Baby Emma is coming!!

My cousin Jamie is due to have her first baby on November 14th. She just called me and said Emma is coming TOMORROW!!!
I am so excited for her! I can not wait to meet this new little girl in our family and to have her and Sami grow up together.

Keep her in your prayers tonight for a save, quick and easy delivery tomorrow.

A new look

So what do you think?

Kind of more generic, but I really don't have much time these days to create new templates and I really wanted a change so this was my quick fix.

I just realized this weekend that I forgot to post about Samantha sitting up. She sits up now! Still a little tipsy here and there but for the most part she can sit on her own and she's learning to catch herself when she starts to lean too far to one side.

The nap strike has ended and she has successfully napped for the past 3 days now! YAY!!!

We had a great weekend! Got to see family on Saturday and Scott and I carved pumpkins on Sunday. Here are some pics....

These boots are made for walkin'

Sami's First Halloween!!
Sami's Baby Jack-o-Lantern and Scott's Pirate (He carved in "Arrrr" along the side)

Rolling Baby!!

Sami first rolled from belly to back in September. She's still not a pro at it but it can be done. Last night she rolled from back to belly!!! First time! She just did it again today. She seems to be better at this than the belly to back roll.
Her strength in her head and neck muscles has increased substantially in the last month. She sits in her swing now and holds her head up, trying to sit up while it's swinging. Same with her bouncy seat, she does baby crunches trying to sit up straight.

Her sleeping habits haven't improved yet. She is still up about two times a night. She usually goes down around 8-8:30pm and is up between 1-2:30 am and again around 4:30-6:00 am then up for the day between 7:30 and 8 a.m.
On Monday she took a long morning nap, almost 4 hours long! I think it was because it was dark and rainy out. She was confused, lol. But now she has been on nap strike! How do I fix this? She refuses to nap which makes for a very fussy day.
Today she napped for about 15 minutes in the car and then another quick nap for about 30 minutes. She is just fussy and wanting to nurse constantly. I am a human pacifier! She's not hungry, but wants to eat/nurse all day then spits it all back up because she's full! What a waste.

Not sure what the nap strike is about but I hope it ends soon. Tomorrow we go to pick up her brother after school so that means a 2 hour car ride which hopefully she'll sleep through and maybe that will put her back on track.
Wish us luck!

Blueberries!!

We mixed blueberries in her cereal the other night and she LOVED it! I've never seen her eat like this she was in heaven, lol. I wasn't sure if it was the blueberries or the fact that she hadn't had cereal in about a week, so I tried it again tonight and she loved it...again.

We're still only doing the cereal once a day, at night. We skip some nights here and there because she's still doing great on just breast milk so she'll be primarily just breastfeeding until 6 months. The cereal is more like a treat.

Video

Giggles

I've been trying to post a video of Sami laughing for over a week now and for some reason it just won't work :( I think I'll have to upload it to you t*be and post it that way...

Catch Up

So, I just realized that I never posted about Sami's 4 month appointment. She weighed in at 14 pound 3 ounces and a mere 23.25 inches! I think that they measured her length wrong because she was 23 inches at her 2 month appointment. She has definatly grown more than a quarter inch in the past two months. She is nearly busting her toes out of her 3-6 month sleepers and just fits perfectly into the 6-9 months. I don't know.

She recieved 3 shots. Two in one leg and one in the other, and then when we left the doctor's office she fell asleep 30 seconds after I put her in her car seat and she slept for 3 hours!



The night of her shots, she woke up around 1 am to nurse (she still doesn't make it through the night) and when I went in to get her she was burning up! She literally felt like she had been in an oven. I was freaking out! I nursed her and then Ian and I striped her jammies off and took her temp and gave her some tylen*l. She went back to sleep and wasn't acting like anything was bothering her, but I think my heart was going a mile a minute. I couldn't go back to sleep until I knew she was ok so I stayed up for another hour so that I could check her temp again. It went right down once the tylen*l kicked in and I went back to bed. The next day she had 2 more small fevers and then she was fone. Poor thing :(



So...since she's started cereal, she hasn't slept amy different. She still does her usual 6-7 hours and then nurses and goes right back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. Then she wakes up for the day between 7 and 8am and takes a 2-3 hour nap at around 10am.

She doesn't have a real afternoon nap routine. Usually there are a few little cat naps after nursing but no solid naps. Then it's dinner at 6pm, bath time at 7:30 and she's usually out by 8pm. She either falls asleep nursing after her bath or she'll stay up for about 20-30 minutes and then just looks so exhausted that I bring her up and put her to bed. She puts her self to sleep those nights. No crying or anything she just goes right to sleep. I can't believe it!



Last night was a rough night (up every hour!) and today she was pretty cranky and couldn't wait to go to bed. I had to try and keep her up as long as possible


***Ok, so I stopped writing this last night, lol. The laptop battery died and I was too tired anyway. Oh well, now I lost my train of thought.

Sami seems to be more and more fussy as she gets older. Unless I'm holding her or she's eating or sleeping, she's fussing. Unless I sing to her. She wants to constantly be sang to. It's kind of funny, but as soon as you stop she'll start crying. I can't figure her out.

pics

Somedays the photos just don't come naturally...

Lack of smiles...


Snotty noses...


Just not interested...


Maybe this is why...

3 years

Dear Ian,

I want to Thank you...

For making everyday a day to celebrate.

For all the memories we've created.

For the hard times you've pulled me through.

For all the joys we've shared.

For the pride we have in each other

And for the love we share.

For being by my side, through thick and thin,

For supporting me in all I do (and don't do, lol)



As we celebrate this, our third year joined in marriage, I promise to continue loving you, embracing you, and supporting you as my partner in life and love.



Happy Anniversary Ian!

I Love You!

Cereal is YUMMY!

Sami's first time with cereal. Her and Daddy were SO excited!

Is that good Sam?

Let me hold the spoon Momma! I can do it!



All done Sami...

Mmmmm...I'll Say when we're done

Happy Birthday Poppy!!

Today is Poppy's birthday! And Sami just wanted to say "I love you Poppy!"
Hope you have a great day Dad! See you soon!

Sami is 4 months today! She goes tomorrow for her shots :( and a weight/height check. I know she's getting big because she can only fit into 6 months and up clothing! I can't believe how fast she has grown! We will most likely also be starting cereal this week. She's been watching us eat and is VERY interested, I'm sure she's going to love having her own food, lol. We've been doing great with breastfeeding and are planning on going as long as we can. What ever is best for the two of us. If I feel that she has lost interest or is not wanting to nurse anymore than we will switch, but other wise we're in for the long haul.
She had her first laugh Wednesday and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard! It was the cutest thing I've ever heard! They are still tricky to get out of her, it's not like she's laughing all the time yet, but at least about once a day...she has to really be in a silly mood to get one out of her, but she loves to smile ALL the time, at EVERYONE! She's a very happy baby.

We had her first camp fire this weekend with her brother...

He's roasting her a marshmallow, lol. Mommy will have to eat it for her....mmm...he's getting good at this, they used to all be black on the out side and cold in the middle, lol.

Scott and Sami had fun playing with each other all weekend. They love each other so much, it melts my heart to see them together.

Unfortunately, Scott had a cold this weekend and now we all have a touch of it :( Ian the worst I think, but poor Sami isn't feeling too great either. Her nose is running like crazy and she's had just about enough of me wiping it. She also has a little cough....poor baby. No temp though so that's good. I'm sure we'll talk to the doctor about it tomorrow anyway.

7 hours!!

7 HOURS!! That's all I'm saying.

...let the curse continue.

Blogger Curse

I swear everytime I write about Sami's sleep habits she rebels on me! Last night was no exception. For some reason she was unable to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time!! Yuck! She slept better at 1 month than she did last night. Not only that, but this was her second rough night this week! Thursday night she woke up at 11:30 and was up every hour until 6:30 when we got up for the day!

LMAO now she is sitting with me at the computer and smiling/laughing away at this picture of herself! So funny!! Even she knows she's a beautiful baby.

Baby wear-er

There is a give away at Fina Drea for a baby wrap from Hug a Bug.
It ends today but I just sneaked in my entry, wish me luck. I don't know how many of you other Mommas wear your babies but I LOVE it! It is so easy and comfortable and just handy. Sami is getting bigger by the minute and doesn't want to lay down anymore. She either wants me to sit with her so she can sit up or carry her around so she can see everything. The wrap is great for this. When I put it on and get her in it I can do just about anything around the house or outside with her right there with me.
I wish I had some pictures of her in it, but since I'm the only one that uses the camera in this house, pictures of me are rarely taken.
Anyway the wraps I have are all homemade ones that I did myself so I'd like to have one "real" one to see the difference.

Sami update...
She's doing great! Such a great baby, and so easy that it makes me scared to have another one some day. I think I might be spoiled.
She is starting to watch me when I eat and she gives me looks like she is so jelous, lol. I think she's just curious. She's still exclusively breast feeding right now, but I promised Daddy that he could introduce her to cereal at 4 months. I want to try and keep her mostly on the breast milk though until she's 6 months and then we can start some foods....we'll see how that goes. If there's one thing I've learned in being a new mom it's that plans are made to be broken and they are usually set by Sam, lol.
We have yet to get a real good laugh out of her. She trys real hard though and it sure makes us laugh. She has huge beautiful smiles all the time but the sound she gets out is more of a grunt then a laugh, I have a feeling that once she figures it out she might not stop! She's such a happy baby and loves to play and sing. She's been watching the dogs alot lately too. She'll sit and stare at them and then give them big smiles trying to laugh, it's so cute.

Well, I guess that's it for today. I always have stories that I want to blog but then as soon as I get on here I can't remember a thing. Hopefully I'll have better writing skills and my brain back soon.

Here are a few pictures from the other night after bathtime...

Playing with Daddy


Just being a perfect angel


Sleepy face

Ahhhhh

The angels above are singing! This is my little angel still sleeping at 10 am this morning!!! She's been sleeping in late for the past 4 days! Could it be that we might have a sleeping routine? I'm going to have to wake her up soon because she's sleeping all the way to nap time! She used to wake up and be up for about 2 hours before wanting to take a nap, well yesterday she got up and an hour later it was nap time and she still wanted to go down for a nap...even though she just woke up! Maybe she's growing. She's been a little cranky the past few days too...too much sleep? I don't know.
p.s. I know that she shouldn't be sleeping with blankets but she has slept with a blanket since she came home from the hospital. And she doesn't usually sleep sideways in the crib like this...that was her own doing, lol. And she always has her little blankey that Aunt Julie bought her, touching her face.

So yesterday was a HUGE day in her world. We got her ears pierced! We were going to do it on Sunday, Daddy brought us to the mall and it was actually his idea. He went shopping for diamonds for her....so cute! But then she was pretty cranky and fussy and I could see that the lady was praying that we wouldn't make her do this one, lol. Plus, Daddy kind of chickened out and suggested that I do it while he's at work because, "If they screw it up or hurt her or have to redo it I might just punch the lady in the face." LOL
So we went yesterday and saw the gay guy that was recommended by the jeweler and he was great! He took his time with her to make sure that it was right. I felt bad for him because Sam was screaming her head off and we were having trouble getting her to sit still so he could mark the holes. He had to re-mark her about 5 or 6 times on each ear, lol. Her cries echoed through the mall as if we were trying to murder her, I felt horrible! People were staring at her and smiling saying how cute she was. The piercer wanted me to give her a pacifier, but she won't take it any more.
After the piercing she wouldn't let me put her down...she's so cute! I carried her through the mall pushing the stroller, then tried to put her back in it so we could do some shopping but she wouldn't have it so we just left and went to visit Daddy at work.

Later that night we came home and were going to put jammies on but she was having such a good time in just her diaper that we decided to play for a bit before getting her dressed. She was playing on her tummy and rolled herself over! I was going nuts cheering for her and clapping and acting like a fool! LOL. So we tried it again to make sure it wasn't just a fluke and she rolled again! Then we played for awhile on her back and I tried to lay her on her tummy and she would immediately collapse her shoulder and roll over, she did that 5 times! Finally I layed her on her belly and held her arms so that she couldn't immediately roll and she played for awhile but then got mad and couldn't get back over so I helped her and we played some more then one last try before getting her jammies on and she did it again!! I'm so proud of her!! What a big girl!

Ok....gotta go, she's FINALLY getting up! YAY!!!! I can't wait to go play!

I LOVE THIS JOB!!!

Can you guess what we did today?

3 Months!!!

Wow can you believe that this little girl us 3 months old already!! She is growing and learning so fast right now. Everyday is just amazing and so rewarding.
We are still trying to work out a routine/schedule. We don't really have a set in stone nap schedule going on, but for right now as long as the good days out weigh the bad, we're doing good. She's been sleeping pretty well at night with the last 4 days going for about 5-6 hours straight. At times I wish that I had one of those babies that slept through the night already, but the truth is I wake up anyway, so it's nice that the two of us are kind of on the same schedule. Every couple weeks it seems like she'll have one night where she just will not sleep. She tricks me by going down at her normal time (9:00-9:30) but then she's back up at midnight and then every hour after that! Those nights/days are rough for both of us. Over all though I think she's doing pretty well. She normally goes down at around 9-9:30 and then wakes up between 2 and 3:30 to nurse then again between 5 and 6:30 then up for the day around 7 ish. If she nurses at 5 then she's up around 6:30, but if she nurses closer to 6:30 then she's up around 7:45. Then we play for a couple of hours and she's usually back down for a nap around 10am.

She got to spend the whole week with her brother again and they both loved it! She just lights up when she sees him and they love each other so much! They had fun talking and playing together all week.

Yesterday we took a trip up to Old Forge. It was a nice family day with the 4 of us. A beautiful drive and we had a nice lunch and Sami was perfect all day. It was really great!


Sami and her friends