still on maternity leave, and plan to be until the first week of June. I am so fortunate to be able to stay home with her for five months! I wish I didn't have to go back, but, again, I'm lucky that I only have to work three days a week. I had a job interview last week - it has to do with the decision I'm struggling with, but can't say too much more about it at this time.
Brett's new manager is keeping him BUSY! She's on the exact same page as Brett when it comes to what he wants to do with his career. We consider Veda his good luck charm. Since she came a month early, he was forced to reschedule one of his shows, where he met his now manager! He's already had multiple auditions and opportunities, so we are VERY excited to see where this goes. Maybe I can retire soon and be a full time mommy!
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| Still not done making these silly faces! |
Looking forward to: Brett and I (and Veda, of course!) are going to escape LA for a couple of days to celebrate our anniversary. We've been married for one year on April 7th (together for 8 years - on the same date). I can't believe how much our lives have changed in just one year. It's amazing and I'm feeling so much love! We are heading to Pismo Beach, which is where we got married. I don't have a lot on the agenda, because what can you really do with an infant (?), I just want to get out of town and relax! Also, our wedding photographer ran into Brett at the SLO comedy Festival (where he was named Best of Fest) and offered to do our first family photos! We are going to take them up on that offer this week when we head to Pismo. I'm so excited, I hope Veda will cooperate!
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It started getting hotter,
so I busted out my summer clothes!
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And in case you forgot... I was trying to think of a cute way to capture her growth over the next year, so what I've decided is this: I bought a dress that's size 12 Months and I plan to put her in it every month until it fits.
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