Happy New Year!

It's a new year, and I love the idea of starting fresh and coming up with new goals to better myself.  We had the most wonderful Christmas, and it was really precious to experience Christmas as parents.  Lorelei is officially the most spoiled rotten little girl... ever!  While I was putting away all of our Christmas decorations and presents, I thought alot about the past year and how our lives changed.  I've seen this little questionnaire on a few blogs, and I liked the questions and answers...  Here's my look back at 2012~

1. What are you most thankful for?
Lorelei and the gift of motherhood.  It's even better than I could have imagined.

2. What were the highlights of 2012 for you?
I enjoyed the anticipation of having a baby, the joy and surprise of having a girl (I'm so glad that we didn't find out her gender... it made her birthday so much fun and exciting), Alan finishing another year of residency and getting to spend time family.

3. What are you hoping for in 2013?
I'm hoping to find a good balance in my life.  I'd like to prioritize better - God, Family, Friends.

4. What were some of your favorites of 2012? (Clothes, movies, songs, TV shows, )
Downton Abbey!!! I'm not really into fashion, but I have loved colored denim and boots.


5. Who was God to you in 2012?
God was love.  The love that He has for His children is unimaginable, especially after becoming a mother myself.

Playing catch up...

As usual, I haven't been able to keep up with blogging...  I've got alot of catching up to do, and I'm going to try my hardest to do so this week.  Since I last posted, Lorelei has turned 5 months, she's doing all sorts of new and fun things, and we celebrated a really fun Halloween.  If anyone out there still reads this blog, thanks for hanging with me!

Happy Fall!

4 Months

Lorelei turned four months old last Sunday.  We were traveling back from Texas (more about that later...) that day, but Alan managed to snap a picture of our growing baby!

She is changing and growing everyday, and it's hard to keep up with all of the exciting new things that she's doing!

Here's what she's been up to:

• She's still a great eater!  We will start rice cereal very soon.  I'm glad that we've waited until 4 months.
• Not a good napper, but she's not very fussy without a nap...  I'm just letting this one go!  
• Generally, very happy and easy-going.
• She smiles and gurgles a TON these days.  So sweet!
• She still loves her activity mat!  She spends alot of time playing and grabbing at her toys.
• She rolled over!!!!  She rolls from back to stomach, and she's really proud of herself!
• Loves her hands, and is constantly putting them in her mouth.
• She's trying to suck her thumb... NOOOO!
• She takes a pacifier when she wants to.
• She moved upstairs to her bedroom, and she's doing really good!  (This was a huge milestone for her mother.  I had a hard time with this transition.)  I may have cried...
• She's still sleeping pretty good through the night, but she's been waking around 4:30am.  She'll fuss, but she can usually hold off to eat until about 6:00.  I think that this may change once she starts rice cereal.
• She gets really sleepy around 7:45, but we are learning to keep her awake until 8:30 or so.  She sleeps longer, if we do.  Her sign that she's getting tired is that she'll put her hands over her face and eyes.  It's adorable! 
• She outgrew her infant bath sponge, so she's moved to her sling bathtub.  She loves her bath time!
• And she's an excellent traveler!  We took our first long-distance trip, and she was a total trooper.  She slept great every night in her pack and play.  She rode in her car seat like a doll baby and hardly made a peep.  She let everyone hold her and pass her around (we had a family wedding, so she was around lots of new people).  And we stayed in a hotel for a night, which didn't phase her in the least.  We had a great trip!
•  She's wearing 3 mos. size clothes and larger.
•  She wears a size 1 diaper.

Her stats from her 4 Month check up-

• Weight -13 lbs., 6 oz.
•  Height - 2 ft. 0.5 in.
• Head Circumference - 39.5 cm.

3 Months

(This post was written weeks ago, but I forgot to post it...  Oops!)

Wow.  Three months old.  I can hardly believe it.

Lorelei is so much fun, and she is the happiest little thing!  We are so in love with her.  She has us wrapped around her little finger, for sure.

Here's what she's been up to this past month ~

• She's still a good eater!  She doesn't miss a meal, and she's starting to really fill out.  I just love it! 
• She loves bath time now!  Whew.
• She smiles and coos ALL THE TIME!  When we talk to her, she will respond with a huge grin.  Sometimes, she will 'talk' back to us.  
• I can tell that her vision is getting better.  She looks for us when we walk in the room, and she will 'track' us as we move around.  She loves to watch the ceiling fan!
• Sometimes she'll take a pacifier, but other times she will spit it out.  We are constantly sterilizing those darn things.  She is not addicted to it like her mother was, and I guess that's a good thing.
•  We are finally starting to get a nap schedule down.  Lorelei does not like to nap, so it's hard to get her down sometimes.  Lately, she's been taking a 3+ hour nap in the afternoons around 1:30 or so.  She is so happy when she wakes up, and our evening are much better!
• Unfortunately, she's starting waking up in the night... I'm so bummed about this!  I think that she's really hungry because she will be sucking on her fist and fussing.  I've started feeding her, and afterwards, she goes right back to sleep.  We've contemplated using rice cereal in her last feeding to help her sleep through the night again, but I just can't do it.  I know it's okay, but I really want to wait until 4 months.
• She is going to bed between 9:15-9:45 most of the time.  We are trying to bump up her bedtime.  Hopefully, she'll start going down sooner!
• She is still sleeping in her bassinet in our room.  She's starting to get a little big for it, though.  I just can't move her upstairs quite yet.
• She has discovered her hands and she is really using them!  She loves to pull her clothes or bib over her face, and she will put those hands in her mouth and chew on them.  She's also started reaching and grabbing the toys that hang on her activity mat. 
• She still LOVES her activity mat, but she's not very tolerate of her bouncy seat anymore.
• I've started propping her up in the corner of the couch, and she thinks she is so big!  She gets so excited and will just grin.  You can tell that she's really proud of herself.
• She is still wearing a size 1 diaper.

We are so crazy about this little girl! Alan and I can't believe that she's ours, and we are so grateful for the gift of parenthood.  Next weekend, she will be christened, and we are really looking forward to a very special weekend with lots of family and friends. 

Here's a picture of her documenting being 3 months old today!

Unintentional

Well, I didn't intend to take such a long break from blogging.  Life has been busy - that's my excuse.  And I haven't downloaded any of the pictures from my camera onto my computer.  Let's be honest, it's much more fun to read a post with pictures.

I'll get that done this week, and there will be plenty of updates soon!

Busy, Busy...

We've been very busy around here watching the Olympics and ignoring housework...  Note to any friends that want to just 'drop in' during the next two weeks--please don't.  My house is a wreck, but I can't seem to unglue myself from the TV.  Luckily for us, Lorelei is content to hang out and watch them, too.  Here are my personal faves: (in no particular order)

Synchronized Diving (How do they do that!?!)
Swimming
Women's Gymnastics
Men's Gymnastics
Women's Soccer
Track

You see now why my house is a disaster...  I'm lucky to get dressed and prepare meals these days considering the amount of TV I'm watching.  Anyway...

GO TEAM USA!!!

 

As much as I enjoy the summer Olympics, I really love the winter Olympics.  I'm already looking forward to those in two years!

Terrible, Horrible... 7 Weeks Shots

I had been dreading July 11th since Lorelei's 2 week check-up.  That was the day that she was scheduled for her first round of vaccinations.  The shots were pretty terrible.  Bless her sweet heart, she cried after each one, and I had to hold her down.  I teared up, too.  It was not a day that I'll remember fondly.

She was fine before we left the clinic, and she was her sweet and happy self once we got home.  She ate and took a good nap, but when she woke up that afternoon, she was NOT HAPPY!  I tried to feed her, but she wasn't taking it.  I knew that she must not be feeling well from the shots... and she wasn't.  She cried and cried and was inconsolable.  I was a wreck.  Alan got home, and we gave her some medicine, and she felt better after that.  She slept on and off most of the evening, and the next day, she was back to normal.  I'm already dreading the next round of shots...  I hope that they won't be as horrible as these.  I really think that 4 vaccinations (1 oral, 3 shots) is too many in one day for such a little body, but the medical community hasn't asked my expert opinion...

Stats from 7 Weeks Check-up -

Weight - 10 lb, 11 oz
Length - 22 inches (I don't think that this is right...  She wouldn't stretch out very much...)
Head Circumference - 37 cm

Vaccinations -

Pnemococcal
DTaP/DT/Td
Hib
Polio
Hep B
Rotateq

(Don't you think that's too many vaccinations in one day???)

The only positive thing from this day was that she smiled at me for the first time!  After we got home, I was telling her how proud I was of her and how she was such a good girl... and then, she gave me the sweetest smile.  I'll never forget it.